#it's not just a one and done thing with the love letter subplot

[aetherialpiplup108]

The most underrated Alchemy of Souls moment is when the Unanimous Assembly goes bonkers over the ice stone. You have the old, esteemed leaders of Daeho getting into fist fights (side note: the actor playing Heo Yeom is hilarious), as well as Park Jin and Jin Ho-Gyeong getting into a legitimate argument that ends with Songrim soldiers drawing blades and surrounding the room. The situation is tense, uncertain, and a serious conflict looms on the horizon.

But then you have Jang Uk strolling up in the most dramatic fashion possible with an in-verse drumroll (like, this wasn't just OST designed to make the scene epic for viewers. Mu-deok beat a gong for him and if that isn't true love, I don't know what is) before apologizing for interrupting their passionate discussion (read: slyly insulting all the elders for being a bunch of squabbling children), claims to know the will of a legendary hero that's been dead for decades, and cites his source as a random piece of poetry Park Jin gave him as a trap like five episodes ago.

And the best part is that it works.

Everyone's stunned and confused but can't do anything (even if his own friends think he's lying to stall for time), and Park Jin is flat-out done. He trusts Uk enough not to intervene but look at this man, he's so tired.

10/10 perfect scene.

Bonus points for CP catching a glimpse of Uk minding his own business in the corner while the mages were fighting and instantly clocking in that something was going down.

Also I can't tell if this is Mu-deok "forgetting" to bow or Uk remembering to bow because he wants something from Go-won later.

[willalove75]

Alcina's New Maid Pt. 12 Lady Dimitrescu x Reader

Summary: You and Alcina are becoming closer, something the both of you are happy about. With the good comes the angst, from two phone calls from Heisenberg, one phone call from Mother Miranda and another encounter with Stefana, things take a bit of a nosedive.

Warnings: 18+ minors DNI

Tags: Fluff, angst, canon violence, blood

Notes: Part 12! I've been looking forward to writing this since I started!! This subplot was one of the first ideas I came up with when I was first brainstorming this fic! I hope you all like it💕

Click here for the rest of the series

Things between you and Alcina continued to progress, the two of you spent some more time together rebuilding your relationship and you've been spending more time with the girls as well. Even though you're still not having dinner with them every night, you've been joining them most nights. A few days ago Alcina asked you to join them for breakfast and when you woke up the next morning, you found a note on your nightstand.

Y/n, You had mentioned that there were mornings you would skip breakfast with us just so you can receive a note from me on your tray. It gave me inexplicable joy when I saw that you had kept every letter and to see how much you cherish them. If it's alright with you, I hope you continue to join us for breakfast and in return, I will continue writing you letters in the mornings. The girls miss having you around during meals, as do I. All my love, Alcina

For some reason, this letter meant more to you than the rest of them, even though they were all so special to you. This letter again proved to you that she's been listening, hearing what you've had to say and that she's been taking action. After you put the letter in the drawer with the rest of them, you get up, get yourself ready and head downstairs for breakfast.

As you walk towards the stairs, you can see Alcina just ahead of you, making her way down. She must have heard your heartbeat because as soon as you saw her, she stopped and turned around towards you.

"Good morning." She says with a smile.

"Good morning!"

"How did you sleep last night?"

"Like a rock, how was your night?"

"Uneventful, thankfully. I was able to get some much needed work done."

At this point, you're on the landing of the stairwell and Alcina is closer to the bottom of the stairs. From where you are, you're almost eye-level with her. Alcina tucks a strand of hair behind your ear and cups your face. She gazes into your eyes lovingly and you return the look. When she pulls her hand away, you reach out your arms to hug her. She happily leans in and wraps her arms around your waist and lifts you up as you wrap yours around her neck. You take a deep breath in while you're in her embrace, your nose filling with the scent of her hypnotizing perfume. On your exhale you relax into her and she tightens her hold on you just a bit. You pull away a bit so you can look at her and the two of you look into each others eyes again for a moment. Alcina smiles at you and places a soft kiss on your cheek, you immediately feel a light blush develop and you kiss her back on her cheek. She hugs you tightly again and cradles the back of your head.

"Oh, my love." She whispers so softly you almost missed it.

You hum and nuzzle into the crook of her neck.

Both of you were so invested in the moment you were having, neither of you noticed Stefana passing through the main hall. Her body tenses up as she glares at you in Lady Dimitrescu's arms. She quickly makes her way into another room before either of you notice her.

"How about we go eat?" Alcina says, placing a kiss on the side of your head. Nodding into her, you give her one more squeeze before she puts you down. The two of you walk towards the dining room, three swarms of flies meeting you at the door as you walk in.

"Good morning daughters." Alcina says as she takes her seat at the head of the table.

"Good morning mother." The three girls reply, all three of them still half asleep.

"What do you girls have planned for today?" She asks.

"Sleep." Cassandra says as she rests her face in her hand and closes her eyes.

"Cass! You said you would help me train!" Daniela says with a pout.

Cassandra grumbles and Bela looks over at Daniela.

"Dani I can help you today if you want."

"Really?!" Daniela all but shouts.

"Of course! Mama what are your plans for the day?" Bela asks Alcina.

"I have work to do, as per usual. Actually, y/n, I was wondering if you were able to help me with a few things today, if you don't mind of course."

"Not at all, I'd love to help." You say with a smile.

The three girls give each other small smiles that don't quite go unnoticed.

After breakfast, Alcina leads you up to her study.

"Thank you very much for assisting me today."

"Of course, I'm happy to give you a hand with whatever you need."

Alcina bends down and kisses the top of your head.

"Thank you my sweet. Unfortunately my filing has seemed to get away from me once again. You remember where everything needs to be filed, yes?"

"Yup!"

"Wonderful, I'm sorry to say that there's much more filing that needs to get done today than there was previously and I know how monotonous it can be."

"Alcina, really, it's okay." You say, turning towards her and looking up. "I don't mind, plus, I enjoy doing tedious things like this. I'm just happy I can help you somehow."

She bends down again and cups your face, placing a soft kiss on your forehead.

"Thank you."

You look around to see a handful of large stacks of papers around the room. This will definitely take you some time, but truthfully you're just happy to be around Alcina again without your heart feeling like it's shattering inside of your chest. After clearing a spot on the floor, you sit down and get to work, separating the papers like you did last time, making little piles. Alcina sits at her desk and shuffles through the paperwork in front of her.

It takes you almost two hours to sort through and organize all of the papers. Truthfully, you were surprised at how quickly the time went by, you felt so relaxed being around Alcina, she seemed to be relaxed as well in your presence. Well, as relaxed as she can be as she deciphers the chicken scratch on the letters from the mayor of the village.

"It is incredible how someone so unintelligent hasn't accidentally set fire to the entire village yet." She says to herself, frustrated.

A chuckle escapes from you before you're able to hold it back and Alcina side eyes you and smirks.

"Sorry." You say softly, pursing your lips to hold back more laughter.

"Something funny?" She asks, her tone is stern but her eyes have a playful look to them.

"Nope, not at all." You say as you file away a stack of papers.

"Mhm." She mutters as she arches an eyebrow.

Alcina puts the paper down onto her desk and rolls her neck out. You can feel her eyes on you while you file away another pile and you turn to look at her.

"May I help you?" You playfully ask.

She smirks and inches her finger towards you, signaling for you to walk over to her. Alcina cups her hand under your jaw and lifts your face to look up at hers. Her thumb caresses your cheek and you involuntary close your eyes and smile, when you open your eyes again you're met with Alcina's gorgeous gold irises.

"You are a very efficient helper my dear."

"I'm glad you think so."

"Come." She says, patting her lap. You smile and walk closer, Alcina lifts you up and sits you in her lap facing her. She leans back in her chair a bit and laces her fingers together behind your lower back, her thumbs gently caressing your sides.

Alcina tucks a strand of hair behind your ear and cups your face. After she looks at you for a moment she wraps her arms around you and pulls you into her, you hear her sigh and relax into you when she buries her face into your neck. You respond by wrapping your arms around her waist and holding her close.

"Are you okay?" You ask.

"Mhm." She mumbles before placing a kiss on your neck. She sits back up and looks down at you. "Yes, I'm alright. I just- I-" She looks away, furrowing her brow and biting her lip. You smile up at her and study her face as she works through her thought. Alcina isn't the best at being vulnerable, it's something you've known for a long time now. Although she's gotten much better at expressing herself and being vulnerable with you, old habits do indeed die hard. She wants to say "I missed you, I missed this." but she's having a difficult time forming the words.

Instead, you decide to wrap your arms around her again and rest your head on her chest, holding onto her tightly. She responds by doing the same, resting her chin on top of your head, gently running her hand up and down your back.

"I missed you too Alci." You say quietly.

Alcina's breath hitches in her throat, it's the first time you've called her by her nickname since everything happened. She never expected to become emotional when you called her that again, truthfully, she never really thought about you calling her Alci again. Not that she didn't want you to, it was just never something that crossed her mind as monumental. But hearing you call her that nearly brought tears to her eyes, the sense of familiarity, the feeling of closeness you get when the one you love calls you by your nickname hit her like a ton of bricks. Such a simple thing showed how comfortable you were with her once again and she had never been so grateful to hear that name before in her life. She cradles the back of your head and places a kiss on the top of it before resting her cheek there.

Alcina opens her mouth to say something and is interrupted by the phone. You can feel the low growl in her chest, aggravated that the moment was interrupted. Placing a hand against your back to secure you against her, she leans forward and picks up the phone.

"Lady D-" you feel her body tense underneath you and a louder growl emerges from the back of her throat. "Heisenberg. What do you want?" You can't hear whoever is on the other end of the line but whoever it is, she doesn't seem happy to be talking to them. "I don't care what your mutts-" . . . "They what? . . . And why are you just making me aware of this? . . . Have you spoken to Mother Miranda about- will you stop interrupting me! . . . Fine. . . . No I will not . . . Because it's your dirty mutts who found them! . . . Stop acting like a child and do your job! . . . You've wasted enough of my precious time, goodbye."

Alcina all but slams the phone down and pinches the bridge of her nose and inhales deeply, slowly exhaling. Looking up at her, you can see the stress of the conversation slowly melt away as she grounds herself. She opens her eyes and looks back down at you and gently smiles.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yes, I apologize for the interruption. That was my idiot younger brother, Karl Heisenberg. I hope you never have this misfortune of meeting him but unfortunately he's a parasite that's difficult to get rid of."

"I didn't know you had a brother."

"He's not my biological brother, heavens no, sharing genetics with that imbecil?" She says with a laugh. "I would rather die than be blood related to that child. He is one of the four lords."

"Oh, I thought the name was familiar."

"Yes, we were all brought together by Mother Miranda to rule over the village."

"Gotcha. Was everything okay? You seemed a little concerned."

"Yes, everything is fine for now. It's nothing I cannot handle and nothing I want you worrying your pretty little mind about." She says, gently booping your nose. You crinkle your nose and smile in response.

Her eyes wander from your face back to her desk and she sighs.

"As much as I would love to sit here all day with you, unfortunately I have some things to finish that cannot wait any longer."

"It's okay, I still have some filing left to do anyway."

Alcina kisses you on the forehead and lifts you from her lap. As she lifts you, the phone rings again. She puts you down and she picks up the phone.

"Mother Miranda, what a lovely surprise." She says with her best customer service voice. You look over at Alcina and she looks at you.

"Do you want me to go?" You mouth, pointing at the door.

Alcina shakes her head "no" so you continue to file away the papers.

"Yes, I just spoke with him. . . . Well yes, it is quite concerning but from the information I received, it's nothing we haven't dealt with previously. . . . Of course. . . . Yes next week is fine. . . . What?" The tone of her voice drastically changes and her wide eyes glance over to you. "Yes, she is still my handmaiden. . . . Mother Miranda, I must insist-" . . . "Yes Mother Miranda, I will make sure she is there. . . . Thank you Mother Miranda, goodbye."

Alcina hangs up and brings her hands up and gently rubs her face, sliding them back towards her temples where she massages them for a moment. She sits up, dropping her hands and turns towards you.

"Mother Miranda is requesting your presence for a meeting with the rest of the Lords next week."

"What? Me? Why?"

"She says she would like you to take notes for the meeting, however I can't help but feel she's testing me in some way."

"Why would she be testing you?"

"I have a feeling she believes that you are more than a simple handmaiden to me. I believe she wants you there to test my loyalty, as well as yours quite frankly."

"What's the meeting about? Does it have to do with whatever Heisenberg called about?"

"Yes, his lycans regularly patrol the forests and they've come across a group of hunters. Which is not uncommon, however there were more than usual."

"Hunters?"

"Yes, there are groups of men, usually, that try to hunt us. Well, myself and the girls more often than anyone else." Dread fills your chest for a moment and Alcina immediately picks up on it. "Which is exactly why I did not want to tell you to begin with, but given you'll be in the meeting we're having next week to discuss the matter, you have a right to know. But don't worry, they've never gotten past the castle walls and none of us have been seriously injured in decades. They're usually smaller groups of five to eight hunters, but the group the lycans spotted had about a dozen. They were able to take care of most of them so the threat is neutralized for now, but its still cause for concern."

"What happened when you were seriously hurt?"

"That my dear is a conversation for another day."

"Okay."

"I could use a drink." She says, lighting a cigarette.

"Do you want me to go down to the kitchen and get you some wine?"

"Absolutely not, last time you went down there on your own you were almost killed. I'll have Zina bring it up along with a pot of tea."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." She said, leaving no room for argument in her voice.

Alcina picks up the phone and calls down to the kitchen, taking a drag from her cigarette. Exhaling the smoke from her nose, the rest escapes from between her lips as she begins to speak.

"Yes, would you please send up a bottle of wine to my study? As well as a pot of tea with two cups please. Thank you."

You go back to filing and Alcina continues her paperwork, taking drags mindlessly from her cigarette.

A few minutes later there's a knock on the door.

"Come in." Alcina says.

Zina walks into the room with a large tray. A bottle of wine, a wine glass, a large pot of tea, milk, sugar, a flask of what's probably blood and two teacups sitting on it.

"Good morning my Lady." Zina says, placing the tray on the table near the door.

"Good morning Zina."

Zina looks up at you and shoots you a wink. She pours her a glass of wine and brings the glass and bottle to her desk.

"How did you possibly know which I wanted first?" Alcina says with a chuckle as she takes the glass and swirls the contents in it before smelling it and taking a big sip.

"Just a hunch." Zina says before turning around, heading back to the tray. Alcina smirks at her and goes back to her paperwork. "How would you like your tea, y/n?"

"Oh, you don't have-"

"Please, I insist." Zina says.

You tell her how you want your tea and she walks over to you and hands you the cup and saucer.

"Thank you." You say, taking it from her.

"Tea my Lady?"

"Not right now, thank you."

"Is there anything else you need from me my Lady?"

"I don't believe so, thank you Zina."

"My pleasure."

As Zina leaves the phone rings again, visibly annoyed, Alcina downs the rest of her wine and answers.

"Yes? . . . Heisenberg." She growls. "What do you want?! . . . Absolutely not! I don't want those mutts anywhere near my castle! . . . Then clean up your own messes!" She slams the phone down onto the receiver and balls her hands into fists. "That man-child is so infuriating!" She says out loud.

"Y/n," she says, bringing her hands to her temples.

"Yeah?"

"Do me favor love, take two very large steps to your right."

"Uh, okay." You say as you take a few steps, putting about five feet of distance between you and the spot you were occupying.

Alcina growls and grabs her wine glass and launches it across the room into the wall, it shatters as it makes contact, sending shards of glass everywhere.

"Thank you dear."

"I'm gonna go grab a broom." You say.

As you walk past her, she reaches her arm out and wraps it around your waist and pulls you into her. She leans her head into the crook of your neck and takes a deep inhale, your hand slides to the back of her head and you can feel her relax as she exhales. When she pulls away you gently cup her face and gaze into her gorgeous gold eyes.

"You okay?"

"Yes, thank you." She leans in and kisses your forehead. When her lips leave your skin, you hold one side of her face and stand up on your tip toes and kiss her on the cheek. Alcina closes her eyes and leans into you a little.

"My sweet girl."

"I'll be right back, okay?" You say, your thumb gently caressing her cheek.

"No dawdling." She says with a wink.

"Never." You respond with a smile.

Closing the door to her study behind you, you check one of the closets in the hallway for a broom but can't find one. The maids must have them. You decide to check the closet in the main hall, that one usually has extra supplies and a few brooms.

As you start to walk down the stairs you see Stefana walk across the main hall. You freeze for a moment and she looks up and sees you, the look on her face immediately hardens as she glares at you. She changes direction and heads towards the stairs. For a moment you consider turning around and running back to Alcina's study but you don't. You're so fed up with dealing with Stefana, with avoiding her, with having to sneak around the castle hoping you won't run into her. Things between you and Alcina are going really well and she's right, you shouldn't have to be afraid in your own home. So you decide to continue your descent down the stairs and try to walk past her when you get to the landing. Stefana steps in front of you and doesn't let you past her.

"You fucking bitch." She growls at you. "What the fuck did I tell you? Stay away from her."

"No." You say, looking her in the eye. "She told you to leave me alone, if you really loved her, you'd listen to her."

"You stole EVERYTHING from me!" She yells.

"I stole nothing. If you should be mad at anyone, you should be mad at the Lady, I did nothing to you, I never did anything to you."

"You're going to pay for what you did to me!"

"You're insane, leave me alone or the Lady is going to make sure whatever you're thinking of doing will be the last thing you ever do."

"Stefana!" You hear a voice yell from behind you. You turn around to see Zina standing at the top of the stairs. "Leave the girl alone."

"NO! She stole her from me!" She yells at her.

"She did no such thing. I warned you and you didn't listen. Your errors are not her fault."

"I LOVE HER!"

"She doesn't love you." Zina says.

You step around Stefana and try to walk away but she grabs your arm and turns you towards her.

"She's going to love me again, mark my words."

"You're fucking cra-" you're cut off when she backhands you across the face.

"Stefana!" Zina yells.

In shock, your hand cups your face and you look into Stefana's eyes, they're dark, angry, unhinged. You see something snap inside of her and she shoves you backwards. Fear shoots through your body as you feel yourself fall, the world goes into slow motion and you try to steady yourself but you just fall further and further back. In an instant everything speeds up you instinctively put your arm back to brace yourself and the second you hit the step you feel something snap and you cry out in pain. After that you feel the world spin as your body hits every step on the way down. You don't even feel like you're in your own body, you're aware of every time your body makes contact with a step, and you know it's painful, but you don't feel any pain, but somehow you know the pain is there. At some point you definitely hit your head but all you can think is that the room is spinning more than it should and that you're falling for too long.

You roll off of the last step and onto the floor, you can barely open your eyes but when you do you see Zina at the top of the steps, a horrified look on her face and you see Stefana, she has an absolute crazed look on hers as she stares down at you, smiling with the most terrifying smile you've ever seen on someone.

You think you hear Zina scream "MY LADY!" but your heartbeat is so loud in your ears you're not even sure she spoke. Stefana starts walking down the stairs and your eyes close, you feel like you were unconscious for a little while but when you open them again, Stefana is just a few feet away from you.

"Just die already!!" She screams. You see her leg swing back and she kicks you in the stomach. In a split second it feels like all of the air was forced out of your body and you can't breathe for a few seconds. Instinctively, your arms cover your stomach to protect yourself and you see her reel back to kick you again and you close your eyes.

"Y/N!!"

A horrified scream rings throughout the castle, so powerful you could have sworn you felt the vibrations through the floor. You open your eyes and first notice Stefana turning around to face where the scream came from. The next thing you see is Alcina at the top of the stairs, you've never seen her look so scared before in your life. Her fear morphs into unbridled anger when her gaze shifts from you to Stefana. Alcina begins to walk down the stairs, she could have ran down them but time seems to slow down and speed up randomly.

"Alci," you try to say, but your voice is weak and the room spins again.

Alcina is shaking, from both anger and fear as she descends the stairs. As she gets towards the bottom she unsheathes her claws and plunges them into Stefana.

Your vision gets blurry but you can hear Alcina's calws, looking up at Stefana as she faces Alcina. She twitches and a split second later you see Alcina's claws come out through the middle of her back, your vision comes back clearly and you lay there, horrified. You open your mouth to scream but nothing happens.

Alcina lifts Stefana up, bringing her up to her eye level.

"I warned you." Alcina growls. "I told you the next time you so much as breathe in her direction, it would be the last breath you take."

"I love you." Stefana says. "She wasn't worthy of you love, I was."

"You are not worthy of anything."

"At least my blood will help sustain you." She says, her voice rapidly weakening.

"I would never taint my wine with blood as disgusting as yours." Alcina sneers.

Stefana's face twists into a look of horror, of deceit, of heartbreak.

"I loved you, mistress."

"I never loved you, vermin."

Alcina retracts her claws and Stefana plummets to the ground. Her body twitches for a moment before she becomes still.

You watch in horror as Stefana's body falls in front of you, she killed her. Alcina killed her. The blood pools around her body as is pours out from the wounds from Alcina's claws and as you stare at it, you begin to disconnect from the world, from the pain that was starting to creep up on you, from everything.

Alcina steps over Stefana's body and kneels on the floor next to you.

"Y/n," she says as her voice trembles. She goes to touch you but pulls her hands away, afraid to injure you further.

You look up at her and see the tears in her eyes, the fear on her face. She just brutally killed someone in front of you and she's worried about you? You try to sit up but the moment you move anything pain shoots through your entire body.

"No no no love, don't move, don't move honey." She touches your cheek like you're made of the most fragile glass in the world.

Your eyes close, you're not sure if they closed for a few seconds or a few minutes again but when you open them, Stefana's body is still in front of you. Staring at the pool of blood around her, you see more out of the corner of your eye. When you look you see more next to you, you're confused for a second before realizing that you're laying in a small pool of your own blood. Fear courses through your body again and you begin to cry. As you cry, you feel the pain in your stomach and it was as if feeling that one pain was a switch because suddenly, you feel pain everywhere.

"Shhh love, it's okay, you're okay." Alcina says.

Looking up at her you can see the tears rolling down her cheeks. When you gaze back forward, you see Stefana again and it clicks in your mind again that Alcina killed her.

"You killed her." You say softly as you cry. "She's dead, you killed her." Crying harder, you continue to repeat yourself like a broken record.

"I know, I know, it's okay, you're okay, you're safe. You're safe my love."

Every cell in your body feels like its in pain and all you want to do is stop staring at the body in front of you but you can't seem to pry your eyes away from it.

"Daughters!!" Alcina yell out. She turns around and see's the three girls standing behind her. How long were they there for? Alcina thinks for a split second. They must have been there long enough because Daniela has tears running down her face, Bela is standing next to her with her arm wrapped around her shoulder trying to comfort her even though Bela has a horrified look on her own face. If she was thinking clearly, Alcina would realize that she's never seen Cassandra look so angry in her entire life, the look in her eyes is terrifying.

"Someone get rid of this!" She yells, gesturing to the body. "And don't put her anywhere near my distillery. I don't want a drop of her in any of my wine!"

"What do you want us to do with her?" Cassandra asks, her voice is steady, so steady it's almost scary, and cold.

"I don't care just get rid of it!"

Cassandra turns into a swarm and appears next to the body, an evil smile crosses her face before she turns into another swarm and surrounds Stefana, the flies completely cover the body and Cassandra flies towards the dungeon stairs and disappears.

You lay on the ground, still hyperventilating.

"Y/n," Alcina says softly, "just breathe." A whimper escapes from you as you try to breathe in. "I know it hurts love, I know, just keep trying to breathe for me, okay?"

"Mamă, ce facem?" Daniela softly says. (Mama, what do we do?)

Alcina turns towards her girls.

"One of you call Donna, tell her to bring every healing herb and salve she says immediately."

"Should we call uncle Sal?"

"Absolutely not, I cannot trust him to keep this from Miranda."

"What else?" Bela asks.

"Get someone to clean this damn mess up!"

The girls disperse and Alcina turns back towards you, you've stopped hyperventilating but you're still crying.

"Y/n, what hurts? I need you to tell me where you're hurt."

"Everything hurts." You cry.

"I have to lift you off of the floor, okay? I'm going to be as gentle as I can but it's going to hurt, okay love?"

Nodding your head as you cry, you brace yourself. Alcina carefully slides her hands underneath you and lifts you bridal style into her arms. As she's lifting you, you cry out from the pain of being moved but as soon as she pulls you into her it subsides. She slowly stands up and begins walking up the stairs. Zina is on the landing, standing there in shock with tears in her eyes. She looks up at Lady Dimitrescu as she walks by.

"My lady, I'm- I'm so sorry. I should-"

"None of this is your fault Zina, please don't blame yourself. The blame is to be placed on her" Alcina says, nodding towards the pool of blood where Stefana was. "and myself. I should have done something much sooner, I never should have let it go this far." Zina goes to speak but Alcina cuts her off. "Take the rest of the day off, that's an order."

"Yes my Lady."

Zina begins to descend the stairs and Alcina carries you into her bedroom.

Alcina sits on her bed and cradles you as you continue to cry. You're not even sure why you're crying, if it's from the pain, watching Alcina kill Stefana, all of the fear you felt in such a short amount of time, everything combined or for no reason at all. The only thing you can do is grab onto Alcina's cream dress with one blood stained hand like your life depended on it while you cradle your other arm and cry. She gently rocks you as she tries to soothe you, careful she doesn't injure you further or aggravate your injuries.

"It's okay, you're safe now, okay? You're safe now." She says, pressing the most gentle kiss to your forehead as a tear rolls down her cheek. "I'm so sorry," Alcina whispers. "I'm so sorry for not protecting you. I'm so sorry."

[mimbotomy]

I am high on weed and NyQuil and yet am still awake because a bad cough and a fever and for some reason decided it was a good idea to read the AC Odyssey Novelization! Here are some random things that stuck out that I think you should know:

Kassandra’s hears Nikolaos’ lessons in her head throughout the book.

She also loves Phoibe so much but tries so hard to pretend she doesn’t because her mother told her that love is weakness when she was a kid.

Kassandra finds Ikaros as a hatchling taking shelter among the bones at the bottom of Mount Taygetos.

It’s mostly from Kassandra’s POV but there’s some other brief POVs too. The Cult POVs seem to exist pretty much make sure that the reader knows they’re like super fucking evil and Stentor’s few POVs are mostly to bitch about Kassandra.

In one of his less bitchy POVs it’s revealed that a Spartan soldier in Megaris tried to grab Kassandra and kiss her and she either full on broke or just badly bruised his jaw

Building off that sorta, the only person Kassandra even kisses is Alkibiades at the symposium, and mostly to get information.

Nikolaos’ fate is left ambiguous for a long time.

Someone mocks Barnabas’ storytelling in line to see the Oracle and Herodotos later sets the guards on him to provide a distraction so Kassandra can sneak back and talk with the Oracle more.

The Cultists are way less protective of their identities in Delphi and way more obvious with their plans to get rid of Deimos. Also, Kassandra kills a lot of them on accident.

Aspasia keeps Kassandra from drinking poisoned wine, courtesy of Hermippos, at the symposium and helps her escape Athens

Chrysis is killed by her own biological son, the priest Dolpos who helped Myrrine, in revenge for both taking his tongue and killing countless children over the years.

Kassandra and Brasidas’ super badass warehouse fight doesn’t happen. Instead they are discovered by the Monger and taken captive and rescued by two heterae prisoners after the Monger burns Kassandra’s legs with an iron poker.

Phoibe dies playing hide and seek with Kassandra as they escort Perikles to see the Parthenon one last time and Kassandra first realizes something is wrong because she can’t hear Phoibe’s giggles anymore 😭

The first time Kassandra cries after that night on Taygetos is when Phoibe dies.

Aspasia only fully decides to leave the cult after Perikles’ death.

Pausanias’ super secret cult nickname is the Red Eyed Lion and he is uncovered because of a wine stained map or letter or something and a ring seal of a lion and some other super circumstantial evidence.

When they return to Sparta, Barnabas and the crew somehow temporarily sink the Adrestia in a cove to keep from being spotted by Spartan scouts.

The Kos and Arkadia storylines don’t happen at all and the Olympics happen after Kassandra and Myrrine already got their house.

At one point, Kassandra refers to her new family as Myrrine, Barnabas, Herotodos, and Brasidas, which made my shipper heart happy. Then in that same paragraph she refers to Herodotos and Brasidas as something like proud uncles, so we’re pretending that doesn’t exist

Kassandra is imprisoned in Athens for months and like in the game, is “rescued” by Barnabas and Sokrates. Barnabas still has his shovel but Sokrates has a broom instead of a pitchfork.

Also, there’s a small subplot about the woman Barnabas has a fling with on Naxos and her husband who Herodotos met that visited Thera. He’s being tortured by the Cult when Kassandra is imprisoned in Athens and is brutally murdered when he refuses to tell them anything.

Kleon was 100% planing to kill Deimos at Amphipolis.

Brasidas basically dies telling Kassandra how happy he is to see her what the fuck???

A lot of the confrontation on Taygetos is the same as the good ending of the game, where Deimos tells Kassandra that he’s done terrible things. But he also tells her that he can’t change no matter how much he wants to while preparing to throw a knife at Myrrine so she kills him.

Nikolaos and Stentor watch Alexios’ funeral at a distance until Kassandra and Myrrine invite them to join them for dinner.

Kassandra doesn’t fight the Minotaur and Co. but is just given the staff by Pythagoras, who talks to her after his death through the pyramid.

Aspasia’s fate is somewhat left ambiguous in the end because Kassandra’s focused too much on the vision from the pyramid.

Overall, it read a little bit like a weird fanfic! I saw glimpses of the characters we love from the game but since the author cut out such big pieces of the plot and every side quest - which makes sense since it was a very short book - we didn’t get to see too much of them either. Except for Kassandra, who is a lot more no nonsense than I imagine her as. There’s no flirting or and very little joking, but I really liked her resourcefulness and unique fighting style. And her love for Phoibe and her family that shines like a beacon throughout the entire book, from the very beginner where her mother tells her it is unspartan to love. Of course, our lovely Kassandra is a lover and a fighter and that does not change no matter what ❤️

Hope this list helps some of my fellow lovely wonderful odyssey fic writers I love you all so much you beautiful souls 😘😘😘

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Critique Partner Basics

What Is a Critique Partner?

A critique partner (CP) is another writer with whom you exchange writing to get feedback from each other on your drafts so you can get better. A partner for critiques!

Do I Need One?

You should really probably have one if:

You’re trying for professional publication/marketing/selling your writing

Getting better writing skills is something you aim for

Otherwise, no, not really.

Do They Cost Money?

No, they cost time and effort and mutual support.

Can’t I Just Hire an Editor Instead?

Sure, but honestly, they don’t work as well. Critiquing other people and trying to see how their story works and articulate it to help them is half of the skilling up having a CP provides.

What Does a Critique Partner Do?

This depends on the people involved and what they’re good at critiquing for and what they want help with. In general, I expect these two things from CPs:

My story document back marked up with live-reading comments from track changes or Google Docs or a PDF with annotations or whatever.

An edit letter of 1-2 pages of overall thoughts to edit towards.

The in-line edits help if something small isn’t adding up, two details don’t match, and gives me a good idea at what point something repetitive became a serious issue, so I know how much patience my CP had with a flaw before they started losing it. It’s also usually fun—this is where I get CP comments laughing at my jokes or yelling about how much they love characters or snarking at them.

In-line comments tend to look something like this:

A mix of pointing out problem spots and bits they love. Often they will fix your typos, but that's generally not what you're getting a CP for.

Edit letters are often broken into sections of things they CP wants to talk about: what they thought of the characters, the stakes, the plot, the pacing, the structure, or any other element they want to specifically call out. A lot of it will be reflective of the line edits, but since it’s written later, it tends to be more cohesive and thoughtful of how things feel by the end of the story after seeing where the entire story goes instead of the experience of puzzling it out as they read it.

Sometimes they will offer suggestions, some more specific than others. They will tell you the things that are working and the things they aren’t, ideally.

I like to also have a back-and-forth with my CP after getting notes to answer questions and brainstorm ideas. This is optional; not everyone likes this.

What Should I Look For in a Critique Partner?

Someone who likes your writing, respects your abilities as a writer, and provides feedback you find useful.

A lot of writers, especially without strong community ties, often find themselves willing to accept basically anyone who is going to read their thing and give them some notes on it. That’s a pretty surefire path to unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

I get it. I’ve done it a lot myself. But I’m going to advise you not to do it. If someone doesn’t get your writing or your story and wants to change it to something more like what they would like, that’s not helpful.

Here’s a few examples to illustrate the difference:

If your CP points out a few sentences that sound a little award or a paragraph is flat, that’s probably helpful! If they try to completely rewrite sections to better look more like their writing style, that’s probably not.

If your CP thinks maybe the story you have has themes or characters that sound more adult than YA and have you considered aging them up, that’s probably helpful! If they  suggest you age up the characters because adult books can tackle a concept that interests them and it wasn’t in your story, that’s probably not.

If your CP says the ending of your story left a lot of loose threads from subplots or other questions that were raised in the story and it feels unfinished, that’s probably helpful! If they say the ending of your story wasn’t satisfying to them because they didn’t like the message it sent to watch a character win, that’s probably not.

Basically, is your CP giving you feedback that will help you write the story you want to write? Do you both even want the same story out of the draft? Do they respect what you bring to the table?

How Do I Find One of These?

Ah, the million-dollar question.

Most writers find them through friends or writing communities they’re in. My best CPs have always been writer friends first, and then we start sending each other pages to test how well our vibes work. Make them on forums, on discord, on social media, in person writer’s groups, writing workshops and classes; whatever. You know a friend who is writing and whose writing you like and you’re both looking for someone to help edit? Great!

There are also sometimes events like CPMatch on Twitter, which are hashtag events to pitch your book and yourself as an editor to see if anyone is interested in reading it and swapping feedback with you.

Some people will run CP matchmaking. Sometimes this costs money. Personally, I don’t think I would bite for one of those, because if I didn’t get a useful CP out of it, I’d feel like it’s wasted money and time and not just time. But it is work for the matchmaker and some people are satisfied with matchmaking options, so having someone try to hook you up, for free or not, is also an option.

Websites like Critique Match also exist for the purposes of finding a CP. I don’t know how popular it is, but it’s also an option.

Most writing discords will have a “seeking feedback” channel and you can reach out there.

[doverstar]

A paltry 2 people have asked why I don't like Act Your Age, SO:

It doesn't feel like a Phineas and Ferb episode at all. It's too dramatic, nothing zany actually happens, Candace isn't even in it. (Yes, I saw her for five seconds on the screen too.) The only part that felt canon was Doofenshmirtz and Perry's subplot.

It feels unfinished and out-of-character. Phineas crushed on Isabella all of high school but never did anything about it? Isabella gave up? That doesn't sound like either one of them. But! I'd have been willing to go with it if they'd explained it or delivered it better. But they didn't.

The Fireside Girls were cringe. Ferbnessa suddenly getting confirmed at the end totally out of the blue, especially on the heels of Montessa doing so well, was cringe. All of the dialogue was basically cringe. It was bland and awkward the whole way through.

The things I did like:

What Might Have Been is such a good song!

Again, Doof and Perry's subplot, perfect.

Incorporating the fandom's unanimous, decade-long headcanon that Ferb talks regularly when he gets older.

Hiring Ashley Simpson to design the main cast of teens! What an homage!

I actually do like the idea that Phineas pined for Isabella in high school and she had no idea, because she had stopped trying so hard after a while so it wasn't even a possibility in her mind. I do like that. [I just don't like that, in-canon, it's made so that between the two of them, they basically stopped being consistent friends and never communicated, and that's the reason they never got together. Ridiculous.]

The episode was basically a love letter to the fans, in a way, which you can clearly see with all the pandering in it, and I appreciate that! But in the end, I personally would have rather seen what Dan and Swampy could have done with a teenage!PnF episode that made Phinabella canon without the fandom's influence. Just theirs. A purely Phineas-and-Ferb-esque episode that wasn't trying to do anything for the fans, just write a good story for their characters. (In my opinion, that's Night of the Living Pharmacists. To me that's the Phinabella episode, made all the better because it's not primarily about Phineas and Isabella.)

[mllekurtz]

shadowgast wip rec list part 4

(part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 3.5 - part 4 - part 4.5)

It's been a while since I've done a rec list of work-in-progress shadowgast fics, so here's a curated selection from my Subscriptions page (under a cut because there's a lot of 'em).

All of these works, listed in no particular order, are wips that have been updated recently or semi-recently, and have the only common denominator of being liked by yours truly. Feel free to reblog and add your recs (or better yet, make a rec list of your own! They're fun and make the day of everyone involved).

It goes without saying that these works are active wips at the moment of posting this list. Past lists may contain works that have been completed or abandoned since.

Lastly, a shoutout to @aeor-is-for-reccing and their weekly rec lists, which inspired me to put together a new one ♥ check them out for more recs!

zwiefacher (15/20 chapters, E, warnings: CNTW & Rape/Noncon) by VillainIHaveDoneThyMother/@villainihavedonethymotheronao3 - this fic juggles so many plates (t4t shadowgast, memory loss, extreme trauma, kidnapping, gaslighting, even more trauma, systemic racism, and lots of other fun things I'm forgetting) and does it incredibly well. Not a light reading, but if you want something substantial to sink your teeth in, I can't recommend this enough.

You Be You, And I’ll Be Busy (3/10 chapters, T, warnings: CNTW) by theprophetlemonade/@the-prophet-lemonade - top notch characterisation of both of them (but I'm especially in love with Essek's). The sexual, romantic and just plain tension are well executed, and while all the fics listed here are outstanding for their style and prose, this one is truly no exception.

Unfinished (5/? chapters, E, warnings: CNTW) by road_rhythm/@road-rhythm - read this with a notebook, some red string and a cork board. Roadie is so good at taking a premise and building a life-like, in-depth story around (under, over, beside, inside) it; both the prose and the content are sharp and unforgiving. And I know we're here for shadowgast, but this fic's Beau is the best.

Love Letters to Toss Into the Fire (10/? chapters, T, no warnings) by Anonymous - props to this fic not only for the excellent premise (Caleb and Essek secretly write letters to each other) but for keeping it up for so long while always making it interesting. The ciphers, spells, devices and tricks they use to send each other letters are always different, interesting and believable, and the relationship between the wizards grows in a delicate, emotional way.

The Chosen AU (18/? chapters, E, warnings: CNTW) by Anonymous - not a purely shadowgast fic since it starts as Verin/Essek, as in sibling incest, with Caleb joining their relationship later, so if that's not for you be warned (but honestly the relationship between the Thelyss brothers is wholesome and well-handled, so if you're on the fence because of that, you should definitely give this fic a try). When this fic goes dark, it goes dark; when it's lighthearted, it's deeply funny and sweet. Come for the blorbos, stay for the lovely OCs, the engaging subplots, the fleshed-out world-building, the very effective non-linear narrative and just an all-around riveting story that kept me glued to my kindle for a whole weekend as I was catching up with it.

all this, heaven never could describe (10/28 chapters, M, no warnings) by kaeda/@the-kaedageist - a sequel to the delightful More Things in Heaven and Earth, which you should definitely read (to understand this fic but also because, as I said, it's a joy to read), it follows the adventures of Alternate!Bren and Essek as they try to put their own version of the Mighty Nein together. The shadowgast dynamic in this one is juicy and fun and unlike anything you've ever read: they're competitive, they sleep together, they annoy each other, they're so obviously in love.

if you must live, darling one (3/11 chapters, M, no warnings) by essektheylyss (midnightindigo)/@essektheylyss - Megs is one of the (many!) writers in this fandom who are really good at conveying demisexual feelings in a way that's believable both for Essek's character and the demi audience, at least in my experience. This fic is very interesting in that regard.

Kintsugi (15/? chapters, M, warnings: Major Character Death) by Chekhov/@thechekhov - first of all, the major character death is temporary and integral to the foundational concept of the fic, which is brilliant; yes, there is a lot of heartache in this one, but the payoff is entirely worth it. You'll find Chekhov's trademark brilliant, clever, polished style in a story that doesn't pull any punches and will make you cry and crave for more after each update.

the fugitive's version of shelter (5/6 chapters, E, no warnings) by hanap/@callingvoicemail - the latest instalment in the here is a world where you love your executioner series, which is partly a retelling of the second half of campaign 2, partly set post-canon, with the variable of Essek being pregnant with Ludinus' child. The whole series is recommended, as well as necessary reading to appreciate this one; it's an original take on a will-they/won't-they dynamic that makes for some deliciously complicated shadowgast.

Hold Me Close, Cut Me Deep (1/4 chapters, M, no warnings) by CatgirlTheCrazy/@catgirlthecrazy - this fic is effectively summarised as "Essek has his own light 'em up, pretty moment." Do I need to say anything else?

presque vu (13/?, T, no warnings) by element78 - (also known as the fic that kept me sane while I was in work hell last summer) Caleb suffers from memory loss for mysterious reasons and doesn't remember being friends with the Nein or being in a relationship with Essek; the fic starts with an amnesiac Bren waking up and then proceeds with a slow, painstaking rebuilding of trust and relationships. The memory loss plot device coupled with Bren/Caleb's pov is great for narrative irony, the shadowgast dynamic is heart-rending, and everyone cares about each other so much (well, maybe not Kingsley, but he has his reasons).

The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings (8/?, M, warnings: CNTW) by Sethrial/@rockshitty - I always love a good modern AU, and this is an excellent one with a supernatural twist. Seth is really good at including heavy plot points with the right dose of dark humour, and at writing realistic banter (the chats between Caleb's colleagues are a highlight). Being the demon that haunts night-shift worker Caleb, Molly features heavily in this fic, and he's an obnoxious, mephistophelian delight.

[gimmedamemes]

i dont think im gonna watch HSMTMTS season 4 :(

I cannot watch this. Maybe I’m a debby downer. Maybe I’m a negative nancy. Maybe I’m expecting too much realism from a TV show. However, no show has made me feel so  offended by the treatment of one character more than this one. 

My poor boy EJ was completely and totally DISCARDED by EVERYONE in the last season. He was juggling so many things such as college, his friends, his dad, and his girlfriend, and all he wanted was to enjoy his last summer as a kid by spending it with people he felt he could be the most comfortable around. 

Instead of that, however, he is suddenly and without warning pushed into being the director of a musical that he did not know anything about, while also being the pseudo-camp counselor because apparently, investing more than one adult into a summer camp is worth it to the Camp Shallow Lake owners. And yet, no one seems to acknowledge how unfair this is, not even EJ himself. 

All he does is push through and do his absolute BEST to make it happen. However, because he can’t adapt to this new role flawlessly and balance everything perfectly, to his fellow campers who are not dealing with anything of that nature (no, Carlos’ inability to climb a rock wall doesn’t count) he becomes a bad friend, a bad cousin, and a bad boyfriend. 

And due to the fact that he was too busy while running a show that he had no business running, to devote every second to his girlfriend, the final straw in their relationship is Gina’s discovery of a letter that was not her business at all. Perhaps his reason for hiding it was because of her reacting the way she did. We’ll never know, because EJ’s feelings were never given a first thought, much less a second and he was never able to explain. 

And thus, in the last half hour of the final episode, we get Ricky and Gina, who have decided that they’re each other’s one true love based on.... what again? Oh yeah, some chocolates she thought he gave her. And some other stuff too, I suppose, but that’s all it took for some to decide that they were a valid ship. 

Ricky who was HOPELESSLY devoted to another girl for 2 seasons straight, whose whole reason for being in the drama club was for her, for whose primary interactions with Gina were either because of her or about her, suddenly decides that Gina is the one he’s looking for ONLY after driving to said summer camp on a whim because his other girlfriend was discovered to be the saboteur we all knew she was. Shockingly (but, maybe not to some), Gina reciprocates. In the last few minutes of the last episode, Ricky and Gina kiss, not even 12 hours after Gina breaks it off with EJ for good. 

Now, what’s my problem with this? It’s so sloppy and unrealistic. Now, the show itself is unrealistic and as a theater kid myself, I can tell you that for sure. Our sets aren’t anywhere near as elaborate, we don’t have a strong supporting ensemble cast and overall, the whole concept of any school club having that much devotion is a serious stretch. But it’s done well. Or it was. N

Rini was a couple we were somewhat rooting for from the start. Portwell we grew to love because of the slow burn and the slow reveal of the couple’s true feelings for one another. Now, we are expected to believe that 2 seasons of solid Portwell build up (as well as the first half of season 3 before they began having problems) is just calmly thrown away and for what? For Rina? A subplot/sub-ship that was made possible by under 10 scenes together? Ricky, who was so devoted to Nini and promised never to let her go again and Gina who wasn’t able to give her obviously overburdened boyfriend any grace? That’s the ship that we’re supposed to root for?

I don’t think so. It was sloppy and badly done and it made no sense whatsoever. If they had to end the Portwell relationship, for whatever reason, I don't know, perhaps they didn’t want to encourage a sophomore-senior relationship or going to college while dating someone in high school. They could’ve easily done what they did with Ricky and Nini, and break them up on amicable terms because a relationship with someone in high school and someone in college just doesn’t work. 

They had no reason to abuse EJ’s character and ruin some of his relationships, before never talking about him again, while Ricky swoops in and takes his girlfriend AGAIN. It was so unnecessary and at this point it's repetitive. Because everytime there’s a season that starts off with 2 characters being madly in love, we all know it goes. 

So I don’t know how much I'll be watching.

(lol i just wanted to get this out of my system after watching the season 4 trailer)

[loveregrown]

Actually, I don't have many qualms with LIS:BTS when I really think about it, comparatively I am one of the people who genuinely like it and have positive feelings towards it enough to have replayed it a few times, albeit not the 150+ hours I have on LIS1... the setting and the soundtrack. Even if I think a lot couldve been done better, I grew to love the voice acting which many hated due to being different (really, chloes va sounds JUST like a young ashly burch! What made it bad is she tried too hard to sound like chloe price, but that adds more charm, in a weird way, adds to chloe's 16 year old awkwardness)... I like what I know of Rachel in LIS1, what she represents, but loved mostly every second of seeing her in her Almost rawest state considering chloe never got to see the deepest darkest parts of her especially as Rachel grew up, she did get to see so much of what laid beneath the surface, at least, even if she never Truly knew her. Its funny how easily fans get manipulated by rachel just as chloe does, I am not one to believe she is a master manipulator at all because Im not a rachel anti just a genuine rachel enjoyer, but lijw, wow, what worked on chloe worked on you and thats pretty funny. I think what i least liked about it were the subplots but that was for the sake of adding something to keep you playing I suppose, since rachels fate is clear. So much of it made me really emotional, it kept up the themes of exploration of different family dynamics that I liked in LIS but like... Really went deep into it, really really, with multiple characters and I liked that. Took advantage of such things wirh rachels family anf chloes too. Touched on a lot of stuff I liked a lot. I liked how to see how chloe was treated by others. Liked the scene where they act in a play. Liked their fucked up codependent situationship.... I liked how awkward chloe was as a baby and how clear which parts she ended up stealing from rachels personality in LIS1 were... the nightmare scenes are so so chilling and well done I feel like. I can really feel chloes pain in them. I liked her journal and how unlike maxs theyre all unsent letters to a max that resides in her head... bah... I really like so much about bts I didnt evenget into all of it. Like LIS1 it was janky I suppose and maybe in different ways from it but I like it. Altho im rly critical of it most fo the time and share a lot of the feelints some LIS1 fans have

[writernopal]

This Or That? Tag

Tagged by @outpost51 and @lexiklecksi, thank you both! See their posts here and here, respectively.

I think I may have done this one some time ago but I'm going to do it again because why not and also maybe my answers changed? Who knows, I'm too lazy to find the original post lol

Tagging (gently): @lynnedwardswrites @sam-glade @thewardenofwinter @gummybugg @moonluringfrost @crowandmoonwriting @violets-in-her-arms-writes

historical or futuristic

the drama of a character walking down a darkened corridor, candle in hand, or eagerly awaiting the arrival of a letter because there are no other means of communication only to be met with tragic news, YOU CAN RIP THOSE OUT OF MY COLD, DEAD HANDS

the opening or closing chapter

there are simply so many possibilities! so many unanswered questions! the intrigue! the drama! we love!

light+fluffy or dark+gritty

i like both, to read and to write, but dark and gritty just has me

animal companion or found family

found family but only because keeping track of an animal companion (and also keeping them safe, the dogs will not die!) is so stressful. also i have zero confidence to write reliable, unspoken animal behavior beyond a few lines

horror or romance

HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME CHOOSE but romance wins because as soon as there is a romantic subplot (or main plot, lets be honest, i write primarily romance, of course I'm here for that) in something, I'm hooked. however, there is always room for body horror (my beloved!)

hard magic system or soft magic system

i prefer somewhere in between, but if i had to choose one, it would be soft.

standalone or series

series will always have my heart. you mean i get to spend MORE time with your characters and world? yes please!

one project at a time or always juggling 2+

one at a time, for sure. things tend to absorb my life so pulling myself out of that work to be absorbed by something else enough to write about it, would be very hard

one award winner or one bestseller

having people love your work enough to buy it is one thing, but to be recognized by others for excellence in the craft would be such an honor

fantasy or sci-fi

i have no notes here, i just vibe with it man

character description or setting description

this is a weird one. i prefer writing character description but prefer reading setting description lol. don't ask me why.

first draft or final draft

because there is no better feeling than sitting back and looking at the work as a whole, knowing that you are the one that brought it all together!

love triangle in everything or no romantic arcs

i detest love triangles, so i'd rather no romance at all if love triangles is all I'm going to get

constant sandstorm or rainstorm

its just cozy! (if you're inside, if you're stuck in it then maybe not so much lol)

Blank list below the cut!

historical or futuristic

the opening or closing chapter

light+fluffy or dark+gritty

animal companion or found family

horror or romance

hard magic system or soft magic system

standalone or series

one project at a time or always juggling 2+

one award winner or one bestseller

fantasy or sci-fi

character description or setting description

first draft or final draft

love triangle in everything or no romantic arcs

constant sandstorm or rainstorm

[collectionoftulips]

My two cents on the season finale of The Way Home

Okay, so thoughts on the finale of season two…

First and foremost, it probably has to have been one of the most rushed episodes I have ever seen. Rarely was there ever a point where a major plot point was allowed to breathe and it felt like they were trying to squeeze three episodes into one. This caused some issues. I’ve already made a post about how absolutely bananas Elliot’s behavior around the coins were, and I stand by that, especially as this show works overtime in wanting us to see Elliot as Kat’s soulmate and/or someone we want to see Kat with. I am personally not entirely convinced by a love interest that either doesn’t seem to catch or (more likely) chooses to ignore the emotional weight of something just because it indicates that the person they are interested in might also have feelings for someone else. Elliot might not have been told everything about Thomas, but he knows that Kat cares about him (enough to feel threatened by a man in the 1800s) and that she was given those coins as Thomas’ dying wish.

I’ve probably said more than I should about that particular plot point, but the way the episode bulldozed through that, for example, felt extraordinarily strange as a result of the just never-ending plot dumping and wrapping-uping that was happening. Most likely they were uncertain whether or not they were going to be renewed for season three, so they were trying to tie up as many loose ends as possible and hint enough about potential future directions (hence the new pond theory, finding out about Colton and Casey showing up out of nowhere), but if that was the case, they really ought to have changed the pacing of the season (in my opinion). The beginning part of the season was far too slow and if they had hastened some of the plot points. For example, Elliot’s relationship to his dad and the whole subplot about his wall could have been given less time and the show could have spent that time actually making the viewers connect to Jacob and not have his sudden 180 on returning to his own time happen off-screen in the most bizarre way possible.

The (maybe) last point I will say about Elliot is that it should NOT have taken him his own timetravelling experience to be able to apologize to Kat for being an absolute asshat about Colton. I’m tempted here to draw parallels to a certain man in the 1800s, but might make a separate text post laying out that particular argument, in case people want to read?

Continuing on the theme of characters treating Kat very badly and getting away with it: Del. The whole Victor-not-giving-the-letter thing was the cheapest possible device to get some sort of reconciliation between Del and Kat that they could have possibly done and I was so angry about it. Particularly because the show sort of half-acknowledges that DEL COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING EVEN IF SHE HADN’T GOT THE TICKET, but the show just go ’oh look over here!’ and chooses to not dwell on that fact in order to get that sense of closure in case the show wasn’t picked up for a third season. Both Del and Elliot are treating Kat badly by doing the smallest amount possible and it feels like the show is letting them get away with it. Particularly as the show really hasn’t shied away from complex and nuanced family dynamics, that particularly annoyed me. #Justice4Kat

Thomas not having a tombstone makes me feel very hopeful that he might maybe do some time traveling in the future (I am still not convinced by the ’you can only go back not forwards’ theory). Plus the flashback with Colton looks way older (in terms of dress and style) to make that theory make sense to me.

If for some reason, in the future, I cannot have Kat/Thomas, I would happily accept Susanna/Kat at this point.

On the topic of my new favorite ship (Thomas/Kat), I think it is highly relevant that (from what I can remember) we have only really ever gotten romantic hallucination conversations between Del and Colton (there are those that are now more recently with Elliot and his dad) and now we get them between Thomas and Kat. We also get flashbacks through Thomas and Kat’s relationship when Kat thinks that he has died (to the point she can’t even look at the Goodwins’ gun any more because it upsets her so much). The show very clearly, I think, wants to position Thomas as a very legitimate rival to Elliot’s affections.

For the record, I’m not one of these people who thinks ships should only be about those two and not allow space or feelings for others; I don’t see Kat loving Elliot as taking away something from Thomas/Kat. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I sort of feel like Kat (to some degree) feels like she ’should’ love Elliot - because he loves her so much and so clearly, and she loves him too, but there’s just something that isn’t working out between them. The feelings she has for Elliot are very complex and nuanced because they have known each other a really long time. Thomas, on the other hand, I think evokes this larger than life feeling in Kat. Their connection wasn’t something she was looking for, not anything that entirely makes sense, but it’s there. When she thinks he has died, there isn’t really a reason for her to go ’yeah no I would have run off with you’ or whatever it would be. It doesn’t invalidate or validate any one ship, I just think it wouldn’t really make sense given the context (and Kat’s disposition). Plus, when she finds out Thomas survived and she gets half a second to react (yes, I am bitter about this aspect of the episode still) she gets the face of someone who thought ’oh shit my life just got more complicated’.

I will never not be annoyed that Jacob’s choice to return was an off-screen decision. #Justice4Jacob

I might write a massive post laying out the case for my pro-Kat/Thomas stance later, even if people didn't ask for it 😂

[eloquentgifs]

I'm going to say things bc that's how I cope.

As a person who thinks that if you're going to do something you should do it right, I can't help it, it bothered me how sloppy this season felt. Of course I fully blame HBO and their cheapness, but it stills bothers me. Not only we got two episodes less than s1, but the 8 we got were shorter, and you can tell. I also blame the budget cuts for the constant yet unnecessary flashbacks, and the weird editing, and the anticlimatic pace. In any case, I want to highlight the things I did like, because I fucking love this show and Im sure that after a rewatch or two I'll be less angry, so let's stay positive:

Since it seems they were having trouble to get the complete cast together in one plot, I do love they kinda let them have their spotlight one by one. Like, Frenchie in the first episodes, Wee John as Calypso, Lucius with his PTSD in ep5... It's not the same as s1, but it's something.

I've seen people complaining about this, but Im happy they didnt invest too much time on the forgiving process. I like it better when everyone gets along fine, and in the end they're pirates and they never seemed to be the kind of people who hold grudges, so yeah lets skip to the nice part.

I did like a lot what they did with Izzy. I don't care if it happened too quick or what, I used to feel indiference towards him and this season I actually enjoy his scenes a lot. I still dont know how I feel about his death tho. It bothered me a little that the whole scene was more about Ed than Izzy himself, but in the end I always saw Izzy as a narrative tool in Ed's arc more than as a character of his own, so I guess it makes sense.

Super happy with the music choices, and also the new outfits.

Really, the first five episodes were absolutely brilliant.

It made me so happy they got Bronson Pinchot as Ned Low.

Huge fan of Zheng Yi Sao and Auntie.

Im so fucking furious at Taika Waititi for his pro-Israel shit that seeing Pop Pop attacking him gave me some sort of inner peace.

Now, things I wished had been done differently: - There were a lot of paralelisms with s1, which is good, but I'd like they brought back more actual elements of s1 into play. Like, the lighthouse painting, the secret wardrobe, the pink robe, a third Badmington (he would have work better as big bad than this prince ricky guy I dont really care about?). Frenchie singing again. This oneis a reach, but I would love to have Mary Bonnet back. And I was really hoping they play with the fact that Stede is "dead". The guy doesnt even mention the Master Fuckery from ep10.

-On that note, I was a little dissapointed on Jim's arc. I was never that invested on them or their plot in s1, but it feels weird how this season it seems like none of that even happened. Even Jim felt like a different character. I feel it would worked better if some of the conflict was related to Siete Gallos stuff, so at least it would feel all of that subplot wasnt a waste of time.

-Little missing opportunities of making me happy: Anne Bonny and Mary Read mentioning Jack (to insult him, mostly); they kissing when the house is on fire; Ed finding not just one letter but the whole pile of them; a better narrative use for Seagull Buttons (well, any narrative use, really); developing the bombclocks thing in a way where Auntie was not deprived of her superhuman detective skills; having Ned Low as bigger villain, with several appearances.

-The general development of Ed/Stede in the final episode... It's just confusing to me. My reading of Stede's mind state was that he was on autopilot since he killed Ned Low, and being abandoned by Ed and having his ass kicked by Zheng would wake him up a little, but this episode he's still in PROBLEM SOLVER mode, zero regrets about anything, still hasn't talked anything through EVER, he's just fine. With Ed I dont even ask for coherence bc he's always been a wtf guy, but I dont understand the "just do whatever you're good at" thing in the beginning of the episode, and he claiming back his leathers and his pirate-self and going on berserker mode and fighting along Stede as equals and blablabla if at the end he's still chosing to be a fucking innkeeper. Also, having a shitty inn in the middle of nowhere sounds too close to the antique shop in ep4, didn't they learn ANYTHING from Mary and Anne? I mean, the innkeeping was a predictible outcome, but the setting up of the episode was really aiming to the opposite, so it feels weird to me. In any case, I'm happy they're together and if being absolutely on their own in the loneliest house in the world doesn't get them to improve their communication, idk what else they could do.

-Still think they should have been lighthouse keepers instead.

-Next season Im totally muting every OFMD tag as soon as they announce the trailer release, because the promo and bts content was absolutely TOO MUCH. Those fuckers had been showing us stuff from the very climax of the fucking last episode since weeks before the season aired. I get it's a me problem, but I do believe it ruined my experience a lot, so fuck that.

And well. That's it. Good season, could have been great. Im happy but sad. Let's just hope that, if there's a season 3, they gave them more money and time to do it properly.

And before I post this and run away from tumblr, Im checking out how much of my wishlist had been fulfilled: - LUCIUS IS ALIVE - Stede Bonnet, berserker era [Not as I imagined, but hey] - The Queen Anne’s Revenge, either being captured or coming back as the ship Ed left behind when he went to The Revenge - The Blockade of Charleston (and make really absurd) [Still might happen in the future?] - Anne Bonny and Mary Read(as middle aged women who kinda mirror Ed and Stede, but they did it right) - Since he was already mentioned in s1, it would make sense introducing Hornigold, maybe as a new antagonist or something. - A rip off of that wwdits episode with the Vampire Council, except this time is the Pirate Council and its members are pirates from other movies and shows [I was really dreaming big here] - On that note, a really weird episode with every person who has played Blackbeard in recent years [Fully tripping] - More women and more asian characters. And more people speaking their mother tongues [So many Chinese gals, not one chinese word :(] - Ed finding out about Stede’s death and believing it [It did happened but not how/when we thought] - Ed meeting Mary and getting along [Never losing hope on this one] - Frenchie adopting a cat (and singing a song about it). - More info about everyone’s pasts. - I would LOVE having Bartholomew Roberts in the show. [YES PLEASE]

[clay-cuttlefish]

Back to this. I got sidetracked jumping around the spreadsheet and adding some random stuff, but hopefully I should hit the first Renee appearances tomorrow. I also have to track down a version of Death in the Family that has the foreword - it's by Tot and mentions Vic, and was mentioned in the letter column for 28, so it should fit somewhere in this chunk of issues on the spreadsheet.

Question #18

Here he is! I love Ollie and Vic's dynamic. They are so fascinating and so annoying.

You know you've fucked up when Ollie's calling you a dumbass.

I like how much breathing room this issue has. They get a lot of space to talk and highlight each other, which is a great foundation for the later GA crossovers.

Of the unsubtle 80s anti-gun GA stuff I've read (which isn't a lot but it's more than 0) this is one of the less interesting bits. At least it's short.

The panel composition on this issue is really well done. Making two guys talking in a truck into a pair of pages that make me pause to take them in is impressive.

#19

Vic choosing to get the doll fixed is a really strong moment.

Overall, the way Augie is treated is surprisingly good? It's definitely played for creepiness at first, but he's just a guy living a surprisingly decent life for Hub City, Vic tries to actually help him and doesn't judge him for being delusional, and he ends up totally fine.

The parallel between Vic's mask and Myra's makeup, and her choice to discard it, is just. Waugh. She's just as dedicated to trying to figure out the right thing as he is, but she's not hiding any of it!

Myra kissing Maurice is still a very weird moment.

Detective Comics - Fables part 1

Spectacularly terrible opening, 0/10.

It's so weird to see the Penguin after this long of a stretch without supervillains. Yeah Talia shows up first but she's way less gimmicky and the page is pretty calm. He's here in full force with the monocle and bird jokes.

Shiva <333

I don't believe for a fucking second that asking Vic is the best way Shiva can think of to find Batman. I really like it, don't get me wrong. Vic's hacker exposition about making a post on the internet is hilarious, calling Batman Pointy-Ears is hilarious, "Matins" is such a Catholicism Moment, it's good stuff. I just think this is way less likely to work than going to Gotham and punching cops until Batman shows up.

Oh my god this is such a stupid villain plot. What do you mean it doesn't affect people with high testosterone. What do you mean Bruce already knows what it is. Why does Ra's have that. Why would that be the effect you choose for this story.

I'm sure this Bruce and Talia plot is better when read in context but it's still some excellent drama. Love them.

...gender?

Green Arrow - Fables part 2

The overarching plot of Fables isn't good, the O-Sensei is a boring Orientalist stereotype, but all of the subplots are very strong examples of why I care about each series. Scrap the whole O-Sensei thing in the first two issues and just have it be Shiva picking fights and finding people to help someone she knows and it'd be better.

Dinahollie <3

I love getting to see Shiva doing her thing. She's so chill, it's fun to see her in her element :)

Dinahshiva <3

Shiva loves to put some weird little freak in a situation and see if it makes them better or worse, and it sucks she doesn't get to do that anymore.

Question - Fables part 3

All of these issues have great looks for Shiva. Style icon.

Hey, Vic's terrible secret identity came back to bite him!

"Van der Waal's equation" isn't complete technobabble - the Van der Waal's force is a decent explanation for a multi-use adhesive, at least by comic book standards, and would explain why the mask never seems "sticky" and why the chemistry on getting it to stay is so finicky.

It's interesting that Vic doesn't even try to get Shiva to not kill people. He might be self-sacrificing, but he's not that dumb.

Oh my god Bruce you are such a dramatic bitch.

I kinda see what they were going for with the O-Sensei here, at least. Still think it'd be better if he wasn't a ridiculous legendary fighter.

Drowning motif! Shiva's perspective is so interesting - she's able to do anything she puts the effort into, and she expects that to be true of everyone else.

#20

The cover layout is unique this issue, which is a neat touch.

I always like that characters get to say stuff that's sort of dumb. Vic no-selling Myra's joke about boomerang rocks is a nice reminder that they do really like and feel comfortable around each other, even when things are rough.

Honestly not a ton to say about this issue. It makes its point well, I like it.

In the letter pages: the return of Hair Discourse.

#21

This plotline's back!

He just like me fr (misreading signals on a date, resisting the urge to deck his high school classmates)

Seriously though, it's nice to get a look into Vic's very normal problems. Not everything wrong with him is related to being the Question.

This is one of my favourite single issues. I can't quite put words on why - everything about it just works, and there's nothing about it that I want to pick at.

#22

Election Day is the best arc in the run.

The opening spread is full of excellent expressions - Wesley's really lean into the more distorted and exaggerated end of Cowan's art, while Myra's are all subtle, exhausted frustration. I appreciate that she's consistently drawn with sunken cheeks and eye bags.

Maurice getting to be serious is a strong moment. He's been a good source of banter for Myra before this, so having him get invested and take the consequences seriously is a good way to ground the stakes, and to give Myra someone who's genuinely on her side without having to rely on Vic.

It's interesting that Shiva pays close enough attention to what Vic's up to on a regular basis that she'd know who to send. Even when she's not around, she still gets to drive the story.

#23

This issue got me the first time I read it. The history flashback is a weird choice, but it sets the tone perfectly, and the time constantly being shown is a throwback to the first issue that makes it feel super tense. So much of the series has long time skips, waiting to heal or get phone calls or for anything to happen, but now every minute counts. The news reports punctuating it work so well.

Vic dropping everything when he reads Tot's name is so...

Myra goes off, and she damn well deserves it. The difference in how her expressions feel between this and the opening of #22 is a testament to Cowan's work.

The quoting of a line from five pages ago is maybe a little unnecessary. These panels would stand perfectly well on their own.

#24

It's hard to make a deus ex machina feel "earned", but if anything does, it's this.

Kind of a dumb thing but who tells this story with a beaver? I'm not losing it, right, it's the Scorpion and the Frog?

The historical flashback turning out in Myra's favor is a fantastic bit of subversion. When I first read this, I was certain that Wesley was going to shoot Myra during the blackout, and Dinsmore dying and Myra talking about how bad winning felt made me lower my guard and think he might kill himself publicly instead. Funny how that works.

I didn't catch what he meant until the next issue on my first read (in my defence, I'm not American) but wow Wesley's not subtle about his assassination plans to anyone. I mean, I caught that much, but he's really not subtle.

Myra and Vic's relationship makes me want to explode. I just want them to be happy together! Aaaaa!

#25

Everything happens so much. The pace just does not let up.

Vic falls into bad habits, again, but he does a better job staying focused and not letting the anger take over - it's good development.

Wesley's death is everything the shitty racist cop issue fails to be. He's a sad, awful little man with a broken moral compass and a lot of enablers, and he dies refusing to recognize it.

The letters column: a woman wrote in a while back about how male comic fans are creeps and Vic still has some personal growth to do when it comes to being less sexist, and some men are being freaks about it. These fuckers haven't changed in thirty years.

#26

If I ignore the part of my brain that hates this as a Riddler story and pretend he's an OC, it's a fine breather issue. Unfortunately I am bad at doing that.

Some very caricature-y guest art this issue. It's a neat look in some panels, and sometimes it's more subtle, but a lot of it is scrungled enough that I can't take what's happening seriously.

this is Vic and Tot in the car, to me

Love that Tot takes stopping Vic from self-destructing into his own hands, and that Vic bitches but doesn't do anything stupid to try and stop him.

The idea of Vic chewing out the Riddler with more difficult questions is an interesting idea, but I don't love the effect of him monologuing about a bunch of pretty standard ~deep~ questions and well known koans, and the Riddler just going "yeah i'm afraid of those" is dumb.

I dunno - it feels like a bit of a waste for the one time Vic faces an established villain to be so meh. I like Sphinx, at least, and the reappearance of the drowning motif is cool.

#27

The weirdest issue, I think.

I really like all the Vic sections, and I'm not opposed to meta shit, but this is pretty jarring. Tot's weird cousin and his racist magic is not helping the tone of the Ditko callback.

I like that Tot has a weird cousin who was a bad comic artist. He has connections outside of Vic, they're just also weird as hell.

The Ditko callback is great. "You gotta pull me up." "Why?", and then the slow drop before Vic grabs him? Mwah. Perfect. I'm a sucker for this shit. Even when he's falling into bad habits, he's still a better person than he used to be!

#28

Shiva :)

Vic responding to Tot telling him not to lie to himself by suddenly gaining sunglasses kills the mood a bit, but it's also very good. What is wrong with him.

Myra wakes up from a coma, ditches the hospital, and immediately makes a very risky plan. Good for her.

Everyone's in top form this issue, it's great.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Outlander: Singapore (7x05)

Huh, interesting. A couple of significant changes I'm not sure how to feel about, but an otherwise solid episode!

Cons:

Now, as a caveat, it has been a minute since I read the books, but I'm almost sure the scene with Ian meeting Emily's son goes a lot differently. For one, Ian is the one to name the kid Swiftest of Lizards, and Emily actually asks Ian to name her daughter, but he feels a connection to the older boy, and names him instead. It's left incredibly ambiguous as to whether or not this really is Ian's biological son, although later events strongly suggest this to be the case. In the show, they cast a little white kid to play Swiftest of Lizards, so it seems pretty clear we're not supposed to have any doubt. And he already has his Mohawk name, and Ian gives him an English one: Ian James. I'm... not sure how to feel about this. I liked the subtlety, the ambiguity, in the book. And I liked that Ian claimed the right to name him in the Mohawk fashion, instead of being handed the opportunity by Emily. It makes Ian's connection to his Mohawk identity stronger, that he names this child of his spirit in the tradition of one of his chosen people, instead of the people of his birth. I don't know, it just felt a little too neat and tidy, the way this played out.

Another change from the books is that I think Brianna realizes that the hazing is something they've done to the other people a little sooner? She doesn't go home and talk about how this was an act of sexism with Roger, and get his reassurance. I don't... mind that, strictly speaking, but I do think the stuff with Roger works a little better if he's not quite so perfect at atoning for his mistake of not supporting her perfectly. He's got a lot of sexist ideas that he has to work to overcome consistently.

Pros:

I will say, Bree and Roger are a lot easier to like as a couple in the 1980s than they were in the past. I don't know why, exactly, but something about Sophie Skelton's acting style (she's still a weak point in the show for me) works a little better in a more contemporary setting. And gosh, Roger looks handsome with his 80's haircut and clothes, holding his daughter in his arms... I also like the sinister hints that something's going on, with the food wrappers, and Mandy seeming to see someone lurking outside.

I'm glad they kept in things like Jem talking to his grandfather in the graveyard, and Brianna wondering if her parents might be buried there at Lallybroch. She's afraid to look. And the bit about Jem speaking Gaelic at school and getting in trouble for it - it's so wild to me that things like that can happen. How evil do you have to be to actively try and stamp out language and culture like that? It's cool that we're keeping these little subplots in, when there's so much else we need to cover. Another highlight is Brianna weeping over her parents and deciding to read another letter. The device of having Claire's narration come through the form of letters to Bree and Roger works better than just the out of nowhere narration that the show has been struggling with since day one.

Meanwhile, the Hunters and William are traveling together, and they stop for the night with a couple who lures them off the road and tries to murder and rob them in the dead of night! William saves them by killing the man and incapacitating the woman, but he has complicated feelings about having killed someone for the first time. I loved that the scenes with them started with a moral debate over the merits of taking a human life. Obviously the Quakers are anti-violence, but William points out that part of what allows them their stance is that they depend on others to enact violence on their behalf. Denny used medical cadavers for his research, and they were executed criminals! How does he circle that square?

I will also say, in contrast to my thoughts last week, I was a little bit charmed by Rachel here. I thought she had decent chemistry with William, and I also thought the moment when she and Ian ran into each other was pretty sweet. I've found that when Ian gives a big smile, it makes him look young and boyish and super charming in a not-conventionally-attractive way. (The scene between Ian and Claire about his chances to father children in the future was very sweet, too.)

I was excited for Claire and Denny's team-up as surgeons at Fort Ticonderoga, it was super refreshing to have him show up and immediately respect her opinion, the same way she respected his. They work together to amputate a man's leg, but are forced to leave the injured man behind as the British approach to take the fort, meaning he'll end up a prisoner of war. Book readers know that this man has a role to play later on, so that'll be interesting to see.

Meanwhile nobody takes Jamie seriously about his worries that the British army will approach from over the water and take the high ground, and even after he tries to convince the higher-ups, they ignore him. Turns out, he was right, and the Americans are forced to flee and let the British take the fort. You should always listen to Jamie Fraser, he knows what he's talking about here! I like that we're seeing some of Jamie's tactical brilliance, but also the way he stays cool under pressure, and has learned how to keep his mouth shut when he's being disrespected. He will lead the men under his command with honor, he'll fight for what he thinks is right, but he's also got his survival, and that of his family, front of mind. It's a good balance for his character!

So there ya have it. Lots of stuff going on. I know I keep saying this over and over, but it impresses me how little they're cutting out of the books. Every time I realize we're getting a particular scene or a setup for a character to arrive, I find myself a little surprised, thinking about all the stuff that could have been cut off to make room for the main plot. There wasn't a lot of Claire in this episode compared with most of the other characters, and I think that's okay - she has plenty of time to shine later on!

8.5/10

[petalsmooth]

Actually everyone CAN believe a Benophie fan (who tries to blackmail Sophie into being his mistress at least in the books) would defend a misogynist over Penelope.

Putting aside I HATED that final ball room scene, the fact IS IT HAPPENED. Completely bowed before that room of hypocritical vipers that had bullied and ignored her for years and begged their forgiveness and acceptance and YOU think she did nothing? Wrote Violet an apology letter. Wrote the Queen an apology letter. Eloise didn't talk to her for 6-8 months and befriended her worst enemy and YOU think there was no consequence? She had a huge fight with Colin and they didn't sleep in same bed for a week and there was no consequence? She got blackmailed by Cressida proving Colin right actually in that keeping this all secret was a bad idea. And if you actually had watched the damn show NO one forgave her that WE saw except Colin and Eloise. From Colin we get Violet is proud of her and we know she and her mother and sisters reconciled. Lady Danbury apparently never had a problem with her. But NO ONE ELSE APPROACHED HER. She even says to Colin will accept an annulment because a lot of people may not be kind to her. NO ONE in that ball room clapped at her speech, the way they do with Colin in the book. It's her sister releasing butterflies that distracts them. If you count the FW then Benedict seems ok with her too but we have NO evidence indicating forgiven by the ton at all and the Jess has even indicated wants to do a subplot on it so really....just shut up.

The person who hasn't suffered and apologized or had a redemption arc and gotten off scott free for being a misogynist is Anthony. Daphne almost has to marry that despicable man because of HIM and he just waltzes into Violet saying thank you for saving my butt and will strive to be better. HE didn't save Daphene from HIS actions, PEN AND VIOLET DID.

He dragged Sienna back and forth through a toxic relationship and SHE was the end to put end to it for HER well being.

He basically starts season 2 treating women like stock to be inspected for breeding.

He has a thing for Kate but pursues her sister and upon realizing in loves PROPOSES TO THE SISTER HE DOESN'T love.

HE doesn't end the ceremony, HE tries to convince Edwina to go through with it despite telling her sister he's likely have an affair with her if married Edwina.

He sleeps with Kate in the garden with nothing resolved between them and while both families still under scandel, same night his sister ran to her room crying proving he's a lousy brother too. More important to get laid than deal with Eloise.

Benedict basically gave up painting because of Anthony and Anthony doesn't seem to care.

Colin changed his personality in part to seek Anthony's approval, and Anthony tells him job well done!

The Queen interrupts his brother's wedding and makes a threat to the family ,and Anthony apparently waltzes off to India uncaring of that or even staying to see his sister wed. Same Anthony who was going to interrupt his brother's engagement dinner and make about him.

Now I love Anthony because Jonny is so likeable, but on paper? Don't you even DARE insinuate W.D. has caused more damage to their family than Anthony "Viscount" Bridgerton. He is directly responsible for Daphne's almost marriage to Berbrooke and very much a part of why Benedict and Colin are riddled with insecurities. Colin's resolved mostly because he has Pen by his side now. Benedict is still a mess.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- This is How You Lose the Time War (Books) - A quick read but a memorable one, this novella had some really beautiful and heart wrenching prose and a pretty unique setting about two inhuman (immortal?) rival time traveling secret agents slowly falling in love via increasingly intricate letters left for each other across time and space. The small details we got about their respective societies and how they work were pretty cool, as was the overall enemies who taunt each other to rivals who understand each other to lovers who would die for each other pipeline. I generally prefer my media to be longer and more character/plot driven, but short and introspective is good sometimes as well and I appreciate it for feeling like a full and uncompromised package.

- Tiger Tiger (Webcomic) - I've been meaning to check this out for awhile now, so when I saw that the first book had been physically published I snapped it up and wow, really should have gotten into this sooner it's a blast. The art is gorgeous, pretty much all the central characters are excellent, and the supernatural lore so far has been really intriguing. Period ship-adventure fantasies are a pretty good genre to start with, and it's great to see one with an enthusiastic inventor/scientist who gives PowerPoint-esque presentations to her crew about the cellular structure of sea sponges. Incredible. Though my favorite has to be Remy as his combination of gay angst over falling for his himbo best friend, being a genuinely good, caring older brother, and trying his best to be a decent person while simultaneously dealing with the high expectations placed on him really makes me feel for the guy. Definitely adding to my "eagerly awaiting updates for" list.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - My sister and I finally made it to the finale, which was pretty satisfying all things considered. I'm still shocked by how good this show managed to be, with it's amazing songs, great humor, and surprisingly healthy portrayal of mental health issues and the road to self improvement via therapy, routine, medication, and taking responsibility for your actions without spiraling into self-deprecation (and of course how hard this road is). I have my nitpicks with it of course and know that the show won't be to everyone's tastes given how "theater" it can be, but I think it said everything it wanted to say and did so incredibly well, it's become a new favorite of mine at least. Gotta give it to Rebecca, she is definitely one of the characters of all time.

- Cabinet of Curiosities (TV) - Not super far in this as I've had quite a bit of other things going on, but I do appreciate the concept and think more purely episodic mini-series should be made. So far I've seen the first episode which was an interesting concept and good set-up but a bit lackluster in it's payoff and the second which was fun in a cheesy way (hah) but did kind of drag in the second half. I've heard the best is yet to come so looking forward to that.

- The Locked Tomb Series (Books) - Nothing new to say but still love these books. Counting down the days to Alecto.

- One Piece Live Action (TV) - Convinced my sister to watch this with me after being surprisingly impressed by the trailers and uh yeah actually it's somehow good actually? There's plenty to complain about if you are looking to do so of course, there was issues with the lighting, the Navy subplot wasn't bad but took too much screen time away from the straw hats, and some of the emotional moments didn't hit as hard with much less build up, but honestly I was impressed by what we got. The casting was spot on and all the actors did a great job, they kept in a lot of the goofy/ fun presentation and world details from the manga, the new content and way they weaved the story together was really well done, the action scenes were neat, and I just think they nailed the spirit of the finding best friends and setting off on an adventure together. Shout out especially to how Sanji was written and acted to be less comically skirt chasing and more of a genuinely sweet guy, the added 'trying on outfits' scene where Nami tries and fails to get Zoro and Luffy to compliment her/care about fashion, and the creative set designs for pretty much every location from the mansion to the tangerine grove to Buggy's stage (as terribly lit as they were). I realize there is no way they will adapt the complete story this way, but I hope it get's a second season at least, they deserve it.

- Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (Video Game) - The final Ace Attorney mainline game, from case one I was already enjoying it a lot more than the Investigation games and honestly so far it hasn't let me down. I'm enjoying the new location and it's insane rules, the old characters are well written here and play off each other well, I surprisingly like a lot of the new characters, and I appreciate how much the cases tie into the plot and/or characters we actually care about. The only bummer so far is the new prosecutor, I'm sure he has his baggage same as all the others but boy is he not fun at all, not even in a fun to hate way, he's just an annoying religious zealot who's exceedingly arrogant despite being wrong 100% of the time. Like I don't care if you're mean, but be mean in a fun way dude.

- Monthly Girls Nozaki Kun (Manga) - Ah yes Nozaki Kun, not so much a romantic comedy as a comedy built upon the concept of romance being inherently ridiculous. Not a bad egg in this hilariously stacked cast, this remains one of the few manga that I wholeheartedly find hilarious, so I like to come back to it from time to time to get some free serotonin. Special shout out to Kashima for not only embodying the overly capable handsome girl chick magnet archetype but also doing it while being an overconfident, overly competitive, lovestruck dork ass loser at the same time. Honestly the whole cast are idiot losers and I love them deeply for it.

- Genshin Impact (Video Games) - Thanks to my friend I've picked this back up and oh geez I can feel the obsession incoming already. I've mostly just been messing around and trying to get my footing so far since the last time I played was over a year ago, but I'm about to start the second countries main story which I hear is pretty good. I really like the discovery aspect of the game as well as many of the character designs (same body/face syndrome notwithstanding) and have liked the story so far, though I have a few gripes with the experience too. The leveling system is pretty annoying and I don't appreciate the intentionally confusing character rolling system even if getting a random character is kind of fun. If there's a weapon only banner there should also be a character only banner, my experience so far has been rolling 23+ times and only getting crappy weapons. Combat is also not as fun as it could be given how over leveled the enemies are compared to my own level locked characters. Anyway, I have a feeling this will keep it's spot here for awhile so I can say more later.

Listening to: Sway Cover and Eat Your Young Cover by Reinaeiry, Insane by Black Gryph0n, Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youths, Comfort Zone by Fukase, Two Princes by Spin Doctors, Money Game Pt 2 by Ren, What About Now by Daughtry, Bad as the Boys by Tove Lo, Adore by Jasmine Thompson, Undress Rehearsal by Timeflies, Self Esteem by The Offspring, Lent by Autoheart.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Dr. T and the Women (2000)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

It’s been a long time since I’ve hated a movie as much as I do Dr. T & The Women. The idea of someone liking this film, or even tolerating it brings my blood to a boil. Every second of its unholy 122-minute running time felt like a spool of barbed wire being pulled through one nostril and out the other.

Dr. Sullivan Travis - a.k.a. “Dr. T.” (Richard Gere) - is a gynecologist who treats some of the wealthiest women in Texas with the utmost care. His life begins to crumble when his wife, Kate (Farrah Fawcett) suffers a mental breakdown, his patients’ patience begins to run unnaturally short and his youngest daughter’s wedding draws near all at once.

I’ve done my best to clump together the standout plot points to make it seem as if this motion picture has some kind of thread you can follow. In addition to these, there are subplots about Dr. T’s daughters (Tara Reid and Kate Hudson), another about the romantic tension between the doctor, his staff and a sexy new golf instructor at the course where he plays, another about the Travis home being invaded by Dr. T’s sister-in-law (Laura Dern) and more. It doesn’t matter. Nothing in this plot matters. It’s a half-congealed mess that has no idea what it wants to say, or if it does, the message is dispensed so poorly it's incomprehensible. Not helping are the characters, each of which you come to hate with a burning intensity that threatens to melt whatever screen you’re watching the film on. You’re bored, waiting for some semblance of a conflict to emerge from the banality of a gynecologist who cares and loves women too much. Anything! Some laughs, issues that normal human beings can relate to, a bedhead-knocking love affair or an asteroid that comes down and destroys the entire state would've all been great.

Dr. T and the Women is a footlong sandwich in which all of the ingredients, including the bread, the sauce and the seasonings have been replaced by sandpaper. You don’t even know what to make of it. Is there a joke buried deep in here somewhere? You don’t assemble a cast that includes Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler and Tara Reid unless you’ve got something to say, right? Well whatever it was that director Robert Altman wanted me to know, I don’t get it.

Then, there's the conclusion: a turn so weird I was convinced it was a dream or fantasy sequence – I would’ve bought Dr. T. being sucked up by a tornado and landing in Oz before what we actually get. Then, an epiphany. I get it. There’s nothing to "get"! It’s just a steamy, oozing, sticky, smelly misfire, a bodily discharge of unsatisfying and unresolved threads that add nothing to the overall package. It’s all set to a soundtrack that’s so on-the-nose it's like a trout slapped across your face.

Written by Anne Rapp, this is a shockingly misogynist film. It's so surreal it nearly comes back around and turns into a venomous letter about why men suck. You might be able to approach it from that angle and dissect the film into an interesting thought-piece but that would require the inhumane task of staying interested and awake for the whole thing. I can’t believe a major plot point of this story is that a man loves a woman and takes care of her so well her mind unravels to the point of madness. Every cell in my body pulsates with hatred when I think of Dr. T & The Women. (On VHS, April 4, 2018)