#i'm sure i'll be explaining to her some plot points 'cause she seems to be misinterpreting some things

[lampochkaart]

Finaly had time to properly admire the gift from my friend

She literally decided "you like danganronpa? i'll give you A WHOLE BOX of danganronpa!" and I couldn't be happier💘

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

Back again I have another chapter I'm flingin it at you. I'm too tired to really explain much of it but if you have a question you're welcome to shoot me an ask abt it and stuff.

Okay Imma take a nap here wake me up when it's over. @itsberrydreemurstuff and @laegume, saved ya'll a seat in the front row. I'll edit this to put the other chapters in at some other point, but for now...

On with the show!

(Word Count: 1,302)

Moon watched over his charges, running his hands through the hair of the child in his lap. She was a new one, loud, too. She’d burst in with her brother while they were occupied in their room. They’d heard you enter this morning and remained upstairs, both hoping to delay interaction with you and seeing the current task as far more important.

(Said task was to make sure their joints wouldn’t randomly lock up throughout the day. Those had gotten to be a problem as of late, but they weren’t going to tell you that.)

You’d asked about it afterwards. Sun let it be known that their business was their own. Damn company wouldn’t even give them a moment to themselves without sending their rat after them.

Said rat currently sat at the desk, slouched over with their head down. Moon took it upon himself to investigate, silently making his way over and dropping down in front of you, hands slowly reaching for your chair to yank you forward…

Faint snoring.

Moon froze.

That couldn’t be right. You never slept in the Daycare, you never even took a lunch break off. And here you were, apparently tired enough to have gone down for the count like the kids. They’d never seen you so…vulnerable.

A terrible decision on your part, really. 

His hands changed trajectory, instead grabbing your bag and conducting a short ‘inspection’. 

The contents of your bag was different this time. No headphones, no little snacks. You’d brought another book today, and an old one by the looks of it. He flipped through it before dumping it back in. Not terribly interesting.

You’d brought your laptop as well, not an uncommon occurrence. He rummaged deeper for something new, something he could actually punish you for.

Like the bottle of pills he found innocently placed inside one of the pockets. 

That was not what he was expecting.

He examined it, glancing over to you. You? Taking medications?

Focusing back on the curious object in his hand, he quickly scanned his database to identify it.

Hm. Tylenol. Commonly used to treat moderate pain.

Sun butt in with a suggestion. Maybe it’s that person they were calling yesterday?

No, Moon replied. They said they would drop it off that night. And it wasn’t for the children, since Management supplied and refilled the Daycare’s medicinal aid. 

Maybe they’re sick?

Moon rolled his eyes. I’ll check. He scanned you and huffed at the results. You seemed mostly fine, save for a small cold and your visual stress levels. Hardly dire enough to take medicine. How weak humans were.

Dropping the pill bottle back into your bag, he set his eyes back on his original goal and devised the perfect means of torture.

A couple markers and googly eyes later, Moon gazed down at the finished product, snickering quietly. While not the most devious nor mature plot, it would most definitely be a cause for some mild embarrassment. He procured your phone from your pocket and snapped a photo of it, commemorating the moment forever.

Satisfied with his work, Moon took his leave and returned to the children. 

Lights on, Sun out. Playtime resumed as always, though he noticed you weren’t present for it. He looked around before finding you still asleep at the desk. 

Of course. This is why management relied on machines. He never got tired, he performed at maximum capacity 24/7, 365! He could be depended on to get results!

He didn’t fall asleep during a shift.

Sun’s gaze flickered back to you. He supposed he would have to wake you up, since you had made no move to do it yourself. Citing a short excuse to the already-occupied children, he approached the desk, taking notice of your face and stifling his mechanical laughter.

Well.

Moon had certainly been decorative. 

He’d let you find out about that, though; he didn’t want to spoil Moon’s trick.

He carefully reached his hand out to tap you on the shoulder, already having a sharp remark at the tip of his metaphorical tongue. 

He didn’t get the chance to so much as nudge you before you pop your eyes open and rear back, panic flashing across your face momentarily before it was overtaken with relief. Your shoulders dropped slightly, though you kept that tense aura about you, eyes wide and cheeks soon flushed in embarrassment as you processed the situation. You shrunk under his gaze, a tight smile appearing on your otherwise mortified expression. “Ah…Did I…”

“Rise and shine, sleepyhead!” Sun exclaimed with false cheer. “If you’re quite finished with your little impromptu nap, you have an actual job to get back to!”

Your cheeks burned brighter and you nodded, pointedly not looking at him. “R-right, I’ll get back to work, sorry…” You stood up from the chair, arms pinned tightly at your sides and wrapped around your chest. You kept repeating whispered apologies, shrinking in on yourself until you cut yourself off tersely, “I’m sorry, I…I think I just need a minute.” you said thickly, excusing yourself. 

He blinked. That was new. He was sure if he’d said one word more to you, you likely would’ve shattered beneath him. You looked almost on the verge of tears. Sure, he’d caught glimpses of you when you were worked up, but you always seemed fine 

A cackle in the back of his head snapped him out of his thoughts. 

Quite the reaction that was. They look like they’d break if you so much as looked at them. What did you do to trigger that, eh, Sunny?

I don’t know, Moon, he responded. I don’t know.

Well, whatever it was, it worked. I’ve hardly ever seen them like that before. 

Sun hadn’t either.

Moon perked and paused, an idea forming. Saaay…maybe that’s how we’ll get them.

What do you mean? Nothing works with them-

Maybe not, but maybe we’re not pushing hard enough. Maybe they need more pressure before they crack. We have to hit them where it hurts. 

Sun’s rays retracted an inch, knowing he'd have gone paler if he were human. Moon…

What? Moon countered. You want them gone, just like I do. Nothing else is working. We can’t off them with Management watching us like harpies, and intimidation does nothing. Think about it. If they don’t want to work with us, if it’s too unbearable, they’ll quit. They’re too chicken to file a report about it, they don’t like making a scene.

I suppose…Still, he hesitated, though he didn’t know why. He did want you gone from his Daycare, out of his rays and out of his way. Even so…

The lunar animatronic sighed. Fine, I’ll do it myself. 

And with that, the link shut.

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

You splash your face with water, scrubbing away the remnants of marker scribbles and tear tracks. You rub your red-rimmed eyes and take a shaky breath, trying to will away the fresh tears that threatened to spill.

You were an adult, damn it, you shouldn’t be crying in the bathroom over the words of your robotic jester coworker. It shouldn’t have been such a big deal, anyway. All he told you was to get back to work, it was nothing serious and he had full right to do so. 

Why did you have to overreact over nothing every time this happened?

You calmed down enough to pull yourself together and at least pretend to be normal for a few more hours. You could sob into a pillow at home, but you were at work and it was not the time to act pathetic. 

You berate yourself a little longer before composing yourself once more with a carefully set expression that did not coincide with how you felt at all.

Brave face on, you step back into the Daycare. 

Two hours left…

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

Aaaand that's a wrap! Sorry it was a bit short this time, I had to do a lot of editing. I'll prob release chapter 6 a couple days from now cuz I'm lazy.

[goldeneyedgirl]

Loving all the ATBT snippets so far (I think I'm all caught up) 😥 Would you be willing to share more headcanons about Jasper's side of things? Especially Jasper/Tanya vs Jasper/Alice--how/when did both hookups start and why house vs woods?

Hi! Of course! Thank you so much for reading it, I know it's depressing!

Jasper in ATBT is a bit of a lost soul, who covers up a lot of his problems and issues by constantly reminding himself that he should be grateful for what he has. That living with crippling depression is his penance for everything that he did in the south. Any suffering is his own fault, and he needs to man up and live with it.

At one point, there was going to be two separate fics - one for Alice (ATBT) and one for Jasper (I think it was called All the Lies I Never Told? I honestly can't remember) to better explain that he had his own problems and he wasn't just being a jerk as a plot device. I'll probably just combine them into ATBT as Part 1 and Part 2.

It took decades for Jasper to consider the Cullens friends, let alone agree to stay with them 'temporarily' because he truly believed that he deserved to be alone. It took longer still for him to become part of the family - he definitely cared and liked the Cullens, but he didn't feel deserving of any kindness or affection they offered him.

Edward and Carlisle tag-teamed for many years to try and get Jasper into a healthier mindset, and one less prone to picking fights or starving himself in penance (basically the one time Edward is allowed to speak about someone's private thoughts is when they turn to violent or harmful intentions. This rule was introduced after Rosalie dealt with Royce, even though Edward has clearly stated he didn't stop her then and he wouldn't stop her now.)

And before Bella and James and Alice, Jasper was doing pretty well within the family; he got on with them all, he had enough control over his bloodlust to attend school, and he wasn't spending his spare time contemplating various forms of self-harm. Esme and Carlisle did watch over him from a distance to make sure that he was traveling okay, checking in with each other that he was socializing and hunting enough, that he wasn't isolating himself from the family, and that his mood seemed neutral-positive. Basically the same rough set of guidelines they used for Rosalie at the end of her newborn year.

And then Bella arrives, and she's Edward's singer. That causes some drama, especially since Jasper has to be convinced not to eliminated Bella because of the risk to the family and it takes a lot more effort in this universe.

Then James arrives with Alice in tow and shit hits the fan even more.

Jasper is suddenly faced with this terrified, vulnerable girl who constantly emits all the emotions he's spent years overcoming. She never feels safe, she's constantly afraid or worried, and she's almost always hungry. And to make it even worse for him, she seems to focus on him and he's terrified that this girl has decided since all the other men in the family are taken, he's being cast as her savior and the one who can offer her the Cullen dream. He can't do that, in his mind he's barely a Cullen, and absolutely incapable and unfit to be a husband.

And he's so goddamn lonely; something that has become extremely obvious to him since Edward met Bella. Suddenly, he's the one left out; the spare. He doesn't deserve a wife, he won't ever have a wife, but that doesn't mean he doesn't secretly want someone.

And he figures that he and Alice can be lonely together. She seems interested and it's all consensual, and maybe he's a little less lonely. It starts around the beginning of summer after Twilight.

At no time in the canon-arc does Alice share her visions of the family with them, or her visions of Jasper. So Jasper has no context for why she likes him.

Then he starts to catch feelings. At first, it's a lot sympathy and horror as more of her story comes out, and a feeling of over-protectiveness - she's so small and breakable, and she's here to stay so she's one of them. She's always so happy when he spends any kind of time with her, and she's never said anything about his scars or acted repulsed by them. Alice might shy away from Carlisle and Emmett, but she's never acted like that to him.

And if the birthday party had gone differently, it might have been more simple for them to fall in love. But he was blindsided by everything, and can only focus on the fact that Alice knew something was going to happen. She left him vulnerable, she let him slip. And he was furious because Cullens don't do that. The Cullens have always had each other's back. So he lashes out at her and breaks whatever tentative thing they have between them, and really never acknowledges how damaging that night was to both of them.

Post Volterra, Jasper's in a place where Alice is less clingy to him, and where a lot of the family focus is on Victoria, the wolves, and keeping Bella safe. Bella is extremely vulnerable in this situation, and takes up focus that Esme and Carlisle would normally direct towards Alice or towards Jasper. With Victoria back in the picture, Alice becomes more out of sorts and reaches out to Jasper who decides that she's crossed his invisible boundary and needs to be reminded of the role he's mentally assigned her. Enter Tanya.

To start off, I hate Tanya being cast as a villain because she had the audacity to have romantic or sexual inclinations towards Edward in canon. I think it's cheap and lazy, especially when Tanya et al are considered so close to Carlisle and the Cullens in general. In ATBT, Tanya had no idea that Jasper and Alice had some ambiguous 'thing' going on and she's genuinely embarrassed - and pissed - that Jasper orchestrated that moment of getting caught, especially since it was clearly about making Alice feel bad. There will be a confrontation about that at some point.

Tanya is very old and has seen and done things - especially in the years before Kate and Irina were changed - that were fairly horrific. Add in Sasha's death, and she knows what survivor's guilt feels like. She and Jasper hit it off as friends decades ago; she appealed to him because she was so friendly and intelligent, she had a certain amount of empathy towards his ugly past, and didn't seem to be all that cautious of him. Their 'friends with benefits' is something that just kind of happened in the late 70s, continued off and on, and other than a couple of jokes from Emmett, is very much considered something between Jasper and Tanya, and doesn't need to be acknowledged by either family.

Edward's mostly grateful, because he feels like he's got a solid defense against Tanya's pursuit. It's not something that Jasper and Tanya talk about it or have particular guidelines for; it's just one of the things they can do when they're together. (Esme was very disappointed that it wasn't a romantic connection because she thought it would be a beautiful love story.)

The house vs the forest is pretty straightforward - Jasper wanted privacy, didn't want to risk anyone interrupting him and Alice; and he noticed Alice was always more relaxed in the woods. They could also conceal their activities with the claims that they were going hunting - which worked up to a point, then Esme and Carlisle were kind of "we're both pretending not to believe them, right?"

By the time Tanya arrives to help with the wedding, there's no more 'Alice needs to hunt excessively' excuse; the family already know what he and Tanya get up to; and Jasper is actively trying to draw boundaries between him and Alice. In his mind, Jasper doesn't believe that the house is more respectable than the forest - his study was private, and he knew Alice would come looking for him there. He would be mortified that Alice assumed that he took her to the woods because she was embarrassing to be with.

So yeah, it's a very emotionally messy fic, and relies a lot upon both Alice and Jasper's willingness to reflect, heal, and communicate.

Okay, I think I rambled enough about this. Asking me about any of my fics is always going to inspire a long essay of information because I love to ramble.

[warriorsofsplatsville]

.....

.........

............

...Mirage...!

The Inkling shot up, taking deep breaths. Oh good, they weren't dead. Or were they? They were completely surrounded by white.

"Neo 3, are you alright?!"

They look up to see Octa, who was wearing a drastically different outfit. Instead of her black-clad outfit and cape, she was wearing a white suit, with straps around her shoulders. Her tentacles has changed color as well.

"I'm...fine, actually. I feel like I'm in perfect health." They replied, their hands digging into the pure white sand under them.

"Cool. Then get the shell up. Because we're in some serious trouble." Minu told them.

Mirage got to their feet, and was utterly shocked at the sight around them. It was Inkopolis Square, and yet...it was far from it. It looked like one of those dead coral reefs they read about. Lifeless. Colorless. Hopeless.

"Where...? Why...?! And where's the others? Sandy? Plat? Ess??"

"I'm...not sure, Mirage. They were not here when I awoke." Octa lowered her head. "Perhaps we can find some help-"

"EIIIIGHTTTTTT!!"

The three watched a small drone fly toward them at lightning speed, stopping right in front of Octa. "Hey!! How'd you get here? You know what, that doesn't matter, I need your help!!"

"S-Slow down! P...Pearl, is that you...?"

"Yeah! Can't you recognize me?!"

"Well...you're..."

"Oh, ignore the drone thing. I don't know either." She explained quickly. "Ayo, who are these two guys? Never seen 'em here before."

"Oh, that's right! This is the New Agent 3, Mirage. They stopped Mr. Grizz in Alterna. And this is Minu, she is also an agent alongside them. You two, this is Pearl, from Off the Hook!"

"Is every idol involved in some insane secret plot to destroy the world?! I just don't--" They shake their head. "Nevermind. Where are we?"

"Beats me. The Square from the looks of it but like...totally NOT the Square, yanno? But I get a feeling we'll get some more answers if we head into there." She looked in the direction of Deca Tower. "Cause it sure as heck ain't out here."

"Fair enough. Haha, this is like old times, huh, Pearl? Exploring weird places together."

"Hah, you bet!"

"What is...happening anymore..."

The four enter the building, Mirage noticing a mysterious set of lockers on the way.

"Um...this is NOT the inside of Deca Tower at all."

The Pearl Drone zoomed around the spacious room, the cephalopods following. "This place is whack..."

"Tell me about it..." Minu stared at the monochrome interior.

Octa didn't seem as surprised as the rest of them were, which Mirage could pick up on.

"Over there, we should head toward the elevator, no? I bet Marina and all of Mirage's friends are on a higher level." Octa pointed at the clean steel doors at the other end of the room.

"Oh, good thinkin', Eight!" Pearl hummed, zooming over, and the other three ran to catch up. And as the elevator doors slowly slid open...

"Woah. Looks like a party."

"Eh?! Is that a sanitized Octoling?! Eight-!!" Pearl yelled.

"Woah, cool it. No need to get all crazy on me. I won't hurt you." The Octoling put a hand up. They wore a hat with headphones, a sleek black dress, and knee-high boots.

"Who are you...?" Octa asked, tilting her head.

"....Ah, I go by a couple different names, but for the sake of simplicity, you can call me Acht." They spoke. "Sorta new to this place, myself, though going through the elevator enough times myself, I think I've got it figured out."

"...A few times? Are you riding up and down the elevator?" Mirage slouched.

"Nah. Come on in and I can show you."

"Hrmm....I don't know..." Pearl beeped.

"I trust them. I think they know what they're talking about." Octa nodded. "I'll lead the way. Let's go."

Pearl, Minu, and Mirage exchanged nervous looks before following Octa into the elevator.

"So. What are you doing in here?"

"Well, initially, me and my friends here were on a mission to stop whoever was causing the Square to go entirely unconscious, but now it seems, since joining, we are now on a large rescue mission....three agents, a Salmonling, and now Marina, as it happens..."

"Ah. I see. Fair enough." Acht looked away. "I was here initially before something went haywire about this place. And then a buncha kids and stuff showed up. And there was this real tall lady. Weird-looking, too. If I had to guess, she's behind this nonsense."

"That must be Tara." Minu grimaced. "But...none of this makes sense. We're...in the Square, are we not? Why does it look so different and weird? Where are the other unconscious people? And these clothes...and this elevator..."

"Hm. Can't really tell you exactly WHERE we are, but I can probably guess WHAT this place is. I think we're in a virtual reality right now."

"A...virtual reality?"

"Yep. Did you guys happen to be put to sleep before showing up here?"

"Yeah...we were." Mirage answered.

"Yep. It'd be wise to say that your real bodies are still unconscious in the....'Square' right now, but your minds are in here."

"That's crazy...so does this mean Tara....made a virtual reality?"

"I don't know. Barely seen this 'Tara' lady around, so I can't give you a straight answer."

"So what are YOU doing here?" Minu asked, suspiciously eyeing Acht.

They shrug. "Honestly...beats me. My memory is still a little hazy. I've only gotten some of them back recently. I suffer from a bit of amnesia."

"Ah...would you have happened to regain them while in here?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Hmm..."

"Something up, Eight?" Pearl chimed in.

"I have a theory about this place...but I can't confirm it until we find Marina."

"Well then, the sooner we find her, the better! Full speed ahead!!"

[loumauve]

what's your favorite ship and why? Not limited to any particular fandom

hi! thank you for the ask :)

at any given point in time I usually have a few different favourite ships at once, so I'll give you the most relevant ones from right now:

Beta/Milu: because they're baby and cute and deserve happiness, and Milu seems like the best match for Beta. and I really want Beta to be happy and enjoy life after everything she's been through. plus Beta could definitely help Milu with some science related to helping the Utaru, I'm sure.

Ikrie/Yarra: because I thought about it for two seconds once, and mentioned it to @tjerra14 and was met with nothing but support, so now there's two story ideas floating around.

with this one I'll explain more thoroughly (bc I talked about Beta/Milu a little more recently). thing is.. there's no way in hell Ikrie would have stayed in The Cut considering even Aratak made the journey. so I hc her being at the final battle in HZD and then moving West with Talanah and Milu, and possibly making her way across the mountain bc she's Ikrie and mountains are where she grew up, so the invisible plot barrier would not keep her out of Tenakth territory if she thought Aloy might have come through.

tjerra and I hc her then making her journey towards Scalding Spear and stumbling upon Meat in the clasps of a certain group of Rebel Bandits and saving Meat, but not getting away unscathed, and Yarra then being alerted to her presence. ANYWAY all that to give the setup. (the other story idea involved a lot more birds and puns)

the reason I think they would be well matched is that Yarra is just as dedicated to her people's ways as Mailen was, which is sth Ikrie could certainly understand, but we see later on that she is also willing to change and admit when her ways may cause more harm than good, so: matched in ferocity, bonding over Yarra's pet companion and just overall a fun dynamic imho. I JUST THINK THEY'RE NEAT

Nanno/Yuri: would be my third fave atm, mostly bc the whole enemies to lovers dynamic can be fun, especially where the supernatural is involved. and I love a good you kill me I kill you back dynamic every now and then. so there's that

[mariaurore]

(OOC) You may recall from yesterday, Hitsu & Mari were having some stalking issues... (yes, past tense 😇)

I, the Sims 4 User-Overlord in this case, solved the issue 😈 - "Where there's a will, there's a way", amirite?

If you go to Manage Worlds and look at your bar on the Top Right corner, you'll see a button next to your Library that looks like 2 People Figures with a Pencil. When you click on that a new Window pops up.

I was surprised to see not many households were placed down in "My Households" and I had to find her under "Other Households". That wasn't the only thing that caught my attention but I'll come back to this thought later.

So~ she is located in San Myshuno, huh? I had already gone through the trouble of searching every world before this, and didn't see her. But clearly I had missed her and travelled back to San Myshuno to check again.

Sure enough, she was in an apartment building. That explains alot.

Well, not knowing how to "Delete" or "Remove" her from here, and realizing that was a bit pointless of me to do 😓. I went back to the previous Manage Households window, lol.

This again 👇🏻

From here 👆🏻 all you need to do is simply click that X button on the top right of the Sim's household window.

"Am I sure?" ... "Am I sure?!" YES. Go the heck away!!! asdkjaskd 😑

Consider this your official restraining order. From the city. From all of Sims COUNTRY!? ... wait 🤔 ... UNIVERSE! It's probably universe. I don't flippen know. You have been formally removed. EXILED. Never return! <Insert Scar Meme from Disney's Lion King here>

Okay. To the other thing I wanted to discuss.

I noticed Hitsu's best friend wasn't placed in the world. But how could that be?

He has a job at the Local Spa we visit quite often. He visits our house all the time. We see him at other local events all the time. Unfortunately it seems like he consistently has the sad moodlet (and I'm wondering if this is why tbh - he has nothing fun at home to keep his spirits up, because he has no home!).

My point is- he's one of the most active sims in the game, and he's not even placed. How?! What?!

I was like no. No no no. We're fixing this. Hitsu's best friend is gonna have a hoppin place.

I go into the library and start browsing through like 250+ houses. I have no idea how many it was but I probably spent over an hour at least. I downloaded about 10 to my library.

I try to stay within very strict parameters when I look up and download houses;

Obviously I need to own the DLCs.

Number of rooms need to fit the sims I'm buying for- in this case 1

Colors: He's a bachelor, I'm not looking for pastels (1 or 2 rooms would be okay but not the entire house - and yes I did find entire pastel houses. Arguably I could go in and manually change the colors but ehhhh. I just want to drop the house and move on.)

Functionality: Do they have the things my sim will need? This is a lot so bear with me. Mailbox, Bed, Kitchen, Dining Area, PC, Shower/Bath, Mirror, Fireplace (optional), Speakers (optional), Pool (optional), TV (optional), Bar (optional), Chess Table (optional), Exercise Equipment- for me this is a need cause pieces are large and most housing builds you can't adjust the house to make room for them. It has to be included in the build already.

Aside from that, I just go for whatever catches my eye, cause it's hard enough finding any with even just those few parameters. The DLC limitations is very restricting and I have 32 DLCs! That's insane! This is why I try to limit my builds to use as few DLCs as possible.

But anyways. I'm running off on a tangent.

At first I was going to put him on a 30x20 plot, until I found this wonderful build here:

And thought this was perfect.

To match it, I even found this plot:

Look at the names 😄 Mid-Nowhere Modern + Mid-Nowhere. They're meant to be 😊

This is the house after placing it. I got a side angle to show that there is indeed a piece of exercise equipment there 😄

This plot is even next to Hitsu's other good friend Mori. So this works out great, haha.

I'm just happy to see he's in the world. EA did him dirty making him a teleport in/out character? I don't even know what you'd call him. Clement is the same way but I mean... he's technically Santa and Magic & Mystery surrounds him- I kinda want to give him a pass.

After doing all this, I felt like I could do more. I mean, I did just download several housing builds. So I went to Newcrest and plopped down several of the other builds I got onto some plots.

If I decide I want to demo them later, I can. But chances are- I wont. I still have so many open plots in many other worlds and I really like the ones I just downloaded. It doesn't feel like I wasted any time this way, either.

The only reason I can see that'd I'd want, or need, to demo them- would be for creating my own builds. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But for now this is great 👍🏻 and my Newcrest was completely barren. It needed some buildings.

Did you know you can go into your Library while on the world map (Newcrest in this case), pick a build, select a plot, and it'll construct?

vs. Going to the plot, going to the library, and building.

Yeah... I didn't know that. The second one is faster, but if you have tons of builds of different plot sizes, the first option is nifty- and let's you see the whole picture. Like painting a canvas.

I'm learning new things about this game, everyday.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

By p5 you mean in terms of plot and themes or in terms of salt? (Go off either way I'm always down to hear riffing on Wish)

It's the plot/themes tbh. In terms of salt...... I didn't mind the film but it def gave "undercook chicken vibes" TT0TT (I could probs bitch about Raya more, but I guess I can muster up some grievances with this film klasjfdlkj;af but before that P5). (edit of me from the future after getting to the end of this ask: while writing this I went from "eh" on Wish, to "I hold this new hc rewrite very dear to me for some reason" I dunno if y'all wanna hear a outline rewrite of Wish but I'd be down for it kasfdjklf):

Before the bitching about Wish's issues, let's address the P5 (well more P5R/P5S with the whole stealing OTHER people's wishes-I mean desires, and then also granting said wishes) parallels first. So I DID NOT know it was going to be.....technically a heist film (without the fun heist tropes ;w; and technically also only for a small duration ;w;) Suddenly it was "You can't take people's desires-I mean wishes", and "I'll take them back! They don't belong to you!" and the villain crushing the desire-I mean wish harms the original person (as well as it being taken seems to affect them too??? Or was that just Sleep-I mean Simon? Or was there even a connection? It's not really explored well! :'D) And then the team uses a star to take down a wish granting god, AND the masses of the people take down the controlling god as well-....you have a rag tag team of people to help rebel against the authority, as well as someone from that same group who betrays them and is controlled by the godly being ("controlled" in Goro's case, Wish did a better job exploring that than P5 imo >_> by that I mean literal bare minimum) and also has a knight motif (I think black mask, along with Mako's outfit, have a knight motif)

There's a lot of similarities. aklfjdlksajf I was NOT expecting it.

Ok now for just.......salt. Diet salt? Frustrations but w/o the hate? *shrugs*

So the pacing was a thing. I was wondering how they'd get from one point to the next, and then realized they were just gonna barrel and quirk their way through. TT0TT

I REALLY hated Asha's character when she was *~quirky~*. That only worked for Tangled/Frozen, `1) it wasn't overplayed (Tangled literally started it, so by Frozen it was like 2 instances by this point only), 2) It made sense for those chars (locked away during a critical part of their life, yeah no wonder they weren't well adjusted), 3) they looked similar and the cameo just kinda fueled the theory they are (distant) cousins (aka so maybe hereditary personality trait).

Everyone else has been......not original and it's just......boring/annoying. (Raya I think was the closest we got away from it, but she's kinda just a Korra clone, cool but with dorky moments.......sigh I'll take it).

I physically cringed in the theater during her interview bc of the dorkiness. TT0TT I cringed so much that....I think I might've missed the reason why the king even bothered to show Asha the wishes???? He trusted her? She interested him??? That's the vibe I got but like.....WHY?????? (again was cringing and she was like 'oh I'm bombing" and he's like "no you have my attention" and I'm like "oh this dialogue is so bad TT0TT Get me outttttt!!!!") Before moving onto the next point, when she's not *~quirky~* she's......there. Fine. I prefer her at her basic just don't give me her worst, I can't handle her at her worst. TT0TT

This whole thing could've/would've/should've been avoided if the King didn't let her see the wishes! Or explain in detail! Like you're smarter than this aren't you my dude? This seems like something you keep hidden only for the MC to find out later and THAT causes a big stir. Not "let's show the MC I'm sure nothing wrong will surely come from it!" Like????? I need a better reasoning!!!

Now the actual act of the villain. Not saying what he was doing was right or good. The guy is a dick, a narcissistic dick. But.......everyone seemed relatively happy? TT0TT Like not even in a mind control way. And he wasn't doing anything bad to the wishes (not doing a lot in general but at least he wasn't hurting them??????). Like I know it's technically using it as a means to keep people there (dangling a carrot in front of their face, manipulation) but....I just feel like we aren't given enough information and they spend so much time on people being so chill it's like???? Is it really an issue??? TT0TT Like we have the dialogue about Simon losing his spark or some BS but like.....no one else seems to have the same issue TT0TT

I dunno, his whole "using it for control" and lack of doing anything evil with them to begin with is kinda.........not well developed. :') Like on the surface, yeah he's bad, but digging deeper ...well it's just not that deep. All the shit he does afterwards is bc Asha challenged him and accidentally wished a star down. (tldr; his "control" on everyone doesn't really feel well defined)

Basically, if they were doing a grey->evil pipeline, they didn't do a good job. Either he needed more fleshing out, or just start him off as pretty not great and then going full blown sorcerer at the end.

While I'm still on the king, I was REALLY BOTHERED by how much they kept leaning into his sad backstory. Once? Ok. But like they ref it like 2-4 times so I'm like "????? Did HE cause the tragedy???? WHAT was the tragedy????" Like I kept expecting more of a twist with it (like the king was actually the reason for it) and for them to go into detail but no it's just dropped. TT0TT ????? Was it really just there to make him grey/justified in his actions??? Well it'd help if I KNEW MORE OF WHAT HAPPENED!

I also kept expecting more from Asha's dad. Like they kept bringing up that mfers back on that gd tree but...nope nothing!

Ok moving onto songs. Wow only 6 songs? I'm surprised. Tho one felt like it went on for WAY too long.

"I'm a star" was a song....that when it showed up I was like "Oh geez.....why???" It just brought the pacing to a halt. TT0TT I don't want to hear people bitch about Fixer Upper ever again, at least that progressed SOMETHING. (both are still better from A Guy Like You from the looks of it......and F1's "In Summer" but not cause In Summer was bad, but because the point could've been summed up in a line or three/was summed up already.......those mfers almost cut Do you want to build a snowman but were gonna keep THAT??? I would've rioted fsakljdlkfja TT0TT....oh right Fixer upper vs I'm a star)

Ok ok, so both have something that's important to the plot. Ngl I was wondering what IAS was doing until.....the climax where I was like "OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ok, ok I....alright." (aka where everyone uses "the star power within them to defeat the evil). So the meaning behind it I don't mind, it's the.....execution.

So with Fixer Upper, it's a similar thing. FU (haha) contains something important to the plot that'll help the heroes out later (or explain a key part of the story). FU is basically stating/reminding the audience (and Anna) "Elsa is scared and stressed, but if you keep showing your Love to her, Anna, you'll break through to her. Love brings out the best in people!" It's the point of F1. It's the point of The Snow Queen. It's what's been going on this entire film. It also helps develop Anna/Kristoff as well. Because of this it doesn't derail the plot.

I know it DOES feel similar to A Guy Like you, where they put some comedy right in between more serious moments. The difference is Paris is on literal fire, and Anna....due to dramatic irony, isn't aware of shit hitting the fan just yet (or that she's about to die). So she's in a position of just one last moment of brevity unlike Hunchback (from what I remember of Hunchback, gotta rewatch tbh but I know people HATE A guy like you so TT0TT)

Now FU is towards the end of the film and.....F1 is paced fairly well imo. Stuff's happening, nothing feels wasted. Back to Wish.....I'm a Star....doesn't. It has answers for later, but it felt like it brought the pacing to a screeching halt to give me a weird and very eh version of Be Our Guest.

I know in musicals "when talking isn't enough, you sing. When singing isn't enough, you dance."

I do not get the....well...NEED for the scene to be like this. Just talking could've done it justice, and esp saved time (a handful of seconds vs minutes TT0TT)

Like for the climax a scene with THIS SONG needed to happen. But how it comes about is just......it's not it. It's not paced well. Be Our Guest works because Belle knew ALL these chars for a bit. FU worked because the AUDIENCE still recognized these chars from the beginning (and at least KRISTOFF knew who they were). I'm a Star is mostly with random animals and plants that just....happens. TT0TT "Just go with it" no I don't think I want to little rabbit (I feel like a plant/animal said that line but I don't remember which, maybe it was Bambi)

I dunno the set up isn't....great. Wait, it's really just "I have a dream" but.......shittier, like not as well executed. But I have a dream doesn't come outta nowhere, it's set up by Flynn and then executed. The Star just sprinkles some magic dust and it's like "well I guess this is happening."

Tldr; I'm a star isn't well executed even tho it's important to the plot. It needs to be paced better.

Ok other songs (tbh I was eh on the songs but I'm not really liking At all Costs and This Wish).....Welcome to Rosas reminded me a LOT of Encanto's opening and dancing (only thing I was positive towards that movie on). But that dancing is....never brought back? Ok. The framing of the intro song is similar. Exposition through song is ok. (I didn't like F2's Some thing never change but it does catch us up). It's fine.

This is the thanks I get: I liked it when I heard it. Kinda laughable, because of how evil he just....turned into. The king is a real let down ngl, but I already kinda went into my issues with him earlier. I think it's nice he doesn't make them pay rent like wtf let me live there. u_u

At all costs. I........really like this song ngl. It sounds like a love song. The demo even more so (to the point people wondered if it was originally for the King/Queen and/or Asha/Star). Part of me likes the K/Q and Asha/Star duality, but I also........really just like the twisted-ness of King/Asha just singing their own mindset. I dunno I find the idea hauntingly beautiful and is a better villain song for King. Why couldn't King be more evil earlier? It would've been SOOOO GOOD HERE! TT0TT

This Wish: I like it. Was looking forward to this song ngl. Not my most fav song in the world or disney verse, but I like it. I also like the reprise version, they stuck the landing the best they could with that imo. (it's only held back by the other issues of the film). I think I read on TV tropes this song was written first and then a plot made around it? TT0TT I dunno.

The Revolution song I literally forgot of: Probs the most forgettable, like ok sure whatever. At least it wasn't cringy like I'm a star but 8U

Also I JUST found out (after typing most of this) that apparently the song writers were......mostly known for pop songs????? And not musical theater???? Which...ok that makes sense with the whole "when talking isn't enough, you sing. When singing isn't enough, you dance" combined with the thing I read on TV tropes and This Wish..... There wasn't a lot of synergy with how/why some of those song scenes are happening. TT0TT

I mean I'm a basic bitch who likes pop songs don't get me wrong, I'm over here vibbing to This Wish (OG and Reprise) and At All Costs. But Disney did not let those two live up to their full potential ;w; And I believe it's because they......forgot it was a musical and to do more musical theater choices. TT0TT

Thoughts on characters. I don't care for the grandpa/mom ngl. I don't hate them but I don't care. Not a fan of Asha's dad, just.....such a nothing char. Her 7 friends are ok (too many perhaps, put some on the chopping block jalkfdjska). I wish the goat didn't speak (or just sounded cute), or if he did speak in that voice he didn't appear in ALMOST EVERY SCENE (I think Asha/Star duo would've been best). Queen ok, should've been evil. King is ok, should've put him in the over longer tho (and made him more evil from the start).

What could've been: Queen was also suppose to be evil (she should've). Star was gonna be a tumblr Jack Frost esque twink. Disney dropped the ball on that u_u Did he HAVE to exist? Depends on the story (twink or cute star creature, either work it just depends on what the focus is and how you go about it). But the Queen should've been evil.

Oh my thoughts on the meta ending........I.....don't.....it .....didn't make sense? I know people are saying 'oh Disney's just saying it's references! They're backtracking on the extended universe!" and.....like it feels more like references tbh. Like Peter Pan, the guy iirc was an adult (wait of course he has to be an adult, you give your wish away at 18!), he wants to make a plane with the lady. He just looks like Peter Pan. I don't think they are the same Peter. Same with Bambi, OG Bambi isn't a surfer stoner. I think it's just a reference. I think the movie is just too full of references.

"Asha changes race and becomes the fairy god mother to Cindy!" I..dunno.....maybe? She said she'd be ROSAS' fairy god mother....I don't think Cindy takes place anywhere near that. No seaside from that movie iirc. (I mean she can travel but......I dunno)

The only thing I'd buy is Star maybe connecting with Pinocchio or something from across the milkyway. And the sky is the cinematic universe, because I just....can't buy the other refs being part of something greater. So if it's just the sky part.....then 1) it's kinda just pointless tbh cause it doesn't really matter. 2) they wanna be Kingdom Hearts so bad TT0TT I hope KH4 has Wish in it, I'd love to see how that mess will roll. (they can't make it any worse :'D it can only go up from here....esp compared to KH3's Frozen world *sobs* I'll never forgive you KH3 *sobs harder* A game about hearts......and a plot device of a FROZEN HEART YOU COULD'VE EXPANDED YOUR LORE! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *ugly cries* *coughs* I can see them doing something with your "inner star" and KH hearts tbh >_>)

Anyway I do think it's more references than cinematic universe.

[holycrimin]

It hurts to love.

Karl heisenberg x male!reader

Tags: Hanahaki and angst

SFW

(Note: In this au, none of the main events happen with ethan, as he is not in this story. Also SPOILER WARNING.)

(Warning: probably shitty plot, but i'm trying my best ok)

[Your pov]

It all started a year or two ago, when mother miranda had found me lurking around the village. As i was not a local, she deemed me suspicous. However, before she had the chance to kill me, She had a spark in her eye. As if she had an idea. And before i knew it she was using me as some sort of vessel for her daughter, Eva. Although i am a male, she had seen something special in me apparently. I had also found out that her daughter had passed away and she was determined to bring her back.

It failed.

The experiment... failed.

I was no longer deemed useful.

She had proposed me two options. become a servant or assistant to one of the lords, or die. A slow, and painful death.

Of course I chose to be an assistant.

She was kind enough to let me choose who to work for, thankfully.

Lady dimitrescu was very much intimidating. And from what I've heard, if you mess up even just a little while working for her, you will be sent to the dungeons. Never to be seen again. And she isnt really fond of men, so I wont be choosing her.

Next up was Donna Beneviento. She was nice, although her doll 'Angie' is a little... how do I say this... creepy. It doesnt help that i have a huge fear of mannequins and dolls, so I dont think i'll be choosing her anytime soon.

And then theres Salvatore Moreau, dont get me wrong he's a great guy but.. he might accidentally drown me. I might be overreacting, but the guy smells. Although, I feel bad that he's treated so poorly by the other Lords, but i think it's for the best if i stay away from him.

And.. i guess my only option left is Lord Heisenberg. I just hope that he wont be that much of a hassle, even if he IS kind of an asshole...

A day before i start working at the factory, Mother Miranda forced us to spend the day together. To 'get to know eachother' I assume.

Lord Heisenberg looked pissed off, he wasn't really fond of me. He was more pissed off at Mother miranda though. Most likely because he was forced to spend time with me. I quickly learned what he called the 'basics of him'. Basically, common facts. Such as, the fact that he can bend metal and his deep hatred for Mother Miranda. that was basically all that he told me.

The following day was my first day at the factory. As we were walking along the factory, he stopped in his tracks. "Listen pup, there's rules." He practically growled. "First of all, Don't touch my shit. Second of all, don't go around the factory without me knowing. And third of all, Don't try to get to know me, we're keeping a proffessional relationship, got it?" He said.

"Uh.. y-yes Lord Heisenberg." I very nervously stammered, lightly blushing at the nickname he gave me.

"Good, now let's get to work."

Present day

That was around a year or two ago, and while i have gotten closer to the other lords, i never managed to get to get close to Lord Heisenberg. And..

I'm an idiot who fell for him... And... I know he'll never feel the same way. I've tried getting his attention, impressing him, but... nothing's working. Every time i try to get close to him, wether it's emotionally or physically. I get pushed away, literally and figuratively.

It's my fault really. I fell inlove with a man who was emotionally closed off. His charisma, his voice, everything about him just makes me fall more and more inlove with him.

I know i wont have a chance, hell, i dont even know if he's into guys... Guess i really am an idiot, huh?

Later that day, Lord Heisenberg asked me to help him with something. I agreed of course, and during that time I tried to know him more. "Jesus christ, are you trying to get me to open up or something? Cause' that's not gonna happen, so give it up." He spat out, "a-ah... sorry Lord Heisenberg.." I stammered out.

A few minutes of silence pass. Suddenly, he grabbed my hands. "I- ugh.. Just- you're doing it wrong. Here, let me help." He said, while holding my hands 'teaching me how to do it right'.

Of course my face started heating up, the feeling of his slightly roughed up hands on mine... it feels nice. Although this is probably the only time i'll ever get close to him.

"Hey pet, you ok? Geez, you're practically as red as a tomato." He said, while still holding my hands. "Uh.. y-yeah..! Uhm... i.. i'm good.." i stuttered, feeling his breath on top of my head. He was bigger and taller than me after all.

"Well, whatever you say, pup." He shrugged as he continued his work. I got a little flustered on the nickname, i never got used to that..

After, he went and ordered me to get supplies fron the duke.

As i was walking along the pathway to the duke, a few lycans were following me. They didnt seem to be attacking, so i just left them alone. However when i reached the duke, the lycans were gone. How strange.

"Well well well, if it isn't Heisenbergs pet! What brings you here, young man?" He says, with a shit eating grin. "Ah.. well, i'm just here for some supplies is al-" i was then cut off with a series of coughs, "Oh my, are you alright?" said the duke, genuinely concerned. "O-oh i'm fine i ju-" i was then cut off by another series of coughs, but just when i stopped, a small white flower petal came out of my mouth.

"Oh dear, i hope this isn't what i think it is... Are you sure you are alright?" Asked the duke. "I.. i dont know," i pause and look at the small flower petal in my hand. "do you know what's happening..?" I questioned him, very much confused. "It may be something called the 'Hanahaki disease'. It was said to just be an urban legend. Where, if you were suffering from unrequited love, you would begin to cough up flower petals." He explained. "I didnt think it was real.." he muttered to himself.

"..." i was silent as i stared in shock and horror, I'm.. coughing up flowers..? Like actual, real flowers...?

From.. unrequited love.... i should've known, i... i should've known that he would never feel the same way.

How could i be so stupid, to think he would fall for a mere mortal like me. Or atleast.. i think i'm mortal. "Well," the duke spoke up, "luckily there are two ways you can get rid of the sickness." My eyes lit up, "the person you like, either loves you back," he continued "or, you can get surgery. Not only will it remove the flowers, it also removes all of your feelings for this particullar person permanently."

"Th-that's great! I can finally get this 'hanahaki' disease while also getting rid of my feelings for him-!"

"Him?" The duke asked as he cut me off, "do you mean Lord Heisenberg?"

"Uh-" as i think about him, i start coughing again. This time, blood was spilling over. And so were many petals. "Oh dear.. so just the mere thought of him triggers it..?" He said, concerned. "Uh... i'll just... take the supplies. Thank you though, duke."

"No problem, stay safe. But remember, the longer you wait around with the flowers still inside you, the worse your state will become." He informs me,

"I'll try to get the surgery as fast as possible duke." I said, waving him goodbye.

As soon as i walked out, those same lycans followed me all the way back to the factory. Strange isn't it? Anyway, when you finally arrived at the factory, supplies in hand, I hear Lord Heisenberg open up the door.

"Here, let me help you with those." He says as he starts taking some of the bags.

"...Why are you being so nice all of a su-sudden?" I stammer as i try to hold in a cough. "Would you rather not have me nice, pup?" he growled. As i opened my mouth to speak, i was interrupted but a fit of coughs. Blood spilt out as did the petals. Heisenberg didn't seem to notice as he was already far ahead.

I try to cover it up as much as i can as i try to catch up with him. "Jeez.. Finally, you caught up-" he cut himself off. "Why is there blood on your face?" He said, slightly concerned. I froze. "Uh.." that was all i could say. "Whatever.." he said as he wiped the blood away from my face. A faint blush spread accross my cheeks.

I excused myself to the bathroom as i felt another fit of coughs. More blood splattered out as well as more petals. God it hurts. I heard a knock on the door. "Hey pet, you've been there a while, you sure you're alright?" He said

"Uh- yeah, i-i'm fine..!" I said, trying to hold in my coughs. "Well just make it quick, we have work to do." "Yes sir..!" I reply back quickly, not wanting to upset him. I quickly cleaned myself up and walked out of the bathroom. "Took you long enough." He sighed, annoyed. He went ahead and grabbed his hammer, dragging it along the metal floors. It was loud enough for him to not hear you cough up more petals.

~later that week~

My condition kept getting worse and worse, to the point i was barely able to breath. I've consulted the duke, however nothing seemed to work. No matter how much medicine, herbs or other medicinal items i jammed into my body, it just won't go away.

I was asked to come over Lady Dimitrescus castle, i'm not exactly sure why. Maybe she heard of this 'hanahaki' disease?

As i make my way to the castle, lycans started to follow me. Even more than before, why was this happening?

I finally arrive at the castle, the lycans seem to be watching me very carefully. I hear the doors open, and out came a tall lady. "Ah, Y/N! I'm glad you came! Come in." She said, holding the door open for me.

I walked in and was immediately tackled with a hug. "Uncle Y/N! You came!" Exclamed Daniela, one of Lady Dimitrescus daughters. "Oh, uh... hello Daniela." I say, hugging back. I never imagined them to warm up to me. "Now now Daniela, me and your Uncle Y/N have something to discuss."

"Aww man... well, i'll see you around Uncle Y/N!" She waved goodbye to me. "I'll see you around, Daniela." I say as i wave back. As soon as her footsteps were no longer in range, i spoke up. "So.. what did you want to talk about..?" I carefully asked the tall woman, not wanting to be sliced to bits. "Well, as i said before, the duke has informed me of something related to your wellbeing."

"So... you've heard about this.. 'hanahaki' disease, i assume...?" I say as i tense up even more. "The duke told me about it, and when i asked why he was informing me about this, he simply stated it had something to do with you. So tell me, do you have it?" She asked me with a concerned expression.

"W-well.. I-.." i say, sighing. "Yes, as far as i know." I reply, not wanting to lie to her. "As much as i dislike that wretched man, Heisenberg, i must ask, is he the object of your affection?" I froze. "Well... uh-" i cut myself off as i break into a fit of coughs growing more and more violent than the last. "Oh dear- MAIDS!" She called out, panicking, as blood and petals fall out of my mouth. She patted my back as i continue to cough. "So... it is Heisenberg.. I am terribly sorry Y/N i did not know this would happen.." she said, apologetically.

"I-it's alright-" i break into another fit of coughs. But instead of petals, this time, there were fully grown flowers. "i.. i can't b-breath.." i say almost blacking out. The last thing i see and hear are the maids, Lady Dimitrescu shouting to get the duke, and the door opening to reveal... Lord Heisenberg..? "Goddammit, out of my way-!" Was the last thing i heard before blacking out.

•

•

°

.

.....

I woke up to the duke. I sat upright, "what... happ-" i was then cut off by the duke. "You're awake! Honestly, i.. didnt know if you would wake up.." he said sadly. "Thankfully, i was able to patch you up just fine. And after days and hours of research, i finally found an alternative to your hanahaki!" The duke said, switching from a sad, to a cheerful mood.

My eyes light up, "W-wait, really!?" I said as a smile creeps up on my face. The duke gives me a small bottle, "Here, take this. Free of charge!" He said as he smiles brightly. "Now, you should drink it as soon as possible. Lord Heisenberg is waiting for you outside."

"I will, thank you duke!" I said as i waved him goodbye. As I walked to the gates, I take the small bottle and drink it. Within seconds, the flowers were gone. I could finally breath again!

Walking out with a small smile, I saw Lord Heisenberg. "Oh, hey-!.. uh.. i mean, hey. You're awake, lets... get back to the factory..." he stammered out.

..

Was it just me, or were there tears on his face..?

The walk to the factory was silent, but as we walk up to the factory gates, he stops dead in his tracks. "Before we go in, I just uh.. wanted to let you know that the duke let me know about how you really felt about me." He said. "And.. after a long time of thinking about it.." he cuts himself off as his cheeks turn red,

"...I like you too." He confesses.

But,

I don't feel any different.

I don't have butterflies in my stomach.

I don't even feel my face heating up.

It was like...

I was never inlove with him in the first place.

"I... I'm sorry, Lord Heisenberg... but.. I dont feel the same way anymore. I think... it was that small bottle the duke gave me, but.. I am sorry, i don't feel the same way." "W-wait.. you're.. you're joking, right...?" I watch as his expression goes from flustered to heartbreak. "..." i grow silent.

"Let's... let's get inside... we'll catch a cold if we don't." I say, opening the doors to the factory, not wanting the situation to get more awkward. "...Y... yeah... just, gimme a minute.." he says as his voice was slightly shaking. "Alright.. just... please be quick, you'll get a cold." I said, walking in and closing the door on him.

[Heisenbergs pov]

"I... I'm sorry, Lord Heisenberg... but.. I dont feel the same way anymore. I think... it was that small bottle the duke gave me, but.. I am sorry, i don't feel the same way."

"W-wait.. you're.. you're joking, right...?" I say with my voice slightly shaking. Dammit.. god... fucking...

DAMMIT...!

Just when i thought i finally found the love of my life, he's stripped away from me.

"..." he was silent.

I could feel the heartbreak slowly filling me up.

"Let's... let's get inside... we'll catch a cold if we don't."

"...Y... yeah... just, gimme a minute.." i stammer while i try not to break down infront of him.

"Alright.. just... please be quick, you'll get a cold." He says, as he walks in and shuts the door. Heh.. it's cute how he still worries about me when..

Nevermind.

I need some time to thi-

My thoughts were interrupted when i started to violently cough. What i didn't expect though...

Was a flower petal.

"..."

"Heh..."

"So this is what he felt." I said, as i look at the bloody flower petal in my hand.

[peachyysugaa]

blood castle i. || enha 02z

♚──────────────────────────♚

♜ main pairing: vampire! 02z x gn! reader

♜ genre: hogwarts au, mystery, fluff/angst

♜ wc: 2k

♜ warnings: mentions of blood (pg13), purposefully lowercase

♜ other pairings: lisa x namjoon, slight rose x jungkook

♜ a/n: disclaimer that i don't actually ship these pairings, i just find it fitting for the story :] also kinda boring chapter but we're setting things up <3 also hearts at the end of each chapter to keep track of how oc gets along with 02z hehe lmk what you think!

♜ index: teaser | next | masterlist

♚──────────────────────────♚

i. make the most of it

"what will i do when you're both gone? jennie just left and you two are next!" you pout in your train seat as your best friends exchange teasing smiles. as you get closer and closer to hogwarts, you can't help but keep thinking about rose and lisa inevitably graduating this year.

"i don't know y/n, maybe find some friends your age?" lisa teases. you groan outwardly, tilting your head back.

rose, the ever-exemplary hufflepuff, extends her hands out to yours on the table and grabs hold of them. you stop your obnoxious groaning to stare back at her kind smile. "lili has a point, y/nie. it wouldn't hurt to branch out this year so that lisa and i don't have to worry about you."

your eyes widened. "worry?! what's that supposed to mean?"

rose lets go of your hands to cover her mouth as she laughs while lisa is losing it. the gryffindor 7th year is wiping joyful tears out of her eyes, which isn't helping your case.

you sit, pouting once again and waiting for them to explain.

"two words, y/n," lisa begins while holding two fingers up in a peace sign that you know is anything but peaceful. "you're. clumsy."

"am not!" you defied. your best friends exchange looks once again before raising an eyebrow at you. "tell me one time when i was clumsy!"

"remember that time you tried to shut a mandrake up by putting your hand on its mouth and then it bit you?" rose asks.

"oh! that was so funny!" lisa says, trying to hold back her laughter. "my favorite is when she made a lizard instead of a mini dragon in transfiguration but then it burned her eyebrows off!"

as they share your most embarrassing moments, your ears begin heating up and all you want to do is transfigure yourself into the train seat.

"i stand corrected..." you mumble out unwillingly.

"we love you, y/nie. we only want someone to look out for you when we graduate," rose says as lisa nods.

"fine, fine. i get it, moms."

"you love us."

"yea, yea, i love my two moms who come after my clumsiness all the time."

"as you should, now let's get changing. the train is almost at school."

the older hufflepuff was right. you could see the tall towers of the second home you've come to love in the distance as you glance out the window. this year may be bittersweet since the last of your friend group would be leaving you behind, but you were determined to make the most of it with them and perhaps make some new friends this year.

"i'll stay to keep our spot, you two go ahead," lisa tells you and rose.

"going to text your joonie?" rose teases. the gryffindor's ears have a red tinge at the sound of her nickname for her boyfriend.

"just go before the changing rooms fill up," she mumbles. but as you close the door to your shared booth, you can see that she has already pulled out her phone with a cheeky smile as she waves hi on facetime with namjoon who is slightly older than her and currently working as a magizoologist for the ministry.

you smile to yourself, remembering their relationship when you were just a first year. "come on, yn!" rose calls out.

you break out of your daze and see her several feet away from you. "sorry, eonnie!"

you take your hand off the handle, which you didn't register it was still on, and start to move towards her, carrying your blouse, tie and skirt. before you could reach her, you bump into a hard chest.

you hear a deep oof noise from the figure as you rub your forehead.

"i am so sorry!" you hurriedly whisper.

"you're alright, y/n." you recognize the voice and look up to see sim jaeyun from your house and year. "did you hit your head too hard?" he kindly worries.

"i—"

"yn!!" rose shouts.

"sorry, jaeyun," you apologetically smile as you brush past him. "coming, eonnie!!"

you could've sworn he said something like it was nice to see you, but you were far too focused on not letting rose wait any long. she's definitely amicable like most hufflepuffs, but like most hufflepuffs, you probably don't want to see them angry. you should know since lisa says you're already bad hangry.

it's a quick in and out of the changing room and back to your booth where lalisa waits, staring out the window and watching the castle come closer. it's like a wrestler tag team as you and rose high-five her on your way in and her way out. immediately, the two of you settle down and as you get comfortable in your seat, you notice that she's smirking with you, her eyebrow raised.

"why are you looking at me like that, eonnie?" you ask hesitantly. your fingers look more interesting picking fights with each other.

"oh, nothing," she replies, not giving up her smirk. "just wondering when you and jake were close."

"he's literally the same year and house as me. i can't go a year without a class with him."

she hums like she doesn't believe you. "really?"

"really, really."

"really, really, really?" you groan at her response as she starts to giggle.

"do you wanna talk about your crush on jeon jungkook then, eonnie?" she shuts up then and there, and it's your turn to smirk. "thought so."

"that's hogwarts' idol right there, yn. everyone likes him one way or another, so hush!"

"hush about what?" lisa asks as she slides the door open.

"nothi—"

"jeon jungkook." rose glares at you.

"ohh, rosie's crush of 6 years?" your other friend confirms as she closes the door.

"the one and only."

"you know, he and i are co-captains this year for quidditch. you should just come to our practices."

"will he even notice me? i mean..." your focus on their conversation starts to waver as you glance through the door window. outside your door is the familiar trolley witch with all her pastries and drinks, and you can't help but have a craving for your favorite chocolate frogs. you also can't help but notice the other figure with the trolley witch: the very same sim jaeyun you bumped into earlier.

"eonnies, i'm going to buy some chocolate frogs. do you want any?" you ask, keeping an eye on the figures outside your window.

"cauldron cake for me please!"

"let's have every flavor beans for old time's sakes!"

"alright," you say as you slide the door open and close. they go back to their conversation about a plot to get the hogwarts idol that you're sure is bound to go wrong.

"7 blood lollipops please." you hear jake order. you recall him having a large group of friends across different houses and different years, but for all of them to like blood lollipops is quite unheard of.

"you're not going to have all of those, are you?" you ask him, approaching the trolley.

"y/n," he greets with a smile and a shake of his head as he hands his coins to the witch. "no, my friends and i all really like them. i think i would have a headache if i were to eat all 7."

"2 chocolate frogs, bertie's beans, and a cauldron cake please," you order before turning back to him. "does it really taste like blood, or is it just to trick people into thinking you're vampires?"

jake's face pales though it's hard to see because he's already on the pale side and you're counting out your coins to give to the trolley witch. "personally, i think it tastes like cherry."

you hum as you gather your goodies together, and jake is thankful that you're not paying too much attention to how he reacted. "i'll take your word for it."

the trolley witch moves along, doing what she's done for many years and more to come. you're finally focusing on him more now that you have all your snacks and accomplished being a good citizen by paying the fees. your eyes search his face, go past his sharp jawline, and make their way to the shiny prefect badge on his black and gold robes. the prefect engraving is hard to see against the blinding gold of the hufflepuff badge, but it's hard to miss.

"oh, are you a prefect?" you ask curiously.

"yup, so don't stay out too late. i might have to write you up," he teases.

you playfully roll your eyes at him. "please, when am i not a model student?"

"i would say right now because we're about five minutes away from the castle, and you still don't have your robes on, miss l/n," he jokingly tsks at you.

"ahh, but you see, that's not my fault there, mr. prefect," you banter back.

"oh? then maybe i won't have to give you the first detention?"

"well, mr. sim, i was only taking care of my precious eonnies and buying them snacks. i paid my fees and also engaged in conversation with my fellow classmate, so i've been a little preoccupied," you acted out, playing the role of an innocent student.

"hmm.. engaging in conversation with your classmates on the first day does seem to follow the rules," he lightheartedly agrees. jake is about to add more, but his friends call out to him.

"hey, jake, what's taking so long?!"

"you'd better go take care of your friends, mr. sim," you tease. "be a good hyung, won't you?"

his beaming smile causes your heart to skip a few beats. "alright, miss l/n, but make sure not to let me catch you out of uniform." he waves before hurrying to his own booth.

when you open the door to yours, a chorus of oooh's from your eonnies is what you receive. you roll your eyes at them before shutting the door and grabbing your robe. you can see theirs were already on, the equally shining, gold head girl badge pinned on rose's robe.

"i think she'll be just fine on our own when we're gone, rosie," lisa teases as you slip your arms through your sleeves and tuck your wand in your pocket.

"just don't keep one of my prefects distracted, y/nie," rosie adds.

"so long as you aren't distracted by your head boy, rosie," you tease back.

"no way, jeon jungkook is head boy," she gasps at you.

"i don't know, but i just caught you simping in 4k!" you stick your tongue out at her as she whines and lalisa throws her head back in laughter.

"there really is only one choice though, so it probably is him," lisa affirms.

"i swear, if you two are wrong..." rose pouts.

"but if we're not, you'll get to spend more time with him and get to know him instead of just admiring him from afar like everyone else!" you console.

"well, we'll find out soon enough. we're here," lisa announces as she grabs her trunk from the top rack, helping you get yours and rose hers.

"thanks, eonnie! so glad your long legs are so useful!" you thank.

"yah! they'll be useful for kicking you too, ungrateful brat," she jokingly chastises.

"oh no, lisa eonnie is going to kill me!" you shout dramatically. "rose eonnie, save me!"

"it's going to be a long year," she sighs with a smile keeping close behind as you run off the train and lisa chases after you.

jake's expression mirrors rose's as he watches the trio run off to the nearest carriage. a crack forms in his blood lollipop as he sucks on it harder, the sweet taste of blood running across his tongue. "hyung, come on. let's get in the carriage," jungwon calls to him, his own sucker making his words slightly muddled.

"coming," he mumbles, securing his trunk and stepping into the carriage where his 6 friends wait for him.

their fangs are dripping with the blood of the lollipops.

♚──────────────────────────♚

jake: ♥ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ (lvl. 1)

jay: ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ (lvl. 1)

sunghoon: ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ (lvl. 1)

[bumblesimagines]

Green Thumb

Part 17

Request: Yes or No

For anyone curious and if I did my math correctly y/ns dad had him when he was 35. This one feels short and I hate ittt but I tried making it feel longer. The chunks are just thicc

~

"So, why are we going to Belgium?" Natasha asked, setting the course. You looked at her, taking a seat beside her.

"Cause.. I have family there.. She might be family, I don't now." You answered, feeling the jet move forward before it took off into the sky.

"Family? Like, blood related? Who?" Natasha asked, glancing at you. You licked your lips, staring forward.

"My aunt." Natasha's brows raised, looking over at you. You sighed, nodding.

"What if she turns me away?" You asked softly.

"Well.. You're probably her only remaining family. I wouldn't want to turn away a family member." Natasha licked her lips, looking forward at the passing clouds.

"What do I even say? Hey, I'm (Y/N) and I have superpowers?"

"Well, you can introduce yourself and ask about her brother." Natasha gave a small smile. You nodded.

"How's Clint?" Natasha asked, rested her head on her fist. Her hair was long and her natural red locks were returning. It made her hair look a little weird but she was going through a lot of things.

"Who fucking knows." You frowned, arms crossing. Clint had fucked off to god knows where, leaving you to deal with your grief alone. Natashas' brows furrowed.

"Clint has decided not to return home in what feels like weeks. Maybe even months, I haven't been paying attention." You shrugged lightly. Natasha frowned, leaning back in the seat. Definitely didn't sound like Clint but grief could make people do crazy things.

"I've been trying to keep up with the house but I'm just one guy handling everything Clint decided to build and add on." You licked your lips, shaking your head and letting out a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry." Natasha said softly, giving your arm a squeeze. "I'll talk to him if you want."

"Let him do whatever the hell he wants to do. He's a grown man." You replied, feeling bitter and resentful. Natasha silently nodded. The rest of the ride was silent until the jet reached Belgium.

"We're here." You stepped out of the jet, feeling a small breeze go by. You felt your stomach doing flips, heartbeat quickening. You took in a deep breath, glancing at Natasha. She placed a gentle hand on your back, offering a small smile.

"Are you sure you don't want me to get in touch with Clint?" She asked, head tilting. You shook your head.

"It could make things more complicated." You said, looking around. The house across the street matched with the address Tony had given you. It was more on the outskirts of town, surrounded by trees. You could hear some horses behind the house. You took in a deep breath, trying to ease your nerves as you walked towards the house, crossing the road. Natasha followed, studying the area.

"Seems like gardening might run in the family." Natasha said, motioning to the flower garden.

"Yeah.." You chuckled softly. You stepped onto the porch, noticing some plotted flowers on the windowsill. You raised your hand, pressing the doorbell. You waited a few minutes about to press it again before the door opened. A scowl appeared on Florines' face. She was shorter than you had imagined. Her hair was a bit messy and tied back into a low ponytail.

"Wat wil je?" She asked, gaze flickering over to Natasha. You swallowed, fiddling with your fingers.

"Are you Florine De Meyers?" You asked, watching her narrow her eyes.

"Who's asking?"

"(Y/N).. I think I might be the son of your brother." You said quietly. Florine stared at you, lips parting. Her features softened for a second before the frown returned. She opened the door wider, letting you and Natasha inside. The inside of the house smelled like black tea, earthy and floral. It felt straight out of a country movie.

"I've got some tea and speculoos." Florine called as she entered the kitchen. You looked at the pictures she had up. Most were pictures of horses or her at events with friends. You didn't see any pictures that seemed family related. You took a seat on the floral patterned couch, gazing dropping onto the unbothered elderly sheepdog. It made no attempt to move and simply rolled onto its side to face away from you.

"That's Gerdie. Old girl used to be a good guard dog but now she's more of a house cat." Florine said, sitting down and placing a tray on the coffee table. Natasha reached forward, taking one of the biscuits. Florine reached under the table, looking through the books she had before pulling out what looked like a photo book.

"The reason I didn't slam the door in your face is because Michael had told me he was gonna have a kid named (Y/N)." Florine said, hand wiping away the dust in the book. She scooted forward, placing the book on the table.

"Michael?" You repeated, looking at her. She nodded, opening the book. She flipped to the second page, pointing to a picture of a young boy by a fireplace opening presents.

"Michael, my half brother and your father." Your brows raised, leaning in to take a better look. The photo was old but you could see his face clearly. Natasha leaned in as well, smiling gently.

"You have his smile." She pointed out.

"Michael and his father moved here from America when he was about five. He met my mother and they got married. They had me when Michael was nine. He was a good brother. He held no resentment towards me or my mom. Michael was as stubborn as a mule and he could never keep his mouth shut. He'd let you know if he didn't agree with you." Florine chuckled, shaking her head. You watched the nostalgic look pass over her eyes.

"What happened to him?" You asked softly. Florine let out a heavy sigh, leaning back in her chair. She reached down, giving Gerdie some pats on the head.

"He disappeared for some time." She answered, gaze becoming distant.

"He wrote letters occasionally. Said he was working for a government in another country.. He might've been some sort of spy, my memory's a little fuzzy on the subject. He spent a long time working but.. He came back eventually. He never talked about it but he was good ole Michael." Florine leaned forward again, flipping to another page of a more grown up Michael. You did notice some similar features between him and you.

"By then, our father had passed from cancer and my mother needed all the help she could get. Michael built this house with some friends of his and gave it to my mother. Oh, my mother was so happy. She got the farm she had always wanted and got to garden whenever she could." Florine pointed to a a couple in the photobook.

"This is your grandmother, Sylvie. You would've loved her. She made the best cakes in town. This is your grandfather, Jonathan. He was always up to no good. He loved pulled helping the kids in town with pranks." Florine spoke of them fondly. Her childhood seemed to have been good with Jonathon and Sylvie.

"You have powers, right?" Florine asked, looking at you. You nodded, reaching out to the plant on the coffee table and watching it grow taller.

"She passed on her powers to you." Florine leaned back, clearing her throat. You glanced at Natasha, noticing her eating another biscuit.

"She? Who's she?" You asked, looking back at Florine.

"Your witch of a mother." She answered bitterly. You raised your brows at the hate and disgust in her tone.

"I shouldn't speak ill of her. Even if she deserves it." Florine muttered, standing up with a heavy sigh.

"C'mon." She motioned for you to follow. You turned towards Natasha. Natasha picked up another biscuit, making eye contact with you. You raised your brows.

"What? These are delicious!" Natasha huffed. You chuckled, standing up and following her out the backdoor. You noticed the stables with the horses walking around their fenced area. Florine had a vegetable garden and a greenhouse out back as well.

"Those pretty babies are Ernie, Kuma, and Goldie." Florine said, motioning to the horses. They approached the fence when she walked over to them. You smiled softly as she petted them, cooing in Dutch.

"They won't bite. Well, Ernie might but he's just a playful old man." Florine chuckled, turning back in the original direction. You followed her down a dirt path and into a wooded area. You blinked, seeing what looked like a moss covered statue of a woman. Her eyes were closed though her head was pointed downwards, looking at anyone who walked down the path.

"She was a charming little witch, I'll give her that." Florine crossed her arms, staring up at the statue. You tilted your head, licking your lips.

"Did he make this for her?" You asked, turning to look at her. Florine shook her head, looking down at the ground.

"Gaia, or better known as Mother Nature, is your mother. She took a human form in an attempt to convince humans to cherish what she had given them. When that proved useless, she spread plagues as punishment. What Gaia truly wanted.. Was a child. Animals, humans, and all those things were creations.. Projects she could ignore if she got bored. She met your father and he fell for her." Florine told you, another breeze blowing by. You reached your hand forward, gently touching a flower that rested by the statue. It felt full of life.

"Your mother fell pregnant with you and Michael was thrilled. Gaia had started realizing that human life wasn't for her. She was slowly becoming human herself. She disappeared with Michael and returned without him or you. She explained she couldn't stay and left her human body here."

"She abandonded me for no reason?" You stared up at the statue, features hardening.

"In some sense, she didn't. She's all around us so.. Your mother never truly left you." Florine said, turning to look at you. You scoffed.

"I have a mother. Her name is Laura Barton and she's not here anymore because of Thanos." You looked at Florine, blinking away tears.

"I don't blame you for being angry. I never found out where she took you or if you were even alive. If you want to keep in touch, I don't mind. Lord knows I could use the company." Florine looked forward again. You let out a soft sigh, shoulders slumping.

"And.. And dad? What happened to him?" You asked hesitantly, almost afraid of finding out he had done the same as Gaia. Florine stayed silent for a moment.

"He.. They never told me how it happened but.. He was murdered." Florine revealed, staring at the ground with a small frown. You stared at him, brows furrowing.

"What? By- By who?"

"You might've heard of him. People around town were talking about him a two or three years back. The infamous Winter Soldier."

~

Tags: @geek-and-proud @wolfelocksley @babyvisionisamenace

[randomsnakesimp]

Okay. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take the leap and say: Phobos is the victim (sorta).

Quick disclaimer: I am going to abuse plot holes and cartoon logic for my cause in a very nitpicky way. If you dislike that, I can completely understand, and I hope this warning will save you a lot of reading.

Also, this won't go into just headcanon territory, I'll put those in a separate post. Everything here I'll try to keep based on actual information from the comics and what I made of them.

That said...

Let's take a look at this scene:

(for a quick translation of the important part, the mother says: "No, Phobos, Meridian is meant for your sister. That's the law. The crown is hers.)

What we can see here are a few very important things:

1. Phobos is at most 5 years older than Elyon.

2. The name "Phobos" is not an edgy nickname he gave himself. Five-year-olds don't go around calling themselves Phobos. So his parents, for some reason, gave him that name.

3. His mother is very adamant about him not even touching the crown and reminding him of his sisters' birthright.

So, after establishing what I would call more or less facts, what else can, relatively savely, be deduced here?

- Since Elyon never noticed anything weird about herself, she can't have aged slower than earth children. So neither can Phobos. This would mean that, as she was kidnapped after her mothers death as a baby, he would have been five. So, he either tried his best to rule at age five, or the council we see as Elyon rules stepped in for him for a while

- this would then mean two things: we need an explanation as to why Miriadel, Alborn and Galgheita fled explicitly from Phobos (I'll give my explanation a bit further down) and second, Phobos' reign of terror wasn't even thirteen years, and a lot of that time he was a child/teen and could not even have been mature enough to rule.

- This also means that Kandrakar pulled up the veil when Phobos was at most five, likely younger, and that the so called "Seal of Phobos" also existed at that time, as both the veil and the seal are seen in the flashback depicting Elyons abduction. For Kandrakar, this, too, I will try to explain soon, but as for the seal, I find it most plausible that the theory @ror-witch used in their fanfiction, of the seal being a royal heirloom and named after each ruler, is true.

- His and his mother's relationship was neither as bad as some assumptions go, but neither was it that good, probably, or at least it wasn't in his perception. See how his memory is of her cradling the baby the entire time and talking more about his sisters birthright than about what he has/can do? Yes, it's only a short memory, but I think it's clear that it's a summary of what he remembers of his mother.

- Phobos desire to rule Meridian does not stem from something deeply sinister, but rather from a childish spite. Five year old Phobos probably just wanted the crown cause it looked nice and shiny, and he was fabulous even back then, but after his mothers words, he sulked and decided to show her. That's his motivation.

So, now let's go a bit further and look at some other things we can deduce from the rest of the comics:

- Phobos has a huge dungeon, a wall of roses that turn people into more roses if they touch it and his plan for the annihilation of Meridian is "Well, Cedric and I hide in the castle and...we'll see". He hates the people of Meridian, but he doesn't seem to have it in him to directly attack anyone until Elyon is there and even here, when he has her knocked out in their duel or locked up as Endarno, he isn't unnecessarily cruel. He's not evil in nature, he's more of a very dangerous child throwing tantrums. ( Cedric is kinda similar, and they both start losing it toward the coronation, but I sincerely believe that before that, there would have been a chance for them to come around )

- The only person he ever tortures or even hurts directly is Cedric. Because one, he likes Cedric and so gets more extreme emotions around him, and two, Cedric never says anything, and just plays it of afterwards, so I don't know if he even fully realizes what he's doing, like a child hitting someone. If Cedric ever just said "Stop it, you're hurting me", Phobos would probably need an entire week to process that input.

- Phobos is VERY reclusive, and he doesn't want anyone to have even pictures of him, and while that could be a God complex, I get some highly insecure vibes out of it, in a vulnerable narcissist kinda way, in that he is massively overcompensating. I gotta admit, though, that I cannot put my finger on why, so maybe take this with a grain of salt and decide for yourself if you agree.

- Kandrakar never orders the guardians to help Meridian in any way, just to make sure nothing oozes out. They likely pulled up the veil for their own protection, so Phobos wouldn't be able to spread far enough to become a real danger, rather than to protect innocent people, as clearly the Meridian people mean shit to them

- while the guards are widely feared in Meridian, Cedric seems to be viewed as... not very frightening or important, as some random merchant feels comfortable clinging to his cape (and rightfully so, apparently, as Cedric just tells him to piss off and doesn't care any further). This further leads me to believe that Cedric is rather unhealthy devoted to Phobos and his tantrums while their shitty ass reign leaves a lot of free space for unsuited people to become guards and tyranize the people.

- the King and Queen seem to have died in rapid succession, and shortly after the scene shown above, yet she looks perfectly healthy in that scene.

Now, what do I make of all this?

I believe the line of events to be as follows:

I don't think Phobos traveling back in time is a viable theory for mainly two reasons: I think his mother would be less chill around him if she saw/heard about his reign herself, and I believe that it would have been mentioned somewhere along the way if that were the case. Instead, what I believe happened is that the oracle had a vague vision of Phobos nearly taking over Kandrakar. Deciding in their random mood swings that today was a day of action, they had the people of Meridian informed that the next male born to a queen would become a dangerous tyrant, pulled up a veil and set their guardians to make sure nothing oozed out.

The veil, of course, made the people of Meridian feel trapped and a horror of the unborn prince who would ruin their lives spread.

So, when Weira gave birth to that prince, a full blown panic spread, so much so that she, in a fit of hysterical emotion, named him after that boust of panic. Of course, people tried to kill the prince basically from the moment he was born, and he was met with barely concealed resentment.

Soon after, Weira and her husband died - whether they were killed, or fell ill, or died in an accident, I have no idea, but I wouldn't completely rule out an assassination either aimed at Phobos and accidentally hitting them or the strain making at least one of them fall terminally ill.

Either the people rioted and Phobos' magic panic reaction or the leftover loyal guard was enough to fight them back, or the people succumbed to their fate at this point, slumping into the state of despair seen throughout the comics. But in the end, five year old Phobos had to be handed the throne. I assume the council still had some say at this point, but he did manage to get all pictures of him destroyed - this order was likely due to the fact that they were mostly caricatures.

So he grew up with the very volatile combination of a shitton of power and no one able to tell him if he was being stupid on one hand, and feeling unloved and unwanted on the other. He withdrew, likely also due to countless assassination attempts or things he perceived as such, and went into a negative feedback loop of being unable to mature and take responsibility, therefore being a shit ruler, therefore being hated, therefore having no one to help him, therefore being unable to face and grow from his mistakes, rinse and repeat.

So, Meridian was plunged into chaos, yet he seemed fine more or less just sitting in the new playroom he made for himself in the gardens, sporadically giving out an order or two and having generally no idea about anything that didn't directly concern him.

Enter Elyon. Now, she send him of the rails, as she was a danger to his lifestyle AND a reminder of all the sentiments he'd be drowning in alcohol if he wasn't too much of a recluse and education denier to know of that option. He doesn't even try. He just lets Cedric, the one person he trusts, handle her, like everything else, and somewhat plays along sometimes, when he feels like it. This is where he passes the point of no return and starts actually trying to kill people, culminating in him creating an army to wipe out Meridian. I still believe that even at this point, in his head, what he's doing is just throwing a nice toy out the window just so his sister won't have it.

[fangirl-ramblings]

Pairing: Arthur x gn!reader

Characters: Reader, Simon Pearson, Mary Linton, Arthur Morgan

Word count: 3306

Summary: You and Arthur have recently made your relationship official by moving into his tent...but is he really into you...or is he still holding onto his past?

Notes: SFW, Angst leading to fluff

After requesting several wonderful stories from one of my favourite writers and people, I was super honoured to have the chance to be able to write something for the super talented and lovely @littlestarofthewest -  Merry Christmas from your secret santa 😘😘

Also a huge thank you to @horsegirl1h (who helped me plot this out) @verai-marcel (for wrangling in all my stupid grammatical mistakes) & @mileycyprus-hill who took a quick look over this and gave me a much better character note on how to improve Arthur's feelings in this story and give me a far better title I could ever think of myself. Thank you all 😘

~* Tumblr Masterlist | Stories on AO3 *~

The First Shall Be Forgotten

You slowly opened your eyes, only to find the cot next to you still empty. It was fairly late when you'd finally taken yourself off to bed last night, but you had found yourself unable to keep your eyes open as you'd sat around the scout fire. Your hope of Arthur riding back into camp and joining you in lying down for the night had turned into a wishful dream of waking up with his strong arms wrapped around you, but it turns out it was just that - merely a pleasant dream. 

It was only a few months since you'd started dating, with most of that time spent being inseparable, but lately you noticed that Arthur was staying away from camp longer and longer. Yes - the events of Blackwater had changed the gang's luck and the likes of Dutch and Strauss kept giving Arthur more and more tasks to do, but you'd felt like that most of these jobs could be done well before nightfall. Surely Arthur wasn't avoiding you because he was bored of you already….could he?

You sat upright, shaking your head free of any more of those nasty thoughts, quickly making the decision that you should get dressed and help out around camp before Miss Grimshaw marched over to berate you for wasting so much time idling about.

There was a chill floating in the air this morning in camp and so you found yourself shivering as you looked around for your light jacket. Opening your shared trunk, you proceeded to pile a mixture of both yours and Arthur's clothes on to the cot in your quest to find your missing coat. Though you soon found yourself distracted as you lifted one of Arthur's shirts up, tutting to yourself as you saw just how worn and dirt stained they all were. You swore that that man would wear these offending items until they fell apart on him...and some were close to doing so, judging by how often they'd been patched up.

   "Ah, there you are," Pearson's cheerful voice booming from behind you, making you jump out of your skin, "I need a helping hand gathering supplies in town and was wondering if you could come along with me for the ride"

   "Me? Surely there's someone more capable about?" Although Valentine was only a short ride away, the idea of being Mr. Pearson's captive audience for that short length of time was not high on your list of priorities for the day. 

   "Well, I don't know if you noticed but we are stretched a little thin on the ground right now," his hands gesturing to the almost empty camp area in front of you, "Mr. Smith & Mr. Escuella are yet to return from Blackwater with young Sean and, as you well know, Mr. Morgan is still yet to return from wherever he has took himself off to. As for the girls..." you tried to stifle a chuckle as he trailed off to glance nervously over at where Tilly, Mary-Beth and Karen were currently sitting at their wagon, making sure they couldn't hear this conversation, "...I'd rather not ask them. Uncle told me of the trouble they got up to on their last visit into Valentine."

You couldn't help but burst out laughing at Pearson's fear of trying to keep three excited young women from creating chaos. "Sorry, sorry," you apologised, wiping your eyes as he looked at you with confusion, "Well...since you have no other options, I'll join you. I've been wanting to pick Arthur up a new shirt anyways." Spotting your jacket at the bottom of the truck, you quickly threw it on, leaving all the other clothes heaped on the bed, "Shall we go now then?"

"Goddamit, why does there have to be a train in the station?" you grumbled as Pearson pulled the horses to a stop at the crossing, which was blocked by one of the carriages belonging to the offending train. After being waylaid by the shop boy slowly loading the wagon with all the goods Pearson had chosen for camp - not that any of these ingredients would do much to improve his cooking, you cruelly thought to yourself - your head was starting to ache from listening to Pearson's constant tall tales. All you had wanted to do was get back to camp and sleep off your headache, but that didn't seem to be happening anytime soon, thanks to this stupid train.

   "I know what you mean, I was hoping to get back and make a start on preparing supper," Pearson sighed before suddenly cheering up, "But, hey, at least it gives me more time to tell you about my time at sea. There was this other time..."

Internally, you found yourself groaning, trying to zone out the older man as he recounted yet another story, that this time seemed to involve him somehow, inexplicably fighting a walrus -  single-handedly -  to save his crew.

You glanced around, finding yourself admiring all the different horses hitched up around the station...until a familiar sight caught your eye.

   "Hey isn't that Brutus?" you interrupted Pearson mid-sentence, gesturing towards the big, black Shire horse that Hosea had gifted Arthur a few weeks ago. Arthur had rarely named his horses after losing his beloved Boudicca in Blackwater and was more than content to just refer to this one as "Boy", but after overhearing Hosea called this giant a brute, you'd jokingly suggested the name Brutus, a name that had tickled Arthur and agreed it was the perfect name for this beast.

Put out a little by the fact you had rudely interrupted him just as the story was getting good, Pearson grudgingly glanced over to the direction in which you were pointing.

   "Er, it does look like it. So anyway after I killed the Walrus with nothing but my bare hands…" 

   'So this is where you've gotten to Morgan,' you thought to yourself, once again not listening to Pearson's story. 'Here's hoping you're on your way home too.'

Smiling to yourself that your lover would hopefully be by your side once more, you absent-mindedly found yourself scanning the crowd of people that was starting to thin out as they slowly stepped onto the carriages...until you saw him standing with his back to you.

A smile started to creep over your face as you recognised Arthur's dirty blond hair, broad frame and filthy blue shirt. Just the fact you could see how dirty it was from this distance made you glad that you'd made the decision to buy him a new one now, as that one needed throwing out, never mind a good wash. Anybody would think that man spent most of his time rolling around in the mud than riding a horse around.

With his hands on his gun belt, he shifted his weight to one side and the smile on your face was replaced with a look of confusion as a young lady was revealed to be standing next to him, deep in an intimate conversation.

Unconsciously scowling at her, you were unable to shake the feeling that you've seen her somewhere before, but for the life of you, you couldn't quite place where.

You squinted your eyes to try and focus your vision on her delicate features before a feeling of rage bubbled up from your stomach as she kissed Arthur's cheek, in a way that suggested more than just friendship.

"And I'll tell you - I used that walrus meat to feed a crew of 50...and not one of them complained the way you and the rest of camp do about my cooking" Pearson waffled on down your ear, distracting you from your thoughts about this mysterious woman and how you wanted to jump down and throttle her. Instead you suddenly had the urge to wrap your hands around the cook's neck. 

Turning to face him, you barked, "Maybe being at sea for weeks at end with no food makes people more appreciative of the slop you always manage to serve up - no matter the ingredients." 

You instantly felt regret as the words left your mouth and you saw the hurt in the older man's eyes.

   "Christ, I'm sorry Mr. Pearson. I didn’t mean to take it out on you..." You paused, thinking about telling him about what you just saw, but you doubted this old sea dog would give a damn about your love life and so explained "I just have a real bad headache and it's put me in a bad mood."

He nodded softly and turned away so you wouldn't see him wipe the sting of the tears from his eyes.

Feeling guilty from the hurt you just caused, you looked away to the source of your own pain, only to find Arthur had disappeared from the platform and the train was now pulling out the station. Had he gotten on board with his mystery woman? Gone off to start a new life with her and left you and the outlaw life behind him? These thoughts rattled around your head as Pearson told the horses to giddy up and the pair of you headed back to camp in an awkward silence.

Jumping down from the wagon, you helped Pearson unload the wagon - still with an uneasy tension in the air, before you tried to broker the peace between you both by offering to help prepare the next meal as a peace offering.

   "No, it's quite okay," Pearson patted you shoulder to show there was no hard feelings, "You go sleep off that sore head of yours"

You nodded appreciatively, finding yourself thanking him and apologising once more as you picked up the wrapped parcel containing Arthur's new shirt, and headed back to your tent. 

As you walked over, you rolled your eyes in annoyance at yourself as you caught sight of the mess you'd left behind this morning. Picking the mountain of clothes up, you threw them in straight at the trunk at the end of the cot, surprising yourself as you heard a loud clatter of something hitting the side of the chest and then dropping onto the floor.

Peering over, you saw that a few shirts and a pair of trousers had missed their target and were now scattered over the floor... alongside a wooden photoframe, laying face down on the ground, that definitely wasn't there before.

Picking it up, you recognised the image of a younger, but still very handsome version of Arthur standing on the left.

'You've always been a good-looking bastard haven't you?' half smiling as you took in his handsome features, 'No wonder you have a long list of admirers to spend all your time instead of me.'

Well before you and Arthur had started dating, you had seen this photograph before. You recalled picking it up from his bedside table back then too, in order to get a closer look of how attractive Arthur's always been.

But sometime between then and making your relationship official, Arthur must have removed it and hidden it out of sight from you. Just as you were about to ask yourself why, you spotted who else was in the picture.

   'No…no it can't be,' you thought to yourself as you stared at the beautiful, dark haired woman standing next to him in the image. But, as much as you didn’t want it to be, it certainly was. Looking straight back at you was a younger version of the same woman from the train station…the same woman who had ripped Arthur's heart out and tore it into a million pieces all those years ago when she called off their engagement - Mary.

Time seemed to slow down as your mind went into overdrive. Did he simply remove the picture as a thoughtful gesture so you wouldn't wake up to a younger Arthur and his ex-fiancee looking at you…or did he hide it because he still loved her and her alone? Were you just a stopgap - something to fill the emptiness in his heart until she came back to him? Is that the real reason Arthur had hidden the picture and not gotten rid of it completely? So once he had managed to win her back, he could toss you aside and place it once more on his bedside to stare lovingly at while he held her in his arms?

You hadn’t realise you were crying or just how hard you were gripping the frame until you heard the sudden sound of glass cracking and a mix of your blood and tears began to streak all over her stupid, perfect face. Standing frozen to the spot, you stared and stared at her image, slowly disappearing under the physical manifestations of your hurt and betrayal, until you heard Arthur bellow out your name as he rode back into camp.

   "Hey you. Boy, did I sure miss you while I was gone," he cheerfully greeted you as he strode towards you, "I tell you, there's some strange sights out there that I've been dyin' to tell you all 'bout."

   "Tell me?" you snarled, acting the wounded animal you currently felt like, "Don't you have other people you'd rather spend your time with?"

   "What? What's got into you?" 

Your heart panged as you saw the hurt cross his face as he saw how upset you were. 

"Listen, if this 'bout me spendin' so much time from camp recently, then I am sorry - but I did miss you somethin' fierce y'know" he assured you, placing his arms around your waist.

   "Just like you've missed Mary for all these years?" Just saying her name out loud felt like you had tasted venom on your lips and needed to quickly spit it out.

"Mary? Where's all this comin' from?" He flustered, averting his eyes downwards as not to meet your steely gaze. Upon seeing you holding the photograph, he exclaimed, "Christ alive, you're bleedin'. Here lemme fix you up."

"I'm fine," you snapped at him, pulling your hand away from his gentle touch. Any other time, this small act of affection - the big mean outlaw gently cradling your hand in his - would have made you melt on the spot, but today your inner rage wasn't having any of it. Instead you blurted out, "I saw you. At the train station…with her."

Realising he had been caught out and couldn't bluff his way out of this sorry mess, he sat down on the cot and tried to explain.

   "Okay, yeah, I was at the train station with her, but it really ain't what you think…"

   "I saw her kiss you."

  "You mean when she kissed my cheek? That was her sayin' goodbye. Her and her brother are headin' back East to find their father."

You sat next to him, the photograph still in your hands.

   "Still doesn't explain why you were with her in the first place."

   "No it doesn't, does it." He sighed, running his hand down his face. "I was on my way back to camp, ridin' through Valentine when I thought I'd check and see if there was any post. Lo' and behold there was just the one - a letter from Mary askin' if I could help with a small problem of hers."

   "So you must have been in contact with her if she knew you were in town."

He shook his head. "No. No, she'd recognised the girls after their last trip into town and wrote to me on the off-chance I was also in the area."

   "Why?"

"Her kid brother, Jamie, he'd gone and got himself mixed up in this weird cult up in Cumberland Forest. Christ, you shoulda seen them all listenin' on as this lunatic spouted some nonsense about turtles or somethin'," laughing, he patted his leg until he saw your stony expression still waiting for the answer to your question.

   "Get to the point please, Arthur."

   "You're right, sorry," he said as he nodded, "Jamie was the only one in her family who stood up for me and I owed it to *him*, not Mary, him -  to help get him away from those crazy fools."

You fidgeted slightly next to him. You wanted to believe him, but he seemed to be avoiding the main topic of conversation.

   "So say I believe you about your reasonings for helping her…why did you keep a picture of her?"

Silence filled the air for a second before he simply answered. "I shoved it in there so you wouldn't have to keep lookin' at it when we lay together...and I guess I forgot all 'bout it."

You looked away as more tears fell down your cheeks. Gently placing his hand under your chin, Arthur turned your face to face his, looking deep into your eyes he told you, 

   "You’re overthinking – I’m yours. That’s all I want to be.”

   "Prove it." You pleaded.

   "Okay then...this should show you she's nothin' to me now." He took the broken frame from your grasp and carefully removed the picture from the frame, lingering for a moment before crumpling it up in his hand and walking towards the campfire.

Though his stride was purposeful, you couldn't help but feel he faltered once more as he looked at the flames, but those fears disappeared as he turned to look back at you with a warmth in his eyes and a smile stretching wide across his face. Looking straight at you, his hand opened and the picture fell into the flames, where it lay for a few moments as it slowly rendered into nothing but a pile of ashes.

Making his way back over to you, he picked you up and spun you around his arms.

   "I'm all yours...are you mine?"

Bonus scene: Arthur's POV

He slowly removed the picture from the frame, partly being careful not to cut himself on broken shards of glass and partly because he wanted to make sure he was making the right decision. He was convinced that after Mary called it all off between them, he'd never smile, let alone love again. But then you'd walked into his life and brought light back into the darkness he'd found himself in.

But maybe there was a reason he'd held on to this photograph for all this time - a reminder of the good times that existed between them. Heartbreak has a funny way of erasing those memories, but seeing the woman you once considered the love of your life in person has an equally funny way of making those feelings rush back.

But no, the heartache he'd felt for all these years outweighed the fleeting moments of happiness he'd felt with Mary. And that kiss on the cheek to say goodbye that she'd given him at the train station? It certainly didn't give him butterflies like it used too. Looking at her image one last time, he crumpled it up and walked over to the campfire.

Though he had confidently strode over to flames, he once more had doubts he was right to finally let Mary go. Turning to face you, everything suddenly became very clear in Arthur's mind. Everything he ever wanted: someone who loved the group of people he considered family, as well as loving him for the man he was - despite his faults, someone who was willing to stick with him through thick and thin, make him laugh when he was down, and never fail to make him smile, that special someone he wanted to grow old with with...he already had that with you.

Without thinking, he opened his hand and let the battered photograph waft downwards, enveloped by the flames and turning to nothingness as he made his way back over to you, picking you up and spinning you around his arms.

   "I'm all yours...are you mine?"

[lavenderbexlatte]

Hello!!! Welcome to 🦋 anon's probably-way-too-overthought analysis on the m&m series in light of the new part. I have stopped crying and had about 24 hours to think, and I have discovered I have many thoughts, and this will probably be way more detailed than it should be.

The first thing I would like to address are some of the accusations Chan made at the end of the most recent part. (While I understand that they're supposed to not quite be accurate because of their obvious root in insecurity, and a lot of what I'm saying may just be like "yeah, obviously," I still would like to tell at the character a bit but I can't so this is what I have.)

Claim #1: "You fucking came at us at that party with your little girl-dom agenda and the guys fell for it, hook line sinker!"

This one's fairly self explanatory, no she didn't. They literally came onto her, even him, with his "There’s that pretty blush," and "Whatever you want it to be," lines. (And while yes, it's very likely that he was just trying to play it cool, but there's no way she could've known that, I'll come back to this later.)

Claim #2: "Nobody fucking asked me what I wanted!" "Nobody asked if I was sure that I wanted…"

Also mostly false, but he does have a tiny bit of a point. Yes, reader did grab his hair without asking, which is a little iffy, but she didn't actually rough with him until he goads her on. But I would argue that the reader is actually the ONLY one who asks him what he wants, if he's okay with things. While there may have been a little bit of discussion on the decision to approach the reader that we didn't see because of perspective (him saying this is kind of telling me that there wasn't, or at the very least not enough, maybe even some pressure for this to be the moment), or maybe Changbin said something while reader is with Jisung on the couch, after that, we don't see Jisung and Changbin check in with him at ALL, and there's not really an opportunity any other time for it just not have been noticed by the reader. As his partners, and the ones in the situation who have the full knowledge of Chan's situation, it should've been their responsibility to make sure he was alright throughout the process, even if they're not the ones in control for this situation, ESPECIALLY if they're going to keep this information from their Domme for the night (which really, I would say, wasn't a good idea, but no one is required to out themselves so I'll leave it alone).

HOWEVER, the reader does check with him, several times. She asks for boundaries/hard limits/etc before they even start anything, and while again, he's not required to say "hey, having a sexuality crisis, first time with a girl, kinda nervous," and he may not want to tip off Jisung and Changbin that something's wrong, that would be the time to say something like "I'm not feeling anything rough tonight, if you could be gentler that would be great." She asks them if there's anyone that doesn't actually want to fuck her. Also, she implements a safeword system (which she specifically calls him out to make sure he's okay with), which they weren't even going to USE, and asks them at least twice throughout the scene for their color, and Chan specifically if he's okay at least two more times besides that. Actually Chan almost makes fun of her for asking so many questions, so I think this claim is just another part of his insecurity-fed delusion that she's conspiring to ruin his life, or something, but again I'll come back to that. My point is that despite being the only one who doesn't know his situation, reader is also the only one who checks in with him.

There are a few other things he said that I took issue with, but those are the main two.

Next; Chan's delusion that reader is like conspiring to ruin his life. (Really like how you depicted this by the way, though I may be thinking wayyy too far into this.) I remember watching some video when I had one of my mental health/disorders hyperfixations. The video was about schizophrenia, and while I definitely don't think Chan has schizophrenia, one of the things the video talked about was types of delusions, and this kind of reminded me of one of them. I don't remember what it's called, but it's basically a delusion based around one idea, and then you force the world around you to fit into that idea. One example of this that I can think of is Azula from ATLA. Towards the end of her arc in the TV series, she starts seeing hallucinating her mother everywhere, and you get a peek of her fixed belief that her mother is behind everything that has gone wrong in her life, which is expanded upon a little bit in the books. Obviously Chan's not experiencing delusion to the extent that she did, but I did see some (albeit much less intense) parallels that were interesting. See, if he only talked about how his boyfriends seemed to like the reader more than him, that would be one thing, but he brings up his mother as well, which even though they did speak, it's a little out there to say that your mother likes someone she's talked to once more than you. That, combined with his insisting that the reader is playing some sort of game makes me think of that a little.

Of course this was only at first, when I was like "wtf, where is this 'my boyfriends like you more than me' thing coming from?" And then I reread the first few parts for this monstrosity of an ask that I'm writing rn. While at first I thought that this was entirely out of left field, when I read through the first few parts, especially the second one, with the knowledge that he felt that way, I noticed a few things you had put in there.

For the majority of the scene, or at least the first good chunk, the reader deals with Jisung and Changbin alone, leaving Chan by himself to watch. Obviously, as we see the reader's perspective, we know that it's because she found Chan's attitude intriguing and wanted to be able to deal with that one on one (at least that's what I got from it), it's easy to see now how to someone who's already insecure about their relationship and themselves, that would read as someone replacing you. Especially when Jisung, with no ill intent, but still, outright rejects his help in favour of the reader, and once again, he is left out, only this time it's accompanied with the sting of knowing (or at least feeling) that your partner didn't want you involved.

Now I kinda want to go character by character, and idk, talk about what I think they did wrong? We'll see, I'm not going to edit this so here we go.

Jisung and Changbin : Honestly, looking back on 3racha's first encounter with the reader, they really should have done better as Chan's partners. Like I said earlier, as the ones who knew Chan's situation, and the ones who likely pressured him slightly into he whole ordeal, it was really their responsibility to make sure Chan was okay with everything that was going on. That, and them feeling the need to sneak around with reader behind Chan's back doesn't sit right with me. I get that they have an open relationship, but there's a difference between having an open relationship and hooking up with someone your partner doesn't like, and actively trying to hide that you're hooking up with them. Their relationship boundaries may be fine with that, but idk, something feels off about it.

(I couldn't figure out where to put this and you may have already addressed this but it's my little theory/headcanon that Chan actually suspected it was reader at Jisung's place, and when there wasn't anyone there, he kinda gaslighted himself afterwards, idk. With the new knowledge it feels likely.)

Also, knowing that they were together for a while before Chan joined the relationship I think explains so much about the communication issues they seem to have with him. While I do think Chan has trouble communicating his feelings about things, I think their established communication and knowing eachother really well doesn't help. I may just be making things up at this point, but I feel like they have trouble with communication with Chan specifically, maybe forgetting that he doesn't have the same time/experience thy have with each other? If that makes sense?

Chan : oh boy. I've gone into a lot of detail already, so I'll try to keep this brief. Obviously, I think he has a looooottt of insecurity he needs to work through. If I were reallllyyy analyzing this I would say maybe a past cheating partner(?), but unless that's relevant to the plot I'm not sure if that's just me reading too much into this. Also mentioned before, COMMUNICATION ISSUES. One thing that would prevent half of the issues with this series is Chan communicating with his partners, though I suppose that wouldn't be near as much fun to read. Or just communicating I'm general, like I said, he had a plethora of opportunities to communicate to reader if he wanted something different, and didn't. So, yeah. Honestly I think he causes most of his own problems, but I feel like we knew that.

Reader : Now. I spent most of this series completely on the reader's side. Last night after reading part six, I was like "oh my god. He's right!" But then I took a while and thought a lot about it (as you can see), and honestly, I think reader probably did the least wrong out of everyone. Yes, the hair thing was a little iffy, like I said earlier, but once I went back and realized that he was actively participating and egging her on, I don't think that's necessarily something she did wrong. Beyond that, she did the most in regards of communication (at least during sex, after is another story), even more than the partners themselves. I think she did the best she could with the information that was given to her. She saw three guys approach her as a unit, and while yes, she didn't ask before engaging with Chan, I don't think it's really her fault for assuming that they were all interested as a unit as well. She had no reason to question any of their sexualities, why would she? She sees three partners approach her in unison, why wouldn't she assume they were on the same page? Anyway, all that to say, I think reader is the most innocent of all the main characters so far, though I may feel different after sitting on this for more time.

Anyway, here's this unedited brain dump, loved the new part, enjoy. Or not ig - 🦋

i've been sitting on this for like a week bc it's just so long and amazing??? and i have no idea what to say?? 🥺🥺

the bit about chan having a sort of delusion that reader is out to ruin his life in a pointed, conspired way is VERY interesting. their dynamic is actually something that i pulled from myself, in a way. i'm really superstitious about dumb things. i hate, like, bumping into someone or accidentally saying something that hurts someone's feelings bc i know that that karma/vibe/intention (whatever you wanna call it, i'm not spiritual just paranoid) is gonna come back around.

reader is the opposite. she's just walking around doing things and thinking about herself, and then being shocked when there are equal and opposite reactions to the stuff she does. i overthink everything, so reader doesn't think nearly enough.

but lemme say

that the best thing you said is how jisung and changbin are absolutely not the innocent bystanders that everyone seems to think they are 🤐🤐 most readers LOVE those two. but think about it...what are they trying to accomplish, here? 👀

[phoenixdnasty]

The Problem with Season Five

this is already going to have a lot of you in the replies yelling at me. obviously, massive SPOILERS for s5 of she ra and the princesses of power if you haven't already seen it.

okay, so She Ra is definitely a kids' show, but it has a lot of themes aimed towards an older audience: abuse, war, found family, destiny and knowing who you are. I loved She Ra because it made me feel empowered, made me feel seen. after this last season, however, I don't feel the same. I will, however, talk about what it did well.

What She-Ra s5 did RIGHT

I very much enjoyed seeing the character development for most characters come to the forefront here. For example, SW returned to her original motivations. When she lived in Mystacor with the other sorcerers, her thirst for power was borne of a desire to fight the Horde. When she was rejected, then she chose to do what she did. We see a return to that in s5, where she takes a stand against Prime by enlisting Castaspella to stop her if she tries to take any power for herself. She ends up just wanting to help, to do what she can, which was excellent. Glimmer, Bow and a bunch of other characters are given some love here as well. I especially enjoyed seeing Bow and Mermista take on leadership positions in the absence of Adora; it was an excellent look into another facet of their personalities.

Character interactions in non-serious moments were, for the most part, good. Swift Wind and Scorpia being bros was not something I knew I needed but something I want more of. Netossa basically being Batman and knowing the weaknesses of everyone around her was great and an iconic scene. Bow thinking Catra was super adorable was also an excellent moment in the season and I could watch 9 more seasons worth of that. Something that surprised me was Entrapta's "not good with people"-ness being talked about and addressed by the other characters and explained by her; I wasn't sure if that was ever gonna be talked about in the show.

Side note: thank you Crew-Ra for giving Scorpia her own musical number, it was great.

Prime was also a fascinating enemy. He's this sort of religious figure, this world destroyer who's been around for seemingly centuries, maybe much longer. He's cold, calm and calculated. I've seen it pointed out that he's everything Hordak is not. He's manipulative, knows body language and facial expressions, and has a perfect grasp on how to get exactly what we wants. My favorite aspect of this season was the hive mind control. This was a very interesting plotline to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed HiveMind!Catra as well as Wrong Hordak. I loved the idea of pitting allies against each other and the angst and emotional weight that carried.

Going to use that point to segue into one of this season's strengths: Netossa and Spinnerella. Wow! We get a chance to see what a healthy queer/wlw relationship looks like, and two background characters get major upgrades in relevance. Two diversity points for one being a big girl and for the couple being interracial (in our world anyway), but diversity is the norm is SPOP and we might have to stan forever. It was extremely heartwarming and resulted in one of my favorite scenes to ever show up in animated media (one which I'll be stealing to add to my vows if I ever get married):

It was beautiful and I will absolutely never shut up about it.

There were some beautiful moments this season!! Absolutely gorgeous. A highlight for me cinematically was episode 5, which will probably bother some people when I say what I will below. I will be honest, the new transformation sequence and the scene of Adora holding Catra as She-Ra was powerful and had my heart pounding with excitement. It was awesome.

On the other hand...

What She-Ra s5 did WRONG

I'm going to break my issues with the final season down one by one, starting with the narrative of abuse.

From the very beginning, abuse is the most prevalent theme in the show. Prime (HP) abuses Hordak, Hordak abuses SW, SW abuses both Adora and Catra, and Catra abuses Adora. I liked the Crew-Ra tackling this issue. Abused people abuse people, right?

Why was everyone redeemed in s5? (Well, except for Prime, he was blasted away by She-Ra.) Hordak was given a blank slate to start over, even though he was the reason Etheria was war torn for at least a few decades; SW was given a hero's sacrifice, where at the end of her life she finally decides to do some good; and Catra is immediately forgiven for doing one good thing and all trust in placed in her simultaneously.

Hordak and H. Prime as abusers are pretty cut and dry; at no point are they ever remorseful for their actions, except for Hordak in the case of being abusive to Entrapta. SW is much more of an interesting character to analyze, because her motivations are geared directly towards herself. This seems to change in the final season, when she returns to her original motivations from back when she was in Mystacor. Defending her home. In her pursuit of the power needed to defend Etheria from the Horde, she fell into darkness. She began to abuse Adora and Catra.

One could argue that the hero's sacrifice she was given for redemption was unneeded. SW was an individual addicted to power. She was manipulative, using fake affection as a means to control. She didn't deserve a redemption. The only evidence we have of this supposed change of heart is a line to Castaspella: "...and stop me if I try to take the power for myself." Okay... so, SW, um... what changed your mind? Was it Micah? Because at no point has he forgiven you. In fact, there should've been much more hostility between the two of you (which is a point I'll address in a moment). In all honesty, the relationship between SW and Micah reminds me of what should've happened between Catra and Glimmer, or Catra and Scorpia.

And Catra... My problem with her story is that she was kinda just... forgiven? instantly. no repercussions, no long talks about feelings, no... consequences. Catra got the girl and that was it. A small list of things she did over 4 seasons, in no certain order:

Scratched what was implied were scarring marks down Adora's back

Was the cause of Angella's "death" #angelladeservedbetter

Kidnapped both Glimmer and Bow

Opened a world-ending portal all to ensure Adora failed

Also pushed Adora into what looked like an abyss

Verbally abused Scorpia into leaving

Wanted to pit Corrupted!She-Ra against her friends (dehumanization)

Got Entrapta sent to Beast Island, a deadly place no one ever returns from

And this is just the stuff off the top of my head. We all knew Catra was going to get a redemption, but this one was completely undeserved. She apologized to Adora and Entrapta. Two very short apologies for what canonly was at minimum, months of abuse, manipulation, intent to kill (which is literally mentioned by Adora) and general disregard for anyone or anything but revenge for something that didn't even deserve it. The entire cast should've been outraged. Glimmer in particular had a very big reason not to ever forgive Catra ("I'm not losing another parent!"), but it was all glossed over.

The biggest issue with season 5 was the abuse plotline completely dropped. You can't spend 4 seasons explaining how the cycle of abuse affects you and everyone around you... and shelve it. And we know the reason why it was shelved.

Let me first preface this with the fact that I am super happy we got representation. As a queer nblw who grew up feeling alone, it's so good to see things changing in media. An onscreen wlw kiss on a kids' show is groundbreaking and I'm very happy that She-Ra broke this barrier.

But all representation is not good representation. Catra and Adora is not a good representation of a healthy relationship.

Catra is shown throughout the series to be very unstable. This is even prevalent in season 5, when Adora "chooses SW" over Catra, she runs away. This breaks Adora's heart. The last thing that Catra needs is a relationship when she hasn't even confronted the issues that she has. There's no healing done in season 5, no therapy as the fandom loved to meme about, no long talks about forgiveness and the hurt caused. There's no callback to any of the pain and anguish that Catra put Adora through. Catra may love Adora, but if there is no healing done for the both of them, their relationship will fail. They will fall into the same cycle again. Adora will do something Catra doesn't like, Catra will do what she's done for all of the show, and it will repeat until something breaks.

I'm going to talk about the implications of the ending we have now, and feel free to argue with me.

She-Ra is a kids' show. Abuse is one of the main themes. Catra is shown to be an abuser. Here's what we are teaching younger audiences:

a. if you love someone enough, maybe they'll change

b. everyone deserves a second chance

c. your abuser will change as long as you're loyal and never stop trying to love them

d. things someone does to hurt you mean nothing in the wake of forgiveness

e. if someone who hurt you changes suddenly and wants to be back in your life, you should let them back in

Character interactions for the things that mattered (plot threads from previous seasons, general personality clashes, etc) were absent this season, in the moments where they mattered the most. (The best three in my opinion were Scorpia and Perfuma, the BFS inviting Catra in, and Mermista and Entrapta.) Glimmer and Adora should've had their time to talk. Scorpia should've gotten to say her piece to Catra. SW and Micah should've interacted more. Micah and Glimmer should've gotten more than an introduction!

I'm not going to get into how the entire final season was wrapped around making Catra and Adora get together (a fundamental writing no-no; it never ends up working), or how it was bad writing. I just want everyone to think critically for one moment. There are so many other glaring issues in what was, overall, a stellar show. If there was another season, or some mini episodes where the characters talk out their problems and past transgressions against each other, then I could excuse She-Ra. But I doubt we're going to get any of that. So I won't.

[ectora]

REVIEW 313

took me some time to actually get into that review lmao But i really loved the episode. I know some people will probably have complains about it, but as someone who absolutely loves Abigael, I really liked it. And honestly the fact that abigael was finally included in the main story is not even the reason why. I loved the pacing, it actually felt like Charmed. The stakes, the construction, the format, it was all on point. It was genuinely their best episode alongside 307 (two episodes related to the tomb lmao) and one of their best in the show imo.

I've put it in "hidden" cause it ended up being so long I did not expect that im sorry 😭

SCREEN TIME

Maggie: 29m20s

Macy: 27m36s

Mel: 25m39s

Abigael: 20m17s

Jordan: 10m32s

Harry: 47s

Not gonna lie, I did not miss Harry this episode. Maybe it's just cause I don't like the way they have been writing both him and Macy this season, way too focused on the relationship, but his story does not really interest me. And I enjoy watching Macy interact with other characters a lot more. I think we could have had a little bit more of Jordan as well.

What I liked

where do i even start. I genuinely enjoyed so many things in this episode.

As said earlier, I really enjoyed the structure of the episode, to me it finally really felt like charmed. The way the episode was done was beautiful and I LOVED the trial in a general manner. They're terrible lawyers, but still loved it lmao

Ok hear me out, the fact they had abigael and macy say what the fan had been saying but reversing the roles was actually sent me lmao

I really enjoyed that they balanced the rights and wrongs of abigael. I'm part of the people who think that overall, most of what she did was not that deep tbh, but the episode allowed to have nuances and hold her accountable for things she did while also recognising that she did good things.

Abigael finally interacting with the sisters. To me, that's the sign of good characters tbh, how they can interact with different other leads/mains and such relationships being interesting. Abimel, i'll talk about it a bit later cause i have lots to say. But AbiMacy ? I absolutely always love their scenes, one of the reasons being that I genuinely think they're the two best actresses in the show and you can really feel it when they're on screen. They have easy chemistry and whatever they are doing, they just work. They also had one of the best potential of the show in terms of dynamic and I will never forgive the writers for ruining this, especially because it's in part because of a man. Anyway, their scenes were amazing to watch and I need more. I was especially happy because let's be honest, if Macy has valid reasons to dislike Abigael, they often miss-portrayed that in the show and it often came across as being mostly based on the whole love triangle between Macy Abi and Harry. But this time it really was not and Macy was quite fair, even reaching the conclusion Abi doesn't belong in there - she does not- and I liked that they actually were fair on Macy's dislike and distrust. Then there was AbiMaggie. Honestly, it's not a relationship i expected to enjoy that much but oh god i love them. I loved them in episode 207 and I still do. They just have such a funny dynamic, I can't even explain it correctly but it just work. They're throwing remarks at each other sure but it's almost in a sweet funny way. Abigael calling Maggie 'Legally Brunette" was so funny and cute at the same time.

Talking about Maggie, I really liked her this episode. I love how she reacts in situations where they need a cold head. She takes the lead, she does what needs to be done and she reaches the goal. I really enjoy seeing her taking that role a little bit more. Especially because to me Maggie was always the one with the most nuanced view on the world which I really appreciate. I loved her speech at the end and she grew so much since season 1, she's really so great. The more we advance in the show, the more she shines.

I really liked what happened at the end with the sisters recognising that they are themselves not perfect and are even chaotic. I have a point about being chaotic for later but anyway. Yes the sisters are not perfect. Honestly, they have done questionable things in the past themselves and often are the cataclysm of new things happening. I think it just makes them more interesting and better characters. Black and white can only get so long. Nuanced, imperfect, that's where the complexity lies and what is more interesting imo.

The perfecti really are good characters. I mean their logic was completely f*cked, but they are so entertaining to watch, it's actually great. I like also that they continued that idea that logic without emotion is dangerous. But in some ways tbh, the Perfecti are not even logical. They want to think they are, but their own logic is flawed and like Macy said, completely lacks context.

Finally the power of three and FINALLY, the plot goes forward. Maybe that's another reason I really enjoyed the episode, the fact that it actually had a good flow, it felt like one constructed episode and it actually advanced the story which cannot be said about a lot of the episodes. So I'm happy that happened.

And finally Abimel. I mean, no one can be surprised Abigael has feelings for Mel tbh, girl has not been subtle about it lmao But that declaration was actually cute and their scene at the bar ?? paralleling the one in season 2, it was so sweet. I just love them tbh, and I really think they could have been the ship a lot of us were waiting for in the sapphic community especially.

Abigael's past. Like I loved learning more about her past and her mom. Obviously her traumatic past does not exempt her from her own actions but I do believe it give strong grounds for redemption. it also gives us a lot of insights in her character. Her mom was an absolute monster and what she did to her was terrible. There is no surprise in Abigael's absolute lack of self worth and her unhealthy coping mechanism. Like her mom basically spent her life telling her she was deficient and then punished her for something she had no control on whatsoever. She punished Abigael for her own action and her own liaison with a demon. She probably projected her anger about that relationship on the child that came out of it and it's absolutely horrifying. Like no wonder Abigael is not fond of witches and went into the demon side tbh. Like that's not surprising at all. It also explains why she was so against the idea of witch = good that the sisters keep perpetuating because that's simply not what she experienced. Again, it does not excuse everything she did but I do believe it helps understand the character better and that ultimately, it gives space for a redemption. And again, kuddo to both poppy and the actress who played her mom. First that was great casting and it was really well played.

Remarks

To be honest, I don't really have things I genuinely disliked so I'm more gonna do like a section where i could criticise some of the aspect which to me did not necessarily made sense but were often still funny, and who knows maybe done on purpose. It's gonna be a mix of a little bit of everything.

One of the first thing I was kinda confused on was their use of the term chaos. Because, well, chaos doesn't equate evil. But that's the angle they started taking at the beginning which to me was confusing. It didn't make the episode bad, but the more I think about it, the more I'm like the defence they were going with had nothing to do with the charges 😭 Like, the sisters tried to prove that basically Abigael was a good person. But the charges were that she was chaotic. and by the end of the episode we did reach that kind of point where they said everyone was chaotic and everything - which i liked - but also didn't really match the angle they took the entire episode. Because, I personally never saw Abi as evil. But she is 100% chaotic like that girl is the definition of chaotic and I love her for it. But her doing good or bad is not necessarily what makes her chaotic. Good deeds can be as chaotic as bad ones. For example, Abi binding her own power could be considered as good by some people (it's not really but you see what I mean) but by doing so, she would lose the title of overlord and therefore end the treaty. In that case the war would start and that would definitely be chaotic. If she was to stay overlord however, and control the demon world, which can be seen as bad i guess, she is keeping the war from happening and stopping attacks toward witches and innocents, which is the contrary of chaotic. So yeah, the angle they took did not actually make that much sense cause the two are not the same.

Not gonna lie, bringing Godrik up was so weird to me cause like he tried to kill her first and they all know it, yet she was the one said to try to murder him and I was like ? did we all forgot what happened ? 😭

Some of the things brought by the perfecti - such as her killing those humans or demons - seemed weird because like, the sisters did the same in the past 😭 But also that's part of the whole lack of context aspect I guess.

No they really used Francesca as a witness out of all the people in the world like the woman is a whole child abuser who asked help to the elders, which have been established as like, not good people lmao I know it was part of the whole the perfecti are very selective on the information they actually take into account and they use the information as well as twist them to fir their own narrative but still it came across as weird because that woman was the definition of evil. But that's also what ticked the sisters so well.

Why did they not call Harry to testify was also kinda like ... weird. I mean at the same time I can't really complain but still, it was a bit odd. Also the fact they never thought about showing what was abigael actually doing with Jordan lmao I mean it wouldn't go along with the plot but still.

Ok, that take is subject to controversy and I know it but anyway : to me, Abi stealing Macy's power was ... not that deep. Don't get me wrong, the story was bad. The execution was even worse. In the show itself tho, objectively, as an act, it was not that bad. It actually made a lot of sense for Abigael to take it for herself. Macy wanted to get rid of her demon powers, no one was forcing her. And Abigael actually asked her multiples times if she was sure. Macy definitely had her reasons to do so. But at the end of the day, Abi picking them up when they were gonna disappear in thin air is really not that bad. It's logical. Don't get me wrong I'm glad Macy is getting them back, but I also think there has been a lot of mix up between the actual act of stealing the powers and the way it was done/optics ( I still don't understand how anyone wrote that scene and was like, yeah kneeling is a good idea ??? Like what's wrong with you 😭). But like ultimately, the act itself is not bad. questionable ? sure. Evil ? really not. Like let's be honest here. Abigael never hid who she was (past ep3 obviously). She did not pretend to be an angel, nor that she was a good samaritan. At the end of day, the sisters knew who she was and how she worked. They came to her knowing this. At some point, there is a need to acknowledge that, she was no angel, but they knew that and still went to her. She said it herself, she is used to fight for herself, and she'll sting to protect herself first - which i personally don't really hold again a character. If you go in bed with a scorpion, you can't ignore the fact there is a chance you're gonna get stung. Plus, when Abigael "stung" she also actually still gave them what they wanted/needed. I personally never saw self interest negating a good action. I don't really care if she gets something out of helping. Like at the end of the day, why wouldn't she take them ? In some ways however I do understand why Macy would be mad, she asked for help and she didn't realise Abigael stole them and she doesn't like abigael in the first place so why would she be ok with Abi taking them. That's valid too. But objectively, it was more a she was offended and mad that Abi herself had them more than a it's a terrible thing to do kinda feeling. So like it's a bit of a weird situation because Macy being annoyed and mad is valid but at the same time, it's really not that bad in itself. But overall that story should have never existed in the first place. And certainly not happen like this.

Abimel. I loved it but I also have issues with it. Mostly based on the fact we learned Poppy was leaving the show. And not gonna lie, I cant stop myself from feeling like it was almost a bit .. baity if I dare say. They had basically admitting having feelings for Mel and low key hoping it could lead somewhere when honestly, if she's leaving, they did not need to make it romantic. Because honestly, watching this episode not knowing she would leave ? You'd definitely could think it's happening, especially with all the other hints in the past. They could have made it like more about how Mel was the one giving her a real benefit of the doubt and they had a connexion and she wanted to be worthy of that. It would not be romantic. Especially cause she admitted caring about all sisters so it would have worked. Again, don't get me wrong, I want the most Abimel i can get lmao but also it feels a little weird. It's complicated. 😭

Jordan is definitely coming back, I just wonder what are going to be the circumstances. I completely understand why my boy needed a break. Like their time in the tomb was long. We don't exactly know how time works there but remember, in episode 7 when the sisters were stuck, the normal time was like what ? hours ? while in the tomb it was days for Maggie. So there it was days in normal time so in the tomb ? could potentially feel like weeks, months even. So yeah, give him a break and some time to breath. I know they're dragging this whole Joggie thing but because of Covid i also understand and will let it go. I really like them tho.

Abi has some alcohol problems I feel like should maybe be talked about. Like she uses it as an escape, as a way to numb her feelings. There is a reason it was used to symbolise her submitting herself to the tomb. And her first reaction after leaving the tomb was drinking. When she feels unhinged or vulnerable ? She drinks ? When she lost the title of overlord ? She drank. Alcohol is her escape which is a bit worrying.

Not about the episode but I think it needs to be brought up. I've seen people trying to say they brought up the abuse storyline for abigael out of nowhere and like. Listen I completely understand not trying to give more thoughts to a character you dislike, that's fair enough. But saying that storyline is out of nowhere is just a lie. The only new elements we had here were the details of the abuse she went through. They showed the clip again in the episode, where Abigael talks to Mel about her mom. She rejected her, she made her felt, deficient, wrong. All that is emotional abuse. She said her mom tried to fix her which can easily be thought about physical abuse. Like none of these things were new. To be honest, not a single thing they clarified/established for abigael this episode does not follow up with what was in the show in the past. Her feelings for Mel were honestly rather obvious at this point. Her not wanting TCO to get hurt ? There is literally a scene where Godrik tells her it's her head or the sisters and she never really even thought about throwing the sisters under the bus. She even asked who knew and it's easy to think it's because if no one knew she could put it under the rug. Again, it's fair enough for people to dislike her to not try to put more thoughts into her motivations or scenes in a general manner, but then you can't really say things are out of the blue.

And most importantly, I'm sorry, I don't care if you dislike the character, but if you dismiss the abuse just because of the dislike, that's a problem. What a character goes through in her past does not, in any way, have to change your opinion about them. Whatsoever. However when it comes to issues like child abuse, the bare minimum would be to be respectful of the subject and not say "she deserved it", "should have done more" or just say you don't care cause that changes nothing. Again, it doesn't have to change anyone's opinion at all and it does not excuse behaviours, but man, minimal respect is not that hard.

Highlights

This episode genuinely had such funny moments, i loved it.

« Is this a hard time to admit I failed debate in high school ? » and « could the defendant keep her commentary to herself » competing with each other for the funniest part of the episode. The delivery was perfect on both part. And Abi and Macy interactions are always so good and them bantering more or less seriously all the time is sending me. Macy was just so annoyed with her, i loved it.

« Need something legally brunettes » I said it already but I loved that little scene between AbiMaggie and that line particularly.

Abigael went from saying "I could care less about any of you" to "because I deeply care about her" followed by a whole ass declaration AND admitting she does actually care about all of them. My girl got absolutely played and it was genuinely so funny. Like Abigael was so freaking smug about testifying against herself and she got played so hard, she was SO annoyed it was actually hilarious.

"Every battle I fought, I fought alone" like excuse me while I'll go cry in a corner. Again, Poppy has been absolutely killing her role this season.

"Your arguments are illogical" the perfecti have such audacity like girl have you heard yourself ? 😭 no one is being less logical than you right now.

Lmao when Macy said Abigael belonged into the tomb, Mel was not agreeing 😭 And Maggie was having none of the drama either she just wanted out.

The sisters realising they had to be Abi's character witnesses lmao it was hilarious pleas idc.

Theories

With Poppy Drayton leaving, there are two theories I kinda have. Obviously Abigael is either gonna die or leave. Ngl, I can feel the dying one coming more but well, that brings the two theories.

Abigael would sacrifice herself. Which I don't like but honestly let's be honest, there are 95% chances of that happening. I could see her sacrifice herself for Mel or for the sisters in general. But that's where my abimel issues are coming. I love abimel. I want the most abimel i can have until the end. But Abigael admitting have feelings for Mel just in the purpose of having her sacrifice herself for her and to be 'worth it' ? that's not only a byg trope, it's also lazy.

If she just leave, which wouldn't really make sense to be honest cause why would she just leave, would she give up the title of overlord (why even) or would they bound her powers (i would hate that) ? but anyway, if that's the case, I could actually see her learn Waverly is not actually the one rejecting her. Waverly could very possibly not be the one who communicated with Jordan and the sisters. No one ever saw her, the letters are only signed by her name. It's a bit sus tbh, so nothing stops it from being Francesca actually impersonating her daughter to keep her away from Abigael.

I want to know more about the perfecti. We know they killed charmed ones before, and it doesn't seem like charmed ones existed when they were created ? Maybe the charmed ones were created after they went into the tomb ? I still am not sure about them going into the tomb by themselves tbh. But also they don't seem to be evil in the sense they want power or whatever, more in the fact like they consider themselves perfect and that if someone stands in their way, they'll just get rid of them.

[according-to-the-laura]

StackedNatural Day 34: 8x04, 15x03

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

October 24, 2012

8x04: Bitten

Written by: Robbie Thompson

Directed by: Thomas J. Wright

Original air date: October 24, 2012

Plot Synopsis:

Sam and Dean come across a home made video of three friends whose lives are turned upside down by a werewolf.

Features:

Found footage, werewolf movie makers, pureblood werewolf, the boys give a rogue werewolf a chance.

My Thoughts:

I like an in media res drop into an episode!

To be honest, through a lot of this episode I was just thinking about how weird straight people are, and that there’s no way these college kids have as many cameras as they have angles of some scenes. Was Kate stopping to change angles when she was freaking out and changing for the first time? Or did you just have a constantly recording camera pointed at the toilet. Either way, weird. Also, Michael and Brian are SO dedicated to be recording everything that happens. Wild.

Can we please talk about how Sam and Dean are extremely bad at their jobs that they don’t notice these loud college students following them around and recording them all the time. Come on, boys. You’re better than this.

I do like Kate, I think she’s cool and strong, and I’m pretty sure she comes back later, which I love because it’s so rare that they use one of those dropped threads. I like a Final Girl and she did deserve to rip apart the creepy roommate.

Notable Lines:

“Maybe you got bit by an alien. That would explain the FBI.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 7.2

IMdB Rating: 7.2

15x03: The Rupture

Written by: Robert Berens

Directed by: Charles Beeson

Original air date: October 24, 2019

Plot Synopsis:

Sam and Dean, together with Rowena, work tirelessly to keep all of hell from breaking loose; Castiel cannot forgive an arrogant betrayal.

Features:

Lilith’s crook, Ketch is dead (good riddance), Belphegor wants to be King of Hell, Rowena sacrifices herself, the beginning of the divorce arc.

My Thoughts:

I am once again asking why this whole series of episodes was filmed in the day. Give me desaturated colour palettes!

This episode just makes me think about Nic @weedsinavacantlot screaming about being straightbaited by Samwena and how mad they are that they got so invested in a straight ship. But also I fully agree and I’m a little mad that Sam didn’t kiss her as he was stabbing her. I think it would have been poetic. I do genuinely love her death scene, especially the beautiful Celtic flute that plays as she falls. Also I am such a Witch-Sam truther and I love when he gets to do magic. Let Sam be weird!

I continue to not give a shit about Ketch and I’m glad he’s dead permanently. @meg3point0 got mad halfway through this episode and started shouting that the show is trying to gaslight us into thinking Ketch is a sex symbol when in fact he is an extremely average looking man.

I love Belphegor and I love Cas and I love seeing them together. I’m a bit obsessed with how Bel can’t stop himself from torturing Cas just a little bit, how he can see right down to his deepest insecurity, that he’s a tool who will be discarded when he is no longer useful.

I think Dean is totally in character this episode, and also I hate him a little bit. It seems wild to me that he wouldn’t be thinking about the Purgatory souls and Godstiel when Cas tries to explain why he killed Bel. Obviously Cas is worried about something like that happening again! Side note, the scene where Bel pretends to be Jack in a last ditch effort to not be killed… It hurts me. Imagine if he called Cas “Dad” in that moment. I don’t think I would have survived.

Notable Lines:

“This sloppy-ass ghostpocalypse – that's Chuck's ending? No. No, I don't think so. After everything that he has put us through? I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some glorified fanboy get the last word.”

“You know, your part in all this is, uh, pretty dangerous. I mean, you could die, get trapped in Hell. Your friends might never see you again. Funny, 'cause, uh, they didn't seem to think twice about it.”

“You are not growing on anyone. Sam and Dean are just using you. Don't mistake that for caring about you, because I can assure you they don't.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 8.5

IMdB Rating: 8.6

In Conclusion: Just picture me, rubbing my little racoon hands together, chanting “divorce arc, divorce arc, divorce arc”.

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