#why do you think that cain deleted that post? because there was something wrong with it

[radfae]

this is genuinely upsetting. how much longer are women not only going to be complacent in but actively encourage misogyny?

[spookyscarycreepydollgirl]

I deleted your comment because it made me so mad, but I need to explain why so you don't keep doing this. You shouldn't make queer characters straight, but it's fine to make straight characters queer because they are not a marginalised group. They are not an underrepresented group. HC-ing straight people queer is not the same as HC-ing ace people allosexual. Asexual people are ridiculed and ignored within their own community, so when we get canon representation, that needs to be respected. When the media is as saturated with ace rep as it is straight rep, we can revisit this conversation, but until then if you like the dynamic of two characters there's no reason why you can't take that and make something new with it. You don't need to erase ace characters in the process. Hope this helps

That’s a dumb thing to think, and I think you know it. Characters from marginalised groups requiring protectionist double standards I mean. They’re fictional characters, they exist to entertain. They aren’t real or worth protecting, no matter what their sexual orientation or lack there of is. I literally kill my OCs in the name of fetishisation on my blog. You don’t protect fictional characters, they’re tools, they exist to be used and exploited no matter who they represent.

That’s not even getting into the fact that you aren’t even talking about media representation, you’re talking about fanfiction. A niche close knit form of media that the majority of people will never even see. If you’re trying to influence how others think on a societal or systemic level, fanfiction is a laughable way to do it. You can’t dictate how an audience reacts to a character. You can’t control who people will ship with who or what they write about. Fanfiction is a hobby, it’s done for fun, out of dedication and passion. You should be grateful that people like the same characters you like and the same stories you like enough to want to invent new stories for them, being picky about those stories in an artistic sense is fine, but pretending it’s a question of morality? That’s just self-righteous. It’s just bossing people around and shaming them cause you think you know better.

I ship Gale X Astarion X Tav even though Gale isn’t poly and Astarion has some definite sexual trauma in his past. I ship Yuugi/Atem even though Yuugi is canonically straight. I ship tons of other things that are not even remotely canon. It’s not wrong or evil it’s creative license and it’s fun.

I should clarify that the post they’re so mad about they deleted was me essentially saying: “I ship Yuugi/Yami no Yuugi, even though Yuugi is canonically into pussy, I’m not sparing the straights, so why would I spare the asexuals?” I forget the actual wording, I don’t think I mentioned pussy in so many words. So just think of this version as a slightly more crass and dramatic reenactment.

Anyway I don’t even feel offended by being deleted this time because I’m too taken back by the need of OP to correct my supposed bad behaviour.

I’mma be honest guys, while I told this person I would lance the sacred cow of canonical queerness. I don’t actually have that many fanfiction OTPs I can think of that are straight despite being canonically queer. (Does Pomni X Caine count? An AI could be assumed to be canonically asexual right? But then the Moon is implied to get frisky so…yeah I don’t think I can determine this with just a pilot episode)

So not only am I sex repulsed IRL and thus the last person who needs to be told that life is tough for folk on the ace spectrum but the supposed “horrible” thing this person NEEDS to stop me doing I’m not entirely sure I’ve actually done. (I’ve read ALOT of fanfiction in my life though so I could just be misremembering.)

If anyone’s wondering why I’m so passionate about this though. It’s cause I want to be a proper writer one day and fictional characters as tools to be exploited is an inalienable right for writers. Does this mean I think getting attached to or empathising with characters is bad if you’re a writer? Hell no! But you gotta treat them like Sims characters and drown them in the pool without a second thought. I like my Sims, I empathise with my Sims and I still wouldn’t fucking hesitate to murder them in cold blood. And THAT my friends is the ideal attitude we should all aspire to when writing.

[mlobsters]

supernatural s9e12 sharp teeth (w. adam glass)

not sure i'm in a good mindset for this. their little reunion at the hospital is making me overly upset.

dean gives him a chance to bail (or a hint to leave?) and sam ignores it and asks more about garth while making this face. he doesn't use this expression all that often. it's not something i associate with him being mad, just more stressed-concerned?

and dean's eyes too green, scruff too long. is it like, guilt-beard? (okay coming back to this, mark of cain urge to kill beard?)

(that phrasing? from this kids book called once i ate a pie, took me a solid day to remember what i was thinking of. a poem called puppy. "the world is big / trees too tall / sky too high. all i could remember was the cadence i use when reading it to the kids so it took a hot minute to drag up enough words to figure it out)

sharp left to practically slapstick with sam smacking garth to wake him up. here's me perpetually forgetting that garth completely flaked out on kevin, not that him being around would have made a difference to how it played out.

okay, refreshing my memory to where they left things between them. i was remembering the whole "i'm poison" thing with dean being like boohoo somehow you made yourself the victim when sam's mad that you didn't trust him and took his agency away. so i went to look up the rest of the conversation and:

from s9e10

SAM So what? I was willing to die. And now... Kevin... DEAN No. That is not on you. Kevin's blood is on my hands, and that ain't ever getting clean. I'll burn for that. I will. But I'll find Gadreel. And I will end that son of a bitch. But I'll do it alone. SAM What's that supposed to mean? DEAN Come on, man. Can't you see? I'm... I'm poison, Sam. People get close to me, they get killed...or worse. You know, I tell myself that I-I – I help more people than I hurt. And I tell myself that I'm – I'm doing it all for the right reasons, and I – I believe that. But I can't – I won't... Drag anybody through the muck with me. Not anymore.

dean got distracted with feeling guilty and ignores the actual problem of what he did to sam

SAM Go. I'm not gonna stop you. SAM But don't go thinking that's the problem, 'cause it's not. DEAN What's that supposed to mean? SAM Just go.

i was with dean here and not understanding what he was saying, but i see now. sam saying that it wasn't about who's responsible for kevin, or if he does get everyone around him killed - that it's not this dean self-flagellation/penance; go because of the not trusting and the lying and the taking away agency. i understood that's why sam sent him away, but i didn't understand the conversation specifics.

anyWAY. what i was trying to remember was where sam was emotionally because i was expecting him to be more... visibly mad at dean still. memory refreshed, still surprised he's acting so.. not mad.

unless we're doing the "just keep it professional" which i'd expect to be more strained if sam's doing it. remember last time they had a falling out and reunited on a case? in that weird affirmation restaurant place? was that after stabbing jewel staite? yes, yes it was (s7e7 the mentalists). i believe i deleted from my original post about it but i definitely recall typing up something about being envious of dean being able to act like everything's fine and be casual and comfortable meanwhile (then-sam and) i will sit there seething acting like assholes because can't ignore the feelings

DEAN Anything on Gadreel? SAM Actually, uh, yeah. Turns out he, uh, he left some Grace in me before he bolted. DEAN You know how wrong that sounds, right? SAM Wouldn't worry about it. Cas took care of it. DEAN [Chuckles] Hmm. SAM What? DEAN Nothing. I'm gone for two weeks, and you're like an episode of "Teen Mom."

again with not understanding, i went through sam's face journey but took 10 minutes instead of 2 seconds. so i get the jizz/grace part of the teen mom joke. but if we're going with that analogy, he got an abortion and teen mom would be.. not that? it doesn't matter.

DEAN Crowley and I found him, and he gave me this so that I could eighty-six Abaddon once and for all. SAM You worked a job with Crowley? DEAN The devil you know...

i get that this conveniently is derailed by garth bolting but can you imagine the level of freaking out and demanding of information sam would actually do at dean's casually dropping this mark of cain thing out of nowhere

that's some kind of golden hour kissing his hair situation. so pretty

that's..... a choice.

DEAN I told you we can't hunt together. It's for your own good. SAM I hear you. And after we find Garth and get to the bottom of this, I'm gone. But until then, no more games.

very, "i hear your bullshit story, that's not the point but okay."

this is so not getting finished tonight. tbc

GARTH All right. We've all gotten off on the wrong foot here. So let's do things right. Boys...this is Bess...my beloved. And, Bess, that's Dean. Now, he could start a fight in an empty house, but deep down inside, he's just a big ol' Teddy bear. [DEAN looks annoyed and SAM chuckles] And Sam here -- Sam can be a bit insecure at times, [SAM glares] but for good reason. Bless his heart. DEAN That's sweet. Werewolf?

this episode is a very fucking weird tonal mix. big feelings, dumb jokes.

SAM Right. Uh, minus the part where your wife attacked me. GARTH Yeah, because you two came busting in here like a house on fire. Guns waving, the jawlines and the hair -- it's very intimidating!

okay that made me laugh. easy target

take 3.

long time no see, tom butler. he was back in s1e11 (the orchard episode), did a little hey i know you amended post on him there, he was in the xfiles and the killing so the hiky was for txf originally.

the xfiles s2e16 the colony / the killing s1e4 a soundless echo / spn s1e11 scarecrow

REVEREND JIM My daughter, Bess, was born a lycanthrope. It was one of the proudest days of my life. Which soon turned tragic... when a hunter killed my wife. Believe me when I tell you, I wanted to make someone pay. Then I looked at Bess, and I realized the road to revenge is a dark and lonely one, which you never get off. And that hole in the pit of your stomach, you never fill it -- ever.

-_- veggie vampires, veggie werewolves. lesson of the day for dean about chasing revenge. very cult vibes

every time i see the episode title sharp teeth it makes a song lyric fragment float up even though it doesn't have sharp in it, green light by lorde

Those great whites, they have big teeth Hope they bite you

is the mark making him grumpier? i don't know how it works without the blade. even when he's dubious he's not usually quite this rude, is he?

SAM Okay, Dean, they gave you lunch, they gave you pie. Why are we still here? DEAN Uh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, Garth's good. You want to hit the road, it's square by me. SAM Look, I'm just saying, this wouldn't be the first time we came across a friendly monster. Or a-a family of friendly monsters -- whatever this is.

remember the veggie vampires, dean?? anyway dean again hinting and sam plowing right past it

always enjoy a little nonverbal communication*

ragnarok. ok

did cain tell him what the mark would do? can't remember.

snorted at the book thing dean found with the convenient paw print on the cover. could there be wolfie secrets inside?

untitled 1 and 2 make their triumphant return!!! with quite the desktop background update. that made me really pleased, thank you people doing the onscreen computer stuff

will sam in peril be enough for dean to realize he needs to be there to protect him? ah, the convincing himself via speech to garth about holding on to the good things and family.

DEAN Uh, listen, that night that, uh... You know, we went our -- our separate ways -- SAM You mean the night you split? DEAN Fair enough. I was messed up, man. Kevin was dead, and I...I don't know what I was. SAM Okay. DEAN Hell, maybe I still don't. But, uh... I know I took a piece of you in the process, and for that... Somebody changed the playbook, man, you know? It's like what -- what -- what's right is wrong and what's wrong is more wrong, and... I just know that when... When we rode together... SAM We split the crappiness.

well, good job sort of apologizing and saying you want to be back together. now we can get to the actual issue with sam

SAM But something's broken here, Dean. DEAN I'm not saying that it's not. I... I just think maybe we need to put a couple W's on the board and we get past all this. SAM I don't think so. No, I-I wish, but... We don't...see things the same way anymore -- our roles in this whole thing. Back in that church, talking me out of boarding up hell? Or -- or tricking me into letting Gadreel possess me? I can't trust you -- not the way I thought I could, not the way I should be able to.

does sam regret not finishing the trials/choosing dean now?

DEAN Okay, look. Whatever happened... We are family, okay? SAM You say that like it's some sort of cure-all, like it can change the fact that everything that has ever gone wrong between us has been because we're family.

thank you for that cure-all line, because yes i could scream that

DEAN So, what -- we're not family now? SAM I'm saying, you want to work? Let's work. If you want to be brothers.... Those are my terms.

well 💔 but they'll eventually get their shit straightened out when they're together.

what a strange episode.

*fun little detail in the expanse / leviathan wakes scifi series is the people that live out in space, that work in space and spacesuits, have gestures/sign language used for nonverbal communication while in the suits

interesting little interview with the language creator for the belter creole used in the show that also talks about the gestures briefly (but what's extra funny to me, i learned the tapping your elbow thing from a cuban when i lived in miami, codo [elbow in spanish] for cheap)

and lastly someone made a google doc with a list of gestures/meaning

waffling over tagging this with the expanse, since it's wholly unrelated, but i think about the tags on these moreso as organization on my stuff, but realizing duh it also shows up in the main tag too for those shows. cluttering shit up perpetually.

sorry about being an asshole

[incarnateirony]

In what season and episode did you realised that Destiel went from subtext to actual text?

Difficult question really. I don’t exactly have a magic switch of some weird personal set goalpost I have, and frankly, wasn’t even really a shipper, just defended shippers, until... 13.5/6. I think I started slipping after 12.19 because I’m not a moron, I don’t live under a rock, I have eyes and know what the fuck a mixtape means to Gen X. But I kept it at arms reach because even Carver era was so totally subtextual-- atop all the stuff that got cut S10 after the S9 blowout, I didn’t exactly want to invest myself as much as point out shippers weren’t crazy for seeing what they saw, especially S8/9+ and even prior the resonance of the hero’s journey over our entire human civilization and historical othering of queerness made earlier readings or notices of it completely fair even if not really like, directional by the crew?

But to begin, Carver era was when I saw /intentful and meritful construction of the body of text, via subtext, to subtextually tell a story with classic queer coding./ Because a lot of what this fandom calls queer coding makes me want to hide my face behind a quantum hole of facepalms and is often like, pretty much the reverse of what should be advocated or considered. All those retro old “he’s been written as queer from S1″ make me want to kick puppies or something because oh my god it’s Not Good, most of the content there is Very Bad And Hugely Problematic, and it’s an attempt to retroactively prove what old canon was doing without any substance.

Carver era was the shift to substance, but silent substance. Subtext that’s genuinely thematically scaffolded into the storyline in a way that while the events themselves were largely cued on subtext, consideration of that subtext was critical to understanding the full body of text and people that refused to grow into and adapt with that text as the tone shifted are the ones that got more and more confused and angry.

Dabb era was the threshold crossing into (often low-visibility) text. Fandom intentionally arguing points that require complete removal from social structures (which is everything from regional meanings of major symbols, social codes, language, or why-letters-mean-things) doesn’t mean shit doesn’t mean what it means. A mixtape isn’t subtext any more than getting on one knee and popping open a box is subtext even if they don’t verbalize the words. We know what these fucking things mean and anyone who doesn’t is in DESPERATE need of going outside and experiencing the real world before making any kind of social commentary on a body of text.

When it comes to dialogue text, Last Call is where Bi Dean or at least Queer Umbrella Dean was textualized. Again, it doesn’t matter if people don’t understand the long argued history that was put to bed about repeat sexual encounters with men, it doesn’t matter what the gender of the other triplets were, literally none of that matters. It doesn’t matter if the person understands it. It doesn’t matter if they know their queer culture enough to know their arguments were already buried. It is what it is.

There’s this disillusionment that unspoken physicalized shit like kissing or sex, or verbalized ones like “I love you,” but “I love you, in a gay way, specifically and only you, and want to be romantic with you” because every other statement of the like so far has people crying or arguing about it as not enough either. 

These things are nice, but it is not the only way to deliver a textual romance. These are things we want and deserve, and people aren’t wrong for wanting them, the only wrong comes in deleting other text because it isn’t the style of text they want. 100% unhelpful.

Text in AV is complex. No matter how decontextualized people try to pretend this all is, throwing pasta at the wall and calling it an argument worth validating, AV media study doesn’t just incorporate social codes on shit like dialogue -- though anyone that applies those social codes wouldn’t be arguing anyway, as per my old post on that -- but visual language and TV literacy are a long studied topic and are just as relevant as understanding of textual/verbal language and having textual literacy. People trying to eschew these in the interest of favoring fanspaces to try to keep them equal within the canon, which is NOT what fandom space equality is supposed to be about, is just... lol. 

When that soap opera reporter that doesn’t even watch the show wandered in commenting on the full mise en scene of the 15.03 breakup being classical “Dark Point in the Romance” framing, that’s not subtext. In a book, characters aren’t running around on a blank canvas. Their environments are the text. 

What people may draw symbolically out of an environment varies, and if someone’s /interpretation/ holds up, that’s fine. But being able to digest the entire presentation of a work, that is to say, to read an entire scene in a book and understand their setting and the relevance of that setting is simply a form of text. And when literal fucking randos can spot classic cinematography, it’s time to consider what the full cinematic framework is telling you both in incremental minutiae of texts and in the full body of work.

So basically, I acknowledged lowkey text based on the most basic understanding of social codes, by 12.19, even if I was still kinda eyerolling about it. By 13.5/6, Castiel returned to Dean in something later echoed by Eileen for the zoom shot, but the rest of the arrangement was verbatim identical to the original ending of Swan Song with Lisa, with the only difference being “Never too late” wasn’t a verbal line, but an entire sound track they applied to highlight the scene.

Despite the Swan Song parallel ending reactives went up in arms about the fact that they weren’t having big romantic moments anymore and kinda failed to wrap braincases around the fact that the endgame reunion that was literally the ORIGINAL endgame shot, which ALSO didn’t include physicality (in fact, the text read, “this isn’t sexual at all. He’s a lost soul, and she’s his home” in the script for Lisa), and this dumbass fandom would go “SEE PROOF THAT MEANS THE TEXT MEANS IT WASNT SEXUAL AND HE JUST BECAME BEST FRIENDS THAT WAS HER BEDWARMER MAYBE SHE HAS COLD FEET AT NIGHT” and that’s not how this fucking WORKS. Common sense is NOT removed from fucking discussion and what sense is applied needs to be levelly-- again, social codes.

So at 13.5/6 I had considered it textually paramount to the original endgame arrangement. S14 was just... blatant ass domesticity. Dean got his happy ending. He had his family. He got his win, his everything. They spoke frequently in the kitchen -- only vaguely over cases, more slapping around idioms, eyerolling over barbarous eating, and occasionally discussing how to raise their son. In fact, if you look at non-research-non-casework S14 kitchen scenes I’m gonna let you sit there and map out what all those domestic moments in the heart of the kitchen was, minding 13.5/6. 

It was something gained. It was their life. And it was something to lose. 14.18 already advert framed it, we all saw it. Troubled family. People delete history of what is connected where to pretend “we” is vague or makes the romance any less of a canon piece and lmao guys 

And season 15 is their year long run where they’re spearheading a huge part of the plot and will be a critical final resolution.

Speaking of 13.5/6 and social codes, anyone remember that Jack hadn’t met Dave Mather and looked at one nonphysical picture of them and recognized “he’s her boyfriend”? SOCIAL CODES MEAN SHIT GUYS.

So there’s no magic moment. There’s S8/9 coding and subtext. There’s S12′s tape and other elements -- tape is just the easiest to nail down but several through the year tbh -- there’s S13′s Never Too Late, and all things that followed that in waterfall. There’s S14′s established domesticity with Castiel having essentially moved into the bunker, something that wasn’t even entirely established in S12 yet even if he was more frequent there than Carver era.

Without social codes, I could argue that “Dean loves pie” doesn’t actually mean he loves pie. In fact, I could argue those letters mean nothing, because basic social codes are what even give words meanings. Without them these are just squiggly lines on a screen. If I eschew social codes, I could take a “love me some pie” line from Dean and say it means he fornicates with children and make long convoluded excuses around it instead of the observable fucking fact that Dean fucking Winchester likes goddamn pie.

Waiting for your perfect personally dreamed magic moment for a landmark to call text generally disregards the full body of the text and merit of the work. The amount of time and effort this FUCKING shipping fandom has put into -- even Destiel shippers -- bashing down and calling blatant ass text subtext because it’s not the text they want -- just because they want to argue with people that threw the logic baby out with the destiel bathwater they thought was dirty -- it’s fucking embarrassing tbqh. Imagine if people’s competitive fandom BS was muted how anyone here would be addressing this body of text.

Like. “After Carver directed Misha to play Castiel as a jilted lover in season 9, Cain through S10 escalated it into Castiel as Colette, which was confirmed by both the author and actors, seating him as a lover, as Sam was Abel the brother; by season 11, pining and connected hearts becomes the driving theme of the show, repeatedly denounced both in text and showrunner commentary that it wasn’t Amara that was that romance, and instead, a different one rose; by season 12, domestic arguments were many, mixtapes were shared, coming into rooms and playing people for things secretly stashed under pillows were a hinging plot moment, by season 13 he was the Never Too Late Big Win as a far more powerful version of Lisa, by season 14 Castiel moved in, by season 15 their giant sacred marriage euchartist ceremonies on repeat are driving the entire body of the season while overtly making the straight pairing a secondary parallel to the primary Dean and Castiel pairing by 15.09 such as the AU scene, or the ending where they mimicked the same phrase, truncated by physicality. But anyone viewing this text is an adult not competing for their preferred fandom playbox to be considered in the text, and had eyeballs, saw Sam and Eileen were clearly courting, flirting, and/or romantically engaged for a long time before this.”

Can we hope for the equality in that, sure.  I want that, sure. That doesn’t erase all the other modes of text before that though. 

But there, I just addressed 4 consecutive seasons of storytelling as its stands in the critical themes, without breaking down the dozens of independent scenes themselves that have already been analyzed to death and yall have scorched in your eyeballs by now like angels have prophet names. 

I’ve seen people desperately, desperately try to reinterpret this text, or this story structure, in inconsistent ways that fall short. They’re never held accountable for their entire shit falling flat on their face, they just keep building new shit that falls on its face too and keep using it as a base. People can *interpret* ~text~ however they want. Anyone that tells you that “true text is inarguable” is either an idiot or selling you something for your subscription to their blog. Anyone CAN make any jackass interpretation of anything they want. 

So sure. You can make some nonsensical explanation around every core theme their relationship is shadowed by, removing all social codes and context from basic elements understood by adult human beings natively, whatever. You can take 200 pages writing around it and degaying it. Generally when I see this, I see unhinged, incomplete writings with no central thread, just a thousand disembodied excuses that don’t even make a story. They’re just that. Desperate excuses. Years of it at this point. And they’re free to /interpret the text like that/ if they want. But that’s their /interpretation/ of a /text/ and as-above generally in /intentional, willful, conscious denial and erasure of the basic social codes we all understand./

Just because they /can/ warp the most left field interpretation doesn’t make it not text. If I pulled an “I don’t know I can’t english suddenly” and threw those codes out the window that doesn’t mean that the shit doesn’t mean the shit it means just because it’s inconvenient to me lmao

And this isn’t necessarily at you, Nonnie, I just feel the need to expand on this because any single time I don’t nail down these conversational stakes, someone breezes through and intentionally hotboxes the conversation to go down these very predictable manipulations and extremizations of the conversation that I really am far too tired to repeat the arguments raging in my mentions again, so I head ‘em off before the shit ever reblogs.

[tweakerwolf]

Cain Endings 5 + 10

This one is going to be a really long post since its one of the longer endings to get to in general and the bonus stuff for ending 10 is plentiful! I probably won’t go into full detail with the bonus stuff but of course I have to mention it :)

Cafe:

Go to the fancy café and sit with Cain, the piano player. Get taken in by him. When he asks how he can help you, reply with “Maybe I just wanted to find some interesting people to talk to” and he chuckles, not really believing he fits into that category. You blush instead of answer. Cain easily moves the conversation along and buys you something from the barista. He gets you something called affogato- interesting! You’ve never had it before and maybe he’s playing some sort of prank on you! -Take the spoon- and dig in- omg it’s soooo delicious! You finish it quickly. He’s glad you enjoyed it but now it’s time for him to go… Tell him to “have a good night!” and joke with him a little more before he finally leaves. That’s when you notice a feather on the table... how did that get inside? As soon as you touch it, you feel severely ill (screen pulses) and you rush home. Eventually the awful feeling passes and you drop into you bed.

Cain’s House:

You wake up to the sun warming your face, and it doesn’t take you long to realize that you can’t be at your place... When you open your eyes, you’re in a stranger’s bed and you have no idea how you got there... You see a note saying to go to the living room, and you have no other option but to go and see just what the hell is happening. When you get to the living room, Cain is there- is this Cain’s house?? He makes small talk but quickly drops the act, voice becoming colder and meaner. Then he suddenly shifts, his features changing, morphing... until suddenly a completely different person is standing in front of you- the real Cain. You can’t comprehend how he did that, you don’t really want to know, you just try to run. But something stops you, an invisible wall... before you can even react to that, an invisible hand starts to squeeze your neck! Cain explains that he brought you to his house and he plans on torturing you, playing with you, until you beg for death. So keep him interested and you’ll live longer! The hand is gone from your throat and you ask “why are you doing this?” He just laughs and says because he can, he’s strong- no being on Earth can stand up to him so why shouldn’t he toy with them? Then he goes and sits down. Just what the hell is going on here?! You still have questions dammit, and despite the fact that he has some scary powers, you go over to him, -talk to Cain-. Get mouthy and ask “Is this the part where I get tied up?” to try and show him that you aren’t scared. Cain says that yea, there will be, but not to stop you from escaping. You can’t really escape from him because this is his domain... and anything outside his house will certain kill you. He invites you to leave if you wish, to get torn apart by creatures. 

He leaves you to think about it and goes back to reading his book. You decide against leaving- maybe he’s lying about the creatures... but maybe he’s not. You study Cain, trying to figure out what he might be, because he isn’t human. He tells you that it’s rude to stare... oops. -Back off- and explore the house some more, heading to the -bedroom-. You spy a phone on the bedside table -click on the phone- to pick it up. No sooner is it in your hands then it starts to ring. You answer it, unsure what else to do. Some guy starts yelling at you (well, at Cain, it is Cain’s phone). Quickly tell him “I’m not Cain” and he wants to know who’s answering his phone then. You tell him you have no idea what’s going on and that you’re scared. Thankfully, despite the fact that he appears to be acquaintances with Cain, he’s nicer than him. He introduces himself and tells you to stay calm. He doesn’t seem surprised to hear that Cain kidnapped you... you weren’t the first it would seem. Then he tells you that he wants to help you, he can try tracking the call but... not right this moment since he doesn’t have everything set up- he wasn’t prepared for this. He tells you to stay strong and then you quickly hang up, afraid that Cain will burst through the door at any moment. You barely manage to delete the call from his log before he does just that. Cain asks what you’re doing and you tell him that you’re just... sitting... For some reason, Cain accepts that and leaves you be. You flop down on the bed and pass out from the stress.

When you wake up, it’s night time and you figure you should make some sort of appearance. Being stuck here with him doesn’t sound like fun but dying sounds scary too so... might as well try to keep him ‘interested’... whatever that means. Head to the -balcony- and find Cain out there. He beckons you closer and surprisingly his voice sounds a little... softer. Look around at the scenery with him and notice that... it seems all wrong. Ask him “Where are we?” because this is no place you’ve ever seen before. He says that you’re in a place called Tartarus, an in-between realm where demons and others seek a haven. Oh... well... um... a sunset is a sunset and it is beautiful all the same, so you relax a bit and lean against him. Cain turns and nuzzles your neck, hands touching your sides. Then he lifts you up and holds out out against the railing! He rips off your underwear and tells you to beg for your life. You don’t want to die but you don’t want to beg either (begging technically isn’t an option here via our previous choices, only struggling), so -let the timer run out- and Cain seems okay with your silence. He suddenly, roughly thrusts inside you and you can’t do anything but gasp from the pain. You grab onto the railing to keep yourself from falling over and he slams into you. Eventually he cums and you slide to the floor, on the safe side of the rail at least. Despite that fact that it started off really rough, you have to admit that it felt good. As you struggle to stand, Cain throws his blazer over your shoulders, awwww. Then he helps you to your feet and takes you to bed.

This time when you wake up, it’s morning again and Cain is gone once more. He certainly isn’t too interested in his new toy, he’s only done a few things to you... (and all in all, they weren’t even that bad, hmmm). Head out to the living room to look for him but he isn’t there either... go back and -look in the bedroom- to find the phone. It’s there on the bedside table again!! -Click on the phone- and call Damien. Things haven’t been awful thus far but you know it can’t stay that way for long, better to get out while you can. Damien seems surprised to hear your voice but he scrambles to get everything set up- he’s ready to track the call this time. You make small talk while his tools zero in on your location. You find out that he’s a priest and that he’s actually Cain’s half-brother?? Cain doesn’t seem to care about that though because Damien admits that Cain’s tried to kill him a few times (wait, then why do they have each other’s numbers?? Why does Damien not block him?? XD). Shortly after that he has his companion write down some coordinates- did it work?? He says that they’ll be coming for you. Tomorrow, you just have to hold out until tomorrow... Hopefully you can. You hang up and curl into a ball on the bed. Some time later Cain comes in and talks to you. Looks like he’s ready for some sort of play time... He snaps his fingers and chains appear, latching onto your wrists! Cain tells you that you’re boring- oh no! The chains pin you to the bed and Cain steps down on your chest. He tells you to ask him nicely to let you go.... -ask him to stop- because, should you obey right now?? Maybe...? 50/50 shot, hope it’s the right one. You ask him to stop and he kicks you... then the chains are pulling on your arms with so much force that your joints are creaking and popping from the strain. Apparently he wants you to beg louder. He presses down on your broken ribs with his foot. You yell to be let go and this time he listens. The chains disappear and you pull your arms in close, trying to relieve the pain from having them almost ripped off. He walks away.

The next day you wake up in a bit of a stupor, you don’t feel like doing anything... you just want to sleep... but then remember Damien! -Look for the phone- and wonder if Damien forgot about you... or just isn’t coming... that would be your luck... As you curl up on the bed, you notice that the atmosphere in the room feels... different. Call out and someone opens the door- Damien!! He’s here to get you out! You’re safe now. You start to reach out for him but...

Ending 5:

Cain seems happy with you (he literally just called you boring and tried to rip your arms off! But, okay, sure...) -Call for Cain-, surely that’s the safer option! Hell, he’s tried to kill Damien in the past and now Damien is in the house, you lured him here! Damien gets pissed but Cain doesn’t appear... is he not home?! Damien leaves you, saying that you deserve whatever Cain does to you. Suddenly Cain is behind you, clapping his hands... he says that you should’ve went with him (why didn’t he attack??? D: does he only try to kill Damien for funsies?) Cain charges forward and you feel your arm disconnect from your body... You bleed out quickly as Cain warns you not to touch his things... Died- Cain cut off your arm.

OR

Ending 10:

Decide to get the fuck out of there, screw Cain! -Go with Damien-, grab his hand! His friend from before appears and the three of you make your escape. Next thing you know, you’re in a church, where you’re safe. But you’re only safe as long as you’re /in/ the church. Cain will try to track you down if you leave... So you have to stay there until he gets bored... They assure you that you’ll be safe though and that you can stay as long as it takes. Survived- Damien saved you. Damien and .D walk away but you follow, listening in on the conversation. .D apparently thinks that they get themselves into dangerous situations a lot but I mean, they are priests... Then you hear Damien comment about how it’s funny both of them have demon boyfriends! .D denies it but Damien knows! After that .D storms off. -Talk to Damien-, sit in a pew with him and just -cuddle-, you need it right now. Damien blushes but doesn’t try to push you away at all. After awhile Damien suggests that you should probably get some sleep. You can’t sleep though so after awhile you wander through the church and come to an empty room. -Look around more- because you still aren’t sleepy, and you find Damien’s room. -Wake him up- and as soon as you touch him Damien flips around and pins you to the bed. He wants to know why you’re sneaking up on him. Tell him “Don’t hurt me...” because you didn’t mean to surprise him... didn’t realize he’d have such lightning reflexes... He apologizes and lets you go. You admit that you were lonely and wanted company; he lets you sit on his lap. -Touch him-, commenting about his tattoo, which he reveals is for necromancy. He asks if you just came to talk or for something else. **pick your poison** because no matter what you choose, it leads to sex, but be warned, all of the three of the options lead to different sex scenes, so each of them have different images! After the mind blowing sex, you stay with him the rest of the night. How you choose to wake him is up to you ;) You stayed with Damien

[robronotics]

Post Ep Ponderings April 4

I totally meant to post this yesterday and then the day got away from me. Today’s ponderings will be posted later on.

I can’t get over how sad all the Ashley and Laurel stuff is. I’m still trying to prepare for the actual end, which I think might be today, but I’m staying away from that kind of spoiler right now because I want at least the element of surprise. I think it might be backfiring though because now I’m just worried every time I start playing an episode. The thing is, even after Ashley is gone, there’s going to be so much sadness for so long around the village. It’s already begun really.

I totally understand Gabby’s wariness of bringing Ashley home for his last few days. I mean, I get why they brought him home, but could you imagine watching your beloved father waste away in your home? How that might potentially ruin or taint any happy memories you had in that home? I don’t know about you guys, but after that, every time I remembered something good with that person in that home, it would immediately be overshadowed by watching them die in that same place. On the other hand, I also get wanting him home. It’s a much nicer way to say goodbye, and is potentially nicer for the person dying.

Moving onto Pierce, Rhona and Vanessa, I’m so glad Vanessa didn’t get caught watching Pierce through the window. I’m sure that would’ve sent Pierce into overdrive as not only would he know that Vanessa knew that he didn’t delete the video (and was watching it in front of a big window at the front of the house for anyone who stopped by to see), but it would be more ammunition for him to pull Vanessa and Rhona even further apart. I can see it now, she’s stalking us! Staring creepily through our windows! I still hope Vanessa manages to get Paddy on side. I get why Paddy is being the way he is, meddling before got him nowhere and without any real proof, I’m sure he’s thinking he was wrong about Pierce the whole time. I’m sure this is going to change though, and I bet it will have to do with that video. I’m thinking that Vanessa somehow gets a copy, proving at least to Paddy that Pierce didn’t delete it, but it’s going to be a long slow process of Paddy not wanting to be involved, not wanting to willingly watch the video and then it backfiring spectacularly where Rhona ends up cutting them both off until they can figure out how to prove definitively what Pierce is actually up to.

I was going to say something about how Cain is dealing with Faith and his discovery of her cancer, but I can’t think of what it was now. I’m sure it’ll come up again soon though so maybe in my review of today’s episode later. I do want to say though, that I loved Marlon squaring off against Cain. You don’t really see that often, and I really enjoyed it.

Tracy and her romance novel story line has been a great comic relief to go against Ashley’s impending death. I kind of hope that her books start doing well, much to the shock of the rest of the village. The funny thing is, when she was first writing, with the book club and all that, didn’t most of the residents (or at least the female ones) think it was good fun to read? Seems a little strange that she’s not getting more support. Also, I’m itching to see Tracy and Pearl face-off. That will be highly entertaining, especially if they both start writing their own books.

[incarnateirony]

The Problem with DreamHunter...

Is that there is no problem with DreamHunter.

You're probably like "wait, what?" So let me clarify: This is absolutely not a Dreamhunter!Critical post. In fact, I have a lot of accolades for DreamHunter. I'll address a few complaints I've read from a surly, never-happy swath of stan twitter, but this post isn't actually about that - it's about a pervasive cultural issue involving coded phobia and how Bobo Fucking Berens showed his level of quantum literary and social brainfunction to do everything from canonize an LGBT ship to run a far deeper and more exposing social experiment on the fandom at large.

We've all seen the gif sets. I can't find the video in my vat of poorly maintained blog, but I'm sure someone else could, wherein Bobo on Twitch was talking about being ecstatic over us seeing what he wanted us to see. To the fandom that keeps their ears open, none of DreamHunter's premise is new to us. The only new thing was a certain confirmation, "First love strikes quick."

First, to the part that is NOT the point of the post, but I feel needs addressed before people start yelling at me:

Now, this has opened up a floodgate of hard-end-stan-twitter complaining like "Oh so they didn't just kill a WOC but a queer WOC and then after-texted it?" Well, no, fam. They were setting up a queer romance of the century with her dream half and potential return to the self while facing the darkest parts of challenging the self and deleting our weaknesses, and maybe even going so far as to make a statement of self imposed biases. Wayward just wasn't picked up so they've had to funnel and condense the concept in other ways. Dark Kaia wanting to target Claire after seeing what she meant to Kaia isn't an arbitrary and random sentiment. But arguing literary romantic value with stan twitter is like arguing algebra with an ill-behaved goose, so that's as far as I'm going to take that explanation beyond "y'all are often our biggest enemies on content."

Now then... to the actual point of the post:

I've mentioned it before, but it really deserves its own rebloggable master post not attached to some overlong thread, and able to be brought into fuller scope. The problem with DreamHunter is almost nonexistent. In fact, the simple fact is: with a line that simple, it was universally accepted as a truth, whether people are screaming about tropes they want to read in the worst light before the romantic element ever got a chance to get its feet under it. Nobody's out there saying it doesn't exist. Nobody's out there downtalking that line.

THAT is the problem with DreamHunter - that there is no problem with DreamHunter. And by that, I don't mean to say we should have a problem with DreamHunter. It's that DreamHunter reveals a hugely systemic coded bias in our culture.

And honestly, I think Berens did that on purpose.

There’s a certain level of coy battle in acceptance going on. First of all, people naturally seem to accept F/F before M/M due to a bunch of cultural reasons. Mostly because F/F has been convenient to publicly fetishize while M/M freaks out dudebros that are really uncertain about themselves, so for a longer time, GA has been exposed to and accepting F/F. And I think of anyone out there, My Big Gay Author King Berens is going to understand that.

WLW still has its own stigmas, I'm not saying it doesn't, but acting like resistance to it is on any cultural coding level parallel to the stigma against MLM is a weird display of intersectional privilege and lack of awareness.

Acting like it’s coincidence that they monkey-stomp packed as many identical lines and scene arrangements into all of one episode as possible, then dropped a bomb like that episode two, is silly. We know exactly what he’s after – hell, he said he was ecstatic we saw what he wanted us to see. So the real question is, why is it that “first love strikes quick” is taken without argument from the GA but a thousand up-nods for the M/M pairing with the same content – and TBH, far far far more that could never be packed into a single episode – has people take lines like “attached at the everything” and immediately have a portion of the audience start laughing, despite the surrounding substance around it?

Destiel fandom read into yet-again heaven and hell believing DeanCas are an item; antis decided it was an insult to “annoy” them. Even the angel in the past threatening to gouge Cas’ genitals over it. Because that’s what I do when I don’t believe it but am a religious zealot. Threaten to cut dicks off to annoy people. But somehow, it’s far easier to negotiate, to these people, that the male queer coded content is a punchline, rather than either a genuine or perceived truth. Antis choose to interpret MLM as a punchline. It’s that simple. No amount of surrounding content or story thematics can convince them otherwise. 

The same substance they monkey stomped, condensed, and largely stripped down for time limitations, into DreamHunter?

I’ll give a hint: it’s the same cultural stigma that – which late night show was it, where they started playing well-edited slash videos and the audience started laughing despite it being well timed and edited? It’s that. It’s the same thing that made Ateo unable to play queer roles in the industry as being “not believably gay” despite being a gay man himself, until the Hunter Husbands. It’s a horrific stigma that the audience has been coded to bite and gnash back against M/M content unfairly to the queer male audience and it’s gross, but it’s just there, sort of in the collective mind.

I absolutely don’t think Berens, of all fucking people, is unaware of this. And I see what he did as a really, really fucking coy set of actions beneath already masterful writing.

Berens knows exactly what he’s fucking doing and has basically coded a social experiment into the show that betrays people’s biases against M/M queer pairings while allowing the saturation (largely by fetishization) of F/F pairings to do the heavy lifting for him. Nobody out here yelling that Jody could be wrong about it or that “we didn’t see a kiss so it didn’t happen LOL they’re just in a sismance” – it is what it is. And here we are.

So on a social level I am fucking fascinated to see where he takes this next.

Berens has come out swinging for the queer male community whether anybody wants to accept it or not. Which is, modernly, by our demographics, at least an equal if not the greatest portion of our primary male demographic of viewers for the show. And I'm not just talking about the fandom census. I'm talking about Nielsen's demographics shift on gender since season 10, and general Kinsey-scale-esque testing of the true target demo at large in the US. Our ads count 18-49. CW targets 18-34.

Following the work of Berens within Supernatural will give you a very blatant papertrail. It started in deeply layered subtext; his first episode Carver directed Misha to play Cas as a Jilted Lover; after that, he took Robbie's work on Cain and manifest the Colette parallel coded into our story; he chose to take Dabb's Dean-speech from 12.1 and turn it into our coffee-Mixtape-Win spree that other authors shed from their pen in his wake, just like later in season 10 people continued his Colette grind. Berens has been an internal motion for the legitimization of truly structured and admittedly intentful elements of Destiel in the show. And people can scream that they don't like or see it all they want, but it's right there -- and with DreamHunter, it was What He Wanted Us To See.

It's grossly disingenuous activism to try to accuse SPN's first overtly queer author of queerbait while internally shifting the motions of our author room mechanics towards genuinely structured and intentful romance-skewed storytelling, whether it remains subtextual or not. Especially as that author continues to throw wrench upon wrench upon wrench into the no homo gears in ways the GA is perpetually exposed to and spun into having to think about. An eternal negotiation of poignantly delivered lines that catches even the most resistant ears and at least plants a seed in their mind about something else. A true normalization of it as a potential element to the story.

The same sort of normalization hyper-condensed into DreamHunter, but as per the above discussion, far more readily accepted. I have literally heard, from people who argued the "bromance, I'm not entirely convinced" on Destiel, that DreamHunter had been "obvious" to them and the "first love strikes quick" wasn't even necessary, because everybody knew. Cue me sending simple gifsets and script line side by sides and blowing their brains because suddenly their entire world scope just got bent sideways in -- why do I accept the one while I negotiate away the other?

Well, I covered why, above.

The problem with DreamHunter, I repeat, is that there is no problem with DreamHunter. People accept and see that it exists, without argument, even going so far as to label it "obvious" from a single episode, of a highly condensed version of only a fraction of the moments of another queer-coded duo in the show, but simply with culturally differing gender dynamics.

The concern troll of "bromance" or "why not let men be close" dies here. The idea of a bromance is letting two men have a friendship with the form of openness platonic female friends can have. That's fine, that's great. Dean-Benny would be a great example of this, and even then we once again had the offset of Dean-Cas to show different operations. I might even say Dean-Sam as an idea of that, but I don't think "bromance" is necessarily needed since brothers natively have a different sort of dynamic from growing up together. But once you are going out of your way to dismiss elements that we accept in hetero pairings with a laissez-faire “duh”, or even WLW scenarios as “it’s so obvious”, because it's MLM, we have left the area of "bromance" and "why not just let men be close without making it gay" and into “I am negotiating this away due to some sort of coded unwillingness to accept it, perhaps subconsciously, even if I consciously consider myself an ally.”

And that's the true masterpiece of this social experiment Bobo planted in the Supernatural universe with DreamHunter.

The world is grossly unfair and tilted in remaining cultural stigmas about queer males after ages of repressing them to limited niche capacities and stereotypes so strong that masculine gay men couldn’t even get cast in roles as gay men, where the world reads queer men as a punch line rather than a “duh” or “it’s so obvious” or “it’s just right there”, and DreamHunter is a walking fucking social experiment putzing around in Supernatural universe that gives no choice but to pick a side of the fence once you’re aware of these things.

Whether or not it’s physically consummated does not make it not-romantic. Being queer isn’t just about sex. It’s about feelings. And yes, we want our feelings to lead somewhere, and they deserve to lead somewhere, but is Jody acknowledging Claire’s “first love” now what suddenly makes it romantic, or is it the motions, the stories, and the feelings that preceded those lines, even though they never kissed and all hand-holding could be negotiated away the same way we can negotiate away our canon touches for two very emotionally involved men? “She was just leading her through the gate because she was scared,” “she was just consoling her as she died.” See how easy that is? But we won’t do that. And now, frankly anybody that does looks like a jackass.

So why, oh why, is this treated with ambiguity? This is a canon statement of “this relationship is being in love.” It was young love - it struck quick, in only an episode - but it was love. But name an element DreamHunter has to define that love that Destiel doesn’t? If you bend over backwards and try for the handholding, I can raise you hundreds of moments of intimate style contact. Try again.

Canon just confirmed what we already knew -- that Destiel is romantic. That there is love there. And not the kind of love we dismiss as Bros. Bobo just did that. Because every element of their relationship exists in Destiel, and a hundred times more. But it was first love. Dreamhunter was young love that came quickly, and not a single soul argued. Destiel is the same showcase of love, older, more matured, grown over years with dozens more moments of contact and display -- but in the very least, those moments -- those ones lived through DreamHunter in parallel -- that’s love. Canon literally just painted those sparse, compacted down elements, these behaviors we’ve seen, these moments, as coded romantic and in love. If you take nothing else from that -- take that. The elements that build Destiel are canonically romantic, when within DreamHunter and the question is -- without any physical affirmations or DreamHunter on screen, why is it romantic to them and not to Destiel? Why do we even humor this as a discussion, though we expect it, and what does this say of the coded phobias in fandom that we even have to expect it?

Dean and Cas haven’t kissed or dual-confessed to it in public, but you know... neither did DreamHunter. Unless of course we don’t talk down the timely placement of Need Yous and Love Yous and Big Wins and whatever else like people insist on doing with the MLM arrangement. Nobody’s talking down Jody’s third person “first love,” because we know better, and there’s not a mix of MLM and ship warring in play with DreamHunter. Bromance ends at the same line platonic female friendships end. Everyone accepts that DreamHunter is not platonic. Even without ceasing previous negotiations around poignant DeanCas lines, DreamHunter has established the romantic and loving engagements in retrograde. Canon has literally confirmed -- this relationship is romantic and in love.

And until this post, not a single person has tried to argue it down as Just Young Sis Love. Because we all know. Just like, deep down, everybody knows it about the mothership, some just don’t want to accept it. For whatever reason, subconscious or otherwise. I’ll laugh if the same antis that just tried to blind parallel it to W*ncest as a proof of love, while disconnected from the very origins and confirmations of DreamHunter, suddenly start rambling that doesn’t make DreamHunter canon either once this post gets around.

Berens is a fucking master ISTG.

I mean, I guess you’re free to celebrate any network level blockades going on right now while Bobo does Big Queer Fatal Combat from within, but allow me to celebrate DreamHunter whether or not we get consummation for Destiel, an MLM-scenario ship that has to deal with entirely other stigmas on a network primarily run by a bunch of old dudes. This is there. This will never be taken away. And cheering any blockades being run against MLM content with blatant intent does not make you the gr8 person here, m8.

This post is probably gonna have a low level of spread because it’s also something that forces even Destiel fandom to negotiate with themselves too -- how many lines and moments and whatever-else have we negotiated down, talked around, and chosen to interpret in the most left field way as if arguing ourselves from the position of an anti, only to get crack slapped across the jaw in this? How many have yelled queerbait without really observing what Bobo has been doing from within, how many have to face-or-deny the unfair queerbait shouting? How many hold-outs are we putting up, ourselves, because it isn’t the type or level of confirmation we want; we’re sitting here waiting for a bigger more dramatic reveal than a third person statement like that, or what-have-you, but when it’s not “our ship” that we are eternally defending from antis, and not a ship being targeted due to a mix of ship warring and MLM social issues, this is fine? And why is it okay when it’s not The Mothership and we totes accept it for DreamHunter canonization but we’re still talking circles around DeanCas like we’re our own antis? Why do we let anti-dom spin everyone’s head up in such knots that the majority expect Dabberens to live in stan twitter, abandon narrative properties and quality, and have Sam walk in on something while they profess their love and walk away with pictures as hard sealed photographic evidence when that isn’t expected of literally anybody else?

Can anybody tell me why Bobo Bookends Berens, who penned Cain -- Dean’s kindred spirit and fated path parallel -- calling out -- as confirmed -- that Castiel was his Colette, his wife, the love of his life that knew who he was, and what he was, that loved him unconditionally, forgave him, and only asked for him to stop -- a third person perspective -- has a third person, offscreen confirmation of the same sort, with far less plot weaving, taken universally as canon without the play of shifting goalposts via MLM social stigmas and/or ship warring stan twitter getting up in everybody’s heads?

Cuz it’s the same dude, guys. Same pen. A moment nobody even dismissed or TRIED to heckle out. If we just want to go third person while dropping punchline perception, we have everything from The Angel In The Dirty Trenchcoat Who’s In Love With You to Attached At The Everything. Y’all really think Bobo Berens is out here using his own sexuality as a tool and a punchline to be laughed at though? Bobo, “I protest human trafficing and ICE engagements front line in the body walls while people are being arrested” Berens? That guy? 

You’re gonna go out of his way that hard to miss the point just because you have phobic asshats on twitter, and/or asshole haters with “opposite ships” on twitter, or it’s just not the kind YOU wanted to see for Destiel, even if it’s enough for you to take it as canon in DreamHunter, when you already Been Had It for Destiel?

Meh. So many problems with DreamHunter, in there not being any problems with DreamHunter.

All Dabberens. Every Dreamhunter moment was a Dabb or Berens written previous Destiel moment. The meaningful third party line from Jody was Berens. Just like the meaningful third party line in Executioner’s song, also by Berens. Not just a random jab - someone who knew them inside and out. And that - people will take that as canon, again, when there’s no rival ships or MLM phobias in play. Every inch of Dreamhunter (and far, far more) existed in Destiel, by the same authors, porting the same concepts across, piece by piece, and like magic, nobody protested.

And if you’re protesting, or worse if you hilariously ship Dreamhunter but reject Destiel, despite -- I dunno -- Bobo’s own book reviews on issues like queerphobia and intersectional issues -- you may want to introspect on the real reason you’re denying it.

Because that, my friends, is a strictly personal problem.