#yeah that's quite literally the worst thing that could've happened to him

[therealnotta]

SUDDENLY AND ABRUPTLY REMEMBERING THIS EDGY WIZARD OF OZ SHORT TV SERIES???? it was like five episodes??????? it had famous actors in it, but like, the kinda famous actors where you see them and go "oh!! oh, what were they in? i know them!" and i think zoey deschanel? or the actress that looks like her??? i have a slight problem with faces, like not huge, but enough that i get confused sometimes. you know the people im talking about tho

anyway i remember that the plot was that oz had become something of a tourist attraction, mc was dorothy's many-times-great grandchild, and everything was this like... dystopian future and guys the books COVERED this, glinda was like "whoa. ok. dorothy was fine, and the three or four other people who showed up were ok, and like... i can tolerate uncle henry and aunty em, but if we don't do something then this is going to become a dystopian tourist trap" and made oz the bermuda triangle. so.

but this was an edgy thing, so acceptable, but the tin man was the cop?? like he was this cool cop going up against this evil government?? and he was A Dude, not even tin. they called him tin man because they locked him in some freaking box and forced him to watch his wife and child die on loop???? it was an insult???? i remember pretty much nothing else about this series it was at least ten years ago and i was but a child what was that all about. he wouldn't be a cop. the second evil people showed up no they wouldn't, he has an axe and he's immortal and made of metal. go ahead, shoot him. try. he's literally just going to get back up and he's ONE guy, you think Ozma is going to lose???? HELLO?????? you enter the court of the fay now!! you're gonna WISH you were just up against the axe guy. man. an army invaded oz in the books and she made them want water and then. got them to drink from the fountain that totally and completely wipes your mind. dystopian tourist trap. smh.

[the-owl-tree]

reading the star excerpt (link here)

i quite like the prologue. i like curlfeather taunting splashtail, i like his insecurity being exacerbated. i think it actually hammers in how young and out of his depth he is

which....sucks the rest of the books portray him as this manipulative mastermind. he's much more fun of a villain when you can see him scrambling for power (and losing it)

which makes the whole riverclan as poor victims kind of suck. icewing rightfully calls out her clanmates for being cowards for uh- *checks notes* using mothwing as target practice?? sorry we're going over the top evil i see. anyways, my point is....yeah, riverclan IS complicit in this, they DO have a choice to say no. splashtail doesn't even have enforcers like brokenstar and tigerstar did, it's literally just one guy - heck the warriors themselves are the enforcers.

fear becomes a limp excuse at this point. you guys gotta unionize or something.

i think the book is really struggling to make splashtail's NO MISS OHKO X9999 ULTRAKILL ATTACK an actual credible attack. look i get it they think he has nine lives, but the three of them could take on a teen i believe it.

i think because this arc won't acknowledge that riverclan is complicit in letting this fester, that they wanted this kind of leadership, it makes him fall flat. how much scarier would it be, more gray it would be, difficult, and so and so on if the clan rallied behind their leader because of the prior events? i get it, they're playing into the fear angle, but there NEEDS to be some more willing participants or this doesn't work.

the closest we get is this exchange but like. guys. the gathering exchange was stupid as hell.

also, you'd think every brit was the worst dog owner in the world LMAO these boys are screaming and straining on their leash while the owners chatting away. every dog in brit is some cat mauling beast i guess.

i was so ready for repetitive "why should we do X??" let's fight about it for the next few pages that it was a fucking relief that cloverfoot was just "yep bring them in!". fucking uh flashbacks from bramblestar's leadership lmao

the phrasing on this made me snick. "behaved so badly" makes it sound like she was kind of unruly, not plotted to overthrow her leader lmao

i dont wanna nitpick, i am actually enjoying that the plot is moving and that things are happening but like....minor waste of a shadowclan pov. you'd think with how often they like to make references to past events, sunbeam being a shadowclan cat could absolutely come in handy in this situation (considering they once had nightheart explain shadowclan history to a shadowclan cat) but when she wonders if riverclan can ever repair itself, it really doesn't come up. idk, i guess i think she could've had a more optimistic perspective but ultimately it really isn't the biggest of deals.

uh oh guys something ELSE happened?? wanna know what happens??? well go buy IVYPOOL'S HEART ONLY FOR 25.99 AVAILABLE NOW AT RETAIL OUTLETS CLOSEST TO YOU. BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW BUY NOW. DON'T YOU WANNA KNOW WHERE ICEWING IS GOING???? OOOH BUY OUR BOOKS!

Oooh the Gathering trap is actually good, ignoring how a lot of them get thrown the idiot ball a little bit to make it work. I figured it out quickly (even though this arc loves having shit happen offscreen), it's nice to see some trickery for once! only real drawback is the books once again going "what did splashstar do to riverclan??" as if he's mind controlling them. I'm gonna actually hold out on hope that this is a set up to Frostpaw realizing her Clanmates haven't been mind controlled or whatever, they're doing this because they want to, because splashstar's ideals appeal to them after everything.

it probably won't happen but i wanna hold out hope.

tentatively interested! preparing for status quo disappointment!

[nikibogwater]

I watched The Last Unicorn (1982) with very, very little prior knowledge of the film. And I wasn't planning to, but I ended up taking notes because wow. This movie. It's something.

The very little prior knowledge I had was as follows: it's an old animated film about a unicorn and I've occasionally heard people talk about it fondly. That's it, that's literally all I had going into this thing. It was not nearly enough to prepare me.

Ohhhh I love the scenery! Man, nothing hits quite like a traditional hand-drawn backgrou--OH MY WORD WHAT IS THAT WHY IS IT MOVING LIKE THAT STOP IT

Ohhh, this is a Rankin-Bass production? Well, that explains the animation.

Yeah that is not a unicorn, that's a llama with a table-knife glued to its head.

Ooh, the opening credits play over a lightly animated medieval tapestry! That's so coo--aaaaand they picked the most 80's sounding song I can imagine to go over it, okay.

Yo this butterfly is stoned out of his little buggy mind, maybe he should get some rehab.

Love that it's not immediately clear what the "red bull" actually is yet. Is it a literal bull? Is it a raging fire? Is it the inescapable march of industrial progress?? Gotta stay tuned to find out. (edit: it was literally just a bull and I need to stop reading symbolism into every little thing).

Ok ngl, the "Man's Road" sequence was actually fire, despite (or perhaps because of) the 80's cheese.

Angela Lansbury!!! Man, she just ate this role. Who'd've thought Mrs. Pots could sound so threatening?

I would die for Shmendrick.

Oh that is a very lore-accurate harpy right there. (⊙_⊙;)

Love how the witch's carnival arc touches on the idea of truth vs. wishful delusion. There's a beautiful irony in a movie about a literal unicorn talking about the importance of staying grounded in what is real and truly beautiful.

No, seriously, I would die for Shmendrick. Protect this precious man at all costs.

Can we pretty please stop calling the witch Mommy

"That's my immortality!" eyo this witch is actually a great villain. Really wish she could've stuck around for the whole movie.

Awww, the unicorn is taking care of Shmendrick! That's so sweet! God knows he needs it.

Shmendrick: Run! We'll find each other later! *immediately gets captured*

Have I mentioned that I would die for Shmendrick.

I feel like the entire bit with the outlaws had a lot of connecting shots cut out for time because I really couldn't follow any of what was happening.

Hehehe...That tree looks like a butt. I wonder if they did that on purpo--WHAT THE HELL

*nervously glancing over my shoulder to make sure my family doesn't see me watching this*

Unicorn to the rescue!! Thank heavens.

"That was true magic." Then please don't ever do true magic again.

"How dare you come to me now, when I am this?!" H-hey, nobody told me this movie was gonna go that hard...

Mom-friend acquired! Just in time, too. Unicorn looked like she was getting real tired of being the only one with two brain cells to rub together.

Our heroes: *bracing themselves for what may be the darkest, most dangerous part of their journey* Freakin' Gerry Beckley from "America:" 🎵MOON RISIN'! DISGUISIN'!! 🎵 Gotta love that tonal dissonance.

Oooh hey the animation on the Red Bull is actually kind of good!

Molly: DO SOME MAGIC! Shmendrick: I CAN'T! Molly: YES U CAN I BELIEVE IN U Shmendrick: *does some magic* Molly: NOOOOO WHAT HAVE U DONE Molly I love you, but make up your darn mind.

Love that being turned into a human being is like, the worst thing that could ever happen to the unicorn. Yeah, being human is a pretty awful experience.

Boy there is just empty static behind Prince Lir's eyes. Homeboy doesn't have a thought in his head and probably never will.

Lir: babe look I got u a severed dragon head pls love me

Oh yeah. Marry this one, Unicorn. He's a keeper.

Molly: Shmendrick will help! Unicorn: I hope for no help from him. He is no magician now, but the king's clown.

GURL SAY THAT AGAIN! U KEEP DISRESPECTING MY BOI SHMENDRICK AND U WILL GET THESE HANDS!

The pirate cat is now my second-favorite character. I've known him for all of 10 seconds, but I love him.

He doesn't actually purr. He just says, "Purr, purr." I love him even more now.

"No cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer." Most accurate line ever put to film.

Unicorn, please marry Prince Lir, you well never find a purer source of Himbo Energy than him. Look at him, he's even singing badly for you, you gotta take this one.

"I mean you can't really be that ridiculous magician's niece--" BETRAYAL. OUTRAGE. SCANDAL. I DISOWN YOU, LIR, YOU FOUL SERPENT WHO SPEAKS NOTHING BUT FILTH. I HOPE THE UNICORN BREAKS YOUR STUPID LITTLE HEART

Dang. This guy voicing the skeleton is putting his entire heart and soul into that laugh.

Prince "I love whom I love" Lir will not be stopped even by the threat of potential bestiality. I'd say Husband Goals, but first of all, ew, and second, he insulted Shmendrick so he is dead to me.

"I wish to God I didn't care about anything but my magic, but I do!" Oh Shmendrick, honey... 🥺

Yooo, that transformation back into her unicorn form was actually sick. For a Rankin-Bass made-for-tv movie, this thing pulls off some surprisingly good animation every once in a while.

Yeah, kick his magical red butt, little unicorn! Go save your boyfriend and your family!!!

What is it with Christopher Lee and playing creepy old guys who get thrown off of towers at the end

Wait, no, I only sort of meant it when I said the unicorn should break Lir's heart, I didn't think they'd actually do it!

Molly ditched her outlaw husband to travel the world with Shmendrick and honestly, I'd do the same if I was in her place.

Oh wow. She chose to save her own kind and return to her forest even though she loved Lir. This is actually very bittersweet and--GOTDANGIT GERRY BECKLEY, NOT NOW!!!

Closing thoughts: This movie was an absolute trip and I'm probably going to think it was a fever dream I once had after some time has passed. It's also the only movie I can think of that I would actually want a remake/remaster of. The story was great, though it jumped around from place to place so quickly that it was sometimes hard to follow what was happening. I like the characters a lot (mostly Shmendrick tbh but they're all good), and I wish there had been more time to let them interact with each other. You can see the potential for chemistry between the different personalities, but it's stifled by moments of awkward voice acting and the strange, jittery character animation. With more time to breathe and better animation, this story would really be something amazing. I'm actually very interested in reading the original novel it was based on now, I'll have to see if I can get my hands on a copy. All in all, The Last Unicorn (1982) is a mind-boggling experience with surprisingly deep themes combined with what I can only assume is what you see when you're on acid. If you have any interest, I would highly recommend seeing this thing for yourself.

Yes. Even the Boob Tree. Please. I don't want to be the only one who is cursed to have that scene in my brain.

[dailycass-cain]

I was a masochist, because I wanted to see how the story ended (and wanted a the very least to own the Red Hood mini because I do love the creative team with that). So I asked a friend if I could borrow his copies of the issues I don't have. So here are my hopefully FINAL thoughts on Batman/Catwoman: Gotham War.

This was quite possibly the worst Batman x-over in quite some time. From the varying motivations of the main characters to the side characters. Nothing stood out from the beginning to the end.

If any one character comes off as "okay" throughout this event is Jason. Like, he gets the only motivation (again thin as it is), but at the very least he's the one who gets progression in this story.

From helping Selina to seeing how flawed Selina's plan is, to being kidnapped by Bruce then mentally tortured, and still fighting even after it.

Jason is the ONLY main member of the three (or four if you include Vandal) who exits the story still looking clean.

Bruce or Selina? Oh boy... both have some WONKY stuff in this and vary from issue to issue or page to page.

The thing is, this story could've just been easier by taking Selina out entirely and focusing on Bruce vs. the Bat Family.

Like, the entire Bat Family is paper thin in this story and quite possibly some of the worst use of them in a while.

I'm still flabbergasted at how awful Cass was treated in the story with zero character at all. I mean Batman vs. Robin #5 did as well, but even with that story there was a "meaning" to the madness with Cass in that.

She sat out most the main series until THAT issue. She's there along with the rest of the Bat Family to stall the possessed Bruce (which seems to be a recurring theme this entire year) until the mystical characters of the DCU arrive to exorcise him.

For that issue?

It works. I accept the jobbing because it's a mystical demon which is outside her norm (well not anymore).

I still have my issues with Batman vs. Robin, but it was waaay better at telling a story.

Here?

Everyone's appearance in this event is downright laughable and makes zero sense. I'm supposed to accept Cass is okay with Selina's plan throughout this? Even her among other characters gets ZERO voice on why they're on board with this.

A quick fix again would've been when she saw the signs of Bruce's mental instability with the Zur influence growing larger.

Heck, the now INFAMOUS Batman #137. The issue is awful storywise and all it serves is the wrestling equivalent to this with Bruce vs. Cass:

All so Bruce can get a "W" over Cass. Joy. 🙄

When themactically it could've shown Zur's influence that a move Bruce wouldn't be ready for and Zur is.

BUT NOPE. We get that with him against Dick in #138 instead.

I'm not even going into details with the final issue of the event in Batman/Catwoman: Gotham War- Scorched Earth #1.

It just makes everything worse. Bruce passes it all on Dick and um yeah… none of the female characters of the family get ANY say. 🙃🙃🙃

I said last month I'm dropping Batman ongoing from my pull, and I'm sticking with that choice with Tec replacing it fully. I just don't enjoy the comic any longer. When you don't enjoy a comic you cut it off and don't continue to read it for any enjoyment purposes.

Literally, Cass's entire point in Batman run so far has been to job. There has been ZERO characterization for the character. Why I dibbed Cass in this "Card Cain". If you're gonna treat the character that way, well.

I'm out.

Detective Comics is giving me a better story of Bruce falling out mentally, and better-crafted antagonists who feel like a threat to him and others.

I'm more hype for Cass in that because it feels like the book treats each character better. EVERYONE gets to shine.

Batman/Catwoman: Gotham War burned me the heck out of the two leads. Again, I'm far more interested in what happens with Jason next and glad his "mini-series" basically turned into a setup for the finale to the current Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing ongoing.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to put my friend's copies downstairs. Probably tell him next Thurs to bury them in his bins never to be read, or just sell this as a bundle for some poor soul to buy.

I hope this is the final time I ever talk about Batman/Catwoman: Gotham War.

Save for Card Cain. I can't hate Card Cain.

[vampiromano]

okay uhhhh all my thoughts are scrambled so this is just kind of midnless yapping. about. stuff

1. okay so the king is. yeah idk why I trusted him when I should've logically understood that the guy has absolutely no idea about the previous convos we had. it does make me wonder whether I could've changed his mind by asking EVERYTHING and gifting him th flower all over again but. I doubt it. why would he change if this is all he has y'know. and if his literal god sorta told him he was doing what he had to.i dunno he's very interesting and I'm actually looking forward to the next fight

2. also looking forward to my next chat with loop. gotta wonder what they'll have to say about the guy who was so desperate to be understood thry Wished to get another self to talk to. I'm not sure it's gonna be the chat that gets me to The Reveal Of Loop's Identity as Siffrin2 or whatever BUT it's certainly heading that way if it isn't.

or maybe not! they're fun like that.

3. colours!!!!!!!!! nothing more to add just Colours.

ACTUALLY definitely something to add. did the same thing that happen to colours happen to the island????? is that it???????? will it be explained????? i really doubt it'll be explained. alas.

4. How Does Loop Feel About Their Home Country No Longer Existing. do they feel like Siffrin? or are they avoiding it the way Siffrin was for a while? are they detached bc now it's technically not theirs (assuming they're Alternate Siffrin and not Future Siffrin, bc I don't think Future Siffrin would make that much sense? okay maybe. some sense but. idkkkkk)? LOOP I NEED TO LOOK INSIDE YOUR BRAIN

5. Isabeau is soooo perceptive I luv him. my aversion to the crush has gotten slightly better the more Siffrin is reciprocating it and the less I'm thinking of Siffrin as Guy I'm Playing As (the more I think of them as A Character and not An Avatar, is what I mean). so I'm growing to appreciate him a lot more he's my fave guy. truly so cool. I get him. if nobody got me I know my man isabeau got me. he's my best friwnd.

6. fuck okay where was i. anyway everyone's reacting differently the more time passes and I think it's bc Siffrin is having such an astronomically bad fucking time it's transcending time. i feel like if I were in a room with them I'd just DIE I'd just say fuck this stupid baka life and drop to the ground and never move again from how rancid their vibes are. Siffrin is having the worst time anyone's ever had and I feel so sorry for him I hope I can at the very least lead him well enough he'll TALK to ANYONE(other than loop) about ANYTHING or else.

(I feel like talking to Loop is not very helpful bc Loop is just THEM but WORSE. like they already had their worst life. I don't think much good can come from talking to the version of yourself that DEFINITELY had it bad as well and seemingly BECAME A FUCKING STAR about it. idk. I'm rambling. I need to know more about Loop I need to help them also. I hope they get a happy ending with my Bones.)

7. Odile my best friend Odile is ALSO being very perceptive but she's kinda scary about it. either way I hope god do I HOPE she'll be the first to figure the loops out. or SOMETHING. bc I need Siffrin to talk to her about them I need to know what she THINKS.

8. irks me that nobody ever mentions that Siffrin poses for the picture!!! they're literally smiling!!!! every time!!!!! anyone say anything please!!!!!

9. Siffrin cut himself on glass. I was surprised! not sure it's quite self harm yet bc it didn't seem intentional BUT I have a feeling we're heading down that route!!! which is interesting!!!!!! they're certainly very self loathing and quite safe of Proper Death. idk. need to keep playing I guess.

10. Messi❤️

11. anyway yeah that's it I've got a lot of thoughts I hope someone found them mildly amusing at least!!!!

[namelysane]

Headcannons for the Hellspawn AU

The Kid

Basically just like Lloyd. Pale blonde hair, red eyes. Kinda has her dad's fangs.

Has a sweet tooth even worse than Lloyd's and Cole's. Lloyd used to give in to her demands until Zane knocked some sense into him about why not to give too much sugar in children.

Of all the ninja and other than her dad, Cole's her favorite. Just look at his interactions with little Wu and you'll see why.

As a toddler, she was a mischievous little runt, and once when lloyd was trying to take something from her, she bit him. Yes, she bit the guy who GAVE her the fangs.

She drove Lloyd crazy when she was an infant. Greenie was literally about to burst into tears when Sensei G noticed one night and decided to help him. In the end, Sensei G had two kids to console. One was his crying grandchild, and the other was his stressed out son.

Her first word wasn't papa or dada. It was sugar. Lloyd still hasn't forgiven her for that, but the others find it hilarious, considering that he'd once said he couldn't love anything more than candy.

Once, she got her hands on Lloyd's sword because of amazing parenting. Yeah...just thank the fsm that Kai was there before she could get other ideas.

But on another occasion, she managed to get her hands on Nya's knives by sneaking into her room on the bounty. The first thing she did when she toddled out was chase a shrieking Jay while holding them. My poor man was hysterical.

Because of her father's request, she was kept out of the spotlight all her life. The media didn't know Lloyd had a kid until after Stiix. And yup, that just means the fan girl craze in S6 was even worse.

She used Montrositea on a plant during Wu's Teas. And it also went after Jay.

Lloyd

Poor bean suffered some minor hair loss in S3-pre S5. Half of it was because his kid kept pulling it while the other half, was actually the result of him often pulling at it in frustration at how hard it is to raise a mini version of himself.

But don't worry, he's fine now. (Kai just threatened to kill him if he even dared to touch his hair for no reason, and Pixal recommended some other ways to help him calm down)

At first, he was really hesitant to let her ride with him on his dragon because of the fear of her falling off. However, when he saw Cole give her the ride she'd been asking for quite a while and nothing happened, he finally stopped being paranoid. (It totally wasn't because he was jealous of Cole)

Funnily and sadly enough, the first bedtime story Lloyd ever read to her was Jack the Rabbit — a.k.a, the book Wu read to him in Season 1 in Never Trust A Snake — a.k.a the one about not trusting snakes. Well to be fair, she could've also inherited his brain cells and stupidity and do the same thing his nine-year-old self did so.....yeah, this is completely warranted.

He sews his kid her own clothes when he has the time — we all saw his sewing skills in that Darkley's episode — he's good at it, guys.

Sometimes, he wonders if there will be a day she'll inherit his element and he'll lose his powers. Not that he's being selfish — he's just worried about how he's going to continue being a ninja without his powers. He had a kid young so he's going to lose his powers young. That's kind of a tough pill to swallow, especially considering how he was at the beginning of S9.

He often thinks that he's the worst choice of a parent but despite that, he still tries his best. Even if he knows he's still trying to figure out things.

Nya

Hellspawn usually calls her Aunt Ni, because when she was younger, "NI-YA" was a lot harder to pronounce. So Ni just stuck.

She's the best aunt — who also won't hesitate to reprimand her little brother's offspring when necessary. And give Lloyd a piece of her mind for enabling her on some occasions too — which are a lot of occasions, actually.

Nya loves dolling her up, you know? Helping her do her hair, buying her clothes etc. And she teaches Lloyd different styles to do it himself when she has the chance (cuz this dude was panicking the entire time of not knowing how tf to do hair)

She taught hellspawn swimming when she was really young. Kai thought she was trying to kill her lol.

Also, she constantly loves cheekily comparing how raising S1 Lloyd was to helping to raise his hellspawn. Lloyd's daughter is a little better behaved than the 'lil terror Lloyd was, so she guesses somebody must be doing a good job, then.

Kai

Kai often gives Lloyd some tips about childcare since he practically raised Nya himself.

He told his honorary niece about the time Lloyd had a wannabe overlord phase and demanded candy from an entire village, so Lloyd put green dye in his hair gel.

Ever since he made Lloyd a sword, hellspawn's been pleading for him to make her one. Jay always begs Kai to not do it each time (well to be fair, the poor guy's still traumatized from that one game of tag. we can't blame him)

She spends the most time with kai during winter because that's when this man feels like a fucking furnace. Like, she'll just lie in his arms with no intentions of leaving them until the season's over and not even Lloyd can take her from him.

Jay

Jay, being the Master of Lightning, was the one who comforted her when she was afraid of storms.

Just like Lloyd, I believe this man has a candy stash...and one day when she couldn't figure out where her dad hid his candy after she found it the night before, she decided to go after Jay's.

Jay and Nya teamed up to build her a little toy for Christmas once. She loved it so much that she threw it at Lloyd to show it to him and it hit him squarely on the face. (ouch) But the toy survived though!

Cole

The favourite uncle, self-explanatory.

Won't hesitate to pick her up when she asks. She really likes sitting on his shoulders since it's higher up than the others.

She actually likes it when Cole sings, and the Glow Worm song is her favorite. Jay's just convinced that the song had damaged her hearing at some point which is probably why her ears love Cole's singing. Oh well.

When Cole was a ghost, she was sad that he couldn't hug her like he used to but she eventually got used to it. She then ended up loving running into Cole and phasing through him whenever she could and since Cole was a ghost for more than a whole year, it was hard to make her remember the fact that running through him right now wasn't such a good idea.

Zane

Zane taught Lloyd some tricks such as the one where parents blend vegetables into smoothies so kids don't taste it. Lloyd's first thought was that Zane had definitely done this before when he'd been younger, while Cole remains horrified to this day that his favorite cake contains beetroot.

Zane often helps her with her homework when she doesn't understand something.

During summer, she does the same thing she did with Kai during winter. And Nya's the only one who can get her off him, mostly because hellspawn can just ask her to splash her instead.

[sviancontrast]

Everyone has to see

Prompt: The comic relief character goes missing, and nobody looks for them. Except for the villain.

Prompt source:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwK9KEEuwml/?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==

@lilygotabunchofflowers enjoy this lil' improvised story, I'm actually gonna name characters in this one!

CW: cliff? Ig? May seem suicidal but I swear it's not

As the sun rose up in the sky, The Wishers woke up from the calmest night they had had in a while. Whenever Denzel kept watch while the others rested, they always had a good rest, thing that rarely happened with anyone else, but they had always though it was just sheer luck.

Of course, when they woke up and saw that there was, in fact, no one guarding the entrance of their hiding spot, they questioned how long had it been empty and what could have happened, but no one even considered looking for him.

"He'll be fine, he always is. You know him, I bet he just went for a walk or something," stated Colton, doing a dismissive motion with his hand as he started packing up.

"Yeah, nothing bad can happen with Denzel watching," replied Mary, who had started packing Denzel's stuff after finishing with her own.

No one else commented anything, for they were too sleepy to form a coherent sentence, but they agreed.

However, they never noticed the kid who was watching them from afar, taking down notes before running back to her base. She had an agreement with Ferdinand in which she would have her life forgiven if she informed him of any and all advances from The Wishers.

"So?" asked Ferdinand, glancing at Becky.

"The jokester is missing, but —" she got interrupted.

"Tell your father to get the search dogs. Ask Hunter for the scent," he ordered, not really needing to hear the rest of it.

"What? You didn't let me finish, sir," she complained.

He looked at her with a calm look, Ferdinand had never been the kind to mistreat his subordinates. Then, after a few seconds, he parted his lips, letting the words spill out, "They aren't concerned about his whereabouts, are they?"

She remained silent for a second, then asked, "How did you know?"

"Oh, Becky, it's my job to know everything about those bastards so I can properly plan out how to take them down. That guy —Denny, was it?— has never worried them, so it's not surprising they're so calm about this."

"Oh... But, sir, why is it that you wish to find him, if I may ask?"

"Well, you see," he started, walking with her to where Hunter and her father were, "despite him being a jokester, he is a great source of inside information. Plus, everyone has to see the show we are planning out, don't you think so?"

She simply nodded, heading off to where both men were. Meanwhile, Ferdinand took a left turn and headed to the Maps and Plans room, as he liked to call it.

The room was both his source of inspiration and the space where he wrote down most of his ideas, but now he needed a new one. What would he do once he had Denzel right in front of him?

"Let's cross that bridge once we get to it," he thought to himself, "I'll go with them and see for myself."

It wasn't noon yet when the dogs guided the small group to a cliff. Seeing the space they were in and having memorized the way, Ferdinand gave out a simple but strange order, "You may return now, I'll take it from here, thank you."

They all glanced one another before nodding and starting to make their way back to the base. Once he made sure no one else was nearby, Ferdinand sat by the cliff, looking at Denzel.

"What are you doing here?" Denzel asked, not even sparing Ferdinand a glance.

"Well, someone had to look for you."

"No, no one had to look for me. You are quite literally the worst person who could've come."

"But here I am, and guess what? They didn't even bother coming."

"Of course they did not, got anything else to say?"

There was a short silence before he responded, "I want to know what made you come here, Denzel. I want to know everything."

Denzel finally looked at him, even if it was for a few seconds, before rolling his eyes and closing them, laying down on the grass beneath him as he left his feet dangling.

"Ah, I think I understand now," the villain hummed, a smile making its way to his face, "You're drained. So many years being just the jokester of The Wishers, the one who keot watch the calmest nights, the one whose efforts were never acknowledged. That must have felt like getting kicked in the ass and being laughed at because of it, am I wrong?"

He didn't need to hear him answer, he could see the tears breaking out from his tired eyes.

"You're staying out of it all from now on, aren't you?"

"Yeah . . . I've had enough," was his only response.

Ferdinand hummed to himself as he stood back up, then offered, "Look, we had a deal that whoever got out wouldn't get involved in this, so how about you cone to my base and rest? I won't ask you for anything, I just want you to sit back and watch."

Ferdinand couldn't help but notice the discrete interest in the other's face, so he offered him his hand to help him get back up. Denzel didn't hesitate much and took it, getting up slowly, finally seeming to have relaxed.

Maybe a bit too much, for he passed out on Ferdinand right away. Keeping watch all night instead of having turns must been really exhausting.

"I'll make sure you enjoy it as much as I will. No, scratch that, I'll make sure everyone enjoys it. After all, everyone has to see."

[airyairyaucontraire]

Watching S3E02 The Mandalorian, "The Mines of Mandalore"

My reactions and flagrant spoilers are behind the cut.

IS THERE GOING TO BE POD RACING

IT SOUNDS A LOT LIKE THERE'S POD RACING AFOOT

I see Peli hasn't got that tooth fixed, dental continuity on this show

I probably can't hope to see Boba and Fennec and Cobb in this episode, can I? The show's just going to taunt me with being on the same planet and not getting to see them.

nice flip, kid!

"Are you taking out Boba Fett?" Yes, for dinner and dancing.

(It feels off to me when people say BOBA fett and not Boba FETT. It's like the whole PEANUT butter/peanut BUTTER thing. I say peanut BUTTER and Boba FETT.)

"Spelunking? What are you spelunking?" I told you I'm taking Boba out.

okay, so you could just get a canary

and yes... this IS the droid with a bad motivator that Uncle Owen didn't quite buy.

IS COBB AT THE RACES THIS BOONTA EVE

IS HE WATCHING THE FIREWORKS ON A BALCONY WITH BOBA AND FENNEC

ARE THEY ALL WEARING FANCY SILK SHIRTS AND DRINKING FIZZY WINE

ARE THEY AT LEAST HAVING A GOOD TIME TOGETHER

WITHOUT ME

okay, Din sympathetically telling Grogu "I know, it looks scary" is precious. He's interacting with him so much more openly and emotively and it's really sweet. He's entered Full Dad Mode. We have only seen a fraction of his dadliness to date.

what a dump

I mean sorry about your cherished heritage and stuff but... what a dump

you know who you could've brought to help you with this mission?

someone from a MINING COMMUNITY

(someone who also prominently wears red)

this honestly does not bode well for R4

yeah he's toast

and now Din has Darth Vader breath noises

Troglodytes! Morlocks!

I love to see how bad you suck with that darksaber still, Din

listen, just because the air's breathable doesn't mean Mandalore isn't cursed

some pretty accursed shit went down there

(gestures in the general direction of Maul)

So he's just altogether given up on the idea of reviving IG-11? It doesn't matter any more that they were friends? Because he seemed really into that in the previous episode.

yep, figured there'd be Remains

ooh! and a trap

what the fuck is this guy's problem?

THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULD'VE COME WITH A FRIEND YOU BIG SHINY DUMMY

YOUR PLANS ARE TERRIBLE

I WOULDN'T LET YOU ORGANISE A PISS-UP IN A BREWERY

and from inside the giant creepy robot emerges... a smaller, creepier robot

okay, endlessly enjoyable to watch Grogu toddle (or yoddle)

and use the little he's learned from the like weekend (DEFINITELY NOT TWO YEARS) he spent with Luke

"Get to Bo-Katan"

he needs an adult and that's the adult you tell him to go for?

THAT one?

can R4 even understand Grogu? Do droids UNDERSTAND GROGU? Are we going back to the Legends thing that R4 is Force-sensitive (hence he blew out his motivator intentionally so that R2 would get picked instead) and they're communicating that way?

WHY DOES SHE SIT AROUND ON A THRONE

GET A JOB BO-KATAN

well I guess now you've got a job of sorts, Rescue Spelunker

"Let's get rid of him once and for all" "I want to be left alone" "I will immediately drop everything and go to find you on a planet where most of the worst events of my life happened"

Well, when I say "drop everything," she was doing literally nothing

Of course, I get that Bo-Katan must be horribly lonely and really very bored, but jumping into doing this all by herself... well, it reinforces the general, traditional Mandalorian lack of common sense, so I guess she's a credit to her culture

I do enjoy her swaggery walk, good walking work by Katee Sackhoff

More troglodytes and morlocks!

of course he didn't think his dad was the only Mandalorian, and it's a strange line. Grogu's met her before, together with Koska and Axe, and seen them fight (they rescued him from being eaten by yet another monster), so of course he didn't think that, and of course seeing that Bo-Katan is good at this sort of thing shouldn't be a big surprise for him.

What's this jerk even trying to do? Exsanguinate him? What for?

and at least Bo-Katan knows what to do with a darksaber (and since Din lost it in a fight and she picked it up, doesn't that give her dibs again?)

YET ANOTHER, SMALLER, CREEPIER ROBOT

there's just a little eye guy in there, isn't there?

well there was

what was he trying to do there? shall we ever know?

"How did you find me?" "Your kid." The one you apparently don't remember telling to go and find me.

the acknowledgement that Din is Grogu's dad and Grogu is Din's kid is however appreciated

it's not his fucking fault they didn't have your favourite soup where he grew up, you crud bucket

When she says "I didn't embarrass him in front of everyone," is that a reference to Satine?

Interesting how what we expected to be the big season quest, finding a way to the Living Waters in the first place, is apparently accomplished in episode 2.

yeah, naturally there's something ghastly in the water that pulled him down, it's like you idiots don't know you're in Star Wars sometimes

so Bo-Katan has to rescue his doofy ass again

is that a mythosaur? were they aquatic? somehow never pictured them that way!

well, meanwhile Boba, Fennec and Cobb had a simply lovely time at the races, got a little bit tipsy, all fell asleep in a cuddle puddle with Jolene the baby rancor

[seaweedstarshine]

literally black king Emma was so fucking good. we were robbed. Like on the one hand they should have let Matt Rosenberg cook but on the other hand. the really brutal Ruth death and rahne trans panic murder were a lot 💀

Oh you’re so so right — the mutant metaphor suffers from cis white writers, but I remember people calling it trauma porn like there’s no narrative purpose for there being a massive death count overall, and I'm like… mmmmmMmm.

Personal preference rambles as a found family heavy angst enjoyer (this is not a defense of Rosenburg X-Men), but in a general sense I really like when — so they might not get along, but they got each other, because as life keeps gloating it's hell to fight supremacy when you're fighting each other (not that causes of divisions amongst marginalized people are unimportant, but if you don't have your people, no one else will, this is how I feel; also not that anyone is obligated to loyalty towards a specific individual that harms them) — Hope shooting Scott in the head isn't fine, but what binds them is more important than grudges. Logan finally leaving his MCU-esque Post Credits Scene Era to be with Scott! The way Black King Emma (!!!) will stoop to any low as she manipulates Scott into doing what she wants, but she is trying to protect him, she worries when he's shot, and when the perceived advantage of their separation ends, she just welcomes them all into the Hellfire Club?? It's just cathartic for me.

There are some very significant caveats in this run that I only hope I remember well enough to speak on… The Morlocks deserved better, eons before anti-mutant hate got to that level, and between Jono and Dani's roles — the X-Men having overlooked the way it's always godawful for the most marginalized among them before it was quite this godawful for all of them, the hypocrisy, it could've been explored better here with less focus on Scott and Logan. Like in Sabretooth and the Exiles, sort of, but not entirely…

(I think sometimes this works better with side books. The Simonson New Mutants run is debatably my fav and overhated in my opinion.)

Yeah, Rosenburg X-Men is very flawed, and it's extremely valid not to be into it when you hold the same energy for Krakoa's flaws, but overall (for me) it really nailed the tension and the stakes and the angst and I was extremely hooked, especially with Age of X-Men meanwhile making choices in the other books.

(I might be misremembering a bunch, too, I literally just reread my college essay from almost exactly 5 years ago to try and remind me! I was low-key exaggerating in those tags where I called it a paper, it was a 3-page one-week essay with two sources which were Rosenburg UXM and the textbook. I also re-skimmed the Ruth death issue…)

…okay one more thing also I can't lie I was heavy into David/Ruth at the time and I read that issue like three times that week it dropped, I'm not about to say it she wasn't fridged for the purpose of setting up how bad it's about to get, nor that the interesting shit it did with her powers didn't literally just mirror the excuse to write out Destiny in a very concerning pattern, but at least the story was about Ruth's pain rather than that of those left behind (which is very different from, say, the focus being on Peter Parker's pain when Ms Marvel last died; and also very different from Rahne's death, which is the worst of the run)— anyway in 2019 I was just so happy to see Ruth again after that wildly OOC Legion series that didn't mention her while David was also being a plot device in Age of X-Men (which I didn't love). I had pretty much lost hope that my X-Men Legacy babies would ever be relevant again, so it was a win for me. Not as big as Way of X, but the bar was on the floor. That said a content warning was so needed to be at the beginning instead of a fucking suicide hotline at the end.

But the Rahne trans panic murder, god. Masterclass in taking the mutant metaphor to depict the most brutal things to happen to real marginalized people (without bothering to represent them?) and it goes grossly exploitative so quick. The way X-Men's lack of sensitivity readers shows…

ANYWAYS I haven't read it in years please take my opinions with a grain of salt.

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

More impressions of the original Animaniacs series from someone who watched the reboot first

Last time I posted my overall thoughts on the first 38 episodes:

But now that I've seen 78 episodes (yes I know it's been 5 months, I started watching the show weekly rather than daily at one point and binge-watching ain't my thing alright? 😅), I thought I may as well post the opinions of the series I've formed since then, and point out some ways it and the reboot differ.

--The Christmas special made me like Ralph more as a character. Seeing him so happy spending time with his family was cute. Which is nice because I didn't care for him much until this episode. Can you blame me? In all the episodes between episode 5 and episode 49 (this episode) I swear I can count the number of lines he got on my hand. I'm glad he talks more in the reboot; there he gets a few lines in almost every episode he's in (minus one-Ralph Cam, a very creative segment by the way).

--The Randy Beaman's Friend segments aren't that great either. But considering those segments and the Mime and Mr Skullhead segments probably only exist to pad out the runtime of episodes and not actually to be funny, I understand why.

--Last time I said Rita and Runt were one of the only four segments on the show I liked, and I still do but...honestly 4 out of 5 of their last segments kinda sucked (Of Nice and Men, Kiki's Kitten, Icebreakers and Up a Tree). The same kinda thing happens in those four, Rita and Runt get separated somehow, Rita suffers, Runt's just fine but spends a lot of his time offscreen, they regroup, the end. Their last segment (Witch One) puts Rita in danger so Runt can save her, which I guess is slightly different but their segments have done that plot before, multiple times. It's too bad they stopped getting segments after season 1, I would've liked to see how they could've improved, oh well. Although Runt's last line in Witch One where he hopes they don't get sued for the Beauty and the Beast parody was funny.

--I love Pinky and the Brain, but in the original show their segments sometimes would have a running gag they do over and over within a segment, then, surprise! turns out that gag is how the plan fails. I dunno, I feel like that just makes the ending obvious. Yeah, we know they're gonna fail, but trying to guess how they fail is one of the fun parts of their segments, so the ones with the repetitive running gags (in particular Bubba Bo Bob Brain, Spellbound and Brain Meets Brawn) aren't as entertaining to me. Their segments are already quite formulaic, why add to that? Not all their segments in the original show do this though, and the reboot pretty much only did this once (Close Encounters of the Worst Kind), so that's a relief.

--Given how much some people want Hello Nurse to return in the reboot, I was interested to see what she was like in the original show and...she doesn't do much? There are a lot of episodes she doesn't appear in at all, and when she does it's for Yakko and Wakko to ogle at her or she literally is just there. She barely speaks as well, which is a shame because I do like her voice...and she's nice, I guess. Honestly the only episode where she felt like a character so far is King Yakko. She was welcoming, patient but set boundaries with Yakko's BS, planned battle strategies (that they didn't use but whatever), was a little sassy, and was onscreen for more than a couple seconds. Why isn't she like that in more episodes? Well I'm not done yet, maybe she's better in later ones. I know there's a whole song dedicated to how smart and talented is, but none of that stuff was mentioned before (or after, I'm guessing), so (hot take incoming) it kinda feels like a cop out? As if they're saying "We're not sexist because we dedicated a whole song to how smart this character is. So please just ignore that none of these accomplishments have been or will be mentioned in other episodes. Also ignore the fact we barely give her screen time when we can't use her to make innuendos. LOOK HOW NOT SEXIST WE ARE!"

--Okay I'm splitting this bit into two. I just wanna say I think Ms Bellum from the Powerpuff Girls is Hello Nurse done right. From what I can remember, she was objectified less, showed up and had lines quite often, was snarky, and her intelligence often helped resolve the conflict, like when she told the girls how they could defeat the Rowdyruff Boys, or when she helped make the girls realize they overreacted in Equal Fights. If Hello Nurse was more like that, then that would've been great. But as she is, I'm indifferent to her returning. I'm not against her return, but I don't see it as a loss if she doesn't.

--The writers really love Wakko huh? So far there's been five segments (Potty Emergency, Clown 'n' Out, Ups and Downs, Bingo, and Go Fish) that star him and only him partaking in some task (maybe with Scratchansniff or a clown) without his siblings being there for most of the segment. In some cases they don't appear at all! I actually like the idea of each Warner sibling getting their own stories to shine in, but that doesn't happen. I guess Dot has Dot's Quiet Time and Dot's Poetry Corner, but one was basically a song and the other is a recurring gag. Yakko probably has it the worst, he literally only gets to star in a segment on his own if it's a song (Yakko's World, Yakko's Universe, etc) or if it's a one off gag they'll only do for one episode (Useless Facts, Disasterpiece Theatre, etc). I'd love it if the other two were to get segments to star in, by themselves, that actually had a plot. The reboot ain't over yet, so here's hoping that happens.

--I used to consider Chicken Boo my least favourite segment...but not any more! Chicken Boo is is boring, but inoffensive. Katie Kaboom segments, on the other hand, actively annoy me. These segments literally only exist to mock teenage girls, that's it. Between her catchphrase-"I'm not overreacting, I'm a teenager!" and certain remarks from her parents-"Teenagers should be locked away until they're 30." It's just...not fun to watch. And very formulaic too. The segments are almost always in her house, so it's basically the same setting every time (minus The Driving Lesson), Katie gets mad either understandably or over a small inconvenience, she transforms and destroys the house, she turns back to normal and seems unaware of what happened, one of her parents basically insults her behind her back, the end. How pleasant 😑.

--What's with Skippy's voice in season 3? Season 3 might actually be my favourite season so far, there's a large focus on the Warners and Slappy in particular, two of my favourite segments, so that's great. But Skippy's voice is higher than it used to be I'm pretty sure. They didn't change his voice actor or anything. I guess they're trying to make him sound extra energetic and happy (or maybe keep him sounding young as his voice actor ages), but I don't like it. His voice was fine before.

--I do like Slappy's new theme song though. The first version was way too short, which I guess fits the character, but the second makes for a better song, and describes Skippy's character as well as Slappy's so that's a bonus.

--Miss Flamiel doesn't show up enough.

--I do appreciate the Warners' moral code, as described in The Sound of Warners. It helps flesh them out as characters, they don't just drop anvils on anyone, they only go out of their way to bother people who've provoked them. Yeah sometimes they mess around with people, it's their way of bonding, and characters will find that annoying sometimes, but a lot of the time they annoy people as payback for when "special friends" have done them wrong. Heck, not even for that sometimes, sometimes they torment people for being jerks to others, even if they didn't bother them personally (yet), like in Morning Malaise. This aspect of the Warners' characters is very important, it helps keep them likeable.

Alright that's all I got for now. For any characters I didn't mention, my opinions on them have pretty much stayed the same. It's not perfect, but watching this show has been a blast (it and the reboot are tied as my 3rd favourite cartoon of all time), and I'm so glad it made a comeback, even if it took decades to happen.

Link to Part 3

[williamaltman]

So, Multiverse of Madness. I actually just watched it now. I couldn't go to the cinema for reasons. It was, well, kind of what I thought it would. I was ready for it after the leaks, and with all the spoilers I saw even though mostly avoiding them, I kind of REALLY knew what was gonna happen at almost every moment.

Now, I'm gonna say, I did enjoy it. It's an entertaining movie. I think it's far from being one of Marvel's worsts (though it's not one of it's best either). I'm sure I would have enjoyed it just a bit more if I had seen it on the cinema, cause I can imagine how much more exciting it is. The fact that the movie is, well, exciting, it's really what kind of saves it, I guess? What I mean is that, if this was like, a TV show broken into a few episodes, it would've been boring. It probably could use a bigger length still, just some 10-30 minutes, to explore a few things more, but I'm satisfied enough with what it was.

Now, let's go to the main thing. Wanda. I thought Wanda in the movie was... Fine. I'm not gonna throw hands about it. That's partly because I had already accepted this reality months and months before, partly cause, as I said, she's still etertaining, Lizzie sells it, and I think the narrative is still sympathetic enough towards her.

Which, you know, I'm happy about. I knew she was always gonna be a sympathetic villain, but I feel like things could've gotten a lot more personal and a lot more heavy-handed at showing her as evil. Like, people who hate her are still gonna hate her, those who loved her will still love her, those who are neutral aren't too likely to change their mind, since she only killed NPCs and AU versions... It hasn't really changed much of anything in regards to the discourse™.

What she does here is objectively worse than WandaVision, and I wouldn't say it's such a "natural progress", but it's also not THAT unbelievable considering the timeskip, the Darkhold corruption, the way you see her humanity at a few moments, especially the end, and that they let her have one heroic act –which, people are gonna discredit it and not care and blabla, but that's, like I said, the usual. It does matter a lot that no one, not any Wanda, and not anyone else either (like the 838 Strange), will be tempted by the Darkhold, which is really an endless possible amount of universes being saved. So yeah, fight me, but I'll give her the credit for that.

I honestly really like that what gave her humanity back was her children. Both in the movie and in the comics, especially in the comics (Disassembled and House of M), she's treated as a hysterical woman obsessed with having children, that she can't. But here, she wants them from another universe, it's not that much of a matter of whether their real, whether she should have these children, in the literal sense of being a mother, and more about how she shouldn't take them when they already have their own Wanda as a mother.

I feel like they're ultimately portrayed positively, as she realizes what she's done when she says she wouldn't hurt them. Her loss feels more akin to her usual theme of grief, that she already felt for Vision, Pietro, and her parents. I, also like the little detail, where she resents Strange for giving the time stone to Thanos, making it necessary for her to sacrifice Vision –and that being for nothing, especially because Thanos uses the time stone to revert it and kill him again, which he otherwise couldn't. We had two mentions of Vis, and I found the latter one to be quite meaningful.

I'm excited about her future, since this is obviously not the end. We got through the worst part already, and to me it wasn't even as bad as it could've been, so for that I'm glad!

[eppysboys]

I really hate May for selling the bullshit idea that the lost weekend was a good thing for John. He was killing himself with booze and drugs that year. His name was dragged on the mud after being kicked out of the Troubadour and the Beverly Hills Hotel for unruly behavior. Have people actually listened to Walls and Bridges? That's the music a man who wants to kill himself makes, don't let the cheery saxophone fool you. You know it's bad when Paul went out of his way to send him back to Yoko.

Do people really believe John would be happy and able to control his worst instincts living with a doormat? He could've stayed with Cynthia then, at least she wasn't on his payroll.

I wish John had a better alternative but in the end, Yoko was the only person in the world who could save him from himself. I mean, Paul technically could but he wouldn't. He made his choice back in 1969. It's just really unfortunate someone else didn't came along.

Hi anon, I don’t think it’s quite fair to file 18 months as purely negative or purely positive either. That period of time contained...so much. He definitely spiralled out of control and indulged in things he shouldn’t have and he was depressed and disillusioned and scared. There were also really wonderful things that happened during that period as well, which I make a brief list of in one of the previous answers. 

I really hate May for selling the bullshit idea that the lost weekend was a good thing for John. There’s a wide range of opinions of how the women in the Beatles’ lives should/shouldn’t approach telling their story. I think May’s case is slightly unique in the sense that John spent the months/years after his time with her telling blatant lies about his time with her. Go onto a variety of beatles forums or comment sections discussing the ‘long weekend’ and you’ll find the general consensus seems to be along the lines of ‘yeah he missed yoko and used may to pass the time, it was good that he bonded with julian but it’s obvious he needed his soulmate yoko’. Beyond that, do you really think May has significantly reshaped the story into one of John being happy and healthy for that time? Everyone calls it ‘the lost weekend’ because that’s what they think it is, because John said so. I don’t really think she’s selling that idea anyway? She is frank about how fucked up John was, but she also makes a point that that wasn’t all there was to it. And that’s fair. The people around them noticed it too, it’s not like she’s lying. If you’re mad she got money at all by telling her side of the story, that’s another thing entirely. 

That's the music a man who wants to kill himself makes, don't let the cheery saxophone fool you. I’ve said there’s a definitely warmth and vibrancy to it that his other albums did not have, and I stand by that. But....I’m not stupid. I know it’s not all cheery. We all know literally a beloved John Lennon trope is tortured lamenting self-reflective lyrics often set to an upbeat or lively melody. Again, who is saying it was a 100% happy time for him, or that John was ‘healed’? There is plenty of evidence that he was making steps in the right direction - Independence, self-sufficiency and taking responsibility were all steps in the right direction. That’s not worth nothing. 

Yoko was the only person in the world who could save him from himself. Yikes! No! It should not have been her responsibility and it’s totally unfair to put that all on her! Being ‘saved’ by someone is not what John needed, it’s not realistic either. In most cases of severe mental health problems and trauma, it takes a village and it takes /you/ to make things better. Handing over all control and responsibility to someone does not help. Plain and simple. It wasn’t going to come from just Yoko or just Paul or just May. 

He made his choice in 1969. Um? Ok? And if that choice wasn’t working out he was perfectly within his rights to move on. He didn’t want to because he felt safer the way things were, he wanted someone to take care of him, to mother/father/be a God for him. 

I don’t understand why the enthusiasm for things like......a great album and John growing the fuck up and building a relationship with his son amongst other things is somehow offensive. And it’s a bit bold to assume that people responding cheerfully to the positive aspects of that time are totally ignorant of the negatives. 

And by the way, May was not a doormat. She was a young woman thrown into absolute chaos who actually did manage to get John Lennon to do a few things he was scared/initially unwilling to do. That’s not the main point, but I just think it’s silly and borderline offensive to just label her as weak because she couldn’t ‘win’ against her millionaire older bosses. She’s not a perfect angel woman and I don’t idolise her or pit her against Yoko, because once again, these are people, not pawns in a game to get John Lennon to be a functioning person.

tl;dr: stream walls and bridges! 🥰

[set-in-stardust]

whoooshh scar songs 2/2:

don't you know who i think i am?

a penny for your thoughts but a dollar for your insights/or a fortune for your disaster

this man. this man swindles people out of their everything. but at the same time, he loses his everything every single day, sometimes multiple times. he's not really gaining or losing much- if anything, he's losing more than he's gaining.

I'm just a painter and I'm drawing a blank

scar himself, by his own character, is a creator. he paints pictures, scenes, landscapes, cities, myths. scar is. not allowed to help directly with grian's and mumbo's romance and he is in pain.

they say quitters never win/but we walk the plank on a sinking ship

this line is saying, in summary, if scar quits, it's so he can fail on his own accord as opposed to being indebted to others. (it also feels like a line that grian would tell him, and he would have to point out that it's not a sinking ship- grian's just not looking at the docks) he kinda does this, to be honest. if he dislikes something, he won't stop until he's perfected it, but he's also loyal to a cause to a fault.

i could learn to pity fools as i'm the worst of all

i. i refuse to believe scar knows nothing. he must suspect grian's got wings. i feel like while he knows a lot about what's happening, he dislikes that there's stuff he doesn't know. but unlike mumbo, he understands not to push so strongly on things in general.

broken down on memory lane/alone together, we're alone (whoa)

i'm not sure why but this line feels like scar and grian's enchanting sessions. sure, scar's teaching grian, but they're mostly two friends hanging out- one friend helping significantly more than the other. but those meetings feel like a tiny little bubble, where no-one could ever overhear anything.

uh once again sorry for brainrotting in your inbox and i hope you have /have had a wonderful day! i hear songs and i create stories too easily \:

~☁️

YES YES YES

the first line is just SO on point for scar. hes always working towards something and hes gonna get it no matter what (bartering, swindling, cooperating, compromising, etc.)

(it also feels like a line that grian would tell him, and he would have to point out that it's not a sinking ship- grian's just not looking at the docks)

wow, yeah. ur so right about this actually. scar tends to put things on their head and really look at them in a different perspective. he's the little beam of hope in the cave of pessimism that is w&w Grian.

u might not be so wrong abt him not being completely clueless ;)))

AND YES YES YES I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH THE LAST PART ABOUT THEIR LESSONS! it's a private little world of their own where they can grow and understand and change and the vibe of that little bit at the end of the song just makes so much sense when u relate it to their sessions. its really great and i love it

also i dont mind the brainrot!! i also create lots of stories listening to music. I'm literally filming a rlly short (like under a minute) piece on Saturday w/ a couple of friends that is VERY LOOSELY based on the song "The (After) Life of the Party" by fall out boy (who could've guessed). maybe ill post it here but idk yet

[yuvon-writes-letters]

Abandon?

Abandon?!

Are you fucking serious?! Venn, incase you forgot, the writers that write in have lives too, and Rai’s life has been hell ever since he answered that damn text message from Thomas!

Incase you want to know why we ‘abandoned your precious defenseless Yu’, Rai has been on the edge of his ass ever since the MWAF had the gall to set the trap, and has been wringing himself in guilt ever since! It took me using my powers to convince him to not take a flight to Duskwood and punch that bitch in the face (despite me wanting to do the same)

On top of that, you know the doctor’s appointment that Yu was supposed to get to deal with the letter disease thing, yeah, when Rai called in the cancel, turns out the secretary was his sister, who he has a shitty shitty history with too.

Now Rai has been living in fear of his shitty shitty family finding him, because he has to deal with shitty shitty entity nonsense, a shitty shitty boss, and a semi shitty but loyal friend!

[You can feel a radiance of divine anger from the paper, the ink seems to burn at the touch, and glancing at the paper is making you uneasy]

You know what, fine! Believe him Yu, believe that shitty shitty entity that CLEARLY has ulterior motives with Yu, who’s probably going to use you and manipulate you until you end up alone on you’re own.

But take it from an entity Yu.

It takes a schemer to know a schemer.

-Walker

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

….Of course, the Valor finds a way to make it worse…

Skie

Oh, aren't you adorable. I know you and your little hellspawn haven't abandoned her, trust me. He's a complete pain 🙄

Blah, blah, blah, your brat isn't the one I care about. I can't feed on him, not even the one in this universe. 😒 As I said: Pain. In. The. Ass.

You, my dear Walker, really need to expand your vocabulary 😂 Really, did you think calling me a "shitty, shitty entity" would change anything at all? It'll only make her angrier. She can't believe I want anything but the best for her, anymore 😁

You think she has enough left of herself at this point to listen to you? 😂 If you're really a "schemer" like you claim, I thought you'd realize it's already too late for her.

She's still clinging to the possibility that your charge might just be busy- I never accounted for just how damned trusting she is of him 😒 -but once I tell her this letter was you and him washing your hands of her, she'll believe me. Especially when I read out an excerpt to her, very slightly edited 😉

Thanks for giving me the key to severing the last little strands, Walker dear! 😘

(There's another note in the envelope that falls out.)

TM here, intercepting this letter before it can actually send properly. Venn might control Yu, but the motherfucker doesn't have jack shit on me anymore, and I still have way more authority over the letters than the asshole.

I know you haven't "abandoned" Yu, or me either for that matter. You can't convince Yu, because she's not Yu right now. I tried to talk to her, and get her away from Venn, and if she hadn't still been holding onto her self control by a shred she would have quite literally tried to kill me. Maybe even succeeded, in that state.

All we can do now is make sure Yu is safe after Venn makes his move. I don't know how we can do that, but worst comes to worst I still have a knife that can cut anything and is hopped up on entity energy.

Oh, hell, your timeline caught up with mine with the Duskwood thing? I am so, so, so sorry, if I'd realized your timeline was behind mine I would've warned you. I assumed it happened at the same time on every timeline...

Oh, fuck, really? Shit. Look, if there's anything I can do, literally anything at all that could help, PLEASE let me know. We owe Rai way too much to not at least try, no matter if Yu can see that right now or not.

I know he's bad news by now. And I wish I'd realized just how deep his thorns had dug in sooner. Maybe I could've... done something. Anything. No. It's not just now, is it?

We never stood a chance, did we. I only got free through sheer chance and a million factors coming together just right.

...Skie? I thought

Nevermind what I thought.

Luckily, Venn doesn't seem too interested in you. But PLEASE, all of you, be careful. He's bad and he's got Yu basically brainwashed, and there's way too much entity shit happening with the two of us for that to be in any way safe.

By the way, Venn can't see this letter. Obviously.

—Troublemaker

Wait a sec. By the time she said no one had written in for a week, Amelia had written five days ago, and we've sent plenty of letters amongst ourselves in the meantime.

Oh fucking hell.

(The letter tucks itself in the paper clip with the others.)

[secret-engima]

Could.. Could I request any snippets you'd be willing to share? Or something you want to ramble about? Mom Regalia? Nox Verse? Your new LC Seer? I'm ok physically but emotionally I'm still a little shaky; my roommate and one of my best friends was wrongfully held at gunpoint this evening and I need a bit of a distraction from the fact I could've lost him.

hgffgh Of course! I’m so sorry to hear that happened to him!

Lemme see if I have anything fluffy.... I think all I have is angst rn but I’ll check-.

... (okay I have a REALLY short bit on my Seer LC one-shot, this is literally all I have on it, I’ll check for other things in just a sec but here)

     Static and fire danced just below her skin, fury stealing away the pain that usually came with stomping around shelving books. Even if she had been able to feel the pain —and she would later, she was certain—, she would have done it anyway. Because it was either useful activity or closing the shop so she could go scream into her pillow and probably make the neighbors complain about her “smoking habits” again. She took a step off the stepladder, felt her ankle turn, giving underneath her for no reason other than the fact that her joints apparently hated doing what they were supposed to and she clutched the shelves with a curse and regretted leaving her cane behind the counter. That had been a stupid move of hers to be sure.

     She was so caught in her own head she didn’t hear the bell tinkle. But she did feel the soft ripple of ozone and old stones that shouldn’t have been possible in her tiny nook of a shop, and she looked up hastily, still cursing and leaning desperately against the shelves in search of the source. The man who peaked around the corner was not the one she expected —that was good, she honestly didn’t know what she’d do if That Man walked into her shop—, and for a moment the two of them stared at each other. Her half on and half off a stepping stool, clutching her bookshelves like a lifeline and in the middle of swearing like a sailor in all her four foot eight inch glory, him in his casual street clothes and what she estimated to be six feet one inch of surprise.

     She finished stepping off the stepladder, tested her ankles for a moment before straightening up with a wince and letting go of the shelf, “Welcome to the Second Sight second hand bookshop and cafe. Can I help you?”

     The man blinked and stayed where he was, with the shelf halfway shielding him like she might bite, “Yeah, I was looking for a book?”

     Cyra bit back in instinctive sarcasm of how she might need a little more clarification than that and instead gestured at the shelves around her, “Well, you’ve come to a likely place then. Do you know the title and author or are you looking to try something new? I have everything organized by genre, then alphabetically by author.”

     The man dared to step around the shelf and stop in front of her and Cyra tried not to feel annoyed with how freaking tall he was. It wasn’t his fault that Cyra had inherited all the short genes of her family at once.

...(Next up is Stand Strong! I have brought you hilarity feels and a much longer snippet)

     Of course, while out in the city proper and on their way to one of the few favored plotting spots that wasn’t in the Galahdian sector —less chance of Amissa stumbling across them and putting a stop to their ideas that way—, a few of the rougher Insomnian locals identified them as Galahdian. Their scents stunk of fear and disgust as they made the warding signs that were so popular in the lower sectors of Insomnia —signs to ward off evil and unnatural things, like the Galahdians were monsters in human skin to fend off rather than just refugees missing their homes—. Nyx and Crowe, as always, played along, recoiling with low hisses and quiet gurgling snarls and flashes of their teeth —because if they thought the Galahdian sector was home to horrible monsters, the gangs would stay away and leave them alone and that was worth a little public shunning—.

     Behind them, Libertus kept his reaction a little more subdued, but still made a show of flinching away and growling in the back of his throat.

     Tredd went overboard, shrieking and recoiling into a catlike spring-warp combination that ended with him perched on top of a lamppost in a way that attracted far more attention than Nyx’s and Crowe’s reactions. Because Tredd. He could never do things by halves, even when they weren’t actively trying to get the attention of the Insomnian passersby so much as scare off the superstitious gangsters eyeing them with pale skin and trembling scents. The gangsters hurried away, still making the warding signs, and pedestrians shuffled away from them with fear and uneasy disgust in their scents that made Nyx growl deep in his chest at them —rude, flinging their scents around was bad enough, but they could at least try to mind their own business and not take the side of the obvious gangsters that had just left—.

     As they slunk away from the scene, hissing irritably at Tredd for making that much of a scene, none of them were expecting to hear the Marshal’s voice hail them from a nearby storefront, “Kingsglaives. Is there a … problem?”

     Nyx startled and Tredd yipped softly, none of them had sensed the Marshal’s presence. After spending their childhoods with Axis and Amissa, being snuck up on like that was extremely rare, and while Nyx knew the Marshal was skilled, he hadn’t thought he was … that…

     Nyx could sense that he was not the only one in the group staring as he blurted in Old Galahd, “Mamaí, why are you holding his hand?”

     Amissa, their wayward Mamaí, didn’t even bat an eyelash at Nyx’s squawk, just slightly raised the hand in question, dragging the Marshal’s limb up with the motion because their fingers were intertwined, “This? Stealth training. He got curious. He’s a good student too, for an arrogant prodigy Insomnian.” She added that last part in Old Galahdian with an amused twitch of her lips, as if oblivious to how Nyx’s group were staring in a sort of dawning horror. Tredd took a deep whiff of the nearby air, prowled closer to the two until the Marshal stiffened warily and Amissa chuffed scoldingly at him.

     Tredd slunk back and hissed, “It’s him,” in Nyx’s ear, just low enough for him, Crowe, and Libertus to hear. Nyx kept staring in a vague sort of horror as Amissa raised an eyebrow, “Stop acting like pups,” she scoffed, “I held your hands during stealth training.”

     The Marshal blinked and, to Nyx’s dawning horror, looked amused beneath his solemn mask as he muttered sidelong to Amissa, “So this is your standard training method?”

     “You are a unique and special man, Leonis, but not enough to warrant special treatment from me,” Amissa retorted in a bland voice that was betrayed by the way her different colored eyes twinkled in amusement.

     The corner of the Marshal’s mouth ticked up and there for just the briefest flicker, Nyx caught it. The faint scent that had begun to linger on Amissa’s clothing. It was from Cor Leonis. The Marshal of the Crownsguard, the Immortal. The one man outside their Pack and their king that Titus had ever offered his throat to, even if only in a particular vicious spar several years ago. Amissa, their Amissa, was being scented by Cor Leonis.

     And the worst part was … Nyx didn’t think either of them were aware of it. Or, if the Marshal was aware and doing it intentionally, he wasn’t giving any sign of it. Not physical, not vocal, and not in the tiny wisps of scent Nyx managed to pick up before they were gone again, locked down tight in that way that had made all the Glaive appreciate working with him over the rest of the Crownsguard. Which meant, if the Marshal wasn’t doing it intentionally, then it probably wasn’t just a Pack-scenting.

     Astrals above please no.

     Amissa narrowed her eyes at the prolonged horrified staring and the Marshal was beginning to tense again, “What’s wrong with you four? If this is about my training non-Pack-.”

     Nyx felt Libertus’s hand clamp on the back of his neck in just the right place to make his knees weaken and his angry words die on his tongue —stupid Lib, abusing Nyx’s instincts like that, at least he was doing it to Tredd too—, “Nope, that’s not a problem, Mamaí. We’re just surprised is all. This where you’ve been running off to every weekend?”

     A half-blink and a slow relaxing over her shoulders as she started walking, the Marshal falling in step with her far too easily for Nyx’s brain to handle, “Pretty much.” She tilted her head, “I was thinking of starting in on group training in another week or two, if Leonis has no problem with it. Do you want to help? He’ll have better luck against you than he will against Axis.” The Marshal made a low noise of protest that just made Amissa look amused. Nyx felt like he was watching a slow train wreck as pieces began to click together. The easy touching, the oddly relaxed set to the Marshal’s shoulders now that they were moving and he wasn’t being gaped at, the sandwich the Marshal had brought in all those weeks ago —just one of many, if he remembered what the Marshal had said correctly—.

     Nyx groaned, “Mamaí,” he couldn’t keep his voice from a whine, “Mamaí please don’t be doing what I think you’re doing.”

     She narrowed her eyes, baffled and annoyed, and Lib slapped the back of Nyx’s head and hissed a dark, “We’ll talk later, not in front of him,” then swapped back to a language the Marshal would understand, “Sure, if the Marshal wants to, we’d be happy to help. Hunt Touch to start with? Or are we going straight to Night Raid?”

     “Hunt Touch to start with,” she hummed, “no need to throw him into the deep end quite yet.”

     “He,” pointed out the Marshal with a tone akin to long-suffering, “is right here and can hear everything. I’m also going to need an explanation on what those training exercises are before anyone starts off with anything.”

... (and since I’m out of snips atm I shall spiral back to a few quick Nox HCs for you, all hail the Nox/Nyx romance!)

-Nyx likes to steal Nox’s shirts. She doesn’t care that she’s actually taller than him so they don’t fit right and kinda show off her middle just a bit, she likes them and its the principle of the thing.

-Nox finds this habit of hers both extremely annoying (those are his shirts!) and extremely hot (yes, okay, he likes seeing his wife in his clothes, sue him).

-Nyx likes to nip during make-outs. Nox has never been able to figure out if its a Nyx thing, an Ulric thing, or an all-out Galahd thing but when they’re getting really into a make-out, Nyx is basically guaranteed to pull away from his lips for a few seconds to nip his jawline and gently run her teeth down his throat and it always, ALWAYS makes his brain go hgfdghgfds.

-He retaliates by twisting his fingers in her hair at the base of her head and lightly squeezing, often steering her head so he can gently kiss the pulse point of her neck, and once he experimentally nipped her back on the earlobe. He could have sworn she purred, but he was a little distracted by the sudden discovery that his wife was strong enough to pick him up and pin him against the wall.

-Nox has actually worn Nyx’s shirts by accident, because Nyx doesn’t go for girly stuff, but instead goes for black with simple designs often picked out from the men’s sections of stores and her shirts always smell really nice and like her so when Nox is operating 80% asleep (read: most mornings) there is a 50/50 chance he’ll snag one of her shirts instead of his and shuffle around in it until he wakes up enough to hear her snickering.

-Nyx likes to play with Nox’s hair. Anytime, any place. His hair is wispier and silkier than hers and she’s almost jealous, but he lets her do basically whatever she wants with it so it’s fine.

-Nox has played with her hair too, but somehow this is much more likely to devolve into a make-out session than when Nyx is playing with Nox’s hair. Neither is sure why.

-Everyone pls picture Nox having an Insecure Moment, probably not long after he realized they had accidentally married, curling up against her and gently trailing kisses up her neck before breathing in her ear, “Let me love you? Please. Please, let me love you.”

-And she knows it’s not a proposition but an honest plea and so she pulls him closer and catches his lips with hers before touching their foreheads together and whispering, “Forever. Forever and more.” I will have no one else. I want you and you don’t have to be afraid of that. I’m not going anywhere.

(Hope this helps @rayearthdudette!)

[punkscowardschampions]

Ava & James

Ava: It's probably a lost cause Ava: but I lost my bracelet when we went out Ava: I remember having it in the first club but not after that Ava: If you're in the 2nd again, could you ask? Ava: No doubt it's long gone but James: I'll ring, I know the owner James: but I'll need a description, I don't remember what it looks like Ava: Thanks Ava: [sends picture like oh hey remember this face] James: [a long enough pause for him to have been trying to find this bracelet everywhere and she probably thinks he's fucked off] James: sorry, no joy Ava: Oh, no worries Ava: Cheers anyway, like James: did you go anywhere after? James: you could've had it on longer than you think Ava: I've already rang Kings, in case I left it in the dorm or something but no luck there either James: none with uber either James: kept me on hold for ages to let me know they don't have it Ava: Ugh, sorry Ava: Don't worry any more on it, it isn't sentimental or anything like that James: it was kind of a helping hand honestly, youngest liked the music they played, a very impromptu lullaby from an unexpected source Ava: Well, who knew hold music was good for anything but rage quits Ava: Unless they're now having a really angry nap James: 😂 James: that'll more likely be me later Ava: If you're lucky, yeah? James: if it hasn't run out Ava: Surely not James: they've both got some kind of hangover detector James: I'm sure you can imagine Ava: I've spent enough time with my nephew to know Ava: No sympathy from a toddler James: indeed Ava: Look, I don't know if I should even bring it back up but I'm sorry for how things went down that night James: I don't get caught up in regrets, remember Ava: I remember Ava: But I didn't Ava: I don't have bad intentions or anything, that's not me James: you've not struck me as someone who does Ava: How do I strike you? James: It was agreed I'd need longer than an evening to answer that Ava: I suppose Ava: First impressions can still be a thing James: it was a good first impression Ava: I'm glad James: but you're also sorry? Ava: I can't be both? James: you can Ava: So, you aren't sorry Ava: but are you glad? James: I can't be Ava: Yeah Ava: that's why I can't not be sorry James: It's me who should be sorry Ava: That's up to you Ava: if you don't do regrets you don't James: my actions don't only affect me Ava: I know Ava: Well, you won't get any trouble from me, like I said, not about that James: there's a line drawn under it James: you won't get any from me either James: [lies because you know he's bought her a replacement bracelet so she'll literally get that like the next day, boy we see you okay] Ava: Okay James: it was fun while it lasted, don't beat yourself up any harder James: the big glasses were cute but you shouldn't have to keep them on indefinitely Ava: Jesus Ava: Don't you know you're meant to pretend you didn't see that James: but walking around with your eyes & mouth closed all the time is very exhausting & I haven't had my nap yet Ava: I also have no sympathy for you, idiot James: I think you have some, but I don't blame you for not wanting to give it to me Ava: Nope, none Ava: I promise Ava: no space in my head James: oh Ava James: you have my sympathies, in that case Ava: Don't James: you don't want them? Ava: Let's say I don't do sympathies James: understood James: they are easy to get weighed down in Ava: and so rarely sincere James: it's reminiscent of wearing wet clothes, people only really want you to take them off in order to spare themselves the puddles James: they ask you if you're cold but they care about their floors Ava: Exactly Ava: and floors are more important 'round here Ava: and anything resembling sincerity is as unsightly as a damp mark on your new carpet James: the content I'll require for my English degree is writing itself Ava: Is that what you want to do, really? James: it's a question that'll get answered as often as it's asked Ava: How often do you get told what you want then James: daily at least Ava: How often does it come close James: it has yet to Ava: Oh James James: you don't do sympathies James: please never change on my account Ava: It could be empathy James: but is it? Ava: We'd need another night James: how many more bracelets have you got to lose? Ava: 😂 Ava: What kind of Chelsea girl do you take me for? James: you heard me say it was a good first impression Ava: 😏 I'd take a bow but can't risk losing any more jewels today James: we'll pretend you really did Ava: If that's what you're into, II James: what kind of Kensington boy do you take me for? Ava: Won't be the first to have a #scandal James: no trouble, need I remind you Ava: Just hypothetical, obviously James: you just hypothetically wanna know what I'm into? Ava: I just hypothetically hit the nail on the head James: if that's what you think, Ava Ava: Go on then Ava: Are you even gonna hypothetically tell the truth though? James: where's a hypothetical lie getting me? Ava: Away from hypothetical shame if it's weird shit Ava: I'm not one for hypothetical judgment though James: I'm not one for hypothetical shame Ava: Soooo Ava: 👀 James: I don't know, truthfully James: I'd need a whole hypothetical life, I suppose Ava: Fair Ava: It's a pretty bait question anyway James: you have an answer though, I can tell Ava: Singular? Ava: How rude James: 😂 James: because one leads to another not because you're hypothetically uninteresting Ava: Yeah, that's right Ava: about to be so hypothetically fuming James: you can have as many hypothetical apologies as you have interests, okay? Ava: No need to change on my behalf, however hypothetical James: what makes you think a personality change would be required Ava: Apologies are awful close to regret James: I'm not saying them to myself Ava: Try it out then Ava: See if I'm into it James: I'm really sorry I had to leave Ava: Me too Ava: but I don't think I'm about it, so you don't need to mention it again James: if you don't want me to, I won't Ava: I figure you owe enough sorries to more important people Ava: I'm good, honest James: I'm happy to hear it James: & not looking to mess anything up for you, hypothetically or actually Ava: I know Ava: You haven't Ava: it isn't my business so you know, no obligation to answer Ava: but why did you get married so young? James: because I had a baby to raise that young Ava: Yeah James: I wanted to do something that would actually help, at least shut up our parents because there was no silencing all the horrible things everyone else was saying James: It wasn't fair to treat her suddenly like public enemy number 1, not for that Ava: That makes sense Ava: I can see the logic James: It was a mistake we both made, I couldn't just leave her to it James: but I don't know, maybe we'd have both been better off if we'd approached it differently James: as parents but not a couple Ava: Well, it isn't permanent Ava: You can still do that Ava: Co-parent, that's not leaving her to it James: She won't let that happen Ava: It won't be easy Ava: It's weighing up if the now is worse than how invariably shit divorce is James: every time I try to leave I'm not allowed to see or speak to them until I go back James: she gets everyone on her side, including my parents Ava: If you go through official avenues, she won't just be able to do that Ava: She can't say you're unfit because you're not Ava: That's so shit and Ava: not right James: but she'll get my daughter to say that she hates me & doesn't wanna see me by telling her that's what I'm saying, I know she'll turn them both against me long before anything gets officially sorted out James: last time I walked out she told Jay so many things that aren't true Ava: She'd say that to a kid? Ava: Her kid? Ava: what's wrong with her James: I've given up trying to figure out everything that is Ava: You can't do this forever Ava: You deserve better Ava: you don't get to fuck someone over because you have a kid with them, imagine it reversed, how much of a bad guy you'd be then, it's no different just because she's the mum James: I'll send them both away to school when they're older, but for now I have to do this Ava: How do you do it Ava: How have you lasted this long, never mind how long that will be James: I see my children every day, it makes everything else bearable James: & I know they need that Ava: Yeah Ava: They're the most important thing Ava: but you matter as well, you can't Ava: I don't know James: for better or worse, right? Ava: You don't get to pick one each though, like James: I made my bed, Ava James: everyone told me not to marry her but I did Ava: 'cos you thought it was the right thing Ava: it shouldn't function as a lifelong punishment James: I never thought it was right James: I just wanted to be a better dad than I've got James: & that was the only way she'd let me Ava: That's a good reason Ava: even if it turned out not to be the best idea James: bad ideas have been around longer than she has James: I can't remember when I last had a good one James: I'd have been younger than you Ava: It's hard to make them when you have to commit to the worst, like Ava: you've gotta do something for you Ava: just 'cos you wanna Ava: or you'll lose it James: I will if you'll meet me for coffee James: I wanna see you again Ava: Okay Ava: I'd like to see you too James: tomorrow? Ava: I can do that Ava: What time, I have lunch at 1 or I can do after 5 James: lunch works Ava: Cool Ava: Looking forward to it James: I am too Ava: 😊 James: [when you're gonna have to go so far away for your date so you don't get spotted lol] Ava: [honestly should defs say its a school day so you ain't getting back for afternoon classes but that's not so wild anyone is like hello??? but start the sneaking as you mean to go on] James: [literally gonna spend half her lunch break on-route in the car cos London so we gotta but at least we can say it's an uber mood again so he's not driving] Ava: [I'll do some before 'cos like is he gonna show nerves] Ava: We still on for lunch time? James: nothing else has come up Ava: 👍 Ava: I'll book my ride James: I'll pick you up Ava: Are you sure? James: sure that we don't need 2 separate ubers going to the same place? yes Ava: fair point Ava: but I'll definitely get the coffees then James: no you won't Ava: The post came before I left this morning Ava: you really didn't have to do that Ava: but you did, so I can definitely get you a latte or whatever your particular shade of coffee is James: I didn't want leave you bracelet-less & me close to having a regret James: so I kind of did have to Ava: Well, when you put it like that Ava: thank you, it was one of my favourites actually Ava: didn't wanna push for that regret too hard though James: now you won't have to Ava: The coffee being bitter over the company definitely sounds like a better plan James: you don't have to order coffee, you know Ava: I'll probably get an iced drink of some description Ava: ☀🥵 James: too much sunbathing between classes? Ava: 😏 Ava: I'm sure the dons would say any is too much Ava: but I'm still pretty pale James: I'm correcting that to still pretty Ava: Gonna look like a 🍅 now James: who doesn't like 🍅? James: bloody marys are fantastic for one Ava: Now I know you have good taste James: in drinks at least Ava: and 🍅s thank you James: potentially everything but wives & uni courses Ava: Don't make me laugh because it's definitely not funny James: but hypothetically how smitten would I be if you did laugh? Ava: Oh, head over heels, of course Ava: like 👼s singing James: I thought so Ava: Don't wanna hypothetically disappoint James: it's not even hypothetically possible Ava: Your level of hypothetical trust is cute James: your level of hypothetical modesty is unnecessary Ava: Fine, but it's your fault when I don't fit my hypothetical hat James: I'll buy you a bigger one James: hypothetically Ava: You going to hypothetically redress me piece by piece? James: I'm not falling into the trap of you thinking I'm saying I need to James: there's nothing wrong with how you dress Ava: I'm not even hypothetically that sly Ava: Straightforward and to the point, yeah? James: it's what I like about you Ava: You're pretty good at it yourself James: game playing has never got me anywhere I want to be Ava: Games rely too much on chance and luck for my liking Ava: someone has to lose James: precisely James: as much as I'd potentially hate losing to you less than I would to lots of other people, it's still better as a hypothetical Ava: No games, I promise James: I'm taking that to also mean no more pool at the vault & you can't stop me Ava: 😱 Ava: You're really going to make me enroll just to get back in that VIP venue? Ava: Rude James: 😂 James: seeing you every day would be fun but putting fun ahead of all things academic gets you where I currently am in life James: I can't do that to you, even hypothetically Ava: You can hypothetically follow me for your next course Ava: I'm a great study buddy James: unless you're going abroad somewhere to study Ava: Unless you count SE as abroad Ava: lord knows many of our peers do 🙄 James: in that case, following you sounds close to a good idea Ava: 🤏 Ava: I'll find a way to hypothetically swing it Ava: the world needs your writing, II James: I've never been more devastated to have a job waiting for me that isn't strictly hypothetical Ava: I's doing, I suppose Ava: What are you going do instead of write your great novel about me? James: you'll have to look out for my self published works written by night under an obvious pseudonym Ava: I will Ava: Will you sign my copy? James: of course James: under your printed dedication Ava: I'll have to think of an excellent pseudonym myself James: can you do 1 other, simpler thing for me before then? Ava: I'm sure I can? James: order for me something you like James: I don't know what I want Ava: I like a challenge Ava: Okay James: do you want me to tell you if I don't share the liking of it or not? Ava: 'Course Ava: 'cos I need to find you something you do like James: if time doesn't run out Ava: We can have more lunches too Ava: as well as evenings James: that'd be good James: I'd hate to only see you in the dark Ava: That's mutual James: if I wrote us meeting exclusively at night everyone would assume I'd decided on a vampire novel James: so I'm happy to hear it Ava: I think its making a comeback Ava: and I'd definitely buy you as an Edward Cullen type James: I have no clue if I should be flattered or offended Ava: A potentially complex issue, a complex character beyond the sparkles Ava: I just meant you'd be eligible for dreamboat status James: you're saying I should make a detour to buy the book or download the film to my phone right now or I shouldn't? Ava: Will we have time to watch it together is the real question Ava: Because I have to pop your 🍒 James: is it a 90 minutes is all you need kind of film or 3 hours of lingering close ups? Ava: 126 James: I can do that Ava: Yeah? James: skipping a lecture I have no desire to be in to further my hypothetical masterpiece of a novel in the early stages of its development, that's a fantastic idea Ava: 💡 Ava: Was bound to have one eventually Ava: Let's do it then James: you're claiming not to have had any before now? Ava: In my life, obviously Ava: but with you? 'close to a good idea' is as close as I've got so far James: I won't deny you the opportunity to get closer then Ava: Thank you Ava: You can find out if it's only hypothetical that I'm unable to disappoint James: I feel like I already know that Ava: You've had a taste Ava: but you can have more Ava: if you want it James: I do Ava: Okay Ava: Good James: but it's never going to be as simple as words like okay or good Ava: It could be Ava: I'm not saying all the time Ava: or even that we can always give 126 minutes to it Ava: but whatever we can James: you can't say all the time because I can't ever give you all the time James: I can't give you any more gifts or regular dates or even selfies Ava: I know that Ava: I'm not asking for any of that James: but you should James: because you're free to do whatever you want with whoever you want Ava: Exactly James: why this? Ava: because you need somebody Ava: and I like you James: oh Ava Ava: It is as simple as that James: I'll try that out, see if I can believe it Ava: I know nothing else is but Ava: why not Ava: I want to and you don't need to buy that or promise time you haven't got James: for as long as you want to then Ava: for as long as you need me then James: no because James: my life isn't going to change Ava: James James: you don't know what she's like but I know everything she's ever done or is likely to do Ava: People like that don't stop, I know that Ava: they have to be stopped James: there's no stopping her Ava: Well there's no stopping me either and I'm on your side James: you don't need this Ava: I told you, I like you Ava: I won't just turn my back on you James: I can have this car turned around, you don't have to do anything Ava: Of course I don't have to Ava: and neither do you, not with me Ava: you don't owe me anything, I'm just telling you how it is for me Ava: and I want to see you James: I want to see you too, more than when I originally said it Ava: Good Ava: Then don't turn around, yeah? James: I always do the wrong thing, I don't want to, to you James: so if you don't want me to turn around, I won't Ava: I want you to do what you want, that's all Ava: even if that was turning around, which, undeniably, would be shit but I'd survive Ava: but you wanna come, I'm almost 100% James: understood Ava: Okay Ava: I've got a great urge to tell you I'm not insane but that makes me sound more so so I'll just Ava: 😶 James: you haven't once struck me as being & I have some experience, as it were Ava: That's alright then Ava: It's a comparison I don't need, you either, I'm sure James: just don't insist I marry you & it won't ever need to be made Ava: Easy Ava: Got my word James: if only I had your skill at losing jewellery Ava: It is a talent, definitely; but unteachable? Nah James: now you've got a great urge to teach me something James: okay Ava: So many whims, only so much time Ava: Lucky I'm an excellent teacher James: very novel protagonist-esque, honestly James: you're earning your page space Ava: If fictional me gets slated as dull I'll have to change my pseudonym and run away James: you couldn't be hypothetically dull if you actually tried James: never mind close to anything else Ava: You always know just what to say yet I still believe it sincere James: it is sincere James: from the kings head shaving horror stories until now Ava: I'm confident believing it, and you Ava: because boys who always know what to say always say the wrong things James: maybe 126 minutes later I will have Ava: That's okay Ava: a mix of right and wrong Ava: that's real Ava: anything other and you're definitely up to something Ava: 😇 or 😈 either way James: I gave you a real tour the moment you asked for it, that's 😇 Ava: It felt it James: I'm not going to leave in the middle this time James: strictly end credits Ava: Don't promise Ava: that's practically begging fate James: well that's the last thing I want, my lips are sealed Ava: Your lips are Ava: 😈 James: if that means yours have to be described as 😇 I'm fine with it Ava: See? Ava: You're too good with words James: they're a very prominent feature, I couldn't help but notice Ava: I like that you notice Ava: Do it some more James: because I'm not sure I could stop if you didn't like it, it's a relief that you do Ava: Don't stop Ava: then I don't have to either James: very fair Ava: 😇 James: how far can we push that angelic streak to one side because I'm here early James: can you leave? Ava: Lessons are barely real at this point in the summer term and it isn't as if I've been paying any attention all day so Ava: Give me 10 to 'fake' needing to go lie down James: I'm not having any PTSD symptoms from being here quite yet James: take as long as you require Ava: Honestly Ava: Least it is undeniably too hot for the blazer so I won't trigger you into leaving without me James: I'm undeniably sure the way you wear it wouldn't make me wanna leave Ava: God, you are so distracting and fully aware what you're doing to me right now James: in 10 minutes, or preferably less, you'll have a car to lie down in should you suddenly really need to James: meaning I regret nothing Ava: Bad man Ava: The blush is admittedly helping my case here James: I'm not gonna lie & say if you aren't still wearing that I'll go without you but James: I do want to see it Ava: I'd say there's 0% chance of you not seeing it and a full 100% of me being unable to hide it James: 🍅 right, of course Ava: The dangers of being pale Ava: why I need this tan Ava: obviously James: how far does it go? is 😳 going to colour in your tan lines like a modern art piece James: if so that's a must for my book cover Ava: Well now we have to see how inspiring you find it Ava: even if you can't take any 📸 James: physically no, but mentally I'll take so many Ava: You're too pretty for photographs anyway Ava: you don't even look real in person James: how can you say that about another person when you look like you belong on a chapel ceiling or somewhere equally beautifully crafted? Ava: I Ava: I'm just Ava: on my way James: you can't miss me, the engine's on & the song choices are questionable James: it's very low profile Ava: Got to get the driver onboard, for future 126s James: I'll ask him if he has any knowledge of the Twilight soundtrack Ava: 😂 Ava: It goes hard, FYI James: he looked at me like he's a believer about that James: absolute Ava: Then we won't have to invite him to our viewing party Ava: Thank God James: it'd be taking politeness to new heights James: he is going to play it for us though Ava: I'm gonna tip him so hard James: It's taken care of by me James: you've agreed to hypothetically buy out everything in this coffee place in search of something I'll enjoy so Ava: Okay Ava: so if you're being polite then can I be slightly 😒 at his presence 'cos I really need to be alone with you right now? James: it's a reasonable request James: more so than the one I'd like to ask of you Ava: Go on Ava: There's clearly room and time for the unreasonable James: Ava, I hear how much you don't want to waste any of the borrowed time we're basically forced to be on, but can you please walk slowly for my mental picture gallery Ava: [Does, obviously] James: [😍 clearly as the twilight soundtrack begins to blast from this vehicle so casually] Ava: [and what a mental image that is, doing a mini run at the end 'cos excitement and nerves] James: [it's fine cos we all know he'd have to resist the urge to lowkey drag her into the car despite what he said, looking like you're getting snatched from the school gates lol] Ava: [thank God your teachers are useless and we can but hope there's no window some kid is staring that hard out] James: [just staring at her taking all those mental 📷s again though as soon as she's in] Ava: [the blush is so real and she knows it] James: [if she's blushing already wait until the kiss he initiates because obvs it'd be as hardcore as their first one but like it'd be so much more intense not only cos he wants her more but also because he wants more time to do this now. Everything would be so slow and deliberate like he's gotta savour every possible way he can kiss her and every possible tiny reaction each thing he does has] Ava: [well enjoy boy because she will be dying in all the ways like there's no hiding from the casual anticipation that has built up here] James: [they both just die there and then #plot twist] Ava: [or this driver reports you 'cos you've just picked up someone from school and started getting it on lmao, luckily you not being paid to think so shh] James: [oh my god imagine, please just drive and groove to the epic bops thank you sir] Ava: [she's 17 now we're so fine lollol] James: [he does not know that but I hope James does] Ava: [he's done a stalk, her bday wasn't that long ago in the feed] James: [true, I hope you had an epic bday babe] Ava: [no doubt baby, so we've got a pretty good plan of their afternoon plans, is there anything else we wanna say went down?] James: [good question, realistically they'd probably run out of time but also I am highkey so I'm like give them forever lol] Ava: [I assume he usually picks Jay up from School 'cos unless Chloe wanna turnt up at the gates why would she, so that'd be 3.30 say so they've got from 1ish, Chloe would still have the baby and thinks he's in class so we do have a fair whack of time] James: [not gonna let you waste all of that trying everything on a coffee shop menu, don't worry guys] Ava: [although a moment you need all the moments] James: [gotta find him something he genuinely likes cos his missus be ordering for him everywhere they go] Ava: [oat milk flat white] James: [chin chin gals] Ava: [But yeah I don't think we need a Chloe interruption this time 'cos he'll have a time he has to go anyway so suck it bitch] James: [there will be plenty of opportunities to do more of them anyway] Ava: [when your wife is controlling and crazy] Ava: [I was thinking for when we get the whole 'I don't think Jay is his' moment rolling, maybe if she finds out he's cheating again or whatever she does the typical 'she ain't even yours!' and maybe she's done it before so James just thinks she's bullshitting 'cos she's crazy but Ava is like hmm shall we like explore that though 'cos it's not 'neither of them are yours' it's always just Jay] James: [that is actually perfect though] Ava: ['cos it can escalate when she inevitably finds out it's Ava 'cos sleuthing or maybe at some point they wanna be out 'cos fuck it and she's taking it way more personal than any other girl and it's like why though so then the Buster link can come out even if she accidentally drops it 'cos so mad] James: [we all know Chloe is that bitch 100%] Ava: [🙌] James: [do we wanna do any more convo like once he had to leave or shall we post it and move on] Ava: [I'll do a lil bit 'cos straightforward, highkey and cute tbh] James: [allowing it] Ava: I hope I didn't make you late at all Ava: and that your girls like the Twilight soundtrack James: if they don't they've inherited their mother's bad taste & they've got bigger problems ahead than me being a few minutes late Ava: Obviously Ava: but I'm just saying, don't be too disappointed, no one can like it as much as you 😏 James: I don't believe that you don't like it as much as me Ava: It is more than just a hypothetical that I enjoyed myself Ava: soundtrack included but not my favourite part James: I couldn't possibly be disappointed by anything else knowing that Ava: Disappointment is not in my vocabulary right now James: you won't need to add it back in on my behalf Ava: I believe that James: when can I see you again? Ava: You tell me Ava: There are four more films James: 4? Ava: They split the last book into two, such a gimmick but you know James: I promise not to do that when I write yours Ava: Well, if I get to play myself maybe I won't mind the exposure 🤔 James: I'm not sure that I want to play myself James: in which case I would mind the increased screentime you'd then have with whoever does Ava: There's no finding anyone else with eyes as blue as yours Ava: Gonna blow the special effects budget James: 😂 Ava: I'm so serious Ava: and jealous James: I'll describe your eyes as bluer & your skin as more tan, if you like Ava: I like your candor, remember Ava: More than I'd like to be remembered as tanned and having the bluest eyes James: I'd like to remember you exactly as you are Ava: Don't say we have to leave it that long to see each other again James: not quite Ava: My parents have a 4-day business trip Fri-Mon, you could come over at some point then? James: the weekend is not going to happen but I can make Monday work James: Friday possibly Ava: Okay Ava: Not quite coffee shop level but we've got all sorts for you to try out James: you sounded like your brother then, almost James: not that he's ever propositioned me in exactly the same way Ava: Awkward Ava: I'll try and avoid that then😬😂 James: awkward will be if your parents haven't decorated since I was last there Ava: Thankfully they have Ava: and I haven't insisted on taking his room James: or your sister's? Ava: Spent loads of time in there too? Ava: no, I've got my own room James: not with her, obviously James: but you know how parties tend to overspill into every room Ava: 'Course James: are you going to have one? Ava: Undecided Ava: I'll have some people over at the weekend but it might be pretty chill James: is Teddy included in the some people? Ava: I don't know Ava: Would you like him not to be or? James: I don't know Ava: I get that it could be weird Ava: It's strange thinking how close you used to be with Buster James: but that was basically another life James: for me & for him Ava: Yeah Ava: well, I don't have to invite him, like I said, I don't even know what I fancy doing yet James: it's up to you Ava: I know Ava: It's James: it's not my business, Ava James: I shouldn't have asked Ava: No Ava: It's not not Ava: I know things are complex but I don't feel bad for her, you know Ava: I don't feel bad for doing it James: me either but not only because of the no regrets thing Ava: So it just feels weird to feel like guilty or something around your brother when I'm not Ava: He doesn't need to know and won't but it doesn't need to be any weirder than it would be if I dated any of my friend's siblings under more 'normal' circumstances James: understood Ava: Yeah? Ava: It's hard to explain James: I'm following it Ava: Not saying we are dating or Ava: you know James: I can't have a girlfriend, but if I could Ava: Really James: you'd be a good choice Ava: but I ain't James: why not? Ava: I don't know Ava: never mind James: Ava Ava: Ignore me, I don't know what I mean Ava: It's not important James: I don't want to ignore you Ava: Okay Ava: but we can talk about other things James: any topic you want Ava: Hmm Ava: Tempting but vague James: I assumed you'd prefer it over boring & specific Ava: A fair assumption Ava: What are you doing tonight though, ell me about your boring and specific James: I can't pinpoint specific dad duties as such, not with these two James: I could be gluing a doll house back together or walking an imaginary dog Ava: A handyman and a dogwalker Ava: either way, never a dull moment James: & that's without factoring in the possibility I could be dragged to a dinner party or subjected to guests arriving expecting champagne & nibbles with no prior knowledge or warning James: on any night James: how are you spending yours? Ava: Of course Ava: Expect no less from this town's leading socialite Ava: I've been summoned to a catch-up and 'homework' sesh as I didn't get back for last period Ava: the amount of messages, assumedly missed the second coming 🤷 James: I'm surprised you're not assumed to be too 'sick' to go James: maybe you shouldn't play yourself in my film either Ava: 😧 Ava: Um rude Ava: Maybe you need to try harder to make me 🍅 James: starting Friday or starting now? James: because how I would in person is not what I'm going to be able to do here Ava: Admittedly both sound intriguing James: so let's do both James: [sends her some kind of 💣🔥 sext because words are all they have as we all know what'll happen if you start sending pics, then she will and it's a whole dangerous thing] Ava: Oh Ava: and I was trying to avoid the cliche of telling you I missed you already James: there's no need to dismiss every cliche off hand James: some of them are good Ava: Some of them are very good Ava: remember when you write your book James: you'll remind me, right? James: I think we can assume too that writer's block isn't one of the enjoyable cliches Ava: I'll do my best Ava: Some protagonist I'd be otherwise James: very fair James: I'll do mine, in turn Ava: I have every faith in your way with words Ava: You've not gone wrong there yet James: [sends her another text because why not obvs, not like you're a busy man with a fam having an affair or anything] Ava: [God bless the multitask] Ava: James James: yes? Ava: It's going to be a really hard wait 'til Monday James: I'll fit you in Friday James: even if it's only an hour Ava: If you're gonna make it sound like a dentist appointment 😏 James: not the most original excuse but it'd still get you out of school Ava: Cheek 😂 Ava: My excuses are A* James: I don't doubt it James: but I don't want to find out by having you use any on me Ava: Just for you James: okay James: there's no excuses needed to keep posting selfies, is there? so I'll see you every day until Friday actually Ava: Of course Ava: Be dead suspect if I didn't tbh Ava: Can you post one? Ava: Even if you're in the background fulfilling whatever role is required at that precise moment James: for you, I will Ava: 😊 James: look out for it Ava: No.1 fan right here James: you're joking but you're not wrong Ava: Am I? 👀🤔 James: aren't you? Ava: I'll never tell Ava: Got to keep some mystery or who's gonna want to turn the page James: oh you want a mystery at the heart of this James: I see Ava: Does that not gel with your plan for the plot? James: I'll incorporate it after a quick brainstorm Ava: Hot James: 😈 Ava: Mhmm James: you're hot, I'm just lucky Ava: How so? James: to get to spend any time with you Ava: Oh please Ava: You're very good company James: most people are capable of being for a few hours Ava: Who do you know? Ava: Have to introduce me 😏 James: 😂 do you mind if I don't? Ava: I think I'll manage James: I'm happy to hear it Ava: For now, I need to be filled in on the gossip Ava: tell you if any of it is story-worthy James: do your work too please James: I'd like to follow you to a good uni Ava: Are you telling me what to do now? Ava: Don't hate that James: it's a nicely worded suggestion for now Ava: Noted 😇 James: you're going to be good then? Ava: I promised I'd be no trouble James: I know you did Ava: And I'll try really, really hard to keep that promise Ava: even if you make that difficult James: I'm trying really hard not to get in the car & come find you James: I don't think I have to tell you how difficult that is Ava: Damn responsibilities Ava: We can have all Monday though Ava: think about that when it gets tough Ava: I will James: I am Ava: 💙