#then proved her point by assuming stuff about my personality

[imagining-in-the-margins]

Casanova (S.R.)

Summary: Spencer’s not the only person in his hotel room (and he really doesn’t want Derek to see who it is).  Request: The team finds out about bau!reader/spencer bc someone is unexpectedly at Spencer's Couple: Spencer Reid/Fem!Reader Category: Fluff Content Warning: Mild embarrassment, minor allusion to sexual activity Word Count: 625

MASTERLIST

The hallways of the backwater hotel were mostly quiet this early in the morning. The few occupied rooms were all shared by groggy BAU members who were, more than anything, ready to get the hell home.

Of them, Derek had been the most excited. Particularly because he had been locked out of his shared room.

Between heavy fists against the door, he waited as patiently as possible to learn the truth about what happened last night.

He wasn’t really mad as much as he was curious. When they’d returned from the bar, the faint noises of pleasure and the Do Not Disturb sign were enough for him to figure out what had happened.

Yet no one had seen Spencer flirting with anyone at the bar, nor notice when he left.

Eventually, a bed-headed Spencer answered the door. He didn’t remove the chain, however, and he almost seemed surprised when the door stopped short.

“One second,” he mumbled before closing the door.

When he opened it again, sans chain, he leaned against the wall. He’d done it both to prevent Derek from looking in and—more importantly—to stop him from entering.

“Good morning, Casanova,” Derek teased, much to the chagrin of Spencer who only nodded at the reference.

“Sorry. Good morning.”

Derek noted that all he was wearing was boxers. With the most basic deduction, and the distant sound of a running shower, he could only assume that the woman inside was even more scantily clad.

“You know, you’re real lucky that Rossi hadn’t gone to sleep by the time I got back,” he chuckled. “You better have a damn beautiful excuse for locking me out.”

Spencer hadn’t appreciated the lecture so early in the morning, but he went along with it.

After all, he was in a very good mood after a very nice night.

“Now let me in to get my stuff, then I’ll be out of your hair again,” Derek offered kindly.

Once he took a step to enter the room, however, Spencer blocked him and immediately tried to shut the door again.

“U-uh, no, actually, sorry, I uh— I think she wants her privacy. You know.” 

Derek eyed the shifty man before commenting, “It’ll only be a second. She’s in the shower, she won’t even notice.”

“Yeah, but, you know, just in case.”

As if to prove his point, the shower turned off right on cue.

“See?” Spencer motioned toward the sound of happy humming echoing in the bathroom. Then, more hurried, “Okay… bye!”

That time, it was Derek’s turn to block the door with his foot. He continued his attempts to peek past Spencer, but the boy wonder was steadfast in his attempts to stop him.

“Oh, she’s real pretty, huh?” he teased.

“Yes, she is, so get out of here!” he begged.

At that same moment, as the two bickering boys were caught in a battle of wills, Emily approached them.

Uninterested in whatever the two were discussing, she waved her phone between them.

“Have either of you heard from (y/l/n)?” she asked with utmost concern. “She told me she would catch up with us this morning, but I haven’t seen her.”

A pause. A single moment of silence as Spencer tried to will the gears in Derek’s head to slow down.

But if he hadn’t already figured it out, he would soon.

“Spencer~!” you called from the bathroom.

The jig was up.

Derek immediately burst into a fit of laughter. In a show of mercy to the poor boy, he finally removing his foot from the door now that it didn’t matter anymore.

Beside him, Emily’s lips pressed together in an attempt not to join in the joy of his downfall.

“Never mind,” she strained, “I think I found her.”

Want more? This blurb is actually an excerpt of my existing work, Late Night & Bar Lights! Read part one here! 

[tumbleweed-run]

Hello! I love your writing <3 May I ask, do you have any headcanons for Gale? I have a few (eg: his mother raised him alone - he's an only child - as much as he enjoys homecooked meals he's very well known in Waterdeep's fine dining establishments) I'm interested in hearing what you imagine about Gale outside what the game tells us!

Lighter stuff

I agree with you on pretty much all points

Gale might appreciate wine but he strikes me as a fancy whiskey boy. It's a vibe I get

His mother hates the beard, which is why he didn't grow it out until the hermit stage

He loves all books. Magical tomes, history of Faerun, tawdry bodice rippers. And he has a system to his library but it makes no sense to anyone who is not Gale

Personally, I think he's well-known in all Waterdeep's dining establishments. He's in the Yawning Portal at some point as an adult but I also feel like he visits the finer restaurants- probably with his mother

he was raised wealthy, I know he like "oh I haven't dabbled in wealth" but my dear boy was Top Teir middle class at best. I don't think they were 'own the world wealthy' but I believe he grew up with more than just a housekeeper, not having to worry about money. Mama's got Sea Ward money

And of course (because I pointed out his 'tower' is in the Dock Ward) I think as an adult Gale moved to the "rough and tumble" part of town to prove himself. (which is probably why they know him in the poorer establishments )

His tower is a freaking row home, maybe its like two floors taller. But it is a house. Gale is just a fanciful man. Or he's manifesting that shit, idk

I also think he goes home to mama in the sea ward at least 2x a week

Gale is a sorcerer

Gale is 300% a sorcerer whose mother(not magic) was fed up with her shit being set on fire, so she sent him to train in magics the way she was most familiar - Wizard Apprenticing

Less Light Stuff

Gale mentions 'parents' once (I think during the I was denied a kitten speech) I think his father was there at first and then left. Maybe he couldn't handle Gale, or he was just a shitty guy. I think that was the road to Gales "I'm not enough, I must prove I'm enough" syndrome.

I also believe he first encountered Mystra in the Sea Ward at the 'House of Wonder' which is a temple devoted to her. I believe he was young like 13/14 but my guess is she was aware of him from a younger age. (Most wizards apprentice starting at 13... and usually have no spellcasting abilities which is...)

I don't think his favorite color is purple. I think it was Mystra's color and therefor it became his favorite (which is why I like dying all his clothes NOT Purple). Judging by the only room we saw, it's red/maroon/burgundy- but he doesn't know that

I think some of his stunts at Blackstaff were not just his own hubris though he sees it that way, but also at "hey mystra look at me" thing. Which I think she encouraged

I also believe that he was a young adult when the muse-to-lover transition took place. Maybe a few years after he left his apprenticeship, he was old enough to be a 'man' but it was definitely a product of grooming.

I don't think he was ever truly her Chosen. Most gods bestow cool powers (look at the dead 3) or at least protections. She just... screwed him? Taunted him with stuff she knew was going to keep him hooked on her?

When he saw Mystra's interest waning he panicked because he didn't have very many friends (his only named or mentioned friend is Elminster who has the most messed up history with Mystra) and he'd certainly not taken a lover once she 'chose' him. And I assume this was years before the netherese orb disaster. He probably did increasingly dangerous things/adventures to keep her attention, just like he did as a boy.

[nekoashiii]

idea !! what if reader gets isekai'd to genshin with their like 7 year old sibling, who also has the same godly attributes as their older sibling? i cant imagine the pure chaos of people trying to figure out if one of them is the imposter or not.

Which one?

ꔛ

Warning(s): Sagau. Our little sibling is kinda like Anya :)

[S/n] ──‌➤‌‌ sibling's name

Not proofread 💀

"what are you playing??[Nameeee], can you help me with this math question?"

Your little sibling came up to you with paper and a pencil, having a hard time figuring out her homework .

"the answer is 6 [S/n], wanna play this new game together?"

Gasping she ran towards you with her little legs and watched you make an account

"woahhh, can you please choose that pretty girl, she looks so nice?" She said pointing at lumine, choosing her traveler at the beginning of the game.

﹆

It's been 3 weeks since you both started this account. And dare to say both got addicted.

[S/n] farming stuff and doing small quests while you pay for more wishes and get "pretty looking" characters for her.

"alright [S/n], it's 11pm let's go to bed now"

"But pleaseee, just a little longer"

Huffing out you replied "Alright fine go to your bed and I will show you the new trailer for the fatuis."

Running to her room after she heard what you said, she called out to you

"Okayy! Come under the blankets [nameee] "

Letting out an airy chuckle, you joined her under the blankets and opened YouTube. Pressed play on the newest trailer and watched it with your sibling.

Giving her head a kiss, you decided to get up and leave, however due to her sleeping on top of you, leaving isn't an option.

Closing your eyes and enjoying the silence you relaxed..

However your phone opened the lock screen by itself and entered genshin impact. Sucking you both in teyvat

﹆

Headcanons:

When the characters first became aware of their surrounding and what is actually happening, they started to look for a way to summon you back in teyvat.

And then, two voices could be heard.

One was mature and motherly, the other one was a little kid who sounded no older than 8.

Thus conflicts rised, who had the position of god, and then who is the other one?

They are confused, they don't know who is who, they can feel the warmth of two beings, So, are you Both rulers? Are you both gods, the divine creators? Or...?

Since they didn't hear anything about your parents, they assumed that you are a single father/mother that takes care of their only daughter, which is, again wrong

So To further prevent disagreement, you now have the title of "grand creator", while your little sibling has the title of "Teyvat's heir"

Since you didn't really play that much and just hopped in once in two days, the characters didn't have the time to turn the camera on and draw your face, to even see your face in the first place

And now each statue of yours has it's face covered with a beautiful veil. Or it's face getting covered by [s/n] long hair, the sun or simply just a pair of closed eyes with wings covering the rest of your body.

And when you "descend"...nothing changes you both still have different ranks and titles.

While you were tasked with more serious duty, [S/n] would be taken under mondstadt's wings, she could freely explore teyvat and eat anything without having to pay for it!

Other nations weren't pleased and demanded Barbatos to hand over you and [s/n]

People are not dumb enough in my sagau fics to outright attack you two.

They would just prick your fingers to see what color you bleed

But also imagine. You bleed purple with sparkles of blue and gold, while your little sister bleeds complete gold

Yeah that just further proves the point of you being the higher one. The person in charge.

I also can imagine your little sister getting approached by so many people, asking for their older sibling's hand in marriage. So your little sister dares them to say the bible in Japanese while standing on one leg.

Honestly it would be just a cute chaos. Nothing that serious would happen,...for now atleast

[thesharktanksdriver]

The Devil's name is Tomie (Romantic)

I fucking love Junji ito and specifically the ever changing character of Tomie. This is kinda more of a character study of her with my interpretation

Reader in this is female

There are dark topics in this like murder, Tomie’s origins which include her being in a relationship with her teacher and general creepy dudes so be warned. Also stuff in the relationship is definitely toxic (low key kinda yandere) but it’s Tomie so you probably already assumed that. She’s not a good person by any means and is a monster in every sense of the word

this is dark and not healthy. I repeat not a healthy relationship.

This is kinda me dabbling in some darker subject matter so please be warned when reading and keep that in mind

From the vivid memories that Tomie can removed of her initial life of a normal teenage girl she knew she always had a rosy picture of romance

She’d see romances played on the screens of tv shows depicting charming men with roses and girls being gifted necklaces or letters written out of love

It was something she had craved and had become curious about

Love, what an odd thing. It must’ve been great by how all the women in those old movies would giggle like little girls and swoon

It’s perhaps why her former self had pursued a relationship with her teacher, one whom would eventually go on to dismember her along with her classmates

It was from that point she had realized that love was fake

Faker than the plastered smiles of those classmates who had killed and dismembered her as she walked back into that classroom

Watching with a smile the mental anguish her appearance had given them

Each time she then went on to be killed by pathetic men had gone to prove that to her

Love was only made up of two things, obsession and lust

But something changed suddenly

She had enrolled at a university with the goal to once again watch people’s psyche crumble for her entertainment

Looking for a victim to toy with in her endless cycle

But it was there that she ran into you, poor naive little you who had a seat beside her in class

Your…cute?. A bright young woman like herself who greets her with genuine enthusiasm

That in itself isn’t much to her, what does get her attention is when a pathetic boy tries to steal a glance beneath her skirt

She can’t say she’s surprised but before she can retaliate on her own you do it for her

Calling him out in front of everyone with raging fury of how disgusting he is

Now that…that for some reason sparks an interest in her

For almost all her previous lives from her different clones Tomie couldn’t really remember a time someone had acted in such a way

It intrigues her to pursue you

So after class is over she thanks you, asking if perhaps you’d be interested in a study session and you agree

She meets up with you at a small cafe she found herself enjoying, they made good pastries and no one had yet to screw up her caramel macchiato

It’s there that she engages with real conversation with you. There’s no fake facades like usual, she lets her guard down just enough as you ask about her interests and what she was pursuing

When she asks the same questions you light up, talking passionately

She can’t remember the time where she’d put so much effort into something

She did it before (she must’ve back when she was a normal school girl) but her mind goes blank

As hours tick on she doesn’t feel the passage of time until you suggest walking her back to the dorms

And she agrees

You hover by her side, giving security from male gazes sent both of your ways

You’d glare sending them scattering off which made her hold back giggles

She felt nice

So she concludes that perhaps she’d spend more time with you

Meeting up with you from this point onwards becomes a tradition for her

Along with spending her lunch with you talking and idly chatting about the latest fashion

She likes that you actually listen to her, treat her more than just something to claim or impress

You genuinely engage with her interests in the refined and even pick up the latest copy of vogue when you have the chance and money

You see her as Tomie, an individual that no one (not even her other incarnations) can replicate

Sure she is a bitch at times, one who’s words cut harsher than knives but you also know that she is honest in those words of criticism

You take her for what she is even though the bad overweighs the good (but you don’t know about that. She keeps her cool when with you)

She begins to realize she has formed some sort of attachment to you but she’s not sure what type

It feels more intimate and intense than friendship but for the longest time she’s in denial that it is love

Or at least her own slightly twisted version of it

And it stays that way for the longest while until you end up crying in her unblemished arms

Apparently one of your professors had been acting creepy towards you. Constantly sending odd glances your way and trying to get you to stay after class to talk to you privately

It was freaking you out, especially since he was a well regarded teacher and no one would possibly believe your words

Whatever is in her mind pauses at that, flashes of HIM and what had initially started her never ending cycle play in her head

It is then two questions are answered in her mind

1. Why was she so interested in you?

It now stares her in the face, you remind her of her former self

You exemplify what she remembers of that initial life so long ago. The innocence, the passion, the hope and Shortcomings of how girls are treated by society

The fear that comes with it from being taken advantage of by men whom await around corners like monsters

Back then she’d been to naive and cocky to see how her teacher had taken advantage of the opportunity. She thought at the time she was in control, that it was ok but it wasn’t

But your smart enough not to fall into their claws, you see the red eyes peering from the darkness and know to run

What you do not know though is that the beautiful blue of Tomie’s eyes are an entirely new monster that you had run willing into

With each incarnation each Tomie loses a bit of their humanity, becoming more and more removed from the original

They’d all accepted it at that point, hell she had reviled in it for awhile that she was removed from humanity

But due to you she now craves it, she craves to have you to help her feel alive again form how utterly human you are

And 2. That feeling was love…you what she assumed to be love

It’s such a removed concept to her now. Twisted by the past memories of dead Tomie’s of “Love” they’d revived from their followers

Obsession and lust being the key ingredients to that mysterious concept

But now as she whips away your tears with a certain gentleness she sees the love for so long ago

Love she saw in those black and white films of a childhood long past

Or something like it

At heart Tomie knows this love is likely twisted, dark at the centre of it all yet she does not care

All she cares is that she’s feeling something

So kisses you, stopping your tears as you reciprocate back surprised but happy

She smirks as she pressed deeper into your mouth, hearing your little sounds

Her hands pull you closer to her, she can now feel your racing heart beat pounding in your chest. It’s cute especially as hers is unbeating

That night when you fall asleep at her side, curled up in her luxury blankets, head on a silk pillow as your hair formed a halo around you, she stares

You look like an angel, you are one…one that’s now trapped in the hands of a devil masquerading as an angelic being

She makes your relationship with her public immediately after that, hanging off your arm as you both head to classes

You get jealous stares but her angry glares stop people as the stew in anger

Your teacher whom was bothering you soon ends up getting kicked out his job and you cry happy tears to her

Unknowing to the fact she pulled some strings to have it that way

That’s how she likes it though, you completely unknowing to her true actions

And she intends to keep it that way no matter what

For she is now your loving girlfriend, whom always kisses your cheek goodbye and makes sure that everyone knows your hers and she’s yours

As you can tell she’s extremely possessive in more ways than you’d expect

She hides it well from your view but to everyone else they get the message

Stay the fuck away

Her world revolves around you and so should yours

She almost always has a hand on you, whether that be the small of your back, your hand, an arm wrapped around your shoulder or your waist

It gives her security and she enjoys the warmth she feels from you

Who needs friends anyways when you have your loving girlfriend?, family isn’t needed much either but she lets a pass on that

Cause she can slither her way into that social bubble and make them love her

Make them encourage you to possible tie the knot if your open to marriage

It doesn’t matter much to her but she does admit a wedding would be fun and it would make it official that your both tied to each other to the eyes of everyone else

If your Family’s homophobic or generally awful she’s 100% using that to advantage and getting you to cut them out your life

That way it’s just you and her

Tomie absolutely loves coordinating outfits with you that compliment one another or are complete opposites

Cause on the one hand the matching outfits show that your a couple and your both super cute together

But on the other hand with opposite aesthetics it’s also really cool when your in something pastel while she’s draped in red and leather with an arm around your waist

Whatever your tastes are in style she accommodates it to these fun little ideas she has

Speaking of which, Tomie is actually quite happy to try out quite a bit of dating ideas she saw from online and tv

Stuff like theme parks, movies, museums, plays and travel are ones she really wants to experience with you

But She’s equally happy to try out your suggestions as well since your the only input she actually cares about

She’s also protective but you probably already expected that as well

The minute any aggression is aimed at you she’s sending death glares and planning to ruin that persons life

Sometimes she won’t do it depending on the day and the amount of effort she wants to put into that

But on days she’s feeling petty or they did something really bad their entire life is gonna be in the garbage bin

No ifs, and’s or buts about it

This sentiment also extends to Other Tomie’s she runs into

She kills the other versions of herself whom interrupt her routine with you because of the fear they’ll steal you away

While they are also Tomie each has their own sense of individuality compared to the others which leads them to butt heads constantly

They are the same person but also not simultaneously

And with that comes the threat of them as well

For if they are her they’ll also want you to themselves just as she does once they see what makes you special to her

And she refuses to share you with anyone else including herself

You don’t know of this of course, she brushes it under the rug as she links her hand with yours and drags you off to a new shop

Telling you to find a nice dress as she deals with something urgent with a smile

With her she baths you with the same luxuries she surrounds herself with

You get the best just as she does, it’s to be expected since you are her beloved, her love, her dearest

Unlike most incarnations of herself your Tomie actually puts some effort into stuff

She likes domestic life, whether that be helping you with a meal or engaging in small but fun activities

Their enjoyable because you make them enjoyable for her

Which is something that can’t be said for the other Tomie’s and herself before she met you

She lives, breaths and wakes up each morning to feel your love for her and her love for you

No matter how actually twisted it really is

Because of this Tomie won’t let you go even in death

When the time comes that you are aging she WILL make sure that your still at her side

She curses you to a fate similar to her own except there are no other versions of you

Your just put in an immortal cycle, die and then wake up rejuvenated and back to normal

No memory of said death or life except for the fact that Tomie is your loving girlfriend

And when this happens you awake at her side in bed, her smiling face staring back at you as she caresses your cheek softly

Then giving you a kiss to seal your fate once again

To love Tomie is to suffer but for Tomie to love you is a fake eden that the devil herself protects

There is no apple to bite as to realize the truth of her ever consuming love

[the-s1lly-corner]

I was rewatching the Mulan films to get that childhood nostalgia, and I remembered how much I love Mushu...

So I thought "what would the cast of TADC x reader be like, who is practically a copy of Mushu's personality", I imagine that in appearance he would be a Chinese dragon humanoid but with his personality

TADC cast x mushu type! reader !

im finally back on my computer, woohoo! ill probably answer a few requests, since i wanna draw stuff today </3 i dont really like leaving my wips unfinished for more than a few days TToTT side note i gotta rewatch mulan, used to be one of my favorite movies as a kid (though i barely watched movies back then so uh uh its not like there were many contenders </3) relying on the good ol character wiki to help me through this because its been so long since ive watched the movie

CAINE:

i think caine would actually really enjoy you, a lot! in a weird way caine gives off similar energy, with the confidence and such you know? so you two probably bounce right off each other and build one another up... though sometimes this leads to more insane IHAs because you insist to caine that youre more capable than you actually are... as mean as that sounds... the only reason that things dont get too too chaotic is because caine, in my opinion, does hold some significant level of care for the circus members (at least as it stands for the pilot)

like would he die for them? probably not.. but he cares enough to keep the circus (mostly) safe and bothers with keeping them mentally stimulated and entertained; he doesnt even watch the IHAs himself so its likely that its not for his own entertainment

ponders

im getting off topic, though, point is i think you two would be friends !

POMNI:

honestly i struggle a lot with writing pomni, but i think the two of you would be friendly with one another ! i think she might be a little taken aback by your confidence, but hey, its not like its to anyones detriment, right? well... IHAs can get interesting, with you either insisting to run in, leroy jenkins style, into the conflict; or trying to push someone else to do (oftentimes ragatha, who i feel would be the most likely to do the most in IHAs if theres nothing pulling her away from it (cough cough checking on kaufmo cough cough)

honestly my brains a little fuzzy trying to remember mulan, but i feel like you and pomni would have a similar dynamic to mulan and mushu as well

JAX:

i think jax would try to push you more than he does the others since oftentimes your reactions are more... out there, youre so desperate to prove yourself as this big strong individual that you kind of make an ass out of yourself. and jax revels in your humiliation everytime someone manages to humble you.. in terms of the other stuff, i think he would tease and make fun of any abilities you have.. assuming you also have (some) fire abilities like mushu, jax would just call you names like "matchstick" and "lighter boy", making fun of your weak fire powers

RAGATHA:

as mentioned in pomnis part, you and ragatha have... an interesting dynamic... but i can also see you two having a similar dynamic to mushu and cri-kee . with you being bold and ragatha keeping you grounded. often you two end up together during IHAs with either ragatha seeking you out or someone pushing you to her

not much to be said, i think ! very similar dynamic, ragatha keeps you in check, though i think she would occasionally scold you if you did something particularly reckless

KINGER:

ooo this ones a hard one, but i think it would be similar to my personal take on what his and caines dynamic would be but with you as a fellow circus member rather than the ring master... has respect for you (though i think kinger would have respect for just about everyone who has come and gone to the circus, he doesnt strike me as the type to just diss others unless theres a reason he doesnt like the person... and even then he would mind his own business, i think) which... honestly, i can see this either making your ego more intense or actually mean something to have someone actually respect you.. ponders... character degradation(?) or character growth.. both are fun routes, i think! ill leave this one up to you...

slides my favorite kinger thing

you guys tell each other stories about your adventures, both of you hyping them up way more than they need to be

ZOOBLE:

writing zoobles part first because i think that they may be the hardest, but in the kindest way possible i dont think they would be able to stand your personality... maybe youre a little loud and out there, or maybe they just dont like your humor or often times self centered nature... i think they would tolerate you just enough to get through IHA but forming a friendship with zooble is going to be tough... though, they do find it amusing when you and jax butt heads

GANGLE:

very similar to pomnis part, i think... but like, gangle is shy whereas pomni is nervous so things are a little different... i think gangle would just along with most stuff you decide to do, that you rope her into, because she doesnt have a backbone to say no or suggest something else.. well she doesnt have bones in general but... you know? honestly she kind of envies you in a weird way, she wishes she had the confidence you have so sometimes she probably approaches you for advice.. how this ends up is up to you !

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for "causing a stain on a marriage" and ruining a honeymoon?

Hey everyone! This is a separate AITA issue, but also technically an update idk if that's allowed.

I'm the one who asked AITA for telling my hairdresser the truth.

I (25f) had a friend D (31m). He married an 18f recently. I do want to clarify something I said in the last post because I saw in responses I didn't write it out clearly. I do NOT approve of minors dating adults. I do NOT approve of 18-21 year olds dating people way older then them. If I, a 25 year old, wanted to date someone older with that same age gap, that would be fine. That's what I meant when I said I typically didn't have an issue with age gaps, but I realized I didn't write that well.

Anyways onto the reason I sent this in:

I saw D in person. Him and his...wife... have been married for a bit now. Anyways, I was trying to avoid him. He knew. Because he called me later that day and asked me why.

I calmly told him we weren't friends and I felt weird. He asked me why snd I told him, I felt weird about his wife. I also told him I didn't appreciate him calling me names. He flat out asked me what names, I said the name back, and he said "I would never say that you must have misheard me". He kept getting louder and I know for a FACT I didn't mishear because I clarified "did you just call me ----" and he said YES

So I yelled at him "you're a manipulative asshole and a groomer" to which he went quiet. And then his wife spoke. Apparently I was on speaker the entire time. She said I was jealous and an asshole and hung up on me.

An hour later his mother called me and at least she told me I was on speaker. It was her, D, the wife, the wife's mother and maybe someone else those are the only ones who spoke. They all took turns expressing how hurt they felt and how I was putting a stain on their marriage and how I was ruining their honeymoon. I flat out said they aren't even on their honeymoon rn so that shouldn't matter.

I said, and I quote," You chose to call me. I tried to avoid you. I want nothing to do with you, as far as I'm concerned im done. I won't talk about you, dont talk about me." To which the hairdresser got brought up by D. She didn't name me, but she dropped him. D claimed I swayed her. I said "if your actions swayed her then that was on you". I then was getting yelled at by many and the mom again yelled at me and cursed at me and said Ime calling him a groomer (pls note I hadn't except for the phone call earlier that day) could have complications for him and I shouldn't be "a vindictive jealous bitch".

I replied "im not jealous, if I had wanted him I could have, but that just proves he is one" and hung up.

I didnt realize fully until my sister brought up what happened when I was 16, D had tried to date me. It was a short period and he had flirted with me and would constantly buy me stuff and then guilttrip me for it.

To be quite honest a lot happened between us but I had told him I never wanted to date him. He did hold my first kiss over my head, which I hadn't even wanted to kiss me he just did. To be honest, I never wanted to think about it and so I didn't. Cause from that point on he had always dated women his age or older.

I guess I was groomed too. I'm not even sure, because as some people noted it is a small community. You talk to one person and guaranteed they are related or friends with the person you are talking about. Everyone knows everyone. His mom had always told me that he had only developed a crush on me because of the closeness and I had accepted that. I hadn't seen anything wrong with it when i was 16, but it makes me grossed out now.

I went on a tangent sorry, but the mother has vagueposted about me and people are assuming me. A few coworkers are asking me about the situation and I've not said anything. But apparently D and his wife are fighting now and im being blamed. His entire family is sending me messages and I have these new accounts send me messages, idk if they are real or not. I've deleted most of my social media now, because everyone is telling me I was in the wrong for trying to tear them apart and that they should be a happy newlywed couple and instead I've ruined that.

So AITA?

TLDR: my exfriend (31m) married an 18f. I called him a manipulative asshole and a groomer. His entire family is coming at me now and sending me messages. Genuinely unsure how to feel because part of me feels bad that I hurt the girl, the other half is pissed everyone is defending him and doesn't care.

What are these acronyms?

[bronx-bomber87]

Hi! just want to say really love The Rookie episode breakdown that you do.

So assuming you have watch all of them, do you have any list / ranking of best Chenford related episodes? Or can you give us your ranking of best Chenford related episodes? Really want to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you!

Hi @xiaozhen16! First off thank you for your lovely comment on my reviews. Means a lot I'm so glad you enjoy them. :) Also appreciate you wanting my thoughts on this. Let's see I have been with The Rookie since day one, actually pre-green light. I followed Nathan after Castle and his next project and saw The Rookie get its green light. So i've been with since the literal jump. Seen all eps for sure more than once haha Think I've rewatched it least 5 times since it started. Thank you for being patient while I took the time to answer this. Life is hard to fit stuff in so thank you. It'll be a long reply lol In order to answer this properly I'm going to do top 5 with an honorable mentions that could span up to 5 cause this is hard LOL Those will be in no particular order. I'll do it for each season. Except S5. I just can't choose S5 down to a top ten.

I love that entire season. But I can do 1-4. Someday I can rank S5 on its own ranking the entire season if you like but for now it'll be this. Let me know if you'd like me to do that in the comments. But for this one Each season has something different to offer for them. So it'll be easier to break it down by season but only going up to S4. Hopefully you enjoy this detailed reply. Anyone is welcome to comment and such too.

Season 1.

1x14 Plain Clothes Day

Hands down this is my favorite episode of S1 for them. It's a very telling episode for them both. Lots of growth as well. Lucy is hell bent to prove herself to Tim. She is nervous but driven to prove to Tim she is worth investing his time in. Her day is a plethora of jitters and mistakes. Tim consistently getting under her skin and rattling her cage. Then at the last minute like a phoenix rising from the ashes Lucy makes the right call. Such a clutch moment that impresses Tim more than he'll ever let on. Doesn't hesitate for one moment checking that man's garage out.

This is a huge step towards her growth as a cop and a person really. Its seminal episode for Lucy. A stepping stone to her confidence and learning to trust her instincts and not second guess herself. For Tim it's realizing as much as he loves to mess with Lucy he wants her to succeed more. He states in the very beginning of the episode how he's had 11 rookies wash out on this day. ELEVEN. He hasn't cared if his rookies have washed out 11 times. Then Lucy Chen walked into his life. Disrupted his life in the best way.

With her incredibly driven sunshine ways he REFUSES to let her be his 12th. Does everything in his ability to keep her from being fired. They have a lot of lovely moments in this episode ranging from messing with her to fiercely protecting her from that tool-bag trying to take her job. The scene outside the captain's office where he has to re-write her eval gah so very good. Overall just an amazing episode of moments and growth for them as characters and as a ship. Another step towards their rock-solid bond.

2. 1x20 Free Fall

What's not to love about this finale? It's the culmination of everything they've been through to this point in the season. We watch how Tim instantly protects Lucy from being infected. At first he's in control of the situation (or so he thinks..) Trying to keep Lucy calm while on the inside he is panicking. Attempting to keep up his tough T.O. act with her. Determined to show Lucy he's bulletproof no matter the situation. That quickly begins the devolve the longer he is in that room.

The more he has to deal with this disease alone the worse it gets. We get a front row seat into protective Lucy. The way she is losing it for Tim on the outside. Doing anything and everything to get him out of there. This is the first time we get to see Tim trust Lucy emotionally and not hesitate. Not only that but so openly. She has been knocking on the door of this all season.

The scene above is her reward for all that work. The role reversal that happens here is wonderful. Where Lucy becomes the rock. The one to comfort him while Tim is battling with his dark thoughts of suicide if this goes sideways. Trusting her enough to tell her such deep thoughts. Lucy guiding him through those emotions best she can. It's a fantastic way to end the season for them. Lots of earned moments in this one.

3. 1x11 Redwood

Our first Iconic OTP Line Episode. This is where we start to see Tim soften for Lucy. Those sharp edges dulling a bit. We get to watch how he knows exactly how to calm her when she is in a panic. Tim commands this entire episode for her. Distracting her from the moment that needle goes in to chewing out the nurse for not prioritizing her. It was our first glimpse into protective Tim and I was here for it. Excellent introduction to this side of him regarding Lucy. Does the Tim Bradford special where he tells her like it is while showing empathy.

The first time we get to see him care truly care and let her know that he's there. Has her back in a way no one really has before. Lucy is watching her career go down the drain in her eyes. Changing her life forever and is in panic city. Tim doesn't let her be a resident there for very long. This ep showcases how amazing he is at his job and how good Tim is with Lucy. Knows exactly what to do in order to keep her sane.

He spends his entire day distracting her and showing empathy in the process. Ultimately stopping her from going off the razor's edge. It's these moments she has with Tim that shift her POV of him. Why she fights for him like she does. Lucy knows the good heart this man has. That he cares about her as person. That she is more than just his rookie. It's so very good. Producing the line above. *sigh*

4. 1x07 The Ride Along

These early episode are what I like to call building block eps. The foundation that is laid in these are so important. It's Lucy showing up for Tim when he needs it most. Their relationship is in its infancy in these episodes. Being molded into what we see in the finale and honestly the future. Lucy noticing a serious wrong (Isabel taking advantage of Tim's deep loyalty) Not only noticing but not letting him throw his life/career away for it. The line above is EVERYTHING. She refuses to let Tim cross an ocean and compromise his soul for someone who wouldn't cross a puddle for him. The bravery it took for her take a stand I'll always commend her for. How scary it must've been for her to confront him like this. When he was still in his radioactive insanely damaged phase. Tim already meant more to her at this point than she expected. She couldn't stand back and watch him self-destruct for someone who didn't deserve it. Tim is not even close to being used to someone showing up for him like this at this point. It's so very foreign to him.

Not only that but someone putting him in place and knocking sense back into him. Something he comes to learn and love about Lucy. Becomes the fabric of their dynamic really. In the moment he's so angry with her but long term forever grateful she stepped in like she did. That crack in his wall starting to grow a little more. A defining moment for them early on in this season. They had me hook line and sinker after this. I was already low-key shipping them but this added to it.

5. 1x03 The Good The Bad and the Ugly

Another building block episode. A crucial one for them really. I love how their early episodes set them up beautifully for the rest of the season. If not for these episodes you wouldn't see how wonderful the growth is for them both. The episodes that'll be in my honorable mentions are the fruit of these. Because without seeing where they came from how could we deeply appreciate how far they've come? Tim is imploding at a high velocity in this episode. Doesn't care about the collateral damage either. At this point that damage radius includes Lucy.

We truly see Tim as his very worst in the beginning. The beautiful thing is Lucy see's past his hurt into who he is as a person. He is worth getting through to. Also she also see's he is a god damn dumpster fire. One that if she doesn't put him out he's going to take her down with him. You know Tim respects the hell out of her for the scene above. (Not in the moment but in the long term of it all.)

For standing up to him and showing him how selfish he was being. It's what earns her that wonderful scene in the shop afterwards. Where he opens up and tells her about Isabel and a little bit of their history. His way of thanking her for getting his head on straight. Their early stuff is so raw but so good. They're learning how to function together. Usually one of them leading the other more depending on the situation. Start of their wonderful dynamic.

~~~

Honorable mentions-Ones I wanted to include cause they're amazing but can only gif the top 5 and one mention ha So it'll be my top ten for each season. They have so many good eps.

1x18 Home Front

So much to love about this one. Lucy busting his chops the entire ep. Get our first glimpse into their playful work flirts. Her challenging him on his personal life and not work for the first time. Standing her ground in that opinion. Like she does best with him. Telling Tim he needs something other than work. Naturally is defensive at first and eventually caves in. It results in the cute paintball moment above we all know and love.

1x19-Checklist-We get another glimpse into what Tim is willing to do to keep Lucy from washing out. I love this episode and how we start to see Tim trust in her decision making skills. Like the woman with the swapped plates. She lets her go and it ends up working out for her. The final scene is the best where he logs OT for her to continue on in the program. Lucy feeling so supported with this gesture. *heart clutch* So good.

1x16 Green light- Our first look into how protective Lucy can be about Tim. Their rank be damned in her opinion. The way she protects and defends him to Detective Murphy is glorious. Not caring she's her superior officer. She is kicking him when he is already down and Lucy won't stand for it. Then Tim returns the favor when she's upset about catching Cole. ‘Grief is grief. It’s a hole that can’t be filled. But over time, it’ll shrink enough so that you won’t fall in every time you take a step.’ His growth in this line is amazing to watch unfold. How he has grown since his whole debacle with Isabel.

1x15-Man Hunt.- We see some more fruit of Lucy's impact on Tim. Him wanting to do more with his career. He decides to go for Sergeant and we all know she is part of that reason. Also we get a glimpse into Tim and his rookie days through Deacon and his 54 connection. Lucy is delighted to get a birds eye view to his past. It's the scene where they're defending the escaped prisoner that's the best. Saying how he refuses to do something he will be ashamed in the light of day. This moment being proof Lucy's impact on him from 1x07. Its beautifully full circle.

1x01 Pilot-Gotta include the pilot. It's what set the table for them. "Officer Bradford gets our hot shot." He sure does. Getting a look into them as characters and where they start off from. It's what hooked me to this show to begin with. Other than just my love for Eric and Nathan at the time lol I saw deep characters with so much potential and I've been hooked ever since.

~~~

Season 2. Has an unreal amount of good eps for them did my best to keep it to ten.

2x11 Day of Death

Naturally this iconic episode is my favorite of S2. How could it not be? This is a massively seminal moment in their history. It's where they go from border-line friends to bonded in a way no one else will ever understand. We watch Lucy fight tooth and nail to stay alive. She is so resilient because she knows Tim is on his way. He won't let her die. Won't Let Caleb win. Her immense amount of faith is beautiful. Knowing that he will get to her in time. Not a doubt in her mind.

We watch Tim race against the clock to rescue her. The pressure and anxiety mounting through out the entire episode for him. Like a weight on his soul he refuses to put down until she is back. We get to witness how much Tim has come to care about Lucy. See the depth's he will go to get her back safely. Also get to see a darker side to him. Which I wasn't totally opposed to seeing in order to get to her. (and wouldn't mind seeing again. tbh) 'Today is your day of reckoning. I am responsible for a life that is in jeopardy, and I will do whatever I have to, to save her.' *fans self* That man is on edge from the moment she goes missing till she is in his arms above.

First actual relaxing breath he takes the entire ep. You see how his body slumps against her in relief as he holds her. How deeply worried he was and won't let her out of his sight afterwards. We all know that man slept at the hospital all night and didn't take his eyes off her until she woke up. To make sure he was the first face she saw. That final scene in the hospital a beautiful look into the deep bond they've formed at this point. I love them sfm. Where we get our next Iconic OTP Line. 'You know me so well. Too Well.' Amongst a flurry of heart eyes and emotions.

2. 2x12 Now and Then

What I love the most about this episode is how Tim steps back. Let's her get taken care of by someone other than himself. Control Freak Tim Bradford hands the reins over. Because her recovering is more important than his ego. The growth I can not. He see's a blind spot within himself that he can not help out with. So he heeds Nyla's words when she approaches him about taking her on. He watches anxiously from afar wanting not to over step the entire episode.

Lucy is hurt he doesn't let her ride with him right away. She is confused and her emotions are all over the place in this episode. Rightfully so. We get to see once again how much Tim cares about her. The way he's asking everyone around her how she is. Even asks Nolan how she is really doing. You know that was hard for him to do. We get to the end of the episode and this glorious scene above. Tim sharing a piece of his past to heal her present.

You can tell he so desperately wants to take on some of her pain. That if he could he would. Still shouldering the weight of her being taken being on him. Trying to give her some hard won perspective. This is his way of saying he's so proud of her, he misses her, hoping him sharing his past brings her back to him. Brings Lucy back to being his sunshine human. Not the angry resentful one he see's in front of him. It's a beautiful scene for the both of them. The sweet smiles when he tosses back the ring. My damn heart.

3. 2x13 Follow Up Day

Another Iconic moment in S2. This season is full of them. Ground breaking moments that drive them forward as a ship. He's passed his Sergeants exam. Hooray. Lucy is SO DAMN PROUD when they get the news. It's the thing he's been working toward since the beginning of S2. He's offered a Hollywood post. One that he can have quickly. A prominent position for him right out the gate and yet he hesitates. Why you ask? Well he's a little too attached to his current rookie that he pretends he isn't attached to. (While dating her best friend might I add. Something I would forget regularly in this season)

Lucy reminds him why he wants to stay around and not leave yet. She challenges him, supports him and believes in Tim in a way he's never had before. Has unwavering faith in him. He says he's not done training her yet. When really he's not ready to let go of the influence she's had on his life. Heart eyes galore. She is more important than moving up atm. I love it.

4. 2x02 The Night General

The beginning of Tim's quest to study for being a Sergeant. It starts off as Tim torturing Lucy with reading his out of print book to him. What starts out as him enjoying making her read it turns into so much more. Lucy quickly turns it around on him. Because well Lucy. Decides on specific segments to have him recite back. Quickly annoying him and he loses this game fairly quickly. It's during this studying we find out Tim learns a certain way. That he must be in motion to absorb the material. (Me too love) He doesn't take this news in stride very well because it's Tim.

Lucy goes above and beyond to apologize for upsetting him. She spends what I assume is any free time between shifts recording the book for him. Not only does she do this she reassures him that it's ok to learn this way. There is no shame in it even compliments him because of it. Telling him its why he excels at being a cop. I

I just adore this moment so much because she builds him up and encourages him. Never once letting him feel shame for how he learns. Lucy taking care of him in ways Tim can't even comprehend atm. He is overwhelmed by her support and empathy. Can only muster a really loaded 'Thanks.' Such a lovely building block for them. Also welcome to the sweaty gun show above *fans self*

5. 2x08 Clean Cut

Ahh the protective Lucy episode. We get to see how far Tim will go for Lucy in this season. The audience also gets to see how far Lucy is willing to go to protect and defend Tim. Just like in 1x16 she charges head long at a superior to defend Tim. Refusing to let anyone sully his name or character. From the moment their shop hits that woman's car she goes into 'Protect Tim mode.' at all costs.

Hell raining down on anyone who gets in the way of her clearing his name. Eating anyone trying to stop her from righting this wrong she KNOWS is a wrong against him. Tim is so defeated and resigned after it happens. He's not going to defend himself so Lucy takes it on herself to do this. The ferocity is noticed by Tim. Why he lets her lead the questioning against the shady BF.

Lucy breathes life back into him that they could overturn this. That unshakeable faith she has in him. Refusing to let him give up on himself. It's the way she builds him up and won't let him think any less of himself I adore so much. After it's reversed and he gets his award she's a proud wifey. Even throwing back his own words at him when he thanks her. Eyes full of love. It's fantastic full circle moment for them.

~~~

Honorable Mentions

2x19-Q Word

As I've said earlier S2 is chock full of goodies. Tim learning the place he still holds in Lucy's life. He is her GO TO. A place he thought he had lost in 2x11. He gave up having that spot in her life because he no longer felt worthy of it. That he was given his shot and he blew it. Lucy not for one damn second thought he forfeited that. She was more upset he wasn't engaging with her about this than anything else.

Lucy does her best to relieve him of his burden. Of the guilt he continues to feel. To let him know it was NOT his fault. That his opinion is one of most value to her. The very opposite of what Tim thought of his place in her world. It's a good episode. One of the best parts above. Lucy applying some salve to his guilty soul.

2x06 Fallout

Lots to love in this ep. Tim trying and failing at 'being nice' to Lucy while she goes through her emotions about her ex. To him tapping into his actual soft side for her. The genuine side. Them facing a bomb threat and Lucy getting to unleash all her anger about her ex's wedding Such a good scene.. With a little of Lucy throwing his words back like no one else can. Lastly ending with them deciding to spend their last moments on earth together drinking booze. Damn good ep.

2x10-The Dark Side

Ahhh the pre-DOD episode. Where Tim spends the entire episode being over protective of Lucy and not sure why he is. All he knows is he doesn't like this guy sniffing around her. His cop gut screaming at him with a mixture of jealously and actual worry. The whole episode is one giant foreshadowing for the following episode.

2x14 Casualties

Tim background eps are always my jam. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this man and learning of his history. Getting a little look into his life in the service with Mitch. Also the intro of their fur-baby Kojo and how very unready Lucy is to care for him. We get our next Iconic OTP line 'Some things matter more.' A moment which is such a prominent scene for them. Good precursor to the moment they share in 2x19 as well.

2x01 impact

The premiere got some real good stuff. We see how Tim reacts so very poorly to Lucy protecting him. Regressing them both with his flour bomb moment. HIs anger coming out in everything he does with her in this episode. Lucy taking it at first then reaches her boiling point towards the end. Basically hands him his ass in a way only Lucy Chen can. It's glorious. Turns him around so much he brags on her to Grey later on about her jump after a suspect. 'Of course she did. I trained her.'

~~~

Season 3

3x09 Amber

Ahh my fav ep of the season. This episode has so many good moments. Lucy with her list for a 'healthy parting.' How she is determined to make her last day a big deal with Tim. Where as Tim is also determined, just in the opposite direction. Because if he talks about it he's going to have to face her leaving. Which we all know he does not want to do. Fights her on it most of the episode. Until something serious happens. Then Tim finally gives in to distract Lucy from the stressful baby scenario they're currently in.

Takes care of her by letting her do the bloody list he's trying to avoid. They have a lovely moment of reminiscing over Plain Clothes Day. How far Lucy has come since that moment. The amount of confidence she had gained. Learning to trust her instincts fully. Something Tim saw in her day one and wanted her to hone in on. Lucy then brings up UC and Tim saying she doesn't have what it takes. it leads into the most iconic moment of the episode. Where she "pretends" to have feelings for Tim.

Sending Tim into an ABSOLUTE panic till she can't take it anymore and breaks into pure laughter. Wounding his pride severely in the process of proving her point. We get two epic moments in this episode. The parking garage scene is lovely. A culmination of the last year of so. How far they've both come. His last eval being one that brings them full circle. Lucy's flour bomb finishing off the nostalgia. The heart eyes galore in this scene and its topped off with them calling each other by their first names. Starting a new chapter with this wonderful moment.

2. 3x14 Threshold

I LOVE this episode so much. It's why it's number 2. This episode is the culmination of Lucy's fast track UC training with Harper. Lucy chomping at the bit to prove herself. A VERY anxious Tim observing from the outside. The flirty flirt we get in the car makes me squee every time. Little bit of Tim and Lucy truly coming out in that moment. The touching is everything as she communicates silently with him about what's going on.

Then we get this moment above. Where they are blatantly flirting and checking each other out. Especially Tim. Man could not be more transparent in his attraction to Lucy at this point. The elevator gaze before they even talk. *fans self* Shameless flirting, praise from Tim and to top it off Tim is the one to ask Lucy to save him a dance. I remember going out of my mind with excitement when I saw this episode. Look at them above. My god the UST in immense and I love it so very much.

3. 3x06 Revelations

The episode where Lucy begins her interest in UC. It's a ROUGH episode for Tim for a lot of reasons. From his PTSD about Isabel with Mack showing up to seeing Lucy put in harms way. We see the protective side come out fiercely in this one. He doesn't even try to tamp it down. Especially in front of others. i.e. the entire OP room LOL Tim battling past demons and losing terribly. Seeing his favorite human put at risk isn't sitting well with him. His panic at losing her or possibly getting hurt making him lose his mind.

Lucy just wanting him to be proud of her. For showing an interest outside of patrol. To be excited she got put on an OP because she kicked ass on the fly. Impressed Harper enough to green light her. His approval and opinion meaning the entire world to her. When he doesn't she is so very discouraged. That's what makes the moment above so important and amazing. Tim putting aside those demons and letting her have that approval and praise she earned ten times over. Because at the end of the day this OP was about her and not him. So he puts her first with the lovely moment above.

4. 3x11 New Blood

Where we see Lucy be utterly CONSUMED by jealously and insecurities. Tim gets his new rookie and Lucy is excited at first. Then see's Tim isn't treating her anywhere near how she was treated in the beginning. He's being nice, letting her drive, buying her coffee, being soft and empathetic. All things she had to drag out of him kicking and screaming. I've said this before but Tim was her first real 'puppy' with massive success. It was a lot of work though for her to have the relationship she has with him now.

Then this Katie Barnes comes in and gets it all in one shift. Lucy is losing her damn mind most of the ep. Watching from afar with massive jealously. Poor Jackson has to listen to it most of his shift LOL Comes with the bestie territory though. By the end of the episode she see's Tim filling out her paperwork and lets Tim have it. What I love is he doesn't get mad at her for it.

Doesn't reprimand her just quell's her insecurities. Explaining why he was training Barnes the way he was. Then seals the scene with the lovely line above. Lucy is absolutely beaming when he walks away. Full of so much joy and happiness she can't contain herself. He thinks she is one of the best rookie's he's trained and lets her know it. Saying maybe one day Katie could be as good as her. *sigh* So good.

5. 3x01 Consequences

Their first marriage episode of the season. Where Lucy is on Tim like white on rice. Her confidence and self esteem shines through out this season and this is the starter episode of it all. The way they go through Nolan's house together is fantastic. She challenges Tim the entire time with her own cop gut. It's so fun to watch the back and forth.

They go from cute banter to Tim being a fierce protector when they have to go see Rosalind. Tim tries to prevent her from going in. Wanting to shield her from this monster. Lucy refuses says she can handle it. Rosalind just see's someone she can play with. Tim attempts to hold back. Not interfere and tries to keep Lucy steady. Then loses it when she taunts Lucy with her barrel song. The official title of 'Fierce protector.' is born in this moment. Such a good episode for them beginning to end.

~~~

Honorable Mentions

3x02 In-Justice

I adore this ep because it is one giant flirting session. The scene above alone is proof of that. Tim just sitting back and enjoying the Lucy show. Setting up a game he knows she is going to absolutely crush. (and does) They're legit flirting in front of their call for like two minutes before they disengage and Lucy works her magic. Also we get to see how soft Tim is for Lucy and gone for her with her car. Telling her to get over until Caleb PTSD in brought into the picture. It's then he caves instantly. Also the introduction of their pseudo daughter Tamara. Lucy's 'puppy.'

3x04-Sabotage

The fruit of the last couple eps coming to fruition. Lucy having Tim revisit something he did on her first shift. Confronting him about how he treated those gardeners. Not only that but the impact he had on them through his actions. This brings Tim's defenses immediately up and he snaps at her. Trying to defend his actions because he is feeling defensive. He does a poor job of it and shuts down completely. Reason being he's ashamed of who he was then and Lucy bringing it up hurts in a way he wasn't expecting.

We get to see our boy go through some serious growth. MASSIVE growth really. I could not be prouder of him for it. For not shutting down for the rest of the day. Letting Lucy know he was wrong and what he can do so it never happens again. Love this ep for the Tim growth, Lucy calling him out and letting him know how proud she is of him. It's such a good moment/ep for them.

3x07 True Crime

I personally LOVE the documentary episodes so much. The reason being their banter is the best part. Their chemistry is on full display for all to see. Lucy owns Tim's ass in this one. Shoots down all his cocky comments. He is also all heart eyes whenever she isn't crushing him with her words ahha. Light hearted fun ep for them.

3x08 Bad Blood

Good ep for Tim telling her like it is when he's trying to avoid it like the plague haha Emmett breaking up with her over text. Lucy doesn't handle it well. She self destructs till Tim does what he does best and gives her some solid perspective. Helping her finally solve the 'Why' behind her break up.

3x05 Lockdown

Tim and Lucy being a united front against Doug is the absolute best. How Tim comes tearing into the station after Stanton and Lucy has to stop him. Then Stanton is an extra ass and Tim then has to prevent Lucy from hurting him. The way they have each other's backs always gets to me. They spend the entire episode this kick ass duo determined to protect Jackson. I love it sfm.

~~~~

Season 4 another super hard one for me but top ten helped.

4x09 Breakdown

I'm sure some of you thought I would choose 4x22. It follows this one pretty closely but I ADORE this episode. It's my favorite for so many reasons. Lucy has a day off and how does she spend it? With Tim and his sister redoing his childhood home. Totally normal 'Friend' status there. Nothing soulmate level about that at all....Then they spend the episode chasing down his father's sordid past. This is due to a gun they find in the wall. Not only that but how heavily Tim leans on Lucy during the process.

Let's her take the lead and trusts her to handle portions of it for him. Like interrogating his dad's former mistress. Then we get this GLORIOUS scene above. Hands down my favorite hug of their's. Tim confronting his father and walking out feeling nuclear in his emotions. He is radioactive from that interaction and so very hurt. He explains what his father did to Lucy. He's so disgusted and hurt.

Then he is NEEDING Lucy to know he isn't his father. That the Tim tests don't make him like his dad. He is on the verge of tears as he says this to her. The most vulnerable we have ever seen Tim in general but especially with her. Lucy jumping into action and gathering him up in her arms. Comforting him, letting him know he is NOTHING like him. Tim sinks into the hug. Wraps himself entirely around her. Letting her hold him up emotionally. It's here we see the last of his wall crumble to the ground never to be rebuilt again. This was the ep I knew we were headed towards them getting together. All time fav ep.

2. 4x22 Day in The Hole

So much to love in this episode. From their daughter getting her ‘first’ car to finding Tim's bizzaro world double 'Dim' LOL Also the introduction of Juicy aha It's so good I can not. Lucy getting beyond excited to get Tim all dressed up for his UC mission. Especially with the tattoo's. Then when Juicy gets involved so does Lucy. It's AU Tim and Lucy and I was dying. Lucy breaks his brain in more ways than one above. The way she stuns him with her UC background for their characters LMAO He stumbles on his words and shifts like his pants are getting little tight for him heh. They haven't even kissed yet.

It will forever crack me up his reaction. Also the hilarious lead up to the kiss. How nervous and awkward they are. 'Well that's romantic....I wasn't trying to be romantic.' LMFAO. Clearly Timothy.... Eric and Melissa's chemistry on full display in this moment. Then the way Lucy just grabs his face and the kiss above happens. How they instantly melt into each other. Like why haven't we been doing this the entire time? You can see Tim ready to seriously deepen the kiss above. The pre-tongue action going on. Hot damn. I remember having to rewind it making sure what I was seeing was real.

The hilarity that ensures when Tamara walks in is so so funny. Never not cackle at this. Lucy's 'Oh!' and Tim is stumbling over himself to get out of there. Makes me laugh just writing it. The awkward 'Good jobs' and pointing. I'm dying. Tim's epiphany in the hallway is the best. Can no longer run from how he feels anymore. That kiss unlocking why he's felt the way he does. The awkward way they interact at the station. Both hiding in their vehicles waiting to find the courage to come out. Gah such a good finale leading to an incredible season 5.

3. 4x12 The Knock

Another episode on the road to them ending up together. They are at soulmate level territory in the scene above alone. The entire episode is fantastic. 'Personal space I don't know her' is the theme of this episode for them. From this 'date' to their case. Where Tim lets her take the lead. They're right on top of each other in that hallway scene when Tim is asking her POV on what they should do.

The beach date is one of the best parts. I don't know how both Ashley and Chris didn't just get up and leave. It's so obvious Tim and Lucy are the ones on a date. Chris and Ashley just happen to be there. The way they flirt the entire time, the inside jokes, the way they know each other so deeply. Their intimate connection on full display.

It's the lack of space I adore so much. That magnetic pull of their's. Never be over Gerald the goat. The way they lovingly stare at each other after he's told the story. The only ones laughing are them. To think either of them (Chris and Ashley) actually thought they had a chance against their bond. Such fools. I would've been highly threatened after that display. Something so intimate about knowing someone on an emotional level like they do. Height of their soulmate moments in this one.

4. 4x18-Backstabbers

Gah this episode be still my damn shipper heart. Lucy getting annoyed she isn't getting any recognition as Tim's aide. Naturally at first Tim pushes against it. Gives her crap for asking for it. Little bit of Old school Tim coming out in this scenario. But we see by the end of the episode him cracking for her. Like he always does. Tim cashing in on the dance he owed her from 3x14. How these two don't know they're in love at this point I couldn't tell you. Blows my damn mind.

The fact that he gives up recognition for her to have it. To further her career and telling her he wants her to be successful? Gah not to mention the heart eyes in this moment. Lucy is beaming brightly like a Christmas tree at this gesture. Tim is so so gone for her by this point it's oozing out of him. If you watched these two above with no context you'd think they were together. Everything about them says how in love they are. The entire scene is one giant I love you/in love with you moment. Tim I don't do weddings Bradford tearing up the dance floor with his girl. Gah I can not.

5. 4x01-Life and Death

The premiere is so very very good. Tim offering her a safe space the moment they get some time alone. Especially after hearing how heartbroken she is. How she can't go back to her apt without Jackson right now. The way he gives her a safe place to crash land into. I love it sfm. Then we get the gloriously intimate and beautiful hug above. The one that sparks the flame between them. One they've been trying to keep at a low flame roaring into an inferno. Their emotions and closeness ramping it up to a level neither is ready for.

The chemistry in this moment is out of this world good. Both being smacked in the face with the growing UST between them. Lucy going for it but it being shot down by Wesley's call. Gah such a good way to start an amazing season. Then Lucy spends the rest of the episode worrying about him from the other side of the world. Letting him know that worry until he makes it back. Such a good premiere.

Honorable Mentions

4x07 Fire Fight

This scene alone is why it's my first honorable mention. Phew lord. The fiery UST in this scene. HOT DAMN. The brazen way they're both looking at each other. This is totally platonic friendship right here....The intense gaze gets me in my shipper feels. Then Tim gets his wits about him a bit before sassing her. Telling her the mic is too high. Her ripping it right off and his face LOL They're so married it kills me. I do love the way she bosses him around in this scene and afterwards when he's in the car. She's projecting jealously entire time.

4x06 Poetic Justice

Oh you know just another episode where all they do is compete and flirt. Not caring about anyone else around them while they do so. Because they can't handle their emotions yet. So they intensely channel it into flirting and competitive things instead. I love these idiots so much.

4x08 -Hit and Run

I LOVE this episode for the Tim background alone. We get the introduction of his sister Genny. Who I love sfm. Lucy of course eats up her being there. She THRIVES on any morsel of info she can get on his background. Lucy is enjoying herself till his dark childhood is brought up. His sister is there to sell their childhood home and he doesn't want to be apart of it. ""Wha-what do you want? Some other family to just cuddle up under the broken plaster where dad slammed my head against the wall?" Ugh my heart. My boy. But it's such a good episode in full for Tim. Also for Lucy getting to meet his sister.

4x14-The Long Shot

This is a great episode for Lucy. We get to see more about her background as well. Finally finding out why her mother is the way she is with her. Her deep digging revealing her father isn't her real father. How much she struggles in this episode emotionally. We get to see how natural it is for Tim to be there for her. Not an ounce of fight left in him to stay out of her personal life. This is just part of who they are now and it's such growth I can not stand it.

4x16-Real Crime

Another gem for the documentary series. If you think they were married in this last one they double down on this one. The amount of cuteness, sass and marriage moments is primo in this one. 'Can I be interviewed alone?' LMAO The epitome of Grumpy x Sunshine. Lucy having the time of her life while Tim is a grumpsaurous. Their dynamic gives me life haha I adore this entire episode for them.

S5 I adore all it's own. If you want a ranking from 1-22 I can do that but I can not choose. Hurts me too much to do that LOL but here are my picks for 1-4. Once again thank you for being so patient on my reply. This was a hefty ask to answer thank you for asking me :) I hope you enjoy the answer.

[grimalkinmessor]

Once upon a day, in some distant AU, Light and L have swapped bodies. What happens next?

I have so many questions. What caused them to swap bodies? Do they know what the cause is? Do they know how long they're going to be like that? At what point in canon are we in? Or is this like a soulmate "You bodies once a year until you find them" thing? I NEED CONTEXT—

Guh. Okay. So, assuming that it happened at some point during canon, and that they already know each other, a few things could happen.

L wakes up in Light's body. Already off to a weird start, because L rarely ever sleeps and even when he does it's typically not in a bed. Plus L feels—rested?? He doesn't ache anywhere?? He recognizes Light's bedroom, of course, and after that it wouldn't take him long to adjust and believe. "This is happening now."

HOWEVER due to my own personal headcanons this means that L can now see Ryuk. L is now the owner of the Death Note even if he doesn't know where it is or even what it is. Ryuk, being a Shinigami, sees that Light's name has changed and is aware of the swap immediately, so he doesn't spill shit to L, even as he makes cryptic jokes and drops a few no-context hints. So L now has knowledge of Ryuk, but with no way to prove his existence to other people. L, of course, after seeing Ryuk begins a thorough snooping of Light's room. He rifles through all his stuff, sprays all his colognes, peruses his closet and knickknacks, and yes—spends a very long time running his hands all over and ogling Light's naked body. For The Case™.

Then L leaves to go to the Task Force building, and doesn't really,,,bother to explain himself to Sayu or Sachiko beyond "I seem to have found myself in Light-kun's body. No I can't tell you who I am it's an international secret. Good day." He is dressed in Light's brightest colored sweater (a Christmas one he found at the back of Light's closet), and sweatpants. Sayu thinks her brother has had a mental breakdown. Sachiko believes him almost immediately.

Light wakes up in L's body. He's curled up on a couch fetal position, still in jeans and a sweater, and everything hurts. Light never falls asleep with his day clothes on, never falls asleep on the couch, and since he picked up the Death Note, he's never woken up without Ryuk immediately greeting him/hovering over him/prodding for apples. It doesn't take him long to figure it out either, especially considering L's unique appearance. Light rolls with denial for about five minutes before he abruptly compartmentalizes and decides to use this as a chance to go through all of L's computer files on him. And maybe accidentally delete a few. Light also copies down a lot of L's files and contacts and servers onto a flashdrive and hides it somewhere he can bribe Ryuk to come pick up later. No cameras in L's room, right? He might as well take advantage.

Light, however, cannot hide the fact that he's not L from Watari, who caught on as soon as he asked L what he'd like for breakfast and the reply was an orange. Watari clocked him immediately as an imposter and Light was forced to 'sheepishly' and 'disbelievingly' admit the truth of his identity. "L never asks for fruit unless I put it in front of him." "I was trying to ask for something sweet that I could actually stomach, Watari-san. Now that you know who I am could you please fix me a traditional breakfast? I feel nauseous."

Watari JUMPS at the chance to finally feed L('s body) properly after all these years of struggle 🙏

Light quickly discovers that L's body is highly sensitive to certain sounds and textures, as well as persistently uncomfortable sitting still in any other position than the one L's normally sits in. Of course Light bares with it and sits normally anyway, because like hell he's caving to L's (body's) whims. Plus Light's sure now that the reason L's body aches so much is that he's constantly twisting it into weird position to appease his own jitteriness and mental discomfort. Light has far more practice with ignoring those things, don't you know 😌

Then Light's own body rolls up to the Task Force building in the ugliest ass sweater, sweatpants, and house slippers, and Light knows immediately who it is. L's even got his head tucked in like a turtle to minimize sound input like Light has trained himself out of dammit, he's giving Light's body a crick in the neck!! And he's touching him, ugh!!! L get your hands out from under that sweater Light will sue!

From there, Light and L have to tell the rest of the Task Force what happened, and Soichiro is subsequently as offended as Light by L feeling up his son's body from inside it, while Matsuda is mentally flailing over how much L acting like a normal person (acting like Light) makes him more attractive 😳🫣 How did they never notice that L is actually good-looking??

L would then try to expose Ryuk's presence, which would make Light very alarmed, but it wouldn't work very well.

"Light-kun did you know your body seems to be haunted by a large, unattractive crow creature?"

"Huh? You must be seeing things, Ryuzaki, I've never seen anything like that. How scary. Are you sure it isn't haunting you?"

And many other shenanigans!! :D

[ilikepjo24]

On Azula burning Zuko's toys...

I mentioned in my last meta, that I'd write this one and here it is.

In the previous meta, I talked about how the turtleduck we see Azula burn in Azula in the Spirit Temple is not real. I brought up some arguments and pictures to show how the turtleduck does not at all react the way a real animal would, which is why it is a toy.

@prying-pandora666 was kind enough to add to that by mentioning we can see the base of the toy, broken, burnt and tossed to the side of the panel, further proving that it isn't alive, because real creatures don't have figurine bases.

So we already know it's a toy. And one might assume it was Zuko's toy, since we already know Azula likes to burn his toys, right?

Wrong!

And this is the point I'll be providing in this meta.

As you can see, Zuko never accuses Azula of burning his toys. He just says she was laughing at him while his toys were on fire. That doesn't mean she started the fire. I can't think of two possible scenarios that don't include Azula burning the toys.

In the dream, Ozai burned his toys as punishment and Azula laughed at him getting punished.

In the dream, he was trying to train his firebending and he set his own things on fire and Azula laughed at how bad of a firebender he is.

Plus, Zuko looks around 4-5 years old, which means Azula is 2-3 years old, and in Azula in the Spirit Temple, she looks 6 or 7 when she burns the toy, which was her first time firebending. So around the time Zuko had the nightmare, there was no reason to dream of Azula burning his stuff, because Azula didn't even have fire.

And let's not forget that it was a dream. Something happening in a dream doesn't mean it happens in real life. If that's what it meant, I would have survived 6 zombie apocalypses in the past month. And for those of you that are going to say "he probably had a nightmare about it because it's a traumatic event that actually happened 🤡", not only you don't know math, but you also know nothing about Zuko.

I'm not going to argue that no one ever burned his toys, but I am going to argue that it wasn't Azula, since she had no fire at the time, and it was actually Ozai, who's a terrible father. And the only reason Zuko saw Azula in his dream is because he uses her as a scapegoat for Ozai's actions. He blames her for all the things that happened to him, as if Ozai would have been a good father if Azula wasn't born.

It wouldn't surprise me if Ozai burned Zuko's toys as punishment for doing bad at his spelling lessons when Azula is just two and can already form full, grammatically correct sentences in her speech, and Zuko blamed Azula for knowing how to talk instead of blaming Ozai for being a bad person. Which would explain why he'd see her at his dream instead of Ozai.

Lastly, not only do I think that the object wasn't Zuko's, I'm 100% sure it was Azula's and she just didn't like it, since we already know she has a habit of ruining her toys when she doesn't like them, as most children do.

I guess turtleducks just aren't her favorite animal.

Thus proven.

[laylajeffany]

Heya ! ^^ Another amazing chapter =w=b

I was wondering about something. There is a lot of hospital scenes and stuff in Chaos and Karma with all the themes of disability and mental & physical health related issues, and like the rest of your writing, it's all written in depth, which I love, but with hospital stuff, it seems even more so.

I was wondering if you pull from your own experience with some of that stuff ? If it's too personal, don't feel obliged to go into details, please.

Cheers,

Thank you! It took me a minute to get chapter two started, but once I did, I was able to fly through it. I might have accidentally started something new today that I'm accidentally almost 10k into, though so...um, not sure when chapter three will be out! 🤭 Shh, don't tell my beta. She's going to kill me.

Answer behind the cut about my experiences - long winded, OF COURSE!!

I have two degrees in special education that I refuse to put on my current teaching license for a myriad of reasons. The tl;dr is because I believe in including students with special needs in my general education classroom. I firmly believe that young students are generally not given a chance to "assume competency" as the awful phrase has been coined, and districts have gotten away with this through bypassing the Least Restrictive Environment mandate by citing the importance of Early Intervention due to a lack of government-funded seats in early childhood education, not because it is best practice. Therefore, they are often funneled by "Child Find" teams who assess children for disabilities that could impact their education, directly into self-contained classrooms without ever having had the opportunity to be in a general education classroom. Unfortunately, public education is hanging on with paperclips and rubber bands that have continued to be stretched to capacity more and more over the last decade I've been working in the system. We lack the resources and staff competency for inclusion to be properly done in most settings. I have made it work for the last few years very successfully, but it unfortunately doesn’t continue for these kids beyond my classroom. Lately, I wonder if I’m causing more harm than good by giving them one very good year of unprecedented growth by being a "highly effective," intuitive educator, surrounding them with their peers, and providing them with full-time access to general education curriculum. I then have to hand them off to be tortured by K-12 teachers who refuse to even attempt to accommodate these children (which is illegal), and continue to get away with it until they have enough “data” to prove that the children “don’t belong” in their classrooms. (The lawyers have felt very differently about this, trust.) My assistant principal said in a meeting a few weeks ago, “The only real solution is for Ms. XX to be less effective at her job.” I am already doing the least. (I refuse to follow dress codes, show up late, leave early and don’t do anything that isn’t student-facing like nonsensical paperwork that is not legally required, show up for professional development, meetings, after school activities, or anything outside of my contract hours that doesn't have an extra check attached to it, etc.) My next step is to quit - and I am 100% leaving this district after next year; I’m not sure if I’ll be going to a new one or trying something new after. The other work I'm doing surrounding this is too political & identity revealing to discuss here, but just know - I'm not just bitching about it, I am actively trying to make inclusion work.

Other than that, inspiration for my hospital scene settings comes from growing up. I watched family and extended family members die in hospitals from some form of cancer to the point where death barely affects me anymore. The worst of it was in university, a friend developed stage four brain cancer that spread in weeks from one scan to a next, and we spent the second half of the semester at the hospital to be with her when we could; becoming unfortunately familiar with neurology and the ICU. I had a very interesting conversation about this with my uncle this year, who said that his parents ‘kept him from death’ until he was an adult and now processes death so poorly that twelve years after my grandma died, he JUST got rid of the house that was empty the entire time. I’m not sure if it helps/hurts to expose children to death and dying early. I find my self generally numb to death as an adult, and see the human condition as temporary with a fierce acceptance that it will inevitably end, sometimes when we expect it, and sometimes not. Also - I was a rabid House, MD fan from 2004-2009, lol (Jennifer Morrison was one of my lesbian awakenings). I have rewatched seasons 1-4 at least ten times each and recognize this is not a realistic look at the world of medicine as a whole, but I feel like it did at least make me understand hospitals and medical procedures/testing a little. I actually wanted to be an OBGYN until I was a junior in an evangelical high school and was sent to take some state testing for college admissions, and discovered my scientific knowledge was like that of a third grader due to Christian-based science instruction I had K-12, so pretty much threw that dream out the window when I realized I likely wouldn’t catch up with what would be required of me at the university level. “Who are we to question god’s earthly miracles?” Was a valid response from our educators when asking a question about science. 

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 48 – Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

I will be honest, I read this book because it was nominated for a Hugo award and I have a mildly masochistic personal commitment to read every nominee I can (and so remain at least slightly aware of the genre at large). Otherwise, I’m quite certain I never would have touched it – everything about the pitch and marketing made it seem like something I would hate. I’ll try to be fair and approach the book on its own terms but, well it wasn’t exactly painful I wouldn’t say my initial impression was wrong either.

The book follows Viv, an orcish adventurer in a generic D&D fantasy sort of world, as she decides to retire from the dungeon-delving/monster-slaying game with her last big score – a magical stone that, when buried, is supposed to bring ‘the ring of fortune’ to whatever you do above it. She opens the city’s first and only coffee shop. The book follows her collecting a cast of lovable misfit friends/employees (Calamity the hobgoblin carpenter, Tandri the succubus barista/eventual love interest, Thimble the ratfolk baking savant, a bard whose name I’m blanking on, Amity the dire shop cat/security) as they run the business and develop it into what by complete coincidence will end up looking very familiar to the a cute quirky modern indie coffeeshop. There is theoretically some conflict happening, first with the local mob boss and then with one of Viv’s old adventuring companions, but they both feel pretty perfunctory and like they’re only included out of a sense of obligation.

The actual meat of the book is basically focused on Viv instantly becoming fast friends with all her employees/coworkers and how endearing they are, and also the step-by-step of the coffeeshop's development. First in renovating the property into her vision, then in the branding and marketing, and then the gradual addition of menu items and live music. Through it all Viv and Tandri have a developing romance that (rather appropriately) feels like a coffeeshop AU fanfic where the author decided the slowburn tag meant ‘every other character will just assume they’re already dating by the halfway point but they’ll act like flustered teenagers and refuse to actually discuss their feelings until they kiss on the literal last page’.

So, the book is ‘cozy fantasy’ which as far as I’m aware does basically means ‘no tension slice of life fanfic but with original characters’ (alternatively, ‘2000s ‘cute girls doing cute things’ anime but with a moderately more diverse cast and in sf/f book form’). The only other books in the genre I’ve read are Becky Chambers’ stuff which, while I didn’t particularly love them, I now feel I was being way too harsh on. Those have legitimately impressive worldbuilding and coherent themes and at least gestures at real compelling character arcs and dilemmas. This, well, what you see is what you get? Like, there’s zero false marketing, the entire book is entirely dedicated to hitting the exact broad emotional beats you would expect it to. There’s not really any interest in the world beyond the cafe, it is in fact a plot point that Viv attracts a found family she clicks perfectly with and their relationships are all uniformly positive, and there is exactly one point where she suffers any sort of real reversal – which lasts for about five pages before everyone comes together and rebuilds things even better than ever. There is a wizened gnome whose clearly living time backwards who takes the time to pat Viv on the should and reassure her that everything turns out alright, in about as many words. There's clearly a market for this, and I am not it.

Morality in the book is basically synonymous with niceness. If someone is friendly or at least polite to Viv then even if they seem like an obvious problem in the end they’ll turn out to have their heart in the right place and only want the best – as, for example, the local crime boss proves to be a nice old lady who accepts an order of cinnamon buns every week as ‘protection money’ and donates several shipments of materials to rebuilding the place without any expectation of payment or stake in return. The only two characters in the book who are rude assholes to someone in the cafe are also coincidentally the only real villains there are.

All of this is stuff that on some level I more or less expected opening into the book. The thing that actually disappointed me is that this fluffy book about opening a coffee shop doesn’t actually care about coffee. If you’re going to make it the centrepiece of your whole book, I expect some exultation and appreciation of the stuff! Give me self-indulgent passages going into detail about the smell and taste and smell and experience of it. Make me put down the thing actually craving a latte!

But the book’s mostly interested in the, like, trappings and signifiers associated with a cafe, not (despite Viv’s theoretical obsession with it) the actual coffee. This feels like a point that generalizes. (There actually is a decent amount of detail spent on the baked goods their genius baker invents, which just makes the lack feel stranger.)

As an aside, and I know this is very clearly not a book that expects you to care about the worldbuilding, but it’s kind of strange that coffee is presented as this new exotic novelty to a vaguely European fantasy metropolis that is explicitly already familiar and comfortable with tea? Like obviously the historical analogues aren’t worth getting into – Viv is creating a cute neighberhood coffeehouse by a college campus, no a 17th century Venetian cafe – but it’s not the first place I’ve seen the same portrayal of the two drinks and it’s, odd? Like it’s not like tea is any less foreign to Europe, or arrived particularly earlier.

But anyway, yeah, didn’t enjoy this but can’t say I was misled. It is in fact a book that you can entirely judge by its cover and not be surprised one bit.

[laly-481]

Hello I am here to annoy you about DRDT

I've been thinking about Mai Akasaki lately and what role she could play in the story. I've been thinking about Unnamed Classmate lately and what role she could play in the story. I have been gathering screenshots from the bonus videos for an hour and half while getting distracted by everything but it's fine

SO FIRST ! People tend to assume Mai and UC (Unnamed Classmate) are the same person. I do too, because UC visibly is her own character, with a plot going on behind the scene of the bonus videos, mentionned VERY briefly ; Mai being the most mysterious character, having her own page on the tumblr, and not-part-of-the-cast, we can assume they're the same.

But it would be silly to just assume stuff like that. For now, I will be referring to them as separate people, who MIGHT be connected but might not be as well.

Let's start with Mai !

My first point here is that Mai might be a Hope's Peak Student - but from Japan

First because of the most obvious part : her name is Japanese. That can indicate she would be from Japan, but we can always believe she just is from japanese origin : the names of the DRDT cast are from various origins but they all are from Hope's Peak US

What I'm more focused on is a fact I've overlooked when first seeing her design : she seem to be wearing the Hope's Peak uniform (a personnalized version, but that's not uncommon). At first, I thought it was just proving she was an Hope's Peak (US) student and didn't think about it much, but :

Hope's Peak US and Hope's Peak JP are said to be only similar in their core concept : that sound weird, in that way, to think the uniforms would be the same. Regardless of that fact, Min herself is not wearing a uniform at all, and i believe if there WAS a uniform she would definitively wear it.

Xander's ouftit can also look like Hope's Peak uniform, but it has a logo on it while the other doesn't, and the logo looks nothing like Hope's Peak's (I'm not sure what it is, i might just be stupid)

Edit : Silly me forgot that Xander wore his old school uniform ! Can't add screen since I'm on app rn but he says it during Levi's introduction. Problem solved !

So Mai is wearing the Hope's Peak JP uniform ! Unless her fashion sense is copying their uniform, I think it's safe to assume she went there at some point.

So if she IS an Hope's Peak student, she must have an Ultimate. And then there's the line associated to Min's code, referring to Mai, that always surprise me :

That is NOT something you usually say when referring to an Ultimate. Who is supposed to have a talent.

So what if Mai is the Ultimate Lucky Student ? Hope's Peak is not exactly known for taking any average student except in that case, especially Hope's Peak JP (you have Min's case in the US version, so it could be possible). Since she's wearing the Ultimate's uniform, we can also assume she's not a reserve course student.

If Mai is the Ultimate Lucky Student of Hope's Peak JP, that brings the question of how exactly she met the cast, since all of the quotes are visibly their PoV of her. Could she have went to Hope's Peak US after graduating from Hope's Peak JP ? Or just, went looking for Teruko in US ?

(may I add, Teruko went to Japan at some point in her life. i'm unsure of what to do with that information, but it does exist)

I'm honestly not sure about who Mai is from this point. It's possible she could have been part of some exchange program where Hope's Peak JP students go to Hope's Peak US ? She must have went there at some point, since the cast knows her.

There IS a person that seems to have been friends with the entire cast as well, and it's the Unnamed Classmate. So far she was visibly close friends with Xander and Min, and I'm assuming her main role is helping the scenario of each bonus video so we get to know the characters more, which would mean she's close friends with EVERYONE.

So let's talk about UC !

Not only she is friend with everyone, but the entire cast is from the same class (i don't remember if it's confirmed in the prologue, but since UC is both their classmates, we can assume they're right about that...)

So it's odd to me we have an entire class in the killing game (unless the classes aren't as small as Hope's Peak US's ones, but I usually take that as a consequence from the scouting system, so it should be as small), but one irrelevant girl who was with them.

She also seem quite important and to have an important plot going on behind the scenes (like her asking Xander for documents of Hope's Peak that are sensitive enought to avoid being brought up in public), very briefly mentionned. All that to say UC is an important character as well, and not just a plot-device for bonus videos.

Speaking of bonus videos, this is unrelated to the theory, but i think it can be interesting to know their order : (i forgot to get the screenshot, but i'm pretty sure UC implies it's something like the anniversary of the event they refer to in the video)

So Min's video is before Xander's (which mean so far they're in chronological order), because i think dates can always be important and the writing behind Min is probably not just random background.

Back to UC, one thing I noticed is how she doesn't actually seem to have a talent.

Min is saying "they" and not "you". UC is not included in the statement. She does that multiple times, like saying "all my classmates" but not "you" :

Which would imply just like Min, UC is in that situation where she would not have any talent if Hope's Peak wasn't a thing (tho it's pretty different from Min here from what I'm supposing).

Not only that, but UC herself doesn't refer to herself as an Ultimate :

Min's an Ultimate but not UC. UC is just attending Hope's Peak Academy, but she doesn't see herself as an Ultimate.

So there are two possibilities. Either there is, just like in Hope's Peak JP, a Reserve Course system, and class apparently get mixed together, or...

Or UC is joking about not having a real Ultimate talent when she says that. I'm not sure how much this is proof, but her being Ultimate Lucky Student makes more sense than being a reserve course student somehow in a class full of Ultimates.

Which brings us back to Mai. So yeah, there's a big possibility those two are the same person. Seeing how UC lacks so much knowledge about important things like the TRAGEDY, it could make sense for her to come from Hope's Peak JP, the school where as long as you're developping your talent, you don't have to attend class. I'm not sure how that works for Lucky Students, but teaching at Hope's Peak JP seems... Lacking

(The one problem with this theory is that Min seem to assume UC knows about the Hope's Peak US test for Ultimate Student, but it would be complicated if she lived in Japan at that point... So either she's masking this information by saying she "doesn't care about Hope's Peak", or I'm just wrong which is likely)

And they do have in common the fact they're looking for something

So my current idea is that Mai went to Hope's Peak JP, graduated, and started looking for Teruko. Since MonoTV mentionned Teruko went to Japan at some point, it's possible she was already there when Mai looked for her. Then, she went at Hope's Peak US, probably bringing Teruko with her.

That's when I would like to say something about Teruko getting in Hope's Peak. Because I actually have no idea how she would even get in the lottery when she couldn't go to school officialy, and doesn't have papers.

So what if the document UC is looking for is actually to enroll Teruko as the Ultimate Lucky Student (in her place ?), more or less officialy ? After all, Mai wanted to help Teruko, and going to Hope's Peak is kinda getting a guaranteed succesful future. That is a possiblity to me, even if at this point it's less of a theory and more of speculation and weird ideas that my brain came up with.

So yeah. I have all this stuff. Probably doesn't make as much sense as I think, but at least I tried.

Edit : I JUST THOUGHT OF IT since Teruko is most likely the reason there's a killing game, it would make sense for Mai to get the quote "It's all your fault" if she brought her in the class !!! Because then the killing game wouldn't have involved them if she didn't do that (or maybe not even have happened !!!)

[brehaaorgana]

i’m making you know this knowledge in your brain now so that i’m not the only one

i was dealt psychic damage when my brain decided to realize this, but i would say that dragon riders of pern are easily definable as a (the?) proto-a/b/o [omegaverse] verse trope and now i can’t be the only one knowing this in my brain

a/b/o is literally just pern dragon mating with simplified “secondary genders” and mating bonds that aren’t guaranteed to be lifelong. 

and wikipedia hasn’t even pointed this out, so this is my groundbreaking contribution to literature/pop culture history because they only mention pon farr mating cycles 

actually POINT IN FACT they city the 1967 episode Amok Time ran in September of 1967, but the first dragonriders of pern book was actually comprised of 

Two components of Dragonflight were award-winning novellas published by Analog science fiction magazine. The first segment, "Weyr Search", illustrated by John Schoenherr, had been the cover story for the October 1967 issue.[3] The second segment, "Dragonrider", appeared in two parts, beginning in December 1967, and was also a cover story illustrated by Schoenherr.[4]

so obviously these works were more or less written simultaneously -- anne macaffrey couldn’t have possibly been influenced by  seeing Amok Time, since we can assume she had submitted her first draft before the october issue of Analog was published, meaning it was almost certainly already written, planned,  and edited for publication by the time the ST episode aired in september. and ursula k leguin didn’t publish the left hand of darkness until 1969. 

 i think i found a copy of the original 67 weyr search novella, as opposed to just my copy of the bundled publication dragonflight. 

this whole mates/unique people stuff is established here: 

“News travels fast,” F’nor chuckled, nodding at a hurrying craftsman, in the smock of a baker, who gave them a mumbled good day. “Not a female in sight.”

His observation was accurate. Women should be abroad at this hour, bringing in supplies from the storehouses, washing in the river on such a bright warm day, or going out to the farmholds to help with planting. Not a gowned figure in sight.

‘We used to be preferred mates,“ F’nor remarked caustically.

and

But she would have to be extraordinarily wary. Dragonriders were men apart. Anger did not cloud their intelligence. Greed did not sully their judgment. Fear did not dull their reactions. Let the dense-witted believe human sacrifice, unnatural lusts, insane revel. She was not so gullible. And those stories went against her grain. Dragonmen were still human and there was Weyr blood in her veins. It was the same color as that of anyone else; enough of hers had been spilled to prove that.

so we know that ‘dragonmen’ are different than other people, rumored to have ‘unnatural lusts’, talk about the status of being ‘mates’, and have an internal hierarchy [queen/gold, bronze, green, brown...]. 

my point here is like, yes pon farr is similar also, butI

dragonriders have:

secondary social “genders” and/or sexualities based on color of dragon 

secondarily the whole concept of green dragons being sterile females with usually gay male riders 

one specific dragon color that is like, the “one who can mate” and then lay eggs [the gold] is also more rare and highly coveted

the bronze riders are usually the big/powerful/strong personalities or w/e 

mating ritual chases [the mating flight lasting longer is supposed to be a good thing] and mating bonds

have the concept of the female rising [for the flight] which is just a dragon heat

have telepathy that may influence sex

the whole animal instinct thing/animal nature of people

dubious consent or rape is built into the structure of the whole...premise as a possibility aka “the dragon decides, the rider complies...” 

omegaverse is literally just simplified dragonriders of pern with less categories of “presentation” but with similar ritualization of status within society and sex/heats and instead of dragons, people use like, werewolves or wolves or whatever for the sake of knotting trope. the mating bite mark thing is unique from pern but the rest is pretty much the same

why does no on cite anne mccafrey’s weird dragon sex as an influence here like it’s so obvious and pern fans have a shitton of fanfic and text rp where they explore this whole.... *gestures* thing 

do you know i read those books in elementary school and i think they were even available in my school library??? weird dragon sex and all??? 

they were definitely on the list of possible book quizzes i could take for reading points or whatever the hell 

i don’t even read this genre but i do have pern books and now i can’t unthink this connection so there you go. 

[teaveetamer]

more on like. FE misogyny is like. Thinking about which characters are what gender and why. Like there's a reason why seteth has a daughter and not a son. There's a reason(s) why dimitris retainer is a man. Why Hubert, an underhanded and manipulative person, who nonetheless plays second fiddle to byleth (you) is a man instead of a woman. These are all very interesting decisions with a lot to think about irt gender, misogyny, narrative, and it's fuckin annoying that taking note of it is seen as evidence in itself of misogyny. Much of it has to do with female characters not allowed to be unappealing. (Tho this leads into why I enjoy Leonie for being allowed to be genuinely unappealing wrt to jeralt after remire). Reading your and Ezra's stuff on fe misogyny is really great cause I get to finally see people talking about this from like, a cultural and marketing sort of perspective.

To your last bit, anon: I think that's something a lot of people misinterpret when they read discussion of misogyny in media in general (and occasionally my posts specifically). Acknowledging that the world is kind of a fucked up place is not an endorsement of the world being a fucked up place. Arguing that pointing out misogyny is the ~true~ misogyny is like having a pipe burst in your house and insisting that every plumber who comes over to fix it is actually the cause of the leak.

Except it's not even that, because that assumes their own house is actually going to be affected by the leak. Most of these people don't have their lives affected by denying the existence of misogyny. It's more like your neighbor has a pipe burst and you're chilling in your window taking pot shots with a BB gun at every plumber who pulls up to the driveway to help fix it, then patting yourself on the back for "keeping your neighbor's pipes safe" when they all flee in terror. As your neighbor is literally sitting in six inches of water wondering why tf no one seems to be coming over to help with that pipe.

But anyway circling back to the first part of your message, yeah there are a lot of subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways the genders of characters play into stereotypes and archetypes we've come to be familiar with. There's a million examples of characters who just would not work the other way around, largely from an appeal/marketing standpoint, because of gender expectations. Sylvain the male shameless flirt is seen as a cool player but if he were a woman he'd be a slut. No one wants to marry "used goods" which is why we don't have a ton of female shameless flirt characters in FE.

A dad (Seteth) protecting their daughter (Flayn) to the degree where he'll try to screen and control the people (especially the men) she speaks to is seen as endearing and an extension of paternal duties, if a wee bit overprotective. A mother doing the same to her son would be seen as a creepy harpy engaging in emotional incest and stunting her child's natural development. Men find it humiliating when they're treated like children, but society expects women to be treated like that. That's why we don't have a whole lot of mommies with shotguns in FE.

If anything the idea of overcoming the overprotective father and being the one to usher a girl into womanhood (this sentence felt gross to type ew) is a power fantasy in itself. The fantasy of a woman being kept pure by some mechanism until a worthy person (i.e. the protagonist) is ready to claim her. There's stories through the ages of this kind of thing. Noble virgins (or devoted wifeys with husbands lost at sea) dutifully staving off waves of suitors until the right one, the worthy one, swoops in, proves their worth by some means, and sweeps her off her feet. If you think about it, that's really part and parcel of Hubert's role in the Edelgard-Byleth-Hubert trio. He's the clinger-on who the virginal woman rejects endlessly to show her purity and devotion, until her proper suitor comes. Her appeal would probably disappear like a puff of smoke if, say, she'd been FWB with Hubert for years before the story started and Byleth was just another notch in her belt.

I could probably make a whole post on that last one too tbh cuz you can point to a lot of really varied examples with the same undercurrent. Like, I'd say a story of a woman having tons of meaningless sex with people until her Worthy Man(TM) unlocks the key to her heart and opens her eyes to the beauty of making love (or whatever) follows the spirit of the trope even if it doesn't follow the letter of it. It's still a woman keeping some piece of herself (in this case her ability to form emotional attachment to the men she sleeps with) held back, exclusively to be shared with the Worthy Man(TM). What makes someone the Worthy Man(TM) can range from having the strongest bow arm to being the only one who understands the ~true~ her and makes her feel comfortable... but I'll stop here for now.

[doberbutts]

Yours conversation about Vick reminds me about how people act about abuse re: Chris Rock. I don't remember if he was ever punished, but does it honestly matter if he was? That's effectively all he's known for at this point. For the longest time the only way people would talk about abuse as if they really actually cared was when Chris Rock was the subject.

Especially coming through recent high profile stories of abuse and seeing who gets the love and adoration, I know this would never happen if the people involved were black.

Considering we just had an extremely high profile abuse case and the internet decided to make siding with their celebrity of choice the entirety of their personalities for weeks 🙄

And here's the thing; I don't watch football and, gotta admit, if Vick asked me to sell him a dog, I would say no. I'm glad he's focusing on uplifting black voices but I have no desire to watch his miniseries. He can redeem himself over there where I don't have to interact with his stuff. But I think he should be allowed to begin again.

You know what I did when the story broke with Rihanna? I deleted my Chris Brown songs. I didn't have too many, but I still got rid of them. I can't listen to them without seeing the photos of her face all beat up and swollen. He'll never get another cent of my money whether in royalties or in ad revenue or from streaming.

For Brown it's a little different, if only because he continues to maintain (last I checked) that he did nothing wrong and that the situation was overblown. He plead guilty, but only got probation and counseling. He complains all the time that people continue to bring up the abuse but never in a "I know, I'm sorry" way like Vick- and he also re-offended with his next girlfriend and just got a restraining order.

I am, also admittedly, a little more sensitive to domestic violence. Personal bias. But I think he screwed his chance at a redemption narrative, and it bothers me to know he could have done the same outreach of publicly acknowledging the problem with what he did to her and working with young boys/men on teaching them that using violence against their girlfriends was wrong, helping end the cycle of abuse. NOPE.

It IS annoying that people will still listen to white singers after they've done similar, however. Look how many Beatles fans there are despite the fact that John Lennon was an absolute monster. Only when the black guy does it is when people seem to care.

I'm assuming you meant Chris Brown and not Chris Rock, because the only recent thing about Chris Rock I know about is that he got his shit rocked by Will Smith. I'm not finding anything on it either outside of a model that accused him of raping her and fathering her child, but paternity tests proved he is not the father and the accusation thus went nowhere.

[9w1ft]

hi, how would you explain why Taylor never defended Karlie from any of the brown scooter accusations?

hi,

i would assume it’s because it would have drawn attention to taylor and karlie at a time when they weren’t ready to publicly reconnect, especially after the masters were bought.

i think one thing scooter had been banking on was being able to profit from taylor’s coming out, and potentially from karlie as well because she was still contracted with scooter at the time. if taylor and karlie had publicly reconciled or been publicly okay with one another, that would have put more interest into taylor’s back catalog and karlie’s ventures, which would have meant more profit for scooter.

taylor once said in an interview that sometimes she goes out of her way to prove a point. i think the context of that line was a question about her deciding to re-record her music, but i think it’s also related to this. i think taylor and karlie both would have wanted for scooter to not profit off of their plight. so, they stayed the course that they had been staying for years, and continued not interacting publicly.

to this point, here is the letter she wrote to shamrock, who had been hoping to buy taylor’s catalog from scooter and work with taylor:

as one can see, taylor is very clearly stating that she won’t let scooter profit off of her in any way, even indirectly. i think it’s worth mentioning again that this would include boosting karlie’s earnings in some way (which she doesn’t need anyway because of her own net worth). scooter’s company would probably have been getting about 20% of karlie’s earnings at the time, i would guess? which i think at her peak would have meant over a million per year in his pocket. taylor and karlie both feel like stubborn people and i just think they sacrificed progress on the public friendship front out of principle. and it’s a hit they could definitely take. i think this takes priority for them personally over any public reunion we may have hoped for during lover era. revenge is a strong motivator.

in addition to this, i have wondered if they used the situation (where karlie was still contracted with and going to company events with scooter at the time) to their advantage in some way. doing things to make it seem like they were estranged and to lul scooter into a false sense of security around karlie. i think the lines from mad woman and vigilante shit are telling: “does she smile or does she mouth ‘fuck you forever’?” / “the master of spin has a couple side flings, good wives always know” / “she had the envelope where you think she got it from?” to me, it’s pretty clear where and from who taylor got the dirt. and it low key blows my mind that so many people don’t connect the dots.

oh and, here’s a post i’ve written about some jewelry that karlie wore at the time that i think might be symbolic / emblematic of what went on: