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#I moved into my own flat (which is a big deal because I feel very strongly about having my own space. I just wasn't physically able)
ebullientheart · 9 months
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roomies. spencer reid x reader
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content — fem!bau!reader. injured!reader. fluff. anonymous request. brief injury description. reader uses conditioner. making out.
when you no longer need your live-in doctor, you find you desperately want him to stay.
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you were absolutely fuming when the unsub shot you. just one, clean through the shoulder, that caused you to fall in a twist down the stairs, spraining your ankle. the chances of both of those events occurring had to be low, and spencer assured you of the statistics to back that theory up. just bad luck. fuming.
unfortunately, it also meant your life was substantially difficult to navigate while healing. you could barely shower, cook food, unlock doors, get changed. in fact it wasn’t ‘barely’, you just couldn’t. so the natural solution was to have your best friend move in with you while you were out of action entirely.
“it’s no big deal.” he shrugged. your best friend that you harboured secret feelings for, shrugged. no big deal.
there were some challenges.
“spencer,” you huffed for the tenth time that morning, “i am not swallowing those gross fish vitamins.”
he tutted at you, “they’re cod, and they’re going to help your sprain recover. valid studies have shown-”
awkwardly, you stood and used your uninjured arm to jab him in the chest, “i don’t care if they would grow me a whole new bone, they’re gross.”
it was weeks like that, when he wasn’t on cases. harmless bickering as he fussed over you like a newborn. but despite your teasing, you were not looking forward to the day he’d be moving back into his own apartment. it was nice, having someone to come home to. it took the sting out of the loneliness you felt, and you weren’t delusional for thinking he felt that way too. as your casts and slings were eased off, the both of you looked rather dejected, confusing the nurse tending to you greatly.
spencer nudged your good shoulder, “now you can help me box up my things.”
you’d gotten used to his things, though. his aftershave in the bathroom, his chess set by the couch. even his supposedly mobile library he’d moved into your apartment. you knew how empty it was going to feel.
in fear of that emptiness, you blurted it out on the car ride home from the hospital, “maybe you should stay a bit longer.”
“yeah?” he briefly took his eyes off the road to raise a brow at you, “you think you still need help?”
“i don’t need it.” you mumbled, picking the skin around your cuticles nervously. spencer noticed, and flicked your hands apart as a silent way of telling you not to do that. still taking care of you.
he didn’t push your declaration, just nodding, “okay. how long were you thinking?”
somewhere between a bated breath and a rush of words, you pushed out, “like, forever?”
this time, both his brows jumped and he had to clear his throat to stop his voice from cracking, “really? like roommates?”
no, like lovers, “yes, like roomies. nevermind, it was a stupid idea.”
“i don’t think so. i’d love to be… roomies.” the word sounded strange, too informal, coming from him, and it made you laugh. which made him smile.
after that very spencer-esque conversation, he moved the rest of his material belongings in, and put his flat up on listings. it sold fast, and you had to wonder why he’d agreed so rapidly, considering his place was notably nicer than yours. you had to wonder why he agreed at all, though it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone else that you hadn’t been able to separate. and the rest unfolded like one of the rom-coms you forced him to watch.
you no longer needed him to wash your hair over the side of the bath, which had at first been annoying because he did not wash the conditioner out properly. but now you missed it; it had become almost a bonding experience. that became true of a lot of things you’d adjusted to in the past months. him helping you into bed, you playing the wounded card to make him watch your shows on tv.
one thing that hadn’t changed was the sheer amount of card games you two played. you knew spencer was always going to win, but you tortured yourself with it anyway. one night, you were splitting the deck as you announced, “i’ve got a new game. it’s called rummy version two.”
before he could explain all the deviations rummy had from its origin over the years, making your game not a second version but at least an eighth, you rushed on to outline the rules. you were completely making it up as you went along, and continued adding to it as you played. it was impossible for you to lose, and spencer quickly figured out that you were bullshitting. for a profiler, you had a terrible poker face.
“you’re making this up.” he stated, putting his cards down.
you leant over the table, now able to rest pressure on your arm, and challenged, “prove it.”
there was a thick tension that had arisen suddenly between the pair of you, though the more you thought, the less sudden it seemed. maybe it had been building for a while. like the blush steadily rising to his cheeks as you got slightly closer to his face.
he smirked, “you’re winning.”
“rude. that doesn’t mean i’m-”
what it didn’t mean, spencer never got to hear, because it was at that moment he surged forward to close the remaining distance between your lips. you almost fell when you two collided, but his grip had attached to your upper arm to steady you. his kiss did not relent, demanding and speaking of all the impatience he’d felt recently. you responded likewise, threading your hands into his curls as soon as you got your balance, barely breaking for breath.
spencer’s skin on yours was something you had thought about more than you cared to admit, and with the fervour he was kissing you with, you thought he might’ve experienced the same. he was almost desperate against you, hands trailing to smooth over any section of exposure he could find, before one rested on the side of your face, and the other on your thigh.
“spencer,” you gasped, pulling away to catch air in your lungs, “need to breathe.”
he nodded as though he’d forgotten that, mimicking your heavy breaths, but not taking his hands off you. you rested your forehead against his and blinked. it was starting to sink in, the line you’d just crossed together.
“do we have to tell hotch about this?” you suddenly asked.
spencer frowned, “why are you thinking about hotch right now?”
you laughed and kissed him again, quickly this time, “you’re right, let’s just…”
“yeah.”
thank god he agreed to be roomies.
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pablitogavii · 11 months
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Friendly
Summary: You're Gavi's best childhood friend and you go tot he club with him and some of his friends. He made it clear that you are just his friend, but when he sees the attention you start receiving from everyone..his mind changes ;)
Pairing: Pablo Gavi x Reader
Warnings: smutty ;))
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"Ready, pecas?" Pablo was always using that nickname, since we were little niños, because he was always so intrigued by the freckles decorating the bridge of my nose to my cheeks. Anyways, he came to pick me up with his car and we were going out to a newly opened bar in town with a group of his friends.
"Mhm! Vale!" I got in and he certainly checked out my quite short black shorts and a crop top that showed my flat stomach. I always wondered weather he found me attractive but I gave up when I heard him say to his friends when they asked if I was his girl "Imposible! She is like mi hermanita tíos!" which always ruined my mood when I thought about it!
When we arrived, the loud group in front of the door greeted us and all of Pablo's friends (including the taken ones) complimented on my look tonight. I thought Pablo was too busy joking around with Pedri to notice, but little did I know, he heard every word that made him very much angry!
"Damn Gavi! Your amiga is quite a bombon!" Araujo whispered to him and Pablo looked towards you chatting with some girls at the bar shaking his head although secretly thinking the same thing.
Your ass looked so delicious in that tight shorts..and not to mention the braless crop top that was driving him absolutely crazy!
"Bombon? Tu eres loco tío! Ella es tan joven" Pablo said always acting 'tough' cause he was two years older that you..big deal! That didn't mean he could order you about which he always tried to do!
As hours passed, and you had more drinks with your girlfriends, music started to take over your body and you were dancing like there was no tomorrow.
"Es caliente!!" Rafa smirked whispering into Pablo's ear knowing that would annoy him especially when you were dancing with your ass glued to another guy who hand his arms around your waist.
"Joder!" Pablo groaned putting his drink down and walking towards you angrily. He grabbed your wrist pulling you away from the guy and he crowd all the way outside where was freezing btw.
"Ow! Que haces gilipollas!?" you were angry but still so cute when you tried to yell at him especially being so short and adorable regardless of your mood.
"You're drinking anything people give you! And you are grinding your ass against some fucking stranger!? What are you doing pecas!?" he was angry as well as he let go off your arm but still not letting you go back inside.
"Que es un problema!? You're not mi novio Gavi! I can drink what I want and I can dance with whoever I want!" you spat and now he was even angrier clenching his jaw repeatedly. He wishes he was your novio and could teach you a lesson right now..
"But I brought you here which means I am responsible to make sure you're safe pecas!" he said and to that you smirked feeling quite confident tonight (probably from the alcohol) as you moved closer to him rubbing up and down his strong biceps.
"Are you sure that's the problem here Pablito?" you said teasingly and he was fighting back an urge to throw you in the backset of his Maserati and show you just what his problem was at the moment. But then he reminded himself that you were his best friend, that he doesn't want to lose you and therefore couldn't mess up your life.
"Vamos, I'm taking you home.." he said but you were definitely not about to do that especially when you were having such a blast tonight. You pulled away from his grasp and he groaned in annoyance.
"If you don't want to honestly tell me what the problem is then I won't do what you say! Capullo!" you winked walked back inside while he groaned running his hand through his hair before getting inside himself re-joining his friends while you continued to dance on your own this time.
"Why don't you just admit you want her tío? Es obvio!" Pedri bugged him but when Pablo saw that you were kissing someone and walking outside with him the heat in his veins intensified from anger.
"Es demasiado tarde.." Pablo sighed walking out this time determined to take you home even if he was to carry you into the car himself. He was done with this party and he was especially done watching you with other people!
As he looked around for you, he found the same guy from the inside sitting on the hood of his car while you stood in between his legs kissing his lips.
"Gilipollas! Tienes tu culo en mi coche!" he said and the guy looked at him with big eyes of course recognizing him from the Camp Nou pitch while ungluing his hands from your waist.
"Pablo Gavi..I'm so sorry tío" he said walking away from you which made you angry as you looked at Pablo who watched as he left before finally looking back down at you.
"Stop scaring away everyone who comes near me!" you said and he walked closer until your thighs his his car and you sat on the hood looking up into his dark eyes once more. He was no longer your sweet and protective friend Pablo..no..he was angry..and lustful in this moment.
"Que haces?" you say when he slowly touched your thighs opening them up and standing in between them while tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear.
"You said you wanted to know what my problem is..honestly?" he said moving even closer as his hands rested on my thighs and his nose was touching mine.
"S..si" your voice was shaking and your cheeks were bright red while looking into his dark eyes longingly.
"I don't mind you wearing something that makes your ass be the sole focus of the night..but I do mind that I can't grab it and make todos los gilipollas see that it's mine.." he started and you felt goosebumps appear on your skin while his cold fingers traced your thigh and his nose moved against yours.
"I don't mind your dirty dance but as long as it's against me.." he whispered into your ear licking it after wards and you couldn't help the moan that left your lips in response.
"And I don't mind that you want to make-out on top of my car..but I want you to do it only with me!" he whispered into your other ear licking it again before his large hand grabbed your neck and pulled you close kissing your lips feverishly which made you moan into his mouth as you kissed passionately.
"Pecas.." he whispered against your lips after pulling away and you smiled opening your eyes and snaking your arms around his neck while playing with the end of his hair.
"Take me home amor.." you smiled snaking your legs around his waist with a shy smile and he smirked kissing your lips again knowing that he finally got what he craved for such a long time...;))
I like this story :)
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A little Gwen&Alice with heaavy alice/sam, because I needed to write something after that last ep and tumblr ficlets are less intimidating than full fics.
In hindsight, hiding in the loo is dumb. Sam's making her dumb, which is aggravating and bothersome and does not horribly ache like it used to, before, in those last few weeks they'd stayed together in the same flat while Sam prepared his trip abroad. Alice's a Cool Girl. Cool girls don't hide in bathrooms because their best friend who just so happen to be their ex arrived to the office at the arm of another woman with the sparkly bubbly smile that screams I had such a good time this weekend Celia is awesome at sex.
Then again, Alice's pretty sure her Cool Girl's crown's been stolen the moment Celia walked in with those stupid donuts for the first time (and it is painful, in a way, that Celia is cool to hang around with; pretty and fun and chill and blessed with the same ability Sam has to be friendly with everyone she meets immediately).
Whatever; Alice's excellent at building new narratives and looking away to survive. She'll withstand having Sam back in her life and then feeling like she's loosing him all over again like a fucking champ -- but she has to admit, hiding in the loo was just not a good move, 'cause now she's got to not only deny her sad moody depressing feelings, but also the fact that Gwendolyn Bouchard is clearly weeping on the stall next to hers.
"Hey," she whispers, after three long minutes of wondering whether she wants to deal with this, then deciding it's the sort of night where she'd definitely rather think of someone else's problems than her own.
There's mouvement on her left, then a sharp exhale. "What?" hisses Gwen.
"Want to tell me what this is all about?" Alice asks, staring at the door.
"No," Gwen snaps. Then: "We're in a bathroom, Alice, for god's sake, do you have any sort of decorum--"
"Exactly!" Alice cuts her off. "We're in a bathroom. That's basically being in a confessional for us ladies, innit? Sure we're not drunk out of our heads at the club or whatever, but I think this qualifies all the same. Everything you'll say is sacred in here my dear. Any sin is between you, me, and those awful scratchy paper roll that we're always out of. Hope you've got an handkerchief ready, by the way."
It must strike a nerve, because Gwen stays silent for a good thirty seconds before she mutters: "Anyone could come in."
"Oh, please," Alice snorts. "We both know Lena's not human enough to have to use the loo and Celia's too busy getting lost into Sam's eyes, we're fine."
"Why do you say that?" Gwen asks, her tone suddenly more alert.
"...'Cause Celia is getting lost in Sam's eyes? I mean, I know you have your whole thing going on and you're wayy better than us now that you got that shiny promotion you wanted so much, but they've literally been building this whole sickening little office romance just in front of our noses for like, two months, surely you haven't missed that. Kinda surprised you haven't actually told them this was against regulations or whatever."
"No not Celia, I don't care about her, or whatever's going on with Sam (Lucky you, Alice thinks meanly, and has to bite her tongue very hard). I mean about Lena. Do you think she's --" Gwen stops, exhales shakily. "Now, that'd be ridiculous. Obviously. She's nothing like --"
Oh, Alice thinks. Oh, Gwendolyn. She wishes people would listen to her, when she says to look away. Sam and Gwen are similar that way, she notes. All too ready to dig themselves into messes that are much too big for them to take on.
"I was making a joke," she tells Gwen. "I do that, sometimes. Oh, not very often of course, you know me, all too serious for this sort of nonsense, but I have heard before that it can lighten the mood here and there--"
"God, you are unsufferable."
"Is that how you talk to your priest, Gwendolyn? Shame on you."
"I'm leaving now. This is all pointless, and we've got work to do anyway."
"Do we ever," Alice sighs.
"You've been here for like, twenty five minutes, by the way," Gwen adds. "If you want to keep pretending you're not the one mooning over Sam, you might want to come out soon."
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phantomrose96 · 2 years
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Chrissy this is my prompt for u to write an essay about your grievances here. I love having my parade rained on, jokes on u
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Haha, okay okay okay, so I guess it is list of grievances time.
I’m gonna put most of this under a Read More because like I said before, I’m not trying to make a spectacle out of complaining about people’s good time. So if you’re not looking for BNHA-salt this is easily skip-over-able.
I will start with one thing above the Read More—and I mean this with full compassion and sincerity—I think Horikoshi is burnt out. It feels like he doesn’t love the characters or the world anymore and he’s going through the motions to get this over with and I’m SURE the break-neck pace of the shonen manga industry holds a lot of blame. I’ve burnt out on my own stories over less. So I don’t fault Horikoshi for that part.
Okay, so salt time. It got pretty long.
I’m gonna start by elaborating on the first point, because its impact is extremely easy to feel on the story:
The love for the characters isn’t there anymore.
BNHA has always been a big-cast kinda show, and they managed this well in the early seasons. Even with 20 characters in Class 1-A, I can tell you specifics about pretty much everyone’s role during the Tournament Arc. They all felt distinct. They all had different motivations, tactics, attitudes hopes dreams everything. Iida’s “I’m actually going to go against you, Deku, because I can’t keep being the friend in your shadow” was so very distinct from Uraraka’s “I used my wit to concoct a plan against a brute-force blaster and nearly won, but the frustration is so hard to deal with” from Todoroki’s “I’m moving forward with cold and blind rage to defy my father” from Bakugou’s “I need an absolute first-place win or this is nothing” from Midoriya’s “I can’t use my quirk so I need to win with my tact” from Yaoyorozu’s “I buckled under pressure and the frustration is devastating” from even—fucking—Ojiro’s “I resign because I was possessed during this team win and I don’t honorably think I can continue.”
I could probably keep going for every student in Class 1-A but my point is how potently interesting and distinct each of them felt during this arc. Even ones who ended up with little screentime left their mark.
…And then I compare it to, say, the recent “Rescue Deku” arc and… it was just 20 people essentially in a line, one-by-one sounding off about what surface-deep reason they had for liking Deku and wanting him to come home while they all just trade off generic blows and… that’s that. Deku comes home and there’s no talk of it. No fanfare. No fallout. It happened and it’s done. We don’t care what the characters think. Onto the next.
And this was all following a LONG stint where the main characters hardly even appeared. Uraraka and Iida hardly exist anymore. Only Todoroki and Bakugou have managed to cling to relevance alongside Deku, and that’s probably a popularity poll thing. But EVEN then, Deku himself hardly appeared for a long time. And it felt painfully obvious how much Horikoshi was just tired of his cast, and desperately hopping to a new Favorite Character in a bid to keep his own interest alive.
For a while it was Hawks. Everything was Hawks. Then Endeavor for a while. Endeavor was Horikoshi’s new main character. Then Mirko. All things Mirko. Just hopping to brand new characters and tossing them aside when the flame died, all the while leaving the main cast to stagnate.
Now in the final arc we’ve got an ensemble of several-dozen characters haphazardly thrown around, here to say a few Epic Shonen Words and do an Epic Shonen Attack for 3 pages, fail, and then get tossed into the background again. They’re less characters and more just plot-moving-pieces. The lack of heart is palpable and an arc like Rogue Deku, which my angst-endeared ass should have been super easy to win over with, was extremely flat. Nothing more than a surface-deep exploration of what this means for Deku’s character, and I need to stress it was NOT like that at the beginning of the series! The beginning, up through at least the Kamino arc, had a LOT of love for all these characters. It made you root for them. It made you care. And those characters are all just shells of themselves now.
Which rolls into my next point: What character development?
Horikoshi was REALLY good at setting up both plot and character. The character introductions were strong. The early arcs were strong. You see Deku develop a lot in the very early chapters, going from easily cowed to holding his ground, going from quirkless, to a state of having a quirk but having to be smart and use it sparingly, to slowly getting control of it. And alongside the awe of larger-than-life All Might, it’s a development you really root for.
…And Horikoshi kind of flubs development after that.
I cannot tell you how current-arc Deku is that distinct from chapter-50 Deku. Same for most characters except maybe Bakugou, who’s had a decent character arc. But that should not be a stand-alone phenomenon.
If I think about something like Fullmetal Alchemist, the development Ed undergoes throughout the series is amazing. It happens slowly, but steadily. The lasting impacts of experiences change him. He matures. He learns. And Ed in the final episode is hardly recognizable as the pompous little shit from the beginning.
Deku has been… Deku. For a very long time now. All Might’s been shuffled off stage. Todoroki’s development I personally dislike for a reason I’ll get into later. The rest of Class 1-A has been tossed into the dumpster as previously stated.
And as for the PLOT…
God I’m so sorry, what plot? (And how you can’t have your cake and eat it too)
This one DEEPLY impacts my opinion of the series.
BNHA doesn’t know what its plot is.
BNHA had really good set up! A lot of opportunities of ways to push the plot along and explore a big and open world. There seemed to be a really good thread to focus on up through the Kamino arc, combining school concerns with real life threats, and then….. and then…….
It’s almost comical how BNHA sniffed at some fearsome, fascinating villains at the beginning of the series (Stain, particularly, comes to mind) only to settle on… a whiny brat with no goal, Shigaraki, as the main antagonist.
And this COULD have been done in a way I would have loved! If the framing of the story was just that—"hey yeah Shiggy is a whiny brat whose trauma made him violent, and he’s too dumb to realize he is PURELY being groomed by AFO to turn him into AFO’s new body.” If the framing had said “yes, Shigaraki is in fact stupid and has no point—(and that makes him sympathetic as a groomed victim of AFO’s who never knew any better!)”
But instead Horikoshi is trying SO hard to make it seem like the League of Villains has a point.
What is their point?
I shouldn’t ask that rhetorically, because that’s inviting fans to message me with their 18-paragraph, 95% fanon, “fixing canon while thinking they’re explaining canon” explanations about why all the LoV characters’ goals make perfect sense. And, look, I’m sorry, it’s not there. It’s just not.
Toga’s whole point is “I wish it was easier for me to kill people.” Shigaraki’s whole point is “I’m angry, I think killing All Might will make everything better.” Twice’s point is “I’m lonely.” Dabi’s the only one with a real point (but I’m ALSO quite angry about that, more on that later.)
And again! I feel like this was so CLOSE to being good—these are all random riffraff who came together as followers of Stain’s ideology. It makes a LOT of sense to end up with ragtag misfits, all with their own wildly different interpretations of a high-profile criminal’s ideaology, and if the LoV were JUST unsuspecting pawns in AFO’s game, I would have sympathy for them! Them and Shigaraki!
But instead, Horikoshi tries over and over again to be like “no the LoV TOTALLY have a point. They say Hero Society is corrupt and it totally is!”
…Except Horikoshi forgot the part where he was supposed to make Hero Society corrupt…
And look, if Horikoshi wanted a Bright and Shiny, All Heroes Are Good And Shining happy little comic world, I’d respect that. If he wanted to do a The Boys-style “Heroes are the corrupt underbelly of a society that worships them”, I’d respect that. But he tried to do both at the same time, in a floundering bid to grasp onto a plot, and it does not work.
You end up with this completely incoherent narrative where, when you look around, all the heroes are good and shiny. And then Horikoshi just says “oh um, no it’s corrupt.” And then throws in like, one random side character who goes “oh yeah I was a hero controlled by the Bad Hero Agency to do like, murders!” and then she goes away forever and we don’t talk about it anymore. And then Hawks kills a member of the LoV—a criminal organization with a massive body count—and they try the whole “SEE. Heroes are JUST AS BAD as the villains!” (Dabi is in the background incinerating people to death.)
Which speaking of, if Horikoshi wanted to show Hero Society is corrupt, heY YOU DO REMEMBER YOUR NUMBER 1 HERO IS A CHILD-ABUSER AND WIFE-BEATER. HORIKOSHI DO YOU REMEMBER? DO YOU? “Ah gee how will I show Hero Society is corrupt?” Endeavor is right there! “Guess I’ll invent a new character who shows up for one arc who was a corrupted hero or something” ENDEAVOR IS RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m normal again.
Alright on to my next point.
FUCKING ENDEAVOR.
This part is going to be more on the subjective side because it’s just an arc and character handling I deeply hate. You can disagree with me or whatever but Endeavor stans I do not care why you like him.
HEY REMEMBER HOW THE (at the time) NUMBER 2 HERO BEAT HIS SON BLOODY SINCE THE TIME HE WAS 5 YEARS OLD IN ORDER TO TRAIN HIM TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO SURPASS ALL MIGHT.
REMEMBER WHEN ENDEAVOR BEAT HIS WIFE SO MUCH SHE HAD A MENTAL BREAKDOWN AND POURED BOILING WATER ON HER SON’S FACE AND WAS SENT AWAY LEAVING HER CHILDREN SOLELY IN THE CARE OF THE MAN WHO RAMPANTLY ABUSED THEM.
REMEMBER WHEN HORIKOSHI MADE A CHARACTER SO *CARTOONISHLY* EVIL I WOULD TAKE MOVING ENTIRE MOUNTAINS TO REDEEM HIM?
Well he went through a wittle man-pain and he’s so sowwy :3. Do you fowgive him?
He got to become the Number 1 Hero but (gasp) it wasn’t everything he thought it would be so `(*>﹏<*)′ could you maybe be a wittle bit nicer to him?
Oh yeah and Endeavor’s big redemption moment? It’s when he almost dies fighting a high-powered Nomu terrorizing the city, or, as it’s known in the hero industry, FUCKING TUESDAY.
THAT WAS ALWAYS THE POINT. ENDEAVOR’S DAY JOB HAS ALWAYS BEEN RISKING LIFE AND LIMB TO PROTECT CIVILIANS. FIGHTING A HIGH POWERED BAD GUY IS *NOTHING NEW*. THAT WAS ALWAYS THE POINT. THAT SUCH A HEINOUS MONSTER WAS ALSO SOCIETY’S PROTECTOR.
But he got a wittle banged up in the fight so now his family has to be a wittle nicer to him. He has a scar now (*/ω\*)
And at that point, Endeavor was Horikoshi’s new favorite character so he just had to feel a little guilty and then it was all good. He’s good. We’re all good with him.
And it would be one thing if Shouto was joining his father’s agency JUST for the stepping stone opportunity. I liked that during the Tournament Arc! When he tells Endeavor he just, in the moment, completely forgot about him. I loved that!! Disown your father and just USE him for your own career escalation, YES, use him and give him none of your love attention or honor I liked that a lot!
But instead it’s turned into actual forgiveness. And this is lauded as good.
Now, THE DABI REVEAL ARC.
The start of this arc was great. I loved the dramatc reveal. I loved Dabi blasting Endeavor’s dirty domestic-abuse laundry over the airwaves to the entire public.
SURE WOULD HAVE LIKED FOR ANY OF THAT TO MATTER. AT ALL. EVEN A LITTLE.
NOPE. The ONLY thing this does is spur the entire Todoroki family to rally around Endeavor and tell him how much it’s all their own faults too that this happened.
Natsuo, who would have been fucking FIVE YEARS OLD, when the stuff with Touya went down, tells Endeavor that this is partially his own fault too because if only he (Natsuo) had fought back against his dad’s rages and made his dad talk things out with Touya, maybe none of this would have happened.
FUCKING WHAT.
(And again, the narrative is endorsing this. This is supposed to be a HEART-WARMING scene of a family coming together.)
Fuyumi and Rei go on to explain why they were also responsible for Endeavor’s abuse (I could a little bit understand Rei taking some responsibility, as their mother) but also Rei was married off to Endeavor in a quirk-wedding girl was basically trafficked. And this arc also decides to show “oh um actually their courship was good :3 Endeavor was good and caring, actually :3 he just got a wittle evil later on (are you mad at him?) <:3?”
Okay, okay okay I should stop I just canNOT be charitable about this arc.
At this point in the series, the Dabi=Touya confirmation and the resolution of the Todoroki family stuff was the only main thing I was still hanging around for. And the Endeavor redemption shattered my faith in the series so soundly I have only been idly following along since then without any of my heart in it.
In Conclusion
It’s a series that had so much heart and so much untapped potential at the beginning. And then Horikoshi reached the end of his thread of planning, and discovered he did not know how to actually follow through on character arcs or plot, and has pittered around aimlessly letting characters decay, plot threads unravel, and his best bet at this point has been to cling to a throughline which just does not make any sense.
Now we’re near the end and the characters are shells of their former selves and we’re going through the motions of every Big Shonen Wow tropey ending and, really, Deku can land the final ending punch on TomurAFO (or whatever we’re calling AFO!Shiggy) and I will feel just. Nothing about it. Because it won’t feel like any kind of conclusion for the characters I actually cared about at the beginning.
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rubykgrant · 5 months
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Simmons would rather talk about ANYTHING ELSE besides his own gender/sexuality... but I have some thoughts~
(mostly connected to stuff that comes up in my big RVB story-line)
First of all, his parents are just sucky people. In general. They only wanted to have kids in the hope of impressing a relative, get some of that inheritance money... however, the baby was a little over-due, the relative passed away before the birth even happened, so no extra kid added to the will. Poor baby was a "disappointment" from the start.
By the time the kiddo turned 7, the question- "What if I was a boy?" had become- "Can I BE a boy?". Mr and Mrs Simmons had actually hoped for a son anyway, so they were "accepting" of this (but make no mistake, if this wasn't something they wanted for themselves, they would have been more UNPLEASANT). Because they already moved a couple of times and changed schools, Richard was able to start over where nobody knew who he was previously. A relief in some ways, however... mom and dad were very insistent that the "past" never be discussed. Again, it was encouraging to begin transitioning (first socially, then later medically), but Richard was taught not to acknowledge he was trans at ALL, which began a lot of internalized self-resentment from the get-go.
His dad was the one who would keep on "testing" him as he grew up, purposefully putting Richard into situations where he would have to prove himself, in the most backwards, nonsensical, and frankly- sexist ways; "A REAL MAN is better at sports than girls, so prove you can win against all the girls in your PE class!" and so-on. Obviously that's BS for SEVERAL reasons, and it just sets Richard up to have a weird ego-failure complex, and also think there is such a thing as "running girly laps".
Richard was always pretty scrawny, and during highschool, he had a growth-spurt that made him extra tall and lanky. More awkward, basically. He had a flat chest all on his own, but thanks to teasing from other kids, he was extremely nervous about EVER taking his shirt off. Thanks to the weird background-sexist-radiation from his dad, he thought it was just a given that he should be interested in girls... but he's a little afraid of girls (especially all the competitive jock girls who hate his guts for making them lose during team competitions). He almost tries to force himself into having crushes, but nothing ever clicks.
Once he's out of highschool, he gets surgery (no need for top, because- flat), and is hoping that he'll be able to start having A Real Life now... but he doesn't get into college, he can't get a job anywhere, he doesn't have any friends to live with, and his parents are threatening to just kick him out if he doesn't prove himself yet again. The last option is to join the Red Army, so that's where he goes... and then ALL THAT happens.
Simmons didn't exactly "come out" to anybody while in Blood Gulch, but after the whole surgery incident with Grif, Sarge knows about Simmons' medical history, and he doesn't call attention to it. In many ways, it is similar to what his own parents did (and partially why Simmons imprints on Sarge as a father figure). However, even through all the weird insults and ramblings, Sarge ironically gives Simmons more "attention" than his actual dad. It isn't always GOOD attention, but this is also the first time somebody has known this aspect of who Simmons is, and didn't treat him differently after the fact. So. That's almost kinda-sorta good? (it is still not great, because Sarge is an a-hole, but you take what you can get).
Simmons the proceeds to spend the next decade+ bickering with Grif, and not noticing MORE is going on, because they're both stupid (affectionate) (also FRUSTRATED). Simmons is still dealing with a lot of issues that are basically set in stone within his brain. When he starts to finally have genuine friendship feelings toward Grif, that alone is weird, because he barely likes anybody, and almost nobody ever likes him. When a whole CRUSH starts to happen, Simmons does not even get it. WTF is with all these weird gay thoughts in his head? Where'd that come from? For somebody who claims to be SMART, it takes him a while to do the math on this.
Eventually, waaaaay down the road, there would be some event, maybe around the younger generation on Chorus, where people are sharing things they've learned about gender/sexuality. A few of the Reds and Blues are kinda casually like- "Oh, I didn't know there was a word for that, I guess that's me!" or even- "I don't share this often but, yeah. I'm transgender," and- "I guess some of you already know, but I still want to say it. I'm gay"... and Simmons. He is just petty enough to FINALLY say- "I'm GAYER". It also takes him a full minute to remember, and add- "Oh, uh. I'm trans, too. More trans than you. I named myself Dick. I WIN"
He also works on un-packing internalized sexism and what-not, and when he reconnects with the girls on his team, he's much less nervous and better at treating them as individual people. He's aware of how much he used to suck, and it took a long time, but he's finally doing the whole "personal growth" thing. His parents still suck, but after the extended family of friends in his life have gone through changes as well, Simmons can see where he actually belongs
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weekend-whip · 1 year
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What's your opinion on the "love at first sight" thing from ninjago? And do you have any headcanon With Pixal an Skylor?
Short Answer: Very 50/50 with it. Love what we did get from it, but by god the executions could have been handled better. 
You sly dog, you got me monologuing. Going slightly off-topic cuz i have THOUGHTS
Long Answer: On one hand, it was already a bold enough move to include even a little romance in a toy commercial aimed a young boys, especially when it was so far from the premise of the show to begin with, so I’m not all that torn up about these things happening “too quick”. From one perspective, it’s just another little facet about the characters that helps drive them in the future, and doesn’t necessarily have to be explored deeper, because that’s not the overall point of the story (unless it’s tied with the plot of the season itself, and at least then it does get well-deserved focus). 
On the other hand, I can absolutely understand why people would find it forced, rushed, or unnecessary (or in Kailor’s case, not doing enough), and that’s valid too. If they really were going to go this route, especially with Zane, then they should’ve at least dedicated an episode of them finding the foundation for a bond rather than swan diving into infatuation. Like I’ve said in my fic, it’s hard to be invested in something that happens offscreen lmao. And there’s also the whole thing of these girls juts being brought into the picture to be love interests, rather than having a full dedicated character of their own. Nya’s obviously somewhat of an exception, and Pixal and Skylor do get their moments (eventually), but generally they’re left very flat if they’re not with the object of their affections. 
Jay, while instantly falling for Nya, gets several seasons worth of ups and down that have impact on their characters until it accumulates which, while that might drive people to believe their relationship is “bad” just because it wasn’t consistently perfect, I found them much more interesting because they had to go through the growing pains to get where they are now. They did get together too quick, especially when Nya wasn’t really giving off any “I have a crush” vibes but liked Jay’s attention. And while they did have several communication bumps and disagreements, they were still able to take a step back, reexamine themselves, and readjust enough to the point that they’re practically married now! And they’re happy! I love it! I really, genuinely do! And I know that Jaya tends to cannibalize Jay’s character as an individual too, but she’s just that big of a part of his life. It’s not that he doesn’t have things he likes to do on his own; he just prefers to do them with her. But, it’s just gotta be in a way that respects Nya’s boundaries and her own preference of doing things on her own. Which is something they come to an agreement about!! And it’s good!! 
But then, you’ve got Zane and Pixal just looking at each other and becoming a thing within like three episodes. Not even a “Zane takes Pixal out in the city and shows her how to be more human” kind of episode, no “Pixal helps him get in better touch with his technological side”, nah! Things you’d think you’d get in a Zane season! She just dies, Zane literally breaks his heart for her, and then suddenly they’re the most adorable thing to happen on the whole show sdfghjkhgf. It’s tragic, honestly! That they have this much great chemistry together but next to nothing to show for it besides life or death circumstances!! I literally wrote a fic on that too! Because as much as I love them and their ship and the strength of their give and take, how they started I just cannot get over! Even if Zane fell immediately, there could have been some interesting tension between him dealing with his new feelings and Pixal realizing that she has feelings to begin with! Just some missed opportunities there, really. 
And then—oooh, and then! Kai and Skylor! If anyone I could believe would fall at first sight, it would be Kai! And it’s hilarious, because he’s flirted with other people in the past and now here he is, suddenly and genuinely interested in this intriguing and probably very attractive individual and his usual flirty tricks aren’t always working!! Which would then make him reexamine himself and also actually talk to Skylor to see if they could even work to begin with!!  Or Kai manages to show Skylor some of what’s she’s missed out on while presumably living her whole life on the island and oop there she goes catching some feelings and then we get to see her QUESTION some of her morally dubious actions!! But that’s not what we got lmfao!!!!! That being said, watching them play off of each other is SO much fun, ESPECIALLY when they’re working together running from Chen in the jungle AND THEY HUG but ummmmm...we still know next to nothing about Skylor. I love Skylor, and I ADORE Kailor, but both of them deserve more than a orange piece of cardboard that’s sassy and clever sometimes *lies down* I’m so sorry sweetie it’s NOT your FAULT
aND ON ONE HAND, I’m insane and actually do kind of like that they’re keeping their relationship out of the light, and it gets to develop on their own terms at their own pace without having to be put on a pedestal for others. That avoids the problems Jaya went through. Maybe they are kinda together, maybe they don’t have a label for it, maybe they’re nervous about making the first move, maybe they’ve been a thing the whole time, but it’s no one else’s business! We get glimpses every now and then that show they still have eyes for one another, or that they’re important to one another, and that’s okay!! It can be enough!!! They’re spicy but they’re also subtle and that’s lovely in it’s own way!!
.....But of course, that only works if it was intentional, and by Crystalized we sure know it wasn’t!!! And the true horrid irony of it all was that how they handled it in Crystalized could’ve been something we’d gotten the whole time, yet the blows would have been cushioned by the fact we would’ve have time to absorb this over the seasons, rather than smacked over the head with it in the clutch. And yet, as much as I wanna be sad that we didn’t get more, or at least sooner, what we did get was just so THEM that i can’t be fully mad!! Kai’s still fumbling but he knows what he wants and can voice it; Skylor’s uncertain but willing to hear him out and wants to hear him out, but they still have silent moments of understanding and can and will take the time to talk things out when they’re able an hnnnnng i love them so muuuuuuuch aaaaaaugh why did i write three paragraphs about kailoooooor kill meeeee
So anyway love at first sight isn’t inherently bad, but it’s how you handle the follow up of it afterward that makes it either something to loathe or something to at least come to appreciate *shrug* 
And I know you also asked for headcanons but aaaaah everything that’s a hc of mine is probably going to wind up in Legacyverse, and I don’t wanna spoil too many small surprises x3 
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argentumcor · 3 months
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Arkhamverse Timeline Notes for My Writing
The Arkhamverse timeline is too tight as presented in the comics.
The canon timeline goes:
Jason gets captured -> six months later Tim becomes Robin -> within a year, A Matter of Family happens where Tim is very settled as being Robin, Barbara is paralyzed within months of that, then gets to a place where she can act as Oracle and the whole crew is settled into that, all within a year -> Arkham Asylum happens
This doesn't work for me. It's not that it's impossible, it's that everyone's attitudes are all wrong. Barb is tough, but it's a hard road to get to fully functional, mentally and physical, from the trauma of being shot and paralyzed. Tim is a very competent Robin, if not to the level we see in Harley's Revenge, is familiar to Joker and his goons, and has had time to develop an easy relationship with Barbara to the point where he almost asks her out during A Matter of Family (that was the 'never mind' conversation- not the best time to ask, buddy, and he realized it). That doesn't just happen in a handful of months with people doing this intense thing and the whole trauma of losing Jason.
I actually think Bruce's hand was forced with every Robin except Dick. It's a big city with lots of problems, he just has to deal with needing help, however he feels about it. I actually think he didn't mean to recruit Jason as Robin, he just meant to help him because that's the kind of guy he is, but after several months of Jason pulling his shit together and Batman needing help but not having it after Dick left, he caved. With Tim, I think the thing where Tim figured out his identity and still needing help forced his hand, too. Arkham's versions of the villains are no joke and Batman takes this whole endeavor very seriously. You can tell that he tries to keep Tim at arm's length through the games, while also trusting him to handle things on his own a bit more- all of which is probably easier because of Tim's temperament and, it seems, not having been a teenage ward of Bruce Wayne.
This whole thing works better if, say, Jason escaped alongside some other Joker breakout earlier. In Asylum, we can see that the titular asylum has recently upped its security and a whole deal is made of it. Joker and others have busted out before.
Also, someone somewhere pointed out there was no way Jason could be so built (grrr oh the men in AK, let me tell ya) if he'd only gotten out of Arkham when Asylum happened. I'd say give it about five years between Jason's escape and Arkham Knight, not around two- Asylum and City happen six months apart canonically, also way too fast; a year between fits better, even Ra's can't get the logistics and politics of the Arkham City experiment moving that quickly. Arkham Knight happens a year after that, which I do think works because the Arkham City fiasco meant the villains are openly all out and about as Stange's BS was definitely a federal violation on levels not seen since Woodrow Wilson and the courts acknowledged that.
Other things:
Weirdly, Penguin is one of the people who beat Jason, but he isn't an asylum prisoner in the Arkhamverse, he's a Blackgate one. Arkham Penguin is just a mobster and short.
Jason as Robin looking similar enough to Dick that Bruce thinks they can get villains to think nothing has changed amuses me and probably explains why they both have longish black hair and blue eyes in the Arkhamverse. Guess he gave that one up with Tim, who has blue eyes but has brown hair that he wears totally different. While the wiki lists the boys as all 6 foot flat, with Dick weighing less than Tim and Tim weighing less than Jason, I think Dick being shorter fits better- easier to be acrobatic when there's not quite so much you to throw around.
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geeksauruse · 1 year
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Hello! My names Violet and I’d like a matchup for the 2012 tmnt brothers please! If not just ignore this lol
I’m 5’2 ½, I’m hourglass shaped with a lil chub so I wear baggier clothes and really prefur being covered up. I have shoulder length brown curly/wavy hair and Hazel eyes that appear brown but in the sun look gold and green (I really like my eyes lol) I typically war sneakers of some sort or work boots because I’m a busy person and even on my down time I’m moving so I don’t have time to let my feet hurt from heels n such even though I love dressing up.
I’m intelligent and usually always reading something, I can be very quiet but can make good conversation. I’m an INFJ so I’m very in tune to others around me. I’m extremely loyal to a fault and would do absolutely anything to the person I give my loyalty to. I love to bake and cook and even like to clean when I’m able to listen to music, cleaning is calming for me and lets me unwind with out feeling like I should be doing something. I’m the eldest daughter of six siblings so I have my fair share of responsibility and I take it in stride. I’m always helping and taking care of someone, I love that part of my responsibility because I’m a very motherly person. I have strong maternal instincts which leads me to befriend people who could be considered outcasts.
I can also be very stubborn and I struggle with depression, and anxiety. I have trust and abandonment issues which leads me to follow people around and be a bit clingy. I have a strong imagination which pulls me inside my own head a lot. I tend to be more involved with whats going on inside then whats happening in real life.
I really look for someone who has a sense of loyalty like my own, someone who would be ok with me being around a lot and being a bit clingy. I also want someone who has a sense of humor to: 1, help me out of depressive episodes, and 2, banter with me, I can be slightly sarcastic and love some good banter. I also want someone kind and empathetic, to match my own motherly instincts
I dislike people who are rude and mean for no reason and who are constantly looking for a fight. A big deal breaker for me is someone telling me what to do and not letting me make my own choices. I need someone to support me, not control me.
My hobbies are: Reading, Writing, listening to music, watching game plays (Mainly horror like fnaf), watching some tv mainly historical fiction or horror, art, like drawing, watercolors, that stuff, I also adore the forest and space so I’m always researching some plant or planet. I’m taking forensic science and psychology in school right now so whoever I get better be ready to listen to me rant about not only all of this but also new things I’ve learned lol
Bro I am so sorry this took so long and you were so patiently waiting for me to stop procrastinating( or you forget than I am sorry any way.)
Any way I would match you up with…
The lovable nerd Donnie!
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Donnie would be you lover for several reasons, but let’s start off on how y’all met.
You were walking back to your house from the library with a fresh stack of books that looked interesting.
It was getting darker out as the sun began to set and night  began and an unsettling quite set in for the usually noisy city of New York 
As you walked though a quite steer you heard something, it was muffled but sounded like voices.
Against your better judgment you crept closer to the voices only to see what you thought was green, three fingered, turtle aliens.
They were talking about a recent robbery by the local gang “ the purple dragons”
You had crept a little to close and you slipped on a peice of loose paper falling flat in front of the massive creatures.
In an attempt to get up quickly to hit your head on the back of a pole that was sticking out of the dumpster.
Que Donnie hurriedly walking over to you to see what damage had been done, lucky for you not much you were just kinda out of it. The fists thing you noticed aside from him being not human were his beautiful eyes, the ones that looked almost identical to yours.
You are so out of it that you just said “ you have beautiful eyes” as he checked your pulse.
You were fine but had to promise that you would keep them a secret. 
You had no problem with this as the turtles began to come around more often to see you, and after a few weeks of gaining trust,you were introduced to spinster and the lair.
After your eye comment, you and Donnie became almost instant friends and you bonded over your shared thirst for knowledge and your intellects.
He loves seeing what you read so he can get new books for you and suggest books that he thinks you would like.
Wants you to cook for him since you have an interest in it, he also likes to listen to you about your many skills.
Thinks your amazing for being able to have so many skills and he fully loves that you like horrer games( he waters a lot of game play through.
Loves listing to you rant about what you passionate about, staters learning more about phycology even though he is also pretty in tune with people as well.
When he developed feeelings, it’s going to be an entire thing.
He starts giving more information on plants, space and he even started to save cool documentaries he thinks your going to like
When he confessed to you it’s going to be so sweet and messy, he expressed that he really only liked you and he would remain loyal till the end. 
When you started dating he started rotting to work up your confidence and wanted to help on your anxiety and depression episodes.
Knows how to help and did a bit of extra research just in case.
He wanted to help you I all the ways!
Insecure in the new outfit? He’s there to tell you how beautiful your curvy body is!
Are you upset an overwhelmed with sad and anxiety fill thoughts? He’s there with a new movie and blankets.
No matter what, he is there to support you
And make sure that you know you are loved for who you are no matter how big you are. 
He’s a snarky little boy so get ready for the sarcasm that comes with this relationship.
Does not mind you being clingy at all, to be honest it brings him out of his work Brain and into his loved ones Brain that can rest.
What’s to make all your inner world dreams come true and spends time making you personalised gifts to fit your wonderful imagination.
Donnie loves you lots and is ready to be there and stay there for however long you will have him.
“ I’m not going anywhere dove, I love you with every fiber and bone in my body.”
                                 💜💜💜💜
Hope you like it, have a good day!
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crystalelemental · 10 months
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“books-are-my-life-stuff: Your stance is very similar to mine. I think the problem is because she just flat out refuses to explain. She barely explains any of her motives, she only just said to do this and not, jumps straight into the action without elaborating much. And that's very consistent in Masters too. Conversations with her are deliberately left vague, people find her hard to understand. So, I can see why she can be frustrating to some people.”
I don’t necessarily mind vague, but I feel like certain aspects just aren’t clear in a way that hinders understanding rather than builds something to engage in.  Like the Aster thing.  With all this talk of multiverse stuff, my gut reaction was wondering if this was an AU thing too, because we’re not really handed any other form of explanation.  But if it’s just an old Pokemon she had that died, was its death related to some kind of mistake similar to what happened in the past?  And if yes, is that why she’s so on about it?  I dunno.
“Though, yeah, as what you said, maybe it's because Hoenn's lore is very much a mess in the remake. They tried to implement Rayquaza's significance in the plot of Emerald without creating a third game, but as a result Hoenn's lore felt...disorganized, and felt very underexplored too (especially regarding Draconic people beyond what Zinnia had explained). I'm on the same boat with you for preferring the old one more, and I wish Zinnia didn't just appear in postgame.”
I think it’s just the attempt to over-complicate.  Rayquaza was already a big deal.  Groudon and Kyogre were already kinda assholes.  We did not need to go so in depth with how there are multiple universes and the Primals happened from meteor strikes that are recurring, and mega Rayquaza got its significant namesake from AZ who is in this a lot, and whatever the fuck project Azoth is.  Like it’s trying to connect things, but in a way where I have lost the thread.  Zinnia’s appearance, I think, is supposed to be the final pieces to answer the puzzle.  But the puzzle still doesn’t feel complete, and worse feels overly complicated.
“But yeah, she's a great character, just trapped in a very messy lore. Once she could stand as her own character, she's pretty great. Which is why I like Zinnia's Legendary Event, because it resolved her internal conflicts she still had, managed to move on to the better future, and can stand as her own character without being too dependent on Hoenn's lore.”
Entirely fair, because yeah, I think there’s a lot of neat stuff going on with Zinnia.  It would be nice to get a bit more of her throughout the game, but it’s also hard to say where she should’ve appeared or what she should be doing.
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Our Cabin
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Pairing: Steve x F Reader 
Summary: Follow up to Coffee Cottage | Modern AU – Just some fluff about your relationship with Steve 
Warnings: Too much fluff, rude customer who can’t deal with rejection (nothing bad and Steve handles it his own way) 
Word Count: ~2.6k 
A/N: this piece is only existing because of two people: @jenniweaslee & @sweetascanbee who both don’t really have a clue what will happen here, but they hyped me up nevertheless | Coffee Cottage was supposed to be a OS, but I wanted to write something really fluffy so this happened
Part One | Masterlist
The phone of the shop rang and you took the three steps to answer it. “Coffee Cottage, how may I  help you?” 
“Hey honey, how’s your day? How’s the new help?” Your boyfriends voice greeted you and it caused you to take a look through the café and you gaze stayed on the young woman currently laughing with a customer. 
“It’s going great, I have a really good feeling!” Your voice expressed the relief you felt. Business was going crazy, more and more tourists came through your small town and it was impossible for you to manage the café on your own. 
“I’m happy to hear that! Bucky asked if we wanted to come over tonight. I could pick you up and you could stay the night. Remember most comfortable bed you ever slept in.” 
“This is always your reason to get me to stay over. I have to be at the café early though,” but Steve interrupted you and told you he would drive you home of course. 
“I haven’t seen you yesterday and I miss you, so you kind of have to agree,” he said and a smile was slowly stretching on your face. Of course, you would have said yes. You missed him too! 
“Only because of the bed,” you agreed and Steve told you he would pick you up later. Time flew by and closing the café with four hands was way quicker then when it was just you. Steve arrived just when you pulled on your coat. 
“I’m so sorry, but we’re closed,” Wanda called towards your boyfriend and looked helplessly at you. 
“Hi, I’m Steve. I’m just here to pick up my girlfriend,” he said charmingly and there was a small tint of red on Wanda’s cheeks when Steve came forward and held his hand out. Of course he asked if Wanda needed a ride home and she surprisingly accepted. Or maybe it wasn’t such a surprise, because if he wanted to Steve could get anyone to agree to anything. 
After dropping Wanda off at her place, which was farther away than she had first told you, the both of you made your way over to Steve’s best friend. 
Bucky was surprisingly a very good cook and after dinner he placed the cheesecake that you had brought over, in front of you. He announced that he had something to discuss. 
“I have to call in a favor. A huge one. And a permission,” he started and he waited until Steve and you looked at him expectantly. “I thought about moving out. This flat isn’t for eternity for me. And I want to live somewhere a little bit quieter. And I have this guy that I know. Kind of a lumberjack. Somehow very talented with wood. Has built his own house, which is pretty cool.” At this point you knew exactly where this conversation was going. “And there is this place, somewhere close to his house. That would be a perfect spot for a new house.” 
“Oh, just say what you want, jerk,” Steve smirked. 
“I want you to know, that I’m asking both of you,” he started slowly. 
“Bucky,” you scolded him. 
“Just wanted to make sure. I want to buy the property next to you. I want to built a house and I need your help, Stevie. And of course, if you don’t want me living next to you, that would also be okay. Kind of. Would hurt my feelings, but,” he shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. 
“Of course, this is okay for me. You helped me with my house, so I will help you with yours. Do you have ideas?” Steve was excited. You could feel it in the air, but Bucky looked at you. 
“Is this okay for you too? I know I’m asking for a lot. The both of you don’t have that much time together and it will keep this guy away for a while,” Bucky looked into your eyes while he wanted to make it clear that you also had a say in this. 
“Needless to say that this is okay for me, Bucky. Think about how much time we will safe when we don’t have to drive out here to see you,” you smiled at him. “We will manage.” 
“I have no doubt that you will. This,” he pointed from you to Steve and back, “is endgame. And I want to make it clear here that I will be best man and that you better remember this.” 
“Buck, we haven’t even,” Steve started, but Bucky interrupted. 
“No buts. I’m just saying it so you’ll remember it once its time. I haven’t seen him so happy in such a long time, it’s refreshing. And the both of you together make me sick – but in a good way.” He winked at you. “Anyway, I might have written out some ideas.” And with that the evening was spent with talks about Bucky’s new home. 
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In the end Bucky had been right. It was a lot of time that Steve had to spend helping his best friend. The work at the café went better, Wanda was a huge help and when you were finally able to have more time for yourself you had to spend it alone. You understood, Steve and Bucky had to use the good weather while it still lasted. So the rainy days were for you and Steve and you wouldn’t complain as it ended in a lot of cuddling inside. 
“Is it weird for me to say I like the rainy days more than the sunny ones?” you asked once, your head on Steve’s chest while he was keeping you close to him and Murphy laying at your feet. 
“Not weird at all, because I feel the same.” He kissed your head and you let out a content sigh. Murphy let out a huff as if he was agreeing. “No wonder he’s agreeing. He’s a total Momma boy now.” 
“Well, I do take our child often to work now. And I do have the good snacks, so you can’t really blame him. I am good company,” you teased. 
“That you are and I might be a bit jealous. But the house shouldn’t take much more time. I hope for 2 months top now. And then I can’t wait to spend winter here with you.” 
“What makes you think I’ll spend it here with you?” you asked. “I have a perfect apartment just above my working place.” 
“Yeah, but you don’t have this comfortable bed. And don’t you dare say anything against it as it was your excuse to come over visiting me in the first place. This bed is worth the drive. And I’ll even give you my truck so you have a safe vehicle that will bring you safely from and to work through the woodland.” 
That stunned you and cause you to sit up and look at him. “You would?” 
“Yeah, why are you sounding so surprised? I like your car but it isn’t really built for this surrounding. And with all the snow it would be safer. Sweetheart, you remember what Bucky said all those months ago about us?” He waited until you nodded. Naturally you didn’t forget about that one, but Steve and you didn’t talk about that. The great thing about your relationship? You didn’t need much words to... just get the other one. “He wasn’t wrong. I can’t remember the last time that I was so happy. We’re both very independent people, but I look forward to the days when I know you'll be here when I come home. Bucky always knows when you’re home because he says I smile a lot more. I love coming home to you,” he admitted. 
“And I love being here with you. And it’s so relaxing. Must be the bed,” you played to pretend, but Steve was already tackling you down which caused you to let out a squeal. 
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Murphy was having a weird day. At first you couldn’t find your keys until you finally found them in Murphy's dog bed, which caused you to be late to work. He was also almost not leaving your side until you told him off and to lay down in his corner of the café. You didn’t need to trip over him again. It was Wanda’s day off so it was just you and it had been busy. Now there were only four people left in the café and you were busy cleaning up. It had just started to rain so you were sure Bucky and Steve would show up soon. 
“Can I get you anything else?” you asked once you passed a table with two guys. They had to be a little younger than you if you had to guess.  
“What’s here to do once it starts raining? Is there a club?” one of them asked you while you collected their plates. 
“I’m afraid not, but there is a bar that will open in an hour.” you offered and put your weight on one foot. You’ve been up for a while and you looked forward to sat down soon. 
“How about you accompany us. We could get a few drinks, get to know each other better,” the other one offered now and his body turned in your direction. 
“No thank you, I have to work,” you laughed and noticed the body of your dog pressing against your legs. You looked down to see Murphy staring at the guy at the table in front of you, while the two guys didn’t spare him a glance. 
“What about when you’re off? You said the bar would open in an hour, sure you’d,” he started but you interrupted it. 
“I’m sorry but not even then. I’m not interested, but I hope you have a good time,” you said and were about to turn around when you heard the first one open his mouth again. 
“Whatever, you aren’t pretty anyway,” he scoffed and you stopped. Murphy was still pressed against you and you were speechless. He didn’t even mumble it, he said it out loud for you to hear. And it hurt. But before you could say anything you noticed a presence in front of you. 
“You better not repeat that,” you heard a voice that you knew just too well. You heard it often in the morning when it was still full of sleep. And you would recognize the back in a wet flannel. Murphy took two steps forward to stand next to his dad. 
“What’s it to you?” The guy wasn’t intimidated by Steve. 
“That is my girlfriend you just insulted in her own café. So, I suggest you leave after you pay for your stuff.” Steve emphasized the word after after the boys tried to get up. “What do they own you, sweetheart?” He didn’t move an inch and you could just stare at his back as he blocked the view of the table. You said the amount and Steve repeated it. 
“You just put that money here on the table. A nice tip would be also nice for the trouble she had to go through. No, no,” he suddenly stopped and he must have held a hand out. “You don’t look at her. You will leave this café without doing so. Looking at this woman that I’m lucky to call my girlfriend is a privilege. You just lost that by calling her anything other than beautiful. So you better hurry up and leave. And be sure that I let Clint know to not let you in the bar. See, this is a small town. You insult one of us you insult us all. And we don’t forget shit like that.” You heard the bell of your door shortly after that and only after a few more seconds did Steve turn around and you were able to look into his pretty face. 
“Are you okay?” he asked. 
“Of course I am. My ego is a little bruised, but other than that I’m fine,” you assured your boyfriend. 
“Don’t let your ego be bruised only because some jerks can’t handle rejection,” Bucky, who you hadn’t seen until now patted your shoulder and walked towards the counter to take a seat there and left you in Steve’s care. 
“Bucky’s right. Don’t let it get to your head my beautiful,” he kissed your forehead, “beautiful,” now the tip of your nose, “beautiful girl,” until he finally landed on your lips. This made you giggle, which caused Steve to smile at you. 
“Oh what would I do without my knight in my shiny armor – or more like wet armor. And now please step aside so I can scold Bucky because he came in here like a wet cat and now I have to mop,” you pushed past him to get rid of the plates still in your hand and to get the cleaning supplies. 
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Bucky’s house was packed the day he was moving in. His mother and sister were there along with some of his friends. The house wouldn’t stand there without their help, at least not yet anyway. But if someone needed help everyone offered it without blinking twice. And so you were standing in the new house on a warm autumn day and getting a refill of your water once everything was moved inside the house. You noticed Bucky next to you and refilled his glass too. 
“Thanks, pretty,” he said and took a sip. 
“Ugh, when will you stop calling me that?” You groaned. 
“Never,” Bucky smirked at you. 
“As he should. Come sit down with me,” Steve said from the other side of you. He pulled you along to the seat he had occupied before and pulled you on his lap. You learned early to never question again if the furniture (he had built!) could hold the two of you or if you were too heavy. When you were sitting comfortably on him and watched your friends mingling he whispered in your ear. “Move in with me.” 
“What?” you asked confused. 
“Sweetheart, you already live in the cabin. Most of your stuff is there. You spend most of your days at my place and the few night that you don’t I miss you. I love coming home to you and the bed feels lonely without you. Just isn’t the same,” his beard tickled your neck as his words flew over your skin – and heart. 
“What is it with you and the bed?” 
“It was your excuse to come over and see me. So I will use it to get you to move in with me officially. You can rent the flat to Wanda. Her apartment is far away so it could help a lot. Might give you some morning to spend longer in bed with me.” 
“How long have you thought about this?” you asked and turned around so you could see him. 
“Months,” he admitted. 
“Well, then I guess you can call in a favor from Bucky so we will get my stuff over to our house,” you said. When you met Steve, you would have never guessed that the grumpy man could smile so big as he was now. 
“I can ask him now. Three hours and everything will be over,” he said and you stopped him when you pressed your lips to his. 
“We have time. Let’s just calm down and then you can start moving stuff around again.” 
“You’re right. We have all the time in the world,” he whispered back and kissed you again. 
Divider by @whimsicalrogers
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popculturebuffet · 2 years
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Big City Greens: The Chip Whistler Saga (A 13 Episode Retrospective) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)
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Hello all you happy people! We got a long one today but one i'm glad to finally cover as it's been a long overdue review blindspot. Despite this blog being built on Disney Channel's original animation, what with my Ducktales Season 3 reviews both starting my animation reviews and netting me Kev as a frequent comissioner, self proclaimed editor and basically producer of this blog and providing me with a lot of my fanbase, with my reviews of Owl House and Amphibia following it only growing from there. Disney is a vital foundation to this blog being the subject of a good chunk of my output, both paid and on my own time.
Despite this though there's been a bit of a blind spot. A show that just didn't fit regular coverage that well, so I haven't covered it week to week but that's defintely deserved SOME kind of review all this time, I just never realized I hadn't covered it at all till Kev came up with the idea of doing this arc. It's finally time for me to cover Big City Greens. Big City Greens is the brainchild of The Houghton Brothers, Chris and Shane, who previously worked on the criminally underated Harvey Beaks, a slice of life show with mild chaos and a charming large supporting cast from Chowder and Jellystone god among men CH Greenblat.
Big City Greens takes a lot of it's DNA from Harvey, being a somewhat chill slice of life show that still revels in slapstick and over the top worldbuilding, has a mostly feral child as one of the leads (as well as a good safe boy who tries to color between the lines). But while some of where the brothers Houghton came from is evident, and welcome given how much I love and still miss Harvey Beaks, and fear for it's little sister Jellystone for obvious reasons, Big City Greens is still very much it's own work with a unique identity: The Houghtons having grown up in a rural area and moved to the city for college, used the memories of this culture clash and their own childhoods to craft the tale of a charming country family forced to move to the city and getting into shenanigans after their forced to sell the family farm. It's like the Beverly Hillibillies if they hadn't become the 1%.
The show is nice mix of grounded yet zany, reminding me a lot of the simpsons (Which the Houghtons admit was a major inspiration): The world can get as goofy as needed for a joke, from mad scientiests using the family as Guinea pigs, to the family arch enemy using a mad max style coffee cart and just shooting it at people (more on that later), or the entire family deciding the best way to get rid of Cricket's annoying singing Barracuda toy behind his back is to flat out murder it with an axe, a stove and the lawnmower but the main cast themselves are grounded: Still hilarious but utterly relatable and realistic. Our heroes deal with class inequality, homesickness, not feeling like you fit in somewhere you moved, influencers abusing children, predatory businesses, and more things without loosing it's charm or a step. It's a throughly engaging show that never once stops charming the pants off you.
It's also the only one of the few animated shows Disney hasn't in some way treated like crap: The show is up to it's fourth season, a rarity for the network, hasn't been shuffled around time wise, is well promoted and is even getting a movie for Disney+ I can't help but be excited about. It's likely because unlike Disney's other greats like Ducktales, Amphibia or Owl House i'ts not seralized outside of one or two arcs, so it's easy to just throw episodes on. Plus Disney Logic dictates that kids don't like ongoing storylines or engaging characters even when it's transparently obvious they do and one of your biggest all agest franchies is built on that foundation, just like this blog is built on a foundation of praising the work creators put out for Disney while sighing heavily at the company that actually puts it out for near constantly fucking up.
So while apparently there are some who don't like the show for this, feeling it dosen't deserve it's sucess or it's somehow responsible for Owl House or Ducktales getting the shaft…
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i've never been one of them. Sure it's a show I can fall behind on, tends to happen with me and slice of life as the lack of impetus to watch every week means I can let it pile up like the dumb dumb I am, but it's a show I highly respect and stands proudly next to the other standouts of the era. It's good at what it does, it's charming and it's hilarious.
So I was happy to cover it's biggest arc to date and one of the few running through it, which also happily runs into some other major plot points and episodes along the way. It tis the saga of the series only Big Bad to date, the only real true villian in a series full of minor jerks and a guy Vasquez knew once. A guy who seemed like he'd just be a jerk but went full on supervillian as the show went on. It's time to talk about Chip Whistler: If you don't know him your about to and if you don't know the greens thi sis a nice crash course as we weave both through his appearances and the episodes that enrich said appearances. So sit right back as I spin a yarn I like to call the Chip Whistler Saga
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Welcome Home We start at the very top of the series and before we even get to the episode i've already run head first into a very familiar problem: The airing order. For the longest time Disney had a bad habit of just airing whatever episodes it felt like for a series instead of you know what the creators actually meant to make chronlogical sense. Ducktales 2017's first season is the most famous victim of this, with Disney's often arbtirary shuffling of the episodes meaning the intended, delicate ballance the creators had for the season was thrown off badly and for years many, including me, blamed the creative team till it got cleared up this wasn't their fault.
So it's not a huge shock Big City Greens, which came out a year after, got the same treatment, and thus the Disney+ order is different from the airing order. In most cases it's not a huge deal as while BCG has a strong continuity, something that only intensifies from season 2 onward, the plot important episodes are still mostly in about the same place: some come up earlier, some come up slightly later, but their all where they should be and unlike Ducktales where the episode pacing was a very tight balancing act, most of Big City Greens episodes are breezy slice of life numbers that can be put anywhere and those that NEED to be at the right place in a season are where they belong regardless of the list.
As such this seems to be, feel free to point out in the comments if i'm wrong, one of the few very noticable exceptions. THe series still works perfectly with Space Chicken as the start, it's what got me into the series and while I ocasionally forget to watch it it's never left my heart since that episode, but it's still weird to have an episode about the Greens moving in that was clearly produced to go first and explains some important things (Why the Greens are in the city and how Bill lost his finger) from the get go moved a ways down instead of just paired with space chicken as intended.
The episode itself is decent, getting Cricket, Tilly, Bill and Alice's characters across really well: Cricket is good hearted but incredibly egotistical, impulsive and has a bad habit of not listening to his dad, Tilly is soft, good natured, loves animals, but is also spacey and naive and Bill is well meaning but often too passive. (Or prideful but that comes later and his mom is well.. she's the kind of woman who takes lateness from her Son and grandchildren not as a sign their lost but as a sign she needs to fake her death to teach them a lesson. That really is Alice green in one sentence.
It's just a fairly standard plot of a bunch of characters unfamiliar with the city getting lost in it. Plenty of good jokes and a decent start, but not much else to say. It might be WHY it got delayed (even if again it comes off very weird to just plop it mid season) as Space Chicken , only having to introduce Remy and Gloria and only being off in that Tilly isn't a main character yet and thus Remy gets way more focus than her, just flows a mite better. Still worth watching and I still recommend the + order as it flows SLIGHTLY better.
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Critterball Crisis:
So next up we get to the eps we need proper with Critterball Crisis, which gives us a proper introduction to Gloria. While she first debuted in Space Chicken with the rest of the non-nancy main cast (We'll get to her in a moment), this is the episode that startings fleshing her out into the depressed, insecure, grumpy mess we all know and relate to.
This also is where I started to notice a pattern, a type of episode the show really likes to go back to and showed up a lot during this marathon: "Cricket Screws Everything Up" Cricket does something impulsive, selfish or misguided, and his actions result in consequences for someone else and sometimes also himself he has to work to make up for, learning a lesson from the experince. Wethere the lesson sticks is a coin flip, but it still works since he's well 10. It took a long time for me , a 30 year old man to learn some lessons that seem obvious in hindsight. It does explain why some fans dislike the character though, as while he is endearing to me and does grow as the series progresses, I get when your watching every episode as opposed to a few every so often that having a character be the sole cause of conflict every other week can be tiring.
In this case Critter invents Critterball, basically Calvinball but with Livestock, and naturally pitches a ball into the cafe, angering Gloria who understandably is just trying to do her job. She tells him to not pitch any more balls over the fence.. and he ignores it and he , Tilly and Remy just pitch balls over anyway. Shockingly Gloria does not want to give the ball back, making her the first cranky person to not return a ball accidently pitched over a fence to be justifably mad as this is a place of buisness, it's wrecked the outside of the cafe, and could cost her a job as Food Service Bosses geninely don't give a shit whose fault it was and expect you to magically fix it.
I do like that the episode is clearly built to grow with the audience and fit both kids and adults: kids watching would likely side with Cricket, while any teen or adult whose worked a thankless job like Gloria's for too little money will likely understand WHY she's so pissed off at a child for wrecking her work place, giving her EXTRA work and then wanting his balls back to do it all again without a hint of regret. To a kid she's just the mean lady not giving Cricket his balls back.
I also love the scene after this where Cricket tries schmoozing her by asking about her effiel tower. I'm also glad I first saw this episode for this review as with the hindsight of later episodes, it provides both a great window into the character and some foreshadowing: For the former it shows she dreams of going to Paris, to explore the city of lights and finally get everything she wanted: her own cafe, a boyfriend (if one who CLEARLY is horrified a stranger just proposed to him. Even in her fantasies she can't win. I mean i'd do it, but i'm also an orangutan with nothing better to do with my time. I'm not a stubbly fantasy frenchman and i'm okay with that), a life. It shows right from the start one of her bigger flaws: the assumption she needs to do something big and grandoise with her life to be a success. It also hints at her starting the Cafe at the end of season 3, and solidfies she LIKES working in a cafe, something I genuinely didn't realize about her till she opened up the Gloria + Green cafe. She always seemed miserable but turns out it's just working minimum wage. Can. Relate.
Naturally Cricket's big idea for getting his balls back
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Is to steal Gloria's Effiel tower and hold it hostage.
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Naturally he ends up breaking it and while he is sorry, it's too late. Gloria is gone now. There is only vengeance in a gloria shaped shell destroying their balls leading to a brawl in the cafe Gloria nearly gets fired over because her day apparently cannot get worse. Thankfully both for Gloria and the Audience's Tolerance of Cricket, Cricket comes clean and offers to work off the debt and thus a brother sister relationship is forged by an act of true integrity and repentance. And also a dodgeball themed war involving the effiel tower and far animals. Just like all sibling bonds.
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Supermarket Scandal
So now we get to the actual Chip Whistler portion of this Chip Whistler retrospective. And once again this episode is Cricket's Fault, this time somehow topping himself with harassing an innocent employee for making his actions have consequences by going behind his dad's back to try and fill an order to Wholesome Foods, which is unsubtle as heck but also a really nice parody name glad this show got to it first, that bill turned down, then trying to stick in a bunch of dangerous fake vegtables to fill said order.
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As you can tell this episode dosen't quite work: The lesson Bill is trying to teach cricket, letting quality go over profit and letting the quality of the work speak for itself, something I try my best to do, it's a good one as is Tilly's lesson to combine Cricket's showmanship with Bills ethics. But the episode isn't all that funny apart from a mime breaking his ten year vow of silence.
Thankfully what salvages it is Chip himself whose just.. hilariously slimy. He instantly makes the audience recoil at his presence, from calling the greens hillbillies outright, to wiping his hand after finding out Bill is missing a finger. It does make Cricket's not all that likeable actions and getting away with them (only having to give up the money which bill likely would've made him give up anyway for pulling all this, so no actual consequence), work as you don't care that he ripped off this guy in paticular, and thanks to bill and tilly he gets all the fake food sans one piece back before anyone innocent bites it. He also actively warns chip against chewing an apple later after the greens start selling the fake food outright as fake food, so his first chipped tooth is ENTIRELY his fault for not listening. He vows revenge anyway.
I also have to give it to Chip's VA Paul Scheer. Scheer is an actor i've always loved, from his sadly short lived and underated Sketch Show human giant, to his various other voice acting roles to his amazing podcast with his wife June Diane Rapheael and my surrogate creepy uncle Jason Mantzokus, How Did This Get Made?. He's a top not comedian and having played smug before easily slips into Chip's entitled, condesnding hipster rich boy shoes and beaded braclet he wears around his ankle because apparently he needs extra douche points. Maybe he wins a free sundae. But Scheer handles chip both at this point and for the next few eps as a bumbling man baby.. and his slow transition into a slowly decaying manbaby whose become unhinged as he attempts to get revenge.
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Family Legacy
This is one I already loved when I first saw it, but ended up being a textbook episode of an Innocuously Important Episode: An episode that, to quote Wayne Campbell "Seemed Extraneous at the time" but ends up being vital to a future story. In this case we learn the Green Family Farm has a habit of nearly being sold once a generation, usually requiring the child of the family to find some way to save it despite their parent having already given up. While it seems the episode, a treasure hunt for the lost family treasure that nearly gets grandma to sell when it turns out to be heirlooms, only to realize the whole point of those was to not sell and that a family's legacy is important and all that, as we'll see and most of you likely know the actual trial is to come and that indeed Bill will have pretty much given up already and be more than willing to leave.
The episode itself is really fun: not only is the treasure hunt aspect engaging, but the various flashbacks are neat, from a Cricket-Esque ancestor going on horesback to sell the Green's goods after the train stop they were counting on ends up being moved down a few miles, to Amelia Eirhart Tilly saving the farm with a cropdusting, to finally the most badass which naturally goes to Alice, whose response to finding water and her dad being...
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Which is somehow genetic in this universe. So she STEALS THE NEARBYE BULLDOZER THING, WHATEVER IT IS AND USES IT TO DIG UP THE WATER AND SAVE THE FARM.
Don and Dawn, the realtor couple trying to get her to sell are also hilarous, just being way too chipper and apparently having just been. .waiting on the other side of the greens fence till Alice decided to sell. Either way a very good episode with suprising implications for later. Next!
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Feud Fight
This one is solid. It's also the first Chip Episode I saw, but does a good job catching you up if you didn't see Supermarket Scandal and is easily the better of the two, as while Cricket once again causes some of the plots problem, he's coming from a good place: It's Farmers Market Time again and Bill puts Cricket and Tilly in charge of the stand after Alice drags him off to go find a hot pepper. We end up getting a fun , utterly hilarious sideplot about a weird pepper man out of it and Griffin McElroy utterly nails it as said weird pepper man while Bill is just . .baffled by all of it and Alice is ambivlant if happy to finally find a pepper spicy enough.
The reason we're here though is Chip is back and naturally has opened up a stand for Wholesome Foods directly across from our heroes. It's also hilariously sad that a rich manchild picking a fight with an actual child with a lower social standing for entirely stupid and petty reasons is something that not only feels like it's already happened but i'm shocked dosen't happen more.
This is also what makes Cricket actually justified in wanting to do an antic for once: While Bill did simply tell him to protect the stand in his mind chip is a threat to that. He has reason to do this for revenge, to do this to try and stay true, to do it for the ones who had to go on an extended pepper sidequest and doing it for you. Chip is trying to run down a small buisness that badly needs the money simply because of something stupid he did and was warned not to.
What makes the episode work though is while Cricket going after chip feels justfied.. it's still the wrong move. Revenge can feel good in the moment.. but it often sprials, not ending till something truly awful has already occurred. Thankfully this is a fairly light show so we haven't worked up to murder YET but going after chip in the most hilarous way possible (Tilly pretending to be a bedsheet ghost.. without having even cut out eyeholes and claming the foods haunted while everyone just believes her and Chip is somehow the voice of reason for once pointing out how obvious a con this is), only causes things to sprial. Sure it starts with him making japanese mascot Tomato San "dance tomato san dance" which is easily my faviorite line reed of Scheers across this arc, and one I BADLY hope somehow got quoted on how did this get made.
It gets actually damaging though when Chip starts blasting coupons out of a van which threatens not just the heroes stand but every other stand and before you know it
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With Cricket and the other farmers marketers on one side, Chip and his employees who aren't getting paid near enough for this on the other. Tilly thankfully snaps her brother out of his blood rage before he kills a man.. I mean it's a justifable homicide but still he's too young to kill a man. Let him hit puberty first. Then the blood harvest can begin.
It's a fantastic character moment as Cricket sees the damage he's caused both the other farmers and the stand and that in giving into his anger, letting his rightful anger at chip ballon into vengeful rage, that he's become only marginally better than the enemy. And to the kids credit and showing just WHY he's still likeable despite screwing up: he always tries to make up for it. Some efforts ring truer than more, but this one defintely does as he drops his tomatoes, and generally tries to make peace with chip.
Chip, as his his nature as we'll see, screws himself over: Chip is so petty and vindictive that he GENUINELY can't fathom someone doing something for any reason other than spite, and assumes Cricket is planning to attack or something and thus pelts a child with tomatoes. And not just like one or two as one of his employees puts out he DESTROYS Cricket. This turns EVERYONE against him with a bunch of employees walking out (some come back as everyone needs a job and all), and Chip blaming Cricket for his own self made prison, going into a mad rant once Bill returns and trying to eat all their food.
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It does not as he eats the peppers, melts his new teeth and once again blames the Greens for his problems. While the previous episode set up important parts of Chip, his arrogance, lack of empathy and complete inablaity to take any responsiblty for his own action, this episode really cements it.. and their only going to intensifiy from here.
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Coffee Quest
We're back to Chip already
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And thankfully also Gloria as we get one of my faviorite episodes. The setup is simple: There's a coffee bean shortage just as Cricket and Gloria are really getting on each others nerves, Cricket having been working the Coffee job for a few episodes now, and like any good siblings are just about to throw down when Mrs. Cho, the owner of the cafe who only speaks in grunts that Gloria can only understand because they share a voice actress, comes in and has a proposition: There's a shipment of coffee beans coming in, vital to keep the cafe going during this. If our heroes can get there and back again, Cricket's debt is solved and I assume Gloria gets a crown like the queen she is or something. I don't know what she gets out of this other than being free of Cricket, which is nice and all but given this is a woman often living paycheck to paycheck, you MIGHT want to give her a cut of the loot. Could pay off an iota of her student loans, just saying forgivness hadn't kicked in yet. She needs this.
The twos conflict dosen't really SETTLE, but Cricket does prove invulable at the bean site, where every coffee joint in town is waiting and the suplier is more than willing to have them fight it out and let whoever emerges bloody and triumphant from the wreckage get it. Thankfully Cricket just super mario jumps on their heads, acrobats his way past his competttion and various other feats, so getting the bag is easy.
Keeping it.. .is while sadly not a warriors style ordeal about a bunch of diffrent coffee groups, maybe someday , maybe someday, it's still an ordeal since ya know Chip is back. Made it pretty obvious. It's the ONLY time in this arc and in general his main goal isn't fucking with Cricket. I mean he still makes time for it, as a good arch should, but he's here more because Wholesome Foods is also after the bag. Getting to fuck over Cricket is just an executive bonus. He also entirely misreads the room and hits on Gloria, who properly responds to his skeezy come ons by sweeping the leg. Sensei Kreese would be proud. Turns out Gloria knows Tae Kwan, Tae Kwan, Tae Kwan Doe!, and while she hasn't had to use it against the ninja yet the series is young.
Gloria and Cricket are on good terms again, having bonded but needing to escape. Cricket quickly screws up the good vibes by taking Gloria's car and trashing it, but doing so at least gets Chip's van out of the way and gives them time to hide.
This is where the episode really shines: While the frantic chase between our heroes and chip is fun and all and the actoin is at it's peak here, especailly for a series that only has action sequences every so often is awesometastic, what really makes the episode is this scene as our heroes end up hiding in Gloria's apartment and while we got a hint at who she was with "Critterball Crisis" and "Paint Misbehavin" (which we'll get to in a future BCG retrospective... yes folks if you want it there's even more planned), this one finsihes fleshing her out with a twist that genuinely suprised me when I watched the ep: Gloria ISN'T from the city. While it's easy to tell in this episode as she talks up being a city girl so much that it's clear she isn't, it's not something you'd guess but its something that adds depth to her: like yours truly, Gloria grew up in the suburbs, with two loving parents and left for Big City to try make SOMETHING of her life after college. I deeply relate to feeling like your wasting your life and badly wanting something anything to make you feel special. Just some sort of purpose. Instead of giving her that going to big city has just exausted her. It's also why she lashes out at Cricket so much: while part of it's antic, a lot of it's simply him being her mirror: he's also a fish out of water in a city that seems to actively reject him at time.. and yet he's also settled incredibly well, tackling everything with far more confidence than her, getting rewarded for it far more often, and easily attracting friends. He's happy in his own skin and she simply isn't and wonders if she'll ever fit.
It's what makes Gloria such a perfect mirror to the greens: Most of the Greens are optimists (With Alice, whose once bad day from trying to murder everything and everyone who isn't related to her, being the obvious exception). They try to belive the best in people, work hard, and make the most of each day. Even Bill who tends to be the most anxious and the most likely one to crash things to reality, still tries his best and tries to be a good person despite life having repeadtly wacked him upside the head having seen his dad die at a young age, loosing most of the family farm because his mom had to refocus on taking care of him, a divorce with someone he clearly still carries somewhat of a torch for and vice versa, said ex-wife going to jail for a while for trying to HELP him, and loosing the farm despite her sacrifice. Despite ALL of that bill still keeps going.
Gloria is TRYING to keep going... but unlike our heroes dosen't have a support system: Her parents love her but as the show will bear out also put a LOT of pressure on her without realizing it. Her friends don't seem all that close and her one roomate is a parrot who repeats the things she says in her lowest moments, talking about her being so lonely and missing home or having eaten a whole carton of ice cream in one go. It's no wonder she's barely holding on by this ep, and as we'll see while Cricket's sweet earnestness that he's there for her helps, it can't fix a problem this deep. Our heroes only get this far because they have each other and it's by them gladly letting Gloria in that she starts to heal and grow as a person.
The climax is also spectacular as Cricket (or rather Gloria with Cricket telling her the number), calls Tilly for an assit and we get our heroes racing chip in a chariot and winning.. and the bittersweet realization that Cricket and Gloria's time working together is over. Naturally since the Houghtons aren't done with this setup JUST yet, it dosen't last and heartwarmingly Gloria breaks stuff, pins it on cricket iwth his approval and our heroes are reunited.. and one of them is massively in debt again!
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Phoenix Rises
We now get to one of the biggest twists in the series history, done early so you all know and love it but when I first saw a clip of this eps ending my jaw dropped.
The episode itself is a heartwrenching story as Phoenix, the green's lovable red rug of a dog whose as old as cricket and thus getting on in years, suddenly darts off, with Cricket blaming it on him half assing a brushing job for the old gal. WE can see that Phoenix just smelled SOMETHING and took off, but to a kid whose dog may be gone for good it's just eating the poor kid alive. For once Cricket didn't do anything terrible, just slacked off slightly on a chore. Phoenix dosen't seem to care if she gets brushed or not. So it's almost 11 minutes of the poor boy beating himself up and looking for the dog and coming oh so close only to keep failing again and again, eventually coming home defeated. I mean it's not over, as Bill puts it they will keep looking they just can't all night and it's not his fault. It's really excellent stuff and easily some of Chris' best acting as he really sells that feeling when a pet gets lost and your not sure they'll make it home. Top notch stuff
Thankfully Phoenix DOES come back... and he brought a guest. A mystery biker who Bill makes a playful coomment about getting out of jail and lifts her helmet. And this is where my jaw, and Remy's represnting us dropped originally as the kids say one thing that instantly turns this on it's head and explains everything "Mom!"
See for those newer to the series who might of met Nancy BEFORE this, as after this she's main cast, you have to understand that for the first 2/3 of season 2 the kids mom was an enigma. She dosen't come up much, but the kids also don't see mournful of her either, yet refrence her recently enough ti's clear she HAS been in their lives. It's not clear if she and Bill are divorced, seperated or what. With this it becomes clear both where she's been AND sends her back into their lives. And that this episode was just the cliffhangery warmup that after a few important episodes leads into the real reason I covered this one, Nancy's proper debut..
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Uncaged
This is an episode I already liked on first watch but got better. It's not every cartoon that would say "Ex-Con Rights" but i'm glad one did and this one does it exellently
Nancy did mess up: While she tried freeing some dairy cows from a corporate farm for the right reasons (said farm not treating them well and as we'll learn threatning her familes livelyhood), she admits it cost her time with her kids, dosen't plan to do crime again, and is by all accounts a vibrant woman who her kids love. She's got the "cool parent" vibes, but she's shown to be a very good mom, to the point that when Cricket wants to follow in her footsteps and break out an orangutan she calls him a good kid and tells him not to.
The problem dosen't come from Nancy herself, but from everyone else. For the kids Cricket worries he's not cool enough and thus stupidly tries to break out the orangutan, worrying her calling hi ma "good kid' means sh'es not impressed by him. She is she just dosen't want to land him in prison which given this retrospective so far is a valid concern. This leads to our heroes having to get all the animals back, which has a ton of fun bits, the standouts to me personally being the turtle who gets stuck in a club and our heroes have to crowdsurf out and the Giraffe who eats Greg's Nicose salad.. which quickly escalates to him blasting his boyfriend for not liking his cooking then begging they just let him have this and let the giraffe finish eating. God bless you man, god bless you.
The issue.. is everyone else. Alice is just awful.. and not in her usual loveable curmudgeon sort of way. She hates nancy which as the show will prove she always has but uses her being an ex-con as an excuse to be cruel to her and wants her not around the kids despite having done her time and served her sentence. Bill at least TRIES to be a mature adult, letting her take the kids overnight as he should and fighting his worse instincts: while alice gets in his head about the prison thing, he tries fighting it for the longest time before eventually surrendering to worry. In the end when he sees Nancy apparently helpping the police and hugging the kids, having clearly not been behind the nights animal antics or at least trying to stop it, he realizes he was right and basks in it. He shoudln't too hard, as again he crumbled fairly easily, but it shows how these ingrained society prejudices against former convicts can affect even GOOD people
Then there's Officer Keys who never really recovered from this episode with me. The houghtons acurratly portray how the system, represented by Keys who at least is played amazingly by Andy Daly. Keys is normally a kind officer.. but with Nancy he automatically assumes she's behind the Zoo breakout, chases her around town and generally ignores the actual problem or her clearly trying to fix it in favor of locking her back up. He only relents when the kids confess they aren't and let's everyone go. Granted it's hilarious as his partner points out it probably shoudln't work that way but gavel gavel, case dismissed. The system dosen't WANT Nancy to do better, they just wait for her to possibly mess up. Thankfully she survives it and the episode ends in the most heartwarming way imaginable: a mother hugging her children and assuring them she coudln't love them any less if she tried.. and not to tell their dad who already knows about any of this. Awwww
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Reckoning Ball
So yeah you know how I kept saying during "Feud Fight" that we hadn't gotten to attempted murder YET? Well this is why.
We jump ahead to Season 2 and Wholesome Foods is a ghost town. And not the fun kind with bedsheet ghosts in lil spooky sheriffs hats. Turns out pelting a child with produce and bragging about it is a terrible idea in the social media age and has got the store boycotted. Chip naturally blames the greens for this and takes the rational, adult step of renting a wrecking ball and heading to their house to murder them
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The sad part is while it's an extreme escalation, I do wish there was a step between corprate hyjinks and straight up attempted murder, it still fits the character enough to work: We've seen Chip takes no responsiblty, assumes consquences don't apply to him (and being rich he'd be right if this was the real world), and picked a fight with a 10 year old for incredibly stupid and petty reasons. It's a stretch sure but not a massive one that he was one series of bad days from just outright trying to murder them.
Shockingly trying to murder a family with a wrecking ball dosen't go unoticed, as Officer Keys, doing his job right for once, bravely stands between the greens and death and the most chip gets is part of the roof destroyed and his chip toothed again.
We meet Chip's kind, thoughtful dad whose ready to just fire his son, truly saddened his son turned into well...
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And only dosen't because Chip Whines enough. So his dad draws up the standard company forgivness contract which makes me giggle as a company having someone sign a document saying "we forgive you" is something i'm shocked dosen't exist.
Naturally Chip showing up to the people he just tried to murder dosen't go well Cricket and Alice rightfully attacking him and Tilly getting ready to call the police and showing we share a brain "I hope they call the dogs this time"
Chip gets them to stop as he did come just to say sorry.. but Cricket and Alice rightfully don't buy it. Bill does show his character: he also dosen't buy it nor is he just going to sign it when Chip is VERY clearly not trying to be a better person.. but he will give him a chance to make things square as this feud going on can only end badly and it's the right thing. He could be a LITTLE more suspcious of the guy, but he's at least trying to set a good example for his kids and I can respect that.
Bill isn't SOFT though. When Chip's half assed roof repair only causes more damage by having Chip land in a garden, all the while Cricket rightfully laughs at chips commupance, Bill adds that to his tab to. While Chip assumes it's a power move and being unfair, Bill is simply asking him to fix what he broke and had Chip actually listend to bill and done the roof right, he wouldn't of fallen off it.
It is so satisfying seeing chip have to do gardening, and showing Cricket gladly choring, and only dig himself further, having a hallucination after only 10 minutes from exaustiona nd burying the kids bikes. He then has a crybaby tantrum and destroys everything... only creating more work for himself because he can't really do anything right.
It's then we get a moment of truth. While BIll WANTS chip to be better and finds out about the contract, he also wants to know why chip's like this. Chip points out he wants to take over for his dad and be good at it.. and here he could've turned aorund. He makes a speech claming he'll fix everything and try to be better..a nd he could've. He could've stopped being an enemy, become a friend and heck we may even of had him hire the greens.
But.. ultimately Chip's worst enemy. .is himself. He becomes CEO.. but he's so stuck on his pety grudge, a grudge that no longer makes sense as the greens think he's reformed and he now owns his own company, he plans to use it against them. Had chip just walked away, at ANY point not just now, he might of actaully had a good life and got to enjoy things.. instead.. it's only going to get worse for him.
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Elevator Action
Cards on the table, this is my favorite episode of the show. It's something I didn't even realize till I sat down to type about it. It's emotionally rich, deeply hilarious and gives every character something hilarious to do and really gets to what the heart of the show is about: Family. And while most of the shows family is indeed related, sometimes Family is not who your born into but who you find along the way.
SHOCKINGLY it's also a Gloria episode. Cards still on the table: She's my faviorite of the main cast, and a lot of it is that she's deeply relatable: deeply insecure about where she is in life, often depressed, and working minimum wage. The only diffrence I haven't moved out of my Mom's house.
So the opening where Gloria after a day of work not only vegges out with some funny videos, though I personally prefer this guy to people falling down...
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But to each their own. I also relate to seeing everyone else seemingly doing better than you are on social media and feeling you've done nothing with your life. I mean I at least have this as a career, but there was a time I didn't. I've been in a state of constantly feeling like i've done nothing with my life and will go nowhere and even now I struggled with that sort of anxiety.
Gloria plans to deal with it in her own way, which involves going up a big glass elevator to see her landlord and turn in her key, her finances being so strained she can only afford 10 minutes on the meter and has to make this quick and hopefully not run into anyone.
Naturally given this series needs her and I needs her, fate and the creative team ain't going to let it be that easy and the Greens happen to show up with Cricket naturally locking on her and not getting the hint that maybe she dosen't have time for this, says Gloria a lot and tries T-1000 his way through the door. Gloria gives up and lets him and his family in. I also love Gloria's statment "I can't deal with people I know today". We've all been there.
Why our heroes are there is always something i've really loved: City Exporation Day: Each saturday one of the family picks a place in the city to go visit they've always wanted to. It's a really cute way to both get them familiar and have some fun and I really give Bill credit for it. May tell my brother to try that with the nieces.
Tilly picked a museum and Cricket naturally picked a big glass elevator, which frustrates bill but does make SOME sense once he has Gloria look outside it. Cricket also unsuprisingly is that kid who pushes all the buttons and Gloria's understandable attempt to undo it and less understandable button fighting with her sibling gets the elevator stuck.
What follows is just... pure comedy gold as everyone is grappling with something; Alice naturally freaks out, having a fear of elevators, and in doing so breaks the emergency phone, Tilly adorably decides they just live here now and makes a fashion statment out of the rubble of said phone, and Cricket and Bill grapple over Cricket having bought a child sized drink.. specifically the size of a child liquified. As such Cricket needs to go and Gloria gets caught in the middle of bil trying to teach him a lesson instead of giving her the phone. It's a golden moment for each green that really sells who they are. Said phone also having a REALLY bad plan is hilarious. Seems like Bill upgraded after this or it dosen't matter as the joke is funny enough. We also get a cute moment of tilly tucking gloria in with part of the carpet she tore up. It's really sweet.
Eventually though Gloria breaks down and admits why she's here to the Greens, with Cricket naturally taking it the hardest and her reasons are heartbreaking: Like I said she's alone here and that combined with her feelings of inadcuacy finally broke her. She hasn't done what she set out to do, her friends are all succeding somehow, and she has no one to help hold her up when she's down.. or so she thinks. That feeling of lonliness is powerful and Anna does a REALLY fantastic job showing off Gloria's pain.
Thankfully the firefighters arrive and Gloria dashes to go save her car and Cricket, after failing to give an inspiring speech thanks to his bladder, instead heads for the bathroom. Chris' noises as Cricket takes a whiz are both hilarious and deeply uncomfortable
Turns out though Gloria only THOUGHT she was alone. She gets to the car as it's being towed.. only to find the Greens gladly standing up to stop it and annoying the Tow Truck driver into leaving. As Cricket puts it "You're never alone when you have us! I can't belivie I had to explain that to ya". It's a good show of how depression works: you often do feel alone.. but more than not your not alone and you never were. Cricket always cared about her and while he can be obnoxious about it, he's there for her and as for Bill, as he puts it he also lost a car with everything he owns in it. He gets how she feels.
With that.. Gloria invites the greens over and Bill buys pizza.. and Cricket buys 4 more giant sodas having learned nothing. Or maybe he has and just realizes it's easier on the bladder when you can just go to the bathroom again and again at will. Either way the ending of them all together unpacking gloria's stuff is adorable, as is Cricket telling her grouchy neighbor no you shut up. She's not alone. And with that we've left the episodes without Chip... and enter the thunderdome.
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Friend Con
This one is just pure fun. The Greens head to Farm Con, the usual farmers convention where Bill is a keynote speaker and is in heaven with things like a booth on dirt and new crop rotation techniques. It's weird how a character named Bill reminds me so much of Hank Hill i'll tell ya what.
Bill admits missing his friend joe, who he hasn't seen since he moved out of the city years ago, and Tilly being a gentle soul wants to find him a friend. Gramma meanwhile goes about stealing all the swag for the episode and ends up having to run as she takes ALL of it. Like not one per booth EVERYTHING. Usopp bless this woman.
So after shooting down most contestants in eyesight they find Chip and since they don't know he's evil again yet, try to make them friends. Naturally Chip turns this into an evil scheme, planning to replace Bill at his speech to ruin his good name which is both simplier and suprisingly well thought out than most of his plans.
The kids find out , have to stop it, and end up getting Grammas help as she tries breaking out with her semi-ill gotten gains. As you can tell this is a very simple episode but the concept works out: WE know Chip isn't a good person anymore but not what his plan is since he's here for a farmer meet and greet (which he naturally skips), so it's a matter of figuring out what his angle is with bill. Will he do somethign NOW or will he use this later? I mean it's obviously now, Chip tried murdering a family because he pelted a child with tomatoes, impulse control isn't something he has. But you aren't sure going in.
Of course our heroes get to the real bill, and the actual Joe turns out to have been there the whole time and reconnects with Bill. Chip also gets all but his front teeth chipped , having gone platinum last time. So there's that. The main takeaway is that Chip is becoming more and more unhinged since becoming CEO .. and it's about to reach it's peak.
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Chipwrecked
As you can see from the image
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Like look I didn't know I needed Paul Scheer on top of a starbucks themed mad max tank in post apocalypse gear over a suit having barristas literally shoot coffee at people from a hose to try and cost a little boy his job, all while some woman walks her husband on a leash because that's just their thing. You didn't know you needed Paul Scheer on top of a starbucks themed mad max tank in post apocalypse gear over a suit having barristas literally shoot coffee at people from a hose to try and cost a little boy his job, all while some woman walks her husband on a leash because that's just their thing. We all didn't know we needed Paul Scheer on top of a starbucks themed mad max tank in post apocalypse gear over a suit having barristas literally shoot coffee at people from a hose to try and cost a little boy his job, all while some woman walks her husband on a leash because that's just their thing. But it's glorious we have it.
Somehow this is Chip's rock bottom: Cricket isn't remotely taking him seriously, fully confident, and correctly so, Chip will somehow screw up and ruin his own plan despite Gloria and Mrs. Cho's hestiancy, and the rest of the Greens also agree. It's easy to see why: He's only won ONCE out of his appearances, and that was because they were being nice and trying to be the bigger people. He's only remotely won or gotten close when he's used his brain.. which he shockingly has.
That is nice setup for today though when he finally DOES win. While a chunk of the episode is about Cricket tricking his family with a "bring your family to work day"" scam that ends how you'd expect, that's the subplot: The main plot is Chip having hit his lowest: his board is fed up with him never doing actual work, he's deshevled, none of his plans are working, and his obession with beating the greens has left him somehow MORE of a shell of a man than he already was.
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It's once again his father who in his attempts to do right by his son instead ends up giving his son the matches to burn everything down: He points out Chip isn't a manager anymore, he's a CEO. He has the whole empire at his proposal. He needs to start acting like it.
So he does..... and Chip does indeed level up. See something i've noticed while writing this is every time Chip uses his head instead of acting on his impulses, he does well: like I said he has a brain and as we've seen it can be dangerous: he got the greens to sign simply by faking sincerty and nearly won last time not with an over the top villanous scheme but simply manipulating bill and the greens and only lost because Bill happened to have a friend there.
So when he combines that with remembering "Oh yeah I have the endless money code unlocked now I have a company", he comes up with a sinsiter over the top scheme.. that's also terrifyingly well thought out and clever. Chip's win here is as cool as it is horrifying: he decides to start up his "Wholesome Foods Expansion Plan", buying up part of big city to launch a giant, modern as hell new Wholesome Foods. And naturally it just so happens to start with buying out big coffee and just so happens to involve taking out the greens entire street.
How he takes over Big Coffee is also great, he comes in having hired bouncers to replace his former minions, aka hired goons, and has them start tearing it all down. It seems like one of his usual half assed schemes and the one that finally ends in him getting arrested.. till he pulls out this gem of a line after.
"Truth is I don't own the place yet but I will in about five seconds"
Cue him writing Mrs. Cho a check, getting big coffee and throwing our heroes out, leaving everyone panicing as Chip ACTUALLY won and Chip rubbing it in cricket's face about the contract, the episode ending on everything being terrible and our heroes being backed into a corner. And so we come to our finale, one of the series best episodes and the reason we're all here.
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Chipocalypse Now
So we end the saga with Chipocalypse Now, the game changing half hour special. Chip is naturally bathing in having basically won, quickly acquiring the apartments next door and then building his new mega store directly over the greens home, blocking their crops.
Naturally the family wants to fight back... sans Bill who took the previous loss of the farm to mean you can't fight the rich and he should give up
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I was livid with Bill when I first watched this.. but with some time to reflect I realized I was a bit hard on the guy. He's still WRONG, our heroes shoudln't give up and even if there's a risk some fights are worth it, which ends up being the point of the episode. But not only is he meant to be in the wrong, you get why with his backstory. His whole life big buisness has won over him: Nancy went to jail failing to fight them, they eventually wore out his farm to the point the bank forclosed, and even as a kid his needing attention meant his mom had to sell more land. None of this is his fault: Nancy was an adult who knew the risks and only regrets not seeing her kids for so long, Bill tried his best and sometimes even when you do that you fail, and his mom did what she did for his sake and is fine with what she had left. I can't blame him for being so jaded he assumes they'll loose, but I do blame him for not seeing that his family dosen't want to give up and shouldn't while they CAN still fight. It's frustrating to see Bill constantly telling them not to do anything, but I get it enough to accept it.
So our heroes naturally ignore that and Cricket, Tilly and Alice all go raid the grocery store.. only to run into Gloria. This.. isn't handled the best in my eyes. I get her viewpoint: "I don't need a family I need a job" and I get her TAKING the job, chip likely offered it to her immidently just to fuck with cricket more and while it sucks, it feels like she could be just a pinch more conflicted. She blames cricket for all of this but.. like he's 10 and was trying to do the right thing and forgive and Chip is 30 something and doing all of this to bully a child. Prioritse glorious gloria, priorities. Still it's a minor writing hickup.
Bill is naturally annoyed at this but Nancy still wants to fight back and DOES show some growth from last time by taking Bill's words to heart... not giving up, but trying to do this the legal way first. Since Chip Showed them a piece of paper saying imminent domain, well more gloated about getting the mayor to do it, then they need to confront the mayor on it. They go to the mayor, a hilariously spineless people pleaser played by Andy Richter who dosen't like people being upset at him and is fine to help them till Chip shows them a pettition for the greens to leave. Rightfully smelling a rat or the clear bodyspray shower Chip takes every morning Nancy takes his tablet.. and gets arrested again. It's truly devistating, not only for this to happen to the kids again, but that Officer Keys AGAIN does it. YOu can see why maybe I don't like a cop who dosen't seem the LITTLEST bit sorry to arrest a woman in front of her children.
Bill is mad, which I get but also maybe don't lecture your kids when they just saw their mom get arrested, and being told no one wants them here really rattles cricket. Thankfully Nancy wasn't stupid and while she coudlnt' keep the tablet did send the pettition to Bill's phone.. revealing that Remy was one of the signees
The next scene is objectively funny as Cricket shouts betrayal and tackles remy from offscreen, Vasquez naturally steps in and Remy tells them both to stop and affirms he never betrayed cricket. They cut that episode. Naturally Chip faked it, and if they can get to his computer they can prove it. We also get a nice scene of Cricket and Tilly going to their mom and letting thier worries loose btu Nancy reassures them: Yes this fight cost her but it was worth fighting for. And if Chip is going to take everything anyway, they might as well go down swinging.
So while Bill still refuses to fight, Cricket, Remy, Tilly and Alice make a plan: Team Spidercat, the fellas, will go try and get the evidence while Team Thunderbandit, the gals, guard the farm and prepare for war.
Team Spidercat tries going through the front door but fails since it's closed. Thankfully Gloria dumping them out a chute earlier means they have a way in and using an opening sequence refrence Team Spidercat gets inside. They end up running into Gloria, but Cricket finally gets through to her, pointing out their family has always been there for her (accurate), and their on the cusp of loosing their home. Gloria changes sides, gives Cricket her key card and takes care of the goons that come for them. I mean she looses but at least she takes the goon with her.
Team Thunderbandit has to get to work early as chip plans to start construction earlier than the planned midnight because of course and it's up to our heroines to hold the line. They do well, but eventually needs helps. We get a truly Johnny Lawrence level badass moment as they radio Cricket.. nad Remy reveals he was ready for this, calling in a code red... and Vasquez swings in , beats up a ton of mooks and declares "The greens are master remy's closest friends. I won't let anything happen to them". Bad. Ass.
He and Alice quickly go back to back for life, and I kinda ship them? Is that weird? I mean Vasquez is clearly younger but like he seems older than Bill? I dunno man, either way i'm for it I just want to know. At any rate they do well for most of it, and Bill comes out to once again bill things up despite Chip you know having shown up to wreck the place early. That's when Tilly gets her moment in the sun giving one hell of a speech pointing out why their doing this.
"Mama knew the risks, but she couldn't stand by while our family was under attack. And now, the Green family is under attack again! Maybe we are just the little guys... but if we stand together as a family... we have a real chance to turn things around. And I won't give up on our home while there's still a chance. Isn't our family worth fightin' for?"
Bill runs back inside.. but comes back with Chicken Feed fully convinced.. as is most of big city as the news came to record this and thus everyone now knows what Chip is doing.. just as Chip heads to go confront cricket.
We get the gag of the episode as Remy sarcastically says "Gee cricket ya think this might be chip's office", given it has a giant portrait of him ,and naturally the results are all from one IP adress. They print it out and Remy once again shows he's awesome by faking being a lost child to distract the goons while Chip plans to finish this.
Outside Bill awesomely stops some jackhammers with a swarm of chickens, but our heroes are soon cornered when Cricket arrives with the evidence, and Nancy, having been freed by officer became a decent human being, has just brought the mayor. Said evidence goes up in helicopter as Chip naturally is a step ahead.. but he's still two steps behind as the various friends, associates and one off pepper weirdos of the greens have shown up to protest their being kicked out. The Mayor is upset people are mad at him, sad that I can relate, and Nancy get shim to do the right thing: he saves the Greens house and bans chip from town. With nothing left to loose Chip goes back to his old plan a for the season: MURDER THE SHIT OUT OF THEM.. and for once last time.. .his impulsivness dooms him, with cricket getting him caught on a banner and launching him out of town.. and just for added irony his tooth chips. Chip has been defeated, probably not for good sadly as I just realized the Greens just moved OUT of big city this season... and Chip isn't banned from smalton. I mean he has no more resources but that hasn't stopped him before now has it? Btu for now the big bad is defeated, the farm is safe and the other properties go back up as was. IT's a truly heartwarming ending, our heroes having truly won.
It does get a hilarious and awesome button though as Gloria just.. moves on in. She did the right thing but she can't really afford her aprtment so she's moving in. THey don't get a say in this. Though honestly I don't think Bill would've turned her down from just asking and it's not like she's wrong. So Bill has a third kid now as we roll credits.
The Chip Whistler arc. .is excellent and it, and the episodes I showed adding some depth to things, show just how strong this show is. It's not heavy on an arc, nor does it need to be but it has heart, a very strong continuity and courage to shake things up: the status quo soen't stay too samy for long: Nancy joins mid season 1, Chip is foiled here close to the end of this season leading to Gloria joining the house, and next season they move back to the country. The Houghtons made a point of shaking things up around the middle each season and it gives the show new life every time. I can't wait for what comes next and if you want to see me come back, then like or reblog this. let me know. Because me and Kev.. we already have ideas for the sequel. This was a fun, exausting project and I can't wait to do it all again. Thanks for reading .
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terresdebrume · 2 years
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I haven't written consistently since 2020. I haven't written nothing but a lot of what I did write was harder to write than it should have. I participated in two Reverse Bangs to try and get back to it, but they ended up feeling like obligations as much as (if not more than) fun thing to do.
I think probably a lot of it is due to the general circumstances of the world and of my life? I mean, if I try to make a headcount:
COVID finally caught up with Cambodia in 2020, inducing lockdown with high levels of incertitude (which I don't deal with very well) and stress.
I lost my cat Pouet right at the end of the year. She was only 9 months old and I did Not Take It Well.
I spent most of 2021 stuck in a workplace where the general conditions got progressively worse, in large parts because the manager actively and explicitly worked to destroy any kind of solidarity and camaradry there was in the team (and we were a good fucking team, damnit) and also in my specific case because I kept having to argue for my right to do the job I was hired for. In the end, what prompted me to leave was a combo of a) wanting to cry at the thought of going back to work b) getting so sick I got a week of sick leave like. A week after getting back.
This led to about two months of unemployment which, though needed, was also stressful because I had no idea if/when I'd find another job. I didn't have the energy to work but also staying at home and doing nothing was bad for me, so that went bad.
In February of 2022 I started working as an independent teacher with two different structures, both of which changed my hours, class lists and work conditions several times without warning or consultation, which again doesn't work for me. I need to have a certain predictability in my life and I need improvisation or last minute changes to be brought by me not other people's decision that don't take me/my time into account.
In June, one of those two jobs finished, leaving me without my main source of income for six weeks but also (at the time) signifying that I was going to go back to France in December of 2022, meaning I had to start on a lot of prep things to move my cats overseas, look into buying plane tickets in a comparatively short time, and also meant I would have to go back a) in winter (I hate the cold) and b) to my mother's place, for an indeterminate amount of time.
Now said place has offered me a full time contract for the upcoming year, which is kind of scary in its own right (40h a week is A Lot imo) but also means I have more time to prepare for leaving in 2023, which includes preparing for the cats to travel, learning two new languages to maximize my chances to land a job in warmer European countries and, eventually job hunting.
It also means my mother is coming here in December and staying in my flat for however long, which is going to be stressful in its own right but also she's evoked the possibility of coming with my sister, which I Do Not Want. (Like. I'm already not big on my mother staying with me but she's missed/ignored/countered every hint I've given her to take a hotel so far and I'm like... trying to pick my battles I guess?)
The risk of ending up with my cats at my mother's house for an undetermined amount of time is still Very Real and I'm Stressed out whenever I think about it.

... Well shit, I was just trying to explain why I needed to take as easy an approach to writing fic as possible and now I'm like 'Oh. Oh, I'm not doing good actually!' so like.
Fun post, I guess.
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blog-reflection · 4 months
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ONE / Twelve- For a Brighter Future
Being in Brighton is so unreal, especially for that long.
Today is friday. I’ve been in Brighton with Jeo for almost a week now and let me tell you, finding a nice apartment you like sucks. We’ve been visiting places non stop and to be honest, I don’t think I ever make it. I, again, got disappointed this morning. I was visiting that nice place with Jeo but someone really flexed hard with their photoshop skills. Meaning, there are only four visits left for today and another three tomorrow. I mean, I still like the time here. The more I am in Brighton the more I want to live here. I got a bit sad but also nervous I wouldn’t be able to find an apartment. Luckily I got Joe with me. He really knows what’s important to look at when making the move and he’s able to cheer me up most of the time with his positive “can do” attitude. We saw some apartments, some good, some really bad, but not what I imagined. I’m really hyped for one particular apartment though. Two room apartment, awesome view, perfect location…it’s near the coast, so that’s pretty cool. I don’t have a long walk to the park or the beach if I want to. In times like these I’m happy to work in a job that does not force me to any specific location.
Josepphe: You’re ready James? I know you really quite like this apartment, you’ve been dreaming about it none-stop since you’ve seen it. James: Oh yes. It's just, still reminding me of home somehow while being my own realm. Also, the flooring looked just amazing and didn't let me start on the sealing. I do think I will miss the big window next to my bed. That’s always a highlight of mine. Josepphe: you are the only one who liked the window in that house not gonna lie. Well, let me know if you like this apartment. If it is what they have said online then we have made a really good deal.
Josepphe is right, this apartment is quite cheap compared to the others we reviewed. I still can’t believe that this might be the first step to get independent.
We stood in front of this old big house. So far so good, it looks exactly like it did in the photos. I walked towards the door and knocked on it. An old black woman opened. She had black middle-long hair in a bun, wearing a white shirt and a pair of light blue jeans. She looked, unlike my grandparents, relatively young. If I didn't know any better I’d say it would be her daughter opening the door. She gave us a heart-warming hug and invited us inside, starting to introduce herself and getting right into it.
Sarah: So, this is it. My name is Sarah, I have lived here since something between the 60’s and 80’s. I don’t want to shock you but I’m better off if I say that now. Even if you rent the flat, I’ll be still living in this house till the end. The other candidates thought I would leave but no. I wanted to make this clear front up. Are you still interested? Because the other people left after they heard that they would have to share? James: Well it’s not like we see each other that often despite the fact that we use the same front door. Plus, you seem like a really nice person, so of course pls. I want to see my room now. Sarah: Very well.
With that said she walked around towards the staircase. At the end of the staircase was a really spacious room, the main room to say that. It has white walls and logs connecting the roof. Next thing she shows me in the kitchen, which is quite small but has all it needs. Same for the bath which is kind of big.
Sarah: Well basically that’s it. Feel free to walk around and ask any questions you have. You got all the time you need, you’re the last one for today. James: I do have a question. Are there any rules I’d have to follow since, well, you live here? Sarah: Oh, there is not much I ask for. It’s mainly to keep the music at a decent level, maybe a tad quieter in the later eve. Parties are okay if they are only in your part of the house, but please inform me before, friends however can walk in and out. If you give me my space, I give you yours. When you go to the store it would be nice if you at least could ask me. I don’t want you to do a whole shopping for me but maybe I run low on something. Oh, and if you want to chat a bit or play some chess or so that would be really lovely. But other than that it’s all yours. No rules about wall colour or something be free, as long as it is upstairs.
This sounds like a dream. I stayed in the room a bit longer and looked in every corner, every place. This is just amazing. It’s such a good apartment. I really love it. Lets just hope the price is still the same. If so, then I’m going to live here in less than three weeks. I would move everything over from my mum’s place in Dover to this apartment in Brighton. This will cost me a fortune but it’s worth all of that if I can live here in peace and quiet. I took view photos with my phone for later references and for Jesse and Lucia before heading towards the staircase. Sarah placed herself in her Living Room, watching the news. I awkwardly knocked against the door to make her aware of me.
Sarah: Oh, you got more questions I see? Or do you want to leave? James: I just wanted to ask about the pricing, if anything has changed or so ever?” Sarah: Well the price is still the same, 850£/month. The rent for the entire house is just really high, that’s why I can’t go any lower. It's less than what others pay to live here but Brighton is quite expensive. I hope you can understand this to at least some point. I’m really sorry that I can’t get lower on the pricing though.
She seemed mad about having to charge me so much even though it's not her fault at all.
James: Listen Sarah, I’m going to talk with my grandad about this for a second outside if that’s okay? We will be right back.
She nodded and Josepphe and I left the house, the door slightly open.
Josepphe: Soo? What do you say? Is it what you wanted it to be?” James: Are you kidding? This is beyond what I imagined it to be. Despite the fact that Sarah is just so lovely. It's really like a dream come true. But the pricing…. It’s a lot. I don’t want you to have a burden for so much money. Josepphe: Jam, listen…you really love this apartment and I’m sure we will not find something better. I promise you, don’t worry so much about the payment. Your grandma and I have saved a fortune just for you. I see how happy this place makes you. And to be honest, you really need to live on your own. You mum is sometimes a bit intimidating, even for me. Last time, at the family breakfast, she really said some awful things to her own mother. I haven’t seen you this happy in a while James. I like your smile, it’s cute. So, what do you say? Want to go inside and ask Sarah for the keys huh?
All these things Josepphe just said were way too much to deal with. I stayed strong but I busted out in tears inside of me. He put his arm around my shoulder and we both went to Sarah. I told her that I would take the apartment as soon as possible. We all sat down at the kitchen table to go through the final contract. Everything I asked her was now down written, proven with her and my signature. She copied the papers, grabbed the keys and said
Sarah: For a brighter future
With this sentence I was officially having my own space to live. To my surprise she agreed on moving in as soon as possible. I hugged her goodbye and left the house together with Josepphe. We were walking around the corner when I just started screaming. My granddad was excited as well and hugged me really tight before I jumped around in circles like a kid on their first sugar rush. Finally, after all that time I’ve been through lately, a shine has arrived. I feel that, from now on, things will get along easier for me than it used to be. Not only will I live in my own apartment but also be able to stay away from my mom for good. Ever since the verbal fight between her and Gérard, things changed. They are still married but life apart. Gérard lives in Deal now. I don’t know what he is doing there, nor if he has a new lover or so ever. I only know that my mom’s mental health started to slowly scatter. So slow that actually no one really notices it, who isn’t struggling with mental health as well. I can see that she is damaged, a lot. In stressed situations she tends to snap out of nowhere due to an overflow of either emotions or surrounding impacts, just like a view weeks ago at home.
After we came back to the hotel we decided to call it a shot. I cancelled all the leftover visits and started backing up. On Saturday morning Josepphe and I were walking towards the train station of Queens Road, Brighton to make our way to Kings Cross, London only to get on another train back home to Dover. This is a ride for sure and we have been up all week to visit the apartments but I’d say it's worth it. Brighton is far away from all that Bullshit I had to deal with. And the best of it, the train to Windsor only takes around 2 hours which is one hour less then from Dover. It's not like I visit Jesse that often, but it's great to know that even the opportunity is given.
I finally made it.
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the-firebird69 · 2 years
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What his ideas are are intense they are like training modules for the public and it is intense having a room full of x-wings like 20 of them and cascading so you're flying through space together and you can see each other and you're flying next to each other and in the suits you're just like a pullover and the helmet which has gear in it and you can talk to each other it's intense okay what we're talking about is it intense game and people don't have these. And we're going to roll one up there tonight into the parking lot it's just a big box and they're going to go nuts on it I mean they're going to have such a great time I got to pull to town and bolt it down we have to bolt it with something in the ground but we'll just patch it they said yeah we have to patch it it is a flat spot we see it and my God this is going to be intense and we might have people try it if we get permission from the local people and everything and they're saying okay and it would go huge it would go global right away if you're making millions of these we need help and we need it now and this is it so I'm going to put it up there and there is a person who runs Disneyland and it's not Tommy f and he almost got fried by him so can I ask if you would like us to ship when he says yes so we can ship it out there tonight and bring the crew and he'll bring his crew out and we're going to test it out and friends and family I'll be invited and see if they like it and Yap it up and we'll get it installed and you can order the actual simulator which would have the same configuration but the X-Wing would be 100% realistic and we build them so we know. Yo put it in and we'd have to be in a maintenance contract and have merchandising and he says okay and part of the merchandising would be models and medals and cosplay suits and uniforms which are real and also a hovercraft those could be sold through Disneyland and we have liability insurance and stuff like that. And he's interested and it would be awesome and he want to see a field test of it you can't get out there for some reason be hey. Yes you got it no money okay okay. So Mac is going to do for the deal here too which is good because it'll be the same and we're going ahead with it bja says he's got one and we're going to drop it off and trying to break it VGA and Trump okay we'll try but thank you very much it's good advice Sarah says wherever she is that's where she's missing and they changed the store up to say oh we're changing it up so I get this feeling it's gross so which one is it I guess Tommy f and trying to grab her normal body fruitcake head. Easier to grab sore on it Trump says and thank you for your input and others like that you better watch out cuz you're going after your head guys and we see it all over and he's wondering why he knew that they're trying to be power me but not sure what the reason it was is it a total strike is it to a race or draw or take the stuff actually I was kind of wondering what it was for any professional is a friend of mine we know who he is and he is a friend of yours. I'm actually Governor newsome in front of yours too an a******well Trump can go to the ride and he can calm down cuz he probably won't make Captain. Oh I'll make Captain you'll see it I'm going to have my own squadron or fleet I know about the special stuff too so you can calm down it's not a bad idea having a bunch of smaller ships that are fast that have fuel for them I'm going to go ahead and start thinking about this since the way to avoid just getting wiped out to move your s*** you can move your ships around and you can glide to different areas cuz the area is hot then it's not when it's gone and it's not it's not bad Trump says.
So see the agreement coming across about the box and I'm going to sign it and we get this thing with 20 x wings in it that's pretty big it's like eight stories high and it's like 200 by 300 ft and it's got all sorts of doodads in it but really go into the room and it's not that complicated and it just looks like a huge screen that goes around you wrap around all the way around you by the way and you're in this X-Wing it looks like it's almost full size each one of them has hydraulic attached to it and the arm can't go down further then it can go down physically would just sit there this is intense it's awesome Governor newsome says
And here the other idea we've been working on it all day being this big pyramid we'd have to stick that in dizzy Disney a universal wants one I don't know how you can do too unless you do a different rides one could be X-Men and the other could be Stargate so people are trying to pick. It says if you like the same thing but you'd be fighting apocalypse and he look a little bit better but you have to stick to the character and you can have superpowers weapons you could have laser vision it's the same thing it would just be a low powered laser and it would do the damage that Scott's visor does and you would have things that go in your wrist for those who have lightning like storm and it would be cool it would be really cool I don't like the Iceman would have ice pellets from a wrist thing and Bobby would have a wrist thing with flame and then starting to say something that's pretty intense and you're fighting 3D holograms and nowadays they're kind of realistic it'll be kind of spooky and you'd have a whole setting and everything so they want to work up of it at universal studios and up at Disney we're going to bring the pyramid up there it's kind of big cuz it's a full ride and it has like an outdoor scene and a bunch of indoor scenes where you fight inside the pyramid it's like a big building saying 10 or 12 stories is like 500 by 500 soon we're going to put it as if there's a field probably end up staying there have to do up down construction to the foundation or you could tooth it in underpinning. Mac Daddy's joking.... And really it has to be flown in can't be reassembled the pieces are too small it's kind of stupid isn't it. I'm going to try to bring it in we're building the ride right now well we might have one ready this is kind of thinking about it yeah sorry it's real . Is Target's real and some of the writing show something like it and we had a reason to do it you know
Thor Freya
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alyjojo · 2 years
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Love Reading 👰🏽‍♀️- June 2022 - Sagittarius
Singles:
Overall energy: 10 Cups rev
How you will meet: The World
How they will treat you: 7 Wands
Long-term Potential: 7 Pentacles
This is an ex, someone you’ve left before. In this read you seem like the bad guy here, you love to fk with this person’s head, in almost a sadistic sort of way. Idk who I’m picking up on, but the energy is not good. The reading aims at it being you, so I’ll read it that way, and if it’s switched then you know your story. In the past you’ve left this person behind, and you were fine with that, you weren’t happy and you felt secure & confident on your own.
How you re-meet them is after it’s already over, and there is no communication whatsoever, the ties are completely cut and the bridge set aflame from the energy I’m getting, so I’m really not sure how you two come back into contact. They seem to want to reconnect, could be them messaging. They’re very defensive towards you, they feel they need to stand their ground or prove a point, honestly I think that’s on purpose because you like to make this person feel that way. You screw with their head, push their buttons, poke and prod and instigate. This energy...😨
Future potential is more of the same. You’re waiting for your opportunity to lie, twist words, manipulate and mind ninja this person in the most cruel and mentally fkd up way. You derive pleasure from upsetting other people. I feel like I need to take a bath in sage now. I hope this person bolts for the hills.
If it’s switched and it very may well be, run away 💯
Messages -
Your side:
- Sibling drama
- I want to have my cake & eat it too 🍰
Their side:
- Soothing Presence
- I just want to START OVER!
Signs you may be dealing with:
Everything except Cancer, could be any sign
Couples:
Overall energy: 2 Cups
Current: King of Cups
Challenge: Page of Wands
Potential: The Hanged Man rev
I don’t know why Spirit is coming for Sag this month, but they are. You’re getting the blame for this whole relationship situation you’re in, the singles’ got the same thing (different story). Your person is being shown as someone that loves you, could be a great deal older than you, possibly a water sign, and is emotionally mature. You’re coming up (I’m sorry) as incredibly immature, spontaneous, exciting, foolish, passionate, over-emotional, tantruming and kinda destructive. Mostly focused on money and your messages say you don’t even know what love is, this could be your first relationship. The dynamic is kind of squeamish to me, if the age difference itself isn’t a lot then the maturity definitely is, so much that I wonder what you two even have in common.
This person pulled away from you and is staying to themselves, they feel you’re emotional and “drama”, and they’re moving away from it. They love you, but you’re too much for them at times. The challenge is you, having to face this very difficult situation you’ve created with 9 Wands, which you’re acting like you don’t want to face any of that, you just want a new opportunity with this person. It sounds like they’re holding you accountable for any actions you’ve taken. A big part of your reason for wanting this is financially related, which this person may or may not know. You want to come back around but you’re facing 10 Swords. Either you’re being held accountable for what you’ve messed up here, before they’re willing to reconcile and end this cycle, or this person is flat out denying a reconciliation because they’ve been in The Hermit energy and have looked very closely at the dynamic between you, and feel there’s no use and this needs to end for good. Or they’re not ready to deal with you.
Their messages are positive and there is love here, most of you will be reconciling. There’s at least one person that won’t though, and it has everything to do with fiery & over-dramatic or destructive behavior, they’re not interested. This connection is literally fire 🔥 and water 💧 and effort is needed to bridge the gap of differences in behaviors & expectations.
Messages -
Your side:
- I don’t know what love is
- $$$
Their side:
- I love to surprise you
- Forever young
Oracles -
Your side: The Other Side is your real Home, and it’s possible that you will feel a form of homesickness while in this life.
Their side: If someone or something has hurt you, let God and the universe take care of it.
Signs you may be dealing with:
Water is strong here, Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces & Virgo the most
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ptergwen · 3 years
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hi I saw your requests were open if there not anymore you can completely ignore this :). but could you do a boyfriend!peter x reader where he loves it when reader gives him those little kisses on his nose and freckles with head scratches please. feel free to change or completely ignore this <3
thousands of tiny stars
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pretend i haven’t used this
warnings: a couple suggestive jokes but the rest is just floofy fluff
a/n: i got carried away as per usual and i did end up changing it a tiny bit :/ emphasis on tiny tho lmfhsjfh you’ll see ! either way i hope you enjoy mwah
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one thing about peter is that he absolutely can’t sit still under any given circumstances. he’s restless, like a burning ball of energy that’s brightness never dims.
because of this, he tries to and needs to keep himself occupied and be kept occupied every second of every day.
it’s sometimes playing with his fingers or your own, which peter prefers because he gets to hold your hand. other times, it’s tapping his favorite pink glitter pen relentlessly against the kitchen table while he conjures up homework answers.
aunt may isn’t very fond of that one.
this time, it’s constantly shuffling about the couch in the name of finding comfort.
peter starts off with an arm around your shoulders and a content grin on his face. you two agreed on mean girls for the first movie of your marathon, your head resting against peter’s chest as the tv steals your attention.
a few minutes in, peter decides he feels like being held rather than holding you. he sneaks his way down your body, lets himself nudge your thighs to wordlessly communicate what he wants. you of course oblige and switch positions accordingly.
peter lays his head in your lap, taking the opportunity to stare up at you instead of at the screen.
he finds himself shifting around again not too much later. now laying on the couch’s armrest on his side, he kicks his feet into your lap where his head just was.
you’re becoming slightly annoyed with his fidgeting. his explanations of sorry, just trying to get comfortable and innocent smiles are what stop you from complaining.
“that’s strike three, parker,” you joke, eyes leaving the movie to fix on him. peter crosses his arms over his chest. “i dunno what you’re talking about, y/l/n,” he insists. “i haven’t done anything remotely strike-worthy so far this evening.”
flicking his sock clad foot, you mutter your response. “debatable.” peter dismisses you with a huff. “whatever. c’mere… i miss you.” he makes grabby hands for you, like the big baby he is.
it’s quite endearing, though.
“i’m right here, pete,” you laugh out and return your gaze to mean girls. “and yet, you’re so far,” peter counters. “come gimme cuddles.”
you sigh lightheartedly, your ever so clingy boyfriend still reaching out for you. a smirk pulls at your lips.
“well, there’s an offer i can’t refuse.”
peter adjusts so he’s sitting criss cross, bouncing excitedly in his spot. his chocolate brown curls fall in all directions, form being swallowed by an oversized stark industries hoodie that he keeps having to roll up the sleeves of.
he looks so soft and snuggly in anticipation of your cuddle session. you can’t believe you were ever annoyed at him.
slightly annoyed.
he’s so eager that when you scoot the tiniest bit towards him, he literally pulls you into his lap. peter’s arms hug you around your lower back, you laughing quietly as he peppers a trail of kisses from your cheek to the side of your neck.
the movie long forgotten about, you wind your arms around his neck and tilt your chin up.
“pete?” you breathe out. peter pecks your cheek once more, then your other, beaming. “yeah, babe?” he wonders. with a half serious half teasing glare, you wonder, “are you comfy now?”
peter ponders your question, and from the skeptical furrowing of his eyebrows and biting of his lip, you have your answer. he’s about to make you regret asking.
it seems that as soon as you settle, peter gets antsy.
“uh, actually…” he strokes his thumb along the underside of your chin, smiling apologetically. “you mind if we lie down? ‘m kinda tired.” there it is. you roll your eyes. “how could you not be? you’ve been playing musical chairs all night.”
your words earn a chuckle from peter, though they’re at his expense. “this’ll be the last round, promise,” peter swears and seals the deal with a kiss to your chin, which is currently grasped between his fingers.
you know it won’t be. the game goes on forever with peter, unless you end it yourself.
“damn right, bug boy. move another inch after this and you can consider your cuddle privileges revoked,” you grumble, getting off of peter’s lap. he stares at you in pure horror, gasping. “you wouldn’t…” “i would,” you correct him.
not aiming to test that theory, peter quickly fumbles around and lays flat against the cushions. he wills himself to be stiff as a board. you seem satisfied with that, climbing on top of him with your face hovering above his.
peter sets his hands on your hips, grip strong. he closes the space between you both with a short kiss. you reciprocate and deepen it, turning short to long as your parted lips slot with his. his tongue darts out, already skimming over your bottom lip for more access.
you hum into his mouth and allow his tongue to slide in. peter kisses you so tenderly as he rubs circles on your hips, your fingers tangling in his locks simultaneously. you weave them up to his roots, using your nails to gently scratch at his scalp just the way he likes. he breaks the kiss to let out a noise close to a moan.
“that- that… oh, god yeah,” peter praises, his eyes fluttering closed. you’re amused at how easily pleased he is. “don’t cream your pants yet, pete. i’m just getting started,” you purr. peter squeezes your hips in response. “feels better than an orgasm, babe. i’m serious, too,” he murmurs.
you continue your handiwork in his hair and lean in for another kiss. peter merely pecks your lips before jerking away.
“wait, hold that thought,” he exhales a breathy laugh. “i gotta pee.”
he has to be kidding. again with this?
“oh no, you don’t,” you deadpan, pushing against his shoulders to hold him down. “oh yes, i do,” peter retorts. “let me go, y/n/n.”
peter could definitely slither out from underneath you if he truly wanted to. he has super strength, so the might of his teenage girlfriend doesn’t quite compare.
pinning him in place, you straddle his waist. “nope, you’re gonna stay. i’m not giving you a choice in the matter.” peter attempts to pry you off of him, but you won’t budge. “y/n, my bladder is gonna explode-“
he cuts himself off with a giggle when your lips begin to attack him. you kiss down the bridge of his nose lightly, peck each freckle dotting his skin, and the amount of them is infinite. peter’s fit of giggles continues as you smooch that pretty face of his, his cheeks dusted pink and hands coming up to support you by your sides.
he’s always been a little insecure about his freckles. they don’t suit him, there are too many of them, blah blah blah. you obviously couldn’t disagree more. you think they’re sick.
you’d once even told him they look like thousands of tiny stars, and peter does love stars. he also loves the kisses you tend to randomly surprise him with to remind him to appreciate his freckles the same way you do.
“okay, okay! i’ll stay!” peter concedes, you ruffling his hair and pressing a final kiss to the tip of his nose. he grins despite himself, and secretly wishes you wouldn’t stop. “but, if my kidneys fail… it’s on you.”
you pat his chest definitively.
“good thing you’re a fast healer.”
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