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florrickandassociates · 3 years

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TGF Thoughts: 5x01- Previously on...

Welcome back!! I’m so excited to be writing one of these again. I think this hiatus has been the longest I’ve gone without new Diane Lockhart content in ten years, and it sure feels like it. A lot of important stuff has happened in the time since TGF season four ended (not concluded—ended). Most notably, CBS All Access became Paramount+ and suddenly started offering a lot of content I care about! I kid. 2020 was quite an eventful year, so I was curious how television’s most topical show was going to take it on. TGF is always forward-looking, but too much happened in 2020 to be ignored. And while I didn’t think TGF would have much to say about the pandemic, it seemed impossible to imagine a season five that pretended it never happened. Going into this premiere, I was expecting that they’d either skip COVID entirely or include very few references, but after seeing this episode, I feel like the writers took the only approach that made sense. And that is why they are the writers, and I'm just some girl on the internet who writes recaps.

Anyway, before I dive into the episode, I should also note that my pandemic boredom spurred me to actually pay $30 to watch this episode early as part of the virtual ATX Festival. Yes, I paid $30 on top of the money I spend every month on Paramount+ for this show. But I write tens of thousands of words about each TGF episode—are my priorities really that surprising? I note this not to brag or even to poke fun at myself, but because watching the episode before I knew a single thing about it (not even the title!) completely changed my viewing experience. I’ve never had an experience like this with TGW or TGF. I’m one to search for critics tweeting cryptically about screeners and refresh sites looking for background extras (haven’t done this in the TGF era, though) and read every single piece of press I can find. For any big episode, I usually know the outline of what to expect going in (I even knew about Will before the episode aired in the US!). Not this one! So, I got to be surprised, and I had to—gasp—formulate my own opinions before I knew what anyone else thought! It was really pleasant, actually. I think the structure of the episode worked extremely well for me because it caught me by surprise... and also because I’m the kind of person who somehow managed to write a college paper about Previously On sequences.

I see Tumblr has made it so that “keep reading” expands the post in your dash instead of opening a new tab. I absolutely hate this. Here is a link to the post you can click instead of the keep reading button!

The ATX stream started mid-sentence, meaning I missed the “Previously On... 2020...” title card and skipped right to Adrian saying “I’m retiring.” It was pretty easy to pick up on the device (the directness of the scenes at the start, their cadence, and their placement in the episode made it clear this was meant to mimic a Previously) but the second title card hit way harder because... well, I had no idea if this was meant to be 2020 or some moment outside of real time until a bit later in the episode.

Man, before I get any farther into this, two things that I don’t know where else to put. First, this episode had to cover so much ground. They had to write out both Adrian and Lucca—more on that later--, figure out how to deal with all of 2020, figure out how to either wrap up or continue all the truncated season 4 plotlines, and set the stage for a new season... in 50 minutes.

Second, just wanna shout out the Kings’ other Paramout+ show, Evil, which you should absolutely be watching even if you hate horror. Evil is a Kings show, so it is unsurprisingly topical (sometimes evil takes the form of racism or misogyny or Scott Rudin) and at times very, very funny. I would be recapping it if Paramount+ weren’t attacking me personally by airing it at the same time as TGF. Ever hear of too much of a good thing, people?! (On that note, I am VERY upset with myself for not having made a Good vs Evil joke about the Good shows and Evil. I didn’t even think about it until Robert King made the joke on Twitter, and it was right fucking there. How did I fail so miserably?!)

So STR Laurie, who wants a 20% downsizing, is still a thing. Noted.

This scene with Landau is the only one in this previously that is actually old footage, right?

Unexpected Margo Martindale! Yay! (Ruth Eastman is a character who is so much more effective on Fight than she was on Wife and I’m quite glad they’ve had her appear on Fight several times. It kind of redeems season seven. Kind of.)

I don’t think the writers intentionally chose for Adrian’s book deal to be with Simon & Schuster because it is the most politically fraught publisher (the number of stories about controversial memoirs they’ve picked up in 2021 alone...) but I kind of like that Adrian’s Road Not Taken involves S&S. My guess is they chose S&S because it is owned by ViacomCBS.

“Years ago, I wanted to create a law firm run entirely by women, but it never worked out. So, why not now?” Diane says to Liz. One of the advantages of having twelve (!!!) seasons of Diane Lockhart is that we’ve seen what she’s talking about. And we’ve seen her put this idea forward multiple times, too. I have my reservations about Diane’s brand of feminism, and I’ll say more about how fraught a Diane/Liz firm would be as the show explores the potential issues there, but on the surface I’m kind of excited about the prospect of a Diane/Liz led firm. Diane has wanted this for ages, Liz is a good partner, and this actually makes sense (unlike the nonsensical Diane/Alicia alliance of late season seven, where the only rationale was “well, Alicia needs to betray Diane in the finale, but they’re not on good terms. So maybe we make them business partners so then the betrayal stings more?”). Plus I fully love that Diane would end up running a firm with Alicia’s law school rival.

(Has TGF mentioned that Liz and Alicia were law school rivals? No. Am I still clinging on to that as a large part of Liz’s character? ABSOLUTELY.)

Julius is on trial for Memo 618 reasons; Diane is defending him. So this is still happening. (There’s more old footage here.)

Do they put these references to one/two party consent in these episodes as a wink at the fans? It has to be intentional. (Please do not ask me what the actual law is on this, this show has thoroughly confused me.)

I knew Cush was filming stuff for TGF, but I didn’t know it was for the premiere. She was just posting about it a few weeks ago, so either they shot a lot of it right before air or she posted a while after filming. Anyway, yay Lucca!

Bianca’s still around. And, TGF gets to shoot New York for New York, since Bianca is there. I do wish TGF could do more location shoots; there’s something about seeing an actual skyline that feels more real.

Bianca wants Lucca, who has never been outside of the country (except to St. Lucia, as Bianca reminds her) to go to London and buy her a resort. It’s supposed to be a three week stay and Bianca’s already arranged childcare. Speaking of children, because of COVID and filming constraints, that’s Cush’s real kid in this scene! You can’t really see him, but I recognized his curly hair from Cush’s Instagram, and the Kings confirmed in an interview.

Adrian wants to write a book about police brutality cases he’s worked on. Ruth very much does not want him to write that book. She wants him to write a book without substance about how white people and black people can work together. He, understandably, has no interest in writing this book. (Also, you can see in the background that Ruth doesn’t think Biden’s odds of winning the Democratic primary are good—there is a big down arrow next to his picture, which definitely dates this scene.)

Oh, David Lee is in this episode. He acts like an asshole towards Marissa when she’s trying to help him.

Marissa, not happy with the lack of respect, calls Lucca for advice “for a friend.” Lucca mentions she’s in London and Marissa does not believe her and keeps going on and on about her frustrations and her new desire to become a lawyer—quickly.

Marissa wanting to become a lawyer because she “hates being talked down to” is not a plot I would’ve expected but it’s also one that makes a lot of sense. I think Marissa’s used to being respected and praised even when she’s doing things that aren’t glamorous, so I see how she’d get very restless when she’s no longer outperforming expectations and is instead taken for granted.

Bells toll in the background on Lucca’s side and Marissa asks where she is. Lucca again notes she’s in London and Marissa still doesn’t believe her.

I’m going to miss Lucca so much, especially since we’ll also be losing a lot of the Millennial Friendship scenes with her. Cush is fantastic (even if she never really got enough to do here) and she plays so well off of the rest of the cast. I even sometimes liked the writing for Maia (who?) when she had scenes with Lucca, Lucca is that good.

Jay wakes up sweating and unable to breathe, so he deliriously calls his father-figure Adrian. This whole scene is shot like something out of Evil and (I’m getting ahead of myself here) this plot is the only thing about this episode I felt was a misstep.

“I think you’re my father,” Jay says to Adrian. Heh, I didn’t catch this line the first time around (maybe subliminally I did, since I just called Adrian his father figure lol) but I love that it is included here. Adrian and Jay’s relationship definitely deserves a goodbye.

Adrian calls an ambulance and also gets to Jay before the ambulance somehow. Adrian notes that Jay might have “this thing from China” and... we’re doing the pandemic, y’all. (Minor nitpick: on March 13th, 2020, when this scene is dated, COVID was not “this thing from China”-- we were all aware of it. March 11th was the day Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced they’d tested positive and the NBA shut down and travel was restricted and every single brand that had my email sent me a message about their plans and measures. March 12th was the last time I was in my office, and we’d been getting emails telling us to wash our hands and prepare to work remotely for weeks. I went to San Francisco in mid-late February and distinctly remember deciding to leave a burrito unattended on a table while I washed my hands because I was paranoid about COVID... and then I remember making a specific trip to Walgreens to buy hand sanitizer so that didn’t happen again. My point is, Adrian lives in the same world I do. On March 13th 2020, he would not be treating COVID like it was some new thing he’d vaguely heard of.)

(I am going to nitpick this timeline, but please know that I’m only doing it because I can, not because I think it’s necessarily a bad choice. Lines like this do feel a little forced, but I see the reason for introducing COVID as something new rather than going for the line that’s exactly historically accurate. I also am pretty sure there are references to dates in March/April in s4 of TGF that are now going to be contradicted by this episode, but I truly do not care. The writers get a pass on this one.)

We skip slightly back in time to the beginning of March after the MARCH 13TH title card, or maybe this is supposed to be after March 13th and my own memories are preventing me from believing these face-to-face interactions were happening. Who knows.

Michael Bloomberg is... here, again, I guess? He asks Diane to assist with a Supreme Court case about gun control. I guess it does add some weight to the plot and make the stakes feel higher.

Oh hey, this case is the 7x17 case!!!! Love that continuity.

Diane and Adrian are both at the office late, working, and there is an unnecessary split screen that feels even more unnecessary when you consider that the editing alone was enough to create the parallel.

Diane and Adrian have a nice convo (which I’ll really miss, their dynamic is great and this really feels like a successful partnership) as they wait for the elevator. When the elevator dings, they nearly tumble down into nothingness because... the elevator never came. Apparently this is a reference to an law old show I’ve never seen that killed off a character this way, and it’s meant to be a wink at how they are not going to kill off Adrian.

I do not know why I remember this, but I do: after they killed off Will, a critic (Noel Murray; I just googled to confirm my memory) who didn’t want to spoil things tweeted, “Exactly 23 years and 2 days ago, Rosalind Shays fell down an elevator shaft.” Please tell me why I remember this reference that I didn’t even understand well enough to have tracked down the original tweet in under a minute. (https://twitter.com/NoelMu/status/447942456827326464)

Back on this show, Diane and Adrian share a drink and talk about their wishes. Diane wants to argue in front of the Supreme Court, and Adrian encourages her to speak up. His own near-death experience motivates him to trash the book Ruth has him writing, and Diane trashes the (bad) legal strategy someone else prepared for the Supreme Court.

DIANE IS WEARING JEANS!!!!!! Tbh, I think my favorite part of this episode is how many slice-of-life scenes and settings we get. These are always my favorite moments. I love the satirical and political stuff too, but the character moments are what get me invested enough to write these. (Yes, Diane in jeans constitutes a character moment.)

Diane tells Bloomberg she wants to be involved and advocates for herself. Kurt gets a call on their landline (hahaha) from Adrian.

God, I love Diane and Kurt. Not only is their banter fun, you can just see a different, more relaxed side of Diane in these scenes. Diane tells Kurt she has good news for herself, but bad news for him since she’s arguing for gun control. She asks him to help her prep for court, too.

So this is before Jay is rushed to the hospital, because now we are back at the hospital with Julius, Diane, and Marissa. I do not believe any of these people would be setting foot in a hospital like it’s any other day on March 13th, 2020. But I'm trying not to nitpick.

I get why they chose to give Jay a rather severe case of COVID. I just don’t get literally anything else that follows from the initial shock of Jay having COVID.

I see why the writers chose March 20th (the actual Illinois stay at home order) as the next date for this timeline. I still do not believe that people were in this particular office on that date.

You know what else I don’t believe? That RBL just shut down for two weeks and was like, no work is being done. Did law firms really do this? I can believe it if it’s an excuse to cost-cut, and I know there were massive layoffs, but this seems... really weird???

Why are they setting up a teleconferencing infrastructure (didn’t they have one at LG? In season five?) if they are not planning to do work?

Lol Diane explains what Zoom is, very slowly. She asks everyone to “download a program called Zoom.com” which is one of the first Zoom jokes I’ve chuckled at in a while.

Marissa is not happy to hear that there’s no work for her in a work-remote world (this I believe 100%), so she calls Lucca again with more questions about law school.

Love these NYC and London location shots. Wish they could do that for Chicago.

Lucca asks Bianca to help get Marissa into a law school, fast, and Bianca tells Lucca to use her name... then offers her a job.

Marissa is at the office, alone, boxing up her things, when one of the office phones rings with some dude offering her a spot in a law school class. I guess we are really all-in on this! (Why would Lucca have given a firm phone number not specific to Marissa, though?)

Adrian and his corrupt girlfriend decide to shelter in place together. I still do not understand why he is okay with her being corrupt. I also don’t really understand why they’re going from talking about sheltering-in-place to George Floyd. How did we just skip from late March to late May? Are Adrian and corrupt gf having a conversation about sheltering-in-place two months into sheltering in place?

Okay, I am not doing so good at this no-nitpicking thing. Again, I understand why they need to merge several scenes into one to keep things moving. And I guess they could just be getting around to this conversation.

I’m going to nitpick again, I can’t help myself. How did we just go from a scene of Adrian specifically talking about sheltering in place to a scene of Adrian bursting into a bustling and maskless DNC headquarters room? How!? The only masks in this scene are on TV!! There are like ten people in this scene!

Anyway, more importantly, Adrian tells Ruth off and screams at her that she needs to listen to him instead of acting like she knows the way forward. He is completely right.

Why is travel from London closing down in May 2020? Is it because this scene is supposed to be at a different place in the episode? Liz is asking Lucca to come back home from her three week stay in London (which has now lasted three months but travel is just now closing down), and Lucca’s hesitant to come home.

This is all happening via Zoom, btw. Lucca’s in her hotel, Diane and Adrian are at their respective homes, and Liz is in the office. All of this feels right. There is a chat off to the side of the screen where you can see Adrian and the others discussing how to unmute on Zoom. Very real. Though probably not very real in late May 2020. Feels more like April. I am convinced this scene got spliced in later to help the episode flow because everything in this scene (except the TV footage that definitely was added later) feels like it should be happening in the March section.

Lucca mentions that Bianca offered her a job, and at this point we as viewers know how things are going to go—Lucca's going to end up taking it. Liz types in the Zoom chat that they don’t want to lose Lucca. When Lucca tells them how much Bianca’s offering ($500k/year, go Lucca!), Diane types “Shit.” into the chat. “Shit’s right,” Liz replies. “Yes... What should our counter be?” Diane replies. Lucca is kind enough to point out the messages are not private (again, this feels like March not May) but I think knowing that their reaction to topping $500k is “shit” tells her all she needs to know.

Diane’s background still says that RBL is a division of STR Laurie. Weird how little we are hearing about the overlords except the 20% staff cut.

Liz and Adrian chat and decide the only way to keep Lucca is to make her a partner. Which, yeah, if you’d just made her a partner years ago when you told her she was in the running for partner and then offered it to fucking MAIA, maybe she wouldn’t be considering Bianca’s offer. Lucca is definitely one of RBL’s stars, and I don’t think she’s wrong to feel like they don’t value her enough. They treat her well enough to be upset about losing her, but not well enough to have already made her partner and not well enough to actually give her authority (even though she runs a whole department). I’d be pretty unhappy too. It kind of feels sometimes like they take her for granted, and I don’t know that Lucca is one to feel like she owes a company anything. She’s more of an “I’m out for myself” type.

Madeline and the other partner we’ve seen a few times who isn’t Liz/Diane/Adrian, walk into the office (wearing masks! Which they take off as soon as they enter a room with Liz! Without asking her if she is okay with this! TV logic!) and ask who is replacing Adrian. They think this is a good time to reevaluate having a white name partner of an African American firm, and they are spot on. Liz tries to deflect, noting that Diane is already a name partner and was before Liz even joined, but Madeline and other partner (whose name I really wish they would say so I can stop calling him “other partner”) won’t let up. Their position is that Diane shouldn’t have been made a name partner then—all she did was bring in ChumHum, an account that quickly left the firm. Good point.

“What is this firm if it’s not African American? It’s just another midsized all-service Midwestern law firm, one of 50,” Madeline argues. The other partner says Liz needs to remove Diane and promote two African Americans to name partner. Liz laughs and asks if they mean themselves. Madeline does not—she's concerned about the number of black associates they’re letting go. Liz heads out, but this conversation is very much ongoing.

And I think it’s a very interesting dilemma! There’s a lot of mileage the writers can get out of this, because I don’t think there’s a right answer or a wrong one. It’s all about what Liz decides she wants the future of the firm to be. If Liz chooses Diane, she might be choosing something that works for her personally or that she thinks is a safer financial bet—but she’ll be choosing to work at a firm that can no longer be thought of as a black firm, and she’ll be choosing to move away from her father’s vision for the firm. And since the plot hinges on what Liz will decide rather than what’s objectively the right path forward, there’s a lot of interesting tension there I can’t wait to see.

(My favorite thing about Adrian leaving is that Liz will likely get more to do, especially when it comes to managing the firm. Adrian tends to speak up first, but Liz is more than capable of managing without him and I’m so excited to see what she does when her ex-husband isn’t constantly talking over her.)

Marissa and Lucca video chat with Jay. He’s still in the hospital. One thing that bugs me about how this episode handles COVID is that I never really get the sense that any of the characters are particularly afraid of the virus. Maybe none of them were. But you’d think you’d see a little of that fear, the weird dance of trying to assess others’ comfort levels with masking, etc., in an ep specifically about living through this time. ESPECIALLY since someone they all know and are close to has been hospitalized for MONTHS with this thing! It’s just so weird to go from a scene where people wear masks until they come in contact with other people (when masks matter the most) to a scene of someone in the hospital with COVID.

And now Jay’s weird hallucinations start as his battery dies on the video chat. I really, truly, hated these hallucinations. I was ready to be done with these from the second they started. They’re weirdly shot, they go on for too long, and they feel like the clunkiest parts of Mind’s Eye when Alicia starts having a debate in her mind about atheism mixed with the (far superior) hospital episode of Evil.

I don’t have much to say about these hallucinations except that I hated them a lot. When there’s the reveal that Jay is hallucinating a commerical, I almost came around on the hallucinations because that’s kind of funny and inspired. And then several more hallucinations popped up and they had a round table and Jesus got added to the mix and I was like, nope, this is bad in a very uninteresting way. I reject this.

I feel like the Kings didn’t have much to say about COVID, the actual virus. This episode is definitely more about what the characters’ lives were like during COVID and not the pandemic itself. I think they likely got a lot of their COVID commentary out of their system with their zombie COVID show The Bite (I have not seen The Bite due to it airing on Spectrum On Demand, which I have no way of accessing. Like, I would have to move and then decide to pay for cable in order to watch it.) I also suspect a lot of their commentary on COVID isn’t going to be specific to the virus and is instead going to be about things like mask-wearing and vaccinations becoming political. And, really, that’s just a new variation on talking about polarization... and they’ve been talking about polarization for years.

In fact, they even wrote a whole series about an outbreak of a (space-bug-spread) virus that caused political polarization before Trump was even elected. BrainDead is basically commentary on the pandemic before the pandemic even happened. Soooooo I get why they are more interested in recapping 2020 than in doing a Very Special Episode about themes they’ve been talking about for years. (I still think they would’ve benefitted from at least one character being afraid of getting sick or getting their family sick.)

There is likely some interesting content in these Jay hallucinations. I hate them so much I cannot find it. You know when you’re just on a completely different wavelength than the writers? This is an example of that.

Also I’m not a fan of the shadowy directing. I think this is meant to look cooler than it does.

Have I mentioned yet that I absolutely love the “Previously On” device for this episode? It’s such a fun, propulsive way to get through the slog of 2020. Scenes can be short and to the point, and each scene has to do a lot of lifting to fill in the gaps. I think that leads to scenes that are better constructed and telling on lots of levels—where are people when they’re quarantined? Who’s wearing casual clothes and when? What about this scene defines this character’s life at that moment in time?

Bizarrely, even though this episode is pretty much all plot (this happens! Then that!), I actually found this to be one of the most character-driven episodes TGF has ever done. There’s a lot of story, but most of that story is about how the characters reacted to 2020 rather than overarching plots that will weigh on the rest of the season. This episode covers a lot of ground, but it does it with character moments that resonate.

Now it’s July and Diane’s prepping to argue in front of the Supreme Court. Kurt’s helping her witness prep and it gets a little personal... and that ends up turning Diane on. Good to see McHart hasn’t lost its spark. (Remember how Kurt cheated on Diane in season 7 of Wife? No, me neither, because that never happened.)

Corrupt judge is back. Adrian playfully tries to distract her from work. Then he takes a video call from Liz, who updates him on the conversation she had with John (so that’s his name) and Madeline. I guess that part of May was close to July? Anyway, Adrian isn’t surprised to hear that people are upset at the prospect of Diane being one of two name partners.

Liz is at the office in workout clothes and I love it!

They’re losing 15 black associates (and Adrian and Lucca) and 4 white ones, Liz says. This sounds like a very big problem. (I’d be curious to know what that is as a percentage of the firm and how the racial composition shifts.)

Liz knows it’s not exactly up to her if Diane stays on as name partner (the other partners get a vote, but I think Liz knows she has a lot of sway here). She’s also wondering if Biden could win, and if so, would it be to the firm’s advantage to be black-owned? Interesting.

“Well. If you’re thinking it, then Diane’s thinking it, too,” Adrian says. He’s right. “White guilt. It runs verrrrry deep on that one, huh?” Ha. He is right about that, too. I actually can’t decide which of these interpretations is correct, because it could be either even though they seem contradictory. (1) Is Adrian saying it with a hint of mockery because he knows Diane will fight for her partnership even as she would say she’s a huge supporter of black businesses? (2) Is he saying it because he knows Diane would have enough white guilt to realize what her presence as a partner means and think through the implications? I think it is, somehow, a combination. I’m interested in this line because this whole dilemma (from Diane’s POV) is something that’s very familiar. Diane’s always been an idealist who will betray her ideals for personal gain. That sounds like an attack, but I mean that as neutrally as I possibly can. There are so many examples of this that this is kind of just a character trait of hers at this point. Usually those ideals are about feminism, but this situation seems closely related.

Adrian overhears Corrupt GF talking about Julius, Diane, and Memo 618. You would think she would wait to have this conversation until there is no chance of Adrian overhearing, because if Adrian overhears, he might...

... do exactly what he proceeds to do and hop into a car with Diane to give her a heads up. (I think I’m just going to have to accept that the mask usage rule on this episode is “we use masks to show that the characters would wear them, but we don’t want to have scenes where characters are fully masked because that’s annoying.” If that’s not the rule, then why else would Adrian be masked outside... and then take off his mask as soon as he gets into a confined indoor space with Diane?

Baranski looks ESPECIALLY like Taylor Swift in this scene.

Adrian tells Diane what he knows. He dug deeper after overhearing Charlotte, so he has even more info. “If you tell me, I will use it,” Diane warns. Adrian knows that, so he takes a moment to decide. And he decides that he cares more about Diane and Julius than about his relationship with a corrupt judge.

Diane and Julius are masked in court. Visitor and the judge are not. They use masking in a clever way in this scene: Diane uses being masked to her advantage because it means no one can possibly read her lips, so she can use the info Adrian fed her against Charlotte without any fear of spies. Charlotte, who is unmasked, guards her lips with a folder, as the Visitor watches interestedly.

Diane convinces Charlotte to recuse herself. Charlotte says she’s making a mistake; Diane does not care.

The new judge is, unfortunately, the idiot who doesn’t know anything about the law. Uh oh.

Charlotte decides she’s done sheltering in place with Adrian. He tries to talk through the conflict, but Charlotte says “You made your choice, Adrian. Julius Cain over me.”

“The choice was about right and wrong, Charlotte,” Adrian tries to explain. I mean, yeah, but if you’re dating a judge who has admitted she’s totally corrupt, didn’t right and wrong go out the window a while ago?

Adrian seems to think the other people involved in the events are bad and Charlotte is good. I am not convinced. I don’t think she’s the big bad, but I don’t think she’s good.

Charlotte points out that he invaded her privacy. She is right about that. “You said the choice was between right and wrong. Turning over my emails was the choice,” she said. I get her POV. But also, she is corrupt.

I do not like the way the part of the scene where Adrian physically restrains Charlotte to keep her from leaving is shot. I don’t think this is an abusive scene but I think it should’ve been shot from a little farther back so we could see it’s more like Adrian reaching out in desperation than trying to choke Charlotte. Because it very much looks like he is trying to choke Charlotte.

He tells Charlotte he loves her. She says it’s too late and leaves. “Maybe you won’t be with me. But you keep down this path... you’ll be done, I’m telling you, you’ll be done.”

I think something that I’ve been missing in these interactions is that I didn’t quite realize until this scene that the Adrian/Charlotte dynamic is more interesting than Adrian liking a corrupt judge. I think he truly believes Charlotte is a good person who got caught up in some bad stuff, and that she can bounce back from it. I’ve always seen Charlotte as someone who is corrupt for herself and then ended up going along with the corruption of others, too, so I’ve dismissed her and the relationship. This is the first scene that has felt real to me, and the first scene where she’s felt like more than a caricature. Kind of sad it’s the last she’ll get with Adrian—now I’m actually starting to find her interesting. Notice how in these last few sentences I’ve used her name instead of “Corrupt GF”!

Charlotte says she loved Adrian too, but that’s not enough. Awww.

He can’t really be surprised though, can he?

Now it is August and we get to see Diane and Liz react to the announcement of Kamala Harris as Biden’s VP pick, and I would like to thank the writers for giving me the opportunity to see Diane and Liz react to this. It’s kind of fan-service, but it’s also a nice tie-in to the girl-power theme of the Diane/Liz alliance.

Diane and Liz realize that Adrian’s probably not a good candidate for 2024 if the DNC only wants one black candidate and Harris is the clear front-runner. Liz suggests keeping him on as partner instead, in a way that very much implies this would be her ideal solution. Diane, being Diane, says she was liking the idea of an all-female firm. Liz hesitantly says she was too, and Diane senses the hesitation.

“Let’s look again at which associates to fire. I’m worried we’re losing too many African Americans,” Diane switches the subject. How have they still not made this decision? If any employees know downsizing is coming, and they’ve had months to act on it, assuming there are jobs elsewhere, people would’ve been jumping ship by now.

But that’s not the point of this scene. The point of this scene is that Liz corrects Diane: “Black. You can just say Black people.” Very nice moment underlining the tension. Diane means well, but she’s still acting like a white lady who doesn’t know how to act around black people... and she wants to (and, I guess, already does) run a black firm. Major yikes.

Marissa and Lucca are talking again. Marissa does not want to be in law school—she just wants to be a lawyer. Lucca won’t accept Marissa’s refusal to memorize meaningless rules: “Marissa. I know that you know how to play the game, but you have to pass the bar to get into a position to play the game.” Why does this line make me love Lucca? This line isn’t even anything amazing. It’s just a line that cuts through the bullshit and makes a good point.

Marissa keeps going, insulting all of her peers and teachers, and Lucca figures out how to cut through that, too: she tells Marissa that she’d hire her as a lawyer if she killed someone, but only if Marissa passes the bar. Marissa is instantly intrigued.

“Why are you leaving here? I’ll miss you,” Marissa says.

“Because they won’t pay me what I deserve,” Lucca says in a matter-of-fact tone. “Anyway, I thought they fired you.”

“But they didn’t mean it. It’s like the smoothie place—they kept trying to fire me and I just kept showing up,” Marissa replies. That checks out. (Love the callback!)

Lucca tries to get Marissa to come over to England. Marissa shuts that down as Lucca gets a news alert—and it’s not good news.

Our next date is September 18th, 2020 and I will get my nitpicks out of the way up front! I don’t really know why it is daytime for Lucca when she reads the news, considering it was already the evening in the States when the RBG news broke. And, also, it was Rosh Hashanah, so Marissa probably would not have been sitting in her bedroom studying... she most likely would’ve been with family or friends. OK I’M DONE. FOR NOW.

Diane is getting ready for her arguments in front of the Supreme Court. It’s almost time! She’s in casual clothes but has on a wonderful mask. She’s standing in front of Kurt’s guns to make a point (love that she’s using her video call background to her advantage) and there are several people in her bedroom getting the tech all set up. I have noted before that they only built one set for Diane’s apartment, and it’s just a massive bedroom. Diane choosing to be in front of the guns does a nice job of cutting off my question about why she’d be arguing in front of the Supreme Court from her bedroom rather than the home office she absolutely would have.

Kurt walks in and tries to shake hands... he’s clearly not very COVID paranoid, and Diane seems to be, and... that’s something I might have wanted to see? How was Diane okay with Kurt taking risks that also affected her?

Diane confirms she intentionally chose to stand in front of the guns. That’s when Kurt gets the push notification. He pulls Diane into the bathroom to show her the news. He hands her his phone and Diane’s face falls. She starts tearing up. “2020 just won’t let go,” she says, speaking for us all.

Normally I hate things that are like, we’re going to contrive this so the news hits at the worst possible moment! This works for me, because the Supreme Court plot for Diane feels more like something that exists to be a through line for the episode. It would also be a little hard to work in RBG’s death as a main plot point—and it is definitely important enough to be a main plotpoint—if it didn’t also affect something in the world of the show.

Also, another reason I like this contrivance is that it makes it all the more powerful when Diane says, “It’s over. He gets to nominate someone. Another Kavanaugh! We’ll have a conservative court for the next 20 years. My whole fucking life!” She’s not thinking about how this affects her case (and that case is basically a life-long dream for her). She is thinking about way bigger things, and knowing that her mind goes to the bigger things before the personal with news like this really underlines how big of a deal RBG’s death was.

Diane tells Kurt, “I don’t deserve you. You don’t agree with me.” “I can still feel bad for you,” he responds. He holds her while she cries.

Jay’s hallucination thing is back. Now Karl Marx is here. So is Jesus. I’m so done with this. It’s nice to get a break from writing.

Malcolm X is also on the roundtable and now they’re talking over each other in that way that everyone on this show always does. (RK gave an interview about Evil where he said he likes having the children on that show talk over each other because he grew up in a household like that. I did not need to read that interview to understand that RK likes scenes where people talk over each other.)

If anything happened in those hallucinations, I missed it, because I didn’t pause the episode. Because I do not care about the hallucinations. Because I hate them.

Now it’s November 2020... Diane’s watching election results and rocking back and forth. She tells Kurt he can go watch Fox News in the other room (so they do have more than one room!). He says he’s fine—he thinks Diane needs it more.

“Yes, but Kurt, if you stay, I know this isn’t sensible, but... Trump seems to get more votes whenever you’re sitting on this couch,” Diane tells him. Ha, I relate to this kind of superstition so hard. “Are you serious?” Kurt says. “I am so deathly serious,” Diane responds. “Whenever you’re sitting here, Arizona goes for Trump. Humor me, please. Just go in the other room.”

When Kurt tries to kiss her, she pulls away: “No, no, no. No kiss. If you kiss me, we’ll lose Georgia.” This scene feels so, so real and perfectly captures what it was like (at least for me, though I don’t have a Republican husband or anything) watching election results come in.

“Uh, if you lose, we’ll be fine, right?” Kurt asks. “Kurt, let me just say this. I’m only saying that we won’t be fine so that the universe will grant me a win,” Diane responds. This scene is so fun and so good! It simultaneously captures a relatable mood, adds some levity, gives us a window into Diane’s life, and shows some of the tensions in her marriage?! I want this all the time!

Kurt leaves the room. Diane pours more wine.

Later, with Diane still rocking back and forth with anxiety (just you wait for the several more days this will drag on!), Kurt brings in the champagne. “That was for when Hillary won. I can only drink it if Biden wins,” Diane protests. Did I also refuse to drink any celebratory alcohol until things were absolutely certain? No comment.

“It’s odd you progressives resisted religion. You seem to have a hundred religions to take its place,” Kurt says, speaking on behalf of the writers’ room. (This joke doesn’t get written if the writers don’t believe this and probably even see it in themselves.)

“Go away, Trump. I mean Kurt,” she shoos him away. Have I mentioned yet I love this scene?

“Love me even if you lose?” he jokes (though I do wonder if this isn’t that joking? I think it is, but he keeps saying it!) as Diane gestures at him to get out.

I could do without the joke about Diane’s heart on the TV for a couple reasons. One, it goes on too long. Two, I was very worried something would actually happen to Diane. You’d think that would make the scene feel more tense, but it does not, because it takes me out of the moment.

“Ok, God. You know I don’t believe in you. But I will believe in you if Joe Biden wins. I’m sorry. I know that that’s not what Jesus taught. There’s nothing in the New Testament that says, ‘Believe in me, and I’ll make sure your candidate wins,’ but I need Joe Biden to win. I’m sorry, God, but I just do. I need some faith.” This is a little much but... yeah. Also, is this the first time Diane’s flat out said she’s an atheist? I think it is, though I’ve assumed as much for quite a while.

The next day in court, masks are no longer required if you’re a series regular and votes are still being counted. I remember those days. Marissa thought Diane was checking in on Jay... Diane was not. She was checking on vote counts.

Apparently Jay’s finally being released from the hospital!

Bad news for Julius—the idiot judge finds him guilty of some nonsense charge and sentences him to seven years in prison.

Diane says not to worry, and Julius asks “Why not?” Good point.

Then we have election results! We skip, specifically, to December 14th and the electoral college vote. I’m a little sad we skipped over the huge party that was November 7th, but I get why they’d rather keep things moving along. I think showing November 7th in an uncomplicated way would’ve just been too close to fanservice. But, man, what a day.

Diane, in a red hoodie with leopard print that she somehow manages to still look classy in, is ready to pop champagne. Then she hears that on January 6th, a joint session of Congress will count the electoral votes and there might be a debate. “Nope. If I open it now, something bad will happen,” she reasons. “I’ve waited four years. I can wait another few weeks.”

It’s been almost a year and they’re still somehow negotiating with Lucca, but I understand why they’d space this out across the episode. Otherwise we’d have to say goodbye to Lucca in the first like, 15 mins of the episode and all those scenes would be in a row. I can forgive (and still nitpick) choices like this when the reasoning behind them seems sound.

Adrian says they don’t want to lose Lucca. He, Liz, and Diane are all in the conference room, and they ask Lucca for a yes or no on their latest offer by the end of the call. Diane offers Lucca partner—she'll be the youngest partner in the firm’s history—and she’ll get a $500,000/year salary. Adrian tries to sell her on being part of American history by being part of the firm.

“We are a black firm, Lucca, and we need you,” Liz says with a lot of passion for someone who knows she might very well partner with Diane. Diane looks at Liz with a bit of suspicion at this, wondering if Liz is showing her cards.

Lucca manages to make the wifi malfunction (or she gets very lucky) and uses the disconnection to call Bianca for a counteroffer, even though they said they needed a yes or no on the spot.

“They used George Floyd because they want you for less. They have never appreciated you as much as I do. All those scars, all that time being taken for granted and undervalued has made you a fighter. It’s made you someone I now want,” Bianca tells Lucca. She gives Lucca a counter offer of $1.3 million and the title of CFO. Lucca takes it. Is there really another choice? (If she were concerned about loyalty to the firm and the partnership was what she wanted, she probably would've just taken it.)

(Also, the partners can’t really act like Lucca is making history by being the youngest partner ever when they passed her over for partner two years earlier and offered it to Maia! To MAIA! Who had like three years of work experience! And yes I was fine with Alicia and Cary getting partnership offers with four years but, one, that was a scam, and two, Alicia and Cary actually worked. Oh, I see I still hate Maia with a passion. Back to THIS season...)

Lucca apologetically informs Marissa she’s leaving and the offer was just too good to turn down. I believe it. I also believe Lucca wants that job more. What has loyalty to RBL gotten her? She's someone so talented and good at her job that she just gets job offers from acquaintances all the time (starting with Alicia!). RBL appreciates her, but just enough to appease her while still undervaluing her. I don’t know that I would’ve believed a plot where Lucca actively job hunts, but I definitely believe this.

“Marissa, we don’t have to work together to be friends,” Lucca tells Marissa. I’m going to miss this so much. Why is this the best material Lucca’s gotten in ages?! I think one of the things that makes Lucca such a great character is that you can see why everyone instantly wants her on their team. She’s a fantastic friend (without giving too much of herself), she’s not a pushover, and she is incredibly sharp and able to get to the heart of any situation. I love her and I’m sad we won’t get to see more of her.

(On that bit about friendship—I can’t write about Lucca’s departure without writing about the moment I realized just how great of a character Lucca was. It was in 7x13, when Alicia has her breakdown that’s seven seasons in the making... and Lucca supports her. But the writing, and Cush’s performance, never make it feel like Lucca exists to be a part of Alicia’s story. Lucca seems like her own fully formed person who happens to be supporting Alicia at this moment. I don’t think I can overstate how tough of a task it is to get me to care about the other person in a pivotal Alicia scene, especially when that other person was added to the cast in the final season and many suspected she’d just be a replacement for a different beloved character! Anyway, Lucca’s been great for years, and I’ll miss her.)

Just when I thought I couldn’t hate the hallucinations more, we get a hint that they are going to continue: Jay sees one right after he learns that Marissa’s used her quarantine to start law school and he’s done nothing.

Jay says he carries a gun now and it’s “performative.” I have no idea what that means and Marissa and Lucca don’t seem to, either.

Another thing I like about Lucca’s final scene is that it isn’t rushed. We have time for all that, and also for Lucca to tell Marissa about the time she stole her breakfast sandwich, and for Marissa to react to it, and for Marissa to find Lucca’s Birkin bag, and for Lucca to tell Marissa to keep it, and for Marissa to react to that, and for Lucca to sappily say “think of me when you use it,” and for Marissa to nonsensically reply, “you think of me when I use it,” and there’s still a little bit more of the scene after that!

Marissa’s silly line makes Lucca tear up. “God, I’m gonna miss you guys,” she says. “I’m gonna miss this. You make me smile. I didn’t smile much before you guys.” Awwwwwww. This is also so true to character! Her friendship with Alicia aside, Lucca’s definitely said before she’s not one to have friends (which is hilarious because she is, as I've said like 100 times, a fantastic friend and also just like, the coolest person??? Who wouldn’t want to be HER friend?!).

She says she has to go because she’s getting too emotional and says goodbye. She’s also super sappy and when Marissa says, “you were the best,” she responds that they were the best TOGETHER! Awwwwwww.

What a nice, fitting goodbye for Lucca. There’s no bad blood or fireworks—she just makes a change like a lot of people do. I’d like to think she’ll still be friends with Marissa and Jay after this. I don’t want too many Lucca references in future episodes, but I would really like it if we see Marissa and Jay update each other on the latest from Lucca, or if a scene begins with Marissa closing out an Instagram post from Lucca of her kid, or something. I wouldn’t want clues about what Lucca’s up to, but I’d love to see that she’s still a part of Marissa and Jay’s lives.

Now it is January 6th. Liz, Adrian, and Diane sit on the floor of the mostly empty office, watching TV coverage and drinking. It’s so relaxed it’s almost surreal, and it, like many other moments in this episode, feels like a slice of life. Everyone’s dressed casually and no one is worried about appearances or looking like the boss.

“God, have you ever seen anything like it. It’s so fucked,” Diane says. Adrian’s more optimistic—the courts rejected most of the challenges to election results! “System worked,” he says. “Yay.” Liz says in response. She’s not as optimistic as he is.

“Liz. Liz. Sometimes when things work out, there is no parade. There’s no congratulations, but I’ll tell you this: We live to fight another day,” he explains to her even though she makes a good point that a system just barely hanging on doesn’t bode well for the future. (She doesn’t say all this, but that’s a very loaded, “Yay.”)

“Yeah? Then why are you leaving the law?” Liz asks. Diane seconds to the question.

Adrian announces he’s still retiring—and he’s moving to Atlanta. He wants to go to the south to help “create and consolidate political power.” He’s excited to start over and inspired by Georgia going blue. This is a very nice exit for Adrian. I fully believe that he’s interested in political organizing, that he’d be good at it, and that he’s ready for a change. I don’t think he’s always the most progressive person (of the three in this scene, Liz is absolutely the most progressive one, though Diane probably thinks she is!), but I absolutely think he thinks of himself as an activist and I believe that if he’s going to step away from the law, he’d do so to make a move like this.

Adrian—and Lucca, but especially Adrian—probably both got better exits thanks to the events of 2020. If Adrian had just left to be groomed by the DNC, that would’ve been a predictable and boring ending for him. His candidacy would, obviously, go nowhere, and the whole thing felt weird from the minute it was introduced. But this? Adrian being energized—like so many others were—by the ways the world changed in 2020 and using his already announced departure from the firm and recent breakup as a chance to start over and make change? This is great!

Adrian asks Liz and Diane what’s next for them. Liz says that she thinks the Biden admin will be better for black businesses. Adrian asks if they’re replacing him, and Diane says, “I think the big question is, are you replacing me?” She’s smart. I like how this scene goes from friendly to tense very fast, with everyone kind of testing the waters. Adrian tries to force the conversation, Liz opens with something vague yet pointed, and Diane speaks what’s previously been unspoken.

Liz says it’s not her intention to push Diane out. “I can’t change the color of my skin,” Diane replies. “I know,” Liz laughs. Audra’s delivery is fantastic on that line.

“Hey, I’m gonna fight for my partnership,” Diane says. “I know,” Liz says. The tone of this scene is so different from previous partnership drama on these shows and I’m excited about it. This is just a bunch of adults talking about business decisions with each other and treating each other as equals?? It's not backstabbing?? Or drama?? No one is hiding things?? It’s refreshing and I hope this plot stays like this. We’ve done so much partnership drama that I think drama that stems from a real, pressing question that has no easy answers and isn’t anyone’s fault is going to be much more fruitful for the show.

Adrian heads out—ah, I see now this scene is set in his empty office and this is why they are on the floor—and gets a nice last moment with Diane. And then they give him a last moment with Liz, which I knew they would but was still glad to see.

Liz asks if he knows what he’s doing—he says he’s not sure.

Adrian asks if Liz knows where she stands regarding Diane. “It’s going to be interesting,” Liz says. I don’t think she’s decided what she’s going to do yet.

It wouldn’t be an Adrian and Liz scene if Adrian didn’t have some unsolicited advice. “Diane’s a terrific lawyer, but this firm belongs to you. Your dad built it. He did, Liz. Despite all his faults. You got to run this place the way you want. This is a black firm. And after today, the world needs black firms. You got me?” He tells Liz. He makes it seem like Liz gets the choice and then tells her what to do. She says, “I got it,” signaling she understood him but not that she necessarily agrees.

I cannot wait to see what Liz does next!!!!!!! About this but just in general!!!!! Without Adrian there giving her constant advice I feel like she can grow so much and the show will have to give her more to do!!! I think Adrian, for all his many wonderful qualities and all he brought to the show, can suck all the air out of a room with his charisma, and Liz usually ends up suffering as a result. She’s such a capable lawyer in her own right, but Adrian has a way of making it always seem like he’s right—even in arguments she wins. I’m excited to see Liz lead (or stumble at leadership; she is fairly new to management) without Adrian’s direct influence.

Liz walks Adrian out and it’s cute. They run into Marissa and Jay. “Everybody fun is leaving,” Marissa notes. Liz is minorly offended, but playfully. Heh.

Adrian asks Jay how he’s doing; Jay says he’s a long-hauler but he’s doing okay. I like that they included that moment in Adrian’s goodbye sequence. It’s a very little thing, but it underlines that Adrian cares about Jay.

Then Liz interrupts to note that Trump pardoned a lot of convicted and corrupt Republican officials....... including Julius.

Everyone celebrates, but especially Diane and Marissa. Diane lets out her wonderful laugh and then we, finally, get to the credits. Because now that the previouslies are over, it’s time for the real show.

The credits are absolutely delightful, btw. I was a little worried some of the kittens would blow up, though! Once I relaxed and realized what they were up to—literal puppies and kittens because Biden won—I couldn’t get enough of these credits. They work so well because they accurately capture the way I (and all of these characters, except maybe Julius and Kurt) feel about the election results, but it’s so exaggerated that you know the kittens and puppies aren’t a realistic representation of our new reality. They’re just too good to be true, but you may as well enjoy them for a minute. I’m sure we’ll be back to exploding vases next week.

What a great episode! My timeline nitpicks and whatever they’re trying to do with Jay aside, I was blown away by how well the writers managed to move on from season 4, tie up loose ends, and write out two main characters. And they did it all while making me revisit the events of 2020, a year I don’t think many of us want to spend much time thinking about! This episode was enjoyable, fun, emotional, and clever. I don’t know what to expect from the rest of the season, but I’m definitely excited about the show in a way I haven’t really been in quite some time.

This season’s naming convention seems to be titles that end with ... and only have the first word capitalized. I want to see more.

Season FIVE? There have already been as many TGF seasons as there were TGW seasons prior to Hitting the Fan?! Time flies.

Please writers: No topical episodes this year-- no pee tape, no Melania divorce, no Epstein. None of that business.

Sorry if I repeated myself here. I never proofread these things, and I wrote half of this on Saturday and half of it today (Wednesday) and the days in between were an absolute blur so I cannot remember if I said the same things about this episode twice.

#the good fight #tgfthoughts

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dawsonscreekwasalwaysbad · 5 years

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season 6 thoughts

hey quick question why the FUCK did you start with that

like on the one hand i’m glad that now i know what happened right after the end of “that’s too much man!”. on the other hand… ow

the mountain bojack climbs is called “metaphor mountain” God bless Lisa Hanawalt

i LOVE the way the episodes are framed… like you get one flashback to bojack drinking and you think that was the first time then it’s like NOPE he was even younger

CINDY CRAWFISH AKSHDJDSF

AND BABY BOJACK SNUGGLING UP TO HIS MOTHER… TRYING TO FEEL AN EMBRACE SHE WOULD NEVER GIVE… CATCH ME CRYING IN THE CLUB

WHO THE FUCK CAME UP WITH THIS NEW INTRO

AND THE WAY IT HAS ALL THOSE FLASHBACK SCENES BUT IT STILL ENDS WITH HIM FALLING INTO THE POOL AND DIANE AND PEANUTBUTTER CHECKING TO SEE IF HES OK AND THEN HES JSUT LOUNGING IN HIS APPLE SHORTS;;; it’s just,, he’s going back home in the end, going back to the place where he started, as if everything will go back to the way it was before and he’ll find himself stuck in the same cycles he tried so hard to escape… all im saying is, i dont think this season is gonna end well

and how it dwells on his past, everything he did wrong, all the most heartwrenching moments, and there aren’t any changes to the intro (as far as i could tell) until episode 8… nothing changes if all you do is look back.

I am LOVING the Mr. Peanutbutter we’re getting this season. I was never really attached to him before; it’s not that I hated him, just that I liked all the other main characters better. and now that they’ve had him do something really bad and reckon with that,, he’s plumbing new depths, exploring those dark places, questioning if he’s truly as happy as he says he is

and bonding with bojack??? who would have guessed

bojack keeps giving advice that is, at best, the kind he doesn’t follow himself, and at worst, bringing others down into the well of self-pity that he’s been stuck in the whole series

Someone give Princess Carolyn a break…

SHE NAMED HER DAUGHTER RUTHIE IM CRYING

Guy seems like a cool guy but I feel like they’re setting him up to seem nice so that it’s more surprising when it’s revealed he’s not. I’m probably being too suspicious, but also we don’t know much of the details about his divorce, do we? Lakeith Stanfield's great tho

EPISODE 4 WAS COMEDY GOLD

The return of Queefburglar69

I WANNA WRAP PICKLES UP IN A BLANKET LIKE A BURRITO AND TELL HER EVERYTHINGS OKAY

Oh man Pickles talking about how her subscribers will always be there for her… like… it’s not one person, it’s a cloud of people, the contents and shape of which changes, might even be completely different and unrecognizable from one year to the next, but they’re all still there as this nebulous support system. and it reminded me of what bojack said to young sarah lynn about how her fans are the only things she can count on

Todd is babey.

Also him wearing the ace colors under his hoodie!!

I knew Diane’s rationale for going to chicago was bullshit. she said it makes her feel good, but “it doesn’t matter where you are, it’s who you are,” and she still dwells on her bad feelings and hates herself just as much in chicago as she did in LA. moving somewhere else isn’t necessarily gonna change those tendencies, she has to work on it herself.

OH MAN AND WHEN BOJACK GETS DR CHAMP DRUNK AGAIN… THROWING THE BOTTLE OUT THE WINDOW WAS A WAY TO AVOID RUINING ANOTHER LIFE AND HE ENDS UP DOING THE EXACT THING HE HOPED HE WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN

was honestly kinda hoping that Dr Champ was just pretending he got drunk to show how bad bojack could get if he relapsed but at the end when he was like “stay…” that’s how i knew that shit was real.

todd is so fucking stupid i love him

ngl am kinda disappointed that todd’s confirmed white, cause i’ve kinda been picturing him as latino for a long time and i know rbw said he doesn’t want to alienate latino viewers who relate to todd. but it makes a lot of sense, cause he always gets away with stupid shit and gets to the top of things without even having to try just because he knows a guy. and maybe the reason he’s so positive all the time is because it’s so easy for him to be, he never has to worry about shit bc of the privilege his whiteness affords him. also I love that we got to learn more about his backstory

THE CONTRAST BTWN “all the shitty things I did that I can barely even remember because I was high or drunk or it was thirty years ago” and “I remember everything. I’m sober now.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!

sharona sounds like a cross btwn princess carolyn and margo martindale

I have… mixed feelings about the haircut

Oh man Mr. Peanutbutter had a moment… he finally got that crossover episode… I was kinda hoping for a joke that went “Mr. Peanutbutter and BoJack Horseman in the same room? What is this, Philbert?” or “What is this, a short-lived show on a streaming network that got canceled because the star got addicted to painkillers and strangled his costar in a drugged haze?” but this is SO MUCH BETTER. I've never seen him cry before and the way he reacts to himself crying suggests that maybe he’s never cried before at all, and that’s why he just keeps laughing, almost like it’s forced, cause this is supposed to be his happiest moment and it’s not supposed to make him so sad. fucking,, character development

and the cold open of ep 8… you can forgive yourself and move on from your past wrongs but it doesn’t erase the things you did, the effects they have on people, and the trauma they’ve suffered. and then like, how can you forgive yourself if they never forgive you? how do you maintain that balance? why should you move forward if they can’t?

its weird to have an episode consisting entirely of guest stars but it also illustrates the extensive world they’ve built and i applaud that… also where the fuck is ana spanakopita

GINA RETURNS!!! HELL YEAH

her quote about not wanting to be defined by what bojack did to her has always stuck with me, and i feel like now, that quote has sort of come true. like, her saying that made us avoid reducing her to what happened to her, and thats why i wanted to see her come back this season, hopefully moving past it. but she can’t. it traumatized her. and everyone can see the effects of it but she feels like she can’t come forward, cause if she does she’ll be punished. shit like that changes you.

and it’s another instance on the show where someone chooses to advance their career & preserve their reputation over doing the right thing (like what bojack does with herb & sharona), but bojack does it out of self-interest, and gina does it so she doesn’t have to relive her trauma every time she gets interviewed or recognized by a fan. but even when she keeps quiet about it she’s still reliving her trauma

noah fence but what a waste of the once-per-season fuck word. youre really gonna use it in an episode IN WHICH BOJACK DOES NOT EVEN APPEAR, and not only that, but RECYCLE AN OLD SENTENCE FROM A PREVIOUS EPISODE

netflix places no limits on a show’s use of the fuck word (i think), so… fingers crossed for something better in the second part?

OH MY GOD PETE REPEAT INTRODUCED HIMSELF AS PETER ITS ALMOST LIKE HES TRYING TO FORGET THAT TIME & THAT PERSON HE WAS (im probably reading into it too much, I’m sure it’s mostly so we wouldn’t figure out who it was immediately. maybe im just like the kid with the coffee cup.)

and just… ppl describe this show as “family guy or the simpsons except the protagonist faces consequences for his actions” but bojack has gotten away with everything.

you ever just like… you ever watch a scene and feel the cliffhanger vibes creeping up and you just know it’s gonna end there and leave you unsatisfied and begging for more but at the same time that’s what makes it such a good place to end it. that was me with this. (and also the ending of undone)

the thing about this show is, it illustrates what it’s like to be a toxic person. and sure, he has it hard, but the show never asserts that he has it any worse than his victims, even if bojack himself does so. and he only does it so he can feel better about himself. he deserves a reckoning, he needs to pay for his bad deeds. but then, when you know what made him this way and what goes on inside his mind and that he wants to get better, it makes you feel for him, and forces you to ask if he deserves to get better and forgive himself and move forward. but even if he does, it doesn’t change the things he did. it doesn’t fix the lives he’s ruined.

anyway sound off if you think bojack’s gonna die at the end. hopefully not by suicide

#long post #bojack horseman #diane nguyen #todd chavez #princess carolyn #mr. peanutbutter #pickles aplenty #pete repeat #bojack horseman season 6 spoilers #doctor champ #sarah lynn #gina cazador #horsin' around #mr. peanutbutter's house #netflix #raphael bob-waksberg #lisa hanawalt #phoebe talks #mine

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sunnypogue · 4 years

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post grad - part one (jj maybank x oc)

pairing: jj maybank x original character

synopsis: she’s your modern day college graduate: good at school, bad at the whole after-school thing. recent grad margo jean walker was told her whole life she was destined for greatness - straight a’s, top of her class, full ride to columbia - until she graduated. now, she’s hiding out in her grandmother’s outer banks estate, attempting to figure out what her “life plan after college” is supposed to look like. on her journey to self-realization, she finds herself enveloped in the life of jj maybank - a high school dropout, bumming with his childhood friends in a beat up shack on the coast. two people, one town, zero plan.

warnings: drinking/cursing - probably an eternal warning with my writing.

a/n: straight up haven’t written a thing in fandom in like, five years. jj maybank (a perfect character) has singlehandedly dragged me out of my fic writing slump - that’s one inspirational motherfucker.

part one brought to you by that one opening scene where jj was mowing a lawn shirtless. cinematic gold.

anyways, this is a classic “gifted girl is told she’s gifted her whole life and then she gets out of school and realizes she has no idea what the fuck she’s doing so she runs from her problems” meets her antithesis + his pals. there will definitely be some stronger warnings down the line, if you catch my drift.

I’m also 1000% team “JJ’s name is short for John because it was too confusing having two John’s around so they compromised with JJ and John B” thanks.

pogues + kooks featured are all 21+. it’s called post grad for a reason, folks.

enjoy xx.

_______________________________________________

post grad

“Margo, if you lay out any longer, you’ll freckle up. Your nose is completely covered!”

Margo hummed, wriggling her body enough to face in the general direction of her grandmother’s voice. She blindly stuck a hand out from her chaise chair, slapping aimlessly until she felt the familiar bill of her worn baseball cap, before dropping it onto her face.

“Is that better, Mimi?” Her voice, rough from disuse, was muffled from behind the cap.

“Slightly. It would be nicer if it wasn’t that damn Yankees hat.”

Margo grinned, hearing the exasperated amusement in her grandmother’s voice. Although a long time resident on the coast of North Carolina, her Mimi still carried a torch for her hometown Boston teams, often recounting fond memories of nosebleed seats at Fenway, or listening to Bruins games on the radio. She claimed one of the reasons she remained on the Outer Banks is that she couldn’t bear to show her face back in Boston, knowing her granddaughter was a Yankees fan.

Margo couldn’t help but poke fun at her any chance she got.

“Sorry Mimi. Would you rather I freckle?”

Mimi peered over the rims of her cat-eye sunglasses, observing from a safe, shaded perch. “You know, neither of these things would be a problem if your mother hadn’t married your father. You’d be freckle-free and a Sox fan, without a doubt.”

Margo ripped her cap off, squinting towards her grandmother. “My heart would always find their way back to the Yanks. And I think my freckles give me character!”

Mimi pushed her sunglasses back up, glancing back down at the dog eared book in her lap. “You got the attitude from your father too.”

Margo grinned, white teeth splitting across her warm face. “Now that’s a bald faced lie, Mimi. You know exactly who I got the attitude from.”

A loud laugh burst from the older woman, setting her forgotten book to the side. “Yes, unfortunately I do. I was hoping I could pawn another one of your traits off to your father’s side, but I suppose I have no one else but myself to blame for your…,” She paused, looking for the proper words, “…quick wit.” She drawled, her muddled Boston accent blending with the Carolina.

It was Margo’s turn to laugh, a similar burst to her grandmother. She swung her legs off the chaise chair, before standing and padding over to her grandmother’s shaded spot.

“I think I got my affinity for gin & tonics from your side too.” Margo quipped, grabbing Mimi’s empty cup. “Refill?”

Mimi sighed, glancing at the glass tumbler in her granddaughter’s hand. “I suppose. Lighter on the gin this time though, dear. You about knocked me out with that last one.”

Margo laughed, turning towards the screen door that lead inside, “I got my heavy hand from you, too!”

She could feel her grandmother’s eyes roll from behind her.

Margo made her way to the wet bar, a familiar and friendly sight in her grandmother’s home. She quickly went through the motions of making two gin & tonics, mixing Hendricks with Fevertree, before topping with two limes – the only true way to enjoy a G&T. As she moved to retreat back to her sunny spot on the chaise, her stomach grumbled, reminding her it was time to eat something, or her heavy hand might knock her out too.

She pivoted towards the kitchen, setting the tumblers down on the island before venturing into the walk-in pantry to grab a snack. As she exited the pantry, her peripherals caught something moving in her front yard, relatively unusual for a Saturday afternoon. She turned to face the floor to ceiling windows in the foyer, hands clutching an unopened back of pretzel sticks, before squinting to make out the figure on her Mimi’s front lawn.

Outside her grandmother’s home, was a man, mowing the space rather methodically. He was tall and tan, and Margo could almost describe his shirtless upper half as glistening, like a bad paperback romance. The arm of his silver aviators were clenched between his teeth, as he pushed the mower through the thick grass, muscles flexing.

The sound of crushed plastic startled Margo from her gaze. She swiped her forearm across her face almost instinctively, confirming she wasn’t actually salivating from watching the mystery landscaper at work. Tossing the now-crushed pretzel sticks to the counter, she quickly grabbed the melting drinks, and hustled outside to her grandmother.

“Took you long enough, Margo Jean. I thought college would have made you more efficient in your cocktail-“

“Mimi.” Margo interrupted, clutching a drink in each fist. “Mimi, who – who IS that outside your house?”

“What?” Mimi startled, sitting up in her seat. “What do you mean who’s outside my house?”

Margo sat next to her grandmother, passing her a drink. “The guy mowing your lawn – who is he? I’ve never seen him before.”

Margo watched as her grandmother sighed, settling back into her seat. “Oh, you mean John.” Her grandmother raised the cup to her lips, taking a long sip.

“What do you mean, John?!” Margo squawked. “I’ve been living here for a month and I’ve never, ever seen him before!”

Mimi peered over her sunglasses again, looking at her flustered granddaughter. “Darling, are you alright? You look flushed. Maybe you should stay out of the sun.”

“I’m fine, Mimi. It just surprised me, that’s all. I wasn’t expecting to see a random man in our front lawn.”

Mimi hummed. “Honey, he’s harmless. He’s been helping me out for a couple years now – a local boy, from town. He’s usually here on Thursdays, while you’re at work.”

“Oh.” Margo took a long sip of her drink, relaxing a bit. While she was partially worked up by how upsettingly attractive the landscaper was, she had to admit she was a bit frightened by the sight of a random man on her grandmother’s property. It had been just her and Mimi at the estate for the past month, and a new face was a bit shocking.

“You know, I think he’s about your age. Sweet boy, always offering to help around the place after your grandfather passed.”

Margo placed a comforting hand on Mimi’s arm, sensing the distress in her voice at the mention of her deceased husband. Mimi patted Margo’s hand briefly, before standing and clapping twice.

“Come! Come on, this is a great opportunity.” Mimi flitted into the house.

Margo scrambled to her feet. “What do you mean, a great opportunity?”

“A great opportunity to meet some people your age. I know it hasn’t been easy, but John is just the nicest boy, and I think it’ll be good to have a familiar face other than mine on the island.”

“No! Mimi, I don’t need more familiar faces.” Margo ran to catch her grandmothers’ thin arm, slowing her progression towards the front door. “Please, I know plenty of people here. I have you, and Jennifer, and Mr. Picard. That’s all I really need, for now.”

Mimi pulled a face. “Sweetheart, I love you dearly, but that was a pathetic showing right there. You’re going to cite your boss and the neighborhood gate guard as your friends?”

Margo matched her Mimi’s face, scrunching her nose. “Look, I never said they were close friends. But I know people! I know people. I don’t need more people.”

“Nonsense. Now, come on, let me introduce you. Oh, don’t give me that face, Margo Jean, you won’t be betrothed to the guy after a simple introduction.” Mimi firmly grasped Margo’s hand, tugging her towards the front door. “Now, be nice. Don’t give him any of that New York attitude you love to display towards everyone in this town.”

“Mimi, I thought we agreed my attitude came directly from you. Don’t blame my – hey!” Margo stumbled through the now-open front door, coming to a graceless stop on the first porch step.

The mower came to a stop, with the still-shirtless operator turning towards the front door.

“Mrs. S! Anything I can help you with?” The landscaper yelled from the far edge of the lawn.

“Oh, no John, thank you! Do you mind coming over here for a second?” Mimi gripped Margo’s shoulders tightly, as she felt her granddaughter jerk away.

“Jesus, Mimi, you didn’t even let me cover up.” Margo hissed, her eyes trained forward on the male ambling his way up the long path to the front door.

“Oh stop, you two are practically matching with your outfits right now.” Mimi glanced at her granddaughter’s light blue swimsuit, before looking at John’s outfit, consisting of black shorts and a pair of ratty boots. “Even playing field.”

Margo huffed, crossing her arms across her stomach. “This is not how I wanted to be –“

“What’s up Mrs. S?” John asked, stopping at the bottom of the steps. His silver aviators were hooked into the waistband of his shorts. “Everything alright?”

“Oh yes John, everything is fine. I just wanted to introduce you to my granddaughter.” Mimi squeezed Margo’s shoulders. “She’s in from New York and staying with me for a while.”

John laughed, his sharp teeth settling into an attractive grin as he glanced at Margo. “And how the hell did you end up with a granddaughter from New York? She not going to let me put up the Sox flag for you this year?”

Mimi snorted. “Margo’s a good girl, she would never deprive her grandmother of such a thing. We try to forgive her for her New Yorker-tendencies – she didn’t stand a chance with her father’s early indoctrination.”

“You know, I am right here. Mind if I speak for myself?” Margo huffed.

Mimi squeezed Margo’s shoulders again, continuing her conversation, “Anyways, John, this is Margo Jean. Margo Jean,” Mimi paused, gesturing to the boy. “This is John.”

Margo stepped forward, shaking her shoulders out of her grandmother’s death grip before sticking her hand out. “Hi, John. Margo Jean Walker.”

He grinned, grabbing her hand in his, joining the two for an uncomfortably sweaty handshake. “Margo Jean Walker. That’s a lot of name for one girl.”

Margo released her grip, looking down her nose towards him. “Well you don’t have to call me all three. Margo works just fine.”

His grin intensified, as he matched her stare. “Margo Jean Walker.” He repeated. “Alright. I’m JJ. No one around here calls me John. Well, except Mrs. S.”

“It’s a nice name, John, I don’t see why all of you kids have to go by names that aren’t your given names. It makes things confusing for old biddies like myself.” Mimi looked at the pair in distain. “Margo’s always been Margo – the consistency is nice.”

“Margo Jean Walker.” JJ hummed, eyes dancing over the girl. “Consistent New Yorker.”

Margo and Mimi let out their matching laughs simultaneously. “Yeah, that’s it.” Margo giggled. “Consistent New Yorker.” She popped her hands on her hips, offering the boy a toothy smile, her eyes squinting. “Well, it was nice to meet you, JJ-not-John. Thanks for helping Mimi out. Saves me from having to figure out…that.” She gestured towards the idle mower.

He followed her eyes, glancing back at the machine he left at the top of the lawn, mentally snorting at the thought of the bikini-clad girl pushing the mower across a half-acre of grass. “Yeah, it’s probably for the best that – oh.” He turned back as he spoke, just catching a glimpse of her cheeky bikini bottoms and long hair, as she slipped inside.

Mimi tutted, waving a dismissive hand in the direction of her granddaughter. “Don’t mind her, she’s just bent-out-of-shape because of the move. She’ll warm up more, eventually.”

JJ sighed, sliding his sunglasses back on. “No problem, Mrs. S. Need anything else done around here? Just about finished with your lawn.”

Mimi patted her frosted blonde hair, quickly glancing over the state of her lawn. “Looks great, hon. Nothing else today, but I’m thinking of expanding my garden in the backyard.” She took a long sip of her drink, before continuing. “Are you available to take on a project this summer?”

JJ faltered, thinking about the time constraints a project would have on his summer. He had to consider things – his friends, his surfing, his three other jobs. “Uh, well –“

“I’d rather you take the job, John,” Mimi started. “I don’t particularly want strangers around my house, especially if my granddaughter’s going to be frying herself poolside all summer,” Mimi scoffed. “Her poor skin.”

JJ paused, considering the pros of working in the company of Mrs. S’s leggy, bikini-clad granddaughter all summer. “I mean, that sounds –“

The older woman shoved her cat-eye sunglasses into her hair, taking three steps down her porch to be eye level with the blonde, who remained stationary at the bottom of the stairs.

“I’ll pay you double.”

A tan hand flew out, forearm adorned with tattered bracelets, freckles and the occasional scar. “You’ve got it, Mrs. S.”

Mimi smiled, primly shaking the boy’s hand. “Great. You’ll start next week, Saturday morning?”

JJ suppressed a groan, trying not to think about the morning boat ride he’d undoubtably be missing out on. “Sure, sounds great. How long do you think it’ll –“

“A couple weekends, maybe. I won’t hoard you the whole summer, John. God knows the other ladies in the neighborhood would riot.” Mimi grinned, patting his cheek. “And they already don’t like me very much, so let’s try to keep them on my good side, alright?”

JJ exhaled, relieved he wasn’t signing his summer away. “Absolutely, Mrs. S, although I can’t think of a single reason why someone wouldn’t like you.” He finished, offering a shit-eating grin towards the older woman.

She barked out a laugh, flapping a hand around as she turned to open the front door and grab her purse. She pulled a handful of bills out of her envelope wallet, pressing them into his palm. “Here, you kiss-ass. For today and a cash-advance for selling your soul to me for a couple weekends.” She grinned as his blue-eyes widened, staring at the money. “Now get out of here, enjoy the rest of your day.”

JJ’s feet faltered, as he started walking towards the lawn mower, his head still looking back at the front door. “Th-thanks, Mrs. S! Yeah, I’ll see you next weekend. Thank you! Thanks!”

Mimi smiled, wiggling her fingers at the boy as he rushed to put the mower away. “See you Saturday, John.”

#outer banks #jj maybank #obx #obx jj #outer banks fic #outer banks imagine #outer banks fanfiction #rudy pankow #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank x oc #outer banks netflix #obx netflix #post grad

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coccinelle-et-chaton · 3 years

Text

come get ya miraculous juice

If your thirst for lukanette and slow burn adrinette cannot possibly wait for season 4, Chapter 10 of The Wall Between Us is up on AO3!

Or read in Tumblr below the cut

Chapter 10

“Aw, come on Luka, don’t be like this,” Albin said, swinging an arm around his neck.

“I’m not being like anything,” Luka protested as he and his group of friends made their way out of the metro station and towards Place de la Concorde. “I’m just saying I don’t feel like coming to a demonstration.”

“So, what would you rather be doing today instead, hm? Stay locked up in your room like an emo kid? Besides, the weather is great today and you know Margot will hang us by our heads if we don’t show up.”

Luka sighed and remitted to walk along, which pleased Albin.

Luka’s friends had been very adamant on helping him out of the house as often as possible since his breakup with Marinette. They knew that, left to his own devices, Luka would close up and keep to himself. He wasn’t the kind of guy that readily shared when something bothered him, he was more the type that had to be squeezed like an orange for him to share his mind when he was feeling low. However, this was not the reason why Luka had put up more of a fight than it was usually his style. It had been almost a week since the breakup and he had managed to keep out of trouble with Hawkmoth, but he attributed his success to a lot of calm evenings and just processing everything his own way.

As much as he supported the cause and his friend Margot, he could see how participating in a demonstration could get him riled up, especially if some asshole showed up. And he’d attended enough demonstrations during his lifetime to know that there was always some asshole showing up.

The trio of boys made their way to the organizers’ tent, where Margo kept busy readying cardboard signs. Without as much as a quick glance upwards and a smile, she said, “Oh good, you’re here. Help me with these, please. Paint is on the table over there.” She handed a couple of cardboard pieces to each of the boys and left them to their own devices.

Luka wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with these. His creativity didn’t exactly lie in the visual department. That was always more a thing for...

He shook his head and proceeded to grab some random paint and brushes for Albin, Noe, and himself. As he turned around, he accidentally knocked a container of black paint on the person behind him waiting their turn.

“What the heck! Watch it!” the girl exclaimed.

“Shit,” he hissed. “Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Let me help you clean-- Kagami?”

It took him a couple seconds to recognize who she was. It had been almost a year since he had last seen her. There was an air to her that made it evident she had changed a lot during that time, but it was also obvious in her appearance. She had cut her hair shorter than before and she had now several piercings on her ears. She seemed to have also shed her preppy outfits in favor of high-waisted mom jeans and a black crop top. Besides her appearance, Luka could just tell this was the type of girl who wouldn’t take crap from anyone, even more than before. It was a bit… daunting. He did always wonder how someone as intimidatingly sure of herself ended up with someone like Adrien.

“Luka,” she said deadpan.

“You... look very different.”

She gave him a dirty look. “Really? You come to a feminist demonstration and the first thing you do is comment on my appearance?”

Luka blushed with embarrassment. “No, no, no! Sorry! I didn’t mean it like that! You just-- in general. You look different in general.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Thanks for ruining my pants, by the way. They weren't my favorite or anything,” she said sarcastically, then stopped, looked around the room and asked, “Where’s Marinette, anyway? Maybe she knows some way to take the stain off.”

Luka clutched his painting utensils and gulped. He had tried to steer away from the subject as much as possible to reduce his risk of getting akumatized, but he supposed there wasn’t much of a way to evade it right now.

“We, uh... we broke up a few days ago.”

“Oh.” Kagami perked up, suddenly aware how her question might have been a little insensitive. “Sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah.”

“Not that it’s my business, but how are you doing? After your akumatization and so on?”

“I didn’t get akumatized,” he said, suddenly defensive, as an urge to get back to his friends built up.

“Really?” Kagami said, a bit surprised.

“Yes, really.”

“I always had the impression you were super into her,” she commented, but mostly to herself.

“I am--I was,” he said, getting angry.

“I got akumatized into this nightmarish monster when Adrien and I broke up and it turned out it didn’t take me so much to get over him.”

“That has absolutely nothing to do with it,” he retorted, evidently irked.

“No, no. Of course not,” she hurried to say, realizing she had unintentionally pushed his buttons. “I just meant to say props to you. Lesser people get akumatized for the weather or something like that. Sorry for the stupid comparison.

“Sure. Whatever…”

“... Anyway,” Kagami said, sighing. “I guess we’ve made this sufficiently awkward, right? So, I’ll get going.”

Luka marched back to his friends and unceremoniously dumped the materials at the center of their little circle as tried to calm himself down.

He tried to focus on getting something into his sign but the fact he was stuck doing something Marinette usually loved to do was not helping in the slightest.

He breathed heavily, his eyes prickling him as hot, angry tears pooled and then fell onto the cardboard.

“I need some fresh air,” he announced to his friends, who had noticed his mood but had not said anything yet and watched as he stormed outside.

He paced around, taking deep breaths. The anxiety of not being able to calm down mixed with the fear of getting akumatized, was like kindling soaked in gasoline being thrown into a starting fire. And, as wildfires do, it burst out of control.

Luka gasped for air and then, with horror saw as the black butterfly approached him. He sprinted back to the tent where his friends were but by the time he got there, the butterfly had already lodged in the paintbrush he was holding.

The voice of his friends urging him not to give into the spell was faint and distant in his ears, but enough to keep him steady.

The first thing he noticed is that this akumatization felt different. He's was still aware of everything. He hadn’t been completely akumatized yet. Hawkmoth held him in his petrifying grasp but stalled, as if deciding what to turn him into.

Suddenly, his grave voice echoed inside his head.

“What is it that you want, Luka Couffaine?”

“Get out of my head,” Luka hissed, focusing as hard as he could on not thinking of anything that would reveal the secrets he knew.

Hawkmoth laughed. “But you called me here. Your emotions... I can tell you’re a soul in pain. You lost something. I can relate to that pain.” Luka felt how Hawkmoth snaked through his thoughts, looking for something to convince him. A flash of a thought, and Hawkmoth knew he was hiding something.

“GET OUT!” he screamed in his head.

He laughed again. “Oh? And what secrets might you be keeping? Hm?”

Luka winced, straining to keep thinking of random things: music, the weather, that weird bench at school that wobbles when he sits and how he hates it. Anything.

“I can help you recover what you lost...” he whispered softly. “Your girlfriend… Don’t you want her back? What is her name? I can help you. I promise I won’t hurt her.”

He felt himself slipping, turning.

“No!” he said, reverting back into his human form. “Let me go!”

“Maybe what you want is revenge on him? The reason she abandoned you? You’re not worthy like him, are you? That’s why she left you… But I can make you worthy… Wouldn't you want to be in his place, hm? Wouldn’t everything be better with that pesky boy of the way?”

Again, Luka felt himself morph and forced himself to think of other things. He tried reciting stupid facts he knew about ship maintenance.

“Get out of my head!” he exclaimed, sounding much weaker.

“Your power of will is very commendable,” Hawkmoth said. “But if I’m overstaying my welcome all you need to do is tell me what you want.”

“N-no!” Luka said, straining and screaming. “GET OUT!”

“If you--”

Suddenly the contact broke, and he collapsed onto the ground. The world went dark.

When Luka regained consciousness, he did so with a jolt. He was surrounded by his friends, Ladybug and Chat Noir, and surprisingly enough, Kagami.

He had an ungodly headache and realized blood had dried on his upper lip. His nose must have bled.

“Give him some space,” Ladybug ordered the crowd, seeing as Luka was struggling to gather his bearings. He didn’t know what particular panic to tackle first.

“What happened?” he asked, noticing they were not under the tent anymore and the gathering crowd that was preparing for the demonstration had dissipated.

“You got akumatized,” Ladybug explained, a bit surprised she had to fill him in on that particular point.

“Or rather, were about to akumatized,” Chat Noir said, trying to help his confused expression.

“You kept changing into different things. Like, you were getting akumatized on and off again,” Albin explained. “It was pretty scary.”

He turned to Ladybug with horror realizing what that meant. “You need to take me out of here,” he urged.

“Please!”

“Just take it easy for a second, okay?” Ladybug said, trying her best not to share Luka’s worry. “We’ll take you home in a minute.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir had not been present for most of the incident, so they stayed to talk to the people that had seen the attack, mainly Luka’s friends and Kagami.

Chat Noir was the one to interview them while Ladybug found some water for Luka to drink. Once everyone had calmed down and gave Chat Noir their testimony, they took Luka away to a secluded place to talk. It was the abandoned industrial section where Chat usually led Akumas.

“He knows,” he said, with absolute terror in his voice, Luka said pacing around, trying his best to contain his tears. “He knows that I know something! He saw that I was hiding something. I’m so sorry, Ladybug. I tried but he--he was in my mind and saw--.” His voice broke down.

For a reason unknown to Chat, Ladybug suddenly assumed the same urgency as Luka.

“Did he see?” she asked as Luka cried. “Luka, did he see?”

“See what?” Chat Noir asked, with escalating worry. “What is going on?”

“He didn’t. That’s why I kept changing, he tried to convince me several times,” said Luka. “But he knows that I’m keeping a secret.”

Ladybug covered her mouth with her hands.

“Would somebody please just care to explain what is going on?” Chat demanded.

“You didn’t tell him?” Luka said with disbelief.

“Luka, I need you to tell me exactly everything you remember. What happened?” Ladybug said, ignoring the question.

“Nothing. He just… he figured that I… lost someone. And he was trying to get me to tell him who it was, and to convince me to try to get them back, or to get revenge. I managed to focus my thoughts, but what if he tries again,” Luka said fearfully. “You were right,” he sobbed. “I shouldn’t have—I should’ve just looked away that day! I wish I never knew about this.”

Despite Chat’s presence, Ladybug could only comfort Luka with a hug, not knowing what else to do. Chat, on the other hand, seemed to have put two and two together. Luka knew Marinette’s identity.

“Oh my god…” Chat muttered with disbelief as he leaned against the metal sliding door of one of the warehouse buildings and fell to the floor. He grabbed chunks of his hair just to process what all of this meant, what to feel first. His father was only an akumatization away from figuring out Marinette.

“Luka, I promise you I won’t let anything happen to you, okay? We will come up with a plan, Chat Noir and me. But for now, I need to you to lay as low as possible. We cannot be seen together anymore. At all. If Hawkmoth is the person Chat and I suspect he is, he could be very close to finding out who I am if he makes the connection that we were together. Erase everything. Everything we ever posted on our social media, messages, calls, anything that might be public evidence. Try to have Juleka do the same.”

Luka contemplated the prospect for a moment. Ladybug knew she was thinking exactly the same thing as him: how devastating it will be to have to pretend that nothing ever happened. To actively destroy their memories together.

“Okay,” he said after a while. “And what if I get akumatized again? I don’t think I’ll be able to hold him off for any longer than I did today.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Ladybug said. “That’s for us to figure out. Your only task is to pretend like you don’t know us, for your own sake.”

They sent Luka back home on a cab that Marinette called through her burner phone, leaving a heavy sense of danger looming between Chat and Ladybug. He was still on his spot on the ground, with his head on his hands as he supported his arms on his knees.

Ladybug sighed and slid down to sit next to him.

“You told him?”

“I’ve only ever told Alya. He found out by accident,” she said, already defensive and prepared for the argument that was bubbling up between them. “He also knows who you are.”

Chat’s stomach dropped. “Come again?”

“He was hiding in the same alley you transformed in one day.”

Chat let out a heavy sigh and swore loudly.

“You knew about this and you didn’t think to tell me?” he asked Ladybug.

Ladybug was in complete silence. She didn’t know what to say. “I—“

“You what?” Chat demanded.

“I— I meant to tell you next time we met,” she said. “I didn’t think—“

“You didn’t think to tell me that the boyfriend you just broke up with and was very much at risk of being akumatized knows who we are?” he exclaimed with frustration.

“I just—“ Ladybug tried to come up with an explanation, but the words kept getting stuck on her throat. Chat was right to be mad. She should have told him as soon as she found out. But everything had been so much, with him disappearing and Luka suddenly breaking up with her that, in a moment of weakness, him knowing her identity had been the least of her worries.

“What were you thinking?” Chat demanded. “Ladybug, I told you I’m close to the Agreste family!”

“I’m sorry!” she yelled. “I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t think—I was… I was so distracted by everything going on that I never thought… I meant to tell you! But then all this stupid teenage drama got in the way! He broke up with me literally the day after you and I talked. That’s when he told me. I meant to tell you Chat Noir, I swear. I just...” she sighed. “I’m so stupid!”

She knocked the back of her head on the metal wall that they were leaning against. “This was the kind of mistake I wanted to evade by telling someone! And it still happened… No matter what I do, nothing ever seems to be enough.”

She was angry at herself, at the situation, at the fact that no matter how hard she tried, she was still not a good enough Guardian.

“We still have time to fix this,” he said, a lot calmer and even with hints of reassurance in his voice. “We need to use our upper hand before Hawkmoth gets a chance to get his,” said Chat. “I can get a hold of his personal calendar. We can attack when he least expects it.”

“How are you going to do that, Chat? Let me go with you,” Ladybug said, worried.

Chat shook his head. “I’ll do it as a civilian.”

“The more reason!”

“No, Ladybug. If anything goes wrong and he sees you there, he’ll be able to figure everything out. Trust me. I promise I will be careful.”

“But--”

“Marinette, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to you,” Chat Noir said, his voice cracking and evidencing the whirlwind of emotions he had been trying to hide from her. “Please, just let me do this. Please, my lady.”

“Okay,” she said quietly. “But promise me you’ll be careful. And you’ll tell me when you do it. Please, promise me you’ll tell me.”

“I will.”

The clicking of Natalie’s heels as she entered the office disturbed the soft classical music playing in the background.

“Here’s the schedule for tomorrow, sir,” she said, placing a thin stack of papers on Gabriel’s desk. “Your flight to Helsinki is expected to arrive at nine a.m. and your first meeting is at ten, as you requested.”

“Excellent. Thank you, Natalie,” Gabriel said, without taking his sight off his screen.

Natalie nodded, heading to her desk.

“One more thing while I am absent, Natalie.”

“Yes, sir?”

Gabriel zoomed into the picture of the article he had been reading. The photographer had managed to capture the teenager he had akumatized looking urgently at Ladybug, who seemed to reciprocate his concern.

“Make sure to find out everything you can about this... Luka Couffaine.”

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audreyprovostya · 3 years

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People have strong opinions on YA romance. Mostly negative. I fervently disagree.

The past few years have experienced a boom in young adult fiction, from the Harry Potter series to the infamous Twilight books. Parents have watched slack-jawed as their teens devoured them. It’s no surprise that literary critics and concerned adults alike have taken to scouring these works for an answer as to why their teens seem so enthralled, and they were not impressed with what they found. Ever since then, the young adult genre has been castigated as the willful dumbing-down of an entire generation, and a stigma revolves around the works, their authors, and their readers. But this prejudice is well-rooted in ageism and sexism, and largely ignores to attempt any critical analyses on the quality of the writing in favor of panning something simply because it is not a “literary classic”.

It is most useful to talk about young adult romance, which seems to be under fire the most, but first, it is important to define what the term “young adult” refers to precisely. Mary Ann Badavi in her article, “No, The Fault in Our Stars Is Not Young-Adult Fiction’s Savior,” argues that YA describes books written about teenagers. At the same time, Ruth Graham in her controversial article titled, “Against YA” defines it as books written for teenagers. Graham argues books for teens should not be read by adults and thus should not be considered good literature, while Badavi argues that books written about teenagers can be read by adults and have merit. The term “YA” is incredibly broad and flexible, even flimsy, and is more of a marketing term than a literary categorization. Curtis Sittenfield wrote about his book, which he intended to be for adults but was marketed as a young adult novel, “You write the book you want to write, and then publishing has its way with it.” The lines between adult and young adult are incredibly blurred, and publishers are not thinking what is appropriate for the book more than they are thinking of how best to get it into the most hands. Sometimes that means teens will buy and appreciate some books more, even if they were supposed to be for adults, or the other way around. James Patterson’s Maximum ride series, as Margo Rabb, author of Cures for Heartbreak, describes in her New York Times article, “I’m Y.A., and I’m O.K,” was first categorized as a young adult novel series until sales went down, and then was placed in an all adult section in which the sales picked back up again. The story revolves around a group of winged teenagers, and features typical young adult themes such as romance and puberty. But why are adults interested in books “for kids?” In her article, “The Adult Lessons of YA Fiction,” senior associate editor for The Atlantic Julie Beck writes,

I read [YA Fiction] because the stories are good and meaningful to me now...What I do mean to say is that things made for teenagers are not inherently less worthy of our time, attention, and critical consideration, simply because they’re for and about teens… The process of personhood might slow with age, but it doesn’t stop.

Thusly, the argument against reading young adult literature as an adult because it is intended for “children” doesn’t hold much water.

Some adults have accepted this, and have added young adult literature to their collection of books. However, they are often ashamed for having an interest in them as if they are juvenile, especially romance for young adults. YA romance novels are often painted as a means of wish fulfilment and escapism for boy-crazy teenage girls that is empty of any intelligent or challenging content. It would be comparable to a marshmallow; sweet, but ultimately only made of sugar and air. On the other side, some women critique from a feminist point of view; that girls should not be taught that they can only find worth in a relationship with a boy. Tara Isabella Burton wrote in her New Statesman article, “‘Ghost Stories’: The ubiquitous anti-feminism of young adult romances,” that YA romance couples lack real depth, and are thus unrealistic. “Her relationships are not predicated on the idea that two people, with all their flaws, might discover themselves operating in emotional synchronicity. Rather, Mary is loved because she is the best…” But it is not that simple.

YA Romance Novels are especially important for their female readers as sources of inspiration and strength. In an article for the Washington Post, Alyssa Rosenberg wrote, “Romance novels are a tonic, a form of reassurance that someone is interested in ordinary women’s inner lives and is rooting for us to resolve our conflicts about work, love, and what we deserve from our relationships.” And yet some critics argue that this form of escapism is merely just that; and not truly literature. Rosenberg follows up with, “It is a poor strategy, though, to hector women to read classics without acknowledging that the canon — which provides plenty of fantasy fulfillment for men and attention to their inner lives — can be an unnerving reminder of a past that for women is not always past.” Rosenberg is not the only one with this sentiment. Blogger Chelsea Codren wrote in her blog post on “the hub,” run by the Young Adult Library Services Association

...YA romance novels are the only places where teenage girls can get frank discussions of sex, gender, and sexuality… they are giving them a place where it is safe to have girly emotions...Teenage girls don’t need a lecture; they need every ounce of support we can give them in a world that tells them their emotions are stupid and their thoughts don’t matter.

Perhaps instead of internalizing ridiculous romantic ideals as many critics believe, girls are discovering lessons about the complexities of life. A reason why anyone reads in the first place.

Though at the same time, Graham disagrees that escapism is good. She states in her article that, “At its heart, YA aims to be pleasurable.” But escapism is the whole point of reading and writing; the author intentionally works to immerse the reader in their world, to pull the reader into the narrative enough to believe the characters are real so that their readers are emotionally invested. Otherwise, they would get bored with the story and stop reading. The experience wouldn’t be pleasurable. Critics may mention that some literature, especially romance, works as escapism and is thus not literature. There is a difference between creating complete escapism; an alternate reality where the main character has no personality and is really a pair of shoes for the readers to walk in, and a character that has a personality but is also relatable on a human level. Rosenburg writes of Graham’s article,

Graham might have had a more defensible case and made a more effective plea against what the film critic A.O. Scott called the “cultural devaluation of maturity,” if her piece made a comprehensive case against readers who seek out a certain kind of easy enjoyment and moral satisfaction no matter where they find it.

Reading can be pleasurable, but not in an empty way. It is pleasurable because stories offer questions, insights, and hopes that we fervently search for each time we pick up a book. This is what we look for in stories. While many teens and adults alike are willing to entertain books like Fifty Shades of Grey or Twilight as pure fun, at the end of the day, the books that stay with them the most are the ones that have the emotional depth, human experience, and connection they, like all readers, are searching for.

So why not just turn to “the greats” like the Great Gatsby, the Picture of Dorian Gray, or The Catcher in the Rye rather than sift through the ever-expanding mountain of YA books? Critics of YA would rather teens seek out these examples of literature instead. Graham writes again, “But if they are substituting maudlin teen dramas for the complexity of great adult literature, then they are missing something.” That is completely true. There is merit in reading the classics. It’s important to broaden your horizons and take in good literature from all around you. Most of my AP Literature books went unread when I was younger, but now, every time I see the copies in the box in my cellar, I always make a note to myself to finally pick them up and read them. I want to be able to experience them at my own pace, on my own time, because I too am searching for the human experience found in reading quality works of literature, like everybody else, including teenagers.

#ya romance #romance literature #romance books #ya literature #ya lit

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clubdolan · 4 years

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#dadtat | GD

I didn’t proof read this 10 times and it’s not that interesting but I wanted to edit a baby name on Grayson OK

It had been nine months.

Nine long, drawn-out months.

They felt longest to Molly, the one carrying the baby.

The felt longest to Grayson, father of the baby.

But his fans swore it felt longer to them than anyone else. Simply because they rarely saw bump pictures, never heard any updates, didn’t know of a due date or any other details.

They predicted dates from how large her stomach was in a few paparazzi shots or pictures fans took in public. They judged by the products they were seen shopping for or items seen in the background of pictures or videos.

Comments begged for info, the entire family had dm’s full of questions hoping that one person close to them would answer; but no one did.

Rumors circled once a week of Ethan’s Jeep being seen at a hospital or that Cameron was seen at a restaurant which obviously meant she was in town for the baby.

Every inch of snapchats were zoomed in on and no one could figure out from one simple snap of Ethan’s feet on a tile floor meant they were at the hospital.

Contractions had started a few days before and Molly spent hours in a hot shower, she watched TV on all fours swearing it helped the pressure, she slept with seven pillows propped around her body and Grayson was on red-alert for anything to happen.

His mom paced their house, hearing Molly groan from contractions as Grayson was on the phone with the doctor who explained they still needed to wait to come in.

Molly sipped on prune juice, pickle juice and any other juice that was supposed to help further pregnancy. She walked the block, she went up and down stairs and bounced on an exercise ball for hours at a time.

“Gray... yeah, hun.. forget the milkshake... just get home when you-- everything’s fine-- how far are-- okay, just come--” Lisa pulled her phone from her ear, “He hung up but he’s on his way home.”

“This is SO GROSS.” Ethan gagged, looking at the bed Molly continued to sit on... the bed that her water broke on as soon as she said she wanted to lay down for a nap.

“I didn’t ask you to clean it, I asked you to get me another pair of pants.” She whined, rubbing the bottom of her stomach as another contraction hit. Ethan’s face contorted as he opened a drawer and tossed a pair of sweatpants her way. “And can you please go get a garbage bag from the pantry? I’m just throwing these sheets away.”

He nodded and made his way downstairs, passing his Mom, “Your bag, baby bag, Grayson’s bag, all by the door. Anything else?”

Molly was pulling up her new sweat pants, gasping for breath before she pulled the sheets off of her bed. “Hun, don’t do that. Make your way downstairs, I’ll get the sheets off the bed.”

“I feel like I’m going to take one step and she’s going to fall right out.”

“That’s the feeling you should have.” Lisa laughed, “Hold the bag open, E.” “EW, no, can’t you just, do it.. yourself?”

“Ethan. Open the bag.” She glared at him before he held it open and held his breath while she tossed the sheets inside and tied it. “Now take it to the trash.”

He groaned, holding the bag as far away from his body as he could. “Don’t come near me! This is toxic!”

“What the fuck, E?! What happened?!” Grayson screamed, running up the stairs, “Mol? Mom? What’s happening? Why did I--

“My water broke, babe.” Molly forced a smile, “We are calm..” She kept going down he stairs, “and breathing” she continued slowly down, “and going to the hospital.”

“Where are the bags?--

“By the door.”

“Where are my key?--

“I’m driving.” Ethan spun the key ring on his finger, waiting by the door.

“We have to take Molly’s car--

“Molly’s car because the car seat fits in it best, I know, I know.” He pushed the door open to the garage.

Molly started crying and mumbled, “I need my shoes....”

Grayson skipped three stairs at a time, running into their room and back down the stairs with a pair of slides for her.

Everything seemed rushed and quick and going by one hundred miles an hour until the hospital room was still, the only sound was the machines monitoring Molly and the baby.

“She’s perfect.” Molly brushed her finger on the baby’s cheek as she fed, “I can’t stop crying.”

“You’re a perfect, mom.”

She looked up at Grayson who sat next to the both of them, “You’re a perfect, daddy.”

He brushed his fingers gently along the small bit of hair she had, “This is so crazy. So crazy.”

“It doesn’t feel real..” Molly said, “It could be that I haven't slept in 36 hours, but I still think it would feel weird if I had.”

“Are you good for visitors? Or?”

“Once she’s done, which is probably soon. I think she’s slowing down.” Molly looked at her little face, trying to judge if she was still eating or not. “It feels like she’s slowing down... I can’t wait for her to be done because it’s more painful than I realized. You can go get them.”

He kissed Molly and the top of the babies head, pushing the door open and walking down the hall. The room hushed as he entered, “She’s here.”

Grayson let out a breath, it felt like a weight was off his shoulders, “Ten fourteen this morning, seven pound, six ounce, nineteen inch, baby Dolan was born.” The room clapped, woo-d and took pictures, “Margo Rayne and mommy, are ready for visitors.”

“Margo!” They all said at the same time, taking turns hugging Grayson.

“You’re a dad.”

“You’re an uncle.” Ethan and Grayson hugged before he led him back to the room.

Everyone took turns holding her, taking pictures, face timing others; and Molly finally ate the Taco Bell she had been waiting thirty-six hours on.

@molly.d: best day ever 🎀

@graysondolan: My heart is so full. 💕

#DolanBaby was quickly trending, guesses it was a girl with their use of a pink bow and pink hearts.

But no one else posted anything until the next few days when they were finally home.

@molly.d: two days old 🧡 @graysondolan

Two days of cat naps, baby vomit, stinky diapers and family visiting. Molly lived on the couch all day; sleeping, feeding, changing diapers, eating whatever food Grayson made or brought home.

Grayson had to leave them for a few hours for a meeting and could barely stand it. He rushed home to find them both asleep on the couch, baby hidden in Molly’s shirt.

They didn’t wake as Ethan came over with Daniel, their tattoo guy. Molly only woke when the baby started wiggling, immediately feeding her and both of them fell back asleep.

An hour or so later she walked into the kitchen, “I didn’t even know you guys were here.”

The baby was in a little ball against her chest, swaddled tight with her usual pacifier in her mouth. The tattoo set-up didn’t even shock her, she didn’t even question it until she realized it was Grayson’s arm and not his leg that was getting a tattoo.

He could see the look on her face, “I promise you’ll like it.”

“I told him you’d give him that look.” Ethan shook his head, leaning over Molly to poke at the babies cheek. “Sweepy baby.”

“Do you want to hold her so I can go get a shower?”

“I am.... so busy...” Ethan sat back down, pulling his laptop out to act like he was working.

“I’ll hold her, babe.” Grayson stuck his free arm out and tapped his chest. “Lay her down on me, I’m here for a bit.”

Molly didn’t argue, she laid the little bundle on his chest and walked away.

Ethan snap chatted a picture of his feet with the words ‘tat time’ at the top. Grayson was in the background, the lamp hovering over him and Daniel was flashing the picture out but you could still see he was holding the baby on his chest, her little yellow blanket stood out from his black t-shirt.

Grayson kept still and looked at all the little faces she was making as she slept. He smiled, whispered to her and tried to ignore the pain of the tattoo needle on his wrist bone.

“E, can you grab that?”

“Huh? What?” He looked up from his phone, searching where Grayson was looking, “The pacifier?” He stood up and grabbed it, “Do I just--

“Don’t put it in her mouth, idiot. It’s dirty.” Grayson groaned, taking his free hand to rip it from Ethan’s hand, put it in his own mouth before putting it back in the babies.

“Because your mouth is cleaner than the floor?” Ethan laughed.

“I got anxious and showered way too quick.” Molly sighed, walking down the stairs to the kitchen. “Everything good?”

“Perfect.” Grayson smiled, “Except that I’m terrified for Ethan to ever have children.”

Ethan didn’t even argue, he just shrugged his shoulders and put his air pods in.

“Are you almost done?”

“Probably thirty minutes.” Daniel estimated, not even looking up from the tattoo.

“She won’t need fed for another few hours so--

“Go do whatever you need to, I got it.”

Molly quickly changed her clothes, tossed her hair in a ponytail and texted a friend to see if they could meet for coffee. She just wanted out of the house even though she also wanted to be stuck to her babies side 24/7.

She probably annoyed Grayson with the amount of times she texted him to make sure things were okay but he never complained. He finished his tattoo and Ethan had started when she arrived back, with lunch for all of them.

She looked at Ethan’s ankle, the skull was done and Daniel was onto the skateboards positioned as crossbones behind it. “Sweet, right?”

“Skate or die.” Molly said, unenthusiastically, putting up a rock symbol with her hand. “What’s yours, Gray?”

He shuffled the baby to his other arm and held his right wrist out where you could see the tattoo through the plastic.

“Awww, Gray...” Molly melted into his chest, choking back tears at the sweet tattoo. “You’re so cute.”

Grayson kissed the top of her head, glancing down at his tattoo again. Their little girl’s name was permanently inked into his arm:

MARGO RAYNE

“Do you want one, Molly? I have the single needle, we can make it tiny.” Daniel joked, “I can make sure it’s hidden--

“I kind of do...” She surprised all three of them, “Maybe just an M... or just her first name.... or the date...”

A few hours later she was squeezing Grayson’s hand almost as hard as she did while giving birth. Daniel counted down the seconds until it was over and wiped it off quickly.

“Take a breath, breathe.. it’s all done...” Grayson laughed, shaking Molly back to earth.

She quickly looked down at the inside of her wrist, a thin font spelled out her name:

“Oh my god I have a tattoo.”

“Mom’s with tattoos!” Daniel joked, “Do you like it?”

“I love it.” She teared up again as he wrapped it up, “And it didn’t hurt that--

“Sureeeeeee.” Ethan laughed, “Didn’t hurt.”

Cuddled together on the couch that night, Grayson edited his instagram post and ran it by Molly before he hit post. Margo was tucked in between his chest and the fuzzy blanket above them. One of his hands held her close to him and the other slid around Molly’s waist as she moved closer, “She’s literally the cutest thing on the planet. I can’t believe she’s ours.”

@graysondolan: baby girl got her own tattoo #margorayne

#mine #me #writing #write #grayson dolan #grayson #gray #dolan twins #daddy!grayson #daddy!gray #the dolan twins #tattoos #edit

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queenofmyshuno · 4 years

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Morning Of Day 1 Did Not Go As Planned (Pageant Challenge)

I’m doing a run-through of my 3-day Pageant Challenge to work out the kinks. Here’s what happened during the morning of Day 1...

(Pics are a little dark--I didn’t want to spend time editing them as this is just a fact-finding mission at this point.)

Today is the meet-and-greet meal in two parts: the morning for the first set of contestants and the afternoon for the second set of contestants. Pageant Judge Rick Rockfield decided to be anti-social and stand off in the corner to study the contestants.

Okay, I guess he is supposed to be judging, but that’s still kind of creepy. Also, the contestants’ scores will be based partly off of their relationship points with the judges, so he needs to mingle.

The rules say I can hire a caterer, which I did, but then I realized I could just use one of these handy-dandy thingies with instant food. I’m using someone else’s build, so this was just sitting there in the corner waiting for me to clue in. Cool.

Even though I had the contestants and judges in separate clubs with the contestant club activities set to be social with the judges’ club, the contestants stood around talking among themselves for the first half hour. After 30 minutes, they finally started to talk to the judges and eat.

I set up the room with 2 tables, 1 for each judge, but then, of course, the judges decided to sit at the same table, leaving most of the contestants out.

I got Judge Trey Bennett to sit at his own table only to have Judge Rick get up and leave his table. Okey dokey then.

Aaaand Judge Rick is back in the corner scoping things out and avoiding the contestants again. Meanwhile, Judge Trey is alone at his table while the contestants talk to each other again.

Weirdo.

Maaike Haas sits down with the judge, but Judge Trey is distracted by something stinky.

Geeta Rasoya joins Judge Trey at his table, but he ignores Maaike and Geeta to talk to Margo Villareal who is sitting at the other table.

Halfway through, I check their relationship bars, and nothing. They all have the same barely-there amount of green. I’ve been using the club method to encourage the contestants to talk to the judges, but I now also start using the manual method on top of that where I personally direct each contestant to talk to a judge.

Meanwhile, the caterer is cooking and cooking her invisible food, but 2-and-a-half hours in, not one dish has been produced.

There’s food on the other stove, so it must be a glitch.

And surprise! Maaike suddenly has a serious and contagious skin condition! The challenge rules state that you can’t tend to a contestant’s needs (I meant bladder, energy, etc.), so I need to amend that to YES PLEASE BUY THE POOR GIRL SOME MEDICINE IF SHE GETS SICK. It wouldn’t be much of a pageant if everyone looked like this (or would it?).

Now Judge Trey, who is supposed to be building relationship points with the contestants, seems to be hiding.

Alice Spencer corners him and has him all to herself for about an hour.

Rick wanders off into the kitchen to talk to the caterer. He’s probably asking her what the heck she has been doing all this time and where the food is.

Alice seems to have said something that completely freaked Judge Trey out.

I finally get Judge Rick to return to the banquet room, and the caterer comes with him. She looks sad--probably because I’ve locked everyone in this area and she can’t get out.

The banquet ends, and I’m supposed to tally points for the contestants based on their relationships with the judges, BUT THEY DON’T HAVE ANY. After 4 straight hours of nothing to do but talk and eat, they have the tiniest green bars which are all basically the same.

Judge Rick’s relationships--no significant difference between all 6 contestants--maybe Maaike, Alice, and Anaya are the slightest bit lower.

At least Judge Trey has some small variations in his relationship bars.

Judge Trey spent the most time talking to Alice and Margo, and he has the LOWEST relationships with them. So funny! I guess he didn’t like what they had to say. Okay, at least I can use that.

Next up is the afternoon meal with the second group of contestants, so maybe I can direct them more from the start and get those bars up. We’ll see. Stay tuned!

#QOM Pageant #sims challenge #sims 4 challenge #ts4 challenge #Trey Bennett #Rick Rockfield #Alice Spencer-Kim #Anaya Jang #Mila Munch #Geeta Rasoya #Maaike Haas #Hugo Villareal #Margo Villareal

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laularlau8 · 4 years

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As Gillian Anderson walked through the lounge of a posh Los Angeles hotel late last fall, I wondered how it was possible that no one pounced on her for an autograph or threw themselves passionately at her feet. The star of Netflix’s Sex Education, The X-Files, and soon The Crown was clad in a bright fuchsia tailored suit and seemed to radiate stardust from her pale pink pores, yet not a single head so much as turned. Instead Anderson quietly settled in beside a fireplace to observe others going about their business: well-heeled guests silently playing a mysterious board game with crystal discs, and a pack of shaggy-chic hounds that darted in and out of the room pursued by their equally rumpled master.

Anderson and I were supposed to be discussing season two of Sex Education, the British teen dramedy that was a surprise hit when Netflix first released it a year ago. She reprises her role as Jean Milburn, a forthright sex therapist and single mom to Otis (Asa Butterfield), who—despite his own bodily anxieties and absolute inexperience—follows in his mother’s sexpert footsteps and offers counseling-for-cash to his fumbling teenage peers. But Netflix had declared so many plot points off-limits, you’d have thought it was a Game of Thrones spin-off rather than a sweetly off-kilter series doused in adolescent horniness and confusion.

“I looked at the list of spoilers—it is basically every single plotline that’s in the entire season!” said Anderson. Suffice it to say that Jean remains the kind of parent who would loudly announce, “I’m so proud that you’re at this stage in your pubescent development.” She continues dispensing advice and embarrassing Otis by overstepping parent-child boundaries whenever possible. She also unabashedly pursues her own pleasure, even as Otis gets to grips (yes, literally) with his sexuality. “Poor Otis!” Anderson sighed empathetically.“I haven’t played many moms,” she said, sifting through a lifetime of roles in her head. Although she has three kids in real life, Anderson noted that she’s “mostly played women that don’t have children.” Anderson specializes in high-intensity heroines, such as the iconic Agent Dana Scully in the The X-Files, a compelling detective pursuing a serial killer in The Fall, Great Expectations’ Miss Havisham, and All About Eve’s Margo Channing.

Her character in Sex Education is a rare comedic turn, though she approached it with the same desire for unpredictability. Anderson told me last year she wanted Jean “to feel grounded and neurotic at the same time. I wanted her to feel like she had things under control, and yet she might be losing her grip at any time. I wanted her to feel that she really was feeling like she was trying her best, and yet kept making mistakes and saying the wrong thing.”

Anderson has embraced her character’s sexpert status, dubbing herself “Shag Specialist” on Twitter, where she regularly posts playful images of things that look like genitals, hashtagged #YonioftheDay and #PenisoftheDay. She revels in the dilemmas Sex Education writers cook up for the scripts: One of her favorites this season involved a sexual experiment with a stocking stuffer filled with M&M’s. “You know those tubes that you get at Christmastime in your stocking that you can hang on your tree?” she asked in her crisp American voice, which occasionally strays into a British accent because she has lived in the U.K. for years.

Waving distractedly to a man in the distance, Anderson muttered in a hushed voice, “That’s my boyfriend, Peter”—The Crown creator Peter Morgan. The couple have been working together on season four of the series, in which Anderson plays U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher, but she insists there was no nepotism involved in the casting decision. “I’ve heard Pete say that were we not together, I still would have been offered it,” she said. I believe it: Anderson’s forte is exactly that type of steely charisma exuded by Thatcher, which earned her the nickname the “Iron Lady.”

Although she spent a portion of her childhood in the U.K. during the 1970s, Anderson said her family never cared about the queen at all. “I never paid that much attention [to the royals] until I was in a relationship with Pete,” she recalled. Even then, she didn’t immerse herself in the topic until she joined the show and, she said with mock exasperation, “it became a topic of daily conversation!” She dove into research on Thatcher’s life, searching for the key to that impregnable self-belief and drive that gave the Conservative prime minister her towering aura of authority and ability to bulldoze through any opposition.

“It was almost like she came out of the womb with it,” Anderson said. “Just seeing still imagery of her standing next to her father who was an alderman, she’s so self-possessed and she started making speeches back then. She probably watched him write them and absorbed it. But none of that really necessarily explains the particular power she had—how determined she was. She really believed that she had the answers.” Anderson ascribes that in part to Thatcher’s religious upbringing as a Methodist: “There were certain ways of doing things, and if you stick to the right behavior and right mind and right action then there are good results at the end of it. She felt like she could whip the country into shape in the same way that she could whip a household into shape.”

The Crown spent its first few seasons dramatizing Queen Elizabeth’s halting journey toward embracing her own power. She grew into her role in part thanks to the counsel and encouragement of past prime ministers like Winston Churchill and Harold Wilson. So it will be interesting to watch her more frictional relationship with Thatcher play out onscreen next season. Anderson said that while Elizabeth II and Thatcher were of a similar age, “their differences were such that you could understand why they would rub against each other.… They were the antithesis of each other.”

Anderson is fascinated by the way Thatcher came into her own later in life. Her own options seem to be similarly expanding as she grows older. She spent years adapting an Elizabeth Rosner novel into a screenplay but ended up putting the project aside because she was being offered constant acting work. “I haven’t been brave enough to create that time,” she said, “because there have been too many other tantalizing things.”

Her first big role as Agent Scully 26 years ago plunged Anderson into the maelstrom of celebrity sex objecthood—something that made her uncomfortable at the time. She said she feels much more comfortable in her skin these days. “Back then I never really quite understood what people were referring to, especially [with] Scully,” she said, letting out a throaty laugh when I stared at her disbelievingly. “I’m sure it had a lot to do with my own self-esteem or lack thereof at the time. But I can definitely own it now, in a fun way. Almost like, Really? Okay.” She paused to take a sip of tea and smiled. “I have fun with that because it won’t last forever.”

#gillian anderson #on #sex education #and the crown

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the-dark-kings · 4 years

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In light of the show’s cancelation, to spread some love and happiness, we’re doing @highkingfen’s The Magicians meme too!

1. Favorite Main Character

M: I refuse to choose between Eliot and Margo. I picked them as my faves years ago when I watched season 1 and I never changed my mind. I could never get bored of these two.

N: Penny Adiyodi, Margo Hanson, and Eliot Waugh. As much as this question is asking for only one character, I will not pick just one. These characters have been my top 3 from the start, and that hasn’t changed.

2. Favorite Side Character

M: There’s so many good ones. Jane, Fen, Zelda, Harriet, Fogg… I guess I’ll go with Fogg this time. There’s so much more to him than meets the eye, and Rick Worthy’s dry delivery never fails to crack me up. I’m gonna miss him.

N: Watching Dean Fogg has been a wild ride, and he never fails to entertain me. I also absolutely adore Fen, and am so pleased that she got to be her own person while never losing her kind and bubbly side.

3. TV Trope Showed In The Show

M: No Budget: Any time they make a joke about not having money for something, like with the invisible castle, or both Blackspire and the Fairy Castle just being the Whitespire set. Love it when the show gets self-aware.

N: Hard questions. There’s so much I love, there’s so much that makes the show fun and unique. But the tropes I love the most are related to genre de/construction, because it demonstrates how self-aware the tv-show is. An example of this is the subversion of “the chosen one” trope in 1x13 or the call-out of (fantasy) books having only one kind of protagonist, emphasizing the importance of other kinds of representation in 4x06.

4. Favorite Bunny News

M: “Eat my ass.”

N: “Eat my ass.”

gif by @highkingfen

5. Favorite Plot Twist

M: I still vividly remember watching 4x05 with my darling co-host of this blog and having to pause the episode because we wanted to speculate on what Eliot’s worst memory might be. We got it wrong, but it was some of the most fun I’ve had watching an episode. And 4x13 was one hell of a twist, though I’m not sure I’d classify that one as ‘favorite’.

N: Alice being the chosen one. There might be better or more fun ones, but this one was meaningful to me because I kept wondering throughout the season “why Quentin?” So when it wasn’t him, it made me think that this show could be different from other fantasy shows. It was compelling.

6. Favorite Quote

M: Alice: Being an adult doesn’t mean that you have to throw away what you used to love. Quentin: Then what does it mean? Alice: Seeing the world through new eyes.

N: I suppose I’ll pick a poignant one to highlight this show’s depth instead of a silly one. Quentin: "The Madness Maker didn't play for the joy of winning, just the fear of losing. The real curse was, he only played when he could win, which cut him off from the surprise, horror, sadness, and wonder of life. Jane saw only one way out for him: Stop playing. Start living."

7. Funniest Pun Or Geek Related Joke

M: Margo and Eliot’s undercover pop culture dialogue scene. “Whatever your Marsden would XOXO, Cersei XOXO’s, so we have to keep it very best episode of Buffy.” Did I mention I love El and Margo?

N: The whole conversation my wonderful co-host mentioned above. I felt so close to Margo and Eliot in that moment (pop culture as a secret language), and I also love that it revealed how often Eliot scans wiki-pages to keep up with his Bambi. If that ain’t love.

gif by @magiciansladies

8. Favorite Outfit

M: Everything created for the Fillory royals. The costume department are geniuses, truly.

N: Definitely the Fillorian costumes for Margo and Eliot for creativity and beauty. Penny’s low-cut tops for ridiculousness, beauty (good cleavage), and the link to his culture.

9. Favorite Music

M: Take On Me. I didn’t appreciate it when I first watched the episode because it kinda got buried underneath… everything else, but it is such a gorgeous cover and I’ve found myself returning to it often.

N: I don’t know what it’s called, but there’s an instrumental melody that’s often used during emotional or tense scenes in the show. I really love it. That, to me, stands for The Magicians on an auditory level. Besides that, “Beautiful Dreamer” sang by Summer Bishil.

10. Underrated Moment

M: From season 1, The Writing Room, that scene after they get out of the Plover house and Alice wants to go back inside to save the ghost children, and Eliot is so cruel to her. Not because Eliot is a dick, but because it was the first glimpse I got as a fan of what this show could be at its best. Layered, emotional, and asking the tough questions.

N: I wouldn’t necessarily call it my favorite, but it’s underrated and definitely something I’ll never forget. In season 2, Cheat Day, when Quentin and Emily sleep together donning the visual representation of their respective ex(/dead) lovers... that was the type of fucked up shit I live for in fiction. So messy, so ugly, so painful—I’m pleased The Magicians never shied away from any of it.

#the magicians #magiciansmeme #the magicians positivity #fandom

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aures-rose · 3 years

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Disclaimer: Very much and very little have happened since my last update. I broke my ankle last month and that’s kept me from really roleplaying and writing like I might normally in frequency, quality, and duration. Despite this, I have a lot to write since a lot of this happened before my incident. Anyways! To the entry!

Dear Diary,

So much has happened since my last entry! Where do I even start? I had my first practical potions lesson this year! Deputy Headmistress is teaching it, and she had a cauldron of a love potion called Amortentia. It smelled like firewood and the ocean and flowers, wisteria I think. Maybe lavender. Someone, I think it was Eve, said it smells like whatever you find the most attractive. So I guess I like campfires by the sea. Which makes sense actually, we always had that campfire under the pergola where Mother’s wisteria grew. Anyways, Eve and I brewed the Antidote to Common Poisons which seems like a useful thing to be able to brew. I didn’t even know I could brew, but I didn’t mess up!

After class, Eve and I went down to the campsite near Dumbledore’s grave and we hung out for a while. She told me how she and Marigold had talked about doing a group Halloween costume for the bash this year as plants that can be found in the forest. Eve really likes herbology you see and she got a book from her mum about different plants, I think she said they may have been Victorian plants, I can’t remember. She was talking about going as some kind of mushroom and I had the idea of being a rose, with a paper mache rose head on or something.

Later on I ran into Margo again. She was heading back to the common room and since I knew a shortcut through Lady Prudence, I showed it to Margo. I told her it really pays off to talk to the portraits in school and she said she’d have to talk to more of them. She invited me into the first year dorm where she was supposed to meet Venus- another first year. Venus was going to tell Margo a secret. Margo took me to their dorm and introduced me to Venus who seems really nice and likes plants. Her mum plays music too, piano I think she said. I promised to show her where the music room is sometime, a lot of first years seem to not know about it, I guess because we have no music professor this year. Venus and Margo both showed me their beds, Margo likes plants and Venus also likes stars! Then Venus told us she’d overheard a friend talking to a boy and she’d learned of a secret room through one of the portraits. She was supposed to show us the next day but I ended up being really busy. I’ll have to ask Margo to show me sometime. Also, I think I really like the name Venus. I know it’s a planet and a Roman Goddess, but I like it because how romantic it sounds.

Anyways, I had Herbology with Eve next. I really do hate Herbology. I mean, I like looking at flowers and plants but I just don’t get it. But in class we were collecting mushrooms from the edge of the forest. Venus asked me to partner with her but I’d already partnered with Eve so I had to tell her no. Eve and I talked about herbology for a while and mostly she picked all the mushrooms with these really nice scissors she had. After class, we sat in the courtyard and talked. We decided instead of going by the dock, we were going to sneak brooms and fly to a secret place on the castle which will become our secret place. We’ll bring supplies like blankets and stuff and we’ll hide out there for our sleepover.

We also talked about Ghoul Studies because it was going to be our next class. We talked about Professor Esper and how romantically he talks and also how he wears… a flower on his suit which Eve says represents mourning, or it did in Victorian times. I wonder if Professor Esper is mourning a long dead sweetheart from his days as a student. Wouldn’t that be romantic? In class the Head Boy, Elliott sat near us and we both told him we’d bet money on him with Nora for the TriWizard Cup. Professor Esper also had asked Eve to cast a spell and levitate all the homework to his desk but she couldn’t do it. She asked me for help and I was actually able to do it!

Then came DADA. Not the good DADA though. No. DADA with stupid Professor Vikander. Can you believe he took TWENTY POINTS from Gryffindor just because some boy’s spell backfired? That made me so mad! My blood actually started to boil, I swear! Actually, my hands did get really hot and so did my face and the edges of my eyes got real blurry like… I couldn’t help it and I ended up yelling at Professor Vikander. I… said some not nice things about how he didn’t care about his students and I wished I was a Hufflepuff because Professor Priaulx is better and actually cares. I can’t believe he let me get away with everything I said, really. Tom and Eve were trying really hard to calm me down and I think that’s the only reason I really left the class. It’s so embarrassing getting angry like that. I need to remember to take my calming drought always. Anyways, we were making our way down the tower and there was a crowd at the bottom. And in that crowd was the boy who’d lost us all those points. I couldn’t help myself! I tried to petrify him… from there it all went crazy. Everything happened so fast but Eve tackled me and my spell hit Talula I think. Elliott came down and pulled Eve off me and she explained she wasn’t attacking me, she was trying to stop me and then everything got even crazier!! I don’t remember everything that happened because Eve surprised me so bad and I started to feel really embarrassed and ended up crying. Eventually Professor Vikander came down and everything was still crazy but Talula gave me a calming drought bc the one in my backpack got shattered. Then Professor Vikander sent Eve and I to the Hospital Wing. I apologised to her there and she told me I had nothing to be sorry for and…. That Lex… Lex Ashworth had said something very cruel. He’d been talking to Aloy but he called her a fire flinging freak and… I mean… sure, he was mad at Aloy but… if that’s what Lex thinks of her… what about Talula? Or me? My family? I come from a line of fire flinging freaks even if I’ve never managed it myself…

After that, I kind of laid low for a while, avoiding everyone. Especially since… after that, my eye got even worse. I don’t know why but instead of two pupils, now there’s three. Am I doomed to just keep getting more and more? Will my other eye become freaky next? I don’t know what to do about it but I can’t keep ignoring it so I’ve been trying to do research on curses and what kind might have caused this. I plan on speaking to Professor Macauley about it as soon as possible and if he doesn’t have answers I’ll go to Professor Blightly and then O'Keeffe if she doesn’t. I have to figure this out and how to go back to normal or at least how to stop it.

Then it was announced there was going to be a fashion show. I don’t know anything about fashion and I don’t really care but Gwyn, my mentor, was running the meeting so I decided to go to support her. Somehow I ended up being chosen to represent our house in the casual category. I ended up wearing my red jumper dress with a white t-shirt, a red flower crown of flowers I don’t know what they’re called but they remind me of the Christmas flowers, red flags, my red backpack, and of course, my violin case. I also put stars on my face, because I like decorating myself. The fashion show was really scary honestly but Talula put some lipgloss on me and everyone was really supportive. It was scary walking on stage on front of everyone and I was afraid I’d like or fall off stage but I did it! And I never want to do it again! I’d watch it again though!

Talula also ran a club called Spark Club this month. Spark Club is where you can meet new friends or dates. I only wanted friends so I put that when I signed up. Somehow Talula pairs you with three people, I don’t know how, and you spend a few minutes talking and getting to know each other with the talk starter Tal gives you. My first pair was Bailey but I think he was late getting there so Margo and her match, Dana, who is a first year in our house talked to me for a little bit. Margo said I could be a model because of how tall I am but I definitely don’t want that. Eventually Bailey showed up and we talked about getting into trouble a little bit. My next pair was named Gage but he never showed up so I sat around and watched everyone else for a bit. Lastly, I was paired with Eve! Talula said we were too cute not to pair up and I told Eve it was destiny! She was talking to an older student named Romi Clementine. Romi is a fourth year I think and she’s really pretty, like a doll. She was even dressed like a doll in this frilly red dress. She said she liked charms and Homemaking Magic and that the Spark Club was a little too noisy for her which I totally get.

Oh, Eve also gave me a book at Spark Club. It’s called Coraline and she said she wanted us to choose characters from the book for our Halloween costumes instead. I’m going to start reading it tonight, just as soon as I finish writing in you. She said it was one of her favourite books and I think it’s nice to see what your friends like if you want to get close to them. She also said she’d like it if we all started a book club. So I’m going to read some of this and then maybe we can sit around and have a talk about it!

Oh! The Triwizard Tournament is closing in, I don’t remember if I told you but Hogwarts is hosting it this year. Saturday the other schools arrived. It was amazing. The Beauxbatons students are so elegant and graceful! They arrived in a blue flying carriage pulled by winged horses that were all golden! When their Headmistress stepped out she looked like an ice princess with all these feathers on her dress. Then the students came out with all this beautiful water magic and there were golden sparks and it was all amazing. The Durmstrang students were intimidating! It’s crazy to me to think that if Grandmother Banon had remained in Bulgaria, I could have been a Durmstrang student too. I couldn’t imagine that! They’re so serious and like… They arrived in a ship that came out of the lake, bursting through the ice alongside all these patronuses! The students came marching off the ship with these torches held over their heads and then the flames leapt from their torches and made this arc and the Deputy Headmistress came marching off. I don’t think anyone’s seen the Headmaster yet, apparently he wasn’t feeling well.

There was also a HUGE feast where Headmistress O’Keeffe explained all the rules of the tournament, apparently you can only participate if you’re 17. Then she revealed the Goblet of Fire! It’s got these blue flames and it was super cool to watch. There’s also these blue flames around the Goblet which apparently keeps anyone under 17 from trying to put their name in. I wonder who will be chosen from each school… I can’t imagine being chosen for Hogwarts… I hope though… I hope one day I can be in the Triwizard Tournament. Could you imagine? Aures Truegarden, Triwizard Tournament Champion. I’ve heard some students talk about trying to sneak their names into the Goblet but I’m not ready and I know that. I’m still just a kid. But one day!

That’s almost everything, I think. The only thing left is to tell you I’ve found a new project! I’m going to try to learn a musical piece called The Devil’s Trill. It’s by Tartini. I was reading a music book and I found a story about it and really wanted to learn it after that. This composer, Giuseppe Tartini was having a hard time making money as a violinist. He decided he wanted to die- that’s sad isn’t it?- but before he did, he wanted the chance to dream for one last night. That night he dreamed of the devil! Or is it, a devil? Anyways, he told his friend,some French astronomer that he dreamed the devil came and asked him to be his teacher. At the end of their lesson, Tartini gave the devil his violin and asked him to play, to see how good the Devil was. The devil played so amazingly that it took Tartini’s breath away. How I wish I could play that well. Anyways, Tartini woke up with a jolly and jumped out of bed, immediately writing down the sonata and trying to catch what he’d heard in his dream. The Sonata became super successful! Everyone said that you could hear bells and chimes during the performance and that it felt like the room was getting smaller and smaller but Tartini said it was nowhere near as perfect as what he heard in his dream. I want to learn to play The Devil’s Trill and make people feel something. Anyways, I should start this book but… goodnight diary! Thanks for always listening!</p>

#roleplay #harry potter roleplay #second life roleplay #veela #Gryffindor #mischief managed #second life

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thehollowprince · 4 years

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The Mountain of Ghosts

Another week, another episode. This one dealt with a topic that I know has been on the fandom's mind since the end of season four, so let's just dive into this.

Alice and Eliot - obviously the big part of the episode. This has been on everyone's mind since season one and the possibility of Queliot was a thing. It's been a constant back and forth, one or the other, situation since, and sadly, we all know where most of the fandom landed on that issue. This was a good episode that got to the crux of the issue here, that being Quentin. Not Alice's or Eliot's feelings toward Quentin but rather his feelings toward them.

For years I've stood here and watched the constant screeching of "Quentin loved Eliot more!" or more rarely, (seriously, very rarely), "Quentin loved Alice more!" It got to the point where I firmly believed, and still believe, that it wasn't a matter of actually caring about Quentin at all. I'm not saying that no one actually liked Q, but that was secondary to the main issue of which ship would win in the end. Shipping is a big thing in fandom, but what no one really ever wants to admit is that it's also a big problem in fandom, in that ship wars happen and all some people seem to care about is the validation that comes with watching their ship set sail or another ship sink. That's all I'm going to say about that right now, because honestly the problem with shipping in fandom is a whole other topic waiting to be made, but its relevant to this issue, so let's move on.

Alice and Eliot both loved Quentin, and whether anyone wants to admit it or not, he loved both of them back. It isn't a matter of saying he loved either one of them more, or which one was more valid because no one loves two different people in the same way. Some of the things that Quentin loved about Alice aren't the same things he would have loved about Eliot. And this episode really highlighted that. Eliot and Alice are about as different as you can get, especially when it comes to romance. They both had different approaches to their relationship with Q, and I'm so glad we got to see them resolve their differences. We finally got to see Eliot say to someone else that he and Q loved each other, and have Alice not only acknowledge it but embrace it. She said it best, "what was I going to do? Demand he be less complicated? That he only love one person?" Too often Alice is reduced to this one-dimensional girl who is only defined by her relationship with Quentin, especially by fandom, and this really broke that mold. This was a nice episode for the two of them, to work through their anger and to work together to let go of Quentin... to acknowledge that they couldn't save him. I hope this bond between the two of them keeps building through the rest of the season.

PS: please let Alice wear jeans and pants more often. She looked so much more comfortable than she does in those fetish school girl dresses.

Moving on...

Margo - I'm not sure how I feel about this whole "reclaiming the throne" thing she's got going on. I loved Margo winning the throne by her own merit back in season three, because it worked in that moment. And then last year we had her abandon the throne to save Eliot. When push came to shove, she valued one person over the duty she had as a king to her people. I'm not faulting her for that, because I understand where she was coming from, but she still gave up the throne and it paved the way for Fen to assume the throne.

I can only speak for me, but I thought that was beautiful. Having a Fillorian finally sit on the throne of Fillory felt like a major milestone, and now we're just supposed to believe that Margo gets to be the king because she said so? I didn't like that. That's one of Margo's negative character traits, her entitlement, which brings us to...

Fen - I do not like what they're doing with her so far this season. Who is the sycophantic woman? She admired Margo, of course, but not to the extent of idol worship. This is a woman who was part of the F.U. Fighters, fighting for Fillorian rights in a kingdom always ruled by outsiders. But then the moment Margo's not there, she turns into this incompetent moron, so much so that she and Josh were overthrown because they were waiting for someone else to save them, and I don't like that. That is a complete disservice to the character and the journey she's been on for the previous three seasons.

Also, this whole Josh thing that's going to come between these two women, who have had such respect for each other, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I was one of those (probably the only) who was rooting for Josh and Margo. Were there things I would have changed about it? Of course, but I thought they worked well together and off of one another, and now we have this bullshit. I liked Josh, not just because we shared the same name, but because he was an interesting character that people, especially women, seemed to like, not because of his appearance but because of his personality. And now they've turned him into a quintessential Nice Guy™ who sleeps with his girlfriend's friend instead of figuring out a way to save themselves and Fillory.

I will say that it'll be interesting to see how Fen and Margo repair their friendship after that revelation that Margo legitimately tried to kill her, if they repair it at all.

As for everyone else...

Julia - I know we're working up to something with her and the big catastrophe, so I'm gonna let her lack of a role these past two episodes aside from support slide.

Penny - I really would like to see more of Professor Adoyodi, aside from just him doing research for class. Also, it's sad that they had him mention that "best case scenario for Travelers" is that they just become an Uber for their friends, only to have Julia ask him for a lift...

Like, y'all wrote it, maybe you should pay more attention to it!

And then there's Kady and Fogg. The Magicians is so different then other ensemble shows in that they actually use the ensemble! That being said, characters like Fogg and Kady often end up on the side because, while they're deemed primary characters, they feel more like secondary or tertiary ones. I know I'm not the only one interested in what's going on with the Hedge Witches, but we don't see Kady and what's going on with them unless one of the other "mains" needs something, usually some secret Hedge spell or Kady's fist. Same with Fogg. Brakebills was such a cornerstone for this show, and while the mains left the school (didn't graduate, just left) the institution plays a major role still, as a location if nothing else. Add to that the fact that Penny is a professor there now, and I'd espect to see more of it.

Lastly... the Dark King.

Not to toot my horn or anything, but I'm pretty damn good at predicting turns and plot twists. I can usually spot a villain or antagonist the moment I see them, but that wasn't the case here. Granted, in hindsight I should have seen in with how he was introduced, but I was so stuck on the idea that I "knew" who the Dark King was that I couldn't entertain the possibility that I would be wrong. Though, to be fair, he did have a line about illusion magic, so there's a chance I might still be right. All of that being said, it did feel a little like a cop out. All of our other villains and antagonists have been hinted long before their big reveal, and just having a completely new character shown up and go "Surprise, bitch! I'm the dark king" feels a little off to me. We'll just have to wait and see.

All in all, I'd give this episode a rating of 7.5 out of 10. I know I complained a lot, and that's because, aside from Eliot and Alice's arc, the rest of the episode felt kind of lackluster to me. Here's hoping we pick up the pace the rest of the season.

#josh watches the magicians #the magicians meta #the magicians #spoilers #s5e3: the mountain of ghosts

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alonely-dreamer · 4 years

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Dangerous Creatures | Chapter 24: Creatures of Forgotten History

Summary: Mackenzie Alemaund is an unlucky 18 year old teenager whose life changes drastically after she gets kidnapped by two vampires and learns, in the same day, that she is not human.

Pairing: Elijah x OC

Words: 2990

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there, besides I couldn’t have it edited! I hope you’ll like it!

Masterlist

It was a cold night in the Forest and the moonlight barely filtered through the thick mist that had settled above the trees. Most of the castle was asleep, and only the servants were running around cleaning and making sure everything was perfect enough to meet the queen’s standards. The kitchen was wild awake doing the dishes and preparing for the next day. A page ran out of there after the chef caught him stealing leftovers. He launched himself in the dark hallways and though his steps were heavy and loud, he didn’t wake anyone, not even the vampires that resided there. Only one vampire heard him, and it made him pause as he wondered if he were trying to run away from a dangerous situation.

“Did you hear something?” Mackenzie whispered in the dark.

“It’s nothing,” he assured her as brought her closer to his chest.

The silk of her red nightgown collided with his silk black shirt and the feelings of being tangled in her bordeaux silk bedsheet convinced her that she hated the material. It felt cold on her skin, but she stopped shivering when he joined her in her bed.

He almost scared her as he appeared at the doorstep of her bedroom. It was unlike him not to knock but it was his understanding that a servant would usually be present to open the door and announce any visitor, and that it wasn’t too surprising that she hadn’t heard him come in from where she stood in the other room.

Nightmares were his reason to visit this late. He was pleased to hear she had less of those since Klaus took him away from her, but she was pleased to hear he wanted to spend the night with her anyway. He took her in his arms, wrapped them around her as he brought her back to his chest and rested his chin on the top of her head. He seemed a little sad, but he assured her otherwise before he changed the conversation back to the previous dinner.

“He’s in good shape for someone who’s over seven hundred years old.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“I’m a vampire,” he reminded her. “His… unwillingness to age is… a mystery to say the least.”

“I didn’t dare ask him.”

“Me neither. It seems like… such a rude question to ask.”

“Maybe I’ll gather the courage to ask him tomorrow night.”

“Is it going to be just the two of you?”

“Dinner,” she nodded. “At his… manor or… castle or I don’t know where he lives,” she chuckled.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I’ll be fine. I mean… I’m expecting to learn some crazy things about my ancestors and in exchange I hope he’ll answer my questions.”

“Maybe you should make a list,” he joked.

“That’s not a bad idea, actually.”

“Could you ask him what he knows about Avery Alemaund? I don’t even know when he was alive.”

“That’s already on the list.”

“Thank you.”

Mackenzie brought a hand to her mouth as she yawned then st arted to rub her eyes.

“It’s been a long day,” the vampire said. “You should rest. I’m sure no one will blame you if you oversleep.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “Good night, ‘lijah.”

“Good night, Mackenzie,” he said before he placed a gentle kiss on her temple then turned off the light.

***

“You look beautiful.”

“I look ridiculous!”

Elijah laughed as the ultimate turned around herself like a cat trying to catch its own tail. She was wearing a light green dress and getting her into that corset had been a nightmare. The servant that had been appointed to her did an amazing job at dressing the elemental, but all Mackenzie wanted was to get into a pair of jeans and sneakers.

“It would be rude not to wear the dress he sent you.”

“I could always say I never got it.”

The vampire raised an eyebrow. “That would also be rude.”

She sighed and whined. “I hate it, I can’t breathe in this!”

“You’ll get used to it.”

“Says the man who never wore a corset, ever!”

“Well, that’s true,” he admitted. “It’s only for tonight, you’ll be fine.”

“I can barely move.”

“You’re invited to a dinner, you won’t have to move much,” he reminded her with a grin.

“What are you gonna do?” she asked as she tried to pull on her corset.

“Alexander agreed to show me the library, I will be reading.”

“Well, you have fun,” she mumbled.

He chuckled before he took a step forward and took her face in his hands. “You’ll be fine,” he repeated gently before pressing his lips on hers.

The gesture surprised her. She was not used to it. He seemed to do it like he had done it a thousand times before, or had wished to. She gave him a shy smile and hoped her cheeks weren’t as red as the walls. He stroked her cheeks with his thumbs before placing a kiss on her forehead.

“Have a good night, Mackenzie.”

“You too, Elijah.”

She hugged him tight for a few seconds before walking away from him. She turned to give him one last look before she disappeared in the hallway.

***

The manor was small compared to the land it rested on. The car stopped in front of stone stairs on which two servants were waiting. The black Mercedes seemed out of place here and Mackenzie felt weird as one of Cornelius’ men, who was wearing a uniform so green it almost seemed black, opened the door for her like she was some kind of princess.

“Thank you,” she shyly said to the man who didn’t even dare look at her.

“Lady Alemaund,” the other one greeted her with a bow, “please follow me. My Lord is expecting you in the dining room.”

She followed him without a word, her eyes capturing images her brain had difficulty to make sense of. She felt the electricity of the house as she walked pass lit candles and below a chandelier heavy with diamonds. There were plants everywhere, huge vases of fresh flowers on almost every shelves and old wooden drawers that seemed to belong to another century. The manor was similar to the Forest or even Margo’s castle: a mix of the last five centuries.

She entered the dining room, the servant bowing again before leaving her there, in the vast room where Cornelius was waiting for her at the end of the large wooden table. She counted 16 chairs but only two plates had been placed there, along with dozens of plates of sweets and other confectionaries of all colors.

Cornelius smiled as he saw her and quickly stood up, pushing his chair away in a loud and unpleasant noise. He was wearing a light green vest with dark green trousers and brown loafers. His hair was as radiant as it had been the day before, and somehow seemed even longer.

“Mackenzie!” he greeted her. “Welcome.”

She awkwardly smiled at him as he approached her and let him put his hands on her shoulder as he kissed her left cheek first then her right cheek, the gesture leaving her quite surprised.

“Good evening,” she managed to say.

“How have you been?” he asked as he led her to the table, “how are you liking the Forest so far?”

He pulled her chair and gestured her to sit and she wordlessly obeyed his silent request.

“I… I’ve been fine, thank you,” she replied as she sat down. “The Forest is… curious,” she chuckled nervously.

He laughed. “You’ll get used to it.”

“So I’ve been told,” she smiled politely.

“Now, now, my dear, I was sorry to hear about your mother’s passing, and if I had any idea as to where you were I’d have come to you right away.”

“My mom’s told me about you. She said you helped her while she was here… nineteen years ago.”

“She’s talked to you?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware… that Aella had told you about your powers before she died.”

“Oh, she didn’t,” she said and that confused him even more, “I… I saw her… after. She’s in the Other Side.”

“Ah, is she now? Poor Aella, I was hoping she had managed to move on… I suppose one cannot find peace when one leaves a daughter behind this young.”

“I… suppose not.”

“My apologies,” Cornelius chuckled. “I’m sure she’s very proud of what you’ve become. Alive, that is,” he laughed awkwardly. “It’s a miracle you’ve managed to live this long. And accompanied by an Original vampire no less. Other ultimates have not been so lucky I’m afraid.”

“How many have you met?”

“Two. The first one, very powerful, he was in his sixties when I met him for the first and last time. He was an Engelbrecht. He told me that night that, when he was 8, he had set fire to the wooden horse he was playing with. His father had first suspected his wife to have cheated on him and that he wasn’t really his son, but one of the Hayes boys living next to them. I wish I’d have seen his face when the oracle of their village told him his son was an ultimate.”

“An… oracle?”

“You’ve never heard of oracles? They’re very powerful witches, though they’re not talented at spells or potion making, they have one gift many ‘regular’ witches wished they had: divination.”

“They can see the future?”

“Yes. Among other things,” he nodded. “Some say it’s a gift and that one is born with it, others say you can work for this power, though I’ve never met an oracle who ‘worked’ for her gift.”

“I… I’m sorry to ask but… Can I ask…”

“What is it, my dear?”

“Well, I don’t mean to be rude but…”

“Oh,” he laughed. “Of course, you’d want to know my age, everyone does. Well, like your godfather, Alexander, said, I am your 20th great grandfather, now, if you do the math, I am…”

“Over seven hundred years,” she cut him off.

“That’s right,” he laughed.

“How are you… still alive?”

“Ah well, that’s a secret I’ll never tell,” he winked at her, “not even Her Majesty the Queen knows.”

“Mom said she suspected Marg… Queen Margo helped you with… a spell or a potion.”

“Well, I’ve only known her for five hundred years, so I had to fend for myself way before that.”

“Alright,” she cleared her throat, “you said you were the eldest Fay alive, which I have no problem believing,” she said and he laughed, “but are you the last Fay?”

“Oh no. There a few Fays here, in the Forest. My children are all dead, I’m afraid, but I watch over their descendants. Their resemblance is uncanny sometimes,” he said as he drank from his cup of wine.

“And… what about Alemaunds…”

“You father, my dear, stays a mystery to me. Your mother refused to tell me anything about him.”

“Margo said she’s met him.”

“Maybe. I doubt it. She’s probably seen a picture.”

“Mom never talked about him…”

“To be frank, I haven’t met an Alemaund in centuries. The last one was Robert, or maybe that was his brother? I don’t remember. But he was an ultimate. He was in his early thirties. Good looking but not so good behaved I’m afraid.”

Mackenzie was surprised to hear he couldn’t remember the name of one of the two ultimates he had ever met. But what he said next helped her make a little bit more sense of it.

“There were twins, but they hated each other. Jealousy is a terrible thing. Let’s say, for the sake of this conversation, that the ultimate was indeed Robert and that his brother’s name was Roger, yes, I believe that’s right. Well, Roger hated, even despised his twin brother for having more power than he did. When Robert was confirmed ultimate, Roger was furious that he wasn’t one himself,” he paused, then scoffed. “Alemaunds were never sane, I’m afraid. Power hungry little fellas. I’m glad to see you inherited the soft heart of your mother. Us Fays have always been the heart of elementals.”

“I was told Avery Alemaund was… crazy.”

“Oh, of course you were told that,” he chuckled. “Let me guess, a witch told you so?”

“… warlocks… yes?”

He laughed again. “Yes. Witches hate our kind, it wasn’t hard to convince them that an elemental, an Alemaund, had sequestered several witches and forced them to create a whole new species.”

“Are you saying that’s not what happened?”

“My dear… Avery Alemaund never existed.”

Mackenzie’s eyes grew big as she breathed out: “What?”

“Have you ever heard of Pandora and Ambrosia?”

“I…,” she shook her head in an attempt to recollect herself, “yes, they’re sisters. They helped my mom when she was pregnant with me.”

“Yes, they are very helpful,” he chuckled. “I believe they are about three thousand years old. They were born in Athens. Their mother was a slave, their father their owner, and Ambrosia is no doubt the owner’s son’s daughter. But the probability that they may only be half-sisters never posed problem to either of them. They were born of rapists, that they were certain about. As their owner had no use for them, he sold them, to some Roman pervert who preferred young girls. They were 16 and 14 at the time, Pandora being the eldest one. But as they were on their way to Italy, they were rescued by a coven of witches. They lived with them in the forest for a few months but all they wanted to do was to go back to their mother. As they found out that they were witches themselves, the coven took them in and taught them everything they could. So, when they went back a year and a half later to get their mother, they’d also be ready to kill their previous owner. Unfortunately, when they arrived there, they learnt that their mother had died after a particularly brutal beating. So, they burned the whole house down with the masters inside. It is speculated that their power comes from their rage. They are, no doubt, the strongest creatures I’ve ever met.”

“Stronger than ultimates?”

“That remains to be determined,” he smiled at her.

“So… what? What does that have to do with… Avery Alemaund?”

“Well, I lied just know, Avery did exist, he just never sequestered anyone, nor was he crazy. In fact, he had nothing to do with the creation of your kind. So, no, the Avery Alemaund you were told about never really existed.”

“Did he know Pandora and Ambrosia?”

“He did not. I mentioned them because they are the ones you were told about. They are the witches who created ultimates.”

“Of their own free will?”

“Indeed. The eldest you are, the wisest you get,” he said with a laugh, “or so we’re supposed to. Though, I doubt they ever had a problem with elementals. They wanted to help, you see, after several elementals begged them to. They needed to be stronger than witches, they needed the fight to at least be fair, so they gave them the same weapon the witches had: witchcraft.”

“What about… the other elements? The element of darkness?”

“Ah yes, the element of darkness,” he repeated as if it were funny, “well, you see, in a fight, it is also very ideal to disarm your opponent, do you understand?”

She nodded. “An ultimate can steal other people’s magic away.”

“When word got around that an ultimate had been created, rumors started to spread as well, and I’m not surprised witches still believe, to this day, that an elemental had forced a witch to make them more powerful.”

“So… they never were an element of light or darkness.”

“No,” he shook his head, amused. “Witches are so gullible.”

“Wow…” she breathed out. “When… when was that?”

“Mmh, let me think… It was before the Forest was founded… and after my birth as I remember the day I was told an ultimate had been created like it was yesterday… I would say… about six hundred years ago.”

“But… they were Alemaunds… the first ultimates?”

“Five ultimates were created that day. One from each family of elementals, do you know them? The Alemaunds, the Fays, the Hayes, the Dallimores and the Engelbrecht. Only Alemaunds managed to produce more ultimates, I’m afraid. At least, that I know of.”

“So… the Dallimores are elementals of water, right?”

“Indeed.”

“What if a Dallimore and a Hayes had a child? Would they control water or fire?”

“Both or only one,” he replied. “Very rarely both. Only Alemaunds had multi-talented children. In fact, when a woman married into another family and her child was multi-talented, it was the custom that the child in question would take their mother’s name, Alemaund. That’s why you’ll never meet a Dallimore that can control fire, they’d have taken their other parent’s name, Hayes,” he laughed as if it were funny. “Actually, my mother was a Fay, my father was an Engelbrecht, but I could never manage to control the wind, I’m afraid.”

“Are all Fays related?”

“Yes and no. Honestly, I couldn’t tell. But there are so few of us left now that it doesn’t matter. You’ll be lucky if you meet another elemental outside of the Forest.”

“How many elementals are there here?”

“Only a few hundreds, I’m afraid. But of all families, I’m happy to say.”

“I was told elementals were extinct…”

“Well… we’re on our way there,” he said sadly. “But enough of this,” he waved his hand. “Please, eat. I like to start with dessert,” he told her as he took a pink macaron out of the mountain in front of him, “you don’t mind, I hope?”

“Not at all,” she smiled back at him.

“Then, bon appétit.”

*********

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it!!

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