#training academy at the same time gene did but

[laromlab]

My biggest complaint is that Season 4 of Umbrella Academy just tries to copy the same formula of the other seasons but doesn't have the world building to back it up.

We need Jean and Gene because we need wacky minor villains for comic relief ala the Commission, and ofc Hazel and Cha-Cha. Unfortunately no character in TUA will ever be as good as Hazel.

We need Klaus to struggle with addiction again and have a wacky side plot where he's away from his family (that no-one questions) even if the arc is never paid off or meaningful in any way. God Klaus and Claire were so interesting together I wish we had more time with Alison's whole family situation especially with what happened to Ray but anyway

We need a big dramatic world ending apocalypse because of course we do. Fucking hell. Do something different please I beg. If Five is sick of the apocalypses then the audience sure as hell is.

We need Reginald to just copy what he did with Klaus' training arc where he heals a character's trauma that they got from another Reginald. Because we have truly ran out of ideas. This idea is even more wasted in this season than it was the first time! In fact, Reginald is the most wasted character in the entire show, he's so one dimensional and just fucking weird, like I get he's an alien and the whole point is you never know if he's telling the truth or lying but come on man. Give me something. Plus that ending scene where the story tries to forgive him... Yikes.

Infact, Abigail is also kind of wasted in this season. She infiltrates the Keepers, takes over the entire operation, and then... supports their cause? And ends the world anyway? What was the point then? The Umbrellas would have lost against the cleanse anyway, so what the fuck was she doing 😭😭

The Big Complaint for this season of course is Five and Lila, and literally it could have been solved if Five had found a human version of Delores or something, with Lila trying to get home to her family. I did like how Lila acted when she got home though, being super grateful to see everyone. That was a sweet moment. And the whole timeline subway station was such a cool idea, I wish it was in a better show

I could carry on, but alas I think I should stop yapping. Overall, it sucks to see a really good show get a little spoiled by the finale. My biggest suggestion to fix Season Four would have been to just start over 😭 The cleanse was a stupid idea tbh and the whole Jennifer arc should have been something different. I also wish Ben was less of a dick, given his whole character arc in season 3 was around him becoming less of a dick. 😐

Let me know your thoughts

[therantsofawriterrr]

The Umbrella Academy Final Season: My Version

Part Eleven: The Squid And The Girl

Overview: As Lila, Diego, Five and Clementine dig more into Jean and Gene, Ben and Klaus look for Jennifer, who struggles to make sense of her situation while facing her demons. TW: Mature language, panic attack scenes, mention of selling human beings, mention of harassment, tell me if I missed anything!! Pairings: Diego × Lila, Ben × Jennifer A/N: Hello, things are getting kind of interesting now 👀👀👀

The next day after the van was fixed, the gang split up. Klaus and Ben went on a walk, with the former chattering the latter's ear off.

The others went back, Diego handing Viktor the keys. "You drive."

"You sure? Wanda?" Viktor asked, gesturing towards the van, knowing how much the vehicle meant to him.

"Yeah. I don't give a shit anymore," he answered.

Diego started to walk inside but paused as Viktor jangled the keys expectantly. He turned back to him and explained. "She's pulling to the right a little bit. And don't go over 40, or what's left of the muffler's gonna fall off."

Viktor nodded, a small smile on his face. "Got it."

"Welcome to the Keepers HQ, courtesy of Jean and Gene," Five said as he lockpicked the door and opened it. "This is their other property that I found."

"Huh. Maybe the workspace?" Clementine wondered aloud.

All of them got to work, going into rooms and looking in places when Diego observed, " Jean and Gene didn't give us much to go on."

"Just stay focused, darling. You'll find something," Lila assured him, before she checked the file drawers, finding them empty. "All the files are gone."

"Yeah, it certainly looks that way," Five said. "There's nothing here."

"Our targets left in a hurry, correct?" he asked.

Lila and Five nodded in reply.

"So... haste makes waste, mami," Diego said, making Lila smirk with him.

When he got out of the room, Lila immediately confronted Five, "Out with it. Why can't you blink?"

"I can blink," he argued. "Y'know, I just..."

"Won't," Lila finished. "Well, you gotta get back on that horse, kemosabe."

She grabbed his arm and mimicked his power, just as Five exclaimed a, "Don't!"

"Whoa! Where are we?" Lila asked immediately when they were back in the subway station.

"A subway station," Five replied plainly.

"Yeah, I can see that, numbnuts," Lila retorted. "But why did you blink us here?"

"Believe me, Lila, it was not on purpose," Five said warily. "Ever since the marigold, when I blink, this is where I end up."

"Neat," Lila said, as they went down to the platform.

When they reached the platform, she giggled with the excitement of a curious child. "Okay, not the MTA, not the Tube."

"Trust me, this is unlike any subway you've been to," Five stated.

"Well, where do the trains go?" she asked.

"That's the weird part," he answered. "I took a westbound train. i went one station over. When I came up, it was the exact same day, exact same time, but a completely different timeline."

She smiled, the curiosity of it all brightening her mood. "Now that's interesting."

Spotting the map pillar, she ran to it, making Five sigh like the old man he was. He felt like he was taking care of a child.

"This is helpful, innit?" She yelled.

"If I could understand it," Five replied.

She scoffed confidently and said, "I once navigated the Tokyo subway with a bullet wound in my thigh, and on my period, so. How hard can it be?"

She started trying to navigate the map, as the speaker produced the warped, weird noise again, making Five's senses perk up ominously as a train came in.

"Eastbound. Shall we?" Lila asked him happily.

"We should get back to Diego," he replied.

"Oh, come on," she said like a petulant child being denied candy. "Let's take a ride."

"I don't wanna be hopping on trains until we understand this."

"Gahh, you need to move your ass!" she said, draging him along with her as she laughed.

When the train stopped on another station, it was kind of a deadbeat one, with some of the lights broken and some flickering.

"Yuck," Lila said as Five whipped out his tiny notepad. He clicked his pen and started scribbling on it diligently as Lila trudged over to look at his notes.

"Dear diary, why do I always wear suits?" Lila teased as Five rolled his eyes, continuing to scribble. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving bread crumbs. It's a broken vending machine. Stain on the floor in the shape of Australia. Three burnt-out light bulbs."

"Hmm. Where do you reckon we end up?" she asked.

"My guess is back in Gene and Jean's apartment," Five replied, as they started going to the stairs that led outside. "Same da, same time, different timeline."

But when they got out, they came out to flames, ashes and rubble. Everything was destroyed and Five's heart stuttered.

"You must've jumped forward, ahead of time, to the end of the world," Lila observed.

"No, no, no. We haven't jumped anywhere," Five said. "We're not moving forwards or backwards through time. We're just going to alternate versions of now.

He looked around once. "This is Gene and Jean's apartment," he murmured, looking around once more as his throat started constricting a little, his breath getting a bit shallower.

"I've been here before," he stated, hiding his panic as his heart started beating louder. "This is my apocalypse."

"Yeah. The original timeline," he said, trying not to speak too much because he could feel his lungs constricting to the point of pain. "I was, um. I was stuck here for 40 years."

"You alright?" Lila asked, a tinge of concern in her voice. "You look deathly pale."

"Yeah, it's just..." he said, pressing the heel of his palm to his chest, trying to ease the pain. "Being back here is... not very good for me."

Lila stared at him, her concern growing tenfold when his breaths got shorter. "Alright, then, let's get out of here."

She caught him just as he was about to fall to his knees, getting him to the station as he started to wheeze.

Back in the apartment, Clementine looked into the trash with Diego.

"Damn, it smells like ass," he said.

"You will too, if you just dive into it like that," Clementine stated.

Diego blinked at her for a second and shook his head with a smirk. "No wonder Five likes you."

After finding nothing, Diego looked to the side and then up, finding a weird cut on the ceiling. "Pass me that broom?"

Clementine did as he asked and just moved out of the way as a trash bag full of stuff fell. "Dude, at least warn me!"

They dug into the bag and found stuff which they took to the living room. As soon as Diego started reading a file, there was a woosh and Lila fell onto the couch, a panicked Five at her side. He was clutching his chest, prompting the other two to leave their stuff and rush to his side.

"What happened!?" Diego asked.

"I'll tell you, but first we need to calm him down!" Lila said.

"I can do it, I've had loads of panic attacks, so I know how to deal with them," Clementine said calmly.

Diego tugged at Lila as he stared at them. "What happened?"

"Five can only blink to this weird time travel subway. We took a ride on the train and somehow reached you guys' original timeline. It was all destroyed and he got a panic attack," she rushed out, swallowing at the end.

"I've never really seen him like this," Diego said worriedly.

"Tell me about it," she said, looking at them both. "Did you find something, love?"

"Yeah," he said, picking up the file he was reading. "Look at this."

The file contained details about an incident that took place in 2006. The incident that killed Ben, which they knew as the Jennifer incident. But there was no Umbrella Academy in 2006, which meant that it was one of those artifacts that Lila said they talked about.

"October 14th, 2006. What's so special about that date?" Lila asked.

"It's the day Ben died," he answered somberly. "Our Ben."

"That's a coincidence," a recovered Five said, tugging on the lapels of his coat.

They both stared at him and were going to ask if he was alright, but Clementine shook her head discreetly, telling them it was going to be pointless to even try.

So, instead, Diego said, "Let me break it down for you. We go to New Grumpson because a random dry cleaner goes missing. The whole town goes to shit because of one girl, we get T-boned and the said girl gets kidnapped by two vigilantes in a station wagon. Now, in their trash, we find a foreign document that has something to do with Ben's death. Hence, whatever's going on with the girl, it's got something to do with Ben."

'What the hell's the 'Jennifer Incident'?" Lila asked.

"That was a tragic accident," Five said, pushing his hair back, trying to ignore the urge to throw up.

Meanwhile, Klaus and Ben were starting to get tired of walking.

"Ugh, this is boring," Klaus said, slowing to a stop.

"Yeah, well, I didn't tell you to tag along with me, you moron," Ben said accusingly, turning back to look at him.

"Awwww, come on, Benerino," Klaus said, sitting down on the road. "Admit it. You missed me."

"No," he lied blatantly. "I was actually glad I got to be away from you guys. "

"Oh yeah?" Klaus said sarcastically. "Then why didn't you argue when Five paired me with you?"

"That's because you're better than Luther or Viktor," Ben said plainly.

"Ooh, does that mean I'm your favorite brother?" Klaus said, placing both his hands on his chest in happiness.

Ben only groaned and walked on a few steps as Klaus got up and jogged to catch up with him. "Okay, okay, but do you even know where we're going?"

"I... no," Ben said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Well, then, how about you stop for a minute and think about how we can find her, instead of where?"

Ben just stopped and turned and gave him a grumpy look, waiting for him to elaborate.

"Aww, look at you, Mr. Grumpy-Grumps. Anyway, look. You said you saw her in your dreams, right? So maybe you could find her that way."

"I can't do that. I've never been able to do that."

"Yeah, well, I couldn't shoo ghosts away without having to strain my powers, but now I just have to wave a hand. Maybe you got some upgrades too. Look, it wouldn't harm you to try."

Ben threw his arms up in defeat, hiding the fact that it was actually a good idea. "Fine. How'd I do that?"

"I-on-kno," was the immediate grumbled reply with a shrug. Ben's expectant, irritated face made him relent with a sigh, though. "Okay, just... close your eyes anddd... use your instincts. How about that?"

He closed his instincts, letting Jennifer's face flash in his mind, letting his nerves tingle a bit as Klaus looked around at nowhere, fiddling with the dog tags through his shirt.

Ben somehow felt like he entered an alternate dimension in his mind. It was all dark and scary, but there was a strange noise, like someone was crying. He spun around, trying to find the person who was making the noise. He followed the sound, which just felt like walking in an unending hallway, but he guessed he was making progress because he saw someone in the distance, curled up into themselves as their shoulders shook.

"Hello?" He called out, making the person look up, recognising the face, which was now streaked with tears. "Jennifer?"

He ran forward to her, kneeling to get in her eye level. "What happened? Where are you?"

"I don't know," she said, choking on a sob. "Ben, please, I need to get out of here."

The sheer terror in her voice made his heart skip a beat. "Okay, but I don't know where you are now."

Jennifer paused thinking for a minute, before perking up with a hopeful sniffle. "They said they let me into their home. They had alpacas. They gave me their milk too."

Ben squared her shoulder reassuringgly as he went into thought. "So maybe a farm?"

She nodded and let out a sudden hiss of pain, before pulling the sleeve of her left arm up, revealing a glowing, pulsating wound. It looked like a very bad burn.

"Did they do this to you? Gene and Jean?" Ben asked, his blood boiling in anger of thought.

"No. I don't know how this actually happened," she said.

"Okay, listen to me carefully. Try to cooperate with them. That'll keep you safe. Make shit up, if necessary. But make sure to stay safe. Okay?"

She sniffled again and nodded. "Just hurry, okay?"

Ben nodded, giving her a reassuring smile before she vanished and he spend his eyes.

"Oh! Welcome back, Benjamin," Klaus said. "I feast you attained good results?"

He smiled and nodded excitedly, "Yeah, she's safe. But, I think she's in distress of some kind. Still, she's safe."

"Great! So, where to now?"

"Well. I think those weirdoes took her to a farm of some kind. She said they had alpacas. Guess Luther was kinda close. Only question is, where's the farm?"

Klaus hummed absentmindedly. "Well, we'll figure something out. We always do."

Miles away, in the alpaca farm, Jennifer was looking at the little hall of fame they'd created in the garage.

Two hours ago

She'd woken up because of the burning pair in her wrist. She seemed to have a wound there, which looked like a high degree burn wound, but she somehow seemed to know that it was way more than that.

Gene and Jean had already offered her fresh clothes and a cup of warm alpaca milk, which, sure, had been comforting and refreshing, but it didn't cut out the creepy vibes that they had been giving out.

"Everything all right, dear?" Jean asked a tinge of worry in her voice.

"Yeah, it's nothing," Jennifer replied.

"Come," Gene said, making her more tense than earlier. "We wanna show you something."

They lead her to the garage, where she was expecting to see a truck. But, what she found was much more weird. Jean chuckled with excitement as Gene threw out an arm to present the room to her.

There were children's toys, telephones, old newspaper articles, a reception bell and various other tidbits. Most of the things were encased in glass while the articles were framed.

"What is all this stuff?" Jennifer asked.

"Proof," Jean replied.

"Proof? Of what?"

"That this world we live in is one big, phony-baloney lie," Gene answered.

"At first, it was... like a dream. One of those dreams where you don't know whether you're dreaming or not," Jean explained. "But then, along came the artifacts. Little tokens of proof, slipping through time and space. Proof of the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics and such."

"Better believe they called us every name under the sun," Gene begrudgingly said. "Didn't they, Jean?"

"Frauds, tricksters, charlatans," Jean recalled.

"Accused us of intellectual dishonesty."

"Who's 'they'?" Jennifer asked, almost laughing after their dramatic conversation.

"The faculty at Golden Mesa Community College, for starters," Gene explained.

"Our reputations were dragged through the mud," Jean recounted.

"Tenure, revoked," Gene snapped.

"And all because we dared to speak the truth about these memories. Memories of another timeline! A timeline that felt so much more..."

"More true," Gene finished.

"Where... I was teaching at Harvard and Gene was a MacArthur fellow," Jean said sadly.

"Okay," Jennifer said. She was sure these poor people had escaped from a mental hospital or something. "But, uh, what does all of this have to do with me?"

The couple started wheezing and laughing holding on to each other as they did.

"Jennifer, you're the key," Gene said as they came closer to hold her hands. She resisted the urge to run away from the garage's open door. "The way to destroy all the false timelines and restore the real one."

"We're ready, sugar," Jean almost begged. "What do we need to do, huh? How can we help you bring about the Cleanse?"

Jennifer breathed in a quick breath before she said, "You people are... you people are fucking crazy."

"Language, darling," Jean replied. "And, please that's no way to speak to your hosts."

Gene took out a revolver from his back as they both sighed with disappointment. "We were so nice to you," Jean said, making the surroundings more tense, more ominous. "Brought you into our home."

"Gave you alpaca milk," Gene announced.

They went to the front of the garage where something was hidden behind a curtain.

"Maybe seeing an old friend will help jog your memory," Jean said, making the curtain fall and making Jennifer's blood run cold. It was a giant squid. The giant squid from years ago. "I believe you two are already acquainted."

Jennifer's breath stuttered as memories of a ship and a bad storm flashed in her mind. She stumbled to her knees, for breath turning shallow as Gene and Jean walked out, leaving her alone with it.

She ran back, banging on the door as it closed. "Wait, wait, wait! Don't leave me in here with it! Let me out! Please! No! Let me out!"

Her banging didn't do shit. She understood two hours later, as she sat on the floor, hugging her knees, that it only made her look stupid. Ben's suggestion to make stuff up did give her an idea though.

But it also meant she'd have to use her traumatic childhood.

When she was six, she had lost her family to a storm. Even though the details were hazy, she remembered being rescued by some sailors, who found out to be bad people. She overheard them talking to each other about how they were going to sell her with a couple others, and when she tried to escape, they'd stuffed her in the squid that they'd made up so that they could do their business without any suspicions. They had a circus as a front for it.

But, karma was a bitch, and another storm hit. The squid flowed out into the ocean and she was only rescued when two fishermen had thought they'd caught the world's biggest squid.

It had made national news at the time. A small child rescued by two brave fishermen. Apparently, when she'd been found half-dead inside the thing, she had been muttering about something called the Cleanse.

For three years, she'd been a target for reporters, who'd harassed her, throwing questions after questions about something she hadn't even remembered saying. Thankfully, her Uncle Gary and the people of New Grumpson had had her back. But after what had happened, she didn't know what was real and what wasn't.

There was a knock on the door, making her jump before Jean entered, wearing a somber look on her face. "Well, sugar? You ready to tell us what you know?"

"I was really young back then. I don't really know what I was saying. But, if I was let out of here, maybe I could try to recall it and tell you."

Jean's face brightened up with a smile. "That's the spirit!!"

Jennifer felt victory and hope in her bones for the first time since she'd landed in that situation. Now to create some lies to tell the next day.

She also hoped she could talk to Ben again. For whatever reason, she felt calmer when she thought about him.

Another A/N: Hello, so, yk something I noticed with Ben and Jennifer was the sheer angst potential. Like, even if they both were infected, like in the show, they could've at least shown us like an angsty romance development. Something like, "hey ik there's something going on over here but I kinda fuel attached to you and wanna try this out."

Then, they fall in love, blah, blah, blah and all that. Anyways, I'm gonna give that sweet boy the romance he deserves.

TUA taglist: @auxiliarydetective (tell me if you wanna be added!!!)

Thanks for reading!! Likes, reblogs and comments are highly appreciated💖💙💜

[crispy0nion]

takes a deep breath. ik it hasn't even been a day but we need to talk about the umbrella academy season 4. obviously spoilers ahead. and a long, long fucking post full of complaints.

this season got me shinji chairing so hard. what the fuck. six episodes that last barely an hour each and all for THAT ending? don't get me wrong, the ending itself is... not the worst possible outcome, ig, but like. plot holes so big i can fit five's ego in there and still have spare space.

yeah, let's start from there. what the fuck was that? a half-assed five/lila romance was the last thing we needed. call me a hater, tell me i don't know how to appreciate complex stories, idc. that sucked ass. not only is it creepy in so many ways, but it also brought absolutely NOTHING to the story. "oh but if that didn't happen then five wouldn't have accidentally wandered into the station's coffee shop and met himself" I DON'T GIVE A SHIT!!!! IT COULD'VE HAPPENED IN SO MANY DIFFERENT WAYS!!!!!! AND FIVE KNOWS BETTER THAN TO THROW HANDS WITH HIS BROTHER OVER A GIRL WHILE THE REST OF THEIR SIBLINGS ARE FIGHTING THE DAMN BLOB OF DEATH!!!

moving on ig. i don't like how allison's past actions seemed to be simply forgotten. i know they acknowledge it a couple times and that it's been six years, but lord almighty she assaulted luther, got him killed, and betrayed her entire family for a father that never cared about any of them. i don't think i could forgive that so easily (i'm looking at you klaus).

about the plot holes. first off, i would've appreciated even just a slight explanation of what the fuck reginald and abigail are? are they aliens? are they robots? are they alien robots? also, side note, what the fuck did reginald even do to grace atp? did he create a robot in the image of a human lady or did he turn the human lady into a robot???? and back to abigail for a moment: ?????????? and also the obsidian hotel????? AMERICA EXPLAIN. EXPLAIN

more plot holes: the solution to the cleanse problem. five said that the only way to fix the timelines is to let the cleanse happen, aka absorb them, so that the marigold inside them is destroyed since that's what split the timelines, no? and they made a big deal out of lila leaving because they needed all of the marigold holders to partake in this. except that YOU EIGHT IDIOTS ARE NOT ALL THE OCTOBER 1ST KIDS IN THE WORLD. THERE'S MORE, THAT WAS LIKE 43 WOMEN WHO GAVE BIRTH YOU DUMB FUCKING CUNTS. WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER 35 KIDS. uhm. sorry about that. moving on.

did not like how jennifer's character was treated at all. no time to develop, no time to get us to know her. straight to the blob of death without even explaining what was going on. how did the durango end up in her body? who even created that anyways? how did she end up in a damn fucking giant squid? why was she talking about the cleanse? what the fuck? listen im sure the comics explain this and ik this show is supposed to be a bit... confusing and nonsensical, but this is info you can't just leave out. feels like lazy writing.

and how the fuck did the cleanse cult even know that this nonesense that a kid coming out of a squid was blabbering about was connected to them having dreams of other timelines? how the fuck did jean and gene know? what?

yk what, im also gonna throw in some more personal points of view in here. i did not understand a single thing about the timeline/universe/whatever they ended up in at the end of s3. is it a new universe? if so, why is everything the same and WHY is the timeline still fucked? and where's the academy in this timeline? does it not exist? why? why and how is abigail still alive? was she even dead in s1, on the moon? or was that a cryo capsule? if so, why keep her there?

and there's more folks! why did the timeline train not stop at lila and five's stop? that was random and never explained, and feels like lazy writing, again. or like an excuse to get a specific two people to mingle just to create an unnecessary and unwanted love triangle? perchance?

lastly, how can claire and lila and diego's children still exist if their parents were erased from existence? and since they still exist but their parents never did, how does it work? do lila's parents just look after these random kids? without reason? wouldn't not having existing parents at all create legal problems?

overall, i have a lot of issues with this season. it feels extremely rushed, and honestly quite boring in comparison to the other three. and the lack of explanations makes it so hard to enjoy because i'm busy being confused. im not so mad about the ending, i kinda saw it coming (my choice was between they all die or they get stuck in a loop), and I don't think it's necessarily a bad ending for a story like this one. i am a bit sad, yes, and i will miss these characters and regret the fact that they didn't get the lives they deserved, but i think it's an ok ending. not the best, but ok. but the rest of the season? ass. yet another show absolutely ruined by netflix's inability to see past money and actually produce a good ending instead of rushing things. peace ✌️

[alaffy]

The Umbrella Academy – Ep.4x02 – Jean and Gene (Spoilers)

Oh, this was the worst episode to watch while eating dinner.  Also, interesting title for the episode considering…. 

Well, Ben did spike the drinks.  Almost no one is happy with this.  Also, Marigold apparently isn’t something that should be ingested as it seems to give everyone flu-like symptoms.  It’s interesting to note, though, that not everyone’s powers came back the same.

Luther is back to his original form; sort of.  He seems to be more man on top then he used to be.  Or the makeup has changed.  Ben has his tentacles, but is having trouble controlling them.  Five can teleport, but it seems more adrenaline based instead of focused.  Lila now shoots beams out of her eyes and it seems to be her only power.  Viktor can control his power (although it’s more of a focused energy burst) and is pissed that those powers are back.  Diego and Alison we'll get back to later.  Klaus has no powers because it turned out he faked drinking the Saki. 

The group decides they need to go back to the dry cleaners to talk to Sy and get more information.  However, the dry cleaners has been cleaned out except for a map with a town circled.  Either Sy is on the run or this is a trap for the siblings.  The only way to find out is to go to the town.

This leads to a very long car trip, with a prolonged scene of most of the characters throwing up as “Baby Shark” plays in the background.  Moving on….

That night, as Diego is driving the van and most everyone is asleep, he tells Five that he saw Lila with another man at the diner.  Five tells Diego the best thing to do is to forget about it.  On the one hand, I hate forced drama like this (as it is something that can easily be resolved); on the other hand…given how Diego is so excited to back on a mission, it might actually be worse for Diego to find out his wife was working undercover and didn’t involve him. 

So, the group arrive at the town.  It looks like it’s straight out of a Halmark movie.  This should have put all of them on edge.  But Ben is tired of the group and goes his own way.  He ends up in a diner, where he meets Rosie.  Rosie is the owner of the diner, she wasn’t born in the town, but has lived there ever since she was placed into the care of her step uncle (who also happens to be the sheriff).  That’s a lot of backstory for an new character, she must be important.

Meanwhile, everyone else walks around the town, looking for clues and asking one person if they knew Jenny.  During this time, Luther mentions how Sloane would have liked this place (but he doesn’t seem unhappy so he’s either accepted she’s not coming back or he’s in denial).  Lila thanks Five for not outing her in the van the night before.  Viktor makes it clear to Alison that, while Viktor understands why Alison made the choices she did and doesn’t hold any anger towards her (at least, he’s not actively plotting revenge), he also really doesn’t want anything to do with Alison.

This last long enough for word to spread around that these people are looking for Jennifer and, uh, everyone in the town is armed.  Like military armed.  Viktor fights back.  Diego and Lila run for cover.  Five ends up using his powers and ends up in a subway station.  But it isn’t any subway station.  Long story short, Five takes one of the trains and discovers they travel between timelines.  And then he goes back.

While Five is on his Magical Mystery Tour, the fight continues.  At the diner, Rosie suddenly finds herself surrounded by townspeople.  Her step-uncle tells her to step away from Ben and to come with them, for her safety.  Ben tries to help her using his tentacles.  Rosie ends up running away with Ben.  The step-uncle reminds the townsfolk that Rosie must not be harmed.

Meanwhile, we get to see Diego’s and Alison’s upgraded powers.  Diego is somehow able stop projectiles in their tracks (in this case, a shit tone of bullets) and send them back towards the people shooting at them.  Alison, meanwhile, no longer needs to “rumor” people, she can straight up control their actions. 

Back at the van, Klaus (who’s been in the van the whole time) sees a woman running towards him.  She’s screaming that she needs help.  Klaus asks her if she’s Jennifer, she says she is.  At that point Diego, Lila, Ben, and Rosie run to the van.  Klaus says he found Jennifer, but Rosie says that’s not Jennifer; she is.  She only goes by Rosie at the diner, so no one hitting on her knows her real name.  Fake Jennifer pulls out a gun and shoots Klaus.  Ben kills the woman.  Ben let’s Jennifer know that they’ll take her home to her father, Sy.  She doesn’t know who that is, just that it's not her father.  Everyone gets Klaus inside the van.

Back in town, Luther is trying to shield Viktor, Alision, and the now returned Five from an Assault Weapons wielding Santa Claus.  As he does so, Luther notices on one of the dead bodies that they are wearing armor.  And the armor clearly shows that these people work for Reginald.  Santa is killed by Diego driving the van, as “Baby Shark” plays in the background (seriously, did whoever own the rights to the song actually ask to read the script, or…).  The three of them get inside the van, to find a dying Klaus.

In order to save Klaus, they give him some of the Marigold.  It’s hard to judge what Klaus will make of this.  It’s clear he had some temptation during one scene in the van, but he also seems upset that they gave him the Marigold.  Of course, he had just been brought back from the dead; who knows how clear he was in that moment.

Luther tells the others about the armor and it seems, for a moment, that Reginald set this all up.  Except they are then broadsided by another vehicle.  The van violently roles over and we see something happening with Jennifer that indicates maybe she has powers. 

After the accident, most of the people in the van are unconscious or barely conscious.  Diego sees Jean and Gene standing beside the van.  Diego hear Jean call Lila “Nancy,” as Gene takes Jennifer out of the van.

So, it seems like what really happened is that Jean and Gene want this Jennifer, who’s clearly being protected by Reginald.  Jean and Gene, perhaps they recognized Lila in their meetings or maybe someone recognized Five in his stupid disguise, concocted the story of Jennifer being indoctrinated by The Keepers and gave them just enough evidence (along with the Marigold) in those hopes that the siblings would go get Jennifer themselves.  What, of course, they don’t realize is that whatever version of the Academy they thought were in front of them; it’s not these guys.  They make it very clear in the first episode, where the siblings don’t recognize the headlines on the paper.  Still, the plan worked in it’s own weird way, and now Jean and Gene have Jennifer.   

[mcdbutgay]

i just wish that jesson had actually TRIED to build mcd's world a lot more. i feel like a good spinoff series they couldve made was like a prequel to garroth finding and training zenix, meeting aphmau, etc. called smth like 'days at the training academy' or something, where garroth would've filled the protagonist role, and characters who also went to the training school like azura, laurance, and dante would've also made an appearance.

more under the cut bc this is LONG 😭

not only would it have helped add depth to mcd's world (as the training school is something we only hear about but never see; we don't even know where it is located T-T), but it would've helped establish the character's relationships prior to them appearing in mcd.

some examples of relationships it would have given more screentime to are:

- garroth and azura. i HATE how azura's feelings for garroth only ever get mentioned, but she never really acts upon them. i get it though, because like, what's she gonna do about it however many years later? i just feel like with a spinoff that focused purely on the guards, they could have built on what they had already stated in mcd; how azura truly cared about garroth and was very close to him. how, even though garroth hurt her by rejecting her feelings for him, she still cared about him enough to keep good relations with him to the present day. and how she probably wishes she could ask him again after all these years to finally let him go. and thats only scratching the surface of what they could've done, there's just so much potential here T-T

- garroth and laurance. this isn't even me being a gaurrance fan, this is me saying how much potential they had as friends 😭 i know they have a trust bond in mcd, but i feel like it often went unexplored and the only reason they even interacted is because they were both interested in aphmau. so to fix this, what they could have done was show how they originally met, and how they were rivals. i feel like making them rivals in their time at the training academy would've been kinda cool, because they'd actually have a reason to try so hard and be at the top of their class like dante said they were. then, when they reunite again years later they just laugh about how dumb and stupid they used to be, always competing to see who was best, only to realize that they're STILL competing, except this time it's for a girl. (i have SO MANY hcs for them but let's move on)

- garroth, laurance, and dante. i talked about this in the tags of one of my other posts, but ill restate what i said here: i think that garroth and laurence have a very informal relationship with dante, despite dante sort of putting them both on a pedestal. i think that after what gene did, dante goes to the training academy and IMMEDIATELY gets this like, friend,,, crush? on garroth and laurance. like he just REALLY admires them and thinks theyre super cool and smart and he just really looks up to them bc they feel like a replacement for gene. and at first garroth and laurance dont notice dante because theyre too caught up with their own rivalry, but when they do they just have a bit of fun with him and tease him playfully bc he looks like he's about to faint when they suddenly come up to him. i feel like dante would have a bit of trouble training with others, so garroth and laurance start training with him after class just for fun. when garroth and laurance graduate they get sent off to their own respective villages and largely forget about dante (not bc they didn't care or anything, they just had different matters to tend to) so when they reunite with him they dont immediately recognize him at first. I COULD GO ON.

i cant think of any more but if i do ill be sure to add them. i think ive rambled for long enough haha ^^;; i'll probably include a lot of this in my rewrite so im looking forward to that lol

[onesheeptwosheepandachicken]

26 Reasons why Qrow is not Ruby’s father and why Taiyang is Ruby’s father

In response to the toxic aspect of the fandom attacking CRWBY and demanding that their desires for Qrow be chosen over canon, or how they feel their theory is more valid than the show itself? I have researched RWBY to make this 26-point Discussion as to why Canon is valid, and fancanon is not when it comes to Qrow Branwen, Ruby Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Summer Rose.

 1.       “Monty said NO”    Most obviously. Monty Oum.

   He said in this tweet that ruby and yang are half-sisters…half-sisters,  which means they share the same mom or dad…in this case Taiyang….

  https://twitter.com/montyoum/status/492070189731565568

Now people have claimed “he obviously meant step-sisters or cousins” Why is it that every time we show the English dictionary to you people or ask you to read it, that you claim you are being attacked or that you claim Monty was misleading us?

 2.       The writers said NO

   Miles Luna debunked this theory on Reddit…

   He pointed out that Ruby sees Qrow as a Role model, so she adapts her colors to be similar to his.

   And you don’t need somebody to be blood to be your role model.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/7x3w4s/crwby_ama_w_miles_luna_kerry_shawcross_and_paula/du5d67g/?

 3. “Rooster Teeth said NO” Rooster Teeth even said that Qrow is "Ruby and Yang's Uncle" They also said “Ladies, he’s not your man”

https://twitter.com/RoosterTeeth/status/1067205612331782144

 4.  “But what if Summer had feelings for Qrow? Why does Qrow Serve Ozpin?” Qrow said in Volume 6 " No one wanted me... I was cursed... I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world... I thought I was finally doing some good... " So he was saying he wasn't wanted, so no relationship with Summer. SUMMER DID NOT WANT HIM. And he was literally saying he served Ozpin because Ozpin gave him purpose. It’s pretty sad how people think Qrow can only be a complex character if he obsesses over another person’s wife and child. What , you wanna make him Severus Snape, the Lilly Potter stalker who insulted a girl’s face and tried to poison a boy’s pet and publicly outed a teacher?

https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Qrow_Branwen/Quotes#So_That.27s_How_It_Is

5, "But Qrow could be lying" Except in volume 6 Qrow literally said "Don't lie...we're better than that"

And in volume 7?

" Long time ago. I just found working alone tends to be for the best "

" Gotta say, I’m still not really used to working with other Huntsmen in the field. "

And finally World Of Remnant on Patch.

" Nice place to raise a family, if you're into that sort of thing. "

https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Qrow_Branwen/Quotes#So_That.27s_How_It_Is

  6.  “Qrow fans claim that Ruby and Summer form a core part of Qrow’s character and backstory.” WRONG! The main accusation for demanding Rooster Teeth / CRWBY change the backstory for Qrow would accomplish nothing.

Raven already pushed Yang onto Taiyang to raise on his own.

Qrow forcing Tai to Raise Ruby alongside Yang while Qrow could regularly visit, and while Summer lived with Taiyang, Yang, and Ruby?

It would cheapen Qrow’s character….blood isn’t everything.  Neither are cliches.

 7. “But what if Qrow gave Ruby to Tai to raise after Summer’s death?” Volume Chapter 6, Burning the Candle.

Yang tells Blake that she (yang) and Ruby were raised together by Summer and Taiyang…not by Taiyang on his own, but by Summer and Taiyang.

Yang clearly had memories of being raised by Summer and Tai both,  which meant that Summer and Taiyang lived together raising Ruby and Yang for Several Years.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkN-53h5Os

  8. “Does Taiyang care about Summer or Ruby?” Taiyang was noted to have shut down when Summer didn’t come back…. Yang noted this in Volume 2 Chapter 6, and Ruby mentioned in the first episode of Volume 3 that Taiyang missed Summer. Qrow also said that Ruby is Taiyang’s “Special Angel”…. Ruby has also pointed out numerous times that Taiyang is Overprotective of Ruby. In fact, Ruby's conversation with Penny about overprotective fathers.

 9. “Qrow knows Taiyang is Ruby’s Father. Taiyang knows Ruby is Taiyang’s daughter. Qrow has referred to Taiyang as Ruby’s father during volume 3 and 7. Taiyang referred to Ruby as his daughter in volume 3.

 10. “Why didn’t Taiyang train Ruby in Martial Arts?” Taiyang is a martial arts fighter.   Ruby has neither the build nor the personality for ruthless hand to hand combat like her sister… Taiyang would trust Qrow, despite his semblance.   Remember how bad Ruby was in v5?

 11. “Qrow’s semblance is not what his fans exaggerate it to be”

Speaking of Qrow’s semblance? He was playing video games with his nieces,   taught at Signal Academy,   and could train Ruby… Clearly,  his semblance is not what theorists make it out to be.

 12. “Why doesn’t Qrow treat Yang the same way he treats Ruby?”

Yang is the daughter of Qrow’s sister,who abandoned the team.

During a one on one interaction between Qrow and Yang after yang vs mercury, Qrow called his own niece crazy, after she had been framed.

Qrow was not empathetic to Yang.

Qrow may not like Yang’s resemblance to Raven.

Ruby is the daughter of his two closest friends, so of course he’d prefer Ruby over Yang.

 13.  “Examples of Taiyang caring for Ruby.”

Volume 2 Ruby was excited when Taiyang sent a package in the mail, not even knowing it was Zwei.

Taiyang was at Ruby’s bedside in V3, and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

He also tried to bring her breakfast in bed.

Taiyang said he wanted to chase after Ruby, but had to nurse Yang back to health.

During the V8 broadcast, Taiyang was upset when the broadcast was cut.

 14. “Genetics research”

Black hair is the subtype of the pigment for blonde hair…

Also, Ruby’s got the same hair strand that Yang and Taiyang have.

Finally, black hair is more dominant.

So Ruby doesn’t need blonde hair to be Taiyang’s kid.

https://askinglot.com/is-black-hair-a-dominant-or-recessive-gene

https://www.quora.com/If-a-jet-black-haired-parent-and-a-blonde-parent-have-children-what-color-hair-would-the-children-likely-have

 15. “The STRQ Photo”

The photo....Qrow was with STRQ for four years...do you really think Qrow is not allowed to cry on the photo unless he was romantically involved? Can't a man grieve over the death of a female friend that he was NOT in a relationship with? Or are men not allowed to have female friends? Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach for example...friendship. They were his friends, his family. People seem obsessed with the idea that Qrow cannot care about a woman unless he was romantically involved or unless he's their bastard father.

 16. “Men and Women…as friends, platonic” Harry Potter as a book showed that a boy and a girl can interact and still be friends…

Why can’t Qrow be Summer’s friend?

Why does he have to be her lover?

We’ve seen Qrow talk about Innkeeper’s skirt lengths and leer at Barmaids who flirted with him.

Also, he’s shown to be bonding with both Clover and Robyn.

People act like he doesn't flirt with anyone , and yet he does.

 17. “Bad Luck Charm” Qrow has spent his whole life with his semblance, named after a Crow.

Raised by the Branwen bandit tribe.

“You and I are not the same, you don’t want the burden of my name” Both Branwen and Qrow are names that Qrow hates due to his semblance and past…

People may think of him as cool, but Qrow suffers from self-loathing.

So NO, the Bad Luck Charm song does NOT in fact allude to Qrow being Ruby’s father, but that Qrow hates himself, hence a major part of why he’s alcoholic.

Proof of which is his volume 6 exchange with Ozpin about being useful, which Qrow disagrees with, leading him to drink further. Yang literally said that she had never seen qrow so drunk before in v6.

And Ruby encourages his self-worth leading him to try giving up alcohol….

His alcoholism is tied to low-self-esteem, not relationships.

 18. Manga Anthology

Taiyang was shown in the Manga Anthology to have shut down upon Summer’s Death. That impacted his relationship with Ruby and Yang. Qrow? Is relatively unaffected. The good Uncle helping around the house. Taiyang haters and Qrow stans took this to demand that Qrow is entitled to Ruby, despite Taiyang recovering and doing his best to be a father. Anything Qrow does is worshipped like Mother Teresa, while anything Taiyang does, good or bad, is downplayed and smashed. Taiyang loved Summer so much he was devastated by her death. Qrow was unaffected. Think about that.

 19. “I like Brats” Why does Qrow spend time with kids he’s not related to? Because he likes kids. You know how there are adults who enjoy being around brats? That’s Qrow. He didn’t have romantic feelings for Summer, he liked being around her because she was like a kid. Similar to how Blake likes Ruby’s idealism? And trusts her leadership?

 20.  “Taiyang the 2-timer accusation”

A woman on youtube claimed that Taiyang was a 2-timer who cheated on raven with summer, as there was, in her and her friends’ minds, “no way that taiyang could be with half his team” When asked about TaiQrow as a joke, she was angered that people even ship TaiQrow.

But let me ask you this. Are you the same person you are now that you were 10 years ago? People claim that Qrow was somehow cool in beacon…because he’s cool now. But Taiyang, who raises two kids, and holds a job and a house…cannot be ruby’s father…because he’s not cool? And that somehow he was never cool? I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had to be cool to be a parent. I also had no idea people were only allowed to be in one relationship per lifetime. Raven freaking abandoned Tai for the tribe. Summer chose Taiyang over Qrow. People literally make Qrow out to be either an OC in a shipping fanfic, or a Naruto fanfic where Naruto is written to be fawned over by a girl whose canonical spouse, boyfriend, or male friend is somehow rewritten as evil.

1 year…..in 1 year since Raven abandoned Taiyang and Yang, Summer Rose the friend of Taiyang’s who he had known for 4 years, became more than a friend.

So no….Taiyang is not a two-timer…he moved on from Raven.

 22. “Why can’t Taiyang talk about Summer?” To WHO? He’s barely got 15 minutes of screentime, and the writers did NOT do him any favors when they had Qrow demand he leave so Qrow could tell Ruby a secret Ozpin trusted him with, before telling Ruby to run away from home leaving only a freaking note. Terrible daughter. Even Yang was prepared to do the same! To a man whose first wife abandoned him! At least Weiss has a legit reason for acting as she does against Jacques, several at least. Ruby? No. Now why would Taiyang talk about Summer’s fighting style to Yang when trying to get her to stop acting like Raven in her fighting style and semblance? Sure if there was more time…but RT at the end of the day isn’t some money-hungry political entity, it’s a startup at the end of the day, they don’t have the ability to do a full anime episode. Also, Taiyang cannot go out on these active missions…he was a schoolteacher who did not do missions until only recently…he was retired, remember.

 23. “These fanworks make more sense to me”

Qrow fans have tried using fanworks to justify their theory or ship, the same way Blacksun fans or Adam apologists make similar claims, and even Raven fans try to claim Raven is somehow a good mother. What do these fanworks do? Hate on Taiyang. Dismiss Ruby and Yang being half-blood siblings. Ignore multiple elements of the show or scenes. Occasionally shit-talk the writers.

Every time somebody tries to make a “rwby rewrite” or “rwby alt” or “Qrow is ruby’s father au” they cannot do it without completely rewriting the characters in so many forms and even the show, till Qrow, Raven, Taiyang, and Summer are NOTHING like they are in the show…And ONLY how a shipper wants qrow to be.

Or rewriting qrow to be nothing like he is in the show.

Most Alt or Rewrite consists of making Taiyang abusive, a cheater, or refusing to allow him to interact with Summer, while regularly pushing qrowxsummer at each other.

So no…it’s not that it makes sense to them through some fanart….a headcanon that has been debunked is no longer headcanon. A theory that is shut down is no longer a theory. There’s a reason anti-vaxxers and flat-earthers still exist. Because to them, their theories make more sense than reality. Which is why people still believe Qrow is Ruby’s father the same way people believe vaccines cause autism. Neither are true, and no amount of facts will shut them down, but they’re both popular theories.

 24. “Qrow Rings and Cross”

People claim that Qrow was married to Summer or that his cross represents him mourning Summer. Did the STRQ photo, in v3, the same volume as his appearance, not show Qrow with his rings, his cross, and angrily scowling, while Summer was right next to Taiyang?

 25. “What about Summer Rose’s choice?”

Remember how I said making Qrow’s character based on solely Ruby and Summer, ignoring everything regarding the tribe and ozpin giving him hope, and the grimm reaper…was bad writing? There’s a reason people hated v5. Raven was proven to be the deadbeat, Qrow was shown to have friends, and that Taiyang knew about Salem, and of course it was confirmed that Yang and Ruby again were sisters by Raven.

Now how about Summer? Team leader….took a man and a daughter who were abandoned by her friend…and made them her own. Yang calls Summer Rose “Supermom” and “Her Hero”…was literally willing to storm a bandit camp so Raven could use her portal to take Yang to Qrow, so she could get to Ruby. And yeah, I know the RWBY critics scream “why didn’t Yang just look for Ruby in Mistral?” It’s a bloody kingdom, and Yang was pursuing a lead, that Tai had given her, and Qrow told Yang he’d look after her sister. Remember that? Oh wait, RWBY Critics forget, my bad. Anyway, she’s more of a sister to Qrow than his blood sister Raven, she’s more of a mother to Yang than Raven, and she’s more of a spouse to Tai than Raven. Good Stepmother. Non-married couple. Relationship built on trust. Blood is not the same as family. (Example Weiss’s remark to her father) (Or Dom Toretto)

So making Summer into a throw-away character who dies so that a brooding jerk of an alcoholic can claim character development? Making a woman nothing except a throw-away for a man to get development is BAD WRITING. For God’s Sakes, even Pyrrha was written better than that! She interacted with team rwby, nora was always helping her out, and so was Ren (though those shakes are a crime against humanity” But when Qrow fans try to demand he’s ruby’s father? Their fanworks make Summer as much of a flat character as Preston Harvey from Fallout 4, where they make Summer unable to do anything but be obsessed with Qrow and having his child, similar to how Preston cannot think of anything other than “Another settlement needs your help, I’ll mark it on your pip-boy”

 26. Finally, the accusations that CRWBY are lying.

“You have to be ****** if you believe CRWBY when they say Qrow isn’t Ruby’s father” “CRWBY is lying, it’s what writers do” “It’s okay for writers to lie, it’s good for plot” “I’d prefer it if CRWBY was lying to us” “Monty is dead, the writers should change it now” “Monty is dead, nothing else in the writing matters” “Monty was hiding the truth from us” “CRWBY is hiding the truth about Qrow being Ruby’s father” “It makes sense for CRWBY to lie to us” Look at this…Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, instagram…. The first quote? Was a woman who was using an anti-autism anti-disability slur defending the theory. Never have I ever seen people so obsessed with a  theory that they would deny reality and be rude to the very writers and original creator. But the QrowxSummer and Qrow is Ruby’s Father fandom group has made countless cases of this. THIS is how they defend their theory? And people upvote, like and support these remarks? SHAME SHAME SHAME

 Conclusion:

I get how people desire qrow to be Ruby’s father for ships or fanfics.

Even to where they make Taiyang a hated character just for the sake of making sure nobody disagrees with them.

But the attacking of RWBY and CRWBY, claiming that “this needs to be fixed”, or getting angry at RT for not giving you the non-canon ship you want? Claiming that just because you want it to be so, that somehow your ship/theory has “validity?”

That reflects poorly on the fandom and critics.

But then again…. It’s easy to ignore what’s real and what’s a fact that when theorists and ship-pushers and CRWBY Haters on youtube tells you to stop listening to monty and the writers, and instead believe whatever you want and claim whatever you want, Because surely you know what’s better for the show than the people who worked on it, right? Ha ha ha, no. THAT is the ULTIMATE disrespect somebody calling themselves a fan could ever give. And if you think or agree with that type of logic, you should look in the mirror.

I looked for backup sources to defend CRWBY and RWBY, you’ll find them below.

Backup sources include:

 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/qrow-is-not-rubys-dad/422o_0rbCYuoXj36VoB7obK3MXPZRbPKkz5

 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/why-the-qrow-is-rubys-father-theory-is-wrong/z668_nQlIxu0dmRdRpEPxqE3qlWlZEmoE2

 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/qrow-cant-possibly-be-rubys-and-heres-why/8BB5_LPVCmu2bonkw8eEP3Yokg8m8zJlgNV

 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/why-qrow-isnt-rubys-father/lXXx_5QoUQuPVGo3Wgko3wJ52mMBl7644P

 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/is-qrow-rubys-father-short-answer-no/422o_0rbCYupDKezxPxpdje7dRn3nB8YvZ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPbft3KJd6o

https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/qrow-is-rubys-dad-theory-debunk/d33g_pQEcbu1NKQoMEv0kmDpP6N8bmowkkq

[tcm]

The Makers and the Breakers: The Hollywood Studio System By Constance Cherise

From anecdotal tales to darker narratives of downright malevolence, movies about the Hollywood studio system are as prevalent as the subject is understandably intriguing. Films like A STAR IS BORN (‘54), THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (‘52) and, just for a bit of naughty camp, DAISY CLOVER (‘65), to name a few, all allow a voyeuristic gaze behind an enchanted curtain. The major Hollywood studios controlled all aspects of filmmaking, distribution and the lives and appeal of their stars.

A studio executive’s expertise was to home in on the "It" factor of an actor. Then the build-up of publicity would begin. A well-engineered system of perfectly timed pulleys and cranks, bells and whistles would turn, and it didn't matter whether stories about a star were the truth, embellishment or lies, from the studios perspective stars weren't actual people, they were commodities that were bought, sold, traded and used as pawns to the benefit of the studio system. (A thorough reference on this is Jeanine Basinger’s The Star Machine) But, if anyone had ill feelings about their treatment, only those that were the most daring spoke up. The cliché “You'll never work in this town again” wasn't just a catchphrase, it was wholly and utterly true. Speaking up too loudly about one's gilded cage could end a career faster than Eleanor Powell’s “machine gun” tap dancing. As quickly as the mechanism could build a pretty face to stardom, it could just as easily grind to a halt, meticulously dismantling at record speed.

The true genius of the studio system was its innate and pristine ability to create a persona around the most capable assets that their commodity had to offer. An exceptional dancer with buck teeth? No problem. Send her to the dentist for cosmetic surgery. A heartthrob of a man who was too short? No problem. Elevate his shoes and make sure his counterpart wasn't wearing heels. A knockout beauty who could dance but was too ethnic-looking? Change her hair color from jet black to red, perform electrolysis on her hairline, add luscious waves, put her on a diet and change her name from Margarita Carmen Cansino to Columbia Picture’s own Rita Hayworth.

The system found what was innately undeniable, played up the strengths and buffed, polished or cleverly disguise the flaws, a process still happening in media. But the studio system of the Golden Age was far-reaching. Its governance traveled beyond its inner sanctum into affecting contractors' personal lives. A moral clause was a standard part of an actors’ contract. Both law enforcement and mobsters were part of the studio’s payroll, a necessary tactic thought to keep its stars in line and to protect the industry's overall reputation. If a star found themselves in a compromising position, there was always a hired hand, such as in the case of MGM's Eddie Mannix, to respond, repair and refute, regardless of the cost. Studios further exerted control by means of inclusivity. By creating an insular studio with every conceivable notion at their fingertips, including health facilities and a police force (as was present at MGM), the studio system was privy to inside information by way of design and therefore able to thwart potential problems sooner rather than later.

Opinions amongst stars who were part of the system varied. Some found it confining and artistically stifling (United Artists was created as a direct result of the burgeoning studio system in 1919), while others enjoyed its protective embrace. Fred Astaire was not a particularly handsome man, but his virtuoso skill of dance was undeniable. By the time he made it to Tinseltown, he had already been a star on the stage and his elegant persona was well polished. Almost the same could be said for Gene Kelly, except that Kelly was quite handsome with his all-American chiseled features and athletic body. He too came to Hollywood bearing Broadway accolades. Anything else either star may have required was worth any level of contribution on the part of the studio. But most stars didn't come fully assembled.

Numerous classic musical fans are aware of actor and untrained dancer Debbie Reynolds’ account of bloodied feet while rehearsing “Good Morning'' for the film SINGING IN THE RAIN (‘52), a story she confirmed in a TCM interview with late host Robert Osborne. Reynolds would star in multiple roles where dance was required, and for someone who was not a professional, with training from expert choreographers, she fooled us all. Ava Gardner did not go looking for the fame that found her. She was discovered through a photo in a shop window. The daughter of sharecroppers, Gardner had no experience in acting to speak of, and in fact, had a free-spirited reputation of reluctance. She had to be trained out of her deep southern accent, but her naturally stunning features combined with her charm literally smoldered the camera.

For all the contract players who willingly or unwillingly accepted the exploitation of their assets, there were those few who refused to play by studio rules. One not to cower was Mae West, who solidified her autonomy by demanding and receiving one dollar more than the head of Paramount, Adolph Zuckor, as well as full script approval of her films. MGM’s Luise Rainer, after becoming the first woman to consecutively win two Academy Awards, turned her back on Hollywood due to its iron grip. "I did not like the superficial life that one is naturally forced at times to live,” Rainer stated in a TCM interview. William Haines, one time voted as America's top male star, refused to hide his homosexuality living an open life with his lover, defying the orders of traditional marriage by Louis B. Mayer and as a result was fired from MGM.

That's what the studio system did: take an inarguable asset, create an inflated persona around it, smooth the dents, add a little extra padding where necessary and package it to be received exactly how they envisioned for public consumption...or...destroy it. After all, with over 70% of Americans attending film theaters at least once a week, the public turned the film industry into a multi-million-dollar business during its Golden Age when the average price of a ticket was 25 cents. Studios were readily aware they held the power and used it skillfully to full advantage.

The studio systems tactics could easily be viewed as a calculated sleight of hand, however, it unequivocally delivered, and its final product was polished, pristine and precise. But for those that were plucked from obscurity, was it truly a sleight of hand? One could argue that you can't get blood from a stone, and if that statement is true, the studio’s techniques of engineered transformation couldn't possibly invoke aptitude that didn't already exist somewhere within, however miniscule. Perhaps, instead of the credit studio’s retained for creating stars, its genuine function was to awaken exceptional latent potential that was simply waiting to be discovered.

[tooinlovewithfictionalpeople]

Dating the Hargreeves

Luther Hargreeves

-You met when one day you were called to the Hargreeve residence

- Your mother was a friend of Reginald and she had asked you to deliver a letter to him.

- On arriving you noticed how empty the place was

- So as Reginald took the letter from you, he told you to come back in ten minuets when he had written the reply

- Thinking he lived alone now, you just wondered about the house, until you bumped into Luther

- After stating your business, he seemed to warm up to you a lot more, even if he was a tad awkward

- You realised that he was just really lonely

- So you invited him for coffee

- He was so shocked all he could do was nod

- The coffee date went well the next day

- It was all going swimmingly, the two of you were good friends but right as you both were realising your feelings were more than just friends

- His dad sent him to the moon

- Pogo let you message him three times a day

- But you still missed him

- You didn’t understand why he couldn’t disobey orders

- But you respected his choice and waited

- For years

-When he finally came back he was slightly more clingy than he was usually and you two quickly became an item

- He was a broken soul who just needed some love

- And attention

- And to believe he didn’t waste four years of his life

- When you two started dating he was basically your own personal teddy bear

- he’s so warm so if you’re cold he would let you cuddle up to him

- he’d be so gentle because he doesn’t want to accidentally hurt you

- You would constantly be there to remind him to be nice to his siblings

- going stargazing together 

- or moon gazing the guy has an obsession

- You would steal his coat and make brilliant impressions of him, much to the joy of Diego and Klaus

-You are defiantly the smart one so Luther would always go to you for advice

- he’s so protective and will glare at any man who looks your way

- which can get a bit annoying but it’s nothing to bad.

- He’s really insecure so you would constantly assure him that he was beautiful the way he was

- Helping Luther see that dear old Dad was not the nicest guy

- Your best friend is 100% Diego though

- Which Luther hates because if you're mad at him, he’s doomed on all fronts

- He buys you chocolate though so you keep him around

- He has a good heart really

Diego Hargreeves

-You're both vigilantes of sorts

- You're more like a private investigator plus baddass crime stopper

- Police pay you to solve crimes, and then the government pay you even more money to take out pesky people

- It was kinda fun

- You meet Diego when Patch brings him in

- He overhears what job you’re doing and asks why you’re getting paid doing the same thing he’s getting arrested for

- Patch laughs and tells him that you are more of a private investigator

- You smile, thinking that would shut him up 

- But no. He starts calling you Sherlock

- Wearing that stupid smirk as he says it

- Your meetings become more frequent and he always teases you about your job but its nothing more than that

- Until one day he realises you don’t actually have a house, you live in a car

- Because even though your job pays well, you move around a lot and most of you money goes to your sister so she can afford a house, and living with her may but her life at risk

- So he offered the spare bedroom in his apartment 

- He assures you he can take care of himself

- So you agree

- And slowly you adjust your life to be with him

- You take turns cooking at first and then it turns into a you cook whilst he cleans because he cannot cook

- And then he takes you on a date

- He’s a shy stuttering mess when he asks you on a date, nothing like the mischievous confident man you'd known

- It was adorable so you said yes

- Things went really well so you guys decided to date

- He is such a cuddler

- Secretly likes being the little spoon, or sleeping on your stomach because it makes him feel safe

- But also likes being the big spoon because he likes to feel like he’s protecting you

- You’re probably the cook as he can only make eggs

- And even tho “They’re great eggs Y/N,” they’re “Not a balanced diet Diego,”

- Patching him up when he’s on his nightly hero duty things

- If you have work in the morning you will leave cute notes around the house for him to wake up to, and he does the same for you when he works

- When he grows his hair out he secretly lets you braid it as long as you tell no one.

- Until Klaus find’s out and gets you to braid his hair too

- He cannot say no to you, so gets through the day of relentless teasing by his siblings when you painted his nails 

- It was worth it to see you smile

- Full on shouting at Reginald at the dinner table when he upset Diego because HOW DARE HE make your boyfriend stutter like that

- The other siblings looking at you in shock because you were the calm and reasonable one 

- He wouldn’t really get jealous because he trusted you, but can’t resist showing off the fact you’re his girlfriend when someone starts to flirt with you

- Okay maybe he is jealous

Allison Hargreeves 

- For some reason you are immune to her power

- You found this out when Reginald tried to forcefully recruit you to the academy when you were fifteen, using her power and you just responded “I don’t know where you heard that sunshine.”  before merrily skipping off.

- She was shook

- The two of you started meeting at Griddy’s donuts

- At first she wanted to know how you managed to get away

- But eventually she started to like you

- You were sassy and smart and didn’t put up with her shit

- This is probably why Five adored you so much - you two became best friends

- She always held your hand and often kissed it softly if you were deep in thought

- You taught her how to get people to do what you say without using her power

- Which meant you guys left with a lot of free stuff

- She always loved to show you off, PDA was something she had no problem with

- Much to the disgust of some of the siblings

- Being in the 60′s as a lesbian couple was difficult

- So you pretended to be cousins

- which was weird for both of you

- She would constantly buy extravagant gifts for you, especially when she had the money

- Despite the fact that in public you seem like the one in charge, she is 100% the big spoon

- She likes the feeling of feeling truly needed

Klaus Hargreeves

- You meet in the war, you’re the bar tender that introduced him to Dave

- The talk he had with you was very brief but he remembered your face

- So years later, when he went back to that same Bar once he got back from the past he was shocked to see you serving people having not aged a day

- At first he thought you just has really good genes you had passed on but you were identical to the way he remembered you

- The he thought he was seeing your ghost but he saw that you were interacting with others

- So he called you over

- You didn't seem shocked to see him but pleasantly surprised

- You explained that you had gotten in a bit of a pickle as you were picking up a suitcase from the commission so you could retire but Five blew the place up causing the suitcase to malfunction

- So you were stuck in a warzone until you figured out how to fix the case

- You also told Klaus to give his brother a slap when he next saw him

- He did, but Five was very pleased to see you as you were a good friend to him and knew how to help

- Anyways after a couple of soft drinks you and Klaus got to know each other better

- And after a while the two of you became an item and life just got better

Helping him remain sober

- Cuddles all the time because he is needy

- you guys shared clothes because neither if you give a fuck

- You show him other ways to get high without damaging his body

- like taking him skydiving or to a theme park

- you always listen to him

- And will shout at the siblings when they undermine Klaus

- You keep the ghosts at bay, and will often hold him when he sleeps so stop any nightmares

- However neither of you can cook

- which leads to you waltzing off to Allison’s house at three in the morning because she can cook

- She doesn’t mind though because she’s never seen her brother this happy when hes sober

- You are best friends with Ben, and can also see and hear him so like to talk shit about Klaus when he’s in the room

- He is a pro at forehead kisses

- He’ll wrap you in his arms and just lightly kiss your forehead

- Because you make him feel safe, so he returns the favour

Five Hargreeves

- You worked with the commission as an assassin and after a few weeks of Five being there, he was told that you would be his partner

- He was a little annoyed because that would mean he wouldn’t be able to work on the apocalypse on the job in case you told on him

- Then he met you and you were nothing like he expected

- He’d seen you train, seen you kill five men whilst barely moving and go after the most dangerous of people

- So why were you so nice?

-You were like a little ball of sunshine and he was Mr grumpy

- When you were informed that he had been alone for 45 years, Five thought you’d run away from him, scared that you were friends with a madman

- But instead you walked up to him and wrapped your arms around his waist

- At first he didn’t know how to respond but then he hugged you back

- And then you two became inseparable

- He wasn’t much into PDA especially when you got back to the Hargreaves siblings

- He didn’t want to be bullied

-But you loved affection

-So he compromised and the two of you would subtly lock pinkies

-But that was it

-Until you were alone

-Oh boy

- He needed coaxing at first because he’s socially awkward

- But he loves to be cuddled. He loves laying on your stomach, or holding you against his chest or wrapping his arms around your waist

- He’s a sucker for when you run your hands through his hair

- It makes him w e a k 

-When he’s working you’ll sit on his lap

- Because you want attention and he overworks himself

- You constantly look after him, making sure he drinks water and shit

- Because you cannot run on coffee alone

- The siblings become suspicious when they catch Five staring at you

- So they decided to spy on him

- And whilst they spied, they saw their mardy little brother dancing (Rather gracefully) around the Kitchen with you, both laughing as if there was no one else there

- Which tbf they didn’t think there was

- “They could just be working a case?” suggested Luther

- But that was quickly brushed aside when Five kissed you

- “Turns out the Hargreaves are capable of Love,” was all Klaus said although they were secretly thrilled at the fact you and Five were together.

Ben Hargreeves

- You were just a small town waitress 

- Working another long shift at your work, you saw two men come in, one rather skinny and hippie looking, and the other dressed in all black

- You’re a naturally sweet person so serving them with a smile wasn’t a problem

- But when you asked Ben what he wanted he just froze in shock

- After some explaining you decided to let the two guys stay at your apartment for a while, as they were lost anyway

- You all became super super close

- You helped Klaus become sober again

- And then you realised that not only could you see Ben, but you could make him physically there just by touching him

- You learnt this when you accidentally ran into him nearly knocking yourself out

- The Klaus was no longer the clingy one

-Ben was always touching you, not in a weird way just always brushing hands or wrapping himself around you

- He loved cuddles, just feeling warm for once

- He’d cuddle you no matter what, and if you had a tiring day at work he would be there to sweep you off your feet

- you made him feel alive again

- When he was touching you others could see him too

- which meant you automatically became the family favourite, after you helped Klaus, and then Ben

- Ben loves it when you read to him, it just calms him down

- His favourite thing to do is to sit in the park with you sat between his legs, lent against his chest listening to you read

- He wears the flower crowns you make with pride

- It takes ages to figure out why you can see him and make him real as you were actually a couple months younger than him

- Turns out you had died as a baby for exactly 108 seconds and that had left you with ties to both the physical world and the afterlife - and it was Mr Reginald Hargreeves who had saved you

- You were convinced he was an alien but the others disagreed

- You helped Ben not fear his power

- The guy is king of nose kisses. He just finds it really cute when you scrunch your nose, either in disgust or frustration or confusion

- You always kiss jawline, as if you’re snuggled together it’s often the only place you can reach

- Vanya is your best friend, you always invite her because she understands what it’s like to not know the extent of your own power

- Klaus is scared at first because he doesn’t want Ben to leave him although he would never admit it

- But then he realised he hadn’t lost a constant companion, he’d just gained another

- Ben loves to surprise you with cute simple things, like setting up a movie and hot chocolate, or picking out flowers he found at some point for you

- Dancing round the kitchen would be a daily thing

- You even got Five to join in 

- You make the best waffles so every morning all the siblings come to your house just to eat the waffles you make

- It’s like they are a family again, but this time they have you

Vanya Hargreeves

- She’s a bit iffy with personal contact

- It makes her a little nervous

- But you’re okay with that, she shows her love in other ways

- Like she’ll always make you tea in the mornings, or make sure you’re under the blanket before she sleeps because she knows you get cold

- You meet for the first time when you’re kids. The other siblings are saving everybody and ask you to stand with the others, because to them you’re just a civilian

- But when things start to go sideways, it’s you who helps them, using your powers of mental manipulation to make the bad guys visualise their worst fear

- Sir Hargreeves takes you in immediately, adopting you as Number Eight.

-The other kids felt bad for you when Reginald left you on your own, and it was Klaus who spoke

-”He’s not a good parent, he isn’t really here at all so I’m sorry if this wasn't what you were expecting,” but you were happy

“My real dad gave me this scar when he tried to stab me,” you replied with a little laugh “Ill take yours any day,”

-After that you and Vanya bonded over the fact you were both the black sheep of the family

- You always made sure she was included, and felt a bit bad that you weren’t a sibling but were often invited to more places than her

- During your teenage years you and Vanya clearly had something going on, so Reginald sent you away to France to study your powers

- It wasn’t until his death did you two see each other again

- It felt like you had never really left and things kicked off again

- But the Harold came along and told Vanya you were just as bad as the rest

- So she abandoned you

- You meet  for the third time in the 60′s, you’re staying with a married couple and their disabled son

- Vanya recognises you but she doesn’t know where from which breaks your heart slightly but it’s okay

- Because the more she spends time with you the more she falls in love with you

- She finally asks you to be her girlfriend

- Which you say yes

- Although she’s not big on affection, she loves it when you lay in her lap, it makes her feel trusted

- She loves to play the violin for you

- When she starts to grow used to affection, she loves it when you sleep all curled up beside her like a cat

- Or when you play with her hair

- Or kiss her cheek

- You make her feel like she’s valid and that’s all she ever wanted

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Glen Campbell who Died: August 8, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee

Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television from 1969 until 1972. He released 64 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.

Born in Billstown, Arkansas, Campbell began his professional career as a studio musician in Los Angeles, spending several years playing with the group of instrumentalists later known as "The Wrecking Crew". After becoming a solo artist, he placed a total of 80 different songs on either the Billboard Country Chart, Billboard Hot 100, or Adult Contemporary Chart, of which 29 made the top 10 and of which nine reached number one on at least one of those charts. Among Campbell's hits are "Universal Soldier", his first hit from 1965, along with "Gentle on My Mind" (1967), "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" (1967), "Dreams of the Everyday Housewife" (1968), "Wichita Lineman" (1968), "Galveston" (1969), "Rhinestone Cowboy" (1975) and "Southern Nights" (1977).

In 1967, Campbell won four Grammys in the country and pop categories. For "Gentle on My Mind", he received two awards in country and western; "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" did the same in pop. Three of his early hits later won Grammy Hall of Fame Awards (2000, 2004, 2008), while Campbell himself won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He owned trophies for Male Vocalist of the Year from both the Country Music Association (CMA) and the Academy of Country Music (ACM), and took the CMA's top award as 1968 Entertainer of the Year. Campbell played a supporting role in the film True Grit (1969), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. He also sang the title song, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Glen was born on April 22, 1936, in Billstown, a tiny community near Delight in Pike County, Arkansas, to John Wesley (a sharecropper) and Carrie Dell (Stone) Campbell. Campbell was of Scottish descent and was the seventh son of 12 children. As a child he almost died from drowning. His family went to Church of Christ, and Campbell's brother Lindell became a Church of Christ minister. In 2011 he claimed his mother was Irish, although this was not true. The family lived on a farm, where they barely managed, by growing cotton, corn, watermelons, and potatoes. "We had no electricity," he said, and money was scarce. "A dollar in those days looked as big as a saddle blanket." To supplement income the family picked cotton for other farmers. "I picked cotton for $1.25 a hundred pounds," said Campbell. "If you worked your tail off, you could pick 80 or 90 pounds a day."

Campbell started playing guitar at age four after his father gave him a Sears-bought five-dollar guitar as a gift, with his uncle Boo teaching him the basics of how to play. Most of his family was musical, he said. "Back home, everybody plays and sings." By the time he was six he was performing on local radio stations.

Campbell continued playing guitar in his youth, with no formal training, and practiced when he was not working in the cotton fields. He developed his talent by listening to radio and records and considered Django Reinhardt among his most admired guitarists, later calling him "the most awesome player I ever heard." He dropped out of school at 14 to work in Houston alongside his brothers, installing insulation and later working at a gas station.

Not satisfied with that kind of unskilled work, Campbell started playing music at fairs and church picnics and singing gospel hymns in the church choir. He was able to find spots performing on local radio stations, and after his parents moved to Houston, he made some appearances at a local nightclub.

In 1954, at age 17, Campbell moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to join his uncle's band, known as Dick Bills and the Sandia Mountain Boys. He quit high school in 10th grade. He also appeared there on his uncle's radio show and on K Circle B Time, the local children's program on KOB television. It was there that he met his first wife, whom he married when he was 17 and she was 16.

In 1958, Campbell formed his own band, the Western Wranglers. "We worked hard," he said. "Six, sometimes seven nights a week. I didn't have my eye set on any specific goals or big dreams."

In 1960, Campbell moved to Los Angeles to become a session musician. That October, he joined the Champs. By January 1961, Campbell had found a daytime job at publishing company American Music, writing songs and recording demos. Because of these demos Campbell soon was in demand as a session musician and became part of a group of studio musicians later known as the Wrecking Crew.

Campbell played on recordings by the Beach Boys, Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole, the Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Merle Haggard, Jan and Dean, Bing Crosby, Phil Spector, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Bobby Vee, The Everly Brothers, Shelley Fabares, The Cascades, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Wayne Newton, The First Edition, The Kingston Trio, Roger Miller, Gene Clark, Lou Rawls, Claude King, Lorne Greene, Ronnie Dove and Elvis Presley. He befriended Presley when he helped record the soundtrack for Viva Las Vegas in 1964. He later said, "Elvis and I were brought up the same humble way – picking cotton and looking at the south end of a north-bound mule."

In May 1961, he left the Champs and was subsequently signed by Crest Records, a subsidiary of American Music. His first solo release, "Turn Around, Look at Me", a moderate success, peaked at number 62 on the Hot 100 in 1961 but reached number 7 on the Hot 100 in a 1968 Vogues cover. Campbell also formed the Gee Cees with former bandmembers from the Champs, performing at the Crossbow Inn in Van Nuys. The Gee Cees, too, released a single on Crest, the instrumental "Buzz Saw", which did not chart.

In 1962, Campbell signed with Capitol Records. After minor initial success with "Too Late to Worry, Too Blue to Cry", his first single for the label, and "Kentucky Means Paradise", released by the Green River Boys featuring Glen Campbell, a string of unsuccessful singles and albums followed. By 1963 his playing and singing were heard on 586 recorded songs. He never learned to read music, but besides guitar, he could play the banjo, mandolin and bass.

From 1964 on, Campbell began to appear on television as a regular on Star Route, a syndicated series hosted by Rod Cameron, ABC's Shindig! and Hollywood Jamboree.

From December 1964 to early March 1965, Campbell was a touring member of the Beach Boys, filling in for Brian Wilson, playing bass guitar and singing falsetto harmonies. He was then replaced on the Beach Boys' tours by new member Bruce Johnston.

In 1965, he had his biggest solo hit yet, reaching number 45 on the Hot 100 with a version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier". Asked about the pacifist message of the song, he said that "people who are advocating burning draft cards should be hung."

Campbell continued as a session musician, playing guitar on the Beach Boys' 1966 album Pet Sounds, among other recordings. In April of that year, he joined Rick Nelson on a tour through the Far East, again playing bass.

When follow-up singles did not do well, and Capitol was considering dropping Campbell from the label in 1966, he was teamed with producer Al De Lory. Together, they first collaborated on "Burning Bridges" which became a top 20 country hit in early 1967, and the album of the same name.

Campbell and De Lory collaborated again on 1967's "Gentle on My Mind", written by John Hartford, which was an overnight success. The song was followed by the bigger hit "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" later in 1967, and "I Wanna Live" and "Wichita Lineman" in 1968, remaining on Billboard's Top 100 charts for 15 weeks. He won four Grammy Awards for "Gentle on My Mind" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix".

In 1967, Campbell was also the uncredited lead vocalist on "My World Fell Down" by Sagittarius, a studio group. The song reached number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1968, Campbell released "Wichita Lineman", a song written by Jimmy Webb. It was recorded with backing from members of the Wrecking Crew and appeared on his 1968 album of the same name. It reached number 3 on the US pop chart, remaining in the Top 100 for 15 weeks. In addition, the song also topped the American country music chart for two weeks, and the adult contemporary chart for six weeks.

The 1969 song "True Grit" by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Campbell, who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

After he hosted a 1968 summer replacement for television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour variety show, Campbell was given his own weekly variety show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, which ran from January 1969 through June 1972. The show's comedy writers included Steve Martin and Rob Reiner. At the height of his popularity, a 1970 biography by Freda Kramer, The Glen Campbell Story, was published.

With Campbell's session-work connections, he hosted major names in music on his show, including the Beatles (on film), David Gates, Bread, the Monkees, Neil Diamond, Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Roger Miller, and Mel Tillis. Campbell helped launch the careers of Anne Murray and Jerry Reed, who were regulars on his Goodtime Hour program.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Campbell released a long series of singles and appeared in the movies True Grit (1969) with John Wayne and Kim Darby and Norwood (1970) with Kim Darby and Joe Namath.

After the cancellation of his CBS series in 1972, Campbell remained a regular on network television. He co-starred in a made-for-television movie, Strange Homecoming (1974), with Robert Culp and up-and-coming teen idol Leif Garrett. He hosted a number of television specials, including 1976's Down Home, Down Under with Olivia Newton-John. He co-hosted the American Music Awards from 1976 to 1978 and headlined the 1979 NBC special Glen Campbell: Back to Basics with guest-stars Seals and Crofts and Brenda Lee. He was a guest on many network talk and variety shows, including Donny & Marie and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he performed "Rhinestone Cowboy". He also appeared on Cher, the Redd Foxx Comedy Hour, The Merv Griffin Show, The Midnight Special, DINAH!, Evening at Pops with Arthur Fiedler and The Mike Douglas Show.

In the mid-1970s, he had more hits with "Rhinestone Cowboy", "Southern Nights" (both U.S. number one hits), "Sunflower" (U.S. number 39) (written by Neil Diamond), and "Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in L.A.)" (U.S. number 11).

"Rhinestone Cowboy" was Campbell's largest-selling single and one of his best-known recordings, initially with over 2 million copies sold. Campbell had heard songwriter Larry Weiss' version while on tour of Australia in 1974. Both songs were in the October 4, 1975, Hot 100 top 10. "Rhinestone Cowboy" continues to be used in TV shows and films, including Desperate Housewives, Daddy Day Care, and High School High. It was the inspiration for the 1984 Dolly Parton/Sylvester Stallone movie Rhinestone. The main phrase of Campbell's recording was included in Dickie Goodman's Jaws movie parody song "Mr. Jaws". Campbell also made a techno/pop version of the song in 2002 with UK artists Rikki & Daz and went to the top 10 in the UK with the dance version and related music video.

"Southern Nights", by Allen Toussaint, his other number one pop-rock-country crossover hit, was generated with the help of Jimmy Webb, and Jerry Reed, who inspired the famous guitar lick introduction to the song, which was the most-played jukebox number of 1977.

In 2005, Campbell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. It was announced in April 2008 that Campbell was returning to his signature label, Capitol, to release his new album, Meet Glen Campbell. The album was released on August 19. With this album, he branched off in a different musical direction, covering tracks from artists such as Travis, U2, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jackson Browne, and Foo Fighters. It was Campbell's first release on Capitol in over 15 years. Musicians from Cheap Trick and Jellyfish contributed to the album as well. The first single, a cover of Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", was released to radio in July 2008.

In March 2010, a then-farewell album titled Ghost on the Canvas was announced which served as a companion to Meet Glen Campbell (2008).

Following his late 2010 Alzheimer's diagnosis, Campbell embarked on a final "Goodbye Tour", with three of his children joining him in his backup band. He was too ill to travel to Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 2012. His final show was on November 30, 2012, in Napa, California. After the end of the tour, Campbell entered the studio in Nashville to record what would be his final album, Adiós, which would not be revealed until five years later. According to his wife, Kim Campbell, he wanted to preserve "what magic was left", in what would be his final recordings. In January 2013, Campbell recorded his final song, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You", during what would be his last recording sessions. The song, which is featured in the 2014 documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, was released on September 30, 2014, with the documentary following on October 24. On January 15, 2015, Campbell and fellow songwriter Julian Raymond were nominated for Best Original Song at the 87th Academy Awards.

On August 30, 2016, during the 10th Annual ACM Honors, Keith Urban, Blake Shelton and others performed a medley of Glen Campbell's songs in tribute to him. His wife Kim Campbell accepted the Career Achievement Award on his behalf. Alice Cooper described him as being one of the five best guitar players in the music industry.

Campbell's final album Adiós, featuring twelve songs from his final 2012–13 sessions, was announced in April 2017. It was released on June 9, 2017. Adiós was named by the UK's Official Charts Company as the best-selling country/Americana album of 2017 in Britain.

Campbell died in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 8, 2017, at the age of 81. He was buried in the Campbell family cemetery in Billstown, Arkansas.

[mooifyourecows]

Alright so this story, right? Right, so. Alright.

NGL, I did consider writing it as a DaiSuga AU because my love for DaiSuga knows zero bounds, but I just don't think it would work as well as it would as an original story, so, sorry DaiSuga but you can't be EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME.

Okay okay so I just barely started refurbishing so I'm not 100% on the names of the two leads yet but I'm sitting on "Andronikos" for the MAIN main. Everyone calls him Nikos though, except for the other main, who will call him RONNIE BECAUSE THAT'S CUTE AS SHIT.

And for the other main, I'm less sure on his name but I'm thinking maybe Taiga? That's what we will use for this explanation anyway. Might change later but 🤷‍♂️

Okay so here we gooooooo:

Set in a fantasy world, right around the time of their industrial revolution, or at least the years leading up to it. So like... some electricity but not a lot. Only rich people have that kinda luxury and almost everyone else is still stuck in the dark ages ya know?

Since it's fantasy, there's lots of like MONSTERS and MYTHICAL CREATURES and also some people have SPECIAL SUPER POWERS. (yes, yet another one of my stories involves magic SUE ME.)

In this world, you are born with powers passed on from a family member. Usually, kids get what their parents have but there are times when they inherit a grandparent's or aunt/uncle's power because like, the gene is there, ya dig.

So like, it's pretty normal for a person to have a power but the ones with the ultra powerful ones usually slither their way into fame and fortune. They are celebrities who fight in tournaments and show up to kiss babies and sign autographs and such and such. Sometimes, they're even elected into powerful positions because hey, that guy is super strong and once saved my village from a horde of evil monsters! I trust him with my politics! 👍 (pls don't elect celebrities into office pls)

In order to get famous though, you gotta make a name for yourself. And the place to start making a name for yourself is at this super prestigious academy where they train you to fight and use your power, correct? Yes, this is very standard fantasy super power plot, yes, yes, of course.

Make it through the academy and ta-da, you can start GRINDING to earn your place in people's hearts. (or just work, tbh you don't have to have fame and fortune on your to-do list once you graduate ok)

After graduation, young graduates start picking up jobs. See, these power wielders are not like... cops (spits on ground). They don't get paid a wage just to be heroes and save people and arrest criminals or what the fuck ever. They take commissions, basically. Like bounty hunters. (except not quite because there are ACTUAL bounty hunters that do a very specific thing in this world but I'll get to that later, shhhh)

Anyway, the jobs are submitted to this dude and he puts them up for "auction" (it's not really an auction though, it's more of a "first come, first serve" sorta situation, except for the times when it's a reeeeeeeallly good job and multiple people want it at the same time. then it gets auctioned off but that's not important rn). These hero guys come in, take a job, go complete the job, get paid, go get another job, etc. The jobs can range from "help me harvest my crops" to "pls kill this big scary monster that ate my pa" and are paid mostly by the commissioner and a tiny bit by the government. (ya know, for motivation to take even the jobs put up by poor people who don't have much-or any- to give)

Now the fun stuff attached to the commissions is the gambling parlor. After taking a job, the hero guy that took it can then take challenges from a bunch of rowdy gamblers to help boost his name. So say a guy took a job to go kill some monsters terrorizing a village, yeah? A gambler can challenge the hero to do the job without shoes on for some extra money. Or to do the job using only a little knife. Etc. If the hero accepts, gamblers will make bets on whether or not the hero will succeed in the challenge. If he DOES succeed, then he gets a cut of the winnings. He also gets some fame because the most famous heroes are the ones that do lots of challenges. These types of people almost always wind up fighting in tournaments and garnering love and attention from the masses.

Alrighty so that's the basic economic situation for these Hero types.

So where do our main characters come into play???

SOoooooo, our boy Andronikos (I'm gonna call him Nikos for the rest of this post because damn that name is a doozy to write) is the youngest child of two ultra famous heroes. His mom is a reeeeal vicious lady that DOMINATED the big popular tournaments back in her hey day and his dad is the most renowned and successful Hunter in all the kingdom. (remember when I mentioned bounty hunters? 👀 yeah, he's one of them)

The mom's power has to do with the manipulation of things of the Earth, so literally anything natural like rocks and grass and trees and shit. Super OP, man. The dad's power is lightning, both in the form of shooting thunderbolts and in the form of having lightning fast movement. Nikos' eldest brother inherited their father's lightning powers and his older sister inherited an uncle's summoning powers that lets her reanimate and summon dead things so long as some fiber of their body exists within a certain distance of her. (don't let her near cemeteries unless you wanna see your grandma twerking on a headstone okay)

And then sweet baby boy Nikos inherited his grandpa's healing abilities.

BOO! That's BULLSHIT. How come Nikos got the lame, harmless power??? When I tell you his mom was disappointed, I mean she was READY TO TOSS HIM IN THE TRASH AND TRY AGAIN disappointed.

Their family has a reputation of being SUPER STRONK AND POWERFUL AND SCARY. And then dumb gay ass little Nikos is over here, glowing hands, making bruises disappear like a fuckin LOSER.

Man that shit sucks.

There's no way he will live up to his family's reputation. Healing is an ultra rare power but the few people that do have it are doctors and healers who totally don't live the FAST and DANGEROUS life that Nikos wants to live. Can he get rich with that power? Sure. Of course. People always need a healer. But it's not what he wanted.

So anyway, his mom always made it perfectly clear that Nikos was a total disappointment who would never live up to her expectations and you bet he internalized the FUCK out of that and pretty much HATED himself from a super young age. He decided that in order to make up for his shit ass power, he needed to be the best at everything else instead. He studied super hard. He trained super hard. He learned to fight so good that he could even kick the ass of people with strong offensive powers.

Still though, it wasn't good enough. Even though he was ranked number one in that prestigious academy, his mom was unimpressed. Bro. That shit sucks. Nikos HATED his stupid healing ability.

Until one day, when he was about twelve years old, he snuck out of the academy dorms to do some extra training out in the woods that surrounded the place. And what does he find?

A boy, burnt and bleeding and on the very CUSP of death. Nikos didn't know where he came from or who he was, but he instinctually healed him, saved his life, and then cried tears of absolute joy because hooooooooly shit... Nikos helped someone. He saved someone from dying, a thing that ONLY HE could do.

It was the first time in his life that he was actually happy to have his powers.

So Nikos saves this kid, picks him up, and carries him back to the academy and to the headmaster. The headmaster near about had a HEART ATTACK waking up in the middle of the night to find tiny little 12 year old Nikos with a bloody, naked, unconscious kid on his back, Nikos just grinning ear to ear like "LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN THE WOODS, CAN I KEEP HIM?"

Anyway, from the moment Nikos saved him, he decided that he and this kid were gonna stick together forever and ever, no matter what. He formed a life BOND with this guy and he hadn't even woken up yet. The headmaster straight up couldn't get him away from his side.

Eventually the kid wakes up and yep, he's Taiga, our other main character. After some questioning, the headmaster learns that Taiga is a Berserker.

Uh oh Spaghetti-O.

Remember those bounty hunters I talked about?

Well, Hunters exist in this world almost purely to hunt Berserkers into extinction.

That's not their only job, of course. Technically, they're the ones you call when there is someone out there using their special powers to hurt innocent people.

But that's the thing about Berserkers. Their power is literally going Berserk at the slightest provocation. Their berserk state gives them superhuman strength and stamina and destroys all rationality and humanity. Most berserker attacks are complete accidents. Something will set them off, like fear, anger, threat of danger, or just straight up adrenaline, and they will be sucked into an uncontrollable killing spree, taking out anything that crosses their path until the state runs its course and they wake up from the trance, surrounded by the chaos they unwittingly created.

People are batshit TERRIFIED of Berserkers. To the point that Hunters have made it a sport to hunt them down and collect their eyes as trophies, which glow when in the berserker state and will continue to glow when sliced right out of their heads 😱

And Nikos' dad is the most famous Hunter in the entire kingdom, with more glowing trophies than all other Hunters combined 😋

So obviously the fact that Taiga is a Berserker is a bit of a PROBLEM. People are really dumb and scared and so if it got out that there was a Berserker on the school grounds, parents would be PISSED.

BUT, the headmaster is a good dude who cares about all children and he just can't bring himself to cast him out or call Hunters to get rid of him. Not that Nikos would let him anyway. He's claimed him and threatens to bite anybody that gets near him, after all. And where would Taiga even go, huh? After some investigating, it's revealed that the reason Nikos found him in the state he was in was because a group of Hunters sniffed him out and killed his parents on their way to murder him. So he literally has nowhere to go were he to be cast out of the academy. 😞

The headmaster decides, alright, imma protect this kid at least until he's an adult. It's his duty and he doesn't care how many parents get pissed at him 😤

Naturally, quite a few parents pull their kids from the academy in protest of the headmaster protecting Taiga but oh well 🤷‍♂️ The ones that DO stay avoid Taiga like the plague in case he go berserk and send them to hell where thEY BELONG.

It kinda hurts Taiga's feelings because he's a sweet baby boy that just loves everything. Like omg he's so kind and tender and adorable okay. The complete opposite of Nikos, who has an endless supply of rage constantly bubbling over the rim of his attitude pot.

But hey, it's okay because they're together. And they're literally INSEPARABLE. Even though it totally burns Nikos up that Taiga surpasses him in almost every single way (save for speed and smarts), bumping him down to number two in the academy's rankings. Whatever. It's fine. Nikos knows it's because Taiga is a berserker and so his physical capabilities are off the charts on a base level. He tries real hard not to take it personally. (it's impossible to stay mad at Taiga anyway he's just SO CUTE)

Years pass and stuff happens at the academy and shit of course like Taiga accidentally punching a hole straight through Nikos' chest and almost killing him but it's okay because he heals himself up before he can die but it totally scares the shit out of Taiga but ya know c'est la vie, and finally they graduate from the academy and are tossed out in the world to be adults. The headmaster sends Taiga out with his surname, a stamp of approval that is to be taken seriously because the headmaster is like, VERY respected in society. This is enough to keep Hunters off his back at least until he kills his first innocent civilian. (Which Nikos swears will never happen, he won't let it)

They start taking commissions. Nikos goes for high paying, easy jobs while Taiga almost ALWAYS goes for low paying, difficult ones. (to Nikos' chagrin because UGH now he's gonna have to be the breadwinner to support their asses) Taiga also goes overboard with accepting challenges in his desperation to make society like him and not think of him as just some uncontrollable monster. Meanwhile Nikos is like "fuck your challenges you gambling losers" and always refuses them, which makes him a total wet blanket but HEY at least he's getting paid up the ass in gold, wassup.

Anyway, so thus begins their life of adventure. I won't spoil any major plot points but there will definitely be drama pertaining to Nikos' dad being a Hunter and his mom being a piece of shit bitch. There will also be drama with society rejecting Taiga left and right and invoking Nikos' wrath.

There will also be a mysterious person who aims to "Collect" rare powers and has set their sights on Nikos' healing and thus sends his creepy crony to tempt him to allow himself to be collected. 👀

Also there's an old crotchety man who put out an extremely high paying job with the description "Take my pain away" that Nikos accepts because UH DUH, HE'S A HEALER, WHO BETTER TO TAKE PAIN AWAY? but the job turns out to be way more complicated than he thought and he and the old guy become friends and he offers wisdom and help along the way 👀👀👀👀👀

But anyway, that's the gist of the story, minus the plot twists I will keep secret until I can actually write them. 🖤

THE END GO HOME

[pickalilywrites]

i haven’t uploaded this onto tumblr yet b/c i’m lazy but it’s been on my ao3 for at least a month 😱

----------

When I Met You

GalliPieck. Canonverse. 

6766 words.

Read on AO3!

Pieck stumbles up the dirt path and wonders how she had managed to walk up this same hill every morning back when she was still a Warrior candidate. Back then it had been a struggle for her too - she never had the best stamina and was always one of the last people to arrive, her cheeks flushed and sweat dripping down her back - but now it’s especially challenging as she hobbles forth on her crutches, which don’t seem to be helping her at all. General Magath hovers behind her worriedly, hands stretched out behind Pieck as if to catch her in case she falls. He always does this, worries too much about Pieck despite the Devil blood that runs through her veins. The man has always been strangely kind even back when Pieck and her companions were still students training to be Warriors. 

“I won’t fall over, so stop looking at me like the wind will blow me away,” Pieck tells the general with a fake pout. She waves him away with a crutch, laughing at his scandalized expression. She turns back to the path, moving forward even though her arms ache and her feet are numb. “I don’t know why I let you lead me here, General. I feel like I have to walk slower just to stop those worry lines from permanently wrinkling your face. It might have been better to just go on my own.” 

“Go on your own?” Magath splutters as if the idea is unthinkable to him. It’s strange how fragile he sees Pieck when just days ago she was on the battlefield killing hundreds of enemy soldiers at the bat of an eyelash. As if she’s not a monster and just an ordinary soldier that needs to rest after a battle. Then again, the man has always been strange that way. Now, his frown deepens, Pieck’s lighthearted words doing nothing to lessen his concern. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t wait for Zeke or Porco to accompany you or wait a week or two until you’ve recovered. It’s not as if the academy is going anywhere.” 

Pieck fights the urge to sigh. Sometimes, General Magath acts more like her father than her superior, but she’d never say this out loud. Instead, she rolls her eyes and says, “Zeke is meeting with a few officials and Porco agreed to meet me here later. He’s grabbing snacks for the kids, but it’d take too long if he brought me along-” Here, Pieck leans over to pat her leg, ignoring Magath’s grimace. “-and today is the perfect day to visit, besides. They have their evaluations today.” 

“Ah, evaluations,” Magath says with a nod. He should know better than her. He had been an instructor for a good time before returning to the field, the new Warriors in tow. He must have evaluated dozens of children before the final candidates had dwindled down to Pieck, Marcel, Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner. “Anyone interesting?” 

Pieck nods. “Zeke might have mentioned them a few times. Zofia is good at working with others and doesn’t crack under pressure. She’s also quite clever; she does incredibly well with written exams. Udo is also quite good - at least on paper. He’s smart, but he lacks confidence.” 

Their last evaluations were quite impressive, if Pieck recalls correctly. Zofia, a slender girl with a thin nose and half-lidded eyes, had bragged to Pieck about her test scores the last time the Cart Titan had come to visit. Pieck recalls the girl making an effort to point out that not only had her test scores improved, but they were much better than the other candidates. Udo was a little more reserved about his accomplishments, but he had shyly offered his evaluation for Pieck to look at and his marksmanship scores and weaponry grades were particularly memorable. 

“And Grice’s younger brother?” Magath asks. “I believe his name is Falco. You know Colt’s brother, of course.” 

“Of course,” Pieck says, the corner of her lip turning upward into a smile. Of course, Magath would take the time to remember the name of a soldier’s younger brother. He’s the type to remember details like that even though other people in Magath’s position would think such information to be useless. “He’s …. well, he’s very passionate. He works hard.” 

Truth be told, Falco fades into the background when thinking about the other candidates. The boy is talented enough to be considered a candidate, but he’s not more impressive than the others in any way. His stamina is decent, his strength is passable, and his written exam scores are acceptable. Falco hadn’t seemed to inherit the strategic mind and perseverance that his older brother Colt possessed, which is a shame. Of course, it’s not necessary for him to become a chosen Warrior when his brother’s future as the Beast Titan is guaranteed, but it’s always an honor for a family to have someone be chosen as a Warrior. It’s even more of an honor to have two. It’s not Falco’s fault. He isn’t even bad, he’s just not outstanding like the rest of his peers. 

Still, Magath nods as if this is enough. “Character like that is hard to build. The instructors should continue to keep an eye on that boy.” 

Pieck doubts this, but she doesn’t say it out loud. Magath knows a thing or two about Warrior candidates after all, so maybe she should keep an eye on Falco. He might be a late bloomer. 

“I find Gabi Braun the most interesting though,” Pieck says. 

The general raises an eyebrow at the name. “Reiner’s cousin?” he asks. He hums when Pieck confirms with a nod. “Another Warrior in the Braun family. Perhaps it’s in their genes. They’d be lucky to have the Armored Titan handed down to a relative.” 

They’d have to call it luck. Gabi is the clear candidate for the Armored Titan. She excelled in nearly everything with the exception of written and oral exams. The young girl was a model Warrior candidate - something that her cousin Reiner never was. In fact, Pieck still thinks it’s a miracle that the Armored Titan had earned his position because she had never found him a formidable opponent when fighting for her spot as a Warrior Candidate. He lacked in nearly everything and his evaluations were poor aside from writing and oral assignments. Reiner was, in every way, the exact opposite of Gabi. Pieck had thought Porco would inherit the Armored Titan for sure, so she was surprised when it was announced that Reiner would be chosen as the inheritor. Some days she still can’t wrap her head around it. 

“Lucky indeed,” Pieck agrees with a murmur. 

They near the top of the hill where the academy is located. There are children outside, some running around and playing now that today’s lessons have concluded while others lie in the grass to rest. Most of them don’t notice Pieck and Magath strolling up the hill until they’ve reached the gate. It’s a girl that greets them first, shouting Pieck’s name loud enough to have the other children turn their heads and begin running towards Pieck. Pieck’s popularity must surprise Magath because he’s alarmed at the crowd of kids that rushes at Pieck. The kids throw their arms around her, hugging her with so much affection that they nearly knock her to the ground. 

“Ah, did you miss me that much?” Pieck laughs, struggling to stay upright with all these kids piling on her. She pats one affectionately on the head, ruffling their hair. She almost forgets about Magath for a second until she turns her head and sees the man, his forehead wrinkled as he wonders if he should pull the children off her. She grins widely. “No need to worry, General. You’ve left me in good hands with these kids. They’ll take good care of me.” 

At the mention of Magath’s title, the children quickly unstick themselves from Pieck’s limbs and turn towards the general, their hands held up in a salute. Their faces, which had been filled with smiles just seconds before, are now solemn as they look up at Magath. Pieck wants to laugh at the contrast. 

“I’ll leave her in your capable hands then,” Magath says, giving them a salute of his own. The general has the decency not to laugh, but Pieck sees an amused sparkle in the man’s eye before he turns to leave. He gets along well with children. Pieck thinks it’s a shame that the man stopped being an instructor. Nobody speaks until the man disappears from view. 

“That was General Magath, wasn’t it?” a boy says, his voice filled with awe. He turns to Pieck, admiration in his eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him up close before.” 

“Work harder and maybe you will,” a voice Pieck recognizes as Zofia says. The girl is in the back, her face smug. Zofia is a little thinner than Pieck remembers, but the girl still has the same half-lidded eyes and choppy blonde bangs that she had when Pieck first met her. “You have to get better if you want to be chosen for missions. You’ll never meet the generals and commanders otherwise.” 

Zofia is referring to the military operations that the candidates are sometimes picked for. Only top candidates are chosen; it’s a way to reward the candidates for their hard work and at the same time offer them experience on the battlefield before they acquire their Titan. It’s no use to have a Titan and not know how the battlefield works. Pieck herself had been on a number of missions when she had been a candidate. Zofia has as well, but not a lot of other children are picked for such missions. Not everyone gets that honor. 

“Miss Pieck,” the child whines, clearly offended. He tangles himself around her arm, sulking into her side. 

“You’ll get them soon,” Pieck says soothingly, patting the boy’s back. 

He looks up, surprised. Maybe even a little bit excited. “I will?” 

Pieck nods. “If you work hard,” she says, pressing her finger to his nose. 

The boy groans, his arms falling away from Pieck as Zofia snickers behind him. The other children laugh too, poking the boy and teasing him. A few have worried looks on their faces, probably worried about not being chosen for a mission anytime in the near future. Pieck used to worry about such things too when she was younger. She has other things to worry about now. 

Udo grabs Pieck’s crutches from her while other kids take her by the hand and lead her to the schoolhouse. They tell her about their day - some long-distance running, lessons on surviving in the wilderness, and history classes before their evaluations were handed out to them - and Pieck nods as she only half-pays attention to their stories. Some even show her their reports, although she only really pays attention to Udo’s and Zofia’s. They have high marks - much higher than their peers - and she makes a mental note to tell General Magath and Zeke when she sees them again. As they get nearer to the classroom, she notices that a familiar head of black is not here with them. 

“Where’s Gabi?” Pieck asks, looking around. It’s strange not to see the lively girl hovering around her with the others. Usually, Gabi is the first one to greet her, pushing her classmates out of the way to get Pieck first. She feels a bit guilty about not noticing the girl’s absence earlier. 

People look away at the mention of Gabi, their gazes fixed on their feet and the dirt road. Pieck isn’t entirely sure why, but she sometimes has the feeling that Gabi isn’t well-liked among her peers. It might be because of jealousy or perhaps the girl’s accomplishments intimidate the others. Nobody offers her an explanation of Gabi's whereabouts, so Pieck wonders if the girl had gone home early for a moment until Zofia speaks up. 

“She’s in the classroom right now. She told us not to bother her,” Zofia explains. Out of everyone, Zofia seems to be the closest to Gabi, although it was more like the two got along alright instead of being actual friends. Even now, Zofia’s voice drops to a whisper as they all approach the schoolhouse. “I think she’s upset about her evaluation.” 

That’s strange. Gabi’s incredibly well-rounded. Even with written and oral exams, the girl’s biggest weakness, Pieck can’t imagine Gabi scoring low enough for it to be worth nothing. 

“Do you know what her evaluation was?” Pieck asks. 

Zofia snorts and looks at the schoolhouse door with a pout. “Of course not. Gabi won’t share that with anyone,” Zofia says, rolling her eyes. It’s not something Zofia would understand, Pieck decides, because her scores were good all-around. Even if the girl had a bad score, she’d probably bounce back quickly. Gabi, on the other hand, takes every ounce of criticism to heart. 

They all stand there, Pieck at the door while the kids huddle behind her, wondering if they’ll actually go in. It’s like they’ve approached a dragon’s lair - half of them are too scared to enter while the other half is curious as to what awaits inside. Is Gabi fuming? Is she crying? Is she sitting in silent shock? Whatever it is, Pieck feels like it’s only polite to grant her privacy instead of trying to talk to her about her evaluation in front of a dozen uninvited children. 

“I’ll talk to her myself,” Pieck tells them with a smile. The disappointed looks don’t go unnoticed and Pieck almost laughs. Children are so strange when they’re competitive. Then again, she might have been the same way back when she was their age. 

The students leave, some a little more reluctantly than the others. Some even straggle behind until Pieck shoos them away, telling them to look out for Porco instead because he should have some treats for them when he arrives. The promise of food - snacks, sweets, and other goodies that they aren’t normally allowed - is enough to get them to leave, any thoughts of eavesdropping on Pieck and her conversation with Gabi forgotten. After the coast is clear, Pieck waits a minute before knocking. 

“Gabi?” Pieck calls. “It’s me, Pieck.” There’s no answer, but Pieck spots a lone figure slumped over a desk when she cracks open the door to take a peek. She raps her knuckles against the door frame to make her presence known in case Gabi hadn’t heard the first time, but the girl simply lets out an angry groan. It’s not exactly an invitation, but Pieck takes a seat beside the sulking girl anyway. 

Gabi doesn’t lift her head up when Pieck sits down next to her, but she does turn her head, her lower lip sticking out in a pout. “Hi, Miss Pieck,” Gabi says. Her tone lacks the girl’s usual abundance of energy. In her hand, she clutches a crumpled piece of paper. It most definitely is the evaluation that Zofia mentioned earlier. 

“What are you doing here by yourself?” Pieck asks. She touches Gabi lightly on the arm, and the girl doesn’t flinch away from Pieck’s hand. That’s a good sign. “Everyone else is playing outside and waiting for Porco to bring snacks. I told him to bring your favorites. You like those chocolate candy cigarettes, don’t you?” 

There isn’t even a hint of a smile on the girl’s face at the mention of her favorite snack. She continues to sit there moodily, rubbing the corner of her evaluation between her two fingers. “I don’t feel like eating.” 

“Are you sure? It might be a while before we visit again, and you know Reiner can’t afford to keep buying you snacks all the time.” Pieck lays her head down on the table next to Gabi’s. When she smiles, Gabi returns it with a scowl. “All your friends might eat the snacks before you get a chance to have even one.” 

Gabi’s frown deepens and she turns away from Pieck, hiding her face in her elbow. “Doesn’t matter. They’re not my friends anyway.” Her voice is muffled by the sleeve of her shirt. 

Pieck raises an eyebrow. Gabi’s never been incredibly sociable, but she’s never been this hostile towards her classmates. Curious, Pieck sneaks a peek at Gabi’s evaluations. There aren’t any horrible marks - they’re all in the nineties, a few high eighties, and even a hundred here and there - but there are a few subjects that Gabi’s elbow is covering. She purses her lips, finger tapping on the desk. After a moment, Pieck asks quietly, “Are you upset about your evaluation scores, Gabi?” 

Gabi finally sits up, a terrible glare on her face. Her classmates were right to be afraid. Her face is flushed red, although Pieck suspects it’s from anger rather than embarrassment or crying. Gabi isn’t the type to cry about these things. “Did Zofia tell you?” Gabi’s eyes narrow as she glowers at Pieck. 

Pieck decides not to tell Gabi that Zofia had told her about the evaluations. If anyone can handle an angry Gabi, it would probably be Zofia, but Pieck doesn’t want her to deal with that if she doesn’t have to. Instead, Pieck rubs soothing circles on Gabi’s back. “Can I take a look at them? It probably isn’t as bad as you think it is.” 

The girl continues to glare at Pieck, but the Cart Titan just stares back, expression neutral. After a while, Gabi finally sighs and removes her elbow from the paper, allowing Pieck to look at the paper. 

Pieck takes the paper in her hand, her eyes scanning through the subjects and their corresponding scores. As expected, Gabi’s grades are stellar. Her lowest grades are in history and speaking, but even those scores are an improvement from last term. Pieck’s eyes continue to wander downward until she finds an anomaly among the high scores - cooperation. The box beside it is marked with a large 0, somehow angrier and more savage-looking than the other scores despite being written with the same red pen as the other numbers. Gabi’s teamwork skills have never been that high, but a 0 is abysmal. No wonder the girl is miserable. 

“...Do you have a problem working in teams, Gabi?” Pieck asks, trying to keep her tone light as she sets the paper down. She looks at Gabi cautiously, gauging the girl’s reaction. 

“I don’t,” Gabi says. Her thick brows furrow and she sucks in her cheeks the way she does when she’s angry. “Everyone else just sucks.” 

Pieck has to stifle a laugh, coughing behind her hand to hide her smile. She really shouldn’t be encouraging this behavior, but some of the things the kids say are so ridiculous she can’t help laughing. “I’m sure they’re not that bad,” Pieck says. She hopes that her stoic face is convincing. Then again, Gabi is too busy glaring at the 0 on her evaluation form to pay any attention to Warrior’s facial expression. 

“I don’t even understand why I have to learn how to work with others,” Gabi mutters. She leans back roughly against her chair, slouching with her legs splayed out. “It’s not as if I’ll be controlling the Armored Titan with others. It’s not like the Cart Titan where you have to work with other people to be fully operational.” She glances at Pieck for a moment and, as if remembering who she was speaking to, tacking on a mumbled, “No offense.” 

Pieck shrugs off Gabi’s words, not at all bothered. It’s true that the Cart Titan is the least capable Titan for combat. Its form made it too awkward to fight in combat and it was not anywhere near as agile as the Jaw or Armored Titan. Its strength lay in its ability to transport equipment and carry military weapons, requiring soldiers to work alongside it to operate the machinery. While the other Titans didn’t need extra equipment to be useful on the battlefield, that didn’t mean that cooperation was useless for them. 

“Do you think your cousin Reiner got where he was from doing whatever he wanted and not listening to others?” Pieck says with a laugh. 

Gabi has stopped glaring now, but her lower lip is still sticking out in a pout. Still, she looks at Pieck curiously, wondering what the Warrior has to say, so Pieck proceeds. 

“The only reason why the Warriors work so well together is because we’re able to work as a team. We listen to Zeke, our commander, as well as our military superiors. If we didn’t, we’d be a mess out there on the battlefield. The enemy would massacre us and it wouldn’t matter how powerful our Titan forms are,” Pieck says. She brushes away a stray lock of hair from Gabi’s forehead. 

The young girl’s brow is still furrowed and she looks as if she wants to argue with Pieck, but there isn’t anything to argue about. It doesn’t matter what Gabi thinks. Pieck is the one with more military experience and the one with a Titan. She knows better than Gabi. After a moment, Gabi asks, “How am I supposed to work with people if they don’t like me?” 

It seems like such an ordinary question to ask - not at all about how to get better in combat or improve stamina or anything about surviving during a battle - that Pieck almost laughs, but the girl is looking at her so earnestly that Pieck swallows her smile. “You guys don’t have to like each other, at least not at first,” Pieck replies. There are still people in the military that she hates working with, but she’s not going to tell Gabi that. That’s something the girl can figure out on her own. “Just try to work well with them - listen to them, take into account their concerns, be open to suggestions - and maybe you’ll like them better.” 

“That’s impossible,” Gabi scowls, arms folded over her chest. Her mind has already been made up about her classmates. The girl is incredibly stubborn. It’ll take a while for her mind to change about her classmates. Gabi sneaks a curious glance at Pieck and then, without warning, asks, “Did you get along well with Porco when you first met him?” 

“Porco?” Pieck isn’t sure why the name startles her so much. Maybe it’s because she was expecting Gabi to ask about someone else like Zeke, who Pieck has worked with much longer than Porco. 

Gabi nods. “My instructor said you two work incredibly well on the field together. ‘Perfectly in sync,’ she said.” As she says this, the girl looks almost envious. She looks at Pieck suspiciously as if the Cart Titan has been hiding some secret from her. “What did you think of him when you first met?” 

“When we first met?” Pieck says with a laugh. “That was so long ago though…” Her voice begins to trail off as she recalls meeting Porco. 

------

Pieck had, of course, met Porco before. They had been Warrior candidates at the academy and trained side-by-side. She had even had a few conversations with him back then - ordinary conversations about the weather and musings about the lessons they would have - but nothing they discussed was memorable. Of her classmates, Porco had been one of the more memorable of her peers. He was good on the field, skilled at fighting, and had an intellectual acuity for battlefield strategies, especially in large formations. She, along with many others, had thought Porco was the logical choice for the Armored Titan, so it was a surprise when Reiner Braun was announced in his place. The surprise didn’t last, however, and Pieck had been quick to accept it, her memory of Porco and his discontent scowl fading in the back of her mind. It was only five years later that she saw him again, only this time he was no longer Porco Galliard, the candidate that had failed to become the Armored Titan, but Porco Galliard, the one chosen to inherit the Jaw Titan. 

“Meet the Jaw Titan,” Zeke says as he introduces (or, really, re-introduced) Porco to Pieck. 

“We’ve met before,” Porco says at the same time Pieck is thinking it. Still, he offers a hand for Pieck to take and she shakes it, noting how rough and weathered it is in hers. He has a strong grip though, which she takes as a good sign before she lets go. 

“We trained together,” she explains to Zeke. 

“And fought together,” he adds. There’s an awkward silence between them - from Pieck because she can’t recall seeing Porco on the field and from Porco because he doesn’t know how to proceed from there. It must be that the silence is getting to him because Porco clears his throat and clarifies, “I was a part of the infantry.” 

“Ah,” Pieck says with a nod, pretending like she remembers even though she doesn’t. There are so many people on the field every day. The only people she really knows are the ones that work alongside her, manning the artillery on the Cart Titan’s back. 

The commander claps the two on the back. “Well, you two will be fighting side-by-side more often once Porco takes hold of the Jaw Titan,” Zeke says. He looks at Porco. “The ceremony is this weekend, isn’t it?” 

“Ah, yes,” Porco says, a bit startled at the attention. He offers up a bag that he’s been holding. Inside are snacks of every kind - sweet things like muffins and cookies and savory snacks like sausages and jerky. They’re the types of things Eldians can’t afford to buy unless their families had a member that inherited a Titan. Zeke and Pieck both stare down at the snacks and Porco clears his throat. “I bought them to celebrate. Er, if you want any.” 

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Zeke asks, raising his eyebrow. He reaches in and plucks out a bag of jerky. He tears open the wrapping easily, snapping off a piece of the dried beef with his teeth. “Ah, but this is good. Thanks, Porco.” He ruffles the man’s head as if Porco were a child and not a man about to inherit one of Marley’s most powerful weapons. 

“No problem,” Porco mumbles, cheeks flushing at the simple words of thanks. He notices that Pieck still hasn’t taken anything so he offers the bag to her, holding it under her nose. “Take some.” 

Pieck looks down, observing the wide selection. There are only three of them, so there wasn’t really a need to get so much food. These are all snack foods besides, but maybe Porco enjoys snack foods or maybe he’s hoping to save some for his family later. After a moment she looks at him, frowning as she jokingly tells him, “You don’t have my favorite in here.” Behind her Zeke snorts, but Porco looks at her in alarm like he’s afraid he’s actually offended her. 

“Which one’s your favorite?” 

“Don’t tease him when he’s nervous enough as it is, Pieck,” Zeke says with a chuckle. He’s already halfway through the packet of jerky already. 

“Those little sweet crackers. The ones with the scallop edges and sprinkled with sugar. You know the ones?” she asks Porco. She feels bad immediately afterward because the man’s now frowning down at his bag of food. It almost looks like he’s trying to will one of the snacks to transform to Pieck’s favorite treat. Hastily, Pieck makes a grab for a random pack of food and pulls out a licorice wheel. It’s not ideal, but it could be worse. She makes a show of waving it in Porco’s face, a smile on her face. “Nevermind. These will do. Thanks, Porco!” 

He grunts in response but still seems troubled. Even as Zeke continues to talk to them - discussing future plans now that they’ve reacquired the Jaw Titan and the need to prevent neighboring countries from invading - he seems distracted, nibbling at a chocolate wafer nervously and nodding every once in a while. Watching him makes Pieck feel guilty and she almost wants to put down her licorice wheel and apologize, but doing that in the middle of a conversation with Zeke might make the poor man feel even more awkward so she unwinds the licorice wheel and eats it inch by bitter inch. It’s only after Pieck has eaten another licorice wheel - a raspberry-flavored one, which was more bearable than the black licorice wheel before - and Zeke has inhaled nearly all of the jerky and sausage that Porco abruptly gets up to excuse himself, mumbling something about coming back soon. 

“Do you think I made him uncomfortable?” Zeke asks before Pieck can. 

She snorts, nearly choking on her raspberry candy. “You? Why would you make him uncomfortable?” 

“Because,” Zeke says solemnly, “I am his superior, so I might intimidate him. Also, I’ve been told that I’m very handsome.” 

Pieck almost rips off a piece of licorice and pelts it at the commander. She doesn’t, of course. That would be a waste of food. She rolls her eyes instead. “I probably shouldn’t have teased him like that when I barely know him, but I didn’t think he’d be so sensitive.” Pieck takes another bite of her licorice, gagging at the strange mixture of artificial raspberry and bitter licorice taste. She probably shouldn’t have taken another licorice wheel, but she decided it would be an apt punishment. “Do you think we’ll get along well?” 

Zeke shrugs as if it doesn’t matter. He’s surprisingly unconcerned about all this. “It’ll all work out eventually,” he says before giving Pieck a wicked grin. “And if it doesn’t, we can say it’s your fault.” 

“You’re terrible,” Pieck grumbles, sitting back in her chair. 

“I’m sure you’re just overthinking it,” Zeke says reassuringly. He leans forward and looks through the bag of snacks, frowning when he doesn’t find what he’s looking for. “He’s probably just the shy, quiet type. He’ll warm up to us eventually.” 

“Or maybe,” Pieck says, pointing at Zeke, “he’s had enough of us already and ran away.” It seems to be the only logical explanation as to why the man hasn’t returned yet. 

“He probably just went to the bathroom.” 

“That’s an awfully long bathroom break.” 

“It happens,” Zeke says sagely. 

Just then the door swings open and in barges Porco, another bag in his hand. It’s not filled to the brim this time and Pieck and Zeke can only see its contents when Porco haphazardly tosses it between them, peering in curiously to find the sweet sugar crackers that Pieck had spoken about before. They look at him, eyebrows raised, but Porco simply slouches down in his chair, his head hanging so that he doesn’t have to look either of them in the eye. Pieck can’t decide if the man’s just shy or awkward. It could be a combination of both. 

Gingerly, Pieck takes a packet of crackers, holding it up and inspecting it as if seeing the treat for the first time. “Did you,” she asks slowly, “buy this just because I said it was my favorite?” 

“No, of course not,” Porco snaps a little too quickly. He must feel that his response is too harsh because he says, quieter this time, “I just started craving them because you were talking about it earlier. You can have some if you’d like.”

“Thanks,” Pieck says, trying hard not to giggle. He’s both awkward and shy then, she thinks as she rips open the plastic wrap and nibbles on the cracker. And thoughtful. That’s a good trait to have in a teammate. 

Porco grunts in response, taking a pack of crackers of his own and chewing them silently across from Pieck. Zeke, however, does not take any. The commander just frowns at the bag a little unhappily and, after a moment, says, “You didn’t buy any more sausages on your way back?” 

“I’m sorry, sir, I’ll go get some immediately!” Porco says, already getting up to run out of the room. 

Pieck grabs onto his shirt and yanks him back down before he can escape. “Relax, he’s just kidding!” She gestures to the unfinished crackers in his hand. “Eat up.” 

Confused, Porco looks from Pieck and then to Zeke who’s smiling at him rather apologetically. It’s only then that Porco truly relaxes, sitting back against the chair and eating his crackers a little less carefully now, crumbs spilling onto the front of his shirt. 

He’s most definitely awkward, Pieck thinks as she hides her smile behind another bite of cracker, but that’s nothing that she can’t work with. They’ll get along well for sure. 

----------

“When I first met him?” Pieck repeats. She looks up at the ceiling thoughtfully, staring up at the boards that she used to stare at as a child. She then turns her gaze back to Gabi, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Cute.” 

Gabi’s surprised for a moment, the answer unexpected, and then her nose crinkles in an expression that’s almost like disgust. “Cute?” 

“Yes,” Pieck says cheerfully. She wants to giggle at Gabi’s scowl. She probably should have given the girl a more serious answer, but Gabi needs to learn to lighten up a little if she wants to work with others. “Some people think he’s quite handsome, you know.” 

“I guess,” Gabi mumbles, although the frown on her face says that she hasn’t really thought about it. Or maybe she just doesn’t think Porco is handsome. Pieck will have to tell Porco about this. 

“Well, it’s fine if you don’t get along with them immediately,” Pieck tells Gabi. She reaches out to play with the loose strands of hair that are falling out of Gabi’s bun, smiling fondly as she does so. “Just pick someone that you think you can work with well. Someone you can tolerate. And then maybe you’ll learn how to be a team with them. Who knows, you might even become the best of friends.” 

Gabi sulks for a bit and side-eyes Pieck. “Do they have to be ‘handsome’?” 

The elder snorts. “No. It doesn’t matter what they look like.” 

The girl sits there thinking for a bit, mulling over the possible candidates. Her brown eyes flicker over the empty desks in the classroom as she recalls all her classmates. After a bit, she finally says, “I think I’ll work with Falco first.” 

Pieck is only a little surprised. She probably would have picked Zofia - her skillset is more evenly matched to Gabi’s than Falco’s is - but it does make sense that Gabi would choose the boy over Zofia. He isn’t as headstrong as Zofia is and is less likely to clash with the stubborn Braun girl. The two might also make a surprisingly good pair, Pieck thinks. Falco could improve Gabi’s cooperation scores and might also get her used to working with others and Gabi might be able to help the boy improve in all the subjects he’s having trouble with. Pieck definitely approves of the match. 

“I think that would be a good idea,” Pieck says with a smile. She rubs the top of Gabi’s head. “Why don’t you go find him right now? Working on the field is good, but team building is easier if you get along well in your downtime too.” 

Gabi looks a little aggravated, but she gets up anyway. “Fine,” she huffs. The girl grabs her bag and tosses it over her shoulder, her evaluation crumpled in her hand. She maneuvers around Pieck and heads toward the door. She only turns back when her hand is on the knob. Her expression isn’t exactly happy right now - the girl is probably still focused on improving her scores for next term - but she gives Pieck a quick smile and a wave. “Thanks, Miss Pieck. I’ll let you know how it goes.” 

“See you later, Gabi,” Pieck says cheerfully. 

The young Warrior cadet leaves, the door just about to swing shut before someone’s hand reaches out to stop it. Outside, Gabi speaks to someone, but her voice is too quiet for Pieck to pick up the conversation. The other voice is much lower, much more mature, and Pieck realizes just who it is although she can’t hear a word that the speaker is saying. When the speaker steps in, Pieck greets him with a wide smile. 

“Porco.” 

“Pieck,” Porco replies. He raises a hand, showing her a bag that’s less than half-filled with treats. Her friend approaches, dropping the bag onto the table. He takes a seat on the desk, ignoring the many empty chairs around them, and folds his arms across his chest. “Those little gremlins nearly ate everything. I gave Gabi a few biscuits and chips before she left. You’re lucky I still have some things leftover for you.” 

Pieck purses her lips as she takes a peek inside. There are different flavored licorice wheels - strawberry, raspberry, and the original black licorice - and a few packs of sugar crackers. The Titan Shifter takes the crackers, ripping open the wrapper and biting a cracker. It’s nice and sweet and flaky on her tongue. “How blessed I am to have you as a friend,” Pieck hums.

Her companion rolls his eyes as he takes a licorice wheel and bites into it, not bothering to unravel it and eat it in a strand like most other people would. “Blessed is a word for it,” he mumbles. 

Pieck takes another bite, savoring the taste of butter and sugar on her tongue. Truth be told, sugar crackers weren’t really her favorite snack, at least not back then. She had only said that in jest and hadn’t bothered to tell Porco afterward. He had gone through all that trouble to bring the crackers for her that night. It gave her a deeper appreciation for the snack. After she polishes off a pack, she leans forward on the desk, tipping her chin upward so that she can get a better view of Porco. “Porco, what did you think of me when we first met?” 

“What did I think?” Porco repeats. He bites off another piece of the licorice wheel, chewing thoughtfully as he remembers their first meeting. He swallows and answers, “I thought you were weird.” 

Pieck wrinkles her nose. It’s not exactly the answer she was expecting. “Why weird?” 

“You ate, like, three licorice wheels when I first met you,” Porco replies. He finishes his licorice wheel and reaches for a pack of crackers. He pulls one out first and looks at it before licking the sugar crystals on its surface. “Nobody likes licorice that much.” 

“Hmm.” She supposes she won’t tell him the real reason she was eating the licorice wheels. Or the fact that eating all that licorice at once has given her a fondness for the snack now. 

“Why?” Porco asks. “What about you? What was your first impression of me?” 

Awkward. Shy. Endearing. Pieck grins up at him. “I thought you were perfect,” she says.

It’s a comment that might have made him blush in their earlier days together, but now Porco just shoves a cracker in her mouth. “Don’t be weird,” he tells her. He hops off the desk, grabbing the bag of snacks. “Let’s go grab some food now. This stuff is good, but it’s hardly a meal.” 

“Get me my crutches? I think Udo left them leaning against the schoolhouse,” Pieck says. She pushes herself out from her seat and grabs the arm Porco offers her, letting him help her up. She smiles when he reaches over to push her chair in as well as the chair Gabi had left out when she left, and leans against his broad shoulder. 

“What do you feel like eating tonight?” Porco asks as he leads them to the door. 

“Pork?” Pieck says, tilting her head to see how Porco feels about it. 

He nods. “Jägerschnitzel?” he asks. 

Ah, pork cutlets with a crispy breadcrumb crust and chopped mushrooms, a rich gravy sauce poured all over. It’s perfect with a side of steamed beans and mashed potatoes. Pieck’s hungry just thinking about it. She really can’t think of a better meal right now. 

“Perfect,” Pieck says, squeezing Porco’s arm. She looks up at him fondly. “We make a good team.” 

“Yeah,” Porco replies. He pushes open the door for Pieck, letting her go out first before he shuts the door behind them. He collects her crutches for her, handing them to her, and waits as she adjusts herself. “I guess we do.” 

[consumeconstantly]

Small Buff Girl Sightings Ch. 2

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ao3

It’s now the end of Damian’s first week in Paris, and everything is ready for him to transfer into Francois Dupont. He really thought he had dodged the pointless education bullet by coming to France, but of course his father wouldn’t let that slip. However, if he has to continue getting an education he doesn’t need, he will at least get something productive done during the hours of his experience; he will explore the so-called akuma class that he has read up about. One Caline Bustier’s class, the same class that the Ladyblogger is in. The same class that Marinette is in.

He hopes it’s the same as it was in Gotham, or at least similar enough. He expects his reception to be a little different, since his last name has been changed to Grayson to avoid any unwanted attention. Maybe this means that his classmates won’t try to talk to him solely for the purpose of connecting to his family. That doesn’t mean that he wants to talk to any of them. Unless they’re all like Marinette; his brief interactions with her have been bearable, bordering on pleasant. He doubts her class will be similar, though, judging by the quick sweep that he does on all of the student’s social media accounts and the hours that he’s spent on the Ladyblog. From what he has gleaned, the social situation in the akuma class leaves much to be desired. Lila Rossi, who appeared on the Ladyblog multiple times two years ago in rather ridiculous interviews that have since been taken down, seems to be the crux of the class currently. The rest of the class, other than Marinette, who hasn’t appeared in most of the group pictures that her classmates take for the past two years, seem to have little common sense.

When he walks into the classroom, there is a huddle around Lila Rossi, who sits near the front of the classroom and looks astonishingly bored as her classmates talk to her. The members of the class don’t even look up at him when he comes in, instead looking at Lila with almost cult-like devotion, despite the awful shade of lipstick that did not look good on her-- seriously, who wore orange lipstick on a day to day basis? He spares them a moment of observation, decides that he’s not going to get along with his classmates at all, then takes a seat in the back. There is only one desk that has both seats empty-- or is at least currently unoccupied, judging by the lack of items on it. The desk in question is near the back of the classroom next to an exit. He prefers this to sitting in the front, at least.

Right before class starts, a girl drops into the seat next to him, the one that’s closer to the aisle instead of the exit, but the way that she pauses for a moment makes him think that she typically sits where he is, now. 

“Damian?” 

What luck. Marinette is his seat partner. One of the only people in Paris that he’s talked to that seems to be fairly tolerable. With the added bonus of her being fairly intelligent and able to hold her own. There isn’t much more that he could ask for in a seatmate. 

He is confused as to how such a girl is still in this seemingly god-awful class, but small blessings. He’s not going to complain about having Marinette by his side.

“Oh, you must be the transfer from America.” She pulls out a binder from her bag, sends a quick glance sent to Lila, then settles into her chair. Lila sends Marinette a look that Damian can’t quite decipher, but it’s not unfriendly. “If you want to get acquainted with the school, you can ask Lila or Alya. Lila’s the one with orange lipstick and green eyes. Alya’s the one in plaid with glasses. They’re the class president and deputy this year.”

Damian takes a few more moments to observe the class dynamics, particularly how Lila and Alya interact with those around them. The former holds a blonde boy that Damian is fairly sure is Adrien Agreste, and while he seems accustomed to having Lila hang off his arm, he doesn’t exactly look comfortable either. Lila’s eyes unsettle Damian. They look eerily similar to his mother’s, though there is much less ill intent held within them. Alya looks spineless and clingy, clearly uneducated about topics that she brings up one after another. He can’t hear what they are saying clearly from this distance, but he is certain that the small blonde girl was asking Lila to tell the story of how she saved Jagged’s kitten one more time, even though that story’s years old because Lila’s just so humble and modest and amazing. Surprisingly, Lila turns down the girl’s request, and continues to barely interact with her classmates while she continues to hold onto Adrien’s arm.

Jagged as in Jagged Stone, Damian assumes, and though he’s no fan himself, factoids about the rock star’s life have been shoved down his throat by Tim and Dick for the past five years, so how the hell could he not know that a) the star’s manager was deathly allergic and b) the star said that Fang was the best pet that could ever be and he could never want for anything more. 

“You can tour me around instead.” To be completely honest, he doesn’t need a tour around the school at all; Damian did do reconnaissance before starting this mission. He knows the school’s layout like the back of his hand after pouring over maps and information about Francois Dupont. However, he is particularly interested in the dynamics of the akuma class, and he might as well get insider information while he still can.

Marinette looks at Damian appraisingly. “I don’t know about that, Damian. Lila and Alya are fine at giving tours. You’d be in capable hands.”

“Hands capable of what?” Damian can’t imagine that Lila’s claws are good for anything except skewering people who tried to disprove her seemingly outlandish tales. He almost feels bad for Adrien, then thinks better of it; he doesn’t seem that uncomfortable with Lila, he just doesn’t seem to like her hand on his arm.

Marinette laughs, softly, focusing on the group. She moves her mouth so little that if anyone looks, it will appear as though he is talking to her without response. “Very funny. Seriously, if you want a tour, ask Lila or Alya. I’m really not the best person for the job.”

The teacher comes into the room, and the students slowly disperse back into their seats. 

#

When lunch comes around, Marinette packs her stuff up and gets out of the classroom so quickly, he wonders if she’s not some sort of athlete. 

“You’re Damian, the transfer from America!” Lila puts a manicured hand on his arm, and Damian almost thinks that he sees her lick his lips as his forearm flexes at the unexpected contact. He restrains himself from his initial thought to deck her, but barely.

He takes a deep breath and gets his disgust under control. He can control himself. Alfred and Dick have spent years ensuring that he knows what a normal reaction is to someone touching him. When his eyes aren’t seeing red anymore, he turns his attention back to the hand on his arm. Her nails are the same garish orange as her lips, and it’s the case of the chicken and the egg all over again. No matter which came first, though, the color looks bad on both. Jason will say that Damian can’t criticize the girl because of his own awful sense of color coordination, but there’s a reason why he doesn’t have any color in his wardrobe besides his Robin suit. 

“Come, sit with us.” Orange’s voice is nauseatingly fake.

Damian doesn’t outright refuse, but he does shake off the girl’s hand. She feels too similar to Talia up close. Her eye shape is eerily similar. She must be manipulative and cunning to have such a hold on the class. But, he might as well see exactly what the akuma class is all about.

He is escorted into the cafeteria, pushed next to Adrien, then given a lunch tray that has foods that look decidedly less than nutritious and possibly stale. At Gotham Academy, the food was always prepared by the best, so this is unusual for him.

“My name is Adrien. It’s nice to meet you.” Damian thinks the blond boy is nice enough, but he sounds tired and worn out. 

Moments later, Lila comes back from the bathroom and squeezes herself between Damian and Adrien, looping her arm through Adrien’s and then attempting to do the same with Damian. But his arms are so tightly at his side, that it’s impossible for her to wiggle her hand through. Damian is glad that he trained himself to eat with both hands, and quickly takes up a fork with his left. Her laugh is high and breathy, like she’s changed her voice to sound different.

He has to say that it feels disgusting, because it feels like she’s treating him as some sort of arm candy. For the first time in his life, he actually thinks about his gender and is very glad that he was born a boy. Had he been born a girl, there is no doubt that this kind of situation may have happened more often; Damian knows he’s attractive. His mother and father both have very good genes both look wise and talent wise.

Not even ten minutes go by, and Damian sees why Marinette high-tailed it out of the classroom so quickly. He wishes that he went with her instead, though he gets the feeling that he isn’t welcome to do so. 

The stories that Lila weaves for her life as of late are more convincing than the ones that his classmates have told him of her heroic deeds in the past. Damian can almost believe that they’re true-- helping out with food drives, volunteering with the Red Cross occasionally-- but he doubts the validity of any statement that comes from her mouth after finding the cache of interviews from three years ago. She’s focusing more on friends, she says as she tries to catch his arm again. She leans closer, and Damian can smell the floral perfume on her so strongly that it makes him nauseous. His mother never wore perfume. Nobody from the League of Assassins did. Perfume is something that’s traceable. After he was introduced to Gotham City, all of the women he came into contact with rarely wore perfume and when they did, it certainly wasn’t this floral fruity-fresh fragrance that Lila was drenched in.

She leans on him, and Damian’s pretty sure by the curve of the girl’s smirk and the glint in her eyes that he’s supposed to find the slight touch of her cleavage on his arm attractive. This paltry attempt at seduction is laughable. Even as a nine year old, his mother had him training against attacks like these. He was taught never to give into lust, and after living in a family like the Waynes, girls and boys alike threw themselves at him. If he wants a relationship, physical or otherwise, he can have one. He certainly doesn’t want a relationship with this Lila Rossi. Still, he doesn’t see why she has so much control over the classroom and certainly doesn’t see why Marinette is so excluded from their class. 

It’s the longest hour of his life, but Damian makes it through and nearly flees for the safety of the back seat in the classroom. Nearly, but not quite.

#

By the time Damian gets into the room, Marinette is already sitting at the desk again. She looks up, looks at Lila who has looped her arm with Adrien’s and is smiling at Damian like a cat who got the cream. Damian reads sadness and maybe a touch of concern when she looks at Adrien.

“Lunch was awful.”

“Was it.” It’s phrased like it should be a question, but it doesn’t sound like Marinette is curious.

“You could have told me.”

Her lips purse. She’s copying notes from the last class over again, making them neater and more organized. “That’s not my place.”

“You’re my seat partner.”

“So?”

“Somehow, you seem a lot more morally righteous when you’re out on the streets.”

“That’s different. Paris is Paris; class is class. There’s a time and place for everything.”

From the cacophony near the front rises Lila’s high pitched voice. Damian thinks that she’s modulated it in order to seem more innocent, more believable. “Oh, Adrien, I’m so happy that we’re going to have dinner together with your father tonight.” 

Marinette’s eyes raise from her paper. They search for Adrien. Adrien, whose shoulders are hunched in a way that speaks of tiredness and defeat. Adrien, who has eye bags that even concealer cannot fix. Adrien, who looks down at his hands and refuses to meet Marinette’s eyes and their soft, sad questions. 

Slowly, Marinette’s eyes lower. She blinks at her paper, then continues copying her notes. 

At the very least, Damian is glad that he’s sitting back here with the only sane person in this class. It isn’t like Damian is here to make friends anyways. It might have been helpful, but he doesn’t need other people’s help. He can manage on his own.

#

Scratch that, he could not manage. 

Damian now understands why Hawkmoth had not been captured even though it had been three years since his appearance. Magic is really annoying. 

He reports back to the Justice League that yes, the reports were true and no, he did not think it was a good idea to send anyone in yet and yes, he would continue to work on reconnaissance and figuring out who Hawkmoth was.

Despite three more akuma attacks(of increasing intensity) and hours prowling the internet, clues about Hawkmoth’s identity are few and far between. Early on in his mission brief, he was encouraged to not make contact with the Paris superheroes unless the situation got really bad and not to go patrolling the rooftops as Robin at all. They didn’t want to destress the Parisian heroes who had, at first, asked them for help, and then pleaded with them to not send anybody. All of the lack of information and lack of action gave him undue stress, more so than when he was back in Gotham. At least back there, the high stress situations he encountered would promptly be worked off by fighting a villain, sparring his brothers, or patrolling. He can’t do any of that here. 

The coffee he ordered finally arrives, and he downs it in one shot, surveying the streets in front of him. Parisians are weird. His classmates have one collective brain cell that resides with the orange monstrosity, Lila, and the people he meets on the streets are way too open and friendly for people who have been terrorized by a supervillain for three years. They should be more like the citizens of Gotham-- keeping their heads down, minding their own business. Instead, he’s been approached by countless people as he wandered around the city-- unsurprisingly, mostly from girls sent by a larger pack in attempts to get his number or ask him on a date-- and also by random people who want to cheer him up. What kind of person tries to cheer up random people on the streets? Apparently it’s something that many Parisians have taken to doing, in attempts to prevent more akumas. Damian doesn’t think it’s very successful on that part, and is more just an excuse for people who want to stick their noses where they don’t belong.

Marinette is the only Parisian who was better than decent at holding her own Damian’s seen so far; in the past week, he’s stopped three bag snatchers, two stalkers, and two random fights. It’s surprisingly lively for a city that is plagued by a villain who takes advantage of strong emotions. He asks one of the people he saves why this is so.

“Well, it’s been three years. For the first year, yes, we very much lived in fear. But Ladybug and Chat Noir always come to save the day, and they told us that holding in our emotions is even more unhealthy.” This, a man he saved from his stalker. “That talk came after they fought off a stream of very strong akumas that totalled the city, all because they had been repressing their emotions until the breaking point.”

That is useful information. It definitely explains why the city is the way it was, though with the number of tourists that Paris has, he’s surprised that this hasn’t become headlining news internationally. He finds a few threads on Twitter talking about it, but most people are convinced it’s some ongoing stunt for attention. Apparently there’s a movie out about Ladybug and Chat Noir? Damian knows that Mayor Bourgeois put an initial block on information about the akumas from getting out, but that shouldn’t have stopped the Justice League from getting their hands on information about the situation in Paris. However, the teams that have been looking into the situation since they found out have had very little luck finding anything other than conspiracy theories. If Damian hadn’t seen an akuma battle with his own eyes, he’d have thought he was sent on a wild goose chase. 

Damian feels a cross of pity for the Parisian superheroes and a brief moment of anger at Hawkmoth. From what he’s gathered, the Ladybug and Chat Noir are largely on their own. In that first year, there were a few other heroes in the mix-- a fox, a bee, a dragon, and a snake-- but their appearances became sparse and after a mass akumatization, they never appeared again. Ladybug and Chat Noir definitely stepped up their game in that second year, with Ladybug taking the lead so strongly that Damian isn’t sure that he can call them a pair of superheroes. 

Sure, the battles end more quickly with Chat Noir there, but there are plenty of occasions where he doesn’t show up at all and other fights where he stays out of the battle entirely. Oftentimes, in the second year, both heroes looked extraordinarily tired and peaky. Then, something had changed, and Ladybug no longer seemed to be bothered. That was when Chat Noir started staying out of more and more battles, and the few times that he showed up, he always ran off first. Their media appearances, which had been rather heavy in the first year, dwindled down to a few periodic and important announcements. Other than that, they never gave more interviews to smaller blogs, like the Ladyblog. He has to say that he’s not surprised; even though Alya has taken them down, Lila’s interviews were still riddled with lies and she had posted them. Ladybug must have felt that the blog's integrity decreased. 

All of this meaningless information leads him nowhere. The Ladyblog and several other news sources have contemplated Hawkmoth’s identity and purpose, but they all seem far fetched. Motivations include everything from world destruction to believing that this is all just a ploy to get Ladybug and Chat Noir media attention. There’s not even any concrete conclusion on Hawkmoth’s gender, though the majority opinion holds that he is a man.

He sees Marinette from the coffee shop windows. It’s amazing that this girl seems to be everywhere all at once. She always ends up near the akuma attacks, but he never spots her during them, which is curious. There’s only so many reliable places to hide. Today, she’s facing down some adult while holding a child behind her. The lady looks furious, red-faced and spittle flying. In contrast, Marinette looks calm and cold, and addresses the woman cordially, though not with respect.

A crowd gathers, but as in all things that might be dangerous, they form at a distance, with phone cameras at the ready. Damian joins them and watches the situation unfold.

“He’s my child. I get to decide how to discipline him.” The lady is wearing an expensive looking suit that is a little over the top. Her hair is perfectly coiffed, and her handbag costs at least two thousand dollars. 

“Even if he is your child, that doesn’t mean you can hurt him like this. Mademoiselle, I suggest that we go to the police station now.”

“I don’t have time for that. This brat already cost me an hour of my time to pick him up from school because he was misbehaving, and I have to get to the office now.” The lady hisses, draws closer, ready to push Marinette and grab her child. Marinette side steps, pulling the child behind her. 

“You’re a mother. Make time for your child. We are going to the police station, Mademoiselle, or I will call the police here.”

“I am one of the head managers of Silverstein and Company’s Paris branch. You are just a teenager. You have no place arguing with me over parenting tactics.”

“I am only a teen,” Marinette conceded, “But even a child knows when something is wrong and should be stopped. And abusing your child, Mademoiselle, is very clearly wrong.”

Marinette brings out her phone-- she must have the station on speed dial. Now, the woman approaches Marinette with a heavy hand, ready to slap her. The kid is hiding behind Marinette and quivering, very much afraid of his mother. He’s holding Marinette’s hand so tightly that Damian can see her fingertips have begun to turn blue. 

Damian figures this is as good a time as any to intervene, so he puts himself between Marinette and the lady. Marinette backs up a little more, bends down to the kid and pats his shoulder. 

“It’ll be okay,” Marinette says to the kid soothingly. She seems like the type to babysit. Good with kids, creative enough to keep them out of trouble, but with enough of a backbone to make sure they grow up right. 

The police show up in record time, and Damian wonders whether Marinette has Special Privileges that make officers show up more quickly. It would make sense, since she always seems to be getting people out of trouble. Too bad she seems too much on the side of the law to ever become a vigilante. The world could use more people like her, active in helping others.

The four of them are instructed to go the police precinct; the woman says that she’ll take her car, and looks expectantly at her child, thinking that he’ll come with her. Marinette pushes the boy even further out of the woman’s view and meets the lady with a glare. 

“Do you mind if we ride with you in the back, Officer?” 

The three of them pile into the back of the cruiser, and Damian feels like this is some sort of twisted irony. He’s sent many a villain to jail, but he himself has never been in the back of such a police car. In the back of a high security one, once, when he was on an infiltration mission, but the back of such a normal one? Never. It’s an interesting experience to say the least; there’s mesh between the officer and themselves, and no way to get out from the back themselves. It’s also decidedly hot in the back, with plastic seats and no air conditioning. 

Marinette is cooing at the child now, who is gripping her hand only slightly less tightly. “Don’t worry, Renee, we’re going to make sure that you don’t get hit like that again.”

The kid’s eyes are glassy, then he’s all tears, and he’s crying into Marinette’s shirt. She just pats him on the back, slowly, and lets him cry it out. It’s very different from the approach that Batman, the Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin take with their victims. Most times, they just let the victims be ushered wherever the police need then to be, and then, they never see them again. Damian justifies this with the fact that fundamentally vigilantes and regular people are different. It makes sense that Marinette has a more human touch to her. She’s not wearing a bodysuit. It’s all Marinette, and that makes the whole situation more powerful.

It only takes a few more moments for the boy to cry himself to sleep. 

“I want to file with Child Protection Services.” Her voice is soft, low. She speaks carefully so as not to wake the kid up. 

“Yes, we should file with CPS, but if this is just a one time thing there’s not really much that we can do about this.” The officer sounds sad, like he’s dealt with situations like this before.

“As long as we have proof that this isn’t a one time thing, we can make sure that Renee doesn’t go back with her unless he wants to?” There’s a flash of steel determination in Marinette’s eyes, and it almost makes Damian uncomfortable. It’s the look Barbara gets when one of them get really badly injured. 

“Yes, but that kind of proof is hard to get.”

“I see,” she says, like she really does see all of the situation and knows exactly what needs to happen next. She says it like she’s going to make Renee’s mother go to jail if it’s the last thing she does.

They arrive at the precinct, and Marinette carries the boy like its nothing. Damian offers to help, but he’s shaken off. Renee is already asleep in her arms, after all, and she doesn’t want to risk waking him up. She’s sure that he's tired, after all this. It’s a curious thing, how softly and lovingly she looks down at the boy, even though Damian suspects that Marinette has never met the boy in her life before this fiasco.

Their party arrives more quickly than the mother, so they take seats in a small office, Renee still on Marinette’s lap. She’s now scrolling through her phone, assessing whatever’s on her screen with a clinical eye. Damian pulls out his phone as well. To be honest, he’s not quite sure what he’s doing here. He only stepped in at the last second, though he doesn’t have any real complaints about being here. His father would say it’s an experience, and his siblings would joke that he finally ended up in the hands of the police.

When the lady arrives, she looks nothing like that woman he saw on the streets earlier. She looks every inch a professional. Her makeup has been touched up, and there is a smile plastered on her face that screams dealing with an unpleasant situation. 

“I’m so sorry about that,” she says to Marinette like she’s an old friend. “You know how it is-- sometimes it’s really hard to keep a level head with all that goes on in the city. I was so scared for my little boy-- I heard there was an akuma attack near his school, and rushed out to get him, but he wanted to stay with his friends.”

Marinette has a polite smile fixed on her face as well. Her face doesn’t show the slightest bit of reaction to the lady.

“Kids, am I right?” The lady tries for a joke, tries to sway Marinette and the officer and Damian to her side. “So just let me pick up Renee here, and I’ll bring him back home.”

The lady reaches for Renee, and Damian stops her because Marinette has both her hands full with Renee, who has woken up with shuddering sobs. 

“Officer, is it possible if Renee can wait outside of the room while we talk? Surely there’s somebody who can watch him out there.” Her voice is still kept soft and soothing. She looks at Renee and smiles, doesn’t bother looking at the rest of her surroundings. “Is that okay, Renee? Do you mind waiting outside for a little?”

The little boy nods, and he is swept up by some other person who works at the precinct, and then it is only the four of them in the room.

The lady looks frustrated, but she keeps her mouth shut as the officer goes through the proper procedures that they must follow, and that CPS is getting involved. 

“But officer, there’s no need to get CPS involved. I take very good care of my darling Renee. He gets to go to all the classes he could ever want to and I love him very much. I’m so sorry that he got bruised. I’ll make sure that it never happens again.”

Marinette’s hands are carefully laid on her pants. Her fingers are splayed open and the entirety of each palm rests on her thighs. A gesture that makes her look relaxed, were it not for the slight tremble that Damian detects. She is holding her hands in that position so tightly that Damian has good reason to believe that she is withholding herself from hitting the woman. 

“Madame DeVries.” Marinette’s voice is clipped. “CPS must be involved. I insist. It’s very clear to me that this is not the first time that you have hurt Renee, nor will it be the last.”

“How can you say that?” The lady wails. She is an okay actress, but not able to fool any of those present in the room. “I love my darling boy. I would never hit him. Never!”

“Regardless of whether this is the first time you hit him, there are more ways to hurt a person than just physical abuse. Renee’s fear of you makes it clear that you have induced some sort of psychological trauma on him.”

The lady’s face contorts into a sneer when she realizes that nobody in the room is on her side. “You have no evidence. You can’t accuse me like that. I’ll call a lawyer.”

“Go ahead and call a lawyer, Madame. I think that would be for the best. Don’t worry about the evidence. There’s plenty.” She turns to the officer. “Please call someone from CPS here. I don’t want Renee going home with her until the trial is over.”

“You can’t do that to me.” The lady is standing now, towering over Marinette and trying to intimidate her. “I have a reputation to uphold. You will not sue me for child abuse. You cannot.”

“Any parent who truly cares for their child would care more for their child’s well being rather than their own reputation. I wonder what that says about you, Madame. There is no reason why I can’t sue you and too many reasons that I should.”

She lowers herself to Marinette's ear, whispers in soft tones that she’s certain will not be caught by any recording devices. “You will not take me to court, or I’ll make sure that you are blacklisted wherever you want to work. You underestimate how much power I have.”

“Madame, please move away from me. I was only going to attempt to remove Renee from your custody, but please be assured that I will now pursue you for threatening a minor, abusing a child, and whatever other charges that I can come up with. I will refuse to settle. The trial will go public, and the reputation that you care so much about will be ruined, even if you win.”

Celia Devries’ face shifts to an almost cattish grin. It looks like she’s won. “Please, I understand that you’re distressed, but I haven’t threatened you at all.”

Marinette simply pulls her phone out again and plays back a recording of the exact threat that Celia just made to her. 

She splutters. “I never agreed to be recorded! It’s illegal under French code.”

“Madame DeVries, when you come into the precinct, you agree to being recorded. This recording might be from my personal phone, but it is still within legal jurisdiction. In addition, the code is different for gathering evidence against a crime. Everything that is said and done in this office can be disclosed during trial, and there are cameras and voice recorders in here. Please, return to whatever you had to do, and you will be served your court orders soon enough.” Damian is impressed. Has Marinette done this before? She’s too prepared to know this just by spending a few minutes on her phone.

Celia pales, then storms out of the room, frightened that she’ll say something else that will incriminate herself. 

“At least Hawkmoth has already filled his daily quota,” the officer jokes. 

“There’s that much, at least,” Marinette smiles, but there’s something frigid behind it. 

“You’re always getting caught up in something,” Damian says.

“I really am. Some day I’ll become a recluse.”

“And let the world’s horrors move without you?”

Marinette shrugs and all of the tension that was holding in her hands and shoulders dissipates. 

“Since this is a child custody case, it will be the government against Mademoiselle DeVries. The two of you can come to testify, and if there’s any evidence that you have, you can go ahead and give it to me now. If you want to sue her for threatening a minor, you can do that as well; I’ll get you in contact with a lawyer.”

“I don’t have any evidence.” Right now, at least. When Damian goes home, he’ll do a little digging about the woman, see what he can find. 

“I do. I was recording the whole encounter on the street, and I also have several eyewitnesses who have recorded as well. Let me send them to you.” Marinette fiddles with her phone. “And if it’s possible, I think it would be a good thing for Renee to talk to a psychiatrist. In the interim before he goes home, who will he be staying with?”

“He can choose to stay with his next of kin, or can stay in a  temporary foster home.”

“Please email me the date that I should come in to testify, and give me the lawyer’s contact information as well. I’ll email him any additional evidence that I can get.”

“I’d like the email address of the lawyer as well.” Damian might only have a moral conscience because his family beat it into him, but Renee seems like a sweet kid. He’s willing to help.

They’re out of the precinct in another half hour, after Marinette pulls the person from CPS in so they can talk to Renee about what’s going to happen next. The kid takes it surprisingly well, saying that he doesn’t want his mom to get hurt, but that he’s excited to see his Nonna and Nonno again. Marinette tells him that he can contact her any time he wants to talk at her cell phone number, and if he ever wants him to visit, just call.

#

All the buzz of the world seems to die down when they get out of the precinct, and Damian asks whether she’s done this before. 

“I haven’t done anything like this before, but I’ve certainly dreamed of it.” Her eyes look off to a distance. “Abusive parents are the worst.”

“Yours?” Damian can’t imagine this girl’s parents as being abusive, but he should have known better to believe that. Just because someone is stable and competent doesn’t mean that they have a good family-- just look at him and his brothers. They’re competent and stable on good days.

She gasps and looks shocked, verging on offended and embarrassed. “Of course not! My parents are both very sweet people. I love them so much-- I can’t believe I gave you that idea! No, I was talking about a friend’s parent. Anyways, thank you for stepping between me and that woman. You always seem to help me right when I need it.”

Damian doesn’t really think that Marinette needed his help much in any of the situations that he’s seen her. He doesn’t mind the false gratitudes, though it does irk him that he’s never actually helped her. Odd, considering that what little morality he had mostly pertained to life threatening situations, and Marinette’s issues were more in line with everyday annoyances. “And yet you refuse to help me out with Lila.”

Her face immediately sours. “Like I said; class is class. It’s different at Francois Dupont.”

“And why is that?” 

“If you want help catching up or something, I don’t mind helping you outside of class, but you can’t tell anyone. It’s better for you if you’re not seen with me.” Her hand is tight on her purse.

At the risk of feeling like a whiny child, Damian asks again. “But why shouldn’t I be seen with you?”

Marinette sighs, heavily, then looks around at the people on the streets, almost like she’s looking for somebody. “Let’s just say that Lila and I have come to an agreement. The rest of the class isn’t the fondest of me, and if you’re seen talking with me, that will be bad for both of us. I don’t want any problems.”

“Tt. I see.” It seems as though he will also spend some time tonight looking into the history of his class. 

[yeah-klave]

Strong hands, warm heart

Summary: Dave notices Klaus looks tired and achy and decides to give him a massage.

Genre: Smut, with a side of fluff and humour

A/N: Mostly canon compliant, but Dave didn’t die and he and Klaus made it back to 2019 (somehow) where they’re now living happily ever after. (Also, The Umbrella Academy are now a functioning crime fighting team.)

Word length: 4k

Warning: Adult content (18+ only please), hand jobs, indirect prostate massage, massage with a happy ending, mention of ghosts who’ve committed suicide, mention of missions involving narrowly avoided train crashes and terrorists.

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of The Umbrella Academy characters or settings.

*****************************************************

For the third time tonight, Dave saw Klaus furrow his brows and roll his shoulders.

Dave frowned, looking over the top of his book and focused his gaze on his boyfriend.

They were sitting in their living room. While Dave quietly read a novel, Klaus had flopped onto the sofa next to him to watch TV. His long limbs were sprawled dramatically, one foot resting absently in Dave’s lap.  

Unaware of Dave’s eyes on him, Klaus blinked blearily in the direction of the TV, before bringing a hand up to scrub across his face and pinch the bridge of his nose. Dave watched as he rolled his shoulder again and let out a breath in a small, almost inaudible sigh.

“You okay?” asked Dave.

“Hmmm?” Klaus hummed, flicking his eyes away from the screen to rest on the soft expression on his boyfriend’s handsome, chiseled face.

“Bad day?” Dave asked gently, resting one of his large, warm hands on Klaus’ bare foot and rubbing the delicate skin of the arch slowly with his thumb.

“Hmmm,” Klaus hummed again, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. “Oh, you know, long day saving the world and all that fun stuff…” He wiggled his toes slightly.

“How bad was it?” Dave asked. “The disaster you averted today, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Well…” Klaus considered. “If one was tripping up and stubbing your toe, and ten was the end of all life on earth… I suppose it would have been a seven. But, like a strong seven. Nearly an eight. Probably like a seven point eight five…”

“Of course you answered to two decimal places,” Dave said fondly. “That’s just so… what it is you guys say now… extra?”

Klaus barked a laugh, then winced and rolled his shoulder again.

“What’s wrong with your shoulder?” asked Dave, concerned.

Klaus frowned vaguely. “Oh, just a bit stiff, I guess. I think I pulled it when I was trying to carry Luther.” He frowned back in the direction of the screen.

Dave shook his head slightly in bewilderment and concern, “Why were you trying to carry Luther?! Have you seen the size of that guy? And you’re only little! You’re not the one with super strength baby.”

“Yeah,” Klaus agreed, “but he was unconscious and a train was about to hit him. It’s okay though, in the end I got a couple of nice jumpers to help me get him out of the way.”

“Jumpers?” Dave asked.

“Yeah,” Klaus yawned, “railway lines are full of them. These two were pretty nice actually.”

Dave sighed. “Seems like all the work you’ve been putting in to better control your powers is paying off.”

“Yeah…” Klaus yawned again, “I suppose. But, I mean, we did have a bit of a fight afterwards, while Five and Allison were sorting everything out… They said Gene Pitney had no place in the musical canon!” He caught Dave’s eye and they shared a smile and Klaus rolled his shoulder again.

Dave carefully marked his place, put his book down and leaned to switch off the TV. He gently lowered Klaus’ foot to the floor, got to his feet and held his hand out to Klaus. “Come on,” he said simply.

“Where are we going?” Klaus asked, looking up at him.

“I’m going to take care of you,” Dave said softly. “Now come on. Up.”

Klaus took Dave’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled up. Dave led him down the hall and towards their bedroom, pausing to grab a couple of towels from the cupboard on the way.

“Mmmm,” Klaus said waggling his eyebrows and squeezing Dave’s fingers, “taking care of me in the messy kind of way then?”

Dave looked back at him. Despite his words, Dave could see the fatigue around Klaus’ eyes and the lethargy in his limbs.

Dave squeezed back and quirked the corner of his mouth up in a smile. “Probably not in the way you’re thinking.”

Klaus’ brows furrowed as Dave led him into their bedroom. He left the overhead light off and instead flicked on a lamp and the room filled with a soft warm glow. Dave leaned over and pulled the duvet down and off, letting in fall in a heap at the foot of the bed.

“Dave?” Klaus said.

“Sshh,” Dave soothed, turning to Klaus and running a hand tenderly down Klaus’ cheek. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m going to take care of you.”

Dave unfurled a large towel and laid it flat in the middle of the bed, smoothing out the wrinkles.

He then turned to Klaus, eyes soft and head tilted slightly to the side. “Let’s get those clothes off you,” he said. “I’m going to rub your back and sort out that muscle tension.”

Klaus closed his eyes briefly and exhaled. “That,” he said slowly, “actually sounds amazing.”

Dave grinned and helped Klaus pull he tee over his head. Klaus unbuttoned his pants and shimmied them down his hips, then sat on the edge of the bed and let Dave peel them the rest of the way down his legs and off.

“I don’t know how you can stand these,” Dave said looking down at the skinny leather pants, a smile crinkling his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, you know what it does to me seeing you in these. But still, I don’t know how you do it...”

“It’s all worth it for the look on your face, Davey,” Klaus cooed, looking up through his lashes and his Hello hand going to the waistband of his boxers.

But Dave caught his wrist. “This is about helping you relax and unwind. Just leave them on and come here” he said patting the bed.

Klaus raised an eyebrow but nodded once and crawled onto the bed.

“Here, rest your pelvis on this,” Dave said, taking a smaller towel, rolling it into a thin tube shape and placing it on the bed. “It’ll help with the alignment of your spine.”

Klaus arranged himself on the bed, arms up, head resting on his folded forearms and his pelvis, slightly raised, positioned on the towel roll. He breathed out a deep sigh.

“Just this feels so good already,” he smiled, arching his back and curling his toes luxuriously.

 “Good,” Dave smiled down at him, his hand coming out to stroke the back of Klaus’ head soothingly, running his fingers through his glorious curls. “Don’t fight it if you want to fall asleep, okay?”

“Mmm,” Klaus hummed.

Dave opened the bedside drawer on his side and rummaged around inside before finally pulling out a small bottle.

Dave moved back down to the bottom of the bed and perched on the corner. He popped the cap of the bottle and poured some oil onto his hands. He placed the bottle within reach and then rubbed his hands together, warming the oil. He gently picked up Klaus’ left foot and with broad strokes, spread the oil over the skin of his foot. Then balancing Klaus’ foot on his fingers, Dave used his thumbs to press into the underside of Klaus’ foot, kneading the soft arch with a rhythmic press and slide, alternating between the thumbs of each hand.

Klaus sighed. “As good as that feels Davey, you do know that’s not my shoulder, right? I mean, I don’t know how good you were at Biology class in school, but I thought that after all the self-studying we’ve done together over the years you might have picked up a thing or two along the way.”

“Are you actually sassing me right now?” Dave quirked a smile.

“Umm hmm,” Klaus hummed.

“Klaus,” Dave said soothingly. “I’m going to help you relax. I am in control. You literally only have one job right now: just lie there and take it.”

Klaus groaned and Dave grinned.

Dave continued to work Klaus’ foot, pressing into the arch and smoothing over the heal and ball. He then used his thumb and the side of his index finger to pinch all the way around the edge of the foot. Dave heard Klaus sigh. He then moved onto Klaus’ toes, rolling the pad of each in turn, then curling his fingers around the big toe, squeezing and pulling back slowly, twisting his wrist as he went. Klaus groaned again. Dave repeated the action, then moved on and did the same to the other toes in turn.

By the time Dave was replenishing the oil and moving onto the other foot to give it the same treatment, Klaus already felt as though he was melting into the bed. With every press of Dave’s thumb and twist of his fingers, Klaus felt himself sink deeper and deeper. He sighed in pleasure.

After gently laying his feet back on the bed and re-oiling his hands, Dave twisted his body to face Klaus and slowly worked his way up the back of one of Klaus’ legs, pressing deeply into the muscle of the calf and the back of the thigh. By the time he reached the hem of Klaus’ boxers, Dave felt Klaus shift his hips, opening his legs wider. Dave smiled to himself, then turned his attention to the bottom of the other leg, working his way up slowly with firm, broad strokes. Klaus breathed out a deep sigh, submitting himself to the steady press and slide of Dave’s strong hands.

Finally, Dave rose and moved onto the bed to straddle Klaus, one knee on either side of Klaus’ thin hips. He picked up the bottle and gently poured a few drops over Klaus’ shoulders and down his back. The oil glistened on Klaus’ skin, slowly running down the slope of his shoulders and pooling a little in the hollow at the base of his spine. Dave then leaned forwards, took hold of one of Klaus’ tender shoulders and squeezed gently.

Klaus let out a long, drawn out groan. The corner of Dave’s mouth twitched in a smile. He smoothed his hands over the area, spreading the oil, then began working the stiff muscles of Klaus’ shoulders gently.

“Oh, Dave,” Klaus sighed.

Dave looked down at him fondly, keeping up the movement of his fingers and watching the flutter of Klaus’ dark eyelashes against his cheeks, the slackness of his jaw, the way his mouth parted slightly to release a long, slow sigh.

“Is this pressure okay, baby?” Dave asked quietly. “Or do you want it harder?”

“Oh, that feels so good,” Klaus breathed out. “But, yeah, maybe a little harder, please.”

Dave increased the pressure of his fingers a fraction and Klaus groaned.

“Yes, that!” He grunted, “just like that!”

Dave continued to study Klaus; eyes closed and face smooth with contentment, half pressed into the mattress. He kept up the pressure of his thumbs, watching the flickers of pleasure flash over Klaus’ features. When Dave started to feel the solid muscles of Klaus’ shoulder begin to soften, he began to work his way up the column of Klaus’ neck and rub small circles into the delicate place at the base of his skull. Dave then encouraged Klaus to roll his head and face the other direction, giving Dave access to the other side. Finally, he worked his way back down and began his ministrations on the other shoulder. Dave felt Klaus shift his hips again.

Dave worked on the muscles of the shoulder until Klaus was letting out low, happy hums on every exhale. Only then did Dave move his hands down in broad strokes over Klaus’ shoulder blades and down his back, spreading the oil and following the gentle curve of his spine down to his narrow waist. He then went back to knead the delicate area between Klaus’ shoulder blade and spine.

“Ooh,” Klaus jerked suddenly.

Dave looked at him quickly, “Not good?”

“You just hit a really sensitive bit there,” Klaus said.

“Sorry,” Dave said, bending over briefly to press a kiss to the area. He then brought his hands back to the sport and worked the area much more gently.

“Ooooh,” Klaus breathed out, melting again. “Yeeaah, that’s actually really good. More there please.”

Dave smiled, and carried on the gentle press and slide of his slippery thumbs over Klaus’ sensitive muscles. Dave mirrored his actions on the other side of Klaus’ spine, making sure his attentions were balanced and even.

“Yes,” Klaus sighed dreamily, completely lost in the push of strong hands, the soft weight of Dave resting lightly on his backside and the slow clench and release as his muscles unknotted. He was almost overwhelmed by the moment. He felt so relaxed and heavy he could barely lift his head. But at the same time, he was light and free and untethered, and felt like he might float away, moored only by the firm press of Dave’s hands on his body. He was distantly aware of a low pressure building in his stomach, a surge and swell that had him twitching his hips again. Unaware, Dave continued to work down Klaus’ back, pressing and kneading Klaus into a state of fuzzy bliss.

“Do you want to roll over so I can do your front?” Dave asked softly.

Klaus gave a muffled hum into the mattress.

Dave lifted onto his knees and shuffled back slightly. He grabbed the towel roll and gently pulled it out from under him as Klaus languidly twisted his body around between Dave’s legs and rolled flat on his back. As he settled, the prominent tent in Klaus’ boxers suddenly became very evident between them.

Dave grinned and caught Klaus’ eye, raising an eyebrow. Klaus smiled and gave Dave a wink.

Still grinning, Dave gently poured more oil over Klaus’ chest and down his arms.

He ignored Klaus’ erection, instead working his way slowly down his arm, paying particular attention to his hand, kneading into the palm and repeating the pull and twist action on each finger and thumb.

Klaus sighed heavily, his chest rising and falling in short pants. He shifted his hips again, a steady thrum now pulsing between his legs.

“Dave,” he breathed, his voice low and needy.

Dave smiled again and continued to work on Klaus’ hand. He then started down his other arm, his hands firm and sure. Klaus groaned and squirmed.

Eventually, Dave returned to Klaus’ chest, spreading the oil by running flat hands over his pecs and abs. He relished the feeling of the flat planes of Klaus’ chest and his eyes grew dark seeing the way the oil accentuated the shallow swells and grooves of his toned muscles. When Dave’s hand ran over the sensitive skin of the V above his groin, Klaus gasped and bucked his hips, chasing the direct touch and pressure he craved.

“Dave,” Klaus whined shamelessly.

“Huh?” Dave said, feigning ignorance, his hands still sliding over the smooth taut skin of Klaus’ stomach.

Klaus’ breath quickened and he released another groan as Dave’s fingers ran over the hardened nubs of his nipples. The weightless relief Klaus had felt as his muscles relaxed was now replaced by a new kind of tension. There was a hot coil in his stomach, and he felt a sharp, hot twist when Dave’s fingertips ran over his nipples again and then dipped down to brush against the very top of the crease of his groin. He could hear his pulse in his ears and feel a thrumming ache building inside him. He bucked his hips again, eager and desperate and leaking.

“Dave, please,” he begged.

Bringing his hands up to Klaus’ face, Dave cupped his cheeks and brought their mouths together in a slow kiss. Klaus opened his mouth for Dave, yearning for the push and slide of Dave’s lips and tongue. Dave broke away and Klaus whined, but Dave brought his lips low to Klaus’ ear.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he whispered soothingly, his warm breath fanning over Klaus’ over sensitive skin. “I told you I was going to take care of you.”

Klaus shivered and huffed out a breath, eyes closed, as Dave sat back up and lifted off Klaus, shuffling until he was kneeling at his side. He carefully lifted the waistband of Klaus’ boxers, encouraging Klaus to lift his hips, and pulled them down and off. Klaus’ length sprang free. Dave took a moment to stare down at Klaus, thick and hard and heavy, straining and twitching from lack of stimulation. For a second, Dave’s heart clenched and a wave of something warm and softly golden filled his chest. Him, though Dave. Always, him.

He picked up the bottle of oil and poured some over Klaus’ groin and generously coated his own hands. He reached down and, finally, gave one firm pull on Klaus’ length. Klaus let out a desperate groan and twitched, bucking his hips eagerly to chase the delicious pressure.

However, Dave let go and instead made a claw shape with his thumb and fingers. He positioned his hand over the tip, the pads of his fingers and thumb resting tantalizingly just below the head. He then began twisting his wrist, his fingers moving over Klaus’ silky soft skin.

Klaus gasped, his head coming up and eyes shooting open. He stared blearily at Dave.

“Dave… what?” He panted “What’re you…?”

“Sshh,” Dave soothed. Then, smiling, he added, “also, people who are ‘taking it’ shouldn’t be asking questions.” Klaus stared up at him, his throat bobbing as he swallowed thickly. Dave winked at him. Klaus closed his eyes and let his head fall back. His hands fisted the sheet and his chest rose and fell heavily as he submitted to the delicious, barely-there caress of Dave’s fingers on his aching hardness.

Dave then changed the rhythm of his fingers. One hand teasing through the scattering of coarse dark hairs, Dave held the base of Klaus’ shaft steady and firm. With the fingers of the other hand still resting just under the head, Dave pinched his fingers together and slowly raked them up over the tip, bringing them together right at the point where a creamy glistening bead was leaking from the slit. Klaus groaned again, fighting the urge to thrust up. Dave repeated the action until Klaus was groaning and panting beneath him, the unfamiliar teasing sensation tortuously delicious, but nowhere near enough.

Letting go briefly, Dave reapplied oil to his hands and rubbed them together, then, palms flat, he brought his hands to either side of Klaus’ shaft and pushed one hand forwards, while dragging the other back, then switched the direction and repeated. Klaus whined. Dave set a slow rhythm as his hands slid over Klaus, the alternating push and pull increasing Klaus’ desire and the throbbing want between his legs.

He then brought his left hand to Klaus’ balls and rolled them. Then, ever so gently, he squeezed, pulling them away from Klaus’ body. His right hand moved back to the head which he covered firmly with his palm and pulled up, slowly twisting his wrist. The gentle pull in opposite directions cause the delicate skin of Klaus’ sac to stretch and sparks of pleasure to shoot through Klaus’ veins. Dave repeated the action, setting a steady rhythm. Klaus’ breath caught and he gripped the sheets tighter, a surge of sweet pleasure radiating from the firm pull of Dave’s hands.

The palm of his right hand still circling the head, Dave let his left hand move under Klaus’ balls and with firm, oil-slick fingers he gently massaged the delicate flesh of Klaus’ perineum.

Klaus grunted; the low push of Dave’s fingers somehow stimulating from the outside that hidden pleasure spot deep within him.

Panting and unable to remain still, Klaus alternated between little abortive thrusts up into Dave’s palm, and grinding down desperately onto the push of his fingers.

“Dave,” he panted. “Dave.”

Dave stared down at him, eyes wide and heart full. He could feel himself growing heavy between his own legs, but he ignored it, focusing instead on wringing every last drop of pleasure from the man before him.

Finally, when Klaus looked like he couldn’t take a second more, Dave took hold of him in his large hand and fisted Klaus’ hardness, pumping up and down with satisfyingly strong, fast pulls. His left hand kept up the firm massage of Klaus’ perineum, indirectly stimulating his sensitive prostate gland.

Klaus keened. After such a slow build, and then the maddeningly teasing touches, just the feeling of Dave’s hand on him there had Klaus moaning loudly. As the pressure and the throbbing tension increased, so did the volume of Klaus’ cries. He gripped the sheets, thrust his hips, screwed up his face and chanted Dave’s name between an inarticulate string of grunts and cries. He was so hard, so desperately, urgently hard. His world narrowed to delicious friction, the slap of skin-on-skin, and Dave… Dave… Dave… He was close, so wonderfully, painfully close. He felt himself rising, drawing closer, teetering on the edge, the firm, rhythmic pull of Dave’s hand urging him on. He caught his breath, his muscles contracted, his balls tightened, and then he was there, and he was cumming, and cumming, and cumming. Gasping and shaking, thick, hot spurts of cum releasing in wave after pulsing wave. Klaus’ mind blanked and everything was throbbing sensation, warm relief and the dull ache of release.

And then he was sinking back down, his body flooded with sweet relief and his mind foggy with bliss. He was vaguely aware of Dave shuffling near him, and then a warm cloth gently wiping over his stomach and his softening length. Then there was Dave’s hand on his face, stroking his thumb over his eyebrow and down his cheek. Klaus cracked his eyes open slightly.

“Davey,” he mumbled thickly, staring up groggily, “How do you want me?”

Dave’s cool lips pressed against his forehead.

“Just like this,” he whispered, pulling the duvet over him. “Tonight is just about you. Just close your eyes and sleep.”

And – limbs heavy and head fuzzy with the afterglow – Klaus did.

******************************************************* 

“So,” Klaus said, looking at Dave over the top of his coffee. “Last night. What was with that technique at the end?”

Dave grinned.

They were sitting at their small kitchen table, soft and sleep rumpled. Klaus’ foot rested lightly against Dave’s ankle.

“It’s a full body massage technique I learned,” he yawned, bringing his hand up to ruffle through his adorable bedhead.

Klaus raised his eyebrow and gave him a questioning look. “From where?”

“A video,” Dave said simply.

“Oh right, a video.” Klaus replied smiling. “The how-to-massage-your-boyfriend-off video. I think I saw that on my Facebook feed recently.” Dave snorted. “Davey,” Klaus carried on. “Have you been watching porn without me?” He shot Dave a mock offended look and clasped a hand dramatically to his heart.

“Oh that,” Dave blew out, waving a dismissive hand. “It was nothing, just a bit research, nothing more.” Klaus carried on looking at him, waiting for what he knew was coming. “But…” Dave winked coyly, “I did get myself off after.” Klaus laughed.

“To be fair” Dave added, “it was that evening you all were battling those terrorists in the mineshaft. And I missed you, and wanted to think of something fun we could do when you got home. But then you were tired, so we just made pasta and cuddled on the sofa instead. Came in handy eventually though.”

Klaus smiled over at him, eyes filled with warmth and affection, his body loose and weightless and still humming with the memory of last night. “You know?” he said slowly. “Just when I think there’s no way I could feel any more for you than I already do, I realise I’m wrong, and I can.”

Dave simply stared back into Klaus’ eyes, no answer required. The look they shared was one of pride and respect and deep contentment. It spoke of devotion and aching tenderness and overwhelming joy. They didn’t need any more words. They both just knew.

[drops-of-moonlights]

Retouching the main supporting magic girls! More info on all of them below:

Mirta Owain: Witch of Illusions, friend of Flora and Bloom, went through the bad experience of being turned into a pumpkin. She first met Flora during the First Dance, and hit it off quite fast as friends. Lucy was her best friend during her entire life, but they’ve grown apart recently and Flora helped her start sorting her thoughts on this. She’s quite shy and withdrawn, but observant, and get her riled up and she will destroy you with words alone. Her Source is Light, mixed with some Darkness and Water to form illusions, mirages and optical effects via manipulating the light, shadows and mist around her. Unlike in canon, she remains a witch after being returned to her full form, and regularly interacts with the Winx on outings and school events. She obtains Glamourix at some point between S2 and S3, via finally confronting what her actual feelings about Mirta are, and Onyrix between S3 and S6, after a particularly harsh nightmare.

Selina Harlock: Witch of Fungi, Selina is one of Bloom’s childhood friends alongside Mitzi, having gone to the same schools their entire lives. She’s as obsessed with magic as Bloom is (though her focus is witches and European folklore contrasting Bloom’s focus on fae and Grecorroman mythos), and so when they were kids most of their hangouts consisted on VICIOUS RESEARCH. She was shocked and angry when Bloom suddenly left for Alfea, and when her visits home became more and more sporadic she didn’t fully understood why she couldn’t come more often. They still talked over the phone and whenever their internets matched, and she has met at least Stella and Musa, but she felt a gap between them forming and she didn’t fully handle it well. Her Source is Poison, mixed with Plant and a bit of Earth to make mushrooms and the like. She gets her Glamourix by confronting Bloom during the White Circle’s attack in S4, of how she felt when Bloom “ditched” them for Alfea, her secrecy, and how that harmed their friendship, while also admiting it was selfish of her to want Bloom to always come to her. She gets her Enchantix at some point later on in the story.

Galatea Wen: Fairy of Vibrations, friend of Musa and Tecna. She is the princess of Melodeus. She’s a very chirpy girl, happy to meet other people and experiences after a lifetime of being inside the palace walls with only her siblings and helpers to talk to. Her Source is Sound, but has dabbled a bit in Metal magic and has managed to make a small flute, which she can mold into different wind instruments whenever she wants. She’s really interested in Musa’s style of music, as she was only allowed to listen to traditional songs for her entire life and strikes a fast friendship with her, as well as with Tecna as her gadgets seem almost unreal to her. She obtains her Glamourix during S5 after a chat with Musa, and obtains Glissandix at a later point in the story.

Krystal Rosales: Fairy of Aromatherapy, childhood friend of Helia and Flora. Flora and Helia knew her as “Rosa”, a fake name she used when she was young whenever she left the castle to interact with her citizens, and struck a fast and nice friendship with the two of them. She’s a very happy and exuberant girl, but she’s rather clumsy and has tripped on air more times that she can count. Her Source is Healing, but she mixes it with some plant magic to heal people via scents, flowers and sap mixtures, being a novice potionologist. She’s had a crush on both Flora and Helia for a long time, but she noticed their feelings for each other way before they did, and tried to nudge them in the right direction any chance she got. She later ends up dating Nex for the remainder of the story. She gets her Glamourix at some point off-screen between S5 and S6, and obtains Arborix at a later point in the story.

Lucy Wisteria: Witch of Insects, Mirta’s best friend and unlikely friend of Stella and Musa. Lucy’s a quiet yet sarcastic girl, and is distrustful of most people aside from Mirta and those Mirta trusts. She was bullied a lot for her appearance (she’s the daughter of a mermaid and a Surar drakian, which made the scale gene go crazy and she ended up almost completely covered in dark scales), and while she got over their issues and likes her appearance very much now, she’s still jaded from the experience and can come off as quite snobby. She’s found out she has a crush on her best friend, and distanced herself a bit to gather her emotions in peace. Her Source is that of animals, focusing on bugs specifically. She obtains her Glamourix at some point between S2 and S3.

Carmilla “Chimera” Mirthos: Fairy of the Lunar Winds, she’s a few years younger than Stella, and she’s a very selfish girl. While Alessandro never spoiled her more than necessary, she always wants to be at the top, and wants to win no matter what - she’s competitive to a toxic degree. She’s usually loyal to her friends, however, and will treat them as hers to protect. She’s in her first year in the Beta Academy for Fairies and Witches. She’s one of the few people to dare to wear dark colors in Solaria all year long, and is somewhat fearfully respected as a result. She and Stella don’t get along and somewhat dislike each other, but they prefer to avoid themselves and if forced to interact, they will be as civil as possible. Her Source is that of Wind mixed with Light and Ice. She obtains her Glamourix in S5 after a talk with Stella.

Miele Robledos: Witch of Soil, she’s 4 years younger than Flora, her Source being earth and ground. She’s a very adventurous yet reckless girl, and while she does have the same formal self-defense training that Flora had, as well as always travelling with Amarok, Flora and her parents still worry a lot over her, Flora specially after almost severely injuring her as kids. She gets Glamourix during the attack on Lynphea College in S6, mostly by dealing with some unresolved feelings about how she’s still treated as frail and weak by Flora despite everything she’s been able to do so far.

[dragynkeep]

do you have a backstory for the ace ops, since canon legitimately gave us nothing? and will they be in azre? i’m gonna reread it today since it makes me 🥺🥰

I actually do have backstories for the Ace Ops, and yes they do appear in AZRE! I did the backstories for Clover and Harriet, and my friends in my discord server did backstories for Elm, Marrow and Vine!

Clover

Since Clover is obnoxiously Irish coded in AZRE, I took a lot of inspiration from my older relatives’ childhoods for him. 

He was born in Mantle to a family along with a younger sister, Ciara, his mother Fionnuala, his father Patrick and his grandfather Niall. Before Clover, his family were all miners, and are very proud of it. In his youth, Clover was far more of a troublemaker and a delinquent, especially with his troubled relationship with his father when Clover decided not to go into the mines and instead wanted to be a Huntsman. 

Before Clover entered Atlas Academy, Patrick passed away from Dust Lung; a dangerous respiratory disease caused by inhaling Dust and is inspired by the real life disease that affected miners, Tuberculosis or “Black Lung”. Clover took the loss hard and his place in Atlas was threatened due to his behaviour, but he was brought back from the brink by Ironwood, who was the new general and headmaster of the Academy.

Obviously, when Clover graduated from Atlas, he joined the Ace Ops, becoming the leader after a few years in service which was considered highly unusual and just showed his great prowess and skills. He was in the Ace Ops with Elm and Vine from the beginning, and Harriet, Giang and later Marrow joined later on. After years in service, he and Ironwood entered a romantic relationship but had to keep things on the down low due to unprofessionalism and laws meaning that relationships between a general and his soldier was disallowed.

A few years before current time, he had a son through a surrogate; Riley.

Elm

The only Ace Operative to actually be from Atlas. Elm had a fairly normal life, her family was in the cuisine industry and enjoyed baking, something that Elm picked up on from an early age (That cake in the RWBY celebration party? It’s hers now, she made it, change my mind.)

When she decided to join Atlas and become a Huntress, it was never about the fame or money, but rather she’d spent her entire life watching her parents brings smiles to people’s faces and wanted to do that to, just in a way she was best suited in. In the Academy, she was put into Team SBLE, where the team quickly showed that they were exceptionally skilled together with winning the Vytal Tournament. After leaving the Academy, the four went into the Specialist career, a rare choice for all four to stick together for graduation. 

During their first year, it went great. But soon they were called on a mission to clear out a Grimm nest near one of the sensory towers, hidden in a mountain that was connected by dozens of mines. The team went in, and there they found the biggest nest ever recorded. By the time evac came, Elm was the last one, having collapsed the mountain on top of them in a desperate attempt to kill the Grimm. 

While she survived, the loss broke her. Elm handed in her resignation and spent time at her parents’ home in her room, just staring at the photo of her team at the Vytal Tournament.  When General Ironwood personally visited her, she nearly slammed the door in his face. But he understood, and he was kind, and he offered her another chance. An idea he was coming up with, a unit of the best. He only had one other candidate so far, and in the back of her head Elm thought 'maybe this one will be lucky enough not to die'.

She put on a grin when she met the man who was about to be her new teammate, and poor Clover O’Connor found himself first on the receiving end of one of her handshakes, and then got a box full of fresh baked brownies immediately after.  

Vine

Vine originally came from a very rural village in Northern Mistral, living there until he was nine years old before moving to Argus due to his adoptive parents finding work there. Vine wasn’t particuarly happy with the move since he enjoyed the solitude that rural life gave him, and being a quiet person, moving to a busy city made him close in more on himself to the point that he became a selective mute.

However, he was brought into a small dojo in Argus with the teacher there seeing a small Vine and teaching him what he knew. Vine showed an aptitude to fighting and went into Sanctum to further his education. When he graduated though, he was given a spot in Atlas Academy due to his skills, but Vine didn’t particularly want to go because of his anxiety. However, he was convinced to give it a go and graduated Atlas, being chosen for the Ace Ops due to his abilities and for his personality, able to handle the more outspoken Elm and carefree Clover.

On top of that, Ironwood saw this unsure young man and decided that having Elm and Clover on his team would bring him out more, and give him opportunities to break out of his shell so to speak. For Vine, the Ace Ops ended up being that security that he didn’t really have in life, and both Clover and Elm would welcome him into the fold. 

Harriet

A Mantle girl through and through, Harriet was always a competitive girl, never backing down from a challenge and wanting everything to happen quickly, showing no patience for anything. In her eyes, being from Mantle meant that you had to give twice the effort for half the respect, and she would be respected.

Throughout her childhood, she had a best friend who stuck with her through thick and thin; Giang Meo. They trained together, had fun together, stuck together, and when they managed to secure spots in Atlas Academy, they were even put on the same team. Both mimicked each other, with Harriet specialising in wrestling and hand to hand combat with her plated arm weapons, while Giang specialised in kickboxing with his plated leg weapons.

After they graduated, both were picked by Ironwood, on Clover’s suggestion, to join the Ace Ops, making the iconic five man group along with Clover, Elm and Vine. Harriet was proud, taking her job seriously and wanting to show what she was made of, but her insecurities were compounded with every job in Atlas. Even after she made a name for herself, even getting the title of the Fastest Huntress in Remnant and breaking the previous record, she was still a commoner, and commoners weren’t respected in Atlas. 

Worse still, after Giang defected due to Atlas’ inability to handle the Faunus racism and his own radicalisation being pushed by growing White Fang activity, Harriet was broken. No longer trusting people, she didn’t see her team as friends, believing that it would just get in the way of her work, and she kept that mentality ever since.  

Giang

The Turtle to Harriet’s Hare, Giang Meo was the son of a Southern Mistrali immigrant who came to Mantle for work. His mother found work in Atlas working under the Nguyen family, a southern Mistrali family that took came to Atlas, starting a flourishing fashion company and making a fortune for themselves. 

During his childhood, he found little friends in Mantle due to his Faunus heritage, being a snow leopard, and latched onto Harriet when she showed kindness to the boy. Quickly becoming the best of friends, they protected each other for years, even going into Atlas Academy and joining the same team. However, during his time at Atlas, the racism he faced was just compounded, pushing Giang further and further into the radicalisation that would later claim him.

Once graduated and given a spot in the Ace Ops, Giang started moving away from his team. During that time, he married the only child of the Nguyen family; Chau, which sparked many controversies in Atlas due to them being a human and him a Faunus. Because of the push back from their family, Chau and Giang had to marry in secret, which was not considered legal by law.

This further embittered Giang. He joined protests, at first hiding his identity, and then showing himself proudly, but one protest turned into a riot and Giang joined in the destruction. Given his identity as a Huntsman and an Ace Operative was well known, Ironwood was formed to reprimand him and arrest Giang for multiple crimes. 

As the Ace Ops moved to arrest their former friend, Giang tried to see if Harriet would at least defend him, but she did nothing. Betrayed, Giang fled, resulting in a chase that ended in Giang wounded on the face, Harriet’s hip broken and Giang falling off Atlas’ ledge, where Ironwood declares him dead and seals all documentation on him. However, Giang didn’t die, and after nursing his wounds, he was brought into Salem’s forces, wanting justice and revenge for him and the Faunus of Mantle. 

Marrow

The Amin pack was a small but close knit family unit that was only small in terms of their tiny house on the far end of the crater, where the children are packed into the bedrooms like very rambunctious sardines and the neighbours learnt that complaining about all the howling and play fighting was useless, because an entire family of dog faunus working the mines would rather let their kids be happy and have fun when they can.

Marrow's mother was a newcomer to Mantle, a wolf faunus from a town far out in the tundra, with piercing blue eyes. While Marrow and Ulna took the husky genes from their father, their older brother Ramus took the wolf. Ramus and Marrow, like so many children, had to take jobs in the mines to help keep food on the table, and as the oldest of the next Amins, they eventually took on the job of helping out with the younger cousins and eventually, younger siblings. 

Marrow doesn't like the mines. He didn't like being a trapper. Faunus can see in the dark, sure, but spending twelve hours in pitch black by a little trap door, the only job being to pull it open to let air flow through, would be miserable for anyone. Sometimes though, he was sent into Mantle to pick up supplies if they had spare lien to get maybe a bit of bread to go with the customary broth that made up every dinner. One day, he ran into trouble. 

A bunch of children who saw a hungry dog faunus in a secondhand miner's uniform and decided to play chase. It was over in one word, when he threw their taunts back at them and told them to stay, his anger at the unfairness his family suffered peaking in that moment. Suddenly he had a chance for a better life. A Huntsman life. 

He applied for every combat school in the kingdom, and one said yes. Marrow put everything into this new chance, enough  to make a scholarship into Atlas Academy at the end. Team MCHA, however, was not so happy to have a scruffy boy from Mantle with a tail and a secondhand miner's uniform as the A on their team. 

May Marigold had better things to do then coddle an affirmative action student. Marrow ignored it. He knew his worth. He just had to get through four years, and then he could sign up for the military, and finally help his family, he could work his way up the ranks, make a difference for his people. He had ambition, and he knew how to use it. Then a mine collapsed. A worker tripped handling some agitated dust. Chain reaction. 

Ironwood immediately sent everyone he could to help out. If nothing else, the enhanced strength of a huntsmen could help them clear the fallen rocks. Marrow and his team arrived just in time to see another huntsman pulling Ramus out from under a boulder, and they put a shroud over his brother's head. Ulna ran away, Marrow's grades plummeted, and his team told him to get over it, faunus died, it happened a lot in the mines. 

He pulled himself up again himself, and eventually got what he was working for, graduating second-best in his year after May. The moment he got his first specialist paycheck, he funnelled as much as he could to his family, so that none of the kids had to work in the mines.

Soon, Ironwood decided to give Marrow a chance, moving him into the Ace Ops to further hone his skills and fill in the hole left by Giang. While most of the Ace Ops welcomed Marrow and tried to put the past in the past, Harriet was cold towards him, unable to shake the feeling that he was only there to replace Giang. Despite her animosity towards him, Marrow kept trying to prove his place in the Ace Ops. 

And that’s it for the Ace Ops’ backstories! Hope you like them tbh, me and my friends worked hard to build these characters up after having crumbs for them for over a year now.

[crowdvscritic]

round up // AUGUST 21

Happy 2nd birthday to these Round Ups! For two years I’ve been making monthly pop culture picks, and they’ve included:

More than 200 movies

32 TV shows and specials, plus 8 different Saturday Night Live Round Ups

27 albums, singles, playlists, and more music picks

13 podcasts

12 books

2 concerts

There have also been articles, events, museums, social media bits, trailers, and a service that helps you find movies across streaming platforms. (Find all of them here.) This month I’m adding a few more, like: 

2 podcasts

2 albums

5 vampire movies

A conversation between two GOATs

A very funny dead guy

A terrifying Robert Mitchum performance

Another Dumb Rom-Com I Nevertheless Enjoyed

Here’s to another year!

August Crowd-Pleasers

1. Jungle Cruise (2021)

Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean with a dash of The African Queen. I like all those movies, so sue me, I had a nice time! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10

2. Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Genetically-enhanced sharks try to break free of their cages in an ocean research facility, chaos ensues for the characters, and it’s a delight for us. For no intelligent reason, I love movies that make me guess who’s going to get killed off next, so a big dumb shark movie starring L.L. Cool J and Samuel L. Jackson? It’s a particular brand of joy. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 5.5/10

3. Double Feature — Adam Sandler Comedies: 50 First Dates (2004) + Murder Mystery (2019)

Adam Sandler movies are little like IcyHot for the brain—that is, they’re the relaxing kind of mind-numbing. Thanks to a stressful month at work, I watched six Sandler flicks in August—which I don’t necessarily recommend but also don’t regret—and the Netflix original Murder Mystery (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10) was one of the the best of the bunch. It’s a silly spoof of Agatha Christie’s work, and it’s a scenic two-hour European vacay. I also gave 50 First Dates (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10) another try and was pleasantly surprised. Once you get past some of the gross-out humor at the beginning, you’ll find a sweet story all about how we need to keep showing up for the people we love.

4. Double Feature — SNL Comedies: Wayne’s World (1992) + Hot Rod (2007)

My love for Saturday Night Live is more than well-documented, so exactly zero mes were surprised that I loved these flicks from its alums. Wayne’s World (Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10) follows up with Wayne and Garth in the basement we first saw on late night. Now they have the opportunity to make it big on TV thanks to a sleazy exec (Rob Lowe). Brian Doyle-Murray and Chris Farley show up, and so do Laverne and Shirley? Hot Rod (Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 6.5/10) follows Rod (Andy Samberg) as he tries to make it big as a stuntman and impress his stepdad (Ian McShane). Will Arnett, Bill Hader, and Chris Parnell show up, and now I can mostly forgive all those boys in high school who quoted this movie non-stop.

5. Weekend at Bernie’s (1989)

If those SNL comedies weren’t enough silliness for you, how about you add some Bernie to your lineup? Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman are wannabe-yuppies who think they’ve got their  career breaks when an exec named Bernie invites them to his vacation home for the weekend. What they don’t know is that Bernie (Terry Kiser) has been laundering money, is connected to the mob, and, is now, um, dead. The right thing would be to call the police, but then we wouldn’t have a 97-minute high-concept comedy, now would we? Crowd: 9/10 // Critic: 7/10

6. Twilight series (2008-12)

I mostly skipped the Twilight phenomenon at its peak, but I’m so glad I hopped on the train years later—this series of vampire vs. werewolf showdowns are ridiculous.  But major kudos to the filmmakers who somehow turned a dump truck of nonsensical gobbledygook and unhealthy teenage relationships into something insanely watchable. Also, major kudos to Billy Burke and his understated, curmudgeonly, sarcastic performance. Bella’s dad is the MVP with the only appropriate responses to all of the nonsense he's forced to participate in and the only tether this franchise has to reality. Be sure to watch with a friend so you have someone else to process this weirdness with. Series Crowd: 8/10 // Series Critic: 5/10

7. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at The Muny

You know what’s great? Live theater! This month I made my first trip back to the stage at America’s oldest and largest outdoor amphitheater, the Muny in St. Louis. Their productions never disappoint, and these performers reminded me of Howard Keel, Jane Powell, and Russ Tamblyn in the best ways. 

8. Wimbledon (2004)

Paul Bettany and Kirsten fall in love at Wimbledon! Frankly, that premise alone should be enough to sell you on this very winning rom-com. Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7.5/10

9. Career Opportunities (1991)

This month’s Dumb Rom-Com I Nevertheless Enjoyed! Frank Whaley and Jennifer Connelly fall in love while stuck overnight at a Target—which honestly sounds like a dream scenario—and since it’s a John Hughes script, it’s got some heart beneath its thin premise. John Hughes directing would’ve made it better, but there’s enough Hughes in there to catch my heart. Crowd: 7/10 // Critic: 4.5/10

10. First Blood (1982)

Aka Rambo: Part I. Sylvester Stallone is a tough-as-nails Vietnam vet, and Brian Dennehy is the self-righteous sheriff who ticks him off. It digs a bit into PTSD and how we don’t take care of our veterans, but mostly, it’s just Stallone going ape with a knife and explosives. Oddly, also from the same director as Weekend at Bernie’s! Crowd: 8.5/10 // Critic: 7/10

August Critic Picks

1. TCM’s The Plot Thickens Season 2 (2021)

You know those movies that make you ask, “How on Earth did this get made?” This season of The Plot Thickens, subtitled The Devil’s Candy, is an attempt to answer that question. Pretty much no one thinks 1990’s The Bonfire of the Vanities works as a film—including yours truly—and reporter Julie Salomon documented many of its production troubles leading to the final product. A must-listen for anyone who loves hearing behind-the-scenes stories or just gets a kick out of schadenfreude. 

2. Gene and Roger (2021)

Gene and Roger, the summer series on The Big Picture podcast, is an overview and reflection on the work of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, starting with the launch of their individual careers in the ‘60s through their partnership that lasted into the ‘90s. Another must-listen for movie lovers, especially those who love digging into the history and criticism.

3. Gold-Diggers Sound by Leon Bridges (2021)

Chill vibes and cool groves to transition you from Summer to Autumn.

4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Come for the Clint Eastwood, stay for the Ennio Morricone. Actually you can stay for Eastwood, too, because his humor is at his driest, and for Eli Wallach, whose Tuco is an insanely charming cockroach. It’s almost three hours, but this treasure hunt breezes by like a tumbleweed in the wind. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 9/10

5. AFI’s Master Class - The Art of Collaboration: Steven Spielberg and John Williams (2011)

Two GOATS talking about making some of the GOATs. They share clips and explain their collaborative process (including on projects like Jaws and Schindler’s List), and they take questions from film students at AFI. I’m only wishing it were 10 hours instead of 1!

6. The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Robert Mitchum’s terrifying preacher elevates this classic into more than just a standard crime thriller. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8.5/10

7. Respect (2021)

While a few scenes indulge in melodrama, Jennifer Hudson’s killer performance—both in vocals and character work—more than makes up for it. This Aretha Franklin biopic hits the familiar beats, but it makes you feel like you’re in the room listening to Franklin sing , which is really all you want from a movie like this. Crowd: 8/10 // Critic: 8/10

8. Solar Power by Lorde (2021)

At first listen, this minimalist pop record sounds worlds away from the angst of Pure Heroine and the melodrama of Melodrama. At second listen, you realize it’s the Lorde you know and love, just with a Laurel Canyon influence. Carole King even gets a shout!

Also in August…

This month Kyla and I checked out Loveline, a call-in radio show popular during the run of Gilmore Girls.  Should our favorite Yale students give up dating OR call into the syndicated radio show Loveline? Should Dr. Drew Pinsky and Adam Carolla give strangers advice OR make fun of them? Oh, and Germany OR Florida? Listen to ep. 107 of SO IT’S A SHOW?

The '40s are coming! Reviews of 1940s Best Picture winners are on their way, and I kicked it off with an overview of the Academy that decade focusing on how they responded to World War II and their new prestigious reputation.

Photo credits: The Muny, The Plot Thickens, Gene and Roger, Leon Bridges, AFI, Lorde. All others IMDb.com.