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adammilligan · 4 years

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so i’m about to go on a long rant about psychology because i was reading about the effects of loneliness on children + the effects of isolation on people, and i think this is something that can easily connect back to adam.

ADAM: You see, it was me and it was my mom. That's it. She worked the graveyard shift at the hospital. I cooked my own dinners. I put myself to bed.

based on the fact that adam uses the words “i put myself to bed” i think we can assume that he’d been doing it himself since he was a child, because teenagers normally are the ones to put themselves to bed but a parent is typically the one to put a child to bed. since kate was constantly working the graveyard shift, you essentially have a little kid that’s extremely used to a dark, empty house (think about kids and, let’s say, the kind of nightmares they experience—if adam had suffered nightmares, there would only be himself to turn to at night for comfort), which is where the loneliness factor kicks in—children with parents that are generally absent (whether the absence is caused by a need to work or by just not being involved in the child’s life) have a tendency to grow up more anxious and stressed, as well as being more likely to indulge in imaginary friends and suffer feelings of alienation (additionally, children living in absent houses have also been noted to be more likely to engage in unhealthy activity (drugs, drinking, etc), but this is largely the result of the influence from their peers. good friend group = better habits, bad friend group = worse habits. given that adam’s grades didn’t suffer + he became an eagle scout + he was pre-med biology at university, it’s pretty safe to place him in the “good friend group” pile). my point is, adam was very used to being on his own. he was most likely able to better cherish the time spent with his mother than most kids his age when she wasn’t working because he knew what loneliness felt like and it probably made him more receptive to people in general—i.e. having a greater degree of empathy, kindness, etc., especially since i’m sure kate encouraged these traits in him. she was probably the one who put aside money for and encouraged him to join the boy scouts in the first place; to promote more social interaction, maybe?

now, to go on to adam’s time in the cage: i’m wondering if adam’s exposure to loneliness from the time he was little might’ve worked to his advantage in the early years, before he and michael struck up a friendship with each other. this advantage would only last so long, since i’m assuming he was residing in near-complete isolation versus when he was on earth and could look forward to going to school and seeing his mother when he got home, and near-complete isolation quickly leaves detrimental effects on the human mind, including hypersensitivity to external stimuli, hallucinations, panic attacks, paranoia, loss of impulse control, memory deficiencies and more. i’m assuming that it’s impossible to sleep in the cage, too, seeing as it’s outside of the scape of what is perceived as “normal” by the human body and probably exists in a dimension where things are constantly at a standstill (does that make sense? think like how vessels don’t age when angels are inside of them, i think that describes it better). so his temporary advantage isn’t there for long, because it’s a prison that he literally couldn’t escape from. the symptoms above probably drove him to near-insanity and if i had to make a guess i think that he probably would’ve been the one to first reach out to michael in a desperate attempt for any sort of companionship as a result of the lack of impulse control that develops over time (obviously, archangels don’t experience things the same way humans do, but given that lucifer was scared of being trapped again + gabriel’s behavior after being freed from asmodeus i think it’s pretty safe to assume that similar symptoms do develop in them, which is probably what led michael to accept adam’s offer of a tentative friendship).

it’s a bit hard to imagine if you’ve never experienced any sort of solitary confinement before, but when adam says that they were all they had, they were literally all they had. it was sticking together and learning to be friends with someone from a wildly different species or dealing with a constant overflow of paranoia and hallucinations and hysteria from themselves. what’s even more up in the air is the amount of damage inflicted on their mentalities before they turned to each other for help. they could've both broken, at least somewhat, and then rebuilt themselves from the ground up. they grew and learned from each other, something evident in the quiet, angry way adam stared at lilith like he'd never done to anyone before and the way that michael was relatively calmer, more grounded, and less likely to lash out.

i know it's more...i don't know, fun to people, i guess? to believe that michael was the sole reason that adam turned out alright, because he protected him, or whatever. but the truth is that they both protected each other, in their own ways. even if michael "protected" adam from hell, even if he altered the perception of time in adam's mind or whatever theories i've seen get passed around (mostly to try and paint adam out to be someone who "had it easier" which is just rooted in the sentiment of people trying to paint the winchesters in a better light), there is no denying the fact that confinement is confinement and will ultimately have severe effects on those who are social creatures. there is no "protection" from the reality that one has been abandoned and left to rot in a box for seemingly eternity. there is no "protection" from the fact that there was no one down there but themselves and lucifer, who probably doesn't even count because adam was never once mentioned by him during any chance he had to gloat. really, the only thing that michael could protect adam from down there was lucifer. the rest was up to them. given the fact that their relationship has been shown to be one where they consider each other as equals, it's very hard to believe that michael was the only one doing any sort of "protecting" especially since if that were the case, michael never would've been so open to listening to adam's words in the bunker⁠—adam would've been treated as less of a friend and more of a pet, which isn't the case. if michael was protecting adam from lucifer, then adam was protecting michael from fear and distress and mental instability. they didn't just have one or the other, they had each other.

i'm sort of just rambling on at this point (if you made it this far, congrats! lmao), but i think one of the points i'm trying to make is that adam was already accustomed to loneliness (at least a little bit) and dealing with that loneliness long before he went in the cage, ever since he was a kid, which might just be one of the reasons he came out of it as okay as he did. he might've taken little techniques he used to make himself calm down when he was a kid and altered them to fit the cage, using them as well as he could and for as long as he could before it proved to be too much. given that adam grew up fairly independent, it must've taken quite a bit of time before he reached out to michael (whether that be from pride or stubbornness, who knows). he adapted to the shitty environment he was in and, eventually, he made the best of it. the amount of changes that must've been made to his body (constantly dealing with the pressure of a foreign, unearthly place + having a giant battery inhabiting his body) and his mind (having been under an enormous amount of stress and anxiety and probably depression from being confined) must be absolutely unreal. but he made it out. he proved himself to be of the ability to adapt and change, even under extreme duress (in the archaic meaning of the word, lol).

it's just super interesting to think about, in my opinion, and adam is a super cool character, especially when being able to survive like that and still being able come out of it with a goddamn heart of gold.

#this got ridiculously long i know but i started and i could NOT shut up #me: it's time to PSYCHOANALYZE CHARACTERS #nobody even cares but also this is my blog and neither do i so this is y'all's post of the hour #kate rambles #adam milligan #i don't think i made a clear point throughout ANY of this but like. whatever #michael

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miraculouscontent · 5 years

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Lmao wanna share your thoughts on the episode

*SLAMS HAND ON DESK*

YES

(As with “Gamer 2.0″, I’m not going to talk about the fact that this episode is out-of-order because I don’t think that’s fair to the episode itself.)

“Party Crasher” is honestly one of those episodes and, in a way, feels like a few past episodes in its weirdness.

And it, unfortunately, has a lot of problems. Plot problems, characters problems, pacing problems… it’s like a multiple tier serving tray of issues.

Soooo, let’s get into them.

[Squandering Squads]

Honestly didn’t think I’d be talking about this again so soon, yet here we are.

I never liked the idea of the “girl squad.” Don’t like thinking about it, don’t like talking about it, and don’t like when it appears in episodes. It’s not that I can’t see Marinette, Alya, Rose, Juleka, Alix, and Mylene as good friends, but they just kind of “appeared” as a close-knit group with no explanation.

Alix in “Timebreaker”, for example. That banner could’ve been requested by anyone, and despite Alix describing Marinette as “one of the chicks I hang out with”, we never actually see why they’re friends or how they became friends. All we really know is that she’s part of the “girl squad” and that she’s in Marinette’s art club. This claim that Alix is presumably friends with Marinette is a line that’s easy to miss and that would make one go “wait, what? when?” when it’s heard. Marinette does go after Alix in “Timebreaker”, but she goes after everyone. She’s a caring person, so it’s in her nature.

Speaking of Marinette going after people to comfort them, there’s also Mylene in “Horrificator”, but Mylene doesn’t seem to have any sort of relationship to Marinette. She leaves Marinette alone when Marinette goes to find her, but that could just as easily be because Marinette showed care in looking for her, so Horrificator decided to leave her be (much like how she had a fondness for Ivan since he comforted her). “The Mime” also doesn’t explicitly say that they’re friends, as Mylene’s father needed an emergency fix on his hat and Mylene could’ve just rushed to Marinette because she’s the expert in this matter. It and “Timebreaker” just seemed like cases where most of the class were vague acquaintances but know that Marinette is the person to go to for certain issues.

Marinette and Juleka actually interact by the end of “Reflekta”, so her being friends with Rose and Juleka makes at least a little more sense (I’d imagine that a friend of Juleka’s is a friend of Rose’s), but even then, the whole girl squad just being able to get along and be friends because they’re girls and they’re friendly I guess just bores me. At the very least, maybe they could have some of the girls not get along with each other, but also not mind working together for Marinette (I could see Juleka and Alya not getting along, for example).

It’s too easy and far too convenient that all the girls (excluding Chloe and Sabrina) happen to get along perfectly without even a single boy added to the mix. I mean, both “Dark Cupid” and “Animan” had Marinette interacting with Kim (Kim even goes directly to Marinette’s house to hide in the latter episode), so why can’t they have a friendship?

The reason I bring this up is because we now have the “boy squad”, which may very well be even worse than the girl squad.

When have any of these boys (excluding Nino of course) interacted with Adrien in any meaningful way? Ivan, Kim, and Max have all had more interactions with Marinette than Adrien, and they haven’t interacted much with Nino either, excluding background details (like Nino being there for Kitty Section, which Ivan is a part of, in “Captain Hardrock”).

Not only that, but this episode seems to forget the fact that Kim bullied Ivan (or was at least messing with/mocking him) all the way back at the start of the series (”Origins”), yet we’re just expected to accept that they’re friends now and maybe patched that little detail up off-screen? I mean, I don’t consider Kim to be a bully, but I certainly don’t consider him to be friends with Ivan either.

And just to complete the boy squad, Nathaniel and Marc also make excuses and show up later because of course they do. Can’t miss that other boy in the class or it wouldn’t be a complete set, now would it?

I just… I hate this idea of separating the genders. It’s one thing if it’s a special occasion, like a “boys issue” that only the boys feel they should handle (or perhaps Ivan and/or Nino want to get something for their girlfriend and are desperate for another’s opinion, but are afraid to ask one of the girls because they’re afraid that the girl will accidentally blurt it out to the girlfriend in question), but all they’re doing is setting up a party for Adrien!

And speaking of which…

[Party Foolhardy]

I have so many questions about the set-up and logic behind this party.

So many.

Let’s start with the fact that the boys are blatantly and self-admittedly ditching the girls to do this party. The girls are out doing hard labor and the boys ditched them to set up a party for Adrien. Heck, Max even points out that the girls are 100% certain to be disappointed if they know they’re doing this, and Nino later stresses that their afternoon is going to be ruined if Marinette catches them!

He’s openly admitting to the fact that they’re doing something horrible to the girls! I’d expect that kind of bluntness from Chloe, not Nino!

Now, given that, I put most of the blame on Nino for this, because he’s the planner of this situation and even prepared excuses for why each boy couldn’t make it to the tree planting. Ivan also makes it clear that he wasn’t aware of the time frame they were doing it in (Kim backs this up too, simply having forgotten the date), so yeah, Nino’s the mastermind.

But, ultimately, they all chose to continue doing this. Ivan, Kim, and Max, however unsure they seemed at these excuses, all dove into this plan “for Adrien”, which is so hard for me to be invested in when they hardly know Adrien. Also, none of them stopped Nino from taking their phones and hanging up on Marinette, nor did they disagree when Nino tried to make this party about being “only boys.”

And I have to ask why. Why does it have to be only for boys if Nino was already pretending like the girl squad was doing their own thing and couldn’t make it (meaning that he must’ve had multiple reasons for doing this)? The whole point of this party is that they wanted Adrien to have a good time because Adrien doesn’t get to very often.

Exactly what is gender-exclusive about that? Like, Nino sees an opportunity to throw a little party for Adrien and he apparently goes, “WELP BETTER MAKE SURE IT’S A MAN’S PARTY”?

And I could understand if more parties were able to be planned, but Nino knows how horrible Adrien’s schedule can be! Gabriel has a habit of canceling Adrien’s personal plans for no reason and also dislikes anyone coming with Adrien to his house, not just girls. There’s no guarantee that they’ll get another chance like this!

Shouldn’t the idea here be “the more, the merrier”? Wouldn’t Adrien be happier with all of his supposed friends showing up and not just the guys?

Also, y’know, no girls allowed, but a bunch of grown men hanging out at a party for teenage boys isn’t even remotely weird, right? Who cares if they’re basically total strangers!

(Wait–Fred??? Is that Mylene’s dad??? …I know he’s just there to fill in the background but DUDE, YOUR DAUGHTER’S BOYFRIEND IS IN THE ROOM WHILE SHE’S OUT TAKING CARE OF PLANTS.)

And there was no reason for the party to interfere with the planting that the girls were doing unless Nino did it specifically to ensure that they were excluded and would be busy. Gabriel was gone for the whole weekend, so this party could’ve been done at any other time during then.

Even if Nino’s plan was to bribe Gorilla again with more figures on another day of the weekend, it’s ridiculous that he had to lie about it.

And to his girlfriend, no less! This entire season has continuously stressed how much Alya and Nino are dating (to the point where they asked Marinette more than once to babysit so they could go out together), and then this episode not only has them completely ignore that fact, but it doesn’t even make Alya–the supposed journalist who would naturally be suspicious of Nino not wanting to spend time with her for once in their dang relationship–question why all of the guys have an excuse that they texted at the same time? It’s not out-of-character for Marinette to investigate the matter, but seriously, Alya? You’re not even going to look into it?

(They could’ve at least made a joke about Nino trying to include Alya as “one of the guys” and have the others call him out for his hypocrisy.)

And regardless of his apology, Nino feeling bad about it by the end is practically irrelevant. He should’ve felt bad in the first place.

Like, how convenient is it that Nino only feels bad after they were caught red-handed and the party is already over?

It’s almost as if his initial lack of regret was for the sake of the plot and its comedy instead of being a damaging character trait to be corrected.

The show also completely skips over the detail of this boys-only party. Nino doesn’t feel bad about throwing this party; he just feels bad for lying about it.

So, leaving the girl squad to do hard labor so they can throw a party that could’ve been thrown at any other time during the weekend is okay as long as he tells the truth? I… okay?????

…This episode–this show, really–seems to have a thing towards lies and just lying in general. We’ve had multiple past episodes where a big deal has been made about lying, and the fact that a character lied usually overrides what caused the lie in the first place, causing the overridden thing to be ignored completely (hi, “Weredad”).

But of course, it doesn’t just come down to that alone because, no matter what, Marinette always seems to take more heat for it than she deserves.

When Nino left with the other boys, that was six less people who were working on the plants (Nino, Ivan, Kim, Max, Nathaniel, and Marc; plus Markov technically as a seventh). This meant that they doubled the work for everyone else.

Marinette leaving was only one less person, and she only left because she knew that something was up with the boys.

(and, y’know, she’d actually helped for a while before she left)

But the boys barely question Nino on the whole party thing. Oh, sure, they’re unsure at first, but they go along with it pretty easily.

What does Marinette get? Tikki, who is unable to let this situation go.

As usual, Tikki is freaking out about Marinette’s “lies” without looking at any of the possible context.

Like, okay, first, she’s upset that Marinette lied her way out of planting with the girls to investigate the boys’ lies (Tikki’s freak out is before Marinette explains this, but the point is that Tikki doesn’t even wait to hear Marinette’s reason).

Second, Tikki is upset when Marinette wants to be a part of Adrien’s party, and then freaks out again when Marinette suggests telling a half-truth to get in.

What Tikki fails to realize is that Marinette is trapped right now, and Tikki doesn’t bother to offer any sort of helpful advice on what they should do about it (as usual).

Looking at this from Marinette’s perspective, Marinette has realized that the boys have lied to the girls, and they’re also throwing a party without the girls even knowing about it.

In the process of confirming this, Marinette has taken a train ride in order to get to Adrien’s house. Getting back on another train to return to the girls without doing anything there now seems like a waste.

I’ve talked about this before, but Marinette has had no luck with spending time with Adrien. Now, she has a chance right in front of her.

And what else is she supposed to do? Like, sure, Tikki, let’s just have Marinette go back to Mylene and the others, then proceed to tell Mylene to her face, “By the way, I know that your boyfriend is lying to you and so were all the other boys.”

That would not go over well. Marinette has confirmed her suspicions, but the problem then lies in what she’s supposed to do about it. Even the boys know that the girls will be upset if they find out about this party and, if they’re not upset about the party, they’ll be upset by the boys lying.

(Also, we confirmed in “Chameleon” that not telling anyone about someone’s lying is totally okay as long as you can confide in someone about it, and Tikki would probably fit in that category, so why should Marinette do anything, right?)

Ideally, if it were me, then yes, I’d want the truth to come out. I’d still try to get into the party, but only to try and convince the guys to admit their own wrongdoing before I do it for them.

But I see Marinette’s thought process. She came all the way here in an extremely awkward situation. Alya would certainly stir up a fuss if she heard about what was going on, Mylene would be shocked, Alix would be livid, and Marinette would miss her moment to spend time with Adrien.

In a vacuum, yes, I’d be annoyed at what Marinette’s doing, but after all the episodes with Marinette’s failed attempts… yeah, I can at least see it. She’s desperate.

(Also, she was one of the girls who was lied to, thus and may feel like she deserves something for it.)

Not to mention… she’s probably a little miffed too? Here’s this party for Adrien, and Marinette is supposed to be his friend, yet she’s not even invited?

Then, she has to watch as other boys and also adult men get let in. When she’d tried to call the boys earlier, she’d been hung up on.

If this plot was taking itself seriously, that kind of thing would be hurtful. Nino was there for “Glaciator” when Marinette was depressed over Adrien, and now a free chance to hang out with Adrien was right there and she wasn’t offered it?

(Keep in mind that Marinette is presumably watching from afar and never sees other girls get turned away from entering. In the episode, the only girl that shows up is Marinette (Chloe doesn’t ring the bell and is only searching for her father and butler), so she could very easily presume that it’s not about girls, but about her, just because she has no evidence that other girls would get denied entry.)

That’s not even taking Marinette’s anxiety-driven freak-outs into account. It’s honestly impressive that she remained in “detective Marinette mode” instead of breaking down and imagining another one of her insane scenarios.

“T-tikki, what if they hate me? Wait, what if ADRIEN hates me?! That’s it, isn’t it?”

“Marinette, I’m sure that–”

“They didn’t answer because Adrien doesn’t want me there! That’s why I’m not allowed in! They’re having a ‘mock Marinette’ party where they make a list of all the embarrassing things I’ve ever done! They’re probably in there, laughing at me, and then they’re going to invite more and more people in just to tell them all about how laughable I am!”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

[some random guy proceeds to approach the front gate and is let in without any issue]

“…M-marinette–”

“[Marinette literally breaking into hysterics]”

Also, how in the world is Tikki not upset by what the guys have done? Marinette just proved that they lied and all Tikki cares about is what Marinette did.

“Guitar Villain” Tikki that actually got frustrated with Chloe was one of the best Tikki and I’ll stand by that.

But I guess the reason the narrative comes up with there is that Nino and Marinette apparently did the exact same thing, so they’re “equal.”

They’re not. Not even close.

Nino lied about a party that the girls very easily could’ve been a part of (Marinette even points out by the end of the episode that they might still have time to get back to tree planting, so yes, everyone could’ve gone to this party and then just done the tree planting afterward), then put steps in place to ensure that the girls didn’t get in even if they did stumble upon the mansion.

All Marinette wanted to do was figure out why they were lying, then got put in an awkward situation while also feeling a desire to be with Adrien at a party. She didn’t pull herself and six (possibly seven) other people out of an obligation that she’d agreed to.

Then, just adding to these false comparisons, Nino and Marinette also imply that what they did was okay because they were “only doing it for Adrien.”

No. No, they were not.

Marinette wanted to figure out why they were lying. She confirmed that it was about Adrien later. Her actions weren’t exactly right, but she is far better than Nino here.

Nino did not do it for Adrien. I simply do not believe that he was doing it for Adrien. Nino made that clear when Adrien was wondering why Marinette couldn’t come to the party and all Nino could come up with is that she was already spending time with the girls.

Y’know, some real quality time, straining their backs over plants and everything.

And I just wanna stop here for a moment to point out how this is going to affect Adrien, because this is freaking important.

I know I salt a lot about Adrien, but let’s consider his actions in this episode versus how much worse they can get with this set-up in mind.

At the very beginning of the episode, it’s established that Wayhem wants to hang out with Adrien. This is the same day as this party, yet even as people are pouring into Adrien’s room, the idea of calling Wayhem and telling him to come over doesn’t even occur to him.

He also volunteers a disguised Marinette into dancing with a bunch of other guys despite the fact that Marinette didn’t even remotely consent to it, but that’s not relevant to my point; I’m just salty about it.

Now, think about what Nino is doing. He knows that there’s no reason to make this a boys-only party. In fact, when Adrien questions him, Nino gets increasingly shifty-eyed, and eventually just goes straight to changing the topic.

I’ve complained about Adrien’s lack of friendship skills in the past. He claims to want friends, yet he doesn’t spend time with them and hardly even tries to. Friends often have to go to him to make it happen, despite how much more convenient it would be for Adrien to lay out his schedule and try to fit in free time with them himself.

And now there’s this? Nino’s garbage explanation as to why Marinette can’t come to the party despite being their friend? Him avoiding any conversation on the matter because (presumably) he’ll have to admit to Adrien that he and the other boys ditched the tree planting to do this party for him?

This will only further Adrien’s confusion on the concept of friendship. Adrien basically states right in the episode that he doesn’t understand, so it’s practically canon.

So, yeah, if Nino was really doing what Adrien wanted and kept Adrien in mind, he would’ve known before even entering the mansion that Adrien would’ve liked for all of his friends to be there. There was also the possibility that Adrien would’ve felt as if the girls had a problem with him since they “happened to be busy” with their own thing while Nino was planning a party for him, which Adrien would’ve assumed that they knew about.

By the way, Adrien is clearly bothered and covering his ears when the music is too loud, which Nino ignores and insists that it’s fine; that’s a good metaphor for what I just mentioned.

Ninos Before Bros, am I right?

(And by the way, not suggesting that this is canon, but if any of this happened to be due to Marinette–because not only is the timing of the party suspicious, but just the avoidance of Marinette in general despite their behavior very clearly throwing her off if she called all of them–and the fact that her crush might’ve meant that Nino himself would’ve had less time with Adrien, then Nino should’ve at least had the decency to say it to Marinette’s face.)

[Abrasive Tone]

The tone in this episode is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. Like, really bad, and the pacing doesn’t do it any favors either.

I’m not going to list out the scenes and their timeframes, because the main problem ultimately comes from the tone, but I’ll just say this for the pacing: by the time Party Crasher finally shows up to crash the party, there are less than seven minutes left in the episode.

Now, this is perfectly acceptable for some episodes that have a lot of character going on. After all, not every episode has to be about the villain-of-the-day (in fact, I’d encourage the occasional episode that may feature the heroes/Hawk Moth but not have a villain-of-the-day at all).

But this episode has nothing! Aside from Gabriel confirming some stuff for us, there’s nothing here that warrants such a long waiting time for the villain-of-the-day to come in.

And the Gabriel scenes don’t even belong here! The episode is constantly switching back and forth between “party where the audience doesn’t know whether to laugh or feel uncomfortable” and “by the way, EMILIE ALMOST DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIED.”

Yikes.

The scenes are so jarring. There’s no time to breathe because the episode doesn’t know what to do with itself. It’s so confused about itself that it can’t even give focus to Wayhem, who becomes the villain-of-the-day, and worse, Kim, who GETS HIS MIRACULOUS IN THIS EPISODE.

Other temporary heroes also make appearances in this episode, and that’s equally pathetic. Luka is just there and hardly gets a single line, whereas Max is slightly better off but doesn’t stand out much before he gets his miraculous again (he hacks into Gabriel’s system, which is impressive, but none of this relates back to what he does as a hero). Nino gets to become Carapace again too, but that just gives me vague “Syren” vibes of “let’s reward the guy who is the worst offender in this episode”, y’know?

It’s not that I can’t see why Fu picked them, because I can (Carapace to help protect the cat miraculous from being taken, Pegase to teleport and thus avoid Party Crasher’s predictions, and Viperion to cover for potential errors), but they have little to no time to work with! The three of them regaining a miraculous and Kim getting his miraculous happen in the last, what, five minutes?

So… yeah, it was really clear where the episode’s priorities were, and it wasn’t anywhere good.

More on Kim and him getting his miraculous thought, I know I was upset at what the boys did in this episode, but I legitimately feel bad for Kim. He’s one of my more favorite classmates (and now has one of my favorite transformation sequences because oh my gosh, what a dork), but even disregarding any bias, he just doesn’t get the screentime he deserves for his miraculous debut episode. “Syren” did better for his character and actually was able to balance that with their villain-of-the-day!

And speaking of “Syren” actually, Kim was also one of the few people who actually talked about being a hero and how he wanted to be one, yet we don’t even get to see him give the miraculous back and properly react to being a hero. I mean, I’d presume that Fu would tell Ladybug who Roi Singe is, but did Kim even know that he’d have to give the miraculous back? Was he just happy that he got to save everyone? I don’t know because they didn’t show it!

Heck, “Syren” had him admitting that he can be a doofus sometimes, so the episode could’ve easily played off of that, showing Kim that what he may see as his less appealing traits (as people often laugh at him for them) actually benefit him when he’s given a miraculous.

It’s not that I can’t see why Fu would want to pick Kim. I mean, Kim did have a nice little speech about saving people and also laid down a metaphor, which I’m 90% sure Fu is weak for. It’s just a shame that the episode doesn’t give Kim much time before getting his miraculous.

But apparently, all those Gabriel scenes were so crucial to this party (if they wanted to do the “Emilie is in danger” scene, then the episode needed to be less comedic and feel more like there’s a constant tension of the party-goers getting caught somehow) and it was so important to put all this other plot in about how the girls get needlessly left out while Marinette goes detective-mode and then tries to get into the party.

…Now, all that said, I actually felt like this episode could’ve been saved if they’d removed the Gabriel scenes and the subplot about the boys skipping out on tree planting.

Like, okay, here me out. This episode is dumb and I’ll never deny that. Almost every decision made is questionable and the pacing is atrocious.

But!

But but but…

For once–JUST THIS ONCE–I’m going to give the writers some semblance of slack for a few of their choices. I talk a lot about the writers and the terrible decisions they make, but I’ll be completely honest here…

I do not think that some of their decisions are meant to be taken seriously. I legitimately believe that at least the party half of this episode (excluding everything Marinette does outside of her disguise; speaking of which, WASTED opportunity to see Marinette put her creative skills to use in disguising herself as a boy, just sayin’) was meant to be another “Mr. Pigeon” or “Christmaster.”

I mean, let’s look at what this episode does outside of its more “””””serious“”””” details:

- Nino and the others bribe Gorilla with action figures so he lets them in, and there is no explanation as to how they got this information that Gorilla not only collects them, but is also missing specific ones (that they have) from his collection.

- I’m positive that this part wasn’t supposed to be funny, but the way the sad music just kicks in as “Adrien Angst” ruins the cheery mood made me snort

- When Nino blows on the rainbow-colored record, it sheds tiny rainbow confetti and sparkles instead of dust.

- Gabriel wears some sort of butterfly-collecting gear that makes him look ridiculous.

- Roger comes to stop the boys from playing their music too loud, then gets distracted by their foosball table. This leads to multiple adult men coming by for literally no reason just to join the party. Gorilla lets all of them in despite Nino having never instructed him to do so.

- Both Mayor Bourgeois and Butler Jean show up with their faces covered in make-up; they also never remove it. The principal, similarly, shows up in his Dark Owl costume (which I just presume he wears all the time when he’s not working and occasionally when he is working).

- Marinette: Aren’t you supposed to be careful and keep the miraculouses safe from Hawk Moth? | Fu: *confidently pats a cooler that contains the Miracle Box along with SODA AND ICE, WHICH IS NOW BEING KEPT IN THE HOUSE OF HAWK MOTH*

- Gabriel searches for negative emotions and is upset that there dares to be joy in his house.

- The villain-of-the-day is Wayhem, the guy who freaking took on Gorizilla with a perfume bottle while screaming “ADRIEN, THE FRAGRANCE”; his akumatized form looks exactly as ridiculous as you’d think.

- Fu’s expression of “god I hate my job” as Chat ignores the reality that Fu lays down, preferring to charge headfirst into battle.

- Xuppu and Kim

- Kim transforming in a bathing suit, having been completely missed by Party Crasher because he was busy swimming in Adrien’s bathtub.

- Also Kim

- Especially Kim

- “Actual Monkey” Kim

- Kim literally saves Ladybug and Chat from getting their miraculouses taken away by throwing a squeaky rubber banana at Party Crasher.

- The method to beating the villain-of-the-day is to play a knock-off of YMCA and dance as ridiculously unpredictably as possible so that they can’t be out-predicted

So… YEAH, THIS EPISODE IS DEFINITELY SOMETHING.

Now, of course, I will never excuse the “boy/girl squad” thing nor the actual set-up for the party, but the Gabriel scenes would’ve been fine in a more serious episode and, while it doesn’t save it, the episode becomes much better when it actually remembers that it’s supposed to be fun.

Like… yeah, the Fu thing would still be annoying because, ultimately, if this is Kim’s miraculous debut episode, it’s “canon” and thus “important” by default. The episode can’t be a one-off with that detail, but Kim also does best with silliness, so this is a great episode for him to debut in.

But, if this episode had actually been given more time by cutting out this “boys-girls” nonsense and trimming the Gabriel scenes to save the angstier parts for another episode, then it would’ve easily had room to give Kim the screen time he deserved, allow Fu more reason to be at the party (he could’ve seen Party Crasher on television considering HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE CELEBRATING AT THE MANSION THAT NO ONE EVER CELEBRATES AT SO WHY WOULDN’T SOMEONE BE DOCUMENTING IT; alternatively, Marinette could’ve foreseen that they’d need help and texted him), and let the episode just be the fun random mess that it’s supposed to be.

I think that’s why I’m particularly salty about this one. I mean, anyone who’s been following me for a while knows that I adore occasional campy cheesy random fun, since “Mr. Pigeon” is one of my favorite episodes of Season 1 for that reason.

And I see that this episode clearly wanted to do that, but it only did it halfway. It’s so busy being bogged down by tonal whiplash and scenes that were never necessary that it doesn’t get to embrace the sheer hilarity that it could’ve had.

*sigh* …It’s a shame.

#((Is it just me or do the characters do the ''Christmaster'' eyes in this episode a few times?))#((Where they get the highlights? It looks really good when it happens but it's sadly infrequent.))#category: salt #category: critique #((There's technically positivity in here but lol does it really warrant putting a tag in.))#category: long post #word count: over 5000 #episode: Party Crasher #other: ask and answer #((Don't hate me but I didn't notice ''the skin thing'' in this episode.))#((Like... I thought something was off but I thought it might be the change in color with the hair and bodysuit???))#((Is this like ''Syren'' where the model normally doesn't have the skin like that but the animators just somehow did a bad or something???)

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multsicorn · 4 years

Text

multsicorn’s infinite fic playlist

some friends in a chat were talking about comfort fic! so I have Made A List. Ten of my very favorite fics to reread when I need a boost, in ten different fandoms. In no order. And with no particular theme, that I can tell. They’re probably all more-or-less mostly self-contained enough to work even if you don’t know the canon? Certainly the Hockey RPF fic is (cause I don’t know anything about the canon there!), and who doesn’t know HP, etc....

.... four are about fucked-up families, (cause I find that cathartic, and people dealing with it comforting), two are polyfic, (because more relationships interacting to me means ~more love~), three are really mostly about the ~feel~ of the universe, (the fun mundanity of a not-quite-mundane canon universe! or of a perfectly balanced space au), and then the last one is... about how to know if you’re in love on one side of it, and about how to get over it on the other (because how does one romance).

the ones about fucked-up families:

When The Lights Go Out, Will You Take Me With You? by narceus (Glee, Kurt/Blaine, m, ~11k). I love the way that it punches out my heart and then puts it back together? Lmao, that’s very personal. But I love the way that - what can I say. This isn’t a fic about romance, it’s a fic about family - well. How sometimes your family is your boyfriend, and your mutual friends, how sometimes ‘family’ is something you have to leave, and real family is something you build. ‘This is exactly what it’s like,’ and it’s wish-fulfillment, and, yes, somehow it’s both of those things.

You can run away with me any time you want.

Come Marching Home by ossapher (American Revolution RPF/Hamilton, Hamilton/Laurens, t, ~9k). Fraught relationships with family members who think they love you but they really really don’t are my jam, and the way that this fic deals with a younger still-dependent sibling who’s caught in the middle between John and his horrible father is especially my jam. Also, fics that transform a complicated set of characters/relationships/etc. from canon to a completely other setting thoughtfully, which this fic ‘verse has a lot of fun with.

John Laurens attempts to reconcile with his U.S. Senator dad after years of minimal contact. It's family, though, so nothing goes as planned.

Theft of Assets, Destruction of Property by Helenish (Harry Potter, Draco/Neville, e, ~23k). I love the way that Draco here builds a life up out of nothing. It’s very cozy from one angle, full of cooking and baking and making a house a home, but it also goes hard on the way that abused children will internalize their situation as the expected baseline of life, which I appreciate very much.

Surely it is a mistake to allow a single youthful indiscretion to cloud an already promising career.

A Month of Sundays by Kelfin (Hockey RPF, Erik Johnson/Gabriel Landeskog, m, ~69k). I love the push-pull of a relationship that naturally slides very quickly into something very close and intimate, that keeps being pulled back from that by Erik’s internalized homophobia. I love the way the story negotiates the very real knock-on effects of that on Gabe, his maybe-maybe-not partner, and the way the Erik negotiates ‘I love my family... but they don’t love me.’

Unlike some guys, who freak out when things get even a little bit gay, Erik is fine with this stuff. Erik's not even fazed when Gabe's attempts at flirting with him start to get semi-public, a fact that, by his own judgment, makes him at least five to seven times more tolerant than your average forward-thinking American.

the polyfics:

Everything That You Can Keep by Dira Sudis (dsudis) (Vorkosigan Saga, Aral/Jole, backgroundy Aral/Cordelia, e, ~30k). I love this story’s negotiation of not just polyamory (and I love negotiation of polyamory stories - how two people in one relationship share feelings about yet another person, and figure things out? yes, please), but specifically of all the added complications that come out in the highly hierarchical, secretive, and loyalty-based Vor society. When even asking about asking is a matter of trust, requested and given? That goes straight to my id.

The impossible takes a little more time, a lot of negotiation.

Love: The Package Deal by jjtaylor (Bandom, Frank/Gerard/Lindsey/Jamia, m, ~30k). I love the way that the different relationships are layered over and relate to each other - that’s one of the big things I like about polyfic - and the way that the amnesia smashes them together by bringing a past relationship to the present, while making the present one abstract and back to square one. I love how the amnesia in fact smashes together all the highs and lows of eventful years’ worth of Gerard’s life: artistic success, problems with drugs and addiction... they’re all right there waiting for you.

Gerard gets a special kind of amnesia. Frank gets to reexamine his idea of acceptable relationship structures. Lots of people fail to communicate effectively, but they all sure remember how to kiss.

the cozy weirdness of the universe:

it's a new craze by attheborder (Good Omens, Aziraphale/Crowley, t, ~6k). The development of the relationship strikes a nice balance between angst and sweetness, but what I really come back to this fic for is the fictional advice podcast! That Aziraphale and Crowley start together, which it’s about, and the way that they sprinkle their up-close experience of history into their discussion on it - and then the way that the fandom latches onto and tries to make sense of that. It is just, purely, A DELIGHT.

CROWLEY: I try not to make a habit of gratitude, but I must give our appreciation to everyone out there who’s been listening and subscribing to The Ineffable Plan. AZIRAPHALE: Ooh, yes, we’ve become quite popular, haven’t we? CROWLEY: Yeah, just hit number eight on the advice charts … No advertising at all. AZIRAPHALE: Mm. How … miraculous. CROWLEY: … Aziraphale. You did not.

***

Crowley and Aziraphale are very possibly the people least qualified, on the entire planet, to start up an advice podcast.

But what else is there to do when the world isn’t ending anytime soon, you’re technically on indefinite sabbatical from your lifelong careers, and you need a plausible excuse to spend more time with your best friend who you’re definitely not, absolutely not, maybe just a little, actually maybe overwhelmingly in love with?

A Resolution of Territory by arboretum (Hikaru no Go, Hikaru/Akira, e, ~10k). I just love imagining spending my life playing Go, okay! This fic is wonderfully immersive in a weird-but-good everyday reality, of spending your whole life immersed in a game that just fascinates you, alongside your friends - and your boyfriend, too, which is to say, the one person who shares your fascination in the most direct and deepest and mutually obsessive way. Eventually he’s your boyfriend, of course.

The point is, life is hectic, but it's good.

The Vastness of Space by shysweetthing (Yuri on Ice, Victor/Yuuri, e, ~17k). I love the way that the space setting here gives scope for best-friends-and-partners, for cute and amusing low-stakes shenanigans and then cleverly solved higher-stakes adventure. I love how sweet Victor and Yuuri are in caring for each other in dire circumstances, and why they both see each other as beyond their reach in the context of this imagined world.

As chief communications officer on board the Interstellar Alliance Fleet’s Star Ship Victory, Yuuri doesn’t have to think about who he actually is on his home planet. He just has to listen to his captain, do his job, and…not fall in love with his best friend, the ship’s science officer, Victor Nikiforov.

Well. Two out of three’s not bad.

Then his mother calls with the worst possible news: She, the Empress of New Nihon, has arranged Yuuri’s marriage. There’s only one thing Yuuri can do: Fake a boyfriend, and fake one fast. Who better/worse to play that role than the friend he wishes was more? What can go wrong? It’s not like Yuuri can fall more in love...

the how does romance (with my beloved controversial otp):

if you change your mind by leetlebird (Check, Please!, Jack/Parse, e, ~35k). I love the way this story shows Jack trying to work out what love means for him, anyway, and Kent learning to deal with and work around feelings that he thinks for most of the story are unrequited. And the cozy jury-rigged domesticity of especially the final chapters/scenes.

Beneath the table, Jack’s hand squeezes around Kent’s knee. And -- Kent forgets. For just a few seconds, he forgets that they can’t be together, that Jack doesn’t want him in that way, that he’s trying to move on.

“We’re friends, right?” Jack says.

“Yeah, Zimms,” he says. “We’re friends.”

Or: Kent and Jack are friends, then friends-with-benefits, then maybe something more. Kent isn’t sure.

#*#fic recs #anyway i spent enough time writing this post i hope someone likes it #but if not at least i got to Examine My Preferences? lol

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sage-nebula · 5 years

Note

After that miraculous finale, do you think we're headed for a reverse love square now? I can kinda see seeds, but I don't know how Adrigami and Lukanette fit into that... And I'm curious: You mentioned once that you think of Adrien as the love interest prize and therefore as static. Does this moving on business change your opinion in any way? One could argue it's a sign of character development, but he still seems rather reactive... Would you mind explaining your thoughts a bit more?

I really hope not. While I don’t begrudge people for wanting to see more interactions between Marinette and Chat Noir, the absolute worst thing that could happen right now is for Marinette to cheat on Luka (emotionally or otherwise), or Adrien to cheat on Kagami (emotionally or otherwise). There is no excuse for cheating, absolutely none. Not only do Luka and Kagami not deserve such disrespect, but it would pretty much tarnish Marinette and Adrien’s characters irredeemably, as well as forever soil the Marinette/Adrien ship. So while we all know that Luka/Marinette and Kagami/Adrien are (unfortunately) temporary ships and that Marinette and Adrien will end up together by the end, I really hope it doesn’t come about as a result of either Marinette or Adrien cheating on Luka and Kagami respectively. Adrien/Marinette has had enough negative development as it is; it doesn’t need to be tarnished beyond repair.

(For anyone who might be thinking, “But Scrawlers, you ship Gabriel/Nathalie, and that would mean Gabriel would be cheating on Emilie!” two things:

1.) Emilie is in an indefinite coma, and has been for quite some time. It’s not unreasonable to think that Gabriel might catch feelings for someone who is conscious, breathing, and close to him—someone that he can confide in—while Emilie is out of commission. And more importantly

2.) Villains do terrible things, and both Gabriel and Nathalie are villains. The two of them having an affair while Emilie is comatose won’t tarnish them any more than, say, terrorizing Paris, beating up teenagers, beating up the elderly, akumatizing actual infants multiple times, tormenting people just to akumatize them, and so on and so forth. We expect Gabriel and Nathalie to be terrible and do terrible things because they’re villains. The same cannot be said for Adrien and Marinette, who would be irredeemably tarnished if they cheated on either Luka or Kagami (and again, this includes emotional cheating, because it’s goddamn wrong to carry on a relationship someone while you’re emotionally invested in and involved with another).

So yes, I do like Gabriel/Nathalie, and their relationship is a dark one, but that’s because they’re villains. Of course their relationship is dark. I expect better from the heroes.)

So if Marinette and Adrien do start connecting more through the “Marichat” connection, then it sure as hell better be platonic. I don’t want to see a single ounce of romance occur between them until both of them are single, or else I’m out entirely.

As for Adrien being Marinette’s reward for good behavior, I think you misunderstood what I meant a bit. It’s not so much that he’s static, so much as it is that his role in the show isn’t to learn lessons and grow as a person.

MIraculous Ladybug is Marinette’s coming-of-age story. It’s a story about how she grows both as a hero and as a person. Therefore, the story focuses on her, almost wholesale. We see both her triumphs and her failures. When there are new developments, those developments have the largest impact on Marinette, whether they’re good or bad. The idea is that, at the end of the story, Marinette will have fully matured as both a person and a superhero. The lessons she learns from her mistakes, as well as her challenges and triumphs, are supposed to help her get there. Having a romantic relationship with Adrien at the end is supposed to be the cherry on top.

On the other hand, although he does have an important role in the story, Miraculous Ladybug is not Adrien’s coming-of-age story (hence why his name isn’t in the original title of the show; I imagine it was probably changed for American audiences to try to market the show toward boys, because god forbid they watch a show about a girl, am I right?). The story isn’t about him growing and maturing as a person and superhero, any more than it’s about Alya learning and maturing as a person and superhero, or Nino, or Alix. True, he has a more important role than those three given that he’s Ladybug’s primary partner, Hawkmoth’s son, and Marinette’s love interest, but all the same, the story is still not about his growth and development as a person and superhero. It’s not his coming-of-age. This is why we don’t have episodes focused on his individual adventures, why we don’t see him encounter challenges and learn from them the same way we see Marinette encounter challenges and learn from them. What happened at the end of season three is a perfect example of this. Sure, Adrien is sad that Master Fu lost his memories and is out of the picture now, but Marinette is the one who is assuming Master Fu’s responsibilities as the new Guardian. She’s the one affected the most by Master Fu’s departure, and she’s the one who’s going to grow as a result of it, whereas Adrien’s life will remain mostly unchanged save for him needing to find a new Chinese tutor. If Miraculous Ladybug intended to focus on both of them growing and maturing as people and superheroes, surely Adrien would be equally as affected by Fu’s departure—but he’s not, because this isn’t meant to be his coming-of-age story. It’s Marinette’s. Therefore, she’s the one who takes the bulk of the plot meant for advancing character growth.

This doesn’t mean that Adrien can’t have anything to do while Marinette is going through that arc, of course. Look at love interests in other superhero stories: Lois Lane is a reporter, Michelle Jones is an activist, Steve Trevor was a soldier in World War II. If all a love interest does is sit around twiddling their thumbs, they’re not going to be characters that the audience will be content with seeing the main character end up with. So of course Adrien has his life as Chat Noir, he’s a model, he has a best friend in Nino, and yes, he’s dating Kagami for now. This doesn’t mean that Miraculous Ladybug is his story, though, in the same way that it’s Marinette’s story, because it isn’t. Adrien’s going to experience some changes as the story goes on, just as other side characters have (e.g. Chloe’s arc, which at the moment resembles a boomerang), but he’s not going to go through the same trials and tribulations as Marinette because that’s not his purpose here. He’s not the protagonist, Marinette is.

This was a very long explanation, but I hope it made sense. Sorry it also took time to reply; I only have access to tumblr on my phone while I’m at work, and I wasn’t about to type all this without a proper keyboard, lmao.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug spoilers #ml spoilers #loveater spoilers #miracle queen spoilers #meta #marinette dupain cheng #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #nathalie sanceour #Anonymous #but honestly can you imagine cheating on someone as sincere and understanding and soft as Luka?#or someone as devoted and trusting and honest as Kagami?#literally cannot think of anything more abhorrent #if either Marinette or Adrien cheat so help me I am forever done

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allofthisnonsenseplease · 6 years

Text

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 omg au where jack accidentally adopts a girl post-fall of overwatch ///i'm watching new girl and one of the characters is pregnant and now i'm thinking about kids again

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 eurgh parasites

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOL but like jack saves a girl on the streets from something and is like "go home to your parents kid" but she's an orphan and he can't like leave her alone now so oops now he has like. a kid?? and he's suddenly forced to actually start taking care of himself so he can take care of this girl LOL WAIT NO NOW THIS IS T URNING INTO THE SAME PLOT AS THE CAT ONE XDDD

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 well, not quite. he didn't start taking care of himself to take care of the cat, he just cared if he lived or died.

maybe taking care of himself in order to take care of the girl puts him into a healthier frame of mind except for the part where he decides it's a good idea to take his new responsibility on a roadtrip to find his undead, estranged ex and maybe get back together

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOL maybe she prompts him to do it she asks him about how he got himself into this situation and he quietly admits that it was ultimately bc he had a falling out with his husband whom he's still very much in love with and she's all smiles and is like "hey two dads sounds way better than one, let's go fix this!!" and he's gaping too much at the dad part to really understand what she just suggested

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 awww ^^ big dumb lug

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 >w< ooo but that's an interesting scenario, having jack in like an actually okay place trying to reconcile with gabe who's still very much spiraling like jack is still not doing great but he's recovering and trying to do his best for his girl

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 yupup meanwhile, Gabriel 'Murder Machine' Reyes...

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 qoq oh noooo what if talon finds out about the girl and like tries to kidnap her and jack becomes Rage Incarnate

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 talon. wtf? and Gabe, too. this is somehow more personal. they found this girl bc Jack came looking for HIM.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 it's what finally snaps gabe out of his depressive/angry spiral

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Jack being more focused on the fact that Talon GRABBED HIS KID than he is on Gabe or their issues. He's willing to conceed anything Gabe wants, if only he'll help get his girl back.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 HHH AND JACK'S ONLY SUPPORT SYSTEM WAS JUST TAKEN AWAY FROM HIM SO HE'S RAPIDLY LOSING IT AGAIN

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 eep!

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 he comes the Fuck after them with a single-mindedness that's terrifying when gabe tries to intercept bc he can so easily see jack getting himself killed, jack actually stares him down and threatens to kill him if he doesn't get out of the way zero sentiment. totally cold-blooded. gabe: jack think about this for a sec jack: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ba/28/91/ba289158fa7412e37dcd78d74d5bb45a.png

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Gabe gets pissed off at first, but it's so icy that there's really nothing to latch on to. His whole relationship with Jack and the awful tangle and destruction its downfall led them to has been the most important, all-consuming thing in his life for so long that he had forgotten that there might be other things more important. Jack's found one. i have seen the puppy meme, yes XD

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 OMGGG AHH GABE GETTING JEALOUS AND FRUSTRATED THAT JACK SEEMS TO HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT HIM

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 lol GABE THERE'S BIGGER THINGS AT STAKE

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 also getting mad at himself for not being able to move on but taking it out on jack qoq

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 At some point while they're going after the kid, Gabe lashes out at Jack bc of the jealousy, like 'What the FUCK were you thinking bringing a kid along to hunt me down?' and Jack is all 'I was coming to find you to see if we can hash things out, you colossal jackoff! at the very least i wanted to apologize!'

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 QoQ "i just wanted-" "WHAT jack? what the fuck were you..." "i just wanted us to be a family!"

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 oh jack. you poor, poor deluded fool

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 gabriel falls silent, staring at jack briefly then looking down. jack rubs at his eyes tiredly. "she made me better," he explains quietly. "she was something for me to fight for. i had a reason to be better, gabe. and i wanted that for you too."

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 oh fuck you for that one ;n;

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 qwq gabriel feels hollow and raw all over at the idea that jack believed he was even capable of getting better

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 ((@ the comments popping up on twitter: if spanking's involved, does that make it whipped cream pie?)) hey. OUCH.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOLL

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 it's taking all my self control not to butt in with that god awful joke. i want you to know that and be proud of me.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LMAO I LOVE YOU <3333

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 <3

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 ghhh but gabe doesn't believe in himself, he's just so angry all the time and even now he wants to hurt jack and... he decides it'd be best if he just helped jack get his girl back and then left

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 ;_; noooooooooooooo

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 so he gets EXTRA reckless on this mission qoq fuck it, he's betraying talon- might as well draw all the fire to himself, sacrifice whatever he has to in order to get jack and his girl out of there

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 oh gabi

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 jack is like totally not caring about his own safety so gabe has to be extra reckless to make sure that the girl actually has someone to take care of her after this

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 lol trying to out-reckless each other like the fukkin target ducks in a shooting gallery game

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOLLL in the process gabe realizes how in love with jack he still is qwq

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 PRAISE how many followers do you think i would lose if i made the joke?

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LMAO AHHH WHEN THEY FINALLY FIND HER JACK RUNS TO HER AND SWEEPS HER UP IN A HUG AND IS JUST LIKE IMMEDIATELY IN TEARS and she's crying too and they're hugging each other so tight and gabriel watches them and feels his cold heart twisting into knots

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 ;-; Jack carrying her over and introducing her. Calls Reaper Gabriel, of course, as if the years between the good times and now never happened.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 QwQ and she's wiping at her eyes and smiling all huge and asks "so should i be calling you papa?" she steals gabriel's heart immediately but he's hit with the overwhelming sense that he doesn't deserve this

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Jack mirrors the thought. 'I don't deserve her,' he murmurs, 'but I'm damned lucky to have her.'

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 QOQ gabriel sees them to a safe house and has to disappear for a little while jack is worried that gabe is gone for good but he does come back after a few days he's all sheepish and shy but he mumbles that he wants to try

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 GABE YOU BIG SOFTIE

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 qwq he's like really really awkward and kind of uncomfortable at first

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 lol the most awkward grim reaper

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 he like doesn't know how to interact with this girl she's determined to call him papa

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 lol Gabe has met his match!! XD also holy shit i really need to turn in

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 OKAY WE WILL DISCUSS MORE TOMORROW <333333

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 yes pls!!! night night <3<3<3

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 GNNN

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 does Jack wear boxers or briefs. important question. tell me he doesn't go commando in his SC pants. nm tweet is full. ppl can imagine what they want lol

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 lol now i'm just imagining gabe pulling down jack's pants to find he's gone commando and being horrified gabe's all gruff and grumpy and isn't comfortable opening up yet and when jack tries to talk to him, he just gets all sullen. but somehow when this girl talks to him he can't find it in himself to snap at her.

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 prro reaper didn't even want Jack backa nd now he has Jack AND a daughter like who's going ot feed and water her and make sure she gets exercise? FUCK I CAN TYPE WHO SAYS I CAN'T

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOLL he gets attached to the girl very quickly but jack is a little more difficult

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 He's~ already~ attached~~! never really came unstuck~! Gabi you're doomed just roll with it

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 XDDDDD

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 76 hears them talking at night in low voices. He can't shake the uncomfortable feeling that a lot ofit is about him, but he never asks. He's a little afraid to know. It's eerie how some mornings both of them will look up at him as he comes into the kitchen of their safe hose, watching him silent and attentive as cats

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 omg that's a cute image ahhh jack giving her a lil kiss on the top of her head in the morning gabe pouting internally bc he wants a kiss too but like they're not there yet,,

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 XD GABE! YOU HAVE TO PICK ONE! WHAT IS THIS BEING COMPLEX AND WANTING CONFLICTING THINGS? POPPYCOCK!

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 XDDDDD how do gabe and jack finally stop snipping at each other over dumb shit or ignoring each other XD

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 what if the little girl claims to be afraid of monsters in her closet and Jack knows its a lie, and Gabe pretends to scare it away, but she insists and makes them sleep with her...only she sneaks out of bed in the middle of the night and leaves them alone. they wake up tangled up in each other, and go out to find her sitting on the couch watching cartoons and eating ice cream for breakfast and she complains that they snored too loud.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 AWWWWW CLEVER GIRL eeeee and they're all snuggled up together and gabe almost thinks he's in the past

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah my one weakness XD oh, let's see...

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 eeeee

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 what if she asks for stories at night--like, she'll want to sit in one dad's lap while the other tells a story. and she wants REAL stories. and she wants FIGHTING stories with GUNS and SUPERHEROES. And Jack & Gabe end up taking turns telling her stories from the Crisis. And when one's talking, the other can never help but interrupt to correct or make fun of the other. And sometimes she'll shush the interrupter and get them arguing over who's teh favorite, and sometimes she'll agree and be like 'yeah, dad, that was REALLY DUMB'

and as they're talking about the past back when things were good between them, the old feelings start to come back to the surface and they remember why they were great together

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 QwQ HHHH and then they finally put her to bed and they kind of sit in the living room silently together

and jack keeps glancing at gabe out of the corner of his eye while gabe pretends not to notice

and jack finally kinda clears his throat awkwardly and says, "you know, you don't have to sleep on the couch tonight. you could..."

"sleep in your bed?" gabe interrupts.

jack flinches from how he says it but nods anyway.

gabe lets him hang in suspense for awhile even though they both already know the answer is going to be yes

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 :eyes:

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOL

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Jack tries to break the awkward silence by starting in on the story Gabe told earlier--'the way i remember it was...' so and so. the stories they remind themselves of with Jack's little girl safely tucked in bed are darker and sadder and harsher than either would have told her. Jack pours himself a drink as they talk. he pours gabe one too, without asking, and they take turns pouring after that. The minutes turn hazy, blurring into one another. The kitchen is too warm, they're sitting too close, leaning heavily against each other, shoulder to shoulder, heads bent over their glasses like conspirators. Neither knows who initiated the kiss. It's slow at first, hesitant, an old habit picked up in the midst of drunkenness and shared loss. It grows heated before either fully realize what's happening, but, by then, neither wants to stop. Gabe remembers the offer of a bed. He lets his full weight press against Jack, knocking him slowly from his chair. When they fall together, they don't hit the floor, but dissolve through a cloud of nanites and land with a bounce on the cheap mattress. Shadow stepping works the alcohol right out of his system, and Gabe finds his head clear. Jack is still kissing him, however, needy sounds spilling from his throat as his hands clutch at Gabe's coat. It would be easy--so easy--to just let go, blame it on the alcohol tomorrow. The temptation is too much to resist, and Gabe bears down atop Jack, kissing him back with fervor as if this will be his last chance to regain everything he lost.

holy shit that's more than i realized

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 SHRIEKINGGGGGGG GAAAABE i love how they are literally married but still pining for each other qoq

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 lol

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 jack actually stops them. they're both most of the way naked and grinding against each other and jack puts a hand on gabe's chest and asks him to stop for a second he wants gabe so bad but not if this is going to be it

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 noooooooo jack go for it lure him back with your jacktastic wiles

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOL he rolls them over, crawling on top of gabe, and begs him not to pretend this is nothing later

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 oh my god ohhhhhhhhh my goooooooooooooooooooood not cool dude ;_; lol Jack's a weepy drunk

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 awwwwwww starts ugly crying into gabe's chest gabe is confused bc. this is such a turn off but he wants to fuck jack more than ever

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 XD omg it's calld LOVE you jackass you LOVE him YOU'RE IN LESBIANS WITH HIM

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 AHAHAHAHA jack is like sobbing while still grinding into gabe and it's taking way too much willpower not to just throw him on his front and fuck him immediately

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Gabe dissolves away from under him and Jack cries out as he drops. In an eyeblink, Gabe has reformed on top of him, pressing Jack down with all his weight, grinding slow and deliberate up against him. He practically tears the jacket off him, then runs his hands across Jack's shoulders--shown off so handsomly beneath the compressions shirt--down his arms, until his palms cover the backs of Jack's hands and Gabe can lace their fingers together. He ducks his head to bite the back of Jack's neck, sucking at his skin, leaving a string of lovebites from his hairline down the side of his neck to the crook of his shoulder.

'You never stopped being mine, Jack,' he growls against his skin. 'Not back then. Not now. Not ever.'

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 HOLY SHIT fans self

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 possessive gabe orz and then we hope Jack got the girl some noise cancelling headphones 'cause this is not gonna be a quiet fuck

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 OH GEEZ

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 ((haha ASSphyxiation X'D)) https://twitter.com/rosephtxt/status/917180354452086784 ((i am a delight))

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOLL jack is still all teary-eyed but he growls at gabe to come and take him then >w<

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Gabe, thinking to himself: which i would ALREADY BE DOING if you hadn't needed to have a little breakdown

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LOL

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Gabe, this one is a mess. Throw him back.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 AHAHA

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 Try again. You're a handsome monster with lots of opportunites on the dad dating scene.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 LMAO god imagine reaper trying to find love on tindr

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 i could prolly imagine it better if i knew anything about tinder aside from (gay?) dating site

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 it's the app where it matches you w people and you like decide whether you're interested or not and then you go on a date or whatever

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 interests: disincorporating, shotguns, revenge, hiking, double agentry

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 knitting

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 musical theater HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 XDDDD also i'm technically still married but it's a long story we're not together anymore

SuspiciousPopsicle - 10/08/2017 76: what a co-inky-dink so am i. i bet this mysterious stranger will really GET me.

firesonic152 - 10/08/2017 HA AWKS

#cornfuck and the reaper #R76 plot ideas

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