#guess where I am in my attempted rewatch

[skialdi]

🍊🍊🍊

#bellemere one piece #Nami #nojiko #one piece #one piece fanart #;; my art #skialdi art #digital art #anime art #fanart #guess where I am in my attempted rewatch #it's okay #everything is okay and nothing hurts #shhhhh

[kiss-inthekitchen]

by your hand

summary: you've got a thing for the older Salvatore brother. there's a party tonight, and while you'd intended to see if Damon felt the same, your anxiety has other plans.

1.8k, she/her pronouns, descriptions of anxiety

a/n: i'm rewatching the vampire diaries except this time my frontal cortex is fully developed and i am a stefan girl no longer <3 sorry to that man he's great. but i'm full on feral for damon now

You had a plan. 

Had being the operative word. 

If there was a god out there, he was laughing at you. Tyler was throwing a party, a bonfire at the lake, his latest in a long line of ‘we survived the unsurvivable thing that tore through town’ celebrations. And you’d been hyped. Life in Mystic Falls was almost never normal– the little pockets of time when you were free to behave like any other young adult, well, they weren’t moments you enjoyed wasting. 

But that’s what you were doing. Absolutely wasting it. 

You’d put on your favorite outfit, a baby blue set that highlighted your hair color, the soft fabric hugging your figure tightly. You were going to get drunk, have fun with your friends for once, and, possibly most importantly, flirt with Damon. You’ve caught him looking at you more often lately, and you were determined to test his reaction to seeing you in something other than sweatpants and sleep deprivation.  

Except that instead of doing all that, you were having an anxiety attack. In the middle of a party. The last thing you wanted was Damon looking at you now. 

You weren’t new to anxiety. You’d had it all your life. But usually, and especially in the last few years, you actually had something to be anxious about. Tonight there was nothing wrong. You had just started feeling uneasy that evening as you were getting ready. You tried your best to ignore it, starve it of anything to latch onto. You were going to have fun tonight. You deserved to. All of you did. 

Which is why you didn’t tell any of your friends when you realized the uneasy feeling was moving into full on freak out mode. Instead you’d acted like everything was fine, grabbed a drink and managed to stand with the rest of the crowd for about three minutes before all the noises started sounding too loud, the closeness of your friends and acquaintances becoming suffocating. 

And now here you were, sat on a log at the farthest edge of where the firelight could reach, in your useless sexy outfit with your useless discarded plan. Ugh. You were supposed to get stupid tonight. You dropped your head into your hands, forehead pressing into your intertwined fingers. 

The other girls couldn’t understand why you were into Damon– ‘like sure, he’s hot, but do you really want to deal with all that?’ Caroline had asked you once– and she had a point. You knew that Damon was far from innocent. He was impulsive. He was often murderous. But there was something about the idea of having someone who would do literally anything for you… Well, you kept that part to yourself. It was just an idle attraction, you’d told Caroline. It wasn’t like you were going to do anything about it. You’d even believed it yourself, at first. 

Damon had always been nice to you– well, his own version of nice– something which was, in the words of Bonnie and Caroline, super weird. You’d just shrugged them off. The two of you had a good thing going; you bantered, he didn’t threaten to kill you as often as he did the others (and even when he did, it was such a thinly veiled attempt at seeming emotionless that you’d had to stop yourself from laughing). It wasn’t a big deal. 

But lately, things have felt a little… different. He was different. You’d guess it was that he was finally getting over Katherine’s betrayal, thank god. The man had been pining after her for over a hundred years, you didn’t mean to rush him into healing, but christ. 

You remembered the last time you’d caught him looking– you’d finally lifted your head from one of the ancient books Bonnie was having you all search through, leaning back in your chair and groaning. You tilted your chin up, craning your neck back against the headrest to stare at the ceiling. You’d felt his eyes on you then, turning your head in his direction on instinct, your frustration with the task written all over your features. He’d given you a little half smile in return. Not even his usual smirk. It was something… well, you didn’t know how else to think of it. Vulnerable. 

The anxiety buzzing in your stomach broke formation, clawing its way up your chest the more you thought of him. Your chest constricted, the sounds of people chatting and laughing seeming to get louder still. 

Fuck, this party had turned out to be a total bust. Why couldn’t you just have fun? What was wrong with you? 

A twig snapped right next to you, snapping your focus along with it. You sat up straight again, instinctively looking toward the source of the sound. 

Speak of the fucking devil. Or, you know. Think of him. 

Damon sat down next to you then, deliberately slowly, like you might spook and take off into the woods. Part of you appreciated it, and the other part wanted to elbow him in the ribs. 

“What’s going on with you?” he asked, one eyebrow raised. 

“Nothing. I’m fine,” you lied, your voice sounding separate from your body. 

“Yeah, and I was born yesterday.” 

God, he wasn’t going to leave well enough alone, was he? You sighed, wrestling with the sudden self-destructive urge to make him leave you alone, to blow up the whole night for good. At least then you’d be in control of it. 

You felt like you couldn’t breathe, and Damon’s presence wasn’t helping.You didn’t truly want him to leave either, you knew that much. You just wanted it to stop.  

Suddenly you felt Damon’s hand covering yours, stilling you where your fingernails had been scratching against the uneven surface of the log. You hadn’t even realized you’d been wearing away at it, peeling away layers of wood and dropping them at your feet. 

“I can help you,” he said lowly. 

You really looked at him then, for the first time since he sat down. He turned to you slightly, his eyes wide and genuine, any hint of his usual facade gone from his features. 

He could help you, you realized. You just had to trust him. Like, really, completely trust him. It surprised you how quickly you realized that you did.

You held your wrist out between you, the charm from your vervain bracelet dangling in the space between. “Take it.” 

“You sure?” 

“I trust you, Damon. Take it off.” 

He handled you like something delicate, his touches featherlight. His fingers grazed the skin of your wrist as he undid the clasp, and then it was gone, the piece of jewelry gingerly slipped into his jacket pocket. 

He nodded at you, once, a signal for you to start talking.

“I feel like I can’t breathe,” you began, “I don't know…” you set your jaw, overcome with frustration. What could you even tell him? How could you explain this? “Nothing’s even wrong, and I’m supposed to be having fun, but I just–.” 

“Are you scared?” 

You rolled your eyes almost on instinct. “Damon–” 

“Answer the question,” he implored, his eyes unguarded, such clear green in the firelight you almost lost your breath for a different reason. He wasn’t compelling you yet, just asking.

“Yes,” you whispered. “Please, Damon. Make it all go away.” 

He lifted his hand to tuck a lock of hair behind your ear, grazing the back of his forefinger across your cheekbone. “I will,” he whispered back, index trailing a line down your jaw until he’d hooked it beneath your chin. You wanted to laugh at that. As if he’d need to hold you there with him, as if you could look away now. “You’re safe now,” he spoke, pupils dilating. “There’s nothing to be scared of here. You don’t need to worry about anything.” Damon lifted his compulsion from you then, adding in his normal tone, “Now, breathe deep for me, can you do that?” 

You felt the tension in your chest dissolve, your breath coming freely now and you sighed, long and deep, in relief. 

“There you go,” he said, voice barely above a whisper. His hand moved to stroke your hair, his thumb resting against your cheek. He looked genuinely relieved. 

“Thank you,” you breathed, tearing your gaze from his so he wouldn’t see you blush. He drew his hand back from you, and the loss was very nearly painful. 

“Anytime.” 

“You don’t think it’s stupid?” you rushed out. You weren’t entirely sure why you said it. He didn’t seem to think it was stupid at all. Maybe you were just terrified that the moment would end. 

“I don’t,” he assured you. You looked back at him to discover his usual smirk had taken over his features. “You’re only human, after all.” 

You scoffed, feeling nervous for an entirely different reason now. 

“I could… I could take it away forever, you know. If you wanted me to. I could– take away your suffering.” 

He looked almost scared to say it, the only time you’d ever heard something like trepidation in his voice. You felt your eyes go wide, your mouth dropping open just the slightest bit. His gaze followed the movement, settling on your parted lips. Oh. 

He couldn’t mean it, though, could he? And if he did… Yeah, Damon’s always been nice to you. But you wouldn’t really consider this nice. This felt like… something else. 

But if he did mean it. Would you let him?

“That’s not a decision for tonight, though,” he said, standing suddenly. For a single second your heart dropped, thinking your moment was over. And then he was holding a hand out to you. “The night is still young, and you’ve got some catching up to do.”

You smiled, taking his hand. “Get me a drink?” 

“She makes requests now,” he scoffed, keeping hold of your hand even as the two of you headed towards the keg.  

“Well, someone keeps giving me what I want.” 

He just hummed in response, pushing a cup into your hand, waiting until you’d lifted it to your lips before he spoke. “You know, your heart’s still beating pretty fast.” 

“Is it?” you asked, feigning innocence as you looked up at him over the rim of your cup. 

You took a sip, setting it down on a nearby stump before adding, “Guess you must be losing your touch.” 

He took a step closer to you, his eyes searching. “Mm. Must be, since there’s clearly no other explanation.” He took that moment to really take you in for the first time, his gaze traveling down the length of your body. Completely unhurriedly, the shameless bastard. “Have I mentioned,” he murmured, eyes snapping back up to yours, “how fucking incredible you look tonight?” 

You couldn’t help it. Your skin flushed under his gaze, your whole body going hot. 

His smirk deepened insufferably. “Losing my touch, huh?”

#the first draft of this was 600 words and then i went back in to add ONE bit of exposition and it ended up 3 times longer lmaooooo #the vampire diaries #damon salvatore #damon salvatore x reader #damon salvatore x y/n #damon salvatore fanfiction #ik this is the worst time to be writing for tvd but i figured i'd share it anyway. something for the girlies <3

[the-somwthing]

I gotta talk to people so bad so I’m just gonna spout something that’s been on my mind for a while

I see a lot of people always describing Joel and Scott’s rivalry as one sided. Like, Joel just hates Scott and Scott doesn’t care? And while I feel like that statement is technically true, it doesn’t really describe the situation very well.

It sort of implies that Scott’s never out to get Joel, and Joel is just coming after Scott for no reason. I won’t deny that Joel does like to come after Scott without provocation sometimes, but like… we are ignoring the fact that 3/5 Joel final deaths have been at Scott’s hand?

In two seasons, those kills were a result of a deliberate hunt to get rid of Joel specifically. In Last Life, I’ll give him a bit of a pass, since Joel did kind of start the fight with a big explosion and had been the “villain” for the entire season, it makes enough sense to try to end him like that.

But in LIMITED LIFE?? As a Joel viewer I am NEVER getting over the feeling of watching his final episode (not negative, just baffling in a way I find pretty fun lol). Scott randomly says “Joel needs to die” and everyone just agrees I guess? And then Joel is being witch hunted. “Oh but it’s because he was getting so many kills! Duh!” Grian had more. Grian LITERALLY got a quad kill (ON SCOTT FOR THAT MATTER) and Scott’s like “JOEL is the problem, the murderous evil of the server”. LIKE HELLO?? They’re literally allies, Scott could’ve said “we need to get rid of the bad boys” but he was COOL with Grian. He was letting Grian LIVE. Like HELLO??? WHAT DID JOEL DO FR 😭 Joel was literally just trying to survive btw, his fighting back was very defensive rather than offensive, and would back off when not being actively attacked. With the exception of trying to get kills cuz he was on less than ten minutes, of course. But Scott had been hunting him before then.

And then I guess I have to mention Secret Life’s Scott-Killing-Joel. I don’t think that final kill was especially targeted on either of their sides, the battle just turned out that way. I could rewatch to see if there’s more to it but for now this is how I see it.

Okay, I’m turning this into a full analysis of their rivalry, idc, I’m literally obsessed with their dynamic. I’m adding a cut here.

ALRIGHT WHERE WAS I. RIGHT. Finished explaining the final deaths, but there’s stuff before that! Let’s take a look at their rivalry 🥰

Let’s go in order, shall we? 3rd Life!! I am obsessed with them in this season ahahahhaga anyways. Joel comes after Scott unprovoked. Simple, this is how everyone sees their rivalry. HOWEVER. Joel is FULLY WILLING to work with him anyways. Maybe you could excuse the dark oak thing as it was early on and they were just trying to take down a monopoly. But in the finale they reconcile and spend much of the session together. They established early on that Joel had been trying to kill Scott, but they’re both perfectly happy to team up instead (which btw they did because they both happened to be allied with Scar).

Then Last Life. Joel does hate Scott in it, but I’m not sure I would say it’s without reason. Joel being boogey in ep2 was majorly important, and he killed Scott. But that wasn’t targeted. He had attempted multiple times to kill other people. Scott was one of the only (and closest) people who didn’t already know he was boogeyman. Then of course Scott tells Pearl they can fight back and has her kill Joel, sending him to red. Perfectly reasonable for all parties imo, and a good enough reason for Joel to target Scott seeing as being red early on had a huge impact on him.

Of course LL is also where Joel says Scott just looked at him funny one day and that’s why he hates him, which is a great line. I do believe he would bother Scott just for the rivalry, but unlike in 3rd Life, Scott had done things to make Joel never consider stopping.

Then Double Life. Erm. Literally nothing, except that I believe the only reason Scott and Pearl were the last pair is because Joel wasn’t there to kill them, since apparently he’s the only one who can make them lose lives. Wild. They were guaranteed to win ever since the lava portal trap. (obviously I’m joking but like how is he the only outside force to kill that pair). I will clarify for analysis sake that Joel’s first kill on them had nothing to do with Scott, and the second kill was to Scott but it was because of the life colors, not really anything about their rivalry. It was technically targeted at Scott specifically but not cuz he hated him, instead because Pearl had a weird “alliance” with the reds.

Then Limited Life!!! What the heeelll was happening lmao. I already talked about the final moment so before that. Erm. I’m blanking out I’m listening to bad romance it’s distracting me. You know what let’s move on I can’t remember what they did, the final death I explained previously is enough data for now.

Secret Life. Oh boy. I’ll say it again, I was secretly hoping for more Scott/Joel dynamic when it started but I doubted it would happen but we got FED!!! I was so excited when I saw the assassin task (as was Joel). Anyways. Throughout the season Joel was doing the whole hating Scott thing, Scott caught onto the bit and played into it somewhat by talking more about how Joel always hates him for no reason. We SHOULD be able to disregard Joel targeting Scott for the assassin task as it was a task, but to be fair after reading it Joel said “oh my gosh is this my dream?” He was super happy to be assigned to assassinate Scott LMAO. That has to count for something.

I feel like the rivalry was fairly obvious, so I need to point out the outlier moments in SL. While Joel goes on about how Scott should die, he happily trades with him and swapped gifted hearts with zero hesitation. In the final session, he and Scott ended up on the same side. I believe Joel may have been slightly annoyed at being on a team with him but accepts it nonetheless. The only reason Scott ends up killing Joel is because their team won, so they had to turn on each other. As previously stated it wasn’t especially targeted, it was a 2v2.

And then if you noticed from me saying 3/5 games, I’m not counting Real Life, but I’ll bring it up here. Scott literally says “since it’s real life we can be friends now since we’re friends in real life” (one of the many reasons I consider RL noncanon tbh, Scott literally mentions in-universe that this season is different so they can act differently, also what is the in-universe explanation for “friends in real life”). Aside from a reminder that Joel doesn’t actually hate Scott irl and this is just fun game rp stuff, this shows that Scott really did catch onto the rivalry bit, and really does just bring it up more. Joel had just arrived when Scott brought it up. Joel agrees to being friends in Real Life. This holds little relevance to my analysis since I don’t view RL as canon but you can keep it in mind.

Now that I’ve laid out their rivalry in a simplified summary, let me ACTUALLY analyze it! What did I mean all the way back at the start of the post when I said “Scott and Joel’s rivalry being one sided is somewhat accurate but I feel it misrepresents their relationship”?

Well, I believe it’s true that (at least up until Secret Life), Scott didn’t care about the rivalry while Joel did. But that doesn’t mean Scott never targeted Joel, as I said he’s witch-hunted him twice. It’s just it was never personal to Scott. I once saw a post(s) I really enjoyed, an analysis on Scott. Saying that he doesn’t actually value being loyal, he values being fair. Then there was the addition that it’s based on what he thinks is fair. I feel like this is 100% true for his thing with Joel. Scott views Joel as a force that has to be stopped, he’s gone too far, he needs to be stopped, it’s only fair for all the suffering he’s caused. He doesn’t stop to think about how killing is the whole point of this game, how other people are doing the same things, how many times he has killed Joel. Joel hasn’t killed Scott permanently before, he has killed him though, but not as much as Scott has killed Joel. To Scott, that doesn’t matter, Scott kills Joel for a reason, for justice, while Joel kills just for the sake of it. Whether or not that idea is true is up to you to interpret for yourself, but to Scott it’s true. Joel is more of a wildfire that needs to be put out than a rival.

Let’s look at Joel’s side of things. He does hate Scott and target him for no reason. The rivalry is one sided, where Joel sees a rival Scott sees some random danger that needs to be dealt with. I can’t tell you why Joel hates Scott. It’s not really the point of my analysis. I’ve seen ppl say it’s because of previous series they’ve had together (they’ve been rivals for ages!) but for my headcanons they don’t remember those, tho very few feelings from their past lives may linger, so perhaps that does explain it. For the sake of my analysis though we won’t be looking deep into why Joel likes to poke at Scott. It’s cuz he looked at him funny one day remember?

So we establish that Joel needlessly attacks Scott. But if you’ll notice from my summaries, he is fully willing to put aside that hatred. It’s conditional (yes it is the default, but still). If Scott treats Joel kindly, Joel will attempt to reciprocate it. Let’s look at this again:

3L: Joel targets Scott, Scott kind of just gives him a disapproving look every time and doesn’t fight back. Joel ends up feeling somewhat guilty, and in the end has no problems teaming up with Scott.

LL: Scott was the main cause of Joel turning red, Joel targets him constantly. Scott ends up permanently killing Joel to put an end to his madness.

DL: erm. Well it’s worth mentioning Joel never specifically targeted Scott for no reason. ALSO WORTH MENTIONING SCOTT BURNED THE RELATION??? This season was a bit of a switch-up. I need to rewatch to see if Scott had any good reason to do that lmao I don’t really remember, I hardly remembered he was responsible.

LimL: Scott deems Joel to be a server menace who needs to die, Joel (who doesn’t really understand why he needs to die) tries negotiating many times but Scott insists. He kills Joel.

SL: Joel gets task to target Scott, is thrilled. He fails miserably, losing people he cares about in the process. Vows to kill Scott, it’s like his main goal now. Still accepts every peace offering from Scott with little to no hesitation, to the point of eventually teaming with him until they’re forced to go against each other and Scott kills Joel again.

So basically you can see, every time Scott does something to wrong Joel, Joel goes hard on the rivalry, while if he doesn’t and offers peace, Joel will lay off. Secret Life was a weird middle ground, where Scott had done things to wrong Joel, however those things weren’t entirely his fault so when he offered peace to Joel, Joel would still accept. A confusing time for Joel I’m sure.

I will say a disclaimer here, I’m not saying Scott shouldn’t ever fight back against Joel. If he’s targeting you for no reason, it’s your decision if you’ll try to befriend him to make him stop or fight back. I support fighting back. I’m just saying that befriending him is a proven method to work, but I don’t think Scott has exactly noticed that and instead just assumes that Joel will stop at nothing to end him.

Another thing I wanted to talk about but forgot what the natural and intuitive transition into it was gonna be. Scott has permakilled Joel 3 times. Joel has permakilled Scott 0 times.

Joel had started the series off picking on Scott for no reason, and has never succeeded. Scott has won this battle three times. At this point, it’s honestly finally somewhat justified for Joel to come after Scott. That guy has specifically targeted and hunted him out of 2 seasons, and took him out of a 3rd as well. Joel has taken Scott out of 0. At this point, I feel like Joel needs that closure, to finally kill Scott, and who knows if he’ll ever get it. If you look at the fandom, even fans are hoping Joel will kill Scott because of this. So imagine how Joel feels! But obviously Scott wouldn’t just let him (okay. Well. Actually. It’s Scott. He kind of lets people do that all the time. But only allies…). Scott will be waiting for Joel to target him once more, and deal with it the way he always does. But who knows if it’ll turn out different?

Which reminds me that I pinpoint SL as the season Scott finally notices this “one sided rivalry”. We all know Scott loves drama, so when he finally noticed Joel had been hating him the whole time, he kept bringing it up. And it wasn’t just for SL only, he brought it up the moment he saw Joel in RL. I don’t count RL as canon but it does prove that Scott hasn’t let go of the rivalry now that he’s finally realized it. I don’t know if there will be a 6th season, but if so I wouldn’t be surprised if Scott brings up the rivalry. Idk if he would make it a big deal, but he would surely at least mention it.

Anyways, if you think I’m done with my little analysis, you’re wrong!!! I’m done with the things I see as pretty factual, but now we’re gonna get into more fanon headcanony type of territory!!!

…but, maybe I’ll make that its own post. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

#trafficblr #life series #traffic analysis #< is that for this fandom or like. real life traffic. lmk #life series scott #life series joel #secret life spoilers #limited life spoilers #double life spoilers #last life spoilers #3rd life spoilers #ALSO WARNING THIS IS SOSO LONG IT TOOK OVER AN HOUR HELPPP

[anonzentimes]

In regards to Nagito's voice sounding insincere in English dub; I know it's not the same thing, but as an autistic person Ive had some people mistake me for being sarcastic when I wasnt, especially as a kid. When I was really little I moved from a place where kids had to call every adult "ma'am/sir" to a place no one did that, and teachers complained to my parents that I was "rude and sarcastic" when I was polite and not-sarcastic??? Idk if this makes you feel better, but I guess I have a misunderstanding in common with Nagito.

Honestly, now that you say that the interpretation of Nagito being his honest self but sounding sarcastic so he's misunderstood that way on top of everything else is super tragic, it may hinder a chunk of the audience's understanding, but it's still an amazing way of thinking about it writing wise.

Also dude, wow, I am so sorry you had to go through that?? That sounds so frustrating, from the sound of things it sounds like things have gotten better? I hope so at least? Hope you're doing well!

For me, I struggle more with words and the feeling of helplessness when I'm not being understood. It doesn't happen too often anymore, but I genuinely do remember having meltdowns so bad about literally not knowing a word I needed to express myself when I was a toddler that I screamed so much someone had called the cops thinking I was being abused, which, arguably the COPS showing up made me melt down more LMAO??? I have a small memory of being under a table and hiding away from cops because I was afraid they'd take me away and that my mom called them, when in ACTUALITY it was just the neighbors concerned about me.

All of that to say, yeah, I definitely relate, the feeling of being misunderstood and the helplessness that it brings is so overwhelming, I never had issues with my "tone" necessarily but I've always had issues with my expressions. I'm a lot more expressive than I feel so a lot of the time I can't understand what expression I'm making and it's led to some horrible social interactions where I was making a more intense face than intended.

For some reason, the easiest ways for me to have a mental breakdown is not being able to communicate and two people talking to me with an annoyed tone, so I always felt super empathetic to Nagito in the first chapter upon rewatching it. Everyone yelling at you that you're the murderer? Ganging up on you like that? While you can't communicate or explain yourself truly? Yeah, i'd break too, I think that's genuine, and he's clever enough to use his meltdown to his advantage to attempt to convince them he's the killer. Of course it doesn't work though!

#it is 3:09 my brother in christ #asks #anonymous #danganronpa #danganronpa asks #nagito komaeda #danganronpa komaeda #danganronpa nagito #sdr2 nagito #sdr2 komaeda #danganronpa goodbye despair #komaeda nagito #sdr2 #autism #misunderstood #communication #I CANT BELIEVE IM GETTING ASKS STILL HEHEHEHEHH #im so happy silly goober goofy #komaeda #nagito #relatability #expressions #overwhelmed #meltdowns #i love the attention #i get so many thoughts i love expressing myself #i guess thats part of the meltdown thing too #if i cant express myself i feel a bit trapped #komaeda you mentally unstable boy i love you #helplessness

[talesofsonicasura]

Insomnia was being a bitch last night and kept me up. So here's an idea for a self insert that those in the Creepypasta's Sonic Exe section would like.

Self Insert where Reader is transported into a different series, knowledge may vary, and stuck in the Sonic form of Fatal Error.

This fucker right here! Tetrabrachial sadistic computer virus who wears the body of Sonic 3's blue blur and made his debut in Friday Night Funkin.

Yup. Poor Reader is gonna be stuck looking like a 7 ft twisted hedgehog monster with the voice of a S.A.M generator. They hate it especially when the issue lands them in other people's radar. And Reader is gonna be a snarky bitch about it.

This is a free prompt so anyone can try their own take. Here's some of my ideas.

Fatal Error of Cybertronian Proportions

Yup. Kicking things off with Transformers specifically Prime as I need to rewatch Bayverse.

Fatal Error!Reader manifest in Memorial High School's computer classroom at the dead of night. A shared fright with the school janitor leads to an accidental county wide internet crash. This includes two particular Cybertronian bases nearby.

Autobots and Decepticons look into the source of the crash. Knockout beats the Autobot opposition to the punch in finding the cause. Unfortunately for him, Reader shares how lethal a sentient computer virus can be and crashes his system(don't worry he recovers). A wild goose chase ensues as both sides try to catch Reader.

This continues until an encounter with Optimus Prime goes wrong. An attempt to crash his systems is to met with resistance by the Matrix of Leadership. It results in Reader and Optimus being tethered to their respective core. Neither can be too far from the other unless they wish to get snap back together like a rubber band. Or if one dies so will the other.

Now Team Prime has to break the data bond while the Decepticons continue to hunt down Reader. Oh and their four armed companion is a complete snarky smartass about the whole thing. Good luck with being their guardian Optimus.

Ratchet: Why are you always smiling? It looks haunting.

Fatal Error!Reader: Similar to your metallic ass with that control console, my face's stuck. Now let me sleep ye giant bucket of bitchy bolts.

Optimus: Please behave the both of you.

Fatal Error!Reader: Tell that to the bucket headed yandere with a stalking kink. Your former friend clearly escape the funny farm and needs to take his Xanax.

Optimus: *google searches the medicine and strange term* I am very concerned about your opinion of Megatron.

Impossible Curse Statistics

For this scenario, we're diving into the realm of Jujutsu Kaisen specifically five years before the show's events.

Fatal Error!Reader manifests inside Yuji's home through the power lines. The ten year child is accidentally spooked by the hedgehog like virus at first. Well, until Yuji sees how concerned the 'scary oni' is about his living conditions.

Fatal Error!Reader: Um...where are your parents??? Folks usually come down swinging with a bat by now if their kids in danger.

Yuji: My parents passed away some time ago and Oji-san is hospitalized.

Fatal Error!Reader: ... seriously? That's not only depressing but very morally questionable on why someone would leave a child all alone. Okay kid, guess I'm your caretaker now.

Yuji is taken in and raised by hedgehog shaped virus. His fate changing as Reader bound themselves to him through a pseudo Binding Contract. They protect each other whether it be malicious hackers to dangerous curses.

Life has been good until a certain cursed finger comes into play. Now Reader has to defend Yuji from evil trying to bring the King of Curses back to his full power. At the same time, dodge a weakened Sukuna who has too much interest in the virus and the Jujutsu Sorcerers who want to ensare both.

Neither members of this strange found family are gonna take this lying down. There's a reason why you don't mess with a virus. One wrong is enough for a fatal error to occur. And Reader will be happy to teach that lesson personally.

Glitch In The Relics

We're diving into the world of Knack for this last one.

Fatal Error!Reader emerges from within one of Viktor's security robots during his issued challenge against the relic bound golem. Their appearance causes panic amongst the many attendants except for our main characters. Reader's obliviousness and absolute confusion of their surroundings is enough to have Doctor Vargas protect them.

To prove they aren't a threat, the virus reluctantly joins the expedition. A kinship forms between Reader and Knack about being 'monsters'. Can't forget their habit of accidentally breaking stuff. Well crash in the former's case.

Fatal Error!Reader: *stares at Ryder's unresponsive car* Oops.

Ryder: At least it wasn't my plane.

Knack: *slips and accidentally leaves a large gash on said plane*

Fatal Error!Reader: Congratulations, you just jinxed yourself.

Other than the shared mishaps, both learn and grow as a simple expedition evolves into a grand adventure. A snarky virus once human become comfortable about their strange predicament. Meanwhile Knack gains self confidence about himself alongside Reader and co.

Sometimes all you need is a friend to help find your place in the world. For a certain virus and relic golem, that's the way they like it. Even if a lot of stuff gets smashed in the progress.

That's it for now! Until next time folks, I'll see you later. Before I go, enjoy this song I been listening to.

#sonicasura #tales of sonicasura #maccadam #transformers #transformers prime #transformers series #tfp #transformers x reader #knack #ps4 knack #knack ps4 #Youtube #knack x reader #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu sorcerer #sorcery fight #jujutsu kaisen x reader #reader insert #reader #self insert #fatal error #fatal error!reader #fatal error exe #sonic exe #long post

[fortheloveofowen]

Luke Patterson College Au

Summary: Just some Luke college! This is more or less if Luke was in college NOW lol IDK if that makes sense, but just pretend it does

Warnings: Man-whore Luke (I eat it up), mentions of sex, mentions of drug use/alcohol use, I'm in love with Luke I'm so delulu

Note: I am literally just working, and I'm bored so typing this on my work computer :) I hope you guys like this one, I've been wanting to make a Luke college au so so badly ;) Also guys I dropped out of college soooo living vicariously through this rn

𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩

Major: Childhood Education

Minor: Music Composition

Was on the hockey team freshman and sophomore year, but quit once his band started getting booked

Can't y'all just see him as the cutest little elementary school music teacher like showing his students his guitar and talking about when he was in a band awww

Luke and Alex definitely have a shared house off-campus and they like throw parties like it's nobody's business

Definitely tried to join Alex's comic book club, but was quickly kicked out because he spilled soda on Reggie's collector's edition of the original Spiderman comics

"Dude, do you know how expensive this was? Like, for real?"

Luke is definitely known as somewhat of a player around campus and pretty much everyone knows who he is. He can usually be found with his tongue down a random girls throat

But, that's what college is about for him duh

He never wanted to go in the first place, but when his parents put that check in his lap to send him to school what else could he do? Especially when his buddy, Bobby, told him about all the hot chicks running around campus

So how do you meet Mr. Luke? Well, you were couped up in the library preparing for this god awful Bio final that has been stressing you to the point of pulling your hair out when you hear some.... children's laughter???

You look to the main double-door entrance and see a gaggle of children that can't be more than 5 or 6 years old barreling through the doors

And what shocked you most was... Luke Patterson leading this wild pack of children into the building??? I guess you had just never taken interest in what his major is or really anything about him, so you couldn't be too sure what his intentions were

A quiet Luke puts up a finger to his lips and begins counting down from 10, attempting to shush the kids he was directing

"Hey guys, can we quiet down please, we can't be too loud in the library! shhhhh"

And you're like is he soft? and good with kids? Definitely not soft (or so you think right now hehe), but he is great with kids

The kids are shuffling around the library, giggling at the pages in the anatomy books while Luke sits at a nearby table

"Are they bothering you? I knew it was a bad idea to bring them here, but I-I-It's about to rain... had no idea where else to take them..."

And you're just like huh? Because one, why is he talking to you, and two, this is not the same douchebag player you thought you knew. But, you end up telling him that they're fine and you continued studying until your roommate, Julie, asked if you wanted to meet up for dinner

You don't end up seeing Luke for a while after the first meet, and you had long let him disappear from your thoughts

That is until your friend Flynn decides to drag you to a party to "celebrate" finals being over (Even though you'd rather be couped up in your room rewatching Scooby Doo if you were being honest)

The house wasn't anything too crazy, donned with LED lights and some old beer cans strewn across the porch

You had been drinking with Flynn for a while, the fresh smell of marijuana and vomit stinging your nose as you waltzed around the house

Your bladder quickly caught up with you, though, as you excused yourself from Flynn for a second to find a pisser because you know you can't hold your pee while you're drunk

So, you're bobbing around sticking your head into pretty much every single room when you finally come across a door at the end of the hallway

You turn the door handle, astonished to find it unlocked, but you let yourself in and...

There's Luke... hands under a tiny blonde girl's shirt as he kissed up and down her neck

"Oh my god, I can... I am so sorry let me just go!"

You shout almost too eager as you swiftly slam the door and make your way back downstairs, ready to tell Flynn the shit you just walked into

But, alas, your friend is sitting on the couch with Reggie, one of Luke's closest friends, you've come to find out so you averted your attention to the kitchen

It was quiet in here, other than the small bits of banter going on around you in the almost empty kitchen

You stared into your cup of whatever concoction Flynn had made you when you're startled by a sudden presence to your left

"Hey, you're the girl from the library right? Sorry about uhhh... the bathroom sitch.... just doing my civil duty haha"

Luke slurred out as he hoisted himself onto the kitchen counter beside you

You nod your head, not really trying to engage with his "type"

"You wanna dance? Everyone else here is so boring..."

You and Luke head out to the living where masses of people were dancing along to whatever rap song was blaring over the speaker

Luke instinctively holds you by the waist as you sway the entire night, especially when you sway to his bedroom and then to his bed and then.... you get the picture

And Luke took care of you that night, kissing your shoulders, looking into your eyes as he kissed up your stomach bro omg I am getting ahead of myself

But, anyways, you wake up and immediately feel TONED HANDSOME arms around your waist and you're like??? because this is definitely not your bed and who is this man?

Your eyes peak out over the covers and you have the biggest "oh fuck" moment of your life because YOU JUST SLEPT WITH LUKE PATTERSON

So, without thinking you swiftly jump up out of bed and search around his room for your clothes, but not before you're interrupted by a groan and a yawn coming from the bed

"Shit..."

You mutter under your breath as Luke peers at you through hooded lids

When did he become so beautiful and why the hell hadn't you realized until now??

"Good morning to you too... You're leaving already? Didn't enjoy the show?"

He wiggles his eyebrows at you are you're like oh... my... god I gotta get out of here so you scurry off without much of a goodbye, but not before Luke puts his number into your phone

This goes on for a while, you sneaking over to his house, sleeping in his bed, waking up in his arms, and then spending the morning talking and eating breakfast. But, no lovely-dovey shit... ever

It had become somewhat of a routine, but for Luke, this wasn't normal

He'd sleep with a girl a few times, but then ditch her before things could get too serious

But now he's got himself a drawer of your clothes, and your smile embedded in his brain

So you're over this one time and you both had woken up rather sleepy due to the events of the prior night hehehehe

And Luke is just staring at you so lovingly and it was different than any way he had looked at you before

And he just instinctively wraps you in his arms and spoons you

You're like

"Luke, didn't we say that cuddling was off the table if we're awake? We're not like together, remember?"

And he freezes and is like

"We're together. We sleep together, we spend the mornings together, we are quite literally the definition of together..."

Aww he just chews on his thumb and looks up at you through his eyelashes and just kisses you

You and Luke are the couple that literally everyone is digusted with

He constantly needs to be touching you and will literally wait outside your classes so he can flash you that geeky smile and chuckle while holding out some food or coffee

He just wants to take care of you in all ways possible

Finally lets you come to one of his band practices and everyone is like

"Wow you're significant other is so cool, Luke!"

And he just gets antsy and is like yeah I know now leave them alone before I get jealous hehehe

Such a jealous boyfriend and sometimes you have to remind him how much you love him and he can get really insecure but he finds that comfort in you

Practically thinks you are gold and literally nothing in this world could compare to you

𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪𓆩

Alrighty y'all that is it for now, but I hope you likeeee

#alex mercer #jatp #jatp imagines #julie and the phantoms #julie and the phantoms imagines #luke patterson #luke patterson imagines #reggie peters

[atranioum]

Sex Education Season 4 (an attempt to cope after witnessing the horror they call season 4)

this is a rant with full on spoilers so you've been warned.

back in 2019 when i first found out about sex education, i thought it was just your usual typical cringe-fest teenage drama with who the fuck cares love story. knowing that asa butterfield is the main lead it's kinda a given what kind of character he's gonna play (no hate to asa i love him and i think he showed a lot of range in this series but it's kinda obvious) and then finding out about maeve's character, i remember rolling my eyes and thinking welp if it isn't your usual rebel and nerd pairing and then proceed to not give two fucks about this show. but then there's this one time when i just needed something to watch and after season 2 dropped, videos of maeve and otis kept popping up on my youtube recommendation, so finally i decided to give it a shot, and just in one episode they proved me wrong big time.

sex education is honestly a series none like any other, even until today i don't think i've watched any series that's even remotely close to sex education, in terms of what they bring and the way they presented it (season 1 to be precise aka goat season), it's very vibrant, it's somewhat stereotypical and yet it defies it too at the same time (idk how else to describe this), it's like you expect certain things about a certain character and it turns out they're completely the opposite, and overall the show just has a very unique tone. the scores, soundtracks and cinematic shots paired with powerful and impactful moments, and just the overall composition is the recipe that they served us with, and my god do we love it, and we craved for more, so they did just that, they served us the same recipe for 3 seasons straight (well 2.5 but i'll let it slide).

and then season 4 slithered its way into our lives🤗

can someone please get me a paper bag cause i'm gonna throw up.

man where to begin? to even call this season a dissapoinment is still a huge understatement, i guess i should've known what's coming when i feel zero excitement watching the trailer, but then i convinced myself like come on it's sex ed it's for sure gonna be great, and yep it's so great that i wish i could unwatch whatever travesty i just witnessed.

watching the first episode i can still feel some familiarity in it and it's still kinda sex education-esque but i didn't love it, a great contrast towards my reaction after watching the first episode of season 3 in which to this day still is one of my favorite episodes of the series. it has a little bit of everything, a refreshing ruby and otis dynamic, the good old longing looks between maeve and otis, and the very heart and core of the show which is otis giving advice helping out his peers and motis being a fucking great team and just the episode as a whole really.

but you know you can never judge something after only watching one episode, so i bite my tongue and just carry on watching. and after watching 2 episodes, something very apparent reveals itself, the pacing is fucked. like how am i supposed to feel anything when the show kept on throwing one thing after another, it feels like when you're eating something and you're still very much chewing but someone keep on feeding you stuff before you can digest or even swallow the food first.

and i think that's the overall theme of season 4, a whole lot of everything and nothing all at the same time, like i'm sorry how are you supposed to end a show after 4 seasons but shoves a bunch of new characters in the finale, how are you supposed to connect to said characters? however powerful the topic and message you're trying to bring it's hard to even care about these characters, because all we expect from a finale is a conclusion of a 4-season long story not an opening of a new chapter.

i rewatched some of my favorite episodes a few days before season 4 dropped, and now looking back at it i just feel like i don't appreciate it enough at that time, i mean the soundtracks are amazing especially season 3 and for a tv series their cinematography is kinda top notch. but then season 4 came out and we got the walmart version of it all.

and then a few hours after watching and hating the season i realized something, ben freaking taylor didn't direct any of the episodes in season 4, my god that explains a lot and idk i think that's kinda why the pacing is fucked? like i know he didn't direct every episode in the whole series but i always think of him as an executive director(?) if that's even a thing, i just feel like he kinda dictates the overall flow of the show. it's such a shame really, if he's involved in this season maybe things could've been different, but then again maybe even ben taylor wouldn't be able to salvage whatever shitshow the writers gave him. it's as if you're watching an avatar movie that's not directed by james cameron, it just feels... wrong.

the whole season just feels freaky to me, a lot of things felt too over the top and comical even. not to mention the storylines are super all over the place, take jackson for example, bro went from thinking about his feelings for cal and then having a cancer scare to getting rejected by his biological father, like what???

now i want to dive in to the characters a little, let's start with ruby and yes i do ship her with otis and somewhat wished for them to be endgame but we'll touch on that later. anyway ruby is not ruby this season and it feels exactly like when maeve wasn't herself in season 3 (which is mainly why i jumped ship). the whole "i was bullied when i was 10" shit is such a tryhard, if it's an attempt to make ruby more likeable and make her being a bully acceptable, dear beloved writers you failed, miserably. if i'm someone who hates ruby (which i'm not) this whole thing would make me hate her even more, like okay i get it you got bullied because you're a bed-wetter but then you became a bully yourself and did worse things to others? how is that suppose to be tolerable. like bro deal with it don't backtrack, she's a bully she did what she did, but that doesn't mean she can't change, doesn't mean she can't grow. and that was the whole point of her arc in season 3. the reason why she was one of the main attraction that season was because we get to see a different side of her, yes she's mean, demanding and particular about every single little thing that revolves around her, but hey turns out she can compromise, she turns soft when it comes to her family and at some point even otis, and don't even get me started on her fucking voice on that call the night she said she loves otis. i understand that they're trying to give her a back story explaining what made her the way she is but honestly the whole bed-wetter thing was a big big miss.

and what's with the whole speech thing at the end of episode 8, it's very un-ruby like, if they're trying to show her character's growth and depth then wtf there's so many other ways to do it without making her super out of character. for instance here's a few things i have in mind; and this one is my personal favorite, like she could have a real conversation with maeve about shit like idk letting otis go or maybe the other way around like maeve telling her about how otis is actually happy with ruby and whatnot (idk maybe something less cringey but still along those lines); or they could explore her friendship with adam, and they could lean on one another and talk about how they lost their first loves, and how a certain pair of best friends completely broke their hearts (because come on why would they show the glimpse and the potential of adam and ruby and not explore it at all fuck they fumbled so bad); or the most logical of all, her dad dying (sorry roland)(i still don't get why maeve's mom is the one that died), anyway her dad being sick was always a big part of her arc, so with him dying we could explore how she would handle and cope with the whole thing now that there's literally no escape, with otis being with maeve etc.; or idk have a fucking proper conversation with otis, have some closure, either it being "i can't be friends with you because my feelings haven't changed", or yes maybe we could be friends, the point is just have a proper closure ffs, don't go around helping him whenever he comes begging for your help, like honestly i refuse to believe the real ruby (the properly written ruby) would let otis string her along like that. yes i get it she's in love with him, has a soft spot for him, but she's still ruby fucking matthews, so really the whole season she was way out of character.

moving on to our boy otis (but still ruby related hehe).... Read the rest of the thread on Twitter.

#sex education #ruby x otis #maeve x otis #otis milburn #maeve wiley #ruby matthews

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Heroes of Mandalore"

Some familiar TCW faces as we close up the darksaber arc.

Live reaction version.

Sabine's transformation into co-protagonist is nearly complete, as it's the end of her darksaber arc that starts us out this season.

Also, you know, the Season Four trailers framing the whole of Rebels as the story of "A boy who was lost and a girl who was broken".

Not that I minded as it meant that Ezra and Sabine would be spending a lot of screentime together. :D

After not really touching on it in a while, Fenn Rau's courtesy hand on Kanan's shoulder to let him know he's signaled a stop was a nice little way of demonstrating Kanan's blindness and the accommodations other characters make for him.

Ezra finally has that jetpack he's been wanting lol.

I reserve the right to be giddy about the fact that Ezra is literally Sabine's right-hand man. And also that she painted him another Scout Trooper helmet.

Kanan showing off with the Force Leaps there, which Fenn Rau lampshades.

And now we're introduced to Tiber Saxon, Gar's less interesting more fanatical brother.

A+ mid battle banter. I do distinctly remember being delighted by all the playful quipping and snarking back and forth when this first aired, and it's still cute now.

Once again all it takes for Ezra to surrender is someone threatening Sabine. <3

I... I'm sorry, apparently I'm going to be Obnoxious Obsessed Sabezra Shipper for this rewatch, let me attempt not to comment on just them and their stupid faces and every time they interact.

Lol is one of the Kryze Mandos Naruto-running?

That was an awfully quick search of the base there, guys.

"Bo-Katan was made regent by the Jedi before the end of the Clone War." For all of what, one day? Lol.

I do have quibbles about Bo-Katan's characterization here in Rebels, at times it seems like it's assuming more character development than we actually see happen, when we eventually get back around to telling the story of the Siege of Mandalor.

I do find it kind of funny that SO many people were expecting Sabine to have an arc where she becomes Mand'alor when literally the second episode she actually had the darksaber she was immediately like, "Nope it's not me, I'm just holding it for whoever will be the true leader." Course I guess they expected that in this episode she would take up the mantle.

No dice and frankly I am not interested in that kind of plotline unless Ezra gets to be an accessory to it. (I uh... I have a thing about the Royal Maiden/Steadfast Knight dynamic.)

Ezra playing therapist again. <3 Nice to see it go over better than in "Trials of the Darksaber", Sabine is learning to be more open with her thoughts and feelings.

Kanan attempting the playful teasing banter he usually has with Hera (that Ezra and Sabine are suddenly very adept at now, what) but she shuts it down. This is another quibble I have about Season Four, I do not understand Kanan and Hera's sudden awkwardness and Will They/Won't They? when previously it seemed like they had been depicted as already a settled matter. Not really overt but comfortable and resolved. This weird walkback feels like a way to add drama and tension to Kanan's eventual death, and I really don't think it needed that?

The way I usually reconcile it is by headcanoning that Hera conceived Jacen in the three weeks between S3 and S4 and she's been standoffish and cagey about it because she doesn't quite know know yet and she's being anxious and worried and preoccupied and prickly as a result. I headcanon this because it's been my own experience when the husband and I have, ahem, not exactly been careful and had not had more kids in the plans.

Anyway.

Sorry is this not how the scene went? Lol.

Alrich immediately knows it's his baby girl aww.

Huh, I'd forgotten the side pockets on these transports could be used to stick extra troopers. Neat.

This is pretty nicely staged, a lot of fast smooth movement with the jetpacks, Sabine using the bike as cover was a clever touch. The speed of everything is really on display.

Love this hero cue when Kanan ignites his saber and enters the fray. Every character gets a nice little moment of being awesome.

Even Chopper gets to be a flying menace, clonking that one Trooper on the head with a blaster lol.

IF NO SUPPOSED TO SHIP LITERALLY WHAT EVEN IS THIS "SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND." MOMENT?

And ooop, show just stabbed me with Sabine's frantic worried, "Ezra! Get out of there!" and my brain went straight to the finale you guys really need to stop doing this to me.

<3333333

Little shit even gets in a cheeky, "Was wondering where you were." I love him.

And Kanan and Ezra look so happy for her awww.

Tiya's acting when Sabine realizes her weapon is on the battlefield is very nice. Sabine sounds horrified and heartbroken and scared.

Sabine's theme drawing out in long slow mournful notes here.

I'm actually really glad they didn't kill off Ursa and Tristan. It would have meant basically nothing since neither of them were developed enough characters for us to care and also I really didn't need another How To Train Your Dragon 2 Stoick/Valka gutpunch in my life.

Never kill off your characters unless you can tell more story with them gone than you can with them there.

Sabine's showing more emotion than we've seen out of her since "Trials of the Darksaber" oof.

Sabine getting a little bit distracted in her anger and grief and needing a nudge from Kanan. She's going to struggle with this a bit this episode.

It's cute how Bo-Katan kind of implies that Ezra should fly out with her to take down the TIEs.

This poor boy looks so consternated with all these crazy Mando shenanigans lol.

Yeah no, watching the Dutchess in action does not get any better.

Thrawn being all Villain Admirer of the Spectres again, while also picking at Tiber Saxon's logic here. It's basically the same logic and line of objections he has to the Death Star, that it's a bloated and inefficient waste of resources and will create more Rebels than it can kill. Thrawn is trying to point out, "Yeah so this literally insults the honor of a hot-headed quarrelsome proud warrior race culture how exactly is this supposed to quell them from rebelling again?"

Awww.

Ezra immediately gearing up to fight Bo-Katan to protect Sabine. <3 And then the other Clan Kryze members a minute later. <3

"Down boy."

You know something I haven't commented on is just how washed out Mandalore looks. Like, Lothal is covered with brown plains too but there's so much more life and color in them. Like the difference between Kansas farmlands and a nuclear testing site.

There's some kind of unspoken history here between Rau and Bo-Katan in the way they interact which... intrigues me. They talk like old friends and I would definitely like to know more about how they know each other.

With Bo-Katan's little speech here, I do see how people were expecting Sabine to be set up to be Mand'alor.

Something darkly ironic in Sabine naming a superweapon after a pacifist.

Tiber channeling his best Imperial fanatic here. What an ass.

This shot was apparently a visual shoutout to a similar one in TCW's "The Lawless", with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Not the last time Ezra and Obi-Wan would be paralleled.

Tiber really shouldn't have let Sabine have access to her own weapon, that was a stupid move.

Ooooh there's more on that theme of "We make deals with the Empire to survive." Tiber honey that never works out for anyone.

Sabine modifies the weapon all right, but Tiber's eagerness to use it after she warned him not to is hoist by own petard poetry.

BOY IT SURE IS A GOOD THING SABINE DIDN'T SET THE WEAPON TO FULL POWER OUT OF REVENGE. JUST IMAGINE WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED IF SHE LET HER ANGER DRIVE HER TO DO THAT?

OH WAIT I DON'T HAVE TO IMAGINE, TVTROPES HAS ME COVERED.

THANKS TVTROPES. THANKS FOR THAT BIT OF FRIDGE HORROR.

Sabine does still have a very mean vengeful streak in her even after all her years living with Jedi so it takes a bit of prodding from Bo-Katan (of all people) to talk her down from this wrath moment.

We can count that whole Star Destroyer as Sabine's kill right? Lol, she's catching up to you Chopper, better murder some more capital ships.

"The Empire will send everything they have to crush Mandalore." Haaaaaaaaaaaaa. *cringes in The Mandalorian's account of The Purge*

Honestly I think the reason they had Sabine give Bo-Katan the darksaber was because they didn't want to have to write around Sabine being absent again lolol. Having to stay and be the leader of a whole planet would have definitely taken Sabine away from the front lines of the wider Rebellion and more importantly taken her away from her crew and family and like hell were they going to let the Spectres go back to Lothal without her.

Ngl, I ship it a little bit.

This could have been a little more earned, not gonna lie.

IF NO SUPPOSED TO SHIP LITERALLY WHAT EVEN IS THIS??!!?

I'll be honest I'm not really invested in the Mandalorian side of things in fandom so while a lot of these action sequences were pretty cool visually I didn't have much emotional connection unless characters I already knew and loved were onscreen. I'm at least happy we got the arc done and over with and cleared up the rest of the season for other, more interesting (to me) things.

I've got no real thoughts on Bo-Katan, she's fine in this episode but like I said, inconsistent with her other appearances, I don't mind her being leader and having the darksaber but I would have liked her characterization to have more of a coherent throughline from TCW to Rebels to The Mandalorian.

Let's be honest I'm mostly just here for the Ezra/Sabine bits. <3

Next up, field trip with Crazy Uncle Saw!

#star wars #star wars rebels #sabezra #ezra bridger #rebels rewatch #liveblog

[brightnote]

A Secret Invasion Math Problem (Spoilers Episode 3)

Here’s a math problem for you, if Gravik kills two women how many of them will come back? LOL did you answer 1? I think you are correct. -- at least I don’t think this is the end of Emilia in the series regardless of whether it is G’iah who comes back or the character whose identity G’iah stole!! 

What major potential reveals do we have here: Rhodey is probably being impersonated by a skrull and he’s the one who told Gravik that Nick returned to earth and was with Hill. This will replace my Talos set up Hill theory to Rhodey set up Hill theory as Rhodey also knows that separating Hill and Fury would be important and disadvantage Fury significantly. 

What supports this reveal? Fury says “no one calls him Nick” and finds Bob impersonating Talos and using his name Nick on the phone. Rhodey calls Fury Nick when he fires him. This could be a sign of a skrull or it could be Rhodey setting Fury straight with the seriousness of what happened. Hill called him Fury at the bar in this series but we know she has called him Nick many times before. Kind of a silly thing to change for her.

We also know other people have called Fury Nick, including Tony Stark -- maybe what he means by no one calls him Nick is that anyone who does... dies? (Tony, Natasha, Maria, if skrull Rhodey is killed it’s foreshadowing and then Bob is killed by Talos) Was this just a line of Fury trying to be cool (another ‘even when i am out i am in’ line with a reference back to Captain Marvel!) maybe a total a misdirect, too or red herring! 

My guess it’s just an attempt and IMO a failing at a cool line. (he’s kind of 0/2 on this right now because “even when he’s out he’s in” despite how good that scene was wasn’t really accurate to the events that had just happened when Fury, Talos, and Hill got caught up in the trap so I wouldn’t say even when you are out you are in... because clearly CLEARLY he was not in during the bombing and this line ‘no one calls him Nick’ also not true... so maybe we are getting to the big reveal .... double Fury? I did not buy this at first but I am starting to now.  One theory out there right now is that Nick sans glasses is actually Soren and Nick with glasses is true Nick.  Except of course in the very first episode we see Nick with and without glasses around Talos and Maria so when does second Fury slip in? If that’s the case, Nick sans glasses  was the one at Maria’s funeral/body transfer and if that’s the case wooo boy, if he wasn’t really there idk. Unless there is a third Fury who went out and saved Maria and we just didn’t see that, and I am fine with that fyi. When would second Fury have tapped in? (well I guess third because of Gravik’s Fury) 

  We also see have a scene where Priscilla is on the phone asking to speak to Gravik. Some people say this was Rhodey’s voice I rewatched and can hear that it is Rhodey for sure. The tension between Rhodey and Fury is very good and would be interesting to flesh out. If Rhodey is being impersonated by a skrull this can explain how a skrull Ross infiltrated and was able to contact Hill---this still wouldn’t totally explain skrull Ross calling Hill for an extraction unless they wanted to involve Fury?  I keep going back to this initial sequence for a reason, because it matters!!  There are a lot of gaps here in how these events came to be. 

Gravik’s plan to out G’iah works and he tries to kill her but we know at least that Emilia will be back in the show. Some are saying she comes back as a super skrull because she was in the lab!  If they bring G’iah back as a super skrull i think that would be kind of dumb.  If G’iah is for real dead this binds Fury and Talos in their fight against Gravik even more ~CUTE~ that these men are being motivated by their complicity in the deaths of women in their lives that they paternal relationships with. Such a dangerous way to display these kind of relationships and pretty lazy FYI. This may also explain the Maria and G’iah encounter in the tunnel which is such an awkward unexplained scene so far. These two women intertwine allegedly on the same side (unknown to them) and then are killed (or believe they are killed) by men in their lives with paternal relationships to them. 

Fury knows his wife is a skrull. Fury is relatively happy for having watched his bff die in his arms and then being fired and is now eating eggs and tomatoes which he later calls dog food when he sees Talos in the diner. Hm.

Knowing there is no Maria in this episode it is hard to pay attention. I am holding out because IMBD credited Cobie in episodes 4 and 6 after her death in episode 1 but then it reverted back to episodes 1-6. 

Notice: We also see a green and red wine bottle on Sonya’s desk. Not dissimilar to the green and red beer bottle we saw with Maria at the bar!  This may be an indication of a ‘skrull in the room’ OR that if a character has a red and green bottle or item that they will be killed by a skrull and we have seen Sonya wear green and red before unlike Hill whose color scheme was blue and white (or very light gray and blue)  Sonya is relatively fine being bugged by Fury. She’s chill that that WWIII is about to start, and so is Talos, so let’s talk about dogs--dogs come up a lot with Talos.

Definitely a change in tone in this one and not really for the better. I love Talos and Fury together but I think they need Hill to cut up the banter or set them both straight because some of it is kinda ugh.   Talos pulls a Thor in Endgame TYPICAL men. Maria never would have let that happened and probably would never let Fury take a child hostage, and to be honest i have a hard time believing Fury would take a child hostage.  Especially because Fury has figured out that Bob is a skrull so why would taking his human son hostage matter? Is Bob’s son a skrull or is this fake Fury / Soren and Soren knows that acting as a person for a long time will invest those emotions into the skrull actor. It seems more like a skrull move than a Fury move to be honest. Overall, the stakes feel relatively low during this allegedly tense start of WWIII moment probably because it is a fake plot. We don’t even know how Fury got these plans but we are to assume it is from him listening or getting a read on Priscilla’s phone in the early scenes when he was wearing his glasses. 

AND we are 2/2 for killing the women in this show. You know they will bring Emilia back and not Maria/Cobie and I realized it the second she was shot also there was do dramatic pan out bleeding sequence. LET ME TELL YOU IT’S GONNA BE DUMB if it’s because she’s a super skrull and not because we are getting to know the person who G’iah stole the identity of. Tbh when people said they felt nothing for Maria Hill dying I was like HOW COULD YOU! THIS IS EVERYTHING 12 YEARS WE HAVE BEEN WATCHING HER SAVE AVENGERS AND I AM STILL TALKING ABOUT IT 3 WEEKS LATER.  I know G’iah or at least Emilia is coming back. I think a lot of people presume Hill is coming back because of Coulson and Fury also returning from death (Fury two times) Additionally, Sharon Carter also survived a bullet to the gut. The people around Hill always returning is probably a sign that she in fact, will not. Additionally all of the trailer in the footage or clips we have seen of Hill have been used in the first episode (except for the opening scene in the teaser trailer at the bar which is different than the scene in Episode one!) 

Part of me is like I can’t believe I was ever excited for this show. 

Theories I may have to throw out or edit: Talos set Maria up to ice Fury out. It seemed possible in the first two episodes as we still don’t know how Gravik got his details about Fury returning but of course the show is setting it up that Priscilla with Rhodey are the double spies with Gravik. Since we actually don’t know Priscilla it’s not a super interesting set up that Priscilla is the traitor. It would be much more interesting to see the tension between Fury and Talos, Fury and Rhodey, or Fury and Hill tbh.

I do like this theory that one Fury is Soren and that would explain why I am really excited about a twist that Talos and Fury have been having a secret affair for years because they definitely have something going on.

The Maria G’iah Swap theory I think is potentially out maybe it is a symbolic scene about Gravik killing G’iah.  If the G’iah body woman allegedly Abbigal Brand is true then she’s on Fury and Talos’ side this would also explain why the had to kill off Hill in episode 1 because for some reason in spy thrillers there is a rule where there can’t be two women---there can only be one?? This is still true in 2023 apparently and as the lead in TO THE MARVELS WHERE THERE ARE THREE LEADING WOMEN. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Overall this one was a 3/5 for me. A lot of people seemed to really like it but idk it did not hit for me, i’m a sore loser over Maria. I did think there were some good parts but overall I didn’t think it was cut very well and some the lines were rough. I know the WWIII plot was a fake out for Gravik to get G’iah but have you ever felt lower stakes for the start of a major international incident before? And uh shooting women must be like a Gravik kink or something, has he even shot any men? Also why do these men keep doing dumb shit to hurt the women in their lives and do them so dirty, Since it was revealed that G’iah was actually in contact with Talos, Talos calling her for the intel seems like a definite way to get her killed but as we know from Far From Home Talos is actually really kind of bad at anticipating what’s going to happen. 

Oh my only remaining theory: misdirect vs trope on the Maria fridging still leaning hard that this is a classic trope that we hate but given the marketing I will give it a 1/5 chance that marvel pulls some cool twist. The director did say Hill “played a big role” in it, but since her time in the first episode and Fury being mostly unaffected by her death (at least it seems that way and if there are two Furys this could explain the disconnect) and it coming up only two times in the second episode and no times in the third episode does this mean a big role or reveal is yet to come? There’s basically very few to none Maria theories out there on the popular breakdown videos so I guess I will just keep advancing them here. 

No special guest star billing for Cobie on this one so we know IMDB is just lying to us, and I guess that hurts more not seeing special guest star than it does seeing it. This is definitely the weakest episode so far. 

#maria hill #nick fury #talos #g'iah #samuel l jackson #ben mendelsohn #emilia clarke #cobie smulders #marvel #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #secret invasion #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. #disney+ #don cheadle #james rhodes #rhodey

[cloverandstuff]

I'm rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood cause it's been literally a decade since I've watched it.

So cheers, I have a reaction thread (because I'm a sentimental bitch)

Episode 1:

God, I've forgotten how it immediately just got to the action in the first episode. Like, it set up everything and gave a glimpse of nearly all important character.

Poor Isaac, was probably manipulated, but ultimately led himself to his own demise. Very bold though.

And god, I think I was too depressed at the time of watching it, but the Eldric brother's backstory was so painful with that small glimpse.

Episode 2:

I cannot for the life of me understand why this shit didn't affect me as much as it should've as a kid. It might've depression that numbed my emotions, but I guess we'll never know.

Anyway, my point is, this is is traumatizing, and that's me saying this as an adult. The backstory and the short glimpses of the mom, as well as the clear love and dedication they had for her? The way that Ed didn't even hesitate to try and find more truth? The way he dragged himself, bleeding leg and all, to the armor to shove it down, and connect his brothers soul to it???

And god, the way I just kept whisper-shouting when they came to recruit him, cause I didn't remember shit, going-

But man, as someone is is now so much older than Ed is in the anime, they make him act a kid. A very smart, powerful and purposeful kid, but a kid nonetheless. He's so young and you can just feel it in the little things he does. He does not have his shit together and is still figuring some shit out.

Episode 3:

I love the comedy this anime has. It has the funny little pauses and the interuption of what should be serious moments without ruining the actual serious moments.

It is exactly my cup of tea, with a silly joke that just poked fun at a kid or being, well. A kid. He's small, and that joke may remind He's small but I can also remind you that he is so much younger than his peers.

I am an atheist so I do have the same kinda mindset about God that Edward has. Rose has this sort of annoying mindset of God and his priests being this answer to all suffering and anyone who disagrees will suffer divine Punishment. It is frustrating at the start.

But I can fully understand where she's coming from by the end. She clung onto this hope, this prayer that someone she loved so much will eventually be revived. Rose then meets the brothers who lost someone they loved, and tried to being back as well. She saw the consequences and felt terrified. But she spent so long just clinging onto this hope that she desperately wants it to be true. So she argues, trying to convince herself that Cornella was telling the truth and she didn't waste so long praying for something that didn't exist.

People can find comfort in the idea of God(s). The idea that there is someone looking after everyone and offering guidance is reassuring for some.

That was not Rose's situation.

Rose's situation is more akin to having a loved one suffering from a terminal disease and convincing yourself that prayers and God will be able to do what science could not. You can not pray for the impossible. You can pray for hope, for guidance or for even a fast recovery. But you need to understand that even if you wish for something impossible, you cannot spend your life wasting away on these prayers and refuse to do anything else.

Rose needed to stop clinging in general because she was clinging on to something impossible that compelled her to try and attempt awful things. She needed to learn to stand on her own. Maybe she could one day find hope in God again, but it wouldn't be anytime soon.

Man, I went on a rant there.

Anyway, I just wanted to type all that put because my mind just felt like analysing for a bit.

I forgot what the philosopher stone even did until now. I remembered that it was powerful but I that was about it. Now I remember, it was shit about defying the rule of absolute equivalence.

I am kinda happy I forgot majority of the lore of this anime, it makes it fun to put all the pieces together again as an adult who can process things and analyse better.

Episode 4:

This hurts.

This hurts so much. They were so happy, and acting like actual kids. They played all sorts of games with Nina and Alexander. It was so bright. They were so bright.

But Tucker, the motherfucker, only saw what he was bound to lose instead of what he had. He tried to work his way through it, but eventually just gave up.

My heart sank when I heard him ask Nina to play the next day. It broke even more when heard Nina say, in that voice that doesn't belong to a kid, "onii-chan".

He sacrificed everything just to save his title pf State Alchemist. He gave up his wife and then his daughter and the respect of these kids.

God, I hate him. I understand him and his desperation and I hate him.

Scar is back though. We love scar man. He's weird but core to the story and has every right to hate State Alchemists.

Again, when I was a kid, I didn't feel much. This episode never hit me as hard as it does now. Back then, I though the Eldric brothers were being dramatic about the whole thing.

Now it just strikes me so hard how fucked up it wad to be willing to experiment on your own kid for a stupid title. To mutate her into an existence that was nothing like her human one.

Brotherhood didn't make it blatantly, but it was mentioned time and again, just how painful it was to be a chimera in the original. Nina was in pain and Tucker knew this.

I fully understand why this hurt the Eldric brothers so much now. That was horrid. And to be able to even see a semblance of yourself in that was painful.

#fma brotherhood #fmab #reaction time #reaction thread #fma #maybe spoilers? #idk this is an old anime #this is on you if you haven't watched it yet but plan on it

[collectionofsinglefathers]

OKAY. THAT SCENE. I haven’t started a full rewatch of the episode but I have put on this scene in the background so I can just go through it beat for beat, cuz I have A LOT of thoughts. And a fair warning right now: this is gonna be a REAL LONG POST.

Now, we can’t take every single thing that Asmodeus said at face value. Like he says, he’s the father of lies. But the thing that’s always said about good liars is that not every single thing they say is a lie. And because there’s no way for us to know right now what is true and what isn’t true in what he said, I’m just gonna discuss most of the stuff in the case where it is true, because it’ll just make things easier for me.

The dream being something that actually happened that Zerxus got pulled into somehow changes SO MUCH for me with that intro. I had been operating off the thought that it was as Patia said and Zerxus was seeing a fight from the Schism.

Zerxus casting Cure Wounds on Asmodeus, even though he’s an evil Betrayer God, in my opinion, is extremely indicative of just how incredibly kind he is. Even when he is told that there’s a Betrayer God in front of him, he heals him because he’s still a being in extreme pain, and he knows how it feels to have pain that seems like it’ll never end. He’s still living with his. And I think, as this conversation goes on, he also sees that in Asmodeus.

I do believe that Asmodeus isn’t fully aware of how he got to where he is. My guess at the moment is that, he knows that Vespin did a ritual that broke him and the other Betrayers out of where they were being kept, but he doesn’t know why.

I also believe that he’s telling the truth when he says he takes on the likeness of whoever the person who is seeing him would view as the most beautiful person in the world. I don’t know shit about the wider d&d lore, or about the Lord of the Hells, even in deeper Exandrian lore, I’ve only read the original Tal’Dorei campaign book and it’s been a MINUTE since I’ve read the passage about Asmodeus. But I don’t know, it just feels like it makes sense, because it’s a great way to manipulate people, especially mortals, to do what you want them to do.

Now, I know some people have some Opinions™️ about the fact that there wasn’t even an insight check attempted against Asmodeus, but I’m not gonna get into that until the end of the post. Depending on how long this gets, I may just make it it’s own post. But I will say. He never actually says to Zerxus either way if this is a trick. He doesn’t say that he is, but he doesn’t say that he isn’t. He just says that he knows people are always going to assume that he is. And I will say, I don’t think this is a trick. That’s not the word I’d use for it. This is a lure. That’s how I’d describe this. This is Asmodeus metaphorically putting a carrot on a stick in front of Zerxus, and I think it’s gonna all boil down to what actually happened to Evandrin, who knows about it, who actively kept it from him and, possibly, who could’ve helped him but didn’t.

I fully believe that Asmodeus is using Zerxus’s innate kindness against him, and it’s very clear that Zerxus seeing his husband’s face, even when he knows why Asmodeus looks like Evandrin, it’s very much having an extreme emotional effect on him.

I fucking love the story that Asmodeus tells from his perspective, and however truthful it is or isn’t when it comes to the details, I absolutely believe that his emotions behind the words are genuine.

I’m also never going to be over that Zerxus has gone from yelling at a god, to healing a Betrayer, and then attempting to change that Betrayer’s alignment. Absolutely wild choice and I am so fucking here for it.

I clocked the look that Travis made at this last night because it was the exact same face I made. Asmodeus gave his word that he wouldn’t forget Zerxus. And that’s it. Someone like him, he is going to choose his words carefully, and follow that promise to the letter. He promised he wouldn’t forget Zerxus, but he didn’t promise not to use him, or to take his pain out on mortals. And just because he says he isn’t currently using Zerxus doesn’t mean he won’t in the future. He does say someone else is, and I guess one could argue that could be all of Avalir, but the wording he uses is very specific. He says Zerxus’s fault is that he’s too trusting, and who in the city would he trust more than the Ring of Brass?

It makes so much sense that Zerxus, as a Paladin who is attached to no god, would be able to have these visions like the oracles who are clerics with no god. Both are divine casters in that way.

It is VERY interesting that, despite having been locked away for so long, he knows that Avalir is a flying city. Maybe he was told, maybe the knowledge has been leaking through this portal to him in this in between place that he’s in for the two weeks he’s been there. At least, I assume it’s been two weeks, that seems to be the general time period.

I can’t find the post that I saw saying this at the moment, but there was someone who posited a theory that Evandrin isn’t actually dead, just incorporeal and trapped on another plane, maybe like the ethereal plane, where he can see what’s happening but can’t interact and he’s just lost all physical form and the thing that Asmodeus says about Evandrin’s spirit being nearby during the original vision Zerxus had makes me think about that, and thinking about that makes me VERY SAD.

I’m no expert in the limitations of arcane magic in d&d, so I can’t say for sure whether or not Zerxus is correct when he says that they had to have known a way to bring Evandrin back and chose not to. But I don’t think that would even matter because he very adamantly believes it to be true, and clearly has believed it for years. I think that, along with the full truth of what happened to Evandrin being revealed to him and him finding out that at least one of his very trusted friends kept that of all things from him is going to, at the very least, lead Zerxus down a very dark path.

Zerxus said it last episode to Purvan, and he’s saying it again to Asmodeus. He told Purvan that Avalir wasn’t his home and that they were approaching his home. But I don’t think he meant Cathmoira, not really. This is just speculative, but I like the thought of his home being Elias. And when his home was at its fullest, it was him and Elis and Evandrin all together. Now, it’s a bit broken. To me, that’s a much sadder prospect than just the city on the ground being his home.

Last night, I didn’t have subtitles. I have them on now, and I thought last night that when Asmodeus said the thing about how he understands that mortals will always have a part of them that recoils from him because of the gifts he gave them, I thought Zerxus said “then you may be wrong.” But according to the captions, he says “Then you made me wrong.” And honestly, I kind of love that a lot more.

The fact that he specifically points out that the Protection from Good and Evil protects him from Fey is very much him pointing Zerxus in Loquatius’s direction and saying “you can’t trust him”. But with the way the episode ended, who knows when he’ll even get the chance to act on that thought.

Now, when it comes to the choice to not make an insight check against Asmodeus. First of all, mechanically, I don’t think it would’ve mattered. Asmodeus is a fucking god, and I think any insight check Luis could’ve rolled would have just resulted in, at best, the Brennan Lee Mulligan equivalent of Matt saying “he’s hard to read”. I mean, yes, he could’ve rolled a nat 20, but honestly I think that might have been why he didn’t.

And that’s why I LOVED it. Because it felt real and genuine. @thedragonagelesbian said something very similar earlier today, and I wanna give them credit because it was their post that spurred this specific line of thought for me today (and it’s also the post that informed me that people were even having Opinions™️ about this in the first place).

This isn’t a story where there’s a sliver of possibility that our heroes we’re following here may win. They already lost. It already happened. It’s the history of the world of Exandria. There’s no stopping what’s coming. And it became very clear as soon as this installment of EXU was going to be about the Calamity that this was going to be a tragedy. Making an insight check there doesn’t feel true to the story they’re telling.

It also doesn’t feel true or genuine of Zerxus in that moment. Like Asmodeus says, he’s too trusting. But even more than that, he’s in a very fragile emotional and mental state at the moment. I reblogged that post from @helltothenaw earlier for a reason. Here’s the post.

Now, I’m not an expert on anything really, but especially not on cults. But what I am is an avid listener to the Cult Podcast, and there’s something they say on that podcast that, to me, feels appropriate. There’s a cult out there for everyone, because what cults do is provide for you whatever you may need at the time, whether that need be physical, financial, or emotional.

Zerxus is a man who doesn’t believe in gods at all, and doesn’t worship them. But he’s also a man who is going through A LOT right now. He lost the love of his life, he’s been separated from his son for seven years, and their relationship at the moment is very strained, probably for a litany of reasons. He’s in a position of power that he doesn’t feel that he deserves, and possibly one that he doesn’t even want. Evandrin was supposed to be the First Knight. Zerxus doesn’t even like this city, in fact he even said that he hates it there. He is most definitely the unhappiest of the Ring of Brass. He feels lost. That to me sounds like a perfect opportunity for a being known for manipulation to take advantage of.

#spoilers #critical role #exandria unlimited calamity #exu calamity #cr #exandria unlimited #exu #cr spoilers #critical role spoilers #exandria unlimited spoilers #exandria unlimited calamity spoilers #exu spoilers #exu calamity spoilers #zerxus ilerez

[boldlyspeedydreamerreturns]

Hi. I requested the Stolitz drag story and the way you wrote it was absolutely perfect, thank you so very much. I would love to see the second half to the date whenever you have the time, I hope you have a good night.

Thanks for being patient. Here's part 2.

The gates to the palace opened and Blitz's van came through. He parked in front of the steps and got out. He'd changed into more casual, comfy clothes, sporting sweat pants and his favorite hoodie. He didn't bother knocking, just opening the door and headed towards the living room where he could hear Stolas fiddling with the TV. He popped his head in to see the owl demon in his robe, already relaxed on the couch. He hadn't noticed Blitz yet.

"Now, what channel was that show on again? The episode will be starting soon."

Blitz smiled and entered the room fully.

"You passed it, go back two channels."

Stolas jumped when Blitz spoke, making an odd and silly surprised bird sound, which made Blitz nearly double over in laughter.

"Blitzy, you startled me!'

Hearing that made Blitz pause for a moment. This confused Stolas.

"Blitz? Are you okay?"

"Yeah...yeah, I'm fine. It's just... that's the first time you've called me 'Blitzy' since the Ozzie's incident."

Stolas felt a pang in his chest. He reached out to Blitz, who walked over and sat beside him, allowing Stolas to wrap an arm around him.

"I'm sorry. If you don't want me to call you that anymore..."

"NO! No... it's not that. I never minded you calling me that. I just... thought you didn't want to use it anymore. Since you hadn't in a while."

"I just thought...while we weren't really talking, it would make you uncomfortable, so I stopped. But now that we're trying again, I felt it would be okay to bring back."

Blitz smiled at Stolas, allowing himself to rest against the taller demon.

"Yeah, it's okay. At least when it's just the two of us."

"I'm glad... Blitzy."

The two got comfortable again, cuddling together on the couch. Stolas turned to the correct channel just in time for their show to start. Blitz zoned out a bit, letting his hand run through Stolas' chest feathers. He'd almost forgotten how warm and soft they were. Stolas gave off a lot of body heat in general.

"Blitz? Are you awake?"

The imp popped his head up when Stolas spoke again.

"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry, I guess I was just... thinking."

"About?"

"About...how much I've missed you..."

Stolas was surprised by this. He turned down the volume of the TV and looked at Blitz, giving his full attention.

"You've missed me?"

"Yeah, I have. And I guess...I didn't realize just how much until now."

He curled himself more around Stolas, holding onto the owl demon for dear life. Stolas wrapped his arms fully around Blitz, making the smaller demon feel protected and warm.

"Fuck Stolas...I really am stupid."

"Why do you say that?'

"Because I almost let you go."

Blitz took a few deep breaths, trying hard not to cry. Stolas lifted Blitz's head to look at him.

"I believe...we are both rather stupid in that regard. Because I almost let you go too."

They stared at each other for a long minute before Blitz moved, closing the gap between them and kissing Stolas tenderly. They kissed for a few minutes before coming up for air. Blitz pressed his forehead against Stolas'.

"I hope you realize I suck at this. I'm not...good at sharing my feelings. I'm working on it, I promise but... please be patient with me."

Stolas smiled, nuzzling against Blitz.

"I will, darling. I also have some... emotional difficulties I'm attempting to improve on. I suppose, we'll just have to take things slow."

"Slow huh? Yeah, I can work with that."

The two shared a warm smile, and another kiss, before returning to their cuddling position and tuning back into the TV, just in time to watch a girl kick her mother in law to be out of her dress appointment for a reason they didn't know. They both laughed. Blitz rolled his eyes and looked back at Stolas.

"We're gonna have to rewatch the episode later to get anything that's happening, aren't we?"

"Mostly likely, but I don't mind. This is...nice."

"Yeah...it really is..."

The two fell into a comfortable silence, simply enjoying each other's presence. Blitz continued to mindlessly run his fingers through Stolas' feathers, which felt lovely to the owl demon. If this is what taking things slow meant, the two demons could agree they were just fine with it.

#helluva boss #stolitz #helluva boss stolas #helluva boss blitzo #fanfic #oneshot #anon answered

[icepixie]

SNW 2x07

Spoilers

THAT WAS THE BEST THING EVER OMG OMG OMG

I rarely rewatch episodes but I might watch this SEVERAL times.

I have no coherent thoughts, so have some reactions:

The animated bit at the beginning was rather transparently set-up for the episode, but I was not expecting the Orion scientist thing to play such a large part in the narrative, so good on them.

The Lower Decks uniform looks fantastic in person. The next live action series needs to use it. (Live action Lower Decks miniseries, y/y??) Although it looked like Mariner kept pulling her shirt down, so maybe it wasn't as practical as it was good-looking.

YESSSSSSS THEY ANIMATED THE CREDITS!

Oh man, Boimler is the perfect character to come back in time like this. Not only does he enjoy it the most but he's so terrible at keeping his mouth shut it can only cause more complications.

OH MY GOD, Boimler is how Spock/Chapel gets nuked before TOS time? DUDE.

(I feel for you, Spock/Chapel shippers. And I feel bad for Christine, even though I want her out of that relationship.)

(But that said, Spock's attempts at smiling and laughing are super creepy and I hope that ends soon. Since they're meant to be creepy, hopefully they will.)

On a related note, why the hell is Boimler being allowed to walk around the ship? Why wasn't he put in a locked room until they figured out how to get him back to the future? And why was he allowed to just wander ON THE BRIDGE, where he was able to screw up the Orion interaction??? (I mean, well, I guess he had to be allowed there to make it so Tendi was alive...so I guess Tendi wasn't supposed to be there before this time travel trip? Nice.)

Hehehehe, all the bridge officers standing in a line not looking while Boims rejiggers the sensors.

Heheh, tiny Marinler moment when she basically leaps into his arms from the portal. And of course she would be trying to save him only to use up the last of the blorbonium. I liked that, although I also wish she'd been able to be in the episode as long as Boimler was.

Awww, Pelia's advice to Boimler is so good for him to hear.

"Do they sound weird to you?"/"Yeah, all slow and soft." Bwahahaha.

Hahaha, Mariner fangirling Uhura. And Uhura being like, "fuck, I'm famous? Goddamit, I can't take the pressure!" Hee!

Oh thank god, Pike, you finally confined them to quarters. (For two seconds. And they didn't even go.) I was waiting for the blorbonium as a part of the NX-01's hull to become relevant! Heh, and Mariner was the one who paid attention because Boimler was distracted by grapplers.

Heh, everyone notices Mariner is...not exactly model Starfleet officer material.

OF COURSE THEY TRY TO STEAL A SHUTTLE. OF COURSE THEY DO.

Awwwwwww, Una gets to be the poster girl for recruitment! That's gotta be so gratifying after the trial. Such a nice moment for her (and for us). I wonder if Boims and Mariner even knew she was court-martialed, or did Starfleet cover it up and paper it over with making Una the face of recruitment?

But on that note, I was expecting events to be wiped clean from the SNW characters' memories, 'cause there's a looooooot of timeline pollution here. La'an must be horrified. (Especially since this is the second episode in a row to remind her of her own time travel experience.)

Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome are preternaturally good at capturing their animated selves' movements and translating them to live action. Maybe Quaid a little more than Newsome, but I think that's because animated Boimler's movements are slightly more realistic than Mariner's. She tends to do more arm motions or whatever that aren't quite possible in real life.

YES YES YES THE SNW CHARACTERS GOT ANIMATED YESSSSSS! And it's because of the Orion alcohol! They dropped acid and turned into cartoons! (Fringe did this and it was also a blast.)

You guys, I am SO. THRILLED. with this episode. A thousand sins from earlier episodes are forgiven.

#strange new worlds #star trek: strange new worlds #snw spoilers #strange new worlds spoilers

[jillcfan]

Kara (Series 5) Merlin

I wanted to do a little piece on the character Kara the girl who breaks Mordred away from Camelot in the episode, The Drawing of the Dark. I enjoyed the episode at the time but as I rewatched it, it occurred to me how differently it compared to the earlier series of Merlin.

If you think back to the character of Edwin Muirden for example who featured in A Remedy to Cure All Ills, his character was developed quite differently to those who opposed Camelot in the later series. There was a definite effort to show that he was not all bad and indeed what he’d experienced as a child in watching his parents burn to death, at least showed there were reasons, why he was the way he was. In other words, they allowed a back story to explain his emotions and motivations, something which was definitely lacking later on in the show.

Kara was a character who a lot of the Merlin fan base ended up really disliking, which I think is a shame, as there were admirable parts of her character. Everyone in Merlin to my mind had shades of grey to their personalities, there were no perfect ones including Merlin, Arthur and Gwen. To me, there seemed to be less motivation on the part of the writers to show a back story on those fighting Camelot, as the series went on. It needs to be said once again that they seemed more interested in developing the Arthur-Merlin relationship by that time, so there was less time to show the shades of grey in the minor characters as a result.

I have questioned in another article whether Arthur had lived up to his reputation overall. I am not sure he had and as a result there was still plenty of justification, for those fighting against Camelot to continue their battle against Arthur.  Had Arthur really done enough to right the wrongs of his father through the series which followed? Had he attempted at working with the Druids, to allow them to enter Camelot, as they had in the past? I think the answer is definitely no, so for me there were reasons as to why someone like Kara had a right to question Arthur’s behaviour as a King, towards her own people.

In some ways TDotD was a strange episode in the way it was set up. There seemed to be this willingness to show Kara in a truly negative light. Right from the start she is seen as quite aggressive in manner in her opening scene with Mordred. It is understandable that she is having problems with seeing Mordred as a Knight of Camelot, considering their shared backgrounds. But it would have been a perfect moment to perhaps shows us some of their past, but we don’t even get a glimpse of that sadly.

When she is arrested after attempting to attack Arthur once again, we see only very negative stances from her. It’s as though they don’t want the audience to even ask basic questions about her motivations or reasons. It’s curious that the only time we see a softer side to her is either when she’s alone in the dungeon or obviously when she is with Mordred. The lack of a back story for Kara damages her, especially in the justification of the audience watching. We can guess that she may have seen some horrific events growing up, as we know Druid camps were attacked. But because there is no effort to shine a light on her past experiences, it tends to colour Kara as a character without sympathy in the viewer’s eye.

 You have to wonder why all of a sudden, the writers seemed happy to show certain characters (a lot of them female ones) with a lack of subtly, when before they were happy to do the opposite before. But all that besides shouldn’t mean that the Karas of this world should just be dismissed.

To me, Kara sees herself as a freedom fighter for her people. She is not just thinking about how the end result affects her, but also her people. There is that scene in The Drawing of the Dark where Arthur attempts to get Kara to “repent her crimes.” So many people condemned her for this action claiming it proved she had little goodness in her. But in fact, to me it showed her strength. She could easily have accepted Arthur’s terms and saved her own life. But how would that have changed anything for her people? In the end, she sacrifices her life for the vision she believed in; which was equality for the Druids and for those people who possessed magic.

Perhaps sometimes it is hard for the audience to sympathize with the “other side” when your main interests are Arthur and Merlin. But in truth, it should still matter that those with magic ended up in pretty much the same place as before. While its true Arthur wasn’t as aggressive as his father, nothing moved any further forward. How could Arthur truly bring the Kingdom together when one section of society was still living in the shadows? At the beginning of Merlin this question seemed to be a lot more important to the show makers, but by the end the show was driven into another direction. In the end, it felt a missed opportunity. But to me, those characters which asked questions of Camelot and its rulers were just as interesting and contrasting as the main cast. At the end of the day, we are all mixtures of different qualities and shades of grey.  It is what binds the human race together.

#bbc merlin #kara #mordred #arthur #merlin #series 5

[awsok]

Hello, different anon here! Enjoying both of your takes. Personally I think that Shin got obsessed with how much fun she had lightsaber-fighting with and *trying* to kill Sabine but never really wanted Sabine to die, that it was intentional to stab her off-center. Instead of swooping in for the kill when she kicked Sabine to the ground in the forest fight, it looks like she relaxes and waits contentedly for Sabine to respond https://youtu.be/kjkX-SNrc4o?si=cNi7lsBvFBwol8h2&t=66 and she doesn't try to kill Sabine after throwing the smoke bomb even though she could have very quickly and easily. I just got the vibes on my first impression that Shin was having fun and enjoying having Sabine as a rival/opponent. but obv that is still just my headcanon based on how I read her performance

hi! thanks for weighing in!

i think i agree with you about the episode one duel: it's definitely the fight in which shin had the most opportunity to kill sabine, to the point where it's difficult to believe that she didn't deliberately let sabine live. and during the fight (though bear in mind i'm hardly a fight choreography expert) it does seem like shin is more focused on getting a measure of sabine and having fun rather than trying to defeat her efficiently - especially considering that she probably could have escaped with the orb without fighting sabine at all.

in their fight in the forest in episode four i think that sense of shin enjoying herself continues, but to me it seems more like a playing with her food kind of vibe. in this scenario, shin was sent to stop sabine - originally to shoot her down (and it didn't feel like she was pulling her punches when they were in the air). it seems like she's enjoying the fight and dragging it out to make it last - but i still think she intended (or told herself that she intended) to kill sabine by the end of it.

wait am i bullshitting? hold on let me go and rewatch episode four.

okay i'm back. yeah the smoke bomb is definitely a way for shin to end the fight without killing sabine. i would argue that shin did this for a fast exit to give baylan backup against ahsoka, but that's only a guess really.

and then the force-choking at the end of episode four. it's not clear exactly when shin comes back to consciousness, but she at least is able to see baylan holding the orb and sabine not fighting him - so she can probably clock pretty quickly that a bargain has been struck. but she still force-chokes sabine - assuming that baylan's offer of a bargain was a trick?? i don't think the force-choking was just about releasing some stress or trying to knock sabine out (and baylan's instruction to knock it off suggests that he thinks she's attempting a murder here).

anyway tl;dr i think shin always planned (or told herself that she planned) to kill sabine. and it's only in episode six that this doesn't seem to be the plan anymore.

#thanks for the ask it's fun to hear another perspective! #star wars #wolfwren #shin hati #sabine wren #ask #* #sorry this got so long #and sorry if it's a bit incoherent i woke up with pretty knarly brain fog today! #ahsoka

[veliseraptor]

Favorite fictional sapphic relationship? 👀

are we talking favorite actual or favorite hypothetical because those are kind of two different things. also there are a lot more of the latter unfortunately. and while a part of me is like "it's gotta be Qiyan Agula/Nangong Jingnu, doesn't it, truly the f/f pairing that delivered all of my favorite things (betrayal! disguised identity! reluctantly falling in love with your hated enemy! incredible amounts of emotional dysfunction!)" I actually feel like I might have to give this one to Catra/Adora? for the emotional place it holds in my heart that I think is somewhat comparable to the way many people around my age feel about Korrasami.

I feel like while Korrasami is very important to me in the abstract, Catra/Adora was sort of...my Korrasami, in a sense, in that it was the pairing where when I was watching She Ra I was like "oh man this is so perfectly a dynamic that I love between these two characters, I love the arc this is taking and the messiness of this relationship" and the sheer...euphoria? of it actually happening, textually, on screen? like, I don't need something to be canon for me to care, obviously, I'd be shit outta luck in a lot of ways if that was my expectation. but the absolute SCREAM that came out of me when it became clear that OH WE'RE DOING THIS. it was really something. like, I guess the lesbian representation I really needed was the one that involved more murder attempts which really just figures.

as I wrote at the time:

...maybe I should rewatch She-Ra.

my favorite "not hypothetical, absolutely subtextually present but not overt/on screen" sapphic relationship is definitely Lucille/Edith from Crimson Peak though. the more I think about it the more into it I am. also the less I find myself caring about Thomas and the more I'm just like. dang the movie where they fucked though. it would defeat the purpose of the sublimated sexuality that actually makes this better but also. hot.

also @veilchenjaeger got me singlehandedly attached to Liu Mingyan/Sha Hualing as a concept because of all the ways it plays with all kinds of fun things that I feel like I don't usually get in f/f ships. like, it's not fucked up in the way that I'm usually after but it's got a lot of other interesting stuff going on and damn do I need to get back to that sex pollen fic

#conversating #stripedroseandsketchpads #lise memes #also now i'm thinking about morgana/gwen again #shoulda been morgwen. is what i'm gonna say