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sillyunknownkitkat · 5 months

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Plug! Dina Headcanons

Tw: drugs, wlw, trouple?, suggestive and nsfw under the warning cut, kinda ooc, afab reader but no gender or pronouns specified. (just one use of pretty), Ellie x reader, Dina x reader, Dina x Ellie, ...

Banner with the pics is made my me @sillyunknownkitkat

Please do not use them. If you want banners that are actually made to be used, @cafekitsune and @saradika-graphics have some :) and they're amazing!

Plug!Dina who gave free joints to Tommy so he wouldn't tell Maria that she sold drugs in Jackson.

Plug!Dina who asks you to stay with her if you ever try one of her new products to "be sure nothing bad happens to you, sweetheart."

Plug!Dina who has had many sample of her products as "quality checks" but we all know she just a bit of a junkie

Plug!Dina who scares children if they ever want to buy her stuff by telling them that it's just a scam and that the thing she sells kill people.

Plug!Dina who gives you and Ellie the pretty girl discount and to no one else.

Plug!Dina who brings weed to parties but refuse to let you pay anything. Same for Ells ofc.

Plug!Dina who was trying not to laugh at the face Ellie made when she told her that Joel came to have some stuff.

Plug!Dina who loves watching you and Ellie cuddle because the weed makes you guys need so much attention

Plug!Dina who gets real upset if someone has to go with her and Eugene on patrol because it means they can't go to their "hideout"

Plug!Dina who would 100% protect anyone who's being taken advantage of while being high/drunk/ heck even sober bc she's like that

Plug!Dina who loves watching Ellie play guitar while high and letting out tiny fucks under her breath when she messes up

Plug!Dina who can't help but fall in love for her two best friends

Now to the best part of this ;) (nsfw under this banner)

Plug!Dina who can't help but giggle when you complain like a toddler because you're too hot

Plug!Dina who watches Ellie helping you take your jacket and sweater off because you're too high to do it properly

Plug!Dina who can't help but like her lips when you make a kissy mouth to Ellie because you're needy

Plug!Dina who almost drops the joint she's holding when she sees you guys kissing

Plug!Dina who clenches her tighs together when you and Ellie pull back from each other and slightly huffing to take back your breath.

Plug!Dina that can't believe that one of her wet dreams is happening right now before her eyes

Plug!Dina who just can't help but press her hand between her legs when Ellie starts undressing you

Plug!Dina who tries to act "cool" when you whimper ask her to come join you but her knees wobble a little as she moves closer

Plug!Dina who gains her confidence back when you start kissing her and dominates the kiss

Plug!Dina who palms Ellie's breast as the brunette rubs your clothed pussy

Plug!Dina who chooses to be the dominant one, Ellie who's switch (sub for Dina but dom for you) and yourself who's sub for the both of them

Plug!Dina who's had the best fuck ever with her two best friends

Sorry that the end is a bit rushed but I'll write a oneshot/drabble about that ;)

Finally getting my motivation back so all of the requests should come out soon and when they'll do I'll open the requests again :)

have a good day/night and be safe ! <3

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weaselbeaselpants · 6 months

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kind of related but not- I'm genuinely sorry to be posting so much or about Lily Orchard, guys. Prior to Courtney coming on and telling us her story I was mostly just taken aback and angry with Lily as "one of those critic types" in my circle of vision.

It sucks -and yeah I know other critics don't want to hear this+Lily will use this fact as an excuse to discredit ppl's complaints abt her. but I think a lot of us were initially exposed to Lily because they knew of andor were fans of her cartoon criticism content. In my case I knew Lily from her days of Bronydom and have watched her make more and more meanMEAN material even w it's not about internal fandom dramacallouts. Back in those days and up to last year I could say of Lilly the same thing I'd say for a lot of people who annoy me online: I think she's a bully. Which is still bad, it's just not 'criminal', inherent. Comparing her to Rebecca Sugar, Lindsay Ellis, Contrapoints or VivziePop would be stupid as she really doesn't have even half the portfolio or wherewithall as any of those people -or even Zena and Poppy, not that they're angels. Lily was/is annoying because she'd use other people's genuine concerns and talking points. There's a certain takenupbyaltlight-term that I begrudginly would love to use for Lily that REALLY hits the nail on the head with her, be it as a fan, a critic or an activist. But I won't use it. Not because it's untrue, but because it's used by the same people who write her kiwifarm pages and misgender her and clearly couldn't give a crap about her if she didn't make them "lol"

But then, I actually looked at some of Britt's receipts and skimmed bits and pieces of what remains of Stockholm (I think you all already know this but @britts-galaxy-brain the links are missing now). For years, I'd known and listened to others honestly harp on Lily as some kind of counter-initiative for her going after their fav foalcon people. I assumed it was more of the same. It's not. Lily 100% wrote cp and is trying to hide it. No not fiction abt young adults that delves into erotic and sexisms; not stuff with aged-up child characters being big boobied of themselves thru the gaze or r34 artists. She wrote cp.

Essense of Thought's and that one hour long video talking about Stockholm were the first real horrifying revelation. Then I read through Brittney's saved messages from Lily and 'Tara'. Then I saw Patch's video.

THEN, Courtney came out and told everyone on here and her server everything we needed to know. I don't abide by everything Courtney says, especially about her abusers but I mean they're her abusers and please stop asking her to like the children who're valued more than her in the lives of her abusers, or at least maybe vent openly not to Courtney directly about your fear for those kids Cameron has. Yeah, I'm also concerned but idk there's got to be a better way to handle this. Anyway, as previously stated, I believe Courtney, Britt, and Patch. There's no way that those people have faked that stuff. I've heard kind of stretched explanations being true, but there's no way Stockholm was "edited by pedos" like Lily's saying it was I know I'm missing a few folks in there but I believe a lot of people have been genuinely victimized by LO and aren't just acting out of transphobia, bigotry.

Of what I can attest based on what I've seen, I KNOW that Lily Orchard wrote 'fluffy' foalcon and is saying she didn't, and also that the woman hates the word "queer".

Of what has been shown to me, I fully BELIEVE Lily Orchard is an abusive, sockpuppeting predator. Not only that, she's hiding behind other predator's existence to lie to her audience of other abused people to convince both them and herself that she couldn't possibly be a predator.

In 2013, what was 10 years from now, there was a controversy in the MLP fandom where a minor rose a (not undeserved) stink abt the askblog Princess Molestia and how it was making light of r*pe, intentionally or not. To counter this, a bunch of mouthbreathing bronies took it upon themselves to prove they weren't creeps by threatening the underrage sa victim, making r*pe porn of her while other mouthbreathers basically said "yeah put she's [the minor] annoying so it's the same kind of evil we're doing, really". Centrists.

Why this matters to me is (CW. CW. CW) you can find a post from Tara Callie, who was almost certainly one of Lily's alts at the time, admitting she found the r*pe art of Pinkiepony "hot", all the while Lily herself was publicly denouncing Pinkie's treatment by the fandom.

Lily Orchard is an awful human being. She does not have intrusive thoughts or fears of acting on those intrusive thoughts sometimes, like me and other people do. She has sexual and violent urges that she hides enough form the public to not make her followers suspect anything. She's twofaced and takes out her probable self-hate by attacking other predators. She's all deflection and lies. I can not believe a thing that vile woman says. Neither should you.

The biggest means of fighting her I think we all can do of is refusing to use her critical tag w we talk about her. Spam her "own tag". Enough hiding and denying who this terrible bigoted abusive woman really is.

Because really, her thoughts on glubshitto or whoever from Owl House are HARDLY the worst of it. Not even.

#lily orchard #lilly orchard #the owl house critical #the owl house criticism #critical fandom #steven universe critical #spop critical #my little pony friendship is magic #friendship is magic critical #Whelp at least it looks like the Helluvaverse fandom is safe from her #for now

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cblgblog · 8 months

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Hand to hand, who wins in a fair (as it can be) fight Peggy Carter or Abby Anderson?

Why they gotta fight, man? Why you gotta make me choose between my children?

So my default response to most things is Peggy wins everything, Peggy always wins everything, Peggy could’ve beat fuckin Thanos if she’d been there. And to an extent, this will always be the case, Peggy can beat everyone cuz she’s Peggy, goodbye, the end.

BUT, let’s look at this.

So Abby and Peggy are both fairly simple fighters, yeah? There’s no fancy kung fu, Matrix shit, they both are very much just, take whatever you have in hand and weaponize it. Both will fight dirty without hesitation if it means coming out the other side, there’s no rules of honor or the like, no ‘I cannot hit someone who’s back is turned.’ Nope, both of them go in to every fight with the intent to win, that’s the only rule.

So the super obvious difference is the strength factor. Because, you know. Abby. Arms. Yeah. Huge arms, huge advantage there. But hey, we’ve seen Peggy fight people stronger than her all the time and come out the winner. She usually ends up getting a little bit strangled first, maybe thrown violently against a wall a time or three first, but she ultimately wins. She’s used to fighting people who have more physical strength than her. But Abby routinely fights clickers and worse, so she’s no slouch there either.

Assuming then that both are in their physical prime, I think it would honestly depend on environment. Like, if it’s just an empty room, or an empty field, something where there’s nothing at hand that either of them can use as an improvised weapon? Yeah, Abby could win that. If Abby could get those hands/arms around Peggy and keep them there, and Peggy doesn’t have anything at all to fight back with, and there’s no incoming assist from Rose or Jarvis or anyone? Yeah she could lose that, we’ve seen a few times where she’s been very much on the ropes and could’ve lost if some form of backup hadn’t arrived.

BUT.

Put her in an environment where there’s stuff around—like anything she can get in her hand at all stuff—that’s potentially a different story. Because while both have a similar use everything to your advantage fighting style, I think Peggy might be better at actually using everything. She’s taken on a Black Widow, multiple times, and at least made it to a draw, if not won outright. I think it’s what, a scarf that she uses against Dottie in the season 1 finale? I think scarf, may be wrong, I know it was some sort of tiny piece of cloth, okay?

I don’t think Abby thinks to use a piece of cloth as a weapon. She’s got those arms. If she saw something like that, she’s more likely to not even register it as a weapon and here, I’m just gonna kill you with my magnificent arms. She’s used to being physically stronger than most humans she encounters, and what’s she gonna do with a scarf when a Clicker shows up, throw it at them? Thing wouldn’t even make any noise, what’s the point?

Peggy’s similar to Ellie as far as their lack of brute strength. Both are more reliant on speed to make up for that, and size, to a certain extent. And Abby had trouble with Ellie in the theater. She clearly won, but you had Dina and Lev in on that fight too, which made a difference. The second fight, while one on one, you can’t really judge based on that because both characters were way below 100%, but especially Abby. So it’s not really a fair comparison but pretending it was…Abby clearly had trouble there too. She would’ve lost if Ellie hadn’t, you know, stopped being a fucking idiot at the last minute (I say with love because Ellie my sweet, demented murder child, you’re doing amazing sweetie). Now, if Abby hadn’t been all emaciated and tortured and generally jacked the hell up during that fight, she would’ve beaten Ellie, I believe, but Ellie wouldn’t have made it easy on her. And if you take away Ellie’s trusty knife and just go hand to hand, I’d argue Peggy is definitely the better fighter hand to hand between those two, no question. So if Peggy could definitely beat Ellie hand to hand, and Ellie in any scenario would at least give Abby trouble, at least give her pause, then Peggy could definitely win, under certain conditions.

Can you tell I’m not actually any good at these/don’t watch enough of those who would win analysis vids on Youtube? Yeah, you can tell.

Anyway, if there’s just a completely empty room and Abby gets her hands on Peggy and gets leverage that Peggy can’t break out of? Abby wins. But if there’s stuff around, then Peggy’s got a better chance because she’ll turn anything into a weapon, where Abby would be more likely to use mostly her strength, which is what most of the guys Peggy fights hand to hand end up doing, and they have a tendency to lose. So, depends on circumstances.

BUT, could Abby fight with such perfectly choreographed timing that matches the ‘40’s era Peggy Lee hit that’s playing in the background while she kicks ass? No, no she could not. Could Abby lift Thor's hammer? No, no she could not, and Peggy definitely could, change my mind.

Lev could definitely lift the hammer though, just saying.

#abby anderson #Peggy Carter

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the-firebird69 · 2 years

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We gathered up Terry cheesman's asses your sold by the individuals watered them that pictures some of them went to the house had a key to get in look around for stuff someone find a hundred bucks wouldn't touch it so I scanned it and checked it says for Chris and then nope said stuff and then said mean stuff so you see what they're saying and they're not really taken from us but they say it a lot so I went around at the judge no this happened all today within a few hours. No taking all that stuff about the houses all Terry's stuff is inside it and dance and Sarah's and some others and a smarty pants Ellie was in a lot of trouble cuz there's stuff there we went and immediately after they left and grab it all all of it I did real scans pulled stuff out of the walls you can take it out of there right now. We had enough of them this month tons of them tried to cancel his social security pub most of Florida was gone and this town was half gone everybody else left we have to monitor them all over the place and attack them wherever they were they're not worth anything. So he being stinking pile of garbage all of them all want to kidnap them cuz of Tommy f.

Terry is steaming is going after me she he says and it doesn't have it so I started hitting him and that's Terry and I started to plow over him and he's opening his mouth over and over blabbing over and over and I started going after his team and I heard something out of them just had they said this is great we have all the suspects sorry to attack him and there's not enough of them we pulled them down 45 times and they keep coming and refilling you know I know whose house is there and started confiscating ones who can and pulling them out. There's a huge pile of Trump's trying to get in they're just over the border in Charlotte county we're getting hit pretty good it's like 700 million of them and they got killed there's another pile past Saturday about a billion and then all over Florida this side 1.2 septillion and outside of Florida it's like 15 million septillion trying to break through as we eliminate them more of them go try and get through the blockade which is now mostly comprised of Jager and tanks the tanks are gigantic 100 mi out and stick out of the water like a sore thumb some of them are 5 mi high so they're pretty far out there thousand miles or so and they're firing on them. Some yogurt hit most of the more like fall and the foreigners are coming

There's a huge huge pile of foreigners coming about 700 million ships all of them are 10 to 20 miles it's a massive Force

Good luck Max you're going to need it

Thor Freya

We prepped all night and we're ready we have a huge Forest ready to meet them with as well that is we have a huge Force ready to meet both and cork and are ready to fire in all of them

Olympus

I wish you the best my husband and thank you for thinking of me even though I was shouting at you I want to say something

Hera

Anytime my love I did it so you would be around so you can pester me and stuff but no really you're my friend and I shouldn't say that because I shouldn't but really it's it's a wonderful thing get my friend back from years ago it seems in person but you're always there and Company to me

Zues

It's kind of a drag but it was a lot of fun so I'm looking forward to it I know you are too I can't believe how I used to look at me I also wondering who I was that was a pain in the ass so many people are holding that off

Hera

It was for everyone's safety and yours and his it would have been hell

Thor Freya

That's very true

Olympus

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dissonantdreamer · 3 years

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since you mention it on your last ask, i just wanna rant a bit 😭 i hate the scene where jesse returned. the way ellie is just standing there while dina didn't even looked at her gf after she saw him. like i know dina is just aiding jesse cause he's limping but still, i'm hurt. how do you interpret this scene cause it still bothers me ever since i first played the game :/

That scene is heavily played through the lens of Ellie's guilt and insecurity. Now that Jesse is back in Dina's life and Ellie knows that Dina is pregnant, her thoughts are probably going 100 miles a minute thinking about how she endangered Dina and a child. How Jesse would have kept Dina safe, never put her in danger. Dina and Jesse are still friends as is Jesse and Ellie. The two help each other out and Dina, who one, probably never thought she'd see her closest friend Jesse again and two has the knowledge that she is carrying his child, would obviously want to make sure he is taken care of.

And Dina does look at Ellie a few times, silently checking in. She does so when Ellie ushers them inside and Dina gives her a once over when Ellie puts the chair barricade up. She is checking up and following Ellie's lead. Ellie is the one giving them space and then pushing herself away. She is clearly conflicted and later on, she is clearly shocked when Jesse tells her Dina never told him she was pregnant. Because Dina didn't go running back to him, telling him everything and trusting him with the knowledge she trusted Ellie with.

Personally I don't see it as jealousy, I see a person who has gone through the trauma of having every one she's ever loved or care about leave her. So in her mind why would Dina want to stay with someone on a suicide mission, when she could have a safe, long life with a family before they get hurt even more?

Ashley did an amazing job with that scene you can see the process Ellie goes through of elation that her friend is here, followed by the realization that Dina would be safer with him. Her facial expression at the end is one of someone who truly thinks they aren't good enough for the person they love, that by loving them their person is ruining themselves. She believes she can't provide the safety and stability that Jesse can and that hurts her. Dina shows and tells her later, that her thoughts aren't true at all. Jesse is not the person she wants, she wouldn't have gone on a suicide mission with Ellie if he was. Ellie just can't rationalize that in the moment, she still struggles to rationalize it when she's on the farm. In her mind, she is not safe and Dina would have been better off with out her putting her in danger.

That's my take on it at least.

Thanks for the ask, anon :)

#kind orb with sick shades #the analysis of us #ellie operates in guilt

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onlyhereforangst · 3 years

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I think Emily made the decision last minute to leave. One thing I noticed is that Katrina laws character was introduced as a mother with a stay at home husband in all the reports in March. Originally she was cast to replace Maria Bello so she did not need to be a potential love match for Torres. I think in this time from when her character was first introduced in the press(March) to when she stepped foot on set Emily made the decision to leave.This is why the writing team changed the premise of Jessica Knight to form a replacement for the Ellick ship because it was at this time they knew it wouldn't be happening anymore as Emily would be leaving. Thus, they decided to make Jessica knight a possible love match for Torres to replace the void from Ellick. It seems to be too much of a coincidence and also her first episode her and Torres were very flirty. Also, Wilmer did a ton of interviews about the finale saying grab your tissues and this is the closest to a friendship or a relationship they are ever going to have so he hinted prior to the finale that the Ellick ship was doomed. It is driving me mad that we had no clear picture of what their relationship was after the elevator talk. I think they got together as Ellie said 'I never meant for us to happen' but then she felt guilty because she knew she was leaving and 'blew him off' as he said without reason. That seems to be the most logical assumption. What do you think?

ok so i've let this sit for two weeks, i apologize. i still have a hard time digging into this stuff specifically because i like to live in denial that Emily isn't returning. i can bargain the remainder of the finale away if i forget that Emily isn't coming back. but i'm having a particularly depressive day in regards to her exit so why the hell not twist the knife a little harder and clear out my inbox 🙃 imma put it under the cut though for aesthetically-appeasing dash purposes and long posts

first- i 100% agree that Emily's decision to leave was a last minute *announcement* and i clarify that because i have to genuinely believe that Emily wouldn't take this decision lightly knowing her fanbase. i of course could be wrong about that, but even if i come off as a bitch to people i do like to give people the benefit of the doubt, always. so while I do think Emily didn't come into this decision willy-nilly (and i'm not going to speculate on her reasons for leaving- it's her own life she can choose to live it however she pleases), it does feel as if she didn't announce it to the show until, IMO after they wrapped all filming.

the finale was certainly more akin to a multi-episode arc for a character and plotline, not a final exit episode. Wilmer boasted great cliffhangers and a tear-filled episode because yes, they thought Ellie was ditching and betraying the team- that's heavy angst stuff! And yes we got a taste of ellick being *real* and even got a kiss- of course in his interviews he thought this was going to be good stuff for the fans. all the actors (Wilmer especially though) and the main social media accounts of the show did a shit-ton of promotion for the episodes leading up to the finale and then after 18x15 aired, the week prior everyone and i mean everyone went radio silent. i'm sorry but who THE FUCK does that when you are supposedly airing this big action-filled, cliffhanger, "true" finale that we deserved because s17 didn't get to have one??? NO ONE. the answer is no one. shows that want ratings (aka all shows, it’s a business) promote their fucking finale. they fucking do. my theory? in between that last week, Emily announced to the cast/crew/EPs that she wouldn’t be returning for s19. and then that leaves them with a WTF finale because that’s a shitty write off for a character who spent 8 years on the show. and now, suddenly, the show would prefer as little as viewership as possible to help minimize the backlash. Wilmer does absolutely zero promotion, zero farewell to his co-actor and good friend of 5 years. so yeah, i think her last minute exit was a last minute announcement and it had everyone reeling, understandably. hopefully one day we’ll get answers on the why because between me and you- that’s what absolutely fucking destroys me. for both the actress and the character; not knowing why Ellie did what she did and feeling a little betrayed Emily left and we got so little why and acknowledgement and heads up for it.

anyways, so i don’t think Wilmer was lying in those interviews, i think he was truly excited about the arc and what that meant for their characters. he could have been just as blindsided with her announcement as we were 🥺

as for Katrina Law’s character- that is a little intriguing because you’re right, when she was initially introduced it was as a married woman with an infant child and stay at home husband. zero of this has been mentioned and Katrina Law herself has taken to twitter with Diona to support a Kasie/Jessica ship. so i’m not sure what her background is, if they writers changed it at all or what. BUT i don’t see them putting Jessica and Nick together. I actually didn’t see those scenes as them flirting at all- more of falling into step as good pals, very reminiscent of Ziva and Nick’s relationship frankly. If Emily’s announcement of her leaving truly was last minute, to everyone including the show, I don’t see the writers and EPs putting them together. I see them scrambling to fix their destroyed cliffhanger arc they had teed up and likely writing a desolate Nick or a vengeful swan Nick. I do not see them giving him a new love interest *unless* they decide to go 2 for 2 with character assassinations and have him regress so far and erase all his growth. but you know who the fuck knows with this shit show 🥲🥲

ok and finally ahaha this is why i did a cut. can y’all imagine what will happen if/when i ever do a wwr? 😅 i’m in the boat that they were *not* a thing, ever. i’m in the boat that that was their first kiss. and i’ll probably break this down more at a later date, TBD because when the fuck will i be strong enough to rewatch the entire finale i almost cried this morning watching 13x10. BUT her “i didn’t mean for us to happen” to me was more of a i didn’t mean for us to slowly fall in love and go from partners to best friends to almost lovers. because i think they both acknowledged their feelings during The Talk™️ but i feel like they both mutually agreed that they needed to take it slow or weren’t sure how to take that next step and they sort of tabled the discussion and stalled in their relationship. then, (since i’m in the camp that Ellie did none of this fully willingly, and instead Odette is holding something over her) Ellie “blew him off” after Odette decided it was now (”now...wasn’t my choice” aka i think Odette got worried about Ellie having strings attached and weaknesses) by saying they should definitely take it slow because of the nature of their jobs (”if we had a normal 9-5″...”i get that, i do”). i think Nick accepted that excuse at the time and then when the pieces clicked at the end of the finale, he realized this whole stupid ass mission was the reason she tried to slow them down/push him away. all that to say, i’m still believing that was their first kiss until Ellie turns up pregnant with Nick’s kid because WHY NOT REUSE OLD STORYLINES WHY THE FUCK NOT WE’VE ALREADY COME THIS FAR.

#ellick #if you can tell #i'm going through shit today #is it too early to down a bottle of wine #asking for a friend #once again sorry for letting this sit i needed time to actually write this all out #ask #anonymous

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yeeyee-alumni · 3 years

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Ellie’s (lack of a) character arc & why the result is an unsatisfying story

Let’s state the obvious: Ellie does not have a character arc in The Last of Us Part 2. A character arc is defined as a gradual transformation or inner journey of a character in response to changing developments in the story. And you may argue that Ellie from the beginning of the game is not the same as the one at the end of the game, and I would agree with you. She went from a woman consumed by revenge (not really but we will stick with that for now) to a woman able to forgive her aggressor and move on. However, there are problems with this supposed inner change on multiple levels. a) the change is not gradual b) the change comes out of nowhere c) the change is not informed by anything I don’t think there’s any need to thoroughly explain the first statement. Ellie has the same goal from the beginning to the very last second before attaining her goal. At no point in the story is she self-reflective, questions her methods, there’s no moral dilemma for her, no inner conflict, no doubt that causes her to put her own actions into a new perspective and possibly change her motivation. From beginning to end she believes to be 100% justified in her goal to kill Abby. Subsequently, if Ellie were actually consumed by revenge, the only logical conclusion to her story would be for her to eventually drown Abby.

Which neatly leads me to the next point: her change comes out of nowhere. The decision to let Abby go, as is implied by the narrative, is triggered by a random, arbitrary flashback of Joel. First of all, the timing here is outright comical. For what reason is she having this specific flashback at this very moment? Sounds like contrived, convenient bs to me to give the appearance that her decision is informed by something (which it isn’t, and we'll get to that in a moment). Second of all, getting a flashback to the most important person in your life that has been brutally murdered in front of you, seeing an image of what could have been and what was unjustly taken from you, is not gonna inspire you to forgive your aggressor. If anything, it would make you more determined and sadistic. And third of all, I hear you all yelling "but it was a flashback to their conversation about forgiveness and that inspired her to forgive Abby." And I have multiple qualms regarding this line of thinking. Number one, forgiving the person you love most in this world for having lied to you cannot be compared to forgiving the person who brutally took said person from you. This actually further accentuates my previous point, this is the person that robbed you of your opportunity for reconciliation. Implying that Ellie's thought process here is „I wanted to forgive Joel, but this person robbed me of any opportunity to, so I have to forgive her” is muddled, nonsensical and quite frankly unrealistic. And number two, is the implication here that this is the first time Ellie has thought back to that conversation? That’s a whole new level of nonsense. She will have reflected on all moments with Joel, including this one, and yet at no point prior to this moment had she considered even the possibility of forgiveness, as I have illustrated earlier. So why now? Very obviously to get a payoff, which was neither set up nor properly developed. And moving on to my last point: it is not informed by anything. I know a lot of players didn’t want Ellie to kill Abby, and even I felt that way at first, albeit presumably for entirely different reasons (I was so drained and removed from the narrative by that point that I only thought to myself "just go home, you psychos"). But upon reflection, I concluded that that would have been an unsatisfying conclusion narratively speaking. Nevertheless, Abby seems to have grown dear to many players. After all, they have spent several hours with her, they have seen her struggle, overcome her obstacles, fight for what she believes to be right. Their feelings towards Abby are informed by the person they have seen her to be and by the experiences they went through with her. Yet Ellie is missing all of that context. She has not been with us throughout our three days in Seattle, she doesn’t know Abby outside of her having horrifically killed Joel and she has not gained any new information that would lead her to change her opinion about her. And so, we have another example of the story making characters do things that are not informed by anything, for the sake of a poor payoff. And since we're talking about characters acting nonsensically, let's talk about the roughly three minutes leading up to Ellie nearly drowning Abby, shall we? Ellie approaches the beach absolutely determined to find and kill Abby (repeatedly murmuring Abby’s name to herself). Yet when she reaches the pillars, she cuts Abby down, letting her free Lev and follows them to the boats, indicating that Ellie has changed her mind, showing pity/empathy upon seeing Abby a mere shadow of her former self. And yet again, we have Ellie acting in a way she never has before. She didn’t have pity for Nora who was coughing her lungs out, or for Jordan who had advocated for letting her live, or for any other innocent WLF or Seraphite that came in between her and killing Abby. But the one person she holds a grudge against to the point of killing hundreds of innocent people without batting an eye, that is the person she is suddenly capable of feeling pity/empathy for? Is it really that surprising that Ellie's actions here feel forced, uncharacteristic, and illogical? But it actually gets worse. In an additional display of Druckmann not knowing how humans work, we have Ellie putting her backpack with all her gear in the boat, looking at her bloody hand and then remembering "Oh yeah, that's the woman who killed Joel. I almost forgot.” And at this point in my playthrough I was laughing out loud. And so, we have Ellie all of sudden determined to kill Abby again, so much so that she is willing to threaten an innocent child’s life (this by the way was the final nail in the coffin for me, they thoroughly obliterated Ellie’s character throughout the entire game, but this goes against the very core of her being). And we know the rest, they fight, Ellie nearly kills Abby but eventually lets her go. To summarize what happened in the three minutes before our big emotional payoff to our 25 hour-long journey of playing this epitome of misery porn: Ellie has 3 - count them 3!!! - changes of heart. Her motivation does a perfect 180 almost every minute. This is not how people work! That’s lazy, contrived beyond believe, and borderline comical levels of writing, because Druckmann prioritized having a final boss battle on a beach over organic, coherent, and logical storytelling (but I guess it was worth it for the goddamn visuals). However, what’s most infuriating is that there are such easy fixes if one only thinks about it for more than two minutes that could erase nearly all for the major issues I just illustrated while maintaining the plot points of the two fighting on a beach and Ellie letting Abby go. If we have Ellie walk to the beach immediately, finding Abby there untying the boat (Lev nearly passed out in the boat, Ellie not seeing him) and she then attacks Abby, immediately we have erased two of Ellie’s changes of heart, she remains consistent in her goals/motivation, not jumping back and forth between two extremes. The two women fight much like we see it in the game, and then as Ellie is about to finish it, we hear Lev calling out to Abby. And there we have our motivation for Ellie to not kill her. Not because she gets a random, convenient flashback, not because she forgives Abby (Abby has done nothing to earn Ellie’s forgiveness), not because Abby has earned her redemption, but because Ellie cannot find it in her to put an innocent child through the pain Abby has put her through. Because at the end of the day, Ellie’s hatred for Abby does not outweigh her capacity for compassion and empathy for those deserving of it (a core characteristic of hers that was established in the first game). Because Ellie would rather let an individual live that is undeserving of it than cause the same pain she was put through to an innocent child that is undeserving of it. Granted, if we were to go with this ending, we would still have to build towards it properly and therefore would have to tweak the rest of the game, mainly by showing Ellie being self-reflective, merciful towards innocents, and even doubtful about her goals at times to make her final decision informed by prior developments in order to have the character arc actually be a gradual transformation leading to a logical conclusion. I have been a writer for nearly 4 years now, which means I am in no way an expert, or the most creatively talented person around and yet I would argue that this ending would be much more satisfying to most players than the alternative we were presented with. Because as it stands, none of our actions or decisions (and yes that is something important to consider when we are working within the medium of video games), or Ellie’s for that matter, lead up to this conclusion. The conclusion to this story, the final moment, the big emotional payoff hinges on a random flashback, not on any other developments that previously occurred in the story. Subsequently rendering all of the 25 hours entirely pointless, none of it had an influence on the finale, none of it mattered narratively speaking. So, is it even a surprise that many found this to be dissatisfying? I noticed a few people who are fond of Abby accusing people feeling differently of having too much of an emotional bias or even going as far as to say they are less emotionally intelligent. This is problematic for two reasons, a) different people have different reasons for disliking Ellie’s final choice. Some still hate Abby as much as in the beginning, others feel drained and indifferent, and others still feel similarly to how I feel in that it’s mainly narratively dissatisfying. And b) the same story can have a different effect on any amount of people (otherwise, we would have settled the discussion about what the greatest movie all of time is long ago). My point being, that no matter how you feel about this particular story you are 100% justified in feeling this way, and yes that includes people that by the end of the game still hate Abby just as much as they did the moment she bashed Joel’s skull in. That does not necessarily have to be personal bias, more often than not it’s the ability to see through the storytelling techniques used, rendering them mostly ineffective for these people (and I include myself in this). I wanted Ellie to kill Abby not because I was unable to empathize with her or couldn’t see past my own personal bias, but because that would have been the logical, narratively satisfying conclusion to this specific story.

#tlou #tlou2 #the last of us #the last of us 2 #the last of us part 2 #ellie #ellie williams #joel #joel miller #abby #abby anderson #writing #storytelling #character arc #rant #themes #motivation #rewrite #I posted this before but deleted my account so here it is again

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avengerscompound · 4 years

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The Tower: Family - 13

The Tower: Family An Avengers Fanfic

Series Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Pairing: Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 1986

Warnings: Pregnancy

Synopsis: With new powers, Thor now living on Earth full time, a wedding to plan, and Natasha and Wanda expecting, a lot is changing for Elly and her large and rather unconventional family. When Elise’s parents try to reestablish connections, Elly questions what being a family actually means.

Chapter 13: Balancing the Numbers

I didn’t hear from any of my biological family anytime soon after that, and I just went back to my regular day-to-day life. The twins would be starting preschool soon and we were all taking the time to appreciate them being around, just as we were also planning to enjoy the time when they first started. I spent my time between them and the lab and I tried to put everything else behind me.

Wanda had well and truly started showing, while Natasha had just a very small baby bump. They were both extreme ends of what pregnant women could be too. Wanda had that glow everyone always spoke about. Her hair was rich and full, and her skin was clear and beautiful. She was tired a lot but she would take regular naps and she was loving being pregnant. Most of the time you found her wearing long flowing clothes that showed off her baby bump. Natasha on the other hand was irritable and moody. Her skin and hair were on the greasy side. She had a weirdly high amount of energy and kept freaking out about all the things we needed to do before the babies came and her sex drive went from 0 to 100 at the drop of a hat. She also was in sweats all the time and usually, the sweatshirt she wore was one of the guys so she was swimming in it.

It wasn’t long after I met with my parents that we had a group ultrasound appointment. Natasha and Wanda were at sixteen weeks and doing the glucose test and were hoping they might be able to find out the sexes too, though it was at the very earliest they’d be able to tell. I was at eight weeks and it would be the first time we got to see this baby at all. Everyone was very excited and wanted to be there for it. Especially the guys who missed a lot of the first pregnancy. However, the examination room was only so big, and there were also the twins to worry about. So, a decision was made that the biological parents would be in the room while everyone else got to watch the ultrasound via a video in the living room. The others would get to come for future ultrasounds so everyone got a chance to be there too. For right now, Sam, Tony, Bucky, Natasha, Wanda, and I all sat in Doctor Schroeder’s office going through questions and concerns. Wanda and Natasha had done their fasting tests and everyone was just excited to see the babies.

“Alright,” Doctor Schroeder said when everyone was done with their questions. “Who’s going first.”

“Let’s go with El,” Wanda suggested. “We’ve seen the other three babies. We haven’t seen this one yet.”

“Alright, Elise,” Doctor Schroeder said. “Underwear off and up onto the table, please.”

I did as I was told, stepping behind a screen and taking off my panties before climbing up on the table. Tony quickly swooped in and took my hand as Doctor Schroeder prepped the wand.

“Alright,” she said, nudging my legs a little further apart. “You’re all going to be pros at this by the time these babies start arriving. Little pinch.”

She inserted the wand and I flinched as it pinched and then she pushed it around trying to find the little embryo growing inside me. Tony kept tapping his fingers nervously on my hand.

“It’s alright,” I soothed as she kept moving the wand around. “Everything is going to be okay.”

He didn’t say anything and his hand tightened in mine. I saw the little peanut shape with its tiny fluttering heart appear on the screen and smiled. “And there’s your baby,” doctor Schroeder said, circling the little shape on the screen.

“That’s them?” Tony asked, staring at the screen.

“Looks like a jelly bean, doesn’t it, Tones?” Sam said.

“It’s about the size of a bean too,” doctor Schroeder added.

“Wow,” Tony said. “Our little bean. They’re okay, aren’t they?”

Doctor Schroeder had moved on to doing measurements and she didn’t answer right away. Tony’s hand got tighter and tighter in mine the longer she waited, and he began to tap his feet. “The baby is the right size, the heartbeat is strong. Everything looks fine,” she said and Tony let out a breath. “Honesty, of all three pregnancies this is the one I’m least worried about. Elise has already had one successful pregnancy. Twins where one wasn’t even fully human. With you as the father and the fact you said Thor used his god powers to help conceive, I’m sure it’s going to go just fine. We’ll keep an eye on everything of course and I expect you to follow all the rules regarding diet and exercise, but I’m not concerned.”

“Oh good,” Tony said, and leaned over, kissing my temple.

“Can we hear the heartbeat?” I asked.

Tony perked up and doctor Schroeder flicked a switch so that the woosh-woosh-woosh sound of the heartbeat filled the room. All six of us smiled as we listened. “That’s our baby,” Wanda said. “Can you believe it, Tony?”

He shook his head and watched the screen. “Alright, printouts I’m guessing,” doctor Schroeder said and pressed another button. The machine whirred as it began to print out a picture of the baby and Doctor Schroeder pulled the wand from me and handed me some wipes. “Okay,” she said as she began cleaning up. “Who’s next.”

“Oh, me please,” Wanda said.

I cleaned myself up and got off the table and there was a small flurry of activity as the protective paper was taken off, it was sprayed down and some fresh paper was put on. I redressed and Tony and I sat with Bucky and Natasha. Natasha put her arm around me and we watched on as Wanda got up on the table and the waistband of her skirt was pulled down to reveal the swell of her stomach.

“I’ve warmed the gel up for you,” doctor Shroeder said as she squirted it on Wanda’s stomach. She grabbed the ultrasound paddle and pressed it against her stomach. Almost immediately the image of two babies showed up on the screen, side-by-side. Wanda squeaked and squeezed Sam’s hand

“Oh wow,” Tony said. “They look like actual babies.”

“Yep, a lot happens between eight and sixteen weeks,” doctor Schroeder agreed. She pointed out all the different parts on them, hearts, spines, arms, and legs, fingers, and toes. We all watched on entranced by the little babies on the screen as she took her measurements. She played the sound of their heartbeats for us and Sam leaned in and nuzzled at Wanda’s cheek. We were told that both babies were the same size, which was a very good sign. That their heartbeats were strong and healthy and that so far everything looked as perfect as we could hope for. “Okay,” she said finally. “Are we going to attempt to find out the sexes?”

“If you can,” Wanda said.

That seemed to be a bit harder to do. The twins did not want to play along and every time doctor Schroeder thought she had a good angle on one, they’d move or put their feet in the way. Eventually, she seemed to get one of them at an okay angle. “Now, I could be wrong, so we can check again later, but it looks like we have a girl. And as they’re identical…”

“Girls,” Wanda squeaked. “Two girls.”

“Oh wow,” I said, with a hum. “We’re closer to getting balanced.”

“For sure. There’s too much testosterone in this household,” Natasha agreed.

“Pictures?” doctor Schroeder asked.

“Of course,” Tony said.

She pressed a button and printed out a side-by-side shot of them. “Alright,” she said, taking the paddle off and wiping Wanda’s stomach clean. “Ms. Romanoff, you’re up.”

Wanda got off the table and once again there was a little activity as the table was cleaned off and the wand was cleaned. Natasha climbed up and pushed her sweats down to her hips, exposing her stomach and her ultrasound started. Doctor Schroeder squeezed the warm gel onto her stomach and pressed the paddle against it.

“And there’s the fourth baby,” she said, as the clear baby shape popped up onto the screen.

“Please can I hear the heartbeat?” Natasha said with a slight shake in her voice. Sixteen weeks was when she lost her first baby, so her anxiety about this one was extremely high right now. Bucky took her hand and gently caressed the back of it as the doctor flicked on the sound. The woosh-woosh-woosh of the heartbeat filled the room and Natasha instantly started crying as her whole body relaxed.

“Oh god, don’t look at me,” she said, covering her face.

“Tasha, it’s okay,” Bucky assured her.

“El,” Natasha said. “I need you.”

I got up quickly and moved to her side, Bucky making room for me. I wrapped my arms around her and she hugged me, hiding her face in my neck. “I thought for sure…” she whispered.

“I know,” I said softly, rubbing her back. “It’s okay. Our baby is okay.”

“Are they?” Natasha said looking up from me at the screen. “Is the baby okay?”

“I just need to take my measurements, but that heartbeat is very strong and healthy,” Doctor Schroeder answered.

“Right,” Natasha said, lying back and looking at the ceiling like she wasn’t even able to look at the image until she knew for sure it was okay in case she got too attached. Bucky stood behind her and stroked her hair.

“Everything looks fine. A very strong baby,” doctor Schroeder said. “Did you want to know the sex too?”

Natasha looked at Bucky and he smiled and pressed a kiss to Natasha’s head. “Up to you, Tasha.”

“Yes, please,” she said.

Doctor Schroeder moved the paddle around so the image showed the underneath of the baby. “It’s another girl.”

“Holy hell,” Sam said. “Three girls. We’re gonna be outnumbered.”

“We’d have to have a lot more girls than that to outnumber all of you,” Wanda teased.

“A little girl, Tasha,” Bucky said. “You’re having a little girl.”

Natasha nodded and buried her face in my neck again. “I’ve got you,” I said, rubbing her back. “You’re okay.”

Doctor Schroeder printed off another image and gave it to Bucky and then cleaned off Natasha’s stomach. Were there any other questions?”

“I think we’re all fine,” Wanda said.

“Alright, Wanda I’d like to see you in a couple of weeks just for a check-up. And I’ll see you all again in four weeks,” the doctors said.

“Thanks, Doc,” Tony said. “We’ll call if anything comes up.”

The six of us went to the elevator and rode it up, Natasha wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. “Three girls,” Sam said.

“I wonder what you’re having, Elly,” Wanda said.

“It’d have to be a boy, right?” Tony answered. “Statistically speaking.”

“You know statistics mean nothing when it comes to individual cases, Tones,” I teased.

The elevator opened to everyone standing right there waiting for us.

“Three girls?” Clint said.

“We dot more sisders?” Pietro asked.

Sam picked him up and tossed him in the air before cuddling him. “You sure do buddy.”

Everyone moved in for a hug, Bruce wrapping his large arms around the whole group and holding us tight. The twins giggled as they were pressed in against everyone, but I melted into the comforting pressure of the embrace.

“We’re all going to have to agree on three girls’ names, you realize?” Steve said.

Everyone started laughing and pulled back. “Way to ruin a moment, Cap,” Tony teased, heading to the bar. “I think we might have a champagne moment, what do we think? Time to celebrate?”

Steve chuckled. “I can’t think of any better reason to celebrate than this.”

// NEXT

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vicarfelix · 4 years

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Honest Intentions

Vicar Max x Fem. Reader

Warnings: Language. Smut.

A/N: GOD okay so I wrote this awhile ago and I cannot write smut to save my life. I suck so bad at it, I can’t ever seem to make it long enough, but this was so angsty good that I just couldn’t not post it.

Word Count: 2,155

“The question is, after all this, do you still trust me?”

If she had been in a cartoon, she was sure there would have been a gray, swirling cloud above her head to display her irritation. She couldn’t believe that he had lied to her. A lie. A betrayal of truth. A fib. A dishonest statement. And for what? Just to ensure his chances of her taking him to see some scholar that he didn’t even like? What was the point of that?

She never expected respect from her crew. She didn’t expect it from anybody. However, when she had earned the respect from someone, she expected full honesty in return. This was a total blow to her respect as a captain and trust as a girlfriend. She was unbelievably angry at him, confused even as of to why he wasn’t upfront about his desires. Truthfully, she was really hurt.

Max had lied in order to get her to take him to see Reginald. A former colleague of sorts of his that he needed to see to have his book translated from French. It wasn’t until they found Reginald that it became clear as of to how they even ended up there. Max claimed he couldn’t risk her not bringing him there to find him. He immediately sensed that she was upset. She had every right to be. The sickness in his stomach as a result of the guilt was a testament of that. She had convinced him to leave Reginald Chaney in one piece, refusing to let him lay a finger on him. They got what they needed out of him and left.

The silent trek back to the ship was seemingly everlasting. Her footsteps were heavy on the grounds of the Monarch wilderness as they returned back from Fallbrook. She needed some time to calm down and cool off before speaking to anyone. She was of no use to anybody being this upset. Last thing she wanted was to take her anger out of someone who didn’t deserve it. Max followed a bit further behind than usual, giving her as much space as possible without getting separated. No one said a word on the journey back to The Unreliable. Even Ellie didn’t even try to poke fun at the vicar who would be sleeping in his own quarters for now. It wasn't Max's reaction she was afraid of. It was the captain's.

They finally arrived at the ship long after nightfall, stars dotting the dark night sky. They would be spending the evening in route to Groundbreaker to get supplies and other materials in the morning. She entered the ship first, ADA greeting the returning space adventurers as always.

“Welcome back, Captain.”

She usually smiled in relief upon hearing her voice that signaled a safe return, but she was in no smiling mood. Everybody else had gone to their bunks for the night, which prompted Ellie to go as well. That left the captain and Max in the bay of the ship. The only sounds were the clanks and tinkers as she put away her belongings into the lockers. She couldn’t look at him. She was afraid that she just might lose it. He came up next to her, his voice low and quiet;

“Captain, I-”

“I don’t want to talk.”

He sighed. He wasn’t surprised at her response. He couldn’t figure out if she was speaking to him as his boss or his girlfriend...or both. She whisked away from the lockers and headed to the stairs leading up to her quarters. She just wanted to be alone for a little while and give this some serious thought. She planned on discussing everything with him in the morning. However she realized this was an impossible wish when he followed suit, desperate to get his message across to her;

“If nothing else, please know that I am sorry,” He pleaded, entering after his lover into her room; “I’m aware that I have put a lot of unnecessary stress on you today.”

She scoffed and shook her head incredulously. He didn’t seem to understand how the trust she had put in him had been seriously violated. That’s what made her more upset than anything. It was clear that he wasn’t leaving until this issue was resolved. So, she went off.

“You lied to me, Max. For personal gain,” she hissed; “I don’t like being lied to you.”

She was leaning against the frame of her bed, arms folded over her chest as Max was leaning against her desk. Her demeanor was tense and cold...not a pretty sight to see.

“I know. If it’s any consolation, I lied before I began to care for you...before I loved you. It wasn’t an attempt to break your faith in me.” He admitted.

A surge of energy went to her head, her cheeks heating with rage;

“That doesn’t make it any better. So, you didn’t lie to me as your lover? Fine. You still lied to me as your captain,” She snarled; “At the end of the day, Max, I am still your captain.”

He didn’t want to fight with her He didn’t want her to be angry at him. All he could do was continue to express his apology and hope she'd forgive him. He wasn’t lying when he said he cared about her. About how he loved her. The two of them had each said it once before, so she had to admit it made her heart beat a little faster hearing him say it again.

With this being said, he still had a rampant temper. Regardless of any situation, he didn’t like being talked to this way. He got defensive when others used an unpleasant tone with him. His pleading for forgiveness was beginning to mix with a sear of anger bubbling up in him.

“You are my captain, you will never witness me denying that. I don’t know what you wish for me to do other than tell you, honestly, that I’m sorry.” He replied, his voice getting rather scary; “But might I add that you weren’t so fucking honest at first either.”

All the blood in her body seemed to rush to her face and rapidly back down to her feet. She knew what he was talking about. The fact that the crew went months thinking she was actually Alex Hawthorne when she actually wasn’t. She hadn’t been upfront in the beginning and had lied about her identity. She would always feel a sense of culpability for that.

“I know that. I know that I didn’t tell anyone who I really was, but that was for the sake of my safety as well as everyone else’s. I lied because I had to,” She spat; “You lied for personal reasons. You lied to intentionally distress me and deceive me into doing something for you.”

He rolled his eyes dramatically and the veins in his arms were prevalent as he gripped the edge of the desk. He now felt like she was blowing this out of proportion.

“I wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt you. I would never do that,” He responded; “I lied because I didn’t think you’d take me all over Halcyon just to find some man that might have the answers I was looking for.”

She rubbed her temples with her fingers, feeling as if this conversation was going absolutely nowhere;

“That’s another thing,” She fired off; “What’s going to happen when we get to Scylla and the book gets translated? Will I no longer be of any use to you? Is this going to be over once you find what you're looking for?"

In an instant, his anger lifted and his heart seemed to stop at her words. She watched as a normal color returned to his face. His narrowed eyes and furrowed brows morphing into a softer, borderline concerned look. He stood from the desk and took the half step down from the desk to where she was standing. If there was one thing Vicar Max would never do, it would be that he would never lie about the way he felt about someone.

“Captain, darling, I wouldn’t ever lead you on that way. For any reason whatsoever.” He breathed out gently.

His sudden change in expression ultimately calmed her down as well. She sighed heavily as her judgement cleared. She knew why he really had lied. It wasn't to upset anyone. He had spent his whole life taking roads trying to find answers that ultimately led to a dead end. He was frustrated and disappointed. She could relate to that.

“I just want you to trust me. I want to trust you,” You admitted; “I would’ve taken you to him regardless of who he was. You didn’t have to lie.”

His hands cupped her face, she instinctively cocked her head to further rest her face in his hold.

“I trust you. I always have. I never intended for you to doubt how I feel, because I have been nothing but honest about it. I care about you and I love you.” He confessed; “The question is, after all this, do you still trust me?”

She did. 100% she trusted him. It would probably take a hell of a lot more than him lying about some sketchy prison dude to completely break her faith in him. However, she felt her devious side begin to bubble to the surface. She could totally use this situation to her advantage. Maybe she could get a little bit of a rise out of him in a positive way.

“I don’t know,” She said in an overly teasing tone; “I think a certain vicar is going to have to redeem himself somehow...”

His pupils dilated and his hands that had been by his sides were now slowly fumbling with the button and zipper on her pants.

“Is that so?” He purred in his captain’s ear; “I think I’ve got some ideas.”

In a matter of seconds, she was sprawled on the bed, pants discarded, and his kisses were hot on her neck. She moaned deliciously as his right middle and ring finger dragged across her heating sex, his left hand pinning her arms above her head

“Max...” She breathed out.

Oh, he loved when she said his name. It sent a fiery sensation all through his body. His strong, independent captain begging for him and only him. He was the only person who ever got to see her this way. She managed to break one of her hands free, reaching to unbuckle his own pants. However, he withdrew his hand and stopped her;

“This is all about you, Captain.” He growled.

His lips detached from her skin, he let go of her other arm as well and placed him face just in front of her. Her legs were draped over his shoulders as his tongue licked a heavy stripe and her desperate whimper filled the room. He sucked and kissed as one of her hands was steady on his head to prohibit him from going too far, while the other was pressed against the headboard behind her. It felt like electricity was crackling all through her body as he mercilessly pleasured her.

“Oh, fuck...you’ve got quite the mouth for a preacher,” She tried to laugh, but it came out as another moan.

Obviously this wasn't the first time she had ever been in this situation with him. But it still surprised her every time.

His chuckle vibrated against you, his voice muffled slightly;

“You better fucking believe it.”

He knew her backwards and forwards, which why he put his arm over her waist to keep her from squirming too much. He smirked as he felt her muscles contract against his hold. It was a damn hot sight to see. His face buried between her legs, his tongue and lips working wonders on the woman he adored so much. Normally, he’d hold off on letting her come undone. He’d slow his movements to tantalize her and make her beg. But she deserved what she wanted after today.

“Max, please...” She said feeling her legs begin to shake.

“I’ve got you, love.” He spoke.

Her head fell back onto the pillow as a flash of white covered her vision. Her legs tightened on his shoulders as she crashed over her high. He continued to suck her and work her through it. His name fell from her lips once more as she felt yourself settling back to normal. He grinned once her breathing attempted to slow, he returned to her side. She supposed that she owed him now, but that’d come later.

“Okay, yeah. I forgive you.” She huffed out once her heart slowed.

He laughed genuinely, falling onto the mattress and pulling her close. He was relieved that she was here with him now and that she hadn’t kicked him off her ship. He knew one thing for sure.

He would never lie to her again.

#vicar max #vicar max x reader #vicar max fanfiction #vicar x reader #the outer worlds

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thejonzone · 3 years

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Riverdale is the Best Show You’ve Written Off

About once a month, a tweet will go around, reading something like “I can’t believe Netflix cancelled [SHOW X], but Riverdale is still on?!? *eye roll emoji, angry cussing emoji*.” It can be difficult to read tweets like these, because I like Riverdale. But I understand why it has struggled to keep an audience-- there is a perception that the show has gone completely off the rails, a chaos of hot actors in their mid-20s playing glamorous high school sociopaths, with the show choosing excess over narrative cohesion. That perception is pretty accurate. It’s an easy show to write off and easy to make fun of, especially because, as a CW show, it’s ostensibly geared to teens. So it brings me no pleasure to say that Riverdale, currently in its 5th season, has reached a renaissance, and its episodes so far this season represent its high-water mark.

To appreciate how stunning and exciting Riverdale’s new direction is, it’s important to understand how we got here.

In the first season, a murder in the titular town revealed an underbelly of thugs, power brokers, and shady backroom rulers, all vying for control with gothic morbidity. What followed after that season though, was something else entirely.

Riverdale, ramping up during Seasons 2 through 4, became a beautiful mess. I think it’s important to state that no other show on television is even attempting to do what Riverdale did/is doing. The show is, at any one point, 5-7 wholly different shows. There is a season’s worth of plot per episode. It’s storytelling mania and in-real-time dementia. I don’t remember what happened at the end of last episode because SO much happened. And besides, coherence is overrated! Give me hot actors, give me drug-addicted mobsters, give me creepy principals! On Riverdale, the parents are both former teen heartthrobs and serial killers, children operate underground speakeasies, and for some reason not one therapist has realized they could make a fortune helping our cast work through the intense psychological terror and emotional abuse they receive every episode.

This show is beyond pastiche, hyper-loaded with reference. My roommate and I had a joke that the show’s third season could be mapped to a quadrant of influences: Twin Peaks, True Detective, The Sopranos, and Gossip Girl. At any point Riverdale was acknowledging and playing into the influence of one of these shows. Season Four doubled down on the show’s horror anthology tendency. No one wants you to miss the references being made. You know that menacing boarding school Jughead attends in Season Four? You’d be right If it reminded you of Donna Tartt’s A Secret History. After all, consider Jughead’s classmate, whose name is Donna Sweet. Maybe you picked up on the violence simmering underneath the surface of Jughead’s other classmate, Bret Easton-Elli-- I mean, Bret Weston-Wallis.

Every week, the show seems primed for failure, attempting to juggle more storylines than possible or even necessary. The show is like a house of cards that has already fallen, and yet the writers are somehow still haphazardly adding more cards to the top. “Be reasonable!” I would plead. To no avail. And that’s the thrill of it. The plotlines are secondary to the spectacle. The show is a celebration and parody of violent legacy dramas, camp, teen horror, canonical literature, and anything else it can stuff under the hood, as much an ode to other pieces of media as it is an original work itself.

But now, something completely different is happening. The beginning of Season Five brought an end to the seasons-long saga the show felt trapped in. Archie, Veronica, Betty, and Jughead graduated high school, and the show flashed forward seven years. What might be considered a hokey technique was one of the best decisions the writers ever did. Because now we have a blank slate for our main cast. The writers effectively cut the fat from three seasons of violent, ridiculous maximalism. And it’s psychically refreshing.

At the heart of any good sitcom, we just want to see our main characters hanging out together. Change is part of life, but it shouldn’t be in television. Which is why this new season is so exciting-- Riverdale is now in the process of bringing its four main characters back from their adult lives and re-engaging them in the deadly politics of their hometown. Pop Tate, the owner-manager of Pop’s, Riverdale’s diner, is retiring, and Archie gets the gang back in town to celebrate the man who helped make the diner such a great hang-out spot. In the words of Jughead, “You gave us a home, Pop.” Like so mant other sitcoms before it, Riverdale used Pop’s to establish its characters and their relationships to each other.

I grew up on Seinfeld so I’ve always been attracted to the idea of the diner. The pandemic has made me yearn even harder for the sitcom diner, that idealistic place where all my friends are, where people enter with problems to be solved, drama to be explained, good news to be celebrated. Riverdale’s acknowledgment of Pop and his diner as the show’s connective tissue is a grounding and human choice. It works fantastically to set up this upcoming season, where our gang must confront the newest nefarious plot for control over the soul of Riverdale.

No doubt the show will continue its pattern of naming and spoofing genre. Veronica, in her adult life, had an Uncut Gems-style few scenes where she works as a charismatic (of course) diamond merchant. She married a possessive, boring guy who’s only characteristic seems to be that his voice is *exactly* like Veronica’s megalomaniac dad, Hiram. Something something Freud, something something daddy sexy. And credit where credit is due, Mark Consuelos is really hot.

Jughead is a writer now, in the most white guy college freshman fantasy of being a writer possible. He attended the Iowa Writers Workshop as an undergrad, something that is definitely not possible. He’s written a hit book but now suffers from *gasp* writer’s block?? He’s a cool guy writer who, in his opening montage, gets recognized by, hit on, and then has sex with a college-aged fan. Back in Riverdale, Jug writes a speech for Pop’s retirement and sends it to his agent. His agent is smitten with the work, calling it “tragic americana” and proclaiming that Jughead’s next book will be titled “Elegy for a Small Town”. This is almost certainly a reference to J.D. Vance’s bad book, and I’m sure the show will be bringing in more elements of “tragic” “americana” as the season unfolds.

Betty is FBI in training, because as the show has loved to tell us, Betty has “the serial killer gene”, but is using it for good. For the record, her dad was a serial killer, and her brother was a serial killer. And it’s not like her mom or sister can cast the first stone. Betty’s endured enough trauma to fill 100 lives with unending pain and I’m sure the show will have no trouble heaping more on top. Already in the new season we’ve seen flashbacks to some point during the time jump when Betty was taken hostage, in what’s clearly a homage to The Silence of the Lambs.

And then there’s Archie. I don’t know if anyone knows what to do with the guy. Played by K.J. Apa, who is both really good-looking with his shirt off and a god-awful actor, Archie has been in the army. The show is using him to shill for the military-industrial complex.

I’ve long joked that the Riverdale writers have no idea what they’re doing. But through a global pandemic affecting TV production and *the* major narrative complication in any high school-set show (graduation), the Riverdale writers have seamlessly transitioned the show to a new stasis. Past seasons are informing this one, but we aren’t bogged down by the details in this new season. The bigger joke, of course, is that the writers have known exactly what they’ve been doing this whole time, and I’m just an idiot. Well I mean, of course I’m an idiot. I use television to regulate my emotions and simulate a static friend group that doesn’t leave or change. And Riverdale is perfect for that. If a renaissance is a rebirth, well then my friends, cut the umbilical cord and save the placenta to put in pills, because Riverdale is cranking out episodes that are better than ever.

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unstoppablezombie · 4 years

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The Last of Us Part II thoughts and opinions

I finished my second playthrough last night. I think I’m ready to finally share what I thought was amazing, my issues with it, and the concerns I have for the future. This post will be lengthy, I understand if you won’t read all of it, but I’m going to try my best to break it up and organize it so if there’s a part you’d want to know if you’d relate to, you can jump to that. But I think it’ll be worth the read, and if you want to discuss how your thoughts are the same or if they differ, I’m open to have a civil discussion about it. These are all 100% my opinions. I highly recommend playing the game start to finish first to form your own opinions as well. There will be spoilers. This is your warning.

What I loved:

Ellie

She deserves her own category. Since the first game I loved her character and my love for her only grew in part II. She is the probably the best and most relatable female protagonist anyone could ask for. At least for me she is. I enjoyed every second I got to play as her. Especially during the birthday flashback and barn scene with Dina and JJ.

New characters

To be honest, the only new character I truly cared for was Dina. I wish we got to have her as a companion longer and got to know more about her. From what we picked up along the way, she was perfect match for Ellie. Lev was cool (or cold as he likes to say), but I didn’t grow attached to him like others.

Representation

Although I wish we saw more of them, I think Ellie and Dina’s relationship was absolutely beautiful and heartwarming (besides the ending, which I will talk about later). I truly think this is a step in the right direction for representation in video games for any LGBTQ relationships, and I truly hope there will be a part III or DLC to showcase Ellie and Dina more positive outcome (even though Neil Druckman went on record saying there’s no plans for DLC or a Part III, but I don’t believe him)

Gameplay

The combat and animation system was S tier. The “feel” of it is smooth and weapons feel powerful. Once I got the hang of dodge and going prone, I was obsessed with staying in stealth mode (I prefer Ellie’s stealth kill animation over Abby’s). There’s also this awesome new animation where if you hurt the last enemy but they’re not dead yet, you can slowly walk up to them and do this brutal melee finisher move. Felt like a badass everytime.

I also loved how the increase in creepy/dark/eerie areas. Stalkers are a lot scarier than the first game and the rat king boss fight was like it was out of a resident evil game.

The Little Things

I fell in love with the little details: the lighting in every scene, pull an arrow out of your shoulder, safe puzzles and weapon bench animations, how Ellie/Abby looks when opening a door, flashlight, THE MUSIC! The score and music choices along the way (future days and take me on)

What I didn’t like

Abby

Not going to lie to you folks, even after 2 playthroughs, I hated every second playing as Abby. The only scenes I didn’t mind was the “afraid of heights” segment with Lev and the rat king fight. Although ND attempted to have me sympathize with her as a character, it never stuck. I will be fair, I see the humanity in her, especially when she’s with Lev and the fact Lev basically told her to save Dina and Ellie, but without Lev, I don’t care for her.

Any of the characters that had to do with Abby’s story

I don’t think it’s possible for me to care anymore less for her relationship with Owen or any of her friends. Pretty much any time that was taken away from me playing as Ellie or anything to do with Ellie’s story line, I felt it was wasting time.

We needed more heartwarming moments

We got the birthday flashback, the barn house scene, when you find out Joel tried to get into Ellie’s favorite comic book, and some other little moments in between. I truly believe the reason why a lot of us love TLOU is because of the love between Ellie and Joel, the things that made our hearts a bit warmer, and even the ending of the first game, we had something to hold in our hearts, we knew Joel and Ellie were together. In Part II, we end with Ellie walking away with her loss of everything. She lost Dina, JJ, and the ability to play guitar. Basically, everything she loved was lost. (I will circle back to this at the end).

The ending

This can go up for debate, but I think the ending was left way too much for interpretation. I think ND could’ve given some direction on where Ellie is headed. If she’s going to Jackson, going out on her own. I mean, especially since ND is being very abrasive about if there’s going to be another game or not. I think the ending was cruel, especially those of us (which I think is a lot, probably 90% of TLOU community) that holds Ellie in our hearts dearly and always will.

Post Edit: I forgot to mention that I don’t think it’s talked about enough that Ellie saved Abby. If Ellie never went back for her final attempt for revenge, Abby would’ve never made it.

My concerns for the future

Neil has gone on record multiple times there’s no plans on a DLC or a part III (he says the next best idea will be the one they go with, whether that’s a new IP or TLOU). However, the way they set up Part II, introducing new characters and the way the menu changes to Catalina island (indicating to us Abby and Lev made it). I’m afraid that IF there is a DLC or Part III, Ellie won’t be the main protagonist. Which, would 1000% break my heart if that’s the case, and honestly, I probably will not play it if Ellie isn’t apart of it.

In the recent Kinda Funny Games gamescast, Neil was oddly quiet when asked where Abby and Lev end up besides alluding that menu once completing the game is Catalina island. But when asking about where Ellie ends up, he openly says he doesn’t know and no one really has thought about it.

There are a lot of people saying they prefer Abby storyline over Ellie (I respect your opinion if you think that, but if that’s what you truly believe, I think you’re wrong and I don’t trust you) and I truly am concerned that this game is the last we will see from Ellie. That’s the last thing I want. I will feel a lot better if ND will publicly state if this was the end or not, but regardless, we deserve closure. Whether it be a better ending for Ellie or just telling the fans if there’s no hope.

I think at the very least, we should get a DLC, showing Ellie’s quest to find Dina or give her an ending that’s more justified for the fans that care about her.

Final thoughts

I think the game was beautifully crafted, it made me feel things I didn’t think was possible for a game to do. I think we can all agree that the game was gorgeous, the actors did a PHENOMENAL job (whether you love or hate their characters), and the story is one that will be talked about for a while. In the end, naughty dog made the game and it’s done. No matter how many of us share our opinions or thoughts, nothings going to change what was given to us.

There are people who are hating on the game without playing it and giving the models and actors grief and hate about the game. Which is dumb and counterproductive. Hate the character, not the model and/or actor. I plan on playing the game again to get the platinum trophy (just missing the artifacts and collectibles), after that, I plan on taking a break and clearing my head. Part II was a very heavy game. When I was done with the first clear, I had to not play it for a day or two cause I was feeling ill and anxious.

Some can say she lost everything because of vengeance and her ego for revenge, but I think a major point the game tried to point out is Ellie is at peace with her loss and she can move onto what will give her life meaning. In previous paragraph I mentioned how her and Joel love is one of the major reasons we adore TLOU, but I think even with Joel dead, I think love can still be the main incentive to keep moving forward. The words that keep coming back in my mind is what Joel says to her at the end of the first game “no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for” and I hope we will be able to experience her next motivation.

Overall, despite the issues I had, I still love the game. It’s still my favorite form of media. I still love the fact we have such a beautiful, badass, lesbian protagonist in a video game. I try to voice that to Neil and Naughty Dog whenever I can and I hope he can see the importance in keeping Ellie as a character for more iterations. I’m remaining cautiously optimistic we will see more of Ellie.

I’m sure there are other things that I forgot to include, but those are the major things that stuck out to me.

#TLOU #The Last Of Us Part II #TLOUPII Spoilers #the last of us #my thoughts and opinions

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museswithinx · 3 years

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"come on, i’m taking you for breakfast.” { Ellie for Ulrik bc new interactions and he's been going through it }

100 ways to say ‘ i love you ’ sentence starters

Awaking on his Aunt and Uncle’s couch, the consequences of last night were already hitting Ulrik. It was rare he overindulged himself in the alcohol like that but it had truly been a year and he wanted to feel something other than his heartbreak. Once that clock struck midnight, it was all champagne and bad choices from there. It was fun but he was already regretting it this morning.

Slowly moving to sit up on the couch, he felt not great. His head was throbbing terribly and his stomach was doing unpleasant little flips. Rubbing his temples to will the headache away, he soon realized he wasn’t alone as Ellie strolled into the room with some disgusting-looking sludge in a glass that was apparently meant for him. “Are you putting me out of my misery?” He jokes as she extends the beverage to him before joining him on the couch.

As Ellie explains it was to help with the hangover, he realized she must have been a frontline witness to the drunken shenanigans. Even more touching was she’d obviously taken care of him in that state. It was all a bit of a blur to him. Drinking the sludge as instructed though, Ulrik makes a face as the taste hits him hard on the way down. “That is vile,” he breathes out, but drinks up the rest anyway like a good patient.

“All these years, you’d think us witches would have figured out how to make a brew that doesn’t taste like wet sand.” The after taste was somehow even worse, but as he set the now empty glass aside, he could feel the symptoms start to let up. He supposed the price was worth the end result. “Well I don’t feel like throwing up anymore, so I guess it’s working. I should probably eat something though.”

"come on, i’m taking you for breakfast.” Ellie jumps up extending her hand to him.

Ulrik doesn’t argue. He just takes her hand and allows her to take him to breakfast at some little diner a few blocks down. Ordering a little bit of everything on their breakfast menu, he felt almost back at 100% again with some food in his system.

Biting into a piece of bacon, he looks across to her. “I never did thank you for playing nurse. You didn’t have to, but I appreciate it,” he breaks the quiet that had fallen between them as they ate. “I promise this isn’t a regular occurrence for me either, so I hope you won’t think a certain way about me. I just got caught up in all the chaos last night and overdid it. Usually I keep the drinking to a minimum.”

There wasn’t even the slightest hint of judgment in her expression though. Just like her mother, she was a kind spirit and a care taker. She knew him well enough to know that it wasn’t a habit of his. Even if it were, she’d believe the best in him because that was the kind of person she was.

As the waitress drops by with the bill, Ulrik reaches for it before Ellie can take care of that for him as well. “I’ve got this,” he insists with a smile as he looks down at the total and pulls out his wallet to pay. “You’ve done more than enough, this one’s my treat.”

#ofstrengthisms #( ulrik mikaelson-whittaker ; )#( ulrik & ellie tag ; )#100 ways to say i love you sentence starters #answered #//bc Ellie being like Laura is my favorite thing ever #and i love their dynamic a ton already #let me know if i need to fix anything here though

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theghostbeaters · 4 years

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my timeline of thoughts during my tlou 2 play through (bad and good and maybe even some silly) just let me vent because i can’t stop thinking about it tbh

- i was away from the internet for months because i didn’t want to be spoiled for anything, so when i started to play i had only the deceitful trailers to go by

- the beginning felt pretty normal for the last of us. they started you in the town and then on patrol for your hour of tutorial basically. i also remember thinking the recap of the first game was so nice because i liked seeing their younger selves in the new graphics

- abby was introduced, and like i said i had no clue what was going on because i had not been spoiled so my mind was going a mile a minute on wtf abby and co. were up to. when they spotted jackson my initial thought was maybe they do want joel and they will be the main antagonists? joel and ellie will have to fight them??? but because of the trailers, death of any sort wasn’t on my mind.

- i also had a very odd and pure hatred for owen’s voice, lol. i don’t know what it was but omg from the moment he spoke till his last breath i would always be like “why is he speaking like that??” in the back of my head.

- that scene happened. i’m a crier i’ll admit, but this was something else. I felt shocked, nauseous, numb. I don’t think I actually even cried till I saw the tombstone i was so taken aback by the way they went about this. I don’t care if they are fictional characters. It has been 7 years since the first game came out and almost 5 years that they released the first trailer for part 2. I did not wait this long, excited to see two of the most important characters to me in such realistic graphics get their fucking head caved in. at the very very least a fade to black and then to the tombstone would have gotten the same reaction you wanted from me, but it would have been done in a way less cruel way.

- i took about a 3 hour break. i could not get that image out of my head and it was really starting to upset me more then any media should. i don’t care or want to hear about any walking dead or apocalypse setting trope. it will never be edgy, deep, or meaningful to kill a favorite character in that manner. I want to state that again. In that manner. If they had killed joel in a more tactful way I could have possibly liked the game more.

-i remember thinking it felt forced. like the creators wanted this narrative so badly they seemed to go through hoops and hurdles to get there. there was a random horde that seemed to disappear as quick as it came, abby just gets lucky and has joel and tommy save her and then they go straight to the lions den? would joel from the first game be so quick to do that? Wait was she 100% sure just from two peoples names this was the guy she wanted? Ellie gets there just in time to see the final blow and then the others only get there just in time to miss everything and not be able to help? Whats going on??? This feels too structured and not genuine??

- going into his house was just as painful. i’m sorry but i’m going to bring this back up a lot- if they would had just killed him in a more tactful manner i would have praised the way these little scenes were done. grabbing his watch, ellie smelling his clothes, seeing the pictures of sara and ellie, looking at his workshop and seeing how well he can carve! I couldn’t appreciate it the way I wanted to because I couldn’t get that image out of my head. i was literally bawling the entire time.

-REVENGE TIME BEGINS:

+so the first scene was set: ellie wanted to go to seattle for revenge, dina was going to go with her, and tommy had already left. I remember having two thoughts here

+“please tell me its going to be more then ellie just going on a revenge spree and then at the end she doesn’t kill abby because morals / murder is bad / not everything is black and white kind of tropes.”

+and “i have a wild feeling tommys gonna be like the only person that makes it out alive. he did it in the first game somehow hes gonna weasel his way free in this one.”

-ELLIES SEGMENTS:

+the graphics are amazing the sceneries are some of the most beautiful i have seen in a game. and it didn’t stop there. every area was amazing. I think most can agree to this.

+i was determined, no matter what else the game threw at me i was going to see it through to the end and try very hard to visualize it the way the creators wanted it to be visualized. even if i didn’t agree or didn’t like parts, i figured hey the first game was so good this has to revive itself.

+i really liked the gameplay, it was a finer tuned version of the first game. i also liked the idea of the map and how it actively showed you different locations and crossed them out when you were done. but in the back of my head i was thinking “wow this would have all been so neat in the first game”. I shouldn’t be thinking about the first game. I should be enjoying this one.

+i was getting concerned none of the new characters were getting as much character development and love as some of the characters in the first one. I liked dina a lot, and by the very end of the game she did feel pretty rounded out (i especially liked her in the farm segment) but the beginning and middle seemed almost more focused on “this is ellies girlfriend” instead of “this is dina”. I felt the same with jesse. I liked him but nothing stood out as much as it could and should have. I got more from tess in the short amount of time she was in the first game.

+there were certain segments that felt way more horror like and scary then in the first game and I loved them a lot. The new enemy (shambler) was cool and the settings where they used red lighting looked amazing. I also really loved the new take on stalkers. They were way harder to find and I found myself on edge to get jumped by one during those sections. They funny enough reminded me of dead space stalkers and i thought they were an improvement from the first games.

+at this point i pretty much understood what the creators were going for plot wise, but i personally just didn’t think it was needed. 1) i’m confident the majority of hardcore last of us fans already understand the concept of how every character can be good and bad and that not everything is black and white. we didn’t need to see one beloved character die horribly and the other be in that much pain and lose herself to understand that. 2) did we not pretty much already cover this concept in the first game? but....better? you remember...the ending?

- ELLIES FLASHBACKS:

+ of course I enjoyed them. its what i needed from a sequel. its what the whole game should have been, at least for me personally. the birthday flashback was the highlight of the entire game. i needed it so badly after the mind numbing, emotionally exhausting, weird out of place plot was putting me through. I was glad to finally see how ellie felt about the ending of the first game. but trying to crunch all that in 4 cutscenes? I just don’t feel like it was enough. you basically gave me one scene per year of joel and ellies relationship and you felt like that was enough to let me digest almost 5 years they spent in jackson?

- ABBYS SECTIONS:

+call me an optimist or maybe just stupid i’m not sure but when it rolled over and said “hey take over and check out the life of joel’s killer” my first thought was okay so i was right they want a “”nothing is black and white”” narrative but maybe doing it this way will be new and fresh? I can get through this and enjoy it? .... Its just not a fully possible reality and how could it be? had it been the first game in the series maybe it would had worked, but of course no matter how hard I tried I just felt disassociated from abby because I was already close to joel and ellie. I understood her reasons. I understood the narrative you were going for. I understood the damn parallels. I’m not an evil person that would just laugh about what happened to her dad, but how can you not understand as writers that a huge majority might be able to understand it, but still won’t be able to enjoy it. It felt so pushed and shoved into my face that I couldn’t enjoy it if i wanted to because the game just kept screaming “LOOK AT THE PARALLELS THO!!!”

+abbys dad seemed forced and out of place too. when abby and co. first killed joel i didn’t even think fireflies tbh. I thought it was something he did before he met ellie, or something he did during the 5 years in jackson. like yeah i got it, its not the worse backstory in the world but when put in context to the first game it just doesn’t make sense to me to use as the narrative you want to portray in the second game. maybe i’m nitpicking here but from all the personal notes and all the tapes you can read and listen to about the fireflies in the first game it makes it hard to believe the majority of fans would care for the second games narrative at all. they already made their decisions. it at the very least just seems like bad salesmanship? but maybe they already knew that and thats why the trailers were all lies? (just my thoughts at the time remember)

+and oh god was the character development even worse for abbys friends. at least they tried to give abby a rounded character development that mirrored ellies but if you think ellies friends barely got character development, abbys friends got almost zero. I didn’t care about a single one. they felt so flimsy and husk like. “this is the boy she likes” “this is a medic friend” “this guy likes sex alot” “this is dog, so of course you like dog”

+I mean its great everyone was able to be so different. abby is muscular, ellie is a lesbian, there were many poc, dina is jewish, they brought in a trans character....but how can i enjoy any of it when more than half of these characters felt put in just to be there instead of well rounded characters you can appreciate for good or bad?

+the sex scene with her and owen was the scene where i personally felt myself giving up. it felt so much like this game wanted to be an HBO classic instead of just a video game that i felt myself detaching even more. (also whats up with owens voice??? lol)

+GROUND ZERO was a very good chapter. That shit was spooky in all the good ways, it felt a lot like dead space with the plastic everywhere, THE BIG ASS MONSTER HAD ME ON MY KNEES. The chase scene up to the actual boss fight was A+. Here is the one catch though - I forgot I was playing as abby. It felt more like just playing first person. Not a character at all. I don’t think that is how you want your game to be played, and no it wasn’t my intention.

+I wish yara and lev had gotten more screen time. the game was so focused on the abby vs ellie thing and shoving it down your throat that most the side characters got washed out, these two included. Their story was interesting and it would had been nice to see more of them instead of whatever the weird love triangle abby had going on with her two friends I couldn’t care less about. (i stg chances were given, but as i previously stated they felt more like husks of characters then fully rounded ones.)

+getting hunted by tommy was actually a pretty cool highlight of the game for me. and even for a narrative i didn’t personally like it was a good idea to do! it reminded me of the sniper section (but holy hell tommys a better shot lol) and david’s hide and seek section in the first game which i thought was very well done.

+this is when i went “oh maybe i was wrong, tommys gonna die. i give him a 20% chance of survival now that abby saw his face

-THEATER TIME

+why in the all out hell would you ever think it would be a good idea to tell the player to go after ellie? no matter what narrative? lmao. I died here the most literally for the soul fact i was scared there might be some kind of choice so i wouldn’t mash QTEs as fast as i normally would. and when i found out no, you just gotta power through it i literally found myself going through this 10 minute segment going “but i don’t want to do this”, “i really dont want to do this”, “do i have to do this?” “why do i gotta do this?” and yes i still understood your narrative but it doesn’t matter. it was just awkward.

+This is where personally I would have put the cali segment if I really wanted to go with a narrative I still say didn’t need to happen because we already went through it in the first game, and then the happy farm bit at the end.

-FARM

+i felt the game was going on too long and i was literally screaming at my screen to just end my suffering when i realized there was more after seattle. adding the extra PTSD scene just felt like an added fuck you towards the fans. I said it once, I’ll say it 1000x that scene with joel was seared into my brain already. I didn’t need that literal jumpscare. I already knew what ellie was going through dammit I was going through it with her! Let the girl and me for that matter have a bit of happiness after what you put us through!

+holy hell tommy fucking lived. he fucking lived. that mother fucker. hes the new telltales kenny.

-SANTA BARBARA

+I said previously this section should have some how been merged into the seattle ending. I couldn’t tell you how honestly, but keeping it dragging like they did was so emotionally draining. it didn’t give me any feeling but more sadness and torment for a favorite character that didn’t deserve this kind of treatment. ellie looked so skinny and sad here. and i feel like it was what the creators were going for? because abby ended up looking just as sad looking. The ending fight was so sad and pathetic. I felt bad for both of them and that is what the creators wanted right? but at what cost? most of your fans, if they even managed to play this far, so emotionally drained and tired that they end up hating the game or not wanting to play it again?

-ENDING

+so how do i feel now that i finished it? overall there were more cons than pros for me. as i said numerous times before this narrative is not new, this narrative was not needed. this narrative definitely shouldn’t have been lied about through trailers. this narrative was basically done better in the first game anyways. the ending did not give me “sad but hopeful”. it just left me empty and depressed. I don’t see myself playing this game ever again.

+If anyone was able to enjoy it I’m truly happy you were able to and these were all just my personal thoughts and opinions while playing the game. I don’t hate anyone that liked it, I don’t even hate abby. I just personally hate they wrote a narrative that felt so forced down your throat in all the wrong ways. I hate that I wasn’t ready for that joel scene because it still hurts to think about. I hate thinking about how sad ellie looked and how they were both treated. It just wasn’t healthy for me tbh is the best way I can put it.

#the last of us #tlou #tlou spoilers #the last of us spoilers #holy shit this is long i'm sorry #not that anyone will read it lol #but its just nice to write sht down sometimes #anti tlou2

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wosoimagines · 5 years

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You’re Not Fine

You guys could never bother me. Besides, baby R imagines are my favorite to read and they’re already one of my favorites to write. This is mainly with Kelley with some hints of a crush on Mal.

prompt: Hey I don’t wanna bother you or anything so you don’t have to write this if you don’t want to but, I loved your baby R imagine so I was wondering if you could write one where baby R faints during training with the USWNT due to her being sick and not telling anybody or something like that? Thank you :)

warnings: none

words: 1119

Y/N’s POV

With the World Cup coming up so soon, I couldn’t afford to miss practice. My spot on the team was probably one of the most at risk to lose spots on the team. I knew that it was unlikely that Jill would kick me off and replace me, but I had to keep in mind that this was Jill Ellis I was talking about. I wasn’t even 18 yet.So, when I came down with a cold, I knew that it couldn’t keep me out of practice. Some of the others had noticed that I was slower today, but I was pretty sure that most of the others couldn’t tell. Besides, I had played games before when I had a cold. I just had to make sure that I got my rest tonight.We were currently scrimmaging and Kelley just kept coming after me. I knew that she was just trying to push me to do my best, but I was starting to get annoyed by it. It didn’t help the way my body ached whenever we crashed into each other. There was no telling how much more I could actually handle if Kelley didn’t stop targeting me whenever I got the ball. I got rid of the ball before Kelley could go after me. I was getting more sluggish but I couldn’t let it affect how I played.“You ok?” I looked over at the defender. I was a little surprised that it had taken Kelley so long to realize that I wasn’t doing so well. I rolled my shoulders back.“I’m fine, Kelley,” I assured. Kelley slowly nodded, but she didn’t seem convinced. I started to run up the field and toward the ball. I wasn’t surprised when the ball was kicked back to me. I started to head toward the goal.I wasn’t surprised when Kelley came running toward me. I tried to get around her, but my ankles were taking from out under me. I groaned as I was slow to get up. Kelley reached out and I let her help me up. Kelley kept a hold on me as I tried to find my balance but I ultimately couldn’t.I could see Kelley’s lips moving, but I just couldn’t focus on them. To me, everything was going black.

Kelley’s POV

I barely had time to catch (Y/N) as she collapsed. I gently lowered the kid to the ground and some of the others on the team ran toward us. Jill was quick to get one of the trainers out to the field. Alex pulled me away from (Y/N) as our trainers got her onto a stretcher and off of the field.

“Come on, Kell. There’s nothing for you to do,” Alex said.

I knew that she was right but it still didn’t make me feel any better. Jill continued our practice, but most of us were focused on (Y/N). I think that Jill could tell that we weren’t focused because she ended practice early. I didn’t bother with my shower right away but instead headed to the training room.

I was relieved to see (Y/N) sitting up on the table talking with the doctor. They looked like they were arguing about something. Probably whatever made (Y/N) faint. Both of them glanced at the group of us that had come to check on (Y/N).

“I’m fine.”

“Clearly you’re not fine, (Y/N),” I said. (Y/N) looked at me and shot me a glare. “You fainted on the field.”

“Maybe if someone hadn’t run into all throughout practice, my body wouldn’t have been worn out,” (Y/N) said.

It was obviously directed at me, but (Y/N) always loved it when we gave it everything we had when going against her. That was what I always did. Even today.

“Why did (Y/N) faint?” Ali asked the doctor.

“She’s got a cold,” the doctor informed us. (Y/N) started to grumble but none of us paid her much attention. “It’s nothing too serious. The practice was just too much for her body to handle today. She just needs a few days of rest and some medicine.”

“I’m fine,” (Y/N) assured.

“You’re not fine,” I snapped. This kid had me worried about her and she had only made me feel guilty. I felt responsible because we had run into each other a lot today due to me. “You passed out, (Y/N). You had us all worried because you didn’t rest.”

“It’s just a cold. Besides, I can’t afford to miss practice,” (Y/N) said.

“Why do you think that?” Christen asked. (Y/N) only looked away from the rest of us. “(Y/N), come on. Your health is more important than practice.”

“You’ll think it’s stupid.”

“No, we won’t,” Ash started. “But we can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s wrong.”

(Y/N) didn’t look at us for a moment. The rest of the girls who had already gotten their showers joined us as they pushed their way into the room. (Y/N) only tensed even more when she realized that they were in the room. She wasn’t going to talk to us.

“What’s wrong?” Mal asked as she put a hand on (Y/N)’s leg. The teenager’s cheeks flushed at the contact and I would be sure to tease her about it later, but now wasn’t the time. “Come on, (Y/N). Just tell us what’s wrong.”

“My spot on this team isn’t guaranteed. Not like all of yours are,” (Y/N) sighed. This was something that we had talked to (Y/N) about before. She believed that if she didn’t push herself past 100% all the time that Jill would send her home, but it was obviously a much more dangerous mentality than we had realized. “You guys are all likely to be around longer than I am. I’m not even out of high school yet.”

“You’re one of the best players in the US,” Mal said. None of us had stopped to think about how (Y/N) felt about being on the national team or her doubts about belonging here. “I was scared too that Jill wouldn’t keep me around because of my age. But she did. She’ll do the same with you, but she can’t do that if you aren’t healthy.”

(Y/N)’s shoulder’s slumped forward and I didn’t think that she would fight us anymore. I was the first to hug her before the other girls joined. We laughed and (Y/N) wrapped her arms around my waist.

“I’m sorry for making you worry,” (Y/N) said as she buried her face into my shoulder.

“Just don’t do it again, kid.”

#uswnt imagine #uswnt imagines #uswnt #uswnt x reader

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doof-doofblog · 4 years

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"... Till There's Absolutely Nothing Left!"

Monday 28th September 2020

Good evening everyone! Hope you've all had an enjoyable weekend! As of today I will back being up to date with my blog posts. I'm looking forward to seeing what this week of episodes have in store! Let's not waste any time and jump right into it!

Tonight's episode started with Max still looking for Ian, Max is wanting to get his hands on his money, he's already fuming at Ian for dodging him and ignoring him. Ian has come up with excuses upon excuses to Max for not being able to get his money to him urgently. As Max leaves after having a word with Kathy, Ian is seen peering behind the door-frame, as if he's been hiding from Max, which we know he is - he's avoiding him like the plaque! Ian is such a weasel isn't he? Why doesn't he just grow a pair and admit to Max the truth, it's only a matter of truth before all his secrets come out!

Meanwhile, Gray and Karen are catching up at the club. Karen informs Gray that Mitch is currently sleeping at the salon as he's not welcome at the house for having doubts about Gray. Gray tries to ask Karen not to act harshly on Mitch, as everyone is still grieving for Chantelle. Karen can't believe he's sticking up for the man who's basically accused him of murder, it's then she turns to him and says "You're such a good man!" ... the only thing my brain is saying is "If only you knew Karen, if only you knew!" Ooooo I can't wait for Gray to be found out, it's going to be SO good when he finally gets seen for the murderer he truly is!

Oh yes! At the hospital, Denise is still watching over her biological son, Raymond. Ellie seems to be surprised that Denise is back visiting him, as they chat she informs him that Raymond made it through the night and he seems to be slowly recovering. Denise is visibly relieved, Ellie also seems surprised by her reaction. - I'm not 100% sure what to make of Ellie, it's been revealed she's going to be a type of villain? I have my speculations about this current storyline, I'm really excited to see where it's going to go, but something tells me it'll be a battle of who gets custody of the young child. I think, perhaps, Denise will try and get Phil on side - if she tells him everything she knows about the adoptive family passing away, Phil will probably do the right thing and help Denise get custody of her son. But how is Phil going to act when he learns about Ellie and what will she do to get in their way? - Ellie asks Denise if she'd still like to help out and Denise insists that she'd love to, she's instructed by Ellie to get some new pyjamas for the young boy, Denise is only willing to do whatever she can for the boy so she goes off without hesitation. As she leaves, Ellie looks really suspicious - why would Denise want to help? Is she just being a good Samaritan? Or is there more to it? (Oooo I can't wait to see when Ellie finds out who Denise actually is!)

At the club, Mick walks in on Frankie taking pictures of Ollie, at first it seems only friendly and as if she's doing no harm, of course Mick is a little suspicious as Frankie barely knows the child. But it's when he grabs the camera without her looking and takes a look at the photo's, he realises there are quite a lot of photo's of Ollie that she's taken, plus also ones of other family members. When Frankie realises, she makes the excuse that it's Street Art Photography that she's doing. Mick does seem very uncomfortable at the fact that he's been photographed without his knowledge, he asks Frankie is kind of polite way to not to post them on social media and maybe to delete the images, mainly because Linda would feel uncomfortable about it. Frankie promises to do as he asks, but surely his mind must be racing? Who is this girl and why is she taking photos of him and his family?! I've heard some kind of rumour that perhaps Frankie could be Mick's secret daughter, but I'm not 100% sure whether to believe it's true, I mean, it could be - but who knows?!

In the cafe, Stuart is visibly excited to be marrying Rainie, both Callum and Ben are watching on as he's happily smiling as he's having a conversation on the phone with his future wife. I thought it was cute, personally, after so long of being such a dark character, Stuart is finally getting some happiness - and I think he bloody deserves it, as does Rainie! As they're saying their goodbyes on the phone, Ben makes a silly comment to Callum "A tenner says this marriage doesn't last as long as this goodbye!" - It's lovely seeing Stuart all smiley! When he finishes the call and turns to the boys he starts talking about how weird it feels, him getting married and then Callum moving in to the Mitchell's, it's then Ben says that he'll be a Mitchell now he's living under their roof! It's funny as all these one liners comes out, I'm thinking to myself, he's pretty much there now after what he's doing to Phil! As Stuart leaves after reminding Callum of his Best Man duties, Ben again makes a comment of Callum and his Dad being best mates, it seems as if Callum comes clean to his boyfriend, he reveals that he and Phil have been chatting a lot recently, plus he reveals the big news about Phil offering him a job to work on the family firm side of things, Ben is clearly surprised and perhaps confused to hear this news.

In the laundrette, Kathy and Bobby are picking up their clothes from Linda, I just want to say that I absolutely loved the moment when Linda couldn't remember where she had stored their dry-cleaning - B for Beale or C for Cathy, only for it to be under K for the correct spelling of Kathy! I don't know why, I just thought it was brilliant! As she finds the clothes, she overhears Kathy and Bobby talking about Ian's money problems, Kathy informs Bobby that Ian needs this new contract otherwise he wont be able to pay Max back! Linda knows the situation regarding Max and his money, is she going to do the right thing and tell Max? He deserves to know what's happening and what's happened with his share of the restaurant. I kind of hope she does.

Back at Ruby's, Denise and Jack are catching up. He questions Denise on where she has been, she claims she's been shopping and the thing she bought she's planning on taking back anyway. Suddenly Jack's phone rings and he excuses himself to take the call, as he moves to one side, Denise watches as Phil makes his way into the club and sits by the bar. Will she tell him the truth about his son? Next minute, Isaac and Sheree are seen in the club corridor, they appear to be talking about Isaac's run in with his boss about the allegation of him using drugs, as they both walk in they see Denise on the other side of the club, and then Phil sat at the bar. Phil is the one to break the silence and makes a snide comment about him coming to see his dealer. Isaac isn't wanting to hear another word, it's only then that Denise gets involved in the conversation and reminds Phil that's he's not as innocent as he makes out, claiming he doesn't his granddaughter to be taught by a druggie, when he was addicted to crack a couple of years back. She basically insults the Mitchell family name, accusing them all of being criminals! Isaac, Sheree and Jack watch on in disbelief as Denise stands up to Phil! It's a pretty brilliant scene I have to say! Something tells me though that Denise is only doing this because of being reunited with her son, Raymond, who Phil just so happens to be the Father of. As she leaves the club, she appears to be holding a gift bag, we see that it's a set of boys pyjamas that Ellie asked her to buy for Raymond, she then suddenly decides to bin the clothes and walk away.

Back at the Mitchell household, Ben is looking like he's wanting answers from Callum, he wants to understand what his boyfriend has been asked to do. Then suddenly it clicks, he realises that Phil has asked Callum to perhaps get him inside information about what the police are looking for and what they might want. Ben can't understand why Callum would risk losing his job and his future if he was to do what Phil was asking him. He explains to his boyfriend that he is good and that is one of the reasons why he loves him. It's then that Phil walks in, Ben wants answers now! Why is he bringing his boyfriend into this? Why is he making Callum do dirty work? Phil explains to him plain and simple, it's good for business and he's part of the family now, which is why it will work! As Callum and Phil both leave the room, Ben is stunned!

Back at the Vic, Karen is drowning her sorrows in a pint when Kheerat walks in. She tells him not to even think about causing any more trouble, he tries to defend himself, whether it was right or wrong, he cared for Chantelle. He loved her. Karen asks him to picture Chantelle if she was to hear their conversation, she'd hate everything that was happening. Kheerat pauses for a second, thinking that actually what Karen is saying is true. He agrees, he apologises to her and promises not to say anything again and peacefully leaves her with her drink.

At the Beale's house, Ian is looking ready for his meeting, he greets Charmaine and welcomes her into his home. At first, she feels perhaps his house is a little bit unprofessional, as she's after a catering company, you'd think the restaurant would be a better place. Ian insists that she enters his living room where there appears to be a dining table very elegantly displayed with cutlery and dishes. It's then Ian introduces Bobby to Charmaine, and she is instantly aware of who he is. She reveals, much to Ian's surprise, that Bobby and herself had been emailing about a charity named The Lucy Beale Foundation, which Bobby has designed and created himself. Ian's shocked and his ears are ringing as Charmaine admits that Bobby had her reaching for her cheque book, he instructs Bobby to get themselves some food and invites him to join them both for lunch.

Meanwhile, back at the laundrette, Max is opening up to Linda, revealing that Jack is wanting to be a proper family with Denise and the kids, he's worried that Jack might end up asking him to move out. He reveals he's contemplating going to New Zealand to go and see Lauren and Louie, even promised little Abi that he'd take her, once Ian returns his money to him. As Max is revealing all this to Linda she can't help but look guilty, she tells him not to get the little girl's hopes up. Instantly, that doesn't sit right with Max, why would she say such a thing? Why would Abi be disappointed? He moves in on Linda and can see that she's hiding something, he asks her why she's looking so guilty, she backed into a corner, she can't let him think everything is okay when truthfully it's not, she lets out a sigh - will she tell him what she knows?!

Back at the Beale's, Bobby is talking confidently to Charmaine, explaining how much he had to rebuild his life and how much he wanted to focus on turning such a tragic event in his life, to potentially something positive. Charmaine is truly touched by Bobby's honesty and asks whether Ian will match her donation to the charity, Ian insists he will but turns the whole subject back on to the catering contract. She says that she can see how much it means to him, it's then that Ian starts to take advantage of Bobby's idea and - I don't know whether you guys think so too - but does he actually lie saying he's doing it to honour Lucy?! Or is he just playing at her heartstrings just so she'll sign on the dotted line?! Bobby is clearly annoyed with his Father for making such a claim, just then Max storms in - (Linda has told him everything then!) - Max storms in on their meeting and bellows to Ian that he knows he's been lied to for weeks, he's stolen his share of the restaurant, his life savings and he wants them back!!

Back to Denise, we can she's on the phone to Ellie, explaining that something has come up regarding the little boy's pyjamas. Suddenly, Jack walks in on her phone call and she hangs up almost immediately. Jack is already realising that something isn't right with Denise, he asks who it was that she was talking to on the phone, but she brushes it off saying it wasn't important. It's then Jack is asking her for answers, asking why she let rip on Phil earlier in the club, she explains she was trying to stick up for Isaac. Jack informs her that that is not their fight and they don't need to get involved. Denise apologises and reassures him that there is no need for her to speak to or even go near Phil Mitchell ever again!

Meanwhile, back at the Beale's - Max is keeping quiet as Charmaine apologises to Ian and states that she can't do business with him after what has been revealed. Once again, Ian is trying to worm his way out of the situation, telling her that him and Max had an informal loan arrangement in which the terms have been disputed. Max isn't having anymore of Ian's lies! As Charmaine leaves, he reveals he knows about him using his money to buy the Vic! Max instructs him to sell the pub so he can get his money back - I don't know whether you guys noticed, but as Max and Ian are arguing, Bobby is seen counting under his breath, quite tensely squeezing or pinching the side of his arm - is this a coping mechanism? Can he not handle confrontation and big arguments at the scene of where his sister died? Max almost goes lashing out at Ian, as he does so, Bobby shouts at them to stop fighting! Ian tries to calm the situation, he explains to Max that they will find a solution, but not in this current situation where everyone is shouting to have their say.

I'm not 100% sure where Mick and Linda are staying right now? To me it looks like Kush's old apartment, or it could be Ted's old apartment? Who knows? I know I'm wrong, so if anyone could shed some light on where Mick and Linda are currently living, I'd appreciate it! Anyway, Linda admits to Mick about telling Max everything she knows about Ian buying Sharon the Vic with Max's money. He jokingly calls her a "Grass!". As they both get comfortable on the sofa, Mick opens up about his concerns about Frankie taking photos of Ollie. He explains to her that she had taken pictures of the family from a distance, he tells her that Frankie told him it was art, but should they be worried? Linda seems pretty unfazed, she suggests that that is what teenagers are like nowadays, taking pictures of people and things and calling them art. Which, to be fair, is kind of true?! It's clear to tell that Mick is unsure, only time will tell exactly what Frankie's obsession with Ollie and the Carter family will be.

The final scene of tonight's episode, I feel was an absolutely brilliant one! Ian walks into the Queen Vic cellar and realises the light isn't working. As he goes to grab some alcohol, we can see Max lurking in the shadows. He softly speaks to Ian and slowly approaches him, now Bobby isn't around they can carry on their conversation from earlier on. Ian is now finally backed into a corner as Max gets closer. Ian proposes to pay Max back in instalments, at first Max sees that as an insults, why would he agree to that?! But then Ian confesses, it's the only way he'll be able to pay him back the full amount. Max looks to floor, nods and agrees to the arrangement, but he gives Ian one final warning, if he missing any payment, then he will come for him!!!

I think it's finally about time that Ian got what was coming to him, let's just hope he'll be able to pay Max back every penny. What do we think tomorrow's episode will have in store?! I hope you enjoy this post and I hope you all enjoy the rest of your evening. I'll be back tomorrow folks! Goodnight! xXx

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