#lol he’s still a reg is what y’all think

[talesfrommedinastation]

Gentle reminder to fanfic writers:

If you write a ‘happy ever after on Pabu’ story and do not include Echo in some way…

….YOU ARE A BAD PERSON.

Here he is fainting on the beach over how your parents failed you.

The man is the most selfless mothereffer in the whole franchise. Give him a happy ending!

[treesnutsandleaveswrites]

Lodestar

Pairing: The Bad Batch x Reader (Polyam)

Summary: You are on a mission with the Batch and you are worried about their safety due to the conditions of this planet. Part 3 to my Bad Batch Polyam series

Warning: some angst

Word Count: 1883

A/N: I’ve been on a writing binge so I’m just dumping stuff onto you guys now and then I might disappear again lol. I’ll try to be consistent tho y’all

Pt II: Guilt of Prosperity, Pt IV: Night on the Town

XXXXXXX

You helped Wrecker and Echo load the ship while waiting for Crosshair and Hunter. Tech was already inside inputting the coordinates to the planet where your assignment was. You handed Wrecker one last thing and then saw the last two of your group walking towards the Havoc Marauder. You all got into the ship and prepared to take off. Once you left the atmosphere, everyone started to move around the ship. You joined Echo in the cockpit, looking over your holopad and connecting it to the ship's communication radio. This helped you keep track of the mission if you needed to be off ship with the others. You sighed, looking over a map of the planet. This planet was known for rapidly changing weather and you were worried about how it would affect everyone.

“Like I told you, cyare, everything will be fine. We’re trained for this. Even as a reg before, I knew how to handle weather changes.”

You hummed, still looking over the planet.

“That map won’t tell you much, darling. I’m running a diagnostic right now and creating a program that may help us track the weather changes while we’re out there.” Tech explained, which caused some weight to lift from your shoulders.

While you were with them on missions, you never really got to go out on the field with them unless they were in a city or a town. The Kaminoans insisted it stays that way and the batch had no objections to such rules when it came to your safety. You decided to let Tech and Echo have the cockpit to themselves, heading into the main part of the ship where Wrecker, Hunter, and Crosshair were doing their own individual tasks. Wrecker was using Gonk as a weight (like usual), Hunter was doing some inventory for the weapons and supplies brought on board, and Crosshair was cleaning the parts of his sniper rifle.

“Hunter…” You stood next to him, “Can’t I go out there with you guys this time?”

“No, mesh’la. You know the rules. We’ll be fine. It’s best if you stay here so we have direct communication with the ship and Kamino through you.”

“But what if we lose connection because of the weather changes?”

“Then at least one of us will be safe.”

You furrowed your brows and looked at him, “What is that supposed to mean?”

Hunter sighed and looked up from the holopad he was holding, “I just mean that at least one of us will be safe and be able to call for help or go back to Kamino to get help. We taught you how to fly the Marauder, so we trust you if anything happens.”

You crossed your arms and turned away, “What if this planet causes a flash flood and washes away the Marauder over a cliff or something?”

Wrecker laughed loudly while placing Gonk down, “You think too much, ad'ika!”

Hunter shook his head and looked at you over your shoulder, “Why are you so worried about this, cyar’ika?”

You huffed and walked away to the shooter's seat, where Crosshair usually stays, but you were the only other person he allowed in there when you weren’t in a firefight. You sat next to the window, looking out at the passing stars, knees close to your chest. Commotion came from the metal ladder leading to the small compartment so you turned to see Crosshair. The two of you have gotten closer ever since the Kenobi incident on Kamino. Everyone, especially his brothers, knew that Crosshair was not a very social or open man. Even in your relationship, Crosshair was not too lovey dovey with you like the others, but you still knew he loved you. He wasn’t a man of many words, but sometimes you weren’t either. The difference between you two was courtesy. You were very compatible with all the boys really. With Hunter, you two were headstrong and caring over others, which sometimes caused conflict over many different things but it made you two stronger. With Echo, you two were empathetic and understanding with many, especially the regs since he once was one and you had come to understand them during your teachings. With Tech, you are always interested in what he tells you and willing to learn a lot from him while he learns from you. With Wrecker, you both had an intense soft side and liked to be goofy when tensions were high (and sometimes at the wrong times), he was just a bit slower than the others but you always had patience. Finally, with Crosshair, the both of you enjoyed each other’s company and didn’t need many words to be comfortable with one another. He was the most misunderstood out of the batch and you didn’t pressure him to try to be something he’s not, which he was grateful for.

You took a moment to look at him as he stood at the entrance before he made his way to you. He crouched down and cupped your face, grazing his thumb against your cheek. He didn’t need to ask the obvious question looming over you.

“I’m sorry… I just-I just get so worried about all of you. And if I lose contact or you all get stuck or lost, I don’t think I could handle being left alone. I was so used to it on Caetum after my parents died, but ever since we all started our relationship. The thought of being alone frightens me. I don’t care about any of the regs or Kaminoans, just all of you…” You explained weakly, tears in your eyes.

Crosshair only nodded and moved closer to you while keeping eye contact, “There’s a blaster hidden in that panel over there. If you lose contact with all of us for more than an hour… you come after us, alright?”

You looked at him for a moment before nodding.

The both of you exited the compartment and made your way to the cockpit. The planet was in view and the ship was about to enter its atmosphere. You sat in your chair and you could feel your chest tighten as you got closer, which caused Hunter to reach over and pat your shoulder tenderly. The ship landed in a small clearing in the forest and the boys got ready to go fulfill the assignment. You looked out the window and saw the sky start to go dark, and Tech’s comm device started to beep rapidly.

“The weather is about to change, we should try to get ahead of it.” Tech suggested, which caused agreement amongst the rest of the batch. You watched as Hunter opened the door before he turned his head to look at you.

“We’ll be back before you know it, mesh’la.”

You nodded once and watched as he walked out then the others followed behind him, bidding you farewell. Crosshair was the last to exit and he looked back at you. You nodded shortly which signalled him to keep going and the doors shut behind him. You rushed to the cockpit and watched as they walked away further into the forest. Wrecker looked back and waved to you before catching up with the others. It was painful waiting for them on the ship, but they made sure to check in every hour or just whenever they needed to know something about the planet. The program to track the weather that Tech made was also inputted into the ship, so you also knew when the weather would change. It had been an hour since their last check in and you were pacing around the cockpit. The mainframe started to beep again, which meant the weather was about to change. You looked out the window and saw snow start to fall, which caused your heart to race more. There had already been a short rainstorm which made the signal to them choppy, so you wondered what the snow would do. Thoughts started to reel through your mind. Should you stay on the ship in case they find a signal? Should you go looking for them? Should you try to relay a message to Kamino? What if you lose a signal first? What if you’re snowed in? What if they get stuck or lost in the snow?

You pressed on the comm radio, “Hello? Hunter? Tech?”

Static.

You sighed and cussed under your breath before heading to the shooter’s chair, lifting the panel, and seeing the blaster Crosshair told you about. You lifted it up gently, feeling the cool metal against your hands. As you admired it, your communication device on your wrist started to go off.

“Mesh’la? Cyare?”

You placed the blaster back in and answered.

“Hunter?”

“We’re almost to the Marauder, get ready to open the hatch!”

You put the panel back over the blaster and rushed to the main part of the ship. You heard the familiar boom of Wrecker’s voice and opened the doors. It slid up and the batch stood there, snow covering their armor. You couldn’t help but smile as they entered the ship, relishing their presence. They looked a bit worn out, so you took care of preparing the ship for take off so they didn’t have to do too much work. After doing that task, your eyes averted toward the window and you were entranced by the snowfall. You fell silent and watched the white flakes cover the trees and slide down the window of the cockpit.

“Mesh’la?” Echo’s voice reached your ears causing you to turn.

“Sorry.”

He smiled gently and engulfed you in a hug as you stood. This shocked you slightly, but you accepted it. The rest of the boys entered the cockpit and you looked to them.

“What happened out there?”

Tech sighed and sat, pulling you into his lap. You immediately knew something was up and looked at all of them confused.

“Boys? What is it?”

There was a moment of silence before Hunter finally spoke.

“When the snow started to fall, we were sure we would get stuck. We thought we could wait it out, but Cross was insistent we keep going… We were hesitant at first, but he told us what you said to him. Then, your voice came out of our comm devices and we knew we had to keep going.”

You furrowed your brows, “You… you kept going because of me?”

Wrecker nodded, “We couldn’t leave you alone.”

“We would never.” Echo added.

Tears pooled in your eyes and you nodded with a smile, “I… I don’t know what to say.”

“Well… when we got close and Hunter contacted you, we realized we couldn’t keep using your name or the pet names we have for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“We mean you need some kind of codename…”

“I was thinking: Beacon.” Tech admitted.

“Boring! What about Inferno?!” Wrecker wondered.

“Wrecker, she’s not a droid.” Echo rolled his eyes. They bickered about your new codename while Hunter talked quietly with Crosshair, then he held up his hand lazily to get everyone else’s attention. You all looked and were very anticipated for what he was going to say.

“Lodestar.” They both finally said. You all looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

“Member of Clone Force 99: Communications Officer Lodestar.”

XXXXXXX

Lodestar /ˈlōdˌstär/: noun; a person or thing that serves as an inspiration or guide.

Requests are open hehe. My pinned post explains everything. -Tree <3

[crybabyddl]

I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO REITERATE SOMETHING

Yes, let’s circle back to the beautiful performance of Edge of Great. More specifically the BODY LANGUAGE, particularly Julie and Luke’s, which I will be analyzing with gifs.

Exhibit A

Jealous Luke looks over at Julie and Reggie vibing

Julie is aware that she’s avoiding Luke, which she is doing so bc she realized her feelings for him thanks to Flynn earlier in the episode.

Since Julie has put the task of ignoring Luke upon herself even though she has no obligation to, she ends up failing her own mission. She sees Luke’s reaction to the lack of her attention.

She literally FREEZES. She’s emotionally worried to confront what she’s feeling and it’s beginning to manifest physically.

Exhibit B

It gets better y’all. After Luke finally has even a crumb of Julie’s attention, he beckons her over with his signature head tilt. This is important bc he did this with his longtime bandmate during the soundcheck of what would’ve been their biggest performance. If he feels comfortable enough using that body language with a girl he’s only known for, what, a week and a half(?) then you know this puppy boy’s got it BAD.

Julie is well aware that Luke is getting jealous. But in classic Julie fashion, she will try to tune it out instead of addressing it. Our wicked beauty doesn’t like confrontation and would rather just deny and avoid than potentially make things awkward, especially when she knows Luke would ask her about it at a later time.

The look on Julie’s face. Her eyes widen and the classic tight-lipped awkward smile is present. She’s literally saying “ok enough of that let’s get back to work doo doo doo” with her face. The way her body SWINGS back into performance mode as she faces the audience again. It may have been a split second, but when you’re deliberately trying to avoid looking into the dreamy (dead) eyes of someone you shouldn’t be crushing on, any amount of time feels too long. Plus, she knows Flynn is watching and doesn’t want her to lecture her (but she does anyway bc Flynn is observant and knows her bestie too well to let any action slip past her).

Exhibit C

Keep in mind; NONE OF THE GUYS KNOW WHY JULIE IS AVOIDING LUKE. Flynn, Alex, and Reggie have noticed the Juke chemistry, but it’s still too soon for them to get past the “we like each other but we’re too clueless to notice that we reciprocate” phase, so even though their respective besties know, they are still denying. Besides, Reg, Alex, and Flynn know better than to keep pestering if they want to keep their kneecaps. In reality they’re both smart enough to tell by this point, but for the sake of the plot and to make everything more adorably frustrating, Flynn has the collective brain cell under lock and key, leaving Juke to be like *dog tilting its head and making that “a-roo?” noise*

Anyway, Reggie notices Luke being snubbed after realizing that his extra dose of Julie time was slightly out of the ordinary. Luke is clearly concerned (look at his eyebrows and how his eyes travel from Reggie, to Julie, then to the audience to trying and get his mind off it and bring his focus back to the main goal; the performance.) If he can’t have the moment of connection with Julie that he so desperately craves, he’s gonna fill that void as best he can by connecting with the audience. >:’)

But Reggie’s trying to help Luke brush it off by conveying his reaction as ‘look at julie coming into her own! i told you she was a star! and you thought you were the lead singer? think again buddy this girl’s got you beat!’

But since Reggie isnt a master at hiding his feelings yet, especially around Luke, —who was able to get under his skin earlier (“girls, am i right?”)—Luke was easily able to see through that and interpreted what Reggie was saying as “look at julie go, she all in the zone. you’re literally making heart eyes at her get a grip you’re slacking lmao” (hence luke’s right eyebrow quirking at reggie like ‘dude seriously gimme a break u know i need attention like tinkerbell’) even though Reggie’s true message was a bit less harsh and more lovingly teasing, but it’s Luke, he sees things through his eyes and at his intensity, regardless of who it’s coming from. (This is one of the reasons why Luke comes off as selfish at times.)

Exhibit D

Poor Lukey boi can’t seem to catch a break today! Not only does Julie ignore him, then has a cute lil (platonic but it’s luke so it still makes him jealous >:P) moment, but now she has the AUDACITY to interact with Alex? The guy who was out learning Ghost 101 with this Willie guy instead of rehearsing with the band? What gives?! What’s he got that your moody ghost bf doesn’t? >:’(

He literally just watches, and even glances back in a way that, to me, screams ‘did i see that right? did i just see what i just saw with my own dreamy (but dead) eyes? say sike rn.’ \_(*_*)_/

Meanwhile, Alex pays no mind. I like to think that Alex is fully aware that Luke is an angry boy rn, but has learned to ignore it, especially this bc literally NOTHING happened. Either that or Alex has no clue and just truly thinks nothing of it and is having too much fun to think about Luke’s moody and childish behavior. Either way, Alex is just straight chilling and we love to see it *^_^*

Notice how Reggie is right there vibing with Julie and Alex. Luke feels a bit betrayed like ‘not you too! i know you were the first to turn on me but i figured since you’re such a golden retriever you’d be loyal and come back to my side!😠🥲’

Also; Luke approaches the rest of the group, wanting to be included in at least SOME of the vibing, but when Julie starts dancing and smiling with her buddy Alex, he backs up like

“you know what? nope. nevermind. not doin’ it.”

and the group’s like “i mean hey it’s your loss, but luke we want you to-”

“no, bc you chose to piss me off right in front of my face so no luke time for any of you! no cuddles, no hugs, no nothing! you made your bed, now lie in it and perish.”

Exhibit E & F: This is where it gets a bit interesting and theorized hehe...

Now we all know that this moment is just fucking ICONIC

WEOWH NEOW NEOW!!! WEOW NEHR NEHR NER-NER-NER NEHR NEHR NEOWHR!!! (wer nehr-nehr-ner-ner-nehr-nehr!!) WUEHNER-NEUHNER-NEHR-NEEOW-NEOWH! DLOOLOODDUH-DOODLAH-HOOBLUEH-NEOWHR-NEUEHR-NEEEEEEUOWRH!!!!

But hear me out– HEAR ME OUT!

What if... now don’t shoot the messenger who just so happens to also be the theorist... but what if...

WHAT IF!!! Luke didn’t!! plan this?!!!

Listen i know you’re probably thinking:

“Well uh Nicole, isn’t that kinda the whole point? It literally wasn’t planned until Charlie realized Madi was gonna be standing on the piano so he suggested the idea for the guitar solo to Kenny.”

And you’re right! But here’s the kicker:

What if Luke THE CHARACTER, just decided to do this as an “Alright that’s it! You wanna be like that? Well what if I just hit you with my super awesome radical totally cool wowza guitar skills & make a moment between us? Huh? What do you think about that? Hmm? HMMM???!!!”

He licks his lips & that to me read** like he was nervous (**read rhyming with bed just to clarify) so that means it could’ve been a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment thing.

In the second gif, you can see that Julie’s head is tilted, as if she’s a bit confused, but she’s also delightfully surprised.

Julie is quick to smile and scrunch her nose at Luke, something she does often. It tells Luke his impulsive action garnered a positive response from his favorite girl. Julie also starts to shake her head, but doesn’t go through the motion in full, which means she’s still a bit nervous to let her guard down. This is probably because she doesn’t know what he’s thinking or what he will do next. The lopsided smile mixed with the suave, gliding steps towards her probably brought her back to her daydream lol.

Luke’s happy bc Julie’s no longer ignoring him. He smiles like a GOOBER bc this chump is simping HARD for our Julie. So cute! :’)

Exhibit G

And hear me when I offer this:

What if Luke poofed the guys out???

I know, I know. It’s a bold claim to make. But the boys are special, considering they are a threat to Caleb (3 gay-variant himbos vs. a gay magician that could’ve been on broadway but decided to make some sort of deal with a devil so he just entertains capitalists who most likely sold their souls to get into the hgc which i will probably elaborate on in a future theory so dont do that bc im gonna lmao idc we all have big brains) So it’s not too crazy to think that they could share some ghost powers.

We know Caleb transported the guys during You Got Nothing to Lose. And the guys have left a place at the exact same time on more than one occasion.

And you may be thinking “well what if the guys poofed out to give juke a moment alone together?” And to that I say...

Look at Reggie. He isn’t looking back at Alex like “dude let’s give them some space.”

The timing of him turning around, at least to me, makes me think Reggie was surprised by Luke approaching the piano. (But also he lowkey was waiting for Luke to prove him wrong by doing something to get Julie’s attention so Reggie isn’t mad. Neither is Alex but he doesn’t like being told how or WHEN to ghost) Luke doesn’t even give his bandmates a warning eyebrow quirk, a hand signal, nothing. Reggie turns to Alex like ‘dude what is he DOING?’ And before he can even really convey that, they go *POOF*

This man had a plan and he was gonna do it, so he did. Whether it’s the power of love, they stopped performing, or Reggie and Alex actually poofed out, the odds worked in Luke’s favor so he and Julie could have a super special moment, a moment special enough to make an actual living person (Nick) wonder if a “hologram” has a better chance at connecting with Julie than he does.

Again, regardless of who made them poof or how they poofed, they mf poofed so Luke’s a happy hamster. (Idk it just sounded fitting instead of happy camper lol wait what if someone had 3 pet hamsters and named them alex reggie and luke🥺 someone buy some hamsters and let me be their godmother or their aunt and i’ll love them from afar.) Anyway, Luke’s thriving, flourishing, his crops are going to grow in time for the harvest.

You can see Julie lean back as she turns to see Luke. It’s... almost as if... She. Wasn’t. Expecting. Him. To. Be. There..??

Honey badger Luke bc he DGAF <|:) Bitch, it’s Luke mf Patterson and he’s gonna,, GET! IN! YOUR! FAAAACE!!!

You CANNOT tell me he’s not doing the absolute MOST to try and seduce Miss Juliana Mariposa Rose Molina.

Yes I’m making a headcanon that Julie has TWO middle names and that one of them is the spanish word for butterfly and that the other is her mother’s name. Also yes, I believe (i believe that we’re just one dream away from who we’re– oh, that’s not what we’re doing? okay, sorry!) that Juliana is Julie’s full name.

In this house we love and respect Juliana Mariposa (Dahlia)** Rose Molina

**I’m just putting Dahlia there for fun bc I can. :) Whether I’d consider it a possible middle name of hers depends. Anyway I just thought it was a cute thing to add bc it goes along with the other middle names I gave her *^_^* Also, I feel like I made a post giving a bunch of the characters middle names lemme see if I can find it later)

Ok i’m done this took me basically all day from like 10am until 4:08. I obviously took breaks in between, but not long ones...😶

[dreadnought-dear-captain]

‘Til the End of the Line (or Not) OR: See? We TOLD You “No Homo.” Love, Markus and McFeely

*****WARNING: 99.9% SALT!! Contains spoilers for Avengers Endgame!!****

I guess this is part two of my personal processing of Endgame. @pitchforkcentral86 was not satisfied by my timey-wimey Endgame post, which centered on Steve’s choice to go back in time to be with Peggy and the implications of that choice. She remarked that yeah, it’s great that Steve might not be a total piece of crap, Pym particles, yada yada, whatever, but it still didn’t make her feel any less despair over this ending.

The source of her agony: Steve and Bucky’s relationship and its utter lack of satisfying resolution. So I shall address that now, because I think I feel worse about that than anything, and I can’t explain it away with Pym particles.

Anyone who has any investment at all in the relationship between Bucky and Steve — whether you are a Stucky person or whether you view them as platonic but deeply connected best friends — has probably had to spend the last two movies scraping around the floor, searching for crumbs, signs, any hints that these two people care about each other. We have been begging the Russos, the screenwriters Markus and McFeely, anyone who would listen, for anything to suggest that they are even on the barest of speaking terms, let alone that they have the intensity of relationship that the MCU spent 3+ movies explicitly convincing us that they have. I’ll even come out and say that although I ship Stucky in fandom and fic hardcore, I am not an MCU canon Stucky person per se. I’m 100% fine if the MCU wants to treat this as a deep, fraternal friendship. In fact, I see some benefits to this interpretation. How wonderful if men could love each other so deeply and have it NOT be sexual or romantic. But I’m also 100% fine with people interpreting this as romantic love, and there were times throughout this franchise where the actors, various parties in production, and Marvel itself has been agnostic on the subject, if not encouraging of gay interpretations of their relationship. Let it be what you want, fans have been told. Or just flat out post a pic of Steve and Bucky on #National Boyfriend Day like Civil War comic writer Mark Millar. Sure. At times, it almost felt safe to ship them. As soon as Civil War drew to a close, however, it started becoming... inconvenient for Bucky and Steve to be together. Steve needs to go to the Raft. Bucky needs to go into cryo. Steve needs to become Nomad and go secret avenging. Bucky needs to do his Vibranium Brain Magic (TM)/goat herding complex PTSD recovery program. Side note: Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) is my provisional diagnosis based on virtually nothing, because Bucky’s character has gotten so little substantive screen time that we can only guess at his psychological state, save what can be conveyed through glistening eyes and woobieface and “... but I did it.” Wow. Bowl me over, you really got me right in the McFeelys. Though +1000 to SebStan for working what he got to work with to the max. That motherfucker can act. We know for certain approximately jack shit about Bucky’s internal experience post-Winter Soldier. And so, like pretty much everything with Bucky and this friendship/ship arc, I will just guess at what is actually wrong with him. But after 70 years as a POW being tortured and possibly gaslit and definitely brainwashed, that is almost the textbook recipe for complex PTSD, so imma go with that. Returning to this distance. Now, it first appears to be largely logistical in nature. Steve is over here, Bucky is over there. Golly, just too busy to hang these days. All this secret avenging without you. And when we pine — pine — for the meaningful reunion of these two in IW, instead we got a “Hey brah, how's it hanging?” “You know, old and traumatized lol” exchange and a “let’s make sure our dicks don’t touch” back-slappy hug that lasted two seconds. This is without any hint as to whether these two have seen each other yet after Bucky’s de-thawing, leaving us to wonder whether this is really the big reunion we have been waiting for. 

(If we had audio, the sound would be 70% slapping.)

I’m going to pause here, because for many of us, this was devastating. After all, we were left with this shot of Steve as Bucky made the choice to go into cryo, a choice that seemed only somewhat justifiable on the vague grounds of “I can’t trust my own mind.” (Me either, pal.)

Ugh.

Perhaps this was also an avoidance strategy — easier to go back on ice than deal with the emotional fallout of what just happened. And who could blame him? He is probably still relearning how to cope effectively with things after his entire coping system was destroyed by his time with Hydra. But Steve was clearly disappointed or, at the very least, saddened by this. He gets something back just to lose it again. Enter distance. He leaves and goes avenging. Emotionally, perhaps this move to cryo created distance as well. Their relationship was on such fragile ground at this point, mostly an artifact from the ‘40s, and their chance to deepen it was taken away by the writers because Bucky wanted to go on ice for reasons and Steve needed to do Steve things. And so when IW rolled around, oh, did we want them to have a substantive reunion. But alas, we did not get that. We saw equally substantive exchanges between Bucky and Sam or Rocket and far more substantive exchanges between Steve and pretty much anyone else. And then we got the ultimate separation — (fake) death. Again. A traumatic, unplanned loss that costs another five years from their timeline, all before they even got the chance to properly re-establish a friendship. Again, I’m going off of what we actually see portrayed, not off of what we assume or would like to see. We have absolutely no idea how much Steve and Bucky interacted in Wakanda. But Steve busted Sam out of the Raft quite early, early enough that he still had a messed up face from the time Tony went in (unless he was getting beatings on the reg, which is possible). So if he was hanging with Sam since before Bucky went on ice, and Sam just visited Wakanda for the first time in IW, either Steve was borrowing the Quinjet to secretly visit Wakanda on his own to hang with Bucky, or he hadn’t been back to Wakanda since he left the first time. 

Regarding Steve visiting Wakanda between CW and IW — I found this bullshit from Markus and McFeely on the subject of whether Steve and Bucky met or talked prior to IW. The writers could not even agree about their own characters, with one saying that Steve and his crew probably visited Wakanda and hung out with Bucky and the other saying, eh, the two of them “maybe Skyped.” As to the former, this is not at all supported by the narrative or by logic. Infinity War is clearly Sam’s first time in Wakanda, with all that drama about “zomg you’re gonna hit those trees, bro!” as they are flying into the city. And why would Steve  leave his team alone and vulnerable, probably taking the Quinjet, their only form of reliable and safe transportation, so he could go visit Bucky alone? He’s not there for a booty call, y’all, because these guys have barely even rekindled their friendship. Moreover, the other secret avengers know how important Bucky is to Steve. This isn’t a secret. There would be no reason to go alone and no reason for T’Challa to forbid Nat, Sam, and Wanda from coming to Wakanda. So it makes no sense that Steve has visited Wakanda prior to IW, and thus, that would make IW their first meeting, which is… utter and heartbreaking garbage. But at least they had motherfucking SKYPE. MAYBE. Fuck. You. Very. Much. 

So, in the face of this shit reunion and Bucky’s subsequent dusting, some of us kindled hope for the upcoming Endgame. Perhaps we would get flashbacks. We knew there would be flashbacks or time travel because we saw stuff in the trailers and sneak peeks from the set. So maybe there would be something there to account for the utter lack of attention to their relationship in Infinity War. Again, this was the mere request that Markus and McFeely and the directors acknowledge wholeheartedly what they have been building for these characters since the beginning of their time in the MCU. This was not even strictly about Stucky. This was about doing justice for these characters as humans. But there were no flashbacks. Who knows what happened in Wakanda. We will have to fill in the blanks on our own. Not a single comment could be spared to even signal whether the IW Wakanda scene was their first time seeing each other since cryo.  “How’s that new arm treating you?” or “God, it’s been so long”/deep emotion would be all it would have taken to not keep us wondering one way or the other. This suggests a lack of consideration to the fans of these characters and this relationship — which, again, Markus and McFeely slaved to get us to pour our hearts into. So… Endgame. What was that? Bucky and Steve didn’t stand next to each other at Tony’s funeral. Okay. Bucky is not an A-list Avenger. He did kill Tony’s parents. Awkward. Bucky was comforted by Sam, his… guy he sat behind in the Volkswagen in Civil War and fought next to in IW, and he needed comfort apparently (?) because he… killed Martha and Howard Stark (??), which was sweet, and much more spontaneous affection than we’ve seen from Steve in an age, but what the actual fuck??? Was that Mickey Mouse standing behind the Iron Man 3 kid wearing a “Falcon and Winter Soldier” miniseries t-shirt?

And that ending. This was maybe the one implied nugget of friendship between them visible with an electron microscope. They obviously had at least one deep conversation about Steve deviating from the plan to go have a life, and they obviously had a discussion about who would succeed him as Cap. My dreams of Bucky Cap were dashed into dust, but as @pitchforkcentral86 said, it would have been cruel to give it to Bucky. Bucky would possibly have taken it if Steve kicked the bucket in EG, but it makes the most sense to be passed along in a planned way to Sam. So maybe they had at least one good conversation. Way, way off camera. Bucky said he would miss him. Recycled TFA line. Thank God it was not involving the words “jerk” and “punk.” Glistening woobie eyes. Steve leaving to go be with the one person who can make him feel like a whole human being, apparently, because there is nothing and nobody tethering him to this time in history anymore.

Whoa— wait— WHAT??? These are the moments where I literally double check the credits for the Cap movies to make sure that it says “Markus and McFeely.” Then I check the latest Avengers movies to make sure they also say “Markus and McFeely.” And they ALL DO!! The same two men painstakingly crafted the story of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, two men who — let’s be literal in the narrative here, for the sake of making a conservative argument — are best friends from childhood. They hammered on this story HARD, making sure that their relationship was so strong that by the time 2016 rolled around, the depth and intensity of their friendship and Steve’s commitment to it would tear the Avengers apart. And along the way, something else happened.

When you put two people in relationship like this, you have to know that there will be consequences. People will grow very emotionally invested in their relationship, because that is exactly what the writers were asking the audience to do. These dudes did their job, all right! And then something else happened, quite easily, even though these things will also happen under much harsher conditions: Stucky. Winter Soldier alone probably launched a hundred thousand ships for these two — gay, gay ships, so very gay, the glitteriest, gayest of cruise liners — from a hundred thousand ports around the globe. This ship has permeated pop culture even outside the fandom (some dumb gross man jokes from Screen Junkies within, but the Stucky shenanigans start at around 3:15).

And perhaps that’s when Markus and McFeely realized what a monster they created, one that would clash in ugly ways with their forthcoming (heterosexual) narrative, — their endgame for Steve. And so what did they do? Overcorrect. Wildly. Pull the plug. Bucky and Steve can’t fall out as friends completely, but what’s the next best thing? Give them almost zero screen time together, lest anyone be tempted to think they have a serious relationship — and again, I’m just talking friendship at this point, let alone anything else. Make their lines devoid of substance. Keep us wondering about the nature of their dynamic. Did the distance grow too great? Is Bucky not able to reconnect with anyone? Is Steve too busy? Too salty?? Who knows! These are possibilities, but none are explained. Then just poof Bucky off the face of the earth for 5 years to create existential distance. And in the meantime, ensure that Bucky is shown as not even a passing thought for Steve Rogers. Ensure that his name is never once uttered by Steve until he is about to leave him to go be with Peggy — oh except when, in a real dick move, when he emotionally whumps his past self with the news that Bucky is alive for the sole purpose of getting out of a stranglehold. At the same time, ensure that Steve is seen becoming single-mindedly fixated on Peggy Carter, and make sure the audience — including all those pesky Stucky shippers — knows that he considers her the “love of his life.” Ensure we see the compass with increasing frequency and with maximum longing. Insert Steve finding the absurd photograph of himself on the Director of SHIELD’s desk, facing the door for any junior colleague to see her pining over him like a schoolgirl long after he died, which is just about the least Peggy Carter thing I can ever imagine (and these people created and wrote for the Agent Carter TV series!!!).

Then give us our first openly gay person in the MCU. And drop him in the same scene that you confirm once and for all that Peggy Carter is the love of Steve Rogers’ life. Have Steve be so fucking cool with it that he makes us proud and relieved that he’s not a homophobe. Whew! Only… it makes us feel kind of gross, and maybe we can’t quite figure out why at first. But maybe it’s because it feels  personal, like a concession, like the writers and director knew exactly what they were doing to a lot of people who feel a very specific way about Steve’s sexuality and about his relationship with Bucky Barnes. It feels like a tone deaf nod to the fandom. Sorry, guys. No homo. We really did try to warn you with the whole Sharon Carter thing. (Sharon Carter, in an act of gross and misogynistic misuse, remains one of the most criminally mistreated characters in the entire MCU, arguably serving almost entirely as a “no homo” device before being completely discarded, never to be heard from again.)

Which got me thinking — was this move to distance Steve and Bucky so abruptly a reactive move? The divide between Steve and Bucky that happens in IW and EG feels so cold and inorganic. It does not feel at all driven by the natural arc of the characters as established by the creators themselves. It feels rushed and confusing, like it just needed to happen for plot convenience (though not even clearly that), and once again, we are left trying to figure out what the fuck is actually going on.

Part of that is probably needing to lay the groundwork for Steve’s feelings of alienation, which lead him to his ultimate choice to go back in time. He can’t feel too connected to Bucky or he won’t want to go back to be with Peggy. But could part of this also possibly be a reaction to how strongly Stucky was adopted by the public? Did Markus and McFeely realize how much more strongly we love the idea of Steve and Bucky — as friends or lovers, who cares? — rather than Steve and Peggy, which was probably their ending for Steve all along? Did they realize their terrible mistake of bringing them so close, endearing them to us so much, and then realize “OH SHIT,” and then slam on the brakes? Is that why IW and EG felt like absolute shit for their relationship, even for those who are not total endgame Stucky people?

Okay, but what if their friendship just ran its course? Friendships do that, even really deep ones. These two have had a huge chronological and experiential rift that never was really healed (thanks to our dear writers). Steve saved Bucky’s life thrice but they never really reconnected. Presumably. As far as we know in the narrative we are given by the writers. Okay. Let’s say you need to get Steve back with Peggy and for Bucky to become pals with Sam instead because contracts and actors. Whatever. Fine. But if you are going to play the “our friendship has come and gone” card, you need to fully PLAY IT. You can’t make it some vague option that might be true because we can’t figure out what the hell is going on. They need to have an actual conversation. For fuck’s sake, if we have time to fuck around with Korg and Miek on the couch and time to have Banner take selfies with kids and do stupid time gags and a bunch of other little shit, there is enough time to have a brief conversation somewhere to imply that “things have changed” or “people change” or something to imply that the writers were even thinking about the course of Bucky and Steve���s relationship as more than just a platform to launch Steve back to Peggy and launch Bucky toward Sam for their spinoff series.

There was just no depth. How can they give us three movies composed almost entirely of Mariana Trench levels of depth between these two men and then give us virtually nothing in IW and then next to nothing in EG to “round out” their entire storyline? The shape of the emotional momentum in this relationship is so wonky and dissatisfying, and the lack of comment on the dissolution of their friendship in the narrative, the fact that it isn’t even being acknowledged, is one of the worst parts. This relationship died without being honored or even attended to at the most basic level, after being told that it is perhaps the most important relationship in Steve and Bucky’s lifetimes and being shown evidence of that fact.

Moreover, let’s get real — calling Peggy the love of Steve’s life should do nothing to diminish his friendship with Bucky Barnes. That’s not how love works. You don’t just get one person. You can have a best friend — hell, you can have two best friends — and a woman you love. (And even moreover, you don’t have to leap back through time to find closeness just because you can. But that’s another matter with Steve’s character that I will address in a future speculative character analysis on Steve in an effort to explain how he got to this point, because I have a super depressing head canon about it involving traumatic grief and loss.) 

But just like comic book science, perhaps there are comic book rules about love and affinity. You only get one person, and Steve gets Peggy. And apparently Bucky gets Sam. Because contracts. But as I said before, I would have been okay if they had a dissolution of their friendship because that was the course of their friendship. Just tell us what is happening. Have the decency to respect your characters by giving their relationship a true arc, whatever it is. You can’t just recycle a TFA line and call it an arc. That is not an arc. Markus and McFeely goddamn know better and we know they know better, because we just saw a beautiful relationship arc closing with Tony and Pepper and, on a smaller scale, with Tony and Peter fucking Parker.

By the way, the small in-person and symbolic interactions between Tony and Peter in EG? Those are what high quality, emotionally salient, brief interactions between people who care about each other look like.

1. Tony’s picture of Peter in his kitchen: He can see from where he does his dishes. He looks at it meaningfully and thoughtfully before making a major plot-essential decision that risks his way of life.

2. Tony and Peter’s reunion hug: It starts off with some humor and classic Peter rambling. Becomes a full-ass, real hug. Nobody slaps the other’s back. Peter remarks, very sincerely, “oh, this is nice.”  <3

3. Tony’s death scene: Peter is visibly and truly wrecked. Tony looks at him in a heartfelt way. Words are unnecessary. It is perfect.

Bonus IW moment, because it is one of the most moving images I have seen in the MCU: Tony has Peter’s ashes in his goddamn mouth, eyes closed. Defeated.

Jesus Christ. Don’t tell me Markus and McFeely don’t know how to write characters and brief, powerful interactions, even when the characters are not together. They most certainly are very, very capable of this.

So why did we get the lifeless, quippy drivel and lame physical contact they gave Bucky and Steve in IW and EG? Which, regarding their last convo, was Bucky spilling his guts and Steve being like “Yeah brah, you’ll be fine, don’t be a fucking idiot while I’m off being happy with the only person in the universe who can make me complete #surprisesoulmates.” Bucky offers his quippy mandatory TFA callback retort so that the audience remembers that these two once gave an actual fuck about each other at one point in the narrative.  Cue slappy-back-no-dick-touch hug. And please don’t tell me that this is just how men from the ‘40s hug. I would buy that for TFA, but after everything they’ve been through in Winter Soldier and Civil War? I am not buying it.

**Slap-slap**

So we get a Steve Rogers who exits the MCU permanently by making a contentious, questionable final choice with questionable implications that take a graduate degree and/or a hive mind to questionably figure out (or else I’m just a fucking idiot and I’m the only one who needed those things). And we also get the profoundly dissatisfying demise of a relationship that we invested a tremendous amount of emotional energy in because that is what the screenwriters and directors asked us to do. 

I am not writing this as a diehard Stucky shipper. I love Stucky, don’t get me wrong. It’s all I read and write in fandom. And I can certainly buy a world (at least, in Caps 1-3) where canon Steve’s love for Bucky is the gay kind and vice versa. Sure. But I am writing this as a person who loves good characters and good story, and this is such a hard fail that even if I had no emotional investment in these two characters, I would wonder what Markus and McFeely had against Steve and Bucky that they let their garden succumb to drought while they tended so considerately to Tony and Peter and Tony and Pepper and Steve and Natasha and Steve and a dead woman and Thor and Bruce and Thor and fucking Rocket, pretty much all of whom (with the exception of Tony and Pepper) have had so much less at stake, so much less time invested, and so much less of a reason for the audience to give a fuck.

But more importantly, I am writing this as a lover of Steve and Bucky, two people who have a well-established, rock-solid, indisputable human relationship that deserves so much more than what it got, especially given all of the unspeakable suffering these men have experienced separately and as a byproduct of their separation. Canonically. This is not made up fandom shippery superimposed upon Markus and McFeely’s precious creation. This is the truth of these two men as determined by the hands of the creators who also neglected them into nothingness, which is arguably a fate far worse than one or both of them dying an actual, final death.

I am left feeling disappointed and betrayed as a fan, wishing, as others have confided in me, that I was more of a Tony person and had been all along. Because then I would be walking away from this still grief-stricken, but at least it would be for the right reasons.

--

--

I will leave you with this, arguably one of the last in-character moments for Bucky and Steve in the MCU. 

[urwarriorangel]

bad (reggie mantle drabble)

hi hi hiiiii, still some more halloween drabbles! bc my late ass always gives 110% LOL! i love ross butler as reggie and i really hope y’all do too! pls lmk what you think xoxo

w: ross butler’s reggie mantle is a warning in and of itself, unwanted groping, bit of violence, flirty reg (!no gifs r mine!)

I am having a wardrobe malfunction and I need to borrow your shirt! I don’t care if it’s your football jersey, MY ASS CANNOT TAKE MUCH LONGER IN THIS FUCKING SMALL ASS SKIRT! will you stop staring at me and give me your jersey? jfc I’ll go as you tonight, I guess. thank you, now--why are you looking at me like that? (feat Reggie Mantle)

“Hey, Reggie! Hey!” You call out for your friend from behind a bedroom door, desperate not to be seen by some random passerby.

“Hey, Y/N. What’s--?”

“Reggie, get in here,” you pull him inside the bedroom and he looks at you, a little wide-eyed. “Relax, Reg. I’m not here to seduce you.”

“While I would love to devour you, I understand. Not everyone can handle--”

“If you say Mantle the Magnificent, I’m going to vomit,” you threaten and Reggie playfully glares at you.

“Alright, alright, what do you need from me? If it’s two hands to cover your ass, I am down ma,” he smirks and finishes his drink as you roll your eyes at him.

“Ugh this dress is too short, Reg,” you furrow your brows and look at the mirror. “Cheryl convinced me to buy it, but with curves like mine it crosses the fashion line and ends up on just the hoe end of things.”

“What?” Reggie gives you a confused look and you shrug, pulling yourself out of your self-pity party.

“Never mind. My point here is, I need to borrow your shirt. That, and, I need your help unzipping this thing,” you gesture towards your dress but Reggie slowly shakes his head, almost as if he’s about to say--

“No way, Y/N,” Reggie shakes his head and your eyes narrow at him. “One, this is my jersey. Coach will kill me if anything happens to it. And two, you look hot as fuck in this dress. You’re the hottest girl in the whole damn room, ma. And before you give me a smart ass answer, I’m not talking just this room. I mean in every room. You’re killing it.”

“One, who do you think would take better care of your jersey a drunk you or a sober me?” You pull the dress down as low as you can without your breasts popping out and give Reggie a look. “And two, while that was a nice compliment, Reggie, I’m not feeling that way. I feel like trash, I feel insecure, and I’m going to go home.”

“What?” Reggie’s face falls as he watches you, a small smile on your face as you shrug.

“Yeah, I’m just gonna head home. I’ll wrap a sheet or something around myself,” you turn to face the bed and grab the first sheet you see, wrapping it around yourself before turning to look at your friend. “I’ll text you when I get home, okay? You have--”

“Here,” Reggie takes off his letterman and quickly pulls off his jersey for you to wear. You raise your brows as you give him a once over.

“Holy hell, Reggie, talk about hot,” you whisper and you swear Reggie blushes, but it’s gone so fast you’re sure you imagined it.

“Now take that damn sheet off and let me unzip your dress,” Reggie quickly pulls on his letterman and you nod, giving him a sweet kiss on the cheek before turning around and tossing the sheet back on the bed.

You move your hair to one side and feel Reggie’s breathing against the back of your neck. You feel his hands against your shoulders and he begins to carefully unzip your dress, fingers ever so gently grazing against your bare back as he reaches the bottom. His hands remain there for a moment too long before he pulls away and rubs the back of his head.

“I, um, I’ll walk you home if you still want to go,” Reggie clears his throat and turns around, so that you can change in peace.

“Thank you, Reggie,” you quickly pull the dress off and pull his shirt on, happy that it’s long enough and big enough and smells like him. “I-I’m done.”

Reggie turns around to say something, but he can’t seem to get any words out. You’re folding the sheet and tossing your dress in your purse and Reggie can’t help but watch you, a sort of warmth taking over him as he realized just how much he liked you wearing his jersey. You’re done cleaning up and you look at Reggie, only to notice him unmoving still.

“Hey, is everything okay?” You whisper to him and still, nothing. “Reggie?”

You walk a little closer and he coughs, breaking out of his daze as he nods vigorously.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” he nods and clears his throat as you give him a look.

“You don’t have to walk me home if you’d rather stay,” you shrug and turn around, looking for your purse. You find it on the floor and lean over, a curse escaping Reggie’s lips as his eyes land on your lace panties. You quickly get up and give him a worried look. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” his voice cracks when you place a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, come on. I’m taking you home.”

“If you insist,” you shrug and walk out of the bedroom, Reggie quickly placing an arm around your shoulder as some drunk pervs whistled at you. “God they’re gross.”

Some drunk asshole reaches up and grabs your thigh, catching both you and Reggie by surprise. You yelp and Reggie turns around, ready to punch him.

“You know what?” He picks the guy up, pulling his arm back as the guy laughs drunkenly.

“Reggie, no!” You grab his hand, stepping between him and the guy. “He’s not worth it.”

“Listen to her,” the guy grabs your ass and you turn around, jaws clenched as Reggie gets ready to punch him. “She needs--”

You cut him off with a punch to the face, breaking his nose with the power behind your fist.

“She needs you to fuck off, jackass,” you glare at him and grab a stunned Reggie by the arm, leading him out of the house as the crowd parts for you two.

As soon as you’re out on the sidewalk, Reggie stops and you turn to face him, a questioning look on your face.

“That was the hottest, most badass thing I’ve ever seen. Holy fuck,” he whispers, shaking his head as his eyes study you.

“Thank you,” you smile widely at the compliment and wrap his arm around you again. “Now come on, walk me home. I’ll make you some hot cider if you’re good.”

“So I get cider if I’m good?” He raises a brow as you lead him to your apartment, a smirk on your face as you nod. “What do I get if I’m bad?”

“Me.”

[gummysungshine]

The Only Exception                 [FFXV Cor/Loqi]

Part 1 of ?

Fic masterlist: http://gummysungshine.tumblr.com/tagged/masterlist

Pairing: Cor/Loqi Words: 879 Rating: Teen??? (rating may go up in future parts) Warnings: Unbeta’d so there might be mistakes.

Expect irregular and sporadic updates :’) Enjoy the wonderful beginnings of some same-age Corqi ^w^ lol

Fic info: - Set 30yrs before before the start of FFXV. - Ages at the beginning are as follows: Loqi - 15 Cor - 15 Regis - 20 Clarus - 25 Cid - 47 Weskham - 23 Permalink: http://gummysungshine.tumblr.com/post/165676455249/the-only-exception-ffxv-corloqi

-----

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty.”

With a nudge to the arm, Cor woke with a start. Eyes wide, taking in his surroundings, it took him a moment to realise the car was no longer moving. Rubbing tiredly at his face, adjusting his askew beret upon his head, he hopped out of the car and joined the rest of the group.

“Where are we?” He asked, still a little sleep disoriented.

“We’re stopping for the night.” Clarus informed. “Cid’s getting the rooms sorted.” He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the man at the front of the motel.

“Why don’t we just camp? Wouldn’t that be easier?” Cor queried, stretching out his stiff limbs with a small groan.

“Storm’s said to be rolling in.” Weskham explained before Clarus could speak. “Could keep us here for a couple of days if it’s as bad as they say.”

“Once it passes, we’ll get down to Caem.” Regis chimed in, leaning against the side of the car. “Think of this as a...little break.” He smiled at the youngest.

While he couldn’t exactly go against Regis’ wants, Cor didn’t think it was wise to waste more time— time they didn’t really have. Their destination was Accordo, still an awful way away from their current location. Getting there via boat was the plan, but said boat was still a few hours away, down by the docks at Cape Caem. Cor supposed it’d be too dangerous to set off over the waters if a storm was brewing, reluctantly obeying what the Prince wished to do for the time being.

“Rooms are sorted.” Cid approached, jangling both keys in his hands. “Who’s sleeping with who?”

“Uhh...” Regis held back a laugh, watching the realisation bloom on the eldest’s face.

“Y’all know what I mean! Don't be so childish, Reg.” Rolling his eyes, Cid tossed one room key to Clarus, the shield catching it with ease. “I take it you'll wanna share with His Highness, right? You can take the kid, too.”

“What did I tell you about calling me that?” Crossing his arms, with a frown of annoyance pulling at his lips, Cor really didn't appreciate the name.

“I’ma call you it till you're no longer a kid, kid.”

With the other three laughing, Cor simply ignored their chuckles, shooting the eldest the hardest glare he could muster. Being treated like a child wasn't something he enjoyed. Not at all. Sure, he was only fifteen, but his attitude and accomplishments vastly surpassed his age. Following behind Regis and Clarus, he stayed silent as the group split off to their respective rooms. Waiting for Clarus to stop fumbling with the lock - the prince snorting with laughter at his shield’s ineptitude - a figure emerging from the room next to theirs had Cor glancing in their direction.

A young, blond boy carrying a basketful of what looked like bedsheets and towels exited the room, somewhat struggling to balance the basket against his hip as he locked the door behind him. Cor guessed he must've been around his own age, although considerably smaller and weedier than himself. The boy was actually pretty tiny, now that Cor took a better look at him; probably no taller than five-foot-two, maybe five-three. In fact, he was almost certain the kid had to be younger than him; his face retaining an awful lot of ‘baby fat’, giving him an innocent, almost cherubic look as his outgrown ash-blond locks framed his features.

The boy offered him a bashful smile, one that had Cor looking away, realising he'd been staring. Following Regis and Clarus into their room, now that the shield had finally worked out how to unlock it, he caught one last glimpse of the blond as he shut the door behind them.

‘Does he work here?’ Cor wondered, finding it a little strange that he seemed to cleaning out the rooms. ‘He looks too young to.’

“This one’s mine.” Regis declared, all but leaping onto the bed furthest from the door.

“Fine by me.” Plonking himself down onto the bed adjacent, Clarus let out a sigh of satisfaction as he laid back. “Nice to sleep in a soft bed again.”

“This so beats camping.” The prince rolled over onto his side.

“Camping’s not that bad.” Cor argued, sitting comfortably on the only bed left in the room.

“Bad enough.” Regis countered. “Especially when it's training. Holy Ramuh do I hate camping when it rains—” A sudden crash of thunder in the distance silenced him for a moment. “Speaking of which, looks like it was a good idea to stop here after all.”

Having hoped maybe the storm would pass, Cor could see his hopes had been dashed. Staying in one place for too long, outside of Insomnia, was never a good idea. With the threat of the Empire ever looming, he worried they'd all be sitting ducks if word of their travels reached Niflheim. It was only a matter of time before the Empire caught wind of their plans, just like with everything else. They needed to remain swift and perceptive if they were to outsmart their enemies. Resigning himself to the fact that there was nothing he could do, Cor hoped they wouldn't have the Imperial Army on their tail anytime soon.

[marauder--harder]

Memories- A Sirius Black Imagine (Part 8 of Alone Together)

A/N: Why hello there, long time no chat. I’m not even going to make excuses. I’m just apologizing. I figured I should post this now, otherwise I don’t think I’ll ever get it up. I’m sorry if it is shite, as I went for a more subtle approach. I’m also going to be doing an epilogue to the series, as soon as I come up with an idea for it lol. In the meantime, enjoy the last installment of Alone Together. It has been a wild ride, and I hope y’all like it. Warning: It is the longest thing I have written thus far for y’all. Thank you. :) 

Past Installments: Alone Together. (part 1) - Implementations. (part 2) - Routines. (part 3) - Replacements. (part 4) - Revelations. (part 5) - Walls Built. (part 6)  - Impenetrable. (part 7)

It was three days later, during dinner in the Great Hall, when you got the letter. You didn’t think much of it at first, as the holidays were coming up and you thought it was probably a note from your mother confirming your plans for this break.

However, when you opened the note and recognized the swirling, neat cursive handwriting you furrowed your brows in confusion. You knew it was Sirius’ handwriting, as his upbringing forced him into countless penmanship classes throughout his childhood. He always had such perfect handwriting, something you remembered you were often jealous of.

Dear Y/N,

I know you don’t want to hear from me, you’ve made that apparent; but I need to see you. I want to apologize and explain everything. Meet me where you need me at 9 o’clock tonight.

Patiently waiting,

S.B.

Your eyes scanned over the note again and again, trying to read for some kind of hint that this was going to backfire. Sirius wanted to apologize?? It wasn’t often that the young boy tried to atone for his mistakes, as he was usually much too prideful to eat crow. However, this note left you even more confused by its vagueness.

Where the hell did you need him? Your mind automatically went to your own dorm, yet you doubt Sirius would choose there as a meeting spot. If he was truly going to come clean then he would want to do it alone; where there was no chance of being seen or heard by your roommates.

Yet, not being able to come up with another spot, you sighed and decided you’d wait there until you could think of another place to meet him.

As day turned to night, your stomach fluttered with anticipation and for once you weren’t weighed down. The nerves setting you into a live wire were too strong to have you concentrate on anything except his stupid riddle.

9 o’clock slowly came and went, and you started to fear that you were either in the wrong place or Sirius decided to not show. Yet, your brain chose to focus on the former rather the ladder in fear of yet another rejection.

Meet me where you need me.

Where did you need Sirius? Or more importantly, where did Sirius think you needed him? Already checking your usual spots to meet up, you sighed, still coming up with nothing. You checked your room, his room, the common room, and even the astronomy tower--a place the two of you would both go when neither were tired but you still wanted company. Sirius always said it was a place he went when he needed to find enough peace to clear his head; and that you should find your place like that.

With a gasp, you sat up and quickly got out of bed. You knew where to go.

Your feet ran down the stairs and through the portrait hole, to the seventh floor corridor. It was the only place Sirius could possibly be. It was the only place that you’d find only when needed.

You ran down the corridor quickly, turning right and stopped at two golden doors that appeared in front of you.

The Room of Requirement.

You slowly opened the door and walked in, smiling at the scene before you.

The room was dimly lit by only a few small lamps in the room. The main one was sitting next to a large, plush bed set in the back of the room. You looked around to see three tall bookshelves standing off to the side of the bed, flush against the neighboring wall. It was exactly how you remembered it, down to the smell. You took in a deep breath, inhaling the scent of a campfire by the beach. It was salty and refreshing, yet earthy and calming; it brought you back to the memory.

You were with Sirius, laying next to each other in your bed a few months back. Neither one of you were tired, and you both were talking softly in the late hours of the night. You asked him about his favorite place, his happiest memory.

Sirius stood suddenly and offered his hand to you. You took it and he led you down the Grand Staircase to a secret passageway that led to the Astronomy Tower. Only once you were at the very top did he say anything.

“Regulus and I used to come up here; you know, before I ran away. The two of us didn’t really get to see each other once I was sorted, but he is my brother, and I love him. Even if he doesn’t think I do. Whenever either one of us were stressed, we’d come up here to think. It was back in third year, the first time I saw him. He was upset over being sorted into Slytherin.”

Sirius turned, leaning on the edge of the balcony, and looked out at the grounds below him. “You know, he wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor like me? He would have been too, but he asked to be in Slytherin. He said he was scared of what my parents would do.” You heard him take in a deep breath before continuing. “I would have never guessed; but I suppose one of us had to make our parents proud.” He paused, as if remembering something that was long gone, then chuckled softly.

“We used to joke, saying that it was because we were both Blacks that we’d find our spot underneath the stars. But after I ran away, Reg stopped coming. I still come up here sometimes though, if I need to clear my head.”

Your hand reached out to cover his, but stopped just short of doing so. It found its place next to his, leaning on the edge of the balcony; close enough to brush your pinky with his but nothing more.

Sirius lifted his head and you watched the wind blow through his hair wildly. He had such a distant look in his eyes that when he spoke, you jumped.

“Where’s yours?”

You told him it was with your parents, back in a time when you didn’t realize anything was wrong in the world. There was no war, no stress, no loneliness. You were just a simple kid who wanted to enjoy her life, and live it to its fullest potential. You were naive back then, but happier.

“My parents used to rent a house on the beach every summer as a kid. It was the first time I slept in my own room, and I was scared. So, my parents would sit with me and read. It started my interest in muggle books, and calmed me from the stress of being alone.” You chuckled bitterly. “I guess even then I didn’t like being alone; I just didn’t know it yet.”

You described the layout of the room to him, how everything had its perfect place that made it feel so much like home. Not even your own room felt as calming as your summer house did. The scent of fire from the late night bonfires, and the lingering scent of saltwater from the shore below you always calmed you.

“It was when I was happiest.”

Sirius smiled and rested his hand on top of yours. “It sounds like a beautiful place.”

You looked around the room and saw Sirius sitting by a fireplace that was opposite the bed. I guess the smell had to come from somewhere.

“I thought you weren’t going to come.” His voice was soft and quiet, much like it was when you’d talk with one another late at night and early into the morning.

You walked over and crouched down next to him, where he was poking the kindling. “And miss out on my favorite place? I don’t think so.” You nudged him gently, a smirk on your face.

You didn’t know why you were trying to make light of the situation. You knew that rationally you should be upset and maybe even angry, but you weren’t. Perhaps it was because he looked so sad staring into the fire; and you had only seen him like this a handful of times in the years you had known Sirius. Perhaps it was because he said he was going to apologize. You knew it took a lot to bring Sirius to that conclusion, as he didn’t apologize often on his own accord. It wasn’t like he was a bad guy or anything, but he had difficulty admitting his faults to himself, let alone another person. Yet, perhaps it was because you were just so tired of being angry at him. You missed being his friend so desperately, and even if you couldn’t have him as a lover, you would still want to love him as a friend.

A sad chuckle passed between you, quickly fading away into silence. This was awkward; which was something you had only felt once with the boy, the first night that you spent together. Though uncomfortable, it brought back a strong feeling of nostalgia that seemed to help.

“There was never a fireplace in my room.” You don’t know why you had said it; but the words came tumbling out before you could stop them. You felt the tips of your ears burn in embarrassing shame. He had done this all for you, and you were criticizing him?

Yet, another deep chuckle erupted from the boy sitting next to you. “Sorry. I know it may not be exactly like your old house, but I tried. I wanted to make it up to you for, well, everything.”

“It’s better.” More words you couldn’t stop.

Sirius’ head snapped up towards you, a genuine surprised smile split across his face. “Really?”

You found yourself mirroring him as you nodded slowly. “Well, yeah. I mean, the fireplace makes it warmer in here, and gives the room a nice sort of ambiance. And the bookshelves weren’t really sat there, but I kind of like them actually. It makes the room more symmetrical. Plus,” you paused, looking back towards him. “You’re here.”

“But, I was a prick, and ignored you, and told you I didn’t care about you, and—”

“—and I thought you said you’d be apologizing.”

His eyes widened slightly in realization, scared that he had upset you further. “I am! Well, trying to—I mean—It’s just—” He groaned in frustration, burying his head in his hands. “Why is this so fucking difficult?”

You laughed loudly, long since forgetting to try and hide your amusement with his reaction. “Sirius, it’s okay. It isn’t your fault you got involved with someone else. I get that you wouldn’t have wanted to keep up our arrangement so you could see her. You could have just told me.”

Sirius’ brows furrowed in confusion. “So I could see her—is that what you thought? That I was ditching you to be with someone else?”

You looked down to your hands, now wringing themselves together over and over. This is not where you wanted this conversation to head. “Well, I mean, wasn’t it? I know that I was getting clingy and you now had some other girl, so you really didn’t need me there; and I tried not to be suffocating. Although, I probably was anyways and I’m really sorry for that. I know you used our arrangement to help yourself out too and I should have realized that you were better. I should have realized that you didn’t need me, that I wasn’t enough, and that you had somebody else.”

By now tears started pooling in your eyes, your voice thick with emotion as you tried desperately to keep your walls up. He was supposed to be apologizing. You came because you wanted closure and to go back to being friends. You spilling your heart out to him wasn’t going to do that.

Taking in a deep breath, you closed your eyes and willed the tears away. You weren’t going to cry over him anymore. “Look, Sirius, I am happy for you—I really am. But I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m sorry I was too much for you, but could we try to be friends? Please? Because all of this separation and fighting is really exhausting.”

Sirius looked at you and tried his hardest to break through the walls he could see you actively building around him.

“I hurt you.”

It wasn’t a question, but rather a statement; to which you only nodded. There was no use lying to him at this point.

“I hurt you more than just not being there for you when you needed me.”

Another nod.

“I hurt you because you felt like you were suffocating me?”

A question this time, answered by another nod.

“—And I hurt you because you felt like you weren’t enough.”

You weren’t sure if this was a question, but nodded all the same. The tiniest stinging prick of fear struck on the back of your neck at where you thought this was headed.

“—And,” he paused, taking in a deep breath. It looked as if he was pained to say this, and you grew more nervous. “—And I hurt you because I was with someone else, when I should have been with you.”

You didn’t nod, clearly unsure as to what he was implying. “Sirius, you don’t have to be with me, I get it if you—”

“Let me rephrase that.” He cut you off quickly, “I hurt you because I was with someone else, when I wanted to be with you.”

You scoffed, amused by his backtracking. “It’s okay that you would have rather been with one of your girlfriends. I understand that Sirius. What I didn’t get was all of the stuff about wanting a real life with someone. I mean, I guess old habits die hard but you really sold me on not wanting to fuck around.”

He groaned loudly and shook his head. “No, I really did want to be with you; I wanted—want something that’s real. That was the issue!”

“What?” Surely, that wouldn’t have been an issue for him; he already had you. He had to of known that.

“I wanted to be with you so much that it scared me, Y/N. I was falling into a routine, I was becoming mundane, and I liked it. I wanted to settle down! I was changing into—I was becoming—”

“You thought you were becoming your parents.”

You don’t know why you didn’t think of it before. You knew that he never wanted to be anything like his parents; that he feared being stuck in the same ways as anything related to being Black. If he thought that coming to you, feeling settled for once was like his parents, of course it would have scared him.

“I was; and I couldn’t ask you to be like her. You are too good, too beautiful, too perfect to be her, Y/N. I was so happy with you, I was so in love with you; I got scared and I ran.”

His head was hung low, staring intently into the flames of the fire. It was strange how similar he looked to the first night he had told you about being lonely. The soft glow of the fire lighting up his tired face, it seemed as if you both were back there, telling each other your secrets for the first time.

“You’re not them, you know.” You started, and hesitantly reached out, taking his hand in yours. “No matter what you do, you're not them. You are so kind, and strong, and good Sirius. It doesn’t matter what routine you have. It doesn’t matter how you live your life because you are nothing like them. I promise, love.”

You felt him squeeze your hand tightly, as if you were going to disappear. You squeezed back, a silent way of telling him that you weren’t going anywhere.

“I still hurt you.” His voice was low and raspy. You could tell he was holding back tears.

Taking in a deep breath, you slowly rose to your feet. “I know. Now come on.” You tugged at him gently until he rose with you.

You started towards the bed, only stopping at one of your bookshelves to grab your favorite muggle novel. You set it down at the edge of the bed and picked up a soft sweater that was folded neatly there.

“Really?”

Sirius smiled sadly, and shrugged in response. “You’re the only person that gets to wear it, you know. You should feel lucky.”

A warm smile lit up your face as you slid it on slowly. It was soft, warm, and homely just as you remembered it. “Trust me, I do.”

The two of you climbed into the bed silently, seemingly content in the comfort of each other’s company. Only after you both were settled did you pick up the book to start reading.

“Wait,” Sirius stopped you, and reached his arm around you, tucking you close to him. His hand brushed a small strand of hair behind your ear and tilted your chin up to him. You watched as his eyes flicked down from yours to your lips repeatedly before slowly leaning down to brush his lips against yours.

It wasn’t what you expected when kissing Sirius. There was no spark, or fire. All you felt was an overwhelming, calming heat that relaxed you and sent a small shiver down your spine. Kissing Sirius threw you off guard, as his lips barely ghosted across yours, waiting for your exhale. Once you did, he matched it; he was breathing in time with you. It was something much more intimate than a kiss as the two of you hovered close, only barely enough to touch in the briefest of moments during your exhales.

His hand, still tucked under your chin, slowly trailed away. The absence of it left a tingling on your skin, that warmed your body even further. Only after a few moments did Sirius pull away fully, smiling shyly.

“Much better.”

Mirroring him, you smiled and bit your bottom lip softly. You still felt the slight pressure of his lips against yours. Suddenly much more shy as well, you cleared your throat and turned, cuddling back into his chest. You opened the book and started reading aloud.

The two of you sat for hours, taking turns reading to one another in quiet whispers. It only took a few switches before you heard the familiar deep exhale above you. You looked up at him and smiled again, Sirius’ hair falling in his face slightly as he slept. Things with Sirius were still confusing, as to where you now stood with him, but you were happy nonetheless.

The two of you laid together in your happiest memory, content and at peace. You knew that you had a lot to sort out with Sirius, with your arguments in the past few weeks and his confession earlier. He had said that he loved you, which you’d have to talk about when he woke up; and the fights between you hurt, which was something you were not going to just forget. You knew that you’d be wary of this relationship if you didn’t sort out all the things you both had said while upset. It was a thought that would have worried you, but it didn’t seem to matter in that moment.

Sleep tugged at your eyelids and you fought to stay awake. You wanted to remember this moment; the way he felt against you, the calmness that was settled deep in your chest, the feeling of being happy after so long. Nothing was able to hurt ether of you in the room he made for you both. You were safe from every aspect of loneliness here. Your eyes eventually betrayed you as you fell asleep and yet, you didn’t mind because you knew that you were finally alone together.

Tag List: (Names with a strike are those that do not work.)

@siriuslyymoonyy , @draqcnheartstrinq , @fayrizo , @obscurilicious , @perorulou , @violentcrying , @felelotlen-felhotlen , @decaffeinated-student-cheesecake , @heidimonkey , @fantasticchaoticwho , @dedellia , @bringitbacktothebasics , @tattoos-and-skinny-jeans , @Gingertheravenclaw , @mustymammary , @faypol , @wibbylwobbytimeywimey , @missidontknowwhatimdoing , @weasleyswizardwheezs , @winchesterdirective , @andreea631 , @mustachio1616 , @comermeculo , @acciogryffindor , @alohalisha 

[boystownbirdie]

LMWTV4U: GOT S7E1

Welcome back to let me watch TV 4 U (LMWTV4U) where I watch TV shows so you don’t have to! If you’re not a GoT-watcher or you just need a review, check out my pre-season-6-GoT primer here or you can just check out the review/recap of the last ep of season 6 here

It’s GoT season 7 y’all- WHO’S EXCITED?

As always, spoiler alert. Also, I’m introducing a new segment of this blog called WHY DOES THIS SCENE EVEN MATTER or (WDTSEM?) to help us decipher when some seemingly unimportant or otherwise boring scenes actually do kind of matter. So watch for that. Now let’s get into it! 

Over in Frey-ville/ Riverlands...

So we open on Walder Frey (aka Argus Filch from Harry Potter) giving a toast to a bunch of his people, all of whom have to wear inexplicably weird hats that seem to serve no purpose. Off the bat we know something is up because Arya Stark, fresh from the face-swapping-assassin-training academy, definitely killed Filch in the last ep of season 6. He’s gathered up all of his hat-wearing friends and family and is like hey guys, here’s some NOT POISONED wine let’s have a toast. It’s pretty obvious it’s Arya doing a really good impersonation of Filch/ wearing his face, especially when he doesn’t even pretend to take a sip of his wine. He’s all, hey remember when we killed all those Stark people, especially the mom and the hottie son, Robb and his preggers wife? That was fun, right? And all the poisoned guys are like yep murder is fun you are correct. Then he’s like too bad you didn’t kill all the Starks cuz one is still alive and…. It’s ME BITCHES. 

And she rips off Filches’ face/body and is like SURPRISE! And because this is the season of the woman, she doesn’t let any of the poor servant girls (who were like 15 years old and all forced to marry Filch) drink any of wine but she’s like, I know this is confusing, because I was just wearing the face and body of your former husband but it’s me, a fellow 15-year old girl and please tell everyone THE NORTH REMEMBERS. (If you’ll recall the Stark fam is from the North and a bunch of them died at the red wedding which was FOREVER AGO)

Later in the ep, we catch up with Arya who is riding around on a horse like a boss when she happens upon ED SHEERAN. SERIOUSLY ED SHEERAN IS IN THIS EPISODE WHY? I DON’T KNOW. And he’s singing a song with some soldier bros, duh. And I guess they’re from the Lannister army (if you’ll recall the Lannisters are the incest twins) because they’re wearing their colors and they’re like ugh King’s Landing (where Queen Pixie Cut aka QPC is currently ruling after blowing up most of the city) is the worst. And Arya is like umm ya it sucks, last time I was there I saw my dad get his head chopped off, BUMMER. She doesn’t say that actually but she does listen to them talk about how they wished they were home with their family instead of fighting for QPC. 

WHY DOES THIS SCENE EVEN MATTER (WDTSEM)? This scene is pretty clearly a setup to get Arya to consider meeting up with her bro (well actually uncle) and sis in Winterfell rather than her current single-minded pursuit of killing QPC. Anyway, the strangest thing about this scene is that one of the bros is like ya my mom always said to be kind to others and they’ll be kind to you and also none of the bros say anything murder-y or even slightly assault-y for that matter toward this young girl traveling alone WHAT SHOW IS THIS? On any other season of GoT this scene would have been a literal bloodbath.

Sidenote: when the opening credits run we FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER only see Westeros rather than both sides of the globe (or is it a globe? Idk. g.r.r.r.r.r. Martin plz advise) cuz our Khween Khaleesi is no longer residing there.

Next, let’s check in up North with Bran and his pal Meera who recently narrowly escaped a zombie attack only to be rescued by his zombie-uncle.

Bran is having a vision, as he is wont to do, of the “Night King” (zombie leader guy) plus thousands of zombies marching toward the non-zombie world. Some of them are even zombie giants which is super spooky. He’s like let’s GTFO and get south of this giant ice wall so they coming a-knocking on the ice-wall-door which, if you’ll recall is manned by all those moody celibate dudes that Bae was briefly murdered by before coming back from the dead. Bae’s friend who is in charge now is like umm new phone who dis cuz IDK what “Brandon Stark” looks like but it’s probably not you. And he and his friend Meera are like we promise, we’re cool and they let them in.

WDTSEM? Bran and Meera’s next stop after passing through TSA security is probably to see his sis and bro at his home, Winterfell. Last time that poor boi was there he was paralyzed, briefly made leader, ousted, forced to watch the whole place burn down and then had to escape before he was killed. So needless to say he’ll be happy to see that it’s not only rebuilt and no longer a torture dungeon, but being ruled by his fam! AND he’s the only one who knows the truth about Bae the R+L=J theory so he needs to drop that bomb on erry’body that basically means that Bae is kind of a rightful ruler and also Khaleesi’s nephew?!?

Speaking of his home, let’s check in with Winterfell...

Bae (Jon Snow) is like wow being in charge is hard no wonder Obama turned gray lol-is-this-thing-on? And Sansa is like eye-roll and they have a little tiff in front of everyone which is EMBARRASSING. A few important things happen here: 

Bae tells everyone to dig for dragonglass cuz it’s the only way to kill the zombies. He’s like hey bois, gurls, gender-non-comforming-individuals, EVERYONE needs to get to work and dig and learn to fight

Everyone’s favorite pint-sized-ruler-of-Bear-Island, Lyanna Mormont, is all about that lyfe, as shown in gif above

Bae is like wow little kids are pretty good at being in charge so let’s put these other 2 lil’ squirts in charge over at their houses

Bae sends hottie-ginger-wildling-bae to guard part of the wall where the zombies are probably heading first. Goodbye ginger-bae. 

Sansa does not agree with the putting-kids-in-charge bit which is what they argue about but he does it anyway. They kind of makeup and then they talk about how Cersei (aka Queen Pixie Cut aka QPC) is in charge now and Sansa is like she cray but also a BAMF. 

Later we get a scene of Brienne, everyone’s fave lady-knight, training her squire how to fight and are reminded that ginger-bae has the hots for her. As Sansa watches this all play out, Littlefinger (ugh he is the WORST) comes over to tell Sansa for the 80th time that he loves her and wants to rule the world with her. And as she has done 80 times, she’s like NO THANKS DUDE. 

Speaking of Queen Pixie Cut (QPC) let’s check in on her over at King’s Landing…

QPC is ruling whatever is left of her people after she blew most of them up. She commissioned this giant map/painting on the ground and is stompin’ all around like she owns the place, which, to be fair, she does. Her twin bro/lover, Jamie, comes over and is like ummm… what’s the tea? Remember how our last living kid jumped out of a building and died last season… can we discuss? And she’s literally like yolo we gotta rule this place FOR US. And he’s like but we don’t have any heirs anymore, like who’s gonna take over after that you can’t #liveforever this ain’t the high school cafeteria in the film version of Fame. She’s like dontcha worry, I gotta plan.

So Theon’s crazy uncle shows up to see them. If you’ll recall last season, he killed his bro and then tried to become king of the wet-rock-pile by throwing up a bunch of sea water even though his niece, Theon’s sis, was totes supposed to become kween of her peeps. While he was performing his water-gagging-magic-trick, Theon and his sis ran away with a bunch of the peeps and all of the ships. Again, their entire island seemed to have about 20 people so WHO IS ON THOSE SHIPS? IDK. And he was like NBD I’ll make a bunch more ships AGAIN WHO IS BUILDING AND THEN RIDING ON THESE SHIPS IDK. So I guess the ships are built and people must be on them because they show up to QPC’s shores and she’s like whatup. Jamie is NOT HAVING IT mostly because he is jelly since Theon’s crazy uncle (TCU) is hittin on his sis. TCU manages to squeeze in a really sick burn when he’s like well at least I have 2 working hands (Jamie got one chopped off 3 seasons ago) and then he asks QPC to get with him. She’s like naw dawg so he’s like NBD I’ll be back with a “very special present” and heads off. They also banter about how his niece and nephew and Khaleesi and QPC’s other bro (Tyrion) have all teamed up and are headed that way.

WDTSEM? In the books, apparently TCU has some sort of magic horn that can call dragons? I think this might be the gift he’s going to get and bring back to QPC which would be CLUTCH because in the upcoming battle against Khaleesi, the ability to control those dragons would be really helpful.

Next, let’s see how Sam is doing over in “Oldtown” where all the maesters live...

If you’ll recall, Maesters are like doctors/librarians/historians, each of whom is assigned to either a place (like the ice wall) or a family, I guess (like the Starks). Sam wants to be one but he also is NAUGHTY and brought his gf and her bb with him (Maesters are also supposed to be celibate like the ice wall guys). He’s in maester-training-camp which includes a lot of diarrhea, apparently. He’s like cleaning bedpans, putting back library books, and doing autopsies on the reg. JIM BROADBENT aka Prof. Slughorn from HP aka Harold from Moulin Rouge shows up and is like DON’T GO IN THE RESTRICTED SECTION OF THE LIBRARY, SAM (flashes of Harry Potter, amirightladies?) so of course Sam does. He sneaks some books home and finds out that “Dragonstone” which is a castle near King’s Landing that Khaleesi is heading towards, is built on top of heaps of “dragonglass” (which, I mean, could have guessed) so he’s like I gotta tell Bae since I know bb boi is trying to stock up on that. Also, there’s a brief scene when Khaleesi’s friend who had the turning-to-stone-disease (Stoney) is like in a hospital where Sam is working and is pops his stone-hand out and is like IS SHE HERE YET? Aka Stoney wants to know if Khaleesi has made it to Dragonstone yet, which WAIT TIL THE END OF THE EPISODE, DUDE.

WDTSEM? Especially the scene with Jim Broadbent (JB) is important because he talks about how the ice wall has always held up after centuries of zombie attacks and how empires rise and fall and just like go with the flow, Sam. My guess is that they’re bringing up how strong the ice wall is and how unlikely a zombie-attack really is because this is something that may actually happen now so we can really grasp how high the stakes are nowadays.

Before we get to Khaleesi, we have to check in on “The Hound” who’s walking around with those fire-worshipping dudes these days…

Is it just me or is man-bun guy kinda hot? So he and “The Hound” come across this farm house which the Hound is having some guilt about b/c last time he was in the hood he killed the girl and her dad who lived there. They find their bodies and everyone is like IDK who killed them but ugh… that’s life. And then the fire-worshipper-guys are like here look at this fire and remember the Hound hates fire because he got half of his face burned off as a kid. But he does look at the fire and has like a premonition of zombies going around the ice wall and attacking all the living people. Then he and hottie man bun bury the dead girl and her dad outside because the Hound feels #guilty for killing them I guess?

WDTSEM? Well the Hound used to be really murder-y but then he was saved by Ian McShane and his group of like Amish people (much like Harrison Ford in the film Witness) and decided to renounce violence. He used to work for QPC’s family and then kind of kidnapped Arya but also was not the worst to her (or to her sister for that matter) so if shit’s going down he could potentially be on the Stark side of things now. 

Lastly, we check in with everyone’s fave kween and co, Khaleesi, who rolls up on Dragonstone with all her pals…

She hasn’t been to this side of the world since she was a wee babe so when she steps foot on the sand, she’s like give me a minute y’all. Then she walks into the castle and looks at the throne, which is NOT made of a bunch of swords but rather a slab of rock and is still pretty baller and walks right past it to head to the room with the giant map on it. Previously, Stannis and his friends lived there including sweet ole’ no-knuckles who is currently #teambae and he spent a lot of time strategizing and having sex with witches to produce demon babies on that table. Khaleesi looks around and then is like, let’s get it started in here #blackeyedpeas.  

WDTSEM? Well, duh, cuz Khaleesi is in it and she is basically the Beyonce of GoT. But also because she has had this single-minded pursuit on the iron throne (chair made of swords where QPC is currently sitting) so you’d think she’d like take a minute to sit on this rock-slab-throne and savor the moment, but she (unlike QPC) knows that a true kween not only sits there, but also gets shit done. And I think this scene is supposed to contrast how #woke Khaleesi is compared to QPC. Both have giant maps and thrones now, but QPC is so out of touch that she has no time for strategy or listening to other people’s advice. 

Final thoughts:

This ep was what the TV people call a “table setting” episode and it did just that. The drawback is that it was pretty boring. We just check in on all of our key players/places and see how everyone is doing which is normally quite helpful in GoT world. But the season 6 finale already did that for us, so it seems to be just an extension of that episode rather than something new and exciting. Now on to our superlatives...

Biggest surprise this ep: Sam is interning for JIM BROADBENT these days, which is pretty great. Also Ed Sheeran lives in GoT-world I guess which actually explains a lot.

Biggest letdown: We only get THREE WHOLE WORDS from Khaleesi in the entire ep!

Important fashion moments: Sansa’s new lacefront is NOT working for her. With this budget you’d think they could afford better wigs! Also, while I won’t miss the Mereen subplot, I will miss Khaleesi and co being in a warmer climate because she and her friends had some killer crop tops/ cut out dresses/ bright colors . Now that everyone is on the cold side of the world, we have much less #fashun.

Who died this ep? A bunch of Walder Frey’s main cronies

Check in next week when we’re promised someone will finally be strangling littlefinger so we may be rid of his creepy soliloquies soon! Thanks for reading tell your friends!

CORRECTION: After checking my sources, it seems like the Hound maybe didn’t kill the farmer dude and his daughter but instead stole their shit and so they were forced into the dire circumstances that led them to their death. So while it sounds like he didn’t kill them, he still feels guilty that he basically caused their deaths.

Also, I incorrectly ID’ed Bae as Khaleesi’s uncle a few times but actually she is his aunt I guess? Sorry to lead you astray! 

[marauder--harder]

Sneak Peek: Memories (Part 8 of Alone Together)

lol I’m a bad person and have procrastinated writing this for so long that I don’t even remember what I was going to do with it. Whoops? Anyways, here is a lil snippet of it, and I hope that all of y’all enjoy. 

...

Sirius stood suddenly and offered his hand to you. You took it and he led you down the Grand Staircase to a secret passageway that led to the Astronomy Tower. Only once you were at the very top did he say anything.

“Regulus and I used to come up here; you know, before I ran away. The two of us didn’t really get to see each other once I was sorted, but he is my brother, and I love him. Even if he doesn’t think I do. Whenever either one of us were stressed, we’d come up here to think. It was back in third year, the first time I saw him. He was upset over being sorted into Slytherin.”

Sirius turned, leaning on the edge of the balcony, and looked out at the grounds below him. “You know, he wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor like me? He would have been too, but he asked to be in Slytherin. He said he was scared of what my parents would do.” You heard him take in a deep breath before continuing. “I would have never guessed; but I suppose one of us had to make our parents proud.” He paused, as if remembering something that was long gone, before chuckling softly.

“We used to joke, saying that it was because we were both Blacks that we’d find our spot underneath the stars. But after I ran away, Reg stopped coming. I still come up here sometimes though, if I need to clear my head.”

Your hand reached out to cover his, but stopped just short of doing so. It found its place next to his, leaning on the edge of the balcony; close enough to brush your pinky with his but nothing more.

Sirius lifted his head and you watched the wind blow through his hair wildly. He had such a distant look in his eyes that when he spoke, you jumped.

“Where’s yours?”

...

I honestly have no idea when it will be up, as it is still going through a lot of edits at the moment. 

Sorry for the delay and thank you for being patient. Much love, xoxo.