#such an upgrade since season 2 finale

[linusbenjamin]

(◕‿◕✿)

[tinyorangepotato]

God I have so many things I want to take intrest in

[mionemymind]

Can you plsss do an imagine with Wanda (or whoever u feel is right) where reader is a formula 1 driver? It'd be so cool. But you don't hv to ofc. I'm a new follower and i absolutely adore ur works <3

Getaway Driver (Rewritten)

Summary: Based off my incorrect quote, Y/n is the getaway driver for Wanda's mission.

Warnings: Shooting, Cursing, Slight Blood, Fluff

A/n: Before y'all comment, I really suck ass at action sequences lmaoo. Please try to imagine something better. But this is for the folks that love F1 and Wanda (@thatdudeusimpfor @canyonyodeler @pikachooo3 @rayisaknight) also gif credits go to Redbull

I had rewritten this the very next day because I was so unhappy with how I did the action scene. Hopefully this is better :)

Word Count: 4.3k

Masterlist

“Lights out and away we go!” The rumble of engines passed by as cars zoomed past the start. The roaring cheers coming from the fans grew louder with each second. 

Starting in pole position, Y/n gets away unscathed from the mess in the back as well as her current teammate, Max Verstappen. They stay side by side through the chicane, protecting the front positions as many drivers behind them try to slip past. 

In between turns two through five, multiple close calls occur as the the Stake F1 team showcase breaking issues this early on in the race. Y/n hardly got out of the chicane without hearing mishaps from the back. 

“Fucking cunt,” George Russel stated to his race engineer, Marcus Dudley. The fans screamed and laughed as the message was played out loud for the whole broadcast to hear. 

To mediate the tensions, a commentator stated, “For this British Grand Prix, we have a total of 52 laps with a forecast of dry conditions.” 

Coming from the paddock, Will Button announces his guesses for the race today, “It will honestly be a close call for first between the young driver of Redbull, Y/n, and her older teammate, Max. I know a Redbull 1 / 2 position will happen but my money is on Y/n as they’ve been on a winning streak for the past three races. As for third position, Lando Norris in the McClaren would be my final guess.”

Will moved closer to the McClaren garage as multiple shots show off the engineers, mechanics, and leaders. “They’ve recently redesigned their floor as well as the front wing. This big upgrade in the middle of the season might be the break that McClaren has been hoping for since the start of the season.” 

Coming up on their first lap, Y/n still leads the race. “51 more to go,” she thinks to herself. Although her head should be in the race, her heart couldn’t help but wish for this race to be already over. A certain red head was all she could think of. 

Two hours away from Silverstone, Wanda listens closely for enemies. She could sense two of them guarding the very door she needed to be in. “On my signal,” Steve mouthed. 

Just as Steve gave the go ahead, the sound of F1 commentary started to play in Wanda’s ear. “Lights out and away we go!” Wanda walked through the hallway, incapacitating the guards, allowing Natasha and Steve to drag them to an empty room. 

Natasha gave Wanda an ‘are you serious’ look as the commentary also played in her comms. “Why am I hearing about a race right now?” They all stood outside the entrance to the headquarters room. Around five guys and one guard were currently there from the looks of it. 

“Sorry, I had meant to only set it to my comms.” Wanda brought out the hologram and changed the settings before looking at Steve for the next set of instructions. 

“Since when did you care about racing?” Wanda shrugged in response as Steve signaled with his hands on which people to take care of. 

“I’ll tell you later.” 

“Are you fucking blind?” Y/n yelled to her race engineer. Lance Stroll had almost hit her side at turn seven, almost costing her the race had they actually made contact. “If he keeps racing like that, he’s bound to hurt somebody.”

“Copy that. We’re already in contact with the FIA about that.” Y/n’s grip on the steering wheel hardened. It was only lap 19 of 52 and her nerves were getting the best of her. She knew the race was going to be easy but her excitement to see Wanda again was causing her to lose focus. 

“I hope she’s watching me somehow,” Y/n thought. It was stupid to hope though as the driver knew Wanda was currently on a mission. It would be highly unlikely that she would watch her race, there were more important things than watching cars go round and round. 

Regardless though, winning this race was important to Y/n. This was the first race as an official couple. While the media hasn’t found out yet, she certainly didn’t want to give Wanda a bad impression. After all, if your girlfriend was continuously saving lives, the least she could do was win a race. 

“This ones for you Wanda.” 

“That should be the last of them.” Steve tied up the last enemy on base and sent the coordinates to backup for retrieval. “Let’s get to the rendezvous point. It’s around 30 minutes west from here on foot.” 

Wanda pulled out her secured phone as they walked out the secured building. She opened up the F1 app and immediately tuned in for the last couple minutes of the race. 

“We have a battle between the two Red Bulls, Max Verstappen and Y/n Y/l/n, for P1.” Steve gave a disapproving nod as they walked through London, trying their best to blend in with the crowd. Wanda could care less of Steve’s approval for her antics. The mission was nearly over and she wanted to at least support her girlfriend from far away. 

“Oh God! There’s a crash at Luffield! It’s a Mercedes!” Wanda watched in horror as the car flipped through the gravel multiple times before hitting the fence, landing in an awkward position. Had the gravel not been there, the car would have surely gone through the fence. A safety car was brought out, allowing people to pit. 

“I believe that was George Russel’s car that had just crashed.” Wanda flipped through the drivers until she found Y/n. Although she knew that wasn’t her car, seeing her safe and sound brought Wanda relief. 

“Jesus, is George okay?” Y/n asked. Wanda smiled at her girlfriend’s natural concern. Although it was one lap away from finishing, it was nice to know that the safety of others was the first thing that Y/n thought of. 

“Wanda.” Looking up, Natasha gave a silent command to put her phone away. “We have people tailing us. When I say go, run as fast as you can. Make sure to stay close.” 

Slyly looking back, Wanda could point out the people that looked out of place. “Fuck me.” 

“Thank you all for the wonderful race! The car was practically a bullet and everyone did so amazing today.” Y/n slid into first place and did a mini celebration on her car. 

As the camera crew came closer, she jumped in front of them and grabbed the camera. Taking off her helmet and balaclava, Y/n yelled, “This win is for my beautiful girlfriend! Can’t wait to see you babe!” 

Looking at the time on the screen, Y/n rushed past the cameras and went straight into the paddock. She ignored all the weird glances and congratulations she got on the way, the race win still fueling her adrenaline.

“Y/n? What are you doing?” Christian yelled but Y/n ignored it. It wasn’t like Red Bull had the balls to fire her for not celebrating.

Her assistant, Niya, had followed suit as Y/n took off her helmet into her dressing room. “Is my car ready Niya?” She nodded as she typed up a statement on her iPad. The team was going to be unhappy at the lack of answers but she knew they were ultimately happy with the points she scored for the team.

In no time, Y/n was out of her race suit and in an all black attire. She ran out of her room, yelling a thank you to Niya. Up on the screens, it showed Max at P2 while Lando was at P3 just like Will guessed. Several news outlets tried to catch up to Y/n, but she was not having it. 

“For the first time in F1 history, we don’t have the P1 spot filled. It seems our winner of the race had an emergency situation to attend to. Regardless, congratulations to Red Bull for the 1 / 2 positions.” 

Y/n smiled at Will’s comment as she passed the gates. This was going to be all over the news ‘Y/n runs off after P1 victory’. Yet Y/n could care less for all the speculations. She had to see her girl and nothing was stopping her. 

Hopping into her jet black Ferrari, Y/n sped out Silverstone. It was around an hour drive to the rendezvous point, but knowing the country like the back of her hand, she was guaranteed to make it on time.

“Does anyone know who the getaway driver is today? Fury stated that we’ll know the day of the mission, but I was never briefed about it,” Steve inquired as the team finally got away from the enemies. 

Wanda glanced up from her phone, “It’s my new girlfriend.” Not a lot of things shocked the assassin and the super soldier, but that comment did. 

“Is she qualified?” Natasha quipped. She found it strange that Wanda hadn’t mentioned her new partner. In addition, the lack of information on Wanda’s girlfriend was also alarming. What if she was the enemy? What if she was an assassin? So many questions ran through her head, but kept her anxiety at bay. 

“More than qualified,” Wanda stated with a proud smile, “She’s a driver at her day job. Plus Fury gave the approval for it just for this mission only.” 

Natasha and Steve digested Wanda’s words and continued to walk. However, Natasha wanted to know more, even if Fury did approve of it. “How did you two meet?” 

“Funny story, I was actually running away…” 

Wanda was surrounded. At every single avenue and exit was a marked enemy and with no back up, she only had herself to rely on. “Shit.” 

Wanda hurried herself out of the hotel, still noticing all the eyes around her. Thank goodness that it was still broad daylight. The enemies weren’t that careless to attract a crowd. 

As if sending a silent prayer, all attention diverted to the red ferrari that pulled up to the hotel. Before the valet could go up, Wanda rushed to and opened the passenger seat. She hopped in and closed the door.

Turning to the driver’s side, Wanda fully expected some old man to occupy the seat, but when her eyes met comforting brown eyes, a pretty smile, and furrowed eyebrows, she was hooked. The red head was distracted for a couple of seconds, before asking, “Do you know how to drive?”

Wanda knew she looked ridiculous. Any sane person would immediately kick her out, heck even call the police. Furthermore, the chances of a rich stranger even offering help was little to none, but when Wanda reached for Y/n’s emotions, she was even more surprised to see that this stranger didn’t feel any of that. 

“I do.” The accent almost made Wanda forget everything, but the sight of enemies getting closer made her focus. 

“Then drive.” 

“So you hijacked your girlfriend’s car, asked her to get you out of a sticky situation, and then survived?” Steve chuckled at Natasha’s question. The story felt like something out of an action movie, but then again, they were superheroes, so anything could happen. 

“I don’t know how, but she managed to get me out of Spain safely. I even asked her to drop me off at our pickup location. Her car wasn’t bulletproof, but she was so fast, they could hardly get a scratch on her.” Wanda smiled at the memory of their first encounter. 

“At the end, she didn’t even ask why I needed to run away. I think she recognized me from the news and just wanted to help. But before I left, she asked for a date.” How crazy does one need to be to ask the very person that put you in danger on a date? 

“I said yes because why not? I liked her and it was the least I could do after she spent a whole hour driving.” It was Natasha’s turn to laugh at how made up the whole story sounded. But when the assassin could not pick up on a single lie, it made her chuckle more. 

“Well I can’t wait to meet her,” Steve remarked. They were 10 minutes away from the pick up point. 

“And she better knows how to drive,” Natasha added. Wanda nodded quickly, the nerves finally making its way to her head. 

“I promise. She’s good.” 

“Where is she?” Natasha didn’t mean to sound aggressive, but they were still on a mission, something she ran a tight ship on. The crew were a minute early to the pick up point and Wanda had forgotten to ask Y/n to share her location. Right now, the witch paced back and forth with her phone in hand. 

The assassin didn’t want to add to Wanda’s already nervous state but they needed to leave. Before Wanda could send another message, a loud car screeched to a halt in front of them. Once the smoke settled, Wanda smiled at the sight of the getaway car. 

Opening the car door, Y/n got out, wearing a suit similar to her driver attire but in all black. “Am I late?” The wide cocky smile on Y/n’s face was hard to hide. The driver knew she was on time but didn’t dare to comment. 

Immediately noticing her girlfriend, Y/n closed the door and picked Wanda up by the thighs, spinning her around. The giggle that escaped Wanda’s lips almost made Natasha barf at how love sick the two were. 

As Y/n placed Wanda back down, she pulled her in by the waist and gave her a long kiss. The two almost forgot that they were in front of a crowd as Wanda ran her hands through Y/n’s hair. 

Natasha wanted to grumble at the unprofessionality but Steve’s look stopped her. Wanda was in love. This was something Steve had never seen before, and he was not going to dare to ruin it. This wasn’t to say that the assassin wasn’t happy for Wanda. She really was, but the mission was still the priority. 

Breaking the kiss, Y/n mumbled, “I’m not too late am I babe?” Wanda shook her head no as a large smile was plastered on her face. 

While holding Wanda’s hand, Y/n looked at Steve and Natasha, “Hi. I’m Y/n Y/l/n. It’s nice to meet you.” Letting go of Wanda’s hand, Y/n reached out to shake their hands. 

Steve was the first to shake Y/n’s hand and said, “Nice to meet you. My name is Steve.” 

Natasha bumped Steve out the way and shook Y/n’s hand, immediately liking the firm grip Y/n had. “I’m Natasha. It’s nice to meet you, but I think we should get out of here.” 

Stepping back to Wanda’s side, “You’re right, let’s get y’all out of here.” Y/n stepped around to open Wanda’s door, something both Steve and Natasha mentally noted.

Once everyone was buckled in, it was like a switch flipped inside Y/n’s brain as she zoomed from the meetup location. 

“Someone is following us.” The rest of the group turned around at Y/n’s comment and noticed the entourage that was heavy on their tail. Y/n had barely driven for 10 minutes before enemies found them.

“I thought we got rid of them,” Wanda grumbled. She wanted her first mission with her girlfriend to have gone a bit smoother, but nothing is ever how she planned. 

The red head looked over her girlfriend’s suit, hoping that Fury had given Y/n a bulletproof suit. Last thing Wanda needed was for Y/n to bleed out. 

Blocking her anxiety away, Wanda focused on the mission at hand. 

“Do you think you can lose them?” Steve asked, ready to fight. Remembering the map she carefully studied, in 10 miles was a mountain with lots of turns. Right before it was a small village. 

“Get rid of the bigger caravans and I’ll take care of the two smaller cars. Do it quickly. There’s a village up ahead.” Y/n steadied the car as Steve nodded in understandment. Slowing the car down, Steve predicted his route as Natasha did the same. 

Once the enemies were close enough, the two hopped out of the car, each on a different caravan. Immediately, Steve used his shield to pierce the front left tire, causing the caravan to veer right into the woods. 

Steve hopped to the next caravan before it crashed. By now, multiple shots were being aimed at Steve, Natasha, and the car. 

“Keep us close. I need to help them,” Wanda stated. Y/n nodded as she tried her best to slow down at a safer speed for Wanda. Crawling to the back of the car, Wanda used her magic to fling a couple of enemies out of the cars. 

This ultimately assisted Natasha as she finally pierced her caravan’s tire. Instantaneously, the car crashed off the road, straight into a large pile of rocks. The assassin hopped off the caravan, aiming for the getaway car. 

Noticing the large gap, Y/n whipped closer to Natasha. Landing harshly on her side, Natasha groaned as Wanda held on to her arm, making sure she doesn’t fall off. “Are you trying to hit me with the car?” 

“It was the car or the ground, you choose,” Y/n quipped back. Had they been in a different situation, Natasha would have laughed but considering that the enemies were still shooting, she simply hustled back into the car. 

“Can Steve jump far?” The last caravan was close enough to continuously hit their back bumper. And with all the debris coming from the crashes, the sides were damaged. 

Before Wanda could answer, Steve jumped on top of the car as the caravan stopped into a halt, crashing into everything along with one of the smaller cars. Only one car remained. 

While Steve crawled back into the car and Wanda back in her spot, the village came passing by just on time. The mountain was right before them. 

Pushing the car into different gears, Y/n kept her eye on the rearview mirror as the car drifted through tight turns. The enemy car screeched behind them as it struggled to keep up through the turns. However, the straights were its friend. 

Up ahead was another set of turns, something Y/n already memorized in the back of her head. “Natasha, keep trying to shoot at them. I need something to distract their driver.” 

Pushing the getaway car to its limits, the turns proved hard for Natasha to hold on to, thankfully, Steve was holding on to her. “Aim for the driver’s view. It may be bulletproof but anything is better than nothing.” 

Natasha did as told, managing to aim perfectly even with all the wind rushing past her and the aimless turns up the hill. 

“We have a quarter mile left! Keep going at it!” Natasha emptied clip after clip as Wanda tended to her slight wound. Bullets came back towards their car, none created a single scratch on the car. 

Rounding the last turn, Y/n drifted perfectly to stall the car in place for a couple more seconds, allowing the enemy to catch up even closer. Keeping a couple seconds between them, Y/n pushed the car into gear, sending it through the last straight. 

“Get back in!” Y/n hardly gave Natahsa time as she pulled the car into the hard right. Before they knew it, Y/n had been driving backwards. In the next second, a grapple launched from the car, landing right on the enemy’s bumper. 

”Hold on!” Everything turned to a blur with how fast Y/n was reacting. Steve almost got whiplash and motion sickness from all the drifting and wild turns. Within the same second, Y/n used the momentum from the car to fling the enemy off towards the cliff. 

As the enemy hit the guard rail, it started to tumble through the air, pressing another button, the grapple released. Pulling up the handbrake, Y/n straighten the car back out onto the road. Driving away with a satisfied smile, Y/n was happy to see an explosion from the mirror. 

With a hand on Wanda’s thigh, the rest was smooth sailing for Y/n as she drove them to safety. 

The car arrived, smoke trailed from it’s path as Y/n continuously pushed it past its limit. While Steve was thankful to have arrived earlier than expected, the nauseous feeling in his stomach held his compliments back. 

The pair from the back quickly got out of the car, throwing a thankful smile to Y/n as they headed inside, ready to debrief about the meeting. 

Once they were out of sight, Wanda was quick to giggle. Nothing was particularly funny, but the redhead couldn’t help but laugh. Not really understanding what Wanda was laughing about, Y/n merely chuckled a little at how adorable Wanda looked. 

“Do you think your boss will be pissed about the state of the car?” Y/n joked. The driver could probably afford whatever car Fury provided, nonetheless, she wanted a good first impression. 

“I think,” Wanda placed a hand on Y/n’s cheek, a smile still evident on her face, “you did amazing today. I knew you were a great driver but I didn’t expect you to handle all the gunshots like it was nothing.” 

Y/n kissed Wanda’s palm, leaning in closer to her touch. “I think with all the superhero stuff happening, I’ve become immune to things like that.” Y/n shrugged as the pair got closer, faces nearly touching. “Plus it helps that I know my girlfriend would do anything to protect me.” 

Leaning in for a kiss, Y/n nearly groaned at how soft Wanda’s lips were. While this wasn’t their first kiss, the feeling of Wanda’s lips was something Y/n was never going to get used to. All the races, fast speeds, and fame was nothing compared to the feeling of kissing Wanda. Just the privilege alone made Y/n light headed with love. 

As Wanda slowly continued to kiss Y/n, her stomach grew with tightness, her mind numbing with stupid thoughts such as ‘what if I climbed over the console and I made out with her?’. While there would be absolutely no complaints from Y/n, Wanda knew they still had an audience. 

But god, Wanda couldn’t think when it came to kissing Y/n and they were hardly even making out. What was going to happen once they actually did have a heated make out session? Was she going to pass out? 

Regardless, the two pushed their limits on how long they could go without air. Soon, Wanda broke the kiss but she craved to kiss Y/n again. Not wanting to push her luck, Wanda pressed a couple pecks on Y/n’s lips, sealing the deal with one more long kiss. 

Leaning back in her seat, Wanda covered her mouth, enjoying the feeling of how plumped it was. Ultimately, she couldn’t hide the smile on her face as Y/n looked at her with adoration. “I’ve been wanting to kiss you this whole day.” 

Y/n grinned as she leaned over the center console, “We can still kiss all you want babe. Name the time and place and I’ll be there in minutes.” 

Wanda laughed as Y/n puckered her lips, ready to kiss again. Giving in to her girlfriend’s antics, Wanda cupped Y/n’s face and kissed her once more. 

Before it could go any deeper, Wanda broke it, causing Y/n to pout. “You can’t just hold your lips hostage like that.” 

“Well dekta, we’re still on a mission.” Y/n rolled her eyes at Wanda’s response. It was not a good enough reason to stop kissing. 

“Well babe, what if I told you I won my race today?” Y/n licked her lips, hoping it was enough to entice Wanda to kiss her again. 

“You won?! I’m sorry I couldn’t come and I tried watching the end but-”

“-just kiss me babe.” Y/n pulled Wanda for another kiss, not even caring that Wanda was unable to make it to her race. There were still multiple races to come and multiple opportunities for her to watch. But kissing Wanda was enough for Y/n. Everything else was just a bonus. 

By now, Wanda couldn’t hold back her moan as the kisses got deeper. Too busy in their own world, the pair didn’t notice Natasha approaching the car. 

The assassin rolled her eyes at the scene. Regardless, she knocked on the window. The two jumped from the unexpected sound. Their dilated eyes focused back at Natasha as Y/n rolled the window down. 

“Meeting starts in a minute. Say your goodbyes.” Without a response, Natasha walked back into the base. 

“Am I going to see you soon?” Wanda asked, feeling like a teenager asking when she was going to see her girlfriend again. 

“You will. I’ll make sure of it.” The blush on Wanda’s face deepened. She kissed Y/n one last time before exiting the car, knowing that if she stayed any longer, she would have been unable to leave.

Walking backwards to the base, Wanda waved goodbye. In normal Y/n fashion, she made donuts at the front of the base, before leaving. 

Once the dust settled, Natahsa came back out. “She was good.” 

Wanda turned around, giving Natasha a small smile. “Thank you.” 

“It’s gonna be nice working with her again.” The smile on Wanda’s face grew wider at the approval. 

As the two walked to the meeting, all Wanda could think about was her getaway driver.

Taglist: @halobaby  @arelyitsherec8 @blackxwidowsxwife @cristin-rjd @madamevirgo @trikruismybitch @paradiselost916 @mmmmokdok @morbid-gaymer @dailyavengering @itsnottilly @helloalycia @randomshyperson @tomy5girls @daenerys713 @ensorcellme @lezzzbehonesthere @imagine-reblog

@sighsam @olsensnpm @tquick99 @feolok @emilyprentisslittlewhore @mvddison99 @iamapotato @yuhloversxx @mjaudrey @upsidedowndanvers @somewhatgreatexpectations @wandavixen @magicallymaximoff @username23345 @coollemonsaresour @littlewinchester15 @aimezvousbrahms @afuckingshituniverse @am-just-a-cosmic-joke-to-me 

@ohmygooddamnbisexualmood @diaryoflife @s7uts @newyork1432 @the-anxious-stargazer @hello-mtf @marvelousbelladonna @ima-gi–na-tion @obsessed-with-wandamaximoff @the-camilucha 

@itsnottilly @171611 @kaitlynroseb @daisybri7 @drpepperobsessed @bemyvitamin @musicinourlips @marvelousbelladonna @gingerbreadcookieforlife @xastrydx @chasethemoon @naixia00 @lostandsearching @stupidsapphicsstuff @haechanana @the-camilucha @severepeanutartisanhands @owloftheshadows @somewhatgreatexpectations @ywuen @mixed-fandom-mess @loomontoia @ilovemarvelwomen @coxmicbabygirl  @cyanide-mustard @mrs-avenger3000 @prentisshoe @andrea-stark @simpforwandanat @abimess @randomshyperson @yourtaletotell @magically-queer-stuff 

@imapotatao @iliketozoneout @maximoffbrossupremacy​@olsensnpm​ @psychadelichues​ @whitelotus00 @taliiiaasteria @tynix @autorasexy @xxxtwilightaxelxxx @hiiraya @reginassweetheart @milkeeteaa @alyciaddict @justgotlizzied

@msmothermaximoff @ielliesitchyeyereposts

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

My Morph primer

Since X-Men 97 is drawing in a lot of new fans with varied levels of experience with the original animated series or the comics, I figured I could give a write-up of who Morph is, where they come from, and why you don’t see them in any of the movies or other media.  This is also an excuse for me to write about an obsessive fave, seriously, they are all over my blog. I'm not necessarily an "authority," but I've watched TAS and read the comics, which are the basis for this write-up.

Who is Morph?

"Wolverine! Fall back!"

Morph is a shapeshifting mutant who was added to the X-Men team in the original X-Men: The Animated Series as a redshirt/sacrificial lamb, to be killed off For Real in order to show that the stakes are really high.  Originally it was actually going to be Thunderbird, a short-lived X-Man who died in the comics just a few issues after he was introduced, and has remained dead for decades.  But creators realized that killing off the only Native American character on a mostly white team was a bad look, and went with Morph instead.  Morph proved surprisingly popular with (mostly child) viewers, and was brought back in the 2nd season as a result.  Morph in TAS was originally presented as male using male pronouns, but I’m gonna use they/them for the character since they are nonbinary in X-Men 97.

(Btw, even Morph's TAS costume shows their redshirt nature, as they are basically wearing a variant of the standard X-Men uniform that different groups have worn, with the Original Five (Angel, Jean, Cyclops, Beast and Iceman) and the New Mutants all wearing something similar. There was a time in the 90's when all the X-Men were wearing this uniform to try to give them a team look, but thankfully that didn't last, the individualized looks are much better. Morph's amazing disappearing reappearing jacket are the only personalized touch in their uniform, and I hope X-Men 97 gives them a costume upgrade after everyone gets used to the new look.)

Morph doesn’t appear in many episodes of TAS, but here are the definitive ones:

Season 1:

Night of the Sentinels Parts 1 and 2: Morph seems to be an established part of the team, a wise-cracking shapeshifter who is so naively overconfident about their mission that they’ve practically got a target painted on their back.  When the mission goes wrong, Morph pushes Wolverine out of the way of Sentinel lasers, and gets blasted all to hell.  Morph’s supposed death (which was meant at the time to be a real death) is sensed by both Jean and Xavier.  Cyclops orders a retreat because the team is getting their asses kicked, abandoning both the (dead) Morph and (alive but injured) Beast, who spends the rest of the season in jail.  Morph is quickly forgotten as a character, BUT the impact of their death is felt throughout the season.  We get Wolverine yelling “This one’s for you, Morph!” while slicing up a Sentinel, and Cyclops in the finale insisting, “I’m not leaving anyone behind!  Not this time!” 

Season 2:

Till Death Do Us Part, Parts 1 and 2: Morph returns as a villain, but a sympathetic, brainwashed villain under the control of season Big Bad Mr. Sinister.  Sinister is an evil scientist who likes to fuck around with mutant genetics and is especially obsessed with getting Scott and Jean to fuck, because their child will supposedly be an extremely genetically superior mutant.  After Morph’s “death,” they were taken by Sinister, who revived them and implanted a control device into Morph’s brain that he uses to literally torture Morph into compliance.  Morph seems to have a kind of split personality, which Sinister exacerbates and encourages, shifting between a haggard-looking Evil Morph who wants revenge on the X-Men for abandoning them and cracks jokes while attacking the team, and a normal-looking Good Morph, who doesn’t want to hurt their friends, and is generally scared and confused and having a Bad Time.  If you are wondering about Morph turning into that version of themselves with dark circles around their eyes in X-Men 97 “Fire Made Flesh,” it was a reference back to this:

Evil Morph lookin' reeeeeaal creepy.

Morph uses their shape-shifting trickery to fake marry Scott and Jean (as the priest), impersonate Xavier and turn the team against each other, until Wolverine identifies them by scent.  The team then chases Morph to Sinister’s lair, where he’s captured a honey-mooning Scott and Jean.  Morph has been struggling with the brainwashing the entire time, and breaks free long enough to attack Sinister, then runs off away from everyone. 

Whatever It Takes: Wolverine, who has declared the Morph is “the only one who could ever make him laugh,” chases Morph down to Brazil in an attempt to drag them back to the team.  Morph, still fighting their dark side and flipping back and forth between the two personalities, taunts Wolverine in Jean’s form, fights him, and eventually gains enough control to tell Logan to back off. (“I have to get through this by myself!”) 

Fighting your friend in an abandoned mine shaft, a totally normal thing to do.

Wolverine reluctantly lets them go.  This the B-plot, the main plot of the episode features Storm and Rogue confronting the Shadow King in Africa, and is also really good.

Reunion Parts 1 and 2: Morph leaves a message for Wolverine stating that he wants to return to the team, in what seems like an obvious set-up for a trap.  Wolverine, Jean and Cyclops go to retrieve them, and find that yes, it is a trap.  Morph attmpts to warn the group to leave, but they are jumped by Sinister and the Nasty Boys, and the fight ends with Jean being taken, and Morph (still struggling against Sinister’s control), going semi-willingly.  The whole team winds up at Sinister’s base in the Savage Land and there are a lot of good character moments, like Gambit telling Rogue he loves her.  Morph spends the whole time still fighting against the brainwashing, but throws it off completely at the end (with Xavier’s help) and turns on Sinister, helping Scott and Jean defeat him.  Morph is then Put on a Bus to Muir Island so that the writers wouldn’t have to deal with the character but could hold them in reserve to use later.  Xavier comments that he can remove Sinister’s mind-control chip from Morph’s brain, but that “removing the psychic damage will take longer.”  So the answer to “Where’s Morph?” in later seasons will always be “Recovering on Muir Island, probably hanging out with Moira and Banshee.”

If you are a Morph fan, Season 2 is THE Morph season, they get a great character arc that fleshes them out, and establishes their close relationship with Wolverine.  I’m glad they didn’t toss out Morph in X-Men 97, both because I like the character, and because Morph’s entire arc in Season 2 was about their struggle to come back to the team, and constantly reaffirms that Morph is one of them, and that they belong with the X-Men.  Also, I know Tumblr love an angsty, suffering blorbo, and good God does Morph suffer in Season 2. 

(Someone is having a Bad Time).

Season 4:

Courage:  After getting only a couple of non-speaking background cameos in Season 3, this is Morph’s comeback episode in Season 4.  Morph believes that they are fully recovered and ready to rejoin the X-Men, while both Moira and Xavier seem to think they are not ready, and warn them to slow down a little.  Morph tries to jump back into their old role, makes jokes, and goes on a mission with Wolverine, but is clearly still dealing with PTSD and completely freezes up when Sentinels attack the mansion and kidnap Xavier.  Morph is left at the mansion while the X-Men go to rescue Xavier, but follows them anyway, and manages to play an instrumental role in stopping the Sentinels and saving Xavier.  Despite this, Morph decides that they are not ready to return and cannot be relied upon in battle (because the writers didn’t want to deal with using the character on the team), and goes back to Muir Island.  It’s a standard “character fucks up at the start of the episode but saves the day in the end” superhero cartoon story, and I was a little disappointed that the episode focused entirely on Morph’s “near death trauma” from the Sentinels and not the much worse “brainwashed and tortured by Sinister to the point of developing a second personality” issue.  The closest we get to addressing that is Morph pointedly walking up to Cyclops with “Scott…been a long time….” which sounds like a way of saying “We’re cool now, bro, I promise I won’t try to kill you.”  Still, we get some great Morph and Wolverine moments, and Morph kicks a lot of ass at the end.  After Morph spends most of the series either dead or suffering, I don’t mind an episode where they get to kick ass. This episode also establishes that Morph was suffering from serious nightmares for awhile, so consider that a canon excuse to put that in your angsty fanfic.

(Morph also gets a non-speaking cameo in Beyond Good and Evil Part 1, sitting next to Jubilee at Scott and Jean’s second wedding.  I think it’s sweet that they were invited, but can also imagine Scott putting them in the front row just to ensure that there are no more “fake priest” shenanigans.  “Let’s put Morph where I can see him….just in case.”)

Season 5:

Graduation Day: After Xavier is attacked, Morph returns to help calm mutants world-wide by impersonating Xavier and making a public call for peace.  Morph doesn’t do much in the episode, but they get an individualized goodbye from Xavier while he is addressing the team one by one, and it is clear at the end that Morph is officially back with the team.  In other words, the writers could give Morph a happy ending of coming back since the show was ending and they didn’t have to deal with it going forward.  Thankfully, the X-Men 97 writers were happy to pick up that ball and continue running with it, and I love what they’ve done with Morph so far!

Were there shippy vibes between Morph and Wolverine in the original series?

I dunno friend, watch “Whatever it Takes,” and “Courage,” and you tell me.  Morph shifting into Jean to taunt Wolverine definitely gives me vibes of “There’s something going on there.”

Is Morph in the comics?

(Note – I’m using he/him for all comics versions of Morph because those versions all apparently ID as male.)

The answer is yes, sort of.

Changeling:

Morph was loosely based on an obscure, long dead shape-shifting mutant from the X-Men’s original 60’s run.  Changeling was a villain with a tacky costume who acted very much like a standard 60’s comic book villain, associated with a terrorist group called Factor Three. Look at this fucking dude:

  At the end of the Factor Three arc, it turns out that Factor Three’s leader, Mutant Master, is an alien who wants to destroy ALL life on Earth to make way for his own people, and the mutants in the group turn on him and help the X-Men. Changeling is the first one to question Mutant Master’s motives, and that’s probably the only interesting thing he does in the whole story.  Several issues later, Xavier supposedly dies while helping defeat a villain named Grotesk and save the world.  This story is retconned near the end of the run, when Xavier is revealed to be alive, and explains that the dead “Xavier” was actually Changeling.  Changeling had discovered that he was terminally ill, and came to Xavier seeking redemption.  Xavier asked Changeling to temporarily take his place as Xavier while he shut himself up in the basement to prepare to stop an alien invasion (and no, the X-Men were not informed of this, besides Jean, and yes, that is really fucked up).  So Changeling became a reformed villain and honorary X-Man who went out in a heroic sacrifice, and was almost never mentioned again.  (Even now Changeling appears to still be dead in the comics, even though the current storyline has allowed ALL the dead mutants to come back.  Even Thunderbird is back.)

Changeling was greatly reworked to become Morph, totally changing his personality and origins.  The only similarities are the shapeshifting powers and physical appearance.  You can see how this guy:

Became this not-actually-a-guy:

Or even this version:

X-Men 97 Morph got a real glow-up to their human form.

Of course, they also share the trait of being a sacrificial lamb plot device, and X-Men TAS creators were originally going to call the character “Changeling,” but changed the name to Morph because DC’s Beast Boy was called Changeling at the time.

Age of Apocalypse Morph:

In the 90’s, there was a cross-over event over all the X-Books called the Age of Apocalypse, in which a time-traveller (Xavier’s son Legion, long story) murdered Xavier in the past before Xavier formed the X-Men, and created a dystopian alternate reality in which Apocalypse had taken over and Magneto led the X-Men.  This was a kind of what-if event that let writers have fun with switching up character relationships, turning good guys bad and bad guys good, and of course, killing a lot of characters off.  The event only lasted about four issues before it was all undone and we returned to the main Marvel universe, so they could really go wild.  In the AoA book Astonishing X-Men, Magneto’s team includes a character called Morph, a versatile shapeshifter with a pasty white made-of-clay look, and a jovial, upbeat personality that is clearly based on TAS Morph.  (This change to character design is where X-Men 97 Morph’s white, featureless appearance comes from).

Just a silly little guy!

AoA Morph is also stated in the book to have been formerly Changeling, before undergoing a name-change and attitude adjustment, making him an AU variant.  He explains to Sunfire at one point that he never takes anything seriously because fuck it, he’s probably gonna die anyway, he may as well die with a smile on his face.  AoA Morph is pretty cool, he does great shapeshifting tricks, and has some depth and heart beneath the obnoxious jokes.

Exiles Morph:

After Age of Apocalypse, the fan-favorite character Blink (like Morph, another alternate version of a short-lived character in the main comics timeline) gets pulled out of the AoA timeline and placed on a team of time-displaced X-Men.  This team, all coming from alternate realities and including some other minor neglected characters (like versions of Thunderbird and Mimic), is tasked with hopping through realities, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap will be their leap home.  The team also includes a version of Morph, who is so similar to AoA Morph that Blink mistakes him initially for her old teammate.  This is another AU variant of Changeling who was never Changeling, but instead was recruited into the New Mutants (a bit of an age retcon for the character, as 60’s Changeling seemed much older, while Exiles Morph is clearly much younger.)  Exiles Morph was a popular hero in his reality, served as both an X-Man and an Avenger, and is an incredibly powerful shapeshifter.  He also winds up being a long-running mainstay of the Exiles team, so this is really the book to read for Morph content.  Exiles also fleshes out the character’s past, stating that he was born as a shapeshifting blob with X-gene already activated, and only assumed a human appearance to fit in with peers.  He also lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and his obnoxious jokey personality was partially a reaction to that, an attempt to both cheer up and get some attention from his grieving father.  Exiles Morph is a great character, my only complaint is that he is a bit of a sex pest, constantly making “jokes” that border on sexual harassment of his female teammates.  I don’t think he’s meant to actually be a creep, he never actually does anything, and when the teammate he has a crush on reveals that she is a lesbian, he steps back and acts as a supportive friend.  I think Exiles Morph just suffers from late 90’s early 2000 writing where the funny jokey character has to be all “LOL, Boobies!” all the time, just so we know he’s straight.  (Funny, given how not-straight X-Men 97 Morph seems to be.)

The Other Morph: Benjamin Deeds:

Brian Michael Bendis, in his Uncanny X-Men run, introduced a new character named Benjamin Deeds who could shapeshift, and looked suspiciously similar to a teenage version of Changeling/TAS Morph.  His personality was different, though (more of a sulky teen trying to deal with being a mutant than a funny guy), and the nature of his powers is different.  Benjamin has what is described as “chameleon-like” shapeshifting, taking on the physical characteristics of people when he gets close to them rather than fully shifting forms.  He also exudes a chemical that makes people automatically like and trust him.  Emma suggests the codename “Morph,” and although Benjamin doesn’t like it, it becomes his official codename going forward.  I don’t think Ben actually has any real connection to Changeling or TAS Morph, he seems more like a legacy character or winking homage, like Pyro II (Simon Lasker, who inexplicably has the same powers and looks almost exactly like original Pyro, St. John Alledyce).  He’s fun character and a cute lil’ guy, though.

There are people who call TAS Morph an “original character” completely invented for the cartoon, and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong.  Morph is VERY different from Changeling,  But to me, it makes the most sense to consider TAS Morph another AU variant of Changeling, given all the influence back and forth between the comics and the cartoon.  Morph was based on Changeling, and Morph’s popularity led to AU versions of Changeling in the comics with TAS Morph’s personality literally named “Morph,” and now X-Men 97 Morph has been redesigned to match AoA/Exiles Morph’s appearance.  They are variations of the same person.  And it’s not exactly the first time that a comics character has been drastically reworked in an adaptation – I’m looking at you, First Class Mystique and Evolution’s “Lance Alvers.”  I wonder if people would still be calling Morph an “original character” if they’d kept the name “Changeling,” since keeping the name seems to be all it takes at times.  Still, TAS Morph is kind of right on the border between OC and “adapted from the comics,” and even I tend to include them in groups of “created for the cartoon” characters like Firestar, Spyke and X-23.

Why is Morph tagged as “Kevin Sydney/Sidney”?

Because that is the character’s name, more or less.  TAS Morph didn’t have a “real name” in 92, because Changeling didn’t (similarly, Rogue also didn’t have a real name because the character hadn’t been given one in the comics.)  In Age of Apocalypse, characters called Morph “Sydney” or “Syd,” and Morph even referred to himself that way in a thought-balloons, but the Exiles writer apparently decided, “Nah, it’s a last name,” and officially named Morph “Kevin Sydney.”  The name stuck, and the 2004 Marvel “Book of the Dead” gave Changeling that name in the entry on him.  Morph’s name has never been given in the cartoon, but it’s probably safe to assume that their official “human name” is Kevin Sydney, just like TAS Rogue is probably Anna Marie (her official name in the comics.)  Interestingly, even in Exiles, the book where the name originated, Morph always goes by “Morph” and never “Kevin.”  Maybe Home Alone ruined the name for him.  I tend to use the Kevin Sydney tags on Tumblr and A03 to differentiate from other uses of the “morph” tag.  In particular, Tumblr has a lot of body modification fetish posts tagged as “morph,” and no offense to the fetishists, you all keep doing what you are doing, but that’s not the content I’m looking for.  I’m sure the fetish people are probably a bit annoyed at their own tag filling up with an X-Men character, but hey, it’s their name. 

How old is Morph?  How long were they with the team and when did they join?  Is the featureless white face their “real form”?  What’s their history with Wolverine?

I don’t have answers here because we don’t know.  There’s a lot we don’t know about TAS Morph, and the origins of their comics counterparts don’t really translate well into cartoon continuity.  Like I can’t imagine TAS Morph ever having been a willing member of Factor Three. 

Personally, I tend to assume that Morph was with the team for awhile before their “death,” given that they have an established “old friend” relationship with Wolverine and know the team extremely well.  I also tend to assume that TAS Morph is a similar age to the other young adults on the team like Scott and Jean.  They sometimes look older in the original series, because they were based on Changeling (who also looks older), but the voice acting and general personality of the character seem younger, plus Wolverine calls them “kid”a couple of times.  And it seems like their “human form” may not be their “real face” anyway, given that they’ve now defaulted to the white blank-face look.  The white blank-face look IS the real form for Exiles (and presumably AoA) Morph, so the same is probably true for TAS Morph and Changeling.  But this is all just my own headcanon and speculation, based on what I’ve seen in the original cartoon and the comics.  You are all free to come up with your own headcanons fleshing out the character, I’ve already seen great stuff in fanfic out there!

Edit: Actually, I thought of a bit more:

How does Morph shift their clothing? Does Morph even wear clothes? How can they create accessories like Psylocke's swords?

Honestly, I dunno, this is Rule of Cool and Morph as a vehicle for character cameos in affect here. I will say that, in the comics, many characters with shapeshifter-type powers, like Wolfsbane, wear costumes made of unstable molecules that shift with their bodies, the same may be true of Morph. Exiles Morph, when commenting on his female teammates' skimpy costumes, at one point jokes that he "wears even less," so he may just be literally making clothing out of his own body. Although I would think that would get cold, or painful with no protection against the elements.

I assume that Morph does form accessories like Psylocke's swords out of their own body, which also presumably means they can't drop them. I wonder if it would hurt Morph if one of the swords broke? Exile Morph regularly turns his own body into accessories that he can hold (but not separate from his form), so presumably X-Men 97 Morph is doing the same. This is a step-up from TAS Morph, who never did that. Exiles Morph seems to be able to turn their body into whatever they want.

Does Morph copy the powers of other mutants?

Morph seems to be able to mimic only the physical-based powers of other mutants, under the shapeshifter logic of changing their body to give themselves larger muscles, claws, etc. So Angel's wings, but not Cyclops' eye beams. Nightcrawler's tail but not teleportation. In X-Men 97, Morph takes a couple of shots from X-Cutioner after shifting into Colossus, so apparently they can do the whole metal skin thing. But in TAS, when Morph turns into Wolverine, their claws are not adamantium and Wolverine easily slices through them.

I would add that Exiles Morph is also extremely durable, and can literally be ripped to pieces and shapeshift himself back together. This doesn't seem to be the case of "died from Sentinel lasers" TAS Morph, but maybe they just aren't there with their power levels yet. Exiles Morph IS especially susceptible to burns or laser blasts, and almost dies when Hyperion hits him with a beam at close range.

That’s it, hopefully this is helpful for people completely new to the character who got into X-Men 97.  Mostly I just love writing about Morph.  I encourage you to go back and watch the original series, or at least the Morph episodes.  It’s a good show, if a bit 90’s corny, and will let you fully appreciate X-Men 97 (which has been, so far, an absolute banger of a series).  Presumably we’ll see more character development of Morph as the show continues, which will maybe answer some of these questions.

[writeronartblock]

Listing fucked up shit that happened in BoBoiBoy, purely from memory (so details maybe fuzzy or I'm over-exaggerating):

1. At the start of the series, he literally got his powers at the age of like, 10. HE'S A BABY

2. The Second Tiers manifestations:

2.A. Halilintar got manifested after being seperated from the other elements and getting tortured via balloon poppings.

2.A.1. The fact that Adudu practically brainwashed him into joining his side after the fact.

2.A.2. Additionally, the fact that the massive drawback to BoBoiBoy's elemental split is the fact that he slowly loses his memories and gets amnesia? Fucked. Up.

2.B. Angin got upgraded to Taufan by getting DRUGGED via potion(?) enhanced cookies. Bro literally got into an acid trip and almost destroyed his town as he's promoting those cookies

2.C. Gempa manifested after having watched all of his friends NEARLY DIE and feeling helpless about the situation because he wasn't strong enough. DUDE–

3. The fact that Fire manifested as a STRESS COPING MECHANISM. OMG

4. Getting back to the getting drugged part, yeah, remember that episode when the gang got zapped by an emotion amplifier ray gun? It pretty much works the same way as the potion thing that happened Taufan

5. ONTO THE MOVIE, OH MY GOD THE MOVIE

5.A. Honestly, because of that, if there ever was like, a subplot, where Ochobot asks BoBoiBoy to take a rest and he refuses because of his crippling hero complex. I would get 'Nam flashbacks

6. To be honest I don't remember much about the movie actually, though I do vaguely remember that he got blasted into space and nearly froze to death? Or was that BBB Galaxy? Or both?

7. Fuck, wasn't he forced to fight Fang because of Kaizo and nearly died in the series finale?

8. For BBBG S1, I don't actually remember much aside from the season finale

9. Oh, but that timeloop episode got me tripped up like crazy. That is my NIGHTMARE scenario

10. And fuck, don't get me started on episode 14. Watching Hali show up again after so long was like watching an angel descend from heaven.

11. But the fact that he was flickering from his normal form to Hali in blinks and flashes, seeing him pushing himself to his absolute limit felt heartbreaking

12. Onto, BBB Movie 2

13. AAAAHHHHHH, THEY GOT SUCKED AWAY

14. BRO, WHEN I SAW SOLAR DISINTEGRATING INTO DUST I GOT SO WORRIED. LIKE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE REST OF THEM, HE'S PART OF BOBOIBOY HIMSELF, WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S NOW GONE????

15. Near death counter gets added several times here, like it isn't high enough already

And this is where I'll stop, since I haven't started on BBB Galaxy S2 yet (the comics or the now animated BBB Sori)

[witheredoffherwitch]

Speculations and Spoilers: A Breakdown of the Trailer

Overall, here are my initial thoughts on the trailer: it exceeded my expectations. I was prepared for the rumoured "leaked" version but I am pleasantly surprised with what we got instead. The aesthetic of this season has already improved - the colour grading, costumes, and makeup all seem to have upgraded from previous seasons.

Now let's get to the trailer itself. I won't analyze every single scene, but rather focus on a few intriguing ones and share my own theories. Just a heads up, there may be some spoilers mentioned in the following observations. So, proceed with caution!

The first shot of Rhaenyra is absolutely heartbreaking. She appears shattered and defeated, likely searching for her son's body by the Shipbreaker's Bay:

Both shots seem to be part of the same sequence as she is wearing the same outfit.. and the first shot could be the aftermath of her unsuccessful attempt to find her son's remains.

In the next scene, we are presented with two dragons on opposite sides: Syrax and Rhaenyra on one side, and Seasmoke on the other. This will potentially show Addam or Laenor swearing allegiance to Rhaenyra's cause.

The third scene I wanted to highlight is Alicent caught in the midst of a riot. While many assume it will occur during the funeral procession, I believe it takes place much later in the series. One hint is from the leaks revealing Alicent's funeral attire, which looks quite different from what we see here.

The first image is from the leaked footage, while the second one is what we see in the official trailer. It's possible that they may have reshot the scene with different costumes, but it seems unlikely. In the second scene, which I assume will be set much later in the season, it seems likely that they might finally introduce the Shepherd. Personally, I will be thrilled if they bring him into the series earlier on as he becomes one of the most prominent voices against House Targaryen. His early introduction will showcase his growing hatred for their dragons, and his sermons will only become more antagonistic as Rhaenyra's rule progresses. Eventually, it will lead to the infamous storming of the dragon pit where the mob will eventually slaughter all of their remaining dragons.

A brief glimpse at Helaena's scenes with B&C and her attending Jaehaerys' funeral procession:

The second scene captures her gazing upwards, likely indicating one of two possibilities: 1. she is giving the command for Dracarys to Dreamfyre, or 2. she is looking up to see Aegon on Sunfyre, who may perform the final rites himself.

In addition to Rhaenyra's dragon-riding scene, we are shown Baela and Aemond on their dragons. Baela is decked out in armour, possibly indicating her involvement in a war. This supports the popular theory that she will be present at Rook's Rest.

Baela's scene has many fans speculating that it may be when she witnesses the death of Rhaenys.

Moving on to the Aegon scene, I am thoroughly amused by his attitude. I was afraid we would be stuck in another sombre period with Aegon, but thankfully we have moved on and entered his cunty phase.

Lastly, I won't delve deeper into these two scenes since I've already addressed the question here.

However, I have heard the theory about it being a dream sequence, which is something I personally prefer over the idea of it being about Alys.

Now, my final thoughts: Rhaenyra looks more pro-active as most of us had expected earlier. However, I still doubt if they will include her in any of the war sequences. Her role will be much more covert (which the maesters wouldn't have known to record in the history texts.) On the other hand, Alicent appears to have given up this season altogether. A side note: both women look stunningly beautiful in the trailer.

Aemond continues to dominate as the most interesting character, and it seems we can anticipate his reign as Prince Regent this season. Even in his brief appearances, he manages to captivate our attention and leave us wanting more. Aegon will be taking charge and we can expect a major comeback now that he is leading the Green faction.

AND that concludes everything for the time being! I may come back to this post later and make some revisions, but for now, this is all.

[sgiandubh]

Jottings: Season 7, Episode 2. Nothing compares to them

A tiny, but welcome disclaimer: I have not read all the OL books yet, so do not expect witty repartees and connecting the dots with the current book follow-up by the series. In fact, I am still struggling right now with Voyager, after I gave a resolute middle finger and an excruciating amount of time to Dragonfly in Amber, which bored me to death with its sketchy depiction of eighteenth-century Paris. Unpopular opinion, I know: I can't help it, since I consider Paris, for many personal reasons, as my second, beloved home.

There go my two cents, with little to no spoilers. There is much to savor in there:

I thought I couldn't bear to watch one more single time Sinéad O'Connor's rendition of ye olde Skye Boat Song. I was wrong. I think it is exactly what this season needs: a bit bruised & battered & breathless. The perfect tinge of rough around the edges. This is no walk in the park and hers is the right cue, setting the tone for all the rest.

Vlachos. Excellent. Loved every second of it.

I suppose everybody will talk about the Look Jamie gave Claire right after Insufferable Bree gives birth to wee Mandy. I cackled all by myself, which is not even surprising. And so will you, Shippers United. Mark me.

SS upgraded a bit her game, to the extent she doesn't sound all the time like reciting United Airlines' flight schedule. She and Rankin finally manage to pull off a decent rapport (chemistry will always be at a deep-frozen 0). So, rejoice: at least they don't look like the mean troop leader forced them to share the same tent at Camp Sunrise. It's all fine and dandy, until she relaxes and slips back into that horrific, East Coast wannabe accent. Sorry, not sorry.

Did Lizzie say ”Fraser's Fridge”, when reading the birth announcement, or am I hearing things again? Now that's an earworm, sheesh...

Vandervaart looks promising enough, but what do I know, after a two-minutes scene with SS? Court is adjourned.

LJG & JAMMF, what a powerful, ambiguous, elegant scene. Tension is mounting, and this is when you crack open the Netflix & Chill'd ice cream bucket. It will come in handy, trust me.

The fireflies' scene was the death of me. There is something extraordinary about S's superb ability to speak volumes without uttering a single word. There is so much love and such despair to capture Bree's face, Bree's voice, Bree's alien joy when she mentions damn Mickey Mouse, and keep them forever. Did I ugly cry? I let out a sincere Fuuuuuck and couldn't help it. This is when the box of tissues came in handy, and you know, damn the consequences.

Dear (?) Diana Gabaldon: GET THAT WONDERFUL MAN THROUGH THE STONES, WHERE THERE'S PENICILLIN AND A HOT BATH AND A HIGHER AVERAGE LIFE EXPECTANCY, STAT.

Yeah, sure. She missed that point five seasons ago, why do I even bother?

Spoiler: "What was it like.... there? It was.... magical". BOOO-HOOO-HOOO (I have no qualms).

Jeremiah's wooden toy plane in the streets of Wilmington and then the real thing across the sky, just after the little family gets through the stones. Clever reminder of that plane landing in Boston, with Claire, Bree and TMcG... ho-hum ... Frank Randall, after Culloden.

And finally, since I would really like to let you enjoy the wonderful last quarter of it, Jamie and Claire. That unspeakable tenderness that keeps us all completely spellbound. This is S&C acting, how could it be otherwise: and splendid, at that. But their acting, since that chemistry test, is informed by clear, present, deep feelings. We know. They know we know.

And they got their mojo back. I always hoped and prayed they will go out with a bang, not a fizzle. And it seems I was right. Fingers crossed. I trust them and, as always, I trust my gut.

[lusi-raul]

Secret Life Session 3 Alliances (so far…)

The Gem and the Scotts

Base: Cottagecore village on Cherry forest hill

Gem

Impulse

Smajor (The smart scott this session - Gem)

The Mounders

Base: 3 mounds near the secret keeper and Joel’s fair ground on the big mound

Mumbo (The visionary - Etho)

Pearl (The Builder - Etho)

Bdubs (The Gofer - Etho)

Joel (The Muscle - Etho)

The Heart Foundation

Base: Love Island (This session’s lucky winner: Etho!)

Tango

Skizz

BigB (new recruited member)

The Besties

Base: Etho’s roofless gravel house

Etho

Cleo

The Big Dogs WOOF WOOF (furries confirmed)(New Alliance)

Base: The Big Dog House on the Big Hill (previously Jimmy’s big shack)

Martyn

Jimmy

Still Riding Solo:

Grian

Lizzie

Scar

The Yellows:

Martyn

Jimmy

Gem

Joel

Lizzie

Additional Alliances:

Secret Pupper Alliance

Cleo

Pearl

Cult of Perfectly Round Mound:

Joel (leader/founder)

Mumbo (member since session 2)

Martyn (member since session 2)

Pearl (member since session 3)

Bdubs (member since session 3)

The Task Force:

Martyn

Jimmy

Other Yellows maybe

Thoughts/Theories:

I think that Lizzie would fit right in with the besties specially with her and Cleo’s dynamic during session 1 and the hilarious moment of her attempting to make Etho and Cleo question her secret task during session 2. I know they rarely interacted this session but with Cleo and Lizzie both having this aura that intimidates people and Etho being our favorite wet cat in his weird and quirky arc, this could become a very interesting group of people to watch moving forward. Honestly if they group together they’d be this typical and iconic trio of best friends between two girls and one guy in tv shows.

Grian and Scar should join up with Jimmy and Martyn and they could upgrade the big dogs to a wolf pack. I know Scott interrupted this canon event earlier but with Grian and Martyn to babysit them its gonna be alright… I think? Also more Grian and Scar?? Yes please! Tbh it’s only a matter of time for scar to be on yellow so it’s perfect haha.

The Bog dogs might join the secret pupper patrol alliance with the invitation from pearl to also have a dog army. It’s very fitting and imagine the final battle. I feel like this season will be the one where having a dog army can really overpower a player and win the game for someone since there is no regeneration so moving forward I’ll add those who are planning to make a dog army in the list of possible winners this season. So originally I thought one of the Gem and Scotts might win this season and I still think so but I’ll add Cleo and Pearl to that. The Big Dogs too if they go through with having a dog army.

[angelofverdum]

Station 19 6x15

What in the fanfiction just happened? Like damn, I was so not ready for that. Do you think I could focus on anything besides Maya and Carina?

We finally got a shower scene and Danielle and Stefania really made the best out of it. A couple of things gagged me during this.

1. When Carina took off her pants, and she didn't have underwear? She went on a date without panties? She is a menace.

2. The way Maya put Carina's hair to the side. That kiss was hot. I don't like when they put their hand on each other faces. But I'm not complaining.

3. THAT KISS. Danielle really said let me upgrade that dearborn kiss to the wife version. It was too short, but no cuts, hair, aid cars, or walls. So no complaining.

4. Carina pinning Maya against the wall

4. The Neck kiss. Stefania knew we needed a scene like she had with Arizona on Greys and decided to deliver a better, sexier, and hotter version. I know Maya went to heaven and came back.

5. Three things are hot in this scene: 1. Carina's smile when Maya was going down. 2. Maya keeping eye contact 3. Both of those things.

But this is my favorite shot. All that was fun but the intensity in this The way they are were looking at each other. Damn!

Now the scene after that was so needed. I can't believe they gave us an actual conversation about it. Carina expressed her fears, and Maya listened and apologized.

And this shot. Paris, you are a genius.

Why did they put Carina in a towel tho? So she had something to do while saying all that? She could have said those lines pacing around the room. Because it was so silly the way she was putting her clothes, like she and Maya weren't devouring each other a couple minutes ago.

Other things about the episode:

Maya giggling when she realized what Carina meant by "hot shower" she is such a loser.

Everybody looked so pretty. Maya was glowing, and I didn't know if it was because in the first part of the season, she looked rough or what. But then Andy and Vic looked so pretty, but they are pretty, so.

Then Jack was looking pretty, too (That hasn't happened since season 3 for me). Even Sullivan was looking pretty (I do think Boris is handsome). I think this is a very hot cast, and the makeup department got a raise.

What was that scene with Theo and Alexa? To let us know he is stinky? We Know.

Jaina and Barrett were amazing in this episode. This cast is so talented. I hope they get better writing next season.

Zavier came through with the writing.

I love the slow burn and the pain, but I'm gonna need Carina to put her ring back. It's not funny anymore

Danielle is directing the next episode so I don't expect to have a lot of Maya scenes, but I can't wait to see what's next for them.

People complaining about the shower scene being edited that way, with a guy dying, but I get their vision. It's the parallels of someone dying in a fire and a new life being created in a shower, by Maya getting Carina pregnant.

I'm not complaining but if we could have gotten scenes like this and kisses like that. Why they were always interrupted, and their kisses were so safe?

This is the first time I get excited about Carina wanting a baby. When she was talking about her own practice.

I'm going to stay here until the next episode, btw.

[callme-aprilroseisha04]

I so badly wanna know what's going on with Sonic in your Voices AU!!! (This is an invitation for you to info dump if you so desire)

OK so originally I had this MONSTER essay on what this was about but im really really bad at explaining things and I don’t want to leave you hanging forever so instead I’ll just give you a basic rundown of the concept and all the plot points. Also, important thing to mention, I HAVEN’T FINISHED SEASON 2 YET. Y’know, where the majority of my AU takes place. Haven’t finished that. Haven’t even seen Chaos Metal Sonic. Sorry, sorry, I know, I’m a fake fan but in my defense every time I turn on the show I want to bang my head against a wall, tear all my skin of, and run in circles at the speed of light (in a good way) (but also in a bad way) (a good bad way). Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I need to quickly explain the concept behind this. In the first episode of Season 2, Avoid the Void, Sonic doesn’t realize that he can run out of the Ghost World. He’s stuck there. This also means that he can’t save shadow from falling into the void (this is why shadow doesn’t have his arm or his leg in my au illustrations, he wakes up before he can be fully disintegrated, but he did lose some limbs.) Back to Sonic, since he has nothing better to do, he tries to take a nap at the beach where his friends are at and starts “taking” to Tail’s projection. Then, the voice comes. I don’t really know how to describe this. There is a voice, like the name says, but it’s also a lot more complicated than that. When “it” comes, Sonic can’t hear anything; or, well actually he can hear things (sometimes the noise feels oppressively loud) but he doesn’t know what people are saying, so to him it just sounds like gibberish. Also, this isn’t always true, (it just depends) but his eyes won’t focus properly and they get really blurry, like can’t see what’s in-front of you blurry. Also, headaches! Because apparently we needed to make this even worse for him for some reason!!!!! It’s not at its worst here, but as you can expect, he is pretty disoriented after it’s done. Shadow comes back to the ghost world, Sonic is understandably surprised by HIS LACK OF TWO LIMBS, he gets the tech and bounces, yadayadayada, all the stuff. More importantly, now we get Nine back! Chapter two; Sonic goes to Boscage Maze, they’re ripping the place up, Sonic goes to help Thorn, mini “voice” episode (as an appetizer), he gets a tech upgrade from Nine, he goes to fight, gets the main course “voice” episode, Nine gets in trouble cause emo tween egg boy caught him talking to Sonic trying to figure out what’s wrong with him and why he’s talking to himself, Sonic gets the shard from Thorn, he runs of with it, emo eggboy sends a message that they’re gonna kill Nine unless Sonic gives them the shard, Nine tells him not to, he goes anyway and THROWS THE SHARD INTO THE OTHER SHARDS THE EGGMEN HAD COLLECTED SO HE CAN SAVE NINE, (he tries to get the shards back but they got swarmed by robots) and finally they get out and go to the ghost world. Shadow is really, REALLY mad at him for trading a SHARD just to save his little kit boy and ALSO mad because Sonic wants to keep Nine there, to keep him safe. Eventually, Shadow gives in after Nine mentions that he could build Shadow a prosthetic, but he adds the clause that the moment Nine finishes the prosthetic, he leaves. After that, Sonic goes to get the rest of the shards back while Nine makes Shadow’s prosthetic at Tail’s workshop. For the next few chapters, Sonic get into some sort of a routine; Try to get the shards, come back to the ghost world to rest, squabble with Shadow, chat with Nine for a little, and repeat. Some important things to mention from this period are: 

Nine is intentionally taking his time making Shadows prosthetic (Sonic’s idea) as well as making it break really easily & adding a secret “feature” that allows him to $&@!?ING electrocute him from afar using a remote implanted in his mechanical tails (both and especially the last one NOT Sonic’s idea); 

Sonic doesn’t actually sleep during this time, he just takes 3 hour naps so he can get back home quicker, which only worsens the voice thing; 

Shadow, (who doesn’t understand anything about what’s going on with Sonic other than the vague sense that something’s wrong with him, unlike Nine who got a basic lil explanation from Sonic after asking wtf happened at boscage maze) is getting increasingly frustrated with Sonic because of how long it’s taking for him to get all the shards, as well as his continual trusting of Nine.

This continues for a while, those “episodes” get worse and worse, Sonic grows closer to Nine and tension keeps building between Sonic & Shadow until <drumroll………>

THE EGG COUNCIL COMES!!!!! Again, since I still haven’t seen season two of Sonic Prime, I don’t really know how this is gonna happen, but I do know it’s gonna happen. (btw Nine finishes Shadow’s prosthetic & leaves like a day before the egg council comes.) This is a massive battle and I have like a whole thing on how it’s gonna play out but the important things to note for the story are: Shadow finally sees Sonic’s “episodes” play out in front of him and he is understandably confused and concerned, but their in a battle right now so he can’t really do anything about it and <another drum roll please…..>

SONIC TRIES TO CHOP OFF HIS F$!?KING ARM! Ok, I definitely need to explain this a little more. During the first occurrence of the “voice,” it mentions something about them and Sonic being the same person, & basically says “I am a part of you, Sonic. The only way to get rid of me is to get rid of you.”  Edgy stuff like that, y’know? Well, during this one, it repeats that phrase again and in true Sonic fashion, he decides to do something incredibly stupid, risky, and drastic based on even dumberreasoning. You see, the voice said it was a part of him, not all of him. It also said that in order to get the voice out, he’d have to “get rid” of himself too. So, using this logic, if he only gets rid of a part of him, then he gets to keep living without the voice constantly haunting his every move! This is admittedly pretty silly logic, but he was in the middle of what is essentially a scaled up panic attack, so cut him some slack, OK? He tried to use a piece of scrap metal that fell off the robot to remove it, which unsurprisingly doesn’t work very well. It only ends up cutting halfway, but Sonic can’t really tell that it’s still attached since he’s so tired, & “it” did shut up after he stabbed his arm open soooooooo¯\_(ツ)_/¯. He manages to drive the egg council off to their own dimension before passing out from blood loss, leaving Shadow to rush him to Tail’s workshop so he can get bandaged up, made harder with Shadz’s new leg getting absolutely trashed. When Sonic finally wakes up, Shadow is confused, deeply concerned, and angry with him for almost killing himself for seemingly no reason. Sonic, however, is incredibly calm about the whole thing and nonchalantly explains why he cut off his arm during the battle, until he realizes his arm is still attached to him 

Here’s a comic page of the next scene:

He leaves to go get more shards and get Nine back to fix Shadows leg, which Shadow predictively grumbles about. This is a pretty light chapter, besides the ending:

Nine and Sonic are hanging out, having fun, the usual. Nine points out how cheery Sonic is right now, and Sonic starts to explain why he’s in such a good mood while Nine passes a small knife for him to hold while he does other things. Sonic, in the middle of his explanation, is cut off by…… “it” and proceeds to frantically rip off his bandages and try to cut the remainder of his arm off with the knife Nine gave him. Nine, who has no idea what’s going on, tries to wrangle back the knife from Sonic. In the struggle, Sonic ends up permanently scaring Nine on one of his eyes. It was an accident of course, but Nine bolts out of the workshop and zaps the door so Sonic can’t chase after him all the same. Sonic breaks down. 

After a bit, (about 30 minutes or so,) and after seeing and briefly meeting with Nine to ask where Sonic has been since he should be with him at the workshop; Nine responded with a suggestion to check for himself, Shadow decides to take Nine’s advice and go. Here’s the scene I wrote for this, as well as the comic I made (they have some dialogue differences, but the general idea is the same.)

“Sonic,”

He didn’t even look up. He was completely unfazed, almost expecting it.

“Sonic!”

Finally realizing who it was, he made a soft gasp, which, however small, was enough for Shadow to know he was listening.

“Do you know how big of a mess you’ve just made?”

They both stayed silent.

“Let me get this straight: That, … thing came back,”

The blue hedgehog sitting on the floor appeared perfectly still in the darkness of Tail’s old workshop.

“So you decided that it would be a good idea to try to cut your arm off again, even though it clearly didn’t work the first time, and I explicitly said not to, because we didn’t have the medical supplies to patch you up after,”

This time, he made a slight nod downwards.

“And when the fox tried to stop you, you hit him in his FUCKING eye? Is that all? Does it get any worse than that?”

The hedgehog didn’t respond. He was focused on something else.

“Are you even listening?”

Complete. Silence.

“Of course not. Of course you’re not listening. You never have, so why start now, huh?”

Shadow broke into a grin.

“You can’t listen to anyone, can you? Not your friends, not your allies, not even your own family! You’re Sonic the Hedgehog. The arrogant, narcissistic, naive, idiot hero who destroyed his own world because he couldn’t slow down. That’s all you are.”

Still nothing. He got angrier.

“I’m TIRED of your NONSENSE! I’m TIRED of you just sitting around having a PITY PARTY over something YOU CAUSED YOURSELF!”

Shadow grew quiet.

“I’m tired of your games, Sonic.”

A cold, hard, stare crossed the black and red hedgehog’s face.

“SO GET UP ALREADY!”

He forcefully pulled him off the ground, and for the first time during this whole conversation, Sonic spoke. He… screamed, a scream so loud you could hear it from a mile away. 

Shadow let go. 

Then, he slowly lowered his hand to his face, and …. No. The hedgehog gazed into the person standing before him, looking for something, anything, any semblance of the hedgehog he knew, but all that met him was an empty husk that he could barely even recognize.

“I-”

Sonic ran past him. He was gone. And Shadow didn’t know if he would ever come back.

“I’m sorry.”

———————————————————————

Sonic runs into the New Yoke rebel base and patches himself up. He’s able to get two shards from the egg council, but the rebel base is found in the process. There’s only one left, besides the Grim shard. Before Sonic leaves, Shadow tries to talk to him for a moment, but once he got a hold of him, he doesn’t know what to say. Does he apologize? Would that make things worse? Is he just supposed to wait it out and hope Sonic’s friends will help him? Sonic is still able to collect the shards, so they’re still getting back home, but what will happen after that? As much as Shadow hated to admit it, Sonic and his friends were just about the only force that could stop The Doctor from completing whatever world ending scheme he cooked up that week, other than himself. If he …. If something bad happened to Sonic after this, and he couldn’t get back up from it, and if he couldn’t pick up the slack, then….

He didn’t know what would happen. 

Shadow is barely able to get a word in before Sonic leaves to get the last shard. There’s nothing left to do.

Before we move on to the next plot point in the story, i want to talk about Nine for a second, since we haven’t really gotten the chance to explore him at all yet. A quick little thing I want to note is that Nine knows what the plan is in the AU. Get the shards, put them together, and save this world. He is planningto betray Sonic in this. At the same time, he’s also a lot closer to him. They hang out more, they chat more, and both of them feel the other is the only one on their side right now. Nine reasons that he can just convince Sonic to come with him, since they’re friends after all. He doesn’t really pay Shadow any mind, just thinking of him as an antagonistic coworker, not a real threat. The zapper he put in his leg was just a backup plan, incase he couldn’t fight him himself for one reason or another. Sonic and Nine were a team. They wouldn’t hurt each other. Until they did. Until Sonic did. After the incident, all of the trust between the two is gone. Nine doesn’t blame Sonic per say, he knows that Sonic was just desperate for it to stop, but he’s still angry. He’s angry at himself for trusting him. For trusting that he wouldn’t get hurt. From this point onwards, neither of them try to talk to each other. Nines plan only changes slightly.  He won’t try to convince Sonic to come with him. He won’t make that mistake again. 

Sonic’s feelings are a bit more complicated than Nine’s. He wants to fix everything, but he can’t. He wants everything to go back to normal, but too much has happened for that to even be a possibility. He wants everything to just stop for a minute, to just let him rest, but no matter what, it won’t. He just has to keep going. He just has to keep moving forwards. 

Sonic gets the last shard (Sonic and Shadow have to fight off the egg council again; it’s pretty awkward), and Nine finally puts his plan into motion. Using a machine he built while Sonic wasn’t around, he creates a portal to the Grim, his new home. Sonic begs Nine not to do this, that they’re friends, but that only makes Nine angrier. If they were friends, then Sonic would want to help him, if they were friends, then Sonic would’ve listened to him, and if they were actually, really friends then Sonic WOULDN’TV’E DONE THIS TO HIM.

Shadow had been outside the whole time listening to this, and he has heard enough of Nine’s ramblings. He lunged straight at Nine, but just as he’s about to reach him…. ZAP.  They both stare down at Shadow’s limp, burned body. Sonic’s head started spinning rapidly. He couldn’t tell who was in front of him, he couldn’t tell what was going on, he couldn’t tell where he was or who he was or why he was doing any of this at all. All he knew was that Shadow. Was. Dead. Because of him. Because hedecided to trust him. He spin-dashed straight into the kit’s chest, pressing him deeper and deeper into the rough, ragged cavern floor. One of his mechanical tails snapped from the shear force the spin dash on his body. Sonic slowly picked the broken hunk of metal, held it above the little fox’s body, and …

He ran as far as he can go. He ran and ran until he just couldn’t anymore and broke down in the middle of f@!king boscage maze. They’re dead. Both of them are dead. And it’s his fault isn’t it? If he had listened to Shadow about Nine then he wouldn’t had gotten electrocuted. If he had listened to Nine then Nine wouldn’t have betrayed them. If he had listened to his friends then none of this would’ve happened in the first place. But he didn’t. And now they’re all dead. So why even try? Why even try to help people if you only end up hurting them? What’s the point? What’s the point of anything anymore? Sonic’s grip on sanity finally snaps, when someone finally finds him….

It’s Thorn. She’s been watching Sonic this whole time and is understandably disturbed by the whole, watching someone have a meltdown thing. Seeing that Sonic has seemingly calmed down, she reaches to ask what happened to him, why he was so scared, but it was too late. Sonic grabbed Thorn by the neck, just before Mangey, Prim, and Gnarly came looking for her. Meanwhile:

Shadow tackles Nine, shoving him into the portal and just barely managing to close it before he got back. But now, both Shadow and Nine are both stranded. Without the shards, Nine can’t create a portal to escape the Grim. Shadow can’t enter any of the shatter spaces, so even if he could leave the ghost world, he’d still be trapped. They’re both stuck. 

Back with Sonic, the boscage maze crew are still trying to snap him out of it as he attacks them and their home. Prim keeps arguing this is pointless, that they should just beat him up until he leaves, but Thorn won’t let that happen. Sonic’s still in there. He has to be. This gamble fails, the forest is mostly destroyed and Mangey is injured. (btw the boscage maze stuff I just talked about isn’t very plot relevant, just wanted to mention it cause I could.) When Sonic finally leaves boscage, he plans to go to the other realities as well, destroying them one by one. But, for some reason, he decides to go to the Grim instead. He’s not quite sure why, but goes anyway. Why not, after all? 

Nine has been on edge the entire time he’s been in the Grim. It made sense, after all. Sonic was still alive, and presumably, still looking for the last shard. His best bet was to try to find it before he found him. Nine had been searching for about a day and a half, getting increasingly desperate by the hour. He wished he had stolen the tech he gave to Sonic, or made another one that could help him track where the shard was. Suddenly, Sonic arrives. And Nine’s not exactly happy to see him again. Sonic immediately starts attacking, Nine trying as hard as he can to get a hit in. As they’re fighting, Nine has a realization. He can use this to his advantage. All he has to do is keep Sonic chasing him and his shoes will tell him where the last shard is. Then, try to trigger the “voice” so he can get the shard. Finally, finish. the. job. Unfortunately, the second step doesn’t go to plan. He’s able to get the shard but…….

Sonic gets to him before Nine could run off with it.

And when he watched him bleed out, when he watched the blood pour out of his chest, when he realized that he was dead, that there was no way he could come back from this, no way he could still miraculously be alive, no chance that he could ever fix what he had done, Sonic fully accepted what he had become. A mindless, murderous, monster.

Shadow has been waiting this whole time; waiting for Sonic, waiting for the last shard, and waiting for a chance to actually apologize for what happened at the workshop. But that chance had already passed, it seemed. Sonic slowly walked into the cave, where everything started, Grim shard and metal tail both in hand. The two hedgehogs met eyes. Sonic stood in shock for a minute, then smiled. One last person to kill.  He hopped down from the cave’s mouth, tossed the shard to the side, and gripped the bloody scrap metal harder. Then, he lunged. They start battling it out as Shadow tries to put the pieces together on what happened. Sonic keeps teasing and joking with Shadz while they’re battling it out. Eventually it just devolve into rants about how stupid everything is, and how stupid he was for ever thinking he was a good person. When Shadow finally gets a good look at how deteriorated Sonic’s mind has become, he can’t help but wonder what he could’ve done to stop this. But it’s too late for that now. He was too slow. Shadow eventually gets the upper hand and corners Sonic, toppling him over. Here’s the passage I wrote for the next scene: 

——————————————————————

Shadow grasped the jagged piece of metal and held it just above the blue hedgehog’s skull, shaking with what he couldn’t tell was rage or fear. Sonic’s eyes stared up at him, his maniacal grin completely wiped. Instead, a blank expression crossed his face. It wasn’t exactly fear, it wasn’t exactly shock, it wasn’t exactly sadness and it wasn’t exactly relief. It was…. everything, all mashed into one giant, unreadable expression. For once, Shadow felt he genuinely understood Sonic. For once, he knew exactly what he was feeling. Shadow dropped the blade. He hugged him.

“Wh-?”

“Because you need it.”

Sonic couldn’t hold back any longer. The tears that he had been repressing for so long now streamed down his cheeks like waterfalls as he leaned further and further into Shadow’s embrace. All the words he had wanted to say for so long spilled out of his mouth in a giant river, jumbled and broken and completely incoherent as he tried to explain it all, as he tried and tried and tried to apologize for everything he had done. 

“I-I didn’t-”

“Shhh”

“I j-just-”

“Shhh”

“I c-couldn’t”

“It’s OK. Sonic, look at me.”

He lifted up Sonic’s tear stricken face with his hand, staring into his eyes, tinted with pain.

“It’s all gonna be OK.”

the end.

———————————————————————

And that’s it! This took a while to write, so thanks for sticking around through it all, that was really cool of you. A few little notes about the epilogue & after story.

Epilogue:

I need to clear something up before I can start discussing what happens in the epilogue. You may have noticed some of the Sonic art I’ve posted (mostly the ones with Sonic using a prosthetic arm) mentioned something about an epilogue. This is a mistake. What past me was trying to say was that this was from the after story. I just forgot the word for it, sorry! With that out of the way, let’s begin. After Sonic’s finally cried it all out, they both get up and he thanks Shadow for the hug. Shadow accepts, and there’s a cute lil scene where the two of them are just… talking, while they go to grab the last shard from the top of the mountain to put it back in its place. After they’re done, Sonic hesitates for a moment. Should he go back to them? After everything, he doesn’t really believe that they would want to see him, not after what he’d done. But Shadow reassures him that if HE could forgive Sonic, then his friends probably would too. They both go their separate ways, and Sonic finally gets to see his friends again. He (tries) to explain what happened, why he’s missing an arm and covered in blood, all that stuff, and they are understandably horrified at…. EVERYTHING he’s saying but ultimately forgive him. They all leave to get chili dogs, and we end with the whole gang minus Shadow having a picnic and Sonic FINALLY taking a nap on Tail’s tails.

After Story: 

I don’t have much of this part planned out outside from a prosthetic design for Sonic and the BAREST of story outlines so I’m just gonna make a bullet point list.

Eggman steals the paradox prism

Everyone (including Shadow) gets together to make a plan to steal it back

Sonic messes up the plan somehow and starts freaking out

Shadow yells at him, making it worse

Sonic runs away and has a panic attack 

After he calms down a little, Shadow goes to apologize 

They go back and come up with a new plan

It works & they all go get some food (including Shadow, after a lot of convincing)

———————————————————————

Final, FINAL Notes: OH MY GOD THIS TOOK SO LONG TO WRITE THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DONE IN ONE WEEK OH MY GOD. thank you again so much for reading all of this this is so long oh my freaking god why’d I make this so long? uh, this mostly serves as a reference sheet so you know what scene im drawing so I can stop getting questions on what is going on. speaking of questions, if you have any, ask! im bad at explaining stuff, so im sure there’s PLENTY. just to make sure im not getting anyone’s hopes up btw, i dont know if I’ll actually end up making this a full fic, mostly cause ive never made one before & i dont know how to use ao3 yet :( feel free to use any and all ideas mentioned within this mega-essay with or without credit, i support you! with this last, last, LAST note, I think I will leave you be.

(also sorry that this took so long to write, it got deleted 3 separate times so I had to start over haha :))))))))))

[butterysalt]

Sour Confessions

Pairing: Reigen Arataka x GN!reader

Rating: Teen (16+)

Summary: After the season 2 fight against Claw's leader, everyone crashes at Reigen's apartment for the night. But when the kids finally fall asleep, the adults are left with their own troubles and no one to comfort them.

Word Count: 3.1K+

Contains: A lotta fluff + angst (self-deprication HURT/COMFORT BABY), swearing, alcohol, awkward romantic pining, Parental Energy TM, tired writing

A/N: I think I fumbled a lot with trying to plan out the course of this fic and the themes I wanted to touch base on. I'm not entirely happy with how it came out but I still hope you'll enjoy! I am So Smitten for this man.

You sit on the cool platform of the balcony after your shower, your hair still somewhat wet as you let it air dry. You lean against the thinly grated railing, gazing mindlessly at the giant broccoli that rooted itself in the center of Seasoning City. Unlike the chaos that took place just hours before, the night is quiet and serene. The city had its share of psychic damage and infrastructures that needed repair but, that was for tomorrow to worry about. Now, it was time to rest.

The screen door behind you carefully slides open with an old un-oiled squeal. You turn to look over your shoulder and catch Reigen scowling at his screeching door frame with a tired, displeased expression on his face.

It looks like he just finished showering. Some water beads still drip from his half-dried hair. He’s finally out of his torn, ashen suit and wearing some comfy lounging shorts to pair with his ugly bear shirt. You’re not sure if this is an upgrade or worse. He looks back down at you and smiles.

“Hey.” You smile back at him.

“Hi.”

“You getting chilly out here?” he whispers.

“Only a little. It’s nice, though,” you look out towards where the white moon teases the tops of buildings far away, “Being able to get some fresh air and all that.”

Reigen hums in agreement and shifts his weight onto his hip as he leans against the doorframe. He matches your gaze and shares this moment of silence with a gentle sigh.

“Well, why don’t you come back inside? Don’t want you falling asleep out here and catching a cold in the morning.” You stand back up with a gentle grunt and join him back inside the warmly lit apartment. When your eyes finally adjust to the interior you find yourself holding back a laugh at the sight in front of you.

Since everyone’s homes had been compromised by psychic attacks and fires, Reigen offered to share his apartment space, at least for the night. Mob, Ritsu, Teru, and even Dimple are scattered in various positions across Reigen’s apartment. Mob was reserved the couch while the others splayed out on the floor nearby. It’s a sweet sight — all the kids finally getting the rest they need.

“Geez, out like a light already. It’s only 10,” Reigen laughs, hiding the fact that his own eyes were struggling to stay open too. You could see the fatigue in him evidently by the way he slouched his shoulders forward and slowly moved his eyes with this hazy look.

You watch the green glow from Dimple’s round and wriggly form rise up and down beside Mob’s head on the couch. There was some fascination in the way his motions mimicked the boy’s slow human breathing. You murmur, “I didn’t even realize spirits could sleep.”

The comment elicits a soft chuckle from Reigen. He walks towards his deshi and stops just shy of the edge of the couch before crouching down and watching the boy.

You join his parental gaze from a distance. “You’d never guess he was the same kid that took down Claw earlier today with how calm he looks sleeping.”

“...Yeah. He really went all out today,” Reigen sighs, brushing a section of Mob’s bangs out of his sleeping eyes. The middle schooler scrunches his face for a second then relaxes, smiling in his deep sleep. The master strokes his student’s head a few more times and watches dejectedly.

“He’s incredible for his age. I mean, look at how much he’s done already! This kid is so good in every single way. But… I worry for him sometimes,” Reigen thinks back on the fight just a few hours ago and how he stood by, unable to do anything as he watched the kid get tossed around and twisted like a ragdoll. He cringes a little at the memory and frowns deeply. “I just can’t imagine the kind of stress he’s experiencing at this age.”

There’s this urge to reach out to him and hold him, telling him it’s okay. That it’s not his fault. Because you know he’s thinking it. After all this time working for Reigen, you could say that you’ve got his mannerisms down to a T. The way his brows twitch downward when he’s caught off guard or how the edge of his lip trembles when he doesn’t like something. He’s especially silent when he’s stuck ruminating in his head or when he starts stimming his fingers without realizing it.

But there are also the times when he’s laughing just a little too hard at something you’ve said or when he tries to hide the warm glow on his cheeks by turning his head away and biting back the smile on his face. Or more recently, when he’ll fix his hair every 5 seconds or have his hand on the back of his neck and talk extra-fast when he’s happy. Little habits like that remind you of why you love going to work every morning.

“Hey, thanks again… For uh, agreeing to stay the night and help with all the kids and stuff despite it all being super short notice,” he mentions as he pulls the blanket a little higher over Mob’s sleeping shoulders. He turns towards you but looks down, sweeping a tuft of hair away from his face before rubbing the back of his neck and smiling softly.

“I don’t know if I could’ve managed on my own.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s the least I could do,” you say honestly. Reigen pulls a tight-lipped smile.

“I know. But… still.” The two of you share a brief moment, staring at one another. You quickly start squirming and break the silence.

“I could really go for a lemon sour right about now.” Reigen lifts his head and looks at you with wide eyes. His brows jump up once he processes it.

“Oh- Wait, really?” You nod back at him with a teasing smile. He laughs back in amusement. “Hah. I… Yeah, I can certainly do that. You’ve come to the guy for one of those. Just- Hang on,” Reigen mumbles as he disappears around the corner to raid his kitchen. You smile to yourself watching him scramble off, nearly tripping as he tries to make the least amount of noise.

The blonde quickly returns after a few soft thuds with two aluminum cans in either hand and nods past you, breathing a little heavier. “Wanna sit outside?”

“Yeah. You got your bearings?” You eye his disheveled appearance. You swear, this man can’t do a single thing gracefully. Reigen barks in a hushed tone to avoid stirring the kids awake.

“Look, I just- You never drink let alone a sour! It’s like an event! I’ve been dying to drink one of these.” You snort under your breath and slowly open the squeaky screen door for him. Once you’re outside, you both settle into different sitting positions on the concrete balcony. Reigen leaning back onto his elbows and you sitting on your legs.

The conman tosses you an icy-cold can. You catch it easily and the two of you crack the drinks open to take long sips. Reigen swallows his drink with a loud, obnoxious sigh. You roll your eyes at his ill table manners and look back at the view in front of you.

You weren’t sure what it was about the moon that pulled you in so easily. Maybe it was the comfortable haze that surrounded it as it rose to its peak of the night sky. Or the idea that there were millions of others around the world sharing this experience with you at this very moment. The man next to you suddenly started giggling to himself.

“Geez,” Reigen laughs, “Look at us both.” You raise a curious brow before taking another sip.

“What are you talking about?”

“Just- This scene of us drinking alcohol late at night like. Stargazing or whatever. Reminds me of being a teenager sneaking out to drink,” he snickers into his can. It fascinates you every time to watch the alcohol visibly enter his system. The peachy glow of his cheeks as he laughs and how his eyes get a little heavier as he gets more giggly. But he’s not shit-faced drunk. Not at all. Comfortably buzzed seems more appropriate.

“What, did you drink a lot as a kid? Is that what you’re telling me?” You poke fun at him. “Not a very good example you’re setting for these kids, Shishou.” Reigen snorts and sits up, resting his chin in his hand as he gazes forward.

“I meant that as like. Teens in general, you idiot. There are a lot of stupid things I did when I was younger. But no. No alcohol,” he shuts his eyes as he reminisces. He rocks back on his arms, bumping his toes in front of him in a little rhythm. The cool air helps level his head and he hums lowly in thought.

“To be honest. I think I was a broken kid.”

This comment catches you off-guard. You turn your head to him and he’s still looking out at the city past the railings. The small smile on his lips fades away as he takes a deep breath in.

“I just… I keep thinking about Mob after everything that happened today. He practically handled all of that by himself… I almost got killed trying to save him. And in the end, he saved me anyway.”

“I think… I’m just finally realizing that that kid is more capable than I want to believe. He’s not 10 anymore. He’s grown up so much. Does he even need me anymore?” he wonders aloud with a twinge of pain in his words. “I was nothing like him when I was his age. I mean- Aside from the powers, of course.”

You watch as he clenches and unclenches his hands, picking at his fingers. “I would say I’m jealous but that doesn’t feel right. ‘Jealousy’ is… a dirty word. I’m proud of him. Really. He’s amazing. All these friends, people who love and support him. Even some young love,” he laughs half-heartedly. “I think I just sort of wish I had that too. That something special about myself.”

Reigen purses his lips and sighs deeply. “And now I’m disappointed that I didn’t try for anything back then.”

You’re not sure what brought upon this sudden confession. Perhaps the stress of the day finally caught up to him. Maybe it was the lemon sour kicking in. But one thing you knew for sure: Reigen never opened up first.

He chews on the inside of his cheek in thought then clears his throat. “Sorry for springing that on you out of nowhere. That’s not fair to you. It’s been on my mind for a while and I didn’t know what to do about it.” He lifts his can to his lips and takes a sip, sighing at the sour taste down his throat. He turns to smile at you. “Don’t worry, just forget about it, okay?”

His words bring you no comfort as you fidget next to him. You know that he’s not expecting you to coddle him. He’d much rather have you just ignore him and pretend it didn’t happen. But his words don’t sit well with you.

“...Reigen,” you start, “Growth doesn’t stop once you become an adult. From how I see it, you’ve been growing with Mob this whole time. That boy trusts you so, so much.”

He keeps his gaze down, boring holes into his lemon sour. You lower your can beside you and breathe in.

“That kid is incredible but… so are you. You do have what he has. I mean- Just take a look inside of your own apartment.” Reigen’s body visibly stiffens. He shuts his eyes, seemingly fighting himself. It’s when he realizes that you’re not going to take your stare off of him that he turns to look through the screen door behind him.

“These kids look up to you,” you reason, “They need you just as much as you need them. Maybe more.”

“And… most importantly,” you breathe, “You’re the reason why Mob is as fantastic as you think he is, you know.” Reigen’s breath hitches. The air is trapped in his throat and he turns to look at you. He looks like he’s about to burst with his wide, fearful eyes. But he also sees you for once. And he sees the hurt in your expression. The way your brows tense towards each other and the grimace on your lips. It hurts him.

“Give yourself more credit, Reigen. He’s not going to forget about you. You two are stuck together whether you like it or not.” He lowers his gaze from your eyes to his lap. His hand raises to his face and he covers his eyes.

And then he laughs.

“ ‘Give myself credit’? Oh, come on.” You frown.

“I’m serious. I’m not just saying that to-”

“No, you’re right, you’re right, it’s just,” he looks back up at you and smiles at you. “How could you say all of that and not mention yourself?”

You stare back at him blankly. “What?”

“Do you really think I could handle all of that by myself?”

“You did.”

“Yeah. All thanks to you.” You furrow your brows and shake your head quickly.

“What? No, no that’s not what I was trying to say-”

“Damn it, will you stop it?” Reigen leaned forward now, waving his hand erratically in front of your face like a madman. “It’s my turn to gush about you. Let me have some of the fun with all the crazy amazing shit I have to say too.”

Your entire body freezes up at his sudden assertion. Reigen breathes heavily upon you with almost manic energy about himself. He shifts into a position where he can prop his leg up and runs a hand through his hair bashfully.

“I mean, you’ve supported me so much over the years. Like, seriously. Who else would be as crazy as I am to just. Go along with some impulsive guy because he read something in a crappy paper ad? Listening to all my dumbass ideas even if you know most of them aren’t going to work? And for what? So that we can have a little fun while it lasts?”

“And I feel like that’s just how a lot of my life goes. I try something new and I get bored and then I repeat that again and again and again until I’m sick of it. Just trying to make something last for a change because nothing ever does for me.”

Reigen’s talking speed slows down and he’s no longer rambling. His eyes have a certain tenderness in them when he looks back at you. “You and Mob? You two… are the only things in my life that I will never get tired of.” His stare pins you in place and you feel a shiver rip through you.

“Reigen…”

The blonde leans closer to you now, dropping his head low. “L/n, you ground me. You get that? You make up who I am.”

You’re speechless. You feel like your entire world is spinning with the night sky soaring around you. Your mind tries to convince you that it’s some kind of dream. But he’s really here in front of you, staring at you with needy eyes that speak for themselves.

“I’m sorry. A real grand speech I did there. You just can’t even begin to see how much you mean to me. And it’s so freaking annoying.” You raise your hand to his face and brush a section of soft blonde hair away so that you can see his eyes a little more clearly.

“Reigen,” you mutter, “Do you really mean all that…?” Reigen grabs your hand and squeezes it, bowing his head down.

“...Yeah. Of course, I do.” You pull a tight smile and hold his face with one hand, rubbing small circles on his cheek with your thumb, savoring the velvety texture of his skin underneath. He leans into your touch and sighs, cracking an eye open.

He admires the way the light from the forgiving moon frames your face. From the soft curves to the stronger edges of your features. But he mainly drinks up the way you look back at him with the same drunken eyes.

“You’re a real sight. You know that?” Reigen mumbles earnestly into your palm. You hum back in response, the two of you hovering closer. His eyes float across your entire face, looking at you like a piece of art, flickering between your lips and your eyes. His tongue pokes out to wet his lips subconsciously.

“Hey, uh. How angry would you be if I kissed you right now?” Reigen whispers close to your face. You can’t help but grin at the innocent question. Your hand snakes to the back of his neck and you pull him in and press your lips against his.

Reigen squeezes his eyes shut and he doesn’t take long to melt into the kiss. His hands carefully find their place on your sides, slowly sliding down to wrap around your waist, pulling you closer to him. He pulls at your shirt and sighs in your lips.

Reluctantly, he parts lips with you and gives you both a chance to catch your breaths. The two of you pant gently, hearts drumming so hard in your chests it hurts. You rest your forehead against his, mirroring his embarrassed glow.

“Is this okay?” Reigen asks as he searches your eyes for any reluctance. You only smile back and kiss him one more time. Your lips roll against his and he angles his head to deepen it. You can taste the faint flavor of cigarette smoke on your tongue mixed with lemons. It’s so very Reigen.

When you pull away the second time, he’s red in the face laughing out of pure joy, eyes half-lidded and obsessed with the essence of you. A sight that makes your heart jolt.

“Yes. This is very okay.” Reigen chuckles lightly and holds your hand, rubbing his thumb over your skin and placing a gentle kiss on your forehead. A yawn slips from your lips without warning. Reigen laughs against your skin and brushes your hair away from your face.

“It’s been a hell of a day. Maybe we should get some rest inside of the actual apartment. I dunno how we’d explain it to those guys if they found us like this in the morning.”

“Yeah. That would be reaaaally embarrassing.”

“Very,” Reigen nods. But neither of you makes the first move to get up. You both stare a little longer and inevitably, his lips are back on yours again, sharing soft kisses. His arms wrap around you, pulling you against his chest. He pulls away just enough so that your noses are still touching and he whispers before falling asleep.

“Thank you. For everything you do.”

[achromant]

hello, I just followed for your orctober stuff and scrolled through some of your blog and wanted to ask, what is guild wars 2?

OOOH BOY HERE I GO! ahem.

Guild Wars 2 is a high fantasy MMO, similar to maybe Final Fantasy Online. Guid Wars as a series is about as old as World of Warcraft, but has a much smaller fanbase; mostly because the company behind it, ArenaNet, seems to be allergic to advertisements (it's gotten better since the last two expansions).

These days, the core game is free, with only the expansions costing money. Well, some expansions, as they just throw in older expacs for free now. Even if you start with a free account, you can technically buy an upgrade by just... using ingame currency, which is a WILD concept to me.

Most notable features of the game are probably the character customization, free dyeing of armor, and a few thousand unique armor and weapon skins. Players often joke that the true endgame of GW2 is fashion (and they are RIGHT goddamnit). All five playable races are so ridiculously detailed in lore and design, it's incredible. Sylvari for example are not plain elves, they are full on plant constructs that grow from fruits on the mother tree. Asura are not just gnomes/goblins, they are a highly educated society of geniuses that would openly strive for world domination if it werent for their inherent bureaucratic tendencies.

The mounts in GW2 are among the best you will find anywhere, so much that World of Warcraft just copied some for their Dragonflight expansion.

Guild Wars 2 has a medium sized active player base, smaller than WoW or FFXIV, but they are an amazing community. We have veteran players, including me, who routinely patrol the starter maps to offer advice and maybe some healing to newbies (supported by the ingame mentor system). You might receive random mail from players gifting some cake. There's festivals, community parties, role playing, fashion contests, races and minigames.

If you are a seasoned MMO player, GW2 offers raids and the smaller strike system, which is being constantly expanded. Extreme MMO experts might find the game a bit flat, but that's only superficial. For beginners, I'd say the story is beatifully written. You can explore the open world, meeting players along the way (every map holds around 50-80 player at a time). You can choose any class and complete any content, including endgame. Any class, any race, (almost) any playstyle is viable, and nothing about your build is permanent, you can adjust your whole build on the fly.

Aside from the obvious MMO parts, GW2 also has structured PvP (5 vs 5 players) and the so called World vs World, which is a large scale week-long epic battle of three teams of around 50 players on each side (which btw is not as draining on the CPU as you'd think)

If you plan on giving it a try, I'd be more than happy to give you a more detailed overview of the game. This little chaotic hellhole of an MMO is very dear to my heart <3

This is by the way for ANYONE reading this: If any of you want to try the game, hit me up. DM me here on tumblr, or on discord (@ achromant). Even if you already play the game and are still new or just lost - ask me anything you want. I have close to 18k ingame hours.

[silver-starss]

Ahsoka finale thoughts

Holy shit

Morgan's upgrade was pretty cool ngl

Kanan convo! Giving him the respect he deserves.

Loving Ezra's new lightsaber! I always preferred his blue look, since it keeps in theme with him being a blueberry c:

Not sure how I feel about Sabine using the Force like this. Sensing stuff, I'm fine with, but suddenly she's 100% able to use telekinesis?

Morgan's rematch with Ahsoka is leagues better than their first fight back in Mando

Ahsoka is canonically a ronin :)

Ahsoka is canonically stranded in another galaxy :(

Welp. It happened. People were left behind.

What was that ending with Shin? Is she taking over the raiders? Is she seeking out fights because she's alone?

HOLY SHIT MORTIS GODS

And here I laughed at Mortis related Ahsoka theories. Shows how little I know. Maybe those Abeloth theorizers were onto something...

I love how this shot has absolutely zero significance to casual fans but is utterly game-changing for those who watched the shows

Am I tripping or is the Daughter missing from the statues?

It's a shame that Baylan's arc ended on not only a cliffhanger. Though the writers couldn't have anticipated real life tragedies.

EZRA AND HERA REUNION!!!

NO HUG???????

ANAKIN!! In full Jedi robes like ROTJ!!!

Ahsoka's smile at the end. She knows he's watching over her <3

WHERE THE SUN SAILS AND MOON WALKS MY BELOVED/BELOATHED. SUCH A GOOD SONG BUT HOLY FUCK THE ASSOCIATIONS

Between Morai and Anakin, Ahsoka's got one heck of a guardian posse. And she seemed awfully confident that she and Sabine have some sort of purpose here. I wonder what's in store for her, because I have a feeling that she won't stay stranded forever (even if it explains her absence in the sequels)

I'm not sure if this cliffhanger is meant for Dave Filoni's movie or a potential season 2, but I want more and I know I'm not getting more anytime soon and it's making me sad :(

I can't deal with these feelings oml

[lestappenforever]

Miami, you were something, I can’t deny it. The race was not the best in terms of racing, but it brought a lot.

Firstly Logan and Williams. Logan was en route to a good race, and he’s been having a pretty decent weekend, with making up 9 places in the sprint, from p19 to p10, and I have a feeling he was en route to something similar during the race. But Kevin just had to go and ruin the most home race of his home races. He is getting comfortable (sort of after Australia). However, that Williams just is not it. They are not doing well, currently bottom of the pack, Alex not even being remotely close to points, actually Logan was closer. But they need to get their shit together, or they’re fucked.

VCARB are a force to be reckoned with in the midfield. Almost constant point finishes, and solid performances with massive overtakes that are just (chef’s kiss). Yuki is extracting everything and more from that car, and Daniel is trying.

ALPINE POINT, I REPEAT ALPINE POINTS. As I said in the previous weeks, its a slow but sure improvement in pace, and Esteban is doing WONDERS in that tractor. He’s outperforming and extracting the most if the car, more than Pierre is doing, and that will help him in the 2025 seat hunt. Also notting, Pierre was better in AT, actually wayy better in a supposedly worse car.

Haas didn’t have the answer yesterday. Nico was close, but not enough, and Kevin just causing terror and the not the type like the sprint. He has to take care as he’s 2 penalties away from a race ban.

Ferrari were STRONG (I’m of course talking about Charles). He extracted everything out of that car, and did the best he could in yesterday’s second fastest car. Carlos is going crazy about the seat, and it’s showing, with the way he raced, and the eay he ruined Oscar’s race. He needs to get his head in the game, focus and not get cocky, because what he’s doing will cost him a seat.

Mercedes and Aston are just away from the top 3, they’re getting better, sure, but still not there. And that is a problem, because there could be climbers and surprises.

Red Bull did not have the answer, and that’s okay. Max was saying that he wasn’t a million percent confident in the car since Friday afternoon, and it showed in his comments post quali. Definitely the team will work so much on that, and Max won’t allow anything to happen in the next double header. He won’t accept ir allow anything other than first. Also that floor damage with the cone removal he decided on and the safety car timing, yeah it was kind if an off weekend. As for Checo, he did the best he could, but God that launch into turn one that could have taken him, Max and Charles out, he needs to stop being irrational in that sense, simply because a Mexico 2023 crash could be detrimental in his position for a seat in 2025. But nonetheless, Red Bull not finishing below 5th this season is impressive and they’ll work tripple as hard for next week.

Finally, the team if the hour who had it right on the day it mattered the most. The upgrades should worry the competition because the car is FAST. Lando extracted everything and fir the first time ever, luck was on his side fir that top step. And I can’t tell you how proud I am of him. Also Oscar was en route to a good race, of course Carlos ruined it.

But yeah, Miami was good, not the best in terms of racing, but rather emotions. Everyone going to congratulate Lando, especially since everyone kn that grid knows its been a long time coming, Max saying that if he had to be beat, he’s glas it was Lando who beat him, that podium with Max first then Charles focusing on Lando. All top teams congratulated him, with Red Bull posting the iconic baby Max and Lando pic. You could tell that he is loved in that paddock and that he has been so hard on himself that when the time came, no one could be upset, even us Max fans, because he deserves it.

Now time to regroup and start the European Leg. (also that black on black outfit Max had with black backwards cap while partying with Lando is just 😮‍💨)

Just going to leave this here in all its glory.

[charles-leclerc-official]

Hello 👋🏻 New fan here! I have seen posts from 2022 saying Binotto binned their best chance of winning a WCC and WDC in fifteen years, and also from Will Buxton in DTS (a bit controversial of a source, DTS, I know and I'm sorry) saying that 2022 was their best chance of winning a world championship "in a generation." I know Ferrari has had some fantastic, experienced world champions driving for them after Kimi but what made these circumstances different, why was it more painful compared to the losses before, if this take is accurate?

(Sorry to bring up past trauma. 🙏🏻)

So I am going to strongly disagree with Will Buxton on this. Now he did say that in 2022(unclear at what point in the season thanks to DTS editing) but we now have the benefit of hindsight. And in hindsight no, 2022 was not as close to the championship as we like to think.

Yes it was the one of the better chances in 15 years? But how good was that chance really? After a lot of years of the team floundering that isn't saying much really.

Here's the thing. There are 3 things needed to win the WDC and WCC. 1. A high quality driver 2. A championship worthy car 3. A team that can support the first two and upgrade the car to keep it competitive

Ferrari has never had issues with that first point. They always attract high quality drivers, who are often WDC in their own right(Fernando, Seb) So that has never really been Ferrari's weakness.

Next the car. Since Kimi's win in 2007 it was a slow downhill, then it got worse with reg changes. And finally they started to move up again around 2017-2018 right before Charles joined.

The SF-75 was good, and it was the fastest car at the beginning of the season. What failed in 2022 was the team. They didn't fully understand that car, and even if they had been evolving that car to suit Charles in every way I don't think they would have gotten it right. They hit the cost cap that season due to mismanagement. Yes they took the car in the wrong direction for other reasons, but to assume they would have gotten it right is a stretch. Under Binotto they were good at making a car, and bad at evolving it to keep up with the changing field. 2022 was no different. It was the best car they started with, but given the team supporting that car we were not as close to a championship as we felt at the time.

Also 2022 was not the most painful. The most painful was in 2012 when Fernando lost the championship by 4 points. He stared lifelessly at his teammate (Massa) who was openly weeping. That was Ferrari pain incarnate. As bad as 2022 felt it doesn't touch that.

So in 2022 Ferrari had half the ingredients for the championship. They had the driver, and they also were halfway on the car. But the development and the team are what fumbled that bid. A driver cannot win, no matter how good they are if their team cannot evolve the car correctly, and cannot make good strategy/pit calls.

So no, it wasn't the closest Ferrari had comes to the championship in 15 years, and the team was not as close to achieving the championship as people thought at the time.

[andreal831]

I don’t absolutely despise klaroline, although I definitely do not like them either, but one of the most stupid things in the entirety of the originals is Klaus flirting with Caroline while Hayley and hope is abducted. Would you consider this to be a writing mistake or just Klaus being Klaus? I’ve always wondered if he focused more on finding them if he’d of been able to save Hayley in time.

I've made an entire tik tok about this because I despised this episode since the first time I saw it. I laid out all of the dumb decisions Klaus made in the episode in the tik tok as well as a lengthy caption. You can see that here.

Klaus in Season 5 is terribly written. He may not be my favorite character and I don't like klaroline but everything about him and them in Season 5 was wrong.

Starting with Rebekah calling Caroline to go find Klaus. That made no sense. Why wouldn't Freya or Marcel go find him. They are his family. Marcel has known him for 200 years. It's not like Rebekah thought he wouldn't harm her, he had nearly killed Caroline multiple times. Marcel was upgraded, he would have been the best choice to go and talk some sense into Klaus. Or Freya who could have gone and yelled at him for abandoning Hope.

Just the fact that Klaus was ignoring Hope for five years made no sense to me. I get he was terrified that she would hate him after what she saw, but the end of Season 3 and through Season 4, we began to see a version of Klaus that was actually putting Hope's needs first. This abandonment was a complete regression back to his Season 2 narcissism. Also, Hope not continuing to astral project to find him made no sense. She is a powerful witch, if Caroline could track him down, so could Hope.

Now onto the day of the event.

My biggest gripe is that they are literally driving everywhere. Klaus is the fastest being, why is he taking an SUV that can go max 180 mph? Why did they stop at a rest stop to get coffee? Exhaustion doesn't affect them that way. They are literally flirting and joking around as Hope and Hayley are missing. Sure at this point they may not have realized how serious it was, but Klaus would never have allowed himself to be distracted like that. It was bad writing purely for ratings.

Klaus would rip apart the world to save both Hayley and Hope. Showing him doing anything less is a disservice to his character.

Good writing, writing that is true to Klaus' character would have shown him turning into a wolf to track Hope down. Ansel tells Klaus in Season 2 that he was drawn to Klaus as a child and even to Hope because wolves are drawn to their family. It would have been so satisfying to finally watch Klaus at one with his wolf side in order to find Hope.

It also was so out of character to see Klaus walking slowly to the house. Hayley was actively having her wolf side suppressed and fighting Greta. Klaus would have heard this from miles away and sped as fast as possible to the house. Instead we see him walking at a slow human speed. Caroline is also easily snuck up on by Elijah and Klaus doesn't immediately snap his neck? True-to-character Klaus would have ripped out Elijah's heart to save Hope and Hayley. After all, Elijah would have been fine.

Very little of Season 5 was not just poor writing. There were scenes and plot points that directly contradict established canon. The reason the writing was so bad is because the writers were killing Hayley, Elijah, and Klaus off no matter what. Hayley's death was 1000% preventable. Hayley was a hybrid and a member of the strongest family but was somehow killed by a 100 year old vamp? Say what you will about Klaus, but Klaus definitely would have saved her no matter what. She never should have died but Julie wanted Legacies to have an orphaned Hope and didn't care to make the writing good.

Shameless plug: If you want to read how I would rewrite Season 5 to make more sense, check out my story, Don't It Just Break Your Heart, on AO3 and Wattpad.