#i mean okay have your one episode to say gangs are dumb but then open up the imagination to dramatic possibilities and forget LA problems | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mashiraostail · 4 years

Note

could you maybe do a part 2 of the depressive episode ask with fatgum, hawks, n gang orca pease?

ofc anon! I think these get progressivley longer also fldsfdsjl idk why that is, sorry!

Taishiro Toyomitsu/Fatgum You were both busy people, Taishiro was even busier than your average pro now that he’d taken on those two students, he didn’t mind the extra work though. Plus he was used to having you around on top of it all. He understood you worked as well, and he’d even tried going there to surprise you since it had been a few days since the pair of you spent any time together which was entirely unlike you only for your coworkers to say that you’d called out a fair bit of time. Maybe you’d headed home, a family birthday or special occasion beaconed you, but whenever you left you always asked him to watch your place, he’d hardly heard from you beyond a text for the past week or so now. So he decided to head over to yours after calling it early one day, he sent Kirishima and Amajiki packing and told them he had a small emergency to deal with, which wasn’t exactly a lie. He was growing a bit concerned for you your lack of communication with him wasn’t just rare it was totally unheard of, normally you were joined to him at the hip, you adored him and you always made sure he heard it all the time. He didn’t want to be overbearing or show up uninvited but he hated the idea of you being sick or worse with no help around, he understood how badly you wanted to be perfect for him, you didn’t want to add to his workload or be a bother at all, he was just trying to figure out the best way to make you see that you could never do any of that to him, and you’re perfect for him however you want to be. He knocks on the door a few times to no avail before electing to use his key, you’d given it to him a while ago but he still knocked most of the time, he didn’t like barging in on you, despite how he loved to have you do it to him, nothing was better than an unannounced surprise visit from you in his eyes. “Anyone home?” He shuts the door quietly behind him and looks around. The mess says you should be in, that’s for sure. He’s holding a bag of snacks in his hands, plus some medicines and general stuff in case you were sick with a cold or the flu, and he already had his whole chastising speech set up in his head for you. But he had to find you first. There wouldn’t have been any place for you in the living room, the couch was littered with groceries that had yet to be put away, the coffee table covered in glasses and the kitchen wasn’t much better, it was full of everything and anything but actual food. The door to the laundry room was just barely holding a tidal wave of unfolded clothes back. The bedroom door was slightly ajar. “Hey, you-” He nudges the door open with his shoulder, “‘re you decent? Can I open my eyes ‘fore I bump into something-” “Taishiro?” He hears the rumpling of blankets, and your voice is wet and tired and warbly and even though you didn’t give him the go-ahead he couldn't help but rush over to you at the sound of it. “Hey, what’s the matter? He drops the bag on the bed to your other side and instinctively cups your face in his hands. “What are you doing here I-” “I was just in the area and... it’s been a while since I spent any time with you, sorry barge in like this, you didn’t answer the door, I just wanted to check on you..and it seems like it was a good thing I did..” You’re looking up at him like a deer in headlights, it’s only then that he realizes his potential indiscretion. He moves to pull away from you, to wait for a green light to touch you and be close to you, he didn’t want to overwhelm you, or make you feel guilty or anything like that. You can sense that he’s about to pull back, and a few minutes ago all you wanted was to be alone but now that he was here, the last thing you wanted was for him to not be near you. You take a hold of his wrist. He let out a long, thankful sigh, “alright then, I’ll stay right here.” He sits on the edge of your bed, “I’m glad you’re here.” He nudges your hair back with his other hand, “’re you sick?” You shake your head in his hands, “No I just-” Your voice waivers, “I feel so terrible-” “Terrible like how?” He looks guilty of something and it just makes you feel worse, “did something happen? Someone giving you a hard time or-” “No-” You choke it out tears already slipping down your face, “I just..I’m so exhausted and I feel like everyone hates me or forgot about me and I know somewhere in my head that that’s such a stupid thing to even worry about but I can’t stop worrying and-” “Hey, it’s alright, it’s alright,” he shushes you, “I see now, I get it now.” He pushes your cheeks up under his palms, “I’m sorry I didn’t notice sooner. I didn’t come sooner-” “It’s not your job to take care of me-” You warble, “I’m being a stupid baby I-” “Stop that. Just because something isn’t my job or responsibility doesn’t mean I still won’t wanna do it. You take care of me all the time.” “This isn't the same I-” “Come on and give me a hug.” He cuts you off before you can get anything else out, “I really need a hug, can you?” He scoops you up, underneath your arms and pulls you forward, he drops back into your mussed up pillows. “Tighter,” he complains as your arms coil around him weakly, and you laugh through a cascade of tears. “Feels good to cry huh?” He’s holding the back of your head with more protective instinct than you’ve ever felt from anyone. His other hand pulls the blanket up around you. “I couldn’t- I’ve been- all week and I just-” You hiccup, “I had to so bad but I couldn’t, and you-” He shushes you again. “Go on ahead, cry as much as you need to. I won’t say it doesn’t break my heart a little to hear it, but I know you’ll feel better after. And don’t go apologizing for this either, sometimes it’s just what you need. Let it all out. I’ll be here if you get sick from it. Afterward, I can help clean up, get you in a nice hot shower, make you something to eat? Sound good?” “Will you stay all night?” You were pressed into his chest, his tear-stained shirt muffled your voice but he got the idea. “Honey, I’ll stay as long as you want me.”

Keigo Takami/Hawks The no. 2 hero rarely has much time to kill, that being said Keigo liked to make it a point to see you as often as he could, or at least to text you. But over the past few days, you'd hardly replied at all, and when you did they were just simple one or two-word answers. It worried him, gnawed at him, for a myriad of reasons; were you sick? Were you drowning in work? Had you run into some kind of trouble? Were you injured? Had you gotten tired of waiting up for him? Sick of canceled dates and being woken up by him clambering out of bed early in the morning to answer a call, exhausted by all the would-be intimate moments between the pair of you that were interrupted by his work? All of these possibilities were equal parts nerve-wracking and heartbreaking. If you were sick he wanted you to reach out and ask him for help, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t make time for if you were involved, he’d figure it out, he always did... if you were in some kind of trouble or injured did you not feel like you could ask him to come to watch out for you without being a bother to him? Did he make you feel like a burden? Or worst of all had you just grown tired of him? Him and his baggage and his job? The gnawing in his chest become too hard to ignore. He could pawn this patrol off on someone else, it was a slow enough day anyways, maybe Enji would do it. He snorted at the thought. He’d just fly by your window, see if you were in, what you were up to. Maybe you were just swamped at work, he reminded himself, sure he was busy but that didn't mean you couldn’t be too, and two busy partners can make for sparse communication, there was a fair chance all of this was just you being busy too. He counts the windows and flies up, it wasn’t hard to memorize which one leads to your apartment. When he gets up there the blinds are open, he can see right inside. You woke up feeling okay today, okay enough that you figured maybe you could tackle this goddamn laundry at least, it was making such a mess in the hall and you thought maybe if you got that sorted out you’d feel a little more useful. But somehow you just ended up sitting on the floor in the hall, back against the wall, laundry basket spilled before you in a bigger mess than when you started. You may be an adult with a job and apartment but you were crying about the mess. You were an adult, you can cry about whatever you want, that’s a perk of being an adult. You sink further into the wall somehow. His vantage point lets him look clean through the living room into the small hallway where you sat. It’s slightly cracked, just enough that a few feathers can wiggle in and push it open enough that he can slide his fingers underneath. He should head to the ground, walk up the stairs and knock, like a normal person. But he can’t help it, he’s panicked, what the hell happened to you? You were just sitting there, laundry basket spilled, sobbing into your hands? Were you hurt? Did someone break-in? He couldn’t waste time on foot. “Hey-” He strangles it out as he’s contorting himself to duck into your window, “It’s okay, hey- I’m here, I’m here now, babe what happened?” He’s squeezing into your window, his wings folding and tufting up against the windowpane, “do you need my help? Are you hurt? Is someone here did someone-” He falls inside unceremoniously, a ball of red feathers and sherpa by your house plant. You’d never been so happy to witness his stupid antics, you’d never met someone so smart yet so dumb. It felt good to see him, you hadn’t realized how much you missed him. “Keigo?” You drop the shirt you were crying into, “n-no, I’m not hurt I just dropped the laundry and..-” Coincidentally it was his shirt. “Is this because of me?” He notices it fall to the ground, he looks incredibly guilty, “did I do something to upset you? To-” he scrambles up into a sitting position, “make you feel like I don’t care about you?” A feather is already righting the tipped over laundry basket, a few more collecting various tee shirts and socks. “What?” You wipe your face with your hands as he clambers over to you, you sniffle, “no Keigo you didn’t-” You shake your head as he nudges your legs apart and sits between your bent knees, “I’m sorry I’m the problem it’s me-” You look forward to him and his eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean? No one’s the problem there isn’t a problem what’s the-” He squeezes your arms, “forget it. Where have you been? I’ve been so worried about you..and now I find you crying on the ground and-” “I’ve been here.” Your voice cracks, “I haven’t gone out once.” You laugh wetly, “it’s embarrassing. I just...I can’t do it. I feel so useless. I do nothing all day but I’m so tired Keigo..I’m even too tired to sleep..” The mess that would have taken you days to clean on your own was practically rectified now, and Keigo hadn’t even lifted a finger. “I’m sorry I worried you.” You wither back into the wall and he shakes his head. “I don’t want sorry. I get it, I understand now.” He takes your face in his hands, “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner-” “Your job’s more important than taking care of me like a child-” “That’s not a fair comparison. And it’s not true anyway. I know my work is important but that doesn’t mean other things can’t be important too. I want to be here for you. You would if it were me right?” You nod meekly at that, “thank you for coming I- I don’t even know what happened one minute it was fine and the next I-” “It doesn’t matter. It happens to the best of us. I just wish you’d called me. Asked for my help I... I was so worried that you were sick or..worse than that.. you were sick of me.” He laughs a little, “how stupid is that right? Like you’d ever get sick of me.” “Does that feather have my underwear?” You look at it over his shoulder. “Sorry. I... thought it would be funny.” It falls to the ground, you snort. “You’re right. That is stupid Keigo.” You murmur, “I’d never get sick of you.” “My job’s important, I know it eats up my time, and we don’t get to be together as much as I want to sometimes...” “I think I should be the one pleading my case right now Keigo.” You laugh a little, “my apartment is disgusting, I’m crying over dropped laundry and you haven't even seen the state of my kitchen yet. I ignored you for days over nothing, I’ve barely showered I probably smell abysmal and-” “It wasn’t over nothing and you don’t need to plead your case with me because you’re going through a rough patch, I’m the one that’s been too busy to notice you struggling-” He shakes his head, “all because of my work, I can’t... not do it but I want to be with you, I want to be with you all the time, I’m probably so annoying blowing up your phone and climbing in your window whenever I have a few second... I don’t know how you put up with me, I’d get sick of me in a few days.” He reaches out and tugs the bottom hem of your shirt aimlessly, “I don’t know how you do it. I guess all I do know is that I want you to stay near me.” “Keigo-” You warble and pull him into your chest, “I'm sorry I scared you-” “Don’t be sorry just...know that I want you to ask me for help...I know it’s easier said than done but..well I just said it. I just wanna be with you, all the time, like 24/7 I don’t even care what we’re doing. I’ll do all your laundry forever if you just stay near me while I do it. It’s not a bother you aren’t burdening me just ask me for help. I don’t want you to feel like this...let’s just..” He turns into the crook of your neck and sighs, “stay like this for a minute. And then I’ll help you clean up around here, that’s what's upsetting you right? The mess? Lucky for you I’ve got plenty of hands...well feathers. And then we’ll see what else we can get done, together okay babe?” “Yeah.” You press your cheek into his hair, “thank you for understanding.” Keigo nods, his finger traces the neckline of your shirt and he speaks again, “Please don’t pull away so much, I missed you, you’re the only person around here who has any fun besides Rumi, and whenever we’re together one of us ends up with a broken bone or worse.” You snort at that, “okay, noted.” “And I think you smell great by the way.”

Kugo Sakamata/Gang Orca It felt weird to be away from Kugo so much. You just hated the idea of him seeing you like this. You were tired and irritable and in a mess all the time, you hadn’t changed your pants in days and the only meal you’d had over the past 3 days was crackers and bread, maybe toast depending on your mood. Not to mention the laundry situation or the chaotic state of your bathroom. You normally hated mess, and even though you didn’t have the energy to clean it ..it still made you terribly anxious. You were almost out of crackers, you hated that you lived in the exact area Kugo patroled, it was how you’d met in the first place, and normally it was a delight to run into him on your way home from your own job, even just catching a glimpse of him patroling out your window usually really improved your mood but the thought of running into him now made you sick to your stomach. You couldn’t get the energy up to put something nicer on, but you didn’t even have a morsel of food left, everything you had you’d Mcgyvered into something to eat. If you saw him you’d have to explain where you’d been for the past week, why you’d been basically ignoring him, and even when you did answer him it was just to blow him off or send him to voicemail. You wanted to see him, but you were too afraid at this point, you’d dug yourself into a deep hole, there’s no way he wouldn’t be mad at you. Not that he’d ever gotten mad at you before really. But this time would be different. Or at least you’d convinced yourself of that. Maybe keeping your hood up would stop him from recognizing you. You made it to the store with no incident, you were feeling pretty hopeful, though equally drained, you barely went up and down 3 isles before deciding you were done after finding the pre-made cold brew you’d been craving. It amounted to about 3 bags total, and the cold brew bottle wasn’t exactly small..well you could always order out. Worried was a gross understatement, Kugo was sick with it. He wanted to barge in, everytime he offered to go to you you said no, you had a conference call, you were working late, your neighbors were fighting again, so on and so forth. That paired with the one to two-word answers he’d been receiving made his stomach hurt in a way he only experienced when he couldn’t tell the outcome of a big mission. He asked if you were okay practically every day and you always said you were fine. Though when he mentioned it to Hakamada the other hero informed him that ‘I’m fine’ was usually 'code’ for something else. If space was what you wanted then he’d let you have some...that being said when he saw what was certainly your receding figure on the street..wearing shorts in this weather? “Hey-” His voice makes you jump out of your skin. God the universe seriously hates you this week. “Kugo-” You don’t wanna turn around. “What are you wearing? It’s freezing out you should be wearing a coat and pants.” He wraps an arm around you, “you’re shaking. What were you thinking huh?” He reaches out and takes your groceries too, “you better be going home.” “I am..” You murmured, “I just needed to run out fast, I’m not cold, don’t get distracted from work because of me-” “I’ll bring you home. It’s fine, don’t worry about that there are plenty of people out today.” “I-” “Please let me bring you home.” He huddles you into his side, “I’ve been worried..” “Have you?” “Of course I have, you’ve made yourself so scarce recently, and now this?” “’m sorry..” You hug your chest as you turn the corner to your complex. “Do you want me to come up with you?” He turns to you. Now you were at a crossroads, you’d seen him, you were seeing him, he was touching you, his side was warm and his arm around you was comforting and the idea of being alone was equally as upsetting as the idea of him seeing the state of your apartment or the state of you close up. “You aren’t even wearing layers.” He scoffs as the neckline of your hoodie dips a bit. “Do you want me, yes or no? Either is okay but you need to get inside before you get sick.” “I do want you to come with me I just-” “Well explain upstairs then.” He's ushering you inside the moment you finish. “Did you lose your keys?” He’s still squeezing you into his side when you stop at your front door. “I... don’t want you to see it.” “See what my love? Your apartment? I think we’re a bit past that.” He presses his nose into your hood which is still covering your head. “It’s a mess- I’m a mess Kugo.” “I doubt it's that bad. Even if it is I won’t mind, so let’s go in instead of standing out here like two fools.” “Promise you won’t be mad.” You turn the key and he sighs. “I promise.” The door creaks open and you aren’t sure if it’s your anxious mind playing tricks on you or if it’s 10x worse than what you remember. “Oh god-” You warble, “I'm so sorry Kugo this is so embarrassing.” The way your voice breaks makes him jump. “Hey-” He sets your groceries down on the sliver of free counter space he can find, “no tears my love, no tears okay?” He puts his hands on your shoulders, “is this where you’ve been? Why you haven’t been talking to me? You’ve been all shut up in here?” He turns to you and you just want to fold in on yourself and disappear. “I wanted to clean, and I wanted to call you but I just couldn’t get the energy to and it kept piling up and my bathroom is even worse and I didn’t know what to do and then even when I started to miss you I was too embarrassed at the idea of you seeing me like this because I can’t even comb my hair right now let alone take a shower or even change my clothes and I was afraid you’d be angry with me for letting it get so bad and I-” “Stop.” He pulls you forward and you fall against him wistlessly, “relax, you’ll work yourself up to tears like that.” He cups the back of your head. “I won’t ever be mad you for something like this. Why would you be afraid of that?” He takes your face in his hands, “and why would you be embarrassed of me seeing you when you don’t feel well? I’m here to help you.” He nudges your hood back, “call me sooner next time, please, if not for your sake for mine.” A big hand cups the nape of your neck, “I was worried sick about you dear.” “I’m sorry-” Your voice cracks, “I’m sorry Kugo I just-” “I understand. I’m sorry too, I should have checked in sooner, I should have made sure you knew you can trust me with this sort of thing.” “It’s my fault not your’s don’t be sorry Kugo I-” You’re blinking back tears and he sighs. “There’s no sense in going back and fourth about it.” His thumb rubs your temple, “I’m just glad I’m here now. I’m sorry you don’t feel well but seeing you after so long is a relief, I really missed you.” “I missed you too Kugo-” Your voice cracks and you throw your arms around his neck and shoulders. “Do you need to cry? Don’t hold back for my sake.” A big hand rubs circles between your shoulder blades egging you on, “if crying will help then cry. I’m right here for you. No more worrying okay my dear?” “Okay-” You wipe your nose on your sleeve over his shoulder, tears falling freely, “thank you for coming Kugo-” Your feet are hardly on the ground anymore, your face nestled into his shoulder, “I’m sorry for getting tears all over your-” “What did I say about worrying?” He pulls you back and uses his thumb to clean off one cheek, leaning down and brushing his nose against the other you let out a thankful sigh at the gentle touch. “I just can’t help it Kugo-” You murmur, voice still wet with tears, “i just love you so much and I don’t-” “Oh, you’re such a sweet little thing.” He pulls you up a bit by your cheeks, “it just breaks my heart to see you like this. I may never let you out of my sight again.” “I’m okay with that.” You duck into his neck with a hiccup and he laughs. “I love you too, why don’t you take a warm shower, I’ll help you however I can, then I think we should call it a night, we can worry about the mess tomorrow.” “You don’t mind?” You squeeze him around his shoulders and he hums. “I don’t mind at all.” He promises, “I’ll do whatever I can to help you feel better.”

#fatgum x reader #taishiro toyomitsu x reader #hawks x reader #keigo takami x reader #kugo sakamata x reader #gang orca x reader #bnha x reader #bnha requests #hawks #gang orca #fatgum #keigo takami

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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X-men Evolution; the great 2021 rewatch liveblog

exactly what it says on the tin, about halfway through the show I had TOO MANY FEELINGS and had to start writing some of them out haha (gets quite gambit & rogue/gambit heavy in the latter half, Because of Who I Am as a Person)

- this is my childhood’s x-men, my formative experience with them, and I’m happy to report that still seems like a good thing. the little eleven year old within me gets to geek out and have a good time with the characters and the surprisingly good animation and writing, adult me gets to CACKLE at regular intervals at the fashion/technology/absolute bonkers hot garbage comic book nonsense they use to justify a storyline every now and then, it’s been a good time

- I was like ‘ah well it is super dated it probably won’t be quite the same now’ and then rogue’s HAIR did the THING in the opening and ‘it’s all coming back to me now’ started playing in the background... the little baby queer in me swooning across time and space

- such a good beast, both his design and the writing, my heart aches for him all the time. he’s just so passionate! about being a teacher! helping young humans learn the stuff they’ll need in life! the most wonderful nerd man, just let good things happen for him

- I’m going to go ahead and assume that rogue’s ‘crush’ on scott is more of a deeply complex psychological process about desiring normalcy and intimacy and trying to figure out if she’s queer and dealing with her emerging sexuality and latching on to the first and best safely unavailable and nonthreatening older boy to project these issues onto rather than actually being a real thing, because I respect her so much as a person and I cannot bring myself to imagine she’s honestly attracted to a man who has POSTERS OF CARS on his bedroom wall. (I’ll give jean a break just because she seems to have a longer deeper history with him that might counteract some of that libido-kill, and also she’s a jock so lol)

like I am very sorry but can u imagine being a teenage girl with any interest in a boy with model cars in his bedroom when gambit’s swanning around being a much, much, much worse choice on almost every possible level but in a teen girl kryptonite kind of way? inconceivable

(I drag scott quite a few times in this and it’s not because I don’t love him, it’s just his tragedy to be the most draggable man in the world)

to be fair by the time gambit shows up that whole Situation has mostly played itself out I suppose but still

- toad’s design is so ineffably brilliant, I can’t quite tell you why but that ugly cute charm has really stuck with me, he’s one of the characters I remembered the best to this day just visually

- poor evan... he truly never had a chance, did he, they just saddled him with the most 90s teen bullshit they could come up with like he’s some kind of ‘what adult writers think teens like’ frankenstein’s monster ;______; it’s not your fault honey

- poor poor POOR storm, she gets one focus episode and they were like ‘we’re going to make an episode so racist -- ‘

I’m still STUNNED at how bad it was, but undeniably I laughed hysterically to the point that my neighbours were probably worried when that dude was earnestly like ‘He [stunningly breathlessly racist caricature of a ‘witch doctor’ guy] has stolen her powers, and he’s going to use them to take over Africa!!!’ fhajsdlfhsakjldfh oh really? tell me more, like how the fUCK this could be on television within my life time fasdlfhsdkjfhsad f just... fahjksdfh

- it’s a testament to gambit’s appeal as a character that his charm can survive what they’ve done with his hair and beard choices in this one fajskfhs regrettable but true I still fuckn LOVE him and in my highly biased yet Correct opinion he should have been around much more. get you a man who manages to stay hot through sheer Vibes even with a bowl cut

- aw scott/jean is kind of sweet in this show even if it’s taking them forEVER to get there, I like it

- it’s very nice of rogue to not mention magneto’s romantic daydreams and nostalgic memories about charles xavier after touching his face that one time... or maybe her brain did her a service and repressed it, there’s some stuff you shouldn’t have to know about your father figure

- the danger room is the very definition of ‘why do we even have that lever’ and I wonder what the fuck prof x does to have enough money to replace everything that gets busted all the time

- I’d say that a lot of the writing holds up surprisingly well! (but some of it is also incredibly inexcusably racist in ways that beggar belief, so... not full marks here) the characters have distinct voices and their arcs are set up and delivered on solidly for the most part, and there’s a lot of love showing through in small moments that are just there to have a funny/interesting thing to say about the characters and how their powers work separately and in combination. listen, sometimes I get so thirsty for like. basic goddamn competency in storytelling, let me have this

- ugggggh why is there captain america in my x-men have I not suffered enough... very very funny when prof x goes ‘sounds like you knew rogers personally’ and logan is like ‘I did ;)’ *all the students ganging up on steve rogers* “did you fuck our teacher, captain america?!”

- fskadfhas WHY are you showing me hot young-ified magneto’s ass fksjahfskj charles is not even here to see it, what a tragic waste erik

- ...I was sort of kidding before but uh I think logan genuinely did fuck captain america (or at least wishes very much that he did lol)

- wanda can have a little watching the world burn. as a treat for the way every single adult in her life has fucking failed her (’aren’t they treating you well here’ professor x she’s in a straightjacket)

- poor rogue tho can you imagine finding out after your biggest crush on a girl yet that she’s your fucking MOM in disguise... I would break out in cold sweat every time I thought about a boob forever after

- well seems like they really just had all that homoerotic rivalry stuff between quicksilver and spyke in their first ep only to never do anything with that again ever?? I mean even without the gay undertone that seems like a dynamic you spent most of an episode setting up writers what the hell haha

- dslhfkasjlh GAMBIT THERE HE IS MY BOY IS ON THE SCENE THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I don’t even care about his awful hair situation or the fact that his eyes are wrong here (coloured contact lenses, maybe, for a watsonian explanation? though he’d probably have to get them made special, considering he needs the sclera and the iris covered up in different ways, I’ve seen some comic panels indicating he has been known to?)

(cute little detail: when he shuffles the cards the first time we see him he ends with removing the top card to show the ace of hearts beneath <3 foreshadowing baBEY he’s a... good-ish boy deep down. hey he tries okay shit gets complicated sometimes lol)

- cracking UP at gambit perched cheerily on the edge of a crate dispensing cards in the middle of the battle... he’s like ‘eh it’s a livin’ sfsajkhf remy stop working for supervillains just because you had nothing to do on a thursday afternoon and they said they’d pay you

- I’m guessing magneto must have imposed a strict order of silence on these guys or something because I cannot imagine any other reason for him to shut up, especially once he notices rogue is a QTE (or, far more likely, they hadn’t settled on any voice actors for the new characters until next season haha. it is kind of odd that they’re all keeping up near monastic silence, though, even sabertooth lol)

- WHAT an epic first meeting for us rogue/gambit fans here... first his shadow like there’s fireworks going off behind him lighting him up and then he gives her the fuckn king of hearts and she’s so enchanted by his dumb handsome face she doesn’t even notice it’s about to blow up in her hands and it all happens in heavily meaningful silence afjsdfjashjk no wonder this ship ingrained itself in my hindbrain

yeah look smug while you can remy she’s gonna have you on your knees one day and you’ll be happy about it lol

- god storm is so COOL, everything just fading out of focus when she really gets going... give her more screen time, show!!

- mystique is every person... this person... that person... that bird... that cat... that wolf... I’m not even sure she’s not also me... are you sure she’s not you?

- holy fuck I respect the hell out of the decision to just... blow up the entire status quo in a season ender, I only vaguely remembered that (actually in general I appreciate how good the continuity is -- buildings and places that get damaged in battles need to be repaired or rebuilt, it makes the consequences feel more real even when no one gets seriously hurt. where they get the money to restore scott’s car and logan’s motorbikes every time they go cablooie is still an open question tho lol is it credit card fraud, professor? is it telepathically acquired blackmail???)

- I first watched this when I was nine or so, so it’s a real experience to go from my starry eyed intrigued ‘oh my god... they’re teenagers’ to my horrified adult perspective of ‘oh my god... they’re TEENAGERS D:’

that goes double for the brotherhood boys honestly, I’m here with tears in my eyes like ‘I’m sorry the system has failed you so badly you’re all just a bunch of dumb kids whose caretakers clearly fucked up spectacularly’

like lance is always waiting for mystique to come back because she’s the closest thing he has to a safe parental figure, may we speak about how crushingly depressing that is

- rogue is so ready to throw hands at literally any moment and for that I love and treasure her immensely (I think getting to see her be so surly and unreasonable and sometimes difficult and jealous, like any teenager, meant a lot to me as a kid who was not really allowed to be any of these things, this version of the character has stayed with me so deeply. she holds on so fiercely to her right to feel what she feels and be what she is even when it’s ‘ugly’ or unreasonable, which I think plays in really interestingly with how her powers involve getting invaded by other people’s thoughts and memories to the point of overwhelming her own sense of self and the fact that she clearly has a lot of self-loathing and self-consciousness and confusion about her identity as well. I love her so much)

- oooof this is the ‘the gang experience a microaggression’ episode huh (well more like macroagressions really)

hits a bit different with adult eyes and perspective huh

- hearing jean sound almost like a child when she says ‘that’s so unfair!’ somehow has me like ;______; -- she has to be so adult and responsible all the time, and having her be reduced to the kid she still is and should get to be in front of this awful awful man she could squash like a bug with the flick of a thought... ugh I’m Big Sad (it is funny that jean seemingly plays Every Sport tho djfhaskj)

- MY BOY IS BACK!!! this time with the duster coat and his eyes the right colour, im so happy (too bad about the subdued colour scheme tho; I adore his dumb bright pink getup with my whole heart)

it’s kind of adorable that he takes the time to take the bullies aside and go ‘I know these guys can’t wreck you without getting expelled, but I think you’ll find no law set down by god or man would stop me from doing so whenever I wanted to. so piss off and leave them alone’ lol he’s looking out for them, in his own way

- in this episode: remy lebeau wrangles some kids while looking bored yet mildly amused the whole time. what the fuck does magneto have on you for you to agree to this level of babysitting duty buddy

- fun detail I noticed b/c when I get a fave I hyperfixate: he gave rogue the king of hearts before, but he ‘introduces’ himself to the brotherhood here (lol) with the jack of hearts, probably to symbolize he’s here as someone who works for magneto in this setting and not as his own man? it’s a demotion he’s given himself there, anyway, might be he’s not very pleased about his current position huh

- I like it when rogue and kitty team up, they’re not very effective together but their squabbling is so cute and non-aggressive

- pietro is what draco malfoy would be if I ever found malfoy interesting to watch for even one moment, every time quicksilver talks I’m like ‘what wonderfully insufferable thing is going to come out of your mouth this time you little shit :’)’

- a) why are scott and logan shirtless for this scene? I am not complaining on the logan side of things at least but why and b) I laughed so hard I almost fell off my couch when scott asked logan if he’d ever been in love and he was like ‘once. she was the most beautiful bike I ever saw’ falsdfhaskjfhsakjlfhasklhjfd THE BEST VERSION OF WOLVERINE EVER, ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES

- mystique’s sheer dedication to being a petty bitch is kind of inspirational tbh, almost makes me want to go on a completely bonkers and extra crusade of personal revenge myself

- oooh they’re doing some genuinely cool things with vision/lack of vision in this one (it’s the scott left on his own in the desert without glasses one btw) even visually, dang! I’m so sad this show didn’t get more seasons than it did, honestly, it deserved it

- hell yeah jean wreck her, go get your man with the suspiciously specific clothing damage normally done to female characters

awww :’) okay yeah they’re super sweet, I love the tiny loving animation details like how he leans his head against her and her stroking his hair away from his eyes

- nooo don’t bully evan leave my t0tally r4dical sk8er boy alone :(

- I love the running joke of people fleeing in blind panic only to reveal that what they’re running from is kitty’s cheerful well meaning little face fskfaskh

- scott and jean are already peak married after officially being together for one episode and it’s adorable, and they just stone cold threw logan under the bus, rip wolverine we hardly knew ya

fjasdlfasldfhslajdkfhsadkjlfhsdkjalfhsdakfh h jean establishing herself as the alphabitch of this relationship by throwing her man to the wolves right after dsjfhaskjfhaskjhfsakjdhfaskjhfaskdhfskjahfskdajhf get smarter or get volunteered scott

- ...eyepatch lady is so hot ngl

oh evan went to the place hank used to go to calm down ;________; (honestly he’s kind of won a place in my heart just by being a pretty normal teenage boy haha)

- jesus fucking CHRIST can you imagine being storm having to look her sister in the eye as she tells her ‘I lost your only child, he’s *vague gesture* somewhere in the sewers we think’ this poor woman

- amanda the self admitted monster fucker you are so VALID (I love her and her family’s design so much tho!)

- it’s so cool that even in his human ‘disguise’ kurt’s fingers follow the shape of his actual hand beneath it rather than moving like a five fingered hand, it’s such a lovingly consistent little detail

- magneto and mystique in a breathless race to see who can be the shittiest parent... tune in next week for yet another parental nadir (also some low-poly gambit appearances in this one, for those at home keeping score (me), he’s in the background looking like someone drew him with their eyes closed fakjldfhasd look how they massacred my boy)

- someone please teach the brotherhood boys about consent huh

- jean ‘soccer mom before her time’ grey and her SUV dfhakjlhds :’)

- im sobbing rogue baby girl i’m so sorryyyyyy, this voice actress is so good, my parental instincts suddenly kicked into overdrive hearing the crack in her voice :( (bb me was right tho rogue centric episodes ARE the best episodes. that tension between ‘do I identify witn this character or am I crushing on her?? both???’ now has the fun new addition of ‘oh god oh no you are a baby I want to shield you with my body from everything trying to hurt you’)

- mystique is like ‘so you see despite you telling me you never wanted to see me again I completely disrespected that and posed as a friend your age, manipulated you by offering you the mirage of direly needed emotional intimacy and belonging and added some sprinkles of homoerotic tension to it just to massively worsen your already existing grievous psychosexual trauma and identity issues... out of love’

god go jump in a black hole you fucking monster

- there’s some very interesting and quite subtle subtext about the people she’s morphing into and what that says about her mental state/how it shows off some of her emotional baggage with the rest of the team. it’s like she’s switching between people/powers that fit the purpose as if she’s going through cycles of fight/flight (and then bursts of freeze where she’s herself, which is... so sad)

- this whole episode is hurting my heart but rogue at full power is undeniably epic

- ‘professor x get your goddamn act together and get this poor girl some fucking tHERAPY’ challenge

- SAFE PAPA LOGAN ;_____;

- EYYYYYY opening straight on My Lad, I cannot stop winning!!!!!

fasdfhsad disintegrating the window with a smiley face... remy I do love you more than my heart can bear honestly, hello may we speak about the fact that his urge to be a little shit is so deep and strong it survives mind control (that little breathed out ‘hiah!’ as he vaults the fence too dsakfjsd)

hahaha and he does up the coat fhsalfdsaj

- magneto dismissing other telepaths like ‘puh-lease, your Meaningful Looks have got nothing on my ex-husband’s’

- :’) rogue and kurt sibling timeees

- say what you want but this pyro guy’s got job satisfaction in being a creepy arsonist with a weird recurring horse theme (well at least twice but still weird)

- I love how beast is the kindest man to ever walk the earth but also straight up savage, this man drags people so hard their ancestors wince in their graves

- gambit taking the time to complete the guard’s game of solitaire -- this episode is giving me everything I want. u little disgrace mr lebeau

and THEN he takes the spider out in the most hilariously bonkers way my heart is so FULL

(I love that when magneto moves by he looks startled and has to quickly move his head out of the way to avoid getting kicked in the temple too that’s a fun detail)

I’m so INTO how this sequence shows off that his greatest strength isn’t even his powers (which are pretty straightforward, really, he makes go boom, longer time and bigger thing bigger boom) but that he’s clever and creative and always extremely ready to be the most harebrained-bananapants-extra-in-a-deceptively-laidback-sort-of-way person in the room (I actually have some genuinely Deep Thoughts about how his whole character does a really interesting thing with having the straightforwardly destructive nature of his powers yield to what his nature as a person is, and how using the playing cards play (heh) into it, maybe I’ll write it out some day. just the fact that he could use anything, but he deliberately chose something that adds style and playfulness and corny charm to it and that also limits the damage of the explosions compared to if he habitually used something with more mass... I find it fascinating how much he’s made a story around himself with it and how deeply it shows he does have a good heart, at the end of the day, in almost a metatextual way. he doesn’t want to destroy things or people, he’s at worst (and best lol) a thief.)

- I honestly have literally no memory of white nick fury (which seems so weird now isn’t it funny) in this series from when I was a kid, he clearly did not make an impression on me lol

- mr wolverine ‘assigned canadian at birth’ x-men

- oh man I dig the androgynity of x-23′s outfit (even tho they had to compensate with the long hair, which... kind of doesn’t make sense in-universe but does on a design level because it’s a crucial thing that she’s a female clone of logan so yeah okay fine whatever have your arbitrary gender markers if you must haha)

ooooooh that’s actually really clever, they make her gender gradually more obvious as she unravels through the episode and her outfit changes -- first the mask coming off, and then her jacket opening to show her silhouette more clearly, that’s cool!

- my god what really sets this show apart is how much it invests in little character and relationship moments, it’s just so fucking GOOD! it gives laura looking in on those moments such depth and weight because it’s new to her but established to us as an audience, this is how you make found family devastating people (storm growing bonsai trees is so charming too haha)

- ooof this is honestly quite harrowing

SHE’S SO SMALL COMPARED TO HIM I’M CRYING (at least that part of his genes translated over faslkfsjdh short king, I say this with all the love and support of a fellow short monarch)

- tabitha seems to just be running around doing precisely whatever the fuck she wants and you know what I support her even if she is an asshole her father left her a bunch of trauma and no fucks left to give

- still thrilled about professor x explaining the spider key fuckup to magneto after the fact like ‘magnus you dumb bitch this is why we split up’

- awww kitty has anime and movie posters on her wall and sleeps with a stuffed toy :’)

- remy rogue

🤝

doing completely unnecessary parkour around the brotherhood living room seemingly just for the hell of it... I’m not saying soulmates but fucking soulmates

- fhsadkjlfhsakjldfhsadjkfhsdajkfh just as gambit’s soul-level need to be a little shit survived his bout of mind control, rogue’s deep and urgent desire to kiss gambit full on the mouth survived hers I can’t breathe

she looks so pleased with herself too GOOD FOR YOU GIRL at least get something out of this other than more trauma

also not only the fact that he’s smart enough to figure out what’s going on (though he’s only partially right about who’s behind it. I do so enjoy gambit/mystique deep and sincere antipathy as a constant across all universes tho lmao pure wlw/mlm hostility) but also that he keeps fending her off like he’s not trying to hurt her even though she’s in nigh on unstoppable and invulnerable terminator mode... awww

- gambit having absolutely no patience for wolverine and sabertooth’s bullshit macho-off and consistently being this little biker trio’s one brain cell is adding years to my life with every passing moment

his voice is a little different in these scenes too, a bit softer and less like he’s trying to impress someone, it’s nice

- hank: well I barely recognize any of these (completely made up) ‘ancient egyptian hieroglyphs’ but from what I can make out -- *proceeds to infodump a perfect coherent narrative* fjdhfak

listen this whole thing is such nonsense on so many levels, I’m just turning my brain off so I won’t have to think about it okay, the compulsion to put ancient aliens in egypt haunts us as a culture

- I am CACKLING about gambit in the snow after having to listen to these two chucklefucks ooze testosterone at each other for hours

he started out taking it in good cheer and is now reduced to ‘dieu would both of you just jump off this fUCKING mountain please’

- ah. a little oops-a-daisy there, we seem to have unleashed the apocalypse. please stand by (they really don’t pull their punches with the season cliffhangers in this show haha)

- opening the season on gambit’s merrily grinning face is the easiest way to gain my favour. yes good this season may commence

baby u r my

ANGELLLLLLLL

(he’s so cute here tho haha I think it shows the design isn’t unsalvagable, just get him better hair and stubble more like logan has and you’ve basically got it)

love his exasperated eyeroll when the dude gets spooked (by his eyes? or just the general weirdness?) too

he’s just trying to keep this crazy family of evil mutants together and unmurdered by one another until they’ve managed to avert the end of the world, bless him

- oh NO rogue’s LIP wobbles my hhhhhheart ;____; such a good animation detail to put in

- like... I know kurt is just a sad scared teenager with a lot of shit going on and all the adults are too busy averting the end of the world to help him... but buddy maybe don’t ask your sister to wake her abuser (who forced her to kickstart the end of the world!!!!!) when she feels utterly unsafe even with her statue version around huh

- ...wanda is good and I want only good things for her. and for her dad to be disemboweled for what he did to her both the first time around and when he forced her to forget I mean what

- magneto throwing an epic satelite-slinging tantrum b/c ‘no I am the biggest sexiest strongest mutant of the pack :(’... erik fucking get over yourself

- yes boys absolutely go along with a plan suggested by a dude who looks at you like this

nothing bad can come of this surely asdfkhsa

- lance’s quarter of a braincell always trying to go ‘hey wait, maybe... not do this???’ and it never helps lol

- in this episode: Logan Has A Bad Day

...some very specific bondage positions he’s held in here, I am sure this episode awakened something in someone once upon a time lol

- logan shielding x-23 with his body... im fine it’s okay I’m not crying don’t look at me

- afsdhlsdfjasdlk those sure are some ‘scottish’ accents flsadkjhkdsjahfsd

- scott relieved to finally be able to cede the position of ‘charles xavier’s least favourite son’ to someone else fjsaklfhsajd (poor scott it’s not your fault honey)

supremely cowardly to suggest there is an ex-wife involved rather than charles slutting his way around the british isles back in the day but okay

- kurt with a cold is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. it’s okay kid it’ll get better soon

- ...is there an implication here that professor x is naturally blond. because I am losing my entire little mind about it (i mean he at least has to carry the gene, as does this lady?)

ETA: upon doing some research into this I can indeed confirm that charles xavier does seem to be naturally blond, and after this knowledge I will never be the same

- “listen, dracula” fskdafghasd oh scott you sweet baby angel I love you

- I know jean’s abilities are a bit ‘as strong or as weak as the plot needs right now’ at this point (so you can have the setup for what’s going to happen with them eventually and she’s basically invincible ;____;), and normally I’m cool with it but god I want her to just squash lucas like a little bug

- ewwwww please don’t ever say ‘daddy’ like that again

- ...what the fuck is even going on this episode’s a mess

like okay the split personality thing could be something but the way it’s done... what just happened lol

- MY BOY EVAN IS BACK! with a real glowup too (...though kind of weird how he suddenly looks like a grown man)

- augh scott’s eyes are so pretty oh my god ;__________________________;

- that episode in the first season where evan makes the ‘this is my new family!!’ video is so sad now (also, again, his poor poor parents)

- time for: life affirming road trip with gambit (involuntary) faskljdfhaskjd

stunt therapist remy lebeau

- I mean the way he goes about it is batshit insane and it’s very much secondary to what he’s actually up to but this is the first time rogue’s sounded genuinely hopeful and confident and like herself in like a season <3

- he is disconcertingly pleased about her nearly throwing him off the train, and may I just say I agree it’s so nice to see rogue with her old fire back

- the first time I watched this it was of course dubbed into norwegian, so I had no idea either of these characters were southern lol (though to be fair I probably wouldn’t have had much context for what it meant exactly either, I was like ten at the time and not too interested in america) I seem to dimly remember the norwegian voice actor did a little more of a ‘french’-tinged accent for gambit all over tho haha

- you know what respect where it’s due, pyro dude knows to live his life for the lols and one has to admire his sociopathic dedication to it

interesting that he, too, seems to have fucking hated magneto -- I wonder if the implication here is that he kept all the acolytes in line with blackmail or by keeping something/one hostage? (except sabertooth maybe he’d just have to say ‘you get to fuck shit up and fight wolverine’ and that’d be enough)

- fsdakfhsd he’s so focused on her he doesn’t notice that guy about to hit him fkafhsa

- fuck everything else except whatever the hell these two’ve got going on

- it’s weirdly cathartic to have rogue have a conversation with someone who was not happily adopted as well, I don’t think kurt like. gets it because his parents loved him unconditionally and still do

birds of a feather motherfucker

- fun detail: when the x-men team are on the shore and logan is sniffing around scott is stepping in something and trying to wipe it off his boots in the background

- when he wakes up after passing out from the touch he’s smiling even though she’s standing over him looking like the rage of god outlined by the moon fsajfsa well the last time he passed out like that it was from a kiss, maybe he still has some hopes and dreams in that direction lol (also he recovers from the tumble down the hill first and is checking on her before accidentally brushing her cheek with his hand, which I thought was sweet)

and it was in that moment he knew he fucked up *passes out*

- ‘I can explain’ can u remy. can u

- did it ever even occur to you to just. ask her. to help you. I mean I know it didn’t but like rogue’s always one second away from throwing hands with some bully and is stupidly ride or die, if you’d given her the puppydog eyes she would have crumbled immediately (fair enough I guess this entire episode is telling us he’s not from a background where he has much experience with people just helping him without a price haha)

- his eyes glowing when he’s angry or upset or using a lot of his power is undeniably cool as all hell. I’m just saying it would be Big Sexy if they sort of flickered with light in moments of genuine vulnerability okay

- his coat... his coat is what makes the Silhouette tm and I could not be happier about it

- another parent of the year contestant enters the running lol “hey remy have you ever considered that you’re more of a walking bomb factory than a person? that’s certainly how I think of you hahaha c’mon kid let’s go”

- the running joke of jean luc getting dollar signs in his eyes seeing the other mutant powers and gambit being like ‘nO!!!!’ and pulling him along is amazing haha

- from the way he looks when he touches rogue accidentally and the way he talks to his dad I’m sort of getting the feeling this gambit might actually be a bit younger than he looks?

here too -- idk why but it’s making the ‘wait is he baby???’ alarms go off in my head haha. very early twenties at most.

- and we’ve officially seen him with all the face cards in the heart suit folks! (yes this is the sort of thing my brain notices no I don’t know either)

- poor logan running his ass off this whole episode in a panic and then she’s like ‘nah he’s fine (in several meanings of the word ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) please put him down’ hfaskfsda

- rogue without makeup!!! her eyes look so naked like this haha <3

- oooh here’s a really interesting thing that tickles my brain a bit in this specific part of the scene where gambit frees his dad -- the part where he’s leaning against the door frame waiting for jean luc, who’s about to suggest using the opportunity to ruin the rival gang from the inside rather than slipping away while they still can

from his expression here he knows what’s about to happen, what jean luc is about to say, and it’s clearly a ‘man who thought he’d lost all hope loses last additional bit of hope he didn’t even know he still had’ sort of situation. he KNOWS what jean luc is like, and it still hurts that he really, honestly can’t give him even this, can’t appreciate that remy’s already done all this shit for him when he extremely didn’t have to, without immediately (no really, it took him less than ten seconds to go there? jesus) demanding more.

remy tells him “I’m just here for you” and jean luc does not understand it. remy seems to be sincere in this motivation -- rogue certainly thinks so, having experienced it second hand and found enough at least emotional merit in it to decide he was worth saving even after all his bullshit (lol a bit of a running theme maybe. I think it’s very telling that after she absorbed mystique she was like ‘what the FUCK you’re a fucking monster’, and after she absorbed gambit she went ‘you did the wrong thing for the right reasons’ after she got over the first wave of outrage)

there’s also what he says as he stands there: “You don’t need me for that”, with the distinct implication that jean luc would only keep him around because he has a use for him and for no other reason -- and then jean luc shamelessly doubles down on that by specifying that it’s not even him he’s got a use for as such, just his powers. that’s some kicking puppies level of deliberately missing the point, it’s almost impressive in how cheerfully mean it is haha

this idea of using people is really important in this episode because remy’s doing basically exactly the same thing to rogue to begin with; it doesn’t really matter to his plan that it’s her that’s with him through this, just what her powers are. (I think it’s p r e t t y solidly implied that he does actually like her a lot outside of that too and maybe there is some comfort in having her around for this, but mostly he’s behind a smokescreen of lies through the whole thing sooo I doubt he’s even aware of it, honestly)

but then it does matter that it’s her when she comes back for him, even after what he did. and unlike jean luc he understands what that means, that she did that for him, and that she didn’t have to. and instead of asking her for more, in return he gives her the thing it’s been established is what he considers the most valuable thing he has; his ‘last card’, the thing he’s credited with keeping him alive many a time, basically. it’s gone from using to mutuality, a tentative place of friendship, and at the end of the day he is a different man than his adoptive father, with a capacity for selflessness and love he lacks. which is of course some of the same stuff going on with rogue and mystique too, except rogue acted from a more fragile and unstable place and did something she regrets, or at least has a LOT of doubts about now, and she found some catharsis in helping someone make a different choice in a similar situation. man there’s some Stuff going on under the surface here haha

(by the way it’s a weirdly... meaningless yet intensely meaningful thing, the gifting of a symbol? of an idea? but he’s putting something very crucial of himself into her hands, is the subtext, and he expects her to understand, which she also does seem to do. at the beginning of the episode he’s proving that he’s seen something true about her -- “You’re such an unhappy girl”, knowing where she comes from, the way she’s mourning her lost confidence and autonomy with her abilities -- and here she’s proving she’s seen something true about him. :’) I wish this show had gone on long enough for this dynamic to progress, it’s really interesting and touching)

- gambit dragging himself up onto dry land seeing someone approaching (to help?!): :D

gambit seeing that it’s logan and the look on his face: D:

- rogue using her powers so confidently and fearlessly in this episode tho!!!!

- *me crying* and then her FAMBILY comes to take her home and he says he’s looking out for her too and kurt still loves her even though they’re having a conflict thing between them and she’s finally able to use her powers without so much fear again and --

- ...did I just watch some baby lesbian love at first sight shit right now???

- okay last two episodes let’s go

- HELL YEAH STORM (I love that she’s like ‘don’t give me a dumb order like that and I won’t have to disobey it’ too sdfjsaj) her voice has such command I’m usually very much not the ‘step on me’ type butttt

- y’know I feel like apocalypse’s main fault across all versions I’ve seen of him is that he’s like an immortal superpowered god king and he’s not even sexy. like at least make him hot if he’s going to be insufferable in every other way

- also callout post for apocalypse: one time he made gambit into the Horseman of Death... and didn’t even make him sexy!!! you were handed remy lebeau, supreme bi disaster slut of the x men universe, and you couldn’t even make his brainwashed superpowered evil side hot?? a beautiful stubbled twunk with glowing red eyes and extremely charming :> face practically delivers himself into your hands and you do that to him???? I mean I’m sure apocalypse did some other bad stuff too but that was the worst one

(comics are so dumb y’all)

- having to watch jean cry is emotional terrorism!! ;___; she has such older sister/mom energy, whenever she gets sad and helpless it hurts

- oh, OH so PROFESSOR X you’ll make into a hunk and ~*strategically*~ rip his clothes to show off a nipple and a flawless pec in a way that makes me extremely uncomfortable because he’s like The Dad??? apocalypse you are rotten to the core this is unforgivable

- so wait wanda never actually gets her real memories back. what the FuCk I hope that was a dropped storyline because they ended the show tragically prematurely rather than like. the plan

- why is spyke calling storm ‘storm’ show that’s his auntie o!! >:(

- as a society we need to acknowledge that apocalypse looks like a fucking clown

- ooooh yeah I have been thinking that this show’s greatest visual weakness so far has been not having a visual way to show telepathy/battles of the minds, but this is a pretty cool way to do it! better late than never

- I’m so happy rogue gets to end this herself, since she was forced into starting it against her will, it’s just nice and neat storytelling

- YEAH FUCKING TELL HER KURT AND ROGUE I AM SO PROUD OF YOU and she has the temerity to look pissed off oh my god

the only valid thing mystique has done in her entire life is be in love with destiny. literally everything else she gets up to is a travesty. like I know objectively she’s hot but my loathing for her stops me from even appreciating it. I do enjoy loathing her tho so please don’t change her haha

(a bit odd to have kurt’s attitude to her swing so much but I’m just going to assume he and rogue had a good long conversation after ‘cajun spice’ and that he understands what’s going on better now)

- this last part is such a cruel tease faskdfhsdaj ‘here are all the cool-ass things we had planned. sucks you never get to see it huh’ im devastated

- magneto without his helmet and playing charmingly with children like charles is going ‘well at least I saved my marriage finally’ fsadkhfjsd (honestly tho I would be super interested in seeing how they’d redeem this magneto because he’s been a real bitch the whole time lol)

there’s an interesting thing here where magneto looks down at wanda as the last thing he does on screen before this epilogue part (yeah I hope it fucking haunts you forever what you did to her erik you absolute piece of hot garbage) and the last thing charles does is look at jean b/c he knows what’s going to happen to her and it breaks his heart... Dramatic Parallells

- just the hint of jean as the phoenix has me in full D:D:D: mode tho maybe I wouldn’t have survived it

- gambit in the last groupshot with his arm around rogue ;^) I mean I’m sure they’re headed for some turns and roundabouts along the way but what’s that thing she says as her wedding vow, that she’ll always find her way back? anyway that got me in my heart

- man I really wish this show had been given more seasons, we were barely even getting warmed up here :’(

#x men evolution #x men #gambit #rogue x gambit #aaah this is like therapy for me... just dumping all my emotions into a tumblr post and then let them go into the ether #I am now wondering if I'm desperate enough to go all the way back to the x-men animated series (which I've never seen before!)#like am I willing to go there for more Contente. time will tell I suppose #happy tag #...this is very long #MAN why can't I channel this dumbass energy into fiction writing I'd get so much DONE

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sleepywinchester · 4 years

Text

Fool For You Pt. 7

Summary: You are back in your hometown Freeridge to take care of your sister Jasmine and your father after being away for six years. You left Freeridge looking for a better life but in that process you had to let go of someone you loved. But you’re back and things are not the same but they sure feel like it.

Words: 2K+

Warnings: N/A

A/N: Hola!!!! Hope everyone is safe at home! This continues the story as a some sort of a series re-write. It won’t be something of all the episodes but the main ones of where Spooky appears. Hope you guys like this and always feel free to leave some feedback is so appreciated it.

| MESSAGE BOX | HAPPY READING!!!

(english is not my first language, might be some typos around)

Title: every day and every night.

Chapters: Uno - Dos - Tres - Cuatro - Cinco - Seis

Your nerves grew with every second that went by, all the scenarios of how Oscar and Cesar were in trouble or dead traveled your mind. It was 11:50am and you could feel how slow every second went by. It was like the clock stayed still and it was killing you softly. The news channel was on, reporting how Santos territory kept expanding. You had it on just in case something caught the news before the gang could know, before anyone could tell you the horrible news.

“Madre de misericordia, Maestra del sacrificio escondido y silencioso, a ti, que sales al encuentro de nosotros,” you stopped praying for a second when the name Santos was spoken on the TV once again. Your eyes went back to the front door after the reporter continued with non important details about the tags. “los pecadores, te consagramos en este día todos nuestro ser y todo nuestro amor. Te consagramos también nuestra vida, nuestros trabajos, nuestras alegrías, nuestras enfermedades y nuestros dolores”

At this moment in time praying was the only thing you could do that brought you peace and serenity. Asking for a higher force was giving you hope that Oscar and Cesar were going to walk from that front door at any moment.

Your body stood up the second the door squeaked, revealing Oscar’s tired yet victorious aura. It was like you could breathe again knowing he was okay and untouched from his enemies. Leaving the rosary on the couch, you jumped on his arms, thighs wrapped around his waist. He hold you tight to his body.

“You’re alive,” you sighed with relief, “I thought-”

“-hey,” he smirked, “I’m good.” Oscar put you down on your feet, looking next to him was Cesar giving you a small smile. “Estamos bien.”

He knew how hard it must have been for you to wait here until he came back. This could have turned very badly but it didn’t and you guys were thankful for that.

You brushed your fingers through your hair, pushing it backwards and breathing heavily yet smiling at both of them. “I am so happy you guys are back. Estaba preocupada.”

Oscar kissed your forehead before walking into the hallway and disappearing inside the bathroom. You looked at Cesar who was holding his backpack, his eyes roaming around the house. It was obvious that he instantly saw how different it looked yet how familiar still felt.

“Like what I’ve done with the place?” You asked him with a smirk.

Cesar nodded, “Looks different but feels the same.”

With a chuckle you shrugged and grabbed your rosary from the sofa, “I didn’t want to change too much, this is your home but it definitely needed some woman’s touch. I just cleaned it up a little bit and added things that needed to be added. I hope that’s ok?”

“It is,” he replied, “thanks for everything.”

You caressed his cheek, “Anytime, kid. Now go, take a nap on your bed.”

“It’s been a while,” he murmured to himself.

“I know,” you said before leaving him to be and going in Oscar’s room.

Once inside you watched him how he was taking off his flannel and throwing it over the chair. He looked exhausted yet relieved to have his brother home.

“Can you promise me something?” You told him to close the door. His eyes met yours, he was curious about what you were going to ask him. You reached him, gazing at his hazel with green eyes. “If something ever goes sideways or….”

Oscar’s eyebrows furrowed full of worry, “Y/N-.”

“You are in a gang, Oscar,” you didn’t let him finish. “Anything can happen at any giving time. I know you are smarter than that but anything can happen and I-,” your voice broke, he caressed your chin, “I would hate to not be able to say goodbye.”

“Where is this coming from?”

“Today… I couldn’t keep my eyes off the front door. I thought in all the ways you could have died. All the ways your homies or the cops would tell me you’re dead. And all I wanted to do is to be able to speak to you… even if it was one last time.” You hugged him, his chin rested on top of your head. “I don’t want to feel like that… ever again but I know with your life I just have to deal with how to cope with this feeling every time you have to handle business but just- find a way… ¿Por favor?

When both eyes met, you noticed how soft and worried his look was. He wasn’t a man of much words but those eyes spoke a thousand words if you really knew how to listen.

“I promise,” he said kissing your lips.

/ / /

Later that day once Cesar got settled, Oscar decided to cook Ceviche for his brother's friends as a thank you for helping out with his brother. They were eager to know how they made the plan against the Prophet$ work. Jamal and Ruby were extremely surprised when Oscar’s plan worked, leaving Cesar safe and able to be back home.

“You gave our money away!” Jamal shouted.

Your eyes rolled out of habit as you took a sip from your beer. These kids were loyal and brave but those qualities didn’t take the big amount of annoying out of them.

“No, I gave them the marked ones from the Freeridge savings robbery.” Oscar told him.

Jamal sighed with relief, “Oh thank God for a second I thought you gave our money away.”

Oscar laughed with him as he squeezed a fresh lemon on top of the ceviche bowl. “No… I didn’t give your money away, you gave your money away and now it is mine.”

Both of the teenagers' relief turned into realization of what they have done. Monse was on the facetime call at the moment demanding to be moved around the table to speak with Oscar. You felt Jamal’s stare at you and you reciprocated the stare.

“What?” You cocked an eyebrow.

His eyes were wide open, “You are not going to say nothing? Aren’t you supposed to be on our side? Teacher’s pledge?”

You scoffed with amusement, “I am not your teacher anymore and you two messed up by giving your money in the first place. It was brave and loyal but shit, that was dumb now live with that consecuence. Besides what are you going to tell your parents if they see that kind of money around?”

“Lottery,” both of them spoke in unison.

Shaking your head you took another sip of the beer not believing these kids. Jamal once again began to bicker about the money and you could see how Oscar temperament was wearing thin. Everytime he began to get more and more mad his jaw would clench and shoulders began to look extremely tense. You gave him a smirk when your eyes met his, the kids were annoying but they were funny when they got pissed after realizing what a stupid move they made.

They continued to yell and complain until Jamal had it and stormed out of the house dragging Ruby with him. You couldn’t help but laugh at the over dramatic scene.

“Who wants more beer?’ you stood up and listened to how the two brothers called for one.

You grabbed two and turned to the table, looking at Cesar with your ‘mom’ eyes. “Just because we are celebrating but don’t get used to it, kid.”

Cesar gave you a smile holding the beer kind of liking how motherly you were towards him. He hasn’t had that in a while and it was nice to have someone that would treat him this way. Oscar observed how you treated his brother and smirked also liking your motherhood side.

“Thanks, mom,” he joked, making you and Oscar laugh.

This was the closest thing the three of you had to a family dinner in years. It was a feeling you haven’t felt since you left after High School thinking of looking for a better life. You missed this feeling on Christmas, New Years and all the holidays no matter how small they were. At this moment your boyfriend wasn’t in a gang, his little brother wasn’t thrown out for not killing someone and you weren’t part of anything. This felt like a family.

After lunch Oscar and you did the dishes letting Cesar get settled back. As you cleaned the dishes you kept your silence, you had something to say but you didn’t know how to say it. The last couple weeks have been extremely good, you liked living with him but now it was different. Cesar was back and you didn’t know if leaving or even if staying was an option.

“So,” you and Oscar said at the same time and chuckled afterwards.

“You first,” he said leaning against the counter and crossing his arms onto his chest giving you his full attention.

“I- I’m happy Cesar is back home where he belongs.” Oscar nodded not saying he was glad but you saw it in the spark coming from his eyes. “Now that he is back... I’m moving back to my place.”

His eyes went from happy to confused in a matter of seconds. “Why?” He asked.

“It was only temporary…” you said, “We talked about this, I was just making sure Cesar had a place to stay for a little while now he is back and-,”

“-you want to leave, again,” Oscar words made you unwell. “Why do you always leave?”

Standing in front of him you tried to decipher his eyes but this was something you couldn’t just figure out by not sharing words. “What do you mean? I’m leaving because I think you would want me gone now that your brother is back.”

“Well I don’t,” he said without flinching, “I want you here, every day and every night.”

This man was never a gracious talker but he always went straight to the point and that is why you loved him. Oscar's tone was sure and steady there was no doubt of what he wanted.

“I still need to make sure I am taking care of my dad and sister,” you told him.

Oscar grabbed the band of your jeans pulling you closer, “Somos vecinos for fucks sake. They’ll be alright, I promise.”

When you were about to kiss him the high noise of rap coming from Cesar bedroom startled you. “Goodbye quietness,” you told him.

“We can still go to your place from time to time,” Oscar smirked, kissing your lips.

You chuckled against his plump lips, “Hell yes.”

NEXT CHAPTER

tags are open: just comment or send me a message ;)

@flamingweasley @dolanackles @lcandothisallday @mmelissarenee @donnaintx @blckgrl-sunflower @jayankles

#oscar spooky diaz #on my block #oscar diaz x reader #omb s3 #on my block season 3 #fool for you #elsie writes

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johannawrites · 3 years

Text

𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 𝟭𝘅𝟬𝟭

( a series of prompts from first episode of the amazon show good girls revolt . change pronouns as necessary ! )

“Um, is it true what you wrote in your letter?”

“Did you really go to an orgy down there?”

“Peace and love are back in California.”

“We can't give up on this story yet.”

“Yeah, well, youth is wasted on the young.”

“Do I have to wear a tiara?”

“Yes. I mean, no. But something fabulously chic.”

“All that's left to do now is to make yourself indispensable.”

“Fantastic. What's her number?”

“She's only going to talk to me.”

“Okay, look, I know you were the more natural fit for this story, but there's nothing I can do. Don't sabotage the story.”

“I'm trying to help.”

“No, I'm working under a deadline.”

“I get serious and start a family.”

“A serious family. Please don't invite me to the dinner parties.”

“I don't joke about writing or cooking.”

“I don't joke about drinking or cooking.”

“See, we're the perfect duo.”

“It's like you guys are fighting over the lower bunk bed in jail.”

“We're finally in the same city after months of being pen pals. God.”

“Well, I already told my parents you were coming.”

“Oh. Your parents. I didn't, uh... I didn't know that they were a part of this event. It's... it's so conventional. I mean, I have to kiss the ring before we can start dating?”

“You know, I wouldn't mind meeting your parents.”

“Oh, no. No one's meeting my parents. Ever.”

“See you in an hour.”

“What are you still doing here?”

“Quite a cat fight last night.”

“Is it true that someone's left a comb on her desk every morning since she got back?”

“You sound like an old man who doesn't know what's cool anymore.”

“Real women never go out of style.”

“No, coffee's supposed to be black. You don't put milk in coffee.”

“Oh, I was just coming to find you.”

“So sorry I stood you up last night. I was working late and I just crashed in the infirmary.”

“Don't try and soften me up.”

“Why don't you let me make it up to you. Hmm?”

“Okay. A week ago we were sending each other letters sprayed with sandalwood oil. What happened?”

“That was a dream. You moved back home to New York. To reality.”

“I'm young. I want to have fun, I want to tiptoe through the tulips. I feel like you're trying to put me in a box.”

“I'm not. Is that what you think of getting dolled up for a night on the town?”

“I don't have anything to wear.”

“They're gonna love you. I already told them how happy you make me.”

“Hey, babe. If you don't change, everyone's gonna think you came home with me anyway.”

“And that's when you saw the first guy fall down or get pushed down?”

“I'm not saying it's sh1t, but you might want to take another stab at that lead. Starting off with a quote won't fly, believe me.”

“I don't suppose you could run out and grab a birthday gift for a 13 year old girl?”

“A lot can happen here in 90 minutes, Y/N. Anything else?”

“How about you start calling me by my full name?”

Nope. That'd take too long.”

“I was here, too...I fell asleep.”

“Okay, now without yelling at me, tell me what she said.”

“They started the riot, not the fans.”

“So they're hiding something. Shit. That's good.”

“There were 300,000 people there, but no law enforcement presence whatsoever.”

“You're pretty cute when you've got a scoop.”

“But they escalated things instead of controlling them.

“I am so proud of you.”

“Hey, as far as I can tell, you and I are kicking everybody else's ass in the city.”

“The song will haunt you because you have such a good ear for music.”

“You should really get high first. Then you'll really dig it.”

“Well, I'm over 30. I'm too old to try pot.”

“Oh, no. No one's too old to smoke out.”

“That's good to know.”

“Because nobody trusts the police.”

“Because they would arrest you for smoking marijuana. So the bands felt safer hiring an outlaw motorcycle gang.”

“So they bonded at those parties. There was a kinship.”

“Yeah, but doing drugs doesn't necessarily mean you believe in peace and love.”

“Well, yes, it does. Uh, I mean it... did. It was supposed to.”

“Can't say I'm surprised at your decision. Bummed out, but not surprised.

“Can you use your dad's credit card?”

“You can't be serious.”

“We're too close to give up now.”

“Your car is downstairs.”

“I'm not gonna make it.”

“Oh, good, you got the gloves.”

“I'm glad you spent a little extra for the 11 inch style. The ones that hit you right at the wrist bone are the least functional things I have ever…”

“I just haven't slept well the last few nights. I'm... clumsy.”

“You didn't eat much dinner.”

“I ate.”

“What do you women even do in there?”

“I'll be out soon.”

“No, I don't want anything about me in print.”

“Like I told you before, I am gonna read all of your quotes back to you.”

“No, I don't want my name, age or anything about me in there. I'm disposable. I'm a back up singer. My job is to sweeten the band's sound. And I do that only as long as I look good and sound good to them. You dig it?”

“If anyone from a record company reads that I'm up there with an opinion of my own... That I'm a narc... I'll be moppin' floors instead of singing in amphitheaters.”

“Good morning, my whispering coven.”

“Is she sick?”

“Very ill. Death's door.”

“Well, I feel like shit and I'm here. Call her and tell her to come in.”

“People are devastated out there, Y/N.”

“There's devastation in here, too.”

“Detailed eyewitness account from two sources.”

“Great. What did these guys see?”

“The guys are gals.”

“One of the things that stuck with me over the years is what I learned about ancient Roman dentistry. To treat a toothache, they advocated gargling with urine. And it was only after prolonged and ineffectual swishing with piss that an extraction would ultimately be undertaken.”

“This is a three-ring circus, folks.”

“But both of their stories support one another.”

“There are our man-on-the-street interviews, except that they happen to be women with no clout.”

“Oh, God! I knew I could break this story wide open, and I did.”

“You stood me up. For the second night in a row. You lied to me so that you could help them... Are you listening to a word I'm saying?”

“My God, is there a "we" in any of this?

“I'm sorry I stood you up. Twice.

“You turned the ship around.”

“Yeah. That felt pretty good.”

“Please, do not insult me by making this personal.”

“Did you do my job for me yet?”

“I left you two choices. You present me with the same two choices. It's unacceptable.

“Why don't you arm wrestle over it?”

“So boring.”

“Just pretend like you're seriously working.”

I don't want to get fired here, okay?

“Oh, I... I got my period.”

“Is this the first time?”

“That's simply how we do things here. We have rules, protocol.”

“Those rules are dumb.”

“We do not change our modus operandi for one person.”

“Now, clearly, you are a very talented…”

“Clearly, I don't belong here. This is ridiculous. I quit.”

“Well, your name is all you have in journalism.”

“Did you get another job?”

“No, I just got this one.”

#rp meme #sentence starters #rp prompt #rp starters #ask meme #dialogue prompts #ask prompt #rp memes #roleplay meme #mine #havent seen this done yet so i took it upon myself !#should i do more eps?

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jessilyria · 4 years

Text

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY SEASON 2

Hello! This covers everything from trailers, promo pics, interviews, and articles. Pics and links will be included. The info is in vague chronological order (as much as it can be.)

Needless to say, this post contains SPOILERS and is LONG ^‿^

If you’d like a non-spoilery version with just the basic facts please check out my Umbrella Academy Timeline.

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

According to Steve Blackman, season 2 is about second chances and the endgame is still to stop the 2019 apocalypse (X).

The opening scene of season 2:

youtube

The siblings arrive in the past at different times, but all in the same spot - an alleyway with some dumpsters which leads out onto a high-street.

Noticeable locations on the high-street include a beauty salon for black people, and an electronics shop which later on closes down and becomes a base for the group.

The order they arrive in is the order the promo pictures were released: Ben & Klaus, Allison, Luther, Diego, Vanya, Five.

It will likely take a while before the whole team is reunited, and possibly longer before the siblings begin to meet the new characters: “It was several episodes before we all started to interact with each other” (X).

Ben & Klaus land in February 1960 (X). As Klaus is sober, his powers continue to develop and he uses them to impresses some people. (X)

"Klaus effectively starts the hippie movement off early by founding a cult whose philosophy is based on the lyrics of pop songs that have yet to be written. “Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to,” he tells one awed follower." (X)

"Destiny's Children! Let us commune with music." *starts whistling*

But Klaus isn’t as happy as he seems in this new life of cult stardom. “He can’t deal with the praise; it’s just become strangulating.” (X)

There’s also tension between Klaus and Ben, but its unknown whether this is because of the cult, because Klaus is "trying to rekindle his relationship with Dave" (X), or because Klaus’ evolved powers mean Ben can now possess him (X). Either way, Ben’s “determined not to be invisible to the ones he loves, willing to go further than ever before to make his presence known.” (X)

As Klaus is wearing the same outfit as the promo pics (and has a long beard which he later loses), its likely the following scene takes place early on.

Klaus: Now what? Ben: Remember when I told you the engine was overheating? Klaus: Yeah, well, being smart doesn't make you interesting. Ben: Neither does your beard.

Ben: You think I’m just going to keep following you everywhere for another three years? Klaus: Yeah, you are my ghost-bitch, remember?

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

Klaus: My skin was on fire! Ben: Good! I’ve got to get to San Francisco, I have unfinished business.

Allison is second to appear in 1961 (X). "Confused and looking for help, Allison walks into a diner and is greeted by a “Whites Only” sign, then chased across town by a group of white men until she finds sanctuary in a beauty parlour for Black women that doubles as a meeting place for civil-rights activists." (X)

Its been confirmed that the below image is from ep 1. (X)

Have you experienced discrimination by your employer?

She meets a man named Raymond Chestnut who is a “born leader with the smarts, gravitas, and confidence to never have to prove it to anyone. He has the innate ability to disarm you with a look, and is a devoted husband.” (X)

Luther appears on April 10th 1962 and lands on a dumpster.

He ends up working for Jack Ruby (X), a mysterious man who owns a nightclub (and who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald after Oswald was in custody for JFK's assassination). Luther’s job involves being a driver, bouncer, and underground fighter.

Its been confirmed that the following scene is from ep 1. (X)

Diego appears on Sep 17th 1963. One of the first things he sees is a televised address from President JFK.

He ends up in an insane asylum for stalking Lee Harvey Oswald and spouting “delusional claims” about JFK’s assassination (X). Its here he meets Lila Pitts, “a chameleon who can be as brilliant or as clinically insane as the situation requires”. She’s also "unpredictable, mischievous" and "sarcastic" with a "twisted sense of humour." (X)

Vanya appears on Oct 12th 1963 (X). “She arrives and gets hit by a car, driven by a woman (Sissy). She smashes her head on the cement... She remembers her name, but nothing else.” (X)

She gets a job on a ranch as a live-in-nanny for Sissy, a "fearless, no nonsense Texas Mom" who "married young for all the wrong reasons" and is "eager to rediscover what love has to offer." (X)

Because she has forgotten her past traumas, Vanya is “much more confident and more in touch with her emotional self” (X). She forms a unique bond with Sissy’s son, Harlan, who is non-verbal (X). Its been confirmed that the following photos are from ep 1. (X)

Vanya: I wish I remembered something.  Sissy: The doctor said it would take time. Don’t push yourself.

Vanya is also slowly discovering her powers on her own.

Five appears with Hazel on Nov 15th after witnessing the world going down in nuclear explosions.

Five: What was that? Hazel: The end of the world, November 25th 1963. Five: And where am I now? Hazel: Dallas, ten days earlier. Five: ...I need to find my family.

But of course its not going to be that easy, the Commission is still out there and “will hunt us down wherever and whenever we go.”

In the trailer we are introduced to the head of The Commission, a fish named Carmichael. He sends three Swedish assassins, Oscar, Axel, and Otto, to hunt down Five and the others.

At some point they acquire a milk-truck and one of them dresses as a milkman. On a location shoot, the Swedes were seen in their truck outside a house in an urban area. They check a map and one of them pumps a shotgun (X).

Whilst searching for his siblings Five encounters a man named Elliot, an "alien obsessive (who) witnesses The Umbrella Academy's separate arrivals." He agrees to help Five find the others. (X)

“3rd EVENT, April 10th 1962″ is above photos of Luther arriving, “September 17th 1963″ is above photos of Diego arriving, and the right column are photos of Vanya arriving still in her White Violin outfit.

Five manages to find Diego in the asylum and they have a conversation.

Five: Listen to me very closely, you gibbering moron. You are not going to do a goddamned thing. Diego: Why not? Five: Because we have to stop the apocalypse. Diego: But that doesn't happen for another 60 years. Five: Not that apocalypse, this is a... new one. It followed us.  Diego: *begins laughing*

At some point after this the Swedes storm the asylum.

“Who are those guys?!”

Diego and Lila seem to make their escape from the Swedes and the asylum pretty quickly however. Its been confirmed that the below pic is from ep 2. (X)

Based on Diego’s outfit and length of beard, the following two scenes take place around the same time. First, a heated car conversation which Five crashes.

Diego: You don’t know anything about me! Lila: I know everything. You are an open book written for very dumb children. Diego: I am n-not trying to b-be a hero, okay? Lila: Then why are you doing this?  Five: *appears in the backseat* Because he is an idiot. Lila: Who the hell are you? Five: Hi, I’m his loving brother. Diego: Who left me to rot in the nut-house. Five: To protect you from yourself.  Lila: Thats quite sweet. Diego: Okay. Both of you. Out.

And second, a dark encounter with a familiar figure...

Reginald Hargreeves & Pogo

The summary for episode 2 also mentions that “an incident at the bar leads Luther to Vanya,” and “Five finds an unsettling surprise in the film Hazel left behind,” which likely links to this image:

Its been confirmed that the following scene is from ep3 (X). Klaus is seen emerging from a river - now confirmed to be the River Ganges in India/Bangladesh which is considered sacred and purifying (X). Considering the series spans 10 days and is set in Dallas, this scene is very likely a flashback.

Note Ben in the background.

Klaus is also seen in similar attire in a wealthy looking house, which is potentially part of the commune where the cult operates.

Note Klaus no longer has his long beard.

And here’s Ben in what looks like a room in the same house. It's interesting to note that Ben (or the actor) is looking straight into the camera, implying its a first person point-of-view.

Apparently also in ep3 we have this delightful gem of Klaus being Klaus. (presumably theres a pool at the commune?).

Episode 3 also sees the Swedes chasing Vanya in a cornfield until she uses her powers to defend herself.

youtube

Thanks to this, Five is able to track Vanya down (X). It's been confirmed that the following pic is from episode 3. (X)

And based on Vanya's clothes, Five then takes her to a cafe to explain a few things.

Vanya: Are you gonna tell me what the hell's going on? Five: When you were a baby you were bought by an eccentric billionaire. He raised you in an elite academy with six other siblings with extrodinary powers, but in the year 2019 in order to avoid the apocalypse we jumped into a vortex and ended up being scattered throughout the timeline in Dallas, Texas. Vanya: ... Five: Any questions? Vanya: ... what do you mean the apocalypse?

At some point ollowing on from this (but unknown which ep) Luther and Vanya have this conversation:

Vanya: What caused the apocalypse? Luther: ... You did... but not alone. I was part of it, we all- Vanya: How? Luther: You got angry. Lost control, you... blew up the moon. It slammed into Earth wiping out everything.

In ep3 we see both Allison and Raymond actively involved in the protests against the segregation by taking part in a sit-in (X).

Allison: I’d like to be served, please.  Waitress: *pointing to a Whites Only sign* Can’t you read, girl?  Allison: Seven languages.  Customer: Oh, you smart one, huh?  *The door opens and many other blank protesters enter.*  Allison: We’d like to be served, please.

However, it goes badly as "police brutally attack (the) peaceful protestors." (X).

The summary for ep3 says that “Allison reconnects with Klaus,” and in ep4 she is “searching frantically for Ray.” It seems, based on the following pics, that she finds Ray in jail and Klaus & Ben have a hand in getting him out.

Note the word "buearu" on the window and Ray in the background.

Based on Klaus' outfit, its sometime around this point he goes on a massive bender. We see him running with a bottle of whiskey, his gleeful cult following him, and dancing in a drinks aisle.

Note that Klaus is bleeding from his lip.

Following on from this, Klaus wakes up on Allisons floor, feeling worse for wear.

Ben: And how are we feeling this morning? Klaus: Ugh, peaches and cream, how are you? Ben: Curious. How many more rock bottoms are you going to have to hit before you start taking care of yourself?

In episode 4 “Vanya contends with a crisis at the farm.” Could this link to her developing romance as, despite Sissy still being with her husband (X), she and Vanya begin exploring a relationship?

The summary confirms that in ep4, “Five, Diego, and Lila crash a party at the Mexican consulate.” But the Swedes are still hot on their tail.

Note the third Swede in the background, chasing Five?

After surviving this, they return to their base. The following pic has been confirmed as happening in ep4 (X).

At some unknown point the Swedes (or two of them) also go after Allison, though it appears she fights back (and kills one of them?).

"They weren't here to sell vacuums!"

Also at some unknown point, Allison and Luther have a catch up. Based on Luthers partially healed face, this is after his conversation with Vanya in ep2.

Luther: We did it again… apparently.  Allison: Did what again?  Luther: Ended the world.

Also at some unknown point Vanya and Diego reconcile: “I don’t remember what I did, but I’m sorry, if that means anything,” Vanya tells Diego as he threateningly juggles a knife. “It does,” he responds, before accepting her as a confidant he can turn to for advice on how to handle his feelings for Lila. (X)

It appears that ep5 is when the whole family finally reunites. The episode summary explains how “summoned to an emergency meeting, the siblings hatch very different plans for how to spend their last 6 days on Earth.” (I have no idea what order the conversation goes in as each bit is a snippet from a different promo vid).

Five: Klaus, is Ben here? Klaus: No, unfortunately ghosts can’t time-travel. Ben: Are you kidding me?

Five: (I/We) really screwed the pooch on this one, the whole going back in time and getting stuck thing. But the real kick in the pants here is… we brought the end of the world back here with us. Klaus: Oh my god, again? My cult is gonna be so pissed. I told them we had until 2019. Five: We have until Monday.

Klaus: Is it Vanya? Allison: Klaus! Klaus: What? Its usually Vanya.

Vanya: None of us are supposed to be here, right? I mean, what if its us?

Luther: Diego's been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald. Diego: Hey, you're working for Jack Ruby! Klaus: Allison has been very involved in local politics. Allison: Okay, you started a cult! Ben: Thank you!

“We have to make it right again, before everyone and everything we know is dead.”

Following on from this, Klaus, Vanya and Allison have some bonding time in the beauty parlour.

Vanya: How do you guys deal with this? Allison: What? Vanya: I mean all of it. Time travel. Seeing the dead...?

Vanya: I’m gunna tell Sissy that I love her… I don’t want any secrets.  Klaus: Yeah? Allison: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, you’re right. Yes. Cos, y’know, if, if its all going to go tits up the least I could do is be honest with my husband. Klaus: Oh… does that mean I have to face my cult? I just hate group breakups, thats why I stopped dating twins.

“Klaus, Vanya, and Allison end a moping session by dancing together to Twistin’ the Night Away.” (X). Its been confirmed that the following pic is from ep 5. (X)

In episode 6, “Dave visits Klaus’ compound” and “the siblings meet their father for dinner” in a Tiki bar. Its been confirmed that the following pic is from ep 6 (X).

An interview with the cast has them talking about ‘the elevator scene’ and how hard it was to shoot because everyone kept cracking up. (X)

Five: All right, quick run down. Luther; super strength, Klaus can commune with the dead, Allison can rumour anyone to do anything-  Diego: Yeah except she never uses it.  Allison: I heard a rumour you punched yourself in the face.  *Diego punches himself in the face.*  Reginald: *looking at Vanya* And you?  Luther: Uh, maybe we don’t… take Vanya for a test drive.  Klaus: Oh yeah thats probably not a good idea…  Vanya: What, I think I can handle it.  *Despite everyones protests, Vanya explodes a fruit bowl.*

Based on Luther and Klaus’ outfits, the following scenes also take place sometime around the same time (ep6/7).

First, Luther pulls up to a house in an urban area, he gets out the car and has a conversation with a man (X). This is the same house where the three Swedes were seen in their milk-truck at night.

Note the gun and flask on the seat.

Next, Allison and Raymond deal with a body (of a Swede?) while Klaus & Ben don’t help. The summary of ep6 also mentions that Allison gives Ray a peek at her powers, which is maybe why he’s on board to deal with a body.

But what's the big flash that startles them? Well it may have something to do with all this craziness:

Note the chairs and people on the ceiling.

It’s hard to tell but since Ben is there, this could be Klaus being thrown backwards? The outfit certainly looks similar.

In an interview, the cast talk about how the room had to be painted completely white (then returned to normal), and how nice it was for the character of Ben to be able to share a moment with Vanya (X). This implies Vanya looses control and Ben is able to talk her down.

At some unknown point, it looks like the siblings all return to the academy.

Note that the background behind Klaus implies he’s sat in the same seat that he did as a child.

An interview asked the question "You all eat 'brain' at a family dinner..." (X) and in a different interview the cast talk about the brain acid trip (X). Could this be when that happens?

Either way, things likely don’t run smoothy. “Reginald still proves just as capable of preying on their deepest insecurities, while somehow leaving them attacking each other instead of him.” (X)

The summary for ep7 mentions someone named Carl issuing a warning to Vanya, and in ep8 it states that the FBI torture her, so its most likely the following images are from this time:

The tape recorder is turned off...

The figure from behind slaps a cloth over Vanya’s face as she takes on the appearance of The White Violin.

“A dimly lit room... Vanya is strapped to a chair. The floor is soaked with water. At the moment she is being tortured for information... After an electric shock the lights on the ceiling begin to flicker. “‘Is she doing that?’ asks a fearful FBI agent.” (X)

Also in ep7, “Five travels to 1982 to carry out his new mission”. Theres a possibility that Luther is also involved in this as a promo pic has snow surrounding the house, which I don’t think would happen in November in Dallas?

Five: I need a spotter. Luther: What is that? Like a wingman?

The summary for ep8 includes the fact that “Diego discovers what causes the apocalypse.”

“Everything in our new lives is connected to the plot to assassinate the president. That can’t be a coincidence.”

The fact we see the gun Five was going to use to assassinate JFK, implies this scene takes place on Nov 22nd, 3 days before the apocalypse. And we know from the summaries that in ep8 “Five concocts a risky plan to intercept another version of himself.”

Old Five, young Five (who’s still really old Five), and Luther.

However this may not go to plan as the summary for ep9 says, “the Fives plot against each other.”

And the summary for episode 10 is: “reeling from the events at the Dealey Plaza, the siblings head to the farm to help save Harlan.”

MOMENTS I CAN’T PLACE:

Someone flips over a table in what looks like it could be a distillery. Based on outfit and hair this could possibly be Lila, Klaus, or (less likely) Diego. Five is also there.

A similar (the same?) person flips over while avoiding gunfire. There are targets and what looks like training equipment, and the person shooting is standing under a large umbrella.

If the flipping person is Lila, then this may link to what the summaries reveal about her arc: In ep5 she confronts her mother, in ep6 the Handler is mentioned (albeit talking to Five), and in ep9 she learns the truth about her parents…

Five sneaks through a room with a camera and lights. On the blackboard the word “Pogo” is written, implying this could be Reggies house and this room is where he is teaching and studying young Pogo.

Diego walks into a control room. It looks like there might be 2-way glass. Could this link to ep8 when Diego discovers what cases the apocalypse?

Five is seen in a building with wooden panels on the walls.

Based on the background of this shot of Carmichael, the building could be part of The Commission.

“You...”

Five gets buried in rubble. Aidan looks chill about it though.

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

Well done for making it all the way!

I’ve tried to avoid speculation as much as possible and keep the language suggestive. I don’t know all the facts, I WILL have made errors, probably many! So please take all this with a suggestive grain of salt, I am just a hooman trying to use her squishy brain.

Please let me know if you spot any errors, think of anything else I can add, or if you want more info about any specific event ^‿^

#the umbrella academy #tua #tua s2 #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #ben hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #luther hargreeves #reginald hargreeves #pogo

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themonkeycabal · 3 years

Text

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, ep 3

Good morning!

Spoilers! of course

Previously on:

The new Captain America is a massive tool, but his buddy, "Battlestar" (lol), is a little bit adorable. They work for something called the Global Repatriation Council, which sounds like a bureaucratic delight and joy.

Bucky got arrested for skipping his therapy appointment to go to Germany (nothing good ever happens to you in Germany, Bucky. Stop going to Germany.) on a mission with Sam (the mission went badly). And once he's sprung from the clink, he and Sam are suckered into the most awkward team therapy session in many an age. Things Are Said and everybody ends up mostly feeling pretty bad about everything.

Speaking of feeling pretty bad about everything — we discover there was a black super soldier in the US Army during the Korean war who was repaid for his service by being imprisoned and made a lab rat for thirty years. Just as awful as it sounds.

Also our pseudo-terrorists from the first episode turn out to be a pack of idealistic kids who grew up in a blipped world and whose goals are probably as murky to them as they are to me. They, however, have pissed off somebody much bigger and badder (probably by stealing super soldier serum).

To find just what in the sam hill was going on with the super soldier serum being out in the wild, Bucky suggested they go talk to that very stable and rational repository of Hydra knowledge, Zemo. I'm sure this will go swimmingly.

I've got my chips and guac and beer, it's 12:30 a.m., and I'm ready for some good ol' fashioned fisticuffs! Bring it, Marvel,

And we open with a sunny, smiley propaganda ad for the Global Repatriation Council. Helping you get back to the way things used to be. Reset. Restore. Rebuild. Cut to a shady black police van with the GRC logo and militarized police hop out along with Captain Massive Tool and the shield that really shouldn't be his. They seem nice.

"Don't give them a second to delete, shred, or breathe," says Captain Biggest Bestest Hero Ever as they prepare to breach a graffiti covered building. Ah, it's the hideout in Munich where Karli and the flag stompers gang were bunked last episode. The owner refuses to give up any info, calls them brutes, spits in Captain Tool's face, and Captain Biggest Bestest Hero Ever roughs him up and yells "Do you know who I am?" The owner replies for us all, "yes, I do, and I don't care."

Captain Tool leaves and grumbles about not having intel on that super dangerous criminal 12-year old, Karli. Battlestar (lol) points out she's giving shelter and meds to displaced people, and so they're loyal. And I'm just going to let that go at this point, because last ep she was on about how the GRC only cared about helping the returning people and not the people who were there all along, and the Flag Smashers wanted to return the world to how it was during the blip. But now suddenly they're all about helping the displaced, who I thought were the ones who were gone, thus, you know, being displaced when they come back to a world that's moved on without them. And I'm letting it go …. now.

Or not. I mean, I guess we could say that they're helping the displaced the GRC doesn't want to help, because they're not politically useful or the GRC is funneling its massive resources somewhere else. Or … something. Like I said, it's all very murky at the moment. I could keep watching and probably discover the answer. And I'm sure the GRC is corrupt as hell, so you go Karli! Though, she's like 16 (okay, maybe early 20s), and I'm not sure how she's managed this level of pull and resources in the few months since the great Un-Blippening and also she's got like a team of 8 (or 7, one died last ep) and she's not exactly oozing charisma. But, never mind. Moving on. For real this time.

That's all my way of saying that 3:48 into this episode and I'm already super done with Captain Massive Tool.

In Berlin, Bucky and Sam are visiting Zemo in prison. How'd they get permission? The guard seems very chill about them being there, he even leaves so Bucky and Sam can go to Zemo's cell alone. Which is so very weird. Are they hoping somebody will shank the weirdo who sits in his cell listening to opera and playing chess all day? "Oh no, he's dead, how sad. Heinrich! Get the mop!"

Anyway, Bucky says he'll go in alone, because Sam's an Avenger and Zemo doesn't really have warm fuzzy feelings for Avengers. Sam, who is currently in possession of the duo's one (1) brain cell, remembers how Zemo literally stalked Bucky and tried to frame him for a bombing and mass murder. "He was obsessed with Hydra. We have a history together," is Bucky's very questionable counter-argument. Well, I mean, technically yes, I guess.

Seriously, they just let him walk right in. Wow.

Zemo steps out of the improbably dark recesses of his cell and immediately starts reciting the Winter Soldier control words. "I just wanted to see how the new you reacts to the old words." By staring. It's his thing.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. It was never personal." I don't know why, but this made me laugh. His delivery is great. It's just like "hey man, good to see you again, hope you got past that whole framing you for murder and the global manhunt thing. Sorry and all. I just really hated your BFF for that time he dropped a city on my family. Bygones, amiright?"

Bucky skips the chat. "Somebody recreated the super soldier serum. I need to find out who." Ah, Zemo is super interested. But, of course. He killed all the other Soldiers, he wouldn't be keen on others around, would he?

Zemo knows where to begin looking for the answer. Cut to Sam and Bucky walking around in a dark room full of some sort of vague equipment (ah, it's a garage), Sam regretting every life decision he's ever made that led him to this point "what are you talking about you want to break Zemo out of jail? Where the hell are we? Buck, have you lost your mind?" Stupidity, who knows, and yes.

"Zemo's going to mess with our minds. Especially yours. No offense." "Offense." lol idiots.

Bucky finds the lights. They argue some more about Zemo. "Super soldiers go against everything he believes in. He is crazy, but he still has a code." Sam's like, yeah, I saw his code, it was blow shit up and kill a lot of people. Sam cannot believe he is hearing this crap right now and he's got to be like "steve rogers, if you weren't 106 I would beat your ass for leaving me with this moron".

"Let me just walk you through a hypothetical. Can I walk you through a hypothetical?" Sam, feeling those cold, tingly chills, the slowly creeping horror of realization, "What did you do?" "I didn't do anything," Bucky lies like the terrible liar he is. Wow he's a bad liar.

Cut back to Zemo's prison cell. Zemo ticks another off the "creepy euro villain" checklist, when Bucky randomly asks what he's reading and Zemo says Machiavelli. But of course. He's hiding something in his book. A key card.

Meanwhile, in the garage Bucky is explaining things to Sam. "The weakest point of any system isn't the software, or the hardware, it's the meatware." lol elegantly put, Bucky. "The human element."

Anyway, to sum up, Bucky's already broken Zemo out of prison. Poor Sam, the look on his face as Bucky hypotheticals through all the steps of the breakout, I laughed so hard.

Sam: “i hate everything, especially this asshole”

"And where are we?" Sam asks, very fed up with Things.

The door opens and here comes Zemo in his purloined guard's uniform.

"You're going back to prison!" "We need him, Sam." Zemo, politely, "If I may—" "NO!" "NO!"

Argue argue argue. Bucky makes a weird pitch about how Steve didn't sign the Sokovia Accords and neither did Sam and, they went all illegal and on the run, they did it for him and so he's asking Sam to do that again. I mean, Sam's still slightly cheesed about that, Bucky. But, it seems to work, and Sam agrees with A Great Deal Of Reluctance.

Zemo's just standing there all quiet and well-mannered as they go through this, like he's their little pet whackjob.

The garage is full of classic cars belonging to Zemo and they're full of weapons and other goodies. He says he spent years tracking down all the Hydra people who might know how to make the serum, because if it's out there, then somebody could create an army of people like the Avengers. He's taking clothes out of one of the cars and finds a purple ski mask, which he stealthily slips into a bag. Nobody cares about your weird purple mask, Zemo, I've thought that thing was dumb for 30 years.

"To do this, we'll have to scale a ladder of low-lifes." heh

Next they go to an airfield. In Germany. You guys, come on.

Anyway, Zemo owns a plane, he's rich, his family was royalty, he's a baron. Sam's like 'wtf?' Bucky just rolls with everything. Or he does until they're on the plane later and Zemo has somehow lifted Bucky's book of amends and decides to read through it. "Who is Nakajima?" And Bucky's got him by the throat.

Sam's all hey that's Steve's book. "I told him about Trouble Man, he wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What did you think?" "I like 40s music, so…" "You didn't like it?!?!?!?!" "I liked it." Zemo chimes in, "It is a masterpiece, James. Complete, comprehensive. It captures the African-American experience." lol wtf

"Everybody loves Marvin Gaye," Sam is so offended. "I like Marvin Gaye," Bucky says, probably trying to remember 'who is Marvin Gaye?' "Steve *adored* Marivn Gaye," Sam insists. lol. I like Marvin Gaye, Sam.

Zemo starts going off about Steve, and how the danger with those heroes and super soldiers is they're put on a pedestal and we forget about their flaws. And while he's not wrong, he also clearly wants Sam to throw him out of that airplane.

"Do we want to live in a world with people like the Red Skull? No. That is why we're going to Madripoor." Ahh Madripoor, I haven't thought about that place in a long, long time. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, iirc. Ah, yes, Zemo and Bucky confirm.

Zemo says they can't go as themselves and Bucky's going to have to "become someone you claim is gone". Bucky looks Deeply Unhappy.

On to a GRC resettlement camp in Latvia. Karli is playing soccer with some young kids. Because of the good-natured idealism. She's summoned to a hospital bed, in a ward stuffed with beds in an old, fancy building that's seen better days. Somebody is dying and she's crying at their bedside. Her mom maybe?

Back to Madripoor. It's a glittering city of colorfully-lit skyscrapers. The trio are walking across a bridge to give us a picturesque view and exposit about what they'll be doing. Sam is wearing a very questionable suit with like a black and red floral pattern and yellow-green circles. Or something. I can't tell what's going on with that thing. He says he looks like a pimp. Well no, but it is a terrible suit. Zemo calls it fashion forward, but Zemo wears a great coat with a fur collar and a purple ski mask. Don't take fashion tips from Zemo.

He says Sam will play a "sophisticated, charming, African rake, named Conrad Mack. Aka the Smiling Tiger." Sam is still not thrilled, "even has a bad nickname." Though, yes, the original dude does dress that poorly and he looks like Sam, so suck it up, Sam.

Fortunately they don't have to walk all the way across the bridge (it is a long ass bridge), they're met by a car about halfway and Zemo says they have to super duper stay in character no matter what happens.

The car is surrounded by elaborately decorated motorcycles ridden by very armed people. Hell of a welcome wagon. They're escorted to a graffitied, crumbling underpass, presumably the entrance to Low Town. It's part Macao, part Kowloon, part Jakarta, crammed full of neon and people and ramshackle buildings piled together in a maze of narrow streets, rails, and weird building-to-building bridges. Good set design.

Everybody is "fashion forward" and very heavily armed. They pass a wall with the words "Power Broker Is Watching". That's the charming fellow Karli and her do-gooders stole from.

They enter a bar decorated with golden baboon skulls and koi fish. Zemo asks "are you ready to comply, Winter Soldier?" he's attracted attention from unsavory sorts. I mean, more unsavory than the already unsavory sorts who fill the bar. The bartender is surprised to see Zemo and the Smiling Tiger. Zemo asks for Selby.

Somebody at a nearby table pulls a hood over her head, and by somebody I mean Sharon Carter. NOT SUBTLE SHARON!

Bartender asks the Smiling Tiger if he wants the usual and Sam silently nods. The bartender seems suspicious, but he takes a pickled snake out of a jar, cuts something out of it, drops it in a glass and places it in front of Sam who's like 'what in the actual I am going to puke'. lol Sam bravely tosses it back and does not puke no matter how much he really wants to and he really wants to. Bucky's being the Winter Soldier and is not at all laughing in his head about this.

A power broker minion comes over and tells Zemo he's not welcome there. Zemo says if PB wants him to leave, he can talk to him himself or bring Selby. The minion looks at Bucky and asks if he got a new haircut. Bucky gives him pure murder face. So the Power Broker and his minions know the Winter Soldier, so they were Hydra? Or, I guess, they all ran in the same shady circles.

Anyway, PUNCHING AT LAST! Power Broker minions approach to remove Zemo and Zemo tells the Winter Soldier to attack. Bucky is not pleased, but I am, because now there's punching. It's just been the sort of week that needs punching to improve it. Bar brawl! It's a lopsided fight, Bucky's wiping the floor with these dudes and the suspicious bartender is moving away to make a call.

"It didn't take much for him to fall back into form," Zemo tells Sam. Shut your pie hole, Zemo. Aw, now the guns come out and the fight's over. Zemo calls off the Winter Soldier and the bartender tells them Selby will see them.

Selby is lounging in her backroom, listening to 50s french pop, and hanging out with lizards and piles of cash. As you do. She'd like to know why Zemo is there and by the way wasn't he in prison? She makes a weird purring sound at Sam. lol. I like her. The actress looks familiar but I can't place her. Anyway.

Zemo says if she tells them what she knows about the super soldier serum, he'll give her the Winter Soldier and his control words. Then Zemo weirdly fondles Bucky's face and like rubs at the cleft in his chin. lol. fucking weirdo.

Selby is charmed. She says she's glad she didn't kill him straight away. Weirdos of a feather, I suppose. Anyway, she says the serum is in Madripoor and developed by Dr. Wilfred Nagel. He was working for the PB. She won't give up Nagel's location for free, though. …and Sam's phone rings. Pro tip, Sam: turn off your phone when you go into meetings with deeply shady crime bosses.

Everybody stops and stares at him and he just sort of lets it ring. It's his sister. Dude, just turn it off. Too late. Selby wants him to answer it on speaker. Okay, well, she'll kill you either way, so just refuse the call and get ready for punching and running. So, he answers it.

Sarah says she needs to talk to him about the situation and he wants her to say exactly what situation. So, she says the one with the boat, dummy, and are you high? So he's going to play this off as a Doing Crime phone call. And it kind of works until Sarah calls him Sam. Selby's like wtf kill them and then she gets shot in the chest by … I don't know who? somebody from the outside. Now this trio of geniuses is going to get blamed for it. Immediately a bounty for them goes out to like everybody in Low Town. lol. That went well, guys.

And the shooting starts, they run. Except not so great for Sam who we just discovered is wearing heels. "I can't run in these heels!"

Here come the bikers. And they get picked off by somebody in a nearby warehouse. Oh, is that Sharon? Yep. And she's salty .When asked what she's doing there, "I stole Steve's shield, remember? I also took the wings for your ass so you (sam) could save his ass (bucky) from his ass (zemo)." lol. She didn't have any backup so she's off the grid in Madripoor. Did nobody think to clear her after everybody was all heroic and then pardoned after the Un-Snappening? Come on, guys.

She's better than they deserve and despite being bitter, she says she's got a place in High Town they can hide.

Sharon runs a gallery selling stolen masterpieces and other hot craft goodies. The creators of this show bless us with a long shirtless Sam scene as he changes out of this Smiling Tiger duds and apologizes to Sharon. She says she'd be arrested if she went back to the States and Madripoor doesn't allow extradition. Besides, she muses, heroing is hypocritical bullshit. Right Sam, since you gave up the shield and all. And Sam's all "bwhu?"

Then she turns her bitter on Bucky and asks how the new Cap is and Bucky's like "i hate him the most" and she's all 'come on', she knows he buys into all that heroic bullshit, "before you were his (zemo) pet psychopath you were Mr America, Cap's best friend." Well, no before that he was the Winter Soldier long before Zemo.

"Wow, she's kind of awful now," Bucky tells Sam. lol. You really get a sense of how much Bucky lucked out with his goat farm. Thanks Wakanda!

Sam gets them back to the point and wants to know where Nagel is, though Sharon says they should stay out of it to be safe. Sam presses, he says he can help clear Sharon's name and she's like 'wow, bargaining with my life?' but he gives her a Cap-worth speech about trying. "They cleared the bionic staring machine and he's killed almost everybody he's met." "I heard that," Bucky says from ten feet away. "I don't trust charity." You just tried to guilt him about bargaining with your life, Sharon!

Anyway, they strike a deal.

Zemo's being suspiciously quiet.

Then they go to a rave. Madripoor is party central. Sharon's gallery is hosting a party for clients and whatnot. She'll see what she can find. For some reason she invites the boys to join her at the party because hiding from the bounty on them and probably also from the Power Broker means walking into parties packed full of the sort of people who buy expensive stolen goods in Madripoor, like say, the Power Broker or his wealthier minions.

Zemo's just happy to be out of prison. The shot of him dancing. lol.

Sharon finds a lead on Nagel and the next day this quartet of galaxy brains heads to the docks. Nothing bad ever happens when you go look for scientists at the docks. No sir. And he is apparently hanging out in a shipping container. Sharon's like hurry up you've got a bounty on your heads and I'm sick of you three already.

The container is empty, but Sharon insists it's the right one. Zemo goes in and finds the false back which leads to a set of stairs going up. "Comin' Home Baby" is playing in the distance. I know I always listen to Mel Torme when I'm tinkering on gene-altering serums in my secret shipping container lab.

They find Dr. Nagel, who is not keen on chatting but he's willing to maybe listen to offers. He's definitely the mad scientist type.

Sharon, keeping watch outside, spots trouble. Some bad guys heading towards the container. She attacks! Moar punchies! Or beating the shit out of people with a baton. It's eleventy zillion bounty hunters. How did they find them? Did that Very Wanted Trio maybe go to a very popular party the night before, or something?

Bucky attempts to persuade Nagel with his gun. Nagel says he was brought in to Hydra to work on the Winter Soldier program. Then he was recruited by the CIA. They had blood samples of a subject (Isaiah? the black super soldier from last ep), and he was able to recreate the serum off of that. "I was a god! I did what no other scientist since Erskine was able to do."

Zemo is pacing around like a very, very angry psycho about to shoot the mad scientist. Guys, maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring Zemo to the person who could create the super soldier serum, given that is the opposite of what he wants. Kill Nagel, no more super soldiers. This is gonna end bloody. Zemo seems to have found a gun hidden in the lab. Yep.

"How have we never heard about this?" Sam asks. Well Sam, it turns out Nagel was blipped. Thanks, Thanos! Anyway, when he came back the CIA project was abandoned but the Power Broker was happy to help fund him. He made 20 vials and Karli stole those. And then Karli being a super duper genius, called him a few days earlier and asked if he could help somebody dying of tuberculosis. Karli … don't call the bad guys and ask for help after you stole from them. That's like day one stuff, kiddo.

Meanwhile, Sharon is still fighting every bounty hunter in Madripoor. She's killed like twenty guys.

Sharon runs in "guys we're seriously out of time" and Zemo takes the distraction to shoot Nagel. Who didn't see that coming? Oh yeah, Sam and Bucky and Sharon. Nobody was using the one (1) brain cell today. Or Zemo was. That's what you get for loaning it to the lunatic.

And then somebody fires a freaking rocket at the shipping container lab. Man. But, can you collect a bounty if all that's left are unidentifiable, charred corpses? Nobody in Madripoor is using the brain cell today.

Now they're trapped in a burning lab that's full of probably very bad explosive chemicals and o2 tanks. And yep, it partially blows up. Zemo gets away. Or seems to have, anyway. It's a gun battle now and also arguing. lol. Sharon's like "FOR REAL YOU IDIOTS?"

Oh, here comes Zemo, stomping along the top of a shipping container, carrying his purple ski mask. He fires at a gas line, the explosion distracting the bounty hunters and giving the trio time to run. Zemo beats up some bounty hunters and then finds a convertible muscle car in a container and swings by to pick up the others. Sam is very grumpy "you're going back to jail". lol.

Sharon's like 'okay, buh-bye!', she's had enough. Aww, is she really only in one episode? Well, Sam does promise to try and get her that pardon, so …

Anyway, Bucky calls shotgun and refuses to move the seat up for Sam. Payback is sweet. Heh.

Oh, not done with Sharon yet. She meets a minion and says they've got a couple of big problems.

Lithuania. Karli and one of her pals are stalking a GRC depot. Karli's sad. Her buddy says she should take some time to mourn. But, no, she's got do-gooding to do. They chat for a bit about what they'd be doing if they weren't do-goodering. She'd be a teacher or some such. They were all in Madripoor, washed up there during the blip, put then put out when everybody returned. Hmm. Lots of expositioning. Blah blah, scary taking the serum. "But it was worth it, because this world is ours." And they're going to give it to the kids in the displacement camps. … alrighty then.

Anyway, she's convinced that now that Nagel is dead, the Power Broker will come to her begging for the rest of the serum. No, sweety, I really don't think a person like that begs. Yikes.

"So we've got the one fight ahead of us then? I'll take those odds," says her very dim buddy.

In the prison in Berlin, Captain Massive Tool is talking to the guards about how Sam and Bucky where there when Zemo escaped and the guard's all "you … you don't think they had something to do with him getting out…." World class security. I find it really grating that Captain Tool calls Sam and Bucky by their first names. It's just so weirdly familiar that it almost crosses into dismissive. Completely unearned familiarity.

Lemar says they can't just accuse Sam and Bucky without evidence, but Captain Tool seems to think they can just, you know, make it up or some shit. "If we get the job done, do you think they're going to sweat us on the how?" Fuck you, Captain Tool.

Back in Zemo's plane, Bucky's fastidiously cleaning his metal arm, like a big grumpy cat. And Sam is trying to get a lead on the person (Madani) Nagel told him Karli wanted to help. He's got Torres on it.

They get to talking about the shield and how many people died or got messed up because of it/the serum. Sam says he made a mistake giving it up and he should have destroyed it. Bucky says, "Look that shield represents a lot of things to a lot of people, including me. The world is upside down, we need a new Cap, and it ain't gonna be Walker [preach]. So before you destroy it, I'll take it from him myself." Kick his ass, Bucky!

Torres gets back to Sam just as Zemo brings them lunch. Such a good host. "They found Madani. Dead. She died in Riga, a city near the Baltic Sea." … was that last bit really necessary? Like Riga is such a mystery? Even if you don't know where it is, like, that's so weirdly clunky. Somehow I think if you don't know Riga, you probably don't have the Baltic in the map in your head, either. 'Have you ever been to London? A city on the River Thames.' 'I've always wanted to go to Los Angeles, a city near the Pacific Ocean.'

Bucky should have said "oh yeah, i love Riga. I killed a diplomat there back in '64. Great beer."

Zemo's got a place they can go and he's looking forward "to coming face to face with Karli." Not creepy at all, Zemo. Nope.

Meanwhile, the kids are raiding the GRC depot and chatting way too much and calling each other by name. Oh dear.

"Filthy Flag Smashers" grumps a soldier tied up on the floor. I can't take them at all seriously with a name like that. Karli says they had six months of supplies just sitting there. "Don't you understand, we're fighting for our lives." Are you? Why and in what way?

Okay, so this is my continuing issue here. They're trying to build up this un-Blipped world, which is great, but they're doing it through So Much Exposition and so much of it is vague. We're supposed to think the GRC are probably shady, but are they? I don't know. Could be. They're sitting on these supplies! Evil! Maybe they are, but why? Why stockpile all that? Is it being sold on a black market? Or diverted to other people? Who knows! I don't. You don't.

We're supposed to sympathize with the Flag Munchers, but they're so vague in their goals. They want the world back how it was during the Blip. Okay. How was it? I don't know. What was so great about it? What we saw in Endgame didn't look all that great. But, we saw it from a different point of view, to be sure. So, what was it like for the average person who survived? Hell if I know. Also the Munchers want to help the people in the displacement camps. Okay. So do those two goals go together? I don't know. Are all the displacement camps bad? We're meant to think so, but I don't know. Is it just some of them? Is it regional? Who, exactly, are the displaced? It seems to be a mix of those who were blipped and those who weren't. I guess. I don't know.

It's just all taken out of the Big Book Of Cliched Assumptions for Lazy Worldbuilding. Why actually do the hard work of details, when they can just fall back on tropes, make vague pronouncements about how 'bad' things are, and let us assume the answers. This might bother me less if we didn't have to spend so much time with Captain Tool and the Flag Munchers. I cannot tell you how much I currently don't care. I find this all very frustrating. I don't mean to spoil the fun. Let me look at Sam's face again:

That was better. But, I stopped too soon. We're still with the Munchers.

They're leaving the building they just looted, and there’s a bit of business I don’t care about, involving Karli’s car and how she’s not taking it, she’s going to just leave it parked, completely unsuspiciously in front of the building. And, she’s going to ride with her pal Mr. Dimbulb.

She tells him to put his seatbelt on and she's very insistent. And then her car blows up and the building catches fire and it’s very dramatic.

Her buddy's like wtf there were people in there and Karli says, "This is the only language these people understand." ARGH. Who people? Why is bombing them the only language they understand? Like, in this show, the GRC have literally DONE NOTHING. Nothing we’ve seen and nothing we’ve heard. At least have people chat about dark and dire rumors or something. Hell, they haven’t even been accused of doing anything other than ‘caring more about the people who returned than the ones who never left’ which is literally their job. sighing all night long. Maybe they’re horrible and evil and the Worst Thing Ever. But I DON’T KNOW THAT, because nothing in the show has bothered to establish that.

ANYWAY

Riga, a city on the Baltic Sea

The trio are walking down the street, Zemo expositing for us again. Sokovia was apparently swallowed by neighboring countries, erased from the map. "I don't suppose any of you bothered visiting the memorial? Of course not. Why would you?"

Bucky's looking not happy. Probably remembering '64. They get to Zemo's place and Bucky says he's going to go on a walk. Zemo and Sam go on ahead and Bucky watches until they're out of sight and he circles back and finds a beeping thingy on the ground. He notices something across the street. Ah another round beepy thing. Now he's collecting them. He steps into an alley and says, "You dropped something". Nobody immediately appears.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up." And he turns around and it's one of the Dora Milaje. She looks unhappy and she’d like to know where Zemo is. Yeah, the Wakandans are not just gonna let Zemo wander free. That's a sticky situation you got yourself in, White Wolf.

Credits.

Well, I really enjoyed the bits that didn't contain the Flag Munchers or Captain Tool. Do better with your world-building, people.

#tfatws #tfatws spoilers #tfatws liveblog #the falcon and the winter soldier #the falcon and the winter soldier spoilers #long post #sorry this got away from me

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power106hq · 4 years

Photo

𝚀𝚄𝙴𝙴𝙽𝚂 𝙲𝙾𝚄𝚁𝚃 𝙴𝙿𝙸𝚂𝙾𝙳𝙴 𝚃𝚆𝙾: 𝙲𝙷𝙸𝚃𝙻𝙸𝙽𝚂, 𝙿𝙾𝚆𝙳𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙳 𝙳𝙾𝙽𝚄𝚃𝚂, 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙷𝙾𝚁𝙴 𝚀𝚄𝙰𝚁𝚃𝙴𝚃.

QUEENS COURT is now LIVE! Powered by Power 106 FM in partnership with TSMADISON and KHIA. At 9:30, court will be accepting callers (anons) to send in their own thoughts about the past two weeks. To close the show, KHIA and TS will issue out presents to the celebrities discussed in the recap. Click below to stream the full episode!

TS MADISON: We are live baby! Welcome viewers and callers to Queens Court starring myself and the legendary Ms.Khia Thug Misses! We are going to get right into the gig tonight and waste no time. Now remember that everything said is alleged unless we say otherwise. We don’t need any of these rich folk trynna get us shut down or give us gag orders. Starting off this episode we’re gonna get THE COURT OF TRENDS out of the way. Miss.Khia the people would like to know your thoughts on this whole Chi and Poppy situation. To clarify, we’re talking about both the arrest in Paris as well as the leaked messages this past Friday.

KHIA: Chile this first case is coming in straight from desks over at TMZ. Reportedly Chi and Poopy were arrested and banned from France. These two were at a gay club in Paris, got drunker than the Cooter Brown, and ended up bumping shoulders and coochies with foreign carpetmunchers in jail. Now if I’m being completely honest, I expect this kinda behavior from Poopy muffler pussy having ass but Chi?! No ma’am! Now at first, I didn’t know what to make of this shit other than Poopy finally sinking her shit crumb infected claws into poor ole Chi. But, chile more news done broke that Chi done got outed for being a bulldagger? Chi, I really don’t know what to tell you other than go monkey stomp Poopy ass blind! She did that shit on purpose girl, and we all know why. Don’t trust no skillet bitch!

TS: Wait, what you mean by skillet bitch?

KHIA: Pans, skillets, griddles: that’s what we call the girls who like anything! I’m sending Poopy long titty ass to the electric chair for setting that girl up like that. NEXT CASE!

TS: Moving onto the next trending topic we have Lolita who was admitted into rehab about a week after being photographed snorting what the people are saying is cocaine. Now, Miss.Khia how do we feel about everything going on with Miss.Lolita?

KHIA: I would like to be the first to say this, all y’all favorite artists done played in the sugar before. However, some play harder than others. I guess Lullaby was the MVP this week.

TS: Lullaby?

KHIA: Yes, we call her Lullaby because the only thing the bitch can do for me is put me to sleep with them tired ass songs! Now, I’m not sure why everybody acting shocked and surprised. I personally don’t feel no ways about this dumbass bitch and this loser ass situation. Bitch, keep yo’ nose out them powdered donuts. Y’all should’ve gotten her tired ass some help years ago. This the same bitch that was gettin’ fisted by shady oaks biker gangs in her videos as soon as she turned eighteen. The bitch done always seemed slow and delayed to me so this is really no surprise. Now, the people are saying that this was all a stunt to promote this tired ass album she's releasing soon after they take the ball and chain off them decrepit ass ankles. I personally don’t think that’s the case. However! If that is the case, bitch imma be the first to tell you, we don’t care. We didn’t care when they dragged yo’ ass in the cage, and we not gon’ give a damn when you get out. So what makes you think we got give a damn when you drop that foot dragging ass album? I’m sentencing this cokewhore to an extension on that rehab sentence. We the people don’t want you out of that building until you can put out a hit record! NEXT CASE!

TS: Lord have mercy. Alright y’all moving on from the court of trends, we are going to be handling a case in CIVIL COURT. Now, there’s a new collaboration with Sashabelle and Audriella out. Some of the people lived and some of the people think Audriella should sue Miss.Sasha for ruining the song. Now I’mma give MY opinion: I personally lived for the song. I lived for Miss.Belles and the vocals. Miss. Khia how do you feel about the R.E.M. remix?

KHIA: Yes, well I was truly enjoying the song at first. I thought the two sounded really good together harmonizing n’ shit in the beginning. But... then we get to the end of Audriella’s verse, and we’re all waiting to get what we need from Sashabelle right? Instead we got chitlins! I told y’all to stop putting Mama Odie old ass on y’all songs back when I was on my red couch! I can’t remember one time Stinkabelle actually made the song better. You got Audriella talking ‘bout La Perla and Vicky Secret, and then we got Mama Odie starting her verse off with a hot ass “...Aye ‘dere bwoy.” No no no bitch! That shit was trash bitch I don’t care what y’all say. Keep that old hoe off y’all songs! This bitch can’t find herself on the charts if it ain’t a chopped and slopped verse added to someone else’s shit. TS tell me I’m lyin’.

TS:

The people are tired of the we shall overcome plantation rituals and now you breathin’ yo’ delayed ass over everyone else songs trynna be that bitch you once were. If y’all really want a hit call the queen and I’ll be happy to help for the right price. I’m gonna sentence Sashabelle’s country ass to another mandatory session of remedial English classes. Next time I hear yo’ ass get on a song with that country bumpkin’ ass shit, I’ma personally send yo’ ass to the electric chair. NEXT CASE!!!

TS: We’ll be finishing off the show today with another segment of JUVENILE COURT aka YOUNG DUMB & FULL OF CUM. On the docket we have reported complaints about a group of artists who attended this passing Saturday’s charity football game and started twerkin’ and gyratin’ in front of the tv. Miss. Khia do we find the defendants guilty?

KHIA: Not even sure why you put this shit on the highlighted docket tonight sista. This type of shit really puzzles me more than anything else. So, basically the Alvin Ailey Foundation was having a charity event a few days ago. Everything went as planned and most importantly they raised a good amount of money for the charity. None of these great things can stop a hoe from doing what she does best: hoe. We the people summon in Audriella, Amilli, Mulatto, and Viva La Vita. Here we have a forty year old bedazzler, a white man’s whore, and two knock kneed mothers. Veronica, bitch you’re forty. I would leave it at that but obviously it hasn’t clicked yet. Stop tryna live in the glory days bitch you is washed up, fucked out, and dried. That music ain’t selling and that ass ain’t movin’, pack it up. Audriella, now I will admit your confidence is somewhat inspiring. Any slave that is willing to go out and publicly be a melon muncher is brave in my book. But for you to let the tribe down twice? It’s flat out disrespectful. I hope that mayo monster knocked you upside yo’ head when you got home. Amilli and Mulatto, please go be mothers. That’s all we ask you nothin’ ass hoes to do. It’s almost like that’s the only time we hear anything from you hoes, its never about y’all doing motherly shit. I’m sure there were kids at the charity event too. Just a shame. I sentence all four of you to house arrest effective immediately. That way y’all can focus on what’s really important. NEXT CASE!!!

TS: Okay that is all the time we have for cases today. The lines are open for callers if the people want to chime in and tell us how they feel about the past two weeks.

#[ * 𝑸𝑼𝑬𝑬𝑵𝑺 𝑪𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑻. ft. episodes. ]

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kittyprincessofcats · 4 years

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She-Ra S5 E07 - Perils of Peekablue

There might be spoilers for the rest of the season in this post!

I’ll start by saying upfront that I pretty much consider this to be the weakest episode of season 5 (or at least one of the weaker ones), even though it does move the plot along significantly. The main reason is that, as I said before, I don’t care about the group on Etheria as much as the group in space (with the exception of Scorpia and possibly Spinnetossa), so an episode like this - even though I get why it’s important - just won’t interest me as much as what the gang in space is up to.

That said, it’s not a *bad* episode or anything. Let’s get into it:

- The entire beginning scene where Adora tries to transform into She-Ra and the others keep interrupting her is absolute gold and I love everything about it. Especially Catra, OMG! The way she shows up and actually asks “Are we messing with Adora?” - She’s not even pretending to be helpful and I love that she’s bonding with Glimmer and Bow over “messing with Adora”. And how she then just flings herself onto Adora’s lap and brushes Adora’s face with her tail while cheekily saying “Yeah Adora, concentrate!” - brilliant, absolutely brilliant 🤣. And I also love how Adora doesn’t even try to push her off and actually holds her. These two are too cute.

- I also wonder if the “You can’t let distractions keep you from transforming” line was intentional foreshadowing for Shadow Weaver telling Adora that Catra’s a distraction.

- I like Catra’s new outfit! Well, it’s pretty much just her old outfit with a few adjustments. But still, nice! And she looks really cute with short hair.

- I feel like this beginning scene is pretty much here for two reasons: It sets up that Entrapta is trying to reach the rebellion on Etheria, which will be relevant at the very end of the episode, AND it shows Catra’s new outfit, so we can have a new opening now.

- Changes in the opening: Time for some really exciting mid-season opening changes! Catra’s missing from the villains’ card for the first time ever. Instead, Horde Prime’s hands are now closing around a glowing orb (I assume that’s meant to be the heart of Etheria). At the part where Catra and She-Ra fight, Catra now has short hair, She-Ra is in her new form, and instead of a snarl the fight ends with a soft smile between them (I’m not crying, you’re crying. Best opening glow-up ever! 😭). In the final heroes’ shot, Adora back to being She-Ra instead of Adora, but this time in her new form. And Catra is *finally* in the heroes’ shot as well. GOOD STUFF. (In general, I just LOVE that they actually kept updating the opening in the middle of the season. That is SO cool. But the change that really gets me is how they updated Catra and Adora’s fight, because that’s been the same since the beginning of the show and now it’s SO SWEET.)

- Okay, so my biggest problem with this episode is that the plan to find Prince Peekablue seems... kinda dumb? So they’re planning to sneak into an underwater soiree undercover and abandon everyone else at the camp to find a “hermit” no one has seen in ages because he might know where Adora and the others are? As a plan it just seems far-fetched. I get that they want to warn Adora and company that Prime is chipping people (they don’t know that Adora’s group already knows that), but how would finding Peekablue even help them achieve that? He could tell them where Adora and the others are, but... that’s it. It’s not like he can also magically communicate with Adora or anyone else. And didn’t Swift Wind tell the others last episode that Adora’s coming home and that he can feel her coming closer? So shouldn’t they already know that the group in space are on their way home? (Granted, Swift Wind told that to Micah, Frosta, Spinnerella and Netossa - but I’m assuming the rebels communicate with each other and Micah would have also told Mermista and the others?) I mean, idk how much time supposedly passed between these two episodes, so maybe it’s been a while since Elberon? Also, when did they even figure out that Horde Prime is chipping people? Last episode, Micah still said they had to “figure out what that was”. And if they know about the chips now, it might have been a good idea to check the necks of everyone at camp right away - though to be fair, they maybe didn’t realize how the chips work yet. And yeah, I am nitpicking here (and obviously the rebels have to mess up so things can go south this episode, so I guess they have to make some bad decisions.)

- That said, I love all of their outfits! And I like that Scorpia’s alias “Lynda D’Ream” is a reference to the 80s cartoon.

- Netossa’s lucky that she wears an outfit with such a high collar - makes it hard to put a chip on her neck. (Also, idk if I’ve said this before, but I love Spinnerella and Netossa’s character designs and outfits. They’re both fashion queens.)

- Just the fact that it really is Spinnetossa’s anniversary and Netossa thinks that’s why Spinnerella is acting strange - I mean, what are the odds?

- “They are my people! Which means that most of them have sworn revenge against me at some point.” Okay, that is pretty funny. And getting to meet all of Sea-Hawk’s exes was pretty funny, too. (Yeah, officially they’re not his exes but just people whose ships he set on fire... but come on, the subtext isn’t really subtle here.) And I love the whole running gag of him and Mermista fighting all of them behind the bar counter with Mermista doing most of the work and getting more and more annoyed with it - but when they’re finally done, it turns out there’s also someone there that *she* doesn’t want to see, because she set their ship on fire. Comedy gold.

- Scorpia is me at a party :( I also find it super hard to socialize and get into conversations with strangers. Very relatable there.

- I also love how the sweet flowergirl Perfuma has absolutely no problem blending in with a bunch of criminals.

- “You’re amazing. You have the biggest heart and you could do whatever you put your mind to.” Aww. I’m glad someone told Scorpia that!

- “You should do things not because you’re good at them, but because they make you happy.” That actually is some really good life advice. People should keep that mind in general.

- (I love how Sea-Hawk and Mermista are carrying Admiral Scurvy away in the background while Scorpia and Perfuma are having their heartfelt talk 🤣.)

- “Repeat after me: I can do this. I can do this.” “Perfuma can do this.” 🤦 I feel bad for laughing, but... gosh, Scorpia has some serious self-esteem issues.

- Okay, time for an unpopular opinion: I’m... not that into Scorfuma. There’s nothing wrong with it and I’m not against it or anything, but it just doesn’t particularly grab my interest. That excited feeling you get when you ship something just... isn’t there for me with them, sorry.

(I kinda felt like I had to explain/justify myself, so I started to write a small essay on my ships here that doesn’t really have anything to do with the episode. Feel free to just skip this part.)

I consider myself a multishipper and while my #1 OTP is definitely without a doubt Catradora, I also really have a soft spot for Scorptra (to the point where I’d say it’s probably my #2 after Catradora). And, to make it short, Scorptra vs. Scorfuma is one of those “fanon vs. canon” things for me, where what you want to see happen in canon isn’t necessarily what you find exciting or interesting to explore in fanworks. Obviously Scorptra was never going to be canon because Catradora is a thing, and I’m perfectly okay with that. And in canon, Scorpia getting out of a toxic friendship, moving on from her unrequited feelings, and finding love with someone else (who treats her right) is the right message to send, so I’m glad that’s where the show went. But when it comes to enjoying a ship in fanon (which is what I consider “shipping” to be), then I don’t pick my ships based on how healthy they are in canon, but on how much their dynamic fascinates me and just on whether that certain spark that makes me like a ship is there or not. And in that sense, Scorpia’s dynamic with Catra, which was explored over the course of 4 seasons, is just infinitely more fascinating and spark-inducing to me that her relationship with Perfuma.

And even beyond Scorptra - if I had to ship Scorpia with someone other than Catra, my first pick would be Entrapta. (Yes, I do ship Entrapdak, but like I said - multishipper here. Also, Entrapta has two hands!) And my first pick for who to ship Perfuma with would be Mermista because I like their bickering and I have a thing for opposites attracting.

Anyway, I’ve been rambling about ships for too long now. The bottom line is: I’m fine with Scorfuma being canon and it makes sense that they fit together since they’re very similar people. I don’t dislike it, I’m just not as hyped about it as many people seem to be. On with the episode now, please!

- “I guess I don’t know what a hermit is after all.” Yeah, Peekablue was giving off Double Trouble vibes from the beginning, tbh.

- I love how Netossa is competitive even at planning anniversary surprises.

- Perfuma loudly supporting Scorpia when she ends up on stage is a super nice moment, though. And Scorpia’s performance? Amazing!

- I wonder if Double Trouble made up that whole “She-Ra in space” vision because they were pretending to be Peekablue and just got it right by accident, or if they actually knew that much from their time pretending to be a clone. I wonder how much time they spent as a clone and what exactly they saw.

- Scorpia realizing it’s Double Trouble and then tricking and unmasking them was an amazing moment. So much for Scorpia not being smart!

- I was so excited to see Double Trouble again! Tough it makes me a bit said that they refered to Catra as their “cash kitten”. While they never made a secret out of being in it for the money, I kind of like the idea that they did care for Catra after all. (Do I just ship everyone with Catra? The answer is yes.)

DT: “I know where your friends are. And I’ll tell you - for a price, of course.”

Perfuma: *grows flower arm canon*

DT: “... Fine.”

😂😂😂 Love that.

- “It makes for a very dull audience when everyone’s mind-controlled.” Okay, but that really is a good reason for Double Trouble to help the heroes out without really changing their motivation. They’re still a Chaotic Neutral who doesn’t particularly care about morals - but it would make for a very dull audience if everyone was mind-controlled.

- “Prime is angry. She-Ra showed up and stole his little kitten away.” Like I said before, I LOVE that that’s the reason why Prime’s so pissed in the first place.

- The confrontation between Netossa and Spinnerella is so heartbreaking, but when she said “show me your neck” it again made me wonder why they didn’t check everyone’s neck at camp before.

- “What a shame we can’t be together... in Horde Prime’s light!” Ooohhh, it’s so creepy and angsty, I love it!

- And Mermista’s chipped as well because obviously things have to go south here.

- The parallel confrontations at camp and at the soiree are really cool scenes. I especially like the Spinnerella vs. Netossa fight. And Micah’s chipped as well, because things have to go wrong and Glimmer mentioned being “a day away from meeting her dad” - so obviously that has to be ruined now, too.

- “A little help? I need to lift my hand to the heavens.” Gosh, I love DT.

- Scorpia’s sacrifice made me tear up 😭. (When I first watched it, I was scared she was actually going to die and not just get chipped - I’d never have forgiven the show for that.)

- Can we talk about how strong Netossa actually is? She fought off both Spinnerella and Micah by herself, made a big enough net to cover all the chipped people, and got herself and Frosta out of there safely - I don’t want to hear anything about her powers not being strong again.

- “Happy anniversary.” Noooo, now I’m crying again... 😭😭😭 It’s so sad, but so romantic... (I really love that this season gave Spinnerella and Netossa more screentime. And I’m always here for some angst!)

- And finally, Perfuma is able to contact the group in space and warn them about the blockade. I really like that scene. I like that Perfuma specifically says “You need to stay away”, since we know what happened last time someone told Adora that. And the whole grim mood of Perfuma apologizing and saying the rebellion is compromised, the shaky pictures, the connection cutting off, and then the shot of the ship all alone in space and the silence - amazing. Basically, this episode was “things go very wrong on Etheria, and now the group in space has a serious problem”.

This was a good episode, overall. Like I said, the main reason I consider it weaker is because I care more about the group in space, and they were only here for one scene in the beginning and one in the end. But this was still pretty solid. It had some funny and sweet moments, and then some really cool and dramatic scenes in the end. And of course, it was a very important episode for the plot because things are now really not looking good on Etheria. My favourite moment was Catra sitting on Adora’s lap in the opening scene, though.

[Previous episode] [Next episode]

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imlostinsantacarla · 4 years

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@the-outsiders-blogg this is for you! if anyone’s wondering where the inspiration for this random ass imagine came from, there it is ➡ here. anyways i hope enjoy this! - admin kat 🌙❣

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Darry Interrogating Sodapop and Ponyboy Over Milk Being Put in the Cupboard Headcanons:

° So this all starts one sunny morning when Darry’s punk ass is looking for the milk in the fridge before work bc he finally wants some fucking cereal man. But he can’t find the milk. So he goes looking in the cupboard for a plate to put his toast on, bc Darry’s bland and likes that shit dry asff!

° Which leads him to find the milk in the cupboard and ma boii goes off!

° “Soda! Pony! Which one you idiots put the milk in the cupboard?” Darry hollers from the open cupboard in the kitchen. He’s dumbfounded, his kid brothers are fools!

° “What do you mean, Dar?” Soda inquires, damp wheat colored hair being combed into its usual hairstyle whilst he waltzes into the kitchen with a cocked brow.

° “Did you hear me stutter?” Darry deadpans, icy eyes glowering into Sodapop’s.

° “No, seriously! What are you talkin’ about, Dar?” Ponyboy asks before biting into the reddest apple you’ve ever seen. The kid looks honestly so baffled.

° “This isn’t funny! One of you guys did it, so fess up! The milks off now because of the heatwave. I swear if you admit it I won’t be mad.” Darry turns to face the boys, large hands articulating his speech.

° “You’re already mad, dammit!” Soda states, a smile creeping on his face because he honestly cannot believe that Darry’s bitching about milk right now.

° “Yeah, it wasn’t us.” Ponyboy mumbles with a mouthful of apple. Though to be fair, he’s kinda shitting it whilst looking at Sodapop because maybe… just maybe one of them did put the milk in the cupboard instead of the fridge? He has a distinct faint image in his head of the milk jug going into the cupboard, but was it him or Soda?

° Soda’s like ‘lol same’ mentally and just shares a look of uncertainty with Pony for a moment before turning to look at their eldest brother who looks totally done with their shit.

° “Listen, I can’t be wasting my damn money on milk when you two dumb fucks keep pullin’ stupid shit like this!” Oh, Darry’s mad!

° “Darry, honestly, we didn’t do shit! Why would we-” Soda’s kinda getting miffed at this point because like wtf? Man, maybe he did do it, but is he gonna admit this shit? Hell no! He’s questioning himself mentally, ‘Am I really that dumb? I mean, I know I dropped out and all…’

° “Don’t you get mouthy with me, you damn shit!” Darry’s red in the face, pointing a finger at Soda.

° “Listen, I’ll buy you some damn milk, Super Dope!” Steve interjects exasperated by how stupid this argument is.

° “What’d you just fucking call me?!” Darry slams his fist on the counter, getting ready to square tf up to Steve. Lmaoo Steve can’t help but laugh under his breath.

° “Darry, he’s right! It’s not a big deal, we can get some more milk.” Pony mumbles quietly, his eyes evading his eldest brother’s in fear he was gonna go off on a tangent again. Although Pony hated Steve, he really didn’t want to see the guy get his two front teeth knocked out over some damn milk.

° “Pony, I don’t wanna hear it! It was either you or Soda, and it’s about the principal of putting the damn milk away like a normal person! Use your damn head for once!” Darry snaps, this is clearly more than just some damn milk. I mean, Pony didn’t even think that cereal was even that good. Pony thought Darry should just stick to his tar-like coffee and get on going to his work by now.

° “Hey! How’re you so certain that is was me and Pony that did it, huh? Pony uses his damn head real swell, Dar and you know it!” Soda’s now pointing fingers at Darry now, it’s like an episode of Modern Family lmaoo.

° “I don’t have time for this and stop getting mouthy, kid!” Darry’s so exasperated that he walks out bc lol his ass is gonna be late for work now.

° The screen door just slams shut and Two-bit is sat on his backside with a beer by his side and a whole damn chocolate cake in his lap and the rest of the gang is like, “What?!”.

° “Man, I thought I put that in the fridge!” Two-bit grins widely.

° "And you didn't say anything?!" Pony and Soda cry in unison, staring at their beloved prankster of a friend with a look that could most certainly kill.

° “Two, how drunk are you right now on a scale of one to ten?” Steve quips with a scowl on his face. He almost got his teeth knocked out because of this idiot!

° “Pretty fucking drunk to pull a dumb fucking move like that, Steve. Why’re you even askin’ him that for?” Dallas pipes up from Darry’s armchair, his calloused fingers scraping against the stubble beginning to grow on his chin.

° Johnny's like 👀 bc the drama of it all!

° "I'm a fish,” Two-bit mutters under his breath, his attention now being stolen by none other than Mickey.

° "Jesus christ! Go get some milk you idiot!" Soda snaps bitterly as he walks out with Steve, Pony and Johnny in toe because they’re all gonna be late for work and school now.

° Lmaoo now it’s all quiet, except for the blaring audio coming from the television.

° Dallas and Two-bit are left alone.

° "You being serious that you did that shit man?" Dally asks after ten solid minutes of silence.

° "I swear it was the fridge, Dal. I swear!" Two-bit looks at his buddy, a wise cracking grin plastered on his face.

° "Man, you're a lost cause." Dally chuckles before getting up to his feet to fetch himself a beer from the fridge. It’s not even 9am!

° Anyways, when Darry comes home that night there’s now five jugs of milk on the dining table bc everyone, - except for Two-bit bc he forgot -, bought some damn milk. I mean, even Dally stole some from the corner store.

° "Now there's too much milk! I ain't paying you all back. You better buckle up Popeye style because I'm not drinking it on my own." Darry snaps irritably as he looks at all the milk on the kitchen table, the entire gang is gathered around said table looking like a bunch of dumb butts.

° "Popeye loves spinach Darry not milk." Pony corrects Darry, bitch is mumbling under his breath but Darry whips his head up bc he fucking heard him!

° "I swear to god if you smart mouth me again I’ll-"

° "Darry! Stop okay? You bitched about having no milk, now you've got more. Eat your damn cereal you big BABY! And leave my kid brother alone!" The sass coming from Soda kinda makes everyone get a bit silent bc lmaoo not this shit again!

° "Man, can you guys quit arguin’? Two’s the one who fucking did that shit this morning! He admitted to all of us, I'm not a fucking snitch or nothin’ but fuck this is annoying." Dally would gripe as he takes a carton of milk, bursts it open and starts chugging it. Lmaoo it was the one he stole. He can’t listen to this shit any more, he’s gonna go insane. ‘What a bunch of pussies.’ He grumbles in his head.

° "Two, you fucking put my milk in the cabinet?!" Darry roars, his head whipping towards the living room where Two-bit’s sitting on his ass watching tv again.

° “Did I? I thought it was the fridge!" Lmaoo it’s so innocent the way he says it.

° Pony almost has a stroke.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

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thistreasurehunter · 4 years

Text

Outer Banks: Reality TV AU

Okay, this was supposed to be a quick little imagine/headcanon, but it kind of got away from me… I actually feel like I’ve just experienced an entire season of Big Brother in the last 30 mins while I was writing this! (The images above are from Pinterest)

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

Okay, but imagine if they all met on a reality TV show instead. Big Brother, for instance…

VTs + entrances:

JJ would be set up by the show as the sexy one that all the girls are going to love – a 2D dumb hottie.

He’d love his entrance, grinning and waving and high-fiving the cheering audience.

And Pope’s VT makes him sound like a bit of a straight-laced nerd.

And he’s a bit shy on his entrance walk, but he still gets a big cheer.

Sarah and Rafe would come in as a brother and sister duo,

But as separate housemates.

Rafe makes a couple of ~questionable~ comments in his VT and he gets a mixed reaction from the live audience.

Sarah wears a slinky floor length gown and looks amazing as she makes her way in.

Kie mentions sea turtles twice in her VT.

She opts for more of a casual-glam look, but still owns that catwalk as she enters the house.

The Kie/Sarah arc:

Kie and Sarah are framed by the producers as powerful, confident, head-strong women.

So at first, the audience all think they’re going to clash over which one of them gets to become queen bee of the house.

And, to be fair, they do clash a bit to begin with,

Because they’re both so strong-willed and sure of their own mind.

But really, it’s actually all just low-key sexual tension.

Because those girls have the hots for each other!

But they’re both a bit too proud to say anything at first.

Then, slowly, they realise they’ve got so much in common.

And they bond over environmental issues and feminism and convincing their housemates to recycle more.

And they become friends.

Friends who both look really hot in their bikinis when they hang out in the pool or the hot-tub;

And who have long, soft chats late into the night, kind of curled up in the cosy chairs in the garden;

And who often sit with the other’s head in their lap.

And who take turns doing each other’s hair and make-up;

And who talk about how hard it is style different hair types or apply good make-up on a skin tone other than your own, so they teach each other.

Then one night they’d be messing about in the pool, laughing and splashing each other, and suddenly Kie would just lean forwards and kiss Sarah. And Sarah would kiss her back and they’d both be wet and pressed up against each other in their bikinis, and all the cameras would suddenly be pointing at them.

The video of it online would become one of the most watched clips of the show ever and it would go down in BB history.

And then they kind of become an awesome power couple.

And everyone would just know that the house was ruled by two queens.

The JJ/Pope arc:

At the beginning, the audience think JJ and Pope are going to annoy each other. Because they’re just so different: like, stereotypical cautious nerd vs stereotypical reckless jock.

And in the first few days, they don’t spend much time together, because they both did kind of low-key judge the other from a distance too.

But then to spice things up, Big Brother teamed them up together for a task.

And to begin with, they were both so dejected at having to endure the task with the other.

But when they actually started the task they ended up getting along so well.

Like, their personalities complemented each other’s, and they worked really well together.

And they were surprised by how much they could make the other laugh.

And they ended up acing the task.

And then they just sort of… fell into hanging out together.

All the time.

JJ brought out Pope’s fun side and Pope brought out JJ’s sensitive side.

JJ would do something daft, and Pope would join in and they’d both end up creased in laughter.

Or Pope would be a bit sad about something and JJ would be right there, making him feel better.

And their bromance literally became the highlight of every episode.

The entire show, really.

Because everyone just LOVES watching them hanging out, having fun, looking out for each other and just hyping each other up every chance they get.

It was the friendship that shouldn’t have worked, but just did.

And they form a little friendship group with Kie and Sarah. And they all just get along and have a lot of fun together.

One time, one of the other housemates said something mean and unfair to JJ. And JJ was about to get angry in his direction. But then Pope cut in and just verbally took that guy down!

And JJ was just so bewildered, because nobody had ever stood up for him like that before.

And then in letters-from-home week, JJ is happy for everyone, but also a bit sad because he knows he won’t have one – I mean, he knows his dad definitely wouldn’t have bothered.

And Pope asks JJ to read his letter from his parents and it’s beautiful and JJ chokes up a bit and they both hug afterwards and it’s really emotional.

Then just when JJ thinks they’ve finished, there’s one letter left at the bottom of the box, and it’s from his JJ’s BFF from back home – John B.

And Pope reads it out to him, and it’s really lovely and John B tells JJ all the funny things that have happened since he was gone and also that everyone on The Cut is really behind him and JJ is laughing and welling up and just so happy. And all the other housemates – the nice ones – kind of get that this was a big deal for JJ and sort of envelop him in a big group hug, Pope right there in the middle holding him.

And throughout their whole friendship, the camera doesn’t miss the way Pope and JJ look at each other.

And they become the will-they-won’t-they pairing of the series.

They both get asked a ton of leading questions about the other in the Diary Room.

And they get such a huge audience following and end up having a load of fan accounts dedicated to them.

They even get a ship name.

Well, two ship names.

And nobody can really decide which one to use.

But the boys just keep it completely bro-mantic and platonic, to the dismay of the audience.

Even though it’s completely obvious to everyone that they clearly have ~feelings~ for each other.

The Rafe arc:

And, of course, every season has it’s ‘baddies’.

This year it was Rafe and his gang of stuck-up, snobby ‘Kooks’.

Rafe gets a little bit too drunk on the first night and decides to go for a middle-of-the-night swim.

There’s a lot of flexing.

And some of the housemates are a bit wary of him because he comes across as quite unpredictable.

In general, Rafe’s ‘popular group’ are a bit mean to some of the other housemates, particularly JJ, who they keep tormenting,

They try to provoke him into getting so angry he’s removed from the house.

And they keep nominating him for eviction.

But week after week, JJ always survives the public vote.

But then one week he’s up for eviction against the most popular ‘Kook’ housemate and JJ is sure he’s going to leave.

And he’s sad because he knows how much he’s going to miss Pope and his friends in the house.

And on eviction night he can’t keep still and his leg keeps bouncing with nerves.

And the Kook is so over-confident.

Pope, Sarah and Kie all sit around JJ as the results are read out…

And the Kook is evicted and he gets booed when he leaves.

JJ is saved and gets a huge cheer from the audience outside and Pope, Kie and Sarah all pile on top of him in a big group hug.

And Sarah tries to talk to Rafe about cooling it. Telling him to stop being a jerk to everyone, especially JJ.

But it isn’t until Rafe has to do a task with Sarah, Kie, JJ and Pope that it really starts to sink in.

Because the task is really hard and they have to spend quite a bit of time just the five of them in a separate task-room.

And Rafe gets to know the others a bit better and sees how much fun they are and how much nicer they are to be around than the people he hangs out with.

And they all work together and win the luxury shopping budget.

And afterwards, Rafe kind of rejects the ‘popular’ group and starts hanging out with Sarah and the others.

And he just doesn’t tolerate any of his old friends saying anything mean about his new crew.

And so he gets a bit of a redemption arc on the show and the audience go from loving-to-hate him, to just sort of loving him in a he’s-a-bit-flawed-but-aren’t-we-all kind of way.

The Final:

Rafe, Sarah, Kie, Pope and JJ all make it to the final.

John B is in the front row of the audience with a massive sign that just says “JJPope Nation”.

And it’s really emotional when they say goodbye to the house.

Because they all know how life-changing the last couple of months have been.

Rafe’s exit interview is intense – he’s grilled about his change in attitude and he gets a bit emotional. He explains how eye-opening the experience was and how he want to move forwards as a better person and the audience all fall in love with him a little bit.

And Kie and Sarah both look incredible and work that catwalk as they leave.

In their interviews they both get asked a lot about that first kiss…

But the girls are more interested in talking about equality and sexuality politics.

And that just end up solidifying their new roles as LGBTQ icons.

Pope and JJ are the final two.

And as they wait for the final result, they just sit on the sofas a little in shock because neither of them ever expected that they could get this far.

And they both think the other deserves to win much more than they do.

And just before they get the results, Pope takes hold of JJ’s hand.

And when the winner is announced they both just hold onto each other and end up sobbing into each other’s shoulders, because they’re just so happy and shell-shocked.

And when they finally exit the house they both get such deafening cheers and they can’t keep the smiles off their faces.

And their Best Bits videos are amazing, because it’s basically like a montage of their whole friendship.

Their funny, chaotic, sweet, intense, glorious friendship.

And of course they get asked about whether there’s anything more between them than friendship.

And they’re both really evasive.

And they just cannot believe they have fan sites!

And the after-party is loud and wild and brilliant and lasts all night.

Afterwards:

Rafe has redeemed himself in the public eye and ends up being universally loved by the female audience.

After the show, he does a series of work-out videos that become hugely popular.

He also becomes a regular guest on TV panel shows.

After the show ends Sarah and Kie start their own ethical, environmentally friendly beauty brand and later add a fashion line.

They make sure they promote true representation and employ models of all ethnicities and body types, showing girls everywhere what true beauty looks like.

With some of the proceeds of their company, they set up a number of charities that focus on environmental and humanitarian projects all over the world.

And they live their best lives, knowing they’re helping make the world a better place.

After the first wave of interviews and photo shoots die down, JJ and Pope both sort of fall out of the public eye.

There’s still a lot of speculation about them.

And the fan sites never really give up on the ship.

They both occasionally post things to their Instagrams,

JJ mainly posts photos of the ocean or his surf board,

And Pope posts food shots and inspirational quotes.

Occasionally a photo shows up of them hanging out at one of Kie and Sarah’s glitzy fashion events.

And Rafe once posted a photo of the old BB gang, and also John B, in a bar somewhere. They were all crammed into the shot. But JJ and Pope were sitting really close, JJ’s arm slung over Pope’s shoulder.

That photo ended up getting a lot of likes.

And then a few years after the show ended, Pope posts a photo of a heart drawn in the sand with the letters P + J inside.

And then at almost the exact same moment, JJ posts a close up photo of Pope’s hand resting on his own, their golden wedding rings shining.

And so many people like the photos at the exact same moment the boys temporarily break the internet.

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dashielldeveron · 4 years

Text

Viper IX: Compos Mentis

Summary: You have one brain cell left, and by God, she’s going to have a good time tonight.

Warnings: swears, the law. Injury. Claustrophobia?

“Are you actually wearing that out?”

Clenching your jaw, you glanced at him in the mirror. Tom leaned against the doorframe while he pulled the knot in his tie, smoothing it down. “I am not speaking to you,” you said, fiddling to clasp your necklace.

With a flash of his eyebrows, Tom darted his eyes to the side. “You can’t wear red out in public. Especially if it’s a formal event. Just saying.”

“I don’t give a shit about your personal tastes.”

He bit back a comment, trudging closer to you. “When you’re with the mob, wearing red means you’re a ho. It’s mostly why everyone hates the girlfriend at the beginning of The Godfather. Do you want everyone to think you’re not a woman of honour? Put on something green, or something.”

You got the little lever underneath your fingernail, but it slipped out before you could connect it. “Should I slip on a maid outfit for you, master?”

Tom gripped the back of your chair, ducking his head in a grimace. “You can’t act like this when we get to the gala.”

“I don’t plan to,” you said, pulling the chain as far out in front of you as possible to get a look at what you’re dealing with, “but I won’t play the part perfectly. I’m not scared of you anymore.”

“You should be,” he said under his breath, and his hand came around your shoulders to slap away your own hands away from the necklace. “You’ve been a smart-mouthed snake to me. You’re on thin fucking ice.” He fastened it for you before sliding the clasp to the back of your neck.

***

After Harrison handed over your invitations to the suspiciously over-enthusiastic front-of-house staff, the three of you were ushered to what was functioning as a coat room before being loosed in the Natural History Museum.

You’d spent days upon days in the place for work, so you fidgeted while Tom and Haz greeted the positively sexy dinosaur skeletons in the foyer. Yes, yes, good, good. One of the best fossil collections in the world. But let’s go to the weird stuff, okay?

Not okay.

Though you took Tom’s arm as fucking instructed, he still had the gall to spit “Shut up, or I’ll kick your ass” at you when the first group of suits approached.

They didn’t like your snarky joke about carbon dating.

“I thought I told you to shut up,” Tom hissed in your ear, and you, simpering, playfully swatted him away, your eyes completely dead.

They worked their way through a couple of groups of people and exhibits—a good portion of these wealthy attendees had recently been freed from small gang rule; the Fratelli family had absorbed them about a month ago, and if Tom could persuade those near boundary lines, they might come over to your side.

You didn’t mind too much, because you knew more about everyone, generally, particularly if they were female-led (that kind of pissed you off, though, because hasn’t he unlearned his biases yet?). You had to remind him who some people were as they drew near, but you did it on impulse to obey (that kind of pissed you off, too).

What made you fume, though, was that Tom straight up didn’t introduce you to anyone. Harrison and himself, yes, along with establishing connections with other people already spoken to, but you? Not even the cover story that you were his lawyer for Osseous. Just…living up to their expectations, you supposed, that women were accessories.

When Tom had withdrawn his arm so that he could write something down for some lousy, old dudes who wouldn’t fucking leave, you took the opportunity to dig out your phone (your dress had pockets! The women you’d met had shared in your joy, showing off their own pockets if they had any).

You shot off a text to Adrien, letting him know you were there (he wanted you to see the lights at the front of the gem hall before they opened it up; he’d redone them while you were under house arrest)—and, you supposed, you could reply to the twenty-one texts Glory Pham had sent you, badgering you for your presence.

“Who are you texting?” Tom looked over your shoulder. “I thought I just saw a heart emoji.”

“Oh, come on,” you said, lowering your phone, “It’s noth—what is the fuck?”

Glory Pham primly snatched your phone out of your hands, pinching it between her thumb and index finger. “I’m confiscating this.”

“Oh,” you said, your shoulders heaving, “You startled me, Ms. Pham.”

Glory slipped your phone into a hidden, deep pocket in her Ao Dai. “Constant vigilance. You, too, Mr. Holland. And associate,” she said, narrowing her eyes at Harrison.

“Ms. Pham,” you said as they fumbled for their phones in their suit jackets, “I am a grown-ass woman. I can function at this fundraiser with my phone on my person.”

“As an ass-woman, you can’t if you want to catch every. Minute. Detail.” Glory glared up at you. “I want your undivided attention. If something goes wrong, I want you to notice. Pack away your little outside life and live in this moment. If you do well enough to ensure tonight goes smoothly, I may even associate with you in the future.”

You sighed as she ferreted away the other phones. It’d be nice if you could command Tom and Haz like that, but what do you, the consigliere, have that compares with a museum curator? “How will I find you if there’s something I can’t fix?”

“You’ll be able to. We open the gem hall in an hour. I want you there in fifty minutes.”

Your eyes glazed over as she strode away, and you swayed slightly. Oh, don’t have an episode now. That wouldn’t be ideal.

“Good evening, Mr. Holland,” came a voice from behind you, and Tom turned, guiding you with his hand on the small of your back. You let your vision blur for a moment before focusing on some guy you didn’t recognise. “I represent the D’Aleos. I have someone in the Hall of Amphibians and Reptiles wanting to discuss something with you.”

Tom quirked an eyebrow, a shine to his eyes that hadn’t been there for anyone he’d spoken to so far. “What about?”

“He wants to hire someone as a neutral mediator for a boundary squabble. One of your men—well, actually, the Viper.”

“Oh?” Tom’s hand slid from the small of your back to press into your waist. “I’m sure she’ll be interested to hear that. I’ll have to call her after the negotiation, if we can all be cordial. Lead the way.”

What in the do-huh? Bitch?

He led the three of you through the Egyptology section while you held Tom at the back to hiss at him.

“The fuck are you on? I’ll have to call her afterwards?” You clutched at his arm, curling your fingers in to make it hurt. “Who am I, then? Are you gonna introduce me as your whore?”

Tom bent his head towards you with an easy smile that wasn’t directed at you. “If you keep being so cheeky, they’ll think that, anyway.” He gave a little wave to a passer-by and lowered his voice. “You’re the one who wanted to wear red.”

This is dumb. I just want to hear John Mulaney.

The D’Aleo guy led you into the Hall of Amphibians and Reptiles and gestured towards a tank with a heavily labelled, taxidermy komodo dragon, and when you rounded it, Tom broke into a genuine grin.

“Jacob,” he said, shaking his hand, followed by Harrison. “Where have you been? How’d you get hooked with the D’Aleos?”

“Good to see you, too. They hired me to plan an operation, and I wasn’t doing anything besides coding for my regular client—normal work stuff. So, I agreed. What have you been up to?”

“Eh, this and that. Mostly the bomb threat,” he said, putting his hands in his pockets. “Sneaky little buggers, those. What’s this with the Viper?”

“Oh,” said Jacob, his eyes bulging momentarily, “So, I’ve planned their fucking thing, but there’s this old money family right on the boundary of where we’re crossing, and they’ve pulled some shit lately that won’t stand.” He ran his fingers through his heavily slicked back hair. “Me, I’m just the guy in the chair. I don’t deal with people. Your Viper, though—I know she can wrap them around her finger.” He jerked his head to the side. “The don wanted her, too. Once the idea got planted in his head, it wouldn’t leave. He doesn’t want to upset the old money. They have a bit of a legacy in the police force, and, well, you know what’s going on with them.”

“Coward,” said Harrison, lifting and doling out flutes of champagne from a passing server (you almost dropped yours due to the condensation, and Harrison had to grip your hands and the flute to keep it from falling—the conversation lulled while this happened, Tom quietly watching). “The don must really need the operation to go well.”

“Oh, man, he really fucking does,” said Jacob before tossing back some champagne. “He’s been through a lot of personal shit lately, with his wife and son, and shit, and he’s been—you know, work stuff.” He gave a dismissive wave. “And now he’s in super hot water because he got exposed this morning for rigging the last mayoral election. He’s a mess.”

Harrison frowned. “What, he got exposed?”

“He was practically etherised upon a table for something he didn’t deserve. Well,” said Jacob, “That’s his opinion.”

“What happened?”

Jacob shot a look at Tom and over to Haz (who were you?). “You mean you—you’re involved in it, too. I was relieved you even showed up tonight. I thought you’d be MIA.”

Tom clenched his hands into fists. “What happened?”

“I should’ve brought a copy, but who thinks to brings a newspaper to a fundraiser? It’s this morning’s Times. The Epiales article lays out all of us for our shit in local politics.”

Tom’s face went blank.

“Compares us to Italian mob control in the sixties and seventies and then to the Irish mob. Explains that there’s still mafia involvement in America in spite of the RICO Act. Then he goes back and puts us against mob rule in history. Focuses on the Roman Empire and the French Revolution.”

Harrison swallowed champagne thickly, sticking his tongue in his cheek. “Which French Revolution?”

“The one in 1789, dumbass,” said Jacob, and he winced. “Though he goes on to delineate the Hundred Days, the July Revolution, and the June Rebellion.”

“The fuck are those? Are they even real?”

“I looked them up after. They’re real.”

Tom finally spoke (his fingertips were just barely trembling around his champagne flute). “What exactly does it say about us?”

“It’s rough, Tom. The D’Aleos definitely have it worse, but.”

“Spit it.”

Jacob scrunched up his face. “He doesn’t mention the Hollands by name. You’re good there. But he does mention by name people you’re not even one degree of separation from, like Judge Le and that Bauman guy in Brooklyn, along with a bunch of guys you have on payroll with the police. They’re out, Tom, and if they talk, you are, too.”

Tom closed his eyes and slowly raised his finger to his mouth to bite his knuckle. “Anything else?”

“Your gentrification process for the heights for the last two years was laid out. Roman Empire shit, apparently.”

It took a bit for Tom to open his eyes. When he did, he drained his champagne flute and reached for yours, taking a large gulp from your still-full flute. He cleared his throat. “I’m gonna find Epiales and choke him with my own two hands.”

You took a moment to consider if you were into that.

“Someone’s—oh, my God,” said Tom, leaning on the komodo dragon tank (he really shouldn’t be doing that!), “I have to kill a traitor on the inside. Last time we had to do that, my dad was in charge.”

Harrison shook his head. “Do we let anyone else in rank know?”

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose. “Um, no. No. That’ll give them time to panic and maybe escape. Oh, my God.”

Did you know that the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) are the heaviest lizards on Earth, reaching over 300 pounds and up to ten feet in length? They live only on Indonesia’s Lesser Sunda Islands, preferring the tropical forests and the valleys in which they were hatched. They are capable of walking up to seven miles per day and running at speeds up to twelve miles per hour.

Haz pinched his lip. “C’mon, we’ve got newspaper people on the payroll. Someone’s bound to know at least where Epiales’s IP address is, right?”

“Not at the Times. God, I don’t even know who to go to,” said Tom, and he turned to you, his forehead glistening under the yellow lights. “Isn’t this where you chime in with something helpful?”

The Komodo dragon has venom glands laced with toxins that induce shock, lower blood pressure, prevent clotting, and cause bleeding. When the Komodo dragon sinks its serrated teeth and yanks with its strong neck muscles, it leaves massive, gaping wounds in its prey, and it’s close to what you’re about to do to Tom.

“How can I help,” you asked flatly, “I’m just a smart-mouthed snake. Why don’t you set that Viper lady on them? I bet she’d know what to do.”

“Yes, I bet she would,” said Tom through clenched teeth.

“I just don’t understand all this man stuff,” you said, smiling vaguely as Jacob noticed you for the first time, “I think I should let you big boys discuss it alone. My head is starting to hurt with all these words I don’t know. Find me before the night’s over, though, because we have to fit in that blow job you paid me for.” You gave his bicep a squeeze and left their group to stand like the Blair Witch facing the front wall of the exhibit hall.

You counted to ten before turning around and patting your thigh. “Hot boy! Useless, hot boy! Come here and make yourself useful! Hot boy! You simply have to learn this fun fact about the American alligator!”

Through the tanks of taxidermy, you made out a scowling Tom shaking his head and handing the champagne glasses to Harrison. “Oh? Did you think I was talking to you? I meant Harrison!”

So, Tom held three, empty champagne flutes next to Jacob while Haz jogged to the front of the hall towards you, where you grinned as you leant against the alligator exhibit. “Seen any good movies lately?”

“Yeah, I saw one earlier today called What the Fuck Are You Doing? I would ask you if you were drunk,” Harrison said, jovially crossing his arms and joining you in propping his weight against the tank, “but I know better.”

“I read all of the information on the Komodo dragon and wanted to learn about other reptiles.”

“Are you gonna let him stew?”

“Yeah.” You shifted to cross one ankle over the other. “You’ve seen the way he’s been talking about me tonight, right?”

“I don’t know what else you’ve argued about recently,” said Harrison, nudging you with his shoulder, “and don’t think I can’t tell, but yeah, even just tonight would piss me off, if it were me. Not sure it excuses your behaviour.”

“So, what,” you said, clicking your tongue, “I couldn’t say, Say hello to your raging erection for me, since he didn’t have one, so I whipped out an equivalent. Jacob knows him, anyhow, so there’s no real harm done. Be grateful I’m not acting out in a way that matters.”

“Viper,” said Haz, facing you full on and away from Tom and Jacob, “What’s going on between you and him? He doesn’t even mention you when he comes in to work nowadays. Someone does, and he goes stony. Goes on to ignore you. What’s happening?”

You sighed, biting your lip and fiddling with your necklace. “Harrison, tell me I’m pretty.”

“Were I not mourning my girlfriend,” he said, crossing his heart with his index finger, “I would be trying to fuck you in the closest bathroom.”

“Thank you,” you said, “Even though that’s not what I was going for.”

“I think you’re absolutely gorgeous,” came a voice from the entrance—oh, Adrien? He took a hesitant step towards Harrison and you. “Thought it was as good a time as any to budge in. Am I interrupting?”

“Nor really. Harrison, I don’t think you met Adrien. He’s been working with Ms. Pham and me on the gem exhibit,” you said, smiling while they shook hands, “He’s the master electrician; he does the lights. Makes sure every facet of the diamond is flaunted. Adrien, this is my co, Harrison.”

“Thought I wouldn’t find you, since Glory’s taken my phone,” said Adrien.

Harrison cocked his head. “Yours, too? What’s with that woman?”

“Something about technology removing you from the moment.” Adrien shrugged, twisting the bottom of his champagne flute and popping it off. “To be fair, it works.”

“Is Glory looking for me?” you asked, wincing.

“No,” said Adrien, but he cringed after your sigh of relief as he went on. “But I’ve just been told she wants us to help catering strike when this is all over.”

“Fuck,” you said, “That is nowhere in my job description.”

Harrison placed a hand on your shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just pissed,” you said, frowning. Out of the corner of your eye, you caught Tom waving off Jacob and striding your way. “Hey, why don’t we skive off together? It’s the end of the job. It’s not like she can get rid of us, and we can act like we don’t know—”

Tom swiped Harrison’s hand off your shoulder to stand between you. The conversation stopped completely while you glared at the spot he touched, but you didn’t acknowledge Tom himself.

“Anyway,” you said, edging closer to Haz and Adrien, trying to close the circle, “We could skip strike together, go get cheesecake somewhere while we’re in formalwear, and chill. You in?”

Adrien’s toothy smile lit up his whole face, but Harrison was fighting with difficulty to conceal his own. “Absolutely,” said Adrien, brushing his blond hair out of his eyes, “The closest place is Bones, but we could probably get to Milly’s without much trouble.”

“Sounds like a plan,” you said, “And if we can’t get out of it, we should blare our music throughout the museum; the acoustics are so good here.”

Tom clamped his free hand on your shoulder, and you looked down at it. “Hey, you can’t just ignore me.”

“Don’t touch me,” you said, narrowing your eyes.

He squeezed your shoulder. “Then behave, goddammit,” said Tom, “You’re being outrageous. Can’t you pay attention to me?”

You knocked the champagne flutes out of his hand, and they clattered to the floor. You opened your mouth in Haz’s and Adrien’s direction as if nothing happened, but Tom grumbled from the floor before you could speak.

“Stop being so childish. You’re like a goddamn cat,” he said, standing.

“Oh, so I’m a cat, now? Is it because cats are held in binary comparison to dogs which are seen as inherently masculine whereas cats are seen as inherently feminine and therefore bad, crazy, and more easily sexualized? Or is it because snakes do not have fat stores and thus can’t have tiddies?”

Harrison had to bite down on his fist.

“V, when we get out of here,” Tom began.

You raised an eyebrow. “What you gonna do, fire me?”

“I have half a mind to.”

“I wonder where the other half wandered? Adrien,” you said, rubbing his arm, “Do you think catering has apple juice anywhere?”

“Maybe in the downstairs kitchen, near where they do the kids’ demonstrations.” Adrien shifted his weight to his other foot, his eyes flicking between the three of you.

“Good, I’m going. It was nice to catch you before Glory wears us out. You,” you said, jabbing Tom in the chest with an entirely different demeanor, “Don’t follow me. I don’t care what you have to say to me. Leave me alone for three whole minutes.”

Adrien laughed nervously while you strode off towards the staircases, and your heart throbbed at leaving him in such a tense situation.

But holy shit. What are you doing, Tom Holland?

Apple juice. Right. The closest staircases led to mammals, but the ones nearest the Kids’ Korner would have you doubling back through Egyptology. Since reading about Nefertiti or some other woman pharaoh would give you a real lift, you retraced your steps to that section.

You came to a halt at the entrance to Egyptology and bit the inside of your cheek. The main lights had been turned off, leaving only the exhibit spotlights. Sure, the big-ass pyramid recreation was lit but not the sarcophagi, tools, statues, or any of that stuff. Huh. You had to go in a booth sectioned off from the public to mess with the lights, so it couldn’t have been some clueless shit. Adrien would have mentioned if he’d altered anything, not that Glory would have let him.

Yeah, okay.

You scanned the hall as you wove your way through it, not noticing anything out of place, really, though the mould of this particular pharaoh’s open sarcophagus appeared oddly angular compared to what you traditionally pictured as a death mask—

“Viper,” a garbled, altered voice spat in your ear; a glove slapped over your eyes—as a short blade sank into your lower back. “You seem eager to be eaten alive.” Shoving in the knife to the hilt, he twisted it. “I can provide you with some opportunities.”

You—hunched, jaw dropped—

“Now,” he said, breath hot on your skin, “take a walk off my knife.”

“Viper! Hey, the fuck are you doing?” Tom’s voice echoed in the hall as he footsteps rushed nearer; your assailant’s shoulder pressed between yours as his head whipped around, his control on the knife slipping while it ripped up through your dress, leaving a thin cut up your back—which you didn’t even register before he’d bolted.

Tom was speaking, lifting you up from the floor (when had you fallen?). “And this is why you can’t go wandering off like that.” When you staggered, he gripped your hands. “Wait, are you hurt?”

“Wow,” you said, exhaling slowly while you pulled the neckline of your dress up, “Am I hurt—” You were interrupted this time not by your dumbass boss but by your assailant fucking ramming Tom in the back, shoving both of you into the angular sarcophagus that leant against the wall, and he slammed the lid closed.

You tilted your head, listening. “Okay, four clicks in succession, that means this is probably one of the refitted-re-hinged sarcophagi archaeologists did in the 50s,” you said, while Tom scrambled to pry it open. “It’s not gonna work. These were designed to stay shut travelling on ships.” Sighing, you closed your eyes, bending your head enough to graze Tom’s nose in the dark, but then your eyes flew open. “Holy shit, I’m bleeding on a mummy; oh, my God, fuck.”

Through the light of the slim crack, you could make out that Tom had furrowed his brow. “You’re bleeding?”

“I’m on a mummy,” you said, your chest heaving, grabbing the front of Tom’s suit to try to lift yourself from the body, but it still grazed you. “I’m getting my own DNA on a millennia-old body, holy fuck, holy fuck. I need to get out right now.” You wrapped your arms under his, sliding up his back to grip his shoulders—that worked a little better, but that thing’s crossed hands still touched you. “Oh, my fuck.”

“Hold on. Where are you bleeding?”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—I got stabbed. I got fucking stabbed,” you said, slipping one of your legs between his while he braced himself against the sarcophagus sides. “I am ruining a goddamn mummy. I’m going to archaeology jail. Possibly real jail. Bonk.”

“Slow down. Where were you stabbed?”

“Slow down? I am lying on a mummy, Tom. Holy shit,” you said, “Get me the fuck off.”

Tom took a moment, his eyelashes illuminated by the scant light as he blinked twice, and he mumbled, “Right, then. C’mon, let’s swop places.”

“Huh? Is there room?”

“We’re going to try,” he said, and after a stretch of struggling, he shifted you as delicately as he could. In the end, you lay on top of him, lying atop the mummy.

You bent to bury your face in his chest so that you wouldn’t be snorting straight mummy dust, but he cupped your cheek to partially raise it.

“Now, V,” he said evenly, “Can you tell me where you were stabbed?”

“Lower back. Practically my ass.”

After some contorting in the cramped space, Tom snaked his arm around you, feeling around for the spot and pressing down hard once he found it. “Gotta keep pressure on it. The fabric around it feels pretty soaked. Do you feel lightheaded?”

“No. Adrenaline is probably shielding me from immediate pain,” you said, putting your face on his neck, since he insisted on hearing you (Wait, holy shit! Your face is in his neck! How romantic?). “I feel like I’m on the edge of a panic attack. But the dress is fucked; he sliced through it. Bunch it up to stifle the bleeding, if you have to. Fuuuuuck.” You licked your lips, the tip grazing his skin—a happy accident. “I’ve been reliably told that being stabbed is more painful than being shot. Fuck, how far up my back does it go?”

You squirmed to try to reach it, but Tom gripped your hand. “Don’t touch it, V. Just focus on me. You’re gonna be fine. Did you see who did it?”

“I’m not happy about you having to constantly touch me…bitch,” you said, reveling in how his hand basically pressed into the swell of your ass. “No, I didn’t, but the vocoder sounded the same as—God! I’m such an idiot. I should have said something, something about Epiales or some shit, but I clamped up! Goddammit.”

“That’s logical. You were stabbed. It’s fine,” said Tom. He strained to see your face, but you shuffled to hide yourself. He settled for pressing his lips near your hairline (!!!!). “I,” he said, pausing to breathe in slowly, “I can feel your pulse in your wound. Are you okay?”

“Am I okay—”

“Relatively, I mean.”

You shuddered into his neck, gripping both his hand and the lapel of his blazer. “Shut up.”

Tom sighed and kissed your hair, letting his lips linger. “If it makes you feel any better about any of this, you look beautiful tonight. Just—just focus on breathing steadily and staying awake, and let me hold you, all right?”

“Yeah, whatever,” you said, and you tried to change your position slightly, but the lid of the sarcophagus kept you still. “Don’t tell anyone I died because I got stabbed in the ass.”

“You’re not gonna die.”

“Well, last time I checked, I don’t eat fucking ambrosia and nectar, so I’m not fucking immortal, but go off, I guess.”

“An amendment: you’re not gonna die because of this,” he said, “We’ll call Haz—”

“If we had our phones.”

“God—” Tom scrunched up his face. “Damn it.”

The two of you simmered in silence for a while, with Tom eventually resting his other hand high on your back after pushing at the lid some more, and from the way he initially rubbed his fingers together, you were bleeding up there, too. Your heart rate had slowed with the adrenaline wearing off, and a stiff pang spread throughout your back. Honestly, if you tried to take your mind away to distract yourself from the pain, you could fall asleep, what with Tom’s body heat and the no-longer-being-directly-on-a-mummy, and all. You let your eyes close.

Tom cleared his throat. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Your eyes shot open.

“I think you need to be honest about how you feel about me.”

You jerked away from his chest with such force that you railed it into the lid, but you couldn’t focus on that pain. “Do we have to do this now?”

He pressed down on your wound. “Would you like to consider damages we’ll have to pay to the museum instead?”

“Yes!”

With the new space between you, Tom reached out to graze your cheek with the back of his fingers. “C’mon, love. What am I to you?” He slid them to your chin to grip it. “Are you simply using me to get ahead?”

You scoffed. “Where would I go?”

He lowered his hand down your neck, traced your collarbone, and moved it to the nape of your neck to pull you towards him again (you got a face full of whatever Old Spice he’s wearing). “What do you want?”

You, bitch.

But you’re not going to say that.

And also the liberty to be my own person apart from you (maybe one day eventually)? Please?

That, either.

Tom clearly meant to stroke your back, but he couldn’t move his hand much and resigned himself to rubbing the bare skin at the back of your neck. “Come on. Tell the truth for once in your damn life.”

“I wanna see John Mulaney tonight.”

Tom groaned and bent to place his forehead against yours, and he swore under his breath. “Please,” he said, “Please. I’ll do anything for you. Anything. And you know it.” Tom kissed the tip of your nose before moving onto your cheek, keeping it dry and kissing down your face to your jawline; he slid his knee between your thighs, and with his hand stifling your blood, he guided you to grind gently against him.

I want all this to be over.

Frozen, you held your breath (both from Tom and from mummy), your fingers spread wide and you trembled. Lightning surged up your spine from your stab wound, concentrating in your neck. You gasped.

Tom was misinterpreting it; he was tipping your head to the side to make his way to just below your ear—he traced his tongue around the shell of your ear.

And if it’s going to end, Tom has to have all of the information.

He bit down when your legs clamped around his upper thigh, and he was warm—no. No, he was burning, and you remained frozen.

Which means letting him in.

“You dumb fuck,” you said, striking his chest once with your fist, “I’m Epiales. I’m the one writing all that shit.”

Tom’s lips halted at their spot on your jaw. “What.”

“It’s me. It’s my website. My work. I’m not on the twitter. I wasn’t lying when I said that was fake,” you said, “but the website and the Times column are mine.”

Tom pulled back from you, but you couldn’t read his expression in the dark. “What?”

Before you could elaborate, you were blinded by the influx of light and stumbled backwards out of the sarcophagus and onto the floor, sucking into through your teeth. Tom had caught himself and stood over you, and he opened his mouth to thank—

“You can’t just fucking shut yourselves in a fucking exhibit because you want to make out.” Glory Pham fumed. “You’re going to fucking ruin my—”

“Ms. Pham,” said Tom, “She’s been stabbed.”

“Get real, you little shit.” Glory gritted her teeth, and she kicked at you with her pointed shoes. “Where in the goddamn hell is it?”

“Holy fuck,” said Tom, swooping to block her foot, “It’s on her back. Can’t you see the bleed—”

“I don’t give a damn about your injury. The diamond, you fucker. Where’s the goddamn diamond?”

“Oh, my God,” you said from the ground, struggling to push yourself up on your elbows. “Oh, my God? Ms. Pham, what’s—”

“It’s missing, and I saw you sneak off by yourself. You’re the hired outsider; you’re the one always miffed with me; I know you have it on you, and I’ll scrape it out of your cunt if I have to—”

“Ms. Pham, holy shit. Why would I stick something sharp and a ten on the Mohs scale up myself when I have access to perfectly mediocre dick?” You pointed up at Tom, hard from—from what he—holy shit, you almost made out with him in a fucking sarcophagus. In a damn coffin.

Tom stepped to your side so that he wouldn’t be directly over you. “Ladies, why don’t you check the security cameras?”

Something pricked Glory at that, and she deflated. Her mouth twitched. “I may have been jumping to conclusions too soon.” She glowered down at you. “Why were you going off by yourself?”

Blood seeped down between your asscheeks. “Ms. Pham, I went to get apple juice from the kitchen near the Kids’ Korner.”

She sneered. “Why would you be going to get—”

“I can’t drink, Ms. Pham, and I got stabbed when I went to get some.”

“I came in as she was stabbed,” said Tom, holding out his hand towards Glory as if she were an untamed animal. Steady. “Her assailant escaped after locking us in the sarcophagus.”

Glory pinched the bridge of her nose and, you assumed, swore loudly in Vietnamese.

“Has it been an hour? Have we opened the hall yet?” You grunted as you stood, accepting Tom’s help (returning his hand to apply pressure to your wound and taking your hand, though his movements were stiff). “We can still salvage this somehow. We can say we had a—”

“Enough,” said Glory, and she waved you off. “No. In. Credible. I have to back out of a year’s worth of work.”

You ran your tongue over your lower lip, staggering a bit. “We don’t have to. I can say something to—”

She shook her head. “No. Get out.”

“Pardon?” you asked in a small voice.

“Leave me alone. I don’t want to hear from you,” said Glory, turning her back on you to walk away. She stopped herself. “If I want to contact you, I will. Don’t expect anything.”

And she was gone.

You barely had time to slump before Tom yanked you along. “C’mon, you fucking snake,” said Tom, jerking your arm forward, “You got any last words?”

You dry-heaved and stumbled over your own feet past Egyptian relics. “Yeah,” you said, “Say hello to your raging erection for me.”

***

compos mentis: of sound mind

***

taglist: @hollandroos @madmadmilk @parkerroos @parsleysbaby @z-ukos @pparkerwrites @lunamyangel @stealth-spiderr @presidentbttrflyfreak @paradoxparker @bi-writes @astronomyparkers @infamous-webhead @laurfangirl424 @softspideys @gryffinpuffs @plethoraofpuppies @laucontrerasv @shootingstarsaretearsofheaven @spiderboytotherescue @cassiopeiaskies

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland/reader #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fanfiction #mob au #mob!tom holland #mob tom holland #viper au #dash it all

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khristinewriteandcapture · 4 years

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Series Reviews (2020)

23. It's Okay To Not Be Okay

Are you okay?

How many times did you answered this question truthfully?

When something happened to us and people tend to get worried, they always asked this question and because we dont want them to keep worrying, I think we always say the wrong answer because its part of being human.

Saying you're okay even if your not has been the problem of people not only today but even years ago. We say okay even if we're hurt physically, mentally or emotionally. Maybe to avoid being pitied, being a burden to others or we just want to look stronger.

But that's exactly the problem of being human. We say things we dont mean. We always say the complete opposite of what we really mean specially in the moment when someone might also be hurt with to our response.

But it's okay.

It's okay to not be okay.

I've watched many movies and series saying that it's not embarrasing to say what you actually feel inside. I'm also currently watching a series about depression and how it can lead to death. And this kinds of series are trying to tells us that taking your own life is not the solution to every problem you kept facing on your own.

It's okay. Everything will be okay. It's nice to hear words like that right specially if it's spoken by someone close to us, right?

This korean drama doesnt only have the best actor to play the part of the main cast but also, they also made the characters connect with the viewers. Every single characters. From the main lead to the last supporting character. No one was a display. Everyone contributed and I think that's what makes a great story.

I think this has been the most meaningful Korean drama I had ever watched, next to Reply 1988 and Itaewon Class. It made me cried every episode. And it clearly deserved the praises it gets every day.

The whole story was also refreshing because of the fairytales involved in every episodes. The mixture of a story to another story was a great idea of creating a new and unique one, I guess.

As I said that everyone contributed to the story, I would like to share my thought on each and everyone of them. And I think, this is going to be longer than Itaewon Class or Reply 1988.

Everyone has their stories to tell and this drama really told everybody's story. I would like to tell everyone's story here but I think, that is too much spoiler. So, I'll just give you what's unique and special about the main cast and some supporting characters.

1. Jae-Su. The ever loyal friend of Gang-Tae. He's like the best best friend anyone dreamed of having. I mean, with his business, you can have free chicken or pizza anytime. But I'm still curious how rich he is. Every time the brothers move, he also moved with them and open and close a business again and again. He felt sometimes felt tired but he never complained because he liked being with them. Following them was not an issue for Jae-su. He can follow them even at the end of the Earth. Because they're family and not blood of surname can keep them from being one.

He's a very loyal and trustworthy friend. I cant believe he actually followed them for ten years of his life. Maybe that's the result of being too attached. You cant never seem to let go and even if you can, you wont.

2. Mr. Lee Sang-In, the business minded CEO of the publishing company, Ko Mun-yeong worked at but as time passed, he turned out to be a thoughtful and caring person.

He also stick together with Ko Mun-yeong through the years. He have a kind heart which was buried in his business like stance who only cared about money in the beginning. He was also dependable and always thinks about others even if he doesn't want to. And he looked better without a beard.

3. After the CEO, let's move over to Seung-Jae which happened to be the most in demand actress I've seen in almost 3 dramas already this year.

First was in While You Were Sleeping (I think), then in Backstreet Rookie and then here. Anyway, her character her was slow in her work but quick witted when it comes everything not related to work. She's adorably dumb and you'll get to laugh a lot with her and Lee Sang-in's combo.

She might hate her boss but she doesn't also want him or Ko Mun-yeong to suffer. And also, she don't have anywhere to go to that's why she stick with them.

4. So, next is Nam Ju-ri. I hate her.

Wait, let me repeat that. I hated her. Yep. And you'll know why if you watch this or if you had, I'm right, right?

But, all is well. Maybe because she just want her feelings to be reciprocated. She's actually really nice despite of wanting to be not. She just wanted to lean on someone other than her mother. She's lonely. She worked taking care of others and she just wanted someone to take care of her too. We all wanted that right.

5. Let's not forget the mother of all, Kang Soon-duk.

She had appeared in a lot of dramas. She would be this rich mother who don't want her soon to like a poor girl, the mother from a simple family who often beat her child out of love, the cool mom where everyone would dreamed of. She had been named as ‘the ultimate eommoni/mother’.

She was effective. But anyway, her character here is the mother of not only one child but the mother of everyone in the drama. She takes care of the three lead, her daughter, her tenant and everyone in the hospital. It was tiring for someone like her but also magical because she was able to do it.

6. Director Oh has been a great part of the whole drama.

Even though he looked and sounded like a not effective doctor sometimes, everything he says made sense. He often look foolish but he's the smartest fool in the hospital.

After the supporting has been called for, let's move to the three musketeers–I mean, the three main cast. The emotionless princess, the masked boy and the boy trapped in the box or simple Ko Mun-yeong, Moon Gang Tae and Moon Sang Tae.

Three lonely people brought together to became whole. Who said two is better than one. Make it three for more fun.

It was chaotic. That's the description for the three. A crazy girl, a calm but explosive guy and an adult but living in a kid's personality.

Watching this drama felt like you're about to go crazy too. After crying in an intense scene, you'll catch yourself laughing after and serious the next minute. I mean, every Korean drama does that. That's why everyone has the k-drama virus. Everyone is crazy now.

Anyway, Sang-Tae or the boy in the trapped box.

He's a special trait that makes him different from others. He tend to think as a child sometimes but he's also talented and smart. He might act like a kid but you'll also be surprised of how he can be an adult.

He loved his brother so much but also hates him to which is natural for brother right?

He happened to have a severe trauma which add to the burden of his brother but as the brave brother he is, he wanted to overcome it and be the adult he really is. His characters was really inspiring and heartwarming. His presence gives off a ray of sunshine. I admire the actor who played him because he played it well. I hope if he will ever get an award for it. I really hope he will.

After the boy trapped in the box, let's talk about the Emotionless Princess whose not really emotionless but full of emotions and craziness.

Ko Mu-yeong's characters gave the drama full of craziness and funny sides. Her adult lines and provoking scenes are the best. She totally likes provoking Gang-tae and even though it's all scripted, it was so funny that it can be remembered all the time. Some scene had become memes now.

Ko Mun-yeong's characters was tough and powerful but behind that, she's still a girl whose scared and defenseless when no one's watching. She found sanctuary and safety when she met Gang-tae. For the first time, she wanted to be taken care of after all the years of not feeling anything.

She's lonely and constantly in pain from the past. She's still the little girl stuck in the castle waiting for someone to rescue her.

And lastly, Moon Gang-tae, our masked boy.

I think he's the complete opposite of Peter Pan. He needed to grew up faster than anyone to take care of his brother. He didn't had time to be a kid or to enjoy his youth because of the only family he have.

He cursed the life he had until finally he understand and accepted the reason why he had to have this family. It maybe crazy and a handful, it's still worth fighting for.

All he wanted was everyone to be safe with his care and even set aside his own dreams for it. He regretted not doing his dreams but he's contented with everything he had at the moment and that's all that matters.

Life might throw stones at you from time to time to test if your strong enough to conquer it not to avoid it.

And if something doesn't feel right, don't be afraid to talk about it. You'll be surprise of the result once you let it all out. Never be afraid to let people in and also let them go. The end might also be the start of a new beginning.

Seriously, watch this. It's a must! Maybe 10 years from now, people will look back how great this drama was and even though 2020 was the worst year of all, this was made in that year. It will be part of history.

#seriews reviews #its okay to not be okay #korean drama recommendations #seo yi ji #kim soo hyun #netflix recommendation #love #mental health #family #friendship

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twilightprince101 · 4 years

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"SCOOB!” doesn’t feel like a Scooby Doo movie

I know I’m probably gonna make a lot of people mad by saying this, but I honestly need to vent about the story’s writing. There were some good parts I’m not gonna lie, but the writing is just... not the best. I’m placing this under a read more link, but please note that I’m not bashing you if you did like it. Everyone has their own tastes and I respect that yours are different than mine.

TL;DR, just because a movie is made for kids it doesn’t mean you have to dumb it down to be every other kids movie

So yeah. I didn’t like Scoob. I was really excited for this movie, genuinely excited. The trailers looked fun, the animation looked phenomenal and I was really excited to see Mystery Inc. brought back for another mystery. I’m a fan of Scooby Doo, not a hardcore fan but I like watching it from time to time. But coming out of it? I do not feel like I watched a Scooby Doo movie. The points that I have don’t really have a coherent flow to it so I’ll just go down the list.

-Turning Fred into the American Male Jock^(tm) character

One thing I liked about the cartoon was the dynamic of the cast. Daphne was the people person, Velma was the information specialist and Scoob and Shag were the “heart” of the gang while also giving an outsider perspective on matters.

But a key here is Fred. He may not have been the “leader” of the gang, but one thing that he had was smarts. He was the person who set up the traps, he was good at thinking with his head. Yeah he liked the van, but that was just something he liked.

But this movie turned him into the dumb jock character I’ve seen so many times before.

Something I liked about the original gang was the synergy between them. While Velma was book smarts Fred was street smarts. One got the information and the other applied it. But the movie had Velma be the smart one while Fred just drove the van. Yeah it gave Daphne and Velma more time to shine, but at what cost?

The finale scene with Ceberus really bothered me too. Instead of being tactical, figuring out a plan to force the big dog back through the door, he just runs in screaming and contributes nothing to the ending aside from a one off gag.

Look, I like having empowered female characters in media, but you don’t need to make the male characters dumb in order to do so. Even if this is a movie centered around Shaggy and Scooby, you can give every team member a time to shine. Have Fred come up with a trap! He is literally the trap guy! Even if you want the ending with Scoob and Shag bowling, he could’ve came up with a plan to at least distract it! Making male characters dumb doesn’t empower female characters, it only makes them smarter by comparison.

-The movie feels like it was made for Blue Falcon, not Scooby Doo

A lot of this movie honestly feels more like it was written around Blue Falcon and Dynomutt instead of the mystery gang. In fact, let me list the stuff that Mystery Inc. contributed to the plot, aside from cartoon shenanigans:

-Velma gave the exposition dump that Scooby was the key for the door to the underworld -Scooby and Shaggy, through their jalapeno ice cream treat, helped the Blue Falcon squad figure out that the skulls give off a heat signature. -Got Cerberus out and back into the door to the underworld

and.... yeah that’s about it. Aside from these instances and comedic relief, Mystery Incorporated-the cast the movie is supposed to be centered around-only serve as plot devices.

Sure Scoob and Shag’s friendship is one of the plot points, but it really follows Bryan’s ascension to becoming the new Blue Falcon more. The Scooby Doo gang feels like they’ve just been shoehorned in because more people remember them.

Sure there’s the argument that “Oh the movie is centered around Scooby and Shaggy though! They’re meant to be the comedic relief!” but that isn’t the point. Yes Scooby and Shaggy like to eat a lot, yes they’re not the brightest, yes they’re really scared of everything, but they can still be those things AND contribute to the plot!

Like the fight with Captain Caveman for example! Blue Falcon literally says “You better call more friends” and then he calls in an army of cavemen. I’m sure a lot of people expected that horde to come into play, right? Nope! Just Captain Caveman solo-ing the entire group and giving Blue Falcon more reason to doubt himself living up to his father.

If you wanted to give Scooby and Shaggy their moment to shine outside of the ending, have them be part of the fight against that army! Have Scooby and Shaggy make up to fight back to back with their cartoon hijinks! That way you can make them feel like an actual part of the movie instead of just there to say “Ruh Roh!” and collect their paycheck.

Mystery Incorporated as a whole feel sidelined compared to Blue Falcon and his character arc. If you wanted to make a Blue Falcon and Dynomutt movie, make a Blue Falcon and Dynomutt movie.

-Even if the movie is meant to have Mystery Inc. as the focus...

Then what is with the ending????? Opening the gates of hell and fighting Cerberus?????? I know Scooby Doo hasn’t been shy to use the unnatural and paranormal at times, but the cartoon is all about old rich dudes using monsters as a cover up! That’s the main appeal of Scooby Doo. The audience knows that there will be a person under a monster mask, but the draw comes from how the gang solves the mystery surrounding it.

The beginning of the movie set everything up for this type of story well! The gang as kids bust a criminal who was pretending to be a ghost as a cover up to steal things. That is what the audience came for, it felt like a taste of what’s to come! But instead the plot takes a complete 180 and turns into a superhero cartoon show.

But let’s say the movie was originally written to be a Scooby Doo movie, not a Blue Falcon movie. Let’s say that Blue Falcon and Dick Dastardly were meant to be a part of a Scooby Doo story. That’s still fine! Again, there have been wacky crossovers with Scooby Doo in the past! But the finale with everyone fighting Cerberus throws that out the window.

If you wanted to have this written like a Scooby Doo movie, or even just a long Scooby Doo episode, have there be a twist with the legend surrounding the underworld. Instead of everything being magic, have it be a millennium-long con that’s been done by a rich dude’s ancestors throughout the years or something. Like, “the legend was used to hide the family’s stolen treasure throughout the years and Cerberus was actually a giant mechanical robot!” That would have been a fun twist! The people came for Scooby Doo, give them Scooby Doo stories.

-One final personal gripe with the writing

For the love of god, please. PLEASE! Stop copy pasting the exact same Act 3 best friend split up and reunion. I have seen it so many times it’s not even fun anymore.

I’m not saying that the Act 3 split up trope is bad, really I’m not! But I have seen so many movies that have “oh I’m becoming more popular, I don’t need friends anymore” that I could literally predict how the rest of the movie would end and was right.

The trope can be good sometimes! You want a good example? Take a look at The Lego Movie 2-The Second Part. (Spoilers for the movie btw)

Around the third act of the movie, Rex and Emmet reunite with Wyldstyle/Lucy and try to form a plan to stop the wedding. For a majority of the story though, Emmet has been slowly influenced my Rex that the enemy is 100% bad and he can only rely on himself, nobody else. So when Rex suggests that Wyldstyle has been brainwashed, the movie could have taken the easy route and have Emmet take his side.

But Emmet knows that he and Wyldstyle are close friends, have been together through two apocalypses and survived so he vouches for and trusts her. It’s only when the plan goes wrong-because of Wyldstyle losing connection with the team and her trying to stop the plan-that Emmet is given a reason to believe that she is brainwashed, leading to the two splitting up.

You wanna know the best part?? This isn’t even a “You aren’t my BFF anymore!!” situation! Emmet thinks that Lucy is brainwashed, there is reasoning behind his decision to not believe her and it is believable! It’s been built up over the course of the story instead of just happening then and there! The third act split here is understandable!!

And I swear to god. Do not say that lazy writing is ok since it’s meant for kids. Just because something is meant for kids, it doesn’t mean that it needs to have the same plot as everything else.

The Lego Movie is meant for kids. It is a movie about a kid’s toy and literally takes place inside the imagination of little kids. But the story is still really good! Sure it’s not the best movie of the decade, but it’s still really good! Kids deserve better written stories like this!! If you say that lazy writing is okay if the content is for kids, you’re saying that kids do not have the ability to understand and appreciate more than just a fart joke.

So yeah, that’s my thoughts on the SCOOB! movie. Long story short, people came for Scooby Doo, give them Scooby Doo. If you wanted a Blue Falcon movie, or even a movie about cartoons in general, then do that. Just don’t treat kids like they’re dumb when writing stuff.

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