#idk it doesn’t feel like they put much thought into laura’s ending

[hayscodings]

i haven’t watched the entire episode yet but for a show as thoughtfully written as doom patrol i find laura’s ending half-baked if somewhat cliche. it’s exactly what i would have expected from a typical show, which seems antithetical to a series as subversive as doom patrol but i guess in the end they decided to lean into old tropes and tried and true predictability

[maxwell-grant]

SF6 Comic Thoughts:

(Spoilers) For those wondering at home why the dude became homeless in SF6, Ken Masters got suckered into a crypto scheme and is tanking his company and a developing country’s budget and his relationship with his son at the same time, and he almost gets politically assassinated by the end of this.

This rules.

Yeah this was great. Completely forgot this was even an Udon thing until I started writing this because this had like, a story, and dramatic tension, a major character facing consequences and minor characters getting attention, things happening besides boring basic pretext for fanservice and special moves which has basically never happened in an Udon Street Fighter comic. I like a lot that this is keeping things in limited scope so far.

Even Bengus’ art is pretty good here. I’m really not a fan of how Bengus’s art style looks nowadays, but the black-and-white heavy shadow palette really works here (seen some scans in color and, yeah just doesn’t hit as nicely), the stylization and paneling’s pretty great, idk man, it’s Bengus with a marginal budget and time to work on his art and having interesting material to work with. This has gotta be a breath of fresh air for the dude after years spent in the SFV mines.

Oh thank heavens the character in the poster isn’t Laura, sweet lord mercy I never want to see Laura again I know she’s coming back at some point but we’re good for now thanks

I’m really liking Mel as the other protagonist here. They’ve been sitting on Mel havin an expanded role since SF3 and here he’s given quite a lot more personality than I expected, lonely and frustrated by a sheltered upbringing and biting back against his father’s indecisiveness and immaturity, a pretty great foil for idiot manchild Luke to bounce off.

Mel Masters as he’s presented here is a frankly pretty terrific idea for a Street Fighter protagonist outside the games: someone who couldn’t be less impressed by street fighting but is bound by blood and circumstance to be a part of this, the anti-Sakura. An introspective kid who really just wants to go hang out with friends his age and play Pokemon, but who’s getting dragged through wolf-filled mountains and putting up with hyperactive fireball-tossing buff dudes because his dad is one of the greatest among them.

I like Luke quite a bit here. Not gonna touch the private military contractor thing here though, I feel like that’s a can of worms to unpack later, but if nothing else, Luke gets a lot more tolerable and even enjoyable when he has someone to bounce off even just visually, whether it’s Ryu or Jaime or the player character or Mel here. I think SF6 in game and here has settled Luke into maybe the best niche they could slot him in, described as “someone who likes to fight  but with no intention of getting stronger”. As in, the New Generation but not necessarily the protagonist, but rather the coach who’s showing the ropes for the protagonist, getting you used to the controls or pumping you up or teaching Mel how to improve his camping skills and etc (and in that context him being visually and personality-wise reminiscent of videogame streamers and E-sports celebrities is, a more logical and less grating decision, if nothing else, since those are the guys people go to nowadays in order to learn and improve at competitive videogames).

Curious as to what is Kalima’s deal given she’s making her debut here and what is her dynamic with JP, because I don’t think they’re quite retreading Kolin and it’s unclear as of yet how much is JP masterminding everything.

Zero clue as to who decided to have JP talk like a German cartoon here when he’s Russian and otherwise has little accent in-game. Would love it if they just revealed this was part of the ruse he was pulling on Ken and would even be in-character, since JP’s so far been defined as a duplicitous gamemaster, a brutal crimelord masquerading as a benevolent oligarch and someone who quite literally hides his winning hand the whole time he’s fighting you. I could buy that guy putting on a fake accent to trick a foolhardy American into underestimating him just enough to sweeten the pot.

In what is already a multi-layered scheme to ruin this guy and involves weaponizing the public spectacle of Street Fighter tournaments to leverage viral fame and, having a tragic child king beg Ken to fight in the tournament right in the middle of the guy having the worst time trying to manage his relationship with his son. JP is ice cold, I’m loving it. I’m loving this role he’s having as Ken’s biggest personalized enemy.

I’m loving having a Street Fighter villain who actually does have to take the slower route of planning and masterminding and backstabbing his murderous fighting tournament plots instead of just brute-forcing calling the fighters to take shots at him. JP seems significantly underpowered by fighting game villain standards, and this might make him dramatically more interesting as a villain proper.

I’m really liking the lengths that this is taking to ground Street Fighter in the here and now. IV and V took the Alpha route and moved the series onto a sort of comic book fantasyland where they’d never have to grapple with dates and timelines and so they could slide things into prequel territory, where as this seems closer to SF3 in that it wants to place Street Fighter firmly in the Now, with modern concerns and styles and changes to the world shaping the whole thing.

Almost didn’t think Street Fighter would ever bother telling a story with Ken that was actually about Ken and not just his relationship with Ryu. I’ve gone to bat for the guy before but this is easily the most interesting he’s ever been fucking ever, just this massive reversal of fortune grounded entirely in him finally not getting to have it both ways. His lore said he was facing “accusations of orchestrating a criminal plot” but little did we suspect he really DID assist in a huge criminal plot by sheer negligence. Bison would have pulled some ridiculous super brainwashing plot, but all JP had to do was just get Ken into crypto and hook him into a Nigerian Prince scam.

Ken wants a lot of things, he HAS a lot of things to deal with, and he can’t commit to any of them. He wants to be there for his son, but he can’t be there for what his son actually wants to do in life, so he drags his son into an anciliary role in his life instead. He wants to do right by the family name and company, so he blindly follows lifestyle mottos his dad used and tanks a billion dollars into a humanitarian project while constantly rejecting everyone who asks him to slow down or reconsider what exactly he’s sinking that money into.

He wants to use his privileged position to help those in need, so he funds a project intended to help a developing nation by, what else, a fighting tournament, and funds a nation into speedrunning through technological revolutions. He very clearly desperately wants to be a fighter in his prime again and do more than just fight “with paperwork”, and in the whole comic he only really comes alive when he gets to spin kick a drone, and he has this brief little moment when he has to will himself back into Business Mode to complete a deal with the least trustworthy man of all time, and the whole time he’s patently unsure about what he’s doing and the comic calls him out on it.

It calls him out on just how selfless this idea is and how much is it really about him wanting to help Nayshall’s uncertain future, and how much is it him desperately just trying to achieve something, or even deep down how much does he just want to fight again and feel good about something the way he does when he’s fighting, and the comic makes it clear it isn’t just one or the other. Ken has always been the guy who had everything, who had everything Ryu didn’t. In at least two games his plotline is “things are going great for Ken in his home life and company as usual, but he heard Ryu is showing up at the tournament so he’s dropping literally everything to go fight the one guy who makes fighting worthwhile for him”.

This is what happens when Ken’s character catches up to reality, of what it’s like for Ken Masters, immature carefree good-hearted fighting hothead, to try and manage being himself against being a global titan of philantropy and industry (and having had this entire thing thrust onto him from birth) and being a wholly attentive family man all at the same time. Something’s just gotta give. You can’t be as wealthy and connected as Ken and be irresponsive and impulsive and immature, no matter how well-intentioned or good you are. I’m frankly shocked that this went there at all after the trailers mostly implied Ken was just framed injustly.

Street Fighter has never ever even so much as gestured into the idea of Ken’s position and money as anything other than a point of contrast between him and Ryu, so to go from that to this where the whole thing’s predicated on the idea that Ken, while every bit as well-intentioned as ever and certainly a lot more mature than he’s ever been before, fucked up badly and is doing some real damage to people he cares for? That he tried to have everything and now stands on the precipice of having nothing? That’s good shit my dudes.

He hears “You said you were doing this for all the people in this country. So...haven’t you already decided?” and solidifies his decision, while the panel focuses very clearly on him clutching the red headband, the object that’s always been strongly associated with both his and Ryu’s trajectories, the thing that he gave Ryu all the way back in the Alpha series as a reminder to stay focused and not give in to the Satsui no Hadou, the monstrous thing that was tearing Ryu apart and costing him every ounce of concentration to stave off, a thing that’s come to represent their friendship as well as Ryu personally. The thing that he now clutches to stay focused in his decision, before everything goes wrong and he pays the price for it no matter what his intentions were.

This is some primo shit and easily the most I’ve ever been ecstatic about a Street Fighter plotline in a very long time. Seems like they set out hardcore to undo Ken’s long-standing role as a secondary character to Ryu and not rely on their traditionally hackier stuff with superpowered dark sides or Shadaloo plots. Thoroughly impressed and I can’t wait to see more.

[randomsufff]

This is REALLY FUCKING LONG so hope y’all enjoy lmao. (Sorry if formatting looks weird- blame tumblr)

OK HERE WE GO PEOPLE- I will start by saying I don’t hate The Quarry. I like it very very much, but I think that it could be BETTER. Speedrun what I find lacking in the game.

1. There’s literally no ending

2. Some characters having no personality (looks at Abi and Nick)

3. Honestly they don’t feel like friends/ people who’ve worked with kids for a summer

4. They move from area to area with little reward/ purpose in the end. (Looks at Junkyard scene- like wtf was that for)

5. Also- some choices just- don’t make sense (looks at Dylan cutting off his whole ass hand with a old ass chainsaw/ fucking gun and doesn’t immediately die from blood loss/ has no worry about possible infection afterwards.)

Listen- I get that it’s supposed to be like a cheesy slasher film (“that what the VCR box covers are for” I KNOW) but I really did not get that feeling AT ALL when playing. It just felt like bad writing at times.

SO! Here’s my version: The Quarry starts off like a cheesy slasher film (beginning of the game is mostly the same- Max and Laura’s little horror movie moment, wanting to stay a day longer bc of Emma, cheesy fire pit scene…)- with all the characters playing up a certain archetype ( Emma- “popular girl”, Jacob- “stupid jock”, Nick- “try hard nice guy”, Abi- “quite nerd”. Kaitlyn- “headstrong leader”, Dylan- “comic relief”, Ryan- “brooding loner”) to 1000%, to the point where it’s almost cringe worthy. (If you can’t predict whatever stupid ass line they’re gonna say next- I don’t want it.) BUT THEN- as the night goes on they gain more depth and shit. Idk this can tie into a parallel/metaphor of the werewolf where these teens are changing into people they’re not- becoming a monstrous version of themselves in their eyes??? Idk I’m spitballing, don’t think about it too deeply.

The Hag of Hacketts Quarry will play a bigger part in the actual story- wanting revenge against the Hacketts and supernaturally influencing the teens and the wolves to try and kill all the Hacketts. The Hacketts ARE NOT ASSHOLES FOR NO REASON- they are a normal family (who treats Ryan like family too) who are trying their best to fix the mess they made, in the worst way possible. This way- the player can morally struggle if they decide to end the Hackett family bloodline.

(Beware- it is truly so long beneath this read more- I sincerely thought about just putting a link to somewhere you can read this but thought that was too much effort for everyone involved. Have fun :D)

I went really in-depth in my jumbled notes, including what different choices would look like, but I’ll follow my “Best Ending” Route bc it’s the one that gives everyone a chance to shine.

DA CHARACTERS AND THEIR ARCS:

- Dylans pretty fine as is. Add that he feels like a liar to Ryan and can’t truly date him cause he’s been putting on a persona all summer. Overcompensates with humor

- Kaitlyn- very confident in who she is (anyone who’s that good with a gun automatically is lol)- but also has bad anxiety attacks or something. Like she’s very go with the flow and know what she’s about but if she thinks about her life and future too long that’s when she starts to spiral. A true “try to casually dismiss all the problems in my life” kinda gal. (Same bestie)

- Jacob: similar to original but needs to play up his heart more, shows he really cares for his friends. Have him be very sacrificial. He’ll act like a stereotypical bro jock at first but he’ll reveal his true himbo nature later on. He acts goofy bc it makes people/the kids laugh the most but feels like maybe he’s too annoying at times/ pushes it too far.

- Emma: A pretty big influencer, convincing Hackett that a “day to day” vlog about the camp and councilors will help bring popularity/ positively impact reputation. Have her constantly blogging and preforming for the camera. Arc will be her hating that and wanting to quit but not wanting to let people down.

- Abi: Needs more personality in general. Have her go from reserved and walk overy to self confident and brave. Have her be crafty and smart (picking locks, putting together the truth?, getting out of situations cleverly).

- Fucking Nick: needs the most work of all. Why tf is he British? That’s his only personality bro. He feels like he needs to conform, his accent makes him feel like he stands out too much and people secretly make fun of him. All the other councilors have been working together for years, but he’s just joined the team this summer so he feels extra out of place. He’s a try hard, sucking up to Jacob a lot- he doesn’t need to tho, Jacob likes him as a friend/ as he is.

- Ryan just needs to either get over denial faster or make it very obvious he’s in denial and have others call him out. Main problem people had with him was he was kinda on Chris’ side, was defending them/he looked sus as hell. Highlight his relationship with the Hacketts more. Show that he’s like family to them. Also should show people look to him as their natural leader- have the others respect him more. Have him seem aloof because he didn’t really know how to interact with others, and sometimes the feelings don’t feelings so he can’t communicate/ emote his emotions that well. Would rather be seen as brooding and mysterious then incompetent at emotion.

Ok Major Backstory changes that the story revolves around-

- THE HAG HAS A BIGGER INVOLVEMENT. Basically everything’s gone to shit cause of her/ her want of revenge. Thought tonight is the perfect opportunity (all the teens there- scare them into killing Hacketts/ send Turned wolfs after Hacketts)

- Chris’ kids were being kept in the electric cages in the basement (for reasons explained later). The Hag caused a power outage that night so that’s how they escaped into the wild.

- Play up an unexplained anger towards the Hacketts/ Chris when things go to shit (it’s the Hags influence in an effort to make them kill the Hacketts)

- Only the brothers (cousins? I forgot what they were) go after the councilors, and there’s not a single thought behind those eyes so thought it was best to kidnap and hide the teens until dangers over to not risk them knowing the Truth TM.

- Ryan can only romance Dylan- sorry Kaitlyn but there was 0 chemistry/ scenes in the original so… (Also that stupid “thing” between Lauren and Ryan doesn’t exist cause it’s so pointless.)

Story lets go:

Beginning will stay mostly the same- again, play up archetypes and makes super cheesy. Jacob will take the car piece/ cut fuel line because he wants to “hang with Emma one more night” (Or so he says). Have Ryan step up after Chris leaves and be more instant that they stay in the cabin and the player can choose wether they do or don’t. (If they stay inside no one can get bit.)

Sine we’re going best ending- everyone stays inside. Just move fire pit scene to a fireplace setting. Emma and Jacob still get snacks/ gun after approval from Ryan and a promise to stick together. Have everyone play up their respective archetypes more/ longer and establish relationship dynamics. The power goes out (cause of the Hag) and the campers decide to crowd around the fireplace.

Fire place is where real personalities start to show. HIGHLIGHT HOW THEY ARE ALL FRIENDS. I mean ffs they worked with kids with each other for a whole summer (and have worked with each other previous summers), they should interact more comfortably with each other. They can talk about their summer with the campers and stupid horror stories of working with little kids during summer. Can acknowledge how they self censor themselves unconsciously etc. Have that be a set up for whatever ridiculous swears they say.

Etc etc, truth or dare- Kiss Dylan/ Kaitlyn will impact how much Ryan like Dylan back (along with how many flirty dialogue was picked). Emma and Nick- both will look hesitant but will both go through with the kiss dare (Emma being super showy about it and filming it while Nick doesn’t want to be called a coward). No one runs off cause that stupid and who tf runs off into the dark forest bc your crush kissed someone else 💀. Just show Jacob being sad and Abi also being sad but also kinda accepting her fate cause she didn’t think she was good enough for Nick anyways. Cue Awkward Tension that Dylan breaks with a joke. Emma then dare Abi to, idk, move everything in Hacketts office over by an inch. Nick volunteers to help (cause he saw how sad/ understanding she looked and wanted to talk) and they head off. Jacob says he’s gonna take a breather but Emma knows what’s up and follows him eventually.

Nick and Abi have conversation/ interaction similar to original game in Hacketts office. (“Ha, so are we actually gonna move everything?” “Let’s just move his stapler and wait for a few minutes ha, I’m not moving everything.” *Then they talk or whatever*)

Meanwhile Emma meets up with Jacob- she complains a bit or whatever and asks why Jacobs so bothered since they’re not together anymore. Reveal that Jacob never got a straight answer as to why, other then a vague “long distance won’t work”, and asks if she even truly liked him in the first place or if he actually was some summer fling. Emma will look hesitant but then BOOM GUNSHOTS ARE HEARD NEARBY (it’s the brothers trying to tranc at a werwolf trying to get in the cabin).

Everyone obviously gets concerned. They can hear scratching, whatever, more gunshot, essentially near their window. The brothers come knocking on the door, and that’s when shit goes down, everyone has to hide and run away. Would be a hold breath situation that you can fail or win as they break into the cabin. If win, Jacob will decide to eventually self sacrifice cause the brothers were close to Dylan and Abi or something. Shouts and runs out causing the brothers to follow him. After they leave Dylan says they should get help via the radio shack. Emma, Abi and Nick go to find Jacob (Nick has the gun) Dylan, Kaitlyn and Ryan go to shack after taking Chris gun.

Emma, Nick and Abi find Jacob caught in a trap yelling, the brothers putting blood on face. If Jacob took the car piece, it’ll be lost as he’s trashing around. They can eavesdrop to what they are saying into walkie talkie to gain some context early on or attack straight out. Attack sequence. Abi and Nick will team up against two hunters while Emma gets Jacob out. The hunters aren’t trying to kill them so they’re like, trying to knock the teens out at best. Cue Abi and Nick fighting for their lives lmao. Emma will get Jacob out, and you can fail the fight resulting in Nick and Abi getting captured. However, best case scenario, you pass the quick time events and everyone will run as soon as Jacobs free. Will head to the radio shack.

Jacob and Emma will hang back and try to pick up the convo they started in the cabin on way to radio shack. Maybe start to dive into the problem of Emma’s want to not disappoint her fans and how that’s affected how she acts with Jacob. Abi and Nick will also talking. Idk maybe they’ll try to compare themselves to Emma and Jacob. Like the Nick will feel like how he doesn’t fit in/ not as outgoing as Jacob, Abi feeling the same about Emma. Everyone will eventually group together together to speculate wtf is happening.

Meanwhile- Kaitlyn will hover a good distance ahead of Dylan and Ryan cause she knows what’s up with them. Says it’s to protect their sorry asses since she’s the best with a gun but is really wingmaning for Dylan lol. The conversation bw Ryan and Dylan being the same as in game cause that was cute. At shacks, everything’s mostly same with Kaitlyn hanging by the door to be on watch (she will also provide biting commentary when Dylan does his famous SOS speech etc.

K- “Wow I can’t believe I’m the only one in possession of a brain cell here.”

D-“Hey- You we’re supposed to hand over custody of it hours ago”

K-“well clearly you’ve failed to pick it up at the specified time so I’m keeping it for the weeken-“

R-“Holy shit guys can we focus on not dying rn please”)

Dylan won’t ask to amputate arm bc that so stupid and unrealistic without proper medical equipment. He will be bit if opened door in first chapter with Abi, no choice to cut off arm/ stop effects. But in Best RouteTM Abi doesn’t opens the door. Continue as usual with the second group arriving, hiding in the cabin and attracting the wolf, and Dylan chasing it away with radio frequency. The group meets up, (Could include Emma’s air freshener/mace scene with Dylan when he opens the cabin door bc that shit was funny) and hears Lauren injuring the daughter. (Ok I thought long an hard about it but I think the player should have the opportunity to save all the Hacketts. I can’t make it possible to save everyone but one- it’s not very rewarding. SO INSTEAD- she only injured the daughter but thinks she killed Chris because 1) she couldn’t get close to the body to verify with all the councilors immediately rushing onto the scene and 2) thought that just shooting a silver bullet would do the trick and didn’t think much about aiming for the head/ heart- so she just got her in like the leg). The teens will see this Thing passed out by the water- that’s clearly not a bear- and freak tf out. The immediately hide in the swimming pool area. The daughter wolf will be heard retreating bc she’s got this bullet scorching her from the inside in her leg and is weak from the water puddles near the pool.

Ok here Jacob will confess to messing with the car. Bc that didn’t get talk about at all in game. Everyone will be outraged of course. Emma will be like wtf are you serious rn. Jacob defends himself like “I just wanted to talk- I felt like we wouldn’t get another chance- I just wanted tonight to be fun I literally had no idea this was gonna happen.” Admit he lost the piece if he took it. Eventually Ryan says he forgives him. Some people (Emma? Abi?) can be like wtf but Kaitlyn will chime in and agree like- “it’s in the past, there’s literally nothing we can do. If werwolves weren’t a thing this probably would have been the best night ever, just hanging with you all one last time.” Everyone will reflect on that- Jacob will look grateful. Ryan will agree like, “we need to keep our heads on straight anyways- Kaitlyn is 100% right- it’s in the past. Lets focus on what to do next/ how to survive”

(If either Abi, Nick got bit - here would be a transformation/ shooting scene, similar to the original, but since this is the Best Route and no one’s bit we shall move on)

Nervous breakdowns time (yay) especially from Ryan. He keeps trying to keep the situation under control and downplay/ logic his way out through increasingly ludicrous excuses. Dylan will call him out/ calm him down (though this can be done by Kaitlyn if Dylan’s romance points are low). Big Time will pass with them trying to think of what to do and passing back and forth information/ evidence player has collected when Laura knocks. They’ll move to main room to crowd around door. Continue as game. Have Ryan act more leader-ly with the others huddling together behind Jacob, and Kaitlyn (who still have both guns bc it’s stupid how one of them gets lost in the original game) who are on either side of Ryan. Continue as usual as Laura explains where she’s been.

Everything there’s the same. Backstory wasn’t wasn’t awful in my opinion. Travis asks for help, she agrees yadda yadda. HOWEVER- I think his reasoning for her helping him was a bit shit tho. So- he’s kept her there to watch her boyfriend turn to convince her that helping him will save Max (Bigger chance of finding them, if only slightly though he’ll take any help at this point). She’ll agree bc it’s canon she’ll do anything to save Max. Hell, LET TRAVIS ACTUALLY BRING HER HIS FINDINGS AND PLAN SHIT WITH HER (but he doesn’t tell her everything- just enough info to plan to kill Silas). They’ll work as a ACTUAL TEAM and wait till the next full moon. Time skip a month, plan is Laura and Travis will split up trying to find the wolf in the woods. Laura brings Max cause she doesn’t want him locked up alone/ doesn’t fully trust Travis to not pull some shit. Understands Silas has an attachment to that burnt circus and focuses there before spreading out. Boom power outage happens, Travis gets called to house. Laura goes on to “kill” the daughter thinking it’s Chris, yadda yadda, visit island, etc. She’ll note Max escaped (because be fr no way a werwolf is bested by a fucking locked trapped door when he can just burst through the roof or something) and gets chased off the island similar to Emma in the original (QTE and all). NOTE: There will be another wolf who joins the chase near the end (Spoiler alert- it’s Chris cause he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it to the cages in time) If she fails enough QTE she has her werewolf bite, but again- Perfect Route so that doesn’t exist and her eye will forever be fucked (Kinda cheep for them to give her this gruesome injury only to magic it away :/).

Present day. Cue pissed off everyone about how Chris/ the Hacketts willingly put them and LITTLE KIDS in danger. Play up that unexplained anger in everyone, though Ryan’s is a bit more low-key. Laura learns of the power outage, that the thing she shot wasn’t dead - and says “welp I don’t have time for this I’m off to hunt Chris’s ass down for real this time.” Have Ryan intervene and convinces her to let him talk to the Hacketts to properly explain what tf is happening. Again, the Hacketts are not assholes cause that’s cheap. Really have Ryan drive home that he thinks of them like family and Vice versa. (Cause like Chris cares for him, he’s on good standing with his kids, if the parents/brothers lives on campus why isn’t he good with them too???) Have Ryan pled with her to not harm the Hacketts. That he’ll help her hunt down Silas (They all will- everyone volunteers) and their best bet is gathering all the info from the source. Offers to take her to the Hacketts residence so they can hear the explanation together (half because he doesn’t trust her not to go off by herself and kill Chris). Laura agrees cause they might also have an idea where Chis is, but is willing to at least hear what they have to say. Meanwhile Emma, Jacob, Abi and Nick will head back to camp while Dylan and Kat go to find a car part to replace. Kaitlyn will say only her and Dylan will go bc it has less a chance of someone else getting hurt and really what’s one more person gonna help against a friking werwolf. Ryan agrees and everyone splits off, each group having a gun for protection.

IN THE CABIN:

The gang will hole up in Chris’s office bc staying in the cellar is useless and scary.

Nick and Abi will hang by the bedroom/ be elsewhere while Emma and Jacob finally get the the root of their problems in the main room. Similar to Abi and Emma’s convo in the original, perhaps Emma is trying and failing to maintain her persona as she’s record everything for evidence/ diary log sake. Jacob will ask why she’s still pandering to an audience. He says that he felt like he rarely spent time with the real her. Emma has her heart to heart where she feels like it’s all she has- how she understands it’s why their relationship was so strained in the first place but couldn’t break free from her following that easily. She broke up with him not cause of lack of wanting to make long distance work or lack of love but because she felt like he didn’t deserve to date someone like her: their entire relationship being founded and so tightly integrated with this fake personality she’s created. Like said before- she hates it and what it’s done to her life but it feels like a switch she can’t turn off sometimes and the guilt of letting down people who constantly praise her for being a source of happiness and entertainment is enough to stop her from attempting to fix that. Jacob listens and understands- he felt at times he was putting on a tough/goffy act like she does. Cause it makes people smile the most. That he’s not sure if his everyone even likes him all that much or if he’s too annoying. Plus he feels responsible and super guilty for everyone being stuck here.

Abi and Nick will then interrupt saying they’ve heard enough - having eavesdropped on the whole convo.

Abi and Nick will say theirs heart to hearts to those two. Abi starts by saying that Emma has no reason to fear everyone being disappointed in her because she’s awesome the way she is. Emma never really played up the part around Abi that much since she doesn’t like the camera/is camera shy so she know how Emma really acts (which isn’t that different from the persona she plays. Her friendliness and her kindness of reaching out to anyone not included is very much there) . Claims that the true followers don’t like her for the drama she creates but the kindness and affection she has towards her friends and the kids. Goes on to complement her and her people skills. She understands her following is important to her but tells her that she really has no reason to be afraid to reveal her true self since she’s already so great, that the people who really love her content will stick around.

Nick could bring up the kiss dare between him and Emma- how unhappy she looked after. Say that he held his tongue bc he felt like he didn’t have the right to say anything since he’s not THAT close with her- but now says that he see how taxing performing all the time is on her- and how she deserves to be able to do whatever she wants.

THEN he rears to Jacob to say AND YOU WDYM YOURE TOO ANNOYING??? YOU LITERALLY SACRIFICED YOURSELF FOR EVERYONE WDYM YOU THINK EVERYONE HATES YOU? He reassures that while he was really PISSED at him for messing with the car- before everything turned to shit it WAS a fun night and it honestly Chris’s fault for hosting a fucking kids camp while being a werwolf/ near werwolf ground. He goes on to say his insecurities- that Jacob is the only guy to make him feel included. That he was the one who constantly reached out to Nick when Nick felt outcasted because he’s a new counselor and his accent (idk kids would probably mildly make fun of that shit and he’s been mocked in the past so not good combo ig) Jacobs his roll model- and perhaps he’s been trying a little too hard to fit in but he wants to be liked in the same way everyone likes Jacob.

Abi agrees and says how Jacob would always reach out to her and Ryan (two of the more shyer members of the group) whenever they did something. It pushed her out of her comfort zone but it was honestly what she needed- otherwise she wouldn’t have been as close with/ even talked to the others now. Goes on to say he was a good person who helped whoever needed it- counseled or kid.

THEN A WERWOLF HOWLES IN THE DISTANCE (or wherever the fuck they do). They’re safe but that spurs them to try and piece together everything so far. Mayhaps depending on how many clues the player finds affects if they can piece together the Hag’s revenge / can actually come up with a plan or not?

MEANWHILE- Dylan and Kaitlyn go to the junkyard to look for the part. They ALSO have a good heart to heart. Kaitlyn sees Dylan STRUGGLING IN THE TRENCHES with Ryan. Dylan thinks Kaitlyn likes Ryan cause of her little “dark brooding and mysterious joke” and tries to ask her opinion on the other councilors (But he really wants to know about her opinion on Ryan). She sees right through that shit but still messes with him- (this can 100% be a player choice to either keep going to another camper or just say “like Ryan?” lmao) like “Oh Emma? She funny as fuck and always so kind despite her popular bitch online persona. Jacob? a himbo (he’s trying), I’m jealous of Abis drawing talent like wtf, Nicks super chill and he was a riot with the kids (lmao do you know how many kids had crushes on him?)”.

Eventually Dylan will be like “don’t make me say it”- Bla bla banter- “so……. do you like Ryan??? Plz stop laughing I need to know, Kaitlyn this isn’t funny” and Kaitlyn just laughing her ass off like “boi im aroace” (ok maybe this is me projecting) but she can just say “I was JOKING LMAO IM NOT INTO HIM” and Dylan will be like“……..ok- but like what about that Laura girl do you think he’s into her? He’s probably into her right? I mean she’s so badass and she very competent which I am totally NOT so-“ and Kaitlyn will turn to him and dead-pan say “ you dumb bitch first of all she’s taken- she’s literally hunting down werewolf’s BECAUSE of her boyfriend what makes you think she’ll let Ryan’s skinny ass make a move on her?”

Romance point level will effect Kaitlyns advice. With a high amount she’ll say “plus he’s totally into you.” Cue spluttering from Dylan and lame excuses (wow this is really rom-comy) and she’s like upupupup. Now if Ryan kissed Dylan she can bring that up but if he kissed Kaitlyn then she can comment how disappointed he looked at himself. She’ll be like- “he’s so into you- I mean, I overheard you telling him about your nerdy alter ego back when we were heading for the radio. You had a total Rom-Com moment“ *cue more spluttering from Dylan* Kaitlyn will laugh but then she’ll be like “ok but seriously- that guy is really into you man. He talks more around you then anyone else- he seems interested whenever you talk- hell! You even told him about you’re nerdy science side and he was not fazed.“

“Yeah but what if he was only pretending? What if he was only interested in DJ Dylan *cue stupid hand gesture* ? I really don’t think I could handle a rejection like that for… no that’s it. I can’t handle rejection full stop.” (Insert more self deprecating things here about a feeling of fake confidence and such whenever he interact with Ryan because he can’t handle him not liking how he truly is)

“well fuck that man- I mean we’re still teens right? Listen- I know what it’s like, to be afraid of the future ok?” Kaitlyn will then go on to say how she used to meticulously worry about her future, whether she’d be able to survive the “adult world” on her own. Was constantly trying to plan for the future that she didn’t realize she was wasting her present. And it didn’t even matter anyways because it’s impossible to plan for the future. She was only supposed to be a sub councilor to cover for Jacob for a few weeks but seeing how carefree and happy Dylan, the kids, just everyone was made her realize how uptight she was about being constantly prepared for anything. She’s still afraid of what the future will hold of cause but she won’t superficial things stop what she wants to do now,- “just like I won’t let your fear of possible rejection stop you from AT LEAST shooting your shot. Like being rejected right now, would not even be close to the top worse things that have happened tonight. We’ve quite literally almost died like three times and counting and found out that werewolves are real.“ She then goes on to complement Dylan’s smarts and humor, his instinct to cheer up anyone who needs it. (“Would you honestly want to date someone you can’t be yourself around? If he doesn’t like “Dylan Dylan” that’s on HIM not YOU.”) Goes on to say that Ryan should be so LUCKY as to date a dude like him and-

“In fact… I want you to promise me. Pinky promise me you’ll ask him out at the end of this nightmare.” And Dylan will be like “lol if we survive” she’ll be like *dead pan stare* “all the more reason to survive right?” And Dylan’s like. Fuck she’s right- and Is lowkey inspired to go ask him out rn- but there is a time and a place and when better to drop a bombshell like a crush then at the end of a traumatic experience such as this- the movies always do it… so he promises- yay. (Can actually choose wether or not to confess to Ryan at the end) They continue looking for the car piece and can actually acquire it if they survive all QuickTime events and Dylan’s not bit. (Cause them not getting anything is stupid af.)

MEANWHILE MEANWHILE Ryan and Laura. Same as usual- except he will actually say something about Dylan and not his stupid ass dismissive response. No flirting bw the two of them, that was also stupid af. Ryan could quickly confess how he’s not been the best with emotions/ has never been in a relationship so he has no idea what to feel/do with Dylan. Laura can give him some advice and tell him how she feels when she’s around Max (He makes me laugh, we support each other through tough times, I tell him my fears and he understands and makes me feel safe/valid, etc.) Little oh moment for Ryan there. They show up in the room and the Hackets are merely mildly arguing about Chris and the kids running around. Travis notices Ryan and Lauren and is like tf????? Why? How tf did you get here? Ryan’s like- we fell through a hole 😔. Anyways Ryan asks for clarification- lowkey breaking down about the situation. The Hacketts are like fuckkkkk- yeah sorry man and comfort him.

EXPLANATION TIME. Travis would turn to Laura and be like- I didn’t tell you everything bc I didn’t fully trust you wouldn’t just kill my brother and she’s like “😬 yeah… I understand man” Anyways. So backstory’s mainly the same. Daughter and son free Silas-etc. THE HAG HAUNTS THEM. She wants them DEAD. Eventually learned of how to end it all - gotta kill Salis. Hunt begins with everyone gathering on full moon to try and find them. Chris and kids were kept at jail with silver painted walls at first to contain them. However couldn’t be a permanent since they were slowly building a tolerance to the silver paint and could break out. Planning to use the island, but needed to prepare it to make it totally isolated. Months ago- Travis suddenly suggested they store the others in the electric cages- in case the bars fail them now. (really he kidnapped Max and Lauren and we’re keeping them in the cells so he needed an excuse to place Chris and co. elsewhere) Says more people can keep an eye on them- they can tranq em or whatever if they get too rowdy- etc. they agree- it works and the werewolves seem to almost recognize the Hacketts- inspiring them to hold them in the cages again the next full moon (aka today). However- power outage happened and they escaped while everyone else was preparing/hunting. Mother and Father can’t leave the house (cause they old and be in the most in danger) called back Travis to protect them- sent the brothers after the kids. Again- there’s not a single though behind those eyes and they though that just kidnapping them/ covering them in blood without telling them what’s actually happening will protect them from idk the government? Preventing the information that werewolf’s exists from escaping and their involvement? They were arguing about fully telling the councilors or not since Travis already told Laura stuff and where Chris could be cause he’s not there.

Ok so NOW- Laura becomes like- progressively upset? Like tell me why tf would you endanger kids like that- why would you endanger US LIKE THAT? and like she be pointing the gun and shit- and maybe the Hag can be seen in like the corner just- lurking. And as Ryan you can intervene or not. If does he takes the gun from her and no one dies. The lights flicker (implied the hag is mad they didn’t kill a Hackett ). They then hear werewolves enter/attack the house. Travis mentions there are powerful tranqs/tranq guns in this storage esc room- tells them to get em and don’t kill any wolf that isn’t white cause that’ll be someone they know. Tranqs won’t last long so Travis will try to get the parents out of the house, suggests they do the same after they get the tranqs. They all split up. Depending on how many people turned will determine how many wolves are in the house. In this Route- it’s only Silas, the daughter and the son.

Cue quick time events, getting to the room, getting the gun, the daughter chasing them halfway through. Laura will get attacked, Ryan will pick up her shotgun and aim it- do the aim thing, make it like super quick- supposed to not do anything and he’ll be like- oh shit wrong gun and get out the tranq, and quick time events to shoot? After Ryan and Laura get the gun they go can head back in to save the others or leave.

Leaving will kill the Hacketts/ led to Ryan heading back to the cabin to wait it out with everyone else while Laura goes off to kill Chris (she figures he’s the second wolf on the island- will quickly add this route leads to the of shooting one of the two werewolves, Wolf!Max or Wolf!Chris Al la DBH style, being able to tell who to shoot via wolf’s body language/ one of the wolves recognizing her and seemingly holding back).

Travis and the brothers will be mildly injured, point the kids to other room where last saw parents, son is about to attack the mom, quick aim thing where have to shoot tranq before dad kills the son. SALIS STALKS OUT THE SHADOWS. He’s 1 v 7 so he tries to make a break for it, Laura shoots and hits his leg before it leaps out the window. Boom all Hackets saved, Hag is PISSED next time you see her.

Decide it’s best to stick together bc horror movies always get that wrong. Travis tells kids he’ll escort them back to cabin where they will hunker down till morning- it’s too dangerous to go hunting for Salis now with this many loose wolfs. Laura’s like fuck that I’m not abandoning my boyfriend- we’re killing this mf tonight or I go after Chris myself. (Present same island logic as other route). Mans is like ok- well- if we’re gonna do this we’ll need to involve everyone then- more manpower the better. So go off to cabin to plan, driving everyone in Travis’ car to get there fast.

Back at cabin they realize the connection bw Hag and Salis and how she prolly wants revenge. Cue someone being like, “yeah I was like unnaturally murderous towards Chris all night, for some reason.” And everyone’s like “you too?” Travis and co. arrive. Dylan will hug Ryan in relief- cue Kaitlyn and Laura winking it up. Talking bla bla, planning bla bla. Cabin group says their Hag/ Silas theory- Travis tells them about the daughter and sons involvement in the fire, Abi puts together maybe she wants revenge, Ryan chimes in saying they literally got attacked by all the wolves like 5 minutes ago. Decide to use Hacketts in open area as bait in to lure Salis out. Everyone else will try to tranquilize the other wolfs like last time/ lure them away in time to get Sailis alone and kill him. If got the car piece the car will be available to assist.

Boom- huge fighting/ hiding sequence. Takes place in a huge clearing surrounded by woods. Starts with Travis and parents calling out and mocking the Hag and Salis. (If councilors turned they appear here in wolf form along with Silas). Silas, the daughter and the son appear. Normal wolves appear as like allies/ backup💀. Pairs attracts attention and gets chased by regular wolfs while Laura and Kaitlyn try to kill Silas/ deal with the family. (cause they’re the best shots)

Three tranq guns- one for each other pair. The pairs being Emma/Dylan, Abi/Jacob, Ryan/Nick. ??? Idk we need the others interacting with each other.

(Emma Dylan have a sassy duo vibe. Abi exasperated by Jacobs simpleness but still appreciate his confidence and presence. Ryan and Nick are unusual besties. Know about others respective crushes and talk about them. Dylan’s romance point changes Ryan’s dialogue (“Yeah he’s so *dies in vague flailing hand gestures* ”- or “idk after tonight idt I can handle dating someone rn”))

BOOM shit goes down, the wolves appear. Starting from one duo- after running and fighting, go to next duo and switch to their pov. Lots of QTE. Have everyone interacting together as a group/ with others. Idk at least helping each other off ground/ protecting them in battle as group grows.

Meanwhile- Kaitlyn and Laura fighting for their lives against son, daughter and Silas. Travis police car will be used here to help protect the Hacketts from danger, while fixed van is used to drive out of range from attacks/ provides extra protection. Epic battle, saving Travis and parents from attacks. Brothers and parents in charge of tranqing the son and daughter. Travis body slams Silas with the fixed car, Laura shoots to immobilize him and Kaitlyn makes the final shot. Boom everyone’s saved.

Ends with everyone making it to the clearing as Kaitlyn makes final shot, Hag screams etc. Group hug with councilors, all crying with relief night is over

Actual Ending scene yay. Begins with Laura and Travis finding Max and Travis in the island. Emotional reunion with Laura and Max, her fretting over his appearance and health, Vice versa while Travis and Chris do that sibling nod. Though once Travis mentions it’s over- like truly, fully over, they hug too. Honestly, include something acknowledging the shit Travis has done/ gone through to cover his family’s asses. After they part sees Laura staring him down. Chris will then recognize Lauren and Max and start profusely apologizing, saying how he truly never meant for any of this to happen and how sorry he is for knowingly putting a lot of people in danger. Laura says she can’t speak for everyone but she won’t/can’t forgive or forget but she understands his desperation to fix things to make his loved ones back to normal. They all head back to the cabin .

Everyone else/ survivors waiting on cabin porch as sun comes up.

Dylan and Ryan pair off (Kaitlyn and Nick giving thumbs up then looking at each other like YOU??! Knew too????) Cue confession scene from Dylan- could ask for number properly (haha rule of threes). Ryan will then confess his character thing about not properly knowing what he’s feeling towards Dylan, has never really been in a relationship before, isn’t the best at showing or processing his emotions etc etc. but likes the idea of being in one with Dylan (aw- cut to Dylan being flustered as fuck as he really didn’t expect this lmao). Interaction end with Ryan offering to share his earbuds with Dylan. (“So… I’m surprised you’ve managed to keep your earbuds all night. Been listening to that podcast all night?” “Ha ha. Actually, I kinda forgot these were here. … … want to listen to the Hag episode with me and laugh at what they got wrong?” “Fuck yeah”)

Something bw Nick and Abi? Show with banter that shows a more self confident Abi and Nick. Could either stay friends or pursue the romantic relationship (honestly I can see either being good). Emma and Jacob discuss how they won’t get back together for now but will rebuild their relationship without that block of trying to impress others.

Laura and Max joins the others as Chris is seen talking with his kids and family a ways away. End with all councilors bantering with each other similar to beginning, except dynamics have changed. (Laura introduces Max properly- him and Dylan immediately hit it off- cut to Laura and Ryan rolling their eyes at their shitty puns. Kaitlyn complementing Laura’s gun skills and asking where she’s learned. Jacob congratulating Ryan, was rooting for them the whole time. Nick discussing science shit with Dylan??? Idk really- can make it feel cheesy lol, just make them interact outside of usual pairs) Eventually they all sit down- the exhaustion hitting as the sun starts peaking over the horizon. Someone ( Abi?) goes like “were all going to be traumatized for life from this night… aren’t we.” “Oh for sure” “Cant wait for the nightmares” “at least we have humor to unhealthy cope” as cop cars roll in.

Podcast bit went on too long- was good concept but way too long. Shorten that a lot + better visuals then just a screen. Maybe show the campers all listening to it in various places? Can show a bit about how/where they are outside of camp.

Yayayayayya finished! Holy hell that was a lot hope you enjoyed reading.

[mishervellous]

Maybe this is too weird or specific, but I would really love to see Ian comforting Mickey about his mom? Like Laura reached out to him after s11 and Mickey doesn’t know how to cope with that

my dear anon, I loved this prompt so much! idk if I ran too far with it, so definitely let me know. I hope you enjoy 💙

Title: Her

Wordcount: 3639

(CW: mentions of child abuse, sexual abuse and panic attacks)

“You’re gonna want to add your shredded carrots next.”

Ian momentarily pauses the video recipe, stirring his soup, and bringing the wooden spoon up to his mouth to taste it. He doesn’t turn around when he speaks over his shoulder. “Can you pass me the carrots?”

The hand he extends towards Mickey remains empty. Ian stretches his fingers, gesturing with them for the veggies. “Mick?”

When that too goes unanswered, Ian turns to face his husband. The yellow bowl with the rinsed carrots stays where he had put it not ten minutes ago, the sticks still seemingly untouched. Mickey is gripping his half-drunk beer tightly, his eyes fixated on the opened envelope in front of him.

Sighing, Ian turns off the stove, locking his propped up iPad, and wipes his hands on his gray sweatpants before joining Mickey at the kitchen table. His husband doesn’t acknowledge him sitting down, stuck in a worried trance, an internal conflict playing out over the splayed piece of paper.

“Mickey.” When Ian places his hand on top of Mickey’s, he recoils from the touch like he’s been burned. “She’s fine.”

“What if she’s not?” Mickey still doesn’t look at him, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth. “What if she’s fucking dead?”

“She’s not dead. They would’ve written that if she was, wouldn’t they?” Ian takes the letter in his hand, but Mickey’s gaze stays put on that same spot on the table. He rereads the first few lines out loud. “She wants to discuss her will with you—as in, she’s gonna be there. Nothing happened to her, Mick.”

“They could be lying.” Mickey swallows, flexing the hand that’s not holding onto the beer bottle. “To keep me from flipping out or some shit.”

“Then it’s safe to say that they’re doing a pretty shitty job at it.” His husband does look up then. Ian gives him an encouraging smile, patting his tense hand. “I’m sure your mom’s fine, Mick. And tomorrow when we see her you’ll feel like a big dummy for worrying so much instead of chopping these carrots.”

“Shit, your soup.” Mickey sighs, scrubbings his face with his hands. “Fuck. ‘M sorry.”

Ian stands up, leaning down, and placing a smacking kiss on his husband’s head. “It’s okay, I’ll do it. Just chill out now, yeah?”

“No way I’m letting you chop ‘em. You can’t chop for shit.” He goes to grab a carrot, leaving the bottle in favor of grabbing the knife that lays forgotten near the chopping board. Ian chuckles, going back to the pot, and turning both the stove, and the iPad back on.

And to think that Mickey had disregarded that same letter when they had gotten it in the mail less than a week ago. If it hadn’t been for Ian noticing it near the can before taking the trash out they wouldn’t have known about this whole will situation, this mysterious meeting that was happening tomorrow morning in Detroit. His husband had ignored it, thinking it was yet another money-hungry church looking for donations, or some unwanted advertisement of some kind.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that the official-looking envelope was addressed to Mickey’s full name, Ian honestly wouldn’t have known it had come directly from Laura Milkovich—technically Laura Andersen now—herself.

From her lawyers, to be specific.

Mickey had been on edge ever since, what with the law firm making this a bit too formal for his liking, and for all this inheritance talk. He’d immediately thought his mother must be dead, and these people were just letting him know that he was mentioned in her will. Mickey had been barely able to hide his panic, and worry from Ian.

But the letter’s wording told a different story.

At the end of the day, only time would tell. And that time is three in the morning, the moment they embark on their journey to Detroit. Ian had offered to skip his zyprexa last night in order to be able to take turns in driving this early in the morning, but Mickey had scolded him, and told him to not even think about it. So, Ian does feel a little guilty zoning out in the passenger seat every five minutes, fighting the effects of his meds in order to keep his husband company at the wheel.

Ian knew Mickey was gonna be tense, and the only thing that was gonna calm him down was gonna be seeing his mom alive, and kicking. Until then, Ian was more than happy to intertwine their fingers, and kiss the back of Mickey’s hand whenever he could feel his grip tightening. He didn’t ask any questions or make any comment when he woke up to a gentle kiss being placed on his forehead while they were waiting at a red light, just offering Mickey yet another encouraging smile, and a gentle squeeze of his hand, suggesting they get some breakfast in them before crossing into Michigan.

At around seven is when Ian took matters into his own hands, and convinced Mickey to let him drive the rest of the way. His husband looked so tired after a predictably sleepless night, and the tension was getting the best of him in the form of violent road rage, and excessive speeding—excessive even for him. Almost like he wanted to get there as soon as possible despite the appointment beginning at 9:30.

After attempting to distract him with silly conversations, and Pat Benatar’s singalongs, Mickey actually managed to fall asleep at some point. And when Ian had pulled up into the firm’s parking lot at around 9, he’d let Mickey sleep for as long as possible before gently waking him up with a hand on his jean-clad thigh.

And now that they’re here, Mickey is a bundle of nerves. He hasn’t stopped aimlessly walking in circles, forcefully snapping at the people strolling around in their expensive three piece suits.

Around 9:45 is when they finally see her. Rather, when Mickey seems to spot her. The only reason why Ian knows that Mickey has recognized her is because he seems to both deflate, and freeze on the spot, his week-long worry being replaced in real time by a multitude of feelings Ian isn’t able to read right away. He goes to stand by his husband’s side, taking in the sight of Laura Milkovich—Andersen—for the first time.

It’s a tad eerie how much she looks like Mandy. Laura’s obviously older, but with her black, perfectly styled hair, and her piercing blue eyes the resemblance is uncanny. She looks so much like Mickey too, and it gets strikingly more obvious the closer she gets to them. Laura has a small smile on her face, a tailored blue blazer, and jacket clashing with her pale skin. She’s followed by two middle aged men, dressed in their own fancy suits. With their jeans, and sweaters, it’s safe to assume that Ian and Mickey are definitely the only underdressed people in here.

Laura is beautiful. She smells florally, and expensive.

Ian turns his attention back on Mickey, and his heart falls to his stomach. His husband looks both incredibly relieved, and deeply pained—his mom isn’t dead, but it’s been just so, so long since he’s last seen her.

Since she’s run away from them.

“It’s so good to see you, Mikhailo. I’m glad you could make it.” Laura is soft spoken. She looks miles away from the archetype of a Milkovich. Mickey doesn’t react to that, just stays frozen still, his eyes trained on his mom. They are glassy.

Then Laura does something that leaves Ian in disbelief: instead of hugging Mickey, her son that she hasn’t seen in close to twenty years, she extends her hand for him to shake. This formal, cold gesture that leaves Ian wondering what kind of parent would treat a reunion like this with the same mannerisms of a business meeting.

Mickey just looks at the stretched out hand until Laura gets the hint, and retracts it. She nods slightly, shifting her attention towards Ian. “Who’s your friend here?”

They’re past the point of hiding. They make out on their balcony like two teenagers for everyone to see, they walk the streets of Chicago hand in hand more often than not. Ian’s reluctance isn’t about being ashamed of being married to Mickey, it’s about boundaries; he doesn’t know if Mickey wants her to know. This is his mom, and though she’s treating this like it’s an inconvenient formality rather than a touching moment, she’s still his family. He deserves the right to tell her when he’s ready.

So Ian just extends his own hand, and when Laura goes to shake it he offers her a small smile. “I’m Ian Gallagher.”

“Are you Frank Gallagher’s kid?” Laura asks. Ian just nods, not wanting to get into all of that right now. “Oh, how nice. Tell him I said hi.”

Mickey shakes his head to his right. Ian just goes along with it. “Sure.”

“He’s my husband.” They all look at Mickey—suited men included—when he speaks. Laura looks surprised, her mouth opening wordessly for a moment. “Ian’s my husband.”

“Oh.” Laura clasps her hands together, looking from Ian to Mickey, and back to what Ian assumes to be her lawyers before finally speaking. “I—that’s awesome. Congrats. We, uhm.” She gestures behind her, towards the room she had emerged from. “We’ll have more privacy there, so you guys can tell me everything.”

Both Ian, and Mickey relax a bit at that. When Laura makes her way towards the room, making sure they’re actually following her, Ian places a comforting hand on the small of Mickey’s back.

And they do tell her everything. Mostly everything anyway. They answer her questions about how they ended up together, leaving out the nasty, sometimes gruesome details, how’s life in Chicago nowadays, what they do for a living. It seems like Laura’s initial coldness was born out of nerves rather than disdain, because the more they talk, the more she seems to let loose.

And so does Mickey.

His husband even manages to smile once or twice, a couple of his beautiful ones that accentuate his smile lines, and white teeth.

Laura seems happy that they’re doing good, both in life, and financially. When Mickey asks what this meeting is about, Laura waves a hand around, claiming that it’s just some boring formalities, and that she just needed him to sign a couple of papers, reassuring them that they would be on their merry way soon.

When she leaves the room to go look for her lawyers, Mickey lets out a big sigh—Ian knows it’s from relief.

“Now I know where you got your good looks from.” Ian teases, chuckling when Mickey looks at him with a disgusted face.

“Stop calling my mom hot, you weirdo.”

“So you’re calling yourself hot.”

“Shut up. You know what I mean.”

Ian snickers again, bumping his boot against Mickey’s calf. “Hey, I wasn’t complaining. I agree with you.”

Laura comes back a while later, lawyers in tow. They produce a stack of papers from a suitcase, offering Mickey a fancy pen to do his signing. But just as Mickey is about to sign the first document, he stops. Looking up from it, his tone is tense when he asks, “The fuck does waiver of rights of inheritance mean?”

Laura stalls. She looks at one of her lawyers, who in turn nods before addressing Mickey. “Mr. Milkovich, this is a mere formality. You just need to sign it and you’ll be out of here.”

“I’m not signing shit until you tell me what it means.”

Ian tenses up beside Mickey. He’s not a lawyer, but a gut feeling tells him this is not going to end well. Laura sighs, clasping her hands together on top of the cherry-wood table. She doesn’t look at him when she speaks. “You are giving up your rights of inheritance over my will.”

Oh, shit.

This is the worst case scenario Ian could have possibly envisioned. Looking at Mickey, and in an attempt to remind him that he’s not facing this alone, Ian hooks his ankle with his own.

“What?”

“Mr. Milkovich—,”

“Will you shut the fuck up? I’m talking to her.” Mickey snaps at one of the lawyers. He turns back to his mom. “What the fuck is this?”

“Is this about money, Mikhailo?” Laura’s tone of voice raises. Mickey looks taken aback by that. “You told me you were doing fine financially. What’s this about?”

“What’s this—,” Mickey looks frantic, making eye contact with Ian with his own wet ones, looking for confirmation that he isn’t going crazy, that Ian’s hearing this bullshit too. Ian’s heart hurts seeing his husband like this, but he knows he can’t interfere. He just places a soothing hand on his thigh, hoping to ground him with his touch. “Are you fucking serious? I thought you were fucking dead! I don’t fucking care about the money! Why are you doing this?!” Mickey’s voice breaks on the last few words.

“Because I don’t want anything to do with a Milkovich ever again.” Laura is stern, but her red-rimmed eyes betray her authoritative tone. “My money will go to my daughters, and my daughters alone.”

Mickey chuckles mirthlessly, pressing his thumb, and forefinger into his eyes, hard. When he speaks again his voice is raised, but broken. “I’m your son too. Before you ran away, I was your fucking son too.”

“If this is about the inheritance, Mrs. Andersen is willing to pay a sum of three thousand dollars provided that you sign the affidavit.”

Mickey shakes his head. He stands up, his hands shaking at his sides. The rage overcomes the heartbreak, and Ian can do nothing but stay close. “Is this what I’m worth to you? Three grand?” He takes the papers, throwing them at her. “You can shove your money up your ass for all I care, bitch! Fuck you!”

“I don’t want anything to do with a Milkovich because I’ve been hurt, Mikhailo! You don’t understand my pain, my suffering! You have no idea what I’ve been through!” Laura shouts.

“I do understand, because guess who was left behind to get beaten up and tortured and fucking raped over and over again before even getting the chance to start the second grade?! Your fucking kids! We were there!” Mickey is screaming back. A tear spills down his cheek.

Ian stands up, wrapping a hand around his husband’s arm. “Mickey, let’s go.”

Mickey shrugs him off violently. His voice wavers as he keeps on screaming. “I don’t give a fuck about your money, or your will, or any of this bullshit—but don’t you fucking dare tell me that I don’t understand what it’s like, you fucking coward!”

Ian is left there with Laura, and her lawyers as Mickey storms out of the room. The men are looking at her, while Laura silently cries, and shakes.

When he leaves the firm, it’s raining. His shoes get soaked first, then his hair, as he sets off to find his husband.

By the time he hears the sound of metal being struck coming from an alley, as it aligns perfectly with a thunder in the distance, Ian is completely drenched. When he spots Mickey, kicking an innocent trash can to his demise, his wet hair is sticking to his reddened forehead. He stopped crying, and now he’s just raging.

Ian doesn’t approach just yet. He lets Mickey get his way with the trash can, waits for him to calm his breathing, and sit down on the sidewalk, head in hands. He’s visibly shaking. Ian takes a few steps towards him.

He’s never seen Mickey so hurt, and angry before.

“Fuck her. Fuck that fucking cunt.” His mumbles are like the unholiest of litanies, and before Mickey can crumble right before his eyes, Ian closes the space between them, crouching down in front of him on the slippery asphalt.

He wraps his hands around Mickey’s wrists, gently prying his hands away from his face. Trying to keep him there with him, to let him know he’s not alone.

Mickey stubbornly resists Ian at first. He pushes him away, peeling away Ian’s arms as they try to wrap around his shoulders. “Don’t fucking touch me, Gallagher. Leave me the fuck alone.”

But at one point he grips Ian’s sweater, bringing him closer, and closer. Nestling his face into the crook of Ian’s neck, and it’s at that moment that Ian hears a sound he hopes he will never have to hear ever again: Mickey is sobbing.

Ian just wraps his arms around his husband’s shaking shoulders, tight. Rests his lips right above his left ear, rocking them slightly back, and forth, and shushing him gently when the sobs get so strong it seems like they must be hurting like a bitch.

Mickey looks so small like this, in Ian’s arms, holding onto him for dear life. The sky cries harder with him.

“I’m her kid.” He says again, and again. He sounds almost incoherent. Ian holds him impossibly closer, whispering affirmatives right into his ear. “I’m her fucking kid too.”

His husband has been through so much. He won’t have to go through this alone.

***

Mickey lights up his smoke just as one of Laura’s daughters—he couldn’t be fucked to remember what her name is—leans against the railing of the firm’s emergency exit.

Last night was kind of a blur. He just remembers a motel, some unknown game show playing on mute on the shitty room’s TV, and crying himself to sleep like he’s some kind of pussy.

Mickey knows he should feel ashamed with how he handled the whole situation yesterday. He’s aware that he can’t just disintegrate like that over nothing, in front of Ian nonetheless. He feels shameful, but mostly lighter—he has to admit that crying does help, despite himself.

He hears Ian laughing his default business fake-as-fuck laughter with one of Laura’s lawyers. He forgets about Laura’s daughter being there until she speaks.

“Is that really your husband?” She says, nonchalantly. Though she looks mostly curious rather than judgemental about it, Mickey is on the defensive right away.

“You got a problem with that, princess?”

The girl—she must be older than eighteen to be here in lieu of Laura actually partaking in take-two of this shit show—is your average-looking, average-dressing middle class chick, with her knee-length girly dress, and the latest iPhone in hand.

She shrugs. “Nah. He’s just hot. Like, My Calvins hot.”

Mickey turns fully around towards her, giving her an unimpressed once-over. He kinda digs her gall. “The fuck is your name again?”

“Michelle.” When Mickey snorts, Michelle rolls her eyes. “I know, mom could’ve done with a fucking name book.”

“You don’t say.”

They just look at each other for a while. He’s still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he apparently has not one, but two sisters he doesn’t know shit about.

“Is mom happy here?” The question comes as a surprise to Mickey’s own ears. He hates that it’s too late to backtrack now; he hates that he really wants to know the answer still.

Michelle shrugs again. “Yeah.”

Mickey nods. He flicks the butt of the cigarette into the parking lot just as he spots his mom in the distance, waiting by her car. Mickey did sign the stupid papers in the end, and it took little to no convincing because he really doesn’t care about any of it, he just wants to go back to his apartment—and he’s honestly glad his mom was chicken shit enough not to show up this time around.

From what he could see though, Michelle is good people.

When the two lawyers make their way out of the firm, Michelle surprises Mickey by giving him a quick hug. “It was good to meet you, Mickey.” And then she turns around, finger gunning Ian as he exits the place too. “Good looking out, Ian!”

Ian looks confused as they watch her stroll towards his mom’s BMW. “Al-righty. That was weird.” Ian rolls his shoulders, leaning on the railing beside Mickey. “Hey, remind me to never have anything to do with lawyers and wills from now on. I officially leave everything to you, and whatever you don’t want you have my permission to sell it on eBay.”

Mickey snorts. He looks at his husband, at his easy smile, and the memories of desperately clinging to him not eight hours ago flash before his eyes. He remembers Ian helping. He remembers feeling thankful rather than ashamed to wear his heart on his sleeve for once, all thanks to him.

Mickey places a small kiss on his husband’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Ian doesn’t pry further. He just wraps his arm around Mickey's shoulders, and Mickey allows himself to lean into his warmth. “‘Course.”

When Michelle reaches Laura’s car, Mickey calls out to her. “Can you do me a favor, kid?” Michelle frowns before nodding. Mickey could tell her to keep an eye out for their mom. To take care of her because despite her being a bitch, she’s been through a lot of shit. To keep her happy for him. Instead he smirks. “Close your eyes when you get in the car.”

As Laura’s car is passing by them, and when Mickey’s sure that Michelle is doing as she was told, he flips the car, and his mom, and his heartbreak, and the betrayal, and his past off. All the way to the bright Detroit horizon.

Ian mimics him. And Mickey laughs as Laura speeds away, the sunshine reflected on the car blinding him for a second, because Laura Andersen isn’t the only one that will get to go back to the comfort of a place she can finally call home, together with her new family at last.

[celestial-ringleader]

Random Remy LeBeau Headcanons:

Idk what possessed me to want to make this, but it’s almost midnight and I’m having Many Thoughts about Remy (that and I wanted to make a headcanon post like this for a while so here we go-)

When it comes to looks, Remy is very attractive of course, but he has a lot of imperfections in his appearance:

Remy’s smile is naturally crooked, mostly due to the fact that he had no access to proper dental treatment as a child so his jaw is slightly off-set, and when he is genuinely smiling part of his lip quirks upwards (which also reveals his slightly mis-aligned teeth).

His nose is also crooked from being hit so often on the face and he also has a snaggle tooth also from the amount of times he’s been punched in the teeth.

Despite all of the above, he embraces how he looks because he knows it doesn’t take away from the fact that he still feels pretty and that’s all that matters to him. And people dig the confidence. SPEAKING OF-

In my mind, I see Remy as being less of the handsome man and more of the pretty/beautiful type of man. Like his last name literally means “beautiful” so of course he’s gotta be.

He has beauty marks along the hollow of his hip and on the inside of his thigh.

Remy is sound in his gender and sexuality, of course he played around a lot with it when he was much younger but now he knows for certain who he is and what he likes. As such, he doesn’t mind occasionally looking in a more gender-nonconforming way when the mood strikes.

So of course when Jubilee needs help practicing with make-up he offers right away. Anything for his pseudo-sister.

On the topic of siblings, Remy feels protective over those he cares about (which this isn’t new information) but when it comes to people like Laura and Jubilee, he’s especially more protective. This mostly comes from his experience of being neglected and he doesn’t want his loved ones ever feeling that because of him.

On a more angsty note: Remy tends to hide it whenever he’s hurting, [physically and/or emotionally]. If he feels sick, he still pushes through it just to make sure no one worries about him if he turns up absent even if it takes all his energy just to stay awake. Of course this usually ends with him being forced to take a fucking break while given a slight scolding for not telling anyone.

I know marvel will never address this, but Remy has a lot of built up trauma from all the years of him being hurt to the point of death, abandoned, betrayed, used, etc. and while he never shows it, all that really puts a heavy weight on him at all times. But he’ll never let it on to anyone. Instead he forces a smile and hopes that he can at least make someone’s day go better if his day isn’t.

Contrary to popular belief, Remy is amazing with children. He grew up with a large family, and was the eldest child on top of that, so of course he had to babysit his younger cousins a lot. Of course with infants that’s a different story, but kids just,,like him for some reason?

(Because this couldn’t be avoided) He has a very complex relationship with catholicism as a whole. On one hand he feels attached to it because he was basically raised catholic, but on the other it’s the same group that demonizes him over things he can’t control. He’s more passive with his religion and only really practices it on special occasions (like the holidays, for example).

“Gambit” is the name/persona he associates with all the bad shit he does. He only ever introduces himself as such when he’s either working with the X-Men or facing off against an enemy. “Remy” is saved for those he cares about and keeps the two separated as much as he can.

Remy was (and kinda still is) a habitual smoker, he picked up the habit at a young age and has a hard time letting go of his vice. Of course now it’s not nearly as bad, but when times get tough he’ll reach for his pack of cigs.

It’s not super obvious, but he’s kind of a huge nerd. His room isn’t decorated head-to-toe in merch, but occasionally he’ll find a rare collector’s item for Star Trek and he just has to get his hands on it. Also he definitely played dungeons and dragons and has a whole dice hoard hidden in his room.

He talks with his hands a lot, in fact he just moves around and fidgets often when he’s in a situation where he feels under-stimulated, whether that’s messing with his cards, humming to himself, or tapping on his leg/desk. However when he feels overwhelmed/anxious, his soothing gestures get to the point of hurting him. Like biting the inside of his cheek, picking at his nails, scratching, etc.

He doesn’t show it sometimes, but Remy will have days where he just doesn’t want to look at his reflection. Either because he doesn’t want to see his eyes, but sometimes he just feels alienated from his own body thanks to a lack of agency in the past.

OKAY NSFW BELOW THE CUT: (big warning for mentions of coercion and assault)

He aims to please his partners in the bedroom, so he changes things up as they see fit. So long as it’s enjoyable for everyone, he’s down for whatever.

Remy likes it when his partner messes with his hair, whether it’s just aimlessly petting it, running their fingers through it, pulling on it. He just loves the feeling so much.

His sex drive is kinda crazy sometimes, which is sort of a side-effect of all the energy he has pent up in his body constantly. Although it’s partially an effect of how hedonistic he is (which was a result of trauma and his need to escape it) and how often he feels like he needs to please everyone. Nowadays he has more control over himself, but when he was younger he was borderline hypersexual.

Not gonna get into specifics here, but Remy used to have a hard time saying “no” to people. Sometimes he’d land himself in situations where he wanted to say it but felt like he couldn’t, mostly to keep his reputation in tact but to also make sure that the other person is pleased even if he isn’t all in it.

Okay less angsty shit now. He enjoys being praised and given sweet talk. Of course he won’t say no to a bit of rough handling here and there, but it also feels nice when he’s cherished and told he’s doing good. But also outside of the bedroom praise takes him off guard and half the time he feels like he doesn’t deserve it, there’s far better people than him. And every single time he’s told he absolutely does deserve it.

Okay that’s all I can think of for now but I might add more to this as I come up with more akjdbvkj this isn’t for anything in particular, just wanted to share my random thoughts about him.

[coweggomelet]

i apparently enjoy putting down my thoughts on the off chance someone will read it and enjoy it so here’s rwby rewatch vol 3. i’m ready to be sad!!

(note: it’s long i’m sorry, i have many thoughts and i tried to narrow it down but oh boy do i think im funny)

- the SOUND DESIGN. AGAIN

- ruby you’re so precious. so sweet. so eager. so earnest. c’mere and i’ll protect you from all the bad shit that happens to you later

- hi cardboard cutout tai

- i keep getting an ad for a rooster teeth show called camp betrayal and the way this man says “hoo hoo hoo” will haunt me for the rest of time

- oh shit the fact that it’s called amity has such insane implications for what it’s used for later. jesus.

- “bffs!” “No.” “…/yessss/” love them

- yeet the yang

- god ruby’s admiration of emerald is so sad in retrospect like… oh boy ruby you’re in for it

- PYRRHAAAAA I LOVE YOU DONT LEAVE ME

- “even if you know how a story ends, that doesn’t make it any less fun to watch” wow cinder are you psychic

- ummmm they’re having a talk can you please respect their privacy

- thor whomst??? i only know nora valkyrie

- BROODY MAN

- hiiiii gavin

- so much mid battle banter. in the middle of a big important fight they just have to make jokes and argue. i love teenagers

- SILENCE YOU BOOB

- awww winter you’re a disaster and you’re horribly emotionally repressed because of your bitch ass dad but jesus christ you care about your little sister and you wanna know she’s doing okay and i’m emotional about it

- PENNYYYYY my love just keep being you

- jeez i forgot how early on ironwood was talking his shit about being “someone who will act”, the “only person” who will do what needs to be done, as if his course of action is what needs to be done

- every single person who underestimates emerald and mercury gets so fucked up. like so many people look at these youngerish teenagers with some funny one liners and banter and go “oh they seem capable and they’re confident and funny so i like em but i can take em” and then absolutely get the shit kicked out of them. and i think that’s why they’ve been so successful, cause nobody takes them seriously enough to consider them a threat.

- see this is why i love rwby. coco just turned her handbag into a gatling gun and cut down a field of grass with it

- god the way they hint at emerald’s semblance before fully showing what it is. *chef’s kiss*

- winter marry me

- we love an uncle who absolutely destroys his nieces at video games

- “they do and they’re called silver!” ruby i love you

- top heavy. heheh

- this dude’s weapon is a trumpet!! she’s got glowing nunchucks!! i love this show!!

- this battle music is AMAZING what the FUCK they’re fighting to JAZZ

- cinder if you keep having vague ominous dialogue people are gonna get the wrong idea

- oh yeah great idea asking a child to take on immense power which sends her into a stressed out panicky spiral and alienates her from the people she finally feels legitimately connected to and for once didn’t feel alienated from

- oh fuck. oh fuck the finals. oh god. oh no.

- she’s so happy. she’s so ready to have a good fight. i’m gonna cry

- FUCK

- and with one moment, the entire show flipped on its head

- god when i watched that the first time i fuckin freaked. i was not prepared man. i was warned. but i was not prepared for this much of a fucking tone change man. that quickly. like tone changes (in my experience) normally happen gradually, but this one happened in, what? 30 seconds?

- fuck

- god this is so bad

- and it GETS WORSE i can’t do this

- love that we can see yang’s distraught eyebrows through her bangs

- after this episode was the first time my friend asked me “how we doing buddy?” and i’ve only wanted to kill her more since then

- oh god emerald’s backstory. this poor child. she was so alone and cinder was there and said i can give you a place i can give you a purpose i can give you security and emerald latched on so hard.

- hiiiii laura bailey i wish you had more than a lil baby line and some sounds of effort

- god that little anklet

- god what a fuckin backstory episode man. backstory? evil plan explanation? idk but it was good

- great parent move. telling your kid you’ll only save them once.

- jaune you sweet good boy. what a good boy. i love him

- god this poor child. she doesn’t deserve this. FUCK i’m so sad. is that the last conversation they have?

- oooooh shit this song is so good. what the fuck i have chills it’s so fitting

- god everyone else is so happy and excited and then there’s ruby who is one of the very few people who knows how bad a fight between penny and pyrrha could be and pyrrha who’s got to decide if she wants someone else’s aura smushed with hers, which could turn her into a different person. FUCK

- peeeennyyyyy “salutations!! it’s an honor to meet you!” it huuuurts

- it makes me so sad but damn was this a good diabolical plan

- god im so sad. penny is so good. and pyrrha’s fuckin eyes. and ruby just collapsing. jesus christ. it’s all fuckin falling apart

- oh fuck here we go. those klaxons are so terrifying

- it makes me so happy that torchwick gets rescued and then like maybe a couple episodes later just gets swallowed

- the fuckin adam fight is coming up too. jesus. really piling on here

- RUBY IS USING ONE OF PENNY’S SWORDS IM GONNA CRYYY

- and she doesn’t even hesitate to save pyrrha

- the one and only time (to my memory) that ironwood is gentle is when he says no one would blame the students if they left. that might be the last time he actually remembers that they’re all teenagers and feels sympathy for these children with all this pressure on them

- oh yeah the big boy

- the first time i watched this i was LOSING MY MIND this whole time. like yang attacked mercury and from then on man. just freaking out.

- eurgh grimm juice

- c’mon blake you got this. i mean. technically you don’t. the fight goes poorly. but you fuckin try and you’re so brave about it and i love youuu

- shut the FUCK up adam you GROOMED her you ASSHOLE

- aahhhh i love velvet!!! her semblance and her whole fighting style is so goddamn cool and has such interesting implications for using weapons and powers of people who are dead

- OH SHIT SHE DOES SUMMON HERE DOESNT SHE. partly but still

- get fucked, torchwick. GET FUCKED. get fuckin chomped

- a backhanded slap feels so much more violent than any fighting with weapons

- uh oh evil katniss

- god. the fucking blood splatter turning the whole shot red. just their silhouettes. the slow motion. the arm slowly separating.

- my friend was also a big fan of “how we feeling?”

- bad. the answer is bad you fuckin sadist

- oz is… a lot of things, and one of them is a goddamn good fighter

- oh god oh noooo she’s gonna kiss & yeet AWWWW FUCK this is heartbreaking

- pyrrha i love you

- if i don’t look it’s not real

- oh pyrrha my love

- awww hey tai. what a good dad. love tai

- i’m so sad. everyone’s so sad. and then salem just has to do an ominous lil monologue where she lays out her whole plan to divide them and makes a fuckin semblance pun. she’s such a good villain

- jacque you stiff bitch

- they’re all fuckin scattered and depressed

- love team rnjr tho

- there she is. god what an ending

[mellowasinyellow]

100daysofwriting - Day 1

So I thought for the first day I might just briefly outline all of the WIPs I have actually made a start on and that might help me to decide where I want to focus some energy. I have some for Katniss/Peeta in THG fandom and some for Natasha/Clint in the MCU.

Everlark

folklore series - so I started this series of fics inspired by songs from Taylor Swift's album folklore because honestly those songs just immediately bring to mind so many scenarios that made me think of Katniss and Peeta. I made a start on chapters based on peace, my tears ricochet, invisible string, this is me trying, and mad woman. I also have a bit of an outline for continuing the story that was started in 'the 1'.

I've had this one WIP ongoing since about 2015(?) which is a bit of a monster that has grown beyond me but basically it involves Katniss and Gale being raised in the Capitol in relative poverty after their fathers are conscripted into the peacekeepers because of traitorous activity. Mrs Everdeen is still from 12 but was moved to the Captiol to be married (this part is sketchy) and she still had a little childhood romance with Mr Mellark. Peeta gets reaped and Mrs Everdeen reacts to this as he looks like his father. Katniss gets a crush on him as she watches him prepare for the games. She hates herself for it but finds herself checking up on how he is doing even during non-mandatory viewing.

Arranged Marriage - I feel like this is such a cliche for thg fandom, but I just imagined my own way that the pairings happen but I'm so bad at writing slow burn so this will probably never materialise, but if you want a semi-decent thought out pairing/arranged marriage system I would be happy to lend you mine.

Miscarriage fic - I will never post this, but it's in my WIP folder. It's full of nasty feelings that feel a little better when they are written about.

Modern AU Pandemic Quarantine! - ofc, this is essential. Katniss and Peeta end up as the only people not to move home from their dorm for the quarantine. Slow burn that I can't fucking write should ensue.

Canon Pandemic Quarantine AU - pandemic a few years after the end of the war forces Katniss to admit she wants Peeta as more than a friend with whom she hunts, bakes, rebuilds the district. Cue sexy pandemic times and a resentful Haymitch that keeps accidentally breaking the rules.

Divorced but co-parenting Everlark - obviously finding their way back together

Another classic of their children being reaped and dying - I don't know why I write things this depressing. They just tend to come out in one big rush and then I never address them again.

Real weird teen pregnancy modern day AU - don't know where it's going or why...

Modern day AU dead Prim - Peeta and Katniss just met each other through mutual friends and are kind of flirting. Peeta is a bit infatuated. Katniss stops going to mutual friend parties and he finds out it's because her sister died. Instead of staying away he gets tangled up in her grief and does all sorts of practical things while Katniss wallows. Also it's E rated but not that much fun... can't entirely explain where this one came from either...

Single Parent AU where Finnick and Annie play match maker. Probably my fave Everlark in the works but it's another one that has grown so big for the 20 minutes I can dedicate to it each week.

Clintasha

Red Room Take Down - Nat and Clint are retired and living a quiet family life with their child. SHIELD appears asking for Nat's help in taking down the red room and dealing with the fall out, specifically what to do with the girls that they get out. Nat is torn but chooses to go. Chaos ensues with the 'rescued' girls. I need to actually develop some OCs a little if I ever want this to be good but tbh the pending Black Widow movie is kind of holding me back on this one too because I hope we find out more about the red room.

So I have a weird habit of writing from Lila Barton's POV. I can't explain it. I have AoU and like to pretend it never happened but anyway I have a WIP about Lila detailing the collapse of her parents' marriage after Clint retires and he and Laura actually have to spend time together without Natasha. She then goes on to describe the custody settlement and her utter joy that Auntie Nat sleepovers with them at her dad's place. She feels utterly betrayed when she finds out they are getting engaged.

Fluffy AU - Clint and Natasha in an established relationship with a son born between infinity war and endgame. Natasha still sacrifices on Vormir, but Steve gets her back no bother and it's so nice and happy and fluffy and Clint and Natasha are together and they have a son who has both parents back and Steve gets to make all this happen and he is so happy too and they have a barbecue and go swimming in a lake and clint/natasha have private time, and their kid wants to be captain america, and did I mention how HAPPY everyone is?

Another fic similar to the above just about everyone being so HAPPY. Endgame reverses the snap and instead of weird farm family coming back Clint and Natasha get their daughter back and it's just a cute moment about her reappearance and their race back to the spot she disintegrated from. (Steve/Bucky go to Vormir and Steve is sacrificed, but that fucker CHOSE to leave).

This is another one that has just grown bigger than my brain. it's based off the idea that Natasha helped with coordinating fosterings during the blip time. Clint loses his mind when he loses his family and crashes in BedStuy but finds a neighbour girl (Kate Bishop) who is fending for herself in post-apocalyptic Brooklyn. He helps her out and tries to get children's services involved but it has collapsed. Finds out Natasha is the one getting everything in order. He gets in touch. She's at the end of her tether and asks why he can't keep looking after her. In the end he does and she ends up getting involved and all three get overly attached to each other. I haven't got as far as the events of endgame and idk what's going to happen. It might be tragic.

Pregnant Natasha but nobody knows what is wrong with her because they don't even suspect her being pregnant is possible. Just a real vivid description of the early unpleasant pregnancy symptoms.

Another absolute monster - Sort of canon compliant to begin with aside from before the farm family disappear. Clint and Laura are in the middle of separating and tensions are running quite high at the farm. Snap happens. Nat and Clint accidentally run into each other while both a bit low during the blip and get drunk and share home truths. Begin working together from HQ and both get a little less sad. He convinces her she doesn't have to be responsible for the world's fate every moment of every day. Clint has a break down at Morgan's 1st birthday and realises that things will have to change. Nat has this realisation later. They begin sleeping together. Accidental pregnancy. More feelings come out between them. They enter a more conventional relationship and have baby. Baby is really hard work (colic) and they struggle with comparisons and feelings of inadequacy. Pepper helps them to identify the colic and improves everything greatly. Happy times with baby while also running the avengers. Opportunity to reverse snap. Some good scenes between Nat and Tony. A big conversation between Nat and Clint about what it will mean. Steve and Nat end up going to Vormir together. Nat is obviously about to commit suicide. Steve over powers her and gives her a pep talk about the situation she is running away from and how to deal with it. He self-sacrifices. Clint goes back to farm fam and Natasha goes back to BedStuy with baby. Clint has to tell Laura and then the kids about the last 5 years and their new siblings. Nate is super into it. Cooper is a bit aloof and cynical. Lila is confused. Laura is quietly seething. Clint helps put the farm back together about 5 years of neglect and the kids meet baby. Family gets happier. Laura and Nat eventually meet again and it's civil/friendly.

My own version of what happened in Budapest.

The Call - inspired by a post here on tumblr. Nat calls Clint as she bleeds out. Just needs a beta reader and then I would consider publishing.

AoU reimagined but with Clintasha - I'm not sure where this one is going it's like a massive spider web right now with lots of ideas shooting off, but basically it is inspired by this post and just involves a lot of hoodwinking the other avengers.

Accidental Baby Acquisition - Natasha becomes Yelena's child's legal guardian after Yelena gets taken out. Natasha and Yelena are estranged at this point and Natasha things the whole thing is a trap and brings Clint along. He is surprisingly good with the baby so she ropes him in to teach her. The three of them end up bonding.

5 times there's only 1 bed + 1 time they choose to sleep in the same bed.

non-superhero AU Clint and Nat both think they have adopted a stay cat but actually the cat has owners and just likes strokes and eats a lot so has many 'families'. They get into an argument over which of them the cat belongs to only to find out the cat has owners and they are moving away. They decide to adopt a cat between them as both are not hope that much and the shelter refused them as single people. Slow burn ensues, which I am shit at writing.

[borom1r]

okay so for those SAW asks: thoughts 1-10 on the angel trap (hehe bias), the rack, and the pendulum trap? and for characters: jonas singer (I've grown fond of him lately), allison kerry, lynn denlon, and brit stevenson!!

YEEEEE ALRIGHT

Angel trap:

8/10 visually i think it’s beautiful but I wish it had more purpose conceptually. obviously it’s just an execution trap so there’s no lesson to be learned from it, but I wish there was!! it’s a trap I’d love to have seen Lawrence in ngl (angel of mercy!! angel of mercy!!! John’s holy mother Mary!!!! chomping at the bit abt this put him in the religious imagery traps!!!!! crucify him!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!)

The Rack:

2/10 it’s brutal and I can appreciate that but I hate 3 so much it discolors this trap for me, plus it’s one where like yea yea the guy hit Jeff’s kid but it’s like. dude he’s just There he can’t even play an active role in his own survival and he gets probably Thee 2nd most horrific death (William Easton wins gold on that one) like???? girl. no.

The Pendulum Trap:

4.5/10 I love its design and it’s so funny to hear John bitch at Hoffman abt his subpar pendulum blade but it’s in one of th weaker films of the franchise and feels undeserving of th amount of attention it gets. like I Get It it’s a cool stage piece but god that’s runtime that could’ve gone to making me give a shit abt the fatal 5 instead of trying to like? establish Hoffman as brutal?? idk we already got that in IV. slap that bad boy in th flashback scenes of Angelina’s death and put th new run time towards the Fatal 5 and I’d feel better. or idk stick Strahm in it just like do something More, put some weight behind it if ur gonna have it be THEE opening piece. Art comes back and the mausoleum ties into the rest of the film, Brad n Ryan were intended to tie in @ the end of 3d + do cameo at Bobby’s meetings (they r the pigheads helping Lawrence) but Seth just dies + that’s it. disappointing.

Jonas Singer:

6/10 YEA I like him too!!!! he’s another character tht ultimately I wish we’d gotten more of but 2 is so well made I also rlly can’t complain abt him. idk just give me like a 4-hour extended cut with the ENTIRE nerve gas house footage I want more Laura too. I think he’s so interesting I wanna know MORE. like idk I’m exhausted w all these new saw film sequels gimme a comic run I wanna see John’s fucking case files laid out narratively. show me these ppl’s histories nd have John play narrator like gimme fucking!! SOMETHING creative!!!!!!! god

Allison Kerry:

6/10 another painfully underdeveloped SAW woman 💔 like I love th idea of her in my head but she rlly exists as just a prop to motivate Eric + Rigg. she only gets more interesting after she dies + it’s revealed she was working with the fucking FBI?????? jesus!!! give me MORE of that!!!! anyways she and Perez are girlfriends no I won’t be taking any input on that.

Lynn Denlon:

4/10 WOMEN AS PROPS!!! WOMEN AS PROPS!!! THE ONLY INTERESTING WOMAN GETS VILLAINIZED FOR HER TRAUMA AND MURDERED RIGHT AS SHES ABOUT TO HAVE A BREAKTHROUGH AND LYNN IS THE PROP THAT MAKES IT ALL HAPPEN!!!!!! BITING THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ultimately I wish Lynn all the best I just think she is severely lacking in depth even moreso than Kerry (suffers extra bc she’s only in one film + doesn’t have any outside relationships) and I just. I do not see th appeal. Lynnmanda shippers I am so sorry 3 is what y’all are stuck with for content. At least Amanda cradled Laura’s head in her lap n cried over her.

Brit Stevenson:

SIGHS. 3/10. I HATE to rate her this low I really do but honestly Mallick would only be a 4 and we all know how much I love him (*currently shaking him around in a little plastic bug cage*). the fatal 5 are some of the most poorly developed, sloppily utilized characters in th core franchise and it makes me soooooo mad. The Brit that lives in my head, I adore! 7/10 I’m workin with scraps but she’s still! so good! but strictly canon Brit we have near zero understanding of her motivations or her sudden character shift to protecting Mallick and I want to know so much more about her. Alas! (banging my fists on the fucking table SAW COMIC THAT NARRATIVELY EXPLORES JOHN’S CASE FILES!!!!!!! GIVE ME MORE DEPTH ON THE FUCKING FATAL FIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

[period-dramallama]

Spanish Princess Episode 5: many many thoughts

Strap yo selves in 

-WHERE WAS THE APOLOGY?? Lina’s just back with Catherine like nothing happened?? 

-Katherine, I get why you’re upset, but you kind of should be unsurprised?? Your dad was unfaithful to his wife, most kings were. Henry VII and Richard III were the exceptions, and even they had illegitimate sons before their marriages. Many kings also had official mistresses that everyone knew about, so by the standards of the time Henry and Bessie are actually being pretty tactful in at least trying to keep their affair out of sight. (Sexy dancing aside). 

-Honestly it would have been so much more moving if KoA was like “I know kings take mistresses...but I thought...I was so sure... he would be different...”

-”they gave me a purse of gold!” It’s expected that you give the monarch lavish presents, lmao Ursula and Stafford would do that even if they hated each other and you

-”everybody loves a masque” the only sensible thing Henry has said so far in this show. Also court probably had way more masques than we see in the show, and it would standard to have a masque every holiday. 

-”she is not a boy” hurry up with your character development and learn to love Mary already i am so TIRED of this miserable BS

-seems a rather depopulated masque? If the Chateau Vert pageant is anything to go by putting on a masque was a court activity, with most of the ladies performing.  

-Bessie Blount in her cute masque costume... sweet mother i cannot weave Aphrodite has overcome me with GAAAAAAAAAAAAY

-”I never enjoyed carousing...my mother scolded me” look i love the Neville sisters with my whole heart but a) Margaret was 3 at most when her mother died, how does she remember her? She’d have clearer memories of her double-uncle and double-aunt, Richard III and Queen Anne b) Isabel Neville in the White Queen was established as very prim and proper, a well-bred girl who cared about enforcing decorum, she refused to ‘carouse’ and she certainly would never bring a 3 year old to a party c) we saw little Margaret as a girl at the end of the White Queen and she didn’t seem at all shy. 

-”she died young, didn’t she” ...yes? most people did?

-”they both did” understatement of the year. Isabel Neville died young because she was ill, George died young (in the universe of The White Queen, at least) BECAUSE HE WAS FORCEFULLY DROWNED IN A VAT OF MALMSEY WINE. THESE TWO THINGS ARE NOT THE SAME! I do at least trust the writers of this show that the understatement was intentional, I’m sure even Emma Frost couldn’t forget a major character getting violently drowned.

-So the court only noticed the plague when one of their own got it so obviously and then died? Yes, plague could move fast, but if there was a whiff of plague the court would flee with the speed of the Looney Tunes road runner. If an acquaintance of an acquaintance of a cook had a cousin who saw someone with the plague, the court would flee to the country. How have these people not died of terminal stupid?! Like Compton was in the same building as the heir to the throne

-To be fair, it makes sense that they’re surprised Compton’s dead. Because the real Compton died of the sweating sickness. In 1528. Also he was involved in Buckingham’s downfall so... you just wrote yourself into a corner.

-Oh wow an actual good reason for More and Pole to be quarantined together i am amaaaaaazed

-”attend the queen” Boleyn, what do you think your daughter’s been doing all season if not attending the queen? Playing tetris?

-Katherine helping Anne into the wagon...I actually like that little moment. Like it does make sense, because the two have no reason to hate each other yet. (And who couldn’t like Anne? She’s such a babby!)

-Thomas More in the Tudor equivalent of casual clothes... much better. Shame about the 1930s lady’s wig.

-”what else should we do?” Maggie, this cannot be the first epidemic you’ve ever lived through. Have you forgotten the sweating sickness of 1485? You’ve probably lived through more epidemics than Oviedo has, you should know the protocol better than him.

-Oviedo continues to be the only man with rights. I wish we could see him crying and missing his wife and babies, but then my lil heart would break so maybe it’s for the best.

-They burn Maggie’s weird blue hood AS THEY SHOULD! IT WAS UGLY AND STUPID! I NEVER HAVE TO LOOK AT IT AGAIN NOW! THANK YOU SO MUCH! yes they also burned her nice dress with the strawberries on it but honestly it’s worth it, bc now i can rest easy, knowing the evil hood has been defeated.

-”you were a plaything” Katherine is so obviously insecure. I’m getting second-hand embarrassment. Like if she really was certain Bessie wasn’t important, she wouldn’t need to say it, would she? Except to rub it in. Which this KOA would absolutely do. 

-literally all Bessie said was good morning?? Like Bessie is doing her best?? The masque was Henry’s idea, not hers, she hasn’t shown off about her affair, she hasn’t demanded money or titles, she hasn’t demanded any status to rival Katherine’s, she doesn’t flirt with or even speak to Henry when Katherine’s around, she acts like they’re strangers, she doesn’t even react when Katherine loses her temper...someone please please stick up for Bessie!

-”the rocking of the cart is unsettling to the stomach” is Anne naive, or is she covering for Bessie? I hope it’s the latter, in which case Anne is the one person looking out for Bessie...the babby is Soft, I repeat the babby is Soft!

-the irony of Mary being cold to Bessie when she’s next in the firing line...

-”it is not the rocking” Thank you Lina, where would we be without your gift for stating the obvious?

-”where did Wolsey get his money”...He’s a churchman...at the top of the church hierarchy...how do you fuckin think he got wealthy. Have y’all not been in the sixteenth century for five minutes? Why do you think Luther is so mad at the church?

-”I know of no other man in her bed most nights” Honestly wow I’m surprised KoA wasn’t like “well :/ a girl like that :/ who knows how many men process in and out of her bed :/” KoA gets half a point for being less bitchy than usual. Also Bessie looked so uncomfortable with Henry groping her stomach in front of Katherine. I pray the next man in her life treats her right and that Fraham don’t prematurely kill her off like they did with Compton.  

-”the future king” if you’re regent on his behalf, then he’s already king! “Civilised companionship” back at it again with the Scots-are-barbarians.

-Laura Carmichael is utterly stunning this episode, with her hair down. The cinematography was beautiful in general this week.

-”freedom to speak and licence to speak are two different things” hey look at that one of Thomas More’s actual beliefs. I am giving all the credit to the historical advisor for that, I don’t believe for one second Fraham knew that beforehand.

-Maggie I love you but no, God does not sanction adultery. For any reason. 

-KOA smirking and gloating about Bessie’s pain...she has never been so punchable. I would understand, if not condone it, if Bessie was manipulative, or greedy, or ambitious, or trying to supplant Katherine. But Bessie’s been betrayed by Henry too, and there’s no concrete evidence she ever gloated about her affair, to anyone let alone Katherine.  

-”You think only of your own fate while London is struck down with plague” Earth to Katherine?? What concern have you shown for the Londoners?? Also calling Bessie selfish...Bessie’s not the one who lashed out at Lina, was jealous at Lina for having twin boys, and who wanted to continue a war for personal reasons. And then Bessie proves KoA wrong 5 hot seconds later by sticking up for Mary. Bit rich of KoA to be all “how dare you leave my daughter unattended” when she herself won’t even hold Mary. 

-”Louis didn’t last a year” What! Is! The Timeline!

-Meg in that cloak reminds me of the Scottish Widow adverts. Georgie is so greedy- she steals every single scene she is in! Even when she’s raging she has more dignity and more presence than KoA ever has.

-”YOU LYING SOD” i burst out laughing it’s really not the little two-timing shit’s day, is it?

-Mary receiving Charlie B in the most Extra way possible. A++

-Why does Wolsey look like he’s about to cry?

-”thoughts are not actions” Lina I love you but... that is NOT what the New Testament says. Jesus said evil thoughts are very very much sins. I’ll give you a pass because maybe you haven’t been Catholic as long as Katherine has? Idk your backstory.

-Aaand now she’s wishing death on Bessie and her unborn baby and Lina isn’t disgusted? At least Katherine is feeling guilty. AS SHE SHOULD.

-”must it always fall to me to be magnanimous?” Katherine, you think only of yourself, for 23 out of every 24 hours. 

-”God wants me to be compassionate to Bessie because of my sins” God wants you to be compassionate because that’s how Christianity is supposed to work. It’s not very selfless of you to decide to be selfless so that you can get what you want. 

-oh wow look at that! She’s getting some self-awareness, i never saw that coming.

-”you betrayed Bessie” 5 points to Katherine of Aragon for standing up for Bessie when Henry screwed her over. Finally, some positive character development.

- MINUS 20000 POINTS FOR BABY STEALING

-WHAT THE FUCK

-is henry so dumb he thinks that baby is Katherine’s? Katherine was so obviously not pregnant

-When a baby’s born his skin needs to touch his mother’s skin so they can bond. They should have at least an hour’s cuddle time. Katherine of Aragon is literally traumatising a baby the very minute he is born. For her own selfish, selfish desires. 

[im-justso-bored]

Week 7 of Clown Theories and Analysis

S03E07 - Beautiful Monster

So I’m feeling really good about the future of Killing Eve with Laura Neal running the show for season 4. With 3x03 and now 3x07, she really captures the essence of Killing Eve and I’ve missed that this season. We are definitely in good hands as long as we get through the finale without any bullshit which I am super nervous about!

Inappropriate touching - So apparently someone didn’t get the memo when I said that it’s illegal to keep making V cry. 

I wonder what effect it’s having on V’s mind for people to keep telling her that she’s nothing but darkness and chaos. She knows she isn’t but I want to know how it’s weighing on her mentally. Obviously she’s bothered and upset by it but I want her to talk about it, it’s be interesting to see what she would say. I hope this gives opportunity for her to talk about it to Eve next episode. 

It’s definitely having a huge effect on her actions, it’s giving her the drive to keep pushing to be the person that she wants to be and not who everyone says she is. She’s truly alone right now (especially since Eve, the only person who truly sees her, isn’t around) so she’s developing a better sense of self and will continue defy what everyone thinks of her. 

Also I love the “God, you’re sexy” after Helene tells her that she could kill her. That’s basically the whole KE fandom when it comes to Villanelle. 

Opening titles - Why? What’s with the inconsistency with the opening title scene?

Standard parents crap - If Konstantin dies this season, which I still think may happen despite the false alarm this episode, does that mean that this is the last we see of Irina? If he dies, that means she’s stuck there, right? I don’t see her mother coming to get her up any time soon. 

I think I liked Irina better in season 1, she’s kind of annoying this season? Whiny, even. Which makes sense though, her father is a piece of shit (I still love him though) and she doesn’t seem to have a good relationship with her mother so I can definitely see why she’s acting out and so defiant. I just find it annoying, probably because I already see enough of it with Geraldine. Come to think of it, Konstantin and Carolyn seem to have a lot of parallels like V and Eve. Both have whiny, problematic children, both are under a lot of stress, both feel like the walls are closing in on them. This season is definitely building up to something big happening for Carolyn and Konstantin as well as Eve and V. Especially with the promo videos and pics of each pair before the season premiered. 

It’s a rule - Eve is such a chaotic bisexual dumbass and I love it. Villanelle definitely has custody of the one shared brain cell during this scene because Eve is back full-force with her bullshit and pursuing Villanelle. And I am all 👏🏽 here 👏🏽 for 👏🏽 it 👏🏽

I really like the Bitter Pill team, Suzanne better not come for them next episode.

Can we talk about how Eve was about to use Niko’s pitchfork incident as a way to get the bakery to give her info on Villanelle? She was so casual about it like it didn’t just happen the other day and killed all her hope for their marriage. She really does have tunnel vision when it comes to V, literally nothing else matters. Which is also shown in her pressuring Bear with her blatant disregard for the law lol

Russia has vegans now - Omfg, V’s accent at the front desk and during the golf scene is everything 😩

Dasha didn’t have to come at V like that. V snapped back though but I really need people to stop coming for V’s feelings like she has none. I wonder if Dasha telling V that she’s going to die with her hand held while V dies alone is hinting towards V finding that person in Eve instead. Ah shit, as I wrote that, I had a thought. What if V does die (soon) while with Eve and in her last moments Eve is holding her hand. I can’t unthink that now and I’m pissed. 

I do like filet mignon - So for a second, I actually thought that maybe Geraldine was spying on Konstantin because she suspected that he killed Kenny but then she just got back on her whiny bullshit and idk anymore. All I know is that she’s gotta go. 

Hey. Hey! HEEYYY! - I loved this scene, the comedy in this show is gold. This is one of the things that has been lacking this season and it definitely brought me back to s1 and s2 in terms of humor. 

Has V really lost it when it comes to killing? That’s the big question here. Obviously her plan from the beginning was to get away and escape with Konstantin hence her saying that she called him hours ago when he arrived. So that must mean that she never actually intended on finishing the job. Which she didn’t, of course. But I don’t think it’s because she can’t, I think it’s more that she doesn’t want to. I think, if pushed into it, she can and will still kill someone. Like if her life was in danger or to save someone she cared about like Eve or even Konstantin. But outside of that, it seems like she’s lost the drive to continue killing as she did before. I think that this has been building up since the beginning of the season and not just after 3x05. You can even go as far back as Rome, I think. That’s when she was first (first time we see) denied of being able to feel or be normal. 

“I love you.”

“You don’t understand what that is.”

She was rejected and made to feel less than human. And that definitely had a lasting effect on Villanelle. Ever since V really started to feel more, I think that’s when her drive and excitement for killing died down. There are other things that make her feel alive now. She doesn’t look into her victim’s eyes and watch the life drain from them anymore like she did in seasons 1 and 2. You don’t see that excited, sinister gleam in her eyes when it comes to completing a job. The jobs that she’s had in season 3 aren’t what mattered anymore, it was her promotion. It was the prospect of gaining power and possibly some semblance of freedom.  But now that that’s not what she had hoped for, the drive is gone. And she’s never been one to never been one to kill meaninglessly, whether she enjoyed killing or not. So I don’t think she’s lost the ability to kill, I think that she just doesn’t want to. She wants to be normal and this is her step in that direction. 

Also, that was a whole lotta ass crack in this scene. 

Like Stalin - I like how the only description Eve needed was “a pretty girl with her mom” and she was pretty much like “Yup, Villanelle is hot, must be her, get the fuck out”. 

Dark Eve is rising!! What a contrast, Eve is becoming darker while Villanelle is trying to distance herself from her darkness. They’ve both been through a lot of shit this season which seems to have pulled Eve and V in opposite directions in terms of how it’s affected them. 

You know that excited, sinister look I was saying V used to have? Eve has the same one here. She was staring into Dasha’s eyes just like V used to do when killing her victims. I wonder how this will impact (if it does) their chemistry when Eve and V finally reconnect again. Will it bring them closer together? Or will they be at an impasse?

Another prick to shit? - So the train scene ended up being a false alarm but I don’t think that Konstantin is in the clear yet, especially with Dasha being in the hospital with him and her ties to the Twelve. 

I wonder what effects his death would have on Villanelle. Of course, she doesn’t want him to die but you see her come to the realization that he actually might in this scene and she didn’t seem too torn up about it. Maybe it was because of the urgency of their situation so she didn’t have time to fully process it but I do wonder how that’ll affect her going forward if he does die. 

Omfg the wave though. I had so many feelings about this scene. Like I was bummed because Eve was sooo close but like she literally ran alongside the train like that’s some gay shit right there. And despite the situation, you see V smile and seem genuinely happy to see her. I think Eve was the last person she expected to see or hear from and with everything that’s happened to V since her last encounter with Eve, her obsession for her slipped to the back of her mind until this scene. Clearly Eve is still thinking about V so I think that’s the spark that puts V right back on that same path towards Eve. 

Konstantin is literally dying and all these two idiots can think about is each other 😂

Emotional iceberg - Carolyn is definitely starting to feel the pressure after Mo’s death (RIP). Similar to Konstantin, Carolyn is now beginning to stress about whether or not she’s next. Her tantrum definitely wasn’t just for show. I really do love the different sides we’re seeing of Carolyn this season, she’s no longer the calm and collected Carolyn we grew accustomed to in seasons 1 and 2.

I’m not gonna lie, I lowkey thought Carolyn was gonna snap and kill Geraldine. Wouldn’t even blame her. If nothing significant happens with Geraldine next episode, then her only purpose this season was kissing Konstantin which I could have gone without and eliciting an emotional response from Carolyn which could have been done a bunch of other ways. 

It’s not good for both of us - Villanelle’s voice is so sexy omg. I need to know the entire conversation they had.

Did V really mean what she said? They’ve definitely had their ups and downs (putting that lightly lol) and V hasn’t really given much thought to Eve lately (from what we’ve seen) so it’s possible. But then we do see both of them in multiple scenes together for the finale so who really knows? It could be setting up for them deciding to go separate ways at the end of the season (although I really hope not). From all of the interviews that have come out, we know that the finale will be different from the first two which leaves four options that I’ve thought of for the finale: 

1. They mutually agree to stop pursuing each other and go their separate ways

2. They team up and run away together

3. One of them dies (although I think this is the least likely, it would hurt the fanbase)

4. Konstantin dies, Villanelle saves Irina and runs away with her, either with or without Eve

I want to say that the most likely option is 2 because if they separate (option 1) then that kind of leaves them starting season 4 the same way they’ve started every season so far. Separated and then coming together somewhere in the middle of the season. The show is about them, it’s about their obsession for each other so they would have to come back together if they separated. Which is just recycled throughout each season so I would hope they wouldn’t do that. 

However, I’m a little apprehensive about them running away together. It’s been said that the finale will go a completely different route from what we’re expecting and we’ve been expecting them to run away together since season 2 so I have a feeling they won’t go that route. 

Option 3 is the main cause of my anxiety for the finale. I don’t see why they would post so many promos of Eve and Villanelle together with “Love is worth the wait” and all the “you really see them come together this season in a way we haven’t seen before” if they were just going to kill one of them or separate them though. Especially since they’ve only met one and a half times (I’m counting the wave and the phone call as a half). 

What do you guys think? What other ways do you see the season ending other than these three?

OVERALL - I really loved this episode, definitely one of the best from season 3. I definitely look forward to seeing more of Laura Neal’s work during season 4. I can’t believe these 8 weeks are already coming to an end. I love and hate the fact that we likely have to wait 2 years for season 4. I like it because it means the show won’t end (if season 4 is the last) next year, and then hate it for obvious reasons. I will definitely be reading and writing lots of fanfics to fill this Killing Eve hole after next week!

[angeltrapz]

ok saw asks!!! bcuz i have Amanda on th brain rn i wd like ur take on her interacting w Lawrence? personally idk how much she knew of his involvement bc she implies in 3 tht Lynn was entirely John's choice, but i also think th idea of her Knowing + deliberately not telling Hoffman is extremely funny. Hoffman cant come 2 th weekly disciple meeting bcuz hes got Cop Business so he misses Lawrence's introduction + Amanda is just like "sure John of course ill tell Mark that we got a new friend :)" and just never does. LOVE that thought

dhgsdkj thank u!!

it Is extremely funny 2 think that she just. knows but refuses to tell Hoffman + THAT'S why Hoffman doesn't know who Lawrence is until he jabs him w the needle + takes off the pig mask lmao omg. just like "oh yeah of course I'll tell Mark we have a new teammate don't worry abt it!" and she Never Does dkjkdsg??

okay but 2 Seriously answer yr question. when I think abt it I always think that like. it wld b pretty hard fr John 2 keep them frm each other given how integral Lawrence's participation is in every game from SAW II onward? 'cause like we know Amanda helps w the kidnapping process + placing them in their traps, which one CLD argue would only mean she wld see them after Lawrence would do his thing but. I feel like she'd be vaguely aware? bc she wld also then have 2 know that he survived his game, given that she helped set it up - we know that she'd AT LEAST know his name.

to elaborate on th idea that only HOFFMAN doesn't know (both bc it's fucking hilarious + actually how I view things happening jdkhfksd), I feel like Amanda + Lawrence's interactions wld be rather limited. in canon, Lawrence becomes a disciple after John "rehabilitates" him or whtever he wants 2 call it, but I feel he'd have to be aware of Amanda, too - both that she is also a disciple + SHE'S th one who helped get him in the bathroom in th first place. as grateful as Lawrence seems to feel toward John + as much as he believes in John's "work," I feel like that wld be smth he'd have to work thru: working side by side w someone who had a direct hand in basically destroying yr life as u knew it. n I feel like Amanda wld know that, n as such she'd want to keep her distance bc she can't predict how this man will act/what he will do, even if he is technically on her side. so like. things wld def be tense btwn them until Lawrence has had some time 2 process his new life + what tht means for him, and until the two of them can have some sort of talk/acknowledgement of that.

though I will say that their roles kind of imply they'd at least see a good bit of each other. Amanda scouts, in a way, helps subdue & bring ppl in, which wld then be brought to Lawrence fr any medical procedures they feel r needed (such as sewing th key behind Michael's eye in II) so it'd definitely be like a "hey did u bring some1?" sort of thing. Mark is muscle of course so like I know he def helped on tht end (I believe Amanda is th one who caught Lawrence in the parking garage but like it wld be SO much funnier if Hoffman was the one crawling around) but IDK if he rly Saw Lawrence bc. Cop Business. so he'd just kinda b like "here u go" n bring ppl to Amanda n then peace out 'cause he's gotta keep tht reputation of Respected Detective. we know he also might've messed w traps themselves as well (like The Rack in III), which wld definitely keep him separate from Lawrence bc Lawrence had No Involvement in designing/setting up traps. tht was strictly a John/Hoffman/Amanda endeavour.

as fr how they'd feel abt each other? it's really dependent on how u view thm as characters. Lawrence, after he becomes a disciple, believes that what John is doing is truly helpful and truly has the capability to change lives; he devotes himself 2 it, shows countless times tht he has complete faith in John + his methods, so much so that John left a tape fr him telling him to look after Jill + to act on his behalf if smth were to happen to her. he calls Lawrence his greatest asset. his trust in John + the Jigsaw legacy is unwavering.

Amanda, however, has been shown several times to act directly against John's beliefs, such as constructing inescapable traps (Kerry) or rigging others' games (Adam). th breakdown she has in III I think showcases the disconnect between her love fr John as a mentor/father figure, and the realization that not only is John entirely hypocritical and doesn't stay true to his own beliefs half th time, he truly has shown no regard fr her safety + has only been using her to further the agenda that was built upon a fragile foundation 2 begin with. u've mentioned this b4 too but John always liked 2 say that if u can anticipate the human mind, then nothing is up 2 chance - which wld mean that he KNEW Xavier might throw Amanda into the Needle Pit to get out of it. he KNEW Daniel was just a fucking kid and was perfectly fine w putting him in very real danger to get back at some1 he felt like needling fr the express purpose of provocation and nothing else. he KNEW Laura, a woman she'd formed a bond w and pretty much swore to protect th minute she woke up and saw her crying in the corner, could begin to seize n choke on her own vomit and die in that house. he knew all of those things, ENCOURAGED the belief that smth was wrong w her because she wasn't "fixed" as he had claimed, and it's so unfortunate that she doesn't realize that sooner (I fully agree that she deserved to lose her shit completely on John. it's what he deserved! it's what SHE deserved!!!) but she still Does before she dies (which, again, I Don't think should've happened. she didn't deserve 2 go out like tht + she deserved so much more of her story being told).

so there's the conflict of beliefs between thm. I think Amanda definitely starts out like Lawrence does, completely devoted + believing every word John says, but thru II we can see that certainty begin to falter n her faith in John is completely shaken by the end. I don't think Lawrence wld Know she felt tht way until after she died, if he ever finds out at all, bc I doubt that's smth she'd want to express. it's not even smth she discusses w John himself until III, in which she's already made up her mind to shoot Lynn as a final act of misguided disobedience. I still think tht Lawrence wld feel fr her in some way, though, bc even b4 he became a disciple he was rather horrified when Sing + Tapp had him sit thru her testimony; his feelings would change on this a lil, bc he'd see it as her rebirth (as she once did too), but I still feel like he'd want 2 like. watch over her a little. not super directly, + not because he felt threatened by her presence or anything like that, but because they're in this together n I'm sure John's told him abt some of the circumstances regarding how she came to be a disciple after her game as well. I feel like he wld definitely be saddened by her passing, bc I feel he'd come 2 respect her at least a bit, but fr him it's like. they have 2 keep moving. John is gone now too, smth I'm sure was probably a pretty huge blow fr Lawrence, and now he has to put his energy into making sure Hoffman stays unaware of him. just in case he has to act on that warning John gave him abt Jill. but he wld still miss Amanda n wld mourn her, to be sure.

I don't think they'd be close or anything like tht. kind of just friendly coworkers who only see each other every once in a while, passing thru the doors of each other's lives with a nod and a wave and maybe a greeting if they're feeling up 2 it. they're not too involved. Amanda can't tell u tht Lawrence's favourite flowers are sunflowers. Lawrence can't tell u tht Amanda's favourite smell is lavender or tht her favourite colour is a deep, almost greyish purple. but they're connected thru John, thru their work, n that still means smth to both of them, at least in some manner. when Amanda dies, Lawrence grieves. Jill pays for her headstone n Lawrence makes sure to bring fresh flowers every once in a while, but he has to hold his head up n keep walking. now tht John's gone, there's work to be done.

and someone's gotta keep an eye on Hoffman.

[isthatbloodonhisshirt]

If you could change ten things about Teen Wolf what would you change??

OMG BUCKLE DOWN BECAUSE IT’S GONNA BE A LONG ONE! Do asks have a word limit? Guess we gonna find out! (Sometimes I wish I could speak these replies, they sound much funnier when I am speaking out loud to myself and then they are just weird and flat typed up but I DIGRESS! I do that a lot, have you noticed? Doesn’t matter.)

(Also, I did put a “Keep Reading” but for some reason it’s not working. Or it’s not showing as working on my end. But it’s right under this paragraph I swear so if it’s not working, that isn’t on me....)

1) SO! Trauma. People be dealing with their traumas. That’d be a thing I’d like, thank you. Like, I’m sorry, but there is a fuckton of trauma in this show and everyone like, goes to bed at night and wakes up cured. Like MAGIC! I mean, yes, I get that magic is a thing in the show (is it? I mean kind of? Idk, I never saw past season 4, they alluded to magic and then SNATCHED THAT AWAY so, side-note, that’s coming up later!) But yes, I would’ve very much liked for people to, you know, deal with their traumas in a realistic fashion. Let’s get some therapy going, or like, idk, some actual negative reactions to thing! They kind of had that with Stiles every now and then, but he seemed to be up and down episode to episode so like, it’d be like they wrote an episode where he reacts to what happened to him and then four episodes have gone by where he’s fine and the writers were like “OH YEAH SHIT HE JUST MURDERED LIKE A WHOLE HOSPITAL, make him have a panic attack randomly over dropping milk, that balances out, excellent, we’re so smart.” So yes. DEAL. WITH. THE. TRAUMA! Thanks.

2) LESS CHARACTERS, MORE DEVELOPMENT! I mentioned this in another recent ask about relationships but like, they just kept shoving characters in there. Like one of those clown cars. So we got like, 30% character development on the core group and then the rest was like “wait, who are you again?” Like, legit, I have a bad memory, you put too many people in front of me, I ain’t gonna remember them unless they have a good personality or a reason to be there. And like, develop their relationships! Not even romantically, but like, Scott’s mom loves Scott, that is sweet and lovely, but like, we never really… see… that… developed? Idk man, like again, I have a bad memory, but when you really develop relationships WELL (ex: Brooklyn-nine-nine), that shit sticks with you and you CARE about people. The friendships are important, and the familial relationships are important and just developing all the dynamics is important! They spent more time showcasing how much everyone hated each other and lied to each other and stuff and that just got really tiring. Yes, you’re allowed to get mad at your friends, but if you’re a Werewolf, and your human friend is calling you when there is a fucking monster running around killing people, can you maybe stop making out with your girlfriend and answer your phone so your friend isn’t treading water with a 200+ pound Werewolf for 2 hours? Like, JUST SAYING! (Spoiler alert: Me and Scott would not be close friends. Like, I think we’d be friends, but not so much that I’d trust him with my life. If I wanted to grab pizza and a movie, maybe play some video games, he sounds like a treat, but if my life was in danger, thanks I be callin’ someone who answers their phone).

3) Actual consequences for their actions! Okay like, I am also guilty of this in fanfic, but at the same time, my writing is free, I don’t get paid for it, and I write what I want because that’s how it works, so I can do whatever I please (If I wanna make the Hales royalty for the millionth time, ain’t nobody gonna stop me!). But like, when you are a legit paid screenwriter who is writing a show? Consequences! Just because it’s a show about Werewolves doesn’t mean there can’t be any consequences! Like, the best scene, and I feel like we can agree, because fuck it like, hurt my soul and my heart and I was just so like ;~; was when the sheriff got fired (fired? suspended? TEMPORARILY UNEMPLOYED!) because Stiles stole a police van when they locked Jackson up in it. Like, that shit was REAL LIFE CONSEQUENCES for actions, and that shit was intense and it HURT and omg I loved it! Give me more of that! Like, I’m sorry, but you gonna tell me Nogistune!Stiles walked through the hospital murdering a bazillion people and not one camera was working the whole time? Not one? Nobody saw that? Nobody went “hey, isn’t that the sheriff’s kid?” Like, CAN. YOU. IMAGINE?! That would’ve been so amazing, a bunch of episodes of the pack scrambling to keep the Supernatural a secret while also trying to stop Stiles from GETTING ARRESTED because saying “Sorry ma’am, I was possessed by a demon fox who likes chaos and thought murdering a bunch of people would be fun” ain’t gonna fly in court and the FBI sure isn’t gonna believe that but like, UGH! Again, bad memory, but was the fact that Dark!Stiles wandered through the hospital killing people EVER brought up again???? CONSEQUENCES. Woulda really liked that.

4) STOP with unnecessary romances. Like, yeah, I get it, the allos like their romances, but shockingly, you can still have a good show without focussing on the romance. Like, it can be there, I’m not saying don’t put it in, I’m saying DON’T MAKE IT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING! Like, the entirety of season one was Scott chasing Allison and Stiles chasing Lydia. This… this does not make an interesting show? Like, is that just me? And then as the season progressed, EVERYONE had to be in a relationship? WHY? Again, haven’t seen past season four, but I mean, I know Scott and Kira were a thing, and then Stiles and Malia, and Liam and some… person? Idk. And Ethan and Danny (congrats Jeff, you get to tick your “I had representation in my show!” box, well done, gold star, or whatever). And Isaac and Allison, and Melissa and Chris (apparently?). And then Stydia was alluded as being canon, and Scott ended up with Malia somehow?? And Derek slept with half the town and all of Mexico, idek. Like, stop it. Stop. Shows work without everything being about everyone banging each other. (See again: Brooklyn-nine-nine, or Avatar the Last Airbender, or The Good Place, or even fucking Supernatural!) You can have a good, interesting story without everyone banging each other. It ain’t necessary.

5) More actual storytelling (again, this woulda worked better without the unnecessary romances taking up 49 of the 50 minutes of air-time). Like, yes, I get it, pilot’s gotta have some pizzaz! Gotta be spicy and sparkly to make people interested (and like, fucking hell, all I can remember of the pilot is sobbing Allison soaking wet–LIKE, WAS THAT NECESSARY???–about the dog she hit and oh noes is it dead well thank God the lead character works for a vet! And somehow has keys and access to the whole clinic like nbd at all hours? Whatever. I wasn’t even allowed inside my blockbuster as a shift lead if it was off-hours but apparently a high school student doing paperwork at a vet clinic is different, I’m not a vet so what do I know? I HAD A BAD DAY OKAY, I GOT FEELINGS ABOUT THIS RN!) I went off-topic, what was I saying? Oh yes, storytelling. You know what woulda been nice? Werewolves! It happens, we find out about Laura, we find out about Werewolves, Scott gets bitten, all that jazz. And then like… ease in the Hunters? Like, why was there Laura/Derek, Peter, AND the Hunters all crammed into the pilot? Yes, I get it, you need the SUSPENSE and the DRAMA, but you can do that without the Hunters right off the bat. Just, how CONVENIENT~ that the same day Derek and Laura come back, Hunters move to town? That’s just lazy, and again, I can be guilty of laziness, I admit to it, but I literally get paid in—like, do hearts count? I get paid in hearts and pats on the back for my fics, I can write whatever I want. If you’re getting paid to write something, try a bit harder, yes? Yes???

What number am I on? Oh good Lord, I got things to say, okay.

6) MAGIC! Can you like—I feel like this one is self-explanatory. Stiles did the whole mountain ash thing in season one, and it was SO PROMISING, and then that just died. It died like Maes Hughes getting shot in a phonebooth (spoiler, but really, you haven’t seen that yet, that’s a you problem). Why even bother introducing magic if you weren’t gonna use it? Like, was it because people like Stiles more than Scott and the showrunner was like “nonono. If we make him magic, he’s TOO cool, and then Scott is unimportant.” I mean, you coulda worked that in your favour, but no. You just murdered the fuck out of it, like straight up took it out back and shot it. Like, yeah, Derek went kiddo again and Jennifer was apparently all magic beauty spell or whatever, but like?? That’s it??? You had a show about Werewolves and you didn’t even try to make it more interesting by making some of the characters magic? Lydia’s basically the closest and they didn’t even explain her powers that well. Magic would’ve been dope and they totally shoved that to the side. That was dumb. Shoulda done something with that.

7) Explain things more? Don’t mention them once and then do nothing? Like, we got some brief stuff about anchors, and emissaries (which are super duper secret according to Deaton but then like, EVERYONE KNOWS HE IS EMISSARY SO WHICH IS IT DEATON? YOU TELL ME!) Like, they had so much opportunity to talk about so many things and again, maybe that comes out more in the later seasons, idk, but they likely coulda done with more explanations and they didn’t and this angers me GREATLY. They mention something once and then it never comes up again. That’s some Lost bullshit right there. Don’t start something if you’re not gonna commit. You tell me the beginning of the story, I wanna fucking know the end, don’t forget halfway through and wander away, that ain’t right, I NEED ANSWERS JEFF! And like, as above, never really got Lydia’s powers. I know what a Banshee is, but her powers did NOT make sense to me. Idk, could just be that I’m dumb, but similarly, don’t write something so convoluted that it confuses people, that is also dumb. As dumb as I am so like, well done there. And also do we get more on Parrish? I know he’s a Hellhound, but how does one get born a Hellhound and not know until you are conveniently lit on fire by someone trying to kill you for money? (Also, you bean, you absolute treasure, “I’m worth five dollars?” You’re so cute. Silly child.) I feel like being a Hellhound is something that woulda come up before getting barbecued in his cruiser. Like, he works a stressful job, you gonna tell me not ONCE while getting shot at he didn’t have a massive heart attack over a close call and like, burst into flames? No? Is that just a me thing? I feel like the slightest annoyance and I’d be fully on fire, not gonna lie. (I’d be on fire a LOT… CLEARLY I AM AN ANGRY PERSON! No, that’s not true. No yes it is, I am angry, but more angry lately because I’m sleep-deprived and work is dumb ANYWAY back to this)

8) EMBRACE THE SIDE CHARACTERS! Okay, so MAYBE Scott is meant to be the golden child. The Dick Grayson of the show, if you will. The original Robin, the creme de la creme. That’s all fine and dandy if he is, no judgement (little judgement), but you know what you don’t do when your side characters are getting a lot of attention and love? What you DO NOT do is give them less screen time. Because then you’re being petty and, shockingly, you get more positive results when you give the fans what they want. I’m not talking about pairings, because everyone is different, and you can’t cater to everyone, but like, the more people moved away from liking Scott, the harder the showrunners pushed him into our faces. And like, that isn’t how this works. If I like side character 87 a lot, and the lead’s getting annoying, you know what’s gonna make me NOT watch the show? Cutting out side character 87 (hey, for shits and gigs, let’s call him DANNY, just, not coincidentally at all) and then just shoving the lead into my face. That is what makes someone go “Well, four seasons is enough, I can happily live knowing I didn’t waste my life watching two more of them.” Like??? I’m not saying cut out Scott, because the show is ABOUT Scott, but the more everyone tried to showcase how amazing and wonderful and pure and perfect he was, the more annoying it got? Like, Scott has flaws. THEY ALL HAVE FLAWS! If you don’t admit that they all have flaws, it gets boring, and you hate the characters. I know that Scott turned into a douche later (apparently, again, haven’t seen it), but even in the early seasons by trying to make him this pure True Alpha golden angel child who spreads love and hope and trusts everyone, it just got boring. He was vanilla, and also a bad friend, because he was too “perfect” to be around someone “imperfect” like Stiles, and even like, the rest of the pack overall. He was always put on a pedestal and it made the show really… irksome? Idk, I just feel like yes, SCOTT is the Teen Wolf, but you added all these damn side characters, maybe use them a bit more? At least Stiles was interesting, and Lydia was fucking badass, and fucking hell, if you’d done right by Boyd and Erica, the actors wouldn’t have left for better shows so like, come on man, you coulda done better. We coulda had such a dope show, why you gotta crush my dreams like that Jeff? What did I ever do to you?

I know this is only eight, but this is long enough, if I go two more, this is gonna be IN.SANE. And also it’s late and I haven’t finished my fic for the day (I mean, I’m almost done, but I’m not done yet!) So like, I’ma stop here. But yes, hopefully this answered your question. Sorry I got REALLY PASSIONATE about it but it’s been a day.

Also, I feel this needs to be said, but obviously these are my own personal opinions, and as opinions, you are not obligated to agree with them. But you are also not allowed to tell me my opinion is wrong. You can disagree with it, but this is an opinion, not a law, so there is no right and wrong. Don’t @ me, my day’s been bad enough kthx!

HAVE A GOOD NIGHT, BE BACK IN LIKE TWENTY(?) MINUTES!

[mulletcal]

hi, idk if ur doing requests or not, sorry to bother u if ur not but i was wondering if u could write a blurb ab y/n having a bad mental health day or hasn’t been the happiest in a while and cal like helps her through it and talks with her?🥺 btw i love ur acct

idk if you watch colleen ballinger but her husband did something so cute for her in one of her recent vids so i wanna kinda recreate it 

also i’m gonna say that this is like a world minus the pandemic that’s happening bc we all need a lil escape every once in a while

(also also i touched on what happens here in my first blurb i ever wrote SO this can just be an expansion of something like that)

—-

You had been coming to the end of your rope for a while now - burning the candle at both ends had always been your default setting, but your mental health was starting to take a dip because of it.

Your phone had been going off with texts from Calum all day, expressing to you his excitement about songs he had been working on, or little ways Luke had pushed his buttons that day, or just things about his own mental health.  It’s not that you didn’t want to talk to your boyfriend, it’s just that you didn’t have the energy to.

Ignoring another text from him, you headed out to do your grocery shopping - you knew that if you didn’t at least have some easy to make foods in your house when you encountered the worst of it, you wouldn’t eat at all.

The trip to the grocery store was short, grabbing a few essentials that you knew were comfort foods to you, and easy to make.  Heading back to your apartment, you were slightly alarmed when you saw rose petals that trailed from the elevator to your door - wondering what Calum could be up to.

Opening the door, the faint smell of lavender invaded your nostrils, your apartment dimly lit with candles that led down the hallway to what you assumed was the bathroom.  Taking in a deep breath, you followed down the hallway where your assumptions were proven correct.

“What’s all this?” You asked, eyes lifting to meet your boyfriend who had just been sitting on the closed toilet seat waiting for you to appear.

“You’ve been taking care of everyone else so much lately, I thought I should take care of you,” Calum replied simply, “I waited to draw the bath cause I know you hate it gets cold.”

Pouting slightly, you went to stand between his legs, looking down at him.  “Cal, you didn’t have to do all this, I’m fine.” That was a complete lie, but you’d hoped Calum would buy it.

“Bullshit,” Guess not. “Baby, you’ve been burning the candle at both ends so to speak for weeks now.  I just want to be here for you,” He murmured, pressing a kiss to your wrist.

You weren’t one to say no to a bubble bath, so you agreed.  Calum made quick work to add your favourite bath salts and bubbles to the warm, almost too hot to soak in water, encouraging you to strip down.

What you hadn’t expected though, was for him to slip into the bath first, motioning for you to come sit in front of him.  He had been around when you were having a bath, sure, but he wasn’t usually one to join. Running his now damp fingers in your hair as you settled against him, you shut your eyes.

“I also put on some tea, it’s on your mug warmer,” His lips were pressed to the side of your head, eyes glancing over to where the mug sat. “Now, wanna talk to me about what’s going through that gorgeous mind of yours?”

Your eyes remained closed, breathing evenly from your nose as you tried to let the eucalyptus scent soak into your skin.  “Life’s just too much, y’know? Work has been crazy busy, my boss can be such a nightmare, horrible at communication and never acknowledges when a task is complete. We just go onto the next. I also hardly have time to see you, so I feel like I’m being a terrible partner to you.  The anxiety is overwhelming, and it’s hard to feel enough.”

Calum listened, he always listened, so patient and kind.  He waited for you to finish speaking before he had spoken up, “Is there a way you can improve communication with your boss? Like maybe weekly meetings where you discuss what you need from each other in the week moving forward?” He suggested, and it honestly didn’t sound like a half bad idea.  “As for me, you know I’m always here for you my love.  No matter the day, place, or time, I’m always here to listen.”

Your hand reached up to cup his cheek, turning your head so you could plant a kiss to his free cheek, “I know, thank you.  Also that’s not a bad idea, I’ll bring it up to him tomorrow.  Hopefully that can establish some work life balance as well.  I go in early, I stay late - and I’m making less than the people who are working hourly.”

Through your rant about your work week, Calum began  to take some water and pour it over your head, and you were confused at first, “M’gonna wash your hair, just relax.” So the next few minutes were spent with your eyes shut once more as Calum massaged the shampoo into your scalp.

Your bath hadn’t lasted much longer after that, the water beginning to grow tepid and slightly uncomfortable.  But Calum made sure that once you were dried off, you were wrapped in your fluffiest robe, light kisses being pressed to your cheeks and nose as he did so. 

“Why don’t I stay here for the next little bit? Tour doesn’t kick off for another month, and I’d like to see you as much as possible before I go,” Calum asked, toying with his own fingers.

“I love you, you know that? I’d love nothing more.”

tag list: @haikucal  @talkfastromance4 @softbabiestan @boyfriend-cal @calum-uncrowned @wildflowerirwin @irwindoll @gosh-im-short @atlcalm @thesubtweeter @heavenisapeach @ridingcthood @loveroflrh @wokeupinjapanisabop @mantlereid @inlovehoodx @irwinkitten (laura i didn’t know if you wanted to be tagged in everything or just ash content so i’m tagging you in this too 🥺)

[thermie]

h h hewwo owoo 22 / 23 / 29 / 31 / 34 / 50 / 58 / 61 / 88 in any order, and u can also just. pick only those that u want :3

hhhh-ewwwo? I did say I wanted to chat and I desperately do not want to do work or studies so buckle in for a long post (derogatory). 22. role model? Oh man, I don’t think I have any, like, specific ones for entire things, though I do fall in my hero-worship phaes and then fall out of them like everyone else. I think that taking an entire person and being like I wanna be like them is... not for me though. But I do look up to some people for specific things - I look up to, weirdly enough, Abigail Phylosohpytube who I didn’t watch before her coming out for her graceful coming out video though she admits that the experience wasn’t obviously as smooth. I look up to lots and lots of people for their ability to create and their art (not gonna tag my fav artists bc am tiny and do not want people to look at me, but i do be reblogging). I look up to people like ConcernedApe Stardewvalley and Supergiantgames Hades for their ability to put so much soul in their work, smth I aspire to do. I look up to @not-poignant for, among other things, their idk how to say it best, wisdom in understanding and communicating with others and with myself? I’ve learned a lot by just sort of being in their periphery and seeing how they articulate their thoughts and choose to be kind and witness other’s pain. Hell, I look up to twitch streamers and youtubers sometimes (the recent nice trait I’d like to have if I ever went into bigger content production is how ibxtoycat deals with parasocial relationship realities). 23. strange habits? Hm. I don’t think drinking tea whenever I need a pick-me-up is strange, that’s just probably forcefully assigning a British nationality to me. I think my insistence on misspelling words in a way I think is lowkey funny might be one, I say thamks bc it feels softer, or thank bc it’s funny, I say sleeb, I say finkers or tryink or otherwise replace g with k for lulz. I also don’t know if it counts as a habit but I have a small leather band around my wrist that’s been there for a year soon. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm I probs have like, stranger habits but I can’t recall rn. 29. best way to bond with you? Hmm. Well, if you show initiative and are explicit about wanting to spend time with me, that’s already a big chance of me spending time with you. And then if our interests match and I don’t think that you’re like, young in a way that automatically puts me in a position where I don’t feel comfortable really being myself around you bc in my head I have to look out for you (it has happened with two of my friends, sigh), and we regularly spend time together, voila, friend acquired. It simultaneously doesn’t take much and takes a bit to be my friend and bond with me - it’s easy af to become a casual friend cuz I’m always open to new people, but there has to be a level of trust to become like, a close friend. Respecting my boundaries, talking shit with me, being explicitly committal about wanting to bond with me are big steps that way. 31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? Uh, I don’t do neither, but a current fave that is reasonably badass is my black tshirt with like, a ritual circle and a deer skull. V edgy, 10/10. I also used to have like a real edgy tshirt with a jester and some dice that said the game of life, but I threw it out bc dysphoria. or maybe I put it at the back of my closet along with one other shirt In Case I Get Top Surgery so I can wear them then. 34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? Many, such is the nature of advertising, alas. I have managed to avoid most of it tbh though, so the only place I am forced to sit through ads so they stick is my scrabble capitalist nightmare app where I play and always beat haha my coursemate. And they have adds for those shitty apps where you have to solve a puzzle that ends up failing in the add and like, drenching a man in green goo. I find those kinda fascinating tbh. Who plays these games? Who plays these shitty shitty games whose ad has to be “prove your IQ“ to make you want to prove yourself to play them? Oh and also, the insidious nature of ads in media I consume - the mcelroys have gotten me informed about many many things bc they do it in a funny way. Have you heard about squarespace? What about meundies? I also literally installed honey yesterday that I knew abt bc of the relentless adds and I wanted to save, uh, 2.50 from my minecraft server purchase (and then spent some time googling how they make money before giving up. just say u sell my data, that’s easier than not knowing what part of this makes you money). I was tired and in a weird mood, ok. 50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? It’s always the stupidest jokes, what matters more is laughing together with someone and getting caught in a laughing loop. I still remember laughing with my siblings until our stomachs really really hurt bc I think one of us said a rug was vomit-colored and it was funny in the moment. How many times have I laughed like that with you too, vit. I know that Laura’s one is nostrilatu, right? :D :D It’s just something that catches you off guard, I think.

58. four talents you’re proud of having? Oh shid. Hm. 1) My ability to analyze data and understand the basic building blocks of something. Makes me cool at studying and sexy at explaining things to my course-mates. 2) Not a talent more like a skill that I’ve worked hard on through therapy - but my inner positive voice/healthy parent is very strong and automatic (something I was sure would never happen). A good example is me going out for a walk, my phone dying so I can’t listen to music, when I went in my head “well I can always make music in my head. do-do-do *drum sound*“ and I could feel the wave of self-reprimand cresting but before I could actually hear any negative comments the positive voice said with a light of a thousand suns NO THAT IS ACTUALLY CUTE AND SEXY and just haaaaaaah. 3) I sing good. Need to sing more. 4) I think I’m good at making conversation. Even with people I don’t necessarily like or want to talk to. More of a skill again but whatever. 61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.? Do not come to me and ask for favorites, witch. Uh, I have some quotes in my notes app, like 7 from Pia’s writing :D. But imma go with “It’s a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in the broken world“ by Mary Oliver. It counts, ok. Or, wait, something I will for real one day either crosstitch of commission shitpostcalligrapher: “t’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. “What are we holding onto Sam?” “There’s good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.“” 88. your greatest wish? Hrm. Right now? To have like a couple days with no responsibilities and without the outside world bearing on me as heavily, to be tiny tiny tiny so I’m invisible and can drink tiny tea on a tiny leaf. Uh, in general? My recently formulated wish or a goal is stability/peace. Then everything else becomes ok because you can bounce back to stable ground between feeling shit or everything happening so much. And I’ve sort of reached that. Also like, half a million euros would be nice too so I can get a house and a car and go on a few trips abroad. :D // there’s two ask memes in my blog recently, go wild

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

Nicole's Rambling: The Avengers Problem (for PS4)

Let's start with the usual chanting: ❗this is my opinion, it's biased as hell (since I grew up with Marvel comic books and movies) and you don't have to agree❗

I was wondering why Avengers game gets so hated... So I took a look and I played it myself. Let’s have a look.

SPOILERS AHEAD

First off: the game isn't in any way horribly bad. It's just a button smasher with a story that has its good and bad beats. It's not memorable at all, but it could've gone way more downhill in my opinion.

At the start of the game, you meet the mighty Avengers through child fan's eyes - it's pure fanservice and let's be honest, it's dope. It was sweet, but pretty dragged, to be honest. I really didn't need to play as all five Avengers (HAWKEYE IS MISSING, AGAIN) in the first hour of the game, but sure, why not?

For the most part, you see the squad through Kamala Khan's eyes. For those who might have not a clue who the hell Kamala is; I am not wondering about why you don't know who the hell she is. She's a Marvel heroine who outed in 2013 and who will have her own spinoff on Disney+.

And again, Ms Marvel is fine, but not memorable at all. I've never, until this day, met anyone who would say that 'Ms Marvel is my favourite superhero'. I was halfway through the game before I even realized it's Ms Marvel - AFTER SHE PULLED HER DAMN COSTUME OUT. That can be due to my utter ignorance or because I heard of her so little that I can count it on my fingers. In all honesty, I loved Kamala as the story progressed, the gal's not bad at all - but as the whole game, she had good and bad beats. There were times where I wished to play as Iron Man and the game forced me to play as her... Whatever.

Let's look at the three problems I have with this game and three positives I found in the game:

0. (Technically zero since it's a personal problem of mine) The soundtrack and the voice actors:

By any means, I am not trying to say they should hire RDJ for the role of Iron Man and Mark Ruffalo for the role of Banner... But it was so hard to distinguish the voice of Nolan North (For example: Nathan Drake x Iron Man) and Troy Baker (Samuel Drake x Bruce Banner). For me, as for a PS4 gamer, it's annoying to hear the same voices again and again in every game I am genuinely excited about (Idk how Xbox players are familiar with them). Of course, there's even Laura Bailey as the Black Widow; I feel like these are the three only people who do voice acting for games these days and sure, I should've seen that coming.

Side note: Nolan North is not a good fit for Iron Man in the slightest in my opinion, but if you like his Iron Man, that's cool as well!

The soundtrack... M A N, the soundtrack. When I heard Marvel gave a green light to the Avengers game, I expected to hear at least the iconic Alan Silvestri's 'The Avengers'. Problem with this is simple: Marvel had spoiled its consumers with good and memorable soundtracks (don't you tell me you don't remember as they all gathered for the first time). Since it was Marvel itself who gave the green light for this project, which was supposed to be based loosely on the movies' and comic book success, I hoped to get all of it.

It's not Iron Man when AC/DC song isn't playing in the background as he flies through a canyon for his life. I mean, Iron Maiden are fine; but come on. COME ON. It's not the same. It's not the Avengers (WITHOUT HAWKEYE) without their significant theme.

1. IT. BUGS. ALL. THE. TIME and the combat is incredibly repetitive:

When I was little, I was a rage gamer. I could barely play Crash Bandicoot or Rayman without losing my cool. Since then, I grew up, skilled and etc. I try not to rage when playing games since it's simply not worth it.

But when you're replaying a boring mission for the tenth part and you're almost over and SUDDENLY, the game bugs out and you lose control over the character (it starts running in circles, etc.) it sucks shit. And don't let me start on the minor bugs. Like when you don't cross the platform by one pixel and the game doesn't let you make combos when you're in the air and bug into a tree when you bug into a wall, a rock, fucking nothing... Bruh. It was released in August, shouldn't these bugs be fixed by now? The game is fucking broken, hoes. It barely feels like a game ready to launch at times.

When you're so lucky that you don't bug out in the middle of doing something, the combat... It isn't bad. It's not terrible, but the Avengers deserved something better. It didn't deserve mediocre combat that repeats itself in every level. Once you find yourself good combo, you're done for. You can use it to finish the game if you will.

2. There's too many missions, too much information and too much things player has to understand if he wants to play the game properly:

Okay, this might seem to be a little confusing; I didn't understand the game system at all when I first ran it on my PS4. There's story missions, HARM training sessions, daily missions for particular heroes, faction missions (SHIELD, Pym, Stark, etc.) and character-side-story missions, and a lot more.

Trust me, it doesn't sound that hard, but once you open the map menu for yourself... Oh boy, that's a different story. And if it only was the map menu. The inventory and such aren't too collected all together either. Before you can safely tell what is what, it will take you at least a whole afternoon. Also, the fact that game just spills it on you just like that, one thing after another, it doesn't help the overall feel.

On top of that, there are MULTIPLE currencies in the game; some even involve microtransaction. It mostly is involving the customization of the Avengers, so it's not THAT big of a deal; you can get one currency by collecting boxes and stuff, but it takes ages before you can buy one single thingy.

Also, if you would like to get stuff (very useful stuff) from factions (SHIELD and Pym mainly), you have to do in-factions daily quests, which usually require to do a certain amount of things as a particular hero (you can do some quests with Ms Marvel only, some with Black Widow, it usually involves the damage dealt while playing as a character etc.). And if you forget to fetch these minies? Well, no faction points for you, bucko.

The system feels overall too complicated in the begging and even after finishing the game, I am not certain by some.

3. The gameplay of the one and only... Natasha Romanov, and the entirety of Steve Rogers:

Right off the bat: IT. SUCKS. SHIT.

This was your shot in opening our mouths and showing why Black Widow BELONGS to the Avengers in the first place. Like, sure, storywise you proved the point, but gameplaywise... That's a different story.

Out of the bunch, Natasha feels the slowest, most clumsy and overall not too pleasant to play as. Mainly is because her attacks do... Nothing. The gun reloading is basically constant when I have to put it simply and it takes about 3-5 seconds for her to even reload; which can be a matter of life and death inside the game. Sure, she can make herself invisible; but that's like... It. It's not that it would be suffering when you are forced to play as Nat... But not a pleasant experience either.

On the other hand, maybe it's just me. I have friends who told me the same about her gameplay, but maybe there's someone who enjoys the Black Widow. It's my personal with the entirety of the gameplay.

Steve, on the other hand, isn't hard to play as. It's just fucking boring. At the start of the game, I couldn't wait to play as Steve's character. He seemed to be awesome - Jesus fuck, how could I be so wrong? As I said, he's incredibly boring and dry, his skills would do the same amount of work if they even weren't there. I think that Rogers is there just for the shock value (as a value that doesn't even work in the slightest) and nothing more.

As you learn to do the tricks and combos with them, it gets slightly better and skill tree and equipment upgrades can help almost unnoticeable... But really, Steve and Natasha are the absolute worst.

Now the reasons why the game convinced me it isn't a hot mess as I initially thought:

1. The characters, dynamics, chemistry and the overall story:

Sure, it is mainly a basic plotline, a cookie-cutter one, full of cliché - Avengers have to regroup after a traumatic event and you're the one who has to find them and bring them together.

Yet it is quite interesting; the game leads you to believe that Steve Rogers is dead after an event called the 'A-Day' (which you won't believe even if the game does the hardest to make you to, constantly remaining you that 'Oh boy, Cap died, did you know that?') and the Avengers had left to exile because they were considered as big bad for the people and the country. They have their emotional baggage and the banter between Banner and Stark (though it ends too soon), is just the thing that makes them human and relatable.

Even the villains are quite compelling; not like ultra super convincing, but the game can turn around when you least expect it to; which is definitely a huge plus.

The characters were done GOOD. The dialogues are full of personality and jokes you'd expect from each one of them; Banner is a wallflower cutie, Tony fishes for compliments all the time, Natasha is the big independent woman she always was and Thor? CHEF'S KISS, I swear. It hits the Shakespearean vibe perfectly and at the same time, he still is charming and quite funny to hang around.

Every time you can listen to a chit-chat between two characters, it is a great pleasure for you as a Marvel fan. Also, I need to say that regardless of my personal issue with the dub (regarding Tony and Bruce; since they're the people you spend most of your time with), the dialogues for these two characters are on point without a doubt. And I kinda grew fond of the in-game Bruce Banner throughout the course of the game, to be honest.

There are references, jokes, inside jokes, one-liners... The dialogue was done amazingly and that's a huge   T H A N K   Y O U  to the developers.

2. The mind-blowing gameplay of... Tony Stark and Thor and AI, while not being too bright, getting stronger as you do:

In what the Natasha gameplay lacks, these two give you exactly what would you expect and way, way more than you'd ask for. Again, it mainly reflects the personal gameplay preferences of the player; let me tell you why I think these gameplays are, in my opinion, the best.

a) Tony's gadgets and weaponry: The suit itself is bloody brilliant. Once you master the ability to attack and fly at the same time, you have the moments when you can not only feel like Iron Man - but really be Iron Man. It's not even that your gameplay would suddenly become 10x easier; it significantly becomes funnier.

b) Thor's heavy fist-to-fist and Mjolnir preferences: the Mjolnir is bloody brilliant as well. Thor's combat is mainly physically based, but when you want to throw the hammer around like the madman you are, you can suit yourself. You can use the lightning if you please and you can fly if this style of combat suits you. It's all in your hands. Thor can take quite a bit of damage, which is significantly supporting you in this style. If you accidentally drop Mjolnir? Well, call it back and smash them!

Also, regarding the AI... As I said, they're certainly not the brightest sparks in the flame; yet thanks to the power getting bigger as you level up and continue with your story and a huge variety of enemies - from turrets to flying men with flamethrowers. It is just button smasher, but a pleasing one in this regard, I must say.

3. The fanservice to comic book fans, movie fans and loyalty to the property:

As one IGN review once said... "This game makes you feel like Batman." And this game more or less accomplished it as well, but diluted and stripped down. Of course, in no way I can compare this to the masterpiece to the Arkham saga; these games are brilliant.

But there are moments when the game can just drag you inside the story and tell you: "You're Iron Man now, boss. It's in your hands." And it's there. I think the only issue was that the team of devs just took too big of a bite. I wouldn't mind stand-alone titles emerging into one and big Avengers game. That would be fun as well and I would spend my time with it gladly.

To end it: it's a mess, but a good mess you might like. If I was to rate it, would be 5.1/10 Wait until it is on sale, don't rush it. I'm overall disappointed and I most likely will forget I have ever played it.

[redjennies]

Widowjest for 001? 🥺

fair warning: I am thoroughly team Fjorester in a very sports fan, friendly rivalry sort of way, but I do actually have a lot of non-negative thoughts about Caleb and Jester and Caleb's feelings for Jester so I'm gonna do this anyway. shoving this under a read more so shippers and antis alike do not have to read me scrawling “Toy Story 2 was okay” on the bathroom wall about the most polarizing ship in this fandom.

when I started shipping it if I did:

honestly in the early episodes, I could have started shipping it if that energy had stayed consistent from my perspective. I actually wasn't swayed that much by the waltz scene itself but the "and you're very blue" scene later was super touching imo. like I remember thinking to myself "I don't wanna ship the twins ;(( but that was so cute." idk there’s been some on and off, they lost me for a good bit when Caleb kept scaring Jester about having put her mom in danger but recently I’ve been a little “okay, I can see it.”

my thoughts:

I fully believe in Laura and Liam's ability to drag me, however reluctantly, on board with this ship if it goes canon. that being said, as it is, I do think Caleb's feelings for Jester do make sense. I don't think they came out of nowhere and I don't really find it all that creepy. like Beau's crush on Jester not being weird to me, I think Caleb is being very respectful about it, even if he did have some ideas about Jester that I was kinda like "come on buddy, you watched her throw an axe into the back of a man's skull. she's not an angel." I also don't think it would be entirely out of left field for Jester to return them. they have had moments and I have noticed that. idk, in order for it to happen, Jester would absolutely have to make a move. i also think Jester knows and him saying anything wouldn’t make a ton of difference except putting her on the spot. and if she is interested in him, there’s like this “oh maybe? but i’m still kinda figuring out what’s going on with my feelings for Fjordboy since he’s finally stepping up but also are we right for each other?” idk, my thoughts on it are very complicated and I would have to see way more play out in a way I like before I’m sold. 

what makes me happy about them:

laura and liam just straight up have a great vibe. they always have. they play off each other well. they goof around well. there’s a solid friendship there and as I’ve said before I appreciate a good friendship.

what makes me sad about them:

not a ton. I don’t really ship it enough to get emo about it. i’m sure if it becomes canon, I will have plenty to get emo about. i will not enjoy it in the same way i get embarrassed and resentful when i get emo about fjorester lmao.

things done in fandom that annoys me:

so. very. much. unfortunately. and I feel bad for the normal ass WJs who have to deal with it. ;/ that being said, i try not to be someone who lets other fan’s bad takes color my main opinion of something and how it exists in canon. that’s juvenile.

mainly don't like when people downplay Jester's friendships with the rest of the Nein and act like Caleb is the only person who respects her. that's super gross to me. but that’s not just widojests that’s everyone.

(also, I headcanon Jester as 25/26 but like. please for the love of christ, can some of the shippers stop saying it's not weird for someone in their thirties to date a twenty-one year old. it makes more sense with the timeline for Jester to be 24-28 and also Caleb's mentally lost a lot of years so he's not in his thirties like Fjord is in his thirties. just embrace that aspect. if I hear one more person say "anyone at any age can date a 20 y/o because they're adults" I'm gonna puke. I hate that. 0/10 would not recommend.)

things I look for in fandom:

I do not like when people tear down other relationships to do it, but the focus on how quietly supportive they are of each other is quite touching. keep that up. it's sweet. they really have had some good moments.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

lmao Veth and Fjord for both of them. also Essek and Astrid for Caleb. also they're both characters that I'm okay with not having a romance.

My happily ever after for them:

hmm. I feel like Caleb would like to settle down in one place one day and have a place in making sure the Empire doesn't fall back into old habits, and Jester would like to keep exploring and travelling so maybe like a Veth and Yeza thing where she's off living a jetset lifestyle and he comes to visit. that would be cute.

who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Jester is the big spoon, full stop.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:

hanging out with cats. just so many cats.