#another honorable mention to season two and three it's not the bangs but it's still so floppy

[seasononesam]

best sam hair season or ep? also honorable mentions if ur so inclined

wow I wonder what tumblr user seasononesam is gonna pick hmmm...

let me talk to you about sam's bangs my friend sam's bangs they are EVERYTHING to me like they're so mid 2000s and also he didn't have them in the pilot which means in the show universe he probably cut them himself in the time stretch before 1x02.

but my favorite episode for this hairstyle is actually 2x02 which is also the last episode he has bangs in so like epic highs and lows I guess

as for honorable mentions I actually really like his hair in basically every season so it's hard to narrow it down but I'd like to give a shout out to season 7 and 8 (particularly early season 8 and in amelia flashbacks) bc I think it looks good long.

#another honorable mention to season two and three it's not the bangs but it's still so floppy #thank u for indulging me i clearly care about this topic a normal amount <3 #answered #g4dr33l

[fruitcoops]

Accidental Family

Hey folks! This is one of two fics for the six month celebration of this blog! Woohoo! Blood on the Ice is one of the most popular series I've written, and expanding it into Josie’s (@prohibitionincurls ) Winging It world with her was unbelievably fun. Disclaimer: one of the OCs has ADHD and it is a central theme of the story--while Josie based some of his characteristics on her own experience, we both recognize that this is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Thank you again for six amazing months, and I hope you enjoy!

Lots of love,

Eve <3

TW for mentioned injury

“Oh my god, they’re gonna kill me,” the kid whispered in a wavering voice, sounding much younger than he actually was as he left the penalty box.

“They’re not going to kill you,” Bowie soothed, still watching the tunnel where Remus had disappeared mere minutes earlier. From what he saw, there had been a bit of blood, but the bruising didn’t look too bad. Then again, there had barely been enough time for anything to visibly swell before he was whisked away.

“Can I just stay in the box?” Felix cast a look toward the Lions bench and his voice cracked. “They can’t yell at me in the box, right?”

“Hey. Look at me, Marty.” Bowie took him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle shake. “The Lions are good guys. They’re not going to hurt you, but you did just fuck up one of their best friends. What would you do if someone hit me in the face?”

“Come on, man, I’m a terrible fighter. I don’t know how well I’d be able to defend your honor after something like that. It was an accident. Do you think they know it was an accident? Should I go tell them?”

“I know. They know. Loops definitely knows. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re a little cold at first.” He ruffled the rookie’s hair and turned back to the game; the Lions were moving fast and brutal, slicing right through their defense for yet another goal. Shit. Felix clearly felt bad enough already--losing the game wouldn’t make him feel any better. 

They ended up losing the game.

Bowie had figured it might happen; he would have had the same fire if it had been his teammate that got clocked like that. Hell, he used to have the same fire when he and Remus had played together, so he completely understood. 

That did not change the fact that once they got home, Felix was still borderline inconsolable. The 18-year-old wasn’t technically billeting with them, but the apartment he was renting just so happened to be in the same building, on the same floor, and right across the hall from his and Simon’s. This led to an informal adoption of the rookie and he was around their house at least five times a week, if not more. 

Felix Martin was a good kid, and that idea was confirmed when Kronk immediately took a liking to him; the cat loved nobody but the three of them. Bowie was grateful that he and Simon were there to quell some of the homesickness that came from moving out to a new city on his own for the first time. The transition was always tough, but they could provide a little support.

They parted ways from the team when the bus got back from the rink and drove to their building in silence. Once they made their way up the stairs and down the hall, Felix moved to go back to his apartment. 

“Nope,” Bowie said immediately, placing a hand on his shoulder and steering him through the door to his and Simon’s place. It wasn’t a good idea for Felix to be alone right now--there was nothing to do alone after a loss aside from beat himself up about it, and Bowie would be damned before he let that happen. 

Simon and Kronk were perched on the couch, but they both moved into the kitchen as soon as the door clicked closed. Simon took one look at the pair and carefully wrapped his arms around Felix; the kid practically melted. The three of them stood there for a moment until Simon pulled back a bit and tilted his head toward the living room. Felix nodded and Bowie followed the two, sharing the couch with Simon while the rookie curled up in the large armchair diagonal to them. 

He...well, if Bowie was being honest, Felix looked like hell. He chewed his lower lip like an anxious beaver and fiddled with the loose threads of the closest armrest; everything about him screamed discomfort. Bowie caught Simon’s worried glance in his periphery and let out a slow breath, trying to relieve at least a little of the tension in the room.

“You don’t have to relive it if you don’t want to. I saw the game. But if you want to talk about it…” Simon trailed off with a significant look.

Felix sighed and his shoulders caved in a bit. “It was just one of those moments. All of a sudden, I didn’t really have a grasp on what was going on, which feels like shit because I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I dunno. It was just...bad.” 

That was it. Bowie knew Felix had seemed a little off. When Felix mentioned he had ADHD at the start of the season during one of their ‘getting to know your neighbor’ chats, Bowie hadn’t thought much of it. But as they grew closer, he began to notice when Felix forgot to eat or drink, or got overwhelmingly excited about something, or when he suddenly spaced out. It wasn’t just Felix being Felix.

The whole team stepped up and became intensely protective, of course. They not only helped him remember meal times, but also scheduling, directions, and everything in between. Bowie felt especially responsible for reasons he didn’t entirely understand--there was just something about the kid’s sweet heart that struck a chord.

He also knew that Felix was highly emotionally intelligent, but had no concept of whether people liked him or not. He was someone who assumed the worst, all the time. So, Bowie decided to do the only thing he knew would work: after a few more beats of uncomfortable silence, he pulled his phone out, tapped a few buttons, and pressed ‘call’.

“Hey, Remus, are you alive?” 

An amused snort came from the speaker even as Felix blanched. “Hello to you, too, Bowie. Jeez, you’re worse than Sirius.  I’m one hundred percent alive, just a little swollen. Your rookie’s got a helluva shot, but maybe tell the kid to hit the puck and not my face next time.” 

Felix flushed red and put his face between his knees, though hearing the laughter in Remus’s voice and knowing that he was okay clearly took some of the weight off his shoulders. Bowie whooped internally and shot him a quick, reassuring smile.

“Yeah, the kid’s got spirit, but he’s also got ADHD. He’s great most of the time, but sometimes under extreme pressure he can’t figure out where the fuck he--or anything else around him--is. Something about focusing or neurons firing the wrong way, maybe? Either way, it’s why he’s a terrible fuckin’ driver.”

Felix flopped back against the chair with a groan. “How the hell am I supposed to know how far away the cars around me are based on the mirrors? And how am I supposed to park?!” 

Remus’s laugh echoed once again. “Don’t ask me, kid, I’m not allowed to drive, either. Not because I’m ADHD, but because I’m terrible at it.” 

“You can say that again!” a muffled voice called from behind Remus. 

“Please excuse my fiance,” Remus said politely. “He’s a jackass who’s trying to make me lay down again.”

Felix smiled, though it was a bit pained. “I didn’t get a chance to apologize earlier. That stick was totally on me. And--I mean, I heard some of the guys talking afterward and it sounded like you got pretty banged up, so I’m really sorry. Like, really sorry.”

“Hey, woah, you’re fine,” Remus soothed. Bowie recognized his ‘talking to newbies’ voice and hid a smile in the cuff of his hoodie. “It’s the name of the game, after all. Did Bowie ever tell you about the time I accidentally checked him into a wall? Or when I broke his visor with a puck? For context, this was when we were on the same team.”

“Or that time you kicked my legs out from under me and sent me sprawling across the ice during practice.”

“That one was on purpose.” 

Bowie glared at the phone, but Felix was snickering and his grin was genuine. It calmed him a bit. “Thanks, Loops.”

“No problem, kiddo.” Remus paused for a moment, then mumbled something inaudible to someone in the background before clearing his throat. “Bowie.”

“Yes?” Remus had never been a wild card, per se, but he certainly had a knack for asking strange questions out of the blue.

“Did you accidentally adopt a child or do my ears deceive me?”

Bowie was about to laugh at the absurdity of it, but then he took a moment to think, looking back and forth between Simon and Felix. “Fuckin’--maybe I did, Re, but he’s ours now. And if that’s the case, I’m going to formally request that you tell your fiance to quit being mean to my son.”

Remus laughed on the other end of the line. “Will do. Felix seems like a sweetheart, I’m glad he’s got you two.” 

Bowie nodded with a slight smile, even though Remus couldn’t see him. “So are we. I can practically sense Sirius hovering, so go let your boyfriend fuss over you for a little while.” 

An offended noise came from Remus’s side, followed by a lower laugh and the click of the call ending. 

Simon looked Felix dead in the eyes. “I’m seconding the ‘kid’ thing. You may just barely be a legal adult, but it doesn’t mean we can’t adopt you. Congrats on your new gay dads.” 

Felix’s bright laugh sent a wave of relief through Bowie. “You guys are only, like, eight years older than me.”

“Silence, spawn,” Simon said, pointing a playful finger at him as his grin widened into something sweet and lopsided. “Now both of you need to come eat something. I made cookies while you were getting pushed around for a living.”

Bowie was still worried about Remus’ face--he made a mental note to call the next day to check in--but all his concerns disappeared as Felix scooped the cat up for a snuggle and followed Simon into the kitchen. They may have lost the game, but he would lose a million Cups to keep that moment forever: his Simon fussing over them both, his cat purring in pure bliss, and his kid settling into place at last.

#remus lupin #sirius black #bowie #felix martin #simon #sweater weather #coast to coast #lumosinlove #coops #hockey #adhd #blood on the ice #found family #prohibitionincurls #collab #fanfic #my fic

[ffamranxii]

Sailor Moon is the only series where I have different ships depending on the adaption. For the most part, manga and anime have the same ships, but the absolute curveball that was PGSM (my favorite adaption, hands down) gave me a TON of new ships I’d have never considered otherwise, who I DON’T ship in the manga/anime.

1. Usagi/Mamoru. Across all adaptions, I ship these two, and the reason is actually funny. I never used to like either of them, so I just shoved them together. It wasn’t until PGSM that I ever liked Usagi at all. I found her to be whiney and annoying in the anime, and once I got my hands on the manga, my dislike of anime Usagi had permeated too deep for me to like manga Usagi. PGSM Usagi is a much more expanded concept of Usagi as a whole, and Mamoru (while still embodying Sailor Moon’s very own Princess Peach) has a whole arc of development and backstory himself. PGSM is the only adaption in which I like Mamoru, even now.

2. Ami/Nephrite, PGSM only. PGSM has a whole side story for many of its minor characters and expands on the girls outside of the concept of senshi. Tbh PGSM is a slice of life show disguised as a tokusatsu, and it’s super apparent in how they treat the characters. Ami has an entire arc of her own where she ends up brainwashed and has several scenes with Nephrite, who is sort of the black sheep of the Shitennou for reasons that are never explained. This fledging relationship continues after Nephrite is reincarnated as human and it’s really cute to see Ami develop outside of her relationship with Usagi (her strongest relationship in this series) and the girls. Nephrite is hotheaded and angry at the world and Ami makes him just so soft.

3. Ami/Zoisite, manga and Crystal. While I very much detest the first two seasons of Crystal for their abominable animation (through no fault of the animators, I blame Toei and their complete disregard of their fans and employees), I DO like that they tried to work in the senshi/Shitennou romance that Naoko hinted at in the art books. It was stupid rushed but it’s the only incarnation that really attempts it. I wish it had had time to develop.

4. Rei/Minako, PGSM only. PGSM only deals with the Dark Kingdom (sadly) and Rei/Minako are its Haruka/Michiru. I actually ship them harder than I ship PGSM Usagi/Mamoru. Several episodes are given over to the development of their relationship, which is not easy to do given the way they took Minako in this series, and Rei is the only one of the girls to even have a real relationship with Minako, even over Usagi. They trust each other on a deep level, and fight with each others’ weapons at two critical points in the series.

5. Minako/Zoisite, PGSM only. Zoisite in this series, like most of the Shitennou, differs drastically from his manga and anime component, and I actually really like this one more than I like him in the anime and manga. Beryl’s hold on Zoisite is the weakest of all the Shitennou, and he spends his time doing exactly three things: playing piano, pining over Mamoru Endymion, and stalking Minako. (Truth be told, I enjoy his relationship with Endymion more, but the one with Minako leads into my next point.)

6. Minako/Kunzite, anime and manga. Minako managed to bag not one but two Shitennou with her love powers and that is a FEAT. You get it, girl. I really like the dynamic of two leaders together, and really enjoy Silver Millennium Minako/Kunzite fics.

7. Makoto/Motoki, PGSM only. This was another fun little thing PGSM did, and Makoto is the only other senshi to have a confirmed relationship in the series. Motoki himself is pretty fleshed out for a minor character, with his own little quirks (turtles!), and he is over the moon for Makoto. By the end of the series they’re engaged.

8. Haruka/Michiru, anime and manga. Who DOESN’T ship HaruMichi? I actually shipped HaruMichi way before I ever shipped anyone else on this list. Along with Touya/Yukito from Cardcaptor Sakura, they were THE definition of LGBTQ+ relationships (for me) for much of my childhood. They have an extremely adult relationship, possibly even an open relationship (or at least Michiru seems to have no problem with Haruka’s flirting hobby), which isn’t really something you see often in anime. I love them, they are goals.

9. Haruka/Michiru/Setsuna, anime and manga. Very specifically during the time they are raising Hotaru. Sometimes a family can be three moms and their child the incarnation of death and destruction and that’s beautiful. They’re just such a cohesive unit that I have a hard time believing that they live together and HaruMichi HAVEN’T invited Setsuna to join them from time to time. They’re also the first OT3 I ever shipped.

10. Helios/Chibiusa, anime and manga. I think the Helios/Chibiusa shippers are as numerous as the Usagi/Mamoru shippers tbh. Like Mamoru, Helios also is a damsel in distress for much of his arc (I guess the Tsukinos have a type, which raises some interesting questions about Ikuko and Kenji), and what I really liked was that, despite the single kiss they shared, it was never really pushed on us? I think Chibiusa/Helios is the first thing I ever shipped without the source material directly telling me to do so, because I wanted them together SO BAD and was SO PISSED they weren’t. 

11. Chibiusa/Hotaru, anime and manga. Another ship I put together on my own with no direction from the source material, and the first lesbian ship I ever did that with. They are just too close and love each other too much, and Chibiusa shares more pictures with Hotaru in official media (art books, stills, promo art) than her supposed future love interest Helios! They’re just a very sweet ship, two girls trying to figure out love and stuff. 

12. Setsuna/Endymion, anime and manga. Setsuna has a thing for Endymion, but never really seems to transfer that to Mamoru. I do like unrequited ships, and this one is my favorite.

HONORABLE MENTION

1. Ami/Usagi, PGSM. Ami has a huge lesbian crush on Usagi in this version. I’m not even making this up. She ends up brainwashed due to her insecurity and depression that Usagi is replacing her by making more friends and getting a boyfriend. Usagi, of course, is oblivious.

2. Kunzite/Zoisite, classic anime. Classic anime gave us (female) Zoisite and Kunzite (named Malachite in the dub I watched) as a couple, which I actually really enjoyed. I remember being disappointed when I read the manga and Zoisite was not only not female but also not banging Malachite. They were another adult relationship, way before HaruMichi existed, that I looked forward to seeing onscreen. I’m cool now with Zoisite not being female, and Malachite’s real name being Kunzite, but I still really like their relationship in classic. Plus, they’re the only ship that can crossover the adaptions in my brain to form the ultimate ot3 Minako/Zoisite/Kunzite. You get it, Minako.

#sailor moon #pgsm #ffamran succumbs to her ocd #ffamran makes lists #headcanons #i still find it super weird in my head how cleanly i split the adaptions #my brain absolutely will not let me ship anime manga reinako despite my obession with it in pgsm #and similarly i can't ship the senshi with their 'proper' shitennou if i'm talking about pgsm #pgsm is just a totally different point #to the point where i prefer them to their manga and anime counterparts #which makes for a weird blend when i try to write stuff with the series #god i wish pgsm had introduced the outers #how fucking sweet would that have been #the fanbase and demand was THERE #i don't understand why they didn't do it

[seasonsofeverlark]

Family Prayer

Author: @mega-aulover​

Prompt: Buttercup and Diwali are not things that go together. So even though Katniss dosen't like him much, she and Peeta try to make things easier for Buttercup on that day. [submitted by @everlurked​]

Rating: Fluffy G

Author’s Note: This is a story about Diwali and wouldn’t have been possible without @cadsingh77​ who spent weeks allowing me to ask all sorts of questions about Diwali and what it means to her. I patterned it on her descriptions. She read it, as well, to make sure there were no cultural faux pas. I apologize if there is anything amiss. Also, I’m remiss if I do not mention @norbertsmom​ who at the eleventh hour betaed this story. She’s my rock my bestie, and I would be nothing without her.

__________

Peeta glanced at his suit in the closet. His hands shook. 

In a few hours he was going to meet the family of the love of his life. 

He looked at the phone in his hands. He was lying in bed researching everything Diwali. His girlfriend Katniss had gone over the topic. She explained that just as sunset happens an elaborate puja, a prayer ceremony is done in a temple to begin the holiday. But to most Trinidadians or Trinis, as she called herself, like her family, they said little personal prayers in front of Laxmi, Saraswati and Ganesh and then they would light the diyas, little clay lamps, that they were going to placed in all of the rooms of the house. 

Katniss made it all sound so simple. Diwali was a celebration of light. A victory over darkness. A day to wear new clothing, beautiful jewelry, sing, dance, pray, and light diyas. Katniss said any other guests would arrive after the prayers and they would have a ton of food and everyone would eat and hang out, kids would light sparklers, and there would be singing and dancing too. 

Curious, Peeta watched every Bollywood movie on Netflix. Movies, however, never really explained everything. He put the phone down. He had to  be honest with himself; Katniss’ assurances aside, he was a fish out of water no matter what he did. He was going to meet the most important people in Katniss’s life, her family.

In contrast, his parents were Dan and Cindy from Port Jefferson, Long Island. They owned a bakery near the ferry. They were dull people, they were like the parents of Ian Miller from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. But a lot colder and more dysfunctional, dressed in tans and beiges. Peeta constantly questioned why they would own a bakery that matched the color of bland. They never veered from the menu. Never introduced a new seasonal baked good. Peeta was stuck in that rut until he met Katniss and his entire world changed and color was introduced into his life.

Katniss was the electric jolt that kickstarted his dull heart to life. 

The first time he tasted roti, the buttery tasting flat bread he literally cried. 

From the pictures that Katniss shared of her family, he could tell they were a riot of awesomeness. 

Katniss and her parents hailed from Trinidad and Tobago. Her family moved to Long Island from Germany. Her father was an engineer and physicist. He worked at the superconductor in Germany and then came to Long Island so that he could work on a project at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Her mother worked at Stony Brook University. She ran the nursing department. 

Peeta and Katniss both attended Stony Brook University. He was on his way to a yoga class and she was in her Pink boxing class. From the glass covered room Peeta watched her hit the punching bag like Joe Fraser, and he was a goner. Peeta had a thing for strong women. His first middle school girlfriend bossed him and made him carry her books to and from class and he was a sucker for her, but she broke his heart. She told him she was only using him to get to his older brother Ryan. Peeta battled so much darkness in his life and what he needed was to chase the darkness away and to let the light into his heart. But he couldn’t deny he liked strong women. 

There was something about a strong alpha woman who knew how to get things done, unlike his mother who was passive aggressive, and banged the pots in the kitchen and slammed refrigerator doors. 

He sighed as he worried about tomorrow. He googled Diwali’s greetings and butchered the language as he tried to speak in Hindi. 

Peeta sighed heavily.

Katniss’s mother invited him over the phone. She wanted him to come over before the prayers began. It was an honor because he was Katniss’ boyfriend, someone she chose despite her father trying to get her to date the son of a friend of his. Katniss put her figurative foot down and claimed she was dating Peeta. Her father didn’t want to meet him, but he knew of him. 

So the pressure was on to be perfect. He didn’t want to say or do the wrong thing, especially in front of her family. His hands shook, this was important. He wanted to make a good impression on Katniss’ family, even if her father didn’t like him or the idea of him. Peeta wanted them to like him because, truth be told, his own family didn’t like him. 

Peeta loved his family, but ever since he was little, he knew he didn’t fit into the landscape of his family. He was labeled as the emotional one. He was too irreverent for them. Peeta liked color. He loved to paint. He enjoyed the change in seasons where his family loved one season, summer, because they generated the most money then. 

His family liked one or two flavors. Peeta loved all flavors, spicy ones, bold ones, subtle ones. They hated that he was always pushing to change the menu at the bakery. His childhood room was always the one his parents never showed off, because as a teen he painted the walls of his room every shade of orange. Peeta knew they sighed in relief when he decided to stay in the dorms at Stony Brook. His football scholarship allowed him to have that opportunity. He trained hard, studied hard, and loved hard. 

“Katniss,” her name escaped his lips like fervent prayer and a wish. He loved her, was consumed by her, and he was so overly happy that she invited him to meet her family for Diwali. And now he had so much pent up energy he couldn’t sleep. 

His teammates made fun of him, because he got a goofy lopsided I-got-my-hippopotamus-at-Christmas type grin, whenever Peeta thought of Katniss. He closed his eyes picturing her olive skin, thick straight dark hair braided into a rope, small pert nose, and silvery eyes that were breathtaking. Though it wasn’t her physical parts that made him fall in love. It was the woman who lay beneath the surface.

What made him sit up and take notice of Katniss after he saw her box, and he was out of the yoga room, was that there was a blonde girl at the gym working out. There were these idiots guys making fun of her, calling that poor girl fat, just because she was full figured. Katniss walked straight up to the guys and gave them a scowl full of fire and brimstone, called the girl hot and told her that if she were gay she’d do her in an instant. Then she told the guys that they could jackknife themselves off the roof of the building. Peeta had never seen anything sexier in his life. Katniss was full of fire and she was resplendent more so than the sun. 

His phone buzzed drawing him away from his memories as the message came in.

KATNISS: Why are you still up?

Peeta grinned, his phone betrayed him. In some phones a little dot showed up next to the person when they were on their phone. Katniss must have noticed. 

PEETA: Stalk much.

KATNISS: LOL

Peeta could see those three little dots moving as she wrote a reply. 

For the most part Katniss wasn’t a talker. Unless she was passionate about the topic and then she was a chatterbox.

KATNISS: FUNNY. Seriously, tomorrow is going to be a long day. You need to sleep.

PEETA: Because tomorrow I am going to meet your family.

Peeta could see her rolling her eyes even through the phone.

KATNISS: You don’t have to be nervous. 

PEETA: If you tell me all I have to do is be myself, I swear I am going to come dressed as Buddy the Elf.

KATNISS: Dork.

PEETA: Yes, but I’m your dork.

KATNISS: They’re going to love you.

Peeta sighed. 

PEETA: This is important. I want to make a good impression. Your family is important to you and given that my family…

Peeta sighed. He’d brought Katniss to the bakery to meet his family because they didn’t have time for him. His father was pleasant. His mother, however, spoke loudly and slowly as if Katniss didn’t speak English. Katniss spoke various languages and was extremely intelligent. Her mother wanted her to be a doctor, but Katniss had a passion for the environment. Her major was environmental studies, with a minor in geology. She was brilliant and he felt like the dumb jock.

KATNISS: Your family is fine, well except for Ryan. Someone needs to examine him.

Peeta chuckled. His brother Rye stared at Katniss as if she was Christmas, Easter, and summer vacation all rolled up into one. He then proceeded to flirt with Katniss, by using every campy movie line known to mankind. In typical Rye fashion because he’d done it before to their other brother Lyle. Unfortunately in that instance the girl in question dumped Lyle to go out with Rye. 

He sighed. That was his dysfunctional family. Family gatherings were uncomfortable events. They weren’t exactly nice to one another.

PEETA: I have no excuse for my brother.

Peeta decided to follow his text with a self deprecating joke. A truth, his family thought him the odd one in the family. 

PEETA: But Ryan isn’t the bad apple. I’m not sure you know this, but I am the black sheep of the family.

KATNISS: You mean the sexy one.

A grin spread on his face at her compliment. 

Katniss’ family was conservative, and by extent, so was Katniss. He respected her boundaries and her values.  Family was everything to her and he loved her because of it, Katniss would lay her life on the line for her family. 

PEETA: Have I told you today how much I love you.

KATNISS: No, but I do love to hear you say it.

Peeta pressed the little microphone and recorded his voice, which sounded rougher to his ears than normal.

PEETA: (a voice email) I love you Katniss. I love your mind. I love your kindness. I love how you always talk about your sister Prim. I love the way you adore your dad. I love the way you look up to your mother. I think you are the most beautiful soul. And I am nervous because if you are wonderful, then your family has to be just as great.

He meant every word. 

They’d been dating for the last few months, but they’d been friends for two years. They weren’t easy years because of their schedules in school and the fact that her father had a mild heart attack right after they met. Peeta put himself in the friend zone because that’s what Katniss needed. He didn’t want her to feel pressure to feel romantic toward him when her dad, the most important man in her life, was ill. 

In the end, the bonds of friendship grew to a love so sweet and pure, that it shined out of her silver eyes. The first time she realized the love she held for him was more than friendship left him breathless, like stepping into a world filled with brilliant colors, light and joy. 

KATNISS: (a voice email) I love you too.

Her voice was breathy and filled with her heartfelt emotion.

Peeta couldn’t help but sigh contentedly.

KATNISS: Now as for tomorrow, don’t worry. When they see what a great guy you are, they will love you.

Peeta sighed.

KATNISS: NOW GO TO SLEEP, MELLARK!

PEETA:  Yes ma’am.

He grinned and would have followed her directions, but instead he stood from his bed and went into his suite kitchen. He needed to bake. It was the only thing he knew that would calm him down. He decided to make chocolate using the vegetarian items he purchased in the store. Come the morning he would make the Laddoos he planned to bring with him. In Hindi they were called Laddu but in Trinidad they were known as Laddoo.

Making the chocolate eased his nerves, so he actually got some sleep. In the morning, he showered and set to work on making the Laddoos. By three o’clock he was done, and all he had to do was wrap up the presents. Taking a red ribbon, he tied each box the way he’d done so many times at the bakery. 

His suitemates were gone. No doubt causing trouble somewhere on campus, which gave Peeta the time he needed to get ready. He took out his new suit. Even though Katniss told him he could wear a nice pair of slacks and shirt, Peeta bought a suit that was on sale for the special occasion. 

Taking a deep breath he took the small presents he had for her family. They weren’t necessary, but he wanted to make a good impression. He gathered up the Laddoos, the chocolate, the flowers - marigolds he sourced at the local home depot, and the paintings he made of her family made from the memory of the pictures she’d shown him. 

He drove, heading to the Everdeen home in Mount Sinai. The cottage-like house looked like something out of a movie or TV show: warm, inviting, like a real home, one filled with love, and not pretend.

As he walked up, he could hear laughter, genuine laughter, followed by singing and joy. Running a hand through his blond wavy locks he took a deep breath. “Okay Mellark, just be yourself,” he whispered, as he stood in front of the door.  

He raised his hand to knock on the door and his breath caught at the man standing there looking more like a navy seal instead of a physicist. This was Katniss’ dad. His chrome eyes were hard and they took him apart, much the way a defensive end could read a play and pick it apart while holding their defense line.  

“Happy Diwali.” Peeta tried to say confidently but his voice cracked. He could feel himself sweating.

Her father raised an eyebrow. “You are Peeta Mellark.”

Peeta nodded.

“Rahul!” A statuesque woman with blonde hair and pale blue eyes swatted Katniss’ father’s arm. He watched her sneak around him, dressed in a traditional red sari with gold thread. “Please behave.” Mrs. Everdeen quietly gave her husband a look. Her golden bangles clinked as she placed her hand dramatically on her hip. Peeta was glad Katniss had gone over the different fashions. He studied each one because he would do anything for Katniss. 

Peeta watched as her father’s hard analytical eyes softened the moment he beheld Katniss’ mother. Peeta could see how Katniss’ parents were a unit of one. They were in love and either one would fight the shadows and all of the evil in the world for their other half.  “Anjali.”

“I am Katniss’ mother, this is her father,” her pale eyes sparkled. “Please come in, we were waiting for your arrival. Come in,” she ushered him.

The home was two stories, to the left a halfway with rooms, to the right a living room, dining area, and a den to the far back. The house was decorated with warm rich colors, but everything was tied around the family, as pictures dotted the walls. There were lights everywhere hanging from the walls, the clay diya’s sat on the mantel.  Peeta stood in front of a picture of Katniss on her father’s shoulders, her twin braids flowing, her eyes crinkled in pure happiness. 

“Ohhhh you’re cute,” a younger, but deeper voice than Katniss’ said with impish mischief. 

Primrose took after Katniss’ mother, with the flaxen hair and the pale blue eyes.  Katniss explained that her mother was of British descent, while her father’s family, although sporting a European name, was from India. His great-grandparents came to Trinidad, fell in love with the island and stayed. 

Her mother walked away from her very wealthy family back in Trinidad to marry Katniss’ father. It was a little like they were the original Romeo and Julliet. 

His parents got together because his dad knocked up his mom.

“Primrose!” Mrs. Everdeen admonished. 

“What,” Prim said. Her pale blue eyes were inquisitive as she walked around him. The way Katniss talked about her sister, Peeta had expected a little kid, but Prim was as tall as he was. Her loose  pajama-like trousers that narrowed at her ankles, called shalwar, swooshed around as she made her round. Her red kameez, a flowing tunic with intricate gold patterns reminded Peeta of the pattern Mrs. Everdeen wore on her sari.

Prim was everything Katniss was not. She was a bold bright bubbly girl, who at this moment was making sure he was the real deal and not some mindless jerk. He stood, letting her because it was important that her family liked him. He wanted to be accepted. He felt his face flame up under the scrutiny. 

“I understand why my boring sister is constantly sighing.”

Peeta grinned, then he said, “Oh these are for you.” He gave them the presents. The flowers, the chocolate, and the sweetened chickpea Laddoos he made by hand for them.

“Oh these are fragrant, where did you purchase them?”

“He made them.” The soft voice that came behind him made his heart rate triple.

Peeta turned around and there stood Katniss wearing an emerald green lenghas. She had explained what it looked like, but at this moment, his brain that was always filled with words was momentarily empty, vanquished by her beauty. He swallowed, mouth slightly ajar. His eyes darted from the perfection of her face with those silvery eyes that captivated him, and the peek of dark hair that was hidden by the sari. 

Katniss held a shiny brass plate, she called a Tarrier, but in Hindi it was known as a Thali, containing coconut, almonds, and other sweets. Katniss told him the plate belonged to her great-grandmother Veronica. When her mother married her father, her great-grandmother gave it to her insisting it should go to her first born. He swore for a second he could see a miniature Katniss with his eyes staring up at him and holding the Tarrier. 

“He made them?” Primrose asked, Peeta could hear the intense curiosity in her sister’s voice. 

“His family are bakers, and Peeta is an amazing cook.”

“Really,” her father said, and his voice, the way he said that one word snapped Peeta out of his hazy fog. 

“Ah,” he nervously said. “I made her cheese buns,” Peeta felt the heat rising from his neck and caused those red splotches that his brothers made fun of. 

“Cheese buns,” her father repeated. 

“When you were in the hospital, daddy,” her eyes did not hide the pain of recalling those days. “Peeta noticed I wasn’t eating and cajoled me into eating cheese buns,” Katniss words were so soft. “He was the friend I leaned on for support when…” her voice trailed.

Peeta watched her father’s face take a look of adoring tenderness at his eldest, and when his eyes turned to Peeta they weren’t as frosty as they had been. 

“He even took me to temple to pray,” Katniss whispered.

“In Selden?” 

“Yes, daddy,” Katniss quietly said.

“Rahul,” Katniss’ mother chided. She cupped his cheeks, “Such a nice young man. Did you make the chocolate as well?” 

Peeta nodded, his eyes went back to her father. He couldn’t mess this up. 

Her mother smiled serenely, then her eyes lit with happiness as if she made a startling connection. “Oh! Pundit Sharma was right; they were destined in the stars.”

“Star crossed lovers just like you and mom,” Prim said. 

Her father cut his eyes away. 

“Oh my, these chocolates….” Prim moaned. 

“Primrose!” Her mother admonished. 

“What, he said they were for us,” Prim shrugged, plopping a chocolate in her mouth. “I’d say he’s golden. So what does a cheese bun taste like?” 

“Primrose, really, must you think only of your stomach?” Katniss shook her head. 

“Girls,” their father said in a stern tone of voice. “It’s near sunset. Upstairs with the lot of you. I swear corralling a dozen baby ducks would be easier.” 

The women headed upstairs. Peeta wasn’t sure, but her father swept a hand for him to follow him upstairs.

Peeta wasn’t sure what he was expecting, hopefully like something out of Khabi Kushi Khabi Gham. They had a small altar where he watched all of the women present the offerings and began to bow their heads. He stood behind quietly observing, but when Katniss began to pray it was like a song and her words that he didn’t understand wrapped around his heart and his lashes fluttered closed and a single tear fell down his face. Song after song her voice combined with that of her father, her mother and sister caused him to realize just how much he wanted to be part of this family, to be loved and accepted. 

He too prayed for a family to want him, to be needed. 

Peeta was so wrapped up in the moment when it was over he opened his eyes to find her mother standing before him with trembling lips, and watery blue eyes.

“Bend down son,” her father said with warmth in his voice. “She’s going to honor you by putting the sindoor on your forehead.” He pointed to his forehead, though his eyes had completely lost the frost. They were filled with admiration and the same warmth he had in his voice. Her father looked at Katniss and nodded as if giving her his blessings. 

Unsure if what he had just seen was real, his eyes went to Katniss,  but Prim said, “Go ahead Peeta, my father has just fallen for you too.” Her voice squeaked with that enthusiasm only a teenager could have. She wiped the tears from her face as well. 

Peeta bent down slightly. Mrs. Everdeen’s hand slipped to the Tarrier and with her ring finger she pressed it into the red dust Katniss’ father called sindoor.

The press of her finger was light. “When my daughter marries you. You will sprinkle this sindor over the part in her hair to symbolize her marriage to you.”

Peeta’s eyes flew to her father who nodded. “Welcome to the family son.” He clasped his back and said. “Now let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

Peeta couldn’t help but grin. He gazed at Katniss who came to him, her smile shy. He was going to follow them, but katniss put her hand on his, then stepped up and placed a small peck on his cheek. Then winked sassily. “I told you they would love you.” 

And like that, his prayers were answered; he now had a family. 

Years later, when he stood in the same position watching his little girl singing the puja, holding the brass tarrier, alongside Katniss. Just as in that memory from years ago he listened to Katniss voice blend with their daughter. Their voices blended in with his father-in-law Rahul, Primrose and her soon to be fiancé. Peeta was grateful that his prayers were answered, the darkness was swept away and light filled his soul.  And he was granted the family he always wanted.

#everlark #everlark fanfiction #autumn #autumn 2020 #mega-aulover #submission #prompt

[xoxo-nikki-xoxo]

Leverage

Elijah Mikaelson x Arabella Castaway-Mikaelson

Authors note: Okay everyone after much planning and thinking I have come up with my own OC! I can’t wait for us to take this journey together learning about Arabella, like who she is, and how she came to be. Do not be afraid to send in asks about her either!

Word count: 2.4K

Somewhat based off of season 3 of the originals. I also joined the calibration for Dom’s 2 years bioversary. This fic is about sire bonds more importantly them being broken.

@xxwritemeastoryxx

———————————

Being involved in The Original family comes with its up and downs. Especially when it has caused the love of your life to pick his family over well his wife. That was about well two months ago, sense then I have not seen Elijah Mikaelson or his family. It is nothing I can blame them for though, the sad thing is I do not even remember who they are! In fact, it is the vampires I come across on during my travels that bring up The Original family. Usually it goes around the lines someone asking me where they are. From my gathering of these conversations I was married to the one they call honorable, the noble brother, Elijah. It never has set well with me though that my so called “husband” has abandoned me. If we are married is not that meant to be forever, that’s the whole point of getting married is not. Asking to many questions is what got me in this predicament, see what I do remember is my whole life. I remember the life I had New Orleans, the fashion the cooking all of it. So, if I was married to someone back then why is there no piecing pieces?  I barley know anything about this so-called original family, yet their presentence lingers over my body like a shadow. Too afraid to come and say hello, but it’s like every step I take it’s as though I’m being watched.

“Well if it isn’t the myth, the legend Arabella…. how did you find her? Elijah never mentioned why she left or where she went to in the first place” A male’s voice, it was deep with the hint of smoothness. I have no clue what happened, I just remember being at a local cafe in France then my neck was snapped. It went black for a while after that.

“Well we have our ways of getting what we need. When it comes to the leverage we need, this will be perfect. He’ll do anything it takes to keep his precious wife safe… And that well be the way we lure both him and his brother here, so my witches can perform this spell.” it’s a women’s voice, even though I don’t understand what she talking about I don’t want anything to do with it. “I’ll be back later with the items that Davina needs to finish the spell. Be prepared Marcellus, the strixs are all prepared for this battle tonight.” I can hear her shoes click as she walks away from us.

“Davina! Help me take these ropes off her. I can’t touch them, there soaked in vervain. She doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of this. Aya’s only using her to lure Elijah and Klaus here” the man’s voice I can hear must be Marcellus, whoever he is.

“She won’t die today Marcel… she needs to be here to lure Elijah and Klaus here. When they get here, it’ll be easy one of the other witches knock them out.” Davina say as she unties the ropes that are wrapped around my arms and legs. ” she’s safe here Marcel you can leave. When the spell starts you might feel a little warmth, it’ll pass though once the link it gone.” the girl says, and as she says it the blind fold over my eyes gets taken off and so does the duct tape.  

“What if this warmth is the last thing I feel”  

“I’ll be careful”

“I get that Davina and I’m game. But we are on a tight rope with the Mikaelson’s right now. Jackson was a friend to them and us. On top of that we have Arabella too”

“I know Marcel. And I know it’s a long shot, but if I can’t save you, and I can’t save Josh, even Arabella, then I can’t save Kol. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to you guys.” Davina says as she takes of the last of the ropes from my body.

When I open my eyes the man’s gone and the only thing in front of me is a girl looking at me. “You can’t leave, I put up a boundary spell around you… It’s for your protection Bella” The sweet looking girl says to me as she watches me over

“How do you know me?” I asked

“It’s a long story, just know that you’re my friend… I’m Davina, and that guy that was here a couple seconds ago his name is Marcel.” Davina says turning back to the papers that are hanging on the wall.  

“Well it seems like everyone here already knows who I am, so tell me Davina. What is that spell for?”

———-Switch to Elijah———

“And now Aya and her mob of are free to break the sire line. You know, we have made many glorious enemies over the years, brother, but If they sever the link to us, then they well all come for our heads.” Klaus speaks as both of us walk side by side toward the entrance of the compound. This is the very reason why I sent her away, I knew this prophecy was going to be a blood bath. I didn’t need for her to get in the way.

“Not without the white oak brother” I say in a soothing voice as Niklaus stops Infront of me

“Aurora has the last of it” I can the thought swirling in his head, with a smirk forming on my lips I simply say

“Then she dies first”

“You once told me you wanted to use her head as a footstool” titling his head to the side he finished with “why wait”

That’s when my phone vibrates in my coat pocket. I pull it out answering

“Marcel?”

“how”

“Yes, I see” *hangs up the phone*

My face drops looking at Klaus “I don’t know how, but Aya found Arabella. The crescent wolves were able to locate where they are keeping her” I say looking right at Klaus

“Well then let’s get going”

—— back to Arabella—-

“Where is she Aya? Unlike my brother I don’t have the patience to deal with this” the voice is raspy thick sounding as I hear multiple footsteps approaching us.  

“Hello gentlemen, it’s my pleasure you have decided to join us tonight” Aya says, so that is Aya!  

“Let me out of here!!” I yelled getting fed up with being confined into this circle. I bang my fists on the barrier and both the men’s eyes land right on to me.

“How did you-” The man in the suit says his bouncing from mine to Ayas

“It doesn’t matter now that you both are here” Aya says as she stands tall. There two girls that approach them changing some foreign language I don’t recognize. Both men then collapse onto the floor.

“I told you Davina Claire, Arabella Castaway was the key to getting them to come here.” Aya says glancing at me before some body guards drag the two men’s bodies into the water.

“Ive played my part let me out of here!!” I yelled

“You well soon sweet girl, just a few more hours left. Your role to play is still not over yet.” Aya states as she approach’s Davina  

“Were ready to start” Davina stats looking over at Aya

“Then let’s begin”

That’s when all the chanting starts, There’s apart of me deep down that knows this is wrong. This hole I have felt the past 3 months is aching in a way I’ve never felt it do before.  This must be him, the more I think about the faster I put the pieces together. Those are the originals, the one in the suit. He is my husband and even if he did abdomen me years ago I won’t abdomen him now.

I scream banging my fists on the barrier again as the chanting continue. Marcel comes into the room suddenly going up to Aya.

“Any problems?” Marcel asks looking into the pool with the two men, at me, then his eyes land on Davina.

“No, we are nearly there. After today one man’s recklessness will no longer weigh on the shoulders of his sires. Thousands of vampires across the world will be free from the tranny of the originals. I’m glad you’re here Marcel. Stay close by when it happens will you?” Aya says walking up to the pool looking over.

“Why are you guys doing this, I don’t belong here” I scream throwing a fit.

I watch in horror as both the men’s throats are cut then thrown back into the water, the chanting gets louder. And the more chanting I hear is when the barrier drops, I rush the closets witch breaking her back. Another women appears besides marcel killing what looked like to be a body guard

“Marcel!”

“I’m Sorry D. We need to get them out of the water now” Marcel states looking at both us girls. But before anything can happen Davina yells “No” and throws all three of us to the end of the room.  I hear the screams as the man in the suit sits up taking one of the witches’ under water with him. I stand up making eye contact with him as he leaps out of the water.

“I’m so sorry baby… forgive me, Rememoraeri” He says looking into my eyes, and it’s as if the two worlds collided. All my memories come crashing down onto me. But it’s one inparticular that strikes me the hardest. It’s the night I was turned into a vampire

The street was cold underneath my numb body. This wasn’t supposed to happen to me, not like this. I was supposed to live a life, not dying on the side of the road. The loneness of staring up into the sky not being able to move or cry out for help seemed to be the only thing I could look at. I was utterly hopeless as blood pooled up around me. Soon I began choking on the blood stuck in my throat. I wasn’t in any pain no more, it felt more like I was high up in the sky flying.

“No!” I heard him yell he rushed over to my side picking me up biting into his wrist “Drink Bella… please… no-no-no. Not like this… You can’t die like this” I took my last breath Elijah Mikaeslons arms. The last thing I seen was his beautiful brown eyes and the stars glowing behind him. That was in tell I woke up

“Elijah?” I blinked away the memory as I took in his appearance Infront of me. “Whats going on, oh my god-” There where millions of thoughts running through my head

“I well explain later” Elijah says giving me a small smile tucking a random piece of hair behind my ear, that was before we turn, we turned our attention to Davina as she started to break Klaus sire line link

“Davina No!” Marcel shouts, Klaus opens his eyes leaping out Infront of Davina but she catches him with her powers yelling

“No, you’ve had your time!” She shouts throwing him back down into the water, in the process of her doing his she throws all of us down to. We can hear he finishing her spell as Klaus yells. I scream as a warming sensation comes over my body and before I know it, it stops. Elijahs is the first to get up and come to the rescue of Klaus.

I sit up getting into the water with Elijah as well, I move Niks hair out of his face

He is weak but he would never ambit it. “I felt them leave, my sire line is broken” Nik states his voice shaky.  

Elijah and I help Klaus out of the pool “I’ll be in the car soon… I have some unfinished business to attended too.” Elijah says leaving me and Nik in the car.

“You do understand they both have history” Klaus says as he glances at me

“I do, and I tend to end that history right now.” I say excusing myself from the car as I make my way into the building using the back door so I can eavesdrop on the conversation he was having with Aya.  

“So, we remain connected, you and I, in spite of everything that you have done” Elijah says as he twirls a gun around his finger. “I can’t let you hurt my family, my wife. And you can’t hurt me more than you already have” Elijah says looking into Ayas eyes. I can feel and see the hurt and guilt he is holding over himself for hurting Aya. It makes me feel somewhat jealous, but I can’t blame him. He’s lived a thousand plus years; he should have had a few epic loves.  

“I stood by you Elijah. All of us where willing to die for you, and how do you repay us? Betrayal, abandonment.” Aya spits out turning to face his face. She loves him it’s easy to tell, love can be killer.

“You were not forsaken. Yes, I failed you, for this… I will never forgive myself… But I can’t forgive this. You captured my wife!” Elijah yells as he motioned to all the body in the room  

“If your life was chained to a man, who left you despite of your devotion, what choice do I have other than to break free” Aya says this conversation hurts to hear. “ So… End this” Aya says moving as he holds the gun up to her heart. His hand is shaky “End it Elijah!! Or I’ll take that gun and kill you just to be free of you!” She yells tears rolling down her cheek into she grunts, her voice stops her body leans to the side. I stand besides her holding her heart in my hand.  

“So, Elijah tell me why did you decided to erase my memory from ever knowing you?” I ask holding the heart as I look my husband right in the eyes

#elijah mikaelson #elijah mikaelson smut #elijah mikealson imagine #the originals #the vampire diaries #niklaus mikaelson #hayley marshall #rebekah mikaelson #Kol mikaelson #elijah mikaelson x reader #xxwritemeastoryxxturns2

[calliecat93]

Season 6 is done, yay~! So after going through burnout/disappointment with S5, I was worried about if S6 would be able to reignite my interest. Thankfully, it did~! S6 may very well be my second favorite season as of now! I had so much fun with a lot of these episodes~! Some were thrilling, some were fun, some were mind-opening, and some… well they can’t all be winners. But overall I really enjoyed this season! Tere were a lot of 4’s and several 5’s this time around. The ones I disliked never went past a 2. Maybe they should have, I even considered lowering my rating of my Least Favorite pisode on this list, but ah well. I’ll reconsider if I ever do a second watchthrough. There were so many things that I was so happy to have such as Q coming back, a TOS guest star, Troi getting MUCH better treatment (one early episode aside), and just some cool concepts and ideas for episodes. It wasn’t perfect, like doing another poorly done Geordi/Girl of the Week plot, having three Picard episodes in a row, and Riker is really feeling stagnant (he has since The Best of Both Worlds but it became more apparent here). Still, I had a good time. But enough small talk, let’s get to the lists~!

Top 5 Favorite TNG S6 Episodes

Face of the Enemy (5/5)

Tapestry (5/5)

Relics (5/5)

Chain of Command (5/5)

Descent (4.5/5)

Honorable Mentions: The Quality of Life (4.5/5), Ship in a Bottle (4.5/5), True Q (4/5), A Fistful of Datas (4/5), Birthright (4/5), Frame of Mind (4/5), Suspicions (4/5), Timescape (4/5)

Top 5 Least Favorite S6 Episodes

Aquiel (2/5)

Rascals (2/5)

Starship Mine (2.5/5)

The Chase (2.5/5)

Schisms (3/5)

Gonna save character rankings for the final season. Oh gosh… we’ve entered the final season. It took a long time, but at last I have almost finished watching all of TNG excluding the films. Whether I see them or not, I’m going to take at least a month or two off before starting DS9. This has been fun but I need a bit before I commit to another 170+ episode long show. When I’m done, I’ll do the final Best/Worst list and that post will also include the final character rankings (which will be for both current and previous main characters so Tasha, Pulaski, and Wesley will be included) and have a seasons ranking list. After that I will complete the TNG series run with two posts covering my Top 15 episodes as I did for TOS. Now I may expand it to 20, it’ll all depends on how I feel when I go back through the episode lists, but 15 is the plan for now. One reason I added the Honorable Mentions part was to remember all my options since just because an episode made it into the Top 5 lists doens’t mean it’ll make it into the Top 15. The movies will happen whenever I get around to them and then one final post concerning my overall thoughts on TNG to conclude things. But that’ll be for later. For now… one more season to go. 25 episode left to go. They better end with a bang, that’s all I’ve got left to say.

#st watchthrough #st watchthrough rankings

[ais-for-alex]

The RIDER Nature Reserve: Chapter 2

So I’m probably just going to upload this as I edit which might end up with several chapters a day then nothing for awhile 😄

James Potter was a picture of contentment. Currently he was burrowed into one of the well-worn holes in his parents’ old loved couch, propped up by countless throw pillows and buried somewhere underneath several plush Sherpa lined blankets. Opposite him James younger sister Lily was reading a dense looking book while simultaneously trying to shove her foot into James’s face.

Within the Potter household Wednesday night dinners had become the traditional family gathering once they had all graduated from Hogwarts. Every week they would gather in their parents’ cozy home for their mum's delicious cooking, everyone throwing lighthearted jabs at each other over the dinner table. These had become James favorite night of the week. So far only James and Lily had made it back to their childhood home that night.

Ginny Potter was currently in the kitchen humming tunelessly as she banged pots and pans on the stovetop. Wednesdays were her normal days off from her job as head coach of the Holyhead Harpies, so she had been cooking when James and Lily had arrived not long before collapsing onto their respective sides of the couch.

At the sound of the flue activating James looked up from his warm bubble just in time to see his dad stumble through green flames. Still clad in his velvet Auror robes James noted that his dad seemed a bit disheveled. His dark unruly hair was more of a mess than usual like he had been running his hands through it for the past hour, and unless his eyes deceived him there was more gray shot through his beard than the last time James had seen him.

Harry sighed in relief when the green flames calmed down back to their soft yellow warmth, he paused for a moment warming his hands seemingly lost in thought. James watched his dad pull off the heavy velvet cloak and send it sailing upstairs with a quick flick of his wand. Harry was so distracted he was completely oblivious to the fact that two of his kids were sitting quietly behind him. That is until Lily let out a giant sneeze making Harry jump, his hand twitched towards the wand holstered at his thigh as he turned only to relax back to his side once he saw who it was.

“Sorry, flue powder, always makes my allergies act up,” she said mildly.

“Jeeze! You scared the crap out of me! Out of the three of you, you two are not the ones I expect to be quiet, make a noise every once and awhile, God damn!” Harry said in exasperation placing a hand on his racing heart. Finally calming down Harry sat on the arm of the couch next to Lily, “Why are you guys so quiet anyway? It’s weird.”

Lily looked up from her book for a moment before responding, “I, unlike this overexcited puppy,” she jabbed her socked foot in James’s face again for emphasis “have the capacity to be calm at any given time.”

“I’m sleeeepyyy,” James moaned, pulling a knit blanket over his head.

Harry scoffed at James’s whine, “Speaking of quiet, where’s Al? Not here yet?”

James’s muffled voice came from under the blanket, “That traitor ditched us because Scorp is off from St Mungo’s and he would rather spend the evening shagging his boyfriend rather than enjoying some wholesome family fun with us. That’s what he said right Lil’s?”

“Oh, yeah you got it verbatim, those were his exact words.”

Rolling his eyes Harry leaned over and kissed the top of Lily’s head before standing, “Mum in the kitchen?” he asked only to receive two mild affirmative answers as he headed out of the living room.

“Why are you so tired tonight you weirdo? Normally, you would be forcing us to play exploding snap until dinner, but now you’re just a quivering mass of pathetic over there.”

“Muf mnr smrm” James’s voice came, now completely muffled as he had pulled a pillow under his blankets and on top of his head.

“What?”

“Vmdf kjr fjbvd”

“Oh, for fucks sake!” she groaned, stretching her leg out and lightly kicking her brother in the head knocking the pillow and blanket to the floor.

Sighing dramatically James repeated his statement again, “I said I’m not pathetic you're pathetic.”

“Ooo, what a snappy comeback, totally worth the wait,” She said sarcastically.

“Ugg, I’m just super tired from training,” James said, finally answering her question, “I think my coach is officially trying to kill us. I don’t think I have been this sore since last season’s finals.”

“I don’t know why you guys are training so hard, I mean considering Mums team is going to whoop your arse anyway.”

“Yo! A little support here would be nice!” James cried in outrage that his sister had sided with their Mum rather than himself.

“Meh, I don’t want to inflate your ego. Not that you are short of adoring fans who will do you the honor.”

“Aw come on Lil’s you know that your support is worth what like five of theirs.”

“Only five!? James you have thousands of fans and I am only worth five! I’m your own flesh and blood for fucks sake!”

“Well I mean it is only you, Al and Dad are probably about fifty each but you, your kinda meh.” James laughed at the indignant look of outrage in his sisters’ face then promptly threw one of his pillows at her head.

“Rude!”

From the kitchen they could hear their Mum shout to them, “Offspring! Dinners ready!”

The two got up to head into the kitchen, as they walked James wrapped a strong arm around his sister catching Lily in a headlock.

“Oh, come on,” he said at her now sulking expression “you know I’m kidding.”

Rolling her eyes she replied exasperatedly, “Yeah I know, now get off me you oaf.” She punctuated this with an elbow to the side. The two were still locked in a bit of a wrestling match as they stumbled into the kitchen.

The Potters sans Albus were sitting at their dining table bickering good naturedly, wrapping up the end of their meal together, when a huge gray owl soared in through the open kitchen window and deposited himself on James’s lap. A small smile played at his lips when he noticed the familiar elegant script on the envelope, he gently removed the letter from the bird’s leg who let out a low ‘hoo’ then took off out the window once more.

“Ooo, who’s that from?” Lily asked in a faux scandalized voice, “another admirer?”

“Shut up,” he groaned at her teasing, “it’s from Teddy.”

“Oh,” she said, seeming genuinely interested now, “well go on then, what’s it say? Haven’t heard from him in ages.”

James rolled his eyes at his sister then looked down to read the front of the envelope and scoffed a bit in amusement at the words.

Jamie,

Open With Care

‘Open With Care’ had been his and James’s secret way of letting the other know that their letter was to be opened in private as it contained something sensitive or less than appropriate to read in front of other people.

“Lils, if you want to know what he has to say so badly, write him yourself you twat.” He said gently tucking the envelope into his pocket.

“Rude!” she cried.

“Well,” he said, taking a last sip of wine before getting up from the table, “I think it’s about time I head home. I have an early practice tomorrow.” Harry and Ginny looked up from the hushed conversation they had been having at the other end of the table.

“Hey Jay, wait up” Harry called out, “Before you go I wanted to talk to you all about something.” His dad's eyes darted from James over to where Lily and Ginny were still sitting at the table, his face was grim and pale. James vaguely recalled his mum mentioning his dad had been working extra hours lately on a nasty case and it looked like it was taking its toll on him.

“Alright, what’s up?” James replied sliding back down into his chair.

There was a pause as Harry took a deep breath before speaking, “Jay, I know this will sound a bit weird but I need you to start being a bit more cautious when your alone.” James blinked a bit taken aback by his dad's request but the serious tone with which he spoke made it clear he wasn’t joking. “Strictly speaking I’m not supposed to talk about this but screw it. Over the past couple months the Aurors have been looking into a sting of some pretty grizzly murders. We had another one today, and it's officially been classified as a serial killer.” Not knowing what to say James remained silent hoping his dad would continue speaking. “I don’t really want to go into details but we do know that they are targeting people who seem to have higher than average magical abilities. Now the Auror department has been keeping it under wraps to avoid panic for the moment but it won’t be long before the Profit gets ahold of it. One of the jackasses in the department as dubbed them the Wizarding Reaper.”

There was a beat of silence while Harrys words settled over the table James shot a look over to his sister who shrugged in response before turning back to their dad.

“Uh Ok, I’ll make sure to double my warding and keep an eye out for anything off,” James said, his demeanor serious.

“Thanks kid,” his dad sighed, sagging a bit in relief for a moment before he got up and wrapped James in a hug that quickly turned into a light headlock. Harry rubbed his knuckles into James’s already messy auburn hair, “Now just try not to kill yourself on the pitch and everything will be fine,” his tone had completely changed from that serious one back to his usual joking demeanor.

“Yeah, yeah alright” James said, breaking out from under his dad's arm, “I’ll see you two on Saturday,” he said to his dad and Lily. “And you,” he turned to his mum, “I’ll see you on the pitch,” his voice lowered a bit in a faux challenging tone.

Ginny, never one to be outdone, turned on her best taunting voice, “That you will baby boy, don’t forget to bring some tissues for when you're crying in the locker room after the Harpies demolish you.” His mum’s words would have been cruel but she said them in that same faux challenging tone James had used and had a teasing smile on her face. It was a little tradition of theirs before matches their teams played together, they would go back and forth with smack talk until their taunting insults turned into statements of love.

“Oh, you’re going to be the one crying, sobbing into dads’ shoulder when we put you out of the running for the world cup.”

“We are going to whip your ass, same as I did when you were a child stealing cookies from the kitchen.”

“I still steal cookies, but that’s cause you’re amazing at baking,” James said still in a taunting voice despite the complement.

“Thank you, I left a plate of them on the counter for you.”

“Thanks, love you mum.”

“You’re welcome and I love you too,” the two kept up the charade of acting the bitter rivals their teams were. James slowly crept over to the counter grabbing the plate of home baked cookies she had left all the while meeting her exaggerated glare with his own, an utterly ridiculous attempt at looking intimidating. As he backed out of the kitchen, he paused in the doorway taking two finger pointing to his eyes then pointing to his mum in the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture, he then relaxed his posture and waved them all good night before disapparating away to land in his own entryway.

James sighed in relief at finally being home after an extremely long day. His small apartment was sparse with only the essentials to live comfortably only decorated by the occasional bits of Puddlemere United paraphernalia he had picked over the years. With a couple swift wand strokes James reinforced the warding on his front door, then dropped his gym bag full of dirty practice clothes off his shoulder to the floor. Wandering into his small kitchen James slid his plate of cookies onto the counter; he would save them until after the match this weekend. Snagging a water from the fridge he made his way into the living room to flop down onto his old couch.

James pulled Teddy’s letter from his pocket, once again smiling at the familiar writing on the front, he opened the envelope and read its contents, a warm fond feeling spreading through him with every word.

Jamie,

Guess what! One of our dragons is pregnant! Or sort of, she technically incubating her eggs, but still! I am so excited! Charlie has been trying to find her a mate for ages, turns out she took a liking to that dragon I told you about, the one I went to fetch from the U.S a while back. I am so curious to see what the babies will look like, it’s an interesting cross. Anyway, I digress. It’s just so exciting I had to tell you.

So, how’s training going? Your coach still acting like a drill Sergeant? You excited for the match this weekend; I know you’ll do fantastic. I know I’m supposed to support both of you equally but honestly, I hope you beat the Harpies. You’ve been working your arse off, you deserve it. Just don’t let your mum know I said that.

On a side note I got the ‘present’ you sent me, and god damn Jamie are you trying to kill me? God you are so gorgeous I don’t even have words; I will let you know that they have officially been added to my personal spank bank so thank you.

Good luck on Saturday. I know you’ll crush it, I wish I could be there but you know how the ministry is about travel on and off the reserve. I’ll be watching on the live stream though and rooting for you.

-T

P.S. The picture of you polishing your broom was my favorite, that little wink at the end makes my blood go south just thinking about it.

James groaned at the mental image that last comment had invoked. In his last letter to Teddy, James had included a couple risqué pictures that had been taken for the Puddlemere United’s annual charity calendar. The whole team had them done and after his session with the photographer he had been sent several of the shots with instructions to choose which one he would prefer to have in the final product. James had thought he looked silly in most of them so he sent them to Teddy for a second opinion, including the one of himself in only a jockstrap in the team’s colors polishing his broom, as his hands stroked back and forth on the wood suggestively. In the picture his eyes would close as he tipped his head back, mouth open slightly, slowly he turned to the camera with a sultry look then winked as the image looped back to the beginning.

James moaned quietly turned on by the thought of Teddy getting hard and wanking to his picture, the concept was still a bit weird for him to wrap his mind around. He and Teddy had been friends for ages they had practically grown up together.

Teddy had always been James’s person, the one he could confide in or complain to about his siblings or even just hang out with and enjoy each other’s company. Through James’s last couple of years at Hogwarts Teddy had been working to finish his Auror training but just before he was due to be inducted as an official Auror Teddy decided that ultimately it just wasn’t the job for him. The constant strain of being surrounded by dark wizards, surrounded by murderers and rapists, it had worn on his mental state.

Eventually Teddy settled down in a position working at the Nature Reserve James’s uncle Charlie ran, and he absolutely loved it. That had been in the last year before James graduated, after Teddy left for Romania, they began writing to each other and they were just as they had always been, friends.

This last Christmas though Teddy had come home. He had only been back a handful of times since leaving and it had been years since James had seen his best friend face to face. That Christmas Eve though James had opened his parent’s front door and was greeted to the sight of Teddy, his turquoise hair lightly dusted in snow and smiling brighter than the sun. In a split-second James’s entire demeanor changed though normally energetic he seemed to almost start vibrating with excitement.

Teddy had the good sense to drop his duffle bag quickly as James nearly tackled him in a bearhug. The two men stumbled backwards across the Potters front deck from the momentum until they fell backwards into a snowbank. Teddy hugged back just as enthusiastically, causing them to roll in the snow until he was straddling James' hips. Both of them were laughing heartily ecstatic to finally see each other again Teddy stood up and pulled James up from the snow with enough force to lift him off his feet and spin around. James locked his arms around Teddy’s strong form not wanting to let go as they stood now completely soaked and cold from the snow.

Still in Teddys strong hold James breathing in deeply, intoxicated by the crisp smell of fresh cut pine, campfire smoke, and strong coffee that seemed to cling his skin. Suddenly the porch light flicked on making the men look up, Harry was standing in the open doorway having come to investigate to cold breeze leaking into the house as James hadn’t bothered to close the door when he tackled his best friend. The two began laughing again at the silliness of rolling around in the snow in subzero temperatures then headed back towards the house where Harry was still watching with an amused look on his face.

After the onslaught of warmth and greetings from the rest of the Potters it was like Teddy had never left at all. He effortlessly fit back into their family easily slipping into each conversation on quidditch with James and his mum, Albus and Scorpius’s deep discussions about wizarding folklore and how bits of it could fit into their D&D campaign, he talked Ministry politics with Harry and even seemed to take an interest in Lily’s newfound love of all things Muggle as she had decided to seek further education at a Muggle university. Throughout the night James could feel Teddy's eyes frequently coming to land on him, he would look up to find Teddy staring a small grin playing on his lips as he held the eye contact before turning back to his conversation leaving James feeling warm from his gaze.

Back when Teddy had left neither he nor James had anything other than friendship in mind, each was preoccupied with their own struggles. Teddy trying to make it work with the Aurors and James still in school then starting his own career in the Quidditch world after graduation. That Christmas eve though felt different somehow, their eyes seemed to always find each other, leaving behind a charged feeling in their stomachs. It was odd after being friends for forever neither was sure what to do with this new energy that seemed to be pulling them together.

Their evening was filled with friendly familiar chatter until everyone was exhausted and ready to head home into bed. Teddy was chatting with Harry and disclosed that he hadn’t really thought too much about where he would be staying while he was in England. At that exact moment James had been meandering by the couch, not eavesdropping on their conversation at all, when he plopped down and slung his arm around Teddys neck insisting he stay at his flat.

They left the holiday festivities soon after that, both collapsing into a heap on the old beaten up couch in James' sparse living room. For the first time in years they had the freedom to tell each other everything that never translated well into letters. The night wore late as they spun tales of their lives, talking animatedly about quidditch and dragons sharing the last years of their lives with one another.

Teddy had been telling a captivating tale about one of his coworkers who had gotten a bit too comfortable around one of the dragons and ended up getting his arm torn off, however, James wasn’t listening. Teddy had pushed up his shirtsleeve revealing intricate tattoos that swirled and moved with the motion of his arm and James was utterly distracted. His eyes traced the magically moving ink from where it began at the wrist up his forearm until it disappeared under the sleeve of his shirt.

Eventually Teddy stopped talking, realizing that James was no longer paying attention to his words, the silence prompted James to let his gaze wander slowly back up to Teddys face, bits of glinting metal caught in the dim light as he finally met his burning eyes. James watched in awe as Teddy’s eyes darkened from their natural hazel color to a deep midnight blue with lust. He barely had a moment to gasp at the intense look before Teddy’s mouth was on his, body pressing him back into the worn couch cushions. They moved together gasping, moaning, James whimpered at the feeling of skin on skin. Mouths sliding together, hands exploring, both trying to get as close to the other as possible. The next morning, they woke in bed Teddy had wrapped himself around James’s body every inch pressed together both filled with warmth and contentment.

Even now laying alone in his flat, if he closed his eyes James could almost still feel the tingling trails of Teddys fingers caressing his body as they talked that morning. The two ultimately deciding against starting anything more between them, after all Teddy would leave in a couple days back to Romania and James would once again throw himself into Quidditch training, there was no point. So, from that point they went back to normal, aside from the occasional salacious fantasy they were simply friends.

James had gotten caught up in the memory of that night when he looked up at the time it was nearly one in the morning and he had to get up early for practice. With another dramatic groan he pushed up from the couch and headed to bed.

Read on ao3

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#james sirius potter #albus severus potter #harry potter #teddy lupin #writing #RIDER #jeddy

[buzzdixonwriter]

Another Pointless Top Ten List (But You’ll Keep Reading, Anyway)

My brother Rikk recently mailed me another top ten list of his, in this instance being his top ten favorite TV comedy shows (which he defines as 30 minutes or less, no movies).

The Three Stooges

M*A*S*H

The Andry Griffith Show 

The Beverly Hillbillies

Hogan’s Heroes

I Love Lucy 

The Honeymooners 

All In The Family

Get Smart 

Gilligan’s Island

His honorable mentions include F Troop, The Patty Duke Show, My Three Sons, Gomer Pyle USMC, Batman, Petticoat Junction, Mr. Ed. Bewitched, and I Dream Of Jeanie.

Again, one of those personal favorite lists that you really can’t argue with because it reflects personal tastes and / or fond nostalgia (though I am calling shenanigans on The Three Stooges; they were theatrical shorts shown in movie theaters, not a TV show, and besides, Laurel & Hardy are soooooo much better…).

But of course we’re going to play the game, so I’ll respond, first throwing in a caveat:  No skit comedy shows such as Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Marty Feldman Show, Benny Hill, Second City TV, The Kids In The Hall, or Love, American Style.

I’m also omitting programs like The Gong Show and Jackass because while hilarious and under 30 minutes, they weren’t scripted or story driven.

So here’s my list:

The Dick Van Dyke Show -- the sitcom art form at peak perfection.  Carl Reiner’s insight into what writing for a mercurial TV star is like (in his case, Sid Caesar on Your Show Of Shows, for Van Dyke’s Rob Petrie it was Carl Reiner as Alan Brady).  If you’ve never seen the show, start off with their two best episodes, “Coast To Coast Big Mouth” and “October Eve” (though they’re all good).  “October Eve” is the one where Sally (Rose Marie) finds a nude painting of Laura (Mary Tyler Moore playing Dick Van Dyke’s wife) in an art gallery.  SALLY:  “There’s a painting here you should know about.”  LAURA: “If it’s what I think it is, I can explain.”  SALLY:  “If you need to explain, it’s what you think it is.”

The Mary Tyler Moore Show – this is the first American novel for television.  It’s a novel of character, not plot, and it traces the growth of Mary Richards, a 30 year old woman-child who realizes she needs to grow up, as she blossoms into a mature, self-reliant adult.  You can select two episodes at random and by comparing her character growth determine not only which season they were filmed but when in that season.

I Love Lucy -- eking out a bronze medal for its longevity and pioneering of the art form.  The first sitcom shot on film, it led the way in the rerun market.  Not just a historical icon but consistently funny.

WKRP In Cincinnati -- as crazy as a sitcom could get and still be within the realm of plausibility.  Never loved by its network, they bounced it around for four seasons until it faded away (it made a syndicated comeback a decade later, of which we shall not speak).  Great supporting staff, dynamite writing.  While they never steered away from serious subject matters (such as an actual rock concert tragedy in Cincinnati where several fans were crushed when rushing the stage), they will be forever and justly remembered for the beloved “Turkey Drop” episode.

Fawlty Towers – only two seasons and a mere 12 episodes and yet more comedic bang for the buck than anything else on this list.  John Cleese as a frustrated, short-tempered, conniving hotelier practically writes itself.  SYBIL FAWLTY:  “You know what I’ll do if I find you’ve been gambling again, don’t you, Basil?”  BASIL:  “You’ll have to sew them back on first, m’dear.”

That Girl -- looking back it can sometimes be hard to judge just how groundbreaking certain shows were.  Marlo Thomas as a struggling young actress finding romance and success in Manhattan seems positively wholesome today, but in the mid-1960s it was considered quite daring and progressive.  The Mary Tyler Moore Show took their opening credits inspiration from Marlo Thomas’ character exploring Manhattan in the opening credits of That Girl.

He & She -- a one season wonder from 1967.  Another daring and progressive show for its era.  Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss played a young married couple, he being a cartoonist who drew a superhero strip (the actor playing the superhero on TV in the series was Jack Cassidy at his manic best).  Another show with a dynamite supporting cast…and just too hip for the room at the time (honorable mention to Love On A Rooftop, a similar show from the previous season that also proved too advanced for audiences at that time).  

Green Acres -- started out silly but quickly took a turn into the surreal, breaking the fourth wall, commenting on the opening credits as they ran by, all sorts of oddball stuff.  Dismissed as a hayseed comedy, the truth is the supporting cast possessed dynamite comedic chops and their sense of timing is a joy to behold.  Forms a loose trilogy with The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction since all three referenced the same small towns of Hooterville and Pixley  as well as occasional crossovers (honorable mention to the first season of Petticoat Junction which is as pure an example of Americana as one could hope to find and could easily be distilled into a feature film remake).

The Young Ones -- another two season / twelve episode wonder from the UK.  Four stereotypical English college students go through increasing levels of insanity as the series progressed.  Unlike most shows of the era where there was no continuity episode to episode, damage done in an early episode would still be seen for the rest of the series.  (They also would simply end a show when they ran out of time, not resolving that episode’s plot.)  Their random / non sequitur style proved a tremendous influence on shows like Family Guy.

Fernwood 2 Nite / America 2-Nite -- a spin off from the faux soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, this presented itself as a cable access variety show for Mary Hartman’s hometown of Fernwood.  With Martin Mull as the obnoxious host, Fred Willard as his incurably dense second banana, and TV theme song composer Frank De Vol as the band leader.  Because it’s so rooted in 1970s pop culture it doesn’t age as well as some other shows on the list, but many of the gags still land solidly today.  For the second season the show-within-a-show went nationwide and became America 2-Nite. Very funny, very well written, and all the more remarkable because these guys were doing five episodes a week!

Okay, so what can this list tell us?

Buzz is old.  Like really, really, really old.

Buzz stopped watching sitcoms in the mid-1980s.

There’s a reason for that.  By that time I was writing for TV and trying to get my own work done.  I didn’t have time to sit and watch TV on a regular basis (still don’t), and too often I could see the gears turning and guess where the episode was heading by the end of the first scene (still do).

I’ve veered away from “must watch” TV, especially shows that require the audience to keep track of what’s gone on before.

Tell me I have to see the first six seasons of a show to appreciate what happens in the seventh and you’ve just lost me as a potential viewer.  I’m strictly a one & done kinda guy now (though I will binge watch if a mini-series has a manageable number of episodes, say six).

My list represents a time capsule for what caught my interest and attention during a very formative period of my life, i.e., from the early 1960s as I became more and more aware that writing was where my future lay, to the mid-1980s when I hit a good peak stretch.

I don’t doubt there are great and wonderful hilarious comedies out there that I haven’t seen, I’m just listing what I have seen that did make an impression on me.

Your mileage may vary.*

    © Buzz Dixon

  *  It should vary!  Be your own person!

#media #comedy #sitcoms #Dick Van Dyke #Mary Tyler Moore #Carl Reiner #top ten lists

[sunsetcurve]

THE POST FINALE HENRY DANGER OPINIONS TAG:

thank you for the tag @chenryhart , @ginger--binger , and @henryhearts ! (i used eliza’s version because it had more questions lol)

Who was your overall favourite member of Team Danger and why? i will never be able to decide between charlotte and henry (it’s called being bisexual). i relate to charlotte a lot, and she’s a role model for me; she’s smart, she’s bold, she knows what she wants and i really love her for it. henry, on the other hand—there are moments when i’ve disliked him but i’ve watched him grow up, i’ve watched him be a hero for so long and i do still admire him a lot. he’s brave and loyal and he cares so much about people, like i’ll honestly just be soft for him forever. 

Who was your favourite non-team danger character and why? gonna have to go with bose and mika (who count, right?) because they’re both so pure and enthusiastic and i can’t wait to see more of them

Who was your favourite villain and why? definitely twitler. i think he was the only villain that had actual motivation, and he was definitely the least cringey of all of them. he set up high stakes and challenged team danger a lot.

What were your top five favourite Henry Danger episodes of all time and why? ooh, good one. okay i think the finale is my all-time favorite. it just really was the culmination of the core of this show and there were so many amazing moments between all the characters. the actors and writers delivered so hard. second would have to be back to the danger because that episode was solid start to finish. i love the high-stakes episodes, and the time travel was a really cool aspect. third would probably be the three-parter, because again, i love the high stakes episodes, and that one really brought it. fourth would be broken armed and dangerous because it was completely hilarious. and fifth would probably have to be either double o danger, because i loved getting to see them all dressed up and undercover and joss moss was awesome, or i dream of danger because it was charlotte centric and also chenry. honorable mention to danger games entirely because of that scene where all four game shakers fall in love with henry at once. 

What were your top five least favourite Henry Danger episodes of all time and why? not a fan of henry’s birthday because i can’t watch it without getting incredibly pissed; like it’s a well-made episode i just get really upset while watching it. i hated man of the house because the whole ray trying to get with henry’s mom made me suuuper uncomfortable. i did not like one henry three girls because the cheating plot was not it for me, or sick and wired for the same reason as henry’s birthday, and also because that was definitely the episode where dad!ray started to disappear. and captain mom because...nope.

What was your favourite running gag and why? oh god i have so many that i made a full post about this. the hmm thing was awesome, especially the fact that they acknowledged it. i also love the “piper has a license—established” joke 

What was your favourite one-off throw away gag and why? gonna steal @henryhearts answer here and say the cat universe that respected charlotte; also bringing back the bro song from the musical that one time.

What episode, which character and which duo made you laugh the most? episode would definitely be broken armed and dangerous. laugh after laugh. the arm fashion show? the part where henry’s like “i’m plum-tuckered!”? the sign language interpreter? peak. character would be henry because i LOVE the way he reacts to stuff, like when he does his little *hand clasp* “there is something wrong with you” or like “dude, dude, dude, dude, dude—”. duo would probably be ray and henry because bose was right, their banter is hilarious.

What episode, which character and which duo made you the most emotional? episode would be the finale, and i feel like i don’t have to explain myself there. character would also be henry, like, the whole “i was thirteen!” thing and the fact that he’s given so much to this makes me want to cry sometimes. duo would be chenry because they’ve been together since the beginning and i have way too many feelings about them.

How would you rank each season from 1 to 5, one being the best and five being the worst? this is difficult, because i think season 5 is my favorite overall because of it had so many solid episodes and high stakes and good plots, but there were also sooo many things i didn’t like. still! i think it takes the top spot. after that would be season 2, just because it was really fun and fresh and in that stage where they’d started to figure things out as a show but weren’t getting cocky just yet. then probably season 3, then 1, then 4, because that season didn’t really have anything that stood out to me besides back to the danger. 

Who was your favourite duo in the show (romantic or non-romantic)? chenry, but hensper and chasper were both very close seconds

What was your favourite Henry and Ray moment/episode? blimp scene and i don’t think it’s necessary for me to elaborate

What was your favourite Chenry moment/episode? toss up between the lion scene in idod and the time jerker because of “this is for you, char” and the hug at the end

What was your favourite Hensper moment/episode? when jasper found out oh my god. that was SO good. also love muffin and “as henry’s best friend...and soulmate”

What was your favourite Chensper moment/episode? oh god The Scene in the finale when henry is telling char to get out of there and she’s not leaving him and jasper has to carry her out and it just shows how much they all care for each other. and the fact that they all went to dystopia together!

If you could go back and change one element of the show, what would it be? RESPECT. CHARLOTTE. PERIOD. (i would change a lot of ray’s character as a whole, especially season 4/5 tbh)

If you could say one thing to each main character in the pilot, what would it be? i would tell the trio to stick together, appreciate each other, and don’t forget to be kids. i would tell ray not to bring a 13 year old kid who doesn’t have powers into this.

If you could say one thing to each main character in the finale, what would it be? i’m proud of you

Were you satisfied with the finale? What part was your favourite and what part was your least favourite? yes. i think overall there are always going to be things they could have handled better. but i’m happy with the way it ended. i think it’s fitting and wonderful and i felt good. favorite part would be the entire part in the finale with henry arguing with ray about who’s going to go down and later with char and jasper for them to leave. partially because i’m a glutton for angst, but also because the actors put so much into it and it was a real display of emotion and feels, and it showed henry’s selflessness and heroic nature so plainly. least favorite was the fact that char never got an apology from ray.

What would your ideal Henry danger spin off look like? dystopia!!!!!!!! the trio fighting crime in dystopia but it’s pg-13 and also they’re falling in love. also they sometimes come back to visit ray and mentor the danger force kids.

Where do you personally see the characters 10 years from now? What are they doing, who are they with, where are they in their lives - what do you think happened to them? Most importantly, are they happy? i think the trio is going to be living and fighting crime together for a while. char runs a charity on the side, jasper does photography, and henry is a botanist. but they’re first and foremost a team. piper runs a media company and ray and schwoz are being parents to the DF kids. they all still have thanksgivings together and yes, they’re all very happy.

What was your favourite part of the show and why did it initially draw you in? so i watched the thundermans right before this, and the whole reason i got into it was because i love anything superhero related but i wanted something lighthearted instead of my usual gritty dctv shows. i stayed for the humor and because the kids were cute, and yeah i did develop a crush on henry as the seasons went on. sue me.

What was your favourite part of the fandom and why did it initially draw you in? the people are so! freaking! supportive! i made some really amazing friends through this fandom, and everyone is sooo talented and kind and just unproblematic as hell. i love it.

Describe your overall emotions/feelings regarding the show being over and the show in general, looking back on it as a whole, with one quote from the show. the iconic “feels good”

If you were able to add one scene in the finale, what would you add? charlotte getting a goddamn apology and some recognition. also i would’ve liked to see the in-between of the blimp crash and the funeral, aka henry reuniting with ray, jasper, and char after they all thought he was dead

Favorite outfit/hair style? i LOVED the trio’s looks in the epilogue. char’s outfits every single episode? their looks in double o danger. piper and henry’s sister twister outfits were also very cute. for each character: i like char’s braids, henry with the curly hair he had in the finale, jasper in a crop top, ray’s bangs and blazer, and that one time schwoz was in a leotard and tutu.

Least favorite character? mine would be jake hart, and i feel like that’s another one of those things that doesn’t need an explanation

one twist: add one question at the end for the next person to answer! tag at least two people so this spreads around!

i’m tagging @bitchmilsky @cactus-con @rorythevambire @bijerbear @mychenrymadness and anyone else who wants to do it!

#henry danger #hd spoilers #hd tag game #hd

[someplace-that-is-else]

“Shaking It Off...?’: Is the Magicians Surviving Post-Quentin in Season Five?

 Editor’s Note: Spoilers for the current season of The Magicians lie ahead. Read at your own risk.

 I still can’t listen to it.

 Every time I was at work, the radio loved to drop in Taylor Swift. I admit it. I love Taylor Swift. It was earned respect so I won’t knocked it. However, when I heard ‘Shake It Off,’ I changed the station. Why? Because I was reminded every time.

 The Magicians Episode 4, Season 1…Quentin Coldwater in the mind asylum. Him singing it. It was a turn left moment in a somewhat serious scene that was hilarious.

 But I was always reminded when I heard the song. Now…

 Quentin Coldwater was dead.

 In case you missed it, the fourth season of The Magicians went out with a bang. In order to save the world and his friends, Quentin Coldwater sacrificed himself. It was a heartbreaking moment and yes, there were tears at the gang’s tribute to him with a cover of ‘Take on Me.’ It was also shocking because who would have thought a show would kill off their main character, the character that viewers are brought into the show by. Even ballsier? Leaving the main character dead, confirmed immediately after the episode aired that night by way of internet interviews from the producers.

 That was the world viewers were coming into walking into Season Five.  Unlike Supergirl which I dropped in Season Four due to the on-the-nose political writing, I was curious to see how the writers would play the death of their main character.

 So how was it?

 Did Someone Order an Apocalypse?: Raising the Stakes in Season Five

 After a season where magic was rationed out, this season was different. Now there was too much magic. How much? So much that people were exploding for crying out loud.

 As a result, there were plot threads being introduced. You had Penny being made a professor at Brakebills and dealing with the presence of a signal that one of his Traveler students was hearing. You had Kady struggling with being the leader of the hedgewitches while being in the middle of a mystery involving the disappearance of a book depository. Most importantly, there was a Pig running around, encountering Julia and saying an apocalypse was coming.

 Hm…the end of everything. While the Magicians has had moments that were life and death, I do not think it has actually dealt with an apocalypse. It sounded so Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And it was during one of these moments of too much magic that the apocalypse was supposed to happen.

 And this was all in light of the fact that Quentin was only dead a month. Alice, Julia, and Elliot were the ones who were hit the hardest by his passing. Julia was Quentin’s best friend. Alice was Quentin’s girlfriend. Elliot was his woulda, coulda, shoulda. But as usual, the world as they knew it needed saving.

 And there were casualties on the way to the apocalypse. Penny lost his ability to control his Traveler abilities so much so that he could accidentally kill himself now. Dean Fogg was lost to a whole dimension in Kady’s pursuit of the book depository. In the gang’s attempt to stop the apocalypse, they succeeded. But there was a BUT.

 WRONG apocalypse.

 All that struggle. Encountering goddesses with agendas. The return of evil hedge witch Marina who was behind the depository mystery. Kady almost was killed by an assassin. Elliot and Margo got stuck in a time loop.

 It was all for the wrong apocalypse. You see the Pig was talking about a whole other apocalypse that was coming. One that appeared to be tied into another plot thread from last season involving Elliot and Margo being trapped at one point in the Narniasque land of Fillory 300 years in the future and its future ruler the Dark King.

 Oops.

 The Power of Three: Character Development in Season Five

 Magic comes from pain.

 Eliot said that to Quentin in the first season. Over the course of the seasons, that has truly held up quite well. Going into Season Five, there was still plenty of it. And that brought me to the character development for Julia, Alice, and Eliot specifically. Their pain. Their grief over Quentin’s death.

 I loved Julia’s Season Four arc. The ‘is she or isn’t she still a goddess?’ arc. She had been practically redeemed in Season Three. She had sacrificed her being on a higher plane for her friends. And where did she go from here? From here led to a new relationship with Penny, getting to get close with her best friend Quentin again, and have a chance to be a full goddess again. However, that was snatched away from her by the Monster and so was Quentin. She was human again with no magic…until her pain over Quentin’s death, bringing her magic back to the surface.

 And that miracle was what was driving Julia this season. She was determined to not have Quentin’s death be in vain. She was going to stop those apocalypses. She was so determined that it was revealing cracks in her relationship with Penny. In fact, they broke up…just in time to find out that Julia was pregnant. So would Julia keep focusing on stopping apocalypses to honor Quentin’s memory, or would she focus on herself and her future which may or may not include Penny?  Oh, the dilemma…

 And then we had Alice…

 Honestly, I haven’t liked Alice since Season 2. She was cute. She was brainy. She wore glasses. And Niffin experience, while a great plot twist for those of us who hadn’t read the books, really tainted her. And any sympathy she got for her pain was destroyed by betraying the gang by helping the Library at the end of Season Three. I enjoyed everyone giving her the business in Season Four. 

So I was saddened to see Quentin take her back. Especially with someone better hanging in the wings.  

That said…the pain that Alice felt for Quentin dying. The staying in her room. Her wearing his clothes. Her trying to resurrect him. That felt real. And for the first time, Alice felt like a person again. She felt like Alice. And as the current season has progressed, a new persona has taken over: old Alice. The last few episodes had brought back the brainy, the problem solving, and dare I say it the cute Alice from the early seasons. From the darkness, she had come back into the light.

 And finally, there was Eliot. Eliot spent the majority of Season Four possessed by an ancient Monster. A Monster who was on a mission to resurrect his even more dangerous sister. In the process of Eliot trying to find a way to contact Quentin, Margo, and the gang, it was revealed that there was a scene not revealed to the audience. Back during the Season 3, Episode 5 episode “A Day in the Life,” Quentin and Eliot were trapped in a time loop of sorts and lived a whole life together. Fell in love. Had a child together. Died. In the end, quick thinking brought them back. And it was over…right?

 Wrong.

 It turned out that Quentin and Eliot had had a talk. Proof of concept. Most people took a chance when they got into a relationship. Here they had a whole lifetime and saw they worked together. So…Quentin wanted to make it real. The debatably straight character wanted to give it a go…but Eliot pulled away. Being trapped in a Monster gave Eliot that push. The push he needed to get free and tell Quentin that he was ready to give it a go.

  So of course…Quentin died.

 And just like that…they became Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Tara and Willow. They became like The 100’s Clarke and Lexa. What did I mean? I meant that the ‘Bury Your Gays’ trope struck again. You know, the trope in literature and tv where two people of the same sex cannot be happy and if they found happiness it usually ended in tragedy. And the fact that Quentin got some form of closure with Alice in terms of their relationship while he did not with Eliot was quite the tragedy for fans.

 While I personally would have liked to see some closure for those two (called Queliot by their fans) due to the relatability of their situation (which happened more in real life than people thought), I was pleased to see that in the latest season that Eliot was definitely dealing with his unsolved feelings about Quentin. Not only did he find some closure to it, he even got to some closure with Alice as well since they had quite a bit to deal with between each other. Bonus, Eliot had been bantering with the Dark King, this season’s potential Big Bad who happened to be flirting with Eliot.

 A happy ending for our resident gay man? This is The Magicians. So…iffy. LOL!!! Especially after that reveal in Episode 9.  So time would tell how the relationship between Eliot and Sebastian the Dark King would resolve itself.

 Speaking of…

 Pieces of a Puzzle: Using Plot Threads that Work Well in Season Five

 While a lot of the seasonal plot arc had to do with the gang dealing with apocalypses, there was also the arc having to do with the Dark King who usurped Margo’s rule of Fillory. Fans got to meet him in a clever introduction during Alice’s and Eliot’s quest to give closure to Quentin. Thus, the tension between Sebastian the Dark King and Eliot began.

 In another blog I did ( https://someplace-that-is-else.tumblr.com/post/183733192088/well-fuck-how-i-fell-into-syfys-the ), I mentioned that protagonists were only as good as their antagonists. The more complex the antagonist, the better. And if the Dark King was to be the main villain this season, the writers did him right. On one hand, there was the burgeoning relationship between him and Eliot and the fact that Fillory worshipped him for his ability to push back the invading Takers. On the other hand, it was revealed HE was behind the Takers being in Fillory in the first place and was immortal to being killed. Add on to that the reveal in Episode 9:  Sebastian was one of the Chatwin siblings, brother to the Beast…

...still the best villain in this series. His goal:  to resurrect his lost love. Given the gang was dealing with the aftermath of Quentin’s death, how could they not relate? How could we? Things were more murky.

 Meanwhile, there was the mystery of the signal. As mentioned earlier, the increase in magic meant there were a lot of new traveler magicians coming into their abilities with no one to guide/teach them. Enter Penny the only Traveler alive to tell the tale. At first Penny was reluctant, but he attempted to. That was how he met Plum, one of his students who was hearing the mysterious signal. In the process of hearing the signal, Penny lost his abilities. And to add on to the mystery…Plum...

... was ALSO a Chatwin. Whom daughter…Jane, the Beast aka Martin or Sebastian…remained to be seem.

 And then there were two.

 Finally, there was the world seed. I had greatly enjoyed seeing Alice morph back into her brainy persona that I remembered from the first two seasons. At the same time, she had started a bantering friendship with another magician who was some expert in possibilities. And from some notes left around by Quentin, Alice and this student had been creating a world seed. The belief…that it could create a whole new world. Leave it to Quentin to be gone, but NOT forgotten.

 How that would come into play with Plum, the Dark King’s plans, and the Fillory apocalypse was too early to know. It was recently announced by the SyFy Channel that they had cancelled The Magicians. Insert eyeroll here given my colorful history with SyFy. However, the producers of The Magicians have always mentioned that they wanted to adapted the last book in the series The Magicians’s Land for one of their seasons. And all signs of what I knew to happen in the book revealed this current season was loosely based on that book (in the book Quentin was still alive for example). So it would be interesting to see how it all ended for everyone.

 With a bang…or a whimper?

  #themagicians #syfychannel #syfy #whoorderedanapocalypse #buffythevampireslayer #buffyreference #glory #seasonfive #taylorswift #quentincoldwater #shakeitoff #aha #takeonme #apocalypse #supergirl #raisingthestakes #plotthreads #characterdevelopment #grief #queliot #writing #narnia #darkking #magic #buryyourgays #powerofthree #puzzlepieces #signal #seed #withabang #withawhimper

#the magicians #syfy channel #syfy #whoorderedanapocalypse #buffy the vampire slayer #buffyreference #glory #seasonfive #taylorswift #quentin coldwater #shakeitoff #aha #takeonme #apocalypse #supergirl #raisingthestakes #plotthreads #character development #grief #queliot #writing #narnia #darkking #bury your gays #magic #powerofthree #puzzlepieces #signal #seed #withabang

[hellyeahomeland]

“Threnody(s)”: an HYH recap

First things first: a threnody is “a wailing ode, song, hymn, or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.” If it clicked far too late for you that the parentheses and ‘s’ meant that more than one person would die this week... welcome to the club.

This soul crusher of an episode opens with Haqqani reading the Quran in his cell. A few guards arrive to get him and he walks, peacefully, slowly, while the other prisoners bang their cups against their cells (a real thing that happens on death row in American prisons). He’s handcuffed to a post in an open-air courtyard as he stares down a lineup of soldiers with rifles, all aiming at him.

Cut to Hayes, Linus, and Hugh Dancy John Zabel in the Oval Office. They have the video that Jalal Haqqani shot of Max last episode. This is now a hostage situation and… look how these dots connect. If G’ulom executes Haqqani, Jalal will execute Max. Hayes pleads with G’ulom to halt the execution, at least until they can retrieve Max. G’ulom agrees, but only for 24 hours.

Saul calls Carrie on the sat phone and she asks for an update. When is special ops coming? He still doesn’t know, but hey! At least now people other than Carrie seem to sort of care about whether Max lives or dies. She says the situation there is “quiet but fucked,” which is a perfect descriptor of most Homeland scenes.

Saul steps into a meeting with the White House to discuss Max’s exfiltration. It’s tough, because there’s no cover and the house they’ve got Max in is completely exposed. Also it’s in Pakistan so that adds another layer of complication. Hayes wants to know the odds. Resident Scott Ryan delivers the not so great, not so bad news: 50/50.

Hayes has a freakout because even when they went to kill bin Laden it was like 80%. But 50%? It doesn’t help that John Zabel is the figurative devil on his shoulder, making arguments like:

We don’t negotiate with terrorists. (Heh? It’s not a negotiation.)

I don’t even know who Max is. (You literally just got here. SIT DOWN, JOHN.)

“The US government can’t be expected to come to the rescue of every adventurer who gets himself in trouble overseas.” (Fuck you, dude.)

If the rescue fails, it’ll sink your presidency. (Your wife Carrie Mathison is gonna come after your ass.)

Elsewhere in the West Wing, Linus is snooping in John’s office and finds a printout of a speech he’s been working on for Hayes, the gist of which is: “Peace in the Middle East? I don’t know her.”

If you’re wondering whether John Zabel was successful in convincing Hayes to leave Max to die, in the very next scene Haqqani is dragged back into the courtyard. Saul is there. Once again they line up, but this time they go through with it. The bullets hit him and he doubles over. Saul watches in horror. Then, miraculously, he inhales sharply, very much not dead. He pulls himself up and stands again. G’ulom orders them to reload as prisoner’s chants of Haqqani’s name reach them. They fire again, and he falls to his knees. The job is done.

Back at the compound, there’s movement. Yevgeny brings Carrie a news report: an image of Haqqani, chest filled with bullets, slumped over. Carrie knows what this means, and then she spots the Taliban soldiers escorting Max out of the house, seemingly to take him to another location. She calls for the crew to get their stuff, they need to follow them and can’t lose track. Then, through the scope of the binoculars, she spots Jalal Haqqani shoot Max in the chest from close range. One two three.

Carrie races down the hillside as the Taliban soldiers all flee in their trucks. She gets to Max, lying on his side, blood in the dirt. She checks his pulse, but the worst has happened—again. She breaks down in sobs as she clutches his body.

In Washington, Linus is furious with John Zabel—who might just be as evil as his beard is tragique. Linus is in disbelief about this “speech” Zabel has written. A speech where he calls for security along the entire Afghan-Pakistani border that will be guarded entirely by the Pakistani military—the military of a country Zabel refers to as “failed and duplicitous.” It’s basically Homeland’s version of Tr*mp saying Mexico will pay for the wall after he called Mexicans criminals and rapists. 

ANYWAY. Zabel spits back that he can’t be as dumb as Linus, who got two presidents killed. And, I mean I did make this point last week, but that doesn’t make Zabel any less evil.

Meanwhile, Saul is overseeing the preparation of Haqqani’s body. Carrie calls him. She’s still sitting next to Max’s body, her face is stained with tears. 

Carrie: Max is dead. Fuck you. Saul: What? Carrie: He’s dead. Fuck you. By the way, thanks for the special ops team. They were really handy. Saul: POTUS wouldn’t move. Carrie: You wouldn’t make him move. You did nothing. You brought him here and it was your responsibility to protect him. That was your fucking job! Not mine. But I still tried, and he’s still dead. Did I say fuck you yet? Because fuck you. And fuck special ops too! Saul: I deserved that. But also, Carrie, you can’t keep running around with Yevgeny in the Pakistani countryside. Even though it brings great joy to Sara.  Carrie: Fuck you, dude. At least Yevgeny gave a shit. Saul: You still have to come in. Carrie: Come and get Max. I’ll still be here. Fuck you, goodbye.

The Taliban are holding a town meeting. Haqqani’s lieutenant says they need to keep on the same path that Haqqani set out for them: peace. He knows that none of them were responsible for the helicopters crashing, so peace really is still possible. Just then, Haqqani and the Taliban Teenagers roll up. That’s right, it’s time for a little power battle. Jalal tells them all that his father is a hero. He wouldn’t die even after they shot him. He says we have to honor him: not by respecting the choice he made for peace, but by emulating him back when he was busting into embassies and murdering people. And also: it was I, Jalal Haqqani, who fired the RPG that brought down the presidents’ helicopters! And we will do the same for any other infidels who stand in our way!

After the meeting, the lieutenant comes over to Jalal and asks for some one-on-one time. He knows that Jalal didn’t shoot down the helicopters and Jalal gaslights him a bit. He also knows that Haqqani didn’t choose Jalal to be his successor, and Jalal gaslights him a little bit more. Jalal offers him some money or poppy fields if he’ll buzz off, but all he wants is peace, his country back. Jalal says they’ll get their country back, but not through peace.

In the Oval Office, Hayes is sitting with the Two Stooges, who both want him to say something wildly different in his address to the nation. Hayes just says, “figure it out,” which is kind of hilarious and that’s when Zabel springs into action. He calls up some woman named Claudette and asks for any dirt she has on this situation. Which now means he’s cosmically linked with Carrie because she was trying to do the same thing last season.

They’ve moved Max’s body inside the house, but Carrie is still sitting there next to him. They’ve removed the bright orange jumpsuit and he’s lying on a small rug, barefoot. Yevgeny wants to know what their next move is. Carrie says she’ll just hang out until special ops comes, then she’ll go back to Kabul with Max. She understands if Yevgeny wants to leave now, before special ops comes, but like the good boyfriend he is, he sits down next to her and asks who this Max guy was anyway.

Carrie’s surprised. She told him everything about her life (!!) but not this? Nope. She goes on: Max was… always there for her. She’s known him forever, and wherever she went, he’d dutifully follow, always by her side. And the reason she never mentioned him is clear now, too. She took him for granted and took advantage of him. And now he’s dead. What a horrifying replay of events. “I’m so sorry, Max,” she sobs. She kneels down next to his body, her hands on his chest, and repeats it, over and over: “I’m so sorry.” Yevgeny comes over to comfort her and she clings to him amid more heaving sobs.

The next day, Hayes has decided on his speech, which—surprise!—is the “cowardly” Linus version, where he just says “let’s do peace.” John Zabel is highly displeased but luckily Claudette has arrived just in time with that dirt he requested. It’s not dirt, but just intel: one of the soldiers at the secret Taliban power struggle meeting last night was actually recording the whole thing. So now they have Jalal on video saying he killed the presidents. Who cares if he’s actually telling the truth!

He races to Hayes to tell him what’s happened and in what language. Hayes is like “fuck, I need a moment,” and that’s when Zabel swoops in with his first draft racist speech and is like, “here ya go!” I’m sorry to say, but this actually seems realistic.

Saul arrives to the base where the special ops team is preparing to retrieve Max (and Carrie). They’re all huddled around a laptop screen opened to Hayes’ speech, which goes something like this:

We got the wrong Haqqani! Oops! Anyway, who’s ready for more war?

The reactions are “Can you believe this shit?” and “Oh, Christ,” which are both extremely relatable!

Linus is once again furious with Zabel.

Linus: What the actual fuck! Zabel: You weren’t here. Actually where were you? Aren’t you the Chief of Staff? Linus: You fucking idiot, we’re on a collision course with a nuclear power. Zabel: Don’t be such a drama queen. Pakistan will back down. Linus: No they won’t, dipshit. Also good job on making Jalal Haqqani a folk hero. He was a nobody 90 seconds ago. You’re pushing us into ANOTHER war that we can’t win. Zabel: See, that’s your problem, bro. You don’t think America can win any war. Anyway, I’m outie. Linus: We’re so fucked.

Saul and the special ops team fly over Carrie and Yevgeny’s location. Carrie tells Yevgeny that she can’t stay out here with him forever, and he’s like, “hmm, are you sure *wink*?” She thanks him and he takes position by his truck with his crew. This is the Carrie/Yevgeny equivalent of dropping someone off at home and waiting until you watch them walk through their front door before leaving.

Saul and the team touch down and retrieve Max’s body. Saul fills Carrie in on the pile of shit that’s happened in the last 48 hours. He hopes she has something to make it less shitty. She reveals she has a lead on the black box but doesn’t elaborate. Saul doesn’t ask any follow-up questions but says they’ll find it together, like old times. She agrees, but asks for no more bullshit about her loyalty, or Mike, or the FBI. She did what she had to do. He promises he’s on her side, but she doesn’t totally believe him.

They’re about to board the helicopter when one of the special ops team members requests to search Carrie. “What?” Carrie says, before realizing she’s surrounded by a special ops team carrying automatic weapons. Saul looks around in disbelief too. Carrie spots plastic cuffs, and it all feels suddenly like a trap. It escalates quickly from there:

Carrie pulls out her gun, quickly backing away, in Yevgeny’s direction. 

Saul tries his best to calm everyone down.

Yevgeny fires his gun to distract them.

Saul pleads with Carrie to come back, it’s all a misunderstanding.

“What, so we can work together?” she spits.

“Yes, I need you.”

“In fucking handcuffs!”

He says he didn’t know. She calls him a liar and runs back toward Yevgeny. Saul, rightfully livid, heads to the helicopter and asks whose genius idea this all was.

Yevgeny, ever the gentleman, opens the car door for Carrie. She turns back and glares at Saul, the perceived betrayal still a stinging wound (on top of everything else), before they drive off. The helicopter lifts off and Saul watches from above as Carrie and Yevgeny speed away. He has a look on his face not too unlike when he left Carrie in Moscow last season (and, come to think of it, this involves a lot of the same people). In the car, Carrie reveals to Yevgeny that she’s also been looking for the flight recorder and that she knows where it is.

Seriously though, something has palpably broken just now, possibly the last shred of trust left between Carrie and Saul. Carrie has been conditioned all season to distrust those who call themselves her friends. Now she’s actually lost her last remaining friend (in the world), bringing a devastating new literal meaning to the phrase “nothing left to lose.” That Carrie could so quickly get to a spot where her handgun is out and she’s ten seconds from Yevgeny’s car says a lot about the distrust and fear just simmering below the surface. That she didn’t hesitate to suspect Saul was in on it reveals just how broken and filled with resentment their relationship now is. And that Saul actually was on her side makes the end result that much more tragic.

#homeland #threnody(s) #an hyh recap #* #by: sara #homeland spoilers #this episode is .... fml

[tokumusume]

tokumusume’s list of best and worst movies and dramas watched in 2019:

There’s a new category this year. Inspired by kpopalypse, welcome the Honorable Mentions! Movies that weren’t exactly bad but also weren’t good. Movies and dramas are qualified to enter if I watched them for the first time this year, not that they were released this year. Click on ‘keep reading’~~

Best Movies:

1.      Parasite

Another masterpiece from the director of Snowpiercer (let’s pretend Okja never existed). A poor family con their way to a rich household. Choi Woo-Shik from The Witch (see below) is the eldest son and mastermind, fabulous as always. Definitely the best movie of this year. For me, movie of the decade.

2.      The Witch Part 1 The Subversion

This movie is amazing, hard to describe without spoilers. A perfect mix of Stranger Things and Hanna. Choi Woo-Shik can come to my house and kick my ass anytime. I can’t wait for part two.

3.      Death Trance

Visually stunning, kinda like Amemiya Keita’s style in early Garo or Mad Max. I wish the movie was longer and the characters were better fleshed out, Ryuen the monk and the little girl had so much potential... The most interesting thing about this movie is how sexualized the main male character is compared to the female ones, and apparently, the swords were designed to look like veiny penises (can’t find a source for this info), and yes, they do look like veiny penises. The final showdown is heavy with sexual energy. Have I already said that Ryuen deserved better? #RyuenRights

4.      Gintama 2: Rules are made to be broken

The barber shop scene is a fucking cinematic masterpiece. I never laughed so much like I did with this movie. The way it doesn’t take itself seriously, the meta jokes, everything is perfect. Even better than the first one.

5.      Kingdom

While I think that some fight scenes were way too long (like the bamboo forest one), the dynamics between Shin and Hyou/Eisei were highly entertaining, at least in my shipper eyes. I like that (SPOILER) the King of the Mountain People is a woman and not once they try to call her Queen. She is a King. Hashimoto Kanna is adorable as a Ten, Kanata Hongo does a great job as Eisei’s psycho brother, Sakaguchi Tak waves his sword around, the usual stuff but with added layers of dirt and sweat.

6.      Bravestorm

A movie I lovingly call “Japanese Pacific Rim”. Full of Kamen Rider stars (Hino Eiji! Misuzawa Haruka! That girl from Heisei Generations, the one with a sword! She has a sword in this as well!) and giant robots (god, I love giant robots!), I waited so much for this movie and it exceeded my expectations. I just wish I could’ve watched in theaters, it had a limited showing in my country.

7.      Twelve Suicidal Children

What begins as a murder mystery ends with a twist you won’t see coming. All of the actors are amazing, but special mention to Sugisaki Hana and that guy from that one boy group I forgot the name but can’t be bothered to Google.

8.      Gakkou Gurashi

Four girls and their teacher try to survive the zombie apocalypse trapped inside the school. This one destroyed me for days.

9.      Forest of Love

I’ve watched some Sono Sion movies but nothing prepared me for this. Be aware of extremely gory sequences and sensitive topics. Hinami Kyoko is so amazing as blue-haired, punk girl crush Taeko that I totally didn’t notice she was AkibaBlue in Akibaranger.

10.  The Host

After watching Parasite I decided to go on a Bong Joon Ho binge and watched this horror movie. Not as good as Snowpiercer and Parasite in my opinion but heart-wrenching nevertheless. The little girl is the star of the movie.

11.  The Hungry Lion

A story about the dangers of social media and slut-shaming. I want to punch Mizuishi Atom in the face.

12.  Cromartie High

A little absurd comedy about yakuza-style high school boys (played by middle-aged men lol) forming a club to battle aliens summoned by themselves just because. It made me laugh like a child. A hidden gem.

Honorable Mentions:

1.      River’s Edge

Depressing as fuck. Warning: the cats die. It’s not graphic but it’s traumatizing. Yoshizawa Ryo is a gay boy who sleeps with old men for money. There’s a graphic sex scene (not Yoshizawa, sadly) where my only thought was “That thing is gonna get stuck in there! Use a condom!” Can’t remember much from it except for these three scenes.

2.      The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Yamazaki Kento has the acting chops of a dead fish but it comes handy for playing a teen with psychic abilities and zero social skills. Hashimoto Kanna is one of the prettiest girls in Japan. Yoshizawa Ryo with white and blueish hair looks more like Sakata Gintoki than Oguri Shun in the Gintama live action. The end is a huge let down but the fun ride is worth it.

3.      Ano ko no, Toriko

Congratulations to Yoshizawa Ryo, he has FIVE movies in my list of favorite movies this year! This is to make up for crowning GIVER as the biggest waste of time of 2018, this list is totally not biased, lol. “Ano ko” could be just another romance movie but the (very) little insight into how the entertainment industry works and not focusing on school life made me love it. Poor Sugino Yosuke being left behind again, when will this boy get the main girl?

4.      Monstrum

It doesn’t reinvent the wheel but it’s pleasant enough to fill a rainy afternoon with a lot of blood and spilled guts. Hyeri of Girl’s Day is the heroine and Choi Woo Shik is the commander she falls in love with.

5.      Weirdo Go

I confess I watched this one just to see Ji Li (aka my snake son Nie Huaisang) dressed as a woman but it was enjoyable and not that problematic.

6.      Real - Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryu no Hi

Directed by the same guy that did “Creepy” and “Before we vanish”, there are lots of twists you won’t see coming. And a dinosaur. A fucking dinosaur.

7.      Tomodachi Game: The Final

The movie loses its focus halfway through then picks up again minutes before ending. Yoshizawa Ryo delivers again as the sadistic Yuuichi, much like his role in Gintama. The plot twists are the star of the movie.

8.     The Living Dead

Sorry Wen Ning. I saw the plot twist coming in the first 30 minutes of the movie, not very smart of the writer. His personality did a 180° turn for worse and I’ll demote the movie to an honorable mention for it. Gao Han is cute though, I would like to see him as a better character.

9.      Backstreet Girls

Some recycled scenes from the drama to situate the viewers, a completely new story for the movie, it is certainly funny and enjoyable, if you can get past the forced gender reassignment surgery background and transphobic jokes (you shouldn’t get past it btw). I like the soundtrack.

Best Dramas:

1.      The Untamed

Do I need to say more?

2.      The Tale of Nokdu

This Korean romance had everything to be a mess but it wasn’t!!! *claps* I don’t hate the main female character and the whole palace politics actually kept me interested until the end. The complete shift of atmosphere mid-season was strange at first but ultimately very welcomed.

3.      The Naked Director

Netflix original Japanese content is amazing. This one is a look at the life of a legendary porn director in the late 80s, I learned a lot about the history of Japanese porn and censorship (yay pixels!) and went looking for his, erm, works. Very graphic, 69/10 don’t recommend watching with people in the house.

4.      Channel wa Sonomama!

I don’t remember it well but it’s about a news station and what is like to be a journalist and it was very interesting and funny.

5.      SCAMS

Forgettable. Sugino Yosuke with black hair cons old people via phone calls.

Worst Movies and Dramas:

1.      The cat in their arms

The cats spend 90% of the movie in human forms, and halfway through it they simply abandon the cats’ plot to show a fucking long montage of a weird guy painting a picture of a nude girl. It’s also super creepy to see a grown-up man acting like a cat, getting belly rubs and eating cat food from a bowl. Yoshizawa needs to choose his roles more wisely.

2.      Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun

A waste of Suda Masaki’s talent. Can Japan stop casting Tsuchiya Tao already?

3.      Samurai Marathon

Almost two hours of dirty men running through a forest. Maybe Japanese History experts will enjoy it, because I certainly didn’t.

4.      Lady Vengeance

While there are legit great moments, I didn’t find this “classic” to be anything special. The animal cruelty was too much for me.

5.      Hot Gimmick

This movie makes Bohemian Rhapsody’s editing look like a work of art. There are more flashing cuts than a T-ARA music video. I have no idea who likes who, who’s banging who, what even are they saying. Too much poetic shit for my like. I wanted to see Shimizu Hiroya naked. I was bamboozled.

6.      The Divine Fury

While some parts were interesting, at the end I still don’t know if the protagonist is possessed by a demon (if yes, then why would he help a priest destroy his friends?) or if he was blessed by God when his father died and talked to him (the glowing hand thing, why and how??). The exorcism parts are really, really scary, or maybe I’m just a chicken, but I had to avert my eyes. The best (only) part is that the protagonists are hot. Hello Woo Do-Hwan, you can sacrifice me to Satan any time…

#tokumusume awards #2019 #Parasite #Gintama #The Untamed #The Tale of Nokdu #Yoshizawa Ryo #long post #jdrama #kdrama #jmovie #kmovie #cdrama #cmovie

[fereality-indy]

Parent Teacher Conference

This story came about because of a 'Who In The Couple Would Be' questionaire on Tumblr. This question was 'Who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent?'

------------------------------------

If you had told me at the beginning of the school year that it would have turned out like this I would have told you that you were crazy.

Emma was starting kindergarten and  there was a meet and greet for the parents and the teachers. I went ahead and showed up since Miss Lincoln, who had taught my brothers and I (heck, maybe even our dad), retired two years ago and this was only her replacements second year on the job. So as a responsible parent I went to check him out, I wasn’t gonna leave my lil princess in the hands of a stranger.

She is the best thing to happen to me. A surprise (I don’t see how anyone could call their bundle of joy an accident or a mistake) that happened to me a year out of high school. Her sperm donor was a guy I had met while working at dad’s lumber camp. He was a seasonal worker who had just enough charm to get my guard down but not enough smarts to keep from bragging to the guys at the camp (most of whom had known me since I was a toddler). And it got worse when my brothers heard about it. One resounding beat down and he skipped town. There was a rumor going around that dad had introduced him to the camp’s wood chipper, but it was one of my jobs back then to inspect and maintain all the camp’s equipment. It was still  as dirty as usual, but completely gore free.

A couple weeks later I found out I was pregnant and eight months after that Emma was born. At three foot tall and with her strawberry blonde hair, mischievous smile, and freckled face, Emma is my leprechaun. She drives her grandfather crazy though, because she would rather draw picture of a tree than climb one. But he still spoils her rotten as his first grandchild. Besides that, Gus’ lil one is two and already trying to climb anything he can reach. So there, he can take over the family legacy. My lil girl can be an artist if she wants to, she already has been dragging me to the new craft store that opened in the mall last year.

But enough about that, let’s get back to the story. I took the last available time to meet the new teacher, had to really thanks to work. I no longer work at the logging camp, nowadays I work for the local forestry department thanks to dad’s friend the Mayor. We got there just as Tate McGuket and his son were leaving. He’s gonna be an interesting one for this teach to handle, he seems to take after his grandfather some. Smart as a whip and cuckoo for coco puffs.    

Walking into the class room I looked around. While the room was still painted in the same color scheme as the rest of the school, it somehow looked warmer, more inviting. And around the room was art of various fairy tale characters. But of all the change that had happened to this old room since I was last in it, the most striking is it’s occupant. Shoulder length, wavy brown hair. Half rim glasses that just barely obscure his milk chocolate brown eyes. And an interesting taste in fashion, if what he was wearing today was an example. He had on a pair of khaki carpenter pants and a red and white floral Hawaiian shirt. I could tell they were carpenter pants because he actually had a hammer hanging in it’s loop. He apologized and explained that he was taking time in between meetings to finish up the decorating and he liked to keep his tools at the ready. I responded that I used to keep an ax on me for the same reason.

We bantered on like that for a couple of minutes before we got down to the matter at hand. He went over the daily schedules; nap time, lunch time, and snack time. He pointed to a small refrigerator in the corner and said that snacks were supposed to be provided by the parents, but he will be keeping some fruit and veggies packs and juice boxes in class for those who are unable to provide their own. He believed that no child should go hungry if there was anything he could do about it. Dude scored some major points with me right there and I asked if there would be any way to donate some goods to the cause. He chuckled and with a smile so warm it nearly melted the wax apple he had on his desk said he would be glad of any help I would offer.

He then went on to first explain that there was only three students in class from Gravity Falls proper. the rest were from Provost, the next town over. Then he went to the curriculum, talking about how he liked to read various fairy tales to the class during nap time for those who don’t want to sleep. As he went on I noticed Emma was taking an  interest in the various art he had on the wall. When he got to covering the alphabet, that caught her attention and she hopped up onto her seat and belted out the alphabet song in rapid fashion. He gave her an applause and said that he may just have her help him teach that to the rest of the class. He loved her enthusiasm. This earned him a squeal of delight and hug that he readily accepted. Then she noticed he had a set of MonsterMon Plushies in one corner of the class room and asked if she could go play with them while we talk. With another chuckle he told her to go have fun.

While Emma was having a blast with the stuffed animals, he finished up on the curriculum. He then asked if I had any questions. So I asked why he chose a small town like Gravity Falls as his first teaching assignment and he explained how he had two great uncles who run a tourist stop just outside of town and how he and his sister moved up here to help keep track of them as they got older. It was my turn to chuckle then. I told him that with his last name, I should have put two and two together, I used to work at that tourist trap back when I was a teen and knew both of the Stans. Once that he mentioned it I did see a little family resemblance. He was slimmer than either of them, but he definitely had the Stans’ jaw line. Looking back on it I guess that maybe I started getting interested back then, but I always was a stubborn one. Some how though I think Emma noticed my interest before I did even.

Over the next couple weeks Emma was always happy to go to school, she had made friends with most of her class. Then one Friday morning she seemed reluctant to go to school. When I asked her why, she told me that one of the kids from out of town was picking on her over her freckles. It was getting to her. My first response was to tell her to just deck him, but I knew that would only worsen the matter. So I told her to tell him that it was bugging her and if that didn’t work to tell me later and I would set up a meeting with Mr. Pines over the matter.

Well apparently the kid started in on her as she got to class, but this time Mr. Pines caught him. He explained that words could hurt and that anyone could be picked on. When the boy exclaimed that there was no way that Mr. Pines could have been picked on, that he was too nice for that, he told them that he was picked on for most of his childhood until he decided to take his torment and wear it as a badge of honor. He brushed his bangs back and showed them that he had a birthmark on his forehead that resembled the big dipper. He told them that when his classmates had learned the name they began calling him Dipper. It wasn’t until his family started calling him that, that he not only accepted it but grew to love the nickname. He told them that except for a few places, like at school, he still went by the name Dipper to this day. The kid apologized to her and they became friends by the end of class.  I got most of this from Emma when she got home, but Mr. Pines did end up calling to check up on her and to make sure I knew of the incident. We talked for a little bit after I thanked him for the report, and apparently I was watched during the conversation. I think Emma was already plotting something even then.

That Saturday we ended up getting lunch at Yumberjacks in celebration of her good report. After we sat down Emma saw that he was eating at a table on the other side of the dining area. She was about to call out to him when we saw that he was joined by a young lady that I could tell was probably the sister he had mentioned, but Emma had not heard that part of our conversation. She stopped herself from calling out to him and after a moment she went back to eating. She had recognized Mr. Pines sister as the owner of her favorite craft shop and suddenly on Sunday she needed a new jar of brown finger paint.

When we got to the store, Miss Pines was behind the counter. Emma started talking to her like normal. I could see the family resemblance now that I knew to look for it. After a couple of moments, Emma said she had drawing that she wanted to show Mabel, as he name tag proclaimed, so she could see if she liked it and if I could I go get the paint for her. I left only after Mabel said she would be glad to check out the work of another artist and swore she would not let Emma out of her sight. I recently learned Emma had showed Mabel a drawing of me and her brother and asked Mabel what her “attentions” were towards Mr. Pines. Mabel apparently loved it and had to fight to keep from laughing so loud that I would hear. She explained to Emma that she was his sister and that she liked her moxie. She then told her that she had heard about Emma from her brother. And that she had also heard about me, also. Mabel had been wanting to meet me, because her matchmaker-senses kept going off whenever her brother had talked about me. These two began conspiring to fix us up then and there.

The next thing I knew we would begin to run into Mr. Pines everywhere. He would be at the grocery store whenever we would go pick up supplies. And inevitably either he or he and his sister would be at a restaurant when we would get there or they would show up shortly afterwards. Another thing I learned recently was that Emma had put Mabel’s number in her Lil Firefly tm phone her Aunt Tambry had gotten her for her last birthday. They would text and plan these little encounters.

Eventually we started sharing tables to save the wait staff the hassle of busing two separate tables when one would do. More often than not the conversations would end up being Mabel and Emma talking about some cartoon or an art project of some type, while Dipper (he had finally told me in person to call him that during one of these meals) and I talked amongst ourselves. It was so refreshing to talk to someone my own age who was into bad cinema as much as I was. It was weird, here was someone I had not met prior to last September and it was beginning to feel like I had known him most of my life.

It was apparently so obvious that something was happening that even Lee had learned of it up in Portland. He wanted “all the details about my new beau”. I tried to tell him that we weren’t dating. We just ate dinner together a lot and had plans to watch some old B-movies while Tambry was babysat Emma. He laughed and told me that “that sounds like dating to me”. That fact that he was able to confirm it hit me, I was dating my daughter’s teacher. And you know what, it didn’t bug me as much as I thought it would. Dipper was sweet, handsome, intelligent, and a complete gentleman. I’m not sure I could do better if I tried. We started officially dating the day after Emma graduated from kindergarten. I came home from that first date to find a ‘new’ piece of art on her picture wall, it was the folded picture that Emma had shown Mabel all those months ago when they first conspired to get us together..

I still need to thank them…              

#gravity falls #wendy corduroy #dipper pines #wendip #au

[angel-princess-anna]

APA’s Take on Downton 2019

First of all, whoever had the brilliant idea to have a 10 minute recap of the show before the film and include *those* scenes from S4E3 like.... it did not set a great tone for me. I had warning thanks to some awesome friends who messaged me, but yeah.

Anyway though here’s my very opinionated thoughts. For reference, here are the A/B spoilers.

tl;dr: this film did not give me anything I wanted, and really wasn’t about the characters, it was about making money. It felt like it was a farce, not a sequel. And Anna was grossly out of character. S6CS remains my ending.

This is my personal opinion, after one viewing so might be a bit knee-jerk; super long; contains major spoilers:

(sorry I get really rambly and repetitive towards the end)

One of the main overall issues was that the pacing was... bad. Like the TV show has short scenes but this was like... on speed. And a lot happened off screen and was just mentioned. Everything was very, very rushed. And it felt sloppy to me.

And it wasn’t so much that it was because there were too many storylines. Because there barely were any personal storylines!! And’s what was lacking. The heart of the show isn’t Downton the house; it’s the characters.

Something that I’ve always thought about the show, is that your opinion on an episode or season really does depend on your favorite characters (and/or why you like the show overall). And it’s the same for the film. It’s an ensemble show and that’s the nature of it. An add-on movie therefore needs to appeal to fans of all and it does not imho.

I’m an Anna x Bates fan, and a downstairs fan. And I went in thinking, well this is gonna be pretty classist to believe that all the servants would still want to be there in 1927 (the year however is not that clear in the film). But you don’t even really have time to think about what should be going on,  because it’s such a rush of a bit of preparing and then the weekend of the royals being there. There was no time for organic personal storylines, more or less. Thomas got a tad but tbh, less than I thought he would?? Daisy and Andy are apparently engaged but don’t even act like it? 

The film isn’t a true sequel to me because it’s not showing us where these characters would go with their lives after the show. The plot was chosen first and it’s obvious. 

And that creates a feeling of disconnect that makes the film seems isolated from the TV show. Like it wanted to be stand alone, but also had to juggle using established characters. But it could not honor the 52 episodes before it. And I mean, you can’t cram everything people loved about the TV show into 2 hours, no matter what they all say. However, the most major issue is that the film is plot driven, whereas the show was character driven.

As I feared, the downstairs characters were caricatures. They more or less all shared one plot, or facets of it (barring those mentioned above). Even upstairs really didn’t have as much going on either personal life wise other than Edith and Tom (well and the new characters, but it shouldn’t be about them at all). But that is a fraction of the cast. This is not at all Downton Abbey to me, with several interwoven plots. There wasn’t 22 plots lines, nor 11 even if divide them into one plot per couple.

I primarily wanted to see Anna and Bates with their son, their much longed for child. But he was barely in it for five seconds, with only one of his two scenes actually with his parents, which undermines his symbolic importance in the TV show. 

I really did fear Anna being out of character and concocting a stupid scheme. And then it turned out to be worse. She drugged someone and blackmailed another. W T F. It’s like Fellowes forgot who she is. Like okay she wasn’t drugged in S4 but that is really disturbing all the same, and why would Anna blackmail someone after she herself has suffered at the hands of it (i.e. Vera).

And of course while I am super super glad that Anna and Bates are happy and not being traumatized, I also would have like a sense that they overcame a lot to get this point, and that vibe is just so missing that it makes it seem like their film counterparts don’t have their TV show plots as a backstory. Hell, we barely actually saw that they were happy, given that their child was in one scene with them??? Where was the “devotedly raising their son” that the TV Guide promised???

I mentioned this in the spoiler post, but you know S3CS and the Marvelous scene? Why didn’t I get something similar with Bates toasting Anna??? You can be lighthearted and still be poignant. And that is what is missing. It wasn’t poignant with them at all. 

I mean it makes sense that it’s not tragic and of course I didn’t want it to be. But it lacks depth and cheats the characters. Having a fun romp is nice, as is levity, but DA also needs to be poignant, or it's meaningless and superficial.

Like the happy part with them is really that they saved the day and the honor of Downton. Yeah nope. I had thought I was gonna complain about how they put the honor of Downton first before their child, but because of the short amount of days covered in the film, it kinda makes sense as to why we didn’t really see him but it’s that Fellowes put honor of Downton first before their child when he wrote this plot. We could gotten at least had a line of Anna saying to Bates, ugh the royal visit means less time with our kid.

“It’s got everything all the fans want”, except not only did I not get Anna pregnant again nor a whiff of a hotel (which I knew were pipe dreams but when you tell me the show is over and I can dream up my headcanons... LET THEM HAVE THEIR DREAMS!!), but I didn’t even get to actually see my favorite character again. Fellowes changed her personality to fit his plot, and it stinks. This is what happens when you make a plot first for what was a character driven TV show.

I cannot understand why Fellowes thought, ah yes, the favorite storyline people had of Anna's was Anna Bates Investigates. I'll pepper it with "fight fire with fire" and then make her... drug someone and commit blackmail??? (and remember why she said that line in S1E5? because someone was directly happening to the man she loved. Yeah). Instead you know, showing her happy with her family. The Anna at the end of the TV show is not the same Anna as S1 or S3. She had to overcome so much. While of course I don’t want overt references because I want her to have healed and moved forward with her life, film!Anna seems to have no knowledge of her past.

Why is this weird scheme Anna’s plot in the first place? It’s even worse than I thought it would be??? Because Anna has always been labeled a Good Person and also the “moral center” were we supposed to think that what she did was a good thing? Did he confuse her with O’Brien? Do all lady’s maids need to scheme and Anna hasn’t done enough of that??

And when you have been through a lot of horrible traumatic things, you want more mundane stories. Not some weird out of character mess. I’m very defensive of TV!Anna, but her two subplots are being rightfully panned.

Even though Brendan was also doing a play during filming, Bates managed to be in it decent amount. He didn’t really have plot beyond being in on the one scheme of Anna’s but tbh I didn’t need him drugging people either.

I know I ought to be grateful that Brendan was able to be in the film and that Bates is like... live. But tbh I feel like I deserve more than that. They could have made better use of Brendan’s time.

Also having BB (who I will still refer to as that because again, I don’t like the film’s name choice for him, and clearly he had no canon given name before now) in only one scene with his parents and then the gallery scene with the nanny like. Nope.

Again, I get Brendan’s limited availability but I really could have used A LOT more Bates Family moments, considering how long it took them to have a child. And... not like Joanne wasn’t available and they could have had Anna doting on him more. It’s just the one scene for a hot hot second. Like we had more of him in the end of S6CS and he was literally just born. YEAH.

Like Anna went through a lot to have him, and I get that filming with kids can be a struggle but for a woman who once said “when a woman loves a child, it must stay with her,” she might like... spend more time with her kid than work on her schemes. Fellowes basically stripped her of the one dream she got fulfilled after all the trauma, along with her morals. What she did here is not strength, let me say that.

It’s one thing to shove off the Crawley kids, but it’s for not a couple who not only longed for a child, but also is working class, and who we have always known would take an active role in their child’s life...

But yeah the lack of shippy scenes, like Fellowes wtf, married couples can be romantic, and I got no kiss. I have to wonder if that one still is from a deleted scene. 

I mean I love teamwork stuff! But with A/B you can't just give me that and say "here have this it's shippy, haha #TeamBates!", (Team Bates has three people on it now though!!) and the film is lacking actual romantic moments or family moments. And a lot of Anna’s plot happened off screen so it’s not like we even saw him discussing it with her???

And sorry Mary, but one of those scenes with her could have been swapped to Anna with her child. And the friendship lines were so... again... just there, when it could have been really nice. And the scene where she mentions staff leaving to Anna and I’m like... can Anna and her family leave and get their hotel? No?? Did they give up on that dream??

(On a shallow note, the wigs were horrendous in this. Mary’s bangs/fringe was horrid, and I’ve already voiced my opinion about how I don’t think Anna would ever get a bob and damn that wig was so wiggy. Pro tip: if you have to use a wig, don’t cheat and use ones you just plop on an actress’s head. I think the hair was a sign of how out of character Anna was gonna be in this film.)

I get that the more mundane things isn't as exciting for the casual audience for a film, but if Fellowes wanted this to be sequel to the TV show, it can't be some throwaway thing. He has include furthering the characters' lives. And instead he stuck them in stasis, and forced them into these plots because he came up with it first versus writing what was logically next for them.

And that’s because Fellowes didn’t want many status quo changes (along with wanting it more stand alone and time constraints). I honestly am unsure what the scene with Violet is really saying. At a different time I would have said that if Violet died, that was the end, but maybe it was saying that Downton the franchise will continue without Maggie Smith as Downton the estate will without Violet (also that scene with Violet and Mary was the few that had depth in the film; Thomas could have been deeper imho but at least he had something).

I get that some people don’t mind filler, but the TV show overall was a serial, and if this is the new ending, I need more than filler. A/B got a baby out of the finale, what did they get out of this? Just stasis. That’s not an ‘ending’, time really hasn’t moved on, has it?

Clearly, the issue is that S6CS was written as the end, and the film only has that feeling with Violet and her health. The Bateses needed to leave and get the hotel. I guess maybe Baxley isn’t canon in Fellowes’ mind after all, but at least figure out what is going on with Daisy and Andy??

I have said this approximately 1 million times, but what I love about DA is the characters. If you aren't gonna build off of 6 series of backstory and go with the organic plot of the characters' personal lives, then no thank you. This film fails to be Downton Abbey to me. It fails to be a continuation. 

Anna and Bates deserve more children, they deserve the hotel, they deserve the world after all the pain and suffering. They deserve all their dreams. You all know I love their son so so much. But what they got in the film was not enough. This was crumbs of what could have been.

Things could be worse but this was... not. good. And I fear that any subsequent films, if they were to do them (without Violet/Maggie??)... would also not have an sense of an ending. Let alone an ending. Which S6CS had, and was super poignant. The TV show left me in a good fulfilled place. This is a tacked on add on doesn’t do that at all for me.

And if Fellowes is holding off on certain things for future sequels, then when does it end? Do Anna and Bates only ever get the hotel if Joanne says no to sequel to the film (it would be easy for Brendan to say no)? Are we still gonna end up with more shallow plots that don't advance the characters' personal lives? Because when would Fellowes know to do that if there's literally never an ending again? BB came at the end of the show because Fellowes stalled on it on purpose for their child to come at the end. What was the end anyway. The film wasn't the future that they were set up to have.

I get that there was only two hours and you can only do so much. But that also proves that there was no reason to do this film if there wasn’t that many established loose ends to wrap up. And what I consider loose ends (e.g. A/B and the hotel), were ignored.

While yes, the TV show did continue because it was successful i.e. money, Fellowes had an idea because it hadn't ended yet. A/B potentially will never have more children or leave DA and get the hotel all because of greed. We could dream of those things still where the TV show let off. Now... I don’t even know. And it really upsets me that they took that from them. And from me. BB was my reward for staying when I should have raged quit (i.e. S4E3). There’s more to Anna and Bates’ lives than just being loyal servants. Quite a lot. So it’s kinda insulting.

But we are supposed to be happy they are alive! Be happy no more trauma! But I mean, it cost Anna her characterization. I didn’t suffer though several years of pain and misery for the movie to just be filler and OOC. I’m going back to the S6CS as my ending where Anna was actually in character.

If this was a film to a totally unrelated to Downton Abbey that Fellowes wrote, with a whole cast of characters that never existed before in some other castle, it would be a glitz fun romp (that’s light on human drama) but you just cannot force characters with 52 episodes of development and exposition into these "roles" for this plot driven film.

But for me, this is not at all what I wanted if we had to have this film.

#da 2019 #da movie spoilers #film: anna #film: bat #film: anna x bates #film: baby bates #film: my meta

[marigorbital]

Dumb Ducks in the Water: Part 14

IT’S FINALLY HERE. Three actual years later, but it’s here.

A lot has happened in my life for the past three years and, to make a long excuse short, I was doing a lot of life questioning and dealing with events. And once I got out of my dark cloud, I decided to return to this fic while returning with my own writing projects. So I’m here to finish this fic, though I’m not sure how long it will take (I hope within a year?)--I’m just promising not to go MIA again, is all.

Anyway, some notes on this chapter:

- Listen, I did NOT plan on returning when the 3rd season of Free! came. This is pure coincidence, honestly. That being said, SO MANY THINGS HAVE CHANGED. Side characters have personalities now... Isuzu exists (I’ll have to, at some point, change Yukiko’s name)... People are in college now... Anyway, I want to remind folks that I started this fic in 2014/2015 and I’m trying to stay true to that, so anything that doesn’t match up with the current season is kind of like oh well for me.

- This chapter features tweets. Yeah. I used some website that make them look like they were written in 2009, lol, but we’re just gonna go with it. Also, want to give a shoutout to my best friends, who spent like five hours coming up with the twitter handles.

- Speaking of which, trigger warning possibly: cyber bullying (?) and rumors. Now, I generally try to keep this fic lighthearted, so I am also touching the mentioned subjects in a lighthearted manner for the most part, but I also know that if what happens in this chapter ever happened to me in high school, I would have been mortified. So I tried to respect that and take it a little seriously, which also pertains to the rest of the plot--but this is still Dumb Ducks. No PSAs, just some self-awareness.

- I am a little worried the quality is not up to par with this chapter because it’s been a while and I just wanted to get this chapter over with because I’d rather write other scenes, so I’m super sorry if it’s only sort of funny/cute or too serious. It’ll be better next chapter! (Which hopefully comes out by December?)

Anyway.

Start from the beginning or go to the handy-dandy tag page and pick up where you left off.

Enjoy.

------

It was still Tuesday.

But worse yet, it was time for him to face the swim team.

And to be honest, if you asked Nitori, that was kind of bullshit.

There he stood, observing the pool of sharks in the distance just waiting for him to make a move. A whole lot of damage had been done in the past eight hours since Rin shouted a profound WHAT THE FUCK at Nitori and Momo’s dorm doorway, which immediately stirred up a banana telephone game of epic proportions throughout Samezuka Academy. Pair that with the fact that both of the dimwits were publicly announced to head to the principal’s office together and that something amiss had happened in the cafeteria last night—and boy, oh boy, were the rumors trending the social sphere like something straight out of Nitori’s nightmares. They had gone viral, top of the chart gossip among their peers, who were all too ready to roast the couple into infamy.

It all started with a tweet.

Some rando on the basketball team had overheard Rin catching Nitori and Momotarou getting caught in an explicit position at their dorm, and what with the rumors of Samezuka’s swim team having more tea than a J-drama now stirring, this caught the attention of several bored teenage boys before classes had even started.

The sports news network was simple. Basketball passed the rumors around to get some details. One teammate asked who found out about this and were replied to with the captain caught them. Another asked, which one’s the captain?? And another replied, the guy who cries all the time.

Once the rumors spread over to other sports teams at the academy, the Samezuka Swim Team Thot Conspiracy began. It was the volleyball team who mentioned that both Nitori and Mikoshiba were sent to the principal’s office that same day, as sourced by a classmate in Nitori’s homeroom. A peculiar detail because how did the school find out about what the couple was doing in their bedroom? Did someone rat them out?

Then someone on the tennis team who was also in the culinary club mentioned, I heard they got caught doing shit in the cafeteria.

Cue the controversy.

This made folks on the baseball team wonder just how many times the two had done it and bets were being taken about when the relationship started. Someone on the bicycle team hashtagged the gossip thread as #bombezuka, which set off a flurry of well-intentioned, damage control tweets from students who didn’t want the reputations of Aiichirou Nitori and Momotarou Mikoshiba to get tarnished.

Things like who cares if they’re banging and let them live in PEACE to they’re not gay and who are we even talking about flooded social media circles as the rumor spread outside of Samezuka’s sports clubs and into the general student body. Did things get out of control? Naturally. Details were being made up, people weren’t entirely sure who was involved in the cafeteria fucking, and lavish erotic assumptions about who had the biggest dick energy on the Samezuka swim team were battling it out for all of this side of Japan’s internet to see.

One person assumed the captain (Rin) was angry because he was in a secret love affair with “the silver twink” or something. Another person insisted, Mikoshiba-san has been bragging about being with Nitori-san since last weekend. Another student saw them nuzzling faces on the metro train, claimed they were on a date. Oh, definitely, said another, saw them on the beach making out.

Eventually someone had the nerve to try to confirm some things with the swim team by messaging Toru Iwashimizu, who only responded:

But because Iwashimizu had responded, the #bombezuka thread had popped up on the rest of the swimming team’s Twitter feeds, who righteously had mixed reactions of freaking out to defend their teammates’ honor and freaking out because their suspicions had finally been confirmed.

To no one’s surprise, Nagisa Hazuki caught wind of the frenzy, despite being from another school entirely.

And with Rin Matsuoka’s name mixed in with the rumors, it did not take long before six degrees reached his younger sister Gou, who could not believe what had unfurled throughout the day without any comment by her brother. In a desperate attempt to get him to notice the Twitter storm, she tweeted:

The only silver lining of the tweetastrophe was that at least no one was being inherently meanspirited about the potential lust blossoming between Nitori and Momotarou, which was partially due to the swimming team’s notoriety. On paper, sure, the swim team was the pride and joy of the Samezuka Academy, but that’s not why they were famous among their peers. They were famous because the rest of the school viewed the swim team as a group of guys obsessed with swimming. They did nothing but swim. The whole point of the indoor swimming pool was for the team to practice even during the winter—when they didn’t even have to swim—or whenever it rained.

Barely anyone knew anything about the students in the swim team, so many folks figured they had the stock personalities of a school of fish. All going for the same goal to be a professional athlete and not much else. They were untouchable; their schedules surrounding practices, training camps, and swim meets, with not much room for dating in between. The only other thing people knew about them was their annual tradition of hosting a maid café at their school’s cultural festival, which no one could reasonably explain.

That was it. Listen, people figured if there was ever going to be a scandal coming from the swim team, it was probably going to be about some guy shooting up steroids in the locker room or wearing unapproved swimsuits for better aerodynamics in competitions or maybe even something crazy like the students were all brainwashed and manufactured into disciples of Poseidon himself to carry on the legend of Samezuka forever. They weren’t known for actual drama, not even while people heard about Rin Matsuoka swimming for some other school’s team halfway through a competition for some reason last year (that was weird, but okay) or even this year when some folks whispered about Sousuke Yamazaki having a hurt shoulder and, like, that was sad, but he still swam in the championship, so other students figured it wasn’t so bad. Hell, if you even heard about those two so-called incidents, you had to be real close to the swim team—and the fact of the matter was, what happened in Samezuka’s swim team generally stayed with the swim team.

So, when rumors spread about last year’s swim team captain’s little brother possibly dating this year’s captain’s ex-roommate, who some said might be next year’s captain, too, things got a little bit juicy.

To the student body of the Samezuka Academy, this was like finding out the royals were having incestuous affairs behind the castle doors, which got people thinking: maybe the reason no one had ever heard of the Samezuka swim team dating anyone outside of school was because maybe the swim team was dating… each other.

Yet, while folks were reveling in the swim team’s supposed love triangle plot twists, it was all at the expense of Aiichirou Nitori’s dignity. People were quick to forget that. It was one thing to be teased by his teammates about possibly dating Momotarou, but to witness his reputation get warped into being the promiscuous sexpot darling of the swim team was a level of humiliation Nitori had never known. He read tweet after tweet, seeing his name become the butt of a thousand jokes by students who he had never heard of, let alone spoken to.

It was a wild exchange. There were positive messages at first that called him cute, saying no surprise he’s dating someone, remembering him as the second-year breaststroke swimmer, saying how quiet in school he was, saying how small he was, saying well, if he’s still on the swim team, he must be good, right? They said he must be flexible, then mentioned Momo and Rin and Sousuke and Seijuro and damn near any teammate people saw him with at some point during the school year. They got more invasive, calling him relay boy, and assumed he was experienced, assumed he was bottom, assumed he was easy.

He cried about this, locked his dorm room and wept at his desk as he used his laptop to delete his Twitter and turn all his other social media accounts private before the gossip switched platforms. And once it was done and he could finally use his phone again without notifications stalling the system, Nitori stared at his last text message, one from Sousuke that read, emergency meeting at the pool now.

There stood Aiichirou Nitori at the entrance of the indoor swimming pool, with eyes puffed red and swollen, just like his ego.

“I hate this,” he muttered, his voice hoarse.

No one wore their swimsuits, which was good because like hell was Nitori going to do some goddamn laps after all the bullshit he went through today. As he sauntered down the gym in his hoodie and sweatpants, he looked down at the tile floor and listed the day’s events in his head. He woke up at 5:30 in the morning, broke into the cafeteria to smuggle in paper cranes, got caught, kissed Momo, had a nice breakfast, kissed Momo again but in his underwear so Rin could catch them—and thus the downward spiral set off. Today was the first day he started his first relationship. He should have been happy. It should have been a good day, really. But all Nitori felt was tired.

He was so, so tired.

“Honestly, fuck ‘em,” said Toru Iwashimizu, who sat at the edge of the pool with his feet dipped in the water. “Summer break is coming up anyway. They’re going to forget all about this.”

Most of the swim team sat down on the floor as a huddled group, with a few teammates just off to the side by the pool edge or by the wall. Nitori couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with anyone, knowing what had been rumored, but he saw someone approaching him and stepped back.

“Nitori-senpai?” whispered Momotarou, still in his school uniform. Not because he couldn’t get into their dorm room to change clothes, but because he chose not to.

“Where were you?” asked Nitori. He looked up at Momo then, pointing an incredulous glance at his manic kouhai, and didn’t care if anyone noticed their confrontation.

There was no question that Nitori-senpai looked like a wreck. His eyes were bloodshot, his nose and lips cracked at the irritated dry patches he must have wiped too many times, and his skin dulled from exhaustion. Once he found out about all the rumors, Momo’s first reaction was to go straight to his dorm room and talk with Nitori, but when he heard his senpai’s sobbing and how obviously hurt he was, his next impulse was to stop the madness. For the past twenty minutes, Momotarou went to several sports teams and people whose names he recognized in the tweeting threads and made a small statement to each of them in person. He needed to come up with a better solution, he knew that, but it was all he could think of for now.

He told them, you have hurt someone I care about.

“I was trying to fix this,” he told Nitori, even though he also knew the concept of fixing their shattered reputations might have been impossible by now.

“How could you possibly fix this?”

“Oy, Ai,” interjected Rin, who like the rest of the swim team had been taking note of Nitori’s dejected state. “That’s what we’re all trying to do now. Come up with a way to fix this mess.”

Fix messes, huh, Nitori thought. It seemed like he was always caught in some mess that needed to be fixed, at least for the past four days. Eventually the escalation must stop and crash, that’s what he was learning. He just never thought it would crash on him.

Nitori looked up to evaluate the rest of the team, taking note of their worried yet puzzled expressions as they looked back at him. He saw Minami and Uozumi sitting up against the wall, their lips pursed as if holding back their own commentary until they felt safe to do so. Off to the side, where most of the team sat, lied Nakagawa on his back and yet he averted his attention up at Nitori, then began to sit up when he noticed Nitori staring down at him. Iwashimizu took his feet out of the water and turned toward Nitori, sitting cross-legged and cross-armed. They looked guilty, or maybe Nitori just wanted them to feel that way. He wanted to blame them for their casual teasing as some sort of fuel for the rumor fire, even if he couldn’t prove it as the catalyst to the day’s events.

There was a moment when he wanted to blame Rin for shouting so loud that morning, for getting involved, for being so known at school. It didn’t last long, though, because even with everything that had happened, Nitori couldn’t muster up the nerve to blame his senpai for caring about him and his reckless behavior. As he looked Rin directly in the eyes, Nitori noticed the accountability Rin felt for his part of the scandal, how much of a captain he looked during this crisis—if you could call it that, Nitori wondered, feeling dumb. God, he felt so dumb, standing dead center at an emergency swim team meeting—a meeting—over rumors about him fucking—fucking—Momo.

Over fucking Momo.

When it came to Momo, his anger was complicated. It wasn’t the rage of someone who felt betrayed or even the kind of frustration someone felt because of how stupid their friend was. His fury was much more personal, a fury that made him obsess over every bad mistake he made in the past few days because of Momo’s whims and how any sane person would have said no, would have said the line was being crossed, would have realized they were setting themselves up for a messy catastrophe, but not him. Truth was, as Nitori realized it after sobbing at his desk, that he was, in a way, having fun. And the reason he was mad was because it had been spoiled.

He looked back at Momo and weakly raised his hand with his fingers twitching in frustration, pulling the air as he pulled his thoughts together.

“Nitori-senpai,” said Momo, who stepped closer ready to accept any punishment he was about to be given. “I’ll do whatever it takes to fix this.”

Yeah, he got anxious. Yeah, what they were doing was stupid.

But it was fun.

Nitori got mad because he hated how everyone wanted to rewrite his memories. They weren’t there watching the sunset at the beach with Momo while eating ice cream after a day of dancing and shooting water guns. They weren’t there going into downtown to shop for origami paper and eating lunch while binge-watching anime in their dorm room, just hanging out together and enjoying each other’s company for like twelve hours straight. They weren’t there eating breakfast in a little kitchen shop, planning dates and dodging bashful glances on the morning of their first kiss. They had no idea how much of a big deal it was, how it felt, that first time. All they had was this idea of who they were—just a couple of zany kids, off to the side, doing nothing important, just messing around. Who were they to try to tell Nitori the story of (maybe) the first time he fell in love?

Momo and his big mouth, his stupid ideas, his dumb heart.

Nitori dropped his hand. He took one step forward and plopped his head onto Momo’s chest, letting out a deep sigh. First day of a relationship and he was mad. God, he felt so dumb.

“Is it worth all this?” he said to Momo. “How long are we going to hide this secret?”

This secret, of course, referred to the surprise party they were planning, which had clearly become the bane of their existence. What started out as a prank turned sentimental gesture had wildly spun out of a control as the basis of their public outing for all to jest—and there was still another half of the week to go through before it was even supposed to happen.

Yet, given the rumor situation, when the swim team heard “secret,” a slight misunderstanding prompted folks to speak up.

“Oh, well, you don’t have to hide anymore, Nitori-san,” said Minami from the back, a little preemptively. “We’re totally cool with it.”

“Uh,” Momo stuttered, looking down at Nitori, who merely closed his eyes and sighed further. “That’s not—”

“That’s right, Ai,” said Rin. “We’ll make sure this doesn’t get out of control.”

Sousuke also chimed in with a supportive, “You’re not alone.”

And while it was sweet how quickly the Samezuka Swim Team turned into the Momo-Ai Defense Squad, hearing the phrase you’re not alone had channeled the exact reason Nitori was furious in the first place. He wasn’t alone, was quite prophetically forced to not be alone—when that’s what he wanted. He gripped Momo’s shirt, tugged down at the neckline as his silent call for freedom, and whispered into Momo’s ear, “Fix this.”

As more teammates spoke up to lend their support, it dawned on Momotarou that despite the fact that there was no real plan on how to come out as a couple since they were originally just rolling with the team’s own suspicions, this was probably not it. This was not how anything was supposed to go. He wrapped his arms around Nitori, feeling his senpai give in the embrace and start to choke up. Things had gone too far over nothing and no amount of white lies could change the fact that Momo, frankly, messed up.

“Stop,” he announced, then groaned as he gave in to surrender. “We were just trying to plan a party.”

Huh?

Even Sousuke, who was helping plan the party, wondered why the flustered ginger had snapped out and revealed the party plans. Collectively, no one on the team could tie the connection between Momo and Ai’s relationship outing and a… party? Unless, maybe it was a coming out party? Were they gonna be that elaborate about announcing their relationship? Wouldn’t that be a little much? Was that even a thing?

“What are you talking about?” asked Rin.

But the truth had to come out, and so with Nitori still in his arms, Momo exasperatedly confessed, “It started with the bread, but then you saw the bread, so then we couldn’t use it anymore, but I didn’t want to give up on—well, see, I was trying to plan a surprise because, come on, look at this pool, it’s so big! Like, how am I supposed to be at this school and not put stuff in it, so then why not origami cranes? No one can get mad at origami cranes—because they’re beautiful—and it’s barely a prank if there’s 5000 origami cranes—I mean, that’s practically art—like, honestly, I think it’d even be a good idea for the summer festival, just putting it out there because I’ve been working really hard on making them, you can ask Yamazaki-senpai, who—actually—is the reason we started planning a party. Yeah, ugh, because it was just a really good idea and we couldn’t explain why we are on the beach on top of each other—but nothing happened! We weren’t even thinking about that yet! We were just having a good time and then Yamazaki-senpai was like oh, what are you doing, give me my radio back, you’re planning a party, right? And we were like, yeah, that’s a great idea because it was, so then we had to go through with it, which is why we were always together, but then everyone kept thinking we were together together because we took a shower together and like, yeah, okay, so I checked Nitori-senpai out, but who wouldn’t? Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn’t—no, you can’t, because Nitori-senpai is an amazing person who deserves to be checked out and, you know what? I’d do it again, honestly.”

Momo took a moment to breathe.

“Ugh, not that it matters,” Momo continued, his confession getting louder, “because then everybody was getting suspicious because of how much we hung out and Yamazaki-senpai couldn’t take the cranes to the cafeteria, so we had to, and the freaking cafeteria manager came in too early, so we had to run and run and it was sunrise and Nitori-senpai looked beautiful and, like, that was the moment—I couldn’t just not kiss him, especially after last night’s failure, so I did and it was great and today was supposed to be a great day because today—TODAY—was the first time I’ve ever kissed someone and today was supposed to be special because I asked Nitori-senpai out on a date and he said sure and I was,” Momo panted before he calmed down and finished, “I was really happy about that.”

Nitori looked up at Momo, then softly uttered, “Momo-kun…”

“I’m angry, too,” said Momo, meeting Nitori’s gaze. “I ruined our first day.”

The team stood there, stunned.

It was a lot to digest, particularly since Momo gave no context to anything he said, just spouted out a stream of consciousness that only select people could put together in a coherent timeline. But while some team members were trying to figure out the missing details, Rin—who felt he understood most of the Momo speak—hesitantly spoke up and said, “So, you two were planning a party here in the gym?”

Momo and Nitori nodded.

“And you knew about this?” Rin asked, turning around to Sousuke.

“Yup,” he said.

“But you two,” Rin turned back to the frazzled couple, “weren’t dating until… today?”

“Right,” confirmed Momo.

“But I saw… you both… this morning,” said Rin, trying to make sense of the lewd scene he walked in on earlier in the day. Who hooks up on the first morning they’re together?

“We were trying to distract you,” explained Nitori, who stood straight while still in Momo’s embrace and motioned his hands toward their intimate hug. “And it worked really well because we ended up distracting the whole school.”

“I can’t believe this.” Rin threw his head back, trying to be respectful toward his kouhais’ newfound relationship, but also absolutely using every fiber of his being to contain his frustration over the day’s events. “You guys literally test me every goddamn day.”

Sousuke chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand.

“What are you laughing at?” snapped Rin. “This is a disaster!”

“Yeah.”

Still waiting for an answer or a punchline, Rin bucked his shoulders for Sousuke to continue.

To which he shrugged and said, “Oh, nothing. I just think they’re funny.”

“Oh my god,” groaned Rin.

A sense of freedom washed over the two kouhais, who both took in a relieved breath about not having to keep up the lies anymore. They looked at each other then and sort of smirked at each other. Nothing was fixed by confessing about the party and, now that they confirmed they were interested in each other, the dating jokes were probably only just beginning, but it was their truth and they just wanted to live in it. For a moment, neither of them wanted to feel anxious about what was going on around them, even as the team shouted more questions about why were they throwing a party in the first place or why were they showering together if they didn’t like each other then or why would they go to these extremes, dear god, and why weren’t they answering?!

Toru Iwashimizu, who knew very well that today was the first day of their relationship, called out to the team, “Let them have a day, guys. We’ll rag on them later.”

All Momo and Ai wanted was a simple moment together.

-

They lied on Nitori’s bed together on top of the sheets, facing each other with a quiet acceptance. So much chaos in one day, but for a moment, it didn’t matter. They could just enjoy being near each other. Give them a chance to get used to each other. Be with each other.

“I’m sorry I ruined today,” said Momotarou.

Nitori reached his hand out to Momo, twiddling their fingers.

“You didn’t really,” he said, accepting that fact. “You didn’t start those rumors.”

They scooted closer to each other, enough to press their chests together and nuzzle their necks like swans. Let them feel each other’s heartbeats, that’s all they wanted. Just enough to hear that they were still excited about each other even with clothes on, that their breathing was still deep for each other because they were comfortable in each other’s arms, that when it got quiet it was intimate, not awkward. Maybe they couldn’t have a first day, but they could have a first night.

“Can we kiss again?” asked Momo, who gently tucked some fallen bangs away from Nitori’s face in case he said yes and who noticed the faint blush creeping up his senpai’s ears.

“Sure.”

Their noses bumped, as they realized they weren’t sure how to tilt their heads for a kiss in bed. A soft giggle slipped out as Nitori pointed his finger to the right, and they both adjusted their heads for a second try. A sweet kiss for an evening, involving parted lips and heated cheeks.

Just a moment to relive that morning, that’s all they wanted.

Another kiss.

#dumb ducks in the water #momotori #momoai #free! #free! es #free! dive to the future #momotarou mikoshiba #nitori aiichirou #rin matsuoka #sousuke yamazaki #samezuka #ALSO let me know if the tweets don't show up and I'll just put the text back in #I hope you guys like this...

[squirenonny]

For fic ask: 14, 22 & 25!

@space-mouse said: “13, 14, and 21 for the ask thing?? :D”

anonymous said: “1, 11, 14, 21, 25″

anonymous said: “Hi! #3, #21 and #25 please :)”

@yellowmagicalgirl said: “13″

(Doing these all in one post because there were a couple of popular questions haha. The full list is here. You can still send me questions if you’re curious about one that’s not in this post!)

1. favorite fic you wrote this year

It’s so hard to pick just one omg. I had a lot of fun with a lot of things this year. If I can say Duality as a whole, that’s my answer, because I’ve put so much into that series and I love so much about it. Honorable mention goes to “Sorry, Who Are You?” my childhood friends Klance AU featuring Keith with prosopagnosia (face-blindness). I projected like hell onto Keith and I still really love it

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

The entirety of the Someplace Like Home finale, but (spoilers) specifically chapter 26, either Akira’s “Hollywood lied to me” line or Meri’s “Get your quiznaking hands off her!” I’d been building to all those reunions for so long, and it was so damn satisfying to finally get there.

11. shortest wip of the year

Shortest WIP that has at least one chapter published? That would be “Dungeons & Dwarf Stars,” the Duality side story where the cast plays various tabletop RPGs. It’s about 7.5k right now, and while I haven’t started the next chapter yet, I recently DM’d for the first time ever (hello, new special interest) and if that becomes a regular thing, I have a feeling I’ll suddenly find myself in possession of a bunch of new inspiration for that story.

In terms of unpublished WIPs, my shortest currently at 2.5k is A Genealogy of Demons, the sequel to Handbook of Demonology. I had been working on Genealogy for the Supernova Bang, but I dropped that bang because of... well, life in general conspiring against me. I’m sill working on the fic, but at my own pace. Don’t have a definite date yet for when it’ll start going up, but probably in the first half of 2018.

13. favorite writing song/artist/album of this year

For 90% of the year, I defaulted to my video game & movie scores Pandora station, but just recently I’ve switched over to The Black Piper’s Kaladin album. (Holy shit) and the Leverage soundtrack. Kaladin is simply the best for epic scenes, and Leverage is so full of energy and nostalgia.

14. a fic you didn’t expect to write 

The Monster in the Mirror. I mean, I knew I was going to do something for Shatt Week, but then season 3 dropped and.... Yeah, I wrote 42k in, like, 10 days? Granted, I had no other projects going on at the time, but still. That idea came out of nowhere and swept me right off my feet.

21. most memorable comment/review 

There have been a lot of great comments. I save some of them in my inbox on AO3 for when I’m having a crisis of self-confidence. The ones that really stick with me, though, are from people who comment because something in the fic resonated with them on a personal level. Keith’s face-blindness in “Sorry, Who Are You?”; Keith’s touch-aversion in my Heith Week fic, “You’re the Reason I Believe in Something I Don’t Know”; and so many on Duality, be it about neurotype, disability, gender/pronouns, orientation, ect. Comments like that are the best, because in all honesty, that’s a big part of the reason I write. So much of my fic is me projecting (especially re: identity/representation that I don’t see anywhere else, or not often enough) and it means a lot to hear that I’ve filled that hole for other people, at least a little.

22. events you participated in this year

Starting from the beginning: I had a couple of pinch hits for last year’s Voltron: Legendary December! event, along with the two fics I did for Fandom Tr*mps Hate. Then I did Heith Week and Shatt Week in the summer, followed by a Zethrid/Narti fic for the Lunar Ladies Exchange. That’s everything that’s been posted so far.

Events I worked on this year that will post in 2018:

Horror Bang: (gen) Hunk- and Pidge-centric suspense/thriller fic that should be up sometime in February (I don’t have the specific posting date yet.)

Galra Bang: (lowkey Antolivan) Kolivan-centric fic that also features the rest of the Blade, including Keith. December was brutal on a lot of people in the bang, so the posting is getting pushed back some, but I’d expect it’ll still be sometime in February or early March.

(Supernova Bang - ended up dropping it for various reasons)

Lancito! Zine: I turn in my final piece in a couple weeks, and then preorders will open. Stay tuned for more info and a preview as we get closer to the preorder window!

25. a fic you read this year you would recommend everyone read

Just one? Nope, you know what? Three people asked for this one, so have 3:

The Last Aspect by Spazzcat (@vldaspect) - Ongoing. Time-travel fix-it AU. So good. Klance and Shatt. This fic has great action, lots of emotional impact, and a couple of great twists to keep things interesting. Honestly, if you like epic Voltron AUs (and if you read my stuff, you probably do) you’ll love this fic, so go check it out!

Stardust, Silk and Steel by CalicoTomcat - Ongoing. Hasn’t been updated in a while, so may remain incomplete, but what is out is so worth reading. Canon divergence where the wormhole at the end of season 1 dumps Pidge out near Earth. Lots of great worldbuilding (and a kickass Mama Holt, which you know I love.) Intense and somewhat graphic violence at times, so mind the tags, but a great ride. Gen with a few small hints of a potential future Hidge in the latest chapters. Very much Pidge-centric.

The Lost Paladin by prettyshiroic (AnalystProductions) - Complete, long oneshot. After the war, Keith leaves before another family leaves him. Years later, he runs into Lance and starts to wonder if he made a mistake. This fic. Goddamn. Incredibly emotional, literally made me cry. Finished reading it in my car after work because I couldn’t make myself drive home without getting to the resolution. Gen.

#ask meme #end of the year ask meme #about me #voltron #space-mouse #yellowmagicalgirl #seamarmot #answers