#regardless of who/what fandom we’re talking about

[jahayla-parker]

So will we be getting any Freddy fics before the series comes out? ❤️

Ignore my comments/venting in the tags unless actually interested

It’s hard to say, probably not. I’m working on some, but I have literally dozens of other requests I’m working on simultaneously. So with some Freddy fics clearly already coming and scheduled, I don’t think it would be fair to add more of his prior to other ones that have been waiting.

That being said, I just finished my un-proofread/unedited draft of a Kaz x Reader angst fic I plan on sharing soon.

🤗

[paris-geller-was-straightwashed]

one final thought on this whole argument - this asshole has literally up and blocked me before I even got the chance to upon seeing if he’d reply, and after getting by it using a secondary device to check out of curiosity, I have found him absolutely froathing at the mouth having a full adult tantrum.

the walls of boldened text and full capitol letters like a screaming school child alone is quite something.

[bad268]

Hi! Can I put in a request for Paul Aron x F1 driver! Y/N? It’s be cute for the reader to bring Paul around the paddock and make him say hi to everyone and vice versa!

Rookie Debuts (Paul Aron X Williams Driver! Reader)

Fandom: RPF/F2/F3

Requested: Clearly (I have so much fun with this <3 also, I love Logan, but I needed to give him appendicitis for this)

Warnings: mentions appendicitis (Logan Sargeant)

POV: Second Person (You/your)

W.C. 1751

Summary: The reader takes Paul on a chaotic walk through the paddock.

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

~~(^Pinterest)

You didn’t know what was with drivers and their appendixes erupting recently, but you weren’t complaining as it gave you your Formula 1 debut. You have been a Williams Academy driver since 2021, and you were named their reserve driver while you competed in Formula 2. That means that when Logan’s appendix erupted just before the Hungarian Grand Prix, you were pulled up. It sucked a little because you liked racing against your friends and boyfriend, but you were never going to pass up an opportunity to race your favorite track in a Formula 1 car. 

Paul was more than happy for you! You were the same when he got his opportunity at the Formula E race in Berlin back in May, so it was only fair he was just as supportive. He said he would follow you around like a puppy all weekend (not like it was anything out of the ordinary). 

One thing that you made sure to do on media day was to talk to every driver, regardless of who they were. You did not want to be the new meat on the grid and have no insight. You had raced in Hungry before, but it was just different this time. Paul was busy doing his own media obligations, so you got a head start. You were put on a media panel with Max, Charles, Oscar, and Fernando, and you planned to use that to the fullest.

“Question for Y/n,” an interviewer broke your train of thought, “How do you feel stepping into Logan Sargeant’s car this weekend? How has the grid treated you so far? And is there anything you feel disadvantaged by?”

“I’m nervous but excited, so I can’t complain,” You chuckled. “The grid hasn’t really talked to me yet, but it was announced this morning that I was driving. I’m cutting them some slack right now. As for a disadvantage, I just think I’m not nearly as experienced as the rest of the drivers, and I haven’t trained as much. That’s all I can think of, but if any drivers want to give me some advice or anything,” you mockingly coughed, “it would be greatly appreciated.”

“Break slightly earlier going into turn six,” Fernando said quietly as he leaned toward you. “You’ll want to try braking later, but coming from experience, break earlier.”

“Also,” Oscar piped up, “Use heat on your neck before you train and ice it after. It loosens your neck and helps with recovery.”

“And this track you’ll need quick instincts, so brush up on those,” Max said.

“And don’t forget,” Charles interrupted before anyone else could add more, “This is your first race in a Formula 1 car. You’re not going to be perfect, so don’t be too hard on yourself. How many testing and free practice sessions have you been in?”

“Two testing sessions this year, and I haven’t had a free practice session yet,” You answered.

“See? So you’ve had very limited running in this car. No one is expecting you to be Michael Schumacher this weekend,” Charles laughed.

“Thanks, I’ll take all that into this race,” You chuckled as the panel finished up. Each of you got up and walked out together. Just as everyone was about to split off toward their respective garages you stopped them. “Really, thank you guys. I really appreciate everything you’re telling me.”

“Of course,” Oscar comforted as he gave you a side hug. “We were all rookies before, and we know that this track is probably not the best one to be starting on.”

“Yeah, and if you need any more help or have questions, we’re here,” Charles added, giving you a hug too. Max sandwiched you between them as he also gave you a hug.

“What if I just want someone to talk to?” You asked. “Alex is always with James or George and I don’t know anyone in this paddock.”

“You know us,” Max said blankly. “Whenever we don’t have any race things to do, you’re always welcome in Red Bull.”

“Same for Ferrari.”

“And McLaren.”

“And Aston Martin. We also have Felipe this weekend.”

This weekend was off to a great start. You couldn’t complain. You tried your best to bounce between the F1 and F2 paddocks since you still wanted to cheer on Paul. You were a Paul Aron cheerleader first. Williams Formula 1 driver second.

It worked out well, so you were able to watch almost the entirety of Paul’s sessions before having to go get ready for your sessions. Thankfully though, your physical trainer has taken to helping you stretch somewhere where you could see and hear the race. They only made you head to the garage when you had to look over data and change before getting in the car. 

Then, Paul said he would be in your garage as soon as he finished his post-session obligations. After your first free practice session, he was waiting in the back of your garage by the time you came in. He was still in his race suit since he had to qualify later, but it was comforting to have him there backing you up.

It became a ritual that everyone in Williams came to look forward to seeing after every session. They found it adorable. Some called it young love while others said it was true love. Without fail, you would climb out of the car and immediately run into Paul’s open arms regardless of how the session went. 

When race day finally came, you had made an impact on the grid, showing exactly what you could do and why it was a good decision you were pulled up. Every practice session had you in the top 15, and you qualified eighth for the race itself. You and the team were proud, but no one was as proud as Paul.

The morning of the races, you went in early with Paul. You both wanted to support your friends in F3, but you also wanted to introduce Paul to all of your new friends. 

“Come on, Paul! We have time to say hi before going to see Dino and Gabriele before the feature race, but I wanna introduce you to my new friends!” You exclaimed as you dragged Paul by the hand through the paddocks.

“I’ve met Alex and James already,” Paul chuckled, following behind you blankly but became confused when you pulled him past the Williams hospitality. “Wait, where are we going?”

“To meet my new friends, duh!” You laughed as you continued until you saw Max and Liam talking outside of the Red Bull hospitality. “Max, Liam! Hi!”

“Hey, what’s up?” Max said as he turned to pull you and Paul into the conversation.

“Nothing much, just showing Paul around,” You giggled as you leaned into his side. Paul just stood frozen. “He’s a bit shy if you can’t tell.”

“We can tell. Are you ready for your first F1 race?” Liam chuckled as he returned your enthusiasm.

“As ready as I can be,” You answered honestly before looking over at Paul. “Well, I think I should take him somewhere to regain his sense of reality real quick. I’ll see you guys later!” You bid them goodbye as you pulled Paul over to an empty table. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t fan anyone, but you actually talked to Max Verstappen and he didn’t kill you?” Paul asked. You weren’t sure if he was serious or not, but it still made you laugh lightly. “What’s next? You’re gonna tell me you’re friends with Fernando Alonso?”

And as they say, speak of the devil, they will appear. Fernando, as if his ears were ringing, comes walking up to you two with Lance and Felipe.

“Hey, rookie,” Fernando teased as he took a seat in front of you. Lance took a seat next to him and Felipe leaned against the table. 

“Hey yourself rookie,” You chuckled, lifting your hand to fist bump him. “What are you three up to?”

“Walking around before sitting in a car for two hours,” Lance replied sarcastically.

“But you’re sitting,” Paul pointed out, causing them to laugh.

“Look at that! Your boyfriend can come out of his shell! Max was just saying how awkward he was with him and Liam,” Felipe laughed.

“Ok, I gotta take this guy around to make him meet everyone now,” You said as you stood up and pulled Paul away. “I’ll see you on the track, minus Felipe.”

“Don’t rub it in!”

“I cannot believe I manifested Fernando Alonso to come over,” Paul said in disbelief as you two walked aimlessly between the hospitalities.

“I can’t believe you made a fool of yourself in front of two world champions already,” You teased. After being met with Paul planting his feet and pouting, you turned and placed a short kiss to his lips. “I love you anyway, but you’re my fool.”

“I’m a fool for you,” Paul whispered as he leaned his forehead against yours and pulled you into another kiss.

“Why must I be single?” A voice from behind you two said but it was immediately followed by an “oof”. You two pulled apart and looked back to see Oscar and Lando standing You assumed Lando said it and Oscar elbowed him in the stomach.

“That’s not something I can answer for you,” You chuckled as you approached them. “You guys ready?”

“I think the question is, are you? Any nerves yet?” Oscar asked. “This goes for both of you. Paul, I saw you’re leading the championship, so how’re you feeling?”

“Good, starting on pole, so I can’t complain,” Paul answered.

“I’m also pretty good. Hungaroring is my favorite track, so I’m just ready to have fun,” You added before hearing some commotion behind you. You turn to see a flurry of read running up behind you.

“There you are!” Charles said out of breath. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Why? We have like four hours?” You responded, looking at your watch in confusion before your eyes widened. “Shit!”

“What?” Paul asked.

“Paul!” Ollie shouted as he ran up to you. “Hitech had been looking for you everywhere! You need to be there for pre-race.”

“But F3 hasn’t started yet,” Paul answered confused.

“They’re on lap 18 of 22,” Ollie answered as he pulled your boyfriend away, pulling you in the chain as well. “I’ll make sure someone returns the Williams driver!”

“Or not! I’m starting ninth, and I’d like a free place!” Oscar shouted after you.

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[fluentmoviequoter]

Skepticism

Requested Here!

Pairing: Tim Bradford x fem!(NFL)football player!reader

Summary: Tim is skeptical about the first female NFL player. When he shares his opinion with you, he doesn't realize that you are the woman he's talking about.

Warnings: fluff, Tim gets embarrassed and apologizes a bunch, flirting

Word Count: 2.1k+ words

A/N: Bodyguard Tim👀 If this reads like Eric Winter talking about sports in He Said, Ella Dijo just remember that he's Tim Bradford. They're pretty much the same.

Masterlist | Tim Bradford Masterlist | Request Info/Fandom List

The history of the NFL has changed forever! The first female player has been drafted into the NFL, in the Los Angeles Rams’ 13th pick.

Since the moment your name was called at the NFL draft, your life has been turned upside down. Being the first female player in the league has resulted in unending news coverage, mixed praise and backlash, and unescapable attention. People know your name now, and as you prepare to change your life forever by putting on a Rams jersey, you can only hope that the skeptics are wrong about you and what you’ll do on the field.

“Dinner tomorrow!” Lucy yells at Tim. “Be there!”

“I will,” he replies. “Unfortunately.”

“Be nice,” Angela chides.

“You can always back out and stay home to watch the game,” Nolan points out.

“If they’ll start showing the games again,” a nearby officer interjects. “Everything on ESPN has been about the chick that got drafted. Even during the games, she’s all the commentators can talk about.”

“There’s a girl in the NFL?” Lucy asks. “Finally!”

“Wait, who?” Tim inquires. “I stopped watching the draft before it was over, but how’d I miss that?”

“You must’ve been very busy,” the officer replies. “She’s everywhere, man. Football got ruined. They can’t leave anything sacred.”

Tim doesn’t add to the misogynistic view of his colleague but knows that he has some research to do. Football history has certainly changed, but Tim won’t decide on how he feels about a woman playing professionally until he learns more for himself.

“The Rams, man,” the officer laments.

The moment Tim arrives home after his shift, he turns on ESPN. SportsCenter is on, and he’s unsurprised to see a woman’s name projected behind the men at the desk.

“No, John, what we’re failing to consider is her history,” Rocky Boiman points out. “Her college playing record is better than the twelve male drafts ahead of her.”

“The point remains that a historically male-dominant sport is supposed to be male-dominant,” John Anderson argues.

“If we take the gender out, the size difference, everything except how well these people play, she blends right in,” Tedy Bruschi states. “Regardless of whether or not she should play, she can play, and she does it very well.”

“I’ve been watching her in action since her senior year of high school,” Rocky adds. “If anybody has what it takes to be here, we’re looking at her.”

“Until she gets hit,” John comments. “There may not be regulations against female players, but statistically, she is more likely to be injured.”

“Then she would’ve been injured in college,” Tedy interrupts. “At the end of the day, this comes down to one of two things. Either you don’t think women should be in the NFL, for whatever reason, or you’re ignoring the facts and judging her prematurely. I will end with this, if you think this woman should quit before she starts, you’re going to be proved wrong.”

The SportsCenter logo appears on the screen before Sarah Barshop of the Rams and Matt Bowen, an analyst, begin reviewing your stats and playing history. You played in college, but your stature and your above average statistics alone don’t convince Tim. Not because you’re a woman, but because he’s seen better odds. He’ll never say that you don’t deserve a spot on the team, but he won’t believe that you can make a difference to the team until he sees it. If you can prove it at all.

“They’re talking about you again,” your friend says.

You look up from your playbook diagram and smile. The men on SportsCenter have been talking about you every chance they get. It’s not just them, though, everyone with a pulse and an ounce of interest in football has an opinion of you.

“Still arguing about if I’ll get my collarbone snapped in the first game?” you guess. “Or have they moved on to female hormones?”

“Most of them are defending you. Your stats are all they seem to care about,” your friend explains. “Maybe you will have a fan base bigger than me and my cats.”

“But you’re all I need.”

“That and a Rams paycheck.”

You laugh and return your attention to the book before you. You’re entering a new world with a lot to prove, so you’re going to be ready for anything.

“Hey, we should go to dinner tomorrow night. We haven’t had time to celebrate with all of the interviews and everything.”

“That sounds great. Just don’t pick a sports bar.”

Tim looks away from the football game to check his watch. He’s got half an hour until Angela, Wesley, Lucy, Nolan, Nyla, James, Wade, and Luna are supposed to be here for dinner. Although Tim doesn’t remember whose decision it was to meet for an “end of the hardest week this year” dinner, he agreed to come. When he arrived nearly an hour early because he had nothing better to do, he found a seat at the bar and got invested in a game.

The restaurant isn’t busy, but the bar is nearly at capacity. It seems that everyone who wasn’t arrested this past week is now here, watching football and listening to updates on you. Every chance the announcers and reporters get, they bring you up. Tim refuses to change his opinion until he sees you in action. Your highlight reel has become an hourly regular on ESPN, but you’ll have to get through training and into next season before any of it will truly matter.

“What do you think about it?” the bartender asks as he wipes the spot beside Tim.

“I think we won’t know until we see her play,” Tim answers. “If we see her play.”

“My boss is convinced she’ll lead them to the Super Bowl, but I don’t think it’ll be that straightforward.”

“It never is,” Tim agrees.

“I also think it’s a little strange they don’t show her face. She was at the draft, but everything since then has been her in her uniform or at least her helmet.”

Someone yells for the bartender, and he nods at Tim before he walks away. It is strange, but Tim assumes that they’re trying to maintain the public image of you as a football player, and not just a woman.

As you enter the restaurant, you receive a text from your friend. Running late, so don’t have fun until I get there. You shake your head at the short message and ask the hostess for a seat at the bar while you wait. She points you toward the entrance, and you focus on finding a seat and avoiding any unnecessary spills as you navigate the crowded area.

“Excuse me?” you ask a man seated at the bar. “Can I sit here for just a few minutes?”

He turns toward you and nods, and your responding smile isn’t only gratitude. The man is incredibly attractive, you realize. As you sit on the stool beside him, you notice his attention is on the television screens over the bar. Several of them are broadcasting college football games, yet you see your name appear in the closed captions.

“Which game looks the best?” you ask him.

“Penn State and Missouri game isn’t bad,” he answers.

“Missouri’s better, I assume.”

“Aren’t they always?” he asks lightly.

Penn State’s coach calls a time out and you ask the bartender for a glass of water as the screen changes to the commentators. One of them mentions a play you made in college, and you roll your eyes. You don’t mind the attention, but they’re taking what should be about the players playing now and making it about you. The man beside you scoffs, and your smile grows.

“It never ends,” he mumbles under his breath, and he spins his bottle in one hand.

“Tired of hearing about her?” you ask.

“I mean, I don’t want to sound like every other man in this city, but, yeah, a little.”

“I get that. Skepticism isn’t a bad thing; you can have an opinion.”

“I’m just not sure I can have an opinion until she starts playing. Yeah, her college history was good, but she’s not in college anymore.”

“Right,” you agree.

“There’s a reason there hasn’t been a woman in a sport that intense. Injuries would be detrimental to her and the team,” he points out. “Not to mention the fact that we’ve only seen the good, every time someone tries to mention something she can’t do well, they get cut off with don’t judge her because she’s a woman.”

“Not that I don’t agree with the injury thing, but, I mean, women have been playing rugby for years and it’s just as intense.”

“Yeah, but that’s with other women. Seems like there’s just too much at stake for one girl to make history in the NFL. She hasn’t even proved anything yet other than the fact that women can be drafted.”

“And you don’t think she can prove more?” you ask. “Skeptical that she makes it through the next part?”

He lifts his glass and shrugs, which you take as a firm yes.

“I played football in high school,” he adds. “And I feel like I can see talent when it’s there. She has talent, I’m not arguing that, but I don’t see NFL-worthy talent yet.”

Someone says your name, and you turn. It’s a college-aged girl, and she smiles shyly as she asks for a picture. You immediately agree and slide out of your seat to hug her and take the picture.

As you pose with her, you notice that the man beside you is staring at his bottle with his lips pressed together. Maybe you should have introduced yourself the moment your name came up, but you wanted to hear the truth. And the fact that he didn’t just say no, she can’t do it gave you a boost of hope that you can. Skepticism is better than complete doubt.

“Sorry,” you tell him as you return to the stool beside him.

“No, I’m sorry,” he replies quickly. “I probably should have recognized you, but what I said- I mean, you’ve got talent, and I shouldn’t have said that you didn’t. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” you interrupt with a laugh. “I needed someone to be honest to my face for once.”

“You’re getting plenty of direct negative opinions,” he points out. “And I’m sorry.”

“Now you’re apologizing for every other football fan. Seriously, it’s no problem, no hard feelings.”

“But I-“

“You’re a cop, right?” you interrupt, gesturing to the badge on his hip. He nods, and you answer, “Truth and justice is your thing. You made some good points, too. I’ll use ‘em in my training to prove all the other skeptics wrong.”

“Which I believe you can! Seriously, though, can I buy you a drink or something? Anything to make it up to you?”

“Make what up?” you question, smiling as you lay your hand over his forearm. “I forgive you if that’s what you need to hear, but you didn’t do anything worth apologizing for.”

You move your hand to offer a handshake and properly introduce yourself. He inhales deeply before he shakes your hand.

“I’m Tim Bradford,” he says.

“And you’re a cop, I play football,” you finish. “Now that we know each other, can I ask what you’re doing here alone?”

“Guy like me in a place like this?” he jokes. “I’m waiting to meet some friends from work.”

You nod and say, “I’m meeting a friend, too. A little celebration of sorts.”

“Can I ask a personal question?”

“Sure,” you agree.

“What made you get into football? Why it over any other sport?”

“Bear Bryant,” you answer seriously.

“Really?” Tim questions with his eyes narrowed.

“You’ll have to watch my ESPN special to find out. That or we could do this again another time, without the accidental meeting.”

“People are going to think you’re in this sport just to meet men,” Tim replies.

“Who says I’m not?” you tease. “But, seriously, you’re great, and I bet you could tell me how to win a Super Bowl.”

“You’re the football pro,” he points out. “I’m just a cop.”

You nod and look away, disappointed by his implied rejection. Suddenly, though, you remember what your agent told you.

“Well, if you don’t want to go on a date… I do need a bodyguard on my security team.”

Tim’s eyebrows raise as he turns in his seat to face you. “Are you serious?”

“I am.”

You look away when your friend calls your name, and you wave at her before you stand. Stalling at Tim’s side, you add, “Think about it. I’d love to flirt with a bodyguard.”

“I will,” Tim promises softly.

“Come find me if you decide tonight.”

You smile at Tim and grip his arm kindly in place of a farewell. Tim Bradford believes in you and is considering your offered position of bodyguard, so you know you can get a Super Bowl ring this year. No matter how skeptical everyone else is.

[todorokies]

THE ONE WHERE YOU REFUSE TO KEEP QUIET. . !

𝝑𝑒 contents: john marston x female reader, nsfw, modern au (sawry im a sucker for 'em), cunnilingus, fingering, pet names (pretty & darling), pussy drunk john. . . 754 words

𝝑𝑒 a/n: dabbling in a diff fandom for my comeback to writing is crazy ik but i hope u all enjoy regardless :3 im rusty i alr know

“did i ever tell you about what happened at my work last week?”

you let out a shaky breath as you cautiously ran your fingers through the hair of the man who is currently situated between your legs, eagerly lapping at your dripping cunt collecting everything you could offer to him.

there’s a momentary lack of a response from your companion, your question hangs in the thin air as the crude sounds of squelching bounces off the walls alongside with your airy moans that seep out more than intended to.

you rack your fingers once more through his long hair and tug at his roots which aids as a warning.

with not enough force to seriously hurt him, but for a low guttural groan to escape from his chest causing small vibrations against your already sensitive pussy.

he apologetically sucks on your puffy clit before he comes up for air then replaces his hot mouth with two fingers to rub tight circles on your nub, “no, pretty, you haven’t. what happened at work?” he inquired with a strained expression on his face.

his pupils are blown out and unstable as he quickly shifts his focus between your glowy face and your pussy that’s aching to be stuffed by him. however, you were pretty adamant on him eating you out instead.

john ducks his head back in between the plush of your thighs continuing his ministrations, noticeably slowing his pace for you to get your words out.

you whine with a small buck of your hips, “apparently we’re having some budget cuts nggh in a f-few weeks. . . which —oh fuckk— also includes employees.”

“uh-huh?” john mumbles against you. your words enter one of his ear and exits the other, more focused on alternating from long vertical strides from your hole to your clit then skillfully circling around it with his tongue.

his calloused hand grips at your ass pulling you even closer to his face in attempt at get every last drop.

“y-yeah, and my manager had the damn nerve to—mghm keep doing that and i’ll cum~”

your chest heaves as john spreads open your folds to dip his tongue into your pussy, visibly enjoying the way you desperately clench around the wet muscle.

he deeply chuckles and you shiver due to his stubble scratching at your skin, “what did your manager do, darling?” he incoherently slurs his words but you were able to pick it up.

“she broke the news during rush hour. i-i mean what a bitch, right!”

“a bitch indeed,” he affirms as he slowly pushes two fingers in your wet hole, ogling at the way you take his digits with ease, fully coating them with your slick.

you throw your head backwards against the leather couch that’s supporting your back. you once again find residence in his black locks, roughly tugging this time around.

a broken whimper lively dances off your lips as your eyes roll back; you could feel the coil forming in the pit of your stomach.

“feels so good… don’t fuckin' stop..” you mindlessly ushered out. the sensation of his fingers pumping in and out, dragging against your tight walls as well as the added pleasure of his tongue swirling and suckling at your sensitive clit almost has you over the edge.

just when john finally thought he’d shut you up for good this time, your lewd moans and pants get broken down till you find the strength to add another comment about your dilemma.

“a-and there’s talk of my f-favourite coworker—”

“—ya know, how about you tell me the rest of ya little story after i make you cum.” john interrupts your soon-to-be babbling session, stopping all of his movements altogether.

he places a chaste kiss onto your clit and looks at you for permission to continue. you nod with a squeaky whine, already dizzy and eager for him to resume.

“oh darling, what am i ever gonna do with you?” he whispered against your cunt as he continued pumping his fingers at a steady albeit fast pace and quickly reattached his mouth back on your clit.

you soon cum hard on his fingers followed by a few more tugs at his hair to signal you were ready to tap out.

he licks his fingers, maintaining eye contact as he groans loudly at the taste of you. so sweet. . .just for him.

his voice is hoarse as he slips your panties back on and then gives you his undivided attention,

“so…what was that about your favourite coworker?”

reblogs & feedback is extremely appreciated !! <3

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

I don’t think Jason has ever hated Tim

I recently revived my Jason Todd hyperfixation from its torpor and realized I had... Means and Ways of reading as many comics as I want for free, so I made the transition from Fanon Only to having read Lost Days, Under the Red Hood, Teen Titans #29 (where Jason fights and beats the tar out of Tim), Hush, Red Hood and the Outlaws (the majority of both runs), Red Robin: The Grail, Batman and Robin: Streets Run Red, Green Arrow #70 - #73 (where Jason kidnaps Mia), Battle for the Cowl, and a smattering of other bits and bobs, all within the last month.

I have come to the conclusion that the idea that Jason hated Tim before slowly learning to be okay with him is completely backwards.

Jason starts respecting Tim as a fellow combatant after basically their first meeting, and was sympathizing with him even before. Fandom talks a lot about how Jason repeatedly tried to kill Tim, but I think there’s a good argument to be made that actually Jason has never tried to kill Tim, and there’s a better argument that Jason has never tried to hurt Tim out of a dislike for him.

Tim is the one who feels viciously betrayed by Jason, hates his guts, and depending on if you blend in the New 52 either learns to begrudgingly like him or just stays hatin.

Obviously I need some proof here, since this goes completely against the grain of every relationship interpretation I’ve ever seen for them, so approximately seven miles of character analysis under the cut lmao

I’m gonna try to go in chronological order of the characters’ history here, which means we’re starting with Lost Days, and Jason’s first reaction to finding out there’s a new Robin:

This does not look like anger to me.

Lost Days is only six issues long, and this is the entirety of the pages devoted to Jason’s feelings on Tim. Jason succeeds in a plan that would have almost certainly killed Batman if Jason had gone through with it. Jason undeniably has Joker dead to rights at one point, but lets him go. Jason at no point in this story attempts to harm Tim at all.

Now for Hush.

Context for fanon only folks: this is where the “throat slitting” bit happens.

Context for a lot of confusion: I don’t know if Jason is the one who holds Tim hostage or not.

In the original Hush plot line this is only Clayface; Jason isn’t here at all. It was later retconned in Under the Red Hood that Jason was actually in this fight for... some amount of time. It’s highly unclear to me when they swap out. Probably because originally, they didn’t swap out. Oh well! In either case, it’s now canon that Jason coached Clayface on his acting, so for the purposes of this essay, Imma hold Jason responsible for the throat damages and the words said regardless of who did what!

Right off the bat: this is a hostage taking, not a murder. Yes, Clayson Jayface does nick Tim’s neck and absolutely makes the threat of murdering him to Batman, but it’s clearly a threat. Like, look at this panel:

He is talking a lot. This isn’t an attempt to kill Tim, it’s an attempt to screw with Batman. No matter who this is, they have every reason to expect that Batman will stop them before they do any permanent damage. Can you see that little, blurry, half-hidden line of red? Lets look at what the damage was later on:

The bleeding was stopped by a bit of cloth, some pressure, and he’ll need stitches eventually, but they can clearly wait, and Tim doesn’t seem alarmed. That’s enough to scar, and enough that it is perfectly reasonable for Tim to assume that he would have died if he hadn’t been rescued.

However, Jason being deeply protective of kids is a reasonably consistent character trait. “You really think I’m gonna bring the pain to a ten year old?” Even at Jason’s most villainous, he is willing to put himself in danger in order to protect his own sidekick Scarlet. I think it would be very out of character for him to have gone through with it. Combined with Jason’s later actions and the general fact that a hostage is pretty useless dead, I come to the conclusion that Jason was bluffing.

It is ambiguous though, and I admit that this is probably the weakest link in the “Jason never tried to kill him” chain.

But enough of that, was he angry with him? Is the hate there?

I argue no, and that really there’s no emotional investment in Tim at all. In terms of hard numbers the pages Jalay Toddface spends holding Tim hostage is 3 and the number he spends fighting Batman is 13 and the number of times he even so much as LOOKS at Tim is ZERO, like actually, literally ZERO TIMES. He does not spare poor Timmy a SINGLE GLANCE.

Now make a special note here because those three pages of no eye contact from someone who might not even be Jason are the ONLY times that Tim is called Pretender or Imposter.

I’m relying on this research done by Kiragecko: https://kiragecko.tumblr.com/post/128411908944/bat-sibling-interaction It only goes up to Battle for the Cowl, (as does this essay it turns out, I just don’t know how to bridge between that and the New 52) so it isn’t every interaction ever, but it’s still excellent research, go leave a like.

According to them: “Comments: Tim thinks about Jason a lot while he’s first training. He imagines the former Robins giving him pep talks, and uses them to fight off fear gas. When Jason comes back, though, Tim’s really nasty, especially in his head. Jason, however, is somewhat respectful. He usually calls Tim ‘Tim’, and seems to kind of like him. ‘Pretender’ and ‘Imposter’ are things that CLAYFACE said, not Jason.“

How many times are those said? Once. Each. That’s it. As a comment under the Jason and Tim post done by Kiragecko points out, “Replacement” doesn’t even get used.

Under the Red Hood is basically THE Jason Todd comic. To my memory he doesn’t interact with Tim in it. However, it does contain that aforementioned reconning! So we get to see his reasoning during this encounter.

And it very very clearly isn’t at all about Tim.

Moving on to Titans Tower, which is indisputably focused on Tim: When he fights Tim, he is absolutely violent and over the line, but he’s NOT out of his head. Jason is clearly very lucid and careful about what he’s doing.

Is he angry? Of course! He’s angry at the Titans who in his mind cared about him way less than their other members, and accepted a replacement robin as though his life, his whole flesh and blood self, was something that could be so easily forgotten and swapped out.

But I think it would be a mistake to assume that Jason’s at all mad that he isn’t Robin anymore.

A very interesting direct parallel to this fight is when Jason kidnaps Mia, Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy, fights her, appeals to their commonalities and encourages her to solve crime his way rather than Green Arrow’s way.

In both scenarios Jason engineers a way to isolate a sidekick and attempts to teach them something through combat. He makes a direct appeal to them against their mentors, and seems genuine about what he’s saying. He also lets both of them live, and with Mia is honestly pretty damned polite about it all. At least, as polite as a guy can be about kidnapping you and encouraging you to try to kill him in your high school gym that he definitely should not know about.

The plain fact of the matter is that Jason knocked Tim out, had time to paint his whole ass name way up high on a wall, and did not kill him. This is the same Jason who just prior to that took out all of Tim’s allies non-lethally. The same Jason who kept Mia’s protector’s busy non-lethally. The same Jason who cuts Mia free and gives her weapons back and starts slow in their fighting to make sure he doesn’t hurt her too badly. The same Jason who seems to feel very strongly that killing, trafficking, or selling drugs to kids is an unforgivable offense and very clearly sees Tim as a kid.

Quite frankly, this reads not like a murder, and not like a jealous beatdown, but an attempt to convince Tim that he’s going to get himself killed and needs to get out while he still can. In Jason’s mind before they meet, Tim is purely A Robin, a kid who deserves better than to be put into danger against the same monsters over and over again until he finally slips up and dies.

Is this a hairbrained and back asswards way of doing that? Yes! But it does track for someone who tries to do all of his talking through his actions, which do speak louder than words, but unfortunately C-4 loudness is not actually a significant boon to nuanced communication.

If you want to put it in a less charitable way (and maybe we should, this is a bonkers asshole move on Jason’s part no matter how you slice it) then we can say Jason is testing Tim, trying to see if this one has what it takes to be better than he was, to survive where he couldn’t. Personally I think it’s a mix of both, and for this end of that emotional mess: Tim passes the test.

Jason leaves while talking about Tim in present tense, showing that he has every expectation of Tim being alive, and praises him in the process:

Did you know that the fun panel of Tim kicking Jason in the nuts is actually from the same comic run, about twenty or so issues later?

Did you know that the argument they were having starts with Dick and Tim wrestling with Jason and accusing him of a murder he did not commit, and in fact tried to save the victim from?

Did I mention yet that the death in question was of Duela Dent, aka the JOKER’S DAUGHTER, whom Jason caught attempting to hold a young woman hostage for ransom? And that Jason repeatedly shot her getaway balloon instead of her and then tried to save her life immediately afterwards despite the fact that she was going to let the hostage plummet to their death? And it is implied that part of the reason he’s so easy on her is because of “Once a Titan always a Titan” loyalty, with this being our first clue that Jason isn’t the one shooting at her anymore?

Did I also mention that he comes to her funeral in part to be around Donna (the starry leotard lady whose statue he smashed) because it’s nice to be around people who understand being displaced by their own death? And that the one who sticks up for him in this scene is Donna?

At risk of negating my own thesus here, I’d say it’s reasonable to think that maybe Jason feels rage-hate for Tim in this “kicked in the dick while Dick grins smugly” moment.

Lets go now to Robin #177 at the tail end of the 1993 to 2003 run - Bruce has “died” and Tim hasn’t yet gone on his epic quest to find him. Tim finds Jason unifying street gangs with the intent to bring them under control and solve the current crisis. He appeals to Tim for help with this, in fact he comes off as almost puppy dog eager to work with him, and seems really sad when he says fuck no.

This is one of the first fights in which Tim really holds his own against Jason, and I am very proud of him, yes :3

This gets Jason arrested. Then Tim actually goes through with a heavily modified, less violent version of Jason’s plan that Jason didn’t think could work. A few issues later, when Tim decides that he’s going to try to honor what Bruce would have wanted by springing Jason out of jail, Jason makes note of that.

Jason is pretty damned civil at their next meeting, even though Tim makes it pretty damned clear he doesn’t want him around.

And now... we have to talk about Battle for the Cowl.

I’ve seen it described as a masterclass in how NOT to write Jason Todd, due to it portraying him as being an absolutely off his rocker anger murder violence man. I am inclined to agree.

In this three issue comic Jason Todd has been dRiVeN mAd (in the most bullshit comic sense of that word) by Bruce’s will... telling him to go to therapy. Yeah. So uh, he dons a Batman suit to shoot people in AND pretends to be Black Mask so he can enslave a bunch of villains Amanda Waller style, and like it gets weird from there. It is an extremely jarring transition from that last scene to GUNS BAT HATE MAN.

He still does not hate Tim in it. I really, seriously thought I was going to have to make a lot of excuses for this portion but then the more I read of it the more vindicated I was cause let me repeat: One of the most unhinged with Bat hate and crazy juice versions of Jason ever put to print does not hate Tim at all.

Hell, he likes Tim! He compliments him!

And on top of that, even though he is MUCH more lethal against his fellow robins when they attack him - Jason straight up shoots a ten year old Damian in the chest. It’s fucked. - There is still evidence to suggest that Jason deliberately didn’t kill Tim when he had ample opportunity.

Jason first of all never hunts Tim down. I’ve heard Battle for the Cowl described as Jason tracking Tim down or kidnapping him or going after him to force him to Be His Robin, but that’s just not how it goes.

Instead he waits for Tim to come find his Batcave, disorients him, and goes for a ton of surface cuts. He only actually goes for a real body blow after Tim picks up a crowbar and beats Jason across the face with it a few times.

(Again, proud of you Timmy)

After the stabbing, Jason doesn’t just leave Tim there; this isn’t a matter of hurrying on before he could check. He’s seen dragging Tim off. When Nightwing later comes to rescue him, Dick is downright certain Jason is lying to him about Tim being dead because Jason is refusing to show him the body and Dick figures it’s because he knows there’s no body to show (if in part because he can’t let himself believe Tim is dead without hard proof).

Tim himself wonders about this, noting that the batterang was rusted and shattered on his armor.

Sure, Tim used playing possum to make his pulse slow to a near stop for a while, maybe that fooled Jason, but keep in mind that BRUCE taught Tim that skill, and if there’s one thing these comics have established, it’s that Jason is dangerous precisely because he is so intimately familiar with the techniques of the Bat. Jason even makes specific note of the fact that Tim being trained like Bruce and fighting like Bruce would be his downfall at the beginning of their fight.

The whole comic leaves me wondering just how much of what happened went completely according to Jason’s plan. I really would not put it passed him to engineer a ‘death in the family’ recreation for the next Batman in line! As much as I agree that this is garbage characterization for him in many many ways, I do think Jason makes a fantastic villain. I love to see him run rings around the Bats in some places, and make lemonade out of getting his ass kicked in others.

No matter how we interpret the stabbing here though, what does seem very clear to me is that Jason makes the Be My Robin offer to Tim first and foremost because he thinks pretty highly of Tim! He’s been rejected by Tim at least three times over but keeps holding a hand out for him. This does not seem like Tim hater reaction hours here!

Also that whole thing about kids being dragged into this vigilante life irresponsibly? Yeah that’s still there!

I have TRIED to find evidence that Jason hates Tim at like literally any point here. I have gone through the shit people point to. I have looked at the context around those and dug up more obscure interactions for second and third views. Everywhere I look I just see more instances of Jason complimenting Tim!! It’s driving me nuts!

The only conclusion that I can come to is that people read this stuff and just trust that Tim is right about Jason. Tim’s internal view waaay more closely resembles fandom interpretation. Tim assumes that Clayson Toddface would absolutely have killed him in cold blood, that Jason beat the shit out of him purely to prove he was stronger, that he’s a brute, a moron, an active danger to society, and that every bit of leniency given to him will result in betrayal and death.

I don’t have clearer proof for it, but I also don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Tim probably believes Jason has it out for him and holds him responsible for his replacement.

So yeah. As a fascinating reversal of my expectations going in: I don’t think Jason has ever hated Tim, but boy fuckin howdy has Tim HATED Jason.

[chaosresturantjandn4eva]

#CHAOSDAY #ChaosWednesday #ChaosDayismyfavoritedayoftheweek #livingforthechaos #thisislongsobeprepared #hopefullyyouwontfallasleep #thanksforcomingtomytedtalk

I have been a silent follower for the majority of the shit show that is this fandom until recently. Now I like to pop in here and spread some chaos, tell some stories, and give my (probably un wanted) opinions. I do try and be mindful & demure by keeping all of that to this blog. 👏🏻

The wastelands of TT & X are currently in flames right now..so I don’t venture in those areas very often.. When I do decide to gear up and walk into the wastelands, I prefer to do it quietly.. I hide behind the trees, the bushes, the burning buildings, whatever the F I can find to hide behind, and I lurk.. I listen to what all is being discussed.. 🫣👀

There is a particular discussion that many in the fandom have, that always gives me pause, & makes me ponder… So I’m going to ponder out loud with all of you because it’s #CHAOSDAY & I just know you all want to hear what I’ve got to say, right? 🙃

So.. I always hear folks say, “Real love takes time.”I’m sorry, what? 🤡 I mean I guess if we’re talking about Penelope and Colin, sure. They were actual best friends. You know? They grew up with one another. They lived across the street from one another. They saw each other every day or at least close to it.. you know.. unless Colin was out on yet another one of his whoring travels..I mean world travels. 🥴 But this isn’t Pen & Colin that these folks are discussing..This is Nic & Luke. The same people that play the characters. Apparently now these folks have morphed these real life people into the characters they play.. they don’t realize they are separate from one another. Nic and Luke may play Pen and Colin.. but that doesn’t make them Pen and Colin. I think that’s where a lot of the issue in this fandom lies.. they can’t separate the actor from the character.

Now, y’all ready for my opinion on this topic? The whole “love takes time thing?” Yeah? No? Eh. You’re getting it anyway. So buckle up.

Nic & Luke have known one another, worked closely with one another, and been friends now for over 5 years. I know Luke spent the majority of that time with Jade but even still… if Luke and Nic wanted to be together.. they would be. It’s literally just that simple. Regardless of who the other is dating. If you want something, if you’re meant to be with someone, if you love someone that much, you’d make a way to be with one another. Guess what? That hasn’t happened. Wanna know why? Because it isn’t how they feel. Do I know this for fact? Obviously no I don’t..but I do know people who’ve been in similar situations.. who were with the wrong person, pushing the other away, only for the bond to be too much… for the love that they feel for one another to make it impossible to be happy with anyone else.. if you truly love someone.. you’d be together. No matter the circumstances. If you’re destined for one another, you’ll fight every day to find a way to make it possible.

A perfect example of a celebrity couple to refer to: Josh Dallas & Ginnifer Goodwin (Charming & Snow from OUAT)

These two were both in relationships during the start of filming of OUAT. Josh said the first time he and Ginnifer kissed.. he knew.. immediately. He knew that she was it for him. She felt the same way. They admitted to fighting it for several months.. but eventually they couldn’t fight it anymore. They ended their relationships & chose one another. They are now married with two children.. and obviously still very much in love.

I feel like if there was in sort of love that is more than friendship between Nic & Luke.. that they’d know it at this point. Luke was with Jade for years and clearly he was smitten and totally in love with that girl. I remember his posts, her posts, they were quite obviously in love with one another. Obviously things didn’t work out but that doesn’t erase the love that was clearly there between the two. He spent some time single during S3 filming.. and if we are to assume Nic was single too.. then I believe if there were something more than friendship there..they would have went for it.. but they didn’t.. instead they finished filming & Luke started dating.. and eventually met Antonia.. and people acting as if she isn’t important to him is INSANE to me.. it’s obvious that she means something to him.. what that is? I have no clue. It isn’t my business.. but the fact that she’s been in the picture and a part of his life since July 2023 is enough for me to know that she does mean something to him.. and not a “situationship.” *my gah I hate that word* He takes her with him on his travels, he brought her to the premieres, he vacations with her, she’s accepted within his family & friends.. that alone tells me she is something serious to him. Not posting her on SM means nothing.. especially when he’s stated multiple times that his SM is for business now & not anything more.. and after Jade was literally bullied off the internet.. I can’t blame him for wanting to protect her. Him not posting her, her not posting him means nothing. The fact that they are seen with one another, traveling together, have been papped together multiple times, and that she’s been around for over a year should be enough for people to understand that she is important to him.

It’s obvious to me that him and Nic are good friends, they have amazing chemistry, and I’ll even admit I was caught up with the PT and fell for their sweet looks, soft touches, and flirty comments.. I think it’s safe to say we all did to a degree. June 13th should have been a wake up call for everyone. It sure as hell was for me. I came back down to reality when I saw that man walk out with his girlfriend. I was a bit butt hurt. I did some pouting for longer than I’d like to admit.. but then I got up, brushed myself off, and got over it.. because guess what? I’m an adult. I’ve got shit to do. Places to be. People to see. And crotch goblins who don’t give a flying flip if momma is feeling a little butt hurt…because they need their 15th snack for the day.. & they aren’t going to wait around while I sulk. Most importantly though.. these people don’t know me nor do they care? Why should I care so much about who they spent their time with? The reality of all of this is.. these are real people.. with real lives.. with real people in their lives that they care for.. and there is ALWAYS more to a story than what we’re seeing.. especially people in the public eye. We only see what they choose for us to see.. and we as a fandom need to respect that.

If Luke and Nic wanted to be together, they’ve had 5 plus years to make it happen. They haven’t. They both have someone in their lives now who obviously are very important to each of them. I think instead of being unhappy for them.. the shippers need to take a step back, maybe go off of SM for a few weeks, go outside and enjoy the sunshine & GRASS, meet up with some friends, have a drink or five, read a book, listen to some music, dance in the rain, find a hobby, and enjoy their lives.. because life is too short to be all up in arms over those two people from that Bridgerton show not being together in real life.

As Penelope said, “I could die tomorrow.”

No one is promised tomorrow. What a shame it would be, wasting your time being angry and upset because the narrative you created in your mind didn’t come true.. that you missed an opportunity to spend a day playing at the park with your kids, or enjoying a date with your SO, because you’re so caught up fighting online with people you don’t know about people you don’t know. Wouldn’t that be a shame? Live in the moment. Enjoy your life. Don’t let SM and the bullshit that comes with fandoms destroy your happiness and dictate your day.

Nicola and Luke gave us an amazing performance as Polin. They were truly beautiful and they are so loved by the Bridgerton community. They deserve so much praise for that. They deserve respect as individuals. They owe you nothing more than what they give you onscreen. You should wish them well in their future endeavors, send them support & love, and respect whomever they choose to love and spend their lives with. They truly deserve that much. 💖

Okay, I think I’m done now. 😅

That is all. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. 😉

I hope you feel lighter with that off your chest.

#chaosday

[rizzoreads88]

Acotar Unpopular Opinion/Rant.

You’ve been warned it’s going to be controversial

Rhysand, Nesta, Aelin, & Tamlin were all abusive by todays standards at different points. This isn’t even opinion. This is a facts. If they were in the real world their actions would be considered abusive at different points.

In my honest opinion I don’t think any of the characters other then the obvious villians are abusers. I don’t hold these characters to todays standards. Fae are not human. Prythian isn’t the real world. Trying to compare them to your exs or your mean older sibling is like trying to compare the Hybern war to ww2. Apples to oranges BUT I see the fandom likes to apply modern day morals and standards to certain characters only…

Why is Tamlin the only character people like refer to as an abuser? Why is he and Nesta the only ones who are “irredeemable”?why are him and Nesta the only ones this fandom holds to todays standards?

*Rhysand-forced feyre to get drunk to the point of vomiting, grabbed her broken bone causing her physical pain to force her into his bargain, made her expose herself even though she asked for more clothing and was ashamed and embarrassed, forced himself in her, kissing her and licking her when he knew she didn’t want him to touch her, withholding life threatening information about her own body and her baby from her ect… Rhysand also explodes a room because he’s angry at nesta in hofas

(Yes i know the Rhys stans will excuse everything he did UTM because he was helping feyre.. ok but no one made him help feyre in those ways. Amarantha was watching tamlin, rhysand didn’t have to help feyre in the ways he did he could have helped her in other ways. )

*Aelin- literally tried to murder her boyfriend and would have if Dorian didn’t magically restrain her,,, physically harms his face

You can’t say well whoever had good intentions and they have trauma so it’s different… besties they all have trauma…in canon text everything tamlin did in his head he was protecting feyre. He had good intentions too but went about them in terrible ways obviously. Abuse is abuse regardless of intent.

At the end of the day you can try to excuse the abuse for your fav characters however you want but it is STILL abuse by todays standards.

SJM herself has said tamlin is not a villian. She has also said there is more to Tamlin then what we see from feyres lense. She has also said he is on his own journey. SJM wrote a whole book of Nestas growth and she changes and literally saves feyres whole little family and still people act like she is the worst.

** I also think it’s important to remember when we in the fandom are talking about tamlin, nesta, rhysand, aelin or whoever we are talking about those characters specifically and their actions within the context of it s fantasy world. We are not talking about whoever they remind you of in real life. We are not talking about what you or I went through we are referring to the story and what’s going on within prythian. **

When people pick and choose which abusive actions they excuse and which abusive person is a abuser and who isn’t it kind seems like you don’t actually care about the abuse rather just who is doing it.

Be consistent. Either all characters who are abusive at times are abusers or their not. Either all abusive actions or wrong or it’s not.

To me I don’t consider any of these 4 characters abusers over all but we’re they abusive at points? Yes. Were all their abusive actions wrong? Yes. Intention does not matter when it comes to abuse. It’s all wrong.

[roadkillsthings]

“stop writing jegulus like…” “*insert marauder character here* wouldn’t act like this”

What’s it with people nowadays wanting to control how every fic and or hc should be portrayed?? Imo the whole thing about the marauder fandom that makes it interesting is the fact that there is such little actual cannon things to go on for some characters or practically nonexistent things and that it’s essentially a blank canvas already set in a well known universe and “developed” background. It’s literally free rein to portray whatever characters however you like, and such the ships (platonic and romantic) and dynamics. Which means there is such variety in how characters are shown - whilst also having a big enough fandom that some people agree on certain hcs and include them in a number of fics.

Sure, you personally may not share a writers same views and opinions on a character or ship but that doesn’t mean everyone else around you has to agree with you, or you them!

And yes, some things may not be seen as “realistic” or “time period accurate” but for the love of god, we’re talking about a universe with a bunch of dead WIZARDS - along side werewolves and the ability to become a shape shifting animal at will… the last thing about the basis of the fandom is a far cry from realism.

there have been plenty of fanfics or hcs that i have just personally disagreed with, but rather than kick off at a writer for being incorrect… you can simply stop reading and find another fic that does suit your needs.

Writing is about creativity and just writing whatever the fuck you want, regardless of how shit or amazing it may be. Not about stomping on people who don’t write exactly how you do or how you like

TLDR: stop being dicks and let other people be happy and enjoy their little dead gay wizards :]

[humbledragon669]

S1E4 – Saturday Morning Funtime Write Up P3 - Saturday (The last day of the World) from "You're better off without him." to "You bad angels!"

As upsetting as it is to not have a photo banner for this chunk of the episode write up, I’m going to launch straight in. The timeline for this episode gets important here, so let me just refresh your memory:

So at the point in the episode where we see Crowley preparing to ambush Hell’s minions, the streetside argument has already happened. Aziraphale has also been attacked by archangels and he has tried to talk to God about the whole situation, but we as the audience are not aware of these two events at this point in the episode. Got it? Because I still can’t get that all straight in my head, I really have no idea why I have such a mental block about it.

Harping back to something I mentioned in the previous part of this episode write up, Crowley looks pretty purposeful during this scene. He’s not gathering his things, he’s not desperately looking for a location to run to. He knows exactly what his plan of action entails. I honestly don’t think he has any intention of running anywhere if he has to do it without Aziraphale – now he’s all about surviving as long as he can, and causing as much damage as he can in the process.

Side note: credit to the set design guys, who gave Crowley a doorbell in the shape of a snake. Pretty sure I need to get one of those for my own front door now.

Also gotta love the costume department, having Hastur’s wig thrown on top of his frog/toad in the most careless way imaginable. Goes to show how much he cares about whether any humans notice anything weird about him by this point.

I don’t know why, but I find Hastur’s reaction to Ligur’s demise snort-laughingly funny. It gets me every. Single. Time. Maybe because it’s just so over the top. Maybe I’m just a bit twisted. Maybe a bit of both. Probably like almost everyone else in this fandom to be fair. I’m not going to feel too bad about it, he seems to gather himself pretty quickly afterwards. And hey, you remember all the stuff I highlighted about the noise that we hear when Crowley or Aziraphale do a miracle? Well we’re about to be introduced to the noise that happens when Hastur does one.

You can ignore the little “ow” at the end of the clip, that’s just Crowley. It’s the noise just before that – the weird “flexing” noise with a bell. It’s very different to the noise we hear for miracles from Aziraphale and Crowley. I don’t think it will come to be as important as the noise associated with our hero pair, but it’s worth noting that it is fundamentally different. It does make me wonder why the miracle noise for Crowley isn’t closer to the one for Hastur. Perhaps it’s to do with intent rather than the caster’s nature.

I think I’ve seen this discussed before, but did we all notice how Aziraphale assumed that when the call connected he was actually talking to Crowley? He doesn’t wait to see if the answerphone kicks in, or if Crowley offers a greeting. I suspect it’s because he has never actually had to talk and listen to the answerphone before because Crowley answers every single time he calls. Which at the very least implies that Aziraphale always knows exactly where Crowley is, but further suggests that as a general rule, Crowley is with the angel whenever he isn’t in his apartment. Food for thought.

This phone call and its placement in the episode contrasted with its placement in the chronology is one of the reasons why I get so confused about the timeline. Aziraphale’s tone when the call is answered is a far cry from the terrified bleating of his hurtful rejection on the street corner, which is the last time that he spoke to Crowley. It’s only when you take into consideration that he has actually been threatened by archangels and told that the war is going ahead regardless that the phone call starts to make sense. At this point he tells Crowley that he knows where the Antichrist is – something he swore that he wouldn’t do less than 24 hours prior. What’s interesting about this about-turn is that he doesn’t really have any new information at this point – it’s his take on the situation that’s changed. He’s (finally) realised that the only way they can fix the situation is together.

I *think* Crowley’s stroke of genius bullshitting speech is the first time we are given some insight into the hierarchy of Hell – he calls Hastur a “Duke of Hell”. Crowley has previously been referred as “the demon Crowley” when named specifically by other Hell residents, so despite his very casual greeting in the first episode (“Hi guys”), this would suggest that he is below Hastur in the organisational food chain of Downstairs.

Clearly the people conducting the theological debate into how many angels can dance on the head of a pin became very frustrated with this ridiculous question, because the research notes become more and more incredulous. The one on the far right is my personal favourite:

Side note: the line is “angels don’t dance”. Not can’t or won’t. Got that? Stash it away somewhere so we can pull it, and the information about Aziraphale being the exception to the rule, back out when we get to the ball in season 2.

I have to say, the amount of work that has gone into the sequence of footage coming up blows me away slightly. The photography effect applied to the footage of the dancing men, the honky-tonk orchestration of the music, the underlying ticking sound of an old movie projector, the costumes, the choreography – it’s incredible how much attention to detail has been exercised to produce less than a minute of film. Did I mention all the work Michael Sheen’s face is putting in? It’s quite ridiculous.

I’m not sure I had come across the gavotte as a dance previous to watching Omens – it’s not exactly up there with the popular ones like the waltz or the tango, is it? Wikipedia describes it as a “lively peasants kissing dance”. Probably not all that surprising that Aziraphale took to this particular dance style when you have that piece of information, which is completely the opposite to how I feel about seeing Crowley (and Hastur and Ligur) doing a bit of carefree disco boogie (which he does to the same piece of music as Aziraphale’s gavotte but with a different musical setting). I actually didn’t even realise it was him until my 3rd rewatch.

Quick question about the journey through the phone system – why does Crowley count down to the exit? Surely that just tells Hastur what the plan is? His plan works regardless, it just strikes me as odd that he does it.

Poor old Hastur, the idea of being stuck in an endless loop of Aziraphale’s voice seems to have him quite frightened. He’s even lost his wig on his entry into the phone system. His final choice of word to use as an insult against Crowley is interesting though; I would have thought that calling the demon a snake was something of a compliment. Importantly, Crowley leaves the apartment with nothing more than his phone – Alpha Centauri definitely looking off the cards at this point.

Aaaaaand there it is. The little piece of the puzzle that we didn’t even know we were missing – a placard that tells us we were missing a window of time. So if we just refer back to my timeline from earlier, we’ve moved from step 8 backwards to step 3:

It looks like Aziraphale is nervous again – he’s wringing his hands in that distracted way that he does. And if he didn’t look troubled enough before the little gang of archangels show up, he certainly looks that way now. There are two things about this scene I want to point out, and the first has to do with the sound. As soon as we’re aware of the presence of other Heavenly beings (Michael’s greeting), all of the speech has some reverb applied to it and the background noise fades out. The result is that we feel like these characters have been isolated from everything around them, and given that nobody pays them any attention at all, I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s the intention. It’s a really clever little device, and once the (slightly menacing) music kicks in, it’s virtually unnoticeable. The second of the things I wanted to point out is that we see Aziraphale panicking in this scene. Not trying to hide something or divert attention, but actually panicking. He stammers, there are unexplained pauses in his speech, his eyes are wide, and he gestures a lot with his head (and later, his hands too). He even backs up when the other three advance on him. I think it will become, in later episodes, very important for us to be able to recognise what a panicking Aziraphale looks like, and this is it.

He has every reason to panic – he’s just been told that Heaven knows that he’s been meeting with someone from the other side. More than that, they describe his companion pretty accurately, and for the second time in a matter of minutes somebody describes the true nature of the relationship (according to my head canon anyway) between Aziraphale and Crowley, which, rather importantly, he makes no attempt to rebut. There’s a tiny beat where the realisation that Crowley is in trouble with Hell hits home and he looks as if he wants to ask Uriel for more detail but Michael moves on too quickly for him.

The fact that this seems like news to him at this point goes to show how little Aziraphale and Crowley actually listen to one another. Crowley has already told him that he’s in trouble with Hell, so this shouldn’t be new information for the angel. Quick side note: it turns out that the word Heaven choose to use for his interactions with Crowley is “consorting”, rather than “fraternising”.

Aziraphale makes an interesting point as he tries to argue his point about the role that he believes angels should play in their administration of Earthly affairs – that being human is fundamentally about having the ability to make choices. Which adversely implies that actually working for Heaven or Hell has the consequence of not being able to make choices at all. He may even be implying that without the human race, angels themselves have no purpose:

Our job, as angels, should be to keep all this working, so they can make choices.

It’s a direct contradiction between the desire for a war that will only result in the rendering of angels as beings futile. I think he’s onto something, but the archangels do not look moved in the slightest.

You can see the moment in Aziraphale’s waffling when he starts to think he’s got a handle on the situation because he stops stammering so much. Once you see it, it’s pretty glaringly obvious. These three thugs archangels aren’t about to let him think he’s getting control though, and we see the second instance of Aziraphale being slammed against a wall in the season. There is a pretty huge difference between this one and the one at Tadfield Manor though. Let’s just remind ourselves of Aziraphale’s facial expression when Crowley “threateningly” pinned him against a wall in episode 2:

And now when Uriel does it in an actual threatening way:

The second of those faces, the one that’s positioned a full foot away from the aggressor instead of an inch, is actually scared. And it doesn’t change the whole time he’s pinned against the wall. He even tries to tell Uriel that they shouldn’t be doing whatever it is they’re about to do to him – he’s genuinely frightened. I’d like to think the whole point of Uriel’s wall slam is really only to provide the audience with a point of reference for the audience to see Aziraphale’s scared face. I wittered on about it in the episode 2 write up a lot so I’m not going to bang on about it too much here, but Aziraphale’s reaction to Uriel’s real threat in this scene proves that Crowley’s wall slam was never a genuine threat – it was just a bit of sexy role play.

Aziraphale also tries to remember the archangels of their true nature during his frightened spluttering– that they’re “the good guys”. What I find particularly telling about the response he gets is that there’s no disputing or correcting of his assumptions, merely an assertion that he has been out of Heaven for too long, suggesting that Heavenly beings maybe don’t consider “goodness” as one of their defining characteristics anymore. Being called “ridiculous” must have been pretty hurtful for Aziraphale here too, seeing as that’s the word he and Crowley threw around between each other just the night before at the bandstand, and when this interaction (as Aziraphale chose to call it) is over, there’s a split second where we can see the fear and dawning realisation that he has lost this particular battle and is well on the way to losing the war. No pun intended.

And just to prove how pure of heart Aziraphale truly is, he can’t even call the archangels a nasty word. He really is the dearest thing, isn’t he? He’s just been threatened and punched in the stomach, been called ridiculous and had his relationship sneered at, and he can’t even manage to throw an expletive at them as they vanish. It’s probably a good thing Crowley wasn’t around to see the whole thing, otherwise I think he would be torn between protective-boyfriend mode and just pointing and laughing at the angel.

Side note: remember all the background noise that faded away when Michael and their cronies showed up? It fades back in immediately as soon as they leave the scene, although it’s very difficult to hear as we have musical soundtrack that continues underneath Aziraphale’s parting blow.

Seeing as we’re about to leave London and return to Tadfield for a short while, I feel like that’s a good place to wrap this part of the write up for this episode. As always, questions, comments, discussion, all welcome! See you next time 😊

[kinardsevan]

Ok so for Gerrard’s arc, I have a new idea 😂

So god willing, Brian Thompson will only be in 3 episodes (nothing on him, just his character 😂) and not half the season. So here’s what I want:

Character focused episodes for his arc. I feel like we should start with Eddie, given he was the one left most hung up in 710. We see his summer without Christopher, his struggles to deal and also going back to therapy, really getting down into the worst of what’s still affecting him about losing Shannon. I’d love to see him do a support group for widows and meet someone, even if it’s just another guy friend who can relate. This helps with his relationship with Chris, but maybe he isn’t ready to come back home right away, but that’s okay because Eddie is also finding his stride in learning how to deal with being alone.

Episode 2, I want Hen and Chim. We see Hen and Karen dealing with fighting to get Mara back, all the tangles that they go through with the adoption process, fighting to bring down Ortiz, etc. by the end of this episode, they’re starting to get things in order for Mara to come back home and it’s all looking good. (We’re also getting updates on how Eddie is doing in therapy, etc).

Episode 3 we get Buck and Bobby. We see how Gerrard’s return has affected Evan and Tommy (in good and bad ways, what anxieties it’s brought up for both of them etc), while Bobby is dealing with (literal) home issues, finding a new house in the current market, him and Athena living out of their suitcases while they shuffle between hotels and the 118 sharing their homes (Buck and Eddie esp).

On the option of doing 2 people per episode, if we get Ravi as main cast, he could be included here. We see him and Eddie struggle the most in the beginning with Gerrard because of his racism. (If we also find out Ravi is LGBTQ, this would be an added layer, as the fandom seems to have decided that).

I definitely see Hen and Chimney being the most protective, although Buck will be too, at first. He’ll be least likely to fall into Gerrard’s wrath due to being a white, straight-presenting male who’s just fallen in with the wrong people. Gerrard will think he can educate Evan out of that role. I can even see him being a bit of a shrinking violet, kinda falling into Tommy’s ways of just removing him from the situation as much as possible because he’s trying to protect both himself and Tommy. But then something happens, maybe to Eddie, and Evan feels guilty for it. He tells Tommy about it, expecting sympathy, but Tommy calls him out for doing exactly what he did when he was at the 118, and that’s what flips Buck. He shows up at work the next day and is in full support of his friends again, but this is what gets Gerrard to turn on him, thinking the pretty cis-boy was on his side only to find out he’s not just been playing him, but he’s bisexual and sleeping with Tommy.

Shit gets bad from there. None of them have respect for Gerrard, and they want to stage a mutiny, but Bobby is there to remind them all that this is their job and the man is still in charge, regardless of how much they all hate him. Except they’ve been doing everything the right way for months. They’ve filed complaints, they’ve covered each others backs and stayed out of trouble on calls, but this man doesn’t give a fuck about them.

I really do feel like his undoing will be Buck, because he’ll see him as a turncoat. Most likely a callback to Tommy’s near death, with Eddie or Chim going in after him. Gerrard swears it’s all the kid’s fault and he had no idea that he was still in the building (they all know damn well that he did).

Bobby finally finds a house. Hen and Karen finally get told Mara can come home. Chris is talking to Eddie again. Personally, all of them are thriving. Except for the part where their boss almost got their friend killed.

They show up at Simpsons office in a united front, and tell them that if Gerrard stays, they all walk. He’s racist, homophobic, abusive, and almost got one of their friends killed just a few days ago. Simpson isn’t quite sure he wants to see them win by mutiny, and tells them that this kind of behavior won’t be tolerated.

And then Tommy and Evan walk in (they’re late coming from the hospital and for whatever reason in my head, Evan is on crutches) and tell him that they walk too. And maybe Simpson is okay with an entire firehouse kinda, but losing one of his pilots, especially one who brings him press, well that could cause a domino effect with an entire class of LAFD walking. So he gives in.

I feel like there would be some kind of caveat to this; like maybe Bobby is interim chief and they have to be overseen by someone else (maybe Simpson himself being around a little more regularly), but they get what they want, mostly bc Simpson can risk his planned bid for mayor in the spring. We end the arc with Gerrard out, our people doing better. Final scenes have Mara coming home officially, Eddie on a call with Chris about coming to visit (for thanksgiving break? Idk), maybe staying longer. Bobby and Athena get keys to a new place (maybe they’re renting?). Chimney and Maddie are ready to finally settle back into marriage by themselves after all the chaos. Life is good. And then we get our bow tied with Evan and Tommy at home (whether they still live separately or together is fine either way), Tommy massaging Evan’s bad leg, both of them glad that Gerrard is gone. Maybe this is where we get the vulnerable discussion of Evan telling Tommy he thought he might leave, because that’s what people do when he gets hurt. And Tommy tells him he’s not leaving because he loves him.

Or maybe they just have a sweet moment at home, idk lol. But this is something I could more realistically see happening with the arc (and would prefer).

[phoenixyfriend]

I’m actually interested on your thoughts on stewjon-or any other sci-fi or fantasy land- being “space!scotland”.

I’m Scottish, and it actually kinda turns me off of a fic? Like, it gives me an uncanny valley feeling?

Part of it is due to it, most of the time at least, leaning heavily on the English stereotypes of Scotland? Like. We’re not people who think and feel and integrate people from other cultures, we’re not our better social support and services than england, we’re not people who can enjoy the land *and* be modern people, no.

We’re tartan wearing redheads speaking in a “terrible accent” that can’t be understood, whispering about fae stories and superstition, simultaneously getting in fights in Glasgow and carving Glasgow grins, and huddling in stone huts playing bagpipes and carding wool.

It’s uh, dehumanising a bit. And I didn’t realise I had that big of a rant, feel free to ignore this I was just curious from how you were talking about the Moses!obiwan thing.

Context

That tracks! It's a wider problem that incidentally managed to get picked up and spread in a really unfortunate way by fandom, presumably in large part by Americans who Don't Know What They're Doing when they just want to, idk, fantasize about Ewan McGregor speaking in his natural voice.

I think a weird but important note is that, regardless of the Space Scotland thing, I don't usually see Stewjon portrayed, like... positively? It's a shitty background element (infanticide backstory with the barest explanation), a fantasy misogyny place (a lot of the royalty AUs, especially the omegaverse ones, and especially smut), or a general underdeveloped, low-tech, backwater nightmare (also usually used for the smut). I've seen combinations of all three, and it's a toss of the coin if the author includes the Space Scotland element in addition to the above.

(I've seen one or two that seem to take way more inspo from a mix of Imperial China and 17th century France, for instance, or just keep it vaguely European.)

Even the ones that I think try to do the Space Scotland thing respectfully, I can't really comment on because, uh, I'm not Scottish by any stretch and don't know what degree of what element is reasonable.

(I think I can sort of relate in terms of Serbian representation in Western media? Such as it is. Generally we get to be gangsters, sad orphans, an evil priest selling babies to aliens, vampire-inspired cannibals, or Belgrade gets to be a setting where there is literally not a single Serbian character. Not the same thing but I wanted to give some examples to explain why I feel I can relate when people talk about this sort of thing.)

[esther-dot]

I'm sorry, that's gonna be a really weird ask from one jonsa stan to another but I'm genuinely curious - is there any anti jonsa argument/claim that actually made sense to you? I'm really asking for the sake of, well, civilised discussion - because if there are arguments there ought to be reasonable counterarguments. And all that I see is the same tired old crap - "she's not his favourite sister" and "but they are relatives!" and all the other stuff. Given, of course I'm not hanging around jonry@ and jon@erys side of this fandom (dark things happen to any sansa and jonsa stans there) and have no idea if they have any reasonable metas. Or maybe if there was a moment that made you actually question possibility of jonsa happening in books? (once again - because I'm anxious like that - I'm not asking this to disprove something or make people question jonsa but because I wonder if you personally had this sort of experience).

Thank you and hope you're having a nice day!

No worries! I enjoy looking at things from different angles, so I don’t mind at all. Unfortunately, I haven’t read anti jonsa stuff that isn’t exactly what you described, so I can’t actually have the convo you want about this. I tried to go to some jonerys blogs but their anti tags weren’t what we’re looking for. There’s a blogger people view as neutral who other Sansa fans/Jonsas put on my dash, and a BNF who people I follow also reblog from, so I went over to their blogs to look around and they’re less rabid, but I can’t say they offered though-provoking pushback. I’ll share some snippets though, in case you’re interested.

There was the old "but their siblings" argument:

I, ah, I do not think Jon marries Sansa in any scenario. Regardless of biological relationship, they think of themselves as siblings. The people around them are also quite likely to consider them siblings or as good as, having been raised as such (see also Theon being accused of kinslaying over his apparent murder of Bran and Rickon). Nor do I think either would be in a rush to go back to the traditional “but the Targaryens practiced incest,” again considering that their society is strongly anti-incest. Jon and Sansa were raised together, in the same house, as brother and sister, and that makes a material difference.

But you know, raised as siblings and please nobody try the “but they weren’t close” with me, that’s so not true.

It’s interesting to see someone say they were close, that’s not something I’ve seen before. I suppose my biggest issue with this line of thought is that it feels true for a generic fantasy maybe, but hardly convincing when talking about ASOIAF? Martin wants to talk about incest. So far, we have all the bad, abusive variations covered. I think he’s gonna work some shades of grey into it the same way he tries to do with everything he discusses, and to pretend like he would never feels disingenuous to me. Even if he ultimately abandoned the initial draft, from the author’s mind came the idea of a Jon / Stark girl romance. He has entertained it. Secondly, Jon is a Targ and it’s reasonable to expect that to manifest somehow, or at least, for Jon to experience the fear that there’s something latent there. And third, if we’re gonna get a romance, I think Martin would write it with the complexity and inner struggle that he writes everything and fauxcest offers him that opportunity, not to mention all the parallels it would allow as well.

Let's see...I also saw that they object to the Beauty and the Beast reading of Jonsa:

And I've been searching but apparently I never posted the rest of my "Bear and the Maiden Fair" thoughts, but that's the in-world Beauty and the Beast story. Through that and looking at bears elsewhere in the story, you can track this idea of the beast not being a monster, but being perceived as one by society, an outcast, which is why the Hound, Tyrion, and Jon all fit the role/are related (in a way), and why Jon will be the final suitor or real bear/beast.

The next one, I’m just gonna post the whole thing:

I’m not sure if the best part is the implication that Jon/Dany (which they believe is inevitable) have what’s required to allow for “quick deep emotional connections” or if it’s reading the Hound insult and threaten and then finally put a knife to Sansa’s throat and deciding “romance! chivalry!” The Hound may be disillusioned, but the fandom has got to stop pretending like some of his espoused beliefs aren’t self-serving, a defense because he is a monster. We have Brienne and Jon showing us different versions of knights, true knights, so acting like the Hound is in the right is just bizarre.

Anyway, no, I’ve not read an anti argument that made me doubt it. I do doubt what Martin is aiming for at times, so I’ve vacillated between potential paths/endgames for them over the years, but the anti arguments generally are coming from a reading of characters and dynamics that’s disturbing to me which means I’m usually alienated, not compelled.

[miyagi-hokarate]

I went full dumbass and the first thing I thought was that Mr. Miyagi was Daniel’s dad. 😂 That then transitioned into what has been talked about over and over within this fandom; the possibility of Kreese being Johnny’s father. That would actually be really cool, like what if Mr. Miyagi knew about the relationship all along and that Johnny was the real “karate kid” who would be the one to ultimately take Kreese down? It would be a good turning point for Daniel too. I kind of feel like we’re overthinking it and it’s going to be a let down but I sure would love if they went that route.

Hi there!

(in reference to this post)

This is going to sound harsh, but I'd be pretty disappointed if Cobra Kai were to reveal Kreese was Johnny's biological father. It's a thematically weak and cheap plot twist, and it's a theory I'd be strongly opposed to if confirmed.

My reasoning gets very long, but I have very strong opinions on this 😭

One of the themes the Karate Kid franchise had always been about was the legacy older generations pass onto younger ones; more specifically, the teachings mentors share to their students influence how they view themselves and the world, as well as how students then behave in society. Being as The Karate Kid is heavily male-dominated, this theme naturally extends to how men influence boys.

Fatherhood is another theme in the Karate Kid. However, the trilogy highlights father-figures and the relationships men build in life more than it does the relationships people are born with or are related to; Daniel's father was revealed to have died many years ago, and we never see Johnny's own father as well (both bio and his stepfather Cobra Kai added).

However, one of the most significant relationships Daniel develops in the trilogy is his with Mr. Miyagi — not only are they karate master and student, but best friends and ultimately family. This is mirrored in Johnny's relationship with Kreese, However, unlike being built on love and respect, brutality and control (or lack thereof) is what makes up Johnny's relationship with his sensei. Johnny is a terrifying war machine because Kreese sharpened him to being a terrifying war machine. Johnny literally repeats Kreese's words back at Bobby during Halloween night because that's what he's been taught and wholeheartedly believes. Johnny still follows Kreese's orders to sweep the leg, even if he was horrified of disgracing his own sense of honor.

In the case regarding Johnny, there doesn't need to be a biological reason why he follows Kreese so strongly in the narrative. The Karate Kid comments on the influences men have on boys, and where this influence can come from any person regardless of relation. Why does Kreese need to be the biological father of Johnny for what he's faced to be more tragic than what it already is? Just so the Karate Soap Opera has another plot thread to tackle?

There is a cruel mundanity to Kreese's mentorship of his star student, one he had the most pride in yet would still ruthlessly punish if he were to disappoint Kreese. There doesn't need to be anything more cosmic about the fact Johnny was in search of a man to look up to, and he found one who was strong and unshakeable and would drop Johnny in a second the moment he failed Kreese. Kreese slithered back into Johnny's life and he accepted him back because the chains holding down were marred into Johnny's skin, not something fate built into his genes.

This is not even mentioning what a mess this would be timeline-wise. How in the hell is Kreese's wang getting tang when he's too busy in Vietnam helping the US commit war crimes. How on Earth would Mr. Miyagi know. Why would a 23 in Me Result help with taking down Kreese, besides a potential heart attack. I'd be so mad if this were to come true.

Sorry for the long (and negative) response, but those are my opinions and thoughts ahdkkadjjskd

[cloveroctobers]

BODYGUARD — VICTORIA HUGHES [Summer Writings]

A/N: where is the fandom on this site? Nowhere to be found and only on Twitter! Easily became my fav fem character of the series and would have loved at least ONE MORE SEASON. Would definitely watch if they decided to do a crisis one spin off in the future. Anyways Vic deserves all the love she can get and it’s a special month so here I am—if you catch my drift 😉

SYNOPSIS: life in DC has taken some time getting used to but thanks to having Travis by Vic’s side she manages—although she’s sure she would have figured it out regardless! Vic has begun navigating Crisis One on her own and being in charge of a team leads to her spending the weekend with a member Vic’s not entirely sure likes her but decides to push her pride aside through persuasion of her best friend…later bringing on further rejection?

WARNINGS: curse word dropped + fem reader has southern roots + a few OC’s added just for the purpose of this mini story + mentions of injuries and procedures & Travis still being Travis…

<- read my previous summer anthology fic here.

༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡°

~WASHINGTON, D.C.~

A few bruises, a very large angry mosquito bite, and the stench of a cigarette is the first thing Vic notices when she spots you looking out into the distance above the river. You’re not far from where your RV is parked along the growing grass and Vic snorts to herself, realizing that you weren’t bullshitting when you chatted about your ride/home down at the center. You were the first to show up before everyone else on the official start of crisis one (always on your electric scooter with a seat attached and a small wired basket in the back) tipping your, “bless your heart,” trucker hat in greeting along with a apple lollipop hanging in between your lips.

Granted the crisis one team would all receive their uniforms in due time but it certainly wasn’t what Hughes was expecting just based on your file and word of mouth from HR. Vic liked to say she handled herself well trying to work with this new team but there was something about the woman from Texas that liked to throw Vic for a loop.

“Just go over there and hint at the idea of spending some one on one time together,” Travis whispered to Vic who threw her hands up in the air in annoyance.

“We’re not even supposed to be down here! The event is back that way and I don’t even know why I let you talk me into taking a walk.”

Travis gave her a side eye, “hey, I stopped you from jamming a foam board over Duke’s head, you should be thanking me.”

Duke Conway was another member of Crisis One, a bit of a airhead surfer dude that came from a wealthy family that also helped fund this program. The event held vendors that showcased many programs over the state that didn’t mainly cater to mental health services but also just health in general. There were pamphlets, foods proven to uplift your health, demonstrations, games and even other various of activities for all sorts of ages! It was a beautiful scorching hot day out here at the recreation area that felt as big as Central Park! It also started off as a good day until Duke began blabbing to the others about how he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to purchase this new surf board on this salary (yes in DC!), purposely ignoring this elderly woman who wanted more information on crisis one.

That ticked Vic off since she always has a soft spot for the elderly, her personable trait coming into play as she assisted the woman, apologizing for Duke’s actions and answering most of her questions before Travis took over so Vic could tell Duke a thing or two. That of course led to Duke still being oblivious and Vic ready to flip on him since he’s done nothing but kick back and act as if this was some chill weekend outing.

Which led to Travis leaving the booth in Vic’s second or third in command—Travis always assumed it would be you and should be since you two seemed to work together best besides the few times you agree to disagree but instead it went to Duke’s cousin on his mother’s side, Arlington Wraith. Who was a bit of a classist snob but agreed with Vic on their cousin’s stupidity but felt they should be the only one that got to say it—despite Vic out ranking the both of them.

To cool off, Travis and Vic decided to take a walk and now Vic felt like maybe this wasn’t the best idea. The braided haired leader wasn’t sure where you ran off to since one minute you were there with the rest talking to a man that approached the vendor and then in the next you were yards away.

“Thanking you for what exactly?” Vic pulled her bottom lip into her mouth by her teeth, then used a finger to scratch at her scalp in confusion, “Trying to meddle with my love life?”

A freckled face Travis lolls his head around, “Vic it’s been how long since we’ve been in DC?”

Vic lifted her shoulders exasperated, “I dont care and I don’t need to constantly be in a relationship.”

“Who said anything about that?” Travis replied with a frown, “You two may just have sexual chemistry.”

Vic rolled her eyes at this, finding this statement to be so typical of her best friend.

“Again, been there and done that! And this isn’t even what this day is about. I’m supposed to be working and she should be too which means we should only have our heads in the game.”

Travis shrugged, “well maybe your head can be in her game.”

Vic twisted her face in disgust as Travis laughed to himself, “I can’t believe you just said that cringy garbage to me and if you want to be horny—save it until one of your late nights down at those clubs you spend twelve hours in, it’s like you think we’re in Europe or something.”

“Hey, I’m single and like to have fun.” Travis argued with his hands raised.

Vic mumbled, “Yeah that’s your problem.”

Travis fires back, “And your problem is not being laid enough.”

Vic pinched the space in between her brows, “Travis…I love you truly and i broke my celibacy a while ago and still chose to focus on my work even after that but we’re older now. Supposed to be smarter even! I’m pretty sure I’ve had this conversation with you before but I think I’m ready for more than just a lay again. I’ve worked so hard to be here and sure of myself and I want to share that along with having an endless love that lasts until I’m ready to kick the bucket.”

Travis softens his teasing as he reaches to grip Vic’s shoulders and then caressing them, “that’s sweet and I love that for you but how do you expect that to happen if you don’t take another leap of faith with someone that’s right in front of your face?”

“Again!” Vic yells, “Did the whole dating a co-worker and someone that works in the same field as me.”

Travis nods his head knowing of Vic’s dating history, “fair but you’re the one that thinks she doesn’t like you…and you could at least try to be friends since it’s actually nice having someone in your corner in the work place. I mean hey look at us! So go over there and just try.”

“You’re acting as if I’m some kid at the park that’s scared to go play with the other kids or something.”

“Well I think you are honestly,” Travis states making Vic raise her brows in disbelief, “it’s just you and I out here and I know someday will be the day where you’ll want to build a family—outside of me—with someone else and she might be the answer to that.”

Travis didn’t mean that in the sense of having children since he was sure that really wasn’t in Vic’s cards. She liked being the cool aunt to Maya and Carina’s kids and basically being the godmother to Pru, who she shared conversations with every other day but a family didn’t always have to mean producing children, it could be with the people you already surrounded yourself with.

“What exactly am I even going to say? It looks like she’s in deep thought along the horizon and I’m not sure I want to disrupt that.” Vic makes excuses now, molding her lips together as she awkwardly swayed her hands back and forth.

Travis gives her shoulders a shake, “you’re Vic Hughes…I’m sure you’ll manage,” before he circles around Vic to lightly shove her in the direction of a potential love interest, “I can confirm that they also identify as queer.”

Vic whipped around to face her best friend who grins at her, “how? What? That doesn’t automatically mean—

“Sure it doesn’t but I didn’t exactly get the chance to ask if you’re her type.”

“Uh, I’m glad you didn’t! You’re so embarrassing.”

“That’s my job. Now shoo!”

Vic glares at Travis who sends her a thumbs up in encouragement. Turning to face where you stood, it appears that you’re now facing in their direction, watching their exchange but Vic isn’t sure for how long. You pluck the cigarette forward, leaving Vic to pause and shake her head as she now charges forward to stomp it out.

“Seriously?” She holds her hands down at the stomped out lipstick covered cigarette.

Your hands goes to your hips as you await for Vic to get closer, “what?”

“Not only are you killing the environment but also your lungs and possibly other organs, you do realize that don’t you?”

“Sorry mom,” you respond while Vic rolls her eyes.

Vic fans the air before taking an inhale, “What’re you doing all the way out here instead of you know, helping back at the vendor?”

You blink, “it’s actually my day off but I pushed myself to be there since I’ve been parked out here for awhile.”

“What?” Vic looks off to the side in thought, “I don’t remember that on the schedule.”

You joke, “ah, forgot all about me as soon as Duke and Arlington showed up instead huh?”

“Yeah because they give me ulcers.”

You chuckle, “And what do I give you?”

“Hmm…Second-hand smoke?”

“That’s my first one in six months!”

Vic folds her arms, “You’re right, I remember you saying that you quit so that adds more to my disappointment.”

“Oh no, what will I ever do without the approval of Victoria Hughes?”

“Okay, I’m the only one that gets to be sarcastic here.” The brown eyed woman points, leadership kicking in just a bit.

“It was more snark but—

“Whatever! I’m here to ask about your well-being.”

You stare at Vic then, “You don’t need to do that.”

“I know I don’t but if everything doesn’t flow right then I need to check on the state of my team to make sure that it does and I can tell you’re not exactly thrilled about that but…you’re on my team.”

Watch this curveball, “Right…and you’re deflecting from what you really came over here to ask me.”

“Excuse me?”

You’re waving your hand about now, “You and Travis really know how to use your outside voices so…go on ask me already.”

Vic blinks rapidly and tightens her crossed arms as she studies your shell of a face with a clear of her throat, “I don’t even know what you’re taking about I—okay.” She exhaled before continuing, “Would you like to go on a date or hangout with me sometime…even though I’m not sure you even want to be bothered with me?”

“Wow you’re really selling it,” you snort, “what’s the matter, been out the streets that long?”

“Okay, never mind. Screw this.” Vic whips around, ready to walk away until you speak again.

“I would have said no anyway.”

Vic halts and turns back around, arms still crossed as she sways from one leg to the other as the sun burned the back of her bare arms, “What was that?”

You shake your head with your eyes closed, “And not because I don’t like you or find you unattractive because that would be a huge lie. I’d say no considering I also put in time off because I’m getting surgery.”

Vic frowns for another reason now and not just at the rejection although her mind is still spinning, “oh…is everything alright?”

“Cataract surgery…I know that’s usually an older person’s problem but I beat the odds.” You unconsciously rub at your blurry eye, “They said it’s a mixture of genetics but mainly from trauma—

Vic exhales, “from that call we received a month ago? You mean to tell me you’ve been dealing with this since then? You were cleared, I saw that paperwork.”

Vic remembered that day, witnessing you double over after a schizophrenic patient rammed a pen right into your eye. The patient was calm until you turned back around to assist with wheeling them out of the home. Everyone seemed to miss checking the pockets of her robe, where a pen with a frog top was pulled and aimed right at an off guard version of you.

It felt careless and stupid and most of the team knew this. Errors were meant to be made and it should have been one of the first things they checked after securing her but it was a small pen that held quite the damage.

You nod, “yeah guess I wasn’t as cured as they thought. It’s only in that eye so it’ll take less amount of time.”

“When is it?”

“Thursday.”

“And you’re working up until that time?”

“Yup.”

“Well send me the information so I can check up on you.” Vic holds out her phone while you take it with a curious stare.

“This a way to get my phone number?”

“I can get it anyways,” Vic honestly answers, “but i also want the details…you do have someone looking in on you afterwards right?”

You shrug, not wanting to get too personal, “I’ve got Uber and Limbo.”

“Uh…limbo?”

“My ferret.”

Vic says, “You have a ferret…of course you do, you live in a freaking RV!”

You laugh as you send a text to your own phone, listing the details in the message before handing it back over to grab your own phone to send a thumbs up emoji, “if this is your idea of a date you’re more of an oddball than I am.”

“This isn’t a date! It’s simply checking in.”

“After I told you that I’m going to be preparing myself to get my eye scrapped like nails on a chalkboard.”

“I did not need that mental image.” Vic winces.

“I know,” you smirk.

“Are you nervous about it?”

“Do I seem nervous?” You question.

Vic does that thing where she talks fast but in this circumstance was to hide the fact that she may or may not being caring in different ways about you, “Some people tend to hide their emotions better than others so I can’t exactly tell.”

You lift your shoulders, “not really afraid of a little surgery but I’m open to you holding my hand later…if that’s not crossing a line that is.”

“It is crossing many since I’m essentially the head of crisis one but I was also the one who approached you about going on a date or hang out.” Vic exhales in realization that this was basically another pattern that she ultimately wanted to avoid.

Yet here Vic was acting up in the summer time with the stamp of approval from a best friend who still hasn’t gotten their own love life together.

Funny stuff, really.

You reminded, “Which I sorta rejected.”

“Until a later date.” Vic added.

“Until a later date,” you echo meeting Vic’s eyes, “…for now do you want a shot of whiskey? I’ve got some of the best in my humble abode…and don’t worry I’ll bring it out to you to avoid any other problems.”

Vic emphasized, “We’re on the job…”

“You’re on the job.”

“And you’re about to get me into a world of trouble aren’t you?” Vic laughs with her head thrown back, somewhat scared but excited to jump into what’s to come.

There’s a glint in your eye at that as you step even closer to Vic now who feels like she should be breathing regularly but knows that she’s not, “you’ll learn to love it if you haven’t already, Victoria Hughes…so? What do you say?”

She inhales with a pretty smile, “I say sure, I’ll take a shot but just one. I don’t know much about how you Texans get down.”

“I’ll teach you.” You wink, which makes Vic’s belly flutter.

“I have no doubts about that.”

“Good.”

“Great.”

“…I’m gonna walk away now so you don’t kiss me.”

Vic scoffs but her face is tight with humor,“Please get over yourself.”

You walk backwards to your RV, “Never, it’s what makes you so fascinated with me.”

“Oh god…I didn’t realize your head was so abnormally big!”

“With the brains to match.”

Vic pushed her lips out not even mad at that comeback, “…Alright I’ll let you have that one.”

You hum with another wink, leaving Vic for a few moments while Vic peers down at her phone at the text message, adding a name to match the number. When she glances over her shoulder, Travis is nowhere to be found—which actually makes Vic relieved until the creaking of your door hits her ears.

Down the steps you go, making your way back to Vic with your baggy ripped shorts, holding two shots of brown. Vic carefully takes it and holds it out to the center, “what are we toasting to?”

“Better beginnings?”

Victoria nods with crinkles by her eyes, “Better beginnings.”

“Should I be cheesy and say, together?”

“Please don’t.” Vic groans, “I’ve had enough corny for today.”

“Noted.”

They clink their glasses as you tell, “make sure you make eye contact or it won’t seal the deal.”

“So you’re superstitious?” Vic makes a mental note of that.

“To a certain extent but it’s common courtesy.”

“Fine.” Vic comments with a sigh as they briefly break eye contact to place their glasses to their lips before holding each others stares again.

One winces while the other grins, “to better beginnings.”

༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡° ༄｡°

Continue with my summer anthology writings & prompts here.

[dyelwi]

I’m not on Twitter so I don’t see a lot of negative things about Athena. How exactly are people ableist to her? /gq (I don’t doubt it, I’m curious though 😅)

Hi, yeah I feel like going on that rant now lol. Gonna clarify first that this isn’t some Big New Discourse, rather it’s just an observation I’ve personally made from seeing the way people talk about Athena, especially on Twitter but here to an extent as well. Putting this under a read more because it got VERY long. It’s sort of a character analysis and sort of a fandom analysis??? Idk lol.

Athena is mentally disabled. This is heavily implied at LEAST, though I’d say it’s straight up canon. Even if you don’t subscribe to the common interpretation of some of her experiences (sensory issues, trouble communicating especially when young but even in the present to an extent, her relating to robots more than people as a child) it’s clear that these things actively disabled her at the very least as a child. There’s some bigger posts going more into how autism coded she is but that’s actually not even what I see people being ableist about!

Even if you look at her and think that the autism is just a headcanon, it’s pretty undeniable that she has severe trauma that presents much like PTSD, especially with how the main symptoms she displays are flashbacks and repressing memories of the trauma, which I wanted to note are actually real things that happen but are used in fiction especially often to portray severe trauma. PTSD is a mental disorder that most agree on as a disability from what I’ve seen (phrased this way because there’s no real list of what disorders are and aren’t a disability, it matters more how it impacts an individual, but PTSD often impacts people in ways that are disabling) and sure enough we see that it disables Athena.

Athena has trauma specifically surrounding murder and court trials. And she works as a defense attorney!!! This is important because it means she is frequently around things that trigger her (in the way the word is meant to be used, not the meme-y way people sometimes use it). It’s like if Edgeworth became an elevator repair guy or something. And sure enough, we see her struggle because of her trauma being triggered. This is something that happens not only in ace attorney 5, the game which most explores her trauma, but also to an extent in ace attorney 6 when Nahyuta basically tries to bully her out of defending Bucky (I love Nahyuta but this is not his nicest moment lol). She begins to question if she really can do a case by herself. She hears the feelings of everyone in the room (if you want to bring the likely autism into it, this is a point for that as she’s having some sensory overload), and she reaches perhaps one of her lowest points in the case. She is struggling, due to her disability(-ies if we include likely autism) because Nahyuta and the gallery (more so their emotions she heard but same thing) triggered her. You could argue she doesn’t like go into full panic flashback mode here but to me at least, this doesn’t mean she isn’t struggling or that she isn’t triggered. She’s probably been able to start healing after aa5 after all. Regardless of that, even Simon specifically says that Nahyuta is using her hearing abilities against her to try to win, so if you’re considering the autism as an aspect of this that feels like more than enough. And so, Simon Blackquill, who sees one of his closest ever friends struggling in protecting something he cares about, steps in to help as her assistant.

People hate this. And I was surprised when I learned that. Simon is one of my favorite characters and one of my favorite parts of this case. But people apparently blame misogyny for him coming to help her, when if we’re looking at this from the perspective of the ace attorney writers they clearly just wanted to give Simon some (deserved) screentime and use the typical ace attorney setup where there’s a character assisting the defense attorney. It was weird going into this that Athena was alone, quite frankly, as that only happens on rare occasions in the ace attorney formula. Athena is not being treated as a pathetic woman that needs help when other characters wouldn’t. The other defense attorneys in this series need help rather often actually. And Athena is a defense attorney in an ace attorney game. And in-universe, she is a disabled person working in an environment where she is constantly at risk of her disability, well…. Disabling her. And I think most people would argue that disabled people needing help isn’t a bad thing! But for some reason, people refuse to give Athena the same grace they’ve given other characters in the past who weren’t even in as triggering of situations as she was in this moment.

And so people talk about their dream Athena-led cases, where she needs no assistant. I understand where they’re coming from, if you can’t tell I’m a HUGE Athena fan and I want to see her character grow and develop, I want to see her get her own game. But often people really like to talk about the idea of her not needing help, being able to do a case on her own. Not only is this rare and difficult for the average ace attorney defense lawyer, but it begins to feel a lot like when, in the real world, people try to convince disabled people to work through their disability or push the idea that growing and being their best self doesn’t involve accommodations. This is generally accepted to be a pretty shitty and ableist way to look at disabled people that is often tied to what people mean when talking about how people can treat overcoming disability as a sort of inspiration porn. When people say that Athena should be able to defend on her own and imply that this would make her better somehow, it feels like they’re saying that in order to be better at their jobs disabled people should just get over their disabilities to be stronger. Which I know is not something a lot of people that say these things about Athena would actually agree with! I don’t think people are doing this maliciously. But I wish people understood that this is what I hear when they say these things, as someone with multiple mental disabilities myself.

I relate to Athena a lot. I have, since her introduction, seen myself in her more than I have almost any other fictional character. And I wish people understood that what they imply when they talk about her like this can hurt a bit. I worry a lot about being able to do my future career effectively (I’m a college student rn hence the future part) and so to hear people imply these things about Athena?? I feel it by extension. You can say I’m just projecting or whatever, I don’t care, but I think people need to understand that disability is a big part of Athena’s character and that how they think about her can reflect some subtle, unconscious thoughts and feelings they may have about people like her that exist in the real world. I know ace attorney is just a video game series. I know that it’s typical of writers to treat things like this as something a character will push past to become stronger. But it’s a bit disheartening to hear so many people agree all the time, especially when the game itself hasn’t even done that with Athena’s arc, at least not yet.

tldr Athena is a victim of fandom ableism more than writer misogyny in this specific aspect surrounding her capabilities as a defense attorney who is written as a disabled character and who exists within the ace attorney setup