#find out in the next episode of joanna screaming and trying to get through her masters degree in one piece ✨ | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

whitleyschn33 · 3 years

Text

RWBY Volume 8 Episode One: Quick Thoughts

Or not so quick, seeing how long it took me to write this and how much I ended up having to say. Spoilers (duh) under the cut, as this thing got insanely long.

So we open with a maid scrubbing a floor, a shot that lasted long enough I was starting to wonder where it was going before we cut to Cinder. So, Cinder backstory - interesting way to open the volume, but I’m not sure if it’s a good way. At the very least, I would have cut it a couple seconds, or have it flash between Cinder’s face and the flashback. Same information, but given in a quicker manner that lets us know exactly what we’re seeing instead of wonder who this random maid is for 10 seconds.

Whale aircraft carrier. The design is interesting, if looking a bit too clean for my taste. I would’ve liked to see the bones and muscles of the Grimm incorporated into the design a bit more, the surfaces less smooth and more textured, but it looks good.

Facial acting on Neo is good - I appreciate being able to see what’s running through her head, even if it also makes me wonder why Salem isn’t picking up on the obvious tells.

Emerald and Mercury are back and with new outfits; I can hear the diehard EmMerc fans screaming from here. Would’ve liked a better look at the whole outfits (I don’t think there’s even one close up of their entire bodies), but I like Mercury’s! Emerald’s model feels off to me for some reason, like it’s wider or more padded (?) than before, but it’s not a big deal and is probably just a result of her wearing a jacket now.

Oh, yeah, Hazel got one too, don’t care.

Why does the whale have a screen? A connection to one of those seer orb Grimm?

Cinder is still not interesting to me, but I am curious - can one woman hold multiple maiden powers? What happens if one woman holds them all? If they can hold multiple powers, what happens when they die? Do they both/all go to the same person, or would they split?

I like the Faunus that gives Oscar the soup. His design is pretty cute to me (I think he’s a mole Faunus?), and I feel like he’s based on something, but I’m not sure what. Getting a Narnia vibe for some reason, which I’m always on board for.

How did Ruby know where Oscar ended up? Did he call?

Weiss’s braid looks much better! I’m still not a huge fan of it, but this model is an enormous improvement - it actually looks like hair instead of rope, it’s slicker, and doesn’t look as heavy. Nice job, animators. Blake’s looks better, too, more fluffy, but it’s not as drastic a change to me.

Nice to see the Happy Huntresses actually doing something to help Mantle, and having Joanna(? that’s her name, right?) take charge and be helping Ruby get Oscar back in exchange for their aid is nice. It feels realistic for a situation like this.

And more secret keeping, but in this case, dropping the Oz bombshell would actually probably be a bad idea. There’s enough going on, bringing up Oz being back can wait until tensions aren’t as high.

Why would Ironwood stop evacuation? That makes no sense for his character, and there’s no reason to stop them. Until he gets Penny back, Atlas isn’t going anywhere. Might as well keep evacuating until you can find here, get as many people to safety as possible before getting away. I’d assume the Doylist answer for this is that Mantle still needs to be a factor in any decisions made after this and it can’t be that if we can get everyone evacuated, but that doesn’t make the Watsonian explanation make more sense.

Actually a good plan, getting everyone into the crater if it is in fact warm (why, I wonder? Thermal vents? Heat coming off of Atlas?) solves the cold problem (that people should’ve probably already died from) and having to defend one smaller location is strategically a good option. Corralling people would also make any eventual evac to Atlas easier. There is the small problem of, you know, Atlas literally crushing anyone in the crater if the staff is used on anything else, and Salem is known to be after that Staff, sooooooo -

Okay, maybe a nitpick, but I thought Pierto’s specialty was prosthetics and robotics. Doesn’t seem like something that necessarily overlaps with what’s needed to convert Amity into a satellite. I guess maybe the engine/whatever is going to propel it into the air could be similar to Penny’s boosters/whatever lets her fly, but it doesn’t seem like something that he would be involved in raising Amity. Whatever - I know we need a scientist person to tell these things to RWBY+Co and Pierto is the most likely candidate to be in a position to do that.

It seems like, from Ruby’s dialogue, she both wants to warn the other kingdoms and ask for their help. This has been trampled to death, so I won’t rant, but - there is no one that’s going to be able to help. Argus is hours away, will take time to assemble, and isn’t a very large force to begin with. Mistral is still weakened from V5 and has next to no huntsman, and is even farther than Argus. No idea what’s going on with Vale, but they’re probably still nursing their wounds from the Fall. Vacuo is the only kingdom likely to be able to muster up a force, but they’re on the other side of the map and will take hours, if not days, to get together an army - and that’s if they decide they want to help at all. The other objective was warning the Kingdoms about Salem. Ignoring that Salem is immortal and can just throw as many Grimm as she pleases until the defenses fall, ignoring that the other Kingdoms might not even believe Ruby, what’s to say they won’t go “F*ck Atlas, they’re on their own” and recall every available Huntsman and Huntress to shore up their own defenses? Or what if the other kingdoms just fall into anarchy? Learning an immortal witch with an endless supply of Grimm will come knocking on your doorstep soon tends to cause chaos. Or is Ruby going to leave the whole immortal part out again? I just can’t see what this will accomplish.

Holy shit, it’s actually happening. Dissent from WBY, and it’s coming from Yang of all people - I love it. I wish Yang had gotten to finish her sentence, say something along the lines of “Maybe if we’d told the truth immediately things wouldn’t have gone this way” since that would fit with her “hate secrets” thing she had going on in V5/6, but the fact that Yang is actually questioning Ruby’s leadership and choices - yes yes yes, more of that please, less of the hive mind. I wish it’d come a little earlier, but at this point I’ll take what I can get.

I’m slightly confused at the sides that Ren and Nora are taking here. I like that we’re splitting them up here (we never get to see them separated, and after last volume, I am more than on board with letting Ren get some breathing room), but Ren going with Yang, Jaune, and Oscar to help evacuate Mantle while Nora goes on the “bigger picture” team to get Amity up and running seems weird considering where they were last volume. Nora was always screaming about how the big picture stuff was hurting Mantle, while Ren was pushing to keep training, keep working, support Ironwood and try and work at the big picture problem, so it would seem like they should be on opposite sides. I’m not saying it makes no sense - I can absolutely see Ren feeling protective of towns under attack from Grimm with no Huntsmen in their corner - but it feels like a bit of a 180 from their last positions.

Did Oscar just call Jaune “John”?

Yeah, if nothing else, don’t let Penny get anywhere near Salem or her cronies. Salem can absolutely not be allowed to get her hands on the Staff, especially with the whole “get everyone to the crater” plan. Squish.

Yang and Blake splitting up, maybe we can actually get some conversations on what the hell is up with them that we should have gotten in V6/V7 instead of petty showing off and Nora projecting.

“But what about Mantle?” “Oh, I’m helping Mantle.” with the same thing you spent all last volume complaining about. Uh-huh, that’s not annoying.

Weiss has an idea on how to get up to Atlas - Winter’s ship, maybe? That one she came in on in V3 was her personal ship, wasn’t it?

Ironwood calls Penny. From the music, it sounds like they were aiming for foreboding and manipulative, but Ironwood just sounds tired, the poor man. Love how Ruby doesn’t even try for a comeback for Ironwood’s argument, really convincing.

Dead Clover, and I hope that he stays that way, because if he’s brought back to life, so much of V6′s themes of life and death and the natural cycle is just going to be spit on (again). Clover is dead, and there should be no way around that save interference from a literal god. Any attempt at bringing him back needs some kind of drawback - some prevision of life, a body that moves but his soul isn’t there, something, please RT, don’t double back on your “Death is permanent” thing again.

And Ironwood did lose his arm completely. It’s an awesome looking prosthetic, but the fact that it’s black when the rest of his prosthetics are silver, combined with the comments made by the CRWBY about Ironwood’s humanity, make me very afraid they’re going to go for some sort of bullshit parallel to Cinder’s black Grimm arm. I do like the orchestral version of Hero playing here, though.

I like Winter’s new hair style - similar enough to her previous one, but looser. Not exactly happy about what that might symbolize, but it looks really good. It looks like she might have nerve damage, though, which would mean she might be off the battlefield until she can get her hands (hah) on some sort of brace to help her move her hands (which might be hinted at in the OP~)

I do really like Ironwood and Winter’s relationship, please don’t f*ck it up, CRWBY.

Is the only thing CRWBY knows how to do to make Ironwood seem like the bad guy shoot people for no goddamn reason? Ironwood was surrounded by loyal soldiers after declaring martial law, there was no reason for him to not just order Slate detained (that one was Slate, right? Not that it matters). The man’s annoying and probably in cahoots with Jacques, but shooting him is out of character, excessive, and makes no sense when he could just be arrested. “It shows he’s slipping -” No. It’s lazy writing meant for shock value and to give characters a reason to go “Oh, he’s going evil now, I better question my loyalty to him” (based on the look Winter and Harriet share) rather than any actual flaw in his plans maybe because CRBY realized that Ironwood’s plans are rational and the best one on the table right now, so they can’t use that to turn people against him. F*ck that.

Salem sends a bloodhound or whatever after Oscar, we already saw this bit in the trailers. No comment.

TLDR: Once again, RWBY sets up a lot of stuff that I find interesting and want to see more of. However, their treatment of Ironwood doesn’t make me optimistic for them to treat him right, and RWBY has a track record of setting up good concepts/plots/characters/arcs and then failing to execute them well or at all. We’ll have to see if V8 actually lives up to the promise or falls flat due to the issues that plagued V6 and V7 .

Going to make a whole new list for the OP because dear Lord, this thing is dense.

This song is definitely more in line with RWBY’s usual sound than Trust Love, and I’m all for that. The beat is a little hinky to me - it’s going to take a few re-listens to get used to it - and once again I wish the lyrics were clearer, but I know people that weren’t as happy with V7′s sound will be happy with this return to form.

Establishing shots of Mantle going to hell, nice use of red and contrast, but I wish there was a bit more use of shadow to really sell the red coming from fires and emergency lights.

Ruby standing alone, turning to find the others standing at the ready to fight, but away from her and with their backs turned. Any chance of more dissent? Will we actually get some growth from Ruby, in regards to her leadership in particular? We can only hope.

The four girls, on a blackish/blue background with floating warm lights, with images of their V1 selves in their clothes/hair/weapons. I really love the animation in the portion, the girls look so good. It also makes me wish we’d get some sort of flashback to V1-3, because I want more of their Beacon designs in the new animation style. The fact that this background/setting shows up again later in the trailer makes me wonder if it might be what the interior of the Atlas vault looks like. No basis for that, just a random thought. Couple minor nitpicks, focused on Yang. The fact that she’s the only one not in a more dynamic pose (and this is Yang of all people) seems odd, and the way her hair flows looks weird to me based on the angles and whatnot. Putting her in a different pose like a charge would fix this, letting her hair flow more naturally and giving them the space they need to to add in her past self. Otherwise, gorgeous.

Ironwood with Atlas inside him, slowly being overtaken by the red as he looks up. No real comment other than beautiful.

Clover dropping his pin, with the AceOps and Qrow in the leaves, before transitioning to Qrow taking Robyn’s hand in prison. It looks like Harriet will be taking over as team leader. I don’t have a lot to say here - Marrow’s the only AceOp I’m interested in, and Qrow and Clover’s relationship has never been compelling for me. Robyn, similarly, is not a character I like, so a Qrow/Robyn team-up jailbreak isn’t something that I’m interested in unless Watts is involved. Already teamed up with one villain, Qrow, why stop there?

Oscar in pain holding his head, while Grimm eyes surround him and then Salem with wyvern wings comes out and looms over him preparing to grab him. I like the visual of Salem as the Wyvern at Beacon, but her face looks almost doofy in this shot. I think it’s the lack of expression mixed with the eyes. If she had a more menacing expression, I think this would work a lot better.

The falling weapons of the girls, Crescent Rose with Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud with Ember Celica. Cue the shippers.

Jaune with his sword in front of his face, pulling it down to be at the ready, with Nora and Ren in the far background, their backs turned on each other but looking sad at their positions. I know Jaune’s thing is probably generic, but it gives me Mulan vibes, which is funny considering. Hey, hint that Martial Arcs will become canon now that Renora is on the rocks? fingers crossed More of Ren and Nora’s rough patch, and I really hope that that gets some focus. Their kiss last volume left a bad taste in my mouth with how it went down, and getting into these two as separate characters and their relationship. Ren not requiting Nora’s romantic feelings towards him would be a really interesting place to go with these characters that everyone’s pegged together since episode 4 (in no small part due to their lack of interaction with anyone else, but I’ll get to that).

Winter and Weiss walking towards each other on the Schnee symbol, passing each other by with Winter getting her new hairstyle and a brace of some sort. She’s actually wearing this brace in the hospital, but on the other arm, while now it’s on the arm she couldn’t bend her fingers with. Interesting, and it looks all looks really good!

The Schnee snowflake falls between Whitley and Willow, before shattering onto a chessboard. YESSSS, Whitley’s in the intro again! That’s more than I could’ve hoped, and I really really hope that him looking contemplatively like that means something - that’s he’s figuring things out, coming up with a plan, something! Still no new design though T-T CRWBY, what do I have to do to get my boy some new clothes?

From the chessboard, Salem rises up, turning the other black pieces into Grimm to attack the white where Ironwood stands. His pieces turn to dust, the board blowing away entirely. Nice callback to V1. Ironwood stands alone - no allies, and no space to move forward. He’s a king with nowhere to move - check or checkmate.

Smug Watts hacking while leaning against a mirror, rotates to show Pierto doing the same, his reflection looking over its shoulder at him, then a pan to Penny to show the same thing before the mirror breaks. I’m not sure what this might symbolize. Inability to trust yourself, maybe?

A snowflake flies through the air and lands in Ren’s palm. It turns into a flower petal, (or scraps his hand, I can’t quite tell) then Yang, Jaune, and Oscar join him, Ren smiling to Jaune. Another flower petal flies by to transition to Nora, who reaches out but can’t catch it, looking dismayed until RWBP comes in to join her. I assume the symbolism is straight-forward - the snowflake turns to a petal when caught by Ren (lotus guy), then flies to Nora who can’t catch it. Really living for the Ren focus in the op~

Pans to a shot of the whole group in the middle of everything - Atlas and Mantle overrun with Grimm on one side, Salem’s whale and Grimm army on the other, and Amity in the middle, which Penny flies up to hover below. Penny is going to be vital to launching Amity, and probably for reasons other than the terminal.

Then Ruby and Yang looking at each other with a smile and nod before the girls jump into fighting some Grimm. Interesting bit when the volume opens with the sisters starting to have disagreements.

The entire thing freezes, Cinder strolling cockily past the crew to walk in front of a bored/disgruntled Neo and Emerald who starts to wave but looks dejected when Cinder ignores her. Not much to say here - I don’t really like the freeze frame for some reason, no idea why. This also doesn’t give us any new info on the dynamics between these three characters.

Cinder grabs her Grimm arm in pain as fire flares up behind her, transitioning into Merc, Tyrian, Hazel, and Salem with the lamp in her eyes, transitioning to the lamp and staff twirling around each other, both emitting smoke like they’re being used as they come together. I wonder if this means that the last question and the Staff are going to be used, and maybe together? Once again, though - Atlas falling, people in the crater die.

Smoke clears up to reveal Ruby, looking up to Atlas first in invasion mode, then peaceful. Turn to a shot of the group standing looking to the left, Yang and Ruby looking like they’re posed but the others just kind of standing there. It’s a weird shot, and I’m not sure what to make of it, honestly.

The ice breaks beneath Ruby’s feet, sending RWBY falling into a void, their bodies trailing those lights that we saw before. Ruby opens her eyes to see the brightest light, the Staff. She reaches out to it, but Grimm paws and hands drag her down. V6 callback?

The word Happy? flashes only to be crossed out, a sketchy Grimm roaring, then the words Ever then Never as it’s crossed out, with a sketchy Penny lifting her head and her eyes then face going red, then the words After Again being crossed out. I’m not really of the words - I think it’s going for a Happily Ever After Happy? Never Again thing, but there’s no Happily that I can see, and it just kind of comes across as a bit emo to me. I like the sketches of the Grimm and Penny - I think it might be a Wyvern Grimm or something like that, and the red spreading from Penny’s eyes to her entire outline is interesting. I wonder if it’s connected to the Maiden powers and how she’ll use them.

Sketches of RWBY’s weapon fall into the snow, Crescent Rose falling with the tip stuck in the snow, then a flash and a pull out to Crescent Rose in the snow in full animation, framed by the broken moon as rose petals fly by with the “Created by Monty Oum” credit appears. I really like this as a reference to the Red trailer, and compared to the very cluttered ending shot of V7, this is a nice change of pace.

I like this OP. It’s definitely above V7′s for me, with a good song and some beautiful animation in it’s visuals. If I had to criticize it, I would say that it feels very long and cluttered. My breakdown of the opening feels as long as everything I mentioned in the actual episode. I realize one was going almost shot by shot, while the other summarized, but the point still stands that this things feels longer than it needs to be (I’d have to check time stamps to see if it is actually significantly longer).

A more promising start, all in all, than I’d hoped for. Things irritate me for sure, Ironwood’s treatment, Ruby’s plan, all that stuff, but I know I would have those bones to pick going in. The shake-up of the usual teams and the promise of inter-group conflict is enough to get me to want more, and I look forward to seeing how my favorite characters will be utilized.

What are your thoughts on the episode? Reblog and comment down below, and we’ll start a convo.

Until next time~

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby volume 8 #rwby8 spoilers #rwby 8 spoilers #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xioa long #episode breakdown

22 notes · View notes

real-jaune-isms · 3 years

Text

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 4 Review/Remix

A pretty good episode this time, and only 30% pain and despair so things are looking up! But when it goes mean it goes real strong with the mean. Lots to think about here, and boy oh boy do I wonder what we’ll see next week!

For a nice touch of levity, we open on Robyn telling a funny story about a time Joanna lost a fight to try and pass the time. Maybe she’s trying to cheer Qrow up too, but as someone who gets very bored at work pretty often I get the appeal of talking just to keep sane. She sees Qrow is too lost in his brooding about Clover’s pin to listen to the story, and Jacques is too busy fussing over a fly buzzing around his head (the Pence jokes write themselves). Tough crowd indeed, though her joke about Ironwood needing to pay for cell block entertainment does get a smile and a chuckle from the sad old bird. She takes this chance to apologize, possibly again and we’re just seeing this conversation now, for what happened with Clover. Many would argue it is really her fault for getting trigger happy back in the airship when Qrow was the one under arrest, but that’s an argument not worth having because the blame soup was being stirred by way too many cooks to make a clear verdict. Qrow, however, blames himself for deciding to team up with Tyrian, which was certainly a bad move. It was a heat of the moment thing, and he makes it clear he really would have preferred working with Clover to re-detain Tyrian again, but Clover just wouldn’t let up on his arrest orders. The real pain though, he admits, is that he had really started to let his guard down around this guy and thought her could actually make a partnership work again without his Semblance tossing 1,000 monkey wrenches into the mix. Feels like a fairy tale dream, vanishing like a rose petal on the wind, like every other friend. I of course added the part about rose petals, because you know he meant Summer and the unity of STRQ she probably represents in his mind. Robyn knows a thing or two about having a Semblance that impairs your relationships. Not many people like being around someone they can’t keep anything private from, and she can call out and mistruthing with a touch of the hand. Qrow has to admit he hadn’t considered someone else having that kind of personal trouble like he does, but their conversation is ended by Harriet coming in to toss Watts back in his cell. She’s pissy at Qrow and says he shouldn’t have Clover’s pin, but he retorts he has no reason not to have it since he’s not Clover’s killer. She still has a hard time believing that since Harbinger was the murder weapon, but Robyn finally raises a very good point. Miss Hill is a literal walking polygraph and all they would need to do to prove Qrow’s innocence is let her out of her cell and take her hand. But they won’t do that because they don’t want to prove what’s really true here, they want to cling to a convenient story so they don’t have to admit what really happened. Cuz if they put those glasses back on and face the facts, that means reevaluating what side their on if Clover died because he refused to help detain a serial killer before arresting a former colleague and that’s the real problem. Hare had already threatened that if she was gonna open the cell she wouldn’t use her hands for a friendly shake, and the dig at her allegiances and her ignorance towards Ironwood’s sins almost riles her up to the point of taking Robyn’s bait. But Marrow calls her back down to sensibility and she leaves in a huff. Robyn lays back and sighs at how there was almost something exciting happening.

Cutting to an actually exciting scene, Yang Jaune and Ren are outside the city chasing the Hound through a mountainous canyon on their bikes. It can fly while they have to navigate the rocks, and their bikes aren’t handling the cold terribly well. Yang laments that none of them can fly, but that inspires Jaune to pull out his shield and get closer to Ren. He’s gonna get his teammate up there, and Ren immediately understands how. Leaping off his bike and onto Jaune’s shield, he’s launched through the air by the burst of Gravity Dust in the crest and uses his grapple line blade to wrap around the Hound’s leg... and get dragged through the air like Curious George at the end of a bunch of balloons. Still, he’s weighing it down some and can climb up the line to get in close... when he’s not getting swung around against the cliffside. To further slow it down, he shoots his other line around a big rock that gets dragged behind them for about 5 seconds before the Hound flies higher up and the line comes loose. Ren gets knocked around even more while Yang finds an inclined path that gives her enough height to start shooting at the Grimm. It handles this fairly well, by dropping Oscar from its mouth into its hands and flying ahead of her with a loud roar. Apparently one of its Grimm for all Seasons abilities is to call for backup, because dozens of Centinels suddenly burrow up out of the rocks and ground around them and several Teryx swoop in above. Navigating becomes that much more difficult for the blondes, especially when one Centinel spits acid and hits the thruster of Jaune’s bike. He thinks fast and leaps off his bike to launch off another Grimm in front of him and flip onto a rocky overpass where he almost loses his balance and falls back down. Luckily Yang instead zooms by and pulls him onto her bike where they continue their pursuit. She does a great job of bobbing and weaving around the insects, but a Teryx lands in their path. Jaune tosses his shield grenade in front of a large rock and they drive onto it to tilt it into a ramp, launching over the avian foe into a spin between two more big bugs. They bump on a rock, but the Grimm cannot touch them with Yang’s driving. Unfortunately, they have a far more dangerous problem: They’re heading towards the edge of a massive cliff. Yang tries to make a quick turn but instead flips the bike over and launches both of them off to go tumbling off the precipice. Jaune tries to plant his sword in the ground as an anchor, but he doesn’t keep hold of it with their momentum and they both fall with a very believable scream. Big props to Miles and Barbara for this and the dramatic performances soon to come. Ren comes swooping in for a massive save and grapples Jaune’s sword with one weapon and the poor guy’s leg with the other. Jaune grabbed Yang by the hand so she’s fine too, but an incoming Teryx might soon negate it all. Luckily, Ren instead negates all their emotions with his Semblance and the Teryx passes them by. Less lucky, Ren being here means he’s not hanging from the Hound. He let it get away with Oscar to save his friends, and you know he’s kicking himself for it.

Shifting scenes from that tense gloom, we see Weiss decided the safest place to take Nora for the time being is her own damn mansion. Whitley answers the door and is about to try and berate Weiss for this but she is having none of it. She holds him at swordpoint and insists that they are coming inside. Whitley is very against the idea of harboring fugitives after the hit the Schnee family’s reputation has taken in the wake of its patriarch’s arrest for war crimes, and Blake is quite frustrated that this is what he chooses to complain about. The staff is all gone, Willow has retreated to her room and assumable to the bottle, you gotta admit Whitley probably feels more alone now than ever and is... coping in less than ideal ways. Weiss still seemingly carries a chip on her shoulder of wanting to prove that she is doing something actually important and she made the right move by leaving home to be a Huntress, so she insists that Whitley has no right to nag them because they are saving the Kingdom here. At least, that’s what my 2 semesters of psychology classes would tell me. Ruby plays intermediary between the Schneeblings and lays down their very minimal terms. Let them stay here a little while so Nora can rest and recover, and then they will leave him to his sulking and riches. Whitley begrudgingly accepts and asks what he has to do, and Weiss seems to relish this chance to tell him to go to his room. Finally flexing her big sister authority without Papa around to veto her in favor of his adoring son. But like Willow said last Volume, Whitley has been stuck in this house just like Weiss and Winter, and they could certainly try to treat him with a bit more fairness and sympathy. I’m sure it hurt him a little inside to have yet another authority figure bossing him around without a care for his desires. Still, he’s not giving much reason to make us sympathize so I say wait a little bit to see if he’s got any softer moments to come. Weiss directs May on where to carry Nora, and Blake checks on Ruby while they have this quieter moment. Possibly because she wants the chance to talk to her too, Blake suggests Ruby should try calling Yang to make sure things are okay, both between the sisters and in general. But that’s just it. She did it 35 minutes ago. Okay not really, but I wanted to toss a Watchmen joke in. Still, as much as Ruby worries how that half of the team is doing, she’s already trying to call them and it’s not going through.

We fade back to our three battered teens as Yang collects what scattered pieces she can from her bike, the only one they still have. But like I said, it crashed into a rock after they tumbled off and it’s in no condition to run anymore. So Jaune is trying to call for help and transport back to Mantle, but either Ironwood shut down all communication in the lower districts or they’re just so far out in the tundra that a signal just won’t reach. The latter would make sense, and explain why Ruby couldn’t reach Yang. Giving up on the call, the three instead trudge through the snow in the light of the setting sun back more or less the way they came. Jaune is dragging the bike along while Ren leads the way to an outpost he saw while getting dragged by the Hound. Yang notes how low their auras have been drained due to protecting them from the cold this long, and like a kid on a car trip asks how much longer it will be. Ren has no immediate answer so she asks again and he gives a snippy “I don’t know”. She can tell there’s something more bugging him and tries to coax it out of him after sensing the hostility in his explanation that he only got a glimpse of their intended destination before he had to abandon Oscar in favor of saving them. He refuses to discuss his deeper feelings because he thinks it’ll just waste time. This riles Yang up and she demands to know what his deal is, to which he insists she not worry about it. The argument keeps escalating from there. Things aren’t going smoothly enough for Ren? No, they’re not going smoothly at all, but boohoo Ren, that’s part of the job as a Huntsman. He doesn’t think it’s a job they should have at all, they weren’t ready for it or to make the incredibly damming decisions they’ve had to since taking that position. Sure, they had a few lucky breaks and near miss successes, but then they entered this losing streak that they can’t seem to recover from because the losses are too drastic and every choice they’ve made has been the wrong one. Yang refuses to accept such pessimism and insists that even if they haven’t done everything perfectly they still had to do something because inaction would have made things worse. But how could they be worse than they are now, Ren demands to know as they freeze to death out here. Salem has the Lamp and Oscar, and they have nothing but the cold winds. They may not have an army but they have the Maiden, Yang tries to counter, but because they haven’t let her to open the vault for Ironwood all of Atlas is just a buffet waiting to be chowed down on and it will all be their fault when that happens. Yang rightfully asks him if he seriously thinks letting Ironwood try and float Atlas away to safety will work out for him or for the people of Mantle he’s abandoning, but he argues that they shouldn’t even be the ones asked to make that call. He’s trying to spit the hard truths no one else wanted to face, but this is way too harsh and mean, especially for Ren. What are these hard truths, you ask? That Ruby is still too young to be a leader, that he himself is an orphan from a town that doesn’t exist anymore (which I guess shows how unimportant he is for someone thrust into this decision making role), and that Jaune, who by the way has been trying in vain to get the two to cut the shit and quiet down this whole time, cheated his way into Beacon. A damn low blow there, bro. Bringing back the deep wound from Volume 1. And you can tell he regrets it immediately, but to say that would mean backing down from his point. Jaune doesn’t even address the personal callout and just says alright, you don’t think we should have the job, good for you. I’m still gonna keep walking and get out of the cold because like it or not we were given a goddamn job to do. Maybe not in those words, but the meaning was there. Ren and Yang silently let him take the lead, probably feeling the hot wash of shame distracting them from the arctic chill. Yang still takes one last dig at Ren though by asking if it’s his goal to push everyone away, implying he’s being an asshole and not even Nora is sticking by him. Well... in so many words anyway.

We get another change of scenery with a dramatic violin stroke like something out of a murder mystery movie. Oscar is regaining consciousness, and he hears Ozpin try to reassure him to stay calm and that it’s gonna be okay. When he looks up, however, he sees Salem leaning in a shadowy doorframe staring at a smoky apparition in her hand and welcoming back her long lost Ozma. Judging by the childlike laughter and general shape of her smoke display, I think she was manifesting a memory of her and Oz’s dead daughters to try and reminisce about the days when they were still lovers. Oscar realizes he’s being held in the air from the Hound’s mouth and tries to struggle free as Salem notes how young and weak this new vessel is. She’s not even acknowledging Oscar, just talking through him to Ozma. It’s been what may have truly been centuries or even a millennium since they’ve last met, and dear Oz has nothing to say to his wife? Oscar does his best Ozpin impression to try and fake it till he makes it, but Salem knows her man better than anyone and sees through it to grab him by the face and call his bluff. But he really is still a separate person from Oz, so maybe he can be more cooperative to her requests than that old wizard. She still wants to know where the Relic of Choice is, since Oz clearly must have used an extra layer of deception to hide it opposed to the others, and she wants Oscar to reveal the trick. But that’s not a memory he has access to, and he tells her plainly that he doesn’t know. She believes him, knows Oz would hold that one close to the chest longest of all, so she asks an easier question. How does she go about asking the Lamp questions? She gets the standard coverup answer, the Lamp is out of questions so it’s futile to even try, but she refuses to believe that one. Instead she blasts the poor kid with an evil magic rainbow laser and lets him scream himself hoarse for a bit. His chest has scorch marks, or at least his clothes do, and he fearfully tries to pull away from her “loving” touch. Lying so easily about these things, he truly was reincarnated into a like-minded soul... but sooner or later one of the two in this battered body will break and Salem will learn what she wishes to know. He tries to insist he won’t tell her anything, but that’s why she has backup. Hazel comes in to literally gut punch this 14 year old until he coughs up his guts or the truth, whichever comes first. And he justifies it all by saying this is revenge for his defeat at Haven and from the still unforgiven death of his sister.

Salem doesn’t stay to watch the savage beating, instead walking the halls of Monstra with her lovely new pet. Cinder has been waiting in this hallway for a chance to speak with her Mistress, but is distracted by her immediate discomfort in the face of the Hound. Salem claims it is an experiment that she is quite happy with the results of thus far, and wants Cinder to get on with whatever point she had so she can get out of the way. Cinder wants to search for Penny, she thinks she can make up for the past blunder and claim the Winter powers for herself. But Salem just laughs at this. “She thinks, she wants!” It’s like hearing a cockroach tell you about its hopes and dreams. Mommy Salami does not give a fuck what Cinder wants to do, she has done nothing to earn Salem caring about that. Cinder, to her credit, does not take this dismissal lying down and tries to argue that they are doing nothing to further their plans when Cinder could be achieving a great victory for her Mistress by securing their way into the Atlas vault. Salem does not slow her pace, and says when it is time to act she will tell Miss Fall what she needs her to do. Cinder tries to argue, and is met by the snarling maw of the Hound turning on its heels to send her shrinking back. Salem has been pretty damn patient with this bratty girl, but she will not repeat herself again. You are not going the the ball, Cinderella, you are staying here and doing what your godmother tells you to because if you don’t you will learn just how easily you can be replaced and forgotten. Cinder gives up her case and assumes the position of submission, which is to say taking a knee and repeating her self-depreciating mantra that without Salem she is nothing. This satisfies Salem and she walks away with her dog in tow, leaving Neo to glare at Cinder as if wondering who is really the domesticated little pet in this place.

Cut to Cinder immediately rebelling against her given orders and heading for the airship insisting she just wants to go check on something and then they’ll come right back before anyone knows they left. Neo just floats along behind her because like hell she’s staying in the Satan whale when it’s this bitch’s fault she’s here at all. We get the last unseen shot from the trailer as Cinder looks out over Atlas and rationalizes that Salem doesn’t know Team RWBY like she does, she wouldn’t understand how determined they would be to try and save the world, and so it falls to her to check out Amity Colosseum again and see if they’re up to something. Neo seems annoyed and disinterested at Cinder’s petty little scheme, but they’re both caught off guard by Emerald arriving behind them and offering to tag along to help. She’s been getting better with her Semblance and asserts that she would be very useful. Poor misguided lass, searching so desperately for acknowledgement and praise you’re never gonna get... Cinder seems pissed that she was eavesdropping, but she’s not gonna turn down the assist. Time for an evil girls’ night out~

Back on the ground, night has fallen as JRY have found the outpost at last. Jaune hits a heater to get it running and prevent their freezing to death as Ren broods out the window and Yang is outside working on her bike. The leader takes this time to address the tension with his teammate. Yes, he did make a bad decision and cheat his way into the Academy. But when he found himself in that bad situation he realized he needed help and he asked for it. He turned his situation around and got better, became the strong person he is now. Holding onto this ideal that being strong means doing everything on your own? That was literally the issue Jaune faced in his mini character arc back in Volume 1, and he came out of it humbled and ready to accept support from his team. From Pyrrha. But she’s not here anymore, and Jaune is. Nora is, team RWBY is here for Ren. So Ren needs to understand that he can let them in, because the more he hides from how he feels the worse it’s gonna feel and hurt him inside. Ren goes outside to sulk under a streetlight, but Yang has come inside now to say that she’s found the part she needs to fix the bike so with a little more tinkering they can get it working and ride back into the city once they’ve got some R&R. Yang does take the time to say she’s sorry Ren said what he did because of her argument with him, but Jaune dismisses it for the time being as all three of them being under a hellish amount of stress. He’s been where Ren was before, he knows how much it hurts. Yang turns back to the tool bench to work on the thruster, but she’s got some inner turmoil of her own to vent about. She wants to know if Jaune thinks “She” thinks less of Yang for making the choice she did and staying to help Mantle instead of going to help fix Amity. Playing the pronoun game like this can be tricky, and Jaune fairly assumes she means Ruby since the two of them did have the verbal disagreement before splitting off, and Yang did question her leader’s decision making and leadership. He assures Yang that her sister will always love and believe in her even if they have squabbles like this. But it would seem Vomit Boy lost the pronoun game, and Yang was not actually asking about Ruby. Judging by the purple cannister she’s wrenching into the battered thruster, she was asking if Blake would think less of her because of these recent actions.

A lot of people seem rather torn about this choice in priorities for Yang, but allow me to explain why I think it’s not that bad of a writing decision. If there is one thing that has been consistent in this Volume it has been the confidence of other characters that Yang and Ruby will endure this clash of ideals and remain loving sisters. Usually these sentiments have been given by characters who are siblings themselves and know the strength of that bond, like Weiss and now Jaune. We’ve never actually heard either sister personally express any anguish or regrets over that argument, but we can assume they’re both still a little sour about it. But they have been there for each other to a depth that few siblings have, as evident by Yang’s story in Volume 2 about how she had to step up in raising Ruby in a lot of ways after Tai went into grieving for Summer. They’ve been each other’s best friend and closest confidant for so long, I truly believe their bond is clad in iron and they know it too. Meanwhile, a lot of Yang’s recovery arc in Volumes 4 and 5 was dealing with being abandoned by Blake in a time of need and it continued into 6 as learning to accept her back into her life and find a way to make their partnership work again. Shipping or not, they do have a strong bond that has been renewed by dealing with their combined trauma and killing Adam. And when that happened they both promised they would stick together and back each other up, but now Yang has been the one to decide she wants to split paths and do something else. She has good reason to worry this might have upset Blake, and we the audience know Blake is worried about how she’s doing. So, when faced with a color that reminds her of her partner, it makes some sense that Yang would try and get an outside perspective of if she’s fractured their bond. And if you ship them, that more magnifies the interpersonal concerns than really changes the problems.

Regardless, Jaune realizes this is a problem he’s not quite equipped to deal with and decides he’s going to get some rest in one of the beds in the outpost. He gets the strong feeling he’s gonna need it cuz it feels like things will only get worse before they get any better. As we pan out past Ren, whom Yang promises she won’t let brood himself to death out in the snow, we see cracks start to form out on the ice. That can only bode poorly for these poor kids. Many folks think this is a frozen over lake with some scary aquatic Grimm waiting in the depths like a megalodon Grimm shark or the sulfur fish Grimm that apparently were the winners of a fan design contest this past year. Personally, I’m taking a note from the opening and saying it might be a cloister of Apathy since their gross grabby hands wrapped around Team RWBY when they fell through the ice at the end of the intro. But we will have to wait and see. Thanks for reading, hope to see you and your notes soon!~

Edit: this came out a week late and we did indeed see what it really was. Boy were we not ready for the truth...

9 notes · View notes

paperclipninja · 5 years

Text

Younger post-ep ramble 6x05

If I wasn’t already excited about this episode, discovering that ‘Stiff Competition’ was written by Joe Murphy certainly would have got me there. Maybe it’s because he is a fellow Australian or maybe it’s because in every interview I’ve heard I find him utterly delightful and intelligent or maybe it’s because he is a damn great writer, but one thing is certain after this week’s episode of Younger: J. Murphy, I Stan (there was a time I might have been embarrassed about gushing so unabashedly but now I write weekly essays about fake people so I figure the shame level is zero at this point). This ep had the combination of playfulness, funny, flirty and drama that hooked me into this show in the first place and I feel like we got further insight into a number of characters, broadening our understanding of them and where they’re at. Plus kudos must be given for managing to use the title “Stiff Competition” and make the feature book “The Third Leg” in the same ep (one might even call it a riDICKulous feat…and no I’m not even a bit sorry).

A couple of weeks back I wrote about the Liza and Charles dynamic and how it really thrives on the build and resolution of tension. Up until last season it was the sexual tension and now that’s resolved there needed to be something to keep the fuel on the fire, so to speak. Cue the opening scene of this ep, with the competitive fuel well and truly lit and honestly, this whole scene just rocks my world. We had the drama building the past few eps with Charles being secretive and while that would’ve resulted in the destruction of the relationship had it been left unresolved, it has been used to transition into this next type of competitive cat-and-mouse style tension that the characters are embracing (at the start anyway) and using to their benefit and, let’s be honest, we all benefit because it. is. HOT.

Walking into the National Arts Club party very quickly establishes Charles as well versed at such an event and I am so into the immediate retort from Liza that feisty isn’t the ‘f’ word she would choose to describe Charles setting up Mercury. That does of course come after Charles introduces her to Michael Cunningham as his girlfriend which is just so bizarre to hear but also YES. Their banter, the competiveness in the art of the schmooze, bringing her A game; the whole thing set them on such equal footing and seeing them as ass-slapping sparring partners was something I never knew I needed and could have watched an entire episode of with its feature film feel (Kickstarter for a spin-off series of nerdy espionage-style escapades but about books and authors and literary events…and maybe the odd murder to keep it interesting).

While Liza was certainly showing that she can work a room, Charles’ reputation and professionalism was on fine display as authors greeted him warmly and Liza’s introduction of him to Meg Wolitzer as her boyfriend (seriously I’m living for these gf/bf drops) just got more and more awks as Meg and Charles clearly knew each other, Liza snatched his business card from his hand and then asked the photographer to identify him as her ‘guest’ in the pic (loved Sutton’s delivery of this and extra loved Meg’s ‘just pretend you’re talking to me’ to the rando so she could get away from the slightly unhinged antics of the editor she just met). Yet Charles is loving every minute of it and I so appreciate that now the whole Mercury situation is no longer a secret Charles is talking openly about it with Liza, evidenced by his telling her he received a message from Zane (about Mercury being highbrow/brilliant nonetheless).

Where there is highbrow there must be lowbrow (old tv proverb) and unfortunately for Kelsey, the head without a neck aka ‘a floating tragedy’, she has taken prime position in that quadrant of New York Mag’s approval matrix (can we take a moment to appreciate Liza’s ‘well it is a good picture of him’ remark re: Charles? Way to make your friend feel better but also lol and accurate). While I sympathise with how stressful it must be to lose authors, this ep once again highlights that our pal Kels is in quite the spiral. Luckily Liza has managed to pull in Chip and Joanna Gaines, I mean Hayley and Cameron Butler, who are promoting their cringe-worthy new book, ‘The Third Leg’, off the back of their New York Flip success. I heart the way this show parodies real people so hard.

I have said it week after week, but Diana has been such a scene stealer this season (Diana Trout proudly pointing out Shiplap, I don’t know why but this just made me grin). The writers keep bringing it with the lines and Miriam Shor’s delivery somehow magically seems to get funnier and funnier and her heart eyed gaze as she recounts her and Enzo’s third leg(s) (like a centipede…but also nothing like a centipede, speaking of A+ lines and delivery) was no exception. The whole pitch meeting was a bit of a train wreck, with Kelsey’s bitterness about the hot or not list spilling in, Liza’s attempt at diverting resulting in Diana railroading the entire thing and Liza wondering if she and Charles are in fact lacking the third leg (Empiriconda notwithstanding) that two home reno celebs have deemed a necessary factor in a successful r/ship (though theirs hardly seems the picture of happiness unless #relationshipgoals is taking jabs at each other through strained grins).

One relationship I am digging on every level is Josh and Lauren’s and this week’s ep gave us a mighty fine dose. Of course Lauren set up a GemmaLoves Insta and I’m 100% willing to overlook the slight ickiness of her pushing a SM account for the baby without asking Josh because it’s Lauren and she is sublime and also without it we would not have had THE film-worthy (minus the butt plugs) montage. I freaking adore that Lauren is so unapologetic about promoting stuff and getting freebies and Josh’s stance on not letting his daughter be a pusher for consumerism lasts approx. 25 seconds as Lauren points out all of Gemma’s favourite things that she will happily take back (Josh’s ‘but she loves it’ was just too good). Lauren’s declaration that both Josh and Gemma are gonna get free swag ‘and ya both gonna love it’ (the Eleanor Shellstrop vibe is strong and I approve) leads us into the shopping montage that made me want to dance around my lounge room and could sit comfortably in any rom-com from the late 90’s/early 2000’s. From ‘Baby Love’ to Josh and Lauren feeding each other cupcakes to that glorious moment of Josh parading back and forth on the pavement like a chorus boy, I bow down to Younger pulling rabbits like this out of the creative hat six seasons in, it was just such damn fun.

You know what else I adore? That throughout the series we have seen so many different aspects of Diana’s character and we just keep seeing more and more layers peeled back through her relationship with Enzo. I am so enjoying the side of her we see being open about her feelings for him when she’s around others, then the way she is with him; proud of their relationship then honest about her disappointment that they have to cancel dinner, rather than shutting down and pretending she doesn’t care. Enzo offering to buy Diana any necklace she chooses made my cold dead heart swell with the sincerity and sweetness of it all, but Diana revealing that she does not choose her necklaces, they choose her = the revelation I didn’t know I’ve been waiting six seasons to hear. Not to be dramatic but it felt like coming home.

Side note: I’m finding the parallels between the Diana/Enzo and Liza/Charles relationships really interesting. I don’t know whether it’s deliberate or not but these two couples navigating relationships in their 40’s, trying to strike a balance between career ambition and their personal relationships, I am beyond desperate for Diana to know about Liza’s age and for these two to talk about it all tbh.

Speaking of balancing career and relationship, can we please talk about the dinner date because sweet lawd, my heart was already full from the Diana/Enzo goodness, but then along came Liza and Charles with this whole out together with the authors situation and quite frankly, I’m surprised I survived. Bringing together the book and the earlier meeting was just so well done and the moment Hayley dropped the ‘and you’ and we discover that Charles had indeed gushed about Liza and their shared love of books as their third leg (still sounds weird and gross but totally worth it for the sentiment and post-dinner tie in), I too was staring at my screen the way Liza looked at Charles, but I was also a little bit deceased because I am romantic trash and him casually rubbing her back almost did me in.

I feel like each ep is adding another dimension to Charles this season and seeing him relaxed and candid outside the restaurant was certainly another insight into this character. The entire interaction between him and Liza was effortless and I love that it went from Liza ribbing him about using their relationship to secure the book to Charles being so frank about where it’s all at and how he’s feeling (and does anyone else hope a little bit that Charles does end up needing that room in Liza’s bed coz I am very on board with the idea of C. Brooks living in that loft for a while for many reasons). Bring on lusty Charles and I kid you not I let out a little scream of delight at Liza noting his excitement and then heading straight for the cab (yes Charles, she is just going to leave you like this). Thank you Joe Murphy for the ep and the book title combo so Liza could remind Charles competition is stiff out there while glancing at his crotch and telling him to take care of the third leg himself, you truly are doing God’s work. And I’m just all ‘round loving seeing these two adults in a relationship being flirty and lustful and open with one another.

I have to put it out there that Liza’s hustle game is so damn strong this whole ep and as she is questioned by Kelsey and Diana about how Charles is getting all these authors, I a) am very glad she does not blab, b) find it interesting that Kelsey assumes that Liza mustn’t know if she hasn’t told her and c) wonder why Liza is the only one who seems to understand that other publishing houses will be vying for books and that Millennial will lose some fair and square. But Liza once again has another potential author lined up in the musical prodigy turned conductor Gloria Rivera, but this is Younger, we’ve had lots of fun, flirty and funny, so it must be time for the drah-mah.

The moment Liza ran into Charles at the concert I think we all knew the competition might have just about run its course, and I had legit second-hand embarrassment as Liza so confidently gloated she had been in touch with Gloria ‘for months’ in response to Charles’ knowing her ‘quite well’, though Charles clearly wanted to explain further as he said he wanted to talk after the show before the lights go down and Liza needs to get to her seat. Insert appropriate amount of unimpressed for both Kelsey and Diana and it all goes south pretty quickly once Diana discovers that Gloria was the recipient of the Brooks family Arts Scholarship so knowing Charles ‘pretty well’ is a bit of an understatement.

Now I get that it must feel like a series of blows and I also get that we need a way for Kelsey and Diana to be at the axe throwing bar so that whole scene can play out, but for them to both bail on Liza and not even try to convince Gloria to sign with Millennial, I mean, you’re not going to get any authors with that attitude ladies. At this point Liza should just bail and start her own damn company, give it a great name starting with ‘M’, maybe Majesty? Mendacity? Or Mitosis and she can just expand quickly and open identical offices all over the place? Either way, Liza had no time for Charles’ girlfriend game post-show (and it is clear here that to Charles it is still just a game and he hasn’t quite clocked that to Liza this is her career being compromised).

While I think Diana and Kelsey leaving Liza to make a last ditch pitch to Gloria solo was a low blow, seeing them together, rage throwing axes while drunk (I both love and am terrified of the idea of people drinking and axe throwing in one place FYI) was pretty damn great. These two are always so messy together and Diana taking off her earrings and prepping only to have such a terrible axe throw was only surpassed by her saying that she tells people Enzo is a surgeon which is why he’s on call and Kelsey offering up that they both wear gloves. LOL. And Diana Trout peeing beside a dumpster is one thing I never thought I’d see on this show, yet here we are and her ‘I don’t know her’ and running away from the cop when Kelsey produces the axe was ridiculous and excellent and a great excuse for some chin-skin holding mugshots.

My one gripe at the mo is the ongoing distrust Kelsey has of Liza, first at the axe bar asking Diana if she thinks Liza is helping Charles land these authors and then when Liza turns up after Enzo has bailed them (can we just pause a moment to appreciate the ongoing mafia jokes since their first date and also Enzo calling Diana a jailbird and her smitten reaction. I heart it all). Seriously, this is just yawn at this point and while I get that Kelsey is scared (and thank you Liza for pointing out that she’s not the only one) surely Liza is over having to prove time and time again how loyal she is only to have Kelsey continue to question it? I know I am. Again, Liza – ‘Mitosis’. Think about it.

Our Maggie moment this ep is of course just prior to the déjà vu of Liza and Josh chilling on the couch with Gemma, a little throw-back to the cacao-induced dream from last season’s finale. But I gotta say, my heart hurt for Charles when he walked into that awkward af loft situation, because while I have no doubt that Liza is solid in her feelings for Charles, seeing your girlfriend in a super domestic looking moment with her ex has to feel like a kick in the guts. I want to bottle the look Liza gave Josh when he said ‘you two seem good’ because if I could whip that out on demand, it would be mighty useful.

The final moments of this week’s ep certainly heightened the drama all round. I feel like this episode really highlighted the insecurity of both Kelsey and Charles, which puts Liza in the interesting position of having to navigate this with two people she loves but also put her foot down for her own sake at some stage. Liza immediately quashes any concerns Charles may have about being in competition with Josh and uses the baby’s inability to talk ergo. steal authors as a way to broach the ongoing company rivalry. As Charles reveals that Gloria will be signing with Millennial, it is evident it is all still a bit of a game to him (though him saying that all he cares about is that he doesn’t lose her, ugh *heart emoji*) until his true take on it all is revealed, that he sees it all as shared victories rather than rivalry. Eeek, I tell you, I get and appreciate the dick theme of this episode but I struggle with the dick line ‘when you get to the bottom line, it’s still all me’ so much. I had an actual physical reaction to how awful this was and it certainly was not something I imagined this character saying. Yet I do think it also gives credence to the type of man Pauline said she was married to.

It felt insecure, like he was trying to talk himself up in some kind of misguided attempt to sound impressive, but it also was a glimpse of the man whose ambition contributed to the demise of his marriage. Pauline herself said that when they got married she thought they would be a team but right away it was all about Charles and she was there just to be his rock (S5E3). The difference now of course is that unlike Pauline, Liza has called him out on it and in the final second, the expression on Charles’ face (it’s gutted for those playing at home) is hopefully one of realisation that he is repeating behaviours of the past and that moving forward, we see that realisation play out and this character develop.

I have no idea how the rest of this season is going to play out but you know what all this drama and intrigue pave the way for? Growth. Liza’s growth as she becomes more sure of herself and her right to decide and demand what she wants and deserves, who she wants, what she will and won’t stand for, Charles to learn from past mistakes and work to redeem those and think about the kind of man and partner he wants to be, no character’s growth has been as glorious to see unfold up until now as Diana’s and I’m sure this will continue and Kelsey...well I’m sure hers will come. We’re almost halfway people and season six is proving to be quite the ride.

#youngertv #younger tv #ramble #review #6x02 #liza miller #charles brooks #kelsey peters #diana trout #liza x charles #diana x enzo #team charles #younger season 6

15 notes · View notes

speedygal · 7 years

Text

McCoy Prime ends up a Medium au

Inspired by Medium and its concept and a episode. This has a read more because of its length. A sort of Spones au. Meant to be a Spones au but then some events happened and I enjoyed writing it. Enough said. Originally meant to be very Spones au. Decided to write the au post as it is Deforest Kelley’s birthday.

Post five year mission. Jim is driving a sleeping McCoy to Joanna’s house in a hovercar in Georgia. It is night out. Spock is dealing with another issue regarding Christine Chapel and Nyota Uhura having a lovers quarrel and he somehow is in the dead center of it and his plan involves Vulcan and T’Pring while visiting his mother. Jim can feel Spock’s headache from the two women shouting at each other. He looks at the rearview mirror to see McCoy is in the backseat fast asleep not buckled. He considers how lucky he is to have just married the best man in the galaxy. He tells Spock through bond that he loves him and Spock replies the same thing. They had been to a medical conference that McCoy was supposedly looking forward to. Suddenly there’s a hover car that comes out of no where and there’s a accident. It strikes the front end of the hover-car McCoy is stirred awake as he is flying. He has a very bad feeling about this in his gut. He feels that he is never going to see Jim again. The rest is a blur. Jim watches McCoy fly past him. And the last thought he sends to his husbands? I am so lucky I had you, with love struck eyes and a smile. Jim dies without pain. The driver of the other hover car gets out, with a few bruises and scratches, to find the bloody scene. The driver runs away and goes to a local clinic. Spock experiences the sudden death of Jim right as he enters his fathers home. Amanda is taking care of their twin boys, Sterek, George, and one month old S’Tamuel with a Sehlat. Sarek calls her out through their bond. Spock is unresponsive once collapsing to the ground. They perform CPR on Spock and get him stable for the healers to attend to him. McCoy’s accident is called in thirteen minutes later by a passer by in the ditch.

When McCoy awakens, he sees Vulcan who he recognizes from the medical conference. He screams. Because they have a phaser injury all over them. He doesn’t see Jim. He doesn’t feel Jim. The nurses sedate him and tell him that Spock is arriving soon. McCoy feels broken all over. two stinging pain in his mind as though the marriage bond between the three men has broken. The dead Vulcan has vanished. McCoy rests. When he awakens, Scotty, Nyota, Christine, Pavel, and Hikaru are around the bed. Spock isn’t there. They are relieved that he is alive. McCoy feels like he should be dead and Jim should be the one alive. He doesn’t feel lucky. He feels miserable. He asks when Spock is coming. Nyota explains Spock admitted himself to a Vulcan Ward a few hours ago. McCoy gets pissed off and wants to get the next shuttle to Vulcan to drag is ass out. Scotty and Pavel stop McCoy and tell him when they saw Spock, he was in very rough shape. They reveal McCoy has been in a coma for three months. McCoy feels his heart break. He inquires about his side of the bond. Why did no one approach him and try to bring him out of the coma via mind meld. They inform him that Spock had. Spock broke himself pulling this stunt to bring him back. McCoy goes silent, then asks, what else is broken? They inform him that Jim, is in fact, dead. The driver who killed him is not dead and the passengers in the drivers car were all ready dead before the accident. There’s a investigation going. McCoy is told a healer was sent to repair his bond and numb it. They talk about Jim, how they have been going, and the funeral that McCoy was not able to attend. How Spock handled it. How the children handled it. McCoy makes it his mission to go to the Kirk cemetery at the Kirk Family Lot.

After his friends leave, McCoy talks to the dead woman. They share condolences to each other. McCoy requests she leave because there is a waterfall that feels like is ready to come out any any minute. He requests that she come later. She introduces herself as T’Pro. She leaves. McCoy cries into his hands of his loss. He spends the next three hours weeping until he can’t cry anymore. McCoy recomposes himself when a Vulcan healer comes in. He is prepared for the repairs. His personal life is ruined. And he doesn’t feel appropriate to return to being a doctor in space without Jim and Spock. His shields are risen up and the bond is repaired. McCoy gets a lawyer and has his will written. He gives the children to Amanda under guardian ship, his belongings donated to a historical museum regarding the five year mission upon his passing, his likeness can be used but it must be correct (He got worried someone will make a holoprogram version of himself and be far off so he makes several holovids before leaving to the Enterprise. McCoy makes a lot more regarding situations. How he pronounces words or names. He gives his life into it for the possibility.) McCoy goes home to Georgia. He falls into Joanna’s arms and there’s relief. They talk about family and the children and Jim and about his future. McCoy admits that, “We were a tragedy from the getgo. Three perfect men. I should have known it would not last.” and Joanna tells him. “You know and you took the risk, dad.” McCoy waits for the children to come running toward him from kindergarten. They tackle him down instead in glee. He hugs them tightly. McCoy encounters T’Pro, again. This time about her murder. McCoy has to go somewhere. He is not sure but T’Pro is sure.

McCoy meets Carol Marcus and her son David Marcus

McCoy, understandably, is furious that she has come RIGHT NOW AND TELLING HIM THAT HIS HUSBAND HAD A SON AND MADE IT SEEM TO THE BOY THAT JIM LEFT HER WHEN SHE LEFT HIM AND---He can’t take the painful reminder and the painful sting he has. Jim should have known about David Marcus after surviving the incident. McCoy is wishfully thinking by this stage that he had buckled himself in and died in the wreckage. His heart aches too much. McCoy is drawn to the Reliant where he discovers this is the ship where T’Pro met her maker. He spends twenty-four hours on it. And with some persuasive help from Pavel, gets the one who killed her and put into the brig until their return to Earth. McCoy is pleased to have been useful (But not as much as having a shrapnel against his neck while Pavel’s commanding officer negotiated). McCoy visits Vulcan to see Spock. He sees the shell of what had been Spock. Shattered, ruined, and utterly destroyed. He sees a sehlat by the man’s side. Which isn’t odd because there are SEHLATS EVERYWHERE HE LOOKS . McCoy keeps his distance from the animal while trying to get across to Spock and telling him what he found himself doing. McCoy feels he lost everything when Spock doesn’t act like there’s a reasonable rational conversation. The sehlat sniffs McCoy and McCoy recoils. McCoy asks a nurse why Spock has a sehlat and they tell him that he doesn’t. McCoy asks about the other sehlats. McCoy learns pets are not allowed. He is seeing dead pets. McCoy looks over to see the sehlat is gone. McCoy tells Spock goodbye. And that he hopes to see him again. Spock remarks, “You are an odd man, Mr Blue.” McCoy asks, “Why?” “I can see things that are there and you don’t. You sure you don’t have problems up there?” McCoy pauses, carefully thinking how to word that next reply. McCoy finally says, “I see dead people.” Spock takes it without question. McCoy pats the man’s shoulder, “There’s hope in you, yet. Mr Spock.” As painful as it is for McCoy.

McCoy goes home, for the last time, as he has decided what to do. McCoy spends the last few months of the year with his family and working at the hospital. McCoy gets administrative leave in 2371. McCoy has been privately going through the grief and has come to accept Jim’s passing but not without seeing ghosts. He has a double life helping the deceased. Joanna has been assigned to a medical colony. McCoy leaves the children with Eleanor. Who adores the children and loves the boys. He hugs and kisses the children. McCoy leaves town. S’Tamuel and Sterek have known all along what their father is up to. Eleanor takes a nap. Sterek has left a holovid behind. They take their little brother with them after their daddy. The take short cuts, lie, cheat, backstab, trick,and the whole nine yards by acting adorable. Sterek is the stubborn one whose determined on going where daddy goes. They take a mobile transporter that a cadet was in the process of making and has some problems. And chances of death. And they stole it despite being warned. McCoy has taken the necessary steps to make a new life where he is going. It takes a few days to get there but he makes it. And the ship leaves but right behind him is the THREE KIDS GENETICALLY MADE TO BE SPOCK AND JIM’S CHILDREN. The children catch their father’s attention and repeat a phrase Spock said to him years ago, “Together or not at all.” McCoy decides to take the children with him but decides that they must be returned when they are one week from Pon Farr exactly the time span that they had been gone. The Guardian of Forever takes them to a different time.

McCoy gets a house in San Francisco and becomes a trial consultant to district attorney who looks like Jim but really isn’t and calls himself Denny Crane. He used to be a big time lawyer who won every case for a law firm called Denny, Poole, and Schmit. He has a loving husband named Alan Shore and he is treating for his Alzheimer which no one knows about. McCoy goes up his radar by solving a case in Tennessee and having someone babysit the kids. In Tennessee McCoy meets a man who look+s a lot like Spock but is not a Vulcan. The man likes McCoy and introduces himself as Harold Grayson. The man follows McCoy, quits his high paying well job as a engineering scientist for Airtech and goes after McCoy once learning where he lives. But he doesn’t have the address. Harold accepts his job at air tech but in SAN FRANCISCO. McCoy is helping Crane with getting the right jury. He has visions of people. There is one prominent vision bothering him throughout the day. The day Jim died. He sees the perpetrators face. He sees the man get fixed and sent on his way. He recognizes the man from his time in the hospital in Georgia. McCoy snaps out of the vision. McCoy has set up his new life, social security, fake background,and birth certificate. McCoy has a system ready for little S’Tamuel. McCoy’s little boys have their ears covered by a beanie in kindergarten. McCoy befriends a group of psychics and non-psychics who are huge skeptics. He befriends a detective named Hank Son and his husband Peter Connor. McCoy has a vision of Eleanor waking up to find the children gone. And searching through the house for them. Nikki Understone works as a translator for the medical hospital. Catherine Cine is a nurse at this same hospital. They are both parents for a adoptive little boy from Pakistan who is ten years old.

McCoy’s visions increase in volumes throughout the day. The search for the perpetrator becomes very important and he is apprehended by Pavel Chekov, personally, on his way to Romulus and sent to a prison ship. Pavel visits Spock and tells him that the strange man from earlier has vanished. And so has his three children. Spock has no idea who Pavel is and thinks he is someone else entirely. Pavel goes somewhere private and weeps for his role model’s breakdown. McCoy is shown a flashback where Spock had met the one who caused him pain and misery and forces a mind meld that in part is part of why Spock ended out the way he did. The visions end from his regular universe. McCoy comes across Harold sometime in his new life, again, this time at a crime scene. Hank Son is understandably concerned. Harold is surprised to hear McCoy's job title and frankly thought he was a relative of the doctor who died last year in a car accident. Doctor Lenny Thomas McCord. McCoy goes throughout the next few days dealing with these visions from the victim that are vague, cryptic, and mostly appear as nightmares about what happened before or after the crime. He feels threatened when a bloody box appears on his doorstep. Crane tells him it is going to be all right and they have the house guarded. He nearly gets killed by the killer who somehow got onto him when the doctor had gone to where he was at during the time and asked around specific questions with Hank Son by his side. The children are terrified. George,Sterek, and S'Tamuel sleep that night around McCoy on the first night. McCoy dreams of that killer who informs him that he knows what he has and he will stop at nothing to ruin his growing credibility to the detective. McCoy painfully makes the decision not to continue helping Denny on his cases.

McCoy is regretting coming here. He misses Joanna. There is a knock on the door the next morning and it's Harold, soaking wet, asking why he didn't get his damn phone number and let him find out through the local news where he lived and mentions, "That's a terrible way of making a first impression on your domestic life so I brought this." And it's full of chocolate related items and a card that reads "Do you want to go stare at a aquarium with me?" And he apologizes for appearing this way. And he notices the doctor has been crying. McCoy smiles back, wary, saying, "If you can accept the kids." And Harold LOVES children. Loves. loves. Loves to bits. And McCoy mentions it will be chaotic going to the aquarium. They make a date. Harold ends up showing he had something behind his back and it's----McCoy's skin runs cold seeing a doll looking like Spock in a container along with two other men. McCoy learns that he is fictional. Everything he has done in his past was fictional. McCoy is unable to speak at first but he takes the gifts and the wheelie for George to play with. He doesn't reply. He is just in a state of shock. Harold is smiling and he gives his phone number, stuttering, and writes it down. He mentions living in a flat and that they can start out as friends if he would like. He wants to take it as slow as McCoy wants. And that he looks forward to meeting him again in the future. McCoy closes the door then slides his back against it hearing his heart beat against his chest. He is not even real and there's a real, living person interested in him who is not fictional. He goes through his hair. He knows two Spock's. One is real and the other is not. He doesn't know if he can continue this charade. Because how can a fictional person live in real life that he isn't supposed to be? He places the packages on the couch and curls up to bed wishing he never had the accident to begin with. He dreams of Spock curled up on the couch in a meditative position and then the killer comes up and taunts him and antagonizes McCoy in a very degrading way. McCoy wakes up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep. That morning he goes to Denny Crane and tells him he can't do it anymore. He tells Denny that he can't foresee the future. All he sees is that stupid killer who terrorized his family. And he can't work for him. Denny gives McCoy a leave of absence and is unwilling to let him give up like that. He contacts a psychic friend of McCoy's , who the man had mentioned after their first case together, and asks if she is dealing with a slight problem. Denny is horrified. He knows he is going to lose this case without McCoy's help. Denny goes home that night and gets comforted by his husband--after Alan's hectic day of funding poor people's case and trying them and listening to the amusing stories--regarding it.

McCoy has a dream of a thirteen year old boy getting abducted near the kindergarten school his boys go to. He doesn't know when or where this is going to occur. He thinks he has a edge over the man but in reality he was showing him of what lead him to this. McCoy is not happy after he discovers this. George has a accident at Kindergarten and McCoy picks him up with his twin then takes them home. McCoy finds the psychics at his house, in the living room, knitting being happy as they cam be. McCoy has to make sure they are still alive to believe it. They tell him to ignore the visions from now on and readapt his life style. They make one major suggestion: be a doctor. He can't destroy a human life with being a doctor. He can't go back to a profession that he could not save his husband in. McCoy opts for finding a different job. Dog sitter. The boys are playing with their toys. S'Tamuel cries so McCoy gets the boy out of his room with his beanie on and has the other psychics, a mix of men and women, calm him down. They arrange for a road trip after the aquarium. Just him and his new found friends. Hank Son calls McCoy asking for his help on a difficult case. McCoy can see the vision of the killer with the new victim taunting him. And McCoy hates it but he has to say no. McCoy begins drinking to prevent himself from seeing the dead people BECAUSE HE CAN'T HELP THEM. HE JUST CAN'T. NOT ANYMORE. Somedays McCoy wishes that he can see his husband again but he knows that is never going to happen. McCoy and his three boys go to the aquarium with S'Tamuel in tow. McCoy has to gently tell Harold that they won't work out. Harold refuses to believe that because they can work things out. McCoy goes to the point of telling him that one of them isn't really born in this continent. Harold grows concerned asking him if he is okay and if he is a immigrant. McCoy nods, because that is the easiest way he can explain. He has a green card. He explains about the lengths his immigrant went to nest him here. McCoy admits that he was born in a Toccoa, Georgia but now this Georgia. He spills out the truth in a way that he could understand. The man uses logic to explain away what he is saying. McCoy tells him that they have to be friends. Harold grows concerned for the doctor.

McCoy steps aside from Harold. Harold only grows determined to win the man over. The boys leave. Harold follows McCoy across the country showing up at random places. HE'S THERE. ALL RIGHT? He finds the boys within a heavy crowd while the psychics are treating McCoy to his own vacation. One of the psychics is totally okay with one year old S'Tamuel. Harold treats the kids and they get drunk. Very drunk. Harold learns quickly not to feed the children chocolate. Harold finds their slurring very odd and how drunk like they act. He looks up for reasons why children get drunk. And of course, he comes across Vulcans. The children protest against taking the beanie off because "daddy will be very angry" and he asks, "why?" they plainly said that they don't exist. Harold takes the beanie off to reveal their eyebrows and their pointed ears. He deduces that logically, they are Vulcans. And Vulcans are real. They are here so therefore they are real. When the group drops McCoy off to the designated hotel room, Harold is waiting alongside it with the children tucked into bed. Harold tells him that he understands where McCoy is coming from and that he is quite honored to have met the famed man. He also says he will wait for as long as McCoy wants. McCoy feels a sense of loss at what just happened. He doesn't understand what just happened. Harold also admits that he got himself flat broke and he just ran out of his vacation money to get himself a room. McCoy is still floored. McCoy apparently has plenty of money. Thousands, upon thousands, thousands of dollars from leaving his reality prepared. McCoy questions Harold to know if he moves around the bed. Oh, and if he snores. Harold doesn't know if he snores but he doesn't move in bed. McCoy shares his bed with Harold but the man must sleep under the blankets. Harold agrees to the terms. McCoy falls asleep and Harold wonders what happened to Spock. S'Tamuel is snoring lightly. All three of the Vulcans are not wearing their beanies and at least all three of them have black hair. McCoy has the nightmare featuring the killer again so Harold strokes the man's shoulder and sings to him lightly changing the direction of the nightmare. McCoy's face relaxes. Harold stays up all night admiring McCoy's face and the children and watches them breath and live and sleep. He watches the twins sleep walk around the room, so he has to tell them go to bed. They respond to him and go to bed. On his feet. Harold is trapped by the boys. They don't want him to leave the following morning. So the bunch of psychics, sleep deprived, take the group to a remote location for camping. And then for karaoke. McCoy finds himself feeling glorified while Harold is making sure the little ones are okay and having fun. Harold has four hours of sleep. The children really like Harold and call him father. That night, the boys sleep in the same tent as the men with S'Tameul. Harold holds McCoy that night. He pulls McCoy close to him as he struggles. When McCoy awakens with a pant. Harold wakes up, and asks him what's wrong. McCoy lets it out. He tells him everything. And then it fits together why he is in a sleep deprived group. He then tells McCoy that it has to end. It can't continue forever.

McCoy falls asleep once more. A sixteen year old girl corners the killer in the very same room the family are in. And the killer realizes she is not supposed to be there. The sixteen year old informs McCoy of a family member around where he and his family are is about to be threatened in an hour and lists an exact illegal thing her killer is doing. The killer is outraged that she is here. Two ghosts can't be in here! The girl says, "Who says we are asking for help?" The killer is then suddenly aware of other people in the room. Thirteen. All the people that people like McCoy could have helped. They all reflect the manner of their death. The killer screams running out then down the hallway and down the staircase followed by a mass of ghosts. The killer goes outside to the parking lot where the other ghosts say they are going to take him to hell whether he likes it or not. And that this will end no matter how he kicks and screams. The man is taken. McCoy awakens and calls the number that the sixteen year old told him to call. McCoy falls asleep shortly afterwards. In the morning there is breaking news of a serial killer having been caught due to a anonymous tip. McCoy feels a lot better. Harold notices the change in McCoy and asks if he had a good night rest. McCoy smiles back at Harold while taking a shower and the curtain is pulled back and informs him that he is better than okay, he is excellent. He can go back to his old job. That is if Denny Crane is still there and hasn't been forced to resign. Harold has a feeling he is still there.

One year later, Harold and McCoy have gotten married. Thanks in part to Harold's sheer determination of reassuring that "Even if you are fictional, you will live as a human and die as a human. You will have mattered in this life. You will always matter to me." Now share the house that McCoy bought as a family. Harold adores the children to bits and McCoy usually does the cooking in the morning but Harold cooks dinner. Harold has been informed regarding that the children will leave one day and never come back. Ever. Somewhere in their late thirties. Harold doesn't mind that part. But McCoy worries that the boys will have families by then and vanished without a trace. McCoy makes a contingency plan for that. He plans to inform the three children on a specific date on their eighteenth birthday. They both share the same last name, now, Harold Grayson McCoy and Leonard Horatio McCoy. McCoy wakes up once per night with nightmares and Harold is quite used to it and anticipates it when he can't sleep because the looks on McCoy face are so adorable, priceless, and breath taking. Worth it. McCoy uses his friendship with Catherine to get around the medical loop holes and the whole species ordeal about is children. Sometimes McCoy steals Nikki to translate for him during cases. Hank Son is happy to be working with someone he trusts over some hacks who tried to fill in his shoes. Harold Grayson McCoy snores.

We have a montage of McCoy waking up. There is this one part of the montage where the music fades into the background. He wakes up flailing, landing on the floor with a thump followed by, "Honey, is your victim drowning or were you drowning in your fear of being in something entirely new?" Because sometimes the dreams McCoy has are illogical, supernatural, and don't make sense. They rarely take an airplane to anywhere as a family because of some of his visions. Harold looks for the logic in every dream. McCoy does not plan to tell Harold about Spock and Jim. But you know what? McCoy is lucky that he has Harold and his best friend Denny Crane being a major flirt to anyone not relating to a case. He actually reminds him a lot of a aged James T. Kirk now that he thought of it. McCoy dreams of a old Spock visited by a man strikingly looking like him with a device on his shoulder and holding his hand out, "Doctor McCoy, EMH Mark VII. And I am goin' to get your ass out of your head. Fixin' minds has improved recently in medicine for Vulcans." The old Spock just simply doesn't understand. "That's okay, because I am goin' to do somethin' that the original McCoy will be proud of." The Vulcan finally takes the man's hand and shakes it as it transitions to Harold taking McCoy by the hand down a unusual zoo without cages and has plastic walls and is large and comfy to the animals followed by the children in beanies and short sleeves. The montage continues showing the happy family growing older, in the kitchen, walking in and out, then of a really aged up Harold and McCoy being part of a shuttle craft visit to Mars. And Harold kissing McCoy's cheek. McCoy talking to thin air, agreeing, "Yes, it's a wonderful view. How lon' you been dead?" He apparently enjoys what he does now that he is retired. McCoy is happy and so is Harold. The final part of the montage ends with young bright eyed McCoy waking up from a dream then going over to jot down onto a padd and taking a phone out, "Did you just dream a murder on our honeymoon?" From the side of the bed. McCoy shakes his head, "You signed up for this marryin' me." Harold tosses a pillow over toward him. And so McCoy tosses it back only to end up falling out of bed right as he dialed the number. And then the scene fades to black.

The End.

Dedicated in honor of Deforest Kelley.

#spones au #leonard mccoy #s'chn t'gai spock #medium au #james t.kirk #pavel chekov #hikaru sulu #nyota uhura #christine chapel #spones #boston legal au #star trek au

9 notes · View notes

deantvlove2018 · 6 years

Text

DEAN TV LOVE II: EPISODE 3⃣3⃣: THIRD ROUND OF SWIMMING

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Dean Tv love two, on the tenth of August 2⃣0⃣1⃣8⃣. On a Friday. Last week's episode of Dean Tv love two, titled the Shirley. Was a great episode. The first ever episode with a flashback. Flashback episode that is. As one of the characters of the Dean Tv universe, Shirley Sociable (that's Shirley's surname) talks about her life. When she was once a bike courier in London in the year 2⃣0⃣1⃣6⃣. And started to become a member of the Dean Tv movement party. Also the time she met the Dean Tv team who was and is still behind it. Shirley was 2⃣6⃣ at the time. Now it's time for this Friday's episode, the swimming race is still around. It's the third round and the participants in the women's swimming race will start right after the kids swimming race. The kids swimming race is in its third and final round, Joanna is the lead as she swims faster. Without thinking about the other swimmers. Linda and Joseph are cheering for her, the crowd were getting very excited about the race. Until Joanna wins the race, Isabelle second and Rose third. The three girls advance to the semifinals which will be next week Friday. Joanna started to breathe, she comes out of the water smiling. She gets her towel to dry off the water. "That was great" said Joanna. "Yeah a first swim that was" said Isabelle. The ladies in the locker room were watching the race on the monitor. While talking. Shirley talking about Jeremy. "He was screaming when he was putting aftershave on his face?" asked Sophie. "Yes he did and he went eeeeeeeeyaaaasaa!, heeeeeeeee!" said Shirley by imitating Jeremy's sound of noises. "Like that?" asked Thunder lady. "Yeah and he was loud" said Shirley. "Very loud?" asked the other lady. "Yes very loud" said Shirley. The ladies came out of the locker room to be seated on chairs while the kids leave the pool. The crowd is calm at the moment. Jeremy is smiling in a calm manner. He has a plaster on his face, after he was shaving his facial hair on his face. Brandon is with him in the swimming pool area with the crowd. DJ G started playing music in the interval. In the summer house Dean is resting in the bedroom while waiting for the event, Louise is waiting too. In the living room. Dean came out of the bedroom and went downstairs to the living room. To watch the event with people but not by himself. June did the same too, she has made it to semifinals too. "You came first and Megan second in a tie break swimming race this afternoon" said Dean. "Yes I thought it was a draw, the replay team showed the footage" said June. "So who is going to make it to the semis in this race with June and Megan?" asked Louise. "I don't know, we will have to find out" said Dean. Shirley's friends are cheering for her in the swimming pool area. The ladies warm up themselves, Jeremy started to get a bit excited seeing Shirley. He started whistling. Everyone can hear the whistling on the TV screens. "Did you hear that?" asked Dean. "What?" asked Louise. "Jeremy's whistle sound" said Dean. "Believe that is Jeremy" said June. Until everyone came into the house. Joanna with her parents, I (Dean) with the other crowd who saw the race earlier. In the swimming pool area DJ G played a couple of tunes, one minute to go for the race. Akiko from the chicken squad is watching the ladies warm up. Akiko is also in the semifinals, she did make it to the finals last year and came fourth place. In 2⃣0⃣1⃣7⃣. Then the DJ stopped playing his music as the announcer started to talk. "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the third round of the summer games swimming race 2⃣0⃣1⃣8⃣, first place for thirty, second place for twenty and third place for ten in the final round to make it to the semifinals. Only three people can make it" said the announcer. The ladies stand in line towards the boards in their lanes. The presenter started to them including Shirley, Jeremy started to get very excited. Shirley blushed hearing Jeremy cheering. "Wow a big crowd" said Louise by watching the Tv. "It is" said Helena. "People of the Dean Tv universe have a long way to see this race" said Dean. "How many?" I asked. "Lots of people like two thousand" said Dean. "2⃣0⃣0⃣0⃣?" asked Linda. "Yes two thousand" said Dean until a funny noise went off. "What was that?" asked Dean. "It's me" said Linda. "She went BARRRT!" said Joseph. Joanna laughed at the sound. The swimmers take their positions to jump into the pool. The referee starts the beeps. The final beep goes off and the swimmers dive into the pool swimming, Shirley and Sophie are levelled in the position of first place. Thunder lady is struggling in the pool trying to swim away from the other participant. Who is catching up. "Keep swimming Shirley" said a voice in Shirley's mind. The swimmers touch the wall and did a backstroke swim movement. Shirley is now in first place position, the voice in Shirley's head keep telling her to keep swimming. She made it to the finish line by pressing the button to get thirty points in the final round. Sophie second place and thunder lady third. First time that thunder lady came third place. Jeremy started to cheer, he runs to Shirley to congratulate her. But the staff members went to stop him, Jeremy push them away. Into the pool. Shirley got out of the pool very slowly to give Jeremy a hug. Everyone got a bit surprised seeing Jeremy doing that for the first time. All the people watching the event were very surprised. "Shirley, Sophie and Thunder lady are through to the semifinals" said Jeremy on the microphone. "You did it Shirley, you did it" said a voice. Shirley started having a flashback of the past. Seeing herself swimming when she was seven years old. In the year 1⃣9⃣9⃣7⃣, that was her first time going swimming. In the beginning she was nervous about swimming. Being afraid of the water, but she fight against her fear and started swimming. The instructor was talking to her about swimming. Saying that she must not be afraid of the water. Her friends helped her out. Until the presenter tries to talk to her, Shirley gets out of her flashback. "Shirley are you okay?" asked the presenter. "Yes I am, I was daydreaming" said Shirley. Everyone laughed. "Daydreaming?, daydreaming about what?" asked Jeremy. "About the time when I first started swimming. I was so afraid of swimming but one day an instructor teach me and everyone to swim, he told me not to be afraid of the water. I heard his voice in my head during the race" Shirley explained. "How old were you back then?" asked the presenter. "7⃣" said Shirley. "Seven?" asked Jeremy. Shirley nodded. Until the people find out about Shirley's profile saying that in her biography she started swimming at the age of seven back in 1⃣9⃣9⃣7⃣. Fighting her fear of the water. After that everyone started to celebrate the people who made it to the semifinals. Shirley sits down looking at her pictures when she was seven, when she got awarded a certificate for swimming at school. Her debut of swimming. Picture of her and the swimming teacher. During that year of 1⃣9⃣9⃣7⃣ she started going swimming, she participated in a swimming race competition and came first place. During her primary school days. From 1⃣9⃣9⃣7⃣ to 2⃣0⃣0⃣1⃣. From age seven to age eleven. Meanwhile Dean went to sleep in the bedroom dreaming about something what is going in the other side of the world. With five dragons fighting crime, they have been looked after by a man. Who has been looking after them for twenty years. One of the dragons are obsessed with sugar apples. The location of where the dragons live is in.......Jakarta 🇲🇨. The Dean Tv dragons they are. There will be a story about them very soon in the autumn. END OF EPISODE 3⃣3⃣ 2⃣:0️⃣3⃣:4⃣7⃣.7⃣6⃣

#deantvlove2

0 notes