#since hes admitted to not reading issues done by other writers. not surprising he got that detail wrong since he didnt write that issue

[sonknuxadow]

you sent me down the Sonic name rabbit hole and the misinformation is even more stupid then originally intended.

Archie Sonics Middle name being Maurice had only appeared twice in comic form, once as a definite joke and once as a dubious joke (hard to say if it was serious since it doubled as a throw back joke) but Maurice was kinda an inside joke for the most part and they even poked fun at it in one of the Sonic Prime adverts.

Olgilvie is where it gets stupid. Sonics 'first name' was never given in canon but was allegedly posted on Penders own website, saying that he intended it to be his first name but never actually applied it. I say allegedly because finding actual proof is basically impossible. There's no screenshots of the website, Penders never posted about it on social media and there doesn't appear to be any interviews with Penders saying so either. It is entirely possible that this was just a made up rumour/someones personal head canon posted on a mid 90s forum that spun out of control.

yeah i definitely think his middle name being maurice was just a joke at first and it was only mentioned by the characters themselves twice that i remember, but there were also multiple character profiles for sonic that mentioned his middle name being maurice and/or sonic not being his birth name, so it Was intended to be canon. but again the same cannot be said for olgilvie, i cant remember a single time the name was ever mentioned in the comic and other writers have said that it isnt considered canon

as far as penders himself talking about this goes, i actually did manage to find a couple tweets of his that mention it but theyre actually very recent and in response to someone asking about it, i still cant find the original source for this claim anywhere. but i do have some stuff to say about the tweets so.

part of the conversation is cut out because i didnt wanna post screenshots of some random persons tweets, but basically someone was asking where he originally confirmed this, where the inspiration for the name came from, and if anyone else used it. which as you can see he didnt really answer that first question. and he also says he DID use the name in one issue, but hes blatantly wrong here because issue 53 doesnt say sonics name is olgilvie, just that his birth name isnt sonic and his middle name is maurice. so hes definitely misremembering some details here

now im not saying this is actually what happened but wouldnt it be so funny if penders never intended for his name to be olgilvie specifically but someone on the internet just made it up and it became so widespread that penders himself even believed it and thats why no one not even him can provide the source for where this was originally stated

[herefortayloronly]

Since the very beginning, I said it was a mistake to make Colin a "rake" because that's not his character and it's a complete misunderstanding of his character.

Colin is never meant to be the sexy flirty ladies man. He's a little awkward, silly and mild-mannered, if you can recall that's what he was like in season 1 and 2. He's a soft cinnamon roll but we never got to see him be a soft cinnamon roll. People tried to convince others who criticize this choice by saying it was done on purpose, you are supposed to get "the ick", you are suppose to not like Colin's new personality because it's fake!! That people lack media literacy!!! The point is to show that he's pressured to be a rake because society pressures men to be a MAN™ and Colin will eventually learn that he doesn't have to conform to society dont worry!!! It's a commentary on toxic masculinity!!!!!!!!!!

I disagree lol

Actually the thing is I usually would agree with this except there are many glaring errors and inconsistency that suggest that's not what the writers went for. That's not the message and theme they were going for. They definitely did not intend to make Colin's rakish behaviors cringe and icky. They seriously wanted him to come off like he's this suave hot playboy. They wanted us to believe he is a catch and that he is hot and sexy.

1) No one in the Bridgerton world found him cringey.

Now people are gonna say the writers are going for a dramatic irony where we, the audience, are meant to find it cringe but the characters don't. But when has Bridgerton done any sorts of irony ever?? It's not that kind of show and it's not that kind of story. We are meant to find him sexy and hot because the characters, the young debutantes of the ton, find him sexy. What is the purpose of having the people in-world find him sexy if not to signal to us that we are suppose to find him sexy too? Why would a romance show want their predominantly female fanbase to find the male lead unsexy and cringe? When in the history of good rom-coms have you gotten "the ick" from our lead hero?

2) If he was faking being a rake then why do we never see him be..... himself?? LOL

Let's say he was faking it. If he was putting up an act then why do we never see him break from that act? The way he was behaving at that brothel with those prostitutes is exactly the same way he behaved with his friends and family. No difference!

This is probably the most glaring issue with the writing because they spent way too much time dealing with the LW situation and all the subplots that they forgot to really lay the groundwork for Colin. If they truly had the intent to show us that he is just faking being a rake then we should see him when he's not faking it. We need to see him when he's just being himself. We need to see him when he has his guard down but for all 8 episodes I never see that. The only time he really let his guard down was to admit he was jealous of Penelope's writing but that doesn't explain why he started having threesomes. What about his insecurities for his writing all of a sudden made him horny? We just didn't get to spend enough time with Colin to really understand him. Sure we can infer and read between the lines but we're veering into fanfic territory for me. We shouldn't have to headcanon who Colin is because the writers are too lazy to flesh him out. I don't need to be spoonfed but I was definitely not fed at all lol.

I don't want this post to be too long but I'm just gonna add this. Even the Luke Newton was surprised people found Colin icky!!! And he knew it was a wrong choice for the character but the director and writers have other interpretations clearly.

Now how could they had done Colin differently? Of course I can't make a critical post without actually giving some constructive criticism. First, if they really did mean to make him cringe and icky then we need to see him get rejected. We need to see the ladies turn him away because he is so bad at flirting that they can't take him serious. We need to understand clearly that the people of the Bridgerton world also find him cringe and weird. I personally would love to see him fumbled during sex with the prostitutes. It would be funny to see him try to force himself to make the act work and realize he is completely out of his depth. If he's faking it then we need some scenes where we see his real personality. It would be nice to see scenes where he's flirting and hamming it up at balls and then later at night he goes home alone and work on his writing.

Second, his character would improve so much if we see him have some sort of direction. We know he writes. I kinda hate that they made his love for travel into him having sex across the continent of Europe. Would be great to see Colin's love for writing be about his fascination for linguistics and literature and that's why he travels because he wants to learn about other languages and culture. He could've come back from traveling with a new found love for knowledge and learning instead he came back as a manwhore.

Finally, I said I rewatched Emma (2020) the other day and I had an epiphany. I realized that Colin has "Jane austen's male lead" energy. Now I'm not saying Julia Quinn/Brigderton and Jane Austen are even remotely comparable. They are not even in the same stratosphere. However, Colin has that sweet, mild-mannered, calm and subtle humor personality that a lot of Jane Austen's male leads have, at least the Colin in season 1 and 2 did. They could've played into this in season 3. I need to see Colin chasing after Penelope the same way Mr Knightley chased after Emma all the way to her house after dancing with her. I need to see Colin be all disheveled and distraught when he realizes he's in love with Penelope. I can't believe there is a scene right before the fingerbanging scene where Colin does chase after Penelope's carriage but we don't actually see it happen. We don't actually see him running. Like that's actually a great moment to see Colin fully realize his love for Penelope. Mr Knightley getting all flustered running after Emma's carriage and then missing his chance to tell her he loves her is hotter than Polin's fingerbanging scene! In fact now that I'm writing this there is a lot of what Emma (2020) did with Mr Knightley that the writers of Bridgerton could've done similarly for Colin that would've helped his character a lot more especially with the LW situation. But that's another post I think!

Ultimately, the writing failed Colin. This has nothing to do with the lack of media literacy or people not finding Luke Newton attractive and hot. It's just the writing did Colin and Luke a huge disservice.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk!

I was gonna include some quotes from some of my favorite reviews of the season about Colin but I just really wanted to put it all in my own words but here are the videos that made me finally put my issue with Colin into words. Video 1. Video 2. Video 3.

[dailycass-cain]

Batman vs. Robin #5 concluded this week and after four prior issues, it decides to bring a certain someone into this. So how did Cass fair in the final issue? Well, let's get into my thoughts.

I'll be honest starting off and say this mini wasn't the best. I just feel the whole series has been rather meh save for a few moments sprinkled here and there (Bruce/Alfred in #1 and Talia in #4).

The whole stuff with the magic users Nezha does to them (particularly Black Alice) was quite unsettling. But I get it as a writer you're upping the stakes from the prior story with the character. I get that the Robins fight against Batman in #3 was more Bruce having to deal with all of them being OOC with one of the mystic weapons and Nezha.  Though noticeably absent physically Cass was mentioned in the issue just not to be counted as backup.

A theory that proved right as the entire issue was Bruce fighting former Robins (or one current in Tim). Still, I had my fun poking at Cass for having to sit out entirely (along with Duke) not having to job for the issue.

Once that tie-in came out, I was kind of surprised to see in this issue Cass was in it.  Artist Mahmud Asrar didn't have to go this hard for Cass but he did. Like hearing about this page and then reading it. I admit it. I smiled at the art spread alone.

Course the inner fan in me is like, "Where's Duke? And what happened to Kate? She was literally in #3!" To be honest the inner fan is right. Kate should've been called as mystical problems is her forte.

Course the counterpoint as to why she wasn't, "Right the series would've ended sooner and Kate hasn't dealt with spooky shenanigans since Gotham City Monsters THREE years ago."

Cass's reason to being there is a solid Damian plan though as he brings in the "big gun" to stall more.  Plus the panel alignment near Cass. Nice.

Yes, Cass jobs to Nezha (as does the rest of the family). I'll allow this jobbing since this "the big bad" took out a bunch of heavy hitters between this issue and Lazarus Planet.

The fact that writer Mark Waid kept showing her landing blows and being an active thorn in Hezha's side until he powers up to knock all of them save Tim out? I'm not gonna be critical of that.

This is how jobbing is done. The threat is big and Bat-Family (and Monkey Prince) here is buying time. Time for the DC Magical users to get their revenge on Nezha and boy do they.

I'm satisfied with that because that's what it was building toward. So that leads to the second thing Cass contributed to this issue and again I'll give Waid credit on.

So when Damian reveals the second stage of his plan (aka the one he told no one in sacrificing himself to save his father). Enchantress offers another option.

Honestly, even out Cass would make that sacrifice too. Really, all of them would. But I'm not gonna be all, "HEY! Give Cass this moment." This is Damian's story with a Cass appearance.

This isn't bad for once, but then this is following Gotham: Future State and I've yet to recover from reading that garbage.

This appearance was just a fun nod to Cass and gave me a good bone which I happily gnawed on. Now am I going to go how this appearance makes sense given where Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 left Cass? Cause I feel at this point explaining it would be like this.

Does this save the entire series? Eeeeeh not quite for me. But hey this series got me twice (that gorgeous Zatanna variant for #1 and this issue).

Still, I'm willing to begrudge the issue hit all the right notes. Save for Kate being brought in to buy more time. I think Babs would've been better suited for the Oracle section.

Though final side note unrelated to Cass. Babs hardcore this issue. Everyone is going hand to hand to smack Nezha-possessed Batman. Barbara Gordon on the other hand:

Geez Babs! 😲😲😲😲

[heycoyotegirl]

What would a Paxton/Devi/Ben triad look like in your opinion?

So I wrote an entire breakdown of how a Ben/Devi/Paxton triad would happen and then I reread your question and realized that wasn’t what you asked at all (but if you are curious about that, I have an answer ready to go lol).

The short answer is that I actually think a triad could work surprisingly well. Obviously they’d have to work on their communication skills to make it work, but that’s true of any high schoolers in any relationship, no matter how many people are involved.

I wrote in a tag that dating Paxton has the potential to fix Ben, which was initially a joke, but then I realized it’s actually true. We see throughout the series that Paxton and Devi bring out the best in each other, and since Ben and Devi are quite similar, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Paxton and Ben can also bring out the best in each other.

Paxton is the most levelheaded of the three, so he would be able to prevent or mitigate the blow-up fights that I'm sure are in Ben and Devi's future. He has more emotional intelligence than the other two and is good at recognizing people's insecurities and offering reassurance, whereas Ben and Devi tend to (accidentally) hit each other's insecurities under the guise of "banter."

Also, the fact that Paxton doesn't do as well academically would hopefully curb some of Ben & Devi's more pretentious/elitist attitudes. And, as many problems as I have with s4, the way he figured out what he wants to do with his future after he got into college—versus Ben who's always planned to go into law like his dad—would be reassuring for Devi, who openly admits that she doesn't have a goal beyond getting into Princeton and then never explores that (genuinely wtf were the writers doing this season?).

Long answer/examples from the show (focusing on Ben/Paxton primarily, since that's the ship we don't see on the show) under the cut.

Paxton has some sort of magic ability that gets Devi to open up and be vulnerable with him, and we see that it works on Ben too during their conversation after Ben’s surgery in s3ep6.

Paxton: So, why are you so stressed out? Ben: Oh, I don't know. Maybe because my entire life trajectory is determined by the outcome of the next six months. Paxton: Are you talking about college? Dude, you'll get into college. Ben: I don't want to get into just any college. I want to go to Columbia, and I'm not sure if I can get in. Paxton: So then you don't get in. Who cares? Ben: No, not "who cares?" I have to get in. Paxton: Or what? Ben: Or all this work was for nothing. My future is ruined, and I disappoint myself, and my family, and, you know, my dad. Paxton: This is all about your dad? Dude, tell him to go to hell. You work so hard, you haven't had time to shit in two weeks. If I was your dad, I'd be proud of you. [ inhales sharply ] Not because of the not shitting part but because of the hardworking part. Ben: Thanks.

Obviously he isn’t as gentle about it as he is with Devi, but Paxton still figures out the heart of the issue—Ben wanting to impress his dad—and gives him good advice—his dad should already be proud of him for how hard he works, and if he isn’t, then he sucks and Ben shouldn’t care about his opinion or worry about disappointing him. And Paxton was right; when Ben’s dad gets home, he tells Ben that he’ll be proud of him no matter where he goes to college. (Quick question for the writers of this show: What happened to that whole plot line in season 4?? Seems like it would’ve made sense to at least mention it when Ben didn’t like his visit to Columbia.)

I may be forgetting things, since I still haven’t done a full rewatch (and Ben/Benvi fans, feel free to chime in if you remember something I didn’t) but I can’t think of any other pre-s4 examples of Ben voicing similar insecurities. At least, not to a peer, and especially not one who he has reason to be jealous of.

And it’s the same with Devi: She tells Paxton things she’s not ready to tell anyone else.

Paxton also pushes back when Ben is being a dick in a way that Devi doesn’t. Ben and Devi’s history of being rivals means that her instinct is to volley back “banter,” even if Ben has gone too far and said something that’s actually hurtful. But since Paxton doesn’t have that history, he doesn’t return an insult. Instead, his instinctive reaction makes it clear that Ben said something shitty.

Immediately after the bit I quoted above, we get this:

Ben: Let's change the subject. What are you working on? Paxton: Ugh. This stupid college essay. The question sucks. "Discuss an event that shaped you into who you are." I just... I don't know how to answer it. Ben: Hmm. Do you not know what an event is? Paxton: What the fuck, man? I know what an event is, dude. I just… I don't really know who I am. Ben: [ scoffs ] Gimme a break. What do you mean you don't know who you are? You're the only person at our school who's not a nobody. The lunch ladies named a dessert after you. Paxton: Yeah, that's all surface stuff. That's not who I am. Ben: Okay. Then who are you? Paxton: I don't know. Like, I think I'm someone... [ inhales deeply ] Forget it. This is embarrassing. Ben: You can't possibly embarrass yourself more than I have tonight, so get over it. What do you know is true about yourself? Paxton: I mean, I'm a really good brother. Maybe I could talk about when my sister was adopted. I... Ben: Wait, you have an adopted sister? That's essay gold. Okay. Why don't you start making a list of all the ways that she's helped you learn about yourself? Come on. I can... help you.

Ben’s comment hits the tender heart behind Paxton’s sculpted abs, but after the initial snap, Paxton doesn’t turn it into a fight. He actually does the opposite and opens up, admitting an insecurity to explain what he meant.

And Ben responds positively to that. Sure, he doesn’t apologize, and he’s still a bit dismissive at first, but once he realizes that Paxton is actually being vulnerable with him in return, he drops the attitude and offers to help him. And then Ben is genuinely happy when the principal compliments Paxton’s essay the next day.

(And as a bonus, helping Paxton out inadvertently expands Ben's social circle, which is nice, since he has like 1-4 friends max throughout the show, and they're almost entirely dependent on what girl he's dating at that moment. He was super excited by the prospect of hanging out with the Hot Pocket, and I'm glad that they kept his friendship with Trent in season 4.)

(Also, yes, I recognize that this would technically be going from "Ben's only friends are his girlfriend's friends" to "Ben's only friends are his girlfriend's and boyfriend's friends" but 1. that's still more friends overall; 2. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with having the same social circle as your partner(s), as long as you don't immediately lose all of those friends during a break up; and 3. Paxton could probably help him with social skills in general (à la the scene where he teaches Fab how to ask a girl out), which would make it easier to make friends independently.)

Paxton might not always voice his insecurities (which would create conflict in the triad, but I don't think it would be insurmountable), but he's protective of other people. Throughout the show, he always stops to check in with Devi when he sees that she's upset, even if he's been justifiably mad at her prior to that moment. In a situation where Ben or Devi hurt the other's feelings, he wouldn't put up with them avoiding each other and letting the hurt fester. He'd encourage them to talk it out, like he did in season 4, when Devi was going to let the Princeton situation ruin her friendship with Fabiola.

We also know that Devi is more willing to stand up for other people who’ve been wronged than she is to stand up for herself (see: how she broke up with Paxton when he didn’t want to apologize to Haley for icing her out vs how she handled Ben ghosting her).

So if Ben said something that hurt Paxton while all three were dating, she'd be more likely to call him on it. And that would ideally then lead to a discussion about the way Ben hurt her in the past, and he could apologize for the things he said and work to do better, which would resolve my dissatisfaction with Ben and Devi's romantic relationship. (Yes, they were rivals and both mean to each other at times, but Ben was disproportionately cruel after Devi’s dad died. He's said racist/ableist things (throughout the show tbh), and his comments in s1 especially had a significant, lasting impact on her self-esteem.)

I'm realizing that this all basically boils down to: Ben would experience the same character growth from dating Paxton that Devi did because he and Devi have similar flaws

[chubearr]

jwcc s4 review (finally)

》spoilers ahead

.

.

okay so like ima try to be the most chill and unbiased with this review— i read some others that brought up good points that i didnt see at first, so now thats what ima try to do!

-the biggest fan complaint, kenlynn/cool kids/brookji:

alot of fans are super pissed abt this, and at first it didnt make sense but now i can kindaaa? understand it. my general take is that s1 & s2 the kids were just vibin and surviving, getting to know each other and etc. i think kenji started to have a crush on brook esp in s3, since they were paired up/talked a lot (when brook fought with darius, when sammy got posioned, when darius split up with the group to get ben when leaving the island and brook was worried) so they were kinda getting closer and comfotrable with each other already. and like kenji even confirmed in s4, he realized his feelings for brook when she got taken away, hence his fight with darius (i imagine he was super confused n frustrated abt it.. poor boy). and personally at the end of s3 when kenji got mad, i did find that overprotectiveness weird and was kinda thinking it was bc he liked her! so overall the crush reveal was not a surprise, but i was more surprise that it actually happened! as for brooklyn i think her feelings for kenji were never really developed until they got closer in s4; kenji being a doof and possibly his trueself? and realizing how alike they were made her start to like him a bit? and then he semi-admitted he liked her so she got super confused as well (maybe bc she didnt know if it was platonic or romantic). then yasmina basically opened her eyes, and i think after that brooklyn was thinkin a lot, and spending even more time with kenji she realized she liked him as well...

i admit they couldve done better to show brooklyns development into liking kenji in previous seasons, bc tbh i see both darius and brooklyn being equally super chill with everyone (tho im biased for benrius!).

i think bc the season went by super fast unlike previous seasons, it made kenlynn develop fast as well so it didn't look that well written. tbh even i myself was supperrr shocked that they actually made it bf-gf official! i even wouldve been fine with just confirmed crushes this season, but the ship is probably gonna go through it next season (esp considering the plot twist in the end of the last episode... someone protect kenji pls)

but overall, ship it or not, i still dont think fans should be too angry and crazy at kenlynn shippers or the writers etc. like no one knows where this is gonna go, so we'll just have to wait and see. shouldn't we just enjoy it while it lasts? i think kenji and brooklyn need some type of break from the chaos, and if they wanna be together thats fine by me. same for the other kids! i hope if theyre getting romance arcs that itd be similar screentime as kenlynn and maybe even better developed (i still think yasammy is gonna be the finale ship idk..)

one thing i do wish now is that their charas this season werent too much revolved around each other, but ig thats how it goes! at least we learned more abt them both anyway (theyre both lonely and sheltered kids... also, BROOKLYNN HAS DADS!) and yes im ignoring we still dont have a brooklynn last name reveal smh...

as for the age thing.. idk im not bothered tbh. its like what, a 2 year difference? so thats fine by me, i can see it realistically (if it were any bigger i would def understand the isssue). i dont think the writers are intending anything sus for that or anything— as long as these kids are all kids and just vibin im fine with that. kids have crushes, no biggie.

overall not a surprise to me or a bother! next.

-sammy:

i feel like her character is always the same throughout the seasons so i always found her boring and wanted the crew to work on her. this season was alright! its good they didnt let her issue with her fam die down (tbh i almost forgot thats why she came to the camp), her anger moment, although a lil reckless, made sense esp since we already know her fam obvi means the world to her. i liked her realization with the spinoceratops¿ (angel n rebel) was bc of her and her development from pity to saving them was good! still wish they couldve showed more yasammy, but slow and steady wins the race ig! the deal with mantahcorp (idk if thats how u spell it oops) got even bigger now bc of kenjis dad and im scared for her bestie relationship with kenji 😭 im scared for that whole drama in general but with sammy and her fam as a victim... send help to my kids pls!

-yasmina:

a lot of people send she was so out of character this season (mainly with the kenlynn thing) but tbh? i think this version of her is her real self. even tho she was more colder in previous seasons, we're not new to yasmina being a super supportive friend otherwise. and like she said, sammy is the one who brought out those feelings! i really liked this mischeavous side of her, and ben friendzoning her was the funniest thing!

im superrr pleased with the whole PTSD thing. like most kids shows dont take that trauma seriously and just shove it aside. but not jwcc, and thats prob why im so attached to the show is bc they arent afraid to commit (a kids show where people actually die?? coming after my own heart i see...)!!

i know we prob shouldve had more experiences from the other camp fam, but maybe its good they made this a mainly yasmina thing bc we're so used to seeing her be strong for the team. weak yaz make me weak myself... let her sleep pls.

-ben:

bens whole finding out his identity arc was pretty much perfect. im glad they brought up how panicked he was bc he knew isla nublar so well but now he knew nothing and felt like he was reverting back to scared-ben... but we all know that ben is just ben now! i hope he can get more actual moments with the others bc hes been so independent all these seasons (aromantic king maybe..?)!! a lot of fans like him but tbh /dont kill me/ so far he was always my least fav kid out of the crew.. but i did like him more with his whole s3 thing with darius! so maybe just having him spend time with the others and being himself is the key!! (also more benrius moments pls.. theyre such the mom n dad of the group idc what yall say!!) and his ptsd with the pterodactyl or whatev things? it hurted but im happy he was able to fight back this time!!

-darius:

i didnt get fans complaint with his arc this season at first but after reading some reviews, now i do a bit! now in weirded out as to why darius has like 0 trauma.. maybe its bc he loves dinos so much that overall it doesnt bother him? esp bc dinos are what connects him to his dad the most and etc... and i saw people talk abt him being super leader-y this season but i didnt see much of a difference? he was always the one everyone looked to for answers so i wasnt surprised that he made his own decisions again— everyone still trusts him and knew what he chose was the right thing to do. but they didnt tell him abt their ptsd so obviously darius wouldnt know abt it bc all of their bonds are so strong that i think darius trusted them to tell him anything (but since they didnt he was obv blinded to their true feelings??). and surprisingly a lot of fans seemed to think he was out of character or smth when choosing the phone over the dinos? but i think it was good development bc it showed that even tho he loves dinos to death, he would still do anything for his friends (esp bc they told him they had ptsd). im glad in how he handled it!

one thing i agree on with others is that he definitely deserved some more screentime. mainly with the other kids, and less solo screentime, like the other seasons!... yes i admit, kenlynn and kenji did overshadow him a lot, but at least i believe its to build up the plot twist in the end for kenji and onto the next season (maybe theyre giving each kid arcs? and s1 was mainly darius's? idk tbh!)

i loved how darius handled kash— who i hate and pls let big eatie eat him already...

darius is just so smart and damn im jealous! that kid can think fast and improvise like breathing, no surprise he's the leader (and brooklyn being second in command to the group was very interesting).

》others:

-mae was a fine character! i like how quirky she is, and finally not an evil or dead adult 😭 but it was funny how even so she still got injured and was out of commission the whole time... can someone just save my kids and not die, pls theyre too traumatized!! (ps where are the camp counselors who i 100% forgot their names— are the gonna come back or naw...)

-i agree with others, kash is a weak villain. but tbh i feel like he was that annoying and ridiculous to just blind us with the ep11 plot twist aka the REAL villain¿ (i keep mentioning this but ill talk abt it soon i swear). the robots were boring i do admit as well, maybe it wouldve been better if they were like.. dino robots? to help with the island but also be disguised with the other dinos? idk tbh!

-darius's brother who i forget his name... im rootin for him obv! maybe he'll get the camp counselors to help him out and they'll slowburn their way to help the kids? i hope we get more of the mainland stuff bc like.. is no one worried that 6 kids are still missing from the island??! like maybe they do think theyre dead after all (which angsty thats so rude im cryin) but is there like really nothing they can do? get chris pratt on the case already!!!

-and lastly? i think? EP 11/SEASON ENDING. how dare you. how dare you!!! like ive seen other peoole say that they guessed it, but i legit had 0 clue bc i literally never think abt the adult characters period.. BUT HOW DARE YOU ANYWAY!! so ya.. kenjis dad— i can't even say it. I WAS NOT SEEING THAT. like even rewatching that episode i still gasp like ive never seen it bc its so unreal to me... its so good. it pretty much made up whatever complaints i had before! first "appearance" i literally was like who tf is 'daniel' (bc the subs) and i thought it wouldve been a character they already introduced previously! but ig technically they have (even tho i didnt know his connection to kenji until he literally said dad..).

im super hyped for the next season esp bc of this.. LIKE KENJI IS GONNA GO THROUGH IT! who he'll have to choose, the dino and camp fam or his actual dad... and again sammys reaction? i am not ready. like maybe theyll handle it easy and let mrkon have a change of heart bc of his son, but i also really want them to spice it up and make him a serious villain? (ik whats wrong with me) but like consider the contrast itll be compared to darius's dad... like darius and kenji can have a real test of their bond bc of this... and yes i also feel like this will test kenlynn, bc just kenjis dad being here just changes the whole game in general. like will kenji be reverted back to his selfish n spoiled ways and it'll cause a rift between him and brook/campfam?? theres too many questions and possibilities... WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN?? im so worried..

and i know kenji is a fan favorite, so i wish people were freaking out more over this than ships...

SOMEONE PLS FREAK OUT WITH ME!!

- overall i rate this season 9/10 (originally 10/10 so not much difference but i did put more thought into it...?)

if you guys follow my crackheadness in other posts i probably seem insane but i hope this review levels it out a bit? i hope i got everything..

》 pls feel free to discuss with me in replies! i really do wanna connect with some jwcc fans even tho im alao scared bc all i see are angry fans 😭 we'll see! ima try to be more stable and less angry now this review is out.. if you managed to get through it all, thx! and sorry for typos or if it doesnt make sense, it sounds better in my head i swear..

[ddarker-dreams]

FINALLY SOMEONE SAID THE TRUTH.

I admit that i enjoyed act 3 but it feels like really rushed i have so much complain with that.

The build up until act 2 was so good it give us so much premise but the final blow si meh. Sorry that i want to share thing long rant with you

1. Why the final talk is with yae, no offense to her but we need ei to explain not to mention she witness khaenriah downfall so she can give us more information, i feel like they do it for the plot armor so they can just keep dragging this

2. So many things that quite inconsistant, the shogun is show no mercy to anyone that even did a little thing outside what she think its right, how come she can still have a talk with signora, when sara is falling like that, and also there is no clarification about sara right now.

The traveler was so done at first they refuse to help thoma and ayaka at the beginning. But they seem so happy and forget everything how come they are not RAGE ( okay maybe this is to bias and personal) when this nation provide nothing about our siblings information and also why they are not mention anything about their problem in ei stroy quest. Its nonsense! She is right in front of youu, ask about your siblings, ask about khaenriah, ask about ukmown god!!. How come they can just forget like that. Also mihoyo really waste the potential about twin things i thing ei will give us so much help bcs of the sympathy that we both rn lost our twin but noooo.

3. Kokomi seem lost some brain cell, she make a very succesfull grand intro but she become meh in act 3, how come a great strategist like her let the sus sponsorship slip just bcs they are desperate, not to mention her screen time is really small and her role seem so unsignificant and it feels lile she is a plain npc.

4. The awesome world quest that we have done doesnt get any mention at all! Inazuma owe us so much with cleansing sakura, thunder sakura, tatarigami, obarashi quest. It has so much potential that yae or ei or anyone else aknowledge what traveler has been done but nooo.

cracks knuckles... i suppose it's time for my promised dissertation. interestingly enough, you touched on a lot of the main issues i had with chapter III.

i think that if i had to pin the main issue, it's a lack of overall cohesiveness? we were jumping all over the place without the chance to ever flesh things out. inazuma is a smaller cast, but i feel like we didn't get to see any of them shine. since i'm most interested in the genshin characters, i'll break down my problems by going over everyone and their (lack) of impact on the story.

was ayaka not questioned or placed under suspicion for being close to thoma before his escape? i wanted to see her broken up over her duties as they relate to the yashiro commission, paired with having someone she genuinely cares about in danger. it would've been an interesting struggle if she was forced to choose one or the other. instead she just kinda took a back seat.

speaking of thoma, i don't even have anything to say, because he just... was there? for .0001 seconds. said "lol this sucks ig" and that's about it. i know we're going to get a story for him in the future since he's a 5* but i'm not getting my hopes up 😭 then in the raiden shogun's character story, man is peachy keen! be upset with the raiden shogun! have some inner conflict! even if it's just using loaded language because he's under surveillance for going against the raiden shogun, that'd be so cool. saying something like,

"Traveler, what's with that expression? Oh please, there's nothing to worry about. We're under the Statue of the Omnipresent God's protection. Nothing bad has ever happened here." *wink*

i also don't know what to say about gorou. he was... there....... i think. what is he fighting for? what are the stakes for him? what makes him place so much trust into kokomi? i'm out of things to say about him because i don't remember anything he did or said.

kokomi... oh kokomi... i was so hyped. so excited. i thought that maybe we could see a foil to the raiden shogun. that she'd have a moment where she's forced to realize, just like her opponent, sacrifices must be made that will hurt people who will never understand why she made them. or maybe something to show her military prowess. but instead she just accepts a mysterious patron's help (?), sees her people aging like the grateful dead from JJBA, and goes oh well. that sucks. what can ya do. oh bye traveler i guess, good luck with that. ????????????? HUH... similar case to thoma where she's gonna get a character story but like. she won't be the leader of the resistance anymore. that was her whole shtick. they took her shtick away. also she forced me to interact with more NPCs whose names i've already forgotten so i'm tilted about that still.

KUJOU SARA... AN INJUSTICE. A DISGRACE. a slap to my woman loving face. the build up was there. yae miko's comments about sara probably knowing the tenryou commission is involved in shady dealings, but is choosing not to think about it. sara being forced to confront reality and challenge her adopted father with the truth. being able to blaze a new path for herself in the process. when she started running to the raiden shogun i was ultra hyped up. sara, a devotee to the shogun for so long, was about to see her god interacting with the same people who led inazuma to this awful state. how would she react? would she stay ignorant, like yae miko so coyly said, choosing to look away in favor of following her god's footsteps? or would she be forced to recognize the raiden shogun isn't as divine as she once thought, and challenge her belief system?

we open the door to see the raiden shogun. the loading screen ensues. the camera pans to the ominous room, clouded in darkness, hinting at the ominous confrontation that is to come. the music takes a serious timbre. and then...

well fuck that potential character arc i guess. (we still don't know what sara made of any of this since she poofed out of existence from the story at this point)

kazuha also was handed a similar treatment. we've been with him for a while longer now. he is our introduction into inazuma, the one who first gets us emotionally involved by regaling us with the bittersweet tale of friendship that led him to becoming a wanted criminal. a kind soul who loves nature yet was dealt a cruel hand by fate, forced to watch his home nation turn into a hostile place, where his dear friend ultimately perished as a result. we get the scene with his friend's vision lighting back up. he parries a block from the raiden shogun, in the same area where his friend was killed by her. the parallels. the drama. except this time, he wasn't too late. he protected the traveler where he "failed" to protect his friend in the past. did he feel redemption at this? or was it a bittersweet reminder of what could've been?

WELL i guess we'll never know because we didn't get to talk to him again 😭 idk who got a bait and switch worse, him or sara. jesus christ mihoyo.

then we have signora. why is the raiden shogun talking to her? does she know about the gnosis being taken, and if she doesn't, what was her plan to get it from the archon? what does she think about scaramouche? and oh, okay, we're fighting here now. good fight + god tier music. pog pog. okay, now we've beaten her up, and raiden shogun wyd— wait no not signora her lore is still on CUPS not YET raiden shogun and— ah she's dead. okay. non nerds who didn't read artifact lore are going to know nothing about her. signora has such an interesting story, and yet... well. ok.

then we get raiden shogun redemption (?) arc. i was hype for this as well, though at that point, idk why i bothered being hype. i knew they were gonna do a cute power of friendship something or another, and i'm good with that, so long as it's executed well. what i was envisioning was like seven different buffs to correspond with the seven different visions, the dreams of those whose ambitions were stolen serving as the spear to penetrate the raiden shogun's heart of stone. maybe a hydro vision giving us extra healing for a time, with the voice acting over it being like,

"Even if the rest of the world forgets us, let our will carry you through this one final time. Succeed where we couldn't, Traveler."

so on and so forth.

but instead we got— you get the idea at this point. why bother spelling it out anymore.

at that point i was surprised the raiden shogun didn't go "oopsie woopsie!! we made a fucky wucky!!!" because that was the vibe i was getting. i love ei, don't get me wrong, but i wanted to see her challenged with what she had done to inazuma in the past year. maybe meeting NPC #2345259 who lost her sister to the vision decree or something, reminding ei of the love she held for her sister... being forced to come to terms with the extent of what she's done in pursuit of eternity.

anyway. please for the love of god mihoyo hire better writers for the main story. that is all i ask. thank you.

[cardentist]

I haven’t been in the star trek fandom for very long (I’ve only just started binging the series in the last couple months), so it’s been pretty surprising to find out just how negative the perception of the reboot movies are.

this isn’t coming from the perspective of someone who grew up with the series, so it hit different for me than it might for people with a different relationship to TOS, but I thought it was genuinely clever and Respectful with how it was handled.

To quote leonard nimoy: “Well the alternative timeline gives them license to escape from canon concerns. I can’t see people saying ‘they shouldn’t do that because…’ or ‘that doesn’t tie in to such and such’ because it is a different time and place. Am I right about that?” [Link]

the entire Premise is that the original series happened as it was presented in TOS, but an event late in Spock’s life caused the creation of a parallel universe in which everyone’s lives were significantly altered through two key changes to the timeline. this gives them the freedom to Both revel in fanservice And explore different facets of the characters and their relationships. 

the destruction of vulcan Vastly impacts the characters and the plot moving forward, and its a detail that a lot of people take issue with. but the emotional impact of sarek admitting Directly to spock that there is value in his humanity, that his feelings Aren’t wrong, that sarek married amanda because he Loved her cannot be understated. you can read all of these things into sarek as he was in the original series, but he Never had an open conversation about these things with spock. this creates a Believable and Rewarding change in their relationship, where we get to see a different facet of them Because of the changes made. and that’s exactly the appeal. showing us pieces of these characters that we never got in TOS that are nevertheless undeniably Them.

everyone is Different yes, but they’re also fundamentally the same people at their core and that matters.

kirk’s personality obviously takes the biggest change, with him experiencing trauma at a young age, losing his father, and having an implied abusive father figure after that point. he has a harsher personality in reaction to harsher conditions, he’s spikier and harder to love. but he’s also still fundamentally a Good person whose willing to risk everything to help people. he still has what made kirk prime a good captain and a good friend.

I’m not gonna say that it’s the most nuanced story in the world, but it explores a version of kirk that was born from even Less fortunate circumstances than kirk prime, exploring a kirk brimming with potential who learned to bite back after he was kicked down. exploring those themes of trauma and loss, of insecurity and growth, and coming to the conclusion that Fundamentally He Is Capable Of Good isn’t a Bad thing. you don’t have to like it, but his growth into a better person is The Point. they deepened his flaws (all of which were present in a less exaggerated form in TOS) To Show That Growth.

and then of course there’s his relationship with spock.

people are totally justified in not liking that they had a rough start to their relationship, I usually don’t like to see that kind of thing in reboots or hollywood adaptations either, but the way people talk about it is just unfair.

Yes kirk and spock and bones have a very strong relationship in TOS, they also already know each other by the time the show starts. to look at them having to learn to get to know and trust each other when they first meet and say that it’s Bad because they were already full on ride or die for each other in the og series is silly. TOS kirk and spock had to meet and fall in love with each other too, it didn’t just happen over night kings.

secondly, the entire point of the first movie is that Even With reality itself being altered to pull them apart they are fundamentally compatible people that are Bound to each other. they meet each other on bad terms because of circumstances outside of their control, and yet they’re still pulled into each other’s orbit and find the other slotting into place next to them as if they always belonged. one of the first things that spock prime says in the movie is “I am and always will be your friend,” spock and jim are Meant for each other and the movie goes out of its way to explain that. which is what makes it so Weird to see people complaining about how they don’t like each other.

it’s a Different relationship, but it’s absolutely no less steeped in yearning or queer subtext. 

speaking of queer subtext ! some people are Very unhappy with spock’s relationship with uhura.

first thing I wanna say is that making the argument that they’re doing anything that the original series hasn’t done is just, completely untrue. kirk has fallen in love with more girls in the og series than he knew what to do with, leonard nimoy was a heartthrob in his time (and he deserves it, awooga) and spock reflects that ! Spock usually turns the women who come onto him down (or when he doesn’t it’s because a plant has literally altered his mind), but there are exceptions to even that. all of three of the main boys have plenty of romance subplots, it happens. if that takes the possibility of them being queer off the table for you (which it shouldn’t, m-spec people exist) then I’m sorry to say that TOS is not exempt.

now, I can understand why Specifically This Relationship could rub people the wrong way or being disappointed that they didn’t outright depict kirk and spock as having a relationship (if not in the first movie then in the following ones after they’ve gotten to know each other), but even in that context the way I’ve seen people talk about it comes off as insensitive.

no, the relationship did not come out of nowhere. they considered having spock and uhura date each other in the original show (and you can see signs of this in the earlier episodes, where uhura very obviously flirts with him and they spend time together in their down time) before they decided against it, and spock was originally going to kiss uhura until shatner insisted that he wanted to do it (because it was the first interracial kiss on tv). [Link 1, Link 2, Link 3]

nichelle nichols was asked about this exact thing (spock and uhura’s relationship in the movie), you can read the interview in full here [Link] but I’d like to highlight this paragraph in particular:

“Now, go back to my participation in Star Trek as Uhura and Leonard (Nimoy) as Spock. There was always a connection between Uhura and Spock. It was the early 60’s, so you couldn’t do what you can do now, but if you will remember, Uhura related to Spock. When she saw the captain lost in space out there in her mirror, it was Spock who consoled her when she went screaming out of her room. When Spock needed an expert to help save the ship, you remember that Uhura put something together and related back to him the famous words, “I don’t know if I can do this. I’m afraid.” And Uhura was the only one who could do a spoof on Spock. Remember the song (in “Charlie X”)? Those were the hints, as far as I’m concerned.”

the film makers looked at the fact there were Hints for uhura and spock, that they were Interested in exploring an interracial couple for the first time (both before and immediately after interracial couples won the right to legally get married) but Couldn’t because of the circumstances of the times and decided to Make that depiction. you don’t have to Like their relationship just because of that fact, but it’s Incredibly reductive to play down it’s significance as just a No Homo cop out. explicitly queer relationships are not the only progressive or culturally important relationships in fiction.

moreover, if you can’t imagine polyamory in the communist utopian future that’s on you.

moreover, this perception that this was a soulless cash grab is just, unfounded.

leonard nimoy returned to the role as spock for the first time in 16 years (since 1991) and this was Entirely because of the respect they had for nimoy, spock as a character, and the franchise as a whole. 

Lets look at some quotes from nimoy in interviews regarding the film:

Leonard Nimoy: When I first read the script (...) I immediately contacted J.J. and said “I think it is terrific…I think you guys have done a wonderful job. There is still work to be done, but it is very clear that you and your writers know what you are doing and you know how to do this movie and know what it should be about….and I am very interested.” Then as time went by we worked things out with Paramount, but the most important things were J.J. and the script. (...) I am very pleased about that and I am very comfortable with where this is going. I think the writers have done a terrific job. They have a real sense of the characters and the heart of Star Trek and what it is really all about.

(...)

TrekMovie.com: Now in the case of the new movie you have been retired from acting for years. What was it about this one that made you want to act again and go through the make up again? What was it that made you say ‘I really want to do this?’

Leonard Nimoy: You are right, this is a special situation. First it is Star Trek and so I have to pay attention. I owe that to Star Trek. Second place is that it is J.J. Abrams who I think very highly of, he is a very talented guy. Then came the script and it was very clear that I could make a contribution here. The Spock character that I am playing, the original Spock character, is essential and important to the script. So on the basis of those three elements it was easy to make the decision. So those three things: Star Trek, J.J. Abrams, and an interesting Spock role.

[Link]

Praising the cast playing younger versions of characters from the original 1960s TV series, he [Leonard Nimoy] said: “Let me take the opportunity to say this. Everybody at this table [the cast] are very, very talented and intelligent people.”

“They found their own way to bring that talent and intelligence to this movie, and I think it shows. (...)  When Karl Urban introduced himself as Leonard McCoy and shook hands with Chris Pine, I burst into tears. That performance of his is so moving, so touching and so powerful as Doctor McCoy, that I think D. Kelley would be smiling, and maybe in tears as well.”

“The makers of this film reawakened the passion in me that I had when we made the original film and series. I was put back in touch with what I cared about and liked about Star Trek, and why I enjoyed being involved with Star Trek. So, it was an easy way to come on home.”

“[In this Star Trek] they said things and showed me things, and demonstrated the sensibility that I felt very comfortable with, and I think that shows in the movie. I like it.”

[Link 1, Link 2]

again, you don’t have to like it just because leonard nimoy did, you don’t have to Agree. but the idea that nobody working on the film Cared is provably false. near everyone working on the project was already a fan of the series or were excited to be involved and did their homework. it’s genuinely a Miracle just how much of a labor of love this was, and in my opinion you can feel that through the movie itself. I’d highly recommend looking into interviews and behind the scenes details about the movies. they had a respect not just for the source material, but for leonard nimoy as a person.

there’s definitely more I Could say about this, but it’s 4 am now so I’m gonna shelve it jklfdsa

that said! it’s Fine to not like the movie, not everything is going to be suited to everyone’s taste, but the specific criticisms I’ve seen feel very off base

[carpisuns]

New anon, but I saw the last one and I have some thoughts. Specifically, I have been obsessing over ml for the last month or so, and I’ve only seen three episodes, and they were the three released before crocoduel. And you know what? I wasn’t that into it, it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t half as engaging as fanon and fanworks have been for me.

I’ve also done this with the Magicians, Supernatural, and a couple others. I think the reason that this works, for some people, is because it is a more familiar and in many ways, easier way to discover and become attached to new material and new characters. Fan writers and artists are coming from a place of love for their source material (no matter what issues they may have with it) and that bleeds out into their work. Time is spent developing the characters and their feelings, their relationships, in ways that canon so often can’t or isn’t allowed to, and reading that, it’s very easy to fall in love with new characters very quickly. There’s also common AUs and dynamics that make it much easier to start something new.

And also: comfort characters. So many fans find common ground with characters and further project onto them, particularly in fanfic. And because of that it’s often easier to identify with a fan’s interpretation of a character than it is to identify with the canon’s, since you have these more deeply explored feelings and relationships based on a combination of canon and the personal experiences of the fan writer. Also, with these kinds of fics it’s extremely emotionally affirming since for someone who doesn’t have much of any connection with the source material, it feels like the original, even if you’re reading a large body of work by a lot of different people. And I’m so used to fanfic as a substitute for the emotional work and character development that shows/movies/books don’t have room for or aren’t willing to get into, that approaching a fandom as it’s own original piece of media in a way, feels very comforting.

That’s my perspective on it anyways, and why I do this. I do think it is a good thing to engage with the canon to an extent, even if it’s just watching a few clips (how I found ml) but I also don’t think you need any real connection or knowledge of it to be deeply invested in the fandom. Sorry, this got very long.

you know, i totally get being on, like, the fringe of fandoms and interacting with fanon to an extent without a proper investment in canon (I have a couple fandoms like that), but i honestly just can't imagine becoming super invested in a fandom when I am not invested in the source material...maybe that's just a difference between you and me, idk.

but also, i gotta admit that i'm struggling a bit to understand the reason. you yourself pointed out that fan work is enjoyable because the creator's love for canon bleeds into it. and isn't that the reason that you would want to give canon a real chance? obviously there is fan content made out of spite lol (and sadly a fair amount in this fandom), but to me most fan content is like a love letter to canon. like, "i adore this thing so much that it inspired me to create and share with other people who adore it." and what better recommendation is there than that?? i would think people would wanna familiarize themselves with canon in order to better enjoy fanon(?)

i completely understand your point about fan content delving further into characterization and relationships where canon hasn't/can't, and that is such a big appeal of fanfic/fanart. but i don't feel like that's a reason to not engage with canon? on the contrary, i feel like you are missing something important in your understanding and appreciation of that wonderful exploration if you haven't experienced firsthand the foundation that canon set. and maybe that missing thing is just your personal interpretation of a character/dynamic.

for example, i could say, "adrien agreste is this, this, and this and he would do this but not this." and of course i will think im right because my characterization is always perfect 😌sakjdfaldjks but someone else might have a slightly different interpretation, and someone else will have another interpretation, and when you mush all those individual takes on a character together, you will get a good sense of who they are, but you still don't have the Original™️ to draw your own interpretation from. idk, to me it sounds like basing your opinion of chocolate ice cream on what other people are saying about it without ever trying it yourself? ajsldakljf maybe that's an oversimplification but i do think that without experiencing it for yourself, your understanding will always be kind of incomplete.

idk, i big agree with everything you said about why fan content is special, but everything that is a point in fanon's favor is not a knock on canon. to me fan content feels pretty inseparable from canon, so it just doesn't compute to me to take canon out of the equation? then we would have nothing.

i feel like it's almost kinda trendy nowadays to be like, "oh this show actually sucks lmao but the fanon and AUs are good." like it's shameful to actually...enjoy source material? 😭 i mean i completely understand that miraculous ladybug is not gonna be everyone's cup of tea and that's fine! but if you truly enjoy the fan content that much i encourage you to give canon a real shot. it's not that surprising to me that you watched 3 recent episodes and didn't vibe that much, since you haven't seen the 3 seasons of buildup that lead to them. miraculous has a neat way of tying a bunch of things together so if you aren't familiar with all of it, you're probably missing out.

personally my love for miraculous was kind of a slowburn at first. i only started watching the show because my sister and i made a deal that forced me to watch the first few eps lol. and i didn't really vibe either. but there must have been enough of a spark there for me to keep watching bc for some reason i did and the more i watched the more i fell in love with it until it became the thing that occupies my brain more than anything else. i started with canon and then got into fanon, but it could easily go the other way too. and if you're already invested in the story and characters, i have to imagine it would be much easier to push past the initial cringe of "this is a show about a couple of teen furries rated TV-Y7 on netflix" lol and give anything you don't vibe with the benefit of the doubt.

again, to be clear, i'm not trying to judge or gatekeep here! i'm just saying this because i genuinely LOVE miraculous. it's my favorite show. that's why i make things for it. that's why i have this blog. i want people to watch it. so maybe, pwetty pwease, try watching the show you like so much? 🥺👉👈

(source bc i was too lazy to make my own so i stole this from twitter)

[hwrryscherry]

 The one where the reader meets Harry as Jack

characters: HARRYxREADER!FEM

blurb: Harry is filming Don't Worry Darling in Palms Springs while Y/N is moving in in her new house in the neighbourhood where the movie is being filmed. Turns out the fate wanted to cross Harry and Y/N's way as a box full of books is very intriguing to Harry and Pride and Prejudice becomes Harry's new favorite.

word count: 2.7K

author's note: Heyy guys, it has been SO LONG and honestly I don’t think this is best work yet lol but anyway, I had the worst writer’s block of my life so it was so hard for me to write a single word. Honestly, I felt kinda pressured to write. I felt like I was pressuring myself for that so I had to take advantage of this block and take this idea out of my mind. I want to say something important too; I really want to say that the only story of mine that I’ll keep the face claim is HARRYxMODELY/N, just because I like to use the photos to make instagram posts sometimes. I will no longer describe types of hair as I used to say ‘’long strands of hair’’, it will be neutral for you to imagine yourself in the story. It’s all about you guys and how you can visualize the story and the character, if you want to imagine a face claim that’s cool but if you don’t want to it’s cool too. Feel free to read and visualize, it’s all about you. Thank you for the support on my account and my writing. I’m aware that I’m not the best lol, but I also think that I have so much to learn from you just as I have to teach. I’m so grateful for everyone who reads and like my stuff. Never forget that you’re unique, you’re loved, you’re so golden and treat people with kindness always.

   "Why is it so hot in here? It's fucking December!", you'd think to yourself as you drove your new car through the streets of Palm Springs. The thing is that after you moved from Columbia to reside so many years in New York while you were studying English Language and Literature in Yale, you just got so used with the usual colder weather from NY and it's just a different vibe from California. You had such a hard time to decide what you wanted to do after graduating, though. And after a few weeks and some long conversations with your family, you decided you would go to California. Palm Springs, to be more specific. You decided that because you remembered all the times you went there when you were a kid because your grandmother lived in there before she passed. You remember spending your summer vacation with her and how cool it was. It was in the early 2000′s and there was many kids on your age that lived on her street. You remember playing with them all day and then getting back into your grandma’s house and feeling that cinnamon scent that for some one only her house had. It wasn’t a usual cinnamon scent. It had something special in it. It made you feel so warm and welcomed. You remember helping her to bake the most delicious cookies, brownies and cakes in her kitchen. You remember the kitchen had a yellow counter, but the entire kitchen was white. All very pale and then the cheerful yellow in the kitchen that colored everything. You remember going to play bingo with her and how it made her happy to having you around. You both were so close and you had such a hard time when she passed, but the most important was she taught you so many things during your time together, and you’d never forget those things and her.

    As you drove, you’d remember those streets vaguely. You’d pass through the soccer court you typically used to go with the other kids and spent hours playing in there. You were vibing with the song in the stereo as you started getting closer to your new house’s street. It was Carolina by Harry Styles; you have to admit you’re not the biggest Harry Styles fan in the world, but you were definitely a One Direction fan when you were around 16, but you couldn't be considered a directioner either. You just listened to a few songs and thought it was good. But anyway, this specific song is one that you particularly like. It may have something to do with the fact that you’re from Carolina, of course. But it’s more about the vibe and the melody that by being animated it could actually cheer anyone up and the lyrics were undeniably good though, a little sexual, but good. It’s more about the vibe and the melody that by being animated it could actually cheer anyone up and the lyrics were really good though, a little sexual, but good.

    When you turned the right way into the street of your new home, you came across much more than you expected to see on your moving day. There were, as it seemed, paparazzi. Apparently they were shooting a movie right in your street, and it had also many people with many cameras and trailers that probably were dressing rooms. Naturally, you knew that thousands of films were shot in California, that’s obvious. But you didn't expect one to be shooting exactly on your moving day and specifically in your street, let alone that the street would be this crowded since the world is experiencing a global pandemic, ironic. You observed some of the people walking down the street, or should you call it a set? You don't know, but there were many people and many cars, at least they were all wearing masks. It had many classic cars, probably in the 40s or 50s style. They were colorful; vivid colors, though. Colors like yellow, blue and lilac was really present. To resume, the whole street looked like a movie from the 50s and for sure that was the intention because you could notice some extras walking around the set dressed up as 50s people used to.

    As you carefully drive through the street, you’d notice that from what seemed like a divine miracle, there was a vacant parking spot right in front of your house and you can’t help but smile when you see it. The first time you came here to see the house. You were with your family, and that was about four months ago. You just loved the house completely as it had such a different vibe from the place you used to live in New York, and honestly, just the thought of the house made your creativity activate as it had some really cool colored walls and you bought some colored mobile as well. Anyway, you stopped the car right in front of your house finishing the engine and grabbing your mask and putting it in your face as you'd use your hand to get rid of the seat belt and your other hand to open the car door and get out of the car.

    After closing the driver's seat door, you go around the car walking to the trunk where you use the car key to open it. When you open it, you are faced with two cardboard boxes. One was full of books. Books of all kinds, books of period novels, books of suspense, books of investigation and etc. Books that piqued your curiosity and made you want to finish reading it as quickly as possible. The other box was already full of clothes, those last clothes that you would finally be taking home. Your mother has done the biggest job in the moving issue; she was the one who was bringing the furniture and your things while you finished packing the rest of your things to leave New York. You try your hardest not to pay attention to the set of recordings and the people who walked back and forth, at the same time that you tried hard not to make any noise, because if you accidentally disturbed a scene, you would feel extremely embarrassed and would probably not even show up at the gate until the end of filming, but that was not the case. You removed the two boxes from the trunk just before closing it completely. You chose, perhaps, to enter the clothes box first. You bent down taking the box in your arms and walked to the door of the house where you used the key you received from the real-estate agent to unlock it before entering. You immediately noticed that some sunbeams reflected on the living room floor due to the white linen curtain that covered the glass windows. You observed the contrast of the sofa in such a light tone with the lilac wall just behind it. You walked with the box in hand by the door extension to the room where you placed the box on the small coffee table in front of the sofa. Returning out of the house, you can see the figure of a tall man dressed in a brown suit crouched in front of the box of your books. He had brown hair and properly cut. It didn't look like he was messing with your books, but he was definitely looking at them and it seemed like he was trying to read the covers of it for some reason. You slowly got closer to the man's body without making too much noise while you analyzed him, you crossed your arms upon your chest as you noticed the book cover he was looking at: Love is a mixtape by Rob Sheffield.

— This one is amazing! — You said, surprising the man that stand up fastly with the book in his hands connecting his green gaze with yours. He was tall, really tall by the way. His suit seemed perfect, just as his hair. He had a black mask on as a protection but the 16 year old teenager inside of you could never mistake those eyes. It was Harry fricking Styles. You considerated being quiet as you, yourself were pretty surprised now, but then you took your gaze to the book in his hand and then back at his face — It's like comparing love to a popular song that we usually search to define love. Just to find out that love is like oxygen, or love is a kind of drug, or a battlefield for some... — You said referring to the book with a tender smile on your face that Harry couldn't essentially see, but talking about a book that you loved caused this on you. And as you talked you didn't notice that Harry had a smile on his face as well. Maybe it was because you completely ignored the fact that he is Harry Styles and he was messing up your books as he's on the set filming a movie, or maybe it was the fact that he loved this book just as much as you did. He'd use to say this is probably one of the books that if he had to read just one book to the rest of his life, he'd chose this one and he usually had so much to talk about this book and so much to put on an argument about it but now he was completely speechless. He was just tongue tied. He was tongue tied about your reflection of one of his favorite books and how it looked so identical to his own personal reflection. He was tongue tied for the number of great books that he always wanted to read that was on that box. He was tongue tied at the owner of those books and her beauty, her intelligence of her voice and her voice as well so he just chuckled. A nervous chuckle as he leaned his head to look at the floor for a second before looking at you and holding out the book in his hands to you that calmly took it from his hands.

— I know! It's one of my favorite books! — Harry'd ultimately manage to say it as he observed you admiring the cover and running your fingers through it as a truly book lover would do — It's very interesting the interpretation you have of it.

— Don't you agree? — You'd interrupt him rising your head to examine at his face. He seemed paralyzed by some way, little did you know that Harry was mesmerized. He enjoyed the informal way you were speaking with him, and it genuinely felt like you already knew it each for years.

— That's the intriguing part. We have the same interpretation! — He'd say serenely, and then running his hand through his hair as he frown a little because of the sun that just hit on his glowing eyes.

— Well...Maybe you're just trying to imitate me to impress me! — You'd joke, with a mocking expression on your face making Harry giggle at your words and your face. It was the sense of humor to him.

— Oh really? And what makes you think I'm trying to impress you? — Harry'd say back with the same mocking tone that you formerly used. He'd observe your face go from playful to thoughtful in just as you to come up with a response.

— I mean...you were the one looking through my stuff, mister! — You say raising your eyebrows as you utilized one of your hands to take some strands of hair out of your face.

— Right... — Harry said with a defeated voice before as he compressed his lips together and moved his suit away from his shirt a little as he places his hands on his waist — I'm sorry about it, though. There was this box hanging here and I guess I was just intrigued! — He said shyly making you start walking towards the box walking closely to him causing him to feel a hot warm from your body as you passed. You'd bend over to grab the box but was stopped by Harry taking the heavy box from your hands — Let me help you with this! — Harry said as he held the box on his arms.

— There's no need for that. It'll ruin your splendid suit! — You'd say gently to him as he was standing up in front of you carefully holding the loaded box. Legitimately, he looked hot. He properly looked like a 50s husband helping with the moving with this outfit — And if you piss off your costume designer because of me I'll die! — You'd complement receiving a loud laugh from Harry's lips that shook his head while looking at you.

— She’ll be fine! — Harry'd argue back, then get a sigh from you before nodding at him as a statement.

— My house is right there! — You'd say using your right hand to point at your house, watching Harry turn his back to you and start walking towards it. You followed him through the door that was already open. Harry looked at the house immediately. It had a good vibe, and he wouldn't deny it. The choice of colors was exceptional, but he also noticed it was not very tidy, which would probably indicate that you were moving today.

— Where do I leave it? — Harry asked, referring to the box as he went farther into the living room.

— You can just leave it on the floor — You serenely said crossing your arms together and watching as he left the box on the floor and turned around to face you, but then deflecting his gaze to the ceiling before staring at your face again.

— It's a beautiful house! — Harry said as he moved his gaze through the room. He observed everything. He likes to observe. He likes to notice things that maybe other people didn't — Just like the owner, if I might say — Harry said cheekily and charming hearing your giggle invade his ears as you started walking towards the box of books that he previously set on the floor.

— The owner says thank you — You said bending down and starting to take the books out of the box and place it on the coffee table beside you as Harry watched your movements. You shyly looked at him thinking for a second and them smiling under your mask — For both compliments! — You said getting your attention back to the books. It's not that you don't want to give him your attention. It's that you genuinely think that he's just being nice, and he's probably not even interested in anything that you say.

— So... I have to go back to the film now but maybe you can give me your number so we can talk about your interpretation of my favorite book — Harry said shyly. His words took you by surprise actually but you couldn't hold back the smirk you had under your mask as you stand up again turning to face his green eyes. You noticed that he had his phone on his hand, hoping and waiting that you'd give him your number even though both of you knew that the book excuse was nothing more than an excuse as he was truly interested in knowing you.

— Well, it depends... — you said slowly as you took a deep breath before actually saying anything — If you agree to read my favorite books too, I'll give you my number!

— I'd be honored! — Harry chuckled after letting a sigh out feeling relief that you asked for something so simple that he'd love to do if that would make you happy — What's your name? — Harry said as he unblocked his phone screen and started to save your phone number.

— Save it as Elizabeth Bennet in there! — You said fastly with a proud smile on your face as Harry giggled and did as you ask and then looked at your face as he put his phone back on his pocket.

— Only if you save my name as Mr. Darcy when I call you! — Harry said knowing that after this, Pride and Prejudice would definitely become one of his favorite books ever.

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

The Mask 1994

*I finally wrote the whole thing. I finally watched the movie that involved something I’ve been talking about A LOT. I think this took about an hour since I finished the movie. Forgot to mention Charlie.*

I wanna make this clear, even before I watched movie or ever writing this. I am legitimately a stupid and lazy person. Because my mom told me about this, and last week, my dad rented A Quiet Place Part 2. When I was trying to go to sleep but was looking up movies...I literally forgot my tv can do that too...and that I can rent or buy a movie...I rented the movie this morning, and deleted it afterwards...after all that talk...I could’ve done that...wow. I should do that more considering some movies I wanna see or like. Not too much though. My tv has DirecTV. Just a heads up.

But a few or couple of minutes ago, I finally watched The Mask film from 1994. This post is gonna be filled with spoilers and it’s gonna get long. Gonna be kind of a review. My overall thoughts on it. This was my first reaction to the whole movie.

I’d just wanna talk about this too. I like comic books, I like comic book movies. Mainly my favorites are ones like all of Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies, Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Suicide Squad 2021, Wonder Woman 2017, The Dark Knight(Despite whatever issues I have with it), and Joker 2019. Yeah, those are mainly DC films and two Marvel related ones. I don’t even mind Spider-Man 3 as well. I also forgot Dredd 2012 is another one of my favorites. Along with Batman 1989.

I was hoping The Mask could make that list of favorites. Because I read the comics first. I don’t think I ever watch the movie fully as a kid MAYBE. I’m a fan of the comics, I know this movie was gonna be a lighter take on the series. 

In a nutshell...I liked it. It’s possible it will be on that list of favorite CBM’s...but I want to talk about it. I’ll also admit I think what got me interested in seeing this film and this series was me liking Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura...now, let’s get to the point.

Yeah, I liked it. I thought the movie was genuinely entertaining. Despite seeing some clips before. But also Ryan Hollinger’s video about it. Revealing the ending, the twist, and other stuff. But I didn’t wanna watch more more that I haven’t seen yet.

I will be honest, it still made me laugh. Even some scenes I already have seen. I will admit, the Cuban Pete scene is actually one of my favorites. XD But what also surprised me is that at times, despite being a funny film. It can genuinely be touching in a way. And I am mainly talking about the developing relationship between Stanley and Tina.

I just wanna talk about the characters right now. I’ll just admit unless I haven’t already. I’m a Jim Carrey fan. Mainly because of his more goofier roles. Particularly his roles from the Ace Ventura movies, Liar Liar, and especially Sonic The Hedgehog. I also will admit this, Jim Carry nails playing Big Head or who they call...The Mask in this movie...I’ll nitpick about that later.

But yeah, Jim’s entertaining as Big Head in this film. He does make me laugh. But I think another role he does well despite there are some sillier moments, which is fine. I feel like in a way, Stanley Ipkiss in this version, is maybe one of his more normal roles. But I know I’m wrong considering whatever other roles he’s in. He portrays a likable good guy who’s sadly mainly pushed around. Which is quite the difference from the comics, except being pushed around. But that’s another topic. Yet for this story, even if maybe Stanley’s name could be changed. But him being a genuinely kind guy works for this story.

Even before I saw the movie, learning more about this version about the character. I can relate to Stanley in some ways honestly. Which is something that I like. He basically shines as a protagonist. 

He portrays both sides well. Despite at times...honestly, this Stanley is wacky. I shouldn’t be judging. Jim does a good stuff with what he played, and he’s the highlight of this movie. He also delivers possibly my favorite Jim Carrey line of all time now. Sorry if I get this wrong. I was looking for a clip of it to help me.

“Daddy’s gonna go kick some ass”. A literal line from Jim Carrey in this movie and I love it. He even brings a pistol with him.

I also wanna admit Peter Greene as Dorian is pretty good as a villain. The dude can be threatening and he works with what he is given. And he’s effective as an antagonist. I just wanna admit that I swear, one of these guys. One of them could’ve Walter in a way and I just think that could’ve been possible. But I’m not sure. Just one of Dorian’s henchmen looked like a huge guy. It just got me thinking about Walter from the comics.

Will admit, I think Kellaway is fine. And I just found out Christopher Reeve was one of the actors considered for the role...damn. But again, Kellaway was fine. He’s more like a supporting character and again, this is like an origin story. I do feel bothered Lionel Ray wasn’t added but replaced with this Doyle character. I will admit that Doyle is silly, which is the point of his character. I guess the writers and director didn’t want two sensible cops or something. I like Kellaway alright, but I’ll always dig Lionel too.

I really wanted to get this point. I thought Cameron Diaz was good as Tina Carlyle and Amy Yasbeck as Peggy Brandt. I will admit, I do strangely like the subversion with Peggy in a way with it’s twist. I get the idea if that it was going for that theme of, “We all wear mask” and Peggy turning Stanley into the mob said a lot about her character. While Tina was genuinely the one that truly supported Stanley.

I think was surprised me more was the fact despite Peggy turned in Stanley for selfish purposes such as paying for her condo. Yet what surprised me more was she was actually concerned for Stanley being killed, and didn’t want him hurt...which explains even more why she stuck around in the cartoon. And honestly, it makes me glad the director took out that deleted scene of her getting killed. So she wasn’t that heartless.

Also...it made me think that...my ideas and changes towards her character...maybe hold some weight.

I’ll just put this out there too. Milo is great, one of my favorite fictional dogs maybe. Good dog.

Trying to think what else, the score was fine. But the licensed music was good or something. Overall, I think my negatives could be just...nitpicks. Such as the Big Head part I wanted to talk about. Listen, I understand this is a different version. I just feel it’s weird to call him, “The Mask” instead of Big Head. I know other characters mask in their name or something. But...some reasons, the name Big Head is there. I guess it’s because of the title or something.

Honestly, I think my negatives are more that it feels short. And maybe Stanley becoming Big Head a bit too early. I sound kind of stupid, I know. But this was the 90′s and whatever else. This was a different take on the comics. But I did genuinely like it. Maybe I’m just a bit attached to those comics. Despite knowing the changes they did.

But I will admit, considering the development for this film. And learning that it was meant to be a horror film. But the director Charles Russell found the violence in the source material to be off putting. So he made it less grim, and more fun. I’ve also read somewhere that trying to make comedy with that violence was difficult.

Back to the point, to be honest. I feel like for that time and age. A more light Mask film was maybe the best choice to go. And we wouldn’t have Jim Carrey in it. I do also wanna say, I feel like The Mask series, you can do a lot of it. You can have something dark with it, or maybe more lighter.

There are still some of those darker elements. Mainly considering the moments with the gangsters and all that. But I will admit, learning that Charles mostly directed horror films. I think it’s impressive he made a more family friendly film and it worked. 

I liked it, despite my love for the comics. I thought when writing this, maybe some folks reading this may think I sound like fans who read the comics who first experienced this movie. But the film isn’t bad, it’s just a different take and a pretty nice one at that.

And to be honest, as much as I would of loved to see an actual sequel. And not that bad film known as Son Of The Mask. I understand why Jim Carrey dropped out, and I would’ve loved to see Peggy back because the director planned to bring her back reformed. But I feel like this film works as a one off in a way. And there’s also the cartoon, which works fine as a sequel despite some differences. Yet...I’ll admit, I would’ve loved The Mask 2 if we got Jim Carrey as Stanley again fighting against maybe someone like Walter.

The Mask 1994 is a good film. Despite changes from the source material, but the changes for this vision work. It’s cool this film has a cult following, and the fact I have used elements and story beats from it for The Mask Rebirth stuff I’ve been talking about. Even before watched this whole movie.

It’s a genuine fun flick. But I’m hoping down the line, if Warner Bros stops being fucking stupid with how they run things. Maybe we’ll get a reboot or how about an animated film that seems more true to the source material. 

I know The Mask/Big Head doesn’t have a big legacy such as the likes of Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. But I do think this series could be reimagined and expanded upon. Using elements not only from the original comics, but even the movie and cartoon. 

And...despite it was because of Ace Ventura...I would like to thank @kaijuguy19 for being such a supportive dude, and talking about this franchise with me. Including wanting to talk about this movie long ago when I haven’t seen it. But I want to say...no...he’s one of the big reasons why I’m a fan. Because he’s one of the only guys I know who’s a fan. It started with Ace Ventura, but it was because of talking with Kaijuguy that I guess things started to escalate. So thanks man for talking about this stuff with me.

Also, Charlie was silly and he was fine as a character. I forgot about that dude despite wanting to talk about him. Gonna tag him too in case. Charlie schumaker

[pourquoiyyy]

This episode was so good wtf

Like I know it was 1 hour and 27 minutes so they had time, but still, something I don’t like with dramas is that very often an issue drags on for a whole episode or several episodes or a season, but in lovely writer so many things happen in each episode and in this one damn

So much happened???? And it’s very often sadly easy to see where the plot of a drama is going but I keep getting surprised by lovely writer, like they don’t take the easy BL route

This got quite long so…

First, Aey is trying to mess with Gene and Nubsib’s relationships ? Well, yeah, but actually he’s in love with Gene and I really have to watch the episodes again because I really didn’t see that coming, I was so convinced he liked Nubsib??? What clues did I miss?

(also Aey has a very very bad problem with his own self-image and self-worth, he did some very bad things this episode, but this scene of him watching his reflection in his phone, boyyyyyyy, Bruce is a good actor. And like it was a long scene, but it didn’t feel like it, it didn’t feel like time wasted in the episode)

Nubsib is angry at Gene ? Nope, just worried

Aey drugged Nubsib and Gene is trying to find a way to get out this night pUrE? No, my boy Gene is just worried about having sex with Sib for the first time AND actually Sib is somehow just feeling hot and not under any influence, he was just really really into Gene that night

Also so much kissing in this episode?? Like Sib and Gene are in the honeymoon phase of their relationship and they can finally admit to each other how much they love one another. I’m not saying kissing is essential to show in a drama btw, but it sometimes feels in BL dramas that the characters are allowed a quota of kisses per season or episode and once they’ve reached it, it’s DONE, you’ll get a cheek/forehead/hair kiss or a hug, or a high five, but that’s it, and again, it’s not that I absolutely want the characters to kiss, but I can’t help but think sometimes that would it be reality, these people would be kissing right now. So like before Sib’s mum arrived when they were on the couch, the situation they were in really called for a kiss, they were just gazing at each other, excited about this new development in their relationship, but I was in my usual BL mindset of « well, they’ve already kissed enough in this ep » and then they went and surprised me with an another kiss? And not just like a small peck like I’m used to in BL (which again, these aren’t bad, but realistically speaking, this really wasn’t what Gene and Nubsib wanted at that moment) It shouldn’t be surprising, but still it was

AND BAM! The coming out to your parents plot (that is sometimes THE WHOLE ISSUE OF A SEASON, I’m looking at you Korn and Knock) that I didn’t expect in an episode where so much had happened already. So I thought, yeah, they might just pretend they’re not together, we’ll hear some not too good comments from the parents about BL because Gene writes BL novels and Nubsib is acting in one, but nope, they wanted to prove my assumptions wrong again and Gene said he didn’t want to lie to their parents anymore! So yeah, we did hear some homophobia, interesting comments about BL fangirls and how much of a trend BL is right now and it almost seemed like Sib and Gene had changed their minds, but then Gene surprised me AGAIN and they revealed the fact that they’re dating to their parents.

And usually coming out plots drag on which I can understand because coming out to your family isn’t easy, but in lovely writer, in 30 minutes they did so much! Also, in the preview they showed only some parts of this plot carrying on, but I’m pretty sure that like usual with this series, it won’t take the whole episode, maybe the first half of it. And if it does take the whole episode, I won’t be disappointed because I quite like what they’ve done with it already

The double standard of the mothers finding BL cute, but maybe not if it’s their sons. They were saying it would be nice if their sons were actually together, that two grooms in suits would be adorable and that their families would be even closer, but really when Gene and Nubsib admitted they were really together, they went quiet, they cried, they didn’t defend their sons’ relationship to their husbands.

Aaah, the fathers! I expected them to have the worst reactions to Gene’s and Sib’s coming out and also sadly the most « typical »  that we see in series. And they did but not in the usual way it goes. It was really interesting to look at them and see how completely different their reactions were. Nubsib’s father was more about: be careful about my reputation, the reputation of my company and the reputation of this family, and treated his son’s love for Gene like a child’s infatuation that’s gone too far. The authoritative father that won’t even let his son speak and explain, Nubsib could only follow his orders.

While for Gene’s father, it was completely different. He was really really quiet and seemed really suspicious of their relationship before they revealed it and after they did, he just didn’t say a word while his wife kept throwing him worried glances. Then, when it was just their family left, he refused to talk to Gene, just telling him to go to his room until Gene got angry (and again surprised me) saying he was gay (an actual character saying he is gay in a thai bl series, it shouldn’t feel like victory but it does) and loved Nubsib and wouldn’t stop so why couldn’t his dad accept it? Before, AGAIN, dropping a big ass bomb, Gene’s father dated men (or a man) before marrying his mother. As much as this episode surprised me, this shocked me the most lol, I really didn’t expect THAT, but it’d explain Gene’s father’s reaction

Homophobia of course still exists today, but it was even worse when he was young and he never came out and probably chose to leave his partner and lead a « normal » straight life. Seeing your son at around the same age in the same situation but making completely differents choices, choosing to embrace his homosexuality and his love for Nubsib, well, I can understand that he needs a little time to accept this situation and talk to his son

This has become very long and I didn’t think I had that much to say about this episode, but boy I have even more, I loved so much about it. But first:

I HATED that Aey pretended to have drugged Nubsib, especially since he actually wanted to drug Gene and what, rape him??? And then laughing about it? Uh uh boy. Still, I really love Aey’s character, he keeps surprising me and I’m looking forward to his character development.

Otherwise, loved this episode. Gene in particular was really interesting: his conversations with Aey, the way his first time with Sib went (and wow, Sib’s innuendos in this episode, I still can’t get this image of him with his toothbrush in his mouth out of my mind), his bravery coming out to his parents and saying he was gay and forcing his dad to have this conversation and not avoid it.

Loved how supportive the brothers were, trying to tell their parents that society was much more open and accepting nowadays, helping their brothers as well as they could.

On a same note, Gene’s brother getting angry at their father on Gene’s behalf. I loved how their dialogue went about expectations and disappointment in a parent-child relationship, love me some family drama.

Gene and Nubsib holding hands under the table while facing their family’s disapproval

I’m going to stop here because this post is way too long for something probably only me is going to read, but I needed to write my thoughts to get them out of my head

Very raw thoughts btw, I need to reflect on this episode A LOT and rewatch it probably

[alirhi]

...goddess help me...

This fucking episode. *deep breath* This... This episode is where I'm expecting to get some serious hate. Let me just get this out of the way right up front:

I. Hate. Zemo.

I do not find him sympathetic, or funny, or charming. I find him creepy and annoying. I did not like him in CA:CW and I do not like him in TFATWS. If you are pro-Zemo, you are not going to like my version of this show from here on out. Just find something else to read and don't bother me about it. You've got the actual canon, so go enjoy that.

Got it? Good. Now, on to the main event!

Episode 3: The Power Broker

First of all, Sam doesn't let Bucky walk in there alone. No matter Bucky's (flimsy and nonsensical) argument, Sam's like "hell no. I go in with you, or you don't go in." The main reason for this isn't to keep Bucky from breaking Zemo out of prison (with decent writing, he would never do that) - it's so that Sam witnesses Zemo taunting Bucky with/about the trigger words. because Zemo is a piece of shit.

Since he doesn't know the full story, Sam is confused, but he files this interaction away to ask Bucky about later. He's listening to Zemo acknowledging that Bucky was "not conscious for most of [his] imprisonment" (which, yes, clearly refers to the time he spent frozen, but can also mean while he was under their control as TWS/"The Asset" - also, key word: imprisonment) and when he calls Bucky a means to an end, Sam scowls, looking ready to go off on him, but he waits. They've got more important issues.

Neither of them entertains the thought of breaking Zemo out for even a nanosecond. He does that shit himself. And literally the only reason I'm sticking with him getting out at all is because I want to address some truly egregious moments linked directly to him in the show. Zemo makes them think he's setting them on the trail when really he's just sending them to his motor pool. Bucky and Sam are confused until they see Zemo in his stolen guard uniform, then they're both angry and want to ship him right back to prison, but he strikes a deal with them: "My help for my temporary freedom. Creating super soldiers cannot be allowed to continue; let me finish my work, and then do with me as you will." He has no intention of going quietly back to prison, obviously, and they're not stupid enough to believe otherwise, but they believe they can keep him on a short leash, so they agree for now. Anything to bring down the Flag Smashers and whoever created them.

After the title, we cut to Raynor on the phone in her office. She's agitated, fiddling with things on her desk. "No, sir," she's practically growling, "it was disrupted. - Walker did! - It's not my fault your new attack dog got off-leash!" She pauses, huffs, and says more calmly, "No. Of course not. I'm sorry. - Well, I don't see how, with the new Cap strutting around barking orders! - What am I supposed to do? Tell Captain America in front of a dozen witnesses that he can't have his predecessor's favorite pet because we're not done reprogramming him? I didn't see that going over too well. I made a call. - No. No, no, no, we can still use him. The work's not finished, but he still trusts me. He'll be back." A pause as she listens. Angry again, she snaps, "What do you want me to do, shove a tracker up his ass? He'll be back, and we'll pick right back up where we left off! - Don't worry, sir, the Asset will be fully compliant and ready to use soon. I'll make sure of it. - Yes, sir. You, too." She hangs up and tosses her phone on the couch, grumbling, "Dick."

Cut back to Sam, Bucky, and Zemo getting going on their trip to Madripoor. On the plane, Sam wants to talk to Bucky about what he's learned so far, but doesn't want to bring it up in front of Zemo... until the notebook incident reminds him that Zemo already knows more about Bucky than he does.

After Zemo's line about the list, Sam angrily corrects him: "You mean people HYDRA used The Winter Soldier to hurt." When Zemo shrugs and his response is basically along the lines of "what's the difference" Sam is like "oh hell no."

"Those words you were reciting at him," he reminds Zemo, "what were they, Russian? They clearly meant something. They were supposed to do something. What are they?" "Sam, let it go," Bucky pleads, unable to look at either of them. "It's nothing." "You wanna drown in your guilt, that's fine," Sam snaps, "but make sure it's for the right reasons." He turns back to Zemo, who's smiling at this exchange because he's a monster and thinks Bucky's suffering is fucking funny. "I asked you a question, Zemo. What did those words do?" "They activate the Winter Soldier programming," Bucky grudgingly admits. He doesn't want to talk about it, but he's sure as hell not going to let Zemo speak for him. "Or, they did, before the Wakandans got all that shit out of my head." "It's a shame," Zemo says with a smirk. "Imagine the possibilities that come with perfect obedience." "I think you mean 'slavery'," Sam growls, "and I think you're in the wrong crowd to be looking so pleased about it. Remember that we can send your ass back to prison any time." "Of course," Zemo agrees, but with an arrogant smile that shows he doesn't believe for a second that these two have any real power over him. Still, he bides his time and sits back quietly, watching Bucky fidget with the notebook. Sam turns back to Bucky, seeing his discomfort; he won't let the topic go, though, not yet. He just softens his tone. "So, they 'activated the Winter Soldier'? What exactly does that mean?" Bucky shrugs, still not looking up. "Pretty much what he said - perfect obedience. What little consciousness they left me between cryo and the chair was squashed down, locked away. And I did whatever I was told, exactly the way they told me to." It finally clicks. He'd had his suspicions before, of course, but now Sam gets it. Visibly horrified, he stares at this quiet, broken man, and finally sees the truth of what he'd been through for 70 years: "They stripped away your autonomy. Shit, Bucky, they didn't even let you be a person. That's..." He swallows, looking like he'll be sick any minute. "That's awful, man. I'm so sorry." When Bucky tries to shrug it off and downplay it again, Sam gets angry. "Look at me!" He waits; it takes a few seconds, but Bucky reluctantly looks up and is surprised to see just how upset Sam is on his behalf. "It wasn't your fault. None of it. When Steve said you didn't have a choice, I had no idea... You really, truly had no choice; not even the ability to choose. That's horrifying." "I doubt it would make much difference to the people he's killed," Zemo points out snidely. "Or their families. Let's ask Tony Stark, shall we?" "You shut the hell up," Sam growls. He watches Bucky flinch and make that face - the face he's starting to really fucking hate - that says he agrees with Zemo. Bucky still can't see things the way Sam does; he still feels the guilt and shame, and even when he himself pointed out his lack of agency under HYDRA, it didn't click for him that Sam is right, not Zemo.

It's too much, too soon. Sam sees that and decides to change the subject, to give Bucky some time to process. He nods at the notebook, and they have their little Marvin Gaye debate, where Sam is over the top about it on purpose, because Bucky needs the distraction.

Of course, Zemo ruins it by opening his big mouth again and reminding Bucky of more trauma: his time fighting in WWII. That's why Sam latches onto the bit about Madripoor; to keep the focus not only on the task at hand, but off of Bucky's past that he clearly still can't cope with.

"James... You will have to become someone you claim is gone." Sam is officially ready to throw Zemo out a window. 😂 The only reason he doesn't jump to Bucky's defense again and basically tell Zemo to fuck himself (in a PG-13 way 🙄) is because Bucky's, as Sam pointed out in ep2, a grown-ass man, and because he's just learned how few decisions this poor man has been able to make in his life. Sam doesn't want to come across as another "handler," deciding everything for him, even if he does think this plan is stupid and needlessly cruel.

At the bar, when asked if he wants "the usual", Sam just casually waves the bartender off like "nah". Zemo already said they had business to attend to, so it's not like anyone would be suspicious that now's probably not a good time to be doing weird shots lol. (wtf even was that? I'm not sure I want to know, but...what part of the snake did he drop into that drink?)

Sam's not an idiot (I'm really so sick of this trend of turning intelligent characters into morons because the writers can't think of any other way to move their plot along) so his cell phone has been off this whole time. No sudden call from Sarah to put them all in danger. There was really no point to that, anyway; Sharon likely would have killed Selby for talking about Nagle with or without the excuse of "saving" Sam and Bucky. I mean, it's not like they know who fired that shot, ever.

"They cleared the Bionic Staring Machine," Sam still jokes, but he follows it with, "and they think he's a mass-murderer." "They think?" Sharon stares at him incredulously. "Didn't he kill pretty much everyone he's ever met?" "Wow." Sam glances back at Bucky. "She really is awful now." To Sharon, he adds, "You met Steve; do you really think he'd have defied 117 countries to protect someone evil?" "He did it for Bucky," she points out. "Let's face it - Bucky could blow up half the planet, and Steve's loyal-to-a-fault ass would still take a bullet for him." "You know I'm sitting right here, right? I can hear you." "Look, I don't think you're evil, Bucky," Sharon assures him. "But I know you killed a lot of people for HYDRA." "I'm not denying it." "He didn't have a choice," Sam snaps, glaring at them both. "But we're not getting into that right now. My point is, the government's afraid of Bucky, and they still pardoned him. All you did was steal something. I'm sure they can be persuaded to see reason." "The day the US government sees reason," Sharon quips, rolling her eyes, "is the day I sprout real wings and fly off into the sunset." "Careful, Icarus," Bucky mocks with a smirk, "the sun and brand new wings don't exactly go together." Then he shrugs and glances at Sam. "But she's not wrong."

At the party that night, it takes a few minutes (grumpy old man Bucky's not sure how to feel about the music lol) but a peek of pre-war Bucky comes out to play: they were told to "blend in", so he dances. At first he's just bobbing around alone looking stoic and out of place, but soon he's smiling and dancing between two attractive people - one male, one female. Sam is surprised, but before he can tease him for it, Sharon comes to get them all. Even she's a little "wait what?" at Bucky having a little fun lol. (recovery is not linear, guys. trauma doesn't mean "perpetually miserable, no fun, doesn't even know how to smile." in my TFATWS, Bucky gets his lighter moments; real ones, not humor at his expense)

When they find Nagle, Bucky's the one who notices and opens the secret door, while Sam keeps an eye on Zemo. Bucky catches Zemo trying to grab that gun; closes the drawer on his hand before opening it and taking the gun away. "Nice try." Nagle tries to get away while there's only one person watching him, but Sam catches him and forces him back into his seat. With a bruising grip on the back of Zemo's neck, Bucky drags him back over to where he and Sam can both keep an eye on him. Nagle is killed in the shootout as they're trying to escape; Zemo still runs off, blows shit up, and comes back with the stolen car so he's not totally useless.

I had no problem with Zemo being the one to kill Nagle; Nagle was the worst and def had to die, and Zemo has never had an issue killing anyone. Where I took issue with this scene was Bucky and Sam being dumb enough to let Zemo wander and get his hands on a gun. Nope. Not happening.

Anyway, shootout! Explosions! Funny banter! The seat thing, which is my favorite nod to CW ever lol... And then the conversation on the plane...

"You okay?" "Yeah." Sam sighs. "Just thinking." "About how to get Sharon that pardon you dangled in front of her?" He shakes his head. "About how Nagle referred to 'The Winter Soldier Program" like it was some kind of after school club; like you weren't standing right there. And 'the American test subject' like... Like Isaiah wasn't even a real person." He turns to face Bucky, looking angry and weary. "Makes me wonder how many times... How many times are we gonna run around in the same circles before people learn? And how many people need to get crushed underfoot in the meantime?" "Did you really just equate me with Isaiah?" Bucky frowns, not sure how to react to that. "That man is a hero." Sam opens his mouth to say something, but his phone goes off and Zemo approaches at the same time, effectively cutting off their conversation.

When they get to Riga and Zemo tries to guilt trip them over Sokovia, Bucky deadpan reminds him, "Neither of us were involved in that fight." "I doubt you'd have been much help if you were." He shrugs. "Probably not. But I like to save my guilt for events I was actually present for. It's a thing." Zemo laughs. "Fair enough."

Bucky goes on his walk, and meets up with Ayo.

[league-of-thots]

Quarantine Fun

Pairing: Hawks x reader

Warnings: sensory deprivation, ropes and bondage,

Word Count: 3.6k

A/N: This was part of another lovely server collab that i was so fucking excited to be a part of!! I FINALLY got to yoink my favourite boy hawks and was fucking pumped to write for him so I hope you all enjoy! The masterlist with the rest of the fucking LOVELY writers is right here: COLLAB LIST

It was day three of the quarantine when you finally reached the end of your tether, and as a loud crash came from the other room in your shared apartment, you heard a small tinkling of glass shattering. You feel your pulse beating through your temples in pent up anger and frustration.

         “Keigo Takami I swear to GOD! What did you do?!” You throw your phone down on the couch beside you as you angrily speed over to see what your boyfriend had done now in his boredom. You enter the other room and see him sheepishly grin up at you from the floor where he’d somehow managed to end up tied in an awkward position and had knocked into the table, sending a photograph off of it and thus the shattering you’d heard.

         “What the fuck?!” you exclaim, grabbing a broom and dustpan to clean away the dangerous glass pieces. “Why are you tied up? How did you even get in that position?” You knew you boyfriend was a man of many talents, but his best talent by far was the ability to get himself into stupidly strange and unnecessary situations.

         He just laughs at your questions and as you return with the broom and pan, he’s practically howling on the floor at your expressions. Well, as much as he can with his chest restricted by ropes and hands behind his back, legs at an awkward angle on the floor.

         “I’m glad you’re finding this funny.” You harrumph and ignore him, starting to sweep up the glass pieces that make more delicate sounds as you work.

         “Aw, babes, don’t be like that!” he gets out as his laughter starts to die down. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to bother you; I’m just going stir crazy in here!”

         “I can see that,” you scowl a bit, the confines of your apartment, and the stress of the whole situation starting to really make you grouchy. Luckily, it was a rather small photo, so there wasn’t too much glass for you to clean up. Your boyfriend was now sitting where he’d fallen, trying to cheer you up while you worked, managing to wheedle a couple smiles and chuckles from you, as he always does.

         After you finish throwing out the shards, you go back towards him, and stand in front of him with your hands on your hips. He’s trying to get the ropes undone, but with the angle he was in, and how they’d tightened when he’d fallen in a heap, was making no progress. It was amusing to see, and he looked so cute with the pout on his face and the sharp ruffles of annoyance through his wings.

         “So, are you going to tell me what you were trying to accomplish with, ah- all of this?” you gesture towards his entire body, looped with rope and patterns. You have an idea of what he was doing, but still unsure as to why. To your surprise your usually unrufflable boyfriend flushes slightly under your attention and mumbles something out. You give him a pointed look so as to say ‘Speak up’ and he clears his throat.

         “Well, I was bored, and I know you’re stressed so I was thinking of fun ways that we could fix both of our issues, if you catch my drift.”

         “… So you did it on yourself?”

         “Just to practice! I hadn’t done sexy rope tying before, only y’know, actual hog tying of villains and stuff.”

         “If you refer to this as sexy rope tying ever again, I won’t have sex with you for a month Keigo.” He lets out a protested squawk at that, saying it wasn’t that bad.

         “I am stuck though, so ah- babes if you would help me out of these, I really would appreciate it.” He gave you a pleading look and you can’t help but laugh a little at him, rolling your eyes and going to untie him. He reaches up to give you a quick kiss when his hands are free, they’re quick pecks, but energetic as he starts kissing all around your face with your head in his hands. You can’t help but giggle as he distracts you from your mood and worries.

         “What exactly were you planning on doing with me though, Keigo? Your whole body is somehow almost all tied up.” You couldn’t even fathom how he’d managed it, maybe with his feathers? Were they that nimble? He stands up moving behind you to massage your shoulders gently.

         “Well I was reading up on things and saw something about how sensory deprivation in small doses can made people less stressed and anxious. I was thinking it might be an interesting idea to try out, especially because you’re on edge.”

         “You’re just horny because you have so much extra energy with the quarantine being in effect.” You say sharply, though you’re touched by your boyfriend’s idea. He was pretty great to you.

         “I’m not going to deny that either.” You can practically feel his smirk from behind you. “How can you blame me though when there’s such a hot woman in front of me 24/7 because of this quarantine?” he smacks your ass and you let out a shocked noise, not having expected it.

         You lightly swat his hands away, but he slouches on top of you, clinging to you and cooing into your ear.

         “The one good thing about this quarantine, is that at least we can finally spend some time together. Even if I drive you up the walls sometimes.” He hums, his fingers starting to tease the waistband of your shorts. “I wish it was less of a complete break, and more of a less busy work schedule, but beggars can’t be choosers.” His hands have gone down your sleep shorts now and started teasing your folds, never quite going where you want them too. He starts kissing your neck, nipping at it and licking it over, humming with happiness. Even though the quarantine was a lot of stress for everyone, you were happy to see Keigo finally getting the rest he needed, the bags under his eyes had started to disappear and he had more life to him.

         You whine as he continues his teasing, knowing he loves making and watching you squirm. You’ll let him for now, letting him have his fun because you know by the end of your night, you’ll be screaming his name in bliss.

         “So, do you trust me enough to let me try some things, Y/N? I’m really thinking it’ll be fun and let us blow off some of the stress and boredom.”

         “You already bought everything for it, didn’t you?” You’re palming his slowly hardening member behind your ass.

         “If you said yes, I wouldn’t have wanted to wait at all, can you blame me? I think you’re going to look so fucking hot all tied up and completely in the dark about what’s going to happen to you next.” A groan slips out of you at his words, his fingers finally giving you some relief as they finally breached your wet folds.

         “God, yes, I’m so excited to see what you have ready for me Keigo. You know I trust you more than anyone else, so bring it on.”

         “You remember the safe word though?”

         “Of course.”

         “Good, then we can get started love-dove.” You groan at the pun but you don’t really have time to say anything as he whips you up into the air, laughing, carefree for once. He catches you, kissing you as you giggle at his playful energy, it’s been so long since you’d seen it from him.

         You lose track of how long the two of you stand in the hallway, you in his arms and his hands on your ass. He bites at your lips, begging to be let inside in his own way, and you respond as you always do, opening your mouth for him and nipping back, making it interesting for him.

         He slowly starts walking down the hall with you in his arms, still keeping his lips connected with yours as he kicks open the bedroom door. Pulling back he smirks a little and tosses you back on the bed, his eyes glinting with glee and barely contained lust.

         “Clothes off babes, I want to see those pretty tits of yours.” You follow his instructions, practically sliding out of your clothes as if you’d somehow turned into liquid. His watchful eyes never move off of you body as he stands at the foot of the bed, arms crossed. He licks his lips and catches your eyes after that with a smirk as he quickly worms out of his own clothes. You notice that he’s already half hard, but seems to be completely ignoring it as he heads over towards the closet where he must have hidden his new toys.

         You feel excitement running through your veins, as you hear shuffling of fabrics and the unzipping of a bag. Keigo was right, this would be a fucking terrific way to end the boredom that the quarantine had brought. Although you’d never admit that out loud of course, he didn’t have to know the extent of how much and how easily he affected you.

         He comes back with a grin as big as the sun itself which is at odds with all the things you can see him carrying, and you feel your eyes widen. That seems to amuse him as he sets the goodies at the foot of the bed and crawls up towards you. His eyes are bright and they take your breath away, you truly understand how his gaze makes people feel as if they were being hunted, the way he’s looking at you now makes you lose your breath, makes you feel as if he’s about to devour your entire being.

         He cages you in with his wings, but rather than fear, all you can feel is arousal as he surrounds you, breath heavy despite the lack of action from either of you.

         “You have no idea, no fucking idea, how good you look like this.” His hands move to play with your pebbled nipples as he straddles you, leaning down to capture your mouth with his. You let out a small cry that’s easily swallowed by him as he pinches your nipple. You lightly punch him in the side.

         “The fuck Keigo? That hurt,” you pout up at him as he snickers.

         “I’m sorry its just, god everything was getting so serious babe, this is to blow off steam you know?”

         “There are better ways to do that then pinching my tit you ass.” But at this point you’re grinning too, pecking him on the lips. “Are we going to get started yet Keigo? I want you inside me.” His mouth parts, eyes wide as you say that.

         “Fuck, are you trying to make me rush through all of the special things I had planned for you babes? Patience Y/N, good things come to those who wait after all.”

         “Yeah, yeah birdman. I want to see what you have already.”

         “Yes ma’am.” He gives a little salute before backing off, going through the togs he’d bought just for you. “I’m going to start slow, ok? It can be shocking if you’re just getting started with this type of thing.” You nod your head in acceptance and he brings out a rather thick blind fold. He trails his fingers up your body, feather light touches that have you shuddering, as he brings his hands up to your face.

         The fabric is cool on your face, and slightly heavier than you expected it to be, and it obscures all of your vision, even every bit of light that had been showering the room.

         “It’s ok?”

         “Yes, you worry-wart. Keep going please.”

         “Good. God you look so fucking beautiful right now.” You can practically hear the expression he gets on his face when he thinks you can’t see him; all his features soften and are etched with love. Part of you wishes you could see it, but part of you is eagerly waiting for what he has next.

         You hear the rustling of the sheets as he moves, feel the mattress dip as his weight crosses it, and without words he starts tying you up, first your wrists enveloped by a silky-smooth cloth, then they’re brought to your ankles. As he ties them you groan as you feel the cool air hitting your damp cunt, he hasn’t even really touched you yet and still you’re so aroused and ready for him to take you. Even though you know you’re likely going to have to wait a bit as he explores the new options that he has presented to him.

         His lips make his way to yours as he sweetly kisses you. “You’re muttering again dove, are you sure you’re ok?”

         “Yes, I’m just so fucking horny I want you inside me already.”

         “Well I think I can help you a little bit with that in one minute, just one more thing for you ok? You’re being such a good girl for me.” You whimper a bit at that, with the position you’re tied in, you can’t put any friction onto your aching cunt and it feels like torture.

         You feel a heavy set of what feels like headphones, though you can’t be certain without seeing them, cover your ears, the last thing you can hear is Keigo whispering he loves you until all the outside sound is blocked from you. All you can hear now is the thundering sound of blood in your ears and you shiver in anticipation, tied up and unmoving, unable to see or hear, waiting for your lover to fucking touch you already.

         Goosebumps rise on your skin as Keigo starts slowly stroking your hipbones, his touch still light but you’re so taken by it because all you can do right now is feel. You whimper as a feather comes up to play with your breasts, the touch almost ticklish but in your aroused state, it only serves to make you more sensitive as you mewl out for him to touch you more.

         He listens, as his fingers come to your sensitive areas and you moan loudly in relief as two of his fingers enter your heat up to the first knuckle, his lips starting to kiss and suckle bruises into your sensitive skin. You think you’re being really loud but you can’t tell, the moans and noises you’re making seem magnified because they’re all that you can hear. You feel Keigo muttering words onto your skin but you can’t tell what he’s saying, all you know is that he’s stopped moving his fingers and it’s driving you insane to have something in your heat but not providing any form of relief from his teasing.

         “Keigo, please move!” you plead with him, desperately trying to move your bound body to provide some sense of friction, some sense of deeper penetration as you wail in frustration as he keeps himself deadly still.

         Your breaths are heaving as your legs begin to shake with the strain of holding them up because of the bondage. As soon as you think he’s going to leave you there waiting for a long time, he suddenly thrusts deep into your cunt and you clench around him with a surprised shout. It doesn’t take long for him to build you up to that edge, your body so needy and responsive to his touch, as you praise him, tell him how good it feels. It’s so easy to get lost in the sensation of him pounding his fingers into you as he frantically starts rubbing your clit. You feel yourself clench around him, and he shifts the angle of his fingers a little bit to hit your sweet spot.

         You swear you see lightning in the darkness of your blindfold, your back arching up sharply as you come undone around his fingers with a lewd moan. He keeps pushing in, helping you ride yourself through it, but doesn’t stop. The sensations feel so much more potent than usual, and you try to squirm away from the added stimulation but you can’t. You whimper as he once again brings a feather up to play with your tits as he adds a third and then fourth finger into you.

         You can practically hear his teasing, “but baby, you asked me to touch you, you said you wanted me inside you. That’s all I’m doing babes.” Even in your head he’s smug and deliciously torturous and you cry out again as you feel the tips of his fingers crashing into that spot deep within you, over and over and over again. You’re tightening up once more, hanging onto the feeling of being finger fucked when its all you can focus on, all that you can actually feel happening.

         You can feel yourself about to cum when suddenly you’re empty. “NO! Keigo you fucking bastard! I was so close!” You shout out to him, even though you know you won’t hear a response. You feel tears welling up in your eyes at the desperation you feel in your groin, you were so fucking close.

         Seeing this must stir something in your boyfriend though, because soon enough you feel the weeping head of his cock at your entrance. You wiggle as much as you can, your body ready and waiting for him. With no warning, he sheaths himself inside you completely, and you blissfully feel full again, the curve of his cock pressing into you just right, the vein on the right side scraping your walls amazingly.

         You can feel drool dripping down the side of your face as he pounds into you relentlessly, unable to form any completed thought much less coherent words. You can hear yourself mumbling and groaning out mixtures of praises and his name repeated like a chant. You feel his body shuddering against yours, the excitement and arousal you feel mirrored by him as he leans down and bites at your collarbones, marking you again and again as his, only his.

         You feel yourself clench down on his cock, your release sneaking up on you as his rhythm starts to become more irregular.

His pace gets quicker, your mouth dropped open in a silent scream as he frantically pounds into you with almost manic energy. You can feel him shuddering and you know he’s approaching his own end. You clench down on his dick, squeezing him to get him to release inside of you and he comes down with a final bite on the inside of your shoulder. You feel the warm liquid fill you inside, and it feels amazing, and good god how much of it there is. He must have been loving every second of teasing you and every second of pleasing your body.

         He pulls out slowly, kissing softly at the bite that you can feel pulsing and oozing a bit of blood. It feels so much emptier than it usually does, and you can’t help but whimper, you wouldn’t mind him just staying sheathed within you. You feel him murmuring against your skin, and you can feel the love from him in the care he takes with your shaking body, slowly bringing you back from your high and bringing you back into a world where you have all your senses back.

         He starts by cleaning up the mess between your thighs, the touch of the towel rough but relieving to you, the cum already cooling down and starting to stick uncomfortably on your skin. After that’s complete, he begins to untie the nots, with a gentleness so at odds from how hard he’d been pounding into you beforehand. He strokes your skin as he undoes the bondage, kissing your skin and making sure that he hadn’t cut off any blood flow, that you were perfectly safe.

         God how you much you loved him.

         After he was finished with that, he brings you into his arms, having you sit on his lap as he strokes your back. You squeeze his torso and stay pliant in his arms, feeling absolutely pampered and safe. There’s no better feeling than that, you think. He was right though, you do feel completely relaxed, some of the stress leaving your body.

         He lifts off one side of the noise cancelling muffs, and everything sounds so much louder, despite not having your hearing taken for very long.

         “You alright dove? You didn’t use the safe word, but you seemed pretty far gone for a moment.”

         You hum. “It felt amazing Keigo, but good lord, you’re such a tease you know that?”

         He chuckles softly at that. “I’m sorry but you look and feel so good when you’re all flustered and riled up. I love it.” All his motions are slow now, relaxed as he slowly gives you back all the senses you’d been missing; the other side of the muff coming off when he thinks you’ve had ample time to recover.

         When your blindfold comes off, you see his wrecked hair and red cheeks and you’re so grateful for the time you’ve gotten to spend with him during these trying times.

         You softly kiss him. “Bath time?”

         “Of course, Y/N. Let’s get us both cleaned up then love.” The two of you get up, holding hands, and you don’t let go even in the large bathtub until you actually have to, to get cleaned up.

         For the first time in a while, the two of you are both spent, relaxed and completely happy, and if there’s any better feeling in the world; you’d probably never find it.

[solo-23]

I'd debated about whether or not to post this because it's definitely a rant and there is definitely a lot of negativity, but I need to vent after last night's episode (with some leftover issues from earlier this season, too). If Betty is your favorite and you don't like to read anything negative about her, you will not like this post.

1. The way the voicemail has been blown completely out of proportion by the writers, reviewers, and some shippers is ridiculous. We keep hearing about how it was terrible, emotionally abusive, toxic, and something that Jughead definitely needed to apologize for, but nothing he said was actually out of line. There is absolutely nothing in that voicemail that Betty should have been surprised about, let alone treating it like it somehow turns her into the victim in the fall of Bughead.

It's not surprising that Jughead has now apologized twice for the voicemail, even if he doesn't actually remember all of it, because he knows that it hurt Betty. He can also probably guess what he said because he knows what he feels and how it can be exaggerated when he's feeling depressed or under the influence of drugs and alcohol. Generally if you actually admit what you're thinking or feeling when you know it would hurt someone, you feel bad about it. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, or if you're under the influence. A good person apologizes if they know they hurt someone. Jughead is a good person.

Just a note here, I've seen other people saying that Betty's actions while high should be excused just like people have said Jughead's voicemail should be excused because he was under the influence. Being under the influence DOES NOT excuse the voicemail.

The fact that Betty cheated on Jughead, did continue to sneak around with Archie while debating whether or not she wanted to "officially" pursue him, hid the whole affair until Jughead actually caught on and she had to make up a direct lie to his face or confess, never actually explained anything to Jughead (things like she was the one who stopped the affair, she wanted to stay with Jughead, etc.) even after he asked if they could talk about it, stood him up at Pop's a year later, and then stood him up again at the book release party justify Jughead's voicemail. And he has apologized for it twice.

2. That is why it was so intensely frustrating for Betty to just brush off his apology (again) and then turn the conversation to her, but without actually apologizing for anything. When Jughead mentioned not really being able to remember the voicemail, she could have brought up what bothered her in it so (a) he would know and (b) they could actually discuss the issues, which could have led into Betty actually explaining what happened with the cheating, including how the affair ended, and she could have apologized for that. It still wouldn't have been fully satisfying because Betty never apologizes first for her actions, but it would've been better than nothing. She also could have apologized for standing him up, although at least she explained why she didn't make it to the book release party.

3. However, she still didn't admit to or apologize for giving away Jughead's manuscript. The entire reason Jughead relapsed into drinking and almost plagiarized Cora is because Betty gave Jessica his manuscript. No, Betty does not get credit for "saving" Jughead because she was present when he got a phone call from Samm and admitted that he wasn't the author. She's the reason he was in that position in the first place. Yes, she had been drugged. Yes, Tabitha was present and didn't stop her. No, neither of those things excuse it. It also doesn't excuse her from sharing the voicemail with Tabitha and Jessica.

Why not? She and Tabitha were still shown as functional when all of this happened. Jessica admitted that she drugged them to try to get the manuscript. They were both capable of thinking and arguing. Betty chose to give the manuscript to Jessica. It wasn't until afterward that Betty and Tabitha started being really impacted by the drugs. Jughead's manuscript wasn't Betty's (or Tabitha's) to give away and doing so completely screwed Jughead over.

There are some questions here--did he switch over to his typewriter and that's why there was no backup? did he forget to save a copy on his laptop? did his laptop crash or get lost? who knows, but in the story it doesn't matter. There was one copy and Betty gave it away, placing Jughead in the position of losing his agent or plagiarizing another author.

Also, for playing the voicemail, Jessica had just brought the drugged fries to the table. No one is shown as having felt the effects of the drugs until Tabitha made a comment about being warm after the voicemail is over. Betty had been reluctant to help from the beginning, before Tabitha mentioned the "don't be a Betty" line, and made fairly rude comments about Jughead throughout the episode. I don't think she needs to apologize to Jughead for sharing it, but I also thought that playing the victim and having some people blame it on "being high" was ridiculous.

4. You cannot convince me that Betty cares about Jughead in the slightest when he was telling her he was an alcoholic and he's trying to get better and he's clearly drinking alcohol right in front of her and her response is "I'm an addict, too. I'm addicted to serial killers." She's struggling, yes, and it's good that she's opening up, but if she cared about Jughead at all an appropriate response here would be "So, why are you drinking?" or "are you okay?" Show some sort of concern for someone who is relapsing in front of your face. Jughead does it for Betty when he suggests she should take a break, even though he's in a moral quandary caused by Betty, depressed, and drunk.

Also, no, chasing serial killers is not an addiction in the same way as drugs or alcohol and it's insulting to say they're the same. Chasing serial killers could be described as a compulsion for Betty, or a hyperfixation, but it's not the same. It's difficult, but you can choose to not follow a compulsion without experiencing the often severe physical side effects experienced by actual addicts. I'm glad Betty recognized that she has a problem, but no, that is not an addiction.

5. The entire conversation is extremely awkward. It's clear that it isn't what Jughead had in mind, but his life that he had just been starting to get back together fell apart. He sank to new (or at least different) lows. Betty seemed like she wanted to leave as soon as she got there (understandable given how awkward it was, even secondhand) and disappeared once Jughead was distracted by a phone call. It's understandable, but disappointing. The part that was really frustrating, though, was that after talking to Jughead about how unhealthy her serial killer obsession is and how she's worried about her mom, she still goes out. Alice was passed out on the couch, which Betty paused to acknowledge. That should have been a turning point for Betty and it just wasn't. Screw these writers.

6. I loved that Tabitha and Jughead had mutual apologies, discussed their issues, and genuinely seemed to care about each other. I also loved that Jughead still cares and worries about Betty (frustrating as it is when it seems unreciprocated) because it's so true to Jughead's character.

7. It is absolutely fine and understandable if Betty has moved on from Jughead. She seemed to believe that if he found out about the cheating in their senior year, it would be the end of their relationship. She started shutting him out and trying to move on the next day.

However, as a Jughead fan, it's intensely annoying to see him still struggling with the lack of closure and continuing to have feelings for Betty after all of that. I would have preferred to see either both of them move on, then rediscover each other later (or not, depending on where the show is going), or have Betty be the one who still clearly has feelings for Jughead and have her regret blowing up the relationship.

8. Overall, I hate a lot of what the writers have done this season. I don't particularly like any of the backstories for the characters during the time jump, I don't like each character following a separate plot line(s), the lack of interaction between characters, and how disjointed everything feels.

The mothman plot was interesting, but seems destined for a disappointing end. There have been a lot of missed opportunities to bring storylines together (Jughead went missing while Archie was looking for escaped prisoners, he could have found Jughead; Jughead hitchhiked with a random trucker, even without the trucker attacking him he could have seen clues or found Polly; Sweet Pea or Fangs could have seen Betty playing hooker and organized an intervention instead of having the weird cult plot line; I'm sure there's more). Maybe it'll be better with a binge watch, but I'm having trouble maintaining interest in the final three episodes, let alone rewatching this mess of a season.

BONUS: I was relieved that the Bughead talk did not go with my worst case scenario. Based on the possible B/A return, I was a little bit worried that Jughead would apologize for the voicemail and remember what he said, then talk about how he always knew Betty had feelings for Archie. Betty, who said she'd been "wanting this since high school," would then nod along and say she was sorry for hurting him, but acknowledge those feelings. Then Jughead would ask why they never acted on those feelings after the breakup, Betty would talk about the FWB, and Jughead would go full B/A cheerleader and tell her to give it a chance (like the Pacey and Joey chat about Dawson at Mitch's funeral in Dawson's Creek). I was dreading that possibility and I'm so glad the show didn't go there. I'm sorry if I've given anyone nightmares.

[bnhaven]

A Potential ‘Hidden Quirk’ Idea

To begin: I am so sorry. Truly. I swore I’d be a writer of fluff, and yet here we are...again...whoops.

Anyways, let’s get on with it! 

So, if there’s one thing we love about our innocent cinnamon roll of a boy, aka Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, it’s that he’s willing to go beyond (plus ultra style) in order to save the day, even going so far as to break his bones to the point of disfiguration. Adrenaline helps him fight through the pain, and even then I’ve heard a lot of people talk about his insanely high pain tolerance.

Like, ridiculously high. I mean, the Overhaul fight??? Where Izuku just destroys himself so that Eri doesn’t Rewind him out of existence? Wild. It’s like, unimaginable. Even with the decade of bullying to get used to pain, it’s almost unreal for the green bean to be able to push through so much naturally.

Which is where I say: what if it wasn’t natural?

Look, some Quirks are probably hidden ones. Ones that you can’t immediately see, ones that aren’t emitter types. Quirks that just affect the wielder, not anyone else. Like Nedzu’s High Spec, for example. But what’s another Quirk that no one would be able to see?

One that negates pain. 

Now, I don’t think that Izuku would have always had this Quirk. I think it’s one that needed the right conditions to form. Like, let’s say...a really hard punch, something with an almost explosive force.

Lucky for Izuku, he has a classmate with a very painful Quirk, and a penchant for using it on those he deems weaker or lesser. Thus, when the bullying started, Izuku’s Quirk finally kicked in after one hit went too far.

The Issue: Nobody realizes that Izuku got his Quirk. Not even Izuku realizes it. Why? Well, Izuku thinks it’s just a high pain tolerance. He still feels Bakugou striking him, he just...doesn’t feel much else. He knows that he feels pressure, so he must have just gotten used to Bakugou’s hits. (And with all of the burn scars that Izuku is gaining, he wouldn’t be surprised if he’s lost some nerve endings due to the damage.)

And Izuku would definitely have burn scars in this AU (I’m not really sure if canon gives him said scars, I’ve done more reading for this fandom than watching, oops.) But no matter what happens in canon, this Izuku would have burn scars for one reason: Since Izuku doesn’t feel pain, he doesn’t cry out. Since he doesn’t cry out, Bakugou thinks his explosions aren’t strong enough to hurt...so the boy uses stronger blasts in an attempt to prove his ‘point’. (There is definitely an inferiority complex going on here, where Bakugou subconsciously worries that his Quirk is weak if ‘Quirkless Deku can stand there and take one of my hits without a single flinch’.) He pushes himself harder, lets more force into every controlled blast, etc.

So Izuku has no clue that he has a Quirk, Bakugou uses crazy amounts of explosions on the boy, neither realizing just how much damage is happening because Izuku can’t feel any pain.

Canon continues. The Sludge Villain stuff goes as usual, and All Might chooses Izuku as his successor just like always. The training montage from hell might actually be more self-destructive, not only because Izuku feels the need to catch up but also because he doesn’t feel so exhausted/sore. (Along with pain, the boy also doesn’t really feel when his muscles and body are sore, so he doesn’t realize he needs to take a breather.) But that isn’t the focus, so let’s move on!

The Entrance Exam occurs, and wow that really should have clued someone in. Because Izuku breaks his limbs for Uraraka and when he hits the ground, instead of dragging himself away he tries to stand up. He actually manages to find a 3-pointer, and breaks two more of his fingers by flicking in its direction, destroying it with a gust of air before he collapses to the ground.

But wow, everyone is just like ‘this boy is wild’ before completely forgetting about how they heard his bones crunching with every step. 

Continue on. 

Quirk Apprehension Test? Izuku doesn’t really get why Aizawa is complaining about how he shatters himself. Like, he doesn’t need to stop just because his arm is apparently broken. It’s fine, he can still use it. Still, he settles on breaking a single finger because he can’t risk expulsion, and he definitely doesn’t have the courage to talk back to a teacher. 

Hero v. Villain Fight? Izuku doesn’t even collapse after the final blast, instead walking off without batting an eyelash. Iida ends up corralling him to Recovery Girl’s room, because first Izuku protested having to leave without getting to watch the other teams, then he got distracted by the school and nearly got lost.

USJ? Izuku goes a little more feral, fun times.

Sports Festival? Oh honey you know things are going to get wild here. Broken bones left and right, yeehaw it’s shatter city baby!

Izuku ends up with even less self-preservation with every passing problem, basically. Since the boy can’t feel pain, he assumes that any injury that he does get isn’t that bad. After all, wouldn’t he be crying and, you know, hurting if it was bad? Izuku knows what pain feels like, and this isn’t it!!

It’s only the realization that breaking bones so often could end his career early that causes Izuku to try new approaches to the whole Quirk-using situation. Even then, the boy has no sense of when to stop, and as such pushes himself to the point of passing out from either exhaustion or blood loss multiple times.

-One such time was after getting impaled. The boy didn’t realize he had a broken pole halfway through his back until Kaminari screamed and passed out from seeing Izuku bleeding, a giant rod jabbing out of him. Izuku tried to shrug it off.

Sometime around the impalation incident, people begin to notice that Izuku has a freaky high pain tolerance. 

But nobody really connects the dots until Bakugou goes too far in training.

The bad news: his opponent loses a limb.

The good news: It is Shouji, and it’s one of the regrowable ones.

The bad news: the following dialogue occurs after school…

Bakugou: What the fuck? But that’s barely anything!

Aizawa: Bakugou. That explosion had enough force to sever your classmate’s hand off of his limb due to how you directed it. You should know to limit yourself by now.

Bakugou: But I was! That one is so weak that even Deku can walk away without flinching! 

Aizawa: There is no way that Midoriya would be able to move on without needing medical attention after a hit that bad.

Bakugou: He has.

Aizawa: ...I beg your pardon?

Bakugou: Deku fucking has! How do you think I learned my limits, huh? Deku has taken a hit like that directly to the chest and didn’t even flinch! I know how weak I am!

Needless to say, Aizawa proceeds to lose his absolute shit. He makes Izuku stay after class the next day, and questions him about whether or not Bakugou has ever used his Quirk on him. 

Izuku, a boy who is unafraid of breaking three limbs to save a girl from a giant robot, but who is terrified of teachers most of the time, cracks without too much pressure. He admits that Bakugou has used his Quirk on Izuku for years, but ‘It wasn’t bad, sensei! They were like love taps, I never even felt a thing!’

And Aizawa knows something is wrong with this, something isn’t adding up because if Shouji lost a limb to Bakugou’s hit, Izuku has to be lying...or there’s another factor in this equation.

Aizawa dismisses Izuku, and spends the night trying to figure it out.

And then he does.

The next day, he makes Bakugou and Izuku stay in the classroom during lunch. He questions them on their past. Bakugou complains about how ‘weak’ he’s always been, Izuku brushes past the concern without much thought because it never hurt, and sure there were markings but-

Aizawa: Markings?

The scars are revealed. Well, the ones on his upper body.

This is when Bakugou begins to realize that he’s fucked up.

During training, Aizawa pulls Bakugou and Izuku off to work with him separately. He

brings out machines that test how much force a blow gives off, and has Bakugou throw his ‘weak’ explosions at them.

As it turns out, Izuku should have been in crippling pain from everything Bakugou did. And then Aizawa drops the ‘I think you have a pain-related Quirk’ on Izuku, and yeah.

I didn’t really plan an end, sorry. I just think it’d be interesting, you know?

On the bright side, at least Izuku isn’t constantly in pain!!! He just got his body a whole lot more damaged than he would have, and has maybe half of the self-preservation that his canon counterpart possesses.

Finally, for an extra bit: Izuku only feels pain when Aizawa erases his Quirk. It’s not pleasant. (And, to make him even more oblivious, Izuku believes that the pain is because his Quirk is being ‘severed’ in its connection, not that this is lingering pain that comes from having bones shattered over and over without hesitation.)

[neonthewrite]

Washed Up Winchesters 6

Our heroes have a perfectly normal chat with a perfectly normal citizen about perfectly normal things. Progress is progress!

Cowritten with @nightmares06, the writer behind the @brothersapart multiverse!

( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 ) ( 5 ) -6- ( 7 ) ( 8 )

Story Tag

Read Time ~10 minutes

~~~~~

Dean, his natural fear of heights overridden by the obstacle currently in their path, leaned slightly off the edge of Jacob's hand. The perspective gave him a far better view of the authorities compared to normal. Up there, they wouldn't be able to take him into custody unless Jacob handed them over, which helped his bluster.

Taking out his stash of ID cards, Dean chose one at random and waved it in the air. There was no way the cop could see what was on the card, so he didn't bother looking at which one, or which name it was. Not to mention, he hadn’t bothered looking into any Lilliputian forms of ID, so there wasn’t much hope it would pass close scrutiny.

"We're on official business! He has a permit to be in this area, so long as we're with him to supervise."

"Dean," Sam muttered, just loud enough to be heard by the people on Jacob's hand, "that card is only worth shit in Blefuscu, what do you think you're doing?"

"Just play along," Dean whispered out the side of his mouth, keeping the friendly smile on his face and his eyes trained on the cop to avoid arousing suspicions. "This'll work."

Chase grinned. He hadn't missed how many different IDs Dean had hidden away. Monster hunting apparently came with some perks.

Despite Minnie nudging at his shoulder to keep him back, he peered over the side of Jacob's hand as well and waved jovially. "He's right, officer! I'm helping supervise, too!"

From so high up, it was hard to see the cop's expression, but they couldn't miss him shaking his head. He crossed his arms and frowned up at them all, trying to be as unflinching as he could in the shadow of a giant. How that kid could stand to ride around so high up, no one would ever know. "Alright, Lisong, just don't dawdle. And if there's one complaint about property damage ..."

Dean shoved his ID back into his jacket. "That's the least of his worries," he grumbled under his breath, while waving towards the officer with a cheerful, 'nothing-to-see-here' attitude.

"In a few hours, this will hopefully all be behind us, and we'll be out of town," Sam commented back. "You'll never have to deal with these police again."

“That's a nice change."

Jacob pursed his lips, but he couldn’t hope to join the hushed conversation. The cop would hear him no matter how he tried to whisper. He sent the small man a tense smile as the officer stalked to the side of the road, probably grumbling all the while. They might have gained a tag-along in their little escapade, at least until they could figure out where to go next.

Hopefully not further into town; Jacob was self-conscious enough.

He didn’t take a single step until he was sure no one was in front of him. While he could step over people with ease, it was an uncomfortable thought. He arrived at an intersection of two roads, and from there the shop was supposedly just around the corner.

Jacob knelt down in the crossroads instead to give himself room. “I’ll, uh. Wait here. By the lamp post, so you don’t miss me.” He smirked faintly at the thought of them losing track of him somehow.

"Got it!" Dean called over his shoulder, raising a hand to let Jacob know they agreed.

Sam hurried to keep pace with Dean, fidgeting with his own hidden knife to make sure it was ready to be drawn at the drop of a pin. They couldn't be sure of anything with the shapeshifters missing, and creatures like that often took the time to turn anyone that was potentially dangerous. With the guns sodden and out of the equation, they had to rely on the silver knives they both carried.

“You guys have got to hang out at the house and tell me some stories when this is all over,” Chase said.

Minnie hummed skeptically. “Or maybe they should avoid giving you ideas.”

"If you have pie at that place of yours, you've got a deal," Dean said to Chase, focusing on what was, to him, the more important detail.

Chase grinned as he hopped down from Jacob’s hand and followed. As far as bribes went, that wouldn’t be tough to manage at all. “We can probably arrange that,” he mused.

Minnie was already rolling her eyes when he glanced her way. “Neither of us can bake,” she reminded him.

“Well there’s bakeries,” he shot right back.

Their bickering brought the group to the shop front right as a short, stocky man stepped out of it. He was dressed quite a bit nicer than most of the people they’d managed to interview back at the docks. There was a messenger bag slung over one shoulder, and a key in the other hand. As he turned back towards the door, he noticed the four people approaching.

Right after that, he noticed the giant kneeling not even a block away at the street corner. His mouth opened in surprise and the key dropped to the ground with a faint clink.

Sam smoothly stepped up, stooping down to pick up the key. “Careful, you might lose it,” he said as he held it out politely. He didn’t show any unease at the fact that there was a giant nearby, or even act like it was unusual in the slightest. In his experience, people responded best when they thought the situation was under complete control.

Without missing a beat, Dean was right next to Sam, matching his brother’s attitude in professionalism this time. “We’re actually looking for someone around here. You wouldn’t happen to know a Mr. Black, wouldja?”

The man glanced down at the key in Sam’s hand, then up at the brothers, and then past them at where Chase and Minnie waited patiently. As if following everyone’s lead, he didn’t look past them at the giant again, but he was flustered all the same by the oddness of the situation. He sputtered a moment before taking the key, and then squared his shoulders to convey that he, too, was having a very normal chat.

“I hope so,” he answered. “That’s me. What can I do for you?”

Sam smiled. It had worked like a charm. "We're actually looking for someone."

"A bunch of someones," Dean interrupted, ignoring the look Sam sent him.

It only took Sam a second to recover from the unexpected interruption. "They came into port today on a ship that you bought, and we were supposed to grab a ride back when they left. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you...?"

Black’s brow furrowed and he sighed tersely. “Afraid you mighta been misled, boys,” he admitted. “I bought a ship that sailed in today, but it won’t be sailing out for at least two weeks yet.”

He groaned thoughtfully. By his fidgeting, he didn’t enjoy giving Sam and Dean apparent bad news. “Pretty sure I heard one of their lot mention checking out some open pasture, maybe for work? If you wanna take it up with them why they sold the ship out from under ya.”

“Open pasture?” Chase chimed in, frowning. “But no one’s hiring new hands right now.”

Black shrugged and his eyes widened in an apologetic expression. “Wish I knew more, kid. I’ve got a lot of things on my end right now. Blefuscan ruffians did a number on that boat, it’s a real mess.”

“Wonder how that could have happened,” Dean said dryly, then winced.

“That’s a darn shame,” Sam lamented, trying to look natural after stomping Dean’s foot into submission. “We won’t have a ride back without them.”

“That said, they still owe us, since we paid up front for it,” Dean said, edging next to Black. “Did you happen to catch where the pasture they were looking at is? We have a lot of catching up to do.”

The merchant’s face scrunched into a thoughtful frown. “Check north of town,” he determined. “I mean, if you’re up for a hike. Heard from some other business owners that the land up there wasn’t selling. Past all the hills and the like, it’s too hard to get there and back quickly.”

Chase grinned, and even Minnie smirked. Without saying anything, he nudged Dean in the side with an elbow.

Dean stifled the rising temptation to elbow Chase back. He risked knocking the kid over. "Right! I don't think that'll be a problem," he said. Unlike the townsfolk, they had a giant that could get them to and from any place outside of the town.

Turning to leave, Dean caught Chase's elbow by a hand, dragging the kid with him.

Sam smiled politely to the businessman. "Thank you for your help," he said, then he had to dash to keep up with the others.

~~~

Back at the street corner, Jacob was almost exactly where they’d left him. At some point during their short interview, the policeman from before had decided he was too close to the sidewalk and had shooed him further into the middle of the road. It didn’t bother Jacob at all, and it seemed to mollify the little guy, so there he waited by the time he noticed the others wandering back towards him.

He grinned at the sight of Chase, dragged along backwards by Dean’s steady guidance. It was anyone’s guess what he might have said, but he’d probably earned it.

“Hope you know where to go next, ‘cause I think I’m overstaying my welcome here,” he greeted, already offering a hand for the tiny group.

"They can deal," Dean said, continuing his inexorable walk dragging Chase along until he reached the center of Jacob's palm to wait for the others. "We've got a new lead to follow."

Sam and Minnie weren't far behind the pair, following along but giving Dean a wide berth until they were sure he was done.

"The directions are out past the hills," Sam informed Jacob. "Sounds like you won't have to worry about any angry townsfolk out there. In fact, it doesn't sound like the area is easily accessible at all."

Chase finally managed to wrench his arm out of Dean’s grasp in time for the others to settle on the giant hand and for the whole surface to shift beneath their feet. He’d gotten so used to hitching a ride on Jacob’s hand that he hardly even swayed as they all rose up steadily. “Won’t be an issue for you, dude. It’s only hidden away for us non-giant types.”

Jacob smirked. His other hand joined the first to offer them all more stability as he lifted them farther and farther from the street below. “Almost had me worried about that for a second,” he teased. “How helpful can I be if I can’t at least getcha where you need to go?”

Chase waved a hand dismissively. “You’re already a hero in this story, don’t worry about that.”

"Maybe you'll get the chance to be a hero next," Sam said reassuringly, giving Chase an encouraging grin.

"What am I, chopped liver?" Dean complained.

"More like the damsel in distress!"