#this convo was truly his last straw

[bakubowwow]

Incredible how this singular interaction was all it took to break the dam of ogasawara’s bl-related insecurity. The boy was overflowing with it in every panel we saw him after this. He was keeping it all pent up and one discussion with sasaki was all it took for him to let the demons in his brain take over.

He’s such a tortured lil dork I love him.

[malkaviian]

thinking about how seba learned about the truth about his birthing, and im pretty sure it was golden himself who told him hes his father

[m1ckeyb3rry]

LMAOOO I’m about to rewrite and entire parody for aiku I’ll send it in once I complete it it’s funny it’s like the reversed croagunk trope instead of cockblocking it’s helping him rizz girls up

SHSHSH goodra underrated goat I do love its vibes sm legible and snores collecting dust in the basement LMAOO after that one convo about the moon/space manshine shenanigans it’s disappeared forever but I can imagine nagi sending snorlax out only for it to continue lying down taking up like half the field and whenever he tries to get it to move it just swats him with its arm and send him flying by accident LMAO

AHAHA Rin being so desperate he goes to Shidou (wait the Karasu beef full circling to that second lead idea we talked about way back when)

LMAO “not unproblematic” tullia catching strays but Karasu holding a mini grudge for having his baby birds electrocuted like they ran into a telephone pole because of lanturn is so funny

Wait yk a combo I think is funny yarou because it also means bitch/bastard in japanese LMFAOOO wait but shoyoi is kinda cute too the way barasu sounds has me cackling though LMAO bayosagi love triangle wait this could be a kdrama on its own

LMFAO lowk makes me wonder if Karasu refrains from fowl products because he’s like “those are my children…” but FR full circle development where he’s confident enough and thinks it’s ok to be mediocre ehdhsjshsj

LMAOO you should give him that fit in a goofy crack spinoff side episode he would totally wear it (imagine they have a musical number with the phineas and ferb dance style too)

Reo calling bachira banged freak and raichi shark teeth LMAOO truly teenage boy activities kurona also catching strays everyone calls him a midget too ok but two sides of the spectrum both equally as attractive barous cluelessness imagine he just goes “your hands are tiny” and instinctively does that finger bend thing over your fingers (im so bad at explaining i hope ykwim) while Karasu KNOWS and just has a shit eating smirk on his face maybe there is something about guys who style his hair up like that

I didn’t even consider that they didn’t exist oops but WAIT THAT MAKES THE IDEA GO HARDER I’m not crying bruh imagine reader goes to the safari zone and is like wait I thought beautifly didn’t exist here?? Is yayoi doing some pet project and then big reveal

LMAOOOO I lowk love when memes have the “running faster than chigiri” aspect it’s so funny like the bllk equivalent of running faster than sonic the hedgehog but SHSH NO PRESSURE im just happy to receive whatever you come across don’t feel obligated to look for one specifically LOL

NO FR because like what you want me to add a period?? Nuh uh I don’t enjoy those vibes which is why I also default to just using “…” too LMAO

AHAHAHA ok so maybe i do need to use proper punctuation when explaining stuff my b I definitely used a run on sentence when I explained that part so I’ll make it less confusing next time LMAOO that’s so funny thigh that would actually be really embarrassing if that WERE the case though

Wait I’m loving the drama of this Isagis last straw Karasu comforting mc (CRYING THE BROTHER THAT STEPPED UP) I fw this Isagi so hard the conflict and character complexities >>>>> and the added love triangle yayoi originally leaning towards Barou not Isagi BRUTAL I love it

Otoya being spike is so funny bro getting demoted but actually seeing how everything is so interconnected is really interesting since we’re like metavisioning looking at a universe you created imagine life being this interesting but anyways I’m not about to get into an existential crisis rn

The way you’re converting readers (me) and yourself is so funny HAHAHA

IT DOESNT MATTER IF I MEMORIZE THE ENTIRE DEX (not gonna happen) but wait i just realized what this means CONGRATS ON 1K!!!!! Not you saying “idk it might be awhile still since it fluctuates” literally one day ago LMAO but here’s to more miraverse shenanigans!!!! DONT WORRY DADDYS HOME SHSHSHS but THANK YOUUU I just saw the event so I’m running rn let’s see who I get inspo for LOL

- Karasu anon

PLEASE DO SEND IT IN OMG an aiku parody would be insane…i love how no matter the au/verse aiku somehow makes his way into infecting it w crack LMAOAAO he’s lowkey the face of the miraverse (in a diff way than nagi and karasu)

nagi’s goodra is so CUTE tbh honestly it’s one of his best pokémon too considering it’s a pseudo legendary (wait now that i’m thinking abt it so many of the characters EXCEPT reader have pseudo legendaries 😭😭😭…like chigiri has a dragonite, nagi has a goodra, hiori has a metagross, karasu has a garchomp, and noel noa has an aggron…meanwhile reader’s rocking w galvantula LMAOAOA) PLEASE nagi finally meets his match w his snorlax he asks reo if that’s what it’s like dealing with him and reo’s just like “yes 😐” omg wait potential ova that’s just nagi attempting to train his snorlax ⁉️

HAHA YESS this is the au i was referencing when i mentioned rin as a second lead!! i’ve had it cooking for a while but yes since nagi’s the main lead and karasu’s the bestie w weird tension (i’m realizing this is a format i utilize often) rin has 0 way of winning like it genuinely hurts him to know that reader would rather go for a) lazy dumbass genius or b) cocky rude weird hair over him LMAOAOAO that’s why in the smau reader calls him “poor kid” she’s not here for that bfb dating younger men era 🤫 nagi’s like a couple months older than her and karasu’s a year older than her she is NOT abt to go for baby rin (especially considering there’s a whole subplot with sae that’s again meant to subvert the reverse harem vibe while also still having lots of love interests)

wait this just reminded me that isagi is canonically older than nagi and both nagi AND isagi are older than reo KDBCJSKS

LMAOO no because given how much we’ve talked abt tullia bullying otoya it’s impossible to call her UNPROBLEMATIC (not that otoya doesn’t deserve it ofc) but for the most part she’s pretty chill it’s like specifically otoya who she messes with 😓 PLEASE IT’S LITERALLY KARASU’S OWN FAULT TOO if i had a nickel for every time karasu got cocky and challenged someone he was wildly unprepared to face w his team of baby birds i’d have two nickels which isn’t a lot but it means bro needs to be STOPPED 😭 it’s a good thing he gets garchomp later on i think garchomp will be 99% of karasu’s impulse control as well as his main battler

YAROU ACTUALLY IS SO FUNNY especially because both of them are kind of uhhh kind of bitchy (especially to isagi) but agreed shoyoi is kinda cute sounding!! bayosagi love triangle…i have many thoughts about it that i will get to TRUST but agreed it’s giving kdrama

see i feel like the mediocre thing relates to his end of the world comment in the egoist bible too so it’s like in character yk?? like now he’s SEEN the end of the world (almost) what with team x and their nonsense, almost witnessed all of his friends die (if reader hadn’t sent nagi back to help save everyone they would’ve been overwhelmed because karasu’s garchomp is legit the only one left) and nearly died himself, and i feel like that makes him realize ykw why should i gaf abt being mediocre or not mediocre??? him realizing that as long as he’s happy nobody else’s expectations matter to him…lowkey this DOES mean that fwtkac reader doesn’t really fit because he’s too happy post epilogue to care about a rival but actually wait yk what would be cute imagine reader’s like a pokémon nurse who comes out to do check ups on the daycare pokémon and make sure everything is looking alright but karasu ends up falling in love with her so for a solid while he just makes up illness and injuries to call her out for like “oh my lucario hurt his paw” and she comes out and lucario is just standing there like “😐” obviously not injured and she’s like ???? but eventually she ends up liking karasu back and then he asks her out and it’s all cute and adorable (pursuit reader is just glad he’s finally getting married because she’s been making fun of him for being the last one to settle down for ages…“how did otoya AND aiku end up in happy relationships before you???” “I DON’T KNOW”)

REO DOES NOT CAREEE HE’LL VIOLATE ANYONE i love villainous team v reo he’s so so funny and his crashouts are legendary 😩 PLS YES THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING like barou has no idea that you’re flirting so he’s super serious about it and he’s like “wow your hands ARE very small 👍” and does the finger thing (ik what you’re talking abt) but karasu starts messing with you because he knows you’re trying to rizz him up (he’s already rizzed up obviously i think if a girl flirted w him he’d fold in 0.2 seconds) but he’s so funny about it and it def culminates in him lacing his fingers through yours and using it as an excuse to hold your hand (he definitely calls you mediocre for having small hands as a joke though HAHAHA)

NO THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYING LIKE IT MAKES IT 10X BETTER one thing about hiori he is going to LOVE his love interests like there’s something distinct abt the way i imagine hiori as the male lead he’s on a completely different level than the others…the closest in terms of emotions is probably nagi but with nagi a grand declaration of love is just him getting out of bed and like. cooking breakfast or smth 😭 so the scale isn’t quite the same…but hiori always goes all out in my mind like i’ve never imagined him being normal about someone he genuinely loves he always does insane shit like building a house or importing an entire species of pokémon instead of just being like “hey i like you” the way karasu (eventually) would JFJFJSSJ wait speaking of which your request for the event hehehe miscommunication/misunderstandings w hiori…i’m considering some things (i feel like that trope generally implies humor but it’s hiori he doesn’t give crack vibes to me…he’s like nagi i can only write him seriously unless he’s just a side character but trust i will cook smth up and it will be good)

PURSUIT ISAGI IS SM FUN I LOVE HIS CHARACTERIZATION because honestly he definitely thinks that he should be stepping into barou’s role as his best friend but he has zero idea how to do so meanwhile karasu does it so naturally (in this au i fucked w everyone’s ages so isagi and barou are a couple years older than karasu and are the same age as yayoi if i didn’t say that already) which is just another punch in yoichi “inferiority complex” isagi’s gut…eventually he does end up being kind of a cool older cousin/sibling to reader but it takes him a lot of effort to get to that point 😕 and for the love triangle i was lowkey think that yayoi would actually have originally liked isagi but isagi never pursued her (given that he thought she liked barou) so he kinda pushed her towards barou and she ended up falling INSANELY in love w barou (who wouldn’t) but that way the possible eventual yayosagi isn’t just her settling it’s her being like look i always liked you and maybe i still might but i have a lot of trauma from barou’s abandonment/death and isagi’s like yo me too let’s just be friends again and see where things go KDFHSKJDSMJDJS i lowkey love them as a trio and the relationships/duos within that trio honestly this is a version of isagi i would actually enjoy writing (ofc i’d have to braid in more of his canon characterization but this is a fun foundation to me)

OTOYA JUST GIVES SUCH SPIKE ENERGY i feel like based on vibes/lore alone, tullia is fluttershy, karasu is applejack, chigiri is rainbow dash, reo is rarity, otoya is spike, nagi is pinkie pie but like the opposite?? like he’s also incredibly random and insanely lucky with stuff but he’s super lazy instead of super energetic, and reader is twilight sparkle (not just because she’s the protagonist LMAOO)

HAHAHA BRO THANK YOUUU IT’S VERY UNREAL but AHH hiori inspo?? cheating on karasu i see /j 😭 it’s okay two of the twelve so far are karasu reqs…the way i only have four spots left and ZERO people have requested for nagi i think people don’t even realize how much i love him despite him being all over my blog because i never get reqs or anything for him 😩 or maybe it’s that everybody hates nagi atm so nobody wants me to write for him 😓💔 THAT’S OKAY THOUGH NAGI GETS PURSUIT SO WHO’S REALLY WINNING ⁉️

[fawnandshadows]

Hi again!! Garden anon again! Here to say that our Elriel conversations make my day and I never want them to stop! 🥰

I love the idea of a garden hat with a bow below her chin 👒 and her getting frustrated when it was out of place and she’d try to fix it and accidentally get a little mud on her chin from when she was planting flowers. But she didn’t know and Azriel would see it and stare at her with a funny look in his eyes and she’d be so clueless😭✋

Please miss, tell us Azriel’s POV on this so I can sleep peacefully 🥺

Yours truly- garden anon

Hi Garden Anon!! I love these convos, so keep them coming!!! 🥰

Elain has the best hat collection — I know it, she told me herself! And Azriel definitely has a favorite cough one with a cobalt ribbon cough and imagines what it would be like to slowly untie the ribbon and watch as the cobalt moves across her skin, and then he imagines pressing little kisses there too.

He imagines what it would be like to take off her little straw hat and watch all of her golden curls tumble down and frame her face — he loves seeing her like that because she looks so wild, especially when she has a little but of dirt on her.

Azriel also thinks she looks adorable when her gardening hats are just slightly out of place. Because she uses the back of her arm to wipe sweat off of her brow, and every once in a while she'll knock into her hat which annoys her because she has to retie the ribbon, and she's had to replace so many ribbons already because they keep getting dirty.

So, Azriel definitely joins Elain in the garden for some rest and relaxation, and I like to think that he brings her some lemonade/iced tea/water because she gets thirsty. And on more than one occasion he walks in on her having a fight with her hat, trying to get it in the exact right position, but she's too annoyed to really do it correctly. Her movements are a little too jerky and she's a little too hot and she can't undo the previous knot, no matter how hard she pulls. After watching her for a few moments Azriel decides to help her, and while he's calm on the outside he's all nervous energy on the inside because he's finally undoing the ribbon that has been teasing him for so long — and he is imagining undoing so other parts of her clothing — and he's talking to her in a low, relaxing voice the entire time. Trying not to think about how close they are, or how his fingers keep brushing her soft skin, or how her scent is slowly turning into something headier. Somehow his fingers are steady as they reach up to readjust her hat, he's careful not to snag any of her hairs, and when he is retying the not he s doing it so slowly because he just wants to make the moment last.

It ends, of course. And then he invites her to the little bistro table, and he's ignoring the way his palms are sweaty and the way his throat is dry and parched. And they have their refreshments, but this time it's different. There's a little tension there because they don't quite know what just happened, but they both liked it and suddenly Elain wears that hat more and more despite the way the ribbon always knots itself, and soon she doesn't even try to unknot it because it just because second nature for Azriel to untie it the second he see's her.

hehehe I hope you liked this one Garden Anon!! <3

[alexiaugustin]

pls give your honest opinions on eliola friendship / relationship 🤣

Okay so I think that most people already know that I'm not found of it at all so at the beginning I just wanna say that I do not hate it simply because I want to hate it and everything that happens on that show, but because I was thrilled and had high expectations when they first announced that they would have a brother- sister relationship this season. So everything I'm gonna say now isn't coming from a place of hate but complete and utter disappointment because that's what their storyline was. Also disclaimer; everything I'm gonna say isn't me hating the characters but me criticizing the writing and how the writing made both of them quite unsympathetic at times.

So let's begin with the first lola/eliott clip I ever really liked and that was their first meeting at the funeral. I just like how Eliott noticed that she was all alone and decided to talk to her because that's probably smth he wishes people would have done for him when he was lonely. I loved their bickering n how Eliott was the second person who made Lola genuinely smile that season and just like Maya he didn't let Lola's cold attitude throw him off. So being the naive clown I was I actually believed that they might do something good with them and that their storyline could live up to my expectations but oh hell no.

The opportunity of them getting closer n talking at the urbex party was right there and skam france just didn't use it. I actually thought that they would drop a clip after midnight as the first clip of ep3 where they would start making conversation because they were all hanging out with eachother anyway and then maybe start following eachother on instagram or smth. But no. Eliott and Lola meeting eachother at that urbex party wasn't there to develop their friendship and make them have a natural connection in the clips afterwards. Eliott being an urbex legend wasn't there to actually give his character more depth, it was just there so Eliott could lie to Lucas and Lola knowing about it so she could manipulate Eliott in ep8 but we're coming back to that plot later.

Well yeah wasted potential on that urbex party let's talk about the next party where they meet again: Daphné's birthday party. Again I know that it's a party and it's likely for people to just talk to everyone so I wouldn't say that Eliott and Lola talking there was coming out of nowhere. What did come out of nowhere tho, was their dialogue: "We're the same you and I" I'm sorry but first of all what teenager talks like that??? And second of all what exactly do you even know about eachother. Ah yeah right nothing because you never really talked to eachother before. I know that in interviews they have made up a whole background story as to why Eliott felt so cOnNeCtEd to her but none of this was ever brought up on screen so for me there's no explanation why he would say smth like that. Then the whole urbex lying to Lucas convo yada yada I pretend not to understand french and we're just gonna skip over that part of ep3 now. Next clip of the party Lola feels lonely and left out because Thierry acts like Daphné is his only daughter and for some reason Eliott looks @ Lola from across the room like that: [I'm to lazy to put a screenshot of the scene but y'all know the shot I'm talking about] and I remember the evening they dropped that clip and everyone was yelling and thinking that this look means that he's gonna fall in love with her. Yeah at best I would think that this looks like falling in love, at worst this look reminds me of Joe Goldberg. And I know that the scrip wasn't like: Eliott side eyes Lola like some penetrator from across the room but it really looked like that and it's the director's job to correct Maxence's acting because that really really wasn't it.

Next eliola clip is Lola going to Eliott's video shop. How she knew that he was working at that exact place at this exact time will forever stay a mystery. If only skam france would remember that they are a transmedia show and Eliott and Lola could have just texted after Daphné's birthday party??? But no she was just completely out of nowhere visiting him at his workplace and don't get me wrong the clip itself was good and them watching a movie together cute but I still wanna know where it suddenly came from. She didn't even seem to like him that much before so her going there when she wasn't feeling well just threw me off and I was like okayyyy whatever. It truly feels like they either deleted clips in between or forgot to upload some text messages.

Aymeric plot: I was kind of torn between liking the clip n disliking it because back when they dropped the clip I was just glad that Eliott got Lola out of there and I knew that he would bring her to his flat so she would feel safe but on the other hand I'm not a huge fan of this whole savior trope in general even tho I do get that it made sense for her to call him in that situation. But now that the season is over I don't even have to feel torn and can just say that I absolutely hate this whole storyline because they used sexual assault as a plot device so they wouldn't have to come up with some complex writing ideas to build up their friendship. So the next day skamfr acted like sexual assault isn't something traumatizing and never brought it up again it truly just existed so Eliott could play hero and Eliott and Lola could be friends. It was never brought up again not even in one single fucking conversation. How fun😑😑

I've said it before and I will say it again I will always hate that Lucas was allowed to have many friends and hang out with them whenever he wanted n be affectionate with them while Eliott's only friendship was actively written to cause problems in their relationship. I'm not even blaming Lucas' for his reactions this season because I'm sure that I would have reacted the same way if I were him but they could have just written the eliott/lola friendship in a decent way and left lucas out of it. It would have been really simple but instead they chose to make almost every Lola n Eliott interaction a problem between Lucas and Eliott and then they never even solved their relationship problems, not even off screen so that's truly a whole next level of skamfr being one hell of a stupid show.

Apart from that I really really liked the Saturday clips and they were the only clips I ever got sibling vibes from. Eliott being ready to run with Lola so she wouldn't have to face Daphné and Lola saying that she's gonna take responsibility and Eliott looking at her like a proud big brother> very cute also the way Eliott and Lola both got to speak for themselves about their mental health was one of my fave convos this season even tho- and call me a petty bitch for that- they even ruined that clip for me when Lola used everything Eliott told her in that clip against him later🙃🙃

The whole movie plot is ridiculous and I'm actually too tired to bring all of it up again so I'm just gonna say that Eliott asking a girl with zero acting experience and a crew with zero filming experience to shoot his uni project with him still has me laughing until today. No way in hell that this is something realistic to happen but #ohboy #nicetry for trying to sell that storyline. Eliott and Lola should have never kissed n they should have either changed the script to a friendship version of L&O for Lola and Eliott or let Maya take over Eliott's role when she showed up. This way it would have actually had a meaning for s6 and it would have made sense to end the season with a screening for that movie project. But what the hell was skamfr tryna tell us with that eliola kiss storyline?? The moral n the message where????

Ughhhh my favorite storyline: episode 8. Well I was gone over one weekend and this is the shit I came back home to. Let me tell you it really wasn't fun to watch these four clips in a row I literally had to pause the videos the entire time just to yell n question if I was hallucinating that shit. If their friendship wasn't written badly before then this was definitely the last straw for me. We all know what happened I'm not gonna explain it again let me just say that if I were Eliott I would have felt so damn betrayed and would have never just forgiven that shit in a week. Imagine trusting someone that much with your past and stories about your mental illness and relationship n even your relationship issues and all this person does is using everything you ever told them and even more (still wanna know how she knew abt the houseboat story) against you to manipulate you into drinking which then triggers you into a depressiv episode. Who wrote this and thought that we would still be rooting for this friendship?????

And well yeah that pretty much was it for the eliott/lola sIbLiNg storyline this season. Eliott didn't get to speak for himself about what happened and Lola only apologized for having called him and making him stay at the party but they never actually acknowledged what happened at that party and Eliott just took the blame n happy ending!!! They didn't even get one scene in the last clip together so that already shows us how the writers really didn't give a damn about their friendship this season and it solely existed to serve the mc and to get us to watch the new season n not because they actually cared and let's just say that one could really really notice that🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

[anasticklefics]

New Emotions - Vanya's Day 1/2

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy

Characters: Vanya Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves, Five Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves

Summary: Vanya is unused to feeling emotions so strongly and Klaus, Five and Ben try to help.

A/N: Day seven of The Umbrella Academy tickle fic week (read more about it here) and Vanya’s first fic!

Words: 934

Vanya knew she was being irrational, but she hadn’t been able to fully express or even feel any exaggerated emotions since before Reginald started giving her pills, and now, with the apocalypse averted and life going back to a semi normal state, she didn’t know how to deal with it. Used to the vague feelings always being overpowered by lethargy, she felt nearly helpless as she started feeling emotions she hadn’t experienced properly in years.

On Monday, she’d been so pissed off she’d ripped her sheet music apart (which was a goddamn shame now in retrospect). She’d had no reason for it. It had all been stupid; a series of unfortunate events happening during her day that had left her so emotionally exhausted she only wanted to scream. When she’d stubbed her toe on the table she’d truly found out what they meant when they talked about the last straw. She would’ve broken someone’s nose had they been near her at that point. It terrified her.

On Tuesday, she’d been so excited she’d nearly passed out from not knowing how find an outlet. Going from one end of the spectrum to the next in 12 or so hours was, quite frankly, really off putting, but she’d only realized it when she’d woken up in the middle of the night, desperate for a glass of water and realizing she would rather die of thirst than get up.

That day, she was grumpy; a more dampened emotion, but still very much taking over her whole being and making her feel as if everything was infuriating and tiring.

Her brothers weren’t helping, especially not once she’d snapped “You’re stupid and you look like Quasimodo” in Klaus’ face.

“Is it, like, the time of the month?”

Five scoffed. “Don’t you know you shouldn’t ask that?”

Klaus held up his hands. “How should I know? I’ve never dated a woman.”

“But you’ve had sisters for how many years now?”

“Guys, I’m right here.”

“I was a little too busy to notice their mood swings. Besides, Diego has them too, but I don’t think he gets periods. But I mean, I haven’t asked.”

Ben, alive and well, stepped in. “I don’t think this conversation is helping her in any way.”

The three of them turned their heads toward her, so in sync it was creepy. She crossed her arms, not liking the attention. “I’m not on my period, to answer your question.”

Klaus tilted his head. “Then what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know.” Throwing her hands up like a cliché, Vanya slid down the couch. “I’m just grumpy. I hate it.”

“It’s normal, though.” Klaus sat down beside her. “Five is grumpy all the time.”

“Hey.” Five pointed at him, but let his hand drop when Vanya snorted. “Don’t bring me into this when Diego exists.”

Klaus shrugged. “I can’t throw him under the bus twice in one convo. Especially not when he’s not here to defend himself.”

“How thoughtful.”

“My most prominent trait.”

Five sat down on Vanya’s other side. “Of course it is.”

Vanya ran a hand over her face. “Not helping.”

“Oh, sorry, are we annoying you?”

She glared at Klaus. “You’re on thin ice.”

Klaus placed a hand over his heart. “All my siblings threaten me. I don’t get it.”

Ben plopped down beside him. “I would never.”

“Sure you wouldn’t.”

“Can we return to the matter at hand?” Vanya asked, feeling her temper both rise and deflate. “How do you deal with being grumpy?”

Her brothers looked at each other.

“Well,” Five started, frowning as per usual. “I think you should stay clear of annoying people, so I guess Klaus has already messed that up for you.”

Klaus reached over Vanya to squeeze at Five’s exposed knee. “Shut your mouth,” he said as Five jerked away indignantly.

Vanya, miraculously, found herself laughing.

“Oho!” Klaus was grinning at her now. “You think that’s funny, do you?”

He moved quickly enough for Vanya to not even have time to reflect over what he was about to do, but she recognized the touch against her ribs. She’d felt it often in her youth; the one and only time the siblings would include her in their games.

And, as she curled up between Klaus and Five, she realized she’d missed it.

“Wait!” she cried, aware that she was probably hurting Five from how wildly she was flailing in his direction. “Klaus, no!”

“I think it’s working,” was all he said. “Five, Ben, help me out here.”

While Vanya was certain this hadn’t been planned, they seemed to be taking advantage of the situation to bring her out of her strange grumpy state. The craziest part was that it was working. Rather than wanting to rip their heads off, she simply laughed; squirming in order to get away, but not actively disliking it.

It felt like family.

It also felt really really ticklish.

She’d never understood it when people said they felt sorry for her and Allison for having so many brothers. She was starting to get it now. To others, an abundance of brothers probably meant an abundance of this and other annoyances, according to them, but Vanya hadn’t experienced it often enough to dislike it.

Even as she was struggling to get away, cursing them as her grumpiness flickered in and out of her body, she didn’t dislike this. Quite the opposite.

In the end, if did help her feel better, but she told them she would punch them if they ever tried it again when she was feeling worse. They just laughed and said they’d think of it.

[do-what-the-knight-tells-you]

Elements from the Broadchurch novelization that were of particular interest::

- Ellie is a bit uncomfortable returning to work because her “suit feels strange after three weeks in a bikini and sarong”. You go get it, Ellie. Anyone wanting to write confident-and-body-positive-knows-she’s-got-dem-curves Ellie, here’s your semi-canonical backing. mother of two, rockin’ a bikini. Excellent.

- Although the division of work/responsibility between her and Joe worked for them, Ellie Worries that ppl will “think he is emasculated”, or that he will begin to feel “emasculated”, so while “the other wives are on the phone begging their husbands to come home in time to put the kids to bed, she is virtually throwing him out of the house and into the pub”, really trying to encourage him to hang with the guys or whatever, whenever the opportunity presents itself.

- Hardy is already on the edge when we first see him, talking to the farmer whose tractor has had its gas siphoned. He’s carefully staying away from the edge of the cliff, scared it’s going to induce vertigo and heart palpitations.

- The sections that are a close POV on Hardy have way more detail about the Sandbrook case than was originally clear in S1 (I assume, because the book was published after the bulk of the writing/story construction stuff was finished for S2). For instance, When Hardy is first inspecting Danny’s room, he’s struggling, trying not to think about [Pippa]’s room (she’s not named here, but it’s clear that’s the child he’s referring to). in the midst of this turmoil, he notices the height measurements on danny’s doorframe, and is overcome by the realization that there will never be any more above them. And then there are these heart-wrenching sentences: “For some people, tears dam behind the eyeballs. But when Hardy wants to cry, he has to hold them in using the back of his throat. He sometimes feels it’s the only strong muscle in his body.” yeah, c’mon, just fuck me up.

- Maggie being into women is present from the beginning here! She has a partner, Lil, whom we see/meet several times! First time she is referenced is when Rev. Paul Coates invites Maggie and everyone to that first church service about Danny. She mentions that a predecessor of his made it clear she was unwelcome there, once. He assures her that’s not him, and that she is welcome, and Lil too. She says something like “as it should be, “ and ends the convo without indicating whether or not she will come. Excellent.

- At one point the inside of Ellie’s car is compared to the inside of a bin/trash can, with empty cans and food wrappers strewn about. This further reinforces my theory that Ellie and Alec need each other to balance out their eating habits to something actually healthy. He eats very well, as far as nutrition is concerned, but he just sort of stops eating when there is work to be done. She is going to eat, goddamnit, come hell or high water, but it is plenty likely to be anything from an entire loaf of bread to whatever the vending machine has. It’s a wonder neither of them has died of malnutrition. (she also makes mention that she’s lost weight, in a probably unhealthy way, by the end of the investigation, and has a sudden realization that she’s maybe kind of, turning into Hardy).

- End of Chapter 17, Ellie offers a hand to help Hardy in or out of a boat, he has a realization “unexpectedly painful” that he cannot remember the last time he held a woman’s hand.

- In general the poor bastard really is constantly on the edge of vertigo and panic attacks.

- Reminds me again, whatever did happen with Ellie’s sister??? did we ever see any kind of furtherance or resolution of her gambling issues in the later seasons?

- Oh Shit. “I didn’t take your money.” The money Joe gave Danny, that SOCCO found taped beneath his bed, that was Ellie’s holiday money, and she assumed her sister had stolen it. Shit. What a shitbag.

- One of Hardy’s favorite things about Tess was the ability to come home, throwing last minute ideas and theories at each other, being able to pass idle thoughts back and forth, turn them over, hear them in a new light, and see what they grow into. (incidentally, exactly what he’s developing with Ellie)

- The exchange between Alec and Ellie after SOCCO Brian hits on her is great here as well. She giggles, he asks her why, she figures she needs to share this with someone, and tells him. she thinks “his face froze in another one of his Does-Not-Compute expressions”. So he seems just as weird to her as to us, does a terrible job hiding the awkward nerd within. And she totally thinks it’s cute. Bet me. Goes on to think, after they talk about SOCCO having dirty hands, “ ‘Dirty Brian’, Hardy says, with a playful roll of the ‘R’ ”. They’re totally playing with each other and it’s adorable. “She thinks to herself that it’s the first moment of genuine humor they’ve had between them, so of course she immediately messes it up.” asking about Sandbrook.

- Oh Shit, Jack’s wife shows up at his funeral. hides her identity the entire time, and Spits in Karen-the-reporter’s face before she gets in a car and disappears again.

- Hardy has a panic attack after calling Daisy and giving up for the night. “I can’t do this, Hardy hears himself say, and the words are followed by an agonizing pain, a huge fist squeezing his heart to the bursting point. He staggers back until he hits a wall, and slides helplessly down it. Hardy assumes his childhood comfort position, knees pulled up to his chest, so close that he can rest his chin there. Experience tells him that he can hold this pose for hours and hours. He remains motionless amidst the debris of his investigation until his heart rate returns to its version of normal. By the time he gets up with a low wheeze and click of joints, it is dark outside.”

- Ellie calls Joe to say she’s still stuck at her desk and she’ll be late, on the night Susan Wright is arrested. He says it’s okay, but she can hear in his voice that it is not. (So, is that the last straw? she keeps staying late, it’s clear that this shit is going to drag on forever, and his family and life are NOT going to return to normal, no matter if he keeps getting away with his crime? And this is the window, his only window maybe, where she might be too busy to intercept if he confesses? This is the opportunity to confess to Hardy, and not her?) because very shortly thereafter (and leaving his kids alone and unwatched???) they receive the call from Danny’s mobile, and they catch him out at the cabin... and holy shit, even knowing it’s her (and he must know it’s her), he slams the cabin door open into her face, probably hard enough to beak her nose, and then minutes later shoves her to the ground so hard the reader spends a moment wondering if she’s broken her wrist.

- AND THE FUCKER TENDERLY PICKS GRAVEL OUT OF THE CUTS THAT NIGHT

- (if someone wanted to write an AU, one where he is also injured that night, and his failure to hide that injury tips her off the next day, or that night, and so she is the one to put together the pieces.... and arrest him? god that would be heartbreaking. But perhaps would enable a situ where she doesn’t beat the shit out of him in custody, thereby invalidating his confession, so that shit actually sticks...)

- When Hardy gives the interview to Maggie and Ollie, the book makes it clear that he expects his confession of being cheated on is going to cause them to regard him with pity and shame. He is embarrassed to have been cheated on. He calls himself a cuckold in his head. poor bastard. so confused when they respond with empathy and admiration for him, and disapproval and dismissal toward his wife.

- Happily, an answer to the argument Jack saw, between the Postal worker and Danny. Turns out, the punk had had his truck keyed, and knew Danny on his paper route was one of the only ppl who would have been out and about at the right time of night/morning to have done it. he confronted Danny, and that’s what Jack witnessed. He comes clean to the police towards the end, insists that that is as far as it ever went, and admits that he lied because he was afraid that having had that argument, having had sort-of-a-motive, that would make him a suspect.

- Fuck, I mean, we all know Joe is dangerous, but talking Danny back off the cliff and back into the house consciously with his paramedic voice, with the kind of experience and calm honed over years of professional work... goddamn, so many ways in which he had power over young Danny.

- The moment she believes Joe could have done it. She says it can’t have been him, because the boat was burned while she was away. He would have had to leave the kids alone while he did it, and he would never take that risk. Hardy confirms that he did, that he left them, and Ellie (immediately believes Hardy, btw) finally truly understands that the moral partner she’s been building a family with no longer exists, if he ever did in the first place.

- Hardy briefly considering telling Ellie about Tess, to empathize with her pain and betrayal, and immediately knowing the situations are too different to be useful. being disappointed in himself for having thought it. pulling on every little bit of experience and training he’s ever had to try to get through the conversation.

- Oh shit. the slug trails. the slug. that little bit of symbolism didn’t feel established in the tv series, she just squishes a slug the last time she enters the house. but in the novel, her merry war trying to find the slug is a constant recurring thing, seeing the trails on the carpet, but never able to find it, the thing only coming out when they’re asleep, Joe cleaning up the slug trails after they come back from vacation. Her staring at them in despair as she cries into the carpet one night, over Danny. and then, after Joe has been revealed, she comes home and there the bastard is, big fat slug that’s been lurking in her house all this time, sitting, glistening, in plain sight. and she squishes the hell out of it. And I was so caught up in the story that, even though I BEEN KNEW how it was gonna end, I never picked up on the fucking foreshadowing until that last moment. Am I just dense, or is it just good storytelling? XD

[elftwink]

idk how to phrase this exactly but sometimes when yall talk about damien being interesting i don’t think we have the same definition of interesting because honestly his powers, his morality, the way he approaches things, etc are not... that complex. they’re morally grey sometimes, they cause conflict that’s narratively interesting, but when u take out the cool sci-fi aspects he acts the same way every time; selfishly and in his own interest, in an effort to gain more control. in every way. his motivation is 100% more control and that’s pretty much it! which isnt to say i find damien boring or useless to the story; i think in-narrative he serves a really interesting purpose.

damien was the main antagonist for awhile and still is one of two, and the conflict he causes is a main driving point of the series; this is a character driven podcast, and damien’s actions and the subsequent chain reactions he sets off are engaging to listen to. and it’s been... interesting (but also frustrating and sometimes infuriating) to watch when people dropped off of the #redemptionarc train and seeing what the last straw was and trying to figure out why some people are still behind him. interesting in that i think it says a lot about how we treat (presumably white & cishet) men and their actions (it’s also been kind of odd to see people often be so willing to defend damien till the end of the earth but so quick to trash chloe or joan js)

but damien? on his own? maybe this is just me but i don’t see.. the appeal in taking damien apart and seeing what makes him tick because in my opinion he’s been really upfront with exactly what that is: self-preservation and total control. and i guess you could talk reasons and explanations but he already gave us that too: his parents, which he’s using to justify his actions (it doesnt actually and it absolutely should not to us, the audience, but thats another convo). he’s not an enigma. he’s not a puzzle. that doesn’t make him a bad character; not every character needs to be a puzzle to solve. but he’s exactly what he says on the tin: a manipulative abuser. 

a lot of the time it sounds like yall want there to be something more to him, something to justify the way he’s acting but i just. i really cannot see there being anything else there other than a grown man who has always gotten what he wants. he’s a textbook abuser. i truly think that in and of itself explains basically all of damien’s character. i don’t know what else you could look for in him.

[mags-duranb]

My JeRza thoughs

Okay, time to tackle this one, it has been a week already! Time flies!

But first, a big thank you and a shot out to @thefairystales for her work at translating the interview with Mashima and because we got a nice convo a couple of days ago and it was a delight to discuss with her about the ending and jerza.

This is something I have been thinking and discussing with several friends in the course of this week after the end of FT and how at first I feel very dissappointed and later on mostly bummed and then after digesting all of this and talking it out my perspective changed more. The interview translated by @thefairystales finished to settle things for me.

I was right in a couple of things and It's nice to know.

Mashima mentions in his interview that what he wanted was to leave room to his audience to imagine the rest (same as what happened with the Jerza kiss) And Lucy is an unreliable narrator.

Before anyone starts the attacks, this is not an attend to diss Lucy, far from it. Unreliable Narrator is a narrative resource (forgive the redundance) used in literature to give the audience the opportunity to make their own interpretations of a story through a character inside it, because unlike the omniscient narrator, in which the author is privy to all thoughs and knows everything, the unreliable narrator aka the character, doesn't.

Keep this in mind please.

Lucy for all purposes and here I quote Mashima, is someone who

 "shares the same point of view as the reader.... is by the reader’s side. She doesn’t understand the things that the readers don’t understand, and she says it out"

Thus why the vagueness over Jellal and Erza's relationship status from her POV. Even Lucy says it herself in regards to Erza, she still can't get her, in the way she misinterprets her words and gets surprised along us when she says "it's complicated" and then next panel we along her learn that she is not talking abour her and Jellal but about the book in her hands.

The "it's complicated" was misleading and was played for laughts over Erza's apparent inhability to read a barely difficult book or write a letter.

At this point Lucy can't tell us anything about Jellal and Erza's current relationship because she does not know more than what she has told us: Jellal is free and Erza has started to act more openly as a typical woman in love who wants to impress her beloved.

What is truly going with jerza, just Erza and Jellal know.

Coming back to canon, are they canon?

First, What does mean "canon" in the romantic sense?

A ring and a wedding?, Grandiose declarations of eternal love?, An "and they lived happily ever after"? Children? Appearing side by side with knowing smiles? Mutual feelings of love? Confessions?

I think canon can be found in any of this and even more scenarios I am letting out. Jerza is mutual. Their love for each other is something that has been hinted throughout all Fairy Tail's story. It survived pain, hatred, deception, death itself and they both keep loving each other. And I don't need to mention the Beach scene and the infamous "kiss" because if you remember panel by panel, Erza initiated the action but Jellal followed suit, both consenting it and both closing distance on their own volition, making it clear that their feelings were mutual, no discussions there. That was as good as canon can be.

Soooo, are they canon?

Hell yes!

For that I think the important question is not about canon but about the status of their relationship:

Are they dating/getting to know each other? Are they taking their time? Are they going one step at a time? Are they seeing each other from time to time?

It can be lots of things, maybe they are somewhat dating and thus why Lucy has noticed the change in Erza's behavior regarding her appearance. Or just getting to know each other better without being in life or death situations. Maybe they are not doing more than take things slowly because Fiore just got trashed and there were more urgent matters this past year.

There are many things that can be going on, and If Jellal and Erza have something in common is to keep things just to themselves, specially a relationship between them.

As you see I have enough room to speculate this and not be refuted cause Mashima gave me enough to reach my own conclusions.

I think they are in contact, there are lacrima phones and if Erza keep in contact with Jellal during the year of Fairy Tail's disbanment, she can easily do that now that Jellal and his group are not fugitives anymore.

So I am not pulling at straws here. And I believe that the 100 years quest is not gonna be a big impediment to them when Jellal has been roaming all of Fiore, so crossing paths time to time is in the realm of possibility. Even better, knowing Team Natsu are nothing more than limit testers I am sure they can finish the quest in less than 10 years at most (being pessimistic. Come on! they flattened a so called powerful kingdom in mere days, so I can say they can tackle a 100 years mission in 10 years or less).

+

Now I know I am avoiding a question in regards of Jellal who is at times considered an obstacle to jerza, ironic, uh?

But, what if there are things Jellal needs to do to finally settle with Erza? A friend and I (God bless her) talked about it and we reached this not very popular conclusion: His journey to freedom is still ongoing.

Hisui asked him along CS to live for the future and Jellal just uttered a word and keep pensive. And before that, Erza also in a gentler tone asked him this time to value his life. Nothing about sins, but about living. So my conclusion is that this time he is thinking long and hard about it, not about sins, but about true freedom and living on. A freedom he could not taste while he was a fugitive and less when Zeref was alive. So now that Zeref is no more and he has been freed, he needs to keep moving to get acquainted with this world, to know who he is and what he wants in order to get his fresh start.

And I think this is the way to become free of his burdens.

Yes, there was regression and some messyness for the sake of drama over his character but I believe Mashima gave him the best ending he could give at that point in such short space in the last chapter.

For me it works, for me it means Jellal is searching for himself, I can imagine him traveling as a free man to tie loose ends (searching for Wally and Sho, going to Mermaid Heel to have a long chat with Kagura and apologize properly, visiting the ruins of the Tower of Heaven, etc), to see the world and learn how to live in it before returning to Erza, That's for me a good end for him.

And you know what? Erza gets it. And it's OK because Erza is also living her life, she is moving, she is doing stuff and being hopeful, she knows (by caring for her hair) that he will come back to her soon but that does not mean she is going to just wait for him doing nothing, because Erza is not like that, she is a person with her own life to live. 

I repeat, there are lacrima phones, Jellal knows where she is going, what she is doing and is okay with it because he wouldn't like to see Erza wasting away her life just waiting for him, he is not a selfish jerk.

Sooner or later, they will be together.

+

Of course, I am not telling anyone to not feel sad or dissappointed, it's natural, we all wanted more than what we got and I know some parts of the fandom have been quite nasty, I got my share of rudeness here on my tumblr for shipping jerza. That ppl is not worth our time, let them go, block them, we can do better with our time that let them get to us.

But if there is a thing we can't to is to be a jerk to others or force our reasoning on ppl. Take it or leave it, but don't be a jerk about it. And don't be a jerk to Mashima, insulting him is not gonna fix shit, the man did what he deemed the best, at the end of the day is his own story to tell. 

Rant in your page, feel dissappointed and robbed but don't go to the page of a man who busted himself to bring us chapter after chapter week by week without fail for 11 years. That deserves our respect.

[steamishot]

All COVID

So much has happened since the last time I wrote. That was when US/California started taking action. March 15 is when they announced that people will not be allowed to dine in at restaurants. I remember this clearly because I had a lunch date with steph at paper pot. We were the only ones at the restaurant, joking that social distancing was quite effective there. We also stopped by to get boba one last time before it was mandatory to remove the seating areas. 

I stayed in most of my first week WFH because it was raining. My first couple days, I was a quite anxious about WFH. We are asked to submit a daily work log to our managers everyday, and also submit a weekly list of tasks that we wish to accomplish that week. My manager is super chill and protective of us - she told us that we must “cover our butts” and do not downplay anything we are doing. She stresses to upper management that all of our jobs are important. Currently, it seems that my department has a plan until April 19. Parking is also waived during this time (I’m saving so much money on not spending on gas and parking). It was discussed in the meeting that since many conferences, clinics, and activities are canceled, there’s not much need for admin support. If we will need to continue WFH after April 19, we may be able to last another month or so on doing part-time work and be compensated for the rest by administrative leave. Past that, furlough is on the table. I think our team should be safe though, because April to August is our busy season.

My second half of my first week WFH was heaven. Being able to sleep in til 8 and having the California sunshine wake me up was a dream. I was enjoying spending time with my family, not having to commute, being able to connect virtually with friends, and go hiking at the nearby trail. 

I’m now halfway through my second week WFH. I honestly do not mind the quarantine life if it weren’t for the depressive state of our world. US is gonna surpass China and Italy in numbers soon. I feel like it’s hard to work in this anxious state. I’m even more worried because Matt is working on the frontline. Every time I see an article about how a doctor has died due to covid, it breaks my heart a little. But I also have to consider that it takes a certain personality and strength to be a doctor, and actual doctors don’t react to this the same way the general public does. 

This week when I’ve talked to him, he acted calm and normal and is more distressed over noncovid related things. For example, he talked multiple times about how the Chair of his department kinda humiliated him/called him out for doing something stupid, about our housing situations, about being able to fly home or not next month, about the economic stimulus. But doesn’t seem very worried about covid in his hospital, and semi-playfully says “i’m going to war!!” when he leaves for work. His psychologist friend who is already an attending in an Arizona hospital sent him 2 packages full of masks, n95s as well as n-100s which are even stronger. I’m so grateful for that. Luckily, his mom asked him to steal some n-95s last month, so he has like 8 of those in storage too. It calms me down knowing that he has the proper supplies when it comes the time that they run out. 

Also big news that I should write out - he matched! He’s waited a decade for this email. I’m happy for him even though his real dream would have been able to come back to Cali. I’m gaining more experience on being a doctor’s partner. I follow the subreddit medspouse a lot and it’s like I have friends going through the same things together - relationship struggles, match day, the fear of covid, etc. There are also frequent posts from people who are newly dating  (~2 months) a resident or med student. A very common question is - are they even interested or are they just super busy? It’s become a part of my identity and it’s very interesting to read other people’s experiences. 

A few months ago, we got into a big argument because he wasn’t able to give me a timeline of when to move in together in the case that he does match into Brooklyn. I was upset because I felt like he wasn’t sure about our future, and about wanting to live with me. I felt it was his way of pushing it off. He said it was because it was too much pressure to think past match day, because he would be so devastated if he didn’t match again. I didn’t truly understand or believe him. Right after he matched, he sent me a text “cutie pie is moving to NY”. And immediately, he brought up concrete plans about moving in together i.e. rent amount, neighborhoods, month of move in, etc. It made me feel so secure. This time, I was the one who couldn’t promise anything. Because COVID. I have no idea what’s gonna unfold these upcoming weeks and months. I was thinking that in the case I am furloughed, I can move onto a different job in NYC and have a smooth transition. 

My dad is finally behaving more. He’s been following the news on TV nonstop. Along with this, my parents’ friends keep sending them sometimes fake news via wechat. My mom is especially gullible to these. My dad started cutting up onions to put around the house because “that’s what they did in the 70s” post bombing attacks. Some quality family time: I made my parents do virtual yoga with me. We basically eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together everyday, hiked with my mom, bonded (and sometimes argued) because of covid together. 

Last thing is that I’ve been super interested in learning about borderline personality disorder these past couple days. My long-term friend B who I’ve complained about many times this past year and a half - I’ve finally labeled her as a toxic friend. The first few times I’ve described her to Matt, he instantly said BPD. I didn’t believe him at first and was just like nah she doesn’t have that. But he said it again recently and I looked up the symptoms. It was very descriptive. I believe that she started becoming a worse friend in the last 1.5 years or so because she stopped having a LTR boyfriend. When she has a LTR boyfriend, he becomes the main receiver of this whole BPD mess. That means, during our almost decade friendship, I never really saw that side of her because she’s been in LTRs. After her last relationship, she’s been jumping from guy to guy and having unstable short-lived relationships. However, I think she may have recently found another LTR guy. Since I am her “best friend”, I defaulted to being one of the receivers of her BDPness during this searching for a new person endeavor. 

She became all take and no give (actually she did give me a sorry/Xmas gift and a birthday card). I kinda stopped relying on her and increasingly lost respect for her. She constantly sent me screenshots of text messages between her and her boy of the moment. I looked through our text images together yesterday and 90% were screenshots between her and a boy. And all we ever texted about were her boys. I didn’t really have an issue with this, until I saw how much more effort she put in for these boys, while getting very flat effort in our friendship (through text and in person). It was close to the last straw for me when she sent over some screenshots during the week we were transitioning to WFH. In my mind, I was thinking “how could you possibly still be concentrating on ONLY boys during a time like this”. She tried to make convo with me (in an effort to be less self-absorbed) the next few days with very little effort or interest in the things I was saying. I then got annoyed when her boy toy messaged me directly and asked about how to make her happy. I felt like omg - i can’t escape her love life. I later tried to have a convo with her about this, but was met with little effort, victim playing, and avoidance. Anyway, I’m social distancing myself from her by muting all her stuff on social media and muting the group chat I was in with her and her sisters. I don’t plan to really answer her messages anymore. 

[boystownbirdie]

LMWTV4U: GOT S7E7

Welcome back to Let me watch TV 4 U? The blog where I watch TV for YOU! Last night was the season 7 finale of Game of Thrones. What happened? LET’S FIND OUT! Spoilers ahead you’ve been warned. You’ve also been warned that you are about to be #SHOOKETH. 

Again, I was fully #shook the entire second half of this ep. But the first half was less shocking, so let’s get that out of the way first, shall we?

We open on Greyworm and the rest of the Unsullied army…

And they are in #formation on the lawn of King’s Landing. Jaime and Bronn watch from a tower and discuss dicks and basically conclude that dicks make the world go ‘round which is A. GARBAGE and B. WELCOME TO THE SEASON OF THE KWEENS. Also Bronn oversees the Lannister army’s production of “pitch” which I’m assuming is like tar (I know this from Into the Woods, thanks Sondheim!). What is this pitch for? IDK it’s never mentioned again! During their dick-discussion, the Dothraki forces ride up on their horses through the Unsullied formation and J and B are, frankly, spooked.

While the Unsullied and Dothraki approach by land, the big wigs ride in by sea. We’ve got Tyrion, Previously-Traumatized-Theon (PTT), Sleevey, Bae, No-Knuckles (NK), Stoney, and Missi on deck. Down below, the Hound checks to make sure the ice zombie they obtained last week is still zombie-ing. As they approach, Theon’s Uncle Crazy-Pants (UCP) has his whole fleet of ships guarding King’s Landing. We check in quickly with Queen Pixie Cut (QPC) who is reminding her zombie-bodyguard, The Mountain, to kill everyone please.

As we approach the GoT-Model-UN, Bronn strolls up with Ladyknight and her squire, Pod on one side and are met by Tyrion and the rest of #TeamKhaleesi at a fork in the road. Pod and Tyrion and Bronn all used to be besties, so it’s kind of weird for them to be meeting like this, but OH WELL we’ve got ice zombies to discuss! The Hound and Ladyknight reunite which is cute because last time they met she left him for dead. They both chat about how they are proud that their little Arya has grown up to be a skilled assassin.

They approach the Courtyard by Marriott presents, the DRAGONPIT space that QPC has rented for their Model-UN conference, which is actually a giant pit where the Targaryens used to keep their dragons. It looks like one of those stadiums that was shoddily-built for the Olympics 25 years ago but has not been touched since. #TeamKhaleesi and #TeamBae all take their seats and then QPC and co. roll up with Uncle Crazy Pants. We get a reminder that the Mountain and the Hound (who are brothers) do NOT like each other. QPC is like, umm… Where’s Khaleesi? And then in the least surprising entrance ever Khaleesi flies in on Dragon #1 with Dragon #2 in tow and is like, what? Am I late?

Uncle Crazy Pants has to remind us all that he’s crazy and rather than let the grown-ups chat, he yells at his nephew PTT and is like, hey, I still have your sister, remember? Tyrion tries to steer the convo back to Model-UN business but then UCP goes on a rant about how he hates dwarves until QPC is finally like shut all the way up, UCP. Tyrion and Bae co-present the case for their country in this model-UN, Khaleesi-ville. There’s a lot of back and forth but T makes a very good point when he says there’s “no conversation that will erase the last 50 years.”

Their presentation concludes with a real-life-3D-representation of the threat to their country, an ice zombie fresh from beyond the wall! The Hound sets him loose and he comes right for QPC’s face. She looks truly horrified while her “Maester” (who is into human experiments and keeping dead people alive unnaturally) is kinda turned on? Bae shows us that the 2 things that can destroy the ice zombie are fire and dragonglass, thus completing his presentation. Good job, Bae, A+ and extra points for visuals!

UCP is not having this and is like, can ice zombies swim? Bae’s like, naw dawg they cannot. So UCP is like k, BAI and peaces out. He and his people live on an island so they’re safe from ice zombies as long as they stay put. Since Khaleesi recently purchased an island-condo, he advises her to do the same. QPC agrees to a truce with #teamKhaleesi on the condition that Bae heads back to Winterfell and not “choose a side” between Khaleesi and QPC. It seems like a good deal but Bae is like sorry I already chose a side I’m #teamKhaleesi til I die (again). QPC is like k, kewl, bai and her whole crew leaves without deciding on their model-UN resolution. Ladyknight appeals to her old pal Jaime to have some common sense but he is too #inlurve with his sister to listen.

Everyone left at the Courtyard by Marriott is like Bae couldn’t you just have told a little lie to QPC? And he’s like naw, not a liar. Can’t do it. Tyrion is like ok well I’ll go talk to my sis, she’ll probs kill me but, it’s been a fun life! Meanwhile, Khaleesi and Bae get a little heart-to-heart where she AGAIN mentions that she can’t have children and he’s like well who said that? And she’s like oh this witch doctor lady who killed my first husband. And Bae is like, she wasn’t even a licensed medical professional, what does she know!?

Tyrion and Jaime have a quick moment of brotherly love before T goes to see QPC. T is like, ok sis, just kill me. Your giant zombie-bodyguard is here just give the order and have me killed. And then she doesn’t kill him. Instead, she declines his glass of wine because she is #drinkingfortwo now, that’s right, she preggers (or at least she claims to be). Somehow, telling Tyrion about her pregnancy leads her to change her mind so she returns to the Courtyard by Marriott to tell the crew that she will have her armies march North to face the “great war” of the ice zombies. Huzzah! Our mission is complete. OR IS IT?

Let’s pop into Winterfell, shall we?

Sansa finds out that Bae #boweddown to Khaleesi via a very informative letter and discusses this with Littlefinger. LF is like well, I guess Bae is a traitor now so maybe you should be in charge? And she’s like hmmm… but my sister is acting weird. And then he tries to tell her that her sis wants to kill her to become the “Lady of Winterfell” and take power. She’s like, well… I guess I better do something about that. A few scenes later, Sansa is busy looking out at the winter-y landscape and tells a guard to have her sister, Arya, brought to the Great Hall.

In the Great Hall, Arya walks into a room filled with judgy-looking dudes in pointy hats and is like, did I miss something? And Sansa is like well… there is a traitor in our midst. And Arya is like, oh really, bitch? We gonna go there? And Sansa is like yep, you’re accused of treason, murder, and conspiring to kill your leader……… LITTLEFINGER!

WHAT? TABLES TURNED BIOTCH YOU ARE DONE LITTLEFINGER.

LF tries to talk his way out of this one but it turns out the sisters have been plotting against him all along and there’s nothing he can say that can combat that. Plus Bran is there and he can see the past so he offers some helpfully incriminating testimony against Littlefinger. LF is down on his knees begging Sansa for his life and she’s like #boibye, do it sis. And Arya cuts his throat! And then he is dead-o as dead as any dead thing that ever died. I truly cheered out loud at this scene. Like, I should have seen it coming but I didn’t. Thank you, GoT, for not only killing off a main character, but one we all wanted to see die anyway! Later, we get a scene where Arya and Sansa fully make up and are friends again, TG!

Back to #teamKhaleesi...

they’re debating travel plans to head North. Stoney is like, Khaleesi you should take the dragon express, but Bae is like no, sail on a boat wit me. And Khaleesi is FEELING BAE so she’s like sorry, Stoney, gotta get that D. Then we have a sweet scene where Bae and PTT resolve their past differences and PTT is like wow you are one good dude, Bae.

Inspired by this convo, PTT heads to the boats to ask the small crew of his sister’s sailor-guys to sail with him to save his sis from UCP. The main sailor dude is like NOPE, you heard UCP, we’re heading to an island! PTT is like NOT TODAY, SATAN, and he starts fighting the main sailor dude. After taking several punches and getting back up again (that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call tub-thumping (thanks Kimmy Schmidt), when you get back down but you get up again), PTT is hit hard in the groin by the main sailor dude but jokes on him cuz PTT is like a Ken-Doll down there! PTT uses this momentum to wipe out sailor dude and after beating him up, rallies the troops to go save his sister! Good job, PTT!

Back in King’s Landing…

Jaime is ordering the Lannister forces to head up North to fight the ice zombies when QPC walks in and is like lol wut? Jaime’s like just doing what we agreed to do at the Model UN conference! QPC is like, oh that’s sweet, you thought I was serious? I’m not gonna make a truce with Khaleesi! I’m gonna move in as soon as her troops head North! And Jaime is like how? We don’t have an army! And she’s like oh remember when UCP said he was going to leave and head back to the Iron Islands- psych!- he’s heading to the other side of the world to bring the “Golden Company” (a huge army of soldiers for hire that QPC bought with all that Tyrell gold) back here.

Jaime is NOT PLEASED because A. he wants them to keep their word and B. he’s like if these ice zombies win we’re all f$%-ed and C. QPC kept him in the dark about all of this. He’s like I know you murdered thousands of innocent people in a church and you’ve been 100% evil for the past 5 seasons, but this is the LAST STRAW. And he goes to leave and she’s nobody walks away from me and her zombie-knight is there. And Jaime is like ok, kill me. Which is cuckoo because this is the second time in this episode where QPC is faced with a brother saying “ok, have your zombie knight kill me then” and each time she doesn’t do it.

So Jaime storms off and it seems like he is finally dunzo with his twin sis/lover and is headed...North? IDK? As he is leaving King’s Landing, though, SNOW STARTS TO FALL whoa #winteriscoming #vintagenedstark #amiright ladies?

Let’s check in on Winterfell again!

Sam arrives with Gilly and bb Sam and comes to see the artist formerly known as Bran Stark aka The 3-eyed Raven. Bran tells Sam he is the 3-eyed Raven now and Sam’s like….k? And Bran is like I need to see Bae to tell him about his parents. Bran is being a real know-it-all which is I guess his gig now and he’s like he’s not Jon Snow, he’s Jon Sand, he was a bastard born in Dorne (Dornish bastards have the last name Sand instead of Snow cuz of the climate) to Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. And Sam is like HOLD THE PHONE I just remembered that Gilly read aloud from this old dude’s diary that Lyanna and Rhaegar were legally married and he got offish divorced from his first wife!

And then Bran goes back in time and watches the marriage and is like yep it happened and meanwhile he’s narrating all of this, Khaleesi and Bae are on a ship headed North when he knocks on her door late at night. She lets him in and then before we even get to witness their first kiss they are #doingit that’s right straight up boning and fully nude. It is very hawt but also we are confirming that she is his aunt at the same time. And Tyrion, meanwhile, watched Bae go into Khaleesi’s room and is feeling some kinda way about it?!?

I’m too verklempt to describe the sensuality of these 2 beautiful people in the nude so let’s cut to our last scene. Gingerbae and Eyepatch are still at Eastwatch when GB spots a bunch of ice zombies walking up to the wall. He’s like oh snap they are very close now we better get our shit together. And then ICE ZOMBIE DRAGON flies up, with the Night King on his back and BURNS DOWN A HUGE SECTION OF THE ICE WALL WITH HIS FIRE/ICE BREATH!?!?!?! GB and Eyepatch seem to be ok but now, we have for the first time ever, a bajillion ice zombies who’ve successfully crossed into the realm of the living and are really, definitely coming for all of us. END OF EPISODE.

Phew thanks so much for reading! Sorry bout my technical difficulties. I’ll see you next season!

[kiss-my-freckle]

2x7 Rewatch: Yakimono

Gif set can be found here.

This episode pulls some major character shifts, and foreshadows where they plan to take the second half of the season. I could gif 2x7 for days. 

Hannibal just had Will released, knowing that he's finally embraced the killer within himself and knowing that killer is coming for him. I mean... Will made this huge switch from killing Hobbs in season one. "Did you really feel so bad because killing him felt so good?" You can see it in his convo with Alana, which piggies off his convo with Hannibal. "Would that be so bad?" He's comfortable in the knowing that he’s the reason Hannibal is gonna die in 2x5, feeling no remorse whatsoever. Even Jack comments to the fact that he's not broken up about it. So you get that transition, a killer finally embracing who he is... not only is he now free to kill how he wants, but he’s free to kill who he wants. I think Hannibal likes that just as much as he fears it. He's curious to know how Will plans to take his life back. But that's what Hannibal did to Will. Killing Beverly was the last straw. She literally gave her life to save his life, and so I feel he had no other choice than to embrace that side of himself. At the same time I'm angry they chose to kill off Beverly's character, it's like... you see how her death impacts Will, and how it pushes the killer within him to want vengeance. What better way to bring a killer to the surface than drive him by one of the biggest reasons people kill. A lose-win, really.

The entire board changes, even for Dr. Chilton. Thrilling to watch Jack go to Will's house, and as he promised in the first season, aims to kill the very person he believes is the Ripper. "Yeah, well, I want to catch him now. And when I do, you're not gonna get a chance to shoot him, 'cause I'm gonna do that." Hannibal has Jack so fooled, he's running in the snow, shooting at Frederick as if he has anywhere to go. As doctors, they do have the same profile, but they're so completely different. For Hannibal, it is about power and dominance. But for Frederick, it's about making a name for himself, to be known and talked about in psychiatric circles. It's funny to watch because Will just got done telling Abel that he and Frederick are gonna end up on the devil's dinner table, so of course Frederick is gonna be terrified after Hannibal took Abel. And Jack is so desperate to get the Ripper, that he's not even listening to Will trying to reason with him. Dr. Chilton's character runs a double parallel, to Will's frame and Hannibal's season three surrender.

I laugh at Will's comment when he's released from the hospital. He knows exactly what Hannibal wants because Hannibal made himself that obvious. "Because he wants to be my friend." I also love Will's comment to Jack. It's the biggest issue between Will and Hannibal. "You didn't have to find me, Jack. You just had to listen to me." Violence replaces communication. Abigail's flashbacks in 3x9 span the entire second season. She's at the core of Will's rage, and he's now able to get vengeance for both her and Beverly. His scene with Alana is thrilling because he puts it out there - exactly what she did to him and just how blind she really is. "Because you didn't believe me? Or in me? Because you let me question my sanity, my sense of reality?" She completely disregards Will's innocence, never caring to apologize for her role in doubting him, and does so because she only cares about what he did to Hannibal. She and Will run on opposite sides in their relationship with him. "No, you're wrong about him, Alana. You see the best in him. I... don't." Will doesn't see the best in Hannibal... yet. He must first see the worst in those he currently sees the best in.

Now Miriam takes her place on the board, and all you can do is feel sorry for her, but nothing she says can be trusted. She believes the Ripper was saving her for last. If he were, he would've held onto her, not allowed her to get rescued by Jack. She has no idea Hannibal is the Ripper, so it's as if she's been in solitude the entire time. What I love about Miriam's scene with Will, is how thrilled he is that they're part of his design... freeing them. You can see it in his smile. Miriam doesn't consider them free because she doesn't believe he's done, but he is. What you truly get with Miriam's comment is her short-term character direction and Will's long-term character direction. "I've changed; you changed me." It's the entire point of him going back to therapy. He knows how to change Hannibal just as Hannibal changed him. Their scene in the kitchen was Will’s immediate response to Miriam’s comment. He knows Hannibal is the Ripper. It was meant to act as an in-between. He could’ve easily shot Hannibal there and gotten his life back just as Miriam did, but the show would’ve been over. How would killing Hannibal make him feel? Righteous. Because that’s who Will is. “Don't you want to know how this ends?" The right question changes everything. Will plans to choose the ending he wants. Hannibal was not expecting Will to show up for his 7:30 therapy session, but his response to Will’s desire to resume therapy is everything you need. Also to mention, Will doing his crime scene reenactment in Hannibal’s office because it’s now part of his memory palace.

"Confess to bonding with Hannibal Lecter over your shared practice of unorthodox therapies. Dr. Lecter with me, you with Abel Gideon." Will throws them in parallel, so you should already know what to expect to see happen. You basically get Abel's relationship to Dr. Chilton AND his relationship to the Ripper rolled into one relationship that is Hannibal and Will. Understanding that Will has already embraced the killer within him, he's simply not a killer like Hannibal is. Righteous at his core. Hannibal truly believes he's gonna get Will to believe Dr. Chilton is the Ripper. His way of getting Will to move forward rather than focusing on catching him. "The friendship that we had is over. The Chesapeake Ripper is over." Understand that when Hannibal says this, he has no idea what Will has planned for him. Both are far from over. "Where shall we begin?" What you're getting is the very beginning of Will's retaliation for the past 17 episodes. How is he going to start? By being honest about his desire to kill Hannibal. What becomes the issue for Will, is what’s required to bait Hannibal. I’ll lay that out in my 2x8 rewatch post... and I’m gonna post a second gif set just to show you how smart Will Graham is. 

[relaxforadelicatefew]

My life revolves around volleyball, let's be honest

Holyyyy shit. I wish I had the energy and time to dedicate to fully updating this blog for the last year that I have been MIA. But basically since I met Josh (see a few posts back), I haven’t needed to vent to an online forum because I was happy. And when I wasn’t happy, or Josh and I were having problems, etc I still turned to friends and other outlets instead of the blog. Which I guess is a good thing, but nonetheless, I’ve missed so much here. I’ll attempt to give a brief synopsis of some of the major events over the past year…. Here goes nothin! And as usual, I’ll attach a bunch of pictures for reference.   Let’s start with the topic of Josh, since that’s kinda where I left off last time. We officially started dating March 20th, 2016. All was going great for a long time. He moved into my house in August and started contributing to house costs instead of his apartment rent down in York. He was easily my best friend and I could tell him literally anything without fear of judgement. We hit a lot of “milestones” and went on a lot of adventures together. I could honestly say that I could have pictured myself marrying him and being 100% content with life. That’s not today we didn’t have our problems…there were many times that I came across something in his phone that made me not trust him (an inappropriate picture, text convo, etc). We talked about it a few times, and I probably let it go more times than I should have. His fairly heavy drinking was also a factor in that, to which we know my answer is always “drunk is not an excuse”! There are months’ worth of stories on this topic, but its not worth going into detail. Nonetheless, we broke up at the end of May 2017 when I found his PlentyofFish account with lots of recent conversations with other women. That was the last straw. After cooling down from the break up, we talked and decided we still wanted to be friends, etc. That lasted for about a month, and now we’re not speaking. He moved back down to York and I haven’t heard from him in awhile. While I am sad that it didn’t work out because he really was one of my best friends, and I truly did love him, I know its for the better. I have to keep reminding myself that to stay sane.   Summer of 2016 was 100% packed with as many tournaments as I could afford. It was super helpful to have Josh around to help with Baron, which allowed me to play lots of weekends back-to-back days. I didn’t do much else last summer besides volleyball, kayaking, a few small beach trips, etc. We did go to OC, MD at the end of July for Josh’s birthday, and that was my only real vacation for the summer. Highlight of the summer came at the 2nd largest grass tournament on the east coast, Susquehanna Smash, where I won BOTH DAYS! Becky and I won Women’s BB Saturday, and then Quincy and I won RevCo BB on Sunday! Longest 2 days of volleyball ever, but 100% worth it. There’s a picture above of both of my amazing partners for the weekend. What a way to end the summer

[month9books]

Riverdale Recap and Review - Season 1 - Chapter 7 - In a Lonely Place by Andrew Buckley

That 50’s style comic book opening scene with Jughead wearing his crown and Archie in the sweater with the bowtie was beautifully shot, iconically accurate, and all sorts of creepy. This is something that Riverdale does well, I’ve seen it since episode one and they’ve managed to maintain it almost every single week so far: they commit to the weekly theme and they hit it hard right on the offset. Sure, they’ve only got 42(ish) minutes to work with so there’s no time to beat around the bush, but major props have to go to the producers, writers, and showrunners for consistently hitting the right notes in what’s become an almost perfect symphony of characters and story arcs. This week’s themes of ‘home’ and ‘hope’ are driven like a knife through Archie’s back during that opening sequence that narratively asks the question as to what a home truly is. We’ve seen so many different homes in Riverdale already, it’s easy to see why that particular theme probably gets revisited more than most but it was especially poignant this week with Jughead’s story. So let’s get to it . . .

I feel Archie redeemed himself a little this week after last week’s severe dip in his collective IQ. While he doesn’t shine through as being incredibly intuitive (he managed to ignore the fact that Jughead was homeless for how long?) he grabs some major points for having a heart of gold. He feels bad that he wasn’t there for Betty during her time of need and he fights to help Jughead by arranging for Mr. Jones to go back to work even though he doesn’t even have the full back story yet, he just wants to help his hurting friend. His dedication as a friend despite differences or awkwardness actually gave him a few moments to shine. Yes, he’s completely overshadowed by everyone else on the show but I still feel he gained a little ground this week.

After Polly’s magical escape from the mental institution, she sneaks (like a ninja) into her parent’s attic only to be found by Betty. All the characters in Riverdale have such strong personalities and stories, I’m having a little trouble getting behind Polly though. While she’s obviously not the ‘party girl’ that the Blossoms paint her to be, there’s something not quite right about that girl, and her continuing to cling to wanting to go live on a farm somewhere just doesn’t seem grounded in reality.

Either way, Betty helps her, first by appealing to the Blossoms via Cheryl, and then by Veronica’s intervention to move her into the Lodge residence. The Blossoms once again reiterated that they’re the big, evil, rich family of Riverdale by pulling a Rumpelstiltskin. They want Jason’s baby but they couldn’t care less about Polly, and I can’t completely blame them for that because we really haven’t been given enough reason to sympathize with Polly just yet. The Blossoms want the baby, but Cheryl, in an off-character moment of morality, wants what’s best for Jason’s unborn child and turns on her own family to place Polly in a safe place. This is sure to cause even more conflict in the Blossom household but it looks like Cheryl is beginning to hold her own against her deranged mother, which is nice to see.

We should get this out of the way before I get into this next story point. I love Veronica. Not the character as such, but more Camila Mendes’ portrayal is just so spot on that it’s scary. Which is why this one is tough to write about because her grandiose sweeping gestures and on-point wordplay has been stunning so far. But this week our dear Ronnie headed into some cliche-ridden waters and it was a shame because the character deserves better. Veronica holds a grudge against her mother for forging her signature, not because it was wrong, funnily enough, but because it would paint her in a negative light with her father (daddy issues much?). She proceeds to head out for a night on the town (Riverdale has a nightclub? And a busy one? On a school night?) with Kevin, Reggie, and Josie in order to defy her mother into negotiating with her. It feels like a classic rich girl move and that is too much of a departure from what we’ve come to know about Veronica. While it represents her past life, it’s a life she’s determined to leave behind but goes ahead with it anyway. In the end, all it boils down to is a quick convo with her mother, and all is well again in the Lodge household. Although it will be interesting to see how Mr. Lodge reacts to Hermione’s deception. 

Hats (and paper crowns) off to Skeet Ulrich for almost completely dominating the performance side of this episode of Riverdale. I say ‘almost’ because Jughead is the one that steals the show and delivers the feels. Jughead has pulled a Harry Potter and now lives under the stairs at school. We learn the reason why is because his Dad is somewhat of a deadbeat and his Mom and sister have left town. Father/son stuff always rips my heart a new one so I fully felt the story this week. Jughead wants his Dad to get his act together and he’s holding onto hope that it can actually happen and that it will eventually lead to a happy home, in one form or another. After Archie and Jughead get FP his job back, it all seems to be going well, until they head out for dinner and old demons join them at the table at Pops. We learn the backstory of Fred and FP’s friendship, their doomed partnership, and the clear signs that they hold each other responsible. I think Fred comes out on top here as FP obviously has some issues when it comes to making the right decisions above his own self interests, but they’re both a little at fault and I was shocked that Archie actually cut through the crap and addressed the issue with his Dad. Sure, FP was bad for business but did Fred ever consider what it would mean for Jughead’s family? In true Fred Andrews fashion, he quickly redeems himself by inventing an alibi for Jughead to help prove he’s not the murderer.

Jughead getting taken downtown and questioned was a bit of a leap for Sheriff Keller but I think he’s really grasping at straws at this point. The killer is in town, we’ve already met him, but no one knows who it is. There were a lot of great scenes between Jughead and his Dad but their relationship, and the weekly themes, are driven home by the confrontation behind the police station. We can truly believe that FP wants to clean up his act and wants Jughead to be proud of him, but he lacks the motivation and willpower to do it and prefers to continually blame others for his actions. Jughead on the other hand clings on to hope that his Dad can turn his life around and rebuild their home as a family, but it was clear in that scene that Jughead doesn’t truly believe it to be possible and, furthermore, his Dad knows it too. Which is why Jughead moves into the Andrews household and FP willingly lets him go.

This week’s cliffhanger piece is the sight of Jason’s jacket hanging in Mr. Jones’ closet. We last saw that jacket in the hidden car last week so it could be that Mr. Jones torched the car, Jason had multiple jackets, or someone else fired up the vehicle and then planted the jackets in Mr. Jones’ trailer . Mr. Jones is too obvious to be the killer so we can scratch him off the list. (As my Polly/Betty multiple personality theory got shot all to hell, I have a new one . . .  which I’ll share before next week’s episode. Stay tuned!)

What is a happy home in Riverdale? It almost doesn’t exist because every household is so rife with drama and problems that it seems impossible. But this episode was all about hope for a happy home and we can only assume that our dear characters will find exactly that, in one form or another. Even if it’s just an air mattress on a friend’s floor. Just hopefully not anytime too soon because the drama on this show is just so much wicked freakin fun! 

STRAY THOUGHTS OF AWESOMENESS . . .

- Polly jumped out of a window and, despite there being blood on the glass, she survives completely unscathed. I think it’s safe to say that Polly is a mutant/immortal/vampire or something to that effect.

- The Cooper’s attic is the place scary things go to die. What’s with those freakin dolls?!

- The Betty/Jughead (Bughead as the kids are calling it online) is still pushed to the back of the bus again this week. Juggie putting his arm around Betty causing Archie and Ronnie to address the gesture brought some of it to the surface but it’s still not sitting at the forefront of the story. Understandable though as there’s a ton of other stuff going on.

- The Team Blossom hunting crew has actual hunting dogs. Dogs are well known to be very useful when tracking pregnant teenagers.

- I’m seriously looking forward to when we get to see Mr. Lodge in the flesh. It has to happen. We all know it!

- Mr. Blossom’s wig disturbs me more and more every single week.

- Alice Cooper continues to be evil. Not Penelope Blossom evil. But evil. Press conference outside the church? What? Why? Worst mother of the year award goes to . . . 

Andrew Buckley attended the Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program. After pitching and developing several screenplay projects for film and television, he worked in marketing and public relations, before becoming a professional copy and content writer. During this time Andrew began writing his first adult novel, DEATH, THE DEVIL AND THE GOLDFISH, followed closely by his second novel, STILTSKIN both published by Curiosity Quills Press. Andrew also writes under the pen name 'Jane D. Everly' for his HAVELOCK series of novels. Look for his first upper middle grade novel HAIR IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES available now fromMonth9Books with the sequel scheduled for release in August 2017.Andrew also co-hosts a geek movie podcast, is working on several new novels, and has a stunning amount of other ideas. He now lives happily in the Okanagan Valley, BC with one beautiful wife, three kids, one cat, one needy dog, and a multitude of characters that live comfortably inside of his mind.Andrew is represented by Mark Gottlieb at the Trident Media Group.

Website | Twitter | Facebook |Instagram | Goodreads

Grab Andrew's book!