#so sense might've died part way

[mrchiipchrome]

The Mechanic

W.C. - 4.2k

A/n: This was a bit rushed and not very good but anyways I’m going to bed now

——————————

Growing up, your father had been a mechanic and when you had days off from school he would bring you down to the auto shop he owned and worked at. Later, that would turn into you spending your afternoons and weekends down at the shop, learning everything there was to know about cars and how to repair them.

After graduating secondary school you were employed by the shop you had grown up in, rising through the ranks like any usual person would their job. You had close to no help from your father after your employment, he had always been clear that you had to work to get to your position especially if you wanted to one day inherit the shop.

So when your father died, you had more than enough experience with how to run an auto shop. In reality you were nothing less than a parentless kid trying to navigate their way through life without their biggest role model and simultaneous favorite person.

But eventually you found your footing, with the help of a bit of therapy that you'd gone to reluctantly, and had managed to find the balance between repairing cars and handling everything else that came with owning your own mechanic shop.

Still you consider yourself lucky, lucky for having Mitch who had been helping you with all the financials and all the other confusing things.

Mitch, or as you knew him Uncle Mitch, had been one of your father’s childhood friends and had been around since before you had been born. He was there for your father when your mother decided that she didn’t want to be part of your life and when he had no choice but to become a single father. He took you to school on the days your father couldn’t and helped you with school work.

So when a very pretty girl with car problems appeared one day, he was the first one to tease you about your obvious starstruck behavior.

—-

08.00 on a thursday and you’ve already been at work for a few hours, finishing up some paperwork and a couple small repairs on easier cars before all the other mechanics came in at 9. Hearing someone walk in through the open garage door is not an unusual feat, in fact you were used to your other mechanics coming in a bit earlier, so when uncertain footsteps echo in the peopleless shop you don’t roll out from where you’re situated under the car.

“Um, hi. My car just broke down like 2 minutes from here and I have no idea what to do.”

The soft fleeting voice is feminine and unfamiliar, definitely not one of your mechanics with their gruff chain smoking voices. Your head perks up and the hand holding the wrench from your tool set stills. With hands covered in soot and oil like most of your work clothes, you slide out from your place underneath the car.

“What seems to be the problem with it? Did it indicate something might've been wrong before it broke down? Any unusual sounds…?” Your voice trails off as you see the gorgeous blonde standing there looking around in curiosity, seeing all the different cars around the large shop. You just stand there, like an idiot seemingly enamored by the pretty stranger in front of you. She doesn’t seem to acknowledge your clear inability to act like a normal human as she directs her eyes toward you, eyes not even the greatest poets could try to describe.

The woman fiddles with the rings adorning her slender fingers as she rushes to explain the moments prior to her car stopping functioning.

“Oh god, yeah. I was supposed to come in for an oil change but then out of nowhere, my car started to make these kinds of crunching sounds and then there was a slight pop before it just broke down. Since I was supposed to come here, I knew it wasn’t that far so I left it with my friend and ran here for help”

The stress she’s feeling is evident in her actions and a surprising sense of protectiveness overtakes you, a feeling you can only describe as wanting to wrap her up in bubble wrap and protect her from the cruel world.

“Alright, have you called a tow truck yet?” The blush that immediately covers her face indicates that she had not, apparently not thinking that far. A sly smile takes over your face, fingers wrapping around a towel laying haphazardly on the deep red metal bench.

The soot and grime your fingers are covered in transfers over to the white surface of the towel, more soot at your hairline and your nose.

“You’re in luck miss, we have our very own tow truck.” Your hands shake deliberately as you try to lighten the mood, leading the blonde girl over to the regular truck you had. It was an old model, but damn if that car didn’t run perfectly. It had been a gift from Mitch for your 18th birthday, he knew that you adored putting excessive amounts of effort into your projects, and that car was truly a piece of work.

It had taken you a few short weeks to get it done, you were somewhat of a prodigy.

“Hey, take the passenger seat! I need you to show me where your car broke down.” You shouted as the blonde girl made no motion to move in any direction. She slowly shuffles her feet towards the car,enjoying the way your eyes raked over her body.

“Okay, so basically it’s just up the road, you’ll see a tiny dutchie standing beside it panicking.” She laughs softly as the last words escape her mouth, and in that exact moment you decide that it’s the greatest, most beautifully enticing melody ever created.

Your eyes are glued to the road, knowing that if you were to look into her eyes once more you’d get stuck looking at her. She felt like home even though you’d just met her moments before.

“Oh yeah? Why do you have a tiny Dutch person in your car?” The banter with you the girl you’d yet to get the name of was like you’d been friends for decades, you easily bounced retorts back and forth like great friends would.

“My teammate, we were driving to training and then my car decided that it didn’t want to work anymore. Wait, I haven’t phoned Jonas yet, I’m so dead.” You didn’t understand what she was talking about at the last part, the girl seemingly talking to herself.

Just like the woman beside you had said, there was a seemingly frantic short woman besides a white Mercedes. “How’d you know?” You ask the woman sitting in your car, her expression silly beyond comprehension. Her tongue was trapped between her teeth, her bright smile on display and her nose scrunched up adorably.

“A magician never reveals his secrets, right?” She fixes you with another cheeky smile, dark pink lips pulled together in the most admirable way. She was nothing if not perfect.

Her eyes shine brightly as you pull up next to her blinking car, the Dutch girl pulling the door open with a surprising amount of strength.

“Less, we are so late, Jonas is going to kill us!” Her foreign accent is quite noticeable, not that it bothers you. What did bother you was the way she threw the door of your beloved car up so violently.

“Yeah Vic, I know.” Less, as you’d come to know, told the other girl, Vic. Vic’s eyes flit over to you, taking in your non-threatening appearance and awkward smile. You wave at her before exiting your truck.

“So if you don’t mind, I’ll just pop your hood and try to find the problem.” You spoke to the taller of the two girls in front of you, who nodded her head vigorously, allowing you to do whatever it was you needed.

The smoke that escaped from beneath the hood concerned you, as did the heat of the motor beneath your fingers. It didn’t look too good for the blonde’s car, but for both her and your sake, you didn’t tell her.

“Well it’s definitely a problem with the engine, that much I’ll tell you.” A bit of worry seeps into your tone and Alessia doesn’t seem to like it.

“But my car will be fine right?” She was worried beyond recognition.

“Yeah, they say that I’ve got magic fingers for a reason” You sent her a quick wink, the statement true in both ways. The blonde’s face darkened significantly, red sprouting at every soft turn of the face.

“Okay there Casanova, why don’t you just hook the car to yours and take it back to the shop?” The dutchie’s tone left no room for argument, clearly she was protective of the blonde.

Pulling the wires from your trunk, you quickly hooked her car to yours in a safe way, making sure that her keys were out of the ignition and that her car was completely turned off.

Vic jumped into the backseat begrudgingly whilst Less took her place in the passenger seat.

You drove back to the garage in a slow pace, not wanting to damage the car behind more, plus you got to have the beautiful blonde in your car for longer.

“Less, how are we supposed to get to training if your car’s like that?” The girl in the backseat frowns at the blonde through the mirror, but you’re already multiple steps ahead, having put your thinking hat on before.

“I can drive you, and if y’all want we can take my coolest car too.” You spoke up nonchalantly, even though you were riddled with anxiety inside.

Less shakes her head softly, putting a soft and warm hand on your shoulder, stroking down your arm.

“It’s no problem really, we’ll just take an Uber.” She waves you off, despite seeming quite excited at the prospect of showing up to ‘training’ in a cool car.

“It’s no bother, my mechanics don’t come in until 9 so I’ve got time to kill. Plus, I haven’t been able to take the baby out for a while, needed to fix her up a little after the last time.” You laugh out, hand coming up to rub at the back of your head as you pull into the workshop.

“Take your things from your car and follow me.” The two of them do exactly as you say, getting their duffle bags from the white car.

You take them to the very back of the workshop, back to the garage where you kept your most prized possessions. In the smack middle it stood, your baby.

A 1968 Ford Mustang.

It was a gorgeous, shiny black color and you’d picked up a fair few ladies with it, just like your father did before you. He’d got it from his father, they’d started working on it before your grandfather died, and your father vowed to complete the work with his child.

Unluckily, your very own father died before the project was done, and so you were left to finish it.

“Here’s my beauty, my 1968 Ford Mustang, ain’t she a beaut?” You asked the two girls, standing behind you with their mouths wide open.

“Where’d you get it? Aren’t they super expensive?” Vic asked and Less slapped her arm harshly at the latter question.

“Passed down to me and yes, they’re incredibly expensive.” You could see how their eyes looked over your car, it was safe, modernized just enough so that it wouldn’t lose its charm.

“Right, you two can squabble about who sits in the passenger seat and who sits in the back, I’ll take your bags though, no scratching my paint.” You pluck their bags from their hands and put them in the trunk whilst Less and Vic actually squabbled.

Eventually, it was Less who won the battle, her hair blowing in the cool wind that passed you by as you drove. You’d gotten the address from the younger of the two as soon as you all got settled in the car.

When you finally pull up in front of the seeming training center, it’s to the sight of multiple girls standing with mixed expressions. Some were stern, others were shocked and some were confused.

“Alessia Russo, Victoria Pelova, where have you been?” The short woman at the front asks sternly, though shock does seem to flutter over her face for a second as she clocks your ride.

“Well my car broke down so I walked to the workshop not too far away-“ Alessia starts sheepishly, her fingers scratching at her forearm.

“Where she met Casanova, who decided to help by getting Lessi’s car to the shop and then driving us here in her sweet ride.” Vic finishes off Alessia’s sentence, patting your shoulder as she climbs out of the car. Alessia once again blushes at the name Vic gave you, just as you roll your eyes at it.

“You have a really beautiful car, miss.” One of the more sheepishly shy looking girls tells you, she had an accent you just couldn’t place.

“Thank you dear, tell me, where is it you come from? I can’t place your accent.” You ask her softly, not wanting to scare the young girl.

“Uhm, Denmark miss.” She looks down at her feet, shuffling them around as she blushes more than usual.

“Oh, I’ve never been, do you have any recommendations for me when I visit?” That seems to set the young girl off as she starts to babble on about different places to visit and where you could find the best food.

Alessia looks on as you engage with her teammate, with you leaning back on the side of your car and Katherine standing in front of you.

A sudden loud noise comes from your phone, and you recognise it as the jingle you’d put for Mitch.

“Hey uncle Mitch, whatchu calling me for?” You answer the call quickly, waving a little at the girls you’d met before.

“Where are you? The shop’s empty and I don’t know if I need to remind you, but your employees arrive in 10 minutes.” He was pretty clearly stressed about your current predicament.

“Oh shit, listen Mitch I needed to help a client and I took the Mustang so I’ll be back in like, 5 minutes.” You knew that he knew exactly why you’d taken the mustang, it was simply a lady magnet.

“A ‘client’ of course, that's what your dad always said when he wanted some alone time if you know what I mean.” Even if you couldn’t see your uncle’s face you knew that he was smiling and winking slyly. Your face scrunches up uncomfortably at the insinuation, not really wanting to know of your father’s ‘endeavours’ before you.

“Ew gross Mitchy, it’s not like that.” The whisper-shout you let out into the mic has the women around you looking at you weirdly.

“Alright, alright, I’ll open for the guys but you make sure that you don’t get in too late, you still have that car from a couple days ago to finish.” Rolling your eyes at the older man, you climb back into the car and put the keys into the ignition, turning the car on and saying a quick goodbye to the girls you’d given a ride to, telling the gorgeous blonde that her car would be done in the next few days.

You were fully on the road when the blonde realized that you hadn’t given her your number, which meant that she didn’t know when her car would be done.

You on the other hand knew exactly what you were to do when the car was done, it really wasn’t hard to make the plan.

—————

“Uncle Mitch? I’m going away for like an hour to help a client, so let the guys go on break for an hour and a half. They sure do need it.” You call out for your uncle who found himself at the shop more often than not.

“Okay kid, just make sure not to fool around too much okay? I know how you are-“ He starts off with a large smile on his face before you interrupt him with your own sentence.

“Yeah just like my father, I know, it’s kind of who I was raised by, you know.” You smile at the old man whose hair was graying and face wrinkled. He was like another father figure.

“Yeah, yeah, off you go to see Juliet.” He responds, shooing you out of the main room and towards the private garage where your Mustang was located.

“What is it with people naming us after old romance stories?!” You say exasperated, but the blush covering your face tells a different tale.

Revving up your car, you quickly pull out of the garage and pull out onto the road. The wind blows through your hair and the freeing feeling makes you smile, the hot summer breeze never failing you.

As you pull up to the training grounds there’s a large group of people exiting the building, training bags over their shoulders as they talk eagerly with each other. They do notice the car that didn’t fit in, black leather seats and black shiny exterior.

When their resident clumsy friend spots the car she trips over her feet, luckily enough for her, Vic is right beside her and she manages to catch the falling forward. It’s no easy feat by any means, but the smaller midfielder manages to pull her back to her feet.

When you pull up next to them, she comes up to greet you.

“Hi Casanova” She starts off, smile splitting her face open from ear to ear. Your face mirrors hers, the stupid nickname seemingly stuck around.

“Hi Alessia, I was popping by to pick you up as the work on your car is done.” The forward eagerly puts her bag in your backseat before she’s plopping down in your passenger seat. She smiles even wider as she realizes the soft rock flowing out from your radio. All of a sudden her face turns into a mess of confusion and a bit of fear.

“Wait, how did you know when my training ended?” She was staring deep into your soul, eyes glistening in the sun.

“Well I had a little help.” Turning around to face her Dutch friend, you can see the way she winks at the blonde sitting beside you, who merely raises an eyebrow at her. There were more questions to be answered but she decided that it wasn’t worth the effort.

“Are you ready to go back to the garage?” You ask her softly, her face just so enticing that you could do no more than whisper in her presence. She nods her head though and as you’re pulling out of the parking lot you both hear a:

“Don’t forget protection!”

The blush that comes over her face makes her look like an overly ripe tomato, though you don’t have much to say, looking like a tomato yourself.

The rest of the drive is spent in silence, Alessia looking out at the streets of London like she'd never seen anything like them before and you admiring her at every red light. It’s not until you pull up at the shop that she looks at you properly, her eyes glimmering.

“So if you just follow me out here, I’ll lead you to your good as new car.” She exits your car to follow you out and towards her own, the Mercedes that you’d put extra time and effort into. Nothing but the best for the gorgeous girl.

“Thank you so much. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here to save the day, I really do owe you one.” Her seemingly never ending smile shines even brighter at the sight of her car, and as she turns to you it seems to get impossibly brighter.

“Well it’s my job you know, I kind of own the place.” It’s a hastily thrown out comment that seemingly piques her interest, Alessia’s hand coming up to rest on your slightly sooty arm.

“How do you own this place? I don’t mean it in a condescending way or anything but it’s just that you’re so young and pretty and you don’t seem like the type to buy a workshop.” She rambles in her nervousity, eyes shifting around the shop like they’d done only days before.

“I inherited it from my dad, the same with my car. He uhm, he died and my mom is like fully out of the picture so I got most of his stuff, my uncle Mitch also got some stuff but I was the main person.” She was so easy to talk to, you’d only met her days before and it felt like you’d known each other for years. Your dads death wasn’t something that you talked about often or with most people, so your heart had really taken a wild leap for the young striker.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, I know that he’s watching you with pride wherever he is.” Her hand rubs up and down your arm comfortingly, smiling sorrowfully at you as you recount your grief at the most important person in your life’s death.

“It’s not your fault, he lived his life to the fullest so I know that he was content when he died…” Alessia notices the want to change the topic of your conversation and so she shifts it to something more trivial.

“Uhm, how much do you want me to pay for this?” She asks, her voice wavering slightly at the whiplashing change of topic.

“You can pay with a hug and a kiss?” You joke lightly but it seems like the forward takes it seriously, as her hands come up to slither back around your neck, fingers tangling in your baby hairs.

Big hands settle on the blonde’s waist as she moves her face closer to yours, leaning up to rest her lips against yours in a soft embrace.

The kiss is nothing short of magical and as her tongue pokes against your lips you open your lips, basically french kissing the girl in the middle of your workshop. The kiss only breaks apart as whistles from your employees ring out throughout the shop, the guys having come back from their break.

When they finally quiet down it’s by the threat of you withholding their next paycheck and they all look away as you peck the girl’s lips a few more times before letting her leave in her fixed up Mercedes.

“Not a word of this to Mitch.” You look at them all sternly, but the knowledge that all of them had basically watched you grow up made you realize that they definitely weren’t scared of your empty threats. They sealed the deal by chuckling at you before turning back to their individual projects.

————-

In the weeks following the blonde leaving your motor shop she’d come in more than once for imaginary problems with her car, which you knew was just an excuse to see you. No one had that many problems with their car.

When she comes in fully unexpected one Thursday it’s with a fleeting problem with her motor from before.

“Hi Y/n, my car has been acting up a little again, mind checking it out for me?” She pops her head into the shop after hours, you’d just been finishing up some paperwork that needed to be done.

“Alessia, you do know that you can just ask me out on a date instead of making up problems with your car?” You prayed that you’d read the situation right, otherwise it’d be quite the awkward conversation.

“Oh thank you, it’s really hard to just come up with problems out of the blue” Her body leans on her hands that are now pressed against your desk, her face close to yours.

“So, are you going to ask me?” You ask her the question you’d been thinking about for a while, her face and the tops of her ears turning red.

“Y/n/n do you want to go on a date with me?” She asks nervously, like you’d ever reject a girl like her, a beautiful and kind soul that did nothing if not light your day up with her made up problems.

“Of course I would Less.” You respond to the girl, only for her to lean forward and capture your lips with her own. People always talk about the first kiss, but the second kiss was always so much better, and all the kisses after that were pretty great too.

Who would’ve thought, a footballer and a mechanic getting together, the very own Casanova and Juliet of the world.

Maybe some weird romance book would be written about it in a few years, but for now you were content with watching the stars with your gorgeous girlfriend in your less gorgeous (but still very beautiful) car, sharing deep kisses into the night.

[nateofgreat]

The Jedi were completely justified in in the Wrong Jedi Arc (Part 3)

Part 1 here and part 2 here if you want to review the charges.

Now we're onto the Wrong Jedi episode proper. First off, the Jedi Council are in a tough spot but aren't rushing to judgment. All they say concerning Ahsoka is that there's evidence she was behind it.

Because you know, there is. Thanks to her.

Anyways the questioning begins! Ahsoka pleads "not guilty" and says that "I'd never innocent lives. The values of the Jedi are sacred to her."

Ki-Adi-Mundi: "There is evidence to the contrary. You were alone with Leeta when she died, can you explain this?" This is a completely reasonable question to ask. There is evidence against her, so he wants her to explain what happened to the woman she's accused of murdering.

Ahsoka Tano: "Someone used the Force against her." Technically true but also useless, they already knew the Force killed her. The question is who was responsible. Ahsoka's got nothing.

Plo Koon: "Which leads us to Ventress, can you explain your association with her." Again, an entirely reasonable request. Ventress is only the other Force user who appears to be wrapped up in the case, one known for violence. So Plo Koon asks what her connection to the case is and why Ahsoka was working with her.

Ahsoka Tano: "We... Had a mutual understanding. I thought she was helping me." Wow, even in court she can't stop making herself sound suspicious. Being vague and dodgy is the worst thing she could possibly do right now. If she was upfront about being frightened and acting irrationally they'd be way more likely to believe her.

Mace Windu: "Did she help you acquire the nano-droid weaponry found with you when you were apprehended? The same devices used in the bombing of the Temple." An entirely fair question to ask. She was found with bombs after being seen working with a Sith Assassin, of course they're going to wonder about that. Not to mention that the question itself accuses Ventress more than Ahsoka, and doesn't even call Ahsoka's intentions into question yet. It's just Mace trying to establish the facts.

Ahsoka Tano: "No! I was set up, someone deceived me as you are being deceived now!" ??? Ahsoka you idiot! You're not explaining ANY of your actions, all you're doing is throwing out broad claims about being framed without giving them any reason to believe or trust you after all the crimes you just committed.

Mace Windu: "The question is, Padawan Tano. Who is deceiving us? Ventress, you, or someone else." This question cuts to the heart of it and shows that the Council ISN'T throwing Ahsoka under the bus. They KNOW someone's messing with them and are attempting to figure out who it is. They haven't decided Ahsoka's guilt and are open to the idea that either Ventress or a third party is playing them.

This would be the perfect opportunity to Ahsoka to take a deep breath and try to explain her actions. If she did she might've convinced them. Instead?

Ahsoka Tano: *Angrily* "I am not deceiving you! I would assume Ventress is, but I can't know for sure. My sense is, clouded." She has an emotional outburst to being suspected of a crime, after committing multiple to even get there. She still doesn't explain her actions and her brilliant detective work failed to turn up anything at all that the Council could use. If only she'd stayed in her cell.

Yoda: "Clouded by the dark side, these things are, Padawan Tano. Dangerously clouded. But not just surrounding you, surrounding many things in these times." Here Yoda straight-up sounds like he's trying to encourage her. He assuring her that the dark side is obscuring things for everyone, not just her. If he was wanted to accuse her of being guilty he'd jump at the chance to say she'd fallen to the dark side here. Instead of trying to coax her into a state of calm so she could give clearer answers.

Anakin Skywalker: "You've already made your decision haven't you! This meeting is just a formality!" I don't know where Anakin got that impression but he's known for irrational, anger induced outbursts so I guess it's in-character for him.

Yoda: *Sighs* "Reached a decision, we have. Though not in total agreement are we." So the Council wasn't even unanimous on this.

Mace Windu: "It's the council's decision, that Padawan Tano has committed sedition against the Republic and thus will be expelled from the Jedi Order." An entirely logical outcome given her prior actions and silly behavior at the meeting itself.

She gave the Jedi nothing to work with, dodged all their questions, didn't discover anything while she was on the run, and basically left them with no excuse whatsoever not to turn her over to the Republic authorities. Great job Ahsoka!

Oh and Dave Filoni's bizarre mutation of Barriss Offee was actually so sloppy that Anakin almost immediately solved the entire case once he wasn't distracted by Ahsoka's nonsense. So again, if she'd stayed in her darn cell he'd have resolved the entire problem in the course of a single episode.

That right there, was apparently so terrible it justifies Ahsoka holding a grudge for thirty years and saying the entire order deserved to be slaughtered.

Honestly, instead of having Ahsoka be offered knighthood they should've had the Council stand by their decision to expel her at the end for her dark side behavior while on the run.

[melrodrigo]

Tardy, part 11

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11

Tara Carpenter x Fem Reader

Summary: It’s time for you to face Ghostface head on.

Word Count: 3.5k

Warnings: Pretty gnarly violence, Tara being protective and kinda batshit crazy, betrayals left and right

A/N: lol

Shit.

When you open your eyes and see nothing but a hot blinding light, you think you might've died and gone to heaven.

"God?" You whisper, blinking slowly.

It was in fact, not god, you find out once your eyes properly adjust.

You're stuck in a tiny compartment; so small you think you might suffocate. The walls are painted a shade of obsidian black that makes you feel like you're stuck in a black hole. Only one single flickering lightbulb grants you sight.

Your arms are sore; so sore, and it only intensifies when you try and pull them up from the weird position they're in.

Huh, I can't move my arms.

You tug at the rope-like fabric of material that's holding your hands together. It doesn't budge in the slightest. Panic rises like wildfire in you.

You breathe deep. Try to gather your wits and make sense of anything that is possibly going on.

"Get it together." You remind yourself.

You blink once.

Feeling a little more clear, you realize that you're strapped tight to a chair, back pressed uncomfortably close to the ridges.

Where am I?

There's no time to find the answer to that question since the wall is moving- oh it's a door-, and Ghostface appears right in front of you, smiling.

Well, you don't really know if he's smiling. But the way he's moving, all confident and cocky, makes you think you're not too far off.

It hits you all at once. Now that you're fully conscious, you can feel everything.

One inhale and your lungs feel like they're on fire. Breathing is hard.

You groan, the pain all too overwhelming for your brain to work properly. It would be embarrassing how loud you were if you cared in the least.

You can only seem to think of one thing.

"Where is she?" You ask, with all the confidence of someone in the position of interrogating Ghostface.

Tara. God, what did they do to Tara?

“Of course, your first words are about her." Ghostface spits, still using that goddamned voice modulator.

“Where is she?” You spit, trying your very best to look intimidating.

It's not very convincing when you're heaving and gasping like a fish out of water.

"Would you believe me if I said she was already dead?" Ghostface drawls, tracing their knife along your jawline, pressing just enough for you to feel it.

You scoff.

"Right...you'd kill one of your beloved 'main characters' before the finale." You say, sure you've read him to filth.

"But, this is the ending. Don't you see?" He continues to tease, unbothered by your last comment.

You huff, but you feel your heart picking up speed slightly.

What if...he was telling the truth?

A shrill scream sounds throughout the theater, and you feel your blood run cold as you recognize exactly who it is.

"Tara." You breathe, half terrified and half relieved she's still alive.

"Tara!" You yell, as loud as your lungs are willing to let you.

Tara doesn't reply. What you do get is a smack to the head and an elbow to the jaw.

"Be quiet." Ghostface hisses, and you can almost swear he sounds sort of scared.

"Be quiet or I'm going to get my ass whooped." He mumbles, and you pull back as far as you can, eyebrows raised.

You bite back the need to tell him you definitely don't care if he gets in trouble or not, not wanting to get slapped in the face a billion more times.

"Come on." He grumbles, gripping the back of the chair and lifting it up swiftly.

The feeling of your feet dangling off the chair reminds you of one of your favorite memories.

"Mint ice cream sucks," Tara tells you definitively.

You squint your eyebrows at her and bring up a hand to your heart like she's just stabbed you.

She's sitting with her ice cream in hand, a good distance away from you. You guys peer down at all the university students walking around, now the size of ants; trying to point out people you guys recognize.

It was your own little secret spot. Tara could never really go study outside uni, since her sister was always up her ass about traveling unknown spaces. You never asked her why, pure sister protectiveness, you guessed.

A couple of weeks into knowing Tara, she'd brought you up to this mini garden haven of hers, all shy and smiley.

She's sitting now and she's looking so pretty with her big brown eyes and freckles out for display. They shine bright today, sunshine illuminating her face and making everything just pop the slightest bit more.

You get a wicked idea, and before you can stop yourself, scoot yourself closer and place your arm around her.

Tara cocks an eyebrow at you, but before she can speak a word, you start tickling her sides.

"Stop!" Tara squeals. Her face turning a bright pink comically fast.

You're careful not to tickle her too hard, or else you think she might just slide off the ledge and fall right here.

You're close now, closer than you should be. Tension swims in the air. You lean down to whisper into her ear.

"That's what you get for saying mint sucks." You huff, smirking a little as she shudders from the feeling of your breath fanning her ear.

When you pull back and look into her eyes, you're surprised to see them wide and dilated. She has a weird expression her face, like she's fighting something in herself.

You lean in slowly, stuck in a trace with the way she's looking at you.

She grips your shirt and pulls you in further, your noses brushing. And then suddenly, like she's just snapped out of her daze, she sits up abruptly.

She laughs nervously, letting go of your shirt.

"I think Sam's calling me. I'll see you tomorrow. Same time?" She's saying, but she's not even giving you a second to answer before she's sprinting away.

Despite the sort of failed kiss, you chuckle a little. You feel the blush creep up to the tips of your ears.

The day your crush on Tara Carpenter officially started.

It's a bad time to start daydreaming, but you figure if you're going to die right now, it wouldn't be so bad to think of the love of your life while you go.

The sound of Tara's voice brings you back to life.

"YN!" She gasps, from somewhere behind you. You're still getting dragged, hair stuck to your forehead, eyes blurred.

You try your best to blink everything back to focus.

She's standing on the platform slightly below you, beside Sam, looking relieved. There's a brick in her hand.

You try and say her name but all that comes out is a painful groan. Everything feels heavy. Your shirt is painted red where your stomach wound is, and you figure you must've ripped the stitches.

There's another Ghostface beside you, the two of them bracketing you on either side.

Not that you would have the energy to up and escape anyway.

"Tara..." Sam warns, eyeing her sister like she knows what she's about to do.

Tara rushes forward, ignoring Sam's protest, trying to get to you. To hold you in her arms, to press her hands against your wound, to kiss it better; to do anything.

The Ghostface to your right swings their knife as soon as she comes into the vicinity, and slices the skin above Tara's collarbone easily. She gasps from the jab. Red liquid seeps out immediately.

You feel the Ghostface to your left tense, a mixture of a gasp and a yell stuck together.

"Anika wait-!" The Ghostface is saying, the name slipping out as easy as second nature.

Everybody stills.

It's so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

The other Ghostface whirls around, shoulders tight.

Sam tugs Tara back quietly, looking between the two Ghostfaces. Your head is swimming.

"What did you say?" Ghostface- supposedly Anika, says.

"What the fuck." You manage to spit out, but it goes unheard, everyone being laser-focused on the scene unfolding right in front of them.

"I'm sorry- I'm sorry I didn't mean to say that. It's just, I thought you were going to kill Tara. I couldn't let you do that." The other Ghostface reasons, albeit unconvincingly. He stumbles over his words, in a tone that's all too familiar to you.

"Ethan?" You hesitate, tears brimming in your eyes.

The Ghostface that's hovering above you drops down to your ear level, whispering softly.

"Well, aren't you just a smart little thing?" And promptly slides off that wretched Ghostface mask, and even though you knew, you have to gasp at who you see.

Anika.

Sweet sweet Anika.

"Just take it off. It's not like they don't already know." Anika tells Ethan, an order more than anything.

You tilt your head just enough to see Ethan take off his mask, grinning nervously.

"What the fuck?" You hear Tara say, but it sounds so far away.

"But, but how-" Sam starts, pointing at Ethan, her face as pale as a ghost.

He looks good, healthy. More alive than you've ever seen him. There's a glint in his eye you've never seen before.

"I'm alive. Surprise!" He grins, flashing the four of you a pearly white smile.

I must be dreaming.

You squeeze your eyes shut. He's still standing there when you open them again. Shit.

"But I watched you die, I felt the blood. You-you died in my arms. I saw the ambulance pick you up." You splutter, voice cracking unevenly.

"You know...some fake blood and a couple of acting classes can do wonders. You guys really are not good at picking up on hints." Anika sing songs, waving her dagger in the air.

"Seriously...we even had to send you a note." She continues, scrunching her nose in disgust.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you so hell-bent on destroying us?" Sam asks, fire in her eyes. She looks scary. Messing with Sam was one thing, but messing with her sister? You have a feeling they'll be dead in minutes.

Anika sighs dramatically, putting a hand up to her chin and feigning thought.

"Gosh. Where do I even start? Let's set the scene: it's 1996. There's been two mysterious murders in the small town of Woodsboro, leaving everyone in fright." She recounts, words slipping out of her mouth with ease like she's rehearsed them a million times.

Sam rolls her eyes, fed up with this godforsaken story that seems to follow her anywhere.

"Akio Kayoko however, lives happily, because finally his two bullies Billy and Stu aren't on his ass anymore. They have more important things to worry about."

Sam cuts in before Anika goes any further.

"Are you fucking kidding me? This is all because what, your dad couldn't handle a couple wedgies? Are you a little daddy's girl?" She says, fed up.

Anika shoots her an icy glare, but continues.

"You don't even know what you're talking about." Anika tells her, voice lowering to soft and almost sorrowful.

"Poor dad, he just had to go to that party. Do you know what happens to a person when they go through something traumatic? It changes them. He came out the only bystander that survived, but not without a scarred face and a scarred soul to show for it." She murmurs. She turns suddenly, a new pep in her mannerisms.

"Your father," she points at Sam accusingly, "and your father," she points her knife at you, "fucked my dad up royally. He got diagnosed with severe depression and bipolar disorder from it. And for what?" She seethes.

"Your guys' fathers are just racist assholes. You deserve everything that's coming to you, don't you even doubt it for a second!" She sneers, with so much venom and power that you can't help but agree.

You open your mouth to say something, anything, try to explain that you aren't your dad, but Anika beats you to it.

"Did you know he left me? I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was 6." She tells you, voice getting softer. Your heart tugs for her.

She straightens up, as if just realizing where she was, and her icy facade once again builds up.

"Anywho, motive enough for you Sam?" She tilts her head up, eyes bright.

Sam stands scarily still, but you can see the concern swimming in her eyes.

Ethan's standing wide-eyed like this is all new information to him.

"It really wasn't that hard getting you two to meet. All I had to do was invite Tara to that party and just give YN a little bump so you two would talk." Anika continues, and you furrow your eyebrows. Party? You met Tara at a party?

Your eyes dart to Tara and she's looking at you a little solemnly, and suddenly it hits you like a truck. Memories that have never been unlocked before replay in your mind now. The angel from that party.

That was Tara.

"After that, everything just fell into place. You guys are one pathetic predictable group of people." Ethan pipes up.

"The friendship, the night you got stabbed, it was all planned. I mean, why do you think I took you back to the apartment? For Anika to "stitch you up?" He asks excitedly, looking at Anika for approval to speak further. She gives him an annoyed nod.

"And guess what the best part is," He giggled midway, but gains his composure again. "Every time she came to fix you up, she actually poisoned the wound. Never too much that you would notice- but enough to guarantee your death today. It's infected." He cheers, like he hasn't just told you you're going to die.

"Jesus, you never told me how bad it was," Tara says, making your eyes dart back to hers, trying to catch her gaze to inadvertently say your sorry, but she doesn't meet your eyes.

"I didn't want you to worry." You sigh.

Ethan makes a noise of disgust. He looks at you with scrunched eyebrows, a little crinkle of his nose betraying his chill facade. His gaze shifts to Tara, and you can't help but notice his voice move just a pitch higher.

"Poor Tara. Caught in this sick twisted web between your sister and your girlfriend. You didn't even do anything wrong right, baby? Don't worry...nothing's going to happen to you. I've made sure of that." He tells her, and it hits you all at once.

"Baby? What are you talking about? " Tara asks, cocking her head to the side.

"I love you, Tara. I did all of this just for you. When the both of them are dead, you and I can get together. Finally." He says, between deep breaths.

You don't know how you never saw it before. Memories of the prior weeks flash in front of your eyes.

His heart eyes for your girlfriend every time the group would have a movie night and you two would cuddle, the weird lingering around the both of you whenever you'd go out.

You just figured he really liked your company.

"You're out of your mind you sick fuck. Tara would never date you, even if you were the last person on earth." Is what Sam says, and despite the consequences of what's sure to come, your heart sings.

Last person on earth.

Ethan stutters, like he never thought of the possibility that she would reject him. You see tears forming immediately, frown apparent. He's trying to keep it together- you can tell.

He leans back slightly, dejected. His eyes cloud with something you can only describe as hatred, and for a scary moment, you think he seriously might jump at Tara.

However, he doesn't get the time to act on his thoughts, because in less than a blink of an eye Anika's moving over and stabbing him in the neck.

"Agh!" He grunts. A trickle of blood runs down the side of his mouth, then it bursts. So, so much thick crimson liquid gurgles out.

Anika stands behind him, sliding her knife out his back, wiping the blood clean.

"Gosh, what a bore he was, right? True love this true love that. I couldn't listen to that shit any longer." She gags, leaning over to stick her tongue out at Ethan's lifeless face. She stabs him again in the jaw for good measure.

She looks back at the three of you, who are clearly aghast.

"Gotta make sure he's dead right?" She smiles, and it finally gets through to you that she's lost it. Whoever you thought you knew, that person never existed.

No one answers her as she stands up.

You turn stoney-faced as you look up at her. "So what's the plan Anika? How are you gonna get away with this?"

She turns around, rolling her eyes. Before you know it, she's advancing towards you, knife raised. She jabs lightly at your wound. Teases her knife against your skin. You really wish people would stop picking that specific part to hurt you.

"Do we really need to go over this again? Kill you guys blah blah blah, find Mindy and kill her, say that you and Sam went crazy like their fathers. Really, it's not hard to understand." Anika continues, shuffling her feet as she speaks like she's bored.

Time is ticking before she snaps and just decides to kill you, you know it. Not to mention the fact that you were actively dying.

"What do you really want from us? Just name your price now, and we'll- we'll get it. Just let her go." Tara splutters, almost begging.

Anika stomps her feet with the energy of a three year olds tantrum, "I want revenge! Have I not made that clear enough?" she basically yells.

Sam moves forward slowly, like a wildlife expert moving towards a wild beast.

"Look I'm sure we can come to an agreement about something-" She's saying, but Anika rolls her eyes once again and advances lazily towards you.

Nothing happens in slo-mo like the movies, you can barely register her face before she's plunging the dagger deep into the other side of your lower stomach. You can feel it pierce it's way through your whole body.

You hear a scream but it sounds a million miles away. You gag, moving your head to the side to try and puke, but nothing comes out. You try to groan in frustration but it makes your skin sting everywhere that you stop. You just stop for a moment.

Tara's fully sobbing now, you think. You can't really tell.

All hell breaks loose. Sam breaks out into a sprint at Anika, effectively knocking her down till both of them are tumbling on the floor.

You see flashes of black and gray and blood spurting from someone.

"Stay with me." You hear someone say, and try with everything in you to blink back everything into focus. It's Tara.

Her mascara is everywhere. Black stripes of tears and makeup streak down her pretty face, and you feel the urge even now to bring your hand up and wipe the tears away.

You try and tell her to stop crying but the words die in your mouth. What feels like fire engulfs your lungs.

"Stay with me. I'll be right back." She whispers, pressing a kiss to your chapped lips.

You search your mind desperately for a way out of this mess, a solution, but everything goes blank. Your ears ring, eyes rolling to the back of your head in pain.

With everything you have in you, you squeeze Tara's hand one last time, and tell her to take the knife currently lodged in you out.

Tara's eyes darken, the most cloudy you've ever seen them.

"No, no. I couldn't do that." She says, another round of tears falling down her cheeks. She shakes her head adamantly, but you shush her.

"Please. For me." You manage to get out, then with the utmost acceptance, you let yourself go.

Tara doesn't remember much of what happened after that. She remembers sobbing, she remembers someone screaming, but she can't be too sure if it's her or someone else. She remembers the feeling of your fingers loosening their grip on her hand, and she remembers seeing red.

With no where else to channel her emotions, and with your words engraved in her mind, she turns on Anika.

She hurries over to where she's still wrestling with Sam, expression tight, and grabs the first thing she can find in this shithole of a theater.

Your father's wooden box.

She remembers faintly telling Sam to fuck off, and smashing the box over Anika's head. Then picking it up and doing the same thing again. And again, and again. She remembers taking the heel of her shoes and smashing it to Anika's nose, breaking it in one clean hit.

She remembers going back to you, your white as paper skin, and yanking the knife out of you.

And the final thing she remembers is screaming at Anika while she buries the knife in and out of the girl’s body, everywhere, again and again.

[mmmkaybye]

Why Zutara Shippers are Wrong (JK, You can ship who you want lol)

(Although, I don't care if you do actually ship Zutara, that's your prerogative, I'm just waiting for better arguments for the relationship and for people to stop negatively viewing Kataang)

First of all, I'm premising this with the fact that I don't think that ATLA should have ended with Katara and Aang kissing. I think it would have been fine to just end with a slightly more intimate-than-friends hug/cuddle. I would have personally preferred that two children who survived being literal child soldiers get the chance to be kids before they delve into a more mature relationship with one another, but they didn't exactly have adults of the modern culture there to guide them a different way, now did they?

BUT! I am a firm believer that Zuko and Katara would never have worked out romantically and that Katara and Aang's relationship 1. makes more sense and 2. is actually healthier in the scope of trauma and trauma responses.

First of all, I don't understand how the creators of ATLA managed to craft literally the MOST traumatic childhood backstory ever with incredible detail and nuance and everyone just fricking glosses over it like WTF??? Not to mention, the creators did an amazing job diversifying trauma responses to similar trauma experiences.

Let's discuss Katara's childhood trauma, which was not healed magically after a little side quest with Zuko. Katara carries immense survivor's guilt over her mother's murder. Katara understands very well how and why her mother was brutally murdered in their family home. She has been deeply aware of this since the day of her mother's murder - and she fully blames herself. Katara understands that a fire nation soldier killed her mother, but he killed her because of Katara - she said so herself. Then, Katara, who was the last person to interact with her mother, discovers her mother's body, and it is insinuated that Katara might have even witnessed her mother's brutal execution-style murder. This forever alters Katara down to her core personality traits. Katara is 'bossy' because of her trauma. I work with kids from pre-k through graduating american high school. It's pretty normal for girls to do what I call 'mothering' to their peers and to kids younger than them. It often is described as being 'bossy' and some girls are in fact bossy, but for the most part, they are roleplaying a caretaker mentality as they are most familiar with. In Katara's deep guilt of being the reason her mother was murdered, her trauma response was burden herself with the role of mother. This is further antagonized when her father leaves with the rest of the adult men to fight against the Fire Nation. He might've well as died too due to lack of communication for many years. Sokka does not allow Katara to mother him for very long, so she doesn't get to have a chance to work through her personal trauma response to her grief because she has no one to safely and consistently direct these mothering tendencies towards. The other children in the village are not orphans, their mothers are most likely very alive and very involved with them, so they would be temporary fillers at best. Sokka has stepped into the role of village man and definitely would reject Katara's mothering, which often led to tension between the siblings. Toph had the very reaction to Katara's mothering tendencies as I expect a young Sokka had to them. He lost his mother, too, he didn't want a replacement, nor did he want to lose his sister to the role of mother.

Zuko, in the same fashion as Sokka, had a mother who he loved, and lost, and was not looking to replace. Zuko's mother was also a topic that is deeply rooted in a lot of Zuko's personal trauma as well. Zuko did not get to spend much time with Katara for her mothering tendencies to be extended over him, but he definitely would have aggressively rejected them as Katara's trauma response would have negatively triggered his own. Their trauma would have deeply and negatively impacted any romantic relationship they could have developed because of how they would react to each other. Their relationship would have crashed and burned very quickly.

On top of that. Katara would have never left the South Pole indefinitely - that is her home, and she consistently returned to it throughout her life. That is an effect of her cultural upbringing. Zuko couldn't leave the Fire Nation, and as we saw in the graphic novels that followed, Zuko's personal welfare suffered greatly because his whole world was upended and now he was responsible for the one nation that didn't get peace at the end of the war. It's incredibly naive and slightly delusional for people to desperately push romantic wishes upon a sixteen-year-old boy who was burdened with the responsibility of healing an entire nation, one that fought him every step of the way in many aspects. He did not have the emotional energy to expend upon a frivolous relationship. That's why Mai and he broke up, not because they didn't love each other, but because Zuko simply could not have personal relationships until his reign and nation had stabilized - that alone would take upwards of 10 years. Plus, Zuko may have helped others work through parts of their trauma, but he had to address his trauma too, which we saw the beginnings of during the graphic novels. Simply put, by the end of ATLA and all of the graphic novels, Zuko was in no place emotionally, mentally, and even physically and politically to seek out a relationship that was meaningful and healthy. And I know that Zuko would have changed the tradition of political marriage, at the very least he deserves to have married for love at the end of everything he suffered through. Zuko is a great opportunity to normalize waiting until you're in your mid-twenties -thirties before seeking out romantic relationships. Logistically speaking, I don't think there would have been much opportunity for romantic feelings to develop between the two of them. I especially don't think Katara would have easily been able to live in the Fire Nation because the Fire Nation was directly responsible for her trauma, and that is also why I don't think she would have every pursued a relationship with a Fire Nation man, Zuko or not.

Now onto Aang. Everyone always jumps onto this idea that Katara and Aang had a very mother-son relationship - which is wrong. Aang comes from a culture that literally does not have mother and fatherhood. There are NO mothers and fathers in the Air Nomad Nation. Sure, kids had birth parents, but parenthood was not part of their culture, nor did Aang ever seek out that kind of relationship. Aang may have been kid-like, but he was the most adultified kid in the group. He was incredibly independent and confident in his ability to travel internationally by himself at 12. Katara had never thought to leave the South Pole to seek out a waterbending master in the North Pole because she didn't have that confidence or training. The Air Nomads thrived on a mentorship-based village raising of children. So, Aang never thought of Katara as his mother. He literally couldn't, because he had no scope of reference for such a relationship, same with fatherhood. He never had a parental relationship with Monk Gyasto. It was more like a fun uncle mentorship. I think that's why everyone thinks Aang was a bad father, but he was an outlier in the Air Nomad nation because there was no Air Nomad nation when he had children. The village that raised the children in his culture was gone. He was actually a fairly decent father and the two older children probably felt bitter because Tenzin was the only other air bender in existence so it obviously Aang is going to spend a lot of one on one time with Tenzin in the scope of mentoring Tenzin in the way of Air Nomad culture. Aang was not an absentee father like how many people assumed from the very one-sided and brief explanation given by the two older, jaded siblings. Was he perfect? No, he literally had no clue how to be a father. Did he and Tenzin leave to get milk and never come back? Also no. That being said, Aang was the only individual who was comfortable with Katara mothering him, he never felt threatened or overburdened by her trauma response, which allowed for Katara to genuinely work through her grief and mature out of the extreme bossy mothering we first saw in book one. If you pay attention, yes Katara does retain that 'bossy' kind of personality, but that was permanent fixture due to her childhood trauma and a little bit of cultural influence as well. I think, if Katara had never been traumatized, she would have always leaned towards a very soothing and nuturing type of personality, which we began to see in the middle of book three. Her bossiness/mothering trauma response gradually lessened the longer she 'mothered' Aang. Once again, neither of the two saw each other as Mother-son. They were simple too close in age and Aang also had the added sense of duty-boundness due to being the Avatar. Katara was always going to be a caretaker archetype personality, trauma or no, and that simply wasn't the type of person that Zuko would lean towards for a romantic relationship due to his own personal upbringing and culture. Aang is a much more gentle and playfully empathetic personality that works with Katara's firm care and sassy disposition.

In the graphic novels, I personally saw a great deal of healing and maturation in Katara in relation to her trauma. She was less mothering towards Aang, too, and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Aang matured a lot as well and the change in their once platonic relationship to a more romantic-leaning one. Was their relationship perfect? No, they are kids who survived a horrific war and many many trauma-inducing situations. However, once Katara fully leaned away from the mothering habit, we get to see that Aang allows Katara to relax and be more playful. She genuinely was just happy with Aang. He pushed her to be a little more child-like and to have child-like fun even as they grew up into adulthood. Katara helped Aang mature and face a lot of adult burdens that were placed child.

In the end, Katara and Aang always brought out the best in each other. Katara and Zuko didn't have enough time together in ATLA to develop an individual relationship outside of the group. There simply isn't enough time outside of their little side-quest in which Katara and Zuko interact solo- which was definitely NOT Katara's best, and in fact was Katara lashing out aggressively towards people who loved and cared for her and she them. Zuko was also not his 'best' in that time either as he was also being triggered emotionally. In fact, during ATLA, there's way too much negative tension between the two of them that leads to really intense disagreements and emotional outbursts more often than not until Katara begrudgingly accepts Zuko into the group, they don't even positively interact until Ember Island which is what, two weeks? She's not exactly nice when she pretty much demands him to help her hunt down the man that murdered her mother. Zuko is all gung-ho about vengeance too. Of course, they both have a lesson learning moment, but that episode cemented in my brain that Aang is the better partner for Katara than Zuko. Aang, once again the most mature in the Gaang, fight me on this, has a deep, empathetic understanding of the world, he doesn't do a great job trying to explain to Katara, but I think that's because no one in the Gaang understands how Appa is not just an air bison, and Aang never views Appa as an air bison like how everyone else in ATLA do. To everyone else, Appa's an animal, but to Aang and Aang's culture that is deeply offensive, Appa is an individual with emotions and value outside of what he can offer the group in terms of transportation and that's never really explicitly clarified to the audience either (because despite being a kid's cartoon, the creators knew their audience well and did not treat the audience like we are stupid and can in fact infer and read between the lines). If Katara had killed that pathetic worm of a man, it would have absolutely destroyed her as a person. She would not have been able to heal from her trauma and would probably suffer even more trauma and guilt. This side-quest was a plot point to lead up to the big debate of killing Ozai, and not many, in fact I don't know if anyone has talked about that fact. I have no doubt that Zuko has probably killed people, at the very least, he's deeply desensitized to people dying as I think he probably at some point did experience or witness some form of warfare battle before he began chasing Aang down.

Once again, I don't really care if you do ship Katara and Zuko. In fact, I think that's a-okay. But, with the Netflix live action adaptation's take on the Secret Tunnel scene, I've seen a lot of people speculating and even hoping for it to become canon and there have even been some opinions of Kataang that have resurfaced that really rub me the wrong way because it feels like many individuals are just looking at the surface level of ATLA. There's so much nuance to each individual character in terms of culture, societal norms, age and gender, and most importantly, trauma and trauma responses. The creators did an amazing job world building and story telling that a lot of what I put up in my opinion in preference for Kataang over Zutara is information that I inferred from the show and graphic novels due to my personal experience and education in familial relationships and childhood trauma. My thoughts are not the end all be all to this debate, nor do I think they should be, I've seen some really solid opinions in favor of Zutara that I can understand and somewhat agree with. I think a lot of those details and moments that people look to as indicators of romance between Katara and Zuko were remnants of the creators' previous intention, but I think that the change to Aang and Katara as end game was logistically and realistically more accurate. I never thought that Katara and Zuko were meant to be, and I always struggled to put to words as to why until I had pursued my psych studies in college that focused on child development, childhood trauma, and marriage and family counselling. I think that the creators instinctually were seeing the red flags that would have occurred naturally within Zutara and changed course accordingly. There were just a lot of details and nuances that I noticed personally that I wished more people would discuss.

Anyways, thank you for coming to my TedTalk, I'd love to hear some of your opinions about this.

[runabout-river]

Thoughts on JJK chapter 259 (Spoilers)

We start with a flashback to the blood junkies teaching Yuji how to use BM. As was already said in a previous flashback, Choso can't teach for shit but that's why Kamo is here. Yuji's one way of relating to the foundation of BM is a little infantile but when it works it works.

This 1-page flashback is there for only one thing: preparing us for Choso's upcoming death through sacrifice.

Sukuna collects BV like I did Yugioh cards. First a cooking pun, then a limit on furnace outside of his DE, then the inside of his DE was littered with explosive CE ambers, then a change of his barrier to keep his CT output high.

Uraume (not Sukuna! not the narrator!) declares this their victory while she hasn't even managed to defeat Hakari. The narrator does say though that this is Sukuna's ultimate move. Looking at its scale and immense destructive power, it's appropriate.

I made a post about other techniques that Sukuna probably has in his sleeve: CTR, the Maximum and the Hollow Technique. It could be that Sukuna's MT and HT could rival his Fire in destructiveness without contradicting the narrator: Sukuna is a villain who also grows while fighting just like the typical shonen protagonist. Sth like HT he might've just learned from Gojo making Yuji's continued fight against him hell.

The moment Yuji was in an enclosed and dark space with Choso above him I knew Choso was a goner. It's sad 😢 but we go back to that picnic table and those two have one last conversation with each other. They're at peace with the situation...

Important to note: Yuji normally infuses dream sequences into others unlike Sukuna who has a post-death talk with them. This is a post-death talk that Yuji now has with Choso, so I'm curious how that will get explained in the future. Is that part of the resonance that gets mentioned later?

Also important: with how everything with Choso and the picnic table is set up, I find it likely that Yuji will be here again right before dying (or when he dies). Other dead characters might greet him here.

The narrator tells us that after the dusts settles, Yuji's convictions get shaken. We get an appropriate 80% page close up of Sukuna from below, portraying him as the monstrous giant that he is.

What I don't really like here is that Yuji's feelings of despair don't get to sink in. Todo appears 1 panel after Yuji looks relatively all right. Maybe Gege didn't want to repeat Kugisaki's death aftermath as it wouldn't add much but a bit more emotions would've been better.

Anyway, Todo is here right when he was needed the most. A flashback tells us what the rational behind his late entrance and absence from Yuji's presence had been. Makes sense and now the Sukuna-Yuji(-Megumi?) resonance will be an important plot point later.

Does that resonance go both ways? Three ways? Was that how Yuji had entered the inner domain where Megumi is imprisoned right now?

Also, who else is going to show up now? This feels like the perfect setup for Nobara to make her comeback. The same points for keeping Todo's presence and assistance hidden apply to her and this scene directly calls back her death scene as well.

The "most likely fine" is also funny but it also sets up that Ino, Maki and Miwa(?) might've gotten injuries that cross them out of the fight. I think that only Maki will return.

Now the original Brothers™ are back to fighting together again (would've loved Choso and Todo to argue about that though). Sukuna of course knows everything about their fighting style and he looks like a menace again. (Maybe next chapter will open with another flashback of Choso and Todo fighting over Yuji)

Sukuna's arms are open and he smiles without any worries. While Uraume might be shocked that this isn't their victory and that Sukuna's most devastating attack only killed one person, Sukuna himself is all sunshine and rainbows.

[avatar-anna]

Baby Said

inspired by baby said by maneskin. enjoy!!

Harry shoved his way through the crowd of sweaty bodies, muttering apologies and ignoring dirty looks until he was sufficiently close enough to the stage. He felt out of place amongst all the black clothes and heavy eyeliner. He'd opted for light wash jeans and a t-shirt that said, But daddy I love him, in bold red letters, though the "him" had been scratched out for "her."

There was an excited buzz in the club. Dance music pumped through the speakers while stage hands set up for the upcoming performance. It was dark, a little smelly, and the air was thick with smoke, but Harry couldn't have been happier to be jostled around and poked by elbows. He waited patiently for the band to make their appearance, smiling warmly at anyone he made eye contact with, though when a woman gave him a look that was perhaps more than a flirtatious smile, he quickly averted his gaze.

Before long, the club music died down, and people began to make their way onto the stage. Harry got pushed around a little as the crowd surged forward and began to cheer, but he managed to hold his ground. He smiled as his gaze snagged on a particular member of the band, butterflies erupting in his belly when she winked at him as she slung the strap of her bass guitar around her neck. He couldn't help but look her up and down, admiring the leather mini skirt and what could only be described as a matching bra, scraps of leather covering her just so, and strings of it wrapping around her torso. The way she dressed was harsh and in your face and inherently sexual, a celebration of her body. Harry thought she looked like an angel.

The frontman of the band gave a quick introduction, then counted up from five, and the first song began.

If the pushing was intense before, it was pure chaos now. Everyone fed off the music from the band, writhing together and yet completely out of synch. It was madness, but a good kind of madness that was fun and made you want to be part of it.

The band was good, better than good, but Harry only had eyes for one person. Her.

His eyes followed her every move as Y/n moved about the stage, his heart fluttered every time she came to his side of the stage, and flushed when she played to other people in the crowd, winking at them and giving them flirty smiles. Harry knew he shouldn't have felt like that, but he couldn't help it.

The concert was electric, absolutely electrifying. Harry could feel the music right down to his bones, he blushed when he felt the bassist's eyes on him as the lead singer sang particular lyrics. During one song, she surveyed the crowd, a mischievous glint in her eye. Then, she looked down to where Harry was standing and raised her eyebrow. When he raised his own brows at her, she reached down, grabbed Harry by the collar of his shirt, and kissed him. The crowd around them cheered, but all his senses zeroed in on the feeling of Y/n's lips sliding against his. Her teeth dug into his bottom lip, but that only made him lean into the kiss more.

It was like she'd completely forgotten about the concert she was performing. Her hands were in Harry's hair in seconds, pulling and tugging as if she was going to drag him onstage. He'd gotten so lost in the taste of tequila on her tongue, he might've let her, but she eventually pulled away to continue the band's set, but not before whispering, "Love the shirt, handsome," in his ear.

Harry took that as his cue to make his way backstage. He usually stayed and watched most of Y/n's sets, but when she whispered a flirty remark in his ear, he knew it was time to go.

Leaving the pit was much easier than shoving his way to the front. People in the crowd were eager to take his place, swallowing up the path he made as he left the steadily growing mosh pit. Cool air hit Harry's skin once he left the throngs of dancers, though he still felt the heat of her touch from when she kissed him, and more surged into his belly at the thought of what came next.

Harry made his way backstage and to the little green room, which was considerably easy seeing as they were in a club rather than a stadium. Y/n typically had her own dressing room because she was the only girl in the band, but this club was too small, the band's green room tonight looked like the manager's office repurposed.

But he sat down anyway, his fingers tapping his knees with anxious anticipation. Harry could hear the base pumping from here as the band went from one song to the next. He knew the setlist by now; knew the part where they introduced themselves, the crowd favorite, the closing song, and the encore. He knew each segment of the set like he was up there himself, knew almost down to the minute when Y/n would burst through the doors of the green room with her bandmates.

When they did, Harry stood up, greeting each member of the band and clapping them on the back and congratulating them on another great show. He made sure to give them attention before his focus zeroed in on Y/n, because when it was all said and done, he just wanted to be with her.

Y/n was the last one to come in, her chest glistening with sweat and bangs sticking to her forehead. But she had a big smile on her face when her eyes landed on Harry. Before he could say a word, she grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the green room. Y/n dragged him back out through the club until they were eventually outside in an alley. She pushed him up against the wall and kissed him, her hands immediately reaching into his hair and tugging on it.

"You were amazing tonight," Harry breathed, resting his hand on her waist.

"Always play my best when you're here," she said. They kissed a little more, Y/n nipping at Harry's bottom lip while he reached beneath her tiny skirt. "Do you really have to go?"

"I wish I didn't," he mumbled against her jaw. "But I have my own tour to get back to, you know."

"Don't go," Y/n whined. "Think of all the fun we've had while you were here."

Since Harry was on his break from tour, he joined Y/n on hers. Every day was a new adventure in a new city. Y/n's band was more underground, so they played smaller venues than Harry did, and they were rowdier, and the audience was definitely different than his. But it was fun being in the middle of it all. Harry loved watching live music, and he loved watching Y/n perform more than anything. Now that it was time to go, both of them were having a hard time saying goodbye.

"My tour is almost over, and then after that, I'm all yours," he said. "And tonight, I'm all yours. So let's make it count, yeah?"

Y/n grinned and ran her hands beneath Harry's shirt, her nails scratching down his torso. "You gonna let me have my way with you?"

Leaning his head against hers, Harry grinned and said, "I'm kind of hoping that you do. Been waiting all night, actually."

"Let's go back to the hotel, then. We're not starting tonight in a dirty alley."

On the ride back to the hotel, Y/n was all over Harry, leaning against him across the backseat and practically attacking his neck and jaw. He knew he was going to be littered with hickeys by the time the car pulled up to the hotel, but he didn't mind. He loved Y/n too much that he didn't really care if he was photographed with hickeys on his neck from time to time.

If Harry had been wearing a tie, Y/n would've dragged him up to her hotel room with it in her hands. So she settled for hooking a finger into the collar of his t-shirt and hauling into the elevator. Since they started dating, Y/n had always been the more direct of the two, the one to take charge. Harry didn't mind one bit, more than happy to take orders as well as give them. He liked the idea that his girlfriend was so into him that she just had to pin him up against a wall or on the bed and kiss him stupid. Y/n was confident and sexy both on and off the stage, and he couldn't get enough.

Later that night, they were still up, laying in bed and talking about whatever popped into their heads. Y/n's hand combed through Harry's hair, her touch a lot gentler than it had been an hour ago.

"I don't think I quite got the message across because your tongue was down my throat almost the second you stepped offstage," he said, laughing when Y/n told him to shut up. "But you were incredible tonight. All of you were."

"Thank you, baby."

Harry leaned forward and kissed her temple. "And you looked incredible too."

"Yeah? Too bad you won't be at the next show. Had something real special planned just for you."

"Don't do that," Harry groaned, imagining what she might wear for her next show. Or wouldn't wear. She was always pushing the envelope in terms of her onstage outfits, most of which had Harry on his knees for her by the end of the night. "Don't make me want to cancel my next shows so I can watch you perform."

"Mm...Fine. But only if you get between my legs again, and one more time to wake me up in the morning."

"That's what you want?" Harry asked, but he was already moving.

"That's what I want."

Harry kissed her once before pushing her legs up on the hotel bed. "Your wish is my command."

Y/n gasped, her hand reaching to grab his hair by the root to pull him where she wanted, but he didn't give in quite just yet. He kissed her thigh, sucking a little mark of his own into her skin. Y/n's grip was tight, guiding Harry to where she wanted him, just how he liked it.

[fuckitwebhaal]

I have so many incoherent durge thoughts that I'm trying to piece together. Like I like thinking of them as a corpse within a corpse trying to live. You have always been dead in some way even before the story began. Like the little baby you might've been before your father's blood started speaking to you died the first time you picked up the knife. You carry the corpse you who you could've been inside of you. Pushed all the way down but it's still there rotting away. When Orin put the tadpole in your skull, the untouchable prophet of Bhaal died. And now you're left with it's clawing hunger and a humiliation you can't shake. And like sure you can reclaim your birthright but that part of you is still gone. Everyone saw you fall and the pedestal will never be as high or sturdy or stable. You can come close to how you were but you'll never be the same.

And if you turn your back on your father, he kills you and leaves you a corpse yet again. You come back but it still doesn't change the fact that he made another corpse for you to carry. The guilt for past sins, the strange emptiness that fills your head where the urge used to be and the muscle memory that's never gonna leave you.

Like you've always been dead in some way. A piece of dead flesh molded into a person who is constantly killing some part of themselves. A corpse within a corpse within a corpse.

Does that make sense?

And you can die again, if you reject Bhaal’s blood. Your growth is a long line of corpses left behind you. It’s up to you to decide whether the corpses belong to you or someone else. God, you’re so right.

[spilledstars1234]

First post! To start this blog off, i'd like to vomit a random Link Click theory that I thought of recently after finishing Season 2 a couple of weeks ago

You know, the whole “Lu Guang taking the photo in his hospital room” scene’s been on my mind a lot. Because that part was a liiiiitle strange. ‘Cause, I don’t think LG even left his phone there for CXS to find. And why? Because he doesn’t even know that CXS knows his phone passcode. My evidence? When Qiao Ling asks Cheng Xiaoshi how he knew LG’s passcode, he replies with “I just happened to see him put it in.” MEANING: LG didn’t tell it to him. Which is kind of odd, because if he left the phone specifically for CXS to find and dive into, wouldn’t he have told him his phone password beforehand in order to have gotten the plan to work smoothly? 

SO! What if he left the phone for HIMSELF to find, and dove into it after CXS’ death and after CXS transferred his ability to him, so he’d have like a backup plan-ish sort of thing just in case CXS might've died that night???

And bonus! So if that WAS him, then the whole thing with the boat would make sense! ‘Cause when it first shows the whole “Lu Guang leaping on top of CXS” scene (back when we didn’t know CXS dives into the photo), it shows LG having zoomed his way there to the docks on some random boat. So this brings me to the conclusion that this had all been pre-planned (aka LG from the future going back and saving CXS), because like, where’d he get the boat? Did he just hijack one or something? Or… did he have one prepared in advance? (see where i’m going with this??)

 And when we see CXS as Lu Guang, notice how HE didn’t take a boat there, and just ran all the way to the docks? (while risking the small matter of LG’s intestines spilling out… buuut cartoon logic!) So this brings me to thinking that the Lu Guang we saw the first time was actually Lu Guang! And that was him from another timeline and not CXS like we all thought.

And therefore, the “LG & CXS lying on top of each other scene” could’ve actually happened (so CXS wasn’t being narcissistic there, lol!), since that could have been Lu Guang the first time around (and Lu’s little smirk and the whole “Fortunately I caught up to you” thing could’ve been y’know, actually from him and not CXS just saying that to himself).

But then… there’s a loophole in this. Because the Lu Guang that is shown first starts busting out all these moves… and we all know CXS is the one who’s more adept at fighting, and we can kinda guess Lu Guang probably doesn’t get off the couch (he isn’t called an old man for nothing y’know). So, maybe that was actually CXS to begin with…

In conclusion? I genuinely don’t know! But I like to be delusional so I like to think that it was LG in another timeline (c’mon studio lan, you can’t just give us that scene and pass it off as it actually being CXS because of censorship pls). Or maybe I’m dumb and this theory’s super wrong because I completely missed something, I dunno.

(edit: HANG ON, i totally forgot about the scene where cxs gets shot and LG immediately went to beat the crap out of qian jin. So maybe all it takes for LG to fight is when he sees CXS in danger~)

[g0ss1pg1lm0r3]

im still grieving gummigoo so im gonna cope like i cope with every blorbo of mine that dies

THEORY TIME

so what if someone (someone = gummigoo) spawned into the circus like everyone else by putting on the headset, but instead of spawning into the actual circus like normal, he spawned into one of Caine's minigames? Maybe during episode one when the abstracted Kaufmo was out terrorizing everyone and Bubble + Caine were chatting in that restaurant before Caine went to go save everyone someone got teleported in. there are two possibilities why he spawned in wrong.

1. Pomni was freshly and newly accepted into the circus. There might have been a bug in the system which caused him to arrive in the wrong place since it wasn't fully able to register two people consecutively joining.

2. Abstracted Kaufmo may have caused a stir in the system so when gummigoo arrived it wasn't able to load properly.

the reason why gummigoo didn't seem to act human (sticking to the script of having a sick/dying mother who needs the syrup to stay alive) and functioned like an NPC was cause Caine might've mistook him for one (Caine gets humans and NPCS mixed up all the time). Caine cannot control the humans brains (episode one) which contradicts the theory that Caine programmed him to use a script with plot, but using the logic and theory that abstracted Kaufmo did infact cause a disturbance in the system, gummigoo may have glitched or arrived at the map in a violent way (example: falling from the sky and landing headfirst) which caused severe brain damage. Gummigoo thinks he's an NPC cause the first thing he remembered after waking up was Caine probably talking to him about the plot that he's supposed to use and the script he needs to stick to. He wouldn't be in the right mental state (or physical state if something actually got mixed up in his brain, I remember there was a case where a man was axed repeatedly to the point where he was on the verge of death but apparently the part of his brain that remembers routines like morning routines or night routines was still functioning so he did his entire morning routine with the remaining body energy he had left and then died) to register this as false and just went with it

it is currently 10:47PM right now and I'm mourning so if this doesn't make sense do not correct me I have no respect for myself

[sevicia]

2022 Batcat has very strong "I can fix him" vibes but I'm gonna be honest here I don't think he deserves her. Not rn at least cause Selina is 100% the most emotionally mature & responsible person in the entire movie with only like. Alfred & Ms. Reál behind her. & Bruce is literally a BRAT, he's insanely sheltered, ignorant and selfish through most of the movie and starts only becoming more aware of, like, everything? towards the end. There is a LOT of work 2 be done there & Selina's already dealing w/ enough shit on her own to be worrying about a grown man in a batsuit.

Also I do think it's interesting how the two main ships 2 come out of this movie (Riddlebat & Batcat) run in completely opposite directions. Selina could "fix" Bruce, but Bruce and Edward could only make each other worse.

Selina might've had her mom til she was 7 (iirc) & her piece of shit dad only dies after she's into her (mid?) 20s, but she DOES have a similar background to Edward's in that they both grew up without a stable, "normal" family, and had a very poor economic situation their whole lives. I do want to know more about her past REAL BAD cause we got the Year One comics for Edward that let us know he'd been bullied his whole life besides also growing up in the orphanage which was just... not ideal to say the least, but we still don't know much (or AS much) about Selina.

From what we see in the movie I think it's pretty obvious that Selina had to "toughen up" from a very young age: she knows how to handle herself, how to protect herself, and tries her best to do the same for those she cares about. The grudge she holds against Falcone is absolutely justified, and so is the fact that she all but jumps onto the one chance she had to kill him.

(Sidenote: I do like how Bruce's reasoning went from "You'll be just like him" (most sheltered statement ever) to "You've paid enough" (makes more sense and ACTUALLY shows some care for her as a person rather than for some broad, flimsy sense of justice.))

But on Edward's side, we have the fact that he never had someone in particular to direct all of his rage and despair to, leading him to hate and berate himself. Once he learned there WAS a reason that caused his life to be so horrible, rather than some divine, nonsensical punishment aimed towards him specifically, his hatred turned outwards into a far more broad direction than Selina's, causing him to all but lose his mind and start planning.

Selina is aware of the corruption in Gotham, but she doesn't have the detailed knowledge that Edward has (due to his job giving him the chance to find out), and still says at one point that she agrees with what Edward is doing (even if nothing is mentioned about the *way* he's doing it), which to me means that she's the kind of person who's just trying to survive and is just not able to fully dedicate herself to making a change and has become disillusioned with the city as a whole, which is evident during the talk she has with Bruce before they go their separate ways.

She HAS things to care about, and this sounds rude because I really don't know how else to put it, but she also has "a life" unlike Edward, who is always alone, chasing a purpose that only destroys him in the end. Him being ND plays a huge part in this; his already lacking social skills are only made worse by his environment, making his chronic loneliness straight up DEADLY.

I feel like I'm talking in circles BUT what I really mean is that I think the difference between Edward and Selina boils down to their ability to form relationships. Edward has been unable to do so his whole life, making him spiral, but Selina IS able to connect with others, and this "saves" her in a way. It gives her concrete goals and, more importantly, reasons to live, while also being the cause of her overall maturity and ability to go through tough times (because they WERE), and still not lose sight of herself.

Bruce and Edward both grew up lonely. Bruce because of his trauma*, and Edward because of his neurodivergency. Selina, on the other hand, shows MUCH better social skills and adjustment than both of them throughout the movie (I do think she had to grow up way too fast to survive, when she shouldn't have had to).

I just realized this post is long as fuuuck and borderline incomprehensible and I don't even know how 2 end it I'm sorry everyone.... I'm just spinning them around inside my head.

Also I just gotta say I think her and Edward could've been really good friends if they met as children, but that's another thing & also just a headcanon. But yeah. Let her catch a break. Basically.

*: I do think there's a strong argument you could make for Bruce being ND as well, but I'm also factoring in his economic status since it would've allowed him to receive help/therapy for improving his social skills while Edward never had that option.

[antianakin]

Okay, another dumb Star Wars comment I heard in my journeys in Star Wars YouTube. I was reading through a bunch of comments people had made hating on the Kenobi show (and that show is my entire heart so I was mostly doing it to entertain myself by seeing the terrible Jedi takes) but aside from all the unfortunate hate for the show I came across one person who claimed that it should have been Luke if the show was going to involve one of the skytwins, because Leia doesn’t react when Obi-Wan comes for her in A New Hope, and because Obi-Wan and Luke “SEEM TO KNOW EACH OTHER PRETTY WELL LATER ON” so they should’ve talked about how they became close.

like…… did you not WATCH A New Hope?

That’s…. That’s how they become close. 😭 (also Leia was super excited when she found out he was there so)

I think you can make a solid argument that it might've made more sense for it to be Luke instead of Leia just by simple logistics I guess. Leia doesn't really SEEM to know Obi-Wan super well within ANH, it's Luke who grieves Obi-Wan more openly and Luke who yells out Obi-Wan's name on the Death Star right before he dies, etc etc. Luke is the person that Obi-Wan has been most connected to at this point while Leia's knowledge of Obi-Wan seems to have primarily come through stories told to her by Bail and little else.

And while obviously ANH is supposed to stand on its own in building Obi-Wan and Luke's relationship, they really only get a few days together and a lot of Luke's connection to Obi-Wan seems to come from this desire to be a Jedi and the connection to his father he craves so desperately as well as just the fact that he loses everything else so his only real option IS to go with Obi-Wan. It's a different kind of connection than the one we see built between Obi-Wan and Leia in this show that feels more personal. I LIKE Obi-Wan and Luke's relationship well enough, but I am brought to literal tears by Obi-Wan and Leia's. So for people who like Obi-Wan and Luke more than I did and picked up on the extra emotional depth of the relationship given to Obi-Wan and Leia, I can understand the wish for it to have been applied to Luke instead of Leia, to bolster the already existing relationship rather than creating a new one.

So I GET IT. I don't feel the same way, the Obi-Wan and Leia relationship stole my whole heart and was a large part of why I loved that show, but I can see the reasoning for why people might feel that way.

That being said, Luke's had his turn to shine. He got an entire trilogy of films dedicated to HIS STORY and his growth into being a Jedi while Leia was primarily there as a supporting character in his story. The Kenobi show HIGHLIGHTS Leia and the growth that allowed her to become the person we know from the OT. We get to see that development happen for her and how Obi-Wan helps jumpstart it. We get to see more of what being an Organa means to her and her relationship with her parents, we get to see her love of ships and droids (clearly inherited from Bail), we get to see her passion for helping people and sparky attitude (also inherited from Bail), and the unbridled optimism she has in the fact that goodness and selflessness still exists in the world and it's worth believing in and fighting for. We got SO MUCH for Leia in this and it's about damn time something in high canon focused on her instead of her brother anyway.

So I think you CAN fit the events of the show into canon relatively easily, especially Obi-Wan and Leia having had this relationship, but I can understand people wanting more of Luke and feeling like the Obi-Wan and Luke relationship was usually more narratively relevant prior to this and was an easy place to flesh it out and explore it more in depth in a way ANH just isn't really able to do.

[death-himself]

EPISODE 5 THOUGHTS LETS GO

this series just keeps getting better and better istg

(also I think the only spoilers for non-book readers are at the very end so feel free to read)

the switch to annabeth seeing the fates after thinking percy might've died is INCREDIBLE, I love that change. the fates always seemed a bit out of place in the book so it's nice to see them actually add something to the plot

percy acts kinda different after climbing out of the river, which makes sense, but it's weird seeing him kinda happier and more hopeful

was i the only one who thought that percabeth hug kinda paralleled percy and sally's hug in the first episode? maybe it was just one of them being soaking wet and the other being dry

them hiding when ares comes by because they're hiding from the police is funny

also them popping their heads up to talk to him was adorable

"gimme a second, I'm starting a fight on twitter" CRYING

not too big of a fan of gabe's portrayal in this episode, i feel like they should've kept in how quickly he moved onto another woman to up his shittiness in a disney-safe way

that "i really-we really loved that car" was funny tho, and does make him a bit shittier, so I'll give him that. the fake crying could have been more clearly fake, but that's probably just me being bad at reading emotions

when i saw the clip of grover having to stay behind i didn't really like that change, but now watching the episode i really like it. i loved the grover-ares interaction this episode

i love the whole theme park being made by hephaestus, idk why there's something really cool about that

also i really wanna go there i don't even really like amusement parks but that place looked cool as hell

annabeth getting distracted by how cool the mechanics are she's so adorable i love her so much

the explanation of celestial bronze felt a bit random but they needed to include it somewhere so I'm fine with it

what did ares mean when he said protestor?? there were protestors at the solstice?? what does that mean??

grover hyping ares up and getting on his good side to get information out of him loved that

BABY DON'T HURT ME PLAYING ON THE TUNNEL OF LOVE PLSSS

the tunnel of love showing the story of hephaestus's life is so funny to me, like damn ares and aphrodite went on the ride showing the sad life of the guy aphrodite's cheating on??

like that ride was definitely made with revenge on aphrodite in mind that's funny

"she was trying to keep me away from you guys" that adds something to someone's character and i love that. sally recognizing how terrible the gods are and never wanting percy to have to deal with that

also percy looking to annabeth when he said that. like he knows that she's also a part of this awful cycle of abuse, which adds even more to her rejecting that cycle later in the episode

in terms of casting hephaestus is my second favorite of the olympians aside from dionysus, purely because i've loved his outfit from the moment we got that first picture of him, so this episode is exciting for me

including the chair hephaestus built for hera, idk why but i love that so much. could go into how the gods traumatized hephaestus but i think the episode implies that enough

"was [athena] always like that?" i was expecting them to go into how athena might have also been traumatized by zeus but nope it just turned into a shit-on-athena round, which was objectively better

"if she's so smart explain the owl" i loved this conversation it's so fuckin funny

"and i (no owl) am not?!" they're making me love ares fuck

i know there's a reason behind it, but the back-to-back episodes of percy supposedly dying and sacrificing himself for annabeth felt a bit much. i feel like there should've been a bit more room between those, but that's just my opinion (i don't really know what they could've done instead that'd be better)

I DIDN'T EVEN CATCH THE FIRST SEAWEED BRAIN MY FIRST WATCH WAIT HOLD UP

"this isn't the arch seaweed brain, you aren't pushing me into the stairwell again" "yes i am" STOP I LOVE THEM

"you're better at this than me. you just are" CRYING STOP

i can already imagine the edits those are gonna break me

percy getting incased in gold looked so damn cool it felt so mechanical

annabeth not even going for the shield and immediately trying to get percy out

ngl i was fully expecting annabeth to be able to do it, i didn't even doubt her getting him out herself, so i was kinda thrown off by hephaestus showing up

annabeth and hephaestus's whole conversation was just incredible

"maybe i was that way once. but i don't wanna be that way anymore. i won't be like all of you" i can see the edits

"some of us don't like being that way either" i just love hephaestus i love how this episode implies that some of the gods are victims of the cycle of abuse too

the inside of the zoo truck looks waayyy more cramped than i was imagining it all these years

spoilers for people who haven't read the book past this point

grover knowing who the thief is?? he can't know who it actually is, that'd spoil the entire plot-twist, but then who would it be?? luke and clarisse are literally the only named campers not on the quest so far, so unless ares claimed his own daughter stole the bolt, there's no one else that would be a satisfying red herring

i trust this show to not give away luke being the thief until the last episode, so now I'm just very curious what grover's gonna say

i loved this episode so much, my only concern is they haven't mentioned the whole "gods don't have DNA thing" yet, and considering that they really leaned into the family dynamic thing, it's a bit concerning

like please, for the sake of the new fans and their percanny or smartwater, please tell them percy and annabeth aren't really related it's starting to get weird

[super-who-locked-me-in-here]

Okay so we all know how much Hannibal (and Will) like to use the God imagery for themselves as killers. Everyone is always going on about the line Hannibal has about "Killing must feel good to God, too. He does it all the time. And are we not created in his image?" and there's all this talk about how Hannibal sees Will as his God and how God is all powerful and a murderer and everything.

BUT

I think people are really overlooking another line in this context.

When Will states to the academy students "Everyone has thought about killing someone, one way or another, be it at your hand or the hand of god." IT GIVES ME SUCH BIG THOUGHTS.

Because I know that by the end of that statement, what Will means is "you hope someone dies whether you do it or it's some random accident or happenstance of fate/destiny" but something about the way he said it just kicks at my brain because I feel like he's saying "you hope someone dies, whether you physically do it yourself or you will it into existence as the responsibility or action of another higher being".

AND THAT'S WHAT GETS ME! Will doesn't know yet that Hannibal thinks of him as a God, as all powerful, as one of the most righteous killers that could ever be (with the right push). But by phrasing it the way he did, Will is not just talking about himself, but he's unknowingly also talking about Hannibal. If you won't do something by your own hand, manipulate the gods into doing it, right?

For Hannibal the two parts of the statement are different: killing by his own hand is his own acts as the Chesapeake Ripper, the Copycat, Il Monstro, and/or whoever else he might've been when he killed people, whereas killing someone through the hand of God is what Will does, because Hannibal has created a world where he can manipulate God as he sees and worships him.

Yes, Hannibal sent Will in the direction of Garrett Jacob Hobbs and Randall Tier when he could've handled them himself, but that was not his design for the two of them. Hannibal's design for GJH and Randall were to kill them through the hand of God.

Idk if this all makes sense but I was having feelings and thoughts about gods being malleable and victim to manipulation and specifically of Will in that role through Hannibal's devotion.

[starlightvld]

(Additional sketches by @kibagib of scenes from chapter 5 of Broken Bones and Shattered Hearts, my angsty ghostsoap fic. Snippet of chapter 5 is below [spoiler-y parts under the cut])

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John grits his teeth against a wave of longing as he stands and slowly walks across the room toward the embodiment of everything he's been both hating and missing all these years. The embodiment of everything he's lost. Simon goes preternaturally still, perhaps sensing John's change in mood as he stops less than a foot away, his gaze scouring that familiar broad chest.

All the old scars are there. He knows the stories behind some and even treated a few of them himself in dark alleys or cold safe houses, but others — especially the most vicious of them — are still a mystery. 

I was scared of losin' you like I lost my family.

Ghost was never one to share much of his past, and Soap, though he might've pushed things when teasing or bantering, had never crossed those lines Ghost drew for him, even during those nights when he thought maybe... just maybe... Simon was coming to see him more often than Ghost. 

There's so much he doesn't know.

He tells himself he doesn't want to know, but the lie chimes a sour note in the chaos of his mind.

A few new scars peek through the dusting of blond chest hair, and John thinks maybe it would be worth the pain to learn them — one last night with the man he'd thought forever lost to him, one last rush of feeling before Simon leaves him again. Because despite Simon's assurances, despite all the words shared between them today, the leaving still feels as sure to him as the changing of the seasons or the rising and setting of the sun.

The trust is gone.

But everything else?

It's all there, pushing up from that deep ocean and pressing against his sternum like a boulder pinning him to the ground.

His chest hitches with a shaking breath as he reaches out and rests his palm between Simon's pecs. A corresponding soft rush of air over his face is the only indication the touch affects Simon at all. The silver disks that state name, number, and blood type sit just above his fingertips, and he frowns as he realizes there are more disks on the standard-issue silver chain that there should be.

He slides his hand up to brush over the Riley on display, and Simon's chest convulses. His hand shoots up to cover John's, obscuring the tags, but not before they're jostled around to reveal a different yet wholly familiar name on the tags underneath.

MacTavishJ C

He jerks his head up to finally look Simon in the eye, but Simon has turned his head to the side, blotches of color forming high on his bare cheeks.

"Simon," he says in a low and disbelieving tone. "Are those my tags?"

Simon still doesn't look at him or respond, but he does drop his hand. John stays still. Waits. It takes a few seconds, but Simon finally glances over at him.

His curt nod is like a kick to the chest. 

John's breath leaves him in a sharp exhale, and the boulder bares down on him as he looks down at where his fingertips touch the silver disks — the tags he was told were lost during his final mission. He'd come into the hospital without them, setting off a chain of endless paperwork for Price.

"Ye've had them? All this time?"

"Just... just wanted to have somethin' of you. In case..."

"In case I died again and they couldn't bring me back?" 

John whispers the question even as the hope he doesn't want — can't afford to indulge — digs in like a splinter in that hollow place inside. Simon hums, and it's answer enough to have John clenching his jaw to fight the pressure behind his eyes.

"We weren't owt in the military's eyes," Simon says in a low rumble. "They woulda sent 'em to your family. And I knew how much you hated those fuckers. Well. Almost all of 'em."

"But ye kept 'em even when ye knew I was still alive?"

Simon doesn't respond. And John... 

John frowns as logic bullies its way into those warm feelings. "Wait... Ye mean to say ye've been wearing these for years? What if ye were injured and the medics didnae know which one to use? We're no' even the same blood type, ye wee radge! If yer vest gets damaged or removed before they can see it, ye could get yerself killed—"

"Negative," Simon interrupts. "O positive is safe for B positive blood types."

"But—"

"If you want 'em back, just say so," Simon rasps. "Otherwise, they stay where they are."

Simon looks away. His whole body is coiled tight like a spring, as if he's bracing for another barrage of angry words from John. And John should be angry. Simon has been wearing John's tags all this time like some sort of fucking military widower, when he was the one who destroyed everything they were to begin with.

Fucked me up seein' you die like that.

Light begins to dawn as he puts the pieces together.

"I'm no' fucking dead, ye bastard," John growls, though the words don't have the bite they should. Instead, his voice is graveled. Desperate. "I'm right here. I've been here all along."

When John's hand slides up and grips hard at the back of Simon's neck, Simon whips his gaze back to John, and something clicks into place in his stance and expression. Perhaps it's the familiarity of the action. Perhaps it's something about John's face, though he can't begin to imagine what he must look like — can't image what the information that Simon has been wearing John's tags next to his own for three and a half fucking years has done to his expression.

He's so tired of fighting. So tired of the anger and grief that's festered inside him for years. It's not gone. Far from it. But standing here in front of the only person he's ever truly loved with his whole heart, his need outweighs his caution.

And maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe it never mattered. If he's destined to live a tragedy, what's one more crack in the pieces of an already shattered heart? 

Right now, all he wants is one more night and damn the consequences.

His fingers curl tighter around Simon's neck. Simon drags in a shaking breath.

Everything clicks into place like no time has passed at all. The white t-shirt falls to the floor, and Simon's hands are gripping John's waist before their lips even meet.

The world explodes into light and heat...

[loupy-mongoose]

I sent this ask before, but because I've suspected it might've been eaten by Tumblr and we've had new information since then, I'm sending it again (but this time with an updated theory)! Also ooop this got long. I guess that you're getting the Phlurrii treatment, an essay no one asked for, citing my sources, and colored links lol

A while ago, before or right as the arc with Mo-becoming-Randy and more specifics about the events after Lav's birth happened, I was figuring out the ask that gave Randy his Lunar Wing, and the scenes from his nightmares. The first one looks like it was just after the burning ceiling fell on Randy and Mo had protected himself from other debris. Okay, straight forward scene. The second one looks like it might be Akoya just after Lav is born. Again, straight forward. The last one, since we haven't seen it happen in a comic, really caught my attention, as you seed things out little by little. Lav is obviously a few years old at this point, and that looks like Akoya. Everything else seems to be directly from Randy's POV, which is fair, since they are his memories, and his nightmares.

So why is Akoya so angry at Randy, and standing between him and Lav?

Well, at the finale of the lab arc, I suspect something happened that we aren't specifically told.

What wakes up Akoya? The house she, Randy, and Lav have been living in could be close to the facility, and maybe she heard the explosion, but I'm going to suspect that she sensed Randy's body die, or maybe the transfer from Randy's memories to Mo had some kind of significant psychic signature to wake her up (though I'm personally choosing to believe that she felt Randy's body die, since her first words when waking up are "...Randy?" and, to Lav, "Something's... something's not right... We need to find Mr. Randy..." At least, I'll believe it until we get information to confirm/deny that).

So why is she mad when she sees Randy in Sinnoh?

She saw Mo leave the facility. She recognized him as Mo, not Randy, and if there was some odd mixture of them in Mo's body, there was something more important than Mo's psychic signature (if you use those). She had to find Randy. That was her first and foremost thought. And, in her POV text follow up, she can't sense him at all. Her face before she shoves Lav into Mo's arms in the finale tells us she is thinking that he died. And Mo left her, and took her child with him (we know he didn't really have a choice with the facility coming down), while she is grieving, with no way to know where they went.

(I was going to suspect that Akoya actually found Randy's body until I read her POV at the facility and was reminded that she did not in fact find anything)

So! She thinks Randy is dead, and could have been bitter toward Mo for the better part of the four years it took for her to find them again. But! For those same four years, Randy didn't know that he was a Mew transformed into his human self. I think that might make his reunion with Akoya when he finds out about that, and Akoya's yelling at him might have to do with Mo impersonating Randy. Randy's soul or not, I'd think that a Mew would have a very different signature than a human would.

I hope that made sense!

Oh gosh I got theory blasted! X3

First off, I want to say it's probably best to not assume Tumblr ate asks with me. I do have a strong tendency to either not answer, or start a draft preparing to answer and then get it buried in other drafts. I'm, uh... not the best at answering... ^^; (Although I don't believe I got anything of this magnitude from you.)

I remember you or someone else (probably you) asking about the dreams. I think I answered it, but I can't remember for sure.

It is correct that the first dream comes directly from the memory of the lab fire.

But the other two dreams come from fears that Randy had at the time of receiving the Lunar Wing, and aren't based on events that actually happened.

This, the second dream, is because Akoya was pregnant at the time. Randy feared the possibility of losing her, the child, or both.

And this, the third dream, is from a fear that Akoya and/or Lav would decide that he's not truly Randy and hate him for it. (His own perception of his identity isn't the only one he thinks about.)

As for what woke Akoya... You are correct. She sensed him die. But she was in denial about it until the POV you mentioned.

I won't confirm or deny anything regarding Sinnoh, but I like your thinking. :3

[they-them-van]

i'm thinking about how hozier said "Honey, I wanna race you to the table / If you hesitate, the getting is gone" and how the yellowjackets are racing against time, racing against the wilderness, racing against themselves to find sustenance; one hesitation (misty pulling nat back, nobody bringing jackie in from outside, travis not being able to follow nat) can cost a life.

about "Throw enough rope until the legs have swung" and "Skinning the children for a war drum", how eventually hunted girls will be strung up to drain and how javi's clothes, the second skin of the only child among them, were removed so that the rest of the team could have a better chance of survival.

about "We can celebrate the good that we've done / I won't lie, if there's something still to take / There is ground to break, whatever's still to come" and the celebration of fresh meat, the bacchanal, the way the relief of something to eat drowns out any grief that might be felt; but also, food only makes them hungrier, lets the cracks in their stomachs grow bigger, until they dig pits used to hunt each other and take from their teammates until there's quite literally nothing left.

thinking about "Turning back to shore again / Above the outer atmosphere of a world he's never seen / And looking down to his new home, he feels the rising of a wave / And knows at once he will not weather it", how Lottie, who has led them through so much, doesn't recognize the teammates she crashed with, doesn't know what she's unwillingly created, and seems to sense that whatever the others are swept up in will drown her too --- even 25 years later, all of them are barely keeping their heads above the tide.

about "I looked down into the depths when I met you / I couldn't measure it" and laura lee recognizing something in lottie, taking her in, quite literally looking down at her as she welcomed lottie into her beliefs yet never able to participate in lottie's created belief system in the same way.

about "Measure the silence of a house / The unheard footsteps at the doorway / The unemployment of the mouth / The waking up, having forgotten / And remembering again the full extent of what forever is", how painful every morning waking up to a silent, freezing cabin would be, a team of teenagers reduced to silence by their stomachs in order to conserve energy, the lost members --- a team divided into those who are gone, and those who wake up every morning and wonder when they'll be gone.

about "With each grave / I think of loss and I can only think of you" and how shauna has to confront the reality of the part she played in jackie's fate every single time the yellowjackets hunt, every time another one of them dies for their survival, every time they dig another pit but end up with nothing to bury in graves.

thinking about "Do you think I'd give up / That this might've shook the love from me / Or that I was on the brink? / How could you think, darling, I'd scare so easily?", "My life was a storm, since I was born / How could I fear any hurricane?" and van, who took care of her mother and tried to make sense of her life as a teen, taking care of taissa --- following her when she's sleepwalking, keeping her safe even when it brings her close to the cliff herself, trying to understand it so that taissa can have peace of mind --- van, who's in her thirties and still taking care of her mother and taissa and everyone around her and trying to make sense of her life while knowing that she doesn't have much left.

about "I'll tell them put me back in it", van looking into the eye of the storm and gritting her teeth. the woman who's supposed to be dead, burnt to a crisp, taking the crumbling foundation she's been given and trying her best to build it into something she can be proud of.

in conclusion i better fucking hear some hozier in the next season of yj