#I think she was probably even more intense about crew bonding stuff earlier in the mission

[hephaestuscrew]

Renée Minkowski is extremely into the abstract concept of Crew Bonding in such a way that it impairs her ability to actually bond with the particular crew that she has.

She wants them to have Christmas dinner together and give each other Christmas gifts, but she's not made an effort to learn Eiffel's feelings about December 25th and to think about what he might like to do that day.

She wants them to each say what they are thankful for at Thanksgiving, but when she says she's "thankful to have such a great crew on this mission", it sounds extremely unconvincing, as if she's just saying what she thinks a Commander ought to say at a Thanksgiving dinner on a space station, rather than expressing any genuine sentiments or revealing anything personal about herself.

She wants them all to participate in the talent show "to boost morale... bond as a crew, and... have a great time doing it", but Hilbert and Eiffel's reactions make it clear that talent shows do the opposite of improving crew morale for them.

Christmas celebrations and thanksgiving dinners and talent shows are all things that could potentially have a positive impact on morale and bonding for some hypothetical space crews, but in the way Minkowski approaches them, none of these things are particularly helpful for the morale and bonding of the people who are actually in her crew. Minkowski puts real effort into group bonding activities for her crew, but they are always based on general ideas about crew bonding, rather than on thinking about the individuals around her and what she can do to connect with those people in particular.

#Wolf 359 #w359 #renee minkowski #renée minkowski #I think she was probably even more intense about crew bonding stuff earlier in the mission #By the beginning of S1 she's just going through the motions to some extent #Also telling Eiffel 'that's actually less horrific than what I was expecting' to his thanksgiving contribution #isn't exactly a good way to encourage him to contribute #She tells him not to do smoke rings for the talent show as well #which under Wolf 359 science is sensible #but it's also reflective of a determination to get people to participate in the way that feels right to her #rather than the way that's natural for them #Tbf Eiffel at least seemed to enjoy that thanksgiving dinner #but it doesn't really seem like it brought them closer together #Especially with culturally loaded things like Christmas and Thanksgiving #there should have been a discussion there #but that's the thing #communication #and understanding her crew as individuals #those are things she has to learn #I'm also not saying that successfully bonding with Hilbert would have made any difference to anything #but pre-Christmas-mutiny it was an aim of hers at least on paper #Another thing to note is that Hera is partially excluded from some of these things #She's the only willing participant in the talent show #but Minkowski gives her a part with two lines #Minkowski encourages Hera's contribution of what she's thankful for #but only after Hera's asked if she could say something #Oh also I think that Minkowski's thanksgiving speech sounds like she'd planned those lines out before she even got up to the Hephaestus #She isn't thankful for her crew. Not at that stage. She's saying it through gritted teeth #But she'd planned on having a crew she was thankful for

[muddyhippy]

A Tangled Problem

So today is my birthday and I am still working on Night Terrors chapter 6 which fighting me rather impressively but I had this little scene pop into my head and demanded to be written. 

Please enjoy this little bit of fluff from the Lily ‘verse! 

Lily padded into the common room still quite sleepy but with a single goal in mind. She’d got up out of Jonny’s bunk whilst he was still fast asleep determined to wash and get dressed and make a nice breakfast for everyone. She’d had another bad nightmare and Jonny had stayed up late with her telling stories and singing. He made her feel safe and cared enough that the nightmares stopped being horrible and scary in her head for the rest of the night so she wanted to let him sleep and make a tasty breakfast. Her plan was going quite well when she washed and dressed but got stuck, literally, when it came to brush her hair.

 Lily’s hair was a thick mass of candyfloss-soft silvery tangles at the best of times but last night’s upset had obviously made it ten times worse.

 Her brush got stuck and no matter what she did it wouldn’t come free.

 It hurt when she tugged and pulled and struggled. Enough to make tears prick her eyes.

 So she headed to find the one person who’d probably be best to help.

Without ceremony she headed directly to the person sat on the sofa completely absorbed in their music to the point they didn’t notice her approach until she climbed into their lap.

 Tim physically startled to suddenly have a lapful of Lily appear between his chest and his guitar and stare intensely at him.

 “Um hello Sweetness?”

 “Tim! Help!” She pleaded.  

 He tensed, fully poised to murder the shit out of whatever that had prompted this response.

 She pointed.

 Tim’s eyes alighted on her very tangled-in-hair brush caught up in her tresses. His eyes ran a quick diagnostic that helpfully returned the report ‘Ouch’.

 “Oh.” He considered why she was showing him this and came up with nothing, “Um why—?”

 “Because Jonny’s asleep,” She explained simply, “and you’ve got the prettiest hair, you tangle it all up in your goggles but it always ends up nice and untangled again so you’ve got to be good at hair-brushing.”

 That, that was an impressive leap of logic he had to give her that.

 “But Raphaella…?” He began weakly

 “She has really pretty hair too and it’s even longer than yours but it’s never tangled! Yours does so you’ve got more practice at fixing it. Please?” She sniffed, “I’ve tried and tried and it only hurts more.”

 Tim took pity on her, that snarl up did look painful and it was obvious everything she’d tried had made it worse.

 Plus, she was doing the look that Jonny warned him about, the whole ‘her-eyes-take-up-half-her-face-look’ that made his insides get twisty and him want to fix whatever the matter was.

 He suddenly understood why Jonny was willing to do as much stuff as he did. Lily was bloody hard to say no to when she looked like a particularly sad octokitten.

 “Um, alright then.” He carefully put down the guitar to give the small sad child his full attention.

 It really was a disaster. Tim considered his approach whilst ignoring the growing warmth in his chest at the idea that the little who’d joined them not that long ago apparently trusted him enough to ask for help with something personal and left her vulnerable. He couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Probably Bertie. Best not think about that then.

 “Okay Sweetness, can you turn around for me so I can get to the brush please?”

 “Ok, thank you Tim,” she pressed a heartfelt kiss to his bearded cheek before turning around obviously utterly convinced that he’d got this and she trusted him implicitly that he’d make this better.

 Fuck he hated Jonny for not being awake.

 Tim, not for the first time since Lily joined them, regretted being an only child with absolutely no sibling experience to deal with situations like this.

 Ah fuck it, he’d do his best.

 Using his enhanced vision, the patience he used when cleaning and repairing his weapons and the comb he kept in his coat pocket but would never admit to, he very carefully, painstakingly, detangled her hair.

 After half an hour he managed to free the brush from her head then proceeded to comb all her locks clear so she would be tangle free for the next five minutes at least. Maybe he’d have to ask Ashes to show Lily how to plait properly since he’d seen Ashes wear some excellent styles over the years.

 He’d never bothered to learn, he liked having long hair, it was something that was his own rebellion after school and whilst he was completing his mechanical engineering apprenticeship. It was easy to tuck it up under a cap after all.

 He’d tried not to show how heartbroken he’d been when he’d been constripted and shorn short again. Bertie had known of course and told him he was still just as handsome. During the time in the tunnels his hair had grown out again since no one was really paying attention to uniform rules in the depths of the war.

 He’d kept it long ever since. He wasn’t sure if it was out of defiance or as tribute to Bertie who’d never been able to keep his fingers out of it when they were alone together.

 Tim mentally shook himself, now was definitely not the time to start down that track. That route led to months locks in the armoury building non-stop. Or murdering Jonny repeatedly. Neither of which were viable responses right now.

 “Right then, I think we’re done, turn around for me Lily.”

 The little girl shuffled around on his lap to face him, she shook her head slightly. “It feels so nice! Thank you!”

 Little arms engulfed him in a grateful hug, enveloping him like the octokitten she masqueraded as half the time.

 “You’re very welcome Sweetness, now, let’s show you how to brush your hair without it getting all tangled up. Sound good?”

 “Yes please! Jonny helps me a lot but he doesn’t know as many tricks.”

 “Jonny doesn’t have as much patience, he’s had longer hair a few times but mostly because he couldn’t be bothered to cut it.”

 “Did he have hair as long as yours?”

 “No. Just to his shoulders.”

 “Oh.” She considered, “Mine’s already nearly that long.”

 “I had noticed.” He couldn’t help grinning.

 “I want to grow mine more.”

 “Oh yes?”

 “Yes! So I can be as pretty as Raphaella and you!”

 Tim felt both the blush and lump rise.

 “That’s, that’s kind of you to say Sweetness, but you’re lovely just as you are. You don’t have to look like anyone else to be better in some way.”

 Lily paused and thought about it.

 “Well, I won’t be exactly like you and Raphaella, my hair’s a different colour.”

 He couldn’t argue with the statement, she was a lot lighter than even Raphaella, “That’s very true.”

 “But I still want it long. I think it’ll be even nicer long.”

 Tim couldn’t help but smiling at that very familiar conviction, “Then I best show you how to look after it then shouldn’t I?”

 Lily beamed, lighting up the way she did whenever any of them took time to show her something. It was why they all, without exception, took time to show her things. They might be immoral, immortal space pirates but none of them were above wanting to feel like a hero for teaching a kid to tie her shoe laces, flip pancakes or make belt holes. “Yes please!”

 Which is why Brian walked in twenty minutes later looking for his fellow chef to find Lily and Tim in the middle of a hair brushing lesson, The child sat on the master-at-arms lap facing him, little tongue poking out in concentration, a long hank of Tim’s glossy tresses held reverentially in Lily’s tiny hand, her other carefully brushing it through as Tim talked her through the method of working in stages, his hands guiding hers, starting at the bottom and slowly working up to the roots.

 “This isn’t what it looks like—” Began Tim, colour rising dramatically in his face.  

 Brian raised an eyebrow.

 “Tim’s teaching me to brush hair properly so my brush doesn’t get all tangled up in my hair again because that hurts!”

 Tim sighed.

 “You know,” commented Brian, attempting to sound innocuous, “that looks exactly like what’s happening.”

 Lily looked puzzled, “That’s because it is.”

 “Quite right too,” Agreed the pilot, “looks like you’re doing a good job.” Brian took closer notice of their youngest crewmember, her usually wild mass of waves looked decidedly neat with that glossy sheen that only came with extensive grooming. “Did Tim do yours earlier?”

 “Yes! He’s really good! I got my brush stuck in my hair and he got it out and brushed it really nicely! I asked him because he has really pretty hair and is good at getting tangles out of it after he wears his goggles. He’s really gentle and clever at it!”

 Brian was amused to watch battle of emotions war over Tim’s face pride, pleasure, embarrassment and fury all crossed his face, clearly annoyed that this moment of softness with Lily was being witnessed.

 Brian found he didn’t care all that much for Tim’s comfort, this was more important. They were bonding over something other than guns, completely unprompted. This was good progress. The fact that Tim was obviously trusted enough by Lily for her to ask his help and that he’d clearly given it freely said at lot how comfortable they were becoming together which wasn’t bad for barely three weeks on board for Lily. Then again, last week her nightmare-stricken visit to his room that night she couldn’t find Jonny had probably cemented him as a ‘safe’ adult she could go to when the first mate wasn’t available.

 Brian hoped the rest of them would become as easy to approach eventually.

 It was nice to be reminded that deep under everything, he and his crew, at a push could remember how to be kind.

 “Right well, I’ll leave you to finish. Would you like me to start breakfast Lily?”

 The child paused looking conflicted.

 “I am more than happy to.” Brian clarified.

 “Oh um, yes please.”

 “Did you have a plan?”

 “Scrambled eggs and bacon and pancakes.”

 “Sounds good to me!” Approved Tim, feeling that she shouldn’t feel all that bad about not cooking one meal.

 Brian smile widened, pleased she was deciding to spend more time with Tim, “Me too, right then, I’ll get started, you can join me when you and Tim are done. See you later.” He left the scene as the two continued their lesson.

 “Right then, reckon you can do the rest before Brian finishes?”

 “Yeah!”

 Tim arrived to breakfast on the table, Lily holding his hand, the two looking decidedly neater than normal.

 As the others began to gently tease and pass the pancakes Brian overlooked the group, his family and couldn’t help but beam.

#the mechanisms #the mechanisms fanfic #Lily Of-Many-Names #gunpowder tim #drumbot brian #Look I wrote this because it was living rent free in my head and I needed to get it out into the world! #hair brushing #domestic #fluff piece

[travllingbunny]

The 100 rewatch: episodes 3x03-3x05

I’ve finished the rewatch of season 3, but being way behind with these rewatch posts due to being too busy with actual work, I’ve decided to cover the rest of season 3 with big posts covering multiple episodes, rather than a post for each individual episode. My initial idea was to cover 3x03-3x10 in one post – and would be convenient because a lot of the storylines and issues discussed spill over from one episode to another, and I thought it would also be fitting to cover the worst part of the season in one post (and it says a lot that the “worst part of the season” is half of it). But it got too long, so I decided to split them into two posts.

Not that all these episodes are bad, some are pretty good, some are average, some are on the bad side, but while all of them have at least something worthwhile in them, none of them is free of at least some of the BS – a bunch of plot holes, inconsistent storytelling where it seems like the show can’t decide what it’s trying to do with certain storylines, the tone deaf way the show handled such things as racial or LGBT issues…

I’ve tried to go into the rewatch with an open mind and try to watch the show in the Watsonian way, as much as possible, and try to purge my mind of the bad but popular fandom takes, behind the scenes stuff , fandom crap that has been going on to this day and that I know was even worse at the time… but it’s hard to stop going Doylist and wondering “what were they trying to do with this?”, “are we supposed to like/approve of this? Or should I stop asking these questions, because It doesn’t matter”, “to what extent is show itself to blame for the bad fandom interpretations and how much did they create the mess that the fandom turned into with their terrible handling of so many issues?”, :who thought this storyline was a good idea? Did the writers really never hear about the Bury Your Gays trope?”.. “is this storyline really , really racist, or was it just written by a bunch of people who never spent 5 minutes in any fandom and were not thinking about how this is going to be received and that it’s going to encourage racism in the fandom?” “Did people making this scene/storyline realize that this is rape, or not, and what the heck were they trying to do here?” and so on.

I’ll do my best to not rant much about any of these things, just so it wouldn’t overshadow everything else. And sometimes I’m genuinely not sure if, say, the interpretations that drive me nuts – like trying to demonize the show’s protagonists, people from Ark, as “colonizers” (which is so stupid that I can almost feel a few of my brain cells exploding every time I type it) – are just fan things? It’s really hard to figure it out sometimes, because season 3 feels so schizophrenic, like there are two or three completely different stories being told and clashing. There’s a really good story somewhere out there, maybe, and all of this could have been good if done better… And there were some things I appreciated the first time and some I liked better on rewatch. Even putting aside the problematic stuff, there are plenty of plot points that just plain don’t make any sense.

I wanted to get all of that out first, so I don’t have to go too much into it in the episode reviews.

Spoilers up to the end of season 5 and maybe the season 6 trailer. I have seen the leaked first two episodes of season 6, but will not be spoiling anything from these episodes.

3x03 Ye Who Enter Here

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here…” The 100 really loves its references to Dante’s Inferno!

This episode is one of those I find really hard to rate. It has really beautiful cinematography and music, it’s very intense and has complex relationships, drama and twists, and I liked it much better the first time I watched it. But it seems much worse in the context of the entire show, now that I know where some of these storylines go, what happens in the rest of the season and the show, which makes me think “if the writers knew they were going to do that thing later, why did they do this?” Is this the problem with this episode, future episodes, or both?

One of the things that confuse me in the “what were they trying to do with this” is the way the relationship between Clarke and Lexa is portrayed. Their dynamic here is very dark, complicated and interesting. But knowing that they are going to have a romantic relationship in just 5 episodes, which is regarded as the show’s great romance by many, and that the cast and crew have done a lot to promote it that way – why would you write that dynamic this way? The characters have chemistry and a bond, but after the betrayal in 2x15 and the way it triggered events that emotionally damaged Clarke so much, I was wondering how the show was going to make a romance in season 3 convincing (since I had always been spoiled on CL and Lexa’s death). In general, however, it would have been possible to do a really good storyline about making amends and forgiveness, which I would have loved. But did it have to happen by one character having the other kidnapped (even if you may argue that Lexa, the character, didn’t have other options at that point, it’s a writing choice to play the Abduction as Romance trope  straight – since this dynamic doesn’t get overturned at any point, Clarke eventually agrees to do what Lexa wants her to do and things progress from there), keeping her imprisoned for a week while she refuses to see her, and then, instead of apologizing for her betrayal, giving a speech about how she must forgive her because she’s also done bad things? I found all of Lexa’s lines in that scene infuriating, especially when she brought up what Clarke did in Mount Weather to try to argue that Clarke would have done the same and that there was nothing wrong with her decision. People, this is not how you should try to get someone’s forgiveness.

On the plus side, Clarke isn’t taking any of that BS and cuts it all down, pointing out such facts as that Clarke was left with no choice and it was exactly because of Lexa’s decision. But seeing how Clarke’s thinking changed over the course of the show, I can’t help but think that Clarke started believing on some level that she really was a bad guy due to Mount Weather, and that everyone else was also just doing things “ for their people” (which a bunch of people keep telling her this season to justify their own crappy actions by throwing MW in her face), so if everyone was a bad guy,  morality didn’t matter anymore.

Roan, who’s unhappy with Lexa for not lifting his banishment yet, tries to use Clarke’s anger and pain to make her kill Lexa, giving her a knife and telling her to take her revenge. Clarke realizes that he is trying to use her for his political ends, since his mother, Queen Nia, is Lexa’s rival, and observes that Nia is, as far as she’s heard, even worse than Lexa. Roan claims it’s just because she’s been getting Lexa’s biased POV. Except in this case, it’s true, Nia is worse, as she’ll show in this episode.

Clarke actually decides to try to kill Lexa (which is a really desperate move – she must have realized that she’d be dead soon, too, if she killed the Commander, but it shows in what bad state she was), before realizing that she can’t go through with it. Lexa, on her part, wasn’t trying to defend herself – which she could have easily done, as Clarke didn’t exactly make a smart play to kill her from the ambush, it was more about Clarke’s anger and Lexa waiting to see if Clarke would really try to do that. She was probably more concerned about Clarke wanting to do it than worried about her succeeding. And in that moment, Lexa does finally say she’s sorry – that she never wanted to damage Clarke like that. It’s, however, not a full apology, because she doesn’t say she’s sorry for what she did, just that she didn’t intend that consequence. And this is the last time they’ll discuss their history – they’ll never talk about Mount Weather or Tondc during Lexa’s life. Clarke will get a real apology from Lexa for betraying her at MW only years after her death, from Flame!Lexa through Madi, in 5x12. We find out in that episode that she really did regret her decision – it was the biggest regret in her life. So why can’t she tell Clarke that now? I think it’s because she feels the need to constantly be in control, and she doesn’t allow herself to question her decisions. Nevertheless, Lexa’s semi-apology and the sadness she shows instead of her earlier smugness seems to get to Clarke and makes her cry.

And when she finally allows Clarke to go home, Clarke agrees to go along with Lexa’s suggestion to bow to her publicly and help her make the Sky people her 13th clan. As Clarke later explains to her mother, when she meets with her and Kane in Polis, she believes that to be the best way to save the Arkers – or the only way: either we become the 13th clan, or we get killed. (Join or die. Sounds very similar to what they know to be the fate of the 13th station before the other 12 joined to form the Ark.) Bleak view, but probably close to the truth – and it shows Clarke starting t get back to her old self a bit and think rationally about how to solve political problems.

A bit before that, there was the infamous scene of Lexa pushing the Azgeda ambassador from the tower, in front of other ambassadors, after he challenged her authority. I now notice that she did it immediately after he called her weak, so I think she did it as a demonstration of strength, to convince others that she isn’t to be messed with. For Grounder leaders, especially the Commanders, nothing seems more important than the appearance of strength – because if your rivals start thinking you’re weak, you may lose your position and your life. Everything is calculated to demonstrate power and authority – the outfits, the war paint, the throne, the speeches… There’s a certain duality about Lexa, as if she’s two people – there are times in private she seems vulnerable and warm, which may be closer to what she would be like if she were not a Commander (and she seems to be more like that when she’s in the Flame – as in season 3 finale or when she ‘talks’ to Clarke through Madi in S5), but whenever she feels the need to be the Commander, she goes back to the cold, ruthless, authoritarian persona. She wants to make amends to Clarke and get back her trust/win her love, but she is only able to do that on her own terms.

And here we first meet Titus, her Flamekeeper/mentor, and getting to know him and see their relationship explains a lot about who shaped her most with his teachings. The relationship between Commanders and Flamekeepers is quite interesting, but I have more to say about that in relation to future episodes. Titus already shows he’s worried and unhappy about Clarke’s potential influence on Lexa.

Later that night, when Clarke does publicly bow in her Grounder-style Wanheda costume, and Kane gets branded as the representative of the Sky people, Clarke tells Abby that she needs to stay to make sure Lexa keeps her promise to protect the Arkers. This creates or continues a very lopsided power dynamic, where Clarke agrees to stay in Polis, far away from her people, surrounded by people who are wary of her, where she has no friends except Lexa, devotes her energies on trying to convince Lexa to do or not do things, and depends on Lexa to help decide the fate of her people.

So, people seem to disagree on what the main or all of Clarke’s motives were for staying in Polis, instead of coming back to Arkadia, after you-know-what hit the fan and Mount Weather blew up. I would point to what Clarke herself said, having to make sure Lexa keeps her promise, since Clarke was aware she was the only one of the Sky people with that kind of clout with Lexa. Some people argue that Clarke also just wanted to hang out with Lexa in Polis because she was into her, or even already in love with her. Now, Clarke had, no doubt, some complicated feelings for Lexa, but IMO, it’s very hard to make a case for her being in love with her, in the usual sense of that word, at this point, seeing how she didn’t trust Lexa yet, told her she had no honor, was seriously considering murdering her at one point, told her “if you betray me again..”, and generally didn’t look happy with her. Besides, it’s been demonstrated before (especially with Finn’s death) that Clarke doesn’t make huge political decisions just based on who she has romantic feelings for. But I do think, after seeing the following episodes, that there was another reason Clarke stayed – because just political reasons don’t explain her reluctance to go back to Arkadia, and neither do feelings for Lexa, since, at this point, she should have been still been able to go back to Arkadia to talk to her people, explain things to them, do something for better communication between Polis and Arkadia, and then she could go back to Polis to stay there for more time. And the first time she does go back to Arkadia, in 3x05, she was unsure how she even felt about it and if she still considered it home, after how much she had changed. I think, she was still running away, just like she did in the season 2 finale, because she still  wasn’t able to face the past and look them into the eye, those people that she did so much for,  committing a couple of mass murders to save them. It was convenient to stay away while doing something to help them. Which also explains her inability to talk to Bellamy and tell him anything other than “I’m sorry” when he asked her to come back.

And that’s a problem in itself: Clarke thinking that she can act as a representative of Arkadia, and make decisions about their future, in spite of the fact that she hasn’t been there for months or spoken to anyone other than Kane and Abby. Kane and Abby’s authority to make these decisions is also pretty questionable, seeing that 1) neither of them is an elected Chancellor (Kane admits that, noting that he and Abby have been handing the Chancellor title to each other back and forth, which they also do here – basically it’s You’re awesome and should be our leader!  No, it should be you, you’re awesomer!), 2) they haven’t consulted with anyone, 3) as we see in the following episode, they did a terrible job of explaining this decision to anyone back home.

According to what Kane tells Abby at one point, they were also supposed to negotiate a bunch of issues, such as trade routes, Lincoln’s kill order, Clarke’s return… Clarke decides to stay, we later learn that Lexa had revoked Lincoln’s kill order, but it seems that nothing else has been resolved before the meeting got interrupted, or at least we never learn about it – things like trade routes that would allow Arkadia to be self-sustaining. If Kane had gotten some concessions, he could have done a better job of convincing people that joining the Coalition was a good move.

After the ceremony, Lexa surprises Clarke by bowing to her in private and taking a vow to treat her people as hers and do what’s best for them. The scene looks very romantic – this is generally the case with the Polis setting, with candles and all, and you can see it as a kind of deliberately invoking betrothals or marriage proposals. But it happens only after Clarke had already publicly bowed to Lexa as the Commander, in the name of her people. And since Lexa’s vow takes place in private, it means nothing to anyone other than her and Clarke – especially since no one else even knows about it (and won’t know, since Clarke is not even going back to Arkadia to try to persuade people about this course of action).. A public vow might have done something to convince the people in Arkadia, but it never happened, whether it was because Lexa didn’t want risk looking “weak” in the eyes of other Grounder leaders, or for whatever other reason.

Meanwhile in Arkadia, we see the last harmonious and happy scene between the Blake siblings, just before a character from season 2 returns… oh look, it’s Echo! Whose name we only now learn. She pretends to be helpful, warning Bellamy about a plot by the Ice Nation to attack the summit in Polis, and she tells him exactly what he wanted to hear – that some Grounders, including her, felt bad about the betrayal at Mount Weather – to manipulate him into helping the actual Ice Nation scheme to blow up Mount Weather, with a bunch of Arkers who had just moved in there. But that’s the twist that comes later. First, Bellamy convinces Pike to trust Echo, based on his history with her – that they saved each other’s lives in MW, and they go to Polis to save everyone, only to learn that they were duped and that a bunch of people just died because of it. Raven and Sinclair are the only ones who survived, while Gina was killed by the Ice Nation assassin while trying to stop him.

Gina’s death was something that already pissed me off the first time I watched this. Not because I was attached to her – that was impossible, since she was so underdeveloped that she was barely a character. But that’s exactly why – they introduced this female character that was completely underdeveloped and gave Bellamy Time Jump off-screen Girlfriend (No 1), just to fridge her in episode 3. Was this even necessary? Bellamy would have still felt terrible that his mistake got so many people killed, people he felt responsible for. And while I’m sure he cared about Gina, the show didn’t even try to pretend that he was super in love with her: here he didn’t even ask about her when he heard that MW blew up, or seem to register the fact that she was dead, instead focusing on asking Clarke to come back. (Raven!ALIE also commented on that in 3x11 saying “Too bad you were never that devoted to Gina”.) At least – and that was a big relief in the next episodes – they didn’t try to make it look like the cliché “They killed my girlfriend, so I want reveeeenge!” It was more that Bellamy felt guilty and concerned about making the same mistake again, which made him reluctant to trust Grounders again.

And this is one of these times when I have to wonder “why did the writers decide to do this?” Did they already know they would put Bellamy in a relationship with Echo a couple of seasons later? Did they actually plan to do it since season 2? Or did they just decide “Oh yeah, this would be a great idea” at some point? In any case, I’m scratching my head. I know that The 100 writers love to build relationships from messed up and antagonistic beginnings, and they love the Enemies to Lovers trope, but this is not how you do that. That’s about people from different sides learning to see each other’s point of view, not about two people from different sides meeting and apparently finding understanding, just for one of them to horribly betray the other, use his trust to kill his girlfriend and a bunch of other innocent people, trigger the worst part of his life, try to kill his family and friends and finally become Time Jump Off-screen Girlfriend No 2. It almost seems like the writers think that betrayal, murder of loved ones etc. is not something to overcome, but a good or decent enough set-up for a romance in itself, because the forgiveness/redemption part and actual development of the relationship may happen completely off-screen. Now B/E may be a relationship that the writers don’t care much about and never really give much narrative weight to (just as they never did to Bellamy/Gina – but that was never going to be so grating to the viewers as those two did not have that kind of bad history), and that they clearly don’t intend for viewers to get all that invested in, but it’s still a part of the story, so why so badly written?

The ending is the big villain reveal  – Echo reports to her master, Queen Nia, who’s pretty much your classic Evil Queen figure, and they are revealed to be working with no other but Emerson – which makes sense, because who else would have had the codes to blow up Mount Weather? We don’t find out how that alliance started – whether he approached them, or they caught him and he proposed them a deal – but for Emerson, it may be about revenge, since he thinks for some reason he has a right to it. But it’s really interesting that we see that the Ice Nation leaders, and “just following orders” Echo, who was literally kept in a cage in Mount Weather and got super close to getting strung up, drained and killed, have no problem working with the one of the guiltiest Mountain Man, or all people, a guy who participated and orchestrated in all sorts of crimes against Grounders. I guess the “Blood must have blood” motto falls by the wayside in favor of political expediency. It’s pretty funny that such a big deal was made out of the Grounders supposedly having a problem with Arkers moving into Mount Weather because of their bad history with the place, and the Ice Nation ambassador even smugly said “You shouldn’t have moved into MW” at the summit… well, yes, they shouldn’t have – but not because Ice Nation leaders gave a damn about their history with the Mountain Men, but because they probably didn’t want Arkers to get too powerful, and they also knew how to blow up Mount Weather! And we find out that it’s all a part of a scheme to wrestle power from Lexa and assassinate her. Which goes nowhere since Nia dies in the next episode. But let’s just note that this mass murder, which was about blowing up a bunch of innocent civilians, wasn’t committed because anyone didn’t have a choice nor because anyone believed they needed to do it to protect their people. It was all about getting more power. Something to keep in mind when people try to make comparisons between various characters’ actions.

Timeline: The episode starts a week after 3x02. As most episodes, it seems to last about a day.

Body count:  

Ice Nation ambassador, thrown from the tower by Lexa

Two guards in Arkadia, presumably killed by the Ice Nation

Two guards on the way to Polis, shot by Bellamy

the Ice Nation assassin, killed by Raven to save Sinclair

49 Arkers killed by the Ice Nation assassin at Queen Nia’s orders, including Gina, who was directly killed by the assassin, and 48 more, including 35 from the Farm Station , who died in the explosion. (That means that only about 30 people from the Farm Station are still alive, out of the 180-190 who landed on Earth.)

Rating: 6.5/10

 3x04 Watch the Thrones

I’ve always considered this one of the worst, possibly the worst episode of the entire show (it just narrowly avoided that in this rewatch – I’ve rated it as second worst) and this is where season 3 really starts going wrong. This is mostly due to just how bad the Polis storyline is. I roll my eyes and feel embarrassed watching it, so I’ll just sum it up in a few bullet points:

This is so why I watch TV for, half an episode full of trash 1980s fantasy aesthetics and people with fake tans and pseudo-medieval garb, and Game of Thrones-type Strong Female Characters. *sigh*The show’s obsession with pretty white girls waving swords around and fighting as the ultimate expression of female empowerment became really blatant around season 3.

Nia and Ontari (who is first introduced here) are completely one-dimensional and uninteresting villains. Their motives, as we know it, are just that Nia really loves power, and Ontari loves power and is crazy. At least Nia dies and the show gets to focus on her more interesting son Roan, but Ontari is going to get worse.

This plot is centered around a fight between Lexa and Roan, which is supposed to be great, but it’s actually terribly choreographed and hard to take seriously. They’re both spinning around for no reason and waving their spears around for show, as I it’s all just for entertainment – and at no point does it remotely look like a death match.  

Lexa was way more interesting in season 2, as a morally ambiguous leader/politician that we almost never saw physically fighting, before the show started celebrating her as the greatest most badass fighter. Having a character win a fight and giving them cool superhero beauty shots during/right after the fight is generally a cheap way to try to make the audience like/root for/adore a character. (It also here works in-universe, since Clarke first starts giving Lexa heart eyes while watching her fight Roan and kill Nia.)

The shift in Clarke’s and Lexa’s relationship is too sudden and early to feel convincing. It’s been a day since Clarke was calling Lexa someone without honor and seriously considering killing her for revenge, and now they’re already super friendly since the start of the episode, and Clarke has apparently fully forgiven her by the end of the episode. Even though all that Lexa has done so far is get Clarke to agree to her plan to make Skaikru the 13th clan, and kill Queen Nia – which works for the benefit of Clarke’s political goals (since Nia engineered a terrorist attack and killed a lot of Arkers and is generally likes killing Arkers), but was also Lexa getting rid of her political rival and solving her own problem.

In her conversation with Clarke after the fight, Lexa explains the actions of Ice Nation saying they were just doing what was good for their people, and Clarke doesn’t disagree. This is the beginning of show’s tendency to equalize every action through this kind of moral relativism BS (they repeat the “doing for their people” thing ad nauseam throughout season 3, and it continues later), as if, say, defending yourself and your people from being horrifically killed is the same thing as blowing up a bunch of civilians as a part of a scheme to get more power. Now, it’s good to have moral complexity, like trying to understand every

However, the other half of the episode, which takes part in Arkadia and starts the Chancellor Pike storyline, is way more interesting and complex. Unfortunately, the Polis storyline also manages to make this storyline much worse. Like I said, season 3 often feels like it’s contradicting and clashing itself, and here there are two conflicting stories one that’s very complex and morally grey and interesting and pretty good – and then there’s another, which is pretty bad (and full of unintentionally racist and anti-democracy messages) that the fandom read into it, where Sky people are the bad guys, Pike is the evilest villain ever with no redeeming qualities, Bellamy is a villain or a misguided stupid guy, Lexa is the hero of the story who could single-handedly save everyone and install peace, and Clarke is her love interest/sidekick. But while the show seems to have been telling the former story, the way it framed some things was playing into the latter one and giving it life: since the Polis storyline frames Lexa killing Nia as something we should cheer for as the solution to every problem (and Clarke’s responses are giving us clues how we’re to react), we’re immediately alerted that Pike is bad news and a fly in the ointment.

But as far as can see, everyone in this episode makes some really terrible decisions, which all make sense to them from their specific worldview and/or emotional state at the time:

Lexa decides to send an army to protect Arkadia. And I’m watching the scene and going: shouldn’t you first talk to the people of Arkadia/their representatives about that, or at least inform them well beforehand? (Or maybe she did but Kane was terrible at doing his job.) With the history you have with these people, you really shouldn’t be surprised if they don’t trust you.  And no, Clarke does not count as their representative. But maybe Lexa thinks about it the way Grounders seem to – if the leader, official or symbolic (Kane or Clarke) decide something, everyone else will follow? Not realizing that this isn’t how ti works.

It’s harder to understand why Clarke doesn’t seem to understand that. It’s like she’s entered a bubble where she really thinks that all problems can be solved by her and Lexa as the ‘leaders’ of their people, or she thinks Kane and Abby can solve anything back home. Much as I love Clarke, she should have realized she couldn’t play that role, since she hadn’t been to Arkadia even once in 3 and a half months and has no idea what’s going on there. If this were full capacity Clarke, she’d have negotiated the heck out of this alliance, gotten some really good concessions for Sky people, then gone back to Arkadia and given speeches and convinced people why it’s a good idea to join simply by listing the benefits and explaining how bad it would be for people to stay out of the alliance.

Pike is someone spent almost four months in the woods as a leader of a group of guerrilla fighters, after the Ice Nation kill about 2/3 of people from the Farm Station, so he thinks that he thinks Arkers are under constant threat from the Grounders and that taking up weapons and killing everyone that seems like a threat is the only way to defend his people. He doesn’t think about the fact that this kind of policy is not likely to lead to anything but constant war and destruction and loss of life, but he is convinced that his is the only approach that is realistic, that war has been going on from the start and will never stop, so it’s “kill or be killed”. I’ve seen people accuse him of “manipulating” Bellamy and using Bellamy’s emotional state after his losses – but what does that mean? Pike also lost a lot, he had opted to trust Echo’s intel because Bellamy argued she was trustworthy, and 36 more of his people from the Farm Station were killed as a result. You can say a lot about him, but not that he doesn’t honestly believe in what he’s saying –, he’s a very “what you see is what you get” kind of guy, who’s motivated by the desire to protect his people, but his inflexibility, inability to see another POV or question himself will lead him to very dark places. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

(I don’t know why most of the fandom treats this character as if he was a one-dimensional villain like Nia or Ontari, when he’s actually one of the antagonists who are very morally grey. I certainly don’t know why people say that the show supposedly didn’t explain his motives, or even Bellamy’s motives, when both are really easy to understand, and they’re actually spelled out several times throughout the season, starting with this episode. I’ve seen many fans say that his flashbacks from 3x13 should have happened much earlier, to make him a more sympathetic early on before making him an antagonist. Now this may be a good point, because people react much differently to things that are shown rather than told, and the fact we get told the backstory of the Farm Station people but don’t see it on screen is certainly a factor, though I think it’s mostly because everything happens so fast and we’ve already been signaled who and what we’re supposed to be rooting for, with how the Polis story was framed. I certainly can’t accuse the show of trying to make him one-dimensional- and if anything, the show went a bit overboard with the whole ‘everyone thinks they’re doing the right thing for their people” theme.

Kane is at the other end of the spectrum from Pike with his earnest desire to make peace and build bridges with other groups of people. But in some ways, the reality he lives in in his head seems as skewed as Pike’s. Now, I do really like Kane, he’s in my top 10 characters, but he’s always had a naïve, moralizing streak – he says things that are perfectly reasonable (why can’t we hold a trial for Finn and the Grounders recognize the ruling? Why can’t the Mountain Men let us donate bone marrow? Why can’t be all live in peace?), but he doesn’t seem to understand that he’s in a post-apocalyptic world, surrounded by people who distrust and hate each other, not among a bunch of diplomats or college kids from before apocalypse , chatting over multiculturalism. His main problem is – he really can’t read his audience, and he’s terrible at selling his point of view to the masses, because he doesn’t even understand their issues. Hey. Kane, how about explaining to people why it’s good for them to become the 13th clan and accept the authority of the Commander who had, up to that point, been at best a dubious and occasionally treacherous ally to them, or why they should trust her army to protect them rather than attack them? People in Arkadia don’t have the benefit of watching the show and seeing the superhero shots or knowing that the Commander is positioned as the main character’s new love interest, so we should trust her promises… and they also haven’t seen any promises, as none of them were public. How about asking for some public assurances and vows, instead of just getting a brand? Unlike the Grounders, the Arkers do know pre-apocalypse history, and people getting branded doesn’t have nice associations. (No surprise at all that Pike destroyed him in the public opinion there.) How about not telling people that they’re just “collateral damage” in the war between Ice Nation and Trikru, because that’s terrible and only likely to get people angry and scared. How about announcing beforehand the fact that a Grounder army is going to come to camp right outside Arkadia, to protect them from potential further attacks by the Ice Nation? Instead, someone saw an army outside when they were already there and everyone freaked out, because OF COURSE PEOPLE WOULD FREAK OUT THAT THERE’S SUDDENLY AN ARMY RIGHT OUTSIDE THEIR DOOR! Armies feel like a threat, even if they are supposed to have a peacemaking or protective mission – especially since they could get other orders any moment, as far as anyone knows. And finally, just how dumb is it to hold an election right after a huge terrorist attack/mass murder, while everyone is reeling from the tragedy?

Abby is not even a political entity this season, she pretty much just agrees with Kane and doesn’t do anything political. To be fair, she soon gets to be involved in a different storyline – the City of Light.

Bellamy’s arc in season 3 proved, on my first watch, to be a nice surprise, since I had been warned that he supposedly undergoes “character assassination”, which I didn’t find to be the case at all. I had also been scared, after seeing 3x03, that the show was going to do that cliché fridging story where he finds out his girlfriend is dead and then he’s all about revenge (ugh), so I was really relieved it wasn’t portrayed like that. It’s about Bellamy feeling guilty because a lot of innocent people he felt responsible for (including Gina) died because of his mistake - which was to trust Echo, a Grounder he believed he could trust because they had saved each other's lives. So, he stopped trusting the part of himself that was ready to trust and expect good from people, Grounders specifically, after two betrayals that really stung, and started believing that war and “kill before they kill you” was the right way to go, and that this was the best way to protect his people.

Like Clarke, Bellamy had already been damaged by what they did in Mount Weather in the season 2 finale, even though he didn’t show it as obviously as she did, but instead kept it inside while do his duty and have a normal life for 3 months, but the pain and anger was already simmering (and we saw it explode in the scene with Clarke in the next episode). But one thing I’m sure he didn’t feel about Mount Weather is that it was a mistake – he was tormented by how awful it was that they killed children and people like Maya, but he knew there was no other choice. But the second Mount Weather tragedy, the one from 3x03, made him distrust himself and his own leadership decisions, so, like Clarke, he let someone else lead – in his case, Pike.

And Pike works really well as Bellamy’s Shadow character – he is similar to mid-to-late season 1 Bellamy, taken to extreme – he seems like what, perhaps, Bellamy may have become over time without more pacifying influences and experiences. But, unlike Pike, Bellamy questions himself all the time, agonizes over every bad decision and every person he killed that he may not have had to, and as a result of that, he has a much greater ability to grow as a person. Season 3 is crucial for Bellamy’s overall arc as this is where he has to make the choice between two different paths, and Pike and Kane, as his alternative father figures, are embodiments of those two different paths. (Which doesn’t mean that Bellamy becomes just like Kane – I hate it when people claim that season 5 Bellamy was the new Kane. Wrong.)

But while the overall beats of the story work for me, in execution it has some serious problems. One is that the scenes that show Arkers’ prejudices towards Grounders are some of the most on-the-nose, cliché stuff out there (this is a problem throughout this arc), and, what particularly annoyed me, this storyline turns Lincoln into little more than plot device to show said prejudice and create tension between Pike, Bellamy and Octavia. Ricky Whittle even looks bored throughout season 3, and I can’t blame him, with the tiny amount of lines and even less focus that his character got.

Here, they show this through another new character, Gilmer, a Farm Station guy who aggravates the tensions and throws a stone at Lincoln just because he hates all Grounders (he continues to act this way in the following episodes, too). At this point, his action is condemned, which shows how much things will escalate even by the next episode, when this kind of behavior becomes pretty much accepted in Arkadia. Pike tries to somewhat defend Gilmer by pointing out that he lost his son in the Mount Weather explosion, but that doesn’t change much in Gilmer’s overall portrayal as the typical minor bigoted a-hole character. His prejudice goes further than anyone else’s – at this point, Pike tries to stop the crowd from turning against Lincoln, and argues that the threats are outside the camp, and that people shouldn’t start accusing people in the camp. (He’s going to change that opinion big time in a few episodes.) But he and Hannah already become unhappy with Lincoln when he opposes Pike’s policy and plans to kill Lexa’s army – Hannah even sarcastically says “so much for the good Grounder”. Still, I gotta be fair to the show – it’s not like every so-called villain in this story was a POC, they did make the character who is the most bigoted a white guy. Even if a big part of the fandom treated not just Pike, but even Bellamy (the main target of hatred for some fans for… reasons) as if he was just like that Gilmer dude, which led to some lovely examples of fans indulging in real life racism against real people, under the excuse they were so upset by fictional “racism” against fictional Grounders… (I really tried to rant less about the fandom, I swear.)

This is where Pike suggests his plan to kill the Grounder army, explaining that all they need is 10 people with semi-automatic guns… Really? That doesn’t seem like a feasible plan to me. But more about that in comments on 3x05.

Another character introduction: The vigil for the Arker victims of the Mount Weather attack is when we first meet Bryan, Miller’s boyfriend.

Lexa’s mentee/preferred heir, little Aden, is also introduced, and we first hear about the Nightblood, but we still hadn’t learned at that point how exactly one becomes the Commander (killing a bunch of other kids), so this relationship used to seem far less creepy than it does now.

Jasper and Monty were the best part of the episode. An intense, emotional confrontation between old friends, two people who deeply love each other, but who cannot fully understand each other because they react to trauma in such different ways. Jasper cannot understand how Monty can endure everything that has happened to him and that he has done, and soldier on – but that doesn’t mean that Monty doesn’t have strong feelings about all of it. And Monty, on his part, eventually gets angry and has enough of Jasper’s complaints and accusations, and doesn’t know how to deal with his best friend’s mental state. Jasper is developing the dark, nihilistic view of the human race that he will express in his letter, and he quotes Maya’s line “None of us is innocent” (which actually quite changes its meaning).

Finn gets a lot of mentions in season 3, including this episode, where Jasper talks about him and unintentionally ends up spilling his ashes, which he intended to give to Raven.

Timeline: probably not long after 3x03, since there is a vigil for the dead. So maybe a day after, or a couple of day after? Which should mean it has been about 10 days since the beginning of the season.

Body count: 

Queen Nia, killed by Lexa with a spear throw from a distance

Rating: 3.5/10

 3x05 Hakeldama

I liked this episode more during my first binge. Probably because it was right after and before episodes that I liked far less, so it looked better in comparison, and it has one of the best scenes in the entire show – the Bellamy/Clarke argument, plus a really amazing closing scene with Raven. But other than that, I’m not sure if it’s quite as good as I initially thought. I’m still rating it high, but I thought I would give it a 9/10. Some of the other stuff was pretty good or decent (Clarke/Lexa scenes, Murphy/Emori, the City of Light stuff) but there’s also some more on-the-nose, mediocre writing of the Arkadia plot that we’ve already seen in 3x04 – Lincoln used as a plot device to show that prejudice towards Grounders, moments that seem like the writers may be going for dubious political parallels that they really didn’t think through (let’s have some talk about “internment” of sick Grounders, a loaded real life word – even though the Arkers are the refugees in this story who have been constantly attacked by the majority population since they landed, so anyone trying to make that parallel is getting it all ass-backwards… and also isn’t it cool that one of our main antagonists in this story is an East Asian woman, played by a Japanese actress. Because why not go for a full deck, we already have Pike and Bellamy, so it’s ironic or something? I don’t know what they were going for here. OK, Gilmer is still there, I’ll give you that.)  And the plot is built on one of the biggest plot holes in the show, the 100’s version of GoT’s 20 Good Men:

How exactly do 10 people with guns manage to kill 300 Grounder warrior without even getting injured? Were the Grounders knocked out on horse tranquilizers? I’ve had people try to convince me that this makes sense, but they’ve failed. None of the Grounders woke up in time to warn the others, yell, shoot an arrow at them, throw a spear, attack them? It’s 300 people, they aren’t going to be sleeping on a heap, that’s quite an area you have to walk around and shoot each one of them. It’s not like Pike’s group was positioned somewhere above and shooting people with snipers. How does any of it work? I suspect that’s exactly why it’s off-screen – I can’t even imagine how they would ever make that work on –screen. Sure, guns are powerful weapons, sometimes it seems like the writers of The 100 believe that they have downright magical abilities.

Before my first binge of season 3, I was terrified of what awful things Bellamy does this season, since I’ve heard so much ranting about what terrible things he does and how he shouldn’t be forgiven, or people complaining that he was “character assassinated” etc. So when I finally saw season 3, I was relieved: “That’s it?” I mean, of course participating in the killing of 300 people, who weren’t guilty of the specific thing Pike was suspecting them of (planning to attack Arkadia) is a very bad thing, but this is a show that has 2-3 mass murders per season, and where people have done much worse, like killed helpless civilians, killed children… Just two episodes before this, we saw the Ice Nation blow up a bunch of civilians just as a part of a scheme to take power over the coalition. But it’s killing of armed soldiers, who seemed like a legitimate threat, that the fandom has decided is the Worst Thing Ever that anyone has done on the show? Really? Surprise attacks at dawn, trying to catch the enemy (or the perceived ‘enemy’) unaware, aren’t a rare thing in war, Trikru tried to do exactly that to 80 Delinquents in season 1. And the show makes sure to emphasize that Bellamy didn’t lose his moral code, because he was the one who argued against killing the wounded, but couldn’t outvote the other 9 people in the group, including the Chancellor. He only managed to get them to spare Indra.

Bellamy is obviously very bothered by the killing, and he voices his misgivings to Pike: “We went too far”. But this arc tends to have Bellamy being unsure about what they are doing, trying to convince Pike to back down on some of the more extreme actions, and usually failing at it and going more or less along with his decisions. He clearly has a problem with how sick Grounders are treated, and tries to interfere when Gilmer the resident a-hole attacks Lincoln and to stop the fight, but only ends up getting punched by Lincoln, and it all ends up with Pike arresting Lincoln after Lincoln gives Gilmer a beating, even though Gilmer was the first to attack. But when Kane or Octavia confront him, he defends his support of Pike and Pike’s decisions. And things is, they both do have legitimate reasons to distrust the coalition. I don’t know why people say the show didn’t let Bellamy explain his POV – he did, and he makes a good point when he tells Kane that his “Azgeda bad, Trikru good” simplification isn’t quite right, because “Trikru killed 37 of my friends before you even touched the ground”.

I’ve seen people say that Bellamy telling Octavia to stop playing a Grounder is inconsistent with what he told her in 3x03, that he was OK with her choices. But it is not – the reason he tells her this now is because he sees what the current atmosphere in Arkadia is like and how anti-Grounder it has become, so he is worried about her safety.

The scenes between Clarke and Lexa were more in tune with Lexa’s characterization from season 2, and their dynamic was portrayed in more similar to the way it was treated as it was in S2 or in 3x03, and far less romanticized than in 3x04 or in 3x06-3x07. At the beginning of the episode, they are riding towards Arkadia and smiling and congratulating each other on ‘solving’ the problem, by virtue of Lexa killing Nia: “We bring them peace”. Clarke says she isn’t sure that Arkadia is her home anymore, since she’s changed so much since she was last in Camp Jaha. How much of that is Lexa’s influence and how much is Clarke’s discomfort with facing her friends after Mount Weather? But the moment that Lexa hears about the killing of her army, she goes back into the mode of the Commander from S2, who wants to call the leaders of all clans, go to war and kill all Arkers. When Clarke tries to argue against it, and suggests to go to Arkadia to talk to Bellamy and try to fix things, Lexa reminds her of the current power dynamics between them, ordering her not to go. Clarke is shocked: “So I’m a prisoner now?” and Lexa coldly replies “Yes”. She relents in the end, after Clarke pleads, and lets her go to Arkadia, but she warns her “You’ve been living with the enemy. If it were me, I would kill you on the spot”. Does she really believe that? It doesn’t fit with the fact that she let her go back to Arkadia in 3x07 and didn’t try to argue that. Or is she just saying that to try to dissuade Clarke from going?

Indra tells Lexa they would have to start using guns if they are to beat Sky people. She’s changed her views on the use of guns, and she’ll use them in the season 3 finale.

I like that Octavia, who explained the situation in Polis, called out Clarke on the fact that she doesn’t have a clue about what’s happening in Arkadia because she hasn’t been there.

The 4+ minute scene between Clarke and Bellamy is certainly the most memorable thing about this episode, and one of the best scenes in the show. It’s incredibly raw and emotional, one of those rare moments where characters simply let it all out without a filter, and the acting is amazing. They have only seen each other twice since Mount Weather – they were desperate to save each other in 3x02, then they had just one brief conversation and a lot of misunderstanding in 3x03, and now Clarke comes in and starts talking about business, telling Bellamy that she needs him to prevent the war. And this makes Bellamy go ballistic and let it all explode, pour all the pain and rage inside. It doesn’t really matter if his accusations against Clarke are fair or not – he wouldn’t make them in other circumstances anyway, but what this is all about is really the fact that she left, and he didn’t understand why, and now she’s come back, acts as if they have nothing personal to discuss, and nothing about their painful history: Mount Weather, Tondc (when Clarke let people die and put Octavia in danger, which Bellamy has a right to be angry about – even though she did it mostly to protect him, which he may not be fully aware of) - the things Clarke has been trying to put behind her, unsuccessfully. In Polis, she adopted Lexa’s way of dealing with things – avoid bringing up the past, not talk any of it through, just look ahead and try to solve things as they happen. She’s just put a Band-Aid over her wounds, but they are too deep and can’t heal that way, and now Bellamy has ripped it off, and Clarke is left vulnerable, facing up to the pain she’s been running away from. His accusations must have stung, but his anger and the realization how much pain he has been in over Mount Weather, and how much she’s hurt him by leaving and not being there for him, probably stung even more. I never blamed Clarke for leaving – people have the right to deal with their own trauma the way they decide, and at the time, Clarke was a mess, did not see any other way to function except running away and isolating herself, and probably thought she would be a burden if she stayed. But Bellamy, who doesn’t have Clarke’s tendency to isolate himself when he’s in pain, never understood why she couldn’t accept his emotional support and let him help her the way she helped him in season 1, And her leaving left him without the person he really could help him go through his own trauma (Kane couldn’t do that, even though Bellamy obviously talked to him about his feelings over Mount Weather, Octavia and Bellamy don’t have that kind of relationship, and he didn’t seem able to be that emotionally open with Gina). Clarke never realized this, because she thought he was strong enough to take care of the Delinquents in her absence, and didn’t realize that he needed her.

They are both crying, Clarke says she’s sorry, and then his raw confrontation turns into an incredibly intimate moment when Bellamy approaches Clarke, takes her hand in his and they both go on to caress each other’s wrists, gazing into each other’s eyes. Clarke is surprised and smiles through her tears – this is only the second time Bellamy has made such a gesture of intimacy (after stroking her hair in 3x02, but that time, she had no time to react). But the look in Bellamy’s eyes is darker and you can see that he still feels angry and doesn’t trust her. And then the infamous moment happens, as the music turns from soft and romantic to dramatic, and he handcuffs her and walks out. I don’t know at which point he decided to handcuff her, but I’m sure the moment between them was genuine –it’s not like he needed to go that far just to manipulate her, and it really doesn’t seem likely. But I think he was thinking that he shouldn’t allow feelings to prevent him from what he thought he should do, arrest Clarke, which he imagined to be the right way to protect her, as he later tells her while taking her to Pike. But I don’t like people doing things against someone’s will, even if it’s with the idea “I’m doing this to protect you, because I know what’s best for you”. I didn’t approve when Bellamy was overprotective of Octavia that way, I don’t like what he does here, and I didn’t like it when Clarke had him kidnapped and chained in the bunker in season 4 to save him, either. Also, I think Bellamy was wrong to assume Clarke would be safe in Arkadia –while Pike wouldn’t shoot her as Lexa said, I’m sure he would have arrested Clarke. And then there would have been no one to go and convince Lexa not to start a war. So she did well when she used the opportunity, while Bellamy was distracted, by Octavia, to electrocute him and run away.

It’s kind of to see Clarke reduced to someone who can only get anything done by going around and pleading with people and trying to change their opinion, going from Lexa, who tells her she’s her prisoner, to Bellamy, who handcuffs her and tries to arrest her, and then back to pleading with Lexa. But if she failed to convince Bellamy, she does a really good job of persuading Lexa to change her policy and decide not to start killing her people. She does it by telling her that she can choose what kind of a leader she wants to be, and urging her to be a new, different one, who will stop the cycle of violence.

Lexa changing her mind and deciding to accept Clarke’s suggestion and declare that “blood must not have blood” is a huge turning point, but there’s a lot of moral greyness in this moment, because the fact is still that she plans to enforce her new, peaceful policy as a tyrant (I’m not bashing her here – that’s a fact, it’s what all Commanders have been. Their society doesn’t exactly do democracy). When Indra tells her that her people wouldn’t accept that, particularly Titus, Lexa replies angrily that they are all her subjects and must do as she tells them to.

This episode has some fun Memori scenes. They run a scheme together to rob the passers-by. Even though their relationship has developed pretty fast, the same as most romances in the show, it works because it’s not written in the cliché CW romance way. They may be in love, but that doesn’t mean they quite trust each other. The main reason for strife, however, is Emori’s association with ALIE and the City of Light, which Murphy doesn’t want anything to do with. She wants to go find her brother, but he doesn’t want to go with her and be sucked into any of the COL stuff, and he doesn’t really trust her to come back for him or prioritize him: “When people leave, they don’t come back” -“I did” -“Not for me, I just happened to be there”. (There’s even a slight parallel here with the Bellamy/Clarke argument.)

A minor thing I found funny – one of the Grounders says “Stealing in Commander’s woods is punishable by death”, which sounds a lot like the old English laws about hunting in King’s woods, which we know well from medieval stories like Robin Hood.

The COL storyline gets major development – Jaha returns to the camp, bringing ALIE with him, and starts preaching about the City of Light and explaining the chip will help people by taking away their pain. It fits with the overall episode as consequences of pain and trauma are one of the main themes. He talks about how pain damages our ability to function and our relationships with loved ones, friends and family – which is something we certainly see throughout the season - but he neglects to mention that the chip also takes away memories of loved ones and anything that is important to you.

Raven, the first one who confronts Jaha, is the one ALIE wants to get to her side. Raven’s intelligence and talents probably remind ALIE of Becca, and she sees Raven as the key to gaining more followers. Raven is also a character who has suffered so much both physically and emotionally and who is struggling with physical pain and disability, so it makes sense that this storyline revolves around her so much. The ending scene of Raven taking the chip and meeting ALIE is incredibly well done, thanks in large part to one of the best uses a song in the show  - “Thousand Eyes” by Of Monsters and Men.

Timeline: 24 hours after the last episode, which would make this 11-12 days since the start of the season by my count

Body count:

Around 300 Trikru warriors;

Otan (Emori’s brother), killed by Gilmer in a very stupid skirmish, because Gilmer hates Grounders, in case you haven’t realized that yet. (But Otan is still “alive” in the City of Light.).

While this certainly didn’t happen during 3x05, Abby asking Jaha what happened to the people who left with him on the road trip in season 2 (“You left with 12 people!”) may suggest that the six people who decided to go back to the camp instead of continuing the trip died on the way and never came back?

Rating 8.5/10

#the 100 #the 100 rewatch #the 100 season 3 #the 100 3x03 #the 100 3x04 #the 100 3x05 #hakeldama #ye who enter here #watch the thrones #clarke griffin #bellamy blake #raven reyes #marcus kane #abby griffin #thelonius jaha #jasper jordan #octavia blake #lincoln kom trikru #roan kom azgeda #charles pike #alie #emori #john murphy

[kaiju-z]

Seon Adventures - Episode 5, “Tragicomedy at Sea”

This was a hell of an episode.

Following the memorable conclusion of last week’s episode, our intrepid heroes finally scored themselves a ride to Menum that wouldn’t involve straigning the horses. Or the party getting tricked by a farmer and his daughter.

After they finished their affairs in Rorum for the time being (Belli, Amelia and Mournimar got tattoos, Luck tipped one of the Stans and made him blush), the 5 colorful heroes reconvened with Kevin and Killer at the pier, where they were introduced to the ship coroner “Solomon Marquet”, a young black man with bright blue eyes (he’s cute).

After introductions and shenanigans with Belli, the party learn that captain Lamar/Lamelie??? Is in need of 3 deck hands, a gunner and a cook. Positions are immediatelly given aboard with Belli as assistant cook, Mournimar helping with the ship’s canons and the rest remaining on deck on whatever duty is required of them.

(There was some noise coming from our Goblin player’s laptop that coined the term “Death Didgerydoo” and we broke Hayden.)

Captain Lamelie is  an older human man with large gray beard tied in three, who looks fairly viking-esque. Along with him, much to everyone, who had been to Peppery Pete’s shops would note, is an identical to Pete looking gnome, who we learn is Salty Sam (Samuel), Peter’s twin brother (later we learn of 223 years!)

Working with them is a changeling lady (I think her name is either Tallz or Tusk).

Below deck, with the gunnery, Mournimar meets Bog Rot, an old wrinkled greenish orc with yellow eyes and a scar. He is the master gunner and will be MarMar’s go to for working the guns. His new fellows down below are a man in his 30′s named Azam and a 15 year old boy named Hudson (whom Bog Rot whispers to Mournimar to keep an eye on, ‘cause he used to have very sticky fingers). Alongside them is a changeling male named Vats.

In the cooking quarters, Belli finds herself in trouble with one, Gut Rot (I dunno what GR looks like, but I think he too is an orc, given the last name). The chief cook and a very unpleasant dude. Alongside him is the ship’s healer, a dwarven cleric by the name of  Dharak Tightforged.

Belli and Gut Rot strike a deal that if she can clean the place up in 30 minutes, tops, she will keep her dinner for the night. If not, then she’ll go hungry for a night (Meta is that she’s had many days without food and my heart breaks).

She sadly fails at cleaning this time around 8( And so, gets with the cooking.

Unlike with Gut Rot, Bog Rot is quite pleased with Mournimar. Having taken a liking to the Tiefling ranger.

Luck is in awe of the sea and gets a pat on the shoulder by Amelia, who appreciates his enthusiasm, but advses him to watch out and not fall overboard.~

By the time the ship sails off, though....

Luck starts barfing up a storm. One of his flaws is that he can’t take well to traveling by sea. I guess motion sickness?! Every day he barfs and needs to be comforted by Amelia.

Due to a bad food roll, everyone but Amelia and Mournimar gets bad bowel movements on the second day of travel. RIP IN PEACE.

During the night, Mournimar and Belli bond over their experience on the ship so far and become closer as siblings (with pranks included! Magic pranks!!!)

Luck is low key dying on the floor in the party’s quarters, because seriously, fuck the sea. By the end of this episode he’s basically on team “Hating the sea” with Nott and Caduceus, ok?!

Burk takes to sleeping alone on the deck of the ship. Because these four are a disaster.

Gut Rock is oddly understanding about illness at sea, though. It’s happened before, on a previous ship.You can never predict these kinda things, even with a healer on board.

On the third day of travel, everyone is on deck, enjoying??!!!!!! the sunny day, except for Luck, who’s having the worst time of his life since his tragic backstory.

While Belli is looking for lesbian mermaids out at sea, Amelia takes notice of Azam scribbling stuff on the deck, not exactly being as careful about it as he thinks. She sneaks up on him and gives him the fright of his life when she finds out that he’s worshipping the forbidden god Dahk’tot, lord of storms and unruly seas, father of Water and Air Genasi. She warns him that she will spill the tea to the captain, if he doesnt’stop this at once.

Azam immediatelly wipes the chalk off the deck, but Amelia snitches to captain Lamelie anyways and accidentally initiates an execution (Shit’s whack). Luck, who had to be carried to a hammock with magic (seriously, episode 5 was very “comfort Luck” heavy), gets wind of what’s happening on deck and furiously intervenes, along with Amelia, to spare Azam’s life.

But as a consequence to this, the party aren’t going to get a ride back by ship. (Luck, internally: “Wait. No. Don’t. Stop!”)

With the execution prevented, Luck pulls the man back to the party’s quarters and has a sit down with him, telling him that “Some Gods are not worth to be worshipped.” Everyone gets cookies. Even Azam, after Luck asks Belli to give him a lesser cookie. She whispers something to Azam.

While this is going on, Burk gets a list from Sam on the banned gods, but since he can’t read, Sam tells him the names and proclivities of the banned gods:

-----------------------------------------------

BANNED GODS:

Dahk'tot. Lord of storms and rough seas. Credited as father of all air and water Genasi

Zarahn. Lord of the volcanoes and typically shown as the enemy of Dyunificus. Credited as father of all fire and earth Genasi

Ebriosus. Goddess of Forbidden Mortal Pleasures. Excessive drinking, drug use, nasty shagging, debauchery, you get the drill

SUPER DUPER BANNED GODS:

Qorin. God of merciless revenge

Potencia. Goddess of ruthlessness, control and imprisonment -

  -----------------------------------------------

Burk recognizes Quorin from the shrine he found in the woods during the party’s travel to Rorum, but tells none of the party about the gods themselves. He’ll probably also be using the paper as toilet paper.

On the 4th day of travel (4 of 5 days) the party notice a boat at sea, two figures still in it. Mournimar and the gunners fire a warning shot, before they let two beautiful elven women aboard. The party slowly convenes with them as they learn that “their ship was attacked”. Due to a failed roll, Mournimar, Luck and Amelia don’t notice it. But Belli notices there’s something very off about the women.

Who proceed to stab the shit out of Belli and Luck (DAMN ROLLS)

A fight begins and Belli falls down and fails a death saving throw gdisasdhgahg

Luck almost goes down as well. It’s so bad that he kept missing and had to spend his second wind to get himself almost back up to full health.

Burk and Amelia are the MVPs. For real, they beat the shit of these two (don’t hurt Amelia’s bbies), who were revealed to be Dopplegangers.

The party got assistance from Solomon, Salty Sam, Tusk and Lamelie, mostly in the healing department, but also in attacks.

Things get bad once Sam gets badly hurt. And worse when Belli uses Shatter for the first time in her life. Because everyone was so close around her, we all get wounded BADLY!!! Luck goes down to 8 hit points, I think?! But thanks to Mournimar he heals up agan after that. It was an intense game of going up and down with health points.

Burk and Amelia each took out a Doppleganger and Belli healed Sam, who was being dragged away by an emotionally comrpomised captain (we later learn that Sam basicaly adopted the captain 40 years prior to the campaign).

Luck spits on the Dopplegangers’ corpses after looting them. “You sounded much tougher in the books.” he snorts. He found 250 gold, which he shared with the rest of the party equally and kept two daggers for himself (I CAN NOW USE MY TWO WEAPONS THING, YAY!)

Four hours later, the bodies have been disposed of, the party is healed and the deck hand party members have cleaned up the mess.

While the others are doing their thing, Luck and Mournimar share a moment. Also Luck sings with some help from below by Belli. He admits to Mournimar that he’s been wounded worse in the past, this is nothing.

Belli gets information about Ficus from the captain and learns that he had traveled with them in the past.  If you’re looking to reconnect with people in that trade, don’t.” But Belli has the want and need to find her brother. The captain tells her  that he may operate out of Sa Doma. She should find someone with a silver band over his head. He asks her to be careful. She’s young and naïve. And he asks her not to tell the others about the captain’s softness (The captain used a healing spell from a feat earlier to heal Belli once she failed a saving throw).

Late at night, when the rest pf the crew and party are in their quarters the two are alone, Mournimar and Luck have a conversation and Luck learns about the Traveling Gentlemen’s state. That one of their members is missing and one is able to fly with wings now.

Things happen. Things happen a lot and once they calm down, Luck has a moment where he’s doing the thing:

The two awkwardly head to their quarters after the fact.

On day 5 the party finally reach Menum. They de-board with Azam and the warhorses and Level up! In-character, the explanation I use for Luck getting the Lucky feat is that he played a lot of games of chance with Mournimar to get better with his rolls?

As we say our goodbyes with the crew (Azam basically scrammed into the woods) we prepare for our journey through Menum. Or to Menum, since we basically start off at a rainforest. And Azam ran off into the forest alone. Joy.

Also Beli made everyoen knitted gifts!

A jumper for Mournimar, an axe coasy for Burk, mittens for Amelia, a hat for Luck and something for herself, but I don’t think I caught what that was.

And so, the party is on their way to Menum. To find and fight more cultists. And so much more.

Previous Episode / Next Episode

#DnD #D&D #Dungeons and Dragons #Dungeons & Dragons #Seon Adventures #Amelia #Air Genasi #Monster #Burk #Goblin #Barbarian #Gorbarian #Belli #Half-Orc #Bard #Mournimar #Mournimar Da'viir #Tiefling #Ranger #Luck Evans #Fighter

[iceamericanoventi]

PHOSPHENES - Chapter 2

Day 1.

Day 4.

The next Monday, finally Taeyeon had a chance to meet Lee Jinki, the supposed head of the design team, and the studio as well. She almost dropped down her chair when a guy wrapped in grey turtle neck with sleek black hair approached her. His bangs sort of too long, swiped slightly to the side and it bounced fluffily each step he made.

“Heyho, Taeyeon. My apologize, I just have my time to greet you.”

The said man dragged the chair from Minho’s station and sit comfortably next to her, completely opposite with her state which still cannot swallow what just flashed before her eyes. Who knows her boss’s boss looks like what you described as sunshine on Saturday morning after a whole dreaded week?

“You greeted me on the email, already. Don’t worry about that.”

“I prefer to do it properly. Besides, my fiancé would gladly slap me right on the face if I got caught being manner-less.”

Ah, right. The fiancé. This man is taken and bonded to someone already, how on earth I even dare drooling over his beautiful appearance? Get a grip, Lee Taeyeon!

“God bless your fiancé, then.”

“I wouldn’t want any other way,” Jinki beams into very bright diamond, Taeyeon gulped down a lump of sickening air once again for seeing the scene, “So, how is it going so far? You like it here? Jonghyun passed my notes already last week, yes?”

“It’s going well, and yeah, you got the most awesome crew. I’m doing some drawing for the studio house, the one at the rooftop.”

“Ah, yes, yes. Mind if I take a look? Did Minho check it already?”

Taeyeon hesitated for a second, “Actually, I have no clue. Last week he was so busy and told me to just email it to him so he can review that. I did send it but haven’t heard anything from him until this morning, though.”

“This hybrid frog,” Jinki moved closer to the screen to assess the design she has been making, “This one, the façade. Umm, can you make two options of it? This one is okay, but with the full glass like this, probably we need more detail with the frame and glass later and my friend Kim Jonghyun there won’t be happy with that. Plus, the site is quite dense, we need confirmation from the client about this much of exposure. Push this wall back like around one meter, but check first, if it’s possible with the other room behind, and move the glass wall to the front another one or one and half meter. So we’ll have sort of small green house and solid wall then.”

The words Jinki recited sounds like a beautiful poet in her ears and she mentally smacked the back of her head because of that. Quickly she took her sketch book to explain what she meant by the idea.

“Well, I was thinking to provide more sunlight to the house since the location is crowded enough. However, what you’ve just said is all make sense.”

He sends her another sweet smile she nearly had another heart attack, “Completely understand. I like your idea, that’s why I asked you to make another option and not changed what you already did so far. Who knows the client prefer your design than mine, right?”

Dazzling light’s suddenly blinding her eyes when Jinki decided to turn into human torch. Taeyeon immediately thanking all of the good deeds she did for having such understanding boss like him. It swept all her anxiety at once because in the past, her boss was a middle age man who’s very demanding until the day she resigned from the position.

“Oh, and Taeyeon, actually I need the drawing for my parents’ house by Thursday or Friday. My fiancé and I will have family dinner on Friday night, so can you help me to prioritize that?”

I’ll do anything for you, Sir!

Taeyeon almost surrendered on her knee listening how soft and polite Jinki delivered his request.

“Yes, of course! I’ll fix this one very quickly then take care of that so hopefully on Thursday I’ll be able to show it to you. If there’s some stuff you don’t like, we will have time to revise that before Friday afternoon.”

“Sounds great. Oh, and one more thing, when Minho arrived discuss your work with him and tell him to go to my desk after.”

Jinki must have caught the sudden change of expression on Taeyeon’s face. He returned back to her side and crossed both his arms on her desk to support his leaning torso.

“What? Something’s wrong?”

“No, no, nothing!”

“Then why your face looks like I asked you to do some marathon at this very minute at this very weather?”

She bites her lower lips instantly, caught red handed. She knew she’s the worst with lying, especially to people who’s really nice with her.

“Maybe it’s just me. But I feel Minho is.. not comfortable with me.”

She tried so hard to pick her words, to avoid using the ‘hate’ word.

“Yet.”

“I know it’s only three days I’ve been here. He seemed doesn’t want to work with me. Well, like I said before, maybe I’m just being too sensitive. Nevermind. You’re right. He needs more time to adjust. I’ll convey your message to him, then.”

Taeyeon put her smile, but it’s so flat and unnatural Jinki can only chuckle seeing her flustered attitude.

“Listen. You may have heard one or two things about him from the other. But trust me. As far I know, and I know very well, he’s a really good architect. And a friend who’s very great, kind, and warm. I’m agree that his façade, plus those huge eyes, they’re intimidating sometimes.”

“Very. You have no idea.”

Her honest opinion got him cracking on the spot.

“Lee Jinki! Your fuckin’ fiancé threaten to burn the office down if you’re not answering the phone call! Go back here and take care of your phone that had been ringing hundred times! Stop torturing me!!”

Jonghyun popped out from the glass room and shouted to the whole office.

“That’s my cue. I’d better go back there before you need to find another place to continue your internship!”

He winked quickly and dashed into the glass door that just slammed shut by Jonghyun. She winched silently for the idea of sitting together to discuss her progress with Minho. The man didn’t do anything wrong, though, he barely did anything. His desk seemed more like bus stop instead a work station. If anyone summed up the entire encounter happened between Taeyeon and Minho, it would be no more than five hours, which includes the time they passed each other at the toilet’s entrance or on the office corridor.

But miracles happened this morning. The handsome architect looks like in a very good mood. He arrived thirty minutes later and even stopped by near the vending machine and jokes around with Amber who was kicking the poor machine for swallowing her coins. The way they slapped each other’s arms and loud chattering proofs Jinki’s right, he is a warm person.

She cursed her sensitivity for asking too much. So when he passed her, she put the best smile she had and shakes the negative thoughts off her mind.

“Good morning, Minho!”

On the other hand, the latter is not ready with such jolly greeting. When the image of an innocent girl offering a smile that worth all his time of the day, he’s forced to chew his inner cheek and took his best effort composing some words.

“Oh, good morning.., Taeyeon.”

Are you fifteen years old or what, Choi Minho?! What’s with the unnecessary stutter?

“How’s your weekend?”

“Was okay. Saturday with friends and Sunday with my family.”

Taeyeon tilted her head to the side directing her attention fully to Minho, without fail making the tall guy flustered and rushed to turn on his computer so he can hide the crimson tint on his cheeks he’s yet realized not that apparent but feels very intense on his skin.

“Sounds nice.”

She turned back to her screen, sighing contently, imagining patting her own back for dropping her pride and actually trying to approach him with friendly conversation. Not so bad, Lee Taeyeon.

“And you?”

Did I hear correct? He’s actually asking me? Not working-related topic?

“Me?”

“Well, Suho is not around and I believe Hyungsik over there is engrossed to some outer space songs blasting from his headphone I wished he bought a better one because as we can see or rather listen, I don’t need to ask him to know what he’s listening too. So. Yeah, you.”

“Well, I worked during weekend too. So it was tiring, but fun somehow.”

“Cool.”

Minho pulled a super short smile and left Taeyeon almost dropping her jaw, waiting for further words which never came out from him. She shrugged and decided she was just lucky the past five minutes. Until she remembered what’s Jinki said earlier.

“Uh, Minho?”

“Hmmm?” he didn’t move his eyes from his phone.

“About the houses. Jinki asked me to discuss the design and his input this morning, and after that he asked you to go see him.”

He cocked his head suddenly with the why-don’t-you-tell-me-earlier expression hanging under his forehead. Quickly he grabbed his notes and folder from the drawer and stood up from his seat.

“Where are you going?”

Taeyeon can see crystal clear how Minho hesitated not to roll his eyes, “To see Jinki.”

“Yeah, but he said we need to discuss this first.”

“I got important meeting with a client in twenty minutes.”

The words rolled out his lips sounds tougher than any construction Taeyeon ever designed, but this time she didn’t back down even from where she sits, his board built looks two times more threatening.

“I understand. By any chance, have you checked my email last week?”

“No, I was very occupied with the last apartment that I visited.”

 He doesn’t even feel bad. Guilty? My ass.

“Then how can I proceed with this without your approval?”

She must have raised her voice quite far for Changmin turning his head quickly to the crime scene. Minho, although, didn’t budge an inch and match his stern gaze to Taeyeon’s.

“Well, nobody’s here to baby sit anyone, for your information. Being independent is also a task given to you.”

“I’m not asking anyone to take care of me, but since we work in a team, at least we need to talk over some stuff here, no? What’s the point coming here if I just need to do it by myself? You can just send the work to my email and I didn’t need to leave the house.”

The girl cannot believe what she blurted out, however, it’s more than too late to fix the atmosphere.

“Why are you complaining to me? Those jobs are from Jinki.”

The displeased look he gave to her is not helping her rage at all. However Minho doesn’t look like he’s done venting out his anger so Taeyeon complied right away.

“But you’re my direct superior. I thought I supposed to go through you first before stepping on you and just run to Jinki.”

“Your application said you have working experience before. You should know how to handle a project if your colleague got handful stuff on their end. You can always return to your beloved United Kingdom for some charity if working here is too tough for you.”

What she asked is just two ways communication but what she got in returned is baseless accusation. Taeyeon cannot hide her disappointment anymore.

“Now excuse me, Jinki is waiting and I have no time to ruin my day with argument.”

Ruin your day? Talked about you ruined my whole week ahead!

After he left, she took her iPod and went to the other direction, hoping to cool her head with solitude in the pantry. Changmin grabbed his phone right away and typed rapidly on it.

To GameKyu:

The new intern is no joke. She just shoved her guts under Minho’s nose. Did I tell you I put dibs on her yet? If not, now you know!

He tossed his phone to the table just like that before entailing Taeyeon’s silhouette that just disappeared from his sight. He dragged Bora on the way from her seat, knowing that the girl wouldn’t miss such a gossip.

One and half hour later, Minho returned to his desk just to find some drawing printed and placed neatly next to his keyboard. A small post it attached at the right top corner.

‘Please review it before you hop on your next schedule. This only needs 15 minutes. Thank you.’

He sighed heavily while tracing the small notes before his eyes.

‘You haven’t checked it yet? Open your email. Now. In front of me. And tell me what do you think about that. Don’t you dare shoot me another excuse. Now. I knew you have your phone.’

Words from Jinki are still roaming his thought. He glanced to his side, with her hair pulled up into a bun, her neck looks even more slender. Judging from her back view, he would never guess she could stand her ground and voiced her thoughts like that.  

The cold treatment she gave when he passed her desk and how the cable of her earphone plugged on visible from his position makes him sighed again. He took a marker in front of him and started sketching on the printed layout.

***

Taeyeon has been sitting in the same position on her bed for almost an hour now. Her eyes glued to the sticky note in front of her. She recites the words hundred times in her mind but nothing changes, means it’s real. It’s not only in her imagination.

‘I’ve checked these and put some notes and sketched some details needed. Already took pictures and send it to Jinki. You can continue both options for the rooftop house. Sorry if I was being a jerk earlier.’

When she returned after lunch, she didn’t expect she’d found set of paper she decided to print after Bora and Changmin calmed her down, laid out on her closed laptop. Looking around, she realized no one’s in her team available on their post. Not even Hyungsik, the guy who’s almost always hooked with his Spotify at the corner.

Much more to her surprise is when her eyes caught the bright green paper attached on it.

“It’s not a dream, isn’t it?”

Couple more slaps on her cheeks and it still stings just like the first time she did. She picked the sticky notes once again, this time up to an inch to her nose. God, his handwriting is beautiful!

Quickly she grabbed the papers splattered on her duvet and carefully following every single line Minho carved on its surface. Half of her conscious, Taeyeon is embarrassed by her own demeanor, who’s giggling only because of stupid sticky notes? Because of simple lines engraved on a paper?

“Krystal!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs but since nothing’s happened she repeated it, this time louder than an ambulance siren, “Jung Soojung!!!”

“What the heck, Lee Taeyeon?!”

Her roommate’s standing at the threshold, breathing unevenly, shoulder length hair still wet from unfinished shower time, Krystal tried to tie her bathrobe before catching a cold.

“We have a problem. A big problem.”

“What? Did you hurt yourself? Where? How?”

Taeyeon shakes her head with all her might. She squinted to the paper at her hand and locked her gaze to Krystal.

“I may or may not, have a crush on my cold-as-bitch boss.”

***

GameKyu [GK] : I didn’t see the intern today at lunch

Max  : We went together to the steak place across the street

GK   : We? #smirk #evilgrin

Max  : Me, her, Bora, and Henry

Max  : I wish only me and her, tho :/

GK   : kkkk, over Minho’s dead body

Suho : Something happened when I’m not around?

Max  : You missed a huuuggeee drama

Suho : What drama?! Why nobody tell me?!

GK   : Minho got a very nice upper jab by the little girl

GK   : Didn’t see it by myself, but, Changmin is always convincing whenever he did the story telling

Suho : HOW?!

Max  : Next time I will put my go-pro on right on the top of my monitor

Suho : HOW?!

Max  : She has some balls to fight Minho back

Max  : I told you she’s something since her 1st day

GK   : Funny thing is, Minho was intrigued

GK   : Someone needs to explain this

Suho : The Almighty is shaken? By a little girl?

Max  : Dude, you just blew up some hidden code

Suho : Sooorrrryyyy

Suho : He knew already btw, that we called him name behind his back

GK   : Yeah, I still remember his restless face when he confronted me

GK   : Making a fuss over such childish stuff

GK   : Like a five years old kid who doesn’t get his share of candy

GK   : The Almighty.. more like The Mighty Ducks

GK   : kkkkkkkkkk

Max  : Then we need to find another name then

Max  : The Almighty is too good for him anw :P

Suho : Back to my question. How on earth he’s knocked down by a little girl?

Minho: Stop saying a little girl, Kim Joonmyeon. She’s 2cm taller than you and fyi, I’m not knocked out

Minho: You guys know that I’m in this group as well, right?

Max  : That’s why I said what I said..~~ #dancing

Max  : But since you’re here already, Mr. Almighty, where did you get her profile information?

Max  : Some people would just say she’s tall

Max  : 2cm taller? Did you carry a ruler around?

GK   : Ohooo.. someone’s jealous..~~

GK   : kkkkkk

Suho : Jealous?

GK   : Don’t you remember Changmin kept telling us he put dibs on her?

Suho : This means war! #runaway

Max  : U too?

GK   : You know something?

Suho : You know I have a girlfriend already

GK   : No way

Suho : Yes way

Max  : No way

Suho : I think I should go

Max  : Don’t u dare leaving after dropped the bomb

Suho : I didn’t drop anything

GK   : U and ur sorry ass can die later but Changmin got his point

GK   : I’ll hunt you till the end of the world if you don’t unzip your lips

Suho : This is cyber bullying, Cho Kyuhyun

Suho : I’m outta here

Max  : Gotta finish what’ve u started, man

Max  : Spill it or I will voluntary pick u up tomorrow morning

Max  : Tormenting you during the trip to the office sounds like a nice breakfast

Suho : The hell, dude

Suho : U r freaking psychopath

GK   : No one is torturing anyone

GK   : But I don’t mind if it gets me a nice story, btw

Minho: All of u sound like group of very nosy women in my apartment building

Minho: Aren’t u tired gossiping around?

Minho: U r not fifteen anymore, for God’s sake

Max  : He wrote a lot! :O

Max  : Kim Joonmyeon you better says something or tomorrow morning can be now

Suho : DUDE!! Minho just sent me a private message

Suho : HELP

Suho : SOS

GK   : No pict = hoax

GK   : Screenshot

Minho: Kim Joonmyeon

GK   : He’s ur boss only in the office

Suho : Yeah, a dead ass boss

Suho : I’ll tell you when I’m resigning

GK   : You are so not fun

Max  : So I can still put dibs on her or not?

Minho: Your girlfriend is waiting in Japan, you idiot

GK   : Now you know

Suho : Now you know

Max  : Now I know

Minho: What do you know?

Ten minutes later

Minho: Someone answer me. What do u know?

And another ten minutes passed with Minho having staring contest with a still screen. Everyone is purposely ignoring him for some obvious reason. He dragged his hand to massage his suddenly stiff neck.

This is not happening. How on earth Suho had to catch me looking at her direction for too long? And why should I have flustered when I realized he was watching? Don’t blame me if she looks so enchanting while laughing on a casual chat with Bora and Sunny!

He peeked once again to his phone, hoping some notifications popped up on it. Little did he know, Kyuhyun’s already back in his game and Changmin’s having a video call with his across the ocean girlfriend. Suho’s actually thinking to type something, but he took too much time to contemplate, Minho gave up already.

He grabbed his hair so tight, getting more frustrated and threw his phone to the bed before heading to the shower.

***

So, I hope the setting of tumblr doesn’t wrecked how it is looked in my AFF because I just don’t have time right now to fix the mess here. I will try on this weekend. After I’m done cleaning my shoes tho. Anyway. Enjoy, lovelies! XOXO

#2min scenario #2min fiction #2min fanfic #2min #shinee #shinee fiction #shinee fanfic #shinee scenario