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multimetaverse · 3 years

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HSMTMTS 2x12 Review

Second Chances was a lacklustre finale for an uneven season. Let’s dig in!

Earlier this week I re-watched S1 in preparation for the S2 finale and the contrast between the two seasons is jarring. In almost every way S2 has been worse and after seeing this finale I’m less optimistic that Tim will be able to fix the long list of things that have gone wrong. Tim has said in some of his interviews today that pretty much all of S2 was written before the pandemic and that they didn’t have to do as much re-writing as people might think due to the stringent safety measures Disney put in place. Of course, that removes an excuse for the bad writing we’ve seen so much of this season as according to Tim what we saw of S2 is largely what he envisioned minus big crowds and background dancers.

Across his many interviews today, the one consistent point is that Tim does not have any real plans for future seasons; things like Ricky’s endgame he hasn’t decided on and he can’t even guarantee the summer season the finale sets up due to the weather in Salt Lake. I do think a S3 is an almost certainty given the show’s popularity but I’ll take Tim at his word that he truly doesn’t know if they’ll be renewed since it seems to be a new Disney tradition to wait until seasons are done airing before making a renewal decision (the same thing happened for the popular and well received Mighty Ducks: Game Changers which got a silent renewal only after all of S1 aired). That being said as poor of a season finale as Second Chances is it is also a terrible potential series finale. In large part it goes back to his lack of planning, he wants to keep all options open but in doing so Tim is crippling the show’s ability to deliver any pay offs or tie up loose ends.

The one mostly well done plot line this season was Portwell which got a happy ending tonight as they canoned. The only good thing about the big brother angst was that it was so insane that it had to be addressed and sure enough it was and Gina got her first kiss with a guy she really liked. If Tim is to be believed the reason we didn’t get an on screen Portwell kiss was not because of their age difference or covid concerns but because he felt that everyone’s first kiss was different so he wanted it off screen so viewers could fill in the blanks themselves. Tim’s line of reasoning is profoundly stupid. Imagine if they had Jamie show up and he and Gina talked off screen and Tim tried to claim that because everyone has a different relationship with their own siblings that he wanted the audience to fill in the blanks as to how their conversation went!

Still we saw great character development on Gina and EJ’s part as both really grew from the people they were in S1. As Tim noted, EJ bringing Gina back in 1x10 was kind of the set up for this story line. The only thing missing was a brief Portwell scene sometime in eps 2x01-2x04 to set them up. The consistent development they got from 2x05-2x12 is unlike any other ship on the show; only Rini exceeds their development.

Unfortunately I don’t think that will last in S3 because Tim will always favour Ricky over EJ and if he wants to do Rina he’ll dispose of Portwell before doing so. I was surprised that they never bothered to have Ricky and Gina have a conversation about Gina’s S1 confession. It was a huge mistake to have Gina pine over Ricky for half the season and it was no surprise that Gina’s story line got instantly better once she stopped interacting with Ricky. Tim has made clear in interviews that he’s still interested in the possibility of Rina which makes his poor writing of them even more bizarre. What conclusions are the audience supposed to draw from the Rina story line this season? That Ricky never cared that much about Gina? That it’s totally fine for the show if they don’t interact for 6 eps in a row? That Gina has moved on? I’ve said before that a wiser man than Tim would recognize that doing both Portwell and Rina will do tremendous damage to the show and he should pick one and not do the other. Of course he’s not that smart but it is wild how he’s accidentally written their story line to make for a perfect end to Rina.

Second Chances was great and is the only part of the finale that would have been well suited to being part of a potential series finale.

The Rini closure was a sad inverse of their S1 opening night confession. They’ve fallen so far from being the it couple of the series and I fear Tim doesn’t actually know what to do with them now. He really needs to decide if he’s tearing down that treehouse for real.

The less said about the Valentine’s chocolates the better but at least Gina and Nini are cool again and Nini can explore her budding music career with Jamie’s help. Tim repeatedly said in interviews that the scripts about Nini’s music career were all written before Driver’s License came out and I think he understands that the audience is just going to see the show as copying from Olivia’s life.

The wildcats just deciding to drop out of the Menkies was a lame cop out. Tim has said he always meant for that to happen though they were originally going to compete at the Menkies then drop out (presumably that’s where we would have heard Lily singing Home). Somebody should have mentioned the $50 000 prize money which the East High theatre department could surely use after Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara burned it down (remember that story line that had no consequences?). And that NYU scholarship could have been life changing for one of them and yet no one even brought it up once this season.

I did like the twist that it was EJ and his dad who got Mazzara into Caltech. He’d be a fool not to take it but I’m glad he confessed to Miss Jenn. She’s had a really rough season and I hope she redeems herself in S3.

Howie was acting so weird tonight and last ep that I have a hard time believing he was really so awed by Kourtney’s talent rather than feeling guilty for helping to steal the harness. The harness is another useless plot device; there are no consequences for Lily stealing it, she’s not caught, East High pulls off another version of the transformation off screen, and then East High withdraws from the Menkies anyways. Doubtless the harness will eventually come up to serve Rily angst.

At least Lily was straightforward, I’ll give her that. She has such an odd way of speaking, almost child like. As awful as it is there is potential for a forbidden/secret romance story line with Rily. It really does not speak well to Ricky’s character that he’s so easily fallen for Lily’s act when he has no reason to trust her and she never apologized for making fun of Big Red during the auditions or making Ashlyn feel insecure during the dance off.

The one way in which S2 was drastically better to S1 was in regards to the Seblos story line. Clearly Joe being bumped up to regular made a big difference. We got the first same-sex kiss between two boys and the first love song sung by one boy to another in Disney history and that is a legacy to be proud of. Of course, there was still some Disney censorship such as Carlos and Seblos being unable to use the word gay in the same ep that focused on Carlos singing In a Heartbeat to Seb.

S1 of HSMTMTS had a clear direction, the wildcats would have to try and come together to stage High School Musical and Ricky and Nini would have to decide if they still had a future together while Gina and EJ had to work on being better versions of themselves. It was simple sure but it worked very well. There was a lot of heart but also a lot of humor and the show never took itself too seriously. What has S2 had? Beauty and the Beast was hardly the main focus of the cast or the writers and the central couple that S1 was built around is now broken up either for a long time or for good. There was a lot less of the meta moments that jokes that made S1 such a hit, for far too many eps this season the show took itself way too seriously. Hell even the lighting this season was darker than in S1.

Olivia Rodrigo’s team had complained in a recent article that Olivia wouldn’t be able to potentially tour until fall 2022 due to her contractual commitments which is a sign that they think a S3 is very likely though I wonder how late S3 filming would have to start to keep her occupied until late 2022. There’s no confirmation of this but I thought it might be worth keeping an eye on; a post on r/hsmtmts by someone who claims to have a source working on production says that the plan is for S3 to be a summer theatre camp possibly with Camp Rock renditions and the plan for S4 is to jump 6 months ahead to the final semester of senior year and end with Ricky, Nini, Big Red, and Kourtney graduating from East High. They also say that part of the delay in the S3 announcement is a conflict between Tim and Disney executives. Tim wants to move production to LA and film on sets as it’s easier and cheaper while the Disney execs still want some on location shooting in Salt Lake. Again this is all unconfirmed but if it pans out it will represent a major shift in the series.

Regardless if Tim wants the show to remain successful he needs start planning out what he wants to happen. He should not assume he’s getting more than 4 seasons. If the series gets a S3 but then is suddenly cancelled then how would he want all the main story lines to wrap up? And if they make it to S4 where does he see it ending? The graduation of the current juniors is a logical series ending point but if Tim wants to do something different he needs to start thinking of that now. I can’t say I’m excited anymore for S3 but I do really hope that Tim and his writers can turn things around and that will only happen if they recognize what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes.

Until next season Wildcats

#HSMTMTS #Portwell #Rini #Gina Porter #EJ Caswell #Ricky Bowen #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Kourtney Greene #lily #HSMTMTS Reviews

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yeee-dam · 4 years

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TREASURE bdsm scores

So while y’all are waiting for the next hyunsuk smut, i decided to do smthn short and sweet and fun - bdsm >:)

BDSM terminology found: here

BDSM rating scale (softie>>>>hardcore):

🥰>>😳>>😏>>😈>>👹

For extra fun, comment below what ratings you personally think each of the [legal] members are, go ham :3

• Hyunsuk:

This mans is 100% a switch. He loves subbing just as much as he loves dominating. When you have more time on your hands, hyunsuk is more likely to be a sub, where you can give him lots of foreplay and spend time savouring his body. When you’re more spontaneous, however, you can see his dominant side. Would definitely be into voyeurism when he catches you touching yourself - being a brat tamer with you is also one of his kinks and loves shaming you for being a little slut as much as he loves calling you baby girl while cradled up in his arms. He also regularly loves indulging in the more common bdsm routines - handcuffs, ropes, blindfolds, you name it - he loves it on either of you. Because he likes subbing, dare I say he would be one of the only members open to anal (i said it!!🤭) - it’s dildoes galore with him. Overall one of the more kinky members, especially because he’s likely to have more experience given his age. But he will also equally enjoy cuddling and dreamily staring into your eyes in between rounds of having the hottest makeout session ever.

Overall bdsm rating:😈

• Jihoon

So I think everyone saw this coming but this boy... hot mama is he a kinkster. He’d be open to almost anything - except he’s a dom. A strong dom (like 99.9% dom). He’ll whip you, he’ll tie you up, he’ll watch you, he’ll make YOU watch HIM and tell you that you can’t move until he’s finished. He loves calling you a little slut, his little fucktoy, he loves sadism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, being a brat tamer. And while this may seem counter-intuitive since Jihoon is seen as the jealous type, he is definitely into threesomes. He gets super jealous when you’re with other people but that only makes him want you more and makes him want to please you more. Once you’re finished with the third person, oh boy. You better prepare for a long ass night with Jihoon. Also expect a lot of markings - scratches on your back, hickeys on your neck and chest, bruising all over. Despite all this, he will also enjoy vanilla sex with you especially if you’re not in the mood for anything too frisky - he cares about you and how you feel and takes that into consideration as well.

Overall bdsm rating: 😈/👹

• Yoshi

So at first I was so sure Jihoon would be the kinkiest member but on second thoughts it’s definitely yoshi. If it ain’t rough, he don’t want it (jk tho he would definitely care about what you wanted to do as well). HOWEVER, this mans is sooo similar to jihoon in that he is a very strong dominant sadist. If jihoon is 99.9% , yoshi is the one that brings it to 100%. He is definitely into a master/slave routine - in his mind you are the only one for him, the only one that can serve him to fulfil his needs. He is SO into orgies, where he is the only one in charge. He enjoys giving orders and punishing anyone involved if they’re disobedient. Punishments include whipping, choking, putting you on a leash. Not only that, he’ll punish you blindfolded and tied up, never knowing when he’d decide to do so. He also likes edging you as a punishment, and then stopping you right as you’re about to orgasm. Basically, you gon need to take off a whole day to spend time with this mans. Vanilla sex bores him but at the same time he’ll do it for you as your dedicated lover and master.

Overall bdsm rating: 👹

•Junkyu

SO IM A FIRM BELIEVER THAT JUNKYU likes anal. Periodt. Idk why but he just,, gives off anal vibes. Definitely can see him having a threesome with someone like hyunsuk and subbing when receiving anal (he’d also like giving anal). However, that’s about where Junkyu’s kinkiness ends. Other than some vanilla blindfolding or body-marking, Junkyu is pretty vanilla. He is someone that loves lips. Whatever you two may be doing, he’ll be kissing you passionately. He’s a devout believer in giving and receiving head ALWAYS. He’s someone that likes routine, quickies in the morning are a regular thing. It may not always be different with Junkyu, but that’s okay because you know that he always invests his emotions into you and you can feel that love emanating from him everytime you make love. He’ll call you pretty names and tell you how beautiful you look when you orgasm. Afterwards, he’ll clean up after both of you and will offer to wash the sheets for you. Expect a relaxing bath-and-wine chat session with him to wind down afterwards. Overall a very mature lover and focuses on your intellectual beauty.

Overall bdsm rating: 😳/😏

• Mashiho

Now, mashi is also a switch like hyunsuk but more of a 30/70 sub/dom whereas hyunsuk would be more 50/50. We all know how much mashi would love your attention (go watch treasure map ep.21 and you’ll see what I mean), so he gets ecstatic when he’s in the mood for subbing. Although he doesn’t sub often, when he does he goes ham. He likes getting hard while fully clothed and while watching you touch yourself - in fact he’ll voluntarily submit to watching you, no commands needed. He also loves threesomes and orgies for the reason that he’s just so visually stimulated (i mean look at his perfectly arranged room), and also because he’s not the type to get jealous too easily. Because he’s so clean and neat, it also wouldn’t be a surprise if he liked a certain brat taming or mommy/daddy foreplay routine before getting down and dirty. Again, he would definitely be into rigging and degrading like hyunsuk, as well as vanilla sex when you’re tired or just when mashi feels like giving you a lot of eye contact and cuddles that day. Loves pillow talk and spooning after a sesh and just breathing in the scent of your hair as you spoon.

Overall bdsm rating: 😈

• Jaehyuk:

As much as this mans seems like a bad boy on the streets, you know he’s such a darn softie in the sheets. He likes going vanilla most of the time, giving you lots of massages, lots of eye contact and lots of whispers in your ear and foreplay - allll the foreplay in the world. He takes his time to savour every inch of your skin and absolutely loves seeing you bathe in pleasure. Missionary is definitely one of his favourite positions because he gets to see your face in ecstacy as he grinds into you. And don’t get me started on how much he would love eating you out and fingering you. He’d avoid licking his lips afterwards just so your taste could linger in his mouth. If he did venture into bdsm though, it’d be something not too risky - trying new positions itself would be considered adventurous for jaehyuk. Although he’d mostly be a (vanilla) dom when trying out bdsm, jaehyuk can definitely be a switch from time to time. When subbing, he likes being a rope bunny. When dom’ing, he likes being a rigger.

Overall bdsm rating: 🥰

• Asahi

So Asahi is a really emotional lover - sex often ends up going according to his moods. The more stressed he is, the rougher and more experimental he gets. The more peaceful he is, the more vanilla he is. A rough day at work or even just an uneventful day will surge his desire for kinky stuff. Has he had a hard time composing his song today? You’re gonna be cuffed and blindfolded tonight. Has he felt uninspired and frustrated with his creativity lately? Better get prepared for some slut shaming and humiliation. Has he been relaxed all day? Get YO ASS READY FOR SOME MF CUDDLES AND SOFT FOREPLAY. He’s finna take his sweet, sweet time making out with you, making sure there’s lots of nipple play and contact with your erogenous zones. And only THEN will he get down to business. Even then, he’ll be gentle and take his time, listening to your beckons and calls. Asahi also has potential to be a sub, slightly more than mashi, about 35/65 sub/dom. Blindfold him, whisper some naughty stuff in his ear and give him the best head of his life and he’s a happy man.

Overall bdsm rating: 😏

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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X-men Evolution; the great 2021 rewatch liveblog

exactly what it says on the tin, about halfway through the show I had TOO MANY FEELINGS and had to start writing some of them out haha (gets quite gambit & rogue/gambit heavy in the latter half, Because of Who I Am as a Person)

- this is my childhood’s x-men, my formative experience with them, and I’m happy to report that still seems like a good thing. the little eleven year old within me gets to geek out and have a good time with the characters and the surprisingly good animation and writing, adult me gets to CACKLE at regular intervals at the fashion/technology/absolute bonkers hot garbage comic book nonsense they use to justify a storyline every now and then, it’s been a good time

- I was like ‘ah well it is super dated it probably won’t be quite the same now’ and then rogue’s HAIR did the THING in the opening and ‘it’s all coming back to me now’ started playing in the background... the little baby queer in me swooning across time and space

- such a good beast, both his design and the writing, my heart aches for him all the time. he’s just so passionate! about being a teacher! helping young humans learn the stuff they’ll need in life! the most wonderful nerd man, just let good things happen for him

- I’m going to go ahead and assume that rogue’s ‘crush’ on scott is more of a deeply complex psychological process about desiring normalcy and intimacy and trying to figure out if she’s queer and dealing with her emerging sexuality and latching on to the first and best safely unavailable and nonthreatening older boy to project these issues onto rather than actually being a real thing, because I respect her so much as a person and I cannot bring myself to imagine she’s honestly attracted to a man who has POSTERS OF CARS on his bedroom wall. (I’ll give jean a break just because she seems to have a longer deeper history with him that might counteract some of that libido-kill, and also she’s a jock so lol)

like I am very sorry but can u imagine being a teenage girl with any interest in a boy with model cars in his bedroom when gambit’s swanning around being a much, much, much worse choice on almost every possible level but in a teen girl kryptonite kind of way? inconceivable

(I drag scott quite a few times in this and it’s not because I don’t love him, it’s just his tragedy to be the most draggable man in the world)

to be fair by the time gambit shows up that whole Situation has mostly played itself out I suppose but still

- toad’s design is so ineffably brilliant, I can’t quite tell you why but that ugly cute charm has really stuck with me, he’s one of the characters I remembered the best to this day just visually

- poor evan... he truly never had a chance, did he, they just saddled him with the most 90s teen bullshit they could come up with like he’s some kind of ‘what adult writers think teens like’ frankenstein’s monster ;______; it’s not your fault honey

- poor poor POOR storm, she gets one focus episode and they were like ‘we’re going to make an episode so racist -- ‘

I’m still STUNNED at how bad it was, but undeniably I laughed hysterically to the point that my neighbours were probably worried when that dude was earnestly like ‘He [stunningly breathlessly racist caricature of a ‘witch doctor’ guy] has stolen her powers, and he’s going to use them to take over Africa!!!’ fhajsdlfhsakjldfh oh really? tell me more, like how the fUCK this could be on television within my life time fasdlfhsdkjfhsad f just... fahjksdfh

- it’s a testament to gambit’s appeal as a character that his charm can survive what they’ve done with his hair and beard choices in this one fajskfhs regrettable but true I still fuckn LOVE him and in my highly biased yet Correct opinion he should have been around much more. get you a man who manages to stay hot through sheer Vibes even with a bowl cut

- aw scott/jean is kind of sweet in this show even if it’s taking them forEVER to get there, I like it

- it’s very nice of rogue to not mention magneto’s romantic daydreams and nostalgic memories about charles xavier after touching his face that one time... or maybe her brain did her a service and repressed it, there’s some stuff you shouldn’t have to know about your father figure

- the danger room is the very definition of ‘why do we even have that lever’ and I wonder what the fuck prof x does to have enough money to replace everything that gets busted all the time

- I’d say that a lot of the writing holds up surprisingly well! (but some of it is also incredibly inexcusably racist in ways that beggar belief, so... not full marks here) the characters have distinct voices and their arcs are set up and delivered on solidly for the most part, and there’s a lot of love showing through in small moments that are just there to have a funny/interesting thing to say about the characters and how their powers work separately and in combination. listen, sometimes I get so thirsty for like. basic goddamn competency in storytelling, let me have this

- ugggggh why is there captain america in my x-men have I not suffered enough... very very funny when prof x goes ‘sounds like you knew rogers personally’ and logan is like ‘I did ;)’ *all the students ganging up on steve rogers* “did you fuck our teacher, captain america?!”

- fskadfhas WHY are you showing me hot young-ified magneto’s ass fksjahfskj charles is not even here to see it, what a tragic waste erik

- ...I was sort of kidding before but uh I think logan genuinely did fuck captain america (or at least wishes very much that he did lol)

- wanda can have a little watching the world burn. as a treat for the way every single adult in her life has fucking failed her (’aren’t they treating you well here’ professor x she’s in a straightjacket)

- poor rogue tho can you imagine finding out after your biggest crush on a girl yet that she’s your fucking MOM in disguise... I would break out in cold sweat every time I thought about a boob forever after

- well seems like they really just had all that homoerotic rivalry stuff between quicksilver and spyke in their first ep only to never do anything with that again ever?? I mean even without the gay undertone that seems like a dynamic you spent most of an episode setting up writers what the hell haha

- dslhfkasjlh GAMBIT THERE HE IS MY BOY IS ON THE SCENE THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! I don’t even care about his awful hair situation or the fact that his eyes are wrong here (coloured contact lenses, maybe, for a watsonian explanation? though he’d probably have to get them made special, considering he needs the sclera and the iris covered up in different ways, I’ve seen some comic panels indicating he has been known to?)

(cute little detail: when he shuffles the cards the first time we see him he ends with removing the top card to show the ace of hearts beneath <3 foreshadowing baBEY he’s a... good-ish boy deep down. hey he tries okay shit gets complicated sometimes lol)

- cracking UP at gambit perched cheerily on the edge of a crate dispensing cards in the middle of the battle... he’s like ‘eh it’s a livin’ sfsajkhf remy stop working for supervillains just because you had nothing to do on a thursday afternoon and they said they’d pay you

- I’m guessing magneto must have imposed a strict order of silence on these guys or something because I cannot imagine any other reason for him to shut up, especially once he notices rogue is a QTE (or, far more likely, they hadn’t settled on any voice actors for the new characters until next season haha. it is kind of odd that they’re all keeping up near monastic silence, though, even sabertooth lol)

- WHAT an epic first meeting for us rogue/gambit fans here... first his shadow like there’s fireworks going off behind him lighting him up and then he gives her the fuckn king of hearts and she’s so enchanted by his dumb handsome face she doesn’t even notice it’s about to blow up in her hands and it all happens in heavily meaningful silence afjsdfjashjk no wonder this ship ingrained itself in my hindbrain

yeah look smug while you can remy she’s gonna have you on your knees one day and you’ll be happy about it lol

- god storm is so COOL, everything just fading out of focus when she really gets going... give her more screen time, show!!

- mystique is every person... this person... that person... that bird... that cat... that wolf... I’m not even sure she’s not also me... are you sure she’s not you?

- holy fuck I respect the hell out of the decision to just... blow up the entire status quo in a season ender, I only vaguely remembered that (actually in general I appreciate how good the continuity is -- buildings and places that get damaged in battles need to be repaired or rebuilt, it makes the consequences feel more real even when no one gets seriously hurt. where they get the money to restore scott’s car and logan’s motorbikes every time they go cablooie is still an open question tho lol is it credit card fraud, professor? is it telepathically acquired blackmail???)

- I first watched this when I was nine or so, so it’s a real experience to go from my starry eyed intrigued ‘oh my god... they’re teenagers’ to my horrified adult perspective of ‘oh my god... they’re TEENAGERS D:’

that goes double for the brotherhood boys honestly, I’m here with tears in my eyes like ‘I’m sorry the system has failed you so badly you’re all just a bunch of dumb kids whose caretakers clearly fucked up spectacularly’

like lance is always waiting for mystique to come back because she’s the closest thing he has to a safe parental figure, may we speak about how crushingly depressing that is

- rogue is so ready to throw hands at literally any moment and for that I love and treasure her immensely (I think getting to see her be so surly and unreasonable and sometimes difficult and jealous, like any teenager, meant a lot to me as a kid who was not really allowed to be any of these things, this version of the character has stayed with me so deeply. she holds on so fiercely to her right to feel what she feels and be what she is even when it’s ‘ugly’ or unreasonable, which I think plays in really interestingly with how her powers involve getting invaded by other people’s thoughts and memories to the point of overwhelming her own sense of self and the fact that she clearly has a lot of self-loathing and self-consciousness and confusion about her identity as well. I love her so much)

- oooof this is the ‘the gang experience a microaggression’ episode huh (well more like macroagressions really)

hits a bit different with adult eyes and perspective huh

- hearing jean sound almost like a child when she says ‘that’s so unfair!’ somehow has me like ;______; -- she has to be so adult and responsible all the time, and having her be reduced to the kid she still is and should get to be in front of this awful awful man she could squash like a bug with the flick of a thought... ugh I’m Big Sad (it is funny that jean seemingly plays Every Sport tho djfhaskj)

- MY BOY IS BACK!!! this time with the duster coat and his eyes the right colour, im so happy (too bad about the subdued colour scheme tho; I adore his dumb bright pink getup with my whole heart)

it’s kind of adorable that he takes the time to take the bullies aside and go ‘I know these guys can’t wreck you without getting expelled, but I think you’ll find no law set down by god or man would stop me from doing so whenever I wanted to. so piss off and leave them alone’ lol he’s looking out for them, in his own way

- in this episode: remy lebeau wrangles some kids while looking bored yet mildly amused the whole time. what the fuck does magneto have on you for you to agree to this level of babysitting duty buddy

- fun detail I noticed b/c when I get a fave I hyperfixate: he gave rogue the king of hearts before, but he ‘introduces’ himself to the brotherhood here (lol) with the jack of hearts, probably to symbolize he’s here as someone who works for magneto in this setting and not as his own man? it’s a demotion he’s given himself there, anyway, might be he’s not very pleased about his current position huh

- I like it when rogue and kitty team up, they’re not very effective together but their squabbling is so cute and non-aggressive

- pietro is what draco malfoy would be if I ever found malfoy interesting to watch for even one moment, every time quicksilver talks I’m like ‘what wonderfully insufferable thing is going to come out of your mouth this time you little shit :’)’

- a) why are scott and logan shirtless for this scene? I am not complaining on the logan side of things at least but why and b) I laughed so hard I almost fell off my couch when scott asked logan if he’d ever been in love and he was like ‘once. she was the most beautiful bike I ever saw’ falsdfhaskjfhsakjlfhasklhjfd THE BEST VERSION OF WOLVERINE EVER, ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES

- mystique’s sheer dedication to being a petty bitch is kind of inspirational tbh, almost makes me want to go on a completely bonkers and extra crusade of personal revenge myself

- oooh they’re doing some genuinely cool things with vision/lack of vision in this one (it’s the scott left on his own in the desert without glasses one btw) even visually, dang! I’m so sad this show didn’t get more seasons than it did, honestly, it deserved it

- hell yeah jean wreck her, go get your man with the suspiciously specific clothing damage normally done to female characters

awww :’) okay yeah they’re super sweet, I love the tiny loving animation details like how he leans his head against her and her stroking his hair away from his eyes

- nooo don’t bully evan leave my t0tally r4dical sk8er boy alone :(

- I love the running joke of people fleeing in blind panic only to reveal that what they’re running from is kitty’s cheerful well meaning little face fskfaskh

- scott and jean are already peak married after officially being together for one episode and it’s adorable, and they just stone cold threw logan under the bus, rip wolverine we hardly knew ya

fjasdlfasldfhslajdkfhsadkjlfhsdkjalfhsdakfh h jean establishing herself as the alphabitch of this relationship by throwing her man to the wolves right after dsjfhaskjfhaskjhfsakjdhfaskjhfaskdhfskjahfskdajhf get smarter or get volunteered scott

- ...eyepatch lady is so hot ngl

oh evan went to the place hank used to go to calm down ;________; (honestly he’s kind of won a place in my heart just by being a pretty normal teenage boy haha)

- jesus fucking CHRIST can you imagine being storm having to look her sister in the eye as she tells her ‘I lost your only child, he’s *vague gesture* somewhere in the sewers we think’ this poor woman

- amanda the self admitted monster fucker you are so VALID (I love her and her family’s design so much tho!)

- it’s so cool that even in his human ‘disguise’ kurt’s fingers follow the shape of his actual hand beneath it rather than moving like a five fingered hand, it’s such a lovingly consistent little detail

- magneto and mystique in a breathless race to see who can be the shittiest parent... tune in next week for yet another parental nadir (also some low-poly gambit appearances in this one, for those at home keeping score (me), he’s in the background looking like someone drew him with their eyes closed fakjldfhasd look how they massacred my boy)

- someone please teach the brotherhood boys about consent huh

- jean ‘soccer mom before her time’ grey and her SUV dfhakjlhds :’)

- im sobbing rogue baby girl i’m so sorryyyyyy, this voice actress is so good, my parental instincts suddenly kicked into overdrive hearing the crack in her voice :( (bb me was right tho rogue centric episodes ARE the best episodes. that tension between ‘do I identify witn this character or am I crushing on her?? both???’ now has the fun new addition of ‘oh god oh no you are a baby I want to shield you with my body from everything trying to hurt you’)

- mystique is like ‘so you see despite you telling me you never wanted to see me again I completely disrespected that and posed as a friend your age, manipulated you by offering you the mirage of direly needed emotional intimacy and belonging and added some sprinkles of homoerotic tension to it just to massively worsen your already existing grievous psychosexual trauma and identity issues... out of love’

god go jump in a black hole you fucking monster

- there’s some very interesting and quite subtle subtext about the people she’s morphing into and what that says about her mental state/how it shows off some of her emotional baggage with the rest of the team. it’s like she’s switching between people/powers that fit the purpose as if she’s going through cycles of fight/flight (and then bursts of freeze where she’s herself, which is... so sad)

- this whole episode is hurting my heart but rogue at full power is undeniably epic

- ‘professor x get your goddamn act together and get this poor girl some fucking tHERAPY’ challenge

- SAFE PAPA LOGAN ;_____;

- EYYYYYY opening straight on My Lad, I cannot stop winning!!!!!

fasdfhsad disintegrating the window with a smiley face... remy I do love you more than my heart can bear honestly, hello may we speak about the fact that his urge to be a little shit is so deep and strong it survives mind control (that little breathed out ‘hiah!’ as he vaults the fence too dsakfjsd)

hahaha and he does up the coat fhsalfdsaj

- magneto dismissing other telepaths like ‘puh-lease, your Meaningful Looks have got nothing on my ex-husband’s’

- :’) rogue and kurt sibling timeees

- say what you want but this pyro guy’s got job satisfaction in being a creepy arsonist with a weird recurring horse theme (well at least twice but still weird)

- I love how beast is the kindest man to ever walk the earth but also straight up savage, this man drags people so hard their ancestors wince in their graves

- gambit taking the time to complete the guard’s game of solitaire -- this episode is giving me everything I want. u little disgrace mr lebeau

and THEN he takes the spider out in the most hilariously bonkers way my heart is so FULL

(I love that when magneto moves by he looks startled and has to quickly move his head out of the way to avoid getting kicked in the temple too that’s a fun detail)

I’m so INTO how this sequence shows off that his greatest strength isn’t even his powers (which are pretty straightforward, really, he makes go boom, longer time and bigger thing bigger boom) but that he’s clever and creative and always extremely ready to be the most harebrained-bananapants-extra-in-a-deceptively-laidback-sort-of-way person in the room (I actually have some genuinely Deep Thoughts about how his whole character does a really interesting thing with having the straightforwardly destructive nature of his powers yield to what his nature as a person is, and how using the playing cards play (heh) into it, maybe I’ll write it out some day. just the fact that he could use anything, but he deliberately chose something that adds style and playfulness and corny charm to it and that also limits the damage of the explosions compared to if he habitually used something with more mass... I find it fascinating how much he’s made a story around himself with it and how deeply it shows he does have a good heart, at the end of the day, in almost a metatextual way. he doesn’t want to destroy things or people, he’s at worst (and best lol) a thief.)

- I honestly have literally no memory of white nick fury (which seems so weird now isn’t it funny) in this series from when I was a kid, he clearly did not make an impression on me lol

- mr wolverine ‘assigned canadian at birth’ x-men

- oh man I dig the androgynity of x-23′s outfit (even tho they had to compensate with the long hair, which... kind of doesn’t make sense in-universe but does on a design level because it’s a crucial thing that she’s a female clone of logan so yeah okay fine whatever have your arbitrary gender markers if you must haha)

ooooooh that’s actually really clever, they make her gender gradually more obvious as she unravels through the episode and her outfit changes -- first the mask coming off, and then her jacket opening to show her silhouette more clearly, that’s cool!

- my god what really sets this show apart is how much it invests in little character and relationship moments, it’s just so fucking GOOD! it gives laura looking in on those moments such depth and weight because it’s new to her but established to us as an audience, this is how you make found family devastating people (storm growing bonsai trees is so charming too haha)

- ooof this is honestly quite harrowing

SHE’S SO SMALL COMPARED TO HIM I’M CRYING (at least that part of his genes translated over faslkfsjdh short king, I say this with all the love and support of a fellow short monarch)

- tabitha seems to just be running around doing precisely whatever the fuck she wants and you know what I support her even if she is an asshole her father left her a bunch of trauma and no fucks left to give

- still thrilled about professor x explaining the spider key fuckup to magneto after the fact like ‘magnus you dumb bitch this is why we split up’

- awww kitty has anime and movie posters on her wall and sleeps with a stuffed toy :’)

- remy rogue

🤝

doing completely unnecessary parkour around the brotherhood living room seemingly just for the hell of it... I’m not saying soulmates but fucking soulmates

- fhsadkjlfhsakjldfhsadjkfhsdajkfh just as gambit’s soul-level need to be a little shit survived his bout of mind control, rogue’s deep and urgent desire to kiss gambit full on the mouth survived hers I can’t breathe

she looks so pleased with herself too GOOD FOR YOU GIRL at least get something out of this other than more trauma

also not only the fact that he’s smart enough to figure out what’s going on (though he’s only partially right about who’s behind it. I do so enjoy gambit/mystique deep and sincere antipathy as a constant across all universes tho lmao pure wlw/mlm hostility) but also that he keeps fending her off like he’s not trying to hurt her even though she’s in nigh on unstoppable and invulnerable terminator mode... awww

- gambit having absolutely no patience for wolverine and sabertooth’s bullshit macho-off and consistently being this little biker trio’s one brain cell is adding years to my life with every passing moment

his voice is a little different in these scenes too, a bit softer and less like he’s trying to impress someone, it’s nice

- hank: well I barely recognize any of these (completely made up) ‘ancient egyptian hieroglyphs’ but from what I can make out -- *proceeds to infodump a perfect coherent narrative* fjdhfak

listen this whole thing is such nonsense on so many levels, I’m just turning my brain off so I won’t have to think about it okay, the compulsion to put ancient aliens in egypt haunts us as a culture

- I am CACKLING about gambit in the snow after having to listen to these two chucklefucks ooze testosterone at each other for hours

he started out taking it in good cheer and is now reduced to ‘dieu would both of you just jump off this fUCKING mountain please’

- ah. a little oops-a-daisy there, we seem to have unleashed the apocalypse. please stand by (they really don’t pull their punches with the season cliffhangers in this show haha)

- opening the season on gambit’s merrily grinning face is the easiest way to gain my favour. yes good this season may commence

baby u r my

ANGELLLLLLLL

(he’s so cute here tho haha I think it shows the design isn’t unsalvagable, just get him better hair and stubble more like logan has and you’ve basically got it)

love his exasperated eyeroll when the dude gets spooked (by his eyes? or just the general weirdness?) too

he’s just trying to keep this crazy family of evil mutants together and unmurdered by one another until they’ve managed to avert the end of the world, bless him

- oh NO rogue’s LIP wobbles my hhhhhheart ;____; such a good animation detail to put in

- like... I know kurt is just a sad scared teenager with a lot of shit going on and all the adults are too busy averting the end of the world to help him... but buddy maybe don’t ask your sister to wake her abuser (who forced her to kickstart the end of the world!!!!!) when she feels utterly unsafe even with her statue version around huh

- ...wanda is good and I want only good things for her. and for her dad to be disemboweled for what he did to her both the first time around and when he forced her to forget I mean what

- magneto throwing an epic satelite-slinging tantrum b/c ‘no I am the biggest sexiest strongest mutant of the pack :(’... erik fucking get over yourself

- yes boys absolutely go along with a plan suggested by a dude who looks at you like this

nothing bad can come of this surely asdfkhsa

- lance’s quarter of a braincell always trying to go ‘hey wait, maybe... not do this???’ and it never helps lol

- in this episode: Logan Has A Bad Day

...some very specific bondage positions he’s held in here, I am sure this episode awakened something in someone once upon a time lol

- logan shielding x-23 with his body... im fine it’s okay I’m not crying don’t look at me

- afsdhlsdfjasdlk those sure are some ‘scottish’ accents flsadkjhkdsjahfsd

- scott relieved to finally be able to cede the position of ‘charles xavier’s least favourite son’ to someone else fjsaklfhsajd (poor scott it’s not your fault honey)

supremely cowardly to suggest there is an ex-wife involved rather than charles slutting his way around the british isles back in the day but okay

- kurt with a cold is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. it’s okay kid it’ll get better soon

- ...is there an implication here that professor x is naturally blond. because I am losing my entire little mind about it (i mean he at least has to carry the gene, as does this lady?)

ETA: upon doing some research into this I can indeed confirm that charles xavier does seem to be naturally blond, and after this knowledge I will never be the same

- “listen, dracula” fskdafghasd oh scott you sweet baby angel I love you

- I know jean’s abilities are a bit ‘as strong or as weak as the plot needs right now’ at this point (so you can have the setup for what’s going to happen with them eventually and she’s basically invincible ;____;), and normally I’m cool with it but god I want her to just squash lucas like a little bug

- ewwwww please don’t ever say ‘daddy’ like that again

- ...what the fuck is even going on this episode’s a mess

like okay the split personality thing could be something but the way it’s done... what just happened lol

- MY BOY EVAN IS BACK! with a real glowup too (...though kind of weird how he suddenly looks like a grown man)

- augh scott’s eyes are so pretty oh my god ;__________________________;

- that episode in the first season where evan makes the ‘this is my new family!!’ video is so sad now (also, again, his poor poor parents)

- time for: life affirming road trip with gambit (involuntary) faskljdfhaskjd

stunt therapist remy lebeau

- I mean the way he goes about it is batshit insane and it’s very much secondary to what he’s actually up to but this is the first time rogue’s sounded genuinely hopeful and confident and like herself in like a season <3

- he is disconcertingly pleased about her nearly throwing him off the train, and may I just say I agree it’s so nice to see rogue with her old fire back

- the first time I watched this it was of course dubbed into norwegian, so I had no idea either of these characters were southern lol (though to be fair I probably wouldn’t have had much context for what it meant exactly either, I was like ten at the time and not too interested in america) I seem to dimly remember the norwegian voice actor did a little more of a ‘french’-tinged accent for gambit all over tho haha

- you know what respect where it’s due, pyro dude knows to live his life for the lols and one has to admire his sociopathic dedication to it

interesting that he, too, seems to have fucking hated magneto -- I wonder if the implication here is that he kept all the acolytes in line with blackmail or by keeping something/one hostage? (except sabertooth maybe he’d just have to say ‘you get to fuck shit up and fight wolverine’ and that’d be enough)

- fsdakfhsd he’s so focused on her he doesn’t notice that guy about to hit him fkafhsa

- fuck everything else except whatever the hell these two’ve got going on

- it’s weirdly cathartic to have rogue have a conversation with someone who was not happily adopted as well, I don’t think kurt like. gets it because his parents loved him unconditionally and still do

birds of a feather motherfucker

- fun detail: when the x-men team are on the shore and logan is sniffing around scott is stepping in something and trying to wipe it off his boots in the background

- when he wakes up after passing out from the touch he’s smiling even though she’s standing over him looking like the rage of god outlined by the moon fsajfsa well the last time he passed out like that it was from a kiss, maybe he still has some hopes and dreams in that direction lol (also he recovers from the tumble down the hill first and is checking on her before accidentally brushing her cheek with his hand, which I thought was sweet)

and it was in that moment he knew he fucked up *passes out*

- ‘I can explain’ can u remy. can u

- did it ever even occur to you to just. ask her. to help you. I mean I know it didn’t but like rogue’s always one second away from throwing hands with some bully and is stupidly ride or die, if you’d given her the puppydog eyes she would have crumbled immediately (fair enough I guess this entire episode is telling us he’s not from a background where he has much experience with people just helping him without a price haha)

- his eyes glowing when he’s angry or upset or using a lot of his power is undeniably cool as all hell. I’m just saying it would be Big Sexy if they sort of flickered with light in moments of genuine vulnerability okay

- his coat... his coat is what makes the Silhouette tm and I could not be happier about it

- another parent of the year contestant enters the running lol “hey remy have you ever considered that you’re more of a walking bomb factory than a person? that’s certainly how I think of you hahaha c’mon kid let’s go”

- the running joke of jean luc getting dollar signs in his eyes seeing the other mutant powers and gambit being like ‘nO!!!!’ and pulling him along is amazing haha

- from the way he looks when he touches rogue accidentally and the way he talks to his dad I’m sort of getting the feeling this gambit might actually be a bit younger than he looks?

here too -- idk why but it’s making the ‘wait is he baby???’ alarms go off in my head haha. very early twenties at most.

- and we’ve officially seen him with all the face cards in the heart suit folks! (yes this is the sort of thing my brain notices no I don’t know either)

- poor logan running his ass off this whole episode in a panic and then she’s like ‘nah he’s fine (in several meanings of the word ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) please put him down’ hfaskfsda

- rogue without makeup!!! her eyes look so naked like this haha <3

- oooh here’s a really interesting thing that tickles my brain a bit in this specific part of the scene where gambit frees his dad -- the part where he’s leaning against the door frame waiting for jean luc, who’s about to suggest using the opportunity to ruin the rival gang from the inside rather than slipping away while they still can

from his expression here he knows what’s about to happen, what jean luc is about to say, and it’s clearly a ‘man who thought he’d lost all hope loses last additional bit of hope he didn’t even know he still had’ sort of situation. he KNOWS what jean luc is like, and it still hurts that he really, honestly can’t give him even this, can’t appreciate that remy’s already done all this shit for him when he extremely didn’t have to, without immediately (no really, it took him less than ten seconds to go there? jesus) demanding more.

remy tells him “I’m just here for you” and jean luc does not understand it. remy seems to be sincere in this motivation -- rogue certainly thinks so, having experienced it second hand and found enough at least emotional merit in it to decide he was worth saving even after all his bullshit (lol a bit of a running theme maybe. I think it’s very telling that after she absorbed mystique she was like ‘what the FUCK you’re a fucking monster’, and after she absorbed gambit she went ‘you did the wrong thing for the right reasons’ after she got over the first wave of outrage)

there’s also what he says as he stands there: “You don’t need me for that”, with the distinct implication that jean luc would only keep him around because he has a use for him and for no other reason -- and then jean luc shamelessly doubles down on that by specifying that it’s not even him he’s got a use for as such, just his powers. that’s some kicking puppies level of deliberately missing the point, it’s almost impressive in how cheerfully mean it is haha

this idea of using people is really important in this episode because remy’s doing basically exactly the same thing to rogue to begin with; it doesn’t really matter to his plan that it’s her that’s with him through this, just what her powers are. (I think it’s p r e t t y solidly implied that he does actually like her a lot outside of that too and maybe there is some comfort in having her around for this, but mostly he’s behind a smokescreen of lies through the whole thing sooo I doubt he’s even aware of it, honestly)

but then it does matter that it’s her when she comes back for him, even after what he did. and unlike jean luc he understands what that means, that she did that for him, and that she didn’t have to. and instead of asking her for more, in return he gives her the thing it’s been established is what he considers the most valuable thing he has; his ‘last card’, the thing he’s credited with keeping him alive many a time, basically. it’s gone from using to mutuality, a tentative place of friendship, and at the end of the day he is a different man than his adoptive father, with a capacity for selflessness and love he lacks. which is of course some of the same stuff going on with rogue and mystique too, except rogue acted from a more fragile and unstable place and did something she regrets, or at least has a LOT of doubts about now, and she found some catharsis in helping someone make a different choice in a similar situation. man there’s some Stuff going on under the surface here haha

(by the way it’s a weirdly... meaningless yet intensely meaningful thing, the gifting of a symbol? of an idea? but he’s putting something very crucial of himself into her hands, is the subtext, and he expects her to understand, which she also does seem to do. at the beginning of the episode he’s proving that he’s seen something true about her -- “You’re such an unhappy girl”, knowing where she comes from, the way she’s mourning her lost confidence and autonomy with her abilities -- and here she’s proving she’s seen something true about him. :’) I wish this show had gone on long enough for this dynamic to progress, it’s really interesting and touching)

- gambit dragging himself up onto dry land seeing someone approaching (to help?!): :D

gambit seeing that it’s logan and the look on his face: D:

- rogue using her powers so confidently and fearlessly in this episode tho!!!!

- *me crying* and then her FAMBILY comes to take her home and he says he’s looking out for her too and kurt still loves her even though they’re having a conflict thing between them and she’s finally able to use her powers without so much fear again and --

- ...did I just watch some baby lesbian love at first sight shit right now???

- okay last two episodes let’s go

- HELL YEAH STORM (I love that she’s like ‘don’t give me a dumb order like that and I won’t have to disobey it’ too sdfjsaj) her voice has such command I’m usually very much not the ‘step on me’ type butttt

- y’know I feel like apocalypse’s main fault across all versions I’ve seen of him is that he’s like an immortal superpowered god king and he’s not even sexy. like at least make him hot if he’s going to be insufferable in every other way

- also callout post for apocalypse: one time he made gambit into the Horseman of Death... and didn’t even make him sexy!!! you were handed remy lebeau, supreme bi disaster slut of the x men universe, and you couldn’t even make his brainwashed superpowered evil side hot?? a beautiful stubbled twunk with glowing red eyes and extremely charming :> face practically delivers himself into your hands and you do that to him???? I mean I’m sure apocalypse did some other bad stuff too but that was the worst one

(comics are so dumb y’all)

- having to watch jean cry is emotional terrorism!! ;___; she has such older sister/mom energy, whenever she gets sad and helpless it hurts

- oh, OH so PROFESSOR X you’ll make into a hunk and ~*strategically*~ rip his clothes to show off a nipple and a flawless pec in a way that makes me extremely uncomfortable because he’s like The Dad??? apocalypse you are rotten to the core this is unforgivable

- so wait wanda never actually gets her real memories back. what the FuCk I hope that was a dropped storyline because they ended the show tragically prematurely rather than like. the plan

- why is spyke calling storm ‘storm’ show that’s his auntie o!! >:(

- as a society we need to acknowledge that apocalypse looks like a fucking clown

- ooooh yeah I have been thinking that this show’s greatest visual weakness so far has been not having a visual way to show telepathy/battles of the minds, but this is a pretty cool way to do it! better late than never

- I’m so happy rogue gets to end this herself, since she was forced into starting it against her will, it’s just nice and neat storytelling

- YEAH FUCKING TELL HER KURT AND ROGUE I AM SO PROUD OF YOU and she has the temerity to look pissed off oh my god

the only valid thing mystique has done in her entire life is be in love with destiny. literally everything else she gets up to is a travesty. like I know objectively she’s hot but my loathing for her stops me from even appreciating it. I do enjoy loathing her tho so please don’t change her haha

(a bit odd to have kurt’s attitude to her swing so much but I’m just going to assume he and rogue had a good long conversation after ‘cajun spice’ and that he understands what’s going on better now)

- this last part is such a cruel tease faskdfhsdaj ‘here are all the cool-ass things we had planned. sucks you never get to see it huh’ im devastated

- magneto without his helmet and playing charmingly with children like charles is going ‘well at least I saved my marriage finally’ fsadkhfjsd (honestly tho I would be super interested in seeing how they’d redeem this magneto because he’s been a real bitch the whole time lol)

there’s an interesting thing here where magneto looks down at wanda as the last thing he does on screen before this epilogue part (yeah I hope it fucking haunts you forever what you did to her erik you absolute piece of hot garbage) and the last thing charles does is look at jean b/c he knows what’s going to happen to her and it breaks his heart... Dramatic Parallells

- just the hint of jean as the phoenix has me in full D:D:D: mode tho maybe I wouldn’t have survived it

- gambit in the last groupshot with his arm around rogue ;^) I mean I’m sure they’re headed for some turns and roundabouts along the way but what’s that thing she says as her wedding vow, that she’ll always find her way back? anyway that got me in my heart

- man I really wish this show had been given more seasons, we were barely even getting warmed up here :’(

#x men evolution #x men #gambit #rogue x gambit #aaah this is like therapy for me... just dumping all my emotions into a tumblr post and then let them go into the ether #I am now wondering if I'm desperate enough to go all the way back to the x-men animated series (which I've never seen before!)#like am I willing to go there for more Contente. time will tell I suppose #happy tag #...this is very long #MAN why can't I channel this dumbass energy into fiction writing I'd get so much DONE

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reyeslonestar · 3 years

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Lone star better square the hell up if they think we are just gonna accept this lame ass apology from Owen. It’s not nearly enough and the real apology that TK deserves. He has probably lived with this relationship with Owen his entire life or at least majority of it and that’s so sad. He seems so used to this that he just sat back and continued on with the intervention. I know that comment still hurts TK because of how he even brought it up. They need to circle back to this because I’m genuinely wondering what it’s gonna take for Owen to actually act like a good father. Loving your kid isn’t enough- you actually have to actively try to be a good parent. As in- remember they exist even when TK isn’t hurt or something. As in, don’t twist things around and play victim. All TK does is love his dad and yeah he gets frustrated with Owen because who wouldn’t but he still is always there. Owen straight up acted like TK didn’t exist when he thought Gwyn’s baby was his. He only said he would schedule the surgery because ‘he’s gonna be a dad’. He only jumps into father mode when TK was shot and kidnapped. Every other time??? It’s like oh TK is mad at me that’s why he is being a paramedic now. Like dude have you ever stopped to think that maybe it’s not all about you? He just wanted the switch to the paramedic job because he likes it. These little moments add up and make me wanna yell at Owen FOR tk

anon, we are in agreement. god, I want to get tk by the shoulders and tell him that owen’s bullshit is absolutely not his fault and he has done way more than should have been expected of him. then id like to slap Owen upside the head and frogmarch him into therapy. very regular therapy.

you’ve brought up a lot of interesting things here so im going to stick most of my thoughts under a cut.

ultimately I think that the things that underscore the problems of TK and Owen’s relationship are Owen’s inconstancy and unreliability. I think theres a decent splash of narcissism in there too, which leads to him pressuring and gaslighting people, unloading his problems on random people, making himself the victim in any given confrontation, and also his misguided heroism stunts. but the root of him and TK having a fractured relationship comes from TK being unable to rely on Owen. (and hoo boy does that make me emotional about the fact that TK finally has someone he can completely rely on with Carlos)

so your first point:

this lame ass apology from Owen

honestly there were two weak apologies that stuck out to me - the first being the one during the intervention about Owen ‘going to be a father’ - yay, acknowledgment - but TK deserves an proper apology, one that doesn’t feel offhand, and not when Owen feels pressured by the environment. im sure im not the only one that felt that comment was disingenuous - it didnt feel at all like Owen actually felt sorry, or understood the damage he’d done. and then again in the vets - it felt pointed to me that TK had to confirm Owen was still going to go through with the surgery after buttercup turned out to be okay. he understandably doesn’t trust Owen to hold himself to his promises, even one he made in the last five minutes, and I think that reflects on how he views the apologies - if Owen can flip back and forth on promises about his own health, what’s stopping him from giving insincere apologies?

He has probably lived with this relationship with Owen his entire life or at least majority of it and that’s so sad. He seems so used to this

yeah I think you’re absolutely right - I think everything about their relationship, including TK’s anxieties about Owen’s unreliability, stem from him feeling left behind during his childhood (something I talked about a lot here - I wrote that a few months ago but I stand by a lot of it). and those anxieties really came out this ep because Owen keeps being incredibly inconstant this season. (not inconstant as in inconsistent characterisation, inconstant as in an unreliable character)

something I mentioned in some of my tags yesterday (and that I want to really dive into more specifically at some point) was the emotional labour that I suspect TK has had to shoulder in order to maintain their relationship. Owen has been this consistently absent figure, so TK has worked himself into Owen’s work life to be physically close to him, but Owen’s emotional distance has meant TK has taken up the emotional work too in order to maintain their relationship, and that has kind of allowed them both to pretend to themselves that they have a good relationship, with much more of the strain of maintaining that facade falling on TK.

Loving your kid isn’t enough- you actually have to actively try to be a good parent.

everything you said here. absolutely. loving someone does not equal having a healthy relationship with them, and TK and Owen definitely dont have that. TK is evidently so hyper aware of how much Owen has ignored him when it suits him - it kills me to see the way that comment about being a father has obviously been eating at him for weeks - and I really hate how controlling Owen gets when TK is in danger, but then is so utterly absent when TK’s in a good place, or even bitter and hostile when TK makes positive choices for himself. again, I talked about this in detail in this post - basically, Owen has major control issues and dude needs therapy.

don’t twist things around and play victim.

oh man, this shit pissed me off. like, I get that the subjects of interventions often have hostile reactions, but gaslighting Mateo after pressuring him into drinking and emotionally unloading on him? holy shit Owen, no. and making himself to be the victim of situations that have nothing to do with him, like TK becoming a paramedic or oversharing to the vet and the kid sitting on the roof. like, I understand that mental illness can lead you to taking shitty actions, but it still makes them shitty actions.

They need to circle back to this because I’m genuinely wondering what it’s gonna take for Owen to actually act like a good father.

yeah! I dont know what to think about this in the show, because knowing the way the show heroises Owen, I don’t know whether they’ll feel that they need to address it further than those pathetic apologies. that said, we’ve got Owen and this arson case next week and there does seem to be a tone that shows Owen as an idiot, and frames him as wrong for going against the rules and trying to sneak into a crime scene. if im right, then there would be scope for this to be an overall arc of Owen learning to become self aware and understand that he is not the centre of the universe. I just hope the show bothers to do that.

in the immortal words of Michelle Blake: Owen, get a therapist!

#911 lone star #911 lone star spoilers #episode chat 2x10 #fandom discussion #owen strand #tk strand #the strands #owen strand critical #I dont mind flawed characters #and the fact that they were addressing it (kinda) made me happy #and thats partly why I didnt mind Owen this ep #a has thoughts

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collecting-stories · 4 years

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The Arrival - Ep. 01 - JJ Maybank

Summary: The pogues (and Sarah) decide to get away from the Outer Banks for senior week though Sarah’s suggestion that they spend the vacation with a friend of hers doesn’t sit well with JJ, who just wanted a week away with friends. Though his opinion of the situation may change his expectation that nothing will go according to plan is truer than they could have hoped.

A/N: This is a ‘they’re just regular teens and there was no gold hunt’ AU. This will be a 5 part story.

The S’week Masterlist | Outer Banks Masterlist

///

“No.” JJ shook his head, “no, no, absolutely not.”

“Why not?” Sarah asked, looking back at her boyfriend for support. John B quickly looked away, staring out at the marsh in order to avoid the conversation.

“Why not? Because I’m not spending senior week with a bunch of fucking kooks while they prance around like their in some MTV reality show!” JJ stresses, voice raised. He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it stuck up all over the place.

“It might not be so bad,” Kie cut in, regretting it almost immediately when JJ looked over at her, “you said yourself that we’ve done senior week here...let’s do ours somewhere else?”

“Sure. Wherever you want as long as it’s not a trip to kookland.”

“You are so dramatic, oh my god JJ. Last time I checked you weren’t exactly rolling in it. How do you propose we pay for a week down the beach?” Sarah pointed out.

“You got money.”

“You shouldn’t even be going! It’s not like you fucking graduated, this is senior week. For graduating seniors.” Sarah waved her hand to indicate her, John B, Kiara, and Pope.

“Screw you!”

“Guys!” Pope finally intervened, pushing his best friend back, “okay, let’s cool down.”

“Can we please just go to the keys? I’m sick of wasting my time arguing. If we’re going we need to leave tomorrow morning...early.” Sarah said, looking pointedly at JJ.

“Hey, I’m always on time!”

Despite his protests JJ was exactly where he said he’d be on Friday morning at 5:30a. Sitting outside John B’s house, on time and with his bag packed for Florida. He was the first one to arrive, followed by Kiara who’d almost been early if it wasn’t for the half hour argument she’d gotten into with her mom for leaving the week after graduation. As if that wasn’t ritual.

JJ said nothing, unusually quite and still completely pissed that everyone had been so on board with Sarah’s plan to spend Senior Week in Florida with some friend at their grandparents’ vacation home. He wanted a chill holiday, just the four of them (five because John B couldn’t be separated from Sarah) spending every day on the beach. He didn’t want some kook vacation laying around a pool drinking vodka in crystal light and talking about ‘daddy’s credit card’ and whatever dumb shit else they did on their weekends.

With the Twinkie packed to exploding with teenagers and luggage John B took the first leg of the drive south. JJ spent the trip sitting behind the passenger’s seat, rolling blunts in his lap and ignoring his friends excitement for senior week. When Kiara nudged his leg halfway to Florida and he looked over she smiled sympathetically at him.

“It might be a good week.” Kiara tried to sound reassuring, knowing that it was JJ’s idea to go away in the first place and that they had in fact hijacked his plans, “at least the change of scenery will be nice?”

“So far the only good thing about this trip is not being home for a week.” JJ replied, refocusing on his task. He would definitely murder one of them if he didn’t spend the week at least somewhat buzzed. If you asked anyone in the obx they’d tell you that JJ was laid back and chill, a go-with-the-flow, weed smoking, kid who would probably never grow out of his ‘it is what it is’ phase. But that wasn’t JJ at all. Sure, he could hit up a kegger at the drop of a hat but he liked a plan and he liked the plan to consider him as an important factor. Not just another nameless sidekick to John B’s summer. And so far, that’s exactly what this senior week was shaping up to become.

“It’ll be fine dude.” Pope said, voice low so he wouldn’t draw anyone else’s attention in the van.

JJ looked up at him and frowned before nodding. What else could he do but nod and pretend that he agreed with anything that Pope said. They were already halfway to Florida and no one cared about his opinion.

Sometime after that JJ fell asleep, Kiara taking the same case of blunts from his lap and folding everything up into his backpack. By the time Pope pulled the Twinkie into the horseshoe driveway of a house bigger than Tannyhill, JJ had woken up again, rubbing his eyes as he looked out the window.

“This is the shit I was talking about.” He said.

Sarah whipped around, hair flying against her shoulders as she glared at him, “for god sake JJ, can you have a good fucking time? Please.”

John B made a face, pleading with his best friend to chill. All he wanted was a stress free vacation and the fact that Sarah’s friend was willing to let them stay aided his ability to relax. If only it would aid JJ’s.

You were standing outside on the steps when the bus pulled up, engine cutting in the middle of the horseshoe. Kiara recognized you from school and Pope recognised you from running groceries for his dad. Sarah pulled the door open and jumped out, throwing her arms around your shoulders.

“Oh my god, you have no idea how much I missed you.” Sarah said, pulling away, “I’m literally gonna kill everyone, starting with JJ.”

“That makes two of us princess.” JJ remarked, glaring at her as he climbed out of bus.

“Hey,” Kiara called, drawing attention away from JJ and Sarah, “thanks for having us.”

“Trust me I was just happy to tell Scarlett that her and Kelce couldn’t stay here.” You replied, looking over at JJ, “I’d much rather spend my senior week with you guys.”

“Flattered.”

“Hey, you’ve never had to sit around listening to Topper talk about workouts.” You replied, feeling unusually proud of yourself when JJ cracked a smile.

“Oh come on, you can’t just do a bench press without the proper preparation,” JJ joked, imitating Topper’s ‘bro’ dialect.

You laughed and nodded, following him to the trunk to help them unload packs. “Hey Pope, my mom said you got that scholarship you were going for?” You mentioned as you grabbed Sarah’s bag.

“I did yeah,” he smiled, surprised that you knew or remembered anything about it. He definitely considered you better than some of the other kooks on the island but that didn’t make you friends with him. You were just someone he delivered groceries to every once in a while.

Once the bus was unpacked you led the group inside, beginning the tour of the house. You lived on Figure Eight in the Outer Banks and you had a house as nice as or better than the Camerons’ but this house was even nicer than that. Your grandparents had old money and they had used it to retire to the Florida Keys where they really only spent the winter months.

“There are four guest bedrooms, you can divy them up however you want to, I’m this bedroom,” you pointed to the closed door behind you at the end of the hall. “The master is off limits, it’s my grandparents and they’ll murder all of you before JJ even gets the chance if you step foot in their room.” You instructed, looking over to JJ as you spoke. He smiled.

“How’ll they know?” He asked, looking down the hall toward the double doors of the master bedroom. This house could fit four of his inside of it. He shifted his weight as he looked around the hallway, the art on the wall looked like something he would have seen on a field trip to a museum, ugly and old but a clear representation of their wealth.

“There’s a camera in their room.”

“Kinky.”

“Ew, oh my god JJ!” You practically gagged, causing him to laugh as Sarah scrunched up her face at the thought of your grandparents using the camera for anything more than G rated. “Moving on!” You continued through the whole house until you’d looped back around, reminding them again that the beach let out right behind the patio.

Once the tour was over you pulled Sarah away from John B, telling her that you needed to talk to her alone. And truthfully, you did. You hadn’t been lying when you told her that you had turned Kelce and Scarlett away for the week. Kelce had texted you days before Sarah and asked about ‘all of us’ getting together for senior week at your grandparents. You knew what ‘all of us’ meant. Him, Scarlett, Topper, and (despite having graduated two years earlier), Rafe. If Sarah was still hanging out with them she would’ve been there too. That was the senior week Scarlett had always planned for but there wasn’t anything you wanted less in life than spending time with all your least favorite people.

While everyone else unpacked you led Sarah into the kitchen, “so, I told you Kelce had texted me about them doing senior week here?”

“Yeah, but they’re not...”

“No,” you shook your head, “no I told them I had a full house. But they are here.”

“What do you mean here?”

“I mean they rented a place down the street. Like we can see their house from this house. Topper texted me this morning before you guys got here.” You fished your phone out of your pocket and showed Sarah the text that Topper had sent along with the picture of you out on your deck.

“Bit stalkerish.”

“Sarah, not the point.”

“Look, it’s fine,” she replied, trying to play off that maybe she actually believed that it was fine, “they can do their thing and we’ll do ours.”

“Yeah, that would totally be fine. Except your brother is here too.”

Sarah groaned, “fuck.”

“What’s the matter?”

You and Sarah turned to find John B and JJ coming into the kitchen, the latter going straight for the fridge and pulling out one of the beers that you had bought before they came down. You watched as he popped the cap off on the counter and took a long gulp, head tilted back. Sarah smacked your arm to get your attention and both of the boys turned to look at her too.

“Topper told me that he’s here for senior week. Him, Scarlett, Kelce...Rafe.”

“Oh cool...cool, awesome...so, the kook fucking vacation I said I didn’t want.�� JJ replied, grip tightening around the beer bottle. Sarah rolled her eyes.

“It’s fine. It’s not like we have to see them.” John B replied, trying to ease his friend’s mood. He didn’t need this argument to flare up again. JJ had only just started to relax and the last thing John B wanted was for him to be in a shitty mood all week.

“Except we always do. It’s fucking like...what’s the word?”

“Kismet?” You asked, pulling yourself up to sit on the counter as Kiara and Pope joined the small gathering.

“What’s kismet?” Kiara asked, shaking her head when John B offered her a beer.

“Topper and” Sarah waved her hand as if to indicate the rest of the group, “them are here.”

“What is kismet?” JJ asked, leaning toward you.

“It means fate or destiny.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it is. It’s my destiny to have the shittest fucking time imaginable because we all had to agree to Sarah’s kook vacation.”

“What is that, your vocabulary word for the day? I’m sorry that I didn’t envision senior week as us sitting around together in a dumpster motel with a bunch of other pogues trying to pretend that we’re not still in the Outer Banks. How dare I fucking plan an actual good vacation that you, oh that’s right, don’t have to pay for!”

“Guys,” Pope stressed the word as he stepped between Sarah and JJ, “can we please just focus on having a good time?”

“I’d have an awesome time if I was anywhere but here!” JJ shoved passed Pope and headed out the sliding glass doors toward the beach leaving the five of you to stand in the kitchen awkwardly.

“So...” Kiara began, looking around at the group, “so Topper is here?”

“Topper, Kelce, Scarlett-”

“She’s a bitch.” Sarah cut in.

“-and Rafe.”

“Isn’t your brother a little too old to be partying on senior week?” Pope asked, looking toward Sarah. Rafe was at least two years into college by now, there was no way he should’ve been hanging around a bunch of high school kids. “Didn’t he already have a senior week?”

“He’ll probably go on senior week with Wheezie too.” You joked, “anything to party.”

“Honestly.” Sarah agreed. She had a feeling her brother’s intention was for more than just partying. If Kelce had planned to stay with you than it was obvious why Rafe was even coming down in the first place though she wasn’t about to say anything to anyone right now. Kiara, she assumed, knew that you had broken up with Rafe over spring break but she doubted that it was common island knowledge that you had been dating him at all.

Pope suggested that it was a good idea to leave JJ be, that he’d eventually cool down and come inside on his own, especially once he realized that he had no means to get back to North Carolina. He either came in and accepted that this was the vacation they were getting or he camped out on the beach, either way he was stuck in Florida for the week. Still, you couldn’t help feeling guilty that he was having a shitty time. When Sarah had asked if she could stay with you for the week you had stressed whether it was okay with her friends or not.

That guilty feeling was completely, so you said, the reason for heading down the beach to find JJ. “I did ask Sarah if it was cool with you guys...coming down here. I know it’s not exactly what you had in mind.” You offered as you sat beside JJ on the beach. In another hour the sun would be completely gone from the sky, the oranges and pinks in the horizon hinting at the coming night.

“I feel like I should be bitching to a confessional about how much I can’t stand Sarah right now.” He replied.

“I mean, you could try it?” You teased, moving so your back was to the water and you were facing him, “alright JJ, tell us what’s got you so upset and try to include a tragic story from your past.”

JJ cracked a smile, meeting you eyes as he put on his best reality show sob voice, “I’m just like, really pissed at Sarah and it totally reminds me of the summer my turtle died.”

You couldn’t help the burst of laughter as you fell back into the sand. JJ joined in, sour mood getting shelved for another day. He honestly didn’t hate the view or being near a beach, or the incredibly comfortable mattress that he had in the room he had claimed for himself. He was even hesitant to complain about you. Not quite the stuck-up kook that he expected, you’d been welcoming to them since the Twinkie first pulled into your driveway.

“If it’s Top and them you aren’t thrilled about I don’t blame you. I was definitely looking forward to a drama free week and I feel like that might have just become unattainable. But, we’ll avoid them best we can and focus on other stuff.” You said, trying to ease his upset.

“Other stuff like?”

“Other stuff like, I got invited to a party down the beach tonight...if you wanna go?” You asked, “I mean who can be sad when they’re drunk?”

“John B...never let him talk to you when he’s drunk.” JJ replied. He stood up and offered you his hand to grab.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” You said, texting Sarah that you were headed down to a party with JJ.

The party wasn’t far away and groups of people had already gathered despite it still being early in the night. People who had just shifted from lounging on the beach to the beginnings of what would become a party. It was still in the transition between disjointed groups sunbathing and people getting drunk as you and JJ walked up. He was quiet as you walked through people trying to find somewhere to set yourselves up.

You weren’t sure if Sarah would really show up with everyone or if she was so peeved with JJ’s attitude that she’d stay away for the night. You kept an eye out for any sign of Topper or anyone else in his group, hoping to avoid them for as long as possible. Maybe the whole week if you were truly lucky.

Beach parties in the keys were not as good as the boneyard parties you were used to but it would have to do for tonight. A little less chill and relaxed, people seemed to be forcing the good time as opposed to just letting it happen. The chill vibe that you felt like it should’ve had was non-existent but you weren’t entirely sure that wasn’t just you projecting. Maybe everyone else was already having a good time and you were trying too hard already for the sake of the boy trailing behind you. People had coolers sitting around with different seltzers, hard lemonades, seagrams, and locos but not a plain beer in sight. JJ complained about the missing keg and you tried to make up for it by offering him a peach Jack Daniels. You took a can of something called Unicorn Swirl, bypassing other people on the beach to sit up on the lifeguard’s deck.

“This is disgusting, by the way.” JJ mentioned as he took a drink, face screwing up at the overtly sweet taste of the peach. He downed another gulp quickly, trying to trick his brain into not realizing the taste and only getting the alcohol.

“You’ll be hard pressed to find a keg here.”

“So what I’m hearing is, even the parties are shit?”

“Not total shit-” you paused to take a sip of your drink, JJ laughing as you almost spit it out. “Oh my god, that’s disgusting!” You gagged at the after taste, holding the 16oz can out for JJ to take, “try it.”

“You just spit it out and you want me to try it?”

“Just...you have to experience it...I can’t even describe that taste.” You replied, taking the peach from him to wash down the taste. “It doesn’t even have a flavor.”

JJ kicked it back, tilting his head and gulping. The sugary taste of whatever flavor they intended it to be made him gag worse than you had and he leaned all the way forward, spitting most of it back out onto the sand. “Holy shit! That is the worst fucking thing I’ve ever had in my life!” He exclaimed, “it tastes like fucking medicine! Why did you make me drink that?”

“I didn’t make you.” You insisted, taking a sip from his peach.

“You literally held it in my face and told me I ‘had to experience it’. How is that not making me?”

“Yeah but I told you it was gross before you drank it so you already knew that.”

“I can’t believe you brought me to a beach party with nothing to drink.” He replied, taking another, smaller sip from the can and pulling a face as he made himself swallow.

“Why are you still drinking that?”

“Trying to get drunk enough that this whole vacation doesn’t suck.” He shrugged.

“Hey!” You reached over and smacked his arm, “the whole thing doesn’t suck! I’m super cool, what’re you talking about!”

“Except you brought me to this party so...not as cool as you think you are.” He took another sip and gagged again, “god I have to stop drinking this.”

“Come on,” you put your peach down and grabbed the unicorn from his hand to abandon that on the lifeguard stand as well, “I know there’s a distributor around here...lets get some real beer.”

“Sounds good to me, anything but this.” JJ replied, following you away from the crowd of people on the beach.

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ransomedrogue · 3 years

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Tales of Woe - Scenes from S1

...there are no words to properly describe the awesomeness of this episode! so good every time. in honour of her first appearance, special Allie POV! Basically it’s just three conversations this week (to make them talk and think about what happened :D )

PS you have to squint a little to fit these scenes all into the timeline of the ep but that’s the joy of fic.

1.9

There was really no reason for her to be in the locker room, other than extreme curiosity. But Allie figured the gorgeous new FBI consultant wouldn't pick up on that. And even if this 'Jane Doe' did, it wouldn't matter much anyways - Allie wasn't exactly shy. She'd probably end up just telling the truth, which would only make the situation more disconcerting for the other woman.

She wasn't exactly sure what she even wanted from an encounter with the tattooed woman; just a chance to check her out really. The stunned look on Kurt's face when Jane had appeared in that dress had made her both slightly jealous and highly curious. In her entire relationship with Kurt Weller he'd never looked at her, or anyone else, like that. So when she'd seen the object of Weller's attention enter the locker room immediately after they returned from their mission, Allie had slipped in too.

It turned out to be a solid tactic when she heard Jane struggling in the stall, obviously somehow stuck in her dress. Considering the stories she'd heard that day from the rest of Kurt's team about the woman’s exploits thus far, it seemed completely implausible that she'd been foiled by her outfit. But Allie definitely heard muffled cursing coming from the stall, along with a grunt of irritation.

"You need some help in there?" she called out.

There was a fairly long pause before Jane sighed.

"Um, yeah," she replied sheepishly, opening the door.

Allie stepped up to take a look at the situation, which ended up being a classic case of a jammed zipper. With a little wiggling, she freed the zipper pull from the fabric it was stuck on and then unzipped the dress the rest of the way, revealing all the tattoos that weren't covered up.

Unsurprisingly, Jane was wearing the most basic of underwear, despite the dress she'd been wearing. Allie eyed her inked skin and her fit body with interest, her mind wandering in a few different directions as Jane shyly got dressed in her regular clothes. She wondered how many of the tattoos Kurt had seen. Somehow she was sure he would eventually see them all, up close and personal. A small part of her wanted to see the rest of them too.

"So what happened out there?" Allie asked, interrupting her own thoughts and breaking the silence.

"Uh. All things considered, it turned out pretty well," Jane replied. "We were lucky Reade and Zapata showed up when they did though. I was out of ammo and there were a lot of guys."

It was an incredibly bland answer, one that didn't mention Weller directly at all. But also a perfectly normal and acceptable response to what had been asked. Clearly she needed to dig a lot deeper to find out what she wanted to know.

"And how did it go with Kurt? Being married and all that?"

Allie didn't fully know why she was putting Jane on the spot like that, except that there was a need on her part to take back some of the power she'd obviously lost. She'd liked a lot of things about Kurt Weller and he'd once liked a lot of things about her too. It was only natural she'd wondered that day if she still held any sway over him.

And that question had been answered as soon as Jane showed up in the dress that was lying in heap in front of them now. Which had immediately been intriguing, even though Allie didn't particularly like losing at anything. Especially when she'd been pitching real hard for Kurt's attention.

Who was this woman that could make him stare like that?

That's what Allie was going find out.

Jane was still standing there in front of her, cornered in the stall and looking uncomfortable with the shift in conversation. But being a US Marshal made Allie used to long silences in interrogations and so she left the question just hanging between them, waiting for a response.

Finally, Jane looked at her and offered an awkward shrug.

"Um. He was very… attentive."

Allie smirked, knowing how Weller could be. He was old school, very 'protect my woman' even though he tended to choose deadly women.

Good answer, she thought. Point for Jane.

"I'm sure he was. Kurt can be pretty possessive."

"Was he?" Jane asked, timidly. "When you… uh…"

"When we dated?" Allie replied. "Actually, not usually. Just after a few drinks and some guy gets handsy at the bar, you know."

Jane made a face like maybe she didn't know at all and was trying to wrap her head around the comment. Allie was thinking she kind of liked the deadly yet innocent consultant, a lot more than she thought she would.

"But I bet he was with you. Especially out there, all alone, without any backup," Allie said.

"I bet he was all over you."

Jane made a face that confirmed exactly what had just been said and Allie grinned, feeling like she'd accomplished her mission. She'd gotten a sense of the situation between her ex and his new interest, which pretty much told her what she'd originally thought.

"Anyways, I'll let you get dressed," Allie said, finally turning to leave the stall.

Jane stammered some sort of thanks for freeing her from her dress but Allie was already on her way out of the locker room, with a new mission in mind.

It was time to find Kurt and put him to a little test; one she already knew he was going to fail.

###

"But aside from that you won't find a better man."

The US Marshal's words were still repeating in her ears even after Jane had returned the ring and Weller had gone off to put the props away. She had walked away from the one-sided conversation with Kurt's ex with her brow furrowed; puzzled about Allie's behaviour and a little startled at the implication of her words. Weller wasn't actually hers at all, despite how natural it had felt being ‘married’ to him for the day. Though she did feel his walls breaking down a little - he was talking to her more since she'd asked if they were friends.

Her relationship with him had already been a whirlwind and nothing had really even happened yet. She liked to think they'd settled into a good place after their stint of boundary setting; somewhere with a safe amount of distance for both of them. But of course she still thought about it, what it would be like to be with Weller. To be able to touch him the way they'd slid in and out of each other's hands that day.

They had fit so well together, both professionally and... physically. And then there'd been the way he behaved – so angry and jealous, with a heat that made it seem like more than an act. Which had startled her at first; but when he'd called her his wife in that fierce tone, a warm ripple had passed through her body.

That was all over now though. She'd returned the ring and dress, and was back in her regular clothes, feeling so much more comfortable with herself. Though she hadn't exactly minded the way Weller had looked at her; especially since it had all happened in front of his ex.

Which brought her back to her confusion about Allie. When the Marshal had hugged Weller so familiarly that day it had elicited feelings from Jane that she'd never experienced before. The idea of Weller having a girlfriend had previously just been a vague concept, not something she'd ever paused on for long. But now she had all sorts of thoughts and questions and feelings about Kurt and his past and future romantic relationships.

Especially now that Allie had just implied that Weller was somehow Jane's, even though nothing had actually changed in their relationship. No matter how he had acted while they were 'married', it was all part of his job. He was the lead agent on her case, as well as her boss. Sure, she had a lot of complicated feelings about him but all that was really between them was an ancient connection, a lot of unresolved guilt and a neediness on her part. She knew he cared about her. But that was due to his past, and because it was his job. In their current existence, they were just settling into being friends. He was actually coming over for the housewarming party that night, which was nice, especially after the day that they'd had together.

That was just an act, Jane reminded herself sternly as she approached the elevator.

Jane stirred herself out of her thoughts as she pressed the down button and waited. She wanted to get back to the safe house before everyone came over, though she wasn't exactly versed on what she was meant to do as the host of a housewarming party. Especially since the idea had been foisted on her by drunk Zapata and Patterson, who wanted to both see the place she escaped from and make Weller come out with the team. Jane had still been a bit surprised that Kurt had enthusiastically approved of the plan, despite how sure both the other agents had been about it. Which had resulted in a lot of smirking and pointed eyes looks in her direction when he immediately took the idea and ran with it.

So maybe it hadn't all been an act.

Jane was blushing a bit just thinking about it when Kurt approached again and let his gaze fall over her. He was standing awfully close too; so close she could feel the heat coming off his body. She was trying to not think about dancing with him earlier, but it was nearly impossible to keep the memory out of her mind. It didn't matter that he wasn't in the tux anymore, just the scent of him was enough to evoke the feeling of his hands on her body.

"Do you want a ride home?" Weller asked, interrupting her thoughts.

Jane prayed her cheeks weren't as red as they felt, and she tried her hardest to put those thoughts away. Any other day she could tell Weller that her detail would drive her but he was coming over for the housewarming so there wasn't any good reason not to ride with him. Especially because he was cutting out before the rest of the team was done for the day; an extreme rarity. And her body kept inching towards his, as if pulled by a gravitational force.

"Uh, sure," she stammered, without any of the confidence she'd felt while playing his wife.

Weller grinned at her response and ushered her into the just-arrived elevator car, then pressed the door close button as soon as they got in. Jane tried her best not to stand too near but now it was Kurt who kept closing the space between them, until her shoulder was touching his.

It was strange, but as soon as his body made contact with hers, Jane felt calmer. Especially when he gave her a little nudge, as if to say 'relax.'

They didn't talk on the way down to the vehicle, but the silence was anything but awkward. There were a lot of furtive glances and semi-smiles, some conversing with their eyes. Jane could tell that Weller was also thinking about the day they'd had and she liked the expression it brought to his usually serious face.

She thought back to earlier again. How possessive he'd been. He'd implied it was part of the act. But it hadn't felt that way. Maybe because, even now, he hadn't quite stopped behaving that way.

Once they were driving, Jane wondered if they were going to talk about the day, or pretend it had all never happened. Fairly quickly she got her answer, as Weller turned to her with an unreadable expression.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable out there today," he said. "Things got pretty… close there for a moment."

Jane frowned, biting down hard on her lip, wondering if he meant the shootout they'd been about to lose or how physically entangled their bodies had been. Because that part had certainly not been the problem. Being so close, having his hands all over her; it had felt more than a little comfortable.

"I think I might have come off like a possessive asshole."

Jane snapped her head up to look at him in surprise. He sounded a little anxious, like he wasn't sure how to navigate the situation. Which was rather adorable considering how forceful he'd been in the moment.

"You were acting pretty jealous," Jane commented, matter-of-factly.

"Well, he shouldn't have been touching you like that!" Weller retorted.

Jane grinned, and flashed him a wink. He still sounded pissed off just thinking about it. Which, she had to admit, was kind of cute.

Weller caught on that she was just playing with him and most of his anger dissipated; though his next words were still a bit huffy.

"Even if you're not my wife, I'm not going to let some creep do that to you."

The way he looked at her as he said it made Jane feel warm on the inside, but a little confused as well. She could obviously take care of herself. It certainly wasn't on Kurt to defend her honour. And yet, she liked that he wanted to.

"Weller. Calm down," Jane sighed. "It's over."

Kurt exhaled and looked back at the road for a bit as he took her advice and refocused his energy. She wondered at his anger, so long after the fact. Sure, the guard had taken full advantage of the situation in an unseemly manner, but Weller's emotions about it hadn't died off, even now.

Finally, as they were nearing the safe house, Kurt turned to her with a bit of a sheepish look.

"I'm really glad we still get to do this. For a minute there I was worried about what I'd gotten you into."

Jane wondered about his admitting that. He'd seemed confident the entire time. Though she'd started to be fairly concerned when she ran out of ammo and more attackers kept appearing.

"We would have figured something out," she said, brushing the near-miss out of her mind.

That won her a full grin from Kurt.

"Yeah," he said. "We made a good team didn't we."

There was another heady pause between them as Weller pulled the SUV up in front of the safe house and parked. But then, before they had a chance to get out, he turned to her and blurted out a question.

"What did Allie say to you?"

Jane felt a flutter in her stomach and panic in her chest. She didn't want to actually tell Kurt what the Marshal had said. So there had to be some way around it, without using exact words.

"Um. I think she thinks there's uh… something going on between us? Or that there should be."

It was the best she could do to sum up her strange contact with Weller's ex. But when Kurt didn't reply for a long time and just sat there with a pensive look on his face, Jane figured she must have said something wrong. Looking at him nervously, she waited to hear that him proclaim that she was making things up or massively misreading the situation.

But when Weller finally replied, he also sounded a bit confused.

"Yeah," he nodded. "That's the vibe I got too."

"Sorry about that, I don't know what's up with her. It's been awhile."

Jane felt all her anxiety wash away immediately and she bit back a smile. She'd rather liked the Marshal, despite her initial reaction at discovering the pretty agent was Kurt's ex. And she definitely liked that Allie thought Weller was over their relationship and had moved on to a new interest.

Shrugging, Jane flashed Kurt a sly grin.

"I guess we were too good at the act," she commented.

They were, and she knew it.

"That Rich Dotcom guy sure bought it."

Weller groaned and rolled his eyes at the mention of the ridiculous dark web kingpin they'd just apprehended.

"Hopefully we never have to see that guy again," he muttered.

"I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from shooting him."

###

Weller walked Jane into the safe house with a nerves tingling up and down his spine. The last time he'd been in there with her he'd ended up running off before he did something inappropriate. And now he knew what it felt like to hold her close and run his hands along her curves.

At the moment he had his arm lightly draped behind her back, hovering as if waiting to catch her from some unseen danger. Then, when he opened the door and she stepped in, his hand glanced against her hip for a brief second and it took everything in him to pull it away before his palm slid up to her waist the way it had earlier that day.

Quickly Kurt flushed the memory from his mind and reminded himself that he had to stay professional. Despite what Allie had implied, there wasn't anything going on between him and Jane and he meant to keep it that way. If he acted on his feelings towards her any more than he already had, he would probably be forced to withdraw from her case. Which was a consequence he wasn't willing to risk, no matter how attracted he was to her.

Shaking himself back into the present, Weller put the beers he'd brought into the suspiciously empty fridge and the snacks on the counter. When he was done putting things away, he noticed that Jane was standing in the kitchen looking a little lost so he opened two beers and handed her one.

"Cheers," he said, with a grin.

"To another successful mission."

They clinked bottles and Jane took a few sips before she offered him the same helpless look she'd been wearing since they came in.

"I'm sorry. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do," she stammered.

Weller's grin grew as he took in her nervousness. She hadn't been nearly this anxious when stranded with him alone in the field, pretending to be married and facing a small army on their own. Or when he'd made her dance with him at the party, knowing that he might never get another golden opportunity like that.

"Relax," he replied. "How about you show me around?"

It was a bit pointless since it was just another standard FBI safe house and Weller had certainly seen enough of those in his career. But Jane gave him a thankful smile at his suggestion and toured him through the place, all of it as non-descript as he imagined until they returned to the living room and he noticed the sketches on the wall.

"Did you do these?" he asked, staring at the incredible detail in the art.

Jane nodded as she stepped up next to him, suddenly looking shy again.

"They're amazing," he added.

"Is there anything you can't do?"

Jane blushed.

"Uh. I don't know how to host a housewarming party?"

Weller laughed.

"Jane, stop worrying. The rest of the team will be here soon and then we'll order pizza. All you have to do is relax and have a good time."

She sighed and gave him a sheepish look.

"Sorry. Sometimes I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing."

Kurt laughed again.

Could she be any more adorable? Deadly and capable as hell but still lacking confidence in many ways.

"You did fine at the party today," he said.

"Why don't we just sit down and wait for everyone else?"

Jane still looked unsure so Weller took the lead and sat down on the couch, then gave her an expectant look. Which finally drew a grin from her as she rolled her eyes and joined him on the sofa.

It was a little weird sitting there with her, but not really. He could still feel it, that rightness between them. It had been like that all day, the way his arm fit perfectly around her.

Weller's mind drifted right back to dancing with her, rueing the fact that there wasn't likely to be another mission that involved that sort of interaction. Then his brain flashed to Jane asking if he'd ever been married and her confession about having been engaged at some point.

It made him irrationally upset thinking that she possibly had a fiancé, and not for the poor fiancé who'd lost his gorgeous future wife. Obviously Kurt knew what it meant, that he wanted her to be his. But she wasn't and she couldn't be - it would only make him more goddamned not 'objective' like everyone already said.

Weller growled at himself, trying to put all of it out of mind. They were friends, and it had to stay like that for the sake of the investigation.

"Can I ask you something?"

Kurt was knocked out of his internal battle by Jane's timid question, and he immediately focused in on her again.

"Of course," he replied.

It took her a moment to continue and he loved watching the emotions dance across her features as she thought about her next words.

"What happened between you and Allie?" Jane finally asked.

"She seemed pretty happy to see you again."

That was twice she'd asked about his relationship with Allie, which definitely gave his ego a little boost. He liked that Jane cared enough to question him about it, even if he didn't really want to discuss his failed love life with her.

"Uh, yeah," he mumbled, trying his best to play things cool.

"I guess she forgot we weren't a very good fit."

That much was true. He'd been surprised that Allie had propositioned him again, despite all their issues the first time around. She'd been pretty clear that he hadn't been able to meet her needs, and he didn't think her memory was that short.

Jane gave him a look that implied she didn't believe him and Weller sighed. How was he supposed to characterize a relationship that ended because he was emotionally unavailable?

"There was a lot of drinking and not a lot of talking," he explained.

"We had a lot of fun but she wanted more from me."

"What did you want?" Jane asked.

She sounded so innocent and earnest, yet he couldn't help but feel awkward talking to Jane about Allie. It was making him overthink things to the extreme, go down a mental path he was trying to avoid.

"To be honest, I didn't know what I wanted," he finally replied. "And I was never good at opening up."

"Yeah," Jane said. "I can tell."

Weller frowned with amusement at her tone, and gave her a little nudge on the shoulder.

"You keep your cards pretty close to your chest too," he grumbled.

"You remembered being engaged? When did that happen?"

"Not until you put the ring on my hand," she said, seeming to blush a bit, though he couldn't quite tell in the dim light.

"Were there any clues about who he might be?" Weller asked, recognizing that he was prying and unable to stop himself from doing so. At least he could pretend it was due to the case.

"No, but I did remember later that I gave the ring back," Jane said, a little sadly. "And I think I've dreamt about him before."

The fact that she'd given the ring back shouldn't have made him so pleased but it still did. The thought of a fiancé out there swooping in to claim Jane as his own turned his stomach, and the chances of that happening were a lot slimmer if they were no longer engaged.

Weller's internal voice tried to warn him that his emotions about her were too present after the day they'd had, and that talking about relationships with Jane, especially right then, was risky business. Yet, the next words came out anyway, before his rational mind could shut his mouth.

"Have you thought about it?" he asked. "Dating?"

Maybe he just felt the need to prepare himself for the eventuality. She deserved a life outside of the case and was certain to attract interest if she started going out more often. Or maybe he was trying to trap her into some reassurance that she also understood they were meant to be together. The thing was, even Kurt wasn't exactly sure why he was pushing the conversation in that direction.

Jane looked anxious as hell about his question, which had not been his intent at all. Yet obviously he'd put her on the spot, in an extremely awkward way.

Nice one, Weller, he groaned to himself, wondering if he could retract his words somehow. But before he could backtrack, Jane actually answered.

"Um a little bit? It would all be pretty hard to explain though."

That much was obvious, though he imagined that Jane's mysterious past would just make her more intriguing to most men. It was cute to see her so shy though; so unsure when she was generally so self-confident.

"Even just the tattoos," she continued. "Not to mention the memory thing."

The tattoos were such an integral part of her that he no longer registered them as out of the ordinary. In fact, it was strange to see her without the bird on her neck at the moment, because she hadn't yet wiped off the makeup they'd used to cover it for the mission. So it was hard to remember that the tattoos weren't ordinary at all and would prompt a lot of judgment, especially since she couldn't explain any of it, due to everything being classified.

"Your tattoos are gorgeous," he stated firmly. "They're a part of you. You shouldn't have to explain them to anyone."

"It was the only thing missing from that outfit today."

He hadn't exactly meant to let that last bit slip; would have blamed it on the beer except he'd only had half a bottle. But it didn't make the statement any less true. The thought of Jane wearing that dress while in her regular inked skin was almost too much to bear.

"Kurt, that was so not me," Jane groaned, shaking her head at him.

"Yeah well, a tux isn't me either," he replied. "But it's still nice to look good in one."

It was true after all. It had felt nice, getting the appreciative comments from Allie. Though Weller was glad he'd stopped himself from blurting out his thoughts when Jane had first appeared in that dress. Now though, he couldn't seem to help elaborating on his more muted comment at the time.

Jane blushed, which only stirred his out-of-whack emotions even further.

"Sorry," he apologized, realizing he'd crossed a line again.

"I shouldn't go there."

"No, you're right," Jane replied with a shy smile.

"It is nice to hear. I don't usually feel very pretty."

Of all the words she could have spoken, those ones completely knocked his socks off. Her lack of self-recognition was bewildering- it seemed impossible that Jane didn't know how beautiful she was. Either dressed up for a gala or just in a tank top and jeans.

His hands wanted to reach for her and confess all of his thoughts. Weller even felt his arm moving towards her, as if by its own accord. He could feel the crumbling of his internal walls and was seriously about to give himself away when there was a knock at the door and they could hear Patterson's voice through it.

Weller was thrown out of his reverie by the noise and breathed a sigh of relief. He'd nearly acted on feelings he was trying his best to repress, and that would have likely led to all sorts of complications. Yet he couldn't just let the conversation end where it was; so before they stood up, he managed to sneak in one more comment.

Looking at Jane seriously, he held her to the couch with his eyes for just a moment longer.

"Well. You should," he declared, in a tone that brooked no arguing.

His declaration brought a shy, sassy smile to her lips before Jane suddenly fled, muttering something about washing off the makeup before everything got started. Weller wistfully watched her run off before going to open the door; once again both cursing and blessing the others for showing up at that moment. Because he'd been about to reach out and kiss her. And he would have never been able to let go.

#blindspot #blindspot fanfic #blindspot rewatch #s1fic #i wrote this

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moku-youbi · 3 years

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MCU’s Lazy Post-Snap Writing (Thanks Disney...)

This could be potentially spoilery for the first episode of Falcon and Winter Soldier, but it is just a general discussion of the world-building post-”snap” or whatever in the MCU, nothing specific about plot. So last night I was watching the first ep, and briefly getting my hopes up when they mentioned how soon after Endgame this is set, I thought okay, maybe we’ll finally get to see some of the fallout from all these people returning 5 years later.

(Because let’s be real, WandaVision quietly killing our lesbians off screen with Maria Rambeau apparently dying from cancer while her daughter was snapped away without so much of a mention of Carol being the only consequence of the snap is a fucking joke. And EVERYTHING that was Far From Home, please. Sure, all the right people just so happened to be snapped away so that you could still have Peter and all his friends be the same age and this one character as a joke that used to be younger and is now the same age...right...)

So, great. Sam’s been gone for 5 years and then immediately lost his best friend to another awful writing decision, but alas. For whatever reason, male pride? IDK, he’s insisting on claiming his ownership over his sister’s home and boat that they technically both inherited, even though she’s a widower who’s been raising two young kids alone during the whole snap era in (I think) the NOLA area, and is just trying to keep her head above water by selling. It’s a strange turn for Sam, who has in the past seemed to be a sensitive and understanding guy, to keep flexing on her about how it’s partially his, even though prior to the snap he’d been living based out of the DC area, and superheroing and/or breaking international treaties around the globe, so...

It seems like an excuse to have him attempting to secure a loan, which proves a difficult proposition for someone without work history for the last 5 years, in a time when apparently banks have been inundated with loan applications following the sudden return of billions of people. Okay, cool. I appreciate that the latter would be a nightmare situation, and it’s this sort of detail that might get overlooked in the films that starts to hint at the major ramifications of Tony’s decision to bring everyone back without rewinding time.

However, the problem (beyond the ridiculous “no work history while you were literally nonexistent” which, if the banks are receiving loan requests from people just returned, would be EVERYONE), is pointed out BY the loan officer, and there’s no real good explanation--Sam is a hero. Even if we somehow accept that the US government isn’t scrambling to do some sort of relief bill, or special loans or grants for those returning to existence, Sam’s situation is different. He has a high-profile job with the military. He is loved the world over. And most importantly, he was dusted in the process of defending the world from Thanos, then assisted in his defeat upon his return. You’re telling me there isn’t payment for that kind of thing?

Even IF no governments around the world are willing to compensate these heroes, you have people like Tony and T’Challa who are incredibly wealthy, and it makes NO SENSE that they aren’t compensating the heroes who work alongside them or helped defend Wakanda. I absolutely refuse to believe that Pepper would be creating some sort of grant, even if there weren’t a regular salary or whatever, for those returning in particular. And it especially doesn’t make sense when you see Tony basically handing over the keys to the kingdom to Peter, and Pepper giving big checks to Aunt May’s charity, or Vision (and Wanda) who has no way of earning income EXCEPT from his superheroing, purchasing a home. How DID they support themselves running around Europe prior to Infinity War if they’re not receiving money from some Avengers fund? And even supposing it comes down to some kind of pride on Sam’s part, even if Pepper had come to him with some sort of restitution payment or compensation for his service, and he was all like “I can’t accept charity,” Pepper would have happily said, “let’s call it a low interest loan, then.” There’s NO REASON he should have to go to some random bank begging for a loan.

Except...the MCU writers are lazy af. They want that drama to be there, they want this to be a motivation for his character, so they ignore the world and the rules already put in place by the past 20+ films/shows. The same as the utter laziness of insisting on keeping the 5 years with no real good justification for it besides Tony Stark wanting to keep his daughter (and even if you’re not big on the theory that Pepper was already pregnant at the time of the snap like I am, I think we’d all agree that Tony Stark would put the greater good ahead of his personal life. He’d know damn well that huge cost of bringing everyone back and it would tear him apart, but he’d DO THE RIGHT THING)

It was incredibly insulting to viewers, and tragically lazy writing. They wanted to have their cake and eat it to. So when they want to jerk some tears, when they want the drama, they make the snap have huge consequences, and when they don’t want to have to deal with the consequences of the snap, they basically pretend it was nothing -- a BLIP, for fuck sake -- that everyone’s already over with and life’s moved on.

I get it, you didn’t want that dark, heavy tone in the Spider-Man film, but you have a chance to explore it with Sam and Bucky. I mean, that’s cool and all, but the problem with insisting on having all your films and shows being part of the same canon, is that you have to MAKE THEM ALL PART OF THE SAME CANON. And while I think they pulled it off beautifully for a while, beginning with Infinity War, it’s started to unravel. The whole setting Captain Marvel in the past of an already established universe didn’t work well and hobbled the story, turning something that should have been good into a clunky vehicle to excuse any potential holes in the story going forward. Endgame was a nightmare, and the tonal shift of FFH after Peter’s journey so far, and questionable characterisation is worse. It makes me worried for Black Widow, which is already suffering from Covid pushing it back. That’s a film I’ve been looking forward to for over a decade, and I’m worried by setting it in the past, it’s going to suffer the same way CM did.

I just find it incredibly sad that the Disney Plus series’ put an end to the Netflix MCU, because those were so well written with create internal consistency, character development, and world-building. They could have been a great way to explore the fallout of the snap, especially with the efforts they went to to distance them from the rest of the MCU while still, technically, being a part of it. Now instead we have Disney churning out flashy, but ultimately hollow content as a cash grab, instead of any real interest in telling meaningful stories.

I will say, snap politics aside, I hold out higher hopes for the remainder of Falcon and Winter Soldier. There are some parts I obviously didn’t like, but on the whole it felt of a higher quality than WandaVision by far (which is sad, because I love that comic and was really looking forward to some surreal, zany fun there).

But on the whole, where I used to be so excited and the first in line for every new MCU film (literally), these days I’m just feeling “meh.”

#MCU #falcon and winter solider teaser #wandavision #far from home #fucking disney ruins everything #I feel much the same way about Star Wars #all flash and no substance #not that I'm some asshole insisting that the older ones were some work of genius #but I was hoping for so much more out of the 8th and 9th films

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argumentl · 4 years

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The Freedom of Expression - Ep 19, Shogi player Fujii Souta continues with a streak of the baseball equivalent of no hitters.

K: This is Dir en grey's Kaoru, starting this week's installment of The Freedom of Expression. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome....So, how's it going recently?

T: I'm watching Youtube quite a lot.

K: Oh, really?

T: Yeah. Quite a lot.

K: Have you found something you like?

T: Well, I'm watching various things, one of them was Dir's unofficial footage from when you were young. It came up as 'Recommend for you', and I thought..'Oh, they're young!'.

K, J: Hahaha.

J: Isn't that obvious?

K: Well, yeh, haha. Like when everything was really disordered?

T: It was kinda disorderly like that, everyone was getting excited. But you were probably all really young.

J: By getting excited you mean like, gathering in a circle and going 'Oughh!!'

T: Yeh, I saw something like that. I thought 'Wow, they're doing this kind of thing!?'.

K: Well, we still do that, even now.

T: Ah?

K: Yeah.

T: Oh, really? And then, there was one with the band members backstage doing something I really like..Um, don't you all play with remote control toys? Sometimes?

K: Uh uh uh

T: I really love that. That kind of fun chattering.

J: I don't understand this thing at all, what you are raving about, Tasai san, haha. Really?

T: Its like, usually, behind the scenes..

K: Its the bits you don't see.

T: Yeah.

J: Ahh.

T: Isn't is quite rare for people in bands to be into remote control toys?

K: I don't know whether we're 'into' them... *laughs*

J: Hahaha

T: That bit stuck with me strangely, it looked like fun. And I also like remote control toys.

K: Oh, you like them too?

T: Yeah. And, normally, you don't see those kind of stage performers doing that.

J: But, the Dir members don't play with remote control toys do you?

K: No, well at that time..

J: You used to?

T: They did, kinda.

J: Who did? Was it you Kaoru?

K: It was a present we recieved off a fan.

J: Ahh, I see, the kind of thing you can build and stuff?

T: Yeh, yeh, yeh, thats what they did. It looked really good.

J: Well, recently you havn't been able to play any live shows, but, Kaoru, how do you spend your time backstage before playing a show these days?

K: Hm, how do I spend my time?..I don't really do anything especially.

J: Relatively normally?

K: Mmm, yeah.

J: I covered a Dir en grey live show once with Rolling Stone magazine. Where was it again?

K: Osaka

J: Oh, was it Osaka? Well, certainly, just as the show was about to start you all gathered in a circle..

T: Ahh, really?

J: That is really cool, right?

T: Yeah, its good.

J: Should we do that here? Next time before we start recording?

J, T: Hahaha

T: Should we yell?

K: Haha, that would be so lame. A little bit difficult, haha.

J: No no no

T: It would be quite tough, haha.

J: Whhy can't we? I wanna try it! Just once, only once I wanna try.

T: We're not gonna.

J: We're not?

T: No.

Kami: Can I join in?

J: Oh, he's here! What is it, Kami?

Kami: Um, can I join in your circle?

J: Can Kami join in the circle too?

Kami: Yeah.

K: He can join, but he can't really put his hand in the middle can he?

J: You could just use your voice, right Kami?

Kami: Yeah, just my voice.

K: But the timing would probably be..

J: A bit off?

K: Yeh, I don't think he'd be in time.

J: You're right. But Kami..

Kami: It might seem a bit flat with only my voice.

K: You know, back then, our make up and stuff used to take such a long time to do, we had to arrive at the venue in the morning.

J: Ahh.

K: So we had time to spare. So we used to have fun like that quite a bit. But now, we tend to arrive at the last minute, well, I mean with just enough time to do what needs doing, so we don't really have a lot of spare time.

J: I see.

T: Well, including remote control toys, I have quite a lot of hobbies, things I like. And one of those hobbies is Shogi (Japanese Chess).

J: Oh, you like Shogi?

T: Yes, and today I'd like to go with a news story concerning Shogi....If you mention Shogi at the moment...Joe, do you know about this?

J: Of course! Fujii Souta san, right?

T: Yeah. Well Fujii Souta, who ranks at 7th dan, recently began his championship title match. Its named the 'Keisei Title'. So, the first game started at the Shibuya Shogi Hall on the 8th of July, and 7th dan ranking Fujii won this first game.

J: Its brilliant isn't it?

T: Yes, so he won the game in 157 moves, but he himself responded with, 'It was a really narrow margin, and I didn't have much time, so towards the end, I felt as if I was playing without knowing what to do'. But to Shogi fans, even though he said that, they think he was reading into every move untill the end. It took about 30 moves at the end. I mean, in Shogi, continuing with 50 vs 50 gets really tough. There is always this pulling from each side...For example, if you lose one pawn in the piece toss, if you are playing a pro, they will extend thier lead from there, and you will lose. So you have to make sure you continue at a decent pace for how ever many hours. I thought the way he won in the end was really cool. The current title holder, Watanabe was close to victory at about 120 moves. He put Fujii in check. From the viewers perspective, White looks cool making check, right?

K: Its looks as if its closing in?

T: Yeah, it looks as if its closing in, but this check was a little tired. Still, if Fujii had made one mistake, Watanabe might have won. He's a pro though, so he didn't make a mistake. This went on for thirty odd moves, with Fujii preventing check perfectly each time, and eventually he won in the end. Its incredible.

J: It is, yeah.

T: He's 17 years old!

K: Right.

J: Sevent..?

K: Seventeen.

T: What were we doing at 17 years old?

K: Haha, at 17?

J: Only lewd/dirty stuff.

K: Hahaha.

J: Im serious, really!

T: Really? *laughing* What does that mean?

J: Well, I'm still the same now. But I was about ten times worse back then.

K: Haha.

T: So, within this story there is the thing about Fujii san's winning meal..

J: Ah, yes yes yes. I just heard about this on Monday, but I was doing a live broadcast on InterFM, and a listener...ah, I think it was relayed on Ameba, you could listen on the radio and watch on Ameba. It was just about the time for them (the shogi players) to have lunch, and apparently Watanabe san ate Unaju (grilled eel on rice in a lacquered box).

T: Yes, it cost 3600yen.

J: Yeh, and then Fujii Souta san ordered a Katsu curry from Hosojimaya. And Hosojimaya is my favourite noodle restaurant.

T: Ehh?!

J: Really! I mean, its a noodle restaurant, but everyone who goes there almost always orders Half curry with chinese noodles.

T: What is that?

J: Well, a half sized curry and rice, with a bowl of chinese noodles. Thier curry together with chinese noodles tastes soo good!

K: You're really excited about this, aren't you?

J: Last week I was...???*1 I'm old, I get easily excited, I'm getting so excited with corona waining a bit now. But it really is delicious! And this place is about a 1 min walk from the Shogi Hall...Hosojimaya. So, whenever I go, I often meet shogi players, and I once met and shook hands with the former Shogi Master, Moriuchi san.

T: Moriuchi san...you shook hands with him?!

J: Yes.

T: Moriuchi san is a really great guy, isn't he?

J: He's like nobility.

T: Yeh, yeh, yeh.

J: He was dressed magnificently, almost vintage looking, as a shogi player. Similarly, people like Sato san, and players from the era of Habu Yoshiharu, players who are less emphasised...they saw him too, and were like, 'Ah! Moriuchi san!', and shook his hand. There are alwsys tonnes of shogi players in this restaurant. But it must have been tough for Hosojimaya..

K: After the news got out?

J: Because the next day after this news was out, TV reporters turned up at thier door. And, then I went there the day after too , but Im a regular customer, so they welcomed me in. I ordered my usual half curry with chinese noodles for 1250 yen, but for me they never take the small change from me, they let me have it for 1000 yen.

T: Ehh, you are a real regular!

K: Are you allowed to say that?

J: Yeh, I think its probably ok? *laughs*

K: Hahaha.

J: Ah, but the restaurant asked me if 1000 yen was ok, I said of course!...well, i don't know about the price and stuff now though...There might be some people who go there after watching this, but they shouldn't ask for 250yen off, just because I got it. But it really is delicious. Kaoru, do you having any kind of 'winning meal'?

K: Winning meal?

J: Like an important thing you have to eat before playing a live show or something?

K: No, I don't.

J: Or something you eat while you are recording?

K: No..

T: Haha

K: When we do a live show, we have a buffet provided.

J: Oh, right yeh, at a live show.

K: But, actually in Tokyo, we often get bentos. Like from Kiyoken, steamed dumpings..or sometimes Torikyu.

J, T: Ehh?

T: That sounds nice.

K: Also, Kinbe.

T: Oh, Kinbe, yeh.

J: What was that?

K: Kinbe.

T: Its quite famous..

J: Oh, fish?

K: Yes

J: Oh, yeh yeh yeh.

K: You can see it at train stations and stuff.

J: Like at ???*2?

K: Yeh yeh yeh. That makes me quite happy.

J: It raises the tension, right?

T: Yeah.

J: Ah, I see. Well, its important isn't it?

T: That steamed dumping bento sounds really good..

K: Haha

J: Yeah.

K: We often get those in Kawasaki or Yokohama and stuff.

J: Steamed dumping bentos?

K: Yeah.

J: Ahh, yeh, food is really important.

K:I wanna go to this place (Hosojimaya). Won't it be busy though?

J: I think it'll probably be ok. Its quite far from the station, its not the type of place loads of people go. Should we go?

K: Oh, yes please.

J: Really though, this place's Half curry with chinese noodles! Hosojimaya's half curry with chinese noodles!

T: Are you in league with them?

K: It sounds like you have an arrangement with them or something?

J: Haha, no, I don't.

K: You do!

J: Saying I have an agreement in exchange for 250yen off is not like one of those scandals at Dentsu! Forgive me! Its a cute arrangement, right?!

T: *laughing* Its cute.

K: But this person (Fujii) likes Katsu Curry?

J: Yeah, Katsu Curry. If it was something like ramen, it might impart fate and make the game longer, right?

K, T: Mm, yeah.

J: Noodles would do that...but the Katsu curry is also really delicious. Anyway, Kaoru, do you like Shogi?

K: I had a shogi set in my family home, I used to play.

J: Oh, you can play?

K: Well, I don't know about now...I'm not that good at it. I only used to play with my dad. Also, they have shogi pages in the sports newspapers don't they?

J: Yes

K: I used to try and copy that and play on my own.

T: Ehh?

J: Right, well next time...I can also play shogi..let's have a tournament with the three of us.

K: No, I'm not really that good at it.

T: Hahaha

J: For once, I feel like I could win. Tasai san, do you play well?

T: I would play seriously.

K: Hahaha

T: But if it became a fight between us..

K: Yeah..

J: Well yeah..

T: I would go for it.

K: I wonder if Kami can play?

J: Kami, can you play Shogi? What do you think?

K: I can play Yama kuzushi (an easier game which uses Shogi board and pieces).

T: Hehehe

K: Ahh

Kami: Or Mawari Shogi and stuff (again, a kids' game which uses shogi pieces). Im good at those games. I would beat Fujii Souta at those. Yama kuzushi shogi and mawari shogi.

J: I see.

Kami: Also, Hasami shogi.

J: Oh, Hasami shogi. I played that when I was little. So, Kami, if we do a 'The Freedom of Expression' Shogi tournament, please take part.

Kami: Yes, I will.

J: And the winner can get a Katsu curry from Hosojimaya.

K: Oh yeah.

T: Oh, that sounds good.

J: I think its a good plan.

Kami: I've been checking out the reviews of Hosojimaya online since earlier. On Tabelog (restaurant review site).

J: On Tabelog?

K: Hahaha

T: I thought he was being quiet!

J: It looks good though, right?

Kami: Yeah, it looks really good.

J: But curry in noodle restaurants is really great, isn't it?

K: Ahh, yeah.

J: Right?! Its kinda..

T: Sweet

J: Yeah, sweet, and it is soo good in this half curry with chinese noodles set.

T: Do they have Katsudon too?

J: Yeah, they do.

Kami: I really wanna eat there.

J: You do?

Kami: Yes, I really want to.

T: Me too.

K: Ok, shall we go?

J: Lets go! All of us.

K: Yeah.

T: Joe, you arrange it for us.

J: Ok.

K: Well, lets finish this episode here. Please subscribe. Thank you very much.

J, T, Kami: Thank you.

*1, 2 Couldn't catch

P.S. I'm not a Shogi player.

#dir en grey #the freedom of expression #tfoe #kaoru #薫

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roccinan · 3 years

Note

1/? simply because you have the most galaxy brain thoughts ever,,, what do you think would've happened if they waited until s5 to reveal sergio and andrés were (half)brothers?

i do know that when my fam started watching lcdp at first i was so put off. like i watched ep 1 and the prof creeped me out. ""berlin"" creeped me out. e v e r y o n e creeped me out. and i was cringing so hard becz of the short lived romance angle with alison parker. i literally did not watch s1 at all xcept for like sneak peeks. highlights being the scene where berlin discovers monica is alive and does his dramatic door by door thing? that was so SUSPENSEFUL even tho i had no idea what was going on. DOMINGO DE RESURECCION remains forever iconic.

2/? And OF COURSE the group bella ciao dance when they hit earth (hahah i thought the banda were actually like a "found family where they all love each other LOL") i am a SUCKER for found family. but anyhoo when i properly got intrigued was s2 when tokyo was kicked out (the music from that scene is still my favourite) it's just so dramatic..!! why am i telling u all this again? right, i haven't slept a wink and it's nearly 7 am pls forgive me if these rambles make no sense. i have a point with this.. i'm going somewhere

RIGHT. so when the fam actually rewound the ep cz i wanted to know WHY berlin did that (didn't fully realise how batsht crazy he can be), the russian roulette scene played. and pedro's acting. MAN. and like just that ep they made a point of showing us these flashbacks where sergio and andrés hug....

Hi anon! Thanks for stopping by- sorry took me a while to get back to you, will do my best to answer this string of messages (got all 4 parts)! Glad you like my thoughts XD

Firstly, I believe Andres/Sergio would be the biggest LCDP ship if the writers were evil enough to wait until s5 to reveal that they’re brothers asdfasdf. They’re already the two most popular male characters anyway.

It’d be especially crazy because it’s not like they tell the actors these things beforehand either. So that means there’d probably be a Serdres vs Berlermo vs Serquel fight every 5 minutes. I mean, even if not everyone agrees on everything in the lcdp fandom, it’s the most “peaceful” one I’ve ever been in because no character really gets in the way of any other ship (like even with helermo and berlermo there’s no true conflict since Andres is dead). But with Serdres in the mix?? CATASTROPHE. Everyone out here writing essays about how much of a bastard/bitch/homewrecker/motherfucker that Andres or Sergio or Martin or Raquel is. Never a moment’s peace!! so basically, a regular fandom lmao.

Then when we find out they’re brothers, it goes from catastrophe to Apocalypse. Suddenly serquel and berlermo have the upper hand. Everyone would double down and harass the crew/cast into whatever’s going on. Plot-wise, everything is the same though, just without Andres calling Sergio “hermanito.” Fandom however, would be a minefield! And I’m glad that’s not the case because I’d probably be an unfortunate serdres shippers XD No joke, my mother and I thought they were a couple in S1. So bullet dodged!

Secondly: haha, everyone creeped me out in S1 too, especially Berlin, I hated him, but thinking back, I think I mostly hated the fact that I didn’t hate him as much as I should have. I’ve made peace with it now but oh boy, was he a controversial figure in my head. I actually like the professor on sight though! IDK why, maybe because I thought his plans were cool or because of Alvaro’s delivery. I was afraid of an Alison Parker romance thing too- like, I do feel like she had a storyline that got dropped, but that part was quite cringey and overall unnecessary to the plot. Same with Ariadna, which was even cringier and even Less necessary to the plot.

Domingo de resurrecion was iconic though yes! And even with all that said, I genuinely enjoyed parts 1 and 2 because it was so different from anything else I’d seen. Not content wise, but maybe tonally? IDK, they were just really bold with a lot of things, like being objectively unafraid of having the protagonists (plural because all of them did LMAO) do objectively shitty things. Really kept me in suspense from beginning to end!

I’m usually a big fan of found families too! The funny thing is, then banda never struck me as a “family” until season 3. In 1 and 2, I was wondering what felt different about this show; then it hit me that these people remained colleagues to the end. Like, they backstabbed each other (repeatedly) and everyone was quite selfish, and only the bonds that were already there stuck. They were the opposite of a found family LOL But I think by S3, they went down the found family route and I didn’t mind because it makes quite a lot of sense for them to feel that bond after the Mint heist and almost dying/living together (and having witnessed 3 deaths together on the team). But I still doubt Berlin and Palermo were ever really part of this found family, with good reason XD

LOL the scene where Tokyo got kicked out is also among my favorites!! It was so funny and dramatic, and it was like, wow we can go anywhere with this now! Don’t worry- your rambles and thoughts are always welcome :D

I’m rolling over how you watched the Tokyo expulsion scene before the Russian Roulette scene haha. Also yes, PEDRO. Berlin may have been “controversial” to me at first, but I became Pedro’s fan from day one! Also the Hug is probably what made me like Berlin (despite my determination to hate him rip) in the first place.

3/? ... and like now that i think about it... tokyo had real guts huh. like she KNEW berlin was close enough to el prof to know his name (fhshshs imagine if she'd heard andrés saying 'hermanito' it's unrealistic that she didn't TBH. i mean obviously they decided to make them brothers only towards the end but like in canon universe. how tf did andrés de 'i raised my bby brother since he was 12 and i'd actually die for him and his stupidly brilliant plans' fonollosa go 5 months without slipping up once and calling sergio hermanito. or like,,, i like to imagine sergio kinda gave him lots of leeway(?) sergio's a lil oblivious too but like i'm sure half of it is.. that's my dumbass older bro shut up i'm not being partial you all have city names .. andr-berlin, pass the salt. like OOF. + sergio also knew his big bro was dYiNG so like. i'm sure they were sneaking in some quality time (i hope they did 😭 gosh imagine if sergio really did not ever consider the possibility of andrés dying in the heist so he'd tell himself he needs to perfect the plan now & anyway he'll have enough time to spend w/ his brother post heist in philippines. and then ... that happened :/

Tokyo has guts in place of braincells you bet that she’d do something like this, consequences be damned XD I also think it’s unrealistic for Andres not to slip up, but I have a feeling nobody besides Tokyo really tried to spy on them in private. I headcanon that Andres instead slips up and does things like ruffle Sergio’s hair or adjust his tie when other people are around. I also think Tokyo was convinced that they were a gay couple when she saw them hug XD And if Sergio never went on to tell the banda that Berlin was his brother, everyone would be giving Palermo such awkward looks after Nairobi accused him of being in love with Berlin LMAO.

I agree! I also imagine Sergio giving Andres leeway because he’s just so used to interacting with his brother that way haha. So either he’d go out of his way to ignore Berlin in front of everyone else or IDK, borderline telepathically communicate with him. Not even “pass the salt” has to leave his mouth- Berlin just puts salt into his food and cuts it up for him, in front of everyone who’s just staring like O.O

I actually do think Sergio never considered the possibility of Andres dying in the heist because he was just that confident in his own plan. Plus, Andres was probably the one person he expected to survive. And a lot of it has to do with Sergio’s attachment to him + Andres’ own habit of downplaying any illness/injury over the years, which I think is safe to believe canon. He was really in no condition to be in the heist, let alone lead it. Just the fact that he needs to take those injections is a big sign that he shouldn’t be there, but Sergio didn’t catch it because he’s human and blinded by faith :’) So yeah, I think Sergio was planning to spend proper time with Andres in Palawan and at Toledo, they just settled for those little moments by the fireplace.

4/? what always also just GETS me in the feels is that el prof was shown to be this in control creepily calm dude who is miles ahead of everyone. + in the 1st Toledo class itself we see how detached,, like how impersonal he is, how professional - choosing frickin CITY NAMES?! no 'personal relationships' ? (after recruiting his older brother, a father son pair, and war cousins... oh sergio 😂 he's such a frickin nerd and i love him) but like the earlier seasons really emphasised how robotic and down right COLD he can be. it still sometimes bothers me that he put the button in the car. he lead the police to his own damn brother, his blood, who took care of him and adopted him and was terminally ill and like - UGH i try to rationalise that sergio is that cold and unbothered. or that he has strict morals. but it still bothers me becz that button really sort of tipped andres' already unstable sanity. like andrés tells denver someth like you've robbed my future and after that he just seems so much more suicidal and accepting that he can't get out of the mint alive - WHY SERGIO WHY. I KNOW THAT AT THAT POINT YOU BASICALLY DIDN'T KNOW ANDRÉS WAS GOING TO BE YOUR BROTHER YET BECZ IT WASN'T WRITTEN IN THE SCRIPT BUT WHYYYYY

That’s so funny to me too LMAO No personal relationships, then he recruits these guys. Sergio, hello?? Also can’t forget how he just recruited his own girfrleind in the second heist too. Buddy! Love this nerd.

I don’t think that cold aspect of Sergio went away in later seasons either; he just had more opportunity to show a more open side of himself + without Andres, he had to metaphorically leave his comfort zone without a safety net. But in earlier seasons, he really did seem heartless at times XD Then again, we can argue that the same goes for Andres.

To be fair, I didn’t feel sorry for Andres over the button thing lol, but once the brothers reveal happened and all of Alvaro/Pedro’s headcanons came out and we know everything Andres did for Sergio, it makes what Sergio did REALLY harsh. We really just have to explain it through Sergio’s strict morals and him believing this to be the best non-fatal punishment for Andres, who at that point had convinced him he killed a hostage. And because he knew the television interview was coming up, maybe Sergio assumed Andres would use it to “clear” his name anyway. And empathy isn’t one of Sergio’s strong suits either, so through that lens, I can rationalize it.

Also it was lowkey funny to me how Andres was there like DENVER MUST DIE until he found out Sergio put the button there, then he was like “oh hermanito, you and your practical jokes <3″

Still, like you said, Andres and Sergio weren’t brothers yet at this point. They were probably supposed to be lovers lmao and had a dysfunctional Hannibal Lecter x Will thing going on. But because they made #hermanos canon, that button moment just feels very out of place now, especially given how much the two genuinely love each other.

Guess we could also say that Sergio’s just generally kinda bratty with Andres XD Like, he knows no matter what, Andres would forgive him anything. That’s how I see it anyway!

#anonymous #thanks for stopping by!#royalpaperhouse is this you my friend? :D

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starbuck · 4 years

Note

I don’t know who Armitage is and at this point I’m too afraid to ask

(Hi there! I tried to type out a normal answer to this ask but it accidentally turned into a giant essay so honestly, anon, you should be afraid and I apologize in advance. If this is really Too Much, here’s an Armitage outfit-rating post I made a bit ago that covers a lot of the same content and also has additional screenshots of him for identification purposes.)

I didn’t know who he was either until about seven months ago... Well, that’s not entirely true, but it was around that time that I realized all his different appearances throughout the show were the same person and that person was the infamous Mr. Armitage. You may recognize his name by the fact that he’s being shittalked pretty much every time he’s brought up but he did some shitty things so about 75% of the time, he deserves it.

But who is Armitage? Despite often being seen with a gun and hanging out with the marines, he’s not a marine himself, which is a common fandom misconception. Instead, he’s Terror’s gunroom steward which, despite its name, has nothing to do with guns (although he’s implied on several occasions to have the keys to the armory but whether this is a regular part of his job or a duty he just happened to be assigned, I do not know).

this was the shot that first made me notice him way back in October of last year and I had no clue who he was or why we were looking at him during the lashing

But what is his actual canonical significance? Although he is not a marine, he’s almost always seen by Tozer’s side. I like to think of myself (and the wonderful @rhavewellyarnbag) as the head archaeologists of what has been lovingly dubbed “the secret Armitage/Tozer subplot,” found only by closely studying the hidden depths beneath the surface of the show. I’ve actually been meaning to gather up all of my old meta and rewrite it to suit my current thoughts on the matter but, I’ll give it a somewhat abbreviated try here, under the cut.

The first time we properly see Armitage, he’s standing in armed defense of Tozer, immediately after Heather has been attacked by the Tuunbaq. Right off the bat, it’s a bit strange for a steward, who by any ordinary measure should be a nobody on the ship, to be protecting a Sergeant of the Royal Marines so that alone makes him stand out and I would argue that protecting Tozer becomes the cornerstone of his character.

In ep 6, while doing some of the aforementioned shittalking, Hickey says that Armitage had always wanted to be a marine, but was disqualified due to his disability, implying that he’s now somewhat of a wannabe or a fan but I think it goes deeper than that. In the very same episode, at Carnivale, we see Armitage assisting Tozer in feeding the comatose Heather, something he apparently knows how to do by this point and looks perfectly comfortable doing, which implies to me that he had been assisting in Heather’s care ever since his attack, in a similar fashion to how we see Tozer at his bedside in ep 5. And then, when all goes to shit at the end of ep 6, Armitage not only tries desperately to help Tozer save Heather from the fire but, failing that, drags Tozer out of the tent against his will, saving him from being crushed or burned to death for what was, by that point, a lost cause. Whatever Armitage’s original reasoning was for socializing with the marines, this is more than him playing out a fantasy of becoming one himself; his relationship with them, and with Tozer in particular, is personal.

Enter: The Mutiny. Armitage was already connected to Hickey’s whole situation via participating in Silna’s kidnapping in ep 4 and then not owning up to it (remember how I said he deserves to be shittalked?) but Hickey didn’t even need blackmail to get him involved in the mutiny, all he needed was Tozer. With Tozer on board for his own reasons, Armitage’s eventual participation in the mutiny was a given. Also unhelpful to any hope of staying neutral was Armitage’s involvement in the murder of Koveyook and his family based on Hickey’s lies, as we hear about in ep 8, after which Hickey implies within his earshot that he’d like to see the armory opened. One can interpret this situation in multiple ways depending on whether Armitage had figured by that point that Hickey was the real murderer of Irving and Farr and was now in fear for his own life or whether he was still convinced of the family’s guilt and was acting purely out of racism but, regardless, it’s no surprise that, when Tozer asked him to open the armory without orders, he complied (although he was, tellingly, unable to defend this action to Little when pressed).

And so, ep 8 plays out, Tozer’s nearly hanged (much to Armitage’s dismay if you watch for him in the crowd around the gallows), the Tuunbaq interrupts, and the mutiny is on its way. But wait! Let’s not brush over Armitage saving Tozer’s life for the second time by thwacking Little, who had Tozer held at gunpoint, over the head. RIP Little’s skull but also this is the second time he was bamboozled by Tozer and Armitage within one day so… “Fool me once,” and all that…

(Also, try to tell me that appearing out of the fog in the nick of time to save the life of the person you love isn’t the most romantic thing ever? You can’t.)

But now the mutineers are their own offshoot group and things are getting serious(ly bad). At the end of ep 9 we have the scene where Armitage tries to convince Tozer to leave Hickey, which I think of as an attempt to, once again, save Tozer’s life. Although there was no way for Armitage to know the extent of Hickey’s agenda, he did know that he was being asked to assist in kidnapping Crozier, a reckless move wholly unrelated to their survival, not to mention that Hickey was clearly going nuts overall. So, to me, their conversation rings not only of Armitage grasping at their best chance of survival, but also of him trying to get Tozer out of a potentially dangerous and abusive situation. But, of course, Tozer says no and, despite his fear, Armitage stays as well, and things end how they end.

in case it’s not clear, Armitage is the one who leans forward and reaches his hand out after Tozer is knocked out by Hickey :(

To summarize a bit more succinctly, Armitage’s narrative life is a tragedy marked by repeated failures and unrequited love with no solace or fulfillment and it sounds pretty damn depressing when I say it Like That but also, this is The Terror, so it’s really just par for the course.

His being motivated by something as wonderful as love, and love for someone as worthy of it as Tozer is incredibly appealing to me. Not everything done in the service of love is good but I am naturally more sympathetic to it than I am to the actions of those who I believe were only in it for themselves. Harvey once said (paraphrasing here, apologies!) that Armitage might regret some of the things that happened, but he doesn’t regret why they happened, and I fully agree with that assessment. That is to say, I don’t think he set out to do bad things or was indifferent to the negative effects of the actions he ultimately took, but I also think that he loved Tozer and would have done anything to keep him safe and I really can’t hate him for that.

In fact (if this ridiculously long answer didn’t tell you already) for all his faults, I love him quite a lot! So thank you for asking and, if you made it this far, have a smiling and happy Armitage for your trouble!

#sorry this took so long to reply to - i wanted to get it right #it's probably still Slightly clunky but i can't reread it anymore.. my eyes hurt #but thank you anon and i'm sorry if this is A Lot.. i just love him and have a lot to say #and i actually have way more than this to say but i just wanted to stick to the basics of his role in the plot as a primer of sorts #i'd be happy to answer more specific questions as well because i have a lot of really specific thoughts on him #thomas armitage #ig i'll tag it #it probably won't go in the tag but for personal organization's sake anyways!

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

House of Mouse: Mickey and the Culture Clash (Commission by WeirdKev27) or “What the Hell, Clarabelle?”

Hello, hello, hello... I wish I could say I was in good spirits but i’m tired, have covid induced chills running down my spine.. and oh yeah there was an armed insurrection i the captial last night that showed just how broken this country was. And while Monster Bash would still be relevant... I couldn’t do it. I admit to being unable to do an episode where the millitant racist nutjob who harms people runs off into the night, and does much worse in later episodes, while the people she harassed are arrested the night after a bunch of millitant, racist, sociopathic, selfish nightmares sieged the captial, killed a woman, raised the fucking maga flag over the buildling and took pictures like they were goddamn heroes. We got a stark reminder, not a wake up call, not an opening a REMINDER of just how badly broken our country is last night, and it wasn’t till this morning I found out just how BAD it was. The deaths, the flag, the fact josh fucking hawley, MY STAT’ES SENATOR and registered piece of shit, raised A FUCKING FIST IN SOLIDARITY, which gives me the crippling fear his stupidity and unabashed racisim and support of a cou could mean riots at best and attempted uprisings at worst and who knows what kind of hate crimes against those of color and those in my own queer community. I am afraid, tired, and I am pissed and I feel we could ALL use something wholesome, warm and far removed from the shit going on. And in my hour of need to figure out something like that to put on the schedule.. Kev brought up a wonderfufl idea. Every month this month till the end of it Kev is going to comission one episode of a show near and dear to both our hearts that has it’s 20th birthday this month. House of Mouse. He was intitally going to request Pete’s One Man Show, which is one of my faviorites, but was ironcially one I already planned to cover next month to celebrate both the show’s anniversary and Pete’s Birthday. But since he was happy to wait till then to comission it, he instead asked for another classic and one with easily my faviorite character on the show: Moritmer Mouse.

One of the best things House of Mouse did was bring back Mortimer Mouse. Introduced in Mickey’s Rival, Mortimer was an ex of minnies who showed up for one short to be a dick to mickey before running off and leaving Minnie at the mercy of a bull he pissed off. He also weirdly kept electrodes and a car battery in his pants. The short itself is.. not great mostly because Minnie dimissies Mickey rightfully being pissed someone is hitting on his girlfriend in front of him, making jokes at his expense, and generally being a pillock as being jealous... which yeah, yeah he is. Most of the time jealousy and supscison of your partner is ugly, gross and damaging to a relationship. You should trust them unless you’ve been given good reason not to, and if your paranoidly jealous about every friend she has she could be attracted to.. get some fucking help. Seriously, I need to, not for this for various other problems, but get some therapy to help with your trust issues or if your just being the kind of dick who naturally assumes men and women or men and men or women and women or men and nonibinary persons, or women and nonbinary peeps and so on and so on cannot be friends if they could possibly be togehter romantically... grow up. I say all of that because those are serious underlying issues and I didn’t want it to seem like for a moment I was supporting them... and because sometimes i’ts OKAY to be jealous, to either just feel a little jealous of someone, or to you know be irate because your girlfriend��s ex is hitting on her in front of you and she’s being entirely receptive to it.

So yeah i’ts really hard to feel bad for minnie’s bull attack or find the ending sweet after Minnie was you know, what ramona said for an entire short. However my point for this rant, besides giving out about the short again because I clearly didn’t enough in my Mickey Birthday Special, is that Mortimer is still pretty great. He’s a frat bro in the 40′s sense sure, but the idea of a local douche hoping to swoop in and woo minnie away, who has an oddly specific sense of humor and a bizzare, memorable and wonderful walk, seriously the short is worth watching for mortimier’s “I got two car batteris in my pants’ walk, is a good one. While he’d naturally show up in comics and what have you Mortimer just sort of vanished. But clearly someone on the House of Mouse staff, and Mousewerks before it, agreed because Morty was made easily one of the best and most recurring characters in the HOM, and often more prominent than Horace or Gus. While he still tried his old “I’m gonna do your common law wife act” a few times he was mostly there to be an annoying douche when the ep needed one and to be taken down a peg by everyone in the house. And that VERY MUCH includes Mickey. That’s also part of why I love this show bringing him back: It gives Mickey someone besides pete to give out too on a regular basis. He’s still his charming self about it but it’s lovelyt os ee Mickey sarcastically roast someone. And I honestly attribute the main factor of his sucess on the show to VA Maurice LaMarche. While his original VA, Sonny Dawson, was fantastic.. it’s Maurice who very clearly made the character his. While others like Jeff Bennet have taken over since i’ts Maurice who gave him his signature “ha-cha-cha” catchphrase, swagger and signiture voice. And no i’ts not lost on me that one of Maurice’s OTHER best roles is another cartoon mouse.. and I now very badly want him to meet Pinky and the Brain. But yeah, Maurice just oozes the smarm that defines mortimer for me, oozes condescinon and assholery and he, is., glorious. He was a faviorite as a kid, he’s a faviorite now, and Disney needs to use him more.. and also have Maurice voice him for wonderufl world of mickey mouse, though Jeff Bennett is not bad at all I just prefer the master at the role.

So obviously, after the nightmare of an evening america had yesterday, an episode not only about how wholesome mickey and minnie are but about Mickey teaming up with Mortimer was EXACTLY what i needed. So pitter patter, this is Mickey and the Culture clash. As always for house of mouse i’ll be chonking it up and since this one starts right with the wraparound, and sicnce you know I spent a godo few pagraphs going over mortimer and he’s only IN the wraparound this episode... let’s start there

Mickey and the Culture Clash: Don’t Go Changin, To Try and Please Me So we open the episode and the review proper with Mickey performing a banjo sernade for Minnie, their song in fact. It’s a really sweet scene.. that’s quickly ruined by Clarabelle being an asshole, who says i’ts a bit crude. Minnie counters that while “It’s not mozart”, it’s nice and she clearly likes it and the gesture. Instead of you know leaving it there like a good friend, like she’s SUPPOSED to be to Minnie in most continuities, Clarabelle.. takes the things she said and her having to run out to wrangle pluto out of context, painting it as her thinking he’s not sophisticated and then running out because of it. Oh and she tops it by pointing to a classified add from a MM looking for sophisticated companionship.

It just paints Clarabelle not as Minnie’s friend or a chatty gossip, but as a heartless bitch who has no trouble implying one of her best friends would cheat on her boyfriend TO HIS FACE, and is fine wrecking a perfectly lovely relationship just to have more to talk about. Seriously she starts gossiping to everybody on top of it just in case you thought Clarabelle was a decent person in any shape this episode. She’s the one thing about this episode that dosen’t work despite being integral to it.. well two but hte other thing is a small, end of episode gag we’ll get to. This.. this is an integral part of the plot. It also relies on Daisy and Donald being absent for the episode for what I can only assume is their annual sex decathalon because otherwise the second she heard about her friend doing this, before reassuring Minnie, Donald would be holdiing her while Daisy beat the absolute shit out of her for hurting thier closest friend and not bothering to take a look into anything when leveling such a rough accusation at Minnie. In a really stellar, really well paced episode, Clarabelle being so heartless stands out. It’s also, might as well get this out of the way, teh final episode not inlcuding the two holiday specials.. and it’s a good note to go out on otherwise, I just can’t ignore the obnoxious cow in the room.. in both senses of the word.

So yeah Mickey’s trying to be fancy, and Mortimer gets a good dig in about him reading “You having trouble sounding out the words”, but once he hears what’s going on, or rather once he realizes mickey things Mortimer’s personal add is in fact his girlfriend cheating on him, he decides to help Mickey. And to his credit for this con.. Mortimer actually thought things out on how to trick his rival, and his plan here is douchey as hell but incredibly genius: he offers to help mickey and while that’d normally be suspcious he offers a genuine, and very mortimer explination for helping him become a bit more sophisticated to win minnie back: if Minnie finds a handsome, sophisticated guy to date, what chance does MORTIMER have against that? At least with Mickey, in his deluded egocentric view of things anyway, he has a shot at beating him.

So Mickey classes it up a bit, taking some sopshitcated stances when announcing and trying to woo minnie by talking in ye olde english. When that fails, she just finds it silly but charming, Mickey finds Jose.. hitting on her.

Just.. I expect better from you man. Woo ladies all you like as long as your respectful but I expect better than to hit on someone else’s girlfriend.. which granted he has but given the last time we saw him do that, he nearly got stabbed a bunch and the last time he agressively hit on a woman he got punched in the beak as he should, you’d THINK he’d of learned something. Seriously once again Donald is only missing because this time Daisy would be holding Jose down while Donald hit him. Or possibly they’d take turns. Point is Jose REALLY shoudln’t be doing this and knows better.. marginally. But.. it is in character enough so ti’s not as bad as Clarabelle the homewrecker.

So Mickey tries being fancy and goes on to do poetry instead of letting O’Malley and the Alley Cats play.. which is a nice running gag the series does as they NEVER get to play.. which while funny is a shame since I love the Aristocats. So then we finally get what Mortimer’s been playing at, he swoops in, claims MICKEY dosen’t need HER, and uses the same personal add to trick her. See, while what Mortimer’s doing is vile.. unlike clarabelle I can repsect it at least. I don’t condone it and i’m glad he gets foiled.. but as a bad guy plan it’s pretty clever and for someone like Mortimer whose usually pretty incompitent.. it’s pretty suprising he could pull this off. It’s still pretty damn low and scummy, no question, but props to being able to outwit and nearly outplay two people who deal with your crap on a regular basis and still convincingly conning both. Thankfully while he tries to take Minnie out Mickey, in a great visual gag, puts two and two together, and busts out their song, with Mickey and Minnie heartwearmingly reuniting on stage as seen above. Then we get that gag I mentioned not liking: Mickey gets Morty back by planting a false marriage proposal from Moritmer to Clarabelle, again under MM and he gets carried off.. HAHA HE’S BEING FORCED INTO A MARRIAGE HE DOSEN’T. LAUGH. LAUGH AT IT. The gag just really hasn’t aged well, as otherwise it’s clever Mickey used Mortimer��s own trick against both him and the person who caused all of this but really.. Clarabelle gets no real compuance. At worse sshe finds out she was tricked.. but she again you know tried to break up her close friends relationship for shits and giggles. But .. it’s at the very end of the episode and very easy to ignore, so it dosen’t really bother me too bad, and compared to some gags of the type i’ve seen, it could be MUCH worse. Overall this wraparound is one of the series best and a good one to go out on. it has a simple premise, a brilliant antagonist plot, some great bits from all involved, and even a great Belle and Beast cameo. All in all a really good wraparound only hampered by a sexist and dated ending and Clarabelle being portrayed as ...

She’s the worst, in the world. Okay onto the shorts.

Mickey’s Piano Lesson: That was a Fun One

It really was. It’s a simple premise: Minnie wants MIckey to do a piano recital and he decides “I don’t need practice i’m mickey mouse. “ And it’s REALLY nice to have a short that has, rather than aw shucks mickey, shenanigans mickey. While thanks to the new shorts we’ve had tons, it’s still nice to get one in the House of Mouse era, and it’s just fun to see Mickey take the usual donald roll of letting his overconfidence punch him in the face> It fits both though: Both are everyman and while I lean towards the duck, to no one’s shock, Mickey is just as capable, and his lack of practice comes off less like the angry and hostile way donald would dismiss it and mroe just loveable procastination. And as someone who REALLY struggles with procastination I related to this short, as Mickey does everything else he’d rather do from bathing the dog to skydiving till Minnie, in a great bit informs him everyone from the president, to several dignitaries from other countries, to a televised audience will see. We then get two really great and really beatuifully animated bits as MIckey wrestles with the notes on thep age then fights with his piano as he performs, still pulling it off but destroying the thing and rightfully earning a glare form his girlfriend. Just a fun, slapstick short with a great premise.

Dance of the Goofys: Scary Children Set to classical music, this one has a bunch of goofys as Fairy’s, who are making the flowers go and the one who sleeps in ends up saving the king from a horrifing looking little brat. He reminds me of Montanna Max a bit.. speaking of which Creer Summer recnetly announced Elmyra won’t be in the reboot. And while this does make me fear actually good characters like Fifi, Montana Max, and more will be cut like the animanics reboot and I do feel for Cree not getting to be involved and hope they find another roll for her as, given her status in the industry she deserves better.. THANK FUCKING GOD. I’ll go into this in another review I have planned for the future but unlike the cuts made to animaniacs this was a REALLY good decision i’m really greatful for. Thank you crew thank you.

Back on topic, it’s just a fun, really beautifully animated short about the goofies and hteir shenanigans with a really great high concept.

Maestro Minnie: Brahm’s Lullabye: Simply Irresitable Another simple but clever and lovely to watch one, and one I like quite a bit more. Minnie is conducting some living violins to Brahm’s Lullabye to get a baby Violin to sleep, and we get some really beautiful shots of her as she does so.. only to get comically interuppted by other insteruments turning up the noise. Not much to say on this one as it’s short and simple.. but sometimes short and simple is just what you need and the fun premise nad really beautiful especially for tv animation at the time visuals really sell this one. ONce again, good stuff.

Overall: This was a REALLY good note to go out on. While as I said the Clarabelle stuff can eat my entire ass, everything else is really damn good and I highly recommend checking this one out. Next time, in about a month, we’ll be looking at Pete’s spotlight episode for his birfday. While you wait tommorow we have my first look at legend of the three cabs. But for now, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.

#house of mouse #mickey mouse #minnie mouse #mortimer mouse #clarabelle cow #donald duck #daisy duck #goofy goof #mouseworks #maurice lamarche #mickey's culture clash

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toglidethroughlife · 4 years

Text

Brighter Than Any Star:

An intimate look at everyone’s new favorite bass player

(or the blades band au that nobody asked for)

*inspired by @iaraiumi‘s STUNNING guitarist tyril art (here)

tyril-centric and tyril x mc bc this would be 7k+ words if i didn’t focus on just one of them but i tried to give everyone a moment in the spotlight. credits to a fic i read from the 100 fandom years ago for the format

used my f!elf mc ryllea graywater for this (though i guess this is kind of a modern au idk asjdla); also i don’t play any musical instruments i’m sorry in advance for butchering any of the technical parts 😬

Tyril Starfury — with his red silk shirts and slicked back hair — looks every bit the part of a rock god on stage with the rest of BLADES; but here, in the confines of their tour bus, he is a quiet presence, calmly sipping tea in the corner with a notepad and pen in his hands, his mind far away in the early hours of the morning.

If you had told me eighteen months ago that I would be shadowing Broadway darling Tyril Starfury as he traveled cross-country with his new rock band, I would have laughed and called you preposterous.

And yet, here I am, witness to the madness.

Nia Ellarious, the band’s youngest member and resident pianist, offers me a cup of the same tea as Starfury’s, telling me to enjoy the quiet with an almost apologetic smile.

I understand what she means not long after.

(There’s no such thing as a quiet morning in the world of Mal Volari.)

Every bit as charming and flamboyant as his on-stage persona, Volari greets the entire bus a good morning with flourish, throwing both me and Ellarious a magnetic smile before slipping towards the coffee machine with exceptionally light feet. (More on that later.) He taps on every available surface while he waits for his coffee to brew, humming softly as if figuring out a melody right there on the spot.

If Starfury is bothered by Volari’s banging and humming, he makes no show of it, paying him no mind as he continues to scribble in his notepad.

Ellarious beams as the scene plays out in front of her. “It’s not every day that they don’t get on each other’s nerves,” she explains. “Especially in the morning.”

It’s around this time — almost noon now — that Ryllea Graywater, lead guitarist and vocalist, wakes and joins the group, heading straight towards Volari and the cup of coffee in his hand.

“Thanks,” she winks as she takes the cup from him, shooting Volari a shit-eating grin that he returns easily, already procuring another cup for himself.

It should be noted that Graywater doesn’t seem to talk to anyone until she’s had at least one cup of coffee, choosing instead to slide in beside Starfury in the dining booth, eyes darting towards the notepad he’s writing on. They kind of just... sit there, minding their own business amidst the chaos that is the rest of the bus.

(Volari’s launched into an animated story about the inspiration behind last year’s summer hit, “Contessa, Contessa”, but I can’t help being drawn to the more quiet story unfolding behind him in the dining booth.)

Slinging one arm against the backrest of Starfury’s seat, Graywater casually invites herself into his space, a thoughtful smile on her lips as she looks over the notepad in his hand. There’s an openness between them that tells me that this isn’t a new occurrence, a comfortable ease in the way they seem to be engaging in a wordless conversation.

“He’s kind of really private,” I recall the younger Starfury sibling, Adrina, telling me about his creative process years ago, at the release party for his collab album with then rumored girlfriend and writing partner Kaya Duskraven. “He’s always been a perfectionist. Doesn’t really let anyone other than Kaya hear anything until it’s finished.”

But there’s no trace of that here, in this quiet moment with Graywater, bright, almost triumphant smiles on their faces as she picks up a pen and scribbles something on the pad too, immediately tapping out a melody against the table as if to test-run it by Starfury.

The smile he gives her is glowing.

I look away — suddenly feeling like an intruder in their private moment — catching the tail-end of Volari’s Contessa story, right before Imtura (no publicly released surname) accidentally slams me against the wall when the bus makes a rocky turn.

“Oof, sorry there little guy.” She raises both hands in apology before heading straight for the coffee machine, haphazardly dumping its contents into a generous-sized mug before immediately proceeding to consume said coffee as she plunks onto the other end of the dining booth.

And that’s how the first morning of me shadowing BLADES goes.

Ellarious tells me I’m lucky it was a good one.

With over 16 years of experience under his belt, Tyril Starfury has been in the music and entertainment industry far longer than the rest of the BLADES members combined. At the tender age of nine, he won his first piano competition, regarded highly for his precision at such a young age. He would continue to play competitively until he discovers a new love — musical theater.

It’s no surprise that Starfury ends up on Broadway — he comes from a long line of revered artists, all of them regarded as geniuses of their time. Though some would argue that his family name opened doors that would otherwise be unavailable, no one could deny that it was his clear, soaring baritone and unrelenting work ethic that kept him on stage.

It’s on this stage that he met young Kaya Duskraven, an understudy in one of his shows, prompting a fruitful five-year partnership spanning two EPs and a mini-concert series, Stars in the Dusk.

(The name was a little on the nose, but the critics loved them all the same.)

The two shared such a comfortable rapport, on and off-stage, that they naturally sparked dating rumors — Starfury was always quick to deny them.

No one could have expected the partnership to end on such a bitter note.

To this day, no one knows the real reason behind their fallout — Starfury walked out in the middle of their televised performance without apology or explanation — though there have been no shortage of rumors and theories, a lot of them involving one Eleryn Rosecoven, better known in the industry as Shadow Court bassist dXenia.

I tried to bring it up once, after several bottles of beer have been consumed and the band is swapping stories over s’mores made over the tour bus stove.

I’ve never been shut out so fast in my life.

There’s an audible crack from the s’more now crushed in Imtura’s hand, her piercing amber eyes seemingly driving a death sentence into mine. Volari sighs disapprovingly (and dramatically) at me, and even Ellarious — friendly, cheery Nia — looks at me with a pointed glare, turning off the stove, signaling the end of s’mores night.

“I would prefer not to comment,” Starfury nods at me, years of practiced courtesy showing in his tone and all I want in that moment is for the earth to swallow me whole.

Graywater follows when he excuses himself from the group. Everyone else avoids me like the plague.

It’s hours later when Starfury and Graywater return to the bus — I pretend to have fallen asleep in the dining booth in hopes that I can avoid their fury until the morning — but Graywater approaches me with two cups of tea in hand, an unreadable expression on her face.

She slides over one cup to me — if the scalding temperature of the tea is intentional, she makes no obvious show of it.

“Look,” she begins with an exasperated sigh. “I know you’re only doing your job here. And we did agree to this article, so I’m sorry if things got a little tense back there.” She pauses, as if considering her next words carefully. “We’ve all lived moments in our lives that we’re not proud of. Tyril’s had to live his in front of the public eye. He’ll talk about it when he feels ready to... but his past doesn’t define him, none of ours do.”

I nod, understanding that this is the last we’ll speak of the subject. She smiles as if in truce, telling me that I don’t have to banish myself to the dining booth and that no one will pull any pranks on me if I sleep in the shared bedroom.

I barely catch any sleep anyway.

There’s a ferocity in the way they protect each other that I didn’t notice at first — it could be subtle sometimes, like in the way Volari always checks in with each of the band members every night before going to bed (even though Starfury usually brushes him off); or in the way Imtura always makes sure every one stays hydrated (feel free to interpret that however you wish, whichever way is true); or in the way Ellarious always has some form of baked good running in the oven, more often someone else’s favorite rather than her own.

(I learn the hard way that no one is allowed to get in between Imtura and her cupcakes. No one.)

It’s also plain as day whenever they’re on stage together, their set list a carefully curated show that highlights each member’s strengths without anyone getting overworked. Everyone’s always quick to catch each other whenever they hit snags along the road — there’s a moment in one of the shows when Volari’s mic suddenly gets cut off and Starfury swoops in without missing a beat, a small nod of the former’s head seemingly the only cue he needs, the trust between them implicit.

When I had asked earlier why he’d joined BLADES, Starfury simply shrugged, as if it was no big deal.

“It was by accident. I happened to be at one of their shows and they needed a bass player. We kind of just… worked and we’ve played together ever since.”

But this kind of chemistry doesn’t just happen by accident. No, this is the product of months and months of hard work, of opinions clashing and arguments spanning days before sitting down and realizing it’s not impossible to see eye to eye; it’s battles won and battles lost together, respect earned and trust merited.

To call them just another band seems too small a word almost. Insufficient.

They’re kind of like a family.

(If your typical family involved regular knife and axe-throwing contests, that is.

... it’s best not to ask.)

Tensions are high backstage at Deadwood Festival Grounds.

Volari has been pacing around non-stop. Ellarious looks like she’s using every bit of her willpower not to bite her fingernails. Imtura keeps violently tapping her drumsticks together. Starfury’s got his arms crossed in a corner, brows furrowed.

Graywater is doing a handstand for no apparent reason.

The anxiety is understandable — tonight’s a crucial moment for the band.

With only one more show before the grand finale at Whitetower Stadium, all the bands are doing their best to retain the crowd’s favor, each playing well-established fan favorites, saving the riskier song choices for the finale.

That is, everyone except BLADES.

They’re planning to debut two new songs tonight, both of which written solely by Starfury.

It’s a ballsy move on its own — no one’s exactly itching to drop the ball on their fans this close to the end — but add in the fact that Starfury hasn’t released any solo-written music since the Duskraven fallout and you’ve got the makings of a battle that could either go incredibly right or disastrously wrong.

Let’s back up a bit.

After the Duskraven breakup, Starfury had gone into something of a hiatus (if that’s what you call disappearing off the face of the entertainment industry) before dropping the 13-track self-written album, “Honor,” without prior notice or promotion. Fans were ecstatic to hear from him after his sudden break, but critics were less enthused, calling the album ‘a brash, arrogant attempt at flipping the metaphorical finger at Duskraven that ultimately falls short’, noting the clear absence of Duskraven’s touch in his music — all technicality, no soul.

Starfury’s penned a couple of songs with BLADES since, spanning genres as colorful and diverse as its writers, but there hasn’t been a solo venture since Honor, leaving long-time Starfury fans anxious to hear him take lead again.

Graywater calls everyone into a circle, locking eyes with Starfury as she gives his hand a squeeze.

She makes a speech that I‘m not privy to — but everyone is visibly more resolute after she speaks, each raising their fists to meet in the middle of the circle.

“I’m honored to be on this journey with you all,” I hear Starfury share, a glittering smile spreading on Volari’s lips at the statement.

“I knew you liked us!” he says, crossing the circle to throw an arm around Starfury’s shoulders, pulling him close.

“Group hug!” Ellarious laughs and Imtura closes the circle into a solid embrace.

Starfury appears to be in shock — as if this is the first time this has happened — but he recovers quickly, a quietly contented smile on his face.

The last streaks of daylight have disappeared by the time they’re called to stage, the crowd restless from a long afternoon under the blistering heat.

Darkness has fallen.

But then the opening chords to fan-favorite “Murderous Masquerade” cut through the evening air, a flurry of flashing lights bursting through the sky, and the Deadwood comes alive.

Volari takes center stage in his flashy black and gold ensemble, working the crowd with such ease that it’s no question why he’s been dubbed the band’s de facto showman — he’s frankly just mesmerizing to watch.

Next up is “The Priestess and the Warrior,” an epic tale crammed into four and a half minutes of heart-racing drum beats — provided by the insanely talented Imtura — with a tender piano-driven bridge near the close, Ellarious’ heartbreaking vocals driving the whole thing home.

Graywater takes lead in the third number, “Flirting with Monsters,” a delicate neo R&B number that sounds nothing like the title suggests, her earnest, airy vocals lulling you into a comfortable, almost dream-like state as she entices her lover to stay.

The one thing common between the seemingly weird mishmash of genres is Starfury’s steady bassline, providing a much needed thread of cohesion to the set list. Where Volari, Imtura, Graywater, and even Ellarious tackle their music with the raw aggression of fresh blood on stage, Starfury attacks with quiet, seasoned finesse, his expertise evident in tracks like “Watch your back (or I’ll watch it for you)” and “Drakna Queen” — two unconventionally energetic numbers that would be difficult to listen to live if not for Starfury’s sure hand bringing them harmony.

“Alright, we’re gonna slow things down for a bit,” Graywater announces, eyes sparkling with excitement as she looks at Starfury. “Tyril’s got a new song and we want you guys to be the first to hear it.”

By now, I’ve seen enough of Starfury’s performances to say that he’s not a nervous performer. Even in the earlier stages of his career, there was always a quiet assuredness about him — which could have also been easily called arrogance — and while that’s still present now, there’s something different about the way he interacts with the crowd, a sense of humility present in the way he put his hands together and gives them a brief bow before he sits himself in front of the piano.

“I would like to dedicate this to a person very special to me,” he begins, his fingers gentle on the keys, a soft, lilting melody dancing in the air.

(He’s not even the least bit subtle about the way he looks at Graywater.)

“She has reminded me, time and again, that hope and love, when we allow it, can shine the brightest light in the dark.” Graywater shakes her head as if to shrug in nonchalance, but she meets his eyes dead on, her smile beaming with pride.

Turning to the crowd, Starfury adds, “I hope this gives you as much joy as you’ve given me. This one’s called ‘Kilvali.’”

For the next minute, it’s just Starfury and the piano, the world quiet as his voice fills the air. If there was ever any doubt that Starfury had lost his vocal prowess, there wouldn’t be any now. His voice is clear and strong — reaching even the farthest row of people on the music grounds — albeit with a softness now that I’ve never heard from him before, his attachment to his music feeling infinitely more personal.

“All my moments with you are worth whatever pain that came before,” he sings, his voice soaring as the rest of the band join him in the second verse. The performance is even more powerful with the added instrumentation.

Tiny cellphone flashlights illuminate the crowd as they sway their hands in time to the song, the emotion in Starfury’s voice rolling out in waves.

Twitter user @notmxwllbmnt13 sums it up nicely:

SJSKJSJSK TYRIL STARFURY KILLED ME TONIGHT!! ALL!! THE!! FEELS!!

(It really was beautiful.)

The crowd cheers as the song draws to a close, but the battle’s not over yet (as Starfury would tell me himself later) — the true test lying in whether or not his second song proves a testament to his newfound voice in songwriting… or if it’s just a one-time stroke of luck.

“If it’s alright with you, we’d like to play you another new one,” he says and the applause is deafening when he turns over the mic to Volari, the latter pulling him into a one-armed hug before taking to the crowd.

If Duskraven’s interviews post-breakup are to be believed, Starfury has never — not once — written a song that wasn’t intended for himself. (She claimed to have co-written plenty of solos for Starfury, but he allegedly never returned the favor.) A quick glance at his repertoire would make this allegation appear true.

“It is true,” he tells me simply when I bring it up later in the tour bus. (Despite the coolness of his voice, I notice him shift a little in his seat.) “I was... unconfident, extending my words to other artists like that. I was also prideful and arrogant — afraid to face the judgment and criticism of my peers, and for that, I truly am sorry to Kaya. She deserved better from me as a partner.”

It seems Starfury has taken that incident to heart. Listening to “Purple Dreams” with Volari’s teasing falsetto on the forefront, it becomes clear that Starfury wrote this with the former’s vocals in mind, the flirtatious mix of his sassy vocal riffs and playful onstage antics giving the song a delicious, intoxicating energy.

It’s probably the most experimental I’ve heard from Starfury as a writer, both in terms of lyricism and melody.

“I’ve learned a lot this last year, creating music with BLADES,” he explains. “Not only did I find a new perspective on songwriting thanks to them, but my bandmates also gave me the courage to try things outside of my comfort zone and to allow myself to make mistakes. They inspire me.”

Years ago, he was dubbed as stiff and awkward outside of the theater stage, with Duskraven providing all the charm in their partnership, but now, on stage with BLADES — as Volari points his sultry gaze at him, singing his own lyrics to him — Starfury smirks, leaning ever so slightly against the showman as his hands tease along the guitar strings, driving the crowd wild.

It’s clear by the end of the song that Starfury has won over the crowd, and for once, he actually seems to revel in it, his smile beaming as he takes in the applause.

The rest of the band are even more thrilled for him, each leaving their posts to engulf him in another hug.

He doesn’t hesitate this time, allowing the fond gesture in front of their adoring crowd, each of them savoring the quiet moment, and I think, out of all the times I’ve seen Starfury on stage, this has to be my favorite version of him.

In the company of his friends, lifting and supporting each other, Tyril Starfury shines brighter than any star.

“We haven’t talked about what we’re doing after yet,” Starfury admits when I ask him about the future of BLADES after Morella Fest. (Each of the members are also solo artists in their own right, after all.) “But whatever happens at the end of the tour, we’ll always have each other, regardless of whether the band continues or not. I can’t imagine my life without these people now and I hope I never have to.”

He’s smiling as he says this, watching his bandmates fight over the last levenfruit before he excuses himself to join them, Graywater and Ellarious easily making space for him in the dining booth, Volari and Imtura rounding out the little world that now seems completely their own.

This article also appears in BLADES: The Most Ambitious Crossover Event in Morella Music History. You can find the full feature on www - kadethebard - com.

tagging: @sophie-summer ✨

#playchoices #blades of light and shadow #tyril starfury #tyril x mc #playchoices fanfic #reposting bc i am dumb and have a fake external link in the fic that made tumblr hidethis from the tags #bonus hc:#threep is there even tho i didnt get to include him #he’s a stray that just showed up one day and no remembers who fed him first #(it was mal)#but they keep feeding him anyway and he kind of just stays and travels with them #kade has caught each of them talking to threep (when they think no one is looking)#as if the cat could talk back #EDIT: why wont this show up in the tags im stresseddddd #my fic

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jolie-goes-downton · 4 years

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The Downton Abbey Oppositions Tag Game

Thank you for tagging me, @naevery !

1. Favourite plotline from your least favourite season?

My least favourite season (so far) is S5 (except its Christmas special, of which I love every single minute). S5 gave way too much screen time to characters that were neither interesting nor likeable to me, such as the Prince Kuragin saga and the Denker/Spratt feud, and intolerably drew out other plotlines that could have advanced a lot faster, such as Edith’s distress at the Marigold situation, Tom’s uncomfortable friendship with Sarah Bunting and Mary getting rid of Gillingham for good. But the two plotlines of S5 that I liked unequivocally were Rose growing up and finding Atticus, and Isobel and Lord Merton’s romance, which I find incredibly touching.

2. Least favourite plotline from your favourite season?

Favourite season is a draw between S2 and S3. In S2, I hated everything about Richard Carlisle, even when it served the plot and ultimately helped to advance Mary x Matthew. That guy made me shudder!

In S3, I hated the very idea of Mrs Patmore marrying the disgusting grocer. And I also disliked the whole continuation of the Ethel storyline, which would have been so much stronger IMHO if it had ended with the heartbreaking farewell when Charlie’s grandparents take him away.

3. What’s a quality that you actually like about (one of) your least favourite main/regular character(s)?

Like everyone else, I loved to hate Sarah O’Brien, but I was really touched by how protective she was towards Mr Lang the poor shell-shocked valet, and how she genuinely regretted having been a witness for the prosecution against Bates. That hidden, caring side of her was a real surprise.

4. What’s your least favourite quality of your favourite character?

My favourite character is Thomas, and while I totally understand where his bitterness and his mistrust of everyone and everything comes from, I’m not sure I can easily forgive his behaviour against Anna. To be scheming to get the same woman into prison who had put her arm around him when he cried about Sybil’s death, and who was the only one to offer him words of comfort when Jimmy had to leave, was just beastly. Ugly as Thomas’ systematic bullying of Miss Baxter was, at least there was a clear (if ignoble) purpose behind that. But Thomas’ cruelty to Anna, who has never done or even wished him anything bad, is just gratuitous. So, gratuitous nastiness to people who haven’t even remotely deserved it probably sums it up.

5. What’s your favourite thing that your least favourite main/regular character has done?

Not to repeat myself about Sarah O‘Brien (see no. 3), I‘ll say that I was also really touched by how grim Lord Sinderby acknowledged that he‘s human and not infallible at the end of the S5 Christmas Special. (I hope he qualifies as a main/regular character.)

6. What’s your least favourite thing that your favourite character has done?

Probably Thomas‘ wine stealing in S1. Because that was neither understandable, nor clever, nor entertaining from the viewer‘s perspective, but just plain juvenile stupidity. I guess I‘m just miffed that it was nowhere near as clever as his later plots, nor accidentally beneficial, as they usually are.

7. What’s a positive aspect about (one of) your least favourite ship(s)?

I hated the whole Prince Kuragin storyline, that guy was such a creep. The only positive thing about it was how it took Violet down a peg or three!

8. What’s an aspect about your favourite ship that you don’t like?

My favourite ship (keeping in mind that I’m currently at ep. 6.02, so I can’t officially ship Thomas x Richard yet) has to be Mary x Charles Blake. The bit that I hate about it is that it didn’t happen! I was so disappointed that even the possibility just fizzled out and Blake, although he said he’d put up a fight, gave up just like that, even once Mary had rejected Gillingham. They would have been so well suited, and they’d have made such a power couple.

My other favourite ship is Isobel x Lord Merton, and if her (very understandable) “no” at the end of S5 will turn out to be final, I’ll cry. The fact that he turns up again in the hospital subplot at the start of S6 has given me new hope though.

9. What’s your favourite and least favourite styling/outfit of your favourite and/or least favourite character? (feel free to add pics if you want!)

Least favourite outfit is easily Thomas in a bowler hat. The shape just doesn’t suit him at all IMHO. Makes him look like a clown.

I also love his military uniform less than many other people do. It makes him look like such a hulk when he really is no hulk.

And while I love the cricket sequence in S3 for storytelling reasons, I’m not fond of the cricket whites either. (On anyone, TBH.)

Most favourite outfit - so hard! I won’t say no to any of those sharp suits and liveries, the Brancaster livery and the under-butler livery probably being my favourite. They’re his suits of armour, and boy does this poor man need armour. But deep down, my all time favourite outfit is probably when Thomas looks most relaxed and at ease, so I’ll go for the waistcoat & shirtsleeves look of the S3 tug-of-war scene or the S4 CS day by the sea. I also won’t say no to the t-shirt & pyjama pants of the famous “you know why” scene with Jimmy in S3. Maybe it‘s the hair, even more than the clothes.

OK, who to tag who hasn’t done this yet? @soft-in-my-old-age, @misunderstoodnotevil , @oleander4 , @thedanceronthestreets , @sgt-barrow, @bitletsanddrabbles , if you haven’t already, let us know your thoughts! And of course anyone else who feels like having a go.

#Downton Abbey Oppositions Tag Game #downton abbey #downton abbey meta #thomas barrow

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hija-del-trueno · 4 years

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Sinking

Day 1 - May 4th: Headcanon/Missing Scene or Favorite Scene

Author’s Note: Hi all, this is Daughter.of.Thunder (formerly JediMasterRoyal on ff.net). I last posted a few years back but this pandemic opened up a creative opportunity for me, and since the Clone Wars has provided us with inspirational fuel I was compelled to partake in Anidala Week 2020. This is my submission for Day 1: Headcanon/Missing Scene. This is, I guess, a little mix of both taking place in CW Season 7, Ep 2 “A Distant Echo”

*Extra points to whoever can tell me which song inspired this?*

;)

Sinking

“Threepio, how do I look?”

She stared at the mirror. Looking at herself from all angles. Currently, she couldn’t stand looking at herself. Was that bad?

“Oh Mistress Padre, what an absurd question?! You are the absolute definition of beauty!” C-3PO exclaimed.

Padme rolled her eyes. It’s not that she felt hideous, it’s that she felt pregnant. Too pregnant.

It all started with the fatigue. Usually she could power through Senate sessions and work on bills for more than 8 hours a day but then suddenly she started feeling exhausted. One time, Bail found her asleep at her desk in midday and asked if she was okay.

Then it was the headaches. She felt them coming a mile away. And don’t get her started on how easily irritated she was recently.

The morning sickness kicked in at the 7th week, and she had never felt as wretched, except for that one time when she went out with the handmaidens for Yane’s birthday and got drunk on wine.

But the nausea gave it away for her. Especially since she remembered she had not had her monthly in quite sometime. Soon enough she had 3PO buy her a pregnancy test and she felt she did not even need to prick her finger with the blood it asked to know the answer.

Ever since she had found out, Padme had lost her sleep.

She wondered how? And why?

Padme huffed while looking at herself in the mirror. She knew how.

Of course, she knew how. By her calculations she could tell you exactly when and where. It’s not like her and Anakin were constantly together.

After Scipio and Clovis, her and Anakin had been in perhaps awkward terms. They at first had trouble addressing the several banthas in the room. His jealousy, her stubbornness, his distrust, and her call to duty had been wrenches that were ripping the seams of this….thing they called marriage.

She had apologized in Scipio and he had too on the ship back to Coruscant. He had wept and begged her to forgive him for distrusting her. But the awkwardness was still there, the words that had been said before, still stung. Anakin had stayed away a bit more often when he was stationed in Coruscant. And truthfully, she missed him.

Which is why she devised a plan. Padme followed the war closely, pulled in a few favors, spoke to the Chancellor and soon enough there was a short reprieve from war. Her knight could come home.

There in the lake country with no one to bother them, in the place where they fell in love, they were honest. They apologized again but this time there was no awkwardness just acceptance and a promise to be better. They realized they were both more dutiful than they had been 2 and half years ago. That prioritization was leading to resentment for one another. They talked it out. Found possible solutions.

They also had fun. They laughed about anything and everything, moments throughout the war they had yet to process. They swam. They had picnics. And they made love too. Padme would be lying if she didn’t think that was what she missed the most.

But that’s not when she conceived.

It was sometime after the Vos/Ventress debacle. Anakin had been back and forth from the front but had been relaxed. It wasn’t until the Outer Rim Sieges began, battle plans were made and announced, that she saw his worry lines appear.

“I might be gone for longer than normal.”

“Oh.”

“But we can comm each other often,” Anakin said desperately.

She smiled at him jokingly from her vanity. “Often huh…”

Anakin chuckled and rolled his eyes, “You get the point.”

He got down to one knee in front of her and his hands cradled her face.

“I’m going to miss you so much. But the Outer Rim Sieges feel like the war is getting closer to the end. And the end of this war means that we will be free. Free to leave all this behind, free to love each other without reprimand, free to start a family,” Anakin murmured. His eyes filled with hope and desire.

She nodded her head in his grasp. “I love you Anakin Skywalker.”

“And I, you, my angel.” Anakin leaned in to kiss her.

The kiss was soft and held no malice. Gone was the shyness of the Rebel Jedi she met three years ago. And now was a man before her filled with certainty and confidence. It seemed that she loved him even more now everyday.

His flesh hand fell away from her face and intertwined with hers at her lap. His lips broke the kiss but hovered above them.

“Allow me to worship at the temple of my goddess so as to remember her in my time of need,” Anakin said huskily.

Padmé smiled. Anakin an ever dramatic romantic. She nodded.

That’s when she conceived.

Don’t get he wrong. She was happy. She was excited. They were going to have a baby.

A little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes like it’s father. And she’d hold that baby and love that baby.

But just as she was happy, she was beyond scared.

The war was not over yet. And Anakin was in Anaxes, with no sign of him coming back soon at all.

What if she gave birth and he was still in the front? What if something happened to him out there?

Which is why her current predicament was to tell him or not to tell him.

The question had been mulling in her head the whole week. They hadn’t commed often like he’d said. But he made sure to send her messages. She thought sending him a message with this sort of news back would be way too impersonal. Plus she was hesitant of sending messages. It left a trail.

That was another issue. Lately she had been hesitant about a lot of things. She had taken great lengths to hide their secret thus far and Padmé would continue to do so. Except that as more time passed it became harder to hide this secret.

She was big. Too big for four months. Her regular clothing stopped fitting her long ago.

She had ordered new larger clothing and hoped that people would just believe she was into a new fashion trend. But she saw the looks Bail and Mon gave her occasionally.

She was scared to go to the medic again in fear that someone would find out. She was scared to buy anything for the baby yet in fear of some Holonet reporter following her. She was scared to go to any function and have politicians ask her why she wasn’t holding her normal glass of wine. She was simply scared and alone.

Every night she spent thinking of things she could not do or had not done. Sometimes she felt she could not breathe, the anxiety overcoming her.

Does it make me weak?

Padme had always been confident of herself and being the older one in the relationship, occasionally meant she led the charge on certain items but this…this made her feel way out of her element. How would Anakin take this news? How would he react? Would he be upset or disappointed? Maybe it would require her to feel older than she had asked to be.

She supposed she could call Dorme or Sabé, but they’d long ago left to Naboo and while their friendship remained, she did not want them to worry and come to Coruscant for her. There was Ellé and Moteé, who kept her secret safe but she did not want them too involved. Not after what happened with Teckla.

Besides this was her doing, was it not?

The worst of it was this feeling that she was sinking. This far away impending dread that she could not shake off.

Looking back at herself in the mirror she sighed while cradling her bump. She had foolishly decided to wear her tan jumpsuit. Padme figured that Anakin would notice, and then the floodgates could open and he would provide her with some comfort and solace.

“It was the will of the Force,” he’d say and that would suffice. At least for now.

….

Except Anakin had not noticed. Ugh men can be so dense sometimes.

Padme nervously laughed as she got into bed. She did her best to stand appropriately, but not only had Anakin been late but he’d been in a haste.

And she’d almost burst out but then he said her name and it all fell away oh so tenderly. All her worries drifted and she instead guided him to the answer he sought. He was in war. This would have to do for now.

In due time, Anakin would be by her side again and she would tell him. For now, all she could do was place her hands over her belly and dream of their future. Their new hope.

#anidalaweek2020 #star wars #anidala #padme amidala #anakin skywalker #the clone wars

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