#i'll likely have more meta this weekend

[waitmyturtles]

SPOILERS AND ANALYSIS FOR THE EIGHTH SENSE, EPISODES 9 and 10. TURN AWAY IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET! LONG POST!

MY HEART. IS. SO. FULL. 

Episode 9 almost (ALMOST!) reached Bad-Buddy-episode-10-level for me. That was a hell of an episode. 

And I am so thrilled, SO FREAKING THRILLED, to have been proven wrong about my theories as to whether or not episode 6 was “real” to the series. It was very real, and clearly so meaningful and contributive to Jae Won (as well, of course, to Ji Hyun), that... it sent Jae Won running, literally.

One more passing thought before I dig into the meal: 

I haven’t dug into this at ALL yet, but I think there might purposefully be a lot of similarities between The Eighth Sense and Where Your Eyes Linger, which (I think this is accurate, but PLEASE correct me if I’m wrong) was one of the first non-Strongberry Big KBLs to come out. I went back to Viki to make sure to confirm this, but Jung Seo In -- the restaurant ahjumma and Ji Hyun’s boss in T8S -- also plays a restaurant proprietor in Where Your Eyes Linger, and actually asks Han Tae Joo and Kang Gook “who’s top and who’s bottom” when she first meets them in WYEL (a little squick but she made it cute for that time). The promo picture for WYEL on Viki is of the two leads lying on the floor with their heads touching.... a different orientation, but a lot of the same feeling, as the opening of episode 10 of T8S. And, finally: Han Tae Joo of WYEL and Jae Won of T8S are both “the chairman’s son.” They are both sons in need of care.

That’s enough for a comparison for now to WYEL, because I haven’t spent enough time digging into it, but I’ll return to Ji Hyun’s ahjumma in a second, because she’s a badassssssss. Anyway:

Episode 9: What can I say. As with Bad Buddy episode 10, I’m struggling to get words down. I love a ride to a gorgeous union. 

And Jae Won, HONEY, Y’ALL TOOK ME ON A HELL OF A RIDE. DUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEE. DUDE. I wanna be friends with you!

We learned some things. Ji Hyun brings light into Jae Won’s life. When we saw Jae Won with Eun Ji -- it was always in darkness (except for surf club earlier in the series, but Ji Hyun was there with Jae Won). jae Won eats with Eun Ji in a pojangmacha at night. He sits with Eun Ji in a dark library. He walks with Eun Ji on dark streets. She tries to kiss him in the nighttime. 

Ji Hyun sees that -- and something twists inside of Jae Won.

Then we get Jae Won and Eun Ji in the dark library. And, JEEEEZUS. WHOA! UM! I. did. not. expect. the. long. game. to. be. played. LIKE. THAT.

Motherfucker played a LONG-ASS, I’M A NAVY VETERAN, I CHASED AFTER YOU, I SAW YOU WITH ANOTHER GUY, I WAITED FOR YOU, I WAITED UNTIL MORNING, I SAW YOU WERE STILL WITH HIM, I SAW YOU WALKING OUT OF THE MOTEL WITH HIM, I SAW THAT, I CAME BACK, YOU TOOK ADVANTAGE OF MY FEAR ABOUT JI HYUN AND THE ACCIDENT, AND I REVENGE-DATED YOU, KINDA GAME, HEADSHAKE, SHRUG, I’M LOOKING AT MY NAILS, PSH.

BRO. WHAT. THE. EFF. 

I want a Cardi B song about this shit. Dude, you played that better than ANY female character in a K-drama that I have EVER seen, my man! You actually WENT AND DATED HER, LIKE KINDA LITERALLY-BUT-MAYBE-YOUR-HEART-WASN’T-ACTUALLY-INTO-IT-SO-MAYBE-IT-WAS-FOR-THE-ASSIGNMENT-DEALIE??? Good lord. 

Like, can that become a K-drama/KBL trope? Hot DAMN. ANYWAY. (Actually, one more reference to this for episode 10, but enough of the all caps, ha.)

You know what that means, right? While all that was going on, Jae Won’s heart WASN’T with Eun Ji. He was processing his stuff with Ji Hyun on his own, and with his therapist (once more, lol, @emotionallychargedtowel, take me to your analysis! I gotta know what you thought about the therapist calling Jae Won selfish!). 

Jae Won said it himself. He’s rooted in depression. He’s rooted in guilt about his brother’s death. He’s rooted in guilt over Ji Hyun’s accident. I will posit that episode 6 still felt like a “dream,” likely because of meds, likely because of Jae Won’s headstate. It was a “real” moment for the series but for where Jae Won’s head was at, he was likely battling a depressive episode with the continued, chronic guilt of his life. So things seemed fuzzy and jumpy -- because they were fuzzy and jumpy for Jae Won. 

(Whenever I try to describe these states to people, I try to think of relative moments... like being at work with four hours of sleep. Driving while your contact lens has something in it. You’re fuzzily in and out of reality. Jae Won’s depression is deeper than that. But I try to relate to it somehow with those metaphors.)

So the therapist does her own thing by calling Jae Won “selfish” for rooting in his pain. How we choose to judge her behavior is whatever -- it still gives me the jibbles, and I lean towards the utterly wonderful @emotionallychargedtowel for better analysis about therapy than me.

But, as we very clearly saw -- Jae Won’s breakthrough came through the restaurant ahjumma. Remember: she represents a break from tradition, as I said last week. She’s done with the bullshit of living by the rules of others.

She sees university students in and out, everyday, eating samgyupsal and drinking their sorrows away. She sees former students coming back to say hi. 

She’s been around the block, and has seen people get around the block themselves. She knows the advice that she’s giving to Jae Won. Unlike the therapist, she’s not gonna make Jae Won feel bad about himself. She’s just going to feed him and HELP HIM.

LET GO OF IT ALL, HONEY. GO AND GET YOUR MAN. 

And Jae Won finally let go. He went to the water. He took us with him to a flashback to the sea, to the light, where he’s the happiest. He took us to where he’s the freest that he can be.

And Ji Hyun called him back to Ji Hyun’s side. Called Jae Won back through music, and Jae Won heard him, and ran to Ji Hyun, and they embraced -- and it was perfect. 

I’m gonna be that auntie when I grow up.

Episode 10: There are a couple of side discussions with friends that I want to refer to, but let me say first that I have zero issues with this light, lovely conclusion. I am a SLAVE for K-drama tropes, and I didn’t mind that this episode had a few. This series did so beautifully to NOT hew to tropes, and to create a new paradigm of filmmaking in KBLs, that I was TOTALLY FINE with seeing some sweet tropey behavior -- the drinking, the partying, the dancing, the dance music. The love games. The heads leaning on shoulders. Coffees in cans. Let me give you my jacket. 

Friends @shortpplfedup and @lurkingshan and @wen-kexing-apologist: I’m okay with the forgiveness to Tae Hyung and Eun Ji. Because. 

I think Jae Won’s being a little shady, come awn. I think he popped his umbrella open. Just a little. Ji Hyun ADMITTED to being sassy, but I think Jae Won knew he was being just a little bitty-bit shady, and I’m gonna let the man have his. He’s a game-player. 

Eun Ji HAD TO ADMIT that she got her ass handed to her. And Ji Hyun and Jae Won both knew she’d have a hard time, internally. I’m fine with her being calm about it. She knew she fucked up the game, hard, when she got her ass caught cheating. We know she’s lame, she knows she’s lame, let’s live and move on.

I thought Jae Won’s read on Tae Hyung was great. Tae Hyung IS someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, however misguided it is. Humans are not perfect. Jae Won wants to be with honest people. (That’s why he dumped Eun Ji’s ass and handed her the receipts. He can forgive her, but he certainly AIN’T going out with her again.)

As Bed Friend ended with happy moment after happy moment -- I believe the filmmakers knew exactly what they were giving us with this finale. How we came to SUCH a happy ending just boggles me, but it was a loving and a sweet one. GO YOON WON AND JOON PYO. COME AWN. GO GO GO. (And go Bit Na! Reject that motherfucker. AND AE RI! GURL! I’m gonna miss you, nothing slides by you.)

And I want to refer back to something about the therapist conversation in episode 9 that got concluded in episode 10. I think it’s really important to note that BOTH Ji Hyun AND Jae Won took care OF EACH OTHER in these last two episodes.

Jae Won was rotting in guilt over not being able to TAKE CARE OF JI HYUN during the accident. Jae Won arguably got Ji Hyun in trouble. 

Ji Hyun, upon his recovery, TAKES CARE OF Jae Won. Ji Hyun handled the disciplinary committee. He gives Jae Won a disposable camera and encourages Jae Won’s photography. He continues to send Jae Won text messages, songs. Sending messages of hope and light and love. I’m still here, Jae Won, I haven’t left. Jae Won’s brother might not be here. Ji Hyun never left. 

What shocked Jae Won out of his stasis was the ahjumma’s words. I think Jae Won realized at that moment that -- AS AHJUMMA WAS SAYING ALL ALONG -- THAT JAE WON WAS OVERTHINKING THINGS. Once Jae Won could 

SEE. THE. LIGHT.

he was able to take off, and finally go back to Ji Hyun, in whole. 

(I think we know why the therapist’s office was dark. Jae Won couldn’t see the light in there. 

His light comes from Ji Hyun and the water.)

It’s a rarity, but I’m putting this on my short MUST WATCH list. This BLEW away any filmmaking expectations I previously had about KBLs. This was SINGULAR, groundbreaking, the actors ATE their roles, ATE THEM -- and it was utterly fulfilling.

PHENOMENAL SHOW. I’m going to miss this one TREMENDOUSLY. 

[alienzil]

Okay so I saw this post and you know the types of fics where adult Danny moves to Gotham and winds up emotionally adopting one or more of bat kids or accidentally coparenting with Bruce (with or without a relationship between them)? I had the thought, what if Danny parented the bat kids but he started doing it out of spite?

Like, Danny moves to Gotham and runs into Batman and Robin one night while out for a late night flight and drops down to the rooftop to say hi.

Bruce sees this 5'6" twink that looks like a stiff breeze could knock him over and is so obviously new in town and thinks Gotham is going to eat him alive, he needs to leave before he gets killed.

Batman: Looming menacingly and in his deepest scariest Batman voice, "Leave. Metas aren't allowed in Gotham."

Danny: Offend! Excuse?! Who does this guy think he is?! 😡 Danny was trying to be polite here! "First of all, I'm not a meta. Second of all, rude much?!"

Batman: Does scariest bat glare. "Leave." Swoops off into the night.

Robin (Damian): "My father is correct. You should leave the city for your own safety."

Danny sees this tiny vigilante child with fierce expression and a sword and is just like awww, so cute! 😍 Then he noticed Robin had a small cut on his arm and his inner gremlin activates. If the rude flying furry can't take care of his own kid properly, Danny will do it better!

He bandages up Damian's arm, gives him a cookie and teaches him a neat sword trick before sending him on his way with a hug telling him he needs his sleep.

Danny goes out of his way to run into the bat kids and be the absolute best dad.

He takes Nightwing flying and throws him in the air so Nightwing can do all the fanciest acrobatic tricks.

He tracks down Red Hood and starts a book club with him (Danny may or may not have used his connection with Ghost Writer to get ahold of some rare books).

He eats waffles with Spoiler and trys out weird topping combinations that make them both make faces and laugh.

He makes new gadgets for Red Robin but carefully breaks them just a little bit and takes them to the teen so they can fix them together (it's enrichment!). He always insists RR keep them as a reward.

He follows Signal around during the day invisibly, making faces and doing tricks only Signal can see (he made him laugh in front of the police at a crime scene twice!).

All of the kids get his attention and love and Danny smugly thinks how Batman must be absolutely seething about his kids bonding with Danny and Batman missing out on all of it.

Danny started it out of spite but he does wind up genuinely loving the bat kids.

Batman definetly hates it when the kids are bonding with Danny and is extremely jealous (sulky Batman brooding in his cave about it).

Bruce's repeated attempts to intimidate Danny into leaving Gotham don't work and him telling his kids to stay away from Danny had zero effect (the terrible children don't listen to him at all).

So Bruce starts spending more time with the kids to compete against Danny. The bat kids love it and (little gremlins that they are) use the two of them against each other constantly.

Bruce:"Sorry Tim, I can't make it to your photography exhibit this weekend, there's a meeting with the Justice League."

Tim:"Oh that's fine... I'll just ask Danny to come." 😏

Bruce: Narrows his eyes and grits his teeth, "Actually, the Justice League needs to have contingencies in place to manage without my input. This would be a good time to test their capabilities. I'll skip the meeting and come to your exhibit."

With both of them competing to spend more time with the kids it leads to the two of them spending time with each other to be around the kids more.

After Damian catches a terrible flu bug, Danny spends an entire weekend at the manor babying him. This is when Bruce finds out Danny has known their secret identities for months and tries to get mad about it but Alfred puts his foot down, raises a judgmental eyebrow in Bruce's direction that puts a stop to that nonsense and sets up Danny with his own room in the family wing.

Eventually, Danny gets to the point where he spends most of his nights at the manor and he and Bruce consult each other on all major household decisions.

The whole family is at the manor one morning including Danny. Bruce has a meeting at WE and he and Danny are absently discussing their plans for the day at the breakfast table.

Bruce: " The meeting should take most of the morning and then I have paperwork this afternoon and a scheduled walk through on one of the new engineering projects. I probably won't be done by the time school let's out. Can you pick up Damian today?"

Danny: "That shouldn't be a problem. Would you mind swinging by the bookstore on the way home and getting my preorder? Jay and I just finished rereading the first book and we were wanting to start the second tonight before you all go on patrol. I'd rather not try to make it to the bookstore in school rush hour traffic"

Bruce: "Sure."

Stephanie watches Danny reach out and absently straighten Bruce's tie as they both get up to leave. Bruce grabs Danny's coffee thermos and hands it to him while they walk out the door.

Stephanie: "Sooo, bets on how long until they realize they're basically married?"

[wigglebox]

Green Magic

Friends truly are a gift! And my friend @freechaostyrant gave me a gift this weekend by telling me the story of getting this art I made for her signed by The Winchesters cast.

This weekend at SPN New Orleans Creation Con, I was commissioned to make a drawing for Rachel with the characters as she was getting multiple autographs to hang up!

The story she relayed was so sweet and it made me love this cast that much more! JoJo reportedly recognized my style — which at first I'm, like, 'wait, how?' Then I remember how big the noses are that I always draw and so that made sense lol.

There are so many amazing artworks out there I never think mine would stick in someone's head like that.

Drake instructed Rachel to tell me that this is "fucking amazing, she's talented" and so THANK YOU KING! She relayed the message and I thank him for his very kind words ❤️ They really mean a lot. A lot of artists struggle with self-doubt and low self-esteem so that really perked me up.

And Meg also enjoyed the artwork and that makes me super super happy, but I'm happier that my friend and Meg could bond over their "bald" shirts lol.

I wasn't expecting Jackles to sign it but Rachel managed to snag an auto from him. She apologized because Dean wasn't in the drawing but he said "I'll find a way into it" and signed over their heads. My brain ignored how meta that comment was haha.

She just needs to hopefully one day meet Demetria, Nida, and Dee to get those signatures to complete it!

This is another reason to pile on top of the many many many other ones that already exist that prove just how amazing this cast is, how much they care, how easy they accept the SPN fandom and family.

It also makes. me super happy to know that we, as a fandom, have accepted them and embraced them as family as well.

Thank you Rachel for sharing those messages with me. I hope the drawing brings you lots of happiness! <3

[starseneyes]

Chenford - Lucy Chen / Tim Bradford - The Rookie - Season 5 - Ep 13

Daddy Cop AKA "Friends Don't Let Friends Murder Board… Alone"

After watching 5x13, I really didn't think I could write the Meta until I had 5x14 for additional context. But after taking a step back and re-evaluating my hangups, I found a way. I do hope you enjoy it!

SPOILER ALERT: If you're looking for a nice, safe, spoiler-free zone... I'm sorry, this ain't it. I will spoil the entirety of the episode and perhaps the entire series to date. It's a LOT of fun, though, if you're up for it!

Ready to see what awaits our delightful duo now that Chenford Coitus has been achieved? Let's dive in!

Nobody Puts Timmy In A Corner

Lucy is sitting at the back of Roll Call so she can keep an eye on Tim. He doesn't even have to turn around for her to feel the misery coming off of him, even through the walls.

Tim hates this. But it's what he has to do for love, right?

My Chair is Moving

Like, this was so personal, and yet so sweet. She totally turned his chair toward her, and he was happy to go along because—let's be real—she's the best part of his day.

Seeing Tim without his set up for his camera on his chest is strange. I know it hasn't been there all along series-wise, but it really stood out to me watching this scene. No need for them to monitor what he's doing with the public because he no longer see the public. He sees... part of a window.

It's been one week based on Canon, so we know he's already bored out of his mind... no matter what he tells his girlfriend. (I will never get over getting to call Lucy Chen that! She's Tim Bradford's girlfriend)

"I thought we said we wound never lie to each other."

There are a million conversations happening between these two that we never see. We have fan fiction where we can speculate on it, but at first blush I really appreciated this glimpse into their shared code.

Now, they spend the entire episode going against said code (which I'll get into at the end of this Meta), but I do like that we have insight into what happens when the camera's not rolling between Tim and Lucy.

"That was a lie." "You're miserable."

She knows her man. I mean, anyone paying attention can tell that Tim's having a horrible time working at a desk. Now, he's got productivity up and whatnot, but he's miserable.

We saw him make the sacrifice play in 5x12, but now seeing him living it is akin to us hearing about the Monster that was his father and then meeting the man, ourselves. It's about as bad as imagined, in both cases, but there's something about seeing it that makes it more "real".

Desk work for Tim Bradford is bleak. But, he'll do whatever it takes to be with the woman he loves.

"No. It's not that bad. Nice people. Low stress. Wait, wait that reminds me... next week." "Thank you." "You're welcome. Be safe out there. I'll see you at the end of shift."

I'm reminded of 4x01 when Lucy asked Tim to be careful over the phone. "I always am," he said. This time, it's Tim who's staying in place and Lucy who's on the move.

And the face she gave him when he gave her the thumbs up? Like, "don't give me the bad baseball thumbs up!" She gives him an aghast look, but he follows up quickly enough to reference the end of shift—his happy place.

The same schedule means they can see each other every day, yes, but during the day it's bloody torture for Tim. There was a song in my youth about living for the weekends. Right now, Tim is living for end-of-shift. (originally I typoed to "end-of-shirt" and that kinda works, too, if ya know what I mean)

When she walks away, he exhales, thinking his charade worked. Hell, no, Tim, my boy. Your girl knows when you're hurting. ("I rode long enough with you to know when you are being you and when you're upset")

Lucy is in the best relationship of her life. No way she's going to stand still while he's struggling. This is the ultimate give-and-take. Tim steps back for Lucy, Lucy steps up for Tim.

"I'm just trying to find a way to keep him from losing his mind." "Is there no other position he can move into?" "No. Everything's at a standstill."

Stripping away the "do they know" question (which I cover in the summary at the end of this Meta), I'm going to just talk about Nyla and Lucy watching out for Tim.

Lucy intervening on Tim's behalf is not surprising. She stood up for him against the Sergeant who wasn't taking the fender-bender case seriously. She recorded multiple books-on-tape for him so he could study for the Sergeant's exam. Heck, she helped renovate his home while he was dating Discount Barbie.

So, Lucy stepping up for Tim would never be what raised red flags on their relationship status change. Yes, I expected someone to comment on Tim being "punished" or something if they weren't aware of the relationship, but since they didn't, we work with what we've got.

And what we've got is everyone aware that Tim's in a job he hates and wants out of.

"Alright, well, then you're going to have to shake things up… create an opening... It means you've gotta get creative. Find a weak link and start a 5-player trade." "Say more."

"Say more" cracks me up. It's so smooth and welcoming.

Girlfriend is finally seeing an angle for her "find Tim a new job" plan. It reminds me of her telling him, once, that he's the king of coming at problems from a sideways angle. Looks like the student really has become the master!

"Metro would be a good fit for Tim... I mean, Hicks might be up for a transfer, a bit more family time... if he left Metro, Tim could take his spot."

The one part I skipped over here is the part that I think would be an interesting test for Tim and Lucy—can they navigate the brutal hours?

I tried to look up the LA Metro to get a little more intel (yes, I'm that Meta writer), but information's sparse online in terms of actual timelines for the teams and shifts. There's likely good reason for it ("Hey, coppers! When will you be off the streets so we can pilfer some golden duckets?"), but I had to check. It's the journalist in me.

It's not like we've never seen Metro before on this show. I was watching an episode the other day where they radio'd to call in Metro and we saw a bunch of folks we didn't know in tactical vests show up. They'll find ways to tie Tim in, I'm sure, but I'll be curious to see if/how it affects Tim and Lucy's relationship.

"What could go wrong?" "A lot for both you and Tim. If Sergeants feel like they're being manipulated, they will never trust you again. And they talk. So the next time you need a favor, and you will, the answer will be no. Forever. So, tread lightly."

Will there be any consequences for all this? I've seen the speculation, but I think all this warning did was encourage Lucy to be crafty. See Exhibit A below.

"Uh, listen, my roommate is an excellent babysitter and she's always looking for work if you ever need someone."

Never underestimate the power of childcare. Especially for parents of multiples. I only had twins, and I can still imagine the chaos of that poor man's house and life. It's a gift, yes, but I wouldn't wish twins on my worst enemy.

Every time I see a character on a show having multiples, I wonder who in the Writer's Room hated them, because it's a tough, tough road. I love my boys forever and ever. But it's a unique challenge raising multiples.

And Hicks is intrigued. Because finding people to watch multiples can be a nightmare, too. Trust me. I've been there and tried all the sites before I finally gave up on Brick-and-Mortar and started working for myself.

The Gang's All Here

This was my second favorite scene of the entire episode. I love the Found Family trope. I love that there is this core of people who have decided to not only work together, but to do life together.

I don't have that through any of my brick-and-mortar jobs (mostly back-stabbers and high drama, there), but I do have it from University. 20 years with the best friends in the world. So, I see these scenes and I see my own Found Family reflected there.

As each group files in (and someone over on Twitter noted quite brilliantly how each door opening coincides with a different method of announcement—knocking, ringing, walking right in), it's adding the layers to the scene. It's not convoluted or complicated or cachophonic. It's harmonious.

You can see how all these very different people work together, compliment one another, and fit together into a jigsaw puzzle of friendship.

And to know that Tim's friends band together to come to his aid means so much. But I hate that he doesn't know.

I understand the subterfuge of doing something great for someone you love—orchestrating a great something. My husband did it for me through a four-hour scavenger hunt marriage proposal that took me through several cities before arriving in the theater where we met. He had production meetings for that proposal.

So, I'm not frustrated at the fact that Lucy did this without taking credit for it. I've done things in secret for my loveyby and him for me.

However, I wish Tim knew how much he was loved. I don't think he fully comprehends that yet, and since this wasn't used as an opportunity to demonstrate that to him, I'm hoping that'll come down the line.

Look, when you grow up thinking you're unlovable, it's powerful when your friends come through for you.

My husband and I had to get a new fridge a few months back. Old one died. But we couldn't afford to go through a box store, so we went Outlet and had to transport it ourselves. One friend fractured a finger. Four others worked together to dismantle and reassemble it to get it into the house. It took 2 hours. They had come over for Matthew's birthday party and instead we moved a fridge.

And not one person complained. We all laughed. We took hilarious photos. We had an amazing time. Because, finally, we have people in our lives who love us without condition.

Tim has that, too, but I sometimes think he doesn't fully understand it. I do wish he knew how much they love him and how they all came together to help him as an act of love.

And if he doesn't find out about this, I do hope there's still a time down the line when Tim Bradford will fully realize how much his Found Family loves him.

"Oh, you look surprised. Wait, weren't you on the group text?"

I'm DYING. DYING that they have a group chat and somehow Nolan still missed it. I know he said that he unplugs when he gets home (which is a great thing to do, but I don't know if he'll continue to move up the ranks without being more easy-to-reach). But it really made me cackle.

And I have to say that the choice to put the post-its on the windows so they could shoot through was really genius. My favorite logistical decision of the episode. Credit to the writer, director, set designer, or whoever said, "This is the way".

But Tim's reaction to Nolan throwing up his arm to block his way cracked me up. Like, Eric Winter's physicality as Tim never fails to amuse and amaze.

And Lucy's "where the hell do I put these things!?" face had me rolling. Melissa O'Neil has had a lot of room for humor these past few episodes, and it's fun to see her show off her chops.

"Is that Lucy's car?"

Yes, Tim. And Wesley's, James'. It's a party! But, of course, the only one he cares about belongs to his love.

And how on-brand is it for Tim that he doesn't care about the air conditioning ("air conditioning makes you soft") but he was all about getting to watch the game? I cackled.

Tim clocks Lucy across the room and Angela clocks their interaction, casting knowing glances towards Bailey and Nyla. Hermana, never change. That choice was all Alyssa Diaz and I love it.

"You okay?" "Yeah. Couldn't be better."

It's not a lie! But, she certainly has a lot on her mind, and as soon as he walks into the room, Tim's forgotten the game. He's focused solely on her.

Smitty and Lucy

This is a tiny detail I spotted as Lucy walks into the room, but it made me laugh. The sign on the door has been switched to "occupied" but the door is wide open. Did Smitty set it to occupied but forget to close the door? Did someone else switch the sign to warn of Smitty? The possibilities are hilarious!

And Lucy Chen loves Tim Bradford so much that she's willing to make a blind deal with Smitty, of all people. And does Smitty know about Lucy and Tim? Is he writing fanfiction of the two of them at his desk instead of working?

"Nothing weird." "Nothing weird. I promise."

Because with Smitty, you have to clarify. Still, she's braver than I am to make this deal with zero idea what he'll demand in return for this favor.

"Deal."

Taking your husband's words? I stan a couple who are so in love they pick up on one another's phrasing. I can think of two recent examples of Tim ending a conversation with "Deal" from my re-viewings. With Genny at their family house, and with Lucy when she told him to ask her out, again, after she dumped Dead-Weight-Chris.

So, Lucy's subconsciously picking up on Tim's words, and that cracks me up.

My husband picks up on my phrasing, but it's more obvious because I make up things. Like when our twins were tiny and complaining about random things, I'd call them "Complainababy" and if they were congested they were "Conjestababy". Yes, I understand normal people don't do that. I embrace who I am.

And watch how she flexes her hands as soon as she leaves the room to rid herself of the awful feeling of making a deal with the Smitty. Sorry, Lucy, but there won't be enough hand sanitizer in the world to save you from what he has planned for you.

"Hey." "Hey." "I just heard Lauren Fuji is retiring." "Really? That's surprising."

I have thoughts about this that are at the bottom of the episode notes, so skip there if you want my honest thoughts on this right away. Or you can keep reading the Meta and we'll get to that later.

"Don't you get it? It means there's an opening in Metro. Well, at least there was."

This is the first information to Lucy that's new, and she cocks her head at it. Because it is completely plausible that someone else swooped in and took the position she tried so hard to hand-carve for Tim. And that would suck, but it can totally happen.

And I love the way Tim (via Eric Winter) is punctuating his words, here. Tim is pumped up and excited, and it's so beautiful to see. He has been through so much heartache throughout the run of this show. We've seen Tim Bradford at his lowest.

But now we get to see him on the way up in a big way.

"Lieutenant Pine just called me 15 minutes ago, and I'm going over."

Timothy Bradford, you are gushing with excitement as you talk to your woman. I love how he leans forward toward her, like a kid with a secret that they can't help but share on the playground.

"That's great! Congratulations."

Lucy gives him a chest tap because she is truly excited for her man. I'm a tapper, myself, with my husband. So I think it's cute we share that, me and my fictional bestie.

But, she's also looking around the station to see if anyone noticed.

"Thanks. Grey gave me rock star review." "Well, he should. You're amazing."

Lucy's heart eyes and Tim's smile are sending me. He is smiling with all his teeth and every beautiful laugh line is alight with pure joy.

I'm also strangely excited to learn that Eric Winter's nose wrinkles like mine when he smiles big, sometimes, and that's so oddly comforting. My Eldest's nose does the same thing.

And how telling is it that we've had 5 years of watching Tim Bradford before I knew this little fact about his smile because we have never seen him smile like this before?

"I'm excited." *giggle* "I'm excited!"

There is something so sweet about excitement being such a foreign emotion to Tim that he has to verbalize it. Like it's bubbling out of him at a rate he can't control because he isn't accustomed to joy.

The last time he was happy, he was working the beat and was married to Isabelle. But, I argue, this is joy, not happiness bred of happenstance. Tim Bradford is bubbling with joy.

Professionally, his greatest fear has been advancing to the point that he's trapped at a desk. Tim likes to be on the streets, in the middle of the action, making things happen. Sitting might be great for Smitty, but not for Tim.

He took that hit for the love of Lucy. Now, everything in this episode implies that this was a waystation situation, where Tim was waiting for an opening to make a move. Grey tells him to "hang in there" and Nyla seems completely aware that they're waiting for something to open up to move him over.

His main goal in taking this desk job was to keep Lucy at Mid-Wilshire. The icing on the cake was that they got to see each other every day and didn't have to deal with syncing shifts.

Lucy knew before Tim took the job that he'd be positively miserable. The staging literally has him in a corner with his back to Roll Call, his back to the action, his back to what he loves.

Now, he's moving up to Metro, and it's definitely movement forward in his career, gets him back out on the streets, and keeps his relationship with Lucy from crossing any lines that might warrant an IA investigation.

The Tim Bradford we met in the Pilot was a man whose life was on pause. He was in a holding pattern with his job, with his wife, with his sense of self. Lucy entered his life, and it's like someone pressed "Play", again.

And it wasn't even romantic, at the beginning. Lucy is just this ball of light that stepped into his world. At first, it was blinding to him and he bit back at her as much as she snapped at him. But as she refined her glow, he softened his gaze, and they somehow met in the middle when the time was right.

Tim Bradford today is a man who has faced his trauma with his father head-on. Is there still healing to do? Hell, yeah. But he's on his way, now, instead of repressing and avoiding. He's working on his relationship with his little sister.

He's trying to be a complete human being—not only running from the image of his father, but embracing all the best parts of himself and owning them as his own unique identity.

Tim Bradford is closer to himself than he's been in a long time. Peeling back the layers of anguish, trauma, heartache, and abuse... it's taken time. And Lucy's been there for so much of it. For her to be the love of his life? Only fate (and the writers) could weave the tapestry so aptly.

Tim is excited. He has something to look forward to every day in his job. He has something to look forward to every night with the woman he loves. He's no longer looking back. For the first time in his life, Tim can truly look forward with excitement.

And Lucy's giggle!? I love her giggle. I doubt she's ever seen Tim this giddy and it made her giggle. And, yes, we know that she made that happen.

And, let me tell you, it's fun when you can make something happen for the person that you love. Puts a special warmth in your chest the bubbles out, sometimes.

"Let's go to dinner tonight and celebrate."

The cadence here reminds me of Tim telling Angela to proudly show off her baby belly while wedding dress shopping. It's a type of abandon we've heard in Tim's voice only when directed at other people and never at himself.

Tim wants to celebrate this amazing achievement. He wants to celebrate something amazing that happened to him. Before, he wasn't that jazzed about his award, except for how it could help with his forward momentum. Jackson built a shelf for his (with Nolan's help), and Tim probably has his in the back of his closet.

But Tim was excited about making Sergeant (remember his pride hanging up his new uniform before he opened his locker to see the booties?) and he's proud of this. But, it's amplified because Tim Bradford's life is finally coming together.

Career. Love. Found Family (even if he doesn't yet realize it). Sibling Relationship. Finances (he and Genny made bank on that house sale in the LA Real Estate Market). Tim's life is coming up Roses.

"Do you need any help?"

I have seen a few people disappointed that Tim didn't show up to help her at the end, but he asked her if she needed him and she said she had to do it alone.

He's not going to go against her wishes because he has learned to trust her and her judgment. He knows that if she truly needs him, she will ask. Lucy's far past not asking Tim for what she needs.

He talked out Emmett with her once he understood that's what she needed. He gave her a hug after Jackson's death.

"But tomorrow it is a date. We are gonna celebrate you. Congratulations. They're really lucky to have you." "Thank you."

Tim can't help himself. He reaches for her left hand with his right. He wants to touch her. He wants to be closer to her. Because he has never been this happy.

Lucy giggles as he briefly holds her hand before she separates herself. But, I swear, that man looked like he wanted to kiss her right then and there.

"Good Job!"

She taps his arm, again, as he goes. And, wow, I can't remember seeing Tim smile this much with teeth ever. He's beaming as he watches her go, his eyes trailing after her until the last second he can no longer see her.

He nods to himself. "Yup. That's the woman I'm going to marry." Not right this moment, obviously, because we're all enjoying the ride and there's no rush. But, someday. And he knows it.

I've seen folks worried about his face falling, but I think we're simply unaccustomed to seeing Tim's face resolve to neutral after a big smile. Something about his face threw me back to 5x02, so I went back and looked. And, yup, tears in his eyes, here, too. Tears of joy.

Tim Bradford is joyful, my friends. So full of joy that it's overflowing. And after all the heartache, heartbreak, and pure hell of his life... it makes it all the sweeter.

This man would do anything for her. She would do anything for him. In one another they've found their equal—that one person who meets them where they are in intensity and devotion.

One flame does not overwhelm the other, but they help each other's glow brighter and stronger. When one is dimming, the other provides the light.

This give-and-take is the culmination of years of long nights, early mornings, complex conversations, deep dives, flare ups, cool downs, in-jokes, and trust building. It's fictional, sure, but we're getting to see true love in real-time, and I am so thankful for this ride.

"I'll admit, I've been lax about cleaning it." "How lax?" "Either Clinton or Bush was the president." "Which Bush!?"

I laughed so hard at this line. It cracked me up so bad I didn't even hear the next lines. Of course, I went back and figured it out, but I love Smitty. In small doses, he really does add a bit of levity to the show.

Also, Lucy in a hazmat suit!? The things she does for love.

Because, even though we didn't see Tim and Lucy in a post-coital cuddle-fest, or a shirtless trek through Lucy's kitchen, or even a kiss between these two this week... we're getting to see sacrificial love. Not the kind that gives too much, but the kind that gives-and-takes.

Tim and Lucy are in love (even if they haven't uttered the words, yet). They're demonstrating it through how they treat one another, and it's such a beautiful reminder that relationships are so much more than sex and attraction.

It's about growing together, supporting one another, calling each other on your crap, and finding ways through the hardships of life together.

This is a place where The Rookie really excels. They show couples who work through life together, who love each other even when there is no cozy morning-after because they overslept, or the alarm went off too early, or a dog or kid needs something.

Love is complex and layered, and I love that we're not seeing Tim and Lucy in pound town every week. Like, sure, they're going there, but to see a healthy relationship? That is what both Tim and Lucy have lacked until now.

Tim and Lucy finally have a love that matches their souls. I'm grateful for every morsel of it that we get to see on screen. But just knowing that Tim and Lucy are this unbelievably happy and they're together? That's enough for me.

I used to watch Janeway and Chakotay touch once every 10 episodes and call it a victory. Mulder and Scully danced around each other forever and I was able to cope. So, the scenes we get of Chenford feel like four course meals, and I'm thankful to eat them again, and again, and again. The meals... I mean.

So, what were Rachel's hangups on this one? Lies, Clarity, and Metro. For separate reasons, I got a little stuck on these three.

Lies

I have a big problem with lies, as some readers know. When Lucy and Tim mentioned they promised not to lie to one another and then spent the entire episode lying, it got under my skin.

Now, I'm all for Loving Spousal Surprises. I've given them (my husband's 30th Nerf Battle Surprise Birthday) and received them (4-hr scavenger hunt Engagement).

But hearing the promise at the beginning followed by a whole episode of lying triggered my trauma.

I started writing the Meta and it was too colored by my own experiences. So, I stepped back, deleted everything I wrote, and started fresh with just the bones.

Sometimes, we have to be careful our past prejudices don't ruin our present experiences. At least, that's something I've learned.

Clarity

The ambiguity as to whether the team is in-the-know, oblivious, or pretending-to-be-oblivious regarding Chenford was frustrating. It made it really hard to write because I felt like the cues from the scenes shifted throughout the episode going in multiple directions.

I am not a person who minds that we didn't get a Morning After (plenty of time to see Domestic Chenford), or that we didn't get the DOD Tattoo (it's hers, not theirs), and I wouldn't even mind if we missed seeing everyone find out/announce they know.

From the first scene with Nyla, I thought they were obviously open about their dating. But, then at Nolan's, Angela was giving "knowing" eyes and Tim kept his distance. Then it was over to the final Chenford scene where Lucy and Tim both look guarded about who might be watching.

My take? I figured everyone knew but Chenford thought they didn't. But, that's a far bigger guess than most of my guesses, so I felt uncomfortable writing it. I like to draw from what I see, not try to draw over it. I'm a hapless fan sharing uneducated interpretations, not the writer of the scenes.

So, I tried to avoid talking about it with this Meta since I don't feel like I can yet speak with certainty on the matter.

Metro

"If you ever do consider Metro, give me a call."

If it was this easy, why did Lucy have to go through a thousand hoops? Sure, it was great practice for the inevitable Wedding Place Setting game down the line, but why was this line here if it wasn't an option for Tim?

And why didn't Nolan say anything during the brainstorming session? I know we like to talk about him being clueless, at times, but he's far from idiotic. It might've been pertinent information, or an "in" to help expedite Tim's ascension.

I struggled with the directionality of the scene. Watching it the first time, I was convinced it would feed into the quest to find Tim a new position. If it wasn't there for Tim, was it to show that Nolan isn't where he's supposed to be? Are we setting up for Nolan to pop over with Tim at some point?

And, again, why didn't anyone think to give her a call about Tim, an officer who is far more seasoned and qualified for the position? No shade thrown at Nolan, but that's objectively true, and I couldn't fathom why this scene was structured the way it was if it wasn't going to help Tim. Maybe it's planting the seed for another episode down the line...

EDIT: The amazing @wordgirl40 pointed out in the comments that all the moving pieces on the board were Sergeants, and that hadn't stuck with me when watching the scene. I still think Nolan could have put in a phone call to help with things, but even that tiny clarification makes it easier to follow. Thank you!

Enough of my hangups. Thanks for bearing with me.

I want to draw out one line that I thought was really interesting, considering the "Found Family" angle of the episode.

Grey told Celina, "You have a new family of brothers and sisters. Remember that."

It's true. Big Brother/TO Tim was the one to realize what was bothering Celina and call her out. And how soft was he with her once he assessed the whole situation (no, he's not single, Carla. Ay, dios mio!)?

Big Brother/TO Nolan ran into the building to retrieve Celina. They had her back professionally and personally.

And the team had Tim and Lucy's backs. Like, this really is a beautiful little Found Family.

When Lucy and Tim do get married, if her parents don't show up, Grey can walk her down the aisle. Tamara will be her Maid of Honor and Tim's Best Woman will be Angela, of course. They'll be surrounded by people who love them without criteria or constraints.

Found Family is often stronger than bio family, I've found. And for Tim and Lucy—two people for whom "family" is a bit broken—their Found Family will always be there for them. For Tim. For Lucy. For Chenford. And for the family they'll build together.

Because love is a gift best given freely and with abandon. That is what this ensemble of characters have. At the end of the day, they will never lack in love.

As always, thanks for reading and bearing with me on the delay on this one. It was the most challenging, thus far. But I'm still loving every second of this Chenford ride.

[johnica-weeks]

A week for Brian and Roger's canon pairings!

🗓 When? From Wednesday 12th to Sunday 16th April

🔍 Where? On Tumblr and AO3!

✨️ Tumblr hashtag: #BrianRogerShipsWeek23

📚 AO3 collection: Brian_RogerShipsWeek23

How? This event is open to all kind of content creators! Writing, fan-arts, video edits, meta and photo appreciation, moodboards, music covers...

RULES under the prompts!

Each day will be dedicated to a specific CANON pairing that involved Roger and Brian in a meaningful and official way in their real lives. This means no crack ships such as Queen x Queen, Queen x Roadie, Queen x OC, etc.*

Only Roger x Dominique/Debbie/Sarina and Brian x Chrissie/Anita!*

PROMPTS:

Day 1: Roger and Dominique (12th April)

Language barrier

Surprisingly powerful

Take me anywhere, I'll follow you

When I look and I find I still love you

Day 2: Brian and Chrissie (13th April)

Hair, hair, so much hair!

Opposites attract

Please, I really need you to hold me right now.

White Queen, how my heart did ache

Day 3: Roger and Debbie (14th April)

Under the sunshine

Growing family

Baby you got a fire in you

If I could only reach you, if I could make you smile

Day 4: Brian and Anita (15th April)

I love to do everything at your side.

You're really stubborn!

Vegetarian dinner

Baby I know what my poor heart needs

Day 5: Roger and Sarina (16th April)

This would be a great tattoo!

It's not a matter of age

Touring with Q+AL

Incredible how you can see right through me

RULES:

💕 *Poly ships are allowed as long as they include at least two people from the canon ships (random examples Roger x Dominique x Crystal OT3, Brian x Anita x Roger x Debbie OT4, Brian x Anita x OC OT3 etc.)

👑 Looking forward more crack ships that involve Brian and Roger or for Queen events without shipping? Soon there will be Poly Week > @queenpolyweek and Gen Weekend! So check out @queen-fandom-calendar for all related events!

💕 Genderbends are allowed, and any Alternative Universe as well! (A/B/O, different historical period, non famous, fantasy, Soulmates, etc!)

🔥 NSFW works ARE ALLOWED. Be careful to tag everything properly and do not engage with adult content if you're a minor.

💕 The invite is to write fics that celebrate these couples and the love they brought to Brian and Roger's lives. Angst is allowed, but since most of the already existing fics regarding these couples (specially Brian-centric) are already angsty, about cheating and/or marriage issues, the main suggestion for this event is to focus instead on the positive and good aspects of them. Romance, good endings, rekindling a relationship or building a family, touring together, acceptation, having fun...

What can you do:

Like all Ship Weeks, this is a fandom event to share love and creativity related to a particular couple, so be sure to engage with the entries and support all the artists and writers that chose to join! Reblog, leave likes/kudos and comment on the artworks to keep the fandom alive! 💜💖💕💜💖💕

If a work is not tagged appropriately, you can reach out to me via DM and I’ll warn the author. If anything makes you uncomfortable, simply close the work! Do not engage by leaving nasty comments or messaging the author!

If you need a hand, HERE'S a useful guide for tagging your works.

And HERE'S a guide on how to post anonymously on AO3!

📖 As a reader:

Positive interactions are always much welcomed, don't be shy! Support the authors by leaving likes, a comment (even a little one!) and sharing their work through recs and reblogs. On AO3 you don’t need an account to leave Kudos and Comments! (Unless the author has willingly prevented guests to comment). To leave a comment on AO3 as guest you simply have to choose a temporary mail and set your email to get a notification for an eventual reply.

‼️ IMPORTANT ‼️

During the event, if any of you/your entries gets hateful comments or messages towards you, your entries, any of the ships, the event or other creators, please DELETE the hateful comment/message right away with no interactions and let me know! This is no place for haters, just for creativity and love.

If you see a hateful comment on other works do not engage, instead leave a positive comment to the same work and support the author! 💜

I hope you're all going to have fun and write beautiful stories for the event! As usual, if you have any doubt or question reach out to this blog's askbox! 🥰 Don't forget to share!

[azurestar]

With the Eras Tour movie coming out this weekend, I thought I'd post some of my Batman/Taylor Swift thoughts.

My Tears Ricochet reminds me so strongly of Bruce and Dick's relationship I'm not 100% convinced it wasn't actually written about them. I could probably do a full lyrical analysis to this song, but for now I'll point to a few selected quotes.

Even on my worst day, did I deserve, babe All the hell you gave me? 'Cause I loved you, I swear I loved you 'Til my dying day

You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you But what a ghostly scene You wear the same jewels that I gave you As you bury me

In Swift's discography, the "jewels" represent the albums she lost the rights to, which her former label continues to profit off of. In this context, the jewel is Robin's identity— which Bruce gives Jason weeks after firing Dick.

I didn't have it in myself to go with grace 'Cause when I'd fight, you used to tell me I was brave. And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? Cursing my name, wishing I stayed ... And you're tossing out blame, drunk on this pain Crossing out the good years

When Bruce fires Dick, he tells him he wants Robin to stay dead. When Dick confronts him about taking on a new Robin, he at first refuses to acknowledge “the years we spent together as Batman and Robin”— before breaking down and angrily admitting that he missed him.

Mastermind reminds me of Barbara —specifically, her conversation with Helena in Birds of Prey #84, when she apologizes for psychologically manipulating her. Read the bridge of Mastermind…

No one wanted to play with me as a little kid So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since To make them love me and make it seem effortless This is the first time I've felt the need to confess And I swear I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care.

…and then the following panels.

Right Where You Left Me is more meta than the others on this list, but it reminds me of Tim— still Robin, still seventeen after all these years.

Everybody moved on I stayed there Dust collected on my pinned-up hair They expected me to find somewhere Some perspective, but I sat and stared Right where you left me … Did you ever hear about the girl who got frozen? Time went on for everybody else, she won't know it She's still 23 inside her fantasy How it was supposed to be…

In a hypothetical edit, I’d change the self-deprecating next line to “Did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion? / Heroes die every day / You don’t have to lose it." You know:

You’re Losing Me reminds me of Stephanie’s time as Robin + War Games.

I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier Fighting in only your army Frontlines, don't you ignore me I'm the best thing at this party (You're losin' me)

Despite Batman's discouragement, Stephanie gave being Robin everything she had, throwing herself in the line of fire to protect him. Instead of rewarding her efforts, Batman pushes her away, limits her information access, and eventually fires her.

And I wouldn't marry me either A pathological people pleaser Who only wanted you to see her

As War Games progresses, Stephanie's overwhelmed with guilt. All she ever wanted was Batman's support.

Finally, the heart failure theme. Swift incorporates a heartbeat into the track, and “you’re losing me” references a coding hospital patient. The final lyrics:

Stop, you're losin' me Stop, you're losin' me Stop, you're losin' me I can't find a pulse My heart won't start anymore

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

For the first day of Lottielee Weekend I'll be following the "afterlife" prompt and writing a brief meta on why I think that, if one is at all open to a non-naturalistic reading of the show (which one should be), it just makes the most sense for that to be the "real" Laura Lee, in some sense, in "Old Wounds."

The big thing we have to ask is--what are the death realm scenes trying to communicate? In the big picture, it's pretty clear: the Wilderness is an all-encompassing space and force in these women's lives, and not even death gets them out of their fated connection with It. Or, somewhat more optimistically, perhaps the Wilderness isn't as black (or as green) as It is painted, and the death realm scenes show glimpses of a slightly gentler, but still uncanny and frightening, side to It. In both of these readings, Laura Lee's behavior in "Old Wounds" departs significantly from how these scenes normally go; Laura Lee, Jackie's psychopomp who in "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi" behaves in much the same way that Jackie herself does to Shauna in "Qui" and Lottie (who isn't dead yet) and Javi do to Nat in "Storytelling," here instead forces Lottie out of the death realm when she would really rather just stay there with her, compelling her to return to the world of the living. Paul does this with Ben as well, signaling Ben's rejection of/by the Wilderness and whatever big-picture fate the Wilderness represents or entails, but the tones of the respective scenes are enormously different. Laura Lee, unlike Paul, is resolutely protective; as soon as she notices that Lottie is shivering (i.e. that Lottie is still alive), her tone changes immediately and she forces herself to do right by Lottie by pushing her away.

The behavior is different enough from anything else we see that it makes sense to view it as a different entity, or possibly to see the Wilderness-psychopomp Laura Lee as consistently a distinct being from "It," whose behavior towards Jackie and Lottie differs because Laura Lee's relationships with those people were different when she was still alive. It's possible that some of the difference between Laura Lee and Paul is down to acting or directing choices rather than the script; Jane Widdop's trembling lips get to me every time, as Jane imbues their character with a clear sense of struggling against her own desires to protect and safeguard the girl she loves.

Even so, this is still in the text; this is still how Laura Lee is behaving within the episode that we see on our screen, regardless of whether it was a writer, a director or editor, or Jane and/or Courtney who decided to have her behave that way. If the Wilderness generally is real, whatever "real" means, then this separate entity is likely real and likely genuinely separate, and in that case it being (some form of) the real Laura Lee is the most parsimonious possibility. It is also the most touching and emotionally compelling possibility, which remains true even if we're skeptical of the reality of what we're being shown in the death realm scenes generally. Even from a purely "rational" (scare quotes because this is a misnomer) way of looking at Yellowjackets, it is simply easier and more rewarding to be invested in and care about Lottie in this scene if one supposes that she is interacting in some way with a real aspect or facet of the girl she loved and lost.

[renarinkholin]

Heyo, so, I noticed your reblog on a post mentioning "Dier Venture" and now I'm intrigued... is that a Mistborn oc fic I smell? Exploring the Venture family? Because if so, I would love to read it! (If Dier is just an obscure canon character or something else entirely, ignore this ask. 😅)

OH BOY UHHH OKAY SIT DOWN LET ME TALK ABOUT SECRETS IN STAINED GLASS.

(Character portraits by the insanely talented Elisgardor on Instagram)

Dier Venture is my character for a murder-mystery actual play series Secrets in Stained Glass that just finished airing! It's set 10 years before the events of The Final Empire book, at a weekend winter solstice party hosted by House Elariel. We use the Mistborn Adventure Game system to build our characters and roll the dice, and the mystery and storyline itself were written and run by the ever amazing, ever wonderful @rashenditrash as our illustrious Narrator. There's a lot of fun references to the books and secrets tucked away, and even though it's technically a prequel, we did a lot of work to make sure things would fit within the Mistborn canon as seamlessly as possible.

It's five episodes long, though there's some written bonus content as well! The series was edited and produced by yours truly (it nearly killed me, but it was absolutely a labor of love) and you can watch the whole thing on YouTube or listen to the audio versions on whatever podcast platform you prefer. Though, I will say, for any audio listeners, there are a LOT of visual assets and graphics for this show so if you just listen, it might be worth coming back to look up the visual elements afterward.

Lo, trailer be upon ye:

As for Dier himself... (fine, i'll put a cut to save people's dashboards, open for more info on The Trashboi™)

Dier is a known Coinshot and all around terrible trash person who makes only the best life decisions because it turns out when your name is "Venture" you can get away with quite a bit without having to deal with pesky things like "consequences." Or so he thinks, at least. He's the first cousin of the recently ascended House Lord, Straff, and is technically second in line for the house title after his cousin's little brat of an heir, Elend. No one in House Venture is really thrilled about that, including Dier himself, since he's probably the last person anyone should ever put in charge of anything and has made it no secret that he considers himself completely allergic to responsibility.

I love this asshole with my whole heart, I put WAY too much effort into developing him, and he was a blast to play. I could talk about him for hours, and Matt was an utterly ruthless Game Master and just really dug into all the messy complexities of this terrible boy and Why He Is Like That, Why Did You Make Him Like That, Feather????

The good people of the 17th Shard Discord may or may not be bullying me into doing a 10-hour stream so that I can just blab all the Dier meta into the world. We'll see.

Regardless, I love to talk about him, so if anybody ever has Dier Venture questions, my inbox is literally always the most open, haaaaaa. I will never turn down an opportunity to run my mouth about an OC and that is a threat.

[yue-muffin]

*cracks knuckles* Here we go.

I have been quite curious about ORV for a while, though I had absolutely NO idea what it was about until I finally decided to take the plunge. I mostly keep finding interesting playlists, quotes that promise lots of pain and suffering, and cool fanart. I avoided it until now because it's long. Really, really long. And long series either go one of two ways with me: I either binge the entire thing at the cost of my sleep (and sanity) or read it so slowly I forget what happened in the first half by the time I get to the midpoint.

Anyways, something overcame me this weekend and I decided to finally read it.

Chapters 1-6: Prologue + Starting the Paid Service

I was genuinely surprised to learn the story is about a book becoming reality with death game shenanigans because, again, I've only ever seen pretty fanart and vague quotes that revealed nothing about the plot. Immediately, I was like 'okay, I'll read a bit and give it a chance'. This isn't normally my type of genre, but I do read outside my comfort zone sometimes (and enjoy it, like SVSS which is transmigration + comedy which is usually not my thing).

The opening lines caught my attention, actually, they work really well as a hook despite being the ending of the webnovel in the book. It leaves you with a lot of questions

"There are three ways to survive in a ruined world. I have forgotten some of them now. However, one thing is certain: you who are currently reading these words will survive."

Also, not that you really need the reminder with the page count right below, but it definitely implies this is going to be a looong journey. If there are only three ways to survive and you've forgotten some already, that must have been quite the journey...Anyways, I just really like the tone of the opening lines.

So, like, Kim Dokja is sadly relatable haha. The struggle of the daily grind is real. So is wondering how your coworkers can have so much energy or be such go-getters when you're just trying to get through the day.

However, his reaction to the whole 'fiction becomes reality' or even the traumatic head-bursting deaths right in front of him just isn't normal. And also sliiightly worrisome. Genre-savvy he might be, that's some traumatizing shit right off the bat! Although, that kind of goes for anyone in this story who survives past the first few chapters.

But Kim Dokja is surprisingly chill about the whole thing. The whole scene with the crickets also shows that he's intelligent...and also kind of good at messing with people. He might monologue to us, but he certainly doesn't go into detail with any of the people around him, or explain much about why he's doing something.

The story also shows a pretty realistic range of reactions to all the traumatizing crazy going on.

And for a story I wasn't sure I was going to like, it sure is a page turner. I'm not terribly used to all the game mechanics, but they're actually pretty fun. The game commentary just sparks joy in me, for some reason.

The whole "sole reader of this entire novel" thing is also interesting. One, it does put him at an advantage to literally everyone else "canon" to the story or not. But on a meta level, who do we write stories for? Sometimes it's for oneself, but most of the time stories are made to be shared, they're tools used to communicate with others. So, that makes the "final" line in the novel even more impactful. To you who are reading this story...

Next up will be chapters 7-11: Protagonist...

[cbrownjc]

So just a heads up (because I've gotten a whole lot of new followers lately, hello! 👋🏾) that I'm likely going to be disappearing for a bit soon. I've got a fic I need to write for the Forgotten Years Series, and it's not even half-finished yet. I wanted to post it by next Monday but that is so not going to happen.

And I don't know what is is about me, but I can't split my focus well between writing metas and writing fiction. So I know I'm going to have to go quiet on the meta front while I'm working to write and finish my next fic. But I'm sure I won't be radio silent for too long (not like when I was first writing Now or Neverland at least). The only other time I was MIA was when I was having some serious health issues at the end of the year, but I'm feeling much better regarding that as well for now too.

But I don't want to disappear again for a stretch without giving everyone a heads-up this time. Especially since, again, I've gotten so many new followers recently. (Hi! 😊)

Edit Update (02/16/24): Given the wank going on in fandom right now, I've turned all asks off for a bit. I've got more writing to do this weekend, and I don't want to get too distracted on here right now. I'll turn it back on again soon.

[youchangedmedestiel]

I did my own research about Cas feeling longing. And I found an old meta that satisfies me. I'll have to think more about it but for now I decided it will be my canon. Especially with my current rewatch, I'll keep that in mind for when I reach season 4.

Anyway, that's not my point. My point here is that it isn't really the same definition I choose to work with for my current fic. But I hope in the fanfic itself it will make sense and that you'll like it. I'll post it as soon as I'm satisfied enough with it, this weekend at the latest. Promise.

[waitmyturtles]

A bunch of us (I'll CC fam below) had some fantastic conversation over the weekend about ephemerality and the fickleness of time in Only Friends (here and here and here), and I had one tiny thought to append to this line of thinking:

I was chewing yesterday on how wonderfully Neo Trai and Khaotung Thanawat play their characters of Boston and Ray with a kind of aloofness. They've been able to convey this sense that Boston and Ray are not quite rooted -- they are like flags being whipped in the wind, if that makes sense.

I can't find this excellent post (man, this is what happens when a show produces reams of meta), but there was an excellent post about how Boston is only engaged in conversation when it's about himself. If Nick starts to talk about Nick -- Boston disengages. It was a brilliant point. (If someone can link me to that post, I'll edit this post and cite it.)

Khao is portraying Ray as someone floating. What business would Ray have to follow Sand at the bar? We know Ray's rich, but -- what's up with Ray not having a sense of.... something, an awareness, that would otherwise keep Ray from loitering around the bar and interrupting Sand's conversation with a woman?

Ray's eyes dart. His head wobbles. More often than not, he's either drunk or hungover. Ray's not rooted in the minute-to-minute reality of the world. He's high in alcohol -- likely high in grief and/or trauma over his mother's passing -- and god knows what else.

There's not too much more to this, because we just don't know enough about the characters yet. But Neo and Khao are doing a HELL of a job de-centering these two characters in their acting, and I LOVE what this aloofness gives to the both of the characters by way of the show's writing. It's totally brilliant, and it gives me the very deep sense that there are a lot of fucks that Boston and Ray just don't give at the moment.

(CC @ranchthoughts @chickenstrangers @lurkingshan @twig-tea @clara-maybe-ontheroad @invisiblegarters @slayerkitty @wen-kexing-apologist if y'all have thoughts on this.)

[delborovic]

Del Replies To Asks

Gonna answer a bunch of all of yours asks beneath the cut!! So if you sent me a message recently, please check below~ It's gonna be LONG!!!!

@mrdurepei Hello~!! During Law of Talos Del (me) was 22, currently I am 37 ;) Time flies~

We don't! I haven't spoken to him since about a year after Law of Talos ended. He was always so lovely to talk to and very busy. I hope he's doing well whatever he's doing now, he always was so kind all the way around!

Yes, Rellik is "Killer" backwards ;) I made him originally when I was about 13, shhhhh~

Hi @mari-anokhiafton ♥ ! Thank you so much for your kind message! I really appreciate it and I'm so glad that you enjoy my art & style!

And hmmm, let me see~ how to describe Rellik... I agree he is a little grumpy like an old man ;) and he can be cold-blooded in a way a lot of vampires are. Rellik puts up a lot of walls and keeps himself distant from people, though underneath he has a kind heart that he doesn't want anyone to know about. He talks very flat with little inflection and is introverted. It's very easy to lose people as a vampire who lives for a long time, so he tends to like objects and can be fussy about keeping his things nice, because things will last longer if you treat them well. Whereas.... people.... you can't count on. Rellik also doesn't like to start fights, but has no issues ending them if he's pushed to violence.

I hope that helps! I also think whatever sense you get from him is legitimate too! Thank you so much for your kind message!

HEYYYY @captainmera ♥

Oh my goodness flash from the past!! I didn't keep up with EfN but your art (and Brother) definitely look familiar to me! (bro knucks in the people who lost to Zeurel group ♥) Thank you so much for the message!!! So glad to see that you're around too! The OCT people are art lifers, I think so ;) I hope all is well with you and you keep it up with all your art as well! Thanks for saying hi!!!

@yeeyeeravioli Hello~! As long as you aren't claiming the character as your own, that's totally fine! I'd love to see if you end up doing it :) thank you very much for asking, I appreciate it!

Hello (new!) Anon! Thank you so much for being so kind and asking! For one, if it's a private story.. honestly feel free to do whatever you want. That doesn't bother me at all, and if it's for your person use + space, no issue whatsoever! If you end up posting it or posting about it, I don't mind that- I just appreciate keeping straight what things I'm involved with or not. I've obviously drawn some shippy stuff of Rellik with friends' ocs that I know personally! So as long as you just specify that it's your own ideas/ocs and that Rellik belongs to me, that's totally fine! ♥ You feel free to make fanworks to your hearts' content! I hope he treats your OC well!!

Hello Anon~! SO! My OC Del would KNOW of Climber. Because she (like me) is a dA artist and would know about Endzone and those things from online, thus prompting her to make Rellik join an OCT also. BUT she would not PERSONALLY know Climber, as she never met him "in person" in the art universe. (I know i've made this complicated by its own meta nature, but I hope this makes sense.) Crowley and Chimbley were both in Law of Talos and thus would have been around to meet Del-character in the flesh so to speak :) Hope that helps!

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

PHEW. OKAY. There, I'm sorry you've all been waiting so long! I will do my best to reply- but seriously, if you have a quick question or comment, please feel free to DM me in messenger on Tumblr instead of using the ask function :) I can reply much more quickly that way! (especially since so many of these are just saying THANK YOU to everyone's so sweet messages!)

Anywho, please have a lovely weekend everyone! I'll see ya next time~

[oneefin]

i did brown puzzlehunt 2024 (link!) with members of test solution bees ignore! the automated tools in their spreadsheet template kept pushing my pre-hunt drawing backward so that people couldn't see it upon opening our sheet

(full disclosure, this was referenced from another artist's work - can't take full credit for it)

bph24 was a really wide hunt with lots of small rounds, featuring tons of top-notch art and non-static presentation. i liked it a lot! it just wasn't really a single-weekend sort of hunt, so our team of 4 didn't finish before the event ended lol

solutions won't be available for a bit, so i'll non-spoiler-ily list off some stuff that i really liked and would recommend checking out:

I might be biased because it was the only one from the round that actually worked well during the hunt (their website had load issues), but letter troxd was fun and simple: https://www.brownpuzzlehunt.com/puzzle/lettertroxd if you're reading this soon after i posted it, the website might not work without a login, sorry!

there was a short story murder mystery puzzle called the god of the labyrinth which was cool! i think this is a currently underexplored puzzle hunt genre, so i like seeing more of them, although it's always a time investment to read and digest one. this is accessible as a pdf here: https://www.flipbookpdf.net/web/files/uploads/f465b8d06c51eb130b2b8bfdd04181797ff97bb8202404.pdf

instagram was a pretty nice puzzle also, although it takes a keen eye (and having a working instagram account) to spot all of the relevant details on the page. the puzzle is entirely contained in this account page: https://www.instagram.com/ray.of.sunshine1997/

and the last one i'll mention is committing financial crimes, a konundrum where you fill out a really stupid irs form. as usual i willingly subjected myself to this and it was definitely cursed. the whole thing is accessible from this drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GRNNzrWRSzcuVzHmZsA_ZMD3gDlvGNZI/view i think they manually verified our solution to this?

i had a lot of fun! super props to the puzzle club at brown university for putting this on. no rest for the weary though because cmu is next :)

(oh, and i also assume the data meta is actually quite cool - but we haven't finished it yet so i can't say for sure that it all holds up to scrutiny. here's hoping though)

[cinemacentral666]

Asteroid City (2023)

Movie #1,219 • Part of my WES ANDERSON Director Focus

Today I am starting a new weekly series that will run every Thursday for the remainder of 2023. I'll be revisiting the entire Wes Anderson filmography in reverse chronological order. I had previously eschewed doing one of these in a nonlinear fashion but I'm making an exception here for a few reasons. For starters, I'm already deeply familiar with his catalog and I actually rewatched "The Big Three" (Rushmore, Tenenbaums & Darjeeling) just last year, though not for review purposes. I've actually yet to see The French Dispatch after being thoroughly turned off by Isle of Dogs. So I'll start at the present and work my way backwards, all the way to 1994's Bottle Rocket short film.

Although this post is coming out in November, I'm actually typing this in late June, having just seen Asteroid City in the theater on the weekend of its opening wide release. And, in a nutshell, I pretty much loved every facet of this. I'll do an "official ranking" at the end of this, but my initial gut reaction says this has the best chance of cracking into the aforementioned "Big Three" — it's a fantastic film, and it very well might be his most interesting and original to date.

For someone with such a unique, expertly honed and instantly recognizable style, his movies are ripe for fatigue. Like many others, I've often wondered why he never strays from not just his visual motifs but his equally identifiable approach to dialogue. He's truly beyond parody at this point, which is why the underlying themes of Asteroid City felt so fresh to me even if what we're seeing on screen is not.

But to the latter: this also might be Wes Anderson on steroids in that department and there was something thrilling about that as well. Here he blends every stock element in his wheelhouse — from stop-motion and miniatures to his trademark symmetrical framing, intricate set design and fast pans to everything and anything else — and blows it up and out to the nth degree. This movie looks so good that it would still be enjoyable even if it had nothing at all to say.

The fact that is has A LOT to say, both about the artistic process (and more to the point Wes Anderson's process) and about basic human emotions like grief and love, is what makes this film truly special. He's hit home with showcasing true humanity before (see, yet again, "The Big Three") but never has he ventured into this meta territory before. He dares to ask the question, what's the point of all of this really?

Without getting too into spoilers, the entire cast breaks away from the narrative in the final moments and begins chanting, "You can't wake up if you don't fall asleep." This isn't quite the riddle that it appears on the surface. Rather, it felt more like a simple plea.

You have to submit to what you're seeing completely if you truly want to glean anything meaningful out of the experience. Nobody involved in this production half-assed it (clearly!) and neither can the audience. It's a two-way street or none of this works. An older couple walked out of the theater deep into the second act during my viewing. This Wes Anderson IS too much Wes Anderson. And that might have been a bad thing if it wasn't so clearly the point.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-10-30

...Daylight Savings Time

Listening: Finished Winter in Hieron, the ???th season of Friends at the Table. I don't know what Marielda counts as.

Lots of good strong character work here! Godkilling is somewhat overplayed in TTRPG's at this point so it's impressive that they manage to pull off multiple godkilling storylines that are actually good to listen to.

Reading: Bleh. Catching up on some blogs which mostly just makes me want to get my RSS reader back in order. I haven't used it in a while.

Watching: Double feature.

The Matrix Resurrections, the new one. A movie that handily parries basically every criticism you could level at it. I feel like it's the best it could have been, and fortunately it's very clear that it likes its characters, which goes a long way.

It's clever! It knows what it's about. It has to work with being an unneeded sequel which is heavily lampshaded and it makes it work. Very very meta without being too far up its own ass. Manages to swing a pretty decent villain in the Architect.

Also, Little Shop Of Horrors, which I have not actually seen before. I love a good musical, in general I consider it a good sign if I get at least one song stuck in my head, which is a metric well met here. The Director's cut, which definitely follows through on the theme better than what I hear about the theatrical cut.

Playing: Briefly dipped into Warframe on the weekend to see what's going on and discovered that there is yet another open world and yet another game mode that I had not unlocked. Still behind on story quests because I haven't unlocked the necramechs so I can't do the New War yet. I'll get there I just need to fuck around on the zombie planet harvesting minerals for a while.

Making: Some misc. printing of things around the house. Research on adhesives that will work well for picture hanging, because I have solid concrete walls. It looks like Ikea rebadges either Tesa Bond and Release or 3M Command Strips for use with their wall hanging stuff and they sell it cheap, which is nice. I'll probably print my own hooks for some things.

Tools and Equipment: I got one of those cheap electric hot water bottles, they're fully self contained with an element, sensing circuitry, and some kind of lightly modified water.

While my apartment is still perfectly warm, it's nice to be able to blast a part of yourself with heat sometimes. They're a lot more convenient than pouring boiling hot water into a rubber bottle, at the cost of being somewhat disposable. My mother runs hers like, 8 hours a day all winter and it lasts a couple years so it's not that bad.