#and not think of the fact that all three of my otps have split up in the last year

[spaceorphan18]

I read with interest your view and that of @hopefulobjectmiracle about tumblr Klaine fandom. Is there more shipping these days than 2010-15? I ask because there seems to be a smaller group that only ship Kurt with Blaine but there seems to be a huge rise in Kurtbastian and Hevans shippers. Likewise, there’s many more pezberry or faberry shippers. And a lot more of those shippers trying to discredit Blaine or Brittany as OTP for Kurt and Santana. There seems to be new younger people joining Tumblr declaring a love for all things Klaine, and then a week later shipping Kurt with everybody else!! Has there been a change since the show aired?

Hi Nonny! :)

Hmmm.... There's not really a clear answer to this because the way shipping evolved is different than people just finding things now.

There are kind of two different things going on here -- Kurt related shipping and non-Kurt (blaine/klaine) shipping. I can't tell you much about non related Kurt things -- however, I will say that Faberry was HUGE when the show was on. It's a subsection of the fandom I never interacted with but it was around in season 1, and loud enough that the show makes nod to it from season 2 forward. Brittana was always around, too, and the reason Brittana became a thing on the show was, partly, due to fans crying out that they should be a couple -- and more than the throwaway joke the writers made in the first season.

I don't know what happened to those ships over time, or how the evolved since the show ended -- I'm sorry :/

But now, I will tell you the epic history of Kurt shipping. (Again. i should really dig out my old notes on this, lol)

Here we go long post...

I found it! I'm going to quote myself so I don't have to write it out again, lol. This was originally from an ask about the BBO (Better Boyfriend Olympics), but it'll work here, too.

Okay, so let’s go back to 2010 when there wasn’t a Klaine fandom, there was a Kurt fandom.  A lot of the BBO stemmed out of the Kurt’s Boyfriend Shipping wars of 2010.

Back then, there was just a Kurt fandom, and a lot of opinions about who he should date.  Believe it or not, Kurt was shipped a lot with the other guys on the show, there was a healthy dose of Kurt/Finn, but Kurt/Puck was huge, and there was a smattering of Kurt/Mike (I never really did see much Kurt/Artie now that I think of it, which is kind of funny in retrospect, but I’m sure it’s out there.)  Anyway - when the show announced Kurt was getting a boyfriend – well, things began to get heated up.

Three big ships emerged

Kurt/Sam - because the rumor was that Sam was originally supposed to be Kurt’s bf (probably not, but that rumor was big at the time).  Btw, they were the canoe ship (I have no idea why) and was also known as Kum (rolls-eyes).  This ship’s fanbase was so huge and lasted so long, that the show felt the need to address it head on in Season Two’s Rumours (not a joke).

Kurt/Karofsky - Also known as Kurtofsky, they were also called themselves the Pirate ship (god, Idk why, shipping wars are weird, yo).  These people were also really passionate, mostly about Dave, but liked the whole idea that Kurt would save Dave and they would have this weird - enemies to loves love affair or something.  I don’t know, I could never get past the squicky assault aspect, but whatever.

Kurt/Blaine - which. at the time, was… the biggest possibility? It’s funny cause the other two ships were just as big as the Klaine ship, and really the fighting became over who was going to be the best option for Kurt.

And that’s the thing.  Fans of Kurt were so passionate about who was best for Kurt, because everyone had seen him go through hell and back on the show, so his boyfriend needed to be perfect for him.  And you know who was perfect (at first) – Blaine.  More on that in a second…

However, Blaine brought his own bit of baggage – namely fans of Darren Criss (and/or Starkid fans).  Unlike Chord Overstreet or Max Adler, people knew who Darren was before he was on Glee.  So his own fandom joined in on the Klaine of it all.  At first it was all fine – as the shipping wars continued, it was less about Kurt vs Blaine and more about Klaine vs the other shippers.  Well, that was going to change….

Original Song happened and Kurt and Blaine got together ending the question of who would ultimately be Kurt’s boyfriend.  And things were nice and cozy headed into season 3.  You’d think the Kurt/Sam and Kurt/Karofsky ships would die out, but not really, they stuck around for a long time, and kinda morphed into something else.

See, The First Time happened.  And for the first time Blaine wasn’t the perfect prince that he was in season 2 – he had more of a developed personality, and more flaws.  And… some people didn’t like it.  (Also added to the mix was Sebastian – and the Seblaine and Kurtbastian ships were born, but those kinda go off on their own thing and I’m not really going to bring them up much here.)  Anyway, what really got fandom split was Dance With Somebody.

You had two sides of an argument, people who saw Kurt’s POV and people who saw Blaine’s POV – and guess what happened.  The two sides began to fight with each other over who was “right” in the argument.  (My god…) And thus started what fandom started referring to as The Better Boyfriend Olympics.

See - for reasons I don’t fully understand - instead of seeing that each of the boys have a fault and each were wrong in the episode, each side wanted to say that their side, and their POV was the correct way – that one boyfriend was more oppressed and the other was not as good a partner.

On the Kurt side, though, you had a lot of the old Kurt fans and ships who didn’t like Blaine (and/or didn’t want Blaine as his partner) so they vehemently decided that unless Blaine was the perfect boyfriend again, he didn’t deserve to be with Kurt.  Meanwhile, you had the Blaine fans, many of them Darren fans who wanted Blaine to have more depth to him than just being Kurt’s boyfriend, and not being Kurt fans first (or originally) they were going to push back at the Kurt fans who were lashing out at Blaine.

Compounding this was the fact that during season 3, there were so many cast members and characters that unless you were Finchel, you were begging for scraps and your featured episode to come along.  Meanwhile - Kurt got a ton of screen time, but didn’t sing much, while Blaine sang a lot more, but didn’t get much story.  The Kurt fans resented that Blaine was always singing.  The Blaine fans were annoyed that the Kurt fans resented it, and tried to remind the Kurt fans that Blaine barely got any development.

Either way, a war had begun.  And then The Break Up happened.

Now Kurt fans had a specific reason to point at – Blaine being a terrible boyfriend.  He cheated.  He’s terrible.  The end.

The fandom was not firmly split into sides - you were either a Kurt fan - a lot of them who HATED Blaine - partly because he was getting more attention at the time, partly cause he did sing more, partly because they were made up of Kurt ships that didn’t work out, and partly cause they saw so much of themselves in Kurt that they projected onto him their own feelings, and loving Blaine was not a part of that projection.  Or you were a Blaine fan - who spent a lot of time defending Blaine to the point of exhaustion, and became so resentful of Kurt that they wished Blaine could be with anyone else because Kurt (fans) didn’t understand Blaine and should just stop trying.

Weren’t there any Klainers you ask? Ha, well…. Klainers, people actually liked Kurt AND Blaine were stereotyped into two categories.  Category A) the really really loud fanbase (usually on Twitter) that harassed the creators, RM, Chris, Darren, various crew about Klaine every second that they got – to the point that it started to feel embarrassing (that’s probably my own projection).   Category B) People who thought (think) that Chris and Darren were (are) in a secret relationship.  (Spoiler alert they aren’t, never have been, and never will be.)  The two of these categories overlapped A LOT, and many of the fans of one boy or the other just disassociated completely.

You could still be a fan of the Klaine relationship, but you had a preference to which boy you were actually a fan of – you couldn’t like both, or else you were a Klainer, and that was not cool.  (I spent a long time NOT identifying as anything, and trying to make sure everything I did and said was equal – a) cause I was new to fandom and b) cause I hated that either one or the other of these characters were villainized so frequently.)

Anyway - Season 4 continued.  Adam showed up, and Kurt fans got all excited, but the problem was that a lot of them saw him as the perfect boyfriend again – not a real character but a prop that could make Kurt look good and be everything for Kurt.  Look, I liked Adam, I did, but he was underdeveloped, and this weird idea that your boyfriend needs to be perfect in order to be a functioning relationship is just unrealistic.  I digress.  Meanwhile, we didn’t get a lot of Kurt POV, which didn’t help things, and meant even more projection over his character.

Meanwhile, the Blaine fans had formed their own community, which became viciously defensive of him.  I think the whole fandom was toxic during this time for a lot of reasons, and I really wanted to quit it.  Many people did – the show wasn’t being fun anymore.

Season 5 came along, the boys got back together, tempers simmered, but the whole idea of the Better Boyfriend Olympics came back every time a conflict happened.  Arguments about who was the better boyfriend ensued, gatekeeping as to why their pick was best and why your opinion sucked still ran through the fandom.  Not helping was the fact that Cory had died, and the creators, actors, and crew – as well as media – was tired of Glee.

The one nice thing, though was that a lot of the old crowd had moved on by then, and there was an influx of newer people coming in during season 5 (and season 6) – they weren’t here for the season 3 droughts and season 4 wars, and brought in a newer and fresher perspective.

But still - we had the end of season 5 and the summer of spoilers and season 6 to get through.  At this point, the Kurt and Blaine camps had moved to their parts of the internet and really not speaking much to each other if they could help it.  When an argument happened on the show, the same kind of Better Boyfriend Olympics came up again – one boyfriend was worse than the other, and unless they changed xyz they were not good enough for the other.  But at this point, it was incredibly tiring.  I know that I was just ready for the show to be done with.

I should say, as an aside, not helping things were the rise of some rather vocal BNF-ish fans, who dug their heels in about their own opinions.  The refusal to even acknowledge that one side or the other might be right, or have valid points was not helping anything.  A lot of people on both sides refused to even listen to the points on the other side – and instead of being frustrated at the show, the creators, or whatever, they took it against each other, which wasn’t fun to watch either.

Season 6 happened - Blainofsky happened, and that killed enthusiasm for the season on both sides, most people just kind of wanted it to be over.  And then the ending came quickly, and I think a lot of people who were just plain unhappy about everything left for good.

The Better Boyfriend Olympics, or this weird competition that always pitted the boys and their fandoms against each other in the name of one being better than the other, leveled off after this.  I won’t give myself /that/ much credit - but one reason I created @todaydreambelievers was to give fans of both Kurt and Blaine a safe place where we could enjoy and discuss both boys without the BBO rearing its head.  And you know what – it did mend a few hearts.

For the most part, it’s been pretty quiet since.  Fandom is quieter, but I think the people who have come into it after the show has ended are a lot less judgmental and argumentative.  (I suppose it helps if you know how the story is going to end.)  And the cool thing, for me, is finding a group of people who enjoy Kurt and Blaine equally (or respectfully) – and reclaiming the name Klainer as a good thing.

I’ll end by saying this – it’s been relatively peaceful, even with the influx of new people throughout the years, but I have been seeing shades of BBO pop up again.  Look, you don’t have to like Klaine to be a fan of one or the other of them.  But there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world, a lot of things to be angry and get indignant about.  How a fictional couple was written ten years ago is not one of them.  Be respectful of people, and know that maybe the side you understand better isn’t the only side worth listening to.  ;)

////////////////////

So, I suppose that's part 1 of this full picture. Onto Part 2.

Here's the thing -- I've stayed, mostly, in my little tumblr buble over the past five years -- blissfully unaware that I suppose things were going on around me. Except... they really weren't. Until the pandemic happened, and Glee went to Netflix internationally, and a whole bunch of young kids grew up and started watching the show.

By the time I ended TDB in 2019, there weren't many of us left. I knew there was our small, dedicated group of fans. The tinhatters (the group who thought Chris and Darren were in some kind of relationship. spoiler alert -- they're not). And I know the Kurtbastian fans have been kicking around for a while. But no one was around in huge numbers.

And then boom - pandemic, and I'm shocked (not in a bad way) that this show has already seen a resurgence. The weirdest part, for me, is the fact that not only is history repeating itself -- seriously, people are bringing up old conflicts that have been dead for ages, and old shipping wars I never thought I'd see again -- but I think this new group's relationship with the show is much different.

I think that Kurt is a character whom a lot of people can still identify with. And because he's on his own in the first season, it's still easy to project yourself onto him. And then shipping goes from there. Blaine went from being the exciting option, omg are they really gonna do Klaine?? to -- hey Klaine is the boring canon choice, we can choose who we want for Kurt.

Layer over that years of Blaine hate still circling the interwebs. The echo chamber that Twitter and Tiktok create. And the fact that neither Chris or Darren seem to have the army of fans they once did (well -- Darren does, but they don't really watch Glee anymore). And you get this varied landscape of shipping.

No, some days it doesn't feel that different from the BBO days. The fact that I still get asks about Blaine and TFT car scene or Tested makes me feel like I'm back in 2013. Other times I'm perplexed by resurgences -- such as Kurtbasitan and Kurt/Sam. (Please don't bring back Kurtofsky guys)

But there's a saying -- Same Shit, Different Day.

I think there is an entirely different group of people than the original people watching, and their reasoning for shipping whatever is much different. But they've certainly come to a lot of the same conclusions that brought about the shipping wars in the early days.

At the end of the day - I think Kurt will always been a fandom mattress. But ship what you like and be nice to everyone else. There's enough hate in the world -- no need to dump on people's escapism.

#that's how s.o. sees it #klaine history #klaine #and fandom #did I answer the question? #idk

[class1akids]

BNHA 286 - Thoughts

I was still riding the high of Bakugou’s spectacular character development, so the drop from this chapter was a really, really bad one.  The sheer helpless frustration, worry and anger in this panel accurately sums up my mood after reading it:

The same, Shouto, the same. 

The deja-vu was strong, because here we are again, Deku with two broken arms, staring helplessly as Kacchan tumbles out of his reach (like even the eye shut swollen matches...)

Not before Bakugou voices the frustration I’ve been feeling ever since Deku entered rage-mode a while back.

And to think that the day would come when Bakugou gets to lecture Deku on teamwork with absolute cause, punctuating the sentiment with some splattering of blood.  Because really, I was so so so hoping for some Origin Trio teamwork, but it looks like I’m not going to get any, and that makes me a sad, disappointed bunny. 

At least this time Todoroki wins a round of catch-a-Kacchan, displaying also some serious one-foot-rocket-game there. If Horikoshi was trying to make the catch as ship-unfriendly as he could, he severely underestimated the audacity of TDBK fandom, because what’s better than a princess carry? Diving straight for your boyfriend’s pants, while you are lugging your unconscious trash dad around. It’s kind of perfect. That’s my OTP. (SQUEEE)

What’s not cool is that Bakugou’s sacrifice seemingly achieves nothing, because Todoroki for lack of hands can’t drag Deku away, and he falls for Shigaraki’s taunting, entering Rage+++++ mode. 

It seems that Deku’s weakness is Kacchan (duh, we all knew that) (and my theory is that because of Search, AFO/Shiggy also knew that), but his even bigger weakness is people dragging Kacchan. So yeah, this was the part I didn’t like at all, because protagonist rage-power is just the biggest cliché ever, and nothing to glorify. There is even a flashback to Banjo warning Deku about the need to control his heart. So I suppose Rage+++!!!Deku is not a good thing says Horikoshi, who then proceeds to glorify Rage++++!!!Deku with lots of pretty art. 

So sad, he’s crying... 

Still I hope that this taunt is just Horikoshi trolling us and Bakugou’s sacrifice will eventually serve a much bigger narrative purpose than just rage-upgrading Deku (considering it meant preventing again Todoroki from entering the fight, grrrrr, I’m getting impatient, I want to see him do something other than first aid and designated ice-pack...), but I’m fully resigned to the fact that it may just happen in the terms of some talk (or a DvK3, ok, that would be kind of epic) where Kacchan reads Deku the riot act about his reckless behaviour. (For the Haikyuu!! fans out there, I’m partial to the kind of vibe where Iwa headbutts Oikawa and tells him that the team with the six strongest players is the strongest). 

Shiggy and Deku are in full monster-mode and it looks kind of creepy-stunning, with Deku looking like Dark Shadow and we see the literal AFO grinning in the (physical or spiritual?) split in Shiggy’s face as he regrows his fluffy white hair amidst the happy screams of the Tomura-stans corner of the fandom through the miracle of regeneration. 

Deku’s rage seems to lead to careless opening as he’s finally checkmated by Shigaraki’s hands on his face, ready to steal OFA. And look, poor Todoroki can’t do anything but helplessly stare (and ponder whether if he drops his trash dad, he could maybe grab his other boyfriend???). 

The attempt to steal OFA leads into what looks like the MMA fighting ring of the Vestige plane. In one corner, we have Coach AFO hyping Shigaraki (who thanks very much does not want AFO to be there, because now he’s a big boy and has his OWN dreams which kind of look like AFO’s dreams...). 

And their bickering may be Deku’s saving grace in the end, which would make indirectly Bakugou’s plan / Endeavor’s big prominence burn be decisive in the fight as the step to create the opening for AFO to enter Shigaraki’s mind. 

In the opposite corner, we have Nana hyping Deku. 

So if the vestiges were always gonna interfere, Deku could have just walked up to Shigaraki, skipping straight to this bit, saving a whole lot of bloodshed????

Anyways, it looks like either it’s gonna be Nana vs AFO Round 2, or Deku vs Shiggy where they are backed by their respective guardian spirits or perhaps all four of them? Nana’s physical hand (the one corresponding to what she places on Deku’s head) is still in Shigaraki’s literal pockets. Talk about awkward family reunions...

I hope that whatever happening in the spirit world, the fight will also continue on the ground. There is some chance of that, as it seems team Iida is on its way towards Deku’s location, bringing news of Machia. 

So we may see this group (at least Iida, Neijire and Uraraka as they seem to have different action-lines than the other three) + Todoroki take on Machia / LoV. It could also mean getting Bakugou some essential medical help faster - if the injury is too much for Todoroki’s nine pee-pees - (though I was really hoping to see more of Bakugou fight, because he’s always a joy to watch). Obviously, I’m hyped for more class1a, but also hoping that Neijire finally gets the action she was denied in the Overhaul arc. 

Another interesting detail was Machia sensing two masters. The obvious answer is him sensing Shigaraki and AFO (and good question which one will he listen to), but a twist could be him sensing Deku in there with Shiggy? 

If you need emotional comfort, I highly recommend checking out this gorgeous full-color version of 285.

#bnha 286 #bnha manga spoilers #class1a reads bnha #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #shigaraki tomura #todoroki shouto #nana shimura #ofa #afo

[chipper9906]

A New Type Of Normal

Pairings: Castiel/ Dean Winchester

Rating: General Audiences

Word Count: 2,124

Status: One Shot - Complete

Just a little fic I wanted to write based on a prompt I saw on OTP Prompt Generator. 

Summary:

Dean grumbled quietly to himself, adding another item to the ever-increasing list of supplies they’ll need to stock up on. “The supplies are getting depressingly low in here. I’m nearly out of beers, the meat-man needs to stock up on his meats-,”

“No more of the meat man!”

Prompt: Person A is about to leave to go to work. Person B asks Person A if they’ve forgotten anything, and Person A gives them a kiss. Person B turns red and opens their hand to reveal Person A’s keys/wallets etc, saying “I meant this, but thanks…”

 * * *

Dean blames it all on Sam.

He was perfectly content with showing Cas the classics: Tombstone, The Shining, Star Wars, Star Trek, Back To The Future, Ghost Busters. You know, classics. But Sammy wasn’t happy with that. No, he just had to go and put on all those crappy, cheesy rom-com’s and romances. And yeah, Dean could leave the room, but that’s just rude, right? It’s not like he wants to watch them or anything…

Honestly, Dean thought the romance films would go over terribly with Cas. Dean - and he’s sure Sam was too- was preparing for a multitude of questions from Cas about every damn scene. He’d already had a taste of that fun experience with ‘The Pizza Man’, so he was certain that Cas watching people try to flirt with each other would only confuse the poor guy even more.

But Cas didn’t ask questions.

In fact, Cas didn’t say one word throughout every one of them. Unless you counted his pleas for Dean to stay quiet (personally, Dean thought his jokes added a much needed comedic break). Cas would be glued to the tv, only blinking about three or four times a minute (not that Dean was watching or anything, just something he had noticed), making sure every bit of his attention was directed towards whatever couple was on the screen that night.

It must have been that. Watching ‘human courtship’, as Cas would put it, seeing the domesticity that comes to people who don’t know what’s really out there. That can be the only thing Cas got it from, surely.

“For a health nut, he sure does love stealing my beers…” Dean muttered into the cold air of the open refrigerator, bent down and peering into its fluorescent-lit interior. “Won’t eat real bacon, but he’s happy to chow down on the meat-mans burgers…”

“Dude, I’m like, right here. I can hear you, you know.” Sam called from behind the lid of his laptop, sat at the bunker’s kitchen table. Jack happily munched on his ‘Krunch Cookie Crunch’ opposite Sam, amused eyes flickering between the two brothers.

“That’s coz’ you were meant to.” Dean slammed the refrigerator door shut behind him, turning and leaning against the gleaming silver door- thanks to a recent clean by yours truly, thank you very much.

“And for the last time,” Sam said with just a hint of defeat in his voice. “You’ve really got to stop calling yourself the meat man.”

“Listen, Sammy - you can say it means what you say it means, but I’m just gonna go on blissfully unaware, going by what I think it means.”

“That’s… that’s not how it works.” Sam tried to argue.

Jack’s entertained smile had turned to a perplexed frown at their conversation. “What does ‘meat-man’ mean?”

“Alright, that's-” Sam cleared his throat awkwardly, slowly closing the lid of his laptop down. “That’s a conversation I’m not ready for.” Sam shot a strained smile at Jack before turning his pointed gaze to Dean. “For neither of you.”

“Well someone’s gotta give the poor kid the birds and the bees talk.” Dean shot his own pointed glare back at Sam. “Or, we can just do it my way – give the kid a laptop, go to the internet and load up some good ol’ fashioned por-”

“From my own experience, I can tell you that’s a very poor way of learning such a topic.” Castiel’s voice filtered in from the doorway to the kitchen, the ends of his trenchcoat billowing behind him as he entered the room and descended the few steps to reach the kitchen table.  

“Eh, well, he’s your kid, Cas. ‘The talk’ is your job.” Dean turned back to the various cupboards behind him, trifling through the depleted looking pantry in search of something to eat. “Hey Sam, you seen where those little cheese cracker thingies went?”

“I think we might have finished those off last night. Or the night before?”

Dean grumbled quietly to himself, adding another item to the ever-increasing list of supplies they’ll need to stock up on. “The supplies are getting depressingly low in here. I’m nearly out of beers, the meat-man needs to stock up on his meats-,”

“No more of the meat man!”

Dean cut Sam off by pointing a finger at the colorful box of  ‘Krunch Cookie Crunch’ next to Jack’s half-eaten bowl of said sugary cereal. “-And I’m pretty damn sure that’s the last box of that stuff. And I bet you’ll be out by tomorrow morning, right?”

Jack’s eyes darted down towards the few soggy pieces of cereal floating in his bowl, eying up the amount of milk that remains before pulling the box of cereal closer and peering into its contents. “…Maybe…”

Castiel had opened his mouth to add something to Dean’s list, but Dean cut him off before he could get it out with a click of his fingers and a pointed finger directed at him. “And Cas needs more of that weird grape jelly stuff.”

Castiel watched Dean with a frown as he pulled a small notepad out of a drawer, scribbling down the loosely formed list he had in his mind. “What’s wrong with grape jelly?”

“Nothing wrong per se… it’s just a terrible flavor that tastes nothing like grape.”

“I like peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches…” Castiel sounded so genuinely disheartened by Dean’s opinion of his flavor choice that Dean couldn’t even find it within himself to keep making fun of the poor guy.

“I know, Cas.” Dean told him with a soft smile. “That’s why I buy it for you.”

“You mean that’s why random credit card companies buy it for him.” Sam leaned back on the crickety wooden chair, stretching his arms behind his back until it made a satisfying ‘pop’.

“The day I get paid an honest day’s wages for the honest day’s work I do is the day I no longer rip off multi-billionaire companies and Uncle Sam.” Dean roughly folded up the shopping list and stuffed it into the back of his jeans pocket. “You wanna come with, Cas?”

“Me?” Cas asked, his brows pinched together as if he couldn’t fathom why Dean would ever want for him to tag along.

“Yeah, you.” Dean confirmed with a sharp, short chuckle. “Sammy makes me buy all the healthy crap that tastes equally crap whenever he comes along, and Jack throws so much stuff in the cart that he wants to try that I’m honestly worried it’s gonna max out the card every damn time we go grocery shopping.”

“Sorry…” Jack muttered sheepishly.

“Don’t worry about it.” Cas said to Jack, shooting him a wink. “Teasing is one of the only ways Dean knows how to show affection.”

Dean narrowed his eyes dangerously at Castiel, pushing himself off the counter and brushing his hands together. “You coming or what?”

“If you’ll have me.”

Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head at Castiel's wording, steadily ignoring the red flush that he could feel creeping up the side of his neck. “Let’s get going, then. Come on, I’ll even let you drive Baby.”

Even Jack’s head whipped up, scarily in sync with Sam as they stared up at Dean in disbelief. “What?” Dean asked them. “Why are you guys looking at me like that?”

“You just asked Cas if he wanted to drive the Impala.” Sam said slowly, like Dean hadn’t heard and understood his own words.

“Yeah? So what? I let Jack drive Baby before, and he was only, what, a year and a half old?”

“I was dying.” Jack stated. “I assumed that had something to do with it?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“I promise I’ll be careful with her.” Castiel interrupted Dean’s scramble to find an answer. Dean glanced up, seeing the conviction on his face that matched the tone of his voice, and knew Castiel meant that. Cas knew how important Baby was to him. Dean knew Cas would treat her right.

“See?” Dean gestured a hand towards Cas. “Besides, it’s about time Cas got to drive a real car, and not that vomit-beige colored monstrosity of his.” Dean caught sight of Cas’s affronted face out of the corner of his eye. This would quickly turn into another argument if he wasn’t careful. “C’mon, Cas. Let’s get going.”

Dean dug his hands into his front jeans pockets, clasping Baby’s keys in his fist, only to look up and see Castiel already partway out of the door. Cas wasn’t going to get very far in the Impala without her keys…

“Hey, Cas!” Dean yelled after Cas, who came to a somewhat stumbling halt in his steps. Cas turned on the spot once he had stopped, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow in question. “You forgetting something?”

Cas’s curious look only grew more intense. Dean could practically see the gears turning in the angel's head, trying to figure out what Dean was suggesting. There was a split second shift to his expression, one Dean could only describe as disbelief before Cas had schooled his expression back to neutral. Castiel had apparently figured out what he had forgotten as he moved towards him, and Dean pulled his hand out of his pocket, ready to pass the keys over to Cas.

Except, instead of stopping and holding out his hands for the keys, Castiel just kept getting closer to him. Dean didn’t even get a chance to remind Cas about personal space before ‘holy crap blue eyes super close’, and then Dean’s mind all but short-circuits when it registers Castiel’s chapped lips pressed against his. It didn’t last very long – or maybe it did, Dean might have blacked out for a bit – but it was long enough that Dean couldn’t brush this off as a funny case of ‘I tripped and my lips fell on yours’.

By the time Castiel had pulled away, Dean was sure his eyes were going to pop right out of his skull. A quick glance over to Sam confirmed he had seen the whole thing – at least, that’s going by the incredibly thinned straight-faced smile on his brother's face as he chokes down his laughter. Jack was smiling like this was completely normal, but then again, the kids always smiling – he might not have even noticed the show of affection right in front of him.

“Um…” Is the only word that came to Dean’s mind once it had restarted. Castiel’s face didn’t show any signs that he had realized how weird this whole situation was, and was waiting patiently for Dean to find his words. Dean slowly lifted his hand until it was sat between the two of them, uncurling his fingers to reveal the keys in his grasp. “I, uh… I meant these, but… thanks?”

Dean watched as Castiel's eyes focused in on the keys. To Cas’s credit, he didn’t seem in the least bit embarrassed by what he had done. He simply swept the keys out of Dean’s palms and pocketed them in his trench-coat with a soft smile. “I assumed you would pass them over once we were in the car, but thank you.” And then, to add insult to injury, Castiel leaned up and planted a kiss on Dean’s cheek like it was no big deal. He had done it so casually - as if it had been a part of their routine for years.

Dean could only stand there like an idiot and watch Castiel as he walked out of the room, beige trench-coat fluttering out of sight. After a few seconds of the most awkward silence Dean thinks he’s ever had to live through, Dean blurts out what’s on his mind. “What just happened?”

Sam’s chair scraped obnoxiously loudly as he stood, tucking it back under the table with that annoying strained smile of his still in place. “I’m not entirely sure but uh…” Sam stopped in front of Dean on his way out of the kitchen, giving his big brother a friendly pat on the shoulder. “I think Cas is dropping hints he wants a little more. Maybe. Possibly.”

Sam left the room, not after his words had completely thrown Dean for a loop. Now Jack was the only one left in the room with Dean, his customary gentle smile having been replaced with a contemplating frown, staring down at the bowl of milk in front of him like it held all the answers.

“What's wrong with you?” Dean asked, trying to get back to some sense of normality.

Jack looked up from his bowl, tilting his head in a way that was so very Cas. “I don’t get what Sam meant.”

“Oh.” Oh no…. “Uh, well, it’s-”

“I thought you and Cas were already married?”

#Destiel #destiel fanfiction #Destiel fanfic #castiel/dean winchester #Dean Winchester/Castiel

[councilof9]

What Makes a Good Puzzle Solving Team

By Mystic of Co9 I have been working with The Council of Nine to solve puzzles since 2012. Our team is made mainly of people who met entirely through attempting (and failing) to solve the Defcon 20 Badge Challenge. Through the years we've continued to work together, eventually earning two black badges for being the first to solve DC23 and DC24. We have learned a lot about puzzle solving through this experience, but we've also learned a lot about working as a team. My intention with this post is to share a bit of this wisdom. I will start by dispelling some common misconceptions and then present what I think might actually make a good puzzle solving team.

Misconceptions

1. Tools: Great teams have some kind of magic tool that solves everything. Tools help, but a good puzzle will be resistant to advanced tools and/or require only the most basic of tools to solve. Every Defcon badge puzzle that I've worked on could have been solved with nothing more than pencil, paper, and google. Occam's Razor is always your friend. Forgetting that can lead you down some interesting rabbit holes (See the CryptoK Cipher: https://twitter.com/0xCryptoK/status/1292316580957700096). 2. Genius: There's one uber solver on the team that does all the work. You may in fact have some real smart people on the team, but beware that solving puzzles isn't something you can master like programming or music. Even if you have someone who is a master cryptographer on your team that person isn't going to just know that, for example, the drum beat in the background of the audio is morse code. That takes more than technical skill to solve. That master cryptographer on your team is very useful for running cipher text though obvious solutions (like Caesar or basic transposition) but don't assume that they are going to be able to throw intellect at every problem while everyone else sits back and enjoys the show. 3. Team Size: Having 30 people on your team means you are 30X more likely to solve. It's more about how you organize your team than how many people are on it. The last thing you want is lots of people generating lots of noise. If you can pull off a 30 person team, more power to you, but you'll find that most large teams only have a small number of people actively working on a puzzle at a time. You'll also find that smaller teams tend to be way more organized, which is critical if you want to succeed. With good organization you could have a bad ass team with only 3 people. For more on how to organize your team see the suggested team roles later in this post. 4. Deception and Social Engineering: The best teams social engineer their way to the solution and play dirty. We use every tool available to us and social engineering and deception are part of the game, however it is rare that teams succeed on this alone. Information gained through social engineering, in my experience, can certainly give you an edge, but only a small one. Your team has to combine this with your own unique solves. The reality is that if your team is good you'll be so far ahead at points that social engineering is useless. Let me also give you a word of warning: beware of social engineers who want to join your team. They might at some point use their skills against you. I'm sure every good team has a story about this to tell over some beers.

What Actually Makes a Good Team?

1. Variety of skills: Hardware, coding, music, languages, pop culture, and classic/modern cryptography are all valuable skills to have represented on your team. Don't worry too much about finding geniuses. A lot of our solves came from people who were simply willing to try something no one else thought of yet. That comes out of having people with a variety of perspectives and knowledge bases. 2. Team Players: People on the team should want to be on a team. They need to be willing to be a part of something greater than themselves. If you want individual glory, then maybe you shouldn't be on a team. It sounds harsh, but if you join a team you are part of that team. Even if you didn't have any solves yourself or you ended up solving a ton of the puzzles, it's the team that succeeds or fails, not you personally. There will be arguments, there will be frustrations. Deal with this as a team. Strong egos and chasing individual glory can be toxic to a team at its core. Don't let it fester too long. 3. Clearly Defined Roles: Especially for larger teams you'll want to decide on some roles. We would suggest having at least these three: Front line: People who take all the puzzles and start trying everything to solve them right away. They are gathering all the clues, running them through tools, trying different analysis methods, etc.. Middle line: There people are taking everything the front line folks are doing and verifying it. If the front line says for example, "the cipher text is 40 characters and here is the hex and binary of it, I tried all ROTs, nothing" then the middle line does all of that again to make sure there weren't any mistakes or anything missed. They are also looking for missed correlations. For example, they might say "oh the text on the badge is also 40 characters, I'll try OTP with all of them". Documentation: These people are taking anything that seems like a solution or a clue and documenting it. This can be done in a google doc, a flow chart, markdown in github, etc.. For larger teams, it can be a good idea to split this role so one person is documenting and the other is communicating when the docs are updated with new information. This helps a lot in moments where everyone is stuck. Did we miss a clue? Is there something we still haven't solved? Is there a keyword we haven't used? The documentation should be able to answer all these questions. 4. Year Around Communication: Don't be a "see you next year" team. Keep up communication year around. Try solving puzzles outside of your main focus. Not everyone on the team will be able or willing to do this, but some will. The more you work together the better you are going to get at it. Also, Don't take for granted the fact that your team is full of smart people who share a common interest. I've gotten to know people through Co9 that helped me to improve my skills in a lot of areas beyond puzzle solving. In the end, isn't the real solve all the friends you made along the way? I hope this post helped to dispel some myths about puzzle solving teams. I also hope this inspires others to start new teams or improve their own. A lot of the members of Co9 genuinely enjoy helping others with this stuff. Don't hesitate to reach out. We know this is a competition, but we love solving puzzles and meeting others who share this pretty niche passion. Defcon tends to give out only one black badge to the winners of the badge challenge (if at all). We don’t do it for the badge (although when we do get a black badge we make more [links to badge copy posts]). We do it for the challenge. I think this embodies the hacker ethos in a pure way. Let others take the spotlight, the sponsorships, the glamorous parties, and the fancy job offers. Who has time for that? We're here in this hotel room solving.

[writerlyhabits]

I need some angst in my life so.. Reader and the Tenth doctor with prompt #12 or #38 from the otp drabble list!

I’m so sorry 😅 I know this took forever to get to you, but I’m finally done!! Fluff comes easier to me, so it’s always a challenge trying to make myself write something a little angsty. And I managed to find a way to put both prompt requests in here, and I really like how they worked together! And although I actually like my sweet moment at the end, I know I just kind of stoppped writing at the end. I could have closed it off better, but I think you’ve waited long enough for this 😅 Thanks for sticking around! I hope you like it!! 💗💗

12: “H-how long have you been standing there?” - “Long enough.”

38: “Well, this is awkward.” - “Don’t touch me.” 

“I hate it when he makes us split up … where the hell is he?” you muttered as you and Donna crept through the halls of an alien gang’s ship. The two of you had gone and shut down one of their systems while the Doctor found where they were hiding prisoners. He was supposed to have contacted you with an update by now, but there was nothing but radio silence on his end. 

“Maybe he just, I don’t know, got caught up with the prisoners?” Donna suggested, trying to keep her thoughts out of the gutter. “You know how he gets, it’s hard to get him to shut up." 

"But don’t you think he would have realized by now? You know, once he saw that the lights went out?”

“Oi, stop bringing it up! I hit the wrong switch, I got it right eventually! Now the lights on this level are out, that’s all,” Donna exclaimed. The two of you continued down the hall, approaching some sort of orange glow. With no word from the Doctor, and who knows how many people looking for the three of you, a weird light is certainly something new and worth a look.

“I just, I hope he hasn’t done something stupid and gotten himself into trouble,” you sighed, cautiously approaching the doorway where the glow was coming from. “I mean, just the thought of him getting seriously hurt, I-” You didn’t want to finish. Donna gave you a soft look, trying to ease your thoughts a little. 

Of course, the two of you would hate to lose the Doctor, the three of you were best friends. But, in a perfect world, that’s all you would be. You wouldn’t have to deal with the fact that your feelings for him had grown out of your control. That every wavering touch, every smile in your direction, every unnecessarily tight hug made your insides feel like fireworks. You wouldn’t have to deal with the fact that ever since you had grown so attached to him, the thought of something happening to the Doctor actually made you sick.

“Alright, alright, calm yourself,” Donna said soothingly, seeing the gears turning in your head, leading you down a dangerous path. “I’m sure he’s fine, let’s just keep going, okay? We’ll find each other eventually, we always do." 

The room with the orange glow had no door, so the two of you crept up to the doorframe as slowly and quietly as you could. You ever so slightly poked your head around the corner to see if anyone was there, and what you saw made your heart skip a beat. 

In the middle of the room was a waist-high tub full of glowing orange goo holding a crowd of people you assumed to be the prisoners the Doctor had been looking for. And of course, he was standing in the middle of the group with his back to the door. They began to chatter as they saw the two of you, which got his attention. He turned towards you, his look of concerned concentration turning to one of relief. 

"Well, this is awkward,” you chuckled. “I take it you found the prisoners then?” The Doctor smiled sheepishly, trudging up to the side of the tub as you and Donna approached. 

“I did, yeah. But that’s all thanks to the goonies who caught me creeping around the halls. Thought I had escaped and threw me in here with the rest of them,” he explained. You did a little jog up to him to go in for a hug, and the Doctor almost jumped away from you. 

“Don’t touch me!” he half yelled, startling everyone in the room, and you immediately drew your hands back, holding them close to your person. 

“What the hell was that for?!” Donna shouted back. “Scared the whole room half to death, what’s your problem?” The Doctor let out a sigh and walked back up to the edge of the tub again. 

“I know, I’m sorry. But this stuff we’re all sitting in, Fideon Prime, is highly toxic. Well, it’s highly contagious, the toxin actually takes a while to set in,” the Doctor explained in his usual, rambling fashion. 

“What exactly does it do?” you asked, half afraid of the answer. Who knows how long he had been standing in that stuff. 

“It’s absorbed, and once you’ve been in contact with it, it seeps into your skin and feeds off blood, slowly poisoning your bloodstream and uh … "The Doctor dropped his voice to a barely-there whisper. ”Well … it kills you from the inside. And if you’re in contact with it for long enough, just brushing up against another person will spread the toxin.“ 

"Oh yeah, that sounds like a great time,” Donna quipped, trying to fight back against how very real the situation just got. This was no longer just a rescue mission, and the Doctor was out of the game. There was a weird moment of silence as the weight hit you before you managed to open your mouth and find any words. 

“H-how long have you been standing there?” you muttered. You looked up to meet the Doctor’s gaze, watching as his face fell, his eyebrows turning upwards, and his eyes so full of emotion. 

“Long enough.” This time, there was a long pregnant pause before the Doctor said anything else. “Like I said, highly contagious. That’s why … why I can’t touch you,” he finished. The two of you held each other’s gaze, and in this little exchange, you didn’t need to say a word to know exactly what the other was thinking. 

After a bombshell like that, you wanted nothing more than for the Doctor to hold you like he always did in times like this, when he could tell just how scared you were despite anything you did to conceal it. You wanted him to wrap you in his arms and pull you close, allowing the beating of his two hearts to calm you, maybe resting his cheek on the top of your head as he stroked your hair. But instead, he was standing on the wrong side of that tub of goo, wishing that he hadn’t been so careless. Hoping he could be helping the two of you fix this rather than becoming part of the problem. 

“So … what do we do now?” Donna asked quietly. “I mean, it’s just the two of us, that’s going to make things much more difficult." 

"And we’re on a crunch for time,” the Doctor admitted, looking at his watch. “They’re scheduled to dock in half an hour, and if they dock with us on board, it’s going to be a lot harder to make it out. Not to mention that we’ll only have about that much time before the toxin takes over enough of their bloodstreams, and the lot of them will start going into hypovolemic shock.”

“Oh, but not you?” Donna quipped. 

“Timelord,” the Doctor answered simply. There would be time for a whole biological explanation later, but there were better things to do with their time right now. 

“Okay, let me get this straight; we have to find a way to decontaminate all of you and stop the ship from docking, and we’ve only got thirty minutes. No sonic screwdriver, and no Doctor,” you stated, feeling the rush of adrenaline start to kick in. This was getting down to the wire, which, of course, was how the three of you usually did things. 

“Well, I wouldn’t say no Doctor,” he answered, cocking his head to the side as he gave you a cocky smile. “I might not be able to touch you, but I’m bound to be good for something." 

"Well, at least there’s that,” you sighed, grinning back at him. 

“I mean … what if we just tell them what’s gonna happen to the prisoners? Clearly they’re keeping them for a reason, they might decontaminate them, leaving us to figure out how to stop from docking?” Donna suggested. 

“They’re not going to care,” the Doctor shot down. “They just need bodies, doesn’t matter who they are, or whether they’re dead or alive." 

"How do we even go about decontaminating you? Is there some kind of antidote?” You asked, trying to solve at least one problem. 

“There is an antidote, Khrelan, which they have on the ship since they aren’t immune to Fideon Prime either. They talked about having left it in the cellar when they dropped me in here." 

"Great! Where’s the cellar?”

“No idea,” he answered. “But there should be a diagram of the ship down the hall where you can look for it. And once you find it, you’re going to need to run it through the filtration system in the room. Which, if they’re halfway competent, you should only have to flip the right switches to get it working." 

"I’m not touching any more switches,” Donna cut in. “Last time I accidentally shut the lights off on the whole level." 

"That was you?” The Doctor asked excitedly, his voice going up an octave. “They thought it was a power outage, it’s why they left in the first place! That was brilliant!” Donna smiled, doing a small bow, which made you chuckle. 

“Alright, well if you’re not going to do the switches, I guess decontamination will be my job,” you sighed. “I’ll go ahead and figure out where I’m going and get down there while you two figure out how to stop us from docking.” You turned to leave, but the Doctor called after you. Turning to look at him in the doorway, he looked like he was struggling to figure out what to say, which was a rarity. 

“Just … be careful out there. Wouldn’t want you dumped in here with me,” he tried. “I mean, not that I don’t want you with me, but just not-" 

"I know what you meant,” you giggled. “I’ll be alright." 

"You better,” he said softly. He seemed more at ease at your reassurance, and after leaving him with a hopeful smile, you turned and left the room. The Doctor kept his gaze on the doorway for a few moments after you’d left, and when he turned back to Donna, she was already looking at him in annoyance. “What did I do now??”

“When we get out of this, if you don’t tell her how you feel, I swear I’m gonna hurt you,” she sassed. “I can’t handle all your wavering looks and your goo-goo eyes-”

“I don’t make goo-goo eyes!” Donna gave him a look that made his shift on his feet a little, which was a little more challenging to do considering the goo. “And I’m not having this conversation with you, you still have to stop the ship from docking.” Eager to change the subject, the Doctor was more than happy to concoct a plan with Donna instead. 

You had managed to find your way down to the cellar on the level below, having to sneak around a couple of goonies you came across stepping into the lift. The lights were still on in this level, and to your luck, the massive cellar was unoccupied. The bigger problem, however, was just how much was in the room. 

It looked like a pirate ship and a steampunk zeppelin had a baby in space. Wooden barrels that smelled of liquor, steel barrels that smelled like oil, stacks of what appeared to be cannonballs scattered among them, and the walls were covered in many alien machines. The back of the room had a workbench amidst the clutter and a myriad of colored glowing bottles on the shelves to either side of it. 

“Now just to find the Khrelan and the sprinkler system … piece of cake,” you whisper to yourself sarcastically. You checked your watch to find you only had fifteen minutes until docking. “No pressure …”

Somewhere in your search, you heard the door to the cellar hiss as it started to open, and you scrambled behind a couple of barrels to stay out of sight. A small group of the large troll-like creatures rushed in, frantically searching for something. One creature entered after them, holding his wrist in fear, a small glob of the Fideon Prime sitting in his hand. Knowing this would be your ticket to victory, you peeked around the barrel to watch them carefully. 

On the other side of the room, one of the creatures ripped open a steel barrel, and the room was immediately illuminated in green light. The contaminated creature ran over to the barrel, all the others nearly jumping to get out of his way, as he dipped his hand into the barrel. They all sighed in relief, laughing and patting each other on the back. Well, that’s where the Khrelan is, apparently … now to find the sprinkler system. 

You crept around the barrel you were hiding behind, shifting to try and get a better look, when you knocked over one of the towers of cannonballs. You immediately snapped back behind the barrel, pleading to the universe that they hadn’t heard you. But of course, that would have made things easy. Instead, the room fell silent as the creatures took notice of the loose cannonballs. 

Their heavy footsteps were slow and calculated, and you could hear them getting closer to you. You were not only outnumbered, but you were about to be surrounded as steps started filling your ears from every side. Your brain was working faster than it ever had before, desperate to think if a way out, and the only thing faster was your heartbeat. You put a hand over your mouth to try and make yourself quieter, watching the shadows in the green light get larger as they approached you.  

As if by the grace of the universe, the ship lurched violently, and a bunch of sirens started going off. That must be Donna …  Either having forgotten about you or determining you weren’t as important as this new problem, the creatures made their way to the door. Peaking through the barrels, you counted as they all left the room in a hurry, the door sealing behind them and leaving you on your own. 

You gave a heavy sigh of relief, slumping against the wooden barrel and catching your breath. But you only gave yourself a few moments to relax, there was simply not enough time. Rechecking your watch, you were now down to five minutes before things got bad. 

Scampering to the other side of the room, you approached the steel container glowing green and glanced around for any signs of a sprinkler system. Sure enough, above the other containers, you noticed a clear hose, which was glowing orange, connected to a box up the wall. 

“I hope this works,” you sighed, moving to disconnect the hose from the Fideon Prime and latch it onto the Khrelan. This, of course, was quite a process since you had to keep from touching the orange goo, lock it into another container, all while the sirens gave you no reprieve. Managing to secure it together, you checked your watch. Two more minutes … 

You climbed up onto the steel containers to flip the switches on the machine, being thrown back down to the ground as the ship gave another violent lurch. Donna better be doing something right, because this is making my job a hell of a lot harder. A minute down, and you were finally back up on the containers face to face with the panel. Now was only a matter of flipping the right switch … 

You tried reading the labels, but they were far too smudged to be read in the dark, leaving you nothing to go off of. Thirty seconds left, and you were playing a guessing game. A green switch did the opposite of what you wanted, the goo moving back into the container. 

Fifteen seconds and the red switch only made a buzzing noise but didn’t take the Khrelan through. 

Eight seconds to go, and you hoped to everything good that the blue switch was going to do the job. 

Five seconds to go, and you latched onto the switch as the ship lurched, pulling it down with everything you had as you were thrown back to the ground. 

Three seconds to go, and you watched the system whir and a light start to go off. The sirens around you changed to a different sound, and you hoped it meant something good. 

At the last moment, you watched as the Khrelan started to rush through the tubes and up through the sprinkler system. Laying back down in victory, you laughed, releasing some of the tension that had built up inside of you. This time, now that the decontamination was in progress, you allowed yourself a little bit more time to catch your breath. 

“This is not your captain speakin’,” Donna’s voice sang over the intercom system. “Due to some schedulin’ issues, this ship won’t be docking today. Not with all you extra passengers on board! I sure hope the lot of you are decontaminated because we’re getting out of here!" 

As Donna made her announcement, you started laughing uncontrollably, the biggest smile on your face. This moment was what you lived on. Sure, you hated cutting it down to the wire. But the reward of pure joy the moment you succeeded is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. You swore that the Doctor was addicted to that feeling-

"Doctor!” you shouted in realization, shooting up from your spot on the floor and sprinting back up to the holding cell. 

Donna had beat you back to the holding cell and was chatting with the Doctor as they got showered with the green Khrelan. It gave the room a pretty glow as if drops of light were raining down on them and dissolving the orange goo they had been standing in. 

“You remember what you promised, yeah? Cause I’m not letting you out of this one,” Donna started pointedly. The Doctor rolled his eyes. 

“She’s not even in the room yet, would you leave me alone?” he sassed. “I’m going to do it, just -” The Doctor stopped in mid-sentence when he saw you appear in the doorway, out of breath and hair a mess. 

The two of you stopped for a moment to look at each other, relief written all over your faces. The Doctor donned a smile, and you couldn’t help but smile back at him. The two of you started racing towards each other, everyone else in the room becoming invisible as all that mattered was the two of you. You flung your arms around the Doctor’s neck, burying yourself in the crook of his neck as he spun you around, holding you as tight as he possibly could. You felt your feet touch the ground again, but the Doctor’s hold on you didn’t let up as the two of you relished in being able to hold each other again. 

After a few moments, the two of you separated enough to look at each other, the Doctor cupping your face in one of his hands. You leaned into his touch, relishing in this sweet moment before it ended. But to your surprise, he continued to hold you, rubbing his thumb across your cheek. His expression was soft, and he looked like he was contemplating something. You closed your eyes in an attempt to avoid saying something stupid, focusing on his tight hold on you instead. 

You felt his nose brush up against yours ever so lightly, his forehead resting against yours. Your heart was beating faster than it ever had before as your brains started to play different scenarios in your head. You quietly anticipated his next move, keeping perfectly still so as not to discourage anything. And although you certainly hoped it would happen, you were still utterly shocked when you felt a pair of soft lips against your own. 

Your whole body suddenly felt like it was floating. You kissed the Doctor back, lips moving in perfect rhythm together, soft and gentle yet oh so full of emotion. You realized that this wasn’t just out of excitement, he didn’t just kiss you because you were the closest one. This meant something to him. It was evident in the way he held you with such tenderness that every move he made was calculated like he’d thought about this moment just as many times as you had. 

You couldn’t hear anything other than your heart pounding in your chest, the world around you having faded away. When you pulled back for a breath, his lips were quick to find yours again, his passion intoxicating and never fading. 

“Alright, when I said kiss her I didn’t mean I wanted to watch the two of you shove your tongues down each other’s throats,” Donna groaned, quickly bringing the two of you back to reality. The two of you broke apart to look at her. Your brain hadn’t started functioning normally after that world-shattering kiss, so you just kind of stared at her blankly for a few moments. 

“And there goes that moment,” the Doctor sighed exasperatedly, giving Donna an annoyed expression. You looked up at him, seeing him in a whole new light. You saw the green light around the room dancing in his eyes, the light freckles that sprinkled his cheeks, the way his jaw moved as he sassed Donna. You imagined what it would be like to plant light kisses there, paying no attention to what the two of them were saying. 

The Doctor looked back down at you, catching you in the act of admiring his features, causing a smile to spread across his face. You smiled back, giving a soft giggle as you slowly came back to reality, the chattering of the room filling your ears. 

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” The Doctor asked, resting an arm across your shoulder as you took a moment to gather your thoughts. 

“Can we do that more often?” you asked, still sort of dazed. The Doctor gave a hearty laugh that echoed through the room, and you giggled with him. 

“I figured we’d be doing that a lot from now on,” he admitted. You did a little victory fist pump, and the three of you laughed as the Doctor placed a sweet kiss on your temple.

#tenth doctor x reader #tenth doctor #10th doctor x reader #10th doctor #doctor who #doctor x reader #Kam writes #promt list #prompt request #request #anonymous request #kam takes forever to do shit

[bombshellsandbluebells]

Ron Weasley, Peggy Carter, Raven Reyes, Will Turner.

Oooooh some good ones I don’t think I’ve ever been asked about!

Ron Weasley (my BOY)

overall: who? / i hate them / i dislike them / kinda wanna fight them / they’re alright / i like them / i love them / *accidentally drops thousands of pictures of them* 

opinion: again, who??? / the purest bean / cinnamon roll / who knows really / sinnamon roll / the problematic fav (in the BEST way because I love how human his flaws make him)

otp(s): Romione

other ship(s): I can see the appeal of Rarry

#noromo ship(s): Harry/Ron are the BESTEST of friends and people need to stop forgetting how joined at the hip these two are. They share a brain. Also I love him with Luna because they both genuinely like each other and find each other funny and are both absolutely thrown by the other thinking they’re genuinely funny, which is cute.

crack ship(s): I mean he 100% had a massive crush on Krum but I don’t know if that counts as a crack ship

fav headcanon(s): Ron is the Mom friend. He shows his love by taking care of people. He’s a huge touch guy - he’s constantly giving people hugs, pats on the back, etc. Sometimes when he knows Harry’s feeling down he’ll just shove his way into his bed and cuddle him - it happens even more after the war, and sometimes Harry will just look at Ron and Ron knows that means it’s Hugging Time. They get so comfortable with it that they’ll just sit there in a conversation with someone else with Ron just hanging off Harry and neither of them acting like it’s a big deal.

He learns to love to cook for his family and provide good food for them like his mom did for him. He’s the one that learns most of her recipes and they spent a lot of time together in the kitchen after the war. The only one who can make food as good as their mom, the Weasleys all agree, is Ron - which is good, because Hermione is an abysmal cook.

He’s the one that takes a more active role in taking care of his kids too and the household duties. Not because Hermione won’t, but because her job ends up being so taxing and Ron loves taking care of his family and kids. (He does talk her into setting a strict schedule for herself though. Sundays are family days and unless a new dark wizard is back, she is not allowed to touch any work for the whole day.)

(I could keep going but I’m going to stop myself.)

Peggy Carter:

overall: who? / i hate them / i dislike them / kinda wanna fight them / they’re alright / i like them / i love them / *accidentally drops thousands of pictures of them*

opinion: again, who??? / the purest bean / cinnamon roll / who knows really / sinnamon roll / the problematic fav 

otp(s): Cartinelli 

other ship(s): Steggy, though I’m not the biggest shipper and I ship it a lot less post Endgame haha, Peggy/Sousa

#noromo ship(s): her friendship with Jarvis is so GOOD and I love them

crack ship(s): none that I can think of

fav headcanon(s): She 100% played a role in Tony’s life and nothing will tell me otherwise. She was (awkward on and off again) friends with his dad. She was besties with his caretaker/true father figure. She was definitely Aunt Peggy to him and adored him.

But to make a lot of Tony’s characterization and the fact they never see each other in the MCU work, I imagine they had some sort of falling out - either around the time Peggy seemed to have her falling out with Howard or after Howard’s death. Or maybe after Jarvis’s death. I imagine Tony pushed her away and eventually they hardly talked anymore. It’s one of his deepest regrets. He didn’t go to her funeral only because he felt like he didn’t have a right to.

Peggy is a terrible cook but really great at all other household chores and super handy. She refuses to call anyone for help when things break and will get them back in working shape through the power of her will alone. When she lives in the women’s apartment building, she gains a reputation as the person you should call if your fridge breaks down or you need to hang a new shelf or whatever. She gets a lot of requests to come fix things and she always does. Sometimes the other women try to pay her and she always refuses, though sometimes she’ll accept her pay in the form of homemade treats. One time she got a full pot roast for fixing someone’s heater. Usually, she just likes the women to keep her company and chat with her while she works.

Raven Reyes

overall: who? / i hate them / i dislike them / kinda wanna fight them / they’re alright / i like them / i love them / *accidentally drops thousands of pictures of them*

opinion: again, who??? / the purest bean / cinnamon roll / who knows really / sinnamon roll / the problematic fav (again, in good ways! her flaws are great!)

otp(s): none

other ship(s): I’m coming around on Braven; also see the appeal in Raven/Echo and Raven/Luna

#noromo ship(s): her and Murphy are little shits together and I adore their friendship; also her and Echo, her and Monty, her and Emori (basically her and all of Spacekru)

crack ship(s): I get the whole Raven/Anya thing haha and wish we could have seen them interact

fav headcanon(s): Raven spent a lot of nights growing up over at Finn’s place instead of her’s to avoid her mom. His parents fully accepted her and treated her as one of their own, always willing to let her stay there, though there was a lot of tension between them after Finn got locked up. Her mom would often trade her rations away for booze, so Finn usually split his rations with her growing up. Raven also started offering to fix things for people for payment, even before she was officially working as an Ark mechanic - usually for food. If you had something broken that you knew the Ark government wouldn’t give a crap about, you knew to go to Raven Reyes, who’d probably fix it better than anyone else the Ark would’ve sent anyways.

She and Murphy end up bonding a lot on the Ring about their mothers and their childhoods. They talk a lot about what it was like to have to scrape by for food when your own mother didn’t seem concerned with feeding you. They relate to each other in a way none of the other Ark-borne kids on the Ring do. 

She has nightmares of ALIE long after the AI is gone, horrible dreams where she watches her own body move without her and do terrible things to the people she loves. She stops wearing the color red for awhile, even though it used to be her favorite color. 

Will Turner 

(I’ve never been asked about him!! Yes thank you!!)

overall: who? / i hate them / i dislike them / kinda wanna fight them / they’re alright / i like them / i love them / *accidentally drops thousands of pictures of them*

opinion: again, who??? / the purest bean / cinnamon roll / who knows really / sinnamon roll / the problematic fav (yes, he’s all three)

otp(s): Willabeth

other ship(s): Will/Jack

#noromo ship(s): also Will/Jack

crack ship(s): Will/Calypso!!!! lmao he is her new ferryman

fav headcanon(s): Will accepts his new duty as ferryman for the dead and never wavers in it, and so he never is cursed or starts growing things out of him and yes I am ignoring the movie that shall not be named because it’s BULLSHIT. He is a kind ferryman. Davy Jones is terrifying, the sailors say. He’ll drag you to his locker as you scream for mercy and trap you in never-ending torture. But then when sailors die at see, a young man with kind eyes and a soft smile approaches them instead. “It’s time to move on now,” he tells them, and when the sailors say they don’t want to, he asks, “Are you scared of death? It’s nothing to fear really. But there is another option if you’d like.”

No one is bound to his service. They can stay on his crew for as long as they’d like, and when they’ve finally had enough and they tell him they’re ready to move on, he let’s them. 

Calypso is well pleased with him. She comes to visit him often and he always has tea (and rum) on hand for her when she does. They usually gossip about Jack. 

Great picks!! Thanks!!

#ask game #raven reyes #ron weasley #will turner #peggy carter

[arsenicpanda]

Toni Topaz

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you

How I feel about this character: Oh, I love Toni, she’s great. I must admit, I mainly love season 2A to early 2B Toni, the Toni from before she becomes an accessory to Cheryl. She’s got spunk! She’s got attitude! She’s clever! She’s done with everyone’s shit but her own! She’s so great, I love her. Her general snark is so great, and she’s such a grounded character with a realistic view of the world. Like, she really has a good grasp on the reality of situations, from the Northside’s view of the Southside to the flaws in the Serpents to the whitewashing of history to Cheryl being in the closet to Cheryl using that doll to try and get Toni to let Jason’s corpse back in the house, Toni has a good eye for seeing through bullshit to the heart of things. She clearly doesn’t like people who pretend to be something they aren’t or who wear masks like Betty (I love Betty, but she does wear a mask, which is something I love about her, but it’s also clearly something Toni isn’t a fan of), but she quickly bonds with people who are unabashedly themselves like Jughead, Cheryl, and Veronica, and I find that really interesting. Also, she seems like she’s attracted to crazy people like Jughead and Cheryl. Like, remember that time when Cheryl was all discouraged and like “I’m not the girl who burned down Thornhill and cut off my mother’s oxygen anymore” and Toni, instead of going “No, you’re a better, saner person” or something similar, was like “Yes, you still are that girl”. Like, wtf, that is a weird answer, but I love that it was her first response. And she clearly wants out of Riverdale, it was so great when she was enthusiastic about getting to go to a school with actual functioning facilities, and I’m so glad she’ll be going to college, even if she’ll wind up back in Riverdale for whatever reason. Also, she’s 100% down with vengeance and extreme measures to keep people away, from Penny to Nick, and I love that. She has that I-will-do-anything-for-my-loved-ones attitude that is so Riverdale, and I love it. Also, her role in the tickle porn plot was hilarious. Super weird because, y’know, tickle porn, but also super funny. And I really miss her relationship with the Serpents, that was great. I want to know how and why she changed her mind about wanting a position of authority in the Serpents (because she never seemed interested in that in season 2). And I want to see her do photography again and have friends outside of Cheryl. And I want to know more about Toni and her life before Riverdale and how she came to Riverdale, joined the Serpents, lived with her uncle who kept kicking her out instead of her grandfather, and just became herself. I want to see her interact with the plot of the season and have her own storyline because she deserves it.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Cheryl and Veronica, mainly, both individually and together, but in a universe where Riverdale never did the whole bughead thing for whatever reason, I probably would have been really into her with Jughead. And if I was able to do OT3s with bughead, I would be interested in her with Betty and Jughead with a fun enemies-to-lovers plot between her and Betty.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Jughead and the Serpents, 100%. I love how she and Jughead just took to each other immediately because they could both spot a kindred spirit. Like, they’re both so prickly, but they just connected and it was great. Jughead recruiting her for the paper was the best, and I loved how they bonded over their love of true crime and interest in serial killers. And I really loved her attitude while guiding Jughead through things, her “it’d be nice if you joined us, but you need to know what you’re getting into” and the way they just click. She went from his guide to essentially his right hand and then 3x09 happened and everything fell apart, to which I say boooo. Also, they clearly have similar taste in women (smart, intense scary ladies who are varying levels of crazy) but also dislike each other’s girlfriend, and I just think that’s the funniest thing ever. Toni and Jughead were close, but she never put up with his bullshit, and I think that’s the best. I was so excited when we saw them standing together in 4x02, like yes, they’re friends again! I didn’t get to see them reconnect and I don’t get to see them interact after that, but they’re friends again! Also, the way Jughead reacted to Toni getting pissed at Cheryl in 2x10 was the best, just “Oh god, she’s angry, shit’s about to go down and I won’t be able to do anything to stop it” was amazing, it’s clear they really know each other. He even showed her his writing and also told her about the typewriter Betty gave him! And the way she teased him about it was just the best. They’re both so judgy and done with other people’s shit and full of righteous anger and smart, and I just love seeing them together, they make for a great duo. Also, I love that the Serpents in general were her family, and that they all played a tabletop game together because that is just hilarious.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I think the 3x09 fiasco was both their faults. Like, Toni shouldn’t have broken the rules, but Jughead also should have talked to them in private about it first like he did with Fangs. I don’t know if the rest of this is unpopular, but I think splitting Toni off from the Serpents was the dumbest choice they could have made for her because it severed her connection to one of the main characters and by association the main plot and left her only with Cheryl and her side plots. It just kneecapped her opportunities for screentime and I hate it. Another unpopular opinion is that the breakout bughead OT3 should have been with her, not Sweet Pea. She has better chemistry with Jughead and already has an adversarial relationship with Betty that’s prime enemies-to-lovers and has an easy set up to get the three of them together (working on the Blue and Gold after the merger with Southside High), and I think it’s bullshit that that ship isn’t more popular.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Oh god, so many things! I wish she had joined the Blue and Gold with Betty and Jughead, I think they would have made a great team and it would have given her more opportunities to shine. Like, Betty and Jughead could still have their private investigation moments, but they’d also have team ups with Toni. I would have loved to see her interact with Betty more and have them actually become friends. Oh, and I would have loved to see Jughead act as Toni’s guide to the Northside the way she was his guide in the Southside. And I wish that we had seen Jughead try to help Toni or take her in when she broke up with Cheryl. Just a “I know our friendship is on the rocks, but you need help, so I’m here to help because I still see you as a friend” moment. Surely the Cooper-Jones house has a guest room? Like, there’s no way a house of that size doesn’t have a guest room. And obviously I’d love to see Jughead talk to Toni after he finds out about the B/A kiss, I’m writing a whole fic about it. And I wish that her relationship with Cheryl had had a slower burn. I know that Riverdale likes to do things fast and that it can do things fast because they did most of the leg work for bughead in two episodes and it worked, so I wish they had added another episode to the choni build up, an episode where we got a chunk of them, or maybe they could have played the longer game like they did with varchie in season 1. Oh, and I would have loved to see Toni, Cheryl, Jughead, and Betty hanging out while talking Serpent stuff and babysitting the twins; it would have been the cutest thing. And also I just want her to have a role in the plot and her own storyline and to stop being Cheryl’s accessory.

My OTP: I don’t think I have one? The show kind of dropped the ball with choni in season 4 and soured me on it, which is a bummer because it’s great in concept. I guess my favorite ship with her is Cheryl/Toni/Veronica (I do not remember the ship name) because that is prime smart, scary lady, but I’m not super committed to it. I do know that in another universe it would be jopaz though, dual Serpent royalty, baby.

My crossover ship: None, I don’t really do crossover ships. Another smart, scary lady though, probably, if I did.

A headcanon fact: She and Jughead have had multiple conversations about photography and their dream cameras and their approaches to photography. After they reconnected between season 3 and season 4, they also talk about the best way to photograph their girlfriends. Also, Toni has reconnected with Sweet Pea and Fangs, and the four of them hang out sometimes because FRIENDSHIP. Also, while Toni might not major in photography in college, she will at least minor in it. Oh, and she has like a billion pictures of Cheryl but also nature and the Serpents and the Pretty Poisons.

#asks #anonymous #Riverdale #sorry for the delay! #Toni is great and I want to see more of her #I miss her friendship with Jughead SO MUCH #my thoughts on Riverdale let me show you them #Anonymous

[dyadsaber]

A New Reylo Shipper Reads the TFA Novelization Part 4: In Which I Refuse to Believe that the Han and Leia I’ve Known Since I was Eight are That Awful at Parenting or Relationships, and I Have Feelings About a Scene With Rey in a Chair

Full disclosure: I am an old fan.  I saw Star Wars for the first time in 1989 because my mom took me to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in theaters, I thought Indy was the Best Thing Ever, and mom decided I was old enough for Star Wars, too. I was 8.  I saw Phantom Menace in theaters the month before I graduated from high school. So I’ve had ideas about what Han and Leia are like as people for the vast majority of my life. 

I have spent a lot of time and mental energy trying to wrap my brain around the way that Han and Leia and Luke act and make choices in the sequel trilogy so that I can enjoy the things that I actually LIKE about the sequels. (And I like a lot, or I wouldn’t have a Reylo blog or be writing about this novelization.) Some of it, I can come up with explanations for.  They are sad explanations, but I can get my brain to buy them instead of screaming THIS PERSON WOULD NOT DO THAT. But the way that this novelization was going to have Han and Leia talk about Ben’s fall to the Dark Side in the scene where they meet up again is NOT ONE OF THEM. 

OH YE GODS THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY. (I’m going to swear a lot below…) 

When Han and Leia see each other again, we find out how long it’s been since they’ve seen each other… 

Husband and wife stood regarding each other for the first time in years.

YEARS? Really? My first question when I read this was, how many years? Apparently, various supplemental timelines reveal it has supposedly only been seven years since Ben turned to the Dark Side and Luke’s temple was destroyed, which means Ben was, what, twenty three when shit went down? I have issues with this as well. All of the other clues we’re given point to him being younger. This is a glaring example of “no one cared about these characters as much as the fans did and so people weren’t careful with the timeline.” 

Getting back to the issue of Han and Leia not seeing each other for… an unspecified at this point number of years, I get that what happened was traumatic. I get that it probably took a toll on their relationship, but having Han just say “screw it” and fuck off with Chewie, and Leia just… keep on keeping on has always smacked of lazy writing to me. It feels like Abrams didn’t want to have to DEAL with the messy questions about how Han and Leia would be with each other if they had STAYED TOGETHER and dealt, sometimes well, sometimes poorly, with the loss of their son.  So he was just like, “NOPE THEY SPLIT UP ISN’T IT SAD?” And it IS SAD, but the Han who CAME BACK even when there was no reward in it for him, whose last words before being FROZEN IN CARBONITE were “I LOVE YOU,” and the Leia who WALKED INTO JABBA’S PALACE TO GET HIM BACK would not be like this.  I can see them trying to work through their grief together, and then Han just needing to get away for a while, or them agreeing to focus their efforts on finding their son and turn him back in the areas where they each most likely to have an effect, BUT NO. They just… split, and we don’t even get a lot of backstory about exactly how that went so we can understand the emotional arc for these characters. DUMB. I CALL BULLSHIT. 

And speaking of HORSESHIT CHARACTER ASSASSINATIONS…. Here’s some extra stuff Han says that wasn’t on screen. 

“He’s gone, Leia. He was always drawn to the dark side. There was nothing we could’ve done to stop it, no matter how hard we tried.”

This is longer than what he says on screen. His line here in the film is “We lost our son. Forever.” And the longer version pisses me off SO MUCH. How would HAN know he was always drawn to the Dark Side, unless Luke and Leia were TELLING HIM that’s what was happening? (Possible, but this doesn’t read like Han reminding Leia of things she told him already, and I don’t like what that theory says about Luke and Leia making Han afraid of his own kid.) 

I know on-screen Han says something about “even Luke couldn’t help him,” the stuff about THERE IS NOTHING WE COULD HAVE DONE just makes me FURIOUS. Is this supposed to be COMFORTING to Leia? Like, “Well, we did our best and it’s not our fault he turned because that was always gonna happen”?  WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK. Han is not that much of a fatalist.  He tries to tell himself that Ben is gone for good NOW, which is understandable, but “there’s NOTHING WE COULD HAVE DONE IT WAS ALWAYS HOPELESS?” No. Get out of my house if you’re talking that level of shit about Han. 

And then there’s THIS CRAP ABOUT LEIA, AND I’M GONNA BLOW A GASKET LOOKING AT ALL OF THIS AGAIN. 

So, when Leia says “it was Snoke” in the film, Han doesn’t react much, and to me, that scene on screen reads like Leia is reminding Han of something they both already know, but in the novel, she apparently… just… never mentioned Snoke to Han, and she KNEW ABOUT HIM ALL ALONG? 

“Snoke?” She nodded. “He knew our child would be strong with the Force. That he was born with equal potential for good or evil.” “You knew this from the beginning? Why didn’t you tell me?” She sighed. “Many reasons. I was hoping that I was wrong, that it wasn’t true. I hoped I could sway him, turn him away from the dark side, without having to involve you.” A small smile appeared. “You had—you have—wonderful qualities, Han, but patience and understanding were never among them. I was afraid that your reactions would only drive him farther to the dark side. I thought I could shield him from Snoke’s influence and you from what was happening.” Her voice dropped. “It’s clear now that I was wrong. Whether your involvement would have made a difference, we’ll never know.”

So you are telling me that LEIA FUCKING ORGANA had a CHILD with a man (and married him? Are the new canon ones even married? Does it even matter? IT DOES TO ME.) and then hid a REALLY IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT THEIR SON from that man because she thought… Han was too impatient? And she thought he wouldn’t be able to handle it and would make it worse? And so she just… hid it from both of them and tried to deal with it on her own? The more I think about this, the angrier it makes me.  

One of the things I love about Star Wars is how much we get to see characters leaning on each other, both physically and metaphorically, and being part of a team that supports each other.  It’s one of the reasons I hate the way that the sequels separate people and have characters that have spent their whole arcs looking for connection ending up on screen alone at the end. (I know Rey’s not staying on Tattooine, but the fact that the last time we see her, she’s by herself was a choice that makes me mad.) ANYWAY… The idea of Leia deciding she has to struggle with this BY HERSELF (and maybe with Luke? Who even knows?) and ON PURPOSE cutting Han out of the loop entirely is just… stunningly out of character. It’s another one of those writing decisions that makes for good angst and terrible characterization if you know ANYTHING about Leia, in my opinion. 

And I refuse to believe that this next line is anything other than a need for this information to be gotten across to the audience in an extra clear way.  This is Han’s response to all of the above, I think. 

He had trouble believing what he was hearing. “So Snoke was watching our son.”

So this confirms it. THIS is DEFINITELY the first time Leia even MENTIONS Snoke manipulating their kid to Han. The implication here is that after Ben turned, Leia let Han roam around the galaxy for seven years,  BY HIMSELF, NOT KNOWING THAT THEIR KID HAD BEEN FUCKED WITH BY AN EVIL DESSICATED PICKLE? SHE LET HIM KEEP THINKING THAT BEN’S TURN WAS JUST BECAUSE THERE WAS SOMETHING INNATELY WRONG WITH BEN AND NOTHING MORE? DUMB. Canon not accepted.

I need to go watch this scene in TFA, with all of its flaws, to cleanse my brain of this stupidity. 

Oh… one last thing that is not nearly so rage inducing, but gets to one of the things that annoys me about the prequels. (This is a little later when Han is leaving.) 

He put his hands on her shoulders, and thirty years fell away in an instant. “Leia, there’s something I’ve been wanting to say to you for a long time.” Fighting to hold back tears, she put a finger to his lips. “Tell me when you get back.”

On the one hand this is kind of sweet, but on the other LET HAN SAY I LOVE YOU, ABRAMS YOU TEASE.  Let Leia say “I know.”  You LOVE cheap callbacks to the original trilogy, and this wouldn’t have even been a cheap callback because it would have made sense for the moment and the characters. I would have bought it. I would have paid a high price for it.  I’m tired of characters not telling each other things (FINN IN THE LAST MOVIE OMG).  I know it’s a way to up the tension, but it just reads as lazy writing here to me, especially now that I know that this is the last time we get to see them speak to each other, and there’s really no REASON she shouldn’t let him say it. 

And now… some feelings about Rey in a chair. 

First, let’s get this out of the way… What Kylo Ren does here is NOT GOOD. Like, “this made me remember all the reasons I was so resistant to shipping them” levels of not good. But then I remembered that I’ve been fangirling over REALLY TERRIBLE PEOPLE since Jason Isaacs stepped on screen in The Patriot in theaters (Go look it up. I’m really old, ok?), and I ship pairings that hurt each other WAY more permanently than Rey and Ben do, and I got over my misgivings.  (Half of one of my OTPs canonically killed the other half in a fit of anger, and she STAYED DEAD. I still ship them because this was a stupid writing decision.)

What I think is so eerily fascinating about this whole scene, both on the page and on screen, is how… weirdly direct and honest Kylo is the whole time. And it’s not just honesty (but I’m going to scream about that a lot), it’s… how careful (for him) he is with her. 

So I knew this was going to be a ride of a scene when the very first time he talks from Rey’s PoV, we get… 

“In Kylo Ren’s voice there was unexpected gentleness.”

Was it also understanding and tall? (That will never stop being funny to me… sorry.) 

And THEN, when she asks about her friends, he’s like (paraphrasing here) “Well I COULD tell you they all died…” 

“But I would prefer to be honest with you from the beginning. You will be relieved to hear that as far as their current status and well-being is concerned—I have no idea.”

This matters a lot to me.  And it solidified my belief that he THOUGHT he was telling her the truth about her parents in TLJ when he said they were “nothing” and that they abandoned her.  He MUST have been acting on an incorrect assumption that he arrogantly assumed was true because, that this is the important bit, he never knowingly lies to her...  I really wish that honesty line had made it into the film. 

And the fact that he thinks RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING that this is going to be the beginning of an ongoing relationship where he would even CARE about establishing trust… just makes me laugh at the presumption on his part, but also makes me want to be like, “Ok, so you’re kind of right but also hilariously wrong because this is NOT GOING TO GO HOW YOU THINK.” Mostly I just enjoy simmering in the dramatic irony of it all. 

And then he takes his mask off because Rey called him a creature in a mask, and that probably hurt his feelings or something.

 “In itself the narrow face that looked back at her was not remarkable. It was almost sensitive.”

And this is where I became even more convinced that… maybe casting hadn’t happened for all the parts yet?  But ADF had descriptions of types they were looking for? Because if there’s one thing that Adam’s face is pretty much ALL THE TIME, it’s sensitive (and holy crud expressive).  No almost. 

Also, if Adam had been cast, this bit: 

“If not for the intensity of his gaze, Ren could have passed for someone she might have met on the dust streets of Niima Outpost.” 

Would have read more like: “If not for the intensity of his gaze, his ridiculously good looking hair that probably took a whole team of stylist droids to maintain, and the fact that he was tall as a tauntaun, he might have passed for someone on the street.” But I digress. 

So this next line of his is from a really awful moment that should not have made me smile.  But… he’s not even angry, here. He’s just exasperated, and that fight on the Death Star they have in TRoS made this extra amusing. (Not that anyone who’s read this far is going to be on my case about this, but I know how problematic that line is! I know how problematic this whole scene is! Not an uncritical consumer of media here, just having fun reading with a shippy lens!) 

When she maintained her silence, he almost sighed. “I can take whatever I want.”

The old " Well, I guess we're doing this the hard way" sigh. I can SEE IT. 

And then, one of those unique to the novel lines that I somehow didn’t know about before reading the book that just STOPPED ME IN MY TRACKS when I got to it. 

“I would have preferred to avoid this. Despite what you may believe, it gives me no pleasure. I will go as easily as possible—but I will take what I need.”

HOW DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS. I mean on the one hand, have a “not as much of a jerk as you could have been” gold star, but on the other hand, for KYLO “I HAVE A TEMPER AND GET WHAT I WANT REN” to have the intention to tread carefully with her and to CARE enough about what she thinks about him that he SAYS IT? WOW.

Thank you for coming to my talk, “Kylo Ren ALWAYS Cares What Rey Thinks of Him: A Thesis Presentation by Me” 

So he tries to get into her brain again, and we get this: (I can’t tell whose PoV this supposed to be from. It’s Rey all around this point, but it doesn’t make sense that it would be her here, and ADF can’t hold a consistent point of view in this novel to save his life, so… it makes more sense to me that it’s Kylo’s PoV.)

“And hesitated. What was that? Something there. Something unexpected.”

Loneliness would not be unexpected. He wouldn’t be surprised by that. It makes sense that the original intent was this is Kylo sensing her ability to use the Force, but if there was ANY pre-planning of the bond at all, this would have been a moment where he’d be able to sense it.  (I now want to be directed to any and all articles of behind the scenes discussion of the bond and who first decided it was going to be A Thing.  Was that just Rian Johnson?) No matter what happened from a Doylist perspective here, what happened from the Watsonian perspective is that Kylo went fishing in his other half’s mind and stepped right into their one-in-a-million connection in the Force and was like, “WHAT IS THIS???”

So we’re going to skip over the part of Rey crying because that does terrible things to my soul that I don’t have words for. (I may ship Reylo now, but I loved Rey on her own from the second she stepped on screen in theaters.) 

This moment, though… this is so telling. 

“Rey—you’ve seen the map. It’s in there. And I am going to take it. Don’t be afraid.”

Geez this is so him. Frustratingly so. I see why they cut it for the flow of the scene and to make him scarier but WOW. “I’m going to do what I want, but YOU DON’T NEED TO BE AFRAID. Here let me comb through all of your insecurities and worst memories AGAINST YOUR WILL while you’re strapped to a table, ok? WHY ARE YOU SCARED?” 

Honestly, the fact that he even thinks for a second that “don’t be afraid” is going to be AT ALL HELPFUL OR EFFECTIVE in this situation just goes to show how… weirdly out touch with normal people he is. (“Ben Solo Learns How to Be a Person and Not Something Out of Nightmare” is a fic trope I will read and write forever.) 

Then there’s that “SOMETHING” again…

‘Ah, he thought to himself. Something there, of interest. Not the image of the map. That would take another moment. But definitely something worth investigating.”

WHAT IS THIS? It would be easy to say, “He’s just sensing her Force capabilities, or the bond,” again, but we’ve already seen him have that reaction.  This reads like he’s specifically sensing another MEMORY, but we don’t ever get what it WAS before she pushes back. (Probably reading too much into this, but OF COURSE I AM. I’ve written seventeen pages of reaction to this nonsense so far, and I show no signs of stopping.) Anyone want to put forward wildly speculative theories as to what it was? I’ll start: He’s very specifically sensing her memory of Ben falling to the Dark from TRoKR, and it’s drawing his attention because it’s a memory of HIM. 

And now for Round 1 of “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.”  Rey pushes back and finds herself in Kylo’s mind. 

A look of amazement replaced the fear on Rey’s face as she discovered herself inside his mind. Stunned at the realization, she found herself inexorably drawn to—to… “You,” she heard herself saying clearly, “you’re afraid.”

DRAWN TO WHAT, ADF? To his vulnerabilities? To the place in his mind that correlates to the place in hers that he went poking at? I mean, that makes sense, an it would be instance #1 of Rey replicating what Kylo did because… he’s the example of Force use she’s GOT at this point, and it makes sense that she would be unconsciously doing what he did.  (So really… he accidentally taught her a lot… just saying.) 

And finally,  just kind of love this description of caught-flat-footed Kylo Ren: 

“In the corridor, a stunned Ren found that he was breathing hard. That in itself was unsettling. He did not know what had just transpired in the holding cell and, not knowing, was left uncertain how to proceed.” 

She… raised my breathing rate? I’m???? Having??? A??? Feeling????? Or wait have I been having a feeling this WHOLE TIME AND SHE JUST POKED IT???? WHAT IS GOING ON??? What do I DOOOOOO????? Oh good a stormtrooper needs to talk to me. Time to NOT THINK ABOUT ANY OF WHAT JUST HAPPENED FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE.  

Rey clearly had the one brain cell the dyad shares between them for this scene, and for a long time after. 

That was WAY longer than I meant it to be, but… thanks for reading! I’d love to know what people think.  I feel like I walked into a party late and want to talk about ALL THE THINGS people were screaming at five years ago. 

#reylo #dyadsaber text posts #tfa novelization #the force awakens novelization

[snippychicke]

Dedicated to @unbiddenrhythm for getting me hooked on this seriously rare-pair. Although our Assistants have slightly different names, Rea is heavily inspired by her head cannons, so she's like, 99% hers.

This started out as a short drabble for OTP prompts, and just...evolved. the prompt was: Which one gets jealous more often.

Short answer: Rea does, partly because she often feels like she Reeve is far out of her league.

Long answer: well, this:

Fluffyish piece of ReevexAssistant below. Mentions of jealous, hints of slight sexual harassment (not between the main couple). Spoiler free! 

Oddly enough, Rea tends to get jealous more often.

Reeve Tuesti was really the poster boy of Shinra directors. Granted, compared to the other three males that made up the board of directors, it wasn't that surprising. Anyone would look good compared to Palmer, Heidegger, and Hojo. 

The only other Shinra Executive the gossip columnists wrote more about was Rufus, and since his assignment to Junon and virtual banishment from Midgar, he had been forced to the limelight. Leaving Reeve to endure the spotlight and rather unwanted attention.

Rea knew she shouldn't be reading the trashy magazines that were little more than fluff pieces that barely disguised Shinra propaganda. But when Reeve was on the latest cover, it was hard for her to resist. Her official reason was to study the gossip and figure out if she needed to give the poor man a heads up about the latest rumors (like when they published his favorite cafe and the 'fans' were flooding to the small cat cafe in Sector 3 to catch a glimpse) or start counter-arguments derailing the misconceptions that tended to sprout from time to time (like that he was yet another Shinra bastard son). 

It was just a coincidence that the side bonus was to be able to.study her boss's appearance without the risk of being caught. (Not that the paparazzi ever got a picture of his true smile, or really captured the small little glint in his eyes he got when he was amused. But they did get a rather good side profile when he was jogging on the treadmill on the rec floor that she was rather fond of.)

However, this time the articles left her more than a little disquieted. It was a special edition covering President Shinra's birthday party from the weekend prior. It had been a through who's-who affair, with everyone dressed to impress. She skipped over the details of the designers, and briefly wrinkled her nose at the image of Hojo and Palmer and their suits. Not even the best tailors in the world could make them half-decent, though she questioned who thought to let Palmer wear a suit that was a rather gross mix of brown and green that reminded her of things that belong in a toilet. 

She did have to admit lingering on the first couple images of her boss in the well-fitted black suit made his long legs and thin form even more prominent than usual. The remaining articles that weren't dedicated to praising the President were focused on the Urban Development Director…

...and questioning his relationship with Scarlett.

 Nearly every picture had the two in close proximity, and in more than a couple, Scarlett was hanging from Reeve's arm, a sultry smile on her shimmery lips and a smug look in her eyes that made something akin to anger flare in Rea's chest. As if the older woman was looking straight at her and boasting at achieving what Rea could only dream about. 

Looking at those pictures...Rea had to admit to the small ember of jealousy that burned in her stomach. She wanted to be able to wrap her arm around Reeve like that. To gaze up into his eyes and see that warmth and tenderness looking back at her. 

And unfortunately for Rea, the rumors of Reeve and Scarlett spread like wildfire through Shinra's fertile grapevine. Sure Scarlett was a few years older than Reeve, but many people pointed out that it wasn't that much of an age gap. Then there were the counter-arguments that she had undeniable looks and 'experience', musing maybe it was something right up the soft-spoken man's alley.

The conversations down that particular path made Rea feel physically sick. Few were privy to just exactly how ruthless and abusive the lone female director was, and she had a hard time thinking anyone would find that...attractive, let alone her boss. Granted Reeve did his best not to speak too poorly about his peers, but she was sure she didn't imagine the scowl that graced his features whenever he returned from meetings with her. She had thought that Reeve disapproved of such things...but all the pictures of the two together and the gossip that followed suit made her start to question that maybe she was wrong?  

It made her question if she was reading all the signs between her and her director wrong. Over the last few months, she had started hope that maybe this feeling wasn't quite as one-sided as she had first thought. But maybe he was just being kind and helpful and she was just seeing things through rose-colored glasses. Maybe she wasn't at all his type. 

And if Scarlett was his type...did she really know him that well? 

"Oh please," Reeve groaned, making Rea jump slightly in her chair as he entered the office and caught her flipping through the infamous magazine, "I will literally buy you a fire materia if you promise to burn that wretched thing. 

"Sir?" She squeaked, not used to hearing him speak so...candidly. Never through the months of her 'research' had he commented so negatively. Usually, it was a bemused 'really?' Or a 'what are those scavengers lying about now?'

"Those pictures of me and Scarlett," he gestured tiredly. "I swear I am going to retch if I see another one. First I had to endure her pawing at me that entire night, and the nightmare only continues. 'Older and experienced, ha!' The woman is a money digging cougar."

Rea bit her lip trying to contain a smile as that sickly feeling evaporated. Everything suddenly seemed better, and the world once more made sense. Jealousy and doubt had really made her think crazy ideas. Reeve, interested in Scarlett? That was not the man she admired and respected. "...I do think they sell fire materia downstairs, actually…"

Reeve paused for a moment, his dark eyes meeting hers. His expression was serious, but she swore she could see some amusement and gratitude in them."Don't tempt me, because I don't know if I can resist."

Those words made butterflies flutter in her stomach, and she had to look away to regain her senses. The magazine was open to a page where Scarlett was pressed against his side, her cleavage prominent, and now she could see the reserved annoyance on her Director's face as he pointedly looked away from the woman. " ...usually I wouldn't condone such acts, however, this time is a little different." Rea gave a small impish smile as she looked back at him, and was delighted when he started to grin back at her. 

"You, my dear, are the best," there was a pause as he glanced at the offending text. "...would you think any less of me if I asked you to use my account to buy the last of those magazines? I could reserve the SOLDIERS' VR training room for after hours. I think it's fireproof." 

Rea was shocked by his words temporarily before realization sunk in. He really hated the rumors floating about him this.time, and it struck a nerve. Righteous anger flared along with determination.

"It would be my pleasure. In fact, I'll split the cost with you." 

---

It was close to eight at night, and the bonfire of every magazine they could find reached into the simulated night sky. Was it petty? Possibly. Poor use of time to go to every floor and search for every copy they could find? Absolutely. 

Did she regret any of it? Not a bit. She felt younger, lighter as she and Reeve snuck about after hours, taking turns keeping watch as the other sifted through the magazine in the numerous lounge areas, stuffing the offending copies into a bag. 

Neither were very surprised when the reached the archives, and one of the many library bots merrily greeted them with a stack of magazines. "Scarlett is a whore," it chirped innocently, making them both break out in surprised laughter. 

"You know the techs still don't know how or why those bots are 'faulty'," Reeve said as they left the archives, the thick stack split between them. 

"Grandad mentioned they keep trying to fix them," she hummed. "Mr. Hart has caught newbie techs trying to hack their system so many times he thinks its a hazing rite." 

"I wouldn't put it past them. Their funding for AI is geared towards military purposes, but many of them are interested in creating true Artificial Intelligence. And well, their programming was actually the basis for my own side project." 

"You keep hinting at your side projects," she pouted playfully, feeling daring. "But you never talk about them much."

There was a playful light in Reeve's eyes as he winked down at her. "Maybe one of these days I'll introduce you."

---

While the techs of the VR room did give them odd looks, nothing was said as they brought in the bags of magazines and Reeve asked them to generate specific coordinates before they entered. 

It always amazed Rea to watch the silver room give way to the virtual reality. The ceiling rippled into a cloudless night sky, the steel floor becoming gently rolling hills that led to a picture-perfect sandy beach. She could even taste the salty air of the ocean as the waves gently crashed near her feet. 

"Where are we?" She asked as she helped pile the magazines into a decent mound. 

"A beach not far from where I grew up," he answered easily, surprising her. "I spent many nights here stargazing when I was stuck on problems when I was younger. I admit, when I'm facing a challenging situation I'll use this place after hours to help brainstorm. It's still not quite the same though. Usually, you would be able to hear crickets chirping and the occasional seagull." 

"Sounds beautiful." Rea pulled the new fire-materia from her pocket and held it kut to him once he was finished organizing the magazines into a suitable pile. "I believe you should have the honor, sir," she insisted when he hesitated. "All things considered."

He looked at the small green orb twinkling with an inner light, illuminating her plain but well-manicured nails. He placed his hand over hers, enveloping the materia. 

"How about we do it together?" He offered. "Granted, I haven't dual-casted since I first learned how to use materia, but I think we could manage it." 

Rea was thankful it was dark enough to hide the blush she felt creeping across her cheeks as she shifted to stand next to Reeve, their fingers brushing as they cradled the materia. "One...two…" Reeve counted, and on three she felt the magic flow into the materia. Dual casting was usually only used to teach another person how to use materia, because you had the odd sense of the other person's magic, and it was often too distracting to focus. 

And it was very distracting, as well as oddly intimate to feel his magic mix with hers as fire erupted from the magazines. His careful arranging assured an even and thorough fire that reached up to the stars. 

"I didn't think this would be this relaxing," Reeve admitted as they watched the pages begin to curl. While their arms were no longer stretched out, neither seemed willing to let go quite yet.

"Fire is rather cleansing," Rea replied softly, wondering if it was wrong of her to feel a little smug. Scarlett may have pushed Reeve into allowing her to hang off him against his will, but here she was, more or less holding hands with him...and he didn't seem at all bothered by her close proximity.

"It is… thank you," he added a moment later, looking down at her, his soft expression lit by the flames, "for indulging my moment of insanity."

"Happily sir," she tried for a light tone while her throat was blocked by her heart. Gaia, she though, he was handsome like this. Hair just a little messy, the weight and stress lifted from his shoulders and a true smile pulling at his lips. He looked so...happy. Content. And she was at least partly responsible.

Take that, Scarlett. 

There was a long pause before Reeve cleared his throat. "So, um, I heard one of the techs from the science department had asked you out the other night."

"Oh, yeah." Rea wrinkled her nose at the memory of the man she had barely met trying to pressure her to go kut on a date when she had turned down all his subtle advances before.

"How did that go?" 

"Mm, it didn't. He's not quite my type."

Rea was sure she imagined the relieved sigh and his shoulder relaxing. "Ah. Good. Well, I mean, I'm glad you know what your type is," he quickly added on, sounding a bit flustered, making her raise a brow. "It's good to know that. I think." 

Rea laughed as she looked over at him, wondering if his cheeks were pink due to the fire. "What about you, sir? Do you know your type?"

He paused, his eyes meeting hers for a long moment. "I think I'm finally figuring it out." 

"But it's not Scarlett?"

That made him laugh, the rich sound flowing over her along with the sound of the ocean waves crashing against the sand. "Oh Gaia, no. Absolutely not! The woman I like is...kind, and caring. She always puts others before herself, and can be a little bit of a hypocrite for lecturing others on their workaholic behaviors." 

Rea's heart thumped in her chest and tried to keep her mind from jumping to conclusions. She forced herself to focus on where the tips of the flames met the night sky. "Sounds less like a type and more like an individual, sir." 

"Yeah, maybe," he admitted quietly. A peek towards him revealed he was still looking at her with that expression from before. The same expression she had daydreamed of since this infatuation of hers begun. 

Surely not. Surely she was just seeing things through rose-colored glasses again. Except his hand drifted from the materia to brush shyly against hers, almost to ask for permission. 

Only to drop away as reality forced its way back in, the sky and ocean disappearing in a violent ripple. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" A scientist barged in, using a fire extinguisher to put out their makeshift bonfire as the two jumped away from each other. "YOU JUST CAN'T BURN THINGS INSIDE THE TOWER! WHAT WERE YOU TWO THINKING?!"

#Reeve Tuesti #reeve #Director Tuesti #Final Fantasy 7 #final fantasy 7 remake #Reeve x assistant #Cait sith is briefly hinted at #So is Mayor Domino

[devil-kindred]

OTP Questions Meme

Round 2

Since I originally wanted to fill this out for my modern Death Stranding AU but changed my mind and did it for my Uncharted OC instead, I figured why not give it a go in my free time? Here’s round two of the OTP q’s meme filled out for the couple(s) in the disconnect//reconnect verse!

Ship(s): Sam Bridges/Jade Morgan, Higgs Monaghan/Jade Morgan. 

DISAGREEMENTS

Who is more likely to raise their voice? 

Jade, but it’s rare.

Who threatens to leave but never actually does? 

Sam and Jade don’t make threats like that, but will shut themselves away instead.

Who actually keeps their word and leaves?

Higgs is guilty of this, except he doesn’t say anything. He just leaves. It’s a way for him to calm down and come back with a clear head but since he doesn’t give any warning, it started to get to Jade after a while.

Who trashes the house? 

None of them.

Do either of them get physical? 

Never. Not one of the three would ever forgive themselves if they hurt their significant other in anger. Besides, Higgs past means he’d never be able to bring himself to do so even if the thought occurred to him.

How often do they argue/disagree? 

Not too often. Jade does argue with Sam a few times, mostly when they get together and things start to get complicated. Higgs has had his fair share of arguments with Jade as well.

Who is the first to apologize? 

Jade is... overly apologetic sometimes and it’s even worse if she’s argued with someone so she’s almost always the first. Higgs/Sam aren’t afraid to apologize when they know they’ve messed up, they just take a while to get to the apologizing part.

SEX

Who is on top? 

Higgs or Sam, depending on who she’s with.

Who is on the bottom? 

Jade. I mean, she could try being on top if she really wanted but she just always ends up underneath whichever person she’s with so there’s not really a point.

Who has the strangest desires? 

I don’t think they have any desires that are too strange? Though Jade may or may not have a predator/prey kink (she’s the prey) in addition to the ones listed below.

Any kinks? 

Jade likes being bitten during sex, preferably on her neck or shoulder— but only hard enough to be felt/leave a mark. She also kind of likes the idea of being choked but more so in a “can feel the pressure but still breathe” way.

Who’s dominant in bed? 

Usually either of the guys. Jade was dominant with Higgs once and it worked a little too well as a turn on she ended up beneath him not even five minutes later.

Is head ever in the equation?

It is and all three have done it.

If so, who is better at performing it? 

They all have their own skill when it comes to that particular act. which is my way of saying i have no idea lol.

Ever had sex in public? 

Yes, in numerous places.

Who moans the most? 

If I had to rank all three of them from most to least: Jade, Higgs, Sam.

Who leaves the most marks?

 It’s a tie between Higgs and Sam. Higgs knows Jade’s weak spots, so he’s more apt to leave bite marks everywhere. Sam, on the other hand, figures out the biting thing and goes for it, but also adds in hickeys and some accidental bruising (he’s got a bit of a tight hold sometimes).

Who is the more experienced of the two? 

With either relationship, the guys are more experienced. Which isn’t to say Jade isn’t experienced— it’s just she has less experience than they do. In fact, Higgs was her first.

Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’? 

Both. Fucking if their mad at each other or have to be quick, making love if it’s a softer situation emotionally or if they can take their time.

Rough or soft? 

Depends on the mood, honestly. More often than not, no matter who she’s with, it’s soft. Higgs may like to rile her up every now and then but above all, he wants her to know he cares about her in all things— so sex with him is usually ridiculous levels of soft. Sex with Sam, when they get to that point, is also on the softer side but if they’ve argued? Rough all the way.

How long do they usually last? 

Average time, I suppose? Unless they’re doing a start/stop sort of thing to purposely drag it out.

Is protection used? 

Jade has the implant but prefers her partner use condoms too.

Does it ever get boring? 

I’d like to think both guys can keep things pretty interesting and Jade can be pretty spontaneous regardless of which relationship she’s in, once she gets more comfortable.

Where is the strangest place they’d have sex?

 Higgs and Jade might’ve gotten very creative in regards to a trip they once took on his motorcycle— but you didn’t hear that from me. As for Sam and Jade well... let’s just say they thought they were being sneaky when they disappeared into the coat closet at Cliff’s but... they fooled absolutely no one. Cliff’s reaction, after finding them absent from the dining room, was to stop, eye the closet for a minute, smirk, then backtrack for the wine and excuse himself to the other side of the house.

FAMILY

Do they plan on having children/or have children? 

Sam’s not sure about trying again after losing both Lucy and their child but it’s something that could change in the future.

If so, how many children do they want/have? 

Jade would like to have at least one child, but has a “if it happens, it happens. if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.” mindset.

AFFECTION

Who likes to cuddle? 

All of them. Sam takes a bit to warm up to the idea but eventually he and Jade just end up snuggled up to each other one day and he decides he’s okay with it.

When Higgs and Jade are involved, he loves having her close. Whether it’s having her in his lap, cuddled up against his side with his arm around her, etc. (They aren’t tangled up in each other every single minute, but Higgs prefers to be touching whenever he can.)

Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places? Higgs.

Who struggles to keep their hands to themselves? Once again, Higgs. He likes to be touching more often than not. Though he has been known to get handsy in inappropriate places just to get a rise out of her.

How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable? 

Who gives the most kisses? 

Higgs. Even after Jade and Sam become exclusively involved, Higgs still wins in that category. When he and Jade were together he practically couldn’t keep his mouth (or hands) off her.

What is their favourite non-sexual activity? 

Jade likes to listen to her significant other talk about their day as well as just getting to do things together, regardless if it’s cooking or just being in the same space while they each do their own thing. Higgs likes spending time with his partner outside, whether it’s going for a walk through town or a ride through quite areas on the bike. Sam likes being able to do things together and the simplicity of doing a shared activity that doesn’t require both parties to talk the entire time.

Where is their favourite place to cuddle? 

For Higgs, anywhere he can. Jade likes cuddling in bed or on the couch if she’s watching a movie with her significant other. Sam kind of shares the same stance on cuddling as Jade.

How often do they get time to themselves? 

For Higgs and Jade, not often enough. It’s a part of why they break-up in the first place and isn’t until after they split and Jade moves into Sam’s that they have actual time to see one another again. For Sam and Jade, if’s she’s not working she’s at the house so they get to spend time together a lot even before they get together.

SLEEPING

Who snores? 

Sam, on rare occasions and providing that he gets any sleep in the first place.

If both do, who snores the loudest? 

See above!

Do they share a bed or sleep separately?

Higgs and Jade share a bed when they’re involved, Jade and Sam initially sleep separately but eventually share.

If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart? At first, Sam and Jade stay as far away from each other as possible— as in, if either of them moves they’ll fall off the bed. Once they get more comfortable with each other and are finally regularly sharing a bed, they tend to start off apart but always end up cozied up to each other.

When Higgs and Jade were together, you couldn’t pry them apart if you tried.

What do they wear to bed? 

Sam usually wears pajama pants, Jade’s a fan of big t-shirts though she occasionally wears actual pajamas, and Higgs either wears sweatpants or boxers.

Are either of them insomniacs? 

Sam is.

Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside? 

Only by Sam’s. He has them but doesn’t take them often.

Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side? 

With Sam, he and Jade start off that way until they get more comfortable with each other and then they usually end up wrapped around one another. With Higgs, he and Jade where always tangled up in each other.

Who wakes up with bed hair? 

Jade. Curly hair.

Who wakes up first? 

Nine times out of ten, Jade. Unless Sam’s had a bad night in which case he’s been awake forever and wins hands down.

Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other? 

Neither of the guys have ever managed to get up with enough time to do so before Jade and she’s not sure either person would like whatever she could find ingredients for.

What is their favourite sleeping position? 

Sam sleeps on his side, Jade sleeps on her stomach, and Higgs sleeps whichever way he feels most comfortable in at the time.

Do they set an alarm each night? 

Jade does.

Can a television be found in their bedroom? 

There’s a tv in Sam’s room across from the bed, but the other two don’t have one in their rooms.

Who has nightmares?  

All of them. Sam often dreams of Lucy and the day she died, Higgs sometimes has nightmares about his childhood, and Jade has random nightmares depending on how stressed she is.

Who has ridiculous dreams? 

Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed? Higgs is very tall, so he would take up a fair amount of space if he stretched out. However he usually koala clings in his sleep to whoever he shares a bed with.

Who makes the bed? 

Jade always makes the bed if she’s sharing with someone, unless they get to it before she can. If they’re still sleeping, she’ll make her side. The guys make their own beds.

What time is bed time? 

Jade tries to be in bed by 10:30 but never falls asleep until anywhere between 11:30 at night and 2 in the morning. Higgs is usually in bed between 11 and midnight. Sam goes to bed whenever.

Any routines/rituals before bed? 

Jade is guilty of laying in bed and scrolling through her social media on her phone and answering texts usually from Higgs when she should be getting ready for bed. Higgs usually does whatever he needs to/remembers to do before bed, then reads whatever’s caught his attention for a while, and sends texts to whoever he feels like talking to that night. Sam has trouble sleeping most days so his routine varies. If he’s having a bad night he tries to keep things he can occupy himself with nearby in hopes he’ll eventually drift off. If it’s a good night, he crawls into bed and is out like a light.

Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up? 

Jade. Not really a morning person.

WORK

Who is the busiest? 

It varies, but usually Jade as she has a lot of shifts at the diner.

Who rakes in the highest income? 

Sam, by far.

Are any of them unemployed? 

Eh, technically not? Sam’s on leave from work but still employed.

Who takes the most sick days? 

None of them.

Who is more likely to turn up late to work? 

Possibly Higgs but only in an emergency.

Who sucks up to their boss?

 None of them.

What are their jobs? 

Jade works as a waitress at a diner, Sam is/was a detective, Higgs is a mechanic.

Who stresses the most? 

Jade.

Do they enjoy or despise their careers/occupations? 

Jade doesn’t hate working at the diner but does wish she could find something else. Sam is indifferent. Higgs is more or less fine with his job.

Are they financially stable? 

For the most part.

HOME

Who does the washing? 

Higgs would do their laundry on occasion when he and Jade were together, but Jade made it a mission to do it before he got the chance after the third time of him dangling whatever new thing he’d found in the laundry basket in front of her and asking her to try it on. Sam and Jade do their own laundry until they’re officially together, though they do wind up with the other person’s articles of clothing in their laundry somehow.

Who takes out the trash? 

Higgs takes out his own trash. Sam & Jade take turns.

Who does the ironing? 

None of them.

Who does the cooking? 

Jade! She likes to cook in general but baking is her favorite.

Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying? 

Sam. There’s a reason Jade usually cooks and tries to teach him to cook.

Who is messier? 

Probably Higgs.

Who leaves the toilet roll empty? 

None of them.

Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor? 

Jade is very guilty of this but usually picks them up after a day. Higgs is also a little messy.

Who forgets to flush the toilet? 

None of them.

Who is the prankster around the house? 

Higgs when he and Jade live together. 

Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere?

None of them.

Who mows the lawn? 

Sam, as he’s the only one with a lawn to mow.

Who answers the telephone? 

None of them. They all have cell phones but no landline in Sam’s house or in Higgs apartment.

Who does the vacuuming? 

Jade. She doesn’t mind cleaning and if she’s feeling anxious, the house or apartment will be spotless.

Who does the groceries? 

When Jade was with Higgs, they usually did the shopping together. Sam and Jade usually trade off and occasionally shop together.

Who takes the longest to shower? 

Jade, hands down. She likes to be warm and the shower is the best place to warm up quickly.

MISCELLANEOUS

Is money a problem? 

Not really? All three of them have income and Sam asks very little of Jade when it comes to rent/bills when they’re just roommates.

How many cars do they own? 

Jade has one car, Sam has one car, and Higgs has a motorcycle.

Do they own their home or do they rent? 

Sam owns a house, Jade has an apartment before she meets Sam but rents the guest room in his house from him before they become romantically involved. Higgs rents an apartment in the city.

Do they live in the city or in the country? All three of them live in the city.

Do they enjoy their surroundings? 

What’s their song? 

What do they do when they’re away from each other? 

Where did they first meet? Jade met Sam while she was at work when he stopped in on his way to a session with Dr. Unger.

Who spends the most money when out shopping? Probably Jade. She keeps it under control pretty well, but if you let her loose anywhere that decor all bets are off.

Who’s more likely to flash their assets? None of them really.

Who finds it amusing when the other trips over themselves? Jade would be lying if she said she didn’t find it a little funny when it happens to Higgs.

Any mental issues? Not sure if this counts but all three of them have some abandonment and self-esteem issues. Sam struggles with self-worth issues, as does Jade.

Who’s terrified of bugs? Jade isn’t overly fond of bugs, but Higgs has an even stronger dislike than she does.

Who kills the spiders around the house? When she was with Higgs, Jade ended up killing the spiders (despite also being scared of them) because Higgs wouldn’t. Sam kills them for Jade when they live together or tries to take them outside.

Their favourite place? 

Higgs has many favorite places but the main two are the park he and Jade met at and the wooded camping area he stopped at with her on a ride once. Jade’s favorite places are wherever she’s most comfortable, so it’s a tie between her room once she moves into Sam’s house and the coffee shop not too far from where Higgs works.

Who pays the bills? 

Higgs pays his own bills, Jade and Sam split.

Do they have any fears for their future? 

Jade worries early into getting to know Sam (& during the new stages of their relationship when they get that far) that he’ll never be completely ready to move on from whatever it is that’s holding him back and that if they do talk about the issue that his response will be to kick her out and she’ll be left with nowhere to go.

Sam worries that he’ll lose her like he lost Lucy (& their child) and that Jade will view him in a different— negative— light when she finds out the truth of why he meets with Cliff so often. Fear that he’s not meant to have anyone in his life is also a concern and he worries that if he lets the bond with Jade grow, she’ll eventually just up and leave.

Higgs knows he’s not perfect and he’s aware he screwed up in regards to his relationship with Jade in the past. He’s thankful that they’ve managed to become friends after the fact but fears that, even though he knows she still cares for him as he does for her, that he’ll lose her to someone else.

Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner? 

Jade. She generally leaves dinner for Sam after they start living together, so when they get together officially fancy stuff becomes a thing on occasion. Sam does his best and sometimes the results are good.

Who’s the tallest? 

Regardless of the ship, both Sam and Higgs are the taller ones.

Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other?

While Sam and Jade eventually reach that point, it’s very rare for them to do so. Jade & Higgs, on the other hand, would do so frequently but usually before/after work to conserve time.

Who wanders around in their underwear?

 Higgs is the only one who could do this without care as Jade’s seen him in less and they lived together at one point. Sam will wander around in just pajama bottoms or jeans sometimes but never in his underwear. Jade crashed into Sam quite literally once wearing naught but a towel and still hasn’t quite recovered so wandering around in her underwear is something that could only potentially occur once they’ve been together for a bit.

Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio? 

Jade but only when she thinks she’s alone. At first she gets embarrassed when Sam catches her doing it, but he ends up singing along too and it kind of becomes a thing for them as well as another point tipping Sam’s feelings into the romantic side of things.

What do they tease each other about? 

Jade teases Sam a tiny bit about his inability to cook and, once certain things have ensued will tease about that if she’s feeling flirty. Higgs on the other hand, will tease about all manner of naughty things any time he feels like it but also teases Jade about Sam. The teasing about Sam has a more important role, however, that of Higgs gauging her reaction as a way to test if he has competition. Higgs is her ex-boyfriend, but he wants her back quite badly.

Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times? 

In either relationship they’re generally okay with the other’s fashion sense. The only exception is Higgs trying to get Jade to work increasingly more frilly/ruffly things into a specific section of her wardrobe which he really only does because she hates those things and he thinks the look on her face is funny every time he suggests it. (He’s always joking when he suggests it and would never want her to wear something she didn’t feel comfortable in.)

Who crushed first? 

Higgs basically saw Jade, went “she’s cute. I should say hello.”, introduced himself and was then immeadiately smitten with how flustered she got. Sam takes a bit to come around to the idea of being involved with Jade romantically, so she definitely crushed first. & Jade’s reaction to meeting Sam for the first time was very much “OH NO he’s hot”.

Any alcohol or substance related problems? 

Nope, all three drink on occasion but it’s not a constant thing and none of them do any substances.

Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am? 

Higgs. Jade very rarely drinks and the one time she does drink around Sam ends with some in vino veritas— to their combined embarrassment. Sam holds his liquor pretty well, so he’s usually more buzzed than drunk.

Who swears the most? 

Surprisingly, Jade. Drops something? Swears. Burns herself while baking? Swears. Late for work? More swearing. Honestly, Sam’s pretty sure he knows every single swear known to man simply because she does it so often.

#oc: jade morgan #verse: disconnect//reconnect #otp meme #sam porter bridges x oc #oc x higgs monaghan #death stranding oc #modern death stranding au

[doerunners]

tiger breeze :)

How I feel about this character

Okay, anyone with eyes knows I fucking adore Tiger Breeze. She is so fun and sexy and perfect and I wish she was real so I could ask her out and marry her. My soft spot for tough girls who refuse to show weakness becomes more and more apparent with each and every passing day. I think she is arguably the most underrated of the tribe leaders- personality-wise at least. We’ve already had the discussion of how she is one of the prettiest cats in Threeclans. Tiger Breeze is so fun and dynamic and I love how the tribe’s customs and lore is used so well in favor of her character. Seeing her during the spring, watching her kick ass and take names? It makes me so happy. She is so powerful and perfect. Anyways.

Tiger Breeze has gone through So Much Fucked Up Shit and taken on so many burdens that nobody else was willing to put the effort in for. She was the only spring cat to step up and take in Hollow when all was lost, when she was being torn apart by her own tribe after losing the home she’d been born and raised in. For moons and moons and moons, she was starving, being berated, blamed, betrayed. And she still held on, still nursing Hollow as they all starved, as the leaders bickered and fought over how to proceed. She lost connection to the ancestors, she lost everything. And still she remained strong. 

Two to-bes leave, the biggest “fuck you” any cat could have given their home. And she didn’t forget. And when they returned, well fed, groomed, having found some better place than the tribe, insisting they’re the tribe’s saviors? After watching her tribemates starve, watching them flea-infested, unable to move, get hit by cars and starve to death? After she’s held on so long, stayed strong, continued to fight tooth and nail to keep the cats she’s responsible alive? They’re the heroes? She puts them in their place fast. She rewards Aspen and Spark, examples of what those traitors should have been. That’ll show em.

She leads her tribe after them. They don’t get to run away and feast endlessly, leaping into the arms of these ‘Clan cats.’ No. If they’re going to live life without a care, so is the tribe. She fights, she puts herself at risk, inserting herself amongst the leaders, not asking them, Telling Them that the territory they’ve settled on is theirs now. She claims a new home for her tribe.

So she settles in. She’s done her job. Hollow is grown up, the Tribe has a home now. She’s done her job. She can relax. And then suddenly her nieces are in her lap and they’re her problem now. Great. She’s expected to be the mom of her brother’s dead boyfriend, a role she neither wanted nor asked for. Cool.

I could go on but its 12:30 and I have class tomorrow. My point is? Tiger Breeze’s whole life is practically dedicated to cleaning up the messes of everyone else and she deserves a break.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Tiger/Kink. I really shocked you with this one, huh Maya? Anyways- hear me out. I think there’s so much potential here just because they’re both so similar to one another, and yet their morals are so different. Tiger Breeze, since birth, has been raised to be a good caretaker. She’s had this stereotype to fill with being a passive, docile, loving, empathetic kit lover, never given room to grow outside that. She was raised under the expectation that she’d be cared for, she wouldn’t need to raise a paw to feed herself or protect herself. She found salvation by rebelling and makes a point of showing herself off, reminding others around her that she is not a force to be reckoned with- she’s not a doormat and any cat who thinks otherwise will have hell to pay. However, when it comes to being a spring cat, she feels awkward, out of place, like she’s not where she’s supposed to be. She’s so focused on being tough and strong that she feels out of place in a position so vulnerable as raising children- especially in the cases of Firefly and Butterfly, where the role of “mother” has been so unceremoniously forced upon her, a role she has no desire to claim. Tiger Breeze’s tough demeanor comes from being separated from motherhood. Kinktail? From birth, she’s been raised to be a fierce and loyal warrior. Her mentor was tough and demanding, and Kinktail worked hard to prove herself a loyal FogClan warrior. She had to learn everything, taking on so many different roles as FogClan warriors are expected. Where Tribe cats take on one specific role for the good of the many, FogClan cats take on all roles for the sake of self-preservation. Kinktail has been raised under the expectation she would be facing the world relatively on her own. Kinktail embraced this, loyal FogClan warrior to a T- only raising kits because it was the expectation to give back to her clan and add to its population. But, no father in the picture, the threat of traitors, FogClan changing so drastically through her pregnancy and her time as a nursery queen? Motherhood wasn’t an obligation- it quickly morphed into her identity. Her loyalty only began to shift as something more important entered her life. Kinktail’s tough demeanor was forged from motherhood. Both of them are strong, closed off mollies well regarded for their fierce, tough attitudes, but for entirely different reasons. As a result, I think them merging, Kinktail teaching Tiger Breeze to embrace motherhood without compromising her strength and Tiger Breeze teaching Kinktail to be less unhealthily reliant on motherhood, teaching her to move on from the dark parts of motherhood that haunt Kinktail? I think there’s SO much room for growth and depth there.Tiger/Feather. Okay. If Sketch somehow manages to steal Tiger Breeze from my grubby little fingers, I think there’s potential for a fun opposites-attract type thing with these two. Feather is the embodiment of friendliness and kindness, Tiger Breeze is the embodiment of “lmao why the Fuck are you looking at me” and seeing those two personalities merge together would be hilarious

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Ok these are gonna be shorter bc I’m starting to lose steam here.

Tiger&Butterfly and Tiger&Firefly. Ugh. The complex relationship these three have? SO fun and interesting and cool to watch. I hope that someday, as Firefly and Butterfly get older, sentient enough to realize how fucked up the situation they, Tiger, and Fading all had? They gain a close relationship with her where Tiger has a soft spot for them, protects them and spoils them ever so slightly, and Firefly and Butterfly can count on their aunt Tiger Breeze to be there for advice, to yell at people who fuck with them, so on and so forth. I really wanna see how they turn out once they’re teens/adults, and Tiger gets a little more separation from responsibility over them.

Fading&Tiger. Everyone knows what a soft spot I have for sibling relationships, especially ones as complex as this. I hope that, someday, when Fading gets to overcome the trauma he went through and gets a little more aware of how fucked that situation was/is, they can someday have a heart to heart and find some sort of middle ground/some respect for one another, even if it’s from a distance. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Tiger Breeze isn’t as bad a caretaker as everyone says she is. There, I said it. Is she a perfect caretaker? Would she be on the cover of “World’s Best Moms” magazine? Absolutely not. But I also firmly believe that Tiger Breeze does what she believes is right by those in her care, and even if sometimes her view of what’s right for them is a little bit skewed, I think she does care about those she looks after and does what she thinks they’ll need to grow up strong. She’s just a bit of a believer in tough love. 

One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in canon.

I wish Tiger Breeze would fall in love. I’ll be the first person to admit a romantic interest a. should not be necessary for a cat’s storyline, b. should not be used as a means of “fixing” or “changing a cat (especially “for the better”) but I think Tiger Breeze, in particular, would be a really fun cat to see slip up with her feelings. So much of Tiger Breeze’s character is formed around the fact that she’s independent, she’s a bad bitch, she always knows what’s best, she’s being held back by the other cats around her, so on and so forth. Constantly, to her, she’s being forced to fall to a lesser standard because other cats won’t stop latching onto her when all she wants is to be alone. And it’s for that reason I’d love to see her finally deal with her, herself, holding her back because she feels herself starting to get attached to another cat. I want to see her lose her train of thought because she saw her crush out of the corner of her eye, I want to see her up giving the gathering announcements and pause just for a split second because she saw the cat’s eyes staring up at her, their attention fully on her. I want to see her lash out and tase this cat as some half-hearted way to distance herself from them- all because she blames them for how her mind has slowly been being taken over by thoughts of them. Maybe I’m just a stupid fucking romantic but there’s nothing that I love more than seeing strong cats fall victim to their own feelings.

#tiger breeze #im so tired so please excuse this making no sense #Anonymous

[purplepersnicketywrites]

To be obvious- bnha for the ask meme

:P

Favorite character: Kirishima Eijirou!!

Least Favorite character: Currently feeling the ‘punch Endeavor’ vibe from seeing his face so much.

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): krbk,, tsumina, kamijirou, deku x not breaking his bones, recently aizawa/shirakumo but that makes me sad

Character I find most attractive: Ryukyu,, Miruko,, Hawks,,, they’re all pretty,,,

Character I would marry: see the three above

Character I would be best friends with: and again, as above! i also think i’d love to chill with Koichi from Vigilantes

a random thought: why’s it so HARD to splice so many of my fave stories into aus for krbk??? hdm daemon aus are pretty much the only viable ones ughghghghghghghghghgh. having said that i’m now having an OH?? OhH?? moment

An unpopular opinion: everyone needs to start spelling it Ground Xero & that’s just Facts

My Canon OTP: literally the only couples that are actually canon i can think of are the baku-parents and the jirou-parents hfdsdfhjhfds

My Non-canon OTP: krbk.....

Most Badass Character: i can’t not say Bakugou Katsuki

Most Epic Villain: Shiguraki seems to be heading that way rn

Pairing I am not a fan of: krbk being split into Other Ships or even ot3′d with anyone else really, also mina x boys,,, (i say, lightly shipping kiribakumina on a very distant backburner)

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): the characters have been very consistent throughout the whole thing tbh so uhh, i’m gonna say,, Magne should have lived. also Nighteye. alsO LOUD CLOUD

Favourite Friendship: krbk

Character I most identify with: at this EXACT moment it’s that guy from the zombie ova just as he uses his quirk on himself ‘cause my brain is Dead

Character I wish I could be: Ryukyu,, draGON LADY DRAGON LADY DRA-

#reply #momotonescreaming #ask meme

[writing-and-guacamole]

OTP AU Ideas:

1.~The ice cream truck is giving away free samples to couples; I’m dead broke and single, but you’re just standing there, so, “yes sir, this is my boyfriend of five years; I’ll take the chocolate waffle cone” and “stop asking questions, do you want ice cream or not?”

~

2.~I got caught robbing McDonald’s on a dare (honestly, it was three quarters and a milkshake, are the handcuffs really necessary, officer?) and now I’m stuck in the back of a police cruiser. The officer picks you up on the way to the station, and you slide in with a smirk and a Wendy’s frosty and say, “You too, huh?”

~

3.~You’re a street musician and rolling in cash; I forgot my wallet and need money for the bus, so hey, can I join you? Wait...are you saying my plastic kazoo isn’t a musical instrument? You wanna bet, bitch?

~

4.~I snuck a pint of frozen yogurt into lecture-hall, and you’re sitting next to me, silently judging, and I’m this close to shoving my spoon up your nostril if you give me one more superior look, so why don’t you go jump in a—wait, you have ice cream? Hurry up and split with me, no stop being stingy and crap, now you’re covered in ice cream and everyone’s staring.

~

5.~I’m painting my nails in lecture-hall, and some asshole is teasing me about it being useless and girly, and I’m seriously about to cry, but then you’re switching seats and asking if I’ll paint your nails bright pink.

~

(Bonus: you’re the football quarterback, and the rest of your team is lined up at lunch, asking for purple and pink nails, and you’re smirking at me across the cafeteria, and god I think I love you.)

~

6.~ I accidentally wore a glow-in-the-dark shirt to lecture-hall, and the professor turned off the lights for the projector, and hey, you’re glowing too! What do you mean I can’t sit next to you? I have glow sticks and we can make friendship bracelets….of course I carry glow sticks around with me. Doesn’t everyone?

~

7.~ My regular hairdresser is out, so you’ve been assigned to me, and hey, you’re actually really cute, can I have your—WAIT I SAID CUT OFF TWO INCHES NOT TEN!   

~

8.~ I go jogging every morning and you’re the asshole who tapes motivational messages on my route, like, Stop running and have a donut at the bakery! and That candy shop sure smells better than running shoes, right? Eventually I get fed up and storm into the coffee shop you work at (A coffee a day keeps exercise away), ready to give you a piece of my mind, and wait…all this time, you were asking me on a date? How the hell does a slogan count as a dating invitation?   

~

9.~Despite wikipedia being banned as a resource for our essay, everyone is using it anyway; and being the asshole I am, I edit the website to state incorrect facts. The next day, you and I are the only ones who don’t have Audrey Hepburn listed as Shakespeare’s third wife, and you’re giving me a knowing look and raising your hand and crap no don’t tell the professor I need this scholarship.

#writing #writing prompts #writing inspiration #otp prompts #imagine your otp #otp #otp au #prompts #fanfic ideas #fanfiction ideas #au ideas #writeblr #percabeth #drarry #dramione #fanfiction #fanfic #solangelo #wolfstar #stucky

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

Blameless? Shameless? More like Shiftless: Wrap-up

I grumbled and fumbled through the first book in the series Soulless or Brainless. I fumed and gloomed through the second book Changeless or Gormless.

Now we’re onto the last book of the (initial) trilogy Blameless or...how I originally wanted to riff it...

But, I do not have riffs for you for this book.  Why?  I thought this series would end because I would run out of energy for it.  That’s not what happened...the true reason, is that this book is BY FAR the best out of the three, and that because of that most of my riffs aren’t very funny.  Despite that, I would not classify this book as GOOD by my standards. I think it’s barely mediocre and fixed a lot of problems the other books had.  So I feel as if I have to concede a bit here.

Instead of riffs, you’ll be getting a summary and my review so I feel as if I can tie this off with a nice little bow.

Summary:

Obvious spoilers ahead.

The world is steampunk supernatural Victorian England.  Vampires and Werewolves are real things, and there are also soulless.  Soulless are another set of supernaturals that can negate the powers of vampires and werewolves with touch.  Alexia is a soulless, and is married to an important werewolf Maccon.  Alexia becomes pregnant by Maccon, however werewolves are not supposed to be able to have children.  So Maccon is convinced she cheated and abandons her.

Alexia goes back to live with her family.  She discovers her one vampire friend has split town without warning, and that every other vampire is out to kill her for this pregnancy.  However she wants to prove that the child is Maccon, so she decides to go to Italy with her friends.  Italy is a country that’s run by religious zealots out to murder every single supernatural person and DESPITE THE OBVIOUS benefits a soulless could provide that organization they treat soulless people shitty too.  However, they suspect that with all the research they’ve done, they will have some information which can prove Alexia right. So Alexia travels to Italy with her dead dad’s stoic bodyguard Floote, and with a woman who has a crush on her named LeFoux.

Meanwhile her husband Maccon is being shitfaced and angsting a bunch about this.  His 2nd in command Lyall is taking care of all his duties.  Eventually Maccon sobers up and publishes a public apology for Alexia and claims that the baby is in fact his.  Also on this end it is discovered that Alexia’s vampire friend Akeldama had his boyfriend kidnapped.  So Maccon and Lyall manage to rescue the boyfriend, murdering the head vampire and being forced to change the boyfriend into a werewolf to save his life.

On the trip to Italy they battle a bunch of vampires and meet some allies.  When they get to Italy they’re captured by the religious Zealots known as the Templars.  When the Templars find out she’s with child they lock her in the dungeon.  However with the help of her friends and Maccon they rescue her.  Maccon and Alexia make up and happy end.

My review:

The story in itself…is simply not good.  I could list you plot holes by the dozen by neither of us has the patience for that I’m sure.  I think the sticking point for me is that their whole mission feels pretty pointless. They go through all this hassle getting to Italy (which honestly seemed like a super bad idea) while also being attacked by vampires the entire time and for what?  To find out that yes she could get pregnant from a werewolf?

….Don’t we already know that since she’s uhh pregnant from a werewolf?

The lore of this book is super bad.  All the major plot points hinge on nobody understanding anything about a rare but super fascinating and important race of people.  It feels as if the author doesn’t really care about her own lore, and makes everybody in her fictional world the same. Also it’s kinda hard for me to believe, that even if female soulless are super rare that literally in this world’s whole history a female soulless has become pregnant by a supernatural person twice.  TWICE! IN IT’S ENTIRE HISTORY! SEEMS LEGIT!

But there is a reason this is the best out of the three I swear!

I think the story starts off really strong with believable and easy-to-understand exposition that draws you in.  I legit read the first chapter of this book and was like, “WHAT THE FUCK, WE’RE A GOOD SERIES NOW!?!??!”

I think a large part of what makes it better for me is that they finally treat this series like an action/adventure.  There are lot of vampire battles, fighting weird technology, and dramatic escapes using wild steampunk vehicles.  We also have Maccon fighting werewolves and vampires, and dramatically saving a person from a glass bubble from the bottom of a river.

The steampunk technology used here is just straight up really lame and forced but I think that’s easily forgiven in a silly action adventure novel.

I think the POINT of books of this nature. Is the fun action!  We also pace this all together well.  We have suspense, breaks from the action, and it’s not all the same pow pow fight scene by a long shot.  I will say there isn’t a lot of suspense that she won’t be able to make it out alive. Nobody dies or even sustains any kind of serious injury.  The protagonists seem to fight as if they’re invincible, but oddly enough LeFoux spends a lot of the later scenes almost instantly getting knocked unconscious. Which I suppose is fine to up the ante of the tension but she’s the only one who gets that treatment and she gets it a lot…which is kind weird.  

Speaking of LeFoux, I was really bummed about her and Alexia’s relationship in this book.  One of the few enjoyable things about the last book was the lesbian flirting and the unresolved sexual tension between LeFoux and Alexia.  Sure Alexia didn’t know lesbians were a THING but it was quite clear that Alexia was attracted to LeFoux.  In this book LeFoux continues to flirt with Alexia but Alexia treats it like a droll annoyance.  Quite frankly it doesn’t make any sense if you’ve read the last book.  Alexia is at her lowest point in her relationship to her shitty husband, there is mutual attraction, LeFoux treats her nicely and is very willing, they’re off on an exciting and at points romantic tour of France, Alexia is on the cusp of a huge life change without her family or her husband’s support, and LeFoux is raising a child too.  I get that Maccon/Alexia has got to be OTP and that you don’t want her to look like she would actually cheat since, cause she’s gotta be morally better than the negative reputation she’s getting in the press. Yet at no point is a relationship with LeFoux treated as even a temptation for her. There isn’t even like a sub plot where Alexia worries about hurting LeFoux’s feelings or clearly explains that they can’t be together.  LeFoux has no reaction when Alexia reconciles with her husband.  It’s not treated as fucking anything more than comedic swatting down of lesbian advances.  So honestly? That kinda made me angry.  Now Alexia did sexually assault LeFoux last book and totally doesn’t deserve her but to treat her now as they wacky queer who hits on your Mary-Sue so you remember your Mary-Sue is hot is utterly aggravating. 

The story still has the major problem of being such a no bummers train that she won’t dare give LeFoux and Alexia a messy relationship.  It could have been so much more compelling ugh!  A part of me wonders if the author originally intended for the two to get together this novel since there was all that previous build up and the set up here makes it ideal.  Yet an editor said BIG NO to it, because apparently a hero cheating in a book is considered one of the most toxic of novel poisons.  OH WELL!

But a female/female relationship that is way better in this book?  That would be the friendship between Ivy and Alexia.   In the last book, Ivy was the stupid comic relief with romantic troubles.  Alexia spent the last book just being a condescending asshole to her.  Ivy never treated Alexia’s bullshit romantic troubles with anything other than support and respect but did not get the same in return.  They did not seem like friends.  Ivy was there to make Alexia look better and for a cheap laugh at Ivy’s expense even though she does nothing wrong. That was garbage.  In this book however Ivy trusts Alexia that she didn’t cheat, gives her all her love and support, gives her tea for her trip, and competently runs LeFoux’s hat shop while they’re both away.  In exchange Alexia appreciates what Ivy is doing and treats her like a smart person capable of doing difficult tasks.

I said it before and I’ll say it again.  Ivy is MVP of this series and you CAN’T CHANGE MY MIND!

But while we’re talking about relationships the crux of this series is Alexia and Maccon. I wonder if this is my favorite book of the series because they barely interact in person. The one time at the end where they reconcile was unbearable. Basically the just barely escape the dungeon and the entire crew is standing just outside it.  Alexia goes on a tirade about how much she hates Maccon but she’s very obviously pretending to be mad at him, and it’s the most pathetic scene in the series.  It was rushed and painfully awkward.  We just immediately forget about any possible danger and the other people there so Alexia can pointlessly pout while we all pretend its agency. (It’s not.) We also than very quickly transition them to a RANDOM barn so they can have sex, which is fade to black anyway.

I can’t help but view their reconciliation as a desperate woman who’s been through a lot, wants so badly for things to be less chaotic and familiar again that she capitulates to a shit boy garbage man.  She has many, many, many reasons to be properly mad at him. She is shunned by her family, loses her job, becomes a social outcast who can’t walk down the street without being harassed, and is the target of open and constant vampire hostility.  But he publishes a public apology and now they’re even.  The public apology is talked about as ~humiliating~ but he loses nothing for it. The series tries to sell us that they’re equals in this relationship cause they sass each other.  They are not equals in this relationship.  The series never seems to acknowledge that Alexia does like 90% of the work and gets way more shit than Maccon could ever dream of. Not that the series has to have a political message, it just seems so doped up by our shit heterosexual culture that it has no self-awareness.  I dislike Alexia for being a bad person, but Maccon is a worse person who doesn’t do anything good and lives a charmed life while his wife suffers quicker and more severely.  And what do we get out of it?  Dialog that can be boiled down to…

“Let’s have sex”

“No you’re a gross terrible very bad man!”

“Oh okay, I’ll go over here to contribute nothing and whine a lot.”

“I MEAN MAYBE IT WON’T BE SO BAD TO HAVE SEX WITH YOU???????????”

“…Is that a yes?”

“YOU VERY BAD MAN WHO IS GROSS AND TERRIBLE! I WILL NEVER HAVE SEX WITH YOU.............................................................

.............................................................….unless?”

I hate it very much.

So let’s talk other characters:

Floote is boring and pointless.

Tunstell shows up briefly to be comedic relief and really bad comedic relief at that.  He shows up in LeFoux’s lab and opens with him being very afraid of her wacky technology but then immediately starts sticking his fingers in dangerous stuff. Way to contradict your character in under a paragraph.

The way Channing was established last book, while making him look like a shitbird, gave him personality. In this book he’s there as a protective prop to make Maccon look marginally better. None of his personality comes out at all, and despite the last book showing him as a romantic rival there is 0 of that in this book.  I don’t think he has more than 3 lines of dialog.

LeFoux’s one friend was also pointless and personality-less to the point I can’t even be bother to look up his name.  He existed so they could dramatically borrow his flying contraption.

The villains of this series are two-fold:

We have the Templars who are religious zealots who want to kill all supernaturals and are disgusted by Alexia’s kind despite how useful she could be.  They were not good villains because they are utterly pathetic. They let Alexia and her friends have the run of the place.  While they can go outside the compound, once captured, they’re followed to make sure they return.  However, the author did not do an adequate job making that atmosphere…even stressful. The pack of them should be frightened by this.  They should be treading on eggshells because one wrong move and it’s an inquisition for them!  …No they zip around enjoying pesto and don’t seem to have a care in the world.

Even when the fight is brought to them?  They spend their whole lives training to kill supernaturals but when they get a chance to do so to protect Alexia they’re not very good at it.  3 podunk humans managed to evade capture by the entire vampire community as they trotted through Europe but zealots trained from birth to stake vampires fall left and right when they’re attacked by them?

OH YEAH, REALLY FEELING LIKE THEY’RE A LEGIT THREAT! THANKS FOR THAT!

Oh but don’t worry we have another villain to help balance things out!

We have Langs-Dorf or whatever the fuck his name is.  He is a heartless dude who researches soulless.  He basically wants to use her for experiments so he later teams up with the Templars and spills the beans that’s she’s preggorz.  

He, like the Templars, are flaccid shit tier babies.  He’s the archetypal sniveling scientist, who can’t even outwit them.  He honestly doesn’t even really get much screen-time. I am not exaggerating when I say they dedicate more time to describing what his irritating dog gets up to than what he does.  They did that for comedic purposes, sure okay whatever.  But it’s not funny and the ankle attacking just highlights how harmless he is as well.

So Alexia’s pregnancy?  

I mean, they do try to give her a character arc on how she feels about carrying a child.  It starts with her calling it an inconvenience and just assuming she’ll miscarry eventually.  Yet later is like, “Well I guess it’s okay if it lives.”  I’m glad they tried but they didn’t do a good job. Little time is dedicated to her personal feelings on the matter and her steps in pregnancy acceptance feel disjointed. It felt very much like,

Chapter 1:

This sucks.

Chapter 10:

Well I’m not morning sick today.

Chatper 20: I guess it’s okay.

I get we can’t talk about her wanting an abortion cause EVERYTHING IS GOOD TIMES but this no-bummers train cruising straight into never-frown-town we’re on here really stamps down her ability to have a MEANINGFUL arc not just on her role of her impending motherhood but like recognizing it’s going to be whole different human being.  ISN’T HER PREGNANCY SUPPOSED TO BE THE CORNERSTONE OF THIS WHOLE BOOK?!  Like at least 50 shades had Ana recognize her pregnancy as ANOTHER POTENTIAL PERSON and that she wanted to protect it even after her shitty husband lost his mind over it.

But I mean…for Alexia it’s at least in character cause she doesn’t give a shit about anything besides herself.  Alexia has not won me over as a relatable protagonist I want to root for.  She’s self-obsessed, and dumb.  Yet the whole world clamors about how great she is. She never has consequences tied to her negative choices or personality traits. She never gets in trouble for going into dangerous situations without planning.  Nor does she get in trouble for her lack of empathy, or belligerence. What she does get in trouble for is being born a soulless woman.  It feeds her smug martyr complex and overall is pretty fucking annoying.

TL;DR

Plot and characters? Bad

But this time the story has action, suspense, good pacing, and Ivy never did anything wrong. Good!

#soulless #changless #blameless #shameless #riffs #review

[fyrapartnersearch]

Send Help: Addicted to Roleplay and Chipotle

Greetings from Earth! First time poster to this blog and stoked to meet some new partners. My name is Chris and I'm a male nurse (Yo, you're going to get some medically accurate roleplay) in his late twenties. I have a lovely wife and two stupidly handsome animals (Pictures of the animals available on request) but manage to maintain a pretty active roleplay life due to the fact that I work nights. The Basics: I tell everyone that I'm a professional. I try to reply 1-3 times a week and the length of posts depends on amount of characters in play. If I'm going to take longer, I always try to let you know. I'm willing to write male and female characters and focus on M/F as the male and F/F. M/M just isn't my thing, sorry y'all. My limits include pedophilia, rape, and animal abuse. Anything else can be discussed. I prefer e-mail for writing ([email protected]) but have Discord for plotting (NurseBatman#3674). If we get along really well, you can convince me into discord roleplay. The text limit just drives me nuts. I do use faceclaims pretty aggressively. Is there anything else? Central time zone?

Onto the roleplay stuff. I'll start with originals and then dive into fandoms. I put extra *s by the lines that I will literally lose my mind if you approach me about. Searching hard! -The Social Media Age****** A m/f line that I've given a little thought to, looking for someone to write a young woman that is pretty much making her living being an instagram model/fitness person, etc. I think the proper term is *Influencer*. Meets and starts dating a successful guy with no presence online, the two falling for each other but at odds over their differing attitudes towards the world. -This American Life Something set in the 1970s, focusing on a roadtrip. A group of teenagers leave their small town behind to head out west. I love this time period. Can be supernatural, supernatural lite (think Twin Peaks weirdness) or totally natural. -Stranger Things inspired A group of four to six friends enjoy their last summer together in a remote town as strangeness begins to unfurl. I'd be willing to set this in the present but think it would be way more fun in the 70s or 80s. I have an idea for one of the kids having lost a sibling in a strange way when they were young and possibly some sort of cult in town.

Fandoms!

-Star Wars**

I know Reylo is all the rage these days, as is Qi'Ra/Han. But, man ALIVE, I really want something focusing on the core four: Luke, Leia, Han, and, ya boy, Chewie. Something taking place in that three year gap between New Hope and Empire as they work among the rebellion. Strange new worlds, getting into scrapes, sharply running from the empire, avoiding Vader, bounty hunters, and all sorts of things. This time period is far from explored and we can really thrive in the galaxy. Primarily I want to focus on the budding relationship between Han and Leia and Luke's training, pre-Yoda. In a perfect world, I'd want to write Han and Chewie (If anyone thinks Chewie is just a NPC, get out my face) while my partner takes on Leia and Luke. I'd be willing to switch out Chewie for Luke if need be, I guess? We could also split up C3PO and R2. I also would enjoy writing a young Amilyn Holdo and a few other soldiers. Let's real build out the resistance and delve into the 'WARS' part of those big yellow letters that never get enough attention. On top of all of that, I also have an original love interest in mind for Luke if someone else plays him! She's a spitfire. Alternatively, I'd be down for writing something set in the clone wars. Perhaps two jedi that broke the order's relationship laws and then survived Order 66 together? -Preacher Seriously. Love this show, love this comic. Would happily write Jesse or Cassidy against Tulip. Just definitely looking for a Tulip -The Boys Would love to write Hughie against Starlight! Currently working my way through the season that just dropped. -Marvel -I will love you forever if you write an Elektra against my Daredevil. They are toxic and in love and I love it. Whether it be the comics or the Netflix series, I don't care. Someone please write me an Elektra. Netflix did a good job of portraying this one -Alternatively, I'd also be happy to write against a Black Widow, either with Daredevil. They were a mainstay OTP in the comics in the 90s and I'd love to write against Scarlet's Black Widow. -Has anyone seen the trailer for the neverendingly delayed New Mutants movie? I would love to write something based on that horror aspect of the mutant universe.* -I'd love to write an older MCU Peter Parker (like college) running across a MCU version of Black Cat. Or just a Spiderman roleplay in general. I've always wanted to write Peter but have never gotten the chance! I have a ton of ideas for this, plus faceclaims for a few of the villains. Would also be willing to play him against Zendaya's MJ, Spidergwen, or Silk (Deepcut)**************************** (I so badly want to write Peter) -One of the pairings that was done for a time in the comics was Star Lord against Kitty Pryde and it was actually a lot of fun. If anyone would want to do a MCU version of this, I would so *DOWN* to play Quill, Xmen hijinks a plenty in space -If you write Jessica Jones, I'd be willing to write almost anyone against her (NOT KILGRAVE). Just let me know. I'd be super down to write Luke Cage or maybe Matt Murdock. I do a mean John Constantine, which, let's face it, is a cross company illustration of the two most terrible people together -Hawkguys! I would love to either write Clint against Kate Bishop (This would be a slightly skewed MCU vibe) or Kate against America Chavez. I would really love to do either of these lines. Or a poly version if someone is willing! -I'd love to write Logan as an active member of the MCU Avengers, possibly as a partner in crime/wetworks/murder with Black Widow. Those two could cause some mayhem. -Honestly, any X-men relationship could be sold to me. Just try it. I would love to find a Kitty for Piotr, a Rogue for Remy, or almost anyone for Kurt.

-DC I'd love to write Batman against Catwoman, please. Or John Constantine against literally almost anyone -Hannibal I've been dying to do a sort of season 4 for a while now, focused on Clarice Starlings interaction with Will Graham and later Hannibal Lecter. Just need to find someone willing to create an original style Clarice. -Resident Evil I'd like to write Leon against Claire Redfield or Jill Valentine in an original outbreak or a new one. I know this is an old school fandom but I'm a diehard fan. -Star Trek Okay, so first up, I am not the most well versed Trekkie in the world. Never watched any of the TV shows but am a massive fan of the trio of rebooted films and would love to give Kirk or Bones a try against Uhura, Dr. Eve, or maybe a female Vulcan OC? Hit me with ideas! -The Matrix Another obscure fandom. Maybe just an original crew, set during the movies, after, or an AU where they're the only survivors of Zion? Im not sure but I could plot something out!

-Uncharted I'd love to write Chloe Frazier against Nadine Ross, continuing their adventures. I'm pretty wide open on what we can do with this one. RANDOM CRACK SHIPS! Caught in a Web: I would love to write an iteration (Daniel Craig or an original) of James Bond/007 against a non superhero version of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. Spy vs spy shenanigans as two people working for different governments. Totally impossibly but putting it just in case: Did anyone see all that Wonder Woman/Lara Croft art that was floating around the internet earlier this year? I would love to dive into that. I'd prefer to write Lara but I'm definitely not picky. If you made it this far, you're a hero and I owe you a beer. Hope to hear from some great writers! Let's create something *EPIC*

#oc rp #multiple paragraph #long term #email #marvel rp #avengers rp #mcu rp #dc rp #submission

[bengalisasuke]

Hinata for the character thing!

ooooh man. here comes izzy’s inner misogynist about to jump out. 

How I feel about this character:

for the sake of this question, we’re going to go ahead and split hinata into three distinct characters because my feelings on her are so complicated i feel like i might be here for a while if we have to talk about her as one complete being but here we go. 

part 1 hinata was EASILY my fav i mean like who couldn’t relate to her shy girls #represent and her refusal to give up in the face of her clearly more talented cousin was inspiring! she was strong and brave and i loved that and the fact that she was one of the first characters to like...find strength in naruto’s words? iconic i really loved that little girl sm 

part 2...i dunno i dont think she was that relevant i liked the pain fight and how she stood up but ahwiujnsdlkwe if you want me to be honest? i...i didn’t like it that much because i remember my stomach literally dropping when i was watching it because i used to be a naruhina shipper but like. not like this! not like this! god not to sound like a hypocrite but we all say that naruto’s devotion to sasuke is unhealthy but also like...in an extent its kind of worse with hinata because from a narrative point of view she exists as nothing but naruto’s like. for his constant affirmation and adoration and love and love and she loses any semblance of personality after that she’s still the same blushing girl in shippuden despite her not having seen naruto for two and a half years and it was just...painful to see a young girl (who could have had the potential to still be strong!!!) be reduced to like. a blushing fainting and stammering mess when naruto so much as looked at her outside of combat situations ITS JUST. AGONIZING. like i dont care that she had a crush on naruto but to make it her ONLY defining trait when shes around the motherfucker gets on my nerves and i want to grab kishimoto by the balls and tell him that GIRLS ARENT LIKE THAT YOU STUPID BASTARD

the last and boruto and blank period: i hate i hate i haaaate what they did to her i hate the fucking titty belt i hate that she became a housewife i hate that whatever she had going for her was gone forever and ever i cant even be happy for her because she doesn’t have anything going for her like SHE GOT PREGNANT AT 20? 19? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

sakura....but honestly kibahina should have been endgame i know that kiba had a crush on hinata i KNOW HE DID AND HE WAS SO NICE TO HER AND EVERYTHING and like...naruto...sorry man but naruto is just so ignorant of her i cant help but think she definitely deserves better like hinata is always so conscious of naruto’s needs but rarely the other way around i wanna like. DIE i hate that she’s become the perfect waifu so people can self-insert w naruto like. kibahina rights NOW

My non-romantic OTP for this character: 

naruhina i feel they’d be good friends tbh AND sakuhina...scream naruto and sakura egging hinata on to ask kiba out would be so cute 

My unpopular opinion about this character:

i think she can be very cruel sometimes like...to neji? like everything she said to him? screams. i wish we got to see more of that side of her instead of the rest of the series just softening her and like already warping her into this absolute caricature of a woman like. shoutout to girls who reclaim her but i absolutely cannot do it im sorry couldn’t be me 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

literally end the fucking branch system like what’s going on what’s happening can we please get some common scents can we please get some plot development please she’s the love interest of the main guy youre gonna tell me she’s going to sit around and knit scarves and NOT DO ANYTHING? HELLO? 

#narutostherapist