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marwritesgood · 2 years

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The Smell of Smoke

Pairing: Steve x Hopper!Reader

Timeframe: Post-Season 3

Summary: Y/n spends her first Christmas without Hopper in California with El and the Byers.

series masterlist // main masterlist

A/N: this is a side-story to my Steve series, Cardigan. i recommend reading at least the first two parts of the main storyline (if you haven't already) for context before reading this!

i wanted to write more about the reader's relationship with joyce, bc i love her and love the whole dynamic between the byers and the hoppers.

November, 1983

Hopper inhaled sharply, his nostrils flaring as he focused on the road. Gripping the steering wheel of his truck, he tried to settle his anger. His eldest shifted uncomfortably and glance over to him briefly. She knew it was probably best not dig herself even deeper into trouble, but she couldn't shake how he reacted.

“You were pretty rude to her,” Y/n mumbled.

Hopper scoffed and looked at her momentarily before shaking his head. Maybe he had been a bit harsh to Joyce, but what were they expecting?

“You broke into my office and stole confidential police files,” he seethed, beginning to genuinely wonder if his daughter understood the magnitude of what she had done.

“I was gonna put them back after,” she reasoned nonchalantly.

“That’s not the point, Y/n.”

She turned her head and rolled her eyes, Hopper had to count to ten in his head before saying anything further. Y/n had never caused trouble like this before. He knew her her whole life but he could hardly recognise the person she had become.

“And since when did you start hanging around the Byers?”

She hated when he did this. When he acted like he had a right to knowing every little detail about her. It might've been a month or so since he last passed out on their front porch, but nothing had changed. Not to Y/n, at least. She furrowed her brows in annoyance.

“Dad, are you serious?”

Y/n worked with Joyce at Melvald's for almost a year. Since then, she spent more time with her and her kids than she did with Hopper, though that was not saying much. In fact, it was easy considering she only ever spoke to him a couple times a week.

Hopper sighed. When it came conversations with her, he always found himself saying the wrong thing. Usually, he would go silent, but he could not bring himself to leave things as they were. If he was going to turn a blind eye to his daughter breaking and entering a police department, he had to at least understand why.

“That still doesn’t explain things,” he said sternly.

“I didn’t realize I was being interrogated."

She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes once more. Why was he choosing now to take an interest in her feelings? Why did it take breaking into his office? Hopper's frustration grew.

“Why are sticking your nose into this?”

His voice grew louder, but it didn't appear to faze her. She leaned her head back against her chair and groaned quietly. She didn’t wanna talk about it, least of all with him.

“You’re overreacting, dad.”

“Stop avoiding the question,” Hopper snapped.

“Well, stop talking to me like I’m a criminal," she hissed.

“Just tell me why, Y/n.”

“Because it’s awful!” She yelled, clenching her jaw as she finally faced him again. His expression softened. “... A-And it’s fucked up that a kid just goes missing out of nowhere, is then found dead and the little bit of family he has are treated like shit by the entire town.”

If they weren't outright ridiculing Jonathan and Joyce, they were speculating what they did or didn't do that led to Will's disappearance. While Y/n's relationship with the Byers never really went beyond her shifts at Melvald's and the handful of times she went over to their house, she knew them well enough to know they were the least bit deserving of any of it.

“You know I used to babysit Will. Sometimes even his friends too," Y/n explained.

It started off with Joyce needing an extra hand and Y/n needing some extra cash. Then, soon enough the other moms called for Y/n’s babysitting services here and there and somewhere along the lines she ended up being decently acquainted four of the sweetest, dorkiest boys in Indiana.

"They’re good kids, dad,” she sighed.

When the news of Will's disappearance broke out, Y/n couldn't keep still. Even when her dad tried to assure her he had his best people on the case, she couldn't leave it to chance.

Y/n shuddered, unable to forget the body bag they wheeled him in on. She should have done something sooner. Everyone in Hawkins should have.

"All I know is something’s not adding up,” she added. Hopper’s expression suggested maybe he had been thinking the same thing. “And Joyce isn’t the only who has a really bad feeling about all this.”

“Ok,” he sighed. “I’ll talk to Joyce tomorrow and… go over Will’s case again. But you have to promise you’re gonna keep your nose out of it from here on out.”

"I think we both know I'm not gonna do that."

"I'm not asking you, Y/n. I''m telling you."

Hopper stopped the truck outside the cabin and turned to his daughter. Maybe defying his rules was her favourite pasttime, but he could not let it slide this time.

"Fine," she muttered. "I'll keep my nose out of it."

Gritting her teeth she left the truck and trampled towards the house, with absolutely no intention of keeping to her word.

***

December, 1985

Y/n opened the locket and saw a photo of her parents holding her when she was just a few years old. She couldn’t recall ever seeing that photo before, just the negatives in one of the boxes in the cabin.

She looked up to see Joyce and El’s warm and expecting smiles. Suddenly, a lump came to Y/n’s throat.

“Well? What do you think?”

“I-I um….” Y/n cleared her throat. She didn’t know why she was feeling this way. All she knew was that she was far too overwhelmed to bear another second in that room. “I’m sorry, can I be excused?”

Before Joyce could ask her what was wrong, Y/n stood up from the couch and sped outside. She liked that it was warm in California. It meant that she could sit on the Byers’ front doorstep without the risk of frostbite.

Y/n held her head in her hands, kicking herself for making such a fuss over nothing. She wish she was better at accepting gifts and accepting love, but after the shitshow of a year she had just had, it was hard to remember how.

“Y/n?” Joyce approached the distraught ypung girl cautiously and sat down beside her. Y/n lifted her head and faced her. The older woman frowned. “Honey, I’m so sorry… if I overstepped getting you that gift.”

“No, Joyce,” Y/n shook her head. “You did nothing wrong. It’s just…”

She licked her lips and sighed. She hated the plethora of pity parties she had been throwing for herself recently, but there was no avoiding it. Sheepishly, she met Joyce’s gaze with glossy eyes.

“I haven’t had a family Christmas like this in a really long time, and it’s been a while since I actually got a gift from someone who… who wasn’t Steve.”

Saying his name still made her wince. That scar would be excrutiatingly slow to heal, just like everything else.

“And I…” Y/n huffed defeatedly. “I guess I just didn’t know how to feel or react.”

“Oh,” Joyce frowned. Her gaze softened as she placed a hand on Y/n’s shoulder.

While she was relieved she hadn’t upset her, it pained Joyce to even begin to imagine how hard things were for Y/n, especially when she was on her own. The young girl was damn good at pulling a brave face.

“I really like the locket though. I love it, actually,” Y/n assured her. She bit her lip nervously and sat with Joyce in the silence momentarily. “Thank you for having me over for the holidays.”

“Thank you for coming,” Joyce smiled. “It’s been a rough year and it’s been nice having a familiar face around. And I know El’s been missing her big sister since the move.”

“Really?”

Tension had been lingering between Y/n and El ever since she moved with the Byers. The entire plane ride frpm Indiana to California, Y/n´s stomach was in knots thinking of how different things with El would be.

“Absolutely,” Joyce assured her.

She saw the excitement on El’s face everytime a letter from Y/n arrived, as well as the deflated expression she took when the only person she wanted to vent to was on the other side of the country.

Joyce shifted to face Y/n. Between all the shifts she worked during the holiday rush, this was the first time she truly got to sit down with Y/n alone.

“Have you been holding up ok, Y/n?”

“Yeah, I-“ Y/n started to nod her head until she saw the way Joyce was looking at her. There was no point in lying. She sighed, her shoulder slumping. “…No. I haven’t.”

She groaned and wiped her teary eyes. Joyce rubbed her shoulder gently and stayed silent. Y/n wasn’t the only who avoided talking about him.

“I just… I miss him and I wish he were here, but I also…” Y/n inhaled sharply and looked up. “I feel really really angry. I’m angry at him for being so awful and I’m... I’m angry at myself because…”

She sighed and, much to Joyce’s surprise, let out a quiet sob. Y/n then furrowed her brows and shook her head regretfully.

“I can’t believe the last thing I said to him was that I wish he had died instead of my mom and sister,” Y/n whispered.

Maybe she had a right to be angry. Maybe the years of mistreatment and the Russian truth serum were partly to blame as well. Even so, she found it easier point the blame solely towards herself.

“And now…” Y/n let out a cry and looked down at her hands, unable to face Joyce. “Now he’s gone, and they’re still gone and all of you are in a different state and I can’t even talk to Steve anymore and I’m all alone and I…”

“Y/n,” Joyce’s voice was soft and steady, but her hand was shaking as she placed it atop Y/n’s. Finally, the young girl looked up. “Honey, nothing that happened that night was your fault.”

Her entire face froze. She didn’t realise how badly she needed to hear those words. Joyce pulled her into her arms and hugged her tightly. Maybe she couldn’t fix everything that happened to Y/n, but a nice meal and good Christmas was a good place to start.

“Let’s go inside and have some food, yeah?”

Y/n nodded and followed Joyce back inside to where Will, El and Jonathan had already set up the table. She felt her worries ease as she remembered Joyce’s words, and tried not to think about how much time she had before it wore off and she was back to wallowing.

***

January, 1985

It was New Years Eve, but the Byers house was quiet. Jonathan was out with Argyle, while Will and Joyce were fast asleep in their rooms. Y/n took the tub of ice cream she had bought earlier out from the freezer and grabbed two spoons from the kitchen drawer.

She reached El’s bedroom door and noticed the three inch gap. Her heart sank. She shouldn’t have waited so long to do this. Y/n knocked once on the door and then peeked her head in.

“Hey,” she said softly, smiling when she saw El turn around from her desk. Y/n knew she was still up. She held out the tub and the two spoons with a playful smile. “You wanna share?”

Instantly, El grinned and sat down on the bed with Y/n. The two of them at began eating the ice cream in silence. For a moment, it felt like nothing had changed. Like they were back in Y/n’s room. Like they were back together in Hawkins.

El nervously glanced up at her sister.

“Y/n,” she said quietly. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” the older girl replied.

Y/n watched curiously as El bit ler lip and looked away momentarily. When she finally looked bacj at her older sister, she couldn’t stop the tears that formed in the corner of her eyes.

“Are you mad at me?” She asked. “Because I didn’t stay in Hawkins with you?”

The older girl almost choked on her ice cream.

“Wh- No! Of course I’m not-“

El tilted her head raised her brows, making an expression Y/n was famous for making countless times in the past. The older girl sighed.

“Ok, I guess I was a little bit in the beginning. But, now I get why you chose to come here,” Y/n admitted. “I think I wasn’t really angry, but just really sad that we were gonna be separated. It was like I was losing you too.”

The two of them frowned. El hadn’t considered Y/n would feel that way.

“But… there’s no way I could have looked after you the way Joyce has,” Y/n stated honestly.

El needed the normalcy and stability of going to school in California with Will and having family dinners and breakfast. Y/n would have never been able to give her that, no matter how badly she wanted her to stay.

“Even though it sucks being away from you, it’s nice knowing you’re not alone.”

At first the polaroids El sent with letters of them together left Y/n with a bitter after taste. But quickly enough, she learned to get over her ego and relish in the fact that El was surrounded by a family that loved her as their own.

“Is that how you feel?” El asked worriedly. “…Alone?”

“I don’t know, maybe a little,” Y/n mumbled. She noticed the concern in El’s expression and immediately shook her head and smiled weakly. “But, look… don’t worry about me. I’ll figure things out.”

The room went quiet. El scooped one last spoonful of ice cream before letting out a sigh.

“…I miss him.”

They reached the bottom of the ice cream tub, which only added to their sadness. El opted to lie down on the bed and Y/n followed suit. They stared at the ceiling and frowned.

“It’s hard to talk about him when you’re not here,” El explained. “Joyce is nice, but… it’s not the same.”

Y/n knew the funny things Hoppers did when it was just the three of them. Y/n was there when El slammed the door in his face for the first time because he refused to let her leave the cabin. Y/n was the one person she could vent to about anything and everything.

To Y/n, El could say nothing at all and still feel understood. There was no one like her.

“I know,” Y/n sighed. “I used to talk about him sometimes with Steve and Nancy, but… no one at home really understands how I feel.”

That wasn’t necessarily the worst part. The worst part was how hard they often tried to understand. With El, Y/n could vent to her heart’content and El would simply do the only thing Y/n wanted: she’d listen quietly and eat ice cream with her.

“No one here understands me at all,” El whispered.

Y/n frowned. She hated being apart from El, especially since it meant not being able to do anything to fix or change things. She reached out for her little hand and, instead, decided to take a page out of her book. Maybe they lived in different states now, but her flight home wasn’t for another week.

Y/n turned her head to El.

“I’m here.”

El let out a breath and smiled. She had so much to tell her.

***

March, 1986

Y/n handed Mike the envelope and the round tin container of baked goods.

“Ok, so the letter is for El but the oatmeal cookies are for Joyce,” she explained.

“Ok, got it,” Mike nodded.

Y/n noticed how his hands trembled. She placed her hand on his shoulder gently and smiled.

“Are you nervous?”

Mike shot his head up and felt his cheeks flush. He had been looking forward to spring break in California for so long, but now that his flight was only a few hours away, he felt anxiously restless.

“A little, yeah,” he aswered sheepishly.

“Why?” Y/n asked softly. “She’s been dying to see you, I’m sure you’ll have a great time.”

“Has she… said anything about me to you? You know, in her letters or when you went to see her.”

Y/n took her hand of his shoulder and walked around the counter. El told her a lot of things about Mike, but her lips were sealed.

“You know I can’t tell you, Mike.”

“Oh c’mon, why not?”

“Because,” Y/n began, donning a serious tone. “I’m bound to confidentiality by the most sacred of all oaths.”

Mike narrowed his eyes at her. She couldn’t be serious.

“Sisters don’t tell secrets is not a sacred oath, Y/n.”

“Oh, like you would know,” Y/n retorted.

Mike huffed when Y/n stood in front of him. She closed her eyes briefly and tried to ignore her pounding headache for just a few more seconds.

“Have a safe flight and say hi to her for me, ok?” Y/n asked softly as she pulled him in for a brief hug. “… Her and Joyce!”

Mike put the letter in his backpack before turning around and heading for the door. Maybe he would have to find out for himself what was going on with his girlfriend.

“I will,” he responded as he waved goodbye and left the video store. As the front door slammed shut, Y/n felt the pounding in her head return, only this time it was ten times worse.

***

i do not give permission for any of my works to be copied, translated, or reposted onto another site.

cardigan series taglist:

@littlepadfootmoony @geeksareunique @agustdeeyaa @ilovetaylorswift1 @babygirlwilly @rqmanoff @midnightsgetawaycar

#steve harrington x reader #stranger things imagine #stranger things x reader #steve harrington imagines #steve harrington #stranger things #imagines #x reader #x hopper!reader #hopper!reader #one shot #masterlist

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wittyno · 3 years

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To piggyback off that last ask about Elektra and Matt: how do you see Stick’s manipulation and abuse to play in all of this? Personally, I think Stick is the root of most the issues in Elektra’s choices/actions and her relationship Matt. Elektra is what would have happened to Matt if Stick could have had his hands on him fully. Do you think that if Stick had never been able to adopt (?) Elektra to begin with would she have turned out that way? She’s a ‘Black Sky’ apparently so would that have always won out?

I don’t really ship them because well, like you said, they would have never worked out long term if Matt wanted any normalcy in his life. But I can see the appeal of their chemistry and appreciate what could have been. I do like how complex they are and I feel sad that Elektra is honestly the one who got the shitty end of the stick (ha) and as sad as I am for Matt in relation to Stick, it’s nowhere near as fucked up and detrimental as it was for Eli.

Full disclosure: I really don’t like all the Black Sky / The hand storyline. First, it’s just not by cup of tea. Second, whenever I think about it I always think about how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a Daredevil spoof and I can’t take anything seriously after that. The jokes write themselves.

That said I’m never going to pass up an opportunity to waffle on the internet.

Thank you for calling it abuse. I think it’s incredibly important to see it as such, because a lot of times especially in hero stories the mentors are given a pass because they made them the fighter/wizard/hero that ended up defeating the big bad. See Dumbledore from Harry Potter.

Stick’s whole mantra is “emotions are evil, especially the soft ones like love and joy”. Stick needs to calm down. It’s funny how anger is not marketed as an emotion. Especially when men get angry. It’s not seen as an emotional reaction or overreaction it’s seen as this bright righteous emotional response. But if they processed their feelings healthily maybe they wouldn’t make dumb ass mistakes. Not that other characters dont make dumbass mistakes, but Stick essentially encouraged all of matts pain and hatred for his own “noble ends and fuck it if he traumatized a child” It’s this ends justify the means bull that we see so often used to defend abuse.

Black Sky is a bunch of bullshit. I get it’s probably from the comics but.. eh. Characters are more interesting when they have choices to make, even if they are all bad ones. I agree that Matt would have turned out more like Elektra and more scarred as a result. Maybe they would have worked better.

There is a great quote which I think about all the time which is “you had good choices” I believe it’s from little fires everywhere and it’s essentially saying there is a privilege in having good options even if you chose the bad ones, because there are people who only had bad options. Once Electra was adopted by Stick, she had no more good options. Sure she came from wealth but she was a child (if I remember correctly). It’s important to distinguish between being wealthy and being the child of someone wealthy. Not that being child of wealthy people doesn’t have a level of privilege it does but that not being in control of those finances gives you. I haven’t talked about Elektra’s relationship to money and how that enables her a whole ton, but it is different to Matt’s. Back to choices. Unlike Elektra, Matt had good choices, not great ones sure but he was able to get out from underneath Stick enough to go to college and law school without Stick hanging over his head in the same way he was controlling Elektra. He was more allowed to experience different perspectives and I truly believe that those perspectives gave him better angels. Not only having the church in his life to instill a deep sense of morality and “thou shall not kill”, while causing him a lot of religious trauma/pain does in the end save him. But also believe in the preciousness of life.

That scene in season 1 where he quotes Thurgood Marshall. “We must dissent from indifference. We must dissent from apathy. We must dissent from fear.” I doubt he would have been open to that perspective if Stick had gotten full control of him. Matt and Marshall are talking about similar things. They are talking about systemic injustice and how to solve it. Sure, Elektra and Stick are “saving the world” but at what cost and to what end? Sure you can defeat the hand over and over again but if you do not root out the problems that cause the hand to begin with it doesn’t really matter. This is something Daredevil does pretty well (by no means perfect), which I think other superhero works and Stick could take a page from which is “Crime is not caused by evil... Crime is caused by systemic disenfranchisement and lack of access to job opportunity.” Batman/Stick/Elektra can fight crime all they want but in the end it gives diminishing returns and then you must ask the question: why do they keep doing this? Maybe the true goals aren’t as altruistic as they think they are? Is it maybe a lust for violence? Unhealthy coping mechanism.

The funny thing is if Stick had been a better mentor, Matt and Elektra could have been an amazing duo. Really taking on some amazing crimefighting adventures and rooting out systemic evil. But Stick’s decision, and it is a decision, to emotionally scar the two really drives them to be opposites rather than working in harmony.

Daredevil also does a great job at looking at vigilantism vs trying to get stuff done the “right” way and of the things I would love to see is the gang taking on mare cases, maybe some domestic violence / sexual assault cases. Because those are functions of larger systemic problems and it might be a good way to critique systemic police issues. A show that does this pretty well is season 3 of Broadchurch, and yes it is copaganda, but it does show how sexual assault survivors are treated in their communities and by the media.

Elektra really got screwed over and it really is a function of storytelling rather than her character potential, but they do mostly reduce her to this “exotic” (eww) temptress / love interest that does a nice job of highlighting Matt’s issues and flaws but none of that complexity is left for her. It does not help that she is a woman of color. On one hand I get it, too man plot lines in the kitchen especially in something like The Defenders, but… It also doesn’t help that she is a woman, whereas Matt is man. She gets fridged. A term that was invented for comic books treatment of female love interests. It goes with the Disposal Woman trope and I let Gwen Stacy die trope. Do they not see the issue? And again it’s great for Matt’s character and it is his story but shortchanging Elektra is no way to do it. It’s not like they do it with every character Matt interacts with. Elektra unlike Foggy and Matt is a woman of color, and the additional overt sexuality that pretty much only she is given as opposed to Karen. She is very much the intense sexiness where Karen is the emotional part and it is just a huge disservice to her. 100% if she was better written I could see Matt and her ending up together, but alas.

TL;DR: Elektra's characterization is was written to serve Matt, not Elektra and it shows.

Was this more than you bargained for?

#Matt Murdock #Daredevil #Charlie Cox #Karen Page #Karen Paige #Foggy Nelson #elektra natchios #not elektra bashing more writer bashing and stick bashing #all puns intended

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doof-doofblog · 4 years

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"Ian, Dinner's Nearly Ready!"

Thursday 21st January 2021

Hello again everyone! Hope you've all had a good week, not long now till the weekend! I'm quite looking forward to writing about this episode, as from the previous episode, there's loads of possible outcomes that could happen with each storyline and honestly, I'm looking forward to seeing them all unravel.

So let's jump straight into it, the first thing I want to talk about is Mick, Linda and Frankie. After stopping his daughter from boarding a flight and leaving for Australia, Mick finally reached out to Frankie, informing her that he wants her to be a part of his life. During this episode, Mick is going out of his way to make a lovely family meal for Frankie. I have to say, all the scenes with Mick and Frankie have been so beautiful, so lovely to watch. It's been so long since we've seen Mick smile, I mean like a genuine smile, and since accepting Frankie into his life, it looks as if he's comes to terms with what happened to him in the past. I also want to mention how wonderful it was for Linda to accept and welcome Frankie into the family, even making the effort to learn sign language to communicate with her! It made me so happy to finally see them come together as a family. Even having Father and Daughter have the same habits of having both red sauce and brown sauce on their dinner - brilliant script writing! I loved it! As the day goes on, Frankie is enjoying herself getting to know her Dad and her new Step-Mum, but during her enjoyment, she gets a message from her own Mother, Katy, asking her to get in touch for when she's landed in Australia, after ignoring the message, later on she gets in touch with her Mum, informing her that she never left for Australia and that she no longer wants to see her. Something is telling me that Frankie is wanting to be there for Mick and is wanting to be with him and his family, to be fair though, why the hell not? Mick and Linda could give her a better life than what Katy could, I'm sure. Plus Frankie needs to be given the chance to see all her other brothers and sister. One random thought has entered my brain though, if Frankie isn't living with her Mum, then who is she living with? Where is she staying? At the Carter's now? Or is she still in the Mitchell household? Anyway, what does this mean now for Frankie? I have a feeling that Katy is going to be returning to the Square to confront both her daughter and Mick, however I don't think Linda and/or Shirley will be happy to see her face show up again! What do you guys think? Personally, I think Mick and Frankie's story is far from over!!

The second thing I want to talk about is Jay and Honey, now it's been a few weeks since Honey and Jay shared a kiss, if I'm thinking correctly it happened before Christmas, or around Christmas when Honey was holding her Community Christmas Dinner event. But since that moment, it's been clearly obvious that they have been struggling to keep their feelings secret, as not to hurt Billy. But over the past few weeks, it's getting more and more difficult for them to ignore the obvious connection between them. Jay opens up to Honey in this episode, informing her that he hates having to ignore his feelings for Billy's sake, even though Honey agrees that she hates it too, it's the right thing for them to do. To even make it up to Billy, Jay offered him a job doing house clearances for the funeral directors, which Billy reluctantly agreed to. During the day, everything seems to get a bit too much for Jay, as he heads home he finds Honey tidying up the place. At this moment, he can't hide it anymore and informs her that he can't stop thinking about her and the kiss they shared. However, unbeknown to them, during this conversation, Lola makes her way into the property, overhearing everything they're saying to each other, confessing their feelings. As soon as Jay mentions that he wants to kiss Honey again, Lola makes herself be known and interrupts them. Completely shocked as to what she's heard and witnessed, she informs them that if Billy finds out, it's going to break his heart. Jay states to his ex-girlfriend that the feelings that he and Honey both have for each other are real and that he believes they could have something special, he warns her also that if she cares so much about Billy, she wouldn't say anything to him first before they get a chance to explain themselves. These words seem to hit some truth for Lola and she agrees not to say anything to her "Pops", just as long as they stick to their word and tell Billy themselves. Does this mean that Jay and Honey are going give their relationship a go? Will Billy feel even more betrayed? Will he ever be able to get over it? What do you guys think of this story? Do you think Honey and Jay suit being a couple? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The next thing I want to talk about is Iqra and Ash. After finally learning the truth about Jags being innocent for the attack on Martin after her girlfriend lied to her about it all, Iqra called her relationship off with Ash. Informing her that she's not only put an innocent man in prison, she's caused so much grief and hurt between herself and her own sister, Habiba. Especially now that Habiba is pregnant with Jags' child, it saddens Iqra that she believed her lying girlfriend over her own sister. But what shocks her even more is when she finds out that Ruby also knew the truth. Iqra ignores Ash's pleas, even though they are both in floods of tears, and tells her that she is just like her Mum! Ash tries to persuade her that she's nothing like Suki, but Iqra realises that Habiba was right after all and tells Ash to leave. Later on in the episode, Ash is sat with Kheerat in the Cafe, informing him that Iqra now knows everything and that she's been thrown out, Kheerat tries his best to console his sister, but of course - Peter just so happens to turn up and overhears their conversation. Ash reveals to him that she's now single - Can I also just mention how gross Peter was during that scene, what he said made me feel really uneasy, I don't know about you guys? Trying to cheer his friend up he suggests going out that evening after a work out and that she could hook up with a new lady and he would watch! (Sorry, but can I just ask why was that part of the script? Maybe I'm overreacting, but I personally think that that is an awful thing to say, even if he did mean it in a joking way! You just don't do things like that!) Am I wrong? Or am I being a little sensitive?! Anyway, later on in the evening, while Iqra is going about her business, she happens to see both Peter and Ash fooling around in the Square - my first thought would be, she clearly got over their break-up pretty quickly! Feeling completely devastated, Iqra goes inside and calls her sister, apologising for not believing her in the first place and admitting that she was right and Ash had been lying to her for months. What does this mean now for both Ash and Iqra? Will Peter try and seduce Ash? Will Ash learn about him and her Mother?! Also, with Iqra also now being single, will she find a new love interest? Possibly that new character, Mila? What do you guys think?!

The final thing I want to talk about, obviously has to be Sharon and Ian! After begin given a stronger powder to poison Ian, Sharon is still determined in going through with her plan to kill Ian. Looking at pictures of her son on the walls, it makes her realise that she needs to do this for her son. As much as it's probably making her skin crawl, she's having to act nice and kindly towards him, even saying the words "I love you". But in this episode, she took a step further, suggesting that they have a nice relaxing meal together following a night of passion. This thought seems to really excite Ian, even though at this moment in time, he has no idea that his new wife is trying to kill him by poisoning him, he seems to continually fight her corner, informing both Kathy and Max that they are wrong about Sharon. Max seems to have sussed out Sharon's plan but Ian refuses to believe a word he says, whereas Kathy is convinced that her new Daughter-In-Law isn't looking after her son properly. Ian once again rubs off his Mother's concern and tries his best to inform her that Sharon does all she can for him. However, the next scene between Sharon and Ian, I felt was absolutely brilliant - I was completely on edge as you could sense the anger bubbling inside Sharon. Ian returns to the pub to find his new wife going through her deceased son's belongings, however in her hand he happens to notice that she's holding Dennis's phone. You can see his eyes look in a bit of fear/panic when he questions her about it, she explains that going through his things makes her feel close to him, also explaining how she longs to her hear his voice again, after revealing that Dennis always used to leave voice notes on his phone, but she's devastated that she can't hear them because the phone is broken. Ian tries to sympathise with his wife, explaining that he did exactly the same thing when Lucy passed away. However, when he next mentions Dennis, explaining that he misses him also and how much he regrets not being able to save him during the boat crash, Sharon's eyes look at Ian with absolute daggers, her grip tightens around the phone and it looks as if her nails are digging into her own skin. You can see the anger boiling and bubbling inside of her, it looks as if it's taking everything out of her not to explode there and then. Her eyes are wide and her look is pure stern, anger, disgust, pure hatred - I have say this is fantastic acting from Letitia Dean! I think this is the best we've seen her since her breakdown over Dennis's death. Later on in the episode, Ben and Jay are sat at the bar discussing a possible proposal between Ben and Callum? However, as much as Ben is happy to talk about his love life, he questions Jay about his. Jay informs him that there is someone he's interested in but the situation is very complicated and a mess. He informs him to "un-mess" it, but then as they decide to leave the pub, Ben informs Jay about Phil and Sharon talking in a dark corner, even though he found it suspicious, he voices his opinion that Sharon is devious and that only a fool would trust her, hoping that his Dad will stay well clear of her. Interestingly, Ian overhears this conversation and it looks as if his words play on his mind. If you think about it, that's three people who now don't trust Sharon - Max, Kathy and Ben! Should Ian start listening to what people are saying? Later on, Sharon is preparing her lovely meal for them both, however I did notice that she's using two separate pans, making sure she doesn't put the powder into her own food, she pours in the power into the separate pan and you can see it quickly dissolve into the onions, being the doting wife she calls her husband to inform him their dinner is ready. But behind her back, Ian takes it upon himself to quickly look through Dennis's belongings, he rummages through all the clothes and draws by the bed, eventually finding the phone Sharon was holding onto before. He presses a button to check whether it is actually working or not, suddenly the phone lightens up. The realisation overcomes Ian as he's suddenly aware that his wife lied to him about the phone being broken - does this mean that she could've potentially heard the voice message Dennis left, the night of the boat crash? Surely he must be thinking now that if she's lied about the phone, what else has she lied about?!

Ooooo could Sharon's plan about to be sussed?! Will Ian click on to Sharon’s plan? I have heard rumours that Ian will switch the plates of the dinner which would mean Sharon will eat the poison! Now THAT would be an interesting twist! What do you guys think?! There are so many things I'm looking forward to seeing! I'm really intrigued as to what's going to happen next! Are you looking forward to seeing it all unfold?! Please feel free to leave me any comments or messages about the current storylines, what do you want to happen? Do you have any theories? I'd love to hear your thoughts! I'll always respond to your messages! Thank you again for all your support, it really does mean the world! Thank you again folks, I'll be back very soon! Love you all xXx

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aqvarius · 5 years

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[WALKTHROUGH + REVIEW + CG] Romance MD: Munechika Takado

Expectations:

To be honest I wasn’t super excited when I saw the trailer for Romance MD. I thought it was just going to be another teacher/student romance with the basic Voltage storylines where one or two events would get closer and they’d fall in love etc.). That being said, I was actually quite interested in most of the potential LIs even though they do seem quite conventional for the standard Voltage lineup (oresama, kuudere, darudere/4D, flirty, jokey but actually hardcore ossan). I do also like the character designs. The one I was most interested in was Kyogoku because I can’t place his type. He’s been described as a prodigy, not too empathetic, feisty, cute, has a chilly side, tricky, coy, shady, obsessed with Kasumi. So I think he’s actually one of those devil with an angel face types? Cute on the surface but actually a bit shady? Maybe it’s because of his character design but he just reminds me SO much of Shinonome from Her Love in the Force. I keep calling him Ayumu because of that and I think it would be interesting if they were actually similar because Ayumu is one of those characters that I think is quite unusual for Voltage games because he doesn’t completely fit into one of their usual archetypes.

Anyway, this is not about Sen. This is about Takado. I knew he was the title character for Romance MD but I still had all of my fingers crossed that we would get someone else’s route first like Finally in Love Again had Aki as the first release rather than Momoi (I think?). And some other games had title characters that weren’t the usual type (like Issei from Kiss of Revenge and Masaomi from Serendipity Next Door). I also think that the only characters released so far are Takado and Hosho (I’ve searched and searched to get CGs or ameblo posts about the other guys but to no avail). So I kinda hoped they would give us Hosho first LOL or maybe just surprise us all and give us Kasumi but alas.

Finally, my expectations going in were that Takado was going to be the quintessential oresama type (like Eisuke/Leon) because he has that spiky brown hair look lol? I also thought the MC was going to be like the standard MC. What a fool I was…

Click below to read the full review, plus walkthrough and CGs PLUS THE ELUSIVE MC SPRITE.

Reactions:

My first reaction is that this MC (henceforth Dr. MC) is so annoying. She wouldn’t stop running her mouth, she was arrogant, she seemed a little inconsistent? The guys accuse her of being a journal junkie at the beginning and to be honest, they’re kind of right. She’s super nerdy to the point where it’s kind of over the top? Don’t get me wrong, nerds are great. I’m a researcher. I moved to a new city to study under my academic crush too. I get it. Sometimes other MCs are annoying because they’re too wholesome and earnest. This time, it got to the point where I was begging to have OG MC traits back. I almost cried with relief when I first saw her demonstrate empathy.

I think the thing that made me dislike her almost immediately was how clinically she originally described the ICU team. It sort of felt like Voltage was trying to push the ‘these guys are beautiful!’ and the ‘Dr. MC doesn’t give a fuck about real men’ points too hard and it sort of became contradictory, especially because the narrative is read through the player’s/MC’s perspective. So she had to explain how ‘objectively’ good looking they all are without gushing and thus it became this very clinical expression of their looks while also really pushing that opposing point of “but I don’t care around real men”. I think that it would have been fine for MC to appreciate how good looking they are but sort of have a ‘snap out of it’/’pull yourself together’ moment where she reminds herself what she’s here for. Like I think it’s fine and probably in fact more relatable to be able to acknowledge handsome men and be a bookworm/academically inclined and also enjoy 2D men lol. You don’t have to treat people like specimens MC

(Just say he’s beautiful. We all know he is)

I get that they needed her to be special in some way so Matsunaga would hire her, but she could have gotten hired on talent alone. I don’t think they needed her to be all like “this kabedon does absolutely nothing to me”. Overall I think her being totally uninterested in dating doesn’t quite mesh from the perspective of the player. I’m assuming most of us play otome games because we’re interested in dating the characters or seeing them fall in love, right? The game tried to be meta and make fun of the shoujo manga/otoge tropes at least three times (e.g. kabedon, cooking for LI when they’re sick and getting close, wiping tears leading to a kiss) but honestly, I play these games to experience all that cheesy shit lol. So for me I didn’t think it was particularly clever to reference these tropes and play them off. The audience tends to play these games for these moments lmao? Right?

(I agree, Takado.)

The one thing that all Voltage MCs have, however, is persistence. And my God does Dr. MC have persistence in spades. I actually didn’t mind it too much but I think it’s because it was sort of turned into a bit of a joke so the humour kind of played a role in tamping down what might have otherwise been obnoxious (when she kept waking Takado up I was like omg just LET! HIM! SLEEP!). I do also like that Dr. MC is very competent. Her shortcomings don’t have anything to do with technical ability which is quite refreshing. In this game, Dr. MC is more just inexperienced and idealistic when it comes to the actual practice of medicine and its accompanying emotional (and otherwise) complications.

The thing that I feel is her biggest flaw is her arrogance. I know, right? A Voltage MC, arrogant?! It’s unthinkable!! Usually Voltage MCs are insecure, self-deprecating, self-doubting. At times they are competent enough, or have moments of inspiration that allow them to do well. This Dr. MC is clever, and she knows it. Unfortunately, just having read lots of journals does not a good doctor make. Luckily, she becomes more likable when she finally gets taken down a peg and actually starts listening to Takado. I feel like Voltage tried to switch up their MC personalities (as seen with Masquerade Kiss too) but I think they tried to make Dr. MC snarky and sassy but she just comes across as arrogant/rude a lot of the time, like have some respect for your seniors please. When it comes to backtalking MCs, I much prefer Ayumu’s or Toma’s (from Irresistible Mistakes) MC. But at least Dr. MC is not as awful as Luke Foster’s MC in Kissed by the Baddest Bidder. Luke’s MC is my least favourite of all time and I honestly think he needs to leave her.

Also! I think with the JP version, you can choose whether or not to have the MC sprite. In the Love 365 version, you aren’t given that choice but the elusive MC sprite does pop up randomly in one frame.

(Tbh I prefer it without the sprite bc her hair reminds me of 2015/2016 me lol)

Her interactions with the other doctors is quite enjoyable, particularly with Kyogoku and Hosho, although I have to admit they’re enjoyable because Kyogoku and Hosho are really fun. I especially enjoyed with Ekuni joined in and did like the little snippets of Kasumi time you get as well. I do wish there was more time spent in the Pen (with Kalmia!) but alas, you get what you can. Kyogoku seems nicer than I expected he would be (because I really thought he would be Ayumu 2.0 – maybe he will be in his own route, but he does come off nicer than that snarky devil Ayumu). Kasumi also seems less cold than I expected. Hosho and Matsunaga were basically how I thought they would be, and Ekuni too to some extent, although I wasn’t expecting Ekuni to be such a mum and give them custom drug cocktails to pump them full of nutrients lol. I want Ekuni (my future husband) route so badly. I’m going to end up with a whole folder of images of him with that internal dialogue board lol. I did enjoy some of her conversation with Sex Maniac/resident slut Hosho (when his route comes out I won’t forget that he went on a date with Sara from Cardio………..) as well but I feel like Dr. MC doesn’t react enough to be more interesting? I know I sound like a typical Voltage LI, you know when they’re always telling MC she’s interesting cause her face shows everything she’s thinking and they like her reactions? That me lmao. But when she does react, she overreacts. Like, she doesn’t react to intimate/sexual things but then she FLIPS OUT because Takado was AWOL for literally a day and she thinks he died. You know what, he wasn’t even AWOL, he was literally on his day off. Take a chill pill, Dr. MC - maybe Ekuni can whip up a special sedative blend for you.

Now, Takado… Takado is basically Kaga from Her Love in the Force as a doctor. Sadist, reputation as a murderer, relies on his intuition, has a violent tendency with MC, misunderstood but doesn’t care. His version of Kaga’s Iron Claw is hitting you on the back of the head, usually with a file. I really thought he was going to be an oresama type but he’s more of the rogue sadist type. I thought he was not that interesting until I finally got to chapter 17. Naturally he’s ~damaged~ lmao. But actually I enjoyed learning about his backstory. I expected him to be so bonesaw-happy because he hadn’t acted quickly enough in the past and it led to someone’s death that could have been prevented if he’d just taken their limb. The truth is actually quite a bit more complicated than that, so I did like that it wasn’t predictable. I won’t spoil his backstory but it was definitely an interesting take on the doctor-patient relationship and worked well to help Dr. MC overcome her naïveté. I will say that I feel like the number of amputations actually increased throughout the route lmao.

Speaking of HLITF, the route definitely took on an action spin that I wasn’t expecting. I was surprised that Romance MD is categorised in the Action section in Love 365 but I think the story ended up going in a direction that I’d expect from HLITF or MSB (or Metro PD? I haven’t played that though so idk) and it was quite thrilling and surprisingly dramatic. Also, as per usual, the gap moe is real with Takado. Voltage loves employing gap moe with their characters, but especially the oresama and stoic types.

Additional note: Something I really hate about Love Choice is that a lot of the time the LI backstory is hidden in a heart scene and you can only find out the truth if you pay for it. However, the route reverts back to the main text so it seems like you (MC) know what’s happened even if you (the player) don’t.

The dynamic between Takado and Dr. MC actually ends up being quite fun even though sometimes I think Dr. MC is just being disrespectful. They bicker like an old married couple. It’s like what Kaga and MC would be like if she ever dared to speak up against him lol. Takado is like Kaga in that he expresses his love more through actions. Honestly I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the moment he started to fall for Dr. MC even if you had a syringe of poison to my jugular. You basically only find out that he treats you differently because the other doctors have a grand old time teasing you about it. That being said, there are some nice scenes where you can spot Takado treating you specially if you squint a little. It’s fine that it’s not obvious; I think it would be out of character if he just confessed his feelings lol. Personally, I believe this is a marketing trick to get you to buy Takado PoV when it comes out.

The length of the stories (30 chapters) and the pacing did remind me of old school Voltage games which I liked. It was long enough to develop Takado, his backstory and have a plot with sufficient plot points. The length also gave the blooming relationship between Takado and Dr. MC enough time to mature without feeling too rushed. While I think this improves the story quality, it also really seems like a moneymaking ploy. That being said, at least they didn’t split the story up into two parts like HLITF 🙃.

I reread my old route reviews to remind myself how to review and I said that Goto’s route in My Sweet Bodyguard was not worth the £2.49 I spent on it. I can’t believe I only had to spend £2.49!! Regular routes in Love 365 are 400 coins which equates to £3.99 and I easily spent around £15+ on all the hearts needed for this lengthy LC route 😭. Obviously it would be even costlier if you needed to buy passes if you wanted to unlock chapters early. I didn’t keep track of how many hearts in total I spent but this ameblog says that you need 207 hearts to get all the heart scenes which translates to about £21 if you start with 0 hearts, which is honestly ridiculous. The same money could be spent on FIVE main routes (or other 400 coin stories). Or FOUR full bundles (MS, epilogue, sequel, sequel epilogue) from Seduced in the Sleepless City (i.e. sixteen stories). Or THREE full bundles from Pirates in Love. Or basically every available route for Subaru, Goto, Ishigami or Kurosawa in MSB.

So while you do get quite a lot of content, it is ridiculously expensive if you wanted Super Happy Ending. Don’t skip the heart scene in chapter 28 if you don’t want to miss a kiss scene. Chapter 7 “Apologize to Takado” doesn’t offer too much I believe. Chapter 22 “Ask for details” and 26 “Explain” options also don’t add too much imo. There are a total of 30 points available, so you can skip 5 points worth of heart scenes if you want SHE but don’t want to spend all those hearts.

You may like this route if you like rogue characters like Kaga and Shin from Pirates in Love. If you are really interested and are willing to pay, I suggest playing before 12/08 (12 August) to get the collector’s edition so at least it won’t feel like a waste of money. I really wish Voltage would get rid of Love Choice and just let us buy routes, but they likely never will because they probably earn so much more with LC compared to regular routes. The normal ending is good enough honestly, he actually confesses in NE and not in SHE, but in SHE you get a kiss scene and CG. I think ultimately it would be more worth saving up your hearts for another LI like Kyogoku lol... or Kasumi (but not my future husband Ekuni because I can already tell that I want him all for myself).

I forgot to make note of how many hearts each heart scene costs before I spent the hearts unfortunately so I’m just taking the word of the blogger who says it costs 207 in total. I know there quite a few options that require ~20 hearts.

ETA: I went through my heart spending history and found the prices of each heart scene

Walkthrough and CGs below:

25 points to Super Happy Ending

Ch 1

Observe Help Takado (Love Meter +1/CG) 5 hearts

Ch 2

Wait till later. Flip back the covers.

Ch 3

Missy Takado

Ch 4

“This isn’t a conversation.” “You’re missing the point.”

Ch 5

Ignore him. “It’s not every little thing.’”

Ch 6

Apologize Offer an excuse.

Ch 7

Don’t apologize to Takado. Apologize to Takado (Love Meter +2) 8 hearts

Ch 8

“Teach me!” “What’s got you in a snit?”

Ch 9

“I’m not ready to die!” “I value my time, you know!” (pick this one to see Kasumi being funny)

Ch 10

Stick a hand on the wall. Lean on Takado (Love Meter +1) 10 hearts

Ch 11

A scalpel. An aspirator (Love Meter +3) 13 hearts

Ch 12

Tail him. Chase him and shout

Ch 13

Ask Takado. Ask Kasumi.

Ch 14

Don’t ask. “I want to know.” (Love Meter +1) (pick this one if you want to hear about Takado’s backstory. If you select “Don’t ask” the first time, they will ask you again if you want to know and it costs 15 hearts)

Ch 15

Ask about the Pen. Ask about Takado. (Love Meter +1) 8 hearts

Ch 16

My duty as a doctor compelled me. I was worried about him. (Love Meter +2) 10 hearts

Ch 17

Avoid his potential wrath. Ask. (Love Meter +3) (pick this one to hear Takado’s full backstory) 15 hearts

Ch 18

Go back to sleep. Carefully sit up (Love Meter +1/CG) 13 hearts

Ch 19

Stay silent, like Takado Defend Takado

Ch 20

Stay out of it Insist on examining the woman (Love Meter +2) 10 hearts

Ch 21

“And then they’d kiss.” “And it’d get all tragic.”

Ch 22

Ignore him Ask for details (Love Meter +1) 10 hearts

Ch 23

Give up for now Talk to Takado again (Love Meter +3) 20 hearts (fml)

Ch 24

“I’m off.” “Dr. Takado…”

Ch 25

Don’t go. Follow Takado.

Ch 26

Feel sorry for him.14 hearts Explain. (Love Meter +2)

Ch 27

“No need.” “Tell me, then.” (Love Meter +1/CG) 15 hearts

Ch 28

Get some sleep. Stay with Takado (Love Meter +3) (kiss scene) 19 hearts

Ch 29

Call Dr. Kasumi. Don’t call him yet. (Love Meter +3) (if you choose to call Kasumi, you get a second chance to not call him which costs 22 hearts fml. If you don’t call him, you get quite a cute scene with the iCU team)

#romance md #romance md: always on call #rmdaoc #munechika takado #voltage inc #otome blog #review #otome game #voltage otome #otome romance #walkthrough #otome walkthrough #love 365 #love choice #voltage

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omuse · 5 years

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𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 … kihwan choi was known as the analytical & capable police officer with a reputation for being a ji changwook doppelganger . but now , under the stress of the war on the horizon , the natural born unaffiliated noble vampire has become widely known for being rather reserved & doubtful . let’s see how long the wonderland native will last during this war . after all they’re only thirty years old . + he / him & cis male , original character.

it’s kay again, with her eleventh muse 😱 as usual, i’m 20, go by she / her pronouns and reside in the gmt + 3 timezone ! i’m bringing an older muse i missed so much, one with a tragic past, who is a police officer and very, very protective over his family. husband of the perfect ahreum & father of the lovely ambrose, he loves his family so so much ! as always, please don’t hesitate to hit me up to plot, and if you give this a like, i’ll im you instead. under the cut you will find his bio, a very concise summary as well as some plot ideas, general tws for violence and death below —

BIOGRAPHY

001.

they don’t have a glorious romance story, nor a star-crossed lovers storyline. byungchul and jaeun meet through friends, and decide they get along well. it doesn’t happen in the way that a love arrow pierces through their hearts, blood hot in their veins — it’s simple, two people getting along, a detective and a teacher, one of high rank and one favourite of small children, they find company in each other, and don’t need much else.

the decision to make a family for themselves begin quickly after their relationship, both of considerable age, they don’t want to wait any longer, their elderly pressing in on all sides, wanting a grandchild before they see their last days. and so, the choi family has kihwan a year after the couple’s marriage, both elated to have a little son to raise.

as he grows up, things begin to get more complicated, byungchul has one too many assignments working in the force, the more power means more responsibilities, a bigger toll on his shoulders. times are long and hard, and as a captain of a precinct, he needs to be sharp, on his toes. let alone the bitter taste of bureaucracy in his tongue, he has to keep the community safe, and that is too much to bear in itself.

he works hard, and she works hard at the kindergarten too; at first it isn’t too much of a problem after maternity leave, and a couple of years later, jaeun can simply take him to work with her. it’s as he grows old, their presence in his life starts to fade, his father working overtime too often while his mother needs all of her attention on work, preparing tasks and making sure to help children as much as she can. their age doesn’t help much either, and kihwan’s simply there, eager for a glance or a pat on the back.

in a city as gorgeous as his, it isn’t a bad childhood by any means, but as a child, he still yearns for family breakfasts, pulling his parents from their arms so they can all visit the fair, go to a park, anything. usually met with a shake of a head and a murmur of “not now, we’re busy.” there’s little kihwan can do, and it begins with making small troubles at school, wherever he is, just to get that bit of extra attention, so that his parents will get called into school. he doesn’t like the reprimands one bit, but he can’t find himself stopping either, walking on the edge of childhood misbehavior and actual trouble. it’s a thin line, but he manages to walk on it, and he learns once he’s known as the troublemaker, small success stories get a lot more recognition than they used to.

002.

it’s when he’s in seventh grade the couple begin to have little fights, both tense for reasons kihwan has no idea about, things that have nothing to do with his falling grades. he tries asking them, eavesdropping on their conversations; the hushed whispers they exchange, his father hunched over a table with his face in his hands. they seem… worried, and the fights aren’t even because of each other, but something else kihwan can’t put his finger on. it angers him, the little time they used to have all together seems to be tainted for no reason, both of the adults far off in their minds.

it’s a night like any other when kihwan throws another of his fits, leaving school and not heading home, immature anger of a toddler in his veins as he walks through the streets aimlessly, wanting to do anything but go home. he wanders, kicking rocks and walking to the beach, sand soft under his shoes as he walks, so much that after a point they are filled with it. the panic comes afterwards, when the soft rays of sun begin to leave the earth, painting the sky a hue of orange. he frowns, having spent enough time with himself to realize he may have been overreacting — maybe he just lost hours from his time with his family, even though it wouldn’t be as joyful as he would have liked. it takes a few more hours, kihwan so utterly lost before he finds his way to a familiar street and to home, shame burning his cheeks red. he knocks on the door, expecting reprimands and punishment. it’s not what greets, it’s his mom instead, tear tracks on her face as she pulls him into an embrace, cradling him as if he was a baby again.

“i was scared, so scared —” it’s a night he doesn’t forget, his dad rushing home half an hour after to embrace him too. it’s the attention he has wanted for so long, but it doesn’t make sense, not until he learns about his father’s case, the thing that has been upsetting his parents for so long. at that moment, kihwan is clueless, and basks in his parents’ attention, crying and apologizing himself, little clue as to what’s going on.

003.

thinking back now, he feels guiltier than ever, almost four months after his little runaway adventure, he goes back home again, and an empty flat greets him. hours pass with him alone, in front of the phone waiting for mom or dad —- but neither comes. it’s late in the night when his aunt unlocks the door with teary eyes, kihwan looking up to her for an explanation, anything. she’s tongue tied, but in the end, he learns his mother has passed away.

they say that their neighborhood was a spot for vampires to hunt, and jaeun stepped up to save one of her pupils and got mortally wounded. kihwan cries and throws more fits, unable to accept the truth, not wanting to accept the truth. his father is a mess too, the dark circles under his eyes look purple, his face set but ready to crumble at the same time. it’s guilt that weighs the man down, and no matter what kihwan does, he can’t get anything out of him, nothing but a pat on the back alongside an apology. an apology kihwan doesn’t understand.

004.

life turns bleaker after that, his father takes even more jobs than possible, and kihwan is under his aunt’s care until he’s in high school, old enough to take care of himself at home. his attention seeking acts diminish to nothing, the troublemaker child quiets down, closes up just like his father did, an invisible wall between them as if they are not the person they used to be anymore. the place they called home feels anything but, and for their own reasons, both of them feel guilty, and they can’t shake it off no matter what they try.

it’s during this time that he looks for ways to distance himself, find his own self in a world that seems to be against him. he picks up hobbies and drops them, friends coming and leaving, no one staying for long. it’s during a private piano lesson that he meets ahreum, and she turns his life around. he falls in love with her, wants to spend every moment of his life with the woman. there is enlistment on the horizon, but she agrees to wait for him, and as soon as the time comes, he goes to to fulfil his enlistment duties, not wanting to be anywhere near the house again. his father seems content with kihwan’s decision — if the smallest of reactions is a clue enough — and he doesn’t need much else before packing and leaving, intending to leave a lot of the past behind. there is only ahreum for him in his future, and he looks forward to finishing his mandatory training.

if anything else, the military service hardens him even more, an inexperienced sullen boy turning into a man with sharp edges. he likes the structure of the military, but the rigorous training takes its toll, making him want to work harder so that he’ll take less shit if he trips during one of the drills. he works out and makes connections, here and there, walking around town during their free time, not even thinking about going back to actual home.

when the enlistment is over, ahreum and kihwan make their relationship official. however, a few obstacles are thrown their way. the major obstacle is kihwan learning that ahreum is not a regular human, but a vampire instead, the very same species he used to despise. it’s hard to get used to that fact, but love triumphs over. kihwan is unable to accept that ahreum can be the mean spirited creature he used to believe all vampire were. he accepts her, and she accepts him.

005.

they start a life together, perfect little house, ambrose as their child. it isn’t conventional by any means, how ambrose is much older than kihwan, but it doesn’t matter, he loves his family so much, he would do anything to make sure they were happy, safe. and that’s what brings the first downfall- a blood-thirsty and panicked ambrose comes to him for help, and kihwan knows he won’t be able to deny him this. he lets him feed off of him- the bloodthirst winning over rationality, and if it weren’t for the right interruption at the right time, he knows he would have died.

ambrose’s sent away to wonderland- as a punishment or as a lesson kihwan, a bit of both. kihwan doesn’t know which will happen, but all he knows is that it breaks his heart to be away from his son, and he knows ahreum feels the same way to. a while later, they can’t keep away from him anymore, and decide to move to wonderland as well, to make their family whole again. kihwan continues to work as a police officer, ready to keep his family safe and happy.

SUMMARY

— his mom a teacher, his father was a police officer. a troublemaker, he acted out as a kid to get their attention, which didn’t work so well. one night he ran away, worried the hell out of his parents, more so than usual.

— it turned out a serial killer is on the loose, but kihwan learned it much later, when his mother was murdered by a vampire trying to protect one of her pupils. his father grew distant, which made him feel even lonelier after such loss.

— he distanced himself too, trained to become a police officer, wanting to protect other families. meanwhile, he fell in love with ahreum, it was a while later he learned she was a vampire, and she brought down all his misconceptions, turned him from the bitter man he was to someone much happier.

— he sees ambrose as a son, and is very protective over him. after an instance when rosie went overboard, he was sent away, but now, the parents are back to see him, and to stay for good. they missed him a lot. kihwan is ready to protecc w all he has !!

PLOT IDEAS

childhood friends / acquaintances

that one Vampire who killed his mom

people he worked with during military

enemies / friends / dislikes ?

people he arrests on the regular

someone he wants to catch bc they committed a crime but they keep slipping

any and all !

and that’s ki ! i hope this makes sense, and as always, i would love to do plots & connections for him, so don’t hesitate to hit me up or give this a like and i will come your way <3

#「 m╰ kihwan. 」#intro #tales.intro #here he is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!#「 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝖼𝗈𝗅𝖽╰ musings. 」

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jastersmohnson · 5 years

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Rewatching Masters of Sex: Volume 7

Season 3 Episodes 6-8

To be entirely honest, I’ve been somewhat disappointed by the first half of season three. I mean, I guess that goes without saying, but I had remembered the first half of this season being better than it was. Well, “Two Scents” is sort of the opposite. I guess considering the episodes proximity to “Monkey Business” I remembered the episode being worse than it was, but I actually think it may be one of season three’s stronger episodes. It certainly feels like a continuation of “Matters of Gravity”.

Virginia’s dissatisfaction in this episode is somewhat understandable. Her mother being there certainly being the driving force from Bill towards Dan Logan. I don’t really have a problem with the Dan Logan storyline this season.

What I do have a problem with Libby Masters’ storyline this season. Okay, let’s get into it. The problem with Libby Masters. Now, her arc in the first season was I think necessary for the show. To show that Bill is a married man but also to have his wife’s insistence on having a baby be kind of a force that drives him towards the work. But then in the second season, Libby goes from racist-white-lady to activist. To be honest, I actually enjoyed Libby’s storyline in season two. It worked well as a way to incorporate the racial tensions of America at the turn of the 60s into the Masters of Sex storyline.

In season three, the Masters marriage is dead, and instead of continuing what they established in season two, they instead give Libby Masters this lame romance with her neighbor. It certainly felt like been there, done that.

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I won’t delay it any longer. It’s time to discuss it. The episode that arguably killed Masters of Sex. The episode that received unanimously negative reviews. The episode that Michael Sheen went on record saying it was a mistake. And keep in mind, this is a guy who thought that this mustache was a good idea:

Now, I’ll start this off by saying that my favorite episode of Masters of Sex is “Asterion”. It’s an episode all about time and change. It’s a very cinematic episode and is wonderfully written. Another of my favorite episodes is “The Pleasure Protocol”, which is another great episode that changes the direction of season four, as the tide begins to turn, as we see Bill beginning to evolve and Virginia do the opposite. This episode also has a very distinct visual style and some very creative visuals.

So you have the duo who wrote “Asterion” and the guy who directed “The Pleasure Protocol” together to make “Monkey Business”. How bad could it really be?

Oh…

See, I think this episode exists only as filler. I think Michelle Ashford wanted to do an episode where Virginia and Dan are in Las Vegas while Bill starts the surrogacy program in her absence, but she had introduce the surrogacy plot in the episode before. Considering “Two Scents” was 58 minutes long, it was pretty clear that episode was full, so they had to devote episode seven to introducing this plot. And then, because the episode needed something to fill the other ¾ of the episode, they concocted this bizarre monkey story to be the A-story.

Now, the idea of the ape storyline isn’t that bad. It could’ve been good if it was done right. Considering how similar apes and humans are, could an ape’s sexual dysfunction be fixed? Or can ape’s even suffer from sexual dysfunction like humans? Maybe have a few scenes of Bill and Virginia talking with professors or experts on monkeys. I don’t know…

I think that the ape stuff could’ve worked if the tone was right. Masters of Sex is a very smart, scientific show. To present gorilla sexuality in comparison with human sexuality in a smart, scientific way would’ve been true to the show.

However, the tone and content of these scenes are just baffling. In the first scene, Bill and Virginia are having a discussion with the zookeeper about sex that’s supposed to be humorous as we’re misled to believe that we’re talking about the zookeeper but instead we’re talking about the gorilla.

Then we have an awkward scene with Alex Borstein that is also supposed to be humorous. And then when Virginia flashes Gil, it’s supposed to be dramatic.

I think the biggest misstep the episode made is that the majority of the set-up is that it was played for laughs. A serious investigation into primates and their sexuality could’ve been interesting. But to have most of the exposition for a storyline be humorous, and then when the storyline concludes (in a laughable scene), it’s supposed to be dramatic… it just comes across as strange.

I think the tone was the main flaw of the ape storyline.

OH MY GAAAD!

Well… the second biggest flaw.

What’s even more confounding is how little of this episode the ape storyline is about, and this leads me to my next point. Masters of Sex is a show that usually thrives with little going on. What do I mean by that? Well, simply put, the less storylines in an episode, the better the episode. Take a look at “Fight”. No tacked-on side story with Betty or Libby. That episode is just Bill and Virginia and it’s a near-masterpiece. A Masterspiece, if you will.

A typical comedy has an A-story and a B-story. A drama usually has a little more going on because they typically have longer running times to fill, but it’s usually a good idea to keep it around four things going on. And usually, a Masters of Sex episode only has about four things going on, give or take. The point is: the less, the better. The more stuff you throw at the audience, unless it’s all connected in some way, the episode loses it’s focus.

This is very clear in “Monkey Business”. So much is going on. Seriously. A lot of people don’t remember anything about this episode outside of the monkey stuff, and I think a main reason why is because this episode in particular was a jumbled mess. I mentioned that your average Masters of Sex episode has about four things going on. “Monkey Business” has NINE things going on.

1) Bill, Virginia, and Gil the Gorilla

2) Bill, Virginia, and Dan

3) Bill and Virginia starting the surrogacy program

4) Bill and Virginia getting interviewed by Newsweek

5) Jane and Lester and her friend

6) Tessa at the clinic

7) Betty and Helen want a baby

8) Libby and Paul

9) Johnny and whatever

You can argue that #3 and #5 are more or less connected, but… um… OH MY GOD, nine subplots??? No wonder this episode is a mess. I mentioned earlier that the main point for this episodes existence was to introduce the surrogacy program, and that they concocted the ape storyline to be the A-story for the episode.

The downside of this is that every other storyline (with the exception of Betty/Helen wanting a baby and Jane/Lester, which were both introduced in this episode) moves at a snails pace simply to fill the running time. Seriously, was there anything really significant that happened this episode with Libby and Paul’s relationship? Or with Tessa and Virginia? Or with Johnny and Bill? Or even with Virginia and Dan, you could pretty much just skip from the end of 306 to the start of 308.

But after “Monkey Business”’s myriad flaws, all "Surrogates" had to do was show signs of improvement, regardless of where it would fall on the spectrum of good to "Monkey Business". If episode seven was the equivalent of OD'ing at a party, episode eight is waking up in the hospital bed. But was "Surrogates" successful?

(^My reaction to how tedious rewatching this season of Masters of Sex has been)

Well... it's passable. To be honest, "Surrogates" was a lot worse than I remembered it being. In particular, the dialogue in some scenes were horrifically bad. Namely in the scene where Paul was overreacting to Libby being quiet in bed because the writers needed some way to bring up Robert. To be honest, I’ve been feeling embarrassed for Caitlin FitzGerald in some of these late-season-three scenes. Actually embarrassed.

But there were some other scenes this episode with really bad dialogue. The scene where Virginia tries to tie in the stages of human sexual response to gambling. I think that the writers intended this to be a scene where Virginia is slaying this business meeting, but, maybe it's just me, but it really felt ham-fisted.

The Nora-Bill scenes weren't bad. I think the focus on the surrogacy program certainly helped this episode. However, the Betty/Helen/Austin scenes may rival Libby and Paul for worst storyline of the episode. During Betty’s confrontation with Bill, she says “Don’t insult my intelligence!” Well, in Bill’s defense, how could Betty have possibly thought this was a good idea. And how could Betty not know that her girlfriend’s hymen was still intact? This whole strategy of theirs was entirely hair-brained.

Well, that does it for this installment. Hopefully the remaining episodes of season three can grant a reprieve.

Two Scents: A-

Monkey Business: C-

Surrogates: C+

#Masters of Sex #Rewatching Masters of Sex #Two Scents #Monkey Business #Surrogates

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thegreatwhiteferret · 7 years

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Attention

Summary: Richie chose drugs over his relationship with Stan, but can't stand the thought of him moving on. Now he will do anything to get Stan's attention back on him.

A/N: It’s a lot of feelings and smut y’all and I am sorry in advance. [NSFW, Aged up to 18, right before High School graduation. Drug use, Underage Drinking, Angst, Revenge Porn, and Feelings.]

NSFW under cut...

Stan was pacing the floor. Watching the phone. He would pause every so often to straighten something on the coffee table, his overwhelming need to have everything organized ticking away at him even in moments like this. Richie was supposed to call. He was going to go home, check in to see how bad his parental situation was, and then call Stan. That was two and a half hours ago. He sighed, sitting down on the edge of the couch and ran his hands over his face. Richie was flaking more and more as of late. Coming up with weak excuses and bailing on their plans. Stan missed him, missed the crazy chaotic boy that held his heart.

When he had waited three hours to no avail, Stan decided he was done. He trudged up the stairs and ripped off his sweater and ass accentuating pants, it was Richie’s favorite outfit, that’s why he had worn it. There was no point in being dressed up now. He stared at his reflection in the mirror above his dresser.

He had carefully groomed himself when he had gotten home from school from top to bottom. He had spent 45 minutes trying to tame the curls on top of his head, the corkscrews were resistant to product and still popped up all over the place. He had attempted to tame his lower half as well, carefully shaving, cleaning, and prepping so that he would be ready for Richie later. He was hoping that tonight they would be spending some time making his prep worthwhile. They hadn’t slept together in almost a month, Richie always coming up for some excuse as to why he had to head home. It killed Stan, he was starting to think that something was wrong with him, that he couldn’t please his boyfriend anymore. He was hoping that tonight he could break them out of the slump and get back to who they were, but now he knew that it was a wasted effort.

Stan shook the thoughts of his missing boyfriend out of his mind. He pulled a polo and some khakis on, making sure everything was straight. He marched down the stairs and grabbed his jacket, slipping his shoes on by the door, and calling a goodbye to his parents over his shoulder. He headed out into the cold, and began walking towards the Derry Arcade, where he knew he would find Bill and Mike.

He could see the lights of the arcade in the distance when he heard a loud commotion in the alley between two buildings. He knew that he should keep walking but couldn’t help himself, he looked over at the noise and saw a group of kids whooping and hollering. He froze. In the middle of the group, laughing loudly was none other than his boyfriend, Richie Tozier. Stan looked on in horror, this is what he had waited for? His boyfriend, who was living it up with these random kids? Then it took a turn for the worse, Stan looked closer, and noticed that some of the hoodlums appeared to be snorting a white powder off the hood of a beaten up car.

Stan watched as Richie stepped up to the car and took a long hit, closing his eyes in bliss, when Richie opened his eyes again they met Stan’s. He panicked.

“Shit! Stan! Stanley!” He called, rushing towards the boy, but Stan was already running. He felt Richie grab his arm, damn him and those super long legs. Richie pulled Stan around to face him and was just about to speak when Stan lifted his hand and slapped him right across his face, Richie stumbled back and grabbed his cheek.

“WHAT THE FUCK, RICHIE?” Stan wailed, “I wait at home all night for you to call so that we can hang out, and this is what you’re fucking doing?”

“I can explain, Stan...it’s not what you think, you’re overreacting.” Richie slurred, trying to calm his boyfriend down while his mind was beginning to fully swirl from the bump of cocaine he had just done.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? I’m overreacting? Drugs, Rich. You’re doing drugs.” Stan scoffed, wrapping his arms around himself as the chill from the air and his boyfriend’s demeanor began reaching his bones.

“Jesus Christ, Uris. You’re so fucking uptight.” Richie responded, “So dramatic about everything. It’s just a bit of coke, it’s not a big deal.” Stan rolled his eyes, this was so like Richie, deflecting his own issues by insulting those who actually gave a fuck about him.

“If this is no big deal, why didn’t you tell me? We tell eachother everything! If you have a problem…”

“I don’t have a problem, I can stop whenever I want.” Richie cut him off. “And maybe I didn’t tell you because I knew that you would be a little bitch about this. Looks like I was right.”

“Fuck you, Richie.” Stan said, tears threatening to well up in his eyes, he willed his body to keep them in, “I’m done. Enjoy your fucking drugs and new friends, obviously they are more important than our relationship.” With than Stan turned and walked away, not even turning around to see Richie’s reaction.

A giggle erupted from Stan’s mouth. It was an uncharacteristic sound, so free and pure, but it was certainly a welcome change. He writhed and wiggled as fingers pressed into his rib cage. His eyes were watering from laughing so hard.

“All you have to do, Stanny, is say that DC is better than Marvel.” The owner of the fingers chided, digging them in at just the right spot for Stan to squeal again.

“Not a chance, Archie. Marvel has way better storylines and character development! Batman is just a rich guy with stupid gadgets!” He protested through his giggles. Archie sighed and relented. “You give up way too easy.” Stan laughed when he caught his breath and a tongue was stuck out at him in response.

“Good lord, why don’t you too just make out already?” Bev joked from behind the magazine that she was reading while sprawled out on overstuffed chair in the Hanlon’s den. Stan and Archie both blushed and moved away from each other slightly. Mike gave her a pointed look. “I was just joking. Lighten up, would ya?”

“S-so, are w-we carpooling to B-Ben’s party this w-w-weekend?” Bill asked, attempting to change the topic and relieve some of the awkwardness. Mike plopped down next to him on the couch and wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

“Sure, Babe, we can take the farm truck, all of us should fit if we squeeze in.” Mike suggested, looking around for answers from the remaining members of their crew. Bev gave a thumbs up and Eddie agreed as long as he was allowed to sit in a seat with an actual seat belt.

“Is it okay if I meet you there a little bit later?” Archie whispered to Stan, “I have to spend all day Saturday working on my lap report for physics, someone has been distracting me from actually getting it done.” Stan ducked his head and blushed a little bit. He had really enjoyed getting to know Archie, it had helped pull him out from his three month long depressive episode after splitting up with Richie. He felt good, really good. His worries melted away when he was talking to the other boy, he was so easy to talk to and be himself with. He never called him over dramatic either.

“Hmm, well whoever is distracting you must be pretty awesome.” Stan winked at him and Archie rolled his eyes. “But yeah, that’s totally fine. Ben’s parties usually amp up around ten or so.”

They hung out a little longer, talking about school work and the latest gossip, before they started to break off so that they could get home before dark. Stan and Archie headed out last, leaving Bill and Mike to be the adorably disgusting boyfriends that they were. They walked down the dirt road leading back to town. Stan kicked a rock with his shoe, mind swirling in his head.

“Penny for your thoughts, Uris?” Archie asked, giving the curly haired boy a sideways glance. Stan looked back over at him, compiling his thoughts.

“I was just thinking about how grateful I am to have met you.” Stan replied, carefully gauging Archie’s reaction. They hadn’t talked extensively about their respective sexualities. Archie knew that Stan was gay, and had heard from the other Losers that he had gone through an awful break up shortly before they had met. Stan knew that Archie wasn’t so cut and dry, he had had a serious girlfriend before he had moved to Derry, but he had been flirting with Stan...unless Stan had read the signs wrong and he was just super friendly.

“I’m glad I met you too. Moving here was super hard, but knowing you has made it way easier.” Archie said sincerely, stopping in his tracks and grabbing onto Stan’s hand. Stan cocked his head to the side, wondering why they had stopped and then he felt lips press to his own. He responded quickly, Both boys melted into the kiss, and Stan pushed them backwards until he had Archie pressed up against a tree.

They made out for a little longer before they actually walked home; faces flushed, stomachs jittery, and hands intertwined.

“H-hey, Stan. C-can I talk t-to you for a m-minute?” Bill asked as they unloaded books into their lockers and got ready for their calculus class.

“Sure, Bill, what’s up?” Stan asked, putting his textbooks back in schedule order on the shelf of his locker. There was never a situation that didn’t improve with organization.

“It’s s-shit, but I t-thought that I s-should tell you b-before someone else d-does…” Bill started, before being cut off.

“Well what do we have here? If it isn’t the Jewish cum guzzling twink of Derry?” Henry Bowers laughed and his crew chimed in.

“Look at this little faggot, he just wants to be on his knees.” Victor Criss spat, “Such a hungry little cumslut.”

“Look at those shorts, so tight, however do you hide your girly panties under there?” Belch added, “Such a little fag, I bet you want to wear bras too.”

They continue to laugh loudly and hurl homophobic insults at him as he rushed down the hallway, Bill hot on his tail. He could feel tears prickling his eyes and was grateful when Bill pulled him into a bathroom and locked the door behind them. He quickly checked to ensure they were alone before full on breaking down.

“What the Hell, Bill? What’s going on?” Stan asked, heaving out breaths and tears flowing down his cheeks.

“St-stan this is w-what I w-was trying to t-tell y-you…” Bill started, sighing before pushing on, “R-Richie has been s-saying some n-na-nasty things about y-you. About w-what you two w-would do t-together.” Stan looked at him questioningly, “S-sexually.”

“Why would he fucking do that?” Stan’s eyes were wide. He had been called homophobic things before, Hell, the whole damn Losers Club had, but never things so specific. Who knew what all Richie had revealed.

“I...I d-don’t know, S-Stan, b-b-but it gets w-worse.” How could it get worse? Stan’s thought was answered when Bill pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Stan. He unfolded the paper carefully and almost puked when he saw what had been photocopied onto it.

There in black and white on the paper was a picture of Stan, on his knees, licking Richie’s dick. He could just make out the lacey panties and stockings that he was wearing, and the mascara that had made his eyes super defined. He recognized the picture. Richie had begged him to let him take a picture of him with his brand new Polaroid camera. Stan had protested, telling him that he didn’t want something like that getting into the wrong hands, but Richie had promised and told Stan how happy it would make him, so he had relented. That was yet another huge mistake that he had made with Richie. Stan threw the paper on the ground and started heaving into the sink. When he had emptied the contents of his stomach, he turned to look at Bill.

“Where did you get this? Are they everywhere? Is there more?” He was panicked. He couldn’t believe that Richie would release this picture.

“T-they were all o-over the q-quad earlier. W-we g-grabbed as m-many as we c-could, but a w-whole bunch of k-kids had t-them.” Bill looked apologetic. “I’m s-sorry, Stan.” Stan’s heart hurt so badly, he felt so betrayed. He had trusted Richie because he had loved him with his whole heart, and Richie was trying to destroy him. He just couldn’t figure out why.

Bill agreed to skip the rest of his classes and take Stan home. He wasn’t going to be able to focus anyway, knowing how badly his friend was hurting. They had almost made it out of the school, when they saw Bev and Ben walking down the hallway. Bev rushed forward and wrapped Stan in her arms, he broke down again and sobbed into her shoulder, any hopes of keeping his dignity were gone.

“I’m so sorry, Stan. I can’t believe that he did this.” She said stroking his back. “Why don’t we go get a whole bunch of ice cream and watch movies. Would that be okay?” Stan nodded and let his friends take him home and take care of him.

Ben had told Stan that he didn’t have to make an appearance at his party. That everyone would understand, but Stan wasn’t letting Richie’s shit ruin his life. He was going and he was going to get blitzed out drunk and was going to have fun with his possible new boyfriend. Archie for his part had been super sweet and supportive of Stan. He swore that he hadn’t seen the pictures and had shut down anyone who had tried to spread rumors about his sweet boy.

So Stan was going to this party. He was going to drink his fruity cocktails and dance with Archie, and do whatever the fuck he wanted. He was done letting Richie Tozier control what he did. He put on his tightest pants, black jeans that Bev had bought him from a trendy shop in Portland that made his ass look fantastic, with his favorite pink lace panties underneath. He slipped a black undershirt on and then buttoned up a denim shirt. His curls actually stayed manageable for once, and he swiped a bit of mascara on. It wasn’t the style that he would usually go for, especially not in public, but he felt good.

He raced down the stairs when he heard Mike honk the horn of the trunk and jumped into the backseat with Eddie and Bev. Bev looked over his outfit and smiled at him, he pressed a kiss to her cheek in thanks, and then sat back preparing himself for the night ahead of him.

Stan was beyond tipsy. He was feeling himself. Eddie had tried switching him to water a while ago, but Stan had waited for him to turn his back and had replaced the water with vodka. He could feel the music pulsing through his body and kept thinking of the cute freckle faced redhead that would be showing up soon. He was going to show Archie a good time. Bev had laughed hysterically when he had voiced this out loud, but he didn’t even care.

Suddenly there was a loud bang as a group of grungy looking teens burst into the party. Stan scoffed, at their rudeness before sneaking a bit more alcohol into his cup. When he turned back around, he saw him. Tall and gangly, dark messy curls spilling into his eyes and thick glasses. It was Richie. The other Losers noticed his arrival as well.

“Shit, Stan. I swear I didn’t know that he was going to be here.” Ben sounded like he was panicking, like it was his fault that Richie was a piece of trash asshole. Stan knew that Ben was sincere, he wasn’t mad at him.

Stan was suddenly overcome with rage towards Richie though, so he chugged the rest of his vodka, handed his cup to Eddie and stomped his way over to Richie. Bill tried to reach out to stop him, but Stan shrugged him off and kept moving.

“Hey Trashmouth, you stupid fuckface!” Stan called out, Richie spun on his heel quickly. His face quickly turned from looking as if he had seen a ghost to a shit eating grin.

“Oh hey there, Babygirl. Got your panties in a wad, do ya?” He snarked and his druggie friends laughed with him. Stan had to mentally talk himself down from punching him in his stupid fucking face. Richie looked like shit. Looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, his cheeks had hollowed out even more, cheekbones looking razor sharp. He wore a beat up leather jacket with a grey thermal underneath, and black jeans with holes in them. His eyes were red, not like he was high, but like he had been crying. Stan shook the thought out of his head. Richie was still an asshole who had released that picture to everyone. Who just called him “Babygirl” in front of the entire fucking 12th grade.

“Shut the fuck up, Richard.” Stan screamed, the tips of his ears turning red, “You’ve been running around and throwing dirt on my name! Talking some stupid shit, Trashmouth, considering that I still know all of your secrets.” Richie’s eyes grew in size, he had dished out a ton of shit, just to get a reaction out of Stan, but hadn’t thought about what Stan could do to him in return. “It fucking ends now!” Stan stomped his foot in anger.

“Hah!” Richie gawked, “And what the fuck are you going to do about it?” Stan suddenly remembered where he was, and how many people were staring at them. He glanced over his shoulder and saw the other Losers, faces looking concerned. Bill looked like he wanted to race up and save Stan, like he always did. Stan quickly grabbed Richie’s arm and pulled him up the stairs and into the guest bedroom. He ignored the sound effects that the crowd of teenagers made as they went.

Stan threw Richie into the room and closed the door behind them. Richie sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, while Stan kept his back pressed against the door, trying to clear his head that was still swimming from the alcohol. Richie opened his mouth to undoubtedly make a smart ass comment, but Stan cut him off.

“How could you do this to me, Richie? You loved me at one point, didn’t you? Or was everything about our relationship a lie?” Stan’s anger broke to utter despair.

“Stan.” Richie breathed out before trying to compose himself, “I...I never. I lied. I was shit, but I did love you. I still love you. But you deserve better than some stupid druggie, better than someone who is broken beyond repair.”

“We are all broken, Rich, but that doesn’t mean that you hurt the people who care about you. You promised me that you would never show anyone that picture, and then posted it all over the walls. Do you know what people have been saying about me, just because of the shit you’ve been spreading?” Stan’s anger was rising again, the effects of the alcohol flowing through his body, he couldn’t bring himself to feel pity for someone who hurt him so badly. “I was finally starting to be happy. Finally getting out of bed again, without feeling like everything hurts. And you pull this bullshit.”

“That’s right. You found someone new to focus your affection on and give your body to, I heard about that.” Richie picked at the dirt under his fingernails.

“Oh my fuck.” Stan shook his head, finally understanding. “That’s why you did it. That’s what this is all about. You just can’t stand the thought of me with someone new. You want everything to be about you.” Richie stood up from the bed and moved towards Stan slowly. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking touch me, Tozier!” His words fell on deaf ears as Richie pulled him close to his body and pressed his lips. Stan tried to fight back, but he felt sparks take over his body. The familiarity and love that could only be brought on by Richie Tozier.

Richie nibbled at Stan’s bottom lip and the shorter boy gasped letting him in. Any thoughts of how wrong this was went away as Richie’s tongue slid against his, he had waited for this for so long. Had been craving Richie’s touch since long before they had broken up. Richie walked them backwards until Stan’s legs hit the edge of the mattress and the boy fell back.

Richie was on his knees in an instant, pulling on the button of Stan’s jeans and working to wiggle them down his hips. He made a choked sound when he saw the pretty lace of Stan’s panties. He ran his thumbs over the delicate material, driving Stan crazy, then placed a kiss right above the lace on his hip bone. Stan mewled in response. He continued his mission to get Stan’s pants off, but damn was it a struggle since they were so tight. Stan helped him by kicking them off the rest of the way, as Richie began working on his shirt.

Stan laid back on the bed, clad only in his panties and Richie stood back looking at him, he wanted to devour him.

“Let me blow you.” Stan whined, he wanted some contact, wanted Richie’s thick cock in him. Richie nodded, because who wouldn’t want something as beautiful as Stan Uris to pleasure them? He quickly shrugged off his jacket and shirt and unbuckled his jeans, letting them fall to the ground. Stan was on his knees, pulling Richie’s hips to the edge of the bed in no time at all. He hooked his fingers in the waistband of the taller boy’s boxers and pulled them down. Richie’s cock bounced up against his stomach and it was just as beautiful as Stan had remembered.

He took the tip in his mouth and sucked like he was born to do it, pulling deep groans from Richie. He pulled off and looked Richie dead in the eye as he took him all the way in, letting the head slip into his throat. He pulled off and licked a stripe up the side. Richie was a mess, an absolute disaster as Stan kept working him with his mouth. Stan grabbed Richie’s hand and placed it in his hair, allowing Richie to control how fast and deep he went. Richie would swear up and down that Stan would be the deep throat champion of the world, he would take him all the way in, let him fuck his face, and never complained.

Richie was so close that he could feel his toes tingling, so he pulled Stan off of him. Stan whined at the loss, but Richie just pulled him into a kiss. He reached behind Stan into his panties and felt that Stan’s hole was already lubed up and prepped. He groaned, he used to love when Stan would do this. Play with himself and get himself ready, edging himself off to increase his pleasure later on. Then he would grind on Richie or talk dirty until Richie would throw him on the nearest surface, only to find that his dirty boy was already ready for him.

“Who were you planning to fuck tonight, baby? Couldn’t have been that nerdy ginger.” Stan went to protest, but Richie slipped one finger in easily and Stan moaned into his neck where he was previously sucking a love bite. He slipped one more in and scissored them slightly. He was met with some resistance, Stan’s hole was always incredibly tight, even with prep, but he kept working him open. When Stan was ready, Richie laid him on his back, and pulled his panties off, carefully to not destroy them. Richie knew how much he hated that. He pulled a small bottle of lube from the pocket of his jacket. Stan quirked his eyebrow at him, and Richie shrugged. It never hurt to be prepared. He coated his cock with the lube.

Stan pulled his legs up, thighs resting on his chest, baring his hole for Richie to devour. Richie wasted no time at all pushing in and drawing out a choked moan from the smaller boy. He gave him no time to adjust, knowing that Stan fucking loved the feeling of being stretched out on his fat cock, he pumped in and out at a murderous speed. Impaling Stan repeatedly. Stan bit his fist, trying to keep himself from crying out. He dropped his legs and wrapped them around Richie’s waist pulling him deeper and deeper.

Richie was so close, but he wasn’t finishing before Stan, he wanted to give this boy all of the pleasure. He wrapped his hand around Stan’s dick and began pumping in time with his thrusts. Stan was coming undone, inhuman sounds coming out of him in between ragged breaths. Richie flicked his wrist and Stan was done, his dick pulsed as he came all over his stomach.

“Come on Rich, cum in me baby.” Stan breathed out, egging the taller boy on, breathing through the slightly painful edge of overstimulation.

“Stan.” His eyes flew open, it wasn’t Richie who had said it. He looked towards the door and saw Archie with tears in his eyes, face crumpling.

“Archie, No!” Stan called, trying to push Richie off of him. Archie took off and Stan finally got out from under Richie, he slipped his panties on, Richie’s hot cum leaking out of his ass. He pulled on his pants and shirt as fast as possible and took off after him, leaving Richie alone in the room. He raced down the stairs and outside barely catching Archie before he got in his car. “Archie, wait, I can explain. Please listen, I’m so sorry!”

“So that’s Richie, huh?” Archie asked bitterly. “Your druggie ex who aired all of you dirty laundry. God, to think that I held you while you cried over what that prick had done.”

“Archie…” Stan was crying, standing barefoot with his shirt undone, and abused hole leaving a mess in his pants. What had he done.

“I don’t want to hear it, you filthy little cum slut. I want nothing to do with you. Go back to your boy.” With that he got into his car a drove off, leaving Stan on the front lawn of Ben’s house a sobbing mess.

Bill got to him first of course. He was Stan’s real life superhero, and held him in his arms. Eddie handed him a tissue from his fanny pack so that he could blow his nose, while Bev rubbed his back. He looked up to see Mike and Ben trying to restrain Richie from getting to him.

Richie looked...sorry? That couldn’t be it. Richie never apologized for anything when it came to Stan, even when he was lying about using drugs. Stan couldn’t even look at him. He was disgusted with himself that he had let Richie back in like that, that his kiss had melted him.

“You.” He said, pointing a finger towards Richie. “You stay the fuck away from me. You just want attention, you don’t want my heart. You just hate the thought of me with someone new, you fucking said it yourself. Well congratulations Tozier, the whole world knows how much of a pathetic cum slut I am for you!” Stan had to stop to gag, he could feel his anxiety pushing all of the alcohol up his esophagus as he heaved and vomited all of it up into the grass. “I can’t do this anymore. You made your choice. You loved the drugs more than me.” Stan was crying again, and Bill decided to intervene, the whole situation wasn’t going to end well.

Mike helped Bill load him into the truck and the other losers joined. Stan watched Richie’s figure get smaller and smaller as the truck pulled down the road. He hated himself for giving into Richie and for being unable to get over him.

Stan woke up with a massive hangover and his ass was throbbing. He rolled over to see Bill sleeping peacefully, he figured that the losers chose Bill’s house to stash the very drunk boy because Bill’s parents just didn’t care what their son did anymore. As Stan laid there in the quiet of the Sunday morning a thought kept plaguing him, he needed to see Richie Tozier as soon as possible. In his mind, he knew that he should be thinking of how to apologize to Archie, but that wasn’t what he wanted.

Stanley Uris only wanted Richard Tozier.

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i-may-have-a-point · 7 years

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Review of 14x07 “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story”

The Mirage. That was the name of the roller coaster. When I saw that in the promotional photos that were released, I was hopeful that our characters would be seeing people from their past, in reality, illusion, or hallucination. What we got was not quite what I hoped. Either way, episode 300 brought with it memories of some of the most meaningful people and events we have laughed and cried over in the first 299 episodes. So, lower your lap bar and sit back while I give you my take on episode 300.

Meredith – The majority of this episode was devoted to the doctors trying to get Mer to go to the Harper Avery Awards so she could accept her trophy. It was rather predictable that she would win. Once the storyline was initially brought up, we all saw this coming. They wouldn’t nominate both Cristina and Meredith and not give it to either of them. I think they could have built up to this moment better, but hey, Meredith got her Harper Avery, which is the more important thing to the writers. I was underwhelmed by the whole thing, but I did think Ellis being in the gallery was a nice touch. Not that she needs it now, but Meredith knows Ellis is proud of her.

Amelia and Owen – So, are they actually divorced? Or are they just pretending they are and having sex with other people? Can we clarify that? Cause I get that the show wants us to believe they are both blissfully happy with each other jumping into whoever’s pants, and call me old-fashioned, but how about we sign those papers and make it official first. Also, if this tumor story was supposed to be about correcting Amelia’s supposed character flaws (or the season 13 writing to be more accurate), then why is she exactly the same person? Besides seeming a little happier and fine with Owen’s escapades, I see no differences. If anyone else does, feel free to point them out.

Ben and Miranda – This is some petty, petty drama right here. However, since they are insisting on Ben changing careers for the third time, I think Miranda is reacting appropriately. She should be questioning if she can rely on him for anything because he certainly doesn’t seem like he knows what he wants.

Arizona – I have no idea where this Sofia storyline is going, but I loved Arizona thinking about what Mark would say if he were there. And the family photo on the wall was just the right amount of nostalgia to make me audibly sigh.

Deluca and Sam – One of the things I think Grey’s has done well in the past is create such intense build up to a relationship that the audience cannot wait for the two characters to get together. I wish they had done that here. I think they should have kept the vague banter about their past and left out the on-call room hook ups. It is so obvious where these two are headed that it took the intrigue and interest out of it for me. I think they look great together physically, and if they want to go at it in every room of the hospital, by all means. However, I didn’t get reeled in by their story the way it was told in this episode.

George, Cristina, and Izzie – I may be in the minority here, but I would have preferred flashbacks rather than look-alikes. The casting of the Izzie look-alike was spot-on, though. In some angles, she did look eerily like Katherine Heigl. And one of my favorite Easter eggs was Alex picking her up because no matter how many times I watch Alex lift Izzie off of Denny’s bed, I still “clutch my pearls” as Jason George likes to say.

Jolex – One thing I think the show did well in this episode was to have Jo completely fine with Alex being flustered by the Izzie look-alike. The Jolex fans and Izzex fans are both very passionate and both very sure that their couple is the better couple. I think the show did a nice job of remembering Izzie and respecting both relationships. The scene where Alex describes the vision he has of Izzie’s life was long-overdue and executed perfectly. Izzie is happy, surrounded by children, muffins, and Christmas decorations. That is enough closure for me.

Japril - I get A LOT of messages asking me to speculate or predict where Japril’s story is headed. I, like you, have no idea, but I can tell you based on what I see on screen, I think it is far from over.

Let’s look back at what we have seen so far this season.

In my 14x01/14x02 review I said that while April telling Jackson she needed to move out ripped our hearts to shreds, this was the first time, maybe ever, that we have seen April make a decision with her best interests above everyone else’s. She has been through multiple deep traumas, and she hasn’t fully dealt with any of them. For once, she is taking care of herself.

In my 1403 review I said that I think April’s “complicated journey” this season is to find her happiness and fully deal with everything she has been through. This episode, in a way, walked the audience and April back through many of her traumas. They brought up several of the major things April has dealt with over the years for a reason. They are reminding us what she has been through and what she still needs to deal with. We got the Nicole Herman mention, the Matthew flash-mob mention, and clear signs that April is not happy. Because “No matter how many vows you make, you still end up in a new apartment and don’t see your kid half the time.” (Side note: That picture is Matthew. I know some people don’t want it to be him, but it is.)

14x04 brought us Harper Avery calling April Jackson’s wife and telling him divorcing her made him like his father.

14x06 is April revisiting the 13x07 storyline and perusing Tinder, insisting that she doesn’t want to date anyone in the hospital.

In 14x07, we had every reason to scoff at the screen when the Cristina lookalike says, “You’re not Meredith Grey.” This idea that April is less than any of the other surgeons has been tired since season eight. The hypocrisy and overreaction to April being Interim Chief of Surgery in season 13 is one of the many reasons that season ranks at the bottom of my list, but I think that the idea was revisited again because it fits into the story of April analyzing her choices and whether or not she is truly happy. During surgery, April explains to Meredith, “You’re like Jackson. He grew up with so much money that he never had to balance a budget or check a price tag, and he just takes it all for granted…you take for granted that there is just going to be another one. Some of us work really hard, and we’re just average.” There is so much to unpack in these lines. We finally get some of April’s thoughts on Jackson’s shopping spree, and April also tells the audience that she is still not completely confident in her own abilities as a surgeon and probably in other areas of her life as well. April knows that Jackson’s behavior is out of the ordinary, but she is more focused on her own flaws. I think she is really feeling her part in the problems in their relationship, but she still believes that her and Jackson belong together. She just isn’t sure if he does. She thinks he “…takes for granted there is just going to be another one.” This scene is not the show saying April is average. Meredith’s line, “And Kepner you’re not average,” along with Glasses saying, “They were superheroes. Both of them,” was the writers’ way of giving well-deserved credit to April. The important thing here is how April reacted to those lines. Watch her face when Meredith tells her she isn’t average. She looks down and away as if annoyed that Meredith is patronizing her, and Glasses gets told to stop talking. She doesn’t want to hear these compliments because she doesn’t believe them. I think getting to that point is part of her journey.

And those Japril looks. They are small, but they are there. And intentional. Jackson and April cannot be in the same room with each other without their chemistry overflowing.

None of this sounds like a couple who is over. To me, it sounds like a story that is just beginning.

So, where ARE they going? Well, we know that we have Japril scenes coming up, but we also know we have Jackson and Maggie scenes coming up as well as Matthew returning. I don’t know what is in store for us, but I still fully believe that even with some bumps in the road, Japril is endgame.

#japril #jolex #omelia #grey's anatomy #14x07

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phxsunsm · 7 years

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FINALE REACTION

Hey everyone

I see a lot of people are disappointed about the finale.

While I would have loved a twist that Bethany was alive and was AD, it was still really cool that Twincer was actually AD.

There have been so many theories on here for the past season or so about this possibility. I feel like many of the people disappointed are overreacting. I agree that they could have done some things differently throughout the series (more on NAT club, Bethany, Wren, Aria’s time in Iceland, etc) and maybe made a few more deep and disturbing twists, but isn’t the fun of making theories to actually find out that we were right about certain things all along?

I feel like people are disappointed because everyone on tumblr is too smart and figured things out and now it seems “predictable”, but if you just watch the show at face value and had never read everyone else’s theories, yes there were a few clues here and there about Twincer, but the show did not make that possibility predictable in any way - there were still tons of clues that we could have pointed at other people. So my point is that we should be excited that one of our very cool fan theories actually happened, as opposed to acting disappointed because we kind of saw it coming. If it turned out Paige or some dumbass reveal was the finale, everyone would be on here like “damn they should have just done the Twincer reveal, that would have made so much sense”. We have to accept that there were tons of twists throughout this show and they can’t do everyone of our fan theories. I’ve seen a lot of comments about “what happened that night” - well, Bethany was killed by accident! For four seasons we thought Ali was dead! Bethany was very relevant to the plot of the show - her being dead resulted in us being introduced to the fact that Ali was alive! There were tons of twists like Eza writing the book, Cece being Charles took us all by surprise and was interesting. The Bethany killing Toby’s mom plot line was interesting and made her relevant for that purpose. I know a lot of people didn’t like that storyline but it was definitely twisted and shocking - the main criticism being what did the liars ever do to Cece. Well she just was a bit of psycho and wanted to torture them - she’s a villain for a reason. She was jealous of them all after being thrown away in Radley. Then we got the whole Mary Drake reveal being Jessica’s twin was surprising and fun and then Spencer being her daughter - yes we had some theories about that being a possibility but it wasn’t super predictable, we had theories it could be Wren or tons of other people too. Then finally tonight with it being Spencer’s twin was very cool that one of our main theories was right.

I just want everyone to remember how much fun and surprising and crazy stuff has happened throughout this show and to not complain for the sake of the writers not doing your particular theory or that your theories are all “better”. The most prominent theory on here the last few months was Twincer, so they did our “better” theory in the finale! Let’s be excited about that!

I think if you consider some of the other theories or possibilities, there would be an extreme amount of things that wouldn’t make sense:

-Ezra: had no real connection to Cece, why would he care about finding her killer?

-Melissa: was semi-friends but not BFF’s or anything with Cece, everyone thinks she should have been AD for various reasons, but Melissa just looked sketchy before cuz she was trying to be careful knowing she killed Bethany (and before knowing that being paranoid that she may have killed someone if Ali was truly alive - a lot of the NAT stuff seems “unresolved” but that’s not really the case, it was just high school kids playing around in a club, they got Toby and Jenna on tape which had relevance. Melissa yelling “where is she” doesn’t have to have some higher meaning, she was pissed about Ali being with Ian)

If you think about other possibilities, there would be way more loose ends that what we have now, where there really aren’t many loose ends in my opinion. What they’ve done makes sense. It wouldn’t have for so many other characters. Imagine if they made Bethany AD and alive somehow, that would have been so confusing and messed up. If Cece was Bethany or some sort of switcheroo theory, things wouldn’t have made sense easily either.

I think there’s a big difference between the show having the potential to do more storylines with the NAT club, with Bethany, Wren, etc versus there being unanswered questions. I think we’re more disappointed that there weren’t more crazy twists with these things. But ultimately there aren’t really many unanswered questions here. To me, I just wonder why Wren was so sketchy with Mona in Radley that time (he didn’t know Twincer yet I don’t think at that time). And if the show had taken these other directions, then maybe we wouldn’t have Mary Drake and all these cool Spencer storylines with the twin or Cece’s whole story. They really made a lot of cool family secrets there which I enjoyed. (I think they could have done a better job explaining why Sara Harvey and Charlotte were friends, like why was Charlotte so loyal to her to become red coat and black veil? but whatever that’s not necessarily the biggest deal)

So overall I liked the finale episode, really sad that there’s nothing more to theorize about, would have loved if throughout the show they took a few more risks/developed some plot points they opened up and could have done more with, but I think we aren’t left with something illogical or tons of plot holes/unanswered questions. I’m satisfied for sure. We can’t expect every fan theory to happen and got a lot of them right and should feel happy about that because so many theories were really smart and the show ended up doing some of that with tonight’s reveal. Just because we have a good tumblr community that can figure things out doesn’t make the show any less entertaining. It shouldn’t anyways. One thing I would have loved is if this Alex Drake was revealed to have known Wren from the beginning and manipulated both Mona and Cece into being A first (so Mona and Cece still having the same motivations to be A, just not doing it on their own accord). I didn’t like how one person had to take it from the next and pass the baton. I think that’s one small change that would have been awesome to show that this has been relevant since season 1. But it doesn’t change the fact that everyone had valid reasons to be A and the show is about bullying - just because the liars all didn’t commit some huge crime, doesn’t stop someone from bullying them. Bullies bully without having been bullied first by the people they’re tormenting. If you think about it, the whole show wouldn’t have started if Ali hadn’t bullied Mona - she only threw the rock at Bethany by mistake because she wanted to hurt Ali for bullying her and the liars all were friends with Ali and didn’t do anything to stop Ali’s bullying for example, so Mona had reason to torture them. Cece had her childhood taken away and lost out on having friends so it makes sense she was mad about all that and tortured them. For Twincer, it’s very similar reasoning. I think that all the big reveals have made sense at the end of the day and that any unanswered questions are minimal and are more things that we wish they would have done more with certain storylines - ex: Bethany storyline more could have been done, but it wasn’t. And it fully makes sense, nothing is really unanswered about her.

Also, it’s cool that they honored the books Twin story. Imagine they had made AD Ali’s twin. Everyone would’ve thought that was so stupid. They made a similar storyline with Spencer but weaved into that the whole Mary Drake/Jessica storyline and the Cece storyline. They ventured out from the books quite a bit while still honoring the books’ original plot.

Any criticism of the show’s ending shouldn’t be that it doesn’t make sense. It does. Any disappointment that we feel is the fact that the show is over, we can’t make any more theories, and that we would have liked certain other plot points developed throughout the show. But let’s not overanlyze every little thing that happened and say that “we didn’t get answers”. Who cares how the moms got out of the basement, etc. Even things like “Maya Knew” - we can assume that she knew Mona was A for example.

Sorry this was a very long post, but I just wanted to try to remind everyone how much fun we’ve all had with this show and that it’s sad it’s over and there’s nothing more to theorize about. It feels like there’s an emptiness right now. Let’s all digest this finale and the past 7 seasons!

Feel free to message me to discuss further!

#pll #pll theories

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buddiebeginz · 6 years

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Finally caught up on Emmerdale so here’s some thoughts on the recent episodes (if anyone cares 😝).

---Rob & Nicola / Home Farm junk

I’m seriously not a fan of what they’re doing with Rob right now. Ryan in my opinion is one of the most talented actors on the show and Rob is one of the best characters. Rob was born on the show and has a long varied history with many avenues the show could take his character down so it really baffles me why it feels like we’re living 2017 all over again in some ways. Why of all the storylines they could give Rob they continue to keep him shackled to Home Farm scheming to get an old drunk man to sign over a business and swindle him out of money. I feel like I’m the one living a groundhog day version of Emmerdale instead of Rob.

I know Rob as a character can get into trouble and he likes making money so I’m not saying I want him to do some magical 180 and totally change who he is, in fact I enjoy it when he’s scheming and being a smug little bastard but I do think given all he’s been through in the past couple of years they could show some growth for him where Home Farm is concerned. Seeing him scheme with Nicola to get the business from a drunk Graham almost feels like nothing’s changed with Rob since last year and he has changed a lot. Why does he need to do that to make money? Wouldn’t it be more interesting to show Rob a character who has often schemed and smooth talked his way up the ladder to build his own business?

I also feel like the show thinks Graham and Kim are far more interesting than they are which is why they think this storyline holds water. I was interested when it seemed like we were going to get a Joe vs Rob/Robron storyline. But Graham’s character is so annoyingly boring right now all he does he mope around and drink and I’m sorry I’m never going to feel bad for him when he was planning on killing Joe himself. I also think even with all the history Kim Tate has the show has done a poor job of bringing her back. I know I didn’t watch the show when she was on before but I wasn’t impressed with her reemergence during SSW. Plus they made this whole big deal about her getting out jail and how she was coming back only for her to leave again and now she’s apparently coming back from jail again. It’s so messy. My point with all this is ED wants us to be excited at this show down between Rob and Nicola vs Kim and Graham that’s supposedly coming when she gets back but I’m just not. I feel like most of the stuff they’ve done with both Rob and Robron this year has been lackluster and if this is supposed to be Rob’s big story going into the new year it just leaves me feeling disappointed.

Oh yeah btw I really hated Nicola’s line of “He was going to ply you with that before having his way with you” in reference to Rob getting Graham drunk. I swear the show sometime just wants to make fun of what happened last year. I just found is so offensive given what they allowed to happen with Rob and Rebecca and then that awful slap in the face storyline with Lawrence and Rob.

I feel like we haven’t gotten to see much of Priya working for Home Farm and now Nicola is going to be working up there so I’m hoping Priya will still get some focus. I’m still bummed we didn’t get to see her and Joe end up together so many interesting storylines wasted. -_-

---Robron

I’m really tired of every single time we see Robron their convos being about Seb and or babies. Hello Emmerdale writers they can talk about other things you know.

As much as I want Robron to have kids that are theirs together I continue to feel let down by this surrogacy storyline. I mean now it’s connected to this stupid Home Farm stuff. Like they can’t have kids unless Rob gets the money from Home Farm it just leaves it feeling so tainted for me. I mean Rob only came home and decided he wanted to have kids with Aaron around the same time he decided to plot all this stuff with Nicola so it’s like he only wants to go down the surrogacy route so he has a reason to get Aaron off his back about it all. I know that’s not the reason but the writing is sloppy and it makes Rob look like an ass as has most of this stuff like Rob not explaining why he didn’t want to have kids in the first place.

It just feels like Rob isn’t even really invested in this whole kids thing. Mainly because any of the times I’ve wished to see more about how Aaron and Rob have felt about it all like why they want to kids or why Rob didn’t want to it’s all been rushed and glossed over. I know a lot of people in fandom care about Robron storylines no matter what is going like if Emmerdale says Robron most people are like sign me up but I don’t operate that way. The show needs to put the effort in and show they care or else I’m not going to. For a while now it’s felt like they’re just phoning it in when it comes to Robron which makes me feel a lot less inclined to care about what’s going on with them. I love Robron and I always will I just don’t like how they show is writing for them at the moment.

I’m also so over Rob being blamed for everything that happened to the Whites, I mean now they have Aaron telling Rob it was his fault what happened to Chrissie and Lawrence. Everyone points out that if Rob hadn’t stolen Seb the accident wouldn’t have happened well in the first place Rebecca didn’t have a right to leave the country with Seb. Secondly I 100% believe that if Rob didn’t take Seb out of the car Lachlan would still have caused an accident or done something else and maybe Seb would also have died. His anger had nothing to do with Rob it was with Chrissie and what she did to his relationship to Belle at the time. The accident was NOT Rob’s fault and it’s bs that the show keeps blaming him for it. I swear the White’s never take the blame for anything even a deranged serial killer like Lachlan.

And there’s the other point that I will continue to talk about no matter how much fandom pretends like it’s not true. There is a difference in the way Robron are allowed to be a couple vs the straight couples. Rob and Aaron hardly ever kiss I mean they don’t even kiss when they’ve missed each other and come home from being away (like when Aaron came back last week) yet Pete and Rhona (and other couples) get scenes like this:

Fandom can continue to pretend that Robron are not being treated differently or be happy with just the bare minimum of physical affection they allot them but I won’t. Emmerdale gets a lot of millage out of just having lgbtq characters and couples on the show without thinking they need to put the effort into representing them as accurately as they do the straight couples. Robron deserve to have more than just the occasional bro hug, they deserve to have an actual sex life, and they deserve to have intimacy like a “normal” couple.

---Rhona/Pete/Dawn

Where do I even begin with this storyline. In the first place I don’t get why the show is bringing back Dawn she feels like such a pointless character one we’ve seen a million times on the show. Right off the bat she reminds me a lot of Nell from last year also an older version of Beth. If the show wanted a character like that it would have been a million times more interesting for them to bring back one of those characters than the nothing character that is Dawn.

Another issue I have with this storyline is it feels like Emmerdale is trying to show how it’s important to help those who are struggling. I even saw people on twitter talk about how they were grateful that Emmerdale is showing a storyline about a homeless person and people helping her. Here’s my problem with all of that though. In the first place Dawn isn’t just a homeless person in need of somewhere to live she’s a drug addict, who works as a prostitute, and has spent her time around violent criminals. She’s not just some random homeless woman in need of refugee helping her (to the extend Rhona is) could be dangerous.

Even knowing this woman broke into Ross’ house and even with Pete trying to tell Rhona what went on with Dawn, how in part because of her Pete got beat beat up Rhona still let this woman sleep in her house. A house where her mentally disabled son lives. I know Rhona has a history with drugs herself so I’m sure she sees a part of herself in Dawn but for her to put a woman she barely knows above the safety of her son and the respect and feelings of the man she’s living with is messed up.

Rhona doesn’t know Dawn at all and she kept acting like Pete was being an unreasonable douchebag. Even if Pete was overreacting (he wasn’t) she still could have asked him how he felt about her bringing Dawn there for the night considering Pete lives there (as far as I know). Also Pete has obviously had more to do with Dawn than Rhona so why did she care so little to hear what Pete had to say about her? Rhona even used Holly as a way to get Pete to cave and help her and btw I’m seriously sick of this show only bringing up Holly when it comes to drugs.

I just find this whole storyline ignorant especially with the things people are saying about it online. You can’t and shouldn’t just take any random homeless person off the street and bring them into your home no matter how much you want to help someone. There’s other things you can do that don’t put you and your family at risk and that’s exactly what Rhona was doing.

I also can’t believe Dawn gets to live rent free at Ross’ old place now. So I guess the message is just break into places whenever you want and someone might give you the whole house for nothing. I’m confused what Emmerdale uses to help them decide what characters stay and go. Instead of keeping one of their best newer characters like Gerry or even Misty who wasn’t that bad after a while we get Dawn another Nell knock off.

---Tracy/Rodney

I know Tracy and Rodney are working together now but I wish she would have called him out over deliberately screwing with her pizza order. I also think he’s going to continue to screw with her business because he’s jealous. As much as it’s nice to see Tracy involved in new stuff I still wish they would have let her explore her writing again. I mean even if the 50 Shades knock off book she put out wasn’t that great she could have done something else. It’s obvious she liked doing it.

I have this feeling that the show is going to put Brenda and Rodney (back?) together at some point. Could be wrong but just a feeling I had. Also think they might make Brenda sick again.

Brenda acts like she never does anything wrong. Like when she freaked out and kicked Daz out and then her saying she couldn’t trust Tracy anymore. Like hello Brenda you’re the same person who stole a woman’s credit card and ordered a bunch of stuff.

---Chas/Paddy

I’ve never been a fan of Chas and Paddy as a couple so I’ve just been waiting for Emmerdale to hurry up and move this storyline along. I don’t like how everyone feels like they have to tiptoe around Chas and Paddy not because of the Grace stuff but mostly because of their relationship. Like I know they’ve been through a lot but they’re also two grown adults who live and work around other adults they can’t just take their issues out on other people. It’s not okay for them to make everyone else feel uncomfortable or like they can’t even stand in the same room with them because they’re struggling.

I know Lydia’s heart was in the right place but she’s nosy af sometimes and the way she always butts into other peoples business drives me crazy.

I know Chas has gone through and is still going through a lot but I just don’t feel like she’s being fair to Paddy. Everyone grieves differently and just because he’s feeling numb doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I also think it’s unfair for her to lash out at him so much when she hasn’t even been willing to communicate with him how she’s really been feeling. I mean Paddy hasn’t done the best with communicating either but I think he would have tried to listen if Chas said she felt shut out. Paddy took the time to confide in her and tell her how he was really feeling after Grace’s death and she just threw that in his face acting like he didn’t care. If he truly felt nothing he wouldn’t be so shut down as he was he’s been suffering too and she’s just been too caught up in her own pain to notice.

I knew when Eric said that he and his first wife ended up hating each other that Chas was going to break up with Paddy and honestly I’m glad. The whole thing has been kind of torturous to watch. I mean the actors are doing a great job but I just want the storyline to move forward. I still wonder if when Mandy comes back Paddy will find out he has a kid and what that will do to him and Chas having any kind of relationship friendship or otherwise going forward.

---Frank/Megan/Etc

I really didn’t like how the show chose to talk about minimum wage work this week. Multiple times there were comments made about the factory work that Frank does and how it’s a nothing worthless kind of job. There have also been comments in the past to that effect as well. Frank said something about being stressed and Megan said “your work isn’t stressful” as if people who work menial labor jobs don’t get stressed.😒

Lord Leyla called herself Melania Trump. Do a lot of people in the UK actually like Trump or something? Please for the love of god no.

#rr*#negativity #rr112118 #rr112218 #rr112318

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flauntpage · 6 years

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“They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87

I shut off my computer immediately after the final buzzer last night because I knew social media was going to be a wretched hive of bullshit hot takes and overreaction.

Let’s keep it simple:

The Boston Celtics are an excellent team. Brad Stevens’ squad is incredibly athletic on the perimeter and stacked with multiple guys who can create their own shot and do a lot of dynamic things on the offensive end. Some of their bench players really should be starters on other teams (Terry Rozier) and they continue to play a defensive brand of basketball that just stifles the Sixers (and pretty much everybody else in the Eastern Conference).

So Joel Embiid is accurate when he says post-game, “This is not a rivalry. I don’t know our record against them, but it’s pretty bad. They always kick our ass. This is not a rivalry.”

Correct.

You need to beat a team before it comes a rivalry, and the Sixers are not there yet. Right now the Sixers are Pittsburgh and the Celtics are Penn State. There’s history there, sure, but the last few meetings have been pretty lopsided.

That’s the storyline moving forward. You lost to the best team in the conference on opening night. The rest of the season is about bringing yourself level with Boston and you’ve got 81 remaining games to figure it out.

Shortcomings

It’s hard to win a basketball game when:

you turn the ball over 16 times

you shoot 5-26 from three (19.2%)

your starting power forward gets himself into early foul trouble

your backup power forward is injured and unavailable

your backup small forward is injured and unavailable

you get 8-25 shooting (32%) from Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and Markelle Fultz

you shoot 14-24 from the foul line (58.3%)

Boston grabs twice as many offensive rebounds (12 to 6)

Regarding the turnovers –

The Sixers won a ton of games while coughing up the ball last year. Same with Golden State, who won it all. Turnovers don’t always equate to losses if you’re an up-tempo team that swings the ball around and flies up and down the court and averages more total possessions per game.

That was not the case last night, and there was a lot of forced stuff and some miscommunication that resulted in plays like this:

Just a bread and butter dribble hand-off right there, and Embiid leaves the ball for Redick, who makes a counter cut instead to beat the overplay. Joel will normally hold that and wait to see what develops instead of just dumping the ball out of bounds.

He was also annoyed with this play, when he threw a low post bounce pass entry off Dario Saric and out of play:

Sorry for the crap quality there, had to rip it off the TV.

You see Boston meeting Ben Simmons with two defenders at the foul line, which is the same exact thing they did last year. Ben drops it for the trailing big, and instead of Embiid trying a wide-open three pointer, he puts the ball on the floor and dribbles towards Saric before the pair fumble the exchange.

Look at the space here:

Joel shoots that more often than not. He’s not at his best when putting the ball on the floor 23 feet from the basket, but you already knew that.

I also thought he got hung out to dry defensively with too many tough matchups on the perimeter. It’s not to say he can’t defend on the perimeter, but it was very interesting to see him matched up with Jayson Tatum to start the game while Markelle Fultz took Kyrie Irving. Maybe the Sixers figure that Al Horford is going to try to stretch out Embiid anyway, and that he’s going to inevitably be pulled away from the basket no matter who he ends up guarding. Good job by Boston to space the floor and keep the Sixers moving defensively last night. You can switch two through four or fight through screens, but the trio of Irving, Tatum, and Jaylen Brown are capable of attacking really anybody you throw at them. Throw Rozier and Horford and Gordon Hayward into the mix, and it gets even more dicey.

Ben Simmons

Honestly, his performance probably kept things from getting out of control early on.

He finished with 19, 15, and 8 on 50% shooting and turned the ball over three times while going 5-9 from the stripe.

A lot of good, not much bad, a couple of amazing passes, and two attempted elbow jumpers that I counted. He actually missed twice from the left elbow but hit a ridiculous turnaround one-handed hook shot, if you want to call it that.

Ben’s chart from last night:

I’d be perfectly happy with him trying a couple of elbow jumpers per game as the season progresses. Those will start to go down.

Otherwise, he was the best Sixer on the court last night. Even in situations where Boston would try to sag to prevent drives to the rim, he’d still find ways to get that head of steam and bulldoze his way through. Ben is a rare physical specimen and if his game continues to grow and evolve he will be a top five NBA player at some time in the near future.

The biggest issue moving forward is finding a rhythm and sharing ball-handling duties with….

Markelle Fultz

Didn’t seem like he was finding the game at all early. It looked like he was just sort of floating around the floor and not getting involved. A little later, he hit his first shot on a nice pull-up at the foul line with a couple guys close to him, and he looked confident doing it. That was probably the highlight of the night, though I obviously loved the off-ball cut to the rim on the ridiculous Simmons no-look behind-the-head pass.

In the second half, Markelle again looked hesitant for the small amount of minutes he played. He passed on a layup attempt and traveled under the rim.

He did not attempt a three pointer last night and only took one of his seven shots outside the key. He failed to take a pair of open jumpers from deeper range and instead brought the ball closer to the basket, which sounded alarm bells in my head.

Kyle Neubeck over at PhillyVoice put two of those clips into a Tweet this morning:

First two plays in this clip: Fultz with space to take longer jumpers vs. BOS tonight, conceding it to shoot around the paint

Final two plays in this clip: How Fultz used to attack *any* semblance of space he had to shoot, vs. BOS in Summer League pic.twitter.com/lbo83wDmNt

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 17, 2018

That’s concerning.

It’s one thing for Markelle to take those and miss, but he didn’t take ’em. In that first clip, he has to let that three pointer rip. The second is one of the weirdest pick and rolls I’ve ever seen.

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, as Nick Young once said. Or was it Wayne Gretzky? Either way, someone needs to drill that into Markelle’s head. I want to see him take at least 10 shots in the home opener tomorrow night.

Rotational things

Saric picking up three fouls early was a killer.

He started 3-4 from the field and the injury absence of Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala really limited Brett Brown’s options off the bench. Picking up a fourth foul at the 9:14 mark in the third on a bad charge also did not help. And Dario’s 5th foul was a bad call with an out of control Hayward running right into him, full steam.

I have a theory that Dario doesn’t get a lot of respect from the officials because he’s still a relative newcomer (and a foreigner), but I can’t prove that theory without accusing people of xenophobia, so I’ll just leave it hanging and end the paragraph.

As expected, JJ Redick and Amir Johnson were first off the bench, spelling Saric and Embiid with Robert Covington moving down to power forward sans Chandler and Muscala. T.J. McConnell was next off the bench, leaving three ball handlers on the floor with Redick and Johnson.

Landry Shamet came off the bench around 10:00 in the second half. He took two early shots, which was good to see, even though he missed both. I’m fine with that. He’s like the anti-Fultz in that regard. Maybe we can find a way to insert Landry’s brain into Markelle’s body. Maybe a combo guard lobotomy is what we need.

As I mentioned above, Fultz barely played in the second half. He did not start in the second half. Brown rolled out last year’s starting five to begin the third quarter and went with a mostly different rotation from what we saw in the first half. Markelle didn’t come back in until 3:13 in the period and finished with 24 minutes last night.

This HAS TO BE priority number one, figuring out what Markelle is. To that end, I do agree with the decision to start him, but it gets funky when multiple ball handlers are on the floor. If Fultz is “the guy” moving forward, he’s gonna have to learn how to play with Simmons in some way, shape, or form. If not, you play him as the second unit point guard and roll another season with Redick as the starting two-guard while looking for upgrades next summer.

They have to figure it out ASAP, and I think that includes Brett giving him significant second-half minutes. If you get 10-15 games into the season and you don’t see anything from Markelle, might be time to just pull the plug. I know this sounds ridiculous after ONE game, but it’s really not one game, it’s 80+ now, as a continuation of his lost rookie season.

Other notes:

After a preseason in which the refs blew the whistle every five seconds, they really let both teams play for the majority of the game.

Ben Simmons twice used the snatch dribble in the first half on plays that resulted in a basket. He tried another in the third quarter and couldn’t get a contested lay-in to fall.

Robert Covington had a nice patch in the 3rd quarter where he hit a pair of three pointers. He made some nice defensive plays as well, including a couple of clutch steals and deflections at the basket. Beyond that, he was front-rimming a lot of his shots and doing little to influence the game. It was a very Covington type of game, inconsistent with peaks and valleys throughout.

Kevin Harlan didn’t seem to know how to pronounce “Dario.” Duh-REE-oh? What was that? Harlan tried to blame it on the Sixers press corps, so I don’t know what that’s all about. We’ll have to investigate.

I HATE the in-game interview with the coaches. Brett Brown literally spoke twice before the game and is required to speak after the game. He does not need to speak again DURING the game. Coaches should not be required to speak to the media four times in one day, PERIOD. I will die on this hill.

Aron Baynes has the ugliest three-point shot I’ve ever seen, yet it goes in

Nastiest dunk of the night = Amir Johnson

The post “They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87 appeared first on Crossing Broad.

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inquisitorshq · 6 years

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𝚂𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙲𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙵𝙾𝚁 CLOTHO, 𝚂𝚃𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙶𝙸𝚂𝚃 𝙿𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙻 𝙵𝙾𝚁 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙸𝙽𝚀𝚄𝙸𝚂𝙸𝚃𝙾𝚁𝚂. 𝚄𝙽𝙳𝙸𝚂𝙲𝙻𝙾𝚂𝙴𝙳 𝚂𝙾𝚄𝚁𝙲𝙴𝚂 𝙷𝙰𝚅𝙴 𝚁𝙴𝙿𝙾𝚁𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝚃𝙷𝙰𝚃 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝙸𝚁 𝙵𝚄𝙻𝙻 𝙽𝙰𝙼𝙴 𝙸𝚂 WOOJIN MOON, 32, 𝙰𝙻𝚂𝙾 𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 𝙰𝚂 GIN, 𝙵𝚁𝙾𝙼 JEJU, SOUTH KOREA.

001.

they don’t have a glorious romance story, nor a starcrossed lovers storyline. byungchul and jaeun meet through friends, and decide they get along well. it doesn’t happen in the way that a love arrow pierces through their hearts, blood hot in their veins — it’s simple, two people getting along, a detective and a teacher, one of high rank and one favourite of small children, they find company in each other, and don’t need much else.

the decision to make a family for themselves begin quickly after their relationship, both of considerable age, they don’t want to wait any longer, their elderly pressing in on all sides, wanting a grandchildren before they see their last days. and so, the moon family has woojin a year after the couple’s marriage, both elated to have a little son to raise.

he works hard, and she works hard at the kindergarten too, at first it isn’t too much of a problem after maternity leave, and a couple of years after jaeun can simply take him to work with her. it’s as he grows old, their presence in his life starts to fade, his father going on too many missions while his mother needs all of her attention on work, preparing tasks and making sure to help children as much as she can. their age doesn’t help much either, and woojin’s simply there, eager for a glance or a pat on the back.

in a city as gorgeous as jeju, it isn’t a bad childhood by any means, but as a child, he still years for family breakfasts, pulling his parents from their arms so they can all visit the fair, go to a park, anything. usually met with a shake of a head and a murmur of “not now, we’re busy.” there’s little woojin can do, and it begins with making small troubles at school, wherever he is, just to get that bit of extra attention, so that his parents will get called into school. he doesn’t like the reprimands one bit, but he can’t find himself stopping either, walking on the edge of childhood misbehavior and actual trouble. it’s a thin line, but he manages to walk on it, and he learns once he’s known as the troublemaker, small success stories get a lot more recognition than they used to.

002.

it’s when he’s in seventh grade the couple begin to have little fights, both tense for reasons woojin has no idea about, things that have nothing to do with his falling grades. he tries asking them, eavesdropping on their conversations; the hushed whispers they exchange, his father hunched over a table with his face in his hands. they seem… worried, and the fights aren’t even because of each other, but something else woojin can’t put his finger on. it angers him, the little time they used to have all together seems to be tainted for no reason, both of the adults far off in their minds.

it’s a night like any other when woojin throws another of his fits, leaving school and not heading home, immature anger of a toddler in his veins as he walks through the streets aimlessly, wanting to do anything but go home. he wanders, kicking rocks and walking to the beach, sand soft under his shoes as he walks, so much that after a point they are filled with it. the panic comes afterwards, when the soft rays of sun begin to leave the earth, painting the sky a hue of orange. he frowns, having spent enough time with himself to realize he may have been overreacting — maybe he just lost hours from his time with his family, even though it wouldn’t be as joyful as he would have liked. it takes a few more hours, woojin so utterly lost before he finds his way to a familiar street and to home, shame burning his cheeks red. he knocks on the door, expecting reprimands and punishment. it’s not what greets, it’s his mom instead, tear tracks on her face as she pulls him into an embrace, cradling him as if he was a baby again.

“i was scared, so scared —” it’s a night he doesn’t forget, his dad rushing home half an hour after to embrace him too. it’s the attention he has wanted for so long, but it doesn’t make sense, not until he learns about his father’s case, the thing that has been upsetting his parents for so long. at that moment, woojin is clueless, and basks in his parents’ attention, crying and apologizing himself, little clue as to what’s going on.

003.

thinking back now, he feels guiltier than ever, almost four months after his little runaway adventure, he goes back home again, and an empty flat greets him. hours pass with him alone, in front of the phone waiting for mom or dad —- but neither comes. it’s late in the night when his aunt unlocks the door with teary eyes, woojin looking up to her for an explanation, anything. she’s tongue tied, but in the end, he learns his mother has passed away.

they say that it had been someone targeting children, and jaeun stepped up to save one of her pupils and got mortally wounded. woojin cries and throws more fits, unable to accept the truth, not wanting to accept the truth. his father is a mess too, the dark circles under his eyes look purple, his face set but ready to crumble at the same time. it’s guilt that weighs the man down, and no matter what woojin tries, he can’t get anything out of him, nothing but a pat on the back alongside an apology. an apology woojin doesn’t understand.

004.

life turns more bleak after that, his father takes even more jobs than possible, and woojin is under his aunt’s care until he’s in high school, old enough to take care of himself at home. his attention seeking acts diminish to nothing, the troublemaker child quiets down, closes up just like his father did, an invisible wall between them as if they are not the person they used to be anymore. the place they called home feels anything but, and for their own reasons, both of them feel guilty, and they can’t shake it off no matter what they try.

as soon as he turns eighteen, he decides to go fulfil his enlistment duties, not wanting to be anywhere near the house again. his father seems content with woojin’s decision — if the smallest of reactions is a clue enough — and he doesn’t need much else before packing and leaving, intending to leave a lot of the past behind.

005.

even though he despises getting orders from someone, to the end of his enlistment, he finds himself pretty good at what he does. he’s good at using weapons, good at leading his juniors when it comes to it. and then again, there’s that inherent curiosity and wish for a thrill, danger — wanting to do something else that will excite him endlessly.

after he leaves the military base, he moves to seoul, a small apartment flat and picks up little jobs here and there, sensing the nightlife and the scene. a few of his acquaintances in the army offer some more connections, and through one thing or the other, he finds himself working for a smuggling ring, weapons, drugs, anything of high value. it’s that same structure again that he loves, and he rises up in the ranks easily, discreet and good at what he does. it gives him joy, and through one of those jobs he gets the offer from the inquisitors. it’s at a time when the gang is getting worse, whispers of moles going around, the threat of police catching wind of what they’re doing. the timing couldn’t be more impeccable, and considering the hefty paycheck, woojin agrees.

006.

he spends years as an inquisitor, missions upon missions, traveling from one place to another; sights, adventures he never could have dreamed of. he’s lucky, and he knows it, works harder to become a bigger part of the team. from a weapons specialist to a strategist, he shows his worth to iuppiter enough times that he deems him worthy to be one of the strategists. with duty heavy on his shoulders, woojin takes great responsibility through his title, and does his best to uphold being worthy of such a group.

due to his time spent with his dad under solitude, and a long time spent in the army and a smuggling ring, woojin is very uptight. he doesn’t tolerate messing around when they’re on a mission, and is always on his toes — sometimes a bit too much. however, because he spent so many years with the team, he became adaptable, knowing how to change things immediately if a situation arises, or if one of the team members gets hurt. it’s his duty after all, and woojin does his best not to regret a decision he makes on a mission.

the misplaced guilt of his mothers death is still a scar deep down, and he pays great attention to safety first, a lot more than what they are actually after. it’s the members who make a team, and woojin cares about them more than whatever they are after. however, because of his upbringing, this care usually manifests as curt words and orders, possibly not the best way to show he cares for his team. then again, he acts and thinks like a soldier most times, knowing it will keep everyone safe if something bad were to occur.

#clotho #t #a

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graceivers · 7 years

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Review #30 - Too Far series

Fallen Too Far��& Never Too Far & Forever Too Far Author: Abbi Glines Genre: Contemporary Romance, Pregnancy & Babies Rating: ★★★½ Recommendation: not worth it; once was enough Summary: After the recent loss of her mother, Blaire Wynn turns to her estranged father for help. Her father actually sends her to Rush Finlay, her stepbrother. Though their relationship starts off tense and scarce, they quickly come together and desperately try to cling onto each other while navigating all the family secrets and drama set in their lives.

Female Lead: Blaire is… strong for her age. She has had to deal with a lot before the series even starts—the death of her identical twin sister, her parents’ divorce and her father subsequently deserting them, and then her mother’s cancer and death. So, yes, Blaire is strong having to grow up with not much and taking on such responsibility as a nineteen year old. Keep that in mind. She’s NINETEEN. When Blaire gets sent to Rush, she is very aware and knows her place and knows to be grateful. She had priorities, and I liked that about her. She realized that even with her lack of education, she couldn’t mooch off of Rush forever and be like other people she knew who did that. She wanted to make money, get a job, find a place to live herself. She wouldn’t even eat Rush’s food for a while, for goodness sake. She’s learned to be self-sufficient, independent; she knows that the only person she can really count on now is herself.

Now, let’s get back to the fact that she’s NINETEEN. Despite all the nice things I said about her character in the above paragraph, Blaire absolutely still acts like the teenager she is because yes, nineteen-year-olds are in fact technically teenagers even though they’re considered legal adults. Blaire is a nineteen-year-old girl who makes mistakes that a nineteen-year-old girl would make. Normally, I have no problem with this because it appears to be consistent, right? Except, my analysis and conclusion after dissecting Glines writing is that the author likely wanted Blaire to come across more like an adult than her actual age. This is where things go wrong. If Glines wants me to believe Blaire is truly independent and mature, then she shouldn’t have written this girl as a pushover. Can I accept that Glines perhaps wanted to show to different sides of Blaire to demonstrate a three-dimensional character? Sure, maybe, fine. Did it sit well with me? No. Which is unfortunate because there were times I loved Blaire—for being strong and independent, for standing up for herself, for having priorities, for being realistic as to her background and what her future entailed—there were also times I was annoyed with her for being a pushover. It is absolutely a good quality of the character to be compassionate and put others before her and showed some grace and bravery in the face of adversity. But when Blaire was referenced and shown to have a backbone, I needed to see that backbone more. She so easily defended Della in the third book, and yet she basically always let Nan walk all over her with the latter’s nastiness. Doesn’t quite make sense to me. Male Lead: Rush Finlay needs to take his words and promises seriously and NEEDS TO SORT OUT HIS PRIORITIES. Good grief, what was wrong with this dude. He was referenced to be twenty-four and had gone to college, but boy, he sure acted like he was nineteen like Blaire. For all that was said about him having to grow up quickly and basically become the parent to Nan, I didn’t really see much of that maturity in him. Once Rush is with Blaire, he constantly says that he will always be there for her and that he will put her first, but he honestly doesn’t. And while some of his competing priorities really did put him in a bind, I could not turn a blind eye to all his broken promises. And again, with that, Rush really needed to figure out what and who should be prioritized. When it was so clear that his life and future was with Blaire, he found a way to neglect her in every book despite his adamant promises that no one else came before her. Dude, seriously. Get your head on straight and figure out who’s worth it and who’s not.

And this is just a personal thing, but the tongue piercing? No, thanks. I mean, I got it, Glines. Rush has piercings; Blaire likes it. I did not need the obsessive descriptions of his tongue piercing during every sex scene. But that’s just my preference. Plot & Writing: Let’s start out with some reading logistics. The Too Far series is the first four books of the Rosemary Beach series. All four books are about the relationship between Rush and Blaire. The fourth and last book, Rush Too Far, is I believe more or less a retelling of Fallen Too Far in Rush’s point of view given that the latter, the first book of the series, was solely in Blaire’s perspective. I did not read Rush Too Far; I might skim it later, but I don’t think anything in there will change my mind about my thoughts and conclusions of this series.

The second thing worth mentioning is the fact that the summary of the series and at least Fallen Too Far states that Rush and Blaire are step-siblings. Normally, I would then categorize this as a forbidden romance because some people might feel icky about that connection between the two characters when they’re going to be involved romantically. I, however, did not classify the series as such for two reasons. One, Glines rarely brings up that link between Rush and Blaire. They didn’t know each other until they met in the beginning of the first book. They did not grow up together and thus were not treated as siblings. And the second reason is that somewhere in Glines writing was I believe the fact that Blaire’s father and and Rush’s mother became separated or got divorced. It is unclear to me but given that we see Blaire’s father in the third book unattached to Rush’s mother indicates to me that they’re not together, which means that Rush and Blaire aren’t step-siblings anymore. Think of it as Josh and Cher from Clueless, will you? No blood relation. Not that icky overall.

Now, let’s talk about the actual writing. To sum it up, Glines needs to get a new editor pronto. For God’s sake, there were so many weird technical things about Glines’ writing that took away from the overall story. COMMAS ARE YOU FRIEND. Use them wisely, prudently; USE THEM AND USE THEM WELL. And I’m pretty sure I saw some weird punctuation and dialogue errors that bothered me. I know you’re self-published; that shouldn’t excuse you from good editing. As well, the little inserts of Grant’s and Harlow’s perspectives in Forever Too Far to set the stage for the next part of the Rosemary Beach series that would feature them too? Totally unnecessary! Grant and Harlow have their fair share of time showing up in the Too Far series; I don’t need their sides to be invested in reading their books. And the fact that Glines inserted like a little author’s note type thing when she introduced Grant’s and Harlow’s POVs? This is not amateur fanfiction, Glines. You’re publishing this. You’re expecting people to buy these books. Be professional, yeah? Take out those sections and you eliminate this problem entirely.

And now we move onto the actual plot. Too sum this up? Too much drama may lead to inconsistencies. First of all, I personally didn’t even get the major conflict that was revealed at the end of the first book. Or at least, I just didn’t understand why it was so earth-shattering and devastating. Yes, I understand that people are tarnishing Blaire’s mother’s reputation and that Blaire shockingly found out that she’s supposedly related to Nan who is basically her number one enemy. But… I thought she overreacted? Like a lot? And yes, sure, it’s devastating that Rush knew this and BASICALLY THE ENTIRE TOWN SEEMED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS SECRET and kept it from her, but I really don’t get why she was so devastated. My mind was prepared for something epic to be revealed, but all I got was that Blaire’s dad neglected Rush and Nan’s mother and Nan as a child in favor of Blaire’s mother. Uh… I don’t know. Wasn’t that earth-shattering to me…

But then! In Never Too Far, all that supposedly shocking stuff revealed in the first book just kind of gets wiped out! Seriously. Glines basically rewrites her drama like this is a soap opera retconning bad storylines. Well, this whole series is like one bad teen soap anyway. So, spoiler alert, Nan is not Blaire’s father’s child; Nan is not half-siblings with Blaire like we were led to believe. Ugh. This decision was not a good one by Glines because it doesn’t make anyone look good and basically erases all the reactions and emotions conjured up by the original decision. I was disappointed. No, this second revelation by Blaire’s father did not change my mind about how I felt about all the characters involved, but I still thought it was a poor decision to make. Here, the writing felt inconsistent to me because instead of believing in one version of the story, I was distrusting of Glines and the writing as I inevitably waited for another major secret to reveal itself and change the facts that were previously established. That’s not really a way to keep readers hooked, if you ask me.

You know what else I had a problem with? Rush and Blaire seemed to have no ambition. Yes, fine, Rush is really rich. He kind of alludes to what else he does when it’s not summer, but I mean, is it an actual job? Does he have a job title? Does he just waste away and throw parties and do whatever he wants whenever he wants because he got a lot of money from ‘playing numbers’? And then Blaire. Yeah, she came from a kind of poor background and didn’t immediately have the opportunity for more schooling, but she seemed kind of aimless too. I mean, she had her priorities and was adamant about keeping a job, and yet once she and Rush were officially together, she seemed pretty content about… not doing anything. She said she didn’t want to mooch off of Rush. Honestly? That’s kind of what she’s doing…

And because this is me, I must mention the unsafe sex Rush and Blaire had, which subsequently led to Blaire’s pregnancy. I almost said teenage pregnancy, but I don’t know if Blaire turned twenty or not when she had the baby. Either way, she was still nineteen when she got pregnant! I mean, the first time they had sex, a condom was used, and I was so proud. But then there was no condom used and the pull-out method was mentioned. I hysterically cackle and curse every time the pull-out method is mentioned or used in books. And honestly, I’m still trying to understand why Glines decided to make Blaire pregnant. What purpose did it serve? Rush seemed to clearly want to be with Blaire regardless, so I honestly am not sure what the use of having Blaire pregnant was for the overall story. Let me also mention the fact that Glines kind of ghosted over actually writing when Blaire found out she was pregnant. There was the whole buying the pregnancy test thing, and then suddenly the girl is referencing her pregnancy and baby. I was like, whoa! Where was the part where she actually took the pregnancy test and found this information out? Is she actually pregnant because Glines never specifically stated! But alas, Blaire was indeed pregnant…

Finally, Rush and Blaire as a couple. Was it instalove? Yes. Did I believe in it? Kind of. Enough to give it a pass. Rush and his declarations of love were kind of cheesy to me, actually. I was digging his standoffish and yet possessive behavior in the first book, but then the stuff he said in the second and third books to Blaire about how much he loved her and would always put her first (when he didn’t!) was kind of corny. I did more or less buy the fact that both loved each other and couldn’t be without each other because it was nicely aided with a healthy dose of angst, which I admit to enjoying. So, yeah, I was sucked in to their relationship. Enough that I read all three books in the series despite all the other issues I had with the writing and story. Secondary Characters & Plots: Nan is the worst. THE WORST. The end.

No, but actually, I did rather enjoy most all of the secondary characters. Not any of the parents who were horrible people that didn’t understand what parenting and responsibility meant (save for Blaire’s mom), but the group of friends between Rush and Blaire, most of them were pretty cool. I didn’t think I would like Bethy, but she came around and was a great friend to Blaire. And I loved Jimmy too.

I did like Grant, Rush’s ex-stepbrother, up until the point in the third book where it was revealed that he had been sleeping with Nan and thought he could fall in love with her. I’m sorry, what?! I also was extremely grossed out when I read that because I originally thought Grant shared the same mother as Rush and Nan, and that would’ve made him and Nan blood siblings. Alas, worry not. I went back to reread and figure out that Grant was Rush and Nan’s stepbrother when his dad and their mom were married. I admit to my mistake. But still, I was disappointed that he would even go there, and that kind of ruined his character for me.

Woods Kerrington! I didn’t really like him in the beginning based off of first impressions of him, but Woods quickly became my favorite friend of the group. Seriously, he took care of Blaire when Rush was too busy trying to appease Nan and didn’t know that Blaire was pregnant. I mean, Woods took Blaire to her OB appointment! As a male friend! You don’t get any better than that. And he was basically the only one out of all the guys that actually worked and had a job and wanted a job and a career! Good for you, buddy! I skimmed all the summaries for the rest of the Rosemary Beach books, and I can tell you now that I am only going to read Woo Favorite Part(s): The scene in Fallen Too Far when Rush learns that all Blaire has been eating while staying in his house is the peanut butter sandwiches she makes from her own money. And in a very controlled way, he goes ballistic. At that point, it was clear to me that Rush was affected by Blaire and that he cared about her a lot and in more than just a sexual way. That was the alpha male side of Rush that I enjoyed. He always wanted to feed her after that! I not so secretly loved those moments. Final Thoughts: So, three and a half stars for a series I admittedly had some heavy criticism for and recommended as not worth it. Doesn’t make sense? Here’s why. Do I honestly believe after everything I said that this series is worth reading? No. See the entire plot and writing section for evidence why. Then why did I give this series three and a half stars? The angst. I said before, I’m a sucker for angst, and for all the cheesy stuff that Rush did say, I was personally kind of hooked to all his desperate moments when trying to win back Blaire and keep her. Yep. The sole reason this series gets three and a half stars is angst. In all honesty, if Glines cleaned up the series a lot and eliminated some poor drama choices, this would’ve gotten a higher rating. But unless a rewrite happens, the Too Far series is probably not worth your time (unless you’re really bored and want to check out the angst).

#book: too far series #author: abbi glines #genre: contemporary romance #genre: pregnancy & babies #rating: three and a half stars

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flauntpage · 6 years

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“They Always Kick Our Ass” – Observations from Celtics 105, Sixers 87

I shut off my computer immediately after the final buzzer last night because I knew social media was going to be a wretched hive of bullshit hot takes and overreaction.

Let’s keep it simple:

So Joel Embiid is accurate when he says post-game, “This is not a rivalry. I don’t know our record against them, but it’s pretty bad. They always kick our ass. This is not a rivalry.”

Correct.

Shortcomings

It’s hard to win a basketball game when:

you turn the ball over 16 times

you shoot 5-26 from three (19.2%)

your starting power forward gets himself into early foul trouble

your backup power forward is injured and unavailable

your backup small forward is injured and unavailable

you get 8-25 shooting (32%) from Dario Saric, Robert Covington, and Markelle Fultz

you shoot 14-24 from the foul line (58.3%)

Boston grabs twice as many offensive rebounds (12 to 6)

Regarding the turnovers –

That was not the case last night, and there was a lot of forced stuff and some miscommunication that resulted in plays like this:

He was also annoyed with this play, when he threw a low post bounce pass entry off Dario Saric and out of play:

Sorry for the crap quality there, had to rip it off the TV.

Look at the space here:

Joel shoots that more often than not. He’s not at his best when putting the ball on the floor 23 feet from the basket, but you already knew that.

Ben Simmons

Honestly, his performance probably kept things from getting out of control early on.

He finished with 19, 15, and 8 on 50% shooting and turned the ball over three times while going 5-9 from the stripe.

Ben’s chart from last night:

I’d be perfectly happy with him trying a couple of elbow jumpers per game as the season progresses. Those will start to go down.

The biggest issue moving forward is finding a rhythm and sharing ball-handling duties with….

Markelle Fultz

In the second half, Markelle again looked hesitant for the small amount of minutes he played. He passed on a layup attempt and traveled under the rim.

Kyle Neubeck over at PhillyVoice put two of those clips into a Tweet this morning:

First two plays in this clip: Fultz with space to take longer jumpers vs. BOS tonight, conceding it to shoot around the paint

Final two plays in this clip: How Fultz used to attack *any* semblance of space he had to shoot, vs. BOS in Summer League pic.twitter.com/lbo83wDmNt

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) October 17, 2018

That’s concerning.

Rotational things

Saric picking up three fouls early was a killer.

Other notes:

After a preseason in which the refs blew the whistle every five seconds, they really let both teams play for the majority of the game.

Ben Simmons twice used the snatch dribble in the first half on plays that resulted in a basket. He tried another in the third quarter and couldn’t get a contested lay-in to fall.

Aron Baynes has the ugliest three-point shot I’ve ever seen, yet it goes in

Nastiest dunk of the night = Amir Johnson

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