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the-blind-geisha · 2 years

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awww, that's so sweet! but tbh I don't wanna be just Pandemonium's anon for you, not when we used to have blog-to-blog relationship (does this even make sense?). Alright then, I shall make preparations to expose myself fully. But it has to be grand, it has to be breathtaking! So, we will see. Glad to hear that, then! You could say Cheshire is a different form of Emmett in a different universe!

Oh my God, no! Stay away from these pieces! They are ama-effing-zing. They don't need to be changed! <3 (my edits, on the other hand, could look better or maybe I could put more time into them xD)

Yes! Exactly that! At the same, I wonder if Nazarick's residents would be villains (at least, that fast) if Demiurge didn't kinda overthink what Ainz said about wanting "the chest of jewellery" or sth when they were looking at the night sky XD. Man, I absolutely love Demiurge for that, he's VERY intelligent, but sometimes, he can act a bit dumb? and overthinks everything? XD But I also absolutely love when he analyzes the supposed Ainz's plan and Ainz is sitting here being like "Yes, yes, good Demiurge, you saw through me (WHAT THE EFF DOES HE TALK ABOUT? DID I REALLY SAY THAT? AND MEANT THESE THINGS??)". Seriously, Ainz having to act tough and intelligent all while he screams inside because he's so lost with all stuff doing around is so effing good. But holy eff, Renner, that girl is just creepy. I didn't really know she wanted to end her self, but, considering her intelligence and people around her, I can imagine she would do that XD. And I really don't have a thing for yanderes, but at the same time, her character is just so great. Glad to see that humans in Overlord also have their twisted side. The way she manipulates everyone around her and the stuff she does later, in LNs is just *chef kiss* go slay queen, even if I don't really like you.

No doubt Tuare wouldn't want the innocents to be hurt! She gives that innocent, heart-of-gold vibe XD. So yeah, she would definitely care. I think it's more about not wanting to be around humans right now, which is understandable. That's a bit funny too cuz when she's done with her training, she's supposed to be a head maid of human staff in E-Rantel residence XDD. But I can see her doing that because it would be considered doing it for Sebas. Which is mood, I'd also do everything for him (Tuare and me being besties, simping to the same man au <3) But IF Sebas and Demiurge shared a woman, oh man. It would be like having mean and soft dom in your bed XD Also, they would absolutely argue meanwhile, like about which thing to do next. Poor woman, I think the argument would be so serious, she would easily get forgotten XD

I don't exactly read LNs now but I know spoilers? And don't worry, Demiruge will have a bit of a spotlight soon. Well, at least I think so. <3

Oh, Leon and Claire huh? I see you're a person of culture as well (dang, I know a person who would absolutely love to talk to you about Leon XD). I also love RE but I've never beat RE 1 so I feel you </3 Not only it effing lags cuz my computer is shit, but also, the puzzles:tm: and having to go back all the time, is tiring me so much. XD The only game I nearly finished was RE5 and damn, I really enjoyed myself. (Also, Chris could strangle me with these huuuuge arms and I'd thank him lololo).

Not gonna lie, the ability to sense through anon sounds absolutely sick and I'm kinda jealous. But I'm glad you have that ability XD. Oh well, then, time to make preparations to show my true form! (or more like, new form cuz I made yet another blog!... and, yeah, im so damn stupid cuz I had no email left so I deleted the blog I used to post a fanfic for you... so don't change your account without telling me where are you going! cuz this time, I don't think I'll find you XDDD

hope you're having a nice but peaceful day! <33 - Pandemonium

I completely get it, hon. And tbh, it's just my autistic side showing, where everything has to have a place and everything in that place where I label you as 'anon'. X”D But, deep down, I know you're more than a gray-face. Trust me there. ♥ But oooh, you have my attention! :O

LOL kinda! I mean...Cheshire is going to be a lot more 'forward' when it comes to his Creator Demona; whereas Emmett was far more reserved in that thought unless pushed to be so. XD Maybe a reincarnation where they're not the same emotionally (and even physically as Cheshire is going to be a wink/nod towards the same cat idea of Alice in Wonderland LOL) but same in other ways. X3

HAHA. I mean... I do still have them on my PC and they've not be trashed. XD Promise. ♥ I never was someone to toss old art I couldn't stand. I just redraw them. X3 But I am glad you loved those pieces! (I still won't tarnish your edits either, my dear. =P So HAH!)

Oh yeah! The 'glittering box of jewels'? And Demiurge is like 'OMG, HE SAID WE CAN TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!' I swear, it makes me heckin' curious the flavor text Ulbert gave him to have Demiurge look for any and every sign of 'it's okay to take over the world'. X”D I think that's what's going on there where the devil is concerned. If you look under 'my screenshots' tag, you'll find a photo I took of where Demiurge does it again and at vol 15? I wanna say? Forget which one it was from... Ainz has caught onto 'that look' Demiurge does before he goes off the deep end thinking about Ainz's ideas. Ainz even told Demiurge to 'take a damn shower' in his head, basically. LOL

Omg, Renner is like...such a breath of fresh air where the New Worlders are concerned. XD All of the others are either boring or creepy in other ways (IE: hints of being child... 'lovers'... *shivers in disgust*) She's SO creepy too but in a good way! So I'll be happy when Ainz takes over the world and eradicates the idiots and gross people.

I can now see the 'Do it for him' meme with her looking at a collage of Sebas pics haha.

I'd gladly accept that dynamic! LOL

Ooh yes, the movie is going to be about Demiurge attacking Roble, so that'll be cool af!

//Grins big// Yessss. Also, I cannot get over Dead by Daylight Leon's moaning sounds of injury. X”D But the voice actor who did them had 'a good time' he insisted on Twitter... He knew what he was doing... the bastard. ♥

I am so glad you enjoyed one of the games from the series! I adore the series so much, and weirdly enough while it wasn't my first one, RE: Code Veronica holds a weirdly special place in my heart. Even if I never beat it either! I just really loved the atmosphere and everything. ♥

Bolder punching Chris Redfield. Heck yeee! ♥♥

Hah! Oh, when able, I'll tell you on DM how I got this 'super power'. XD It's too long a story to post here.

FOR ME?? Well, shucks!! I won't, I won't! I promise! ;^; I'll be super excited to read it whenever you post it! I know I will!

All my love, dear! I hope you're having a lovely day yourself!

#and yesss i get to have 2 days off in a row now #so i get to relax #it was a busy day but i'm home now #mod answers #anon #anon: P #anon: pandemonium

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tinygenderfluid · 4 years

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Y'all know that feeling when you randomly see a couple and just feel like being the short boyfriend but the next day being the (still short) girlfriend seems more appealing and then like a week later you'd like to just be that romantic partner?

I welcome you to the gender fluid orientation, it's where I am and I'd like to make myself queer here, in combination with my bisexuality I am attracted to all genders, I (depending on when) am every gender, I am it all, thus I am the queer god.

And as the queer god my first order of business is saying, no matter your gender or sexual orientation, you are valid, remember to love yourself and commit self care, if you need it there will always be people to support you so don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it.

#lgbtq+#lgbtq #queer #queer god #I love you all so you better love yourself too #remember to love yourself before you love another #commit selfcare or I'll commit to your care #you are valid #yes I'm just tagging along messages using the hastag as my mean #god dang it this post was meant to be funny #oh well I guess it's kinda wholesome now #have a good day

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yanderemommabean · 3 years

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I was going through your archive when I found a post that I love so dang much. It's the one where you take a demons power to go to different anime's. But surprise! Everyone is yandere for you now. But I gotta idea for it. Let's say you FINALLY get back to your universe, you're thinking that no more yandere's are gonna go after you. Then you see L in a cafe, Sebastian along with Ciel coming out of a car, and all the yandere's you THOUGHT you escaped from have just entered the Real universe.

You think you’re safe, you think that finally you can rest and not have to worry about being taken, being stalked and watched every living second of the day. The world seems to have slowed down, you no longer feel the need to run and escape from those you once looked up too and favored.

But then you feel the hairs stand on the back of your neck. That familiar trepidation turning into dread, sinking your heart and stomach. Call it instinct, call it magic, but you knew in your gut you weren’t actually safe.

A familiar blond bombshell with red wings is being admired down the street, his golden eyes piercing yours while he wears his signature playboy grin. Like a true hawk cornering it’s prey.

Just a few feet beside him, a man with a green and black checkered jacket is seen asking people all sorts of odd questions, you can only guess that he’s asking about you.

No. No this isn’t fair! This isn’t supposed to be happening! You want to scream, to dash the other direction, but you also want to fight them out of the absolute frustration of being chased constantly without a second to breathe. That fucking asshole demon! An absolute bitch!

You begin to search for a route that would help you hide. Alleyways, crowds of people, stores with accessible storage rooms, anything would be a godsend to hide from the ever growing list of problems and psychos following you.

While dodging as many pedestrians as possible was a skill you’ve reluctantly been honing in on lately, it was going to happen that you’d lose focus through your panic. You collide into a muscular, well built man with his hair in a tight bun. Beside him is a smaller, but still taller light haired man with an apologetic smile.

Asahi and Sugawara. Of course, even the sweethearts are after you.

“Oh-oh my goodness Y/N! I’m so sorry! I know I was looking for you but I didn’t mean-“

“Easy Asahi-“ Suga soothed, helping you up off of the ground while you wince and scrunch your nose. While colliding with the absolute unit of a man, you fell back and felt a crack as you used your hands to break your fall, and it looks like your body took that term literally.

“Oh god, that doesn’t look to good” Asahi murmurs, gently rubbing his thumb over your ever swelling wrist. His lips softly kiss the skin while Suga places his hand on your back, guiding you to walk with them as he beams his beautiful smile down at you.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to worry about anything, we’re gonna take care of you. I guess the whole team kinda scared you off huh? They tend to do that when overexcited” he smiles, as if any of this was remotely normal.

You were trapped. Not only where they more capable of chasing you down, their height and strength combined meant you couldn’t possibly get away, unless some miracle occurred. And lately? That’s been a commodity you’ve been starved of.

Asahi continues to ask if you’re ok, stuttering and timidly looking away on occasion when all you manage is a grunt of irritation and pain. You can’t even focus on where these two are taking you, your wrist throbbing and burning as the impact of the damage done starts to sink in.

As you are turned down a sketchy alley, Asahi abruptly stops in his tracks, pushing you behind him and giving Suga a stern and suspicious expression. Suga just nods, and pulls you close to him as he whispers in your ear “Stay beside me, ok? Not to make you worry or anything but...we don’t think we’re alone here”.

Fucking duh. Of course you aren’t. There’s as many psycho, obsessed anime characters as there is germs at this point. For all you knew cells from cells at work were coming to take you. And it would be kind of funny if that wasn’t a real possibility!

You just bite back a sob of frustration, tears freely running down your face as you collapse to the ground and bury your face in the hand that wasn’t currently having a malfunction. Suga assumes it’s the pain, kneeling down to try and soothe you the best he could. Seconds later, a blade swings by and misses you both by just millimeters.

Looking up from utter fear, you see none other than Zack Foster standing with an unhinged expression. “Alright you had your fun you little runaway, but I’m kinda getting tired of chasing you all over creation. A mans got needs you know? Cant keep his needs away from him forever!”

Asahi tightens his fists and puffs out his chest, stalking closer to the scrawny man as he sets his scythe against his shoulder. “You aren’t even close to worthy of having Y/Ns love! You just nearly killed her!” He shouts, giving Suga a nod to lift you up and make a run for it.

The two continue to throw jabs and tauntings as Suga gently lifts you, nuzzling into your shoulder as he rubs your back to soothe you. “You’re ok, you’re gonna be ok” he repeats, as if talking to a scared child and not an adult wanting to sell their soul again to get out of this nightmare.

Once again, because sure why not, Suga stops in his tracks and clenches you tighter to his chest.

You look over your shoulder to see just what new clusterfuck the universe has given you, meeting the demonic eyes of Rui, who’s webbing was ready to slice the man apart if he so much as breathed wrong.

“Enough games. Give me what is mine and I’ll make your death much less painful. Y/N was taken from me and I plan on getting rid of any and everyone involved”. His words were so calm, so matter of fact, as if he expected Suga to just comply and accept his fate.

You shut your eyes, hearing the voices of many other characters approaching like piranhas to an injured animal. Except instead of working together, they planned to tear anyone apart just to have you, and no matter the outcome you didn’t want to see just who the victor would be.

(-Mommabean, please leave comments or tell me what you think! Helps motivate me and to see where I need to work on more!)

#yandere scenarios #yandere imagines #Yandere portal #Yandere anime #yandere sugawara #Yandere Asahi #Yandere Zack Foster #Yandere Rui #yandere demon slayer #Yandere Haikyuu #Mommabean

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godziiwa · 3 years

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HAIKYU AO3 FANFIC RECOMMENDATIONS

please, before reading any of this fanfics read the hashtags! also, all the credits to the authors! enjoy

MY FANFICS:

i bet you look god on the dance flor (2100 words, club, dancing, iwa’s birthday, just fluff. confessions)

this house is a circus (2300 words, on going, covid, quarantine together)

you probably couldn't see for the lights but you were staring straight at me (10k, college au, drugs, first meetings)

right now im working on a demon slayer au and nascar/racing au

IWAOI

you're looking like you fell in love tonight (fake dating au, 35k words)

conquering the great king (so much smut, 105k words)

only for the weekend (fake dating, 34k words)

say my name (one shot, literally this is only smut, 2700 words)

new phone who dis (texting, so funny 57k words,)

waiting in the stars (bodyswap, 116k words)

rich boy, poor boy (107k words)

coffee king (coffee au, 187k words)

arrest me, officer (police au, this fanfic is so good and so funny pls read it, 122k words)

what you came for (police iwa, personally my favorite iwaoi fanfic, 108k words)

trial by fire (lawyers au, so good, 76k words)

mind reader (iwa can read minds, 40k)

lockdown (prison au, everybody is a criminal expect karasuno, 72k words)

press "1" to get a call from your drunk best friend (funny, one shot, drunk iwa)

six month lover (89k, pining, this one is SO good)

it's lonely on Jupiter (122k, iwa is an alien, college)

lacrimae (22k, I'm sorry this is literally only smut, but soooooooo good)

I choose you (soulmate au, 9000 words)

build me a temple (this one is really good, god oikawa, 39k words, its like read a ghibli movie)

to be first, to be best (26k, so good)

the courtship ritual of the Hercules battle (future fic, so good, 66k)

they say it rains diamonds on jupiter (iwa pines, 35k)

UPDATED 9/03/21

the panty dropper (band au, 21k)

antithesis (10k)

tokyo boy (16k)

lucky number 13 (12+1 things, 17k)

kireji (police oikawa, 11k)

I sure hope that the sun got rhythm ('cause he gonna dance when that music hit'm) (dance au, 28k)

never just acting with you (actor oikawa, roadtrip, 45k)

the loyalty of a traitor (yakuza boss oikawa, GREAT FIC, 77k)

shining so bright (9000 words)

fall line (this one is so cute, strangers to lovers, 21k)

silver tongue (office au, SUPER FUNNY, 10k)

I know when you're around ('cause i know the sound of your heart) (coffe shop au, 17k)

new flame (sugar daddy iwa, THIS ONE IS SO GOOD AND SO FLUFFY, 58k, on going)

we’re going home (6000 words)

the best best (domestic fluff, 12k)

all kinds of winners (this is only smut but its so good)

dinner and a movie (fake dating, 11k)

its not love, probably (7000 words)

mint (18k)

as close as you need (8000 words)

piece of cake (baker iwa 15k)

good vibrations (only smut but inmaculate)

tooru’s toil and trouble (soulamate au, 11k)

dear diary, i met a boy (he made my dull heart light up with joy) (pining, 15k)

cotton breathing (sumer lovin, 15k)

all the words of time and space (online friends, 46k)

get ripped, get laid (personal trainer iwa, 13k)

desperado (thieves, heist fic, 82k)

as much as i do (oisuga fake dating, 42k)

have mercy on me (hanahaki, 10k)

yellow white red (camellia/gardenia) (flower shop au, 9000)

UPDATED 17/6/21

one for two (3700 words, smut, sex toys)

good together (1120 words, smut)

kotov syndrome (50k detective au)

ambus (1900 words, smut)

soft wool, agile fingers (knitting au 11k)

i’d marry you in a dumpster (or in your room) (2600 words, love conffesions)

storm warning (10k post-graduation)

no sex for you in a really long time (3600 words, public sex)

of moonlight and covens (20k, ritual sex, sabrina au)

undechiperable (4800 words, love conffesions)

tips on how to get with your crush (7500 words, mutual pining)

phone home (6500 astronaut oikawa)

amicus curiae (43k, lawerys au, SO GOOD!!!)

boy like you (2200 words, strip tease)

till lies do us part (50k mr & mrs smith au)

bet i can (1800 words, smut)

don’t let me go (20k, pining, ftl)

make a wish (7400, iwaizumi’s birthday)

rule number two: just don’t get attached to) (20k, detective au, SO GOOD)

you find me in a hospital bed (11k, hospital au but without angst)

driving me crazy (17k, smut with plot)

baby you might need a seat belt (11k time skip smut)

i’ll never feel whole (19k, roommates)

synaisthesis (14k, violinst oikawa and pianist iwa, this is so good a deserves more, please read)

in the business of love (22k, fake dating)

some fools rush in (7800 words fake dating)

i’ve been missing you for a long time (7300 words, fluff)

a little sweetness (2600 words)

breath in (5800 words, drugs)

hell mision (22k bodyguard iwa)

a coffe shop’s acoustics (23k coffe shop au and musician oikawa)

relationship thing (25, different first meeting)

fuck ups and hook ups (13k, ne night stands, smut with plot)

kissing both (1700, kissing both)

we might be (37k)

places (15k)

inside, this place is warm (6500 words, established relationship)

betrayal (2400, love conffesions)

meant to be (6000 words, college au)

galaxies, within you (21k college au)

kiss me on the mouth and set me free (18k mutual pining)

i’m no poet (4000 words, love conffesions, THIS IS SO SWEET)

the prince of yakuza (8000 yakuza smut)

just friends (6000 words friends with benefits)

misconceptions (5000 words, 5+1 things)

balustrade (10k, neighbors)

made of our longest days (4000 words, love conffesions)

burning heart (7000 words, firefighter iwa)

i want you, i’ll hope you’ll come to me (15k to all the boys au)

walking the dog (11k)

routine (2900 words)

terrarium (11k, THIS IS SO GOOD PLEASE READ)

fake it till you make it (12k youtubers au)

yours for the weekend (14k, actor oikawa)

we shine like diamonds (26k homophobia)

i shure hope that guy gets fired (29k, time-loop)

15 minutes (17k)

lips likes sugar (8000 words, practing kissing)

in this same space (23k, cosplayer oikawa and doujinka iwa)

thirty years and change (19k, future fic)

焦がれて怖くなる [I yearn for you so much that I'm getting scared] (4800 words, hanakotoba)

trouble with texting (12k texting)

salt water (8000 words)

the stars in your eyes (5350 words love confessions)

it takes seven days (26k bakery au)

from your mortal enemy (11k, 5+1 things)

conqueror of hearts (29k royalty au)

stranger danger (14k texting college au)

the bachelor (16k the bachelor au)

my heart is where it’s always been (21k)

rise (12k, college au)

sleeping habits (6000 words)

KAGEHINA

blinding problem (hinata pines, 220k words)

I like the way your clothes smell (canonverse, 75k words)

dial (phone sex, the smut is immaculate, personally one of my favorites, 103k words)

I can do better (canonverse, 45k words)

deadly (this fanfic is so good please you have to read it, laundry au, 42k words)

the job (this is personally my favorite, you MUST read it, 61k words)

the crown and the crow (soulmate au)

happy birthday, idiot (fluff, canonverse, 31k)

love biscuits (fluff, humor, hinata is a vet)

something old and something new (this one is very cute, canonverse, 17k)

UPDATED 09/03/21

open 24 hours (smut, food kink, 11k)

sweet tooth (11k)

perfecting the latte heart (coffe shop au, 31k)

routine (29k, cam boy hinata)

that's it for now, I'll be updating once in a while

#haikyu #iwaoi fanfic #kagehina fanfic #haikyu fanfics #haikyu fanfic recommendation #haikyuu fic recs

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demenior · 3 years

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Dem’s Big Post About The Spn Fics Part 1/2

aka The Wrap Up to celebrate To Exist Again and To Become a Man now being finished!

(This will be a long post. This is your only warning.)

Admittedly this is a bit of a weird thing to be doing, but I wanted to try it out for 3 reasons:

I love talking about my own work and

It functions really well as a self-reflective tool for me to improve on, and

I can answer some big questions people might have because there was a LOT of worldbuilding in these stories.

We’ll start off with reflective stuff, and move into the juicier world-building focused stuff later into the post. There will be major spoilers for both fics to come!

To begin with a funny anecdote, Why Did I Write These Stories?

I was beginning to write and work out the story that I wanted to write for Spn (what will now be To Destroy a Man. As I was writing the scene, I realized I had a LOT of ideas and while I was trying to avoid as much exposition as I could, it became quickly apparent that I was needing to create my own au (this scene eventually became chapter 34 of To Become a Man). A short prequel seemed like a good idea, to quickly hash out the ‘prior’ events that I needed to go through so all the readers could be on the same page. While plotting out prequel points, I realized Sam and Dean were going to have drastically different experiences during the same time period, and I was trying to figure out who’s pov would be better for which scenes, and how to keep momentum when they’re going through such radically different types of changes. Ultimately I decided to split their povs, which I also thought would be a fun project! And I naively assumed each pov would take about 2 chapters each, rounding out to maybe 15k total.

I had my ending points: Dean n Cas soul-merged and (basically) married, Cas on the lam from heaven and a complete anomaly, and Sam juiced up full of powers and a weird mix of archangel and antichrist but still 100% human and ready to fight God.

Now I needed to add weight to these changes, so I wrote 200k of build-up.

Am I proud of these fics?

OF COURSE I AM!!! These are the longest fics I’ve ever written AND finished AND in the fastest freakin turnaround ever (both were finished writing, barring edits, in like 6 months holy shit)

I didn’t write a single scene that I “didn’t” want to write. If I had trouble writing it, as in it was fighting me, I scrapped it. Most obviously was the scene in Dean’s pov where he and Sam were intended to meet some other hunters and Dean declines working with them because he’s nervous about being outed as queer. It was meant to be a good scene! I wanted to introduce some new characters! But it just wasn’t working so I said ‘thank you, next!’.

But it means this story was an absolute joy to write. Because for a while all I was doing was ‘if I wanted to write one scene into supernatural, what would I write?’ and then just DID that!! It’s why there’s a lot of ‘Salmondean do dumb shit or have really dumb heartfelt conversations’ scenes.

Would I change anything?

If I’d been less eager to start sharing, I might have planned out the story beats a little tighter so there were less ‘soft’ chapters and a draw/pull for people to come back and keep reading. I felt Dean’s story specifically lagged at points and could have used some tighter editing (there was a noticeable lull in directed movement between Dean n Cas getting together, until Sam corrupts Amy).

I also probably would have held Sam’s story until I’d finished Dean’s so I could make the two line up better! Probably could have inserted more scenes into Sam’s fic that way, and made sure things were a little more consistent. In an ideal world one concept I had was to release 1 chapter from each pov every week that would correspond to the same time frame so we’d be getting real-time SalmonDean pov narrative. Unfortunately that didn’t work!

The biggest takeaway overall is for me to focus more on what moves the plot, and to make my scenes do more than 1 thing so I can cut down on wordcount and increase my efficiency.

Of course every writer will find things they want to fix in anything they’ve ever written, so these are minor “mistakes” at best. I’m so dang proud of these fics.

Onto more interesting things!

How Did I Put These Fics Together (because it’s different than anything I’ve ever done before)

Normally when I write a story, I plan out the beats I need to hit, see where I need to insert any kind of foreshadowing/buildup, and then write from A to B to C and so on and so forth. Hence, this is why I can normally post things as I complete chapters, because it’s all a linear progression.

For these two stories, rather than linear plot/a normal story structure, I just sat and free-wrote any and every scene that came to mind and then pieced them into a kinda-linear form like putting a quilt together. You’ll note that this is why there’s not a lot of internal callback or a feeling of sense of time flowing within the fic (save for points where I went back and specifically edited it in). How long does the story take place over? Hard to say! Your author has the barest grasp on linear time even on a good day (how many times did I say ‘see you on [wrong day]’ at the end of chapters lmaaoooo)

This also meant EXTENSIVE editing on the back end once I decided in what order I wanted my ‘quilt pieces’ to be. Hard to say if this is a bonus or a negative!

But I did want to try and capture the vibe of the lives they lead, as a bit of a ‘slice of life’-style story, when the slice of life is the profound weirdness of the Winchester roaming life, and how things are status quo- until everyone almost dies oh shit!! And then they have to keep living because no therapy we die/undie like Winchesters. Do I think I captured this effectively? Hmm. Good question.

Dem where the FUCK did the inspiration for a lot of the magic and creature weirdness even come from?

Honestly? Music, primarily. And completely mishearing lyrics!

Nightwish ‘Ever Dream’: the line is ‘my song can but borrow you grace’ and because my brain is scrambled eggs on a good day, I heard ‘grace’ ‘song’ and ‘borrow’ in that order and have had, for YEARS, the mental image of Cas borrowing Dean’s soul to power himself up for battle.

From there I’ve always been enamored with the ‘wavelength of celestial intent’ descriptor that Cas drops in s6 for “what he is”.

I also really like ocean metaphors mostly because I’ve been obsessed with the ocean and things in it since I was like… 5??? So really this was me just rolling with what I know lmao. I love using (somewhat) accurate scientific metaphors for very intangible things!

I was also finishing my degree in biology/ecology while writing these fics and I think it shows

Stars ‘The Night Starts Here’ gives us the series title and the fic titles. Except for ‘To Exist Again’. TEA was almost titled ‘The Upwards Fall’ because I wanted all 3 of the Main Stories to have titles from this song, but I couldn’t make anything else work in tandem with the series name ‘The Love It Takes’ while also working for Sam’s personal story. So Sam, as always, is the rebel <3

Stars ‘Up In Our Bedroom, After The War’ is basically the vibes of the whole story. TFW has been, literally, to hell and back!!! There’s a bit of melancholy and sadness, a lingering dark, but the chance of a bright new tomorrow and a soft start.

Let’s Talk About Themes in The Story! What were you looking to accomplish?

My earliest notes for TFW are, as follows:

Dean’s journey of self-discovery (who am I when I’m not trying to be Dad?)

Dean wants to settle down! He wants a big family! He wants to be domestic!

Basically: Dean doesn’t want to have a short life of hunting. He wants to live!

Dean’s journey of realizing he’s bi, and him accepting that

Dean’s relationship to Sam is both older brother/parent

And continuing Dean balancing these roles while also letting Sam be an adult

Dean’s Big Issues/Fears about never being good enough for people to want to stay with him (these are effectively highlighted in that Cas thinks he’s not useful enough to be wanted)

Sub Plot:

Castiel’s autonomy

Cas’ fall from grace, to trying to restore Heaven, to wrecking it further

He’s majorly depressed by the end of s7 (before purgatory)

Wants to stay in Purgatory but doesn’t tell Dean

Remains depressed after leaving, but resolved to keep living on because he’s clearly meant for something

After the seraphim reveal: does he have free will?! How does he grapple with this? How does he live in a way he can be proud of?

And lastly

Sam gets his powers back CAUSE THATS HOT

where tf did they go????

he got them from Lucifer?????

sleeper agent??????

Sam is The Chosen One

Accepts that he is More Than Human and to celebrate all parts of him

Lucifer and Sam friends?? Work together????

Sam needs autonomy in his choices/his life

If you compare these to the overall arc of TFW within the two stories, I think I got a lot of them! But you’ll also note a lot of these things aren’t concrete goals that are easily measurable (ex: Dean wants to learn to bake pie. In chapter 1 he starts a fire in the kitchen. By the end of the story he finally makes A Good Pie.) part of the lack of concrete milestones was why I felt it was important to tell Dean (and Cas’) story by going back to the point they meet, in s4! Dean’s gradual change towards his feelings for Cas, his relationship to Sam (heavily influenced by the s7 events of this fic) and then his own relationship with himself were such slow burns that I felt it would be a disservice to try and cram a change like that into a timeline like “1 year”.

I felt like these subtle changes and adjustments actually felt a lot truer to life-- people often change in very small, gradual ways over time, even without realizing it and often times not consistently! If only we could all gain skills like the sims, where we can easily level up and remain at that high level of performance!

So the Guy Who Ate Satan, A Celestial Nuke that Developed Sentience, and Dean walk into a bar…

Sam’s story in Spn The Show has always been a ‘chosen one’ kind of narrative. Sam is living with one foot in the realm of the monsters, and I wanted to bring that back full force! It really makes sense for him that he should only continue to grow in power, might, and magic!! As the story progresses.

Cas also got a power up! I do desperately love in the show that he was kind of a grunt/nothing angel, and so even when he defected to TFW he was a huge help for them, but in the scale of things he was an annoying fly to most other angels. It really worked for the underdog story of s4/5. In this I wanted to give him a power up, and originally it was actually going to be close contact with Sam that eventually changed Cas into something unknown (you can still see traces of this in ch34 of TBAM, where Death remarks ‘Castiel could be [Sam’s] first creation’. But for a combo of reasons: how Sam’s magic needed to have intent, the entire concept of free will and consent, and how much I wanted Dean and Cas to have their effect on each other, I decided to go with the route that Cas has actually always been something angel-adjacent rather than becoming something new. TFW/Supernatural has always been about free will and making your own story, so I amplified that with Cas.

Dean has always been A Normal Guy, which is part of the appeal of him and Sam (2 normal dudes!) taking on the Very Not Normal. As explained above, Sam’s story is ‘normal guy finds out he’s the chosen one’ and so, in a story about very large concepts and huge monsters and acts of magic, I felt it was very important to keep Dean as normal as possible. To the point it became a running gag to me, personally, in that ‘no matter what cool shit happens around him, Dean has to stay as Just A Guy’. And it’s a very humanizing role that allows the story to have the scale it does!

What were the most important themes in your story?

Sam’s Autonomy

I wasn’t even going to include the plot about Lucifer’s death in this story— that was going to come up in a later story, actually! And rather than Sam having ate Lucifer, the original idea was that they’d become a SamandLucifer entity (this harkens back to a concept I wanted to write when Swan Song first aired).

That storyline would have involved a lot of mental ‘Sam and Lucifer discuss what it means to live, which one of them is more worthy of life and if they do deserve to destroy the world for the pain they’ve been forced to go through, just to create the dichotomy of good and evil for everyone else’ discussions. There would be a lot of talk about how Sam hates and fears Lucifer for the pain Lucifer put on Sam, how Lucifer hates Sam because he and Sam are the same but Sam’s brother loves him anyways, etc.

Ultimately that was scrapped because Sam’s entire story in the show is always about how the world and everyone around him manipulates him and that he never actually gets to make choices about his own life or body that aren’t influenced or part of someone elses’ design. And that always bothered me that Sam was never allowed to be himself without having to be ashamed of it, and I wanted to make sure that Sam’s triumph of being proud of himself/proudly choosing to exist (again) was evident in his story

In the end I needed Sam to have this visceral win over his tormentor. As the story shows, in this case Lucifer was abused and put into a position where he was incapable of empathy and could only express himself in violence. Sam even understands this! But it doesn’t change the fact that Lucifer tortured Sam in unimaginable ways for thousands of years.

With that in mind I didn’t like the idea of Lucifer and Sam having “co-ownership” of their new identity, so I made the choice that Sam had to be the survivor. This tied in well with Sam’s new crusade to restore free will to the universe, because he’s breaking the narrative of his own story!

While Castiel wasn’t a pov character, his own autonomy and free will was equally as important. You’ll note that many, many paragraphs and conversations revolved around that theme and that in the end Cas followed himself (and love!) which ensured his freedom of self <3

The Brothers are WEIRD PEOPLE!!!! And Codependent to a Worrying Degree, but It’s Also How They Survive

It’s very hard to show “unusual” relationships when you’re writing from the pov of the two people who don’t think there’s anything weird about their relationship. Sure, they say ‘yeah it’s probably weird that we still share a bed’ but that’s kinda more in line with ‘I had a nightmare and I want to be close to the person who makes me feel safe’. Hashtag normalize co-sleeping when you need it!!!

From there I did try to point out how the boys have a weird perception of lifestyle in the little things they did.

From thrifting everything from clothes to appliances to books (thrifting is a valid lifestyle! It’s incredibly handy when you’re on a budget.)

To never actually having condiments or knowing how to use a dishwasher cause they’ve lived in a car, a motel room, or squatted in old houses their whole life.

I tried to have them wear each others’ clothes or casually swap things as much as possible. They live out of each others’ pockets!

Also the brothers are just weird people!! It’s hard to show from their pov, cause they don’t know how far off from normal they are, but like…

Everything about Sam and Amelia was NOT right like holy shit those two were wilding in their grief. They are very lucky things worked out for them and that they got to be hashtag Weird Girls together

Dean explicitly, in the story, gets horny after killing stuff!! Violence has done a number on his psyche and he’s gotten some wires crossed that maybe shouldn’t have been, or maybe could be worked out in a safe space but… uh… how likely do we think Dean is gonna go find a safe space to deal with any of his shit???

LOVE!!! Love is truly what this whole story is all about

If you’ve read the stories, you know how much emphasis I put on love. Love is the strongest force in the Spn Universe! It’s what averted the apocalypse and saved the world (Swan Song), it’s what created free will (Cas’ entire arc!) I love love!!!!

I went out of my way to not put any definitions on platonic love vs romantic love because I think love is love is love and how you express that is the difference. Neither is more powerful than the other because LOVE is powerful!! Sam and Cas are the most important people in Dean’s life and he loves them equally! He shows this by giving Cas kisses and stealing Sam’s socks.

It’s a personal pet peeve of mine when I have to hear explanations like ‘I love you, like a brother’ or ‘I love you, but like, as a friend because I’m a lesbian and you’re a man’ etc etc in media. If you have to continuously define how your characters love each other, then I don’t think you’re doing a good job of portraying their relationship. So you’ll see that I never put those parameters in any conversation. Dean DOES muse that he loves Cas differently than he loves Sam or Bobby, specifically because there is a romantic and sexual tone that his feelings for Cas takes, but not because he loves Cas more or less than he loves Sam or Bobby.

Which means, if you haven’t realized it yet, the Series + Fic Titles are meant to be a complete sentence because the power of love IS the thesis of this series:

The Love It Takes To Exist Again (Sam’s journey!)

The Love It Takes To Become a Man (Dean’s journey!)

The Love It Takes To Destroy a Man (TBA)

And now for fun stuff. Behind the scenes!!

What’s Something People Probably Don’t Know?

The demonic fungal/hydrothermal vent growth on Sam’s arm was thrown in literally as I was posting the chapter because I had just finished a 48 hour cram session of writing a report on tube worms for an ecology class (I was chanting my tube worm song as I wrote it) and it ended up being a HUGE hit with both readers and myself. But it was so last minute I had trouble fitting it in more throughout the rest of Sam’s story!

Cas’ orders? That may or may not have bound him to Dean and removed his free will? Were written into Sam’s story and I went ‘oh SHIT that’s compelling’ and then left them there as a ‘guess I’ll figure that out when I get to Dean’s story lol’

Originally Dean and Cas were supposed to get together after having their souls bonded, and have been in a UST limbo the entire time before that. Mostly because I think the entire concept of ‘we just got married of the soul I guess we should try dating?’ is very funny. CLEARLY the two of them were way more eager to fall in love than I anticipated (thank you Cas for your honesty) but you can still see shades of this original idea here and there (especially in ch35 of TBAM)

I never intended Dean and Benny to connect so well!! Benny was going to reunite with Andrea, she was going to live, and they were going to go off into the world and leave the story. And, uh, here we are. I’m still debating if I need to adjust the relationship tag or not haha. Polyamory is fun, especially when I was planning for Sam to be the polyamorous brother...

Speaking of, I can’t believe I forgot about Sam and his sexuality! If I rewrote TEA I would have had Sam contemplate more on his lack of sexual appetite due to trauma, up until he meets Benny and he gets to rediscover how he wants to be a sexual person

Many of Sam and Dean’s absolutely stupid sibling conversations were lifted near-verbatim from conversations I’ve had with my siblings

And lastly...

Dem where’s Kevin????????????? Where is our sweet baby boy????????

He’s SAFE!! He’s in the Hunter pipeline somewhere cause Sam handed him off to Bobby’s people. He and his mom are safe and at some point they probably got rib sigils like SalmonDean did against angels, but for demons. I didn’t have room in this story for him!!! But my baby boy is SAFE and I want to get him back to university because it’s WHAT HE DESERVES!!!!

To that point: god there were/are SO many characters that I just didn’t include in the story so far because I didn’t feel comfortable including them without stalling the story for them. To that point: pretty much everyone who is alive/dead in s8 is that way in this story, except Bobby who gets to live.

[Check Out Part 2 for reader questions!]

#the love it takes series #to exist again fic #to become a man fic #dem speaks

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peralta-guaranteed · 3 years

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last line tag meme

well dang, I was contemplating doing this with my many wips but now I got tagged by @dolston17 so I can’t say no can I???

post a sneak peak from a WIP (favorite/last line/almost abandoned, dealer’s choice lol)

okay so yeah I got... 3 actually active WIPs that I’m working on and one that is... absolute crackfic but I’ve put 5k words into it so I have to finish it someday? so you’re getting a snippet from all of them

1 - Better Luck Next Time, Johnny (not really the title)

(can’t give you the last line of this because it’s uuuuh filth but there is some silly flirting before that I really like)

“Didn’t I tell you this isn’t a good place for you last time?”

His voice is far more teasing and playful than it is worried and reprimanding, and she understands that they’re probably being listened to. She tries to put the same amount of flirting into her answer.

“I really don’t like being told what to do, Johnny.”

There’s a twitch in his eyebrow she knows all too well, and the smallest hint of a smile as he bites his lower lip and leans over a bit more, his eyes raking over her in that dress, and maybe Kylie wasn’t quite so wrong to convince her to buy it.

“I highly doubt it, Dora.” His low voice isn’t at sultry-level yet, but it still has her squeezing her thighs together without even wanting to. “I rather think you like exactly that. Which is why you came back, hm?” He twirls a loose strand of her hair around his finger and pulls ever so slightly, and she has to bite her lip now to hide her smile.

“So you’re going to be a good girl”, he continues, and he’s definitely at sultry now, “and go get yourself out of here.”

-+-

2. - I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your life (yeah I’m that song-line kind of writer bitch)

(this is the start of the WIP but there’s actually a lot happening before it that I haven’t written yet)

"What are you thinking?"

"It's cheesy."

"Lemme be the judge of that."

A pause. Amy is smiling at him, softly, but with the slightest hint of mischief. It will never not take his breath away, that particular smile. He knows exactly what it means.

"I was thinking…" he begins, and his voice is raspy, far too raspy for only a few kisses. But he finds that he doesn't mind, as his hands stroke down her sides so tentatively he can see her shiver above him.

"Goddess." he finally whispers in that same raspy tone, and watches Amy's eyes grow wide and her body still. Only for a few seconds, before she catches herself and smiles again.

"Definitely cheesy." She judges, but leans forward to kiss him all the same, and the kiss tells him she's happier about it than she'll admit. "Which one?" he hears her mumbling against his lips, and he hums while thinking.

-+-

3. Five things I can’t hate about you (yes I am also that bad movie-reference kinda writer bitch)

this is a long last ‘line’ but it’s also the most active WIP I have and I really like this whole scene

They don’t speak for the maybe ten or fifteen minutes spent sitting in the darkened room. He doesn’t ask - doesn’t prod - doesn’t demand an explanation or more information or anything, really, not the way she’s used to from anyone else who’s actually figured out that she’s having some sort of attack, and she’s glad for it. She will explain it all, later, probably alongside the written thank you note he’s definitely going to get because that is the proper way to do it, even if he will make jokes about it. But right now, she’s thankful for the silence that doesn’t feel threatening at all, for the warmth of his hand and the calm of his thumb still rubbing across her skin.

They let go when she stands up, squaring her shoulders as he rises next to her.

“Ready?” He asks with his usual grin and she returns it with a small smile and a nod before he opens the door for her and sneaks her out unnoticed the same way he brought her in.

She mingles. She makes connections. She even gets to tell a few stories that make a group of captains laugh around her, but the laugh she hears the most is right next to her and very familiar by now.

He keeps handing her canapés from the trays of passing waiters (he’s a pro at spotting free food, obviously) and makes silly jokes next to her without ever stealing the spotlight or embarrassing her like he usually would. She notes a glass of orange juice in his hand whenever he hands her her own refill, and when Terry leaves early to see his family and asks if he needs a ride home, he declines.

And when the evening finally slows and the hall begins to empty, she walks with him to his dingy old car in the garage and gets in without another question, falling half-asleep during the ride back to her place.

She puts a coffee down on his desk with the thank you note tucked underneath it the next day, and tries not to blush when he comes in 15 minutes late with her coffee order in hand. The day is spent teasing her about the note in between his actual work, of course, but she sees it pinned between his knicknacks when she actually leaves on time in the evening.

It’s surprising that besides his actually funny jokes, he can make her smile with the strangest little things.

-+-

4. The Florida Menagerie

(a crackfic turned emotional turned back to crack and I genuinely have no plan how to end it so it’s been sitting for months now.. if you can correctly identify the ‘pets’... go you, I guess? there’s not really a prize I can offer.)

After that, the code was well-established. They met at their fences far more often while watering the lawn or, in Jake’s case, enjoying the hot tub the way it was meant to be enjoyed, without tears or burritos in sight. They would greet each other, maybe exchange pleasantries for a moment, and then Holt would inquire about his pets. And Jake was more than happy to answer.

“Oh, god, Goose and Foxglove got into such a fight last night. I almost thought I had to save Goose from it. But they made up this morning, I think.” “Big Bird isn’t really used to the new cage he got. Might be a bit too big for him, even. But I keep the door open and everyone’s been keeping him calm.” “The Nomster has found a new favourite food. He keeps trying to share it with the Pizza Pockets, but no takers. And I mean, they will eat everything.” “Foxglove and Peanuts keep bringing in so many dead mice and birds. Just, constantly on the hunt. It’s like they have a competition going.” “Stilton’s doing okay, I think. Getting used to me still. He keeps quoting my classic movie collection, so I think he’s learning from the best.”

It wasn’t much, it never was. But it was more than enough.

And as he watched Larry muse about the wonderful feeling of Peanuts cuddling up to him when he felt bad at night, or sniff a little about how she was so smart and always knew how to make his day better, he could see Jake Peralta come back into his own again, and he felt as if Raymond Holt was right there to join him, hearing about Stilton and Goose getting along so well they often shared a cage and their meal together, or Stilton throwing his pebbles at Peanuts who was apparently happy to snack on them.

It wasn’t much, but it was all they could get, and as such, it was wonderful.

Until it stopped.

#I actually have more WIPs but they're mainly abandoned #and I'm not gonna tease you all with bits of something I'll probably never finish #my writing

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yourbfmark · 4 years

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YOUNG LOVER-MARK LEE SOCIAL MEDIA AU PT11

will you be my girlfriend- part 11

You and Mark said your goodbyes to Johnny and haechan while you pack up your things. While heading towards the door Mark grabbed your hand to lead you to the way. When you got to his car he didn’t the cliché gentleman thing and opened the car door for you. “ you buckled?” Mark said as he turned on his car. “ yeah, umm where are we going anyway?” Mark just smiled as he proceeds to drive. “What do you think about getting milkshakes and parking on the bayfront?” Mark asked obviously heading to restaurant without an answer.

Mark had the best playlist, he sung the whole way to the water. His voice is so soft, it calmed you down somehow. Although he kept contact with the road, you noticed he kept turning to look at you when he would say something funny. “ I haven’t been to the bayfront in a while, dang!” Mark parked the car in the perfect spot to see the water. “ wanna get off and walk the shoreline?”

After almost walking half a mile and deep talks about the past you and mark sit at bench over looking the pier. “You’re amazing” Mark said unexpectedly. “Oh umm-Thank you mark, so are you. You’re so easy to talk to.” Mark started to stare into your eyes so sweetly. “You know if there is anything troubling you, you can always talk to me i don’t know if I’ll be able to help you but I’ll listen” his shy smile is the cutest.

“How about I take you on a proper actual like...date?” He looked down at his feet instead of you. You were confused, if you were counting correctly this is technically your third “date”. I hope he counted those as dates. “ as my girlfriend...” Mark cut off your thoughts to say what he really meant. “Mark...that’s so sweet and I’ve literally have had the best time these past couple of days but I’m not really to be someone’s girlfriend just yet. You are one of the best guys I’ve ever met and god I wish I met you sooner, but do you think we can hold off on the whole boyfriend, girlfriend titles just a little longer?” You’re heart was shaking, you prepared for mark be upset. “Of course, we have all the time in the world. Can I ask what boundaries I have with you? I don’t want to push anything if you’re not ready.” You we’re shocked. “Wow, no one has ever asked me that...I guess I’m fine with us acting like a couple, holding hands and stuff, but if people ask we could just say we are enjoying each other’s company. I’m sorry I know it’s super complicated and I completely understand if you’re not down, but” he cut you off but grabbing your hand softly. “ I’ll do anything to make you feel comfortable with me, I don’t care how long it takes I want you to be here with me mentally and if that takes some time then I’m really to help.” your hear dropped. Although you’ve been in relationships before no one has ever treated you with the amount of respect that Mark does. It’s so refreshing, you feel so safe. “ Mark you don’t understand how much that means to me, no one has ever talked to be like that before. Thank you” He looked at the water and then back at the floor. “You don’t need to thank me for treating you the way you should be treated” he’s ears are bright red and he played with his fingers. You could tell he was nervous. You grabbed his hand “ Mark,but I’m yours okay, were just taking it slow. Having fun.” His checks started to turn that bright red. “I know, I know...it getting late you want to head out?” “Yeah let’s go”

After holding hands the whole way back to his car, Mark started to drive back to the dorms. Still sweetly humming and singing all of the songs together, you were really falling for him. “ hey are you doing anything tomorrow night, the boys want to go to the studio and see what we’re can come to with and I think Johnny invited your friend, Mia, I think.” he said as he parked the car. Getting off and walking over to your side to close the door behind you. “Yeah I got all my work done till Wednesday so I’m free”

Y’all got closer to your dorm, “ so...I had a great time again...” Not knowing what the message he was trying to give off you went in for a hug. He smelt so good and he was so warm. “ me too, I’ll see you tomorrow okay?” He smile was to his checks. “Yeah.. umm goodnight, sleep well” “bye Mark” you’re heart kinda hurt when he was walking away. Should you just have said yes? No, you can’t have a repeat of last time, plus mark said he respects your decision. He’s so....amazing.

——————

I am so sorry I haven’t posted in a while, I’ve been catching up and getting used to my online classes. Thank you for understanding<3 I’ll proof read later.

young lover masterlist

#mark lee au #mark lee boyfriend #mark lee smut #mark lee x reader #nct drabbles #mark lee #mark lee soft hours #nct au #nct imagines #nct 127 #superm mark #nct scenarios #nct fluff

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monotonous-minutia · 4 years

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Cendrillon (Met 2018)

Started last night, fell asleep halfway through (it was a weird day), the post somehow survived without being saved and here we are.

I wonder if there are any spoilers on the walls.

POWER TO THE TROUSER ROLES mezzos rule (I know that’s not what he meant but given there’s a trouser mezzo in this opera I can’t help but wonder if it’s a pun)

second time I’ve seen her as Cinderella and so far Massenet’s is more depressing than Rossini’s

okay this is a bit trippy

I love her so much

those horses area liiiiittle creepy

Prince is sassy

okay that ballet or whatever was super weird and a little disturbing tbh

and it’s just going to keep getting weirder isn’t it

he’s having it about as much as I am

now things are happening very quickly also I’m getting a lot of Greek Chorus vibes from this piece

what am i supposed to focus on i can’t keep my eyes off either of these two i think my head is going to explode

yeah definitely more depressing also subtitles please quit it with the question marks, this is week 16 you should have it figured out by now

the choreography just keeps getting weirder but Kim was made for this role so I can forgive it I suppose

wait what

but apparently you don’t get a name

hello goodbye i’m dead

so wait that WASN’T the happy ending?

oh dang well that happened also what is it with these French bass-baritone dads that just stand there while their children lie dying on the ground

cause of death two mezzos being insanely adorable and in love

sure mom, sure

I mean you had me going there for a while also Lucette’s smile ahhh

meta af

come on cowards let your mezzos kiss onstage

I still love her despite her unexpected moral ambiguity

This was my first time with this opera and it was very interesting. A lot of unexpected twists and turns and very depressing at points; it’s been a while since I’ve read the original original fairy tale so I’m not sure if it’s going for greater accuracy or if Henri Cain likes torturing audiences or if Massent’s music just lends itself best to depressing (the only other operas of his I’ve seen/heard are Thaïs and Werther so).

The fact that the Prince is a mezzo though sold me 1000% because, well, you know me...

I kinda want to talk to the choreographer to see what exactly was going through their mind with this production because the dance sequences were super weird and (as mentioned above) a little disturbing...like at one point it insinuated that they ate the Prince...which...how does one come up with that, let alone have the place of mind to pull it off...

the set was interesting though, with all the text on the walls from the story. It really lent itself well to the surreal sound of the music (which was fantastic at evoking the fairy tale feel) and the strange, extremely flowery libretto. The costumes for the supers were pretty Extra and I get they were going for a comic feeling but it was kind of distracting and didn’t really suit the more somber feel of this piece.

even if the production had been terrible though it still would have been worth it because this cast was phenomenal. Like a production with just one of them would have sold me but ALL FOUR IN ONE PLACE like seriously it was a diva awesomeness overload and that might have been part of the reason I couldn’t finish it in one sitting.

For one thing, Joyce DiDonato pretty much owns the role of Cinderella now in any incarnation and it may be my personal opinion or it could be fact, who knows. I can’t get over how amazing and versatile she is and that voice and her face and she’s so cute and her acting is on point and her expressions and her chemistry with the other performers and and and ahhhhhhhhhhhh she pulled off the smol sweet fragile tiny adorable sad selfless spritely little Cinderella so well and I died.

Kathleen Kim as the Fairy Godmother was a stroke of genius. She was so PRETTY and her voice matches the character perfectly and all her little quirks and expressions really portrayed the depth of this character who was a very surprising incarnation. She’s not the totally sweet, altruistic fairy that we’re used to. Idk what her whole plan was, or her motives, of if it’s just a French Opera Thing that everything has to be more complicated and it’s not complete if all the heroes aren’t at the brink of death at some point, but whatever the reasoning, Kim OWNED it and despite my initial disbelief at the unexpected twist she convinced me. I don’t think just anyone could pull that off. Kim is something special.

I haven’t seen her in as many things but imo Alice Coote is one of the best trouser mezzos. I don’t really get into gendered appearances or ways of moving around because gender is fluid and not binary etc. etc. but for the sake of storytelling and character portrayals DANG (WO)MAN she nails it to the point that if I see her in an interview or something offstage I invariably think “Oh, what, she’s not actually a boy” ALSO she is just EXTREMELY cute and sassy and I love her expressions and pretty much everything about her so yeah. Also I can’t express my nerdy happiness that the two leads are mezzos. But also frustration because excuse me, it’s not a fairy tale if the prince and princess don’t kiss at the end, that’s like the whole point, and I’m pretty sure if he’d been a tenor they’d let it happen, but god forbid we get the tiniest bit of gay onstage.

And Stephanie Blythe--I keep seeing her in all these incredibly different roles and keep thinking at some point she’s not going to be able to pull it off because they’re all so different and then I keep getting more impressed because she does pull it off and then I feel bad for doubting her. This evil stepmother also had a surprising ending and I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be funny or ironic or maybe both, but, like Kim, Blythe was excellent at capturing the ambiguity.

sooooo anyway that’s me nerding out about my divas and I’d give the production 3/5 probably, points taken for the weird costumes and disturbing ballet sequences and not letting the ladies kiss onstage. But the cast gets 100/5 because, well, if you got this far you know why.

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calliecat93 · 3 years

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Top 15 Star Trek TOS Episodes (Part Two)

(Part One)

Continuing from the last post, here are the remaining seven episodes~! Also picking Number One was SUPER hard. I was stuck between it and two for a long while. But I finally picked, so here we go!

#7. The Trouble With Tribbles

Up to this point, I hadn’t been crazy over some of the goofier episodes of Star Trek. Shore Leave was a mindscrew that left me uncertain about what was even happening by the end, though my opinion has lightened up upon looking back. The Squire of Gothos had a villain that I found far more annoying than entertaining and it remains one of my least favorite episodes. The only more silly one I did like was I, Mudd which remains an utter laugh riot once everyone acts as illogical as possible, including Spock. But then this episode came along, and Dear Lord it is hilarious. Our heroes stop at a space station, but it’s also occupied by Klingons. But wait, it gets better! A sleezy guy convinces Uhura to buy a Tribble, these little puff ball things that are kind of cute... until they begin to reproduce so rapidly that they infest the ship and base. To put it simply, it’s not a good time for Kirk. Honestly Kirk is the best part just because of how much he LOATHES every single thing about this episode. The scene where a whole bunch of Tribbles just topple over him and he just resigns himself to his fate and later his epic death glare at Bones when he orders him to figure out what killed the things. And then there’s what makes him come aorund to them, their shared hatred of Klingons. Seriosuly, Kirk is just So Done in this episode and it is amazing~

But seriously, it’s a very entertianing episode. Far more than I thought it was going to be when I read the description. It’s not an episode taken seriosuly, but not in the ‘they just gave up’ kind of way like in certain S3 episodes. The cast seem to be legit having a fun time with this one. The brawl between Scotty, Chekov, and a few other guys against the Klingons was super fun as was Kirk sulking when Scotty revelas that he got provoked over the Enteprise being insulted and not the captain. Poor Jim XD Cyrano Jones was also just a fun delight with how scummy yet amusing he is. The scene with him and the drinks during the brawl had me laughing so much XD Seriosuly there’s just so many good moments. Spock not being immune to the Tribble’s comforting effect and being embarassed at this revelaiton, Spock and McCoy’s snark, the Klingons utter horror at the tiny little furballs, it’s just an entertaining ride from beginning to end.

Not anything to really note flaws wise to justify the ranking. It doesn’t have that emotional or philosophical umph that I normally seek out in shows like this, so it’s here at seven. But that ain’t a bad thing at all. Not every episode has to have deep meanings or complex stories. Sometimes it can just be something fun and amusing, and the effort was still there to make it entertaining. It’s one of those episodes that I would watch above the others on a bad day just so I can laugh. Probably the most fun episode I have on this list, and that’s nothing to snuff at~!

#6. The Doomsday Machine

Our heroes find a Starship where the only survivor is Commadore Decker, his crew having all been killed when he beamed them to a planet that a planet destroyer... well, destroyed shortly after. The destroyer is still active and now the Enterprise is in danger. As Kirk remains on that ship, Decker is determined to destroyt he doomsday machine once and for all, including taking command of the Enteprrise and risking their lives to do so. Yeah, this is a pretty intense one. Decker, while his sucicdal actions were wrong, is VERY sympathetic. His crew was killed through no fault of his own, the machine that did it is still loose, and the losses have left him utterly broken. He’s very much traumatized but as he is the highest ranking officer and they can’t officially prove that he’s too mentlaly unfit to be relieved (which imo is idiotic cause even someone who isn’t a psycologist can tell he’s mentally unfit, but whatever), they can’t do much to stop him. Spock DOES finally manage to do so, and it leads to Decker’s ultimate choice that leads to his tragic end.

This one really gripped me. There’s this tension throughout. We have an unstable, suicidal man taking control of the Enterprise and willing to get them all killed to stop the doomsday machine. It’s scary to see how broken the man is. Again, he’s wrong to be willing to sacrifice everyone on The Enterprise to destroy the thing even though none of them want to die, but you understand why. I mean imagine if that happened to Kirk, he’d probably snap too if his actions in Obsession is any indication of how he handles major losses like that. Then we have Decker’s final act. Once relieved of command, he steals a shuttle and goes at the machine himself. He knows that he’s going to die and accepts that fact if it means some chance, any chance of destroying the machine once and for all. While he fails to destory it, he DOES give Kirk the opprotunity needed to do so with the ruined ship. A move that almost gets Kirk killed, but still Decker’s act was not in vain. It’s a very interesting character study with themes of guilt, trauma, and desperation. Kind of like in Obsession in a way, only Kirk manages to survive and pull himself together before it was too late. Decker’s only goal was to take down the machine that took his crew’s lives, even if that meant losing his own.

As I said, these are the kinds of episodes I live for. I guess self-sacrifice is also genetic consideirng what happened with his son in The Motion Picture, haha. Flaws... ugh... I guess McCoy disappeairng after the first half sucked? But that’s a me thing that doesn’t affect anything. I just remember watching it wide-eyed despite fully well knowing that everyone I cared about were going to be perfectly fine. It really gripped me! A great episode with great character exploration and themes which for a one off character, is pretty dang impressive!

#5. Journey to Babel

Meet the parents epidsode! Yay! The Enteprise is transporting various ambassadors of various planets to the Babel Conference. This includes the Vulcan Ambassador Sarek and his human wife Amanda, aka Spock’s parents. Yep, it’s time for some good ol’ fashioned family issues! Sarek wasn’t exactly happy with Spock choosing Starfleet and their relationship has been strained ever since. But when Sarek has severe heart problems, the only way to save him is via blood transfusion with Spock the only one compatible. But to make it worse, Kirk gets stabbed and put out of comission, forcing Spock to take command... at the same time that his father needs the surgery. Yeah... it sucks to be Spock in this episode. I know that Sarek is a bit divisive, but I like Spock’s parents. Sarek comes off as good at his job, but not great as a parent. He’s far fromt he worst and we do see that he does seem to still care about his son, he’s just God awful at admitting it and his previous mistakes. Like father, like son I guess. Amanda was a delight, especially when she tells McCoy about the sehlat aka giant teddy bear. Anyone who can make Bones smile that big deserves our thanks. Spock trying to make it less embarassing only made it funnier XD But back on topic, they come off as interesitng characters. They ain’t ideal, but they seem to genuinely be in love, which is nice.

Spock was just great here as we see him in one of the roughest spots he’s been in. He’s naturally not happy about being around the father that cast him aside again, though after his heart issues it’s clear that he IS concerned. Leonard Nimoy once again does such a fantastic job at having Spock express so much but without breaking character. It’s all in the eyes and the strained tone of voice. Then when Spock is more than willing to go through with the tranfusion, Kirk is injured. He has no choice but to take command, knowing that in doing so his father will die. While he COULD give command to Scotty, with the VERY intense circumstances of an assaliant on board and a ship ready to attack wit a number of ambassadors on board, he’s the best bet in handling it. Amanda is of course upset and even smacks him which IS overly harsh, but she’s about to lose her husband and her son, despite clealry hating the fact, has to place his duty above all else. Sarek dying is the least worst outcome to everyone else being killed. It’s the most logical route. Fortunately Kirk is able to pull himself together long enough to take over and the transfusion goes through perfectly despite the fight making it more difficult. Which again, McCoy is the true MVP here for managing to pull that off successfully under those conditions and Thank God that the episode rewarded him by letting him finally get the last word. He earned that one!

It’s such a great episode for me. Family drama, Spock conflict, political tensions, and just some relaly fun bits. Seriosuly, the teddy bear bit will NEVER stop being funny. Hoenstly these last five were all pretty tight and this ende dup here cause the other four had just a little bit mroe to keep me invested for reasons. Spock and Sarek don’t really reach a resolution but we do see that it has the chance to improve, and the movies do show that Sarek DOES truly care about his son and even admits that he had been wrong. It takes a lot for a man, even a Vulcan man, to do that. Although I DID double take when I realized that Sarek is played by the same guy who did the Romulan Captain in Balance of Terror. Guess he was that good XD. But yeah, a really great episode and very much my favorite Spock-centric episode.

#4. The Empath

TRIUMVIRATE FEELS BABY~! Our heroes end up trapped by a duo of aliens and encounter a mute empath woman that McCoy names Gem. They try to figure out how to escape as the aliens known as Vians plan to use them for an experiment as they have others. Shenanigains happen while elad to Kirk getting totured p, and then given the ultimate sadistic choice in having to decide if either Spock or McCoy get tortured to the point of either death (McCoy) or permenant brain damage (Spock). Now the episode has it’s issues, like why the Vians needed to do this to decide that Gem’s people were worth saivng is..l really baffling. But I’m also not a Vian so what do I know anout their mindset? But due to those kinds of plot holes, it landed here at four. It also kind of reads like a hurt/comfort fanfic, which isn’t a surprise when you find out that this was written and submitted by a fan. Which is freakin’ awesome and I can’t complain tbh cause it’s a good hurt/comfort fic. What it fails in some plot tightning it succeeds at in emphasizing the relationship between the main trio and it’s themes of emotion and self-sacrifice. Because OF COURSE that would be relevant for these three numbskulls at some point!

The second half is really what sells it. Kirk of course can’t make a choice like that, so Bones hypos him so that he’ll be spared of it. But that means that Spock is in command and he fully intends to hand himself over to the Vians to spare the two. Just the scene where he looks at Kirk, knowing that it’ll likely be the last time he sees him and Gem touching him to feel his emotions. Her smile sums it sll up. Which sidenote, the actress for Gem was freakin’ fantastic in how she displayed so much emotion and character without saying one word. Excellent acting. Anyways, Spock’s plan seems full-proof... except that he forgot that he’s dealing with McCoy, who promptly hypos him as well and sacrifices himself to the Vians. That was when McCoy became my favorite character, the moment he chose to be tortured to near death to save his two best friends and an innocent woman and even took the time to try and comfort her before being taken away. When we see the ifnal result and are greeted to DeForest Kelley looking at the camera with the most dead expression that he can muster... yeah the image STILL haunts me. Then Bones is dying with the two unable to do anything but try to give him some comfort and Gem is just so distraught and... heah this episode mad eit this high simply because it hit the emotional beats perfectly. That’s not even going into Gem trying to heal him to drive home the themes of the episode, also done VERY well.

This episode really shows how much the three care for one another. They’re all willing to be tortured and die to spare the other two. Ultimately McCoy gets the ‘honor’, but Kirk and Spock were absolutely ready to throw themselves to the fire. The characterization, interactions, and dynamic are just done so well that it’s why I can forgive the plot issues. I’m a sucker for feelings okay?! So yeah it’s not perfect but what it got right it got right. As such, it managed to land here at Number Four with only those plot holes keeping it from Number One. And trust me, I was tempted.

#3. The Tholian Web

Season 3 hadn’t been doing it for me with only one or two episodes really getitng my attention up to that point. This one though? This was the best episode in the seaosn bar none. Our heroes end up in a subspace where they find a starship and it’s crew all dead. Whien they teleport back to The Enterprise, it disappears... and takes Kirk with it. Okay, doesn’t sound liek anythignt hat new right? Kirk goes missing, the crew have to deal without him and find him as quickly as posisble. But this one has a bit of a twist... they cut Kirk out completely. Yeah, from the moment he vanishes in the first act to the very end he is out of the episode. Not only does the crew not know what happened to him, but neither does the audience, this ramps up the fear and emotional weight big time as the longer the crew is int hat space, the influence of it drives them to insanity. Bones wants to get out because of this, while Spock is unwilling to leave Kirk if he is alive. Needles to say, things go off the rails quickly.

With Kirk out of the equation, we keep our focus on Spock and McCoy. Their arguing is probably at the most personal it’s ever been with Kirk seming dead, the crew losing their minds, and it looking more and more uncertain that they can both treat the crew and ge tout alive. While one can say that McCoy may be too harsh here, I think along with the space affecting him in a less intense way, he’s also stressed from all the patients as well as his grief about Jim. Spock is the only one that he can take it out on, especially since his chocie to not leave is why they’re now int he mess that they’re in. Spock is trying to perform his duties despite the hostilities and his own grief that he’s trying to keep a grip on with all the responsibility of the crew and whatever happens due to his choice firmly sititng on his shoulders. What finally starts to get them to resolve this? A tape that Kirk made for them in the event of his death. He gives them his confidence that they can perform their duties withiut him, but that they need to lsiten to and support each other. They CAN go on without him. It’ll hurt but they’re now all that they each have and they need to work together now more than ever. It’s a sobering moment for both with McCoy realizng how ovelry harsh he had been and Spock expressing genuine grief. They do still bicke rone more time, but McCoy catches himself before it goes too far, apologizes, and Spock simply says what Jim would: “Forget it, Bones”. Cue Bones fainting like the Southern Bell that he is, haha!

Now of course Kirk is alive and they manage to save him and get out of the situation fine. But I just loved this because of the focus on Spock and McCoy without Kirk. Why? Because Kirk is the one thing that can unite them. It’s not the only thing, but if anything can make them get over their disagreements quickly, it’s Kirk. So what happens when it looks like he’s gone and never coming back? How will the two deal with it now that that balance is gone? They don’t deal with it well, being at each other’s throats until they see that tape. But it DOES show that if they did lose Kirk, they CAN work together and go on. Like I said, I adore these two’s relationship and while not as slashy as All Our Yesterdays, this is such an excellent one for that relationship as we see that yes, they will bicker but they will also be there for each other when it all comes down to it. It’s such a great episode for that reason and the plot was just well done. Like I said, casitng out Jim and leaving us unsure of what happened to him was an excellent move for this one and I enjoyed the exploration that it allowed.

#2. The Immunity Syndrome

Out heroes are scent to investigate what caused a whole solar system to disappear just as they also receive a message from a Vulcan science vessel. Unfortunately, Spock senses he vessel’s destruction and the Enterprise finds itself against a giant space amoeba that will devour everything unless stopped. That may not sound like much, but it leads into what I think was the most intense situation that the Enterprise has been in. Everything, and I mean everything, is pushed to their limits here. This amoeba can outright destroy galaxies and utterly mindless, so there’s no reasoning with it. But it gets especially tense when, in order to understand exactly what’s going on, Kirk has to send someone in the space shuttle to observe, but in doing so, he’s sending someone to most likely die. And his choices? Either Spock or Bones... yeah.

This is what makes this episode great. Spock and Bones are already on rockier than usual terms due to McCoy treating the Vulcan deaths more like a statistic while Spock sensed all of it outright. That itself is an interesting observation on how we treat these kinds of things, not really understanding how horrific it is unless we’re involved in it outright, otherwise it’s sad and unfortunate but just another number. But then we have the suicide mission. Bones originally volunteers himself, after all he’s a doctor and would have the knowledge to make the necessary observaitons and likely the most fit for it. But Spock is not only also perfectly capable even if not specialized in medical science, but he’s also more fit physically and emotionally to undergo the risk and come out alive. In the end, Kirk picks Spock and McCoy ain’t happy about it. The scene with Spock about ready to go with McCoy still unhappy even when Spock asks him to wish him luck. He does... once the doors have shut and Spock can’t hear him anymore. It’s a very strong scene and it only gets more painful when it looks like Spock is truly going to die and his final words are that McCoy should have wished him luck. Bones’ face says everything.

The episode is just excellent. Great character moments. Great emotional weight. Great stakes that keep going up and up and it truly feels like the darkest hour for the crew. Kirk and Spock outright begin to record their respective final words. Even they’re convinced that this is most likely the end, which is just... dang man. I couldn’t look away during this one. They hit everything perfectly with pretty much everything. If I have any issues, none of them come to mind. It’s just an excellent episode and the best of Season 2. I had a REALLY hard time picking between this and my Number One for the top slot. The top one just had a little bit more emotional impact to get it, but it just barely topped this one. Regardless, it is still an excellent episode and one of the best by far. But what is Number One? Well...

#1. The City on the Edge of Forever

Yeah, yeah, obvious pick I know. I normally don’t go wth popular opinion... but sometimes it’s that way for a reason, and this one I can’t argue about. When McCoy gets badly drugged on accident, he goes into a derranged state and beams onto a planet. The crew is unable to stop him from entering a portal known as the Guardian of Forever that sends him into the distant past where he does something to change histry. In order to figure out what changed and to stop McCoy, Kirk and Spock travel into the 1930’s a few days earlier to cut him off and must now navigate their way though the time period where they end up at a soup kitchen run by a woman named Edith Keller. Which Edith is an excellent character. She’s kind, optimistic, charming, hard-working, ad caring towards those who need it. Kirk ends up falling for her, and... it’s legit really cute. Kirk isn’t being forced to make out with a woman or doing so for information. We see how Kirk is when he genunely likes someone, having been drawn to Edith’s optimism and hopes for a better future. A future that he is from and knows will be reality. He’s really sweet and it’s just cute... which makes what happens at the end all the more tragic.

The 1930’s were fun with Kirk trying to come up with an excuse for Spock’s ears having me dying from laughter. The acting was excellent with DeForest Kelley as drugged!Bones especially being both crazy and scary. I quit doubting that he played villains in Westerns after this episode, haha. But of course Spock soon discovers that the change that McCoy is to make is saving Edith form death, and in doing so she leads a pacifist campaign that delays America’s entry into World War II and... well, things go badly. They are in a time where sadly optimism and peace are simply not options, which is even crueler. In order for time to be restored, they have to let Edith die. Kirk is horrified by this and when the time comes (sidenote, the Triumvirate reunion is utterly adorable), he just grabs Bones, keeps his back turned, and can only listen as Edith screams and is killed via car colission. Whatever grievances I have about William Shatner, he absoluteley nailed Kirk’s utter heartbreak and pain as Kirk just looks utterly boken. His final wordds after they return to the 23rd Century simply being a bitter “Let’s get the Hell out of here” sums it all up perfectly. Bones’ horror at it, especially since he DID have to watch it and him being upset at Kirk is also heartbreaking as he asks him if he knows what he just did. Spock can only somberly inform him that yes, he does.

It’s one of those cases where I wish serialization was more of a thign cause DAMN this is some major emotional baggage for everyone but as per usual. It happens and they go on from there with no lingering development. I guess if I had to complain, that would be it but that’s jut the nature of these shows at the time. Kind of feel like Bones getting as bady overdosed as he did pretty much got forgotten after they enter the 1930’s, but I also know nothing about 23rd Century drugs so... ah well. But the rest of the episode is so good that I can forgive those issues and they clealry did nothing to impact the placing. It had a storgn story, great emotion, great acting, great pacing, and a heartbreaking but fitting ending. The episode has a LOT of history behind it’s making that could be a post all it’s own, but no mater how this episode came to be, it is very much the best of Star Trek TOS. It was fun yet sad and had me gripped form beginning to ed and just htinkign about it now still makes me sad. Thus, it earns it’s place as my favorite episode of Star Trek TOS.

And we are done! There were a lot of really good episodes and some i REALLY did consider. A Piece of the Action, The Enemy Within (that was skipped for... certian reasons), Is There in Truth No Beauty?, This Side of Paradise, and plenty of others that I enjoyed. There were others I.. well, didn’t, but I can’t recall outright hating anything. Regardless I came in apathetic at best, and I left a fan for it’s characters, interesting ideas, and I just had a lot of fun. It’s outdated in many ways, but still relevant in others. Overall, I’m glad to have finally watched it, and I hope that I enjoy TNG just as much. But if not, I’ll always have this~!

(Image Source: TrekCore TOS Gallery)

#star trek tos #callie reviews

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hoarding-stories · 4 years

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Alrighty, I’m starting the Penumbra Podcast! I’m just gonna put all of my thoughts here for the first couple of episodes (warning, it’s real big)

Murderous Mask pt1

The intro for the Penumbra started...I heard that first sound effect... I went “ah an umbrella, no wait damnit, an elevator!” great start.

Juno said “Hyperion city” and I was instantly ready for a mechanism’s album to start. :/

Rita! she sounds exactly like I thought she would

yes, that does sound like your problem

Sasha Wire,,, I’ve seen that name I think

spook suit?

Grimpo Thuthis that’s a funny name

...most of his son?

what is the creaking, is it Juno’s chair?

I love Rita’s laugh

Wait. Is this Peter. I don’t know what I was expecting him to sound like, but this isn’t it. He’s a smug bastard isn’t he

savvy rabbits... noseys

a ghost??

I don’t think this is a real ghost. whoms’t

Cassandra! serrated teeth? inchresting

A bump? in a tomb

what do you mean the noise can wait

terrible description of the case, that’s disgusting

ugh

wait. have i heard a clip of that moment before? I just had a feeling of deja vu

I love the contrast of how “Rex Glass” reacts to stuff vs Juno

“I’ll just... bring the mask over here then” *various sounds of investigating*

which broken- *thud*

*the longest door creak ever*

was that flirting??

he memorized the floor plan. That’s,,, very prepared

So there is an actual creature, I thought it would just be sounds

“Rex” sure is laying it on thick

I actually looked up what Rex meant before this... I wanted to see if the name had a funny meaning

cameras? “it might be what?”

wait. Man with a camera for a head?!!? On the ceiling?!?

Cameramen are predators?

“Hit me” “Are you kidding me that was nothing” Juno! stop getting punched!

That scared the shit out of me. torture chairs aren’t fun

This a mess. I love it

Murderous Mask pt 2

I have popcorn now. this should be good

That’s a lot of boos

Makeup?!?! Yes please

Adamantium maidens

Lip stain with a buzz?

“Coliseum 2, we gave the lion a gun and you won’t believe what happens next” I would watch that

Cecil seems interesting. He’s crazy, but interesting

1st mention of Juno’s brother! 38 year tragedy?

“a hell of a haircut!” fantastic

oh dang it, he cut “Rex”

Ah! “Rex” having a ton of stuff in his back pockets is canonical, not a goof!

The plasma cutter getting through the chain scared the shit out of me! and again!

Lots of zingers

Oh no! Juno why are you always getting hit!

Did no one tell Cecil?!? That’s kinda terrible, I feel a little bad for him

Second closest friend? Cecil is a bit sympathetic now

Oh him and Cassandra are twins!

Yeah Juno you’re hurt!

“You got a nice smell” “never tried eating cologne” jesus

I love Rita

He didn’t think the topic of Juno’s brother would be personal?

Ruh-roh

This got interesting fast

papers? a will maybe?

hmmm, I’m suspicious. It’s too perfect. And I don’t trust Min (?)

Juno looking into “Rex’s” eyes...

…Did the dude kill himself? My theory

Ok they got the gun

Super don’t like Min

defective locks?

So it was an accident

Why’s Juno laughing. Detective is about to detective

theoretically, I mean

Hate her

“You wouldn’t want to show me someplace warmer, would you?” Oh my god

that “oh”

““we all survived, if you don’t count my poor hand.” Juno got punched like 5 times...

“Rex”, my god.

It’s HAPPENING!!!

Hahahahahahaha what a line

oh he tried to steal the mask. He’s probably going to end up actually getting it

“I don’t tell anyone my name” hmmmmmm

Oh man this is amazing, “run away with me”, my heart.

He’s such a fucking flirt, “your better half” you guys spent an afternoon together

THAT’S how you pronounce his last name! Nur-rey-ev

Of course he escaped. And got the mask

poor Juno

I’ll end this post here since it’s an ungodly length and make a new one for The Prince of Mars!

#the penumbra podcast #tpp #my words #tpp spoilers #penumbra blogging #this is definitely a podcast I need to fully focus on #it's easy to lose track of what's being said #I'm really liking this so far #Juno and 'Rex' are so dramatic

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greendragonqueen · 4 years

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How to Fix Arwen

And no, I don’t mean the elf princess from Lord of the Rings, she is perfect and I love her.

No, I’m talking about the ship Arwen, from Merlin.

(I know, ya’ll fucking surprised that I’m still talking about Merlin. Neither am I.)

Well I’m here to talk about this ship, because out of all of the ships on this show, this one was the most canon and yet felt the most pushed. The most forced.

I mean I love the idea, I am a HUGE fan of the original Arthurian Legend stories. (If you somehow did not know, Merlin was based off of the poems and stories written between 750 AD to about 1500 AD. They aren’t all consistent, but revolve around King Arthur, his knights, and the world they lived in. These poems are all collectively called ‘Arthurian Legend’.) Their relationship is so complex, and it’s great. In some, Guinevere is a loyal and loving queen, others are malicious and are willing to stab Arthur (and really anyone she doesn’t like) in the back the moment she can get a chance, and the most recent versions (see Mallory’s work) are good people, but just don’t love Arthur. In some, Arthur takes Guinevere for granted, giving her sympathy for whe she betrays him, in some he is an absolutely doting husband, making her betrayal (if she does betray him) all the more painful for him.

There’s a reason why this relationship is up there in iconic relationships with Romeo and Juliet (and only being surpassed by Guinevere and Lancelot) and it’s because it’s such an enticing relationship. It’s complex, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. There’s literally so many options for how the writers of Merlin could have taken the relationship! But instead, we got what we got, which felt like a half assed, half baked, attempt to literally shove all of the complexities of their relationship into one big mess.

I mean literally, season two was supposed to have Merlin and Morgana in a relationship, but they decided against it because ‘they didn’t want to take away from Arthur and Gwen’s relationship’. So essentially they wasted one relationship, and squandered another. If they had written a good version of Gwen and Arthur’s relationship, I would have at least understood why my ship didn’t get the attention it deserves, but they didn’t.

But we still love the idea of a king falling in love with a servant. They are two adorable little nuggets and if we are all obsessed with destiny, then this is the biggest embodiment of destiny we can get.

So this is what I would do if I had to rewrite their ship.

First, you have to encourage the ship from the absolute very beginning, and you HAVE to keep it up, you HAVE to keep it consistent. Like, almost very first minute of the show. Like, Arthur is basically beating up Merlin in their first encounter, but Gwen walks by and tells Arthur off. (This would then lead to Merlin’s introduction to Gwen and her immediate crush on him.) And we all know that Arthur doesn’t really care for servants and peasants (I mean, for gods sake, he’s throwing knives at his unnamed servant), but he listens to Gwen. Before he listens to Merlin, he’s listening to Gwen. The other knights make fun of him for it, but he doesn’t care. And we can tell in his mind that his logical excuse is that Gwen will tell Morgana if he doesn't stop, and if there is anyone that scares Arthur more than Uther, it’s Morgana, and Arthur does not want to incur her wrath.

But eventually, as time goes on, the reason why he stops is because he’s staring at Gwen. He can’t take his eyes off of her. She is the reason why he loses some sparring matches, but that’s much later on. We can still keep her comment ‘I would never want to marry a man like Arthur’ at the feast later, but we also need a, a look. Something that says that a tiny part of her is lying.

We need the hints right from the get go, just like we get hints right from the very beginning for Merlin and Morgana’s relationship. We see his eyes get drawn to her, we need that sparkly music. We need the whole dang ten yards, people, otherwise it’s not gonna work.

Second, there needs to be more alone moments between Arthur and Gwen, especially early on. Moments that logically have no romantic moments in them, but you can still feel the tension. Like a creepy picture, but with romantic ideas instead, if you get what I mean.

Like we need Gwen and Arthur going out to help Merlin and Morgana after they get into their own little shenanigans (coughcough they went on a secret date and were kidnapped by bandits because those woods seem to be crawling with them coughcough), and bickering like an old married couple the entire way. A stranger or a knight comments on it. The two blush redder than tomatoes, and agree to never talk about it again.

Gwen/we finally meets the hunting dogs Arthur continually talks about. Arthur tries to warn her, saying that they’re ferocious creatures, they’re work dogs, they’re trained to kill, they attack Merlin all the time if he doesn’t do exactly what they want, and before his mouth can even finish his words, Gwen has them on the floor, tongue hanging out of their mouths, giving them belly rubs and talking to them in a baby voice. Arthur doesn’t know what the fuck is happening, his jaw is on the floor, and Merlin just turns to him and says something like, “you need to take her on this trip, not me” and just walks away. All Arthur could hear was “You nee to take her” before he is left blushing like a little school girl as she doesn't realize that the prince of Camelot is staring at her.

Speaking of animals, a scene where Gwen needs help with her horse, who is refusing to listen to her. It gets so bad that the horse eventually rears up. Immediately Arthur comes running up and helps, practically saving her from getting kicked in the face. He gives her advice on what to do, telling her where their blind spots are and how you can’t stand in them, otherwise you’ll spook them, what to do to calm them down and whatnot, and while Gwen already knows about half of what he tells her, she doesn't mind, because he isn’t mansplaining to her.

Arthur and Merlin catch up to Morgana and Gwen while out in the market, and immediately offers to help carry their things. Immediately Arthur turns around and gives his things to Merlin, but Gwen rolls her eyes and immediately takes her things back. This leads to a rather funny passing around of objects from Gwen to Arthur to Merlin to Gwen to Morgana to Merlin and all the way around, until finally Arthur submits and takes the things.

Random moment where Gwen and Morgana sneak out to the tavern to get drinks and get caught by Arthur and Merlin. It’s very funny as Gwen tries to hide her voice and the drinks and it fails spectacularly. Drinks are spilled, voices are choked on, the whole nine yards. They eventually agree to help them on the condition that they get some of the drinks too. Cue a full night of the four getting drunk off their asses on the roof of the castle, filled with laughter and stories and hangovers the next morning. It’s completely PG what they do on the roof, so no funny business.

(Arthur and Gwen talking about Merlin and Morgana’s blooming relationship, because I can’t seem to keep them out of any Merlin post I make.)

Third, they also need more of those romantic tension moments. Those moments that are meant for romantic interests, to offer the idea of the ship. They don’t have to be that early, but they should be sooner than it was in the series. Several early episodes could be modified to fit this idea, and I bet they were intended to show this idea, but they weren’t done well. They were too far spaced and too slow, resulting the writers to need to forcibly need to pick up the pace when the time came, resulting in a sloppy building of the relationship.

The sickness episode could have been one big giant romantic interest episode, one that showed that Arthur had grown to at least care for her. Like when she is sentenced to execution, Arthur’s gotta fight against it. He's arguing with his father, he has to get dragged out by the guards. When Merlin proclaims that he has magic and that he was the one that cured her father, Arthur gets mad for more than one reason. (One, he wishes he had come up with that idea first, even though it probably wouldn’t work, and two, how dare he start going after Gwen.)

Gwen also being kidnapped and meeting Lancelot was also a good episode for this, but once again, it was slow and it was late. It needs to be pushed up a little, like around season one, perhaps. Arthur doesn’t even need Morgana’s encouragement, he’s already half way out the door before Morgana can even come in and rant. Both Merlin and Morgana are confused. They like it, but they’re confused.

Also, wasn’t the unicorn in “The Unicorn” attracted to Gwen’s purity? I feel like that’s right. If it wasn’t, then it should. Gwen is out in the woods, and the unicorn walks up to her. Against Merlin’s wishes, Arthur kills the unicorn. Afterwards, Gwen feels horrible about it, especially after learning about the curse about what happens when you kill a unicorn, and lets Arthur know about it. She rips him another one, and it breaks his heart because she is making great points and there’s tears in her eyes and its all his fault, all that sort of good stuff. Arthur watches Morgana and Gwen sneak food out of the castle, and the next time they do it, he helps, as a sort of apology. When he goes out to try and solve it, he leaves her an apology note, explaining what he’s doing.

Also, there would also be other moments in other episodes, or even newly created episodes.

Arthur takes a page out of Merlin’s book and brings her flowers he picked. They aren’t nearly as pretty as Merlin’s were for Morgana, but Gwen giggles and knows its the thought that counts. She keeps them regardless and even dries the bundle to keep it forever.

Arthur finally learns that Gwen had kissed Merlin (on the lips, no less!) (potentially on their night drinking on the roof) and Arthur has to work through his inner turmoil and his realization that he doesn't like Gwen kissing Merlin, or more specifically Merlin kissing Gwen. No one but Morgana realizes what’s going on. I would dare to even say that the idea causes him to have nightmares about the idea, but perhaps not. Still wishy washy about that idea.

Morgana realizes Arthur’s crush on Gwen (yes, that’s how early we need to establish the roots of this relationship, that Morgana is still good and realizes that Arthur has a crush on her before Arthur even realizes that he has a crush on her), and decides to fully lean into it. She dresses her servant to the nines, even getting Merlin’s advice, for a ball, and Arthur is absolutely thrown back. He is thrown off his feet. He can barely even get a word out, much less a full sentence. And then later on Uther pulls Morgana off to the side and tells her that she can’t do that again, telling her that royals and servants can’t intermix, much like how Arthur told Merlin not to pursue Morgana.

Or better yet, take a page out of Miraculous Ladybug and have Arthur in one episode disguise his identity from everyone, including Gwen, just so that he can openly flirt with her. Hell, that could be the jousting episode! Instead of him living with her for a few days, he pretends to be someone else entirely for the jousting competition and doesn’t tell anyone (except for Merlin, because Merlin would freak), and he realizes that his disguise is so good that even Gwen doesn't even realize that it’s him. Cue the flirt master, and her gently declining him, saying her heart is saved for another man. He pressures her into telling him, and eventually she relents and tells her its the prince. Arthur has no idea how to respond.

Not to mention we need the WEDDING EPISODE. We have her coronation, but not their wedding. I mean, what the hell? Is that supposed to be their wedding? Because if it was, then it sucked.

Fourth, they need to help each other grow. We all love Merlin being the one who tells Arthur off and help him grow, but if we want this ship to work, we need Gwen to do it too.

Arthur teaches Gwen to sword fight, not like how he taught Merlin but actually teaches her, or better yet he teaches her chess. Chess has always been known as a strategy game for Scottish kings to learn for how to move their armies, and if Arthur wants Gwen to be her queen, then why wouldn’t he teach her battle strategy? He teaches her how to escape knots and bindings “in case for the future” (this leads to some awkward moments in the bedroom). He, along with Merlin and Morgana, teach her how to read and write, because “I’m the only one in our group who never had the luxury nor the requirement to learn how to read and write” and that just can’t stand.

Gwen teaches Arthur swordsmithing, or at least convincing her father to teach Arthur how to swordsmith (which also leads to Arthur getting the approval of the relationship from Gwen’s father). This may come from Arthur continually breaking his swords, and Gwen commenting how much of a waste it is. Arthur probably wouldn’t understand and probably wouldn’t care, and Gwen would explain/go into a speech about how it would take a swordsmith, such as her father, days of tireless work to make a single sword, all for him to not even care about his swords and continue to break it. Some point, Gwen drags Arthur to the forge with the explanation “you’ll care more about your weapons if you actually make it”, and forces her father to teach Arthur how to make a sword. After all is said and done, and Arthur has grown. He still keeps his rather terrible sword, as a memento.

Fifth, once you have everything to show of the development of a relationship, there needs to be a LOT of resistance. Not just from Morgana not wanting Gwen on the throne (believe it or not, even in her deranged state, she still likes Gwen and Arthur together, she just doesn't like Gwen being on the throne), but from everyone.

Lancelot continues to show up more since season one, and the more he shows up, the more Arthur tries to keep Gwen away from him. This leads to arguments between them, Gwen telling Arthur that she can do whatever she wants. She’s an independent woman, and while she may work for the castle, she doesn't work for him. “I’m not your wife,” she says in passing, and it only makes Arthur more frustrated. Eventually, Arthur has to confess his feelings.

Uther somehow figures out Arthur’s interest, and forbids it. Uther will try his BEST to set Arthur up with various princesses and ladies, and Arthur literally runs away from all of them. He does not want any of them, he wants Gwen. He refuses to come home until Uther gets rid of the suitors. Eventually, Uther relents or Merlin manages to get rid of them. Either way around, it proves to Gwen and to Uther that Arthur wants her, and Uther says something around the lines like “she is a peasant, she is worth nothing.” And Arthur responds with, “But she is worth everything to me.” Uther potentially banishes her, but I’m not too sure.

After Uther is gone and Arthur is king, Elyan arrives and becomes a knight. Once Elyan finds out that Arthur married Gwen, he does NOT approve of the relationship, and lets it be known. It even gets to the point where Arthur has to fight for her hand, again, and it’s only when he shows mercy to Elyan when Gwen asks him to that Elyan approves, when he realizes that Arthur does listen to Gwen.

Some lords, ladies, knights, and even some peasants show their disproval of Gwen being the new queen, and let it be known specifically to Gwen. They don’t respect her, they don’t listen to her, and they call her the peasant queen, or the false queen. Both have to work together to get the people to approve of her, and even then that's something that has to be dealt with over several episodes. It’s a slow arc.

And finally, sixth, it needs to show that both work together, not only as a husband and wife duo, but as king and queen. The two work heavily together to rule the kingdom and for their relationship, and its shown in many small moments over the final series.

The two have heavy discussions over the breakfast table about everything in the kingdom, from tax disputes to recent sprees of crimes to raising the ban on magic to servant gossip, it’s anything.

Gwen’s pointing out advice at the battle strategy meetings, and Arthur’s listening while also seriously disputing it, like any good battle strategists would.

Arthur and Gwen have picnics outside where Arthur braids flowers into her hair. He gets pretty good at it.

Gwen reads to him every night to help him sleep, and he freaking loves it.

I wrote about this earlier in an earlier piece, but Gwen may act in court as a perfect, studious queen, but behind closed doors she’s still the same old Gwen, and Arthur loves it. She slouches, she bickers, and no matter how many times he tells her to leave to the servants, he will catch her cleaning. Even if Merlin is in the room, she will be cleaning, because “she ordered me not to, and I can’t disobey the orders from the queen”. Arthur will even clean the whole room himself before Merlin gets in and she wakes up to stop her from cleaning. It turns out it was a ploy by Gwen and Merlin to teach Arthur to clean up after himself, and it works flawlessly.

“Merlin, where’s my cape?” “I don’t-?” He looks over, and in comes Gwen with the cape, which is much too big on her and makes her look almost look like a child, thrown over her shoulders. She gives him the derpiest looks, and with a swish and a twirl, proceeds to run away with the cape.

Gwen keeps a booklet of things Arthur says in his sleep, which is apparently a lot. (It kind of makes Arthur calling Merlin’s name out into the night a little less weird, because apparently he says everyone’s name in his sleep.) One of the sweetest things he says as wrapping his arms around her waist is, ‘No, Gwen, I love you too much to let you boil our hobgoblin grandchildren’. It was confusing and terribly sweet, even though it made Gwen laugh and made Arthur wake up.

Finally, Arthur holding out his hand for her to take to dance with him at every banquet, like a teenager asking a girl out to a dance, and it never, ever gets old.

Point is, we need to make this relationship feel real. We need those small moments and that growth to make it feel real and alive and shippable.

#Merlin #arthur #gwen #arwen

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love-fireflysong · 4 years

Text

Day 18: Photo

Fandom: Until Dawn Character(s): Chris Hartley, Josh Washington, Ashley Brown Words: 1962 Rating: Teen (language bitches!) Author’s Notes: *Nickelback’s ‘Photograph’ plays in the background* Still alive over here! And it’s not angst this time! Amazing, I know. Big reason this one is so late is because after spending 3 days thinking about what to do for this, I still had nothing. And then I inspiration came to me in the shower so here we are: the follow-up to Deals and Arguments that probably no one wanted! Because lets be honest, if Ash is the one who writes ‘Ashley Hartley’ in her books, then Chris absolutely scribbled a heart with their initials by accident once. And that’s all it takes for Josh...

For almost as long as Chris had known him, Josh had always been obsessed with the idea. He wants to say that it started when they were in fifth grade, when their teacher, Ms. Franks, announced to the class that since she was pregnant, that she was going to be taking a leave of absence just before the end of the school year. Someone, he couldn’t recall who, had asked if they had a name for the baby picked out, but he could recall the response as though it had happened only yesterday.

“It’s still a little too early for names, but if they’re gonna be a girl, we’re thinking of naming her after a mutual best friend of ours.”

Ever since then, Josh had been all over the idea. Every dare, every piece of blackmail, every ‘dying’ wish was the same: “Name your kid Josh.” When he was younger, Chris would laugh and shove Josh away with a roll of his eyes. It was funny back when he was like ten or eleven, or hell, even when he was thirteen! He was gonna be a super cool app developer, he wasn’t gonna have time for marriage, much less kids. All of his time was gonna be spent developing super awesome games and apps that were gonna save the world! Or something.

While his mind didn’t exactly change the moment he met Ashley the summer after he turned thirteen, he is ashamed to admit it was pretty dang close. Josh introduced Ash to him in their favorite fast food diner, and declared the three of them to be best friends, til death do us part, yada yada yada. At the end of July, the three of them were inseparable, and by the beginning of school that September, he was gone. Donezo baby! Head-over-fucking-heels for the little braces wearing, red-head that read Sherlock Holmes and Shakespeare for fun.

And unsurprisingly, Josh never let up on his demand. Nope, he did not! In fact, he got even worse about it.

He needed to borrow a pencil for math? Name your kid after me.

Can he spot him a couple of bucks for ice cream? Only if you name your kid Josh.

When did the Battle of the Alamo take place? 1846. But I’ll tell you the right answer if you swear to name your first-born after me.

While extremely exhausting to try and avoid, Chris was able to do so easily. He just started asking the kid who sat behind him in class for pencils, borrowed money from Ash instead, and he’d rather fail history then name his kid after Josh. Thankfully, after his first bombed history exam, Ash made all three of them do their homework together constantly, so the last one became a moot point. Barely.

Eventually, Josh tapered off on the demand, but not until after the start of the next school year. Most people probably would have stopped a few weeks in, but most people weren’t Josh Washington. When he wanted something, the guy stuck to his guns and didn’t give it up for nothing. Not that he stopped entirely of course, Josh still brings it up during dares and shit but it becomes immensely more manageable. He notices that he doesn’t ask it of Ash during these game, but when he considers the completely mortified look she gets on her face when ever he gets asked, Chris figures that its probably for the best.

(The fact that he not only stops that day Chris walked back into Ash’s bedroom and she’s as red as her hair while shoving something into her desk drawer, but that’s also when the mortification starts, he doesn’t clue into until years later.)

So when Josh walks up to him during their first period together with the absolute shittiest of shit-eating grins on his face, Chris is on red high alert.

“Oh no. What did you do?”

The laugh Josh gives is low and dark, and if Chris’s hackles weren’t raised earlier, they sure as fucking-hell are now. “Oh no, Cochise. It’s not what I’ve done, it’s what you’ve done.” With that, Josh proceeds to just slam a binder onto Chris’s desk, and he looks to see that he recognizes it easily.

“Okay...? I don’t see what my math notes have to do with anything.”

Another laugh, this one somehow darker and eviler then the first. Oh boy, those alarms going off in his head aren’t getting any quieter. “Oh, it has absolutely everything to do with you.” Before Chris can even respond, Josh is already flipping through the pages, past older pieces of loose-leaf that ripped from the binder coils that he hadn’t bothered to repair and and the newer notes with their edges still intact, and stops at the most recent. At first Chris doesn’t see anything, it’s all his notes about logarithms that he had taken the previous day, blue ink scratchy and messy all across the page, and then he does. And he absolutely blanches at the sight and hurriedly slams the binder shut, putting his face in his arms as he covers his head, actually whimpering as he refuses to look at Josh.

He doesn’t have to look to see the triumphant grin on Josh’s face, he can already imagine it pretty clearly.

“Oh fuck me.”

The worst part is that he didn’t even know it was there in the first place, he never would have lent his notes out otherwise. Josh had been missing more and more school recently, claiming that he was having killer headaches and they were making him sick, so Chris had done what friends do for each other and lent him his notes. What he didn’t realize was that at some point when he had been taking notes down, he had drawn a little heart in the margins with the initials CH+AB inside. Something he never would have done if Josh had been there with him, but he hadn’t been, so Chris had zoned out thinking about meeting up with Ash after school to bring Josh his homework.

He was so dead.

“What do you want?” Though muffled through his arms, he cringed at how small and weak his voice came out.

God, he could hear the stupid grin in Josh’s voice when he answered. “You know exactly what I want, Cochise. What I’ve always wanted.”

Chris didn’t remove his head from his arms on the desk, but he did turn it enough to narrow his eyes at Josh. “Are you fucking serious dude? Really? You’re still on about that shit?”

“I will never stop. You know this to be true.”

“I am not naming my stupid kid after you! I mean, maybe I won’t ever have kids. I’m certainly not gonna if I have to name them Josh!”

Josh rolled his eyes, but the wide grin never left his face. “You don’t have to name all of them after me. Just one.” Somehow, Chris watched the grin get even wider as a thought came to him. “Maybe two, if they’re twins. Can you imagine? The twins, Joshua and Joshlynn, it’ll be great!”

“Okay, now I’m definitely never having kids.”

Josh gave a short bark of laughter. "Please, like that’s ever gonna happen. You wanna know why, Cochise? Cause if Ash is gonna want kids, then you’re gonna want kids.”

He couldn’t help it. He really, truly couldn’t help it. The image of little kids with bright red hair and glasses flashed through his mind unbidden, and he groaned loudly and put his face back into his arms to hide how red his face had gotten.

“Anything else, dude. Make me do anything else. I will strip and run through the entire school naked if you want, just don’t make me promise you this stupid shit.” God, if only he hadn’t drawn that stupid heart on his stupid notes, then none of this would be happening right now! He sat up in his seat at the revelation. “Wait. I can just rewrite the page and burn this one.”

“Oh, Chris Chris Chris.” They way Josh shakes his head in disappointment sends around a million different alarm bells ringing. “Do you really think that little of me? I took like a million pictures my dude. This shit is saved forever. I can send this to Ash whenever the fuck I want. I can post this on whatever social media I feel like and it will live on the internet forever, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Oh. Right. Shit. “I can’t believe that you can literally blackmail me with anything right now, and this is the hill you’re dying on.”

“So are we in agreement then?”

“I cannot believe I’m saying this, but yes. Fine. I will name my stupid kid after your stupid ass.”

“Oh please. Your kid may be stupid, but there is no way that any kid of Ashley’s is gonna be.”

“...I hate you so much right now.”

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

Chris hadn’t meant to respond the way he did when he found the old notebook he had bought for Ash years ago. He really hadn’t. He had just been excited to find out that she had kept the stupid thing after all these years, he hadn’t even been joking when he told her that he had spent ages in the store looking for it. (”It has to be perfect, Mom! I can’t just buy her any stupid old journal, she loves these things! I mean, what if she hates it?”) So he had opened it and started flipping through the pages, laughing with her at all the stupid misspellings and bad grammar that her thirteen year-old self had written.

And then he reached the last page.

Things had really been out of his hands at that point. Something about seeing her writing her name down as ‘Ashley Hartley’ had just ignited something in him. The images of her walking down an aisle, of them with matching rings on their fingers, of kids running underfoot, was too much for him to handle. So Chris had kissed her. Kissed her like he was never gonna be able to do it again. Them falling onto her bed had been an accident, though a happy one, as they both didn’t hesitate to deepen the kiss.

Finally, he had pulled away and her giggle when she moved to fix his glasses had taken his breath away. It had quickly returned when his eyesight improved enough to really take in the image of Ash flushed pink with her red hair spread out under her on the bed, and he was suddenly reminded that she was going to be living with him soon! That this was a sight he was going to be waking up to every morning at the end of the month, and he had never wanted anything so bad in his life.

“So,” his voice is rougher than usual when he speaks and he can feel her shiver under him at it. He makes a note for future reference. “Ashley Hartley, huh?”

He watches her bite her lip, and it takes everything in him to not kiss her again. Two years in, and he’s still amazed that he’s allowed to kiss her whenever he wants, that she encourages it even! “Be honest with me,” she starts off and Chris has never been told to do something so easy in his life, “what do you think of the name Joshlynn?”

He stares at her for just a moment, just letting her words sink in, and then falls forward to smother himself in her hair, his shoulders shaking he’s laughing so hard. Of course. Of fucking course he did.

“So he got you too, I see.”

#pride month prompt challenge #my writing #until dawn #chris hartley #josh washington #ashley brown #chrashley #im laughing that this is only like 20 words shorter then d&a #how the hell did i manage to make these almost the same length?#and theres so many damn italics in this god #this is gonna take forever to format on ao3 #what was i thinking?#does this have anything to do with photos?#not really #but considering that rainbow had almost nothing to do with rainbows #thats okay #probably should have used this for dare instead #oops

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