#naomi watches horror

[onebizarrekai]

I played corpse party on my 3ds this week. yandere ayumi is canon. to me

[gncrevan]

#31DaysofHorror Day 29: Rabbits (2002, dir. David Lynch)

unsettling, apocalyptic, brechtian, dissociative, oppressive, disgusting, psychedelic, dreamlike, threatening, poetic, lonely. i only wish we would go somewhere.

[cleolinda]

The Scariest Movie I Ever Saw in a Theater: The Ring

I'll tell you up front that the story I'm going to tell you is about "The Ring (2002)," in the sense that it is about The Ring in the year 2002.

See, I don't know what The Scariest Movie Ever is. A quick google says that the consensus is The Exorcist (I haven't seen it, because I never felt like scheduling a day to freak myself the entire fuck out). But horror is specific, and not just to a person, but to a time and place, even. When I saw The Shining as a teenager in a well-lit living room with other people, I didn't even really flinch, but I bet it would play very differently to me now. I don’t think The Ring is at the top of anyone’s list, but twenty years ago, I had a personal interest in it—at the time, I was running a dinky little Geocities site devoted to movie news. Links curated and compiled from all the other, bigger sites I followed—basically, it was the linkspam format I have used on multiple platforms, including here on Sundays. And so, as someone who followed theatrical releases pretty closely for two or three years, I saw the trailer for The Ring, and I immediately knew it was going to be huge.

To locate you in time, this was just after three self-satirizing Scream movies and the Overcomplicated Serial Killer films of the '90s. The Ring was something completely different: chill aqua-blue color grading a good 5-6 years before Twilight; a mournful Hans Zimmer score; no jokes, no quips; and a slow, inexorable sense of doom. Grief, even, given that the movie begins with the death of the main character's niece. What immediately struck me about the first trailer was 1) the melancholy of it, and 2) how much it doesn't explain. Onscreen, you get the title cards,

THERE IS A VIDEOTAPE IF YOU WATCH IT SEVEN DAYS LATER YOU DIE

Concise! Understandable! A woman (Naomi Watts) is freaking out upon discovering that her young son has just watched it! Admirable job setting up the premise and the stakes of this entire movie in thirty seconds flat, without even any dialogue. That's all you need to know, and thus, the remaining minute of the trailer can do whatever it wants, and what it wants to do is be fucking weird. Echoing voices, TV static, a closeup of a horse's eye, ladders, a girl with dark hair, people reacting to things we don't see, drippy doorknobs, rain. Characters don't give us the whole plot in convenient soundbites of dialogue (like they do in a later trailer); we just hear lines, overlapping, murmured out of context—

did you see it in your head? she talks to you... leading you somewhere... showing you the horses... you saw it. did you see it in your head? she shows me things. Everyone suffers.

That you saw it has lived in my head ever since, and not once have I charged it rent. But the "best" part is Naomi Watts screaming at the end, because you don't hear her voice; you only hear this heartless telephonic beeeeeeep. It's 2002 and I'm watching this trailer, thinking, I have no idea what the fuck I just saw. This is going to be huge.

And it was, to the tune of $249 million on a $48M budget.

At risk of recapping what you might already know, Ringu, aka Ring, is a media franchise that spiraled out from a trio of Koji Suzuki novels into Hideo Nakata's film Ringu (1998), a landmark of Japanese horror, plus several other movies, some TV series, many comics, and even a couple of video games. The overarching story is about a murdered girl/vengeful ghost named Sadako Yamamura whose rage and pain have created a cursed video tape, you watch it and you die unless you pass the tape around like a virus, seven daaaaays, etc.

The "ring" in question is the rim of a well. Keep that well in mind.

The movie I saw is the U.S. remake, which itself had two sequels. (The iconic Sadako is now named Samara Morgan. Keep her in mind, too.) Director Gore Verbinski moved from The Ring to Pirates of the the Caribbean (!), and so Hideo Nakata himself would direct The Ring Two. I... honestly have only seen the first one. And I was right, it was huge, and it kicked off the American J-Horror Remake genre, for better or worse. But what gets forgotten about The Ring is its marketing campaign, which I followed pretty closely for my doofy little news site.

It was inspired.

The story of The Ring is partly the story of the sea change in the media landscape—how we watch movies. And the story of its marketing is a picture of the very last years before social media changed the wilderness of the internet into something that feels so big, like a billion people could see anything we say, and yet so small—only a tame handful of places to say it, owned by three or four companies, and corraled by algorithms.

Back around 1997-1998 or so, I worked at a video store (Movie Gallery, where the hits were there then, guaranteed) for about a year and a half. By the time I left, we had started adding DVDs to the VHS tapes on the shelves, but we hadn't replaced the entire stock. Video stores might have transitioned fully to DVD by 2002, I'm not sure, but people still commonly had both VCRs and DVD players in their homes. And I remember that The Ring was sold in both formats when it eventually hit home video. Which is to say—you know the analog horror genre today? Marble Hornets, Local 58, The Mandela Catalogue?

Analog horror is commonly characterized by low-fidelity graphics, cryptic messages, and visual styles reminiscent of late 20th-century television and analog recordings. This is done to match the setting, as analog horror works are typically set between the 1960s and 1990s. The name "analog horror" comes from the genre's aesthetic incorporation of elements related to analog electronics, such as analog television and VHS, the latter being an analog method of recording video.

Okay, but this is just what home media was like, and 2002 was at the very tail end of that—boxy black VHS tapes that degraded with time and reuse were just how we lived. At the same time, I'd been using CDs for music since about 1991, and all our software installs came on CD-ROM discs; a "mixtape" by that time had shifted to mean a rewriteable CD rather than a cassette tape. In college, I—well, I'll plead the Fifth as to whether I downloaded mp3s via Napster, but I was also taping Mystery Science Theater 3000 on VHS over the weekends. It was Every Format Everywhere, All At Once, and we kept half a dozen kinds of players around for them. Here in 2023, we stream and download everything invisibly, unless we choose to engage in format nostalgia. (I've already run into the problem of Apple Music deleting songs I really liked, due to this or that licensing issue, because I was really only renting them.) The year The Ring hit theaters was the edge of a last shimmering gasp of physical media where iTunes had only come into being the year before, and iridescent discs were still mostly what we used, but cassettes, both video and audio, were still viable. And so, people did not think it was terribly weird when they started finding unlabeled VHS tapes on their windshields.

Movieweb, quoting TikTok user astro_nina:

"Their marketing strategy was essentially 'let's get this tape viewed by as many people as possible without these people being aware of what this is, sort of raising intrigue," she says. One way they achieved this was by airing the tape, which allegedly marks its viewers for death within seven days, as a commercial with no context. The video would air between late-night programming "with no words, no mention of a movie, for like a month...so people would run into it and it would just go on to the next thing, and people would be like, 'what the f--k is this?'"

I remember seeing the Cursed Video as an unexplained ad at least twice, by the way. That TikTok also indicates that DreamWorks straight-up sent copies of the tape to Hot Topic stores, as well as planting them under actual movie theater seats. While running my movie site, I heard at least one story of someone finding a tape on the sink counter of a restroom at a club. Did the marketing department actually plant tapes in bathrooms—or did a freaked-out recipient leave it there, hoping to dodge the "curse"?

(I haven't embedded the Cursed Video here, by the way—but I could have. If you'd like to see the American take on it, you can watch both the full version and the shorter variant that appeared in the movie itself. A text description of what the fuck you're even looking at is here [content note for both: blood, insects, animal death, body horror, and suicide by falling]. The original version from the Japanese film is shorter, and it's eerie rather than gruesome.)

BUT WAIT, THERE WAS MORE: DreamWorks had something of an alternate-reality campaign going with a handful of in-character websites. This was only a year after Warner Bros. ran the groundbreaking "The Beast" ARG for A.I.: Artificial Intelligence: "Ultimately, fifty websites with a total of about one thousand pages were created for the [A.I.] game." (I lurked in the Cloudmakers Yahoo group.) Marketing for The Ring did not go anywhere that in depth, nor did it need to; it was both a smaller film and a smaller story. I saw at least two “personal” websites (seemingly amateur and a little tacky, like my own), but the one I particularly remember was about someone who owned/trained horses? I'm not sure if it was meant to be the actual Anna Morgan character—Samara's mother—or maybe someone who had noticed that the Morgans' horses were disturbed? I'm not even sure anyone even remembers this but me. Reddit users dug up a few other archived websites, but they're about Sadako, the curse and/or videotape; they aren't as subtle or character-oriented as the site I remember. (Honestly, I wonder if weird shit like "What Scares Me" or "SEVEN DAYS TO LIVE" were made by fans rather than a marketing department, but who knows.)

[The “About” page from Seven Days to Live on the Internet Archive.]

[The entirety of An Open Letter on the Internet Archive. “UPDATE” is a now-blank pop-up. I would bet $5 that it was originally a pop-up of the cursed video.]

I need to point out here that Facebook did not exist in 2002. It would not exist for another two years, and Twitter wouldn't exist until 2006. Even MySpace was not a thing until the next year. I didn't start my Livejournal until October of 2003. What we had, for the most part, were independent forums and blogs. We also had Creepy Internet Fiction like "The Dionaea House" and "Ted the Caver"; their use of the blog format, of people out there seemingly living their lives until something fucked up went down, gave the stories the shape of reality. And it helped that these blogs had comment sections, sure—sometimes more story unfolded there—but for the most part, an author could "abandon" a blog, and you'd just find the story there via word of mouth. Like the Ring blogs I remember, it wouldn't seem strange if no one replied to you, whereas today, you'd have to hire a writer to sit on Twitter, or Reddit, or even Tumblr, and interact with people in character. Could you do something like The Ring's mysterious, weird-ass blogs today? Would anyone even notice?

So: It's 2002, my head is full of Alternate Reality and eerie images and you saw it, and I'm hype as hell to go out and see The Ring. I'm perfectly happy to go see movies by myself, so I went in the early afternoon (best time to get a good seat). The movie ended up being a sleeper hit, and the first weekend, the public was still sleeping on it, so there were only 7-8 other people in that theater, grouped in maybe two clusters. I was off in my own little pool of darkness in the upper right quadrant. Functionally, once the lights went down, I was alone.

Despite some middling reviews at the time, The Ring is something of a horror classic nowadays. If you want a scary movie this Spooky Season, check out The Ring. Or don't, because it nearly killed me.

We're at the last, I don't know, third of the movie? And Our Heroine has tracked down the origin of the Cursed Videotape to some creepy mountain motel or whatever. SPOILER, it turns out that it was built over the Cursed Well (everything in this movie is cursed) that Our Villain was thrown into—that's why Sadako/Samara is a vengeful wet murder ghost crawling out of TVs now. While investigating this decrepit hotel room, intrepid journalist Rachel and her, who is it, her ex-husband? her kid's dad, idk, discover the well under the creaky old floorboards. And then, wouldn't you know it,

NAOMI WATTS FALLS INTO THE WELL

NAOMI WATTS FALLS INTO THE FUCKING WELL

THAT'S WHERE SAMARA'S BODY IS

[The rather slapstick moment when Rachel falls into the well. Does not include what actually happens next.]

I go absolutely rigid in my seat. Naomi Watts is splashing around this dark-ass death swamp of a well and I know, with as much certainty as I have ever known anything in my life, that Samara is about to pop up in all her pasty, waterlogged glory. All the sad creepy dread, all the desperation to figure out what the fuck all that shit on the tape was and stop Samara from killing Rachel's son, all the horrible contorted victim faces, all the alternate reality I’ve been soaking in, it has all come to this. I have to leave the theater. I cannot be having with this. I have to be gone from this place. My legs do not work. I cannot feel them. I am frozen. I want nothing more in this life or any other to get up and leave this cavernous pitch-black room, and I cannot. I start praying for death. I want you to understand that I am not trying to be flippant or humorous. This is genuinely what went through my head. I was too scared to even think, "You know, you could just pray to pass out or for motion to return to your limbs or something." No, I sat there in The Ring thinking, Please for the love of all mercy just let me cease being.

You know that scene in Mulholland Drive (also starring Naomi Watts)? Winkie's diner and the EXCRUCIATING tension? It was a little like that, except I wasn't watching it, I was experiencing it, and Samara was my dirt monster out behind the diner.

Except that the jump scare didn't actually happen. I mean, yes, Rachel finds Samara's body down there, but—I don't remember exactly, please don't make me go watch it again to tell you what actually happens. It's played more sympathetically on Rachel's part, as I recall, and she and her ex get Samara's body out so that she (Samara) can have a proper burial.

And then it turns out that this is not the end of the movie. It turns out that Rachel has Fucked Up.

I think I was relatively okay through the rest of it, although the climax is Samara emerging from a TV in her full glitching swampy glory to scare [SPOILER] to death. I don't recall praying for death twice. There's a point when you're so exhausted from fear chemicals that you're like, yeah, this might as well happen. Bring it, Soggy. I did have a hard time prying myself out of that seat afterwards, though, and my mom says that when I got home, I had the classic thousand-yard stare. How was the movie?

"It was great," I said, and I meant it.

I've seen things that were objectively scarier (I watched much of The Haunting of Hill House from behind a pillow, to be honest), and it's not like I've never experienced fear in real life. But I respect when a movie that can make me feel so intensely, and there's something weirdly precious about the way horror is a safe roller coaster, as it's often been said. So I love telling the story about The Time The Ring Nearly Killed Me—a movie that actually made my body stop working—and I love thinking of how embedded in a specific time and place that movie was for me. The last gasp of VHS when the Cursed Videotape still seemed plausible; the way the internet was still wild and weird and free; where I was in my life, keeping up so avidly with all the movie news, and finding myself in such a little pool of darkness early one afternoon. It's the scariest movie I saw in a theater; that's the alchemy of circumstance.

[autisticandroids]

kink/whump fics

alright. time for day 4 of @spnficrecfest: kink/whump fics. these will be majority but not exclusively destiel. there will be lots of gen and other pairings. and it's all gonna be one list this time so it's gonna be looooooong. arranged by section, and within sections, arranged by order of word count.

kink fics

starfish by copacet, .5k

dean has sex with cas, and cas is okay with it. [you might also like sensation (destiel) (2k)]. btw the only reason i'm not reccing another one of copacet's fics is because it's already on @explainslowly's reclist.

resetting by slopeslippers, 1k, chose not to warn

raphael/naomi. raphael watches naomi at her work and Feels Things.

killer queen by filthyfealty, 1k

deanpala. the thing that makes stanford era dean so special to me, personally, is not that he fucks his car. that's a given. the thing that makes him special is that he holds hands with his car.

service angel by fastandfilthy, 1k

cas is meg's creature, and meg is in heat. megstiel.

heavenly delights by lobotomycastiel, 2k

cas explores his unorthodox sexual fantasies. established destiel, but dean isn't exactly involved in the horniness.

selfish machines by redeyedwrath, 2k, chose not to warn

cas fantasizes about putting his hands inside dean. destiel, gore.

thou shalt not covet by lowkey_existential_despair, 3k, violence warning

the lazarus rising stab awakens something in castiel. destiel.

these cloistered rooms by trieduntrue, 7k

kind of a sex pollen, kind of a d/s pollen type deal. unrequited destiel.

subheading: genderplay of various types

handsome housewife by angelszn, 1k

cassie/fem!dean. fluffy feminization of butch dean in the bathtub. this fic thinks about bodies in a way that's really hot.

finer things by filthyfealty, 1k

masculinity fetishism. dean likes boys, so he likes when cas does boy things. which includes picking up girls. destiel.

his most treasured possession by omegavers, 2k

destiel dollification :3

it's an angel/demon thing by bleedingink, 4k

megstiel bodyswap :3.

they're playing dido in the hospital gift shop by spocklee, 17k

destiel. dean and cas meet in dreams. sexy dreams.

life skills by ilovehowyouletmefall should also be on here, but it's on @explainslowly's reclist for the first day.

subheading: pregnancy (both kink and whump)

in the darkness (of this gas'n'sip) by vaguesurprise, 1k

cas jerks off. destiel, pregnancy fetish.

descent by abstractsilver, 1k, chose not to warn and noncon warning

godstiel's favorite pets forget themselves. destiel and sastiel, stockholm syndrome, pregnancy.

pierce her by burnedpopcorn, 3k, chose not to warn and noncon warning

mary/john, mary/naomi. mary is in heaven and something is growing inside her. brainwashing and pregnancy fetish.

lindworms by ariasune, 14k

cas has a miscarriage. angst, body horror, destiel.

under the skin by lies_unfurl, 15k, violence warning

cas is pregnant with leviathans. gen, whump, pretty graphic body horror and torture.

jubilees by ghostyouknow, 17k, chose not to warn.

season five destiel pregnancy. body horror. uniquely miserable, a higher class of pregnancy whump.

this nervous condition by anonymous also belongs on here but i recced that already.

thin line between kink and whump

indigo by val_creative, .5k, chose not to warn (but i'm gonna break that and say: boy howdy, noncon warning on this one)

sam!meg/jo. exactly what you'd expect.

through the never by wednesday [one chapter of a larger collection], 1k, chose not to warn and violence warning

meg/jo. kidnapping and torture and rape.

there's a danger in lovin' somebody too much by vaguesurprise, 2k

destiel. brainwashing fetish and cnc. dean straps cas to the lobotomy chair.

kitten licks and cougar bites by vaguesurprise, 3k, chose not to warn

rowena/ofc. age gap, femdom, drugging, ritual sacrifice. you can infer the plot.

isaiah 65 by piesexuality, 4k

godstiel. destiel. mindwipenatural.

the horror of no detrimental redaction by sp8ce, 14k, violence warning

cas wants redemption. dean is there to help. destiel, torture, whump.

thy will be done by dogsled, 15k

fairly extreme bdsm, extremely dubious consent. cas doesn't know it's demon dean, until he does. destiel.

fully whump

"we're going to get out of here" by angelfishofthelord [one chapter of a larger collection], 1k, violence warning

cas and mary escape from the men of letters. gen.

wrong end of the stick by softpaperwings, 3k

cas self-harms in the aftermath of jack's death. gen.

forget your troubles for they are many by aini_nufire, 6k

cas forgets everything that causes him pain. that includes the winchesters. gen. [you might also like it's such a mystery (the way you know me) (20k, destiel).]

anathema. by outpastthemoat, 7k

angsty, post-godstiel cas sickfic. destiel

the river by hal_incandenza, 17k, violence warning

an alternate version of the trap. destiel.

unholy terror by aini_nufire, 24k

cas is in the hospital after the events of a slightly altered 9x09. gen.

[cloveroctobers]

NOTHING SWEETER — BODE LEONE: [Spring Prompts]

A/N: This will probably flop since it’s basically a ghost town in this tag but here I am! Plus it was also requested for me to write for Bode (again) lol which I don’t have a problem with, we love that guy over here. They’re wrong for going on break after giving us what they gave us! I also just want to say that I really miss Max’s curls but here it goes!!

PROMPT IS FROM HERE + I’m using: 18.  “Damn, I hate pollen.” + 8.  “IT’S A DEER!” “Yeah, and?” “I CAN SEE IT!”

<- read my previous anthology prompt here.

⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡ ♡

Eve was lucky you loved her.

Being up this early on your first day back in Edgewater to give her a ride to Three Rock (her car was in the shop) was a lot to ask! Not really! but what kind of friend would you be if you didn’t complain a good portion about it on the ride up to camp?

“If I get you an iced coffee, would you love me again?” Eve pinched the space in between her brows, elbow resting against the car door.

You hummed while using one hand to tap on your chin, “Add in a Mozzarella, Pesto, and tomato bagel then we’ll talk.”

Eve twisted her lips upwards, “…that’s a thing? Whatever happened to a simple cream cheese with eggs and avocado?”

“You’re lucky I’m not asking for a soft boiled egg stuffed with caviar.” You respond as you reduce your speed once you cross the bridge, spying the familiar deli spot up ahead.

Eve scoffed as she side eyed you, “oh yeah, Switzerland done made you bougie.”

Which earned a laugh from you as you pulled the Toyota 4Runner into the small parking lot. If you weren’t a bundle of nerves you would have got out of the car with Eve to see what changed about the deli you spent many afternoons in with your old friends. However you let your mind wander a bit as you stared out into edgewater’s view.

You were home…except your childhood home was just a memory now that your divorced parents no longer resided in Edgewater. So you crashed at Eve’s although you were completely fine staying in a hotel since Jake talked you out of an air bnb after watching some movie called, “Barbarian,” and you were tired of hearing the statistics and other real life horror stories he pulled out of his ass. Eve was your number one best friend and she was more than willing to open up her place for a friend like you.

As you took up a interest in archery and later turned into a professional Archer, you were inspired to see what the world had in store so the sooner you got out of Edgewater, the better it was for you. Some just didn’t get it (your parents mainly, with your mother being an orthopedic surgeon and your father a fire chief before his MS took over) and expected you to start your own roots here. It was kind of a thing here in this small town, that you were to begin again and build your own legacy. However you were in the tiny group of odd’s that wanted more than the expectations hanging over your head.

Which is why you were proud to say that you’ve been participating in the Olympics every few years because of your passion for archery. Of course you had people down your neck all throughout your career but you still stood as tall as you could.

Now you were back home in the place that was full of doubts but the tightness in your chest wasn’t as noticeable the closer you got to camp.

“Thanks for dropping me off, I appreciate it.” Eve starts as she spots a few inmates hanging around on the yard already, “If you stick around for a minute I’ll even do you a solid and send Bode your way. Since I know it’ll be difficult otherwise.”

Taking a deep inhale you say, “I still can’t believe he’s here.”

“Yeah well…if he stays on the right track this time he’ll be out even sooner.” Eve tells, “He’s still a big pain in all of our asses but I think it would do him some good to see you…you did come all this way.”

It’s been years since you last saw each other but you came back for Riley’s funeral and you reached out to Bode when he moved away to a few towns over and changed his last name. You tried to be there even being ocean’s apart but when Bode felt low, it always felt like he wanted to take the world on his shoulder’s and find a way to make it spin again. Yet that landed him in prison and Eve had no problem filling you in on everything in between.

Would he even want to see you? It’s not like your relationship turned sour or anything…it’s just been awhile being in contact with each other. You weren’t nearly this anxious seeing Eve and doubted you would be when you had lunch with Jake and Cara—which was still weird to you—But being near Bode was different from everybody else and you knew that.

“I did…didn’t I?” You loll your head to face Eve, who studies it for a moment before dipping her head.

She tapped her hand against the outside of the door, whispering into the spring air, “it’ll be fine. He’s in a much better headspace and you’re still family no matter where you disappear off to, you got that?”

A watery smile goes Eve’s way before she leaves you to collect yourself. You’re pulling your mirror down from the sun visor, patting underneath your eyes and beginning to second guess yourself. You were here for two weeks and there was no way that you planned on not seeing Bode. You ran into his parents just last night at the bar, craving some wings before heading to Eve’s, just to be received with warm arms and classic banter from the Leone’s.

They were the parents you could talk to more than your own. If you weren’t crashing at Eve’s then you would definitely be at the Leone’s but then Bode and Cara happened so that’s when some of the distance was created. They didn’t last, like most teenage relationships but out of respect you felt like it was the right thing to do.

It felt right being back, even if it was only temporary.

Maybe that’s just how you had to view Bode’s situation. He wasn’t a temporary kind of friend although you couldn’t socialize as much but you tried to be hopeful. Even climbed out of the car pacing back and forth, not paying much attention to anyone around until you spotted the green dust decorating the navy car.

Scowling in disgust, you swiped the arm of your jacket around the hood of your car before cringing at the greenery you wiped on your sweatpants afterwards.

“Damn, I hate pollen.” A voice comes from behind, which makes you slowly stand up straight and glance over your shoulder.

There he was.

Bode Leone, standing in the flesh, hands deep in his jacket pockets, and a small smile on his lips.

You fully turn to face him and tilt your head to the side, “Didn’t I tell you once before that Orange isn’t your color?”

Bode lifts his shoulders with humor in his blue-green eyes as he motions towards the spot on you, “yeah, well maybe green isn’t yours either.”

You scoff as you motion to your outfit, “what? You don’t think I’m pulling it off?”

The blond chuckles as he takes a step towards you, “As long as you don’t start itching then sure, whatever you say.”

“Oh,” you scratch at the back of your hand and shoot a glare at the man who’s got crinkles by his eyes now, “why did you have to go and say that Bode! Now I’m doing it!”

“Sorry! It’s just that I sorta remembered that you were sensitive to almost everything including air.” He says to you, teasing somewhat, now standing face to face with you.

Rolling your eyes you couldn’t help but to smile at that. You didn’t know what it was growing up in high school, you were highly allergic to almost everything which landed you in the nurses office a lot but it seemed to relax as you reached your twenties and moved away. You always joked that maybe it was Edgewater that was making you sick. Yet the longer you stood in this town and interacted with not only Eve but Bode, you knew that wasn’t completely true.

“It’s good to see you, Bo.” You lightly shove his shoulder back while he nods in agreement, “can I give you a hug?”

Bode blinks the furrow of his brows away as if you were being ridiculous, “of course you can.”

And you’re cradling the back of his head while his fingers are at your spine, swaying from side to side in a firm but gentle squeeze. Then he’s burying his nose into your shoulder and the feel of the embrace tells you that this was meant to be.

When your eyes open, you realize that you could live just fine in Bode’s arms. You remember your final kiss goodbye in Drayscott, one month before you left the country and one month before Bode attempted to pull off a robbery—it was the sweetest thing—the kiss obviously! because it should have been happened. It didn’t come out of nowhere, it was full of intention, full of wonder and love but you were aware that it wasn’t the right time to be something more.

Maybe some day it could be.

Little did you know, Bode kept that memory not far away. He was kicking himself for the what if’s but when he manages to pull himself out of the blue, he thinks about the best possibility being you.

The both of you could be good together, could see the world together and he wasn’t sure how it all looked but he was willing to imagine.

A gasp makes Bode pull away, alarmed.

“IT’S A DEER!” You point, over Bode’s shoulder.

He glances over his shoulder to in fact see the said brown animal, peering at the two of you, “Yeah, and?”

“I CAN SEE IT!” You attempt to lower your voice but the excitement got the best of you as you almost bounce on your toes.

Bode’s still lightly has a hand resting on your waist now, as they watch the beautiful creature sniff at the grass and carried on deeper and away into the woods.

“Are you telling me they don’t have deer out in Switzerland?” There’s amusement in Bode’s voice as he peeks back at you.

“I’ve been in the city mainly but it’s been awhile since I’ve really been one with nature, you know? Which reminds me, I’ll have to make time to go off roading with this baby one of these days. Or hiking.” You jam a thumb back at the car.

Bode nods, “you’ll be careful won’t you? Don’t get so easily impressed with animals, not all of them will have the best intentions.”

You were an animal lover back in the day, so much to the point you wouldn’t dissect a frog sophomore year, which landed you in the principal’s office.

“What?” You blow a raspberry, “I’m like freaking Princess Aurora. Animals love me.”

Bode squints his eyes, “…didn’t you get bit by a goat when we were like what? Fourteen?”

“You’re really killing my vibe man and I don’t like that.” You yank on the end of Bode’s hair who laughs again.

He raises his hands in surrender and grips your wrist from his head, “alright, alright. My bad but if it makes you feel better, I still have that scar after that horse kicked the shit out of me when we had too many drinks partying at Tamsin Kadoka’s farm.”

“Really?”

Bode nods, “yeah, right on my lower back and it’s shaped like Utah.”

You meet each other’s gaze before bursting out laughing in unison at yet another memory. He’s gripping your shoulder again while he’s got your attention, “just promise me when you’re out there in those woods that you’re careful. I’d hate it if something happened to you.”

“Well the feeling is mutual, Bo.” You state, “you just had to go on and choose firefighting huh?”

Bode shrugs, “Must be in the Leone blood.”

“Yeah, must be.” You murmur, staring at him like there’s stars getting ready to rise in your eyes and Bode can’t help but to lean forward to place a lingering kiss on your forehead.

His facial hair pricks you but you don’t mind.

“Leone!” A guard calls out, which means your time is up for now.

You hold his hand, interlocking your fingers, which he squeezes with a smile to match, eyes wandering all over your features, almost as if to tell himself that you are in fact really here.

“Until next time?” He questions.

You smile, “See you soon, Bode.”

And he grins at you, those crinkles by his eyes returning before he slips his hand from yours.

This was brief but sweet and you’re mentally kicking yourself for thinking that this could go wrong.

You’re watching Bode walk away from you and he can’t help but to jog backwards to get another look at you. Almost as if you would disappear again and you would never see him again. When he turns back around, heading to the guard on shift who announces the inmates need to get ready for line ups inside at the bunks, he meets up with Cole on his way.

“Who was that?” Cole nudges his chin in your direction.

You’re seated in the driver’s seat, window down, leaning on your arm as you watch the men in Orange make their way back inside.

Catching Bode’s eye, you wave before rolling your window almost all the way up and pull away from the camp site.

“Someone i would like to give the world and more to once im out of here.”

Cole is smirking but appreciates the honesty as he claps Bode on his shoulder, already knowing what that look is for. “Then let’s make it happen, Leone! Nothing sweeter than having something on the outside to fight for, you know?”

“I agree.” Bode pulls his gaze from your retreating car, finding himself standing up straighter as they awaited for Eve to start their day.

When Eve’s brown eyes set on Bode’s, he just barely tips in his head in thanks, which the woman echo’s as she carries on along the line.

Bode already can’t wait for the next day he can get reconnected with you in person again so, he bites his smile away.

⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡♡✿ ⋆˙⟡ ♡

Continue with my spring anthology prompts here.

[actually-a-fish]

the best supernatural episodes

according to an autistic person with a special interest and the ability to make a list.

if youre really serious about supernatural spoilers then maybe stay away :)

None of the season one episodes made in on the list but I will give an honorable mention to S1 E2 Wendigo.

S2 E11 Playthings - A classic, creepy girls in a creepy hotel. Special call out to Sam getting SLOPPY

S2 E16 Roadkill - There's a ghost haunting the highway. the Boys help the spirit move on. This is an early example of monster empathy

S2 E18 Hollywood Babylon - Dean loves hollywood. I love dean. this episode makes me kick my feet like a little girl and i will not defend myself.

S2 EP 20 What Was Shall Never Be - all I have in my notes for this one is "Dean Djinn Dream" which was enough for me to remember the episode and get misty eyes. This is SEASON 2 my son will never know peace.

S3 E5 Bedtime Stories -I had to check the wiki on this one, I think i liked it cause it referenced classic fairytales

S3 Ep11 Mystery Spot - "HEAT OF THE MOMENT" RISE AND SHINE SAMMY!

S3 E13 Ghostfacers! - Im a Facer through and through

S3 E16 No Rest for the Wicked - S3 finale and the Boys are facing consequences! Classic Dean, Sam and Bobby episode.

S4 E1 Lazerus Rising - First Cas Episode. That handprint makes me feel things.

S4 E6 Yellow Fever - What if Dean had anxiety (The Eye of the Tiger blooper is also at the end of the episode which gives it bonus points.

S4 E17 Wishful Thinking - Make a wish? was it for your teddy bear to be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder? Well thats what youre getting!

S4 E17 It's a Terrible Life - Sam ~ the sales rep. Dean ~ middle management.

S4 E18 The Monster at the End of the Book - There are books about Sam and Dean?! Written by this guy who loves self insert character? Surely the entire show isn't about to take a tone shift?

S5 E3 Free to be You and Me - Sam and Dean are fighting again, but this time Dean has a new heavenly boy toy to play with instead. (Cas has no rizz yet it's actually a little painful to watch)

S5 E5 Fallen Idol - Okay the Wax People episode is on here for one reason and one reason only. Paris Hilton.

S5 E7 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester - Old man Dean and old man Bobby. This is also the episode for HH Husk kinnies.

S5 E8 Changing Channels - Dr Sexy MD is that you?!

S5 E9 The Real Ghostbuster - *in a grizzly voice* "I'm Dean Winchester, this is my brother Sam. Have you experienced anything strange?" "Dude that was so good! Now we can go solve the puzzle" "Man you're breaking the immersion!"

S5 E10 Abandon All Hope - This is here for Crowley's first appearance and not because the end will make you cry.

S5 E12 Swap Meat - "uh... its Audi Nos". Freaky Friday starring Sam Winchester! An angsty teen and April Kepner from Grey/Sloan Memorial Hospital.

S5 E16 Dark Side of the Moon - The Boys lives flash before their eyes. Dean is pissed forever about Sams.

S5 E19 Hammer of the Gods - this is for all my pagans out there!

S6 E4 A Weekend at Bobby's - What do you think this episodes about idjit.

S6 E15 The French Mistake -  “For whatever reason, our life is a TV show.” “Why?” “I don't know.” “No, seriously. Why? Why would anybody want to watch our lives?” 

S7 E4 Defending your Life - consequences? for fucking people over? how about you stand trial.

S7 E20 The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo - The self insert character made for us :) Luv u 4ever Charlie XD

S8 E4 Bitten - found footage will always scare. this one reminds me that this show started as a psuedo horror.

S8 E8 hunteri heroci - Cas tries his hand at being a hunter

S8 E12 As Time Goes By - FINALLY THEY ARE CARVING TRAPS INTO BULLETS

S8 E17 Goodbye Stranger - verbatim here are my notes for this episode "Cas chooses Dean, but the way he handles Meg... Fuck Naomi"

S8 E18 Clip Show - If you only want to watch just one episode of Supernatural this should be it. It's not actually a clip show, theres a broment, bonding time with favorite characters and crazy plots that only supernatural could get away with.

S9 E5 Dog Dean Afternoon - Dean is finally a dog person

S9 E11 First Born - Another bro fight leads to shipping <3 SamxCas + DeanxCrowley <3

S9 E15 #thinman - the slender episode feat. GHOSTFACERS. You come away from this episode thinking "supernatural is so fucking gay why wont the boys kiss"

S9 E21 King of the Damned - my favorite crowley era change my mind. Also the way the Boys interrogate an angel is so funny

S10 E5 Fan Fiction - I would unironically fuck w a supernatural musical and if helluva/hazbin taught me anything the rest of you would too

S10 E6 Ask Jeeves - The Clue episode. (Pay attention to the improvised weapons Dean chooses. It brings me joy)

S10 E9 The Things we Left Behind - Cas is suffering a midlife crisis and his besties are there to help him repair his relationship with his daughter. Funnily enough, Crowley is also getting some family bonding in.

Okay, I'm all caught up on my list. Should I have stayed up late transcribing this with an 8am class tommarow?

Probably not but it did bring me great joy. Tell me your favorite episode! I'll continue to add to my list as I continue my rewatch :)

[tip-top-cloud-surfer]

The Ironies of Life (Part 3) - Rooster

Pairing: Rooster/ Fem!OC (Naomi)

Word Count: 2.9k

Warnings: (Unplanned) Pregnancy; Exes; Emotional Angst; Named Female OC (Naomi), but No Physical Descriptions

This work, all of my other works, and my entire blog are 18+ Only.

Naomi is referenced as being a woman and she was previously an officer in the Navy. But otherwise there is no description of her physical features or her surname, so fill in as you wish.

Summary: Rooster flies in for Naomi's baby shower. They struggle to communicate normally.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

Master List

Having nightmares wasn’t odd for Rooster. Having nightmares about the uranium facility mission specifically wasn’t odd for Rooster. He relived those seconds where he thought that he was going to die countless times. The first time that he was shot out of the sky. The second time that he was nearly shot out of the sky with Maverick as the pilot. Getting caught at the enemy base. All of it.

But this time, it was different.

It started out the same. He and Mav were flying through the sky and the fifth-generation fighter had a lock on them. The missile was coming straight for them and Rooster had been down this particular nightmare path enough times to know that Hangman wasn’t going to arrive in time. The missile hit and everything flashed to black, just like it usually did in his nightmares.

But this time, it didn’t end there.

He didn’t wake up. He didn’t sit up immediately and gasp for breath while he sat in practically a pool of his own sweat. He didn’t stumble out of bed and scramble out of his soaked shirt as he crawled for the shower or something else to try and calm himself down.

No, the nightmare continued. But not in the direction that Rooster was expecting.

After the flash of light, Rooster found himself staring up at a house. And not just any house. It was the house that he used to live in with Naomi. The house that they moved into together about a year and a half into their relationship. The house that he promptly moved out of the night that she broke up with him. It was the center of their relationship. And it looked just like how Rooster remembered it.

Minus the fact that Phoenix was standing on the front porch in her dress whites.

She stood rigid, but there was an added shakiness to her form when she raised her fist. Phoenix knocked on the door three times in a short staccato fashion before taking a step back. She let out a breath, trying to steady herself, before she straightened up even further.

Naomi answered the door, slowly pulling it back. She must have seen Phoenix from the window because looked like she was in the middle of mentally preparing herself for this conversation. But, for whatever reason, Naomi wasn’t pregnant in this nightmare. Or maybe she was, but she didn’t look it. She looked exactly like she did the day that she dumped him.

Naomi gripped the door tightly and held a hand over her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes. Phoenix opened her mouth to speak, but no words seemed to come out. She simply shook her head as she fought her own tears. Phoenix cleared her throat and opened her mouth again, but she was cut off by a distinct cry from inside the house.

A cry that caused a new wave of fear to flow through Rooster’s soul.

Naomi tried to dry her tears and turned inside the house, leaving the door ajar for Phoenix to come inside. Rooster watched as Naomi headed into the living room and over to a little white crib. she leaned over the crib and carefully scooped up a little baby—his little baby, Rooster realized with absolute horror—and held them to her chest.

“It’s okay,” Naomi cried softly. She pressed a kiss to her baby’s head and rested her head over their own as tears openly streamed down her cheeks. “It’s okay, sweetheart.”

~~~~~

Rooster shot up in bed, gasping for breath. Sweat dripped down his chest and forehead, making Rooster feel too hot and too cold at the same time. He leaned over his bed, feeling his stomach run through somersaults as anxiety and adrenaline took over. Gagging and gasping, Rooster held a hand to his face and tried to calm down.

It was just a nightmare, he repeated to himself. It was just a nightmare.

Rubbing his face, Rooster reached for his phone and checked the time. 2:19 AM. Rooster let out another sigh and kicked the blanket off of him. Eventually padding out of his room in Maverick’s house, Rooster headed towards the kitchen. He planned to sit on the back porch or go for a run.

But when he saw Maverick sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through a newspaper, Rooster stopped in the entryway. Maverick slowly looked up at Rooster with a knowing look in his eye. Rooster did not comment on Maverick’s stare and simply walked over to take his seat. Grabbing a banana, Rooster started to mindlessly peel it while Maverick finally opened his mouth to speak.

“The same one?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah,” was all Rooster offered.

“Are you all packed?” Maverick questioned, changing the subject.

“Yeah. I’m only going for the weekend,” Rooster stated softly, glancing up at Maverick.

It was a little over a month since Rooster found out that Naomi was pregnant with his child. She was now over seven months pregnant and this weekend was her baby shower, which her mom and sister put together for her. Naomi gave Rooster an invitation before she left Miramar, but Rooster was still worried that he was unwelcome there.

After all, he was the jackass who refused to talk to her for six months about the baby.

And Rooster didn’t doubt that Naomi’s sister Sydney was going to make his weekend a living hell as punishment for that. Sydney wasn’t always Rooster’s biggest fan. And she wasn’t exactly subtle. But they were in a good place for the last four years or so of Naomi and Rooster’s relationship. And then he blocked her when she tried to reach out to him on Naomi’s behalf.

So, yeah, she was going to make his weekend a living hell.

“You’ll be fine,” Maverick insisted calmly, offering him a supportive expression. “You’re flying up for the weekend for this. If you were really a complete deadbeat, you wouldn’t drive ten minutes down the road for this baby shower. They’ll recognize that. And Naomi already knows that.”

“I know,” Rooster sighed, holding his head in his hands. He let out another sigh before picking his head up. “But I can’t fuck this up, Mav. I can’t.”

“It’s pretty hard to fuck up attending a baby shower,” Maverick pointed out softly.

“Oh, I’ll find a way,” Rooster muttered, shaking his head.

~~~~~

Rooster did find a way to fuck it up. Or rather, American Airlines found a way.

Delayed three hours. His flight, which was barely long enough for the flight attendant to walk around and hand out in-flight service, was delayed three hours. And that meant that all of Rooster’s planning went completely out the window.

Well, if Sydney didn’t hate him before, she definitely did now.

Rooster hurried up to the venue and simply hoped that the first person that he ran into was not Sydney, but maybe Naomi’s mom instead. But, of course, the second that he pushed the door open, the first set of eyes that he locked with belonged to one very annoyed Sydney.

“God-fucking-dammit,” Rooster muttered under his breath before forcing a smile. “Hey, Sydney.”

“Brad Brad,” she greeted him coldly, folding her arms over her chest. “Get lost on your way up?”

“Flight got delayed,” Rooster explained, knowing that it wasn’t going to help his cause either way. “I texted Naomi about it.”

“I know,” Sydney replied calmly. She stared him down for a bit, letting Rooster squirm for a little bit, before she finally put him out of his misery. “My sister is out back. Try to not disappoint her any more than you already have, Brad Brad.”

“Thank you, Sydney,” Rooster grunted out, quickly making his way past her.

Keeping his head down as he maneuvered through the few guests that remained, Rooster made his way out to the back patio. Stepping outside, Rooster took a quick glance around before spotting Naomi over on a patio couch with her mom. He cleared his throat, straightened up a bit, and made his way over to her. Naomi’s mom was the first to spot him and offered him a small smile.

“Hi, Bradley,” she called, getting up from her seat. “How was your flight?”

“Very late,” Rooster replied apologetically.

“Well, nothing you can do about that,” Naomi’s mom assured him, giving him a quick squeeze. “Did you eat lunch?”

“No, I was—”

“—I’ll grab you some then. You two just stay out here for a bit,” Naomi’s mom interjected, earning a look from Naomi, who was still sitting on the couch. “I’ll bring it out to you.”

“You don’t have—”

“—No, no, no, I insist. And some cake too,” Naomi’s mom stated before hurrying off.

Rooster watched her go before turning to Naomi, who now sat on the edge of the couch. She offered him a small smile and gestured to the seat across from her.

“You know that you’ll never win against her.”

“I’m remembering very quickly,” Rooster replied, walking around to sit on the couch.

He set his bag down and awkwardly cleared his throat. Turning to Naomi again, Rooster opened his mouth to apologize, but Naomi waved her hand before he could even speak.

“I was checking your flight status. You don’t have to apologize,” she stated softly. “It wasn’t your fault that you were late.”

This time, Rooster added on his own accord.

“Did you get the gifts that Penny and Mav sent up?” Rooster asked quietly, forcing a smile.

“Yes, I opened them earlier. Thank everyone for all of it,” Naomi replied kindly, nodding along with a wide, genuine smile. “I appreciate it, really. Especially the little mobile with all the birds. I’m assuming that Penny helped Mav pick out.”

“I picked it out, actually,” Rooster added softly.

“Oh, sorry,” Naomi quickly correctly herself, “well, thanks for picking it out. It looks beautiful.”

“Of course,” Rooster mumbled out, trying to relax just a little bit. “How’s . . . everything? Your health and all of that.”

“Healthy. We’re both healthy,” Naomi assured Rooster with an encouraging look. “Everything’s normal and progressing as it should be.”

“Good. That’s . . . good.”

“Yeah,” Naomi breathed out, looking like she was forcing confidence as well.

“I grabbed you a little bit of everything,” Naomi’s mom called, breaking up the unresolved tension. “I hope that’s enough for you.”

“No, no, that’s plenty,” Rooster assured Naomi’s mom, taking the plate from her hands. “Thank you.”

“Anytime. And I was going to bring you some cake, but it’s color coded, so . . .” Naomi’s mom trailed off, sharing a look with Naomi.

Rooster turned to Naomi, who straightened up a bit when she realized what her mom was referencing. Naomi turned to Rooster with nervous smile. Fiddling a bit with her fingers, Naomi smoothed down her dress and rubbed her bump.

“Well, um . . .” Naomi took a moment to compose herself before meeting Rooster’s curious gaze again. “I decided to learn the gender of the baby. And Sydney had a cake made for it and . . . I was going to tell you about it when you got here and so, if you want to wait some more, that’s fine.”

“Oh,” Rooster realized, nodding slowly. “I’ll, uh . . .”

Rooster trailed off, looking away from Naomi as he tried to piece together his thoughts. Did he want to know the gender of the baby? Did it really matter if he found out now or if he found out later? He didn’t think so. But there was also the nagging little voice deep in the back of his mind, the part that tended to bring out his more avoidant personality traits, flashed a giant warning sign in front of his eyes.

“. . . I’ll just wait the few more weeks,” Rooster finally decided, picking his head up.

“That’s fine,” Naomi immediately assured him. “Sorry for throwing that decision at you.”

“Don’t apologize,” Rooster told her. “It was your decision to make.”

Naomi seemed a little surprised at his particular phrasing, but she quickly pulled on a smile. Shuffling a bit in her seat, she turned back to Rooster.

“Oh, well, then no cake. Don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

~~~~~

Rooster knew that he had some making up to do to Naomi and her family.

And if there was any way to try and make it up to Naomi, turning himself into a pack mule was probably a good start. Grabbing all of the huge, heavy boxes from the car and dragging them upstairs to the nursery without any help had to win him a couple points.

He hoped, at least.  

After she entered her third trimester of her pregnancy, Naomi moved back in with her mom into her childhood home. Her one-bedroom apartment in the city just didn’t seem like the right place to raise a baby, so she moved home. It took a sizeable dent out of her pride, but this wasn’t about her anymore. The baby deserved a backyard to run around in and a driveway to ride their bike.

And, well, Rooster quietly agreed with her. And he wanted to appear supportive, so if he had to act like a pack mule for a bit, he would act like a pack mule for a bit.

“You didn’t have to carry all of that,” Naomi assured Rooster, walking into the nursery. “We could have helped you.”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Rooster insisted, straightening up. “It’s the least that I can do.”

Naomi nodded with a small smile, glancing around the nursery. She licked her lips nervously before straightening up and folding her arms over her bump. Turning back to Rooster, Naomi offered him a gentle expression.

“Did you want to help set up the nursery? While you’re here?” Naomi offered to him quietly.

“You want my help with that?” Rooster asked, a little surprised at her offer. “I would have thought that you wanted your mom and Sydney to help you out with that.”

“Well, they already helped me pick most of this out for the registry,” Naomi replied, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. “And you didn’t get to do any of that. So, if you want, if you’re not too tired, we can do it together.”

“Okay,” Rooster agreed, nodding along slowly. “I, uh, I’d like that.”

“Okay,” Naomi returned with a small smile.

They worked together, reminding Rooster of the happier times between them. When they felt like a team. When he felt like there was nothing that they couldn’t have solved together. When he thought that he finally found the one person that he was going to spend every last breath with.

But it was hard to remember that that was months ago and wasn’t his reality anymore.

Rooster still did most of the heavy lifting, but Naomi was very much an active participant. But it didn’t take long for Rooster to notice how she was shifting uncomfortably on her feet. Her ankles were swollen and with the baby shower earlier that day, Rooster had to assume that Naomi was exhausted. And, so, when they finished up with the crib, he started on the chair.

“Here,” Rooster called, gesturing to the chair.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Naomi insisted, going back to folding blankets.

“Naomi,” Rooster called again, “you’ve been shifting on your feet ever since we started.”

Naomi shot him a look of protest that Rooster had seen about a thousand times before, but eventually when the pain in her feet became just a bit too much, she begrudgingly switched over to the chair. Rooster moved to put the bassinet together while Naomi arranged and sorted through the various miscellaneous gifts that she received.

“Alright, that’s all set. Where did you . . .” Rooster trailed off, glancing back at Naomi.

In the minute between her handing him some pieces and him finishing up the bassinet, Naomi seemed to have fallen asleep on her chair. She was curled up a bit with her head resting on the edge of it and her lips slightly parted. It looked like an awkward position but given the day that Naomi had and third trimester exhaustion, she probably could have fallen asleep anywhere.

Slowly standing up, Rooster quietly walked over to Naomi. He waited a few moments, just to make sure that she was, in fact, asleep. Glancing at the open door, Rooster bent his knees. Rooster carefully slid his arm underneath Naomi’s knees and back to slowly lift her up. She barely even stirred as he shifted her head to his shoulder.

Carefully walking out of the room, Rooster turned the corner and headed for Naomi’s childhood bedroom. The door was open, so Rooster carried her inside. Laying her down on her bed, Rooster adjusted Naomi’s pillows and blankets for her, trying to get her as comfortable as possible given her large baby bump.

Straightening up again, Rooster couldn’t help but stare down at Naomi’s bump. It was larger than it was the last time that he saw her, and Rooster found himself searching for any sign of the baby—their baby—moving around in there. He reached out a hand, about to brush his fingers along Naomi’s bump, when he caught himself.

Immediately reaching back, Rooster cleared his throat and turned for the door, leaving Naomi to sleep peacefully in her bed.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

Tag List:

@gxlden-honey @caidi-paris @xoxabs88xox @badasspizzalover @rosiahills22 @midnightmagpiemama @indigomaegrimm @pinkpantheris @itsmytimetoodream @appledressing

[traxanaxanos]

Samantha Wildman is honestly sooo funny as a background character because she’s like...such a normie against the rest of the Voyager crew, who just pops up occasionally to have normal conversations and experience horrors.

Janeway has a martyr complex and is constantly battling the narrative for dominance

Harry Kim has his whole complex where he’s trapped as both the golden boy and the ensign while also dying and being killed and being brought back just a little different every episode

Seven of Nine has her everything going on

Kes and Neelix are weirdos with species-wide trauma and Neelix died

B’Elanna also died and went to hell

Lon Suder

And Samantha is just like, working in the science lab while untold horrors stalk the halls of the Voyager, looking forward to whatever Neelix has whipped up in the kitchen

The few appearances/mentions she has that aren’t Life Threatening Crisis are

really sweet if it wasn’t in the context of a horrifying episode reveal that Samantha devotedly watches Neelix’s little news show every day (neelix superfan). Average woman turning on France 24/BBC every morning and the forecast is never not unspeakable monsters

bumbles into stopping a guy’s suicide attempt by requesting a bedtime story for her child

stereotypical conversation about having to provide new clothes for fast growing child (derailed)

one person on the ship enthusiastic about Neelix’s cooking (#1 Neelix fan)

xenobiologist inexplicably sent on a ship whose mission is to go hunt down terrorists, as if she’s going to get a spare moment to study the effects of long-term space habitation on hagfish or whatever

Like if Voyager had the tone of Lower Decks (animated), the recurring gag would be Samantha just doing her little nematode observations in the background while there’s a five-way borg/hirogen/alien anomaly/kazon/Q incursion going on, and talking to her coworkers about how Naomi’s drawings are like, really really good. Have you seen how good she’s gotten at shading? She’s just an average woman trapped on the most ridiculous and protagonist-laden ship in the known universe. The inherent humor and horror of being a background character in the genre of Epics

[jaggedjot]

"THERE CAN BE a huge range of reasons why a show in 2024—this one or any other—doesn’t have the reach it deserves; endless pixels have been spilled on streamer fatigue and fractured audiences in the past few years. AMC, a darling of the prestige-TV-on-cable era, is in an especially strange position: Even when Interview’s first season was a hit on its streaming service, AMC+, it was still held up as an example of a troubled industry in transition. Two years and two Hollywood strikes later, the situation is even more complicated. As the industry restructures and changes who can watch what where, a disconnect has emerged between what viewers like and what critics do. At the same time, social media platforms—the loci of 21st-century word of mouth—continue to implode, fracturing the conversation of an already dispersed audience. Amidst this, IWTV faces specific hurdles due to the nature of the show. An adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 novel that pulls heavily from the many Vampire Chronicles books that followed, the show racebends many of its leads—its titular vampire, Louis de Pointe du Lac, is now Black—and goes all in on the queerness of the books. And it is, of course, about vampires—specifically, vampires who do terrible things. “IWTV has so much that a modern audience could want from a series but, unfortunately, some people won’t receive it solely because it’s a queer horror show with majority BIPOC leads,” says Bobbi Miller, a culture critic who recaps the show on her YouTube channel. “Genre TV is always going to have to jump through more hoops for success than a standard drama.” For the converted, the idea that more people aren’t watching Interview is maddening. One could certainly argue that the show, with its dark, twisted Gothicness and emotional maximalism, isn’t for everyone. But in an era of unceremonious cancellations—even of shows that execs touted as hits—and with an absence of information about the show’s future, it’s understandable that its most dedicated fans would be pushing for more viewers. Interview isn’t the only show whose fans question its marketing efforts; it’s a common accusation leveled at streamers of all sorts, especially when a show is canceled. But in this conversation, Interview fans pointed at specific decisions made by the network that many feel have made this season’s rollout feel so much more muted than the last. “It’s been a conversation that fans have been talking about for a while now, but I think what really set them off was the comment made by Film Updates,” says Rei Gorrei, a fan who dubs herself the “Unofficial Vampire Chronicles Spokesperson.” A pop-culture aggregation account with nearly a million followers, Film Updates revealed they had been denied interview requests with the show’s talent—and since fans were worried no one was hearing about IWTV, they couldn’t understand why that reach wasn’t being capitalized on. “I think the combination of these things along with little marketing leaves fans in a word-of-mouth scenario where we now feel like it’s up to us to campaign for the season three renewal,” Gorrei says. Many questioned the promotion the network had been implementing, too, like the decision to never have Anderson and Assad Zaman, whose characters’ romance is one of the main focuses of the season, interviewed together. Episode five in particular, with its explosive fight scene between the two, would have been a prime opportunity. (AMC did not respond to emails seeking comment for this story.) Other fans raised concerns about the unceremonious cancelation of the widely admired official podcast, whose Black female host, Naomi Ekperigin, felt like the perfect interviewer for a show with Black leads and nuanced racial storylines. Then there was the fact that too few episodes would air in time for Emmy consideration—not the fault of marketing, but yet one more source of fan worry."

Interview With the Vampire Fans Say the Stakes Have Never Been Higher by Elizabeth Minkel

[brokehorrorfan]

The Ring will be released on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital in both Steelbook and standard packaging on October 15 via Paramount. The 2002 horror film was previously only available on 4K UHD in Scream Factory's The Ring Collection.

Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) directs from a script by Ehren Kruger (Scream 3), based on the 1998 Japanese film Ring. Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman, and Daveigh Chase star.

The Ring has been scanned in 4K scan from the original camera negative, supervised by Verbinski, with Dolby Vision. Special features are listed below, where you can also see the full Steelbook layout.

Special features:

The Origin of Terror

Cast and crew interviews

Deleted footage

Rings - 2005 short film

Theatrical trailer

The Ring begins as just another urban legend - the whispered tale of a nightmarish videotape that causes anyone who watches it to die seven days later. But when four teenagers all meet with mysterious deaths exactly one week after watching just such a tape, investigative reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) tracks down the video... and watches it. Now, the legend is coming true, the clock is ticking and Rachel has just seven days to unravel the mystery of The Ring.

Pre-order The Ring.

[diminuel]

Destiel Hanahaki: both of them have it but Cas’s angel powers keep them from growing in his vessel and one of the big issues Cas had as a human all alone was his flowers starting to grow, and it’s another reason he kept stealing Grace even tho it was killing him, the flowers would also without the Grace so might as well right?

And Cas knows Dean has developed it, probably around season 6, so clearly it’s about Lisa. Cas tells Dean about Dean’s affliction when Dean asks him to erase Lisa’s memories but Dean insists (and Dean knows his flowers aren’t for her, they started once he began missing Cas who was being all weird and distant and then the betrayal and then the lake…). Cas heals Dean’s lungs consistently, he’s asked Dean if he wants Castiel to fully remove them like the surgery would, roots and feelings and all, but Dean the stubborn, loving man that Cas knows he is refuses the full procedure, only asks that the symptoms be treated.

(It’s one of the reasons Dean goes so off the rails when Cas dies or disappears, the longer Cas is away the more the flowers strangle his lungs, because contrary to the usual movement of the disease, where being around the object of one’s unrequited love usually speeds up the process, Dean’s flowers are more content when Cas is around and this makes Cas REALLY not suspect they are for him, Dean truly is one of a kind.

Jack watched in curious horror as he watches the roots only he can see slowly strangle Dean as he waters the flowers with bitterness, alcohol, and a broken heart. Sam tries asking Jack to heal his brother, who he watches cough up orchids and extinct flowers, and ancient plants that predate flowers, but there’s nothing the Nephil can do. Billie sent Dean back into the world of the living with a pruning just before Cas’s return, who didn’t see how bad Dean got away from him in such short amount of time. )

When Cas goes to the Empty, he heals Dean one last time, hoping Dean will one day either go find Lisa or have the surgery to finally heal himself, not knowing he’s only delayed Dean’s death by a few months, not by a rusty nail in a barn, but a broken heart and a jungle in his chest.

(Over the years there have been “allies” and enemies and even a desperate Sam that have tried covert, magical, and usually effective ways removing the roots and feelings fully. Crowley, Rowena, Ketch, and even Naomi and Amara have tried demon, witch, MoL, medical, and angelic treatments to either save this idiot against his consent or to sever his connection to Cas, but these treatments, powerful and usually 100% affective, don’t work to their bafflement)

No MCD (at least none that is permanent) allowed on this blog! X3

Hanahaki is a trope that completely passed me by. I vaguely know what it is but I haven't read a fic about it yet.

In any case!! I don't know if Cas would think that Dean's still mourning Lisa that many years on? Also, what would happen to Lisa in this circumstance? Wouldn't Cas have seen that she doesn't have the flowers? (Or doesn't it have to be mutual? Like some sort of soulmate thing?)

But I don't know enough to really contribute ideas to this scenario, apart from the "NO MCD! *Rowena voice* Fix it!" *lol*

[avocifera]

vlogger!reader on gayotic that’s all

no because that would be such a hilarious episode !! ok so here are my thought on how it would go

- i feel that muna kept it a secret that vlogger!reader would be there until the ep was released just for funsies !

- the episode starts with jo going like “so we have my girlfriend’s girlfriend here huh… i don’t think i should be that happy and comfortable as i am but it is what it is!” and naomi just answers that with “i think everyone in our friend group is a little bit in love with reader we should all just accept our fate you know?” with their biggest smirk

- reader talks about so much stuff on that episode and they’re just so smart and eloquently articulate when talking about stuff as: discovering your sexuality, is it necessary to come out?, the pressure of being excellent, how sometimes weird fans make you feel, how being in love with women feels, just a lot of stuff in general

- but of course there are plenty of chaotic and unpredictable conversations too like the first time they smoked weed, that one time when reader’s parents almost caught them making out with a girl, tumblr 2014, growing up being a fangirlboy, good bad movies (i thought of winnie the pooh horror movie writing this)

- overall the episode would just be super entertaining to watch because reader’s personality matched so well with muna and they have a lot of fun silly conversations but also touch on sensitive topics in a very affectionate way that makes everyone’s heart warm.

- reader is a sunshine and that episode feels like being comforted by a older sibling while also laughing until your belly’s hurting and you have tears running down

[terminallycapricious76]

There's some of my Crack ships and headcanons.

First of all.

Naomi x gamzee makara (even if Naomi hit gamzee on the head with her paper fan. It doesn't affect him and instead he become honking machine. Even if she harden the paper fan. Naomi genuinely thought that gamzee enjoy pain but it turns out that her paper fan doesn't affect the highblood and it's harmless.)

Cupid Valentine x sollux captor (cupid genuinely thought all yellow-blood trolls smell like chicken noodle but it turns out sollux doesn't know how to cook and would burn the kitchen and only eat chicken noodle. Also her biblical accurate Seraphim form doesn't look intimidating to him and he described it as ju2t giiant floating eyeball wiith two much wiing2)

Equius Zahhak x Sagittarius Ellyn (Ellyn is tan woman who's heavy alcoholic from germany Soo she sounds very angry when speak German which lead Equius to think she's angry or scolded him but in reality she just drunkly tease him. Call him Mann mit Eselsohren or man with donkey ears in German. Wonder who give him the rights to look this cute and promise to take him to farm to see horses. (I hc him to have ears that looks like donkey ears😼.)

Riku Kuroi x Eridan Ampora. (Riku is french so she loves to tease him about his high-blood status, often calling him “mon poisson noble” (my noble fish) whenever he’s being overly dramatic. Riku finds Eridan's flair for the dramatic both amusing and charming and would often softly bite his fins know how sensitive they are just to get a reaction out of him.

Dj clover x Terezi.

(DJ Clover has a serious, no-nonsense personality when she's on the job, especially when it comes to her dj duties, Terezi, with her flirty and playful demeanor, often finds herself playfully teasing Clover about being “4ll work 4nd no pl4y” Clover rolls her eyes but secretly enjoys the challenge Terezi presents. The Flirtation Game: Terezi loves to tease Clover about her serious nature, often saying things like, “You n33d To l1ght3n up, or you m1ght just turn 1nto 4 st4tu3!” Clover can’t help but smirk at Terezi’s antics, knowing that the flirty troll somehow manages to bring a smile to her face even if it annoys her.)

Lady Luck x Kanaya: (both enjoy Fashion and gardening.. Mea act as model for Kanaya whenever nobody wants to modeling for Kanaya. They're creative, motherly and caring, willing to care and being shoulder to cry on for others. taking a particular interest in fashion and colorful patterns. As well as being avid reader of horror and romance novels and enjoy hosting tea parties.)

Dice x Vriska (dice doesn't like Vriska because of her antagonistic, bitchy, manipulative behaviors where consequences matter to him they don't matter to her and he dislike when she blame the bad things that happen to her on her bad luck instead of her behaviors. Him cares deeply for people and consequences was influenced by his parents who raise him in strict household so he doesn't turned out to be spoiled and dependent child that depend on them. He doesn't mind put her in her place and call her out for terrible behaviors. however she still flirt with him due to the fact that they're both Enjoy dice and has apparent skill in gambling. Dice can come off as gruff, standoffish, sarcastic, reasonable, but surprisingly patient and able to take a lot of outlandish events in his stride, He is very observant, having the ability to read people and understand their problems well (even when they don't themselves), which makes him quick to notice when someone isn't being genuine with him, something he doesn't enjoy. He values authenticity. Also his name isn't dice and it's just nickname. It's actually Faust de Valois.)

Undine x feferi (feferi and Undine like to watch Ariel or any cartoons with mermaids in it. Undine is mermaid and she can turn into human whenever she wants. However her fins and gills still exist so they often go on water-related dates :3 While sea dwellers are not qualified mermaids but rather a sub-race of troll distinct from the commoners by mutation and habitat, a caste which rules over the entire species. They still have fins as ears and gills on side of their necks and some of them live in sea while small part of them don't and live in cities. Undine is just nickname. her actually name is Amphitrite bc I'm obsessed with Greek mythology.)

Archangel meep x Dirk strider

(once Ezekiel left a portal that lead to heaven and stuff open. So dirk (being guy with deep fascination and curiosity) went in the while angels were having a meeting While Ezekiel was genuinely surprise like Sera when Sir Pentious proved redemption was possible. while cupid Valentine (Ezekiel little sister) and god were like "oh you have boyfriend who is human that's cool anyway show him around the place and being nice to him." So Ezekiel show him around and once they reach to Ezekiel room's. Dirk get attracted to angelic horse named Sleipnir and start begging Ezekiel to let him ride the horse even though Ezekiel didn't want to interrupt the horse who was sleeping and ended up wake up the horse bc dirk won't stop giving him the sad puppy eyes and ended up flying around the heaven on Sleipnir. )

[shallowseeker]

Hey shall, what's your favourite/fun headcanons on why cas keeps getting resurrected at first I tought it was cause god/chuck liked him (like remember when ppl in the destiel fandom talked about how chuck ships them... good times) Then yea, that just didn't turn out to be true lol

Ohh, this is fun. I have some nice uplifting ones and one very evil one. I could probably come up with a ton of these, and I'm not feeling super eloquent this week, but have my mental popcorn instead:

CHUCK/NETWORK NEEDED CAS -> Popularity ...and it bit Chuck in the ass because he accidentally allowed Cas to grow more and more powerful, even when he (and the writers) worked so hard to weaken him and kill him off. I don't have the exact quotes, but I know there are numerous instances that imply the writers worked hard to weaken Cas.

When the writers have to work to make Cas weaker, and to make Dean and Sam stronger, it shows that Cas is the bigger threat, in terms of cosmic power.

Emotional consequences: Because Cas is important to Dean, Cas is often resurrected specifically because Dean loses hope without him. After his first death, Cas literarily functions as The Lost Husband/The Animal Bridegroom/The Artificial Husband for Dean specifically. Unlike characters like Sam's Amelia (season 8), Dean is obsessed with clinging to his loved ones, saying to CAS: "I did not leave you!" and to NAOMI through CAS: "Take it! But you're gonna have to kill me first. Come on, you coward. Do it. Do it!" In his insistance to look for Cas in Purgatory and keep not giving up on Cas, he sets himself apart from his many mirrors. He's a lot like the human consort in many of the “supernatural spouse” tales, brave and insistent in his trials, even when death separates him from his lover. NOTE: Amelia Novak also becomes a heroine in this regard when she decided to go looking for her "lost husband," Jimmy Novak but becoming ensnared and dies in season 10. ANYWAY, Dean and Cas tend to die when the other isn't around, and they both get so depressed it makes for pretty abysmal watching. Chuck doesn't like Cas, but he needs Cas because Dean needs Cas. Dean won't behave unless he has Cas with him. DEAN from 13x03: "This life, hunting, monsters, there’s no joy in it. There’s nothing but pain, horror and death." And DEAN from 13x05: BILLIE: Maybe you’re not that guy anymore, they guy who saves the world, the guy who always thinks he’ll win no matter what. You have changed. And you tell people it’s not a big deal. You tell people you’ll work through it but you know you won’t, you can’t and that scares the hell out of you. Or… am I wrong? DEAN: What do you want me to say? Doesn’t matter. I don’t matter.

///

TETHERED TO A BROTHER or TWIN -> Functions as a thrown lifeline; i.e. one shield must fall before the other can

Not Cas-specific, but so long as your "tethered" twin is alive you cannot die. We see this with Amara and Chuck, that taking out Chuck requires killing Amara. This appears often in SPN, like with Charlie and There's No Place Like Home and the Wizard. It makes you wonder if Michael and Lucifer are similar. If you squint, Chuck does not seem able to kill Michael in 15x19 until after Lucifer has been killed. Makes you wonder if that was his intent on having them kill each other all along. That by having one kill the other, he could finally take out the son-rivals, as in the style of archetypical God-father who, because of their immortality, sees sons as threat to power. So what does that mean for Cas? Not sure, but he could be tethered to an angel that's still living. Maybe jack himself? (Or Dean's soul, for that matter.) It's assumed that Jack wakes up Cas, but there's juicy potential for it to have been Dean doing it all along, something Jack tapped into when Dean was screaming in grief during the Sam fight: DEAN: He manipulated him, he made him promises, said, ‘paradise on earth’ and Cas bought it and you know what that got him? It got him dead! Now you might be able to forget about that, but I can’t! [JACK looks distressed outside the room.] JACK: Castiel. [JACK’S eyes glow gold.]

///

MANY OF CHUCK'S REBELLIOUS CHILDREN ARE ACTUALLY CURSED TO BE RISING-AND-DYING GODS

As to quote Gabriel, "they are like cancer," he has to eradicate them, as they represent wars of old which are no longer needed. I know the rising-and-dying deity motif is something of a modern configuration, but since it appears in Remember the Titans, you have to wonder if this is a nature intrinsic to Cas himself. As angels are unable to sleep, they are unable to die. From 8x16: ZEUS: Tell me, has Prometheus experienced the child's death yet? [HAYLEY gives a nod.] How did he take it? Did he hurt? [HAYLEY nods again.] Good. ...I never get tired of watching you die. [ZEUS, holding SHANE up, says it right into his ear.] Your boy is going on the mountain. (Interestingly, the mountain forward-references to the episode Moriah.) From 14x08: COSMIC ENTITY: Stop interrupting! Start paying attention. I'm taking him. And where I'm taking you is worse than Hell… because at least Hell is something. Ohh. Ohh, God, they look scared. Does that hurt you? Good… because I want it to. In this interpretation, the Shadow is a higher God, and it has cursed Castiel for helping humanity the same way Prometheus helped humanity. It uses similar linguistics!

///

EVIL CAS/SHADOW MEANING -> God's most trusted double agent

Cas is resurrected by Chuck because he's secretly an intractable agent of Chuck, God's most trusted, analogues to how Ruby was "the best of those sons of bitches." This would take on a Christian overtone, that Chuck and Jack are the same person. Evil interpretation where Cas having been an agent of Fate all along. With this shadow meaning, "Cas helped" from 15x20 becomes especially ominous. But there's also "it's not the bait, it's the fish, I think they're beginning to anticipate me" from 15x06 right after Dean accuses him of being "the something that always goes wrong." There's something eerie in the idea that Chuck and Jack are in fact the same person, and Castiel is loyal to Him above all. "This lie won't hurt them," from Gimme Shelter etc etc. This would make Dean, like Sally in "Last Call" the real symbolic fish. If hunting is recklessness, fishing is patience, and Cas/God/Jack were being patient and fishing Dean's soul all along, baiting him with Love. Cas as a honey trap is a frightening thought, honestly, and although I don't prefer this shadow interpretation, it IS scary if someone wanted to explore it or have Dean simply fear this possibility, you know? Dean has an inherent fear of large powers, like Godstiel, and Jack's power, and he's right to fear it. At the end of the story, Cas and Jack are the only main characters still alive, so there's a real possibility that it is Cas who won the long game, not Chuck.

edit - there’s also cas has a soul theory, that he cannot sleep in the empty the sand way jack becomes aware of heaven in byzantium

[explosionshark]

Your turn!

It's halfway through the year! Got any favorite albums/books/tv shows/whatever to recommend?

thanks to you @badwolfwho1 who both asked me!

music:

right off the top i'm gonna recommend 3 pop albums bc i almost never have this many TO recommend. but tei shi's valerie, empress of's for your consideration, and shygirl's club shy EP have all been on constant repeat for me this year.

big year for metal also - in particular crypt sermon, job for a cowboy, darkest hour, gatecreeper, aborted and tzompantli were all incredible. i feel like between seeing them live and the release of cure, this is the first time erra has really clicked for me and i'm loving it.

for post-hardcore i've loved the debut LPs by with sails aheads and your ghost in glass. the EP lonely people by love rarely was on repeat for me for weeks also - really great stuff.

i got heaven by mannequin pussy slaps too. and i also really, really want to recommend you could do it tonight by couch slut - if you love the queasy, depraved noise that chat pile make, you absolutely should be listening to couch slut.

i threw a couple little playlists together to roundup some of my faves:

(extended version here)

honorable mention: as was really apparent from my charts this year, i spent A LOT of time listening to the saosin s/t again. but also got really back into grouper this year - especially her 2021 album shade, which i missed entirely when it came out.

books:

okay for music i focused mostly on 2024 releases but for books i won't be so strict.

shirley jackson: a rather haunted life by ruth franklin was REALLY good and provided a lot of great insight into jackson's work and also just had some really interesting history in it. really enjoyed it.

hit so hard by patty schemel a rock music and addiction memoir by the drummer of Hole. very dark and upsetting at points, but compelling. was very illuminating re: the 90s seattle music scene and the drug culture around it, provided a lot of context and detail to some stuff i thought i already knew about. really great stuff.

penance by eliza clark - this is a fake true crime book that REALLY got under my skin. it's a meta commentary on true crime as a fandom and an industry and the exploitation inherent in it. it's a mirror to make you stare at your own internal biases. it's SO fucking 2014 tumblr. i've gotten like three other people to read it and they all went insane like me. highly recommended.

hex by thomas olde heuvelt - very late to the party on this one but i loved it. translated AND localized from dutch, with very interesting results. almost goofy to start and ends up totally bleak. i adored it.

magic for beginners and white cat, black dog by kelly link - REALLY falling in love with kelly link this year. read these two and currently re-reading stranger things happen and i just adore her style. weird but SO heartfelt, surreal and dreamy, as often horrifying as it is sweet. she's so talented, i'm really excited to read the book of love later this year.

between two fires by christopher buehlman - FINALLY read this and i loved it. absolutely deserves the hype. kinda wild that dark ages horror isn't more of a thing? i re-read buehlman's the blacktongue thief too and really loved it, definitely cemented it as one of my favorite fantasy books. i'm reading the daughters' war now and enjoying it a lot.

i also re-read the golden enclaves by naomi novik and had such a great time with it.

tv shows:

finished my buffy re-watch! been watching a ton of xena with @holdsteady and @nataliving this year too - we just finished s3 and it was insane and i loved it soooo much.

i watched under the bridge and thought it was very good, but i'd recommend people learn a little about the real reena virk case before engaging.

hacks season 3 was INSANE it made me crazy i loved it so much.

haven't watched much tv aside from that!

[kimberlyannharts]

I won't be able to watch Smile 2 because I'm terrible when it comes to horror movies especially this particular franchise but NAOMI SCOTT IS BACK ON OUR THEATER SCREENS BEING THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ALIVE RAHAHHRGHHRHHG