#i mean.... i guess so considering how many cabins are here? like literally there are like 4 other cabins/lodges around my parents' cabin...

[just-eyris-things]

Story time: A few days ago I decided not to kill my dad with a bow and arrow and as a result I lost my arrow somewhere in the bushes on my neighbour's lawn (definitely not a clickbait, nope, not at all!)

Basically my family and I were relaxing at my parents' cabin in the woods and I got myself a spot to train archery. Everything was nice and cool and dandy on that hot summer day. But then my dad had to do something around my "shooting range" so I had to stop. Perfect time to drink some water, give my arms a very much needed break. Did I do that, though? No. Of course not.

Now listen, I have been training for around a month. I felt good, I felt confident, I felt amazing. Not confident enough to shoot at my dad though. So I turned the other way and targetted a tree.

I missed.

I said "o kurwa". Like any normal polish person would do when their possibly deadly projectile misses and goes above the fence and through the bushes.

Needless to say, nobody was having fun. I cried internally because that meant I had to go to complete strangers and tell them I lost my arrow at their property. But I was already an adult and couldn't show weakness in front of my family. I couldn't say "mom can you go with me to the neighbours' and ask if I could go and look for my arrow?". I had to face my shame for not being a Robin Hood after a month of shooting.

Well, in typical Polish fashion the neighbours had a tall fence that I could not get over and everything was locked. There was no doorbell but come on, who would have a doorbell when they're on vacation at a cabin in the woods? Oh woe is me I cry internally because 1. I am a drama queen. I cry and complain all the time. The latter is in my blood though, after all I am polish. The former... in my case: a figure of speech, really. And 2. the last thing I want is my family and other neighbours think less of me because of my fear of being berated for my shitty archery skills and overconfidence. I have a horrible social anxiety. And yet it did not stop me from somehow enjoying a job where I am working with big groups of people on a daily basis???? My brain is an enigma. Both to my therapist AND me.

ANYWAY FASTFORWARD TO FRIDAY, my parents happened to meet one of the neighbours during my absence and informed him that an arrow was lost but the guy did not invite them to look for it. I felt ashamed. I don't even know why because there really is no point in crying over spilled milk, but I did.

And today when I was shooting, a neighbour came up and found the arrow and gave it back, he laughed it off and told me not to worry after I apologised for the trouble.

To conclude: I did not kill my dad with an arrow, felt shame and fear over a lost arrow, the lost arrow was returned to me and I feel good again.

Also, I saw a woodpecker and a really pretty tricolor cat today.

[husbandohunter]

Stardew Impact [Genshin+Stardew Valley/xReader]

Part 1/3 Kaeya, Diluc

Synopsis: “A mysterious phenomenon brought you and your s/o to an unfamiliar world: Pelican Town! Without the power of Visions, the two of you begin to learn the life of what it takes to be...a farmer?”

(DOMESTIC FARM LIFE YIP YIP)

Coming soon...

Albedo and Childe

Zhongli and Xiao

(A/N): So the brainrot was real in this one. I planned to add Albedo for a Mondstadt edition but kinda went overboard so I gotta split this one into parts too. Wordcount_almost 2k spspspsp

______________________________________________________

Diluc

• Already has the whole year planned in his head. Literally if Diluc were to play this game, he'd have a booming farm within year ONE. Calm and collected through and through, though the new environment raises alot of questions, as long as you were still with him, Diluc ain't complaining

• The town welcomes you two with open arms. It was all thanks to the attire. Diluc wore his usual dark coat adorned with regal gold while you had a dress made of Liyue's finest silk, one that he bought for you. Needless to stay both of you reeked the aura of rich aristocrats (Mayor Lewis is pleased that greedy bastard)

• Once the farm was permitted to your owndership, Diluc began to think of ways to turn it into a vineyard. He was a businessman afterall. Although the staff back at the Dawn Winery were the ones who tended the field, Diluc still knew a few things about planting due to his childhood days Master Crepus would bring him out to their yard and demonstrated the process of gardening. He still remembers those days clearly, doing the very same this moment with you.

• Occasionally works at the Saloon bar. It was the perfect opportunity. As you took care of the farm side, Diluc continues to look for more ways to increase the income while gathering information from the folks around town. Gus LOVES to have him over, like he's just so efficient and reliable! They soon become good friends saying if Diluc were ever to own a wine stock, he would gladly buy from him.

• This is why Diluc would stay a little later due to just chatting with the people from the bar. One time you walked into the Saloon only to the front desk with Emily alone. Turns out the others were in the other room, too busy playing a game of pool. You decided to leave him be since it was rare to have Diluc so relaxed in leisure activities. Thus in the end, you spent your time chatting with Emily until a whole hour has passed before your lover notices and apologizes for losing track of time.

• Everything felt like a dream because it was his dream. To live a life undisturbed from chaos, his duties and the dangers that lurk in Teyvat, Diluc grew fond of the domesticity. There was nothing he loved more than to spend his hours by your side, day after day, returning home to your freshly handmade meals.

• Spring: Already up and early planting the parnersnips (I'm very soft for gardener Diluc you see). What do you expect from a workaholic? Even during his leisure time you would often find him near some plant as he does consider this hobby quite therapeutic. But when it rains, Diluc would be standing beside you with an arm around your shoulder, smiling contently as you lean into his touch. He gazes through the dripping window and silently admires the current progress you both made on the farm.

• Between the two annual spring festivities, I would say the flower dance. Diluc is a private man and would prefer to take things where no eyes were on sight. But with a little bit of nudging from Gus (your wingman), he gives in and leads you to the center stage. Elegant. Graceful. The way you two moved together became the talk of the event. Though, Diluc was already used to people staring by now, all he needed to do was to ignore them and keep his focus on you.

• Summer: No blankets in bed. Nope, its bloody hot in Pelican Town. He tends to stay indoors or anywhere with shade, in other words, his work hours in the Saloon increased.

• Diluc always has a nice cold drink prepared for you if by any chance you were to pay a visit after a whole day of labour. It's a habit he's made subconciously as if it would be a natural occurance for you to enter the door. His colleagues would ask him who did he make that drink for? Honestly so cute i cri

• Moments like these remind him of Mondstadt, where he quietly wipes the glasses while listening to you talk. Your voice is soothing. Sun rays peek from the side casting onto the umber tables, reflecting a rich golden light as the radio plays a soft song in the background. It's so peaceful, the town was small hence not many people visited the bar, Diluc came to appreciate this warm privacy (plus no Venti and Kaeya which is a huge pog realization).

• Autumn: Harvest time baby. The kegs are full and the sheds are full of kegs. This season was huge stonks and the house ended up getting an upgrade. Diluc is the type of man who wants to make sure that his spouse wouldn't have to work another day of her life. I reckon this is why he's so ambitious because he wants you to have the best and you deserve the best. (Husband material. Slap a ring on him ladies).

When there was no more work left to do, time would be spend peacefully exploring the woods. While you skipped a few steps ahead as the leaves crunched beneath your feets, Diluc follows slowly from behind. He sees your back but his eyes stares somewhere far beyond whats in front of him: His future. 

It was such a stark contrast to the one he envisioned before. One filled with uncertaintly, blocked by darkness with no silver lining in sight, endlessly wandering as he drags the claymore against the ground. There was never a day in which the Darknight hero wouldn't think of Mondstadt. Leaving the city in the incompetent hands of Ordo Favonious while Abyss Mages continue to lurk fuels him to find a way to return as soon as possible and yet...

"Higher big sis!" Jas tightens her hold on the ropes as you pushed the swing with all your might. She laughs, like a child, it was full of innocence and joy. Later Vincent came in and nugdes you, asking when his turn will come.

"You wanna go too? Alright alright don't worry," waiting for Jas to come down, you lift the boy up so that he was seated safely on the chair, "3..2..1 go!"

He wonders if he could just be a little selfish for once.

• Winter: Best man to have in this season. Every morning Diluc would find himself restricted in movements due to a pair of arms around his waist and legs entangled with yours. Turns out you've been doing it subconciously because he's just so warm (Diluc keeps it lowkey and pretends to sleep longer cuz of it)

~~xx~~

Kaeya

• Haha looks like the portal is gone, guess we'll be stuck forever :)). No kidding Kaeya would be so down to stay here for the rest of his life and the best part is to spend it with you. He doesn't show a shred of concern regarding Teyvat, not like he's easily shaken by events that are abnormal, but you can see that Kaeya is truly and genuinely happy. (You're stunned).

• Oho we also have this marvelous landscape just for the two of us? And a cozy little cabin to go along with it as well? This should be fun~ 

• Of course Kaeya would also know a few things about planting, just the basics since he did grow up with Diluc. When they were kids, Crepus would give each of them their own pots so they can grow their own plants. It eventually became a competitive thing where whoever's plant grows the fastest gets to eat the other person's dessert for a year (no one wins. They end up sabotaging each other which Diluc started first, thinking it'll be funny as a joke).

• You are, and will be going on dates with him. In fact, the amount of dates you two went on increased since then. The townspeople would call you two "lovebirds" since he's practically by your side 24/7. 

• I mean he doesn't have the responsibilities as a Cavalry Captain anymore so what else is there to do?

• Would attend all annual events no matter what season. 

• Evelyn constantly gushes how much of a wonderful pair you and Kaeya make and often is the one who provides Kaeya a fresh bouqet of flowers for him to use as a gift. George on the otherhand just rolled his eyes mumbling something along the lines of "youngsters these days" and "crazy hormones."

• Befriends Pam. Love for beer plus somewhat cynical attitude? They get along real swell! She starts sending some recipes into the mailbox of course saying if yall ever need a hand, let her know.

• Spring: I can see Kaeya be switching back and forth between caring for the farm or taking quests posted on Pierre's bulletin board. He likes to keep things interesting, learning the ways of the new world while also getting to know the people around town.

• Would NOT return Mayor Lewis' shorts in which he found in Marnie's room. It's such high quality blackmail material. Kaeya is currently plotting what is the best way to use it to his advantage.

• He didn't tell you of course.

• Summer: There are no blankets because he is your blanket. Since your cabin was small so was the bed. That's why he has to hold you so that no one falls off when rolling over. Either he hugs you with your nose close to his neck, or your back against his chest while spooning you or holding hands if sleeping on your sides became too much. Yall need a serious house upgrade.

• For some reason Kaeya becomes more energetic in the summer. He lets you rest in the shade while handling the farm work for the time being. If you guys got a pet it would be a cat. Hes the first one to refill their bowl every morning outside.

Another day passes as summer comes to an end, the town’s Mayor invited you and your lover to see the annual Dance Of the Moonlight Jellies. Kaeya being the opportunist was delighted to come along. Locking the door of your house, you follow him down the path and made your way to the beach.

Everyone from town was already gathered by the docks when the sun had disappeared down the horizon. You stood by his side in a space far from the others, watching  the candle boats set off to ride the waves, lighting up a small ray of light for creatures to find. 

“Wow,” your tone almost above a whisper, “If only our friends back home could see this too.”

“Perhaps,” he says. Kaeya slips his fingers into yours and you shot him a curious glance, “But let us enjoy this moment shall we? Just the two of us.”

And there they were. A sea of luminescence radiating colours of brilliant blue with hints of green like a city of laterns floating in a world below. Their image reflects in the star of Kaeya's eyes as he wonders, where would they go? Where would the light lead them? They were so free with nothing to worry, so serene just like the sea and unknowningly, he squeezes your hand. It was a sense for confirmation. One to remind him that this moment was indeed a reality he wishes to keep.

Autumn: Finally a house upgrade and a kitchen!! Because it was harvest season, you guys end up making a set of delicious meals with all the recipes the townspeople gave you. Kaeya can cook since he lived by himself back in Mondstadt. Most of the stuff he learned to make were food that can be accompanied by alcohol though...

• Ahah remember Mayor Lewis' lucky shorts? He found a use for them. It was displayed on the stands during the Stardew Valley Fair (Oh my how did this get here? Must be the wind). Ends up buying a Rarecrow for the farm when Lewis bribes him not to tell this to anyone.

Winter: This was mostly an indoor season for the both of you. With the existence of television, nights would be spent until morning while watching movies at the couch. A blanket drapes around your shoulders as extends to his.  Oh and don't forget the hot chocolate! 

[dreamwritesimagines]

Twisted 23 - Surrender [Spencer Reid x Reader]

A.N.: Thank you so much for your wonderful support my loves! Here’s the next chapter, I hope you will like it as well, and please let me know what you think of it! ❤❤ Ily, kisses! ❤❤❤

Series Masterlist

Warnings: Murder, serial killers, violence, manipulation, mentions of sex, drinking, smoking.

Word Count: 4400

Summary: Secrets can’t stay hidden forever.

The possibility of you sitting with a killer who had sworn to destroy you was scary for sure, but thinking that the said killer could be much closer to you than you had thought was enough to make your blood freeze in your veins.

It was as if you were going through the same thing that had happened with your dad ages ago, but with a small difference;

Your dad had never tried to hurt you, but this time the killer was coming after you.

Spencer stood beside you as you exhaled the smoke of your cigarette into the air, your hands still shaky but you forced yourself to focus on the police and the FBI escorting people out of the building while he kept his gaze on you.

“You might be wrong though?” you managed to ask, looking up at him, “Right? Maybe it’s not—maybe it’s not someone as close to me?”

Spencer heaved a sigh, “We need more evidence, but you need to keep that in mind that it is possible. I mean— it makes more sense than it being just a stranger, don’t you agree?”

“I don’t agree that I’ve had the misfortune to be close with two serial killers throughout my life, no,” you murmured through frozen lips, “Maybe it’s me. Maybe I was doomed to survive one serial killer to be killed by another.”

“I will never let that happen.”

You took another drag of your cigarette, “I have a feeling the killer might end up not asking for your permission, professor,” you stated and turned your head when you heard the sound of heels coming closer. Mina ran a hand over her face, clearing her throat.

“I sent Kenz away from here,” Mina said and it didn’t escape your notice how she was deliberately avoiding giving any details, just in case. “We’ll regroup at mom’s place, you, me and mom.”

“Just us?”

Mina clicked her tongue, “All things considered,” she murmured, “So I’m not going to beat around the bush; we both agree that it’s not Kenzie right?”

You nodded, “Clearly,” you said and pulled your brows together, “Wait, we’re sure it’s not Kenzie but we still suspect each other?”

“I don’t know, do we?” Mina asked back and you shifted your weight, looking down at the cigarette in your hand.

“Mina, I don’t—”

“Listen, it’s not the place for this conversation,” she interrupted you, “Mom’s place, half an hour.”

“That might not be the best idea,” Spencer said, looking between you two and Mina scoffed.

“It’s not our first rodeo with a serial killer among us, Dr. Reid,” she said, “I already gave a list of my alibis to your colleagues, so did my mother. There’s nothing to keep us here.” She nodded at you, “Don’t be late, we have a lot to talk about.”

With that, she walked away from you two and grabbed her keys from the valet while you stubbed your cigarette.

“So did you check everyone’s alibis?”

“Yeah, at least the people close to you,” Spencer said, “They all look solid.”

You raised your brows, “But?”

Spencer clenched his jaw, “I need to go over all the files, all the recordings with your father—”

“I don’t think it’s my father who’s behind this. Not this time, and not at the cabin. He wouldn’t dare.”

He frowned, “Why do you keep saying that?”

“Well think about what happened the last time I-“ you snapped your fingers, “Right. You weren’t there.”

“What happened? Luke just said you walked away because your father got on your nerve.”

“That’s one way to put it,” you muttered and motioned at the valet to give him your ticket so that he could bring your car, “Listen, I gotta go. Mom is probably at home and Mina is going there and I can’t….I need to talk to them.”

“It might be dangerous.”

“Spencer, it’s my family we’re talking about,” you insisted, “I can’t— if I start suspecting them too, I have nothing left to hold on to.”

He opened his mouth to disagree but you saw Luke coming closer to both of you.

“Hey, Rossi says we need to get back to the office. Emily and Tara are already there,” he told Spencer and turned to you, “We need to stop meeting like this, trust fund baby.”

“Dude, you guys are the ones who show up and scream murder everywhere I go.”

Luke chuckled, holding up his hands and mocking surrender while valet pulled over in front of you.

“Here you go ma’am.”

“Thank you,” you offered him a small smile before you looked up at Spencer. “I’ll see you later I guess.”

“Call me when you get there, we’re also sending a car to your mother’s place and your place just to be sure.”

You nodded, heaving a sigh and Spencer squeezed your arm as if to assure you before pressing a kiss on top of your head.

“Be careful.”

“Hey I was trained by a serial killer, how many people can say that?” you tried to joke as you walked to your car, “I’ll be fine.”

You got into your car and valet closed it, then you started the car and drove off.

                                                 ***

The living room was completely silent in your mother’s house. In fact, the whole house was silent, the only noise was the constant ticking of the huge clock on the wall while all three of you sat still, waiting for someone else to talk. Your mother drummed her fingernails on the table, something she would reprimand you for doing if it were another time, Mina bit inside her cheek, her gaze fixed on the wall and you downed the whiskey in your glass, then filled it again.

“Okay,” Mina said and sat up straighter and looked between you, “I just want to say, if it was someone in this room this whole time, we can- I can fix this.”

“Jesus Christ, Mina!”

“You can’t possibly suspect-“

“We’ll say it was dad’s influence, we’ll call it trauma after-“

“Do you hear what you’re saying?”

“I’m just saying, if it is one of us, it’s dad’s fault.”

“It’s not one of us!” you insisted but then you turned your head when you heard the doorbell ring. The sound of heels came closer and Mina threw her head back as soon as Kenzie walked inside.

“Kenz, I told you to-“

“Yeah, spare me the bullshit, I came as soon as I made sure Lily was alright and safe,” she waved a hand in the air and you closed your eyes for a moment.

“Kenzie, you really shouldn’t be here.”

“Why? So that all of you can dramatically blame each other? I know how you guys get, there’s not an ounce of logic between the three of you.”

Your mom heaved a sigh and got the whiskey bottle from you, “What did Spencer say again?”

“That it was possible it was someone at our table. It’d make more sense than it being a stranger.”

“So either one of us, or Lincoln, or Nolan.”

Your mom gasped, “Nolan had nothing to do with that!”

“Just saying, it wouldn’t be the first time some man you loved didn’t turn out to be the man he pretends to be-“

“Mina, low blow,” you cleared your throat and your mother narrowed her eyes.

“I know it’s not him.”

“Then it has to be Lincoln.”

You let out a small laugh, “Dude, don’t you remember what he was like when we were children? He cried when he saw me scrape my knees and his mom had to take him away.”

“People change.”

“I’m pretty sure I’d know if one of my best friends were a serial killer, Mina.”

“He came late to the auction.”

“So did all of you!” you insisted, “You don’t see me blaming you- by that logic where were you?”

“Are you kidding me? My meeting took longer than I expected, go check my security camera footage. Where were you?”

“Mina!”

“I was literally talking to Spencer while it was happening!”

“Are you two seriously blaming each other?” Kenzie gawked at you and Mina shrugged her shoulders before turning to your mother.

“How about you mom?”

“What is this, an Agatha Christie novel?” your mother asked, exasperated, “Ask the driver, it took us more than an hour to get there because of the accident.”

“It could be anyone in that auction hall, yes, including someone in this room but they checked our alibis. Spencer said it was a possibility, not that it was certain,” you managed to say, “They still need more evidence and I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to start blaming the only people in my life that I actually trust.”

A silence fell upon you and Kenzie sat down beside you, then filled herself a drink as well.

“The moment we start blaming each other, we’re lost,” she said, looking Mina in the eye, “Your dad almost tore this family apart once, don’t let this copycat do the same. It’s not one of us and you know it.”

“No one is blaming you Kenz,” you rasped out and Mina ran a hand over her face.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered, “Jesus, I’m— it’s just that… It fucks with my head.”

“You get used to it,” you sipped your drink and turned to your mother, “For what it’s worth, I really don’t think it’s Nolan either. I mean what are the chances of getting married to a serial killer twi—“ you stopped talking as soon as Kenzie kicked you under the table and Mina gasped, shooting you a look as you covered your mouth. Your mother stared at you, her jaw dropping and you cleared your throat, trying your hardest to come up with something.

“I mean—“ you stammered, “I’m drunk and I just saw Spencer being all hot and whispering in my ear after there was a murder so my feelings are all over the place, I don’t know what I—“

“Now that she fucked up first, I can say it.” Mina said, “Nolan will ask you to marry him.”

“I was un-fucking it!” You hissed and Mina scoffed.

“You haven’t un-fucked a thing in your goddamn life.”

“I can’t believe this is how I’m finding out about this,” your mother breathed out, still staring at you two and you let out a whine, burying your face into your hands.

“I’m sorry!” your voice came out muffled and Kenzie let out a giggle, patting your arm as you raised your head again, “I- well- my dad was a serial killer!”

“What is that, your out of jail card?” Mina asked, “The same guy was also my dad but you don’t see me giving out secrets and spoiling surprises.”

“When did he say that to you?” Your mother asked, sitting up straight, “Y/N, you’re telling me everything right now!”

“I saw my ex looking hot tonight and someone got murdered while I was flirting with him, I’m allowed to mess up once or twice!”

“That’s a strange way of describing your whole life.”

“Shut up Mina or I swear—“

“Y/N!”

“He asked for my blessing and I said yes,” you murmured, “So did Mina and Kenzie. But I think we all threatened him first, right?”

“Nope, you’re the creepy one in this group.”

“Yeah I think it was just you.”

“Fine! Okay, I threatened him first,” you admitted as your mother stared at you, “In my defense, I was also pretty drunk back then because of my break up with the love of my life, in case anyone at this table forgot—“

“I wish. Maybe I could try to forget it if you stopped talking about it for five fucking minutes though.”

“Babe!”

“And my serial killer father—“

“Having daddy issues isn’t an excuse to be a snitch, bitch.”

“Mina, stop insulting your sister for a moment,” your mother told her and turned to you, “What did he tell you?”

“That he has been in love with you for… I don’t know, centuries because he’s like a five hundred years old vampire.”

“He feeds on money though, not blood.” Mina pointed out, “I actually can see him as an evil lord somewhere, now that you mentioned.”

“Getting information from this family is a nightmare,” your mother heaved a sigh, “And?”

“And nothing. Make sure to get your nails done when he takes you on a dinner now that we all gave him our blessing but I’m so not planning your wedding, my client list is full.”

“Nobody buys that excuse Y/N,” Kenzie reminded helpfully and your mother shook her head.

“Oh but I can’t possibly—“ she heaved a sigh, “I can’t marry him yet.”

Instantly, all three of you turned to him with the same surprised expression on your faces.

“…Were you gonna hit it and quit it mom?”

Your mother pinched the bridge of her nose “Mina, what is wrong with you tonight?”

“I have no idea. Is this what being traumatized is?”

“Yeah welcome to the club, I’ve been here for a while,” you waved your hands in the air, “Mom, I thought you loved Nolan. Don’t you?”

“No, I’m completely in love with him!” your mother said quickly, “He’s the best man I’ve ever known or been with.”

“Meh, let’s not pretend the bar is—“ Mina started but stopped talking when Kenzie elbowed her, “Sorry. I’m just going to keep drinking over here to keep my mouth busy.”

“But?”

“Sweetie, I can’t get married when…” your mother gestured at you, “When you haven’t found a partner yet!”

You made a face, “Why did we teleport into Jane Austen times all of a sudden?”

“No, you know what people would say.”

“Since when does that stop you?” you asked her, “Come on, who the fuck cares what anyone thinks? They can all go to hell.”

“Y/N, I appreciate the thought but-“

“Mom,” you said, “I might just end up alone, okay? You can’t spend the rest of your life waiting for me to get married or find a partner or something just because of some stupid unwritten rule. Fuck those people, let them talk.”

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to have an actual wedding either.”

“Who’s coming up with these rules?” Mina exclaimed, “Mom, do whatever you want. This family threw appropriate out of the window long ago.”

Kenzie nodded fervently, “People will always find something to criticize, you can’t let that get to you. If you love him, go for it.”

“But wait for him to propose first, I have a feeling it’ll be the biggest ring I’ve ever seen,” you clinked your glass with hers and wiggled your brows, “Can I please be the one to tell dad though? I want to record the look of devastation on his face. I’ll make it my wallpaper.”

                                                  ***

The next day, you tried your hardest to focus on work. Even if Spencer’s words kept echoing in your ears, you couldn’t help but think that he had to be wrong.

Maybe he was. Maybe it was someone else in the hall, other than your family or Nolan or Lincoln. It was impossible for you to suspect anyone in your family, and Nolan and Lincoln had had more than enough time to be alone with you and hurt you, but neither of them had given you any sign of being dangerous.

Besides, you were sure that after spending so much time with your father, you’d be able to tell if it was someone around you.

Or at least you hoped so.

You took a sip of your rosé and bit inside your cheek, staring at your dinner table in the middle of the living room which now looked like something pulled out of a horror movie. You heaved a sigh, holding your hand over the various types of knives, the memory flashing in your head.

“Alright Petal,” your father tugged you by the hand so that you could get closer to the coffee table full of knives, “Let’s see if you studied like I told you, hm?”

“I have!” you gave him a bright smile before you bit at the stick candy and he raised his brows.

“Honey, don’t bite at candy, you’ll ruin your teeth.”

“No I won’t,” you said stubbornly, still holding the candy tight, “I’ll brush my teeth afterwards.”

He heaved a sigh and grabbed a blade off the table, then held it up.

“What is this?”

“A trench knife,” you said, looking at the handle that looked more like brass knuckles your father had shown you before, “You can hold it over your fingers so it’s better for…for…”

“Close combat.”

You nodded, still chewing on the candy and your father put it back, then showed you another.

“This?”

“Push dagger!”

“How do we use push dagger?”

“When you hold it in your palm, the blade is between your fingers.”

“So that…?”

“So that the prey can’t see it until it’s too late.”

He nodded, “You really did pay attention, Petal,” he commented and you giggled, rocking back and forth on the balls of your feet and turned the candy in your mouth as he held up another blade.

“This?”

“Butterfly knife!” you said and motioned at him, “I want that one.”

“Because it’s called a butterfly?”

“Daddy I love butterflies!”

He smiled, then grabbed another from the table, “Do you know what it is?”

“Another butterfly knife?”

“No honey, this is called a trainer, see?” he showed you, “I want you to practice with this first. It has no knife, so you won’t be cutting yourself until I say you can switch to an actual one.”

You clicked your tongue, twirling the butterfly knife between your fingers, the motion almost automatic. You had become so good at it when you were a child that you didn’t even need to think about how to flip the knife after all these years, your hands already remembered it.

“Trench knife, push dagger,” you counted slowly as the thunder lit up the dark sky outside, “Good for close combat, good for stealth….Stiletto, good for deeper wounds. Bowie is good for—“ you were cut off when you heard someone banging their fist on the door. You could feel your heartbeat getting faster and you flipped the butterfly knife in your hand, approaching the door but as soon as you looked through the peephole, your stomach made a happy flip.

“Spencer?” you muttered and opened the door, “What’re you—”

“Are you insane?” he cut you off, glaring daggers at you and you pulled your brows together.

“Huh?” you asked as he walked past you into the apartment and you closed the door before following him. He ran a hand through his curls, clearly the rain outside had made his hair even messier and he turned around to say something, but then got distracted.

“Why are you holding a butterfly knife?” he asked and you flipped it again before throwing it on the table and he frowned at the sight on the table.

“What the hell is this?”

“Uh, butterfly knife, trench knife,” you pointed with your finger as you counted them, “That’s a stiletto knife, that’s a switch blade, right next to it is a push dagger and the one over there is called—“

“I know what they are, why am I looking at them?”

You arched a brow, “Take a guess.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“What?” you let out a bitter laugh, “I’m done taking it lying down, okay? Last night was the last straw, if that copycat wants to come after me, I say let them. The man who they’re looking up to was the same man who trained me for my whole childhood, I like these odds.”

“Yeah?” he scoffed, his eyes narrowed in anger, “Is that why you threatened one of the most dangerous serial killers of our time?”

You tilted your head, “My father?”

He threw his hands in the air, frustration getting the best of him,

“Yes, your father!”

“So you basically ran all the way here to yell at me because I threatened my father?” you asked as you walked past him, then grabbed your wine glass and leaned back to the table, “Don’t worry professor, it’s a family thing. We’re impulsive. He’ll be fine, unfortunately.”

He ran a hand over his face, “What were you thinking?”

“To be honest with you, I kind of wasn’t thinking,” you pointed out before you took a sip of your wine, “How is he these days, by the way?”

“I’m glad you find this entertaining,” he said through his teeth, “Because I can assure you, this is not funny.”

“Oh come on, it’s a little funny.”

He took a deep breath as if he was trying to control himself, “You think threatening a serial killer with murder is funny?”

“I mean have you seen the look on his face? I don’t know if the video got that but—“

“Why did you break up with me?”

Well, Spencer had a way of taking you by surprise, that was for sure. You lowered the glass and blinked a couple of times, trying to pull yourself together.

“I’m sorry?”

“You heard me. Why did you break up with me if you were going to threaten a damn serial killer because he implied he might come after me?”

“I hope you know that normal exes don’t have these kind of conversations,” you tried to joke but he only raised his brows.

“Y/N.”

“Spencer,” you heaved a sigh “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I think I do,” he said, his voice almost too low, “You just don’t want me to know what I’m talking about.”

“Listen, I know how it might look like but I can assure you I’d do it for any—“

“Garcia was with me while I was watching those tapes.”

Your eyes snapped up to his as your breath got caught in your throat. You swallowed thickly, painfully aware of how he was probably seeing all your tells but even that thought didn’t stop you from drumming your fingernails on the fragile glass you were holding, pursing your lips for a moment before you cleared your throat.

“What—um—what did she say?”

“You mean before or after she said you broke up with me to protect me even if I’m an FBI agent already working on this case?”

God damn it Garcia.

The thunder boomed outside again and you frantically tried to find the right words, but it felt impossible to do so. He took a step closer to you while you stared at him, completely frozen and you closed your eyes for a moment.

“Spencer…” you muttered as you opened your eyes again, “Whatever training they gave you, trust me, they didn’t train you for my father.”

“Is that why you said all that stuff back then?” he asked slowly, “When we broke up?”

“It doesn’t matter—“

“Yes it does.”

A sad smile pulled at your lips as you put your wine glass down, and shrugged your shoulders.

“I thought—um, I thought it I hurt you that badly, you’d never want to see me again,” you admitted, “So if you were away from me, you’d be safe. Away from my father, away from the copycat, away from all of this. Working on this case is not the same as being caught in this fucked up web, you know that.”

“You didn’t think you should’ve at least asked my opinion on this?”

“You would’ve said no.”

“Of course I would’ve said no!”

“Exactly!” you threw up your hands, “You might not care about your survival in this situation, but I do, okay? I love you too much to let you get hurt because of me—” as soon as your brain acknowledged what had just slipped from your lips, you stopped talking, your breathing getting faster while panic seemed to flood your system. He stared at you, a soft light appearing in his eyes and you shook your head at yourself.

“Fucking great,” you muttered, “Yeah, um you— I’m— it doesn’t matter. Do whatever you want to do with that information.”

You took a step to walk past him but he had already grabbed your arm and pulled you back. Before you could even ask him what he was doing, his lips found yours, letting that warmth shoot through your stomach into your whole system. The feeling was so sudden but so mind numbing that you thought Spencer was right before, this was definitely like a drug, an addiction. His fingers caressed over your neck while your body pressed against his like some sort of a magnet and a soft whine escaped from you as he pulled back slightly.

“Don’t run away,” he whispered against your lips “Not this time.”

You felt the tears rushing to your eyes. “Spencer-“

“I love you.”

“You shouldn’t,” you murmured before he stole another kiss from you.

“I love you,” he repeated, his hazel eyes locked in yours, “And I’m done pretending like I don’t.”

It was a bad idea. You knew it was a bad idea, you knew it would put him in danger, but none of that seemed to matter to you after hearing that he loved you. For some reason, you were convinced that you two would find a way, that everything would be alright as long as you loved each other, naïve as it was.

The happiness burst through you, wrapping you in a soft and warm haze as you reached back with one hand to sweep everything off the table, sending all the knives to the floor with a loud noise before you jumped to sit on the table. A small chuckle left his lips when you tugged at his jacket and he tilted his head.

“What, you don’t have a bed?” he taunted you and you grinned.

“The bed can wait,” you murmured as he dragged his fingertips up your bare legs to pull you closer to him, drawing a giggle from your lips before he kissed you again.

Chapter 24

[theprologues]

SUBMISSION - Grammys performance symbolism, part two

So, with those reservations safely out of the way, and a warning to readers NOT to hurt themselves by getting their hopes up again … 

What aspects of Taylor’s Grammy’s performance made me think there might be light at the end of the tunnel for Kaylor? 

First, Taylor’s blue and gold performance dress. “Deep blue but you painted me golden” is a line from Dancing With Our Hands Tied, a song that is widely assumed to be about the night of Kissgate. It’s a song where Taylor talks about how miserable (“deep blue”) she was after the collapse of her relationship with Diana and her public reputation in 2013. She describes how her new lover, Karlie, brought her back to life and lit her up with the glow of a new, true love. She painted her golden. But then they were caught in an intimate moment at Kissgate, and Taylor panicked. Her fears and anxieties threatened to drown her, and though she and her new lover tried to dance through the catastrophe, they eventually came to realize they were doing so with their hands tied. They had no hope of swimming to the surface together and breaking free. They could only have done so if Taylor had stood firm and owned their love in the moment, instead of setting in motion the bearding contracts that would change everything. (This is what she means when she says that “if I could dance with you again”, she would “kiss” and “hold” her lover, instead of presumably backing away. If she could do the moment over, she would claim Karlie as her lover, and hold her hand for the world to see, through hell or high water.) 

Though it’s a depressing motif in DWOHT, Taylor has, interestingly, returned to this imagery of a golden tie several times in other songs, painting it in a much more positive light. Most recently, the Willow music video explores this, visually representing the “single thread of gold that tied me to you” which Taylor sings about in Invisible String. Both IS and Willow are happy songs, which describe their lovers as being tied together by fate. “Wherever you go, I’ll follow,” Taylor sings in Willow. In DWOHT, the lovers followed each other to a place of deepest blue. The bottom of the ocean, under the waves, where they couldn’t breathe. In Willow they follow each other to freedom.

That freedom is represented in the Willow music video by the open cabin door the lovers step through at the end of the video. Taylor incorporates this door into the Willow section of her Grammy’s performance, performing first in the open doorway and then stepping through it to perform with her band out in the open. 

But returning to the blue and gold dress. This is not only a very Karlie motif which keeps recurring in her art (often to postitve effect). It’s also a representation of Taylor finding happiness WITHIN the closet. It’s talking about how her partner’s love helps her to bear the depression being in the closet, and fearing exposure, causes her. The fact that Taylor chooses to wear this dress throughout her performance, with no costume changes, suggests a) she is still in the closet, and b) she is still with Karlie, and still considers her love to be such a lifeline. 

If Toe was real and Taylor was happy with him, she could have chosen to wear an all-gold dress for the occasion. If Kaylor was over and she had decided to return to the closet, she could have communicated that by wearing all blue. If Kaylor was over and so far in the past she had moved on with someone new, there was no need to evoke the motif at all. She could simply have laid claim to another color, or worn another prairie type dress to fit the aesthetic. And yet, she didn’t. Why not, if not to communicate what I said above? 

What else is worth considering, in Taylor’s medley? Well, there’s the cabin setting. Taylor and Karlie famously took a trip to Big Sur forest and stayed in a cabin together in 2014, where Karlie was the first person to hear 1989 in full. They took many photos on the trip, including one captioned with “on the way home” (a lyric from You Are In Love, which talks about hearing love in the silence) and one of the two of them looking up at a fallen tree. A VERY similar looking tree appears in the Cardigan music video, and the slanted, moss-covered roof Taylor opens the medley lying on also looks a lot like this tree. Again, curious that she would call back to this if she and Karlie have separated.

Moving on. Taylor opens the medley singing on the roof, looking straight up into the camera. When we pull back we see the stage around set to that of a starry night. Taylor is thus cast as the romantic, the star-gazer. She also calls back to another lyric Kaylors have previously tied to Karlie - “up on the roof with a schoolgirl crush”. It’s been repeatedly tied to Karlie and Taylor’s attendance at the Victoria Secret show after-party. Again, why evoke imagery so tied to the early, happy days of this relationship? 

We then move through a progression of events that sees her hiding inside with friends, before eventually stepping out into the light. That all reads like a visual interpretation of her relationship with Karlie, from her early loneliness and lovestruck dreaming, to the happiness she finds within her little hideaway, to her eventual decision to step out of it and claim her lover. The medley ends on a repetition of “that’s my man”, seemingly hinting that Taylor’s freedom is tied up in her ability to finally say those words. 

What else? Well, there are the Ivy allusions. Taylor’s cabin covered in greenery can’t help but evoke the lyrics of Ivy - “my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I’m covered in you”. Ivy is widely interpreted as a sapphic song about two women finding love despite their commitments to men. Another line in the song “he’s in the room, your opal eyes are all I wish to see, he wants what’s only yours” is alluded to in Taylor’s choice of opal jewelry on the night. What a weird thing to draw attention to, if you’re not secretly in love with a woman while parading a beard around in public. We’re also told in the song that “he” (possibly the same man, possibly another) wants to burn the house of the Ivy lovers down. Jerk just so happened to announce the baby’s birth on this night, in what felt like an attempt to undermine Taylor’s joy. Hmm. Curious. 

You know what else is curious? Taylor’s choice of outfit for the Grammys red carpet. Not only is the floral dress very reminiscent of a floral ensemble Karlie wore to cover a June (pride month) issue of Spanish Vogue. (Cover subtitled, “flowers of change”.) It’s also by the designer Oscar de la Renta. Taylor and Karlie famously attended one of his shows together early on in their relationship. They sat in the front row looking very cozy, while Taylor refused to answer questions about why she was there and reportedly giggled “my publicist will be mad at me”. Hmm.

Taylor has also worn Oscar de la Renta on numerous occasions while out with Karlie, including most famously at the Met Gala. That iconic pale pink gown that she was buried in the Look What You Made Me Do music video? That was an Oscar de la Renta. There are many interpretations of the scene in the video, but it’s worth noting that Taylor is buried alive in it (which could be interpreted as a metaphor for being closeted) and that in a video all about her various revenge fantasies, she depicts herself crawling back up out of this grave. She views coming back to life and walking away from the flaming wreckage of her past with Big Machine as the ultimate revenge. At the end of the video she clips her own wings while all the past iterations of her argue amongst themselves. This would seem to suggest that she can defeat her enemies but she can’t defeat herself, because she can’t outrun her past, and until then she will always be doomed to self-sabotage. Nevertheless, this Taylor (lurking in the background bedecked in peaced-out palm tree print) is in a much better position than the Taylor who opened the video as a zombie corpse. She’s on the surface and has some hope of freedome, at last. This is a theme we see carried through in the following video, where Taylor goes one-on-one against herself and eventually breaks free.

Long story short? Taylor wearing such a floral, literally blooming dress from THIS designer, of all people, suggests she may finally be about to rise again. The aborted coming out apparently planned for the Lover era (and thus seeded during the Rep era) may finally be a go? 

Again, I’m very reluctant to get people’s hopes up here. But it’s hard to look at this dress and not think of that June (Pride month) floral magazine cover. Or of the Spade riddle, “Why worry? She blooms in June.” Or of the fact that Taylor’s stunts are often loudest before the end. She acknowledged Calvin and hugged him at an awards show before he was booted out of the narrative and Tom H appeared to replace him. (Something like ten days or so after the “split”, if I remember right?) And the inconsistencies of the Toe timeline speak for themselves. There was speculation - unpopular though it was - among Kaylors in the Rep era that guessed Taylor wouldn’t come out until 2021 / 2022. It seemed a world away at the time but who knows? Maybe this was always the plan. Maybe this is all “part of the fucking story”, even the parts that seem ugly or counterproductive. A lot can change in a couple of months in Hollywood, and with Taylor in particular. By June, it’s possible we COULD be looking at a vastly different landscape. Maybe this was one last hurrah for the Toes. Many of them are just harmless fans taking Taylor at her word, after all. 

Only time will tell, and I don’t blame Kaylors for checking out. This isn’t healthy, especially for those of us who are gay ourselves, and can’t help but feel a personal connection to Taylor’s journey out of the closet. We know what a big deal it would be. But for those who still want to hope … It’s just possible Taylor has a plan, and this is the dark night before the dawn. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pro: I added the photos and the bolded parts. Love symbolism. This was truly a spectacular performance. Awesome submission anon!!

[alecmagnuslwb]

Photograph - @doubleredweek Day 1

Read on AO3

Jason walks leisurely down the hall of the Queen family cabin; he’s still getting used to being welcome here even if he has a key and an open invitation these days.

He left Roy in the study that’s more like the laboratory of a mad scientist with a specific arrow fetish talking with Oliver at length about some new trick arrow and the detailed schematics of it to seek out Lian.

Last night had been what Jason’s pretty sure has come to be her most anticipated Saturday of every month. Sleepover night with aunt Mia and grandma Dinah, which also means date night for Jason and Roy which usually means a nice dinner and sex in rooms that aren’t as private as their bedroom and occasionally means busting up a criminal front and then having a quickie on a roof.

Somewhere down this long hallway Lian is fast asleep, still conked out from the night before that was no doubt filled with far too many cookies and a bedtime triple past what hers usually is.

He takes his time looking at the many framed photos that line the walls. These aren’t the Queen family portraits or red carpet moments that the general public gets to see, these are Dinah Lance specials. Somewhere along the line on one of her tours with her band she’d picked up a camera and just never stopped clicking.

The in between moments are what she calls them, they’re her favorite kind to capture. The pure, unfiltered moments of the people she loves most. Lian occupies most of the wall these days, a grandchild edging out just about everyone else on the photo priority scale.

There are ones of her as a baby and one’s all the way up to as recent as last week’s bi-monthly Oliver Queen chili cookout. Jason smiles at the photo then grimaces at the memory of washing all that chili out of her hair.

A few other new ones have been peppered in from last week, Connor and Kyle in a rare moment where Kyle isn’t three galaxies away, Mia holding a bowl of chili the size of her head. He’s nearing the end of the hall close to the family room the girls use as their base camp for sleepovers when he stops dead in his tracks.

Because on the wall between a selfie of Dinah and Ollie on some beach and picture of Emiko casually flipping off her brother on Christmas morning is Jason and Roy pressed close together on a park bench, Roy’s arm slung across Jason’s shoulders light smiles on both of their faces laughing about some dumb joke Roy had made. He remembers the day, a not too hot, but not too cold spring afternoon they both had free so they took Lian to the park. Dinah had run into them on her way home and she had been immediately dragged over to the swings by Lian. Jason hadn’t even realized she had her camera on her at all.

It’s a rare photo of them, they haven’t exactly been at this very long. Jason only moved in three months ago after nearly two years of subtle dating. Dating as superheroes is hard enough, add in that one half of them is often wanted by any number of federal agencies at any given moment and the other half is raising a four-year-old daughter on his own and it gets even more complicated. So they’ve taken their time, keeping things quiet for as long as they could even though it killed Roy not to shout it from the rooftops. The nature of keeping it slow and quiet meant photos hadn’t been a priority.

Add in that Jason habitually shies from cameras constantly and it’s likely this is maybe only the second or third photo of them out of costume and not tacked up on wanted board somewhere that’s ever been taken. It’s definitely the first one that’s made it onto the Queen family wall.

He feels weirdly honored. He knows they’ve accepted him, Ollie somewhat reluctantly and the others nearly without hesitation, but he didn’t think he was considered family, family. Not the kind that made it onto the coveted family walls, more like the kind that came to events and treated their family member with love and respect so he was welcome, but never quite fully in. Jason was content with that, as long as he and Oliver could have civil conversations and he got to keep loving Roy and Lian without any interference he was perfectly happy.

This though. This is beyond that. This he never expected.

“Hey, you’re here!” Dinah says pulling his eyes away from the photo. She makes her way down the hall towards him, looking far more put together than any woman who hosted a sleepover with a four-year-old the night before should at 8:30 in the morning.

She pulls him in for a quick hug and then leans against the wall beside the photo.

“You like it?” she asks with a smile. He nods still kind of shocked it’s even there in the first place. “You’re a hard one to get pictures of,” she says with a chuckle.

She taps lightly at the glass frame. “I never quite manage to get your face in one, it’s like no matter how stealthy I am you know I’ve got that camera pointed your way. Creature of bat habit, I guess, huh?”

Jason shrugs, “Something like that yeah.”

“When I was going through my camera roll and spotted that one, I quite literally shouted with joy, Ollie thought I was watching a Blades game,” she laughs with a fond shake of her head. “You were the only member of the family not on the wall, even Jade has one with Lian and she never comes to the chili cookouts.”

Jason’s heart skips at beat at the word family a no doubt shocked look on his face that Dinah, always perceptive Dinah catches onto immediately.

“Oh, Jason,” she says reaching out a hand to comfortingly rest on his arm. “That’s another bat habit. Of course you’re family.”

Jason’s not one for crying and he’s definitely not one for vulnerability in front of anyone that isn’t Roy, but for a moment he feels like he might just break those rules of his in front of Dinah. He shakes it off quickly putting his hand on top of Dinah’s for one quick squeeze.

“It’s a good picture,” he says. “You should print a copy for us, Roy’s always complaining that the best photos he has of me are crime scene pictures.”

Dinah laughs and the emotional tension Jason hadn’t quite intended for dissipates just as he hoped it would.

“I’ll get it done and give it to you guys at dinner next week,” she says as she walks around him and gestures to the door at the far end of the hall. “Let’s go get the princess so you can take her home.”

Jason nods looking back at the photo one last time a small smile on his lips before he follows after Dinah to get Lian, before he follows his family.

[lisbonsteresa]

need a pick me up?  (2x16....technically)

When she talked Celia down from sending a chauffeur earlier that morning, Nancy had considered it a small victory. 

Allowing herself another 20 minutes to be Nancy Drew before she had to wrap herself in armor and spend the night as Nancy Hudson. But despite her best efforts, the dread and guilt she’d been dealing with since the incident at the paper mill had only gotten worse as the day went on. 

And now that she’d finally gotten to the point where she couldn’t avoid leaving any longer, her thoughts had gotten so scrambled that she was starting to wonder if she should just call her grandmother back to say she’d reconsidered. 

She called out one last goodbye to Carson as the front door closed, struggling to pull her phone out of the criminally small clutch she hadn’t used since freshman formal without dropping the coat she really regretted not putting on before she stepped out into the November evening. 

All the while she was still trying - and failing (again) - to figure out the best way to tell a billionaire patriarch with a tendency of permanently removing any slight obstacle that she was his secret out-of-wedlock townie granddaughter. She was so caught up that the low whistle from her driveway nearly caused her to drop the clutch altogether. 

Her head snapped up to see Ace, silhouetted against the sunset as he leaned against Florence. “Tom was right - that really is some dress.” he remarked as she approached him. She ignored the way his eyes looked her up and down too many times to just be appreciating the dress, and hoped he was ignoring the way the flush on her cheeks grew every time. 

(They were ignoring more and more around each other lately. She was trying to ignore how that made her feel.)

“Thanks,” she held out the clutch to him and he took it without question, freeing her hands so she could pull on her coat. “but what are you-”

“Carson called me.” he answered before she could finish asking, his attention flicking to a point behind her with a smile and a wave. Nancy turned to see Carson waving back from a side window. “Said he thought you could use a lift.”

She turned back towards him, tamping down a sudden rush of fondness for both men until she could manage an amused smirk. “Sometimes it’s weird how close you two are.”

His response was an unbothered shrug and a grin as he passed the clutch back to her. “You’re just jealous that he gave me first dibs last pizza night.”

“How could I be?” She shot back with a roll of her eyes. “You went right for the pineapple.”

“Hey, don’t knock pineapple on pizza - it’s a work of underrated genius.”

That seems to be a theme with you, she thought, pausing for moment to consider if calling your best friend a genius while he smiled warmly at you in the dying sunlight that turned the edges of his hair gold was toeing a line. “Whatever you say.” she said instead, shaking her head and walking around Florence to open the passenger door with a sigh. “Now let’s get this over with.”

The smile dropped off Ace’s face at the reminder of why he was there. “Yeah, let’s go.” They climbed in and after coaxing Florence into a squeaking start, they were off.

Most of the drive to the yacht club passed in a comfortable silence - just the quiet hum of whatever 70’s rock station the radio was tuned to and the sporadic popping of Florence’s exhaust. If Nancy closed her eyes, she could almost imagine they were headed to the Claw for a late shift, or Nick’s for movie night, instead of straight into the metaphorical lion’s den. (Maybe even literal - at this point there wasn’t much she’d put past Celia).

There was something bothering Ace though, she could tell. The closer they got to the club, the tighter he gripped the wheel, clenching his jaw like he was trying to hold back whatever words were running through his head. They pulled into the long semi-circle driveway, the lights decorating the entrance of the club shining in front of them and the valet eyeing them with confusion from his podium. Ace cut the engine but didn’t move otherwise, and so Nancy didn’t either. She could wait him out - after all, it was far better than the alternative.

A beat passed, then another, and then: “I just want to say I’m sorry.” That threw her for a loop - what did he have to apologize for? “For what I said yesterday.”

She could feel her eyebrows furrowing as she ran through the conversation she knew he meant - their brief talk in the kitchen before the intergalactic crisis overrode their local one. “No, you were just being honest.” she replied. “This,” she raised her gaze towards the twinkling lights, feeling the pit of dread in her stomach more than ever, “could change everything. And even with Swift-approved armor, I’m afraid of what happens to Nancy Drew once Nancy Hudson is out in the open.” her voice sounded small; vulnerable; honest in a way she wasn’t sure she could be with anyone but him.

“I’m not.” his jaw was set; his face determined when she looked over at him. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in there, and I don’t know what they’re going to ask of Nancy Hudson, but I was wrong when I said this would be the end of Nancy Drew.” he turned to meet her eyes, his own imploring. “Nancy Drew is smart, and caring, and sarcastic, and determined, and self-sacrificing to an almost dangerous degree, but she’s good.” 

The back of Nancy’s neck felt hot; the car suddenly felt a thousand times too small. She wanted to wrench open the door and run, but she couldn’t make herself look away from his eyes; she was almost afraid to blink and end whatever this moment was. “You’re good Nancy. You’re a good daughter and a great detective, and you’re a really, really good friend. You’re one of the best people I know, and no Hudson blood or last name is going to change that.”

There was a pause as he opened his mouth like he was going to say more, but then he closed it and dropped his head, avoiding her gaze as he fiddled with Florence’s gearshift. “Anyway, I know you’ve been dealing with a lot, and I know I’ve been acting like part of the problem, but I just want you to know that if you ever get confused about who you are, I’ll be here to remind you.”

There were a thousand thoughts running through her head, trying to line themselves up in way that she could make enough sense of to put them into words. How what he’d said had almost made her forget what she was about to walk into. How she didn’t think he could be a problem for her if he tried. How similar this felt to another conversation, maybe just over a month ago, when he’d been there to offer her understanding and someone to come to when things got hard. 

She hadn’t had the words then - she wasn’t sure if she would ever find them - but somehow hearing that he still wanted to be there for her after all they’d gone through made her feel like she could face down a hundred Everett Hudsons. But she didn’t say any of that.

Instead, she reached out and covered the hand he was still resting on the gearshift with her own, waiting until his eyes met hers again. “Thank you.” she said softly, giving him what felt like her first genuine smile of the day. “That really means a lot to me Ace.” It wasn’t much; it wasn’t even close to everything she wanted to say to him, but it was all she could manage for now, and she thought he’d understand that. Hoped he would. He seemed to understand her better than she did herself, most days.

“‘Course.”  he replied with a grin, and she felt a little bit of the weight on her shoulders fall away. His eyes dropped down to her hand covering his before meeting hers again. “Nancy -”

But whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a loud knocking on the driver’s side window, causing them both to jump and look to see an anxious valet staring down at them. “Um, excuse me sir,” he began once the window had been rolled down, “but if you aren’t going to use the valet services I’m going to have to ask you to pull forward to the main parking lot. The other guests will be arriving soon and they can get…unhappy if we’re not able to help them quickly.”

“Right, yeah, sorry.” Ace shot the teen an apologetic smile. “One more second and we’ll be out of your way.” Seemingly satisfied, the valet turned and started to make his way back to his podium, casting worried looks over his shoulder at them the whole time. “Guess that’s your cue.” Ace continued, turning back towards Nancy with a resigned expression she was pretty sure matched her own.

“Yeah, guess so.” she turned her attention to the doors of the club as an employee around the valet’s age pulled them open and let the light from inside spill out. She wondered if Celia was in there, looking for her. She wondered what she might have already told her husband; wondered just what she was going to find once she crossed that threshold; what risk she was putting herself in; exactly how far she’d be able to push her luck.

Ace’s “hey” pulled her back into the car. “You’ll call if anything happens? I’ll get the whole crew here for backup.”

She noticed he didn’t ask her to wait for them - they both knew she probably wouldn’t. “I’m not sure Florence could handle a full cabin in such a rush.”

“Hey, Florence is tougher than she looks, and you didn’t answer the question.”

“Of course I’ll call.” she gave his hand a quick squeeze before releasing it and grabbing the clutch instead so she could be ready to go (and not so she could avoid seeing his reaction). The passenger door opened with a high-pitched squeak, and Nancy stepped out into the cool night air. “And Ace?” she turned back to him before closing the door, lingering in her one final moment of only having to be Nancy Drew. “Thanks for the lift.”

He looked up at her with one last grin. “Anytime.” And then the door was closed and Florence was roaring to life and rumbling down the driveway. Nancy stood watching until she couldn’t see the tail lights anymore, then squared her shoulders with a sigh and started up the path to the club entrance. Time for the world to meet Nancy Hudson.

[bunsbunnybitch]

The Villainnesse

disclaimer: im not very good and you know fbi things, so their work as shown here may be innacurate (so dont kill me pls)

its also sort of a new au i think- since inserted new characters.

- - -

[ The Blacklist x reader ]

7 hours earlier

Cooper's eyes were trained intently on the screen, observing with such scrutiny as he shifted his weight to the other foot, crossing his arms. He ignored the rapid footsteps pacing around the floor, the hushed murmurs and whispers exchanged by the busied agents, only to focus his attention on a particular criminal mastermind. 

And that particular criminal mastermind is You. 

But here's the exception: you don't have an organization. He thought it was strange at first, that the Bureau would term you a 'criminal mastermind' as such, considering that all the things you do aren't gang criminal related nor mafia criminal related, but rather with the application of theft( you stole government files). However, you did have contacts with notorious criminals, which he presumed is where you mainly get your sources, and you do demonstrate the mindset of a criminal mastermind: a careful planner, cunning and meticulous. They tried to catch you many times, and all of those times they had, always failed. You were inaccessible.

Currently, he was looking at a blurred picture of you, taken just yesterday near a gas station; you were wearing a bob wig, cat-eye glasses, and is dressed in an abnormally pink suit. Cooper's task force had managed to track you down two days ago, leading him to assemble a stakeout operation that led him to you, and hence the blurred taken picture. Then there was your entourage, Nero your Russian butler, Jackson, your muscle, Ares, your bodyguard, and Peirce, a somewhat petite martial artist. It was pretty evident that you were self-aware about being followed, and managed to slip away before they can get to you. 

"Stole a handful of documents..." An agent muttered from behind.

Cooper craned his neck to meet the female agent, Ariel Stockham.

"What kind?" He asked, diverting his gaze back to the screen.

She plodded over to his spot, and stood beside him, mimicking his crossed arm gesture. She furrowed her brows, pursing her lips. On her arms were files, mainly documents about you, and with a wave of her hand she spoke:

"Not much, military projects, scientific ones..." She trailed, tossing the records on the table with a sigh. "...ones that are, strictly speaking, primarily funded by the government."

He hummed in contemplation, venturing to connect the dots in his head in an attempt to uncover your next whereabouts.

"Are they still running?" He asked. "The projects?" 

"No, sir. Nearly all of them were shut down." She replied, then her eyes slightly widened when a thought passed her mind. "But...but...but..." She held up a finger. "There is one, I think..." She slid into her seat and began typing furiously. "I'm going to get really really techie here, I apologies if so, but uh...there's a program. Not sure if it's a program or a project...not sure if those words are the same thing...and I'm not sure if-"

"Agent, Stockham." Cooper cuts off her rambling with a tight smile. "Please, the files."

She looked up to him, back to the computer, then to the large screen. Rubbing her neck sheepishly, she cleared her throat.

"Yeah, right so uh...here's the issue..." Her fingers resorted to typing again. "There's this project slash program that is way back in '99. Or years before that...it is highly-and when I mean highly- extremely classified. It was shut down years later after its release, mainly because it didn't work so well..." 

"I've heard about it too." Ressler stepped in, shrugging as he continued. "It's pretty classified, to say the least, but the program takes volunteered agents or civilians to do tests on them to measure their intelligence. After the tests, they'll start to figure out ways on how to 'up' their capacity to obtain knowledge."

"Like a super-soldier program?" Cooper spoke, and Ressler nodded.

"Something like that."

"It's also termed as the 'method of loci'." She added, waving her finger in the air. "It's a strategy used to enhance a person's memory by utilizing visualization the subjects is familiar with, sorta trapping 'em into their brain so that when they want to use the info they want, it just...comes."

Cooper nodded, absorbing all the information in with a purse of his lips. 

She pressed a button and on the screen, a picture was pulled up. Her body visibly relaxed. " The Palace Intelligence program." She finally said. "Labelled as TPI, for short."

It wasn't even a second that a look of confusion flashed upon her face. Her brows crinkled, and her lips turned into a frown. Darting her gaze to the computer, the typing resumed, this time her look became more intense.

"What is it? What's wrong." Ressler asked, going behind to look over her shoulder.

Cooper followed. She glanced at the screen then to her computer.

"That's...odd, it...doesn't make any sense..." She muttered under her breath but raised her voice once Cooper gave her a questioning look. "The files...they...it's still there."

He leaned away, plodding towards the screen, confusion almost evident in his tone. "What are you implying?"

She paused and turned around. "They weren't stolen."

Ressler flinched. "What?"

"It says here..." She motioned over to her computer. "That the files are still there. It's locked in a facility, presumably the Cia or whatever, and there is no report of a missing file that goes by the name of TPI."

"Then, what did she stole?" Ressler pressed.

"My guess?" She leaned casually in her seat, her voice wheezing slightly as she stretched. "The coordinates."

- - -

The cold harsh air swished past her face and Nero tightened the grip on the sniper, clenching her teeth to fight the cold. She was under surveillance while you were left off to plan in your mind palace, a thing she's certainly used to after all those years. She zoomed into the guards by the metallic doors and sighed, standing up to trot over to her master. You were near the tree, murmuring to yourself quietly.

With a collective sigh, she plopped down next to you.

"Master, I do not mean to disrespect," She began, and you perked your ears, half-listening. "But are you sure that this is going to work?"

The rustling of the map stops and you turn to face her. Nero looks certainly tired.

"Oh, don't be so pouty." You mused, patting her shoulder "I assure you, his will work just finely. Count on the teamwork we ensue, the positions we are in and there you have it. Our mission is accomplished. We'll rescue the kids-or since they've grown by now, adults-and pop by Denny's. I heard his steaks are flourishingly delicious. I suppose we could have a try."

Nero sighed again, exasperated by your lack of concern, knowing all well that this isn't you speaking. 

"Illian-" She began but realized her mistake.

"It's (Y/n)." You replied calmly, folding the map and tucking it into your vest pocket.

"(Y/n)," She repeated, shifting to crouch over the snow, her look was so serious you had found it almost amusing. Why is she taking this so seriously?

 "Have you not taken the drastic measures into account? The lives of the kids if we fail? Whether we are infiltrating a military base and not a technologically advanced laboratory?"

You tilted your head innocently. 

"You-" She groaned, sighing heavily rubbing the bridge of her brows. "Did you not realize we have the FBI at our tails? We've left a mark (Y/n), they are going to pursue us."

You nodded, replying calmly. "Yes, I am very well aware of that"

Nero resisted the urge to sigh again. What is it with you being so calm in situations you aren't supposed to be calm in?

"And you are fine with it?" She spoke, her tone evidently incredulous.

You shrugged, smiling.

"What is there to be worried about, Nero?" You said. " I've got in all planned out.

Nero sighed knowingly.

"I suppose you are always right...you always.." Her voice fell into a hushed whisper. "most certainly are..."

---

The crease in his brows turned into a frown. 

"Sir, we got a hit." A voice interrupted. "The Villainness's location is located."

"Where?" Cooper asked, and Aries scrambled towards the tech guy.

"Canada sir, Alberta," He replied trailing as he continued typing." somewhere more desolate...near a cabin maybe...and." He pressed a button, and a picture of a building was pulled up on the screen. "It seems to be here somewhere..."

Aries widened her eyes, once again scrambling for her computer.

"Wait I recognize that..." She declared, holding up her hand as if to stop anyone from doing anything. "It's one of the testing sites for TPI."

"Still running?"

"No, sir. Abandoned."

"That's just more confusing." Ressler mused. "What is she hosting? A drug festival?"

Aries snickered, stretching her arms languidly on the chair, relaxed once she realized she's not doing fieldwork.

"Eh, the building's pretty worn down too so..." She shrugged. "She's probably making something."

Cooper ignored the comments made by the two and went down straight to business.

 "I want all agents on this." He announced. "Ressler, Yannak, and Bolton,"

The series of heads darted up when their names were called.

"I want all of you to go in, send in a SWAT team. Make sure she gets into cuffs this time."

"Understood" Ressler nodded and jerked his hands to the elevator, signaling the others to go.

Little did they know they would be led into an abyss of confetti and glitter.

No, literally.

[ part 1 ]

[theageofsims]

The Age of Sims 2.4 - Part 29  -  “Dinner and an Invitation"

"I was hoping when I woke up this morning that I'd see spots, but... no luck. I've still got these stripes."

He could hear the uneasiness in her tone as he went to prepare dinner.

"It's going to take little more time. Try not to think about it... there's no sense in worrying about it because you know what you've got going on and you're doing everything you were told to do -- except worrying. You were specifically told not to worry."

She read a few more lines in the book while she listened to him and when he was finished, she asked him a question.

"Need any help?"

"Nope. Just sit there and relax."

"I'm not very good at that."

'Neither am I.' He told himself as he smirked.

----------

"Gloria?" He called out for her once dinner was ready, knowing she had wandered out of his living room a little while ago.

"Yeah?"

"Dinner's ready."

He began walking towards the sound of her voice and found her looking at a few paintings he had bought some time ago.

"Did you paint these?"

"Are you kidding?"

"No, I mean... I've noticed a few paintings around your house over the past year and thought you maybe took a class when you retired."

"Creativity really isn't my thing..."

"It's not practical?"

"No, I just... I'm not good at creating stuff unless it's being created to undergo a million screenings before it can be released to the public... and even that hadn't any creativity because you can't just create science... you've got to figure all that shit out otherwise you'll make a mistake and everything could blow up in your face -- literally." He shook his head, remembering a number of mishaps by some incredibly creative interns he had during the later years of his science career. He had scolded them and read them the riot act, but deep down he admired their guts... guts he and so many like him never were allowed to even consider the slightest during their younger years. "I bought those in Windenburg... my second trip there. They have a holiday shop there. I fell in love with them the moment I saw them. They remind me of Granite Falls."

"That's where you say you can find huckleberries."

"You remembered."

She shrugged. "I guess." She laughed a little. "I had never heard of huckleberries or Granite Falls until you mentioned them."

He nodded. "I had brought some back with me the last time I was there. Oasis Springs gets some interesting produce from time to time, but they've never had huckleberries..." He looked at the paintings from where he stood. "I should head back there soon... see how things are."

"I'm sure they've got snow there already."

"Probably, which is all the more reason to take a short trip there. I would hate to find a pile of snow in the middle of the living room."

She looked at him.

"I've got a small cabin there... I kept renting the same place every time my team and I would go there for work. After twenty years the man who owned it had gotten sick and his children wanted to sell the property." He shrugged, "They made an offer and I... well I couldn't refuse. It hardly cost anything and it was a great place for work and for the family."

She nodded. "It sounds nice... even if there's a few holes here and there."

He cleared his throat and swallowed, a question lingering he didn't quite know how to ask.

"We should eat before the dinner gets cold--"

"Would you come with me to Granite Falls?" He blurted out.

[anon-rebel-writes]

Of Pink Fairies and Teenage Boys - 1

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a fantabulous day!

This concept is a little strange, but it gets better the more chapters come out! Hopefully the weirdness doesn’t freak anyone out too much XD

The idea was basically just Marinette being a fairy and Luka kinda being in love with how adorable she is. But now it’s a story about Marinette slowly helping him out with different aspects of his life.

I intended this story to be a slow burn, but I’m impatient so it’s going to be five chapters! :D

I hope you all enjoy this piece! It starts under the cut! Ao3 Link

The hot summer rays pierced into the porthole of his cabin. Light danced across his floor in a rich orange hue as the sun set for the day. The divider in the middle of the room was closed off as soft shuffling came from the other side of the wall.

Luka sat on his bed holding his guitar tightly in his hands - the knuckles turning white with from the pressure. His teeth were clenched and his jaw seemed tense. While this was far from normal, lately Luka was finding it hard to keep his usual calm demeanor.

School was officially out for the summer. Most kids were spending it at the pool or with friends, unfortunately Luka Couffaine was not most kids. He saw his mom working longer hours and coming home later than average. While Anarka wasn’t a woman to complain, he saw how not even her bright attitude could outshine the stress.

Luka decided to help out by taking on extra shifts at his delivery job. The money wasn’t crazy, but it could definitely help his mom out. At the end of the day, he just wanted to make her life easier, even if the extra work made his shoulders a little tighter.

His band, Kitty Section, also thought of increasing their practice times. His sister, Juleka, and their drummer, Ivan, wanted to change rehearsal from once a week, to twice a week. It seemed great for them since neither worked or had much to do during summer break, but Luka found himself worn thin from all the extra playing.

Even now, he found himself cringing slightly at the guitar in his hands. When did music become such a chore? All these thoughts continued to plague his mind as his left hand silently fingered different riffs and notes while his right hand merely tapped along the body of the instrument. It wasn’t hard to see that Luka was in a funk. Usually a bit of meditating would help him relax, but miniature distractions always seemed to pull him out of it. They tended to come from his sister, since she usually sat across from his side of the room.

But Luka didn’t want to blame her, it wasn’t her fault. Luka found himself easier to blame. She was just trying to enjoy her free time, it was summer after all. Yet every time she faintly hummed a tune or tapped her desk, he found himself tensing up and feeling frustrated.

The light outside finally left his room and soft snores were heard through the barrier. He barely felt himself moving as he placed the guitar back on its rack. A shaky breath left him as he ran his fingers through his unruly hair. Nothing was working anymore, time seemed to drag on and yet move so fast. When was the last time he worked on his hair? The strands covered his eyes more each day with the blue dye slowly growing out.

He quietly moved off of his bed to change into something more comfortable for sleep. Luka threw on an old band shirt and some red flannel pajama pants. But staring back at his bed, he felt restless. The corners of his eyes felt watery and he held his arms tightly.

Luka didn’t regret any of the stress. He was doing it for his family. It didn’t matter how exhausted he was after riding his bike all day. It didn’t matter that he could barely keep his eyes open during band practice. The only thing that mattered was that he was helping them.

He took a deep breath before trying to shake off the negative feelings. As Luka moved across his cabin towards the bed, the porthole next to his bed swung open, letting in a huge gust of wind. He instinctively tried to shield himself from anything that could fly inside, but nothing but warm air filled the room. After the initial shock, he moved over to the window and closed it tightly again. He looked over at the divider and listened carefully to make sure Juleka didn’t awaken.

Muffled snoring continued to sound out behind the barrier and he felt a small wave of relief flush over him before a soft voice whispered in his left ear, “Wow you look just like your picture.”

At least Juleka was a heavy sleeper so she couldn’t hear the girlish shriek that came from him. Luka jumped away from the voice, falling onto the ground next to his amp. His head turned towards the source of the voice and he saw a little bug flying where his ear was. But it wasn’t a bug, it was a lot larger than a typical bug. Squinting his eyes, he saw that the ‘bug’ looked like a human girl with wings.

“What. The hell.”

The little flying girl attempted to move towards him, but seeing as Luka cowered into the corner of the room in fear, she stopped herself. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you! I’m such a klutz, I don’t wanna mess this up already…”

Luka’s eyes were popping out of his head as he stared at her, trying to rack his brain around whether he had passed out earlier and just forgot. He was tired after work today, surely this must all be a dream. But the little fluttering person continued to ramble, the more she talked, the more Luka realized that this may be real. The bug-person-girl was speaking about an assignment, but then she started waving her arms around, gesturing to him and then her. Luka honestly tried to focus on her words, but her wings were loud and the buzzing sound grabbed his full attention.

“-So that’s basically the situation. Do you understand, Monsieur Couffaine?”

He definitely heard that. How did she know his name already? The girl saw his disoriented expression and sighed, “You didn’t hear anything I said, did you?” He nodded his head and attempted to shuffle closer to his bed, trying to find anything to ground himself.

The girl slowly moved towards him as he finally sat back on the soft surface of his bed. Sitting there was supposed to help him back to reality, but the fabric definitely felt real and not like something he’d feel in a dream. His stomach was knotting and suddenly he felt lightheaded. The flying girl-person-bug perched herself on his guitar and waited for him to settle down. After pinching himself a couple of times to make sure he was awake, he nodded over to her. She gave him a big smile and lifted a hand to him.

“I’m Marinette, your own personal fairy!”

Luka leaned towards her with a finger held out to shake her hand back. Now that he was closer, he could see her a lot better. The girl, Marinette, was surrounded in a soft pink glow. She wore a dress made from varying hues of pink petals. The dress was pulled together on her waist by a small string that tied into a bow behind her. Her hair pulled back into a bun on the top of her head, also tied with string. He squinted and saw that she actually had little feet, and those feet had toes. Which was a very strange thing to be amazed by, considering that she just told him she was a fairy.

In all honesty, despite the strange scenario, Luka found his face burning at her adorable outfit. Which was also a strange thing to think about, because she just told him she was a fairy. “Okay, wow. I have like- a million things going through my mind right now. I’m gonna need a minute-”

A loud snore echoed through the room, interrupting his words. Marinette let go of his finger and both of them went rigid. After what felt like an eternity of waiting to see any signs of Juleka waking up, the fairy flew towards Luka’s face to bring his attention back to her. “Wow. Your sister’s a deep sleeper! Even after your girly scream!” Luka should totally be offended. He should be, but honestly his ego was the least of his concerns.

“Yeah, Jules...she’s good at- I guess- sleeping? I’m sorry, I can’t really focus on her when you’re literally a fairy.”

Marinette let out a soft laugh that oddly sounded sweet, chirpy, and cute. Wait, why was he thinking she was cute?! Not cute. She was not cute. Even if her cheeks were rosy and her hair looked soft and- oh my god why is he thinking like this.

“Well, I guess I should re-explain myself, right? I’m a fairy. We are magical beings here to help humans out when they feel sad. Every fairy is assigned a human to watch over and take care of. After the human is happy again, we wipe our existence from their mind and they go on with their lives. Sounds like a good deal, right?”

While in theory that made sense (honestly it didn’t because up until this point Luka was one-hundred percent sure that fairies weren’t real), he couldn’t help but feel mystified. “Okay...I have so many questions.”

Another chirpy (and cute) giggle came from her and she landed next to him on his bed. “Lucky for you, I may have some answers!”

Luka slowly nodded his head as he watched her walk around his blanket. She honestly couldn’t have been longer than the length of his hand, so seeing her move around really gave him odd feelings, more so than before. “So...Fairies are real?”

Marinette laughed again as she began climbing on his lap. “Yup! We used to roam around in the open, but some awful humans began using us for our magic. Now we hide ourselves and help humans secretly!” Luka looked down at the fairy and saw she began rubbing herself around the hem of his shirt. This was definitely strange. Even if this happened to be a dream, he probably shouldn’t be imagining a fairy rubbing her face against his stomach, right? “Uh- What’re you doing?”

She met his eyes and flew up to his face again. “Sorry, it’s just been so long since I felt such nice fabric. I’ve always wanted to wear cute clothes like you humans do! Your shirt is so soft!”

Not only was he stuck with a mythical creature, but he was stuck with a cute one that happened to enjoy rubbing her face on him. Trying to push any weird thoughts out of his mind, Luka nodded his head and tried to look anywhere else but her. She seemed to sense his uncomfortable aura because she backed away from him and sat on the edge of his porthole. “Why don’t you go to bed, Monsieur Couffaine. I’ll answer all your questions in the morning, okay? A good night’s rest will help get your brain back in working condition!”

Luka looked at Marinette and saw her illuminated by her pink glow and the moonlight. His heart felt like her wings for a moment, but he shook his head to get rid of any strange feelings and stood up. Marinette watched his movements as he walked towards his dresser again and grabbed his blue hoodie.

Her head tilted to the side as she watched him fold it into a small bundle. He walked towards his bed and laid the hoodie onto his amp. Luka looked down timidly at the floor in an effort to avoid her gaze. “I just- I thought a hoodie might be nicer than the window.”

Marinette gave him a soft smile and fluttered back over to his head. She pressed her face into his cheek and then dove into the makeshift bed.

This had to have been a dream. There was no way a fairy just kissed his cheek. Luka found himself a bit dazed at her gesture, so he decided to lay on his bed to try and get some rest. Although with all the adrenaline coursing through his body, he doubted he would sleep for the next week.

At least that’s what he thought before strange dust appeared over his head and his eyes suddenly felt heavier. He glanced over at the nightstand and saw the fairy’s hands twirling in the air out of the hoodie, producing the dust that fell over him.

While this could all be a hallucination due to the lack of sleep he’s been getting lately, he found himself faintly longing for this to not be a dream. A tiny part of him wanted to believe that this could actually be real. But all those thoughts were for tomorrow, right now his body was focused on finally pulling him into slumber. For the first time in a while, Luka found himself peacefully sleeping with a tiny part of him excited for tomorrow.

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 3: Apdnarg is Really Hard to Spell

 Yo guys, people are getting vaccinated, the sun is parting through the clouds, and I felt so nice that I even stopped listening to quite so many throwback 00′s BTS mashups (and yet I keep clicking on these dissonant catastrophes thinking “this time it’s got to be better. This time they’ll figure it out.” and like, no. Turns out you can’t match Brittany’s Toxic with BTS’ Black Swan. You can’t do that.)

This must be a sign that things are getting better. If anything, it means my personal tastes are improving. I mean I only clicked on like 3 “Dark Academia” Playlists where I could pretend I’m some sort of spooky witch in an abandoned library with a bad music player and basic taste in classical music (like can we ban Satie from Youtube for a little while?). Hell, I might even do a prompt update to this blog!

Yeah, you heard me, I’m actually going to stay ahead of the update schedule for Yugioh Abridged (maybe. I haven’t actually watched cuz of spoilers, I just noticed the thumbnail pop up on Youtube and was like “Damn it, they came out of hiatus??? I got hurry UP.”)

Anyway, speaking of the sky parting.

I’ll have you know my bro said this is actually more like a circumcision and it was one of the worst thing I have ever heard.

We get a chance to take in this lineup of confusing and varied character designs, and Joey. who is...still Joey.

The animators probably had to hold a strike in order for them to put Yugi in the audience, lets be real. There are TOO MANY PEOPLE in this shot and one is wearing a turban where you draw every single wrap. I hope those artists charged by the line.

Tea has a subplot where she’s just very frustrated with everyone she knows. They have been traveling together for like many weeks and got trapped in a foreign country so I get it. But at the same time, it’s kind of hard to picture Tea with female friends.

Because right now you got this 12 year old child, the other duelist who does not care about anything besides cards, and Kaiba’s 3 dragon cards that we’ve all collectively decided are female.

Hell it’s almost like the writers are asking themselves why Tea is here. Maybe they forgot. There’s no more ghosts to bus, no more people to knock out with her ass with random Olympic feats. Tea’s just sidelining.

(read more under the cut)

Mokuba is a itty bit bit taller this season, and so I guess that means he can legally climb on top of the cherry picker in order to give a riveting speech.

Really says a lot about Mokuba that he is so unphased about talking to, I dunno...an entire planet of people. Kind of a shame we never see this courage from Mokuba used for anything other than talking really, really big and giving everyone around him a really hard time.

Mokuba takes a moment to dunk on Yugi Muto, as is Kaiba tradition.

And then introduce the first pair of duelists, which obviously must be between the few people in this tournament that we actually know and care about.

Thankfully, in between last episode and this episode, Yugi has figured out who his own Grandpa is. This is a relief, because Yugi is such a mess, that I was fully convinced it would take over half a season for him to recognize it. I mean how long did it take him to figure out he shares a body with a ghost? Like half a season?

Instead Yugi recovered gracefully from not recognizing his grandpa, but it’s not like he bothered to tell anyone else, so the rest of our cast is just gonna be like “Is he my hairdresser? The guy who delivers my mail? Who is this guy who made absolutely no significant changes to his outfit or voice?”

Like sometimes this show goes full Spongebob silly kid’s show and you never know when to take it seriously or not. They might be sacrificing the entire cast next episode. I really don’t know. But for now their big concern is who is grandpa??? Like an innocent card version of “Are you my Mother?”

Faced with public speaking, Yugi decides to have a melt down.

We have seen him face monsters, we’ve seen him on TV dozens of times, he’s been in multiple competitions...but give a speech? Of course he can’t do that. The kid doesn’t attend enough school to know how to do that. Them’s learning skills.

And that was when a newly assembled wife-jet spliced through the sky like a souped up razer scooter and deposited 1 fully equipped Seto Kaiba in a Buzz Lightyear jetsuit.

THE RECOVERY.

Seto always watching over his Brother, ready to save this awkward party if it kills him (and it really should, that suit is held together by two seat-belts), making sure to get on that platform before Yugi starts going off about how he’s half an Ancient Egyptian. (Ah, life before social media. You could just be hella famous and also half a dead dude and people would just not know. I kinda miss the time before I knew literally everything about everyone.)

Please admire how close those flames are to setting Mokuba’s heavily hairsprayed mane completely alight. It would be an unforgettable spectacle.

These were absolutely just random ass jet packs that Gozaburo Kaiba made to kill hell tons of people, right? Like Seto found it in the family cabin, clutched to the heart of some crispy fried corpse and was like “neat! Mokuba! I found a cool toy!” and just plucked that thing out of that skeleton’s clutches and has been flying around for months?

Like this is Seto Kaiba’s Butter Glider, right?

Seriously what type of vehicle license do you need for one of these things? RIP My ‘Seto only has a scooter license’ headcanon.

Which I’m only even thinking about because I’ve had to try and make an appt with the DMV for days to get a freakin REAL ID. I went to sleep in 2019 and I could fly on a plane. I woke up in 2021 and it’s like “Want one last screw you?” and just...can 2020 please stop screwing me over? It’s March.

Anyway, the Jet is removed soon after, so no, this is not part of his new outfit. He goes right back to his Post-S4-Trauma-Normcore.

After wrestling this competition out of his brother’s hands and confusing everyone in the audience, Roland must have gotten the memo to cut the microphone before Seto got too excited and we were quickly ushered on to the next stage of the tournament.

One sec...the BTS Mashup playlist I just clicked on did a Black Swan X 7 rings mashup and it’s the worst thing my ears have ever heard.

Holy crap. I had to actually turn down my volume. Like...Ariana Grande already has music that has way too many overlapping singing parts on it--and then lets just stick a 52-person boy band on top? That’ll fix it. Yeah. Go ahead.

Wow. Even I had to change the song and you know how much I enjoy pop culture mistakes.

Spot the Mickey but like a million times easier because it’s a Massive Dick Shaped Dragon.

Yep. That’s my grocery shopping outfit. Except maybe not a lab coat and a duel disk. Wish I had a duel disk, that would make social distancing just a hell ton earlier. Just a “Yo, only one person in checkout, please” and then bap them on the head with a propelled discuss/hologram.

Anyway, Grocery shopping/Doctor man dueled the Purple Hair Boy, and considering that Purple Hair got screen time and shook Yugi’s hand once--I think that Doctor man doesn’t stand a freakin chance.

Good. I hate him.

Also, every time he breathes he’s gonna fog up his glasses. I have experience in this area. He can’t read his own cards in the same way I can’t read my phone if I’m in the refrigerated aisle.

So the way this tournament works, is everyone has to sit in the stadium to watch the show. Kinda like showing up to a football stadium just to watch a recorded TV monitor...but then again...that is how it feels to watch a football game at a football stadium when it’s live (at least with the tickets I usually get.)

And as we watch Grandpa waiting for his competitor, we find out that his competitor (Joey) is too busy eating snacks to give him the time of day.

Why do cartoon hot dogs always have lettuce? Is that seriously supposed to be relish? Or is there a place in the world where you put lettuce on your hot dog?

Sorry, bro has just informed of his favorite hot dog order, which is absolutely terrible so I will share it with you: a Five Guys hot dog with ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, onions, mushrooms, pickled peppers, and you guessed it--topped with freakin lettuce.

My own kin. How am I over 30 and just finding out that my baby brother thinks it’s normal to walk into a restaurant with normal god-fearing law-abiding people and order lettuce and mushrooms on a hot dog?

I have fully failed him.

The rest of this episode is watching both Joey Wheeler and Mokuba have a shared panic attack while Seto does freakin nothing.

Please remember that Seto has both a jetpack and a dragon wife plane and could have easily solved this problem. But nah.

Then again, Seto Kaiba has given this crew so MANY rides, that maybe he’s tired of being the Soccer Mom for the team?

Like they don’t actually say this episode, but Seto was the one in charge of like...this entire place, do you think he made the 2 for 1 special just to get Joey where it hurts the most? Or does it actually not take any subterfuge to screw Joey Wheeler because he’s just naturally this way?

Like Mokuba wasn’t there when Joey was told “stay right here, and then we will all go together to fight Dartz” and Joey was like “I’mma save Mai from herself although she told me not to!” and then he Hella Died. But, Mokuba did see the result, AKA, Joey’s dead body being carried on the back of Tristan. Maybe Mokuba never realized that Joey died because he went out of his way to be late?

Lets do a tally of every time I can recall with my dodgy memory that Joey was threatened to be DQ’d/pretty much was DQ’d either by his own fault or no fault of his own

-When he wasn’t allowed to go on the boat to Murder Island because he was a stupid nobody kid who did not have a dueling glove

-When he wasn’t actually supposed to be in Pegasus’ tourney and was, in fact, secretly using half of Yugi’s entrance ticket the entire time

-when Bandit Keith stole the ticket that Joey got from Yugi so then Joey had to borrow Mai’s ticket although she had just used it so it really shouldn't have counted. Because, really anyone could have just piggy backed off of each other’s ticket until the whole boat went through that castle.

-When his account was hacked to get entered into Kaiba’s tourney when Kaiba very clearly told him he could not apply solely because he was Joey Wheeler.

-When he was late to his sister’s eye surgery because he got mugged by Marik’s Rare Hunters, so she almost refused to do the surgery.

-When Joey got possessed by Marik, and as Marik, threatened to murder everyone else in the tournament including both of the Kaiba brother’s who’s tournament it was, and then chained himself to Yugi Muto to throw both of them to the bottom of the ocean.

-I think there was a point when he threatened to attack Kaiba in Kaiba’s own tourney while not possessed? Like several times?

-when he got struck by Lightning and almost did not stand up fast enough after being struck by lightning, which is apparently a type of DQ in Duel Monsters.

-When he tried to save Mai from getting hit by a fireball, but then Yugi did it instead, and then so many people were standing on the dueling platform that Kaiba couldn’t possibly DQ them all.

-When he entered the restricted area of the blimp in order to hassle Kaiba into landing the Blimp, which Kaiba did not do.

-When Marik killed Joey before Joey could press the “go” button on his duel disk to play the card that should have won Joey the match.

-When he was dueling a lawyer in a digital universe but then the dice was like...weighted? So Noah had to walk over and be like “The hell is this weighted dice? This is my perfect digital world? How did you even do that?” and then Joey won because the match was no longer legit.

-When Joey yelled at Noah too much and so Noah turned Joey to stone for being a rude ass spectator

-When Mai was like “Wheeler and Valon, listen closely: do NOT murder each other” and then Joey did a murder on Valon so she was like “I guess I have no choice, I was very clear” and killed Joey straight up.

-When Joey decided to block Seto’s fireballs while Joey Wheeler WAS a playing card, somehow disrespecting both Dartz and Seto Kaiba at the same time.

-When Joey was playing cards but then got absorbed into a giant Leviathan and basically couldn’t play anymore after that.

-There’s probably hell ton of S0 stuff I just haven’t seen yet.

-This episode

And Joey runs fast for a montage of wacky things that really have no business being in a theme park. Things like this:

(remember when Bakura almost died from a rock that ended up being a balloon? It comes full circle.)

The stuff that the Kaiba brother’s think is normal and fun.

Anyway Joey fights off a bunch of hologram snakes and bats and everyone is like “Should we tell him it’s just holograms???” And it’s like wow, guys, how many times have these ‘holograms’ straight up murdered Joey Wheeler and everyone else on this cast? Too many? Because I have a google doc with so many deaths on it. 7,805,844,048, to be exact.

Anyway, he gets there with five seconds to spare and Mokuba’s like “well at least you were still entertaining while we filmed you in front of a live audience being a total spaz for 15 minutes straight, so I’ll let you go.”

Grandpa and Joey start playing, Joey completely oblivious that this is just an older Muto, while Hawkins walks up awkwardly and is like “hey guys. I’m so sorry about this.”

(welcome to my font choices, for those new here, I have to make weird font color choices to make sure it’s legible for the colorblind and also for the non-colorblind. This one is not much contrast, so I may change it up in the future, but for now, this is Grandpa Muto’s new font. I apologize to every graphic designer reading this. Please don’t tell anyone who has ever hired me for graphic design about this blog.)

What’s funny about this exchange is that after they find out that Yugi’s Grandpa is Apdnarg (HOLY my brain cannot get around the spelling for that, and I will not change it in the caps. I cannot do a ‘pdn’ ever again), they don’t stand on his side of the field or anything. Hawkins is legit Solomon Muto’s only fan during this exchange and like...damn. Way not to back your Grandpa, Yugi.

Yugi immediately strides up to Mokuba to non-confrontation-ally inform him that he has stepped over a line and Mokuba is like “what are these things you say called ‘lines?’”

According to Mokuba, Solomon Muto begged him to be in the competition so he could relive his glory days (glory days making no sense here, because the game has only been released for the past 15 years, so glory days is like...the before times that can only be referring to disgraced archeologists and Pegasus ((who is, in his own way...a disgraced archeologist, too))) and Mokuba was like

“You trained Yugi Muto, right? Hey that’s good enough for me. This drama is gold. People will eat it up. Hell yes. Don’t be afraid to abduct him a little bit. Maybe trap a couple people in a digital hellscape for a little while? Now we go by Pegasus house rules here, so fire as many lasers as you want, but just make sure not to hit anyone in the face. Oh man, we are going to be swimming in cash. Love it, Muto Sr, love it.”

But I dunno, I feel like Grandpa won’t make it past next episode. It is Joey. We kinda need him to make it past Ep 4 of the arc. If Grandpa Muto becomes the new Joey Wheeler, that will be a weird transition for this show to make.

But that’s all for today, as always, here is the link to read these in chrono order becuase there’s SO MANY that you don’t need to read backwards--don’t do it--just use the chrono tag (and I don’t know if you can add compound tags, but I did separate the Season from the Episode, so if you write S4, it should only pop up stuff from S4. I didn't’ do that to seasons 1-3 though because I just...didn’t.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

And because I brought it up: here it is, the best BTS Mashup that I found on my deep dive. Like legit--this one isn’t a mess:

Most of other ones are horrible in a fascinating way. Like I’m not even a BTS fan, I think I sort of age out of that metric, I’m just bored and quarantined. And lets be real, we all appreciate a good bop when we hear it.

[meltingheartsandcores]

Yoooo your new fic is so cool!! How will lwj react to finding out about his daughter?

So, when I wrote the story, I had no idea, hence why I ended it there. But I was thinking on how to answer this last night, and ended up writing an entire second chapter at like one am. And then editted it through my Bio lecture (which was not my best idea but it’s just a kahoot quiz rn so not that bad of idea) but also means it’s lightly editted at best, sorry.

Oh and for Daiyu’s characters, I’ve lost the file that initially had them, but I’m like 80% sure they were 黛玉 which should be Dark Jade if I’m not wrong.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the story, I’ve put this under a read more because it’s long, lol.

Lan Wangji was not happy when Lan Xichen revealed that they did not know where Wei Wuxian was. Nie Mingjue was not happy with Lan Wangji pouting, so Lan Xichen had to stop several attempts of just telling Lan Wangji the school they had picked the kids up at yesterday and the park.

Just because they found out about Daiyu that way, does not mean Wangji has to. In Lan Xichen’s opinion at least. Truly it was up to Wei Wuxian.

So, while Nie Mingjue was cooking breakfast, Lan Xichen texts Wei Wuxian a very simple;

Wangji is here. Would you like to see him?

The question feels a little ridiculous to ask, after all they had just cleared up a major misunderstanding, the only reason Lan Xichen was aware of that they broke up, why wouldn’t Wei Wuxian want to see Lan Wangji? Then again, it has been five years. While Wei Wuxian asked after Lan Wangji’s relationship status, he gave nothing of his own. Aside from the fact that he was living with Wen Qing.

Who, to Lan Xichen’s knowledge, Wei Wuxian hadn’t been all that close to before they had broken up. And considering he was told the Wens moved away from the city barely a week after Wei Wuxian left the Jiangs, there wasn’t much time for him to get so attached to move across the country with them.

So, while waiting for Wei Wuxian to text back, Lan Xichen did his best to distract Lan Wangji. Except, Lan Wangji was not having it.

“Xiongzhang,” Oh that tone was not good. “If Wei Ying does not wish to see me, just tell me.” Lan Wangji asks, sounding serious but looking, to Lan Xichen at least, like if he did as asked he would be breaking Lan Wangji’s heart.

“I’m sure Wei Wuxian wishes to see you. The problem is, is that this is now rather fresh for him. And there are some things he’s told me that make me concerned to just, point you in his vague direction.” Lan Xichen explains since, yes, it was odd for him to be restraining Lan Wangji. In their teenage years Lan Xichen all but pushed Lan Wangji to hang out with Wei Wuxian. And sometimes he did, actually physically push Lan Wangji to hang out with Wei Wuxian.

“He disappeared five years ago without a word.” Lan Wangji states, reminding himself of that oddity before asking, “What happened?”

And the conversation Lan Xichen did not want to have. “After he left the Jiang family, he came to the house to spend the night as he hadn’t expected to be kicked out so soon. You were out with me,” Lan Wangji nods, remembering the night he very much did not want to spend out of the house, “so Uncle answered the door. He told Wei Wuxian you wanted nothing to do with him, and to never contact the Lan family again.” Lan Xichen admits, wincing when Lan Wangji’s eyes go coldly furious. “Of course, this is only what Wei Wuxian has told me, I have not had the chance to hear what Uncle has to say on this.” Lan Xichen reminds, but it didn’t matter. Lan Wangji cared about what Wei Wuxian heard, not what their Uncle meant all those years ago. It does, at this point, seem more important. Even if Uncle hadn’t said so in so many words, it did result in Wei Wuxian disappearing for five years with Lan Wangji’s daughter.

“You should speak to him.” Lan Wangji states coldly, clearing meaning for Lan Xichen to get an explanation that does not result in Lan Wangji dropping contact with all of them and moving in with Wei Wuxian.

Lan Xichen’s not entirely sure that’s not going to happen anyways, considering Daiyu.

Thankfully, Lan Xichen’s phone goes off with an alert, and he’s relieved to see Wei Wuxian texted him back, and the message also relieves, a little.

What the fuck. How the fuck did he get here. I’m not kidding, the trains don’t run overnight here, it’s literally impossible for him to be here. What the fuck. Oh, but, send him to the Starbucks. There’s literally only one in the town so. I’ll meet him there at 10

The idea of going to Starbucks makes Lan Xichen want to send Wangji to the park, but he ignores it and instead repeats the place and time, and Lan Wangji immediately gets on his phone to get a cab to the city. Lan Xichen could offer to drive Lan Wangji himself, or even their car, but he wants some time with Nie Mingjue. And he wants their car at their place tomorrow morning, which if all goes well, Lan Wangji will not be returning to the cabin.

So he lets Lan Wangji leave in a cab.

--

Lan Wangji will admit his actions the previous night were illogical. And rude. First he hung up on his brother, then he ran out on his Uncle without a word (although considering what Lan Xichen told him, he doesn’t feel bad about it anymore) and paid a lot of money to be taken to the rather remote town Wei Wuxian had decided to live in. But now that he knows where Wei Wuxian was, how close he was, he was more than eager. He had been looking for Wei Wuxian for the past five years, never with any success. He had never been sure what had caused Wei Wuxian to leave without a word before, always thought to the weeks previous for anything he’d done. Now that he knows the truth...

He wishes he never agreed to go out with Lan Xichen that night.

But he cannot change the past. All he can do is cherish and love Wei Wuxian now.

Even if that means going to Starbucks.

Lan Wangji pays the cab and walks up to the Starbucks. He can’t help the face he makes, the places are always too loud for him, and it’s a show of excess that makes him twitch. Wei Wuxian always liked them, so he always made an effort to at least tolerate the places, but he couldn’t help the cringe.

Of course, the cringe drops from his face as he hears a familiar bark of laughter, snapping his head to the side to see Wei Wuxian. Looking the same as ever. No. Not the same. Older. More lines, more age, but no less beautiful. With a bling bright smile, “What’s with Lans and Starbucks?” Wei Wuxian asks laughing.

“Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji whispers, before processing the question and answering, “You know our principles, do you not think it’s the opposite of everything we value?”

Wei Wuxian shrugs, tilting his head to the side, “I guess. Counterpoint, their Frappuccino’s are delicious.”

“Excessive amounts of sugar.” Lan Wangji counters, feeling sixteen again and like lecturing Wei Wuxian on what those drinks will do to his health.

“Hey, some sugar is good. Besides, I don’t think I ever got you to try their Matcha Frapp.” Wei Wuxian says, grabbing Lan Wangji’s arm and dragging him into the Starbucks.

“Why.”

“Why not?” There was the smile again, bright and beautiful.

And Lan Wangji couldn’t argue. This Starbucks was quieter, than the ones Wei Wuxian would drag him to years ago, Wei Wuxian orders quickly for them both, and Lan Wangji did nothing but stare.

“Aiyah, Lan Zhan, what’s with the staring?” Wei Wuxian asks after noticing while waiting for their drinks, an amused smile gracing his lips.

Lan Wangji debates his answer, he could say many things, most would probably make Wei Wuxian blush, but in the end he decides on, “Worried Wei Ying will disappear again.”

Wei Wuxian huffs a laugh, “Lan Zhan.” Wei Ying shakes his head, and then his smile drops, which makes Lan Wangji furrow his brow, “So, how much did Lan Xichen tell you?”

“He told me you were here. And what Uncle said. Which was untrue.” Lan Wangji states, not sure what else there was to say. Perhaps how Wei Wuxian chose this place?

Wei Wuxian chuckles, “Yeah, Lan Xichen made that clear yesterday.” Wei Wuxian scratches his nose three times, clearly thinking about something, considering his next actions. Normally it would predate a prank, but Lan Wangji has the distinct feeling Wei Wuxian is not going to be pulling pranks right now. “So, he just said that?” Lan Wangji nods, becoming confused. “Let’s wait for our drinks.” Wei Wuxian decides, confusing Lan Wangji further, but all he does is nod. For now, he’s fine with Wei Wuxian setting the pace.

When they get their drinks and sit down, Lan Wangji eyes his green frapp with contention, only taking a sip when prompted by Wei Wuxian. It wasn’t, terrible. He still didn’t like it. But it was better than the other frapps Wei Wuxian has had him try over the years.

He still didn’t drink more beyond that sip.

Wei Wuxian sighs and sips at his drink a little, before setting it aside, ��Well, I suppose I can’t do this the same way I did it with Lan Xichen and Dage.” Lan Wangji furrows his brow slightly, becoming confused once more. “Not unless you’re willing to wait five hours.” Lan Wangji shakes his head, he was not in the mood to be waiting today. Not for long. He’s finally seeing Wei Wuxian again. Wei Wuxian nods, “Didn’t think so. Uh, so. How to say this...”

“You say what you are thinking.” Lan Wangji states, almost on reflex, having said it to Wei Wuxian so many times when they were together, when Wei Wuxian was having trouble putting words to his thoughts.

“I’m thinking how to tell you I was pregnant without breaking your brain.” Wei Wuxian retorts, clearly on reflex, as he always would when Lan Wangji would make that remark. Normally it allowed for Lan Wangji to assist in phrasing, as while Wei Wuxian was better at conversational talking than Lan Wangji, he also typically just trailed off and made half sentences he expected the people around him to understand. While Lan Wangji would consider his words until he knew exactly what he was going to say. Making it easier sometimes, for Lan Wangji to assist.

This time however.

Lan Wangji blinks.

Once.

Pregnant.

Twice.

Pregnant

Thrice.

‘Wei Ying was pregnant when he left.’

Four times.

“And I broke you, shit.” Lan Wangji was not truly paying attention to Wei Wuxian, he should be. Now more than ever. But he can’t.

‘Wei Ying and I had a child.’

‘Wei Ying and I have a child’

No. Maybe not. Wei Wuxian could've- “Did you keep it?” Legally, Wei Wuxian wouldn't have been able to abort without Lan Wangji's permission. But then, legality has never been a concern to Wei Wuxian for all Lan Wangji has known him.

Wei Wuxian blinks, clearly caught off guard by the question. “Uh, yeah. Her name is Daiyu, she’s four. Turning five. In a couple of months actually.”

“Daiyu.” Lan Wangji repeats, nodding, it’s a nice name. She’s four. “May I meet her?” Did Wei Wuxian want him in her life? Did he want Lan Wangji in his? Maybe he met someone else? Maybe what Uncle said stuck with him hard enough that he doesn’t want anything to do with Lan Wangji anymore.

“Well. She’s at school. Well, not school. Qing-jie said she could start next year if she really wants to, but four is too young.” Wei Wuxian shrugs, “I didn’t start school til I was nine so, I don’t really have an opinion. Or, I don’t get one.” That felt wrong. But Lan Wangji has not being helping Wei Wuxian, so, he also does not get an opinion. He thinks. “But there are these activities that go on at the school. From eight to eleven, and then from twelve to three. Technically she’s too young for those too, but the organizer is scared of Qing-jie, so, she’s allowed.” Wei Wuxian nods, “Our daughter is terrifyingly smart Lan Zhan. She might take over the world.”

“She will deserve it.”

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian exclaims, “You cannot endorse your daughter taking over the world.”

“If she can do it, why shouldn’t she?”

Wei Wuxian’s mouth moves, clearly intent on saying something but nothing comes out but a bark of laughter, “Holy shit. Wen Qing is never going to believe me being the sane parent. What the fuck.”

Ah, too much? He does have four years to make up for. Besides, why shouldn’t he support their daughters business ventures? Or would this be politics? Ah, it would be politics. In that case, “Not until she is at least fourteen.”

“...You’re so going to be the soft parent.” Was Wei Wuxian’s only comment. Then he checks his phone and stands up, “We should start walking over to the school. You can meet Daiyu, and we’ll see if she took our conversation last night to heart.”

Lan Wangji furrows his brow slightly at that, standing as well. Did, Did Daiyu not have a high opinion of him? No, of course she wouldn’t. No matter what Wei Wuxian said, he has been absent. Wei Wuxian chucks both their drinks, which seems like a horrible waste but Lan Wangji was not about to suggest he actually finish that drink, so he follows Wei Wuxian out without comment.

“Does she not like me?” Lan Wangji asks as Wei Wuxian leads them to the school.

Wei Wuxian hums, “It’s not that. It’s just, ok, for the past five years, it’s been the general belief that you essentially had your Uncle break up with me for you in like, the shittiest way. So, in general the Wens aren’t the Lans biggest fans. After Lan Xichen explained what actually happened, the adults are all coming around. Daiyu seemed to be also, but it might still take a while. I mean, yesterday she thought you wanted nothing to do with her.”

“Incorrect.” Lan Wangji would never not want anything to do with his child. He only wishes he had known about her sooner.

Wei Wuxian snorts, “Yeah, explained it to her last night. We shall see if she remains unconvinced.”

He hopes not. He would like to meet her. He would like to help raise her. He should move out here. “If Daiyu is amicable, how do you feel about me moving out here?” He should ask. It might be overstepping. They did break up five years ago, technically.

Wei Wuxian blinks, clearly surprised, “Ah, to spend time with Daiyu? I don’t know how your uncle would feel if you moved out here, maybe you could use the Nie’s cabin every few weeks, for visitation? That way you could still work, and meet people.”

Why would Lan Wangji want to meet people? He hates people. Wait. Lan Wangji considers the words, coming to the conclusion that it was a euphemism. But for- Oh. Ew. “No people. Only Wei Ying.”

Now Wei Wuxian was surprised and confused, and he chuckles awkwardly, “Lan Zhan, it’s been five years.”

“It’s only ever been Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji affirms, then, softer, “If Wei Ying no longer wishes for a relationship...” it would hurt, but he would get over it.

(He would not. He would spend his decades with the bunnies Wei Wuxian got him writing sappy love songs. As he’s been doing for five years. Although, in those decades, he might actually relent to Nie Huaisang’s plans of recording and selling those songs.)

Thankfully Wei Ying shakes his head, “Ah no! That’s not-” Wei Ying nods, and steals Lan Wangji’s wording, “Only Lan Zhan.”

It makes Lan Zhan smile softly, entirely entranced by Wei Wuxian, entirely in love with the man in front of him.

When they arrive at the school, there are children running about the front area on the grass. “Oh, they must’ve let out early. We still have ten minutes.” Wei Wuxian comments idly. Lan Wangji was curious as to what he planned for them to do for ten minutes, but that was moot now. Instead, Wei Wuxian was scanning the yard, presumably for Wei Daiyu. Eventually he seems to find her since he makes several ‘come over’ motions.

Soon enough a small child barrels into Wei Wuxian’s legs. “Oof. Nice to see you again too.” Wei Wuxian jokes, smiling down at their daughter.

Daiyu doesn’t look at Wei Wuxian, instead, still clinging to Wei Wuxian’s leg, she turns her head slightly to look at Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji’s breath catches in his throat, she had Wei Wuxian’s nose and chin. He crouches down to be on her level. “I am Lan Wangji, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Wei Daiyu.”

Wei Wuxian snorts, “You don’t need to be formal with your own daughter Lan Zhan. A-Yu,” Wei Wuxian puts a hand on Daiyu’s back, making the young girl look up at him, “this is your A-Die.”

Daiyu returns her gaze to Lan Wangji, “Why are you here now?”

“I was told where you were.” Lan Wangji states truthfully.

“How come you didn’t look for us?” Daiyu demands.

“I did.” Lan Wangji admits, making Wei Wuxian stop, blinking in shock, “But your A-Niang is very good at disappearing.”

Daiyu seemed to consider before nodding, accepting that answer, “Are you staying?”

“If you’ll let me. If you want me here, I will be here for you, for the rest of my life.” Lan Wangji promises.

Lan Wangji worries, for a moment, that they were the wrong words as tears well up in Daiyu’s eyes, but then she was in his arms, burying her face in his shirt, soaking it with tears and snot- not that Lan Wangji minded- telling him he was never allowed to leave. Lan Wangji wraps his arms around his daughter, holding her close with a soft smile on his face.

So, they were the right words.

Lan Wangji smiles up at Wei Wuxian, who seemed utterly relieved and happy, just smiling softly at the pair, Lan Wangji knows he still irrevocably in love with Wei Wuxian, and seeing him like this makes him confident that Wei Wuxian still loves him. With that, Lan Wangji knows with absolution, that he's moving out here.

Whether he tells anyone is still up for debate.

[chalkrevelations]

Episode 31 of Word of Honor, and in many ways OH MY GOD YES, but also, no, show, wtf?

As in, wt actual f is going on? Literally, what is happening?

(Spoilers, so scroll away and come back later, if you need to.)

So, first thing’s first: I feel like this one may end up a bit short, because a lot of it is likely to be just a bunch of keysmash flailing? (EDIT: No, I just came back up here to the top from the bottom, because this is NOT AT ALL any shorter than usual.) I’ll attempt a bit more than exclamation points and worry over whether my poor heart is able to take this, but we’ll see how it goes, because the first thing I’m going to do is say I knew it! and I told you so! I knew you weren’t planning to die, Zhou Zishu. I did call you a liar after Ep 30, and I was right. I mean, what’s the point of having the terrifying master of the Ghost Valley as your boyfriend husband if he’s not going to rescue you after you’ve been kidnapped for attempted ravishment by the evil prince? And get you the best wedding present ever, i.e., a bunch of new disciples? Omg, Zhou Zishu’s face when Wen Kexing finally calls himself a disciple of Four Seasons Manor! (I think he’s so overwhelmed, he doesn’t even realize when WKX calls him “shixiong” a minute before that!) Wen Kexing’s tiny pained smile that he just can’t seem to help when ZZS lays his hand on WKX’s head! That long shuddering breath ZZS lets out, and the way his shoulders just drop, like he’s finally let go of a huge weight! (The worry this brings me, because there are five and a half episodes left, my dude, and your husband is a troublemaker, and I would not be getting complacent, if I was you.) The fact that WKX has knelt to ZZS and called him zongzhu in front of the Ghost Valley contingent – there’s gotta be some political implications to that. Horseback riding! The way WKX keeps holding (up) ZZS! Lol at WKX being all, you all can leave now, we can take our honeymoon alone from here! ZZS knew he would come (I told you so)! Their smiles! Their soft little faces! (Merciless killers! How so fucking adorable?) The hairpin! MARRIED, Y’ALL. Censorship? I don’t know her. ANYWAY, that’s all just a bunch of flailing reaction to the first almost 20 minutes of emoporn. Also, Zhang Zhehan, you should not do suffering so pretty. It makes me feel like a bad person for still enjoying your face so much when your character is in so much physical and emotional distress.

Secondly, show. We need to talk. You should not be this opaque. I’m trying to piece together everything that’s happened in (vaguely) chronological order:

Sometime before dying (before breaking his heart meridians?), Han Ying tells Wen Kexing about the Four Seasons Remnants back with Prince Jin. All of Ep 30 happens, with Zhou Zishu and Xie Wang both making a mess of Awful Prince’s/Yifu’s plans. Xie Wang, the rest of the Scorpions, and the Ghost Valley team retreat back to a lair. Which lair? Who knows, at this point. Cao Weining talks to Fan Shishu. (He explicitly tells this to A-Xiang.) But does he also confront Mo Huaiyang? Because I feel like it must be significant that we get the same turn of phrase to describe Zhao Jing’s relationship with Xie Wang – asking a tiger for its skin – from Mo Huaiyang to Fan Shishu, and then attributed to Cao Weining when A-Xiang quotes it to WKX in the same ep. The show even emphasizes this for us to catch by drawing attention to A-Xiang’s use of it via her struggle to remember the idiom properly. (A. This episode’s convo between Mo Huaiyang and Fan Shishu, which is when we see Mo Huaiyang actually use the idiom, happens AFTER Cao Weining and Gu Xiang leave Gentle Wind Sword Sect. I went back and checked, and it is Mo Huaiyang who uses it, not Fan Shishu. B. In this same convo, Fan Shishu says he still needs to explain all this to the disciples somehow, so C. Was there a prior, unseen convo between just Cao Weining and Mo Huaiyang in which Mo Huaiyang practiced his excuses on poor, hapless Cao Weining first?)

Anyway, Cao Weining then goes to A-Xiang, who’s lit. and fig. in the dark at this point, in her rustic cabin outside the gated community. I notice Cinnamon Roll already has his bag packed. He is done. He lays out the current political web, and A-Xiang seems pretty sure of Liu Qianqiao’s ultimate loyalty to WKX. This is probably important in what happens next. Gu Xiang and Cao Weining decide to run away and elope but then … get captured and taken to the lair. On purpose? A-Xiang did see Liu Qianqiao with Xie Wang in the Secret Cave, standing shoulder to shoulder with Du Pusa as an apparent top-tier henchwoman, and she probably expects to be protected, but this seems like a pretty big gamble. I suppose you don’t survive the Ghost Valley without learning to take some risks. A-Xiang then leads Xie Wang and the Ghost Valley contingent to WKX (at burned-down Four Seasons Manor?) to, she says, let WKX take down Xie Wang. She notes Xie Wang’s use of some potion to control everyone – I assume the Drug Man potion, and I assume the monthly antidote is what’s keeping everyone in the Ghost Valley from going full Drug Man?

WKX and Xie Wang confer in secret. Probably about how much they both hate Awful Yifu. I mean, I assume Xie’er still hates Awful Yifu at this point, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Probably a key point here: WKX is hiding whatever this was about from his husband. My dude, why are you still like this? I guess that explains the pained cast to that tiny little smile earlier. WKX then takes some of the Ghost Valley contingent and coordinates with the Four Seasons Remnants back in Prince Jin’s territory to rescue ZZS. Husband safely rescued, WKX now heads back to Ghost Valley, to … abdicate? He promises A-Xiang he’s going to come back safely, and my dude, I’m trying to believe you. I really am. I’m trying to have as much faith in you planning to be back all along as I had in ZZS not planning to die in Jin Palace all along, but here’s a key difference: HE LET YOU IN ON HIS PLAN. Which you were a key part of. I find your secrecy, by contrast, concerning.

Other things:

Love the little moment between Gu Xiang and Liu Qianqiao and Luo Fumeng when Beauty Ghost and Tragicomic Ghost turn to Xie Wang in righteous indignation and want to know what the fuck he thinks he’s doing to their little girl. Compare the reaction of these two moms to Happy Ghost being all, “Nope, this is a complete and total in with Wen Kexing right here in a pretty pink dress.” The show continues to draw a fairly bright line between the characterization of the women in the Department of the Unfaithful - who are terrorizing certain people, true, but also watching out for each other after ending up down on their luck – and the general run of men in Ghost Valley, who are basically rotten sociopaths straight out of Batman’s rogues gallery and will sell you out in a minute for their own gain. Yes, this has been made fairly explicit in Wen Kexing’s and A-Xiang’s commentary in past eps and later in this ep about trying to get the Department of the Unfaithful out of the line of fire while not caring if the jianghu burns down the rest of Ghost Valley, but this isn’t just favoritism or a whim, just some fond memories of Luo Fumeng being kind to them a couple of times in the past. I think there’s some commentary here on the kind of men who are so far gone they find themselves outside the bounds of “civilized” society and the kind of women who do – how much easier and quicker it is for a woman, that it could be any woman in the wrong circumstances, and how much further gone a man has to be than a woman to be considered a “devil.” We’ve seen these supportive interpersonal relationships among the women since Gu Xiang “adopted” her two girls in the first handful of episodes and told off Lovelace with the threat of Tragicomic Ghost – and the show is continuing to show it, not just tell it. It’s one of the things I’ve found frustrating about Wen Kexing a couple of times in past eps, when he’s trying to get A-Xiang’s two girls, or other women from the Department, to just leave and go do something else – I feel like even though WKX realizes their circumstances and their personalities are different from the rest of his Top Ten Devils, he’s not fully comprehending that they literally have nowhere else to go, that if they had any other options, they wouldn’t have ended up there in the first place. He called the two girls “puppies” when he talked about A-Xiang having to take care of them, but as Ghost Valley master, who’s enforced the independence of and protections for the Department of the Unfaithful, he’s walking away from his own basketful of puppies. Not to mention, this is one of the vanishingly small places in this particular version of the jianghu that we’ve seen women have any autonomy and power. I … think there may have been a few young female cultivators in Yueyang Sect, but while I’d have to go back and watch to be sure, I remember the Hero’s Conference being a whole bunch of men throwing their … weight around. Anyway, I also love that it looks like A-Xiang tries to kick Happy Ghost in the shin, because of course she does.

Visually, they had a cool thing going on there with the Tian Chuang behind WKX falling in concert with WKX lowering his fan, but they didn’t quite coordinate it enough, and then they cut away too soon. Bah. It was set up to be a very cool visual, if only they had committed to it. Meanwhile Duan Pengju, this asshole, omg. He’s trying to pull off the Collar of Evil and is not succeeding. Srsly, his Collar of Evil is droopy. It doesn’t stop him from monologuing like he’s the actual villain and not some sad-sack lackey. You showed the correct amount of amused disdain during your interaction, but I can’t believe you left him alive at the end of it, Wen Kexing.

I wasn’t really feeling Jing Beiyuan and Wu Xi up until this ep when Jing Beiyuan was teasing A-Xiang about her lack of shame over running away with her lover. OK, fine, you can stay, Qi Ye. Also, wow. Speaking of lack of shame, I can’t believe you just accused your husband of bride kidnapping right in front of everyone’s salads, because that is totally what just happened there.

So the band is (almost all) back together, minus Chengling, who has definitely found out in the worst possible way that one of his dads is the terrifying master of the Ghost Valley that massacred his family and sect. So, this should go well.

Lol at Xie’er lounging in Wen Kexing’s Ghost Valley master seat like some kind of consort. He’s already got a husband, Xie’er. One that would not be happy with a concubine running around, I think. I do wonder what the full scope of their plan/understanding is, bubbling away under this stare-down.

A note – WKX’s hair is styled differently in this ep in the Ghost Valley master scenes than it has been before. Previously, those side bangs were further forward and a little bit chunkier, which, I think, narrowed his face and also helped emphasize the wild-eyed look. They’re wispier and back further, now, which I think softens his face, even when he’s trying to look imposing. Makes him look more, dare I say, human.

And now, I’m going to go have a few Han Ying/Bi Xingming thoughts, actually. God, those months after ZZS left, can you imagine what that was like for them? Han Ying having watched those nails placed in Bi Xingming’s shifu in the first ep, and then having to turn around and go to Bi Xingming and tell him that ZZS was gone, with the seven nails in him? Both of them trying to hold the Four Seasons Remnants together – and then Ying-ge comes back one day and says he’s found ZZS? Mutual aid and comfort, my dudes. Also some projection. I’m just sayin’. Meet me, I guess - this kind of sideline action and extremely rare pair thing is how I tend to roll.

[rinharu-purple]

Lucien: MLQC’s Mastermind

Yes, I said that Lucien is the creepiest LI in my opinion, and I wouldn’t choose him in a million, billion years. BUT, Lucien is by far the one person, who is pulling the strings and is the driving force of the MLQC universe. He is the only person who acquires all the information from all sides and is connected to every important actor in the story. Therefore, Lucien has become the second LI I’ve started to follow more attentively. Mind that the ranking ist 1) Gavin 2) Gavin 3) Gavin 4) Lucien ;)

In my manifesto, why Gavin is MC’s choice, I’ve already mentioned briefly, that Lucien has the strongest EVOL among all the characters but is also the strongest character (it’s not the MC or the Black Queen, let’s not fool ourselves)

The Machiavellian

Before we talk about Lucien’s part in the MLQC universe, we should first look at him as person and observe the elements that make up his personality.

In the game, all our guys have their personal priorities. Gavin and Kiro are on the front line, fighting for peace and prosperity, Victor, well...I don’t think that he cares for anything else besides MC, maybe his position. But with Lucien, his priority is not a person or a concept, but rather a philosophy. Lucien wants to see the next step in human evolution and is determined to take any measures necessary to see it to it’s end. Other guys can not stand oblivious to other things that come up their way in achieving their goals but Lucien only has his eyes on the prize and to him nothing else matters, no one else matters and no ethics matter. 

Machiavellianism denotes cunningness and claims, that those dark triads use whatever means necessary to gain power. If we consider the choices Lucien has made throughout the story so far, we can clearly find his manipulative ways in getting other actors to the positions of his conjecture. He lies to MC and hides his personality as Ares, penetrates Black Swan to use their facilities, but also uses LFG’s resources for his R&D projects all the while concealing his true nature. 

Another trait of a Machiavellian, is that he is charismatic and friendly, all the while displaying no emotions. I think, there can be two possible reasons as to why Lucien has limited display of emotions. The first possible explanation has something to do with his parents passing and the trauma he suffered afterwards. Among all LIs Lucien is the one with the most loveless childhood and teenage years, the most important years in developing one’s psychological traits and during those years Lucien received alongside with Kiro the most blows. That resulted in him losing the connection to his emotions as a defense mechanism. 

Another possibility might be him losing the connection to his emotions as a result of a chemical reaction in his brain due to excessive testing Black Swan objected him to. Lucien’s EVOL was created in a lab and he was the first man-made Evolver. Lucien is called various times a psychopath, because he shows signs of psychopathy such as lack of remorse, empathy or compassion. It is said that that kind of behavior might occur due to a misconnection between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala. Considering the fact that Lucien’s parents were killed right in front of him and that he was both physically and psychologically abused for the coming years, this might have led him to experience an imbalance in his chemical balance. One might argue, that his altruistic actions in the orphanage are an evidence for his compassion, I think it is yet another disguise for his unethical ways of reaching his goals.

The Orchestrator

In all honesty no one is actively seeking alliances and keeps tabs on other’s actions for their agenda like Lucien does. Maybe Commander Leto but he mostly fails in drawing others to his side, because he is not able to speak in their pendants’ language or resonate with their perspective. Lucien, on the other hand, is gifted with an extraordinary ability to observe his surroundings and companions, making it very easy for him to talk to them in their terms and desires. Lucien doesn’t show much empathy, UNLESS, it contributes to his cause, in that case he can perfectly put himself in other’s shoes and plays them in such a meticulous way, that they join him willingly.

That is how Lucien directs MC successfully in entering the Black Cabin or in understanding the evolution core.

Lucien is not exactly a piece on a chess board, but is a player, who knows all the pieces very well, knows the rules of the game, has observed many games and took notes of how they all has turned out and therefore knows what kind of a game he is going to play. Just watch closely. how he co-operates with Kiro and the Black Queen. He knows that Kiro is using Black Swan for his goals, much like he does, so he uses his hacking abilities to access to information. The Black Queen is the initiator of everything in S1, so he makes sure to stay close to her. He knows that Victor is searching for MC and trying to understand the Evol gene, there he has an investor. 

The Cool, Calm and Collected Type

in the MLQC universe, everyone loses their composure at one point or another, because...who wouldn’t? Time and space warps constantly and people are also changing their stances depending on the time-space constellation they find themselves in. 

MC loses her cool almost on a daily basis, Gavin was in a constant haywire in the Daybreak era, Victor literally threw people into black holes in CH11 and freaked out as he saw the Black Queen for the first time and Kiro walks around in a bipolar state. So, everybody is pretty unstable due to understandable conditions but we never see Lucien lose his cool and this is one of his best qualities. 

Here is the thing about Lucien. This guy is always at least one step ahead of everyone and he achieves this by two simple rules: 

1) Acquire all possible information

2) Observe everyone and everything at all times

Why am I saying this? It lies in the basis of anxiety and angst. We humans tend to feel uncomfortable in the face of an uncertain situation, meaning in the wake of the unknown. MC is constantly anxious, because she doesn’t know what is going on, why is everyone after her, why is she blessed with the unconditional affection of 5 equally attractive men? (ehm, but not quite equally ehm *Gavin* hihi, sorry, Gavin-stan gotta Gavin-stan ^_^). Anyway you get the picture. Gavin went haywire in CH22 because he was pushed in a tight spot and therefore had angst. Same goes for Victor in CH11 his mind went blank as he saw history repeating itself and then in CH18 when he saw with his own eyes what could the girl of his dreams might become.

We don’t see Lucien in such deadlock situation though do we, and I think it is mainly because he is always prepared for every possibility and he can calculate them meticulously, because he possesses the largest chunk of information and also keeps tabs on everyone and everything that’s going on. So, when a crisis occurs he doesn’t freak out, sure he gets surprised at times, because the outcome of a a certain situation is the possibility, which he calculated to be no higher than 1% and yet there it is. But since he’s already took this into consideration, he has a plan. Combine this with his knowledge about the persons and organizations involved in the matter, then you have a calm Lucien, who is in control of the situation. Thus, he is calm. You can actually also bind this behavior of Lucien with that of a predator, whose movement are languid, is non-reactive and doesn’t mind turning his back to his opponents, since he doesn’t perceive them as a threat.

If this wasn’t enough, Lucien manages to joggle all of this without exposing himself. Even in the last stage of the play he never gets caught. Unless he willingly exposes himself, as in the case of revealing Ares to MC. MLQC actors can usually see through each other and use their weaknesses to meet their own ends. MC is obviously Gavin, Kiro and Victor’s weakness and their opponents can see this pretty easily. IT’s not quite the same with Lucien though and he doesn’t let himself be blackmailed or threatened by any weakness. He always keeps his cards close to his chest. 

Considering the fact that Lucin is the least outstanding LI, this is pretty impressive. So I guess this makes him the embodiment of the phrase “still waters run deep”.

The Renaissance Man

Lucien is a man of science and aesthetics. Explaining phenomenons with associations and loading them with philosophical substance. He doesn’t necessarily perceive things bluntly as they are, but interprets them in a meaningful way. The way he associates MC with a butterfly, how he wants to entrap her in ajar, so she wouldn’t get away, alas taking the only resource of color in his life away. Not only that, but he can also break down the matters at hand to its fragments and can therefore work his way up from there. He is blessed with a strong deduction ability, so he can connect the dots easily, come to a conclusion and act accordingly. No doubt that the other guys have very good deduction abilities, but because Lucien always has a bit of an information more than them, he can find the solutions just a little bit faster in my opinion. 

Reading is a necessity for his guy much like eating and drinking, Which is why we see him reframing events in the context of a certain story he’d read at some point in his life. With time, I will add here some of his quotes about certain situations to explain what I mean. Or even better, if you have some, that are evident in you opinion, you could add them in the comments. I really enjoy reading/hearing Lucien’s philosophical, scientific explanations to certain moments in MC’s life. They are always to the point and helpful.

-------------

So this is my very first analysis on Lucien and I have to admit, I still have  so many material to check on him, so if anything is missing please bear with me here :)

I was watching Joe’s Twitch while I wrote this, so there are many spelling, grammar mistakes, which will be corrected gradually.

This post will get better and better, scout promise!

[wiz-kyulifa]

I made this post on my main blog, and I had to do this myself because if not me, then who? Please enjoy a very self-indulgent short fic based on a very dumb post. Also, it’s my first fic in literal years, which tells you just how powerful this ship really is.

              “I’ve tried to hold myself back, but I won’t do it anymore. I admire you, Skywalker,” Din stated, fists clenched at his side so hard the leather creaked. “Marry me. Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum.”

              Luke’s face flushed deeply at the recognition of the Mando’a phrase – I hold you in my heart forever. Perhaps in another galaxy, at another time, those words would’ve touched him deeply and he would’ve run straight into the other man’s arms. Yet, after spending a month on Mandalore with the king, it only stung him. Din Djarin was a fearless warrior, a strong leader, and a caring father – all qualities that anyone would desire in a partner. It was part of the reason Luke stayed on this planet when he easily could’ve taken his son Grogu back to Yavin IV to train him in the Force. However, he had no filter and no compunction about letting his feelings about the Jedi Order be known at any given time. Luke understood a snide comment here and there, but he absolutely had a limit and this man would find any way he could to exceed it.

              “I suppose that I should be flattered, but I don’t exactly want your good opinion or your hand in marriage,” Luke spat out in shock. “I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any pain, but hopefully you’ll overcome it in due time and we’ll all move past this.”

              Din tilted his head to the side, with a sharp intake of breath heard through the vocoder of his helmet. “And what have I done to deserve such a rejection this time?” He shifted his weight to one leg, expecting yet another argument with the man before him. If they fought in a sparring ring as much as they fought with words, they would’ve been married already. “I mean, if you can find it within yourself to tell me, of course.”

             “I guess I should ask why it’s so beneath you to love me. Is it not right to reject you after you’ve rejected me so many times before? You’ve insulted me, my culture, and my abilities – and you wonder why I wouldn’t want to marry you?” Luke scoffed, turning his back. “Mand’alor, I think you’ve moved past insult into downright cruelty.”

              Din stared back at him; his features contorted under his visor in confusion. “So that’s what you think of me. I don’t understand what’s so utterly repugnant about my proposal, Skywalker. I only stated the obvious – the Jedi use magic tricks instead of actual fighting ability and lack the courage to face a real opponent. Clearly your skills outmatch any other Jedi, but I don’t see why I have to overlook the obvious here. Hell, I should think it shows quite a bit of deference on my part that I’m even here, with my feelings out in the open. I don’t know how you would expect me to ignore our differences, especially since the Jedi Order is no more and my people expect me to marry a warrior worthy of my clan.”

              Luke whirled around with a cold stare that somehow found Din’s eyes through the visor. “Well. I am so very sorry that my people don’t meet up to your warrior standards, Mand’alor,” he seethed, the title coming off his tongue like a curse. “And if the Jedi aren’t good enough for the Mandalorians, why would I be good enough for you now? Maybe if you weren’t so cruel, I would’ve been kinder; I can’t bring myself to do that now. From the very moment I met you, I knew you would act like this and condescend to me – I just had no idea how vile you could really be. You are the very last man in the entire galaxy I could even think to marry.”

              Stillness settled between them like an iron veil. Din felt the temperature sink and he wasn’t sure if it was due to the sinking feeling in his gut or if it was Luke using his Jedi trickery yet again. It certainly sent a message, and he wasn’t one to ignore a sign.

              “You’re right, Master Jedi. I understand completely,” Din relented. “I apologize for wasting your time, and that my proposal was too vile to consider.” He sighed deeply, shoulders visibly sinking and posture straightening out. “Be well on your journey, and I hope you find the happiness you seek elsewhere. Ret'urcye mhi.”

              Luke watched as Din turned on his heel and left the room, listening closely as he left the cabin entirely. He badly wanted to cry and let the anger and frustration wash over him, but he remained calm despite himself as he sank into the nearest chair with his face in his hands. He could feel the heat of his cheeks through the leather of his gloves as he sat there for an untold amount of time parsing through his thoughts.

              While he couldn’t help but feel a frisson of excitement and pride go up his spine at laying such a man low, the memory of the sheer disrespect he’d endured – and the king’s relentless pride – ensured that whatever bit of affection Din’s confession summoned within him died out as quickly as it grew. The taste of the man’s name grew bitter in his own mouth.

               If only Ben Kenobi had mentioned anything about courting a Mandalorian noble, Luke thought as he continued to sulk in silence.

You can also find this fic on AO3.

[poliel]

Surprise Egg: 6/13: Adoption

They could’ve perhaps gone straight to Gramble and asked him to adopt the egg but while they were both reasonably sure he’d say ‘yes’ putting that kind of pressure on him wouldn’t have been fair. And it potentially would’ve gotten the town rumor mill going and even in a small town, rumors could get out of control very quickly. They could’ve also gone to each person individually and asked everyone but that was a lot of work and again letting that kind of news possibly spread around unsupervised wouldn’t be wise. So the best and easiest course of action was to gather everyone in town and tell them all at once, asking for volunteers while doing so.

Filbo, amazing and wonderful as always, volunteered to be the one to deliver the news without Buddy even having to ask him to. Which was doubly good because it freed them up to keep watch how everyone reacted and hopefully observe how judgmental they were all likely to be. Buddy had encountered enough hostility from others over expressing their desire to never have kids when it was merely hypothetical, such judgment was only bound to be much worse when there was an actual egg in the equation. They weren’t going to tolerate it if it arose, especially since Filbo had already expressed feeling guilty over the decision.

“As you guys already know, Buddy and I have an egg,” Filbo said as soon as everyone had gathered in the center of town. Given how unsure he’d been just a little while ago, his voice was impressively almost steady, for him anyway. “We had a talk about it after they woke up and we have decided that being parent isn’t a good fit for us and that we should uh… put the egg up for adoption. Which is where you guys come in since you’re the only ones here who could possibly adopt it. So uh… any volunteers?”

The look on most everyone’s face was surprise. As expected, the expressed desire to not be a parent was a rare thing, even more so when an egg had already been born. No one looked mad or offended right off the bat though, seemingly so anyway because Cromdo always looked kind of angry.

Gramble unsurprisingly was the first to step forward. He didn’t get a chance to speak though as Cromdo stepped forward too, cutting him off. “What kind of grump actually wants to give their child up and never see them again? That just don’t make sense.”

“Geez Cromdo,” Beffica cut in, “you seem awfully into this egg. First you’re giving Filbo advice on how to take care of it and now you’re offended he doesn’t want to. And you got that dad tie in your hut, I was sure it was for a scheme but now I’m starting to think it might not be.”

He turned to growl at her. “What are you doing snooping around my cabin? That tie and why I have it ain’t none of yours or anyone else’s business. But…” he snapped back around to face Buddy and Filbo again, “if you two assholes really don’t got what it takes to care for that egg, I’ll do it.”

“No!” Gramble finally spoke up. “I want it. I’ve always wanted an egg but uh… Just let me adopt it, okay?”

“Well if Gramble wants it then I do too,” Wiggle came in with her almost sing-songy tone. “Maybe taking care of a little one will be the exact thing my muse needs to get kicked into gear.”

“You two know I’d take better care of it then Cromdo,” Gramble said. “Especially with Wiggle’s help.”

To nobody’s surprise Cromdo had an objection to that. “Nuh-uh, you’re half-starved and Wiggle just said she wants to use the grumpling solely for inspiration so how could you two possibly do a good job raising a kid?”

“Uh… for what it’s worth,” Triffany cut in before Gramble or Wiggle could do more than gasp in offense, “me and Wamby just had a quick talk and we got experience with raising youngins, two of them in fact and they turned out great. We was thinking about having another but uh… waited a bit too long it seems. So we’d like to be considered for adopting the egg too please.”

“Heck, I volunteer also,” Beffica said, raising a paw.

“You? Really?” Cromdo said, almost as incredulous as Buddy felt.

“Yeah. It’s none of your business why, but I think having a little grumpling might be nice.” Ah, yeah, probably something to do with her expressed belief that she was always gonna end up alone if Buddy had to guess. “Especially since with so many others here who want it too, I’d probably have plenty of help taking care of them and stuff, right?”

“That’s a great idea Beff!” Filbo cut in, pointing at her. “Since all you guys want it, you can maybe all adopt it? And like take turns with it or something. It wouldn’t even be that hard to do with how everyone’s practically neighbours here. And that way Buddy and I don’t have to choose. And, there’s that ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ saying. It’s probably true, right? So… if everyone’s cool with that…” he trialed off, opening his arms in a gesture for one of the potential adoptees to speak again.

“Well,” Wambus spoke up, “it’s your egg. If that’s how you and Buddy want us to do it then we could probably give it a go. It’d let me and Triffy continue focusing on our own stuff a lot too.”

Filbo turned to Buddy, the question on his face. Trying not to notice how everyone else was staring at them now too, they shrugged. “It can’t hurt, can it?”

Filbo turned back to face everyone else. “I guess that’s how we’re going to do it. You guys can figure out the specifics amongst yourselves, right?”

“Yep! And dibs on pouching the egg first.” Before she’d even finished speaking, Beffica was making her way over to Buddy. “Hey Bestie, I’ll take good care of them, I promise. I’ll make sure the others do too.”

“Thanks,” Buddy said as they handed the egg over with an internal sigh of relief. That had been surprisingly easy and quick to get taken care of and other than Cromdo no one had gotten openly angry at them. The whole thing was almost too good to be true.

As soon as it was safely in Beffica’s paws and before any of the others could get here, they turned and left. Fast walking away because they were done with all that and had important stuff to get back to.

“Wow, that went really well,” Filbo said as he fell into step with them.

“Yeah. No regrets, right?” Buddy certainly felt none.

“Uh… no actually. I still feel kind of bad about doing it or uh… wanting to do it I guess but… it’s a huge relief too.”

“Good.”

A few seconds later, they reached Filbo’s hut. Inside, they pulled their backpack up off the floor and opened it up to pull out Sprout. He seemed rather miffed about having been left in the dark for so long if his frantic skittering around against the walls of his buggy ball and agitated tone in his voice was anything to go by. They pushed him back into their pouch where he belonged, quieting him down immediately. Hmm… they were more attached to a strawberry with googly eyes than to their own egg. That was certainly a bit strange but it didn’t really matter, everyone was happier this way.

Next, they pulled out their camera and hung it around their neck. Then, after zipping the pack closed, they checked to make sure all their hunting equipment was firmly attached to it and that their notebook and recorder were safely in the side pocket before heaving it up onto their shoulders. They then turned to towards the exit where Filbo was standing watching them with a concerned expression on his face. Uh oh.

“You’re uh… not planning on heading out, are you?” he asked even though the way he was blocking the door made it pretty clear he already knew the answer and didn’t like it.

Buddy had to hold back a sigh at yet another delay. “I need to find the Snaxsquatch again and see if I can’t get it to communicate with me more.” And thank it for helping them out. “And I also need to hunt for food for everyone. And I still need to find Lizbert, remember? She’s kinda important for my story and your best friend so you should want me to find her as soon as possible.”

Filbo shifted his stance a bit so that he was blocking the door a bit more. “I do but… you literally gave birth yesterday. You need to rest.”

“I rested plenty already.” That had been the longest they’d slept perhaps in their whole life, especially if one didn’t count the half-awake state they’d been in when stumbling out to raid Wambus’ garden as being properly awake. “It was like midday yesterday when I went into labor and it’s past midday now. That’s like a whole twenty-four hours wasted already.” Not to mention all the time they’d wasted over the past few months because providing for the formation of the egg inside them had drained so much of their already sparse resources. Now that it was outof them, they could devote themself even more to finding Lizbert and completing their story.

Filbo’s frown deepened, making Buddy feel bad because they just wanted to make him happy. “Please. Just… for the rest of today. You can get back to work tomorrow after breakfast but… just take it easy for a little while longer.”

Buddy took a breath to insist on going out now because it was important. The story and finding Lizbert for her sake most of all but the sooner they finished, the sooner they could go home and eat real food again too. If they pushed hard enough, they could probably get Filbo to fold and let them go or perhaps he might firmly stand his ground for once, that’d be nice to see. But… they were still really tired and sore, their pelvis most of all but definitely they just hurt in general too. And they didn’t want to test Filbo’s newfound limits, not yet anyway, not right after the emotional conversation they’d just had about the egg and possibly breaking up over it. So… with a sigh they took their pack off and let it drop to the floor with a thump.

“Does this mean you’re not going out?” Filbo asked with hope and maybe a bit of pride in his voice.

“Yeah.” They put their precious camera away again, not bothering to hide the fact that they were unhappy about this. They reached down to pull Sprout out of their pouch too but… no, he got to stay just because. So instead they turned to look at Filbo again. “As soon as I’m up tomorrow morning, I’m heading out.”

“After breakfast.”

“No. I’ll eat breakfast while on the go.” It would give them an excuse to walk slow.

Filbo looked like he was going to protest but ultimately sighed and finally stepped away the door. “Okay, I guess that’s probably the best I can hope for, huh?”

“Yep.”

~

I'm allowed to dip into the same well of inspiration twice; half the town adopting the egg is inspired by the Adopted Egg AU. Conversations about that started up around the time I was getting close to writing this chapter and I liked it so half the town adopts it because that kind of thing is cute. Though, unlike the Adopted Egg AU, it doesn't eventually extend into everyone having a turn with the egg, only the group who spoke up have adopted it here.

Also, this was were the fic was supposed to end but it didn't feel complete yet especially with Buddy's instance on being like 'now that that's taken care of it's time for me to go run around and do stuff again' even though they'd just finished going through a surprise labor like 24 hours ago. So I continued writing until the physical fallout of the pregnancy and birth while they're so malnourished and stuff reach a conclusion as well.

[frangipanilove]

My take on 10x18 Find Me

When I first watched episode 10x18 Find Me, I was overwhelmed by how much symbolism there was in it, and I don’t think I was the only one who felt this way.

I’ve previously written a couple of posts about something I like to call the three/tree/trunk symbolism, or “Trunk Resurrection” part 1 and part 2, and I’ll refer to those for further reading to avoid this getting too long. I have a feeling it'll be long enough as it is, because there were so many amazing talking points in Find Me.

One of the first things we see in Find Me are the weird spikes/prongs sticking out of a tree. Later we see them sticking out of the doorframe of the front door in Leah’s  cabin. This is where I refer to the Trunk Resurrection posts for simplicity’s sake, but the short story is, I read the number “three” as synonymous with both «tree» and «trunk».

This is because in Still, we saw Beth and Daryl hiding in the trunk of a car. We also saw the number «3» written on the inside of the trunk, suggesting that «3» and «trunk» are synonymous. In Find Me, we saw Leah and Daryl hide behind the trunk of a tree. The tree trunk is a different representation of the «trunk» symbol, but it essentially symbolize the same thing, it is tool TPTB use to symbolize how Beth was saved from the walker horde some of us imagine surprised TF after Coda. I believe, like many of us do, that TF placed Beth in the trunk of a car after they had to run to get away from the approaching walker horde. They put her in the trunk of a car (foreshadowed by the trunk in Still and Alone) to save her from being eaten, and intended to return to her later to give her a proper burial. When they returned, she was «gone».

So when we see Daryl and Leah hide behind the trunk of the three, it’s the trunk symbolism we’re seeing. And the three spikes/prongs are also representations of the three/tree/trunk symbolism, because three/tree/trunk are synonomous.

The three prongs/spikes were placed on a wooden doorframe, the door was made of wood, and it had a big X, or cross, on it. And like I mentioned, I’m not going into the details of the three/tree/trunk theory here, but the way we see them laid out in this episode  pretty much confirms that these symbols are meant to be interpreted together. The three’s, the trees and the trunks are symbols which I read as pointing to the place where Beth was placed after Coda. Whether it was a real trunk, or a symbolical trunk, that we won’t know until we see it. And in the case of Leah’s cabin, I’m actually leaning towards interpreting the entire cabin as a trunk reference. It was painted blue, (blue clue theory), it was made of wood, and etymologically the word «trunk» can refer to a box, a coffin (think Daryl’s «bed» of choice in Still), the trunk of a car, a tomb (empty?), a carnival ride car as we saw with Rick in 7x12, a shipping container as we saw at the garbage heaps, or maybe even a music box. The «trunk» symbol can refer to a number of things. So when I say that Beth was placed in the trunk of a car after Coda, it could literally mean the trunk of a car, or any of the above.

So! Back to Leah’s cabin. There’s a door, it’s made of wood, it’s marked with three prongs/spikes on the doorframe, and it has an X on it. These are all references to the three/tree/trunk family of symbolism.

And directly on the inside of the door, we see Dog lead Carol to the hiding place, where the box with Daryl’s note is «buried» underneath the floor boards. The picture of Leah’s son Matthew is also buried there. It was not lost on me that Leah covers the hiding place with an animal hide, and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling fairly confident that it is a deer hide. We’ve seen time and again that TPTB use deer to symbolize Beth, and it’s only appropriate that one of the ways they make Beth references on this show is by utilizing a deer HIDE.

Get it? Something that’s hidden? Unseen? Buried? Represented by a deer HIDE? Makes perfect sense to me. Also, make sure to read read @twdmusicboxmystery‘s theory on deer symbolism. It has always been one of my favorites.

I’ll get back to the buried box shortly, but I want to make sure we all take a moment to appreciate how when we first saw the picture of Leah and Mathew, it was sitting out. Daryl looked at it while tied up in Leah’s chair.

The next time we see it, it appears as though Leah has retrieved it from it’s hiding place under the floor boards. This indicates that she at one point decided hide it, or even «bury» it. She accidentally breaks the glass of the frame, something which wakes a sleeping Daryl. Yup, I’m side-eying the symbolism in that as well. Breaking the glass - someone wakes up. Oki doki, good to know, especially since we always see so much broken glass around Beth. She then shares with Daryl the story of how she came to be Matthew’s adoptive mom.

The next time we get a reference to the picture, is when Daryl returns to the cabin after Leah’s ultimatum. The box is no longer hidden, and the picture is just «gone». This whole mini-arc screams of Beth death fake-out to me. The picture was buried, then suddenly it’s gone? It always reeked of resurrection symbolism to me, and when the brilliant, eagle-eyed @wdway managed to dig up some truly sensational picture references, it really couldn't possibly refer to anything else. Make sure you familiarize yourself with her absolutely incredible discovery.

Anyway, I read the fact that the box is buried underneath the floorboards (and a deer hide) as a reference to the three/tree/trunk symbolism. The box represents a trunk/coffin/grave, and it’s «buried». As it should be, if it represents a grave. And ultimately, when Daryl returns, it is “gone”.

Also, I believe that we're supposed to interpret the fish mounted on the wall above the «buried» box as a sort of «grave marker». We have seen this type of fish several times in key scenes throughout the years, such as in the garage in 10x10, in Dwight’s room in the Sanctuary, in the mysterious cabin in season 3 where they found the dead dog and Daryl said «I guess Lassie came home» (get it? Lassie came home, as in “returned” home. Sirius symbolism), as well as in FTWD.

The fish can symbolize many things, but in this particular case it strikes me as something of a grave marker, indicating that there’s a «tomb» nearby. And in this case the tomb is the box with the picture and Daryl’s note, but ultimately it points to the «empty tomb symbolism», or as I like to call it, three/tree/trunk symbolism. The X/cross on the door also supports the notion of this being a «tomb», and as I mentioned, I’m increasingly inclined to consider the whole cabin a «tomb». Let's see how the remaining episodes plays out, but yeah, pretty much, the wood cabin = tomb/trunk symbolism. And it’s blue as well, so «blue clue theory».

This brings me to the revelation I had when I first tried to make sense of this episode. I eventually realized that Daryl did NOT enter through the front door with the X the first time he went there. After my initial confusion I realized that there are in fact TWO doors leading into Leah’s cabin. One, the front door, is the one I’ve already talked about, it’s the one with the X/cross. The other, the back door, is a whole different story.

We don’t see this door at any other point of the episode. I think that’s intentional, and it supports the idea that not everything is what it seems. It suggests that perhaps we’re not seeing things as they unfold in chronological order. Or, it suggests that our perspective is skewed. Something is off, and for many of us who operates under the assumption that Leah is either partly or fully a hallucination, this IMO supports and strenghtens the hallucination theory.

Now, let’s talk about the back door. Unlike the front door, it has no X. Instead, it has two parallel lines, two panels placed vertically side by side. This is huge! Huge, my friends!

Because if you've read my «Shane’s 22 Necklace Theory», your know how obsessed I am with symbolism that can be synthesized to consisting of the numbers two and ten. The X and the two parallel lines on the two doors in Leah’s cabin, can be read as roman numerals X (ten) and II (two). And I’ll simply refer to the «Shane’s 22 Necklace» post because otherwise this will get too long, but the reason I’m obsessed with those numbers is because we see them over and over in TWD, and particularly in scenes that are heavy on other TD symbolism. The poster of the «Get Well Soon» clock in Beth’s room in Slabtown pointed to 10.10. But of course, on an analog clock, the number 2 (hours) is at the same place as the number 10 (minutes). And the show uses these numbers interchangeably. So when we see a 10, we also could interpret it as a two.

Confusing, I know. And to confuse us even more, the number 11, which consists of two one’s, can also be read as «2», because one plus one is two. Further, in roman numerals, «2» is written like this: «II». I’m not a math person and numbers exhaust me, however, this is not about math, it’s about breaking a code. Because ultimately, the numbers point to Noah’s t-shirt. Remember, the one with the stylized Heron bird and the words «one one». The bird is the same one as the one on the painting Beth passed in Still when she said «we made it» and foreshadowed her own survival. We also saw the same painting in 8x2 around Rick, and it was foreshadowed as I explain in Noah's t-shirt theory.

But, back to the X  and the II on the doors in Leah’s cabin. Noah’s t-shirt theory originally came together when a scene from season 5 foreshadowed the reappearance of the blue heron painting in 8x2.

And later that season I realized that the «one one» on Noah's t-shirt also pointed towards episode 11, again because «11» consists of the numbers 1 and 1, or simply «one one».

(And I have zero idea of how to arrange the pics in a way that makes them look pretty, so apologies)

And that made a lot of sense, because in episode  8x11 we saw numerous other Beth symbols. We saw the radio, which is a Sirius symbol because of its connotation to Sirius Satellite Radio. We saw a serious (Sirius) piggybank, a callback to Beth and Daryl’s serious (Sirius) piggyback from Alone. Father Gabriel lost an eye, making him the new resident Sirius figure (a callback to the one eyed dog from Alone).

In season 9 episode 14, we saw Daryl and Michonne get fancy new scars, orchestrated by a very mean, manipulative lady and some seriously scary kids. The mean lady dies before the episode is over, however the scars remain. In 10x7 we saw Daryl’s back again, and we could clearly see his X shaped scar, but also a couple of parallel lines. At the time, I wondered if this was a way of foreshadowing something in episode 10x11 Morningstar, and now I fully believe that it was.

Remember how I said above that the 10x10 Slabtown clock could point to both episode 10x10 and 10x11 (because the numbers 11, 10 and 2 can be read as different variations of the same number). It later became clear that episode 10x11 was to be called “Morningstar”. To me, that pretty much confirmed that the scars was a foreshadow. In the Sirius/North Star master post from a few years ago I go through the Sirius symbolism carefully and in great detail, so I’ll just point to that post because this is already long enough. But a key element of the Sirius symbolism is that Sirius, the brightest star on the night sky, disappears for a while, and returns before dawn one day. Therefore, Sirius is sometimes referred to as the Morning Star (another Morning Star is Venus, which of course is not a star at all, it is a planet, and I have a Venus theory in the works as well, but for now, let’s focus on Sirius as the Morning Star). I’ve always interpreted Sirius symbolism as something that’s about to «return», because of how Sirius actually returns on the night sky after having been «gone».

So, I felt pretty certain that something significant was going to happen in 10x11. And it did. For starters, Eugene agreed to meet up with Stephanie over radio, so there’s a theme of meeting other communities, and communication (also, remember radios are Sirius symbols, and Alexandria’s radio originally came from the Radio Shack in 8x11, which I just talked about above)

But more importantly, we see Judith fixing Daryl’s vest. This is the big one, pay close attention to this. He had been lacking his right wing for some time, but Judith fixed it, and gave him a brand new blue (blue clues theory) wing.

To summarize, Daryl now has TWO wings (roman numerals II, «one one»), and Judith also decorated it with TEN stars. So that means, that in episode 10x11 Morningstar, foreshadowed by the «X «and the «II» scar on Daryls back, Daryl got a blue wing (remember the blue heron paintings, and the bluebird in a tree in 9x6) and now has a representation of the numbers X and II on both his skin on his back, but also on his vest.

Confused yet? Sure, I get it. Let’s see if I can compress it somewhat:

The blue heron painting from Still foreshadows Beth’s survival: «we made it»

Noahs’s heron/one one t-shirt foreshadows the blue heron behind Rick in 8x2

The X and II scars on Daryl’s back foreshadows the blue wing in 10x11 Morningstar

The wings on Daryl’s vest and the stars Judith added spells out TWO wings, TEN  stars, or X  stars and II wings

The X and the II on Leah’s door is a reference to episode 10x11 Morningstar

Morningstar is a reference to Sirius, which returns before dawn after having been «gone»

Sirius is a reference to something that returns.

Sirius represents Beth’s return, her “resurrection”

Which brings me back to the doors of Leah’s cabin. We know it was Dog who led Daryl to find the cabin in the first place, and I always interpret dogs as Sirius symbolism by default (see Sirius/North Star master post for details). The one eyed dog from Alone? Sirius symbolism. Daryl opened the door, believing that it was the dog returning. Big mistake. It  was walkers. He lost Beth as a consequence. He even says in Find Me that he made a mistake. In the plot he talks about Leah, but IMO on a symbolical level he talks about how his mistake was to open the door in Alone and let the walkers in.

In Find Me, he barged in through the back door of Leah’s cabin, and it’s obvious to anyone who has ever watched Alone that we now have some super interesting parallel storytelling going on. There are dogs, there are notes. There are even refrigerators, for crying out loud. I’ve been screaming about cooler/frosty/ice/polar bear/ice cream symbolism for literal YEARS. And now we have TPTB placing my sweet baby boy Daryl on top of a freaking refrigerator in the middle of the woods while we watch his sanity getting eclipsed by a ghost of his past losses and failures. It stood out like a huge red flag already weeks before the episode even aired, when the “behind the scenes” photos dropped.

(Small side note on eclipses BTW: they pass. The sun is «just gone» for a little while. No worries, it’s not permanent)

Daryl entering Leah’s cabin through the back door also suggests to the audience that we’re not necessarily watching the events as they unfold in chronological order. One could even say we’re watching it unfold backwards. @angelthefirst1 has written a lot about loops and inverted storylines, check out her theories. @galadrieljones has written several great post about Find Me already, definitely take a look at her stuff. And as always @twdmusicboxmystery, our beloved fandom therapist and Theorista Extraordinaire, has already analyzed Find Me in every which way. @wdway​ contibutes with her eagle eyes and elephant memory. We all have our different takes on tings and we all track our individual favorite symbols but I think it’s safe to say that we agree on most of the basics of this episode.

For me, the highlight of this episode was when I discovered that the doors in Leah’s cabin are yet another representation of the numbers X  and II. Because ultimately, the symbolism I’m tracking (see for example the Trunk Resurrection posts) are all about how the show over and over demonstrates to us that sometimes graves are empty. There are “back doors” (emergency exits so to speak), there are ways to get out of certain difficult situations (such as seemingly dying, but wait a minute, not quite dead after all, hello resurrection )

There are ways to open the «trunk», like Leah’s «buried» picture illustrated to us. It was first sitting on a table, then hidden (buried) and then it was just «gone». Does that remind you of anyone we know? The box with the picture and Daryl’s note are buried under the floorboards, and also hidden under a deer HIDE.

The fish on the wall marks the «grave» or «tomb», it functions as a grave marker here. We see another representation of that when Daryl, in one of the most hilarious scenes in the history of TWD, throws a fish at the wooden front door with the X. I think many of us saw that and immediately recognized it as a parallel to when he threw a bottle of water at Beth in Still, and I’ll elaborate more on that in a later post.

Mostly, I think we were all floored by the absolutely ridiculous amounts of Still/Alone parallels. Dialogue parallels, anti-parallels, asymmetrical parallels (yeah I made up that term), visual parallels, symbolism parallels, inverted parallels. I don’t think there is a single word of dialogue in Find Me that’s not parallel to something from Still/Alone. It shall be very interesting to see how this story continues.