#this is a post about me missing supernatural cw which i never watched

[mylittleredgirl]

my favorite way of participating in some fandoms is from the bleachers. i'm in the nosebleed seats with a pair of binoculars watching a full on bloodbath in the arena below, having the time of my life.

#this is a post about me missing supernatural cw which i never watched #i am yet to find a replacement that satisfies my hunger for chaotic fandom drama i do not understand and i AM taking recommendations

[hobicakess]

I’m just dropping a little something that’s been brewing for a while and I have like 4 series that I haven't posted

cw: allusions to past SA, period typical themes, there might be some switches from 3rd to 2nd person ill fix it later.

Just vampire hyung line and their immortal wife. Throughout the years she met them all one by one and she married them all legally throughout the years. Today we’re going to read about her, Seokjin, and Yoongi's story.

First she was married to Jin although she met Yoongi decades before. Though their relationship was still very rocky. Her and Seokjins marriage was strictly arranged by the Supernatural council. Seokjin being an original vampire and her being an original immortal (meaning she was “blessed” directly by the gods to walk the earth eternally) the marriage was for the sake of reproduction.

At first Jin was furious about the arrangement. He was an original vampire. He'd been living way before the council was organized and now they were demanding him. Kim Seokjin. The handsomest, wealthiest, one of the eldest vampires to live to marry a silly human who'd been cheated out of death and they want him to taint his very old and pure bloodline. He was extremely offended at the notion.

But all his protest went out the window when he saw her.

If you couldn’t already tell, Seokjin back then was extremely arrogant, cocky, and selfish. He saw her as a Status booster (as if his status wasn’t already high) having her by his side, this beautiful immortal woman to procreate with— this would make everyone even more envious for eternity so he sucked it up and agreed. He of course would have other lovers just like she already did

Yoongi. Former Emperor Min Yoongi wasn’t her lover at this time, he just so happened to be bonded to her. That bond was only because of the bracelet he wore around his wrist, she tricked him into putting it on only for his safety, Yoongi was devoted to her because of it, and regardless he loved her dearly. He had no choice but to follow her wherever she went and now she’s forcing him to watch her marry.

When she met with the council Yoongi thought she’d disagree but she didn't, which made him beyond furious.

When the meeting ended Seokjin walked to him “Looking forward to sharing, Vampling.” Patting his shoulder, Yoongi's fangs bared as he went to attack the older vampire but she called his name and he had no choice but to follow her like a kicked puppy.

When the two of them were alone, Yoongi slammed her against the wall, his hand breaking through it. “You are mad! You’re really going to marry that entitled pig?” He hissed venom dripping from his fangs. He didn’t know if it was him being an emotional vampling or his love for her making him feel this way. He’s never felt like this before. He used to cut heads off with a blink of an eye, and now he’s crying because he should be the one marrying her. “You would let me sit back and suffer while some random man marries and fucks you like a common whore.''

As you can tell back then Yoongi couldn’t control any of his new found emotions, being that he’d never felt any before he grew up as a king, a boss. emotions were for common folk now here he is.

“Yoongi, I understand you’re upset but don’t you dare call me names. I am simply doing-“ he cut her off, finding another part of the wall to punch, closer to the side of her face this time.

“I’ve watched you burn down villages, I’ve seen you make men tear their own skin from their bone, You’re far more powerful than-“

“Shut your mouth. They mustn’t know of the powers I have possessed. They’ll lock me up for eternity just as they’ve done the warlocks and witches.” Her hands raised to touch his still warm cheeks, she’ll forever miss his warmth when he hits his chilling point.

“ I am doing this for the sake of us, everything I have done these years has been for us.”

Her and Seokjin's wedding was beyond big, almost every supernatural species being invited. It was like Seokjin to go all out like this. While she was being prepped for the ceremony she was saddened, Yoongi had left for weeks and she didn’t know if or when he’d come back, but the wedding still happened without Yoongi and you had no living family so she was alone stuck with Seokjin and his asshole friends and family.

Yoongi scoffed, “If you genuinely want to do something for me release me of these awful feelings.” moving her hands from his face

“If you truly do not wish to be bound to me any longer I will remove your Geumganggo” she reach to unlock the golden bracelet and before she could remove it Yoongi was gone in a flash.

When she met Seokjin father she immediately felt a deep sense of hatred for him and then she felt bad for SeokJin. The reason he acted the way he did was because of the way he grew up and who he grew up with. “Well I Wouldn’t have wanted my son married to an immortal but you currently have the hips to make his children.”

Seokjin's father's eyes drifted to her hips that were outlined in the tight red wedding dress.“Thank you sir.” she bowed with gritted teeth.

“We are family, please call me father.” He grabbed your hand and brought it to his lips when it was snatched away by Seokjin.

“My wife must be really tired, she is still a human after all and we can’t have her too tired out already” his joke made the whole crowd laugh embarrassing her further, he scooped her up bridal style effortlessly.

“Goodnight.” and he zoomed away bringing the two of them into their bed chambers.

She was on the bed, pressed underneath Jin’s wide body. “Hello wife.” He smirked, pushing a coil of her hair back.

“Are you planning to pretend we are actually a happily married couple?” She stared up at him frowning.

“It speeds up the breeding process.” scoffing, pushing him off, stomping on the dresser, taking all her jewelry in angry huffs. He stood behind watching her in the vanity mirror “ You looked beautiful today, and that says a lot coming from me.” turning to look at her ‘husband’ scoffing again.

“Are you immune to not being a.. nuisance?”

“You are upset your vampling lover did not show.” it wasn’t a question it was a statement and it pissed her off more.“Vamplings are emotional creatures especially when it comes to their sires.”

“I am not a vampire, how can I be his sire?” Looking at him through the mirror. “Well I am going to assume you were with him when he first awoke?”

She was with him. Through the aching process of change. Holding cold towels on his forehead while the venom and humanity fought against each other, she was there when he awoke with the hunger of only fresh blood.

Seokjin clicked his tongue, "I guess the human stupidity still stays in Immortals" her frown becomes deeper as she removes the caked up makeup on her face with even more force than before. "Are you planning to frown all night? It is our wedding night."

She sighs, standing and unzipping her dress so it falls to her feet going to lay back on the sheets.

"What is this?" He asked confused, eyebrows raised as he stared down at her missionary position. "I am speeding up the breeding process."

"I cannot do it like.." he waved his hand over you

"This."

"Oh? would you prefer me on my stomach?" She moved herself into a face down position causing the vampire to sputter and the remaining blood he consumed during the wedding rushed to his ears as he pulled at his tie removing it.

"I cannot have you in anyway if you aren't willing." She turned back to him sitting with confusion evident all over her face. Seokjin couldn't believe it. "I was in position?"

"Position doesn't mean willingness, darling" he sighed, grabbing a sleeping gown from the dresser and handing it to her. She stares at him hard, eyes wide and the most vulnerable Seokjin has seen since meeting the immortal. “I admit that I haven't been the kindest since meeting you.”

He swallows hard, kneeling in front of her, helping her step into the frilly gown pulling it over her bare shoulders, skillfully tying the strings in the back of it. “But. I am not that kind of man who abuses his masculinity and forces himself onto unconsenting women.”

When he finished he grabbed her hands “For as long as we are together as wife and husband I will never force you to do anything you won't want to”

Standing and rolling his wide shoulder he adds “Sex wise of course”

She scoffed at him loudly, “And I thought you were being genuine.”

“You're a few centuries late darling.”

#bts x black reader #bts x reader #yoongi x reader #namjoon x reader #dee recs. #hoseok x reader #bts ot7 #kim seokjin x reader #jungkook x reader

[impostoradult]

So I've got to ask, because I stopped watching SPN at the end of season 4 (because Kripke said it'd end at the end of season 5 and I didn't want it to end, but then it didn't and a friend of mine just said that it turned into crap and I wanted to keep it good in my mind so... Well I didn't watch the seasons after that) but I'm kind of wondering if I should watch it? Is it... Good? I'm thinking about character developpement mostly, the story in general... And the finale: will I want to forget about it or... ?

Second ask which is totally non related: as for Jensen Ackles, what is it about people saying he is homophobic? Every interview I've seen... The guy seems pretty charming ? But I haven't been following him much so maybe I'm mistaking ?

Whew! You have asked 2 questions about which whole books could be written.

Q1

Here's what I'll say re: is Supernatural Good/Worth Watching all the way through. Seasons 4 & 5 are the peak of the show in terms of general story-telling quality. The entire show post season 5 is VERY hit or miss from episode to episode, and from season to season.

However, there's also a TON of great stuff that comes after season 5, particularly interesting character development stuff with all the leads at various points. And there are some awesome side characters that get introduced like Charlie and Rowena and Kevin, who are really fun and add a lot in their occasional appearances. Also there are some truly stand-out episodes and arcs in those later seasons. The problem is, you have to wade through a fair amount of eye-rolling, repetitive, and sometimes just plain lazy or ill-conceived nonsense to get to the good stuff. You DO have to slog. And you have to be willing to put up with some TRULY stupid writing choices along the way. Do I think it's worth it?

Ultimately, my answer is yes. But BARELY. Just barely.

I'll also say, while the incorporation of Castiel varies a lot in both amount and quality from season to season after S5, overall the Dean/Castiel storyline within the show is incredibly compelling. As a long-form slow-burn romance, it is one of the most gripping pieces of romantic storytelling I've ever seen (and I'm including hetero pairings in that statement as well). So if that is something you are invested in (or think you might be), Supernatural becomes A LOT more worth watching.

Which leads me to the ending, which in truth, I never watched. I stopped watching at 15x19. I know enough about what happened in 15x20 to know I don't need to see it. At this point, I'm also fairly certain they are gonna do a sequel/reboot and retcon it, so it doesn't really matter anyway. Jensen Ackles is bound and determined to bring it back at some point, so I'm 95% sure that ending isn't going to stand, no matter what. (Which I am more than fine with. Although I don't enjoy beating dead-horse media franchises in general, he is right to want to retcon it, IMO, and I support him in this endeavor).

And speaking of Jensen Ackles...

Q2

The question around his homophobia (or lack thereof) is also super complex. In my personal opinion, no, I don't think he is (though I understand why that idea persists among some fans)

He did demonstrate resistance to the idea of Destiel or queer interpretations of Dean in earlier eras of Supernatural's run, often in the context of Supernatural Fan Conventions when he was speaking off the cuff to questions directly posed to him by fans. And sometimes he wasn't super tactful in how he expressed himself.

But I get the feeling a lot of those incidences were a product of a variety of different things that aren't reducible to personal homophobia on his part:

In the context of those conventions, the actors are acting as PR extensions of the show. And The CW company line for basically ALL of Supernatural's run has been Dean's straight and Destiel is just fan shipping. Jensen Ackles, as a representative of the show, wasn't in a position to disagree publicly with the company line, regardless of how he felt privately. It would have caused a huge shit-storm of blow back if he'd done that. One of my big frustrations with the SPN fandom is the lack of awareness that actors are not allowed to just freely share their thoughts and feelings about the show's content, particularly when they might disagree or disapprove of it. It makes you look unprofessional, as an actor, when you do that. Its like going in front of an audience to announce publicly that you disagree with your boss and think they should have handled something very differently. That's OBVIOUSLY unprofessional, even if/when you are right. These actors have never been in a position to share how they really feel or think about this publicly because of the nature of entertainment PR. Again, I think Jensen hasn't always been tactful in how he handled those situations, but I also don't take ANY of those statements all that seriously because in those moments Jensen was acting primarily as a spokesperson for the "brand"/entity of Supernatural, regardless of his actual thoughts/feelings about anything.

I also think he's probably evolved a lot on this issue over the years, both in terms of his personal politics AND his attitudes about the content of Supernatural. Now this gets into sticky territory because I am now 'reading' Jensen and his life as a public figure. And there is so much more that is hidden versus what is visible. So what follows is HIGHLY speculative on my part and should be understood as such. But, my personal interpretation of his queer politics is he grew up in Texas in the 80s & 90s in a fairly conservative and overtly Christian household (which he has spoken about publicly more than once). And while I doubt he was ever overtly hateful towards queer people, I do suspect he was raised with a lot of the general biases that come with that kind of background. I also think as a result of working in Hollywood for so many years, becoming such deeply close friends with Misha Collins (who, for all his whatever around this, is a polyamorous ultra-lefty hippie), and having the fandom that Supernatural has (which is at a conservative guess 80% queer people), he has probably come a long way from where he started about this. I ALSO think his ideas about queer Dean and Destiel have evolved a lot, though he's never said it explicitly in so many words (because again, I don't think he's ever really been at liberty to). BUT, it was incredibly clear in his very loud silence on the SPN 'finale' he really disliked what they chose to do in 15x20. It was also incredibly clear he was very emotional about 15x18. He had a cast member shoot a private video of the Castiel confession scene for him to keep on his phone. We also know they conducted formal market research on the idea of making the romance between Dean and Cas even more explicitly canon in final seasons. That didn't happen, for reasons we may never know. But it's pretty clear to me that at the start of season 13, they seemed to be setting up that romantic arc pretty heavily. And I think Jensen knew that and maybe even got attached to the idea before the powers that be shut it down for whatever reasons they did.

Again, all of this is my personal understanding which is based on real events and statements and such, but is still an inference based on all of those disparate pieces of data.

But in sum, no I don't think Jensen Ackles is homophobic. Yes, I think he has said a few insensitive things in the past, but I think there was a PR aspect to a lot of it, and I also think he's shown a lot of growth in the right direction over time.

I also think there's like a solid 35% chance he'll retcon the ending of SPN and give Dean and Cas a proper (romantic) ending, out of spite if nothing else. I think there's like a 95% chance he's gonna reboot it. He cannot shut up about it. Whether or not the reboot will do right by the Destiel storyline is far less certain for me. I'm not CONVINCED of the so-called "Jackles long-con" conspiracy theory. But I think there's a solid 1 in 3 chance its real, which is enough possibility that I'm not willing to wash my hands of this yet.

So many other insane fan conspiracy theories about Supernatural have turned out to be right. And this one has more evidence than a decent number of the others.

I hope this insanely long response helps!

#long post #Supernatural #Jackles #Jensen Ackles

[hrokkall]

what were the ex kittypets lives like before joining the clans? and what was going on with the hex cats?

IFor your first question it varies a tiny bit, but for the most part, their lives were pretty damn good (before being in proximity of the clans Supernaturally Rancid Energy actively made them go to shit).

Luke���s life is/was pretty self-explanatory. At the beginning of the story, he’s still a kittypet (and fully intends to stay that way!) He’s not the most spoiled cat in the world, but he’s DEFINITELY got like a cat tree and shit. The AU is kickstarted by Sparkstar getting TNRed and given to Luke’s twoleg to foster while he recovers from being spayed due to the shelter being HUGELY oversaturated with cats. The only reason Luke follows Sparkstar out to the territories in the first place is because he doesn’t want it to pop a stitch and/or have his twoleg freak out because “holy shit the cat I was supposed to watch is fucking GONE”—Luke has no interest in becoming a clan cat, but… due to the way the clan territories operate in this AU he doesn’t have much of a choice unless he really fights for it.

Kaycee’s life wasn’t too bad either. She had a bit more of an adventurous streak than Luke and actively went to the clans out of curiosity rather than concern followed by curiosity, but that doesn’t mean she wanted to leave. Eventually though, she didn’t have much of a choice. Her twoleg went to work one day and just… never came back. Kaycee doesn’t think she was purposefully left there—her twoleg was kind of a shut-in and definitely wouldn’t leave her on purpose—but that didn’t stop her from biding her time regardless. Hoping it was just a long shift. So she waited. And waited. One week turned into two. Two turned into someone else coming home: swabbing for fingerprints and taking pictures with no regards to the cat hiding under the bed. She had to be actively dragged out to the territories by Poppystar. They both knew that she wouldn’t be able to leave afterwards but… she didn’t really have any other option.

Bryce’s kittypet life was really good! He lived with an old woman who, unfortunately, wasn’t allowed to keep him when she was moved into a retirement home. He was originally passed along to her daughter, but was subsequently made an outdoor cat for “”displaying signs of aggression”” (which was Obviously not the case. He was EXTREMELY stressed out due to the sudden Massive Change in environment/people—he was used to being the only cat in a relatively small house with very little noise/stimuli and now he’s suddenly in a completely different space with loud noises and small children that don’t know that pulling a cat’s tail is not a sign of affection. He’s got the patience of a saint, but all of that at once puts a real toll on a guy). He misses his old twoleg a lot, but is glad he met the rest of the gang at least.

Rebecha may have been a kittypet at one point too (at least judging by her name) but I don’t think that will be super explored. Again though, rule of funny is #1 here, so she may very well have been a show cat at one point who just Got Sick Of It and Left. But seeing how in real life if a show cat got lost their owner would probably freak the fuck out and Beca doesn’t actively have a twoleg looking to bring her back home... I’ll leave it open to interpretation.

The Hex Cats are a whole other can of worms, and describing their role requires me to go a little more in-depth about the universe of the AU itself. Don’t know how long this will end up being, but I’ll put it under the cut regardless:

Cw implied/referenced animal death (in a warrior cats context)/maybe unreality below the cut

As mentioned in the previous post, in parallel to the OLD_DATA in canon, the clans are basically living right on top of hell, or, as they call it, “What Lies Beneath” (or just the Beneath for anyone who isn’t extremely pretentious). Most cats aren’t aware of its existence, but they are aware of its effects, though they assume it’s normal because... well... they don’t know differently. It starts off small: just a nagging persistence that they have to get back to the territories if they leave, followed by physical sickness if they don’t return, that eventually leads to death (unless they get really far really fast/find some way to effectively “lock it out”, which no one has managed as they are a bunch of feral cats with few resources at their disposal). This is part of the reason why Sparkstar is so desperate to get back to the territories the fact that it just had a major operation. Not only would it make Rustclan look incompetent without their proper leader, he’s so tied to the Beneath due to making tangible efforts to give to it, he experiences these effects tenfold. ...You know how in Omen of the Stars how cats that trained in the Dark Forest would wake up with battle scars and shit? It’s that but Worse (and also less cut-and-dry). Best non-WACA comparison I can give are the TMA entities.

So where do the Hex Cats come in with this? Not all of them are clan cats, after all, and they tended to stick to the outskirts of the territories, so wouldn’t they be able to just kind of... break away?

Short answer: no. That would be too easy.

Years prior to the beginning of the story, they try to leave the clans together as a group under Stormblaze’s suggestion. She doesn’t give a ton of details: just that life will be better for them without having to deal with a bunch of fuzzy megalomaniacs gallivanting around the woods playing god and they agree. It goes well for a surprisingly long time. Stormblaze pointedly ignores the fact that she feels compelled to return “home” and Weaselkit dismisses the feelings for nostalgia. That quickly changes when the others start to feel the overwhelming desire to return too. Stormblaze insists they push onwards, that the feeling will fade when they’re far enough away from its influence. They aren’t fast enough and (being not nearly as emotionally constipated and cagey/generally better at hiding symptoms as Stormblaze) Weaselkit falls very visibly ill.

Obviously Stormblaze’s plan isn’t working, and--consequences be damned--they have to return to the territories. Their symptoms all mysteriously alleviate, of course: they’re back, after all. But... seeing as Stormblaze is Chandrelle’s equivalent, they have a very similar temperament: that is to say, she didn’t explain jack shit about “the curse” tying them to the territories, even those that have only interacted with it accidentally. And boy. She did not anticipate how easy it would be to interact with accidentally.

A little bit of exposition later and... admittedly, the Hex crew is a little bit on shaky terms with each other due to lack of communication. But they’re determined, if nothing else. Their own symptoms are getting worse as well, even when they stick to the outskirts, and damn it, as rash as she is, they know on some level that the sentiment of “we need to get the fuck out of here” is right.

Their solution: go down and confront the thing itself. The clan territories are littered with places where the ground slopes sharply down and cats can find themselves not in sprawling caves but in something below reality. They can’t kill or subdue something that’s hardly tangible, they know that. The Thing tethering them is a force, not a creature. They just have to show that they aren’t worth it. Throw salt in its eyes for long enough to let it find a target more willing to give.

So they devise a plan. On the night of the meeting, Rebecha will stand guard on the central island and give a signal when everyone is there and the talking has begun for the gang to sneak onto the territories proper. The easiest “entrance” is technically the Bone Lord’s den, but as none of them are able to pay the fee, they settle for the closest one instead: the sinkhole on Sageclan territory known as the Mire’s Maw

...To their merit, for a bunch of cats rearing up to fight a borderline eldritch entity to save their hides, they get pretty damn close. They make a lot of correct assumptions: it is mostly oblivious to its effects, and is uncaring who or what carries out its goals so long as they get completed. Hypothetically, so long as they don’t do what the leaders did and basically tether their lifelines to it, there should be a way out.

They miss the part that, by willingly going onto clan territory and climbing down into the very thing they sought to avoid without any real tether to the surface... they basically just gave themselves to it directly.

They do not return after moonhigh. Not after the moonhighs after that, and Rebecha is left to tend to the Talkingstones alone.

#Re: Inbox #Re: Anon #Battle Cats AU

[owlmylove]

Ok so as someone who has never seen an episode of Supernatural in their life but understands a lot of references/whatnot from living through superwholock tumblr, can you explain what happened with destiel? I don't know what to google :/

as someone who has also never seen an episode of Supernatural but was slowly poisoned by the smog of secondhand fandom back in the 20-teens, I’ll do my best babe!!

Castiel apparently made some sort of deal with some sort of entity (??) that, if he was ever happy, he would immediately descend into Super Hell because obvi supernatural has lost all sense of consequences since they jumped the shark in like, season 2 and presumably have spent the last 8 years jumping a veritable Sea World’s worth of meaninglessly dramatic plot twists

anyway, Castiel told Dean he loves him in some of the worst heterosexual acting I have ever seen, somehow (????) felt happy while watching Jensen Ackles look furiously constipated, and then was immediately sucked down a firey hell tube into Super Hell (which feels very Freudian anal fixation 2 me), where gay people go if they dare to be happy for one (1) second

ALSO: the script has since leaked and Dean reportedly “Can Not Reciprocate” so CW rlly just handed us the fastest ever bury your gays speedrun and said “you’re welcome :) :) :)”

this news broke last night while most people were enjoying the bamboo-under-fingernails sensation of refreshing twitter every 5 seconds to check Nevada/Pennsylvania/Georgia results in the U.S. election, and APPARENTLY the New York Post decided this was a good time to come out with a headline that claimed Putin was stepping down as president

natch, the overlap of these 3 events was too much for our tenuous grasp on reality to survive and all hell broke loose. most ppl found out abt the Putin resignation (which has since been denied by the Kremlin) via tweets about destiel “becoming canon” (which has since been disproven by the script) and we all collectively took a tab of cultural LSD and astral-projected back to 2012

now johnlock apologists are apparently crossing their fingers (I think they’re getting a new season in 2022? because yeah sure why the fuck not) and i���m looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes in case the fucking once-ler rises again

soooooo thats what you missed last time on glee <3 

#owl-steal-your-soul #also hi i obviously love your username #owl gang!!!!! <3 #long post #owl post

[talesofafangirlwithadvr]

April 2021 Picks

And we’re back with the end to another month. April! Wow! Lots more great picks to talk about this time. Lots of new ones to the list too. So, let’s dive in!

Spoiler territory ahead!

THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER

or should I say Captain America and the Winter Soldier

I just finished the finale last night, so it felt right to start off with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I really enjoyed it and I feel the episodes got stronger as the series went on. Each one felt like a mini-movie and I was upset it was over and had to wait another week for another one. I think the finale was my favorite. Especially the reveal of Sam as Captain America. I love his suit, his speech and the montage of everyone watching him. The last part of the episode was definitely my favorite and one I can watch on repeat. I loved seeing happy Bucky and him goofing off with the kids in Louisiana. He deserves so much happiness as he has now accepted he’s no longer who he once was. Bucky and Sam’s relationship is fantastic and I can’t wait to see it more. I know there’s a possibility of a second season and they have to be in a future MCU movie. Regarding the villain, I feel I was confused for most of the show as to what their objective was. I’m curious if this is because they had to reshoot parts during the pandemic. I also am mad with Sharon. Like what happened with her? She is definitely the true villain of the show. I also don’t love that we haven’t seen the end of Walker (but Wyatt Russell did a fantastic job). I also loved Torres and I hope he becomes the next Falcon. Definitely so different vibes from Wandavision, but just as good!

THE IRREGULARS

This is a show that more people need to be talking about! It was SO GOOD! I feel like I heard some buzz about it when it first came out, but not much after. It follows the teens featured about who live on the streets during Victorian London. The leader of their group, Bea gets approached by Dr. John Watson (that’s right...as in Sherlock and Watson) to take on a case that has more supernatural qualities. The story takes off from there. I think the group dynamic was fantastic. There wasn’t a character I didn’t like and each one brought something else important to the group (which they even bring up towards the end of the show). [I’ve watched a few cast interviews since finishing the finale and they seem like they get along really well in real life too.] There is a kind of love triangle, but it didn’t bother me and was over fast. I did like both combinations though. Lots of twists and turns along the journey. I have no idea if there will be another season, but there should be. It didn’t end on a major cliffhanger, but definitely ended in a way where it could continue nicely. Come on Netflix. 

HBO’S THE NEVERS

From one show set in Victorian times to the next. The Nevers just premiered on HBO and HBO Max earlier this month. It follows an ensemble of characters, similar to other HBO shows, ranging from characters who are called “the touched” to men in government who are against them. Being “touched” means they have a special talent or power, which can range from healing to speaking other languages, being extremely tall, or being an expectational inventor (I seriously love Penance. I just don’t know how to explain her ability). Amalia True and Penance Adair are two of the main characters and they help bring in others who are touched to a remodeled orphanage that is a safe haven for people like them. Of course there are those who are against them existing. This seems to be at least two groups as someone is abducting and experimenting on some of the touched, but we don’t know who they are...yet. I love the fusion of a historical setting with a fantasy element. I am very excited to see where the show is headed. I also love seeing so many of my favorite British actors on the screen together.      

ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND

Time for a throw back. Fans of ABC’s Once Upon a Time might remember the short lived spin off following Alice in Wonderland (and some of Aladdin). It only lasted for one season of 13 episodes, but I remember loving it and I am so happy I can rewatch it on Disney Plus. It reminds me of why I enjoyed OUAT so much and I think this show deserved another season or more crossover with the original show. (Luckily the Knave got that opportunity.) I think it should have aired as a summer show or when OUAT was on hiatus, this way more fans would have tuned in. It is something I’ll believe forever. 

Anyway, I’ll stop ranting now... I love Alice. I think she’s a badass and a fierce warrior. If you follow some of my posts on my other blog, Lydia-yougowith-Stiles, you’ll know that I love a warrior romance and Cyrus and Alice fit that perfectly (even if they are apart for much of the series). I also love Alice’s hair and outfits. Everything about her is cool. Her relationship with the Knave is one of my favorite friendships ever. I think they balance each other out so well and how they spend most of the journey together. Back in the day, I totally shipped them, but now I definitely don’t. (Even though I don’t love Anastasia.) This is definitely worth the watch if you’ve ever heard of Once Upon a Time or not. There is very cheesy CGI especially for 2013, but once you get pass that you’ll love it. 

ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST

It was on a longer break than I expected, and I didn’t miss it as much as I thought I would (which I know doesn’t sound good for a show), but I am still loving all the episodes this season. It feels like there are more musical numbers, which I love. Mandy Moore is killing it with the choreography. There are so many amazing moments. I also was a big fan of the newest glitch episode. Everyone is so talented and I also like that we’ve started to hear from more like Jenna and Tobin. Leif has become one of my favorites. I don’t love the new neighbor next door, but I think we’re done with his storyline. I’m not loving the Zoey love triangle, but I do like her with either Simon or Max. She seems really happy with Simon now. (FYI: I haven’t watched the most recent episode yet. The glitch one was my latest.) Can’t wait for more!    

KUNG FU

CW’s newest show this month was Kung Fu, which I just learned was a reboot. It follows Nicky who returns after 3 years to her home in San Francisco. Her family has mixed feelings as she has had no contact with them for the last 3 years. She is now a Kung Fu master and warrior, out to avenge her mentor’s death and stop a villain from acquiring mythical weapons. The show gives me Arrow vibes every time I watch it. It has similar flashbacks each episode to an earlier time in Nicky’s life. While Nicky’s mission is different, the style just gives me early seasons of Arrow vibes, which I am not complaining about. It stars Legacies’ Alyssa Chen, who I didn’t love on Legacies, but instantly fell in love with Nicky. I think she’s a bad ass character and love how she’s fighting for the underdogs on the streets of San Fran, while also taking down a bigger evil. The love triangle is heating up and I’m definitely team Henry (even though there’s some mystery there). I think he’s great and once again we have an awesome warrior romance. They balance each other so well and it’s only been like 3 episodes. Now they’ve also been sleuthing together and it’s just amazing. 

NANCY DREW

Are you sick of hearing me talk about CW’s Nancy Drew? I hope not because I’m going to fangirl again. I LOVE THIS SHOW SO MUCH! I can’t wait till Wednesday comes and I tune in a little after it starts, so then I can fast forward on my DVR. Then when the episode is over I basically start it all over again and watch select scenes that were awesome. (More specifically, they tend to be Nancy and Ace scenes because I love them and we’re entering so much angst I don’t know if my heart will be able to handle it!!!) 

I’ll say it a thousand times: THIS CAST IS EVERYTHING! Their dynamic is amazing. You can have any match ups and it’ll be a great time. There is not one person I don’t like. I was so upset that there wasn’t a new episode last week (especially because it was my birthday). I loved the last one with the Hardy Boys and that Nace reveal! OMG! I’m so sad that Grant has left again because we barely had him, but I feel he’ll eventually come back. He has to. I loved the ending when he spoke to Thom by signing to him. (My heart!) I seriously can’t say enough great things about this show. It is not your typical CW show and deserves more love and views. So happy a third season has already been confirmed!! 

LAST NOTES

Just started Shadow and Bone on Netflix and am loving it! I’m sure I’ll have an entire post dedicated to it when I’m done. (Currently going to start episode 6.) I have no background on the universe or the books (just what my sister is filling me in with as we watch). I definitely plan on reading Six of Crows after this!

So what are you enjoying? Let me know. I’m always looking for more shows to add to the list! Can never have enough. 

#april picks #TV Show Reviews #Monthly wrap up #nancy drew cw #zoeys extraordinary playlist #once upon a time in wonderland #ouatiw #the falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws #hbo the nevers #netflix the irregulars #the irregulars #kung fu cw #bucky barnes #sam wilson #bea x leo #spike x jess #amalia true #penance adair #nicky x henry #nace #shadow and bone #netflix shadow and bone #six of crows

[zmediaoutlet]

How are you doing? What did you think about the final?

fam, I’m doing fuckin great.

Like-- okay, I’m just gonna ramble.

A while back I made a really bitter post about how, for me, Supernatural was already over. It’s no secret I think that I’ve found the Dabb years... trying. Individual things were fine but it seemed like the grasp of how stories are built and arcs handled and themes threaded through all of that had completely gone out the window. That, to be clear, I still think is true--there’s a way in which the thing that made SPN itself cracked in two, maybe somewhere in like... s12 or s13, and it never really recovered. I was so eager/relieved when they announced that they were ending with s15 because I thought -- oh, thank god, at least they’ll have a real endpoint to work towards. Then, s15 started happening, and it was so amateurish and terrible that I just stopped watching because frankly it was just a form of self-harm. I kept up with gifs, but that’s about it.

Last night, I went and dug up something I’d said a while back in our discord:

I was right about the first part -- and I’m so, so happy to have been wrong about the last part.

The thing about writing is that you have to make choices. A lot of what the Dabb Era has been is a lack of choices. Kill someone off but immediately bring them back; strip sacrifice of meaning; try to have your cake and eat it too. I’ve gotten actually-angry about it, to the point that I had to like step back and regain perspective about how this is a low-rent sci-fi show on the CW. But writing’s important to me, as a craft, and I couldn’t understand how it was going so badly.

The best thing about finales is that those choices are real. No matter what--there’s an ending, and this is the only ending it’s gonna be. With most shows/movies, this is fine--you watch it, you’re done, you move on. With rabid fanbases this can go very badly, because the various too-invested factions have been writing the ending in their head for so long that the choice the writer makes--no matter what choice it is--will be wrong and bad and evil, because in contradicts their expectations. (Here I remember the phrase: those are very nice receipts, but you wrote them yourself.)

What was totally shocking to me last night, as I was watching live (for the first time ever, with SPN), was how strongly and clearly and completely Dabb was managing to nail this landing. He made a choice and he stuck to it, and it turned out that here was the show I’d been missing, all this time. Here was the SPN I thought about when I remembered Dark Side of the Moon, or All Hell Breaks Loose, or Head of a Pin. It was fully invested in the two main characters, and it was generous to them, and it was generous to us, all at the same time. And all those actual decisions were backed up with the most skill the crew has shown in yeeeeeaaaars -- from editing to camerawork to acting to lighting, everyone brought their absolute A-game, when it seemed like they’d been phoning it in all year. (Except The Wig. I feel like I could write a full essay about The Wig, but you know what, I love that wacky thing too.)

What’s further shocking to me, and absolutely kind, is how open the ending is, too. We have an unspecified length of time between 5.19 and 5.20, and we have no idea how many mornings might’ve been just like that one we got in their sweet domestic montage. Look at all the story you can fit into there. Dean got to be purely happy, before the end. Sam was, too. Everything about the barn scene, which is fodder for a billion fics. That kind, kind heaven, where you can make it what you need it to be to feel right. The opportunity for those who need it for Castiel to be free; the opportunity for those who need it to let Sam have another life. Hell, Sam basically had a reader-insert fic delivered in 5 minutes, and you can fit any interpretation at all into that. For a season about stories, it was pretty shittily delivered, but somehow the endcap was exactly what it needed to be: a gentle, kind way to say hey: this is our story, but you can make it what you need it to be. Like that line in Fan Fiction, all over again.

And then--that ending. All I needed. A bittersweet singing joy to it. I’m just being hammered all over again by--yeah. It was just kind. For that, it was just about perfect. I’m not interested in quibbling over details or fandomite wars, and tbh it’s been depressing as I find out who I need to unfollow or even block, but I’m glad. My show pulled it off, inexplicably, right at the end. Very Winchester of them. :)

#spn #spn spoilers #really not interested in arguing about this #and the people who are being miserable or assholey #i guess they have a right to do it #but i just want to sink into it for a while #it's such a relief #a catharsis #they remembered who they were after all #mystifiedgal

[ariadne-mouse]

Fic Writer Questions

Tagged by @mithrilwren, thank you fren!!

Name: Ariadne (mousecookie on Ao3)

Fandom(s): Critical Role (which totally absorbed me after I started watching early this year), but prior to that, CW’s The Flash.  My interests as a reader are much wider, but that’s for a different meme!

Where you post: Ao3 and Tumblr

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) this year:  Not surprised to find it’s the fluffy and indulgent Shadowgast fic, Creature Comforts.  With the year we’ve had, I’ve gone back to comfort-read it myself a few times!

Most Popular One Shot (by kudos) overall: Still Creature Comforts.  It’s easily eclipsed all my older Flash works (which had a smaller, if no less beloved audience) and remains the most popular CR fic as well.

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) this year:  Technically it’s my only multi-chapter, but - The Devil You Know, a Harrisco & Supernatural fusion.  The remaining WIP is largely complete with one major overhaul to do, though it seems far away now that I’ve shifted so much to Critical Role.  Maybe I’ll crack my knuckles and finish it one day... but regardless, at the time it taught me a lot about writing a story longer than little 3-5k bites.  (Also, I was genuinely surprised to find I only posted it in Feb 2020 - that feels like legit a century ago! Pandemic, man.) 

Most Popular Multi-Chapter (by kudos) overall:  Same as above!  The only one is, by default, the winner.

Favourite story you’ve written so far: Hands-down, it’s gotta be the delicate thing you prize so much, an Essek-centric Shadowgast.  It got sparked by a random lore post on tumblr pointing out that drow can sleep, and therefore it’s totally possible for Essek to be taking depression naps while missing his new friends.  I thought... hm, yes, and I wonder what Kryn sensibilities would have to say about that?  Time to tuck into some angst.  I really enjoyed diving into Essek’s backstory, doing worldbuilding, and thinking hard about what might have shaped him into the character we meet in canon.  

Fic you were nervous to post:  Probably tumblr snippets late in 2018 for The Flash, not because of any particular content, but because it was the first time I’d publicly posted anything since I was a wee tween with Lj/ffnet aspirations, oh, nearly two decades ago.  I also had a little trepidation about I miss a feeling (that I've never had before), since it was my first foray into Critical Role and a large fandom still in its heyday.  

How do you choose your titles?:  I usually either make up titles from scratch by tossing around word spaghetti (with an unapologetic predilection for punnery), or choose a compelling line or phrase quoted from a poem (always cited in the notes at the end of the fic).

Do you outline?: These days, yes, if the work is anything longer than a few thousand words.  But in the words of Captain Barbossa... they’re more like guidelines than actual rules.

Complete: 20 fics on Ao3, and a few snippets on Tumblr that were too small to make the jump or I otherwise neglected to transfer.

In-Progress: Oh gosh... uh... *shoves stack of WIPs and outlines out of sight that have definitely gone stale but I refuse to let go of* let’s say... three?  That I’m actively - if perhaps not frequently - working on.  I’ve got 1) an as-of-yet amorphous Shadowgast that I’ve decided to sit on until we get more info from the imminent canon reunion, 2) a canon divergence Widomauk arranged marriage AU, and 3) a Gen (probably) Marion & Yussa fic that is relaxing to work on because I’m not constantly stumbling over new canon each week.

Coming soon/not yet started:  Nothing well-formed enough to mention.  I’ve got tidbits and ideas percolating but many of them are waiting for a larger story to be part of.  

Prompts?: Sometimes!  I don’t generally do them ad hoc, but when I see a good prompt meme I’ll usually reblog it. Prompts are fun for warm-ups, breaks from longer WIPs, and writing bite sized snacks (or snacks that unexpectedly balloon into 13k oneshots, right @the-kaedageist? lolol)

Upcoming work you’re most excited about: They’re all too wibbly-wobbly for me to be super attached to one in particular at the moment!

Tagging: @bonitabreezy, @terrie01, and anyone else should you so desire!

#ask memes #writing #mouse #op

[overhighways]

final spn thoughts

the memes have me rolling with laughter, because after a finale that bad all you can do is laugh but, i also can't stop thinking about the fact that they said the perfect ending for dean, the depressed character who finally became stable and built a found family, was to die without any family or friends around besides his brother that really... was yikes...

so i initially quit the show on the episode that kevin died. i had stuck it out thru so many sexist and/or racist deaths and acts of violence on the show but that was kinda my breaking point. additionally, looking back over my old liveblogs and op eds on tumblr, i was getting really tired of the fact that for the 8 or so years of the shows run the brother's had never grown emotionally, and continued a constant cycle of being dangerously codependent but also continuously lying to each other and hiding things from each other which always resulted in some catastrophe, causing them to come into conflict. it was bad writing and a bummer for someone who liked the universe and the characters but wanted a satisfying change in their state of being from the beginning to the end of the narrative.

for a hot second in college i dropped out, because one semester cos i was just so depressed, and in between bringe drinking and smoking i thought i should watch supernatural but i literally only made it like half a season further then my initaly quitting point before being like "wow this is shit and i feel bad maybe i should stop and get help". so i really hadn't thought of the show except for when i saw a funny meme clowning superwholock for about five years now but then all the posts about 5.18 tricked my gay clown ass into sitting down and marathoning all of the episodes i had missed so i could watch the finale live.

and what i have to say is i know they experienced a couple shifts in show runners and head writers over the past five years so it was still inconsistent in quality (its a CW show so like, who is surprised?), but they actually really broadly improved the show i think. i remember that the first 5 seasons or so were more carefully planned and ben edlund provided so much good writing, that i think when edlund and kripke left the show lost its way for a while, and there were moments that were decent, but when they finally brought cas into the bunker and jack was brought in as a main character it felt like they got back on track. they were able to refocus the show on family while also allowing the dean and sam to grow as people and build a much healthier found family. the three of the boys bring in claire novak as their charge, jodi and her hunter family become regulars; the show kind of felt like it was closer to reaching its potential, like back when we all thought bobby and ellen were gonna be forever main characters, and dean and sam would have a family and semi normal hunter lives. so i kind of felt like sam's arc was mostly complete seasons ago, he was a pretty normal dude who was gonna end up with eileen and that was cute and lovely. but for dean i really think it was more complex and the whole final season being about killing god and truly giving everyone full free will to create any possible future they wanted, was gonna tie in more to dean's struggle to define himself outside of the role of his father's blunt instrument and his brother's protector. but instead they establish this amazing free will for everyone, cas literally dies to give dean the chance to finally be free, and then they wrote a finale that essentially says "free will doesn't exist and you will always be bound to certain expectations". like dean dying on a hunt is fine and arguably in character, but to not include any of the family that he painstakingly learned he could have? bullshit. they just completely disregarded all of the character growth they spent the last five to ten seasons giving us. also i find it nearly impossible to believe that sam would not specifically be searching for eileen after literally killing an entire coven of witches to get a spell to bring her back from the dead, so his weird faceless implied wife was confusingly bad writing as well. and dean not trying to get cas back? the dean winchester who had a complete emotional break down every time he thought he had abandoned cas or failed him or let him die? bullshit. jack not immediately bringing cas back to them? bullshit!!

and it felt like a really odd ending for cas, whose entire character arc has also been about learning how to act of his own free will and not be a mindless soldier of god, to just disappear and be implied to have suddenly returned to being... a mindless soldier of god. like i know its a new and better god who is also his son but like... you are telling me cas was really okay with abandoning his friends on earth and just sitting in heaven doing boring celestial paperwork for eternity? the writers threw away the potential narrative symmetry of having dean pull cas from the empty the way cas pulled him from hell, they threw away the potential symmetry of implying that jack brought cas back and having cas appear in the barn and save dean to mirror his first appearance in the barn where dean summoned him... and okay say misha didn't wanna risk covid and flying back to canada, they threw away the ability to literally just have a prerecorded line where cas found dean in heaven and said his iconic "hello dean" line. idk very bad writing. like obviously i had always assumed that at the very best the sbow would end with sam having the most normal life, and dean kinda fucked up but finding peace and dying on a hunting trip, but the execution sucked.

my final addition is that i have read quite a bit about all the drama behind the scenes but i genuinely cannot forgive the show's head writers and producers for queer baiting their audience like that. it would have been one thing for dean and cas to remain implied, but to confirm offscreen that they were in love and never acted on it, mention it only briefly onscreen before killing off their only on screen confirmed queer leading man, and then never resolve dean's sexuality was... quite hateful. and to know that you won't resolve it, but dangle the possibility of a resolution in the hopes of getting better numbers on your finale is... incredibly hateful. my heart goes out to misha, jensen, and berens who apparently worked very hard to get the little representation viewers were granted, and who subsequently were treated very poorly by the show's main writers and the network.

its been a hell of a 15 years...

#spn #dean winchester #castiel #personalig

[bubonickitten]

TMA fic: Who’s There?

Sooo, I wrote a follow-up to this fic.

Cross-posted to AO3 here.

Summary: Jon has a panic attack after Elias shows him exactly what happened behind the door after Mr. Spider took its victim. Martin helps him calm down, and Jon tells him the story of his first Leitner.

[CW for unreality, dissociation/drdp, panic attacks, tactile hallucinations, descriptions of spiders/arachnophobia, blood/injury, self-harm mentions (accidental in the context of a panic attack).]

By the time Jon shuts the door to Elias’ office, he can barely stand.

  Trembling, he leans – nearly falls – back against the wall and squeezes his eyes shut. He's trying to untangle the dueling instincts to flee and freeze when his knees buckle and he slides down the wall to the floor. He’s breathing in gulps, shallow and quick, and when a long exhale dissolves into a shuddering sob, he Knows that Elias hears it and that he smiles, and Jon hates himself for it.

  Elias.

  A new wave of panic crashes over Jon when he realizes that the only thing between them is an unlocked door. The thought is enough to force him to stand, steadying himself against the wall with one hand as he makes his way down the hall on wobbly legs.

  It’s easy, he tells himself: one shaky step at a time, no need to overthink it, just keep moving –

  He’s nearly to the door at the end of the hall when it happens. Something in his mind fractures and he is a stranger to himself, a bemused observer floating somewhere else, somewhere outside himself  –

  …depersonalization: an altered state in which one feels unreal, as if one’s thoughts and emotions do not belong to oneself; often accompanied by a feeling of detachment from one’s own body and a dreamlike perception of the world around …

  The Beholding pummels him with the information, an intrusive thought somehow made worse by Jon's awareness of its supernatural origin. Jon usually finds it comforting to have a word to describe his experiences, but it's no consolation now when he did not ask for it, did not ask for any of this. The way knowledge forces its way into his head these days, seeps into his mind unsolicited before he even notices what’s happening – he hates the invasiveness of it, the sense of violation it brings. Facts and figures bleed into the edges of his mind like so many worms pouring in through the crack under the door and burrowing into him and –        

  …he is a marionette with gossamer wire wrapped twice, thrice, a dozen times around his wrists and…

  – Elias’ words wriggle in his mind like worms through flesh, writhing like a fly caught in a web, and just like that –

  …the spider silk winds its way through the crack in the door, sticky and writhing; slowly and deliberately it twines itself around his arms, his knees, his neck, and he is pulled inexorably…

  – and his head is full of cobwebs and all at once he is the struggling fly and the too-curious child and the hapless victim and the human prey –

  …you opened the book, you stood on the threshold, you just as good as opened the door…

  – and he is the hungry spider and the monster behind the door and the inhuman predator in the dark just watching, watching, watching –

  …we both know that the Archivist in you can’t leave a question unasked or unanswered…

  – as something Watches him back.

   Jon is barely conscious of where he is until he's crossing the threshold to his office, smacking his shoulder on the doorframe on the way. The impact snaps him back to the present with a jolt, like a puppet jerked backward by its strings, and all at once he is aware of the staring. His assistants’ eyes bore into him as he passes them by; he feels their judgment and mistrust and anger and fear trailing behind him like the wispy threads of a broken web –

  He shuts the door behind him.

  But there is no escaping the watching.

  The Not!Them watched him for months, delighting as he spiraled into paranoia and sabotaged his relationships. Elias knew all along, was always watching, is probably watching right now. And whatever patron Jon now serves – it never stops watching, does it? Watching him, watching through his eyes, watching through doors and walls and floors -  

  Is it still paranoia if you actually are being watched? 

  Jon is an insect under a microscope and a dispassionate Eye pries him open, considers the component parts, catalogs and categorizes, files him away and never once deigns to share its verdict: whether his classification is Jonathan Sims or Archivist, and what criteria should be used to measure personhood.  

  He is a thing behind a door, unsorted and undetermined, and he cannot breathe –

   Knock-knock.

  He opens bleary eyes and does not immediately recognize where he is.

  Knock-knock.

  “Jon?”

  There is someone at the door, he thinks absently, but everything is muted, thick, cloying, and the thought disintegrates in the fog.

  Knock-knock-knock.

  Someone is at the door, but the sound is distorted, as if he’s listening to it from underwater.

  “Can I come in?”

  His thoughts are molasses-slow as he takes inventory his surroundings: He’s under a desk. His desk. (He thinks it’s his desk.) He’s huddled under a desk like a child playing hide-and-seek and, oh, there’s someone at the door. 

  Knock-knock-knock-knock  –

  “Jon, please open the door.”

  He reaches up to rub his face and stops short, because there is something wrong with his hands. They're coated in something adhesive and coppery-smelling and when he clenches his fists and feels the skin stick, all he can think about is spider silk, tacky and clinging to his hands, his arms, his neck, his face –

  KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK- 

  There is someone hammering on the door.

  He is breathing too loudly. The thing behind the door will hear him.

  KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-

  He clamps his hands over his ears, mindless of the mess. The thing behind the door cannot hear him.

  Silence.

  Then:

  “Jon, I’m coming in.”

  As the door creaks open, Jon jumps at the sound, smacking his head on the underside of the desk. His eyes fly open and all at once he is present.

  “Jon? Are you okay?”

  Martin's voice, tentative and concerned.

  As the footsteps draw nearer, Jon hugs his knees tighter to him, shrinking as far under the desk as he can. It’s childish, he knows: there are only so many places to hide in here. He knows when Martin spots him because he can feel those eyes burning into him and –

  “Jon? What – Christ, Jon, are you bleeding?”

  Jon looks up then, pupils blown wide. Even the low light stings, and he squints against it.

  “Your hands are – is this your blood? Jon, let me see –”  

  Martin leans down to get a closer look and all at once Jon remembers his hands, covered in cobweb. He frantically rubs his palms on his clothes, digs his fingernails into his skin to claw away the layers; his heart is thundering in his ears, pulsating in time with his thoughts: get it off get it off get it off getitoffgetitoffgetitoffgetitoff - 

  “Jon, stop it! You’re hurting yourself!”

  And so he is: one of his fingernails catches the skin on the back of his good hand and now it’s bleeding freely. Jon stops scratching, recognizes the blood for what it is now. He begins flapping his hands uselessly, flailing, overwhelmed; he feels the tears coming again –

  “Jon! Jon, listen to me. You’re – you’re hyperventilating, just… look at me.”

  It takes a moment, but he does. His hands still.

  “I want you to breathe with me, okay? Just – watch me, okay?”

  Jon watches. He does not blink. 

  “Okay, copy me. Four seconds in, hold seven seconds, eight seconds out, okay?”

  Jon breathes, mesmerized as he watches the steady rise and fall of Martin's chest.

  “That’s it. You’re doing great.”

  Jon isn’t sure how much time passes, but eventually his breathing evens out and the palpitations start to recede.

  “Okay. Okay.” Martin sighs; Jon can hear the relief in it, almost feels it vicariously. “Listen, Jon, stay right here –”

  Jon’s eyes go wide again and his lips move in wordless protest.

  “I’ll come right back, I promise, I just – I want to get a damp cloth, clean off some of the blood, okay?” Jon hesitates, but gives a curt nod. “Okay. I’ll be right back. Just… keep breathing, okay?”

  Martin stands and moves away slowly, quietly, like one might around a wounded animal. Once he’s out of sight, Jon hears him pick up his pace.

  Martin leaves the door open.

  Jon isn’t sure how to feel about that.

  He focuses on breathing.

   As soon as Martin enters the break room, three pairs of eyes fix on him.

  “Well?” Basira begins, schooling her expression into careful neutrality. “What was –”

  “Just a panic attack,” Martin replies, walking briskly to the sink. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” Tim says, feet on the table and tipping his chair back until the front two legs are dangerously high up off the floor.

  “Martin,” Basira asks, “is that blood?” 

  “Yeah. Your friend slit his throat, if you hadn’t noticed.” Martin hadn't intended it to come out as biting. In fact, he didn't even register how angry he was until the words had already left his mouth.

  In all the commotion, Martin hadn’t really had time to let it sink in, but now that he's seen the damage up close, he feels properly horrified. He thinks of how proud Daisy had sounded in Elias’ office when she admitted that she had slit Jon’s throat. He remembers how she interrogated him when Jon was missing, how she didn’t care about what happened to Sasha, how she had already decided that Jon was guilty, how she seemed to be enjoying herself. He realizes now that all along her plan was to hunt Jon down, to murder him, to leave his body in the woods where no one would ever find him, to - 

  To let him become another goddamn mystery.

  A quiet fury coils tight in Martin's chest, heated and itching to claw its way out.

  “I thought it had stopped bleeding,” says Basira. She doesn’t sound cold, exactly – just tactful, cautious. It’s a de-escalation voice, Martin realizes. The caretaker and mediator in him recognizes it - he makes frequent use of it himself - but in this moment it just makes him bristle.

  “Yeah, well, he opened it back up,” Martin mutters, turning on the faucet and holding one hand under the stream, waiting for the water to run warm. “It’s fine. There’s just – there’s a lot of blood.”

  “Can’t he deal with that himself?” Leaning against the wall nearby, Melanie rolls her eyes in disgust. “He’s a grown man. You don’t need to coddle him.”

  “Lay off, alright? He’s scared –”

  “He’s scared – Martin, we’re all scared,” Tim snaps, rocking forward in his chair. The front two legs slam back into the floor with a loud crack. “He’s the one who went and –”

  “I know, alright, I know – and you’re right to be angry.” Martin would be lying if he said he wasn’t still hurt over Jon’s behavior toward him in the previous months, but he’s had this discussion with Tim so many times now, and he's tired of talking in circles. “I’m still not just going to leave him like that –”

  “Why not? If he wants to wallow in his office, let him,” Tim says viciously. “It’s all he’s good for these days anyway.”

  “That’s not fair,” Martin says, tight and defensive but trying so, so hard to keep his voice even.

  “None of this is fair,” Basira chimes back in.

  “No. No, it’s not.” Martin sighs as he pulls a large bowl out of the cabinet and sets it in the sink to fill. “But fighting each other isn’t solving anything.”

  “More to the point,” Basira says, still composed and so deliberately impartial, “we all saw what he can do. We need to talk about that at some point.”

  "Is he really all that different from Elias at this point?" Melanie makes it sound more like a statement than a question.

  “He’s nothing like Elias." There is no hesitation when Martin speaks. 

  Melanie lets out a derisive laugh.

  And Martin’s anger finally boils over.

  “You know, it’s not Jon's fault you’re here, Melanie!”

  Martin rarely loses his temper. He hates conflict, hates the inevitable second-guessing and guilt that always settle over him after the moment has passed, hates how his size and height can make his anger look so much more threatening than he feels. Whenever he senses tension building, he puts all of his energy into modulating his voice, regulating his emotions, mollifying and pacifying until the storm passes, even if it means swallowing his own hurt in the process. 

  Right this moment, though, he doesn’t have the mind for appeasement. He’s angry with Elias. He’s furious with Daisy. He hates being in the Archives with the ever-present feeling of being watched. And he’s frustrated with Jon for – for always being in danger, for turning up every day with fresh hurts and new scars. Martin knows he’s not being fair – Jon can be reckless, and careless, and self-destructive, and his obsessiveness eclipses his sense of self-preservation to an unhealthy degree, but it still isn’t his fault that so many things want to hunt down the Archivist. It’s just – Martin worries, and Jon gives him a lot to worry about.

  When he feels Melanie’s glare on his back, senses her gearing up to tear into him, he slams the faucet off and whirls around to face her.

  “You chose to come here the first time, and you chose to keep coming back, and – and you were just as curious as he is, just as fascinated, just as obsessed, just as – as reckless." He breathes a short laugh. "God, you two are so similar sometimes, you know that? You chose to go chasing monsters knowing full well you were putting yourself in danger, and – and hell, Jon wasn’t even here when you took the job!” 

  Martin is shaking. He takes a deep breath, counts to ten, tries to rein in his outburst.

  “I don’t care,” Melanie spits, her voice low and dangerous and laced with venom. “He’s toxic. This whole place is toxic and he’s so wrapped up in it he may as well be part of it.”

  “We’re all part of it."

  “Whatever.” Melanie throws her hands up and stalks towards the exit. “Go fuss over him and have him berate you for caring.” Pausing at the threshold, she adds, scathing, “Seems that’s all you ever do.”

  With that, she storms off, leaving a heavy, electric silence in her wake.

  “She… didn’t mean that last bit,” says Basira after a moment. “She’s just – she's not herself lately.”

  “Yeah,” Tim says, all sarcasm and resentment. “Welcome to the Archives.”

  Martin says nothing. He grabs the overfull bowl of water, snatches a dish towel from the counter, and heads for the exit, water sloshing out of the bowl and onto the floor on his way out.

   Jon hears footsteps coming back down the hall – Martin’s, he thinks distantly; isn’t it strange how you unconsciously learn to distinguish a person’s footsteps when you spend enough time around them? – followed by the soft click of the door as Martin closes it behind him. He walks around the desk and kneels down, slow and soft and careful, as if any quick movement would shatter Jon’s uneasy calm.

  “Sorry for the wait,” Martin says with a forced smile. He tries to keep his tone light, but Jon can sense the strain underneath.

  Jon had heard the shouting echoing down the corridor, had been faintly surprised when he heard Martin raise his voice, however brief. He couldn’t make out everything that was said, but he had a general idea. He didn't have to Know; it wasn’t that hard to guess.

  Martin places a bowl of water on the floor, dips a dish towel into it, and looks at Jon expectantly. “Is it alright if I –?”

  Jon nods once, slowly. Martin starts with his hands, wiping away the congealed blood coating his skin. It’s odd, Jon thinks, how absorbed he is in the task. Martin pays attention to the smallest, strangest details; scrubs at the blood-encrusted cuticles and scrapes away the stains under the tips of Jon's fingernails, frequently dipping the towel in the water and wringing out the mess.

  There’s a little crease between his eyebrows, Jon notices, the familiar one that he gets when he’s deep in concentration. Jon plays back all the times he’s seen it: Martin standing in the break room, carefully measuring sugar before stirring it into his tea. Martin judging a trajectory as he aims to throw a crumpled ball of paper into the bin across the office. Martin making handwritten notations when working on his assigned statements; whenever he made a connection, one corner of his mouth would quirk up and his writing would become more feverish. Martin writing poetry. And Jon could always tell when Martin was composing poetry at his desk rather than doing his job: he worried his lower lip between his teeth, and he always leaned closer to the page.

  With a distant sense of wonder, Jon notes that he… never really made a conscious decision to memorize those details. He ponders vaguely whether it’s something he Knows, or if he’s simply been paying attention all along without even realizing.

  “You doing alright there, Jon?”

  Jon inclines his head and closes his eyes. It’s – surreal, how safe he feels just then. He lets himself drift, loses himself in the sensation of a soft touch.

  When Martin turns his attention to Jon's burned hand, healing but still stiff and sore, he braces himself for the searing pain, but it doesn't come. That feels wrong, somehow, and - and, God, what does that say about him? When was the last time anyone touched him with kindness? He didn't realize until just now the extent to which the boundary between physical contact and intentional bodily harm has eroded for him lately; how automatic his associations between touch and fear and pain have become. 

  When Martin pulls away - How much time has passed? - Jon's eyelids flutter open groggily.  

  “Will you be okay if I clean your neck?”

  Jon lifts his head to expose his neck and sits up straighter and -

  He immediately hits his head on the underside of his desk again. That seems to animate him. He huffs irritably and glowers up at it as if it’s the desk’s fault for being in the same place it always is.

  Martin snorts at that, then winces. “Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to laugh –”

  Then Jon's mouth twitches in a tentative smile, and Martin relaxes. 

  “Are you alright to come out from under there now? It’ll make this easier.”

  Jon says nothing, just scoots out from the little hollow under his desk. He still presses himself up against the side, still feels safer the more compact he makes himself, but he's unfurling, slowly but surely. 

  “Okay, tip your head back for me. That’s it – just, hold still.” Martin pauses, considers Jon’s nonverbal state. “Tap me if you need me to back off, alright?”

  Closing his eyes, Jon lets himself drift again, allowing Martin to dab at his neck with the damp cloth. How is he so gentle? Jon isn’t relaxed, exactly, but he can’t remember the last time he felt safe enough to let down his guard like this. It was only hours ago that he had experienced firsthand how simple it would be for someone to take a knife to his throat and press; he should be much more hesitant to expose it like this, to have someone touch it when it’s still raw and stinging, and yet… somehow, this is fine. Good, even.

  Jon’s hair has gotten long - When was the last time he had a haircut? - and some of it clings to his neck, matted with drying blood. As Martin peels the strands away from the skin, Jon shivers.

  Martin draws back immediately. “Did I hurt you?”

  “Mm.” Jon’s lips move mutely for a few moments before he manages, “No.” It comes out as a hoarse whisper and he clears his throat. “Ticklish.” Still raspy, but better than before.

  “There you are.” Even though Jon's eyes are closed, he knows - Knows? No, just knows - that Martin is smiling. He can hear it in his voice, can almost feel it radiating off him. Martin adopts a deliberately bland tone when next he speaks. "You... really did a number on yourself."

  “Accident,” Jon croaks out. Opens his eyes, clears his throat, tries again. “There were – they were in my throat, and I – I needed to – I wanted them out.”

  It’s still fuzzy, but he vaguely remembers scratching at his throat, trying to chase away the sickening feeling of hundreds of tiny legs skittering down his throat and into his lungs and –

  That little crease is between Martin’s eyebrows again. “What was -" 

  “It was – nothing, stupid, imagined, just – felt them crawling and I couldn’t –”

  “Worms?” Martin guesses.

  “No, no. Too many legs.” An involuntary shudder rips through him; for a moment he can feel feather-light legs scuttling across his skin again; he flexes his good hand, chasing the tactile distraction, nails biting little crescent shapes into his palm. “It – just, too many legs. And – and cobwebs, blocking my – couldn’t breathe –” Growing agitated, his hands start fluttering again.

  “Okay,” Martin soothes. “Okay. Stay with me. You’re safe. Take some breaths for me.”

  “Mm.” Jon breathes, ragged at first, but evening out after a minute.

  “Good.” Martin leans back in and continues dabbing lightly around the wound on Jon’s neck. "Keep breathing, just like that."

   Several minutes later, Martin pulls away and drops the towel in the bowl. The water is stained a muddy red, now, and Martin frowns at the sight. God, he wishes Jon was better at keeping his blood in his body.

  There are still some watery, diluted traces of blood on Jon's neck and hands, but at least he's not caked in the stuff anymore. Looking at the inflamed gash on his neck, Martin feels that little flicker of rage again, and tries not to let it show on his face.

  “I have to change out the water before I do more. It might be easier to do the rest in front of the sink, though. And we should really bandage your neck and - and your burn. You, uh, probably want to change, too – you’ve got blood... well, everywhere. I assume you still have some spare clothes in the storage room?”

  Jon is looking down now, picking at a ragged cuticle on his burned hand. Martin assumes that means he’s not ready to move quite yet.

  “Do… do you want to talk about what happened?”   

  “No,” Jon whispers, but he has a peculiar look on his face, like he’s working up to something. Martin recognizes it – a sort of faraway look, like he’s gone into his own head for a moment to commune with his own thoughts. It always puts Martin in mind of a wait cursor or a blinking ellipsis. 

  It isn’t uncommon for Jon to trail off and walk away mid-conversation. When they first started working together, Martin assumed it was that he said something wrong, or that it was just one more way for Jon to snub him. But more often than not, a few hours would go by and Jon would pick up the conversation right where it left off, as if it had never stopped. Jon is buffering, Martin thought to himself with a smile when he first realized what was happening. It was almost endearing, the idea of Jon taking something - something Martin said, no less - so deeply into consideration that he spent hours thinking on it before composing a response. 

  On the other hand, Jon was equally as likely to dismiss something outright without even entertaining the possibility of a discussion. The contrast could be jarring, and even after all this time, Martin still hasn’t quite discerned any pattern that will let him predict which version of Jon he’s dealing with at any given time.

  Either way, Martin is good at sitting with silence. And this silence is heavy, but not uncomfortable.  

  “I don’t,” Jon continues eventually, frowning slightly. “But… but I think I should?”

  “Okay?” Surprise slips into Martin’s voice before he can tamp it down, but if Jon notices, he doesn’t comment on it.

  “Apparently Elias can – can put knowledge in someone’s head? Or – mine at least, I don’t know if it has something to do with what I am, or if he can do it to anyone, but he…” Clearly searching for the right words, Jon opens and closes his mouth a few times. “I mean, I was already on the verge of a breakdown, wasn’t I?” His voice breaks and he covers it with a bitter smile. “I suppose I – I just needed one more little push.” 

  Martin resists the urge to point out that having the threat of imminent death hanging over your head every waking moment is more than a little push.

  “He showed me – I saw – it… he made me Know, and I had to watch, and I felt how it –”

  “Stay with me, Jon.”

  Martin rests his palm on Jon’s unburned hand, then pulls back immediately, instinctively feeling as if he had crossed a line.

  But Jon chases his hand and grasps it tightly. He doesn't make eye contact. “Is this okay?”

  “I – sure, I mean – yes, of course,” Martin sputters. He feels his face heat and hopes Jon is still too foggy to notice how flushed he must be.

  “Mm.” Jon shakes his head and laughs nervously. “I… this is harder than I thought.”

  “Would... would it help to frame it as a statement?”

  Jon seems to consider that for a long moment before shaking his head. “No. No, I don’t think so. I already gave a statement about this matter, and it feels... wrong, in some way, for me to offer the same statement a second time.”

  Martin doesn’t really get it, but he takes Jon’s word for it.

  “What if I… if I asked a direct question, would that help? I mean, I can’t compel you, obviously, but –”

“Okay.”

  “What?”

  Martin has never known Jon to be this receptive to his input. Jon just shrugs, not meeting Martin’s eyes.

  “Ask me.”

  “O...kay. Right. Um, so, what did Elias say to you?”

  After a moment's pause, Jon begins to speak. 

  “He… he Knew something that I never told anyone before.” He starts slow, but seems to gain confidence after a few words. “The thing that first pushed me toward the supernatural, that started me on the path to – well, to all of this. Odd, to think that just… opening a book could lead me here.” His voice drops to a near-whisper. “I was only eight.”

  “A book?” Martin frowns. “You don’t mean –”

  Jon smiles, but it’s a fragile, humorless thing. “My first Leitner.” He takes a deep breath and speaks through the exhale. “A Guest for Mr. Spider.”  

  “Oh,” Martin whispers as the pieces fall into place.

  “Yeah. I knew it was – wrong, somehow, but I just… I had to know, so I opened it, and I… I read.” Jon swallows hard and leans forward, curling in on himself somewhat. “I started walking. I didn’t know where the book was taking me, and I couldn’t stop reading, couldn’t even blink.” A pause as he maps out his next words. “There was… an older kid in my neighborhood. He wasn’t very keen on me. I was an annoying child, easily bored, always trying to show off how much I thought I knew. Never really was good at people.” He huffs a short, self-deprecating laugh. “Guess that hasn’t changed. Anyway, he – he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or – or maybe I was, but he decided to knock the book from my hands and it… broke the hold it had on me.” Jon gives a little half-shrug, and his voice drops to a low murmur. “He didn’t mean to, but he saved my life.”

  Jon’s thumb rubs absentminded little circles on Martin’s hand, and Martin feels his heart skip a beat. Focus. 

  “Anyway, he – he picked up the book, and he opened it, and then he was reading. And he started walking. I didn’t know what to do, so I followed him.” Martin notices frantic, rapid little movements behind Jon's shut eyelids. “And then he was standing in front of a door, and he knocked, and it opened, and the – the thing behind the door pulled him in. I never saw him again.” Jon falls quiet for a long moment, his jaw tensing and unclenching. When he finally opens his eyes, they’re brimming with tears. “I don’t even remember his name. He died in my place, and I don’t – he deserves to be remembered, but I can’t –”

  Martin gives Jon’s hand what he hopes is a reassuring little squeeze.

  “I – I never knew what really happened to him, you know? The door closed, and I just… left him to his fate, what was supposed to be my fate. I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened after the door closed. I was certain he must have died – hoped he was dead, because the alternative was...” Jon shudders miserably. “I obsessed over it, how he died, how long it took, whether it hurt, whether he was afraid, and – well, you can guess what a child’s imagination can do with that. Though I rather think my imagination now is just as overactive as it was back then. Certainly still obsessive enough.

“There’s something uniquely torturous about the not knowing, about the way the brain can flesh out a scene with mere scraps. I used to think that – that if I knew what happened behind the door, it would be better, because at least I would know, and I wouldn’t have to see a million variations in my nightmares. I could just – just have the one nightmare, and acclimate to it.

"But I was wrong. Elias – he showed me – showed me what happened, and made me feel it and it – I…” His voice gets very soft, and he glances at Martin with haunted eyes. “You know how spiders feed, Martin.”

  “Oh, Jon.” Martin can hear his voice crack. “I’m so sorry, I – I knew you didn’t like spiders but I didn’t realize – God, all the times I’ve prattled on about them –”

  “No, I – it’s fine, you couldn’t have known.” Jon waves him off. “In fact, I actually used to seek out information on them when I was a child. I thought if I learned everything I could about them, examined them through a – a detached, academic lens, I could get over the fear. But apparently a phobia doesn’t care about – about ecological niches, or the wonders of evolution, or…” He trails off and a shadow passes over his face. “I suppose I’ve always assumed that I could solve a problem if I just learned everything there is to know about it. Spent years making myself miserable obsessing over spiders and nothing changed.” His laugh is brittle. “Knowledge at any cost."

  Another heavy silence falls. Judging from Jon's expression, there's more; he treats conversations like impossibly complex puzzles sometimes, picking his way through words to find one that will slot just so into a sentence. Martin wonders how Jon would react if he ever told him that that's what writing poetry is like. 

  "The thing is, though," Jon continues after a minute, "I think it’s only right, for me to know what happened to him in the end? Because why should I be spared from the knowledge when it’s my fault he –”

  Jon’s breath hitches; he struggles to compose himself before continuing.

  “But beyond that, it just feels right for me to know. Like I’m owed every scrap of knowledge that comes my way, as if I have every right to consume and possess these stories. And I hate it, Martin,” he says with sudden, surprising ferocity. “I hate it because I’m just this – this uncaring watcher drinking it all in, and there’s a sick, detached fascination that comes with it, and I don’t know if that’s me or whatever master the Institute serves – that I serve, now, or… I hope it’s not just me, but even if it isn’t, I – I still feel it, it still feels right. But it’s not. I know it’s not,” he says, breathing in erratic, shaky gasps.

“When I read a statement, it’s like I’m there, experiencing it right along with them, but the fear is also – muffled? Like the fear is being filtered through the words – through my voice, before it reaches me. And hovering in the background there’s this alien thing – part of me, but not me – gorging itself on a story that doesn’t belong to it, doesn’t belong to me, doesn’t belong to anyone except the one who actually lived it. It just… worms its way into my mind, forces me to feel its pleasure at their fear. At my fear.”

  He shakes his head, his voice thick as he chokes back tears. “God, I’m sorry. I’m treating you like a therapist.”

  “It’s alright, Jon.”

  “No, it’s really not.” Jon sighs. “I tried counseling once in uni, you know. Georgie suggested it. Quit after a few sessions, though. Not good at opening up, I suppose.” He shrugs. “And – and now? I mean, what am I supposed to tell them? That - that closed doors make me uneasy because I almost met a monster when I was eight, and let it take someone else in my stead? About the flesh hive, how some days I still feel the worms burrowing into me and it’s everything I can do not to – to grab a corkscrew and start digging for them?” He laughs, a little hysterically. “That any time I look at my own hand, I can still smell the flesh melting? That a man dropped me into the sky and let me fall, and then he was shot in front of me by a rogue cop who made me dig his grave? That she tried to shove a knife through my voice box for good measure? That I’m becoming a monster, no different than that thing behind the door, and I can’t stop it, and it’s my own fault for asking too many goddamn questions?”

  He’s not even crying anymore, Martin notices. There’s something… hollow about his voice. Resigned. Tired. Martin’s heart aches with it, and he grips Jon’s hand more tightly.

  “Jon, listen to me. You’re not – you’re not a monster.” Jon scoffs. “I’m serious. Look at you. I mean, no offense but – you’re a mess. Right now all I see is a frightened, exhausted human covered in his own blood, putting way more thought into what it means to be human than most humans do, and – and when’s the last time you even slept?”

  “I don’t know,” Jon murmurs. He loosens his grip on Martin's hand and pulls away, scrubs at his eyes to wipe away the residual wetness there. “That’s not high on my list of priorities right now.”

  And just like that, Jonathan Sims throws a wall back up between them. Martin recognizes the slightly stiff quality his voice takes on, and knows that he won’t get anything more out of Jon today.

  But then - 

  “Thank you, Martin.” Jon’s voice is quiet, but somehow loud in its impact.

  “Oh! Don’t worry about it, it’s – it’s no big deal –”

  “It was to me.”

  “No, that’s not what I – I didn’t mean that it’s not a big deal, I just –” Martin puffs out a breath of air, feeling flustered. “What I mean is, I’m glad that you – that you trusted me to help.”

  “I trust you.” There’s a finality to it. It’s similar to the terse this-conversation-is-over tone that Martin is so familiar with, but somehow… gentler. Warmer. “Present tense.”

  “Oh.” Martin’s voice is very, very small.

  “I just…" He heaves a sigh. "Thank you. For being here. For being patient with me. I know I’m not – I’m not exactly pleasant to be around. I don’t make it easy to be near me. And I treated you, and Tim, like enemies when I - when you - when all of us needed allies.” He looks up and meets Martin’s eyes. “I'm sorry. But - I’m trying to be better. So, thank you. It… means a lot.”

  He can’t stand to see Jon hurting, but some small, guilty part of him is still glad that Jon trusted him, opened up to him, accepted help – Martin’s help – for once.

  Martin smiles. He intends it to be reassuring, but he’s pretty sure it comes off as a little delirious instead. “Any time.”

  When Jon tries to stand, he accepts Martin's outstretched hand without another word. 

#tma #the magnus archives #jonmartin #jonathan sims #martin blackwood #tma fic #long post #tma spoilers #(up to mag 92) #spiders cw #self harm mention cw

[thegirlwholied]

I think to answer your question about the spn lighting it’s simply bc of the cw, since basically all of their shows are standard lightning where it doesn’t stand out to be like gritty, maybe except Nancy drew which gives me very ocean vibes

Current!Supernatural definitely felt like it was being filmed just like one of their superhero shows!

..with that said I feel like Arrow also had more of a filter that was gradually phased out, but not quite to this degree of tonal inconsistency. 

Nancy Drew which I’ve seen always feels like it has a blueish filter over it, definite ocean vibes... & while I’m a fan of ocean vibes in general, as a Nancy Drew book fan, I didn’t stick with that show as it never felt *Nancy Drew* to me.

...granted it may become gradually clear that I am Not Great with sticking with shows. But there is a wide gulf between ‘gradually phased out after several years of watching faithfully and still occasionally check in’ and ‘only watched sporadically & never finished the first season & probably never will’. 

I will say tuning in randomly over the years I didn’t notice the chance. But I very recently rewatched the s4 premiere (Castiel’s introduction) & s4 Halloween episode. WOW, it was dark in those days, and WOW is it bright now. Weirdly bright. We were reminded of that episode where they were turned into a sitcom for a second. The tonal inconsistency makes me a little sad.

...I kind of feel like Supernatural is the equivalent of the hot guy from high school, who was rough around the edges & a little bit trouble but *fun* trouble, andddd when you look him up now he wears glasses & posts pictures of his dog & is rocking a bit of a dad bod & bought a house, and, hey, he does still look good & happy, you’ve got to be happy for him, & his jokes may be a little more cringe than you remembered but he’s plainly still charming. Just. Whoa. *Not* what you expected. The tonal inconsistency is striking.

...there is room for Grey’s Anatomy to join this analogy, & it’s something like, that girl you were good friends with except now are only ‘friends’ with on Instagram, she’s always posting pictures with tons of different people you’ve never seen before, in completely inexplicable situations, & it kind of annoys you that you’re still curious enough about her baffling life to click on the pics occasionally & read the very long captions... & mostly you wonder, ‘how were we ever friends??’...but sometimes she posts a story that makes you go fondly, ‘oh, that’s why’, but only *sometimes*, for a *second*.

this is all to say I miss that filter, toning it down was one thing but going *BRIGHT* was quite a lot. Just like a *little* bit of trouble there is something to be said for a *little* bit of grimdark in the right place (& imho, on the CW, Supernatural was that place). In my heart Supernatural will always be overfiltered!

#supernatural #yes i briefly flicked channels and landed on grey's right after supernatural and oh I noped out quickly #i was a little baffled by the supernatural penultimate ep - its editing! its writing! #whether it was penultimate at all as that montage felt very finale for a second!

[go-diane-winchester]

How do I know Jensen hates the militant destiel shippers?

@supernaturallygayforyou said the following:​

''people may hate me and you but Jensen doesn’t. He just doesn’t like for his character to be reduced to a ship (which I have realized I’ve done and apologized for in my comments because I do actually love supernatural and the post was a joke). he doesn’t mind destiel shippers and is comfortable with hanging with jared and misha.''

I told her that Jensen hates the hellers, but apparently she didn't believe me, thus giving me the opportunity to reopen this can of worms.  First, lets identify a heller.  If you have the following vile traits, you are a heller.  If you don't, then you are a normal destiel shipper in whom we see no fault, other than your terrible taste in men.  Because seriously, Misha?  No hate though.  Just a little revulsion but no hate.  You do you.  These are heller traits:

Hellers tag their ship posts in the main tags.

Hellers accuse CW of queer baiting.

Hellers ship shame.

Hellers threaten Jensen with death.

Hellers want endgame destiel.

Hellers tweet Jared that he should die. 

Hellers threaten kidnapping, arson and poisoning.

Hellers call Jensen a homophobe.

Hellers insist Dean is anything but straight.

Hellers pretend to like Jared and Sam but secretly want both gone.

So how do I know that Jensen hates the hellers.  Lets look at the timeline:

October 2014 - NerdHQ

A bunch of horny destihellers planned to throw Astroglide on stage every time Jensen and Misha spoke.  The organizers were asked permission to bring this stuff to the event, and they notified Jensen and gang to ask for permission to allow it.  They were not given permission and Misha was excluded from the panel.  Only J2 and Mark Sheppard attended.  This is the first inkling that Jensen was getting aggravated with the hellers.

January 2017 [Jaxcon]:

A heller asked an ignorant shipping question, even though they were banned from asking shipping question.  Jensen succinctly said ''Destiel doesn't exist''.  He was bashed on social media and that is where he got the first death threat.  The homophobia accusation has been happening since 2014 and mass media is aware of it.  So essentially they are ruining Jensen's reputation.  But if I point out that Misha's ugly face is ugly, I am such a meanie, right?  The result of this relentless bullying and death threat, manifested itself, at Jibcon.  Explain to me how Jensen can like the hellers after the question, the bullying and the death threat.

May 2017 [Jibcon]:

Jensen has a breakdown during the only panel he shares with Misha, and Jared shuts the panel down early.  But hellers thought he was flirting with Misha.  The man who mocks Misha on any other day, chooses this one convention to get all sexual.  Could it be because of the online abuse and the death threat?  Could it be because he was pacifying his abusers, during the only panel where he knows they will be watching?  Nah, it must be because the bag-eyed overlord is totes irresistible.  Tell me how Jensen likes the hellers who can have such a negative effect on him.         

June 2017 [Comic Con]

Misha pulls a chair stunt that makes Jensen and Jared look like bullies.  They become aware of it.  Jensen knows what the hellers will do.  But he loves them, right?

October 2017 [Nolacon]

This was the con where J2 reiterated that Misha is NOT the lead, and the hellers went after them, calling them rape enablers for using a stale joke from previous cons.  The media got wind of it and J2 issued a statement and no apology.  The hellers got angry because they wanted separate con panels for J2 and didn't get it.  There was a rumor that they were trying to get Jared fired from the show, but I have not receipt for that.  Tell me how despite this unnecessary hurdle, Jensen still loves the fans. 

November 2017 [DCcon]

The scandal has only just subsided.  Its affect on the boys showed in the Js behavior when they took to the stage.  Jared was suffering from a manic episode [which was painful to watch] and Jensen was already angry.  The insufferable J stans were there, getting the wrong end of the stick, as per usual.  Jensen stans said Jared was being disruptive.  Jared stans fought back or said that Jared was being ''extra'' because he was trying to cheer Jensen up after the scandal.   Ironically, it was a Jensen stan who recognized that Jared was suffering from mania. 

Jensen was being patient with Jared because he has seen Jared's manic episodes and the crash that is likely to follow it.  I have to say Jensen, despite already being angry with fans for the scandal, was still very patient with Jared.  Anyone else would have been at their wits end.  Jared is very lucky to have a friend and co-worker who has so much compassion.  Especially considering the state of this panel.  Let me point out that this was the worst panel I have ever witnessed, because those were some of the most horrible attendees.  One of them told Jensen to shut up when she was given the opportunity to ask them a question.  That will give you an idea of how horrible this panel was.  The other questions were either boring or the person asking the question went off on a tangent about themselves.  I only watched it once and never again. 

This is a link to the panel, for those who mind watching Jared fall apart and Jensen looking close to driving his fist right through a wall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOBs7Hp9FRo

At the timestamp of 15:53, this exchange happened. 

Jensen:  ''We pull our punches.  So if we do connect, its not a full... you know, its a 50% power punch.  It shouldn't knock you out, unless you have a really weak chin.  But, eh...''

Jared:  ''Like Misha.''

Jensen:  ''Well, you could just go...''  Blows out air hard and makes a splatting sound, ''Eh, I'm kidding.  We love Misha.  People will get mad at me know.'' 

The look that Jared gave Jensen showed why the episode happened.  He didn't follow up what Jensen said, with a snarky remark.  No jokes.  He just moved on but not before putting his hand on Jensen's shoulder and Jensen bit his lower lip.  They figured out that the scandal happened only because of Misha's fans.  They joined the dots beforehand.  That is why they were messed up during that panel.  Jensen's facial expression when he said that last bit.  You can tell he is completely insincere when he says they love Misha.  So Jensen knew who caused the Nolacon scandal, and why they went after him and Jared.  But he still loves the hellers, how exactly?

November 2017:  Honocon

This con was going to be destiel friendly.  The hellers were running their mouths off about it on social media.  Jensen and Misha was getting a panel together for the first time in Creation con history.  Jared would not be interfering or so they thought.  Jared threw a spanner in the works, staying on stage for longer than he was needed, fiddling around with the keyboard and the drums, disrupting the entire panel.  This time he wasn't suffering a manic attack.  This time he was doing it on purpose.  That is what you get when you anger the boys.  During J2 panel, they kept making shippy remarks about each other.  No, its not because they ship themselves.  We are not stupid like the hellers.  Straight men don't ship anything.  They were doing it to annoy the hellers.  During the Cockles panel, Jensen laughed at Misha's walk and Empty Cas voice choice.  Other than the insults flung at Misha, they just did the recycled paper airplane story.  Destiel fans are scattered around the globe and not the majority of the fans in America.  So the con didn't do well.  Honocon was never mentioned again.  Whether it pops up again in the future remains to be seen.  Despite loving the hellers, why is he essentially spitting in their face. 

December 2017: Sydney con/AHBL

J2 was in very good form during this panel, because pig-of-a-face was not attending.  Jared played guitar while Jensen and Robbie sang ''Free Falling''.  Here's an adorable tiny clip of Jared being adorably adorable while eating an egg roll.  Only 42 people watched it so shame on all of you.  Heres the link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPE5JlGp8dg

See how happy they are when Pee puddle and his splatterings are not present.  So why didn't Jensen miss his heller fans? 

 May 2018 - Birmingham

Misha shares a panel with Jensen and Jared, and Jared places himself between the two of them.  Misha tries to pull the stupid chair stunt again, but Jared put a stop to it.  Misha picks up the topic of the shirt sharing for the heller's benefit.  Jensen throws out that he has shared underwear with Jared.  When Misha pointed out that the brothers were not affectionate people generally, J2 shot him down by saying Sam and Dean were very emotional and affectionate with each other.   Between the stripping, the mocking and the icing, Misha did not enjoy the panel.  Why is Jensen punishing his beloved heller fans.

May 2018 - Jibcon 

After Jensen's breakdown the previous year, suddenly Jibcon was no longer destiel con.  Suddenly shipping questions were banned.  Hellers bashed Daniella for that.  When the much anticipated cockles panel happened, Jared threw a spanner in the works, and crashed the panel brandishing balloons.  Hellers tore him apart on social media.  At the beginning of the panel,  Misha put his hand on Jensen's shoulder. Jensen tapped Misha on the knee and then rubbed his fingers together in a disgusted manner.  So he instantly squashed the shippy vibes Misha was pushing for.  During the panel, Jared and Jensen took the time to laugh in Misha's face whilst in character.  Why did Jensen allow his heller fans' only panel to be taken away from them? 

July 2018 - Comic Con

Jensen placed himself between Jared and Alex, and every time Misha opened his big mouth, they just pulled faces and laughed.  Doesn't he care how its going to affect his heller fans?

September 2018 - Indycon

This was the Misha-led con.  No J2 in sight.  It flopped.  Misha is consistently losing fans.  Only the really crass and tasteless ones really like him.  This has nothing to do with Jensen and his opinion of the hellers.  I just derive great pleasure in pointing this out to you.

December 2018 - Jaxcon

A heller got into an argument with Jensen during autos because she insisted Dean was bisexual whilst Jensen was saying that Dean wasn't.  Misha confirmed [as if he has the authority] that Dean is indeed bisexual.  Jensen must absolutely love the hellers after that, right?

Whatever I told you now is a brief overview.  More in-depth posts are on my blog on all these subjects, except for DC Con 2017 which I elaborated on in this post.  During 2017 and 2018, the online attacks have increased including telling Jared that they wish him dead.  This was tweeted to him.  Jensen's death threats increased to include an arson and poisoning threat.  Hellers even threatened to kidnap Jared's children.  Many of these tweets were directed to Jensen.  The receipts for all of these, are on my blog.  They are getting worse.  I fear that they might actually act of their threats one day.  The threats start from mistagged posts which is why I always call those out.  Stay on your lane and you will offend nobody. 

To summarize:

Jensen hates the hellers because they threatened to kill him, in various ways, ruined his reputation by accusing him of homophobia and threatening to kidnap Jared's children whilst also hoping that Jared would die along with Sam.  Oh, and Misha is ugly.  The End. 

#misha #jensen ackles #destiel #cockles #jenmish #jensen and misha #deancas #casdean #dean x castiel #castiel #cas #bi dean #dean is bi #dean and cas #jenmisheel #dean winchester #destiel headcanon #jdvm #misha collins #sam winchester #sam and dean #jensen and jared #wincest #supernatural #jared padalecki #padackles #performing dean #sabriel #sammy winchester #j2

[punainenpuolukka]

Oh, the Thing with the Ghosts, the Boys, and the Car?

I try to be positive but sometime it’s hard, it’s really really hard because all you do is feel profound sadness. The season 15 premiere will air later today, so I have to acknowledge that Supernatural is finally ending. In Part 1 I discussed about my relationship to Sam and why that has made me feel the way I feel about him, and it eventually turned into something positive. It was just the right kind of celebration of a show I have come to love, which is why I chose to publish it first, even though this part would thematically be a better beginning of a series. 

Part 2. Whose Dead Horse Are You Beating?

When it was announced last March that Supernatural would come to close with season 15, my first thought was not “Oh, I’m so sad it’s ending”, or “I’m grateful for the time we’ve had together and glad that we get a definite last season which so many shows do not get”, or  “I’m glad the ending is their choice”, or even “I knew it was coming one day but I don’t feel ready” (which I posted at the time). No, my first thought was: 

“Oh, thank god, I don’t have to listen people complain about it anymore.” 

My second thought was how fucked up my first thought was. I feel such a profound sadness and anger that my first thought was something so irrelevant, something that was not even about me or what I think or feel. I still do think that it is a relief that I don’t have to read negative comments about Supernatural anymore. But when the relief tastes this bitter, is it a relief at all?

It saddens me greatly that I had let the opinion of someone else taint something that was and still is precious to me. I know and I understand that someone doesn’t like Supernatural or they feel bitter or betrayed by it. That’s okay; not everyone likes the same things nor do they watch a show for the same reasons. It’s okay to stop watching, it’s okay to say you dislike it and why you dislike it. It’s okay to criticize it for doing a poor job in something (look, I know, I’m watching the same show). But I still shouldn’t let what others think affect what I think of it, and most of the time I don’t, but this time I did and I can’t get over it.

So, is this my fault and my issue? Well, to a degree, yes. I’m an adult, I should know how to formulate my own opinions and express them. In addition, I should know how to moderate my own “social media experience” or whatever people call it these days, and I do, but it’s basically limited to “press X to close”. It works surprisingly well, I highly recommend it to everyone. However, usually when pressing X I have already seen something that has spoiled the soup for me, and the only way to get rid of it is to simply forget. Unfortunately, when it comes to Supernatural specifically, there is one specific complaint that resurfaces time and time again: 

Look, Supernatural might be a long show, and there’s a lot that can be said about the overarching plot or individual episodes, themes, characters and their character arcs, and whatnot. But. In my opinion, Supernatural is in no way a dead horse, and if you think it’s a dead horse, you truly have not seen a dead horse, or even a horse with broken leg (in case you didn’t know, if a horse has broken leg, it’s kinder to kill it cause it’s never getting better and will only suffer needlessly). I have seen my fare share of dead horses and even zombie horses (you know, when you thought a show has ended and it comes back and you’re not sure if it should be on at all and it slowly slumbers forwards until it rots away in quiet, forgotten). Truly, horses are so poorly constructed and die so easily that it’s a miracle there are any horses at all, and by horses I mean shows. Honestly, at the rate old shows are brought back, remade or rebooted, TV is filled with horses in various stages of decay, or limping clones with half a rib cage missing (just please kill them, they’ve suffered enough) and only a couple of healthy foals and yearlings. 

Sure, Supernatural is an old, half-blind horse that get lost easily and doesn’t come when you call it (it comes when I call it but that’s just me) but I wouldn’t be taking it to glue factory just because of that. Seriously, there are TV shows that have gone so horrendously wrong compared to what they were in the beginning that Supernatural would have to pull some seriously out of the left field shit that it could be considered truly dead and then keep on going. I’m talking like something so absurd that Supernatural, the show in which literally anything can happen because they’ve constructed the show in such a way that basically anything is possible, could not handle it. Like “seasons 2 to 14 were actually Dean’s coma dream but now we’re back in reality and everything is still bad and the dream is actually a prophecy and Supernatural is really about predestination rather than free will” type of absurd shit. And even though based on the promo material the show is taking a look back at its history, I don’t think the worst case scenario I presented is going to happen. Of course the show can still go totally tits up, but that’s a whole other matter entirely.

I suppose we also have to discuss the beating part of “beating a dead horse”. This is where this analogy starts to fall a part, because the only horse you can really beat is a dead one. I mean you can beat a living horse too, but that could be extremely dangerous since they tend to retaliate and throw you off the saddle if you’re riding and break you neck, or if you’re standing next to it, they’ll just kick back and crush your skull. Considering they tend to do all this on accident as well, I recommend not beating any horses. Also, I’m not really an animal lover, but can we stop beating horses metaphorically too, it’s not a pretty picture. 

Nonetheless, if we have to discuss the beating of dead horses, I mean shows, it also gets a bit blurry, since those who insist on using this metaphor are not particularly clear who they view as the beater: is it the crew that actually makes the show or the production company bigwigs who want the show to be made to make some more money. Admittedly, my knowledge of behind the scenes dealings is limited, but in the case of Supernatural it is relatively known that the former has wanted to continue the show as long as there is a story and everyone still wants to make it, and the latter has viewed it profitable enough to not cancel it. Of course, from what I’ve understood, CW did try to kill Supernatural in the past by moving it to a Friday night slot, but since that didn’t happen, they’ve just let it be. And since now the show is on its final season, by the decision of the team behind it by the looks of it, it can’t with all honesty be argued that it’s being beaten to continue. Otherwise it would continued until no one cares of it, and where I stand, it seems that there are a lot of people who care about Supernatural. They care about it a lot.

To be honest, I don’t care what other people think of Supernatural. I mean I do care, but in a sense that I’d like to talk about it with others, or talk about something else if it’s not their jam. If you like it, great. If you don’t like it, also great, but you must like something else, so focus your energy on that instead. However, the way I see it, Supernatural is not dead, no one is beating it (at the moment anyway), and it shouldn’t matter what other people say since they are obviously wrong. So let me keep my horse before it’s released to the heavenly pasture and go beat your own dead meat somewhere else.

#supernatural #supernatural season 15 #SPN #spn season 15 premiere #spn s15

[sometimesrosy]

What s your opinion on this “CW President Mark Pedowitz says that in May an announcement should be made that a channel series has been renewed for its final season.” It could be the 100 or it could also be izombie which I thought was gonna get canceled ages ago, I only really watch t100 on the CW so I’m not really sure what hasn’t being renewed yet

I didn’t hear that announcement, but then, I cut off a lot of fandom because I couldn’t stop the negativity, so I’m missing a lot of news, which, it turns out, is okay.

Izombie has already been given its final season. It’s this one, as far as I can recall. This season is final for izombie and crazy ex girlfriend, I believe.

It might be The 100. A lot of us have talked about not wanting The 100 to go on and on, never ending, like Supernatural. There has been a lot of speculation about when The 100 would end. It’s like a novel, not a procedural, so unless they keep starting over with new books, a never ending renewal could be not so good for the story. We’ve talked about wanting it to have “an end,” like Mad Men did. Closing the story out. TELLING a story. And as The 100 is novelistic, it would be for the best, for all of it, if it HAS an ending to give us all closure. If they are referring to The 100, it wouldn’t be a cancellation, really. It would be The End. Those are different. 

We thought that season 5 might be the ending. And indeed, they closed out Book 1. But then we’ve also thought that s7 might be the ending, and someone figured out that if they tweak the episode number by two or three, that would give The 100 exactly 100 episodes, which is not only poetic, but also the number of episodes it takes for a show to be syndicated, which means it becomes a bigger money maker for the company and the actors.

I may not want The 100 to end, but I kind of even more want it to end with an ending, rather than just drag on with ever new and elaborate big bads, so I’m okay with season 7, if they are talking about The 100, being the end. 

That will actually give us a nice closure to this story that has been unfinished and driving us crazy. We’ll get romantic bellarke in season 6 and an established relationship in season 7, ALONG WITH the end of Clarke’s hero’s journey as she finally gets back to being the good guy again. This time she’ll be able to take season 7 to not only save humanity from destruction, but she and Bellamy will be able to redeem them for their sins that CAUSED the apocalypse in the first place. The pilot had Abby saying that she was making sure humanity DESERVED to survive. And they were unable to even start doing that until just now, with Bellamy in s5. I think book 2 will do that.

Be aware that the people of the Eligius three are the direct descendants of the people who CAUSED THE APOCALYPSE. They are there because of the technology of Becca and the philosophy of Cadogan. Eligius MUST have been the political party that Diyoza fought against, because she was a rebel, like Clarke, fighting against the tyrants who tried to take over her home, and the Eligius imprisoned her with actual mass murderers and psychopaths. So either the Eligius was part of the tyranny or they benefitted from them which is the same thing.

So. Like. If The 100 ends with season 7, it would be an epic ending, because Clarke and Bellamy are the heroes of the story in which humanity is destroyed, struggles to survive, is redeemed and then reborn.

That makes it not just a bunch of kids tossed down onto a poison planet, but an origin story. This is how the world is reborn. Clarke and Bellamy guide it into being. 

I don’t want The 100 to end, but I’m having a hard time not getting excited about what I’m seeing. About how all these loose storylines and new clues and call backs to the first apocalypse and healing of old wounds and commitment to being the good guy and living life well, could wrap up into a FANTASTIC and hopeful story. I actually have in my mind a story that could end by season 7, where they actually go back to earth to fix what they have broken, which is the responsibility of people who want to be the good guys, instead of just taking over another planet and using that one up, too. Even husbanding it well, it’s not their planet, and if there ARE aliens on that planet, they need to give it back to them. Because taking it from them would be repeating the mistakes of humanity. And as much as I know I can’t really predict the ending of The 100, I want to see the themes of redemption and rebirth that are a big part of why post apocalyptic stories are so satisfying to me. I don’t believe this show will end dark. I believe this show is taking us through the darkness and ending in the light.

Like, you never want a good novel to end, but the ending is how everything comes together and gives you closure and gives meaning to the suffering and pain and creates something bigger, something hopeful, something transformative.

And I want that. 

#the 100 #rumors #finale #treating the 100 like a story instead of a hollywood property means they are giving the story respect #i consider it a win #and it means we'll get an ending that is satisfying and not another cliffhanger

[frasier-crane-style]

Elseworlds

Well, Tumblr isn’t dead yet and the CW-DC just did a big crossover, so I think it’s time to make fun of the CW........ for the last time.

Did you know Tim Allen actually ended Home Improvement after season 8 because he knew the show couldn’t maintain its level of quality and was on the way downhill? Tim Allen has more creative integrity than anyone involved in the making of Supernatural. Think about that.

Anyhoo, lots to digest! Largely, this crossover felt to me weirdly lackluster and obligatory, like the whole thing was just a trailer for the oncoming Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover. It just felt unambitious, which is the last thing an ‘event’ like this should feel like. In fact, it felt a little like I imagine the result would be of filming a bunch of people playing DC Universe Online. We visit Smallville and see Lois Lane! We go to Gotham and meet Batman...’s cousin, and fight a breakout at Arkham Asylum, complete with Mr. Freeze...’s gun and the Scarecrow...’s fear gas. Then, we wrap the whole thing up with an Evil Superman, because God knows, DC never gets bored of that.

-Petty nitpick department: Batwoman just standing around on rooftops looks weird. Not only does it give the odd impression that she’s spent the entire time between episodes just, uh, standing, but c’mon--you’re supposed to crouch. Or at least hunch. Everybody knows that!

-Weirdly missed opportunity to have Ollie do the Flash narration, considering all the other opening narrations are futzed with.

-The whole thing is pretty much a glorified body swap--Stephen Amell is playing Barry Allen and vice versa. I can see how TPTB would be too pressed for time to explain a whole ‘nother continuity where Barry Allen became Green Arrow and Oliver Queen became the Flash, but still, it’s not as much fun.

-They also wholeheartedly borrow the thing of Ollie having to be happy to use Barry’s powers and Barry having to be mad to use Ollie’s ‘powers’ from the episode of Teen Titans where Raven and Starfire switched bodies. So, I guess, congratulations on making the central plot point of your crossover the same as a half-hour episode of a children’s cartoon.

-Remember that time Barry was too happy and too confident in his abilities, so his dad died?  

-They got a good actress to play the Lois Lane to this Clark Kent, considering they both just look kinda awkward? His chin looks like he had a face transplant done and her nose looks like someone is constantly Photoshopping it.

NHHHA, He-Man!!

-Don’t do a callback to Smallville, show. Oliver Queen has now spent more time in costume as the Flash than Tom Welling did as Superman.

-Direct fucking hit when Oliver said that Barry couldn’t take a crap without getting a peptalk from his team, but on the other hand, Oliver can’t take a crap without Felicity wondering what it means for their relationship. “Oliver didn’t tell me he needed to go to the bathroom! Why wouldn’t he trust me?”

-I’m just saying, last season on Agents of SHIELD, pretty much every character was in a relationship--there was not so much damn drama. It’s a fucking body-swap plotline, guys. You don’t need to treat it like it could lead to someone’s divorce! Really, at this point, if you’re in a relationship with a crazy superhero, you should be used to it. 

-(Although I suppose I’m a little hard to please here, since over on Legends of Tomorrow they suddenly expect us to care about Constantine rescuing the love of his life when we’ve seen their relationship for all of four seconds. But hey, like I said, Agents of SHIELD manages a happy medium and finds time for Ghost Rider to show up.)

-For the post-apocalyptic hellscape they make Gotham out to be, the police respond awfully fast to disturbances.

-”We’re on the corner of Burton and Nolan!” Groooooan.

-Ruby Rose, everyone: the Less Convincing Michelle Rodriguez. It’d probably a bad sign for how compelling Kate Kane is as a character that everyone would rather talk about where Batman is and why Batman would leave. And, speaking as someone who both watched Birds of Prey and The Dark Knight Rises--Rocky, that ‘Batman Retires’ plot point never works!

-(Is Batwoman even that popular a character to get her own spin-off? I suppose she’s ‘TV show’ popular, but still--I think she’s one of those Batfamily members that is somewhere behind Alfred but ahead of Ace, right next to Azrael. And I do think it’s hilarious that TPTB were insistent on casting a real, authentic lesbian!!!--and then immediately got complaints that they didn’t cast a Jew. Oh, Ziggy, will you ever win?)

-I don’t want to be too hard on Ruby Rose here. Yes, she doesn’t showcase anything other than one mode: Snide And Slightly Pouty (Stephen Amell ain’t winning no Oscars, but he can differentiate between Ollie As A Civilian and Ollie In A Halloween Costume). But the writing does her no favors in making a case for this character as being deserving of any amount of screentime, besides the fact that she dresses like Batman, the guy we really care about. She’s a heroine, as are featured variously in every Arrowverse show. She’s queer, as is Alex Danvers, Sara Lance, John Constantine, et al. She’s rich to the point of having unlimited resources, as are (sometimes) Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, Kara through her billionaire friends. She lives in a crime-ridden hellhole, as Ollie has done for several seasons. What makes any of this compelling? The Gotham setting? Arrow has already turned itself into an effective facsimile of that, to the point of having Ra’s al Ghul show up to make Queen into his son-in-law. Arkham Asylum seems completely generic, as does Wayne Tower. It’s all just a different part of Vancouver; who cares?

-Likewise, Supergirl, speaking to you as a TV show--you really should either be adamant that Kara is heterosexual or give her a weirdly flirtatious scene with Batwoman, but not both. I know you need, need, need to let the audience know Batwoman is a lesbian...

Pictured: The CW subtly letting you know about a character’s minority status.

But c’mon. We’ve been over this.

-Speaking of minority status, maybe it’s not the best idea to let slip that John Diggle is an AU John Stewart. Yes, there’s ten brothas in the DC Universe, and four of them are actually the other six. There are so few Negros on Earth-1 that they had to make Barack Obama into a superhero. The Batfamily has two black folks and they’re both related to Lucius Fox. There’s so few black people in Metropolis that Black Lightning knows who his father is!

Folks, the DC Universe is so white, the Black Lanterns are all dead. The DC Universe is so white, they don’t even have black Kryptonite. The DC Universe is so white, even Black Condor is a honky. The DC Universe is so white, they don’t even need a Justice League of Africa, they just have a Batman of Africa! The DC Universe is so white, the blackest guy on the Justice League is a refrigerator with one-half of a brother’s face on top of it. The DC Universe is so white, they named the black woman on the Teen Titans after a bug that’s half yellow! Now Milestone, the Milestone Universe is black. It’s so black, Aquaman is the most powerful superhero there, because he’s the only one who can swim!

(-I’m planning on being chased off of Tumblr like Indiana Jones after he snags an ancient artifact.)

-Would it be that hard for them to go to Arkham and run into the Ventriloquist or Orca or someone memorable, so long as they have access to the Batman toy chest? We got, uhh, Lady Who Can Pick Up Gun and Psycho Pirate I Guess? Like I said, unambitious. Wouldn’t it be so much cooler if they got someone from Gotham to film just one little cameo? 

-Also, considering the sex scandal these shows have had, maybe it’s not the best idea to joke about their EPs being depraved maniacs? (Was Guggenheim the one who actually got MeToo’d? Because if so, Dude--Not Funny)

-The show had to character-shill Batwoman so hard that Ollie and Barry stopped being fear-gassed just to reiterate that she is too an interesting character in her own right! (If the characters have all heard of Batman, wouldn’t they have heard of Batwoman too if she’s been an active vigilante more recently?)

-But who cares about four unstoppable superheroes teaming up when we can find out how Felicity feels about her relationship? Just a thought--if you fight with your SO all the time about nearly everything, maybe you shouldn’t be in a relationship. 

-Long story short, Doctor Destiny rewrites reality again to make Barry, Oliver, and Kara into supervillains in a world where he’s the hero. He also makes the other characters into pointless cameos, and weirdly gets criticized by Kara for... not giving himself a sex-change operation by becoming Superman instead of Supergirl? He doesn’t have gender dysphoria, Supergirl. I thought she was all about trans issues this season?

-Like, I don’t know, if a woman used a magic lamp to wish herself President, would anyone criticize her making herself a lady President instead of a man President?

-I guess it wouldn’t be Supergirl unless they crowbarred in an extremely awkward girlpower message where Superman and Lois agree that Supergirl/women in general are more useful than men, despite the fact that all Supergirl did was the exact same thing as Barry, while Superman and Oliver fought Dr. Destiny, and all Lois did was call in a bunch of men as reinforcements and then need to be rescued.

-But like I said about being unambitious--wouldn’t it be fun to see our heroes be forced to team up with a few supervillains to save the day? Instead, we just have Cisco playing a villain (something he’s done numerous times before). They get his help, have a weirdly poor showing in a fight against Jimmy Olsen, get Superman’s help again, yadda yadda. 

-We also get Superman proposing to Lois Lane. Yeah, considering they’ve been in a relationship at least since Supergirl Season 1, she’s carrying his child, and they’re planning to move to an alien world together, yeah, I should think so? I know Superman probably isn’t a Republican, but does anyone think he’d be so blase about putting a ring on it? Hell, if nothing else, he should want to tie the knot before Ma or Pa bite it. Couldn’t they have just made it that he wants to renew his vows with Lois in a Kryptonian ceremony or some such? 

#dc comics #arrow #supergirl #the flash #elseworlds

[diminuel]

Reading List: April

I missed archiving fics I read in March, but I’m back for April. Some of the fics I might have read in March. I’m still not very good at keeping track of what I read when! But the important part is that you get some fics to read! ;D

I’ve added the archive warnings in the brackets in case there were any, but didn’t include the tags. So make sure to read them.

Enjoy! ♥

bring it on home by xylodemon (2.4k)

"She ─" Sam grimaces again. "She likes tea, right?"

Dean hesitates. He pictures their old kitchen in Lawrence ─ the floral wallpaper, the walnut cabinets, the pots and pans hanging on hooks. Sheer, white curtains had hung in the windows, and Mary had left them open because she'd liked plenty of sunlight. It had smelled like coffee in the mornings. Dean had always lined his army men up on the table before eating his Cheerios.

"I don't know," he admits. "She ─ maybe."

Soft and gentle, but also slightly melancholy coda fic for 12x02

The One: Supernatural Edition by motorbike_on_the_avenue (73k)

The One is America's #1 dating show!

Twenty contestants will spend six weeks competing in tasks, to show the American public they should be picked to marry the suitor. Over the six weeks, they'll be voted down till just The One remains...

Dean Winchester is this year's suitor. A 34 year old firefighter from Kansas he isn't entirely sure why he applied to a dating show where he has to get married at the end.

Especially since he'll never have met (or seen) anything about his future lawfully wedded whatever.

But just who will be voted The One?

This is such an enjoyable fic! Dean and Cas don’t even meet each other until the very end, but the premise is so captivating and I constantly was nervous and rooting for my faves *lol*

Kitchen Overhaul by Powerfulweak (Explicit, 20k)

For Dean Winchester, his family’s bakery is his life, even if business is tanking. When his brother volunteers them for the reality show “Kitchen Overhaul”, Dean is less than enthusiastic with changing anything about his beloved bakery. He is even less enthusiastic to deal with the infamously icy host, Chef Castiel Novak.

Just like the previous fic on the list, this fic also has a TV show format as the premise of its story, but it’s more in the background. I loved this a lot! I got frustrated because of Dean, then because of Cas, but it’s all very rewarding!

Peak Homosexual by K_K_TiBal (3.7k)

You know that thing that happens where you hear something really homophobic in public so you gay it up as much as you can? This is that story.

Cute, pretend relationship fic! ♥

Neighborly Behavior by Annie D (scaramouche) (1.8k)

Cas and Dean at a neighborhood potluck, in an AU where they're both kinda assholes.

It’s hilarious and always good for a re-read!

Dean's Table by through_shadows_falling (4.9k)

On Castiel’s first day waiting tables at the Roadhouse Diner, his co-worker tells him to save a spot for Dean, a young veteran with a cane who sits in the same corner booth every day. Dean doesn’t talk, but Castiel’s charm soon works its magic until Dean reveals that he’s there to reconnect with his brother after a painful falling out. Castiel hopes Dean will succeed, even as Castiel's roommate, Sam, visits the diner one morning.

Lovely story about Cas easing Dean out of his lonely shell. And it also includes a happy reunion.

The Glen by Annie D (scaramouche) (3.2k, Explicit)

Dean's run out of excuses to not claim Cas, so he finally does. Better late than never, right?

This is actually set after a previous story, which focuses on Sam and Kevin. It might be slightly confusing without the previous part but I think still an interesting read, especially with the following part!

The Shop on the Corner by CasCase (18.6k, Mature)

Two years ago Castiel left behind his job and his past to fulfill his dream of opening a neighborhood bookshop. Now, his shop is popular and he’s finding himself fitting in with his new community. He’s perfectly happy with his quiet life among the books.

Perhaps the only thing that could make it absolutely perfect would be the attentions of Dean-the-Delivery-Guy. But, of course that means Castiel will have to work beyond his own insecurities to find a way to see the gorgeous man more than once a week.

Maybe he should stick to the books after all.

This was fun and lovely and even though there’s a bit of angst and pining involved, Dean’s gentle patience were lovely!

In Someone Else's Life by blue_morning (4.5k)

Cas never believed in love at first sight, but when he accidentally crashes a wedding trying to keep his brother out of trouble, it happens to him. Happy ending, right? Yeah, except that the man he falls for just happens to be the groom.

Light-hearted misunderstandings (mostly Gabriel’s fault) and an absolutely hilarious ending!

The Return Policy by aileenrose (12.9k, Explicit)

"Most of his visitors are academics. They come from universities all over the nation, sometimes beyond. Others write books. The man in the Reading Room today is neither. He’s a tall, irritated man with a federal badge."

The federal agent's partner is usually the one who does the research. And even though Cas doesn't think this man is a real federal agent, he's happy to help where he can.

A great read, close to canon, with lovely atmosphere!

Do You Need a Stepdad? by supernatural9917 (1.8k)

When Claire Novak tweets a picture of her dad cooking, she didn't expect to go viral, or for everyone to be quite so hot for her dad.

Based on a photo prompt: Teenager Claire posts a snarky tweet about her single dad Cas, and gets this response. She says ‘LOL no he’s gay’ so Dean tweets to ask if she needs a stepdad!

It might be short but it’s incredibly delightful! 

How to Keep Time by aileenrose (6.6k, Mature)

Dean's just beginning to learn that some times are more precious than others.

Very touching fic, featuring homeless Cas making beautiful things and Dean having to (re) learn what’s truly valuable.

The Neighboring Perspective by aileenrose (12.7k, Mature)

Dean's newly single, in a new house, and a brand-new father to boot.

Dean's also got this weird thing where some stranger is leaving baby clothes on his porch at night.

A very lovely fic with Cas breaking my heart with his softness and his sadness...! ;w;

Best You Ever Ate by darkforetold (1.7k, Explicit)

Cas sucks—under a table at Ma's Diner.

A PWP! :D

For Science by shiphitsthefan (6.1k, Explicit)

“Think of it like an experiment," says Dean. "You’re testing a hypothesis as to whether or not a desirable response can be achieved through the stimulation of the anus via the application of a willing volunteer’s muscular hydrostat.”

Cas raises an eyebrow. “Are you actually trying to use the scientific method to talk me into letting you lick my asshole?”

It might sound like a cracky PWP, but it’s not! It features ace!Cas and Dean figuring out their sexual relationship. It’s sweet and funny~

Remarkable by shiphitsthefan (3.7k)

It’s only Castiel’s first day as a teacher at All City Elementary in Sioux Falls, and he’s already been warned by four teachers, the guidance counselor, the principal, and the librarian to watch out for Ben Braeden’s father. Unluckily for Castiel, Dean turns out to be just as “helpful” as everyone’s said, bringing in stacks of literature and just as many ideas for how Mr. Milton can encourage his students to be more socially conscious. Castiel dismisses him every time with hardly a second thought.

When Ben brings in his Patriot Day essay assignment, Mr. Milton can't help but change his mind.

I love how passionate and insistent Dean is about social issues. And the way the other teachers speak about Dean makes me sad, but at least Cas makes an effort and the whole fic is very sweet and uplifting!

Made Manifest by schmerzerling

Wherein Castiel defied God for Dean before Dean even knew his name.

I was craving trans!Dean fic and this was recommended to me. It’s really good, focusing on Dean up until Cas pulls him out of hell and recongizes Dean for who he is. Dean, not Deanna.

Low Battery Blues by destielonfire (4k)

Wherein a dead phone battery ruins an otherwise perfectly good and well-intended joke and causes Cas to think Dean broke up with him.

Misunderstanding with a happy ending!

Parent's Weekend by Piper_Halliwell1979 (1.7k)

Claire needs a "dad" to come meet one of her professors during Parent's Weekend at college. She can't get hold of Cas so Dean steps up to help her out. Turns out Claire wouldn't mind if she had two dads.

Dean and Cas both pretend to be Claire’s dads!

This Is Gonna Have Consequences, Kid by omgbubblesomg (Explicit, 3.6k)

Modern AU. Dean is looking for someone to spend the night and Cas is working the streets

PWP with sex worker Cas, featuring younger!Cas and older!Dean.

The Ritual by HazelDomain (Explicit, 9.6k // non-con cw)

The Winchesters were used to being outnumbered. They weren’t too worried about taking on humans, numerous though they may be. It was the ritual’s mystery guest that concerned them. 

Their intel wasn’t good. They knew the cultists needed the participation of some incredibly powerful being in order to complete the summoning. “Powerful” and “being” were both very loosely translated, as was “participation.”

I was on a hurt!Cas kick and this story has plenty of it. Cas was abducted by a cult and then found by the Winchesters once it’s been mostly completed. See the archive warnings (graphic violence and rape) and further tags!

Finding Courage by DarkHeartInTheSky (26.3k)

By allowing Lucifer to use him as a vessel, Castiel helped eliminate the Darkness and saved the World. But it may have been at the cost of Sam and Dean's friendship. Deciding he has nothing to live for without that, Castiel plans to end his life on his terms and be at peace---if only a certain ghost of an archangel would leave him alone. Meanwhile, Dean needs to learn to use his words.

A Supernatural "It"s A Wonderful Life" AU

More hurt Cas. Dean reacts very negatively once Cas is free of his possession, sending him away. As a consequence Cas tries to commit suicide and is given the chance to either die or return to life once more. It takes a while to convince him that he hasn’t lost everything. It’s sad but it has a good ending.

Specimen Two Eighty Five by HazelDomain (Explicit, 8k // non-con cw)

Prompt: Cas gets taken prisoner by the MOL or some other people. They lump angels in with all the other supernatural creatures, and believe they’re little better than animals. They keep Cas restrained and burn or tattoo warding on him. They talk about him like he can’t understand them. They strip him, examine him, make him manifest his wings. He can’t escape, and every day brings new mistreatment and misery.

Hurt!Cas and tortured Cas seems to be the theme of my reading at the end of April. What I particularly like about this is the non-linear narration!

Womb Kindred by Annie D (scaramouche) (Explicit, 33k)

It was probably too much to hope for that Castiel's once-betrothed, Dean of Winchester, never found out that they had a child together.

I adore this fic and the last chapter was recently posted. So it’s on my to re-read list! It’s got a very interesting setting and there’s constant tension between all the characters. Cas has been hurt in the past and while he is fierce in guarding Claire, there’s a sad resignation about him. And about Dean as well. They’re pretty much walking on eggshells around each other all the time and then they get flung into troubles which readjusts their relationship. While it has a good ending, it’s clear that it’s not a perfect happy ever after. 

Pining Sickness; Or, Murder With One Stone by athaclena, iraeim (Explicit, 57.8k)

New York, 1895. The rigid customs of the old century are beginning to fall away, allowing access to the professions for more people than just Omega men and Alpha women. Dean Winchester, the city’s first Alpha male Detective, uncovers evidence that a mysterious new illness killing mated couples might have its origins is the criminal rather than the medical.

Castiel Novak is a respectable Omega doctor who has started to see patients dying cruelly of something he cannot cure or even effectively treat. Approached by the Detective to once again give his medical expertise, he is eager to work towards finding a cause and, he hopes, a cure for the unfortunate sufferers. But both men harbour a secret attraction towards the other, and the quest for the truth will stretch their relationship beyond its limits.

A historical murder mystery set against a backdrop of a non-traditional Omegaverse.

I absolutely adored this fic! It’s got a historical setting and a very interesting world building which, as the summary advertises, features a non-traditional distribution of roles, with omega men at the top of society. The case itself is interesting and you just get a massive dose of pining between Dean and Cas, but it’s a quiet, resigned kind of pining, that really pulls at your heart.

Take On Me by Powerfulweak (Explicit, 46.4k)

Alpha Dean Winchester figured the closest he’d get to the apple pie life and fatherhood was a one-shot, “wham-bam-thank-you-mam” trip to a sperm bank. That is, until he comes face-to-face with the omega carrying his pup on a fateful trip to the grocery store. When the the omega runs off without a word, though, Dean learns the situation is far more complicated than he expected. Can an anonymous sperm donation and the favor of a lifetime help two complete strangers find everything their life was missing?

A fic with an unusual premise that just promises a “it’s complicated” kind of situation! There’s plenty of very intriguing angst, but there is a fluffy happy ending!

Marry Him by ProLazy (2.9k)

Jimmy is sick and asks Castiel to do him a favour. This results in Dean mistaking Cas for Jimmy and explaining that he wants to marry Cas.

A cute sort of mistaken identity fic!

Left Behind by Aini_NuFire (6.6k)

Sam and Dean saved Lucifer from Amara. They just assumed that meant they’d saved Cas too…

(Author needs to vent some angst, but there’s still a happy ending)

That last part of the summary pretty much describes this fic. It’s a gen fic, addressing the fact that Cas often gets forgotten or left behind, especially in this whole Lucifer and Chuck fiasco. ;w;

Captured by bobertsmallismydad (6.2k)

On a day when he is taking a break from Heaven Castiel is captured by the order of the Royal Court aka King "Dickbag" John Winchester. He is forced into servitude as a . . . nanny?

This has a very interesting premise! An enslaved angel having to work as a nanny? Great! Castiel is captured by king John (a douchebag) and tasked to watch over Dean, which he does, over the years. Until Dean himself becomes king.

Choice and Precious Vessels by justabrain (11.2k)

In a world where angels wear collars to suppress their powers and are subservient to humans, a young Castiel finds himself serving a family with two young boys, Sam and Dean. He soon befriends the older of the two, yet all good things must come to an end.

Another gen, Cas whump one. It’s a sad story in which angels are slaves and even though Castiel’s situation improved when he is being bought by the Winchester family, Cas still isn’t treated with dignity. And while the story promises a happy ending and it does have a happy ending, my soul wasn’t quite soothed. ;w; All the damage had been done and nobody makes reparations for it. But despite the sadness I do think it’s a great read!

the worst week of dean's life by jhoom (1.7k)

Dean’s son is driving him crazy.

Super cute, poor Dean is so frustrated because he can’t get his son to call him dada.

Moonlit Sky by hollyblue2 (1.1k)

They'd been busy on their actual anniversary, so Dean decides to make it up to Castiel.

A soft and fluffy story, good for the heart!

Dean's Carol by BurningTea (17.9k)

Dean has learned that a hunter can't have close friends or loved ones, not without being ready to lose them, so he decides it's safer for Cas not to be around.

Can the traditional visits from three ghosts change his mind?

Dean has to learn an important lesson! I love how it takes the story of the christmas carol and putting it into a canon compliant universe, where Dean is aware of what’s happening because he knows the story.

#Supernatural #Destiel #reading list #fic rec