#growth is realizing you can just ship all three together instead of picking sides

[bobokitty]

Last bit of Kingdom Hearts fanart from me unless they show something crazy again soon haha. I haven’t checked yet today.

But maaaaan love their new outfits~ They’re just too cute~

#art #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh #kh3 #fanart #sora #riku #kairi #my main ot3 #growth is realizing you can just ship all three together instead of picking sides #if only young me knew that #huuuuu i was a little shit head back then #so sorry kairi #young me had some...issues #but hey #life is about learning from your mistakes and growing as a person #yep #sorikai #so that's the name of the ship #learned something new today

[thebigqueer]

"Growth" - Piper McLean & Jason Grace - One-Shot

Summary: Jason & Piper share a moment together as her birthday comes to a close

Note: WOOOO HAPPY BIRTHDAY PIPER ILY and also this is purely platonic

Word Count: 1979

Read on AO3

A cool draft of night air pours over Piper, and she hugs her arms closer to her body in an attempt to block out the cold. It’s awfully chilly for a June night, but she doesn’t mind; she prefers the crispy air anyway. It’s liberating.

The black sky spills like ink overhead; twinkling stars poke white holes into the mesmerizing darkness. A gleaming white moon spills over Piper like a spotlight, and her eyes sparkle under the beautiful night.

She sighs contentedly and pulls her knees to her chest. These are her favorite moments - the ones on the roof of her house, with nothing but the empty, dark sky before her and the cold for company.

She’s comfortable in her skin here. She’s herself.

It’s a nice change from the eventful night she’s had. She and her friends have been celebrating her birthday all day, first by spending a day out in the city, and then throwing an eventful party at her house during the evening. Her body aches with a happy exhaustion, and her mind still buzzes with the music that pulsed just hours ago.

But as much as she’s loved today - especially after seeing most of the Argo II group - an urge has been humming in her head since the evening. An urge to just be alone, to slip away.

Now most of her friends are asleep inside the house, and finally, after hours of laughing and celebrating, hours of smiles and stretched enthusiasm, Piper can throw off her mask and let herself deflate.

The midnight sky embraces her. Its cool, comforting arms wrap around Piper and accompany her in her solitude. The shadowed trees dance under the moonlight as another brush of wind sweeps through the clearing before her.

Piper leans her chin against her knees and allows a soft, quiet smile to slip over her mouth. A feverish and excited warmth blooms under her cheeks as she gazes ahead into the night, its darkness full of possibilities for the future.

She’s so lost into the silence, so consumed into the solitude, that she barely notices when a large thud rumbles behind her. It’s only when a warm arm brushes against that she realizes she isn’t alone.

Anxiety beats in Piper’s heart at the brush of contact. She reaches for a dagger by her side as fear courses through her. What if it’s a monster? What if someone’s here to steal her?

The look of surprise and terror in her eyes must be pretty amusing, because when she finally meets the gaze of her intruder, a warm, familiar laugh falls over her.

“It’s just me,” says Jason. “No need to get jumpy.”

A groan of relief escapes Piper’s chest and she scoffs, turning her gaze back to the scene before her. The prior calmness that floated over her has completely dissipated and she frowns in frustration. “Geez,” she mutters. “Can’t you be a little more quiet?”

“If I was quieter I’m sure I would have made you accidentally fall from the roof,” responds Jason. He gestures to the empty spot beside her and raises an apprehensive eyebrow. “Do you mind if I sit?”

Despite her annoyance, a small smile quirks over Piper’s lips. Usually she’d be angry if someone came to interrupt her alone time, but knowing that it’s Jason, she’ll allow his intrusion. She scoots over and nods. “Have a seat, Sparky.”

Jason’s body thuds softly against the roof as he sets himself down. His long legs dangle next to hers, and against the next gust of wind, both their feet sway like wind chimes.

Piper watches Jason closely, a suspicious line drawing itself over her mouth. Her eyes travel over his physical being, searching for any new changes that may have appeared in his absence. Pale moonlight washes over his features and offers Jason an almost ethereal, elvish glow. His blond hair gleams like sunlight; his pale skin glows as it absorbs the cool, empty gleam of the moon. Behind his glasses, Jason’s electric eyes spark in the darkness.

The demigod turns his eyes to her, almost as if he knows she’s watching him. A confused smile quirks against his lips. “What?” he asks. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Piper shakes her head and smiles. “Nothing. It’s just… Seems like you’ve grown quite a bit since I’ve last seen you.” She nudges her shoulder against his playfully. “It’s weird growing up, isn’t it?”

Jason laughs softly, and the sound of his amusement billows in the air. He grins at her. “Gotta say, didn’t think we’d even make it to eighteen. Seems like a feat in itself.”

She hums in agreement, then turns her gaze back to the scenery around her. A warm blanket of quiet wraps around the two demigods, pulling them together in the intimate darkness, and Piper finds that she doesn’t mind this closeness with Jason at the moment. It’s been so long since she and him have truly taken a moment for themselves.

After a few moments of calm, Jason shifts a little, his sweatshirt rustling against his body. A slight whooshing sound slips over him - the sound of paper rustling against clothing - and Piper turns her head curiously to the noise.

In his hands, she notices a paper plate with two slices of pink cake, along with two white plastic forks. She offers a quizzical look to her friend.

He responds with a shy smile. “Do you wanna eat some with me? We can hoard it for ourselves before the others wake up tomorrow morning.”

A soft laugh puffs from Piper’s lips. She pulls a fork from the plate, jabs it into the cake, and pulls a piece of it closer to her mouth. Before biting down, she teases, “Damn, Grace, didn’t take you to be the rebellious kind.”

Jason chuckles as he takes his own fork and takes a chunk for himself. “Leo’s been a bad influence on me, I guess.”

Piper doesn’t miss the pink that bleeds over his cheeks at the mention of Leo’s name. After swallowing her bite down, she offers a sparkling grin to Jason. “Ah, yes. Your boyfriend.”

She relishes the sight of Jason’s red ears. “My boyfriend,” he agrees shyly, a hum of excitement lingering over his voice.

“How are you guys? Enjoying your new apartment together?”

The blond shrugs timidly, but Piper doesn’t miss the prideful smile over his mouth. “Yeah. It’s been kinda fun. He’s really hard to share a bed with though.” Jason rolls his eyes. “He hogs the blanket, which is stupid since he can literally turn to fire and be his own heat warmer. But no, he insists on leaving me in the cold.”

“Well, they never said love was easy.”

“Hm. Yeah, I guess so.” Jason offers her a pointed look now, a glimmer of excitement overcoming his own eyes. “And what about you? How are you and Shel?”

Now it’s Piper’s turn to blush. She stuffs her cheeks with another bite of cake, and watching her do so, Jason laughs merrily.

“Well,” she huffs after swallowing her food, “we’re good. We’re considering doing long distance for college. We’ll give it a try.”

Jason nods, and an almost pitiful look comes into his eyes. “Bet that’s gotta suck to leave her behind. But I have faith in you guys.” He nudges her. “And, if it doesn’t work out, then that’s fine, too. We’re still growing and we’re still learning. We still have a lot of life to live.”

Piper shrugs in reluctant agreement, but at his words, a chill of dread trickles down her back.

Growth. It’s all about growth. Life is about blooming and thriving, about setting up roots in one place and being ready to get transported to new soil whenever Fate decides it. As beautiful as growth can be, sometimes Piper wishes she could just stay in one state of mind for a while. But life just feels like a constant shift, a constant rotation of changes. It gets a little tiring.

She sighs and picks on a thread against her sweatshirt sleeve. “Jason,” murmurs the demigod, “I- I miss everything. You know? I miss the old days. Like, don’t get me wrong, I love how much we’ve all grown and stuff, but it’s just… I miss being with everyone again. I feel lost sometimes.”

Jason nods his head and gazes wistfully out to the trees. “Yeah,” he whispers. “Like, I don’t miss the danger and fear and trauma. But I miss the chaos and stuff in our group. Remember when we got Leo to snort all those Smarties on the ship one night?” A huff of laughter echoes from Jason’s chest, but this one isn’t as full as the others. It’s a little empty, like he’s laughing into the past. “Man, that was fun.”

Piper snorts. “Yeah. Poor Leo.”

Another curtain of silence falls between them, but this one is tense, high-strung, almost as if it’s waiting for some kind of confession.

Piper sighs and leans her head against Jason’s shoulder. He flinches at the contact a little but - after accepting her touch - he leans his own head against hers. Piper locks her elbow with his and closes her eyes, losing herself in the warmth of their bodies.

“I miss you,” she says. “I know we never really had any romantic feelings for each other, but… I miss our vibe, you know? I miss our friendship.” She smiles softly at him. “You were my best friend, Jason. You are my best friend. I guess I just miss being with you and Leo as a group together.” She rubs her finger over his wrist in an attempt to ground herself. “I just miss when it was us three against the world. Now we’re… growing farther apart. Living on different sides of the country.”

Jason sighs. “We miss you too, Piper. Trust me. Every night I always feel… I don’t know. I feel like we’re always missing some important piece of us. That important piece is you.” He chuckles sadly. “We can’t be the gay trio while you’re in some totally different state.”

Piper laughs hollowly. After another beat of silence, she whispers, “We’re growing up, Jason. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”

Jason doesn’t respond for a while. Piper looks up at him, wondering where his voice has gone, but finds that his gaze is fixated upon the trees. He’s not quite here, not in her hands; instead, he’s drifting over some other plane of reality, thinking through all that’s around him.

Finally, after what seems like hours, he says, “Yeah, we are. And it hurts to leave so much of our past behind. But… growing up doesn’t have to be all bad. Think of it like an important milestone for us.” He turns and smiles at her. “Everyday that we live and grow, we’re achieving greatness. We’re pushing the Fates and daring them to hurt us. We’re reaching closer to our destiny, if you believe in that stuff.” His fingers grapple with hers and he squeezes softly. At Jason’s touch, a spark of joy jolts up Piper’s arm and explodes in her core. “We’re growing,” he murmurs, “and while that can be sad, I think there’s a lot of power knowing that we’re making it as far as we are.”

A comfortable, fleeting warmth blooms in Piper’s chest as she gazes up at Jason. Only love and admiration for her glimmer in his eyes, and for once in her life, Piper feels like she’s been found.

“So philosophical,” she chuckles. Then she squeezes his hand and leans closer to him. “I love you, Jason. Thanks for being my best friend.”

“I love you, too.” Then, in a sudden movement, he throws his other arm around her and sighs contentedly. “You deserve the world,” he whispers. “Happy birthday, Piper.”

#my writing #piper mclean #jason grace #rick riordan #riordanverse #trials of apollo #toa #heroes of olympus #hoo #pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #piper mclean fanfic #piper mclean fic #jason grace fanfic #jason grace fic #riordanverse fanfic #riordanverse fic

[sonia7atm]

BRIDGERTON BOOK SERIES REVIEW.

So here it is, before I start I just wanted to say that I’m in no way shape or form an expert in english or literature for that matter. English is my third language and I’m studying science. Having said that, I have read all eight books in less than two weeks and I have a lot of opinions that I wanted to share so here they are. Obviously: SPOILERS AHEAD

The series in its entirety

The bridgerton series is probably the best written series that I have ever read. I loved the fact that it is made up of 8 books, but also the way the books are structured. In each of the books we focus on one of the siblings and their significant others, and even when the side characters are there, they are not really a main focus of the story. This means you can pick up a random Bridgerton book without having read the other ones and you would not feel like you are missing something. I really liked this because it meant that with each book you were getting to know a different sibling, thus you are never really bored and there wasn’t unnecessary drama happening with the already established couples, which is refreshing at the least.

However, it does have setbacks. In some of the books, you find that this side characters really change from the way they appear in the background or the other novels, and it can be difficult to digest at first. Another flaw that I found is with the brothers' books. When I was reading some of the books dedicated to the men of the family sometimes I found that we don’t spend enough time with them and when you finish the books you don’t have an understanding of who they are. Maybe I’m not making sense but I’ll elaborate in each book a little bit more.

But in the end, even these little flaws, I had a great time reading the books and finding out what was happening with the family.

My favourite book - AOFAG

I know some people have trouble ranking the Bridgerton books, especially, the favourite one, but I’m not one of them. I am obsessed with “An offer from a gentleman”, I love the story, I love Sophie, I love Benedith and I love Violet Bridgerton with all of my heart. This book is great from the start, even though b, the third book you know a happy ending is what the book is leading to, it still excites you and makes you wonder. AMAZING DARE I SAY.

Sophie is one of my favourite characters in all of the books. She has a strong morals system and you get really inspired by her. All of the things she goes through are horrible, but she still remains such a calm and kind individual that I cannot help but stan. HARD. She has very strong ideas and morals and she sticks with them even when they mean losing Benedict. I found this message really important and powerful because we usually see the opposite: people changing their views for their significant other, and I don’t think it's right. So, hereby I declare Sophie QUEEN of the Bridgerton clan.

Moving on to Benedict, I heard a little bit of criticism with his actions in this book and I see where they are coming from, but I don’t share them. I think Benedict is one of the brothers that suffers from a really deep female counterpart and as such his thoughts are not fully explored. In my opinion Benedict is tormented by the fact that he is the second Bridgerton and nothing more (similar to Colin and kinda Gregory really), and also by the fact that he lost the woman at the ball. On top of that, Sophie comes along and he starts falling for her and he feels guilty that he is falling for someone else, so he doesn’t fully commit to Sophie but also doesn’t really leave her. It’s a messed up situation and he doesn’t make the best decisions but I understand his actions and I support him. The only thing that really annoyed me about Benedict is that he doesn’t recognize Sophie at all. I wanted to hit him, hard, in the head, with a fucking piano.

Now the best of the best: Violet Bridgerton. She was the surprise character of this book in that prison scene. In the previous book you still see her and like her but she saves the day in this one, and I felt like I really knew her after that. She is not the typical ton mother, she really values their children’s happiness and takes everyone under her wing. She knows who she is and the importance her family has and she uses her powers for good. I gained so much respect for her. A surprise character and a great one.

To sum it up, Benedict and Sophie are perfect to each other, like this mellow entity. Two kind souls, always happy, always calm. Of course they live in the countryside, they could not live anywhere else.

Top tier books - WHWW, RMB, TVWL

WHEN HE WAS WICKED

This book wrecked me, I have to admit I was a mess, I could not deal. A tragic story with so much longing and guilt and despair, I love a drama, man this is great. I went in knowing the basics of it but I was not prepared.

The poor Francesca has the most devastating story in my opinion: she suffers from infertility, her husband dies, she doesn’t feel like she fits in her family, and when she falls in love Michael is sick, WHY?!. Throughout the book you get to see how strong she is, how strong-willed she is. We are not talking about this enough. She loves with all her heart and she suffers with all of it too. She and Michel have a really strong chemistry and it translates really well. I think she was really clever to wait and think before committing to Michael, and I see how she would need to see him in danger to really let herself fall completely. In the end, she knows what losing someone you love feels like and she doesn’t want to feel that again. I understand. Also, an important part of Francesca's journey is to realize that loving someone else doesn’t diminish her feelings for John, and I love how Michael acknowledges it. 

Michael is a really interesting character who falls in love at first sight with the wrong woman. He is fully aware of this fact and it is really good to see that he doesn’t doubt his love for her, but is instead aware of the impossibility of doing something about it. Even when he can do something about it, his respect for his cousin is always present. The guilt he feels for loving Francesca both when John was alive and after he died is so different but so well written. It’s eating him up and It is painful to read to be honest. However, I found that said guilt disappeared rather quickly after his conversation with Colin. I may be the only one but I was a little bit put off by it, and that’s why this is not my favourite book in the series.

THE VISCOUNT WHO LOVED ME 

The bees, I could talk about the bees for days after reading this one. This one has a lot of Bridgerton backstory, and it explains so much of the rest of the bunch even if not directly. So I would say not to skip it (but why would you skip any of them?).

Kate Sheffield is one of the best written characters in this series. She is complex, fierce but delicate, confident but self-conscious. I would kill for her, she deserves it. Her family dynamics are impeccable. You feel the love between these three women and the roles they have, and you get them really quickly: Edwina is the little sister, a little naive but good-hearted, Kate is the fierce older sister and Mary is the compassionate step-mother. I really enjoyed their dynamics. The introduction of Kate’s character is by presenting her goal for the season: defend her sister. When Anthony enters the pool of suitors, she obviously opposes and their back and forth shows she is very witty. But as the story goes on we get to see her insecurities and fears, in a way that it’s so in character but at the same time so different from the start. It’s amazing and I can see why she is such a fan favourite.

Anthony is a baby.We can see how Edmund’s death really scarred him, and those wounds are deep. He believes in his own demise so blindly that it is conditioning all of his decisions.He grows a lot until he is able to share them with Kate and they bond so beautifully over it. Getting to see that, was something that I loved and enjoyed so much. It makes you really connect with both of the characters and it explains so much of his behaviour, that even if he frustrates you, you can’t be mad because you understand where he comes from.

Newton is the guest star in this one and I would like to take our time to appreciate the captain of the Kanthony ship. This little dog is such a plot device, put there to cause havoc and bring Kate and Anthony together, it is so funny. He smelled Anthony and decided he wanted a new dad. Put a plan in march, probably alerted his friend, THE bee.

ROMANCING MR BRIDGERTON

The message of this book is amazing. The journey they both go through to re-know each other is beautiful. Penelope and Colin have known each other for years, and they both have a version of the other in their minds but as the story progresses they unveil hidden personality traits about each others and I love how it is acknowledge and developed into a clear message of “people are flawed and not the perfect individual you wish them to be, and that’s ok”. It is really necessary and it made me reflect on my own relationships and how I could improve them. Colin and Penelope have to be my favourite couple of the series, but, because they were because of the show and not the books, when I finished this book I was left feeling like I wanted more, and that is why it is not my favourite one.

This is the book where readers find out Penelope is Lady Whiseldown and it is a big plot line. However, this revelation is maybe halfway through the book and until then, Penelope's inner monologue doesn’t reveal anything. I would have loved to really focus on it and know from the start how she really did it but at the same time, we get to see so much of Pen’s growth anyways. She is shy and kind but when she is with someone she trusts (in this case Colin and Lady Danbury), she is full of wit and boldness. I see myself so much in these characteristics that I cannot help but make her my favourite character in the series (totally biased but it is what it is). She starts with a sense of discontent about her, she knows her fate and accepts it but, she doesn’t necessarily like it. She is trying to change the way people see her and Lady Danbury helps a lot with it. She and Colin spend a lot of the book kind of on opposite sides in part because of their own demons, she wants to prove herself and at the same time is faced with the realization that the Colin she made up in her mind is not the real one. It really makes you wonder if it’s a happy ending at the end of it, because they both have such strong points but they are so diverse. At the end, after they talk about it, their relationship is full of devotion and you feel how they are making each other focused and better. I would die for them.

Colin is such a tumultuous character and it is a stark contrast on how we get to see him in the previous and following books. He is used to putting the charm on and fooling everybody but, of course, in this book we explore his inner workings and now we know the truth. He is just a lost puppy, looking for something to do with his life, and he is so focused on this search and runnin away for his family that he doesn’t see that there is already something that he is good about: writing. His relationship with Pen is obviously key in all of this searching because it pushes his limits and makes him think. His realization, of both his vocation and his love are slow and steady. He sometimes jumps to conclusions and rushes things *ahem*the proposal*cough* but not love, and once he commits he does it fully. The “stay, stay, stay” scene is a monumental hallmark in the book. We see Colin really deciding and choosing Penelope and Lady Whistle down with all that it entails. And later on, he opens out about his jealousy over her work, but he does it when he is ready, and Pen allows him to come to her when he needs without judgement. They are so perfect it hurts. 

The lack of Eloise is an insult to my soul but we get Lady Danbury as the guest star. She is on Penelope's corner helping her navigate the ton and her relationship with Colin, as a mother figure would. I believe she at least has a big suspicion that she is LW, but I might be wrong.

All-nighter books - OTWTTW, IIHK. ON THE WAY TO THE WEDDING

Gregory’s book is full of twists and turns that you just cannot put it down. Not the fact that the main female character is Lucy and not Hermoine, like Gregory thinks half of the book, just because you don’t. It is pretty clear that Lucy is our heroine so the fact that Gregory falls for her is not a twist itself because we (and Kate) already know. But in my opinion, the fact that it starts with Gregory interrupting the wedding and then it goes back and explains the backstory to you, so it is constantly leading up to it. 

Lucy is not the most interesting of the female leads but it is part of her charm. She is a normal girl, her life is already arranged, so she doesn’t feel the pressure the rest of them do, she is just enjoying herself. She doesn’t believe in love, and it is so funny how in denial she is about it, until it all explodes. 

Gregory’s life was influenced by her brothers before him and his big family but he feels so alone because of the age difference. He is trying to find his place in life and, because he saw all of his siblings fall in love he wants the same thing so badly, that he confuses desire with love. He is so precious, and must be protected at all costs.

The last few chapters are action packed, there’s an urgency in everyone's actions: Lucy, trying to save her family and Gregory, trying to save Lucy. I couldn’t figure out what was going to happen and that hooked me. The fact that the wedding actually takes place is the most shocking plot of all of the books.  

To conclude, Gregory owns my heart and I trust him with it.

IT’S IN HIS KISS

This story is another “all-nighter”, because it revolves around a mystery and the search for Gareth’s grandmother lost jewels. This quest brings Hyacinth and Gareth together, with a lot of Lady Danbury’s help. It’s really interesting to read about the felonies they commit, all of them instigated by Hyacinth, who, in my opinion, is chaos personified. 

Hyacinth is the most forward-thinking woman of this series. She is outspoken, confident, loud and apologetic. All of these traits really set her apart, because she doesn’t play by the rules of society, she does what she pleases, and she should. She is the typical little sister, a little spoiled but with a good heart. Her conversations with Violet are really touching. 

Gareth on the other side, is not in a good place with his family, and it is endearing to see how shocked he is by the Bridgerton’s closeness. He has a severe lack of self love, and sees himself as an imposter, and not worthy of Hyacinth. But when he falls, OMG, HE FALLS. His attitude towards Hyacinth’s personality is amazing because he loves her exactly as she is, and knows he will be following her orders for the rest of his life. Adorable. (He is the “That’s my wife” meme).

Lady Danbury is again the guest star and it only helps to cement her as the cool grandma that we all aspire to be. An honorable mention is Anthony getting super-duper happy that all of his sisters are married and therefore he is free (my poor guy).

However, the main issue I have with this book is that the decision of getting married is really attached to Gareth’s need to vex his father, who is a horrible person, and it makes me mad. 

Not my favourite books - TSPWL, TDAI

TO SIR PHILIP WITH LOVE

In this book Eloise decides running off to meet a possible husband is a great idea. Her brain, I can’t. Obviously the Bridgerton brothers follow her and force the two to marry anyways, although they were already falling in love when they found her. Phillip, Eloise's love interest is a loner and lives outside of the ton and I think that these traits really work with her because they are polar opposites but at the same time they fit so well. The relationship Eloise has with Amanda and Oliver is so cute, because you can see that these kids just need some attention and help navigating the world without her mother and Eloise is there for them.

However, even though I loved their storyline and I wanted to rank this higher I couldn’t. The other Bridgertons are a big part of this book and when I was thinking back on it the parts that I remember fondly the most are when Anthony, Benedict, Colin and Gregory arrive to kill talk to Philip, and then when Charles is ill and we get to see Benedict and Sophie as parents. So, I like this book because of side characters and not the main ones, even though I know there is nothing wrong with them. However, I do think the book is ok and I would recommend it nevertheless.

THE DUQUE AND I

I don’t have much to say about this book. The r*pe is completely unnecessary in my opinion. Daphne and Simon have terrible communication skills, but so do Kate and Anthony, for example, but still, the repercussions are not that severe. It is so much worse in the books and it has no consequences whatsoever. Up until that point, the enemies to secret dating to falling in love is such a classic thorpe that I usually like, but I cannot separate the two of them. In fact, I would advise to skip this one.

Hapily Ever After

Thank you to the heavens for this book. It is just a little exploration of all of the sibling’s future and an extra story for Violete.

Daphne’s story revolves around her last pregnancy. A surprise one when she is quite old. I found it really sweet and it looks like she and Simon are really happy with their life so good for them. Also, Colin and Penelope visit with all of their children so I’m obligated to like it.

The TVWLM continuation is a get together in Aubrey Hall for a Pall Mall rematch. I had so much fun reading it and getting to see all of the Bridgertons interact in a “relaxed” manner.

Sophie and Benedict’s story focuses on Posy and her search for a husband. She is lovely and I do want her happiness but getting to see Sophie and Benedict interact while actually together was a treat. I feel very blessed to see them be the balls of sunshine they both are.

Then we get to see how Eloise found out Lady Whisheldow’s identity. It was fun, and we get to see Pen and Eloise being friends, which we don’t get enough of in their respectives books. Colin and Penelope leaving the wedding early, was a gem. They are a couple of horny idiots and I love to see it. After that, we focus on Eloise again and we get to see a little bit more about Amanda and Oliver.

One of the main things about Francesca in her book is the fact that she wants a baby, and it is never resolved. In this one, we get to see how Francesca and Michael become parents and it's another heartbreaking one. We get to see how worried Violet is for her and also how Michael and Francesca talk and understand each other. They are one of the best relationships on this series, I said what I said.

In IIHK the diamonds are never found, but we find them here. It is great to know they were not missing and also a relief to know that Gareth was able to rescue the family even without them. The fact that Isabella actually finds them and proceeds to say nothing is hilarious. But when Hyacinth finds them the happiness she feels is so wholesome.

Then we get to see Gregory and Lucy’s twins be born (their 8th and 9th children). It is not an easy task and for a moment I was afraid for Lucy but it all works out in the end. It was filled with great moments but the one that I like the most is when Gregory says that Katherine gave him purpose in life, because he was meant to be a dad. I cried ngl.

And lastly, we meet Edmund. He is very present throughout the book but I was not expecting to grow so attached to him with this little story. It is divided in different stages of Violet’s life and obviously we get to see her romance with Edmund. I loved the little details, his behaviour reminded me of Gregory but he eats a lot like Colin so it is great to see where they get their traits from. The later parts, after he dies, show you how much importance Violet puts on remembering him and preserving his memory. They were truly soulmates, and it is such a shame that their time together was cut short.

#Bridgerton #Anthony Bridgerton #benedict bridgerton #colin bridgerton #daphne bridgerton #eloise bridgerton #francesca bridgerton #gregory bridgerton #hyacinth bridgerton #kate sheffield #sophie beckett #penelope featherington #simon basset #phillip crane #michael stirling #lucy abernathy #gareth st clair #kanthony #kate x anthony #anthony x kate #benedict x sophie #sophie x benedict #polin #Colin x penelope #penelope x colin #phillip x eloise #eloise x phillip #francesca x michael #michael x francesca #gregory x lucy

[rwdestuffs]

Y’know, I like Yang and all, she’s my favorite character, and I like a lot of her story, but I really don’t like how she kinda is now just the person Blake chases after.

Don’t get me wrong, Blake’s heartbreak and rage at Yang falling into the void is really well-done, but it just reminds us that the writers don’r know what to do with Blake.

I used to enjoy Blake’s story in the early volumes. She was a no-nonsense person who could call out both sides of an argument. She’d look to a member of the White Fang and say “No. You’re not fighting for justice. You’re fighting because you’re just angry and want to take it out on someone.” and then she’d take a look at a racist and say “You just think that you’re better than a faunus because you’re a bigoted moron with no sense of self-reflection.” Then she just kinda became a pity-party.

And literally, all I wanted out of the whole thing with Yang was that she left a note. Like… Nobody calls Yang out on her selfishness on wanting Blake by her for emotional support, but by contrast, nobody really calls Blake out on the amount of emotional distress she put on Yang. She went home to be with her parents, but her logic with Yang was “If I’m not near her, then she won’t get hurt.”

Okay, someone please inform me as to why Adam couldn’t just walk to Patch, cut off Yang’s head, and then mail it to Blake? Like… Blake was being an idiot there. She wasn’t going back to zoo to warn her parents, she went there for comfort. Which, credit where it’s due, is a reasonable reaction to the trauma she faced. But so is Yang’s. Neither gets comforted or called out on their actions, which ultimately means that Yang’s reaction is viewed as much more selfish because we don’t get a chance to have her be called out for it, and for her to point out how much she suffered as well.

This show has honestly exhausted itself with Blake and Yang and is now just using them as ship bait. They’re probably not going to get together or acknowledge their feelings until the end of the series because the writers think that that’s how representation works. You do it at the end, because a bunch of other shows did that too.

Except those other shows did it at the end because of executive meddling.

The entire reason for Blake’s existence was to drive the racism subplot, but because the writers were so horrible at writing it, they finished it up, and now Blake has pretty much nothing left for her character to do except be Yang’s love interest. There could be more potential for her as a character, but the writers don’t know what to do since they dropped the racism arc.

And as much as I want Blake to have story relevance again, she’s not going to, because the writers followed some white karen’s blog on how minorities “should” act instead of actually picking up a history book. And I’d rather they not butcher the racism arc any further just to give Blake relevance again.

The hard part is trying to figure out how Blake can have relevance again. If anything, I would have liked for her to have been Emerald’s new source of comfort. They both have left abusive relationships, and I think that it would be a good idea for Blake to be a source of comfort for Emerald. Blake could have been the source of comfort for a lot of victims, but the writers chose to not do that because they don’t realize it.

Which is another issue with having vomit boy fall to the void island instead of Emerald. We don’t get the Emerald and Blake interactions that could have helped flesh out each character a bit more.

And Yang’s character is pretty much going in the direction of her getting the Spring Maiden powers by way of Raven sacrificing herself to save Yang. This show can’t have its villains grow and learn because the main characters also haven’t really grown as characters either. And if the villains grow and learn but the main characters don’t, then that spells the end of the main characters. But the writers don’t know how to make their main characters grow and learn unless their name rhymes with yawn bark, and this creates massive problems.

It also says a lot when Blake’s character has been so mangled that she doesn’t even fight as well as she should be. It’s telling when a three minute long fight of her fighting Mikasa (Using recycled voice clips, I might add) has her more in-character and using more of her abilities than the actual show. Remember that pathetic display of her fighting that centipede thing? She was busy begging an unconscious and near-auraless Ruby to save her. She barely did anything to save herself, and the writers did all of that just to try to elevate Ruby as a character.

Ruby doesn’t need other characters to tell her how much she’s grown, she should just show it. Instead of Ruby one-shotting that thing, it should have been a team attack. Imagine how much hype there would have been if Blake was actually holding her own, only to get cornered, and having to prepare a clone, only for Ruby to then declare “LADYBUG!” And the two do that awesome slash maneuver from Volume 2 and takes it down that way. Not only would that have saved Blake’s character, but it would have also served as a way to showcase Ruby’s skills as a fighter and as a leader. She calls out the attack, and not only does Blake not hesitate in going into formation, but it then actually works. It would have shown growth on both characters.

Like… These writers don’t really get a whole lot of how these characters should be characters.

This all started as a rant about Blake and Yang’s characters, and then ended up being a rant about how the writing has caused them to be cared about.

#rwde #yang crit #blake crit #shipping discourse #writers crit #ruby crit

[canonicallysoulmates]

Here are my thoughts and opinions on the first season of Loki.

First of all, if you have not re-watched this season I highly recommend it. It’s only 6hrs, pick a day, get some snacks, binge the whole thing especially if you weren’t a big fan of it the first time around because re-watching it I noticed some things that I hadn’t before but I also found myself liking some things that I hadn’t the first time around. Which is why I recommend re-watching it, cause maybe it’ll be the same for y’all and you’ll find some new things to love, and end up enjoying some things you hadn’t before. It’s really a different experience to watch the whole thing together than when you watch week to week which makes sense cause MCU shows are meant to be movie-esque.

Now, I’ve spoken pretty positively about this show almost on the daily so let’s switch it up and start with the negatives aka the things that I personally didn’t like because while I enjoyed a lot of this show there are things I wasn’t a fan of and things that did irk me a lot; the first thing is very much a pet peeve: the title sequence, I’ve mentioned it before in passing but it reminds me too much of Gravity Falls and Bill Cipher, I gave it 6 episodes, 12 if you count the re-watches, and I just don’t like it at all, I get what they were going for but I don’t think it fits the show and I’m hoping they change it for s2.

But that’s a small thing, I can deal with that, the two (technically three) big things I didn’t like - and I think this is why episode 1 is my least favorite and to me the weakest of the season - is the way the show completely ignores Odin’s abuse and the effect that had on Loki, and the way he’s written in the first three episodes. I will go into detail.

I have no shame in admitting that I am pretty forgiving when it comes to this show and its flaws but the one thing I cannot forgive is how it not only ignores Odin’s abusive behavior but tries to paint him as a loving father and like Loki was the one in the wrong using the most insulting way possible which is that scene in Ragnarok where Odin tells his sons he loves them as if an ‘I love you’ undid years of abuse and bad parenting; it shouldn’t surprise me that they did this because the mcu does have a history and a pattern of being abuse apologists like portraying Thanos killing Gamora to get the soul stone as him loving her, or completely ignoring the horrible father that Howard Stark was. But it still really pisses me off that this show in which a big theme is exploring Loki psychologically and emotionally doesn’t even make mention of what a horrible father Odin was! And it tries to make it seem that just because Loki heard his father say a version of him that he loves him, that Loki suddenly thinks of him as a loving parent (referring to that line in episode 5 where he’s talking to Sylvie and says he has betrayed everyone who has loved him and mentions his asshole of a father instead of his mother!). I didn’t need them to go into details about this, but I did want them to call abuse abuse, and acknowledge Odin was a bad father. To me this is the biggest sin so far of this series. It doesn’t surprise me but it does disappoint me.

Connected to this, and in episode 1 we stay, is the “psychological exploration” of this character. I know after episode 1 a lot of fans were all “omg Loki finally got some therapy 😭” and then there’s me in the corner, shaking my head and saying no he didn’t, not at all, not even close. There was no therapy. And there was zero character exploration. I like Mobius but he is no Linda Martin.

All that happened was Loki being shown the consequences of his actions and being directly asked multiple times if he likes hurting people which of course he doesn’t, that’s not therapy at no point did Loki’s trauma get addressed, at no point did Loki get walked through that stuff or asked why he is how he is or what happened to change him from someone who was just mischievous to someone who caused harm.

Sorry to burst y’alls bubble but Loki did not get therapy in episode 1. Change Mobius lines about how Loki is just meant to cause pain and suffering and death for “imagined slights” and you’d have pretty much the same as every other MCU movie. At most what he got was an intervention to help him realize he didn’t want to be a bad person. Intervention and therapy are not the same thing.

And again, not surprised. If the mcu doesn’t properly explore their main, multiple movie having characters trauma and issues why were we expecting them to do it with Loki? Gotta keep those expectations in check. And in part I understand that the writers had a limited amount of time and they wanted to jump right into things but if they were gonna have only one episode with an emphasis on this they could have done a much better job while still jumping into the main story and moving on to character growth. To me this is the second biggest sin. And why episode 1 is ultimately my least favorite.

Last but not least, and something I can be more lenient and forgiving about but I still don’t like is the way Loki was written in the first three episodes. The way he was written was more comical to the point of borderline clown-ish sometimes which doesn’t match his personality at all, and don’t get me wrong there are times when it works but for the most part it just comes across as weird, like the writers were trying too hard to be funny and lighthearted at some points and it just doesn’t work, it ends up with him being a joke.

I’ll use a scene that I absolutely adore as a small example: Loki singing in episode 3. It’s one of my favorite scenes of the season, absolutely live for it, it lives in my head rent free in the VIP section but it’s a very flawed scene because Loki would never. Getting drunk on a mission is what Thor would do, not Loki, that is Thor through and through so as much as I love that scene, it is a flawed, ooc Loki scene.

The good thing is the show does improve in how it writes him in the last three eps, they stop trying so hard with the comedy, he’s more serious, more badass, he still has funny moments for example his reaction to Alligator Loki was hilarious but it’s more natural and fitting. So hopefully, in season 2 it will be the same writing team, and there will be more consistency and he’ll be written less comically and more badass.

Moving on to the positives, there are a lot of things I thoroughly enjoyed, starting with having Loki back on my screen and the center of attention- my baby, my darling, my love 💚 I’m so glad that he (and Tom!) is finally getting the attention, and love, and praise, and recognition that he has been deserving of all these years!

It gave me some of my favorite Loki scenes like I mentioned Loki singing it may be a flawed scene but I loved it nonetheless, it had some really cool fight scenes especially towards the end, it gave Loki a friend! A real friend! My baby is all grown up! 😭💚

The cinematography was beautiful, like you can say a lot about this show but you cannot deny that visually it is stunning and the directing was amazing. The soundtrack was pretty good too, I mean c’mon, ‘I need a Hero’? Iconic.

This show gave us Alligator Loki! How can one not love that! It kick started what looks to be the coolest aspect of Phase 4, it gave us bi, genderfluid Loki (which also brought out some of the ugliest sides of this fandom but this ain’t the time or place for that conversation 🙃), it gave me a new favorite character in Sylvie absolutely love her 💛

It gave me hope that the sun will shine again on Thor and Loki! That they’ll cross paths once again at some point and be reunited! And when they are, we better get that hug!

It gave me my new OTP in the form of Loki x Sylvie, they have great chemistry, and they’re super cute together, and they’re so good for one another and I just love them so much; I know it’s a “controversial” ship but I hope they stick to it and we get more of them in s2 because they are the best couple Marvel has ever given us they are passionate and cute and angsty, and they have the foundation for the most epic love story.

In conclusion, was Loki season 1 perfect? Was it everything I wanted? Nope. But ultimately, it gave me more that I enjoyed than not- also, I can tell this was something that was done with a lot of love and joy and effort put into it which as someone who has loved a show where the writer’s room noticeably didn’t give a rat’s ass, I can appreciate a lot.

Overall I’m very happy with the first season; I love this show, flaws and all, and I can’t wait for s2!

#loki #loki series #loki s1 #loki on disney+ #loki series critical #anti odin #my opinion #mine #non spn

[smokeybrand]

Reap What You Sow

Finally finished Mass Effect Legendary Edition and gearing up for a second run. Before that, though, i wanted to stop and reflect on how well this game holds up, how ell this story is told. I’ve been playing these games since Mass Effect 2 was released on the PS3 over a decade ago and i haven’t regretted even a second of that time spent. I love these games. I loved these titles. And Legendary gave me an opportunity to experience the entire narrative, on one system, with a gorgeous face lift This makes me want Bioware to take another shot at Andromeda because, holy sh*t, can they deliver when they’re not hindered by corporate bullsh*t and it looks like EA is starting to accept that as fact and policy, rather than just the gripes of fans. I love these games and before i get back to it, i wanted to highlight my favorite companions because Mass Effect is nothing without those who run headfirst into the fire with you.

Urdnot Wrex

I hate the first Mass Effect but that’s because i’m a Sony shill so i started wit the best one of the franchise and had to double back. It was a poor experience by comparison but Wrex was f*cking delight. I loved this dude but his time on the throne in 2 and his limited time with the squad in 3 is what that sealed it for me. Uncle Urdnot is a goddamn joy to play with and even more hilarious as an NPC. If you romance Liara, definitely talk to him during the Cure the Genophage mission in 3. You wont regret it.

Aria T’Loak

I’ve been a fan of Aria since the first time she introduced herself in Afterlife. “Don’t f*ck with Aria.” Yeah, she definitely made an impression. Mostly an NPC in the second game, she really came into her in the third. The extended time we spent with her in the Omega DLC was exceptional. I loved that side of her we got to see and, if you play Paragon, you get to see an interesting evolution in her character. Not as dope as getting that awkward kiss at the end but still just as rewarding.

Javik

Good ol’ Prothy the Prothean. I don’t really bring him on missions in 3 but i make sure to check in after every major battle because dude is a f*cking fountain of snark. I do, however, make sure to take him on the Thessia mission because the banter he and Liara have n that temple is very compelling. Their dynamic is one of the highlights in Mass Effect 3 and i absolutely adore that sh*t. It never gets old and it never disappoints. I’ve played this game dozens of times over the years and i have never once deviated from these two, on that mission, since the first time i took them into that battle together. Plus, Javik in the Citadel is a whole ass delight. Make sure to check your bathroom when you wake up the next day. There’s a surprised in there for you!

EDI

EDI is a ray of sunshine in such ire circumstances. Long before she got Eva’s body, EDI was a full member of the Normandy crew. Her banter after becoming unshackled was brilliant in 2 and even more dynamic in 3. Seeing her becoming more and more “alive, over the course of that last title, was a real pleasure and i hated seeing her name on that board at the end. I almost always pick Destruction because that’s the only one where Shepard survives but it’s always a struggle. Me or EDI? My life or Hers? I hate having to make that choice but the time spent with her until that point, is always so much fun.

Urdnot Grunt

Grunt is MY Wrex. He’s the Krogan i was introduced to first and he’s definitely be the one i have the most love toward. I basically raised this dude in-game during 2 and seeing him finally come into his own in 3, is a big moment for those who are as invested in this series as i am. Not only is he an absolute unit on my squad, but the kid is hilarious. Some of the best banter in 3 comes from Grunt and it makes me wish i got to play with him more. Similar to Jack who is definitely going to make an appearance later down this list, you only get fleeting time with him but that time spent hunting Rachni is one of the funniest missions in all of Mass Effect 3.

Miranda Lawson

My darling Cerberus Cheerleader Princess. Miranda is never my first choice on a mission and was, like, my last romance option originally but, upon running threw these titles a decade later, she’s a lot stronger a character than i remember. Seriously, the growth she shows throughout Mass Effect 2 is real and is presented with a proper focus in her driven resolve during her solo mission in 3. Miranda Lawson is one of the most complete, best written characters in the entire franchise and I'm frustrated with myself that it took a whole ass decade to finally see that. Plus, i mean, she got a fat ass, too, so...

Mordin Solus

Listen, I'm going to keep this one short and sweet. Mordin is amazing and if you didn’t feel something when he did what he did in 3, f*ck you.

Kasumi Goto

Oh, Ms. Goto, i do enjoy you so very, very, much. Kasumi is like the mascot of my squad, the ship cat who keeps knocking sh*t of the table. She is an absolute disaster but i still love her anyway. She has some of the best lines in the entire franchise and i dearly missed her snark on my ship in 3. Tat lone mission with the Hanar was not enough time with the galaxy’s best thief but it had to be because Kasumi is nobody’s fool. She was like, “No galactic war with eldritch space horrors for me, sir.” but she made up for it in the Citadel DLC.

Liara T’Soni

Now we’re getting into the meat. Liara is a mainstay in my squad during Mass Effect 3. She is dub overpowered, especially with that Singularity, and i rarely go into a boss fight without it. Beyond her fighting abilities, Liara just has such a sweet relationship with Shepard that spans the entire trilogy. She opted not to be an official part of the team in 2, later taking up the mantle of the Shadow Broker, but more than makes up for that in 3. Liara is a principal character in Mass Effect 3 and her relationship with Shepard in that game, specifically, is fantastic to experience. If you romance her, it’s even more rewarding.

Garrus Vakarian

Garrus is one third of my Death Lineup. He and Tali stay in my squad in 2 and alternate with Liara in 3. Dude is, for lack of a better term, a straight up killer. I’ve only played mShep so i never actually romances Garrus but dude is easily one of the best companions in the entire game. The relation he has with Shepard and the way it develops over those three games, is only topped by one other character and she’s the premier on this list. Garrus is hilarious and a real force in the game but, more than that, he’s arguably Shepards’ best friend and a solid foundation they can rely on as dude shapes the history of an entire galaxy.

Jack

Oh, my darling Jacqueline Night. You were SO close to the top spot on this list and only missed it because you were introduced in the second game. That’s it. Jack is dope, one of the most complete characters in the entire franchise, and definitely a great romance option. I adore this chick for all of the reasons but mostly because of how realized she becomes by the end of 3. Her growth from “Psychotic Biotic” into maternal teacher for a bunch of biotic kids, was a turn i didn’t expect but loved to see. I love Mass Effect 2′s version of Jack, for sure, but her appearance in Mass Effect 3 is head-and-shoulders better than her initial introduction. It hurts we never got to actually got to play with her in an actual fight but her appearances were still outstanding.

Tali’Zorah vas Normandy

Tali is the best f*cking thing about this franchise and I'll fight you to the death over it. Listen, Tali, for me, is best girl, best character, best development, best everything! I adore Tali. She made that first game bearable but really came into her own in the second. By the third, she was the premier supporting character in the entire franchise for me. Literally her and Garrus stay in my party and for good reason. Tali’s romance is so goddamn saccharine that it gave me diabetes but her maturation as that narrative continues is exceptionally written. Being one of two squad mates who has ridden with Shep through the entire trilogy really gives Tali room to grow and it shows. She is the best companion in the game and i almost never leave her behind.

Look, all of the squadmates hold a special place in my heart but these twelve, specifically, always seem to find their way into my onsite shenanigans more often than not. Obviously, just because you didn’t make this list, doesn’t mean you didn’t have your moments and Aria being on here instead of, say, Thane, is not a knock against him at all. Aria was just hilarious and i enjoyed what little time we shared. Everyone on the Normandy is dope and i cannot wait until my next mission to save the galaxy from the Reapers with them. Not Kaidan, though. Never Kaidan. F*ck that guy, specifically.

[appleb18]

Star vsThe Forces of Evil Season 4... One Year Later

One year ago, Star vs The Forces of Evil ended its fourth season and it was a disaster. It wasn’t always all that bad, in fact the show was pretty good on it’s first two seasons and bit of season 3 however it's just the final season that ruins it. It didn’t live to people expections and it felt rushed. Now let’s discuss how the show messed up shall we? 

Behind the Failure

Before I talk about the dreadful writing of season 4, I want to talk about behind the scenes of the show's downfall. According to Daron Nefcy Twitter, she tweeted that “Just finished the last episode of Star vs The Forces of Evil” a month before the finale. 

It’s fine if it was an episodic show like Phineas and Ferb, Batman Brave and the Bold and episodic shows but writing an ending for an ongoing story is something you should NEVER do. Writing the ending without a plan is a terrible decision to make, especially past plot points that were established and most of them were left answered. 

 You’ll probably be thinking that they were rushed and while I understand that all plot points can’t be answered like Gravity Falls but they wanted to make the romance their top priority over the story, which I’ll talk about later. Daron actually knew she had four seasons to work with and it makes it so frustrating to hear! 

So now let’s talk about how it all went wrong. 

Character 180

Previously, I used to like most of the cast, they used to be enjoyable characters but in season 4, oh dear they all turned into pricks.  

The onlys characters that didn’t get ruined in the fourth season were

Eclipsa and Globgor 

River Butterfly 

Tom Lucitor 

But everyone else, they all became such unbearable picks like The Magic High Commision. They used to act like decent people, trying to defend Mewni from Ludo/Toffee

And they actually have character, especially Rhombulus growth when he befriends Star. 

But they get character assassinated and become monster haters with no actual reason just like the Mewnimen and they never atone for what they’ve done to the Butterfly family. 

Moon betrayal came out of nowhere and it only lasted like seven minutes then she joins Star and Eclipsa because she didn’t realize Mina and her soldiers are going to commit genocide. Why didn’t she see that coming? They were racist to monsters, did she think they’ll actually spare them? 

Her reason behind is so stupid and that is because she doesn’t trust Eclipsa ruling Mewni but why all the sudden? While it’s true she let her get shot by Meteora but that’s an mother instinct to protect her child. Also she tried to kill her own daughter to protect Star and Mewni. So Moon shouldn’t see her irresponsbile. While she isn’t fit to be ruler, she is trustworthy. What’s worse is she admittedly teams up with them to defeat Mina.  

Then there’s Star and Marco, the two main characters of the show and they became terrible people. All of the development from the previous seasons get thrown out of the window. 

Marco never talked to his parents after he left and barely visits because “he’s too busy” and he didn’t even know he’s gonna get a baby sister. Clearly doesn’t care when Star’s mom goes missing, his ego in the Neverzone and neglecting Nacho’s for a very long time at least 1000 years. Marco breaks up with Kelly for no reason and he knows what’s she going through.

For Star, she acts more of a princess and has responsibilities, having a reason why she can’t go back to Earth but it doesn’t excuse her being a terrible person. She’s irresponsible that she leaves Rhombus and Eclipsa alone despite it’s very clear they want to kill each other, she’s a brat in “Junkin’ Janna”, she’s so rude to Tom when he comes a better person for her, she’s been eyecandy on Marco even though she has a boyfriend and she’s a complete dick in “Cleaved”. I hate the excuse for her acting like a prick because “she’s a teenager, and teenagers are dumb”. What a load of bull 

Losing Focus 

Season 4 has to be the most unforced in the entire show. They present plot points and they barely explore it. They’ll make a comment about it and the show just moves on from it. Mostly showing shipping episodes and filler 

The show introduced that mewmens were originated from Earth but never further explored that. 

Mewni hates monsters but never shows why and how. It just makes them complete dicks throughout season 

They never had a set goal or what’s trying to be. The only thing that made the plot moving was Moon disappearance but it gets resolved in two episodes. 

So the only thing left is Star trying to end racism for season 4. The problem with this is there’s no stakes, if she fails, monsters and mewmens won’t get along and that’s fine because their children on both sides won’t make the same mistake as they did, making it no need to push it.

It would’ve worked better if they showed the Mewni perspective when Eclipsa became ruler. Unfortunately, they display them as unguided children, expecting Moon to do everything for them and complain. Also they hate monsters because they do not like them.  Most of them go live with Moon, making them not accept change nor monsters. They don’t deserve any sympathy, they are just a bunch of idiots who are racist. 

And the thing that made the season so unfocused is the freaking shipping. 

Starco is Terrible 

Remember when it was good back the first two seasons but season 3 and mostly season 4 made it so hard to watch and instead of shipping being a subplot like most shows, they turn it into a main plot. I don’t understand why they have to prioritize shipping over the story. It’s inevitable that Starco will become cannon because that’s what people wanted but it cost to establish ships to be torn down in the most frustrating way.

Kelly and Marco break up with no reason why and it’s off screen.  

Star is a bad girlfriend to Tom, leaving Star crying

Then in a few hours, Star and Marco become a couple. Only a few hours and the resolution was so dang quick. It makes me wonder why they have to stay so long if she loves Marco more than him? 

Star and Marco would rather die together instead of being with their family despite their relationship just starting. It would’ve worked better if Tomstar broke up earlier and Starco become cannon so we can see their relationship more than just a few episodes. There’s really no need to drag it for so long! 

Mina Loveberry isn’t Threatening

Mina Loveberry, the main villain for season 4 and yet didn’t do anything. Unlike Toffee scheming behind the scenes for three seasons, Ludo raising an army of rats and gaining better control of the wand and Meteora powers growing, she didn’t play her role for the whole season. All she did is she rebuilt her battle armor and send poison fruits to Eclipsa, that’s it. The show never showed how dangerous she is 

While sure she can beat Star and Tom but she got oneshoted by Meteora who got defeated by Eclipsa. So she really isn’t that big of a problem to handle. 

In the finale, again she never did anything and she got knocked down by a Corrupted Unicorn, making her not so dangerous like other characters said she was

Seth should’ve been the main villain instead of that crazy lady but unfortunately, they never introduce him even though he’s still alive according to The Book of Spells.  

Cleaved 

So the series finale and I have to say, my god how the show has fallen. This finale is a disaster, it’s way worse than any other cartoon finale such as Adventure Time and Steven Universe Future. 

With no build up, Star has come to a conclusion that she needs to eradicate magic because it’s bad. There weren't any clear signs that magic is truly bad. Star never actually thought about everyone else that is made out of magic or used it for their daily life. The only thing she realized is she won’t be with Marco. Not able to her friends or the many lives she’ll ruin but she won’t see Marco and everyone agrees to destroy the magic. 

So Star and Marco go to the World of Magic to destroy it. As they enter and almost forget who they are, the pudding apparently helps them jog their memory and he’s carrying a lot of them. 

They realized Tom was still at the realm and he’s riding on the Corrupted Horse so Marco will handle it while Star uses the whispering spell to destroy it.

Star gets help destroying magic by Eclipsa, Moon and for some odd reason Meteora can do it too with her butterfly form even though she never went through mewberrity. Then the past queens help them out too

As they were destroying magic, Marco feeds Tom the pudding but gets impaled by the unicorn with dramatic music playing but that got completely scrapped when he goes back to Earth. 

After they successfully destroyed magic, Star and Marco have to go back their worlds but then she decided she wants to abandon everything and everyone so she can be with Marco and he does the same by staying in the realm. They both hug and something happens through the power of love that links between two worlds and again they were a couple for two episodes. 

She goes back to Mewni and sees that she doesn’t have cheek marks anymore. Moon, mewmens and Mina are reformed and no punishments were given.

With magic gone, her and her family just caused the multiverse that relies on magic, face chaos and they will collapse entirely. Although they prevented genocide of the monsters but ultimately cause genocide at a larger scale than Mina’s in the process like all of Star spells, people who are made out of magic and The Magic High Commsions are dead. 

Then two portals for each world exploded and both worlds collide. The writers made it out as if it’s a happy ending but it just causes panic between both worlds and racism towards monsters is now worse than ever but Starco can at least be together. 

Conclusion

I used to like Star vs The Forces of Evil and I thought it would’ve been great but like most shows that disappointed me such as Steven Universe, and Voltron, this show really frustrated me. If the show actually didn’t focus too much on the shipping or made it as a romantic show, it would've been great but they didn’t and the show suffers for that. It’s a dang shame that it has to that route. 

#Star vs The Forces of Evil #svtfoe #Star Butterfly #Marco Diaz #River Butterfly #Eclipsa Butterfly #Moon Butterfly #Rhombulus #Hekapoo #Mina Loveberry #Globgor #Tom Lucitor #Kelly #Starco #Tomstar #Kellco

[studiopoprocks]

Owl be Back

“If anyone who can write stuff nicely can anyone do a Hawks x S/O and his S/O have to take care of a baby owl until it can be let free but it keeps just coming back, it be very cute.”

Thank you so much @liliththeedgy for letting me write this super cute request, for the best under cooked Chicken nugget ever!

Ship: Hawks/Keigo Takami x Reader

Warnings: This is a Drabble people! Hold on to your fedoras!

Category: Fluffy Fluff

Waking up like most mornings, you were pinned to the bed by the wings of your sleeping boyfriend. For such delicate looking extremities, they really were heavy. It honestly surprised you on how Keigo was able to casually walk with them all his life. But they were warm, and helped block out a bit of the sun coming from your open window, so you weren’t really complaining.

However your peaceful morning was interrupted by a loud bang, causing you to look around in worry. There was a light smear mark on your window, and your heart fell. It wasn’t the first time a bird had died this same death, but their little wings always reminded you of the man beside you. One of your biggest fears was that he wouldn’t came home one day, and you’d find his body similar to the dead birds.

You slightly slapped your cheek, knowing you shouldn’t be thinking about that kinda thing. Looking over at your boyfriend, your challenge of escaping without waking him began. You attempted to lift the dead weight of Keigo’s wings, kinda rolling out as you did so.

You thought you were free, before you felt a tug on your arm, then a two big wrapping around your middle and flinging you back onto the bed.

‘Kei, I’ll be right back.’ You promised, but he just tightened his wings. ‘I’ll bring up the leftovers from last night’ at the mention of getting chicken, he finally let go.

It was quite early in the morning, the dew still lingering on the blades of grass that covered your yard. In the middle sat the tiny bird, or more specifically, an owlet. However instead of lying lifelessly on the ground, it was struggling. Rolling around, trying to take flight.

You knelt in the grass, ignoring the wet spots it created on your pyjamas. ‘Hey there’ you spoke calmly to the little creature. It glanced up at you, fear in its eyes.

Both of you stayed perfectly still, waiting for the other to make a movie. The tiny owl maintained eye contact as it tried to fly away again, failing and crying out in pain.

Out of instinct, (dealing with your bird brained Boyfriend) you picked up the baby and did your best to comfort it. It pulled away, scrambling to get out of your grasp.

‘Hey, hey, it’s okay’ attempting to pet it with the tip of your ring finger. Which surprisingly worked very well. It whoed at you, watching you out of curiosity instead of fear.

You did your best to not disturb it as you sat up, grass sticking along the length of your legs. Scared of frighting the bird, you continued to talk to it as you brought it inside. Of course it didn’t understand you, but there was no harm in reassuring them with a soft tone as you brought it into a different environment.

Once inside, you racked your brain for different wing injuries. Keigo’s reckless behaviour had turned you into a pretty top notch nurse, and the creature in your hands was basically a tiny version of him.

You ended up freezing a wet paper towel to use as an ice pack, and wrapping it’s poor wing in a brace type thing made out of a popcial stick. Thankfully it’s wing wasn’t broken, just a small sprain. But that did mean it would be under your care for a couple weeks.

‘Oh, so you didn’t leave me to go run off with the circus.’ Your sleepy boyfriend mumbled as he caught sight of you. ‘When you said you’d get me chicken, I didn’t expect it to be alive.’ He joked, blatantly adoring the owl in your palm. His wings even fluffed out, something you were used to whenever he found something enjoyable.

Wordlessly he ask if he could come close, and hopefully hold the tiny thing. As he came closer the baby seemed intrigued by his wings. Flapping and moving it’s good one, as Hawks would do the same. Must be a bird thing.

‘Their wing is only sprained,’ You commented as you transferred the bird to your boyfriends hands. ‘Won’t take long to heal, but we’ll take care of them until then, okay?’

You swear you could see happiness radiating off of the bird boy. ‘Can I name him?’

‘Him?’ You questioned, ignoring his previous question.

‘Ya, I’ll name him Hawks Jr!’

‘Not happening.’ You laughed, guiding the small bird back into your hands. ‘What about Avis? It means bird in Latin!’ At your comment, the tiny owl whoed, seeming to enjoy his new name.

‘Little Avis Tamaki’ both you and Keigo smiled.

You best believe you took multiple pictures. Originally it was so you could track his growth, but silly photos were always more fun. Plus now you’d probably get a pretty cute photo album from this experience.

The first week was definitely the hardest. Neither you nor your pro hero boyfriend had much time, so between work, and caring for Avis, you two were exhausted. Thankfully Hawks knew a suprising amount about different bird species, so nutrition and environment wasn’t that hard.

Avis had also become pretty clingy. Not that you minded, but it must be a bird thing as Keigo acted similarly. It was nice though, you all went for walks either early in the morning or late at night. Sometimes even flys if Avis was particularly restless. Of course he had to sit in your hands, but it was a small price to pay for his enjoyment.

‘Where’s our little chick?’ Your boyfriend had developed the habit of calling Avis your chick, which didn’t surprise you in the slightest. Little Avis poped his head out from under your bundle of hair, whoing in a greeting soft of way.

However that smile on Keigos faces quickly disappeared, as the tiny bird launched himself towards him.

‘AVIS!’ Both you and Hawks lunged to the ground, attempting to catch the little birb. However, Avis just spread his wings and slowly drifted on top of Hawks head.

You looked at the baby in shock, debating whether to be happy that his wing is getting better, or upset because he put himself in harms way. However Hawks was one step ahead of you.

‘You can’t just jump off of your mother like that, you almost gave up a heart attack!’ He plucked the owl from atop his head, ‘but, we are both happy you seem to be feeling better. Can you copy me?’ Although Avis likely didn’t understand, he did copy Keigos actions.

Slowly he spread his wing out to the side, Avis copied. Lifting it up, then down, and Avis copied. This went on for a bit before Hawks told him to copy one last thing. He surprised attracted you with a kiss to your cheek, but the cutest part was that Avis copied it the best he could. Thus another photo to add to the collection.

You spent the rest of the afternoon preening Avis’s feathers. Since he hadn’t been using them much, the matnece had gone way down. You were used to preening your boyfriends wings, even if they didn’t need it, but Avis was much tiner, so it proved more of a challenge.

‘You’ll do mine next right? Please?’ Keigo wined, pulling you closer. Making it difficult to focus on the cute bird infront of you, while a hot bird was behind you. Hawks had gotten really protective of both of you, and it was adorable. Suffocating, but adorable.

Kissing Keigo on the cheek, you returned to your job, straighting our all the loose feathers while Avis cooded happily. ‘You can’t just kiss me then ignore me!’ He laughed, turning so he could plant some of his own along your face. ‘Revenge!’

After the second week, things started to calm down a bit. Even getting enough time to start up date night again, which was one of the best in a while. Throughout this experience, you and Keigo had gotten so much closer, although you thought that it was impossible. You swore he almost read your mind now, and you his. Knowing what eachother needed before they even knew.

‘Hey mama bird.’ He would say whenever you were with Avis. The little Owl has grown so much over such a short amount of time, even being able to fly for short periods. At this rate, he would be all healed up within the next two weeks. You were happy, or at least you wanted to be. Avis, as Hawks would say, ‘was going to leave the nest’, likely never seeing him again.

Your solution: spend as much time together as possible. You even managed to get a long weekend, with one of the days lining up with Hawks’ day off!

So the weekly night flying became daily. You’ve explored the entire park and forest by your place. Plus between you and Kei, you’ve almost tripled the amount of photos of the little bird. Even going as far as to get one from the fancy photo booths in malls.

Honestly the weeks flew by, and you felt the realization on a early morning flight. It was slightly chilly, but it was beautifully sunny. Avis sat, nuzzled in your hands, while his ‘father’ did loops around the clouds. But just like him, Avis wanted to be a little daredevil, and jumped straight out of your hands to fly beside the both of you. Avis had been with you for three and a half weeks, and he’d already given the both of you two heart attacks!

But boy did he seem happy. You and Kei knew what had to happen. So the next morning, you did one last test. One last round of Hawks stretching his wings, and Avis copying, which of course ends with a kiss to your cheek and a photo. Avis’ wings were as good as your boyfriends, which he’d use to fly away.

Making Avis his favourite insect meal, and saying goodbye as you brought him outside to where you first found him. You tried your best not to tear up or cry Hawks obviously did while you said your final words.

‘We both love you Avis,’ you started, ‘We want to keep you forever, and just have you as our baby bird. But you have to be free.’

‘You’re strong just like your mom, you’ll do great things!’ Hawks continued, ‘If you understand anything we’re saying, I hope it’s that we both want to see you again. Someday.’

‘We love you!’ You joined in with Hawks, and Avis nussled you both. Saying a goodbye ‘who’ before flying into the sky.

Never in your life had you been more thankful for your boyfriend. Your emotions were all over the place, and having him with you through all of it really helped. You would be his rock, and he would be yours. He had realized this too during the time you spent with Avis.

You went to work early the next morning to distract yourself. While Hawks figured out his master plan, after a certain someone came pecking at his window after you had left.

The next day started off normal, pinned to the bed by your boyfriends large wings. A faint ‘who’ outside of your window prevented you from drifting off into the blissfulness. Half asleep, you thought it was your boyfriend. Kinda like sleep talking for birds. But once you listened closer, it sounded more familiar. It was Avis!

You scrambled out of bed, flipping Kei’s wings to who knows where. Looking out the slightly dirty window you saw him, your little baby owl. So if course you quickly opened up the window for him.

‘Hey honey!’ You quietly whispered in case your boyfriend was miraculously still asleep, ‘What that on your leg?’

A tiny letter was attached, carrier pigeon style to his leg. You gently took it from the eager bird, who was waving his leg about, pulling full attention to it. You could almost cry as you read it:

Dear my little dove,

Guess who came to visit yesterday when you were off helping others? So I decided he could help me with something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile now. You’re the love of my life, the chicken to my nuggets. And the past few weeks only confirmed all these feelings I have for you. I hated seeing Avis leave, but then I realized, what if you ever left. I honestly don’t think I would ever manage without you. So I was wondering if you would like to stay by my side forever? What I’m trying to ask is...

‘Will you marry me?’ You heard from behind you. Hawks bent on one knee, a ring in one of his feathers. Or at least that’s what you think as the tears kinda blocked your vision.

You furiously nodded, making multiple mhmmm noises as you tacked your fiance into a hug. Even Avis was whooing happily at his parents joy, even if he didn’t really understand what was happening.

So that’s how your life is right now. Engaged to the number 2 hero, furiously in love, and a owl son who visits you almost every morning. You leave the window open enough for him to get in, and most of the time you’ll wake up to him nuzzling your face. He wouldn’t spend long, just enough to say a quick hi and be on his way.

However another surprise was about to arise. One beautifully sunny morning, as you waved Avis goodbye, your boyfriend grabbed your hand, lovingly stroking you with his thumb, and mumbled ‘I want a baby.’

#hawks headcanons #hawks x reader #hawks #bnha headcanons #bnha x reader #x reader #fluff headcanons #my hero fanfic #fluff #headcanon x reader #boku no hero headcanons #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #mha x reader #drabble #owl #request

[jazy3]

Thoughts on Grey’s Anatomy: 16X11

I really loved this episode! There were so many things I liked! The thing I liked most was how funny it was! I died laughing! I was hollering with laughter the entire time! It was SO funny! I haven't laughed that hard at something in ages! I also loved the chemistry between Meredith and Hayes aka McWidow! I loved their easy banter and how well they worked together. I loved that Cormac could admit when he was wrong and be gracious about it. And the way they worked together in the OR! They were like a seamless well-oiled machine. It's really cool to see Meredith work so well with someone who has the potential to be a great romantic partner and whose on her level professionally! In all of her past relationships there was always a power imbalance. I love her and Cormac together!  

I love how in just a few short episodes Hayes has already endeared himself to Cristina, Jo, and Amelia! They are not easily impressed and he's already won them over! I love that! I think there's a lot of potential there. Meredith and Hayes aren't even dating yet and this relationship already has more support than any other she's ever been in. I'm so totally here for it! It's about friggin' time! Also what ship name are we using for Meredith and Cormac's budding romance? I've seen people using everything from Grayes to McWidow to McIrish! I'm a Grayes and McWidow fan myself so that's what I've been using so far. Now onto the recap. Meredith’s Voice Over this week is all about why people don’t go to the doctor and we open on her texting her favourite person: Cristina. I love their exchange!

Meredith: What do you mean by gift? Cristina: 🤷🏻‍♀‍ M: Professional or personal? C: 🤷🏻‍♀‍ M: I need more information!! C: 🤷🏻‍♀‍ M: You’re not funny

On the contrary Meredith I think Cristina‘s hilarious and she knows exactly what she’s doing. Wink wink. Amelia and Meredith are in the Attendings Lounge and following her text exchange with Cristina, Amelia asks Meredith if they’re have been any Maggie sightings today. She says she sent Zola up with food but she refused and that they’ll know when to push her. I love Meredith and her sisters! I sometimes wonder what things would have been like if Lexie had lived and Cristina had stayed. It would be cool to see the five of them together. We find out that Amelia has decided to tell Link about her pregnancy news but she hasn’t told Meredith as she has no idea what the hell Amelia is talking about.

Enter Hayes! He notices that a pregnant Amelia is struggling to tie her shoe and like the gentleman he is offers to help! Swoon! Meanwhile Meredith has no idea what to make of the man who last time she saw him bite everyone’s head off and drove her up the wall and is now tying her pregnant sister’s shoe for her. I love it! Amelia is impressed! Hayes offers Meredith coffee but she says she’s good. He makes small talk and then leaves. As Amelia says, “That is a very well wrapped gift.” Why yes it is! Meredith is annoyed as she still doesn’t know what to make of Cristina’s “gift” so she unties Amelia’s shoe! Haha I love it!

Meanwhile Teddy has lost her engagement ring! Which turns out to be a Hunt family heirloom. Oh dear. Jo promises to keep an eye out while Teddy continues to search. Next we find DeLuca sitting in a side room doing research. Meredith walks in. She tells him that he told her to take some time to think which she didn’t like because two people who are together should think things through together. Truth. When you’re in a relationship with someone and you’re truly committed you work and talk things out together. You don’t just throw a hissy fit over your own insecurities and walk away which is what DeLuca did. Instead of responding to this obvious truth and acting like he gives a crap DeLuca instead starts talking about a routine lap appy that he did on a patient whose not getting better.

Here’s what bugs me about this scene. Last week DeLuca was so eager to get back together with Meredith that he came crying to her sister, his ex, for help. This week he couldn’t care less about her and acts like they don’t even know each other. This guy is all over the map! They’ve rewritten DeLuca’s character so many times at this point I’ve lost track. Which is one of the reasons I don’t like him. He’s inconsistent, poorly written, and just an overall jackass.

Also I think it’s interesting that DeLuca broke up with Meredith because he couldn’t handle the fact that he’d never compare to Derek or be on their level skill wise but now that he needs help he turns to the great Dr. Meredith Grey for advice. Very telling. When Meredith wanted to be with him personally, he walked away because he couldn’t handle the fact that she was better than him professionally. Now that she wants to talk things through, he couldn’t care less and only wants her help professionally. What a loser.

DeLuca refuses to even address her comment and instead talks to her professionally as if they barely know each other. And he wonders why everyone hates him? Meredith is having none of it. Thank God. She tells him she’ll think on it and that he should fill Bailey in. Before leaving she leans over and whispers to him that she misses him in Italian. Meredith then turns and leaves. It’s only after this that we see any kind of normal reaction out of DeLuca. It’s as if he suddenly remembers they used to date.

DeLuca smiles and calls after her that he didn’t dump her, so she doesn’t have to miss him. Meredith walks away. Fun fact: that’s called gaslighting. DeLuca showed up to Meredith’s house after she got her medical licence back, compared himself to her dead husband, and then threw a temper tantrum about his own insecurities and how they weren’t partners and told her to take some time.

He then claimed to Link and Nico that he didn’t dump her, got schooled on it, and eventually went to Maggie for advice. He admitted to her that he meant what he said. Now that Meredith wants to talk instead of apologizing he’s gaslighting her. DeLuca keeps claiming he didn’t dump her all the while refusing to apologize or address the issues at hand. They’re not equals and they never will be. That hasn’t changed and he meant what he said so there’s really nothing to talk about here.

Also DeLuca claiming that he didn’t dump Meredith when in fact he did doesn’t change those facts. Also what is his plan here? Does he really think being a passive aggressive asshole is going to win Meredith back? DeLuca’s an idiot. Last week and the episode before that he whined to everyone about how he didn’t dump Meredith and wanted to get back together. This week she wants to talk and all he does is treat her with coldness and make passive aggressive comments. He’s first class idiot and Meredith deserves better. It looks like she may have found it in Hayes and I couldn’t be happier!

Another reason why I'm totally a Grayes fan? "Listen Grey this is your house, but someone gave me a key so maybe it's best if we try to learn how to live together," Is such a low key epic line. Like hot damn. I'm not one for pick up lines but damn son. Also I love that he follows it up with, "Welcome back Dr. Grey. I can see why you were missed." Like damn. He's been a pain in the ass to work with all day and he knows it, but he can also admit when he's wrong and do it gracefully and I love that

Also Hayes is so into Mer. He could have said anything to her as he exited the elevator and he goes with a straight fire pick up line about how someone gave him a key to her house so they should learn how to live together and he can see why she was missed? Damn. I'm so sunk. I'm so into this ship and Hayes has only been in three episodes! I can't wait to see more of Meredith and Hayes together! They have so much in common and they are such a slow burn! I love it!

I love that Hayes doesn't brag about being right about the vaping case. He totally could have and he chose not to. Meredith didn't brag about the Jamie Caldwell case and she totally could have and choose not to. I love that they have this mutual respect already. It's also cool to see a new male doctor on the show that doesn't brag and gloat every 5 minutes. Real talk that is one of the most annoying things about the remaining male characters on Grey's. I'm really liking this new guy.

Also I love that Hayes went from not understanding who Meredith was talking about at the beginning of the episode to being super curious and intrigued as to how she knows Cristina by the end of it. He definitely wants to know what the story is there. In other non-Grayes related news Amelia finally tells Link the truth that the baby might not be his. It’s heartbreaking and devastating to watch.

Amelia makes this great speech about how she loves what they have and why she loves him, but that she understands that he needs time to think. We’ve seen such growth from Amelia this season. I’m so proud of her. We get an update on the residents and find out that Bailey took some time off after her miscarriage. Of course Koracick doesn’t know that so he’s being his usual asinine self. We meet the patient DeLuca was talking about. Her name is Suzanne. She’s very sweet and has two very cute kids and a loving sister who want her to get better.

Even more tragic we learn that Suzanne’s partner died last year. He had a migraine that got so bad he went to the ER, but the doctors sent him home saying he would be fine. He died shortly thereafter so now her kids are terrified of hospitals. Oh god. Honey you are at the wrong place. They don’t call it Seattle Grace Mercy Death for nothing!

We see Hayes and Meredith meet in the hallway. Mer wants to address the elephant in the room and says she’s not sure what Cristina said to him and wants to know more. Only Hayes has no idea what she’s talking about. As soon as Mer realizes this she stops talking and says Never mind. Hayes isn’t deterred though and he keeps asking questions until she distracts him by asking him if he’s going to the pit. I love the ease that Meredith and Hayes already have with each other. I love the way she smiles when she talks to him and I love how persistent he is when it comes to the truth! It feels like we got the old Meredith back and I love it.

Hayes is confused as what the pit is. Meredith explains she’s talking about the ER. He asks why they call it that. Meredith says she doesn’t know. I love scenes where they talk about the medical language and slang different countries and cultures use. Right after they get there a 17 year old kid named Kai starts coughing up blood. They begin working together and start treating him. Meanwhile Maggie is still at home hiding. Richard comes to see her and through some ingenious text messages convinces her to answer the door.

During this scene Justin Chambers’ name appears and he is credited in this episode despite the fact that he does not appear. This makes sense seeing as episodes 1 - 12 would have been filmed last year while he was still under contract. Man I miss Alex already. Fun fact from this episode: Richard Webber can cook! This man is full of surprises. Who knew? Back at the hospital Jo comes to talk to Link who tells her about Amelia’s baby news. Just as they start to talk a man calls out for help and they run over to help him.

“All these blue pyjamas, I can’t get any help over here?!”  LOL this guy! It turns out this man swallowed an entire fish and then while being rushed to the ER his friend accidentally slammed his hand in the cab door to the point that it’s gushing blood! Yuck! Back at the house Richard is dismayed by all of the places there are to put food and the lack there of it! Some things never change. Aw! There’s a photo of Zola in her Day of the Dead outfit on the fridge! Also I love the Pac Man style ghost drawing! A+ for whoever’s kid drew that one!

Maggie just wants to be left alone. Richard refuses to give up. Meanwhile, Owen has the day off so he comes to see Teddy at the hospital. He wants to talk wedding plans but she tearfully tells him they can’t because she lost the ring! Owen reassures her and tells her that it won’t be an issue because they’re going to find it. Which admittedly is very sweet of him.

It turns out this guy knowingly ate a potentially poisonous spiky puffer fish from a bar aquarium at his bachelor party on a dare. Yep. That happened. I bet this isn’t even made up. I bet you anything someone’s actually done this. I love Jo’s line, “I honestly worry for your entire gender sometimes.” Hahaha Jo! Same here girl same here. Jackson, Jo, and Link scrub in on fish guy. Link tries to act like he’s cool with the whole unknown paternity thing and Jo calls his bluff.

As Jo says, “You can love her and be mad at her at the same time. Both things can be true.” Wise words indeed. Amelia goes to talk to Owen and Teddy only to find them looking for the ring. Owen gets a text saying Leo just threw up all over daycare so Owen and Teddy run off to deal with that leaving a confused and anxious Amelia behind. I’m confused as to why Amelia stayed behind. Leo is her kid too. Why didn’t she go with them?

Meanwhile Meredith and Hayes are giving Kai a CT scan. Hayes comments that he’s got a couple of boys at home that are Kai’s age. He says he had to read a whole book on brain function just to manage to forgive them for everything they do. Meredith laughs in response as Hayes tells her that he came home the other night to find the oldest one throwing a tennis ball as hard as he could at the youngest one’s head. And that the game was could his brother dodge it before he got brain damage. Meredith, being a parent herself, laughs in response because she gets it. She then apologizes saying she shouldn’t laugh at that because it’s actually not funny.

Gosh the way he looks at her! I just love it. I love their easy laughter and how they understand each other’s experience. Losing a spouse young and having to raise a bunch of kids as a single parent while running a department is no picnic. Hayes is just perfect for Meredith. He’s everything she needs and wants. I love it! Hayes then opens up to Meredith and explains why he acted the way he did the other day. He says it was a tough day for him and that he gets a bit dark this time of year because it’s when he lost their Mum to cancer.

He says he hopes that the two of them can start over and Meredith says sure. She’s been there and is there. She knows what’s it’s like to lose a spouse and get all dark and twisty over it. I think it’s great seeing Meredith with someone whose dark and twisty like she is. I’m tired of all this fluff. I want to see her with someone who’s as screwed up as she is. Who gets it. They can be dark and twisty together. Meredith asks him how long it’s been since she passed. Cormac answers that she’s been gone two years ago last week. Because she’s been there she tells him two years is tough but that it gets better.

As she says, “Two years is tough. Gets better. Not all the way better obviously, but a little bit better.” Meredith’s been there so she knows what she’s talking about. Hayes is about to respond when the CT scans pop up. I’m looking forward to seeing Meredith address being a widower more. It shouldn’t be the whole focus but getting to see and understand her experience as she moves forward with someone new who understands her pain is critical. I’d also love to see her talk about Derek and her other deceased loved ones more. Dating someone who understands that kind of pain could make it easier to talk about. You shouldn’t have to hide your love for someone. I’d love to see Meredith and Hayes go on a dinner date and talk about their dead spouses and what they do and don’t miss. You don’t stop loving someone because they die and Mer deserves someone she can talk about that stuff with.

She shouldn’t have to hide her love for Derek anymore than Hayes should have to hide his love for his wife. They need to be able to talk about that stuff and I look forward to seeing them explore that more. Meredith and Hayes look at the scans. The kid’s supposed to be an athlete yet he’s got the lungs of a 60 year old smoker. Meredith is baffled but Hayes says he’s seen this before. “I bet you a naggin he vapes.” Yikes! Hayes comes to talk to Kai’s Dad and his friends. His Dad is in disbelief but based on their reactions Hayes deduces correctly that the boys know something they’re not saying.

Telling them that this is no time for secrets Hayes gets them to open up and they admit that Kai vapes but don’t think it’s that bad because half the school does it. Cormac is having exactly none of that and schools them on the fact that vaping is similar to smoking in that you’re putting chemicals into your lungs which are meant inhale air not smoke or chemicals. Hayes shows them a picture of a healthy lung and another photo of their friend’s which looks awful. They act flip in response and he promptly loses it on them. Hayes tells them to get out of his face and that the stuff is deadly just as Meredith comes down the stairs. Kai’s Dad is freaked. Hayes explains that his son’s not dying but thinks the only way to help him is to repair his esophagus and remove part of his lung.

Meredith disagrees. She thinks they should try to stop the bleeding by coiling the artery which is the least invasive option and what she‘d want for her own kids. Kai’s Dad is swayed and says he wants to go with the option Meredith presented. Cormac concedes and says they’ll get back to him. As they walk away he tells Meredith he’ll defer to her going forward, she tries to make amends, but Hayes says that’s not necessary. He clarifies that he’s not being passive aggressive or trying to make an issue out of it. Meredith believes she can do it, Kai’s Dad wants her to try, so she should be the one to do the procedure.

I love this for so many reasons. If this same scenario happened with one of Meredith’s other love interest it would be a whole thing! Derek would have had a field day, Riggs would have been pissed, and DeLuca would have thrown a temper tantrum. Hayes? Nah. He’s cool as a cucumber. He’s not mad or upset. He’s doesn’t treat her poorly or patronize her. He graciously accepts defeat, defers to her, and moves on and I love that. Meredith deserves someone like that in her life. We all do.

They have some nice banter about how Hayes keeps accidentally terrifying his patients’ parents and he tells her he was trying to terrify the kids who are Kai’s friends from school. I love how easily they get along. Back at the house Maggie and Richard talk. She wants to be left alone. He wants to know why she quit. She explains about the mix up with the perfusionist and not knowing the protocol at Pac North. Maggie asks Richard to go and he leaves. Back at the hospital Teddy and Owen are looking after a sick Leo. They get an x-ray to try and figure out what’s going on.

And figure it out they do! It turns out that Leo ate Teddy’s ring! Over in the OR Meredith and Hayes are operating on Kai and she’s got on her mint green scrub cap today with the swirls on it. I like seeing all of her different scrub caps and the metaphor they embody about how she’s moving on with her life post-Derek’s death. Meredith deploys the coil while Cormac attempts to backseat drive which annoys her. He tells her he didn’t want to do it because there’s often a re-bleed and seconds later it happens.

Hayes wants to open him up, but Meredith thinks she can deploy another coil. Hayes tells her they don’t have time. I love their exchange in this scene. Meredith says, “I’m sorry,” and Hayes responds, “Don’t be sorry. Tried it your way. Now help me with mine.” He could have gloated and being a real jackass about it and said I told you so but he didn’t. He admired her willingness to try and when her way failed he didn’t gloat or make an issue of it. In fact he told her not to apologize and instead asked for her help in doing it his way. Because that’s what being a mature adult is all about. Accepting defeat and triumph graciously and asking for help when you need it. Just one of the many reasons I already love Hayes as a character.

Meanwhile, Jo, Jackson, and Link are still operating on fish guy. It’s rough going. “Every time I think I’ve seen the craziest, dumbest things a person can do the ER’s just like ‘Hold my beer.’” Oh Jackson! This line! LOL. Meanwhile Meredith and Hayes are still operating on Kai. He tells her in the interest of full disclosure that this isn’t the first time he’s had the debate about whether to coil or resect. Mer doesn’t find this very comforting. She responds with, “So I was wrong but I’m not alone? Thanks.” Hayes clarifies and says that last time he was on her side and he insisted on the coil even though his colleague adamantly disagreed.

Hayes says he didn’t even get as far as Mer did before it all went sideways. So Meredith asks, “Who was the colleague?” And Hayes replies, “Head of the Klausman Institute: Dr. Yang. Absolute nightmare.” Hahaha oh Hayes you have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. I love that knowing look Meredith gives him too. Elsewhere Bailey and DeLuca are giving Suzanne a CT scan. She does not like it at all. They rule something else out but still can’t figure out what’s wrong with her. Then Koracick walks up. He’s confused as to why the Chief of Surgery is doing follow ups on a routine appy and chastises her for it mockingly. Bailey gets up and closes the door in his face like a boss.

Just then Suzanne starts coding. For the first time in ages we see DeLuca whose Chief Resident actually practicing medicine. In an even bigger shock he actually does his job competently. Elsewhere fish guy is finally out of surgery. He’s trying to figure out how to his fiancée when she walks in. She is not happy. “You are dumber than a turtle!” She says. Can’t argue with that one. This woman is done. She’s had enough. She’s calling off the wedding. She says that last month her mother offered her $10K to push the wedding back a year and she told her no.

She realizes now that it was her not her mother who couldn’t see him for who he really was and this isn’t the life she wants. As she says, “When someone shows you who they are over and over you’re supposed to believe them.” Very true. Also I hope her Mom gave her that 10K after she called it off. Link seems to take this sentiment to heart although I’m not sure why. Amelia’s been open and honest with him and she’s better mentally than she’s ever been. Bailey and DeLuca promise Suzanne they’ll get answers. Back at the house Richard shows up again this time with groceries. I love this exchange. Maggie asks, “What is this? And Richard replies, “It’s called food. Let’s see what it’s like to actually eat some.” Haha I love Richard. He has the best lines. Maggie’s then talks about what Sabi meant to her and all the reasons Richard should hate her. In response he tells her about his Mom who died when he was 10. He says he doesn’t remember much but when he was upset, she would make them both pancakes.

And she’d say, “Let’s talk about it after you’ve had something to eat.” So that’s what he’s trying to do for Maggie. My heart. It’s nice hearing Richard talk about his Mom and learn more about his family. I like seeing him bond with Maggie more. Richard and Maggie have a heart to heart. He encourages her to get back into the OR. They talk about Sabi. Back at the hospital Owen and Teddy talk about Leo and the ring. He’s going to be fine but Teddy’s still distraught about losing it in the first place.

So Teddy and Owen reach a compromise. They’ll add some extra letters to her necklace to represent the whole family and put the ring in a safe for special occasions. And now Teddy has to sift through Leo’s poop. Isn’t parenting fun? Back at the hospital, Cormac talks to Kai’s Dad. They have a heart to heart and he thanks him for saving his son. Hayes meets Mer in the hallway. He tells her he won’t rub it in that he was right. She apologizes again. He chuckles and tells her that when he was on the other end Yang drive him mad.

He says she left him notes all over the place every day for months. “I was right you were wrong. Little pictures of respected lungs.” As Mer says, “Well that sounds about right.” I can so see Cristina doing that too! She’d think it was hilarious. She probably really liked Hayes as a colleague and he has no idea. Oh Cristina. Never change. Hayes is confused by Mer’s response and asks her about it, “Wait you know her?” Uh oh. Cats out of the bag. Mer tries to explain but can’t find the words. Hayes quirks some eyebrows and is intrigued.

In response Meredith stumbles over her words and then says, “Um ... I gotta go.” Oh Meredith. She walks away rather than face the truth as Hayes stares after her in confusion. I can’t wait to see this storyline play out! It has so much potential! Bailey’s about to leave for home but Koracick won’t let up. She’s finally had enough and so she tells him the truth. She wasn’t on vacation. She sat in her house for three days, drank tea, and cried her eyes out because she had a miscarriage.

He’s surprisingly sympathetic and tells her to light a candle. He tells her that his ex-wife Dana miscarried twice before their son David was born. He says that every year he still lights candles on what would have been their birthdays. Tom is such an interesting character. He’s a complete asshole one minute and the nicest guy you’ve ever met the next. Greg Germann does an amazing job portraying him. Also, can we talk about the fact that the man lost three children? His wife miscarried twice and then his son died young from a freak accident at school. 

It destroyed his marriage to the point that his wife eventually left to be with another man and he was broken he couldn’t do anything about it. Which is why Tom 100% did not deserve the crap Teddy put him through. That was BS. He deserved better. God dammnit. Also, I don’t understand why the other characters aren’t more upfront with Tom. He’s made it clear that if you’re upfront with him he’ll leave you alone. It’s only when he’s in the dark that he starts bugging people. Seems pretty simple to me. Just saying. Meanwhile, Link pages Amelia to the plant room. He’s upset she didn’t get checked out earlier and wants her to do a paternity test.

He’s calm and collected about it but also clearly upset. So is Amelia. She asks what happens if he’s not the father? He’s says he wants to be cool about it and say it doesn’t matter but he’s not sure how he feels yet. He says he wants to take things one step at a time. Amelia is devastated but she keeps it together as best she can. Watching her cry silently as her eyes fill with tears is gut wrenching. Amelia’s been through so much! I just want her to be happy god damnit! Also, I don’t get why the paternity matters so much. You either love someone or you don’t. You either want to be a Dad or you don’t. What difference do the genetics make?

We find Meredith running along a hallway. She runs into the scan room where DeLuca is pouring over paperwork. She says she got his text and suggests they go to dinner so he can clear his head a bit. Which is all very nice of her considering he dumped her over his own insecurities and has been nothing but a passive aggressive aloof asshole ever since. DeLuca in response bites her fricken head off and start shouting about his patient Suzanne and how he can’t help her. In response Meredith takes him by the shoulders and tells him to walk her through the case from the beginning.

Which again is very nice of her. If someone dumped me and then treated me like that I’d tell them to take a hike! I think it’s interesting that  Meredith’s Voice Over this episode is about facing up to the truth both good and bad and how important that is. In my mind this applies to her in two ways. One, she needs to own up and tell Cormac the truth about her and Cristina. Two, she needs to accept that her relationship with DeLuca is over and never would have worked out long term.

It also looks like Meredith is joining Suzanne’s case which could be interesting to watch. Personally, I’d like to see her work more with Hayes, but she hasn’t had a big case in a while so this could be fun. Next we see Bailey at the chapel lighting a candle for the baby she miscarried. My heart. Richard arrives home. Catherine’s not pleased to see him. She asks how his day was. He says it was uneventful. She says Dr. Wells from Pac North called looking for him. He tells her he spent the day trying to convince Maggie to come back to work.

She doesn’t believe him. He tells her their marriage can’t work if she doesn’t trust him. To which she responds, “Who said this was working?” Yikes! He asks her what she’s trying to say. She says she thinks it’s time for them to have a much bigger conversation. Real talk though I don’t understand Catherine this season. She’s been nothing but cold to Richard when he’s done nothing to her. Yes, he did something he shouldn’t have done while sticking up for Meredith but what does that have to do with Catherine?

For the first time in his life he’s married to someone he loves, he’s not drinking, and he’s not having an affair. That’s huge for him. What more does Catherine want? And he’s doing his best to be there for Meredith and Maggie as their surrogate father. All of the problems at this point are in Catherine’s head. He’s not cheating on her. He backed up Meredith because he loves her like a daughter. He’s supporting Maggie because he’s her biological father. That’s what you’re supposed to do for people you love for family. Sheesh.

Now onto this week’s promo! And it looks like we’ve got a stand-alone episode coming our way! It’s Catherine and Richard’s anniversary dinner and you know that’s going to be awkward! And it looks like Jackson invited Vic for some reason who invited Dean! Maggie is also in attendance. Oh boy. This is going to be one awkward dinner.

Until then!

#grey's anatomy #Meredith Grey #Cormac Hayes #grayes #mcwidow #mcirish #season 16 #16X11 #a hard pill to swallow #richard webber #catherine fox #maggie pierce #jo karev #atticus link lincoln #andrew deluca #miranda bailey #tom koracick #amelia shepherd #cristina yang #teddy altman #owen hunt #leo hunt #jackson avery #hold my beer #critique #review #recap #thoughts

[jsmulligan]

The Collector

“How can any one person lose that often?  I mean, seriously, the math says you should at least win occasionally.”

Hunter Ania Solezulam narrowed her yellow eyes at the source of the voice.  “You're not helping, Ricardo.”

“I disagree,” Warlock Ricardo Melendez said.  “If I can convince you of how astronomically, improbably horrendous you are at these games, perhaps you'll stop wasting all of our team's glimmer, which would be a big help.”

The Hunter across the table snickered as he scraped his winnings together.  It was his turn to get a glare from Ania now.  No one liked a gloater.

“I suppose you think you could do better?”  Ania asked the Warlock.  “Feel free to try.”

“A blind Dreg with all four arms docked could do better,” Ricardo sniffed.

“Well that's just mean.”

Ania waved off the other Hunter when he silently offered another game.  He shrugged before standing and walking off to find another challenger.  Ricardo took an off-balance step and settled into the abandoned seat, folding his gangly legs under the table.  Ania shook her head at the awkward movements.

“How do you not fall down and blow yourself up with your own Nova Bomb?”

“Trade secret,” the Warlock retorted.

Ania rolled her eyes at the remark. “One day it will happen, and I am going to laugh so hard.”

“Unlikely,” Ricardo said, shifting in his seat a little and changing the subject.  “Have you seen Barin yet?”

The Warlock was referring to Barin-23, the third member of their squad.  He was supposed to have met the two of them at the bar earlier, but had not shown up yet.  It was actually his tardiness that had allowed Ania the time to engage in the card game in the first place, so, in a way, it was really the Titan's fault she had lost some of their glimmer.

“Not -” the Hunter began, then stopped at the sound of broken glass behind her.  “Never mind. There he is.”

Ania pointed over her shoulder without looking.  Ricardo followed the finger to see the Exo standing near the bar staring in open disbelief at his hands, his Ghost hovering over his shoulder.  Liquid was running over his fingers and dripping onto shattered glass that lay in a growing puddle on the floor. Barin stood there staring until a frame wielding a broom came and pushed him out of the way so that it could clean.  

Forced from his spot, the Titan looked around and noticed his friends.  He said something to the bartender. Giving a helpless shrug, he made his way over to them.

“That's the fifth glass you've broken in the last two days,” his Ghost said as they approached.

“It's your fault,” the Titan replied.  “Last time you revived me, you screwed up.  You tightened the servos in my hand too much or something, I can't control it.”

“Don't blame me,” the little drone said.  “You just weren't paying attention.”

“You do tend to break things,” Ricardo commented.  “Almost as often as Ania loses our glimmer.”

“You're taking his side?” the Titan asked, wounded.

“No sides, just observations,” the Warlock said.

The Titan mumbled something under his breath and waved to a waiter.  A short while later, a replacement drink was brought over to him.  Moving in an exaggerated parody of caution, Barin gingerly lifted the cup to drink.  Thus, he managed to take a drink and set the cup back down safely.

“I would have bet anything that you would have broken that cup too,” Ania said.

“Yet another one you would have lost,” Ricardo mumbled, earning himself a swift kick in the shins.

“So,” the Awoken woman said, turning her yellow eyes to Barin, “why were you late?”

“Oh, I, uh, just had to finish taking care of something,” the Exo said, stumbling over the weak reply.

“Something?” the Hunter questioned, sensing a trail that she wanted to follow.

“Yeah, just something.  A little thing.  But here I am, and you said you had a mission for us.”

Ania stared at the Titan for a moment, sure he would be sweating under the scrutiny if he were organic.  She decided to let it go, however.  For now.

“Right.  New Monarchy is looking for someone to go pick something up for them.  Someone was testing out some new scanner for them and detected a concentration of some valuable materials that Executor Hideo wants to put to use in his weapons foundries.  Besides the general risk of Fallen scavengers, apparently there are scattered reports of Taken in the area, so Hideo is paying a pretty penny.”

“So, it's a fetch quest?” the Titan asked, scrunching the plates of his face in displeasure.

“Yes, but we need the glimmer,” the Hunter replied.

“I wonder why that is,” Barin commented.

The remark would have bought him a kick in the shins as well, except Ania didn't feel like breaking her toes just now.  Instead, she pouted and indicated the Warlock, “Don't you take his side.”

“I say we take the job,” Ricardo chimed in.  “If the material is that valuable to the Executor, I might like to take a quick look at it myself before we hand it over.”

Barin looked back and forth between the two of them.  Ania waggled her red eyebrows at him.  

“Fine, fine,” the Titan said, giving in.  “Let's go get Hideo his junk.”

“That's the spirit,” Ania said, reaching over to slap his arm.  

Unfortunately, Barin had just been lifting his cup to take a drink.  The unexpected contact caused his grip to tighten, shattering another glass.  He watched the liquid dripping from his fingers yet again in despair.  He turned his optics back to the Hunter, the sense of betrayal clear despite Exo's limited expressive capabilities.

“Oops,” the Hunter offered with an apologetic shrug.

The Titan rose with a grumble and then stomped out in a huff.  Ania eased out of her seat to follow. Ricardo got tangled up with the chair legs, but managed to extract himself before hurrying to catch up.  As they walked, their Ghosts made plans to have their ships prepped for launch.  

“So, where're we going?” Barin asked.

“Old Russia,” Ania replied.  “Just outside of the Cosmodrome.  They think the hit came from an old Golden Age crash, maybe even one of the colony ships that was trying to escape the Darkness.”

“If that is true, there could be much more of value there than just the Executor's material,” Ricardo interjected.

“Which means more glimmer for us,” Ania said.  “Aren't you glad you let me pick the missions?”

By the time the trio made it to the hangar, everything was in place.  They quickly trasmatted aboard, and then left the Tower behind.  The trip was a quick one, and close to familiar flight lines.  Another transmat, and the fireteam found themselves standing in a clearing surrounded by trees.  It looked like this are had been growing undisturbed for a very long time.  The three Guardians looked around, trying to decide where to begin when Ania noticed the signs of past trauma in the terrain.

“There,” she said, pointing.

Untold years of erosion had worn down some of the jaggedness of the rocks, but the path the crashing ship had gouged into the surface was still visible beneath the green growth that had since reclaimed the land.  It was wide enough that someone might have mistaken it for a natural formation if they had not been specifically looking for a crash.  To leave this large of a mark, it had to be one of the colony ships.  Ania and Ricardo both felt a thrill at the realization, if for different reasons.

The three of them followed the damaged terrain, seeking the source of the alterations.  Eventually, they came to a massive mound of dirt and rock.  Visible through the rubble, and once again every easy to miss if you weren't looking for it, they could see the backside of ship.

“As it struck the ground, it must have plowed up enough dirt to nearly bury itself completely,” Ricardo said, stepping closer.  The Warlock reached out, placing his palm flat against the exposed surface.  “From out here I don't see a breach.  There's a good chance this hasn't been already stripped by the Fallen like so many other relics.”

“Well, let's get inside and see what we can see,” Ania said, placing her hands on her hips.

The trio of Guardians searched the exposed surfaces of the ship, looking for anything that led inside. Eventually, they found a damaged panel.  Barin-23 punched his fingers through the weakened metal.  Gripping it tightly, he pulled and tugged, the skin of the ship grinning in protest as it was peeled backward.  He tore it free and tossed it aside, leaving a dark hole in the hull.

“Ladies first,” he said, indicating the opening.

Ania took hold of her cloak and mock curtsied before stepping through.  Her Ghost appeared over her shoulder, its light flaring to life, illuminating the dark corridors of the ship.  Two more lights speared into the shadows at the other two Ghosts did the same.  A crash behind them caused Barin and Ania to while around.  The beam of their Ghosts lights landed on Ricardo, sprawled across the floor.

“Just tripped on my way in.  I'm fine,” the Warlock said, standing and dusting off his olive green robes.

“Gonna blow yourself up with your own Nova Bomb,” Ania said in a sing-song manner, just loud enough to be overheard before changing her tone.  “It could take an entire team weeks to go over everything we could find in here.  Let's split up and search, use the scan data to find what we're looking for, then call the others.  Try not to get too sidetracked.”

The last words were aimed at the Warlock, who just waved her off.  “I can catalog data and find our material at the same time.”

“Sure thing, Stretch,” Barin said. “Don't worry, after we get it all transmatted out, we'll come dig you out of the computer system.  Probably.”

“Make sure you're taking passive scans while you're looking around,” Ania called to the two men as she set off down a corridor.  “We have no records left regarding these ships and their construction.  I'm sure future teams looking for loot would appreciate a detailed map of the place.  Might even be worth some glimmer.”

She disappeared into the darkness.  The other two Guardians looked at each other with a shrug and set off in opposite directions.  Once they were a few meters in, their Ghosts started pinging off the material that New Monarchy sought.  There were several small traces scattered throughout the ship.  Whatever it was, it wasn't going to lead to mass production.

Ricardo speculated about what it was and its use.  He noticed that it did seem to be connected with the ship's circuitry in some way.  Noticing what seemed to be a slightly larger deposit, he decided to skip others and following it, hoping it would lead to something worth investigating.

His goal turned out to be the ship's AI core.  Whatever was in these circuits, New Monarchy must want it for something related to a similar purpose.  Perhaps to try to outdo whatever the upstart Veist was promising with their smart weapons they were beginning to produce.  The Warlock had his Ghost attempt to interface with the AI, but without result.  Either the AI was dead, or it simply didn't have power.  Shame, talking with a Golden Age intelligence would have been quite the experience, he thought.

Ania took a winding route through the ship, trying to record as much of the passage as she could while also tagging the material for transmat.  Visions of all the glimmer she could get it she spent a little more time gathering stuff here danced in her head.  Too bad the Executor had specifically asked for the retrieval to go as quickly as possible.

Of course, they could always just come right back and look around again before telling anyone else about the ship.

The Hunter froze suddenly when she heard the sound of something shattering in the distance.  Could someone else be aboard the ship?  She dismissed the thought right away.  No way anyone could have survived, and there was no sign anyone else had found the wreck before them.

Silently, Ania moved in the general direction of the sound.  She hesitated at a crossways, then heard another banging noise that solidified the path for her in her mind. As the sounds drew nearer, she had her Ghost deactivate its light, creeping forward in the dark.

Rounding another bend, a faint, bobbing light became visible.  Approaching, she saw that it was the light of another Ghost.  Barin.  Confirming it was her teammate allowed the Hunter to relax.  She was about to have her Ghost turn its beam back on, when she stopped in curiosity.  What was the Titan up to?

Barin didn't seem to be actively searching out their bounty.  Instead, he was snooping around in what appeared to be civilian quarters.  Ania remained in the shadows, watching him through narrowed eyes.

The Titan was at the far side of the room, looking at something just out of the Hunter's vision.  Whatever it was, he was being very careful not to damage it.  He appeared to gather a few items together, and then Ania heard the unmistakable sound of a transmat.  Barin seemed to be going into business for himself, trying to cut the others out of something.  Ania would not have believed him capable of that level of duplicity.

Ania backed up carefully, sliding around the bend in the corridor again before having her Ghost reactivate its light.  She then sauntered down the hallway, heading back to where she had seen Barin.  The Titan nearly jumped out of his yellow metal skin when he turned around and saw her.

“Oh, hi, hey, just taking a look around” he said in a rush.

“You don't say.”

“Yeah.  Tagged a couple samples of what we came for along the way.  Think we might have enough for Hideo yet?”

The Hunter paused as if silently communicating with her Ghost.  “Yep, looks like we're good.”

“Okay then.  What say we blow this popsicle stand, then, huh?”  

“Yes, lets.”

They contacted Ricardo and the Warlock met them back where they first entered the ship.  He seemed to notice something going on between the other two, as he glanced back and forth between them a couple times.  Ania gave him a subtle shake of her head.

Not now.

The three Guardians transmatted back to their respective ships and set off toward the Tower.  Once she was out of earshot of Barin, Ania opened a private line to Rico, letting him know what she saw.  Together, they decided on a course of action.

They dropped into the Tower courtyard and made their way to New Monarchy's usual section of the Tower. Executor Hideo was present, and was very happy to see what they had managed to recover.  He transferred the bounty payment to their account, then excused himself.  Their business concluded, the fireteam left the area as well.

“Hey, how about we spend a little of that glimmer on a celebratory drink,” Ania suggested.  “I'll even dip into my part of the reward to buy you a metal cup so you don't shatter another one, Barin.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ricardo chimed in.

“I, uh, think I'll pass,” Barin replied.  “I've got something I need to take care of in my quarters.”

“Yeah?  Well, maybe we'll come hang out with you then,” Ania suggested.

Barin stiffened, almost imperceptibly. Almost.  “Rain-check?  I kind of need a little time to myself.”

Ania stepped in front of him and froze, her yellow eyes intense.  “Oh, but I insist.”

“What's going on?” Barin asked.

“You tell us,” Ania said.  “I saw you on the ship taking something.  Why don't you let us see, and then I'll decide whether or not I rip that horn off your forehead.”

Barin turned his optics to Ricardo as if seeking assistance, but found nothing there.  He seemed to consider his options for several seconds before sighing.  “Fine. Follow me.”

The Titan led his two companions back across the courtyard and down to Guardian living quarters.  They shadowed him down the hallway and to his door.  None of them said a word the entire time.  Once at the door, Barin hesitated.  He started to turn and opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped himself when he saw the look on Ania's face.  He opened the door and stepped inside.

In the front room stood a large, metal shape.  The other two knew of his propensity for taking scrap metal and reworking it into sculptures, though it was rare they saw one as a work in progress.  Barin only ever liked to show them off once they were complete.  This one looked like it might eventually be a trio of Guardians.  Maybe something for the upcoming Festival of the Lost?

Barin walked past the sculpture, through the living room, and to his bedroom door.  He hesitated again before opening it and leading the other two in.  Once in the room, he held out his hand, and his Ghost emerged.

“Show them what we found,” he whispered.  The Ghost bobbed a nod and complied.

On the nightstand, two misshaped figurines appeared.

“What are those?” Ania asked, dumbfounded.

“Bobble heads,” the Titan replied, gently flicking the over-sized head of one of the figures, which nodded enthusiastically.

“I don't understand what is happening right now,” Ricardo said, his face openly expressing his confusion.

“I collect them,” Barin said.  The Exo stepped across the room and pulled back a sliding door, revealing shelves stacked with the odd little creations.

Ania and Ricardo stared.

“I saw these two on ship and had to have them.  I think I may have broken something climbing over to get them.  I had hoped there might be more where they came from, but I moved everything nearby, and found nothing.”

The other two watched as Barin very carefully lifted the two figures and places them in an empty space on one of the shelves.  That image was the straw that finally broke the camel's back, and Ania could not take it anymore.

She burst into gales of laughter.

Barin's faceplates shifted into a look of pain.  Ricardo turned his face from the bobble heads and now stared at the Awoken woman with the same level of confusion he had given the dolls.  This was a side of her that he had never seen.

“I really don't understand what is happening right now,” the Warlock muttered.

“I... I am so... so sorry, Barin,” Ania managed through the laughter.  “I really am.  I just... I can't... The little dolls... and you trying so hard not to break them... and I thought you were trying to cheat us... I... I have to go...”

The Hunter staggered out of the room, laughing.  She was struggling so much, she tripped over her own feet and tumbled into the other room.  Through the doorway, the two men heard her voice drift back.

“Oww.  I think I fell on my knife.”

“Well, now I really think I've seen everything,” Ricardo said, shaking his head.

…

AN

The story and characters here were suggested to me by Marcellasnow231.  The prompt:  An Awoken Hunter and human Warlock find the Exo Titan's bobble head collection.

I almost took this in an entirely different direction that involved a character death.  Then I remembered that these weren't my characters.  Here is a glimpse at what I wrote of that original idea (which would have come near the end).

Nearly one year after the Red War.

Barin-23 put the last of the sculptures on the mobile platform.  He pressed a button and the lifters underneath fired up, which would allow the platform to hover half a meter off the ground.  Exos don't need to breathe, but their bodies often simulate it as part of the process of keeping the human mind in the machine sane.  Barin held his artificial breath as his creations lifted from the ground.

The sculptures remained steady.

Barin released the pent up air and pressed another button, causing the platform to drift forward. Everything seemed to be satisfactory.  His addition to the ceremony tomorrow would work exactly as it should.  Another press and the platform settled back to the ground.  Barin gave each other statues a final inspection.

Ania stepped up behind Barin, wrapping her arms around one of his and resting her head against his broad shoulder.  “It's beautiful.  You know he would absolutely hate this, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”

#Destiny the game #Destiny 2 #fanfiction #Tales We'll Tell

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #155: To Stand Alone

January, 1977

Happy New Year! Just four or five more months until I hit the eighties!

But for now, there’s a storyline to be continued.

Also, I’m not sure what Namor is hitting so hard that its creating green shrapnel.

Last time: Attuma has some diabolical plan and captured the Avengers to force them to fight Namor. But Namor had run away from home and joined the circus so they ended up fighting Doom instead. Meanwhile, Beast, Whizzer, and Wonder Man formed some back-up Avengers. An incorrect belief that Doom was dead led Namor to fight some fighter jets and fly off to thwart Attuma.

This time: We pick right up from Doom blasting Iron Man.

And then over two pages he and some people I’d know better if I read Super-Villain Team-Up beat up the rest of the Avengers.

So, the Avengers are still not having a great day.

With the Avengers defeated, Doom has Captain America put in the silly restraining harness to interrogate. And he doomands to know why the Avengers have come to Hydrobase and what they want with Namor.

But Cap can only whisper “Attuma... Attummmma...” and as we all know ‘Attuma’ means ‘to bluff’

Namorita concludes that obviously the Avengers have sold out to Attuma sure that makes sense! And also demands that obviously Doom needs to help stop Attuma! Obviously! Because Doom is the only man, next to Namor, who can stop Attuma when he’s on a rampage and if he’s not stopped he’ll destroy Hydrobase and PROBABLY DOOM! And Doom is a person Doom cares about!

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Beast, Whizzer, and Wonder Man. Or the back-up no-respect squad.

And because Whizzer is an old-man who struggles with the concept of death being impermanent in a superhero universe, Wonder Man explains his origin to him. 

I mean, you know it. I’ve gone over that issue.

Whizzer asks whether Wonder Man was just in suspended animation, like Captain America? But no. Apparently according to the original Avengers, Simon Williams aka Wonder Man was reallyo trulio deceased.

And they still don’t know what brought him back!

But that’s a problem for later. For now, they have to follow a homing device that Beast planted on Tyrak’s ship.

MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE AGAIN: The Avengers. Stacked up like a special action figure pack.

And Tamara, the red-skinned woman last of her kind from space. And she’s crushing on Vision who she thinks might be another one of her extinct race but she daren’t ask! She’s not ready to be hurt again!

So off she goes. Taking this plot point with her, for now.

Which leaves the Avengers unsupervised and ready to get into cahoots. In this sealed room, the collars are exerting less of an influence. Which they can tell because I guess the collars didn’t just zap the Avengers if they tried disobeying, they also filled them with blind fury?

Sounds fake but whatever.

The point being: now that they’re less angry about stuff all of a sudden, they can work together to escape.

Scarlet Witch uses her vague magics to control the air currents in the room to blow Cap’s shield towards him so he can catch it.

Hey! That’s actually a thing that magical control of the natural world could do! Wanda is getting back on her game!

And now Cap can use his special skill of being really good with his shield (which he now proclaims has been at his side for more than thirty years so we’re definitely onto the vibranium shield and not the various gimmicked up ones that Tony kept giving Cap and Cap was too polite to turn down)!

So he tosses the shield juuuuuuust so to bank it off a ceiling duct and right into Vision’s neck.

Thus breaking the slave collar and freeing him.

And he instantly intangibles through his bonds and flies through the ceiling, ditching the others.

<Sideshow Bob grumble>

But enough about that! Lets check in on Namor!

He’s talking to himself because Namor loves talking to himself.

And after he beat up those communist fighter jets (?? so I guess they weren’t Latverian air force?), he learned Attuma was headed to a US government undersea research lab off the Maryland coast. To steal a newly designed chloro-beam which can increase the growth of plankton a hundred-fold.

Which, of course, has evil applications in the wrong hands because there’s no science that can’t be used to conquer the world.

And sure enough, Attuma and his cohort shows up right when the sea lab scientists are testing the device.

And not one panel and already Attuma’s forces look stupid.

Your stupidity knows no bounds, Lord Arno.

Attuma and his men follow the scientists into the research lab and CHOOM! right through an airlock.

But it is them being surprised when the Whizzer wondrously whizzes, Beast kicks a dude, and Wonder Man CHABOOM!s Attuma right in his dumb face.

Although I have a question. The Back-Up Avengers or Bvengers, if you will, were following a homing device Beast put on Tyrak the Treacherous’ craft. But Tyrak isn’t here and by all appearances neither is his craft. So what’s the deal? Who’s flying the plane?

Anyway, Wonder Man being approximately as strong as Thor’s holding-back-to-make-my-friends-feel-necessary level, he’s beating the heck out of Attuma pretty good. Maybe Wonder Man will be the heavy hitter that the Avengers have always needed that couldn’t carry a book of his own so he won’t leave the team due to stuff going on in another book.

Anyway, right when they’ve backed Attuma to the edge of the distinctly not undersea portion of this undersea lab and questioned him about why he’s wearing Vision’s cape, Namor interrupts.

Just flying right towards them.

So Attuma is really doomed.

UNLESS.

Unless he pulls his most diabolical trick of all!

Which is just having the gall to claim that Beast, Wonder Man, and Whizzer are totally his friends and that they’re going to kick your ass, Namor.

Namor demonstrates the kind of level-head decision making that would be necessary in a king, immediately believes his archenemy Attuma who he hates and starts beating up the three heroes.

Whizzer and Beast are already down with one punch. So this looks like a job for Wonder Man!

And he doesn’t want to beat up Namor, which proves that he’s just met him because anybody that knows Namor wants to beat him up a little bit, but he’ll do it to save his new besties, old guy and hirsute friend.

So he just punches Namor right off the damn sealab.

And I mean, sure, he flies back! He doesn’t have the ankle wings for nothing. But for one panel, I was truly happy.

But by now, Whizzer has regained his senses and helps Wonder Man when Namor counterattacks.

Beast has also regained his senses. But he notices Attuma taking the chloro-beam and running. And its veryyyyyyyy interesting that Attuma would just leave like that. So Beast decides to follow, dives into the ocean, and spots Attuma getting into his escape-sub which may or may not be the same vehicle that Beast put a homing device on.

It looks similar but only -ish.

Meanwhile, Namor thinks Whizzer is Quicksilver because all high speed blurs of superpowered human look alike to him.

Although he figures out his error after he’s knocked Whizzer’s block off. In fact, he recognizes him as Robert Frank, of the Liberty Legion! They met back in Marvel Premiere #27-28!

(And kudos to Namor for remembering a thing. It took him awhile to remember Captain America was a guy he fought alongside during World War II. So him just getting this even though Frank has aged horribly is a good showing for him.)

Also, realizing that Whizzer is not Quicksilver and some other niggling doubts that Namor never let slow him down has Namor seriously questioning what’s going on here.

Although too little, too late.

Assuming Namor is still in attack mode, Wonder Man shatters a thick pipe on Namor’s abs and then punches his lights out.

And hey, its easier to ask forgiveness then asking a hair-trigger sea king to calm his tits.

For now, they have to find Attuma. Because their captured friends? And also Attuma stole a dangerous device?

Meanwhile, an epilogue. Attuma’s escape sub escapes while Beast spies through a hatch. I’m not sure how, exactly, one sneaks aboard a submarine but Indiana Jones managed it and now Beast has managed it.

And he overhears Attuma plotting something with the chloro-beam. And something about transforming Tyrak, who is already kind of ridiculous so why do you need to level him up again, Attuma? And why your spy instead of a more martial servant?

And then another epilogue. Because with only half a page left, we needed to see what Vision was up to.

Well, turns out that as soon as he was freed of the slave collar, he made an immediate beeline to make a deal with the devil sort of deal with VICTOR VON DOOM!

Also, Doom. You blew it.

You missed your big chance to say “even an android can die.” You’re dead to me forever.

If Doom is dead to you forever or if you just like these biweekly posts, follow @essential-avengers. Send me some Avengers questions maybe.

#Avengers #Namor #VICTOR VON DOOM #Attuma #Captain America #Scarlet Witch #the Vision #Beast #the Whizzer #Wonder Man #Essential Avengers #Essential marvel liveblogging #another misunderstanding fight brought to you by the mighty marvel method #Attuma rolls a nat 20 on his bluff check #the Avengers work together and Vision ditches

[trash-trashaf]

Nobody Quite Like This Ch. 3

Fandom: Voltron

Summary: The Paladins of Voltron have discovered a prisoner Galra ship. Hoping to find Pidge’s brother and father, they decide to sneak onto the ship and look for them. What they don’t expect to find is this: a mysterious human boy and girl, passed out behind bars

Word Count: 2464

Relationships: Matt/Shiro, others to come

Characters: Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge/Katie, Hunk, Coran, Allura, Original Characters, Matt(mentioned)

Warnings: Language

A/N: Third chapter of first Voltron fanfic, woot! I’ve gotten more views on AO3 then I thought I would so I’m excited! Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10326254/chapters/22829777

Thank you for reading and feedback is welcome!

Chapter Three: No I in Team

“So this is the training room?” Skylar asks as she peers around it. Hunk nods as he follows in after her. “Yup. It’s pretty neat.” Sky continue to walk around the room, quiet as she looks. She turns to Hunk. “How do you activate it?” he grins and walks over to a wall, causing a panel to pop up. She crosses the room to stand beside him and look around on it.

“Can I try it out?” “Sure! I’d, uh, start at the beginning level though.” he recommends and shows her how to set it up. She sets it to a beginning hand to hand combat level and steps into the arena. She activates the shield that was given to her as the gladiator rises from the floor. She crouches slightly, eyes trained on it. It’s scanner flashes and is immediately running towards her. She tenses up to brace for impact and throws her shield up at the last moment, catching it under the chin and throwing it upwards.

Hunk gaps as she’s quick to grab an arm and swings it into a wall, causing it to shatter and deactivate. She turns to him, eyes bright and shining. “Can we up the level and amount?” she asks excitedly. “U-uh...um, yeah. But...I’m coming in just in case you need help.” she rolls her eyes as he sets up the panel. “I can take them all on my own.” she snorts out as he steps in.

“Yeah well...just to be safe.” he activates his bayard, pulling up his cannon.

Several gladiators rise from the floor and are quick to turn on Sky, attacking her at once. A few have staffs of their own, but she twists and turns to block the objects with her shield, taking a few punches to the gut in the process. Her arm snakes out and grabs one by the leg and, with a spin, manages to knock the group around her down. In the process she breaks its leg off and takes several steps away. She beheads the closest one by bringing her shield down hard and steals its staff. Realizing she brought the shield down too hard and got it stuck in the floor, she abandons it and brings up the staff just in time to block another one from electrocuting her arm.

“Watch out!” Hunk yells as another slams its leg in the back of her knees, causing her to fold over and drop the staff. She rolls over just in time for a staff to miss whapping her in the side. Hunk fires up his cannon, blasting the nearest gladiators to her. They turn on him, seeming to realize she isn’t the only one in the arena. Skylar’s quick to react though and gets up before tackling one, crushing it under her weight. She yanks the staff from it and with a hard swing, beheads the last two. The simulation stops, causing the broken pieces and staffs to disappear through the floor.

Skylar pants hard and slowly looks to Hunk. “Thank...you..” she gives a small smile, which Hunk returns. “You’re welcome...that’s what a team is for, right?” she walks towards him, stretching her arms in the air. “Maybe I should listen to someone who’s been here longer, huh?” she laughs. He chuckles a bit as well. “Yeah, maybe. Though I think you could have started a little higher level. You absolutely destroyed that first gladiator.” he follows her out of the training arena. Skylar beams at him. “You think?”

“Definitely.”

***

“Do you think there’s any way to turn this into a fighter ship?” Pidge asks as they approach the escape pod. Roaron gives a shrug. “Perhaps. I’d have to take a look inside it first and even then I’d need a few parts. Mainly a couple of laser guns to attach and a set of controls for those.” he shows Pidge where the panel is and she cuts through the metal with her bayard. Roaron kneels down, Pidge leaning down beside him to look in it.

“It looks easy to rewire into a more stable and compatible ship.” she comments, pushing her glasses up. Roaron snorts. “Yeah, until you add rewiring to new weapons and a second seat inside.” “A second seat?” she questions, glancing to him.

“Well, yeah. You think I’m fighting without my gun woman then you thought wrong.” he stands up and looks down to her. “Besides, before we can get started I’ll need to make the weapons. Or get them. Just getting them would be nice.”

“Yeah, Allura’s just going to give up some of the castle’s laser weapons for you” she lays the sarcasm on thick. “Maybe there’s a storage somewhere with some old tech. I’ll have to ask Coran at some point.” she stands up beside him. Roaron side eyes her. “You know, I could probably get some really good ideas if I could see the inside of one of the lions.”

“And try to steal it? I don’t think so.” a voice comes from the doorway, causing them both snap their heads in that direction to see the red paladin. Pidge rolls her eyes. “This is almost worse than you and Lance. Do you just keep stalking him everywhere he goes?” Keith shrugs as he leans up against the door. “Until I have a reason to trust him, yes.”

“Oh? And what about the other one, Skylar?”

He laughs. “She doesn’t seem as smart as him. More brawn than brain. Besides, Hunk has been with her practically since she got up.” Roaron chuckles darkly. “I want to see you say that to her face emo boy.”

“What did you just say??” Keith snaps, stepping forward threateningly. Roaron crosses his arms over his chest.

“Yain’t deaf. You heard me.”

“Ladies, ladies, stop fighting, you’re giving me a headache.” Pidge groans, rubbing her temple. “Listen, how about this: you two fight for it. Keith loses, he has to start respecting you and you get to see the lions. Roaron loses, he doesn’t get to see the lions and we figure out how to build a good ship another way.” she holds her hand up as Keith starts to speak. “No, you’re using the training sticks, not real fucking weapons.” he looks offended, but his mouth shuts.

Roaron narrows his eyes at Keith, quiet for a few minutes. “I’ll take you on. But I want some referees so they can tell who gets the kill shot first.” Pidge claps her hands together. “Great! I’ll round up the others.” she starts to walk out as Roaron clears his throat. She stops and looks to him. “What?”

“You’ll need to distract Skylar and keep her away from the training area...she might interfere with the battle if it looks like I’m losing...and she won’t hold back.” she goes quiet for a minute.

“I’ll have Hunk and Lance distract her. Any hobbies she loves?”

“Baking.”

“Perfect.” she walks out the door. Keith glares once more at Roaron before walking away from the door and into the hallway. Roaron lets out a huff and shakes his head before walking out the door himself, it sliding shut behind him.

***

“Do you even know what any of these say?” Skylar questions as she picks up a tube of space goo, looking at the label. “We’re not entirely sure...but Hunk has a knack for creating some good food.” Lance replies, leaning against the counter. He pouts a bit, wishing he could watch Keith get his ass kicked by the newbie but no, he’s stuck here making sure the other one doesn’t ruin everything.

Hunk takes the tube from Sky and adds it to the bowl. She leans over slightly, sniffing the batter. “Mmmm...kinda smells like strawberries.”

“Let’s hope it tastes like them.” he replies, glancing over to her. He dumps the bowl into a square pan and places it into the oven.

Lance groans and sprawls over the table. He squints at Skylar. “Weren’t you shorter before? I swear you were shorter yesterday. Like. Two inches shorter.” she shrugs. “Maybe I’m finally getting my growth spurt I should have gotten back in 6th grade.”

“I’m pretty sure someone doesn’t grow two inches in one night once out of puberty.” Hunk says, resting lightly against the counter.

“Well...I don’t feel any taller. Roaron would be able to tell.” she glances around, her eyebrow dropping into a questioning look. “Which….where is he, by the way? I haven’t gotten to see him all day.”

“Well...um-” “He’s with Pidge, checking out the lions.” Lance interrupts, glancing to Hunk. Sky frowns a bit before tilting her head.

“How about we go meet up with them and lemme look at them too?” she asks, eyes trained on Hunk. He glances away. “We have to wait for the food to bake. I don’t want it to burn.”

Lance sits up and slides off the table. “I can go get him for you, if he’s still there.”

“Great! I’ll go with you.” she stands up straight and starts to follow him. “Wait wait wait...have I...shown you my secret stash of food?” Hunk questions, laying a hand on her shoulder. Lance quickly makes his escape as she looks back to Hunk. “..No?”

***

“Okay boys, let’s make this fight clean.” Pidge says as she sits back in one of the chairs behind the particle barrier. Shiro sits beside her, having agreed to be referee, with a little bit of convincing. Keith and Roaron are both dressed in their respective suits, Roaron in his Galra one that he landed on the ship with. Instead of real weapons they have two wooden swords so they don’t seriously injure the other. “Begin!” Pidge calls out.

Roaron bends his knees slightly, eyes trained on Keith. He knows the hot headed emo boy will probably be the first to make a strike if he waits long enough. Sure enough, after a few minutes of being motionless, Keith huffs and rushes him, bringing the tool out slightly to the side. Roaron tilts his sword to the side out in front of him and blocks Keith’s attempt at side swiping him, instead kicking out at his shins and just barely skimming them as Keith jumps back.

Roaron is quick to rush him this time as he’s unbalanced and there’s a loud crack! As the weapons strike each other again. Roaron presses hard enough to bring Keith’s own sword to his neck, but he has enough strength to keep it from quite touching it. Keith grits his teeth and shoves Roaron back, causing him to just catch his balance as he’s forced back a few steps. Keith rushes once again, cutting up from underneath but Roaron catches him with his own sword, stopping him long enough to kick out and catch Keith’s knee, causing him to collapse. He’s quick to roll and jump back up before Roaron can pin him with his sword. Both pant a bit, eyeing each other up.

“What’d I miss?” Lance whispers as he kneels beside Pidge, eyeing the arena where both are standing looking at the other. Pidge leans a bit towards Lance. “Both are decently matched: Keith’s quick but Roaron has the strength to block his attacks and sense to guess where he’s going to strike. It’s kinda interesting. It’d be cool to see how he stands up to Shiro but..” she glances towards Shiro, who’s too distracted by watching the fight to pay attention to them. “He doesn’t have a beef with Shiro so I don’t think he’d do it.”

Lance pouts a bit as he watches the two. “Too bad. That’d be so cool to see. Though I wouldn’t doubt Skylar beating up Shiro.” Pidge looks at him in alarm. “Why??” “You have to get the story from Hunk. He’ll tell it better than me.” she eyes him before returning her attention to the battlefield.

Keith is the first to move again, bringing his sword up and clashing once again with Roaron’s. What he doesn’t see coming is Keith’s leg, nailing him in the gut, causing him to cough hard and fall back. He brings his sword up as his back slams into the ground, blocking Keith’s deathblow. He pants and grits his teeth.

“Why don’t you give up, pretty boy?” Keith hisses out, pressing harder against the sword, bringing it dangerously close to Roaron’s neck. Roaron gives a smirk.

“Because I’m too stubborn to.” he launches forward, knocking Keith’s sword away in the process and pins his sword under his neck, causing Keith to lift his chin a bit. Both pant heavily, glaring at each other as the arena shuts down.

“Match set! Roaron wins!” Pidge calls as she stands up from her seat. Both of the wooden swords disappear and Roaron steps back from Keith before sticking out his hand. “Good match. It’s been awhile since I’ve been against someone skilled.” Keith eyes his hand before taking it and shaking it. He drops it first and walks away, heading to the door.

Roaron watches him go before glancing at Shiro, who shrugs. “He’ll come around.” Roaron snickers a bit: imagine the emo boy sulking. He keeps the thought to himself and rubs his stomach lightly, already knowing a pretty big bruise is going to form there. He glances to Pidge and chuckles a bit. “I think we’ll have to save exploring the lions for a couple days. He got me pretty good.” “I bet that knee hurts more than your gut though.” she comments. “Yeah, he was kinda limping out the door.” Lance adds, grinning.

“Do you need a healing pod?” Shiro questions, looking slightly concerned. Roaron waves his hand. “Nah, I’d just like some water.” “I’ll come with you: Hunk’s magic ought to be done by now.” Lance comments, walking out of the door with him in the direction of the kitchen. Pidge and Shiro glance to each other. Pidge glances down before looking back up.

“How long?”

“How long what?” Shiro asks back. She frowns slightly.

“How long were you and Matt together?”

Shiro tenses up a bit and glances away. He swallows hard. “A few months before the Kerberos mission launched. That’s why he never got to telling you. Our minds were focused on the mission and we spent our free time with each other. I...I think he was afraid that I’d leave him so he didn’t bother to announce our relationship to anyone.” he glances down to Pidge.

“He didn’t keep it secret on purpose and...neither did I. I was just respecting his wishes.” she stares at him hard before nodding sharply. “Alright.” she says before heading out the door. Shiro watches her go before sighing and walking after her.

#voltron fanfic #voltron #original character

[anangelcalledinquisitor]

Pride

(AKA, space elf lesbians because why not?  So I’ve got Pharony (Doll Chateau Dolores) and Rio (Soom Nephilim) and they’ve been an unofficial couple since I put them on the shelf together about a year ago.  I’ve been reworking Lord and Lady for some time, and it’s making more and more sense that it should be Rio and Pharony, and some of the story elements that haven’t been clicking started to click.  Also, I entered @therealdeanwinchester13‘s little flash-fiction contest, and this is my entry.  I had to reword the prompt a little bit, but I kept the intention of the prompt.)

(Pharony is nonbinary and uses she/her/they/them, Rio is female and uses she/her.  Both are elves, though different classifications/species of elf.  Set in a space station, because space elf lesbians.  No sexiness, sorry.  Mentions of past trauma, though I don’t elaborate because that’s going to be in the full story which I have to finish writing first.  Abrutio is an asshole.  He did and does many bad things, just not in this flash-fic)

(Last thing, no, Pharony calling Rio “Ro” is not a typo--her full name is Rowan Lenore Maximillian, but adopted the name Rio after a stay on another planet where the natives called her Rio.)

Pharony didn't know what to expect when she knocked on Rio's door.  They had dropped her off at the agent's station three months ago, despite her pleading and struggling, and they had gotten back on their ship and flew away.  It had taken everything Pharony had to do that, keeping that stony expression as they turned their back and walked away.  Pharony never met her gaze, blue-gold eyes looking up at them with that pleading expression, simply handed her over to their raging commander and left.

It had been a mercy, Pharony told herself.  Pharony's master had grown suspicious, and he had made it clear in no uncertain terms that if Pharony was harboring Rio, that her master wouldn't protect them from Abrutio.

And Pharony wouldn't let that happen to the one she loved.

So she had done the only thing she could do to protect Rio, pushing her away and burying the hurt as they flew away.

But now, with thing changed and the world no longer being safe, even with her master's protection, and knowing that Abrutio was on the hunt again for Rio, Pharony refused to stand by.  As soon as they got word that Abrutio was closing in on the elusive agent that had not only escaped his collection, but also had made off with a prized possession, Pharony knew there was no time—they had to get Rio out of there.

Pharony didn't expect Rio to answer the door, draped in something soft and gauzy that did nothing to hide anything as she leaned against the doorway.  There it was, the hurt in those eyes as Rio squared her jaw and scowled.

“What do you want?”

Swallowing quickly, Pharony bowed slightly, a measure of respect.  It also helped her to discretely look the agent over.  She was pale, though she'd always been pale. Her hair was a tangle of wild curls and waves, the buzzed sides shaggy with growth.  The markings on her face, lines that said secrecy and honor and danger followed the curve of her cheekbones, over her lips and chin.  Pharony wanted to trace the ones under her eyes, the ones that made her look fierce and wild, but kept their hands at their sides.  Straightening up, Pharony said calmly, “Abrutio is looking for you.”

Her eyes, with their almost metallic sheen, caught the light from the hallway as they rolled with a scoff. “What else is new?”

“He knows you're here,” the guardian added, trying to keep their voice low.

“So what?” Rio asked, yawning. “Let him find me.  Not like I'm worth anything anymore...  What's he going to do to me that he hasn't done already?”

Pharony was at a loss for words for a long time.  This wasn't the same agent she'd been forced to leave behind.  Pharony flinched behind their mask, instinctively reaching up to ensure it was still in place.  It wouldn't do for Rio to be able to so easily read her again.  “He's coming to kill you...”

“Oh.”  That was all Rio said.  A cold, flat “oh”.  Sighing, she shrugged.  “Thanks for the heads up,” she said as she started to turn away, letting the door close behind her.

Pharony's gloved hand shot out, stopping the door before it closed, stepping inside.  “Oh?  What do you mean 'oh'?!”  Anger rose in their throat and Pharony wanted to scream as the door slid shut behind them.  Rio was turning back, but before she could even start to be indignant, Pharony was crossing the foyer, “He has been waiting months for this chance!  It's the entire reason that I had to-”

Pharony's rant was cut short as one boot caught the edge of a rug on the cold, metal floor, the fabric sliding as they tried to catch themselves, and, before they could decide to just let themselves fall, they collided with Rio, taking her down with them.  Instincts took over, and Pharony braced for the fall with their forearms, eyes closing for the impact.  

The tumble to the metal floor was jarring, bodies colliding hard as they landed in a tangle of limbs.  Rio grunted, rubbing her head as she grumbled.  For a moment their eyes met, and there was only hurt in Rio's eyes, glinting with tears in the low light from the candles around the room.  Pharony was only a breath away from her, taking in the way her hair fell around her face in messy curls, looking like she'd been lying in bed instead of being half-tackled to the floor. Her lips looked soft, inviting, and Pharony realized how much she wanted to kiss that hurt away, to make the agent—the elf, she reminded herself—smile again and see joy return to those bright eyes.  A flash of memory had her heart twinging as she remembered Rio, lying on a bed, surrounded by candlelight, waiting for Pharony.

“Let me up,” was all Rio said, and the moment was gone.  Pharony almost flinched again, simply glancing away before rising to her feet and holding out a hand for the disheveled elf.

“Please, just let me explain,” Pharony tried again as Rio tucked the gauzy thing around her again, trying hard not to let her gaze wander again.

“All right,” Rio said, her voice bitter.  “Explain to me why you would just dump me on a station where I have no job, no money, no ties, and no way to fend for myself.  Explain to me why, after I told you... after I had begged you not to abandon me, that's all you did, after swearing you would not.”

Pharony did flinch this time, looking away.  Had it really been that same day?  She had been an idiot, recalling the way Rio had looked, tiny and defenseless and utterly alone, how she'd clung to Pharony when she returned from meeting with her master.  So much had happened, she didn't even think...

Swallowing heavily, Pharony said, “I wanted... to protect you...”

“Bullshit!”

“It's true!” the guardian said, head lifting and meeting Rio's gaze.  “I was given one ultimatum—let you go, or my master was going to turn us both over to Abrutio!”

Rio's anger stilled, though it was clear she was still fuming.  There was a long silence before Pharony said, “You should have told me.  I could have worked something out!”

“I couldn't take that risk!” Pharony said, shaking their head, raven hair falling around their face.  “I had to throw him off the trail, or else he was going to...”  Their voice trailed off as mismatched eyes closed, trying not to fuel that fear, that anxiety.  The very thought of Abrutio being close enough to touch Rio...  “I had to know you were safe...” Pharony said at last, tears welling up behind closed eyes, burning their face as they fell beneath their mask.  “I couldn't risk your safety, not for my foolish pride...”

“It's still my safety... So it's my choice...” Rio said, voice softening, but still hard, like velvet-wrapped steel. Sighing, Rio ran a hand through her hair, wincing as the tangles caught her fingers before turning with a yawn.  “Might as well come inside, seeing as how you already invited yourself in...”

For the first time, Pharony took a look around, seeing the cans piled up here and there—not beer cans, but paint cans, varnish and thinner, a couple tins of kerosene in one corner, and machine parts everywhere.  Gears and cogs took up most of the space, ranging from a pile of ones no bigger than Pharony's pinky nail, to a few haphazard stacks a foot and a half across.  The guardian followed Rio deeper into her quarters, frowning slightly.  “Holy shit, Ro,” she murmured, looking around carefully as they picked their way through the debris of what had to be at least two small pods.  “Your place is a wreck...”

Rio simply scoffed, rolling her eyes as she started to dress, pulling on the nano-fiber suit without even bothering with the smallclothes she usually wore beneath, hunting for her leggings as the tunic fell t a tantalizing length just above the curve of her backside.  “Had I known I was going to have guests at three in the goddamn morning, I might've bothered to clean up.”  Pants located, she started to tug them into place before realizing that Pharony was staring.  Not saying anything, she simply quirked an eyebrow and yanked the pants on.

“Well,” Pharony said, sighing, though she wouldn't admit that it was because she'd enjoyed getting to see more of the lithe elf, “at least you won't have to worry about that now...”

Her musings were interrupted by an angry-sounding chirp from her communicator.  Flicking the print-pad, she growled into the microphone, “What?”

“Sorry to interrupt, captain,” the almost-nasally voice of her ship's AI said, drawing Rio's attention as she tugged on plated footwraps.  “I thought you might want to know that His Lordship's... errr... ship... has docked at the station, four ports down.”

Pharony's blood ran cold as Rio scrambled to wind the ties quickly—it didn't need to look good, it just needed to save her tender feet from any sharp edges between here and the guardian's ship.  She knew who His Lordship was, and all bravado was gone as she scrambled to gather the few necessary items from her room—medication, blaster (left on the charger), and her own communicator, slapping it on as she grabbed her long coat and black helmet with it's full-face visor.  If she didn't speak, she could look like any other merc on this rock.  With a quick swipe to blacken the visor just enough that it would hide her markings, she tugged it on, wincing as the padding caught one ear.  She didn't have time to fix it, they needed to be gone.

She almost slid her hand into Pharony's as they turned to leave, opening the door to the brightly-lit hallway, deciding not to at the last second.  Rio collided with Pharony for the second time, realizing that the guardian stood in the doorway, almost blocking her from view of the tall, white-haired figure that gazed down at them with cold, dead eyes.

“Lord Abrutio,” Pharony said, voice calm despite the panic that rose in her chest.  “What a pleasant surprise.”

#my writing #original story #original characters #Pharony #Rio #Rowan Maximillian #Rowan Lenore Maximillian #established relationship #space elf lesbians #written for fun #nonbinary character #wlw #scifi #sci fi #scifi/fantasy #sci fi/fantasy #they are elves #in space #this is as close to scifi as I get

[mild-lunacy]

The Continuity Axiom Strikes Back

For what it's worth, even though I admit I was wrong, it seems a bit ironic that the main arguments people have against TJLC still ring false to me. Possibly because they haven't evolved with the times. Quite the opposite: there's many signs of the same old fannish polarization we see in society at large in response to divisive social or political issues. I guess saying 'well, that wasn't what they were going for after all, but good points!' doesn't quite give people that certain... schadenfreude. So the arguments I do hear are, 1) Moffat and Gatiss are bad writers; 2) Moffat and Gatiss should simply always have been taken at their word. There's also 3) we're reading too much into things and indulging in confirmation bias. One is perhaps a little subjective but largely obviously incorrect (look at the awards, if nothing else), and two is objectively ill-advised, since they've said they lie and cannot be trusted multiple times. Personally, I've always had a particular sore spot for the argument that boils down to 'Moffat and Gatiss are bad writers', and I take issue with those who argue against or otherwise mock the idea of canon Johnlock without both understanding and loving the show first. Even so, I realize it can be difficult to understand both perspectives at once. I just think it's important to integrate if there's any desire to engage with the different sides of the Johnlock fandom, and honestly the Sherlockians at large at this point.

The core of the issue cognitively might be summarized by the TJLC interpretation of this quote by Moffat: he initially said they wanted to do the show not just to update it but to correct everyone else, to say 'Now this is the way it should be done'. This ties in with all the hype-- and the hope-- about the BBC LGBT report and the way the BBC hyped Series 4 as 'making history', though I personally was taking a break from fandom at the time and in any case, always take such things with a grain of salt (at best). My point is that there's certainly been circumstances aside from 'confirmation bias' that lead people to think something a bit bigger and more exciting than... Sherlock's origin story and journey to being a 'good man' was going on, which culminated in TFP, as @ivyblossom described. That is (more or less) what I currently think Mofftiss were *going for* with that quote, but the fact is that Gatiss admitted he's interested in 'flirting with the homoeroticism in Sherlock', and they certainly followed through with that on a large scale. I think that it's a bit of a case of po-tay-to/po-tah-to, honestly. When you build a character growth arc where the main character is being 'humanized' by his relationship with his colleague/best friend/conductor of light/family, *and* you add many classic romantic tropes and rampant queer coding and subtextual homoeroticism... what you have is a love story, pure and simple.

Regardless of intent, it exists and is valid at least as much as an accented pronunciation of the same word would be equally 'valid'. In Sherlock's case, I would argue they'd gone far enough (too far) with the subtext and tropes, and indeed the romantic reading became the primary, most fully correct textual reading. At this point, I imagine this situation got out of Moffat and Gatiss's control... which is a huge challenge for any writer, and one that they didn't really address (in part because of a penchant for self-indulgence, I think), but this still doesn't make them *bad writers*, per se.

Obviously, I'm not saying this in self-defense or to 'prove' explicitly romantic canon Johnlock at this point. Besides, I do think that critique number three makes a good point, in that plenty of meta *was* reading too much into things, but you can say that about any type of meta, of any flavor. For example, I realize I tried way too hard to deny the surface reading of HLV, which... I clearly should have integrated more closely instead, if the Mary storyline resolution in TST is any indication. And many, many people enjoy speculation and pattern-matching and playing with metaphors or symbolism, but don't make a hobby of analyzing either their own thinking or other people's, perhaps understandably. Many fans who had donned the 'conspiracist hat' haven't been as vigilant as we could be about other people's analyses, never mind our own work. Anyway, overall, I still think any truly competent literary/media critic of BBC Sherlock I've ever seen would have to acknowledge the queer/romantic subtext in it at some point, even if they disagreed or simply wouldn't care about it becoming explicitly textual. So just as a total lit nerd, it's unfortunate that people can now continue to think that being dismissive and heteronormative is somehow a superior mode in analysis. And it's also unfortunate that 'bad writing' continues to be a one-size-fits-all approach to excusing one's lack of understanding of the show's deeper layers, more or less.

Basically, my point is that I still believe that Moffat and Gatiss are good-- or at least intelligent, often complex and certainly fundamentally competent-- writers in many ways. They do have their own preset ideas about what they want and don't always communicate those ideas to the broader audience effectively. And I have to further qualify that by saying that the thing I object to is dismissive thinking and 'explaining' stuff that doesn't make sense in the text with the offhand response that 'the writers suck'; I don't mean you can't simply have that as a subjective opinion, obviously, or critique the lack of follow-through in the writing. I definitely need to admit that they can be sloppy and leave plot holes when they lose interest in following up on the details, or introduce significant plot elements that they try to build and build without slowing down and integrating properly. I think @girlofthemirror's postmortem on what went wrong in Series 4 definitely speaks to this issue of too many 'spinning plates' in the plot and no room to breathe, particularly starting with Series 3. Just like Sherlock, they can get arrogant and try to be too clever for their own good. Worse than simple plot holes fixed by mild retcons, like Eurus shooting John with a tranquilizer, or the genre-related writing choices that @plaidadder took issue with in TFP, there's the truly unfortunately executed stuff like Mary's arc or that baby. Including a baby as a plot device to keep John and Mary together and then basically doing nothing else with it is inexcusable. Even with all those caveats, Moffat and Gatiss are so good in other ways that I really don't think you can hand-wave all analysis with 'it's just incompetence', surely.

Even if that has gotten much more battered after Series 4 and TFP, I haven't given up or decided TFP means the old continuity is destroyed, really. I think it's important to read for assumed continuity even when it's hard; perhaps *especially* when it's hard. If you have difficulties finding the textual pattern in characterization or the plot arcs that makes sense, it doesn't necessarily make sense to assume that it's automatically the writers' fault, basically. Even if there's problems in the writing (as there almost always will be), the chances are that there are more preconceived ideas and more incorrect conclusions to prune in one's own analysis. If you're invested and interested, then the best thing to do next would be working to dismantle your own preconceptions of the show. I've already done it once when I accepted canon Johnlock, but that doesn't mean it's the only time. There may well be multiple times. It does get easier, once you gain some emotional distance, assuming you're still interested at that point (granted, most people aren't). If you agree insofar that Authorial Intent matters in analysis (not an automatic thing by any means), then it makes sense to assume that the writers have some kind of *goal* or purpose to the characterization, especially given that it progresses in an apparent growth arc.

This is basic stuff. One should always assume that the writers have something to say in literary/media analysis, no matter the quality of the text. This is necessary in order to then be able to say anything coherent about 'real' or 'apparent' interpretation of the text in the first place. Further, one needs an understanding of the goals if one wants to judge the work as artistically successful or fundamentally 'well-done' or consistent on the larger scale or not.

That has always been the best claim to fame for TJLC: that frame exposed the logic in the show, while other types of analysis focused on their favorite bits of characters and dismissed everything that didn't fit as plot holes and pointless fluffery. For example, this definitely applied to Mary Morstan fans: she was seen as already redeemed and her marriage with John was unproblematic because Sherlock said so (and while she was more or less redeemed, it was only in TST, and their marriage continued to be plainly portrayed as quite troubled until the end). Anyway, in order to make sense of the show, we all picked at bits and pieces and disregarded what's inconvenient to some extent, but canon Johnlock did that the *least*.

Essentially, I'm saying I have a bone to pick with people who take this opportunity to accuse TJLCers of sloppy thinking, denialism, projection, fetishizing queer ships and so on, while offering only sloppy thinking themselves in return. The fact is, many TJLC-friendly meta writers have long challenged people to challenge *us* on our own terms, but of course no one did. It has definitely long been difficult to integrate this show for most viewers, from Series 3 on into TAB (which confused many), and finally into Series 4. Many non-TJLCers (including critics in the media) have said Series 4 jumped the shark and/or disregarded internal plot and character continuity, same as what happened with Series 3 except worse. In general, TJLC-friendly analyses are really the only ones I've seen that have presented a unified view that offered a cohesive and understandable reading of the entire show after Series 3. Here I'd also include many implicit or platonic Johnlock readings like Ivy's or stuff like this old meta of Skara's on TSoT, for example. The tricky thing is that (to the best of my current understanding), Mofftiss were essentially trying to write a near-classic love story without making it about sex, as Moffat once said. So a lot of people (rightfully) found that romantic and expected an explicitly textual romance. Regardless of whether it's actually *become* a genre romance, though, the romantic frame is inherent in the intensity and drama of John and Sherlock's relationship.

It builds up, too. Taken separately, there are platonic explanations for most Johnlocky things, but together these things create a sense of continuity, to the point where I can easily read an implicit romantic resolution after the end of TLD simply because of all this context. For example, think of Sherlock leaving the wedding early in TSoT. You *can* interpret that non-romantically and have it work for quite a while, so you'd still understand the show and Sherlock's feelings, as Skara once demonstrated. Even then, this only works if you essentially still fully accept that John is the most intense, most important, most passionate relationship of Sherlock's life. But then there's HLV, and the classic, epically romantic trope of Sherlock coming back to life for John, which would be 'just' epic friendship, except this is after his friend's wife shoots him again... in her wedding dress. If you have any understanding of narrative tropes in fiction, it's hard to miss the romantic tropes at work here, and we know Steven Moffat does. Except that's not enough, and we have Sherlock's heartbroken expression when he tells John he's 'abnormally attracted' to dangerous people (like himself and John's wife, naturally). And this kind of paralleling between John's obviously romantic love for his wife and his feelings for Sherlock goes on repeatedly in Series 3, and all this mirroring and subtext and acting simply... goes on and on. It would take a real and ongoing mental effort-- and/or a personal commitment to implicit or open-ended romantic relationships in stories-- to be aware of all this and resist the natural conclusion.

At a certain point, 'romantic' or 'platonic' becomes a question partially of your own internal definitions for interpersonal relationships and partly of your judgment of Moffat and Gatiss as show-runners and/or 'old white men', both of which have nothing to do with the show. The important thing for predictions would probably be determining Moffat and Gatiss's own definitions, and that was always going to be a difficult endeavor. We made some guesses, like using Moffat's interest in The Princess Bride and the fact that he wrote the most romantic episodes, such as ASiB, but there's only so far one can go with that. I'd say most people made the choice initially based on their own preferences for where they wanted the show to go, given they understood the text as it stood in S3. But the people who just said 'they're bad writers' simply didn't do any of this work; they dismissed the importance of the underlying question itself. Fundamentally, I think thinking critically about the text and reading it closely is always positive and to be supported, particularly in an environment that *exists* to celebrate and focus deeply on said text, such as fandom. A lot of people in fandom project onto the characters or use them for their own purposes, within or without the TJLC community. That's just how fandom is. But that's certainly not *all* we were doing, and thank god for that.

#fandom meta #sherlock meta #the great divergence #series 4 #writing #narrative #sherlock feels #tjlc #analysis kink #reader response #sherlock spoilers