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yjwhatif · 2 years

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YJ EPISODE 23 SPOILER NOTES… only three episodes left 😣

First off I would like to start proceedings with the following statement… ED IS NOT IN THIS EPISODE AND THAT IS A CRIME!… okay move on to what was actually in the episode…

Its that lizard kid from Cuba

Oh no Wilhelms leading the mob

Brion returns with a new suit and team... including Papa Smurf - thats Now two Metas who were at Taos last season (and yet there's no Ed in this episode)

So Wilhelm's a Meta? Or is it Everyman has been pretending to be Wilhelm?

New look for violet - looking lovely in pink

Violet can now levitate other things - Could they be one of the most powerful character in the series?

That is exactly how one should go up the stairs when in the presence of a friend who can levitate stuff

I very much prefer this Harper - it just shows how capable a person is to change when given the love and support they deserve from a stable home environment. She genuinely seems happy.

Wait, Harper was actually dating someone? I figured she was just lying about that... Y 'know what, the less we discuss that event the better

Yay for Harper actually communicating her feelings whilst also not pushing for Violet to immediately reciprocate (It kinda reminds me of Imogen in Heartstopper)

The confess feelings and run away move

Ooh that eyebrow raise at the mention of M’gann - I really think she's the only one capable of bringing Conner back from this

That is serious commitment to your cause - sticking your hard straight into boiling lava!

“I've pledged my loyalty to Zod” - Oh no - that's not good.

“you mean, you'll do them like you did your uncle" - Brions reaction to this is so interesting - he doesn't show anger or disrespect - he's taken aback in a way that almost shows hurt or regret at now being known for such a thing

Love seeing Fury noticing something isn't right with Baazovi

TAOS mention! (yet no Ed in the episode!)

This episode's really gonna go and convince me that I was wrong for hating on Brion, isn't it? Baazovi is really swaying peoples opinions - Brion is showing genuinely reasonable thinking and clearly wants the best for his people and Metas -but he's never going to achieve those desire while he remains under the thumb of Baazovi and the light.

WE RETURN TO TAOS! (And yet we still have No Ed in this episode!)

Group therapy session with Dinah - bring it on. I've said this before but I do like how much we’re actually seeing of the mental health check in sessions and now in more forms than just one on one. The fact that everyone is so open with each other here emphasises how these sessions must have been going on for a while in the background for everyone to be so comfortable with each other.

So we have 3 outsiders, 2 Team-ers, 1 Leaguer, and Gar - I like that there's a range of people at the session

Vic & Violet’s friendship is great - I kinda always forget that its a thing and then they have moments that remind me - and then I'm like - oh ye, Violet literally saved his life so many times and that meant a lot to him.

I just had to look this up - but I did not realise Lia was supposed to be Scottish!

"Gee, I wonder who that could be?” I love this more chilled out Tara - She's fun.

"Who we talking about?"" You don't have to give us a name" - Dinah trying to reign in the teens

Dinah truly is awesome!

GET JACE OFF MY SCREEN RIGHT NOW! I HATE HER AND EVERY WORD THAT ESCAPES HER MOUTH! She is Umbridge level evil!

Stop brainwashing the kid! And get him away from Jace!

"I do not like the look of this" - there may be hope for Brion - If we can just get him away from Baazovi - hopefully Fury can help with that

"Please, say nothing!"… *Conner immediately snitches* — Well, I guess now we know why Dick never told Conner any of the secret plans

Markovia really is a mess - that poor minister guy

Callback to the start of Z's arc

Poor Dick - he's losing everything

Wingman is freaking adorable!

Dinah's face at the idea of Gar doing his business outside as a dog

Oh Leslie seriously has the feels for Andi - are we gonna final get some confirmation on these two?

Gars making some serious improvements and we love him for it! He's doing the time and committing to the work

“I know I'm not ready for the outsiders right now” - It'll be interesting to see how the Bart and Conner situations may/may not effect that decision.

"She can get us out!?" - They just got very intense very quickly

"She won’t take you…She hates you - called you a tyrant" - The betrayal on Phantom Girls face! Conner stop talking!

First time seeing how the Zods respond to someone who opposes them

"You will kneel before Zod"

Phantom Girl crying as she leaves Conner behind - and when you consider the commitment she made to save him from the explosion in the first place - putting her hand in literal lava - you can really feel for her now

That scream of pain

That shot of Brion alone in his throne in complete silence really highlights how isolated he's become by following this path

The genuine look of happiness Brion has at seeing Violet - I'm really feeling for Brion in a way I did not expect!

Halo's got a costume redesign and I love the new style - the only thing I don't really like is the purple that's still on the hood - it just doesn't go with the red, Yellow and blue that's now on the body. I don't think it would bother me as much if there was some other purple bits else where - like on the hand and feet bits that are now red, or even a slight purple outline at either side of the rainbow. Other than that I really like it - it really shows that they are taking control of all aspects of their life - which is great!

“I missed you!”

I like this conversation that they having

PISS OFF BAAZOVI!

You tell him Vi!

"I have continued my journey but you are still stuck where I left you a year ago!" → Which highlights an interesting parallel between the scenes at Taos and those in Markovia - Dinah stressed the fact that everyone there was in complete control of the experience they had there - no one was being told what to do or how to do it - they guide each other but ultimately make their own choice on how to progress. As we see from both gar and violet, this makes for a really positive experience which helps a person change for a better. Where as with Brion, he's surrounded by those who are manipulating him, making his choices and tricking him into believing they are his own - he's stuck in the same state he was in a year ago because he has no control in his own kingdom or in being his own person - he's basically a puppet tied in place with no way to brake free. The can't progress because he isn't allowed to - and so he'll remain stuck until he finds a way to gain some control back in his life... though I doubt that's gonna happen any time soon.

SHUT UP BAAZOVI!

You tell him Brion!

Fury + Brion confiding in each other... though I just had a horrible feeling of what if one of them isn't who they appear to be?!

Violets finally moving on

"TA-DAH!" hey that's Bart’s thing!

Why is the image of a gremlin hugging a packet of Chicken Whizees so adorable?

"Hope you enjoy them!" Grumpy Grayson

"I hate keeping secrets" No you don't! I appreciate that Kaldur gives him the side eye at that - there is absolutely no one who believes you Dick

I do get why they're not involving M’gann - though I do think she's the only one who will be able to actually save Conners mind

"Feeding you my power" - again calling back to Zs arc

"Next Stop, the Phantom Zone"

The Hall of Justice is finally getting rebuilt?!… I wonder how long it’s gonna take for that to get blown again… maybe keep the youngsters away from it this time?

I love all the little cheers of Celebration - "Neptunes Beard!"

So while there was no Ed content ☹️ or anymore Bart development - which I had a feeling might happen - this was still a seriously enjoyable episode and it really had a season 1 vibe about it - at least to me it did anyway. I did not expect what we got with Brion but I did actually like seeing it and realising he’s maybe not the evil villain I was expecting him to be. It’s actually kinda sad how controlled he is. In contrast, it makes me really happy to see how much Violet has grown whilst on their journey of self discovery and seeing how much control and confidence they now have is a really uplifting sight to see. Bring on the next episode!

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buytheticket · 2 years

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here are the steps i’ve taken so far to get a metoidioplatsy:

1. make the decision that i want bottom surgery i’ve thought about bottom surgery for awhile but never seriously considered it until last year. i never had very strong bottom dysphoria or discomfort with my current genitalia, especially after starting t. i also didn’t realize that i can really specify what i want: i think i had the assumption that you needed the full monty, sack to head.

i also had to like get over my own prejudices with bottom surgery and change the way i think about it. for me, it was helpful to think of my genitaila as it’s own thing- it’ll never be cis by it’s very nature which makes me feel good. it’s an example of the physical diversity of humans and it’s pretty cool to be someone with a variation like this.

i think being relatively comfortable with my present genitalia really helped me come to this conclusion as well as exploring my sexuality more thoughtfully and think about what feels good and what i want to do in bed. which gets us to step 2.

2. consider my options: so you basically got the meta and the phallo and those branch off with their own set of options. i looked at a lot of other people’s pics which was very helpful. i think both offer really great results and it’s really just a matter of personal needs from the procedure. Meta makes the most sense for me since i really like my bottom growth and feel like meta will free it up more.

I’m also going to get a mons removal to help further. I’m also going for a simple release with no pee tube lengthening, no vag removal and no scrote (too lazy to look up how to spell the medical term). I have no desire to stand to piss , i like using my vagina for sex, and i also don’t want balls since i like how things are currently set up down there. i could also do all of this with phallo which is cool, even keep my clit or get one post-meta, but i don’t feel a need for a meatier member and the trade off of a longer process, more surgeries and the possibility of scaring are also some of the reasons i don’t want a phallo.

i guess the main takeaway here is that you can really keep what you want with either surgery, it’s more deciding how you want the penis part to look. (i have read that doing a meta with UL and no vag removal can lead to more severe complications during healing and that many surgeons will not do bottom surgery if you want the UL without removing the hole so if UL and keeping your hole are very important i would look into other’s experience getting this done and things to ask when doing surgical consultations).

3. i started looking at my options for surgeons. i live close enough to NYC and can access the hospitals that offer bottom surgery (there’s several options in the city) so that’s where i looked. right now i’m working with Dr. Purohit at mount sinai. their website has a lot of useful info and details the steps you need to take to get started. i reached out to Dr. Purohit’s directly via email and asked him if he’d be able to do a simple meta with hysto at the same time ( he can) and if someone can help with insurance. he got me in touch with one of his staff members, Sam, to work on that. So far, my emails have been responded to in a reasonable timeframe. I set up my consultation with Sam and she forwarded my info to the insurance team. I saw a recent post on a trans subreddit from someone who went with Dr Purohit and he mentioned that scheduling can be a hassle and that Sam was all over the place. I spoke with her once so far but she was easy to talk to and nice. From what i gathered, it just sounds like she is very busy and hospital systems are another bureaucratic nightmare so i think it’s less the people and more the system. i’ll make updates once i get further along in the process

I also looked at my insurance policy. since i live in new york state, all insurance companies based in the state must provide gender affirming care. i checked to see if any surgeon who offered bottom surgery was in my network and there was not. i reached out to my insurance company for what they’d need from me and the dr’s office to get it covered and they need a prior authorization request from Dr Purohit’s office submitted. the insurance will review and approve it. if the dr was in network, i wouldn’t need to do this step (i went with the damn hmo plan at work, this is what you get for being cheap!)

The hospital requires that you don’t smoke like 6 months prior to the surgery and they will test for nicotine. they said the nicotine can hinder recovery. they also require you to have a bmi that’s 30 or under and, at this time, they’re following covid precautions and are requiring testing a few days before your surgery date and i believe they want to to be vaccinated if you’re able to be

I also need a letter from a therapist or social worker who’s worked with me and a letter from a mental health practitioner i’ve never worked with that say i’m a True Transsexual (ha). I’ve been seeing my therapist for about a year and she said she can do my letter np and refer me to another practitioner for the other letter so i’m covered. I did something similar for top surgery to get that covered so i know what to expect. If you know you want surgery at some point, its a good idea to start working with a therapist as soon as you can so you can if your insurance has a similar requirement

i’m really happy and fortunate that my insurance company will cover the procedure but the requirements are the most frustrating part to me. it’s important for insurance to cover trans health care but these diagnostic and approval criteria need to go and trans health needs should be cared for like any other health care need. like my insurance didn’t need a freakin letter from my psych to prove i really needed my wisdom teeth removed and my dr didn’t need to see anything from my therapist to prescribe me zoloft. it just makes it that much harder for trans people to get what they need. having a trans inclusive single-payer health care system would save so many people a lot of pain, time and money. i really hope we can get there

4. and the first waiting game begins. my consult isn’t til june 22 and the surgery date would be 6-8 months from now. i think the insurance stuff will be taken care of pretty quick and without too much hassle and i think it’s good to get it taken care of asap. the hospital also needs me to meet with a social worker who will help prep me for what i need leading up to and after the surgery and i’ll need a psychical and a gyno exam.

other than that i’ve started a light exercise regimen to gain some strength in preparation for the surgery. i’ve also made some minor alterations to my diet, mainly just watching stuff with added sugar. i’d like to be a bit more fit before the procedure and since i’ve got a while to go i figure this is a good way to feel like something is happening while i’m waiting. i wish i had done more exercise before top surgery to help with recovery

i’m also saving for transportation, food, hotels and any items i might need for recovery. having insurance cover the surgery cost helps a ton and means i don’t have to save as much to cover these extra costs. i’ll share what i spent to give a better idea of the overall cost

#meta process #entry 1 #1

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petrawood · 2 years

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Guys, leaving Jake inside the sarcophagus in the 4th episode was actually SUCH a good idea, tho.

I mean, after all Steven has been reverse-snapped/desert-elsaed and obviously cannot move, while Marc is in the afterlife and therefore unavailable.

But do you know where Jake is?

Left behind inside that coffin, yes... But IN THE SHIP.

While I still think that there might be a possibility that Jake hasn't "died" (the body was shot twice, once for Marc and again for Steven) and has taken control of the body (similarly to how he did after Marc was hit on the head and blacked out), one fact in undeniable: Marc and Steven are out of commission, and we have been teased again and again about Jake being around. Why remind us again and again of Jake if he wasn't about to play a vital part in the plot? Why dedicate an entire cliffhanger to show that both Steven and Marc are at the present moment unable to go back to the world of the living? Why let us know that the scale would only balance if only one (or all three I guess) of the hearts are present, which is necessary to cross Osiris' Gates and go back to life? Why leave Jake in the sarcophagus?

So, if Jake doesn't come bursting out of the coffin next episode, demanding to know what the hell happened and immediately putting his heart in the scale and crossing the Gates while constantly complaining about him being "the only one getting things done here, those idiots are both useless", I'm rioting.

(Also, somebody made a compilation of all the clips that have showed up in the trailers and still haven't appeared in the show, and while I'm pretty sure this is just a scene of Marc complaining that got cut out of the fifth episode, I find it SO funny to imagine Jake like this)

Jake: they have done WHAT

Jake: Nope, that's it, I'm out of here, I don't care anymore, bye.

Edit: btw, for those of y'all who love Jake as much as I do, I wrote a 2k word meta about him because at this point not even Khonshu could stop me! I'm actually quite proud of it, so here it is if you want to check it out!

#moon knight #jake lockley #marc spector #steven grant #moon knight spoilers #moon knight theory

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

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Stalker X Stalker, Part 6

First

Perma tag: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever

Just remembered I had a plot so oops

Marinette wasn’t stupid. Nino had a brother only a few years older than Robin, and that brother had never acted so young or clingy at Robin’s age (and it surely wasn’t a thing about Robin, because she had yet to see him cling to anyone else). She knew that Robin was just using her to mess with Red Robin.

But she didn’t particularly mind. It was kind of funny to watch Red getting all worked up over his little brother and friend being close. She was glad she had her mask, because otherwise she definitely would have given away the act by this point.

Robin, for his part, had been upping things more and more every time he saw her. She wasn’t sure whether this was because he knew that she knew or because he was testing the limits of what he could do without her saying anything.

Red looked like he was at his wit’s end with Robin held out a hand for Marinette right before crossing a street. She took it, which was when he finally snapped:

“He’s twelve, not five!”

She pulled her face into a mock frown. “Are you saying that twelve-year-olds should get hit by cars, Red?”

Red Robin sputtered.

“Miss Ladybug, why is he so mean to me?” Robin asked with wide eyes. She could see the corner of his lips twitching in an effort not to smile.

She winked. His eyes narrowed just slightly then he widened them back to their wide-eyed sadness.

“I don’t know, sweetie. He’s just a meanie, I guess.”

Red Robin threw his hands up in either anger or defeat. It didn’t really matter which one it was, they counted it as a win.

Tim wasn’t surprised to walk into the Batcave one day and see Marinette’s face on the Batcomputer. The only thing he didn’t know was whether she was up there because they had figured out her identity or because Tim had started hanging out with her as a civilian.

He took a long sip of his coffee as he considered this, then he trudged over. Might as well find out.

“Hey guys,” he announced his presence.

He watched Duke out of the corner of his eyes. Duke was the newest of them, he could usually count on him to have more pronounced reactions.

Duke didn’t seem all that awkward. So it must have been them finding out her identity.

Tim sidled up beside them. “Sure that’s her?”

Bruce, never one for using his words when he didn’t have to, held up a small container of blood.

He hummed his understanding and intended for that to be the end of the conversation… but it was getting increasingly hard to ignore the eyes boreing into the side of his head. Tim fought to keep a straight face and unclench his jaw and ignore the stupid ‘d-d-don’t be suspicious’ song playing in his head.

And then Cass tapped him on the shoulder and he cursed quietly.

“Fine. Fine. I knew. Happy?”

Cass was not. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“I saw her run into an alleyway and I followed -- obviously, it’s Gotham and alleyways are dangerous -- and she transformed right in front of me.”

She nodded and let it go.

Bruce, however, did not.

“You knew her identity and didn’t think to tell us?”

“I thought to tell you, I just didn’t,” he said with a cheeky grin.

Ah. The Disappointed Dad Stare. He had certainly not missed that.

His grin melted into an awkward smile. “It felt weird to reveal her. She clearly cares about her identity since she hasn’t told us herself yet, I figured I’d respect that as long as I could.”

“... you weren’t making progress on her identity on purpose. God, that makes so much more sense,” muttered Steph.

He shrugged. “Easy to avoid someone’s identity when you know who it is.”

Bruce was still looking at him disapprovingly.

“Don’t worry, I have contingencies,” Tim said.

His father relaxed, finally. He motioned for him to go on.

“Well, a few need confirmation. I still don’t know if her yoyo can be cut and it’s hard to tell if other people can unzip her hood or not. But if the hood is open then The Flash or Superman can easily get the earrings from her -- beyond those she’d just a normal person with some fighting skills, same contingencies as The Arrows or any of us. If not then Green Lantern can probably neutralize her.”

Bruce nodded.

The other kids looked mildly concerned.

“Wait, he has contingencies for us?” Duke said.

Bruce was back to looking dismayed. Tim showed them all where their files were (he wouldn’t hack them for them, obviously, he didn’t want to break the news of exactly how messed up Bruce’s contingencies were). He could practically see all the sweat beading itself on his forehead beneath his cowl.

(Tim hid his smile. He’d finally gotten revenge for the time he’d made him stay inside after The Chloroform Incident. And revenge was sweet.)

… it wasn’t until he started seeing his siblings on the rooftop across from Marinette’s apartment that he thought that, maybe, he should have gotten them into their files. It definitely would have distracted them from the Marinette Is Ladybug situation.

At least Cass trusted Marinette -- she would have slipped up and showed her intentions at least once by now -- and therefore wasn’t likely to come by. Cass would be the one to figure out that Tim coming up to the roof was more than him just checking on his siblings.

The first person that came by was Damian. Fair enough, he’d been around Marinette the shortest amount of time and what little friendship they had was based on his lies.

Now, the youngest sibling sat, cross-legged on the rooftop. He was sketching in his sketchbook between quick glances over at Marinette. He looked up when Tim pulled himself over the side and squinted at him.

“Drake.”

“Dami,” Tim greeted, because it always annoyed his younger brother when he used the nickname. “Having fun spying on Marinette?”

Damian was silent for a few moments before clicking his tongue. “She needs to close her blinds more often.”

“Aw, do you care about her?” Tim teased, reaching over to ruffle his brother’s hair.

He pushed his hand away. “She’s a Gothamite and is therefore under our protection.”

Tim snickered and shook his head, taking a seat beside him on the rooftop. “We can tell Duke about it once everyone else has had their chance at checking her out. He’s the only one that can get away with asking her to close it.”

Damian nodded firmly.

Tim hid the fond smile on his face by diverting his brother’s attention: “So, what’re you sketching?”

Damian’s eyes lit up.

The next person to drop by was Bruce himself. He was sitting there, in all black despite the fact that it was less useful during the day, with full spy equipment.

Tim dropped down beside him and was offered a set of headphones. The two of them stayed there in silence for a long time, listening to Marinette going about her day. She was currently cooking something and singing along to a song:

“I always feel like... somebOdy’s watching meeEe… andIhavenoprivacy~.”

Tim was choosing to ignore the song choice in favor of giggling about her inability to hit the notes. He could feel Bruce watching him out of the corner of his eyes, but he didn’t say anything and neither did Tim.

Next was Steph.

Steph raised her eyebrows at Tim when she saw him.

“Come here often?” She asked in a tone that was only half-joking.

“Only recently,” he lied. “Trying to figure out if any of you trust my judgement.”

“Doubtful.”

“Yeah, Duke is my last hope.”

She snickered and shook her head. “To be fair, you’re whipped. You could have been biased.”

“But I’m not.”

“But you’re not,” she conceded, then turned her gaze back on Marinette. “She’s cute. I approve.”

“Glad to know you trust her.”

“I wasn’t talking about it like that and you know it,” Steph said with a wink.

Tim blushed and pushed her face away. “You’re the worst.”

Marinette was having a little difficulty figuring out the not-quite-a-language that the bats spoke with her. She wanted to learn it because she cared about Black Bat and, though she could use ASL, it was clear that she wasn’t comfortable with any particular language… but wow was it hard to learn a language when there wasn’t any actual language involved.

Thankfully, Signal had said he would teach her since he had learned it the most recently and therefore might have an easier time teaching it.

Now, it was just after they had finished their lessons for the day and the two of them were relaxing together between their patrols. He had his head in her lap as they both scrolled through Twitter, occasionally laughing and showing each other the dumb things that the other bats had supposedly done. Her favorite so far was the picture someone had discreetly taken of Robin while he was petting their dog.

And then Signal suddenly sat up straight, eyes so wide beneath his domino that she swore that the lenses were going to pop out.

“Uh --?”

“We need to go,” he said.

She felt his hand wrap around her wrist and now she was being dragged somewhere else --.

There was a rush of air and next thing she knew she was being held just barely off the ground.

She blinked all the dryness out of her eyes and then looked up to see that her captor was none other than Superman himself. He had grabbed both of them and taken them to where the Batcomputer was, holding her by her hood and Signal by the back of his shirt. He looked angry, but not particularly at her. She followed his gaze to where Batman was sitting in his Batchair.

“B --.”

“Batman,” said Batman sternly.

Oh, so Superman got to know his secret identity and she didn’t?

(She was ignoring the fact that Batman’s civilian name started with a B.)

“Batman, what do I have here?”

“Two children?”

“Two. Metas.”

“Technically, Ladybug isn’t a meta. Her powers were given to her by a god that lives in her earrings,” Batman informed him.

Marinette tried not to smile too much. Look at how much he had grown. He was using her excuses now.

Superman’s eyes narrowed. She’d say something about how ‘if looks could kill, Batman would be dead’... but, considering the fact that Superman could kill someone with a single look, it didn’t really work.

“And is the god allowed in Gotham?”

Batman didn’t have an excuse for that one. He just grunted a specific grunt which Marinette had learned meant: “What’s your point?”

Superman also knew this specific grunt, apparently. “My point is that the last time I was in Gotham you put kryptonite in my coffee! You said no metas, and we listened, but now you have two!”

“They’re my kids.”

Marinette blinked. “News to me.”

Signal tried to reach across Superman to punch her arm. Superman was a very wide not-man, so he came up short.

“Do you want to be kicked out of Gotham?”

“Guess I’ve always wanted family here,” she said quickly.

Superman squinted at them for a long time before, finally, dropping them.

“You’re lifting your no meta rule.”

“No --.”

“Yes. If even you’re not going to listen to it, neither should we.”

Batman didn’t seem happy. Superman didn’t seem to care. Probably because he was a good head taller and had far more superpowers than Batman did.

Superman left soon after.

Marinette knew it wasn’t the time, because Batman was back to his Batbrooding, but she couldn’t help the grin slowly spreading across her face.

“So, Dad, can I have the new Xbox for Christmas?”

Duke had visited Marinette. Tim hadn’t seen him visit, but he definitely had because Marinette had closed her blinds and they hadn’t been open in days. She was still in Gotham, though, she had gone on patrols and, as far as he could tell, she didn’t have any places in Gotham in her name. She had to still be in the apartment, so Duke must have visited as Signal and told her to close them.

And he should have been happy about this. It was far safer that way. The less people knew that there was a woman living alone in that apartment the better.

… but he couldn’t help but be concerned.

The blinds being closed was his best indication of when she was about to leave or currently not home. He didn’t like that he no longer had a way of figuring that out. How was he supposed to watch over her while she was getting groceries if he never knew when she was going?

He gives her a necklace with a tracker in it the next time he sees her as Tim.

She raised her eyebrows at the box he was holding out to her. “Don’t you think it’s a little early to propose?” She joked, but he could hear the slight wariness bleeding into her tone.

He grins easily. “It’s just to thank you for the outfit you’re making me.”

“You pay me,” she said. “That’s thanks enough for me.”

“Maybe I just feel a little bad about guilting you into making it in the first place.”

She hesitates, but he could see the shiny red gem inlaid in it winning her over. It doesn’t matter that she wasn’t a gold digger, she was a fashion designer and he had purposefully chosen a common gem color so she’d be more inclined to wear it more often. It worked with a lot of outfits and it came from someone she -- hopefully -- considered a friend? There was little reason to say no.

As expected, she gave in.

She turned around and he carefully clasped it behind her neck. He pressed a tiny kiss to the back of her head.

When she turned back around her face was redder than the gem. He couldn’t help but smile.

“Ready to go?”

She nodded, taking his hand and allowing him to pull her along to the newest attraction.

Marinette fell back on her bed with a huff.

“Tikkiiiiiiiii,” she complained.

The kwami slipped out of her purse and came up to float above her face. “Did you enjoy your date?”

“It wasn’t --!”

Tikki laughed at her dismay. Because Tikki sucked.

She dropped the pillow back beside herself and curled up in what had used to be Tim’s jacket (she wasn’t joking when she’d taken it, he was never getting it back).

“Tim better be Red Robin. I’m not doing the whole ‘two crushes at once’ thing again.”

You know, there were actually times where Tim felt bad about chipping Marinette. He wasn’t out of it enough to think that it wasn’t messed up, he knew that there was a reason he didn’t want the other bats to know.

And he knew that, if he had to keep his habits from fellow bats, his habits had to be pretty bad. Every single one of them had a tendency to watch over their loved ones from time to time, it just came with the territory of having friends that are a) vigilantes/heroes/Rogues, b) stupid enough to live in Gotham, or c) an unfortunate mix of both. And, really, when you have the entire world at your fingertips it’s hard not to cross a few lines from time to time.

But Tim couldn’t bring himself to care about that line when she didn’t seem to care about her own safety.

She left the house constantly. Tim was beginning to suspect that she’d had her blinds open so often in order to feel closer to people rather than because she liked sunning herself. This would be fine… if she wasn’t leaving as a civilian. Marinette cared about her secret identity almost as much as Bruce did, so he knew that she probably wouldn’t try too hard to escape attackers for fear of them finding out who she was through her very particular fighting style. The bats had drilled her on the best ways to deal with being held at gunpoint and everything, but not every criminal was completely predictable. Bruce’s parents were a prime example of that.

She also had a tendency to take food without checking to see if it was laced. She did it especially when Tim handed her food and, while he liked that she trusted him, he didn’t love that she was as trusting of him as she was.

Marinette had trouble detecting when people were watching her, too. He figured it was just a byproduct of having most of the stuff she did as Ladybug filmed by tv crews and random civilians… but understanding why she was like that didn’t make him any less concerned about it.

Most damning, however, was how she dealt with catcalling.

Tim never felt a need to intervene when any of his siblings got catcalled on the job. He could trust them to tell whoever it was to stop with however much politeness was correct for the situation (usually not that much).

(The only exception was Damian because, unlike everyone else, Damian was still very obviously a minor. And even then the temptation to beat them up was mostly sated by the fact that Damian knew far more nonlethal ways to hurt them than he did.)

But the few times Marinette had gotten catcalled in front of him she… had just very politely asked them not to say that? And, when they didn’t stop, she had just sat there in her discomfort until they were done?

And Tim had done nothing but watch in stunned silence the first few times. It hadn’t been on purpose, he had just… not been expecting it. She usually acted far more confident, usually had some sort of retort on her tongue, why was this any different?

He didn’t know. Both he and Steph had tried to ask but she shut down both times and they didn’t want her to be more upset than she already was so they’d stopped trying.

The bats just silently agreed to check in on her through comms when she was quiet for too long and, if she didn’t respond, head towards her last known location and start looking.

So, yeah, his paranoia wasn’t completely unfounded.

Marinette blinked at the envelope Black Bat had handed her.

She turned it over in her hands, wondering if it was some kind of test, but that wasn’t really as much of a Black Bat thing as it was a Batman or Red Robin thing. So, she figured it probably wasn’t dangerous. She still found herself examining it. It was done in an old style, with a rough and slightly yellowed paper, a red wax seal with a pointy hat emblem she didn’t recognize, and ‘Ladybug’ written across the front in gorgeous calligraphy.

“Uh…?”

Black Bat only smiled at her and made a motion to open it.

Marinette hesitantly opened the letter and pulled out more weird paper. It was splattered with something that looked suspiciously like dried blood. In the same elegant script that had decorated the front, it read:

Your spirit has been summoned to my annual Halloween Party!

Dress to kill!

This was followed by a bunch of directions and timings and stuff about RSVP-ing.

Marinette looked at Black Bat, somehow even more confused than she had been before.

Thankfully, Red Robin chose that moment to run down the stairs, waving his invitation excitedly.

He stopped short when he saw Marinette already holding her invitation and huffed, sending Black Bat a halfhearted glare. “I wanted to tell her.”

Black Bat’s smile morphed into a smirk.

“Rude,” Red said. Then, he turned to Marinette. “We got invited to his Halloween Party!”

“Yeah… whose Halloween Party, exactly?”

“Scarecrow’s, of course!”

… what?

#stalker x stalker #maribat #shutterbug #timmari #timari #timinette #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #tim drake #red robin #marinette: all the rogues are dangerous and smart i need to expect the unexpected #scarecrow: im having a halloween party!!#marinette: ... i guess that IS unexpected...

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daringyounggrayson · 3 years

Text

whumptober day 5: misunderstanding + broken nose (AO3)

Working as vigilantes, Dick and Bruce have made a lot of enemies. Most people they fight just want to get away, maybe get a few punches in just to be able to say they did, but some have a vendetta against them. For these people, it’s not that they want to carry out their plans without worrying about the Bat intervening, it’s that their plan has become causing him and anyone he works with to suffer.

And tonight, they’re dealing with those people.

They enter a warehouse, and drug-filled darts immediately rain down around them. Dick flings himself into a back handspring to dodge them, then shoots himself into the rafters, trying to get out of sight. Bruce stays on the ground and looks around for their attackers, but the darts are coming from all over—booby traps, possibly operated by remote. Luckily, Bruce’s thick armor means he can afford to be seen, can afford not to dodge every single dart.

Dick drops some smoke bombs to give them cover, then escapes through a window. He does a perimeter check around the budling and spots their attacker. He crouches down and taps through the settings on his mask, using the camera to zoom in. He sees a tiny controller in the man’s hand—Dick was right, then, the darts are being released by remote.

Ensuring that no one else is around, Dick leaps out and takes the man down by surprise. He quickly gags him and ties his hands together before attaching him to a telephone pole. He picks up the remote, looking it over quickly before powering it down and taking it apart.

Bruce still hasn’t met up with him, so Dick radios him. “Batman?” he calls into the comm. “I took down the dart commander. What’s your status?”

No answer.

“Batman, what’s your location?”

No answer.

Dick pulls up Bruce’s location from the tracker in his suit and finds that he’s still in the warehouse. He doubles back and takes a peek through his escape window. Four armed men are circled around Batman, and one of them is poking him with some kind of metal pole. Bruce isn’t reacting at all—some of the darts must have made it through his suit, or maybe he’s hurt. Possibly both.

Either way, this isn’t good.

Dick crouches beneath the window, trying to think of a plan. He’s taken down four men at once before, but not while trying to defend an unconscious Batman. Plus, he doesn’t know what to expect. These guys could be metas, or they could be on some kind of venom. There’s a rumor going around that Bane’s been getting into retail.

Dick takes another peek: still no movement, but he needs to make a plan, and fast.

His priority is getting Bruce out of there. He sends Alfred an update, and Alfred informs him that Bruce’s vitals are fine, as if he were asleep. Once that’s done, Dick slips back in through the window and ducks behind a crate a few yards away from Bruce. He’s restrained now, but his captors are silent, waiting.

Dick freezes when he hears a truck pull up outside. One of the men moves to open the doors, and it slowly but surely makes its way in.

Heart hammering, Dick forces himself to stay still. Running in and trying to take them done now would be stupid. At this range, he’d be shot for sure, and besides, they have access to an easy getaway. He’ll have to let them take Batman.

oOo

After placing one of the darts in an evidence bag and calling the police to pick up the guy Dick tied to the telephone pole, he follows the truck on his bike. The secondary location ends up being an abandoned apartment complex about twenty miles south.

Dick quickly surveys the area and enters through a basement window. He sticks to the shadows as he follows the disembodied voices. So far there are only two men, and he takes them down with a couple of nerve pinches. He restrains them with zip-ties and moves on.

He takes a lucky turn down a hallway and finds the two more men guarding a room—that must be where they’re keeping Bruce.

Dick tosses a few more smoke pellets and charges at them, disarming them and taking them down in a matter of minutes. Once they’re tied up, he kicks the door down and runs to Bruce’s side.

“Alright, big guy, let’s get out of here,” Dick says as he works on freeing Bruce. He doesn’t look too bad; aside from the drugs, they’re probably looking at some minor bruising.

Dick cuts the rope connecting Bruce’s hands, and the second his arm is free, Bruce swings at Dick.

“Aah!” Dick yelps as the fist makes contact with his nose, cracking it instantly. He quickly presses his hand against his nose, and blood runs over his glove.

Bruce moves to take another swing at Dick, but this time Dick is ready, and he dodges it like it’s nothing.

“Batman, stop, it’s me,” he says in a firm, even voice. “It’s me.”

Bruce looks at him, really looks at him, but he doesn’t seem to recognize him. Not entirely. “Robin?” he asks with an unsure voice and a confused expression.

Dick forces a grin. “Who else would it be?”

Bruce doesn’t answer, just slumps over, unconscious.

oOo

It’s a struggle, but Dick manages to get Bruce out of the basement and into the Batmobile Alfred had directed to their location. From there, he puts his bike in the trunk and drives Bruce back to the Cave, where Alfred is waiting for them.

An hour later, they confirm that Bruce will live. The drugs in the darts were fairly harmless and were probably selected for their sedative properties. Bruce will probably feel a little hungover come morning, but it won’t be anything he hasn’t dealt with before.

Alfred sets Dick’s nose and forces an icepack on him, and then the two of them work together to get Bruce up to his bed, where Dick insists on watching him until he wakes up.

Come afternoon, Dick finds himself lounging at the foot of Bruce’s bed, snacking on some grapes and reading a random Hardy Boys book he found on Bruce’s bookshelf. He used to read them to Dick all the time when he was younger, and he still enjoys the series.

Bruce groans, and Dick shoots up, relief flooding him.

“It’s about time,” Dick says, flopping sideways to land by Bruce’s head. “You were asleep forever.” He’d been worried—more worried than he should have been, honestly. But it’s easy to catastrophize when the last time Bruce had been conscious he’d barely recognized Dick. Plus, the man had been asleep for nearly fourteen hours. It was disturbing.

“Dick?” Bruce is frowning at him, eyebrows pinched in confusion and maybe a headache.

Dick grins. “Who else would it be?”

Bruce pushes himself into a sitting position. “You’re hurt.”

Dick raises his hand to cover his nose, then drops it. “I’m okay.” He sits up. “How are you feeling? Should I get Alfred?”

Bruce ignores him, cups Dick’s face. “I hurt you.”

Dick shrugs, pushes Bruce’s hand away. “You probably thought I was one of the kidnappers,” he explains. “And who can blame you? You were drugged. It’s not your fault.”

Bruce squeezes his eyes shut, rubs at his temples. Dick hops off the bed and grabs the Tylenol, passing it to Bruce along with a water bottle. Bruce accepts them with a grunt.

Dick sits down on the edge of the bed. “Do you want me to get Alfred?” Dick asks again.

Bruce grunts. No.

Dick bites his lip, trying to decide if he should listen to Bruce or not.

“Don’t do that,” Bruce says, tugging on Dick’s sleeve until he complies.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Dick asks.

“I’m fine, Dick.”

It’s stupid. Dick knows Bruce is fine; this is probably the best shape either of them have ever been in post-kidnapping. But Bruce had been taken, and it had been Dick’s fault. Dick had left his side, and in those minutes he’d been gone, Bruce could’ve been killed. It would’ve been his fault.

“Does it hurt?”

“Huh?” Dick snaps his head around to look at Bruce.

“Your nose.”

“Oh. Not too bad. Can’t breathe out of it though, so that’s kind of annoying.” Dick doesn’t understand why Bruce feels so guilty. At least he can blame it on the drugs. Dick has nothing—he’d just abandoned his partner and didn’t even try to stop the kidnappers as they loaded him into that truck. “But if you want to be sorry about something, you should apologize for making me lug your heavy ass up a whole flight of stairs. My arms still feel like jelly—I could barely hold up my book.”

Dick grins to show Bruce that he’s joking, merely exaggerating at Bruce’s expense.

“I’m sorry that you’re not stronger. I’ll adjust your training regimen accordingly.”

“Hey!” Dick throws a pillow at him, and Bruce chuckles when it hits him in the face. Dick lies back down with an exaggerated huff. Then, in a quiet voice, Dick says, “Sorry I let them take you.”

“You did everything right, chum. You should be proud of yourself for handling things as well as you did.”

“You don’t know what happened,” Dick says, a touch of anger in his voice. “You weren’t even conscious.”

“No, but you got us home safely. That’s all that matters.”

“Yeah, well. I guess so.”

He knows Bruce has a point, but he still feels like he could’ve done more. Bruce probably feels the same.

Dick decides to shelve the conversation, for both of their sakes. They can deal with their guilt complexes another day.

He reaches for his book, asks, “Do you remember when you used to read me the Hardy Boys?”

“Of course.”

“Good, because I don’t want to start over.” Dick clears his throat and starts reading.

#dick grayson #bruce wayne #nightwing #batman #batfamily #elizabeth writes

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multimetaverse · 3 years

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HSMTMTS 2x08 Review

Most Likely To was the best ep of S2 so far and ended one ship while launching another. Let’s dig in!

Gaston was super fun, a very nice showcase for both Larry and Matt. This is the kind of energy that early S2 was lacking. Also feels like the first ep where East High might actually have a shot at beating North High. Covid restrictions played a role but we really needed to see more rehearsal scenes and scenes of the wildcats just being theatre kids. This also may be one of the last times we see EJ perform as a student in the musical so I’m glad we got this.

EJ has been criminally underused for most of S2, he’s marketed as part of the big 4 along with Nini, Ricky, and Gina and Matt Cornett’s name is listed 3rd in the credits but in the early eps of S2 you’d think he was guest star. Lately he’s started to become more important and tonight was an excellent showcase of why he’s such an interesting character. I’m not gonna check but this feels like it’s the most EJ screen time in a single ep that we’ve gotten all season long.

Of course, the main reason for EJ’s increased screen time is because of Portwell. I’ve been neutral on them but tonight they really won me over’ their scenes were so sweet that they warmed even my cold black heart. Matt and Sofia are good friends irl and that shines through in their easy rapport and great chemistry. Gina snorting at EJ’s joke was cute and I loved the shot of Gina accidentally walking into the shot for EJ’s confessional. As an aside, they’ve been doing some fun stuff with the confessionals lately which helps add a bit of the metaness that helped make S1 so great.

The real big Portwell scene tonight was EJ and Gina talking on the couch at Ashlyn’s. Lot’s to love there. Gina’s speech to EJ about what she sees when she thinks of him was sweet and her saying that EJ tried to do the right thing and often failed but kept trying echoes what she said of herself during her confession to Ricky. Also when EJ asked Gina if she understood the feeling of having her life mapped out she replied, ‘’not really’’ which is almost certainly the inspiration for Gina asking a question to EJ and him responding ‘’not really’’ in their pre S2 face time call on the hsmtmts instagram.

EJ is still wracked with guilt for the guy he used to be but Gina reminds him that he’s grown and is a good guy which leads to her slip up about her seeing him that way vs the rest of the gang hinting that she’s beginning to catch feelings for EJ. Which leads to EJ complimenting her and them having a moment that could well have led to a kiss if Ashlyn hadn’t come home. And they cap it off with Gina falling asleep and EJ covering her with his Duke sweater.

It’s been nice not seeing Gina upset over Ricky these past two eps and it’s a damning indictment of the poor writing and pacing of S2 that her story in the first 6 eps can be summed up as Gina being upset over something Ricky said or did. Not only has Portwell allowed EJ to rise in prominence but also it’s allowed Gina to escape the rut her character was stuck in pining for Ricky.

I hope after S2 is over that we get an interview where Tim explains how the Portwell plot came to be. The S1 finale set up some possible interest between them as did the pre S2 face time call but nothing came of it during the first 4 eps, they stood next to each other a lot but barely interacted otherwise. Notably in 2x01, which Tim himself wrote, EJ tries to grow a beard and tells Ashlyn that he says her as so young which is extremely jarring now that we know that EJ is crushing on Gina who is Ashlyn’s age.

Was Tim not set on doing Portwell until he realized he needed to give Gina something else to do other than hopelessly pine for Ricky? Narratively, it made sense after Rini got together in S1 to put the other two Big 4 characters together in S2 but did Tim not want it to seem so obvious to the audience so he deliberately kept Portwell apart until 2x05 where EJ’s feelings make for a nice plot twist? Was he just reluctant to plug EJ back into the love square due to how much more complicated it would make things but later felt he had no other options? Or was it just plain old bad pacing and writing?

Of course, I wish that there wasn’t such a large age gap between Sofia and Matt but there are no Gina ships that avoid that problem, there’s also an age gap between Sofia and Joshua, just as there was between Olivia and Joshua and Matt in S1. Depending on when they film S3 there’s a good chance that most of it will be finished before Sofia even turns 18 which is deeply unfortunate. There’s a broader issue of teen girls being cast in mostly age appropriate roles while their male love interests are older adults and in particular it often affects female characters of colour. Netflix has a really bad track record with those kind of age gaps but Disney has problems too as we’ve seen on HSMTMTS and on GMW where by the end of S3 they had 18 year old Peyton Meyer as the boyfriend of 14 year old Rowan Blanchard’s character (not to mention canon Joshaya which didn’t have such a bad age gap between the actors but was problematic regarding the ages of the characters themselves).

A knock I’ve seen on Portwell is that EJ is just gonna leave for university next year but that was never gonna happen, Matt’s under the same 4 season contract as all the other mains and he’ll be sticking around in some capacity much like Sharpay ended up doing in the movies. It is true that EJ will probably have to move on at the end of S4 while Gina still has her senior year left but that will also happen with her and Ricky since he’ll be graduating at the end of S4. It was a big mistake to make EJ a senior but it also may end up being a big mistake to make Gina a sophomore. It would have been too messy to retcon EJ to be a junior but Tim probably should have taken the chance to retcon Gina into being a junior in S2.

That Rini breakup was so sad (missed opportunity for gotta go my own way). They managed to get in a Troyella reference with the treehouse. This was inevitable they just have not been communicating well though now that we know that Ricky thought Nini left YAC for him some of his desperation to spend as much time together as possible makes more sense. I think Rini is endgame if the series has 4 seasons but it wouldn't shock me if we never seem them dating again and they only get back together in the series finale. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Nini never dates anyone else for the remainder of the series or at least not seriously.

We’re not even halfway through the series so it’s way too early to permanently slam the door on Rini though this time apart will probably help Joshua and Olivia move on from their own bitter break up before it bleeds too much into their performances. I do wonder if Tim really has a clue what he's gonna do with them for the remaining 24-28 eps of the series, assuming S3 and S4 have 10-12 eps each.

Roman Banks killed If I Can’t Love Her and the montage of all the couples or ex couples was great.

It was nice to finally meets some parents other than the Bowen’s and Salazar-Roberts’. Kourtney’s mom was played by Dara’s actual mother and their dynamic was great as expected. It seems from their conversation that Kourtney's father is dead which I don’t believe has been mentioned before. Cash Caswell.... well it gets what the character is about across. He really looks and sounds like a rich Utah republican, I bet he knows Mitt Romney personally. I liked EJ going to tell his father that he’s not going to Duke and recognizing that he wants to build his own life on his own merits.

We saw a bit of that S1 Miss Jenn energy tonight which was fun though I didn't like how curt she was with Seb nor did I like how rude Carlos was to Seb although we know that blows up in 2x10.

Jazzara rising! I really liked how Jazzara and Portwell are sort of mirroring each other and since Mazzara knows about EJ’s feelings for Gina it wouldn’t shock me if helping EJ out is part of him showing a softer side in 2x12.

Of course Ashlyn is VP of the Nostradamus society. It's clear her family has some kooky new age beliefs (her parents are probably members of some naturopathic medicine group on Facebook that doubles as a gateway into Qanon)

It was nice to see Big Red being such a good friend to Ricky and the return of Ricky’s infamous pillow hugs. Lmao at Ashlyn just chilling while Big Red is comforting Ricky

Also Miss Jenn saying sexy and Big Red referring to pillow talk, the writers are adding a bit of spice when cooking up these scripts.

Looking Ahead:

Looks like Gina may be wearing EJ's duke sweater next ep according to some posts I saw. Jack presumably is there to somehow help Gina decide what she wants with Ricky and EJ though him having wanderlust might also feed into Gina’s thoughts on settling down in SLC or moving with her mom around the country.

Let's see what mom of the year, Lynne Bowen, has up her sleeves. Ricky’s bedroom at her place in Chicago looks much nicer than the apartment Mike Bowen has so perhaps she makes a lot more money than he does.

Not looking forward to the Zoom portions of the ep but I guess it was inevitable.

There’s only two paths for Gina’s story to go in the remainder of this season; either she decides to move on from Ricky and give EJ a chance or she decides that Ricky is worth trying again and squelches her budding feelings for EJ. The former looks much more likely after tonight’s ep but either way it needs to be handled with care. Inevitably Gina and Ricky need to talk about what happened between them but if Tim really wants Ricky to continue being a viable love interest or even a good friend to Gina then he needs to really have Ricky apologize and show a thoughtful, kinder side of him that’s largely been missing this season.

What I think Tim is doing is setting up Portwell getting together in 2x12 but Ricky pining over Gina until Portwell break up late S3 and Rina get together in the S3 finale before they break up later in S4 and Ricky gets back with Nini near the end of the series. If I had Tim’s ear I would tell him that he should pick which ship he wants to do, Rina or Portwell, but don’t do both. He wants canon Rina? Great then end Portwell before it starts and have Rina happen in S3 and introduce other obstacles to them getting together rather than having to damage EJ’s character and make him lose another girl he likes to Ricky. He wants canon Portwell? Great then have Gina and Ricky’s conversation be closure for the both of them and have Gina and EJ get together and break them up without Ricky being a cause of it or waiting in the wings to get with Gina soon afterwards. Doing both will be a disaster and I truly hope that Tim Federle carefully thinks over his mistakes in S2 and really plans out the remaining 2 seasons of the series while there’s still time to prevent things from going really off the rails like GMW and AM did thanks to the bad decisions of Michael Jacobs and Terri Minsky.

Until next week wildcats.

#HSMTMTS #Portwell #Rini #Gina Porter #EJ Caswell #Ricky Bowen #Nini Salazar-Roberts #Kourtney Greene #HSMTMTS Reviews

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skylarmoon71 · 3 years

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Harry Wells x Angel Reader- Oneshot (Flash)

"Are you shitting me!" Cisco yelled.

Cisco, Barry and Caitlin were currently locked in the pipeline. The meta responsible grinning at them.

"You really shouldn't be so trusting. "

The female snickered, waving the meta cuffs in her hands. Harry handcuffed at the side. He was pulling against his restraints angrily.

"Once again you've failed to keep our security up to mark Ramon."

"Not exactly the time for a lecture don't you think Harry!"

It was only a matter of time before Iris or even Joe realized something was wrong. The alert had already been sent out. What they didn't account for was you skating into the room. The urgency is clear on your face. You must have gotten the notification.

"Guys!!"

This particular meta was sporting super strength.

"And who is this, another member of team failure."

"Hey!" Cisco protests.

Dangling the power dampeners in her hands, she smiles at you. "If you're nice and obedient I just might let your friends stay in one piece. Now be a good girl and come here."

"(Y/N) get out of here!" Barry orders. You out of all of them did not have the advantage of being a meta. You did have something else however.

Something you hoped you'd never have to reveal to them. The situation right now though, it wasn't looking good. You weren't exactly sure just what this woman was after, but it was obvious you couldn't let her have it.

She moved closer, swinging a fist. You duck, kicking her in the stomach. Her body goes flying into the opposite wall. The force of your kick knocks her out completely, her body laying still on the floor. Harry's mouth falls open, stunned. You just kneel, bending the metal at his wrist so he can break free. He does, eyes never leaving you. Caitlin and the gang are still partially star struck. You just rub your arm nervously.

"I guess we have a lot to talk about. "

"You think!"

Today would be longer than expected.

~~~~

"Let me get this straight this whole time you've been a metahuman. Why didn't you tell us?" Cisco looks a bit hurt.

"I wasn't trying to keep it from you I just, I didn't know how to go about telling you. Cisco...I'm not a metahuman."

"Pardon?"

"I'm..well I've always been, you know. An angel."

"Angel as in, you're a really nice person or, like an actual winged flying celestial being?"

"The second one."

"This is...something." Caitlin mumbles. You knew it would be a lot to process. It's why you'd been doing such a good job at keeping it on the downlow.

"But aren't angels meant to be, up there?" Cisco points to the sky.

"We are usually. Some of us come down every once in a while to study humans. You guys are just really interesting." You try to hide your excitement, because the last thing you want is to make them uncomfortable.

"A-Anyway, I was just checking out some stuff and then well, I started to like it here so I stayed. I liked being around you guys. Amenadiel said it was fine as long as I didn't cause any trouble then I could stay." you gave an awkward smile. Harry is still in a state of shock. So is everyone else.

"Are you saying that you're an...actual angel?" Cisco questions. You nod. With a shrug of your shoulders your wings appear. It's so sudden that they all take a step back. The blue feathers look so beautiful. It spreads all the way out, probably a few inches longer than your arms. You shift, letting them slide back into your shoulder blades. Team Flash is still staring at you.

"Please say something." you plead.

Barry steps closer. "Are..are my parents.." He doesn't have to finish.

"They are." You smile. Barry lets out a soft relieved laugh. "Everyone is." you assure. You're referring to all of their losses, not just Barry's. Caitlin and Cisco appear a bit more relaxed, even a bit happy.

"So..c-can I stay?"

Harry folds his arms. "Of course. With Ramon's lack of intelligence when it comes to security I presume we'll be seeing a lot more criminals walking in and out of here."

You clap your hands together, doing a little happy dance. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" you run over giving Harry a hug, lifting his feet off the ground and his eyes go wide in alarm. You drop him back just as quick. "S-Sorry I, I forget my own strength sometimes." Cisco is snickering from the side.

"If you'd like to keep all your body parts attached I suggest you stay quiet Ramon." That shuts him up. He walks off, muttering about some upgrades. You're still grinning like a child.

"This is gonna be great!"

It felt nice to have everything out in the open.

No secrets. ~~~~

So Team Flash carried on as usual. You really thought things would get weird. It wasn't everyday you found out your friend was an angel. You told them of some of your adventures, and stubborn siblings.

The outcome was more beneficial than anything else. You had no idea it would turn out this well, otherwise you would have said something ages ago. All you really wanted was acceptance, and that's what they gave you. For you though, the person's opinion who meant the most was Harry. Heaven knows you've been crushing on him for ages. You were making your way through Star Labs to that very person now. Coming around the corner, you smile when you see him sitting in his chair, working on another great piece of tech.

"Hey Harry!"

Your usual peppy energy was quite the same as the day you got there. Harry was always curious behind your endless supply of optimism. You were like a ray of light, forever shining over him. Not that he'd admit that to you. He'd already been doing a poor job of keeping his feelings in check. Your true identity just added to the allure. He wasn't sure he could be more in love, then you had to be a freaking angel of all things.

He groaned internally.

"I'm definitely going to hell for some of the dreams I had about her."

Harry doesn't fully acknowledge you, and it's a bit worrying. You were hoping you'd never have to ask the question, but with the way he's been moving around you, you just had to ask .

"Are you afraid of me?"

He pauses, wondering if he heard that right.

"I know things are a bit different now, but I'm still the same person, Harry. I just hope that this doesn't change anything. " You look a bit more guarded, and Harry drops the wrench in his hands, moving from his desk.

Maybe he needed to work on his reactions. He never wanted you to feel like he was afraid, or even angry at you for holding such a secret.

"I'd never be afraid of you. You're one of the few people I trust with my life (Y/N)." Your face lights up.

"Somewhere deep down I always knew there was something extraordinary about you. I suppose now I know why." You press your hand on the table behind you, taken with the way his blue eyes gaze at you. You lower your eyes with a shy giggle.

"W-Well I'm glad! Thanks Harry." you're about to leave. You've said all that you needed to. But he stops right in front of you.

"Harry?"

"Would I get smited if I were to take advantage of this adorable angel?" The back of his hand brushes against your cheek, and you become a little light headed. He cups your face, and you can't produce words. He's close...so close.

"Umm..I.." You're babbling, and it makes Harry smile. He leans in, leaving a soft kiss on your lips, pulling back to gauge your reaction. Your lips are parted, eyes a bit glossed over.

"I think just a peck is still on the border of innocence, don't you agree. " His thumb slides over your plump lips, and he pulls back, about to move away. You grab at his sleeve, your desire clear as day. "One more.." you beg. Harry smirks. "If you insist."

He goes in for another and you sigh in content. Those pink lips of his are every definition of sin. His body is sturdy, taunt, firm. With his arms around you, it's near impossible not to feel everything. His hands have ventured down, and his palm slides up your thigh, hiking up your skirt. You need to regain some type of control on your body.

With a huff, you pull back to get some oxygen back into your lungs. Harry kisses your cheek, chin, then your neck. You whine, because his hand is so warm against your skin, and his lips are trying to leave a mark everywhere they go. You close your eyes, hands trailing up his neck, gripping at his short dark hair. He responds, using his free hand to lift you onto the table. He still hasn't stopped his assault on your neck. He's driving you mad.

"Angel.."

The whisper topped with his teeth nipping at your neck makes you mewl. You jolt slightly when your wings pop out. The wind and length knocked a few papers over along with a cup that was sitting there. Harry looks up, chuckling under his breath. You blush, covering your face.

"I-I'm sorry."

That was embarrassing.

"Don't be." He doesn't look fazed in the least. Just continues kissing you. You laugh into the kiss, running your hands through his hair.

"Seems like you got a thing for angels Harry."

"Guilty as charged." He mutters pulling off his shirt.

Some secrets weren't that bad he supposed.

45 notes · View notes

imbellarosa · 4 years

Text

Let’s Talk Calm-ly about Two Loves

OR: When you’re a grown man who writes stories for a living, you definitely wrote your own weird bedtime story, too.

The TLDR here is that H has taken one specific listener around the globe, notably to Tokyo and Jamaica. He quotes an old Victorian Poet who was an awful human but who’s lasting legacy is the phrase “a love that dare not speak its name” which is - you guessed it - a reference to queer love. He also is super excited to spend what seems like the foreseeable future with this listener and has bought a little house with a garden of daisies with them and it’s very sweet and domestic. Anyways this is a wild time and it’s all under a cut because it’s...really a lot.

Anyways I think the people I owe thank yous this times around to are @queenlokibeth who had to listen to me scream about this for a while, Astrid, who screamed with me when this came out, and “M” who convinced me to finally get to work in this fandom. And, of course, all of the lovely people tagged below who’s work I used to build my argument.

1.) Who Wrote “Dream With Me”?

Well, not H, or so the story goes. Two other people (Steve Cleverly and Sanj Sen) did! I mean, right, okay, for a while I was like...that seems like an odd choice for a man who didn’t want to hand Two Ghosts over to his own band because it seemed too personal. He wrote on every song in both albums’ he’s released thus far, because he seems to be passionate about telling the stories he wants to tell (even if he won’t tell you explicitly what they’re about). But for a while, I was totally going with the flow there, and the rest of this analysis would still stand: the writer of this story definitely referenced a poem by Lord Alfred Douglas and Harry’s own songs.

However, I then read this fun quote from the Co-founder and CEO of Calm:

“Well,” he said, “The the Harry Styles one is interesting because that came purely from Harry Styles himself...we took the approach of creating a sort of musical epic poem – he doesn’t sing, it’s spoken with poetry, but there’s a sort of musical sound bed to it and it’s pulling on things and themes that Harry’s fans really adore about him and associate with him. So his story was driven really by him – we really created a concept around him.”

- Chris Advansun, July 7th, 2020 via @hlupdate

And I thought, hmmm. This does not sound like a project that he was not involved in creating. From this point on (July, 7th 2020), I began to think of it as a three way co-collaboration between him and the other two authors. But this confused me a bit, because there was largely a nonreaction from the fandom. I was waiting for an actual transcript, because I always fall asleep to these meditation stories, but it was being referenced to as some sort of Y/N fic, which was...honestly not what I expected, but also not implausible, thanks to the ~lovely~ image this man has had since the age of sixteen. But also, twitter seemed to be concerned by other things at the moment, and no one was analyzing the story. .

In fact, I messaged a friend the day that this story dropped, because it had been kind of a shit show day on Twitter. Rumors were sort of flying about everyone and everything: had Liam shaved his head? Was he engaged? Had he and Maya broken up? Were Zayn and Gigi engaged? Had they broken up? Did Niall have a girlfriend? (this one was true lol). Were Elounor engaged? Were they pregnant? Had they broken up??? My personal fav was the bald Liam rumor, which he promptly put to rest in LP Act 1 by...having a huge mane of hair.

So then I thought - huh. Why has today looked like this? I’m not saying that there aren’t days that twitter goes wild because of boredom, because there definitely is - the articles about secret meetings in Italy that are coming out this week (8/12/2020) are proof positive. So that definitely does happen, but it doesn’t usually happen on the days that there’s a lot of content. And maybe I’ve just been starved for content in this fandom, but I would consider a 40 minute video quite a bit of content.

Then the transcript dropped. I’m using two as references - this one on Wattpad and also @carl-and-pearl ‘s version here (thank you so much for the transcript!!). We’re going to get into a more detailed description of what’s going on in the story, but the first thing I recognized immediately is that it was first person POV. I knew that going in, based on the number of Y/N jokes going around on twitter. Then I read it aloud, and I realized that it read like a letter. Like an experience specific to the writer and the reader. And while that’s not super uncommon to write about an experience from the author’s POV - I listen to a podcast called Nothing Much Happens: bedtime stories for adults which has a similar concept - I thought it was odd that they were trying to include both the author and the listener. I completely understood why the y/n jokes were pertinent. But at the same time, it felt like something had snagged in my mind - like a particularly annoying splinter.

The conversations I was having around this story - completely based on the content, concept, and my own instinct - was that this story contained specific references to one person. I thought that it did read like a love letter, and that most identifying features would have been taken out, but the essence remained. Which, once I thought about it, was something that H excelled at doing. Think about Sunflower Vol 6 and Adore You and Canyon Moon and even Watermelon Sugar and Golden. Ask yourself, What do I know about the person they are about? They have skin that browns, they have a secret, they have mesmerizing eyes, they’re willing to dance in the kitchen with him (to dancehall), they have a belly, they’ve been through hard times, they’re witty, they have an accent, and they have lips. I know - super specific right?

So the splinter grew into a thorn - what was I missing? And then - when I was looking for something completely different - I stumbled upon this old interview Harry did with Zach Sang and the Gang Show back in 2017. For context, he was being asked about Sweet Creature. As you can imagine, it’s hard for people to believe he wrote such a beautiful love song when he hadn’t ever really had a long term relationship (two hearts in one home?? Who did you move in with, you can imagine them asking. When did you have time?). So what did he have to say about this?

"In my opinion,” he explained, “I think most songs are written for one listener. Maybe there's one thing in there that only they'll notice about them.... It's so much easier to say something in a song than it is to say it to someone and I think it's really amazing to be able to communicate through that and be able to wrap up everything that you want to say in three and a half minutes and say it in a song."

- HS, May 3 2017

By this time, please believe that I was screeching. Seeing this felt like he put into words the exact feeling I had about “Dream With Me”. It felt like a nod to someone that I didn’t know, which made the story hard to listen to, tbh. Although, I will say that when I did finally listen to it, it knocked me out and gave me odd dreams so. Once was enough for me haha!

So my new operating theory is exactly what Advansun said: I think that H was the primary writer/the driving force behind the story. Because of the references I’m about to run through, because it feels like the way he tells stories, and because they admitted to him being more involved than they originally claimed. That’s going to be how I write the rest of the analysis - under the impression that H had a direct hand in the story that was being put forth. However, I think that the analysis itself would stand whether or not he wrote any of it. It would just be a more tenuous reflection of him than I believe it to be.

2.) How Do I Love Thee? In Two Ways.

Before I jump into the story, let’s talk a little about the poem that I want to compare it to: Two Loves, by Lord Alfred Douglas. Let’s be clear this is not at all a defense of who Bosie was - he was a terrible person, particularly in his later years, when he’d converted to Catholicism and turned his back on his younger self, and his partner, Oscar Wilde. He was violently anti-Semitic, and turned his back on his own community. I want to get this out of the way because I very much believe that we should examine artists for who they are. That is, after all, what I am trying to do here.

But his poem Two Loves has often been used - much to his disappointment, I’m sure - as an exploration of queer love in Victorian times. A line that I will be exploring more deeply in a second was in fact used against Oscar Wilde in his trail for indecency . He attempted - unsuccessfully - to explain it away, but it was too blatantly about their relationship for even the British Victorian society to ignore. I really, really recommend a read of this poem, because it is - despite it’s author - a good piece of work, which explores the themes of shame and love and longing between two men in that time.

I’m going to start with my own background, as someone who’s analyzed fandoms before. I first came across this poem in the Sherlock fandom, with this analysis by @the-7-percent-solution, when I was running in that fandom, and she explains the poem brilliantly in just a few lines. I’m going to take a little longer to run through it, but if you want a concise explanation and a brilliant meta, I encourage you to run to their blog and check it out. That fandom taught me most everything I know about catching symbols and recurring themes and “clueing for looks” and I love it desperately, still.

But we’re here to talk about this fandom, so on with the poem! Essentially, the poem outlines a dream the speaker had: In his dream, he’s standing in a field with flowers - beautiful ones of all kind - and he meets this young man with clear blue eyes and bright red lips and they kiss a bit and have a picnic, and it’s all lovely. If you think I’m kidding, I’m really not. Please, read it for yourself.

Anyways, after they did they did the whole picnic thing, the speaker and his date go on a walk in this field, where they come across two figures. The first is described as,

“...fair and blooming, and a sweet refrain Came from his lips; he sang of pretty maids And joyous love of comely girl and boy, His eyes were bright, and 'mid the dancing blades Of golden grass his feet did trip for joy; And in his hand he held an ivory lute With strings of gold that were as maidens' hair, And sang with voice as tuneful as a flute, And round his neck three chains of roses were.”

- Two Loves, 1894

The speaker, however, was drawn to the second figure:

“He was full sad and sweet, and his large eyes Were strange with wondrous brightness, staring wide With gazing; and he sighed with many sighs That moved me, and his cheeks were wan and white Like pallid lilies, and his lips were red Like poppies, and his hands he clenched tight, And yet again unclenched, and his head Was wreathed with moon-flowers pale as lips of death. A purple robe he wore, o'erwrought in gold With the device of a great snake, whose breath Was fiery flame..”

- Two Loves, 1984

Of course, the speaker immediately asks the second man who he is. The second man says, “My name is Love”. The first man corrects him quickly:

“ He lieth, for his name is Shame, But I am Love, and I was wont to be Alone in this fair garden, till he came Unasked by night; I am true Love, I fill The hearts of boy and girl with mutual flame.”

-Two Loves, 1984

The second man sighs and acquiesces, “Have thy will. I am the love that dare not speak its name.”

It was, of course, this last line that really gave the meaning of the poem away. It was the line that was put to Oscar Wilde as proof of a romantic relationship, it was the line that went down in history as a way to refer to queer love, and it was the line that first stuck out to me when I was reading “Dream With Me”.

The reading here is clearly that “Love” is the love that is acceptable to society - easy, sweet, and cherished. “Shame” is the love that happens in secret - beautiful, alluring to the speaker, passionate, anxious ( as can be seen in the clenching and unclenching of his hands), and proud. He refuses to call himself as anything but what he is. The first man may call him Shame, but he refuses the name, and instead, offers a qualifier to his own descriptor. He is still love, he is just the love that can’t be spoken about.

3.) Walking in Golden Fields of Sunflowers

Now let’s talk about “Dream With Me”. I’m ignoring the first few stanzas (from the line “Have you ever wondered” to “What the two of us can find”.) because those are pretty standard introductory paragraphs to a guided meditation. So we start with the line “Let’s travel now to moonlit valleys...”.

I’m going to do the same thing I did with “Two Loves” first. I am going to describe literally, in general terms, what happens in the story. Warning, I change pronouns from “they” to “you” because the whole thing confuses me, but note that I’m always talking about the speaker and the listener:

So after doing the standard intro, the speaker and the listener take a walk through the woods enjoying nature, particularly the grass, the trees, and the blue sky above. You’re already clearly in love. Then you’re magically on a raft, with cherry blossoms all around you. If you want a good visual for that, here’s a site that has pictures from a boat rental in Tokyo where you can snuggle on a raft in the Chidorigafuchi moat. And then suddenly it starts raining, and they (you) watch the rain for a hot second, and then the scene magically shifts again, and you’re under a porch (although I guess it could be the boat rental’s porch. They do usually have covered areas).

Kind of furthering that theory, they then lounge by the shoreline, skipping stones and hanging out, looking at the snow capped mountains. In case you’re curious, because at this point I sure was, you can see mountains from certain areas in the city of Tokyo.

Anyways, then it’s snowing, and you’re magically in a cabin, just chilling by the fire, and you fall asleep again. You wake up somewhere else.

Where are you now? Well, you’re on a tropical island filled with palm trees. As an American, my mind immediately jumps to the Caribbean, but I suppose it could absolutely be in the Mediterranean as well. The island has white beaches, mangroves, a turquoise ocean, and a gorgeous, peaceful atmosphere.

If you’re curious as to what a mangrove looks like - and I certainly was - they are a group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone and Jamaica is doing a massive restoration project involving primary school children to regrow this vital part of their ecosystem. More interestingly, there currently exist no mangrove forests in the Mediterranean, so my initial feeling that this scene would take place in the Caribbean was correct. On that note - again, because I was curious - Jamaica has gorgeous white sand beaches with turquoise oceans.

But I’ve gone off topic again! After you’re minds are “in tune” once more (trying to find a heartbeat, anyone?), you reappear in a meadow, with beautiful flowers of all kind, where you are now walking hand in hand through a field of sunflowers, which give the feeling a “warm and golden hue”. Then you come across a little farmhouse with daisies poking out (clearly I have no way of locating this anywhere in the world, but I assume that the UK has both sunflowers and daisies). It’s an empty house which was loved and left because of the passage of time, which inspires my favorite line in the poem: “ The thought of passing time inspires/A feeling that grows stronger”. It’s just...really sweet to me.

So, of course, they do what anyone would do when they come across an empty farmhouse, they go inside. And there, they begin to fall asleep, reflecting on all they have just seen, referencing other scenes of the poem: “ Moonlit valleys, Burdened forests, Gazing at the ocean. Summer meadows, Tranquil sunsets steeped in emotion”.

The next few stanzas are just going to be copy-pasted, and then I’ll go into them a bit, but this is the end of the poem, so they’re the final reflections;

“The tenderness we feel When we are close Two minds as one Surrounds us and connects us But we’ve only just begun.

For now we dream together Of all there is to follow. And know that sleep will keep us safe From now until tomorrow.

Maybe all the memories That we’ve gathered here tonight Are all dreams now remembered Or wishes in plain sight.

No matter what They’re with us now. For this night and forever. And every time we close our eyes They’re yours and mine to treasure.”

- HS, Dream With Me, via @carl-and-pearl

And that’s it! The literal story, in short, is that you started in a forest, then went to Tokyo (maybe) and then Jamaica (perhaps) and then back to a field of sunflowers and daisies in the UK (which is also a guess, it could be Italy or France or Idaho for all I know, but let’s call it an educated guess).

4.) My Dream Journal

So now that we know what happens in the story, how do we interpret this? Well, There are a few lines in the poem that I want to draw your attention to: the first takes place in the first part of this story, when you’re still in the forest. This is, I must say, the most direct reference to Two Loves in the whole poem/song/story. Both works are describing a walk in the woods with your loved one, and, in a fun reference in the middle of the story, Dream With Me says

The shimmering reflection Shows us smiling from above. But what we think But dare not speak is L-O-V-E love.

-Dream With Me, 2020

Remember that line I mentioned before? I am the love that dare not speak its name. Right, so that’s almost a direct quote. It also has a really fun nod to “I Would” (Would he say he’s in L-O-V-E?/Well if it was me then I would), but I digress.

This first part of the narrative, I feel, really sets up what the rest of it will look and feel like, in the same way that “Golden” sets the tone for Fine Line. (You didn’t think I was going to make a post about Harry and NOT mention Golden, did you?? If you did, I’m disappointed!!). So let’s take a look at what’s happening, and the language he’s using to describe it.

One of the best things about this poem is how vivid it feels. Of course, I’m about to argue that it’s vivid because it was based in reality, but let’s talk about the sheer amount of detail he uses to describe the place he’s walking through. The valley (canyon lmao) is moonlit, the grass and the leaves make mosaics of green, you’re walking by the heather (the symbolism of heather is good luck, admiration, and protection), the sepia sunlight breaks through the trees.

You know what it kind of sounds like? Sweet Creature. You’re about to roll your eyes at me! I can feel it! But listen, okay?

“Sweet creature Running through the garden Oh, where nothing bothered us But we're still young I always think about you and how we don't speak enough”

Which, to be honest, sounds like what they’re doing. They’re walking through the garden in the sun, not daring to speak about the Love that he (they both) feel, and instead refering to it in veiled Victorian terms.

And then we head to Tokyo! I know that you’re about to ask me why I think it’s Tokyo versus...idk, anywhere else? Well, for one, he went to Tokyo (to let it go) publicly in 2019. He was there for a few months, and there are some great pictures of that time:

Look! Here he is with his club owner friend and his dog, and a fun red bandanna! But let’s be honest, the dog really steals the show here. But wait! there’s more! More dog content, too!

This was on Jan 31st, 2019, and he’s taking the dog for a walk! Very cute! If nothing else, he spent a lot of time with dogs in Tokyo! And the city fits the description of the story. So I feel rather comfortable with my interpretation that this first date is a memory of this trip - or another - to Tokyo.

So what did “you both”do in Tokyo? Well, chill on a raft while the cherry blossoms flutter around you, clearly. You also refocused your purpose. What did he do in Tokyo in 2019? Well, he took time to think about and write songs for the album he was about to go record. Kind of like refocusing on what’s next, right? And then, in the story when “you both” had time to think amongst the lake and the water and the rain and the moon, and you’d come to the conclusions you needed to, you left. What did he do when he did the things he needed to? Well, he left, too.

And where did he go? Well, in real life, I suppose he went to do his job. But, in the story, you’re meant to be falling deeper and deeper into sleep, so it’s sort of like traveling backwards, you see? Like counting down to one. So you end up on this island with turquoise ocean and mangrove forests. I’m calling this Jamaica. Why? Well, the description fits, for one, down to the four types of mangroves that exists within its ecosystem.

And - probably the biggest reason - I can place him there, too. Here’s him in 2017:

I added this picture because the water around him....looks rather turquoise, doesn’t it? Kind of like he’s enjoying his time on a tropical island by the beach?? Oh, and here’s another one!:

The red bandanna makes a comeback!

So what are you doing in Jamaica, according to the story? Well, you’re hanging out, basically. Enjoying the beach and each other, of course! What else? To be exact, “[Your] thoughts dovetail and unify/ In tune two minds together”. I’m so glad that you’re tuned like an old guitar now! Congrats! Really happy for you!

What was he doing in Jamaica three years ago? Why, he was recording his first album, or so the story goes. I’ll tell you something: finding press for that album was literally the most difficult part of this whole analysis. I got a fair bit of the tattoo roulette with Kendall Jenner, and some things about Carolina, but the interview with Zach Sang took me like an hour and a half to find again to link. The fact that a lot of it has been buried is...not great, for posterity purposes. He’s going to want that one day.

But I’ve gotten off track again! We gotta go back and finish our story, right? What happens now? Well, this does:

hahahaha okay, I’m really sorry, but I had to. I’m not, actually, making it up though! According to the story:

“ As minutes turn to hours We drift off somewhere new. And visualize a stairway To a door we now walk through”

- Dream With Me, 2020

So maybe Louis was just...demonstrating for you.

Anyways! Where do you walk out to? A golden field full of sunflowers. You walk for a minute, then come across an old house with daisies popping up out of the garden. And that’s where the story ends. I guess you’ve made that farmhouse feel like home.

Now to the little reflection he does on the outro. The lines I want to bring your attention are: “The tenderness we feel when we are close two minds as one surrounds us and connects us but we’ve only just begun” and “Maybe all the memories that we’ve gathered here tonight are all dreams now remembered or wishes in plain sight.”

Let’s talk about the first sentence first. In the context of finding a home that could be a shared home, and a future, this is very much an “end of the story, beginning of our lives” sort of thing. You’re back from all over, and it’s time to settle down, and see what’s next.

And now the second sentence. I think this is the one that really drives my point about this story being a collection of memories he has - that’s what he calls it. The story is “gathered memories” that might also be called “remembered dreams” (think of how people say of vacations, “oh it was a dream!”) or you might call it “wishes in plain sight”. This feels in line with the rest of the story. In this stanza, he’s sort of letting you in a bit. If I’ve read this right - and I really think that I have - he’s giving the larger context for the story. It’s a collection of memories he’s had with someone he loves.

5.) Cool! Can you prove it?

I mean, I’d argue that if you read this far, I have proved it, but let’s make some more links, shall we? This was called a “muscial epic” that was “driven by him”. I’d argue that if I know my Victorian literature (thank you, Sherlock!), then he definitely does. Then there’s the fact that he quoted it, so. That did happen. And he knows what it means. And even if he didn’t, there were two other people on the story. Someone was more than capable of catching that one, and the fact that they didn’t speaks to intent. They want you to think of that phrase when you read this poem. They want you to think of that walk in the woods while you’re going on this one.

And, as for my assumption that this is for and about one person, well. Think about it. He said that he writes his songs for a single listener. I’m not saying it’s the same listener each time, let’s get that right, but it is always just for one person. With that, and with the assumption that he’s been involved in the writing of this story, I’d say that the same rule applies. He went with someone to Japan and Jamaica (J^2 haha). And, if I had to guess, it was the same person.

Why, you ask? Well, for one, if that weren’t the case, then this poem would no longer be for one listener, it would be for multiple. And, for another, imagine how awkward it would be to listen to it with his current partner and have to explain “oh, yeah that was the super romantic vacation I took with someone else” . And, I suppose that because I think that attitude of “refocusing” and “dovetailing” and “tuning” and getting excited about imagining all of the tomorrows with your partner speaks to a long term relationship breathing easily, you know?

I’m also going to argue that describing the aura around the house as “golden” was intentional, especially when paired with the location - in the middle of a field of sunflowers. Those are both direct references to his songs. And those two songs are particularly linked by the number 28. The third song that features 28 is Fine Line the song, but that’s a different story. Anywho! “Golden”’s bridge just repeats the word ‘golden’ twenty eight times (if you go here , you can count the bridge) and “Sunflower Vol. 6″ ends the song with 28 “boops” (believe me, I wish I was making this up. I’m not.). So then, once again, you’ve linked a story to two already linked songs.

And, even if you don’t buy the intentional repetition, they’re linked another way, aren’t they? The color scheme and the sun symbol. Sunflowers were named because of their sun-like appearance. They turn to face it. They symbolize loyalty and adoration. And then, of course, the sun is - say it with me - golden. And it - like the person in golden - waits in the sky, beautiful and dangerous and constant. And here that symbol is, in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. At home.

This whole story feels like you’re taking the time to find that heartbeat that you think you might have lost, and sort of coming back to a space where you understand that this is what you want, now and forever. It feels like finding a home that could be yours forever, and it feels like walking through some of the moments that remind him of that.

It really is rather lovely, if you think about it, especially since he has a tendency to attribute “home” to people rather than place, in his songs. So it’s like. Going all around the world and always being at home.

#harry styles #calm #dream with me #two loves #honestly man #im happy for you #but ewww #be less sappy please #i mean #SOME OF US DONT HAVE THAT YET HAROLD #hahahaha i think im funny #long post ts #idk how else to tag this but im really proud of it #okay now i'll do the penguin song #promise hahaha

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matan4il · 3 years

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I'm a little nervous about Monday. Why is every single cast member using the word "unexpected" to describe the episode? The only unexpected thing would be for Eddie to choose Ana and for Buck and Taylor to move past their budding friendship to romantic partners. Or perhaps, temporarily, Eddie takes an indeterminate sabbatical to figure out if he still wants to be a firefighter.

(Side note, I hope Maddie gets help. My sister went through bad ppd and I had to go over every day to check on her and the baby for a while.)

Hi lovely! great question about what do they mean with 'unexpected' and one I kept asking myself at the start of the season, when we had Buck's mystery calls with a woman. I had assumed the 'crush' talk was a red herring and that the woman would turn out to be Buck's therapist. The main thing that was giving me pause was Tim saying something along the lines of this woman not being who we think she is. I wondered who does he assume we think she is? 'Coz if he figured we'd guess she's a therapist, then she's not. But if he's speaking to a more casual general audience, then he's assuming "we" (without distinguishing fandom from other viewers) accept the in-show teasing about a crush for a fact... Turns out, the latter is what he was doing. So I'm assuming the same applies now, when they're saying "unexpected" they probably mean, "unexpected for the general audience". If the show goes in the direction you described, it really wouldn't be unexpected at all. But the show could still catch us ALL by surprise. We'll know soon enough and I can't wait!

(and lots of hugs to you and to your sister. My mom probably had undiagnosed PPD when she had me, so know that I feel you more than I can express and I am sending TONS of love! xoxox)

Hey ! I just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE your blog and I always look forward to read your metas after each episode! And I do have a question: so next episode is gonna be intense ! And I was wondering do think we’ll get something buddie-wise like Realisation of feelings or Buddie moving in together ? Because the events have been piling up for a possible Buddie SetUp right ? Oliver live tweeting the finale even though he said himself that everything he says is taken the wrong way and him saying that this episode is gonna change things for s5... ? And do you think that Buddie will ever become canon or are the writers just messing with us? (Sorry for the long ask)

Hi Nonnie, and thank you so much for the kindness! I'm so happy you're enjoying my meta! As for 414, I'm never 1000% sure about anything a show will do. Because shows can disappoint, because there can be elements behind the scenes, unknown to us, influencing storyline decisions... But in terms of narrative, I can't see having both the 'follow your heart' talk and the intense Buddie shooting scene (because it IS a Buddie one. Eddie is shot, but the scene is just as much about Buck's reaction and their connection during this) in the very same ep and then not letting this lead to some sort of Buddie feelings realization. The show can still disappoint and not follow up on its own build up, I'm just not sure how they can take it in any other direction. Mind you, I remember when quite a few fans were hyped after the kitchen scene and were sure Buddie will kiss in the next scene, but I didn't think they would at the time. This feels different. The narrative is begging for this resolution and they made it the intense cliffhanger for the first half of the season finale. Everything they've done this season is pooling into this scene in 413 and the follow up in 414. It's all lined up just right for this development. Add the stuff you mentioned from outside the show, and yes, it feels like it really can happen now. It's not a guarantee that it will, but this is the first time I've felt like the moment in canon is right, when before it all still felt like a part of the subtext that the show may or may not deliver on. Does that make sense? Thank you so much for the ask and let's do a prayer circle together for the show to come through! xoxox

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catalinaflores · 2 years

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tell it slant

Barbara's not quite sure how to help the latest stray she's taken in. [Birds of Prey (TV)]

• characters: Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, Helena Kyle, & Dinah Lance • additional tags: Cassandra Cain & Barbara Gordon, Barbara Gordon & Helena Kyle, Metahuman Cassandra Cain • word count: 1556 • read this on ao3

DELPHI ALERT. URGENT.

“Uh,” one of her students says. “I think your beeper might be going off, Dr. Gordon.”

“Thanks, Lila,” Babs says, like she hadn’t noticed the damn thing screaming at her for the second time in a row.

It’s the middle of the school day. But Alfred, Helena, Dinah—they all know that ringing twice means business.

“I’m sorry, guys,” she tells her class. “James, would you run down the hall and see if Mr. Minotti can take over while I go check on my sister?”

The student closest to the door runs off, and Babs quickly glances over her lesson plans for the rest of the day—the juniors can’t present their projects to a sub, but she’s got a tape of Ros and Guil that oughta be enough to tide them over for one class period.

“The replacement called me a bitch,” Helena whines when Babs rushes out of the Clocktower’s elevator, ready to jump straight into emergency mode.

“Were you being a bitch?”

“No—I mean, yeah, sure, but—she called me a bitch, Barbara!”

Babs looks around for the girl—the one Helena’s taken to calling the replacement, though if she means hers or Dinah’s is anyone’s guess—as she reflects on the fact that maybe antagonizing Helena further isn’t the right way to handle the situation at hand. She doesn’t see her hanging around, which means she’s probably wisely giving Helena a wide berth.

“Helena,” Babs starts. “You’re going to have to explain to me why—”

Helena takes a deep breath, loud enough that it cuts Babs off. “She. Called me. A bitch.”

“Wait—” Babs realizes. “She called you a bitch?”

“Jesus fucking christ, yeah, she called me a bitch!”

“Is she still—scratch that. Where’s Dinah?”

“Hell if I know, I sent her the alert first and you beat her here. Maybe she’s still in class?”

“You sent Dinah the alert first?”

“Oh, come on, Babs,” Helena switches gears. “You know I love your obsessive compulsive nerd chic, but…”

“Yeah, yeah, brains don’t beat tactile telepathy. Please tell me you didn’t scare the girl off.”

“I’m not a monster,” Helena protests. “She’s eating tater tots in the kitchen.”

The girl is indeed happily seated on the kitchen counter, eating frozen tater tots straight out of the bag, when Babs and Helena make their way into the kitchen.

“Hi,” Babs says, and she looks up from her tots. “Uh—could you repeat for me what you said to Helena earlier?”

She makes a face, but sets her tater tots down, wanders across the room to press her cold fingers to Babs’ arm, and Babs feels the words within her own thoughts—the girl’s peculiar ability a near exact opposite of Dinah’s.

But the meta power doesn’t use the girl’s own words—just brings them up in Babs’ mind the way Babs herself would use them, something that’s starting to really worry Babs.

“I meant—out loud,” Babs corrects. “Like this.”

The girl frowns, hesitating before cautiously shaping and verbalizing “bitch.”

“Do you know what it means when you say that?” Babs asks, and the girl stares blankly at her for a moment, before lunging and sweeping Helena’s feet.

Babs is already reaching for her escrima sticks when Helena jackknifes back up from the floor, looking disgruntled, but not quite ready to rumble.

“That’s the move she used,” she explains. “We were sparring and she caught me off guard—thought to myself ‘what a little bitch’ so I got her back, and—yeah.”

“Okay. So you thought the word,” Babs says, then moves her gaze from Helena to the girl. “And you learned it.”

The girl doesn’t have to touch Babs to get across the concept of ‘duh.’

Talking—or, well, “talking”—gets easier once Dinah gets back from ditching school and can add her own tactile telepathy into the mix.

“As far as I can tell,” Dinah says. “It’s like—her power works with abstract meaning. So she can take in or send out meanings, and then whoever she’s touching interprets it however they would put that meaning out.”

“Love you, Di, but we figured that out when Helena got images from her and I got words,” Babs interjects.

“You callin’ me dumb?” Helena asks, which Babs ignores in favour of listening to Dinah’s elaboration.

“Well… yeah, but I’m thinking now that… maybe she picks up on how the meanings get conveyed?”

So Babs had been right in her initial analysis, that the girl couldn’t speak English, or Russian, or Arabic, or Mandarin, or any of the other languages they’d pulled dictionaries from to try out. She’d just been wrong in assuming that meant she’d never learn.

“Sounds like she doesn’t need your doctor, Hel—she needs a tutor.”

“How convenient,” Helena interjects with a smirk. “An excuse to avoid turning her over to Officer Reese.”

“Like you weren’t looking for one, too,” Dinah bites. “If we aren’t turning you over to social services,” Babs says, turning her full focus onto the girl, and hoping she understands. “We’re going to need to start calling you a name.”

“How ‘bout ‘Bitch’?” Helena offers. “Or maybe, cheater, brat, psyc—”

The girl swipes her feet once again, and Babs and Dinah both stifle their laughter.

The banter’s equal parts distracting and overwhelming, so Babs lets the issue slide when it’s clear the girl doesn’t view her personhood as contingent on anything so simple as a word.

She’s cautious around them, but confident in a way that scares Babs more than it comforts her—because where the hell did this girl come from, that she can’t be older than fourteen but knows with such certainty she can make it out safely if it comes down to three trained adults against her.

Where did she come from, metaphorically, that is. It’d be a rough situation if they hadn’t noticed her tailing Helena home from patrol.

Loathe as she is to leave the girls alone together, even with the addition of Alfred’s supervision, Babs settles back over by her monitors and gets to updating her lesson plans. The Shakespeare quiz is going to have to shift back, and—

Not for the first or last time, Babs thinks about giving Dick a call. Highly skilled runaway children with no known guardians—he’s got experience here she’s sorely wanting for.

But he’s happy in Blüdhaven. With the wife and kid, and another expected soon according to the card he sent out at New Year’s. He’d come back, of course, if she called. There are bonds that supercede retirement, supercede happiness.

Like every other time the thought’s crossed her mind, Babs resolves that she can’t do that—not to him.

Besides—this is New Gotham. New Gotham belongs to Oracle.

I don’t have a name, Babs finds herself thinking amidst this, and is startled to feel the girl’s hand against hers.

“Nice job sneaking up on me,” she says, rather than admit to finding it terrifying.

“Thanks,” the girl tries out with her own voice, clearly a word picked up from Dinah rather than Helena.

She gives Babs’ arm another tap—I don’t like speaking, she says, but Babs isn’t so sure that’s the end of the story.

“There are words that don’t need sound,” Babs suggests, then breaks contact to show her a quick “sign.”

She looks interested, and Babs makes a mental note to figure out if she’s due for a no-questions-asked favour from the ASL teacher.

“You said—” Babs starts, then realizes she has no idea how the girl conceives of her own communication, and restarts. “When you touched my arm, last night, I heard you say that you wanted to stay here, with us. Whoever trained you, whoever you’re hiding from, they kept you from learning to communicate because they knew it would give you power. You don’t have to speak—but if you really do want to stay, we need you to learn some form of language. Ideally English.”

The girl mulls this over a bit, chewing her lips, before finally touching Babs again.

What name would you pick?

“I did pick my name,” Babs says. “Barbara, Babs, those are names that people who loved me chose for me. But I’ve also named myself, given myself the name Oracle.”

Give me a name, the girl demands, but beyond her pushiness, Babs can see what she’s asking for.

Babs glances over her papers, takes a second to collect some thoughts.

“There’s a story I teach about a girl who had a very tragic life,” Babs suggests. “But she was also immensely powerful—she was an Oracle, too. I like to do a project, every year, where I ask my students to reimagine her story, however they’d like. If you’d like—her name is Cassandra.”

“Cassandra,” the girl repeats out loud, inadvertently sending Babs a scrambled message as she does so, images flickering in her own interpretation of Babs’ synopsis.

I will be Cassandra.

Her eyes are steely as she passes on this declaration, filled with triumph over a past Dinah will have nightmares trying to imagine, and Babs almost wishes Bruce, wishes Jason, were here to meet this spirited little girl.

“Okay, Cassandra,” Babs says. “You want more tater tots?”

“Yes,” Cassandra says, confident and driven just the way she feels in Babs’ head.

#birds of prey 2002 #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #helena kyle #trying something new w crossposting to tumblr let me know if it sucks #leni writes

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dotthings · 3 years

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So here’s my thoughts on an alternate ending plan for S15. While the remade heaven was something that fit, very little else did, and if they were aiming for self-actualizations being fulfilled the ending didn’t convey that. It feels incomplete to me (I have posted enough analyzing why and that’s all I’ll say here). This is a more earth-bound take. An ending where all of TFW 2.0 defeat Chuck and are together and figuring out life free of Chuck’s maze. This also incorporates some of my previous meta spec that didn’t get addressed at all in the finale but things are left so ambiguous, I have no reason to think my spec can’t be canon now. Also I think if canon can screw things up this royally, then I’m allowed to state that my version is not only kinder, but makes more sense. I’m sure there is some loose end I’ve missed, and I’d want to have all the Wayward Sisters appear too. Gosh, endings are hard!

Envisioning this as one extra long episode. To be extra subversive I’m still using the start of ep 19, but mostly this diverges after the end of ep 18.

-the phone call from Cas in ep 19 isn’t a troll from Lucifer (Lucifer can stay trapped in The Empty for all eternity). It’s actually Cas.

Here’s what happened: The Empty took him, fulfilling Cas Jungian arc about confronting his shadow and instead of fighting it, accepting it as part of himself. Inside Cas, a soul has been growing for many seasons now. Spontaneous soul combustion. It started small and kept growing. The act of confessing his love to Dean was the final spark to complete the growth. As The Empty drags Cas away, Cas’s grace merges with his soul and the grace is the power jolt it needs to make his soul blaze to full life. His grace is effectively gone, burned out in the act of bring his soul into being. The Empty cannot hold him, his soul is pure, and he’s not filled with self-loathing. The Empty spits Cas out in Lawrence, KS because that’s where Cas’s soul home beaconed to. Effectively human, this process was fairly traumatizing to his body, so he’s weakened. He staggers across town to outside the bunker, calls Dean, and collapses. Dean (as we saw in ep 19) races up the stairs and reaches Cas first, but Sam isn’t far behind, and both boys help Cas down into the bunker. Dean, being Dean, can’t stop touching Cas. There’s some awkwardness after Cas’s confession but they aren’t going to talk about it yet. Dean’s just relieved to have Cas back

-Jack’s also overjoyed Cas is back. Cas explains to the fam what happened and that he has a soul now. This will change the dynamics of TFW interact, changes Cas’s demeanor slightly, and how Dean and Cas interact, but Cas’s personality is basically the same

-Michael sides with TFW. His decision to stand up to his father is sincere. There are Cas and Michael scenes where they start reaching some kind of understanding of each other’s pov

-There is a further scene showing Sam mourning the snapped Eileen, as he finds something that belongs to her in his room

-They hatch a plan to confront Chuck. Cas assumes he’ll be joining them but Dean balks because Cas is freshly human and not battle-ready. “You and Sam are human, and you’re going into battle” Cas argues. Dean’s not really being logical about this, so Dean and Cas bicker while Sam, Jack and Michael have to go guys? Guys? Evil god to stop? World to save? “Get a room,” Sam snaps.

-Dean wins the argument, mostly because Cas has to give in just so they don’t stay derailed. They proceed with Cas holding down the fort at the bunker in case they need a further spell or information from the MoL archives

-They confront Chuck at the beach. Following some parts of ep 19, Chuck starts pettily beating up Sam and Dean, who refuse to give up. Sam and Dean shoulder to shoulder, laughing at their enemy through their bloodied faces. (That was a good moment, I’ll keep that) Michael intervenes, Chuck tries to destroy him but Jack steps in. Chuck is fending both of them off for the moment. Kind of looks like Chuck might overpower all of them. He raises his fingers to snap them all away

and a familiar voice yells HEY ASSBUT. Cas hurls a magical molotov cocktail at Chuck. Because Cas he found a spell, and while the thing certainly won’t kill God, it certainly makes for a great distraction. Chuck’s body burns for a moment, and then the flames go out with Chuck unharmed. The distraction allows Michael to get the upper hand enough for Jack to grab Chuck and absorb his powers and render Chuck powerless. They all leave Chuck on the beach.

-Michael looks deeply amused by the cocktail. “At least you didn’t hurl it at me this time”

-unsnapped Adam switches in.

-Sam and Dean look beat to hell. Cas says something sad about how at one point he could have healed them with a touch but he can’t now and Sam and Dean reassure him it’s fine. Cas asks Jack to heal them and Jack says he’s going non-intervention God and yeets. Sam, Dean, and Cas seem taken aback by this move and their son vanishing into thin air

-Michael switches back in and offers to heal them but Sam and Dean refuse again. Cas rolls his eyes. Typical Winchesters.

-Sam calls Eileen. “Eileen, are you okay?” All is well. Dean checks on Jody and the girls. They’re fine. Everyone unsnapped.

-Adam switches in again to say goodbye but maybe see you soon, shakes hands with Sam and Dean. A promise of maybe someday they could figure out how to be family. “Where you headed to now?” Dean asks. “Around, I guess,” says Adam, and then Michael switches back in and says “the french fries on earth are worth hanging around for a bit” and Michael yeets out.

-They won. They’re free. Chuck’s defeated, Jack is going to be a new, uncorrupted God. But wait, there’s still half an hour left, what’s left to resolve? What else could there be?

-We get a montage. Sam and Dean continue to hunt, the bruises and cuts on their faces from the battle with Chuck fading. A scene of Dean giving Cas shooting pointers and Cas is a pretty decent shot but maybe he should hold the shotgun a bit higher. Dean sure does keep touching Cas a lot when it’s not necessary. They still haven’t talked. Sam doing laundry. Dean studying a job application at the desk in his room. The bruises and cuts from their fight with Chuck are almost gone. Eileen hanging out in the bunker, she and Sam doing research at the library table, laughing as Sam makes a joke.

-Sam, Dean, and Cas get wind of ghoul activity and set out on a hunt together. Dean and Cas are waiting together, leaning against the Impala, while Sam is inside a gas station getting them all snacks.

Dean: Are you okay with this? Human...forever?

Cas: I’m adjusting. Rather enjoy being able to taste the pb&j again.

*Awkward silence*

Dean: Cas—what you said—I—

Cas: It’s all right Dean. You don’t have to say anything. I told you, it’s not about the having, it’s—

Cas doesn’t get to finish the sentence because suddenly Dean’s holding his face in his hands and then leans in and kisses him.

Dean pulls back, staring right at Cas’s stunned pikachu face.

Dean: What makes you think you didn’t already have me?

They hold each other. Sometimes it’s not in the saying it’s in the actions.

Sam, who just emerged from the gas’n sip station, stands there holding packets of junk food and yells “FINALLY!” and Dean and Cas jump apart. Dean is beet-red but both Dean and Cas look happier, more peaceful than we’ve seen them look in a very long while.

-Standard hunt. They kill some ghouls, badass Team Free Will action scene. Cas gets taken off guard, but Sam has his back.

-Back at the bunker. Sam answers a text from Eileen—they’re meeting up next week.

-Sam, Dean, Cas are in the bunker having dinner when Jack randomly appears. Raises his hand. “Hello!” They’re all startled, but tell Jack they miss him. “You don’t write, you don’t call,” Dean complains. “Well,” Jack says. “I figured just because I’m non-interventionist doesn’t mean I can’t stop by for dinner once in a while.” “Darn right,” says Dean.

-TFW 2.0 have dinner together. Jack mentions he remade heaven, no more barriers. Released trapped souls like Kevin’s to heaven. New set of rules. Mentions he met with Rowena. They’re working out a better system. Reform.

“I would have gotten rid of the monsters,” Jack explains, “but can’t do it without upsetting the natural order of things—what’s done is done. The alternative is to reset everything. I won’t do that. Too much would be undone, too much good lost.” The implication is also: while he won’t intervene and be the God perching on Team Free Will’s shoulder, he also can’t bring himself to do anything that will undo them. “Sometimes it’s all worth putting up with a few monsters,” Sam says.

Jack vanishes again. “Guess we’ll get used to that eventually” says Dean.

-very last shot. It’s dusk, outside the bunker. Sam and Dean leaning on the Impala, watching fireflies, drinking beers. Not talking, just being.

Dean: We did it.

Sam: We did it.

Dean: Well, here’s to freedom.

They toast their beer bottles. Both look more peaceful than we have seem them look in a very long time.

Overhead shot of Sam and Dean, the Impala, the bunker.

*Kansas version of Carry On, Wayward Son plays*

#The15YearShow #Team Free Will #Sam and Dean: a work in progress #Destiel #Saileen #Sam Winchester #Dean Winchester #Castiel #Jack Kline #Chuck #Michael #Adam Milligan #Midam #altendingverse

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sanchoyo · 3 years

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danny phantom season 2, episode 17-20 thoughts! finishing up season two! the finale is the THIRD 2-PARTER OF SEASON 2. that's so many! I wonder how many season 3 will have?

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-UERGH WHY DOES VLAD HAVE AN AI WITH MADDIE'S FACE ON IT. SOOO CREEPY. AND MORE 'CREATIONS' waiiiit. vlad is Dr. Frankenstein! (despite his ghost design obviously referencing vampires) HE HAS 'CREATIONS' HE MAKES THEN WONT TAKE REAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR!!! this bitch.

-danny was late and his friends immediately start going off about how hes inconsiderate, and has been treating them like sidekicks??? he just overslept, my god. chill. even if he has, be nicer about talking about it with him?? he really can't help that he sometimes has to chase the ghosts, or has a secret identity to protect...

-'what kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course' umm. me as a ghost. next question

-imagine going home and theres a tiny child on your bed claiming to be your cousin. with as many cousins I have, I would probably believe her. but the 'ran away from home' BIT....SHES 12?? SHES SO TINY. I hate that they have her belly out in her ghost form, but I like how her colors are asymmetrical. something about her design...maybe the proportions?? are weird to me...anyway danny was good to feed her, but he shouldve taken her to his parents FIRST. or, tbh, probably jazz. (JAZZ DIDNT EVEN GET TO MEET HER!!! NOOO. I mean she said she'll be BACK BUT STILL)

-ANYWAY. shes voiced by AnnaSophia Robb, the girl who was in because of winn dixie, played as violet from charlie and the chocolate factory, and was the girl from bridge to terrabithia. (the movie that made me cry hysterically when I was 12 and I never watched it again because it Broke Me!) thats super cool.

-vlad sucks: the episode, basically. what's new!! I love how he's like, I'm Not A Villain. *immediately cuts to him torturing danny to make him transform, to get mid-transformation DNA, to perfect a Clone.* *immediately shows that he doesnt give a shit about his new daughter Dani and just wants a ''more perfect clone'' and will put her in danger to get that. will let her DIE to get that*

-Dani is danny's clone and is a girl? transgenderism....one of them has to be trans. or they both are.

-dani just. leaving at the end. WHAT? SHES 12. DONT JUST. NO!!! SHE WAS PROBABLY JUST BORN, A MONTH AGO AT MOST, RIGHT?? SHE NEEDS...SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. MONEY? FOOD?? A FAMILY?? AN EDUCATION???! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S LEAVING!!! OKAY BYE I GUESS!!! D: concern!!!

-the next ep opens with skulker chasing a ghost down. ...does skulker count as a ghost hunter in the way valerie and danny do? I mean, sure, he hunts the good guys too, but he. he hunts ghosts...also, we haven't seen his Real Form since his debut episode! tiny...

-the guys in white are back! ngl, I assumed they were a gag for that one episode. you're telling me they might actually be a threat? ok.

-valerie in her lil nasty burger uniform looks so cute!! glad shes not in that mascot uniform this time. I guess she stopped hiding that she's working there now?

-gregor having white hair, dressed in black and white...and green eyes...sam has a Type, I guess.

-danny being unnecessarily hostile about gregor. danny!!! hes been nice so far. he looks a little...tall to be 14, but. danny doesnt know anything about him! (he does Suspect, but...you cant just spy on people and be rude to them from a hunch.) also, gregor kissed her, and when she freaked out, he was like 'oh no!! sorry, we can take it slow! I understand!' which was NICE. I hate jealousy plots still tho.

-altho. umm. tucker, being concerned about danny spying on them??? SAM AND YOU WERE SPYING ON DANNY AND VALERIE A FEW EPISODES AGO!!!!! im not saying its RIGHT, but dont be a hypocrite!!! AND THEN SAM BEING MAD ABOUT IT, TOO.

-DANNY IS A 7 ON THE SCALE OF ECTOPLASMIC POWER!!! out of 10? so I want to know where the other ghosts rank...I mean it's a list from the guys in white, so, it may not even be accurate, like, they havent seen ALL of his powers, have they?

-Lancer being like 'im not cooperating with the FEDS' until they said they could access his tax records. they already did that joke with jack, but like, its still funny. kings of tax evasion.

-tucker's aggressive third-wheeling. but gregor being super into it. gregor/tucker is the real ship here. then gregor kissing danny on both cheeks after hugging him. bi poly king gregor. (he does turn out to be a liar with a phoney accent. unsurprising, BUT THE CONCEPT OF HIM BEING GENUINE AND THEM ALL DATING IS FUN)

-THE...GUYS IN WHITE THINKING GREGOR IS DANNY PHANTOM. LMAOOO. GET HIS ASS. or,, Elliot. lmfao

-sam saying tucker is part of the package because theyre friends was super sweet <3 but also 'part of the package'...polyships are obviously the solution to these dumb jealousy/love triangle plots.

-danny crashed a whole plane. the collateral damage...

-is he....

-you know....

.... (ITS NOT GAY IF YOU'RE DOING IT TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT, AND LIE TO A GIRL. RIGHT? he was getting a little too into pretending to enjoy tucker's company, and the above...c'mon, guy.)

-lmao, freakshow is in actual prison. I didn't expect a follow up, or for him to show back up! in the finale of this season, too!

-THE SICK TATTOO GHOST IS NAMED LYDIA!!! more Lore On her. freakshow seemed genuinely concerned about her. also, is she mute? I don't think she talked the first time we saw her, either. and we didn't know freakshow 'envied' ghosts, either, the first time, we just knew he was controlling them. interesting!

-...they literally stole the infinity gauntlet from marvel and called it the reality gauntlet. is that legal. what the fuck. even with the gems in the lil slots, having different powers...they had freakshow in jail, but didnt check his pockets??! hes just still in his lil outfit??? what kind of ...oh, its in amity park. yeah, all of the adults are idiots, okay, sure.

-'freakshow!' 'in the anemic flesh!' dude take some iron pills then. also, sure, the red eyes could be contacts for his aesthetic, but the whites of his eyes are yellow! does he have jaundice?! he severely needs more...like, every kind of vitamin. (this is what im worried about as freakshow attacks danny with giant robots)

-again, goth circus is a sick theme, and I love his goth train.

-oh FUCK every single person saw danny transform. on a stage. including his parents via TV. oh god. the guys in white and immediately like 'youre coming in for experiments!' SCARY. at least the crowd is willing to help him to escape...perks of now being a local celeb! even the kids at school are accepting :) this is what, the third time his family has found out? its always been an alt timeline tho. and danny fully intending to just rewrite things again instead of...I dunno, trying to roll with it this time? hes really worried his family won't accept him, huh...

-'maybe our son IS THE GHOST BOY, but its not as if our family's ghostly activities have EVER PUT YOUR FAMILIES IN DANGER' maddie. mmmmmmmmmmmm. okay.

-danny 100% prepared to run away from home because of this :( oh :( and saying his parents are 'looking for him, or a scalpel to dissect him with' ouch...

-THE GUYS IN WHITE TRYING TO ARREST A 14 YEAR OLD. fuck da feds.

-side note (another one about voice actors...) freakshow's voice actor, Jon Cryer, was lex luthor in pretty much every DC tv show, which is why I recognized his voice, because my dad loves those shows so I've seen a good bit of them without seeking them out...)

-the old man saying 'hey, i still had minutes left!' and danny saying 'you gotta watch those roaming charges!' about danny destroying the people in the diner's phones so no one could report seeing him...would kids today understand these things. can you even BUY minutes anymore...I remember my first phone being a flip phone, and the fact I always had minutes when my sister ran out super fast, because I didnt have friends calling or texting me like she did...:/

-the fentons being genuinely like 'why didnt danny trust us and tell us this, we love him :(' and JAZZ LAYING INTO THEM WITH THE 'DISSECTION/MOLECULE BY MOLECULE' LINES. LITERALLLLY. they need to apologize

-technically, lydias stronger than you! -jazz lesbianism moments! when did you even learn her name!!! but also get freakshows ass. lydia is also cooler looking. looove her design sm still.

-jazz psychoanalyzing freakshow... (also, her also having ghost envy? au where jazz is a ghost!! id like to see it)

-im glad the kids still got to go to their respective vacation things, even if they cant really stick around and enjoy them much...

-furry: confirmed. (also tucker calling her hot. tucker is a furry confirmed)

-danny being mad someone at the comic con is selling comics of him without permission, lmfao. give him his royalties!

-freakshow > thanos because hes a drama clown and does use his gauntlet to be FLASHY AND DRAMATIC.

-jazz's 'USE PYSCOLOGY' to danny about freakshow LMAOO. AND THEN IT WORKING. but, oh, freakshow's ghost form sucks. I like him as a clown better tbh. good thing danny took away his ghost powers!

-his parents hugging him and saying theyre proud :"( and saying 'of course you lied to us, we never gave you a reason not to!' and saying they were in the wrong basically for always talking about hurting ghosts aaaa :""(

-then he WIPED THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN!!! FUCK. I can understand him wiping the goverments/student bodies' memories, but why his parents?? they were being accepting!! ARGHHH. season 3 couldve been them all trying to adjust to them knowing!

-I know, on a meta level the showrunners probably wanted to just reset things to the status quo of him having a secret identity. But. We've been doing that for (2) seasons, I'd love if season 3 could be like, his parents adjusting to this and trying way harder to learn more and accept it (and the shenanigans that could come from that) and for fun, if he didn't wipe the students memories, it could be him being popular for a while, then everyone slowly realizing, oh, he's still Danny. Like. he might have ghost powers but hes Just The Same Guy instead of putting him on a pedestal (and seeing them all try and help him hide it from the giw/people who don't know!!)

-fuck they didn't even explain WHY he wiped everyone except sam, tucker and jazz's memories. he just Did It right when his parents were saying they loved/accepted him!! and sam and tucker didnt question it at all!!! HELLO??? very annoyed about this turn of events.

-anyway. onto season 3! I know its shorter than the first two seasons, and is the last season... I might just do it in 2 bursts if I can... :3c depends on the episodes' content and how much I want to say about each!

#sanchoyorambles #danny phantom #dp thoughts

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sethmacenzie · 3 years

Text

Spinner time travel quirk headcanons

For @whoatimetravel-main whose answer to this post from @oldphone-whodis my tumblr forgot to tell me and I saw by sheer luck.

So thing is I have like a lot of different headcanons for different time travel versions, but all have in common that Spinner is not letting it happen again the same way, especially the death of Twice and Magne (even though they weren’t close).

And Spinner still wants to destroy hero society and be with his friends and wants them to succeed. Especially Tomura. And of course he does not want AFO to take over Tomura.

Version 1: only Spinner gets time travel powers and it’s pretty much the original post base (some variations would be a little earlier, so Spinner can stop some other stuff from happening, but all versions where the League consists of already wanted criminals start this way.

Basically: Spinner can go two different ways, either he tells them, hopes they buy into it by using knowledge he should not have or he does not tell them and instead just tries to play it saver by reducing the damage the league gets, aka Twice and Magne alive, Compress keeps his arm etc.

While I do find the he tells them and convinces them interesting and a lot of fun it does lead to major changes in the story if the League can just ask Spinner: how did this go, he tells them, they do it differently and hope for the best.

But Spinner is the kind of guy who probably played enough games where one decision can change the entire outcome of the game, so he’d know that this could lead to way worse consequences.

So I think he’d play it safe and go with sticking to what he knows and only making sure his friends survive.

Especially because Tomura pre AFO imprisonment would still be under AFOs influence and saying something against AFO could lead to Spinner’s death, so while I think Twice and Toga would be on board right away with time travel person, Giran, Compress and Dabi could be persuaded through logic arguments, Tomura is the biggest issue to convince here, so Spinner would probably go and play it safe.

Even though I’d love the comedy of Spinner trying to get everyone to believe him. And I can see Spinner telling Dabi, Compress even Giran the truth, he’d probably be safe for them to keep the secret, the chances of Twice or Toga finding out and being distrustful (more so Toga, than Twice, I think he’d understand why such curtail information wouldn’t be given to him) are too high. And of course Dabi is a bit of a wild card in regards to his own goals.

So Spinner plays it safe: he doesn’t tell anyone and just tries to change things a little bit. The Forrest Training Camp and the Hideout ark stay the same (I know OP likes Mustard, and it’s really screwed up that this middle schooler villain just vanishes, but I just have to little knowledge about him to include him and I’d say unless that changes (bnha stand chapter 314) neither does Spinner, so he probably would let the 3 M get arrested.

And he’d definitely let AFO get imprisoned, so that Tomura is finally free of him.

He goes with them to the Overhaul meeting and stops Magne (and therefore Compress) to attack Overhaul, saving them. But he was still an ass, so the Overhaul ark remains relatively the same.

So the next ark with big problems for the League would be the Meta Liberation Army which is where I am a bit torn like Spinner probably would be. Should Giran and Tomura get to keep their fingers? Issue being: if this goes down differently the outcome could be catastrophic for everyone. Tomura needs to win against Re-Destro (and unlock his childhood trauma) and so do Twice and Toga need their power up. So I’d guess that Spinner would let it slide because getting involved could mean a way worse outcome than 7 lost fingers.

Which leads to the currently biggest problem Spinner will have to face: the fight against the pro heroes and Twice death and maybe getting Tomura to not get surgery so that AFO can’t take over.

I’d say this would be a huge moment of Spinner going: this is the point where he’ll have to overdo everything because the outcome is too bad. Current standpoint: Toga missing, Compress arrested and in bad health, Maschia arrested, Twice dead, Tomura’s body got taken over by AFO, their forces lost.

So this would for me be the point where he decides to change everything he can to not let that happen, because saving that point seems useless for this outcome.

My personal favorite would be to get Twice to clone EVERYONE form the PLF and have them at the hideout but actually relocate everyone elsewhere so that the heroes are busy fighting the clones (we saw what the Re-Destro clone alone did). He would hate to find a way to hide this information from Twice as long as possible, until the last moment Hawks is around, then be fast of cloning everyone.

I’d say Spinner made himself a questlog for this, a to-do-list if you will, so in order to finish this mission he has to do the following:

Gets Hawks not to find out about the clones until it’s too late. Get the League into safety. Make sure Twice is as far away as possible from Hawks. Kill Best Jeanist probably, I mean he is just lying around in a bag in the corner right now. Get Tomura to not get into that tank. But have AFO believe that he does? Last thing would definitely be the hardest part but also might be the moment where he tells Tomura that time travel was involved, because by now they are actually friends and Tomura was out of AFO grasp for a while.

And of course to still stick close to the raid and the heroes getting Ujiko to knock him out and keep the heroes busy while the League gets out of there he’d need something to put into that tank. Twice clones would not be able to hold it up obviously, maybe Sceptic’s can?

Or Spinner forgoes the whole thing and just tells Tomura and the League just blows the hospital up themselves before getting to Tartarus to kill AFO before anything worse happens.

This is the moment for me where I go in like 50 different directions of what could happen.

Spinner could tell everyone about the future he stopped. Spinner could have everyone be complelty elsewhere and them just watching the heroes loose their shit because everyone is a clone.

The PLF having survived could go full on war against the heroes, which would probably not end well either.

Spinner might tell Dabi that he knows who he is and wants to help take down Endevour and they could make it bigger than what actually happened. I am sure Compress would help putting up a show and Toga and Tomura would be on board of: shitty father deserves to go down.

There are so many possibilities for this.

Other than that and other Version of Time Travel would be either completely different times, picturing baby Spinner trying to get to baby Tomura before he kills his family or stopping Dabi from burning himself, teenager Spinner straight up getting the gang together early, kidnapping Toga before she snaps and showing up at the bar with Kurogiri letting them stay (Oboro liked strays too), maybe it’s a groundhog day situation of the day of the raid and he has to figure out how to save Twice from Hawks and Tomura from AFO.

And then there are the versions of Time Travel where it’s not only Spinner but other people get it too.

Like every one of the League getting time traveled and now there have some meeting before everything goes down just sitting there like: now what? And Toga not stopping to hug Twice. Maybe ever person I currently see joining as a major player in the finale battle against AFO getting time traveled and they have to figure out how to not let that happen, with Shoto going all out trying to find his brother and talk to him, Uraraka reaching out to Toga and Deku knowing he has to save Tomura but not knowing how to in this timeline.

My personal favorite: Spinner and Bakugo being the only people who time travel and they have to work together to stop this whole mess and the whole thing just being an entire comedy because they keep in check with each other, planning out who does what like: If you take down Overhaul, we’ll take down the Doctor and his Nomus – We’ll have to wait until Daku wins this fight and unlocks this power otherwise it won’t work, -I forgot Toga can’t use quirks yet. Like the worst version of a buddy comedy you can think of.

#bnha #au headcanons #spinner #shuichi iguchi #league of villains #tomura shigaraki #himiko toga #dabi #mr compress #twice #magne #bakugo katsuki #afo

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gkingoffez · 3 years

Text

2020 RvB Valentines Exchange uwu

@rvbgiftexchange

My partner was MentalMaterial but I think they’ve changed their name to @linklebard ?

Anyway, here’s ur Tuckington mutual pining bed sharing as requested. Enjoy!

Words: 1833

Pairing: Tuckington

~~~

Tucker was fucked. He had to be- fucked in the head or the heart or the mostly healed stab wound in his side from that fucker Felix. Something had to be wrong, despite the fortified walls of Armonia around him, the Chorus truce, the energy sword in his bag and especially the ex-Freelancer standing beside him in the confined corridor who he hadn’t expected to be there.

“I’m sorry, sirs!” squeaked the young woman in front of them, a civilian wearing a military lanyard, pulling at her frazzled hair with one hand and frantically scrolling on her data-pad with the other. “There must have been a glitch in the program- you should have been assigned your own private rooms. I’m so sorry, our equipment is so outdated and it does stuff like this sometimes-”

“Please stop apologising, it’s not your fault,” Wash insisted gently. “We understand that this was just a mistake, but we’re tired and just want to go to bed?”

“Are you sure there’s no more spare rooms on this floor? A secret penthouse with a jacuzzi maybe? I’ll take it if there is.” asked Tucker.

The woman shook her head, frowning and tapping away. “I’m sor- I mean, no, not here, in fact there’s nothing else on this floor. “This hotel was only converted into officer accommodation a few days ago, and Locus was confirmed to have stayed here while in the city,” she explained.

“There are empty rooms further along that way, but we haven’t had time to do the same level of security sweeps on them.”

The woman gestured at the plain black door behind her, completely identical to the myriad of other ones lining the narrow corridor.

“This room does have a queen bed, sirs. The easiest solution might be that you can share it for the night and one of you can move tomorrow? I know it’s not ideal, but it’s better than a possible security risk.”

“What?” spluttered Tucker. “Why aren’t there enough rooms? And What happened to all of us getting private-?”

“Thank you, that’ll do us fine for tonight,” interjected Wash loudly, glaring at him. “We don’t want to cause too much fuss this late in the evening, and definitely don’t want to stay somewhere that’s not secure. Don’t you agree, Captain Tucker.”

Tucker gaped, words escaping him under Wash’s gaze.

He was fucked. Because once the adrenaline had worn off discovering a manufactured civil war, transmitting that info globally, being betrayed and stabbed by Felix, confronting Hargrove and whatever else happened in the less than a week since he’d snuck off the New Republic base, Tucker suddenly had time and space for… thoughts.

Thoughts like how much he’d truly missed the man standing beside him.

Wash, who’d been a hardass in the canyon like he was being fucking paid for it, who’d kept them all fed and alive and together, and then he’d gone and done the heroic sacrifice play, like an idiot, and suddenly he was gone. It felt like all Tucker had thought about for the last several months was whether Wash was okay, whether he was in pain or alone or dead. At points he’d almost wished they’d swapped places, that he was taking the (in hindsight, non-existent) punishment from the Federal Army, and Wash was the one training the Lieutenants.

Then out of the blue, Wash was back. Wash was fine. Everyone was fine, and like a circle, the whirlwind of betrayal, civil war, stabbing yada-yada unfolded. Tucker had only just caught his breath again and was looking forward to actually relaxing for once, only to end up in this corridor, standing awkwardly in front of a room they’d both been assigned to.

Wash was staring pointedly at him with those stupid clear blue eyes that made Tucker’s heart jump, and it was clear something must have been wrong, because that wasn’t right. It was physical and mental exhaustion, not love. He wasn’t some hormonal teenager, he was a grown man who wanted to go to fucking bed and not have to deal with his fucking feelings.

“Yeah, whatever, let’s just go then,” Tucker said offhandedly, adjusting his sack over his shoulder and stomping into the room without another word.

It was small but glamourous compared to normal military quarters- the hiss of the sliding door muffled against thick looking carpet, one door presumably leading to a bathroom, a single kitchen cabinet with a sink and a lowboy with a television mounted to the wall above it.

The bed took up the bulk of the space in the far end of the room. Behind it hung thick mustard coloured curtains, although Tucker knew even without having to move them that they’d been covered barred with a bullet proof covering as part of the security sweep. What was the point of being a heroes of Chorus, after all, if a well-placed sniper could take them out through a hotel window?

“Home sweet home, I guess,” Tucker shrugged, ignoring his jumping heart as he unceremoniously dumped his stuff on the ground near the kitchen space.

“Thank you for stopping to help us. We’ll be fine.” Wash was saying as he backed into the room. “Good night.”

“Good night sirs!” the woman said, “And again, I’m so-!”

The door hissed shut, Wash’s hand on the button.

“What the fuck, dude,” cried Tucker, rounding on him. “You didn’t have to immediately say yes. I could have pawned Caboose onto someone else and taken his room or something.”

“Oh don’t bother Caboose, he’s probably already asleep and you’ll never wake him. It’s late. All we need is a bed and everything will be else sorted in the morning. One night in the same bed won’t kill us.”

Wash crossed the room and carefully deposited his own knapsack on the lowboy.

“Besides, I wanted us to stay together a little bit longer. To be safe, you know,” he added quietly, glancing Tucker’s way.

Now, of course, Tucker’s eyes had also joined the ‘fucked party’. Was it a trick of the LED lights, or was that a blush on Wash’s cheeks? There was no way to double check, as Wash quickly turned his back on him.

Tucker crossed his arms haughtily, huffing and shaking his head to reset it.“Whatever. I’ll take the right side.”

“Fine by me,” replied Wash, unzipping his bag and rustling around in it, still turned away. “I’m going to change in the bathroom. Oh, and Tucker?”

“Yes?”

“I swear to god if you sleep naked, I’m going to suffocate you with a pillow.”

“Not if I suffocate you first, asshole.”

Maybe ten minutes of bathroom time, brushing teeth and other general night activities later (Tucker was fully clothed in loose borrowed sweats), they were both lying in bed back to back in the queen bed.

“Well,” said Wash. “Good night.”

“Yeah, night.”

As soon as the light turned off, Tucker’s brain switched on like a fucking Christmas tree.

He was not in love with Wash. Love was for girls and people who hadn’t spent literal years on the shittiest military posting ever, then got knocked up, then spent years in the desert, then got dragged on a mission to kill the Freelancer Director, then crashed landed on a planet- well, anyone would get the point. Sure, he acted like a stud and a lady’s man, but truthfully, it had been a long, long time since he’d really loved anyone like that.

Wash had been a fucking Freelancer. Caboose and the Reds talked about him like he was the most capable, badass guy around (barring the time he’d apparently gone evil and shot Donut, of course). Not to mention, he was kinda hot. Sandy hair with streaks of grey, blue eyes, even the criss-cross of scars across his pale skin did things for Tucker. Like he was this put-together, experienced and handsome man next to Tucker’s immaturity and recklessness.

The sheets were feeling too tight and stuffy for his brain, and the slow pattern of Wash’s breathing next to him was not helping. He flipped over onto his back, pulling and rearranging them, staring up at the shadowed ceiling.

“Hey Wash, you asleep yet?” he asked quietly

There was a beat.

“If I was, how would you expect me to answer that?” came the annoyed reply

“I dunno. Snoring?”

Wash snorted. “Just go to sleep, Tucker.”

They were in the same bed. They were in the same bed. Wash was inches away, the kind of distance where Tucker could touch him and then easily brush it off as an accident of movement. Wash’s hand was right there, he’d only need to reach- but no. He couldn’t do that, it wasn’t right.

When Caboose first suggested putting the ex-Freelancer in Church’s empty armour, it hadn’t really mattered to Tucker that much. He was just a guy who’d been an asshole but switched sides in time to help them take out the Meta, may as help him not go back to jail after all. Months in the crash had changed that, and all that time of training and bickering and surviving together had made them friends. He’d bitched and bitched and then watchedWash sacrifice himself as a rockfall separated them had been devastating, throwing into perspective just how goddamn much he cared about all of them despite the fact that they were a bunch of Red and Blue idiots.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder or however the shit went. And Tucker had spent months wishing Wash was ok, wishing he was there, wishing a lot of things.

Maybe he had fallen in love with the man in that time. Maybe it wasn’t as fucked up as he was making it out to be, he’d always been pretty dramatic, after all. Dudes fell in love with dudes all the time, especially when they’d been through a lot together.

Oh for fuck’s sake, none of this matters! There’s no way in hell that he likes me too. Just go to sleep, idiot.

Tomorrow, Tucker could wake up and blame it all on stress, exhaustion and the computer system that had fucked up room assignments. For that moment, however, he felt himself drift off, eyelids heavy and breath evening out.

They had work to do tomorrow rebuilding Chorus and tracking down mercenaries, and the more sleep he got, the better.

The last thing he registered that night was the vibration and rustling sound of Wash twisting in place. However, he must have dreamed about the gentle, tender touch he felt on his face as he was just on the precipice of sleep.

That couldn’t be right.

~~~

A snapshot of the future- tangled limbs in a queen bed, dark on pale and scattered scars. A data-pad hanging limply in a man’s hand, the other gazing at him with an adoring expression. The first glances at the rapture in his lover’s face, and snorts.

“You’re fucked,” he says, jokingly.

“No, you fucked me,” replies Tucker. They laugh.

~~~

Ya’ll let me tell you about the absolute stress rollercoaster I’ve had these past few months. So first up, I completely forgot I’d signed up for this exchange, and was surprised when I got the message. Then I proceeded to have a family death, my birthday and the stress of having to search for a new place to live and start packing up my stuff, all while working my shitty full time job and being exhausted from it.

So to my exchange partner, I’m sorry for not reaching out at all, but my anxiety levels are pretty high these days. This was written pretty quickly, at the last minute and after not writing for probably a year, but I hope you enjoy.

I might have another editing run through it before posting elsewhere but it’s done somewhat on time so I’m happy (Valentine’s was actually yesterday for me and I have to leave for work in like five minutes.)

Anyway, happy love and bed sharing and mutual pining guys. Love ya.

#red vs blue #tuckington #bed sharing #red vs blue fanfiction #G writes #rvbgiftexchange

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nautilusopus · 3 years

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do you have any favorite books?

Coraline by Neil Gaiman is the obvious answer lol. Still my favourite book to this day, obviously hugely influential in my own bullshit. Seriously check it out if you can find a copy, it’s pretty short and absolutely worth your time.

The Devil’s Storybook by Natalie Babbitt and its sequel (The Devil’s Other Storybook) are more of an anthology of short stories starring the Devil, who occupies every role from vague background presence to put-upon protagonist that are funny and thought-provoking and genuinely clever and that pissed enough people off that it was a banned book for a while. “The Imp in the Basket” is the kind of short story I wish more people knew about and wanted to sincerely discuss what actually happened at the end.

ugh i haven’t read a book i actually enjoyed in over ten years at this point uhhhhhh

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. I think potentially the only classic I had to read in school that I genuinely liked and actually finished in one sitting on my own time. And I think the first time any themes a book had for me actually clicked and I was able to do any kind of meta analysis of it completely unprompted. Baby’s first literary comprehension. Slaughterhouse-Five is a semi-autobiographical piece set during the bombing of Dresden in WWII, and also some period in the “future” (the 80s lol), and ALSO on an alien planet as the protagonist is abducted and taken to a human zoo. The story is told achronologically, and I feel is hugely influential to my own shit where it skips around, building a narrative almost entirely by juxtaposing specific moments in time against one another. It's surreal and thought-provoking, and if you only ever make yourself read one classic, it should be this one. *

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien. Bear in mind this thing has fuck-all to do with the movie, and while in retrospect I now am able to enjoy the Don Bluth movie as its own thing, I remember being fucking furious when they busted out a goddamn magical amulet. It’s a different kind of story, but is more magic realism than outright fantasy, and the titular rats get a lot more backstory, as does the late Mr. Frisby iirc.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. God that book fucked me up. It is about a snotty porcelain toy rabbit that gets dropped overboard a ship into the ocean one day, and the various owners he has over the years as he changes hands, and the impacts they have on him, and it makes me fucking cry every time and is to date the only book to ever do so so fairly warned be ye. Fucking shit I wish I could dish out gut-punches half as good as that book could.

The His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman, which in and of itself is an angry rebuttal against everything the Chronicles of Narnia has to say, as well as Christianity in general. You’ve probably seen shit floating around about the HBO series, which I have not watched. Lyra is a horrible gremlin child running wild around a parallel universe Oxford until she accidentally stumbles onto a conspiracy that goes all the way to the Church which unofficially runs the government and eventually starts an interdimensional war against God. The first two books I think are better than the last one, which really drags in spots (and in a twist of irony had Lyra’s sexual awakening censored from the North American release which like... come on man). Absolutely worth checking out though, especially if you’re an angry pedant like I am.

Tales from the House of Bunnicula, by James Howe. Honestly the entire "Bunnicula Expanded Universe"(???) is great, but in particular I'm mentioning this sub-series because I think it actually kind of taught me to write. The framing device used is that they're being written by Howe's pet dog and sent in to him to publish by proxy. On top of having just a lot of good storytelling tips for beginners (how to create a plot! how to create character motivations! how to write female characters like actual people!), they're also fun little satire pieces of various kinds of genre fiction. Like, the third book is a riff on Harry Potter and making fun of all of JKR's worst writing tendencies, like her compulsion to phonetically write out everyone's fucking accent.

these days i'm just too picky to enjoy books anymore idfk. you have no idea how fucking disheartening it was growing up with actual taste (snooty snooty snoot) and watching everyone go nuts over stuff like divergent and eragon and maximum ride and fuckmothering twilight and shit. like, yeah misogyny absolutely played into why people shat on it because teenage girls aren't allowed to like anything, but lest we forget they were still shitty books guys. that never stopped being true or anything. and you were a social pariah if you didn't like them and that sucked. and then a couple ostensibly good series, like harry potter and artemis fowl and hunger games just dropped the fucking ball for one reason or another as they went on and never picked it back up. i think the mid 2000s almost singlehandedly just killed any real enthusiasm i had for reading altogether (this is not even getting into the fact a lot of really fucking bad "grown-up" novels came out around that period too. whole era was a baaaad time for books). so here i am writing, i guess, because i've decided you fuckers can't be trusted to make anything good yourselves. if you want something done right...

(*I like to think if Cloud wrote a book he’d write something like Slaughterhouse-Five. I think at one point I was even working on a fic along those lines -- a fictional story vaguely based off the burning of Nibelheim and the fall of Shinra that was written, in-universe, by Cloud several years later. Abandoned it just because of how fucking complicated it would be to do. Might come back to it one day.)

#asks #Anonymous

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