spazioaether

[yerimbrit]

[flufftober day 23, wc: 571] - tarot card readings : n. yizhuo

YIZHUO COMING OVER AT FIVE in the morning just to do your tarot card readings wasn’t exactly on your 2024 bingo list. now, this isn’t unusual behavior; she’s come over at all sorts of unholy hours to do random stuff, and you let her because she’s yizhuo. warmhearted life of the party, yizhuo.

“what the hell,” you mutter, remnants of sleep blurring your eyesight as you open the door to see your good friend beaming at you with a dusty deck of tarot cards. “do you even know how to use those?”

she lets herself in, scooting around you and taking her shoes off to start beelining to your messy room. you trudge after her, too tired to complain about her uninvited but not unwelcome presence. once she settles comfortably on your bed, she grins and tilts her head, “i’ll never learn if i don’t try, what was that saying again? you have to learn to run before you can walk?”

“it’s you have to learn to walk before you can run, actually,” you correct, sitting across from her on the bed. 

the girl rolls her eyes, waving her hand, “po-tay-to, po-tah-to.”

she then blows the dust off of the box, making you flinch and close your eyes before any dust ruins your day, and then places it in between the two of you, lifting the cover off. the deck is intricately designed, and you’re expecting to laugh when yizhuo gets the cards out because she absolutely sucks at shuffling a deck, but to your surprise she handles them like a professional.

perplexed, you raise a brow, “look at you, the little shit—you’ve finally learned how to shuffle!”

yizhuo sends you a playful glare, sticking out her tongue, and proceeds to faro the deck into a bridge, splitting it into three different piles on the bed. then, she draws three cards total from the piles, placing them face down in front of you. “what do you want to know about, your love life?” and without waiting for an answer, “you know what—let’s do love life. i bet you’re curious about that.”

“wait—” you try to protest, but she’s already gone into some kind of meditative state. yizhuo turns the first card over, and it’s the ‘death’ card… yikes. perhaps you have to accept your fate. “what does this mean for me, fortune teller?”

the girl hums for a second, scratching her chin, and her eyes light up with mischief. “you’re doomed.”

with no elaboration, she flips over the next card, which is the ‘hanged man’. “uh… double-doomed.”

“and,” again, she flips the last card, and it turns out to be the ‘devil’. “oh yeah. triple-doomed. sorry y/nnie, looks like your love life is hopeless—you already knew that though.”

“what was that?” you ready your fist, making yizhuo raise her hands up in innocence, “my love life is in shambles because everyone thinks we’re dating.”

good friend™  smirks, leaning back onto the bed which makes some of the cards on the top of the deck slip off to the floor. “you should be honored, babe.”

gross. “don’t ever call me that again.”

she giggles, pulling you over to lay on her chest. “i’m sleepy, babe. let’s go to sleep. it’s like six am.”

“whose fault is that? also, i told you not to call me that.”

and as expected, yizhuo ignores you. “good night, babe.”

love life be damned, you guess.

flufftober masterlist!

a/n : HAPPY BIRTHDAY NINGNING i didnt write ths in time i am so sorry

[alleycatchitchat]

Kung Fu Panda 4 Initial Reactions

Just got back from the theater! Here are my thoughts. I'll try to be vague about the plot, but be warned: spoilers below.

---

So I went into the theater with rock-bottom spirits. I had seen the cringeworthy previews, read the disheartening reviews, connected the unsatisfactory dots and concluded that the movie I was about to see would be a nasty dumpster fire of a train wreck. And yet kfp played such a big role in my childhood that I couldn't just stay away. Filled with dread and morbid curiosity, I braced myself for the worst.

And it wasn't that bad.

Don't get me wrong; this movie made some decisions that I HUGELY disagree with. And compared to the other kfp movies, it's undeniably lousy. But it didn't ruin the franchise for me and I actually enjoyed myself in the theater.

Listing off my thoughts in no particular order:

Zhen. She is, to my surprise, a lot less irritating that I expected. The trailers don't do her justice and Awkwafina's voice was a whole lot less jarring than I expected. In terms of actual personality and even backstory, I liked her! However. Let's be honest, her design is shit. She looks like someone's Zootopia self-insert. She feels totally out of place in this movie -- particularly, during the end credits when she's side-by-side with the five (who all have the most beautiful stylized designs). Also, plotwise, WHAT is she doing in this film? Spoiler alert: she becomes the new dragon warrior. Spoiler alert again: yes, this is every bit as random and undeserved as you can imagine.

Furious Five: Were not in the movie. First of all, fuck you dreamworks, how dare you withold my children? My darlings? The loves of my life? Their absence is keenly felt and the plot is emptier without them, and I mean that with complete sincerity. I’m also going to point out the obvious; if there has to be a new Dragon Warrior, and I’m not saying that’s a good plot idea, but if there has to be, it should be Tigress. It makes the most sense thematically and the possibilities are just so good – developing her relationship with Po as he provides guidance, facing her feelings of inadequacy, exploring her connections with Shifu and the rest of the five — I could go on and on. The wasted potential is breathtaking. To be honest, it kinda feels like Zhen was written to replace her(using a hug to de-escalate a fight with Po, anyone?). Fanfic writers, I need a rewrite of this movie with Tigress, stat.

TAI LUNG! He was obviously played for nostalgia and there was no concrete point to his lines or presence. He was also written, if you ask me, pretty out of character. I’m still fuming over the fact that they brought him back and we don’t get to see Shifu’s reaction at all. Again, the wasted potential is breathtaking. When compared with Kai and Shen, who have NO speaking lines, it’s obvious that dreamworks just didn’t want to pay for extra actors. I thought that his acceptance of Po as the Dragon Warrior at the end was super cool, but there was NO lead up, NO meaningful character development to make this feel sincere, and again, it would have hit much harder if Tigress or Shifu were also there or if Po was NOT giving up the title. That being said, I never thought he would appear in a movie again, and I’m happy to have any crumbs I can get. They did a bad job, yes, but they BROUGHT HIM BACK. 

Po’s dads! Their side story was goofy and unnecessary but fun, and I enjoyed it. Also maybe it’s just me but the romantic tension between them is AMPED UP – does Li, like, live at the restaurant now? And they spend the movie acting like the most married couple ever. And when Li bursts into the tavern to rescue Mr. Ping, who looks at him with those starstruck eyes – well. I’m just saying. I think there’s something going on there.

I liked the Chameleon! Yeah, her whole gimmick is a little bit ripped off from Kai, but she’s sinister and greedy and badass, so she’s the real deal. I actually thought she was scarier than previous villains – there was less comic relief, maybe? I can only think of one instance where she’s presented in a comedic light, and even then, the tension just picked right up from where it left off. Which is strange, because the rest of the movie is a lot more lighthearted than previous films.

The pacing was weird. Too fast.

Shifu was cute in this movie. More Shifu please!

The reaction to Tai Lung’s return was WEIRD. It’s obvious Dreamworks didn’t want to dedicate time or effort to what was, essentially, a red herring. But. Plot-wise, it’s SO WEIRD that Po would try to face him with no backup. And the fact that we didn’t get to see Shifu’s reaction AT ALL, ugh. Realistically speaking I think Shifu would try to go face Tai Lung, no matter how “inner peace”-y he is now. Like come on, Tai Lung was his son, for crying out loud! 

The goats at the start? Also weird designs. Feel out of place.

Mantis got married! What the heck? (neutral about this, but it was definitely unexpected.)

In general, the plot was weird. It didn’t feel meaningful and it didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the kfp universe. Storytelling decisions were just plain bad. But as a standalone movie, it was not… terrible. Not irredeemable. I think, if Tigress had taken Zhen’s place, this could have actually worked. But she didn’t, and it didn’t.

So I’m going to headcanon it as fake and just stick to loving the first 3 movies. I don’t regret watching it, but there were huge problems that prevented me from enjoying it to its full potential.

[zeezelweazel]

i love love your blog!!! could you write a oneshot of best friend! lottie pining over fem! reader and confessing after she gets jealous when a guy flirts with reader at the party?

Lottie Mathews| I'll be yours, if you'll have me

______________________________________

Thank you so much!

I've read a few fics like this with lottie so I hope this didn't turn out to be too similar to them

______________________________________

"Ok Lottie, I love you but there's no way you're wearing this shity dress that you stole from TJ Max to Jeff's party. The whole damn school is going to be there!"

Lottie groans and puts that dress to the side while pouting. For a rich girl your taste is very shity Matthews, you're lucky you're cute.

"You only talk shit because you look good in everything."

You giggle at your best friend's childish behaviour and take her hand to pull her towards the closest. All of the deliberate fashion advice that you give her doesn't register to Lottie's brain, her head is already full of you and how gorgeous you look in this outfit and how your make up is flawless and how soft your voice sounds and how silky your hair looks and-

"Earth to Lottie? Do you like the blue skirt or the grey one with this top?"

"Um the blue for sure."

You only nod at her and continue looking through her accessories. Lottie is already stumbling with her words and you haven't even gotten to the party yet. She can practically hear Taissa's voice in her head. 'She's literally head over heels for you just confess to her already'.

"Easier said than done." She mumbles quietly as she stares at you trying to envision a pair of silver earrings with the outfit you've assembled and her insides feel warm.

When you arrive at the party, only 30 minutes late, majority of the people are drunk off their asses. You and Lottie move through the crowd keeping eachother in sight so you don't get lost. Now, when it comes to parties the Yellowjackets usually are spread around. Van and Tai are most likely having a make out session in a random room at Jeff's house. Speaking of Jeff, him and Jackie are probably together and where Jackie is Shauna has to be nearby. Nat is with her friends and Misty is probably not even here.

You and Lottie share a look and mutually decide that it's better to just hang with eachother for now. You enter Jeff's house and like you expected there are tons of people there, talking, dancing and drinking. Speaking of drinking...

"Hey Lot, will you go grab us some drinks? I'll try to look if any of the girls are around here."

Lottie just nods and makes her way to the kitchen where the drinks are, leaving you alone in the crowded living room. After you took a good look at all the people and didn't recognise any of the girls you decided to head towards the pool. That's usually were all the popular girls are and by extension the jocks and if the jocks are there Jeff, Jackie and Shauna must be as well. Sure enough, you spot the three of them sitting in the side of the pool. You start to head to them but someone calls your name and you stop in your tracks. It's a guy from the baseball team, his name is something like Martin..?

He cuts your path to your friends by getting in front of you and starts complimenting your outfit.

"You look so good in that... urm whatever it is! Even at school you always dress so nice. It seems like you know what fits you perfectly. You know what would fit me?"

You suppress a sigh as you heavily contemplate on saying no and just walking away but since Lottie isn't even here yet, and this guy has no chance at all you decide to humor him.

"What would?"

He chuckles and moves closer to you bringing his hand on your chin.

"You, of course."

You can't really hold your laugh this time as a giggle slips through. Unfortunately for you the boy took that as approval of his horrible flirting and got closer as he wrapped his arm around you. At this point you were ready to push him off you hear someone shout from behind you.

"Hey get your hands off of her Markus!"

The boy instantly turns around to look at a very pissed off Lottie coming towards you. She doesn't even wait for him to say anything before she tugs you on her side and glares at him.

"Get the fuck out of here. Now."

You can't help but be surprised at her aggression as you keep looking between her and Markus. Lottie rarely got so angry. As Markus leaves embarrassed Lottie is still following him with her eyes. You look at her face, trying to study her expression.

"Um, Lot? What was that?"

She looks at you surprised, as if she just now realized how obvious her jealousy was. She can even see Jackie and Shauna looking at her with a questioning look.

"Nothing, he was just being creepy and I helped."

You fold your arms over your chest and look at her with a 'do not bullshit me Matthews' look.

"You went like full beast mode there Lot. I've only seen you get like that, like, twice."

Lottie can't handle your questions or the looks from her teammates and there are just so many fucking people in this stupid pool area. So without another word Lottie just storms off, leaving as fast as she came in.

You follow after her as you keep calling out her name. You are even more confused now. Why did she get so angry at that boy flirting with you? And why did she get so defensive when you asked her about it?

You eventually manage to catch up with her in what looks like a guest room. She's sitting down on the bed and looks up at you with e defeated expression.

"Well damn Matthews now you really have to tell me what the fuck was that."

Lottie takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. There's no way out of this now, she knows that much, but still she's scared of telling you how she feels. She can't bear the thought of loosing you. You're the most important person in her life. The one who understands everything when it comes to her parents and her schizophrenia and all that comes with that. You're a good person so she knows that you won't be disgusted or anything but just seeing that pitying look on your face as you try to gently reject her would break her heart. Well it's not like you have any other choice.

"I um... I was jealous." She can see how you're even more confused now but thankfully you let her continue. "There's a reason why I never like anyone you date. Even when they're good people. It's because I get jealous. And I get jealous because well, I like you."

Your eyes widen for a moment and then soften as you look at her sweetly.

"Oh Lot, I like you too, you know that right?" Lottie is so surprised but excited to hear you say that, she almost can't believe it. "There's no way I would let any stupid boyfriend, or girlfriend, come between us. We're best friends."

Best friends

Of course, how did Lottie ever think that you'd like her like that? She feels frustration bubbling up in her chest. You didn't even understand what she meant. Well if she's going to confess might as well do it properly, so she can get rejected properly as well.

"I want to be your stupid girlfriend!"

She doesn't even mean to shout but her words shake you anyway. Holy shit Lottie fucking Matthews said she wants to be my girlfriend?! You are too busy with your internal panic to notice Lottie being on the verge of tears. All you see is a blur passing by you and heading for the door.

Oh hell no, you're not running away again.

You manage to grab her wrist before she makes her escape and spin her around so she's facing you. You don't waste a single second as you grab her face and bring her down so your lips meet in what definitely seems to be the best kiss of your damn life.

Lottie immediately gets the memo as she puts her hands on your waste. It's impossible to kiss for much longer because both of you can't stop grinning. When you pull back, you take a moment to just look at your girlfriend.

"I think we need to thank Markus for this."

"Oh fuck no."

____________________________________________________

[spacerhapsody]

It has recently come to light that my deepest, darkest (Digimon) fandom secret is that I didn’t always ship Taito, and @hazelestelle was kind/curious enough to ask the following question in that shipping ask game:

18. A ship you never thought you would ship but do.

Buckle up, kids, because it’s time for a (long) trip down memory lane.

The year is 2002, and after about a year of exploring the internet via small guestbooks and messaging boards, someone finally pointed me towards the central German anime site. And while I think I had seen a couple of people publishing their own stories online and had written one or two myself, I hadn’t realized before that the concept of fanfic was a whole thing, let alone how much of it there was out there.

I also didn’t know yet that you could properly ship things that aren’t canon. Back then, I thought Yamto and Sora were really cute together (probably I mostly thought Yamato was the coolest person ever and was using Sora to heavily project onto), and apparently so did other people, because I easily found and read quite a few stories about them.

Now what you have to remember is that tags or any kind of useful sorting system just wasn’t a thing back then, which is how I ended up with a sliiightly different story, but I didn’t know that yet.

The fic was labeled with all kinds of warning – but I had absolutely no idea what any of those words meant. I’d only just discovered that Taichi and Yamato were Tai and Matt’s Japanese/actual names and just figured “Taito” and “Yamachi” were other (nick)names for them, and since it was popular to just throw random Japanese words into your fic at the time, and half of the time people didn't even use them right, I didn’t bother to look up what “Shounen-Ai” and “Yaoi” meant.

So I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading, and after a couple of chapters I might have found it a bit weird that Sora was so little in it, but apparently I’ve also always enjoyed a good slow-burn, so I kept on reading. I don’t even remember when I realized that there was something going on between Yamato and Taichi, but I do remember that I was fascinated, and that I couldn’t stop reading, especially once it became obvious/something actually happened between them.  

(Why do I care so much about queer people, says queer person years before she figures out she’s queer herself, etc.)

Anyways, the story was long (and my internet time limited), so it took days, if not weeks of surreal summer evenings until I was done, but I read the whole thing.

And for whatever reason… I took this as my sign to start shipping Daisuke and Ken (and a variety of DBZ characters). XD

I’ve absolutely no idea why that was what I took away from the whole thing, it’s not even that I disliked the ship (yet), I always kind of understood why people were shipping them, maybe it was simply because Digimon 02 was much more present in my mind than the first season at the time?

But then I started looking for Daisuke/Ken stories (again, without a lot of help from the websites themselves), and it was an absolute nightmare.

You simply couldn’t find anything that didn’t have Yamato/Taichi as the main ship instead, that didn’t feature them as the reason Daisuke and Ken were figuring themselves out, or didn’t have them as the “older, wiser” couple at least one of them went to for advice, and I was steadily growing more and more annoyed by them.

And it was like this for years. I think it got even worse (Adventure, and thus Yamato/Taichi, has always been more popular than any of the 02 characters, and even more so after they lost their momentum).

They just were everywhere, in every goddamn fic, no matter what other pairing you were actually looking for. I was once reading some football RPS, and when the guys in that story were listening to the radio, the host mentioned someone had called in and asked to play the previous song, from Yamato to Taichi (or the other way round) – you can’t even make that shit up.

At this point they just annoyed me so much that I made a point of not shipping them, and I think I’d also reached a point where I was a bit tired of the whole “they’re rivals/always beating each other up, so they obviously are in love” trope.

I also discovered Taichi/Koushiro (which I still think is an amazing ship that at least the German fandom has always been completely sleeping on), so I had even more reason to not ship Yamato/Taichi.

And I honestly think it would always have been this way, but then tri. happened. And hit me with full force. Because they were older, and somewhat calmer/less aggressive around each other, but still very much themselves, and most of all so blatantly obvious.

I was still in denial during most of part 1, but I already knew when Mimi shoved them into a Ferris wheel cabin and declared the group had brought them together that I was fighting a losing battle, and by part 2 with the entire onsen visit and the bickering afterwards, it was over.

Look. I get it. They’re really it. They work so well together, there’s so much there, they’re the blueprint for so many anime ships, they give me way too many feelings. (Help.)

I still don’t really ship them pre!tri., though. Partly probably because of my history with the ship, but also because I like their dynamic so much better now, and because I simply like the idea of people getting together later in life, or at the very least after they’ve at least finished high school.

TL;DR: I never, ever thought I’d fall into Taito hell, and yet here I am, in the year 2k24, absolutely obsessed with them once again. Thank you, Digimon, you’re the gift that keeps on giving.

[whatiwillsay]

Hey Cam, could you provide more insight into spade-riddles and why we shouldn't trust them? I know you've touched on this before but I don't know where/when. Obviously I know they're harmful/a LSK shipper but I was looking through their first post on their riddle history (just for shits and gigs, no worries) and I was surprised by how many of them allude to insider info on Tay/future releases before the public had knowledge of them. What do you make of this? Or is she fudging the dates/lying?

sure babe here is a post detailing how spade-riddles fakes her insiders (there is hard conclusive proof in this post with receipts. one of her "insiders" came to me and detailed how they were a troll, gave me the "password" they used with her, and so i used the "password" to assume the role of insider and named the kaylor baby "isla" for my friend cara who likes that name, go search spade-riddles for the name isla lol now it's part of their network of theories)

here is a post detailing how she bullies, harasses, and outs people who disagree with her

but three babe like... let's talk

i am saying this so gently but surely you understand that if you say enough random noncommittal things in "riddle" form or like her most recent troll insider does, in weird fanfic prose, that it will appear like they had insider knowledge even if they didn't. taylor does so much, has so much art, has so many interviews and so many lyrics and public moments and outfits and personas that you could write any random bit of prose and get some kind of "hit" off it.

let's take an example of a spade riddle they considered to be a correct bit of info/tea shared or a "hit":

so on january 16th 2019 spade said "take a sip, you might just get lost in the clouds." and that was supposed to be a hint because there are clouds on the lover album cover and included in some of the imagery for the album (music videos, etc) but like... what taylor era doesn't mention clouds? clouds are mentioned on i know places and in the song carolina, and storms which of course always contain clouds are mentioned on MOST of her albums, and clouds are represented in a TON of her music videos (basically any of them with a sky!)

also "you just might get lost in the clouds" could mean ANYTHING. it could represent getting caught up in a media "storm" around taylor, it could mean "taylor is hiding what she's doing and you won't see it", it could have been an EXCELLENT clue for the lavender haze music video but that song didn't even exist when that riddle was written and obviously, the music video wasn't planned and storyboarded until years later so it can't be that.

and "take a sip" could have meant anything. taylor could have released drinking merch to go with false god, or a line of sippy cups lol, or could have used a turn of a phrase in an interview during the lover era like she could have said something about "drink the kool-aid" or "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" and that could have been a "hit" for the "take a sip line"

even if clouds hadn't been featured on the album cover there's an infinite number of ways "taking a sip" and "getting lost in the clouds" could have been represented by taylor during the lover era. every music video she drinks in she is "taking a sip" and that happens all over her different eras before and after the lover era.

if there's an infinite slew of things that can happen that prove a prediction correct then it's not really a prediction it's just a random series of words thrown on a page that don't prove any type of insider connection.

here is what ACTUAL insider info looks like:

this is a hard, concrete, falsifiable claim. it can be proven correct or incorrect (it was correct because my insiders are good and legit lol). there is no gray area where it can be interpreted after the fact to be correct even if it was random words. it's just a hard claim and down the line, people will be able to see if it was true or not!

for something to be a true claim of insider info it has to be falsifiable or what good is it?

a real claim supported by insider info should have read something like this, "i have seen the cover art for ts7 and some of the aesthetics for the era and clouds are featured! namely on the album cover and in the first music video."

if they had said that then fuck yeah that's a hard claim that can either be proven true or false. they didn't say that. they mentioned drinking and getting lost in the clouds. anyway, i'm rambling but i hope i've illustrated the difference between trolling and randomly throwing out words and phrases so you can try and get a "hit" in the future.

for fun let's write a spade riddle/pumpkin insider claim and then over the next year (or maybe on the next album) i can promise you SOMETHING in a song lyric, mv, piece of album art, live performance, interview taylor has, clothing/jewelry she wears, merch will appear to prove this was some bit of insider tea but i'm just pulling this out of my ass rn.

"In the still of the dawn, the eye of the storm has passed and the sun dances with the birds"

boom i can promise you something will happen over the next year or two that makes it look like that was some kind of insider prediction because it's vague enough that a TON of stuff could be a hit for it.

the last thing i'll say is if you want to learn more about how seers and psychics troll their audiences just like spade-riddles does you should go listen to the episode i did this past summer on Nostradamus who was a famous seer from hundreds of years ago.

[wraithsoutlaws]

[ SUBJECT INTERVIEW: ASHLEY "ZEPHYR" ZAIDE ]

NAME? This isn’t an interrogation, right? Y’know legally you have to tell me if you’re with the NCPD… NICKNAME? Well, Zephyr usually. I always liked it more. My aunt was the first one to call me that and it felt like sliding into a pair of old shoes that already fit real well and you don’t gotta break in again, you know what I mean?  GENDER? He/him baby. See this cool pin I got?  STAR SIGN? I guess I’m a cancer, but Misty knows more about that than I do. She knows everything about that stuff. She made a whole fucking chart about it once, tracked every second of my life based on stars alone. And it was fucking right, too. Spooky as hell if you ask me but I do like listening to her talk about it. She gets this crinkly little smile.  HEIGHT? I’m 5’7’’ which isn’t far off from the average height for men, by the way. If you care.  ORIENTATION? Truth be told, I’m not real picky.  FAVORITE FRUIT? I gotta go with cherry. I don’t really eat ‘em a lot, but fuck me, it’s one of the best flavors out there, isn’t it? I got this cherry flavored–you know what? Nevermind…hey, if you like fruit I know where to get the best ‘ganic plums you’ve ever tasted. All above board, of course. Legal like. Just let me know.  FAVORITE SEASON? I like the Summer…reminds me of being a kid. Before things went to shit… FAVORITE FLOWER? I dunno, I like those little weeds that come up through the cracks in the sidewalk. Little fucking guys. I try not to step on ‘em. FAVORITE SCENT? I got this incense from Misty’s Esoterica and I couldn’t tell you a single fucking thing about it, it’s not really my jam but…every time I light it it’s like she’s standing right next to me. Makes my place feel better. COFFEE OR TEA? Misty keeps pushing this special tea blend on me. Says its holy or, er…holistic. It tastes like fucking socks if you ask me, though I’m not really big on coffee either. Give me a few lines of synth-coke y’know, don’t be a pussy. I mean, not that I do that sort of thing. AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP? Kinda depends, I guess. Some nights I sleep like a baby. Others feel like they’ll never end…more of those than not these days, I guess. DOG OR CAT PERSON? I don’t really trust dogs. Been chased a couple times and bit in the ass more than I can count. Come to think of it, I don’t really trust cats either. They can see shit, you know. Right through you. I mean whatever happened to hamsters? But whatever man. If you’re in the market for some exotics, I got you covered. DREAM TRIP? Oh, I’m just counting the days and the eddies ‘til I can hightail it outta this city and settle down on a beach in Belize or the Bahamas away from all this shit. Sip a fuckin’ mai tai on a clean beach and watch the waves every morning.  FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER? Who’s that fucking dog…he does this little dance. I dunno, always makes me laugh though.  NUMBER OF BLANKETS YOU SLEEP WITH? You’re assuming I make it to the bed…I mean, of course I do. Couple nights in the elevator don’t mean anything…just because I know the feeling of my bathroom floor better than my own mattress–hey, maybe I should leave the blankets in there? Shit. I’m kidding, obviously. I’m a normal guy. What–what was the question again? RANDOM FACT? I got a junk shop in Japantown, got anything you need or I can find it fast, and that’s a guarantee. Just don’t ask anymore questions, alright?

was tagged by @therealnightcity and wanted to complete the trifecta of my boys!! once again, won't be tagging anyone but as always feel free to tag me, i would love to read more!

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

I got deeply confused at the end of episode one, let's see how episode two does for me.

Oh shit, Kram is having a full on mental break. Noooo.

The timing of the blue water makes me nervous, because now we have an implication that this is all happening in Kram's head.

Don't break me show, pretty please.

Wait... are they saying Tai killed Kram's mom? Why are we just learning this?!

I'm a bit surprised that Kram doesn't think this is bad Tai at all from the beginning. Sure he's missing the scar, but most of us don't go "oh random identical dude" as our first guess.

Max does so well when he plays stoic with a lot going on under the surface.

Uh...I know he looks like your former lover and you're very confused, but this might be overkill, my man.

This feels like it has pretty good meme potential though.

DUDE SERIOUSLY!!!

You just tied him up, my man. He has plenty reason to be scared of you, even if he didn't know bad Tai.

Aw, the Phupha moment is sad. Seeing someone you love so much but they don't know you.

Ah, the Tai that quit vs the Tai that stayed.

I wonder if he quit because of this world's Kram?

Oh Kram. I already know this isn't going to go the way you want.

Wait, was that translation right? Did we just jump 3 months that fast?!

Oh, Phupha dreaming of his other self? Interesting...

Lol, Kram's been busy these three months if he got Tai to do this.

Ok, good, we'll go back a bit again. That was some major whiplash for a moment.

Lol, Kram is a little shit and I kinda love it.

I don't love the blurry filter on the flashback though. It's not necessary and it's distracting.

Aw, I tell ya - vulnerability is a powerful tool.

Of course Tai can't keep his walls up against this.

The body language is so good in this moment, where you can see how painful it is for Tai when Kram gets physical.

But seriously, whoever decided on this constant blur for the flashback - what the heck?

I'm glad Kram had a plan b, because he sucks at interviews. It's all about connections, baby!

Kram is very natural at blackmail, lol.

Awww, Tai.

This has got to be so hard for him. The person you love is back, but they're not really them, but they are so damn similar...

Ha! Called it. Falling for Kram is what changed Tai so much.

Which does make me curious if we're done with Kram's original world and original Tai, or if that relationship is going to develop at some point too... hmm, intriguing.

Um, Kram...what is this plan? He's not safer in your world!?!?!

One could argue he's a lot less safe, because he doesn't have Tai as a bodyguard there!!

Hmm, the blue seemed to disappear before they hit though, so maybe it'll just be two very wet dudes who didn't travel dimensions at all.

I am entertained, the acting is very good, but some of the plot is still a bit baffling for me.

[novelconcepts]

yoooo these have all been fire ! how about ❤️ for taisimone

❤️ first kiss / realization

This isn't how it's supposed to go. Isn't how she expected her life story to write itself. Meet the girl, get the girl, marry the girl, happily ever after. The end.

Well, she's found that part, anyway. And it looks...

Simple. Simpler than anything she's ever seen in her whole damn life.

She'll look back on this moment much later. When there's blood in the basement, and her son is in danger, and she's been constrained to a hospital bed, she'll look back and think: there. That was it. Not any of the moments she'd reflect over, laying like dominoes upon her lawyer's table. Not the really bad, ugly shit.

This. This moment. Taissa holding a yearbook, of all things.

Taissa doesn't talk about her past. It's just part of loving her, understanding that much. Some people, they have stories spiraling out for miles behind them, and they're eager to share. Eager to paint clear pictures of their every friend and classmate, all the teachers who shaped their lives, every ex who broke their heart. Taissa isn't like that. Has never been. Simone doesn't mind. Their story goes forward, not back. Tai's been through a lot, and it's okay, that she wants to keep the past where it belongs.

The yearbook is strange. She hadn't even realized Taissa kept yearbooks, but here she is, sitting cross-legged on their bed. Flipping pages, her brow creased, on a random afternoon in early May.

"What's that?" Simone asks. Taissa's head doesn't snap up. She moves slowly, almost as if sleepwalking. Her eyes raise, her finger holding her place on the page.

"Team photo."

"Move over," Simone tells her, scrunching onto the mattress. Their knees bump before Taissa's unshaven leg instinctively unfolds and drapes over her own. "Show me," she adds, when Tai lowers her chin and goes back to looking at the picture.

So many girls. She finds Tai immediately, proud and strong and so damn young. She wonders who the rest of them are. How many of them went out there. How many made it back.

Maybe this is the moment, she thinks, when Tai will let her in. Finally, after almost fifteen years of marriage, maybe now is when she will get to know her wife.

"Who's that?" she asks, stabbing randomly. Her finger lands on a girl in a goalie jersey. The girl, she realizes, Taissa is staring at.

And she knows. She knows, though she doesn't know what it means, what Taissa is thinking. What Taissa is feeling, looking at this photo, at these young women, at the team she used to inhabit.

At this girl, the goalie, in particular.

It's so simple. So small. Taissa looks up a split second later, and her face is perfectly normal. Her expression, utterly smooth. She claps the book shut, almost catching Simone's hand in the process, and says, "Just old friends. Hey, what do you think about Italian for dinner?"

That's it. That's all. The moment is barely worth notice. And, still, Simone will look back and know that this--not the dog, not Sammy, not the senator job or the lies or the car crash--was the moment it all started to dissolve around them. That picture. That girl.

Taissa's secrets run deeper than she can possibly fathom.

And so begins the end.

[onelastfic]

How about some Solitaire Queen moments?

Got two asks for the Solitaire Queens interactions, but instead of combining the asks thought it be more fun to just do double interactions instead 😚

——————

Basteta flicked one of her concealed knives between her fingers. "So, ladies, what's the plan today? More boring meetings? I swear, if I have to listen to one more lecture about the 'balance of power,' I'm gonna start a fucking riot. Go full on chair throwing like on Jerry Springer!"

Dai Tai chuckled. "Well, as much as I enjoy seeing you throw chairs. How about a more refined approach? Negotiation and strategy, perhaps?"

Envie smirked. "Refined, indeed. But sometimes, chaos is necessary to remind everyone of our strength. Balance can be tedious, but it ensures our domains remain unchallenged."

Jia nodded, her eyes twinkling with excitement. "I agree with Envie. Besides, a good fight now and then keeps things interesting. But let's not forget the people. They've been restless, especially the Tartarus leaks. We need to show them we care, that we're here to protect them."

Basteta's ears perked up. "Speaking of the people, I've got a charity event lined up for the monster and magical communities. Could always use more funds, though. Think you can spare some riches, Queen of Diamonds?"

Dai Tai rolled her eyes but smiled. "You know I can't resist a good cause. Consider it done. Just don't spend it all on another wild party."

Envie leaned forward, her eyes gleaming. "And I'll make sure the Ghost Zone stays quiet during your event. Last thing we need is a trickster poltergeist ruining the event that is supposed to inspire safety."

Jia clapped her hands. "Perfect! Then it's settled. Charity event, ensuring safety among the masses, and a little bit of chaos to keep things interesting. We really do make the perfect team, don't we?"

Basteta grinned, raising her knife in a mock toast. "To the Solitaire Queens. Unyielding, unbeatable, and un-fucking-stoppable."

——

The queens gathered in the training hall, ready for a sparring session.

Jia, stretching her arms, grinned at Dai Tai. "Ready to get your butt kicked?"

Dai Tai smirked. "Bring it on. Let's see if you can keep up."

Basteta, watching from the sidelines, laughed. "I got fifty bucks on Bugaboo."

Envie raised an eyebrow. "You're betting against Jia? Bold move."

Basteta laughed. "Hah! Nothing fucking bold about it! I know what kinda damage Bugaboo can do with those mighty, mighty thighs of hers."

Jia and Dai Tai circled each other, the air tense with anticipation.

Jia lunged first, but Dai Tai dodged swiftly, countering with a swift strike.

Envie watched intently. "This is going to be interesting."

Basteta grinned. "Oh, definitely. Makes me wish I made some popcorn."

——

The queens sat around a large, ornate table, maps and magical documents scattered before them.

Dai Tai tapped a finger on a map. "Our next move needs to be precise. The random Ghost Zone portals to Earth have been unusually active and I’m wondering if it might be connected to Tartarus portals."

Envie nodded, her eyes narrowing. "I've noticed. Something's stirring. We need to be prepared."

Jia crossed her arms. "I've got my people on high alert. Any sign of trouble, we'll know."

Basteta leaned back, her expression serious for once. "We need more than just this preparation shit. We need action. Let's take the fight to them and jump them before they can jump us."

Envie smirked. "Typical Basteta. Always ready for a fight."

Basteta grinned. "What can I say? This kitty’s got claws that need using."

——

Jia looked up from her notes. "Hey, how about our next meeting on Avalon? The island's beautiful this time of year."

Basteta's ears twitched, and she frowned. "Avalon? Fuck no!"

Dai Tai crossed her arms, nodding in agreement. "Basteta's right. Avalon can be... difficult."

Jia raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Envie sighed. "It's not the place itself, Jia. It's the gods that visit there."

"Yeah…the male gods there give off some serious creepy, dirty old man vibes. It's not exactly a relaxing environment." Dai Tai said.

Envie crossed her arms, her voice calm but firm. "I share the same sentiment. Even Basteta, who usually handles attention well, finds it too much. Some of those gods' advances are downright... unsettling."

Jia's brow furrowed. "I didn't realize it was still that bad. What happened?"

Basteta sighed, looking uncomfortable. "The usual, they leer, they jeer, and they hit on me despite me telling them I’m married and not interested. Talk more to my tits than my face, Tell me the gross stuff they want to do to me, unprompted."

Dai Tai added, "It's like they see us as objects to take. I hate the way they look at me. It's like they're grabbing me without touching."

Jia's expression softened, and she nodded. "I get it now. We'll find somewhere else for the meeting. Somewhere we can all feel safe and respected."

——————

Jia and Dai Tai belong to @laylaylamode

Envie belongs to @thepaladincosplays

[29daffodils]

KP Rewatch : Ep #4

okay, i know the rewatch event is over already and I'm just, barely alive (i caught a flu and some tonsillitis again, sue me, also i was being married off, well 😬), but here i am. 

once again, here goes nothing! 

during my initial watch, i totally missed this scene! so they didn't fall asleep together? porsche just went and crawled into someone's bed lmao, what a hussy [affectionate] 😂 

but also, pete looks so scandalised! that's the look of someone who thinks they accidentally gave away their first time to some random character lol

kinn so deserves that existential crisis 😂

listen, i will always say that i have loved vegas since he first appeared on screen with that cocky smirk, but this was the moment that i officially adopted him as my little meow meow 

we love a confident self-assured man!

lmao, tankhun voiced my thoughts exactly 😂

something tells me arm knows about the atticwife scene lmaoooooo

he's so giddy! god i love arm so much!

POL??!!!? MY BOY?!!!;!  WHAT IS GOING ON!?!!?!?!

wow, auntie, excellent example of parenting right there 👀 (okay, don't come at me. i have many thoughts about this but i'll not unleash them today).

right with his mouth near (on) his dick lmaooooo

ahhhh look at his dopey smile omg so cute!!!!

i keep saying this, but pete is so done with porsche's dumbassery lmao

vegas literally lives for fucking with kinn's head lmao

okay, so i know porsche is pissed about being forced to join the mafia and he is rightfully pissed at everyone involved, but damn he does like to rub shit in big's face sometimes. though big did have it coming since he started it. but i keep thinking about how throughout the series he must have realised that while he carefully did his job to keep kinn safe and loved him from the sidelines while kinn never even looked at him that way, porsche gets all of it and more. 

chay really came out with the big guns blazing lmao

ahhh yes, "healed". the WOUND HAS FUCKING DISAPPEARED LMAOOOOOO

the most awaited introduction of this episode : kim's murder board 😂

turtleneck pete was truly the best pete we got besides nakey pete 😂

also, that is such an uncomfortable smile lmao, i wonder why that might be 👀

this smug bastard just casually chilling before the shit he's going to unfold on kinn (lmao, what a bastard, i love him so much)

time just casually dropping what an asshole he is and that tay actually did something to get "back at him". say it with me, TAY DESERVES BETTER !!!

the diamond being named "king of the night", maybe hinting at porsche? i dunno if it's me thinking too much, but porsche is literally a pawn in korn's chess game and in this ep, it's both kinn and vegas going after him. vegas losing the bid on the diamond and then simultaneously his plans of assaulting porsche (more than he already did) getting thrown off, it's almost like between him and kinn, porsche is the king and the later sequence of events will cement the fact the kinn both won the diamond auction bid and also porsche. huh. 

look at vegas go!!!!!!

turtleneck blurry pete is here!!

damn okay porsche has some nice buttcheeks alright

BRUHHHH HE JUST DID IT WITHOUT PREP??? OKAY KINN ASSHOLE BEHAVIOUR CERTIFIED!!!!!

and then there is vegas, admiring himself in the mirror lmao

and that's it for this episode!! thank you for reading! see you in the next one! i'll still be slow because my life is being upended at the moment, but i'll come back again! till then, adios!

[neo-neos]

"I watched Safe House season 1 and I need to get my thoughts out" the megashitpost xoxo

Okay so, I am late to the party (as always) but I randomly decided to watch Safe House all the way from season 1... It's unsubbed on Youtube so I have literally 0 clues about what's going on. (My hidden motive for watching WAS Pond's voice, because his voice is something very special to me but THEN.... NEO HAPPENED. Lemme tell you, I go fucking feral for that dude... ) And I wanted to make a post about the things I loved/enjoyed/noticed. For my own sanity really, to get it off my chest. It's a long one, so I will put a read more. But to summarize so that you, reading this right now, can decide for yourself if you think this post might interest you:

A quick 1-ish sentence summary of how I viewed each actor

Random silly moments/things I loved

Some very very very random screenshots of moments

A quick summary at the end. (A TLDR I guess?)

Now as I said before, I have 0 language context. These opinions are purely based on visual clues and maybe 1 Thai word I recognize or my boy Luke saying something very random in English.

Here are my 1-ish sentence descriptions of the actors.

Pond is an ipad kid who would also really like to show you his tiktok and fortnite dances. Is the biggest "Bro"-dude. I love his voice with my entire being.

Neo ... I'm so normal about him. I am completely and utterly normal about him. HFWEUHFEUWIFHWEUIFH. He is the biggest little SHIT in the house. He is hyper as fuck, always up to something cheeky. BUT GOD DO I LOVE HIM FOR IT. Yeah I eh... I don't need help.

Luke Seems to just be vibing most of the time. BRO HAS THE BEST GIGGLE. Is the only one I understood during watching because he threw in some English here and there. He seems so kind too I'm crying.

Earth feels like a dad UNLESS he is with Neo, those 2 get into some shit together and I am so here for it. ALSO HOW IS HE THIS TOUCHY??? He really has to be touching someone at all times, I love it.

Gun serves an INSANE amount of CUNT, yea that's it really.

Mix just joined to cuddle everyone and I mean that's very valid. Has the best thighs I have ever seen. Also has the BEST BEST laugh oml the giggles. - What a hecking cutie omfg. - He likes to bite people

Khaotung feels like the softest most considerate kindhearted mom I love him.

Phuwin How are you this young? Does not act his age but in a good way I like seeing him just... exist.

Tay I love everything about him, he seems so caring, sweet, funny... I just want to be his friend bro I swearrrrrrrrrrr

And here I was thinking Neo + Earth was chaos... And then Tay joined and good lord those two are CHAOS and I am in love with every single unsubbed second of it.

Some random silly things I loved throughout:

The way Gun says "Phuwin" - It is the cutest FUCKING THING ON THIS PLANET

Luke being up first and doing all these random things?? King shit fr.

Neo in general... Yeah, I'm completely normal about him.

People feeding each other... So much of this and I am thriving.

The morning bits are my fav because they all (except for Luke) look like they are coming back from the dead and it's amazing

As we all know I am VERY NORMAL about Neo and Pond… Those two talking together is like an insane experience for the thing I have for voices. GOOD LORD both their voices have me by the throat.

THE WAY MIX WALKS AROUND THE HOUSE IN THAT STRIPED SHIRT AND OH MY GOD I CAN'T

Earth touching people any chance he gets, leg squeezes mostly. So cute to see I love him.

I loved watching Luke be very much ON in the last episode, he got up to some things and the fact that he tried to read Thai and then had Tay help him I- MY HEARTTTTTTTTTTTTT

And here are some unhinged screenshots I took that made me laugh

Good morning Earth lmfao

You good mate?

Gun tryna get rid of Luke

Mix boo u good?

Good morning Tay

My man....

My fav thing is the table set up... Introverts vs extroverts type vibes. One side talks A LOT the other listens. Tay, Neo, Mix, Earth just chatting away while Kaothung, Phuwin, Pond and Luke just listen and vibe. I loved it.

Some final thoughts (aka a TLDR I guess?)

Neo.

That's it, that's the tweet.

Nah but this was an experience. I knew the eps were long and unsubbed but it is honestly so nice to just have this on in the background and to just stare at it. It was almost comforting at times to have no idea what was being said. Brain turned off, just stare at a bunch of dudes doing the funniest shit, amazing. It made me fall in love with all of them but Neo has my heart. If this ever gets subbed, I'd rewatch it. But for now, I'm on to season 2!

[nyaskitten]

I have this fic idea spinning in my head where Echo leaves the lighthouse on a makeshift raft, and he takes Tai-D with him. He wants to see the mainland and eventually, he does just that!

He visits a few small villages with Tai-D, meeting new people, until he happens upon a village where he meets some weird brunette with a red hat and an eyepatch (I-it's Ronin) who is loading heavy crates into a small truck.

Ronin asks Echo and TaiD for a hand, and Echo obliges, lifting the crates with ease!

Ronin asks Echo and Tai-D if they can hide in the crates and keep them safe while Ronin drives. Echo obliges.

Cue an attack from none other than the Mechanic and his goons. Ronin throws the truck into autopilot and pulls out his weapons.

Also, the Mechanic HAD to bring his noodle truck. He puts i on autopilot too and hops on top, to get to Ronin.

SO, there Echo and Tai-D are, watching Ronin, some random-ass guy they just met, kicking SERIOUS ass, on the top of a MOVING TRUCK.

Ronin starts getting outnumbered and drops his katana into the crates. Lo and behold Echo grabs the katana and emerges to hand it to Ronin, with Tai-D in another hand. Sadly, Echo has just walked into the fight, so now both Echo AND Ronin are holding these guys off. The Mechanic makes a quick remark like "holy shit. Zane the pain what the fuck happened to you???"

That's when Ronin finally calls in REX, and after a few moments, and a snide remark from the Mechanic, REX comes soaring in, blasting the SHIT out of the goons' trucks, forcing most of them off Ronin's truck, and popping the Mechanic's tires.

The Mechanic uses his robo-arm to catch onto Ronin's truck though, and he resumes the fight, but against Echo, Tai-D, and Ronin! They fight for a while, and the truck is about to reach its destination, Borg Tower, where there are a few armored police vans waiting, AND a VERY annoyed Samurai X.

The Mechanic angrily hops off the truck, but he tosses a few explosives, which forces Ronin and Echo to have to jump off with Echo grabbing Tai-D and holing him close, as the about-to-explode truck almost reaches Borg Tower. Ronin helps Echo to his feet and thanks him 4 his help, saying if he wants a ride back to the village, he'll fly him back.

Echo however says he wants to stay with/adventure alongside Ronin! Ronin obliges, taking on a fatherly mentor role... which is very surprising to EVERYONE ELSE, when they find out Ronin has a rusty version of Zane with him.

[forgiveness-in-the-misery]

People hating coach Ben is so wild to me. This show consist heavily of watching a group of traumatized adult women act like teenagers, Shauna is like the worst mom and so is Tai, but because Ben a random guy happened to get into a plane crash with a group of teens and barely survived he should always be the adult in the situation and know what to do. He doesn’t know what to do, he has no medical training, he isn’t a doctor or a cop or a firefighter or some shit he doesn’t know how to “keep control” over these kids who fucking formed a cult and ate a corpse.

It’s so ridiculously sexist and homophobic to see people say they can’t wait for him to die and they hate seeing him dream about being home with the man he loves because “this show isn’t supposed to be about men” which is so ridiculous.

Also people hating on teen Shauna is ridiculous to me. She’s a fucking teenager, she made bad choices. No she shouldn’t have fooled around with Jeff. Yes she said horrible things to Jackie in the fight they had before Jackie died, yes she could have gone after her and apologized but also Jackie could have gone back inside or refused to leave. They are teenagers. Teenagers are unhinged and stupid.

Like people get so fucking weird about how these characters handled being stranded in the wilderness for years.

[teabookgremlin]

hello friends here are my official thoughts on yellowjackets 02x02 brought to you by my four pages of notes from last night (spoilers below cut)

ok so breaking this up by starting with what i didn’t like. this is the first episode of yellowjackets where i really had moments where i was pretty unhappy with some choices so i wanna talk about those, why i didn’t like them, and how i wish it had gone

- very upset that jackie said the thing about shauna wishing she was her. like i feel like that is not the direction things were going in! we all know how homoerotic everything between them is and especially given the bit last episode where adult shauna told jeff about her fantasies of him with someone else (jackie). i am holding out hope for ghost jackie coming back and getting the love confession out of her so fingers crossed

- not thrilled with how the taissa confronting shauna about jackie bit went. i think that the makeup being the thing that pushed her over the edge was weird. i think they should’ve gone with what a lot of us were predicting where tai caught shauna kissing and/or eating the corpse and that being what made her be like ok we gotta get rid of this body. i just wanted more fucked up corpse stuff, ya know?

- did not like the random concern for the baby from tai, like idk i just feel like none of them are really focused on it rn and it just wasn’t necessary like she was concerned enough for shauna as a friend

- i didn’t love that there was more focus on travis looking for javi, idk i feel like that time would have been better used otherwise but i’m glad he now has fake closure at least so he stops being so obsessed with finding javi

- the nat/travis sex scene with lottie just there was just ugh. idk i wish the lottie/travis thing wasn’t going so in depth, wish they had chosen one of the other girls to be that figure but i mean watching travis’ descent into lottie’s shit is interesting

- i really wish they had put off the group cannibalism for at least one more episode. i’m bummed that shauna wasn’t the only one to eat jackie and i think some of the others just logically aren’t at the cannibalism point yet? like yes they were kind of trancelike but still idk it felt a little like they just wanted to get it in there so people would stop asking when it was happening

now onto what i liked/just general liveblog style thoughts (which there will probably be more of)

- gotta say the makeup scene was great (should’ve ended in a kiss tho) and i loved jackie encouraging shauna to eat her, the guilt of it in shauna, wish she actually had made the leap though

- ok taivan time! my favorite people to talk about lets go. van chasing after tai when she sleepwalked was great, i wonder if the pit she walked to was The Pit as in Pit Girl Pit but that’s a question for another time. when they get back to the cabin, van suggesting tai get help from lottie was really sweet although van being into lottie’s shit is obviously sowing the seeds of conflict between them. finally the little head kiss and the “i can feel your heartbeat” was so soft i love these girls with my whole being

- liked the snippets of the misty/crystal loser girl friendship in the background cannot wait to see more of them

- adult tai is going through it, i was excited to see the mirror thing start interested to see where the kind of “mirror self” thing goes

- lottie spying on nat since travis died is creepy but also great for the lottienat agenda and her going you’re welcome i think misty and lottie should work together on the keep nat from being self destructive project

- shauna being my poor pathetic little meow meow in the scene where tai calls her out teehee, wish she had put up more of a fight about cremating jackie like just lay on top of her or something girl be crazy just do it

- “so you lied to the cops to be feminist?” this is the season of callie being iconic i feel so bad for her though

- tai hallucinating sammy being at her place was SO interesting i really liked it

- travis going to lottie about the wilderness coming back to haunt him. i wanna know what’s up with that/if the wilderness is haunting the rest of the survivors similarly

- GHOST LAURA LEE THIS IS NOT A DRILL hope we see her again at some point <3

- i do wonder if lottie had more of a hand in travis’ death than she told nat but i do believe her honestly

- mari keeping up her being a cunt and making soup we love to see it!

- i LOVED shauna’s pre lighting jackie on fire speech: “i don’t even know where you end and i begin” YES and her ending it with saying she loves her when jackie’s last thoughts were being loved by shauna i need to lay down. also so appropriate that shauna was the one to light jackie, no one else could’ve done it

- tai and simone’s car crash, i feel like tai is probably gonna put blame on herself bc it was her fault and likely that and the conversation with simone in the car will be what leads to her seeking out van

- alright cannibalism time babey lets go

- “she wants us to”

- i adored the cutting between the like imagined feast and the cannibalism that was super well done and just overall a fantastic scene that will stick with me. also the girls all looked so hot in the feast scene so i am gay about it

- do wish there was more of the cannibalism shown but overall just incredible way to start things off

- also shauna would’ve eaten all of jackie even if the others were like ew no wtf lets be real

- poor coach

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here friend and AO3 may be back up but that doesn't mean I'm done bitching. On my mind is Buck, and specifically has Buck had a arc/storyline that was actuallt complete since S3?? Like we got Abby leaving, Buck dealing with it and Maddie returning in S2, and his recovery/lawsuit arc in S3 with final closure in the whole Abby thing in the finale. But what has happened since then?? Sure we learned about his shitty parents at the start but thst didn't really get a resolution, just some

some vague promises about therapy and then nothing (compare to Eddie's parents where we got that convo with his Dad in S5 and see them in a better place in S6). Then there's the whole sort of dating thing which leads to his relationship with the reporter and continues to drag through S5 and just kind of ends because it has to, not because of any personal development. I guess we can throw the conflict with Chim in S5 which *checks notes* we never see resolved on screen and the cheating business which *checks notes* was never really addressed and mostly cut from 5b since it was so deservedly hated. And now we have S6 and the sperm donor nonsense which, as discussed, has no satisfying ending in sight (someone tell KR that learning a lesson for the 45th time Isn't growth, applying a lesson is). So has Buck has anything completed for 2.5 seasons?? As badly told as it was for parts, even Madney had a conclusion to their conflict. Why is this hard?

Hello friend! I was hoping to get to this yesterday but I wasn’t at home and ended up being out until late. But I am HERE for this salt and had a little chuckle reading this when it came in because you’re SO RIGHT! Season 3 kinda closed things out for Buck and he’s just been spinning his wheels ever since, especially because completely aside from his own stuff, he’s not allowed to be as involved in other character’s storylines either. Someone mentioned awhile ago (probably @outrunningthedark, hey *waves*) that because Buck is the only one without a family of his own outside of Maddie (which JLH seems to be on limited filming duty and that time is being used (ish) for Buckley-Han family stuff), all his “personal” stories are ending up being with random and mostly unimportant side characters. We know (and love) the main, immediate  Grant, Wilson, and Diaz families and as recurring characters, it’s exciting when we get to see them! Maddie’s storyline with Doug heavily involved both Chim and Buck, and everything since has been mostly about her and Chim and every once in awhile we get a little bit of the Lee family. Buck’s season 1 storyline was tied with Abby so that made sense and season 2 was tied in with Maddie and Eddie’s, and season 3 gave us a lot of Buck/Bobby stuff on top of his time being mostly wrapped up in the Diaz family, and then closing out with Abby. 

I would say that Buck Begins wasn’t so much the start of a new arc as it was informing everything that came before as the audience and Buck reconcile everything we knew before against this new information together. Which was great! But then it didn’t go anywhere. Buck starts the season with talking about how he hides his true feelings from others and doesn’t want to do that anymore and then proceeds to spend the next every episode after that still hiding his feelings from others, only now the audience is included in that. Since the show decided our characters almost never need to have deep and important conversations with each other, we have had basically zero insight into what Buck is *actually* feeling and thinking most of the time. And when he does talk with others it sometimes feels so incongruous with what we know about Buck that we’re left wondering if those conversations are truly what he’s feeling or if he’s masking. Or if it’s yet another instance of KR not understanding the character and writing shit just to write shit. *side eyes every interaction with or about tay kay and L*

“Then there's the whole sort of dating thing which leads to his relationship with the reporter and continues to drag through S5 and just kind of ends because it has to, not because of any personal development.” Catch me getting irritated all over again that we suffered for SO LONG through that whole tay kay mess, and Buck looking miserable and the cast specifically saying that it was on purpose that we were seeing his face looking Like That, only for it to amount to nothing in the end but tay kay being the same awful person she has always been but the show tried to pretend for a hot minute that she wasn’t so KR could wedge her into everything, and Buck being miserable and only stepping away when someone else he loved got hurt, again, by her actions. We didn’t get to see ANYONE in the firefam talk to him about how unhappy he was with her (but thank goodness we had time to lecture him on how he sucks at being a bf at Christmastime instead of anyone saying “dude, are you okay? this all sounds like red flags.” 🙄🙄🙄) or her Buck get to tell her or anyone else that he was unhappy and wasn’t getting the support he needed from the relationship. Which is entirely possible to do without outright calling her a bitch (which actually Eddie and Bobby both deserved to do, though Athena would say it for Bobby because he wouldn’t do it himself, and honestly Chim (and Maddie) and Hen too after the Jonah thing), because we saw it happen with the Eddie/Ana breakup! Eddie got to tell Buck that he was unhappy but didn’t know how to get out, and then he was allowed to go home and make the choice that he was not happy and it wasn’t fair to either of them for him to keep acting like he was. It didn’t outright villainize Ana (though again, tay kay deserved to be villainized at least a little because she was awful and also far more interesting as an awful person the firefam banded together to hate), but the show was just as clear in SHOWING us that no matter what Eddie said at any point in time, she wasn’t good for him OR Chris or what either of them needed. We SAW the same for BT on multiple counts, even when she was “trying” it wasn’t anything that was actually helpful for Buck which she would know if she knew even the slightest thing about him, and even HEARD it in how Buck (bless Oliver) never said “I love you/her” without looking like he smelled something awful and having to stop partway through before forcing the words out. But when it came down to it, we got an amicable breakup after Chim and Hen nearly died, Buck faced an inquiry at work, and the investigation and department were likely deeply compromised because of her lack of ethics. 

A Buck/Maddie/Chim conflict arc could have been REALLY good specifically because we KNOW they all love each other, and more than that, they all UNDERSTAND why the others took the actions they did. But it doesn’t mean those actions didn’t hurt! And we got resolution (ish) for Maddie and Chim during Boston (which just kinda got tossed out the next ep with them breaking up and getting back together off screen with very little discussion between them directly or between them and any other characters), and Buck and Maddie did have a good conversation when she got back. But. I haaaaaate that we got nothing about Buck and Chim not really being okay, but making sure they didn’t drag Maddie into it and trying to not let it affect work, but everyone can kinda tell. We could have had some good Buck/Bobby and Chim/Bobby content out of that, and an on-screen resolution of them talking to each other finally and getting back to being brothers who tease each other out of love. Or that after the initial “thank god you’re safe and home and I missed you” wore off, we didn’t get Buck and Maddie talking to others about the little strain still there and how to deal with it because Buck DOES understand and he LOVES his sister but she still left, and his relationship with Chim was fractured when they were both just blindly groping trying to help in the best ways they knew how and not being able to. He missed out on as much time watching Jee grow as Maddie did, and UNDERSTANDING, and knowing it’s not personal or anything to do with you doesn’t make it not hurt. Especially for someone like Buck who feels so deeply and was/is constantly punished for having emotions by people like his parents and his gf so he tries SO HARD to not tell anyone when he’s hurting because he doesn’t think he deserves to, and god forbid someone think he’s making something about himself. Like, this could have been some good drama because like the lawsuit, no one is the villain, no one is fully in the right or fully in the wrong, and no one is to blame it’s just a shitty situation that wasn’t handled perfectly by anyone because they’re all just human and make mistakes. Add Eddie having a breakdown in the background of all of this that Buck feels coming but isn’t prepared for because he’s trying to handle everything and manage his gf, and of COURSE Eddie would talk to him, wouldn’t he? Only to get slapped with Eddie quitting and then Maddie and Chim coming back, and everything at work being out of sync like....the POTENTIAL for a firefam focused season that was deliciously dramatic while being grounded and real and emotionally cathartic was RIGHT THERE and I can’t believe the show was like, “instead of dealing with all this stuff we ourselves put in motion, how about we focus on some random side characters, tell you in interviews that stuff got resolved because I don’t want to think about it anymore, and sprinkle in an OC and some cheating while sidelining the characters this show is supposed to be about and that we keep promoting in the synopsis to trick people into watching but it’s only going to be 2 minutes crammed into the end of an episode because I’d rather spend 10 minutes showing you the set up for an emergency”. ANYWAY.

“someone tell KR that learning a lesson for the 45th time Isn't growth, applying a lesson is” 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 He’s been going in circles since s4 started but he’s not GETTING anywhere, even when he actually gets to talk to someone about something, it either never gets mentioned again after the episode (the couch stuff with Eddie/Bobby, the happiness talk with Hen), or like the talk with Hen about being a donor, it happens and then gets treated as a joke and he doesn’t think about a single thing she said until, apparently, if the interviews still ring true and they don’t go a different direction (please GOD go a different direction and wrap this TF up!), it’s too late and there is already a baby he helped make on the way. I’m actually not going to talk about that arc because this is already so long, and also I can’t think too hard about it without being filled with incandescent fury. NGL I laughed at the Instagram post about Buck needing to not be in danger, and all the comments about how it’s actually better for the plot when he is, and how the show needs new writers so he can have good scenes again. Fingers crossed after all the criticism across the board OG received (not about arcs like s5 which can be brushed off as fans just being difficult or not liking an arc but it’s over now so why change anything/blamed on fandom for being hateful because they hate women (🙄🙄🙄), but “boring” isn’t something this show shouldn’t ever be and THAT might draw some attention), Timmy can find it in his schedule to let LS’s co-showrunner do their job for a minute and check in on his OG show. Knowing that Brad is back even though he’s never done a mid-season premier episode (and the flack the show got for not having him do the s6 opening and how awful and boring it was) does give me a little sliver of hope but we’ll see.

Thanks for giving me some delicious salt to work with, I was clearly able to make a whole meal out of it! Next week gives us LS though so hopefully we’ll have some fun to talk about soon! Cheers friend and I hope you enjoy the winding rabbit trail of a salt mine I made here. 🤣

[ghooostbaby]

i'm been too sleepy to read books these days so i must turn the razor beam of my weighty and emotionally intense analysis to the unsuspecting and unprepared xianxia drama love between fairy and devil

*spoilers*

i was in SO MUCH pain after xiao lanhua transformed into the goddess but then... it just felt so incongruous too. once she has all this power, just the same as dongfang qingcang, but they seperate themselves. and are this weird self-sacrificial power couple "i'm going to drain all my power and self-annihilate so you won't be harmed by the evil god" "no I'M going to drain all my power and self-annihilate so YOU won't be harmed by the evil god" ...

their satisfacton in life came from growing/being with the other so honestly you know that whichever one is "saved" would never be happy without the other so what's the point in deciding to secrerly kill yourself to let the other one live freely when they would only be miserable?? it also keeps creating doubts in they validity of their love ... because, frankly, choosing to lie to someone to kill yourself while preserving the life of the person you love/in love with you is just cruel and disrespectful!!

especially whats the point in keeping it a secret from them to make sure you accomplish your self-sacrifice when there's a chance if you both have this huge power now that you could actually work together?!

"i love this person soooo much i'm going to kill myself so they can live eternally alone"

there's also a lot about the last few episodes that is such pivotal plot stuff but is not really explained at all but the show just *waves hands* cGi MaGiC ~~

i dont really understand how tai sui took over dongfang qingcang's body ... unless dfqc was just overconfident that he could defeat him?

it doesnt exactly make sense, dongfang qingcang floating in the sky and just a lot of CGI flames and ok?? now dfcq is drifting away into mist but why?? he had all these new powers that came out of this confrontation, and now and orchid/goddess used her purifying power and the black lines on his body went away? lots of flashy colour swirls that show him being dissolved idk but it just feels so anticlimactic and ... not believable.

watching this i'm just seeing writers being like 'oh here's a chance for some SICK yet incomprehensible CGI fireballs!!' or 'here's a cliffhanger to make them watch more' not something that extends naturally from the story being told.

i feel like it would have been much more impressive to have dfcq stay after he and orchid defeated tai sui, the two of then burning away the black vapours and kissing passionately...

and there just didnt seem a clear justification why he was still destroyed despite getting his new nonhellfire-fire power and orchid using her goddess powers. it seemed like just forcing more pain to make it more intense. if they burned away tai sui together and just made out in dramatic cgi flame smoke light after they won against the ancient evil god i guarantee i won't just turn off the show for the last 10 minutes about how everything ends up!!

you dont have to shoehorn in pain to keep me watching. and it would have made the plot mirror the theme of love transforming people if they were trying to sacrifice themselves alone to save the other but instead they came together and defeated the evil god united

instead it was like grand story about the transformation of love until the last episode like, oh shit, should we shove some random cliches in here?? yeah! we totally should!!!

have you even HEARD of tolkein's theory of the defining moment of fantasy the ending where great sorrow is possible but it is transformed in a moment of joy, and that joy isn't demeaned for being "unrealistic", happy endings can feel real and true, more real than watching your lover disappear in a ball of cool CGI fire sometimes

and then the actual "happy ending" was so... disappointing. after dongfang qingcang disappears and turns into a lil moon (sweet (':) but then orchid says dfqc can't return and 500 years later the little moon hasn't changed. it goes through the montage of the others 500 years later and then little moon just pops up into a fully formed dongfang qingcang with equally little explanation

like oh ok that's fine, kiss now i guess. i give up

orchid/goddess's expression looks so sorrowful. she looks surprised but mostly just devastated ... i was waiting him to dissipate into mist at any point the way she was looking at him, it didn't seem happy at all. just.. grief.

which is the main reason i think i'm disappointed. it never feel like we got xiao lanhua back, who was the entire other half of the couple that we were cheering for. she seems so grim and hopeless, the way the goddess was pretending not to love dongfang qingcang to save the people and sacrifice herself and drains herself of all her joy, energy, and love. i would have liked to see her at the end showing some of the playfulness and sweetness of xiao lanhua. who is the person dongfang qingcang fell for in the first place. i think xiao lanhua wouldn't have said "dongfang qingcang can never return", even if it was impossible she would have been determined and hopeful and waiting for that day that it would happen anyway. even if it took tens of thousands of years

and... it just would have been a better story if they kissed away all the evil and triumped with the power of LOVE. i'm sorry, it's the truth!