#she's been like y'know...really?

[softquietsteadylove]

In an exceptionally quiet moment Thena has the opportunity to watch Gil work. She watches every detail about him from her break room, from his look to the way he moves and interacts. From his muscles to his friendly smile and more.

And she slowly realizes that she has fallen for him.

(The Thenamesh Doctor AU)

Thena stands back and takes a look around at the work they've done. There's still work to do, of course, but they've done well so far. She rode out with Gil and Kingo a few hours ago to get this back road car accident situation under control.

The fire department is here directing people, trying to balance keeping the cars from catching fire and leaving things intact for the insurance inspectors to review. Kingo is treating one car's people while Gil is treating the other's.

"It's okay, just go slow," Gil says in soft, whispering tones as the young passenger of one of the cars raises a trembling bottle of water to his lips. "If you drink too much at once, you could give yourself a stomachache."

Thena smiles to herself as she watches him from the open back of the bus. Her job is mostly done, giving her the opportunity to observe Gil in all his glory. He really was born to help people, she thinks.

He just...he has such a way about him. He's warm, and kind, and he's so gentle he can always get everyone to some state of calm. She's seen him wind kids down from absolute hysteria, and their parents too. And she's seen him handle the most cranky anti-medicine recluses into taking a simple tylenol for their pain.

She's not sure there's anything Gil can't do.

He's a great paramedic, he's caring and smart and diligent, and somehow he also finds time to work out and be a great cook. She has no idea how, or when he sleeps at all. But he does it all with a smile on his face.

She loves his smile.

But Gil's a very lovable guy--that's just part of him. Everything about him is adorable, from that full faced smile he has, to his sense of humour - even when he's telling truly awful dad jokes - to the way his jaw hangs open when he sleeps.

If she wakes up while he's sleeping she'll close it for him.

She never sleeps so soundly than when they're taking the opportunity to sneak in a nap in an on-call room back at the hospital. There's something about that big, warm, teddy bear body of his. She would rather die than admit it, but being held in those arms...she doesn't think there's anywhere else she'd rather be.

Not that they hold each other often.

Not like that, at least, no matter what Ajak does or does not believe. It's just...hard for other people to understand. But for Thena, it doesn't need any explanation. She and Gil are just...comfortable. They're comfortable with each other, and that doesn't need complicating.

They just work well together, and that means being able to talk more comfortably with Gil than anyone else in the world. It means being able to sleep better than she ever thought possible when she's with him. It means meals taste better when she has him to look at, especially when she's eating something he has so lovingly made.

Gil does everything lovingly. And she-

"Hey."

Thena blinks out of her fatigued stupor. She'll say that she has no reason to be as tired as she is. Gil has been pulling people from cars and carrying up from a ravine all night. He'll just brush it off, though.

He sits himself down with a loud sigh, so maybe even he's ready to admit how tired he is. He sits close, watching as the patients are loaded into the ambulance from the other, closer hospital. They're all going, the less injured sitting on the benches. The police can question them all there.

"Hey," she whispers, moving her hand into his and giving it a light squeeze. He smiles at her, but she can see how exhausted he is. It's late, and he's done a lot of the manual labour, as usual. She rubs his arm with her other hand, imagining the burning in the muscle there. "You did good work out there."

"Don't I always?" he chuckles ever so faintly.

"Yeah," she soothes, though. She keeps a hold of his arm, encouraging him to lean against her heavier. "You always do."

Gil settles himself against her as the other ambulance pulls onto the road, turning on the sirens just in case they run into anyone else on the narrow pavement. "Kid's really shaken up from it. But I guess it could have gone worse."

It could have gone much worse. "We got here in good time. No one will have life threatening injuries, or treatment."

He nods, obviously wishing he could have done more. Thena shakes her head at him, slipping her fingers against his. "They'll all pull through, Gil."

He looks at her, pulling up another smile. "Hey, we couldn't have gotten them secured without you here to stitch them up while they were still in the cars."

"Hey you t-" Kingo takes one look at them and shuts his mouth. He's so much more perceptive than most people think he is. He gives his partner a nod and closes the doors on them, letting them ride in the back in their peaceful little moment while he drives.

He'll call in this favour to both of them later, but that's fine.

Gil turns his face into her as the bus lurches back onto the road, he inhales against her hair, "they were really scared."

Thena nods, still holding his hand. They see people on possibly the worst day of their lives, constantly. For Gil, that still gets to him--still makes his heart ache for those people whom he knows will carry around memories of them long after they leave the hospital.

She looks up at him, wishing in an instant she could take that massive heart of his and just...transplant those feelings of his into her. She would do anything to alleviate the traces of sadness just at the edges of his eyes.

Gil blinks as she pulls him down to her slowly and gingerly. His eyes drift closed as she touches her lips to his. It's so, so brief, and it's so, so soft.

He buries his face in her neck, wrapping an arm around her side. He tucks her into him with his hand in his hoodie pocket, like a bird taking another under its wing.

Thena rests her head against his chest, just listening to his breathing and the drive. He doesn't ask, and she doesn't feel the need to answer, either.

She loves him.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

favourite twdg villain?

I'm a fond enjoyer of the St. John's as villains. I don't know if they're my favorite just because they're only in one episode, but I love the concept of this family almost immediately jumping into cannibalism toward the start of the outbreak, dealing in human flesh to bandits, and casually feeding this group their friend's legs.

Like... what the hell was this family like before the outbreak that all three of them were like, "Hey now listen... nothing should go to waste, the dead are eating people so why shouldn't we? We gotta survive and in our defense, we only target those who were gonna die anyway... like y'all."

Dude, Mark was shot in this shoulder with an arrow. He wasn't going to die from that injury. It's so fucked that these seemingly friendly people took the group into their home and then fed them Mark's legs.

If we take the idea that everyone is infected and have the capacity within themselves to become walkers, to become monsters, then the St. John's were infected long before the outbreak, y'know? Not literally, but something was wrong with them and the outbreak just further spread that infection and changed them.

But again, are they my favorite? I dunno if I can say that since I have a lot more appreciation for Lily now. Yeah, some of her writing gets a little wonky in ep3 of TFS when she goes on her monologues and shit, but y'know what? I'm into it.

You have to remember who we're talking about and the fact that she's the antagonist; Lily isn't some anti-hero in TFS who secretly has a heart of gold that's brought to light because she reunited with Clementine... she's a fucked up woman who did fucked up things in the name of survival. She's full of rot now. She sees kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers to protect her home as a means to an end, but she doesn't actually give a shit about the people she's taking. They aren't people to her, they're as the episode title suggests, toys in her game. The only one she sees as a person is Clementine, and while that makes her hesitate at first, she sees Clementine's a prize to bring back.

She remembers what happened in S1; her father had a heart attack and as she tried to save him, Kenny smashed his face in with a saltlick and then expected Lily to just stand up and help him get back to his family because "he did what he had to, he made the hard choice." Yes, Larry was a piece of shit. No one liked him, and you can even question Lily on him and she'll tell you that he has a lot of pain. Yes, it makes him an asshole, but he's still her dad and he's all she has. I mean... the simplification is daddy issues, but in all seriousness, I don't doubt for a second that many of Lily's issues stem from Larry being a shitty father to her.

Then everyone thought she was losing it when she insisted there was a traitor in the group, which she was right about, but she was unstable. She was unwell, but how do you help someone like that when you don't have training to go about it? Then Lily ends up killing either Carley or Doug and the group turns on her, and either she's left behind or she steals the van and runs away.

Then we don't know what the hell happened to her until we see her again in TFS, but like... a lone woman with decay festering inside of her joining the delta? Exposing her to their methods? I mean, what else did she have to lose? She had nothing, she lost everything, and she has a lot of issues. Survival is easy when you're numb, when you don't care about the individual; they're all just cogs churning to make the system run, and if a piece doesn't cooperate, you get rid of it and find a new one.

Plus I think there's something to say about Lily not wanting to be perceived as weak again. That whole display she put on in the cells? Telling the story of what happened to Minerva and Sophie? I get the criticism that it feels like Lily did a 180 between episodes but like... yeah dude, because it's a performance. It's not just her and Clementine anymore. It's a display of power and authority. She's playing the part and thriving in it as she ensures everyone else is terrified of her.

But then when Clementine and AJ get the upper hand? Again, she's not afraid to play up the pleading to earn enough sympathy to spare her- hell, just to let their guard down enough to strike and get the upper hand again. I mean, she's got nothing else to lose, right? If she doesn't go for it, she'll be killed and sure, you can kill her anyway but at least she tried.

Honestly, I look at Lily in TFS and still see that scared little girl playing the tough bitch, just like Carley said in S1. It's just now escalated from "tough bitch" to a downright vile person. She's so... lost? I suppose? Lost within herself and the monstrous means she's taken to survive.

I get the criticisms of how she was used in TFS, but for me, it's like when people complain about Minerva not getting the redemption arc she supposedly should've gotten, y'know? There's no saving her. Lily was never on our side, and there was no getting her on our side. She wasn't ever going to redeem herself. Even if you spare her and she drifts away on her raft, can someone like her actually find redemption? Or will she just find another group that'll feed into her rot?

Truly, I say let her be horrid. Let her be the piece of shit villain with a few fleeting moments of humanity. Let her drown in the blood she's spilled.

[sskk-manifesto]

Through all the first time watching the second season I thought the shadows were supposed to represent Lucy, and even now I have an hard time shrugging that impression off

[yaoyuandaydream]

there's a fifteen hour time difference, and her phone was on do not disturb. not that picking up right away would have changed anything. what's gone has already been leaving, a dinner table an ocean away, tired eyes slowly drifting away and names gradually slipping out of the grasp of wrinkled hands, rough from decades of putting food on the table.

last summer, i sat next to ah-ma in her wheelchair and helped her cut sashimi into smaller pieces. she used to take her bike out every day and bring back chelunbing for us. i swear up and down nothing else will ever taste as good. she always said it was a secret where she bought them from. they probably closed down years ago, but i guess i'll never know now.

we piled into the taxi while ah-ma was taking her afternoon nap. my ma's eyes were red, but i politely pretended not to notice. i didn't ask why she didn't wake her. it's easier this way, because it's a twelve hour flight and at least twelve months before she could return. it's easier this way, because the relief when ah-ma said our names correctly was too sharp, serrated on the edge of not knowing if she will remember the next time.

there's a fifteen hour time difference, and the funeral is in two weeks. what's gone will never return with sweets in her basket, but the warmth of her palms linger.

[wildstar25]

I2 or A1 for that pose meme? Whichever one you wanna do more.

polyam pose meme

For the first few moons of their being together, Arsay was often hesitant to ask of both Y'shtola and G'raha's time. They were still settling into a dynamic and she was worried it would put unnecessary stress on the budding relationship. However, not a single soul in The Crystarium, not even she herself, could deny how much joy it brought the Warrior of Light to simply stroll about The Rotunda hand in hand with her beloveds.

[the-lark-ascending69]

> be a robin buckley fan

> be lesbian

> project on robin

> look up "internalized homophobia robin buckley" on tumblr because it's cathartic

> 3/4 of the posts are about st3ddie or just about steve

[rimouskis]

I am genuinely upset about Andi! WTF is FSG doing? She's one of the best in the entire league! The pens online presense was top tier but with ITR gone last year, and now Andi, I don't have any idea what their plans are. Please let Jen be safe! I'm sure Andi will find a place. I'm not too worried for her. The Pens media department tho

I really wish her the best in whatever she does next. She was at the helm at the peak of the Pens' social media engagement and prominence, and while that fell off as she ascended the ladder and became a VP/further removed from the day-to-day posting, I think she did a ton of good work here.

I'll be very interested in how the department reconfigures in her absence. There seem to be a lot of power vacuums right now, with lots of people with long tenures at the Pens departing. Part of me hopes there's a chance for young blood; other teams have been doing more innovative, more curious, and more creative stuff in terms of their media. While losing legacy employees is a loss, I can only hope that there's an infusion of youthful, out-of-the-box thinking coming our team's way. It's the best we can hope for.

[softshuji]

Any men out there wanna pretend to be my bf to get my parents off my case about marriage? I am so so serious right now.

[five-of-cr]

here's the thing about matthias: he isn't the honorable, reformed hero some of the fandom seems to see him as.

yes, he was raised by a tight-knit family of comrade soldiers and decides to betray them in the end. of course that took incredible strength. i don't deny that. but we also need to recognize that the drüskelle are not just some rogue cult. they are a core part of the fjerdan government, who is trying to wipe out the grisha because they are seen as dangerous. that's literally just genocide. however indoctrinated someone is, this is something that is evil from every angle, even if the character can't or won't see it.

and look, i love a good redemption arc, but matthias is such a passive actor in his. he falls in love with nina against his will. she changes his attitudes toward grisha because she's beautiful and kind so all grisha can't be bad, right? this a classic example of the trope of separating the "good ones" from the rest, where you cherry-pick specific individuals to point to as exceptions to a group's nature, which is still implied to be evil. you have to do a lot more than fall in love to truly unearth and address the roots of bigotry.

tbh, this is my biggest critique of the books as a whole. i loathe the "love conquers all" trope that pairs together a character from the oppressed group and one from the oppressors, letting the one show the other through the power of love that being bigoted is not nice. it puts all the responsibility on the former to prove their humanity, and gives all the credit to the latter's ability to be persuaded to recognize it. and then it inevitably leads to forgiveness, because the character has "earned" it by changing their views, once again making the victim seem like the villain if they don't absolve the oppressor of their past "mistakes". also, it's incredibly unrealistic for someone to fall in love with a person who actively hates them and considers them sub-human. in real life, people have to work on their bigotry before that happens, not use the relationship as a plot device for character development.

i think the idea of writing a character like matthias is neat. i think portraying someone's struggle to throw off the suffocating, hateful dogma they've been fed all their life is a story we need more of. i think personal growth of this variety should be celebrated, because otherwise people would never change. but i don't think the people, fictional or real, get to do this without facing profound consequences. it is not enough to feel sorry. it is not enough to apologize. it is definitely not enough to fall in love. and i think writing that lets people off the hook like this grossly oversimplifies power and oppression, and ends up being a feel-good way to romanticize people who cause a lot of harm.

a last note: my opinion is 100% influenced by my being bipoc. matthias is a classic aryan supremacist, even if being aryan isn't the thing he's being supremacist about. my gut reaction to that type of character is always going to be mistrust, both because people in real life have given me reason to be mistrustful and because characters like these are often written in a way that makes you sympathize with oppressors. i don't think matthias earns that trust, and i don't see why i owe him my affection as a reader.

[paeinovis]

Developing a theory that Phoenix's personal Place of Living is a disaster, while the Wright and Co. office is kept impeccably clean (him looking after Charley, compulsively cleaning the toilets in Multiple Games and even getting Apollo to in AJ) because Mia did the same (and/or had him doing those chores while he was interning for her lol)

[occasionaltouhou]

regular touhou #16: congratulations to seiran for making it into the hot new game [checks notes] "eldy ring"

[bloodsoakeddoodles]

Food group swap!

[jackblackhotelmirror]

shoutout post to my girl @thewinchestah for helping me accept my flaws and the cringe parts of me. everyone needs someone like pond to remind them that being silly goofy is ok and there's nothing wrong with being yourself. it's ok to experiment and play around and do things for fun without seeking validation.

[hooved]

i dunno if this is like weird advice to give, but for anyone who is or has a partner/friend/etc. who's interested in a threesome (or more), you gotta make sure that everyone involved is emotionally ready for that. if you or someone else might get jealous, then just don't do it. don't lie and say you're ready just because you wanna make your partner happy, or because of peer pressure, or even just because you're attracted to someone involved, etc., if you're having any doubts at all then just say so. this is something you need to discuss thoroughly beforehand. jealousy or any other sort of emotional discomfort during group sex WILL negatively affect your relationship(s) with whoever's involved. if sex is an experience that's very important and personal to you and you're not ready to share that with someone other than your partner(s) then there's no shame in turning it down. a good partner wouldn't be upset by you setting boundaries. your comfort is more important than the opportunity to have a threesome

[headfullofdolls]

Getting really disappointed with Mattel’s lack of consistency with Clawdeen’s glasses ngl, especially so early on in the launch ._. Most of the big marketing and promotional shots of the dolls don’t show her glasses (they show up inconsistently in the commercials with stop motion). They weren’t in the animated music video. They’re not even in most of the stock photos for the doll itself. And now the Skulltimate Secrets doll doesn’t have glasses either.

Sure you could say she doesn’t need them all the time and/or also uses contacts, that works as an in-universe explanation. But the glasses are part of her core look in both the live action and the new animated series, and a central enough feature of her core look in the dolls that it shows up in almost all the doll art thus far (she even gets a sporty pair of goggles in the Ghoul Spirit pack). The exception to the doll art so far is Creepover Party, since the doll itself doesn’t come with glasses, which supports that she probably doesn’t need them all the time. But that still doesn’t explain why most of the marketing for Clawdeen’s core doll, her signature look, which does feature glasses, doesn’t show her wearing them.

Unless Mattel thinks it’d be bad for sales.

So it’s fine for supplementary media but not for directly advertising the doll itself? Guess they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too.

[inkerii]

Okay I lied here are some more thoughts on the mlb movie including some actual criticism.

I was just listening to the soundtrack a little and I feel like? A lot of ~character~ is injected into the songs. I mean, it's a musical, it's how they work, characters burst into song when they cant hold back how they're feeling / what they're thinking anymore. But I feel like people who are calling the movie soulless must have just tuned the songs out when they came up, because without them yea, it kinda feels like its just going through the motions. But... It's a movie, so they cant have five million scenes of Mari being awkward, especially since they need her to outgrow it bc ~character development~ so these bits go into her intro song + her first outing as Ladybug. It's obviously stated in Chat's number that he was high off the freedom of being Chat Noir, which explains his cockier attitude towards Ladybug (which is? Not too unlike their dynamic in Origins pt 1 tbh, anyway).

(A detail I love is how in "You Are Ladybug", Marinette's whole point is that when things get rough she "makes excuses", which is a level of self awareness that I don't recall her having to that degree in the early show. At least in season 1, she'd always ALMOST do the things she wanted to, only to stop and second guess herself. I love the interpretation that it isnt just shyness or being frazzled and nervous in front of her crush, like the fandom interpreted, it's her ACTIVELY being aware that she's self sabotaging bc she's afraid of taking chances. It's such a fun little spin on her actions in the show. )

Like. It's all there??? It's in the movie???

Anyway.

Wanna see an ACTUAL criticism? What some songs imply just isn't represented as well visually, which makes the movie more confusing. Most notably Marinette's Sad Song after Adrien turns her down. If you actually listen to what she's saying, it feels like they skipped a few scenes, lol.

Like, listen to it, it's like she's saying she - as Marinette - isn't enough, just being the silly shy girl that she is. This is right after Chat confesses to be falling for Ladybug, but Adrien turns Marinette down. The song is implying that Mari went from not thinking she could be Ladybug to gaining confidence in herself (she's kicking butt as Ladybug, she's overcoming her shyness/awkwardness and making friends, she even managed to ask Adrien out, so its not like the old fic trope in which Mari always had a low self esteem and always considered LB to be perfect, she's getting better as a whole), to only now second guessing it all. Is only Ladybug, her more heroic, responsible side, the one people (boys, "both" of them) like? Is being "just" her softer, klutzier, dreamer self not enough?

It ofc leads into the final fight against Hawkmoth, and how Marinette is so down about it that she now thinks she NEEDS Ladybug to win. She still tries to save Adrien on her own with a last nudge from Tikki, and tho it isn't enough to keep Hawkmoth from getting to him, it's enough for herself. Like, she very clearly Has An Arc in the movie.

The thing is, it can get a little fuzzy because we don't really see this contrast between Ladybug's self assuredness and the parts of herself that Marinette prefers to identify with as a civilian, not if you haven't watched the show. The montage just skips throughout their "pound it!"s without lingering on her resourcefulness, her confidence, and how different Ladybug feels from Marinette. Like, it's there, but only superficially, and its hard to notice it unless you have the backstory from the show to back you up.

It's the same issue with Adrien's feelings towards Marinette, we know from the montage that Mari is special to him, we only ever see him open himself up about Emilie to her (when Nino is Right There and actively letting him know he can talk to him if Adrien wants to), and the end credits song (that seems to match the reveal in both melody and lyrics) basically states what we do know - that Mari is aware that Adrien is Chat Noir and was waiting for the right moment to tell him - and what we DON'T, which is that Adrien always felt a degree of familiarity and a special bond with Mari, possibly bc subconsciously he always knew (which actually calls back surprisingly well to the cut Wall Between Us number and how that poor catboy was SO confused). So he was and wasn't surprised at the same time bc OF COURSE it was her, of course the girls who held his heart on both sides of the mask were one and the same. Ergo the smiling through the tears.

But we don't SEE that, unless you take what the music numbers are saying AND you have watched the first season of the show (I am once again reminding folks that the movie was conceptualized during the season 1 hiatus). You don't SEE Adrien go from a slightly weirded out stranger to someone fondly amused at Mari's antics to blushing and shuffling awkwardly when their fingers touch when playing videogames. You don't see how LB takes control and appears to be a natural leader, heck, the movie does a better job with Ladynoir but it STILL doesn't match how it feels to watch it knowing things like Chat straight up being willing to die for Ladybug in Timebreaker or knowing they kiss once in Dark Cupid or how Chat keeps himself from peeking at who LB is in Lady Wifi. You don't have the Adrienette side of the square to explain some of those lyrics away and the Ladynoir Song(tm) or even the sparring scene, with all the implicit trust they gives us, don't hit as hard as they do with the proper context.

Some of it (Ladynoir) can be excused by it being a movie and having a much more limited runtime to tell a story, but others (Adrienette) just NEEDED a little bit more. Even if it was just one more scene showing how their civilian relationship has ALSO evolved.

That said, it makes me wonder, it's been ages but I loosely remember being told that the movie was supposed to show the origins of Ladybug and Chat Noir back in the day. I wonder if the things we see changed between series and movie (the power ups for instance, details like Nino always having a crush on Alya) weren't originally, and the movie was originally going to be released as both the beginning and the end of season 1, showing how LB and Chat met, revealing Gabriel as Hawkmoth, and concluding the love square shenanigans and giving us a reveal before setting up a season 2 in that post The End scene.

Mostly bc I've been watching season 1 again and if you take Origins out and ignore the smaller incongruencies as just edits reworked into the base story later in order separate the movieverse from the showverse as a way for Zag and Astruc to find a compromise... I'm using an old friend's personalized episode timeline instead of just the release/production order and you can SEE the development there. It's subtle but it exists, and it works surprisingly well.

If you look at it this way, the movie wouldn't need to show things like Adrien's modeling career and Gabriel's micromanaging (which in season 1 STILL works with movie Gabriel, especially knowing he gets obsessed to the point of neglecting his personal hygiene. He's distant and cold but not aggressive), so the show could explore that. The show could set up Adrienette and Ladynoir (and the other subtler sides of the square)'s base dynamics so the movie could do its thing by flipping the love square (had it had more time to properly show the Adrienette side. as I said above, its an actual issue with the movie) and resolving the tension. Even the earphones symbolism would hit harder knowing Adrien went through a whole season without them, only to falter and fall back into using them after LB rejects him.

Idk, I'm too fond of Origins to ever delete it from my heart, but I think its a fascinating concept to think about.