#Castle: Season 1

[pollylynn]

Title: Void WC: 1500

Kate Beckett: “That’s not a problem, is it? Richard Castle: “No. Not for me.” —A Death in the Family (1 x 10)

There’s no violence in the end. There is no shouting or punches thrown. There are no tears—not that he expected them—but there is no kind of passion at all. She listens, stone faced and silent, to the facts he lays out in just a few, uncharacteristically dry words. She turns on her heels, spine straight and head held high. She walks away without hesitation or backward glance. In the end, there are no fireworks at all. It feels wrong—the manner of it, not just the fact of it. That feels far worse than wrong.

He is worried about her. It is immediate and gnawing and he is knocked off the axis of his entire self by it. Richard Castle, in the aftermath of a series of events like this, should  be indignant. He was trying to help. He did help. He has achieved the first break in her mother’s case in a decade. He has accomplished what she could not see through, and she has walked away without so much as acknowledging that. 

He deserves an opportunity to tell her that the ends justify that means, that she never actually forbade him from looking into the case until after he’d already looked into it. She owes him a chance to wave Doctor Death’s file high in the air and crow that it’s his particular brand of gumption, his charming lack of boundaries that clearly gets things done. 

Richard Castle, in the aftermath of a series of events like this, should be furious at how impossible she is. He should be brooding into his scotch over how unappreciated he is or maybe ranting about her over some chest-thumping bass to a friend, to a random groupie or a woman who’s never heard of him but knows a good thing when she spies him brooding into his scotch. 

Richard Castle, in the aftermath of a series of events like this, should be feeling sorry for himself, because he’s finally found something like a sense of purpose and now it’s been cruelly snatched from him. Because he’d hit on something to carry him not just beyond the post–Derrick Storm crisis, but the crisis of his daughter growing up, his mother settling into his home for the foreseeable future. He should be full of self-pity for all he has lost, and all of it for no real sin. 

Any or all of these represent the self-righteous, self-indulgent, self-centered head space that all previous data indicate that Richard Castle should be in. But none of that is on his mind. None of that is what he finds himself going through.  

He is worried about her. 

It’s her haunting invocation of addiction—of the drink the recovering alcoholic must not take. He hadn’t thought of that. She’d told him that night. She’d opened not one, but two veins, telling him about the watch, fishing the ring out from the recesses of her shirt. He’d seized on one and disregarded the other entirely. Trauma-induced addiction? How cliché, how irrelevant, how unsexy. 

And how . . . intractable. 

What a tedious thing for a would-be superhero. Solve her mother’s case? Obviously and with the greatest of ease. Support her—as needed, as wanted—as the daughter who’d clearly taken on her father’s sobriety as her own responsibility? Yawn. 

He’d like to be disgusted with himself for that. The temptation to wallow in that inexcusable failure is almost as overwhelming as the temptation to be furious with her or feel abjectly sorry for himself. But there’s no space inside him for even self-loathing. He is worried about her. 

Everything he has not been seeing—everything he has chosen not to see—comes into sharp focus now. The dates on the access form stuck to the outside of the mostly empty box housing the pathetic sum total of the evidence gathered all those years ago, and how frequently her name showed up on row after row, then nothing . . . all of a sudden, absolutely nothing. The Herculean effort he’s seen her make, over and over, with the loved ones of victims: JoAnne Delgado, Courtney Morantz—people whose names he’s already forgotten that he knows she’ll never forget. He has watched the pain is causes her to access that empathy, and he’s watched her do it nonetheless. 

He knows now how akin that must be—every time—to slipping on to barstool and ordering a soda, buying a bottle and sliding it into the back of the cabinet. He knows now how tight a hold she must keep on herself to do her job in a way that she can live with. And he’s just knocked her off the axis of who she is. 

He’d like to hate himself. If he can’t stomp his feet over how unfair it is that she won’t fall at his feet for his heroic detective work or think about his needs, he’d at least like to embrace the drama of what a villain he is. But he’s worried about her. 

It’s more than just the idea of addiction, whether falling off the investigative wagon and restring herself is a metaphor, an imminent reality, or something in between, it’s more than just that. 

She makes herself small. She is such a force that the idea seems absurd, but it’s true nonetheless. She is in control of her professional life, absolutely, and in that context, she takes up her full complement of space. But outside of that world, she is shoulders hunched, elbows in, gaze fixed on the tile, the carpet, the gum-speckled sidewalk. She makes no demands of the world. She expects so very little of it. 

He thinks of two moments—ancient and recent—that convince him of this. Their first case, when she leaned in, her breath hot on his skin, and whispered you have no idea. Their last case but one, when the fact of Will Sorenson had lit a fire under him and he’d finally plucked up the courage to ask her out for a drink, and she’d turned him down flat, declaring she had a date. He sees both for the performances they are. She’s a gifted actress. She is an expert at mining memory, but memory is all they are. They are drawn from a time before made herself small—made herself satisfied by wanting so little. 

And she makes herself lonely. 

She is close, after a fashion, with the boys, with Lanie, with Montgomery. And yet each of them has, a dozen times over in just a few short months, looked to him, pleadingly, to draw her out, to reason with her, to help, because they love her. They admire and respect her—and, yes, there’s more than a little healthy fear of her, too. But most importantly, they love this woman who is astonishingly hard on herself, who is dedicated to a fault, who is walled off, even from them. They love her, and she is lonely. 

And since he has been around, she’s been . . . less so. 

He has been good for her. Of all the miserable, uncomfortable ruminations that he’s been through since she walked away down that hospital corridor, this may be the worst. It may be the one that shakes him to his very core, but he has been good for her in his childish, boundary-less Kool-Aid Man fashion. She has not—could never—trained him not to approach her on certain fronts, and approach, he has. And in so doing he’s coaxed her out into the light, a little. At least a little. 

He, master of the left-handed compliment that he is, has congratulated her on working people, handling them, running the convenient con. For her part, she has told him in no uncertain terms that she is simply being honest. But she has also stood taller in doing so. She has settled into herself and breathed her way into more of the world’s real estate beyond the job as he has fumblingly made her see how remarkable it is, the degree to which she unthinkingly gives of herself to lessen the pain of others. He has watched her come into a sense of her own worth. He has seen it dawn on her that she has a right to ask more of him, more of life, more of the world. 

He deserves no credit for it. He certainly never had any intention of doing anyone but himself any good as he’s pulled strings and knocked over anything in his way. But the paradoxically uncomfortable truth is that he has done her a kind of precarious good. 

And now he’s taken that from her. He’s taken so much from her that it would be a blessed relief to simply feel guilty. But he doesn’t have that luxury. There is a weight in knowing he has meant something to her. The responsibility of it weighs heavily on a part of his soul he’d thought long dead. 

He’s worried about her. 

He is so very worried. 

A/N: This is 1497 words to support a lame Kool-Aid Man reference.

images via homeofthenutty

#Castle #Caskett #CastleABC #Castle: Season 1 #Castle: A Death in the Family #Castle: 1 x 10 #Kate Beckett #Richard Castle #Martha Rodgers #Lanie Paries #Johanna Beckett #Roy Montgomery #Kevin Ryan #Javier Esposito #Jim Beckett #Will Sorenson #Alexis Castle #Fic #Fanfic #Fanfiction #Fan Fic #Fan Fiction #Writing #Fabrications

[silverflameataraxia]

#the punisher season 1 #karen and frank #frank and karen #the punisher series #frank castle #karen page #the punisher edit #frank castle x karen page #karen page x frank castle #the punisher #frank castle edit #karen page edit #frank x karen #karen x frank #jon bernthal #kastle #kastle edit #deborah ann woll

[katherinehoughtoncastle47]

1.01 - FLOWERS FOR YOUR GRAVE

#iconic couple #castle #beckett #caskett #stana katic #nathan fillion #kate beckett #richard castle #otp #rick castle #otp i had no idea #season 1 #1x01 #flowers for your grave

[alexthen3rd]

Frank Castle is a Pitbull.

Effortlessly Loyal to those he cares for.

Loves with everything he has.

Extremely protective over the people he loves.

Looks mean and intimidating but is actually a soft, mushy, sweetheart.

Loves, Adores, and is good with kids.

I would Marry him in heartbeat if Frank became real. Risks to my life be damned cuz I would be the safest I've ever been.

#the punisher #frank castle #daddy castle #jon bernthal #I finished season 1 of the punisher #fuck i love him #pitbull #pitbulls #are my favorite #dog breeds

[mattzipmua]

DEBORAH ANN WOLL as KAREN PAGE

The Punisher 1.10

#karen page #deborah ann woll #the punisher #daredevil #the punisher season 1 #frank castle #frank x karen #*

[samnotsammy12]

My fellow Kastle stans I am realizing something

Rewatching Punisher and I’m on 1x05 Gunner at the riverside scene (around 22 minutes in) and it’s the moment where Frank is telling Karen the story about when Frankie painted a marine on the wall and told him that when Frank was away, it was Frankie’s job to “protect our girls” and he’s basically telling her “me being with them got them killed so I have to stay away because it’s my job to protect you”

And Karen starts crying

And tbh I think that was her “oh shit” moment, but not in an “oh shit I’m in love with him” way, in an “oh shit he loves me too” way

Especially because he’s (however inadvertently) implying that he sees Karen with the same importance as how he saw Maria, and Karen is realizing just how much she really means to him and that he cares about her so much

And this is the scene where he kisses her cheek and HOLY SHIT SEASON 1 IS SO KASTLE I LOVE IT

#kastle #frank castle #karen page #the punisher #the punisher season 1 #punisher 1x05

[nikki-rook]

Flowers for Your Grave - March 9th, 2009

#phew that was a lot AND i figured out how to do that gradient text #hope you enjoy #castle #caskett #abc castle #kate beckett #castlegraphics #richard castle #nathan fillion #stana katic #castle x beckett #castle and beckett #flowers for your grave #season1 #castle season 1 #rick castle #katherine beckett #nikkirookgif

[renegadesstuff]

That moment when she told Castle about her mom 🥺

S1E05, “A Chill Goes Through Her Veins” aired 15 years ago (April 6, 2009) ❤️‍🩹

#castle #kate beckett #caskett #richard castle #beckett and castle #beckett x castle #castle and beckett #castle x beckett #castle series #castle rewatch #castle edit #castle season 1 #1x05 #a chill goes through her veins #15 years of a chill goes through her veins #castle anniversary #caskettedit

[gifscastle]

Castle 1.09 / 2.12

#castleedit #castle #kate beckett #stana katic #richard castle #nathan fillion #castle x beckett #season 1 #season 2 #* #they are all about the parallels

[sunchipss]

au where all the Rae versions show up is very silly. Au where they show up after Shards of His Mind. Y’know what’s even more silly, having like, seven of them, they’re all confused but Season 1 Rae, like day one season one Rae being A) the only one to not remember his trauma bc I assume this multiple-alternate-past-selves shenanigans don’t fix memory problems. B) ‘Hi Athena, Hi Jamie… who the fuck are these people?’

#He’d be the only one not actively suffering #The others would though #We got: current Rae #Mom just got taken Rae #Early season 1 rae #Late season one rae #Early season 2 and three Rae #And castle arc Rae to make me sad #fablesmp #rae morningstar

[diningwiththeasquiths]

Why are you, as a man, punishing other men in public restrooms?

#the homoeroticism of killing a guy with your bare hands (shoutout to nbc hannibal) 😂 #frank castle #the punisher #the punisher season 1

[pollylynn]

Title: Gyre WC: 850

“Action is my middle name. —Richard Castle, Ghosts (1 x 08)

Although it might not be apparent to the casual observer, Richard Castle is on a Kate Beckett–related roll. The timing only appropriate. April—his birthday month—is drawing to a close, and after what might have appeared to the untrained eye to be a somewhat slow start on this  front, he has had Kate Beckett in his home at least once a week, voluntarily (most of the time), no less. 

He’s closing the month out strong. That should be obvious to anyone. He has not only accomplished a four-peat, he has—this time—gotten her into his home for strictly recreational purposes. He has served her snacks. He has fetched her drinks, and if she has insisted that those drinks be of the soft variety, well, the fact that she has brought her work ethic with her does not, in any way, negate the fact that Kate Beckett—not Detective Beckett—has accepted a 100% social, completely non–work related invitation into his home. 

Along with her co-workers. And her boss. With his mother decidedly ill-cast as chaperone.  

It’s not that he regrets any of that. It’s been a thoroughly enjoyable night, talking trash, and everyone has been giving away everyone else’s tells all night, and it’s been fun. But as much as he wants do to a victory lap—as much as he wants to take the steps two at a time to the roof and call out for all of New York to hear that Kate Beckett has been in his home four weeks in a row—he looks around the table and sees the safety net he’s woven here. 

Ryan and Esposito are definitely in. 

He’d rushed to tell her that before he’d so much as though of inviting them. Poker. He had, of course, intellectually understood that poker involved multiple people. He’d just given no thought whatsoever to who those people—other than her—might be.

Oh, totally, in. They’re dying to see the loft. Dying to take my money, his hearty chuckle, he’d told himself, was totally natural. Not at all forced. As if, Beckett. As. If. 

And the Captain is a sure thing, too. He’d no sooner finished spinning the tale of the boys champing at the bit for a poker night than he found himself making a frantic mental note to bribe and/or kidnap Montgomery for a seat at the table. Oh, you should’ve heard him, going on and on about how he was going to win back his pride and his cash after the beat down he’d gotten.

The fictions as he tried to build his iron-clad case for her very definitely coming to his place for very definitely personal, social, and not at all work-related reasons had flowed freely enough to impress even himself. 

And, of course, Mother will be there. 

That horror was already spilling out of his mouth when he realized that a not even particularly hesitant yes was already spilling out of hers, and what on earth had possessed him?

It’s a question he’s been asking himself a lot over the last two months. He thinks it’s probably a question that the casual observers with their untrained eyes—who have completely  failed to notice that he is totally on a Kate Beckett–related roll—have been asking themselves: what on earth has possessed him? 

This is not his MO. Richard Castle does not do safety nets. He does not wait for the woman of his current dreams to show up when she has a murder-related problem. He does not lure her into his Bat Cave with the lowlights of his second-to-least favorite Derrick Storm novel and cow’s foot stew on the down low. He doesn’t settle for sending the world’s most gorgeous dress, enjoying a dance with her in the world’s most gorgeous dress, and never speaking of it again—at least outside the confines of her highly unflattering version of the same evening, as related to his mother and daughter. He does not suffer chaperones, and he is not a once-a-week kind of guy.

This is so pointedly not his MO that his mother, Queen of the Casual Observers, has not only noticed, she has taken matters into her own hands. She has called the woman of his current dreams and tattled on him in an apparent attempt to light a fire under one or both of them. 

He could kill her. He could just wring her neck. Except it scores him another twice-in-one-week week. It scores him another totally social in-home poker game, if one discounts the fact that she works with or for every other person he has, once again, invited to create some bizarre, very-not-Richard-Castle safety net of propriety. So maybe he should get his mother some kind of gift card or giant bouquet of thank you roses, instead, because she is here. So is the Mayor, her boss (again), and a judge, but she is here.  

He has no idea what has possessed him lately. He only knows he’s on a Kate Beckett–related roll, even if it’s a slow one. 

A/N: Richard Alexander "Action" Rodgers Castle. I think not.

images via homeofthenutty

#Castle #Caskett #CastleABC #Castle: Season 1 #Castle: Ghosts #Castle: 1 x 08 #Kate Beckett #Richard Castle #Martha Rodgers #Lanie Parish #Alexis Castle #Johanna Beckett #Jim Beckett #Roy Montgomery #Javier Esposito #Kevin Ryan #Fic #Fanfic #Fanfiction #Fan Fic #Fan Fiction #Writing #Fabrications

[silverflameataraxia]

We have scenes of Frank being tortured showing absolutely no fear at all. But the thought of Karen in danger? Pure, unadulterated terror.

#the punisher edit #karen and frank #frank and karen #david lieberman #the punisher #frank castle #karen page #ebon moss bachrach #the punisher series #frank castle edit #karen page x frank castle #the punisher season 1 #frank castle x karen page #karen x frank #frank x karen #kastle #jon bernthal

[katherinehoughtoncastle47]

1.09 - LITTLE GIRL LOST

#castle #caskett #stana katic #nathan fillion #beckett #kate beckett #richard castle #otp #season 1 #1x09

[shannonsketches]

Do you have a Ganondorf pov for the fealty swearing scene when he sees link and Zelda through the window?

SO!! Yes and No, and I'm so so sorry because you activated my trap card and this is one of my favorite things and I need to talk about how great this scene is in terms of narrative design.

So, in OoT, that is (as far as I know) not a scene of him pledging fealty. It was referenced in that scene in TotK, but in OoT, Zelda's dialogue indicates that he's already sworn allegiance to her father by then, and she's warned her father about her dreams, which he does not believe.

But in terms of narrative it is so economical and successful in introducing the villain and very subtly setting up your expectations for him. He's on screen for what, ten seconds? But between that and Zelda's dialogue, that very short scene tells us, the player, the two key factors:

1 - Because he's already sworn fealty, he is at the castle for an audience with the king, and if he is walking into the chamber when you arrive in the garden, it means Ganondorf got to Hyrule just before we, the player, did, which sets up the recurring story point that Ganondorf is always one step ahead of you.

2 - Him looking over at the window tells us, the audience, that he can see us. He doesn't know who Link is, as a person, in the game, but as the player, he's aware of us, and he will continue to be perfectly aware of us and exactly what we're doing throughout the remainder of the game, to the point that he uses it against us.

And I know this is absolutely NOT what you asked but I love narrative design so much, and when it comes to establishing things very quickly, this is one of my favorite scenes to reference, because as long-winded as the legend explainers are, they set up Ganondorf's mechanic within the narrative so quickly and effectively, and I just love it to death.

But I will have to draw both his fealty scene and his pov of the window scene separately at some point, yes lol

#ganondorf #narrative design #headcanons #i just i love oot man #it really was the first of its kind ;v; #the way zelda's like 'HURRY OR HE'S GONNA BE GONE' like gan just went 'hey girl im here i'm gonna go run around town and scare the locals' #bc he's in hyrule the whole game like he's there until you come back and see that he's ruined it #he's just chillin as a guest with the king probably bullying a 10 year old together #or the funnier option gan shows up and the king is like 'yay!' and then they just go wander around the castle together #do I picture zelda's father as season 1 richard from galavant? yes #lozhc

[nikki-rook]

Season 1 Bloopers

#season 1 bloopers are so short and just don't have a ton of fantastic moments but I may try and post a bigger one soon #castle #abc castle #caskett #kate beckett #castlegraphics #stana katic #nathan fillion #season1 #bloopers #castle bloopers #season 1 bloopers #richard castle