#its like my dream plot twist for sunny

[cutemeat]

look bc we established that charlie has no comprehension of the value of money in Roller Rink whos to say that charlie isnt actually insanely rich but he just doesnt know that

[onepieceisreeeeaaalll]

Strawhats Favorite Book Genres

I'm personally a bookworm and wanted to give my thoughts on this~

Luffy: Picture books, not because he can't read, but he likes looking at the funny pictures and making his own stories. He can be pretty creative about the twists and turns, even if they don't make much sense. He loves pirate tales and as a kid he would always put himself in the stories as Captain Luffy!

Zoro: This man does not read. However, he's always enjoyed action stories people have told him - full of adventure, daring fights, the rise and fall of character arcs. It enthralls him to hear it being told to him far more than if he ever attempted to read the same story from a book. That being said, if someone just started telling him a story they were reading, he'd act annoyed but then say, "Yeah? Then what happened?"

Nami: She is a sucker for a good romance. Specifically the ones where the main plot is fraught with danger, action and angst. She doesn't often take the time to read, and will sometimes take suggestions from Robin in her downtime.

Usopp: This boy loves urban legends and fairytales. He's always appreciated the way those stories can be both silly and dramatic, and he'll often recall them on his own adventures, making comparisons from what he remembers.

Sanji: He doesn't really care about reading now as an adult, but it was his escape when he was a kid. He loved to read about far away lands and adventures that involve groups of friends. He's always been seeking that found family dynamic and hasn't even realized he's fulfilled that dream. This is where his interest in the all-blue comes from! Sometimes he's been known to pick up a cookbook and tear it apart piece by piece, scoffing and insulted by how juvenile the recipes are, thinking of ways to make them better.

Chopper: This one's obvious, but the only books Chopper reads are medical books. He likes to expand his knowledge and continue training to best support his crew. He is more than willing to listen to the girls talk about their books, but those stories dont really tend to be his taste.

Robin: This girl loves mysteries. When she's not reading history or nonfiction, she eats up any mystery or drama she can get her hands on. She loves to try and guess the ending, always excited when she's correct. Robin loves to talk about the books shes reading and will gladly share her thoughts on the story.

Franky: He doesn't read anything aside from manuals. He's willing to hear someone talk about the stories theyre reading, but its just not something he personally gets. He'd much rather be working on new inventions, the Sunny, or making his own adventures. He does love to hear a good story from strangers at the bar, though, and will be completely enthralled in whatever they tell him.

Brook: This bag of bones loves nearly any kind of story. He doesn't often make time to read, but he's more than willing to read stories that provide some kind of inspiration for his songs. More than reading, Brook enjoys writing and reviewing the adventures that the crew has logged, reminiscing on their adventures.

Jimbei: Strictly non-fiction and history. He doesn't typically read, but when he does, he uses it as an opportunity to expand his mind. Biographies, informational books about new lands, you name it. He's not interested in reading something fictional, not really seeing the point in it.

[hopeforkitten]

I was inspired by the lines of playing a warlock from the game, and I really wanted to describe the psionic mind fucking from your patron. Yes, it took an unexpectedly large plot for this

Everything was going so well and fast, wasn't it? All such vile problems with illithids and maggots promised to end with a crown of divine power on your master's head. Raphael's stories and dreams have just been passed on to you, and you set off through the back streets of Baldur’s Gate to continue your journey. However, this sunny warm day was suddenly replaced by darkness and cold....

A dull blow to your head and rough palms that pull you by the arms into the alley.

Next, the cloth cloth of the bag is on you, your twisted body and the smell of dust. Gradually, he was completely blown out by the icy wind as the noises of the two loud kidnappers grew louder. They argued and grunted until your head was completely lost in space due to the chaotic shaking.

Soon the cold disappeared, the smaller bag remained on your head, and your hands were handcuffed. You were led for a long time, supported by scaly hands, through the corridors in relative silence.

The bag was abruptly ripped off your head and you were blinded by a golden light. Your eyes adjusted in a few seconds and you stared at the huge figure in front of you. The devil was sitting on the throne and you realized that it was Mephistopheles. There were removed portraits in Raphael's archive, and when they were examined, the most unsuitable for his style was found. They were similar in face, but the style of clothing, facial hair and the shape of the horns were definitely not in Raphael's preference. The portrait was engraved on the frame "Archdevil of Cania Mephistopheles, beloved father" you then winced when reading and Raphael's brief answer was enough to understand their relationship to each other.

But now he is in front of you and you swallow realizing the depth of your position in hell.

Its horns stretch upwards and then to the sides, separating like a red deer. He has a beard on his red face, and his wings hang loosely behind his back. A black robe exposes the chest and hides everything else, you wonder if there are hooves under this dark cloth.

The golden eyes sparkle at you with interest, and the face smiles like a winner.

"So you're Raphael's special interest, aren't you. Tell me how my son is doing."

He throws a brief hand gesture, leaving you at a loss. What should I tell him? Is Raphael okay?

"Em... He makes deals and conducts typical devilish business"

Your mouth dries up from such a weak potential of eloquence. You are nervous and look down at your hands, they are in iron shackles and covered with frost, your hands are pale and how strange that you do not feel cold. The desire to move them loses out to weakness, which, along with the cold, spreads from the iron on your hands.

"No, little lamb, I want to hear the answers. They say he is more active than ever, what inspires him to do this?"

Again, my head is empty, what kind of question is this anyway?

"Em... his ambitions? He's your son, what else can you expect from him. And by the way, I think he won't really like it if I say too much..."

You blurted out your thoughts as if they could change your position. Nevertheless, keeping at least something in mind seemed like hard work. The power emanating from the archdevil made you lower your head and press your neck into your shoulders.

"That's how things are... Then let's make it easier"

Mephistopheles shifted his support to one hand and looked somewhat disappointed. He lifted his wrist up and with a lazy movement of his fingers, pain pierced you. It was as if these fingers pierced your temple, and an invisible force prevented you from pulling away or indicating your pain. The last thing you see clearly is the face of the archdevil in front of you before your gaze is covered with white smoke.

Further events continued to happen without your will. You hear Mephistopheles' questions, you hear your mouth answering him, but the pain in your head makes you want only to lean back and squeeze something in your teeth.

Your head turned out to be a place of battle because you clearly felt two presences. One is seeking from Mephistopheles, and the other is protecting from your patron. The first one inexorably cut through the passages in your brain as Raphael's defense retreated further and further. It was unbearable that you couldn't even show your trembling. There was a taste of blood in your mouth, and warm trickles flowed from your nose when you felt that Raphael's presence had disappeared. Before you is the laughter of the devil, and then the sounds when you talk about the Crown of Karsus, that one of the thieves was an old guest of Raphael, about the plans of the dead trinity and about such lucky adventurers that they almost handed the crown into the hands of his son and, of course, about his plans to conquer hell.

Your story ended, and you felt that any intrusion into your head had stopped.

The haze in your eyes remained only along the contour when you were forced to look up exactly into the face of Mephistopheles.

"Tell me, little lamb, does my son love you?"

He leaned forward a little while sitting on the throne, waiting for your independent answer.

"I... I don't know

You spoke uncertainly. It was unpleasant to move your lips while droplets of blood from your nose flowed into your mouth, and you couldn't stop them with your shackled hands. You cringed, expecting another intervention in your head, but it did not come. Only the Archdevil's evil and low laughter followed.

- Of course he loves, otherwise he wouldn't have been so compliant in protecting your little head and you'd be dead. He had the opportunity to defend his plans, but he didn't do it.

He leaned back in his chair and he didn't even need to voice an order for you to be taken away, he just waved his hand towards the doors.

This time you were led through the corridors without a bag on your head, but after all you were not up to examining the interior. Soon the golden environment turned to gray and you were thrown into a prison cell. Three cold walls of iron bars and one cold wall of stone, next to other similar rooms. At first glance, they are empty, but in the next one you notice a lump of clothes, it seems bones are visible at the edges. This image of a former prisoner flashed through your mind as you leaned against the wall and slid down it powerlessly. The cold enveloped you like a blanket when you felt the air burning your lungs more and more.

It is not known how much time has passed, but someone was shaking you, there was only a warm dark spot in front of your eyes, and a hum in your ears instead of a voice. It is interrupted by a sharp pop and a flash when, instead of the cold of kania, the heat of averno pinches you.

Your vision thaws and you understand the picture. Raphael is hugging you to him in the middle of the portal room. He is on one knee when your back is on the other, and his hands are hugging your face, threatening to leave a characteristic burn on it. There are new emotions in his face-worry and regret.

"My treasure, I'm so sorry."

He's talking to you.

Someone quickly distracts his attention. His face returns to its usual expression when he barks an order in response.

Your jaw thawed only after you were loaded into a warm regenerating pool, right in your clothes so that it would not burn your cooled skin. Only your head was lying on a cushion by the pool, and Raphael was sitting next to you, holding his hand in your hair.

"I... Raphael.... he asked, and I had no choice...."

You wanted to apologize and tried to find the words, but they didn't come to you.

"Shhh... Sweet, it doesn't matter. It's not your fault."

He told you to be silent and his words thawed your soul.

It's important that you're here. It begged to jump off Raphael's tongue, but he restrained himself. He's already fallen too low today. It is unlikely that Mephistopheles really cared about his son's plans, he only wanted to harm him. And there was no better way to do it than through you, a concentration of his potential power held together by affection.

[woodchipp]

So, I've read the OMORI manga's first chapter.

All in all, it's already an improvement over the game in my eyes.

SPOILERS BELOW.

Things I Liked

The biggest improvement, of course, is that Sunny isn’t locked in a perpetual resting bitch face anymore. He’s appropriately afraid to open the door, shocked to see Basil, aghast at Aubrey calling him a “loser” and terrified of Aubrey herself. And the mention of Mari actually causes him to freak out! Compared to Game!Sunny, it’s quite refreshing to see he seems to have some semblance of a personality here. Now I’m interested to see how Basil’s bathroom breakdown will be handled 🙂

I appreciate that the manga doesn’t fuck around with its plot and cuts straight to the chase. Headspace is boring as hell anyway, and I'd personally take the manga's breakneck pacing over the game's excruciating length. Starting off the very first chapter with Memory Lane’s very last memory was an interesting choice, and it makes a lot of sense given that the violin is the source of all of Sunny’s woes lol

Likewise, I appreciate that Aubrey is violently confrontational right off the bat. At least she’s proving herself to be as unruly as a real delinquent would be lmao. She even calls Sunny out as the coward he is! Her gang is nowhere to be seen so far, which I see as a huge improvement considering they’re barely characters, and I hope they’re excised from the story so that it could focus on Aubrey more 

Basil briefly changing to his Headspace version to reflect Sunny’s tenuous grasp on reality is a great detail. Where was that kind of detail in the source material?

Sunny zoning out into White Space after attacking Aubrey makes sense. I can see why the shock would cause him to dissociate. It also makes sense that Sunny would dream up a playground if he fell unconcsious at the park. That being said…

Things I Disliked

…the way Headspace is introduced is still rather haphazard. I'm not sure why the chapter ends where Headspace began in the game. Unless the Headspace segments are much shorter here, I'm afraid it'll be just as much of a tumor on the plot as it was in the source material

Again, Kel only calls attention to Sunny’s knife and says nothing about Aubrey’s nail bat. It was stupid in the game and it's stupid here. He also stands by while she holds Sunny at bat-point and monologues about how she'll never forgive him instead of, dunno, trying to tackle her so that she doesn't harm Sunny

The artstyle is. a thing. Everyone’s got haystack limbs, including Kel, who’s supposed to be the physically fittest one in the group. The Same Face Syndrome goes without mention

The implication that Omori stepped in and took control of Sunny to attack Aubrey is the one thing I genuinely hated. Come on, are you really going to shirk responsibility for Sunny’s actions on his Evil Mental Illness again? At least Sunny himself was horrified by the act, but still, that was bullshit. can’t wait for the Epic plot twist that Omori forced Sunny to shove Mari down the stairs 

[lilac-udon]

oh no I’m clowning myself again

As a basil defender

Most people stand w sunny and how often I see online is “basil ruins Sunny’s life ” . Would argue sunny ruined his life unintentionally, and basil actively chose to jump into the water with him. I can imagine basil never think that far into the consequences of his actions but the first instinct is to help Sunny. I can’t understand why basil did what he did ,and for me I do felt it’s overkill. My explanation is the writer needs it to be this extreme to connect the plot(and shock value . If sunny and mari are both basils friends, I cannot think of why he would throw Mari into the bus like that(I’m saying, thinking mari is already dead, need to save Sunny, but not in the point or any idea of, saving mari. He see Sunny action , but on the other hand he accepts mari is dead already too quickly in my taste)(I mean I don’t understand basil a lot a lot, I just don’t make sense but also he probably get push to do something because he think he is the only one to rely on when Sunny is suffering at that moment,add the point of he never really have parents supervise him, I guess that add a possibility of him not seeking others (parental figure) help but trying to fix stuff on its own. I have theory of he mostly solve stuff on his own, and no one helps or guides him, and he might be the one taking care of his grandma more than his grandma taking care of him

(((no , I will tell u this, a lot of people don’t like to think about any reason for basil bc they “hate basil” . I read other ship involving sunny and see how many write basil should get hate by his actions))))(((not that u can’t hate a character but , write it from another character lens(besides hero), ok cool?) (ah I know I ask too much, cute ship fluff no canon involved because it’s too much sure whatever)

I want to point out how much he valued to “help ”Sunny in that moment than anything else. Even it’s a very very awful idea. But I also want to say, as passive as Sunny is, didn’t he also ruined basil life. And the lack of people see it this way just annoys me, what did you mean basil deserved it, where if basil never met sunny he could at least had a normal childhood ; but for Sunny , sunny still needs to face the reality of mari is gone, wether or not basil is there to help him “cover up ”?

I always see both of them are in the wrong, even though so many people see them as cute little meow meows , nooo . Especially sunny, sunny is passive, but he is not entirely blank(I don’t know how to explain but I always use “cute” to explain?) this is more of my taste I guess, but I really like to put Omori characters into sunny as well, I see omori as what he is thinking, sunny just has the issue to showing all those thoughts he have. They are good kids but sunny has this attitude (read Omori note) removing it from him making him so cute and eepy as soft is just not how I imagine sunny I guess; ; ( where is his dark thoughts and edginess?

Basil being overall kind ? Huh, there is also this very weird thing of Basil literally shut off himself to only interact with sunny a tiny bit. After the incident he cut off from most of his friends. I think I don’t know how to think about him because there is too little information then from Omori point of view of dream basil (I can believe omocat probably don’t know too or probably very simple but I or the fandom over complicated him) I just always felt he do favor sunny, but that also can be explained he doesn’t know what to do and can only open with sunny because sunny literally causes them both in the dumpster. Or can think as he IS really this kind, waiting for sunny to do something than just snitching sunny, you know if he hate sunny or anything, he can twist the story or just tell it before sunny think through his trauma but he didn’t

Also to point out, sunny at the end of the game did somehow get a conclusion of his thoughts but not basil, just pointing out, we don’t know how he feels, he probably has unresolved trauma +the guilt of hurting sunny, also we are not sure if he is ok sunny just spell the beans like that, he might just want to talk with sunny but haven’t prepared to share it w his friends yet so yeah, I hope they are on the same page (someone reminded me that his something disappeared , so they are both fine)

Add

So sunny eye, I always see it as an apology of ruining basils life, but most people think it’s too much

[deann1120]

PreCure Predictions for 2024

Per someone’s comment from 2021’s post: I know some of these are repeat themes. That’s why I put “another.” PreCure does repeat its themes or sub themes sometimes—like this year, which is technically the second sky themed season.

Another flower-themed season but all the Cures are named after flowers

Another animal season but, like, without the sweets thing (the animal theme was wasted in KiraKira, let’s be honest)

Elemental Precures, the core four and maybe light or lightning as a fifth. The Healin’ Good, Go!Princess, Smile, and Yes! 5 teams were actually kinda elemental, but I would a want a more solely-elemental theme.

If not elemental, then maybe seasonal Precure? I’m still holding out hope even though we have a Cure Summer already.

Another career season but they don’t do shit like dress a Cure like a flight attendant and then tell us she’s an ice skater

Color-themed?? I know the Cures are already color themed but like a whole season around colors. Maybe they have to protect a magic rainbow or something. Plot twist if one of them is colorblind

MYTHICAL CREATURES

Gemstones. Like Steven Universe but as a more conventional magical girl show

[12/‘20 Edit] Holidays. They can either go with Japanese or more “universal” ones

[12/‘20 Edit] Another fairy tale season but the cures are actually modeled after fairy tale characters

[12/‘20 Edit] Winter wonderland/wintery (10/‘21 note: oops this ended up being Tropical Rouge’s crossover movie theme. maybe they’ll still go for a whole season)

[12/‘20 Edit] Dreams? Like I know we have a Cure Dream but more like exploring the world of people’s nighttime dreams or daydreams. Exploring either or both would be substantial, but the unconscious of the nighttime would be cool, so as to be something like Mewkledreamy but maybe more, y’know, interesting

[1/‘21 Edit] Technology/MECHA????

[1/‘21 Edit] The weather? It sounds kinda stupid, but like each girl represents a different weather type. The lead would probably be based on sunny weather or rainbows (again). Actually something that’d be kinda cool is if there’s a duo called Cure Thunder and Cure Lightning

[2/‘21 Edit] Another music season but the Cures each have an instrument theme

[2/‘21 Edit] Jungle. So tropical in a different sense

[2/‘21 Edit] Forest. So maybe another season like Healin’ Good but they actually pay more attention to the environment/conservation/nature part

[6/‘21 Edit] A full-on Zodiac season? They can go with a few of the Eastern or Western Zodiacs, like from Star Twinkle. Of course, they probably wouldn’t do all 12 Western or Eastern Zodiacs.

[6/‘21 Edit] Another fruits season but there’s more to the theme than just the names

[7/‘21 Edit] Birds? [10/‘23 Edit] Or would this not be feasible since we just had Wing?

[7/‘21 Edit] Fashion. Not makeup, just like, clothes and accessories. Though I guess you could throw makeup in there as well. Maybe another solely makeup season, then?

[10/‘21 Edit] Royalty. I know there was a princess season but looking at royalty more broadly. Like Cure Crown, Cure Sceptre, Cure Queen, Cure Rule, etc. [10/‘23 Edit] Although a Cure Majesty would be off the table now of course.

[10/‘21 Edit] Sports

[1/‘23 Edit] The circus. Inspired by my initial impressions of Wing’s outfit lol

[10/‘23 Edit] Arts and crafts. Each Cure is based around a different art like painting, sewing, dancing, etc. We’ve had two seasons with pens for transformation items and a lot of artistic girls so we might as well have a whole season of it.

[thewittyambitiousdiyodyssey]

A New Year A New Me?

Ah, the rollercoaster that was 2023 – a year where my ambitions soared higher than my flight from Buffalo to Phoenix. Picture this: me, armed with a list of goals so ambitious they'd make a self-help guru blush. Top of the list? Buying a humble abode in the sunny realms of Phoenix, shedding a cool 35 pounds (because why not?), diving into the DIY abyss with ideas pilfered from an ever-growing collection of 100,000 internet posts, and last but certainly not least, the holy grail of modern existence – financial freedom through the mythical beast known as passive income.

But here's the million-dollar question: Is passive income a realistic dream for your average Jane (I prefer Jane to Karen, it's got a nicer ring to it)? The internet, with its flashy ads and too-good-to-be-true promises, makes it seem like a walk in the park. Spoiler alert: it's not. Just watching one of those 'get rich quick' videos is enough to exhaust my entire being. And let's not forget my dear friend, AADD, always ready to whisk me away on a tangent at a moment's notice.

So, here we are, January 2nd, cruising at altitude over the vast American landscape, en route to Phoenix. It's me, my mom, and two-thirds of my offspring (the eldest has recently discovered the joys of teenage autonomy). Oops, got sidetracked again. The grand plan was to use this space to introduce myself and layout my lofty 2024 aspirations, which, as you've probably guessed, mirror last year's unfulfilled dreams.

But alas, the universe seems to have other plans. A quick peek at my stock portfolio brought me back to earth with a thud – turns out, my financial cushion is more of a financial paper towel. To avoid spiraling into the abyss of despair, I turn my thoughts to weight loss strategies and money-making schemes. But, in a plot twist worthy of a daytime drama, I find myself demolishing a king-size Snickers and washing it down with a Coke (the soda kind, thank you very much). So much for weight loss aspirations.

And now, as I gaze out the airplane window, watching endless clouds drift by, a sense of panic begins to bubble up. The dream of home ownership in Phoenix feels like it's slipping through my fingers, the weight loss goal is teetering on the edge, and here I am, floating back to the starting point. But hey, what's life without a little drama, right? Here's to 2024 – the year of hopeful despair, witty comebacks, and chasing dreams, even if they lead me on a wild goose chase. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

[mentalblabbermouth]

I tell myself I am free to be silly and that includes feeling good about posting another ramble from my google docs

So anyway aside from Mario, I am also really into BATIM and when BATDR came out I lost my mind. Like 2017 me came crawling back from the depths of my mind and binge-watched Superhorrorbro Mike's gameplay when it came out. Distinctly remember having to pause at the biggest plot twist and just pace around my senior studio, rambling like a madman. (Little did I know someone was right outside the door, so whoever heard all that um no you didn't)

(From 9 Dec 2022) (Disclaimer: this is pure brainrot I guess but if you manage to read all this thanks so much! I get insecure about it, but I also really want to share my ramblings in the hopes of someone getting it so yeah)

Shut up I’m still thinking about Audrey, I have thoughts and questions like did she start out as a baby? How long did she even get to grow up with Joey before he died? If her story starts in 1973, and the first game was in 1963, and she has to be in like her early twenties, and Joey died in 1971, then what? That’s two years! Had she always known and just forgot when she entered the machine? Did he put her in an orphanage when she was little? And how did she even end up at Archgate? 

   Maybe she did get to grow up with her father and forgot when she entered the machine and she rediscovers the book with his notes, not understanding its true meaning. Nathan had promised to look after her, which is why she’s an animator at Archgate. She probably told him what happened to his son and after the damage the machine did, it hit the news and Gent got word and secretly took it away.

   Come to think of it, Allison works at Archgate, so maybe Audrey later realizes Allison Connor and Allison Pendle are the same.

   ALSO! Audrey didn’t recognize Henry, but she has the drawing he gave to Joey, so what? Does she put two and two together later on? Did she never get to meet the real him? Did Joey never talk about him? 

   THEORY TIME: There’s also the whole “uncle” thing. I feel like, bear with me here I promise, Audrey’s somehow connected to Henry. Think about it! She’s a talented animator and hard worker, literally employee of the month at Archgate. He originally created the toons and you know Joey basically took the credit. And the whole soul thing. You can’t separate the creation from the creator no matter what, and I think it’s parallel between Audrey with Joey and Bendy with Henry. Look at this weird family. Audrey’s soul was made, maybe from a piece of Joey’s soul, and a part of that was given to Bendy when they made it to the real world. 

   In “Dreams Come to Life”, Joey mentions how he shared his soul with Henry, so obviously the two were close, and whether they like it or not they influenced each other. What I’m getting at is that some of that artistic talent and creativity may have seeped into Audrey. If the Ink Machine is like a pen or canvas, and ink stains, then who's to say that in creating Audrey, parts of her are composed of the important people in Joey’s life: Allison and Henry? Writing it down kind of makes sense. Now, of course similar dialogue lines are probably just references to the first game, but what if?

As a treat for making it this far and while I have the confidence rn, here's some old-ish art technically from last year? I just like the potential between strained character relationships, the drama of it all ✨🤌.

Now, of course neither of the games are perfect and the storyline itself is kind of mixed up/confusing in some places, and this all may be a bunch of hogwash, but that's the beauty of fan work I guess, filling in the pieces and connecting dots like that one Charlie Day meme.

Once again I cast my lot into the digital sea of content like a note in a bottle, hoping to be uncorked and read by a stranger in the midst of multitudes, received not with scorn, but acceptance and understanding.

Anyway that's all for today, as always, thanks for reading!

[watermelonlipstick]

Dreams, Chapter 16

If you haven’t read this series before, you might want to start on Chapter 1, or check out the Dreams Masterlist! Here’s the series description:

When Dean dies for good leaving Sam and his girlfriend (the reader) behind, they must figure out how to carry on without him. Alone, reeling, and unsure what to do next, trying to honor Dean’s memory and follow their hearts gets even more complicated when their nightmares become dreams that feel a little too real.

Title: Dreams, Chapter 16

Pairing: (past) Dean Winchester x Reader, (eventual) Sam Winchester x Reader

Word Count: 1754

Summary: Some of Sam’s efforts to ‘nest’ in their new life together reveal new possibilities.

Warnings: angst, FLUFF, swearing, s l o w  b u r n

           Water laps at the weather-beaten wood of the dock underneath you slowly and the rhythm feels like hypnosis with the sun beating down a blanket. You sense Dean at your side without opening your eyes.

           “So…was he any good?”

           You can’t help but laugh, hearing the echo go out over the small lake, and get up to your elbows. It’s bright enough that you have to squint over at Dean where he lays next to a couple fishing poles and a cooler, t shirt hitched up to show a sliver of his stomach with his arms behind his head. His smile is devilish, made even more smug with eyes closed against the sun so his lashes cast an inch-long shadow on the dusting of freckles across his cheeks. “You can’t ask that!” you giggle.

           His lips flatten into a knowing line. “So that’s a no?”

           “Jesus Christ, of course it’s not a n—you know what, I’m not talking to you about this,” you smile, laying back down.

           “Ooh, so it’s a yes,” he teases as he turns on his side to face you. “Go Sammy. That mean you two are, like, going steady now?”

           You let your head loll over to him and roll your eyes. “Are you done?”

           “Not yet. Is he going to let you wear his letterman jacket? Take you to junior prom?”

           “I’m giving you ten more seconds.”

           Dean laughs, free and easy. “Fine, okay, I’m done. Wait—did he wrap it?”

           “DEAN!” you yell, covering your face in embarrassment.

           “Okay, alright, okay.” He’s still chuckling when you open your eyes to look over at him and reaches over to slip a piece of hair behind your ear. “You, ah, you seem happy.”

           You search his eyes for any hidden anger and find only the softness of calm affection with a pinch of solemnity. Where his hand lingers in your hair you turn into it, pressing your lips to Dean’s palm. “I am.”

           Dean smiles, straight teeth a perfect row of pearls so white you think for a second they might ‘ding’ with sparkle like a cartoon, and he looks relaxed enough as he puts his hands back behind his head that it calls up images of a kitten falling asleep in a sunny spot like this even as he keeps his eyes on you. “Took you guys long enough.”

           “And you’re still okay with this?”

           “Yeah, hell yeah. That’s the best I could ever ask for, you two happy. So, what do you say? Want to see if we can catch some fish?”

           Spring was a blessing; clean greenness breaking through the grey and white purifying the air and breathing new life into you, Sam, and the community you’d come to be a part of. The cabin was that much nicer with the new hours of sunlight pouring through the windows and all the upgrades you had put into it, to the point that you began to feel truly comfortable there. You even invited the Kaisers over for dinner a few times, feeling more like equal partners in your burgeoning friendship with them.

           You started to feel stable enough to get things; picked up a bookshelf at the combination flea/farmer’s market that happened in the K-12 school’s field every Saturday morning and got higher quality spatulas to cook with, the kinds of nonessential stuff you never would’ve bought before knowing you were going to stay in one place long enough to get good use out of them. Sam, in turn, kept building: changing the locks to sturdier ones and erecting a shed big enough to hold a lawn mower.

           You’d been cooking on an early Sunday afternoon when Sam came home and crossed the cabin in a few strides, giving you a kiss on the cheek before setting a thick paper bag down on the kitchen counter. “Smells great, what’re you making?”

           “Ratatouille!” you buzzed, placing a slice of eggplant carefully into its slot. “I’ve never had it, but I’ve always thought it looks so pretty. Hopefully it’s good. Where were you?”

           “Hardware store. I thought maybe I could build a greenhouse; see if we could grow anything. Might be enough to work against the cold.”

           You raised your eyebrows in appreciative surprise. “Look at you! What’re you thinking? Poppies? Platinum OG? Purple Haze?”

           Setting a box of screws down, Sam rolled his eyes through a smile. “My plan was more along the lines of tomatoes or something, but I’ll, uh, take those suggestions under advisement.” You had a sudden urge to twist a gentle finger into the dimple that stayed on his cheek as he unloaded the rest of his supplies but didn’t want to embarrass him, instead sweeping some garlic skins into your hand to throw into the small bucket Sam kept under the sink to collect scraps for the compost pile. When the bag was empty he refolded it and took off his jacket, passing by you to put it on its hook by the door. “Want any help?” he asked, sounding about as breezy as you’d ever heard him.

           “It just has to bake for about an hour. Does a late lunch work with your construction schedule?”

           Sam leaned over to slip a hand around your waist and kissed the top of your head before grabbing an armful of stuff to take outside. “Definitely. Just yell when you’re ready for me.”

           You giggled and waggled your eyebrows suggestively. “I’m always ready for you.”

           He tried his best not to blush but bit his lip in spite of himself, looking up at you with a bashful twinkle in his eye. “I walked into that one, didn’t I?”

           In response you held up a spare slice of zucchini that Sam readily accepted, opening his mouth like an obedient puppy and chewing as he went out the back door.

           You loved watching Sam work on his greenhouse in the weeks that followed, getting so excited about the tiny shoots sprouting up from the soil that he sometimes woke up early to check on them before starting his day. After a few weeks he woke you up one morning with a cup of coffee, bare-chested under slightly sleep-tangled hair and the hems of his flannel pants sloppily half inside his boots. “I wanna show you something,” he said, throat still gravelly. You accepted the mug and got out of bed, following him drowsily and jamming your feet inside your shoes at the door, too tired to worry about the laces.

           He led you into the greenhouse with its clear plastic walls and pointed down at a petite bud on top of a green stalk. It had the telltale waviness of a basil leaf, and when you bent down to look closer at it the plant already smelled herbaceous. “It’s so cute!” you hummed. Sam practically glowed with satisfaction, an unbridled smile the perfect accessory to the broad span of his chest where it was backlit by the fuzzy light through the greenhouse walls. You straightened and rubbed his back in congratulations, staring down at the plant together with your coffees like parents on Christmas morning. Tucked in the corner of the greenhouse behind the basil, a scattering of bitty white flowers caught your eye against the burnt umber soil.

           “Wait, you already have stuff flowering in here? What’s that?” you asked, tiptoeing around the wooden stakes in the soil to get closer.

           “Oh—I, uh—” he stammered behind you.

           At arm’s length the flowers looked vaguely familiar and you stopped short. “Is that—?” You turned back to Sam, who seemed not to be able to come up with anything to say, his face the kind of blank surprise that indicated he didn’t know whether you were about to be upset. “Really? Where’d you even…how did you get some?”

           He tucked his hair behind his ears to stall for even a half second. “I—well, I found a guy who got me—got us—some.”

           “You still have an African dream root hookup?”

           Sam’s lips pressed into a well-practiced silent ‘I guess?’ and he reached back to ruffle the hair at the nape of his neck, the movement stretching his side distractingly enough that if you hadn’t been so startled by the discovery of a plot of dream root literally in your own backyard you might’ve forgotten what you were talking about altogether.

           You raised your eyebrows expectantly, waiting for him to explain.

           “I made some calls, found someone in Milwaukee who got his hands on some and he mailed it here. I didn’t want to, uh, tell you in case I couldn’t get it to grow.”

           All kinds of possibilities and frustrations raced through your head. “So you’ve had this for weeks? That’s why you built the greenhouse?” Sam didn’t answer fast enough. “Never mind, I don’t care,” you found yourself saying, and surprisingly, actually meaning. You took a deep breath to stop the words from jumbling together. “Do you think it’ll work?” you breathed, knowing he would understand the real question: would we be able to see Dean together?

           “Only one way to find out.”

           For whatever reason you’d gotten freshly showered, made up, and dressed before brewing the tea with Sam on your next day off of work. It felt like there should be some level of pomp and circumstance about it, this giant undertaking that might be able to change your whole life again, even knowing that your prep wouldn’t translate into a dream. You were giddy with anxiety and almost wished you could reasonably put it off, the idea of this new possibility being yet another dead end making you nauseous.

           “Your place or mine?” you asked, trying to put a little sheen of humor on your nerves.

           Sam chuckled but you could tell he was nervous too, rubbing his palms dry on the knees of his jeans over and over again. “You haven’t done it before, right?”

           You shook your head. “Is there a learning curve or something?”

           “Honestly it’s been long enough that I don’t really remember. Hold on—hold still.” He reached out and very gingerly swept a finger across your cheekbone, drawing back to show you an eyelash stuck to the whorl of its pad.

           You straightened where you sat on the edge of the bed. “That’s as good a sign as any. Cheers, I guess.” Sam dropped the tiny hair into his mug and touched the ceramic to yours, his eyes hopeful and reassuring as you took tandem sips.

           And then you were off.

-

Continue to Dreams, Chapter 17

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[katsidhe]

could you do 9.10 and 9.13 for episode reviews.

Love your takes btw.

9.10 Final Thoughts

well, well, well, if it isn’t my old friend season 9. God I love season 9. buckle in. 

Plenty of what season 9 tries to do with angel drama falls flat, but plenty of it doesn’t. It’s at its strongest when interrogating the ways that the angels are looking for personal purpose, rather than folding themselves into various suit-clad factions. In this episode, we have Gadreel, Abner, and Thaddeus, all with very different takes.

Thaddeus is the most boring of the three—a straightforward narcissist and sadist. (Lucifer will follow in his rockstar-impersonating footsteps in s12. SPN clearly has a dim view of the music industry.) We don’t care when he dies, and we aren’t meant to.

Abner’s found a family, and he’s let go of revenge. He’s clearly found peace and happiness—but it’s stolen.  I’m ambivalent about this. I guess I could take his word that his vessel was abusive and therefore deserves to have been permanently body-snatched, and I guess I could believe him when he says his new family loves him, even though they clearly don’t know what he is or what he’s done. His regard for humanity as something other than a project is… uncertain. Even if everything is as sunny as he explains to Gadreel, there is fundamental selfishness and short-sightedness here. Get what you want, Abner says, and never let go.

Gadreel asks Abner if his vessel is happy. This reveals both Abner’s scorn for his vessel, and Gadreel’s uncomfortable awareness of and respect for Sam (and his bartender vessel, who Gadreel stares at, and who accepts Gadreel back easily).

Gadreel! OF COURSE Gadreel’s gotta be the scapegoat for Lucifer’s release, HAHAHAH. I love him to pieces, oml. Seriously, the Sam parallels could not BE more blatant. I’ve talked about this before, that it makes the earned antipathy between them all the more alarming, all the more visceral. The big sticking point is that Gadreel’s years of pointless torture came prior to his “redemption” arc, rather than as a consequence of it. Gadreel has all of s5 Sam’s despair and helpless anger and self-loathing, all of his drive to set things right at any price, and all of it is amplified by his trauma.

Sam and Gadreel’s relationship is defined by its liminal spaces. Gadreel threatens to tear Sam apart, but he does not, even when he is tortured. He locks Sam away in a dream rather than force him to watch him kill, or to suffer. But when Sam forces Gadreel out, Gadreel leaps instantly on telling Sam he is weak, reciting back Sam’s fears and Gadreel’s own. This reads like Gadreel is aiming quite a lot of his own self-pity and self-hatred at Sam.

Cas’s murderous rage at Gadreel when his identity is revealed is fun. It shows that Heaven’s PR team did a good job, for one thing. But Cas is furious because it’s specifically Lucifer. And the Apocalypse, and all the attendant suffering, his and Dean’s and Sam’s. It’s a personal wrath.

“Stupid for the right reasons…” oh, Cas, your scarcity of positive human role models is showing. Also, Cas’s particular brand of reassurance here isn’t actually something Dean has a problem with. He expresses regret over having been tricked—he says he’s stupid, he says he got played—but he’s never in doubt that his intentions were good. He’s never in doubt that he did the righteous thing. He’s never in doubt that he’d do it again.

Dean apologizes to Cas for barring him from the bunker. (Sam will not receive an apology.) Cas compares what Dean did to Sam to what Cas did by trusting Naomi. There’s a key difference here. Cas’s moral compass is not the problem; it’s his critical thinking skills.

Crowley, Cas, and Dean are a hilarious trio. (Also, I really hope that Cas’s pimpmobile got to Heaven too, like the Impala.)

Crowley being genuinely sorry that Kevin’s gone and his willingness to risk his life to help Sam are the best two moments of the generally weak Crowley-has-human-blood plot line. They feel earned. [also Crowley’s ‘I told Kevin he should’ve run!’ is both accurate, funny, and sad.]

Let’s talk 4.21 parallels! I mean, first, the glaringly obvious: Sam locked down to be purged of something supernatural; Sam suffering; Dean unable to bear Sam’s tortured screams; a very atmospheric fan. Dean walking away.

and then, of course, there’s “at least he dies human.” Right off the bat, Dean tells Cas he’s going to kill Gadreel. Cas, concerned, says that this will kill Sam too; Dean, sounding tortured, says he knows. Now, obviously, Dean doesn’t kill Sam. He doesn’t even get particularly close. But it’s really interesting that this is the first thing Dean brings up! He declares unprompted that he’s ready to kill Sam rather than leave him possessed. Which is both a recapitulation of the save-him-or-kill-him mantra, and an ironic twist on the decision Dean made in 9.01. Then, Dean knew Sam would rather die than be possessed, but had him possessed anyway. Now, Dean has decided instead that Sam must die because he is possessed. Obviously Dean’s opinion on the possessing entity has changed in the meantime: Sam’s hasn’t, but Sam’s isn’t what matters. 

Dean reaches new levels of PEAK IRONY when he declares that Cas should possess Sam too. Cas has to actually point out that Dean can’t, in fact, volunteer Sam’s permission. Because apparently Dean had forgotten, lmaooo. Crowley, on the other hand, is happy to oblige. Dean directs Cas to burn Sam’s tattoo off.

The language of this entire scene is so sexual. I mean, it’s Crowley, of course it is, double entendre is his first language. But this theme recurs again and again. Here it is just more pointed than usual. It is queasy.

Gadreel has Sam trapped in a Dean-type happy place—a hunt with ghouls and cheerleaders, no organic produce to be found. And I don’t think it’s because Gadreel doesn’t understand what Sam likes. I think it’s because Gadreel’s aim was for Sam to feel comfortable, not blissful. It smacks of Hallucifer, just a bit—using the verisimilitude of Dean’s louder moods rather than trying to appeal directly to Sam’s contentment, because of his always questionable, always a question, sense of reality. If things were too smooth, too cheerful, Sam might just be suspicious. Sam is easier to trick by proxy. 

The HORROR of this episode for Sam: Gadreel washing someone’s blood off of Sam’s hands. Crowley pushing needles into his brain. Sam’s body and life as a bargaining chip as Gadreel threatens to kill him, and then as Dean threatens to kill him right back. The quiet heartbreak as Sam remembers Kevin’s death, as he realizes the magnitude of Dean’s betrayal. But the worst part of it, I think, is somehow still Sam’s face when Crowley comes to get him in the dream where Gadreel stashed him. How his expression just crumples as Crowley tells him he is trapped in a lie, that his mindscape is once again a prison, that he truly cannot trust his reality. The sheer devastation of this on top of Sam’s history, plus the knowledge that Dean did this—and he pulls himself together and puts his foot on Gadreel’s neck and casts him OUT anyway. Sam Fucking Winchester.

and then the Bridge Scene. The lighting, the staging… it’s fucking gorgeous. It’s one of those scenes where I knew as I was watching it for the first time, seven years ago, that it was going to be something. I held my breath and still hold my breath. I can’t take my eyes off the way that Sam is shaking slightly, the entire time. The way he can barely meet Dean’s eyes but he does it anyway. He SAYS HIS PIECE, says it clearly, says it with an even tone despite what he’s gone through, despite the holes in his head that were healed seconds ago.

I love the gentleness between Sam and Cas here. I love knowing that 9.11 follows this. I love that there is no question that Cas will leave with Dean—he is staying with Sam, to heal and support him, even after he spent this episode mostly reassuring Dean.

Dean does not start this conversation to apologize. He starts out with the intent to DELIBERATELY egg Sam on: “come on, let’s hear it.” It’s an incitement, because Dean wants Sam to act angry, so that Dean can feel more justified in leaving. Sam does not rise to the bait.

Dean has an excuse for every point Sam has: I had no choice, you were dying, it’s not in me, he saved your life. He says, “I did a bad thing with bad consequences and I would 100% do it again, anyway, bye.”

And then the most infuriating thing: Dean is in the wrong, so he tells the person he’s wronged, ugh, I’m just such an awful poisonous person, I’m going to burn for this. It’s so clearly wrong-headed. Intentional or not, it’s such an obvious invitation for Sam to comfort him that it might well have been embossed. If this were in e.g. season 15, or if the crime he’d committed had been less awful, I can easily hear Sam’s reassurance: no, Dean, I promise you’re a good person, we all make mistakes. It is the most toxic way possible to frame a potential apology.

The textual theme of Dean-as-poison (and, for that matter, the consequence of Kevin’s death vs. the initial crime of the possession) is an intentional muddying of the waters: Crowley, Cas, and Dean himself all bring it up in some fashion, linking some fundamental aspect of Dean himself rather than Dean’s choices to Kevin’s death. Crowley is trying to be cutting; Cas is trying to be supportive; Dean is both excusing himself and camouflaging that fact in his exhausting self-loathing. There is a complicated interplay of what the text says about Dean’s guilt and what it condemns; this pattern continues throughout s9, and reaches its apex in the next several episodes. Dean’s love as a condemning feature rather than a redeeming one is one of my favorite things about SPN, and s9 has it in HIGH gear.

But, here, at least, Sam doesn’t rise to this bait either. “Don’t go thinking that’s the problem, ‘cause it’s not.” The problem is obviously, achingly, exhaustingly clear. Sam’s spelled it out in this very conversation: you tricked me. You lied to me. You got me possessed when I was willing to die. But Dean, and a fair portion of the audience, can’t hear it. So he doesn’t. And they don’t, and they pretend that this line is some sort of puzzle! a cliffhanger on a conversation unfinished! when it was the conclusion, not the beginning.

image that is now inextricable from 9.10

[calamitysong]

Since you’re rereading twist and shout, I was hoping I could ask you this: could you write a spoilery summary? I’ve always been scared to read it and I think knowing the play by play might help. Thank you!

alright well. the plot as a whole is... not great. and it’s pretty ooc for the actual show. but twist and shout is its own cultural moment at this point and there are a lot of really good, really heartbreaking lines. so here goes:

castiel novak is at a sorority party. it’s 1965 and he wants to be a doctor and a beatle’s song starts to play as his friend hester asks him to dance. he’s not into it because he’s gay (but she doesn’t know that). they hear a motorcycle pull up and everyone’s like “oh my god, it’s him.” hester explains that the him is dean winchester, who had been going out with sorority girl lisa. they’re dancing when suddenly hester tells cas that dean winchester is staring at them. cas and dean make eye contact and boom. love at first sight. dean starts talking to lisa, and winks at cas. cas blushes. he leaves the party and starts walking home alone.

he’s singing that beatles song (you know) to himself and a motorcycle pulls up next to him. dean winchester asks if he wants a ride home. he says no, then gets on the bike anyway. dean drives him to a diner instead of his apartment (cas never told him where he lives). they get milkshakes and dean outright asks if cas is queer, and tells him this is a date (cas’ first date). they leave and dean starts laughing about cas taking a ride with a random stranger, cas acts all pissy because he thinks dean is making fun of him and storms off, but dean comes after him. he tells him that he really really likes him, he doesn’t know what it is, but he does. they make out in an alley. dean asks cas what kind of music he likes, and cas says elvis. dean says “i can dig elvis.” dean takes him home.

they start seeing each other, and it’s very sweet. they listen to elvis together. cas says “can’t help falling in love” is his favorite song. sweet. eventually somehow hester sees them together and tells cas’ landlord about them, he gets evicted and goes to live with dean. they get domestic. they have sex. they tell each other they want to get married. 

it’s 1967 now and cas is busy with school, dean with work. they decide to go to the beach for the weekend. they have a video camera and they take videos of each other laughing and kissing and telling each other “i love you.” dean has a virginia woolf-esque nostalgia for the present moment, looking at cas look at the waves. dean promises they’ll come back some day.

it’s 1969 and there’s a war. dean gets drafted. they agree not to write to each other when he’s gone, but he keeps a picture of cas in his helmet. a kid named adam milligan gets under dean’s skin, but they get close and he starts calling him “little brother.” adam dies. by friendly fire. dean dreams about cas dying most nights. dean goes home in 1972.

dean has ptsd, and when he moves back in with cas things get hard. he starts retreating into himself cause he can’t talk about the war. he thinks he’s hurting cas, killing him, so one day he leaves.

then it’s 1981. dean gets a call at work from gabriel novak, telling him that castiel is sick. he’s dying. dean thinks he’s lying, but gabriel tells him the hospital he’s at in san fransisco. dean almost doesn’t go, but he ends up going. and yep, cas is dying. of pneumonia. because he has no immune system. yeah.

the last few chapters take place over a couple weeks. dean is with cas in the hospital. cas’ ex balthazar (who was basically his rebound after dean) explains how after a few years of being miserably depressed cas moved with him to san francisco, gave up on becoming a doctor, got into drugs, nearly died. but in the past year he started picking himself up, got a job. then he started getting sick all at once. balthazar gives dean the keys to cas’ apartment and leaves.

so then cas is dying. dean is there with him through the last of it. dean talks to cas’ doctor who says it’s mostly young gay men who are getting sick like cas is. cas starts losing his memory. it’s heartbreaking. then dean brings in the film of their day at the beach, and they project it on his hospital room wall. i cried.

cas dies on a thursday. it’s sunny. late afternoon. beautiful california weather. etc. dean is singing “can’t help falling in love” to him. jesus christ. anyway. cas dies. 

after breaking down, dean goes to cas’ apartment, puts on an elvis album. he finds a box full of letters to dean that he never sent, mostly while he was at war. the last one is cas telling him how much he loves him, and doesn’t blame him for leaving.

dean goes to cas’ funeral. reads the rest of the letters. visits cas’ grave. at the end he starts writing a letter back to cas.

so that’s twist and shout!

[unnursvanablog]

Every movie I watched in 2021

and what I though of it.

Wonder Woman 2: The plot in this movie was just one big joke. It was stupid. Wonder Woman deserves better.

Howl's Moving Castle: I do not know why I've never watched this one before. Maybe I have, but I don't remember it. Really enjoyable, although I have seen so much talk about this movie that not much about it surprised me.

Revenge of the Pontianak: a solid b-horror film. I do not remember much about the story itself so it does not live on in the memory.

The Dig: I really enjoyed the characters, the history and the storyline here. The message of life and death that is wrapped within the story is really neat and the ending stays with you.

The Yin-Yang Master - Dream of Eternity: The story itself was so thin and jumped a bit from one thing to another, but visually I thought it was really stunning.

Space Sweepers: A big blockbuster movie from Korea. It looked like a lot of effort was put into it. I found the story drag a bit towards the middle before picking up towards the end. The story is not very original, but I still thought it carried a certain charm to it.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before 3: Nether this one or the second one has really achieved the same charm as the first film for. I was however quite impressed with how it ended as it came as a pleasant surprise to me (I had not read the book).

Samjin Company English Class: There is this essence of girl power within the story and it has fun and engaging plot that has some unexpected twists. Couple of re-watches and it might end up there with korean movies such as Sunny or Miss Granny for me.

Minari: It's very slow story, it's just this mundane family story but it does sits with you for a long time afterwards.

Atonement: I actually felt like O appreciating this movie more on this re-watch. I found the storyline a bit confusing when I first saw it.

Raya and the Last Dragon: A fun Disney princess movie that hit all the boxes that I think a disney movie has to have. The plot was a bit obvious towards the end, but that can be said for many of these Disney movies. Good, family fun.

Soul: the story was really charming with a good message and the drawing style was lively. I really enjoyed it.

The Yin Yang Master: I do not know why China made two films based on the same story and released it so close to each other. If those two movies might have joined forces, they could have made one really good story. But instead we got two pictures that were just fine but there was something missing from the plot in both of them.

Mortal Kombant (1995): Ridiculously ridiculous is all I can say about this one.

Ever After - A Cinderella Story: This was one of my favorite childhood movies. It was still quite good.

George of the Jungle: It was both much sillier than I remembered and funnier than I thought it would be. There were some things I remembered very well and some that surprised me. Great entertainment and a fun nostalgia trip.

Rurouni Kenshin 1: These movies have some of the best fight scenes I've ever seen in a movie. This is a really good action movie that still manages to have a really good heart and a great story too. Ticks all the boxes.

Narnia 2: Still my favorite Narnia movie which is maybe a little weird because it does not follow the book that well. An excellent fantasy film nonetheless. Still a Suspian shipper.

Narnia 3: This film has its moments but it also drags on a bit and it is too much nonsense was added which adds nothing to the original story from the book.

Voice of Silence: Yoo Ah In is just such a charming actor. He really nails being a bit of a jerk but still being so sensitive at the same time that you can't help but root for him. A really interesting story with unforeseen complications and good twist.

Border: This was such an interesting and weird movie (but in a good way). I really enjoyed it.

Killing of a Sacred Deer: another interesting but weird movie, but it is also done with the intention of making you feel uncomfortable and make you think. I enjoyed it a lot.

Rurouni Kenshin 2, 3 and 4: These are just some really good action movies but they also manage to convey such touching story within it as well. There is this thread of honor and such things within the narrative and there is some actual character development within each of then. Good stuff.

Kingdom: Ashin of the North: I felt like there was a little missing from this story. I found it not have enough buildup and so slow in parts. I felt like I was not watching a whole story, which bugged me.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning: There was so much of story that I knew beforehand so not many surprises there. But it's a good character study and once again the action is really cool.

The Green Knight: I think films capture the vibe of the medieval story of Sir Gawain and the green knight quite well, although the message of the poems is not necessarily present in this adaptation. I still liked the atmosphere that the film evoked and Dev Patel is absolutely amazing in his role.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: A good marvel movie. Is not doing anything new when it comes to the Marvel plot perhaps, but the fun blockbuster movie that is a fun trip to the movie theaters.

Monk comes Down the Mountain: I was a little lost within the story towards the end. The humor wasn't for me and although I liked the fight-scenes I was not connected well enough with the characters to care much what happened.

Royal Kitchen in Qing Dynasty: The decent love story. Enjoyed it while I watched it. Can't tell you the plot right now as nothing about it is rememberable.

The Cursed: Dead Man's Pray: An excellent sequel to the drama The Cursed (which ended up in my top spot last year). It was nice to see these characters again. Good horror elements but the story drags its feet a little too much and could have been bolder in it's approach.

Seobok: Gong Yoo in a rather Gong Yoo-like movie. Much more of a tragedy and much less sci-fi thriller than I initially expected. Korea loves to make films that do not end in some kind of happily-ever-after (Hollywood could learn from that) which kinda I appreciate.

Free Guy: Good fun, but I personally felt a little lacking in character development and the plot is a bit too predictable at times. Hated the romance and it felt so forced. But that's hollywood for ya.

Lamb: I found this story really fascinating. It's so strange in parts, but in a good way. Very fable-like and unpredictable. I felt sorry for this lamb and cared so much for its welfare. One of the better Icelandic films that I have watched in recent years.

Dune: Slow in a way that will not work for everyone. It's hard to try to mix action and this sand politics without making it too dense or too complicated. The film does away with some of heaviest world building to tell the story and strips the story to it's core. Some people might want more action, but I rather enjoyed the cold, brutal atmosphere and the politics within the story. All the actors do really good job and do a lot for this dry and slow story. It's a difficult story to adapt. Practical Magic: Not witchy enough for my liking but good fun.

Practical Magic: Not enough witchy stuff for my taste, but good fun.

Enternals: The fine blockbuster movie. It's always fun to go and see a Marvel movie in cinemas. I think even though the story is starting to be really predictable and repetitive. Here I felt like the story lacked focus and most of the character seem a bit superficial and in fact I feel like Marvel should have made this story into a Disney + series and not a movie. I wish Marvel would take more risks with it's plot.

Love Hard: I just watched one cliché Christmas romcom movie in December and I just thought it was okay.

Krampus: I wish that would have been a bit more folklore used in this film. A bit more that side of Christmas maybe. But otherwise it was just pretty funny but at the same time a bit too stereotypical American comedy.

Spider-Man - no way home: This is a movie to see in the cinema. It did managed to surprise me, which Marvel movies do not always do these days. Great entertainment all the way through, although a bit fan-servicey. It was about like 20 years of western pop culture rolled up in one film. Such fun!

Fellowship of the Ring: What a classic! 20 years and still just so so so good. We are not worthy!

[letterboxd]

Bridging the Gap.

Filmmaker So Yun Um highlights ten underrated Asian American and Pacific Islander films set against the backdrop of America.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month has many film lovers seeking to celebrate Asian American cinema. Beyond Minari, Always Be My Maybe and Crazy Rich Asians, there are dozens of films that depict the Asian American experience. In choosing to focus on ten of the lesser-seen, I contemplated the notion of what defines AAPI cinema.

For me, it goes deeper than films that have been directed by, or star, Asian American and Pacific artists. Having watched a wide selection of Asian American films, I can firmly say our cinema, no matter the genre, puts Asian Americans at the forefront on both sides of the camera. I believe the essence of Asian American cinema was born out of resourcefulness, mining themes and ideas that distinctly bridge the gap between Asian and American culture. These films tell stories that explore the vast differences between the two, and the ways in which they coexist, whether comfortably or uncomfortably.

In selecting these ten underrated AAPI films, I searched deep to find stories with uncompromising vision and character; stories about Asians that could only be told within, and against the backdrop of, America. These ten films highlight intimate, distinct and unfiltered experiences mostly unseen at our local multiplexes: family and cultural obligations, generational and cultural gaps, and raw, mostly obscured views of American life.

Chan is Missing (1982) Directed by Wayne Wang, written by Isaac Cronin and Wayne Wang

There would be no Asian American independent cinema without Wayne Wang’s Chan is Missing. Shot on black-and-white film, this striking noir follows Jo, a San Franciscan cab driver, and his nephew, Steve, as they track down the titular Chan after he disappears with their money. Wang’s unpredictable directing career spans neighborhood intrigues, rom-coms and family movies; alongside which, he has kept a strong focus on Asian American stories (he helmed the adaptation of Amy Tan’s generational bestseller, The Joy Luck Club).

In Chan is Missing, for the first time on screen, we get to finally see an “ABC” (American-Born Chinese) story from the source, with an all-access pass to the often misunderstood terrain and people of Chinatown. It’s the tightness of the plot and the authenticity of its characters that make this movie such a classic. Even after 40 years, Chan Is Missing doesn’t feel dated—its laugh-out-loud dialogue (they actually utter the word “FOB”!) and moody tone capture why Chinatown continues to be an enigma. Spoilers: Chinatown runs by its own rules.

Available on DVD via Indiepix Films.

Better Luck Tomorrow (2002) Directed by Justin Lin, written by Ernesto Foronda, Justin Lin and Fabian Marquez

Justin Lin’s directorial debut film is a visionary portrait of Asian Americans that’s still relevant two decades on. Since its release in the early aughts, there has yet to be a film that explores the nuances and complexities of the average Southern-California Asian American teen like this film does. Better Luck Tomorrow focuses on a group of Asian American overachievers who become bored with their lives and enter a world of petty crime. It’s loosely based on four Sunny Hills High School students and the real-life murder of Stuart Tay, a teenager from the OC.

With its depiction of overachieving A+ students who are also foul-mouthed, drug-taking kids, this film was the launching pad for many iconic Asian American actors today—Sung Kang from the Fast and Furious franchise, John Cho (Star Trek) and my personal favorite, Jason Tobin, star of the Warrior TV series. (It’s entertaining to see the seeds of the Fast and Furious series planted in this film in the character of Han, played by Sung Kang, before the explosion of the franchise: one of the characters mutters, “Rumors about us came and went fast and furious”—and the rest is history.)

Better Luck Tomorrow still stands as the most iconic film to capture the suburban Asian American teen existence in all its good, bad and ugly light. “I was part of a movement,” Tobin recalled in this GQ oral history of the film, “and it was a culmination of all the battles I had fought before that to get Asian faces on the big screen.”

Available to stream and rent on multiple platforms.

The Grace Lee Project (2005) Directed by Grace Lee

If you’re an Asian American who grew up in California or New York, chances are, you know at least two Grace Lees in your life. But growing up in Missouri, Korean American filmmaker Grace Lee was the only one she knew with her name. She soon discovers that with the name comes a certain stereotype, that of the “good” Asian—quiet, well-behaved and a hard worker. Lee goes on a quest to interview a wide range of women who have the same name and soon discover if this wildly common stereotype is true.

Lee’s witty, autobiographical documentary is effortlessly funny and insightful. The Grace Lee Project dives deep into identity politics to reveal that sometimes, a name is simply a name. This was the start of Grace Lee’s journey as a filmmaker and she continues to be an important voice in not just the documentary space but in narrative stories as well.

Streaming on Kanopy.

Saving Face (2004) Written and directed by Alice Wu

Alice Wu’s Saving Face is a timeless queer love story. Produced by none other than Will Smith (yes, that Will Smith), Saving Face follows a Chinese American lesbian woman and her traditional mother (played by Michelle Krusiec and Joan Chen, respectively) as both battle with their reluctance to go against cultural expectations and reveal their secret loves. It’s part family drama, part rom-com, exploring expectations specific to Asian women across generations.

While most Asian American films focus on familial obligations through the point of view of the children of immigrants, Wu’s film considers the conflicts of both daughter and mother. For Asian Americans, it’s a tale as old as time but with a twist that shows that no matter how old you get, you still have to, unfortunately, fight to be who you are. I also highly recommend Wu’s spiritual sequel, The Half of It, on Netflix.

Streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi, and for rent on various VOD platforms.

In Between Days (‘방황의 날들’, 2007) Directed by So Yong Kim, written by Bradley Rust Gray and So Yong Kim

So Yong Kim’s debut feature, In Between Days, follows Jiseon Kim, a Korean teen immigrant, who falls in love with her best friend while navigating the challenges of living in a new country. Director Kim is a masterful storyteller and captures life as it should be seen: unfiltered and trivial at times, but using the mundane to find cinematic magic.

I like to categorize So Yong Kim’s work as a showcase of extreme intimacy. Her story features painfully delicate characters and moments so real, you’ll wonder how any of these scenes could be fiction. There’s a sense of vulnerability and loneliness that fills the air as Jiseon struggles to assimilate to a new country, replete with toxic relationships, self-sabotage and unrelenting jealousy. So Yong Kim’s work is so painfully real, it hurts to watch.

Available on Kanopy and Amazon.

Ping Pong Playa (2007) Directed by Jessica Yu, written by Jimmy Tsai and Jessica Yu

There are two things that embody countless Asian American men’s experience: their love for basketball, and their love of rap music. Ping Pong Playa covers both, and is exactly the kind of Asian American comedy I’ve been waiting for! Christopher “C-Dub” Wang (played by co-writer Jimmy Tsai) is a wannabe baller and a supreme slacker who has to step up to the plate when his family’s business and ping-pong-champion reputation is on the line. In addition to being centered around an Asian family, the core of the film rivals any other low-brow, underdog sport film.

Laugh-out-loud hilarious, this is Academy-Award-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu’s first narrative feature, following a groundbreaking career full of daring documentaries (her Oscar was for this portrait of writer Mark O’Brien, who spent much of his life in an iron lung). Seeing C-Dub as an NBA-loving slacker turned ping-pong playa felt validating; it showed that even if you’re a lazy and immature Asian, you can always find something to succeed at.

Streaming on Tubi, and for rent on Amazon and iTunes.

In Football We Trust (2015) Directed by Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn

While Salt Lake City, Utah, is seen as predominantly a white Mormon town, it in fact has the largest population of Pacific Islanders in the US mainland, due to the strength of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ proselytizing in the Pacific. The documentary In Football We Trust follows four Polynesian high-school students, as they chase their lifelong dream of attaining professional recruitment. Told in moments of adolescence, the film follows the greatest challenges for these four young men, as they chase their dreams while trying to grow up.

In no time, they’re faced with the harsh reality that just maybe, football isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As much as their hefty attributes and builds serve as their greatest advantages, these boys’ cultural and familial obligations become both their greatest motivations and, possibly, their downfall. Filmed over the span of four years, first time filmmakers Tony Vainuku and Erika Cohn chronicle the NFL hopefuls as they navigate the pressure to balance dreams and family to win a golden ticket out of gang violence and poverty.

Streaming on Kanopy, and for rent on various VOD platforms.

Spa Night (2016) Written and directed by Andrew Ahn

In his directorial debut, Andrew Ahn perfectly captures a specific corner of Los Angeles’ Koreatown. Spa Night’s focus is David, a closeted Korean American teenager who takes a job at a Korean spa to help his struggling family, and then discovers an underground world of gay sex. You may recognize Joe Seo as the goofy bully in the Netflix hit show Cobra Kai, but it’s Spa Night where you can see him truly shine—he won Sundance’s US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance.

Seo delivers a powerfully restrained performance, exploring the burden of hiding your true self from your family. Spa Night is more than a coming out story, it’s also about the broken American dream that so many immigrants experience. Ahn’s direction is finely tuned, honing in on the specificity of Koreatown. It is an acutely queer story of second-gen Asian Americans, where coming out is never really about just you, but also your family.

Streaming on Kanopy, and for rent on various VOD platforms.

Punching at the Sun (2006) Directed by Tanuj Chopra, written by Tanuj Chopra and Hart Eddy

Mameet is young, angry and has always lived in the shadow of his basketball-legend brother, Sanjay. When Sanjay is suddenly killed during a robbery at the family store, Mameet spirals and takes his anger out on anyone and everyone. Coping with loss at a young age is hard enough, but Punching at the Sun mixes in the specific anxieties of being a South-Asian man amidst the backdrop of post-9/11 America. In doing so, the film addresses the difficulty of juggling teenage angst and immigrant identity—Mameet is not afforded the option to express his anger and grief.

Cathartic and emotionally validating, this is a simple yet nuanced slice-of-life story that conveys the heaviness of growing up with the weight of the world on our shoulders. In Mameet’s case, thank goodness, he ultimately shares some of that burden with his comical friends and knit-tight family.

Available to rent on Vimeo.

Meet the Patels (2014) Directed by Ravi Patel and Geeta Patel, written by Ravi Patel, Matthew Hamachek, Billy McMillin, and Geeta Patel

In the romantic documentary Meet the Patels, Ravi Patel is a dutiful first-gen son whose parents are continually nagging him to marry a nice Indian girl. With Ravi's sister Geeta Patel co-directing and co-writing, and his parents in the frame, his film (and true-life story) are indeed a family affair. What starts as his journey to find a wife to make his family happy becomes an enlightening intro to Indian culture and modern love—think dating apps, weddings and a Patel Matrimonial Convention (gotta see it to believe).

Humorous as it is outrageously charming, Meet the Patels ultimately shows the struggles and cultural expectations most immigrant offspring face, on top of the million other obstacles of trying to find your one and only true love in this mad, mad world.

Streaming on various platforms.

Related content

Ten Underrated Asian American & Pacific Islander Films, a Letterboxd list

Best Asian American Films: So Yun Um’s list

Debbie Chang’s comprehensive Asian American film canon list (also features Asian-Canadian, Asian-British and other diaspora)

Bellamy’s list of feature-length films directed by Asian Americans

Follow So on Letterboxd

[lady-divine-writes]

Good Omens - “Plot Twist” (Rated PG13)

Summary: Embroiled in the aftermath of two very messy break-ups, Crowley and Aziraphale are preparing to film their first love scene together. But how do you pretend to be in love when your love life is falling apart?

It probably doesn't hurt to be in love with your co-star. (2318 words)

Notes: So I made the chauffeur young Shadwell, but patterned after young Michael McKean, who I was desperately in love with back in the day XD Human au, ineffable wives, mention of past Aziraphale/Gabriel, mostly just fluff

Read on AO3.

“Ooo, I get a limo this time. Fancy, fancy,” Crowley mumbles, not nearly as impressed as she’s pretending to be. She’d much rather drive herself in her own Bentley and in her own sweet arse time. But she needs to keep up appearances. 

There are always two eyes and a camera lens on her at any given moment.

Even though it’s the literal buttcrack of dawn, she’s not alone. There are about thirty asshats, armed with cameras, camped out on her doorstep, climbing over each other to snap a candid of her for the gossip sites. A photo of her emerging from her rented townhouse fresh-faced and ready for another day on set will fetch an easy hundred pounds.

But if she looks like she rolled out of bed, drank a bottle of whiskey for breakfast, then fell down a flight of stairs, landing face-first onto a mountain of cocaine? Those pictures would fetch considerably more.

That’s what she gets for going through a horrendous break-up while having the nerve to be rich and famous.

She thought that when the production moved filming away from London and out to California, the buzz surrounding her personal affairs would die down. On the contrary. It seemed to get worse, in part because the states don’t have the same paparazzi laws the UK does.

She can’t sit down to take a proper shit without seeing a flash pop off.

Despite how she feels about her life at the moment, she went for class over crass. She shies away from hard drugs, and she can't justify looking less than her best, especially in public. 

She refuses to let anyone see her sweat.

“Antonia! Antonia! Over here!” the pariahs beckon, some of them whistling for her attention like she’s a dog. “Antonia! Hey, Crowley!”

Crowley.

That’s the one that gets to her - burrows into the roots of her teeth and makes her head pulsate with rage. It keeps her feet moving when she might have stopped to exchange a polite hello, given out an autograph. And the sick thing is these vultures probably realize that. 

That’s why they keep doing it. 

Who talks to people like that? When did it become acceptable to bellow out someone’s last name as a means of getting their attention? Is it too much to ask for them to shove a ‘Mrs.’ in front of it? Have these glorified stalkers forgotten that, if it weren’t for her and stars like her, the only jobs they could get would be snapping photos of families at Legoland for minimum wage?

Ugh. 

Too much thinking too early in the morning.

She could write an entire essay on how much she loathes pap culture, but today, she can’t be bothered caring.

She’s filming one of the most anticipated scenes of her whole career on one of the worst days of her life. 

That’s the hurdle she needs to focus on.

She slaps on a smile and waves, sliding her glasses down her nose only far enough so they can’t see how red her eyes have gotten from crying.

“Oh, ‘ello, loves! I didn’t see you all here! So nice of you to greet me at 5:30 on this fine winter morning! Oh, careful there. You spilled your coffee. And I think you just kicked that poor lad in the face. You wanna give him a hand up there? He’s bleedin’ all over the pavement.”

Crowley greets her guests this way every morning, killing them with kindness, as subtle an eff you as she can come up with when her brain cells have yet to kick in for the day.

Coffee. She needs coffee. About a gallon-and-a-half of it.

And a shot of bourbon might be nice.

Crowley glides through the crowd, an angelfish among sharks, and comes out unscathed.

A man with brown hair, pale skin, and striking blue eyes, wearing a fitted, black uniform tailored to within an inch of its life, opens the car door for her as she approaches.

"Good morning, Mrs. Crowley."

“Good morning, Mr. Shadwell. It's nice to see you.” Crowley slides into the car, thankful when the chauffeur shuts the door. She sinks into the leather seat and tosses her sunglasses aside. “God!" she moans, burying her face in her hands. "I don't want to do this! I want to stay home, eat ice cream, and drink tremendous amounts of alcohol! I definitely don’t want to be snogging anyone today!”

Aziraphale, who had been waiting patiently with a small box of assorted cookies and wearing a sympathetic smile, frowns. “Wow. Thank you, my dear.”

Crowley's head snaps up, her face splotchy, and red enough to rival her hair in seconds. “Aziraphale! I am so sorry! I didn’t know you were …! That’s not what I meant!" She takes a deep breath in, lets it out slowly. "It's not you, angel. I swear it isn’t. I just don’t feel particularly romantic today.”

“It’s all right. I know what you mean. I feel the same way.”

Crowley squares Aziraphale with a stern look. “Wow. Thank you.”

Aziraphale ducks her eyes, her cheeks turning pink as she offers Crowley a cookie from the box. She wonders if Aziraphale made them herself. She often does bake to pass the time. So much so that she's become quite good at it.

Life hasn’t been treating her too kindly, either.

The cookies are delicate little things, intricately frosted in red, green, and white, decorated as bells and angels and snowflakes in honor of Christmas. 

Because it’s Christmas. 

Crowley is having the worst day of her life a week before Christmas.

Sigh.

There is usually champagne, no matter what vehicle the studio sends to pick them up. She wonders where it’s gone, searching about for it. Crowley and Aziraphale rarely avail themselves to it, preferring to wait till after the shooting day is done to have a nightcap.

But today, it feels like a necessity.

Leave it to the studio to not provide them a bottle of bubbly on the one day Crowley longs to drown in it.

“I didn’t know Shadwell was picking you up first,” Crowley says, starting small talk to ease the tension. Crowley and Aziraphale don’t usually have trouble making small talk.

Today is an exception.

“Well ...” Aziraphale clears embarrassment from her throat “... I was just … you know … a few blocks down the way.”

Crowley sits up further, leans forward with interest. “So you did it. You left him. You left Gabriel.”

“Yes,” Aziraphale replies quietly. “I couldn’t stay. Not after …” She stops and sniffles, turning her head to hide eyes that must be as red as Crowley’s. Crowley doesn’t know.

She only ever notices how incredible they are.

Crowley rests a comforting hand on Aziraphale’s knee. “I know.” 

“Yeah,” Aziraphale says with a slightly bitter laugh. “So does the whole world. In fact, the photogs knew I was leaving before I knew. You should have seen it. I could barely get past them.”

Crowley pulls a box of tissues out of the side panel and offers her co-star one. “They’re bottom feeders. The lot of them. Try to ignore them.”

“Easier said than done.”

“I know,” Crowley repeats, feeling exceptionally useless. She’s in the exact same boat, but her heart hurts more for Aziraphale.

Aziraphale doesn’t deserve what she's going through. She doesn’t deserve such a public break-up.

She doesn’t deserve having her name drug all over social media by an emotionally manipulative bastard who thinks he's God's gift.

Crowley gazes out the window at the sky above. The forecast said it would be clear and sunny today, but it’s cloudy and grey. It matches Crowley's mood. Everything is cloudy and grey.

Well, maybe not everything.

The cookie she's eating isn’t. It’s sweet and crisp and melts in her mouth. It puts a smile on her face.

That helps.

Aziraphale helps, too.

Even gloomy, melancholy Aziraphale helps.

Just being in Aziraphale's presence helps.

“Living in the public eye isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, is it, my dear?” Aziraphale asks, though it sounds as much like a statement to herself as a question for Crowley.

“Not on days like today. But that’s the trade-off for being a star, I suppose.” 

“Would you ever give it up?” Aziraphale asks, taking a nibble of her Madeleine.

“I can’t say I would. You?”

“Nnnn ... no."

"There isn't anything else you wanted to do?" Crowley asks, latching on to her hesitation. "Not even when you were younger?"

"Well ..." Aziraphale bobs her head back and forth. "To be honest, I have always wanted to own my own bookshop. Or perhaps work in a library. But that's only if acting didn't work out. Acting has given me so many opportunities I could never have dreamed of. And all the great people I've met? I mean, this is what? The fifth film we’ve starred in together?”

“It is." 

Aziraphale chuckles. "Some of them have been real winners."

"I know! The roles you get offered when you're just starting out are criminal! Let’s see, we’ve been rogue enemy agents from different factions …”

“High school frenemies …”

“Alien co-conspirators …”

“Jealous rivals …”

“And now … lovers.”

“Yes,” Aziraphale says bashfully. “And today …”

Crowley smiles. “We get together for the first time.”

Hearing Crowley say it makes Aziraphale’s heart race, her pulse thrumming so fast it disappears.

The day Aziraphale found out she’d gotten the role of Crowley’s love interest and not the ‘jealous ex’ (the role her agent originally pitched for her since they play adversaries so well) was a dream come true. The studio felt the two of them could take their insane sexual tension (the studio's words, not Aziraphale's, although she doesn't disagree) and use it to fuel the plot of their latest 'friends-to-lovers' rom-com.

Aziraphale has always wanted to be a leading lady. Deep down, she prayed that her first time, she'd play opposite Crowley. Now that it has finally happened, the role of her dreams comes with the greatest perk in the universe - an intimate moment with Antonia.

In front of about three dozen crew members, but still. 

It's Aziraphale's chance to indulge her crush, which she plans to savor since it may not come around again. 

Not in the way Aziraphale wants.

As friendly as Crowley is to her, as flirty as she can be, Aziraphale doesn't know for sure whether Crowley shares her feelings.

“If you don't mind my asking, when did she tell you?” Aziraphale asks.

“She didn’t." Crowley snorts humorlessly. "I woke up, and she was gone. I thought she had left for work. She had a table reading at six that morning, so I wasn’t immediately suspicious. Not until I started noticing important things were missing - clothes, toiletries, her contact lenses, her laptop …” 

"Did she tell you why she was leaving?"

Crowley chews her lower lip at the question she'd known was coming ... the answer she's debating whether or not to give. "Eventually." She glances up at Aziraphale, flashes a sly grin, and decides to go for broke. “She left because she thought I was falling in love with my co-star.”

"Really?" And just like that, Aziraphale dies, her heart shrinking into nothing and blowing away on the wind. "W-which one?" she asks, solely for conversation's sake.

This time, when Crowley snorts, clamping a hand over her mouth to keep from spraying crumbs all over the interior of the limo, it's genuine. "You, you gumball!"

"Oh. Oh!" Aziraphale’s expression of shock is so endearing, Crowley can’t look at it too long. There's a glow about her. It's like staring into the sun. “That's ... that’s funny. Gabriel broke up with me for the same reason. Because of ... you. At least, that's the excuse he gave on Twitter ... and Instagram ... and Facebook.” Aziraphale's glow dims as she talks about her ex. Their relationship, and separation, weren’t as civil as Crowley’s. In reality, trouble had been brewing behind the scenes for a while. 

She’s glad they finally went their separate ways, but it stings just the same, finding out that someone you once loved, who you thought loved you back, just wanted someone to push around. To control.

"That is funny. Not funny ha-ha. Just ... funny. Who would have thunk?" Crowley goes back to her cookie, taking small bites while keeping an eye on Aziraphale.

Aziraphale glances out the window as the limo slows, approaching the gates to the studio lot. Crowley doesn't follow Aziraphale's gaze.

She doesn't need to. 

She knows what Aziraphale sees by the way her face falls.

Aziraphale had hoped they could slip in quietly, but there's already a mob three feet deep waiting for them. The photographers and fans won't be able to see a thing through the car's windows. The tint on them is darker than dark. Still, the whole lot will be on high alert with them here. 

Inevitably, a handful will slip in. 

They may even find their way on set.

Aziraphale doesn't have the energy to deal with that.

Not today.

“How are we going to get through it?" Aziraphale asks. "Filming this scene? The timing is ... uncanny, to say the least.”

“Think of it this way …” Crowley slides across to Aziraphale’s side, sits as close as they're both comfortable with. Crooking a finger beneath her chin, Crowley draws Aziraphale's attention away from the gathering crowd and over to her eyes instead “… we get to spend the entire afternoon making each other feel better. That's how we're going to get through this. Agreed?”

Aziraphale’s eyes lower, flicker to Crowley's lips unintentionally. When they travel back up, she notices Crowley's eyes do the same. She swallows hard. At this distance from Crowley, from her mouth, Aziraphale only has the wherewithal to say one word. She makes it count. "Agreed."

[deann1120]

Guesses at Possible Future Precure Seasons (NEW)

I’ve decided to repost this, since I realized a while ago that my edits weren’t showing up, I can’t search for the post on my own damn blog (which is why I had the old post pinned for a bit), and I’ve thought of a lot of new possible themes. I hope that the next season has one of these, but if there’s something else, that’ll be interesting, too.

Side notes: The next season’s title (and possibly its themes) should be revealed at Thanksgiving time (so the week of November 21st). For reference, Tropical-Rouge’s logo was first leaked on November 25th of last year, and the official site release was the day after. As interesting tidbits, the Healin’ Good logo was revealed earlier in 2019, October 22nd, but Star Twinkle was revealed around November 17th, 2018.

11/1 Note: Although the new theme is already out, someone’s reblog reminded me that I forgot an important note: I know some of these are themes that have been done already (hence why I say “another,”) but sometimes themes do get repeated in PreCure—Fresh and DokiDoki both had a playing card theme. And quite a few seasons, like Go!Princess and Hugtto, have focused on aspirations and the future. And with this new season, it seems like “food/sweets” is gonna be a centerpiece despite KiraKira existing.

Check out my old post for comments of others’ suggestions!

* Another flower-themed season but all the Cures are named after flowers

* Another animal season but, like, without the sweets thing (the animal theme was wasted in KiraKira, let’s be honest)

* Elemental Precures, the core four and maybe light or lightning as a fifth. The Healin’ Good, Go!Princess, Smile, and Yes! 5 teams were actually kinda elemental, but I would a want a more solely-elemental theme.

* If not elemental, then maybe seasonal Precure? (1/21 note: this might be off the table since we have Cure Summer now)

* Ocean/sea life. Maybe Cures with fishy themes or some shit (I’m crossing this one out now bc, although Tropical-Rouge was advertised as a beachy season, it ended up being more ocean-themed. Though I would like a more solely ocean-themed season)

* Another career season but they don’t do shit like dress a Cure like a flight attendant and then tell us she’s an ice skater

* Color-themed?? I know the Cures are already color themed but like a whole season around colors. Maybe they have to protect a magic rainbow or something. Plot twist if one of them is colorblind

* MYTHICAL CREATURES

* Gemstones. Like Steven Universe but as a more conventional magical girl show

* [12/‘20 Edit] Holidays. They can either go with Japanese or more “universal” ones

* [12/‘20 Edit] Another fairy tale season but the cures are actually modeled after fairy tale characters

* [12/‘20 Edit] Winter wonderland/wintery, since we just had a tropical/summery theme (10/21 note: oops this ended up being the crossover movie theme. maybe they’ll still go for a whole season)

* [12/‘20 Edit] Dreams? Like I know we have a Cure Dream but more like exploring the world of people’s nighttime dreams or daydreams. Exploring either or both would be substantial, but the unconscious of the nighttime would be cool, so as to be something like Mewkledreamy but maybe more, y’know, interesting

* [1/‘21 Edit] Technology/MECHA????

* [1/‘21 Edit] The weather? It sounds kinda stupid, but like each girl represents a different weather type. The lead would probably be based on sunny weather or rainbows (again). Actually something that’d be kinda cool is if there’s a duo called Cure Thunder and Cure Lightning

* [2/‘21 Edit] Another music season but the Cures each have an instrument theme

* [2/‘21 Edit] Jungle. So tropical in a different sense

* [2/‘21 Edit] Forest. So maybe another season like Healin’ Good but they actually pay more attention to the environment/conservation/nature part

* [6/‘21 Edit] A full-on Zodiac season? They can go with a few of the Eastern or Western Zodiacs, like from Star Twinkle. Of course, they probably wouldn’t do all 12 Western or Eastern Zodiacs.

* [6/‘21 Edit] Another fruits season but there’s more to the theme than just the names

* [7/‘21 Edit] Birds

* [7/‘21 Edit] Dancing? The cures can be styled after different types of dance

* [7/‘21 Edit] Fashion. Not makeup, just like, clothes and accessories. Though I guess you could throw makeup in there as well. Maybe another solely makeup season, then?

* [10/‘21 Edit] Royalty. I know there was a princess season but looking at royalty more broadly. Like Cure Crown, Cure Sceptre, Cure Queen, Cure Rule, etc.

* [10/‘21 Edit] Sports

* [10/‘21 Edit] Expanding on a couple other suggestions, maybe cures who are all themed after specific types of one animal, like cats (domesticated, lions, tigers), dogs (domesticated, wolves, foxes), fish (goldfish, sharks, whales), etc.

[crackinglamb]

Chapters: 31/35 Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age - All Media Types Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Female Lavellan/Solas, Fen'Harel | Solas/Female Lavellan Characters: Felassan (Dragon Age), Varric Tethras, Female Hawke (Dragon Age), Deshanna Istimaethoriel Lavellan, Abelas (Dragon Age), Dorian Pavus, The Iron Bull (Dragon Age), Bethany Hawke, Original Elvhen Character(s), Alistair (Dragon Age) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Modern Girl in Thedas, Post-Canon, Established Relationship, Pregnancy, Pregnant Sex, and unrelated to that, Mild Kink, negotiated boundaries, Solas Is a Gentle Dom, You can't change my mind, References to Tevinter Nights, Plot Bunnies - Freeform, Mild Angst, Headcannon Glitter, Self-Indulgent, Unrepentant Fluff, The Dad Wolf Rises, This Is My Love Letter to Carly and Solas, Background Relationships, Male-Female Friendship, Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Additional Characters to Be Added As They Show Up Series: Part 5 of Til It Squeaks: A Modern Girl's Take on Thedas Summary:

The Breach is sealed. The Qunari invasion of the South was stopped in its tracks. Solas didn't leave. Carly didn't either. Negotiations for the return of the Dales went about as well as expected. The Veil is...in progress.

And is that a cradle?

A sequel to Twist.

NSFW will be marked with **. Beta'd by Iron_Angel. Updates on Tuesday.

Chapter 31 - Beyond Measure or Price

Carly chose a sunny yellow sheath of a dress for her surprise baby shower.  It was trimmed in intricate elven lace and the diaphanous sleeves covered her arms to the wrist.  It was already strange, seeing the halla leather on her left hand, so like natural skin.  She noticed Cassandra eyeing it as the Seeker brushed out her hair so it flowed loose over her shoulders and back.

“That is new.”

“My first gift, I suppose you could say.  Abelas did it.  Just today.”

“I am certain it will prove practical as time passes.”

“Yeah.  He said it was because the ceramic would be too rough on the baby.  I'll admit, I hadn't even thought about it.”

“Motherhood will change many things you cannot foresee,” Cass said, slightly teasing.

“No kidding.  My store of foreknowledge ran out years ago.  But never in my wildest dreams did I think this would be my life.”

“A good one.”

“Very.”