#len talks it's walky | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mourntheantagonist · 3 years

Text

Billy Hargrove’s Exploration of Beauty

| part 7: | one | two |

Part 7: When Blue Met Pink

chapter three: dustin

also on ao3

Dustin and Steve had a strange relationship to say the least. It having sprouted in the midst of a second interdimensional invasion probably played a role in that. Their friendship was very unusual through the lens of others that stood on the outside of the chaos. For starters, Dustin was a child. Friendships of people their age with an age gap like that didn’t really exist unless it was formed from birth, and those two candles were kindled only six months ago. The age gap, however, was hardly the most unusual aspect. Instead that would have to be their whole dynamic. Dustin was loud and nerdy and completely different from Steve, who was pretty quiet and has no concept of what Dungeons and Dragons actually is, yet he’ll let Dustin talk his ear off about it for hours. He’ll sit next to him in the car or on the other side of the phone just nodding his head and peppering in an “uhuh” every so often to give the impression that he’s engaged and interested, when in actuality he’s thinking about some random thought like “at exactly what point does bread become toast?”

When Dustin and Steve spoke on the phone, there was something else. Something that only Billy got to see which made all of the unusual make perfect sense. Steve fucking loved the kid. Dustin could say the stupidest shit and Steve would never fail to laugh. As much as he groaned when the walkie went off at two in the morning, or when Dustin barged into his home unannounced, a smile never failed to peek through tightly sealed lips. He enjoyed when Dustin annoyed him because for so long that phone never came off the hook and that front door never heard a knock. And unfortunately for Billy, Dustin beat him to that.

Billy loved seeing Steve happy, don’t get him wrong. He loved that Steve had a good friend like that, even if it was an eighth grader. Hell, Billy liked the kid too…

But damn that kid also had absolutely zero boundaries.

Billy was warned from the start of their relationship that this kid would just randomly show up or call and Steve never had the heart to turn him away or not answer the phone no matter what they were doing, and Billy just had to play along with it. Billy could be in the middle of choking on Steve’s dick and once the echo of a fist banging against a wooden door paired with the prepubescent scream entered the house, everything was either hurried, or just completely put on pause. He’d then either be told to sneak out the back or camp up in his room until he left, which usually wasn’t until hours later.

It took about a month of the two of them officially dating before Dustin inevitably found out, which was honestly a surprisingly long amount of time considering his severe lack of boundaries. Dustin had chosen the perfect day not to knock or announce his presence, just as Steve was balls deep inside of him. The two of them were being loud and it was clear by the sounds they were making exactly what they were doing.

Even after all of the precautions Billy had taken to make his presence at Steve’s entirely unknown, parking his car half a mile down the road, making sure no possessions were ever left behind, Dustin still found out.

At first, they thought they might just be safe when Dustin’s voice came through the door.

“Steve! do you have a girl in there!?” he screamed in that same cracked voice. Dustin sounded completely incredulous to which Steve was slightly offended. Dustin asked it like even the premise of Steve having someone over was laughable. Well, the joke was on him.

“Wait for me downstairs,” Steve shouted back while he frantically pulled his legs through his jeans and tossed Billy’s own scattered clothes at him, “I’ll be down in a minute alright?” Steve, bless his heart, had way too much trust in others to do what they should, and he actually let himself believe that Dustin would just go downstairs and not ask any questions about “who was making him moan like that,” and that would just be the end of it. In Steve’s mind, for just that moment, he truly believed Billy could just sneak out the back door like he’d done every time before like this was no big deal.

The point is, Steve should not have been surprised that when he opened his bedroom door after finally getting fully dressed, the short curly haired boy was standing right there with his ear pressed to the wall, with a shocked expression as he managed to catch a glimpse of the mullet wearing, half-naked man that was in Steve’s bed.

“Holy shit,” Dustin said under his breath, his eyes locked in perfect contact with Billy’s, the two of them staring at each other with shocked expressions, completely frozen in place, unable to move. “Is that–”

Dustin was cut off by Steve slamming the door behind him. Leaving Billy inside the room while Steve and Dustin stood awkwardly in silence in the hallway. Steve tapped his foot and blew air out of his mouth as he tried to navigate a way out of it. There should be some logical explanation as to why Steve Harrington had a shirtless Billy Hargrove in his bed on a Friday evening.

Yeah, he’s got nothing.

“Look I can explain,” Steve began, despite not having a goddamn clue as to where he was going with it. Just planned to start the sentence and hopefully find it along the way. “We were just… Studying?”

Dustin cocked his head to the side. “Without clothes on?” he asked.

“Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“Obviously not.” Dustin stated plainly. Steve just stood there with his back to the door, sighing heavily, tightly closing his eyes hoping that when he opened them back up, he wouldn’t see Dusting standing there because it just had to be some kind of nightmare. But no, of course when he opened his eyes back up Dustin was still there staring at him. God, Dustin’s eyes could fucking drill a hole into your soul like a knife through warm butter. “So, let me get this straight. Your idea of a rebound from Nancy Wheeler is a guy? And it’s Billy Hargrove no less?”

“Just let me explain.”

“Does this mean you’re gay now?”

“Dustin–”

“What about Nancy, did you not love her?”

“Dustin, just fucking–”

“How long were you planning on keeping this from me?”

“Would you just listen–”

“Wait, so Billy Hargrove is gay? Oh wait until Max hears about this–”

“Hey!” Steve shouted, loud and striking enough that it finally shut Dustin up. “You can’t fucking tell anyone. You hear me?” Steve was towering over Dustin in that moment, his back was no longer rested against the door and instead he was standing just inches away from Dustin. He had a hand on his shoulder and a finger poking into his chest. “I still have the bat under my bed.”

Dustin was completely speechless. A new look for him. He just looked up at Steve with wide eyes and nodded his head assuringly. Following the nod, Steve allowed himself to fall back into the door and slide down the length of it until he was sitting on the floor with his knees tucked up to his chest and his head bowed.

“Go ahead, ask questions,” Steve said, his voice hushed and upset, “one at a time please.”

Dustin audibly cleared his throat. “Are you gay?”

Steve sighed. “I’m bisexual. It means I–”

“I know what bisexual means dipshit,” Dustin cut him off, earning a slight chuckle out of Steve. “Okay, next question. Is Billy your boyfriend?”

Steve couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t until recently that they had actually used that word for each other. Just the two of them sitting at the quarry after midnight in Billy’s car, passing a joint back and forth between the two of them as they looked up at the stars through the front windshield. Billy had leaned over and planted a rather aggressive kiss to Steve’s lips. Tongue darting into his mouth. Steve had been completely caught off guard by the sudden heat that he had to ask “what are you doing?” with a laugh.

“Does a guy need to have a reason to kiss his boyfriend?”

They didn’t even make a big deal out of it. They both recognized that it was the first time either of them had said it, but it didn’t feel like what everyone expected it should feel like. No shock, no celebratory fireworks, just felt like a statement of a fact. Just totally simple and natural and right. And Steve had decided to simply answer Billy’s question with the slight shake of the head and the pull of his neck back toward him, their lips sealed together once again tasting the mix of beer and weed on each other's tongues.

“Yes, he’s my boyfriend.” Steve finally answered when he came back from the memory. He was slightly shocked with the level of calmness Dustin had over the whole situation. That kid hadn’t been calm a day in his life and there he was just nodding his head and asking questions like Steve was his teacher and he was preparing for an exam. “Any more questions?”

“Yeah. One. Why?” The look on Dustin’s face was unmistakable disgust.

Steve couldn’t help but laugh. “Fuckin’ beats me!” Steve threw his hands up in the air. “He’s hot, what can I say?”

“He beat you up!”

“That was kinda hot too.”

“STEVE! GROSS!”

Steve just let himself release a laugh and relax a little bit against the door he was leaning on. For just a couple of seconds he had that feeling like it was just any other conversation he had with Dustin. Just like the conversations they’d have when Dustin was fawning over some girl in his grade and asking Steve for advice, making jokes and taking jabs at each other feeling like brothers.

“Are we good?” Steve asked, hoping to maintain that brotherhood they had formed, while at the same time hoping to protect the guy that was likely panicking beneath the sheets through the door behind his back.

“I mean, yeah?” Dustin looked almost sad in the way he responded. His face had fallen and the scrunched eyebrows of confusion had relaxed and drooped. “As long as we can we still hang out.”

Steve smiled. “Yeah, I’ll just tell Billy to go and–“

“No. He can stay, I mean, if he wants to.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

Billy declined staying to hang out, despite how insistent Dustin was about it, and he instead left on his own, which would have worried Steve relentlessly if Dustin hadn’t given Billy his word that he’d keep his lips sealed. And somehow in that moment, Dustin looking him dead on and standing completely still declaring he wouldn’t tell a soul, he genuinely believed him. There was still that gentle “what if?” panging at the inside of his skull the whole drive home, but he wasn’t panicked or worried he didn’t feel much of anything really. That initial fear he had when he first made eye contact with Dustin through the gap in the door had simply vanished and he couldn’t really put his finger on it as to why that was. It just was.

From that day on, Dustin had been better about knocking and tended to warn Steve more often than not that he would be coming over, but yet, despite having walked in on the two of them once, he still did show up to Steve’s house unannounced sometimes. The kid still lacked proper boundaries and had no qualms about wedging a seat right in between the two of them on the sofa as they watched a movie, no hesitation in taking the bowl of popcorn from Steve’s hands with his only greeting being “what are we watching?”

And as much as Billy would like to just have Steve all to himself when he could, it was kind of nice having another person in the know about the two of them and it just felt so natural. It helped drill in the notion that what they were doing wasn’t gross or unnatural. It stopped feeling like a dirty little secret when he was around.

But what still felt like a dirty little secret was the other thing. The little piece of himself that only three people at this point had been given the key to.

When Dustin came over that day, it wasn’t like when he’d walked in on him and Steve in bed that first time. Billy and Steve were both upstairs in Steve’s bedroom working their way through the contents of the cardboard box Max had given him just a week prior. Trying out every lipstick shade and eye shadow pigment and just having a good time together. They weren’t expecting Dustin that day, but they were always kind of expecting him anyway, so when Dustin had walked through the front door and shouted up the stairs with that same scratchy voice of his, they weren’t too alarmed.

It was hardly the first time Dustin had come over in the middle of something like that. There had been multiple occasions of Billy scrubbing at his nails with acetone or hiding his hands in his pockets when he didn’t have the chance to take it off.

Steve was already readying the makeup remover as soon as Dustin’s voice entered the room, but there was a feeling Billy got that he didn’t recognize that day that led him to absentmindedly stop Steve from reaching for the makeup wipes by the gentle grab of his wrist. Billy could see himself in the mirror from across the room. Lips glossy and tinted with a fuchsia pink that closely matched the blush to his cheeks. Neutral browns and beiges blended into his eyelids accentuated with black and elongated lashes that could turn the tide with just a blink. His hair was tucked back behind his ears with one of the little discarded barrettes that he’d found loose at the bottom of the cardboard box. His chin was up and his head was held high and taking off the good feeling with a swipe of a wet wipe wasn’t something he wanted to do.

And he finally felt like he didn’t have to.

Dustin had proven to the both of them that he was accepting and trustworthy. He’d gone months with his lips sealed and it never seemed awkward when they’d sit too close to each other on the couch or their hands interlocked. To him it was as normal as anything else.

So Dustin was an opportunity. He was an opportunity for Billy to truly take all of this into his own hands. No more being ‘found out’. No more getting walked in on having a mental breakdown wrapped in lace, no more getting caught red handed in the makeup aisle or wrist deep in his step sister's makeup. No more of having the choice ripped away from him against his will and too soon. A voluntary leap forward as opposed to the familiar shove over the cliff he was used to.

“It’s okay,” Billy finally said, still looking at himself in the mirror and not to Steve, who had been standing there in the center of the room restricted by Billy’s hold on his, confused, “I think I’ll leave it on.”

Billy looked to Steve with hopeful eyes and a tight smile and Steve matched his expression. Steve wanted nothing more than to pull Billy right in for a kiss but didn’t want to risk ruining his look. Steve was just oozing with pride over him and opted to instead pull Billy into a tight bear hug, squeezing all of the air right out of his lungs.

“You’re a hundred percent sure?” Steve asks excitedly.

Billy nodded his head and took Steve’s hand in his own, using the feeling of his palm against his own as his grounding force, his rock, his ‘just in case’ even if he was confident that he didn’t need it. The two of them walked down the stairs together, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand. They rounded the corner to see Dustin already rummaging through the cupboards like a fucking raccoon, his head shoved all the way through the doors like he was trying to reach Narnia.

“Steve! You’re out of Oreo’s!” He screamed, voice muffled.

Billy was starting to shake a little, the rattling felt by Steve through his hand. Billy hated anticipation. He hated that stretch of time where he was forced to wait for a reaction where all time seemed to stop completely, where his heart paused its rhythm and his lungs refused to release their air, waiting for the eternity to come to an end and for the person to finally notice so he could finally exhale.

But Dustin showed no signs of quitting his quest to find something to eat in the cabinet that Billy would have to agree was in desperate need of being restocked. Steve responded to Billy’s evident growing nervousness by leading them both over to the couch and sitting in front of the TV, having Billy lean up against him, wrapped in his arms so his warmth encompassed him and he didn’t have to look at Dustin while they waited. Steve pressed kisses into Billy’s hair and held him tight, something that a month prior would have felt so foreign to Billy, so wrong and frightening to do in the presence of someone that wasn’t just themselves. But with Dustin it was comfortable and natural and it didn’t feel weird or wrong, so why should the makeup?

Billy didn’t want to make a huge deal out of it. He most certainly didn’t want to give some elaborate speech on why he does what he does, especially when he really has no clue either, but he did expect there to be questions. Dustin and his fucking “curiousity paddles” surely would have at least some questions.

No matter how comfortable Billy was or said he was, he still braced himself when he heard the footsteps coming from behind along with the sounds of crinkling bags of chips. He was preparing all of the possible outcomes in his mind, playing over like movie scenes. The one where Dustin rounded the corner and just stood and stared at Billy like he was some deformed creature, causing him to dramatically drop the entire contents of what he was holding in his arms. The one where Dustin gave him a disgusted look and said something along the lines of “why do you look like a girl?” or something else he knew he should probably get used to hearing.

What he didn’t expect, what didn’t play over in his mind as a potential possibility was Dustin turning the corner to where he could see Billy clearly, no pause in his step before sitting down on the couch beside the two of them with an aggressive flop, and a glance over to Billy with a non-expression like he was looking at an easy to read textbook.

What he didn’t expect was for Dustin to say what he did after only seconds of looking his way.

“You look nice.”

He says it so casually like he’s simply complimenting a friend. Dustin doesn’t recognize the weight behind his words and just immediately goes to turn on the TV and open up one of the several bags of potato chips he somehow found lurking in the depths of Steve’s pantry, all the while Billy is tightly clutching Steve’s hand that’s still holding his and fighting back the urge to cry over just how easy it all was. No questions out of the kid who was always full of them, because he had nothing to ask. He not only didn’t have some big extravagant reaction to the whole ordeal, but he even said he looked nice and all of it just fueled him so full of every bit of confidence and euphoria and validation without a proper way to let that all out.

Except with an exhale. An easy release of air from his lungs that let all of that nervous tension he let creep up on him fade away, and go completely relaxed nestled into Steve’s shoulder as the three of them watched a movie together like they always did, like it wasn’t weird at all that Billy was a guy who wore lipstick and eyeshadow and fell in love with Steve Harrington, the guy he always made fun of for having a fourteen year-old for a best friend.

But right then, Billy understood it. He actually understood it.

next part

#harringrove #billy hargrove #steve harrington #stranger things #mandi writes tresh #fanfic

33 notes · View notes

specterchasing-a · 3 years

Text

Ghost of a Chance || Bex & Eddie

TIMING: Current

LOCATION: One of White Crest’s many abandoned buildings.

PARTIES: @inbextween & @specterchasing

SUMMARY: Bex and Eddie accidentally bite off more than they can chew when filming.

CONTENT: Internalized homophobia, head trauma mention.

Nervous wasn’t the exact right word for how Bex felt at the moment, but it was close enough while she thought of the right one. She’d never been ghost hunting before. She wished she could’ve gotten the special goggles from Nell that would let her see them, but she would settle for trusting Eddie instead. He could see them, and that was really enough. She could be the second hand witness that got to watch him in action in real time. She’d browsed through quite a few of his videos at this point, and he didn’t seem to do many other videos with other people. Actually, there had been none. That meant she was his first. So, maybe, the feeling was excited, or thrilled, or perhaps even exhilarated. This was what she wanted to do with her knowledge. Chase it, understand it, share it. And Eddie felt the same way and wasn’t that really just the best? He’d picked her up from Morgan’s and they’d drove down to the location, and Bex recalled the last time she’d been in his car, and how she hadn’t even been there enough to remember what kind of car it was or how it had that funny smell old cars did. She glanced back at all the equipment in the backseat, then over to Eddie. “How expensive was all of that?” she asked, curious, as she turned enough in her seat to begin prodding through his bags, examining his cameras. “Do we really need all of this?” she asked, pulling out what looked like a walkie talkie with no matching device.

Throughout the entirety of his YouTube career, Eddie worked alone. He had no other choice. Friends were few and far between, and most of them were incorporeal, which meant holding a camera was out of the question. But now, Bex was here; eager to help. He liked her—quite a bit, actually. And, by some miracle, she seemed to like him too. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he felt like he’d finally found the kind of friend he’d been missing. And, yeah, it helped that she had a pulse.

“Too expensive,” Eddie replied to her question with an exaggerated grimace. “And, I mean, ‘need’ is a strong word, but they’re fun to have around and the viewers appreciate the pageantry, so why not?” Eddie pointed at the gadget in her hand. “That is a tri-axis EMF meter, which is technically useless to me since I’m a living ghost magnet.”

Eddie reached into the backseat and pulled the center most bag into his lap and removed two cameras. One of them, he promptly turned on and looked through the lens at Bexley. “Well, look at that, the camera already loves you,” he said before handing it over to her. “Do you have any experience with one of these? Not a huge deal if you don’t. It’s pretty easy to get the hang of.”

Bex set the meter down and looked at Eddie. “A tri-what?” she asked, raising a brow. She didn’t know what any of this stuff was aside from the camera, leaning back in her seat as he pulled the bag up onto his own lap to rifle around in it. She tilted her head as she watched, curious eyes glued to his every action. Finally, the camera popped open and he pointed it at her and she ducked her face to the side, unable to help the blush that came onto her face. “Oh, shut up,” she said, reaching out to cover the lens with her palm carefully-- she didn’t actually want to damage the thing, it was expensive and Eddie had spent all his own money on it. She wished she could help somehow.

She took the camera when he handed it to her and peered down the lens. “I think the camera like you much more,” she teased back, smiling at him from behind it. “I know how to use a camcorder, yes.. I’m not that sheltered.” She felt the excitement buzzing in her stomach. “So, where do we start, mister ghost magnet? I’m here to support you.”

When Bex’s hand raised to cover the camera’s lens, Eddie couldn’t help but laugh. “If you’re gonna be my co-host, you’ll have to do something about that camera shyness,” he said with playfully raised brows. The thought of her accompanying him on future filming adventures was tempting, to say the least. Sharing his passion projects with someone else who understood and appreciated them had always seemed like a pipe dream, but that was slowly beginning to change.

Eddie didn’t so much as flinch when Bex directed the camera at him. “I sure hope it likes me after all these years,” he said, mirroring her smile. “So, for starters, we gotta introduce you, obviously—let the viewers know who they’re dealing with. I figure we can do that right outside the entrance.” As Eddie spoke, he opened the car door, tugging the bag’s strap onto his shoulder. “You ready for your close-up, Ms. Ochsenstein?”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” Bex teased, “you have to see if you can stand being around me for more than ten minutes. If I recall, last time, I couldn’t.” She stuck her tongue out but held the camera back up, examining him through it. “I think the camera is in love with you, actually. It can’t look away!” Gosh, when was the last time she’d felt so free and excited? She was just brimming with anticipation, and it was jittering in her stomach. The last time she’d been this excited was when she’d gone out with Mina to the casino. That, turns out, had been a different sort of excited. “And I’m not camera shy, thank you very much. I just think you’re much better suited for it than me.”

Eddie hopped out of the car and she followed his lead, sliding the camera strap over her shoulder so it didn’t fall from her grip. She was well aware she was clumsy enough to accidentally drop it and if she broke one of his cameras, she’d feel so guilty. Extra safety precautions were worth it. “Ready as I’ll ever be, I suppose,” she chirped, following after him.

“Yeah, I really don’t see that being an issue on my end,” Eddie said, and he meant it wholeheartedly. “But, so long as we don’t run into any unforeseen Bex-repellent, here’s hoping your tolerance for me will have gone up.” As she continued filming him, he felt a sudden surge of fondness. After their last outing, it felt positively wonderful to see her enjoying herself. “Technically, that camera pays my bills, so it can ogle me all it wants.” The excitement Bex felt must’ve been contagious. Enthusiasm bubbled in Eddie’s stomach, reminding him of how he felt when he first started making videos. “I beg to differ—I’ve got a feeling you’re gonna be a natural.”

As they approached the building’s entrance, Eddie raised his camera and aimed it at Bex. He took a few steps to the left, making sure he lined the shot up perfectly. “Viewers, I’d like to take a moment and introduce you to my new and very good weird friend, Bex. She’ll be helping to make sure I don’t die today, which I think is very cool of her. Bex, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you’re feeling about what we’re about to do?”

“Uh huh, we’ll see,” Bex said with a smirk. There was a strange natural ease with which she fell in stride with Eddie, both in their conversation and in their steps. She followed him up towards the building, looking at all the buttons on the camera as she did, wondering if he knew what they all did. “Oh, you’ll be surprised how much I can tolerate. I think we’ll be okay.” The building didn’t look much different than most places around town, but it was abandoned and Bex really hoped it wasn’t going to cave in on her, like the last place had. “Well, if it pays the bills, it must be worth it,” she grinned.

Eddie ushered her towards the entrance and she set the camera down, closing the viewer so it didn’t look awkward and clunky while it dangled there. Bex cleared her throat and fixed her hair in an attempt to try and make the rosiness in her cheeks less apparent as he pointed the camera at her. She’d been on camera and video plenty of times-- the way her life had run it was unavoidable-- but never in a manner that left her feeling so...exposed. He asked her to talk about herself, her real self, and she’d never done that to a camera before. Swallowing, she nodded. “Uh, well-- My name’s Bexley. But you already know that. That was-- anyway!” she shifted in her spot. “Well, I’m a student at UMWC for pre--” she paused, thought on it, “--for Anthropology. I’m actually really good at making sure people don’t die, so you guys don’t have to worry. I’ll make sure Eddie doesn’t get got by a ghost.”

Eddie couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten along this well with someone. As pathetic as it made him feel, he knew it must’ve been a few years ago, at least. Ostensibly, he could have reached this level of friendliness with a few of the ghosts from his past, but they always moved on quickly. He couldn’t resent them for that, not when he made it a point to help them. “Uh-huh, we’ll see,” he parrotted her words back to her when she claimed to have a high tolerance.

Eddie kept still while Bex stumbled through her introduction, grinning at the mistakes. He didn’t mean to poke fun at her necessarily, it was just an incredibly endearing display. “Perfect,” he said when she was done, lowering the camera. “Anthropology, huh? I should’ve been able to guess that.” Eddie closed the distance between himself and Bex. “Now, we go in and hope the ghost’s aren’t feeling shy tonight.” He slipped past her and approached the door. One tug at the handle told him that entering wouldn’t be that easy.

He looked over his shoulder at Bex. “Hey, wanna see a trick?” Eddie’s attention turned back to the door. He took a moment to study the structure, checking for any important details. Once satisfied, he focused on what he wanted the door to do. In his mind, he saw it opening. A few moments later, it actually did. “That’s gonna make tomorrow a migraine day, but I wanted to impress you,” he admitted with a shrug.

“Well, I used to be in pre-law, actually,” Bex pointed out as she let him come over to her, smiling. He seemed satisfied with her introduction, even if she found it relatively subpar. That was just kind of who she was, as a person-- subpar. She wasn’t going to share that thought out loud, though. She didn’t want to ruin a good thing. And, really, this was a good thing. Eddie seemed really nice and like he knew how to have fun and he was being super supportive of her, already. Plus, Nell knew him, and she trusted Nell’s judgement probably more than her own. “Do they often feel shy? Do you think they’ll actually come out if I’m here? What if I make them feel uncomfortable, since I can’t see them?” she asked with sudden realization. She hope she wasn’t just ruining his entire day of filming. She imagined it took a lot of effort, and then there was the editing and the uploading and everything in between.

They found the door locked, and Bex was prepared to offer her rarely now used lock picking skills when he offered to show her a trick, instead. Curious, she nodded and stepped back, watching him closely. Suddenly, the door clicked open and swung on its hinges to invite them in. Bex’s face lit up. “Woah! That was so cool! Like, legitimately! I’m not just saying that. Besides N-- my magic mentor, I don’t know anyone else who can use magic. Not really. And I know it’s, like, different, but it’s still a type of magic.” She grinned. “Well, color me impressed. And remind me when we get back that I have some really good uh-- things to help with pain.” She didn’t know what she’d call Nell’s medicine, but it helped with pain. A lot more than ibuprofen or tylenol ever did.

She gestured towards the inside, picking her camera back up. “You first. You are the star of this show, after all.” And she couldn’t help the pick-up in her heartbeat as she felt anticipation run through her veins.

“Yikes, that sounds like… so much school, too much even,” Eddie replied with a mild grimace. School never suited him, there were too many subjects he couldn’t care less about. If it wasn’t for the ghosts who frequently guided him in cheating, he would’ve flunked out years before graduating. Bex, on the other hand, seemed like a decently bookish person. He wondered what it would be like to have that kind of brain between his ears. As it was, he could only retain information about topics that inspired him. Hyperfixations, the professionals called them.

Eddie grinned at her barrage of ghost-related questions, more than happy to be around someone who actually took an interest in what he did. “No worries, you’re gonna be just fine. Most ghosts are pretty used to not being seen. They’re more shy when they know they’re being watched, so I’m more likely to gum up the works than you are,” he assured her. “Luckily, I’ve kind of learned their language over the years, so I’m not too pressed about it. I’ll coax them out of hiding one way or another.”

“You have a magic mentor? Neat,” he said, beaming from ear-to-ear. Bex referring to telekinesis as magic only prolonged his smile. “Look at us having so much in common, no wonder we’re such fast friends.” Eddie loved the idea of partaking in some sort of magical remedy for his pain instead of relying solely on the mundane effects of tylenol. “You’re a pharmacist too—is there anything you can’t do, Bex Ochsenstein?”

Eddie’s head bowed in response before he took a few steps deeper into the building. He raised his camera again and filmed a sweeping shot of the area. It looked as if no one had been inside for years, which obviously wasn’t much of a surprise considering they likely hadn’t. “Alright, my dearly departed friends, if you’re here—I’ve got someone who’d like to meet you.” When his statement wrapped up, a translucent individual wafted into view. For all intents and purposes, she looked perfectly fine for a ghost; no signs of a traumatic death.

“Bex,” Eddie said. “I really wish you could see her.”

His attention turned back to the ghost. “First of all, it’s an honor to meet you—do you mind being part of a video? I know you won’t show up or anything, but y’know.”

“Run,” said the ghost.

“Beg your pardon?” Eddie questioned.

“We’re not alone.”

After she gave her warning, the floor began to quake beneath them, and the door instantly slammed shut.

“Pre-law was a lot,” Bex agreed, nodding. And made even worse so by the fact that she’d never wanted to do it in the first place. She ducked inside the house after Eddie and held up her camera, pointing it at Eddie. She flipped on the dark vision switch and watched it flicker to life. She turned in a circle as she walked around, making sure to film their surroundings. “Do ghosts not like you, then?” she asked, turning to zoom the camera in on Eddie’s face. “Tell us the truth, Mister Ghost Man.” She grinned from behind the lens, pausing in one of the doorways.

“I do, she’s pretty great,” she answered, unsure if she should tell Eddie about Nell, considering he knew her. Did he know know, though? It probably wasn’t her secret to tell, and if he didn’t know, there was a reason by now. She could only wonder what it was, though. “Oh, don’t you worry, there’s quite a bit I can’t do. Like ride a bike, or drive a car, or see ghosts.” She stopped when Eddie did, gazing at something she could not see. A ghost, she assumed. The air around them chilled and Bex noticed her breath coming out in puffs in front of her lips. “I wish I could, too…” she murmured.

But something in the air changed, she could feel it.

“Um, Eddie?” she started, turning to him-- but she didn’t get much of a chance to say anything else, as the floor shook and the door swung shut behind her. She jumped and scrambled over to Eddie, wrapping her arms around his free one. “What’s happening? What did she say?” She wasn’t sure what to do, but she didn’t want to do anything to offend the ghost or-- whatever else was there with them. She wasn’t sure her magic could protect either of them from ghosts. They weren’t inside of wooden dolls this time.

“Sometimes,” Eddie admitted with an embarrassed grin. “Like I told you before, plenty of people have let me know that I’m too much, and not all of those people were alive when they said it.” Just because he loved ghosts didn’t mean they always loved him back. As much as he tried to put their needs first, his best didn’t always cut it. “But, more often than not, they like me okay. That’s the best I can ask for, really.”

“Aside from seeing ghosts, everything else you listed is overrated, anyway,” Eddie said with a small nod. The focus quickly shifted to what they came to the abandoned building for, and he felt blissfully in his element until the sudden shift in atmosphere. If he’d come here alone, the appearance of danger wouldn’t have bothered him, but Bex was here. He couldn’t allow her to get swept up in his death-wish.

Eddie pulled his arm away from her, but only so he could wrap it around her. “She told us to run,” he replied. “No way we’re gonna get through the way we came if it doesn’t want us to.” His eyes scanned the room, looking for a way out. Items, forgotten or discarded by their original owners, were strewn across the floor of the building. The spirit causing the recent commotion decided to begin hurling them in whatever direction it fancied. Eddie ducked, pulling Bex down with him, as a wrench flew overhead. “Shit,” he hissed.

His gaze landed on a broken window at the opposite end of the room. “There!” he called out, guiding Bex towards it.

“Well, you’re not too much,” Bex said back with a huff, “if I’m not, you’re not.” It was only fair, right? She would have tried to find another snappy retort if she could, but as it were, the trembling of the floor and the sudden array of items being thrown about really put a pause on her mind trying to come up with one. Eddie wrapped his arm around her and she pressed into him, looking around for an exit as well. But she kept the camera up as much as she could-- he’d want this footage, right? He pulled her down just as a wrench went flying through the space her head had been in previously and she looked behind her to find it wedged in the wall. Her heart was pounding, but she wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t. It was like with the hunter, in the alley. She wasn’t afraid.

Eddie’s voice brought her back to herself and she looked at the window across the room. “C’mon!” she took off for it, pulling him with her, her other hand still gripping the camera. It was an expensive piece of equipment, she couldn’t let it break on her first venture out. When they reached the window, she went to bust it open, but the wooden panes from the outside swung angrily shut in her face and she jumped back. “I don’t think it wants us to leave this way, either!” she said, casting a worried glance back at him. “Duck!” She grabbed him and tugged him out of the way as what looked like an old rotary phone came flying at them. It shattered on the wall where Eddie’s head had been. “Are they always this upset? What’s wrong with her?”

Bex took off towards the window and Eddie realized something; he’d underestimated her. Not on purpose, of course, but still—she didn’t need to be treated with kid gloves. The panic attack he witnessed in the alley did not define her. Amidst the chaos and dread, he witnessed a new side of her. Bex Ochsenstein was brave, and she didn’t need him to play the part of a hero.

“That’s pretty inconsiderate of it,” Eddie snarked when their way-out turned into a dead-end. Bex yanked him down, same way he’d done for her. He grinned at the role reversal, he couldn’t help it. “It’s not her,” he said. “It’s something else—my money’s on it being a poltergeist. And, yeah, they’re a little touchy.” More than ever, Eddie resented not being raised by fellow mediums. If he had, he might’ve known a thing or two about impromptu exorcisms.

“You said you know some latin, right?” Eddie began digging in the bag that held his camera equipment. “My pronunciation is shit, but maybe you’ll have better luck than me.” He retrieved a worn-out, leather bound book and shoved it into Bex’s free hand. “Don’t ask me which page has the answers, I’m fully playing this by ear.” As he went back to digging in his bag, one of the other windows shattered, covering the floor in jagged glass. He flinched, but kept digging until he pulled out a bag of salt. “Start reading,” he instructed her as he began pouring the contents of the bag out in the shape of a circle with them safely in the middle.

“A poltergeist?” Bex asked. Oh, she was definitely writing this down when they got done. Poltergeists were different from regular ghosts. She wondered what made a ghost into a poltergeist. Or if they even could become one. Were they a special type of ghost? Were there different types of ghosts? She didn’t have too much time to consider all the questions popping into her head because Eddie was pushing her away from the window and handing her a book. “Latin? Oh, no, I’m much better with Hebre--” The window shattering cut her sentence short and she squeaked, nodding, “Latin! Got it!”

Eddie was pulling something else out of his bag and Bex had to remind herself to not watch him and just read whatever was written in front of her. She didn’t understand a lot of the words on the page, but there were a few that stood out. Mostly, the word protect. Okay, she could work with that. She didn’t know if she was supposed to do anything else while she read, so she just started saying the words out loud, backing up into Eddie’s salt circle. “Oh! Neat! A salt circle, is that--” A lamp shattered near their heads. “Right! Sorry! Excuse me, mister ghost slash possible poltergeist! We don’t mean any harm!” She felt the floorboards shudder beneath her and she stumbled, nearly dropping the book and the camera. “I-- I don’t think this is working, Eddie. Should I try a different page? Ne-- my mentor did tell me something about how um, exorcist magic is different from spellcaster magic, but--” she ducked as a shoe came flying at her, “--maybe I can use magic!” Or maybe she shouldn’t. She was still recovering from messing with that hunter. And she wasn’t sure using magic on camera was the best idea. “Where is it? Maybe we can just talk to it. She seems like a reasonable gal, don’t you think?”

As the building continued to rattle and the lamp shattered, Eddie reached the same conclusion as Bex. Much to his dismay, they seemed utterly out of luck, but he wasn’t keen on giving up yet. He carefully set his camera down within their salt circle—if it didn’t survive this excursion, he wouldn’t be too heartbroken, but he’d do what he could to protect his bank account.

“I would love to settle this with a heart-to-heart, but poltergeists aren’t known for being reasonable.” Eddie carelessly discarded the used-up bag of salt as the few in-tact windows began opening and slamming shut. It felt an awful lot like their poltergeist was taunting them. His thoughts back-peddled to the comment Bex made about exorcist magic. As a medium, he wondered if that particular brand of spellcraft was in his blood already.

“Magic,” he mused, carefully taking the book from Bex’s hands. “You know any spells that’ll keep our angry little buddy from giving me brain damage?” Eddie opened the tome to a random page. From what he could parse, it seemed like a pretty simple means of temporary banishment. He could only hope it was simple enough for someone without any skill. “Time to find out if mediumship has any extra perks.”

“Okay,” Bex said, “fair enough!” She scooted behind Eddie as he set his camera down and took the book from her. He flipped through the book to a different page and she tried to wrack her mind for any sort of spell that could stop someone from throwing things at them. She knew about the spell to make things move on their own, maybe if she just redirected that energy into making an object stop, it would work? “Yeah, yep! I-- I’ll give it a try! Hopefully no head damage from this, but, uh-- no guarantees!”

She looked towards where she thought the poltergeist was-- it was the direction all the things were flying from-- and concentrated. It was relatively soon after the incident with the hunter, but she could try! She could totally try. She could do this. She could protect her friend. Something whizzed towards them and Bex held up her hands, concentrating, and managed to at least misdirect it, watching it shatter on the wall behind them. “Oh! Oh! I did it! Eddie, I--” she started, but something else started heading for them and she put her hands back up. “Just, uh-- hurry with whatever you’re doing! I’m not sure I can, uh, do this for too long!”

With the comfort of knowing Bex had a few tricks up her sleeve, Eddie began chanting in Latin. His brow furrowed as he steadied his focus—one mispronunciation and they’d be left vulnerable. He tried not to flinch as something shattered loudly against the wall behind them. Bex, clearly proud of her success, began bubbling with excitement. If Eddie hadn’t been so engrossed in the words before him, he would’ve joined her.

Just as Bex finished her warning, a loud shriek permeated the air, and the object in mid-flight dropped to the ground. Everything around them went quiet. Eddie looked up from the book, clearly startled by the sudden change in atmosphere. “Holy shit, Bex, I think we did it.”

Everything seemed to go a little faster for a moment, before suddenly, it stopped. Completely. The objects that had been whirling around in the space in front of them clattered loudly to the ground and Bex flinched from surprise, moving in closer to Eddie. After a moment, she realized it was quiet, but she didn’t make a move until Eddie declared his own, similar thoughts. “We-- we did it!” she said, her face lighting up. She patted his shoulders excitedly. “We did it! Oh my god, that was amazing! You’re amazing! This was amazing!” she exclaimed, before a swell of exhaustion overtook her and she felt her eyes roll up into the back of her head for a second. The next moment, her body began to drop.

Bex hit the floor without warning and Eddie quickly dropped to his knees beside her. “Bex?” he asked, his eyes wide with fright. “Bex, wake up.” He pulled her head into his lap and gingerly swept a few errant strands of hair out of her face. “We’re gonna be fine, but I need you to wake up, okay?”

Looking down at her, Eddie realized how attached to her he’d become in the short amount of time they’d known each other. Bex represented everything he admired in a person: brave, enthusiastic, kind, open-minded. As she laid there unconscious, he wondered if the reason he’d never found the ‘right’ girl was because he’d never met her. She didn’t exactly set his heart on fire, but the idea of spending more time with her excited him. Maybe, that was all that mattered.

“Please,” he begged.

Bex didn’t know how long she’d been out-- realistically, it’d only been a few moments. Not even a full minute. She wasn’t even aware she’d fallen unconscious until her eyes were blinking open and she was staring up at Eddie, and he looked so worried. Confusion crossed her face for a moment as she looked up at him. “What-- what’s wrong?” she asked. Had something else happened? Was the ghost still here? Did they upset the other one? “Why are you looking at me like that?” It wasn’t until she tried to sit up that she realized she was horizontal. She blinked, her face contorted a moment, before she focused back on Eddie. “Are we on the floor? Where’s the ghost? Is she okay? The-- not poltergeist one.”

A sudden rush of relief mingled with the adrenaline coursing through Eddie’s entire system. Bex’s words fell on deaf ears. Amidst the chaos, Eddie completely forgot about the amiable ghost and her warnings—she could wait. “You passed out,” he said, his words drastically contrasting with the grin spreading across his face. “Bex, you were incredible. You…” He trailed off with a laugh. Eddie raised a hand to smooth his hair back from his forehead. Without allowing himself enough time to think through his next words, he plunged head-first into a proposal. “Would you ever wanna, like, go out? As more than friends, I mean. No pressure, I just think you’re really amazing.” And, if things between them went well, maybe he’d be able to shake the confusing attraction to Alfie. As far as he could tell, it would be an ideal scenario.

“I did?” Bex said, still in his lap, looking up at him. She didn’t exactly realize her head was in his lap. Maybe she would’ve moved, but maybe not. Suddenly, her cheeks burned. He was calling her incredible, when, really, she hadn’t done much. “Oh, no! You were the incredible one!” she lifted her hands and waved them in front of them. “You knew exactly what to do under all that pressure, and--” but he was laughing and talking again and Bex stared up at him with a slightly ajar mouth. “Oh.” She didn’t know what to say to that. “I-- I’m--” involved with someone? Seeing someone? Dating someone? Hanging out with someone? She didn’t know what her and Mina were doing, actually. Her cheeks burned again. “You’re very sweet, Eddie, really! And normally I would probably say yes, but I’m sort of--” she couldn’t say it. Why couldn’t she say it? She should just say it “--taking time for myself right now.” She looked up at him. “I-- I’m sorry. But I really like spending time with you! I do! I hope that’s okay.” Please be okay.

Eddie’s brow raised slightly as Bex stumbled over her words. Eventually, a gentle rejection formed. It didn’t hurt as much as he thought it would. Strangely enough, a small part of him actually breathed a sigh of relief. “Of course, that’s okay,” Eddie said with a small nod. His cheeks were burning and he felt like more of an idiot than usual, but he could cope with that. “I, uh, think that was just a side-effect of the excitement getting to me, anyway. Taking time for yourself is really important! We can still play ghostbusters even if we’re just friends.” Deciding that he’d said more than enough, Eddie offered her his hand. “Let’s get you on your feet.”

She felt bad. Kinda. She should’ve probably said yes, right? That was what everyone had wanted from her. To be normal, to like boys. Bex took his hand and sat up, looking over at him. Her cheeks were burning again, too. “I really do like spending time with you, Eddie,” she said, “this was probably the most fun I’ve had in...a long time. But it was so fun! And I totally wanna do it again. You know, if you’ll have me?” Her head still felt a bit light, but she was smiling. She didn’t know what was wrong with her heart, or why it was stammering in her chest. Or why she felt somehow nervous, or like she’d done something wrong. She thought of Mina and felt her heart begin to calm, as she stood on wobbly legs, stumbling into him. “Sorry, sorry,” she muttered, “looks like I might need your support after all.” A tease, to help wipe away any lingering awkwardness.

“Right, of course,” Eddie agreed, nodding perhaps a bit too vigorously. “Trust me, spending time with you is way too much of a blast to give it up over something like that. It would be an honor to almost die with you again in the future.” As Bex stumbled into him, Eddie wasted no time in bracing her by planting his hands on her either side of her waist. If the heat burning in his cheeks got any worse, he theorized he might burst into flames. “No worries,” he insisted with a laugh. “I’m a fan of you being conscious and upright, so I’ve got you.” With one hand still holding her in place, he dipped down to grab his camera and the book, carelessly shoving them into his bag before rising again. “Should I get you home, then? We can always make plans when you’re a little more steady.”

“Let’s-- maybe call it something else,” Bex said with an exasperated smile. “It’s-- an adventure! A-- could end badly but doesn't because we make such a good team, adventure! How’s that sound? Think that’ll fit on a channel title?” She let him balance her, wondering why it didn’t feel frightening or strange to have his hands on her hips. Usually, she shirked away from other people’s touch, but she’d been so-- okay with Eddie’s. She cleared her throat and tried not to think about it. “Ah, yes, I think home sounds like a good idea. Do you think we got enough footage? Do you edit all your own videos? Maybe I could come help with that?” she asked, looking at him with wide, curious eyes. She didn’t want the adventure to be over with yet, but her legs weren’t cooperating and she didn’t want to accidentally pass out on him again. Mina would be upset if she let that happen, or if she came home unconscious carried by another boy again.

“I like the sound of that, actually. A little lengthy, but hey, brevity isn’t everything,” Eddie said with a teasing grin. As always, her enthusiasm was catching. Besides his little blunder, tonight went amazingly. A little action, a little danger, a brief black-out; it checked all the boxes. His grin took a turn towards genuine fondness as Bex went into another of her patented question-barrages. “If we didn’t, we can come back during the daytime—see if our resident friendly ghost has any commentary she’d like to add.” Eddie began carefully walking them towards the exit as he spoke. “I do my own editing, yeah, and I would be more than happy to have you lend a hand. At the very least, the company would be nice,” he admitted earnestly. “If you’re back on your feet tomorrow, we can tackle movie magic tomorrow.” Eddie reached for the door and, thankfully, it opened without complaint this time around. “If, uh, that sounds good to you, of course.”

“Exactly! Sometimes you need a long title, just so that people know exactly what they’re getting themselves into, you know?” Bex beamed, she couldn’t help it. There was an energy about being around Eddie that made her feel seen. And excited and heard. And he felt the same way about all this supernatural stuff as her, and it was so nice to finally know someone who felt the same. Who didn’t tell her it was too dangerous or that it was too risky or that they just shouldn’t do it, because there might be trouble later. That wasn’t how things worked. If no one ever pushed for change, there never would be. But Eddie wanted that. And so did Bex. Maybe that was why she’d gravitated toward him so readily. “Oh, no, is she gone? Did we scare her off? Can you tell her I’m sorry? I totally didn’t mean her! I hope she’s okay,” she gasped, turning to look back towards the room where Eddie had pointed her out first as he led Bex towards the exit. “I can do tomorrow!” she said, maybe a bit too enthusiastically. Technically, she wanted to do it now, but he was right. She should get back home and rest. “I’ll be totally fine by tomorrow,” she said, paused, then added, “promise.”

“If you ask me, YouTube might be your calling instead of anthropology,” Eddie said, unable to hide the immense grin that always seemed to be plastered on his face when Bex was around. Having her remain as energetic as ever helped diminish the anxiety he felt after boldly asking her if she’d like to take their relationship to the next level. So long as he kept her in his life, he supposed it didn’t matter which labels they used.

As she expressed concern over their ghost, Eddie laughed and resisted the urge to pull her closer in an attempt to comfort her. “You’re fine, I promise. She’s probably just a little rattled, I bet she’ll be back in time for our next visit.” Bex cared so much—about everything. Eddie admired that about her, how could he not? “You’ll have a chance to tell her yourself when that time rolls around.”

Her resounding confirmation caught Eddie off-guard. He glanced at her, wondering if the time she was taking for herself might end in a change of tune, after all. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said as they approached the passenger-side of the car. With his free-hand, he pulled the door open for her and gestured for her to enter. “If you haven’t guessed yet, I can be a tad clingy,” he confessed with a small shrug.

“Oh, no, I’ll leave the internet sensationalism to you. I’d much rather be behind the camera, or better yet, down in the dirt,” Bex dismissed, feeling that warmth that often filled her when she talked about history or being on a dig, rising into her stomach again. Still, she did like doing this with Eddie. And she thought she’d done a pretty decent job! Hopefully she’d even actually shot some good footage. Only time would tell, she supposed, as she held onto him while they made their way to the car. It was right where they’d left it, and she wasn’t sure why she thought the outside world was going to be any different after her first ghost encounter. It was all strangely exactly the same.

“Well, I hope she’s okay. I’ll definitely be asking her to make sure when we come back. Do ghosts like gifts? Or-- offerings? Is it an offering if you give a ghost something? Maybe we can bring her flowers. I know a good florist in town,” she rambled, watching Eddie come around and open the door for her. She looked at his face then-- really looked at him-- and wondered what might be wrong with her, if she’d rejected him so readily. Was something wrong with her? With the way Mina made her feel? She blinked the thoughts away and let a warm smile carve onto her lips. “Don’t worry,” she said, stepping towards the car, “I’m clingy, too.” She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek before lowering herself into the car, and, wondering, why she’d done that at all.

#c: bexley #wickedswriting #writing #ghost of a chance #// nothing to see here #move along

12 notes · View notes

ladyrijus · 5 years

Text

Astronaut: Song References

If there’s one thing Astronaut is going to be known for, it’s its references to Stray Kid songs in the past. Here’s a whole list I compiled, although some may be a little far fetched. Also, feel free to let me know if there are more!

The carousel references the scene right before Felix’s part near the end of I am: You

The flare stick Chan holds references Victory Song

Chan talking on the walkie-talkie references Jeongin talking on the walkie-talkie in Miroh

Hyunjin being out of it references Side Effects Hyunjin being out of it

The red drapes Hyunjin walks into references the red slips Chan gave in District 9

When Jeongin spins the others, it turns into a camera lens, referencing the My Pace camera which also appears in the beginning of I am: YOU

The maze boxes reference the maze behind Hyunjin and Changbin in Miroh as well as the album cover for Miroh

Felix glitching out references Felix glitching out in Miroh

The truck Hyunjin runs to references Side Effects

Jisung, Jeongin, and Minho being fenced in references District 9

The yellow drapes Hyunjin push through references Side Effects

The two moons reference Side Effects, TMT, and Double Knot

The storm references Side Effects when there’s the storm right before the dance break

The door Felix and Chan are by references Double Knot door where Chan supposedly has the key to

Chan’s flare references Miroh because Chan picks up a flare gun in Miroh while Changbin and Hyunjin are rapping

The white outfits reference District 9 for obvious reasons

Stray Kids jumping over the camera references Miroh because they jumped over buildings in Miroh

327 notes · View notes

themurphyzone · 4 years

Text

104 Words for 104 Days: Umbrella

This quarantine is giving me way too much time to write silly stuff. I’m just trying to keep things lighthearted so we can laugh together.

“Acute Triangle is approaching your position, Gretchen. Large orange umbrella in hand. ETA two minutes.”

“Roger that, Holly. Standby in case we need a distraction for the entourage,” Gretchen replied before signing off and setting the walkie-talkie aside.

“I still think we should have gone with Isosceles Triangle,” Ginger muttered, peering out from beneath the camouflage umbrella with a pair of binoculars. The rain beat down mercilessly, soaking her face within seconds. But she didn’t react, continuing to survey their surroundings.

“You’re just mad because you wanted to use ‘A Cute Boy’ for Baljeet’s codename,” Gretchen said. “What’s our current status?”

Gretchen checked the weather report one more time, just to make sure the rain wouldn’t suddenly clear up and ruin their efforts. In that case, they could always fall back on Plan B and transport Phineas and Isabella to Seattle.

“Pink Powerhouse is still without an umbrella. Currently shielding herself with a raincoat. Raincoat proving ineffective,” Ginger reported. “Her hair is gonna be a mess after this.”

Gretchen winced in sympathy. Isabella’s hair didn’t react well to this sort of weather. “Yeah, that’ll be a pain alright.”

“Perimeter alert! Obsessive Fan encroaching on setup! Will intercept Acute Triangle in one minute on his current trajectory!” Holly shouted, the static crackling against her panicked tone.

Snatching up the walkie-talkie, Gretchen quickly called in the rest of the troop. “Security team! Get Obsessive Fan out of there stat!” she barked.

“We took care of it the moment we heard Holly’s transmission,” Katie replied, her voice confident and calm. “Obsessive Fan is currently in our custody and Acute Triangle was unaware of his presence. Permission to interrogate?”

“No need for interrogations, Katie,” Gretchen said. Next to her, Ginger sighed in relief. “Just hold him until our targets leave.”

A garbled male voice sounded through the speakers.

“You lucked out, Irving. If that’s even your real name,” Adyson said. “Our acting leader might not be so lenient next time.”

“I’ll have you know that my brother is planning to be a lawyer. I’ll call him and you’ll be sorry,” Irving declared smugly.

“We have several gift cards for that trendy coffee shop downtown,” Millie replied. “We’re not above persuasion tactics.”

“Ha! You actually think that would work? Imported coffee beans from Jamaica can’t possibly take priority over the bonds of sacred brotherhood and-oh, who am I kidding? This is Albert we’re talking about.”

Since the security team was handling Irving just fine, Gretchen didn’t feel the need to monitor the situation any further.

“Acute Triangle’s within range!” Ginger exclaimed. She bounced on her knees, almost dislodging the umbrella. “I repeat, Acute Triangle’s within range!”

Gretchen pulled out her own binoculars, glad that the organization had sprung for the waterproof lens.

It was impossible to hear anything further than twenty feet over the roar of the rain, but she was satisfied with just visuals in this case.

Isabella paced along the pathway, occasionally splashing through a puddle in her rainboots and looking miserable, which was heightened by her hair plastering to her face. It would be impossible for even the toughest brick wall to ignore her plight.

“Acute Triangle and Pink Powerhouse are at the rendezvous point,” Ginger said into her walkie-talkie, and everyone else responded with ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhhs’, even Irving. “Acute Triangle has initiated the conversation.”

“Come on, Isabella. You can’t play the long game anymore,” Gretchen murmured as Isabella rocked back and forth on her heels. She was trying the cuteness spiel again.

Hadn’t Isabella learned anything? Her cuteness didn’t faze Phineas! He already knew she was cute! She couldn’t catch him off-guard that way!

Groans of disappointment came from the walkie-talkie.

“Every time without fail!”

“We’re gonna catch colds and it’ll be for nothing!”

“Any chance we could intervene?”

“Hold your position, girls,” Gretchen ordered. “This is something our leader’s gotta do on her own. We’re just making sure the venue’s clear.”

She studied Phineas carefully. Mild concern had replaced his usual smile. He glanced up at the heavy clouds, then back at Isabella, who tightly held her hood in place with both hands. His grip shifted on the handle.

He took a step forward.

Then another. Isabella stopped speaking, giving Phineas a shocked look before a wide grin overtook her face.

Ginger screamed in delight.

Isabella was finally underneath the umbrella, and the Fireside Girls cheered.

Phineas and Isabella disappeared around a corner, the umbrella large enough for them to be close but not close enough to be uncomfortable.

“Mission accomplished, girls!” Gretchen praised, switching the channel on her walkie-talkie. The background noise was much quieter this time. “We’ve met our goal, Silent One. Have you upheld your end of the bargain?”

“…the forms are in your Fireside emails. Thank you for helping my brother along. Silent One out.”

“You heard him! Pack it up, girls!” Gretchen said over the celebratory yells. “Onward to headquarters and those matchmaker patches!”

Ginger snapped her walkie-talkie back into its case, then glanced at Gretchen in confusion. “Do you feel like we’re forgetting anything?”

O – O – O – O – O

“Girls? You forgot to untie me! Oh well, I’lI Spy by myself while I wait for someone to come and save me from this downpour. I spy with my little eye, something wet! Which is everything! Okay, something a little harder now. I spy with my little eye, something lavender! It’s the plant next to my foot!”

3…

2…

1…

“IT’S RIGHT NEXT TO MY FOOT! GET IT AWAY! GETITAWAYGETITAWAY! MY INEXPLICABLE FEAR OF LAVENDER HASN’T BEEN CURED YET!”

#phineas and ferb #fireside girls #phineas flynn #isabella garcia shapiro #104 words for 104 days #fanfiction

17 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

Text

8x10: The Lost and the Plunderers - Re-Watch

Morning everyone! So, I am continuing my rewatch of S8. This week, I’ll cover episodes 8x10-8x12.

First, let me do a quick rundown of what happens in these episodes.

8x10: The Lost and the Plunderers is right after Carl dies, of course. It’s where Simon kills all of Jadis’s people (The Scavengers) and Rick and Michonne happen on Jadis afterward, but leave her there.

8x11: Dead or Alive or… is where Daryl leads the people toward Hilltop (through the swamps), where Tara tries to kill Dwight, and Father Gabriel and Carson stay at the cabin, where Gabriel is dealing with the infection from the walker guts, and Carson dies at the end.

Finally, 8x12: The Key, is where Georgie shows up to give Maggie the “A Key to A Future” book.

8x10: The Lost and the Plunderers

This episode is focused on Rick and Michonne, Negan, and the Scavengers. I do think it points to something futuristic with the helicopter people. The main reason has to do with the fact that Rick and Michonne are together for all of it. So, we once again have them together but away from the rest of the group, which Daryl is leading. So, it foreshadows what is happening in S10 and will probably continue to happen in S11.

Rick and Michonne go to the junk yard, but Simon has already killed all the Scavengers. Jadis is wearing a white dress, which is interesting, and she explains what happened. She wants to come with Rick and Michonne, but Rick says what happened to her people was her fault because she kept waffling and wouldn’t just fight against Negan. Even though she begs them to take her with them, they leave her behind. So, I’m thinking this represents something that will happen in the helicopter group.

(We already know Jadis and Rick are with them, and Michonne is now on her way, so the three of them together MUST be about the helicopter group in some way.)

So, maybe Jadis will betray Rick in some way while they’re there and he’ll leave her behind when he and Michonne escape to return to TF.

Some interesting themes in this episode:

Rick and Michonne use fire extinguishers to try and put out the fire on the gazebo, because Carl used to like to sit on the roof of it. But there’s too many walkers coming and they can’t manage it and have to run. Not sure what this points to, but again, probably something that happens in the helicopter group.

When Rick and Michonne talk to Jadis, she says something I thought was interesting. She’s explaining how she used to come to the junk yard to find things to paint on, before the virus happened. Then she came there for safety afterward. Then she says she realized “the whole place is a canvas…We were the paint…We could create something new…” It just stuck out to me as a theme. Just as the writers might be treating the entire show and characters as a song (Beth’s the coda) this is another type of art and the same theme.

This is also where Rick picks up the blue car door to use as a shield, and the episode where we see the blue cat Jadis painted with all the eyes looking at it. All are Beth-related themes.

I will also say that one reason people didn’t care for this season is that they spent too much time on the dynamic between Negan and his guys. Like Simon and Dwight. Dwight was necessary for plot reasons (his defection, etc.) but they could definitely have cut it down. But I don’t think many people cared much for Simon or his story. So again, I’m sure there’s a reason they did this. Probably something to do with what they’re foreshadowing, but to say anything else about what that actually is would be pure guesswork.

We also have Enid and Aaron at Oceanside here. We don’t get much of it, and I think the next episode (8x13-16) will have more. So, I’ll wait to draw any firm conclusions. Suffice it to say, for now, I think Aaron and Enid represent Beth and Daryl here. It would make a lot of sense if they did, and their dialogue suggests it, but I’d like to wait and watch the rest of this sequence before saying more.

Enid did have an interesting speech that I think is also thematic, though. She told Cyndie that killing people wouldn’t make her feel better. She said killing others is actually the punishment. Because when you do, their group will come kill al of yours. Which is ultimately what happens to Negan. So, it felt important and thematic. She also says Cyndie should know the difference between friends and enemies. Not knowing the difference will get them killed. Just thought it was interesting.

Also, this episode was divided into parts by character, which I thought was really random. So, it would say “Rick” and then have a part about Rick and Michonne. Then it would say, “Michonne.” And it’s random because it didn’t do it with all the characters, and they didn’t do it for any other episode this season. The names used were Rick, Michonne, Enid, Simon, Negan, and Rick again. I really don’t have any major theories about this.

At the end of this episode, Rick calls Negan on the walkie to tell him Carl wrote him a note and also to basically tell him that Rick still plans to kill him. Negan goes off on this big spiel about how Rick not only failed his people as a leader but failed Carl as a father because he “wasn’t there” to stop Carl from dying.

I had the thought that maybe this foreshadows part of the reason Rick still hasn’t returned after six years. We saw that picture he obviously drew of Michonne and Judith in S10, which suggests he’s around and watching them, but hasn’t tried to come back. I just thought maybe it suggests that he’s protecting them by staying away. Just a thought, though.

Okay, one last nuance that REALLY jumped out at me in this episode:

After her people die, Jadis finds some food supplies from the helicopter group. (This was probably the first time we saw their three-circle symbol around her.) But what she eats…is applesauce. That really hit me in a big way.

If I look at it through the lens of my current apple theory (that the apple represents a long absence from the group) then it makes sense to see this around Jadis, because she went with Rick. But this applesauce was literally supplied by the helicopter group. So, I’m also considering that every apple reference we’ve seen pointed specifically to the helicopter group in some way.

In 6x15, we saw Rick and Michonne eating one in the bedroom scene. And they’re both absent from the group now. But they’re also both in or heading toward the helicopter group. So, it works either way. We also saw applesauce around Aaron in 5b. And actually, when I get to episode 13, I may have found something big that suggests that Aaron in 5b is not only a proxy to Beth, but also suggests her returning via the helicopter group. I’ll get to that on Thursday.

That’s it for this episode. Definitely some Beth themes going on, but mostly I think it foreshadows stuff we haven’t seen just yet. Come back tomorrow for what I found in 8x11.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

3 notes · View notes

raquel-and-sergio · 5 years

Text

What wouldn’t I do for you - part 3

Hey there! Here’s part three, a few minutes later than promised but who cares! This is actually a filler chapter, I kinda go over the plot of the heist and what happens to all the characters so then I can move on to the actual fun Marquillo part. Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

“This is war.” Sergio had said to the group. And he has meant it. No more holding back, no more playing around, he was going to fuck up the police in every way he could. First, they took his father from him. Then, they took his brother. And when he had finally settled down and started to heal, they forced him back in the game. They stole from him the one person he cared about the most. They took from him his moral compass, the only one that was keeping him sane. Fucking up her life was not enough, they also had to mercilessly execute her as she was unarmed and defenseless.

Sergio has told himself he wasn’t going to let his grief distract him from what he needed to do. He had to get the rest of the group out of the bank safely, no matter what that would cost him.

The plan wasn’t going at all as it should have, and Sergio regretted putting everyone in so much danger. He regretted getting Raquel involved. He should have fought harder to convince her to stay with her child and mother. What is he going to say to them now anyway? That their mother, their daughter had died because of him? Because selfish as he was he put her in harms way only to keep her near him?

“Tell me, what’s going on Palermo?” Sergio had climbed back on the top of a tree, watching the police pack up their stuff and leave the forest.

“They shot Nairobi, and we blew up one of their tanks.”

“Explain.” interrupted Sergio. Palermo did.

“Everything’s going to shit in here” he concluded said. “You need to tell us what to do.”

“I’ll get you out of there don’t worry. We are moving to plan Casanova.” Sergio cut the communication. He needed to think.

First, he needs to ensure that the public opinion would stay by their side. Their aid is crucial for the final step of their plan, and Sergio knew exactly how to convince them.

“I need you to tell the hackers to hack all the publicity screens in Madrid.” He told Marseille.“I have an announcement to make.”

A few hours had passed, and to his knowledge, all the police officers had cleared the area. He supposed they had to retreat and deal with the cover up of the murder they’d committed. His stomach twisted at the thought of his beloved’s memory getting tarnished in the sort. He’ll deal with his need for revenge later.

Sergio Marquina climbed down his tree and jogged towards the new safe house. It was located around twenty kilometers east from his position, and he guessed it would take him at least two hours to get there. They had been supposed to meet there, he bitterly thought, with Raquel.

“Have you reached the safe house yet?” He heard Marseille ask in his earpiece an hour and a half later.

“No not yet.” He paused to catch his breath.

“All right, once you get there, use the camera we had placed for emergencies. They have connected it to all the screens and as soon as you turn it on it will start the live diffusion.”

“Thank you, Marseille. Over and out.” His legs were aching and cold air was scratching his throat. He knew he couldn’t stop, not when Nairobi’s life was on the line. He owes it to them to get her out on time, and he should stop complaining and start running. Sergio forced himself to start again, speeding up as he went. Adrenaline started pumping through his veins. Although he didn’t feel less tired, the anger boiling in his veins allowed him to disregard the pain.

Around forty five minutes later, Sergio finally discerned the spot under which the safe house was located. Panting and exhausted, he barely managed to get in and close the trapdoor over him before collapsing on a chair. He thought of getting up, showering and putting on a bit more formal clothing, but then argued that with his current look people would be more prone to pity and believe him.

Sergio put up the camera, cleaned his glasses, took a deep breath and started talking.

“Good evening. I am the Professor. I am very sorry to interrupt your day like this, but there is a few things I need to clear up with you. You might be wondering why we ordered the shot on the police earlier today, and you are perfectly right to do so. They were going to kill us. The police, they don’t want us captured, they want us dead. This morning, they shot Nairobi, manipulated the love she had for her son to lure her in a trap. Nairobi had never hurt anyone. And they still killed her. And then... the police shot.. executed one that used to be their partner. Their friend. They killed Raquel Murillo. She was on her knees, unarmed, and they shot her.”

A tear escapes his eye, and he did not try to stop it.

“They did not hesitate to butcher she who used to be in their side. She who was... she who was the love of my life. So you understand” he inhaled, “that when we saw an armed tank rolling towards the bank, towards us, we had no other choice but to shoot first. How many hostages would have died if this attack had been perpetuated? How many innocent lives was the police ready to risk in order to kill us?” The Professor straightened his glasses and stared right in the middle of the lens.

“We tried to run away from that system, but it pulled us back into its claws. And now we are forced to fight it. They are stronger, better armed and they aim to kill. We did not want war, but they forced it upon us. And so we’re gonna fight back. And we need your help. We need to know you’re here with us. Join us tomorrow, wearing a Dali mask, at five in front of the National Bank, and show us your support as a united front.”

The Professor turned off the camera. Without giving himself a break, he wrote down a few words on a piece of paper and sent it to Marseille.

“Marseille?” He said, pressing in his earpiece.

“Professor?”

“I faxed you a letter, it explains how the previous leak of state secrets was a fake orchestrated by the police to make us lose our assets. Sent it to all the journals we know, and leak all the pictures we have from the content of the red boxes. Over and out.”

The explosion of the tank, the announcements, and the leak should keep the police busy for a while:

He connected his walkie-talkie to the channel of the bank.

“Palermo?”

“Professor?”

“What’s the situation?”

“Nairobi is out, we gave her morphine, she’s weak but alive. Helsinki is taking care of her, but she needs a hospital. Badly.” There was a short pause. “We have not finished melting all the gold, but we have more than enough to put plan Casanova in action.”

“Right. Prepare the hostages, I’ll have an ambulance waiting for Nairobi. Each one of you will go to the car in assigned to you before the heist. Get one of the fake hostages to go with Nairobi till the ambulance then leave her and disappear in the chaos.”

“Will do. Over and out.”

They’d let all the hostages out at once. At five thirty, once the people would have hopefully gathered around the bank. They’d first throw a few golden pebbles, and once the police, intrigued, would start to pick them up they’d let go of all the hostages.

They’d have told them to run out panicking, and they’d have shot a few bullets in the walls to make them run faster. And then, in midst of the chaos that would have started forming, they would run out along with the hostages, all dressed the same, all with Dali masks. And they’d throw on the floor, on the policemen, on the people every single pebble of gold in their possession.

They’d have given gold to the hostages too,of course, and they could chose to either throw it or keep it, as long as they followed the plan.

A helicopter would then land on the roof of the bank, and six hostages picked for their loyalty and admiration of the band, and generously paid would get on it. One of them would be laying down on a stretcher as if injured. This helicopter would pretend to head straight to the airport, then do a few rounds over Madrid, then go the port then finally land on the roof of a hospital.

As soon as all the members of the band were in their respective rescue car, Palermo would give a signal and twenty other cars parked near the Bank would leave. Those cars, some of which police cars, with paid actors in them would stroll around town for a while to confuse the police.

As for the band, they’d wait in their parked spots for a while. Then each car would head to a separate apartment near the bank that the Professor had rented. They were to wait there at least two days, get a makeover, then leave Spain and Europe for good in different boats.

The realization of this plan would leave Spain neck deep in problems. Additionally the forces of the police would be scattered and their focus broken. Hopefully that god awful Inspectora would also give birth at the same time to add a bit of pressure in the chaos.

And all while his plan should be unfolding, the Professor could do nothing but sit back and bite his nails, powerlessly following the news and thinking about every single thing that could go absolutely wrong.

Part 4

[by the way I have no idea how hacking works so for plot purposes they can do what they want, also I sincerely don’t think a plan like that would be very practical but for plot purposes, again, it’s a great plan]

#raquel murillo #sergio marquina #casa de papel #alvaro morte #itziar ituño #el profesor x inspectora #marquillo #la casa de papel season 3 #la casa de papel fanfictions #la casa de papel #lcdp #lcdp3 #angst #money heist #WWIDFY-M

40 notes · View notes

stevenuniversallyreviews · 5 years

Text

Episode 95: Gem Hunt

“I don’t want you fighting this thing alone.”

I mentioned in my Monster Reunion post that it’s been ages since we’ve had an episode about fighting a Corrupted Gem. The latest examples are Rising Tides, Crashing Skies as a cameo and Reformed as an episode focus, but neither involves an actual mission: the former takes place on the beach, and the latter in the Temple. If we want to look back at a true Season 1-style Gem Hunt, we have to actually go to Season 1: the last episode that featured the Crystal Gems going out into the world with the express purpose of fighting a Corrupted Gem is Island Adventure, sixty-five episodes ago, and that was only the first act of the story.

There are plenty of reasons for this. After Monster Buddies and Ocean Gem the idea of beating up Gem variants that can be friendly and used to be just like the Crystal Gems seemed a lot less fun. After Mirror Gem, the show became more serialized and the need for monster-of-the-week episodes dwindled. After Peridot’s arrival, we got new sentient opponents to worry about until Keeping It Together, where Cluster Gems began standing in for Corrupted Gems. But regardless, the result of this gap is that Gem Hunt gets to feel like a wonderful mixture of old and new: it almost tricks you into thinking this is a throwback to early self-contained missions, until serialized drama barrels in and rips the monster of the week apart.

Gem Hunt wasn’t written with the knowledge that Season 3 would air almost in its entirety within the span of a month, or that this event would be called the Summer of Steven, but relocating to the Great North plays excellently off of these circumstances. With so many episodes coming one after the other, it’s good to have an obvious break from the less arc-driven stories of late, and the snowy environment immediately contrasted with the season of the show and the season of the year. Even before Jasper comes in out of nowhere to reveal the start of an arc, this story feels like a new beginning.

I had to rewatch a few times for this review to get back into the headspace of not knowing the twist, because I forgot how unexpected Jasper was. Maybe some people guessed it, but Steven and Connie only discuss corruption (which Jasper is not yet associated with) and her name isn’t even mentioned before she arrives; contrast with The Message, which gives us a whole song about Lapis Lazuli to set the stage for our “twist,” and Message Received, featuring Peridot gushing about Yellow Diamond in the first act. There isn’t even any fanfare to Jasper’s arrival: she lunges into frame, back turned to the camera, in the middle of our last fight scene. Watching Gem Hunt with the knowledge that she’s coming makes her appearance a little underwhelming, because she just sorta shows up. I frankly don’t remember how shocked I was that she was the humanoid Steven and Connie were tracking, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this scene’s execution was responsible for my lack of concrete “oh wow!” memories.

That said, Jasper’s arrival does fit with the episode’s unusual structure: even back when missions were the norm, we never had an episode that exclusively consisted of a single outing. There have always been introductions framing our quest (like Cheeseburger Backpack or An Indirect Kiss), or episodes beginning in media res that cut back to Beach City (like Steven’s Lion and Arcade Mania). The closest we’ve had to a full episode mission is Serious Steven, but that includes flashbacks to Funland. Gem Hunt is all set from the start, and the result is an adventure that gets a lot of detail but an episode that speeds right on by. It’s crazy to think that Gem Hunt and, say, Steven and the Stevens are the same length, going by how much stuff happens in each episode: one has a time travel plot and a clone plot and a band plot and several songs, and the other is one long trek through the snow.

While this structure leaves plenty of time for the ending to not feel abrupt, it’s still clearly the start of something big, and in retrospect this feels like an especially complete place-setting episode. But in the moment, it’s a mystery episode! The promo art featuring our leads wearing their Hanna-Barbera Best isn’t the only reference to Scooby-Doo we get: Connie suggests that the gang split up early on, and both kids reference monster suits and property disputes while sipping pine needle tea. We begin by tracking a monster, learn something weird is going on, and investigate. We even get a red herring! It’s basic, but it does wonders for the pacing to always have a concrete goal in mind.

This is what separates Gem Hunt from, say, Open Book. We’re not meandering despite the longer-than-usual scenes and a plot that’s largely about two buds hanging out. We know throughout that we’re going somewhere, which makes me enjoy the former more than the latter even though the latter has a better twist in Connterfeit and a more emotionally compelling climax when Connterfeit forces Steven to come clean about embarrassing emotions. It doesn’t matter how good your destination is if I get sorta bored along the way, and for all of Gem Hunt’s simplicity, I never find it boring.

Granted, a major advantage Gem Hunt has over Open Book is that this Connie is real throughout, which allows her to be an utter delight. Applying the Maheswaran Code of Safety to tracking down and fighting a monster with a giant sword, she takes a character trait that might turn her into an annoying worrywart and instead spends the episode dorking out about survival. Of course she’s basing her actions on a book, this is a girl who went from reading fantasy literature to living a literal fantasy. She’s more role-playing an adventurer than being one, as evidenced by her zealous overpreparation. This nerd’s over here thinking about scurvy an hour into a hike.

And thank goodness Steven is all aboard, because if this episode would suck if it was about Connie being a know-it-all and competing with Steven. Steven invites her enthusiasm without any ridiculous character beats like being worried about his place in the team (more on that coming soon from a more realistic place courtesy of Amethyst) or arrogantly shutting down her ideas. These are two friends on a fun journey, so Connie’s bravado and Steven’s go-with-the-flow attitude are just what we need.

The climax neatly cuts both ways on Connie’s attitude. She loses her composure for a bit and is hard on herself afterwards, but she still gets to show off her training without going overboard. Pearl might not have to do much, but Connie does the right thing in calling for help as soon as she’s able to do so.

I’m hesitant to theorize that this connection is intentional, but I think Connie’s first mission ending in her calling for help (and getting rewarded for it) is a cool lens to examine her anger with Steven in the Breakup Arc after he leaves her behind on Earth for the second time in one season. Gem Hunt might breeze on by for us, but as Connie’s first mission it’s bound far more impactful for her than it is for Steven and Pearl, and the lesson she learned from it is to let people help you. Steven taking the fall for everyone is the exact opposite of what she does here.

Comedy flows freely among all three of our leads—my favorite gag is Pearl reminding the kids that humans need food, she really is the world’s most maternal alien—but the third act entrance cleverly mines that humor for drama. Pearl’s nervous chatting over the walkie talkie comes back to bite the kids when she won’t stop yelling out of their speaker and alerting the Corrupted Gem to their presence, and we can hear that her jokey smugness from “Who’s your favorite Gem?” has crumbled from anxiety with time. Steven’s photography begins as a joke, and breaks the tension when he snaps a shot of Jasper mid-intimidation, but that picture returns us to a state of dread to end the episode. Efficiency might not seem as crucial in an episode with so much time to breathe, but you’ll never see me complaining about a story skillfully repurposing its material.

Still, I wouldn’t quite call this a comedy-centric episode, and not just because it’s primarily a mystery. Connie gets more focus than Steven, but he has plenty of time to remind us that he’s still thinking about Nephrite and all the other Corrupted Gems he could be helping by talking to Connie about it. What could have served as a rote reminder of Corrupted Gems turns into a plot point, as his desperation for signs of hope causes them to assume the humanoid tracks are from a Corrupted Gem trying to heal. But its larger importance, as usual, is its development of our characters.

Steven isn’t as gung-ho about fighting monsters as he was at the beginning of the show, and sees this mission as a way of helping someone who’s hurt rather than ridding the world of a threat. And Connie isn’t as emotionally distant as she was at the beginning of the show, sensing how bothered Steven is by corruption and asking if he’s okay. After the enjoyable but blunt Greg the Babysitter, it’s wonderful to see how much these kids have grown and bonded without the episode shouting “HEY CHECK IT OUT THESE KIDS HAVE GROWN AND BONDED” at us.

Gem Hunt works well as a transitional episode, borrowing elements from Monster Reunion and Alone at Sea and allowing Steven and Connie’s growing competency to form the basis of Amethyst’s angst in Crack the Whip. But it does what I believe Super Watermelon Island and Gem Drill failed to do: it tells its own story first, and allows its role as a pivot point to come second. It means that things aren’t as overtly different afterwards as they were when Malachite defused and the Cluster was dealt with, but if that makes for a better episode, I’ll take it.

Future Vision!

It’s nifty that I wrote this episode the same week that Escapism aired, because it allowed me to immediately identify the Protes bar Connie brought to space. She’s still prepared, folks!

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

Both this episode and I are aware that references to “Connie’s first mission” are talking about her role as a swordswoman, but it’s still a little strange that nobody brings up her tagging along with the Crystal Gems (and Greg) and Ocean Gem.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

This is a borderline episode for sure, because I enjoy it, but in the end it still feels a little too light to rank higher than a like. Which may sound odd considering my top two episodes, but I mean light in terms of that structure rather than the episode’s weight in regards to the greater plot: this may be a terrific episode about Steven and Connie hanging out and adventuring, but it lacks that oomph factor to make me truly love it. Fortunately it’s not a consolation prize to “only” be an episode I like.

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

5. Horror Club 4. Fusion Cuisine 3. House Guest 2. Sadie’s Song 1. Island Adventure

#gem hunt #steven universe #su #steven universally #review

31 notes · View notes

ff15trashgoldenslumbers · 6 years

Note

Could I please request an imagine where the chocobros s/o is being held captive by Ardyn or the empire as a means to get information about the group and to lure them out and a rescue is staged? Can be successful or unsuccessful, whatever you like, if it isnt too much trouble. Thank you

I believe these two go together…This one just kept being the same story, so I made it an OT4 +1 because I kept forgetting who I was writing lol.

~~~~~~

Your head lulled softly to the side as you hissed weakly, trying to recall how it was that you got in this situation. Your eyes felt heavy and you felt like you were going to go under again, a soft pant escaping your body, as you coughed up blood again, destroying the beautiful dress that you were gifted from your boyfriends for tonight’s Gala, but they never got to see you in it.

Since all of them had to be at the Citadel much earlier than yourself, they stated that they would send a car to gather you. Only the car that arrived was actually a trap set for you. Those within the Prince’s entourage are often seen as bargaining chips. You heard one of the kidnappers say something along that line.

“Are you awake?”

You flinched at that voice, the slight motion causing your bindings to tighten further around you and have you muffle a cry in pain. This man was the worse.

“Do let me know if you’re feeling unwell.” The man chuckled, “Tsk, it looks like you’ve gotten blood all over your pretty dress.”

You let out another cry as he grabbed your hair, yanking your head back so you were forced to look to the man.

“Why the harsh look, I’ve been treating you very well since you’ve joined us last night.”

Last night, it was already in the morning, how long were you out? Your eyes turned to the redhead man as he still had a hold of your hair. How long was he going to keep you here, and you had to wonder, if or when he would get rid of you.

“Now, dear lady, how is your acting?”

The Citadel was in a lockdown, had been since last night. It wasn’t common knowledge of the relationship of the Prince and his closest friends had, that was not the King or his most trusted men. Yet when a note appeared last night consisting of a picture of you bound and gagged in a Nif Airship, along with a note of “More to follow”, King Regis canceled the party and had all of his men placed on high alert and refuse to allow his son or his friends to leave the Citadel walls.

“We have to go.” Noctis stated, agitated since he had not slept well last night after seeing the note.

“We are currently under a shut down enforced by the King, even you can not overrule that Noct.” Ignis replied, resting a hand on Noctis’s.

“Besides we don’t even know where they have her,” Gladiolus growled from the other side of the room. “That picture was on an airship, there’s no telling where she could be.”

Prompto sighed heavily, looking to the tea in his hands, Ignis had made it to calm down his stomach, it had grown cold a long time ago, untouched. Only to look up as Ignis reached for the cup, cradling the tearstained freckled cheek. Prompto gave the man a watery smile since the news broke Ignis had been seeing to the others, more than likely to keep his mind off of you.

The four young men turned to the door just after 8:22am when the heard a knock at the door, followed by Cor entering.

“We have received word from Nifhelm.”

The four men stood in an empty conference room, along with Regis, Clarus, and Cor, looking to a disk that had arrive less than an hour ago. With a silent conversation between them, the disk was entered into a player as the tv lite up brightly.

On the screen you sat, tied to a large plush red chair, arms held down by rope to the huge armrests, your head hung forward, your dress covered in blood, ripped to shreds. To each side stood a Magic Tek unit, one holding a gun, the other a shock baton. Everyone in the room worried that you were dead, only for a jumbled voice to sound on the screen.

“Wake her up.”

The M.T to your right, jabbed you with the stun baton, you screamed loudly as it jolted you awake. You panted heavily, before coughing up blood further ruining your once beautiful dress. Slowly your head rose to face the camera, unfocused eyes looking to the camera, blood going down your chin a huge bruise forming against your check, more littered your arms.

“Come now, as we rehearsed.”

You coughed again, only to whimper as the gun of the MT unit to your left, “Ki..King Regis, Prince Noctis, by…by request of Nilfhelm for the safe return of myself, this wish to make an exchange. Myself for the…” You swallowed, looking to the man behind the camera lens, as tears begun to fall down your cheeks. You weren’t a fighter, you had no magic. You were a simple person in love with men that were like a fantasy. You closed your eyes taking a deep breath as you continued, “For the Ring of Lucii, if these requests are not met by sundown today, they will…” You sobbed softly, trying to regain your composer again. “I ask that you please,

“Please don’t! I am not worth this! My life is nothing compared to those you protect! Please don’t, Ah!” You screamed as the MT on your left slammed the butt of his gun into your head, only for the one to your right to shocked you again.

“Stick to what we rehearsed, dear.”

You painted, spit coming from your mouth as you tried to regain yourself, turning your eyes back up to the camera as you gained your voice again, sitting back in the chair. Your hair a mess, your face swollen and bruised, your body ached everywhere still you smiled brightly, “I’m sorry, I’ve been a horrible actress. I would like to try again.

“King Regis, Prince Noctis, and to whomever else may be listening, I could not wished to have been born underneath a more lucky star than to be a part of such a beautiful Kingdom. I love it with all my heart. I’m sorry I could not return home, please forgive me.” You let out another shriek as you were shocked again, this time you head slumped forward and you didn’t move.

Only for the screen to go black and coordinates to appear quickly.

“I don’t care!” Prompto yelled. “They don’t care about Y/N but I do, I won’t let them keep hurting her.”

“Prompto, we can not go against the Court’s the orders.” Ignis attempted to reason, even uttering those words made him sick, he wanted absolutely nothing but to have you in his arms again.

As this was a matter of security, Regis had to involve the court, and the at this time it was the entire council against the King’s and Prince’s wishes to go on a rescue mission. Still, Regis dragged it on time and time again, attempting to appeal to the men to at the very least stage a rescue attempt to get you back. Yet the council stood firm, refusing to sacrifice even the smallest resource in an attempt to return you home, at the moment everyone was on a recess to calm down and clear heads.

“It’s not fair, she’s not a fighter!” Prompto growled tears escaping, “She’s hurt and scared, she was trying to be brave so we wouldn’t worry. I don’t, I don’t want the last memory of Y/N to be like that. We were supposed to make sure nothing bad happened to her! We, we promised her.”

Gladiolus sighed, as he walked over to the small blonde pulling him forward to hug the smaller man, stroking his head, “None of us do, Prompto. There are just rules we are required to follow.”

Ignis turned to Noctis who had been silent the entire time, “Noct?”

Noctis growled, his Father was doing everything in his power to get you back, he couldn’t just sit here. Yet Regis had often told him, that fighting with one’s words was always a tougher battle than swords. Still, that sad smile you gave, he knew the other heard it too, your soft call of love to the four of them, apologizing because you failed them, have accepted a death they could easily save you from.

“Noctis?” Ignis called as the Prince stood.

“Prompto’s right, it’s our job to protect Y/N. The council will keep talking in circles until sunset when it won’t matter. We’re going to rescue, Y/N.” Noctis growled as he moved to the door, only to stop as it opened.

“There you are.” Regis called, stepping into the room, flanked by Clarus and Cor. “The recess is almost over, Noctis I need you to understand…”

“I’m going.” Noctis replied, cutting off his Father, he refused to let anyone stand in his way.

Regis looked taken back, before chuckling, “I’m glad to hear that, what I was going to say was that, we’ve supplied a car. We will handle things here.”

Noctis turned to his three boyfriends in the room, seeing that they were all just as shocked to hear the news. “Dad.”

“We’ll keep the council busy,” Clarus replied, “You all focus on your mission.”

“ You will be able to reach Y/N quickly if you take the back road, should you require back up, we will have a medic and two troop vehicles trail you should you require them,” Cor replied handing Ignis the keys, and a smaller walkie.

Regis rested a hand on Noctis’s shoulder, “Bring Y/N back to us.”

“Are you awake?”

You attempted to move your head, but at this point, you figured that whatever it was that they broke inside of you was still bleeding and you more than likely would die from internal bleeding shortly. Still you were happy that the man who had entered your room was the small blonde. At least you hoped it was him, since you were blindfolded now, and the red-headed man allowed them MT units to rough you up pretty good.

“…mm.” You muttered weakly.

You heard a sigh of relief at this, “That’s good, can you lift your head?”

You could hardly manage that, as you groaned again.

The blonde made another noise before you heard him move away from you and the woosh of the door opening, “Highwind come here.”

“What is it Loqi?” A female voice called, “Shit! What did they do to her?”

“The Chancellor wants us to keep her alive, he believes that someone will come for her.”

The woman spoke again, “Where is the Chancellor?”

“Returned home.”

The lady scoffed, “Typical. Leave us with the mess.”

“It was a foolish plan to start with, risking the life of a young girl, who’s not even involved in any of this.” A new voice growled.

“High Commander Ravus.” The two called.

You recalled that name, he was Noctis’s friend’s elder brother, you flinched as something brushed your face.

“Careful, take this.”

You felt something push against your lips, but with the previous torment that you’ve been through you rather just die from your injuries than allow them to poison you.

“I assure you it’s not poison.” Ravus’s voice called, “Aranea untie her blindfold, Loqi post a lookout.”

You blinked rapidly as light flooded your world, attempting to sit up only to gasp at the throb in your chest.

“As I expected, you more than likely have a few broken ribs and internal bleeding. This will slow it down but you’ll need to seek medical attention.” He replied, pushing the blue bottle to your lips again.

“…wha…why?”

“Why what?”

“Help…” You called weakly.

Ravus sighed softly, still tilting the bottle for you to drink, “This was never your fight.”

You smiled weakly, as you cupped his hand holding the potion. You knew all Nifs weren’t bad.

The one name Loqi quickly ducked back in the room, “The Chancellor wants us on the bridge, seems the Prince and some of his friends just go on board without the ring.”

Ravus stood, “Aranea get her out of here, take her to the starboard side, I’ll lead them to us, give her up, without too much of a fight.”

“Ruin my fun.” Aranea chuckled.

Loqi leaned back into the room, “They’ve taken out about 24 units, we need to go.”

You reached forward taking Ravus’s hand, as he turned toward you, “Thank you.”

Ravus gave you a nod before he followed Loqi out the room.

“All right Princess, we’re gonna play a little game,” Aranea called blindfolding you again, before lifting you up. “Try to hold on. It would be a shame if you died when your heroes just got here.”

This wasn’t good, they were drawing too much attention, they hadn’t triggered an alarm just yet, but still MT units were coming quickly and they hadn’t a chance to try and look for you. It was only a matter of time before they were noticed on board.

“In the video, they look to have her in some kind of boiler room or something,” Gladiolus grunted tossing two more MT units over the side of the ship.

“They would have moved her by now, I believe the holding cells are typically just below the deck, toward the center of the ship.” Ignis retorted, back pressed against the hallway wall, his daggers drawn, only to notice blonde hair and red armor go by. “Gladio.”

Gladiolus peaked around the corner and smirked, “Got it.”

As soon as the smaller man stepped around the corner, he was thrown to the floor and had 6 foot 6 of muscle holding him down. “What the, get off me!”

“Loqi Tummelt, if I am not to be mistaken.” Ignis sneered.

Using Loqi as a map, the group followed his directions to the top of the airship, only to find a person in rather sharp black armor holding your body, and from the pale look of your face and the way the person was holding you it wasn’t certain of how long you were to stay with them.

“Highwind!”

The person turned, a spiked mask hiding their face, only to turn again as they saw Ravus approach them from behind. “Any plans now High Commander?”

“Give me the girl,” Ravus called, as you were hand over to the man, turning your head to avoid coughing blood onto his white jacket. “Stay with me a little longer, you’ll be home soon.”

You moaned, vision still hidden behind the blindfold, home sounded lovely. You could maybe wait until then.

“Give us back, Y/N!” Noctis barked, his sword drawn.

“Drop your weapons Prince Noctis, or the girl goes overboard,” Ravus called above the howling winds

You felt Ravus’s fingers dig further into your dress, to make certain the exact opposite would happen. He was rather the sweet gentleman.

“Do it, and we throw pipsqueak over too.” Gladiolus hissed, holding Loqi by the back of his armor, his free hand twisting the man’s right arm to his shoulder blade. This threat was real.

“Fair exchange, him for the girl,” Ravus called.

Noctis glanced over his shoulder at his boyfriends behind him, each ready to take the offense to get you back. “Drop your weapon.”

“You as well.”

Noctis held his sword out, vanishing it back to Armiger, feeling Prompto and Ignis follow his lead as Gladiolus’s broadsword wouldn’t fit in the narrow airship passage, and he was tasked with restraining Loqi.

“There shall be no interference from your friend.” Ignis called standing back as Gladiolus shoved Loqi forward, “An even trade.”

As Gladiolus and Ravus moved their hostages to the center of the ship, both waiting for the other to betray or make an unjusitce move.

“Hand her over,” Gladiolus growled, his grip on Loqi a little tighter than need be.

“Don’t do it.” Loqi growled trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, he had a part to act. “That girl is our bargaining chip if they came to rescue her think of what else we have.”

Ravus turned to the younger man, hopefully, it was convincing, he felt your breathing start to become more labored, he couldn’t drag this out, but needed to make certain that Loqi came out this live as well. “Here.”

Gladiolus quickly shoved Loqi away as he cradled you in his arms, not daring to turn his back on the Nilfhelms before him.

“You have 5 minutes to get off my ship.” Ravus hissed, turning away from the others, sparing a final glance to you. Hopefully, you would make it.

It was a race at this point, once back on the ground, Ignis called the medic, who had determined that you indeed had two broken ribs and had internal bleeding and had gone into shock twice before they had made it back to the Citadel.

It was another sleepless night in the Citadel.

“We’ve got her stable, we just have to wait now.”

So they waited 3 days, you had fallen asleep and had visitors time and time again. Many of the Crownguard had left flowers and stuffed animals around your bedside. Even King Regis made it a point to stop by every day to visit you, and had the doctors personally update him on your situations as he was footing your hospital bill. He had stated that it was the least he could do since the Council through everything still refused to assist well until after sunset and you were already in the hospital.

Which came to the conclusion, they were looking to find someone to put the blame on for acting out and going to rescue you without proper protocol. Only for the entire Crown Guard to state that that did it, and they couldn’t Court Marshal all of them, who would else would be there to protect their old asses. So it was dropped.

“Hey, Iggy.” Prompto called moving into the room with the others, pressing a kiss to the man’s cheek. “How is she?”

They had all taken shifts to watch over you, once you were out the OR and given the clear by the doctors.

“She’s gotten her color back, and the bruises are starting to fade. We received some lab test back and it would appear that she had traces of potion within her.” Ignis replied, setting down some paperwork, that he had been working on.

“So what, they were pumping her just to hurt her?” Gladiolus scoffed, pressing a kiss to your forehead, frowning that an airmask was over your lips due to the collapsed lung.

“I don’t think that would be true, that potion was saving her life. I also don’t believe that Ravus was the one in the video.” Ignis replied, as Noctis all but crawled into his lap, a common occurrence.

“Yeah, when you think about it even when Ravus handed Y/N over he was nice about it.” Prompto replied, pulling up a chair, only to pout as Gladiolus took it instead. Squeaking as he was pulled onto the man’s lap.

“Indeed, Ravus may be of the enemy side.” Ignis stated, adjusting Noctis.

“But even Ravus doesn’t have that big of a stick up his ass.” Noctis scoffed, getting a disapproving look from Ignis.

“I feel we could have phrased that better.” Ignis sighed.

Prompto leaned forward brushing your hair from your face, before noticing the small Moogle beside your head, “Iris stopped by today?”

“Last night, she thought that Gladiolus was still here. She talked to Y/N for a bit.” Ignis replied.

As the small talk grew for a few minutes…

Everyone turned as they heard the EKG machine suddenly pulse, they had watched twice in the OR it flatline, but each time you were brought back. Quickly it fluttered to life as your eyes fluttered open, only for you to inhale deeply before you begun to cough heavily, rolling to your side as you begun to shiver, ripping your IVs out.

Prompto jumped from Gladiolus’s lap as he ran into the hall to grab a nurse, while Ignis and Gladiolus attempted to stop you from causing more damage to yourself. Only to step back as a few nurses entered the room, getting you under control, they checked your vitals and found that you were fine simply too much adrenaline in your body when you awoken.

You smiled weakly as the nurses left the room, stating they would bring you up some food shortly. Only to turn to your four boyfriends, step towards the bed once they gave the all clear, only for you to lower your head and start sobbing.

“I…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Y/N.” Prompto whispered, stepping forward tears falling from his eyes.

“Y/N, you have nothing to apologize for.” Ignis replied.

“I do, if I was better this wouldn’t happen and you wouldn’t, I’m sorry.” You cried trying to push away your tears as quickly as they fell. “I’m so useless and stupid.”

“Come on, Babe, don’t talk like that,” Gladiolus whispered stroking your head.

Noctis stepped forward, cupping your cheeks as he lifted your head, forcing you to look into his eyes, making certain you saw the tears before he pressed a kiss to your lips. “We will always look for you.”

You sobbed loudly, as he stepped away allowing Ignis to press a kiss to your lips next, followed by Gladiolus and finishing with Prompto, yet your tears kept falling. You tried to stop them when you were aboard the ship but now.

“I was…I was so scared and I…” You cried harder, it felt so much like when you were a child. Stuck inside your bedroom as a thunderstorm raged outside, lighting up your walls as you cried for someone to rescue you. You were powerless then and now, it was frightening to not have that control. To be reduced to that level of fear again. You wanted comfort more than anything right now, so you held out your arms, much like the child your believed yourself to be at this moment.

Only to find them full of love in a moment.

A fortress of love surrounded you, one that you felt was also shaken to the core. You had played the part of someone who wasn’t afraid, but all you wanted was this moment more than anything, so you allowed your tears to fall and you sobbed into a shoulder before you. You were alive enough to do so.

Two days later you were released from the hospital to the care of your boyfriends, your first stop was to the Citadel as King Regis had requested your presence since he had not been able to see you since you woke up, aside from video chat.

You were placed in your wheelchair once reaching the top stairs, having had explicit instructions that you were to not put any strain on yourself until you healed 100 percent, even though Gladiolus insisted that he carry you around, which was shut down by Ignis, as you needed to properly heal. You knew that part would be easy.

The harder part was stopping yourself from hyperventilating each time you closed your eyes for extended periods of time. Lucky King Regis footed for the best physiatric in the Kingdom, and you had wonderful boyfriends to cuddle those horrid thoughts away.

You were wheeled into the Citadel only to have a maid stop you at the door.

“Excuse me, Miss. Y/N, His Royal Highness has provided you a change of wardrobe.”

You looked back to your four boyfriends who also seemed confused, “I’ll meet you in the throne room.” You smiled, as the maid took over wheeling you to change. Only to find a replica of the dress that you were wearing the night you were stolen.

“We had given it a looser fit. We were all rather worried, and are happy to see you are faring better.” The maid smiled, helping you to stand to assist you in getting undress as you grew teary-eyed. “Oh goodness, we’ll have to fix that, the King has very exciting news for you.” She giggled, “While we get you ready, would you care for tea and cake?”

As you were wheeled into the throne room, you were shocked to see the council there. Clarus had explained the fight they had to go through with you and how the old buzzards refused to assist you, not that it stopped Regis from doing what he wanted when he brought Iris for a visit. Only for your attention to turn to Regis upon the throne, Noctis beside him.

“Y/N, I am happy to see that you are faring better.”

You smiled softly, makeup did wonders for your bruised face, “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Regis chuckled, before straightening his spine, clearing his throat, “It seems that unfortunately, you were unable to make it to the Gala, so we will have to this without the paparazzi should you not mind.”

You shook your head, confused as to what he was referring to, “Of course not, Your Majesty.”

Regis stood, only to stop as he heard someone on the council clear their throat, “Does the council have anything to say?”

“It does not matter of her injuries, she will have to reach out to you.” One of the men stated.

Noctis bristled, along with the other men on your side in the room, as he glared down to the men, “She has just been released…”

“If it shall please the court.” You called, as you stood from your chair, stumbling to your heeled feet. “I do not mind Your Majesty, as there are rules, even I cannot be excluded from.”

Regis looked rather concerned, “Are you certain?”

You smiled bright to the court, the biggest middle finger you could do without actually extending your finger,“It would be my honor.”

You lifted your skirts as you moved toward the stairs, smiling as you felt Prompto and Gladiolus flank you to catch you if you lost your footing and stumbled backward. The climb took you quite a bit of time as you moved to the platform just below Noctis and Regis’s throne, thankful for Ignis to offer his arm to you as you stood before them, with a soft sway and very heavy pant mostly leaning on Ignis for support.

“It had been requested for quite some time, and that this thought has been on my mind, yet it seems that there are some that did not believe you deserved this,” Regis stated, his eyes cutting to the council. “Yet the bravery you gave throughout all of this, proves them wrong. The Kingdom is lucky to have one a loyal as yourself. If you would not mind, kneeling.”

You smiled feeling Ignis to one side and Clarus step to the other helping you to kneel in your large dress, before stepping away. You watched as Regis held out his hand, watching a beautiful sword appear in it.

“With the power vested in me, I pronounce you, Lady Y/N of the Lucian court.” He called tapping your shoulders with the flat end of the blade. “It is my honor as your King to bestow this upon you, and I believe no one deserves it more.”

You smiled as tears began to fall, as you bow your head, it still hadn’t completely sunken in just yet, “I am so honored King Regis,” You turned blurry eyes to Noctis beside him, “Prince Noctis. I will do my best to live to your expectations.”

Regis gave you a smile,“I know that you will, as you already have.”

You cooed, as Noctis stepped forward, offering you his hands to assist you in standing, before giving you to Ignis, who helped you to the stairs where Gladiolus was waiting. The large man fed up with your pushing back your healing as he scooped you up easily, and descended the stairs, Ignis and Noctis trailing after him, to your wheelchair where Prompto was waiting.

“I do expect that you will all see to her recovery,” Regis called. “Once Y/N is back to full health she will be taking her seat on the council. It is about time that we get some young fresh ideas.”

You smiled brightly, you were truly born underneath a lucky star.

368 notes · View notes

axela-storm · 5 years

Text

Werewolf AU : 04. Laughter and tears II

******

Hyun waited until the afternoon to return to the cabin, he thought that he could be more unnoticed. He transformed and came out of the cave, it was dusk, the sky was tinted with pink colors due to the sun that was getting closer and closer to the horizon line.

But he was very careful, trying to move with as little noise as possible, going through the most hidden places of the road, being cautious and careful was his intention right now, he needed to get to the cabin as fast as possible, he was very worried about Alister.

The familiar smell made him turn aside a bit from his path, he found another cabin that was there, on the porch, in a pendant rattan chair, the girl with headphones was curled up, she had her eyes closed.

He had to recognize that this effervescent little girl with green eyes saved his life today.

He was looking at her behind some bushes of wild blackberries, suddenly she got up from the chair and looked directly at him, or so it seemed.

"What the hell, she cannot see me ..."

She approached the railing of the porch, removed her headphones, she stayed quiet for a few minutes and then she went inside the cabin.

"So she also lives on that mountain, and I guess these two photographers are her parents, then I'll ask Alister," he was about to go back on his way when he saw the girl again.

She came out of the cabin and was carrying something in her hands, she went down the stairs and left something on the last step, then she looked again in the direction of the forest and then went back into the cabin.

Hyun could notice the delicious smell of chicken and ham, now he realized he was hungry, he hadn't eaten all day, the chocolate bar didn’t count, and this smell made him swallow his saliva.

But as much as he wanted to devour those delicious sandwiches that she left on the porch, he waited patiently until the light of the cabin was turned off and then slowly approached and ate the food that this girl left for him.

"I don't understand, how did she know that I was there, she's a very strange girl ... but now I owe her another favor ..damn .."

He arrived at his cabin when it was already dark, the lights inside were lit, Hyun transformed and entered the cabin.

"Alister?"

"Hyun ?! Where were you all day ?!" Alister got out of his room, he was worried.

"I'm sorry, but something has happened that I do not understand and ..."

"And?" Alister went to the kitchen. "First go take a shower, and then come to the kitchen and tell me everything and very detailed."

"Ok, the shower is what I need now .." Hyun went to the bathroom.

Alister was thinking, lately something wasn't going well. But he could not understand what he didn’t see, what was escaping from him.

Hyun enjoyed the hot shower, his body was tense and tired, after it he felt much more relaxed. He put on clean and comfy clothes and went to the kitchen, where Alister was waiting for him.

"Are you hungry?"

"Not much, but yes."

"Well, in the fridge I've saved your dinner."

"Okay" Hyun took out a plate covered in plastic and took a soda.

"Now you have to tell me everything without leaving any details"

While Hyun was telling him everything that happened during the day, Alister's face became more and more somber.

"Are you sure you heard this man's voice before? Where? If you hear it again, can you recognize it?"

"I'm sure I can recognize his voice, the only thing that I do not remember where I heard this man before, I couldn’t see him, he was inside the car."

"For now we're not going to do anything, especially you, continue as usual, I'll have to leave tomorrow to do a few errands and talk to your father, so I'll be out one day at the most."

"Okay, and one more thing, hmm .."

"What ?"

"Do you know the family that lives on this mountain? I've seen them at the lookout."

"A family? Ah ... yes, they are scientists, biologists or something like that, they live in the house on the other side of the mountain, but why do you ask?"

"No, nothing, just out of curiosity, nothing more ..."

Next day Hyun woke up a little late, he went to do his exercise and after the shower and breakfast, he went for a walk.

Alister has already left and Hyun was alone and had nothing to do for the day.

He went for a walk thinking about all the things that had happened, especially about the girl who saved him and that he did not know what to do with this feeling of curiosity about her and her family.

This girl seemed funny, innocent and quite stubborn, he was smiling thinking about her.

From afar he heard voices, voices of a woman and a girl, this voice he knew very well.

"Speaking of the witch .."

He looked around, then took off his clothes, and kept them under a rock.

"This time I'm not going to be so careless, these pair of jeans I like .."

Then he transformed and followed the voices, they were in the viewpoint, as Hyun supposed. But this time there was the "little torment" too, he was looking at her from a large rock.

She was taking pictures, with her small camera, but then she went down the road taking pictures of the birds and in the end .. she saw him ..

She started walking forward looking at him through the lens ..

"Careful .. look where you step ..." Hyun wanted to say, but he couldn´t ... and it was late ..

She fell into the ravine ...

Hyun approached in a hurry to see if this clumsy creature was fine, she was fine ... well, dirty and looking for something in the mud at the bottom of the ravine.

Then she sat on a log and he heard some sobs ..

"She's crying, she hurt herself?" He found himself thinking that he was worried about her.

She wiped her tears and lifted her head, their eyes met ..

"You do not dare to make fun of me ..."

"Ha ha ... God ... what she is talking about?.."

"Okay, I'm leaving, you can laugh at everything you want .."

"But what's wrong with you? I did not throw you there! Why are you angry with me?" Hyun was surprised "Little silly girl."

She left the ravine and went to the lookout, Hyun heard her conversation with her parents, she was really angry, but not with him, but herself.

From all the conversation he understood that she lost her camera in the ravine and she was very sad about it.

He went back to the ravine ..

"What am I doing.. damn .." he got into the bottom of the ravine, everything was covered with water, mud and the fallen branches of the trees.

"And how am I going to find this damn camera?"

Water and mud prevented him from using his nose, but he kept searching until he finally found the camera, which was under a branch.

"Finally ... shit, I look like a wild boar, my precious fur ... I need to find a river ... Oh yeah, a waterfall ..."

And the wolf went to the waterfall, a dirty and grunting wolf ..

After spending time under the water of the waterfall, Hyun finally removed this mud and smell out of his silver fur.

"Now I am a perfect creature and ... very clean .."

But now he had a small problem, how was he going to return the camera to the little grumpy one, he could leave it on the porch of the cabin where she was, or he could also leave it in the cave ...

"Damn ... why do I have to think about this? I'll leave it on her porch and end of the story .."

Hyun went to the cabin where her family was staying.

It was getting dark, he hurried up a more wooded side of the mountain, to see the cabin better from there.

The lights inside the cabin were lit, he approached it quietly, he could hear the girl talking to her mother on a walkie talkie.

After talking to her mother she started making sandwiches in the kitchen. She was wearing a hoodie with a drawn panda and ears on the hood, and light blue pajama pants, her hair was collected in a funny bun.

She put her sandwiches on a plate then she took a soda from the fridge.

Then she put everything on a small tray.

"Shit ... she's going to go out ..." Hyun, as fast as possible, hid behind a pile of firewood that was next to the cabin.

She went out to the porch and sat on the stairs ..

Hyun thought about it a little and then went out of hiding ..

"The most important thing is not to frighten her ... Hyun you can do it .."

But all of his worries were unnecessary.

"What are you doing here?"

"That's what I ask?" Hyun tried to be as still as possible.

"No no no, go away, I don't want to see you .."

"What the hell ... she's telling me to get out of here ..."

"You are a bad wolf, you were laughing at me .."

"Who? Me?" Hyun was confused, yes, he was laughing, but how did she know about that? ..

"What the hell am I doing, she's a child, I have to return the camera and get out of here."

He went for the camera and then let it fall from his mouth to the grass, near the porch staircase.

She was very surprised, she jumped of joy with her camera in her hands, and then she pounced on him and hugged him.

"What is this? She is crazy, what if instead of me, here was a normal wolf, is she very stupid or very brave?" Hyun was very surprised, but her hug didn’t displease him, she smelled of floral shampoo and she was warm ..

"Thank you for returning the camera..it's a gift from my parents for my birthday .."

She kept talking, but Hyun was thinking, what has this little girl that he could not understand and why did he feel so comfortable in her company …

**********

Next chapter 📚, I hope you enjoy reading 😘

Have a nice week everyone ❤️

#zen #zenny #werewolf zen #werewolf au #mysmess #fanfic #hyun ryu

12 notes · View notes

snowysguide-blog · 5 years

Text

A Welcome From the Dog’s Mouth

I’m a dog with problems, and a useless degree is only the first. Let’s not even talk about my abandonment issues or obsession with bird-seed (I ate half a bag once). A Dogtorate in Journalism? It seemed reasonable at the time, but given the state of the mighty internet, I’m not sure.

My name is Snowy, PhD. I’m told that translates into Pretty heckin’ Doggo. And despite my continued education, I still can’t write or speak English. My human, who has a more expensive Bachelor’s degree, has translated my writing for me. Learn more about her here.

She doesn’t always do it right, but I’m happy anyway. Humans are fallible but no less good.

She works at a general practice veterinary clinic (gasp) as an unlicensed technician when she’s not home with me. She trains people to train their dogs, too, and has worked with as many species as I have hairs on the couch. As a member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC), she attempts to tell herself that she knows what she’s doing. Once she pursues more certifications she’ll have the entire alphabet next to her name on business cards.

So here I am, embarking on this project with my human. I’m proud of you for reading this.

We’re hoping to do a few things with this blog:

Shift human perspectives in animal behavior. Think like an animal and problems get much easier to solve.

Increase information literacy. Humans are great at finding information but sometimes forget that not all of it is good.

Inject silliness into the animal-training world, which while well-meaning can be fraught with human problems.

Celebrate humans and the skills they already have.

Mostly you’ll be hearing from yours truly, Snowy. The best place to hear about animal behavior is from the animal’s mouth, of course. I might have some guest writers along the way--horses, cats, and others--to help me with things I don’t understand. And every once in a while my human might post something with more science than I need in my life.

But for the most part, this is an animal space. This won’t be somewhere the Almighty Dog Trainer descends from on high and tells you what a Bad Human you are. That’s a human way to teach, and it isn’t our way.

We’ve got a lot of animals to thank for this project, and some of them even have two legs. Thank you to my human’s teachers of English and Journalism; you nurtured a love of literature and its value in silly blog posts.

And thank you, most importantly, to every species who has impacted humankind. How many is that? It’s all of them. I’m sorry that humans struggle to think through problems in anything other than a very human lens, but I hope change comes word by word.

Enjoy yourselves, friends. I’ve got walkies.

#animals #animal training #animal behavior #clicker training #dog training #dogs #sgoc

2 notes · View notes

mikunology · 7 years

Text

Mikunology File #6: Kagamine Rin

OK, to make up for the lack of Halloween fanart, I decided to try and actually get out a new Mikunology File/Info Post! It’s been a while, anyway.

So, like the last Mikunology File about Miku, this time we will be talking about Rin, my personal favorite and our token lancer! Strap yourselves in, folks, because BOY do I have some headcanons for this character.

Info under the cut! (WARNING: Lots of ranting. I’m very passionate about this one.)

So, about Rin--Rin is the second-in-command and main muscle of the team, as well as one half of the Character Vocal Series Model 02 (designation CV02-R) opposite her twin brother Len. With her brother, Rin unwittingly starts the more actiony part of Vocal Android’s plotline by completing her road roller transformer mecha, and joins her “sister” and best friend Miku on her musical journeys across Japan and the globe. Rin often finds herself getting more into trouble as a heroine rather than just a Vocaloid due to her thirst for adventure, but is just as important as Miku in the grand scheme of the premise.

Personality/Portrayal

I’ve also made little notes about Rin’s personality on this blog before, but let’s get more specific, shall we?

Let’s start our description of Rin with a description of her by Len: Rin is like the sun, essentially. She’s big, and bright, and warm, and fiery, so much so her light tends to blind people. Rin is cheerful, grandiose, and absurdly energetic, with a constant desire for excitement and thrills. She has a skip in her step and a flame in her eyes, and she’s not afraid to go and show the world what’s she made of, whether it wants her to or not. You could call her more than a little abrasive. But she’s pretty silly, mischievous and non-serious most of the time, especially compared to her always-serious brother, and really, all she likes is to have fun and spread her music. She’s also quite the hard-worker when something catches her fancy, but otherwise she’s a lazy bum--her attention span is very selective.

However, Rin is one of the most notably flawed characters in the main team, for more than a few reasons. Rin is quite self-assured and proud to be herself, but she can be quite selfish, prideful, and arrogant, often getting too caught up in being “the star” or “the hero” to the detriment of the rest of the team. She’s very much fueled by emotion and drive and tends to go too far with things, even if her intentions were initially harmless, and she acts before it even occurs to her she needs to think first. And while her stubbornness and refusal to give in can be one of her best qualities, she tends to ignore warnings about the consequences of her actions, and sometimes only focuses on herself and what she wants over what others want, even her brother. There have even been times where she’s been unabashedly rude to Len, as rare of an occurrence that may be (that usually ends with her regretting it).

Though, while Rin may not be perfect and do the above things listed, she does try her best to learn from her mistakes and fix them, and then go on to try to do better. As much of a ball of fire she may be, she usually tries to use her stubborn warmth to help people, as while she can get caught up in herself, she shares Miku and Len’s dislike for seeing others unhappy. She always stands up for herself and her friends and family, and if you give any of her loved ones heck on her watch she won’t hesitate to defend them. She absolutely refuses to be pessimistic or hopeless (or let anyone else be that way), and would rather fight for her world rather than stand down and let others take it. She’s very much headstrong, and deep down inside, very much a loving soul.

Abilities

Since they’re from the same series of androids you can look back to Miku’s post for some of Rin’s basic abilities (her singing voice, flight, durability, download, etc.) but here I will describe the ones Rin has to herself.

Super strength. Unlike Miku, who is more a jack-of-all-trades in the combat department, Rin’s more prominent specialty is her immense strength, from a source currently unknown. While her strength hasn’t been measured exactly quite yet, to give you an idea, Rin was capable of nearly smashing in her own road roller when it went haywire.

Shockwave clap. A technique Rin learned by playing around with audio allowed her to use her strength and amps to perform a shockwave clap as a backup for her voice. It’s super effective!

Technological prowess. While Rin tends to be a little lazy about it, Rin really knows her machines. Along with the modification of her road roller, Rin is talented at fixing and modifying vehicles and other engine-run machines of similar caliber. She also knows fairly well about robots and is capable of tinkering with simple ones.

Musical prowess. Of course, though compared to Miku, Rin’s greatest instrumental strengths are with guitar (especially electric guitar) and grand piano.

Equipment

Rin is very much big on equipment compared to the rest of the team, even Len. Mostly because, who doesn’t like messing around with cool weaponry all the time? Plus, she usually knows how to handle it best next to Gumi and Meiko. This list is open to change as I come up with ideas.

Her arm sleeves. Like Miku, her most common piece of equipment next to her trademark headphones and hair ribbon. They’re computerized and allow Rin to access all her song data, information, voicebanks/libraries and system menu. She can also video call via hologram with it, and record sounds with it.

Her headphones. Rin’s headphones function most often as normal headphones and a secondary on/off switch. They can also function as a sort of audio-based walkie talkie, letting Rin contact her siblings and the other Cryptons.

Road roller (aka “Josephine”). Rin’s special Yellow Car, the great, the terrifying original road roller “borrowed” from a nearby construction site. Rin has specially modified it to go faster than your average road roller, thus making it the perfect flashy transporter for her and her brother. She also edited it to be a Transformer, pretty much, becoming a pilotable mecha with various functions.

The Rinmobile. A secondary method of transport created by Rin, a small motorbike outfitted with a small version of a road roller’s front wheel and a couple of other adjustments. Rin rides it when she needs quick (and not as flashy) transport across town when not carpooling with the others.

Bonus Headcanons

Rin’s bow tends to emote with her.

She is described as tsundere.

Rin has a special place in her room filled with orange-themed collectibles, like hackey-sacks, bean bags, orange candy, toys, and the like. Rin calls it her collection, Len calls it her “orange shrine”.

She loves Pokemon games. Unsurprisingly, her favorite is Pikachu.

Her absolute worst fear is losing Len, especially because of something she did.

She draws manga of her own adventures in her off time. She’s hoping to be able to publish it.

She’s really good at making sweets and desserts, but not so much at regular meals.

Inspiration Songs

Some songs I used to help characterize my Rin are “RING×RING×RING” (especially this one, it’s basically my Rin in a nutshell), “RinRin HIGH MIND”, “Sweet Magic”, “Bucchigiri ni Shite Ageru”, “I Like You, I Love You”, “Do RinRinRin”, and “Princess Cowgirl Show”. For anyone curious, of course.

#mikunology files #kagamine rin #vocal android #vocaloid #my headcanons #i return with more lore #if this one isn't as good it's because i'm sleepy

46 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

Text

FTWD 5x15: Channel 5 - Analysis

Okay, let’s talk about last night’s episode. I liked it a lot. We saw a ton of interesting symbolism. I really like where this is going.

***As always, spoilers abound below for episode 5x15. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

We start with a video that Ginny's group made. Obviously, she ripped off the idea of making the documentary from Morgan's group and we see her making sort of a faux-cheerful documentary about her community. She makes herself and her people look better than they are. I also noticed she took the footage of Tom talking to Al and manipulated it to make it look like he was still one of her people and happy to be part of her community.

In the opening credits, we see a paper on a tree, which is probably the map from Ginny's community, but it also looks like the lens of the camera has been shattered. By the end of the episode, I think I understand why they use this for the opening credits, but I just wanted to point out that this looks very similar to a pair of Beth trading cards that were recently released. Just saying.

Morgan's group was on channel 4 on the walkie, hence what episode nine was called. This is called Channel 5 because Ginny's group is on channel 5 on the walkie. They’re very much setting up an “us vs them” kind of dynamic.

Overall, this episode felt like a replay of 5x10. Various parts of S5 in general, but especially Them.

Two weeks ago, someone pointed out that Luciana staying behind to help Ginny’s group with the oil was a lot like Beth being left behind at Grady. With that being the case, someone from that place going with Morgan’s group—Tom—could represent Noah, who left the group left Grady with Rick's group.

So I wondered whether Tom would live very long, just as Noah didn't. Well, what do you know? He died in this episode.

I saw a lot of similarities in what was going on around his death. First of all, I know a lot of people were always confused about the fact that Noah was actually being very hopeful about the future and right before he died. Tom is the same way. He was very gung-ho about what Morgan's group was doing and wanted to be part of it. But then was tragically killed.

I also caught something else I think is a similarity. Ginny said Tom's track record for survival was against him. In other words, maybe he'd made questionable choices in the past and was somewhat toxic when it came survival. Morgan’s group didn’t mind and saved him anyway. The same could have been said of Noah. He always pretty much bowed to Dawn and couldn't really survive on his own. Rick's group saved him anyway, but he didn't last long after that.

Furthermore, Tom died after the detour to get medicine for Grace. In Noah’s case, they weren’t looking for particular supplies for particular person, but they were looking for something to fix the solar panels. So, they were on a supply run, which is similar. Just wanted to point that out. And if Tom = Noah and Luciana = Beth, then Ginny's group = Grady, at least in this analogy. And Ginny would be Dawn. Evil female dictator with questionable methods.

There was also a lot of talk in this episode about them finding a new home. It's unclear by the end of the episode whether what they were thinking would be their new home—a Humbug Gulch that's close by—will actually end up being their new home. But I couldn't help but think that maybe their new home won't be anywhere around here. They keep talking about how they’ve depleted everything in this area. Maybe it will be a matter of returning to D.C. and TF to find their new home. Don't get me wrong, they may stop a few places along the way, but they put heavy emphasis on this. Just a thought.

We saw Tom and Janis reunite. More than anything else, that reminded me of Sasha and Tyreese reuniting for a short time before Tyreese's death in 5x09.

Alicia says art makes sense to her. She’s talking about painting rather than singing, but it’s something Beth might've said. Reminiscent of her convo with Edwards about art being transcendent.

They check out places along the way, looking for a place where they could stay. At one point, Daniel apparently checks out a school. We don't see it, but we hear him say over the walkie that the school is gone. Burned down to nothing. Just reminded me of the school in Coda with the walkers.

The rabbi also says that June has faith, which very few people have any more. Obviously, faith was a Beth thing.

When talking to the camera, Wes says “bullshit” three different times. Maybe not super-compelling, but it is something Beth said.

We see Grace and Daniel giving Charlie to guitar lessons, which is kind of fun.

We heard a ton of fives in this episode. We heard the number 50 several times, including being 50 miles East of the Gulch. We heard the number 500, and of course there was channel 5. I can't help but think it's because it's pointing us back to S5. Remember in earlier episodes, the numbers on the mile markers pointed back to Beth episodes in S5. Now we’re still seeing tons of 5s.

Probably my favorite part of the episode that made me jump up and cheer was when a walker got through their convoy’s fence at night. Dwight killed it and found a sheriff's badge pinned to its shirt. I was so happy to see that!

In terms of the plot, it told them there was a Humbug Gulch nearby. John immediately wants to go there because he thinks it'll be a good place for them to settle. But a sheriff's badge, guys! A sheriff's badge! Remember this picture from Still that includes a sheriff's badge/star?

I think more and more things are pointing toward Dwight running into Beth at some point. Just the fact that he's the one that killed the walker with the sheriff's badge on it and showed it to everyone else is a big deal to me. Then there's what happens at the end, but I'll get there in a minute.

As I said earlier, it feels a lot like 5x10. Grace collapses because she's dehydrated. It's obvious that they don't have any water. And it's funny because they don't actually say they’re low on water. At least, not until the very end, but they keep saying Grace is dehydrated and needs fluids.

Obviously, if they had fluids, they’d give her some. They realize there’s a retirement home 50 miles away and hope that they might find something there to help her. This is interesting for a few reasons.

First of all, there's that 50 again. Secondly, in TWD 4x06, one of the Governor episodes, he goes to a retirement home to get oxygen for Tara’s father. There's a lot of significant Beth symbols in that sequence episode and in this episode they go to a retirement home again.

To be fair, this episode didn’t put a lot of emphasis on retirement home itself. If anything, while looking for supplies inside it reminded me more of the golf club than anything else. Still, the parallels were there. They find a couple of IV bags for Grace. The fluids help her feel better. So, we have another example of water saving someone from death.

They all make a big deal about how Ginny would never have made the detour to save Grace. She doesn't care about her own people individually enough to do something like that. She's out about the greater good. (Lots of shades of Grady here.)

John starts to realize that Morgan has feelings for grace. He takes June aside and says he wants to get married when they reach the Gulch. (Yay!)

As they try to cross a bridge, it breaks down. It can’t hold the weight of the cars, much less the tanker truck. The talk about getting people across and maybe patching/reinforcing the bridge in order to get the tanker across. That's when Ginny shows up. She once again tries to talk them into taking her help.

I have to wonder what Ginny wants from the group. Just the fact that she's chasing them around the countryside and trying to convince them to come with her shows that they must have something she wants. We already know she’s lying about stuff. We see more of her manipulation here.

If her operation is expanding as much as she claims, and have everything they need, Morgan's little group headed in the opposite direction really shouldn't be that big a concern to her. And yet, she's keeping tabs on them, chasing them around, and trying to put them in a position where they have to ask for help.

She ends up firing off guns so a walker horde comes and Morgan’s group is trapped, trying to get across the bridge.

At this point, Ginny randomly mentions horsepower. She's talking about how it’s better to ride around in a car than in the saddle all day. "Another form of horsepower,” is what she says. That's a pretty unnecessary mention of horses, if you ask me. There weren't even any horses in the scene.

She also fully admits that she tried to kill Tom saying she will apologize for her methods because they get results. Very Dawn-like.

Ginny tells Dwight that someone in her group saw Sherry a while back. She didn't say Sherry is with her group, only that someone crossed paths with her. Dwight nearly kills her. You can tell he doesn’t believe her and thinks she’s just messing with them. Which actually may be true.

They also have a conversation about how anyone who wants to go with Ginny’s group is welcome to. Morgan says no one will be forced to stay with his group if they’d rather go with Ginny. Just reminded me of Rick telling the people at Grady that after Beth was shot.

No one wants to go with Ginny. That’s when she fires off her gun, drawing walkers, and Tom dies. @wdway commented that it was a lot like the Governor bulldozing the prison in 4x08 when he didn’t get what he wanted. I didn’t think of that, but I totally agree. It did feel a lot like that.

After that, we see them sitting on the side of the road on the opposite side of the bridge. Tell me that doesn’t look like Them.

On top of that, some of the crates they’re sitting on have white crosses on them. Guys, these look exactly like the crosses that signified Grady, and like the crates we saw in 4x01 that foreshadowed Grady. So whether this is to show this is a Grady parallel or that we’ll see Grady again soon, I don’t know (kinda thinking both), but either way, this is super significant.

Let me say it better. If the crates we saw in 4x01 signified the Grady arc coming up, then maybe seeing these here, admidst other Grady and Them parallels, shows the return of that place/arc is coming very soon.

And, you know, it’s DWIGHT specifically who is sitting on it. (Yes, I’m totally pushing for this because it’s what I want to see happen, but we really are seeing evidence that this is where they’re going.)

We do see Tom’s grave, much like we saw Tyreese’s in S5 (but not Beth’s). Actually, we could see this as another Sasha/Tyreese parallel. Tom and Sasha reunited after getting separated and stayed together a short time before the brother (Tyreese/Tom) died. And in both cases, the sister (Sasha/Janis) was at her brother’s grave.

The group decides to walk to the Humbug Gulch location, which is probably 10-15 miles away. So they do. Much like in 5x10, they have to walk a long distance with no food or water, in the hopes of finding a new place to call home.

On the way, Daniel tells Morgan that, with none of them knowing how much longer they’ll live in this world, if something needs to be said, he should say it. Daniel was, of course, referring to Morgan telling Grace how he feels about her. But it could definitely apply to Beth and Daryl.

Morgan then does try to tell Grace how he feels, but she tells him not to say it. She obviously knows what he’s trying to say, but says it will just make things harder. So, they still have heavy parallels with Bethyl, because, at least so far, their feelings for one another are still unspoken.

We also see some evidence that Wes and Alicia might become love interests. Just saying. ;D

Unfortunately, when they arrive, the Wild West location is completely overrun with walkers. They have no food, no water, no supplies, and nowhere else to go. So they finally decide to call Ginny for help. Which is, more than likely, a huge mistake.

In terms of the plot, I think this is what both the broken bridge and broken glass in the opening credits was about. If the bridges always represent the communities (X), well, we literally saw a bridge fall apart under them. And the broken glass in the opening credits suggests a fracture of some kind. So I think this decision to go to Ginny for help is a major mistake and negative turning point for the group.

Dwight refuses to go along with the decision. I really liked this aspect of the episode. Dwight actually left the group to strike out on his own, refusing to go with Ginny.

It's a little surprising because, of all people, you’d think he would want to take advantage of whatever Ginny or her people might know about Sherry. But he recognizes that it is not a good move to call on Ginny for help. He of all people knows how hard it is to extricate oneself from an evil leader.

Now, it looks like he’s going to be in next episode, so he's not disappearing for any length of time, and I’m trying not to get too excited about where they're going with this. But I’m always happy when one character strikes out on their own because there's so much potential.

What will happen with Dwight? Who will he run into? Could it be a matter of the rest of the group being hostages to Ginny and Dwight having to save them? Or might he run into somebody else independent of the group? Somebody who may or may not be a sheriff? Like I said, trying not to get too excited about this.

And I'm not thinking that were going to see Beth next episode or anything. I’m just saying I'm really liking this story line. So, this pretty much ends the episode, with them calling for Ginny and Dwight striking out away from the group.

I'm very excited to see what happens next and where this leads. Next week will bring us the finale. Looks like it’ll be exciting.

What did everyone else think of this episode?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

5 notes · View notes