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fific7 · 3 years

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Ticket to Ride - Part 6

Billy Russo x Reader

A/N: Inspired by The Beatles song of the same name. This takes place in my S1 Punisher AU with Arrogant!Billy in attendance, in which he gets a taste of his own medicine. Here we are at the final part!

Warnings: 18+ NSFW due to sexual content, including oral and unprotected, between consenting adults* in some chapters. Drinking and swearing.

*Irl, please don’t go wild in the country without protection.

(My photo edit and my photos of Murano & Burano)

𝕄𝕪 𝕓𝕒𝕓𝕪 𝕕𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕖

{…𝕠𝕣 𝕕𝕠𝕖𝕤 𝕤𝕙𝕖?}

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy awoke early the next morning, reaching over to his phone on the bedside table and tapping the screen to see what time it was. Seven. Plenty of time to have a shower and make his way down to the breakfast room.

Standing under the stream of hot water, he couldn’t help feeling apprehensive. What if she had done another runner? He wouldn’t be able to cope with that. He didn’t think she would have, but…. he just wasn’t 100% sure what she was thinking or feeling right now.

After his full disclosure of what he’d got up to with Madani followed swiftly by his confession of love last night, he felt more optimistic but he could tell she was still conflicted.

He’d just have to do whatever he could today to persuade her to give him another chance.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Making your way into the light and airy breakfast room at just after eight, you couldn’t deny you were pleased to see Billy, sitting up super straight like a well-behaved schoolboy, already at a table.

His face broke into a huge smile when he spotted you, and you could see a large measure of relief wrapped up in it. You knew he would’ve been wondering if you had run out on him again. But no, you’d decided overnight to at least see how things went today on your trip to the Lagoon Islands.

He’d thrown you a curveball by telling you he loved you last night, and while you were relieved to hear that he hadn’t slept with that woman (his anger when you’d pushed him on it had finally convinced you that he hadn’t), you still weren’t exactly happy with what he had admitted to doing. It was still cheating in your book.

Could you ever really trust him again?

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy fussed over her like a mother hen when she sat down across from him at the table, jumping up and rushing over to the buffet table, picking out a selection of toast, focaccia, butter, jams and Nutella for her along with a couple of mini pain au chocolat croissants. They were her favourites so he felt quite proud of himself as he laid the plate before her like the spoils of war, before making his way to the coffee machine and creating a cappuccino for her.

“Thank you, Billy - you’re spoiling me,” she said with a small grin. “Your every wish is my command, Princess,” he smiled back, hand covering hers and stroking gently. Now she started properly laughing at him, and he huffed, slightly offended. Once she’d calmed down a bit she said, “Honestly Billy, you don’t have to wait on me hand and foot. All I need from you is complete honesty.” Billy tried to look as convincing as he possibly could, “I will be, sweetheart, I promise.”

She took a sip of her cappuccino, and fixed him with an intense stare. “Bearing that in mind, Billy, just what exactly was going through your mind when you were making out with Madani?”

Billy blew out a big breath; he hadn’t seen that coming. “Well… uhh… nothin’ really. I was just doing somethin’ I had to do, and needed to get it over with as quick as possible.” Another sip of coffee, another intense look from her. “Uh-huh. So you didn’t enjoy it then? Is that what you’re saying?”

Billy suddenly felt like he was back on very thin ice. He could feel himself squirming in his seat, and fought to keep still. Madani was, in all truth, a pretty woman.

Fuck.

What should he say in reply to that?

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Your eyes were drilling into Billy’s, and he looked about as comfortable as someone who’d just found out he’d got a scorpion down his trousers.

His face flushed pink, so you could guess what that meant. He cleared his throat, and then said in a low voice, “Look, she’s not bad lookin’ so it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it could’ve been.”

You smirked, not ready to let him off the hook yet, “So you were attracted to her, then. Not sure I’m happy to hear that, Billy.”

“NO! No, I wasn’t. Well.. like I said, she’s not unattractive but I’m not interested in her.”

You picked up your knife and aggressively sliced right through one of croissants. The look on Billy’s face was priceless. No doubt he’d guessed that the croissant was a surrogate for a certain part of his anatomy.

“Sweetheart, they weren’t long or involved kisses… not real ones, not like between you an’ me,” he said in a worried tone, very unlike his usual assertive manner. “Sweetheart, you’re the one I’m in love with. The only one I want to be with.” He was gazing earnestly at you, hand covering yours.

You cut off another piece of croissant and popped it into your mouth.

Billy would have to work a hell of a lot harder than that today if he was going to get you back, you thought.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Once the vaporetto had moored alongside the jetty you walked on board the boat up the ramp in front of Billy, while the disembarking passengers walked down the other side of it as it swayed from side to side, the boat moving in its own wake. The crew member who’d expertly tied up the boat a few moments ago was still calling out “Palanca, Palanca” as you headed through the covered section to the open area right at the back, sitting down on the bench seat in the stern and turning your face up to the sun.

Billy sat next to you, scooting as close to you as he could, suddenly lunging in for a hungry kiss. Two mothers with children in tow emerged through the doors leading from the salon, and you pushed him away while hastily smiling at the newcomers, saying, “Giorno” to them. Both of them smiled at you, returning your greeting, but then their eyes slid over to Billy and you saw both sets widening as they looked him over. You sighed. Having a hot boyfriend sucked sometimes. And Billy was looking particularly hot today in leather jacket, white t-shirt, black jeans and combat boots.

However, you noticed that Billy’s eyes were glued to you, still gazing at you ever since you’d fended him off. You didn’t think he’d even glanced at the other two women.

OK, Russo - one point on the plus side to you, you conceded.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy was paying full attention to his girl. He felt slightly triumphant that he’d managed to steal a kiss, and she’d only shoved him away when he’d vaguely heard the salon doors opening behind him.

He was so worried that she still hadn’t made her mind up whether to take him back or not, and he knew that today was his final chance to convince her to do so. Whatever was in his power to do, he’d do, to make that happen. And he wasn’t dumb, that meant not paying any attention whatsoever to any other females in the vicinity. He’d guessed that a couple of women had arrived along with the kids he could hear squealing and laughing just out of his sight line, so he made sure he kept his eyes trained solely on her.

Her lips curved upwards in a small smile as she looked back at him.

Pleased, he thought - ha, think I just scored a point there.

He wondered how many more of those he needed to rack up to finally win his woman back.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

There were no direct vaporetti lines to the Lagoon Islands so you had to firstly go to Fondamente Nove, which was a busy hub for several of the numerous lines. You wanted to visit two of the main islands; Murano - where Venetians had made their famed glass items for centuries - and Burano, an island of fishermen and lacemakers. You were really excited to go there, as the houses were painted in a rainbow of colours. Legend had it that this was so the returning fishermen could spot their own individual houses as they returned home across the lagoon.

You needed to find the ferry stop for Line 12, which luckily Billy spotted just as the two of you were about to walk right past it. There was a vaporetto arriving just as you did and swiping your travel passes, you went aboard and took seats in the salon. This ferry was a slightly different type to the others you’d been on, longer and lower and was soon packed with locals and tourists alike.

It took a little while to arrive at Murano, alighting at the Faro stop. They still produced glassware on Murano but nothing like as much as they had in the past. You and Billy wandered alongside one of the main canals, looking into the windows of all the little glass shops until you came to the entrance of one of the big glass foundries.

They offered tours of the workshop and of course also had a shop, so the two of you paid for the tour and watched in amazement as an old man took a fiery red and yellow blob onto the end of a pole, and blew and turned it until it started to take on the shape of a little vase.

In the store, you browsed along the shelves looking at all the glassware on display, until you suddenly noticed you were alone. Glancing around, you spotted a dark head over in the corner at the cash desk and were heading over there when Billy turned round. His trademark smirk appeared and he hurriedly picked up the little paper carrier bag which was on the counter by its handles and strode towards you.

“See anything you like, sweetheart?”

Smirk getting wider. You eye-rolled and grabbed his arm, noting at the same time that the female sales assistant was still gawping at Billy, even though he now had his back to her. You tugged him towards the door, asking, “What’ve you just bought?” as you went. He shook his head, “Can’t say. It’s a surprise.” You glared at him, “Billy….” but he just kept grinning as you left the store and wouldn’t say anything, even though you nipped at his wrist just below his leather jacket sleeve with your nails.

“Wanna get a coffee?” he suggested, as you resumed your canalside stroll. “Yeah, okay,” you replied, stopping next to the outdoor tables of a small caffé and sitting down, Billy joining you. He slid his hand over yours, “M’glad we’ve got this time together today, sweetheart. Wanna make you understand just how much you mean to me.”

You nodded in acknowledgment before waving at the waiter and ordering two double macchiatos. You carried on, “The main problem I have, Billy, is how I’m ever going to trust you again? You might not think you cheated, but that’s what it is in my book.”

Billy looked over at you, eyes wide, sad …and scared.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy had then looked up and thanked the waiter as the coffees were placed in front of you both. He really didn’t know what to say, to be honest. He knew Frank - and no doubt Karen - also thought that it had counted as cheating. But he truly hadn’t. Well…. Cheating Lite, as he’d already designated it in his head. But not proper, down-and-dirty, long-term cheating. It had been a means to an end. Nothing more, nothing less. He just hadn’t considered the bigger picture. At all. And that had been a big mistake.

He took a sip of his coffee, and cleared his throat before spilling out what had just gone through his head. “Y’know I’m not exactly an expert at relationships, angel. In fact, I’m sure you’ll agree I’m totally shit at them. I need you to keep me on the straight and narrow. Tell me how things need to be. Please don’t give up on us, don’t leave me… please.” Billy was completely and utterly pouring out his heart to her, and he prayed she could see that.

His girl looked at him, some anger and hurt still in her eyes but she managed a shaky breath and looked down into the depths of her coffee cup for a few moments.

Billy held his breath.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Your eyes met his again, “But how am I going to trust you again, Billy, tell me that? Every time you say you’re working late, how d’you expect me not to think you’re meeting up with her or someone else?”

Now it was Billy’s turn to look down. The silence stretched out to a few minutes, and you did nothing to break it. Eventually he looked up at you again, “M’tryin’ to think of how I can prove to you that I’ll never, ever, do something like that again - whether it’s work-related or not.”

He reached across and slid his long fingers between yours, holding onto your hand so tightly it felt like he’d never let go.

“Firstly, I give you my word as an ex-Marine that I won’t ever pull a stunt like this again. Secondly, I’ll be the most attentive boyfriend you’ve ever had. In and out of the sack.” You tried to hide a smile, but you knew he’d seen it. “Thirdly, I’ll put a tracker on my phone, and I’ll hack you into my messagin’ and email apps so you’ll have absolute access to my location and comms.” He was smirking back at you by now, he felt this was going pretty well.

“But you’ve got access to burner phones, Billy.”

His smile dimmed, while his brain scrambled to come up with a solution to this inconvenient fact. You saw his eyes light up and the smirk returned, “Easy. I’ll put Frank in sole charge of issuing them and I’ll tell him not to give me any unless it’s absolutely necessary for an op.”

“Could just buy them in Walmart’s,” you dropped into the slight pause after he’d finished speaking. His face fell again, and now you burst out laughing. “Okay, okay, Billy - I get the message. I see that you’re doing your best to be honest and transparent. There’s no need for you to put all that tracking and hacking in place.”

Billy beamed at you.

“I’ll just get Micro to track your ass.”

His mouth dropped open as you spoke.

“And monitor all your calls and texts.”

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Woah! thought Billy, didn’t think she’d be getting King Nerd involved. That was probably Karen’s idea. Gee, thanks Karen. But he would agree, what else could he do? And he’d offered to track himself, so it didn’t really matter in any case, did it?

“Uhhh…” he stuttered, “….uhh yeah, whatever you like, sweetheart.”

She smiled over at him, a genuine smile. “It’s OK, Billy. I wouldn’t do that to you.” She side-eyed him, “Unless you give me good cause. Like… coming home stinking of another woman’s perfume ever again.”

His hand went over his heart, and he put on his best puppydog eyes. “Angel, I swear on my life - never. Never. Ever. Again.”

She nodded. “Okay, Billy, I’ll take that as you being on oath now, just like when you joined the Marines.” His eyes widened and he nodded fast. “Yeah. I am. I’m on oath.”

He watched as she drained the very last few drops of her coffee. “Okay, Russo! Let’s go,” she said standing up and picking up her bag.

“Yes, ma’am!” He jumped up and saluted, taking his place at her side as they retraced their steps to the Faro stop and their next vaporetto.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

You’d hopped onto the next Line 12 ferry which arrived, and recommenced your onwards journey to Burano. Sitting inside the salon again, the loud chatter around you from the mostly local passengers almost drowned out any conversation you and Billy tried to have. He finally leaned right up against you, snaking his arm round your waist, his lips against your ear.

“Got you a little somethin’, sweetheart.” He handed you the gift bag.

Opening it, you saw a mass of tissue paper inside the bag and took it out. “Careful!” he warned, so you slowly opened up the paper and saw a delicate rose pink heart trinket box sitting at its centre. You lifted its little lid up and then replaced it, delighted with it. Smiling at Billy, you said, “I love it!” into his ear and kissed his cheek. His lips returned to your ear, “See? You have my heart.”

Now you rolled your eyes heavenwards, “I’d stop there if I were you, Russo. Cheesy really doesn’t suit you!” He burst out laughing. “Hey! Give a guy a break. He’s over here layin’ his heart and soul right out in front of you.”

You leant in and kissed him on the lips, before pulling back and saying, “And don’t read too much into that!” But Billy was already grinning happily back at you.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy was happy. His steps were light as he walked beside her from the vaporetto stop along a small street, lined with stalls and shops selling souvenirs and lacework, which eventually led to a square.

She loved the trinket box! he thought, very pleased with himself. The minute he’d seen it he knew that she would, and had decided to buy it on the spot. While he didn’t want her to think he was trying to buy her back, he’d just wanted to make some gesture to show her that he treasured her, the same way she’d treasure the little things she put in it.

He blurted all of this out to her as they strolled along. She stopped walking and looked at him, amazed, “Billy Russo! I think that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.” He felt shy suddenly, and he could feel his face heating up. What was happening to him? Is this what love did to you? He didn’t hate it. “It’s how I feel,” he mumbled, looking away from her. He felt her hand on his cheek, “Well, keep that up and maybe, just maybe…”

She turned and started walking again, and Billy hurried to catch up with her. I won’t push it, he thought, I’ll just leave it be while I’m on a winning streak.

There was another street leading off the square which was full of trattorias and caffés, and they chose one of the restaurants to sit outside, the tables rapidly filling as more people from the vaporetto stop arrived.

She’s definitely looking at me more kindly, he thought. Things might just be okay after all.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

After a delicious lunch of pasta and several glasses of wine, you and Billy started exploring the little canals and streets with their cute colourful houses. They looked so bright and beautiful in the sunlight, and you imagined the fishermen back in the day sailing home and being able to see their own little house from afar.

You reached the waterside, beside a quiet little square with houses all around it and some grass in the middle, clothes on washing lines strung across it, blowing in the breeze. There was no-one else around and suddenly you found yourself pressed up against the wall of one of the houses, Billy’s long fingers on the nape of your neck, his hand on your waist. His dark chocolate eyes were gazing into yours, a soft look in them. But you could also feel something a lot harder pressing into your hip, and you saw desire spark in his eyes.

His mouth was on yours and he kissed you, the sudden passion of which took you by surprise. He pulled back, his forehead touching yours. “I’ve missed your touch so much,” he whispered, “…every minute of every day since you.. since you left me.” You laid your hand on his chest, “I missed you too, Billy - even if I did hate you at the time.” He chuckled, “Do you still hate me?” You looked into those beautiful eyes, “No, I guess I don’t. Although you’re still walking a line, Billy.”

He nodded, “I know. I do know. But promise me you’ll give me another chance?” You smiled at him, pushing yourself away from the wall and him, “Let’s see, shall we?”

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

Billy tapped on her hotel room door, and gave her a devilish grin as she opened it. He’d made sure to wear a white tank and a pair of grey tracksuit bottoms. He knew she liked him in those.

She was already in her sleepwear - an oversized Anvil T which she’d stolen from him ages ago - and leant against her door, looking back at him, amused. “Why Billy, whatever brings you here?”

He just kept grinning at her and also leant against her doorframe. As if she didn’t know, he thought. She’d had to spend the entire journey back from Burano fending off his hands and mouth.

“Just checkin’ you’re OK, sweetheart. See if there’s anything you need.”

She laughed. “And what could I possibly need, Billy?”

He angled his body so that she couldn’t fail to get a great view of his toned torso and more importantly, the very obvious outline of his erection showing in his joggers. If there was one thing Billy had complete confidence in, it was the effect his body had on women.

“I can think of one or two things, sweetheart.”

He was ecstatic when her hand reached out and grabbed him round the back of his neck, pulling him into her room. “Uhuh… maybe you should show me what those are.”

Billy’s grin got twice as wide.

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

You gave a huge sigh as Billy pushed inside you, hearing an answering one from him and you ran your hands up into his lush hair. You couldn’t deny it, you had missed him. And his enthusiastic lovemaking.

However you were a little taken aback when he began moving slowly and sensually on you, instead of his usual frenetic pace. He was stroking your hair, placing little kisses all over your face and neck, running his hands over your body, whispering “I love you, love you so much” between his languid thrusts. He slid a hand down and massaged your clit, so well that you climaxed within a few short moments. Not long afterwards, you heard him gasp and he released into you, with a long groan.

The two of you lay in silence, side by side but still entwined. Then Billy leant across and kissed you, softly, slowly, with passion. “I can’t be without you, angel.” The puppydog eyes were out in force again as he gazed at you, “Please. Gimme another chance. I’ll be a better boyfriend, a million times better.”

You continued to look back at him, then gave a quick nod, “Okay. Yes, okay Billy. But one… just one transgression…” His hands went up in supplication, “Understood! Not one transgression will be made.”

“And you make sure to tell that thirsty bitch back in New York that her little dates with you won’t be happening anymore.”

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

“Already done.”

He saw her eyebrows rise.

Oh. Oh, she thinks that means I’ve been in touch with her.

“No, sweetheart…. Frankie took care of that for me while I’ve been away.”

She smirked, “Pleased to hear it.”

Billy let out a sigh of relief, he was going to have to be so careful over the next few months. He’d only just got her back! He couldn’t let a stupid, chance remark or two ruin it. He ran his hand over her hair again. “I’m so happy, y’know? M’never going to take you for granted again.” He saw her smile widen in the darkness of the room.

“But, sweetheart, you gotta promise me something too.” She looked at him, puzzled, amused, “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. No more runnin’ out on me and flyin’ halfway round the world.”

»»————————————-———-　⚜　———————————-————-««

@blackbirddaredevil23 @omgrachwrites @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead @ourloveisforthelovely @swthxrry @odetostep @supernaturalcat7 @obscurilicious @strawb3rrydr3ss @bruxa0007 @aleksanderwh0r3 @theshadowkingsqueen @bat-luna-cat @carlywhomever

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#ben barnes #billy russo #billy russo x reader #billy russo fanfiction #billy russo imagine #billy russo fanfic

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seiin-translations · 3 years

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2.43 S1 Chapter 4.5 - Drifting Yunichika

5. HIGH, FAST, STRONG

Sorry it took so long, there was a lot going on in this chapter

Translation Notes

1. I don’t think I word it very well here but Haijima literally says “obsessing over the face for their school grade” which I think basically means worrying over acting their age or something like that

2. I don’t know if there even is a term in English for this but a high set (二段トス) is where another player sets the ball instead of the setter because the received ball is off

3. The Sanzu River is the Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx

Previous || Index || Next

The Prefectural High School Fall Tournament was held for three days on August 1st, August 2nd, and August 3rd. For the past several years, the number of schools participating in boys’ volleyball official tournaments was fixed at twenty-two. The tournament consisted of the first round on the first day, the second round on the second day, and the semifinals and finals on the third day.

You had to win five matches to win the championship. However, Seiin High School was lucky enough to get a seeded spot in the first round of the tournament, so they would participate in the second round. In other words, they had to win four matches.

Just four matches. Those were the same conditions as the prefecturals a year ago.

As Haijima had said, the fact that there were no sub-prefectural block qualifiers and only twenty participating schools in the whole prefecture would be an unthinkable scope in a large city. That was how close it was to Nationals, but it was also undeniable that it was difficult to maintain the level of competition because there were few competitors.

Seiin High School’s first game was on August 2nd, the second day of the tournament. Before the start of the first game of the day and the second round of the tournament, the banner that read “Nanafu Seiin High School Boys’ Volleyball Team” written boldly and masculinely in black ink on white cloth, hung from the second floor of the stands and released an overwhelming presence. Needless to say, it was in the hand of Kuroba’s grandfather, as it was in the case of Monshiro Middle School. He repeatedly instructed his mother to refrain from having a large cheering squad of all his relatives as she did in middle school, but she asked to at least hang a banner. He reluctantly discussed it with Oda, and the moment he saw the actual thing, he had taken to it completely. I’ve thought about this now and then, but Oda-senpai and Grandpa would definitely get along.

I’m not…nervous today…right…?

He carefully confirmed that with himself. His body was moving well. His heartbeat was normal. Unlike the school gym, the air conditioning was working in city-run gymnasium, so it was rather cool if anything, and right now he was sweating moderately after finishing his warmup. He didn’t feel uncomfortable. I feel like I can really do it today…then again, I always think that before a match.

“Yuniii! Yuuuni!”

He heard someone calling him through the buzz that enveloped the court right before the game. He turned his head to the second floor and spotted Itoko waving at him right above the “Nanafu Seiin High School Boys’ Volleyball Team” banner hanging from the front row.

With a face that said “You found me!”, Itoko stood and pointed to the seat next to her. “Look, look!”

“Ah… Yori-chan…”

Yorimichi, wearing a tight tank top and a Hawaiian shirt, was yawning as he plunked down on the plastic chair that looked cramped for someone of his size. This was the first time he saw him since he became a university student, but with his long hair tied all the way back into a bun, he looked even more like a punk. He was a bit impressed by how even though he was plenty vulgar in his third year of high school, he still had room to get worse.

Come to think of it, he should have returned yesterday. Itoko looked as though she was proud of the achievement of bringing her brother here. It had been about a year and a half since Kuroba started playing volleyball seriously, and this was the first time Yorimichi came to watch a match.

Why did he come? He wondered. Well, he was probably dragged here by Itoko because he happened to be back, but even so, he wouldn’t have gotten up even if Itoko invited him when he’s at home, so why did he decide to come today? I wonder what he’ll think when he watches my game. Would he make fun of me? Maybe he’d laugh and say, “Why are you being so serious about sports?”

He met eyes with Yorimichi. Kuroba thoughtlessly smiled in spite of himself, but Yorimichi didn’t smile. With a bored look on his face, he jerked his chin, as though to say, “Give me something to look at.”

What should I do… What should he show Yorimichi to satisfy him? Can he get him not to say things like “I shouldn’t have come to see this”, “This is a waste of time,” or “I got woken up early for this?”

His back was poked. He turned back with a start and saw Haijima putting his fist on the left side of Kuroba’s back, right behind his heart, and glaring at him with a stern look in his eyes. It was then that he became aware that his heart, which had been calm earlier, was now beating faster.

“Ugh…Sorry again, I…”

“I told you not to look around. Just look inside the court. Everyone’s there. Enemies…and friends too.”

As he felt Haijima’s fist pressing against his back through his uniform for a while, strangely enough, his heart which had been bouncing like a rubber ball gradually regained its normal weight.

“Don’t be in a hurry. Just wait.”

When Haijima said that and lowered his fist, his heart beating in its normal position. It was like he was preparing for battle, and the taping on Haijima’s fingers absorbed his nerves.

Haijima no longer paid Kuroba any attention and started talking to Oda and the others at the courtside. Kuroba hurriedly joined the circle of matching uniforms. Seiin’s uniform was black with blue lines. Only the libero had the reverse color scheme of black on blue. When Okuma was handed the uniform, he made an ominous prediction that the team would lose halfway because those weren’t the colors of a protagonist team, and Oda had gotten angry at him (According to Okuma, the protagonist team’s colors were a combination of “white and blue.” He thought he understood what he meant).

The starting members for Seiin High School were,

Number 1 Oda Shinichiro Third Year Left 163cm

Number 2 Aoki Misao Third Year Center 193cm

Number 4 Kanno Akito Second Year Right 181cm

Number 7 Kuroba Yuni First Year Left 184cm

Number 8 Haijima Kimichika First Year Setter 181cm

Number 10 Okuma Yusuke Second Year Center 187cm

Number 5 Hokao Kazuma Second Year Libero 170cm

Reserve Number 3 Uchimura Naoyasu Second Year 175cm

The above eight members were going into the match with all their strength.

For Haijima, this tournament would be his debut high school game, but as expected of someone with nerves as thick as sewer pipes, he didn’t seem nervous at all as he went over the formation with Oda and the others. They were the only school in the tournament that had a first-year as the setter, which was a position rare for even a second-year starting member to be in due to its importance as a so-called “playmaker” position. It was already attracting attention, but Haijima didn’t care about the gazes of others, or rather, he didn’t notice.

Both teams took the court, and the cheers of the waiting parents grew louder. I wonder if Yorimichi’s voice is mixed in with them…I doubt it, though…

Crap, my mind is on the outside of the court again. I have to focus on the inside of the court. He ruminated on Haijima’s words like they were a magic spell and let them soak into his body.

“Everything is inside the court. Enemies…and friends too.”

That guy said…friends. He felt like it was the first time he heard that word from Haijima’s mouth.

He subconsciously searched for him. Haijima still wasn’t on the court. He was standing on the sidelines and fiddling with the taping on his fingers in front of his stomach. Huh…? He’s doing that thing again…?

He shook his head lightly, put his hands down to his sides, and fixed his gaze on the court, his face as stiffly focused as ever. It was a face that said everything important in this world was on the nine-by eighteen-meter volleyball court.

From the beginning of the first set to the middle, Seiin used the newly incorporated center and right combination attacks from the training camp to get most of their points until the scores of both teams reached the ten point range. The dexterous duo of Aoki and Kanno toyed with the enemy’s blocks so easily that it was funny.

And after all was said and done, it was Haijima who was masterminding that. In addition to the transcendent accuracy of his overhand handling, he was able to set the ball to any place with one hand even when the receives to the front of the net were disordered. In addition, if there was even the slightest opening——.

Haijima’s left hand flashed over the net as he looked to make a jump set. In the next moment, a two-attack was made launched into the opponent’s territory with unbelievable speed.

The other team froze, and the gallery let out cries of surprise. It seemed to have become a rumor in the venue that Seiin, a team that was completely out of the limelight, was displaying an unusual strength from the first game with an incredible rookie in their ranks. There were even people who looked like they were from the high school sports association appearing here and there on the court.

——However. He had not set a single ball to Kuroba, who was in the ace position. He was beginning to feel like he wasn’t going to hit a single ball in this match. He was sure that Yorimichi was in the stands right now, being disgusted that he wasn’t being useful at all. Even the blocker of the opposing team who he was matched up with was starting to get a look on his face like, “Why is this guy on the court?” He was beginning to feel bad that they marked him.

Oda also made a high-speed back row attack. Through the training camp, he had come to be able to match Haijima’s sets, which literally meant “high and fast,” perfectly. Kuroba’s and Oda’s highest points were thirty centimeters apart, but they were able to do powerful back-row attacks as though they were hitting the ball at the same positions.

What the hell am I doing here? He couldn’t help but feel that way. If they wouldn’t let him hit, then the team would be much better off putting Uchimura in, who played better defense than Kuroba. During the training camp, Oda and the others were searching for a formation that prioritized receiving ability by swapping Kuroba and Uchimura.

If it was until yesterday, it might have gone bad. But… He recalled his conversation with Oda this morning.

“What do you think are the features of Haijima’s sets?”

It occurred when everyone was going to the competition venue. Oda had stopped Kuroba and asked him that.

“They’re high, fast, and straight. A B pass somehow becomes an A pass. He’s unpredictable when sending the ball to the front or back, so even his teammates don’t know where it’s going. But the worst is that he has no intention to match the attackers. He makes difficult sets with a face that says ‘It’s your fault if it doesn’t reach you.’”

He answered with complaints mixed in. Oda smiled, looking strangely happy.

“Yeah. The basic ability of a good setter is to make the attacker feel good about hitting the ball. On that point, Haijima’s sets has too much of his own tendencies and are difficult to hit. But why do you think they’re difficult?”

Kuroba was puzzled by the further questioning. Even if he was asked why, all he could say was that they reflected Haijima’s sadistic and inconsiderate personality.

“Haijima’s sets are probably customized to each attacker’s ability with precision. Everyone’s highest jumping points, takeoff, and swing speed is different. The set comes right in at the moment when each person is swinging at their highest points, within a few tenths of a second. However, he doesn’t set the ball to the place where it’s comfortable to hit it, he sets it to where it would be a little difficult. It’s not a place where you can’t reach at all, but a place where you will be able to reach if you really concentrate, stretch your nerves all over your body, and bring out your maximum power to hit. That’s why I’m practicing with Haijima…I’m getting better. I realized that for the first time in a match. I can see my surroundings better than in practice. I’m gaining the ability to hit at the highest point. As far as I know, there’s no setter as dedicated as that guy.”

The word “dedicated” was about as far from Haijima as the other side of the universe, and it somehow sent a shudder down Kuroba’s spine. Seeing his doubtful face, Oda laughed again.

“Kuroba, you don’t believe in Haijima?”

“It’s not that I don’t believe in him, but…”

“Actually, Haijima told me something. He told me that no matter what happened today, I shouldn’t bench you.”

“Huh…?”

“It’s not Haijima you don’t believe in, but just yourself. If you can’t believe in yourself, try believing in Haijima.”

Hokao made a beautiful A-pass to Haijima. Aoki and Kanno ran to intersect each other behind Haijima to divert the block targets. Oda also jumped out to do a back-row attack.

Haijima threw a glance at him for a moment under his hands, which were held in an overhand stance.

“Just wait.” ——Haijima’s words before the game echoed in his head.

Before he could think about it, his body was moving and he was doing an approach run. Two well-paced steps with his right foot and then left foot. On the third step, he stepped firmly on the floor with his two feet, right and left, and lowered his ankles, knees, hips deeply. He swung his arms from back to front deeply, releasing the power stored in his lower body to leap into the air. The entire floor threw his body up high due to his elasticity—the result when one could jump the highest.

There was nothing blocking the space above the net of two meters and forty centimeters. I’m completely unmarked! The opponent’s blocking was completely shaken off by Aoki’s and Kanno’s movements. For a sensible few seconds, he stood still in the air and had a clear view of the opponent’s entire court. The course that he was meant to pierce the ball down seemed to automatically emerge. It was a sport where you had to defend a nine-by-nine meter court with a reaction speed of a few tenths of a second. If you lagged for even a moment, there would be an opening there.

Even though today was the first time they played together, even though they hadn’t played together properly during the training camp, Haijima’s set flew “straight” towards Kuroba’s highest point, so precise and accurate that it was incredible. The timing was perfect. It fit right into his hand without a millimeter of deviation. All he had to do was to leave it to the rotation of his body and swing his arms.

The ball, driven in at an acute angle, bounced up in the opponent’s court with a bang. The highest, fastest, strongest——!

He was able to spike with all his power in an official game, something he kept failing at ever since the middle school prefecturals. He didn’t know what he was stumbling over, so he was at a complete loss for a whole year. Then that single set came to him like a sword of light cutting through the darkness, and he just hit it without thinking about anything, forgetting himself completely——. He still couldn’t believe he hit it. Why couldn’t he do it until now?

“If you can’t believe in yourself, try believing in Haijima.”

At that moment, they connected. Haijima’s—that guy’s—clumsy, easy to misunderstand, disconnected words became one thought. “I won’t let that happen again.” “I’ll prove it at the Fall Tournament.” “I’ll make every ball I set to you the best ones.” “Don’t be in a hurry. Just wait.”

“Kuroba!”

As though he was tired of waiting for the long flight time to end, Oda jumped at him and put him in a headlock.

“Okay, that’s enough!”

With his hair mussed up, Kuroba absentmindedly answered, “Ah…okay.” Hokao poked his shoulder, and Aoki slapped his butt. Kanno, who was moving back to serve, gave him a small peace sign. Okuma and Uchimura were loudly cheering something from the warm-up zone.

“Seiin High School has two immoveable pillars: the high-speed combination performance developed by setter Haijima Kimichika and the explosive offensive power of ace Kuroba Yuni—we’ll be the team that people will talk like that about.”

When it seemed that the referee was going to give them a warning, Oda finally released Kuroba’s head with a “got you” look on his face.

“Well, it’s also because I was talked into it by Haijima.”

He bashfully added, and then his expression stiffened.

“Alright, Kuroba, let’s take it from here.”

“Y-Yes.”

Kuroba nodded, his cheeks flushed. He was so happy to hear the words “Ace Kuroba Yuni” from Oda’s mouth that his inferiority complex from the training camp was easily blown away.

It was just as Haijima said. You’re the team’s ace. He felt like the world was turning out just as Haijima said, and a shiver welled up from deep within him with a little bit of fear and excitement that swallowed that up.

Haijima was the only one who was completely calm about the one play and was already observing the opponent’s court with his mind on the next play. The rotation turned once, and the front row now consisted of, from the left, Haijima, Kuroba, and Aoki. The player must the rotation’s positional relationship until the ball was served, or it would be a positional fault penalty. The moment the ball was served, Haijima must quickly move to the right side and have the line order be replaced with Kuroba, Aoki, and Haijima, the three of them stood by in a tight group near the center of the front row.

“You were considering this from the beginning. Leaving me out from the combination practice…”

He couldn’t help but whisper that question as he and Haijima were huddled together behind Aoki.

In the prefecturals a year ago, Kuroba had been overly conscious of the blocks and fell apart spectacularly after being persistently marked by the opposing team. However, since Kuroba was the only attacker who could hit the ball, they had no choice but to set all the balls to him, and there was no way to get himself unmarked.

But now——Haijima said, “I can do things differently.” If the opponent was aware that their team used the center-right combination a lot, they would become wary of it and adopt a blocking system that was closer to the right, and the mark on Kuroba on the left would weaken. The scenario was to have the seniors play the role of setting the stage, so to speak, in order to have him hit the ball unmarked and get rid of his awareness that he was bad at it.

“How on earth do you make a request like that to the senpais…You really do have nerves of steel.”

He could only be thankful that he was blessed with understanding seniors.

“You’re decisive enough on your own. We’ll do the cheap tricks to get you to hit the ball. If you’re a senpai who’s so obsessed with stuff like keeping face as a senior (1) and ruin our chances of winning, then we don’t need you anyways.”

Haijima declared unabashedly while his gaze was fixed on the opponent’s court. But then he suddenly pouted and added something else in a whisper.

“…That’s why, I’m taking you. To the Spring Tournament.”

Although he didn’t say the word “senpais,” Kuroba supplemented that word in his mind. He A laugh escaped from his lips as he realized that in his own way, Haijima felt indebted to Oda and the others.

“You talk like you alone are taking them, but…we’re the ones taking them, aren’t we?”

Haijima blinked in surprise. Kuroba was embarrassed after he said that aloud, having gotten carried away and talked big. He was afraid that he would be cut down again with “you’re a hundred years too early to say that.” However,

“…Yeah.”

Haijima’s face softened, and he nodded.

Now he understood—everything was in the court. Enemies, and friends as well. He wondered if Yorimichi was watching. However, he didn’t feel like looking up at the stands, when normally he would be curious and try to find him. His feet were properly rooted here, not on the second floor of the stands.

He didn’t look for him, but he just wanted Yorimichi to see this. There was nothing to be shrink from. There was nothing to be embarrassed of. He wanted to puff up his chest and be proud of that this was the volleyball he was so passionate about right now. Above all, he wanted him to see this team.

He saw Haijima touching the taping on his fingers again. He lightly shook his head and fixed his gaze forward with a focussed expression on his face. He didn’t seem to be in bad shape, so Kuroba didn’t mind it at the time.

“Do it with the intention of taking it and hitting it yourself.”

He was told this by Hokao and Uchimura as they went along with his receiving practice during the training camp, to the point he had calluses on his ears. Don’t just sit back and watch the ball after a serve receive, run with the intention of snatching away the set to yourself. The left-side hitters have always been an easy target for the serve. That was why their receiving abilities, not just their spiking abilities, were the key to offense. No matter how good Haijima was, if his serve receive was up to par, there was no way to build an offense.

Even though he knew that, when he received the ball, he felt like he had done his job and stopped moving, but thanks to being told that over and over and repeating it in practice, it was hammered into his body. There was meaning in being taken out of offensive practice during training camp and forced to do only receiving practice.

He was hit by a serve in his bad form and fell on his butt, but he immediately jumped up and ran. Although the receive went off course, Haijima had already entered the ball’s drop point due to his outstanding reading speed and mobility. This was what he meant when he said that with Haijima, a B-pass became an A-pass. An A-pass was a good receive that allowed the setter to return to a position that didn’t move in from in front of the net for the fastest combination attack, but a B-pass was a worse receive than that. When it came to the C-pass, the setter might not be able to get it, and if that happened, the sign could not be used and another player would have to do a high set. (2) However, Haijima didn’t abandon the sign, even if it was a C-pass, and chased the ball himself to force a combination attack.

Haijima alone had the final say on who got to hit among the four attackers on the court, including Kuroba. He judged the situation instantly based on the reactions of the opposing blockers and receivers, and in Haijima’s case, rather than simply striking where they were undermanned, he chose the option that would allow him to harass his opponents the most and leave an impact on the rest of the play.

He noticed that he was being marked by a blocker, but Kuroba sent the desire of being given the ball to Haijima. Until now, all he thought about was escaping from the blocks. But now he was ready to smash one in.

Haijima touched his taping again for an instant and made a gesture of shaking his head. ——What, now?

Haijima opened his eyes wide at the ball that was approaching right in front of his face, and he turned away as though to run from it and knocked it down with his hand.

Beep——.

The whistle sounded, and there were cheers from the opposing court for their good luck. Meanwhile, on Seiin’s court, all the attackers who ended up with half-baked jumps looked at Haijima with astonishment. That was natural for anyone who knew the man named Haijima. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was someone else’s basic mistake, but Haijima——?

The ball rolled fruitlessly to the center of their court. It was unbelievable, but Haijima, who was staring at it with a look that was even filled with hatred, and then as though he had returned to himself, immediately put out his hand and flicked it out of the court.

***

“Thank you for your hard work!”

All the members of the team formed a line facing the advisor and spoke in unison. Oda stepped out of the line and faced his team members.

“Now, we’re going back to school temporarily…”

“Aah…Oda, there’s always tomorrow, so let’s just break up here. Some people live closer to here than school.”

The old advisor interjected with a slippery voice like half of his body was already submerged in the Sanzu River (3), causing Oda’s temple to twitch. “I think you’re the only one whose home is close, sir, but…” Although he bitterly grumbled that, Oda sighed in defeat and turned back to the members.

“We’ll break up here for now. The Nanafu group will stay together and return to the school. Everyone else can go back home. Tomorrow, we’ll meet in the clubroom at six-thirty. Alright, don’t get into any accidents or anything like that, and think of it as a match until you get home, don’t lose focus.”

“What is this, a field trip?”

Aoki let out a strained laugh and quipped, taking over the conversation from Oda, who looked embarrassed.

“The Monshiro group is going far away, so ask your parents to give you a ride. I’ll put the ball case in the old teacher’s car, but Kuroba and Haijima, can you bring the cooler box back home and then bring it back tomorrow?”

“Oh, yes, we can both bring it tomorrow. Our houses are close.”

The two third-years gave Kuroba a casual look as he quickly jumped to attention and answered. Guessing that they wanted him to take a look at how Haijima was doing, he stealthily glanced at his profile. Haijima, who had quickly returned to his glasses from contacts, was looking ahead with a reddened face for some reason. Is he tired…? However, he couldn’t tell the difference clearly because he always looked like he wasn’t thinking about anything, surprisingly, except when his club activity switch was on.

That was the only time Haijima made a basic mistake, and after that it had no effect on him at all, and he went on as usual—or rather, his level of “usual” was unusual—until the end, but Seiin High School continued the play and won the two games of the day. They would advance to the semifinals tomorrow, the final day.

So, they have come to the same place as the prefecturals a year ago.

It was as though they were advancing by tracing the road from a year ago. He was confident that they would break the semifinals this year for sure, and he was plenty motivated, but—a bad feeling that there was an unexpected trap lying in wait for them just like a year ago, continued to hover in a corner of his mind.

They met with the parents who came to support them from Monshiro in the gym’s parking lot. Kuroba’s mother, Kanno’s mother, Haijima’s grandmother, and Itoko and Yorimichi were there. The Kannos’ car and the Kurobas’ car (Haijima’s grandmother seemed to have ridden in the Kurobas’ car) were there, as well as a light pickup truck. The truck belonged to the relative who transported provisions to the training camp. The back of the truck was still littered with vegetable scraps. It seemed that this was the car Yorimichi borrowed to “just drive around in town” in.

Thank you so much for all your help, Kanno’s mother thanked Kuroba’s mother reverently. He wondered about the parent of a second-year being deferential to the parent of a first-year.

It seemed that Itoko had made plans to join with her school friends from now. An amusement building called Suzumu Play-One was built near Itoko’s Suzumu City high school recently, and it had a karaoke place, a bowling alley, and an arcade. It had become a hangout for high schoolers with free time (by the way, Karaoke Box Monshiro was finally demolished at the start of this year). No wonder she made her hair into a bun-looking thing on the top of her head, wore a sleeveless dress-looking thing, and carried a summer vacation-like basket bag-looking thing. He, on the other hand, had just changed out of his uniform and was wearing a T-shirt that was already drenched with sweat, carrying an enamel bag that dug into his shoulders and even a cooler box. He didn’t mind it though, because he wanted to do it.

“Good job out there, Yuni. You were pretty cool.”

“What do you mean, ‘pretty’ cool? Say I’m ‘super’ cool, onion head.”

As he reflexively shot back after being praised with a smile, Itoko took the initiative to load Kuroba’s luggage into the back of the truck, so he took it back and threw it up himself.

“You still have the semifinals and finals. You’ll get carried away if I praise you. Yorimichi? Don’t you have anything to say to Yuni?”

Itoko’s voice turned a bit angry and she slapped the driver’s door. “Aah?” Yorimichi, who was sticking his face into the air conditioner at the driver’s seat, rolled down the window with an annoyed look on his face.

“Ah, um…how was it…?”

“Doesn’t matter how it was. It was pretty cool at the venue. I thought it would be hot, so it took a while for me to wanna go there.”

He sloppily leaned against the door with one arm out the window. Even though he didn’t exercise, his arms were muscular, and they were a size thicker than Kuroba’s who recently started to work hard at muscle training. His tank top was tightly stretched over his thick chest. He could try doing some kind of sport even now…

“Ugh, don’t dodge the question and tell him. You wanted to see a volleyball game, didn’t you?”

Itoko said, putting her hands on her hips with an exasperated look on her face.

“Huh!? Yori-chan, you’re interested in volleyball!?”

“No way.”

He had widened his eyes and unintentionally said that with hope in his voice, but got flatly rejected on the spot.

“I just wanted to see what you’re so into. You probably found something there you haven’t told me about…Well, it looks like you’ll be keeping at it for a long time, so work hard at that.”

“Geez, just be honest!”

Yorimichi withdrew his head from out the window, and Itoko got angry. But for Kuroba, it was more than enough. Those were Yorimichi-like words of support. Come to think of it, he wasn’t drinking while watching the game today. He didn’t come here to make fun of him. He had him understand that he was doing this seriously. He didn’t know what he was shrivelling from. He knew that Yorimichi wouldn’t laugh for no reason at the things people cherished.

That’s why I like Yorimichi…

“…Mm. I will work hard.”

He answered bashfully. Yorimichi was already pretending not to hear and fiddled with the car radio. “There’s only enka,” he complained.

At that moment, he heard a hoarse scream and something being struck.

He turned around and saw Haijima and his grandmother next to the Kurobas’ car. There was more than a head of difference in height between the grandmother and Haijima, which made her look extremely weak. A dark red handbag had fallen at her feet, and her wallet and other small items were scattered across the asphalt.

“Why are you using that without asking me…?”

Haijima said with a trace of anger in his voice. His grandmother’s small frame shrunk. “W-Why are you getting so angry all of a sudden? I thought you didn’t want it anymore since you put it away in the closet…”

“Haijima? What are you doing to your own grandma?”

Confused, Kuroba rushed over as he reproached him. When he crouched down and was about to pick up the scattered items, the old woman also hurriedly crouched down and ran her wrinkled little hands over the asphalt to gather the small items, saying, “Aah, young master, there is no need to do this.”

He was about to pick up the handbag when his hand stopped.

A dark red schoolbag… This is…

“Don’t touch it.”

Haijima’s hand snatched the bag from over Kuroba’s head.

On his knees and speechless, he looked up at Haijima. The summer evening sunlight, which was still beating down on them, illuminated Haijima from behind so he couldn’t see his expression, but he could clearly see that the bag he was gripping had…that Tokyo middle school’s emblem—the one Kuroba didn’t know—embroidered on it.

Why…? Along with that question, he felt anger.

You said you weren’t going back, didn’t you? So why do you still treasure that thing…?

I wonder if I’m hurting right now.

“I ain’t going back” …Even though I believed in those words I heard at the training camp, I might be feeling betrayed.

***

He smacked the top of his alarm clock that ringing shrilly next to his pillow with the palm of his hand as though he was spiking with all his might. He sluggishly peeled his face away from his pillow and looked at the digital display of his now-silent clock. It was 5:05 in the morning.

“Mmm…Gotta get up…”

He had to take the first train in order to get to the clubroom by the 6:30 meeting time. He had to jump over one city to go to school, so a roundtrip to school took up quite a lot of time.

“…Five more minutes…”

His consciousness sank the moment he plopped his head down on the pillow again.

The alarm rang again. He half-consciously hit the clock that was still under his hand, but it didn’t stop no matter how many times he hit it. “…Nn?” It wasn’t the alarm. It was another sound. “…My phone…?” Groaning like a zombie that had risen from the grave, he reluctantly crawled out from his futon.

The Kuroba main house was a purely Japanese home, and Kuroba’s room was also a Japanese-style room with tatami mats and a futon. He could hear muffled ringing from the enamel bag he had thrown to the foot of his futon. Now he remembered that he forgot to charge it yesterday before falling asleep.

“Hup.”

As he was waking up, he raised his upper body vigorously in the manner of a push-up. Midway through, a shiver of pain ran up his back. “Aaagh,” he groaned and ended up curling his back. He crawled over to his bag with his hand behind his back. It was a different kind of pain from the muscle pain he got after practices and games, and his body ached all over, not just his back. His cheekbone was still throbbing with pain.

He thought that if it gave up halfway and stopped ringing, he wouldn’t have to answer it. But the ringing spitefully continued until he reached into his bag and fumbled for his phone.

“Oda-senpai? You’re an early riser.”

When he saw the caller’s name on the display, he thought of Oda’s face, full of enthusiasm like he had been running in the morning. Oda’s house was close to the school, so he shouldn’t have to get up as early as Kuroba.

“Fwah, g’morning…”

“Kuroba, come to school immediately!”

He heard Oda’s voice, refreshing and clear right in the morning, just like the image in his head.

“…? I’m going there now, but…”

“Come directly to the staff room, not the club room. Depending on your answer, we…will have to withdraw from today’s game.”

The sleepiness that had been coiled about his head dissipated at once.

“…What?”

He could only hear Oda’s heavy groans from the speaker.

He thought it was déjà vu from a year ago. No, he really wished it was just déjà vu.

We’re withdrawing…? From the semifinals?

——Again?

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#2.43 #2.43: Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu #2.43: Seiin High School Boys Volleyball Club #2.43 book 1 #2.43 translation

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gothiccwhore · 4 years

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13 reasons why season 4 review

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS!! if you haven’t finished the season yet i suggest you skip this!! :)

also this will be super long because i tend to ramble and i’ll give reviews for each character/most of the storylines! ((half way through reading this i read @jessica-acholas and @analuciacortez reviews and i agreed with a lot of it so you guys should all read their reviews as well!!))

over all ranking:

as a whole, i would give this season a 7/10. i originally was gonna give it a 6 but they get an extra point for all the zalex scenes we got, and i also was thinking of the mess that was s3 so i had to give them that extra point too

storylines/the season as a whole:

my biggest concern/annoyance with this season was how rushed or repetitive it was

every storyline this season was either super rushed or super dragged out- no in between. the fact that we only had 10 episodes as opposed to the normal 13 probably had a part in this, which idk why they cut the episodes short. let’s start off with the dragged out storylines, one of them being clay’s nightmare sequences. i honestly did like his therapy scenes because it was good to see him get help and he was a much better narrator than ani, but his nightmare scenes were so long i literally had to skip all of them i got so bored. another dragged out storyline was jesstin, which i probably will get complains about. i think they have their cute scenes and i do love both characters, especially jess being tied with alex for #1 and justin being in my top 5. but my god their storyline/relationship is beyond repetitive, its been the exact same thing for 4 whole seasons. they break up, have a long speech about how they’re not right for each other, spend the whole season pining after each other, make up in the end and then have another speech about how in love they are. like writers please make up your mind- do you want them together or not?? we also had another repetitive love triangle this season just like every other with justin jess and diego as opposed to the justin jess and alex one for like 2 seasons.

now for the rushed storylines, one of them being alex’s relationship with charlie. i love charlie ever since we saw him in s3, he’s so pure and a lovable guy and i love how he loves alex. however they happened like out of nowhere?? alex went from being in love with jess for 3 seasons to being in love with 2 people in 4 episodes. if you blinked you would’ve missed the “build up” to their relationship, and honestly it felt like they just randomly threw in some relationship for alex because they didn’t wanna have zalex happen. i’m not saying this to be bitter (maybe i am lol) but zalex had 3 seasons worth of build up and could’ve been an amazing slow burn relationship for the whole season, instead they rushed another relationship. zach is also another character who had a rushed storyline with his drinking problem, which literally happened out of nowhere too?? he just showed up this season drunk in the first scene and drunk in literally every single scene we saw him in. this storyline also never got resolved, it just stuck there like the writers didn’t even care to end or resolve it. just like how zalex could’ve worked better for alex, it could’ve worked better for zach too since his drinking problem could’ve been helped by alex. i swear the writers just hate us at this point

characters review:

clay: one of my favorites honestly, he’s in my top 5. sure clay has had his moments where he’s been annoying and extra but so has literally every single character in this show- besides tony lol. like i stated above my main concern was how dragged out his sequences were this season, like i couldn’t watch all of them. also another huge problem i had with him this season was how big of a jerk he was to justin??? for like half of the season he was rude to him and would give snarky remarks/hints like when he was surprised colleges would even want justin, which i don’t blame justin for thinking that clay expected him to just relapse again and throw his life away. the same can be said for when clay said all those awful things to him at the party- his parents not being his and not trusting him like wtf? i felt SO BAD for justin there i was expecting clay to apologize to him. on the topic of the party episode, he literally crashed zach’s car and sent them flying 30 ft in the air just to leave zach all alone to literally die?? then there’s also the part where he and ani outed alex before he was ready to fully come out which sucks, that’s something you should never do but i know he was just worried about alex and didn’t want him to get heartbroken over winston - but why didn’t you tell him sooner??

ani: like i said with clay, i hated how she outed alex before he was ready to come out. i don’t understand how her and clay both didn’t think to tell everyone - especially ALEX who literally killed bryce and would’ve gotten hurt the most about winston?? they both knew that winston and alex both knew each other and met at the hillcrest party, so why not tell him winston is gonna be looking for information to clear monty’s name?? alex is literally the only person you guys SHOULDVE told first?? however i did enjoy her this season as opposed to s3, she had a great redemption and i liked that she finally apologized to jess for sleeping with bryce. she also wasn’t up everyone’s business this season and i loved all her scenes with jess, especially the prom ones

alex: HAAAAAA BI KING WHO GOT HIS HAPPY ENDING AND DIDNT GO TO JAIL FOR FLOORING THAT RAPIST!!! HOW DO YOU BRYCE AND MONTY STANS FEEL THAT BOTH OF THEM ARE 6FT UNDER WHILE ALEX IS FREE 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳 i’m so happy he got his happy ending and became secure in his sexuality, that’s all i ever wanted for him since s1. i’m not saying this because i’m biased and he’s my favorite character, but he truly was one of the only characters who didn’t annoy me this season. he had a great arc even if it was super rushed, we finally got a zalex mutual love confession (i’m still bitter that we didn’t get our endgame but in my head we did), and i love how even if he and justin had their differences in the past seasons he was there for him in the end. i don’t really have any complaints about him besides the whole charlie thing being super rushed and so random?? why did the show put 2 bottoms together like we wouldn’t notice 🤨🤨

jessica: jess is my favorite character tied with alex, both of them have been since s1. i loved how she continued to be her badass self this season but a lot of the things she did/said kinda rubbed me the wrong way?? like i applauded her for calling out ani for judging who she was sleeping with after ani slept with bryce, but when you think about it diego literally is a rape apologist too?? jess tyler is literally your friend why would you date the guy who’s defending his rapist?? also don’t get me started how diego treated clay horribly this season, he was suffering with his mental illness and he played pranks on him and called him a psycho??? clay has always been there for you jess and he’s also one of your friends why would you still hang out with diego?? also in the first episode where justin breaks up with her and she got mad at him i got upset with her, justin made valid points he’s a recovering drug addict who needs to focus on himself not a relationship. i don’t understand why she got so mad at that, it was lowkey ooc for her? overall i still loved her i just hate how the writers reduce her to only a guy each season, but she still was amazing over all and looked beautiful!! her scenes with ani were great and i cried so much at her scenes with justin at the end.

zach: another one of my favorite characters who the writers did so dirty this season. i’ve loved zach since s1 as well, he’s in my top 5 and i’ve always loved how even if he was a jock he was still good hearted and there for everyone. i hated how in this season the writers forgot all of his traits and basically wrote him as a new person?? his drinking storyline was beyond random and had no build up/not even a resolution in the end. where even was his mother or sister this entire season. the show always paid him dirt and never focused on his home life when it was clear he didn’t have the best relationship with his mom. i’m so annoyed at how they wrote him as a “drunk” all season and didn’t even acknowledge his struggles. his scenes with alex were great, and i loved every single one of them. i’m still dying on the zalex hill and saying that they missed the perfect opportunity to make them a couple, it would’ve helped his storyline just like alex’s.

justin: oh my god, when i say my heart broke in the last episode it really did. i remember hating justin in s1, and then loving him in s2 with him being in my top 5 favorite characters. he had the best redemption arc, and i loved his portrayal of a recovering drug addict. i’m thinking now and he also didn’t annoy me this season just like alex, he was great and i’m so sad how they basically stomped all over his arc by killing him. it’s clear the show only killed him off because clay started the show by losing someone he loved, and ended it the same way. him dying by aids was so random and made 0 sense, i honestly thought he was gonna die from an overdose when discussing theories because i had a feeling it was either him or alex who were gonna die. they didn’t have a buildup for his hiv/aids- only added scars/bruises throughout the season which no one noticed if they weren’t closely examining him. i’m so saddened by his death and i will be planning a funeral for him along with zalex’s 💔.

tony: honestly a great character throughout the whole show, never was annoying and always was there for literally everyone. tony has always been a fighter and has been through so much without showing it, and i’m glad he got to go to college at the end and see his sister. i’m also so happy we got more scenes between tony and caleb this season because they are one of my favorite couples and are so underrated in the show and with fans ❤️ i was upset when he didn’t believe tyler, but i understood where he was coming from because he just wanted to be safe.

tyler: he’s so pure and i also loved his arc throughout the show, i’m so happy he has friends who love him and him and estela were so cute! i wish they explored more about him and the sheriffs working together because i honestly was confused about that before rewatching scenes. i also hate how they made him feel bad about monty dying when it literally was not his fault a rapist got killed in prison- monty’s rotting 6 ft under hello let’s celebrate to that!! i also loved how he was so supportive when he found out about winston and alex on the camping trip, he seemed worried about alex when winston said they broke up. i also love how alex was the only one who truly believed in him the entire show.

bryce: good riddance!! when i say i yelled when jess saw him when she was burning the tape why did he smile like pennywise?2@/@20so glad we saw no flashbacks of him this season and that he was just an annoying ghost, but even that annoyed me

monty: just like bryce good riddance!!! thank god we didn’t get that much of a redemption arc because i would’ve lost it- even though i literally rolled my eyes every time his ghost tried to say something that was supposed to make us feel bad for him. he’s rotting with bryce 🧚🏻‍♀️🤩

charlie: i loved him, he was so nice to everyone and so pure. i just wish they let him and alex be just friends because that came out of nowhere. i hope he’s baking more cookies and being happy

caleb: such a supportive bf i love him and tony, wish we saw more of him but i hope he’s living his best life <3

winston: he gave me joe from you vibes the entire season why was he creepy lowkey s:@:&;&!392&-03@3&4 nobody @ me but for a second i thought him and alex were cute during the bowling scene then i remembered who he was. he was a rape apologist which i hated, like dude he’s dead get over it i promise that dick probably wasn’t that good that you have to do a whole fbi investigation for him. the fact that he fell in love with monty and alex after like a week is sending me oddjdkckdkdj but i too am in love with alex standall so i see where he’s coming from, he gets points for not turning alex in at the end but i expected him to be a bigger villain this season but thank god he wasn’t because i would’ve floored him

chloe: my best girl who i wish we saw more of we only saw her for like 3 scenes?? the show did her dirty even in s3 she should’ve had more scenes her storyline was amazing :/ i did enjoy her and zach’s friendship it was so refreshing to see a m/f friendship and i’m glad they didn’t make them romantic. i didn’t expect her and scott to date but go girl!!

diego: literally came out of nowhere where were you for the other 3 seasons? i literally laughed every time he would talk about missing monty like who cares if he got you into football he was a rapist no one cares. i hated how he made clay go literally insane by pulling those pranks on him and calling him psycho?? “why’d you bring a knife” MF YOU GAVE IT TO HIM???? he was nice at the end so i guess i’ll give him some points and he also wasn’t a HUGE jerk i liked how him and justin helped each other when the cop was being racist/a dick and that he seemed upset at justin’s funeral

estela: her and tyler were super cute together and i loved how she acknowledged what monty did and didn’t try to make excuses to defend him. also loved how she wanted to join HO and was completely different from monty

so overall that was my review of the season, i will miss the characters so much and zalex will continue to haunt me every night i cannot escape 💔 jess and alex are my emotional support characters who would’ve thought. selena gomez and the 13rw writers you will pay for your crimes this season!

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prettygraceful · 3 years

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magnus & the main characters interaction count: a study

an interaction counts as magnus talking specifically to 1 main and that main character responding, or vice versa. (you know like alec does with jace/ clary/ izzy in 95% of the episodes throughout the whole series and luke/ simon in half of s1 and s3.) an interaction is NOT where magnus addresses the group in general with no one responding to him directly, or him being in the same room with all of them, but they only talk to alec or to each other.

this count starts from 2b. s1/ 2a did NOT have anywhere close to an adequate amount, but at least there wasn’t so little that it was total joke like after that. the sad truth of this is so glaringly obvious when it’s listed.

plz take note this post is about magnus/ MAIN character interaction ONLY

and obviously this count is about the 6 mains other than alec

SEASON 2B

2x11: NONE

altho clary/ jace are in the room, they only talk to alec

2x12: NONE

2x13: NONE

2x14: 1 scene with luke

2x15: NONE

altho jace/ izzy are in the room, they don’t talk to him

2x16: NONE

he was not in the episode. he also was not in some episodes in s1. luke and maia have also not been in some.

clary, jace, alec, izzy, and simon have been in every episode. just saying.

2x17: 2 scenes with luke

2x18: 1 scene with luke

2x19: NONE

altho the shadowhunters/ luke are in the room, they don’t talk to him

side note: making literally everyone be against magnus/ glaring at him/ shading him behind his back after all he’s literally done for every single one of them was… a choice. they all didn’t seem to care that he was hurting.

2x20: 1 scene with izzy

final count:

6 episodes (over half the season) with NONE

2 episodes of only 1 scene interaction

only 1 episode where he interacts throughout, yet still only with 1 other main

only 3 scenes where he gets to talk to another main without alec there

no scene where he talks to another main and alec isn’t mentioned

SEASON 3A

3x01: NONE

3X02: NONE

altho shadowhunters/ luke are in the room, they only talk to alec

3X03: 1 scene with izzy

3x04: NONE

altho clary is in room, she only talks to alec

3x05: NONE

3x06: multiple scenes with clary

3x07: NONE

altho clary/ izzy/ simon are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x08: multiple scenes with izzy

no, owl!jace saying alec would chose jace over him doesn’t count

altho luke/ simon are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x09: 1 scene with izzy

3x10: 1 scene with jace

altho should a scene of him telling the parabatai he gave up his magic for them and them not saying anything count?

final count:

5 episodes (half the season) with NONE

3 episodes of only 1 scene interaction

only 2 episodes where he interacts throughout, yet only with 1 other main

only 1 episode where he gets to talk to another main without alec there

no episodes where he talks to another main and alec isn’t mentioned

SEASON 3B

3x11: 1 scene with izzy

altho jace is in the room, he only to talks alec

3x12: NONE

altho jace/ luke are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x13: 1 scene with izzy

and 1 single line to clary, i guess

3x14: NONE

3x15: NONE

aside from 1 single line to simon, i guess

no, clary/ jace/ izzy unkindly questioning him being there doesn’t count

side note: making magnus be surrounded by a room full of racist-coded shadowhunters in s3 was… a choice. what was the point of that? it showed that apparently only laws have changed but not societal sentiment- outside of the main foursome- since s1 in their mindset towards downworlders. and then they had malec get married amongst these racists a few weeks later?? to show him being treated so disrespectfully (again in s3, so nobody’s mindset progressed outside of the 4) and be made so uncomfortable and then never have them show him any love or treat him as an equal later on (as an individual and not just as half of malec) was… a choice. a bad choice.

3x16: NONE

3x17: NONE

3x18: NONE

altho clary/ jace are in the room, they only talk to alec (and then when he’s sad over something that their 3a choices caused, they leave. in the same episode the writers have maryse say “we’re all here for you”…what a joke.)

3x19: NONE

3x20: NONE

altho izzy/ clary/ jace are in the room, they only talk to alec

3x21: NONE

aside from 1 single line to simon, i guess

no, saying only biscuit doesn’t count

3x22: NONE

altho it’s his wedding day, they don’t let jace/ izzy welcome him into the family but instead irrelevant max.

and altho it’s literally the finale, the ONLY person he gets to talk to is his rival. (side note, but lorenzo and underhill should NOT have been at the wedding after their awful treatment towards him. such two-faced people.)

final count:

10 episodes (the length of a normal half season) with NONE

2 episodes of only 1 scene interaction

0 episodes where he interacts throughout

1 scene where he get to talk to another main without alec there

in his 1 scene in 3x13, he talks to another main and alec isn’t mentioned

i think the point i’m making is obvious: the 3 white showrunners and mostly white writers almost never ever let magnus even talk to any of the other main characters. (he also goes three seasons without a single story arc with another main that lasts more than 1 episode. (no, the writers using luke as a mouthpiece to justify alec’s mistake in 2b does not count.) you know, like how alec had big long arcs with both clary and jace in s1, 2a, and 3a and izzy here and there. even maia, the most neglected character on this show, still got to regularly interact with simon and luke- 2 mains. even luke with his limited screentime, still got to regularly at least talk to literally all of the mains in all his group scenes.

and what about the 3 downworlder mains and alec?

well, altho alec and maia only had 2 scenes together, that’s still twice what magnus/ maia got, seeing as they only had the 1 scene together in 2a.

alec and luke had at least 3 scenes together in s1 that i can remember vs magnus/ luke only having 2 lines in 1x06. both duos had about equal in 2b.

in 3a alec/luke had 5 scenes together. magnus/ luke had none where they actually spoke to each other. in group scenes magnus only talked to alec.

in 3b alec/ luke had 3 scenes. magnus/ luke had none. plus luke told alec that he couldn’t go to his wedding, instead of telling magnus.

in s1 magnus/ simon had maybe 1 line. alec/ simon were interacting constantly throughout, i don’t remember how many scenes it was.

in 2a magnus/ simon had 2 episodes together. in 2b they had 1 scene but i don’t really count it since it was only to have it be literally everyone vs magnus. alec/ simon had 1 scene in 2b and none in 2a.

in 3a alec/ simon had 3 scenes interacting together. magnus/ simon had none where they actually spoke to each other.

in 3b all the fans complaining really paid off! 2 scenes in 3x15. 1 scene each in 3x17, 3x19, 3x20, and 3x21 for a grand total of 6 scenes. plus no talking- yet still in a scene together- in 1 other scene in 3x15, 3x17, 3x18, and 2 others in 3x19, for a grand total of 5, not counting the edom finale scenes. magnus/ simon only said 2 lines to each other in 3b.

not to mention alec stood next to simon in a nice two-shot in 4 separate scenes. it really reminded me of what they do with clary/ alec in group scenes. the writers don’t always give them a lot of dialogue together, but they’re sure to get that dynamic in at least visually. alec always has at least crumbs vs magnus getting nothing. where is that energy from the writers, directors, or fans with magnus and literally any main? really, where is it?

i mean, there was no reason for alec/ simon not to have scenes, but i’m so truly disappointed that this is where the fan effort was spent instead of lobbying for magnus to get to interact with even one main character other than alec, seeing as alec always already get to constantly have many, many, many duo and group scenes and big arcs with the 3 other shadowhunters. and now he gets to be more bonded with all of the main downworlders too instead of magnus with his own people. the writers are so so so wack.

also obviously magnus interacts with alec on a regular basis. the point is that’s it. malec is the main reason why i watch the show, so it matters a great deal, but when every other main is getting vastly more interactions, it’s a problem. also in nearly all of the episodes when alec has scenes with other mains- and magnus is not there- magnus is not mentioned. not so when it’s vice versa.

why not count any supporting characters you may be saying? because that’s not what i hear everyone demanding for alec or the others, is it? because he didn’t interact with raphael, his supposed son, in s1, or at all after 3x01 to the actual finale. because aside from her bringing madzie over in 3x11, catatrina and and him didn’t speak in 3b. she wasn’t even introduced until 3a (so 2 seasons w/o any friends.) they only spoke in 4 scenes total in all of s3. she was his best man, yet that’s not important enough to show on screen. ragnor was literally only 1 episode. who’s left- his jealous, bitter pathetic rival or his father who has obvious gross, creepy incestuous, jealous feelings for him. or alec’s mother, who only had scenes with him for the same reason maia/ jordan had all those scenes- to give them something to do away from the group/ main plotlines. why couldn’t magnus and maia had scenes together also or instead? and being bffs with his bf’s mom but not getting to even TALK to his parabatai, the person alec’s closest to platonically, let alone be friends, is truly beyond words. and also harry and matt are only 5 years apart (kat/ dom have more of an age difference) so i’m tired of the writers/ fans keeping alec in the playpen with his younger co-stars while magnus is separated to only older ones.

and also i just really don’t care about supporting characters. i see them as just taking screentime away from the mains, specifically the downworlder mains, who are already running on limited time. look at 3x13 when they want to do a whole heidi arc, who gets cut- magnus. or in 3x17 when they want to introduce helen and aline, i resented them right off the bat for getting twice as much screentime than magnus, a main character, in that important episode for him. throughout the whole show, whenever supporting characters are getting screentime, it always means magnus, maia, and luke are not. that’s not good.

some final thoughts, nearly every single malec fan spent the entire 9 month hiatus from 3a to 3b relentlessly saying alec needs interactions. as if he didn’t get huge bonding arcs with clary and jace in s1 and 2a and 3a. as if he doesn’t talk to and go places and do things with clary, jace, and izzy nearly every single episode, every single season since the beginning. mighty handy to not count the 3 of them when you want to cry “alec has no friends” every single day, as if he hasn’t had an enemy to friendship arc with clary 3 times in 3 seasons. as if he hasn’t had a dying, can’t live without you arc with jace 3 times in 3 seasons. as if he doesn’t hug jace twice more than magnus per half season. as if he doesn’t have izzy there to lean on and talk to. funny how siblings don’t count as friends when it’s mighty convenient that’s they’re the only mains to have siblings. i would kill, KILL, for magnus to be even talk to jace and izzy let alone be real friends, yet fans are taking their friendships with alec for granted, while simultaneously saying they’re robbed of the parabatai dynamic. that’s rich.

if alec having scenes every other ep, and melodramatic arcs every other half season, wasn’t such a guarantee the fans have learned they could count on, nobody would say that his siblings and clary don’t count. but everyone knew they could say that because we know it wouldn’t be taken away. i mean, look at the stark siblings in game of thrones. they never interacted, and the entire fandom cried about that being the most important friendships to show, but it wasn’t shown. this fandom needs to put things in perspective and stop taking the lightwoods sibs and the shadowhunters squad dyamic for granted and realize that magnus and maia don’t get even a minuscule fraction of that. also want to add that simon got plenty of constant sturdy dynamics too, with clary, jace, luke, maia, and izzy. and fans got their alec/ simon content and yet still so ungrateful. i beg the malecs to compare what magnus gets before complaining.

#shadowhuntersedit #malecedit #magnusbaneedit #aleclightwoodedit #shedit #meta

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thesevillereport · 3 years

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In Focus: The Robinhood IPO Pt II

In 2012 a company the entire world was waiting on to go public finally did. It priced its IPO at $38 a share and went public on May 18 of that year, and out of the gate it was a dud.

The stock would trade downwards over the next 16 weeks falling below $20 a share. Again, this was a company a large portion of the investment community was waiting on to go public. Many expected the stock to go to the moon right out of the gate, but it didn't. 22 weeks after the IPO, the stock started to catch its footing and would go on a massive run upwards. That company was Facebook (FB), and the stock price now is $365.30 per share.

This week Robinhood (HOOD) went public at $38 per share and it wasn't a great outing. The stock currently trades at $35.15 as of this writing and there has been a lot said about Robinhood and its IPO. At its IPO price Robinhood was valued at $35 billion, and that may have turned some investors off. At $35 billions Robinhood would be more valuable than American Airlines (AAL) ($13 billion) and United Airlines (UAL) ($15.6 billion) combined, and more valuable thanAmerica's number one pure play grocer Kroger (KR) ($30 billion). Robinhood has value, but investors weren't convinced that $32 billion was it, and for good reason.

In Robinhood's S1 filing it noted 18 million accounts with $81 billion of assets under custody. In 2020 Morgan Stanley (MS) paid $13 billion for E-Trade, which had only 5 million accounts but $360 billion in assets. Looking at it that way, the numbers don't add up for Robinhood.

Then there's the payment for order flow issue. It's the reason why Robinhood can offer commission free trading and the reason the company became public enemy number one earlier in the year. Never forget, Ted Cruz and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were concerned and on the same side on the same issue, and the issue revolved around Robinhood.

There's a belief that there are major changes in the works around payment for order flow, and that the practice could be banned in the U.S. as it is in the U.K. In Q1 2021, more than 80% of Robinhood's revenue came from order flow. If the practice were to be banned, that would be a massive hit to Robinhood, and the company would be a shell of its former self, and may not be able to survive without being acquired.

$35 Billion?

When Robinhood's IPO price started to make the news, I asked myself why does Robinhood's founders and its underwriters believe it's a $30 billion company? Then I remembered, it's because it's tech, and in this day and age investors are overpaying for "tech." Don't believe me, compare GM (GM), Ford (F), and Tesla (TSLA), an $82 billion company, a $56 billion company, and a $680 billion company respectively. In 2019 GM delivered 2.8 million vehicles, Ford sold 2.4 million vehicles, and Tesla delivered 376,000 vehicles. GM and Ford have long been considered automobile manufacturers, but Tesla, Tesla is a tech company that makes cars, like Apple (AAPL) is a tech company that makes phones and Netflix (NFLX) is a tech company that leases, produces, and displays content. In the old days, Netflix would be a broadcast company or a movie studio, but today it's a tech firm, so we'll pay 53x earnings to own it over the 9x earnings to own ViacomCBS (VIAC), a simple broadcast company.

Since around the time of 2012, it didn't matter what a company did, what mattered was what box we put the company in, and this is why Robinhood's stock will be a winner in the end.

Remember E-Trade was acquired for $13 billion dollars, and while it offered everything Robinhood does and more, it was considered a discount brokerage firm, not a tech firm and not a FinTech, just a plain old boring brokerage. Same for TD Ameritrade, another company with more assets ($1.3 trillion) but less accounts (12 million) than Robinhood. TD was acquired by Charles Schwab (SCHW) for $26 billion, and like E-Trade, TD offered everything Robinhood offers and more, but it wasn't considered tech. That simple four letter word, "tech" makes all the difference in how Wall Street values a company.

For Robinhood, unfortunately, their tech isn't as free to grow as "tech" in some other industries. Robinhood has major regulations to abide by that prevent it from spreading its wings as far as it wants to. Remember how long it took the company to get its cryptocurrency purchasing arm online and how long it took the company to offer debit cards to its account holders. Being a steward of the public's money comes with serious restrictions, and Robinhood has to balance that with the tech attitude of go fast and break things.

There are issues, but I'm still a believer in Robinhood and it's primarily because of its social status. The company is everywhere, good news or bad news, Robinhood always seems to find its way into an important timeline or news feed.

While many of us, myself included, tend to harp on the GameStop debacle that Robinhood created, there was a lot of good happening on the app before they halted trading on GameStop and other meme stocks that week. Before the halt, regular people were making big money, and enticing others who had never thought about investing before to join in. Those new investors signed up to Robinhood, because that's the user interface they saw on their timelines. When people see +$10,000 of total returns on a green and white background, they're not going to go and open a WeBull or Public account, they're going to open a Robinhood account.

As bad as the GameStop debacle was at the time, and as much as people say they're still upset about it, people are still using Robinhood and finding their way to Robinhood. When the next meme stock takes off, it will only attract more people to sign up to the platform.

Assuming that the government does nothing about payment for order flow (which I don't think they will), Robinhood's best days are ahead of it. For many young companies, investors who buy in at the growth stages have little to no idea what the destination is for the company. When Netflix was delivering DVDs, we didn't know it would transition into a streaming giant. We didn't know the iPod would turn into the iPhone or that Google search would turn into Google Maps, Google Docs, G-Mail, and Android, or that Musical.ly would turn into Tik Tok, but we know exactly where Robinhood can go.

Robinhood has to grow into the "tech" version of E-Trade and TD Ameritrade. It also has to convince its 18 million users to not leave for better platforms when those customers build up their accounts. There is still this idea that having $5,000 in a Robinhood account is okay, but $50,000 needs a better place to rest, and Robinhood has to tackle that kind of thinking. That's the goal for Robinhood, that's what you're hoping for if you're a Robinhood investor now, that the company will continue to expand its offerings, grow its customer base, keep more of its users than it loses from quarter-to-quarter, and hopefully be properly funded so that it can be on the right of history when the next GameStop comes around, and it will come around.

Since the Facebook IPO, I've been attracted to big names with slow starts out of the gate and Robinhood fits the bill. Overthe past few years I've done well grabbing Corsair (CRSR), Palantir (PLTR), and Slack (CRM) after their not so spectacular debuts, and all have performed great. What I learned watching Facebook is that professional money managers are like kids, they like it if someone else likes it, but no one wants to say they like it first. Robinhood definitely has its issues, but hey, it's tech.

#Stocks #Investing #Investments #Investment Education #Financial Education #Money #MoneyEducation #Robinhood #Robinhood IPO #Reddit #GameStop #StocksToWatch #Corsair #Tesla #Slack #Tech #TechInvesting

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neighbourskid · 3 years

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2020

What a year, huh? Surely not anything anyone has expected to happen when we woke up on this day a year ago. I certainly haven’t. I’m not even sure, now, where to begin to sum up this year like I’ve done years prior. But then again... I may just as well just dive right into all the media I consumed this year, as I have done every year. I haven’t kept track as detailed as I have last year, but my year was definitely punctuated by pieces of entertainment that have come into my life.

Continuing on from 2019, my obsession with Good Omens was still going strong. Which was ideal, since I was gonna spend the first half of the year writing my Bachelor thesis on it. The intensity of the obsession may have waned a bit since, but I still love that show and book dearly and hold it close to my heart, and I don’t think that will ever stop. But while Good Omens was certainly an overall theme throughout my year, there were some other things that actually stood out.

With January came new episodes of Doctor Who, and having returned to that particular bandwagon the year prior, I was all about that. Jodie’s second season finally brought what I had longed for in her first--a darker kind of Doctor. She wasn’t quite as bubbly anymore, you could finally see some of the depths in the character that I loved so in the previous regenerations, which made me love Peter’s Doctor so incredibly much. In this season, I felt, Jodie was finally becoming the Doctor. Overall, that season catered to me personally every single episode. So many of the time periods they visited were of people I loved, and the introduction of Sacha Dhawan as the Master was absolutely....well, masterful. Sacha is brilliant in that role and I am utterly stunned by his talent. Although both John Simm and Michelle Gomez brought things to the Master that I liked, it’s Sacha’s completely unhinged take on it that made me finally like the character. He’s a madman and I love it.

The next major thing was The Good Place. I tend to have a talent of getting into shows just as they either ended their entire show, or the final season is just coming up. It’s happened quite a bit, and it was the same with this. I finally binged the show early in January and it would end its final season at the end of the month. True to form, I was completely obsessed with it for about a month, before I only occasionally thought about it again. But, thinking back now, I get this incredibly fond feeling for this show, and I remember that the finale absolutely wrecked me and I basically ugly sobbed through the entirety of it. Also very true to form, actually. I want to rewatch it again some time, but honestly preferably with someone who has never seen it before. Which, obviously, is a difficult thing to do given, well, everything.

Next up is something that surprised me a lot. In the middle of having to write my BA thesis, my procrastination thought it would be a great idea to rewatch and catch up on the entirety of Criminal Minds. And so I binged 15 seasons of that instead of writing my thesis. Which, coincidentally, had also just aired its final season not long before I started my binge in March. Rewatching this, I realised just how little I took in of the actual, like, stuff in the show when I first watched it as a teen. Although I mostly cared about the characters and their found family this time around--although I do find the cases really fascinating most of the time too--I noticed just how much I am not watching this for the fact that they are in the FBI. I was hyperaware of how often they shot at people before doing anything else, how many of the suspects died before ever being questioned or being brought in, and it made my skin crawl. I am aware how fucked up the criminal justice system is, and especially in the US, how the police functions and how incredibly glorified they are in the media. But rewatching this show, I realised how little I actually paid attention to anything when I was younger. Big yikes. Still, I remembered my love for these characters, and I really enjoyed that rewatch a whole lot. Found family will always get to me.

Once I finished writing my thesis and handed it in early in July, I then found my next momentary obsession: Community. The show had finally come to Netflix earlier in the year and a friend of mine had watched it then. I remember watching that pilot episode back then and being completely uninterested in watching it. The comedy felt like it wasn’t quite up my street, the characters were entirely unlikeable, and I especially disliked Jeff who the show was more or less centred around. I binged Criminal Minds instead, but then decided to give it another try. And, well, I watched it twice through without taking a break to watch something else in-between. Ironically, and maybe actually unsurprisingly, Jeff ended up being my favourite and I found myself relating a lot to him and his arc throughout the series. I even found myself writing some short ficlet-like things in the notes app on my phone. I made an attempt at starting a third watch, but I guess then the month was up, and my brain decided it was time for something else. My hyperfixations usually tend to die out after about a month. Which is why my complete devotion to Good Omens was a pleasant surprise. I did, however, end up watching quite a bit of Joel McHale and Ken Jeong’s The Darkest Timeline podcast throughout August.

Early in September, while already preparing for the new term at uni, and my first semester in my Master’s studies, I then turned to New Girl. Friends of mine had seen it and recommended it, and I remember watching probably the entire first season on TV while I was in San Diego the first time around back in 2016. Or at least I think it was the entire first season. Either way, I binged that whole thing, realised through Nick Miller that the go-to character I am drawn to and tend to project on in any piece of media is usually what I like to call “the garbage man,” which Nick is a prime example of. And although I spent a month watching the show in-between starting university again and volunteering at a film festival, I didn’t spend much time afterward thinking about it and moved on to other things rather quickly. I enjoyed watching it, that much I remember, and I’m pretty sure I cried at the finale because it was done wonderfully, but seeing as another month was up, my brain was probably like “okay fine that’s enough”.

I then spent most of fall and early winter watching every single bad Christmas movie available on Netflix, which was quite fun. In that moment of festivity, I also watched a movie I found absolutely brilliant and fell in love with immediately. It’s a beautiful movie called Jingle Jangle, it has a magnificent soundtrack and is absolutely incredible. I had no idea Forest Whitaker could sing and he completely blew me away. If you haven’t seen it already, I highly recommend it. It doesn’t matter that Christmas is already over, it’s beautiful either way.

By the time December finally rolled around, I was already over the whole Christmas thing, to be honest and I turned away from festive movies or shows, and eventually ended up finally picking up a gem I had heard much about and had been meaning to watch for a while. A show which, as it were, also aired its final season earlier this year. This little show is Schitt’s Creek. I will be going on about what this show means to me probably in another post at length, but for now just let me say: if you haven’t seen it, find some place to watch it, and put this beautiful show in your eyeballs. I am on my second run through already (although I’ve seen the second half of the show a second time already while watching it with a friend on their first run through), and it brings me so much fucking joy. It’s a gift, this show. And it will likely stay with me for a very, very long time.

That’s about it for the big things. I also watched a whole lot of other stuff, including entirely new things, or just newly released seasons of things I was already watching. Here’s what I can remember off the top of my head:

Charlie’s Angels (2020). The Night Manager. The Witcher. Dolittle (2020). The Librarians (rewatch). Harley Quinn (2020). Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). The Chef Show (S1 part 3, S2 part 1). Avenue 5. Money Heist (part 4). The Good Fight (S4). Brooklyn Nine-Nine (S7). DuckTales (2017 reboot). Frankenstein live. Staged (2020). Hamilton. Sense8. Julie and the Phantoms. The Boys in the Band. One Night in Miami. Enola Holmes. Supernova. His Dark Materials (S2). Happiest Season. The Great Canadian Baking Show.

I also got some reading done in-between what I had to read for my thesis in spring, and then for regular university courses in fall. Here’s some of what I can remember:

Anthony Horowitz, The House of Silk. Ramona Meisel, Sunblind. Donna Tartt, The Secret History. Good Omens novel and script book. Matt Forbeck, Leverage: The Con Job. Keith R.A. Decandido, Leverage: The Zoo Job. Greg Cox, Leverage: The Bestseller Job. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Lost Lamp. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Mother Goose Chase. Greg Cox, The Librarians and the Pot of Gold. Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602. Christina Henry, The Lost Boy. Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology. John Green, An Abundance of Katherines. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh. Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game.

Having mulled over all this entertainment I consumed in 2020, there are also some non-tv or book things I need to point out. As many, many other people around the globe, I have also spent a large amount of time this year on my Nintendo Switch, playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It is a game I have waited for since the Switch was first announced, and I fell in love with it from the moment the first trailer dropped. It has brought me great joy in this weird fucking year, and I have more or less consistently played it since it came out in March. I ended this year with the in-game New Year’s Eve celebration and I feel like that summed up this year quite neatly and appropriately.

This year also brought with it another game very close to my heart: Super Mario Sunshine. With their release of Super Mario 3D All-Stars in September, Nintendo finally brought my all-time favourite Mario game to my all-time favourite console, and I played the entire game through in the first week of owning it, in-between university courses and volunteering at the film festival. Also contained in that package was Super Mario Galaxy which I have also played through in its entirety since. All that’s left for me now is Super Mario 64, which I am excited to play through in the coming year.

And to round off my year of entertainment, there are two more things I would like to mention. First, David Tennant Does A Podcast With..., which released its second season this summer. It is one of the only, if not the only podcast I keep up to date with and listen to immediately whenever a new episode drops. I’ve loved the first season dearly, and David came back with some incredibly fantastic guests for the second season as well. I can’t wait for what the podcast will bring in the future, but I will wait patiently until it is time. I can highly recommend it for everyone who likes interesting conversations between lovely people who clearly adore each other a whole lot.

And finally, while this year brought a whole lot of bullshit with it, it also gave me something I never thought possible and did not even dare to imagine in my wildest dreams. My all-time favourite show announced that it would be rebooted with the same main cast (minus one), a new wonderful member, and involvement of the original creators, and even started filming already in summer. Leverage is coming back. I still cannot believe it. I hoped for a movie, always. That maybe one day, they might bring the gang back together, for one last job, just one more encore. But to get a whole new tv-show with Aldis, Christian, Gina and Beth returning? With the addition of Noah Wyle? I can’t wrap my head around it. I am so excited for this. I predict that I will ugly sob through the entirety of the pilot episode, if not the first season, and will have to rewatch every episode because of it, but I have no doubt that it will be brilliant and wonderful.

True to form, I have now gone on about tv shows and movies for far too long, and haven’t really said anything about this year at all. 2020 was fucking weird. And I don’t think 2021 will be much different quite yet. I wrote an entire BA thesis in 2020. I successfully finished by Bachelor’s degree and started my Master’s studies and even got some excellent first grades in as well. I was lucky enough to be able to see some friends and family throughout the year, and even celebrate my birthday with a small circle of friends. I’ve become closer with friends, shared experiences I wouldn’t trade for the world, and, I think, maybe also grown a bit as a person.

I started this year excited to finally be able to start taking testosterone in February, and to finish the first part of my studies by summer. Although I did both of these things, they didn’t happen quite how I imagined them, but I am glad that I could do these things nevertheless.

2020 was a hell year, for sure. But there were some moments in there that I wouldn’t want to lose.

I’ve tried very hard to not be optimistic about this upcoming year, and rather take a more realistic, even pessimistic approach. But I can’t help but be hopeful. Hopeful that this year will be kind to us, and if it isn’t, that at least, we’ll be kind to ourselves and each other. It won’t be easy, and not much will change, I think. But we have to approach the coming time with kindness and compassion. That’s where I’m at currently. And I think that’s all for now.

Be well, friends, and take care.

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29-pieces · 4 years

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Whumptober day 24 - The Musketeers

Day 24: Blindfolded Fandom/Setting - BBC’s The Musketeers, early S1 before d’Artagnan is commissioned Read on AO3 Read on FF.net

~*~

"Filthy cowards!" d'Artagnan raged, squirming with all his might in an attempt to get back up on his feet. The thick rope that had been wound around his middle kept his arms trapped down at his sides, preventing him from drawing a weapon or throwing any punches. It also made it harder to keep his balance. Between that disadvantage and the blindfold wrapped over his eyes to keep him from seeing which direction the next attack would be coming from, d'Artagnan had no opportunity to defend himself.

The red guards who had waylaid him all seemed to find this terribly entertaining. Their jeers and taunts circled the unfortunate recruit, as did a heavy kick every time he tried to clamber back up.

D'Artagnan gasped as another blow came out of nowhere, driving the wind from his body and leaving him to double up and wheeze for precious oxygen. The insults levied at him fell on deaf ears. As soon as he got free of this, he thought with fury, he was going to beat each and every one of them into the ground, single-handedly.

"Shouldn't have thrown in your lot with that Musketeer rubbish," one of the guards snickered. The statement was followed by a hand fisting in his hair, pulling him halfway up off the ground. "Everyone knows they're sorry excuses for soldiers."

D'Artagnan felt blood dripping from his nose over his lip as he bared his teeth and snarled blindly back, "One of them is worth ten of you!"

His loyal declaration was paid for with a punch to the cheek. What was one more bruise to add to the myriad he was rapidly accumulating? Reckless and outraged, the Gascon added, "None of you would dare face one of them one on one! You aren't fit to even speak of them!"

More blows rained down on him and he couldn't see to brace himself. Pure stubbornness (and the fact that they probably couldn't hear him anyway over the shouting and jeering) was all that kept him from any audible sounds of pain. For crying out loud, he wasn't even a musketeer! ...Yet! But when he was, oh, he would make them pay for this...

"One of 'em is worth ten of us, didya hear that, lads?" one of them asked with a loud guffaw. "Well, there are ten of us, aren't there? An' one of you. Which means... you might want to recalculate that, little pig farmer."

"You'd think all his time wrestling pigs would have made him better at this," another hooted.

D'Artagnan's blood surged hot at the insult, and he snapped back, "You're saying you're no better than pigs, then?"

A beat of silence followed; he could just imagine their collective brains trying to work through the statement, which eventually one of them did. An angry shout preceded more kicks and punches that d'Artagnan couldn't evade, try as he might to anticipate the next shot. Surely they would tire of this soon, he thought frantically. Despite the Red Guards' ongoing rivalry with the Musketeers, they couldn't actually kill him... could they?

"Wait, I know what'll make him squeal," one of the men suddenly called. "Where's Bruno?"

D'Artagnan had no idea who Bruno was, but the excited agreement from the others left him with no doubt he wasn't going to enjoy finding out. Multiple pairs of hands grabbed him by the arms, hauling him up to his feet and dragging the blindfolded recruit along. He struggled and shouted, doing his best to wriggle free of the rope around his middle, but they held him firm. Somewhere nearby, he heard a gate or door being opened, then he was pushed forward. Tripping on the cobblestone, d'Artagnan ended up sprawled on the ground again, only to freeze at the sound of throaty, furious barking.

"Shit," he hissed under his breath, trying to scramble back from the newest threat, knowing that he had no chance at fighting off a dog without the use of his hands. "Bastards!"

"Bruno, you hungry?" one of the guards closest to him asked. Footsteps retreated, leaving d'Artagnan alone.

Bruno, and he sounded huge, started barking and snarling even louder, sounding desperate to get at d'Artagnan's throat.

Heart pounding in his chest, d'Artagnan said his mental goodbyes to anyone who had ever known him.

"Get 'im, Bruno!"

D'Artagnan felt something huge barreling forward, heard the sound of heavy paws and enraged growling; he curled up to make as small a target as possible and finally gasped in fear.

Having finally achieved the reaction they'd been hoping for, the red guards dissolved into laughter.

.o.O.o.

Athos wasn't sure what he'd been expecting. Since d'Artagnan's first, rather memorable moment barging into their lives, he'd proven himself something of a magnet for trouble. Athos recognized it; he had two other brothers who were just as bad. What he was not expecting was for the Red Guard to have gotten themselves involved with the newest recruit.

Though, he was quite sure it would have taken nothing more than a snide comment about the musketeers in general, or one of the three Inseparables in particular, and d'Artagnan would have been trying to duel the entire complement of Red Guard. Athos shook his head in spite of the silent affection. Loyalty was commendable. Perhaps once they taught him to temper it somewhat...

In any case, even Athos had not been expecting a full squad of red guards to have waylaid the boy. Cowardice was one thing, but surely this was beneath even them. Coolly, the swordsman drew a pistol and fired it into the air. It worked to make all of the guards duck and spin around in fright, though it had also made d'Artagnan flinch violently from his spot on the ground. Not what he'd been going for.

"Restrain that brute," he ordered calmly, nodding to the dog they'd been using to taunt d'Artagnan. The beast was still wearing a collar and lead; he suspected they hadn't been planning to actually let the animal attack d'Artagnan, only wanting to get a frightened reaction from him.

"Athos?" d'Artagnan asked shakily. "Is that you?"

"Mm," Athos assented, directing his coldest glare at the Red Guard lieutenant, the one who should have been above this childish game. "Porthos."

"You lot," Porthos growled in disdain, dismounting from his horse and storming over towards d'Artagnan with his dagger in hand. The red guards scurried to get out of his way. "Pathetic, that's what you all are."

"The next time you get bored, we'd thank you to find your entertainment elsewhere," Aramis added flippantly, his own pistol idly resting on his leg but pointed right at their attack dog in case any of them had the bright idea to loose the beast after all. "And leave our recruits alone."

Athos watched as Porthos cut d'Artagnan free and pulled the blindfold away. The lad was quick to jump to his feet, and he was a mess of bruises, but Athos was pleased to see he appeared only furious and not scared. Good. It wouldn't do to let the bullies know they'd obviously gotten to him. He was also glad to see Porthos merely offering d'Artagnan a hand back up without fussing over him too much, none of them wanting to give the guards the impression that d'Artagnan needed coddling or protection. Lifting his chin, Athos turned his attention back to the lieutenant.

"Although," he went on. "If you're so anxious to prove yourselves against a musketeer, any one of you may challenge me. Right here. Right now. Any takers?"

His eyes slid from one to the next, daring each and every one of them to try their luck against a musketeer who was ready and able to fight back. To nobody's surprise, each of the guards looked away as his eyes settled on them. By now, Porthos was back on his horse and given d'Artagnan a lift up behind him. Athos nodded in satisfaction and glowered around once more, just to make sure the message had sunk in.

"The captain will hear of this," he growled, before wheeling his horse around and charging out of the Red Guards' courtyard.

He led the way back to the Musketeer garrison at the same clipped pace, but immediately swung down from his horse to grab d'Artagnan as soon as he dismounted from behind Porthos. Without a word, he took the lad's chin in his hand, turning his face this way and that to see what damage had been done.

"'M alright," d'Artagnan assured him, wincing and bruised, but as fierce as ever. "Next time I see one of their sniveling faces, I'm going to-"

"Whoa there," Aramis chuckled. He stepped over to the recruit, draping a casual arm around his shoulders. From his unconcerned grin, only one of his close friends would realize he was getting in place to grab d'Artagnan if he collapsed. "Don't get me wrong, I do love the idea of those tontos getting what they richly deserve."

"An' the captain would feel the same," Porthos said with a smirk, only barely masking the vengeful ire Athos knew he felt at their recruit being picked on. "But then he'd have to reprimand us..."

"And then you're mucking stables..."

"And most importantly, there's no sense giving the Cardinal reason to convince the King not to give you the commission you deserve," Athos finished for them. From his assessment, the lad had come to no real harm, nothing worse than some bad bruises and injured pride. "Now go see Serge. We had him save some supper for you when you weren't back in time."

Clearly still raring for a fight and unsatisfied at the lack of vengeance, d'Artagnan nevertheless nodded and headed for the mess. Athos watched him go, rubbing his chin broodingly.

Aramis crossed his arms and smirked. "There's some fire in that one."

"He's gonna make a great musketeer," agreed Porthos. "If he can stay outta trouble long enough."

Yes, Athos mused with a silent nod. Yes, he was quite sure d'Artagnan was headed for greatness. And they would be behind him every step of the way.

#whumptober2020 #no.24 #blindfolded #the musketeers #bbc musketeers #fanfiction #d'artagnan whump #protective musketeers #red guard vs musketeer rivalry

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katyatalks · 4 years

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Otomedia April 2019 - Character Designer Kameda, Eyecatch Team Kenja, Series Co-ordinator Seko & Director Tachikawa - Interview Translation

Here’s Character Designer Kameda, Eye-catch Team Kenja, Series Co-ordinator Seko & Director Tachikawa’s interviews from April 2019’s Otomedia! Semi-summary style as there’s a lot to get through - naturally, this is a long one, but there’s plenty of cool stuff in here that makes for a good read. Includes stuff like why certain scenes were cut from the anime (boxcutter Minori, the cat, etc.), Joseph’s original character design, where Reigen got some of his ‘wise sayings’ from, the reason behind the kaleidoscope imagery in the S2 intro and outro, and plenty more!

KAMEDA YOSHIMICHI Character Designer

Asked how the production environment was for season 2, he says that it was “strangely pretty hectic - lots of stuff going on (laughs)”. States that with season 2 they understood the direction that MP100 would take more than they did with season 1. Something he and Director Tachikawa struggled with in season 1 was what kind of anime style would be best for the manga.

For season 2 the majority of the staff working on it had seen season 1, so production was steady.

He says that before season 2 he’d been working on “Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Treasure Island”, but work for season 2 began before he was finished with that film.

Just before working on season 1 of MP100 he’d worked on One Punch Man, “and it’s thanks to that that I was able to snap into work on Mob Psycho 100, but this time around it was a bit of a hard fight.” While drawing the designs for the new characters who’d appear in season 2 he eventually found himself readjusting to the proportions of MP100 (vs. Doraemon’s style)

Mentions how Tachikawa has been working on the MP100 OVA previously so getting back into work on Mob Psycho didn’t seem to be that strange for him, but for Kameda personally it took a bit of getting used to.

He’s asked if there’s anything regarding Mob’s character design that is essential to maintain a certain ‘Mob’-ness about him, to which Kameda replies; “The length of his fringe/bangs, ie. whether or not you can see his eyebrows.” Discusses how there’s only a certain amount of space between where his hair ends and his eyelids start to give an expression, and the depth of his expression varies greatly depending on if he has eyebrows or not.

“Mob is a character who isn’t really expressive, but regardless, it is important to be able to show his expressions. That’s something I told everyone to pay attention to.”

“In season 1 we avoided drawing Mob with eyebrows as much as possible, but in season 2 we see them again and again, and then we have the super handsome sparkly-eyed Mob that we see in S2E5! Since that episode, even in his normal state, it became fine to give him eyebrows (laughs).”

“This season, he’s had a lot of angry scenes. The start of episode 9 has him quite notably angry. For that, you’ve got to give him eyebrows.”

Q: “Would you say season 2 lifted the ban on eyebrows?” A: “Season 2 lifted the ban on eyebrows!” States he himself didn’t draw eyebrows much at all during season 1. “Right now, I’m doing work on the final episode, and I’m giving those eyebrows a certain plumpness (laughs).”

He is asked if there were any other changes made to the characters. “This is a very minute change, but for certain characters like Mob and Reigen I made a change to their silhouettes - beforehand, their hair had a rounder shape, but now their hair has become a little more playful.”

“I suppose rather than a choice I made on purpose, their hair ended up this way because it’s easier to draw. It’s probably the result of the great amount of advertisement art I drew after season 1 finished broadcasting.”

Asked what he thinks season 2’s “power-up” point is or where it’s changed compared to season 1, he says that they had a lot of young animators participate this season and the quality of their digital work was amazing.

Mentions how with digital animation the look of things like smoke and sparks, and spatial representation, improves.

“For example, in S2E3, when Reigen is looking through the window, the camera passes by him and while approaching the girl, the camera turns to the wall and enters it… the animator made the environment for that scene in 3D with a virtual camera.”

Q: ”A good amount of new characters show up this season - which of them is your favourite?” A: ”Shinra Banshoumaru! I made him chubbier than he is in the manga. His belly that sticks out, his short legs, his harem pants… I drew those, but Tachikawa-san told me I was going too far. But I persisted; ‘Tachikawa-san, we live in a time where there’s no chubby characters in anime! If there’s any anime that can challenge that it’s Mob Psycho 100!’ I was like a bulldozer with the things I said, and as a result I got him how I wanted him!... I say that, but Tachikawa-san also topped-up the amount of belly-sways Shinra has (laughs).”

He's asked about characters post S2E9, to which he mentions Joseph's clothes being different in the manga. "He wears a greyish suit in the manga, but I feel like Joseph has more of a white image. Plus, a grey suit would overlap with Reigen. At first I had Joseph wear a black leather jacket, but a few days later I reviewed that and went, 'nah, that's not right.' I had it changed to white."

He is asked about any scenes up until S2E9 that he particularly fussed over, or any that left an impression on him. “Episode 7. It’s a great Reigen story, and I had the privilege of being the animation director for it. I paid great attention to Reigen’s expressions. It’s an episode with a lot of good cuts, so I wanted to make sure they were all the best quality they could be.”

Q: “Of those cuts, which would you say is the best?” A: “It really leaves an impression on you in the manga - when Reigen says, ‘You’ve really grown up, haven’t you’, a message for beyond the camera. [...] Then, in the final part of the episode, when he talks to Mob on the bridge. Episode 7 truly has some great expressions; my favourite faces.”

He’s asked if there’s anything coming up that he’d like us to pay attention to & any highlights - mentions the battle between Shibata and Gouda. Says the anime brings action and originality that only anime can achieve.

His final message to readers is that if you haven’t read the manga yet, don’t go running to read it, wait for the anime first, so you can experience the tension of not knowing what happens next. “The quality of season 2 is insane, right up until the end.”

---

KENJA Eyecatches Kenja are described as a video production group, who have made promotional advertisements for MP100 (both for the manga and S1 of the anime), and were in charge of the eyecatches for season 2. The eyecatches were mainly made by koya, Takarai & 0gt. koya, their representative, has worked as ONE’s assistant, and Takarai participated as an animator this season.

Asked how they ended up doing the eyecatches for season 2, koya says that Satou Miyo (who was in charge of the season 1 ending) was a classmate of his when he was a graduate student. “We got back in touch and the message I got was, ‘I’m doing work on the ending of Mob Psycho 100, do you want to work on something too, koya-kun?’ (laughs).”

Takarai had his way in via already being an animator for the show, and koya discusses being ONE’s assistant. “ONE-san and I get along very well, so I’d tag along to anime events. I got talking to Director Tachikawa and now here we are.”

They were originally told that it’d be fine to have the same eyecatch for before and after the commercial pause, but they were worried that watching the same thing twice would be a bit unbearable, so they made two for each episode instead.

koya: “Ended up being tougher than I thought (laughs).”

Takarai: “Well, simply put, we doubled our work load (laughs).”

The eyecatch for episode 3 is brought up. Takarai; “Eyecatches have this image of being stand-alone things, but for this episode, it snuggles up to the plot. It was a choice that made me anxious, but looking at everyone’s reactions to it, I was relieved.”

Their final message to the readers comes from koya, who states that going on Twitter and seeing everyone react to mob psycho 100 stuff as it happens in real time is very encouraging. “Even just, ‘I wonder what the eyecatches will be today?’, makes me happy.”

---

SEKO HIROSHI Series Co-ordinator

Asked where he thinks season 2 has powered up compared to season 1, he says that season 1 had to introduce all the characters - season 2 starts off with the characters introduced, so the action kicks off full-throttle.

He’s asked what his thought process was in choosing what parts of the manga to leave out of the anime. “My process is, I first write with absolutely everything from the manga in the script, then choose what to cut from there. The flow of the story as a whole is important - I keep that in the forefront of my mind, and choose to keep things that are vital to the story. Other than that, I try to keep scenes that show off the personalities of the characters. There’s been moments where I’ve had to cut scenes, even though I really like them, just because they wouldn’t fit into the length of the episode…! Other than episode length, there’s also parts of Mob Psycho 100 that we wouldn’t have been able to include due to broadcasting code.”

He’s asked which character he thinks grew the most, to which he says Mob. “What stuck with me was episode 3. ‘Mob’s been thinking about this kind of stuff’... I was like, ‘oh’.

He’s asked if there’s any other character he feels has had a big change since season 1. “Naturally, Reigen. [...] I feel like Reigen has had a layer peeled back, after episodes 6 and 7. He’s an adult, and he does act that way sometimes, but there’s parts of him that haven’t matured… but I feel with the completion of that arc, he’s taken a step closer to becoming a fully-fledged adult.”

He’s asked if there’s been any part of the season up until episode 9 that’s particularly left an impression on him, to which he says episode 8. “The marathon. [...] That was a part that made me think, wow, this manga is amazing. You have a regular school marathon, and then come home to find your house on fire - not something you’d be quick to find anywhere else, huh. (Laughs)”

He discusses how originally season 2 was 12 episodes, and the house fire would’ve come at the end of Part A of the original episode 8, and Claw Arc would commence with the B part. It was with Warner Brother’s intervention that season 2 became 13 episodes, as an individual from Warner Bros. wanted to have the fire come at the end of episode 8.

He’s asked which of the new characters in season 2 has particularly been on his mind. “His entry is a little later on, but I love Serizawa from the Ultimate Five. How should I put it… it’s not surprising that he’s the way he is. He was a hikikomori, and he doesn’t know anything about society, so he believes in and follows his ‘boss’. I think this sort of situation can happen to anyone. He was brainwashed, so to say. But, what becomes of him? His story is one that I really love, so he’s definitely the character on my mind.”

He’s asked what it is about Mob Psycho 100 that makes it Mob-Psycho-100-ish, to which he says that the characters don’t feel like they’re just characters - they’re all a bit hopeless but that’s what makes them loveable.

“The Telepathy Club guys, for example… if they were real they probably wouldn’t be able to become proper members of society, but we still think of them fondly. Perhaps we’re too harsh to people who we deem hopeless in this world of ours.”

“No matter who you are, ONE-san will be warm to you. I think the goodness in Mob Psycho 100 comes from ONE-san’s personality.”

---

TACHIKAWA YUZURU Director

Says that the average age of people working on season 2 dropped slightly compared to season 1. “We had people who love the manga, people who had only seen season 1, and those who love both. So there was a harmonious atmosphere.”

States that there was a lot of creative freedom given to the staff. “We can play around. That’s a merit of a show of this calibre - you can do as you please.”

States that Season 2 powered up compared to season 1 when it comes to emotions. Says that even in fight scenes, the personalities of the characters and their relationships shine through, which is something he wanted to maintain when shifting the MP100 manga into anime form.

“There’s quite an oscillation when it comes to emotions in the first half of the season. Episode 1 is warm and fluffy; episode 2 has a mix of laughs and horror; episode 3 impacts you… as do 4 and 5 (laughs). Then, episodes 6 and 7 moved plenty of our staff to tears. They’re full of heart.”

States that within all this oscillation, “from the start to the end, something we paid attention to was making sure the theme of ‘Mob’s ongoing growth’ was present. That ‘he is able to change himself’.”

“He’s able to change because he has everyone, and everyone around him is able to change, too.”

Discussion of season 2’s ED. “The emotional intensity of season 2 shifts a lot, and when the show makes you feel down it makes you feel /down/. So, I asked for an ending that’s warm and fluffy - something that calms you when you watch it. The illustrations are incredibly cute, but actually, the ending is not just cute - there’s stuff depicted that holds a deeper meaning.”

He’s asked about the kaleidoscope imagery present in the intro. “Originally the S2 outro didn’t have any kaleidoscope imagery, but I wanted to add it in, so now there’s that link between the intro and the outro. Mob continuously changes as a result of the people he meets… that’s a theme of the outro, but it’s also a theme of Mob Psycho 100 in general. There’s several parts within a kaleidoscope, but put the parts together and they create something new and charming. Mob gains friends, and as a result of all these different friends, he’s able to grow… that’s the meaning behind the kaleidoscope, and why it’s present in both the intro and outro.”

Interviewer brings up that Tachikawa previously said that season 1 was written with Reigen & Mob’s shishou-deshi relationship at its core, and asks what is at the core of season 2. “Reigen is also a protagonist-type character in Mob Psycho 100, but this time around we focused on Mob… season 2 has ‘The people surrounding Mob and his relationships with them’ at its core. Episodes 6 and 7 are pretty firmly about Reigen in that ‘people surrounding Mob’ role. Then there’s Mogami, and Serizawa later on. But, even deeper at its core season 2 focuses on how Mob grows as a result of the people he meets.”

Interviewer brings up that Tachikawa previously said he wanted to animate Reigen’s press conference, and asks how it was having that wish become reality. “We have it in season 1, that scene where Mob meets Reigen for the first time. When we put that in season 1, we thought if we’d ever get to animate the press conference, we’d use that scene again but have Reigen’s monologue from the manga this time around. I’m glad we were able to do that.”

Reigen’s past not being in the manga is brought up. “With the anime, I wanted to show a bit of how Reigen ended up where he is now. We don’t see the company Reigen used to work for in the manga. Occasionally, Reigen will come out with some ‘wise sayings’, such as ‘the secret behind business success lies in your smile’, so we thought it would be good to have those words come from where he used to work. We struggled deciding whether Reigen’s past should be as a water filter salesman, or as an insurance salesman. Ultimately, we asked ONE-sensei, who decided for us: ‘I like the idea of him selling water.’”

Discussion of Tsubomi coming to S&S as not being in the manga. Tachikawa wanted a scene in which Reigen, Ritsu, Teru do something for Mob - “something that sets things back to normal, after Whitey Arc.” ONE gave the idea, then published it as an omake manga.

He is asked what he’d like us to pay attention to with the final episodes. “Each character has their own motivation, but at the end of the day those motivations all add up to ‘defeat claw’.” Mentions a bunch of new characters making their entrance.

His final message to readers is that a lot of work went into the final episodes and attention was paid to detail, so please enjoy.

---

Original twitter thread has a few more pictures in it, link to that is here.

Otomedia April 2019;

ONE’s special interview here.

Sakurai Takahiro [Reigen VA] & Itou Setsuo [Mob VA] joint interview here.

Kokuryuu Sachi [Shou VA] interview here.

Itou Setsuo [Mob VA] & Irino Miyu [Ritsu VA] interview here.

Character Designer Kameda, Eye-catch Team Kenja, Series Co-ordinator Seko & Director Tachikawa's interview here.

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #otomedia april 2019 #interview #kameda yoshimichi #tachikawa yuzuru #kenja #seko hiroshi #my stuff

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infinitestarsintheskye · 4 years

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Agents of Shield Series Finale thoughts (finally)

Or alt title Skye finally sits down to write this after two days of being overtired, overwhelmed and as a result, anxious! Feeling a WHOLE lot better today after a few anxiety naps and watching Phineas and Ferb on Disney + (that show is just pure serotonin I swear)

God what can I say that hasn’t already been said. I’m so beyond happy. I have no idea what my expectations were but by god were they exceeded. I cannot say enough how happy I am. They saved the world with empathy. How utterly beautiful. The endings everyone got were all just so utterly utterly deserved. I’m still in shock really.

If you haven’t already guessed it, I did not make it to my alarm at half past 6 on Thursday morning. I woke up at quarter past 5 after barely three hours of sleep and just could not help myself. I finished, cried for two hours and collapsed for another hour and a half. And she wonders why she’s felt like utter shit the past two days...

ANYWAY

DEKE DEKE MY WONDERFUL MY MOST DEAREST DISASTER SON!!!!!!!!! I love him so much. I know he’s happy in alt. 1983 but losing him was honestly such sweet sorrow. I had a feeling that he would sacrifice himself but I could not have guessed that it would happen in honestly such a good way. He still gets to live, gets to be the director of Shield (god help them) and I’m equally happy and devastated for him. I love Deke so much, he is very dear to me, and the money I would pay for a miniseries of him just absolutely killing it as Shield director in the 80′s with his side business of being a popstar, like the amount doesn’t exist. Also his impersonation of Fitz was so incredibly hilarious, Jeff Ward actually does a not bad Scottish accent and the IMMEDIATE adoption of the pregnant lady pose just ABSOLUTELY SENT ME!!!!!!!!!!

Mack. I’m so happy he lived. His team up with Sousa will forever give me life. Them taping goddamn chronicoms to the missiles to blast a hole in the ship, like whoever came up with that idea, you are now my favourite human on this earth. It is so supremely dumb but I love it so much. As much as there was BIG concern going into this that he was going to die, ta Henry, I never once felt worried for him. Like he never even came close???????? Also a raise to whoever put him in that big long jacket at the end like oh my god are you serious, AMAZING

Yoyo. I had NOT A SINGULAR CLUE, NOT EVEN AN INCLINE of what was going to happen to Yoyo. Her little team up at the end with Piper and Davis (DAVIS ROBO!DAVIS YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSS BICKERING WITH PIPER WE LOVE TO SEE IT) was beyond incredible. Yoyo had such a great arc this season, and I’m just so happy to see it concluded so well, plus that shot of her zooming out of the car at the end was beyond A+ it was beautiful.

May. May, wonderful May. Her appearing OUT OF GODDAMN NOWHERE TO JUST ABSOLUTELY END SIBYL IS JUST FOREVER GOING TO GIVE ME LIFE. THE CAVALRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so intrigued with where they were going with her arc this season, like I enjoyed empath May but I was so curious to see where it was going and oh what a pay off it was. I literally shouted AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH at my screen when she put her hands into that machine and Coulson explained it, BECAUSE IT ALL JUST MADE SENSE. Also it was 100000000000000000000% her idea to name it Coulson Academy, and no one disagreed with her. I loved her little call back to S1 with her just being the pilot. In general I thought all of the call backs were very well handled and placed, nothing felt too fan servicey it was all very natural and organic bc these writers really just know what they’re about and are just so incredibly good at their jobs. ANYWAY MAY. I’m happy that she’s getting a little bit of rest from the field, she absolutely deserves it.

Coulson. I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t sure about Robo!Coulson when he was introduced at the end of last season, but my god am I so happy for him now. He is truly the heart of this show, the whole thing began because a stubborn group of fans refused to accept that he had died. And really isn’t that a theme that has carried us through this entire show haha? I was so terrifed for about 30 seconds that Sibyl was going to turn him against the rest of the team, so the RELIEF of May popping out of the ceiling to JUST END HER ENTIRE CAREER WAS INCREDIBLE. The reappearance of Lola ABSOLUTELY SENT ME. I also love that after years of Coulson refusing to let Mack work on Lola, Mack just went “Fuck it” and built one from, I assume, scratch. He is going to be the best Grandpa to little Alya Fitzsimmons and you can tear that headcanon from my cold dead hands. Again, what a deserving ending. I could not be happier for him, that last shot was just perfect.

Daisy. Oh boy, we’re getting into my heafty emotions now. I would just like to say that her entire arc throughout this entire show is one of the most incredible, most amazing and well crafted and well thought out characters arcs in television history. Watching her go from this lost little hacker with a bit of a smart mouth, to this strong and powerful LITERAL SUPERHERO has actually been a privilege and I cannot stress enough how much I have loved watching her grow and evolve over the past seven years. That being said, I am low key FURIOUS that they made me think that she was dead for even just a SECOND. I WAS SOBBING NO AT MY PHONE FOR THAT ENTIRE LITTLE INTERLUDE LIKE NO FUCKING WAY ARE YOU GOING TO KILL HER OFF AND LEAVE HER BODY IN SPACE I WILL NOT LET YOU, LET ME GO SHARPEN MY PITCHFORK I AM COMING FOR YOU. I will now invite you to imagine the look of absolute and utter joy and relief on my face when I saw she was alive. Skye/Daisy holds such a special place in my heart. Her whole thing with Sousa this season was SO UTTERLY OUT OF THE BLUE BUT SO INCREDIBLY DELIGHTFUL AND DESERVED!?!?!?!??!?!!?!? Like out of everything I think that little plot detail is what surprised me the most, and I surprised myself by really loving it as much as I did. I would have been happy if she had ended the series single but I’m so happy that she has this wonderful partner who loves her so much and has her back and just looks after her like it’s just like the most wonderful added bonus which she deserves. Sousa is also like a whole ass snack and as I have been saying in my tags for the past few weeks, DAISY GET IT!!!! I love that she ended the series with her own little family, her sister and Sousa. I just. I cannot even think about that without welling up. Daisy has a family, and she chose it and she loves them all so much. I know it was last weeks ep too but I will never get over her calling Simmons her sister. Never ever ever for as long as I live. I’m so happy for her. So beyond happy.

FitzSimmons. Here we, here we, here we fucking go. What to even say apart from big, long and loud sobbing noises, cause that’s all I have really been able to do in regards to them for the last two days. Happy isn’t a strong enough word. There is no word big enough, nor all encompassing enough to say how utterly UTTERLY happy I am that they got their most beautiful happy ending. Fitz guiding her through her memories, the second Jemma said Alya I started screaming, I just I knew that was her name, and him just being so gentle with her whilst she was remembering, like oh my heart. I excuse them everything, the lack of Fitz (WHICH WAS NO ONE’S FAULT I WILL NOT HAVE ANYTHING ABOUT THAT HERE) this season was honestly just paid back tenfold in the scenes that we got of him. His frustration IMMEDIATELY at everyone not understanding their plan was so amazingly hilarious. Simmons half remembering everything was both heartbreaking and hilarious, the scene of her asking for a supersuit like Daisy’s was incredible and both Deke and Daisy responding to her like she was a child they needed to trick into doing something for them, like yes if you come with us you’ll get a supersuit and a bit chocolate, incredible. The acting in both episodes from both IDC and Elizabeth was just truly something else. The fact that neither of them have been nominated EVER for their work on this show is nothing less than criminal. Her face when she remembered Alya. Dear god my heart. I have watched that scene of them reuniting with her at least 3000000000000000000000 times since Thursday morning. I won’t ever forget it. What a beautiful scene. What an incredible scene. “You were guarding our everything.” SHE’S THEIR EVERYTHING. THEIR UTTER EVERYTHING! I’M ACTUALLY LIKE SOBBING WRITING THIS I WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE GET OVER THE FACT THAT THEY LET FITZSIMMONS LIVE IN PEACE FOR FOUR WHOLE ASS YEARS, LET THEM HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL, MOST PRECIOUS LITTLE BABY GIRL AND THEN LET THEM LIVE IN PEACE AGAIN I JUST!!! I HAVE WANTED THIS FOR THEM FOR SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO VERY LONG!!! (also @ marvel I’m not in a place where I want any kind of continuation or spin off at the moment but I would watch a FitzSimmons miniseries of them just being happy and domestic and working in space for 4 years. Just SOMETHING to consider) I cannot thank the writers enough for finally finally letting them have their happy ending. They have been through so much, and it was all worth it because it led them to their happily ever after and to their little girl and I just, that is everything. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! I have talked a lot in this post about people deserving their endings but honestly none more than FitzSimmons. Fitz playing with Alya in their little garden whilst Simmons watches with the biggest smile on her face. How perfect. I could not have dreamt a better ending for them I’m so so so so so SO beyond happy for them. And god that little girl is just the most precious. Her gleefully exclaiming “Mama!” at Simmons is the EXACT moment that I started sobbing and did not stop for the rest of the episode. Also I know they didn’t explicitly say it but they are 100000000000000% at their cottage in Perthshire, again you can pry that headcanon out of MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!! I’m just so so so so so so so so SO beyond happy that FitzSimmons got the ending that they deserved so much. They can be at peace now. I have loved them since LITERALLY day one, and I cannot imagine what would happen if I got to tell little 15 year old me how they ended up. I’m sending her good vibes to the past, I know she got them, because I never ever ever gave up on that hope for them. FitzSimmons, to me, represent so much goodness and hope and just everything I aspire to have in a relationship (without the constant separation and the death and all that fun shit), but just the utter love they have for each other. (thanks for the impossible standard to which I hold all men now JedMo). I have been on just a rollercoaster with these two characters, their relationship and each of them as individuals have taught me so much and brought me so much comfort, especially during some of the hardest times I have ever experienced. I’ll tell some of those stories one day. Not yet. I’m not ready. I’m still honestly just reeling. I have wanted A Happy FitzSimmons ending for SO LONG and I just cannot believe that we got it. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU.

Writing this felt very cathartic. It’s almost been good to just get ALL OF THE EMOTIONS OUT. I think I’m actually going to take a nap now. I forget how tiring it is to be so emotional. What can I say to end this except reiterate again just how happy I am with that finale. I’m so thrilled that they gave us such a beautiful ending, it really was just a love letter to the series as a whole and to it’s message. I think it was quote from Jeff Bell that I saw and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since, because of how true it is, and really that’s why I hold this show so dear and why I have done for the past 7 years, and that is that this show is ultimately about hope. What a beautiful thing.

#aos spoilers #7.12 spoilers #7.13 spoilers #agents of shield #Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.#aos #skye really rambles #skye rambles #thank you #thank you so much

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bonesgadh · 4 years

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Each finalist’s pros, cons and key to winning the crown according to yours trully:

Jaida Essence Hall

Pros:

Talent

Jaida is an amazing performer, she dances, she sells her act, she is a very good designer and seamstress, she is polished, funny and overall a very complete queen. Most pageant queens who have been on the show are one-note queens, which is not Jaida’s case. Her looks are always on fucking point and she is simply gorgeous. There’s nothing else I can say about Jaida that hasn’t been said already.

Record

Only Gigi had a better track record than Jaida. She won three challenges and although she was in the bottom two once, she was always a good and strong contender.

Consistency

Gigi had a strong start but fell flat and Crystal woke up during the second half of the season, but Jaida was always a good queen (except for the second-to-last challenge). She didn’t really get a chance to put herself in the frontrunner position during the first half of the season because Gigi was dominating the competition, but she was patient and it paid off. It’s true that she failed at the one-woman show, but she quickly recovered and she proved it had been nothing but a slip. Ru likes stability, which can help Jaida’s chances.

Public image

Jaida is a very popular queen amongst her fellow queens and fans. She is charismatic, she has a likeable persona, she is an activist, she stands for diferent causes, and an altruistic queen is always a very good choice for a winner.

Cons:

Uniqueness

Although Jaida is a very talented queen her main style is something we have seen before, and one of the things Ru looks after in her winners is uniqueness, so that could play against her.

Relatively slow start

Jaida won episode two, and after that she kind of fell into the background. Sh*rry P*e and Gigi won the next five challenges and Gigi’s domain of the competition didn’t allow for anybody else to shine, including Jaida. Her presence didn’t feel that much until after episode 8, when she started to win again.

Age

Ru is known for choosing young queens as winners. Raja and Bianca are the only queens above 30 to have won the competition, and that was because they were something else. Jaida is 32, which statistically speaking can affect her.

Snatch game performance

With the exception of Bebe (there was no Snatch Game in S1), Tyra (who had inmunity), Yvie (who was in the bottom two) and Violet (who was safe), every other winner has placed either high (Raja, Sharon, Bianca and Sasha) or has won the Snatch Game (Jinkx, Bob and Aquaria). Jaida’s impersonation wasn’t bad but it wasn’t memorable either.

Gigi Goode (honestly I don’t think Gigi stands a chance after her fuck up from yesterday. Not a single one. Even if her performance is flawless there’s no way Ru will crown her)

Pros:

Strong start

From the moment she entered the werk room you could see there was something special with her and with three main challenge wins by episode 8 she was the obvious frontrunner. At that point, you didn’t imagine any other queen taking the crown away from her.

Versatility

Gigi is a very versatile queen, which is not very common. She is a skilled seamstress, she serves looks, she sings, she acts, she dances and she is an amazing performer. Her win in the Snatch Game proved she is quick-thinking and can be goofy, her win in the Ball challenge showed she is creative and skilled and she also did very well during the improv/acting challenges (World’s Worst and Gay’s Anatomy), which proves she is not a one-trick dog.

Challenges won

She won the Snatch Game which usually serves as the turning point of the season; it can either propel you to a frontrunner position or send you straight to the bottom. Like I mentioned above with Jaida, winners historically do good at the SG. She also won the Ball, another challenge winners have won (Bebe, Tyra, Sharon, Violet and Aquaria all won the Ball and, if you ask me, Bianca should have won it too).

On the other hand, no winner has ever won the Rusical/Lip sync extravaganza.

Performance skills

Although she didn’t have to lip-sync for her life she could benefit from the lip-sync for the crown format because she won two Rusicals and came very close to winning a third one, which proves she knows how to sell an act. Also she has already performed at the Werq The World Tour so she has an advantage when it comes to lip-syncing from her home.

Track record

Gigi has one of the finest records in Drag Race herstory. She won four challenges, a remarkable feature since she is only the third queen to achieve it (after Sharon Needles and Shea Couleé). However, contrary to Sharon and Shea, Gigi never placed in the bottom two—and Shea shared two of her wins with Sasha—. Tyra, Bianca, Violet, Sasha and Aquaria won their season without having to lip sync for their lives.

She rises up to the challenge

Gigi admitted she was not a particularly good dancer and struggled whenever she had to perform in a dancing challenge, but she delivered and excelled at them. Also during the Madonna Rusical she wanted to be cone bra Madonna but she gave up the part and still won the motherfucking challenge. I hate it when queens who don’t get their way just complain and throw tantrums and come up with excuses to justify why they did bad in the challenge, but she simply trusted herself and did and excellent job.

Age

When picking the season’s winner, Ru leans towards younger queens. Except for Raja (36) and Bianca (38) every single winner won their season when they were less than 30 years old, and Tyra (21), Jinkx (25), Violet (21), Aquaria (21) and Yvie (25) were 25 or younger. Gigi is 22, which gives her a slight advantage against Crystal (29) and Jaida (32).

Cons:

That tweet and the controversy that came with it

For those of you who didn’t hear, yesterday relatively early in the morning Gigi tweeted about her excitement for the season 12 finale and she literally used the words: “I can’t breathe”, which was a horrible thing given the murder of George Floyd.

Now here’s the thing: Gigi did what she did because she clearly had no idea of what had happened, which is worse than the tweet itself if you ask me. But then she comes with a long-ass statement to adress the issue and she only digged herself into a deeper hole. As a mexican woman I have experienced racism and I hate it when people just look the other way because they are acting from their own privilege, the privilege of knowing that the decision made by those in power won’t affect them, but the rest of us can’t afford to shut everything out or to blame it on our anxiety.

Political issues were a big thing this season and the truth is you can’t aspire to become America’s Next Drag Superstar, a title that demands you to be politically and socially aware, and come up with excuses like: “oh, I don’t get into politics because I find them awful.” Gurl, when Aquaria came to Mexico a day after being crowned and I was lucky enough to see her, she adressed the presidential election that was happening the next day and threw shade at her own country. She had no reason to know there was going to be an election but she encouraged us all to vote because we needed our voice to be heard. She was the same age Gigi is today and she was never in the need to use the anxiety card to justify her political ignorance, and although she has also screwed up many times before she has tried to educate herself because she is aware of her privilege, and I respect her for that.

I’m very sorry for Gigi, I’m pretty sure she ruined her chances of winning which is a shame because I don’t think she is either a racist or the devil with human form, she made a terrible mistake and I hope she learns from this and bounces back. She owes it to her fans and to herself to do better next time.

Lost momentum

By episode 8 she had won three challenges but things went south for her after that, which allowed other queens to rise (especially Crystal and Jaida). She went from a 10 to a 6.5 in three episodes and it was painful to watch, and although she bounced back to win the final challenge the truth is she lost a ton of momentum, which can really hurt you during a competition as tough as Drag Race. You can’t allow yourself to lower your guard.

Uniqueness

Just like Jaida she is not a particularly unique queen, and one of the things Ru looks after in her winners is uniqueness. Although she is very versatile, her main style is something we have seen before. Personally she reminds me of Aquaria, although if you ask me—and here’s where a probably unpopular opinion quicks in—Gigi has a wider range than her. There are also traces of Raja and Violet, so that could play against her.

Self-sabotage

Gigi showed she can laugh at herself and be goofy, and given her good performances at the improv challenges and the snatch game I was surprised to see her fail the way she did at the commercial and debate challenges. Her performance at the one-woman show was “fine” and her make over challenge was mediocre, which is kind of unforgivable for a look queen because you expect them to excel. Sometimes it seemed as if she was trying too hard, but my guess is after performing so well she thought Ru and the judges wanted more, and her fear of failing is what brought her to fail. She chose to put her silly side aside, completely forgetting Ru likes it when queens just let go and have a good time.

Crystal Methyd: She needs to bring her A+ game to the lip syncs. If she manages to channelize her charm and uniqueness into friday’s performance then watch out, because it won’t matter if she is not as polished as Gigi and Jaida. Ru will choose a queen with a heart over a pretty face, as long as said queen gives her all.

Pros:

Uniqueness

Although her style is similar to other queens, she injects her performances with her own sense of humor and fashion. It is always amazing when a “different” queen does good in the competition and it makes you root for her.

Attitude

Crystal is one of the most kindhearted queens to have ever been on the show. She is likable and has a heart the size of the world and she won over all of us. If there’s one thing I like about Crystal is she enjoys what she is doing and she is obviously having so. much. fun. It is not common for queens to have this approach to the competition.

Growth

No queen grew during the season as much as Crystal did. Period. The glow up she had was just impressive and extremely pleasing to look at and it makes you feel proud of her. She listened to the judge’s critiques without altering what made her unique and Ru likes that. No choice but to stan.

Storyline

I don’t really like it when fans talk about queens getting the “villain edit” or the “winner edit”, what I do think is queens have a storyline because Drag Race is a tv show after all, so you have to be able to see the queens’ journey from start to finish. Having said that, out of the three finalists Crystal has the best storyline. She is the underdog, the queen you thought was going to leave first, and she fought her way to the top against all odds.

Age

Just like I said with Gigi, when picking the season’s winner Ru leans towards younger queens. Crystal is 29, and although she is older than Gigi she is the same age Bebe, Sharon, Bob and Sasha were when they won (okay Bebe was 28 but in order for this to work I’m gonna say they were all the same age).

Cons:

Talent

Like Ru said, charisma and uniqueness can only take you so far. Obviously Crystal is a talented queen (she wouldn’t have reached the top if she weren’t), but objectively speaking I think Jaida and Gigi are on a different level than her. She grew a lot, yes, but with her there’s still room for improvement while both Jaida and Gigi are already excellent. I see her more as the lovely runner-up than as America’s Next Drag Superstar.

Record

In terms of record Crystal is the weakest out of the three queens. She came close to being in the bottom a couple of times, she had to lip sync for her life once and it took her a while to warm up, but once she did she stayed in the top. However, her weak start could play against her.

Odd queen

I doubt Ru will have odd queens winning back-to-back seasons, especially since I think Yvie was a better queen than Crystal.

Snatch Game performance

Tyra and Yvie are the only queens who went on to win their season despite performing poorly at the Snatch Game, and although Crystal didn’t have to lip sync for her life she was in the bottom three.

#team jaida #team gigi #team crystal #jaida essence hall #gigi goode #crystal methyd #rupaul's drag race #rpdr #drag race #rupaul season 12 #rupauls drag race

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fatbottombucky · 5 years

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Sometimes... I think he’s here *Billy Hargrove x Reader*

Summary: Reader suffers ptsd after the Mind Flayer battle. Most importantly, everywhere he turns he sees Billy. Reminded of his once friend, and past crush.

Pairing: Implied/platonic Billy X [M]Reader

Warnings: Stranger Things spoilers/ character death/ angst mixed with feels, and a lot of gay fluff- use of the words “fag” -light homophobic tendencies

Note: I know Billy is this ignorant asshole but I get a feeling within me that he’d actually like attention from anyone. So when reader, Will’s older brother (but year younger than Jonathan) helps him pick up chicks, whilst having a gay crush on him- he wouldn’t be as dick-ish to him. He’d still be a complete asshole, but he’d have moments. And those moments are what reader keeps remembering

Idk really know what I wrote. I just really feel like Billy was screwed over. They had a chance to really pull another Steve, give a shitty character a good character development, but they kinda did it- only to kill him (and before people come at me, I hated s1 Steve a bit. But he redeemed himself, ya know)

First time you interacted with Billy was at Byers house. The night he beat Steve up and you high tailed outta there with his car- Max driving.

~~The second time... you’re alone at the video store. Picking some stupid movie to watch as you did homework. He walked in, an air of calmness about him. His hands deep in his jacket pockets, the white shirt underneath hardly buttoned. His hair hardly styled at all- you assumed anyway.

He languidly walked to the horror section, meaning his standing opposite you, flipping through the VHS covers with a laziness of movement. He doesn’t even look at you or even realise you’re there. Does he even care? Probably, not. Max said he’s pretty much not talked to her, but they seem to be on mutual playing fields.

“Tammy loves horrors,” you find yourself speaking up but your eyes cast at the trashy romance movies in front of you, you can feel his stare. “She’s the one you’re seducing tonight, right?”

He scoffs, “what’s it to you?” His voice is deep with his demand of an answer.

“She’ll completely ignore your advances if you pick a horror, trust me. I grew up with Tammy, the girl is a horror junkey.” You pluck a movie, making show of turning it to read the summary on the back.

There’s a silence and you think he’s wondered off, steering clear of your weirdo self.

“What would you suggest then, Byers?” You look up in time to see him cock an eyebrow, his head nodding for you to go ahead and make his night.

You turn around abruptly and walk towards the action section, Billy hot on your tail.

“Oh, there he goes,” Arms crossed across his broad chest; amused by this. He watched as you pick up a movie, First Blood.

“She hates action, she’ll get bored and likely make the first move,” you watch as he frowns with your choice. “Don’t Like First Blood?”

“Love it,” that surprises you. “Snuck into the theatre to see it when it came out,” he takes the movie from you and flashes a grin. “Thought you were queer, and hated me.”

Statement not entirely false. You look away because that seems to be the news, you’re gay and that means clearly there’s something adherently wrong with you. You disliked Billy, yes. He’s an asshole, especially to your friends.

“Uh-I guess, I’m feeling super gay enough to help you out,” you shrugged and expected him to leave, but he laughed.

“I appreciate the insider knowledge, especially if it gets me laid, Byers,” he pays your shoulder a little too roughly but you smile slightly. “If you’ve screwed me over though, Imma beat you up worse than I did to Harrington.” ~~

You’re staring blankly at the empty action aisle. Your eyes emotionless, body slack and complacent. You didn’t know how long you’d be off in your own little world, long enough to get Steve and Robin concerned, both watching as you blink out of your trance.

“Y/N, bro, you okay?” Robin calls and you look at her, nodding quickly and walking over to the duo. “Been staring at that crappy Rambo movie for a good ten minutes,” she tilts her head.

“First Blood isn’t crappy,” you defend a little harshly, Steve raises his eyebrows, “uh-sorry. I’m feeling a little tired, I’ll see you later,” you softly touch Steve’s shoulder before exiting.

You get into your car and start it up, a deep sigh leaving your body.

It had been two months since that night. The night you battled the Mind Flayer, the night Eleven (and you) got to Billy, finally, only it was all in vain. At least, he was himself when he died but he shouldn’t have died anyway.

You stop at a red light, almost home.

“Byers,” you look up from the drivers window to see Hargrove stepping to you, smirk settled on his pretty face, “I owe you one.”

You frowned, eyebrow raising at his cocky smile. Only it fades when he leans down, resting an arm on top of you car, his face at level with your own. You short circuit cause, woah, his eyes are that blue. His earring dangles as he tilts his head, a smirk pulling up the right side of his mouth.

“Wow,” you’re snapped outta your daze, “you’re such a fag.” He taps the roof and raises his eyebrows in a mocking expression, “just wanted to tell ya it worked, got into Tammy’s pants last night. But clearly you’re getting some gay boner over me,” he chuckles when you scoff, rolling your eyes.

You sighed a little, “You’re welcome, Billy. Glad I got you laid,” he smiled brightly at that. “Betta get going before everyone at schools think you’re gay too, cause that’s how it works- clearly.”

Billy stopped you, “Ohh, no, you’re not getting off that easy. I’ve scored a date with Stacey... Dw-“ he stops himself to think and you raise your eyebrows, “she’s got really big boobs and, I think, blonde hair.”

“You think?” You chuckled as he shrugged, “sounds like Jessica Randell,” he nodded, clicking his fingers because it sounded familiar to him, “I swear, what girls see in you, I don’t know, you’re impossible.” ~~

A car honking draws you from the memory, you quickly start your car back up, signalling an apology before driving home.

You laid down on your bed, room half packed up and memories all boxed away. Except one. The red lifeguard cap, sitting aimlessly on top a pile of clothes. It sparked interactions you had forgotten, willed yourself to not dwell on, only because it’s what sparked... a weird thing between you Hargrove, an unspoken thing. Working that summer job, with Billy, was singularly the best decision you ever had.

~~He walked with such an air of confidence you forgot to get down from the lifeguard chair. The whistle was carelessly drapped around his neck, swaying with each precise step he took.

Everyone noticed him. Girls watched with seductive eyes - even mums, kind of disturbing but you didn’t dwell on it- guys watched from afar, either willing to be him or loathing him.

Working this job has been kind to Billy. It gave him the ability to rule all, to assert his dominance across the swimming civilians. It allowed him to have attention, something you’ve realised he craves, a lot. He likes people looking at him. He also got a nice tan, plus he was allowed to use the gym within the building for free, so he really toned up.

“You know,” his voice snaps you back, “I was grossed out by your staring for a while but it’s growing on me.”

You quickly step down, cheeks and body warming up at being caught, plus his words. You can’t look at him, even through his aviators you can feel his smug stare.

“Do me a favour?” He leaned against the chair, crossing his arms as does, “go get me a bottled water?” His smile is infectious, too.

You nod silently and walk off towards the vending machine, passing the lounging mothers who are bidding for Billy’s attention. You turn to see who he’s picked today, his up in the chair, glasses on his head but he’s watching you like a hawk.

Almost tripping into the building you run to the machine, grabbing the loose change in your trunk pocket and shakily punching the buttons for his water. Why are you acting this way over him? It’s Billy Hargrove. You have no chance. Doesn’t mean you can’t admire and crush on him. **

In the locker rooms, as the other staff leave. You’re left alone with your thoughts. Only half dressed you can’t find it within yourself to actually get up and Leave.

“Byers,” Billy’s unsurprised voice makes you jump, you look up to see Billy in a towel as he walks passed you to his own.

This past week working alongside had been... weird. The comments, the looks, the weird attention he gave you. It was like he was messing with you, only it felt very serious and... flirty.

“I think,” you begin, “I might quit.” You don’t know why you tell him your plan, you look up to gage his reaction. He stops and looks at you.

“Gonna leave me?” Be fakes being wounded by your confession, but eyes give him away, he’s hurt by this news- maybe it’s because you’re actually friends with him. You go to speak but he stops you, “let me guess, to work at Scoops Ahoy?”

Venom laces his words. For the first time, in a long time, this is the Billy everyone knows making an appearance to you. He dislikes people walking out on him, leaving him first. He prefers to be the one to leave, you don’t know why and you’ve come to terms with the fact you’ll never really know him.

“Work alongside Steve Harrington, right?” He steps to you, you stand up and shake your head, “Don’t lie, Y/N, I know you’ve got some fucked up crush on him. I saw how you acted when he came by yesterday,” so he is watching you.

“...I’ll stay,” you mutter, “if you want me to.”

His breathing his rapid. Making his shoulders move up and down with his intakes and exhales, his nostrils flare and he frowns. He looks away, confusion and worry etching on his face... he’s scared.

“It’s okay,” you mumble, “besides... be a fool to give up this job,” he looks at you, “I mean, get paid to see you shirtless. Kinda a win, right?” You nod once, an affirmation of understanding.

You both dress in silence. Not looking at one another due to what just happened, he may have not outright said it but you got it. He doesn’t want you to quit, or leave him, he may not know why... but you do. And you’re not gonna pressure him because it’s Billy, he still likes girls; you’re just some weird exception.

You glance at Billy, who is pulling on his jacket and not looking at you. Clearly having a mental battle of his own, you feel slightly guilty for putting him in there. Turning to the door, you sling your bag over your shoulder and grab the handle.

Then your slammed against it, pulled to face Billy. The air being slammed out of you, you barley have time to comprehend what’s happening before you feel lips on yours. They’re soft but dominant. The kiss radiates a lot of pent up emotions, it’s full of hatred passion, yet it’s nice.

His hands are pulling you to him, gripping the lapels of your jacket, your own are just softly holding his shoulders. He tilts your head up a bit, deepening the kiss and you taste mint- peppermint bubblegum to be exact. ~~

“Boys!?” Your mother calls loudly, shutting the front door. You don’t answer straight away, you will yourself up and towards the kitchen, “Oh, there he is. I haven’t seen you since yesterday morning-“

Her voice becomes faint to you as you stand staring at something on the table. Eyes unable to not look at it, they tear up because you had been searching for it.

“Where did you find that?” You choked out, Joyce looks at you and then to the table.

Motel 6 key lays casually on top. Door number 106, motel a few miles away from Brimbone Steel Warehouse.

“Oh, it was in that tattered up jacket of yours,” she studies you for a moment. You nod, a faint “Oh” leaving you. “...wanna talk about it?” Voice soft.

~~ “Leaving so soon?” You look up, a smile gracing your face as Billy saunters up to you.

You hadn’t talked about the kiss, well, kisses. Heavy make out sessions would be accurate, they’re always late at night. Secluded areas where no one can see you, often a few days between because Billy will kiss you but leave, won’t talk to you for a while- ends up talking to some girl at the pool- but comes back.

“Uh-Gotta pick up Will, take him to the mall,” you make show of grabbing your keys from your pocket. “See you tomorrow?” You step away but Billy grabs your forearm.

He steers you seat from prying eyes to a closet, you chuckle into the darkness about to make some stupid comment but lips are slotted over yours. Shutting you up.

Another set of keys is placed into your other hand, you pull away and look down in confusion before at Billy.

“I’ll see you tonight. Ten o’clock, don’t be late,” he pushes away from you before leaving the closet- not casting a look back. Your heart is beating rapidly cause you know what this means, and you’re nervous but excited. ~~

Your mother holds you as you cry into her shoulder, holding the key in your hand. The last day Billy was... Billy, he hadn’t shown up at the motel 6, you figured he changed his mind. You didn’t blame because, well, you weren’t anything special to him. Some weird game or phase, you didnt really care or minded. You don’t hear the front door open or feel the few stares at you.

“Sometimes... I think he’s still here,” you whisper. “I keep seeing him everywhere I look, I want to forget because I know- I know I didn’t matter to him, but-“ you break off and pull away.

“It’s okay,” you shake your head at her words, “he was your... friend, you’re gonna miss him.”

You sighed, finally seeing Max and Eleven watching you. A faint understanding of who you’re talking about, heck, apparently you were a significant memory in Billy’s life- so El says. You want to believe her, even if you did help Billy in his last moments, but you know, deep down, it was just a summer fling.

“I just want to leave this town,” you mutter.

Eleven watches you slink off to your room. The door closing softly.

~~ “Billy, look at me,” he blinks up from Eleven to you, tears running down his face as he holds Eleven under him.

Half himself, half the Mind Flayer still. His face tells you he wants to break free, his body and hands are still under its spell.

“Remember that day, at the video store?” Mike and Max tilt their head in confusion, “and I helped you pick a movie to bore Tammy into having sex with you? I like to think that was the start of our friendship,” you somehow chuckle despite the situation, Eleven glances from you to Billy, his hands softening enough for her to wiggle free. “Then I spent almost three hours with you, planning a date for Jessica- only she bailed, so we went to the arcade and you stole those kids tickets and I beat the high score on Mind Tricks.”

The noises around you becomes nothing as Billy stands, he’s panting and looking confused, yet terrified. Finally, he looks at you, blinking a few times.

“I bailed on Jessica,” he stutters out and you choke a little, “I bailed on her.” Is all he says before he faces the Mind Flayer. ~~

Your door opens and you see the girls, smiling softly at you. You raise an eyebrow at them, you hadn’t talked about that night with anyone. It was an unspoken request that no one brought up Billy around you, especially Max. You didn’t want them to ask about it because you don’t have answers, you just know that, you and Billy, had this unspoken connection- relationship- friendship- whatever it was.

Sometimes you get the feeling that if you never took that summer job... he’d still be alive.

“Wanna watch Back to The Future?” El asks with a soft smile.

(Check out my Steve Harrington fic HERE, let me know what you think also)

#stranger things one shot #stranger things imagine #stranger things x reader #billy hargove x reader #billy hargrove x male!reader #billy hargrove x male reader #billy hargrove x you #billy hargrove x y/n #billy hargrove one shot #billy hargrove imagine

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twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

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Re-Watch of 4x15: Us by @wdway

Today’s post is a rewatch of 4x15 done by @wdway. So this is a discussion between her, me and frangipanilove. Hope you guys enjoy it!

@wdway:

Here you go ladies, s4e15 Us, series number 50.

Eugene and Tara walking on the tracks, Eugene comments about foil and bleach making a homemade battery. Nothing new here but I felt with all the batteries that we see in this episode I just wanted to note it.

There's only one scene with Rick Michonne. There is something that Rick said here I wanted to point out. He mentions that "we have a day's worth of water left." Nothing particularly odd about that but it sets a tie to Rick and water=Beth.

In watching especially Abe & company I was struck by the fact that this episode really emphasizes the passage of time between the prison escape and this episode. The trees are in full fall colors and everyone is wearing heavier clothes.

There are several number 3 mentions of this episode. The first one was Joe when he talks about loving cats since he was 3. Then we have Rosita’s mention of 3 left turns. Eugene mentions 3 when he says that Maggie's group would be walking at 3 miles per hour. I count 3 mentions of the number 3.

Now for what I noticed, and this happens early on before the opening credits. Glenn and company find a Terminus sign that Maggie has written on. He takes off running and this is what I want to show you.

I cropped it to emphasize what I want you to see, and maybe this has been talked about before, but it really struck me when I saw it. There between Glenn and Tara you see a "W" sign. We have talked so much about the one that is so prominent behind Daryl but have we really talked about this one?

We always have associated it with the Wolves, which I think is true. This time watching though, I had a different reaction to seeing it and what it could foreshadow. We see Glenn running when he passes it in search of Maggie. I think that's important for the reason that he finds her within this episode (it happens quickly).

This particular, first "W," I truly believe represents the wolves and the story line for it comes into play for Glenn in s6A when the wolves invade AZ and Glenn has his death fake out. It ends happily though with his second reunion with Maggie.

I'm sure you both have realized where I'm about to go with Daryl and the "W." I believe this W stands for Whisperers.

And before I say anything else, I want to point out that in the shot of Glenn running Tara is also there but Tara is standing still, she was present for both the W's the Wolves and the Whisperers.

Back to Daryl and how we see him on the railroad tracks. He's just gone under a bridge. He is slowly walking with the "W" staying in the frame for quite a while. His "W" represents both the Wolves but especially the Whisperers. His journey will be much slower and much longer.

Daryl and Joe exchange cat stories with the "W" lingering in the background for so very, very long. They then moved into the garage and we have discussed this garage many times. I thought that we had found everything that could be found and yet…

This is where Lenny accuses Daryl of stealing his half of the rabbit. It's the truck in the background I want you to look at. I talked about this truck just last week, asking if the type of truck was the same type of truck that Denise rode in on her last day.

Looking at the scene just a few hours ago when I was getting a different shot, what occurred to me is this truck’s back tailgate is down. Would that not be the equivalent of a trunk being open? And notice the blue on the inside of the truck bed. Just as a reminder, earlier in the episode when they first arrived at the garage, we could clearly see the license tag that is the same as the tag of the car Beth was taken away in.

This is a wonderful shot of the Lincoln Continental. That's was the same type of vehicle that Daryl and Beth hid in the trunk in Still. This time though, I notice how the door is standing open. It reminded me of the Grady police car when they were kidnapping the officers for the exchange. The driver's car door was left open.

That car also had the same tag as the truck and as the vehicle that took Beth away. This car does not have the trunk open. You can barely see it but to the far left, the tarp has been pulled off because it had been covered/ hidden. if you look through the window, there is something leaning against the wall that could possibly be a trunk cover that had been taken off, but I do not know that for a fact.

Ever so slightly out of view in the shot to the left, just past the car, is a red fire extinguisher. We see it several times during the scene of Daryl with it in the. I love how all these things tie together to symbolically represent Beth. I feel it’s very important after seeing the "W".

Daryl's trash bag is something that's been discussed an awful lot. A question though: have we ever talked about the red object just above the AMC logo? Do we know what it is, other than a red symbol? Because I do have a theory of what it could be. I used to have something similar. When I was a little girl, I had a drinking glass but it was made of plastic and it folded down with a closed top. You opened it and raised different plastic folds up and it made a drinking glass.

We get to see the "W" sign before Daryl enters the garage and just as he leaves. Just as with Glenn, he was searching for and eventually found Maggie. I think the "W" also represents that Daryl will search much longer but he will eventually find Beth.

We see 2 happy reunions between Glenn and Maggie, one in this episode then one at AZ after the wolf attack. The 3rd reunion is with the Saviors in the open field when they are brought together (6x16). That reunion was not a happy one as it ended with Glenn's death.

Daryl and Beth had a reunion at Grady but it ended sadly. We do not know if there was another reunion, a second one that we just haven't seen, but eventually I think a 3rd reunion will be their final reunion and will be a happy one. Maybe that's what the 3's represent.

I hope you found something interesting about this. Nothing earth-shattering. We've talked about this episode so many times. It's so different to watch these early episodes when we're at the end of S10 and have figured out a lot of the symbols that we were clueless about in earlier seasons.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I really liked your discussion of the Ws. I’m not sure we have talked about the one behind Glenn before. I don’t know that I’ve ever noticed it. If I did, I think I just subconsciously decided it was the same one near Daryl or something. I’ll have to think about this more, but I totally agree with your interpretation about Wolves and Whisperers. I also like your discussion of the truck and the Lincoln. All of this just backs up the idea that S4 was one big foreshadow. So, I was thinking that the Lincoln obviously represents Beth and the truck, Denise. And Daryl lost them both in some way. But what does this scene lead to? It leads to Lenny’s death, right? So, I have two possible thoughts on what that sequence might foreshadow. On the one hand, Lennie is something of a foil to Daryl. He’s a jerk, possibly a sexual predator (his “little ‘uns” comment) and quite frankly, a punk and a douchebag.

And while Daryl has a history (in earlier seasons) of getting in people’s faces, we all know that at heart he’s none of those things. So I wonder if Lennie’s death represents Daryl “killing” the negative side of him emotionally. In fact, it’s not until after Lennie dies and we learn that Daryl was going to leave the Claimers that he finds Rick and Michonne again. So not until after he makes emotionally positive choices does he get the reunion. In terms of it being paid off, we’ve seen him not only being depressed in past seasons but in S8 he was pretty homicidal, killing people right and left. Now, he’s parenting Lydia and taking on leadership, so we’ve seen him shed that negative emotional side of himself. So, just another way of saying that the “reunion” is right on top of us. The other option I’m seeing is that Lenny May be a foreshadow of Beta. There’s the rape angle again (the Whisperers have a rape culture in the CBs), the fact that Beta and Daryl have had personal conflicts with one another, and we’ve definitely seen ways in which they’ve made Beta a foil to Daryl.

So maybe Lennie represents Daryl finally killing Beta and as you said, there’s a W in the background. So maybe after Beta’s death or perhaps in conjunction with it, we’ll see Daryl’s reunion with Beth. Anyway, those are my stray thoughts. Really love your rewatch!

@frangipanilove:

I enjoyed reading your rewatch summaries! I looked into the car from the Denise scene, and I don’t think it’s the same car. But in my opinion, that doesn’t really make the comparison any less interesting. The cars look similar, and there was so much symbolism in the Denise scene that ties it to Beth. For instance, they had to stop because of a tree blocking the road and there was alcohol etc. I loved your take on the open tailgate on the truck from “us”. Totally agree, it counts as an open trunk. There’s a lot of symbolism hidden in plain sight in that garage scene from “Us”.

I’m also intrigued with the discussion of Lennie as a Daryl foil. Foil means “sort of same, but opposite” right? I remember Daryl getting drunk on Southern Comfort in S1. And in s4 we get Lennie who wears a jacket with the text “Southern Discomfort” and the Confederate flag on his back. I don’t have an elaborate analysis on it, but it’s something that always stood out to me. It seemed intentional.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yes, @Frangi, foil basically means opposite but with specific touch point similarities. And the traits in one emphasize the opposite traits in another. So, we talked about this with Beth and Alpha. Obviously, Beth is good and Alpha is evil, and that’s how they’re opposites. But Alpha is opposite in that way to all good characters (Rick, Michonne, Daryl, etc). But we saw specific similarities between her and Beth, such as an emphasis on child and baby care. The way in which Alpha was abusive and, you know, left babies in the field to be walker chow, emphasized Beth’s goodness, protectiveness and nurturing nature. So while Alpha is the opposite to other characters, she’s a foil to Beth. They put in similarities between Daryl and Lennie and Daryl and Beta, even though in each case one is good and one is evil. Sort of like anti-parallels. That’s what makes them foils.

Hope you all found some value in this discussion. These rewatches don’t always yield super-groundbreaking stuff, but it’s fun not go back and see how these symbols have been there all along. It just reinforces that our current theories are on the right track.

Thanks to @wdway for doing the re-watch for us!

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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thewafflewhat · 4 years

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who tf is out there calling s3 the best season of glee in the year of our lord 2020?????? especially when s2 is Right There???????

like not to be posting about glee on main in 2020 but what the fuck?????????

s3 can fuck the actual fuck off in literally every single aspect and anyone calling s3 of glee not only good but G R E A T was clearly either not there watching as the episodes for that cursed season actually aired or was super young when it aired and has their nostalgia goggles firmly on

multiple characters went entire episodes (which sometimes meant entire months) without saying a fucking word???? quinn fabray (one of the main characters since s1) literally didn’t have a single line for at least two episodes if not more??? jenna ushkowitz got paid just to sit around and react to everyone else on the show complaining about their shitty problems???? and then when she DID get a storyline it was about tina learning to stfu and let rachel have the spotlight like rachel had already been doing the whole season???? darren got a gig on broadway so the writers wrote his character out of the show for a few episodes but both dianna and jenna (and more!!!) went missing from some scenes (and some whole episodes) mid season with zero explanation and no one said a fucking word???? brittany doesn’t even get to speak to her girlfriend in the episode that both her and her girlfriend get forcibly outed to the whole of ohio state and then the next time they get to speak to each other it’s about some stupid sex tape bc that’s all wlw relationships are apparently????? for the entire fucking season all the lines and solos went to characters who were already getting all the fucking lines and all the fucking solos??? s3 literally becomes the blandchel/f*nchel show?????? and the only acknowledgement of all this fucking bullshit comes in the form of meta lines spat back at our faces verbatim to explain away the bad writing

“quinn’s finally getting good things after we wrote her with confusing characterisation for a season and a half? hit her with a truck!!!!” “mercedes wants the lead role for the musical but so does rachel so fuck mercedes she’s a bitch say goodbye to any decent mercedes storylines for the rest of the season!!” “santana gets outed to the whole of ohio state? it’s her own fault but only bc we wrote her into being extra mean and bitchy and ooc to show she deserved it!!!!!!!” “brittany’s stupid so duh she’s not graduating she got a 0.0 gpa y’all but hey puck’s sad about not graduating so let’s get the whole glee club to help him graduate” “emma’s been struggling with her ocd for multiple seasons now so we could show her finally becoming comfortable with touch organically orrrrrrr we could just make wemma having sex for the first time a reward for will” “finn’s the show’s hero but we won’t back that up in context bc there’s no showing in glee only telling!!!!”

god and if the majority of the storylines weren’t bad enough just add in some the bts bullshit that happened just for s3

probably the biggest thing that springs to mind for me is the new writers getting into a petty argument with the brittana fandom arguing that brittana had already kissed long before production for 3.13 ever started when the truth was 1) they hadn’t and 2) both ryan and brad had confirmed they hadn’t and instead of apologising for acting like little children they continued to chide and make fun of fans on social media bc nothing says I respect your opinion like mocking the people it matters to the most huh

now I don’t pretend to like kl*ine but they got little to no screentime for developing their relationship past 3.05 they got regulated to background interactions and got whole scenes cut while the writers still managed to keep all the fucking f*nchel scenes (they really let f*nchel suck face just about every fucking episode sometimes multiple times per episode while not even letting their two biggest same sex couples kiss (or y’know... even fucking interact with each other) onscreen despite seeing how much it meant to fans on twitter and instead of fixing the shitty double standards they made fun of fans within the show but yay the gayest show on television!!)

and perhaps the most hurtful thing was the glee writers genuinely seeing queer girls trying to explain why 3.07 was such a clusterfuck and all round gross fucking episode and either straight up ignoring concerns or responding by giving what should’ve been santana’s biggest storyline of that season to karofsky (a character we only saw like 3 times all season bc the writers shipped him out of mckinley high so fucking early in the season just so they wouldn’t have to give him his character development onscreen) giving his outing the nuance it deserved and allowing the characters in universe AND the audience at home to see how utterly devastating being outed before you’re ready can be... the worst thing about this one is the parallels between santana and karofsky both being characters that began as one dimensional bullies that grow as characters across the show but dave’s outing is seen as sympathetic whereas santana deserved it... the writers could’ve written santana’s coming out in that way too but they didn’t and they made the straight white guy who outed her into the saviour of her story when dave was allowed to be the saviour of his own story in the end

and as a brittana stan I’ll leave you with this thought: in 3.13 (arguably one of the best episodes of the whole season) the writers finally let brittana kiss 9 whole episodes after they officially got together just to shut fans up but they still managed to basically not let brittana speak to each other (or barely let brittany speak at all) for the whole episode and y’all wanna stan T H A T??? get off my lawn you fucking clowns

#soz I’m watching some guy react to the episodes I like and he’s just finished s2 #people in his comments saying things like ‘one of the best seasons I’d say’#'downhill after s3' as if s3 even managed to pull of the sort of ratings s2 did #bless the person who wrote the long comment about s2 being the best #also bless the person with a brittany icon who said s3 isn’t that great bc it becomes about finn and rachel and 50% of it is boring #but anyway #bruh I spent like 2 whole hours typing all this bc I started getting fired up about it and couldn't stop #I put it under a cut to spare everyone lmao #s3 aired 8/9 years ago and I'm still fucking mad about it #s3 lovers don't fucking interact I don't wanna speak to any of you #I mean it's fine I'm sure I've got basically all the s3 lovers blocked bc y'all are fucking W R O N G but still #and finally #glee #lol glee #for my own tags #I want it properly recorded on my blog that I am still a salty ass bitch about this

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captainharunanase · 5 years

Text

Sigh...

I had Allurance for a moment only for vld to make it a ghost ship with Lance now forever pining after Allura's death.

Shiro was finally able to be the "White Paladin" of the team but he barely interacted with them or even looked at Keith.

Hunk and Pidge had amazing screentime but Matt and a few others got sidelined and forgotten.

And Keith? He apparently wasn't even in Shiro's "wedding" with that rando--Curtis--even though he pretty much has been implying since s1 that Shiro is his family and his guiding light so therefore someone he would always be there for especially in his ups and downs of life.

Sheith held on all this time only to act like coworkers in the finale but not anything more like they have forgotten how to be best friends until it was convenient for the plot.

And Allura? The girl who lost everything? She ended up being almost like Honerva--sacrificing everything that is her to help her new family get their happy endings even though she could never attain hers.

I loved the fighting, the mecha transformations, the development of the MFEs, the plot, and the final showdown against Haggar but--

--To give Lance and Allura happiness and hint on giving her a new belonging only to stripe it away as a "price" all while "subtlety" diminishing Keith and Shiro's importance to each other to make their disjointed individual endings "make sense" outside of their s1-s7 buildup and somehow mesh both ships to fail in the end as a "this was the only way to save the universe" ploy-----

--Despite the damn show constantly paralleling the lesson on how Zaggar's love turned to a twisted hate that destroyed the universe and it was up to literally Allurance and even Sheith's love that actually saved the galaxy throughout the series--

----Only to rip both ships off as a sacrifice to satisfy the plot just enough to "justify" their demise as a means to an end. That metaphorical 'smoking gun' we expected to go off at the end? Over Allurance and Sheith? Was nothing but an illusion and wasn't even loaded to begin with apparently.

It is aggravating and disappointing.

I really loved this whole season but that last episode completely went against it's own theme.

They wouldn't have let Allura sake herself let alone let her do it alone--even with Honerva.

Lance wouldn't have even accepted the thought of Allura with that dark entity in her for long or even allow her to die or even worse be forced to love her ghost for the rest of his human life.

Allura wouldn't have wanted Lance to pine after her and not move on from her. She wouldn't have asked that of him by giving him her marks as a way of keeping a part of her quintessence in him.

Keith wouldn't just estrange himself from the one person that made up his whole universe especially after his oath to Shiro of always being there. He, at least, should have been the best man in the wedding if he was the selfless type to watch the canonical love of his life get with someone else.

And Shiro? He wouldn't have remained sidelined til the very end when they only needed him for his Atlas to only help boost Voltron and he clearly, while became a pseudo-Paladin for a moment, did not make any direct change or impact on the 6-man team. He especially should have had a direct moment of any form of romantic attraction with someone in the show and not as a damn fucking footnote of a "One Year Later" offscreen and unwritten romance with a character we didn't even know the name of at first nor should Shiro's final arc be seen as a "oh btw he got married and retired? Idk we keeping it vague so we give you lgbt rep!"

Despite the clearly, already written in the show, deeper bond he has had with Keith since even before s1 and that now makes his supposed bond with Keith a moot point and now unnecessary since it did not deliver in any way or reach a pinnacle in the climax nor did it have any proper closure to even indicate whether it could have or couldn't have been in the first place.

I have a lot of amazing points I would have shared earlier if I hadn't watched the last episode but that last scene completely turned the whole s8 around it's own head and practically told it to go fuck itself.

They try to amend it with a cheap superficial "Praise Allura Day" and despite a few of the team indeed having some form of ending--the main cast which consists of Keith, Shiro, Allura and yes Lance too by his association with her as her boyfriend--was literally given the short end of the stick.

Keith was sidelined and not allowed to act but be an observer at the end with none of his usual prowess, Lance now forever will chase after Allura's ghost and be haunted by her, Allura, herself, died for literally no reason than to right Honerva and Zarkon's wrongs, and Shiro wasn't allowed to even be a part of his paladin family and only there to remind people--at the last 5 seconds--that he's gay and apparently not single anymore with literally a no-name guy (actually it's Curtis but I had to look that shit up) that looked too much like Adam for my liking and while completely disregarding everything he did for Keith and vise versa.

Man that last episode is like Bleach's last chapter.

A completely different almost rewritten reality from the entire series itself. It overturned all the canonization of seven seasons under one episode.

And whether it was DreamWorks or JDS & LM's doing is irrelevant.

While it was an incredibly impactful season it did it with a fucking high cost.

Not about the ships per say--except Allurance for why make it happen only to destroy them immediately later?--but rather the complete turn arounds it had to do to try and justify why they made it that way.

That is what's so aggravating and disappointing.

Not the plot.

But the writing standpoint of trying to explain plotpoint A to upside down B. In a way, they became Haggar themselves and rewrote B and inverted it to make no sense whatsoever but pretend that it was "the only way" for it to end.

I expected an open ending for Sheith or actual development of Keith with Acxa and Shiro with Curtis if need be--and it had to be extremely good--but they couldn't even do that right.

And Allurance? They planned for Lance and Allura since the beginning but apparently the price Lance had to pay for his happy ending was her life out of the blue and at the last second.

And that hurts me.

This isn't as bad as Bleach's notorious ending but this is a definite close second at how they completely turned things around to try and make the ships happen just so they can fail while preaching how the theme of vld is found family and true love saving the universe.

Too bad the main trio--plus Lance now too--weren't allowed to partake in that lesson or in true happiness.

I still love Allurance and I will always love Sheith.

But what they did to Allura and Shiro completely ruined both Lance and Keith's endings.

And that breaks my heart to see it as the price they paid for daring to love them and trying to make them happy.

Lance can't truly be happy now since he can't move on and let Allura go or rather he won't to keep her memory alive in him.

And Keith didn't even get to watch the man he loved get with someone else and is now estranged from his best friend he swore he loved so much he literally was willing to die with Shiro and allow the universe to pay for it.

And what of Pidge and Hunk? We know what they accomplished but what about their personal lives? Is Hunk with Shay? Is Pidge still single? Is Matt still with his girlfriend? What of Acxa and the others? It is so vague with no clear answer and that is also disheartening.

Ah, sorry for my ramble. I stayed up to watch it from 3am and it's now almost 9am as I finish typing this jumbled vent post.

I'm both happy it's over and saddened it ended that way. While I didn't expect Sheith to happen I never imagined it like this and while I hoped for Allurance I didn't want them to pay the price for loving each other to the point of ending them.

I'm sad but I won't take it out on the writers--idk if I trust them at the moment--but I am still grateful they gave me Shiro and so many other characters to love.

I just hope they understand what they did and how much they disappointed nearly everyone with this "twist" ending.

Imma go sleep now I still have a lot to process.

I thought we'd get to see them all get happy endings but apparently only half of them did.

And last but not least no one suffered more than Coran when he found out--I feel so broken for him the most since he couldn't keep the promise to King Alfor to keep Allura safe--which is what his whole point in life was and what defined him as both a mentor and father-uncle figure to Allura and his new family.

And I think that's the one that hurts the most.

Okay I'm tired and sleepy so I'll be sure to interact with yall later for better analysis of s8 when I'm in a better state of mind.

Peace out yall.

Edit: Keith apparently IS in the wedding but he’s literally behind Shiro the whole time that it took me a few rewinds to see his ponytail and slight show of his profile. Geez way to hide him from the camera angle DW it almost made it look like he wasn’t even there if you didn’t pay attention behind Shiro and gave us the impression he wasn't there to begin with.

#voltron #sheith #legitallurance #spoilers #long post #zakksu post

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adangerousbond · 6 years

Text

Breathe Easy

Had this written after the S1 finale and forgot to post, only did a quick touch up, so may have some errors.

I was a massive Castle fan so figured I would give Take Two a go and ended up enjoying it a lot, it's sort of a simpler, less serious version but still with some pretty great characters and the story lines might be a bit tropy but a good light-hearted US summer show. If you haven’t checked it out, you really should.

Fingers crossed for season 2!

Read below or at ff.net or AO3

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Enjoy!

He stepped out into the waiting room, fully expecting to be greeted by his team or at the very least his energetic partner, so the sight of only his old partner walking towards him threw him for a moment. Eddie reached his hand out, giving the older man a half hug while he shook his hand and ignoring the disappointment.

"Glad to be a free man?" Zeus asked, directing him out of the station.

"I'm concerned about Deacon's next move more than anything." Eddie responded honestly as he got into the black SUV, his tone tired.

"Take the win for what it is, every battle counts in a war." The seemingly universal bartender voice full of understanding and knowledge coming through his words as he gave his advice.

"Is everyone okay?" Eddie asked, watching in confusion as they turned at a set of lights they should have gone straight through, before realising he was being taken to his apartment not his office, where he expected everyone would be.

"Berto's chancing down a lead still, he should be back this evening and Monica and Sam should be back at the office." Zeus explained, brushing over the team's whereabouts as it was not a topic he had been wanting to get into too early within the drive.

"Is Sam okay?" His old partner finally asking the question he knew would have been bugging him since she hadn't been in the station.

"She's as good as she could be, considering." The older man stated, sighing as he continued, having missed the usually bright and bubbly actress over the past week. "Monica has been keeping an eye one her, she's been quiet but she has been focused."

"Sam quiet, now I am concerned." The humour that had been intended in the sentence not quite making it into the delivery.

"She's kept herself together, but she's not good at keeping herself out of the way of danger." Zeus chuckled sightly, if there was one thing she had definitely picked up on in all her years as playing a cop, it was how to run head first into danger.

"What happened?" Eddie asked, his rising concern evident in his words, wishing that they could go straight to the office where he could see her, but suppressing his wish as he knew Zeus wouldn't be taking a detour to his apartment if she was in actual danger right now.

"She forced herself on to a recon Berto and I were doing on one of Deacon's men, then thought it would be a good idea to jump in his car as he made a getaway. He ran them off the road, which did help because it meant we did get to question him after all."

"Is she okay? Why didn't anyone tell me?" Eddie near growled, hating that he hadn't been there to keep her out of danger, even if a small voice in his head was telling him that no one could have stopped her.

"A few cuts and bruises, but she was lucky." Zeus answered the first part of the question, pulling into a park and turning to his friend before answering the second part. "We all agreed it would be better for you not to have the added worry, especially Sam, she wouldn't stand for anyone to mention it, and your partner, she can be quite scary."

The pair made their way into the familiar office, the first thing Eddie noticed was the silence; no one was around, and the second thing was the mess. The usually neat and tidy office was covered in case files, notes and take out containers, his team had clearly been working non-stop since he had been arrested and he knew he had only gotten out as quickly as he had because they had worked as hard as they had to prove his innocence.

"Guess they stepped out for a bit, nothing to worry about I'm sure." His friend spoke up after ducking his head in the doors in an attempt to locate someone.

"It all happened quickly, do they know I got released?" He asked, realising they may not have been informed yet and could still be out in the line of fire for him.

"They knew that Christine and your lawyer were putting forward all the information that we had to prove your innocence, but she only called me to pick you up, I did text everyone once you were on your way." Zeus explained that the team had only recently found out that their long hours had actually paid off.

"Why would Chris only tell you?" Eddie questioned, the information confusing him, especially because he knew that Christ knew about Sam and him.

"She was worried about Sam, she had to ban her from coming into the station and I think she wanted to ensure it all went smoothly." Zeus stated, the ding of the elevator drawing both of their attentions instantly.

"Eddie!" Sam exclaimed, rushing off the elevator and flinging her arms around her partner, nearly spilling the coffee in her hand as she did.

"I'm okay." He whispered to the small brunette, holding her back even tighter and taking in her scent, as he was able to relax slightly for the first time since that night, even if he had caught a glimpse at some cuts on her face.

"Sorry we weren't here, we thought we would get lunch." Sam told the pair as she pulled back just enough to look at him, she felt the urge to kiss him but hesitated, they had not really determined much the week prior and now she was even less sure of what they were doing.

Her hesitation gave him the chance to take the injuries in her face in fully; he raised his hand to her face, gently tracing a long cut across her fore head. The action breaking her train of thought as she remembered he didn't know what had transpired and she didn't know what had happened to him in there.

"I'm okay." She spoke quieter than before, repeating his words as she pulled away fully and walking into the kitchen, Monica following behind with a bag of take out and a look of relief.

"Berto should be back in about 2 hours." Monica informed the room as she begun taking containers out of the bag she had placed on the bench.

"I'm going to head home, but let me know if you need anything." Zeus stated firmly, taking the food that Monica was handing him as he gave Sam and then Eddie a quick hug before heading towards the elevator.

"So are you out out?" Monica asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the room as everyone started on their food.

"Free as a bird. On this anyway, who knows what Deacon's next move is." Eddie responded dryly, he was never overly worried that they wouldn't be able to get him out, but no knowing what came next terrified him.

"Whatever it is, we'll beat him, we have to." Sam told him determinedly, a break to her tone telling him that she wasn't convinced of her own words, but she was trying to be.

"Or at least we will all die trying." Monica assured in in her usual confident way.

"That's what I'm worried about." Eddie grumbled, glancing sideways at the bruised woman next to him and he couldn't help but wonder what would be worse; losing her or losing the war.

The rest of the day went by quickly as they caught Eddie up to speed with what they had found and what they had done to get him out, Berto joining them with more caffeine and a tray of pastries. By the time the sun was setting and the Saturday nightlife in LA started waking up, Eddie had to all but demand that they call it for the day and that he didn't want anyone in the office until Monday, knowing they all needed the break.

"I'll give everyone a lift." Berto stated as he grabbed his keys from his desk.

"Where is my car?" Eddie asked, forgetting for a moment that he hadn't driven himself to the office.

"Still in the impound lot, we can sort it out on Monday." Berto explained, the girls already following him into the elevator, clearly having gotten used to Berto driving them home in the past week, having had moved the investigation to Sam's house when they had had enough of the office for the day.

Pulling up out the front of Eddie's apartment building first, a silence over took the car as Eddie made no move to exit. Sam had been unsure if she should go up with him, but one look at his quiet demeanour told her that he shouldn't be left alone, not that she had wanted to anyway.

"Come on, I'll walk you up." She told him, taking his hand for a moment as she opened her door with the other.

"Do you want me to wait?" Berto asked her quietly, when Eddie was half out of the car already, taking the silent shake of a head as her answer.

"Are we safe here?" Eddie asked her as they made their way into building, ignoring the looks from a few of its other tenants.

"Zeus went over your apartment and security; he triple checked everything and updated anything that needed updating." His small partner spoke as if rehearsed and he knew it was a question that was haunting her as well, moving his hand to her back, he pulled her into a sideways hug in an attempt to reassure them both.

Stepping off the elevator and onto his floor, he kept his hand on her back, he wasn't sure if they should be playing around with their boundaries, but he knew that right now he couldn't stop himself and she didn't appear to be able to either.

As they entered the apartment, she went straight over to a new box and started going over his new security features, something that made him feel safer than he had on the other side of his door. He watched her with a small smile, she was quiet and shaken; but she was strong and full of fight still, and he was drawing his strength back from her.

"Should we talk?" He asked, following her as she moved into his bedroom and collected a shirt of his to change in to, he was glad that she seemed to be staying on her own without him having to verbally ask.

"Not today. Today we need rest." She responded with a small smile, she had been trying to stay upbeat and supportive all day, but the exhaustion that she had been feeling all week was catching up on her, on them both.

They both set to getting ready to go to bed, the lull to the room further support to her statement that they needed the rest. Eddie sighed in content as he laid on his bed, a week on a thin mattress in a jail cell had almost made him forget that a mattress could be comfortable.

"You missed your bed most of all, didn't you?" Sam joked as she slid under the convers next to him, receiving a genuine smile in response.

"I do have some pretty good memories here." He spoke through closed eyes, his arm moving around her waist to keep her close as she moved up alongside him.

She hummed in response, the warmth, relief and safety cocooning around them, putting her to sleep almost as soon as she had laid down, his words basically lost on her. He peered through his eyes for a second, taking the moment in; he normally hated letting emotions in, but this was what he had fought to get back to and having something to fight for, made the fight more worthwhile.

Thanks for reading!

This is currently just a oneshot, but still undecided if I will continue or not, most likely will come down to if I get a chance to write another chapter.

#take two #take two abc #sam swift #eddie valetik #sam x eddie #oneshot #for now anyway #getting back into writing #so watch this space #may take prompts #for a whole range of shows

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