#okay but for real she's powerful enough to make two gods and resurrect herself but her fatal weakness is time management

[mazey-phaedra-enjoyer]

i love kristen applebees so much because with most dnd pc's if you said they'd "killed a god" you would go "woah they're so powerful to be able to fight and win against a god!" on the other hand you have kristen who has managed to kill 1 to 3 gods (depending on if you're counting yes! and yes? as seperate and who knows what's going on with cassandra's "being alive" status) solely by being bad at time management and comitment issues. oh your character spent a whole campaign working with their party to build the strength to kill a god in combat? well she did it by literally just having adhd SHE'S TOO POWERFUL

[midnightsslut]

religion is one of the most prominent recurring themes on the album, and it has been present in some capacity for quite a few records now. taylor previously compared love to religion: her saving grace, her belief system, and a fated divine intervention (false god, cornelia street, and cruel summer are the best examples of this). ‘sacred new beginnings that became my religion’ and ‘we’d still worship this love even if it’s a false god’ are two of the defining statements about her philosophy on the lover album.

taylor doesn’t want to leave all of that behind on ttpd, at least not at the beginning. the first supernatural force she mentions is the spaceship on down bad, which she compares to a skylight of freedom in the epilogue. *something* has finally come to save her from her life of suffering. she doesn’t care if it’s a force of good at first; if anything, she’s just fine being taken away by aliens. she views this man as her destiny. it isn’t until guilty as sin? that taylor starts to ponder the moral implications of what she’s doing. is she guilty as sin for wanting to leave her previous religion and relationship behind? she comes to the conclusion that, even if she rolls the stone away and gets resurrected/redeemed, she cannot avoid the fallout. she is okay with the thought of having to wait, as long as both lovers vow to be together forever, just as she once did with someone else in false god. ‘I choose you and me religiously’ finishes the bridge of the song in a direct callback to cornelia street.

the next mention of religion has murkier imagery. she claims that she does not need the Lord’s help to save this man. she sees the halo that he has, and she can fix him herself. now that she feels free of her prior cage, she isn’t looking for divine intervention anymore. she wants control. she is their route to salvation.

when the relationship falls apart, she retreats back into the position of a believer rather than a divine figure. she compares him to a Holy Ghost who promised to save her and take her to heaven. instead, she is in hell in every sense of the word: she’s down bad and feels guilty for digging up the grave. he was a jehovah’s witness who promised that she could break free of the cage imposed by love without changing her religion altogether; she would’ve just had to switch denominations. she could still have a marriage and kids! she could still have a blue tortured poet! the man was different, but not the dreams they had together. the story of the first part of the album ends here. her faith has been broken, and she has only found any semblance of sanity by refusing to mention these belief systems altogether.

side b/the anthology blends the christian imagery of side a with goddesses, sorcerers, and prophecies. she bargains with these powers to let her have the future she wants (the prophecy). she doesn’t sound like someone believing in salvation. if anything, she feels cursed. she decides that the concept of divinely ordained timing will never work in certain relationships (‘the goddess of timing once found us beguiling / she said she was trying / peter, was she lying?’). this disdain extends onto her perception of other people’s faith (‘bet they never spared a prayer for my soul’). she does position herself as a prophet in cassandra, but even then, she admits that the role has hurt her. perhaps the pain in thank you aimee was meant to be, or perhaps she was just strong enough to build a legacy in spite of it, boulder by boulder. is she a martyr? does she want to be? or did she save herself?

the only real love song on this half of the album makes no mention of fate or any divine forces. it wasn’t meant to be. it’s not a supernatural invisible string or lightning in a bottle. she is just in love.

the album ends with the manuscript, which revisits an old story of a defining, formative heartbreak. as she sings ‘at last, she knew what the agony had been for’ while describing the legacy of her writing, she seems to revert to thinking about the purpose of trauma. the only exception is that, in this case, she is the one who found meaning in her pain by turning it into a manuscript. writing is her belief system now, and she proselytizes by telling her stories and thus giving up the manuscript.

ultimately, her belief in destiny has chewed her up and spat her out. she so desperately clung to her existing belief systems that she was fooled by a conman, which left her feeling cursed. religion is supposed to be with someone even in their darkest moments, but the album explains that taylor often felt abandoned. the only constant in her life was, well, herself. she’ll be okay, but her pen will be her saving grace.

[greensaplinggrace]

What Is There To Celebrate About the Darkling? (Part 4)

1 2 3 4

He’s calculating but impulsive. Gentle yet firm. Stubborn and adaptive. Just a real mess of contradictions that makes him all the more interesting.

He loves nature. He loves the forest.

Fond of luxuries and nice things. After growing up as he did, I think he deserves them.

Very socially awkward. Introvert just trying his best. Anything that isn’t manipulation and therefore something he’s planned in his head is just a social train wreck waiting to happen.

The way he pushes up Alina’s sleeve when they first meet. This man had zero compunctions about acting completely unprofessionally in front of his soldiers and I think that’s very sexy of him.

He’s constantly tired and exasperated with the people around him.

The way he says “quiet” with the softest voice imaginable and a room full of laughter instantly goes silent.

He had no interest in Elizaveta even though she was utterly obsessed with him and I think that’s hilarious.

Elizaveta: I have a plan to resurrect the Darkling Everybody Else: Oh the Darkling is so evil for trying to come back! The Darkling, who just wants a nap and is sick of this mortal bullshit: Why am I even here? This is such a pain in the ass. I should have killed Elizaveta when I had the chance.

How he asks if Alina “will have” his name like a man proposing.

Has his bedroom attached to the war room.

Constantly checking up on Alina just to know how she’s doing. Never pushing her beyond her limits as she’s training.

Very creative with his shadows and the extent of their abilities. So many of the ways he uses his powers are genius.

His ending in RoW is a tragedy and an injustice. He deserves better.

This old man pouting at Alina in episode seven as he says “please, I just want to talk to you 🥺”

There is a black kefta made for Alina after like two days in the Little Palace. He really was already planning their entire immortal futures together as Mr. and Mrs. Starkov wasn’t he?

His bed is covered in maps and notes when he’s plotting how to find Alina. Also before that, the way he’s poring over the notes at his desk and giving orders is 👌🥵

Him acting like a real General at all is simply amazing.

The fact that he trusts Luda with his life. That they have a whole intimidation routine set up around him purposefully getting himself fatally injured knowing she’ll heal him.

He looks like a vampire in the show and a fae in the books.

His favorite ABBA song is probably “Lay All Your Love On Me.”

Looks composed but that’s only a façade. Is actually an unhinged feral terror of pain and misery.

That scene where he tells the king she will remain in the Little Palace to train undisturbed and he puts his foot down. ON THE RED CARPET. the king’s carpet. and uses a commanding voice that’s just on the edge of an order…I’m surprised he didn’t get flogged for that. IMO nothing conveys the fine line he walks with those in power while wielding his own like this scene. Literally he should just be celebrated for this alone.

“‘Why won’t you leave me alone?’ I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk. Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder. “Then I’d be alone, too,” he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.

Trapped a bunch of Saints in the Shadow Fold like a true amoral disaster villain. What an icon.

His barely concealed amusement and half hidden smile when Alina comes to put his kefta on. The way he finds Alina utterly hilarious and tries so hard to act like he doesn’t.

That small amused smile when Alina jokes about finding Volcra hilarious. Please he’s so adorable 😭

“‘I know what you feel when you’re with the tracker,’ he said. ‘I doubt that’ He gave a dismissive wave.” - My Malarklina obsessed self, vibrating at the edge of my seat: but what does it mean?!?

Mal and the Darkling’s entire fight in the Fold: dumbass on dumbass violence.

The way he stands with his back turned to Alina when she enters his tent the first time they meet and then does the slowest Godfather turn in history. 1999/10 - points removed for a criminal lack of cat petting.

“I may lead the second army, but the king is still the king.” - the delivery of that line. the implications, the history behind it and also the foreshadowing for his plans.

That slow turn face reveal in episode one though. Like okay we get it you’re pretty alkjsdflkj

Confused Old Man Face™ whenever Mal or Alina do anything remotely defiant in his presence.

How he tells Alina to come closer and she only takes the tiniest step and he doesn’t even react.

His little head cock whenever someone says or does something that just doesn’t vibe with him.

Darklina tumblr has now convinced me that the Darkling is a cat in human form.

“You’re an amplifier,” she said. He glanced at where Sylvi was pouncing on another helpless tree, oblivious, and gave a single, frightened nod. How could he have been so stupid? He would have to tell his mother now, and she would insist that they leave right away. If word got out, they’d both be in danger. Amplifiers were rare, hard to find, harder to hunt. Their lives would be forfeit. Even if they got away, word would spread. He could already hear his mother’s voice: Foolish, careless, callous. If you don’t value your own life, show some concern for mine. Annika touched his sleeve. “It’s okay,” she said. “I won’t tell.” Panic crowded in. He shook his head. She slid her hand into his. It was hard not to pull away. He should. He was breaking his mother’s fundamental rule for keeping them both alive. Never let them touch you, she’d warned him. - 😥 I just want to give him a hug all the time.

His strangled shout when Mal tackles him off of the skiff.

His smile when he’s summoning the sun. The expression on his face when he does so. Like I know I’ve mentioned this before but damn. If you ever needed a reason to celebrate him, this would be it.

“Shame, I’ll have to give that speech again now.”

The way he flips Mal over his shoulder in the Fold after Mal attempts to strangle him.

His little lecture on the Small Science to Alina when they’re going to meet the King. Info dump.

“You make it sound so easy.” “A bird makes flight look easy. But it was born to do so.”

When Alina looks at him for guidance on whether or not to remove her veil and he gives her a small nod.

The handhold in the throne room after Alina’s demonstration is absolutely precious, but it’s in a room full of people he should be keeping up a façade for and it’s so unwarranted and yet he does it anyway, I’m-

The way he says “welcome home, Ms. Starkov,” in the most tender voice I’ve ever heard and then goes “ok that’s enough emotions for one day” and then just straight up leaves without even a goodbye.

He has his symbol?? Sewn into Alina’s kefta??? bRo???!?!

Disaster Simp never gets tired of introducing Alina to other people or talking about how she’s the best thing that ever walked this earth.

The Darkling lying: honestly

“I have devoted my life to undoing the great sin of my forebearer, but I am never seen as the solution. Only as a reminder of the problem.” Sasha you were literally the problem. What a manipulative little shit. We love to see it.

The way he closes his eyes and kisses the coin before he makes a wish at the wishing well.

“I think the Grand Palace is the ugliest building I’ve ever seen.” - I love him your honor.

This man has the most intense lines for Alina. Like straight up I would have booked it when he said “you and I are going to change the world”. But then the head grab?! “I’ve been waiting a long time for you.” He’s so intense like sir can you tone it down a bit please I am begging you.

“I shall be right by your side.” / “We can do anything. Together.” / “For us.” / “You cannot do this on your own. And neither can I” / “I want you to know my name. The name I was given, not the title I took for myself. Will you have it, Alina?” - WEDDING VOWS

That scene in the war room when Alina comes to find him and he instantly drops his guard and lowers his arms and welcomes her with a soft voice.

“Am I bothering you?” “Not at all.” - girl you could be stabbing him in the chest and you still wouldn’t be bothering him.

This whipped disaster sounds like the proudest man on the planet when he talks about how much more his enemies fear Alina over him.

His shadows react to his emotions.

“YoUr’E nOt IvAn.” asjlkdfjs god he’s so embarrassing.

Local Dark Lord Sasha offering Alina the throne after she literally tries to kill him.

He gets so jealous of Mal.

Has a great relationship with his soldiers and his men. His men trust him implicitly and believe him to be an amazing general.

When he turns around after Alina puts the kefta on him and looks flustered/has to take a breath because she’s a lot closer than he expected. The way he’s breathless and literally can’t string a sentence together because he’s so distracted by her closeness.

His jokes are absolutely terrible.

GF: *jokes about throwing herself down the stairs to get out of an event* Sasha “no thoughts head empty only Alina” Morozova: haha I’d just have my healers heal you right back up again.

How genuinely touched he is by Alina admitting to wanting to help Grisha and Ravkans.

That scene in Demon in the Woods when he notices the intricate details of the politics in the Grisha camp after one meeting with the Elders. He has the Ulle pegged almost instantly.

Born to be a leader. Born to take care of others. Born to protect. Even in Demon in the Woods he’s protecting people. Even in Demon in the Woods he’s leading them and caring for them.

The way he cups his hands around Alina’s face when they’re kissing.

This man gets so starstruck by Alina walking into the Fete that he doesn’t even excuse himself from the King’s side to go to her.

Long haired Aleksander rights!

Ok I know the wig was kind of ugly but he looks pretty with long hair and I think it would look very good on him naturally.

The way he slams his hands together in the Winter Fete scene and instantly turns the room pitch black.

Literally any times he summons shadows is a blessing and we should all celebrate him for it. They are so beautiful. On god if I ever saw his shadows in real life I would be awestruck.

He asks Mal if he’s okay when they first meet.

The pure, barely contained fury directed at the Conductor for daring to harm Alina and kidnap his Grisha.

He always has to make a grand entrance.

This man is like a bloodhound when it comes to Nina. He is very invested in finding her and I feel like that’s never really talked about.

“I know exactly how she felt. The King’s soldiers treated me the same way. Because they knew- they knew that I was more important than any of them.” - the way he says it, like it’s something he has to remind himself of in his head constantly. a justification for the way he’s been treated, the fear he evokes in others. a way to protect himself from the hurt of being ostracized and reviled. arrogance and conceit as a defense against emotional harm.

Also the way his face instantly changes after that, like he’s said too much. vulnerability. lowering his eyes. shifting his eyes. literally just everything about this scene makes me love him all the more.

Dark carriage rides up to the Crows’ hiding place. Grisha circle the area as Aleksander steps from the carriage slowly, dressed all in black, floofy cloak high on his shoulders. Villain Entrance™

Him slowly pulling a knife out of his chest like it shouldn’t have killed him is hot as fuck and also totally badass. Big dick energy.

“I’ve had enough of your lies.” “And what lies are those?” - Alina, pulling out a fifty mile long scroll of grievances: Well, for starters-

This man is literally just an Alina Starkov compliments machine.

He cares so much about the Grisha and their protection. He loves Ravka and his people so much.

He had an entire cult dedicated to him.

“They would approach him. They always did. But he felt more anxious than usual. He’d stopped trying to make friends in the places he and his mother visited—there was no point when they moved on so quickly. Now he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it.”

Save a Villain. Murder the King.

Openly admits to staging a coup like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

He speaks so slowly. He moves so slowly. Everything he does has to have Purpose and Gravitas.

Theater Nerd™

He knew Nikolai for years and yet couldn’t recognize him as Sturmhond. We do stan an oblivious icon 💕

The Darkling after he gets his ass whooped in Siege and Storm: Mom can you please come pick me up? I’m scared!

He’s here to manipulate sun summoners and murder cities. And unfortunately he’s all out of sun summoners.

Would absolutely get drunk on real alcohol. This man thinks kvas is strong liquor.

Has his wrists exposed exactly one time in the most skin he’s shown all season and it’s when Alina visits him at night in the war room. WHORE!

Was too emotionally slutty and fell for Alina. RIP.

He’s passionate and cold and beautiful and hurt and twisted up in ways nobody could ever hope to understand and he’s stunning.

I would literally kill for this man 🖤✨

[alyssadeliv]

The Forgotten One

First      Previous

Chapter 11

She always knew she had a Father. When she was younger she used to ask her mother about him. She mostly told her half-truths. She knew his real name, and about his nightly activities. About his time with the League, and how he adopted some orphans along the way. She heard all about him. From Mother, Grandfather, and sometimes other members passing by. From a young age, she had him pictured in her mind. 

But now, sitting in front of him, in his office, she felt silly for ever trying to imagine what he would be like. He didn’t compare to whatever her young mind had conjured at the time.  He was tall, and he had a face that she could only explain as enigmatic. He wore a mask, that she knew. After years of perfection one of her own, she could only imagine what he had been thought to dissociate himself from the people around him. 

The office was simple, but at the same time imposing. It had a desk, behind it was her father paying attention to every word that came out of her mouth, with a large bookcase by her left. All the wood was dark, giving the room a more serious look. To her right, the wall was entirely covered with windows, with its drapes open showing the beautiful big garden outside the Manor. Behind her father, there is a painting hanging. A family portrait. She recognizes everyone in the painting with ease. Bruce is seated, with Damian in his lap, while Jason, Richard, and Timothy are standing behind Father’s chair. It’s an exquisite piece and even though they all are wearing suits, it makes the whole room look homey.

“Why didn’t you come here, after you healed from the attack?” They had been talking for the past hour. Marianne spent most of that time telling him the circumstances of her upbringing.

“I couldn't. My Master thought it would be better to stay longer.” She explains while playing nervously with the hem of the shirt Damian had lent her this morning. He could feel the anxiety coming out of her but was impressed that she kept herself strong and didn’t avoid eye contact. “So we continued with my training, but after some time we discovered a destructive energy that could only come from someone misusing a Miraculous. So it was decided that we would stay and assess the situation.”

“And this person was the fashion designer you killed this week? Gabriel Agreste?” He had a disapproving face, typical of parents disciplining their children.

“Damian made me aware of your no-kill policy, but since this was an Order business I believe you do not have the power to dictate how I dealt with it. I respect that this is your city, but believe or not I was lenient in his punishment. If it was up to me, death wouldn’t have been enough to compensate for all the pain he caused to the citizens of Paris, but I must allow the Gods to decide his punishment, so death it was.” Her speech allows him time to think about the situation. By the end of it he agreed, it wasn’t his business.

“What happened is in the past. I need to know if I can trust you not to endanger the people of Gotham. Who are you loyal to?” 

“I am loyal to myself. And Damian. Trust has to be earned so it is okay that I do not have yours. But trust this: I love Damian, and would rather die than hurt him” Bruce analises her for some time, trying to find any hint of dishonesty on her, but just like his youngest when cornered, her emotions were transparent in her face.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just that you remind me so much of… well your mother” He confessed with a nostalgic expression. “When she first brought Damian to live with me I was so shocked. I must admit that my reaction wasn’t the best. He was so grown, that it was hard to get to know him. With the others it was easier, they-”

“They weren’t your blood” She supplies. He looks a little relieved that she understood what he was trying to explain. “But you loved them all the same.”

“I did this once, it was a terrible job. Just know that I’ll be trying my best to- well, accommodate you into this family.” 

“That’s all I ask for.” She replies with a small smile. 

Marianne looked so much like his mother at a young age. He remembers spending hours looking through family album photos when he was younger. Sure he could see traces of Talia in her, but the blue eyes and black hair were definitely a Wayne trait. It scared him. Did he have any other children out there that he knew nothing about? He lost so many years from his children's lives, it pained him to think about what type of childhood they received. Sure, both Damian and Marianne didn’t hide their upbringing, but anyone could see that there were things they weren’t comfortable sharing. He knew from his own time at the League that it wasn’t easy.

“When did you meet Jason?” He had heard from Dick just this morning that apparently there was something that Jason hadn’t told them about his time in the League.

“Mother ordered me to train him after he was resurrected, because of my powers I was the best candidate to help him control the madness inside of him.” She explains, but Bruce could see the faint blush on her cheeks. 

“And you two…” He trailed off, not knowing how to phrase his question.

“Yes. And please let’s leave it at that.” She’s blushing more than she ever did before. The fact she’s talking about her love life in front of her newly acquired father makes the whole situation hilarious, and if she wasn't so mortified she would have laughed. 

“There is one more thing I would like to discuss with you” Marianne begins, uncertain of how the man in front of her would react to her request. “If it was alright with you, could I please have a hug?”

Whatever Bruce thought she was going to ask, it definitely wasn't this. So he stays there in shock, totally still for more time than he realizes. Enough for doubt to appear in the girl in front of him. His daughter. His blood daughter. He had some experience with Cassandra, but he still wasn’t sure he hadn’t totally fucked up with her yet, so this whole new daughter scene was hard on him.

Before she can flee the room in shame of her request, Father rises from his chair with grace, hiding his anxiety behind his perfected mask. In two strikes he is at her side.

The hug feels nice. Not that she would ever confess but the physical touch was something she always missed. The only person that had no trouble with being smothered with her love was Damian, and then later Jason. So, this hug from her father was definitely something she needed.

When they are done Bruce takes one more lounging look at her before dismissing her. He truly needed some time to think of all that had happened in the last few days. It had been almost 4 days since the reveal of the parentage of the girls, so he still had a lot to process. 

So now sitting with a glass of bourbon in one hand, and his cellphone in the other. He did the only thing he could think of. He called Seline.

“Hey… It’s me.”

Hello again everyone! A special thank you to everyone that has been supporting this story! I wasn't sure if I indeed wanted to write a PART 2 to this story, but after all your comments I decided to do so. I hope you all like this chapter, it's shorter than usual, but I still need to figure some stuff about the story, so please bear with me! Let me know what yall think of it!

Next

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[carrionxcamille]

A Year into Life | self para

Who: Camille... And a few margaritas Timing: Current Summary:  As the 1 year anniversary of her resurrection approaches, Camille reflects, researches, and rages. Content warning: references to alcoholism and domestic abuse 

Camille used to be the type of person who knew the expiry date of everything in her fridge. Mostly because she was worried that Jace would eat something off and somehow it would be her fault. But now, with her brain pulled back together by magic and other things on her mind, sometimes she forgot something at the back of the shelf. The lid on the yogurt pot told her it had expired on April 23rd. Which was… How long ago? Just a few days, she thought.

As Camille glances at the date on the calendar a memory hits her like a sack of bricks. A newspaper on a bench on a cold early morning, birds tweeting, a couple of joggers going past in the distance. Camille stumbling out of a church in someone else’s clothes with no idea where she is or what the fuck is going on.

“A year.” She whispers, horrified as the fact registers. “It’s been almost a year.” A cold shiver tingles down her spine and shakes her hands, rattling the yogurt pot she’s still holding. She sets it down on the counter and forgets about it instantly. 

A year of not knowing, of near catatonia, of waking up in a cold sweat frantically feeling for her pulse, of living in a town that gets stranger and scarier by the day, of feeling like her body doesn’t belong to her anymore.

A year since she came back from the dead.

Should she… Celebrate? No. No, that was weird. Maybe a bottle of wine though. Or some margaritas, she had been looking for a good excuse to try that recipe Marley taught her. First birthday seemed like it fit the bill. 

Suddenly, everything felt surreal again. Like it did when she sat in that internet cafe staring at a picture of her face and an article saying they’d found her body. Was everyone in the grocery store staring at her, or was she just paranoid? Did they know? Well, arguably, some of them probably did. Because of the mark on the back of her hand. Camille narrowed her eyes at it as she reached up to grab tequila. That stupid thing. Did it have to be on her hand? She didn’t take issue with the idea of magic- especially something as drastic as had been done to her- leaving a mark, but it was just so visible. Reminded her every time she saw it. 

So she returned home and made margaritas and tried not to think about where her life had been three years ago or wonder how much her sisters still thought about her. She thought about calling someone and inviting them to join her in this evening of absurdity, but Camille didn’t really know who she would call. She really had to work on that- a whole year and no friends? That was a bit pathetic. And okay so she was out of practice because with Jace it had become easier to not have friends than to try and hold those friends far enough away that they never saw the fractures in the marriage, but still. She used to be an excellent hostess, once upon a time. Dinners and parties and gatherings and what have you. She loved floating about a room thanking all her friends for coming, chattering away about inconsequential things. Now she was alone. 

After the first two margaritas that stopped mattering quite as much, and after four Camille was dancing around the living room to the Beach Boys.

Eventually, as tended to happen, the buzz of elation twisted into a drone and Camille found herself lounging on the couch staring at her hands. She could feel her heartbeat in her ears. A year, and who was she? What had she done? No one, nothing. She felt… Well, she sure as hell didn’t feel alive, for all the effort she put into behaving that way. For all the perfume she bought because she was always paranoid about smelling like a corpse. 

Camille Dugar was a ghost. A sad slip of nothing throwing herself against the wall and trying to stick. There had to be a way over this funk. What was holding her back? Why was she still tiptoeing around like there was a drunk man in the next room who’d go mad if she woke him up? 

The first time she’d threatened to leave him, Camille had been angry as all hell.

He hadn’t moved the laundry to the dryer. It was a Friday, she always spent Saturday ironing and putting away the clothes that were washed and dried on Friday. Couldn’t do that if they hadn’t been dried, and it was just another thing to add to her list of the shit she had to do after she got home from work and before she could actually sit down. Move laundry to the dryer, put empty beer bottles in recycling, make dinner, grade homework, check lesson plans, put empty beer bottles in recycling. 

(This was, she acknowledged, not a big deal on its own. The problem arose when this was a battle they had to have every Friday, of course it would turn into a war eventually.) 

So things had gotten heated, and when Jace had turned to walk out Camille had threatened to do the very same. Maybe I should storm out this time. She’d said. Maybe I won’t ever come back. She’d meant it, in the moment. It was the first time she’d said it out loud but certainly not the first time she’d thought it. 

She’d been so mad she was shaking. For a moment there was a terse silence and she thought she’d won. Jace laughed and it made her angrier, and she grabbed her keys and made for the door. He’d apologized then, grabbed her arm and begged her not to leave. For three days after that he was the perfect husband. The balance shifted because Jace realized he needed her. Eventually that had made her feel too guilty, too sad and scared to leave. But for a while that shift made her feel powerful.

Maybe she needed to shift the balance again. Maybe she needed to get mad.

As far as she knew, he’d never outright admitted to killing her, but whatever else Jace had done he sure hadn’t tried to save her life. 

Camille didn’t know. She didn’t know the story, and for a long time she’d told herself it was because reading about her own death was too macabre, too depressing. She had a new life and thinking about the old one was wasting energy. But she was doing that regardless, every day. Maybe knowing nothing except the fact that they’d found her and put Jace behind bars was not enough. 

It was her life, damit. Her death. Her story. 

There was a chance knowing the finer details would actually just make things worse- but honestly, how much worse could things get? She was alone and scared and lost already. Would she stop wondering, if she knew? Would the sound of her skull hitting the bottom step stop echoing in her nightmares if she could put together those final moments for real, and understand what had happened in the months following before she was found?

Five margaritas in, Camille wanted to know. She wanted to be angry. It had to be better than apathy. Knowing the sordid details of how terribly he’d treated her even in death would probably make that happen. Yes, even if it was an anger she could never confront him about, Jace Hawkins deserved for her to be mad at him.

Her laptop sat on the coffee table, the little light blinking, daring her. She grabbed it, booted it up, and sat with it on her lap for a while just wondering if she could handle the potential upset having all this information would cause. It wasn’t like she didn’t already know the most damning thing, right? She’d died at the bottom of her staircase, trying to leave her husband. Didn’t get much more devastating.

There were pages and pages of articles, a lot of them the same story from different news outlets. The publications detailing the trail were at the top of the results, and Camille tabbed a few of them to look at later. First, she wanted to know what the initial response had been. How Jace had behaved before they’d found her, what the public opinion had been.

It was… Surreal, to say the least, and Camille knew it was vain but she kept fixating on which photos of her the article had chosen to use. Very few opted for photos of her with Jace- not that there had ever been many, thank god- and the ones that really insulted her were those that just used her drivers license pic (no one looked good in those!). There was one that had dug up a photo of her at a school fete, laughing as a couple of students tried to drag her onto the bouncy castle. It made her want to cry.

One article in particular focused heavily on how Jace spoke to the press, and Camille scoured youtube for uploads of those moments. His face was hauntingly familiar, and while most people at the time had chalked his bloodshot eyes and sallow complexion up to heartbreak and neglecting himself in the wake of losing his wife, Camille knew the truth. He’d looked rough as hell for years. He denied any and all accusations that their marriage had been less than perfect, until some journalist managed to dig up the report from that one time a neighbor had to call the police because of all their yelling. Then his tune changed, but not by much. A rough patch they’d long since gotten over, he claimed.

“Lying prick.” Camille scoffed, listening to him prattle on while she made another drink. 

Of course, family on both sides did solidify this image by insisting their marriage had always been happy… And how could they not, it was what Camille had always insisted on presenting to them. Perhaps she’d had some part in orchestrating her own downfall after all.

He looked into the camera and pleaded for her to come home, for whoever might have taken her to let her go. His tone was gentle and sweet, his lower lip wobbled every time he said please. Oh, he was pulling out all the charming stops. Yeah, this was a charade she’d seen before. Camille, baby. Please, I love you. Please come home.

“Shutup.” She sneered, slamming her glass down on the table and standing to pace a circle around the sofa. “Shutup Jace. Shut the fuck up!” He stared back at her, unresponsive. The reporter asked how long they’d been married, and he got it wrong. She made a noise of indignation, “there was a photo on the mantle of us on our wedding day and the frame had the fucking date engraved on it you asshole!” 

Apparently the police's favorite theory at first had been that she had run off- with another man, or just to start a new life alone- owing to the fact that some of her clothes were missing and as far as Jace claimed she’d never come home from work that night. The suitcase, what the hell had he done with it? Clearly he hadn’t put her stuff back.

They found it in the attic, not long after finding her body. Clothes still neatly folded inside. 

He hid it. For some reason, that effort broke Camille’s heart all over again. “You son of a bitch.” He hadn’t just watched her fall down the stairs and buried her in a panic. He’d taken the time to hide the suitcase, thought far enough ahead before calling the police about how it would allow for theories that she’d run off. They went through the computer and dug up a deleted file, a letter supposedly typed up by Camille. (But obviously not typed up by Camille.) A letter that said she was leaving and not coming back. “You son of a bitch!” 

There were more youtube videos. Teenagers in their bedrooms discussing her case, putting the timeline together.  Camille was slightly horrified that this seemed to be such a trend, but also morbidly fascinated with watching the coverage of her death. People found video footage of him being interrogated and she delighted in watching him squirm. 

In clips from the trail he looked antsy but exhausted. Right, if they’d kept him locked up he probably couldn’t drink. Cold turkey. She hoped it made him miserable.

In the end, the only thing they couldn’t definitively prove was that he’d pushed her. But they could place her in the house that night, they could prove she was in the trunk of the car. He spent the entire trail claiming she’d fallen. “Then you call an ambulance!” Camille exclaimed, arms thrown out wide as if he was there in-front of her for real, the last argument they could never have. “If your wife falls down the stairs you call an ambulance! You don’t watch her die!” 

Her breath came fast, her pulse was thudding. Camille felt a little unhinged, maybe, but also more real and alive than she had in months. “I hope he fucking rots in that cell.” She muttered as she drained her glass again, echoing the sentiment of one of the comments she’d seen under a video. 

Camille grabbed a glass of water and some leftover stir fry, shut down her laptop, and found some corny lifetime movie to watch. It was late, and she was going to be hungover as shit tomorrow. But her whole body felt like it was humming with an energy she’d been lacking. Okay, so maybe year one hadn’t been perfect, but that shouldn’t be a surprise right? Year two, though. Year two was going to be better. 

[angsty-nerd]

Nonny Questions

Okay, so a Nonny (or multiple Nonnies) sent me a whole bunch of ideas for questions for Carina that I never got to ask... however, I do have MY answers for them, so... here you go Nonny(ies)!!

1. Can you ask her for me "You said that Nathan got hired because of his chemistry with Jeanine. Were there other actors that auditioned for Max considered before Nathan came in? And did you stop looking once Nathan read with Jeanine?

So this is actually something that Carina’s talked about quite a bit. Nathan and Carina were friends before RNM - they worked together on the Originals for a number of years. When it was time for casting RNM, Nathan was one of Carina’s first calls. She always knew she wanted him on the show, but he was supposed to play Michael and not Max. Then Vlamis came in for an audition and blew them away and at the same time they were having trouble finding the right Max. So Carina decided to ask Nathan if he’d be willing to do a chemistry read with Jeanine (who had already been cast), because she didn’t doubt that he was capable of playing Max...she just wanted to check the chemistry, and obviously it was magic. Jeanine told a little story about that read on Lance Bass’s podcast this past week. Something about how they both do the same awkward tap dancing move...

2. Can you ask her how Liz knew she could show Max her feelings and what memories did she show Max since that's how he used the handprint to show memories of her?

If you remember back in 1x02, she told Max, “When you showed me your memories, I didn’t just see them, I felt them.” Also, the connection through the handprint made her feel Max’s echoes, and she experienced it again with Noah in 1x12-13 (in a really not-awesome way). And in 1x13, Noah told HER that he could feel her through the connection. He comments on the guilt she feels. So that was really Liz learning that Max could feel her just like she felt him through the connection. I don’t know that there were specific memories associated with it. She wanted him to feel her feelings, not see specific memories. It’s not like she got memory flashes from Noah. Just feelings.

3. An idea for a question. When Max and Isobel were on their way to find Noah and Liz was on the phone with Max, was she going to say I love you? Because her mouth moved with no words and when the camera went back to Max she said "stay safe".

I think that’s pretty clearly suggested. Throughout the entire episode Liz is fighting her guilt for loving Max. She’s very firm with Maria earlier in the episode that “you can’t help who you fall in love with”, which implies that she’s pretty much there already at that point. Noah comments on her guilt. But Liz feels like she needs to come clean to Rosa first, before she tells Max. Which is what stops her from saying it on the phone (plus, lets be real...we don’t want a first I love you to be over the phone. That would be so lame!). Which is why she goes to visit Rosa’s grave after leaving Max in bed. She’s trying to get a clean slate for herself so that she can say it to him. But instead she’s left haunted by her decision NOT to say it for months. *excuse me while I go cry in a corner*

4. Oh oh you should ask her if Liz is the light to Max's darkness! Unless you think it's too spoilery.

Yes. Yes she is.

5. Can you ask her if there was an intention in having all Liz Ortecho items in Max's mindscape when Isobel and Rosa tried to talk to him?

I think it was clearly intentional. I don’t think we’ll get much elaboration on that from them, although admittedly, now that the whole amnesia/dark!Max plot seems to be done (which, honestly...should have taken longer to resolve), maybe they’d speak about it now. I’ll tell you what MY headcanon is on it, and I dunno, maybe we can call it canon too based on what Isobel said at the beginning of 2x06. I think that Max was being overwhelmed by all the dark energy, and his memories and associations with Liz were the only way he could fight it. But his body was dead — only his mind was active. So after “pulling his plug”, his brain slowly started dying, and as it was dying, slowly the darkness began to take over. His memories of Liz were dying along with his mind. Slowly disappearing. If you watch those scenes closely, things are constantly disappearing until the very end, when he’s dying on the operating table, and Isobel goes in and nothing is left except the Jeep and Bright Eyes playing...and then Bright Eyes fades away - like it was his last memory of her fading away. And then what do you know, he wakes up and he remembers everything about his life except for Liz — the thing he was hanging onto until the end as he died. Another point to sell this - Carina mentioned in an interview that she fought hard to use Bright Eyes in that scene — that it was an important detail to her.

6. Possible question, "Did Max absorb Rosa's ten year of darkness or just 10 years of a general dark energy? Cuz as Rosa was in the pod she was in stasis so it's not like her body was decaying for 10 years, but a couple hours or a day or two.

Max absorbed ten years of dark/death energy by bringing Rosa back to life. I don’t think it has anything to do with decay. I think it has to do with death and the amount of time that she was dead. Like, dark/death energy was just building for all of that time. And I don’t think it’s intended to be specific to Rosa. Like, if he went to resurrect Kate or Jasmine, or Jim Valenti, or some random dude killed by a stray bullet, he would absorb the darkness of their deaths too, for the amount of the time they were dead. Dude, think about his “wrongness” after healing Liz. And she was only dead for, like, a minute at most. This is part of why I’m a little critical about how “easy” it was for him to expel the darkness...because Liz’s one minute (ish) of death was enough dark energy to blow out the entire town’s power! So ten years of Rosa? Hell, that could be some scary shit. He shouldn’t have been able to just cause a little mini earthquake and shoot some lightning and then done? It doesn’t sit right with me.

7. If Liz had a fiance, does that mean when Diego asked her to marry her she said yes? Will we see this?

Typically that’s what it means when you have a fiancé. And god, I hope not. I did like that we got a little bit more Diego detail in this last episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him at some point, but I really don’t care to spend much time with him. Diego is the past. Max is the future. And its not like Diego is a threat to Max. I think one of the things I like about the way they’ve set up Echo at this point in the series is that it makes almost no sense for them to find themselves in a love triangle. Like, they are already basically spiritually married at this point. I can’t imagine Liz looking at anyone else. I can’t imagine Max looking at anyone else. They’re it for each other.

8. Can you ask Carina if that's the real Max or a different Max?

Obviously I didn’t get a chance to ask, and I don’t think she would have answered it I had...but based on her tweets, I’m inclined to think it’s the real Max. Yes, there was a lot of interesting imagery, and we could still end up with some sort of Jekyll/Hyde situation per @maxortecho metas, but Carina basically admitted that they felt like they needed to get Max back at the halfway point in the season, and that even though they wanted to do more with Dark!Max, that they felt like they needed their male lead back. And that the amnesia twist was really just to give us the chance to see Max falling in love with Liz. So I think there’s some GREAT opportunities for AU/Dark!Max fic now, but that the guy we’re seeing on the show is the real deal.

9. Can you ask if we should be suspicious of Max or can Echo fans breathe for a little while?

So I think I answered a lot of this above, however, now that I have the recording of my chat with Carina, let me give you the exact quote that she said to me about Echo…

“Oh good, I felt like it was time that you got fed.” (After I told her I was an Echo person)

“It was nice to see them be happy and laughing. I don’t know how long it’s going to last, but...Echo’s relationship is pretty good for a little while.”

I think that’s fair and I told her so in the chat. I really don’t think it’s reasonable to assume they’ll be all happy all the time (like I posted about a few days ago), but I think pretty good for a little while sounds nice!

[frasier-crane-style]

"It’s weird how so many people keep coming back from the dead.”

That was my mom’s review of The Rise of Skywalker. I ended up seeing it in January, which is very fitting, because it is very much the kind of movie you’d expect Sam Worthington to be in.

-I’m not saying it’s rushed, but I’m pretty sure the Star Wars logo and opening scroll are on fast-forward.

-If I’m following the movie’s math right, we left things off in TLJ with the First Order reigning over the entire galaxy with a huge fleet, while the Resistance was down to twenty or so people. By TROS, they’ve expanded to let’s say a hundred people, a few starfighters, and a blockade runner. Palpatine shows up with a thousand Star Destroyers which he intends to gift to the First Order. The plot of the movie involves destroying these Star Destroyers. Which still leaves the entire First Order more or less intact, until they’re spontaneously overcome by regular people around the galaxy. So, in other words, the entire Resistance vs. First Order conflict was resolved entirely off-screen, with no involvement from the Resistance, as they dealt with an entirely new threat.

-I love how Disney dedicated the entire Rogue One movie to explaining the ‘plot hole’ that the Death Star had a small, easily overlooked, and hard to access weakness--while the Sith Star Destroyers here literally have big glowing red weak spots out of a 16-bit game and are docked in such a way that they’re left totally vulnerable for minutes at end. Who designed these things, Dr. Wily?

-No wonder John Boyega is pissed--the movie really strongly hints that he’s Force-sensitive and has feelings for Rey, but JJ doesn’t bother to wrap up that loose end at all. 

-”Let’s win this one for Leia! She never gave up!” Movie, you just said she gave up on being a Jedi, like, five minutes ago. And man, you’re saying she was basically a Jedi in all but name, and she still sent her defenseless, old man husband out to redeem Ben instead of going herself? I mean, you didn’t see Count Dooku sitting on his ass just because he could get a senior citizen’s discount. He was putting himself out there all through the Clone Wars, repping the Confederacy. I guess Leia is just chickenshit.

-So, umm... how is Palpatine defeated anymore totally this time than he was the last time? Like, what’s to stop him from resurrecting himself again and revealing that he had yet another fleet up his ass?

-And I know the Star Wars canon has played fast and loose as hell with the “only two there are, a master and an apprentice”, bringing in an endless supply of Sith Inquisitors and whatnot, but an entire fleet of Sith, with a cult and special Stormtroopers--I mean, wow. Sure, they’re not Force-sensitive, but where did they come from? Where they around during the prequels? Did Palpatine recruit a billion people and send them off to just start building Star Destroyers, with no one noticing or wondering what was going on at all? Entirely separate from the First Order, which also started up and built a galaxy-ruling fleet with no one noticing? Like, shit, this guy must be the greatest economist of all time. He should be in charge! The Republic can’t even end child slavery and he’s cranking out fleets like there’s no tomorrow!

-And I guess Snoke was an uber-powerful clone of some kind that Palpatine could control, begging the question of why he’s bothering with Rey if he can create Snokes and why he doesn’t just create a whole army of killer Snokes who can Force Lightning whole fleets away? Say what you will about the EU, but it was smart enough to immediately explain why you couldn’t/shouldn’t clone Jedi.

-And if you’ll remember from TLJ, Rey and Kylo Ren can only Forcetime each other because of Snoke creating the connection and him being an uber-powerful Sith Lord. Luke doing it outright killed him. Here, though, Rey and Kylo Ren are able to Forcetime each other whenever they want. I guess everyone involved just forgot what killed Luke Skywalker one movie ago.

-It’s funny that they try to explain away that the Holdo Manuever was a ‘one in a million,’ and then at the end they show that someone has successfully done it again on an Imperial Star Destroyer. So I guess that is a valid tactic now. Great...

-Man, that Force healing technique sure would’ve been handy when Qui-Gon Jinn was dying. Or when Shmi Skywalker was dying. Or when Vader was dying. Padme Amidala...

-What was the point of introducing a new cute droid and leaving R2-D2 behind? Like, why don’t you just stop the movie and have Poe Dameron give all the kids in the audience a special gift code for the Disney gift shop?

-”Never be afraid of who you are, Rey.” Okay, but then she disavows her entire identity as a Palpatine and names herself a Skywalker. It’s not like Luke renamed himself after he found out who Darth Vader was. And Daddy Palpatine and Mommy Palpatine seemed like good peoples. Even if she doesn’t (or does?) remember them, what’s the alternative? She considers Luke her father? Han? Does she consider herself married to Ben? Does she think Leia is like a mother to her even though their relationship was entirely off-screen? So crazy.

-I also like the part at the beginning where Palpatine casually reveals that he’s been the voice in Ben Solo’s head all along. Where we supposed to know that Ben has literally been hearing voices this whole time? Okay, I guess his motivation all this time was... fake mental illness? How satisfying!

-Also find it hilarious that it’s time for Rey’s character arc to end, but they never actually gave her a character, so at the literal last minute, they turn her into Luke Skywalker. Her granddaddy is a supervillain and she’s afraid of going over to the Dark Side. Only obviously she doesn’t give a shit about redeeming Palpatine, she just wants to get revenge for her dead parents, so--it’s like someone watched the OT and said “Wouldn’t this be better without the famous twist in ESB and if we didn’t set up this conflict until the last movie?”

-And the whole movie, they’re trying to find Palpatine specifically to assassinate him, but now Rey’s in danger of going over to the Dark Side, so when she talks about killing Palpatine, everyone’s all worried. “Rey, this isn’t you!” Shades of the Battle of Crait, because--what are they supposed to do when they find Palpatine? Does the Resistance ever actually order anyone to do anything or do they just send people places and have them make it all up as they go along?

-We let Abrams get away with including his buddy Amiable Fat Dude cameo as a character in these movies, but here it really gets out of control, as Jodie Comer and Dominic Monaghan show up to play basically extras, which just ends up being distracting as hell. Imagine if, in Return of the Jedi, Luke took Vader’s mask off... and oh my God, it’s Frank Sinatra!

-For an almost plotless movie, it gets pretty convoluted at times. Palpatine orders Kylo Ren to kill Rey, although he doesn’t really want her dead, it’s just tough love I guess? Kylo is upfront about not caring about that; he wants to turn her to the Dark Side so they can kill Palpatine together. He doesn’t seem to have any real clever way to go about this other than trying to kill her (?) and revealing to her her true parentage, because that worked so well when he tried to do it one movie ago.

-Okay, this is more the fandom reaction no mans land than the movie, but I am mystified, my good sirs, at this idea that Rian Johnson nobly made a point that Rey was a Super-Jedi and a Super-Jedi can come from anywhere, because. And you know, don’t listen to me, I just watched the movie, but it seemed like they were saying she was a Super-Jedi to balance out Kylo Ren or Snoke being a Super-Sith or to make up for the Jedi Purge, even though that wasn’t a thing back in the OT when thousands of Jedi died and Darth Vader, who is vastly more powerful than Kylo Ren, was running around. And I just feel the whole “Rey is a scrappy little nobody making good!” thing doesn’t work if also the Force has arbitrarily declared that she gets such a buttload of magic powers that the ol’ energy field is basically sticking its hand up her ass and working her like a puppet. Like, at that point, she’s a Chosen One in all but name. She’s not winning through perseverance or moxie or anything like that, it’s just that she’s arbitrarily the Superman of the Jedi Order. Her being a Palpatine doesn’t really explain her powers any better, but it doesn’t explain them any worse, for my money.

-P.S. Anyone else get the Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar trailer? What a cringey, offputting trailer. Like, instead of explaining the plot or making any jokes, let’s subject the audience to what feels like hours of a horrible little child singing and then act as though we’re finally making a movie about some universally loved icons even though they’re characters you’ve never heard of. I felt like I was in some universe where Saturday Night Live didn’t exist, and then some monster bought over A Night At The Roxbury from a parallel dimension and unleashed it on us anyway.

[thewriterwithnoplan]

The Anti-Hero (Part 2)

Summary: They always told her a few key things; Humans are not loving, And Humans are not divine. Midgard is not safe, And Midgard is not kind. Earth is not good, And Earth is not pure. Terra is not clean, And Terra is not secure. The unspoken truths of humanity. Maybe it was high time she believed them. Pairing: Eventual!Peter Parker x Reader Word Count: 1198 Warnings: None.

Y/N fumbled - rather inelegantly - through her bedroom window. It had been another long day, in which the girl had raided her fifth shop this month. She wasn’t exactly the worst villain around but bad enough to warrant the attention of small-time heroes like Spiderman.

It had been some years since she had seen the Avengers and the girl still woke up in a cold sweat. Considering the fact that the last time she had seen them they had beaten her mentor – the strongest sorcerer she knew - she wasn’t really up for coming face to face with them again.

In fact - if you didn’t count her criminal activity – Y/N lived a calm life, so far off the grid that even SHIELD thought her dead. The only trace left of her was the girl in green and gold, or rather Mischief. It was an alias she had taken to honor her imprisoned mentor.

When she donned her mask of elegant gold, she was able to make them all pay for what they did. Mischief made the humans pay for the life of Loki. The innocent life that they had ripped away from her and condemned to a prison cell. The life that the girl in green and gold would not forget.

“Where have you been then?” Y/N whirled upon the voice, a dagger in hand. “Put the weapons down child.”

The girl rolled her eyes, unclasping her cloak and threw it over her desk chair, “Hello to you too, Mordor.”

“You missed training,” Was all the man said.

“It’s Saturday.”

Mordor gave a heavy sigh, “You asked me to be your mentor. That means you follow my rules, that means training on Saturday.”

“I didn’t ask you for anything,” Y/N snapped. “Just because both of our relics are Vaulting Boots of Valtorr and you are required by Mystic Law to train me, does not make you my mentor.”

Mordor mumbled something about disrespecting the ancient arts and stormed from the room. Y/N let out a relieved sigh, she really did hate him. Sure, he helped provided a roof over her head – although she paid her part in rent – and trained her in combat and the mystic arts. But by the gods, his need to replace Loki was infuriating.

And yet Mordor was still one of the only Midgardians that Y/N could tolerate. Not that he knew that in fact Mordor still thought she was human. The man was terribly oblivious, to the point that he completely ignored the fact that her magic was something never before seen.

Loki had once told her that she was rare even among Asgardians. They were called Elementals. Magic wielders with the ability to control fire or air or water, or in her case soil. It was probably what drew Loki’s attention and lead to him agreeing to mentor her.

Since her first lesson all those years ago, her powers had only grown. What had once been a feeble ability to push and pull water had developed into control. Her skills with soil had matured until it bent fully to her will. Loki had taught her most of what she knew but she’d had other teachers after him.

Thor had been the one to train her in all things battle. From war planning to hitting people over the head. It had gone hand in hand with her dagger-wielding abilities and scheming mind – nurtured by none other than the God of Mischief.

Frigga had taken up where Loki had left off after his first death. Her teachings had been less about the complex spells Loki had taught her and more theory. It had been Frigga who taught the girl how to build up reserves of magic, set up wards and enchantments that lasted longer and how to do the more trivial spells that Loki had overlooked.

Of course, Y/N couldn’t give herself and the many mentors she’d had, all the credit. She’d been gifted with countless magical relics to aid her. Everything from the vanishing daggers from Loki, to her battle armour from Thor, had played a part in perfecting her skills. Lately, her favorite relics were the Vaulting Boots of Voltorr, which – like Mordor’s own boots – allowed her to jump through the air.

“Is that man still trying to replace me?” Y/N whirled again, summoning a dagger from wherever they went when she vanished them. She threw one, allowing it to fly through the man, “Oh, calm down.”

“Mind telling me when you’re coming to visit?” She huffed at the Asgardian Prince before her. “Not that it isn’t pleasant to hear from you, Loki.”

“I am pleasant, aren’t I?” He mused, “I thought you’d want to be filled in. Ragnarök was averted, we destroyed Asgard, so we shall see you in Midgard.”

Now you may be wondering what’s going on. It was simple really. Y/N was stuck on Earth but that didn’t mean she liked to stay uninformed. In fact, for years now she had been squireling away information. Including the resurrection – several resurrections actually – of her long thought dead mentor.

You see Y/N was an Asgardian and if Loki taught her anything it was this; Knowledge is power, and information is currency. So, while the girl had resorted to burglary to bring in a steady income she was beyond rich. It was information from the last Valkyrie that had led her to Loki. Who – since his time on Sakaar – had been contacting her daily through illusions.

“Gee thanks,” Y/N rolled her eyes. “Do you want to elaborate on why our realm was obliterated or am I supposed to guess?”

“I told you about our estranged sister Hela,” She nodded slowly, piecing it together. “She-“

The Loki illusion turned as if mirroring the actions of the real man – who was currently in a spaceship if she was correct. An alarm started blaring from somewhere behind him. The Prince turned back to her, wide-eyed. A mask of calm locked quickly into place, but she saw it. That one moment of terror.

“Someone’s on the ship,” He told her.

Chills crept up her back and suddenly she was a scared child, “It’s him, isn’t it? The mad titan.”

“He’s after the Infinity Stones,” Loki nodded grimly in conformation. “They’ll go for Midgard next. Swear to me that you will not get involved.”

“I can help.”

“You can help by staying put,” He frowned when she opened her mouth to protest yet again. “All will be fine, but I need you to swear it.”

Y/N huffed a small sigh. He had always kept her out of the real fights. Sure, on more than one occasion she had tagged along with the two Princes and their warrior friends but whenever a real battle came up… Loki was always there to make her promise to stay safe, to hang back. It must have truly been serious for him to demand her to do so now.

“Okay,” She bowed her head. “I swear it.”

“Then the sun will shine on us again, child.” He gave her the smallest of smiles before turning, a dagger materializing in his hand and then the illusion disappeared.

“It better.”

[lokilickedme]

Because of "The Department", I am starting to become interested in Hozier. Are there any songs you would recommend for new listeners? Does he have anything romantic and sad?

Ohhhh my goodness.  Does he have anything romantic and sad…DOES HE HAVE ANYTHING ROMANTIC AND SAD?!  (sorry, I’m hyperventilating with excitement here)

Sit down honeypants, have I got a playlist for your listening pleasure.

First, you’re fortunate that he’s only got two officially released albums, two EPs, and a handful of covers and film tracks - because frankly the world couldn’t handle much more than what he’s given us so far.  We need time, we need to acclimate, we need to be strong enough to take it.  And for what he has given us thus far, we are thankful.  *amen*

I don’t even know where to start categorizing his songs individually, but since you specifically asked for “romantic” and “sad”, I’ll begin there:

ROMANTIC AND/OR SAD HOZIER SONGS TO PINE AND/OR YEARN TO:

Work Song - Gotta start here, for reasons.  This song is what I would call the epitome of romance.  It’s a nod to the field hymnals of the deep south, with the religious solemnity replaced by a mournful sort of romantic adoration for a lover who somehow saved him from a past he had all but lost himself to.  Sweet and gentle and worshipful, it fairly reeks of bad man redeemed by the love of a good woman.  He thanks the higher powers every day for the gift of his lover, whether the gods are listening or not, whether he is worthy of their attention or not - he no longer cares about that, because if there’s no eternal heaven for him, this moment on earth with his love is more than enough.  You are his deity now, his redeemer, his savior…and he’s at peace with his past because he knows you love him as much as he loves you.  Beautiful and hopeful, and almost painfully romantic.

Like Real People Do - Gah, I don’t even know where to start with this one.  It was inspired by Seamus Heaney’s series of poetic odes to the bog bodies discovered in the wilds of Ireland, which in itself doesn’t seem like a very ripe field to plow for romantic sentiment.  However, let me direct you to the following verse:

I will not ask you where you came fromI will not ask, and neither should youHoney just put your sweet lips on my lipsWe should just kiss like real people do

Yeah, we’re done here.  Basically it’s a vague fairy tale whose implications you’re free to ascertain for yourself.  Is it grave robbing?  Murder?  Some dark fae magic resurrecting an ancient being for some dark purpose he can’t recall? A lonely woman enlisting a disreputable spell to conjure a lover for herself from the long-dead bones of a forgotten victim?  Or was he simply buried by his grief/pain/sadness and “dug up” by the love and care of a stranger?  Whatever it is, it’s lovely.

To Be Alone -  Howling and intense, feral and wild, this is a tune to fuck to.  Romantically, of course.  The Celtic drums, the yowling chorus, the stomping that brings to mind a tribal Druid ceremony, untamed and darkly sexual in all its heathen glory…

Honey, when you kill the lightsAnd kiss my eyesI feel like a person for a moment of my life

Need I say more?  How about this:

To feel your weight in arms I’d never useIt’s the god that heroin prays to

Powerful, right?  And any song that has Feels good, god it feels good as a repetitive chorus can’t be anything but babymaking tunes.  Trust me.

Better Love - This is a film soundtrack song that appears on the ending credits of The Legend Of Tarzan.  Lush and frantically heartfelt and literally gushing with a profound romance that rises and rises until it hits a crescendo that you just gotta listen to on headphones with your eyes closed.  It’s a religious experience, the kind that’s easy to imagine yourself screaming OH GOD!! in the middle of.  Yeah, that kind.  The rising fury of the music, the piano, the horn section, his voice, is all very reminiscent of that kind of love.  Just beautiful, urgent, and will have you imagining yourself in a Victorian dress standing on the bank of a river somewhere waiting for your love to return from some distant place.

Dinner And Diatribes - Speaking of that kind of love, here we have a song that uses those very words to describe what loverboy wants and is asking for from you, his passionate yet momentarily bored significant other.  The two of you are stuck at some hideously stale social engagement and his soul is dying slowly with each dull conversation he has to participate in; his only reprieve is in staring at you from across the room and sending you subliminal messages about what he would very much like for you to do to him as soon as he gets you out of there.  Let there be hotel complaints and grievances raised, yeah that kind of love.  Romantic?  Not strictly, no, not on the face of it.  But really, what’s more romantic than knowing your partner well enough to know that one look from you across a crowded room will have them searching for a way to excuse themselves from the party so they can go home and absolutely rail you?

Scarcely can speak for my thinkingWhat you’d do to me tonightNow that the evening is slowingNow that the end is in sightHoney, it’s easier knowingWhat you’d do to me tonight 

 And we’re not even going to discuss the pounding Celtic tribal drums that set up a rhythm through the entire song that subtly mimics a headboard banging against the wall.  Rowdy loud romance at its pulse pounding best.

In A Week - Nothing says romance like two lovers decomposing in a field together, scaring the cows and slowly turning into food for the foxes and crows.  A beautiful tune, gorgeously sung as a duet with Karen Crowley.  He claims this was meant to be very tongue-in-cheek, and god I hope he’s not lying because I worry about the boy sometimes.

Nobody - My personal favorite, this one is a road song chronicling a love through comparison.  He tells his sweetheart how much he misses her, not with the actual words I miss you, but through a series of either/ors:

If I had the choice between hearing either noiseThe excitement of a thousand, or the soothing of your voiceAt first chance I’d take the bed warmed by the bodyI once warmed my hands over a burnin’ MaseratiStill I’ve had no love like your love

A cute love song full of playful devotion to an absent lover.  Just perfect.

Shrike -  I should have put this higher up on the list, I know.  You’ll understand what I mean when you listen to it.  A Shrike is a murderbird, btw.  Yeah, he’s comparing his powerful desire to express his love (after having tragically/stupidly missed a prior opportunity to do so) to a Shrike (him) impaling food on a thornbush (her).  Again, it’ll make sense when you listen to it.  A beautiful, haunting, lushly lyrical song about wistful longing.

Wasteland Baby -  This song, geezus.  The world is ending, it’s here, it’s happening, and he’s watching it all come down while sitting next to you, holding your hand, waiting for it to reach the pair of you as the flames lick the sky.  Neither of you are scared, just at peace, together, waiting for the end of it all to take you.  Oddly beautiful, and his voice - god, his voice.  Wasteland baby, I’m in love, I’m in love with you.

Movement - A love song to all the things you see in your lover that are lacking in yourself.  Poetic and poignant, coming from a towering giant with a tendency to trip over his own feet, singing about his lover being graceful and feeling moved by the way she moves.

NFWMB - Yes, it means what it looks like.  Nothing Fucks With My Baby, and yes he says that word every other line.  But the way he utters it with such dreamy conviction is just…ugh, it’s a horny song okay?  Just unabashedly horny.  And romantic, because he’s not making a bar room threat as in NOTHING fucks with my baby!!, he’s issuing a laid back warning that if you DO fuck with his baby, she will straight up fuck you up and he will sit back and watch, shaking his head in an I told you so sort of sympathy.  His baby is so terrifying that the goddamn apocalypse willingly averted itself when it saw she was in the vicinity.  An ode to a strong lover that he respects with every fiber of his being and by god you should too.

From Eden - Basically a love song from the devil’s point of view.  I slithered here from Eden just to sit outside your door.  That’s romantic, folks.

Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue) - My second favorite song in, like, the entire history of music.  Remember when I said NFWMB was unabashedly horny?  Well, this is a song about oral sex.  No qualms, no masking in flowery terms, and a whole lot of borderline blasphemous comparisons to religious verbiage to boot.  And it’s one hell of a banger, with Hoz howling like his baby just put her mouth on him (which is the chorus, more or less).  A no-apologies hard driving ballad devoted to fellatio, which I find oddly romantic in the simple fact that he speaks of it as a holy act of devotion.  He worships his lover, who is, ironically, the one on her knees in the holy posture of prayer in front of him.  And god does he love her for it.

Jackie And Wilson - This one is tricky, because it’s a rousing catchy tune flowing around a set of words that, once you listen carefully to them, become a whole lot of not what I thought.  He speaks of love, and of being saved, and of the attentive care that his lover gives him.  Only later do we hear the truth behind those words - that the love was obsessive and immature, that the savior casually abandoned him without even saying goodbye, that her care was no more than an amused tolerance to his childish adoration.  She knew all along that she wasn’t in it for the long haul, while he was making plans for forever.  But all hope isn’t lost - he’s not irreparably damaged, he isn’t ruined for life.  He simply goes and digs up the version of himself that he buried at the beginning, and starts again.  A little more experienced, a bit more jaded, but ready to do it all over again because maybe it’ll be right next time.  A hopefully romantic little cautionary tale that somehow doesn’t lose its playfulness, even as he’s putting out his cigarette and noticing that she’s gone.

Do I Wanna Know - this is a cover/retool of the song of the same name by Arctic Monkeys, and it is sublime in its sad yearning.  While the original is a driving, dark, sexy ode to obsessive love, Hozier’s version is a gentle, tender, hauntingly heart-tugging song about longing and uncertainty.  It’s a slow game of she loves me, she loves me not being played by a lover who is unsure if it’s worth the bother to try to fall in love with someone else if the current object of his laconic affections is no longer interested in him, or if he should just keep trying to win her back and keep the status quo as is.  And his voice…god, the way he caresses words is like he’s making love to your ears without the messy cleanup afterward.

There are more - but I’m going to draw the line here and say ENOUGH FOR NOW, YOU’RE NEW, YOU’RE NOT PREPARED FOR THE REST.  I mean…Angel of Small Death?  Sedated?  Arsonist’s Lullaby?  The hardcore underlying symbolism of his flagship ballad Take Me To Church?  It Will Come Back, for god’s sake??  No, not yet.  Go, dip your toe into the waters, and then come back when you’re ready for more…because everything this man has ever done is brilliant and beautiful and profound, and oh boy do I look forward to ruining another innocent with it all :)

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12:  Fusion Reborn (3/6)

So Janemba’s messing with King Yemma, cutting off his authority over the boundary between the living and dead.  Yemma knew this would have dire consequences for the universe, and we see that manifest on Earth, where dead people are suddenly back from the grave.   For example, this family is at a cemetary to visit their grandfather’s grave, only to find him alive and well in his burial clothes no less.    He’s not a ghost or any other sort of apparition either; he has feet and everything.

Elsewhere, an older man named Romeo has a similar experience at the grave of his deceased lover, Juliano.   Or Julianne?    I don’t know.    You’d think they would have called her “Juliet” to play in with Romeo, except in the play they both died young.    Here, Romeo survived, and he’s and old man.

But Julianne hasn’t aged at all in the past sixty years since her death.   It kind of makes for an awkward reunion.   

Incidentally, Romeo has a crucifix, so this marks the first official appearance of Jesus Christ in Dragon Ball.  We’ve seen crosses and the name “Jesus Christ”, but this is an actual image of the Son of God Himself.    “But Lord, why are there no footprints in the sand during the most difficult parts of the journey?”  “Because that was when I Instant Transmissioned you, lol.”

Speaking of crosses, here’s Dracula, and I guess he was dead, until he came back today.   But he still has a wooden stake in his heart, which... okay why does he want it removed if it’s not killing him?  Why can’t he just take it out himself? Also, if Janemba’s powers are causing dead people to come back to life, shouldn’t Dracula turn back into a human?   

Meanwhile, some horde of invaders on horseback marches through traffic.    I think these are supposed to be Mongols, but I dunno.

They kind of get their thunder stolen when a second army of tanks shows up, let by Adolf Hitler.  I mean, it’s not quite Hitler.  His uniform is bright purple, and the real Hitler wouldn’t be leading a battalion of tanks into action.  But this movie never bothers to give him a satirical name, like “Dunkoff Shitler” or “Adenoid Hynkel” or whatever.   So I just refer to this guy as Hitler.   Same as that vampire from a minute ago.  

In any event, this guy’s obvious resemblance to Hitler is why his scenes were edited out in several countries, which have laws against depicting Nazi imagery.  For what it’s worth, the movie doesn’t really lose much with these scenes taken out.

Also, there’s just straight up zombies running around, which I don’t really understand, since Hitler and Julianne are fully alive.  But that’s the chaos of Janemba for you.  He’s not purposely doing any of this.   This is just the result of him cutting off King Yemma’s power to regulate the dead.

But don’t worry, folks, Gohan’s here and he’ll save the day, right after he finishes eating.

Goku may be dead, but his legacy lives on in his sons, Gohan and Goten.   Chi-Chi doesn’t mind doing all the dishes from the boys’ meals, but she does miss her husband at times like these.

So Videl offers to help with the dishes, but Chi-Chi’s like, no way, you’re a guest in this house.

But somehow we end up with Videl doing the dishes in the next scene.   This is one of my favorite animations in this movie.   With the sound effects, I could watch a loop of this all day. 

Chi-Chi is impressed, so she tells Videl that she’ll make a fine wife.  

And Videl’s all “Marriage?  Gawrsh!”   This is adorable.  She’s so worked up that she drops a dish.

But Chi-Chi doesn’t mind, because she still thinks Videl is cut out for married life.  In the manga, Chi-Chi wants Videl to marry Gohan so she can get a chunk of that sweet, sweet Mr. Satan fortune, but in this movie, I almost feel like she’s proposing to marry Videl herself.   “Marry me, Videl, so I may never have to wash a dish again!”  “Wh-what about Gohan?”  “What about Gohan?”

Then Videl breaks more dishes, but before she can clean them up, she gets a call from the Satan City Police, who inform her that the dead have risen and are overrunning the town.   Also, they ask her to contact Great Saiyaman.  Videl’s like “No problem, I’m at his house now.   I think his mom is coming on to me.”

“Stay away from my mom, Videl.”

Meanwhile, in Otherworld, Goku and Pikkon’s championship match is interrupted when a giant crystal sprouts out of the ring.

The Grand Kai believes the disturbance is coming from King Yemma’s domain, and he sends Pikkon to investigate.   But Goku doesn’t want him to go, since that would mean he’d win the tournament by forfeit.   So the Grand Kai orders Goku to go with Pikkon, and that works out, since Goku can teleport there.

When they arrive, they find everything all messed up.

Yemma somehow contacts them from within the barrier around his domain, and he points out Janemba on the roof.

Pikkon tries to ask Janemba to cut the shit, but Janemba either won’t cooperarte or he can’t understand him.   When Pikkon loses his patience, Big J flicks him into one of those floating jellybeans he made.

This catches Goku’s interest, and now he’s happy that they left the tournament for this, since Janemba seems like an even greater challenge.

Janemba seems to agree to tangling with Goku, so he suggests that Pikkon see to Yemma while Goku lures Janemba to hell, where he’ll be out of the way.

I’m not sure if there were already jellybeans in hell, or if Janemba brought a bunch down with him.  

Otherwise, Hell has experienced its own bizarre changes.  I’m not entirely sure what’s changed, since we only saw it twice in the entire run of the anime up until now, but I’m pretty sure all those humanoid-looking figures weren’t there before.

Janemba grabs a few and turns them into mini-clones of himself.

Goku thinks they look cute until they all start ganging up on him.

Fortunately, Goku can just beat them away with a few roundhouse kicks, and they all vanish.   The bad news is that the big Janemba won’t be that easy.

Back on Earth, Gohan’s having tons of fun clobbering zombies. 

Videl’s doing pretty well against them too, but the real question is: Why is this happening, and how do they stop it?   Gohan isn’t sure, but he’s confident that it’ll all work out with the two of them together. 

Videl’s charmed by his answer, but then--

Some jagoff intrudes on their moment.

Oh look, it’s this asshole.   Yeah, Frieza’s back and he’s in this movie too, along with Dracula, Hitler, and Jesus.  For those of you keeping score, that means Steel Ball Run, Hellsing, and Resurrection F were all inspired by this movie.

Frieza is surprised that anyone on Earth knows him by name, so Gohan unmasks to reveal that he was the kid with the bowl-haircut on Namek.        

Videl’s completely smitten here.   “Wow, he’s wayyy dreamier than his mom!”

So Frieza’s decided to kill Gohan as revenge for Goku defeating him.   You’d think he’d be mad about Future Trunks killing him, but he was friends with Gohan too, so it still works.   The part that doesn’t work is this punk-ass bitch running around in Movie 12 like it’s still Movie 3. 

So Frieza sics a surprise army of henchmen on Gohan to soften him up.  Of course, it makes perfect sense that all the top Frieza soldiers would be here, and that they’d still be loyal to Frieza, but there’s also a lot of Movie 1-5 henchmen too, and most of them don’t even know Frieza.  Still it’s not hard to believe that they could be persuaded to join his side.

But Bojack seems pretty hard to swallow.   Out of everyone in this scene, he’s definitely stronger than Frieza ever was, so why isn’t he calling the shots here?

Anyway, waves of henchmen, Frieza’s invincible, what will Gohan do now? 

FREE-ZA FREE-ZA FREE-ZA FREE-ZA

Hadou ooana GALAXY Yudan wana PARASITE

FREE-ZA FREE-ZA FREE-ZA FREE-ZA

Obienaku wa warera min

DIE!DIE!DIE!

So yeah, everyone sees Gohan END Frieza with one fraggin’ punch, and they all turn chickenshit and run away.  Even Bjoack, I guess, which only makes sense, because Gohan punched a hole through him in Movie 9. 

Videl’s like “Wow, it’s kind of weird how all of these dead people came back to life, and presumably we can’t kill them again because they’d just come back, and yet Frieza was the only jerk in this whole movie who got exploded and stayed dead from all of this.”

Then Gohan does his victory poses, and Videl swoons off-screen.  In the dub, they changed the ending dialogue to suggest that Gohan and Videl made out shortly after this scene, and Goten and Trunks saw it.   It’s not in the Japanese script, but come on.  How was Videl not al over this dude after this?  We know it happened.  

Meanwhile, Mr. Satan is punching zombies someplace else, and he’s pretty pleased with how well he’s doing, except there’s no one around to watch him in action, so he moves on to find his grateful public.

Fortunately, he won’t run out of zombies anytime soon.  

Meanwhile, Goten and Trunks are helping out by gathering the Dragon Balls,   They find the seventh one on a golf course.

But Goten gets hit with a golf ball while he’s there.   Irritated, he decides to hide the ball to get payback on whoever sent it his way.

But he hides it in the hole, so the golfer thinks he made a hole-in-one and he’s sobbing with joy.   This doesn’t have much to do with the movie, but what’s great about Fusion Reborn is that you can expand on almost any scene and make it part of the wider story.   Maybe this guy’s a dead Frieza Soldier who got the call to mobilize and he said “Fuck that, if I’m alive, I’m gonna hit the links one last time.”  Or maybe he’s just a regular dude, but the lady there is his dead wife, who’s come back to tell him that the accident wasn’t his fault, and it’s okay for him to move on with his life.    Or they’re both alive, but the golf course gets destroyed by Cell during his epic battle with Tiencha.

Back at Capsule Corp.  Gohan summons Shenron.  For some reason,  in the dub, she tells him he’s “the only one who can,” and I’ve never understood that.   Maybe she means that Gohan’s the only one who understands the crisis well enough to make the right wish to Shenron, but she could still call the Dragon.   She’s done it before several times.

It’s funny how this is the first time Goten and Trunks have seen Shenron, even though the plot of Movie 10 was them gathering Dragon Balls specifically to see Shenron.  That’s how big a disappointment Movie 10 was.  Meanwhile, Movie 12 is so awesome that it pays off ideas from other movies.    

Videl might have wished for a handsome BMF with cool shades...

But Shenron can’t grant a wish that’s already come true.  Let’s just pause here to drink in this majestic shot of Casual Friday Great Saiyaman.   

...

...

...

Nice.

I’m just gonna put it here again.  It’s great.   

So Gohan explains the situation to Shenron and asks him to put all the dead people back where they belong, which Shenron says is a simple task. 

But then he says he can’t do it after all.  Goten complains, and Trunks silences him before Shenron can take offense.

Now, in the dub, Shenron gives a more thorough explanation.   He can move the dead back where they belong, but with King Yemma out of commission, there’s nothing to stop them from simply coming back.  I think that logic is strongly implied in the subtitles, but it’s not quite so clear.    In any case, this is beyond Shenron’s power.  It wouldn’t be if Yemma were on the board, but if that were the case, there’d be no need to involve Shenron in the first place.   

So that leaves everyone feeling pretty dejected.   The problem lies in Otherworld, and if Shenron and Gohan can’t fix it, then they’re out of options.  

And while they ponder what to do next...

...Shenron awkwardly asks if there’s anything else he could do for them while he’s here.

[backtobasicbellas]

33 zadison. Can you make it angst? 😊

oof. haven’t done angst like this in awhile I hope i did it justice

zadison + “I missed something, didn’t I?”

word count: 1,775

//

Madison comes back to life and doesn’t speak to Zoe.

When she does, it’s a biting comment or quick answers. There’s a lot of eye rolls and scoffs, but there’s never any conversation, and it just about drives Zoe insane.

She doesn’t know what she did; the last time she saw Madison, they were laughing and teleporting around the front yard. It’s one of Zoe’s favorite early memories in the Coven.

(Aside from, you know, impaling herself.

When she’s resurrected, Kyle tells her Madison stormed out upon not being crowned Supreme. She believes him, up until she uses divination because Madison keeps coming up in her dreams and something feels off.

She cries when he’s put the stake, but she can’t forgive him for killing Madison.)

So when she comes back, looking alive as ever with Mallory trailing behind her, Zoe feels emotions hit her like a ton of bricks.

Here’s Madison, who immediately took her arm and forced a friendship upon Zoe’s arrival.

Here’s Madison, who drives Zoe up the will like no one else.

Here’s Madison, the girl who tried to steal her boyfriend but ended up sleeping with both of them.

Here’s Madison, who was endlessly infuriating but oh so powerful to have on your side.

Here’s Madison Montgomery, the cold-hearted bitch that wrecked havoc but was familiar and comfortable all the same to Zoe.

But Madison clearly isn’t going through the same emotional turmoil Zoe’s going through because when her gaze falls to the brunette, her eyes narrow and she sports a cold, nasty glare.

“Where’s your psycho zombie boyfriend?” she sneers.

(Everyone knows not to bring up Kyle.)

Zoe gapes. “I...”

Cordelia fills in, “He was burned at the stake for what he did to you, Madison.”

Madison looks from Cordelia back to Zoe and lifts an eyebrow.

“Nice to know you waited until after I died to care about me,” she says with venom dripping in her tone before walking off, glaring at Zoe as she goes.

And Zoe tries. God, she tries so hard.

Madison moves back into her old room - their room - and Zoe does her best to make sure Madison has everything she needs. She tries to be there for Madison, in case she wants to talk to her or needs anything.

“God, what are you, my guard dog?” Madison snaps at her. “I’m not a fucking baby. I know how to take care of myself.”

“I’m just trying to help,” Zoe tells her, not as meek as Madison remembers her.

“Well knock it off! I don’t need help, especially from you.”

Zoe doesn’t say anything after that, just backs up and leaves the room. It stings, how cruel Madison is being. And she could blame it on Madison’s transition back to life, back to everything she once knew, but that’s not true. Madison is for the most part adjusting just fine, talking with everyone else - even Cordelia and Misty - without a problem in the world.

It seems like Madison has a personal vendetta when it comes to Zoe, and the brunette has no idea what to do about it.

“Maybe you should try asking her,” Queenie shrugs. “Madison’s pretty blunt.”

“I can barely get a sentence out around her,” Zoe groans. “I don’t know what I did!”

Queenie gives her a look. “Your zombie boyfriend y’all were sharing killed her on your behalf.”

“I didn’t ask him to do that! I didn’t want him to do that!”

Queenie only shrugs. “I don’t know why you’re trying so hard. It’s Madison; she’s the most stubborn bitch I’ve met.”

Zoe only grunts in response.

The only time it seems like Madison isn’t bitching at her is at night. There’s panting and crying and whimpers, and at first, Zoe hesitates before she even approaches Madison’s bed. But when Madison sees her, her eyes are wide and she looks so small, Zoe can’t help but crawl into bed and hold Madison until she calms down.

These are the only moments where Madison doesn’t fight her. She lets Zoe wrap her arms around the blonde and stroke her hair.

“You’re here with me,” Zoe murmurs. “This is real, you’re alive. You aren’t in hell anymore.”

And Madison calms down enough to fall asleep before Zoe crawls back into her own bed.

But Zoe can only go on like this for so long. Madison’s attitude and yelling and sneering is becoming too much for her, for someone she has to share a bedroom with.

There was a time where Zoe would’ve genuinely considered Madison a best friend - in a weird, twisted way.

Sure, Madison was an absolute bitch, but there was always something drawing Zoe back to the starlet. She could never cut her out completely, even when she tried to come between her and Kyle, even when she was set on being the new Supreme.

Madison somehow always brought Zoe back to her.

Now, she wonders where that Madison went.

But Zoe’s had enough.

She bursts into their shared bedroom on a mission. Madison looks up from her phone in surprise, then she lets out a scoff.

“Jesus bitch, are you trying to break this old ass house or what?”

“What the fuck did I do to you?” Zoe asks, standing at the foot of Madison’s bed.

Madison rolls her eyes. “What are you going on about now?”

“You are a complete and total bitch to me,” Zoe tells her.

“That’s not new, Sherlock,” Madison deadpans.

Zoe glares at her. “You’re fine with everyone else - hell, you even get along with Misty for the most part. It’s different with me and you know it, so does everybody else. So what the fuck do you think I did to you, Madison? Why are you constantly at my throat for everything?”

Madison sits up in her bed, giving Zoe a hard look.

“Why are you acting like you’d never do anything wrong?” she asks, angry. “You’re not a fucking angel, Zoe! I know that better than anyone!”

Zoe grits her teeth, knows Madison is right, but she’s not letting her get away with this one.

“Don’t change the subject,” Zoe tells her sternly. “What is your problem with me, Madison?”

Madison takes a long look at Zoe, takes in the way her jaw is clenched and she’s leaning forward and how tense her body is. She lets out a scoff a moment later.

“All these years without me and Kyle and you still can’t figure it out?” she asks, giving Zoe a look the brunette can’t quite comprehend.

Zoe furrows her eyebrows then, completely taken by surprise at the mention of Kyle, that Madison would even use his proper name.

“What does this have to do with Kyle?”

Madison groans, looking at Zoe like she’s the most idiotic person on the planet. Zoe kind of wants to strangle her.

“It has nothing to do with him!” Madison exclaims, throwing her hands up in frustration. “It never had anything to do with him.”

Zoe tilts her head, lips twisting as she tries to understand what Madison is telling her.

“What do you mean?”

Madison scoffs, shaking her head. “Jesus Zoe, you’ve always been this fucking dense, haven’t you?”

“Madison...” Zoe says, still not following.

“It was never about Kyle,” Madison tells her quietly. “Never.”

There’s something that shifts in Madison’s eyes then. Zoe thinks there might be vulnerability there, or fear. Madison’s statement sits between them, neither looking away.

Zoe thinks about Madison before she died. She thinks about the way Madison immediately decided they’d be friends, how Madison literally brought her to the fucking morgue because Zoe wouldn’t stop moping about Kyle’s death. She thinks about the first time Madison came back to life, how they spent nights curled up in one bed, Zoe rubbing her back while Madison puked in a bucket. She thinks about how the two of them somehow always had each other’s backs, even if one second ago they’d been screaming. She thinks about how Madison fucked Kyle, and then the moment in the bathroom.

She thinks, just maybe, there’s something she didn’t pick up along the way.

The realization dawns on her face while Madison’s remains unmoved. When she looks back at her roommate, her features drop.

“I missed something, didn’t I?”

Madison snorts, but it’s self-deprecating as she avoids Zoe’s gaze.

“You could say that.”

“You never said anything,” Zoe points out.

“How could I?” Madison asks her helplessly. “We’d met each other for like a day before the bus and after that all you cared about was Kyle.”

Zoe softens, looking at Madison. “You were never just another person to me.”

“Sure felt that way,” Madison murmurs. “Especially since Kyle thought I wasn’t important enough to you to keep alive.”

Zoe sighs, standing in front of Madison now. “Mads, will you look at me?”

“No.”

“Madison.”

Madison resists an eye roll and meets Zoe’s gaze. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Zoe says quietly. “If I knew...”

“If you knew, then what Zoe?” Madison asks with a scoff. “Don’t tell me you would’ve ditched Kyle. We both know you were in love with him.”

“He wasn’t the only one I was in love with,” Zoe admits, looking away.

“Don’t feed me that bullshit Zoe, I swear to god-”

“I’m not!” Zoe exclaims, gaping. “Seriously Madison, you can’t ever let yourself have anything?”

“Don’t tell me what I want to hear,” Madison tells her. “You know I’ve never wanted that.”

“Madison please,” Zoe begs. “Can you just listen to me?”

Madison looks visibly upset now, and Zoe’s stomach turns in a wicked way.

“Just go away Zoe,” she says, but it’s not as cold as it usually is.

It’s broken and too soft of a voice to belong to Madison Montgomery, but it’s hers all the same. She crawls back onto her bed, shuffling until she’s under the sheets.

“Leave me alone, please.”

Zoe stands there, defeated. She thinks her heart is breaking all over again, and this time it’s different from Kyle or Charlie or anything else.

She is coming apart by watching Madison do the same.

“Madison...”

“Zoe please.”

Madison’s tone is desperate, her voice cracks and Zoe knows they’re really in it now.

“O..okay,” she finally says, stepping away. “I...I’ll go.”

She walks out of the room, looking back to see Madison’s shoulders shaking and it kills Zoe to know that this is her doing, that she’s undone Madison in a way no one else in the house has before.

She doesn’t know if they’ll come back from this, if they can move forward.

But she knows she’ll keep trying.

[zhanael]

@The RWBY FNDM

Fuck off with that “manipulation” bullshit in regards to Ozpin, thanks.  Rant under the cut.

First off, in case you didn’t play Grimm Eclipse, Oz actually doesn’t want anything to do with Grimm at all.  Dr. Merlot was experimenting with Grimm, mutating them, and was responsible for Mountain Glenn’s destruction, all of which Ozpin found disgusting and heinous.  He never sounded more angry with anyone than he did in that game with Merlot.  Suggesting that Ozpin manipulated Salem into experimenting with Grimm in any way and that’s why he’s “cursed” is flimsy and reaching at best and outright ignorant at worst.

(Yes, this is actually a “theory” I read.  Ugh.)

Second of all, immortality just by itself is a curse.  You live on, watching friends and family live and die, and you’re very, very alone.  But you still get attached because it’s what makes this immortality bearable, at least for a time.  Oz has it a little worse because he does die, but ends up resurrecting in someone else, still remembering literally everything, and actually absorbing that person.  It’s not that the gods themselves cursed him, it’s that he sees it as a curse.  I’m 100% sure that he doesn’t want to do this anymore, but he literally cannot stop it until he stops Salem.

And that’s the kicker, there.  Y’all keep wanting to blame him for shit Salem does.  He wouldn’t have to train warriors or make Maidens to throw at her if she wasn’t trying to destroy humanity (and faunus-kind).  That bitch started the war, and he’s trying to find ways to end it for good.  That’s the thing about war, kiddos.  It’s never bloodless.  People fucking die, and no, it’s not great, but what do you want him to do?  Salem and her Grimm want to kill everyone.  How the fuck do you expect him to fight that?  Walk up to her and give her a hug and tell her everything’s okay, that she doesn’t have to be this way anymore?

You people who blame Ozpin for Pyrrha’s death, saying he manipulated her or whatever, sound exactly like Hazel.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say Hazel was made as a portrayal of your portion of the FNDM (which I do know better, thankfully).  Pyrrha made her fucking choice, just as Gretchen did.  Pyrrha was a warrior with a heart of gold, ready to sacrifice herself for the greater good, Maiden or not.  Even if Ozpin hadn’t explained to her what was going on, if she hadn’t lost her life on the tower, she would have lost her life to Salem and her minions or her Grimm at some other time.  That wouldn’t have been Ozpin’s fault, but she would have died anyway, because she would have fought Salem--or at least her Grimm--and thrown herself in harm’s way for anyone else.

But since she did actually die after making her choice, let’s go over these circumstances of said death here.  First up: the world of Remnant as a whole.  Semblances are a thing, Grimm are a thing, Dust is a thing.  The supernatural isn’t uncommon.  But magic, the ability to manipulate reality in more ways than just one and without the use of Dust, is entirely unheard of anymore.  It’s lost to legends and fairy tales, much as it is in our own world.

So take a high school jock that’s still pretty nice and actually pretty smart.  Not nerdy by any means, but aware of pop culture, at least.  Then tell that jock that magic is real.  They’re not going to believe you at first, laugh you off.  But then other people they trust go “well...............yeah” and they’re going to start worrying.  “What do you mean?” they’ll ask. “Like, fireballs and shit?”

“Yes,” says the authorities they’ve grown to trust. “No special tools like lighters or flamethrowers.  From their hands, from nothing but the energy inside themselves.”

They’re probably going to start freaking out.  Like, a lot.  Their reality has been shattered.  Everything they thought was true could be a lie. 

There’s a show on Netflix called Magic for Humans.  Episode 5 featured a gimmick where the magician convinces a bunch of people to pretend the subject of his trick was completely invisible.  The show only featured two separate subjects.  Neither thought it was real at first, but when they came to realize that no one seemed to see them, their reactions changed.  The first bought into it pretty handily, even tried to steal some wine thinking he actually was invisible (lmfao at the Ring of Gyges actually proving right).  But the second was absolutely panicking and breaking down into tears, enough to make me wholly uncomfortable with the entire thing.  He believed he actually was invisible, and he hated it.  That’s how your average joe would react to magic.

And that’s how your average Remnant joe would react to magic.

It was revealed in Volume 5 that the Spring Maiden (before Raven) had panicked and fled.  The burden had become too much, Leo said.  She was scared, Raven said.  She was the dude who was turned invisible and she fucking hated it.

Given all that, why on earth would you people think putting all this shit up front would be at all helpful?  Why do you think Ozpin wants to scare off anyone who could take on this power when he’s already had it happen once?

Now, no.  Pyrrha was not your average Remnant joe.  She was strong, resourceful, and willing and able to learn.  I don’t think she would have freaked out, at least not that much, but you could hear how shaky her voice was when Glynda, Ironwood and Qrow confirmed that Ozpin wasn’t joking.  Even before she was given the actual choice, she was questioning everything she knew, and I’m sure Oz could see that.  I’m sure Oz could see another Spring coming on.

So he was going to take the slower approach with her, even despite the circumstances around Amber.  Surely he thought he had more time.  Even the choice he gave her was intended to be answered at the end of the Vytal Festival.  How long would that have been?  The Olympics, which is the closest real world comparison to the Vytal Festival, lasts 16 days, so just over two weeks.  We were probably close to halfway through the Festival when Oz called Pyrrha into his office, so that decision would have been given maybe a week, week and a half.  Not that long when it comes to a big decision like this, but certainly a lot longer than what she actually had.

Because the next day, Beacon fell.  And that wasn’t Ozpin’s fault.  That was Salem’s fault, and Cinder’s fault, and Emerald and Mercury’s fault.  That was Roman and Neo’s fault.  That was Adam and the Vale chapter of the White Fang’s fault.  Pyrrha saw what was happening, knew she had an opportunity to do good, to try to keep more people from being hurt, and she fucking took it.

If Cinder hadn’t ambushed Amber, she wouldn’t be in a coma.  If Amber hadn’t been in a coma, Ozpin would not have needed to seek out someone to take her on in an effort to keep the power out of Salem’s hands.  If Oz didn’t need to find a replacement Fall Maiden, he wouldn’t have called Pyrrha into his office.  If he hadn’t called Pyrrha into his office, she wouldn’t have known about magic or anything else.

But even if she hadn’t known about magic or anything else, if she had an opportunity to stop Cinder, she damn well would have taken it and died anyway.  Because that’s how Pyrrha do.

Yes, Ozpin appealed to her sense of justice and protectiveness.  But I don’t think that was unique to her, or to anyone.  I think that’s actually his own perspective.  He seeks out people who are willing to fight for humanity and protect it from the darkness, and tries to empower them to do so in any way he can.  But he hasn’t stopped being human (or faunus), despite being immortal.  He can still make mistakes.  Unfortunately, because this is war, those mistakes can be big ones, and cost lives.  Gretchen Reinart.  Summer Rose.  The second-most-recent Spring Maiden.

Pyrrha.

Their deaths burden him.  He’s exhausted, he doesn’t want to do this anymore.  The Wizard was him trying to escape it, or at least rest, just for a while.  But he can’t, quite literally, not while Salem is still around.  And now he’s stuck with a bunch of teenagers and one trusted friend, in the body of another teenager.  He no longer has the support he used to have--especially since Leo betrayed him.

Salem is winning.

And yet y’all want to think he’s the bad guy too, for doing what he can to stop her??

Right.  Okay.  What the fuck ever.

You people exhaust me.

[popculturespiritwow]

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE: 1923 AD AKA A WORK OF ART(IFICE)

This issue is the Peakiest of Peak Gillen -- Gillen to the Power of Peak to the Power of Peak, if you will, #MathisCool. It’s a comic book masterpiece of research, reference and storytelling and I’ve been so daunted at attempting to comment on that it’s taken me months to make the attempt. You only climb Everest once, people!  (Shut your mouth, Nat Geo.)

WAGNER VERSUS WARHOL, FIGHT!

In format the issue involves a back and forth conversation/rap battle between high and low art. On the one hand, we have novelistic chapters rich with description. “The island looked like a threat, a fist of rock that had forced its way through the waves.” The island and Ananke both...

Then we cut to what at first glance seems like your standard comic book, but in fact is actually a riff on the early days of film, complete with title cards (which themselves get so silly the font might as well be comic sans #IllBeHereAllWeek) and everything shot in a wash of black, white and brown, except for the splashes of red at the scenes of death—victims’ blood, Lucifer’s apple, and my favorite, the red seaweed around Neptune.

Love that red seaweed.

The heart of the plot follows a similar back and forth, as the elitist “classic” artists, the TS Eliot/Ezra Pounds and Ginny Woolf-ish-types of the Pantheon, want to kill the more popular art types, the Shirley Temples and Buster Keatons and Robert Johnstons, to initiate a nightmare scenario that will supposedly give them control over the zeitgeist of the future. It’s an incredibly disturbing take on some of the giants of the early 20th century -- and one Gillen found based in fact.

It’s fascinating, too, for as much as the real object of venom is the truly popular artists, the movie star types with their simplistic narratives and opium for the masses, the elitists focus on killing figures who from our perspective sit far closer to them – Lucifer (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Poseidon (Ernest Hemingway), Dionysius (Pablo Picasso) and the Morrigan (James Joyce). I wonder if it’s something about the chaos those specific figures represent, the way that their particular forms of art end up undermining not only the structures but internal belief system of the modern world. If Baal-Et-Al’s idea is to work with Joe Goebbels to coopt pop culture for their own We Will Keep Control project, in a sense a Picasso or Joyce was doing the reverse, presenting in the formats of the elites only to deconstruct their validity. (Gillen’s notes on the Morrigan point in this direction. Also, his description of Set as coming off “a little like Tahani from The Good Place made me laugh out loud.)

In the end our good guys will stop the bad using their own popular media, film from a train, which was in real life the very first motion picture, and terrified people back in the day for exactly the reason that they feared the train was real and was going to leap off the screen and kill them all. 

Writing perfection.

HISTORY IN REPETITION AND RHYME

As we’ve seen throughout these specials, we get lots of echoes between periods here. Lucifer is once again the first one killed, the Morrigan is once again a character all about voice and drama (I love his self-narration so much, please sir can I have a spin-off?), the Norns are still trying to figure everything out, Susanoo=Dandy Baphomet, complete with his own complicated dating relationship (those rings made out of light, though, such a pristine beauty of a moment that Baph never gets), and Woden is once again a gross racist hack misogynist -- that submarine has got to be phallic, right? -- who has stolen his tech powers from someone else to produce content that is entirely derivative while secretly playing the gods and being used by Ananke.

There is also another mechanical creature, “Little Brother”, which we see only for a few panels, and that is not nearly enough because it is an adorable looking flying squid. (SCREW YOU BABY SHARK, BABY FLYING SQUID IS EVERYTHING.) Ananke also works from her standard playbook here, the Prometheus Gambit – you can gain some life if you kill others, which Baal et al will then use for bat#!% crazy purposes, which of course is also part of her plan.

And Minerva is also once again a child who seems maybe to be working with Ananke. It’s clear right from the start that the whole Shirley Temple schtick, lots of Yays and Gollys, is just an act, part of her “character”. And we get a glimpse of the real her again at the end.

That doesn’t have to mean she’s in league with Ananke. (Just read the next arc; she’s totally in league with Ananke.) But she also comes to know what happened to Verdandi, when she wasn’t with the group that discovered him. (Dude: She’s totally in league with Ananke.) And it gives her an excuse to leave Morrigan at precisely the right moment for him to get murdered by Ananke. (Yes, exactly, because she’s in league with Ananke.) And she will kill Set herself without a second thought; it’s all still just hint and innuendo (UGH NO IT’S NOT STOP), but given what we’ve just learned in the present day that’s all we need for now.

Meanwhile Baal is in some ways the opposite of ours, a racist white elitist who dismisses James Baldwin-type Amon-Re as incapable of being an artist given his “nature”, and Set is her own thing too, a snobby name-dropping Virginia Woolf.  Most intriguingly, the Norns have internal divisions that break them down, which make me worry a little bit for Cassandra and her friends. 

Best take care of your family, Cassie. Remember, in #WicDiv no one is just a sidekick…

CREATURE(S) IN EBONY This is the second special where the Fall of the Gods involves the introduction of a new being created by the gods by way of a classic Ananke “Definitely Don’t Do This (wink wink)”.  In 1831, Lucifer and Morrigan resurrect Hades to create an energy vampire that after killing them merged with Woden Shelley to create Steam Punk Elsa. This time the being – again a woman – is described as “looking like some ancient ancestor of the Metropolitans, but made of living poetry and bleak lightning rather than simple metal.” Which sounds an awful like the 1831 Creature.

She also emerged from “an ebony luminescence with streaks of blue beyond blue”, which again, sounds a lot like Mary Shelley Elsa Frankenstein.

Almost 92 years later we’ve heard nothing from her. But Kieron never forgets anything, INCLUDING YOUR BIRTHDAY, SO WATCH OUT. What could this all possibly mean…

ANANKIERON CHRISTIE

For me the most interesting element of 1923, though, is everything to do with Ananke. We come into the special, like the last two, knowing she is our Big Bad (probably, I don’t know you guys, I think in the next arc Kieron’s going to make me feel bad for her and I don’t want to). (No worries, he didn’t, or did he, wait, there are two Anankes now, I don’t know, what?)

But here for the first time we enter into the story alongside her. In fact, in that very first shot it almost seems like she’s looking right at us.  

Time’s running out, she’s got to get to the murder-y and behead-yness stat, and this time we get to watch her do it. Awesome!

It’s almost like we’re partners in the exercise, even; right before they’re about to go in for dinner and discover Lucifer Ananke seems to stop and look at us again.

Us and the millennia-old serial killer of children--High fives all around!

For the last 30+ issues I’ve been asking why Ananke is she always wearing a mask, and now finally I get it: just like the Pantheon, she is an actor giving a performance.

Here specifically she presents herself as a classic Agatha Christie protagonist, finding herself along with everyone else in the Remote Place version of a locked room murder mystery and slowly working to uncover the truth of what’s going on while others continue to die. And Then There Was Fun!

Except in fact Ananke is not The Marple but Christie herself, author of the entire series of events that happen, which makes this to my mind pretty much the greatest Christie story ever, and also reinforces the belief of All of Us that Jessica Beatrice Fletcher is the Greatest Fictional Serial Killer that Ever Lived.  

But wait, though. Doesn’t that make Ananke basically…a writer? Like um, this guy…?

But that’s crazy. We’ve spent the last five years with him. He’s fine.

I mean yes, both he and Ananke fashion fictional Big Bads (Note: this issue has absolutely no trace nor mention of a Great Darkness, despite the fact that this entire Pantheon has been around almost to their Use By) and also Ways to Save the World which motivate the characters down paths which lead to their eventual destructions.

And okay, true, in this issue Kieron does spotlight/ridicule parts of the storytelling mechanic, the machines characters are always trying to find/build/repair as nonsense. 

Such rituals are actually simple. It is about will and art. The machines…in my experience, they are little more than props. All that matters is your action and intent. They killed so the world would die. You die so the world can live.

But still, if we were to accept that Ananke is Just Kieron’s, er, Mask, then it’s like this whole time he’s been the one doing terrible things to all these characters, including the characters that he made me want to love.

And then this question which I’ve been chewing on since 455 AD, whether the characters can ever be free of the roles they’ve been assigned, in a sense becomes a question about whether they can ever escape not Her but Him…

Or what about us? The Audience. The ones that Jamie and Kieron and the others are creating this for.

This isn’t And Then There Were None, is it? No, this is Temple of Doom. Kieron may be Mola Ram, but I’m the Ever-Hungry, Never-Satisfied G--D-- Kali.

All along, Kieron has thrown in these moments where we get glimpses of the broader world, the way it feeds on the Pantheon. And I can get to the end of 1923 AD and say there’s a fascinating battle going on here about the ethics and/or violence of being a writer. But maybe there are also deeper questions being asked of me as a reader.

Maybe the issue begins with Ananke looking at me like that for a reason.

STOP IT, ANANKE. YOU’RE MAKING ME UNCOMFORTABLE. LOOK AWAY.

WORLD WARS, IRL AND URL A last point: 1923 AD is unusual for the degree to which it is haunted by something external, aka war. Even as the story takes place in the effervescent champagne bubble oasis of the Roaring 20s, both the nightmare that was World War I and the possibility of another war which is somehow impossibly much much worse than it hangs over the characters. That’s an insightful take on the period, but also an awe-full twist on the sense of doom that we’ve witnessed in the 21st century Pantheon, their own personal oncoming catastrophes expanded to the scale of disaster for the whole world.

It makes me wonder whether the last act of The Wicked + The Divine will involve something of a similar scale, whether the underlying momentum of the book has not always been toward the culture of celebrity, insofar as it engenders adoration, mob-think and a lack of fundamental care for and curiosity in one another, as sign of our own massive social crisis. (See: Brexit. Trump. The Fights My Dad Gets in on Facebook.)

Are we doomed? Do I still have time to tweet a thread about it? I really think it could make a difference, you guys.

[victorluvsalice]

AU Thursday: Houndsditch Heroes AU (AKA, I Make An AU For A Show I've Never Watched)

. . . @dont-offend-the-bees, I hope you know this is all your fault.

If you're wondering what on earth I'm going on about, said friend has gotten into the Netflix adaptation of The Umbrella Academy, meaning I've been seeing a lot of posts and gifsets and the like about it on my dash. If I were anyone else, I would simply be happy my friend had found a new show to enjoy and go about my day.

Since I'm me, I've instead come up with an AU idea based on the information I've picked up from the posts and a look on TV Tropes. *deep sigh* I don't know why I'm like this, seriously. Anyway, just to get it out of my brain, the pertinent points of what I'm calling the Houndsditch Heroes AU:

-->It's set in the modern day, in a world where super-powered people are just born randomly instead of being the result of a strange mass pregnancy/birth -- mostly because I want to stick with the canon/highly accepted fanon ages for the team, and that puts them in a range between 17 and 20

-->Bumby has the Sir Reginald Hargreeves role, having rounded up a team of super-powered kids and raised them to become the titular Houndsditch Heroes; as you might imagine, he is just as bad a father as Reginald was, but fortunately his children are dysfunctional in a way that still lets them work together

-->The Heroes include:

Marty McFly -- I'm still deciding if his power is being able to mind-control people through his music, or using sound to manipulate his environment psychokinetically; either way he's never without his guitar as a result

Emmett "Doc" Brown -- obviously we're using the teenage model from Telltale's The Game, though given he has Five's role, he's much older underneath. He's got the ability to teleport and time travel -- the latter having flung him into a post-apocalyptic future before the events of the story

Victoria Everglot -- unsure what her power is yet -- I'm tempted to make it something related to sewing. Maybe she can manipulate cloth? Or I could give her a variation on Allison’s power, only the trigger phrase is “Please, may I/you/they” since she’s quiet, polite type

Emily Cartwell -- I'm also figuring out her power, though "control over butterflies" amuses me. She's died shortly before the events of the story, having been tricked into running away with Barkis in a combination "He's my true love/I want to get away from my asshole adoptive father" move

Alice Liddell -- everyone thinks she's the "normal" of the group, and as a consequence she has developed her melee combat skills with knives and improvised weapons to keep up with her powered siblings. In truth, she's capable of creating fully visual, audible, and tactile illusions. Bumby has been suppressing her powers through a combination of medication and hypnosis sessions for YEARS

-->Victor Van Dort is an outsider to the group, who also believes he's normal -- his parents have got him on the same medication Alice is on to suppress his powers. Reason being, said powers are he can see ghosts and bring them into the real world in a corporeal, if rather zombie-like form, and he freaked them out by trying to adopt a skeletal dog when he was younger

-->The plot is kicked off when Emmett, after years spent in the post-apocalyptic future, time-ports back to the present in the Van Dort backyard, and ends up dragging Victor into his attempts to stop the apocalypse with his siblings

-->Emmett thinks Bumby is somehow the cause of the apocalypse he saw; however, it's actually Alice, discovering the truth about herself and Bumby's crimes against her and her family (he still raped Lizzie and killed her and the elder Liddells in this world; he covered it up and took Alice in to control her) and manifesting her rage as the Queen of Hearts to kill him. Unfortunately, the Queen refuses to be dismissed after she's served her purpose, and she ends up killing Alice's original personality and using her body to wreak havoc

-->Victor, upon getting his own powers back (he starts missing doses of the meds while on the adventure, and everyone realizes he can see the dead when he sees Emily hanging around the group), becomes the lynchpin to stopping the Queen's rampage by bringing back Lizzie, Arthur, and Lorina to cool Alice's rage and make the Queen weak enough to be defeated

-->The time cops trying to keep the apocalypse on-schedule because reasons are still a thing, and I've just had the thought that the Commission should instead be Aperture from Portal (run by Cave Johnson, of course), and the two tracking Emmett personally are GLaDOS and Wheatley -- but Wheatley, who has been having second thoughts about this whole business, ends up falling in love with bakery owner Chell and defects to the good guys' side

-->Victor suffers a fatal injury from the time cops during the final showdown and ends up in an entirely self-indulgent scene where he meets God -- aka me. I tell him everything's going to be okay and his powers actually include automatic resurrection from anything that isn't natural death from old age and send him back

-->I'm still contemplating whether Bumby should still be involved in the child trade like he was in A:MR; if he literally kidnapped some/ALL of the Heroes and has been using his hypnosis techniques to make them all forget; and if he's specifically given the power-suppressing medication to the Van Dorts and hypnotized Victor in the past because he realized someone with the power to talk to the dead could rat him out if he ever found the Liddells' spirits

*facepalm* We good now, brain? Can I go back to the AUs I'm SUPPOSED to be working on now?

[ladykakata]

I go off on GOT

[NOTE: I keep trying to add the Jon-Sansa hug GIFS but Tumblr REFUSES to let me save or post with them. It’s fucking annoying]

*Rubs face*

Auntie LK is annoyed and she is going to take it out on y’all. I’m gunna go ahead and go off on Sansa hate, Jonsa, Dark Sansa and all that shit so hang onto your assholes.

SO. The new promos. There’s been the idea for a long time, since S6 really, of the idea of Sansa plain murdering Jon or Jonsa becoming canon since, well, Jon and Sansa are now maternal cousins rather than agnate siblings (as in, siblings with the same father but different mother).

S6 had Sansa and Jon reunite for the first time since S1. A lot of heavy shit has happened, some of it they share (like losing their father and brother Robb, Winterfell getting a bad squid infection via Theon being a little bitch) but also stuff they didn’t share (an absolute battering and rape for Sansa, literally being stabbed to literal death for Jon). For Jon, who just came back from the motherfuckin’ dead 10 minutes ago and decided he had enough of this shit he’s out, this is pure shock.

For Sansa? This is pure RELIEF. Remember, Jon is the FIRST family member she has seen since the death of Ned. She hasn’t seen her mother (who is dead GOOD LAWL god I hate her), her eldest brother, her brat little sister, or her two littlest brothers since either leaving Winterfell or since Ned’s beheading. Not only that, he’s the Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch as far as she knows, so he’s in a position of power that is untouched by machinations of the South. Who is in power? Who cares. The Night’s Watch doesn’t deal with that shit and Cersei can’t follow her up here. And if Ramsey decides to give chase, it’s more than Jon to fight back.

Look at the hug. She almost cries, listen to the shuddery inhale of breath as she fights that back, she practically falls into him, and once they hug she looks for comfort and support. For Sansa, this is absolute relief. Her ordeal, for the moment, is over. She escaped Ramsey, the rape, the torture. She survived the snow, the river, the chase and being hunted. And now she is safe in the arms of her older brother.

For Jon, he is absolutely stunned to see her. For as much as they didn’t really get along, she’s still his sister, and he said goodbye to his family in Winterfell years ago. Only Benjen went to the Wall, and he disappeared, so Sansa is the first he’s seen in a long time. Hell, Jon almost ran to join Robb in his rebellion, and only just resisted and came back.

Family came for Jon after his resurrection.

After this comes a really important talk. Sansa and Jon’s relationship was never really touched on; Jon and Robb hugged and treated each other as peer-brothers (and it’s fucking CUTE I would CUT SOMEONE to see more bro Jon and Robb!!), Jon and Arya were cute-as-buttons older brother/pint-sized sister, and Jon cared so much about Bran that he bore Catlyn’s cunty comments in order to say goodbye. The only two not explored were Sansa and Rickon. It’s really important to note that Sansa took after Cat. And that meant absorbing her loathing of Jon, something that is talked about. Sansa gets to brass tacks about it:

Sansa : I spent a lot of time thinking about what an ass I was to you. I wish I could change everything. Jon: We were children. Sansa : I was awful, just admit it. Jon : ( chuckles ) You were occasionally awful. I'm sure I can't have been great fun. Always sulking in the corner while the rest of you played. Sansa : Can you forgive me? Jon : There's nothing to forgive. Sansa : Forgive me. Jon : All right. All right, I forgive you.

Sansa knows she was wrong, wants to make it right, and does not allow Jon to sweep it away. She is determined to make sure he knows she knows she was wrong. It can be interpreted that she wants to secure his forgiveness and is in fact ordering it out of him, but I don’t see it that way. She knows she fucked up, and she wants to make it right. The following conversation re-enforces the fact they’re family. Jon even says ‘ If I don't watch over you, Father's ghost will come back and murder me’ (I’d pay good money to see Ned come back and give Jon a bollocking actually). Sansa brings up Winterfell, enforces it’s THEIR home and it’s for their family. She wants the Boltons out, but Jon came back from the dead 10 minutes ago and has Had Enough Of This Shit And Is Very Tired. Sansa lets it go temporarily.

Throughout the ep, and into the next, the idea is enforced that Jon and Sansa are brother and sister, and that Jon is Ned's son. Sure, currently that's kinda funny considering he isn't by blood, but the sentiment is true; Jon is every inch Ned's boy, and Sansa clearly feels safe with him, she even says so to Brienne:

Sansa : Jon isn't Davos, the Red Woman or Stannis for that matter.Jon is Jon.He's my brother.He'll keep me safe. I trust him.

Here is a thing I think a lot of people are missing. Yes, Sansa trusts Jon. She says it herself. But why, as Brienne countered, did she not tell Jon about the Knights of the Vale? Why did she outright counter Jon publicly? Why not wait?

The thing is, Jon is Ned's son. AND NED STARK IS FUCKING SHIT AT KEEPING SECRETS. Ned Stark is honourable to a FAULT, it's what got him Mcfreakin' killed. Jon is the Starkiest Stark that ever Starked, and Sansa KNOWS that letting him in on critical plans is a bad fucking idea. She's already learned from Pety 'I would honestly tongue a cat's asshole for fun' Baelish that one never shows all one's cards. But sharing a card with someone as upright and see-through as Jon? Might as well cut your own throat and be done with it.

Why publicly confront him? I never believed for a second that Sansa was displeased at Jon's sudden elevation to King in the North. When it was announced, he was stunned, and to me it looked like he was looking to Sansa to see if a) it was real, and b) wtf Sansa what do I do.

He's been suddenly promoted before, but the Night's Watch was different, and perhaps he's having flashbacks as to how THAT went. Hell, everyone was pissed before Lyanna Mormont straightened her big girl knickers and said 'Listen up you lil shits Jon is good King Jon 303AC 4lyf'. This is all good for Sansa. She has Winterfell back, Ramsey Bolton is more than dead, Jon has the support of the Northern lords firmly when they told them to eat a dick not too long ago. Everything feels great. Plus, in the North, she doesn’t have to deal with backstabbing political shit.

And then she remembers Littlefinger is there.

Oh fuckbastards.

What to do? While it looks like Littlefinger is getting to her, it’s VERY important to note that, despite being King In Da Norf, Jon is still as humble as ever. Before that, when Winterfell was first reclaimed, Jon noted that Ned and Cat’s room was prepared for Sansa.

Jon : I’m having the lord’s chamber prepared for you. Sansa : Mother and Father’s room? You should take it. Jon : I’m not a Stark. Sansa : You are to me.

Damn right he is, Sansa. Jon mentions they need to trust each other more and kisses her forehead. I think this, after the conversation about Littlefinger, really planted it in Sansa’s mind she’s got to protect Jon from this bastard. Jon can fight the physical and commend men no problem, but psychological shit he has issues with. Hell, Sansa told him outright not to fall for Ramsey’s shit in BOTB and he did anyway. There’s a gulf in Sansa’s Southern-trained psychological way of things and Jon’s straightforward hit-it-until-it-stops Northern mind. Both have had their ways beaten into them, so they can’t unlearn, but also can’t see the other’s view.

Okay okay okay. where is Auntie LK going with this? From what I see, Sansa was publicly denouncing Jon’s plans BUT doing so to keep him safe. The plan to give the Last Hearth and Karhold to loyal Lords? That’s a Southern tactic AND good sense. HOWEVER ... in this instance, Jon was right. The important think to note that both holds HAVE a new Lord and Lady waiting for them. And they are children.

These babs!

If anyone knows about a child having to bear the supposed sins of their parents, it’s Jon. He felt the weight of Ned’s supposed infidelity, even if it was absolutely no fault of their own. These children are terrified, Alys visibly swallows and tries to breathe properly. Hell, it’s scary when Sansa was all for taking their homes and Jon mentioned executing people, they probably worried they were next. However, Jon simply asks for allegiance. And that was a wise call; the idea of redistributing at first got a high then got a mixed to low response, given the chatter in the room and Davos looking down.

Don't for a second think I'm shitting on Sansa. From her point of view, this absolutely makes sense; if people stab you in the back, GITFO bitch. But that Southern way of thinking just will not work as well in the more traditional North. In this instance, Jon was in the right, and it's understandable how he is frustrated with Sansa openly challenging him. I think Sansa was trying to shore up any potential future betrayal, and simply didn't make the right calculation. She looks at Littlefinger in this scene, who likes the argument.

In this instance, Jon is right. These are children, and he rules like a good King; with a firm but gentle hand. He makes these kids feel like important grown-ups, spares them, and gives them this sense of awe and majesty. If Daenerys rules with terror and awe with her dragons, and a kind heart for the underdog, Jon wants to rule with practical kindness. They thought they were going to lose their homes, or even their heads, given that Sansa mentioned taking away their Holds and Jon mentioned executing people. Instead, King Jon asked for their word, and they gave it.

Look at what happens after; Jon tells Sansa to stop openly undermining him, Sansa points out that she should give advice and compliments his leadership skills. She tries to get him to see she has advice worth listening to, and he is clearly frustrated and tries to walk away, but she will not let him. To the point of GRABBING him.

She will not let Jon walk away from this. He tries to walk, but she physically makes him stop, and emphasises what she is trying to get through to him:

Sansa : You have to be smarter than Father. You need to be smarter than Robb. I loved them, I miss them, but they made stupid mistakes, and they both lost their heads for it.

To me, this clearly says one thing; Jon, for the love of fucking Old Gods and New Improved Ones, I am trying to keep you safe. She can’t outright say ‘Littlefinger wants to park his thirsty asshole on the Iron Throne and wants me on his lap because I remind him of my mother and he is willing to slaughter you like a sheep to get it’, Jon can’t be trusted with that sort of info. She wants to publicly make it look like she’s plotting against Jon in Littlefinger’s eyes ... but at the same time, make sure that her public outbursts aren’t ACTUALLY damaging her relationship with him. He is too precious. She needs him, and his abilities, but also needs to string Littlefinger along to ensure he doesn’t do something without sharing it with her first. She was dead set against Jon going South. That’s where Cersei can get her mitts on him, that’s walking into the mouth of the dragon and hoping it doesn’t eat him. The only positive for this was suddenly getting Bran and Arya back; she outright hugs Bran, her little brother who was in a coma when she left Winterfell, and even Arya gets a hug despite the pair being the most antagonistic towards each other.

Now. Arya and Sansa had issues. They had issues before Littlefinger littlefingered all over the place. Arya, despite her Southern training, is pretty much a hardcore Northerner, and seeing Sansa’s betrayal letters would have set her off and Littlefinger was banking on that. But when you have a family that TALKS, that has a legit psychic on staff to divine the truth (and Arya literally heard Bran recite the truth), that plan falls up the asshole. Did Sansa truly plan to ever murder Arya, and vice-versa? Honestly, who hasn’t entertained thoughts of murdering their annoying sibling, especially if one thinks the other has fallen to the Dark Side. However, Sansa and in a way Arya’s arcs have been about family. Only family can be trusted. Family will be there when you need them. Family will keep their word and protect you. For Sansa, this is in Stark (heh) contrast to the Lannisters and Baratheons, whom she was so eager to join as true Lords and Ladies. The Lannisters are at each other’s throats when not fucking each other, and the Baratheons tore themselves apart with infighting and backstabbing (and vagina shadowmonsters). The Starks bicker, but they have each other.

If Sansa wanted Jon dead or out of the picture, she wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of making him a cloak that is very similar to Ned Starks’ own. The man she literally saw beheaded in front of her.

Sansa : I made it like the one Father used to wear. As near as I can remember.

Sansa near panics when Jon decides to ride for Dragonstone, she keeps glancing to her right, either in Littlefinger’s direction or directly at him. All the Lords don’t want Jon to go, even his most hardcore supporter Lady Mormont, and Sansa is dead against it. Even when Jon names her Wardeness of the North in his absence, she is still wearing a face of panic.

Me? In charge? Oh. Uh.

Does Sansa enjoy being in power? Who doesn’t. Do I anticipate trouble when Jon returns? If he returned himself, I think the transition would have been smooth. Jon will be impressed by how well Sansa is preparing the north, and she will pretty much still be Wardeness while he is King; think of Sansa as the Prime Minister that gets shit done while Jon is the figurehead and commands the armies and does power deals. The addition of Daenerys is a biiiiiiig complication, especially with Jon boatsexin’ her all the way.

Which brings us to the hug. While I do believe Sansa is relieved to see him back alive, the arrival of Dany is a complication and now she has someone she needs to suss out and see if this person is a threat to her or the newly reunited Starks.

Do I think a Starkbowl is coming? Hell to the fucking no. The ENTIRE POINT of Sansa’s arc is that FAMILY CAN BE TRUSTED, FAMILY IS THERE TO PROTECT YOU. The biggest point for her is that Daenerys is not family. She’s Jon’s girlfriend for the moment, sure, but not family. She’s Essosi-minded, she’s not a Northerner for fucking sure. At this point, the issue will be the outing of Jon’s heritage.

But what does that really mean? Sure, Ned isn’t his blood father. But Ned raised him, he was raised with all the Starks as a sibling. Cunty Cat made him feel lesser, but everyone still treated him like a brother. Even Sansa. Everyone is zero’ing in on the father aspect, but A STARK IS HIS MOTHER. HE STILL HAS STARK HERITAGE. As Lady Mormont rightfully pointed out, ‘He has Ned Stark’s blood in his veins’. And he does; Ned and Lyanna are full-blooded siblings, and share the same wolf blood.

I hoep to hope, and I think it will happen, that Sansa will silently recalculate what the news will mean when others react, but as far as she and most certainly Bran and Arya are concerned, Jon is still their big brother. The big brother that said goodbye before Winterfell despite the coma, the brother that came to take back Winterfell despite the Bolton’s vile threats, the brother that choke-slammed a snake for wanting to bang them because they reminded them of their mother, the brother that rode out to save his little Rickon despite the odds, the brother that gifted them Needle, the brother that was willing to overlook past nastiness.

Jon Snow, the King in the North, the blood of Ned, the White Wolf ... he is their brother, and always will be. The gold/silver of Targaryen yielded to the coal of Stark, and Jon is the fucking Starkiest Stark that ever Starked.

Sansa is not going to backstab her brother. Fuck outta here with that shit.

LK out.

[angsty-nerd]

Fictober #4

Whew!! Better late than never, right? It doesn’t help when on these busy family days I get the ideas that take more time to work through. Thankfully, family goes home tomorrow.

#4. I know you didn’t ask for this.

Roswell, NM Fanfiction

Max/Liz Echo, Angst... post S-1.

The world was like an avalanche of light, and colors, and noise. Isobel was clinging to him, crying his name over and over again. Cam stood a few feet away, and he thought he heard her call out, “Glad to have you back among the living, Evans.” Michael was nearby, he was saying something to somebody, but it was drowned out in the noise. Nearby Valenti kept repeating Isobel’s name over and over, “Isobel…. Isobel! I need to check him… Isobel! Let me make sure he’s ok!” Max was surrounded by the people he loves, but they seemed to all be talking at once, and the flood of noise was like a knife piercing his brain.

But where was Liz?

Valenti somehow convinced Michael to extract Isobel from him, and the noise at least lessened.

“How’re you feeling, Max?” He asked.

“It’s just...there’s so much of everything. It hurts.” Max tried to explain. His voice sounded gravely and weak. He squinted and saw Valenti looking concerned at him, and then he disappeared for a moment.

The noise faded. Max could hear footsteps, sensed his siblings walking away.

“Okay, everyone is leaving. Let’s just focus on you right now. Can I take your vitals?” Max nodded.

Silently, Kyle went through the motions of checking his temperature, his blood pressure, heart rate.

"Okay Evans, generally speaking, everything seems normal, but this situation is unprecedented. I want you to take it easy for a few days, okay? If you feel off at all, call me right away. And keep someone with you at all times, okay? Doctor's orders."

"Will do." Max agreed. "But, Kyle, what happened to me? Why was I in the pod?" Max asked.

"You don't remember." Kyle looked surprised. "What do you remember?"

Max reached back in his memory, trying to recall. "It's fuzzy." Max admitted. "I think… I remember having Noah at home. Michael and I fought and Noah escaped. Isobel and I were trying to find him, but she was possessed…so he brought me to him alone and on his terms…after that there's a lot of pain and not much else is clear. Did I fail? I wasn't strong enough to beat him?"

A soft sound caught his attention. It sounded like a mix between a sniffle and a whimper, like someone trying not to cry. He turned, and that's when he finally saw her.

Liz was sitting on a rock in the corner of the cave, her legs tucked under her, hugging herself, while tears slipped down her cheeks. She had been so quiet until now that Max hadn't even known that she was there.

"Liz…"

Her only answer was the same sound again, and she shook violently as she began to cry harder.

"I'll leave you two alone." Kyle offered, as he closed his bag and slowly headed towards the entrance of the cave. Max rushed over to Liz and sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her. She gripped the front of his t-shirt tightly, clinging to him as she wept into his shoulder.

"Shh… it's okay. I'm here. I've got you. I'm not going anywhere."

"But...you did," she cried. "You did leave me, Max."

"I'm sorry," he whispered as he stroked her hair. "I'm so sorry."

"You really can't remember anything?" Liz asked him once she had calmed herself enough to speak coherently.

He again paused to search, but still nothing clearer came to the surface. "I don't know… there's feelings, impressions, but clear and concrete memories? Not really."

"Can you describe them? The impressions?"

"Um… mostly there's a lot of physical pain, and feeling weak and useless. And then a rush of, I don't know… something? And then it's like I can't grasp onto anything because it's all in hyperdrive, everything blurring together like a rush."

Liz nodded. "Okay. I think between the three of us, Michael, Isobel, and I we've mostly put all the pieces together. Do you want me to explain?" Max gestured for her to continue.

"The pain you remember is from Noah. He basically tortured you. We don't know all of the details because Isobel was possessed, and then blacked out. All we know is that when Michael found you all here in the pod cave, Noah was using his powers to give you a heart attack. Thankfully Michael showed up when he did and was able to throw Noah away from you with his powers. He said that you looked real rough...and that you were worked up about Noah being too strong for you.

"After that we have another gap. Michael distracted Noah, and you ran from the cave. Noah knocked Michael out pretty quickly. When he and Isobel both came to, they rushed out of the cave and found you and Noah facing off, and you had him completely overpowered. Michael said… he said it was like electricity or lightning or something was shooting from your hands and Noah was being electrocuted. And you killed him."

"Noah's dead?" Max asked, hopefully. He couldn't quite believe that it was true, that the nightmare was over.

"He's gone." Liz confirmed. "And he's not coming back."

"Thank God." Max breathed, allowing the relief to wash over him.

"You're not God." Liz insisted sharply. "You have a breaking point, and you found it this time. No more gambling with your life, do you hear me!?!"

"I didn't mean it like that." He replied sheepishly, startled by how angrily Liz reacted. "I'm sorry."

Liz took a deep breath and then continued to explain.

"So you killed Noah apparently, and from what Michael and Isobel said it was like you were high on drugs or something. Isobel said that you couldn't stand still, you were pacing and talking at a manic pace. You healed Michael's hand even though he begged you not to. Something was just not right with you.

"You walked home from the cave, which probably helped you release at least a bit of that energy, because when I showed up at dawn I couldn't tell that there was anything wrong with you. You just seemed so happy. We were both so happy. And I was so relieved, because I was so afraid that I might lose you…"

Liz looked down and stared for a long time at their joined hands, resting lightly upon her knee. He squeezed her hand lightly, trying to remind her that everything was okay. She pulled his hand up to her chest, holding it lightly to the spot where he had healed her, the spot where his mark had formed on her skin.

"I asked you to mark me again. So that you could feel my feelings for you. You did, and it was amazing. It was like a fucking high for both of us, I think. We were just so happy. I've never seen you so happy."

"Never?" Max was surprised to hear the wistful tone. "Not even that day in the desert back in high school? Or when we first kissed after Texas?"

"No comparison," Liz insisted. "But...um...there were plenty of other reasons for that." She admitted with a flush. "We did a lot more than just kiss that morning."

He was dumbfounded, and just stared at her, mouth open and speechless.

"Everything felt close to perfect, except for two things. I was feeling guilty about my feelings for you. I wanted you to know how I felt, but I wanted to visit Rosa and explain it to her first. And there was Isobel and all of her trauma over Noah. She called while I was getting ready to leave, wanting to talk to you. You were begging me to stay, begging to come with me...all you wanted was for us to be together. But I told you to go support your sister. A part of me wishes that I had been a little more selfish. Maybe then none of this would have happened."

"Isobel called because she and Michael were searching near the crash site for Noah's pod cave. They found it. And Noah had stashed my sister's body in his pod, where he had been keeping her as a trophy in stasis for a decade."

"Isobel said…" Liz paused, swallowed, and looked back up at him, and Max could see the guilt evident in her eyes. "She said that you were still all manic from what she saw. We've actually had a lot of intense discussions about it. I don't really understand why I didn't see it. I guess I just loved seeing you so happy. She said that you wanted to try to heal her again, but Michael thought he talked you out of it. He didn't."

Max nodded slowly, his eyes falling to study his hands as he absorbed what Liz was telling him. "So I tried to resurrect Rosa and it nearly killed me."

"NO." Liz declared firmly. "That's not what happened, Max. You did resurrect Rosa. And it did kill you. You've been dead for six months."

He stared at Liz, completely astonished at her impossible statement. But Liz was a woman of science. She didn't believe in miracles. And she was looking at him so seriously and firmly that he knew that there was no point in questioning what she was saying.

He dropped her hand, lifting his hands and staring at them, turning them over and staring at them wondering how it was possible.

He locked eyes with her again and suddenly he could see the depth of pain and confusion in her eyes. "Six months?" He verified. Liz nodded silently. "I left you. Even though I promised I would always follow you." She confirmed it. "I'm so sorry, Liz. The last thing I'd ever want to do is hurt you."

"I know that." Liz replied softly.

"How's Rosa?" He asked.

"She's good." Liz said. "I mean, of course it was confusing at first. Ten years had passed! But she could see with her own eyes that everything was different. It took a little time for her to adjust, but she's doing well now. I can take you to see her later."

"I'd like that."

Liz suddenly rolled away from him, pushing herself to her feet and turning to stand in front of him.

"How are you feeling now, Max? Any better?"

"A little," Max admitted, as he evaluated himself. "Still have a headache, but it's not nearly so overwhelming. My brain still feels fuzzy. I can tell I'm weak and I feel so tired. But I guess I'm lucky to be here, right?"

Liz nodded. "Okay. We should go then. Everyone's waiting for us."

Max pushed himself to his feet. It felt like a tremendous effort. He took a moment to steady himself, and then took a step towards her, his arms open. "Liz, can I…?" He trailed off, but he didn't need to say anything more. A second later Liz was in his arms, head pressed against his chest. He tucked his chin against her head, pulling her as close as possible. He loved how perfectly she fit in his arms. But then he felt her tremble and his heart sank because he knew she was crying again.

“Liz, I'm so sorry." He murmured softly to her. "I know you didn’t ask for this. And I know how much I've hurt you. But aren't we in a better situation overall now? You have Rosa back, you have me back...isn't that a good thing?”

Immediately Max knew he said something wrong. She stiffened in his embrace and pulled away, looking up at him, her eyes red from too many tears and a look of fear on her face.

"Max, there are two things that I need to say and you need to listen to me and hear me, do you understand?" Max nodded. "Don't you fucking dare gamble with your life again like that. You matter, Max Evans. You matter to a lot of people. I don't ever want you to throw your life away, on a whim, for me. Never again."

Max swallowed and nodded. "I won't. I promise "

"Good. You'd better keep that promise." Liz informed him. "Because I'm sure as hell not bringing you back from the dead a second time." Max's eyes narrowed at her words, wondering how she managed that, but before he could ask, she moved on.

"Secondly, and this is really, really important, Max. I've been waiting six months to say this and I don't want to wait another minute. I need you to know that I am completely and utterly in love with you, Max Evans. I fell in love with you even though I tried to fight it, even through everything that happened since I moved home, even though my own feelings terrified me. I love you, and I don't think I could ever run away and leave you behind. I'm staying, Max. I'm staying because I love you."

"Liz…" he gaped at her, unable to respond further because he was silenced by the lump of emotion forming in his throat.

She laughed nervously. "Did I do okay? I had six months to think about what I wanted to say, but I don't have a way with words the way you do."

Max just took a step towards her, sliding his hands down to her waist as he pulled her in for a kiss. He felt Liz smile against his lips as he drank her in. He kissed her with a fire and desperation that he couldn't remember ever feeling before. She clung to him, her fingers clawing into his shirt like she was afraid that he would disappear if she didn't hold on tightly to him. Max wondered how long it would be before she felt like his presence was reliable again. It would take some time, but he planned to work hard to prove to her that he wasn't going anywhere.

When they finally stepped apart, Max was out of breath -- likely a remnant from his weakened state. Liz watched him, worried, but he just smiled gently at her.

"Everything's going to be okay, Liz. I love you too. And I'm not going anywhere either."