#so he's essentially their dad even though his sister is their mom

[riddlerosehearts]

“elsa is olaf’s mom” “no, anna is olaf’s mom and kristoff is his dad!” you fools, elsa and anna are both olaf’s moms and kristoff is his dad

[iosagol]

The Boy and the Heron, lads

*lying facedown on the sofa*

Spoilers, all the spoilers

So can we talk about the cyclical nature of life and death

The way the past and future are linked to one another and just because the past doesn't get to be the future, it doesn't mean that's bad

"In the future I am dead," Himi says, essentially. "I am not afraid. You have seen me as I want to be remembered, and I have left books for you to open and leave open, and even though I'm not going to be alive anymore, I once was, and I loved you."

The fact that Himi's little sister is no more recovered from the grief than Mahito

she's grieving too over her sister, but her sister's husband is now her husband and did she really want this to happen? and she's having this baby

It's a lot to handle because someone she loves just died and right after this she's bringing a new life into a vicious world in the middle of this war

And she has this boy now that looks like her sister

so she goes into the forest looking for that peace that isn't at home

and just she's lying in that room with those circling…. fans? Fans made of bandages(?) just spinning around her it's a cycle of hurt and patching up wounds and getting hurt again and patching up wounds until her stepson is webbed in it and she's webbed in it and both of them are so in pain and trying to patch up their wounds and it doesn't do them any good

The fact that in order to find his mom, our boy Mahito has to go into the Secondary/Underworld and he has to get a fish and he has to survive and draw water and go looking for this woman and descend into the abyss and come out again and he has to shun power

It gives Spirited Away, almost, except Chihiro had to learn to mature in the sense that she had to consider others and respect and learn manners

she has to respect others

meanwhile Mahito has to learn to forgive himself for not saving someone he loves

he has to respect himself and stop hurting himself and be open to love again

So he's just... Living, for the most part, it seems. He's gutting that fish and eating jam and butter on bread and also soup and he has to bicker with Heron and drink tea and steer a boat and observe the complexities of life and death

He's living and healing

But really, there's no balance to the Secondary/Underworld the greatuncle made because he wanted every creature to thrive within it

And if all you have is life on top of life, then creatures are going to start killing each other

The pelicans are starving because the fish can't be eaten, they turn on the waro-waro, the humans rush to protect the waro-waro, both sides are burned

happiness for one and all is competitive, it's cutthroat

The fact that coming home looking scraped isn't enough, Mahito has to slam a rock into his head

He says it's to prove he fell down, but really that's the biggest mark of human violence

And he does it to himself maybe because he's just so angry with himself for being alive and well, while his mother isn't, and he needs to level that playing field to feel better

Self-flagellation

The overboldness of the dad, how he packs all his human gear and tries to elbbow his way into the Fae and it does him no good

how he tries to solve his kid's problems by again elbowing his way in and that also does nothing

The fact that our boy Mahito realizes something is wrong with the old ladies on sight

something about them is very inhuman

when he first sees them the look on his face he knows something is up because he's meant to go into Faerie and he doesn't have the preconceptions of the adults and he has to see the signs

I ugh

Ugh it's so beautiful, all of it

[respectthepetty]

Night is going to be the best dad!

Night, in full dad mode, immediately sensed that DAY was the issue at the start of the fight, so he spoke TO Day rather than asking Mork who had already shut down.

And Dad Night, trying to ease the tension, smiled and asked Mork why he would lie even though he already guessed it was due to Mork's concern for Day.

Then establishes that Night is there for BOTH of them. He can take care of Day AND he can do that FOR Mork while Mork goes abroad. No problems. Easy peasy!

He tries to reason with Mork, but Mork quickly shuts him down.

And the look that Mark Pakin gives here deserves an award because Night looks hurt like he is being reminded of why Day is even in this situation, but also sad that Mork is expressing his disbelief in Night's ability to keep Day safe.

But Mork keeps going because Day's mother has constantly harped on Mork taking care of Day. This woman has been a broken record about this, and Day told Mork not to disappear. Day was upset at the race at the mere thought of Day quitting for another job, and was just upset the prior episode that Mork was quitting, so here is Mork stating that HE AIN'T LEAVING!

And, once again, Dad Night tries to reason with Mork unlike the other two people in the room who are surprisingly quiet even though they have only exacerbated Mork's need to be there for Day every damn second previous to this exact moment.

And Dad Night has finally touched on the real issue!

Day and Mork have been playing 21-questions since the first episode to get to know each other better, yet it's Dad Night trying to reassure Mork that gets Mork to finally confront his biggest fear - he is the reason his sister died - and he won't let that happen again.

Mork is looking AT NIGHT! Night is the only one having a conversation WITH Mork about his reasoning for lying. Night and Mork were having the conversation Day and Mork should have been having.

Yet immediately after Mork's confession, Day promptly decides to finally have this conversation with Mork, but chooses to say this.

And this is the conversation they have. A conversation ABOUT DAY instead of Mork's belief that his sister died because of him, which is ironic since Day is arguing that Mork is pitying him and thinking he is incapable of being independent while Day is making this entire argument ABOUT HIMSELF!

It's not wrong that Mork doesn't want to leave. It's wrong that he lied. Instead of telling Day that he got the job offer but declined it, he told Day he never got the offer. Yet Day is making this about him and his blindness, so Dad Night, again, tries to ease the tension so both men can see reason.

But unlike Mork who listened, Day interrupts Night.

Just so he can break Mork's heart.

Which he does.

It's the fact that Mork still respectfully bows to Day's mom (who doesn't deserve it) as he is essentially being kicked out of the house and Day's life BY Day.

It's the fact that Night looks between Day and Mork.

And actually questions Day's decision.

While Day calls out to their mom instead of answering the question!

And It's the fact that Night defended Mork AND DAY when they weren't even there when the mom was so determined to lock her son in his room to "keep him safe" and expel Mork from their lives when he was the only one who got Day out of his room.

So next week, when he gets married to Phojai (*fingers crossed*), which will allow him to adopt their child, I will be celebrating because Night deserves the honor of being a father. He has earned that right by putting in the work with his little brother, his mother, and his future brother-in-law. He might have been a party boy once, but in the background, Night has been quickly growing into being a reasonable man who tries to see the good in people especially because he knows what it feels like to be the black sheep and have his mistakes constantly be used against him. He is a caring man who understands that people are misunderstood but taking the time to question and listen helps more than yelling, and he will teach that to his daughter.

Dad Night is the best Night.

[overleftdown]

saltburn and privilege; an investigative tangent

god, where to begin.

i've seen a lot of people discussing this moving and specifically using the word "privilege," along with power, dominance, desire, control, greed, etc. me included. these are all very essential aspects of this movie. what i want to focus on is emerald fennell's nuanced portrayal of how different types of privilege interact. which one trumps the other? which types of privilege are more visible, while others are more subtle? what differentiates different levels and layers of privilege?

when emerald fennell describes the core of this movie, her inspiration for this script, she talks about desire versus untouchability. she chose the most absurd type of wealth to represent untouchability: the british aristocracy. old wealth, generational wealth, so far removed from the majority of their ancestors' sins that they can arguably ignore that the money they're standing on is dirty. and they live in fucking castles. this is one of the most unbelievable, gaudy, visible types of privilege you can imagine. everyone is entirely aware and feels entirely justified to call attention to this type of privilege.

oliver, being the main character, might be considered the least privileged within this movie. i'd like to take a critical look at this. this movie is not a straightforward class commentary; there is no traditional "the poor eat the rich" dynamic. because although some people perceive oliver as the least privileged character in this movie, he is incredibly privileged. oliver comes from a comfortable upper-middle-class home in the suburbs. oliver has two loving parents and two sisters. oliver is white. oliver is a man. interestingly, from oliver's perspective, he's not privileged at all. he hates the cattons because they are more wealthy, more comfortable, more untouchable. this extends to venetia and farleigh, even though oliver has applicable layers of privilege stacked above even them. he knows he has a certain type of power over them... yet he still hates them because they have one type of power he doesn't have.

that brings me to my next point. the existence of one type of privilege does not negate the effects of another, entirely different, type of privilege (or marginalization) [quote]. this is what venetia and farleigh's characters draw attention to. venetia experiences some of the same struggles as many women; she is ignored in her own household, perpetually existing within her brother's shadow (rosamund pike once lovingly pointed out that venetia does not have a single conversation with elspeth in this movie). she's insecure about her body and her worth, so she takes what little opportunity she has to use felix's friends as a form of self-fulfillment. farleigh is not only half black, but he's also queer, non-immediate family, and unaccustomed to english culture (specifically this type of english culture). farleigh is, in some ways, more financially unstable than oliver's family because his mom was too sheltered to understand money and his dad is, apparently, "a lunatic." (that's not to say farleigh isn't economically privileged because oh boy, he absolutely is).

this movie doesn't intend to incite pity from the viewers for any of these characters, and it generally doesn't. oliver is pathetically greedy, ungrateful, and desperate for a chance to lick the boots (or bathtubs) of those above him. venetia is pathetically bored of the privilege she does have yet is still so entrenched in emotional turmoil due to other areas in which she is marginalized. farleigh is pathetically attached to uninterrupted comfort and arbitrary white-centric expectations, constantly running from or attacking any threat of struggle. none of these people understand, comparatively, what the less fortunate experience. they are so ignorant to the bubble they exist in and just how grateful they should be for what monumental privileges they do have. but... felix.

felix is the epitome of privilege. oliver is specifically obsessed with felix. just like oliver, felix is a white man. but felix is more wealthy, more comfortable, more untouchable than oliver. oliver isn't as infatuated with farleigh and venetia because he's fully aware of the privilege they lack. he's fully aware of the privilege he holds above them, and he enthusiastically uses this power he has against them. to be in the position of oliver is to be consumed by jealousy and greed so bottomless that you will assert your dominance over any group that you're able to. felix doesn't need to do this. he's been handed every privilege under the sun and therefor welcomes the less fortunate with childlike interest and an equally childlike attention span. there's an aspect of farleigh and venetia's marginalization that is so invisible, so quiet and unassuming, that felix doesn't even notice it. he can't possibly be confronted by it. to be in the position of oliver is to understand what power you hold over others, because there is always more power to have.

racism, sexism, wealth, power, control, desire. there are so many facets of this movie that come into play. it may seem overwhelming, but this is... how things work. commentary on wealth is, and should be, equally a commentary on other areas of privilege. to be black and wealthy means different things than to be white and wealthy. to be a wealthy woman means different things than to be a wealthy man. to be rich to some also means you're much less rich than others, unless you're the richest person in the world. and, as this movie so beautifully portrays, to be richer than most doesn't make you less messy. the catton family is an ugly one, but also a complexly human one. each catton (or start) is jealous of someone else for another reason. each catton is emotionally damaged or incompetent for another reason. each catton has a different layer of privilege over the other. and each catton loves everyone in saltburn, because this is still a family, albeit a terrible one.

[yua-nism]

I saw your tags and I’m now very intrigued like what do you mean yuhan has the SHORTEST TRAGIC BACKSTORY?!?! JUST WHAT IS GOING ON?? like granted I should have known a game about devil cat butlers would have some angst and tragic backstories but god damn 😭😭

there was a miscalculation on my part and yuuhan's is in fact, not the one with the shortest backstory! however that's only because the others have yet to have their backstories be revealed. sorry for the late answer btw, exams have made me pretty tired.

ok so ill briefly explain a bit. this ties in to the requirement to become a devil butler that is, having felt so much despair that one feels like dying. normal people will be swallowed up by the devils they contract with. the despair essentially acts like chains for the devil. so to talk about their pasts in the Briefest Way Possible (lie):

miyaji has beef with lucas on the surface but really it's because he still can't get over the fact that lucas decided to save him from the verge of death instead of someone else he thought was more capable than him while lucas simply chose to save miyaji because he had higher chances of living.

lucas was basically a child prodigy/genius. since young, he's always loved reading books, and even read thick books that even adults struggled to understand. even though he was lonely and had no one to talk to, he still endured it, skipped grades, and became a doctor at the age of 10+. at first he was looked down on for being young, but an older doctor stood up for him. eventually he became the leader of the doctors, but due to his lack of social skills, he struggled to communicate well, which resulted in the doctors hating him. in the end, all the doctors except lucas quit their job. and the group collapsed. (tbf id quit too... imagine being said you didn't work as hard as him and don't have as much brainpower compared to him as well)

ammon has only had his mom since birth and lived with her, selling flowers for a living. ammon would always make sure the flowers would be sold out at the end of the day for his sickly mother, but if he doesn't manage to sell all of them it's heavily implied his mom whips him like he does to himself even now. they were like super poor but ammon still loved his mom because he only had her

berrien has like this super mysterious past but rn it's starting to unravel in chapter 4. he's an orphan and got adopted into a church backed by the grovanas or whatever nobel family to nurture warriors who could fight angels, but surprisingly the church is actually full of love and was ran by someone who fighted angels named Goetia. berrien also met his soon-to-be older brother figure named Beren/Belen. btw all of the kids go by the last name Cliane because goetia wants everyone to become true family.

when berrien was 26 (Beren 29), goetia died from a chronic disease and Beren had to take on goetia's responsibilities. berrien became the one running the church, however shit happened, Beren got demonized, and berrien used his powers to keep Beren alive after forming a contract with his current devil. he's still residing in berrien's basement as of current, but in a coma. berrien still thinks he himself has no rights to be a butler and really does not believe that he's the one keeping the damn thing running

also the church got destroyed like 2400 years ago and yes berrien is 2000+ years old

haures was born into some wack ass family, his dad ran away with some other woman and his mom projected her rage and stuff like that onto haures, and his newborn younger sister Tricia. haures is 10 years older than Tricia. when he was that age, he ran away from home with Tricia (literal baby) because he no longer trusted his mom to take good care of them. after that, when haures was 18, he trained hard to become a soldier under the grovanas nobles so he could afford to let Tricia get treatment for her worsening vision. one heartbreaking scene was when haures showed off his red uniform to Tricia and she said the blue uniform looked good on him... but 5 years later, haures managed to get Tricia's eyes healed!!! surely nothing bad could happen!!!!

sike. haures caught one of the grovanas nobles illegally trafficking humans with some dealer, and arrested him. however that led to the seller getting revenge, and he decided to capture tricia. he stabbed her and threw her into the woods. when haures found her, she only managed to call out to haures before she died after a few breaths. haures was really really really devastated. he sought revenge on the noble, and while the noble didn't die, he was jailed 5 years for harming the noble (not death sentence because he was determined mentally unstable after losing Tricia.). after he got out of jail, he found the noble again and wanted to kill him, but he was reminded of how Tricia admired him for protecting the people and helping those in need, which stopped him. after that, he became a devil butler because of his proficient fighting skills.

lamli was forced to work at a circus by his mom at the age of 10, while starting up with simple duties, he decided to train to become a circus troupe performer so he'd earn more money for his complaining mother. its heavily implied he's abandoned by her and becomes a devil butler because of his nimble body. btw his mom said she never wanted to have lamli right in front of him. jesus.

fennesz was born into a wealthy happy family, and had an older sister. however his war general father lost a war against nobles, and the economy went into shambles. his mom remarried but even though their stepdad was nice, fennesz and his sister ended up strays on the street due to some reasons i forgot of. fennesz would get bullied by kids on the street because of his father's loss in the war, but his sister would always protect him, and they relied on each other for survival. she's very smart, as shown in the story. she also loves history, as she said, it can help people learn from the past. its heavily implied she is dead.

ok flure! flure grew up with his older sister and mother who both did ballet (can one of you have an actual dad for once?), and he also followed in their footsteps. however when he was a child he was bullied for liking stereotypical girly things, like playing with his sister's dolls, doing ballet and having long hair. even though he was laughed at for doing it, he still underwent strict training guided bg his sister and mother. he never found the courage to tell his sister or mom even though his sister could tell something was wrong (heard him crying at night). he still thinks he should be more courageous to this day and thinks he's pathetic. we don't know what happened to his family but they probably died.

i wanted to talk about boschi but i realized idk much about him apart from the fact that he only had his grandmother (who's actually a great caretaker for once!) and he was bullied for being a bookworm/nerd at school and had no friends. though he did actually beat those bullies up later for mocking his grandma when she wanted to take him back home. she didn't want boschi to fight but she said herself she was actually rooting for him when he was fighting LMAOOO love her for that

lono. ok so lono was really poor and had no parents, and he acted as the older brother for the younger kids living on the streets with him. he'd work as someone who'd clean up rubble from battling angels, which was a job that had unstable income since no one knows when angels are gonna appear. they were family basically. lono would rather starve than let his siblings eat less, and his love of cooking originated here because he loved seeing them happy from his cooking. we don't know what happened to them, but they're probably dead

nac was born into a rich family, and has a father, not sure if he has a mother, never mentioned at least. apparently the stein family was great at sales or trading or smth??? they're just some very rich and well-known name. however on his 12th birthday, his butler led him to the forest near the stein mansion, and revealed himself to be someone the stein family harmed. just as he was about to kill lil nac in shock, nac retaliated in defense. and when he realized, he already stabbed the man at his vital point. his dad appears out of nowhere and reveals that he knew this all along, and that the stein family is actually a long line of assassins with sales as their front personas. nac was trained to kill since then, and thought he'd never feel positive emotions again before he became a devil butler. he also has scars all around his body, probably from the assassin work he did.

lato and his non-blood related brother, Aleks I think? were kidnapped by people who wanted to train people to become angel fighters. however unlike berrien, this time it's just pure cruelness and literal torture. they were 8 when this experiment started. not only that, all the children were sold by their caretakers to this place, including lato and aleks' "mother", the head of their orphanage, who they deeply loved and believed in. when lato finally found a way to escape, almost half the children were dead.

and when he told the others, they told lato that they already gave up on escaping, including aleks. from, i suppose, all the suppressed anger and trauma, he burned the experiment facility down, leaving the other kids to die because he hallucinated that they wanted them to be burned so they could be free. after that, lato returned to the orphanage even though he knew the "mother" sold him in the first place. guess what the mother did! that's right she ran back into the orphanage when she saw him, locked the fucking door and told him to get the fuck away from her. and lato burned the orphanage down.

now onto the new butler trio!

teddy is the one with the most details in his backstory so far. when he was young, he Had a twin brother, and teddy was a far cry from who he is now. he was negative and gloomy compared to his brother, who was positive and talented, and people always favored teddy's brother more. but one day, his brother died protecting him from an angel, but since they were so alike people didn't know whether the one that died was teddy or his brother. and after grieving his brother, teddy decided to become him, and used his brother's name to live on as him so people wouldn't be sad, because "teddy" was the one that died. and that led to teddy forming his personality today. teddy is his actual name though, he started using it after he became a knight. he became a knight because he wanted to protect people from angels.

but during an attack by an intelligent angel, namely seraphim, one of the angels that appeared at the end of chapter 1 and also the major antagonist of the story, teddy's entire unit got killed. at the start of chapter 2.5, he recuperated in a hospital, however he kept terrible nightmares (reliving the massacre, and hearing the voices of his comrades asking him why he abandoned them and why he got to survive) and so didn't sleep at all. he eventually snuck out of the hospital to visit their graves, and then started wondering what the point of him still being alive is. he almost threw himself off a cliff before haures and aruji reached him.

hanamaru. ten years before the story, hanamaru was fleeing from something- he walked all the way from the east to the central, and collapsed in a forest. a nun found him and took him back to a church that doubled as an orphanage. however the nun soon fell ill and died, so hanamaru began taking care of the kids in the church after he was saved by her.

but 5 years later, the church was attacked by angels. he was away from the church when the attack happened, and when he came back, all he saw were angels flying away from the ruined church. only 4 kids survived. hanamaru had a breakdown, and kept kneeling and pressing his head against the ground, saying things like "i couldn't protect them", "i swear ill keep them safe next time", implying this is not the first time something like this has happened. he swore vengeance against the angels that day, that he would never forgive them, and himself. so berrien suspects that the 4 kids that survived were the people that kept hanamaru around. who knows what could've happened if they passed as well...

lastly (finally), yuuhan. at the age of 9, he trained to become a soldier of the sardeis family so he could protect his hometown, and made it after 3 years. he quickly rose up in the ranks, being a prodigy. in the main story, he started doubting his loyalty to the family after they attempted an assassination on the devil butlers. and he betrayed the sardeis family and fell into their trap when investigating forbidden records. he got thrown into jail by the head, and the head decided for his punishment, yuuhan's whole village and everyone he knew there will be burned and killed. he could only despair in jail. in the story, after his prison guard left after serving him food, yuuhan started crying. he called out to his father, his mother, everyone from his hometown, apologizing again and again, believing that it's his fault that they died.

after that, the head, fubuki, paid him a visit. fubuki beat yuuhan up, pushed him to the verge of death, but not grave enough injuries to die. yuuhan asked fubuki to kill him, but fubuki refused. he even says he'll force feed yuuhan till the day of his death execution if necessary. however, yuuhan was rescued by the butlers during his execution. (it took place in a forest with tigers. basically the death penalty is getting eaten by tigers) he became a devil butler after that.

holy shit. also im not typing Bastien's since you can read his backstory from the tls available here.

[edgyandoverzealous]

Hot take(possibly??): most of the demigods in pjo/toa/hoo are villain coded. Not all but a lot of them and the best part of this is they're villain coded but they're known as untouchable heroes which is incredibly interesting for me.

For example, the cliche, the obvious, Percy. I love him don't get me wrong but that man's fatal flaw is canonically his loyalty, his personal loyalties specifically. The reason he went on his first quest initially was to bring his mom back from the underworld, essentially back from the dead because his mom is extremely important to him more so than his dad who was absent most his life, not retrieving the lightning bolt though he did end up doing that and Hades had Sally safe and well. The common saying is "a hero will sacrifice the one he loves to save the world. a villain will burn the world to keep the one he loves safe." You cannot look me dead in the eyes and tell me Percy Jackson, the man who while angry and bitter about his mother's "death" and this quest sent Medusa's head in a box to olympus, who after falling for Annabeth couldn't forget her even when Hera wiped his memory, would EVER let anything happen to her. He went to literal hell with her has killed monsters in brutal dark ways while in said hell and even before that jumped into siren infested waters to save Annabeth personal safety and quest be damned. He has turned down immortality for her. The gods could give him an ultimatum and he would choose Annabeth every time over anything, except his mortal family, but even then Percy would save everyone and then burn Olympus for daring to make him make that choice.

Additionally another one of my favorites who is increasingly more complex or at the very least somewhat the opposite to Percy in his villain coding is Nico Di Angelo.

For starters he's lost so much and has failed to save whoever was most important to him, twice. His fatal flaw is canonically, that he holds grudges, which is specifically noted to be dangerous for kids of Hades. Probably because demigods have shown on multiple occasions to have their powers connected to their emotions. IE: Percy through the entire first book and Nico in his first battle with Percy where he essentially summons an army in a panic. Or possibly because of their connection to death, the afterlife, and creatures from the underworld. Luckily this son of Hades is in control as he gets older so it's most likely the ladder in this case. Anyways after Percy got his sister, the only person Nico had left, killed Nico started running and using avoidance as a coping mechanism. Which in itself is a classic villain backstory set up because once someone has nothing they can be pushed to risk everything. However, my personal hypothesis is he spent that time running to avoid a violent outburst and act out on his grudge to cause Percy harm or put him into harms way, on top of the crushing guilt he must've felt for having a crush on the one who got his sister killed. To gain control over his emotions and come to terms with his new reality without his sister and with his new lineage and powers associated with. When he first comes back he is untrusting and distant. Then there was the whole "I have a friend who fully accepts me and I may be able to learn how to love again, trust again, and have friends" thing with Jason and then Rick killed him. That alone gives Nico more than a right to be angry and start fucking shit up tm. But he didn't and now he has Will. Classic case of the fooled me once shame on me fooled me twice shame on you imo. The set up for the same to happen again is underway as well. So at the very least three strikes you're out because I genuinely believe if anything happens to Will, Nico will no longer follow the heroes path. I believe the world would crumble and quake beneath his feet as the most guttural scream escapes his mouth. The dead will rise as he storms Olympus for giving him a story so cruel despite how hard he's fought and how good he's tried to be. I believe he would raise hell so intensely that the gods themselves would resurrect Will in fear of being overthrown by the wrath of the prince of darkness.

[fallloverfic]

Solo Leveling Episode 7 Thoughts

Excellent ep!!! Spoilery thoughts for the anime, novel, and manhwa below, CW: blood:

Jinwoo and Jinah are so cute together T-T I love them being close sibs. I mean obviously he helped essentially raise her since he was 14, when their dad disappeared and their mom was too ill to do everything, and then fully did so after he graduated because their mother was comatose, and I just... think about that a lot. This kid who has to raise another kid and never got to finish being a kid himself and had to immediately go into the workforce and give up going to university and he just wants her to have the opportunities he didn't and I just T-T

I feel like I accidentally am vibing with this because I got fried chicken on the way home from errands today, completely unaware this was going to be in the episode.

I love Jinah asking about him and how he's doing. Makes up for calling him a cheapskate >.< I mean to be fair to her, I grew up in a household that struggled for money and I was completely clueless about why we often didn't get stuff, though my parents really tried to spoil us to the extent they could. I do get it. It's realistic in my experience to react this way, especially when the younger person is kept clueless about finances. It's just T-T sometimes. But I do love that she cares about his mental health.

Jinwoo just processing his first murder(s) essentially alone cause he certainly didn't confide in Jinho and he is the older brother with a sister in high school who is just living a normal life and wants her to be happy and so cannot confide in Jinah and it kills me he kind of doesn't do this with anyone, ever T-T Sort of when the Hunters manager warns him, but not on an emotional level. I mean to be fair he's also kind of just, "I resented them for thinking they had a chance against me," which is pretty dark lol But he's obviously really conflicted about that cause these were humans.

Jinwoo has one goal and that is protecting the people he loves. He's pragmatic. I think it's interesting he doesn't focus as much on "they tried to kill me multiple times, it was self-defense and defense of another person". Just... "My family is what's important and I'd do it again if I have to." Which, yes, that's a consideration you can have.

I mean he "could" have incapacitated the Lizards, maybe, rather than killing them, but he's not trained to do that, lacked equipment for it, and in the moment it's hard to process that. It just bothers me he doesn't really do any actual emergency training or whatever other than just building up muscle, EXP, and fighting/movement skills. Even his healing solution is just... shove a potion in people's mouths and it's unclear if he has literally any training in first aid of any kind outside that time he helps Song Chiyul wrap his arm.

Also Jinwoo is still really cute :3 He's animated well.

Hehe learning about the detox, poor guy lol I honestly do love the detail that the system detects alcohol as a harmful substance. It's fun when stories add it in.

Jinah worried about him drinking too much T-T They love each other T-T I love themmm

(just skip down three paragraphs if you don't care about my rant about cellphones lol)

One criticism I have because I always focus on the appearance or absence of mobile phones in modern stories where they should be there: the novel focuses a decent amount on how Jinwoo's cellphone broke in the double dungeon, and he has to get a replacement specifically from the Korean Hunter's Association, and that is completely absent from both the manhwa and the anime, and the anime is compensating weirdly. The novel explains, "Hunter-issue smartphones used specialized technology, so Jinwoo had to put in a request directly with the association." (Vol 1, Chapter 4). So the phone does more than just allowing the Hunter's Association easy access to hunters (I think at one point it's shown it works inside the dungeons, when most technology does not, so I imagine it's powered somehow by mana/essence stones). Jinwoo doesn't have the money to speed up the process, so he has to wait for multiple weeks for them to provide him with a new one, and he forgets to take care of it until I think after he's out of the hospital, so that puts off the process even longer. This means: the association cannot contact him except via landline, and anyone with his cell number cannot do so either, unless, presumably, they have his landline number. In the novel, Jinwoo demands an explanation from Jinho for how Jinho has the number on the presumed landline (it's just called "phone" in the Yen press English translation, I don't know why he wouldn't have his cellphone if he has one in the anime outside his bedroom where Jinah is, and I can't imagine Jinho getting Jinah's cell number, or why the Association would have it other than maybe as an emergency contact, which, again, why would he get that number and I feel like Jinwoo would kill him if he did lol), and Jinho explains that he knows someone at the Association.

Most of this revolves initially around various people trying to contact Jinwoo during this non-cellphone time and not getting to him because he literally does not have a phone and, presumably, they don't have his landline number. The nurse whose number he got tries to contact him via his mobile and nearly gives up by the time he gets his phone back to see her messages. Like many related subplots, this is also part of showing that Jinwoo is just... bad at keeping in touch with people lol (I mean he explains, sadly, in the novel, "No one ever calls me anyway." (Vol 1, Chapter 4). But he gave this woman his number and ultimately decides to ignore her/not respond when he sees all the messages she sent him rather than saying literally anything like, "Sorry I was out of touch" or whatever, or just politely turning her down. He does this for most people: most of his interaction with his cellphone is to decide not to use it lol I can see why the manhwa dropped this plot nearly entirely (except for a later modification, which I really like) because it feels clunky. But it creates this weird scenario where... it's South Korea, Jinwoo doesn't have a ton of money but he's doing fine-ish enough to have a giant TV and a computer, and he needs his phone for work. Phones and mobile phones in particular exist in the anime (e.g., we see Woo Jinchul use one, Dongsoo crushes one). So one would ask: why does he not have a cellphone (and when/how did Jinho get his number)? And unrelated: why doesn't his email almost ever get used? The webnovel released in 2016, both would have been commonplace things then; I mean the guy goes onto a forum to ask if other people have leveled up in the novel; it would have been a lot simpler to have Jinho send him an email, though I guess I appreciate the added Jinwoo & Jinah bonding created by keeping this to some extent.

It doesn't ultimately matter in the grand scheme of things. It was really one of the weaker elements of the story and it's really incredibly minor. I can, again, see why the manhwa dropped it and why the anime is side-stepping it when considering what to adapt. But anyway, that was my aside of "how cellphone usage/lack of it when it should be there changes stories". (Also for the record, I think it's good he didn't respond to the nurse, in the end, because that entire plotline is really creepy and probably violates some ethics, but it's also so completely unnecessary).

Jinho pointing out the fight with the Lizards was self-defense :3 Good!

The "this cafe sells coffee" glamour shots are making me laugh, I don't know why lol

One thing that's always intrigued me with this series, and I don't know if this is common to the genre or something, maybe it is, is how much buildings are used as collateral. Like it is a simple truth that buildings are a very core part of value for wealthy people and organizations. Real estate is where big money is made. A lot of people in power literally control large chunks of your local real estate. But a similar story would probably just say like... "I can wire x money to you as needed". Instead this just upfront goes, "I'm rich, but here's this really big money item you could have: a building." It's just neat.

O.o Jinwoo doesn't take Jinho's offer. That's interesting. He does take the offer in both the novel and the manhwa, so I'm unsure about why the change? Maybe it combines into his realization that he needs to level up to face enemies past Cerberus and Jinho is a convenient way to do that.

Dongsoo's Japanese voice actor (Junichi Suwabe) has too pretty a voice for Dongsoo alkdjaldja Like he sounds unfairly beautiful aldkjalalkj (Unsurprising for the guy who voiced Viktor in Yuri on Ice) I don't precisely know what I expected him to sound like, and I'd love to see who they picked for the Korean dub, but alkdjal dang. To be fair... he did also voice Jaeha in Yona of the Dawn, and Grimmjow in Bleach, so I'm not that surprised the actor sounds good... I just. Wow. Salud. I don't know that this works for Dongsoo (at least for me) but he does at least sometimes play annoying dudes lol (I love you Jaeha and Grimmjow, and Viktor and Oda, but still aldkjalj).

Stop fatshaming your sister Jinwoo. You deserved that kick even if you did not at all feel it.

Bonding time ruined T-T

The way the buttons on the system get clicked is such a satisfying look/sound.

O.O oh, Jinwoo's learning about the Elixir of Life way early. That's intriguing! In the novel and manhwa he doesn't learn until way later. The anime is really focusing overall on making his goal centrally about caring for his family rather than more about improvement for the sake of improvement (I mean in the novel it feels kind of like 60/40 trade-off with the former being improvement). I get why the change: it makes him more sympathetic. And it also makes him look less strange for trying this difficult dungeon early, and for why he focuses so hard on getting back to it, even before he knew about the elixir. Also gives him a solid goal for season 2.

The gentle piano is lovely, and really sets the mood well. Jinwoo has a lot on the line: his mother's health, caring for his sister, beyond his own survival. The juxtaposition is really good.

As someone who loves Greek myths, I have seen a lot of designs for Cerberus (I have two plushie three-headed dogs, including the Cerberus from Hades the video game). Can't say I'm a fan of this design lol It's fine. It's functional. It's a very good remake of the manhwa design. I guess it just... didn't look as eh. It moves well and works, and the team did a good job. I think just... seeing more of it highlights how I really don't care for the design lol Dubu/the team were really good at designing some monsters, but not others.

The fight is really amazing and well-paced, though. Though it's an interesting change that the system is the one reminding Jinwoo about the gland during this fight, rather than him doing it on his own (he figures it out after discovering the detox in both the novel and manhwa). I like him making the connection on his own. Jinwoo can be a little thick a lot, but he is pretty intelligent, and that was one of his smarter moments. Ah well.

Will never get tired of his eyes glowing in shots. His wounds steaming as they heal is also a neat effect.

He's getting the Elixir of Life recipe early too :3 That makes sense. Would be weird if they bring that up early and don't reference it again for... goodness I don't even know that they'll come back to it before the season ends. I don't think we will, because I wouldn't be surprised if the season ends with the Igris fight. But it gives something to look forward to for maybe season 2.

Also he gets the dog collar :3 BUT... like the manhwa we don't see him put it on lol In the novel he's really nervous about people seeing him wear it, but canonically speaking, particularly since he never seems to take his armor off other than to exchange it for improved gear, he puts this on and wears an invisible dog collar through a good chunk of the story (until he gets a better neckpiece) lol Love it. Ah well. Would have been funny to see animated but they are generally sticking to the manhwa, so. It would be funny if I was proven wrong <.< Have him put on the collar, anime!!

All in all, a really good episode, with some great animation, some more lovely music, and some lovely moments between Jinwoo and Jinah. This continues the trend of modifying stuff in interesting ways. Looking forward to episode 8!

More episode thoughts:

S01E05

S01E06

S01E07 (you are here)

S01E08

S01E09

S01E10

S01E11

S01E12

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

And Now, the Long Awaited; Cataganda!

“Ferncloud is a cat who decided early on in her adulthood that she wants to stay in the nursery den taking care of children, and also having a number of children herself - making her akin to a kindergarden teacher and kind of a stay at home mom at the same time The fandom opinion of her is a lot better than it used to be, but back then people viewed her and characters like her who chose this instead of the regular work as lazy, selfish, good for nothing because they werent participating much in hunting, gathering or fighting (+the occasional mysogyny), the fandom viewed them as taking from the capable and stuff. For Ferncloud this got even worse due to the fact that she had multiple litters of children herself, which resulted in people calling her a 'the baby making machine' and viewed her as such instead of as a character. This got so bad it convinced one of the writters to straight up kill her off, saying ''she has had it too good''. Suprisingly, when a male character (Fernsong) decided that he wanted to take the role of a den dad, noone thought of him as lazy or anything afaik, but that is a more recent matter"

“Oh god where do you even START with leafpool? Ill try to make this as brief as possible but essentially, Leafpool is a medicine cat (a doctor and a religious figure at the same time, able to talk to cat heaven). One of the rules of medicine cats is that they are not allowed to have children, but because the authors wanted to sprinkle in some drama and hetero romance, she had a brief thing with a guy from another clan (which the cat heaven encouraged her to do and was ok with at the time), which resulted in her getting pregnant. This resulted in her having to give her children up to her sister (which was also encouraged by the cat heaven) and having to watch them grow without her. Eventually it gets found out, and she is punished for this by having her rank be stripped away from her and being publicaly humiliated (and almost being poisoned by her daughter), though the guy she had the fling with basically gets a slap on the wrist and then gets a promotion and gets to stay with his new wife without any humiliation or anything. Leafpool eventually manages to get her rank back though. Later on after some stuff happens she dies in a fight alongside her sister, and the cat heaven is suddenly pissed at her for breaking their dumb as shit rule to the point that they declare a trial for her to see if she is worthy of cat heaven or cat hell. She manages to get into heaven but notbefore getting more humiliated. A trial like this barely ever happens and characters who have done much MUCH worse things then her never went through it and got into heaven without any problem (for example Ashfur who litterally attempted to kill 3 children in a fire because their mother didn't want to be with him yet gor into kitty heaven no problemo bc apparently he just 'loved too much') And there's more to be said but thats mostly of the specific parts i havent read so Anyway i think that Leafpool should be allowed to be pissed off and fight cat heaven and god for what it did to her”

“Basically she (Squirrelflight) is a character that some parts of the fandom love to be misogynistic towards because. Uh. She thinks that sometimes doing the good thing even if it means breaking the rules is a good and necesary thing (the same thing that her dad was very very much known for and done multiple times earlier in the series yet noone complained about it)? Which she gets redicilously punished for by her shitty husband who is also her boss? To the point she is treated as a uncapable child and demeaned constantly by him? And then she gets viewed as abusive as him because she sometimes can try to stand her ground against him and isnt a completely helpless victim 24/7? Oooo what an evil woman”

“In her book she had an illegal crossclan relationship and got pregnant with illegal halfclan kits. Now the big issue with that was that their current deputy (second in command/next in line to rule) was going to retire soon, and she was one of the candidates. The other was Thistleclaw, her brother in law. She did not like him, thought he was violent (he was), and did not want him to be next to rule the clan. In fact he encouraged his apprentice/student to beat up a kitten who was on the border.

"The kit squealed in agony. "Show it your teeth Tigerpaw," Thistleclaw goaded. Tigerpaw sunk his teeth into the kit's shoulder..." He literally once said "It's too easy to invade. Too many invaders. Only fear will keep them out. We must mark our borders with the blood of our enemies."

Her kits being halfclan wasn't known, so that wasn't a problem. What was was that she had young kits. At one point she is allowed by her leader Sunstar to go to the gathering despite her nursing kits. If he doesn't usually let nursing cats go to the gathering, he's definitely not going to make one deputy. When he found out she's pregnant he said "I had hoped that one day you'd follow in my paw steps, but StarClan seems to have a different path for you." He made it clear that he would now choose Thistleclaw.

Their religious healer Goosefeather insists that she needs to be deputy instead of Thistleclaw. He said "If Thistleclaw becomes deputy, it will be the end of ThunderClan." And "But these kits will drown in blood like the rest of their clanmates unless you act." As medicine cat, he's able to speak with StarClan (their ancestors) and recieve prophecies from them. So what he says isn't just intuition, it's also backed up by visions of the future (he's also uniquely able to see the future).

Speaking of visions, she has one about Thistleclaw: "Something dark and sticky was flowing down his pelt. Blood! Thistleclaw was drenched in blood. It oozed from his fur and dripped from his whiskers, staining the snow around him scarlet. ... She caught Goosefeather's eye, and he nodded. He'd seen it too. A vision of ThunderClan's path if Thistleclaw was to lead them."

Because of all of this, she decides to give her kits up and bring them to their father to raise. It's a tough decision, but the future of her clan is at sake. It's also winter, which means that when she makes the journey one of her kits freezes to death. She feels terrible about it (and about lying that a fox took them), but Goosefeather insists that it was the correct code, and she gets the deputyship. When she gets it, her leader says that he chose her over Thistleclaw because "...I don't want my clan to be led into endless fighting. Our borders are strong enough without being marked over and over again in blood." He was also worried about Thistleclaw's violence, but still would have chosen him if she was still nursing.

When she gets the nine lives of a leader from StarClan, her sister (speaking for StarClan and with their knowledge) says "...our clan walks a safer path now." And "You were chosen long ago, and StarClan has never regretted its choice."

All of this goes to say that she made the right choice. Even their ancestors (who can see into the future) agree with her choices, and that she is the right leader. However, a lot of the fandom does not agree. I've been into these books since 2008, and been in the fandom on many sites. Bluestar is a controversial character, and two of those reasons are for giving up her kits, and distrusting Thistleclaw. In text it is explicitly said and shown multiple times that she made the right choices, and that Thistleclaw would have been a violent leader, and yet people don't agree.

People will say that Sunstar totally would have made her deputy even when she was nursing kits (despite that being false in the books) and therefore her giving up her kits was pointless. They'll say that she should have gotten her kits to their father without riding their lives. Anyone she told may have reported her, and she definitely would never have been deputy then. And she told their feather that she'd meet him that night. If she waited for a night with better weather, he probably wouldn't meet her, which would be worse for the kits.

Then a lot of people defend Thistleclaw, saying that we don't actually have proof that he was violent/would be a bad leader, and that Bluestar just didn't like her sister's mate. He encouraged Tigerpaw to attack a small kit, and it probably would have led to the kit dying if she hadn't stepped in. He attacked a cat who was on their side of the border, but was alone and had an excuse, and may have killed him if she hadn't stepped in. Goosefeather - who had visions of the future - repeatedly insisted that Thistleclaw was dangerous, and that the prophecy he'd had about her meant that it was her job to stop him. Yes he has been wrong before, but that was interpreting one omen, and that wasn't a drawn out thing. Finally, their ancestors agreed that she'd done the right thing! In later books they do absolutely have flaws and are often wrong, but that's later! There's nothing to say that they were wrong this time. And yet I've seen a lot of Thistleclaw apologism and people hating and blaming Bluestar. It's been over a decade of me seeing people say these same things.”

“Mapleshade is one of the extremely few female villains in warriors and is arguably the first one, but her actions that people debate more about are more morally messy in what got her sent to cat hell (since all the characters here are cats) as she was avenging her dead children by killing those she believes were responsible for their drowning after she tried to cross a flooded river after being chased from home. Despite the mixed mortality of her story she's been extremely vilified, especially in comparison to other characters in her story, or seen as a completely justified. There's a lot of divide over her, especially in older days of the fandom where most either loved or despised her. Some of the fandom that loves her sees her as a innocent kitty who was never wrong for seeking revenge and deserves to kill everyone else involved which screws her character over in the other direction. I've seen multiple times her being called many derogatory comments and swears with people misinterpreting her story to surprising degrees. For example, at the beginning of her book, we learn quickly that Mapleshade pregnant with the children of anothet cat she is in a secret relationship with a cat who lives in a different colony and is very enamoured by him and slightly possessive. I've seen people state that she baby-trapped her partner in this instance. They are both completely normal cats living in the forests in a rather normal relationship. I've also seen other people directly state that she was completely justified in all her murderers, and believe she should have murdered the innocent pregnant women she wanted to kill. Her character has been so heavily misinterpreted by both making her a completely evil killer and a justified avenger who did nothing wrong.”

“Squirrelflight can’t do so much as breathe the wrong way both in-universe and within fan perception of her/the series. Her mate, Bramblestar, is manipulative and even abusive in canon (mind you, none of this is treated as bad in canon and Bramble is portrayed as a good guy except when the ghost of Squilf’s evil ex takes over his body for a while but that’s a whole other thing). Bramble fans will tell you she deserves it for being “just as bad.” Which… no. Someone going behind their abuser’s back on occasion or arguing with them a few times isn’t equivalent to that person constantly berating them and manipulating situations just to argue with them. Oh yeah so real quick about the shitty ghost ex thing. Ashfur is a cat incel basically and while this part of the fandom has died down over the years there were definitely people back in the day who thought they should be together even though when he was alive he threatened to kill her and her adopted children all bc she wouldn’t date him and he wouldn’t get over it, just because “waaah his manpain and angst.”’

“Ferncloud was not vilified as much as the fandom wanted her dead in the past. For having children. Warriors cats is very msogynistic series despite the writing team being all women as far as I know. Female characters rarely get nuance and they either die young or eventually become a mother for seemingly no reason. Ferncloud was notable in that she became a mother very young and had her first litter of kittens shortly after becoming a warrior which is the equivalent of high-school graduation in warrior cats with her mate, who has been an adult for 90% of her life. Throughout Ferncloud's life she had three litters of kittens, with 4/7 surviving to adulthood. This is not an unusual number of total kittens for real cats and most couples in warriors have 2-5 children. Ferncloud herself was born into a litter of 4 kittens and her granFernclouddmother had 5 kittens across 3 litters depending on if you believe the retcons. Despite the normalcy of this in the series itself Ferncloud has been heavily referred to as a baby factory, both jokingly and derogatorily and many people calling her lazy and unskilled as well since she chosen to be a permeant resident of the nursery and help bring up other cats kittens after having her first litter. The complaints eventually lead to a lot of people saying she should die and stop having children. Later the authors commented the reason she was killed off was because of all the dislike towards her from fans. Her treatment from the fandom literally got her killed off.“

[sunshineblondiewrites]

The First of Us - Chapter 1

My sister tried to eat me

Joel Miller x f!reader (no use of y/n)

Series summary: you and your father meet Joel and Tommy 6 years after outbreak day. You join their group trying to make it to the Boston QZ not realizing all that joining would entail. You eventually make it to the QZ but not without suffering many losses. Tommy decides to join the Fireflies and you and Joel are left with your smuggling partner, Tess, when years later you meet a teenage girl that will bring you and Joel across the country, and maybe together.

Summary: You're 14 years old on September 29th, 2003 living in a small village in Kentucky with your parents and little sister on a farm. You couldn't have imagined how the day would go and the people you would meet 6 years later.

Warnings: death, outbreak day, friends to lovers, reader has a sister, minor physical descriptions of reader, grieving, FFM threeway (does not include reader, cannon typical violence(if I miss any please lmk)

a/n: this is my first fic! I'm super excited and also super nervous... the first three chapters are backstory and then chapter 4 and on will be pretty similar to the show! I wanna say thanks so much to @who-has-my-green-banana for helping me proofread and spellcheck and everything. Hope anyone who reads this, enjoys!

word count 6.2k

Ch2 masterlist

Friday, September 26th, 2003 Hazel, KY

It was a beautiful day. The clouds perfectly covered the sky to make it so that it wasn’t too bright outside but it was still sunny. You still had to walk down your mile-long driveway to the bus stop, so you were able to appreciate the weather every morning. Dad said that as soon as you turned 16 he’d let you drive to school, even though the area you lived in was so small that some parents were letting their kids drive at 15 when they just had their permits, but your dad is a stickler about laws, rules, and safety. He isn’t strict per say, but a protector and chronic worrier. 

The small village of Hazel, Kentucky, where your family farm resided, is home to only 450 people, meaning you had quite the long bus ride to school in the next town over. Hazel is known for its antique malls that dot main street and the “Hazel Day” celebration. Hazel Day was coming up actually and the town was getting ready and getting excited, but no one was more excited than your baby sister, Hazel. Your parents named your sister after the village because it was quite literally a community effort to get her into the world. Your mom’s water had broken in the middle of the local market and she somehow managed to progress so fast that there was no time for hospitals and only time for a sweet old woman's 5 minute car ride to her house and Hazel came not long after in an all natural tub birth. You’d never heard your mom scream so much. 

Hazel Elizabeth was born on September 30th, 1995. You were 6 years older. Your parents had tried for a very long time to get pregnant again after you. Your Dad really wanted a boy but after Hazel essentially arrived with a bow already in her hair it was clear that wasn’t happening and you were his only option, so he decided to teach you the ins and outs of farm life in hopes you would either take over one day or marry a man to take over, you couldn’t quite figure out which. That was another thing about the town of Hazel, people frequently got married right out of high school since the town was so small and was so incredibly old fashioned. Your Dad however never let you watch or do any of the butchering, he always said “killing is a man’s job, no woman should have blood on her hands.” But you didn’t care because you frequently named the animals and you slept better not knowing which of your pet chickens was in your mom’s chicken noodle soup. 

When you finally arrived at school and sat at your desk for your first hour, groaning internally when the usual ruckus broke out from the junior boys. They seemed to have no problem that they were still taking sophomore level English. You, however, were taking classes a year ahead. You were something of a smarty pants thanks to your mom’s ever present hand in your education. She worked part-time at one of the antique shops so she was often home to help with your studies or let you out of chores to go read. Her parents couldn't afford college for her so she wanted the best chance for you to get a good scholarship and be able to go. 

“Well aren’t you all extra fidgety today?” Mrs. Charleson said, “But it’s Friday, so pop quiz time to make sure you’re all caught up on the reading.”

Madison smugly raised her hand and you visibly cringed before the smart ass remark you knew she was about to make made its way to the surface. She’s your “neighbor” because her family is the only people who live within 6 miles from your house. “If you give us a pop quiz every Friday, is it even a pop quiz anymore?” She said and the Junior boys giggled. Gross.

“And yet some of you are still surprised,” Mrs. Charleson replied, smiling just as smartly. That made you and many other students laugh, proving why she was without a doubt your favorite teacher.

—

You aced your quiz. When the final bell rang you couldn’t wait to get out of there. Something was just off with everyone today but you couldn’t quite decide what it was. You headed to your locker to grab your snack of raisins and peanuts and then started walking in the direction of the local dress shop where your sister would be getting the final alterations done to her dress for the Hazel Day pageant.

“Hey Hazie!” you shout as you walk in and see your adorable baby sister. Her blonde curls somehow so effortlessly laid across her shoulders.

Hazie shrieks your name in excitement, “Come look at my dress!!” You walk further into the dress shop to see your sister in her Barbie pink pageant gown that you’d guess weighed more than she did soaking wet. It had everything a girl like Hazie could ever dream of, pink ribbons, ruffles, and even lace.

“Well aren’t you just the prettiest princess!” You said giving her a twirl.

“Oh don’t move so much I haven’t taken out the last pin!” Mrs. Vivian said. She was the owner of the dress shop and also the old woman from the market who took your mom to have a baby in her bathtub. She gave your mom a discounted rate for alterations for your sister’s endless pageant dress collection which helped your parents be able to support her pageant dreams. It was still a fucking expensive hobby and your parents definitely had more financial strain because of it, but whatever to make your little Hazie happy. 

Once alterations were done, Mrs. Vivian promised to have it done by October 1st which was 3 days before Hazel Day. “And don’t worry about this round of alterations Lillian, this one’s on me,” Mrs. Vivian said.

“Oh Vivian I couldn’t possibly allow you to do that,” your mother frantically replied. She absolutely hated accepting help from anyone.

“No, no, I insist! It’s a birthday present for our future junior pageant Queen.”

“Well, thank you, could I still at least give you a tip?” Your mother began bargaining. Mrs. Vivian along with everyone else was obsessed with your sister. Disney Princesses may not be real but they came to life in sweet Hazel Elizabeth. She deadass would have squirrels and birds and whatever else following her around, it was bizarre. But you couldn’t deny the fact that the effect of the sweet beacon of innocence and joy your sister had on people affected you too. Hazie was your everything, there’s not a single thing you wouldn’t do to protect her, not that she needed it. She may be pretty and cute, but she had quite the stubborn head on her shoulders.

“Momma can I have one more cookie before we go?” Hazel asked with the biggest doe eyes you ever did see, in what world would your mother ever be able to say no to her?

“You’ve already had two… how about half if you split it with your sister?” Your mother replied. 

“Okay!” Hazel grabbed the chocolate chip raisin cookies Mrs. Vivian had made and split it mostly in half and handed you the other piece. You were still a little hungry, but you’d just had your snack of raisins and decided that your daily tolerance of their texture was up, so you slipped Hazel the half she gave you on your walk back to the car.

“Shh,” you smiled at her, winking and watching her sweet blue eyes brighten at the sight of what would complete her third cookie. You tossed your backpack in the trunk next to Hazel’s homeschool books and popped in the front seat next to your mom. Your parents decided to homeschool your sister when the pageants and travel started affecting her ability to attend school. Plus it was one less thing your parents would have to pay for, so most of Hazel’s school supplies were just your old school supplies. It seemed like your mom kept everything you or Hazel ever touched. 

“Mommy? I feel a little funny.” Hazel piped up from the backseat, interrupting your looking-out-the-window-music-video-vibe you had going on while listening to Beyonce’s newest hit “Crazy in Love.”

“Honestly me too Hazie. Now yours may have to do with the three- yes, three- cookies you ate today. I saw you trying to be sneaky,” your mother glanced at you for a second, “but I think the weather’s changing so it may have something to do with that too.”

“Yeah it’s probably just a bug going around. People were weird today at school too,” you added, trying to ease Hazel’s worries.

“A BUG?? I don’t wanna be sick for my birthday Mommy,” Hazel pouted.

“Oh you won’t, love. It’ll pass, I promise. Do you have any homework today?” 

“No, just a test I need to study for in science.” You saw an opportunity and decided to take it. “So I’m not sure I can go to the pre-banquet tonight.”

“WHAT?” Hazel shouted from the backseat.

“Your sister’s right, the banquet won’t be a good use of her time if she needs to study. She’ll be at the pageant though, don’t worry.” Your mom’s obsession with your studies increased once your parents pulled Hazel from school, so you couldn’t be happier to study for your science test. Sitting in a stuffy room all dressed up eating stale food and surrounded by a bunch of snobby girls and their mothers was not how you wanted to spend your evening. You liked dressing up for church on Sundays and special occasions and you wore a little makeup every day, but you certainly were no pageant girl.

“Gosh it’s already 5:00. Help Hazel get ready will you? We need to leave in 45 minutes if we wanna make it there by 6:20…” your mom got out of the car rambling. If your dad was a chronic worrier your mother was an incessant worrier.

“Come on Hazie, let's get you all dressed up,” you said. You were no makeup artist, but for only being 14 and hardly wearing any makeup, you considered yourself pretty good. It was probably due to having done your sister’s makeup for so long. You may not like doing it very much, but you loved making Hazel happy and this definitely made her happy. 

“Stop jittering so much. I can barely get this eyeliner on straight and you know I’m no good at eyeliner anyway,” you said.

“I’m sorry, I think I’m just cold," your sister said softly. You immediately felt terrible and grabbed a light pink blanket off her bed and draped it over her shoulders.

“Maybe you are getting sick?” You took your hands to her forehead, but she was cold. “Huh no fever, though.” You more or less got her eyeliner on and started to touch up where her natural curls had flattened. Then you pulled the front bits back into a half up half down look and applied just a touch of tinted lip gloss. She may be required to wear makeup for these pageants but you still wanted her to look more like herself. 

“Thank you sissy,” Hazel said and gave you a big hug.

“Of course. And always remember you’re my favorite princess and you’re so so beautiful no matter what anyone says about you,” you said. You’d always been worried about what the effect of pageant life would have on her. You’d seen how deathly skinny some of the older pageant girls are, but you’re just glad Hazel still wants a third cookie.

“HAZEL ELIZABETH WE NEED TO LEAVE!”

“You better go. You know what mom’s like when she thinks she's gonna be late,” you warn your sister.

“I don’t know why she thinks we’re gonna be late, right now we’re still getting there 25 minutes early.”

“Ah, but,” you start.

“Early is on time, on time is late, and late is just unacceptable,” you and Hazel quote your mother perfectly. 

“HAZEL!” Your sister's eyes widen as she gives you a kiss on the cheek and then runs out of her room. You hear your mother shout love and goodbye, but leaves you no time to respond before the door slams and you’re met with silence. 

Just how you like it.

—

When your dad came in from the fields to find you at home, he wasn’t at all surprised, but that did mean you had to help him out with a few final things he wanted to get finished up today. When you tried to fix up something for dinner you realized your mom has been so preoccupied with Hazel and the pageant next weekend that going to the market must have slipped her mind, so you both settled on popcorn for dinner. 

“Now if we’re having popcorn for dinner, we have to watch a movie,” your dad said, shrugging.

“I think you’re right.” You could study for the test later. “What do you wanna watch?”

“Hmmm, how about Harry Potter?”

“Sorcerer's Stone or Chamber of Secrets?”

“Chamber of Secrets for sure. I wanna watch the scene of Hermione as that nightmarish cat” your dad replied. You started searching the DVD cabinet for the movie. “By the way, when’s the third one supposed to come out?”

“Uhhh sometime next summer I think? Ya know, you could just read the books to find out what happens.”

“And spoil the movie?! I would never,” your dad dramatically puts his hand out in front of you, reminding you where Hazel gets all her sass from. You, on the other hand, were more like your mother- empathetic to all, but protective of those you care about. Always a silent watcher and observer, thinking and planning what the correct response or move should be in a situation. It’s why your dad refuses to play board games anymore because either you or your mom would destroy him and Hazel and then it was just a battle between the two of you to see who could outsmart the other. You’d only beaten your mother once. She always seemed to be one step ahead of you. She claims it’s what happens when you become a parent, you’re too mentally prepared for any option to be surprised when something happens. Your dad would always say that’s bullshit because it’s never helped him out, which then turns into your mother scolding him for cursing around Hazel. You work with him in the barn so you’ve heard all the profanities, thanks to his frustrations, so she's not worried about you. She’s under the impression you just filter it out and have the vocabulary of a saint, but in reality you just don’t do it around her and your dad graciously hasn’t told her. 

About thirty minutes into the movie, your dad is passed out on the couch so you head upstairs to study for your test on Monday. Whatever made your teacher decide a test after the weekend was a good idea needs to be reevaluated. You plopped down at your desk, opened your textbook and notes, and began to go through them. You had stayed up late the night before studying the reading for the “pop quiz” you took today so your eyes started drooping a lot faster than you thought they would and before you knew it you had passed out on your desk reading your notes.

—

It was 11:30 when you heard it. A strange, croaking noise coming from down the hall that awoke you from your impromptu nap. You were a little disoriented from falling asleep at your desk. Your desk lamp was off, so you assumed one of your parents had shut it off before they went to bed. You turned the lamp back on and realized you had drooled on your notes. Shit. You had only smudged the ink a little bit and decided they were legible enough before you heard it again. Is there a fucking frog in the house? You tried to reason with your very sleep clouded brain when the croaking got closer and you heard a door creak. You got up from your desk chair to peek out your door and saw a small shadow had appeared in the darkness of the hallway. Assuming she also heard the freaky croaking noises and got scared, you called out to her in a whisper.

“Hazie? Are you okay?”

She tilted her head at you and you heard more croaking.

“Hazie…?” 

She jumped at you, and an inhuman sound came out of her–a shriek or scream or something you couldn’t even begin to describe. Before you knew it she was on you, clawing, snapping her teeth, and scratching. You were quite a bit bigger than her, and Hazel has always been quite small for her age so you could overtake her physically, but the mental hurdle of trying to understand what she was doing was a battle.

“Hazel? Hazie? Hazel? What the hell is going on, stop it!” You were wrestling with her at the top of the stairs and were starting to get scared she was gonna take you both down them. She kept croaking and screeching and suddenly the light was turned on. Your father stood at the bottom of the stairs, not croaking thankfully, but looking confused. When your mom and sister came home they must have left your dad on the couch and shut your lamp off.

“What the fuck are you two doing? Get off her!” You didn’t know who he was referring to but you didn't have time to ask before you heard more shrieks and inhumane croaks coming from your parents room. The door was shut but it was shaking like someone was pounding on it.

“Dad, something is wrong,” you said, starting to panic now at the possibility your mother would come barreling out of the room acting just like Hazel, or worse. Your dad started moving up the stairs, causing Hazel to suddenly stop attacking you and fly at your father, straight down the stairs. Hazel, or this creature that looked like Hazel, missed your dad completely and basically just flung herself down the stairs. That fall should have killed her or broken a bone at the very least, but she hit the bottom and just got straight back up, then turned to look at the two of you. The croaking and shrieking coming from your parents room was now partnered with sirens and helicopters outside. You didn’t know what was happening but you knew everything was changing much too fast for your liking. 

Hazel stood there, staring at you and your father, and started twitching. Similarly to how she had while you were doing her makeup, but more violent. She opened her mouth and in the light from the lamp in the living room and the one above the stairs you could see that there was a tendril-looking plant coming out of your sister's mouth that was moving on its own. You almost thought you were hallucinating. Something compelled your father to move. He barreled down the few stairs he’d come up and grabbed your sister by the neck like he was about to choke her, moving her head up to immobilize it. He studied her for a second before throwing her in the kitchen pantry and shutting the door. She started croaking again. But now she was also screaming. Not the shrieks from before, it sounded like the Hazel you knew. Screams she’d make when she saw a bug or got dirt on her hands. Screams she made when she fell off her bike. Screams like how she should have screamed when she flung herself down the stairs. 

Your dad calling your name brought you out of your daze. “I need you to grab something heavy that I can put in front of the door,” he shouted over Hazel and your mother’s screams. You’d never heard so much noise. So much unpleasant noise and it was loud. Loud. So, so loud. You couldn’t think. You could barely will yourself to move from the top of the stairs. Your arms stung and were sticky with blood pouring from where Hazel had scratched you. Could you even say that was Hazel? A more concerning bang from your parents door made you run down the stairs much faster. You could take Hazel in a fight like that, but definitely not your mother. Thankfully, the door held through. You don’t know where you found the strength to push the DVD cabinet in front of the pantry door. Just a few hours ago you were searching through it to find Harry Potter, and now you’re using it to trap your “sister” in the pantry. 

“What is happening?” You frantically asked your father. More like yelling at your father over the noise. You just needed it to stop being so loud so you could think. 

“I don’t know.” Your father moved from the pantry door that was barely holding on due to your sister trying to break through it. She isn’t that strong. She can’t be that strong? Your dad turns the TV on to see news reports of towns and cities on fire, people killing what looks like other people before cameras could cut away. The signal was barely pulling through, but you could see enough. When the signal was fully cut out, your dad moved to the radio, where they were talking about people who were acting similar to your mom and sister, and how they’re not safe and people need to run or kill them. Then there were croaks and screams and the signal went out and all you heard from the radio was static. Static, screaming, shrieking, your father’s heavy breathing, you couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

“Go to your room, shut the door, lock it, and stay in there until I come get you,” your father moved over to his desk in his office and took his gun out of the drawer and loaded it.

“Dad…? What the fuck are you doing?” You followed him, but suddenly heard gunshots in the distance and more sirens and you both looked out the window. It was rare to hear sirens all the way out where you lived, so you both knew that if you could hear them, it didn't mean anything good.

“What everyone else is,” he said, turning from the window to look at you. He moved to where you were at the front of his office and you could see the conflict in his eyes when he looked at you. “I don’t want this on your conscience.” You couldn’t hold it in anymore. You started to cry. You cried, the shrieks blending in with your sobs. You so desperately wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

“I know sweetheart, I’m sorry.” You looked up and your father was crying too. In your 14 years of life you had never seen your dad cry. That scared you even more. 

“Go in your room,” he said sternly, trying to hide his emotions and tears. You wordlessly followed his orders, taking one last look at the pantry, the pounding on the door was going to be the last thing you saw your sister do alive. Your father was about to kill your sister, and your mother. And you were not only letting him, you almost felt thankful. They won’t have to suffer anymore. At the top of the stairs, right before the door to your room, you watched the pounding on the door to your parents room too before slipping into your room and closing the door, locking it, and staying there. Just as you were told. You’d always been a rule follower, but you just never thought it would be something like this.

A few minutes passed before you heard the DVD cabinet get moved and the pantry door finally break open. You assumed your dad had to talk himself into what he was about to. Then you heard it. Bang. A set of croaking stopped and you heard your dad’s sobs as he climbed up the stairs. You sobbed into the pillows of your bed. Then you heard the same thing as before, the door opened, and then the gun went off.

Bang.

And you’re met with silence, but this time you don’t like it.

—

6 years later, date unknown, year 2009

It was a beautiful day. Sunny with a soft breeze. You stood at the two matching headstones with the wildflowers you’d gathered, taking the dead ones out of the pot and adding the new ones. You and your father had stolen the headstones a few weeks after outbreak day. You couldn’t even really say stolen. The owner had gotten infected, and no one was really around to stop you. You and your father carved their names into them that night and wheelbarrowed them over to where you buried them the next morning. Lillian Rose and Hazel Elizabeth. You saw their bodies, for closure purposes. Both with a bullet in the head and cordyceps, you now knew, in their mouths. They didn’t look like them, which helped only a little bit because it didn’t help any with the fact they were dead. 

Your father and you drove into town the morning after and got a little bit of information. What law enforcement had told them to do in town, none of them apparently cared enough to go out to the countryside assuming we were all dead. Then what we knew so far about the people being dubbed “the infected,” it passed through bites so you were okay since you only got scratched but you and your dad were both on edge for a few days. And that the town leaders left were calling for a meeting to see who was alive and who wasn’t. 

Out of the 450 people in Hazel, 25 people remained. Two of which being you and your father, so 23 others. Most of them were the only ones of their families to survive. It seemed like if you didn’t get sick, a family member bit you before you could do anything or register what was happening. That seemed to be what happened to your neighbors. Your dad killed a lot of infected people that day, including Madison and her family. It seemed like her parents had gotten sick and attacked her because she had a bite mark and they didn’t.

 The general consensus of the meeting was that you can try to make it to what eventually became the Nashville QZ, at the time it was just a government support station, because it was closer than the Frankfort one or you can stay here and play survival. Most of the older people decided to try to make it to the QZ, but you and your dad decided to stay. You both felt safer in your own hands rather than someone else’s. After some cars were stocked with people, gas, and food you sent over half of who were left away.

You started playing adult that day. Your father asked for your opinion on every decision setting up this new version of your father-daughter relationship as partners and equals, knowing the two of you were really the only ones you could trust. You’d gone through everything the two of you did that day, why hadn’t you two gotten sick? You figured it out before the authorities did that it was probably flour. The only common thing you and your dad had done was not eat something with flour. Even six years later you think about what might have happened if you had eaten the cookie and gotten sick or if you and your dad had decided to order pizza instead of just eating popcorn and got sick. 

You raided the market for non-perishable goods first, then houses. You stepped over bodies, infected and not. You gathered a hell of a lot of gas and stuff for your farm animals. Living off of your land and what you could find was hard, but after you heard about what was going on in the local QZs you were glad you and your father decided to stay.

You were already pretty outdoorsy, but your father taught you even more. You had your own gun now, you practiced throwing knives in your spare time, and you helped with the butchering now and again. You tried to stay good, it’s what your mom would have wanted, so the occasional straggler was given a meal and a place to sleep for the night before “gently” being told to get on their way. You rarely ran into infected, but when you did, you killed them with ease. Your dad hated when you wouldn’t let him do it. He was still trying to preserve some kind of innocence he thought was left in you.

You can’t lie to yourself, the apocalypse and the world shutting down requiring you to work more combined with the fact you had just gotten older had given you the looks you wished you had at 14. You could tell by the way men looked at you when they stopped by your house, and because you weren’t blind. You were 20 now, your body was now fully developed, your hair was long, you’d gotten slightly taller, and your body was thinner and more toned. 

You and your dad decided to do one of your rare visits to town to find some cars to get gas out of and maybe check in with the people and make sure they’re doing okay. Out of everyone left in Hazel, you were significantly better off than most people because of the farm and just being more able bodied. There weren’t a lot of families in Hazel, most of them were in the next town over, so it was a lot of middle to late aged people just doing what they could and trading with you and your dad for food. You certainly weren’t living luxuriously or comfortably per say, but your worries were certainly less than others.

Your dad headed into one of the antique shops on main street to see if they still had anything of value. You both ignored the fact this was where your mom worked, and that you’d searched this one hundreds of times, rarely finding anything, and you were only here because it made you feel closer to her. Then you saw them, straight in front of you. A group of people you’d never seen before. They’d just walked out of what used to be the local bar and it looks like they found a stash the other people in town had either been saving or hadn’t found yet. The man at the front of the group noticed you first then said something to the others that made them look your way. It immediately made you worry, you’re used to taking one, maybe two people in for a night but not… 8.

“Dad?” You called softly trying not to give off that you were scared but with enough urgency that he came out immediately. He too noticed what you had seen and that they were headed right towards you.

“Fuck,” he said taking his gun out from behind his back and holding it down at his side, as did you.

“Well hellooo there,” the man who was in front said with a bit of a southern accent, “who might we have here to bless us?”

“Mike, how about you?” your father said and you smirked.

“Well I’m Ryan, and we’re just a group of people trying to get by, you think you could help us with that?” You scanned over the group of them, out of the 8 only 2 were female, but they all looked set to kill you and your father at any second. But there were two men in the back, however, who looked uncomfortable. They looked similar enough to be at least related, maybe brothers. One was taller and more well built than the other who was only slightly shorter but skinnier and with more defined muscles but you could tell they could both pick you up one handed and throw you down with ease. The taller one definitely caught your eye the longest, he looked like he’d seen some things.

“That depends, what exactly do you want from us?” Your father did the talking and like always you did the observing.

“Some food to start, our location, and maybe something fun for later,” Ryan said, eyeing you. Bold. Now you had to speak up.

“I don’t know what you had in mind but I can guarantee my idea of fun and yours may not be the same,” you said softly but not unstrong. You can sense that he doesn’t like hearing no so you’ll at least be gentle about it.

“Oh please enlighten me,” he said, taking a step toward you. You took a step toward him.

“I like to throw knives, and I can think of a target I could practice with, if it's not too small,” you say, giving him a sweet smile. The other members of the group giggle and this Ryan guy backs off.

“Aren’t you just a sweet peach,” he said sarcastically.

“Now, we can help with the food and location, but if you’re going to stay here you’re going to follow our rules. Got it?” You said.

“Now what makes you think we’re gonna wanna abide by that?” Ryan says.

“Because you wouldn’t be asking us for help if you didn’t need it, and looks to me like this girl over here is coming down with something so you need medication too. I can also tell that you all are longing for a good night's rest and haven’t eaten well in a few days, so if you want any of that, you're gonna listen to us.” Your observations seemed to sway them because soon enough they were in the bed of your dad’s pickup and you were headed back to your house.

— 

You all exchanged information and food. They snarfed their meals and you couldn’t blame them. You learned most of them were from Texas but a few were from Louisiana and Mississippi. They were traveling north, apparently the QZs in the bigger cities like Boston and Philadelphia were doing better than the Kentucky ones so they were trying to make it there because life in the open was getting harder and harder. You learned that the FEDRA people had finally developed a test for cordyceps that pinched you in the neck and the reader would light up green or red. But the most thought provoking thing you learned was about raiders and FEDRA raids. You and your dad had thought the FEDRA raids were over, but apparently they were still going out on random raids to try to collect people. Not things or supplies, people. And then killing them because dead people can’t get infected. But the sound of raiders just terrified you. You figured the people in front of you were raiders of a sort but they seemed to be on the better end of what’s out there.

“We only kill if they attack us first, raiders kill first,” a woman named Sasha said. You looked at your dad and you could see the thoughts crossing his mind. We won’t be safe from any of that. 

“If you think it would be best, you’re welcome to join us. Your food supplies should get us most of the way there and if we can ride in your truck it would help us get there faster. Try to find better lives for all of us,” another guy whose name you haven’t been told yet said.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea Blake, but we’ll have to let them think about it,” Ryan said in response. 

You looked at your dad shrugging your shoulders slightly, “It’s not a bad idea, we’ll eventually run out of things here and one dry season and that's it.” Your dad looks at you slowly and you try to communicate with your eyes what you’re really thinking. It’s an opportunity to get out of here with actual able bodied help to maybe find somewhere easier.

“Okay,” he says to you first, “okay,” he says again directed at Ryan.

You picked up some of the dishes and headed into the kitchen to start washing them. You quickly grabbed the extra soap from the pantry and a common thought of yours crossed your mind, that you didn’t have to open the door anymore. You heard footsteps behind you and who you expected to be your father was actually the two men you had guessed were brothers, carrying the other dishes. 

“Oh, well thanks…” you said, a little surprised.

“Yeah, no problem,” the younger one said with a real southern drawl you hadn’t heard in a long time, “I’m Tommy by the way. And this is my older brother…” 

“Joel.”

[ky-tumbles]

Navigating - Bradley Bradshaw (4)

pt1 pt2 pt3 pt5 pt6

The sun has finally set. Your dad and Penny were long gone, taking advantage of Amelia being gone for the night you imagine. The group had built a fire and everyone was gathered around.

Bradley had pulled you out of you chair, sitting in it first before pulling you into his lap. The warmth of his body behind yours is comforting as the San Diego air has cooled off in the absence of the sun.

“Did you guys get to do a gender reveal?” Phoenix questions, she’s sat across the fire from you two.

“No, we didn’t,” you pout, Bradley chuckles as he snuggles his face into the crook of your neck. “We actually didn’t want to know.”

“But you know you’re having a boy?” Hangman’s eyebrow is raised, he’s clearly confused.

“The appointment was just about to end, the sonographer knew what we were having and suddenly our little guy turned over and it was pretty hard to deny what we were having,” you blush a little, recalling the pure shock of your boy flashing himself for the world.

“Takes after his dad,” Bradley smirks, the pride flowing off his body in what can only be described as pure arrogance.

“So that’s why they call you Rooster, huh?” Hangman jibs, playfully nudging you as he takes a seat in the chair beside you.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” You tease back, scrunching your nose playfully at the blonde. Your husband groans underneath you, attempting to pull you closer into him

The group quiets down a little, everybody contemplating the next couple of days. There’s a mission on the horizon that no one can really shake from their psyche.

“Hey Y/N?” Bob catches your attention, he’s sat beside Pheonix, beer in hand as he makes eye contact.

“Yes Bob?”

“Did you see a lot of your dad growing up?” The question has the groups attention drawn to you. Since most had gone to the academy or even TOPGUN with you, they’d known the captain assigned to them this time around was none other than your father.

“What do you mean?” You’re thrown off guard by Bob’s inquiry, Bradley sensing your confusion sneaks his hands under your shirt to rub circles on your hipbone.

“You lived with your mom right?”

That sets you in to laughter, even your husband chuckles at that.

“No Bob, I did not. Dad had sole custody of me,” you take a deep breath as you begin your story. “It was supposed to be a one night stand. Then my biological mother found out she was pregnant with me, not long after she met my stepfather, Steve, who didn’t want a child that wasn’t his. Bio mom signed over her parental rights to dad because Steve also refused to let her get an abortion. Dad was the first one to hold me in the hospital, as soon as I was born my bio mom essentially wanted nothing to do with me.” Your heart clenched at the thought of the woman who never really wanted you.

“Wow,” Bob’s jaw has dropped, the rest of the group is silent just watching and gauging your reaction.

“We had a place right next to Brad and Carole, no matter where we went in the world, we always came back. Until middle school, when Carole insisted I have a steady education. I actually have four half sisters who have no idea I exist.” You feel like you’ve brought the group down, you try not to think about your mom often as it’s quite painful.

“Your dad was the best parent though, between him and my mom, I’d say we turned out pretty damn good.” Bradley smiles, pressing a kiss against your cheek.

"Yeah, he was my best friend," You reply, Bradley clears his throat loudly. "You know damn well you've been more than my best friend for our entire lives."

With that, he cups your chin and brings your lips against his. The rest of the group fades into other conversations and you're left with the feeling of just you and Rooster against the world.

"Love you, Pumpkin."

Tagging:

@rattiefattie69 @lunamoonbby @itscheybaby @rosewritesitout @paulina1998 @laurashadowsblog @talktomeice @nobody7102 @ohhh-boo-tiful @craziblondi @mads-weasley @jonginvlog @buxkybarnez @kana-austin @pepelachanel @nekrasinclair @cassbntp @lovemesomevesey @fogle97

[snazzilystoopid]

Ninjago little sister AU, pt. 3~ Jay's turn!!

This is kinda longer than I thought it would be but I hope yall like it anyways <3

Hope you all enjoy 🤭🤭

Gwendolyn "Gwen" Gordon

She hates the name Gwendolyn with a burning passion, so most people just call her Gwen.

Jay calls her Lyn most of the time

So basically Gwen had no idea that Jay existed up until the space of time between Possesion and Dotd

(To make space for when Skybound would've taken place)

Gwen was born a year after Jay, and their mom decided to leave Jay at the junkyard because once she divorced Cliff, she wanted to keep them both

Unfortunately she wasn't able to take care of two young children by herself and made the difficult decision to give up her eldest child

She was leaning towards keeping Jay at first, because he was the one who inherited her elemental powers

She ultimately decided to keep Gwen, bear in mind her taking the children wasn't agreed between her and Cliff

So "Johnny Law" (as Kai calls it lmao) got involved and Libber was forced to hand custody over to Cliff, whom Gwen has lived with ever since

Up until he died obviously

Yes he did still die even though Skybound technically didn't happen

Anyways, Gwen grew up in a very fortunate household, though her father was distant due to his job and because he'd much rather hang out with other random women, models, etc

So she's raised by herself, more or less

Nothing really special happened in her life before she met Jay. She goes to school like any normal kid would, she also becomes a fan of the ninja (like any normal kid would)

Just like her dad, Jay was her favourite (but she didn't know he was Cliff's favourite because its his son ofc)

But one thing stood out throughout her younger years and it was that she wished she was taken by her mom, not her dad

Because he never paid attention to her

When Cliff passed away, she got a hold of his will and was a little confused as to why half of it wasn't in her possesion

She wasn't actually living in the mansion when he passed, by this point she had gotten an apartment of her own (with her dad's money 😭)

Meanwhile Jay still gets the letter that his dad died

Only this time he knows it's not Ed, it's Cliff

So Ed and Edna give him the key to his mansion, at the same time, Gwendolyn also makes her way to the mansion and unlocks it first with her spare key

Jay shows up afterwards and explores the mansion for a bit, looking at the places he hadn't already been to, before finding Gwen's old room

Little did he know that she was already in there

When he opened the door, Gwen grabbed a replica of his nunchucks and threatened him lol

Because she was confused as to why there was another human in her dad's house

Jay explained that Cliff is his birth dad and he was left at a junkyard blah blah blah

By this point Gwen realised she was related to the Lightning Ninja and she actually squealed

Poor Jay is so confused but Gwen explains that she's Cliff's kid as well, and she's lived with him for most of her life

So they hug and Jay cries bc hes emotional like that

Gwen takes him on a little tour of the house, she doesn't know that Jay's already been here but anyways

They go back to her apartment and she tells him all about her crappy childhood with basically no father

Jay cries some more because he then realises that his sis had to grow up with essentially no family

He offers to take her to visit Ed and Edna, and she agrees

(Yes this is still happening between DotD and Possesion)

The Walkers feel so bad and basically become her second parents

She still lives in her apartment, but she would come over to visit them a lot during the events of DotD and HoT

So after Wu gets lost in the time stream, Jay and Cole go looking for him

But before Jay leaves, Gwen gets to meet each of the ninja first because her bro wanted to flex that he's got a little sister

Even though she keeps telling him they're only like 14 months apart

When she was introduced to Cole she nearly had a heart attack

She has the BIGGEST crush on this guy

Once he left she wouldn't shut up about him and that really pissed Jay off

She met Nya last, and Jay at first introduced her as one of his friends

Jay left the room they were all in for like 5 minutes and thats when Nya explained that her and Jay were actually dating

Gwen didn't mind but then after that they became besties hehe

Gwen and Jay stay in touch while he's away looking for Wu, and she's the first person he visited when he got back

During that time she had become a Mechanic like Ed

They played video-games for like 3 hours straight

At the beginning of Hunted, Gwen joins the resistance as a mechanic

But she was kinda bitter about the whole thing because at first she thought her bro had been squashed like a bug by Garmadon

He was ok but still after that she just stopped admiring the fact that he was a ninja

She hated the idea of her only birth family left being in constant danger

Ed and Edna tried talking to her but she always refused to visit the monastery

So whenever they wanted to meet up it had to be somewhere in Ninjago City or at the junkyard

Nya texted her when Jay got sucked into Prime Empire, having a literal meltdown

Then the rest of the Ninja (minus Zane) get sucked in

Gwendolyn was pretty pissed off and she stormed right up to the monastery, yelling at Master Wu, who had no idea what the hell was going on

But then Zane explained she was Jay's little sis and she got even more pissed off when he said "little"

She basically cussed him out for letting him get into all this trouble and him being in danger all the time

After Gwen calmed down Wu explained how it was completely Jay's choice but this girl didn't give a shit

She ended up helping them out anyways lol

When Jay returned she gave him a big hug and he got all teary-eyed bc he missed her sm 🥰

Just before the Ninja got the letter about Shintaro, Gwen tried to ask Cole out on a date with Kai and Jay's flirting advice

The silly guy didn't take the hint and she was friendzoned

She considered herself pretty good-looking and approachable, and was severely humbled by this

Jay didn't stop laughing about it until Nya told him to stfu

By the end of crystalized, Gwendolyn is the same age as Jay!

Time for more facts hehe

Gwen has brown hair, but she dyes it blonde

Because of this most of the time no one would think that she and Jay were siblings, but if you look closely, you van definitely tell, mostly because of their freckles

Nya and Gwen both do impressions of Jay whenever he's around as a joke

Nya also told her about the events of Skybound, and she's the only other person who knows about those events

Gwen hasn't got any elemental powers, however she, like Jay, is immune to electrocution (meaning it can't kill them, but it can hurt them)

She she has a lightning ninja-themed hoodie that she wears almost everywhere

Whenever the ninja want to have parties (that aren't under Wu's watch) they always go to Gwen's apartment

This basically means whenever they want to have alcohol at a party they always go somewhere else bc Wu's banned alcohol from the monastery 😭

Whenever Cole talks to her she goes really pink in the face, which Jay always teases her about

If someone ever calls her by her full name, her left eye will start to twitch out of irritation

Ed and Edna bought Gwen this blue teddy bear plushie for her birthday, and from then on she never went to sleep without it

She decided to name the plushie "Jaya" after Nya and Jay 🥰

That's everything!! This one was kinda long heh, also sorry if you find any typos in this-

Lloyd is next, prepare for a tragic ending lol

[slayerkitty]

@lurkingshan poked at me and said I should write out my thoughts about Tai in relation to being a middle child of divorced parents and why he’s acting the way he is. I can’t promise this is gonna be any kind of coherent, cause ya’ll, this episode hit me in feels I haven’t had since I was a kid, but I’ve cranked my BL OST playlist and I’m gonna give it a shot. 

So, first things first - I am a middle child (one older sister, one younger brother) of divorced parents. My parents divorced when I was pretty young (six-ish?). My mother remarried when I was eight, and she and my step-father divorced when I was sixteen. So when I say I relate so hard to Tai and how he processes...life, it’s kinda scary.  

Let’s back up though and talk about a couple of things that are gonna apply to Tai here that obviously wouldn’t in a normal situation like this as we aren’t all living in a soulmate AU. 

Like most, if not all soulmate AU’s, society has placed pressure and expectation on those who meet the criteria of the world they’re based in. That means from the moment Tai was old enough to understand language (as young as one-two, he probably understood that sometimes mom and dad can’t hear him when it rains) and by the time he was school age, I would assume that he knows and understands his parents can “hear” each other when it rains, and that means (says who? I mean really, who decided this?) that his parents are soulmates. This is something that is an inherent, ingrained part of their culture as well as their family dynamic. 

(Side note: I cannot remember if Tai said how young the hearing loss starts, just that I think at twenty, you would start to hear your “soulmate” when it rained)

So picture Tai, a middle child with three other siblings who craves attention and validation, finding out that of his siblings, he’s the only one who’s like his parents. There’s a post by @syrena-del-mar here who goes more in depth about the sibling’s birth order and what it means for each of their characters and personalities; middle child syndrome is a real thing (*points to self*). Tai having this connection with his parents when his other siblings didn’t would be so meaningful to him. I would even say it might make it more impactful. It’s also clearly made Tai put more intense expectations and beliefs onto his parents marriage as a result (as well as shaped his expectations and beliefs about his own future relationship with his “soulmate”). 

(Side note #2: before I launch into the next part, I just want to say that I’m not blaming or defending any characters. They all did/are doing what they think is best at the time. I don’t believe any one specific character’s behaviors are malicious. That doesn’t mean they made good decisions either, though. Just wanted to put that out there, lol.)

So, now that I’ve laid out some extremely wordy groundwork, let’s fast forward to Tai’s parents telling the kids about the divorce. Firstly, while I know that Tai’s parents wanted to tell all the kids together, I gotta say, your son’s twentieth birthday (you know, the son who has the same hearing loss/soulmate thing going on that they do) is probably not the best move. What that means is they’ve essentially taken a day that Tai is celebrated and supposed to feel special and ruined it. I don’t know any kid that wouldn’t be utterly crushed by news of their parents divorce on their birthday. Now magnify that with both the ingrained societal and familial expectations that are on the parent’s relationship, as well as the extra meaning Tai has placed on it because he also has hearing loss. 

Now that we’ve processed that agony (hahahaha no we haven’t lol and neither has Tai), let’s talk about what happens next. Tai immediately blames his mother for their splitting up and his father leaving. When that doesn’t garner a real response (his parents do not say much here and it’s so frustrating because if they’d just explain, I think they would have saved so much heartache, but like I said, they did the best they knew how at the time). 

(Side note #3: I have a sixteen year old son and he said something to me that was super profound about a family situation we had, that we hadn’t really filled him in on. He eventually came and asked me about it. I explained the situation to him and when I mentioned that we hadn’t told him about it because we didn’t want to him to worry, he countered with the following: “I’m not stupid. I knew something was going on; you guys not telling me about it only made me worry more and blow it out of proportion in my head. I was gonna worry about it either way, the not knowing made it worse.” Pretty sure this applies to Tai and his siblings.) 

Tai’s dad moves out, like right then, and when his son is literally chasing him down the street and screaming for him, keeps walking. Tai goes home, a sobbing mess, it rains, and he hears Patts for the first time. What does he do? He says silent. This moment, that afternoon, his parents divorce, and his father leaving have damaged Tai and his entire belief system. 

As the child of a mother who’s been divorced twice (and is advocate of divorce, because I believe that it’s more harmful to stay married if you don’t want to be/aren’t in love anymore/etc), let me tell you - divorce is traumatic. Especially when you don’t fully explain why to your children (of any age - it doesn’t matter that Tai and his siblings are all in their teens or older); a lot of children feel like it’s their fault, that their parents don’t love them anymore, that they’ve been abandoned by the parent that “leaves”, to name a few issues. 

Right then and there, the moment the rain starts and Patts speaks, Tai develops his coping mechanism. There’s been a lot of focus on Tai’s conflict avoidance, but to me, it’s more than that. Tai isn’t just avoiding conflict. He’s avoiding any and everything that could potentially hurt him. I like to picture him as a turtle, pulled up into his shell where nothing can get through. His relationship with his parents is rough (though it’s better with his dad than his mom because literally up to today’s episode, it’s clear he was still blaming her for the divorce and for remarrying. I wish we’d get more on why he blames her for the divorce so much). 

Tai’s relationship with his brothers (other than Tien) is... distant (for lack of a better word). Aside from the birthday flashback, we have not seen the four of them together in a scene until today’s episode. The one scene we did get of Tai and his older brother was brief and while his brother did give Patts a shovel talk, Tai and his brother didn’t come over all that close. I believe the reasons Tien is so close to Tai is actually more about Tien and less about Tai (but that’s a separate post) and is probably also because Tai and Tien went to live with their dad while the other two brothers stayed with their mom. 

Now picture this: you are Tai, poking out of your turtle shell for the first time in two years and letting yourself fall in love with your soulmate. Of course you want to do what ever you can to avoid anything bad happening to the relationship (running off instead of confronting Patts and Nara, lying to Patts about his “date” with Lomfon, refusing to answer Patts when they argued). In Tai’s mind, he’s saving himself from potential heartache. 

When Patts confronts Tai in the rain and later at the apartment, asking if Tai loves him, etc (which he is justified in asking), it’s literally the worst thing he could do. Patts shouldn’t have to ask; he should know. In Tai’s mind, he’s explained about his parents’ divorce and how much that affected him and Patts knows how upset he was because Patts is aka “the kind one”. Tai, not understanding why Patts doesn’t just know how Tai feels about him (those pesky beliefs about soulmates are ingrained even with a broken connection) is too much. Patts pushes too hard (probably because he was drunk) and in that moment, Tai’s worst most absolute fear comes true. 

He tells Patts they should break up and Patts agrees. The moment what he’s done hits him is staggering; his expression is one of terror. To Tai, in that moment, he has become his mother. Patts is his father, walking out with the suitcase and leaving Tai behind. What’s left then for Tai to do, but pull himself back into his shell? He can’t talk to Patts, he tried to stop Patts the moment the words “lets break up” left his mouth but it was too late. In Tai’s mind, Patts has to be the one to come to him because Tai tried to stop him from leaving, but Patts left anyway. He feels like Patts is done with him, so Tai going to Patts would just be opening himself up to more heartache. His self preservation instincts won’t let him. 

TL;DR: Tai’s (in)actions are a trauma response because he is a middle child of divorced soulmate parents. 

[acesstark]

rwrb and grief (book + movie)

As someone who lost a mom at the ripe old age of 16 years old, Henry’s grief being completely erased from the movie kind of killed me. Like I’m infinitely disappointed about it, especially considering it was such a huge part of his character.

In the book, one of Henry’s most prominent traits is the feelings left in the aftermath of his father dying when he was a teenager. His grief is chronic, and it pretty much will stick with him for the rest of his life. Bea explains it to Alex in the “I love him on purpose” scene (which is something else that got completely cut out of the movie).

There’s a much longer stretch of time between Arthur dying and Henry and Alex first meeting in the book, I think it’s 14 months (book) and 4 months (movie). I’m sure they changed it to make Henry’s behavior toward Alex seem more justifiable, as if because it was only four months post losing his father, the wound would still be fresh and therefore his grief being ugly is acceptable or whatever.

But what I really appreciated in the book is how, even though it had been over a year, Henry was still going through the motions of losing his dad and it wasn’t very pretty or nice (ex: in the book he says “can you get rid of him” in reference to Alex, which is notably different and more rude than “I need to get out of here” which he said in the movie), even after all that time when most people would expect you to be over it by then.

In the “I love him on purpose” scene, Bea explains the ways in which Arthur dying has permanently affected Henry, and that the grief is always going to be apart of him, and that there is no way to love Henry without making the active decision to love every part of him, grief and ugly parts and depression included. And Alex loves him on purpose, perpetual grief and all. Which, for whatever reason, was cut out of the movie.

Lastly, both their birth order and Arthur’s death greatly impacted the way Philip, Bea, and Henry grew into their personalities.

After their dad died, Philip, the Heir, the oldest, grew cold and distant and fell into his roll as one-day King as opposed to older brother and was shaped by the crown in a way that made it so that he didn’t protect and support his siblings the way he should have.

Bea, both the middle child and older sister, spiraled after their dad died. In the wake of their father she developed a dr*g habit and a rebellious streak, but her fierce protectiveness of Henry, being her younger brother, only grew throughout it all, and even though there was no one there to protect her, she made sure she was there for Henry.

Henry, the baby, the spare, whose grief was a driving factor for his character. Losing his father, one of the only people who truly understood him, as a teen, on top of inheriting a country he does not want and growing up believing he can never be allowed to love who he loves, he spends years in the aftermath of his fathers death with it affecting every part of his soul, and while it may get easier to cope, that feeling will never leave him.

Their families dynamic is one of my favorite parts of the book, both because I can relate (it almost directly mirrors mine + my siblings own grief) and because it’s so well written. But in the movie, that entire dynamic was killed. Philip is shown as cruel for no reason, Bea is the stereotypically bubbly youngest sister who is the perfect princess, and Henry’s grief is essentially eradicated.

Watching the movie, all that’s mentioned of Henry’s grief is the throwaway line in the storage closet about how he was a dick to Alex because his dad died a few months ago, and it never comes up again. It was really disappointing.

[galacticspaceguy]

Ezra’s backstory/childhood because I haven’t drawn him in a while:

Ok so Ezra grew up on Drion- which was a very barren, desert planet. There are mining caves but the main resource the planet had to offer the Empire was melting down metals and hoarding scraps.

Drion was essentially a scrap yard. It’s where the navy, and/or merchants and sailors leave their busted up old damaged ships to be broken down and then the parts would be sent back to be rebuilt into new ships.

Some ships just kinda get left there sometimes- either in the desert or in the old warehouses. Very accessible to the public- kinda- I mean, technically they’re not allowed in their, but they go anywhere because it’s their house and they are allowed to break into their own house/j

Drion was a very far away planet from the Capital of the Empire, very deserted, not much of a population, just dust and sand.

Course that doesn’t stop pirates from raiding the planet (sometimes even Flint), or the navy from sweeping through very couple of months.

Pirate raids and trading with pirates was very common, but not well received. Because every-time a pirate visit, so does the navy. The navy does an entire sweep of the planet, then leaves the planet in the dust again.

This led to the navy placing a few police officers stationed on the planet- Many of the locals did not like this, and many didn’t even treat them like police (cause they were losers)- especially Ezra- but that’s for later.

Selena (Ezra’s dad) helped get pirates onto the planet unnoticed by these officers, and sure it was kinda easy- course we all know he gets caught one day.

Then Selena “dies” obv- and Ezra (9) is left to take care of his baby sister Ayah (2). They aren’t alone though, cause Selena had two friends named Ronan and Dyrak, who house Ezra and Ayah. Ezra becomes a big contributor to the house income cause Ronan and Dyrak can’t just magically feed two more mouths in this economy.

So as long as Ezra can feed him and his sister, they can have a room.

Ezra manages to have to friends- Ruckus and Glem. Ruckus lost his parents in a pirate raid, and Glem was actually abandoned by their two super rich asshole parents but that’s a story for another time.

They make their money off of stealing and raiding abandoned ships either in the warehouse or desert. This is actually a very popular thing to do, but people would rather have a bunch of kids steal for them and trade them stuff later than actually doing it themselves.

Course there was competition for Ezra, Ruckus, and Glem- there’s this group (I’m currently calling them the dust devils) and they kinda dominate the game here.

There were also “underbosses” which were kinda like crime lords under the planet.

There has been two major raids in Ezra’s life, once when he was a very small baby, and one when he was 12- the second one officiating his hatred for pirates.

After this second raid, the navy sends out The Scylla- the biggest baddest pirate hunters in the Hunters Guild, led by Irene Maddox.

And we all know where this goes- Ezra joins Maddox.

Ezra signs a contract- and since Ezra doesn’t have any parents- his dad “dead”, and his mom completely gone. So this contract technically makes Maddox Ezra’s legal guardian.

The Scylla was a very harsh environment, but there were people who were kinda to Ezra; being Husk, who was outwardly kind to Ezra from the getgo.

Ezra was the cabin boy, but he was also Viktor Hyde’s (the doctor) assistant; as in Viktor sees Ezra as his messed up prodigy- and then everyone wanted to be on Ezra’s good side because Viktor is literally crazy and no one wants to die during their next operation.

Ezra also became the eyes and ears for Maddox. Sure, you’d expect someone higher up on the Scylla hierarchy to be Maddox’s spy, but a cabin boy? What’s supposed to bet eh lowest position on the ship? Maddox used this and Ezra was easily willing to spy on the crew in case of coups or mutiny’s- which led to some hard moments and decisions.

Half the reason Ezra joined Maddox was for the pay. This was held over Ezra’s head a lot, and Maddox did use his ties to higher ups to really hold everything Ezra loved in place- like Ayah.

Maddox was quick to make work of Ezra’s leftover family, because hearing the boy beg to visits his home planet was getting infuriating- so Maddox, using Ezra as a front, put Ayah in a boarding school, and Glem followed.

This way, Ezra could put his full focus on his job.

Ezra was tied to the Scylla until he was in his final teens years (18-19), due to a… unfortunate event that killed Maddox.

[twicethetrouble]

Ref: Runaway freelancer Simmons AU

Just imagining later down the line that it just hits everyone that Tex is Simmons’ mom too.

That the director was the dad that left him.

That church is his ???

They don’t know what the hxll to call that actually.

Just like with Carolina.

Church is like the default name they go to instead of differentiating them at first or it’s like passing the torch??

Anyways, what does Epsilon think of him? Does any one ever find out about Eta? Like it’s pretty clear Carolina and Epsilon are brother and sister. But he’s not close to Simmons like he is with her.

When she runs off without telling him on chorus….

How does he handle that? Seeing her again?

The way i usually go about the weird family relations of the ais-to-living-churchs is that the fragments (ie: everyone except Alpha and Beta) are seen as Carolina's (and any sibling i might add. this isn't my only au where carolina gets a brother lol) siblings. Alpha is essentially a clone of the Director so any AI created from him at least has honorary sibling status. Beta/tex being an exception. (she's based off of an entirely different person so she's family, but not fragment sibling.) She and Alpha both are considered family b/c they're based off of Carolina's parents, but they aren't those people so it's a little weird.

Tex, specifically, is like parent-adjacent. Like she has memories and some left over parental feelings from Alison but she knows she's not her so i think she tries to ignore said feelings for the most part. She's a little extra protective of Simmons compared to the rest of the team of red and blue idiots, well, that's no one's business.

But yeah, the realization that the person Tex is based off of, is Simmons's mom would be quite the shocker. and probably explain why she kept beating Grif up so badly lol.

Epsilon doesn't really know what to think of Simmons. Like he never met the dude in Freelancer; Simmons left before he was ever created. But he does know him from Alpha's memories, (though i think Alpha may have purposefully erased the memory of Simmons taking Eta in order to protect Eta, so Epsilon probably only knows him as the demolition tech who's related to the Director.) Therefore Epsilon doesn't really know how to interact with him, so he just kinda doesn't most of the time. (they might bond more later but pre-chorus there is little to no interaction between Simmons and Epsilon.)

Everyone does eventually find out about Eta. I can't exactly remember if i had come up with a specific instance in which that happens or not. Simmons implants Eta end of season 6, waking them up, so they're awake throughout that entire pre-chorus arc. Their existance is found out either at the end of that arc or around the beginning of the Chorus arc, i'm not entirely sure atm.

and i think, Simmons would be angry with her for disappearing like that on them. Like, he chose to follow her to the end of the 'kill-the-director mission. the thought they were growing closer again, bonding. But then she and epsilon leave them without a word?

(part of him thinks it's only fitting. He did that to her in freelancer, she has every right to return the favor.)

but then she comes back. Without even an apology and barely an acknowledgement that she was gone. yeah, i don't think he'd like that very much.

Thank you!

[sunflower-kisses]

I'm pretty sure we're about to go full no contact with my FIL as well. David's older sister, Tiffany, reached out because she hasn't heard from him in a while. I guess that they were talking and he asked about the upcoming parties for her boys. She said something like well idk. We need to fix this drama you guys have with David and Caitlin. And he said something about David "just being moody" and we shouldn't have said anything to them about it. Then said something about he didn't have an issue until David said Christine, my MIL, wasn't allowed in our house.

There was more I think. But it essentially boiled down to we're in the wrong. We're not sure if he was saying things because MIL was home and could hear everything or if that's how he truly feels. But either way its not right. He can't get upset with us for "telling" people. We went to see his sister and her family on Christmas and they asked about seeing them and such. We're not going to lie and cover it up for them.

Unfortunately, Tiffany is David's half sister. She has no blood ties to his father. And she's very cut throat and blood is ticker than water. She's ready to start ww3 for us because she doesn't like Christine either. No one does. And everyone is starting to get fed up with him picking her over everyone else.

His dad even mentioned how she gave up so much to raise them and such. David was 10 when she came in. And even he said she didn't do anything for him except make him dinner and make like harder. But his point was that "it's not like she's some random woman he just brought home" but, like she was. She's not their mom. And she's made it pretty clear she only cares about his younger sister and her kids. Even though she has MIL blocked on fb and such too!

I think I'm rambling now. But all this is to say I don't see things getting any better, and I'm pretty sure at this point we're all over it. It was pretty sad when Tiffany said, "At this point, what do you need your dad for?" and David had nothing to say. I can't imagine not choosing your kids and grandkids. At the rate he's going, he's only going to have his wife, and that's it. He'll have no one to blame but himself. We had no issues and went out of our way for 13 years. Not until we had a reason to set boundaries and that didn't go well with Christine.

But like I've said 100x, we're not the ones suffering and missing out. Our daughter's love isn't going to be any less amazing because they're not around. She's surrounded by love and support and people who adore her. That's what matters. Not the 2 people who can't see their faults andc realize kids grow up to be adults with their own minds and don't owe them anything.