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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Final Space: And Into The Fire Review or Now with 110% More Homoerotic Telepathy

Welcome new and old to my first Final Space review! If you’ve never seen the blog before, and given this is the first “new” series i’ve covered as it come out in some time that’s probably quite a few of you, welcome. I’m Jake, I do recaps and reviews of various animated shows and comics, mostly just stuff I want to do, often on comission (5 dollars an episode if theres any episode of the first two seasons of this show or any episode of any other show you’d like tos ee me cover), or for my patreon patreon.com/popculturebuffet. And it is my utmost honor to add this show to my rotating roster of shows I cover as they come out.

I friggin love Final Space. I was intrigued by it back when TBS released the animatics alongside Close Enough (Wth the two shows ironically finally together on HBO max as of earlier this month), for their doomed block. I heard a lot of good things about season 1.. and let it get away from me, not watching it till Season 2. But both seasons had more than enough to pull me in with intriguging characters, even greater jokes and a truly unique idea for a premise involving giant monsters, an edltrich god and lots of cookies.

So while it took an extra year given Covid, I’m super friggin pumped to get into season 3 at long last after the hell of a cliffhanger, especially since ironically last night I saw Steven Yeun’s oscar nominated performance in “Minari”. Now i get to watch him play a cat teenager again too.. and in a few days Mark friggin Grayson. It’s a good week to be a fan of his is what i’m saying and a good week in general.

Previously on Final Space Yo!: Since it’s been a year and while the series provides a recap , I’m going to be doing these anyway so:

Our heroes finally got all 5 dimensional keys and freed Bolo, and in the process also freed Avacato from Invictus, the horrifying entity controlling final space. Meanwhile Tribore got Sheryl to stop being a selfish prick and she joined the team trying to be a better mother from now on. But freeing Bolo came at a high cost as Nightfall sacrified herself as the sixth key (KVN was natrually both Gary and Bolo’s first choice, but was inllegible. ) So we ended the season with our heroes entering Final Space and Gary reuniting with Quinn.... while Invictus loomed. So over a year later we finally get some answers so join me under the cut for spoilers, recaps, and homoerotic text ahoy.

Something i’m doing since both the roster keeps changing.. and as I correctly guessed from the trailer, and the general tone of the promos for this season, that everyone won’t be all together all season.. or even in one piece.. i’ll be doing a silver age style roll call to let us know who all we have on the Team Squad for the episode Roll Call: Gary, Quinn, Avacato, Little Cato, Ash, Fox, KVN, HUE, AVA, Sheryl, Bolo, and Tribore

So we pick up right where we left off, Gary tearfully reuniting with Quinn, with Quinn wishing he hadn’t come for her, and Gary being Gary naturally having ignored that, and actually been more determined since that made it forbidden which made it extra tempting and him want to extra do it. God I missed this glorious idiot let me tell you.

So things are quickly interrupted by invictus, who turns out to be a giant flaming head.. thing... and chases them and the crimson light, which has to start speeding with our heroes tethered to the outside, Quinn holding onto Gary.

So we get one hell of a thrilling chase as the Crimson Light outspeeds the demon head and runs into two titans, but Bolo shows up to take out one, with Mooncake trying his dimension shattering blast thingy on Invictus.. and naturlaly g ven this is the big bad we need to show off how horrying they are, and it does NOTHING. But Gary catches his little buddy so we’re alright.

Sheryl also shows off her badass bonafieds by LIGHTFOLDING THROUGH A TITAN... granted she still has some parenting skills to learn as “lightfolding while your son is hanging out the back through an edltrich god” really isn’t a motherly thing to do.. but neither is trying to murder your child several times or blaming him for how shitty your life turned out so ANYTHING is a step up for her.

But.. it’s not enough. While she does manage to kill ONE the Crimson Light is too badly damaged to go on and we get two tragic deaths in one go... The Team Squad is forced to abandon the Crimson Light.. and AVA is too damaged to Upload into HUE. “I’m Sad” “For who?” “For you.. and for us. “ God damn Tom Kenny is amazing. You don’t need me telling you that, but sometimes you need a reminder.

So our heroes end up on a desolate mystery world, stranded in final space with no ship, no suplies and no hope. The only thing to do now is survivie and hope they can continue the mission at some point.

ONE MONTH LATER

Things have not gotten any better, as naturally , our heroes have only found weird cartoon eyed worms that regrow their heads when you bite them off. So while this means unlimited food, it’s also disgusting and Garry hates it. “This may be a head but it tastes like a butt”. Quinn and Tribore are with him and Quinn hasn’t been ready to talk about her experiences trapped in this hellscape and still isn’t but being a good dude, Gary dosen’t push her on it. Though the weird red veiny thing on her arm tells me maybe one of you should speed that up before she explodes or gets cronnenburgy. Just saying. I’ll also say i’m not huge on the one month time skip, as while I feel they probably have a reason for being that specific i’ts a bit TOO long and I question why have that long a period of a jump, not the longest but still long enough for things to happen with nothing changingin that time? Still it’s a minor nitpick in an otherwise fantastic episode so I can let it go, I just don’t get it.

What we do get is some Gary Corpses dropping and Invictius puppeting them... i’m with gary that is bowel openingly scary. I also do like how despite the FAR more dire circumstances, they still get in the requisite shenanigans this series requires. I’ts not to the network mandated subplot levels where it distracts, but it’s enough to help ease the terror of the situation and isn’t around for situations like the opening where it really SHOULDN’T be. As the series always has when something big happens, the bollocks goes away. Once we’re in between we can get back to literal pissing contests, KVN leading a crowd to their deaths and HUE in a pimp hat like god intended.

So yeah our heroes have to outrun the horrible horde of Gary’s, though Little Cato catches on something’s wrong as Tribore makes gary cary him as foreshadowing for later and Sends mooncake down to asssit. Our heroes escape.. but a cave in happens.

After the break, Gary wakes up confused with the party now split in two: Gary, Quinn, KVN, Tribore and HUE on one side and Avacato, Ash, Fox, Little Cato and Sheryl on the other. So Gary does the logical thing... and take his shirt off telling Avacato to feel him.

I mean I didn’t even ship them before this scene but... Gary claims because of their bond he can telepahtically connect with Avacato. That’s normal Gary shenanigans.. except not only does he shrug off his girlfriend asking why they can’t do that.. but it WORKS. We have a scene of the two telepahtically talking in a wheatfield that is so homerotic I guarantee there only wasn’t the Careless Whisper sax because they couldn’t afford it.. or their saving it for later this season. Look sometimes you don’t ship a ship because you just.. dont’ care that strongly one way or another and sometimes you just need an incredibly gay scene to see the light. Same thing happened with Weblena same thing here.

Fox also says “that was glorious to watch” same man. That was freaking art. So our heroes split up into three plots. As usual for me

Team Gary: So yeah... Triobore’s pregnant. No way to really softball into that. He’s been pregnant this whole time. So we get a stupid and mildly horrifying gross out sequence with Gary having to look Triobore in teh eyes and Quinn having to “uncork him”. Which is code for ... you know what i’m not going to say it. If you’ve seen the episode you know and if not your better off not visualizing it trust me. Point is this whole sequence is dumb and the worst part of the episode by far. And the series CAN do good gross out. While Olan Rodgers regrets it, the pissing contest was one of the funniest scenes of season 2, and managed to make a gross idea on paper actually pretty damn funny. This.. this is just “Haha males giving birth and tribore’s an asshole”. There’s no joke here just a .. plug. .. gah.. the vomit is rising let me tell you.

We do get something good out of this nightmare, Tribore’s son who hatches as the army of gary’s dig their way in, Quanstranstro, who rapidly ages into a stylsih spanish speaking adult badass. He is fucking awesome and a great addition to the team and the sheer.. oddity of his birth is wonderful even if the actual birthing was not. Then the climax happens so before that.

Team Avacato:

Avacato and Co come across a sleeping giant robot cyborg .. thingy. Naturally Fox wakes him up. Little Cato remains not suprised. It occelates between panicking over it’s legs being gone and amenisa and is pretty damn funny. It’s voiced by John Dimagio. But it gets serious as we find out nothing has ever made it out of final space, and things.. change the longer there there. And Quinn’s been there several months if not a year. Whuh oh. This part is much better both due to better jokes and plot advancment.. though again Quanstrano is still fucking amazing.

Team Bolo: Bolo meanwhile returns and fights a titan, and has mooncake help him rather htan join the others, but looses, hitting the planet with his body.. I mean he might not get back up.. but the impact shatters the caverns and causes an explosion. Everyone but Gary, Quinn, KVN and HUE are MIA, as our remaining party find earth floating overhead.

TO BE CONTINUED>

Final Thoughts: A decent start to the season. Like I said the whole birthing sequence can die in a fire and reminds me of the terrible comedy subplots adult swim wanted grafted onto two episodes.. but otherwise it’s a tense stark opener that sets up the bleak tone while still keeping the series rediciulous shenanigans in tact. It’s the perfect welcome back after so long. I mean the gay telepathy alone would make it a winner.

Next Time on This Blog: We dive into a little history with HIsteria. See you at the next rainbow.

#final space #gary goodspeed #avacato #little cato #quinn airgon #ash grayven #fox #KVN #HUE #AVA #invictus #bollo #sheryl goodspeed #tribore menendez

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artsyxloner · 3 years

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Not just a Monster

Warning: violence, blood,

16: life or death

We were both shaking, even though if Eun-Yoo did open up the door for Ji-Su to use the restroom she still would have passed out. " come on help me lift her!" I pleaded to grab her one side while she got the other.

We both counted to three lifting her. Pulling her arms around our neck making our way out of the girl's restroom. I called for help, not knowing if anyone knew what to do.

Seeing Eun-Hyuk and Jae-Heon they ran over to us. Jake-Heon took Ji-Soo first. " what happened?" Run-Hyuk questioned. I was about to answers until Eun-Yoo did. " she collapsed in the restroom."

There were tear stains on The girl's face, " she been acting like her side has been hurting her for a few days now haven't you all noticed?"

" we've asked but she just denied it." I bit my lip, " what are we going to do?" Eun-Hyuk shook his head " take her to a couch, she needs to lay down so we can figure out the problem."

And we did just that, laying her on the couch moving some of the pillows and blankets off them. She groaned while we were doing this. " how much does it hurt?" We have all gathered in behind.

" I'm fine." Ji-Soo Urged but Eun-Hyuk put his hand on her side and pressed down. She cried out in pain, " I'm going to lift my hand now." After he did she cried out more. " I think it's appendicitis?"

Ji-Soo repeated after him,

" Appendicitis?" She asked not knowing what he was talking about. " Your appendix." Everyone started whispering, " appendix, how does he know that?"

" you should know that we were poor but he still went to med school." Eun-Hyuk explained, " so what do we do?" Su-Yeong wonder, " she'll be okay." Mrs. Cha rubbed the little girl's head.

" the golden hour is running out on both sides." Hye-In implied I frowned, staring at her. I don't know if she was going to be alright? What if we ran out of time on the golden hour?

Soon Eun-Hyun, Jae-Heon, me, and Eun-Yoo were talking amongst ourselves while everyone was in the day-Care-Center.

" if her appendix burst it'll become Serious. In her peritoneum, she could get an infection and Bacteria can spread out through her entire body."

I leaned back on the hall, thinking this over, it wasn't good. " she'll need surgery?" Jae-Heon pronounced, " there's nothing we can do here," I heard Eun-Yoo grumble. " and I'm not sure if I know how?"

Well knowing some medical stuff is better than not knowing at all. " so you're saying you're not going to do anything about it!." Eun-Yoo got up fussing at her brother.

" We can't just let her suffer?" I butted in but I understood, that he was put in a difficult situation. Someone's life was in his hands with just a little experience. " do whatever you can do because I need to get even with her!" Eun-Yoo demanded.

I bit the inside of my lip my nerves her racking up as we got done talking about what was going to happen. Now here comes the hard part. " so there's a chance I might die?" Ji-Soo admitted.

Eun-Hyuk nodded, " yes." I felt bad for her and I don't know how she was taking the news. Probably not well. " there's a higher chance of dying than surviving... It's your call."

He told her, but it didn't take long for her answer because she murmured a yes. " if I don't, there's no chance of surviving at all." She was set with her answer that and Eun-Hyuk left the room.

Everyone was in here even Hyun-Su, " I'll perform surgery. I need antibiotics, anesthetics, saline, and surgical instruments." Eun-Hyuk informed, " I'll go," Jae-Heon Volunteered, it was nice of him but it would be trouble since she's only got one good arm.

" are you trying to die?" Sang-Wook walked up, " you'll just be a burden in that state." That was kinda harsh.

"Okay, I'll go too." I looked over towards Yu-Ri, " no you. won't." Gil-Seob declared, " there are dozens of surgical tools unless you're going to bring the whole hospital, You need someone who we will get the right equipment."

Gil-Seob stood up walking over towards Yu-R, she nodded her head as If saying I'll be okay. " please help us." It was Eun-Hyuk you couldn't tell by his face but he was serious.

So we all began working on getting ready for Ji-Soo surgery. Wiping down the table with hot water, disinfecting everything that was gonna be used. Like the Surgical tools. Hanging up plastic around the room.

Once I was done helping I grabbed my duffel bag, knowing I'll need it for the medical tools. And my machete Du-Silk fixed it to where a bat was Screwed into it.

It was pretty badass, going over to the back seat of the newly reinforced car I opened the door throwing in my bag about to get in when a hand grabbed my shoulder Stopping I look over to see who it was.

Eun-Hyuk stood in front of me, " if things go south just go to the hospital. Getting food is optional Saving Ji-Soo is the main goal." I nodded, " we'll be back soon." I got in and closed the door.

It was great to know he was thinking about others' now and not being so selfish. When everyone that was going got in the vehicle Sang-Wook who was driving started the Engine and we took off. Hyun-Su decided to come with us even I didn't want him to.

Thinking about going outside again, we're it all began. We're I survived with no one, because of what I didn't mean to do. I knew I was still responsible but Did I want to live with the Constant guilt?

That's what I use to think, not knowing when my time would be up if I went out on a run wondering if I might not come back alive. Dying from hunger or dehydration or anything else in this damn world that would do the job.

I didn't want to though at least not know or ever. Yes, I would have to live with it there death but keeping their Memory alive is what I want. To be able to never forget my loved ones.

Going down a dark tunnel I saw the exit and bright sunlight And clear blue sky's it gave me hope, knowing the group I was with is my new friends possibly family and for some reason, I couldn't leave them.

It's maybe because I found a connection with Hyun-Su that we both have held out for this long it's August 25 year twenty-twenty. I have passed the 15-day mark since the 8th of monsterization.

You could say I was holding out but I haven't been fainting having no nosebleeds, or Hallucinations. It's not that I was worried about not having those things I'm just worried when IT comes back I wouldn't be able to contain the monster and finally turn.

I was a ticking time bomb, to say the least. As we rolled out on the ground the ground began to rumble. Feeling the car shake I Gripped my weapon looking outside.

I didn't have time to react because are were rammed into. Feeling the impact of the hit on my side I felt the door close in as we were thrown through the air. Screaming could be heard as the glass was flying everywhere.

Crashing landed on an enormous pile of sand rolling down it the car flipped over a couple of times until it stopped. Blood was dripping from my face clouding my vision as if it was blurry enough from my head swinging back and forth.

I yelled out it see if the others were alive. But I didn't hear a response. Please God don't let them be dead I thought, trying to get out of my seat. But where the door was caved in on me and that my seatbelt was completely stuck I couldn't free myself to help anyone.

Yu-Ri was laying on the roof of the car that was upside down, blood was all over her face passed out so was Sang-Wook searching around I couldn't find Hyun-Su he was in the front passenger seat but he wasn't there.

Looking around Frantically I saw his body lying outside on the ground he wasn't moving. Tears began to fall from my face, I needed to get out and help them. I didn't see my machete bat anywhere to cut myself out.

But there was a large piece of glass stuck in my leg it was big than my hand. I had to pull it out, taking ahold of it I clenched my teeth jerking it out real fast. I cussed sucking in a breath, that fucking hurt.

Taking the seatbelt, I Started to saw on the thick material moving it back-and-forth. Then then the rumbling came back. My breathing quickened as I was trying to cut faster.

" come on you stupid piece of shit!" I mumbled Anxiously, I was finally able to cut myself free slowly I made my way down until I got on the ground. I took my hand shaking Yu-ri but she wouldn't get up. Signing Looking through the car's window I saw Hyun-Su waking.

I was afraid the giant monster get to him before he would have time to react. I screamed out his name to get his attention. " Hyun-Su!!! Get up!!!" I Cried seeing him glance over to me eyes wide when he saw the monster warning him about.

He got up staggering a little bit, grabbing his spear. He Launched at the monster trying to stop it in its thigh but it was no use it ended up flinging its hand hitting Hyun-Su sending him flying crashing into more sand construction equipment.

I screamed out, and the giant monster looked down at me and smiled with its bloody mouth. It picked a concrete cylinder and checked it at Hyun-Su. But he dodged it just in time.

I let out a shaky breath, there was a movement in the front seat it was Sang-Wook he pulled himself out of the car. I began to smell smoke inhaling the fumes, making me cough It was going to catch on fire soon.

I hurried to cut Yu-Ri's belt, hearing I banging noise. Sang-Wook jerked open the door. I soon was able to cut her free, heaving her up I dragged myself over to the opening Sang-Wook made.

It was a tight space so I laid Yu-Ri in front of me first so he could grab her. " here take her, I'm fine." I stated not needing help. I was about to crawl out but then remembered my Field guide journal with my family picture in it. I found it near the front.

I was close enough to reach and unzip it, searching around my hand to touch the cover of the pages. Getting it out I held it close to me while dragging my Injured leg that was bleeding heavily out.

I clutched my leg adding pressure as I got up limping, to get away it was going to blow up any minute. But my leg was in too much pain, I fell to the ground, landing on my side.

I grunted cussing out, " damn leg!" Trying to get up but then I smelled gas. My eyes widened trying to pull myself up again. The smell was getting thicker and stronger.

I didn't know where Sang-Wook went with Yu-ri but I hope they were safe. Off in the distance, I heard someone calling out my name. Looking up it was Hyun-Su, he was running.

I hadn't noticed the big red fire truck that had come in all this ruckus. The person that was driving it was ramming the monster with it. Just then I began to feel the heat and something grabbing me yanking me out of the way when the car exploded.

Knowing it was Hyun-Su he wrapped his arm around me as we tumbled to the ground. Making a thud sound, I landed on him my face got shoved in his chest.

I stayed there for a minute taking short hard breathes, I could feel his arm tighten around when I started to move. " Are...you alright?" Hyun-Su breathed out.

Wondering if I was okay, I was quiet for a minute but then answered. " I gashed my leg open, but I'm fine." I wiggled out of his grasp sitting up, he did also.

Seeing the huge slash that was oozing a lot of blood by the minute. " can you try and stand?" He asked, but I shook my head. " no, I can walk." Hissed in pain when I moved it.

" Okay, " was all Hyun-Su said grabbing my arm he wrapped it around his shoulder. " I'm going to lift you, can you get on my back," he added, I nodded as he Crouched down.

Climbing on it, I wrapped my arms around his neck, giving the clear he stood up and walked back to the apartment building. Feeling tired I laid my head on his shoulder.

This is kinda long but I hope you enjoy it!! ☺️✨

#sweet home #kdramaedit #song kang #cha hyun su #sweethomeedit #sweet home netflix #webcomic #kdrama #kdrama spoilers #netflix kdrama #koeran #korean show #sweet home series #sweet home webtoon #webtoon #monsters #monster #fanfic

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chillyravenart · 4 years

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Thoughts on Seara Targaryen?

I've mentioned this briefly here but let me add a few more of my thoughts.

I feel like Saera is treated like some faultless feminist icon in the fandom (how surprising lmao) but let's be absolutely real here: she was a spoilt, headstrong princess who was never going to cave into societal/parental pressure. I’m personally not a fan at all but I want to list a few things about her personality and upbringing that may be of some use in understanding her better. Forgive my rambling in advance!

Princess Saera, three years younger, was a trial from the very start; tempestuous, demanding, disobedient. The first word she spoke was no, and she said it often and loudly. She refused to be weaned until past the age of four. Even as she ran about the castle, talking more than her siblings Vaegon and Daella combined, she wanted her mother’s milk, and raged and screamed whenever the queen dismissed another wetnurse. “Seven save us,” Alysanne whispered to the king one night, “when I look at her I see Aerea.”

Not to forget, George loves hitting characters where it hurts and that's through their children. And George went in particularly hard with Jaehaerys and Alysanne's children. I absolutely adore the older bunch, Aemon, Baelon, Alyssa... but the younger bunch didn’t exactly speak to me the same way. I suppose with so many children, it was natural to have a few bad eggs, and Saera was one of them. Jaehaerys spoilt her as child and she grew up to be very bright but also had a cruel streak too.

... and long before she was half-grown, Saera had learned the art of getting anything she wanted from her father: a kitten, a hound, a pony, a hawk, a horse (Jaehaerys did draw a firm line at the elephant). Queen Alysanne was far less gullible, however, and Septon Barth tells us that Saera’s sisters all misliked her to various degrees.

The border between innocent pranks, wanton mischief, and acts of malice is not always discerned by one so young, but there can be no doubt that the princess crossed it freely.

Septon Barth also commented on Saera’s disposition, and her hunger for the attention her older siblings received:

“She is the king’s daughter, and well aware of it. Servants see to her every need, though not always as quickly as she might like... If she were the king’s firstborn, or better still his only child, she would be well content. Instead she finds herself the ninthborn, with six living siblings who are older than her and even more adored.”

Saera pranked her sister Daella with cats and bees, dyed the KG cloaks pink, and would show up drunk to the sept for prayers. And since Saera had every whim granted to her, it's natural that she would want more from the world and succeeded in carving out her own kingdom across the Narrow Sea. I definitely don't think she would have been content with living a normal life in Westeros, married to some lord and running his house.

“She wants what she wants and she wants it now,” Grand Maester Elysar wrote of the princess in 69 AC, when she was only two. “Seven save us all when she is older. The Dragonkeepers had best lock up the dragons.” He had no notion how prophetic those words would be.

At fourteen, she told the king she meant to marry the Prince of Dorne, or perhaps the King Beyond the Wall, so she could be a queen “like Mother.”

By fifteen, Saera had other ideas however.

Why dream of distant monarchs when she could have as many squires, knights, and likely lords as she desired? Dozens danced attendance on her, but three soon emerged as favorites. Jonah Mooton was the heir to Maidenpool, Red Roy Connington was the fifteen-year-old Lord of Griffin’s Roost, and Braxton Beesbury, called Stinger, was a nineteen-year-old knight, the finest lance in the Reach...

And initially it was Queen Alysanne who voiced her dismay regarding Saera’s behaviour with her newly acquired suitors. “Saera is clever, but not wise” and she also criticised her choice of female companions as well as Beesbury/Stinger who was rumoured to have sired a bastard. However Jaehaerys brushed it off unconcerned that she would get up to any mischief at court with so many watching eyes. Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Then came the incident at the Blue Pearl with Tom Turnip, and her three favourite lordlings (including Stinger who later fought Jaehaerys in his trial by combat) which made matters worse. I highly doubt any other noble lord would have been ok with his daughter cavorting with household knights in a brothel- least of all a KING. When questioned about her actions, Saera really didn’t do herself any favours:

I could marry all three of them, why not? Why should I have just one husband? The Conqueror had two wives, and Maegor had six or eight.” She had gone too far. Jaehaerys rose to his feet and descended from the Iron Throne, his face a mask of rage. “You would compare yourself to Maegor? Is that who you aspire to be?”

After the horrors Jaehaerys and his siblings had endured under Maegor, it’s no wonder he was so shaken by her blase attitude. And again, Alysanne was able to soften his anger and reconcile him to forgive Saera, but she ran away that very night and tried to steal a dragon which sealed her fate.

Alysanne wept when she heard, for she knew her cause was hopeless. Jaehaerys was hard as stone. “Saera with a dragon,” was all he had to say. “Would she have taken Balerion as well, I wonder?”

One of my favourite aspects of this whole saga was Jaehaerys fighting Stinger for her honour, "This old man," just takes me out every single time. Forty-nine year old Jae, taking out nineteen year old Beesbury just reminds me too much of Daemon vs Aemond - WHY ARE FORTY-NINE YEAR OLD TARG MEN SO BADASS?

I also understand that Saera was a plot device to add filial conflict to Jaehaerys’ reign, after all a successful king doesn’t always make a successful father. Jaehaerys was the quintessential medieval monarch with a kingdom to run and keep in order after a very volatile period and Saera was a royal princess and expected to uphold those standards. As Grand Maester Elysar put it, “He was better with roads than with daughters.” I think Jaehaerys had his flaws for sure, but again, this is asoiaf and I really don’t understand how people expect paternal relationships to be as open and affectionate as they are today- seriously look at how fatherhood has evolved in the last fifty years alone and tell me a medieval king would have been braiding his daughter’s hair and having heart-to-hearts with her. He could have done more to understand her, but then we wouldn’t have this embittered storyline and everything would be hunky-dory. That’s not how GRRM works unfortunately.

I am certain Jaehaerys had loved her as a daughter, and her actions had caused him pain which had hardened his heart at the time. But it is also apparent later on that Jaehaerys was hit hard by this event and also mistook Alic*nt for Saera on his sickbed. I also feel heartbroken for Alysanne who lost so many of her children and felt Saera's loss very acutely too. She also became withdrawn and was clearly shaken by all the losses she had endured.

The years had taken their toll on him, and those who knew him well said that he was never the same after his daughter Saera had disgraced and then abandoned him. He had grown thinner, almost gaunt, and there was more grey than gold in his beard now, and in his hair.

The Old King sometimes mistook her for one of his daughters, calling her by their names; near the end, he grew certain she was his daughter Saera, returned to him from beyond the narrow sea.

Anyway I am glad Saera got to set up her own empire and lifestyle (Hot Girl Saera ™), she is arguably the first Targaryen entrepreneur of sorts too. She is most certainly not the feminist kween this fandom treats her as IMO, raise ya standards! Ultimately I wouldn't say I'm a fan mainly because her character didn’t appeal to me, particularly when I read Fire and Blood. Besides, Saera’s domain lies outside my circle of interest and I'm more concerned with what happens to subsequent characters in Westeros.

Hope that answered your question!

#saera targaryen #asoiaf #fire and blood #jaehaerys i targaryen #anon asks #chillyravenart answers

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missmillyashford · 3 years

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Eight Hundred Eyes Are Better Than One - Reaction

I should have done this a long time ago but I just reread this chapter and reacted to it as I went if you’re interested @anbu-legacy

Because I’ve had a grudge against canon Jiraiya for so long it’s been an interesting but slow process of adjusting to this (better) version of him where his awful traits either don’t exist or are slightly more subdued, and traits I could actually appreciate are more emphasized. And saying that, I love this image of this giant, flamboyant man being so unsubtle about his summons that he just wakes up not just Kakashi but his entire FLOOR. Nice one. This man is a spy theoretically and I love that juxtaposition. At least it makes it easy to let Ryouma know they’re leaving.

“Dodomeki?” he said quietly.

Boyfriends, Kakashi reflected, were supposed to be reassuring. “I’ll bring you an eyeball,” he promised.

“Gross.”

This reminds me of that time Kakashi found a weird creepy bug in that one cave during the kiri mission and instead of leaving it be like a normal person he decides to pick it up and bring it all the way back to the team to scare Ryouma with it. I always find it super funny when Kakashi pulls stuff like this, terrorizing his poor teammates with gross unwanted show and tell. I personally would love a gift like that, though. I am totally someone who would probably keep particularly interesting animal body parts preserved in a jar somewhere in my house because I find anatomy and physiology interesting. I once had the opportunity in one of my university classes to hold a horse’s brain and was quite enthralled. I just wanted a good look at it and was really curious what it would feel like.

“Just bring yourself home safe.”

“Always do,” Kakashi said, which was mostly true. “Captain, too.”

I’m reacting to this on a reread so hahaaaaaaa. Nice one, Kakashi. Your poor hands.

I would say I can’t believe that Kakashi actually WENT INTO THE ROOM to wake up Raidou and Genma, but this is Kakashi, so I can. He could have just knocked on the bedroom window, or just gone to the door, like a person with basic social skills and a modicum of decency. Kids these days. No respect for the general concept of privacy. Sheesh. Boundaries. I’m glad I’m not them. I will admit that I laughed though.

Raidou jerked, sat up wildly, and blurted, “What the hell?”

“Taichou,” Kakashi said, with a little wave.

Genma exhaled, tweaked the sheet so that it covered Kurenai more fully, then sat up — a much smoother operation. “Hatake,” he said tightly, visibly trying for calm.

“Lieutenant,” Kakashi said. And, for good measure: “Yuuhi. Well done.”

Asdfghgfds. This bastard. I love and hate him. DK is always so good at this sort of humour with Kakashi and it never fails to get me.

I feel bad for Genma and Raidou and Kurenai right now though because they didn’t even get to TALK properly the next day after getting together before Raidou had to leave.

Kakashi felt his spine stiffen. Reflexive, pointless defense of his parents, who had raised him on legends and myths, told in the few quiet moments between everything else.

I really love the callback to Don’t Fear the Dark. It’s really interesting when we get little glimpses at what Sakumo was like, and what his family was like before it fell apart. The defensiveness about it has my heart hurting, because it’s one of the few tiny pieces he still has of his father. Speaking of Sakumo, mythology/legends, and Don’t Fear the Dark, I remember that there were traditional masks of demons and things in their home. For a very long time I’ve been very curious to see what the Hatake estate looks like, and what other personal items from Sakumo and their life before are still there. Here’s to hoping we’ll get to see it one day?

I like how these legends have been woven into the worldbuilding too.

Usagi thumped him on the shoulder. “Better dodge, then. We’ll bring some of her scrapings back in a jar for the lab.”

Genma would probably appreciate some jar-scrapings, though.

Genma’s my type of person. I appreciate him.

I’m really enjoying getting to know a little more about the relationship dynamics of the members of team thirteen. Ginta and Usagi’s relationship is so fun.

I love Goya purely on the basis that she’s a badass archer lady with wicked aim and I feel like that’s understandable and valid.

While Raidou and Usagi bartered for shelter, and Jiraiya signed autographs for the goat herder’s starstruck daughter, Kakashi watched a handful of goat kids bounce back and forth over a fence with blithe disregard for its actual purpose.

The goats hopping over the fence makes such a great image. I adore Tarama the goat village, purely because of the goats. And the Katsuko callback.

I am weak to the characters being dumb reckless idiots experimenting with jutsu for science so I was LIVING for the thunderstorm Ginta-Kakashi shenanigans. I’ve also always loved thunderstorms so I might be extra weak to lightning users. Just casually detonating each other’s jutsu and hoping they don’t explode each other irreparably in the process. Good fun.

Actually getting so see Kakashi split lightning was so cool. We keep hearing about it in canon and legacy so to finally see it is so satisfying. I like the description of sharingan vision as “he tracked the bolt zig-zagging down as if it were made of syrup, oozing through superheated air, long, lethal fingers branching out towards them.” And I also particularly liked this line:

The lightning snapped towards him like a massive, elemental predator scenting blood.

I am very amused:

In the dizzying aftermath, Kakashi had just enough time to think ow and awesome before the next strike threatened, and they both ran like hell for the village.

Usagi’s childish glee is so great. And yeah, I feel both her reaction AND Raidou’s are pretty appropriate. But still, lol:

“When did you turn three hundred? Your rookie just did the coolest thing ever. Stop being miserable about it.”

“You want him?” Raidou said.

“Yes,” said Usagi instantly. “Hatake, you’re mine, get over here.”

“Wait, no,” Raidou said.

I’m glad Kakashi is being appreciated.

The conversation Raidou and Kakashi had about KureGenRai hook up was veeeeery interesting. I wasn’t expecting Kakashi to react so harshly. I guess it is hypocritical of Raidou to say what he said then do that, though Raidou has a point that it’s to protect rookies from senior officers. Lieutenants and Captains are different since they’re closer in rank. I’m guessing that Kakashi is kind of frustrated with how he and Ryouma have felt like they’ve had to keep their relationship secret for fear of getting in trouble, even if same rank liaisons are technically not against the rules, unwritten or otherwise. Because of Raidou’s whole boundaries thing and general testiness about that kind of thing?

I’m curious to see how keeping it a secret from Ryouma will go. How long will they even want to keep it from him, and if they do want to keep the secret how will Ryouma feel about both the relationship and Kakashi’s secret keeping once he finds out?

Another thing I’ll be curious to see is if this at all changes if Kakashi wants to keep his relationship with Ryouma secret still, and if so from who. I’d doubt it would since there are other factors but still. I am looking forward for when people find out, but at the same time I’ve been enjoying it being private. I think a temporary shared secret like this can feel kinda intimate so long as it doesn’t overstay its welcome. And we get scenes like Kakashi panicking and hiding in Ryouma’s bathroom while Ryouma clumsily lies and implies he may have hooked up with an Uchiha to evade arrest so that’s a bonus. I think being able to have their own relationship exist in isolation from judgements and comments from the outside allows them to take some pressure off their relationship, and gives them time to figure each other out and how to just be together unhindered. I can see why they’re doing this the way they are.

A mass grave. Whoever had dug it — Kusa ninja, most likely — had missed the small body on the hill.

“Poor bastards,” Usagi said quietly.

Kasumi, of all people, went back for the body.

I like this detail about Kasumi.

“Now we track,” Jiraiya said. He gave a little wave in Kakashi’s direction. “Do the nose thing.”

Some days, Kakashi didn’t feel entirely respected in his workplace.

Loooool

It took two more days to even get close to the Dodomeki. For Kakashi, it was like living in dual headspaces — the clean, sleek arrowhead mind of a predator, and the disordered tangle of everything human. Team Thirteen, with their… themness. Jiraiya — firmly, unignorably himself. The discomfort of Raidou and the unhappy friction between them. No Genma to smooth down the rough edges. No Ryouma to distract with chatter or an unexpected, brilliant idea.

I really liked this section for a couple reasons:

1) I like how when certain members of the team are absent it highlights just how important they are to the entire team. Genma the vital lynchpin and mediator; Ryouma the emotional heart, friend, and innovator. I also appreciate that it’s not just their skillsets that are addressed either. They’re valuable for things like their kindness, level-headedness, and company.

2) I love the acknowledgment of duality of Kakashi’s headspace and social interactions. The headspace required to do his job as a tracker vs. working as part of a team of antsy, ridiculous people are very different. The interactions he is going to be having with the wolfdogs that don’t even so much as speak human vs. his human coworkers are going to be very different too. Kakashi having an entirely different headspace with the dogs to the point he actually separates it from being entirely human (like referring to “humans” as if it were a group he isn’t entirely part of) reminds me of all the way back to the thread Lost in the Dark when Raidou sees Kakashi speaking to the entire pack for the first time. He realizes Kakashi’s social skills have likely been influenced by his exposure to the dogs he grew up with. It was such an interesting revelation to me. This is the part I mean if you’re curious:

What followed was one of the strangest conversations Raidou had ever witnessed. Kakashi, with his economy of speech and movement that seemed so disjointed in human interaction, slotted into place as naturally as breathing. Raidou recognized that questioning head tilt echoed back by listening dogs; the silent, watchful glances that lingered a second beyond comfortable; the predatory edge polished like a fine weapon. Here, Kakashi’s hair and mask just looked like markings, no more notable than that shepherd’s black-tipped ears, or that hound’s white-ticked coat.

It explained a lot.

I really liked seeing Raidou defend Kakashi from Kasumi’s crochety and unjustified remarks. Progress!!! I’m proud.

I’ve probably said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but I always love your dialogue. There’s so much personality and liveliness in it. The banter is so entertaining. Usagi and Ginta especially right now.

I know the mythology the Dodomeki comes from is very different, but there is something about the descriptions of her that make me think a lot of what I felt watching the Netflix the Witcher series. Which might not mean anything to you if you haven’t seen it. Similarly horrifying and deadly and gross. It’s great.

The entire fight scene had my heart pounding. It was so intense and fast-paced. So many close calls and how fast she was was so terrifying. We just saw Kakashi with his sharingan so fast he was able to split a lightning strike in half, yet she’s so fast he can’t even hope to keep up. Fuck.

Abe had to chase him nervously around, attending to whatever bits of Jiraiya’s face he could reach, until the medic finally lost his temper and ordered Jiraiya to sit.

I loved this.

I don’t have anything interesting to say about them theorizing about her sickly state, but I am very intrigued. I also love when little bits of real life actual science are incorporated in fantasy like this (ex. the mention of ketosis).

I am still very very worried for Kakashi’s hands. I suspect he won’t get out of this entirely unscathed even after treatment.

#anbu legacy

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thespacebetweenworlds · 3 years

Note

so... i’m not actually in the witcher fandom, nor do i know the most about it...but i still think you should write witcher!hyunjin + bard!jisung. i just approve of the notion idk

I WROTE IT!!!! lmao, be proud of me! this was a whole ride and I loved every second. I hope you’ll find this amusing, too!

Here's the tags: KPOP RPF, Stray Kids Fanfic, Han Jisung/Hwang Hyunjin, rated T, warnings for violence and blood, Witcher AU, 5k, complete. Read it on ao3 here or continue forth below the cut.

Inspired by this Witcher!Hyunjin edit. Beta’d by Reltic, who writes very good skz fic y’all should go read it <3

Anyway let me know what you think :]

Hyunjin punched him in the face.

… by accident. That was important. Or it would be important, if Hyunjin didn’t wish he could punch the annoying bard a second time.

Unfortunately, they were currently caught and bound in the bandits’ cave, back to back, and if Hyunjin wanted to break free fast, the knife in his arm guard would also stab the annoying bard in the back. And he had to admit that that annoying mouth was currently the only thing preventing the bandits from slashing their throats and leaving them to bleed out in a ditch.

Fuck.

So Hyunjin lost himself in the memory of the bard’s stupid soft cheek on his knuckles, the impact he felt before the bard’s head snapped back and he stumbled away. The blood on his teeth when he smiled up at Hyunjin, who had honestly (oh, his past self new nothing) meant to punch the lackey of the village’s head who refused to pay him. The space around the bar had been packed, and someone was pushed into the lackey just before Hyunjin hit him.

The annoying bard.

Hyunjin, feeling sorry and embarrassed, had kicked the lackey a few metres away, relishing in the thump of a body against the wall and then the following slump to the floor accompanied with the sudden scared quiet of the room. And then he’d glared at the guys who had been pushing the annoying bard and escorted him out, meaning to apologise. He had not meant for the annoying bard to follow him on the dusty dirt road to the next village and never stop talking.

“You really should let us go, my dudes,” the annoying bard laughed – Jisung, oh how Hyunjin wished he didn’t know that name – “I mean come on, have you ever seen a man as beautiful as him? It would be a crime to kill us, a crime.”

The first that hit Jisung’s bruised face after that was deserved, and Hyunjin wished he was the one who did the punching.

“You trespassed into our territory, we will do as we wish,” one of the bandits crossed his head and lifted his chin as if he was almighty. For the moment, he was. “We have heard of a witcher with ties to the queen, and we can’t let him run to her and tell her about our secret drug ring.”

Hyunjin closed his eyes and groaned quietly. Life was just out to get him specifically.

“Ah, we don’t kiss and tell,” Jisung said, and Hyunjin just knows he’s winking and putting on his ‘flirting’ face. “Wait, Hyunjinnie, you know the queen? Me too!”

Hyunjin wished he could close his ears too. Those were definitely the words the bandits needed to hear right now. Yes. Good thinking there, Jisung.

“Who are you that you know the queen?” Another of the bandits spoke up, walking closer. “Maybe we can exchange your dead remains for money.”

Jisung, at least, had nothing to say to that. “Ahaha, a joke, of course! How would I know the queen! Why would he know the queen? He’s a witcher, not a witch.”

Hyunjin groaned. “The queen and I are on bad terms right now, and I won’t tell her about your drug ring because I will kill you all.”

Finally, blessed silence. Hyunjin counted his heartbeats and breaths, relaxing his shoulders. Quiet. Nice. Now if only there was a breeze carrying some fresh mountain air.

“Hey,” Jisung hissed, “don’t encourage them!”

And the room broke in frantic yells and panic as they tried to decide what to do since both their prisoners apparently knew the ruler of the kingdom, except of course if they were lying. Hyunjin sighed.

“Hyunjin,” Jisung whispered, shuffling around, “how do we escape? You have a plan, right?”

Hyunjin took a deep breath. “I have a knife in my boot,” he told Jisung quietly, “if we stand up at the same time, I can take it, and cut us free.”

Jisung let out a breath. “Oh, that’s good! I knew you got this.”

Hyunjin just brought his legs under him, swiping the dagger from his boot – really, what kind of bandits didn’t tie their prisoner’s legs? – and as he stood with Jisung scrambling to his feet himself, he cut the ropes tying them together.

The bandits noticed a second too late, and drew their swords a second too late. Two put up half a fight, but soon they all lay dead on the floor, blood splattered all over Hyunjin. Hyunjin wrinkled his nose, and made an attempt to wipe the blood off of his daggers on the only bandit who still had a clean shirt.

“Where did that second dagger come from?” Jisung, his wrists still bound, interrupted Hyunjin.

“You’re still here?” Hyunjin shoved the daggers back, one into his boot and the other under his arm guard where it was concealed under black leather.

“Wait so you could have broken free all along with the dagger in your sleeve? Why didn’t you…” understanding slowly crawled across his expressive face, followed by a bright smile. “Hyunjin! I knew you care about me!”

“I don’t,” Hyunjin said, but somehow couldn’t stop himself from untying Jisung’s hands. He took his sword from where the bandits had tossed it in a corner and drew the blade. More bandits would still be outside. Jisung picked up his lute and hugged it close to his chest.

As Hyunjin had expected, a few bandits were in the surrounding woods, just far enough to not have heard their companions’ dying screams. Hyunjin killed the ones that attacked him and let the others run away.

When he reached the road, he lifted his fingers to his mouth and whistled.

Loud breathing and stomping reached him not much later.

“Hyunjinnie!” Jisung emerged behind him, cheeks flushed under his bruised face, lute strapped to his back. “I don’t understand how –” he gasped for air, “– you can run through the woods so fast. Wait for me.”

Hyunjin, however, only had eyes for the beauty that approached him now. “Kkami!”

Kkami was his trusted companion and only friend. And a horse. But she was the best. Better than all humans he ever met. A good listener too. And quiet. Unlike a certain annoying bard.

“Oh, pretty,” Jisung stumbled towards Kkami, who neatly stepped around him as if he was just an unusual kind of tree.

“I’m so proud of you,” Hyunjin whispered to her, leaning his forehead against hers and stroking her long neck. Kkami was truly his only friend.

Hyunjin climbed up on her back in one smooth move. He patted the parts of her neck he could reach and steered her down the road with his legs alone. She started walking in a comfortable walk, one that she would be able to hold for days. The sun was high in the sky, the trees green, the birds singing. It was calm now. The breeze smelled of forest and moss and rotting leaves and flowers in bloom. Hyunjin could hear his own heartbeat as well as Kkami’s, their breaths aligning like they so often did on long journeys.

It was wonderful.

Except that his and Kkami’s weren’t the only heartbeats he heard.

“Oh, can I also ride on your horse? No? Alright then, it’s your horse, I understand. Did you call her Kkami? That’s so cute. Like you! You were so badass back there, I had literal goosebumps. I must admit the blood splattered clothes fit you very well. And did you see their faces when they realised we got free? And oh, we busted a drug ring, if you were on good terms with the queen we could totally go to the capital and receive money for doing good deeds in the name of the crown. But alas, we’ll have to live as vagabonds! Lonely heroes on their way to defeat evil!”

Yup. There he was.

“I should write a song about it. I can write a song about us. I will write a song about you! Hyunjin, how do you feel about songs? I promise I’ll also credit Kkami with defeating a villain, of course, she’s lovely. Do you think a long ballad would be suitable? Or a drinking song? If you don’t mind, I’ll try some freestyles, yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“Ah, but I write my songs by freestyling! I just start singing, play some chords, and continue until I find sounds and words I like. You know, as a starving artist with only my lute, I can’t rely on making notes and writing my lyrics down, I have to memorize them as I come up with them! So talking to myself helps with that, obviously. And now I have you, too! You will help me, right?”

Hyunjin contemplated kicking Jisung in the face. It would… even be possible, he realised as he studied the distance between his leg and Jisung’s head. He’d have to stretch weirdly though, and unless he shifted his weight, the kick wouldn’t be very strong. The movement would surprise Kkami though, and while she definitely wouldn’t mind or be inconvenienced, Hyunjin was sitting comfortable and breathing in synchrony with her.

Why mess that up? He could just pretend he wasn’t hearing anything, anything at all. A fly, maybe. A bee. Human voices? The last time he heard a human speak was one of the bandits, before he stabbed him in the chest with his sword and left the body in the shrubbery.

Oh, the calmness of the forest… so quiet… so nice.

In the late afternoon, the trees gave way to the next village, with fields spreading out into wasteland and far away mountains. The village was just big enough to have a bit of stone ground in the middle, with a river and a mill. An inn sat in it’s center.

Hyunjin sighed. He had exactly no money, which meant he’d have to ask for a job first before he could rent a room. However, he had yet to see a village that didn’t have at least one monster to get rid of. It just meant he’d have to go monster hunting before he could go to sleep for a day.

“Oh, are we staying here, Hyunjin?” Jisung stood in front of Hyunjin when he jumped off Kkami. And Jisung grinned. He swaggered towards the door of the inn. “I don’t have money, but I’m sure I can get us a room in exchange for entertainment! I’ll sing of your victories, witcher, and the town will love you!”

“Uh… bard,” Hyunjin said, because he’d actually have to warn him, didn’t he? “Jisung.”

Jisung turned to him with wide eyes and his grin turned into a soft smile.

“That might not help. As a witcher, people don’t usually… like… it… when I’m around.” Hyunjin gestured to his appearance, dark leather armour splattered with blood. Long white hair bound together but he knew there were leaves caught in it. It really spoke for itself. His glowing eyes didn’t help his case. “I’ll ask for a monster to kill, which will hopefully get us a meal and a room, and Kkami a place in a stable. That’s all, and only if we’re lucky.”

A look of something crossed Jisung’s face, there and gone too fast for Hyunjin to read. He squared his shoulders and bared his teeth. “Trust me on this, Hyunjin.”

And Jisung sauntered into the inn as if he owned it.

Hyunjin and Kkami shared a look. “I don’t know either, Kkami, sweetheart,” Hyunjin sighed.

Kkami neighed quietly.

“I know, I know, I better go and save his ass or something,” Hyunjin cringed. He was actually going to, wasn’t he?

Kkami snorted.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. “Yah, don’t laugh at me! Wait here, okay? If anyone comes at you, you know how to drop kick them.”

Jisung had maybe one minute alone in the inn. Somehow, Hyunjin expected there to be fire and screaming and new bruises on Jisung’s annoying face.

One minute, and yet what Hyunjin found when he opened the door was Jisung pointing a finger at him, yelling, and cheering from a crowd of mostly drunk farmers and a handful of young women who curiously turned their heads.

“That’s him!” Jisung was laughing, too. “He saved my life.”

Hyunjin didn’t have time to process that before he was shoved next to Jisung by a smiling man with a long beard and a cup of beer was handed to him. The women oohed and aahed.

“Jisung-ssi, why didn’t you say he’s pretty?”

“Mr Bard, he truly looks as beautiful as you said! A hero!”

“To have defeated a Barghest! I’ll drink to that!”

Jisung cheered with the small crowd, and Hyunjin lifted his beer in cheers, setting it back down when it seemed like most people were briefly shifting their attention to their own drinks. Alcohol did nothing for him, and he didn’t like beer. Jisung swiftly switched his own cup with Hyunjin’s, and when Hyunjin brought the cup up to his face, he noticed it was water.

“I told you to trust me, Hyunjin,” Jisung said quietly.

Hyunjin could only nod.

“Oh, your hair is so pretty,” one of the older women said, sliding into the seat next to him. “I’m the co-owner of this establishment, by the way.”

“Um, thank you,” Hyunjin swallowed a mouthful of water. “I’ve been meaning to ask if you had a job for me here.”

Jisung, now a few metres away, strung his lute and started singing a catchy song about ‘that time a handsome witcher saved me from the beast’ which, despite his raspy throat, sounded good – if you could ignore the terrible text. And the fact that it was all lies. Well, Hyunjin had to admit that he did save Jisung from certain death, but there was nothing heroic about it, and Hyunjin also hadn’t taken off his clothes to use his undershirt to bind a cut on Jisung’s ankle.

“We are uncertain still,” the woman quickly tugged Hyunjin out of his thoughts with her serious tone. “A monster dwells upstream. Sometimes the river is dyed red, or pieces of ripped clothing will pass the village. My niece disappeared two weeks ago. One of the farmers went up to see what was causing the issue last week, and he never returned. One of his shoes did, though.”

“Hmm,” Hyunjin nodded. “I have a few ideas of what it might be, and none of them are good.”

The woman nodded, smiling worriedly. “If it really is a… monster, as you say, we will of course pay you accordingly. For now, your drinks are on us – see it as a gesture of good will for saving that bard.”

With a polite smile, she turned to attend a group of newly arrived villagers.

Hyunjin eyed the sliver of fading daylight streaming in through the dirty window. If it really was a drowner, it might move closer to the village when hungry. Drowners lived in streams and ponds and sewers, but if this one was upstream it might not take long for it to decide to live closer to the village. Hyunjin remembered the mill. There must be a body of water directly connected to it.

And if the last death was already a week ago, then he’d have to hurry. He finished his water and got up.

“Jisung,” he said when he reached him and Jisung had taken a small break from singing to hydrate. “I’m going after a monster here. I will be back by moonrise.”

Jisung smiled a gummy smile, eyes sparkling. “You’ll be back?”

“I’ll be back,” Hyunjin agreed, wondering if it would destroy his fragile positive image in the village if he punched Jisung in the face right now. Why bother though, Jisung’s bruises were just reaching their darkest point, another one wouldn’t even be visible.

Hyunjin turned and left, hearing Jisung loudly announce that Hyunjin was going to defeat the monster.

Kkami was eyeing him.

“What,” he grumbled. “So, he was right. So what. I still have to go kill a monster now.”

Kkami snorted judgingly.

Together, they swiftly galloped towards the mill, and in a slower tempo they followed the water upstream.

There were a few hills there, some shrubbery that quickly turned into tall trees, the river courving and going into the forest. The smell was the first thing that told him something was wrong here, so he got off Kkami, drank one of his witcher potions – never a fun experience, the way his insides twisted and bones shuddered just wasn’t a good vibe – and he felt his sight sharpening, eyes turning black.

Kkami, unbothered queen that she was, turned to snack on some leaves.

Hyunjin followed the smell of blood and death deeper into the woods to a clearing. A dark pond greeted him, and yes, this was it. He would never get the smell out of his hair.

He kicked a pebble into the water.

The water made waves, but not the ones physics predicted the pebble would have created.

In the end, killing a drowner wasn’t that much different from killing a human. They were, after all, human shaped with extra gills and fins. Somewhat. The difficulty didn’t lie in their superhuman strength, but Hyunjin was a witcher, and he had drunk his potions. Not even the coldness and darkness of the water surrounding them really bothered Hyunjin.

The difficulty lay in the fact that Hyunjin didn’t like the quiet that came after. He waded out of the pond, wet and cold, hair plastered to his forehead, the slippery head of the drowner in his arms, and what greeted him was cold starlight and absolute silence.

He walked the way back to the village. Kkami was waiting where he left her, but he didn’t want to ruin his saddlebags by getting them wet with smelly pond water and the drowner’s blood.

The moon rose just as he made it back to the village.

And when he opened the door to the inn, the first thing he saw was Jisung’s annoying face. Could his day get any worse after this?

“You’re back!” Jisung smiled again (why did he smile so much, and why did he smile at Hyunjin?) and then he saw the water dripping down his clothes and the monster’s head in his arms. Naturally Hyunjin couldn’t really grab the head in one hand, it was too fishy for that. Jisung winked at him, before turning back to the room. “The witcher defeated the monster! Your village is safe now!”

Cheers sounded through the room, which seemed to be packed with the whole village and not just the handful of farmers from earlier.

“Should I leave the head outside,” Hyunjin asked the woman who had spoken to him earlier.

She took a look and briefly looked nauseous. “Yes, just leave it outside, thank you. I’ll prepare a room and a bath for you, master witcher.”

Hyunjin blinked. He didn’t think he’d ever been addressed with this much honest respect. “Thank you.”

“Follow me.”

Through a crowd of mostly drunk cheering, the owner led him up a narrow stairway in the back, and opened one of the doors for him. There was a fairly big bed, a small window with curtains, and a tub behind a paper screen.

“Uh, excuse me,” Hyunjin stopped the woman just as she walked past him with the promise of getting someone to bring up hot water, “my horse, she’s outside. Could you send someone for her? If it’s too much trouble, is there a stable I can bring her to?”

The woman smiled. “Of course, dear. I’ll send my son, he’ll take good care of your horse.”

Relieved, Hyunjin started to undo the straps of his armour, putting the pieces on the clothes rack next to the tub. Hopefully the leather would be dry by morning. When he was down to his undershirt and pants, the woman returned with two people following behind her, all of them carrying buckets of steaming water.

“Thank you,” Hyunjin smiled politely, only to be told thanks in return, ‘for saving the village.’

… Jisung must be composing an epic ballad.

Tired, Hyunjin decided to not care about that right now, and fully undressed. He was just starting to relax in the hot water when the door behind him opened. Jisung’s familiar heartbeat sounded in the room. Hyunjin closed his eyes and sighed.

“Are you – oh.”

“What,” Hyunjin groaned. “Don’t tell me they only have one guest room and thus you simply must share with me.”

“Ah, yes, actually. How did you know?” Jisung crossed the room and sat next to Hyunjin, keeping his eyes strictly on Hyunjin’s face.

“Just – a hunch, I don’t know. Are you blushing?”

“No.” Jisung blushed.

Hyunjin hummed and started to cover his arms and chest with soap. It smelled too strongly of flowers, but maybe that would cover the lingering smell of blood and forest. He moved on to wash his hair, getting his fingers tangled in the knots.

“Wait,” Jisung interrupted, “let me do that.”

Stunned, Hyunjin didn’t move when Jisung grabbed the soap out of his hands.

“Your hair is really pretty,” Jisung murmured. “I want to braid it and give you a flower crown. Did you know that one of my aliases is Dandelion?”

“I did not,” Hyunjin said, because Jisung’s aliases were the most conceivable piece of information he just received.

Jisung laughed and used his hands to wash the soap out of Hyunjin’s hair. “You pretend you’re all tough and dramatic but really you’re a big softie.”

“Are you talking about yourself,” Hyunjin replied, because really, he did not come here for an emotional evaluation.

“Aw, no,” Jisung lightly splashed water in Hyunjin’s face, “I never pretend to be all tough and dramatic, I am all tough and dramatic.”

Hyunjin wrinkled his face in disgust. “You’re annoying.”

Hyunjin noticed how Jisung’s musician’s fingers lightly lingered on the scars on his shoulders and back when he washed the soap away. He let Jisung hold his hands and massage a pleasant smelling oil into his skin after he dried and got dressed in a long nightshirt the inn had kindly provided for them. He sat still as Jisung used a towel to gently dry Hyunjin’s hair, and in the absence of a comb used his fingers to disentangle the worst of the knots.

Jisung, for once, blessed Hyunjin with silence. Hyunjin still noticed Jisung. Even when he wasn’t talking a steady stream of nonsense, his presence was still… loud. Strong. The many buttons on Jisung’s jacket were undone with skilled fingers, and Hyunjin pinched himself when he finally remembered to look away. He walked through the room, closing the curtain, locking the door. Then he sat on the edge of the bed and looked everywhere except at Jisung, who pulled the nightshirt over his bare skin.

“You don’t mind sharing the bed, do you?” Jisung asked at last, sitting down next to Hyunjin.

“If I did,” Hyunjin replied, raising an eyebrow, “I’d have removed you from this room already.”

Jisung’s annoying mouth formed a big, heart shaped smile.

Hyunjin wanted to punch him. With his mouth. On Jisung’s mouth. He shuddered internally. Oh no. This wasn’t happening. He was definitely not going to kiss the annoying bard on his annoying mouth. Nope. Not happening.

“Thank you for saving my life,” Jisung said, serious. “Not just from the bandits, but you also kinda saved me back at the other village. You also punched me, but I know that was an accident.”

“I will punch you again,” Hyunjin grumbled, getting under the covers and scooting to one side, “it just won’t be an accident.”

Jisung laughed. “You’re really funny, you know that? I think most people don’t even notice, which is a shame.”

“You’re not funny,” Hyunjin yawned.

“Is that a challenge? Keep thinking that, then. I’ll make you smile.”

Hyunjin didn’t dignify that with an answer. He closed his eyes.

“Sleep well, Hyunjinnie,” Jisung murmured, burying himself in the blanket just a hand width away.

“Night,” Hyunjin returned after a pause.

It didn’t take long for Jisung’s breath to even out and his heartbeat to slow. Hyunjin listened to the muffled and fading noises of the inn for another while before he allowed himself to drift off. Even witchers needed sleep.

When he came back to consciousness, the first thing he noticed was the early morning light streaming in from behind the curtain. He still had his eyes closed and felt no need to move for the moment. Jisung’s heartbeat sounded steady, his breaths warm against Hyunjin’s neck. Hyunjin was warm and comfortable in a way he hadn’t been in a long time, the sheet comfortable around him.

Arms tightened around him, and a voice in the back of Hyunjin’s mind started screaming like the house was on fire. Except Hyunjin really didn’t mind burning houses, he was a witcher, why was his brain screaming? He firmly told himself to shut up and enjoy the lingering sleep. Awake time would be later.

“Hrngg warm,” Jisung murmured, and threw a leg over Hyunjin’s hips.

That woke Hyunjin.

Wide eyed, he stared down, only to see Jisung half on top of him. He realised that it wasn’t the blanket that was so comfortably warm and soft, but Jisung, because Jisung was draped all over him.

Carefully, Hyunjin tried to extract himself, but Jisung only tightened his hold on him.

“Fuck,” Hyunjin whispered.

What did one do when one woke up with a human octopus attached? Hyunjin didn’t know, so he tried to breathe normally and not disturb Jisung further. The bruises on his face were thankfully already fading into lighter shades of purple, but Jisung must have been exhausted. One of Hyunjin’s arms was free, and he’d left a bruise balm on the small table beside the bed, in case he hadn’t healed fully in the morning.

Carefully, Hyunjin reached over, scooped a bit up with his finger, and very carefully started to cover the bruises on Jisung’s cheekbone and temple. Jisung didn’t wake.

After a while, Hyunjin closed his eyes and fell back asleep. When he woke up again, it must have been late morning – golden light illuminated the room. Jisung was staring up at him, wide eyed.

“You drool in your sleep,” Hyunjin told him and gently pushed Jisung off him.

Jisung blushed furiously and wiped at his mouth with his sleeve, eyes not leaving Hyunjin.

Hyunjin stretched and stood. He opened the curtain, squinting against the bright daylight. When he turned to Jisung, he found Jisung rubbing at his eyes, looking lost in the center of the bed, blanket pooling around him. His hair stood around his head and looked – despite all logic – fluffy.

“I – uh, did I sleep on you?” Jisung averted his eyes.

Hyunjin hummed, turning to his clothes. His armour was dry, luckily, but he’d hate to wear the same undershirt and pants again. He’d have to find a river where he could wash his clothes soon.

“I’ll go find the toilet,” Jisung mumbled and left for the door. He almost stumbled in the doorway. “Oh, clothes! The nice lady must have left them for us.” In front of their door, indeed, was a neatly folded pile of clothes. Simple linen undershirts and pants, nothing fancy but of good quality.

When they had fully dressed and Hyunjin had wrenched his hair into a bun, they made their way downstairs just to find the barkeeper grinning widely at them, reminding Hyunjin that this village thought him a hero.

Thankfully, Jisung did all the talking, and Hyunjin could eat as much breakfast as he liked. Maybe he should keep Jisung around.

A handful of villagers came together to bid them goodbye, and the woman from the inn for some reason apologised for being unable to pay him, but instead offered a horse. A cute, mischievous black mare that had been her niece’s favourite, and as such had never learned how to be a proper farm horse. Jisung thanked the villagers profusely and loudly, and sang another rendition of ‘the handsome witcher saved my life’ as they left.

Out of sight and out of earshot of the last farm belonging to the village, Jisung’s voice went high and panicky.

“Hyunjin! I don’t know how to ride a horse!”

Hyunjin just looked Jisung up and down slowly, making his point. Jisung was, after all, sitting on his horse. Sure, he was also hugging his lute to his chest and also gripping the saddle with white-knuckled fists.

“Ha! I did it!” Jisung whooped then, and pointed a finger in Hyunjin’s face. “You smiled!”

Hyunjin wiped the smile off his face, furrowed his brows and glared. “No.”

“You did! I clearly saw – Hyunjinnie you’re so cute when you – ah!” Jisung blanched and cowered over his horse, who had just made a bigger step than usual to nose Kkami in the face.

Hyunjin laughed. He couldn’t help himself. Jisung was confident, or good at bullshitting confidence, and pretty, and annoying, and brave. And he was afraid of riding on a horse.

He leaned back just a bit, letting Kkami know to stop just by shifting his weight. Jisung’s horse also stopped, probably because it had decided Kkami was the best living being on the planet. What a smart horse. Hyunjin jumped off and patted the black horse on the nose, smiling at her.

Kkami snorted loudly.

Hyunjin grabbed the reins of Jisung’s horse and started walking. “Just relax, Sungie,” he said without looking over his shoulder. “I’ve got you.”

“What about Kkami?” Jisung sounded very relieved and adorably worried about Kkami.

Hyunjin hummed. “She’s the best. The smartest. She’ll walk with us on her own. You’re the one that needs to learn how to communicate with your horse. What’s her name?”

“Uh,” Jisung paused. “I forgot? Or they didn’t say.”

“Well, then you should start by naming her,” Hyunjin replied, and then started to talk about horses. What they liked to eat, how to care for them, what they did when they felt good and what they did when they felt scared, and what to do to calm a scared horse down. He talked about saddle care and the different kinds of signals most horses learnt from humans, and then he talked about Kkami.

Jisung listened.

And Hyunjin, the complete and utter fool that he was, talked himself hoarse (ha, get it, horse?) and taught Jisung how to not fall off his newly acquired companion.

In the afternoon, they rested by a stream, Jisung complaining about sore legs the entire time and whining when he tried to sit climb back up on the horse. Hyunjin laughed at him, which made Jisung smile brighter than the sun in the sky, and they decided they’d just walk next to their horses to relieve the stress put on Jisung’s legs. After a while, Jisung started singing again. Maybe it was chronic. Still, Hyunjin found himself enjoying the company, and if his ears didn’t betray him, Jisung’s lyrics were better now, too.

As the sun set behind some mountains in the distance, the annoying bard’s voice cracked from dehydration every few minutes. Jisung settled for humming melodies. Hyunjin caught a small animal for them to eat and build a fire on a clearing off the road. Jisung found an apple tree. As night fell, they huddled close together under Hyunjin’s thin blanket.

“I’m seriously unironically glad to have met you,” Jisung’s loud voice startled Hyunjin, who’d gotten used to the quiet and the fire’s crackling. “I forgive you for punching me in the face, too.”

Hyunjin took it all back. The annoying bard was annoying and Hyunjin did not enjoy his company at all. He sighed, pouring all his long suffering pain into the release of air.

“But only because you’re pretty,” Jisung continued his monologue.

That was it. Hyunjin couldn’t listen to another word. He leaned in, punching Jisung in the face. On the mouth. With his mouth.

Jisung made a strangled noise and returned the kiss with a small smirk in the corner of his lips.

#stray kids #han jisung/hwang hyunjin #hyunsung #uhhh not that people will be able to easily find this because i put links into the post and tumblr hates those #ummm #skz fanfic #witcher au #long post #my ao3 is tinystreetlamp! come say hi #uhhh now idk what to tag #like. lmao #there was only one bed #enemies to lovers #well not really #it's not really enemies to lovers they just don't know how to show attraction without being ... like... the way they are #as my tags on ao3 say: tender yearning and crack #... it is kinda cracky #fluff #because I am incapable of writing anything without fluff #i write what makes me happy! or i try to lmao #like there is sad backstory that you can guess at if you know anything about the witcher #i just don't talk about it because this is about falling in love with the most annoying person you can find on this rock #shoutout to Kkami! she cute #i love u all and pls take care of yourselves!!! even if u think you don't need it #do something for you mental health today #and tomorrow #and like. every day. because you need it. there i said it #live laugh love lee felix

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alias-b · 4 years

Text

sins of my youth. 013

Billy Hargrove x OC! Evie Fenny~ Also posted to my AO3

Summary: It was common knowledge that Billy Hargrove hated Hawkins. Hated Cherry Lane. Even loathed the strange girl next door. Evie Fenny wasn’t too fond of the chaotic Cali transfer either. An awful high school tradition sparks a chain of events that changes everything, ultimately bringing two frayed souls together.

Hey all!! Evie attends a party to get back into the swing of being a messy teen and the night doesn't go as expected. Billy opens up about his past in California with a story Evie finds all too familiar. TW: Slight sexual refs, teens drinking/smoking, talk of past s*icide/death, and addiction. TAG LIST OPEN. Always open to chatting about the fic, thanks!!

Chapter 13: Almost Paradise

“Are you sure about this?” Heather spoke over Evie’s shoulder.

“We always hit the mid-winter break parties. Why wouldn’t we, Heath?” Evie applied her favorite shade of cherry in the mirror. Makeup still only covered so much that next night. But, with the swelling down, she hoped it wasn't that bad.

“Figured you’d be hanging with Billy.”

“We haven’t done anything...much. His dad is grinding him to stay in. He'll...also be at the party I'm sure.”

"That why you put on the new bra?"

"It's not new..." Evie fixed her sleeve to hide the black strap. Blushed a whole garden of strawberries. "Like I said...haven't done anything."

“Haven’t had the chance, hm.” Heather plopped down and stole some mirror space. Relenting as she applied a lustrous pink shade to her lips that matched the scrunchie holding her curls high. “I know you’re hopelessly into him. All the eye fucking over the movie last night. If you hadn’t have passed out on the couch-”

“Would...you be mad?” Evie looked up.

“I’m just coming around to him again. If you trust him, I will.” Heather smiled. “I just have to be the bitchy best friend. Make him sweat it out for my own enjoyment. Cute how he tucked you in last night through, looked like he might not leave you.”

Evie lowered a brush doused in gold glitter from her eye.

“I am sorry...about the whole-”

“You don’t have to be sorry about him, Bowers is the one that should be sorry.” Heather frowned. “I’m not mad you didn’t tell me. Honest. I get it. I can’t imagine what I would have done.”

“You wouldn’t be in that situation because you’re smarter than me.”

“No, I’ve made poor boy choices too. We both know that.” Heather beamed. “Can I borrow your earrings? The little cherries you made.”

“Sure, keep them. You get more mileage out of them than I do. I can make more.”

Heather squealed and went to steal them. Evie thought it funny, her friend would rather wear her craft projects than the baby diamonds in silver and gold her parents were always buying.

“Hey, I… My mom’s been lying to me. About my dad.” Evie admitted. “He’s trying to call and give her money, I think. I don’t know if he asks about me. Where he is. I’m just… I don’t know what to do with it all, Heath.” Her voice broke and leveled out. Slowly the brush came up again. “You ever feel like you remember things differently? Like maybe we never see things as they are, we just see things as we are?”

Heather turned to see, still putting the earrings in.

“I’m sure Mona’s trying to protect you. She’s always been so much.” She pressed her lips and tilted Evie’s face to check her work as she always did. “Covered it nicely. How’s your head?”

“No pounding anymore. Not getting dizzy, I think I barely avoided a concussion.” A beat. “I just wonder what exactly she’s protecting me from. It’s eating me.”

Felt like too appropriate an expression.

“We’ll figure it out, but you put way too much pressure on yourself like you’re alone, Eves, and you’re not.” Heather pulled Evie in to hug her. “You have me and Steve. Friends at school.”

Blue hopped up on the desk to meow loudly, both girls broke to giggle.

“Yes, you too, cutie.” Heather scratched the kitten’s chin. “And Billy, I guess. Whatever.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what we’re doing. But, I don’t mind it so I guess I’ll chase that.” Evie thumbed Heather’s lipstick at the corner. “You’re set.”

“You, too. Let’s head out.” Heather winked and stood up.

Blue trailed after them so Evie filled her dish. Grabbed a prized jacket she used to be too afraid to wear for how loud it was. Red leather and fringe. Bitchin'. A signature piece of clothing. Undoubtedly Evangeline. Fredrick didn't like it so it was packed away with all her sharp edges.

Heather beamed as her friend donned it. Completed Evie's look with a black skirt and graphic shirt tucked in. Vaguely mesh pattern tights and her warm boots. Gold hoops gleaming and her little music note necklace. Plucked piece of juicy fruit and a hard pit for good measure. Curls bounced, almost obscene.

“Think Brock and his shitheads will crash?” Heather waited for the door to be locked before they got into her car.

“I’m not worried about Brock after what happened with Fredrick.” Evie stared at the empty place in the Hargrove driveway where Billy’s Camaro usually sat. No doubt he was already there raging. Evie got annoyed with the flame in her stomach that flickered at the thought of running into him there with all the dancing they’d been doing. Every little maybe and almost. Syllables rolling off tongues to tangle.

Loch Nora rangers were undoubtedly the best.

Evie still liked parties. Liked the stimulation. The noise. That beautiful overlapping noise to wash her world out. The drunk idiot teens wandering to dance or do dumb shit. All technicolor. Even liked them better than what Fredrick would take her too. Annoying how Fredrick had become this constant life point of comparison. Physically out and still here to set the scales.

Time for some liquor.

She peered around and realized Steve never came to them anymore. Heather even asked him and he just declines too politely. Three drinks sank into her stomach so Evie went out back to where some meathead with no shirt was pouring. Moved through sprightly bodies to get another cup. Smoke and sweat in the cool night air.

“Fenny, you hear Tannen got a DUI?” Nameless meathead poured.

“No, shit?” She took her plastic cup back. Black and gold glitter nails clicking the artificial red.

“Swear to god! His dad’s basically paying everyone to make it disappear.” The guy chuckled. “Lucky, the idiot didn’t crash into anyone.”

“Yeah, he’s a mess.” Evie tipped her cup in thanks and watched teens bop around the covered pool to booming music. Rich house on a hill, no one was calling the cops. Cold and slush weren't stopping the festivities, it only made them turn up the noise and heat. Her outfit combated the lingering winter well enough. Perks of being a bigger gal. Thick skin to combat the weather and assholes. “Thanks.”

“Plenty more to go around.”

Evie caught a bunch of metalheads thrashing around a huge trampoline. Jumping from the lowest part of the roof to it and climbing all over. Billy among them spitting beer and cackling. A hungry wolf against the bright moon. Readied to toss his head back and-

“Evangeline!” He howled and she rolled her eyes below, drinking. Cup lifted to acknowledge them. Billy flashed his teeth, glowed there at her. Still among his following.

"You clean up well, Fenny!" One boy cooed so Billy shoved him into one of the many seat cushions that had been stolen to line the perch.

"Why not join us? Stay awhile." Billy crouched at the edge. Admired Evie glittering and that outfit. Tassels constantly in motion, she looked like a song leaping off unworthy pages. They echoed the calls and she laughed outright, went back inside to a chorus of whines wanting her to stay and indulge them in their debauchery.

“They out of the hard stuff already?” Heather approached and offered a tiny joint to Evie that she caved and puffed. “Tammy’s asking. I’m switching to water.”

“Beer only it looks like. It’s raining boys out there though.”

“Oh, maybe I’ll catch myself one.” Heather winked and wandered outside with the smoke.

Evie got squished in between her and Tammy moments later. Talking school and beauty and graduation getting closer. Across the way, Billy had a whole room entertained with his California stories. Evie lingered to see his eyes flicker over to her.

The strange radar he had when she was around. Always on high. He smiled bright and animated his tale, kept them all hooked and laughing because he was just too badass. Too good. A firework in this boring town. Perched on the table with a smoke in hand.

Spinning tales around the way he spun her under confetti.

And they kept peering at each other. Billy got more persistent as Evie made it a point not to look. To stay reeled into Tammy gushing about the car she was almost saved up for. This baby pink bug she dreamed about. Robin joined them and Tammy blushed as they shared a freshly rolled joint. Heather and Evie shared knowing looks.

Billy decided he wanted attention from Evangeline and left the stories behind to cross toward her. Evie felt sparks when he plucked up her hand, nodding aside. One tug and smoldering eyes. She didn't move and played a pout.

“I’m having an important discussion with the girls about the principal's clearly fake mustache, Hargrove.” She lifted her eyes, biting her lip as if that might curve her intoxication. Curled a smirk he matched.

"Thrilling. Something tells me it ain't getting mileage." Billy didn’t take his eyes from Evie. “Ladies?”

“We just finished actually, Evie was about to get herself another drink. You look like just the soul brave enough to help with that.” Tammy, oblivious but a wingman to the end, cut in so Billy pulled Evie up.

Heather flashed a guilty smile as they went off because Evie was aimlessly bickering. They didn’t go out back for a drink. Billy climbed the steps with her hand. Slowly Evie adjusted to lace their fingers. They moved over bodies and went down the hallways into a vacant TV room with beaten couches and thick screens.

“What are you doing?” Evie dropped her arms as Billy bit his tongue with intent eyes and crossed into her space for a kiss. Tasting of some green apple schnapps the boys outside had downed with all the hard stuff.

“Just something I thought about for a while.” He cupped her face for another and Evie felt dizzy for the first time after her drinks. Billy and his lips. Tasting her. Pulling her back into a couch with him.

“You mean like a day?” Evie had giggled. Breaking the kiss to see his pupils spread.

“Hey, it was a long, long day.” Came a shrug, eyes on her pretty tights that were sending him. “I can only say so much over the phone.” Hands worked under the skirt. Melted Evie down while she came in for more of him.

Straddling Billy’s hard thigh, she combed his hair back and ravished him in turn. What could she say? She liked to kiss him. Liked his mouth and his palms and his heat against her. Scorching. Billy adjusted, taking her hips to press his leg up into her.

Evie rocked unconsciously. Gave him a little moan. Let him untuck her shirt. She came out and felt his hand on her bra. Fingers sunk under the fabric while they locked eyes. Rolled her nipple until another moan lulled. Evie still pulling at his hair, lips opening.

“No bad kisses yet, hm?” The hum hitched as Evie pressed into him. Kissed him deeper. Not worried she might squish him with the shameless, signature way he touched her.

“Let’s try a few more.” Evie about whimpered into his tongue. Brow furrowing. Breath quicker. Something ready to churn in her belly.

Billy gripped her hips to encourage her on. Shifted down the line of her jaw. Silken mouth trailing to release warm sighs. Evie had her hands pressed against his grey tee. Skimming under the leather jacket to feel the hard lines. Miles of him to trace and explore. Shifting, one hand came to his left shoulder. Finger pressed and Billy gave a jerk, breath catching as he pulled back to hiss.

Evie narrowed and yanked away the moment he looked in pain. Avoiding her eyes as if he wasn’t just trying to turn them over and finish this.

“Are you okay?”

“Fine.” Billy leaned back in for a kiss she barely responded to. Thoughts racing. “It’s nothing.” He cupped the back of her head. Lips all over Evie’s neck. Fingers slipped to push his jacket aside and Billy grasped her wrist. “Evie, it’s nothing.”

“You’re hurt.” She frowned. Billy gripped her arm still, searching. He opened his mouth to speak and the door burst open, giggles sounding at the same time Evie threw herself out of Billy’s lap. Practically to the other side of the couch. Shamefully tucking her shirt back in.

“Oooh, this one’s taken,” Tommy backed up and processed who was in there again with Carol under his arm, “Billy and Fenny? No fucking way, you two. Ha!” He cackled and Billy gave an agitated breath.

“We’re busy, shut the door, man.”

“No shit, you’re busy. I’m shocked. I thought Fen wasn’t speaking to you ever again after-”

“Hagen, we’re talking.” Evie slid her eyes to Carol who’d gotten dead silent. Eyes bright and full of hate. Piles and piles. A tremendous build of fire and loathing directed at Evie for existing in the same space.

“Talk away. Have fun, kids!” Tommy only found it funny. Jeering in his annoying way before Carol shoved off him and stomped out. “Hey Carol, what’s your problem?” He smacked the door shut following his upset girlfriend down the hall.

“Shit, asshole.” Billy rubbed his shoulder. “Where were we?” The purr made Evie turn her head, thoughts elsewhere. Billy crawled to kiss her again and Evie stood. “Hey, where’re you going?”

“I just, I feel weird now.” Evie stumbled around the coffee table. Cheeks bright and rosy. Not sparing him a glance because Carol’s eyes gnawed her. Created an incessant buzzing around her brain. Billy jolted to follow but she was out the door. Looking around for Carol and Tommy’s loudmouth. Boots hurried down the steps after Tommy, still trying to coax his girl back to the festivities.

“Carol, hey,” Evie pushed beyond Tommy once Carol was out a sliding door, “Hey, can we just talk?”

“You are such a fucking loser, you know that?” Carol spun on her heel to direct some teenage rage in Evie’s direction. A few outside by the kegs noticed the tiff, pausing to see.

A crack.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Evie dropped her shoulders. Billy slipped out and stepped up behind Tommy, pausing at the standoff. Carol staggered. Clearly intoxicated. Cracking a huge, watery smile. Reckless. She stepped toward Evie so a burst came. “Why! I'm not mean to you! I've never been mean to you! I only talk back and I still feel guilty, but you're so... Why?”

"You're nice to me?" She made it sound unreal and laughable.

"Yeah, actually! I don't understand it, I've tried to be kind to you." Evie felt a tear slip down and stayed level. "No one deserves to be treated the way I see you treat others. So, why?"

“Because!” Carol shot back, welling too. “You’re so fucking kind and...playing innocent...and you're good! And I..." She stopped with another deafening crack. So loud, it rang. Carol really stopped to reflect and hated what she saw looking back at her. But, Evie was here looking too so the hate rerouted.

"Good?" Evie breathed and so much ugly spread in her veins like a disease.

"And...And you get all this attention! Acting like you don’t know! And just look at you! Do you really think you’d get that attention if these boys didn’t feel sorry for you?” Carol stumbled and pointed a finger in Evie’s face, furious and shaking. Too close.

Evie got silent. Dropped everything she felt.

“You’re the one I feel sorry for.”

Carol buzzed with rage and reeled back to slap her so hard, the force sent her into Tommy.

"Girl fight!" Came some yelps.

“What the hell, Carol?” He caught Evie on pure instinct, not understanding either. Billy charged forward and Carol kept pushing as Evie found her footing.

A chorus of shocked gasps and awe came from the drunk teens near the pool. The music blared.

“Hit me back, you bitch! Yeah? Do it like you did to Tannen. Think you’re any better than me!” Carol was near sobbing. Eyes crinkling with tears as she shoved before Tommy got in front of her. Looped an arm around her waist.

“That’s enough, Care, c’mon.” He and Billy separated the girls, but Evie wasn’t trying to hit back. Just stared with huge eyes and a palm against her hot cheek.

"Hey. Hey, you okay?" Billy stood in front of her now, tugging. Evie wasn't budging. Enthralled. Stuck. Sinking. Not good. "Let's go. She's wasted."

“Evie!” Heather was racing across the grass to help. “Carol, back off her.” She planted her feet between them and Carol sneered, struggling against her boyfriend.

“Ooh, Princess Heather to the rescue. Admit it, you just like being the pretty friend.” More hissing channeled out.

“Just, shut up!”

“How about you tell Fenny why Tannen even tried to chase her skirts that night? Yeah?” Carol broke free and tackled Heather into the grass. "Tell her what a shit friend you are, baby!"

“Another girl fight!” Teens howled across the way. Billy and Tommy shoved in to pull the clawing women apart as they rolled around and pulled at hair.

Evie heard herself shouting to stop, barely audible over the crowds that closed in on them to cheer and chant.

“Tell her, sweet pea? Tell her that her dear B-F-F set her up with some animal. I was at that party, I heard you, bitch!” Carol skidded as Tommy pulled her off. Billy had Heather by the arm, trying to yank her up from the grass. She began to sniffle. “Perfect Heather. Little priss who can do no wrong. Perfect body. Perfect life. The teen dream. Tossing bones to us lowly folk when you're done.”

Carol laughed and cried all at once. Even the crowd slowed to watch her. Evie felt a coldness spread at the display.

“Oh yeah, Heather, you’re a real carpenter’s dream!” Carol mocked relentlessly. “Flat as a board and needs a screw! Go on and tell Fenny what a great friend you are. You brushed Tannen aside and pawned that puppy off on someone easier.”

“I didn’t know he was like that yet, okay! It was stupid.” Heather admitted, tears falling. Evie froze at that, didn’t move toward her.

“Heath, what’s she talking about?” Evie hated how wounded she sounded.

“I just thought maybe he’d cheer you up, we all were drinking and, Tannen, he...he was nice at the time. So I thought. I just...you know-”

“Just, what?” Evie leveled out. Billy let Heather go once he brought her up from the grass so she came to Evie. Crowds all but hushed.

“Can...Can we not talk about it here?” Heather tucked her hair aside, sounding too small.

“No, I love an audience! Talk.” Evie’s spine went rigid.

“I just...nudged Tannen your way. You just broke up with that guy over the summer and your dad left. Tannen was, I don’t know, it was stupid. He was nice and...and good looking. I thought he’d make you feel better. I didn’t know he was like that yet. I just was trying to hook my friend up.”

"Please, you alluded to owing him a favor after. He ate that up. You talked up a desperate animal in need of a hot beef injection. You said Fenny could barely thread a needle these days." Carol bellowed. More shock. More awe.

"I was super drunk!" Heather covered her eyes to rub them

“So, you told him to try fucking me! Told him I was desperate for it!” Evie’s voice rose and Heather quelled with shame.

“You were so sad...I thought he’d give you a good night.” The tone trailed off.

“I’m fat, but I can get laid on my own, thanks. I don’t need your fucking help, how little do you think of me?” Evie’s curls shook around with the same fervor. Heather just held herself and stared at the grass. “Do I really seem that pathetic to you?”

“No, it’s not that at all-”

“It feels like that,” Evie stepped back, “keep me around because I make you look like the Queen Bee and toss some asshole with a reputation my way out of pity if I cease to function.”

“Evie, it’s not like that!” Heather wept and got her hand shoved off when she tried to touch her friend. Evie wiggled through the crowd because it split for her fury.

“Get off me,” she went around the house, “get away from me, Heather! I don't need you!"

Heather stopped on the lawn and just stood there to see Evie follow the street lamps off.

Carol watched them go, sagging into Tommy who was definitely too drunk for this.

“Jesus, what’d you do?” He pulled her in another direction. Back to the house. Away from the excitement resuming. “Shouldn’t start that shit.” They got back inside so he led his girlfriend into an empty bathroom. “You okay?”

“I am now. Bitches. I just...I can’t fucking…” Carol sniffled and cleared her throat. "I don't know why I hate her, okay, I just do! She just gets...everything."

“This is about your mom getting back with that asshole.”

“It’s not about that!” Her defense went up. “I’m just tired of Fenny acting like she can get everything she wants. Throwing herself at Billy, fuck. Wondered why he all but dropped everyone else. I thought he and Vicki had something. Gotta be kidding me.” Carol crossed her arms to lean back into the counter as Tommy washed his face with cold water, nauseous.

“I don’t even think Fenny’s gonna go for him when she’s already got a thing with…” He perked. Lips sealing. Carol noticed.

“Thing with who?”

“Nothing, I just...I saw something...and I’m drunk. I’m fucking drunk, Care.” He got his shirt tugged.

“Tommy.” She sucked her cheeks in and he knew he’d be caving. “What did you see?”

“Evie’s been seeing Bowers, I saw her leaving his place all roughed up. Not the first time, I live a street away. Saw them in his driveway shouting at each other once. It was so dark. They kissed and she...well, her head dropped down for a bit. Thought I was having a nightmare there. I tried to forget it and just act like... I didn't believe it was her until I saw her on that bus. I'm drunk, fuck...” Tommy blurted in one breath. Carol’s lips opened.

“No fucking way.”

“Listen, I could be wrong-”

“We can’t let them get away with that. I mean, he’s a teacher. What if he really hurt-”

“You’re not doing it to save, Fenny, you’re doing it to make her life worse. Just...forget I said anything. I’m fucked up. Shit. I fucked up. I fucked up so bad.” Tommy rubbed his eyes. Let them dart. Carol slid her gaze away and crossed her fingers behind her back.

“Fine. Whatever you say, T. We'll forget it.” Another pull brought him in for a kiss. Tommy caressed her arms and felt Carol trying to make herself small. “Can I stay at your place tonight? I can’t go home to Jason on our couch again. I just...I can’t. I can't do it, Tommy.”

She trembled so he tucked her under his chin.

“You know you don’t have to ask, babe.”

*** ** **

Evie was down the hill still stomping under barely lit streets. Teens ranging to music still in the distance. Forgetting her. Intent, she marched over frozen sidewalks covered in slush. The tip of her nose and ears grew chilled pink. Heather had shouted after but stopped the pursuit at the end of the lawn. Ruefully, Evie wouldn’t weep, she already cried enough this damn week.

She just wanted to be better. Higher. Then all of it.

The unmistakable rev of Billy’s Camaro rolled up behind her.

“Evie, don’t make me come out to steal you. Just get in.” The window came down. “You can’t walk home in that skirt with the snow. We don’t have to talk about it.”

She paused to hear him. Eyes on the wind sweeping frosted shrubbery about across the perfectly trimmed lawns. Rich people. Cozy in their homes burning bags of money on nights like this.

“Are you going to be all the same to me, Billy? Tell me right now, I swear to god. Pretty face trying to get its way with words that are just...empty. You gonna get mad if I don’t put out and try to grab at me like Tannen? Why are you bothering with me?” Evie sniffled, hands out and dropping as he watched her. Brow furrowed. “You saw them looking at us funny.”

“Evie.” He reasoned. “Where am I right now? Am I back there shotgunning free liquor or am I freezing my balls off coming after you? Again.”

“You’re here with me. But, how do I know this isn’t some weird game for you with a prize at the end. Kids like us, we don’t go together. Are you trying to win a prize so you can move to the next? Can’t blame me for thinking it.” She approached the car. Still guarding herself. “I can’t let that go.”

“I like you, Evie, and I can tell you that a hundred times. But, it means nothing if you won’t let me.” Billy leaned over to click the door open. “You don’t let anyone like you.” He waited as she didn’t move, hands gripping the wheel before he sighed. “Didn’t notice the other kids, if you really care. I’m the Keg King.”

A cold breath puffed out her nose, almost amused.

“I was enjoying the view.” Billy drew those glittery blues to her expression.

“What makes this a view?”

“You.” A shrug pulled along with her heartstrings. “Get in, let’s go somewhere.”

“Where?”

“Anywhere you like. Just as we planned, remember?” Billy winked at her and Evie’s walls lowered. She looked back at the house party echoing and got in to buckle herself.

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Relax.” He sped off. “Barely anything and I even drank water. You proud?” He fiddled with the radio. “Wasn’t feeling it tonight.”

“Looked like a party on the roof.”

“Well, I still gotta impress the following.” Billy gestured to the glovebox. “Put a tape in, will you?”

“You and your hair metal...and...oh?” Evie skimmed the selection while they whirled away from Loch Nora. “What is this? Fleetwood Mac. I’m so impressed.”

“Ugh, that must be Max’s, she keeps leaving her tapes in my car. Throw it out.”

“Wow. Apologize to Stevie.” Evie gasped and mocked. Cupped her hands over the sacred tape. “He didn’t mean that.” Billy peered over to crack a laugh at her jabbing. “Alright, alright. Can’t go wrong with a little Queen.”

“Fair enough.” Billy let her slip the tape in and mess with the volume so they could still hear each other. “You really mad at Heather?”

Evie went flat.

“Yes and I’ll stay mad at least until school starts back up.” She crossed her arms, relaxing as the heat picked up. Too good just as Carol said.

“Where am I taking you?” Billy turned down another road, flying beyond the trees and Evie stared at his profile. Intent on the road for once.

“You opposed to a little more cold?”

“I have blankets in back. Might have to get cozy.” He slid those eyes over and Evie sucked her cheeks in.

“Take a left up here. I know a secret spot.”

** ** **

“You didn’t say anything about hiking through a dark forest,” Billy whined with his arms full of blankets. "If Michael Myers reams my ass-"

"Maybe I'm a Thing like the movie and I'm taking you somewhere to assimilate." Evie teased ahead of him.

"I actually like the sound of that, Angel. Proceed. Assimilate with me all night long." Suggestive.

She just laughed, loathing him.

“It’s not far. I'll protect you, Billy. You hear the water and ice cracking? Chicken.” Evie flicked a flashlight they snagged from his car after parking in the thrush. “Just up there. C’mon. I promise it’s worth it.” She hurried up, leaving him behind to watch her silhouette in starlight

“Someday, I’m gonna stop chasing this girl,” Billy uttered under his breath, hurrying to follow because that was the biggest lie he'd ever told himself. “The whole ‘no murder’ deal stands.”

“Naturally.” Evie giggled and stepped over a log. “Here.”

They walked along the train tracks going both directions. Came upon the cliffs where the bridge was laid out. Billy looked out at the frozen water yards below. At the moon and stars bathing the space in an ethereal glow. Frozen water framing the rocks. Looked like a castle full of magic.

“Down here.” She went to the edge and climbed down under the steel and wood tracks. Into the space that was suspended over the great fall.

“This is your spot?”

“You'll see why.” Evie reached for his wrist so he didn’t trip. Snagged the blankets from him. “Prettier with all the icicles. Look.” Billy did. Admired the iridescent, dewy glimmer. “And now we wait.”

“Wait?” He came to Evie, lighting a cigarette. “For what?”

“You’ll see, I said.” She settled a blanket around her shoulders and gave him one. Playfully covering his shoulders.

“Wait to freeze to death.” Billy had grumbled as Evie paced farther, stepping over boards and balancing on steel beams.

He saw the moonlight stream through the tracks into her curls. Admired her when she peered back to press a genuine smile. His cigarette dropped. Cherry glowing all the way down. Air whistled.

"Tell me more about yourself, Billy Hargrove." Evie cocked her head at a dewy spiderweb. "Favorite fruit? Favorite insect? Are you fonder of chocolates or-?"

"You think I'm interesting." He decided.

"I think you're here with me." Evie curled around a steel post to see him.

"Tangerines," Billy replied after a beat, "and favorite bug? Do scarab beetles count? Just think they look cool as shit."

"Naturally. Good choice, I suppose." She sized him up and tapped her chin when Billy gestured across the way. Neither moving. "Pineapple and luna moths."

"Luna moths?"

"Yeah," Evie hummed to herself and hid away behind the beam, "I always thought they looked like they were fluttering straight out of our dreams. Don't you?"

Billy took one step. Really watched her shift in ethereal lights. Luminous and bathed utterly.

"Evangeline." He mused as she teetered across a board and came to the edge. Eyes on the water far below. "Why a singer?"

"Hm?" She faced away from him. Seemingly in a dream herself. Billy imagined moths glowing around her pretty hair. Fluttering to follow her into the dark. He wished she'd extend a hand to him so he could join. Follow her right into it.

"Why do you want to be a singer?"

"Always liked it. Growing up, I just felt right, I guess. The most like me. This girl I wanted to be and she's on a stage under too many lights. Singing her heart out to miles of crowds. Touching them all in a way. Connecting." Evie trailed her fingers over chains that hung down, clicked them together like wind chimes. Billy edged up after her. Not getting too close. Wondered about what was ticking in Evie's soul.

"Nice to be heard when you put music out into the world," Billy observed and she seemed to like that. Curls bouncing softer with her voice. Evie unfurled for him there and she was breathtaking.

“I wanna write music that lifts people so high, they’ll have to look down to see heaven." Evie gasped gently, heart-soaring while she came to the other edge on the opposite side. Almost leaning too far.

"Yeah?" He felt her tug tender cords in his soul. Didn't take his eyes away.

"I want to write something that makes others understand they’re not alone. Not small. You know? One great song before I...” Evie trailed off with a sober sort of melodic call beckoning and looked far below to the great fall that was one stumble away. One step. Fingers opened. Her arms lifted enough to drop the blanket behind her and feel the wind. “You think I can write a song powerful enough to help me fly over this bridge, Billy?”

One hand lifted higher, lips open and unable to stop. Unable to look away from the edge. Steady as can be, Billy slid his palm against her. Skin awakening. Reminded her that she was here. That he was with her. That they weren't alone and the song was alive. Fingers laced and Evie seemed to reel back to him, brown eyes glinting to see his face there. Freckles all glowy. Curls spun of gold shifting just right.

"You're beautiful." She observed there.

Billy surely would have followed her to the edge, but he didn't want her to go. Stay.

"You're strange." He'd found this sentiment before and it sounded all the more lovely tonight. Billy gently pulled her from the edge. “Come here, Angel, warm me up.”

Billy draped himself in the other blanket again. Shifted her under it as if it were a cape. A shroud that would keep them both from harm's way. From the edge.

“Okay, Dracula, easy.” She stumbled into him. The diamond lines of Billy’s chest cut into her. “Wait, you feel that?” She watched his earring shift while he looked around. “The vibration.”

“Yeah, I do.” He muttered suggestively.

“Not that kind. Just listen. Feel it.” Evie stepped out, almost giddy as she plucked her blanket up and felt around. Billy welcomed it in his chest. The smooth vibrations generating from above. “Get ready.”

“Ready?” He laughed, coming toward her again. Billy stepped into her space as Evie reached back to curl her fingers into his leather jacket. Head tilted up toward the tracks.

“Lie down with me.” She began to tug and Billy felt this drunkenness take him over at Evie and her smile brightening. They reclined together wrapped in blankets and Billy realized it as the horns called over Evie’s wild laughter.

“You’re full of surprises, Fenny.”

“It helps to scream it out, whatever you want. Just let it go with the train.” She kept snickering as the bridge really began to shake. Billy watched her face. Alight and wild. Red lips against the moonlight pooling to spill over her and illuminate the glitter in her makeup.

“You’re beautiful.” He said then. Unsure if she really heard him over the howl of the oncoming cars.

Billy laughed with her. The roar of a train began to charge above. Blaring horns and steel wheels cranking fast. Her nose crinkled as the windswept their hair. Lips opening to scream with it. Billy couldn’t help joining her. Both of them calling out against the rumbling that never seemed to end.

Icicles fell around the edges and reminded Billy of confetti. Falling so slow and sweet to decorate the space. Shattering colors. That night he first danced with her and kissed her long and hard. Spinning round and round.

Evie pulled herself up and climbed higher into the beams. Head tossed back to give a call like a siren.

“Fuck you!” She saw Billy stand and peered at him. “Keep yelling! Anything you want at anyone! Really let ‘em have it!”

“You first!”

“You left mom and me, you selfish fucking prick!” She raged up into the air for her father that wasn’t around. Hair whirling up into the gust of wind. The train took her syllables with it. Shouting back. "You can't just make people and then abandon them! They'll think they did something wrong forever!" Billy felt his chest tighten. Joined her. Heart bursting.

“Why didn’t you just let me fucking save you! Why wasn't I enough!” He didn’t yell for Neil who beat him senseless. Perched upon steel Evie saw Billy tense. Burst again. “I hate you!” He cried that. Evie's fingers pressed harder into steel. Lost in him. Billy heaved for fresher air. Having never faced it all.

The train ended as they stared at each other. Both breathing into the frozen air. Heaving to gasp.

Evie slipped down and tossed her arms around Billy’s shoulders. Kissed him back into cold steel as if she was trying to comfort him. Kiss him all better. Luna moths landing delicately on their bodies to open and close their lovely wings.

"Why'd you do that?" Billy asked of her for the first time. Evie beamed at the turn in the phrase.

"Because at that time, you weren't going to." She brought him back in. Wanting more. Cupping his face. “Feel any better?” Evie drew out, leaving him to look fluttered. Unsure, Billy swept in so he didn’t have to reply yet. Miles of kisses hot like the cherry of his smoke he let tumble below.

“Felt good.” He murmured, pulling her into him. “If anything.”

“You can’t tell anyone about this place. It’s my secret. Our secret.” She pecked his lips and Billy drew out because they both were too cold to continue. The heat in her belly wasn’t enough.

He tilted his forehead against hers, lulled forth when her weight shifted back and the loss. The loss of her ached Billy down to his marrow. This almost paradise they constructed together.

Curls fell into his face before he lifted to glimpse Evie once more. Wondered how she’d look swaying with lush moonbeams in her hair always. Pretty goddess draped in starlight. Painted in pearly shimmers.

Enough to take his breath, Billy gasped for it back and gave this distant chuckle. Nodded to promise he wouldn't tell a soul. Evie caught him wincing as her hand moved over his shoulder again so she left him completely.

“Sorry.”

“It’s nothing.” He turned to go, eyes elsewhere. Anywhere else they could dart. Not on her. “Let’s just head back.” Billy felt like he was in a dream. Spinning and dizzy all the way back to the car. He realized as the locks clicked that Evie had been speaking.

“Are you alright?” She swallowed and Billy looked at the car keys in his hand. Little scorpion keychain glinting. “Were you talking to your mom back there?”

“Yeah. I just…” Billy shook his head and turned the engine on. “I don’t know where it came from.”

“I thought it’d be Neil.”

“I guess I can’t even stomach dreaming of him.” He replied. “I know it’s not a dream if he’s there. Even if he’s getting his. You know?”

“Yeah. I, uh… Do you…?” Evie squirmed in her seat, worried he’d close up on her as he stared at the road and drove at a steady speed for once.

“Do I, what?”

“Hate her?”

“No.” He skidded at a red light, almost sounded defensive. Shoulders fell. Knuckles went white on the wheel. “Sometimes.” Evie felt her cheeks burn and tried to sound even, it still came out as an airy whisper.

“What happened to her, Billy?”

“She just died.” He sighed to calm his own tone from sounding hot. “She died when I was fourteen.” Finally, he corrected himself. “She killed herself.”

“I’m sorry.” Evie tried not to stare at him. Fear it made him uncomfortable quelled, but she couldn’t look away. Billy closed his eyes at the next red light to breathe, opened them.

“It happens.” He said. “People wake up one morning and decide they don’t want to wake up ever again...and they act on it. And they succeed.” It felt like he started to drive slower the closer they got to Cherry. “Doesn’t matter who they leave behind.”

Evie carefully extended her hand over to touch his in his lap. Because it does fucking matter and it always will. The fingers on the wheel flexed and Billy didn’t tear away.

“She had a lot of problems. Like my dad. Maybe they tried to fix each other once. I don’t know.” Billy continued. Too tender about it all. “They divorced when I was nine. All the back in forth. The visitations. Courtrooms making me choose and I just...I wanted her. I wanted it to stop too. I know she was messed up, but she tried to get better… You believe me, don’t you?”

His blue eyes glistened. Jaw tensing. Billy pulled up between their houses and neither moved as he cut the engine.

“Yes, I believe you.” Evie found the syllables around her tongue.

“You believe people can get better, Evie?”

She almost welled with him. It struck her heart with lightning.

“I really hope so.” She had to or she was lost just as well. Evie sniffled and tried to be stone again when all the emotion came into her voice to cloud it.

“She never hit me though. Dad drank and beat the shit out of her. Made her drug habits worse and worse. Liked when she was some coked-out zombie. Pills and needles, it just… Fuck, Evie, she just kept falling back. They fought for custody the whole time and I really thought she was getting better. Dad acted like a fucking hero, rescuing me from an evil druggie.”

“You’re worth getting better for.” Evie felt Billy slip from her hand so he could clear his throat and rub his eyes.

“I found her, you know?” He shuddered and stared at his open palms in his lap. Saw red on them. “It was her weekend and I took the bus home from school like I always did. We were going to go to the boardwalk.”

His head tipped back and he gave this grim smile. They never made it to that boardwalk, Evie realized.

“The smell of that house, I’ll never… Just rotten...and I couldn’t even see her face at first because of all the flies.” It was Billy who reached out aimlessly for Evie’s wrist. Something to stay rooted, she figured. “My mom was beautiful and she always smelled like oranges. Like the big orchard she worked at. But, the fucking house just smelled like shit and piss and vomit and rust when I came in. Like death. I found her in the bathtub all bloated and ugly and the water was already brown. She sat in there alone decaying and no one...”

Billy kept rubbing his eyes again until they were too swollen to cry. Evie had his hand in both of hers, clamped tight to keep him alert. Unwavering.

“I didn’t know what to do so I called for help. I couldn’t lift her out, I wasn’t strong enough and I kept screaming... Then, I tried my dad three times, and...fuck, I ended up calling Susan. They’d started dating a couple of months before and I didn’t like her. Or her kid. But, she was too nice and gave me a number to call if I needed her after they’d gotten serious. I don’t know why I kept it in my backpack. She came when they were loading my mom up. Kept trying to hold me and I wouldn’t let her until I was too weak to fight it.”

“She does care about you. She’s scared, too.”

“My dad cleans up his act well from time to time. Plays the perfect father and boyfriend, she fell for it. In too deep now with no way out. He'll bleed her dry, too. My dad, he likes it when people don’t have a way out. Mom found a way though, spite him.” Billy dropped his head back again, chest sinking before he looked at Evie. Quivered there. “I just get...so mad.”

“I know.” She sank into the seat a little to watch him.

“She left a note that said sorry. That she loved me. Left this for me, too.” Billy fingered his pendant. “Wasn’t enough. Sometimes, I walk into my own house now and that smell… I can’t escape it. I’m always in that house. In that room with the flies covering everything.”

That shook Evie. They weren’t perfect kids, but they didn’t deserve to be trapped in that house. In that room. Where trauma was fed on a loop. A haunted house where they were the ghosts doomed and trapped to wander. To relive what killed them from the first.

“I tried so fucking hard to make her better, I took care of her and I wasn’t there. I let my dad drive her to-”

“Billy, it’s not your fault.” Evie had his hand pressed against her chest at that. “It’s not.” Both painfully sober, they just looked at each other. Leveled out. “I’m sure she tried so hard for you. Some people, they just… Addiction is…”

Evie felt this ice swell up her stomach. Addiction is a harsh cycle. It never really ends, you work at it and fight it, but it’s always there in the back of your memories urging. Once you start, you’re always an addict. Recovering or not. You can’t stop.

You can’t stop.

“Getting help is so hard when you’re sick.” Was all Evie could manage. Unable to portray how profoundly she understood. “Your job was to be a kid.”

“All I wanted was to go back to California and now, I’m not sure if I ever can. Just knowing she won’t be there again. Sometimes when I’m here, I just pretend she’s alive and still picking oranges on long, hot days.” Billy swallowed. “My dad just...shut down for the first time when he showed up to get me from Susan’s. I asked him if he was gonna hug me. Susan had for a long time. And he just tensed and told me not to be soft. That I can’t act like a pussy and mom was just too fucking sick to get better. But, I knew she had a chance. I knew it was enough. I...” Billy’s voice cut over. He tried to gasp for some clear air so Evie pulled him over the seats into her arms.

“You’re enough.” She said. Plain and simple. So easily.

Billy vibrated in response.

"Sometimes I think you navigate the world like something bad is coming for you and you're waiting for it, Evie," he muffled into her, "and I don't want you to go, too."

"I won't go." Evie held steady, eyes flickering beyond him at dead space. "Promise."

Hands came up like he might shove her off before Billy shattered. Melted into her heat. The soft slopes of flesh. Arms went under his so she could hold him close. Billy hitched a sob and stopped anything else that dared creep up his throat. Fingers wrung into her clothing. Evie let him squeeze her tight. Within inches of breath. Make her a balmy slice of paradise he could sink into.

Billy closed his eyes. Face pressing into the line of her collar. Inhaling perfume and lotion. Flames bubbling up from her skin.

“Come to bed with me,” Evie’s lips touched his ear, “nothing funny. I just don’t want you to sleep alone tonight.” Billy felt himself relent, only nodded into her hair.

They snuck out under street lamps and went into the Fenny house. Cleaned up without words to dress down for bed. Blue wiggled in with them atop the pillows and Billy faced away.

Evie wished she had something better to say, but she just told him goodnight. Gently murmured it against his spine as she tucked in behind him.

“Evie.” Billy shifted after a long beat. Turned over to face her there. Barely awake at that point, her eyes cracked.

“Hm?”

“Thanks.” Billy moved again on his back because it always seemed to get her nuzzling into his side. “What I told you. Don’t tell anyone else. Please.” Arm stretching so Evie could take her place and mumble something he didn’t catch, a nod followed. Nose pressing to the cotton tee he left on, Evie slipped away first. Left Billy to his thoughts as he watched the dim lights pull between the blinds and curtains to make patterns along her ceiling.

He knew he was consumed and he wasn’t sorry. Not one bit. Evie tumbled deeper into her dreams. Not stirring as fingers played with her curls. Petting them softly. Billy mulled over it all and he just wasn’t ashamed and he couldn’t figure out how to make her see it. But, he was willing to keep trying. Evie was worth trying for, too. Plain and simple. Sighing out, Billy let himself begin to slip too.

“Anyone…” He couldn’t help uttering, almost melodic. Lashes fluttering. “...who knows what love is…”

Billy peered down at Evie’s face, peaceful and relaxed against his chest. Cheek pressing hot through the fabric as his fingertips ran a barely-there line down the silky skin.

The rest of the lyrics never came. Tangled into his heartstrings where they made a cozy home.

Billy immersed himself in burning amber, closed his eyes to follow Evie into absolute darkness. Almost paradise.

~~~~~~~

Thanks guys for being so lovely! This is probs my fav chapter to date. Leave words in my ask or replies if you have them! Love to hear from you all xoxo

TAGGED:: @80sbxtch @nottherightseason @orxhidshavana @alagalaska @alongcamedolly @kellyk-chan @10blurredsmoke10 @stanley--barber @charmed-asylum @unmistakablyunknown

#billy hargrove #Billy hargrove x oc #Billy Hargrove imagine #billy hargrove fanfiction #stranger things fanfiction #Billy x Angel #mine #writing #somy #angel fenny

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ravens-words · 3 years

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Tagged by @christopherismybuddie to do my top ten favorite 911 episodes and why. (Disclaimer: I haven't watched season 2 episodes in a LONG time, so sorry if I mixed up some stuff lol)

This got out of hand and I apologize? (And Yes, these are in order)

Edit: 1 & 2, because I love these equally and thought I could choose my favorite, but apparently can't.

3x2-3 The TSUNAMI EPISODES- where do I start with the perfection that was these two episodes??? I can write a whole essay about them. From Eddie having a key, to him figuratively dragging Buck out of bed, leaving Chris with him, "his buck", to the utter perfection that is the Christopher and Buck relationship???? Buck's fear, his relief when he finds Christopher, the way he looked for him, for HOURS, him breaking down at the mere idea of telling Eddie when he was on the phone with Maddie to the ene after that (Eddie's face, Buck collapsing only when Christopher was safe, a return of the "Bobby knows" look) And finally. WAIT FOR ME TO COME. "THERE'S NO ONE I TRUST MORE WITH MY SON THAN YOU"

4x 13-14- I mentioned 13 because that end scene was GOLD. Buddie being the only ones there, the way it was framed, the silence, Buck just freezing and having to be tackled out of the way of fire. EDDIE REACHING FOR BUCK.

As for 14, ooh, that opening scene- Badass Buck was amazing (the smooth roll under the truck, hauling Eddie to saftey, and then hefting him over his shoulder and into the truck👀)

Then we have Eddie freking Diaz, bleeding out, asking Buck if he was okay. "Eds" 😭.

Buck shaking when he was outside the hospital, the automatic way he took on the responsibility of telling Christopher.

Buck trying so hard to keep it together while telling Christopher, and then breaking down, and Christopher comforting him, when he found out Eddie was okay? I did not see that coming. I loved it beyond words though. Buck staying on the couch just so Christopher could stay at home 😭. And then of course the freaking bed scene. It still feels surreal that it's now canon that Eddie trusts Buck with Christopher so much that he would name him as his guardian if something happens to him. That is so freaking significant. Also, the fact that he only chose to tell him because Buck thought it would be better if he was the one who was shot, because Buck thinking he was expendable was just UNACCEPTABLE to one Eddie Diaz. I love these two so much (and they love each other, I don't make the rules)

3. 3x15 Eddie Begins- The Eddie Diaz backstory I was craving, and it didn't disappoint. His relationship with his parents (I hate it) with Shanon (I've managed to keep my opinions on Shanon/Eddie to myself for a long time and will continue to do so). And finally, with Christopher- I love this relationship so much, and I love how Eddie was not a perfect father, but they did show us he was a GOOD one, who would do anything for his son. Eddie Diaz is one of the best young fathers I've seen on TV and I love him for that. "I miss you all the time" will forever break my heart.

Eddie doing everything to save Hayden (and this being a characteristic we see whenever there are children involved) is something I also loved to see. Buck's reactions were unexpected and jarring and perfect. I get chocked up every time I see it.

4. 4x4-5 the Buck Begins Episodes- My love Evan Buckley deserves the world. I hate the Buckley parents. I love Maddie Buckley, and I LOVE the freaking firefam. The Buckley Siblings moments were gold. Maddie is amazing and also deserves the world. We got such a good insight into why Buck is who he is, and it broke my heart and made me love him even more. My one complaint about these episodes is that we didn't get any Buck hugs (I really wanted Maddie, Bobby and Eddie to hug him 😭)

5. 4x06 Jinx- the most hilarious episode and one I still watch if I need a laugh. The helium scene is the best thing ever.

6. 2x13- Fight or Flight- I love all the relationships on the show, but my top two are Buddie and the Buckley siblings. This one was just a beautiful episode. Maddie saving herself, Buck going out of his mind with worry, their HUG. Their talk in the ambulance. Just, ahhhh.

7. 4x12 Treasure Hunt- SCHEMING. I loved this one so much. All the team ups, another appearance by jealous Eddie, return of detective Bobby. Moments I loved: Eddie pouts- Buck caves immediately, Buck's hate for Math (me too, man), Ravi totally abandoning ship at the chance he might get in trouble, and Eddie jumping into the firetruck head first)

8. 2x04 Stuck- I love this episode so much. The whole "is your son really why you don't date?"/"they're not my type" 👀 also, Christopher being the angel that he is 😭. This one was the first instance we saw Buck having Eddie's back outside of the job, and it was so beautiful.

9. 2x06 Dosed- my god, I will never get sick of this episode. "Teeny Tiny" and "Oooh, you made him cry" 😂😂. Hen and Buddie being high was just so freaking funny. Bobby broke my heart in this episode. Also, first sighting of Jealous Eddie. That was gold.

10. 2x01 Under Pressure- Ahhh, Eddie and Maddie introduction!! The start of Buddie. Them going from "you're my problem" to "you can have my back any day" *chef's kiss*

If you actually made it this far, hats off to you lol

I won't tag anyone, but I do hope if you see it and want to do it, that you tag me!

#911 episodes I love

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someone-elses-star · 5 years

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The 100 6x09: What You Take With You Personal Narrative

Another two week hiatus that absolutely killed me! Thank goodness for the Beliza pics from the recent con or I would absolutely be drowning! What did you guys think of the sneak peaks we got? I’m excited to see the new dynamic between Octavia and Gabriel! I also want to know if she’s faking not remembering anything or not. Plus, we get so much Bellamy/Jo!Clarke action tonight! I definitely don’t think we’ll get Clarke back this episode, but I’m hoping for 6x10 when the Blake siblings are reunited! :)

Alas, the episode is about to begin, so let’s get started:

It’s coming on! I’m so cool with Eliza introducing all the episodes.

Eliza is such a great actress. She does so well with separating her Josephine voice from her Clarke voice.

Aww... clean and young looking Octavia. Gotta love the glam that the anomaly provides!

Does Octavia really remember nothing? Seems strange....

Gabriel is pissed.....Why does he want to know so much about the anomaly?

Help....? That can’t be good

What’s in the creepy boxxxx

What the hell is Gabriel doing?

He’s going to get her.....high? Ahhh so that’s how she is going to see Bloodreina.

So the anomaly doesn’t heal...but it passes through time possibly....then erases memories? Interesting....

So there could be truth in the time travel theories that have been floating around?

Can we really trust Gabriel, though? I mean....he has been lying about who he is.

Damn....that was quick. Where can I get that stuff? Lol

Nice glowing boxes. Red light. Green light. And she decides to go towards the red? That’s such an Octavia move.

Yes, let’s pick the angry looking box that is obviously going to lead you towards your worst memories.

Marie is such a great actress. What did we do to get such great actors and actresses in this show? Did someone sacrifice a virgin or something?

Echhh.....creepy new Marcus---Marcus Kane II if you will---I do not like it! SO ICKY!

I mean....he’s hot....but....him and Abby possibly being romantic in the future is just a kinda gross concept.

Is anyone else sick of Abby? She has gone way too far.

There love story has never really been healthy in my opinion, but this is too gross and too far.

Ewww don’t kiss! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!

Yes, everything is wrong, Marcus. People are not meant to switch fucking bodies!

Yay! Bellamy and Jo!Clarke!

Aww Bellamy can’t stand seeing Clarke in pain in any aspect.

You tell her Bellamy!

“I guess you just care about her more.” Well that is dropping some more truth bombs on Bellamy!

Commercial Break #1 Thoughts: WOW! Josephine dropping the truth bombs on Bellamy! Everyone is calling him out on this! This has got to mean something for Bellarke! IT HAS TO! We usually only get like one of these comments per season about the two of them putting each other first but.....now we’re getting this like twice in two episodes? AMAZING!!! If this is anything like what the rest of the episode is going to be like we are going to be served a MEAL! So thrilled! On the opposite side, Kabby 2.0 is creepy and I’m grossed out. Who’s with me?

Ohhh we’re in a cave! And Josephine is such a fucking priss.

Seriously Josephine is going to get herself killed.

Bellamy is such a boss. Though is he going to get them killed? Doubtful. But his heart is definitely leading over his head.

Oh my gosh. He just said Doubtful after I did! It’s fate!

Can she really hear them now? OMG!!!

What is he going to say?

OMG he was always speaking to her! In the trailer he was speaking to her and not just metaphorically or whatever! WHAT A FUCKING TREAT!

Was it worth it? Probably not.

Eeww....the host had a wife....and still willingly sacrificed his body? Wow these people are brainwashed!

Ohhh what is the truth?! Reveal it Kane! Drop some truths!

Kane is our King! Even if he is in a new body.

Woop there it is! This is the only time where Raven’s condescension this season isn’t bothering me.

INDRA IS BACK!!!!

I forgot Indra and Kane were friends! This is awesome! I missed Indra so much! Is she going to ask about Octavia? Is she?

Commercial Break #2 Thoughts: After the first commercial all of the commercials come so quickly. But we seriously got info that Clarke can hear them! And it seems legit! And Bellamy in the trailer was always just talking to her!!! I love this so much! I’m so happy! But what worries me is the fact that Clarke’s brain---according to the episode sneak peaks we got with Jason and this episode’s writer--has only a few hours left. So....hopefully they get her into the anomaly or something soon? If it will heal her...but if it is just a time anomaly will it actually fix her or just kill her brain sooner because of a time jump? I’m concerned, confused, and cautiously hopeful.

And we are back with Octavia and Gabriel! He better hear his call from his people! We need him to save Clarke!

Octavia versus Bloodreina! FINALLY!

Oh....no....Pike. Interesting.....

We are really getting down to the deepest set of what turned Octavia so dark. Intense

Did anyone else miss Pike’s actor like I did. I mean....I didn’t really care for Pike, but I love the actor who plays him!

Ohh...playing the Bellamy card with her. Ouch.

Of course she hates herself. She was forced to do a lot of shitty things and she did a lot of shitty things on her own. She’s a bit fucked up.

Wow! Pike is really laying into her. Her mind is almost as bad as Clarke’s.

There’s Bloodreina!

Pike is Octavia’s good side of her conscious? Interesting.

Lincoln!!! I don’t want to see this again! Don’t show me his death again! NOOOOOO!!!!!!

Hmmm....but Octavia still protects her mind Pike. Good for her!

You kill Bloodreina, Octavia! I know you can do it!

Damn. That kill shot came quick.

Aww Gabriel is wiping her forehead! That’s sweet!

Commercial Break #3 Thoughts: So....that was intense. But we don’t really know what happened in the anomaly still? Or will it come back to her now that she fought against her demons/Bloodreina? I still think the fight was kind of quick. Even if Octavia has been continuously thinking about getting redemption for awhile now, it still seems like a quick internal battle. I’m sure she will have to fight harder on the outside for redemption with Bellamy and the others, but it wouldn’t have killed us to get a longer fight. However, I will be okay with this shorter fight if it means longer scenes with Bellamy trying to save Clarke.

INDRA!!! Because she loves you.....yes drop those truth bombs girlfriend!

Hmmm....Indra....what are you saying. We need you on our side!

Ohhh.....Raven/Indra/Kane II team! Love it!

YAY Bellamy and Jo!Clarke interaction!

At least she knows that bringing her back was a big mistake sorta.

OHHHH what Clarke/Bellamy truths is she about to drop?!!?

Bellamy’s hope is so cute! I hope it continues and he’s right!

Haha continue to be confident if it pisses her off Bellamy!

Bellamy looks so hurt that Clarke’s body is being hurt.

Uhhh....ohhhh....They know!

Is....Clarke back?

Oh!!! How is this possible! This is such a great fanfic....I mean episode. LMAO!

Commercial Break #4 Thoughts: So....now that she gave control back to Clarke....does that mean that she can take it back or does Clarke have to give it back? I mean....Clarke’s brain is obviously still dying, but will this make it better? Worse? I just can’t believe we just got Clarke back so suddenly! I’m so crazed! I’m so much more hopeful now! Is this going to make me a clown in the end? I don’t know....but I refuse to let go of this hope! Clarke is BACK!

Wait...she is running towards motorcycles...is she playing the part of Josephine or....is she actually Clarke? Yup....actually Clarke.

Ohhhh....So Clarke does have to give back control. So cool.

I’m loving Clarke on the motorcycle! SUPER FUCKING HOT!!!

Clarke and Josephine interaction, and Clarke sassing her! I LOVE IT!

Ohhh....Octavia seeking redemption is hot! And....they just heard the radio calls.

Octavia wants to save her people!

“Things are about to get weird...” Lmao....I love Gabriel! Best line of the night, probs!

Commercial Break #5 Thoughts: So confirmed Clarke is back. We get to see Josephine and Clarke interact with each other outside of her brain. So thrilled that Clarke is back though! SO HAPPY! And Octavia actively seeking redemption, and Gabriel pretty much being cool with it despite him wanting info about the anomaly. That is legit wise-old man vibes! I’m digging it, Gabriel. You’re awesome! I take back not trusting you. If you don’t do something stupid...I’m just going to love you.

Indra is such a badass. We should have brought her back sooner.

Ohhh...are we losing Marcus again so soon? That’s sad....but it makes a good point to this whole show. I really think letting him die would be better for all of this. It proves the point that taking over someone else’s body and living forever is never right. Sometimes people just have to die and stay dead.

Ohhh....she is seeing his old face! I love it! Or are we just seeing it? I don’t care! It’s amazing!

This is the perfect way for us to say goodbye to Marcus! I LOVE IT!

I’ll miss you Marcus! But sometimes dying is for a good cause!

“This is how we get our humanity back.”

I’m crying!!! May we meet again, Marcus Kane. Your fight is over.

So....that episode ended abruptly. But at least we only have one week until next episode!

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gamearamamegathons · 5 years

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Dragon Quest V: My Life As A Lawn Gnome

Circe here! At this point I should really just steer clear of royal lineages. It never goes well for me. But okay, let me pick up where we left off.

So I was going to head off to this Cave of Trials to prove myself to the suspicious chancellor and ascend to the throne of Granvania. It looks like I can bring my monsters with me, so it's just Bianca who's staying behind. Clearly the chancellor is hoping I'll be offed by monsters, but we can guess how well that works on a JRPG protagonist. The Cave of Trials starts off with a curious little puzzle, actually; you can enter one of four doors, and it appears to be a dead end, but if you leave through the correct door, you come out somewhere else. It took me a while to figure out how this works, but once I had it, it becomes a fairly conventional dungeon. The encounters aren't really that tough, so I'm able to push my way through pretty easily. There's a couple more puzzle-like things, but the only one I found at all interesting was where you had to drain a room of water without being swept away, by positioning a rock so you could catch yourself on it. So that was kinda neat.

Once I found the Symbol of Royalty at the bottom of the cave, I was soon confronted by some thugs who informed me that "someone" didn't want me to become king. Gee, I wonder who that is. Luckily they were not terribly threatening, so I brought the symbol back to the castle. By this time I had enough evidence to stick my sword through the chancellor's chest, or at least, as much evidence as you need when you're a king-to-be. Instead, of course, the current king didn't notice anything unusual and let the chancellor wander off to set some other very predictable trap.

First, though, we need to continue the whole pregnancy subplot. It looks like Bianca is going into labor, which means that I get to wander around and be useless until the plot moves forward. This whole thing feels weirdly creepy and normative, with Bianca not seeming to care about anything except giving me a baby. It's a very narrow, sanitized view of childbirth, and the best thing I can say about it is that at least we're moving on from this plot point soon. The weirdest part is where Bianca asks you to praise her for...giving birth good? And you can answer "yes" or "no"...for some reason. I said yes, because, I mean, I'm not a monster. This whole thing is fucking bizarre.

In any case, she ends up having twins, a boy and a girl. I decide to name them after my own characters, so now we have baby SAMMY and baby LAMIRA. Now it's time for everyone to get hammered in celebration of my becoming king! Just, the whole kingdom pretty much, it seems like. So that's a very good idea and nothing could go wrong, except it does. After a good amount of wandering around trying to find the fucking plot, I finally ended up giving in and finding out that you have to SEARCH UNDER YOUR BED. I have no idea how long it would've taken me to figure that out on my own. Once we do that, we find the midwife hiding there with the babies, and she explains that Bianca has been kidnapped. Because of fucking course. In order to find out what to do next, I'm left to wander around the castle, so of course I just look up what to do next. If we poke around in the chancellor's room, we can find a pair of flying shoes. I'm pretty sure we went through this exact same process in Dragon Quest 4, and sure enough, if we go outside and use the flying shoes, they take us somewhere else.

There's a convenient place to rest in this new location, and then, further up, a tower for us to climb. This dungeon turns out to be kind of a pain in the ass. There's quite a few more traps here, in the form of flamethrowers that will activate when you walk past them, taking off a huge chunk of your health and possibly even killing you outright. To get past them all you have to push rocks in front of them. You can also be cursed, which causes you to take damage when walking around, but can't be cured by the Antidote spell. So that's fantastic. Regardless, I make my way up the tower and find the chancellor, who was apparently immediately betrayed by the monsters he was plotting with, and dies. What an absolute piece of garbage.

When we reach the top of the tower, we fight a boss called "Orc Lv. 20", which is very odd because enemies do not typically display their levels in their names. I have no idea what to make of this. He's pretty easy to kill. After that we fight "Wyvern Lv. 35", who uses some heavy damage spells, but is also not that hard to kill. With those two...weirdly generic bosses out of the way, we can fight the dungeon boss proper, a horse monster named Jahmi. Did we see this guy before? I can't remember. Anyway, he also has powerful multi-hit spells, and in addition we only do 1 damage at first. After a few turns, Bianca destroys Jahmi's shield, which she can do because she has the blood of the legendary hero. So, uh...yeah, the whole awkward pregnancy plot is starting to come into focus. I'm not happy about this, but it's about what I figured.

Once we beat Jahmi, he kinda turns both of us to stone, to prevent the legendary hero from being born. Joke's on him, I guess. Well, he's dead, but we're still stuck. A couple guys wander in to loot the tower, and steal both of our en-statued bodies. They sell me to some random guy, and keep Bianca. And then I get dropped in this guy's yard.

And then I just kinda chill there for eight years, apparently fully conscious.

So that sucks.

Apparently, many years after I was turned to stone, some bad stuff is going down, because monsters show up and kidnap this guy's kid. He takes his anger out on me, who is, I remind you, still a statue. I'll grant you, he's having a bad day, but I think I'm kinda the one with the short end of the stick here. Do you have any idea how long eight years is? I can't even ask him to put on a movie for me every once in a while, because they haven't been invented, and also I can't talk. Eventually, though, the Granvanian search party finally finds me, including the twins, who are now, well, eight year olds. Surprise surprise, Sammy can use the legendary equipment I'd collected earlier. And Lamira can cast magic, so that's pretty cool. I guess you become a badass at an incredibly young age in this universe.

Soon after, we're given another location to travel on our quest. Bianca is still missing, of course, and I don't even get a few days off to recover from having to stare at a fence for eight consecutive years.

So far, my life has kind of sucked, if I'm being perfectly honest with you.

#circe #marathon #dragon quest #dragon quest v

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monsterleadmehome · 6 years

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Thoughts On TLJ novelization:

-I loved Jason Fry’s writing. I think he captured Rian’s story well while still having his voice come through.

-the crazy dream prologue was so sad. Like an alternate timeline of normal Luke.

-Han’s hasty memorial was fitting. I love anything from Leia’s POV.

-the Paige and Rose scene made me cry. Especially how Rose kept talking to her throughout the rest of the book. Pae Pae! Ugh I’m dead.

-seeing “General Hugs” in print literally made my day

-I see Fulmanatrix and think Dominatrix. Intentional?

-“Stiff fins and sharp teeth” is the “clear eyes full heart” on Mon Cala

-I had to wait 65 pages for Kylo Ren?!

-KYLO DIDN’T FIRE ON LEIA BECAUSE HE FELT THAT SHE STILL CARED ABOUT HIM. “She was worried for him, he realized. And she wasn’t angry. She ached for him to come back to her.” Excuse me while I go cry.

-also he would’ve stopped the torpedo if he hadn’t been caught by surprise. Because he is THAT STRONG IN THE FORCE OMG.

-I was not a huge fan of Rose’s jealousy of Rey and am glad that didn’t feature in the movie. The “Rey Rey Rey” was a little too “Marcia Marcia Marcia” for me.

-Luke fucking slapped Rey for going to the dark without hesitation. How dare.

-I know this has been said, but Rey wondered if they could touch as early as the second force bond! Like what even? “Could they actually touch, across a galaxy?” (p 136)

-Then after she calls him a monster:

“She stared back at him — and found his eyes full of hurt. Hurt — and conflict.

‘Yes I am,’ Kylo said and there was no menace in his voice — only misery.��

This just reinforces that Kylo is ok with everyone else seeing him as a monster, but he had hoped Rey would think differently.

-Luke being a dick then turning around and asking Rey to dance is such a Skywalker thing to do. No wonder Kylo keeps striking out. Also badass Rey was scared of dancing. That was kind of cute.

-BB-8 loves murder. No surprise there.

-Rey is so distracted by shirtless Kylo. She “forced herself to look into his eyes,” then “...Rey made herself focus.” 😏

-“His gaze was hungry — and knowing.” (p 175) I’m sorry, did I stumble into a harlequin romance novel?

-CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE FACT THAT LUKE WAS GOING TO GO BACK WITH REY BEFORE HE CAUGHT HER WITH KYLO?!?!?!?

Like, he opened himself to the Force, sensed Leia then was all oh shit the galaxy does need me. Then, he finds Rey holding hands with his naughty nephew and decided NEVERMIND?! I can’t even.

-Rey had that traumatic experience in the cave and there was only one person she wanted to talk to, “someone who would understand how solitude and loss could eat away at you until there was nothing left.” 😩

-the hut scene is just as beautiful on the page as it was in the movie... except they are sitting NEXT TO EACH OTHER. And Rey thinks about touching him AGAIN. “As if she could actually reach out and touch his hand, his face, his hair.” Um, she wants to what? Reach out and caress his face and run her fingers through his hair? Cuz SAME GIRL SAME.

-“Luke Skywalker walked into the hut — to find Rey and Kylo with their hands clasped, staring into each other’s eyes.” Are you serious?! I am so scandalized. *clutches pearls*

-Then Rey hands his ass to him for fucking up a perfectly good Ben Solo and peaces out.

-I wanted more Holdo.

-We still don’t know what Chewie offered to say to Finn

-The witty flirty banter between Rey and Kylo when she arrives on The Supremacy is gold and should have been in the movie. Also WE WERE ROBBED OF A SMILE.

-Rey saw longing in his eyes in the elevator. That’s canon.

-Snoke’s whole internal monologue about how he’s been this mastermind and manipulated Ben since he was a child as well as all these events in the galaxy just to get to this point was the epitome of hubris. He takes credit for bridging their minds and congratulates himself on a job well done, all while failing to overlook one very important thing: love. Like, hi you thought it was a good idea to bring the two loneliest people in the galaxy together? These young attractive people? You didn’t think that your apprentice would fall head over heels and trade his allegiance from you to her? LOL. Real evil can’t comprehend love.

-Funnily enough, both Snoke and Luke can see that even though he calls himself Kylo Ren, he will always be Ben Solo. Snoke is using him as a means to an end but he doubts he can ever go fully dark. Luke in the confrontation on Crait “sensed that Kylo Ren was just a shell around the same broken boy he had tried so hard to reach.” (p 297)

- what’s that smell? Oh, REDEMPTION.

-I would have liked half the praetorian guard fight from Kylo’s POV.

-“He advanced on Rey, the ignited lightsaber held loosely in one hand. But there was no threat in his approach.

Somehow, suddenly, that scared her even more.” Why is that, Rey? Hmm? Possibly because you know what he wants???

Then, “Rey tried to find the strength to deny him, to shove him away. But he was right.” OMFG HOW CLOSE IS HE STANDING TO HER?!

-I loved Poe’s little pep talk to Rose about how she is needed. Gave me the warm fuzzies.

-I also somehow liked the Finnrose kiss more in the book? It was sweeter.

- “‘Rey,’ Kylo said, speaking her name like it was poison.” Omg this tore my heart out. He is SO hurt by her leaving. Like the other thing I noticed is that from Kylo’s POV we still don’t get a lot of what he’s thinking. He keeps everything so guarded, from all those years with Snoke in his mind. Rey works through stuff. Kylo doesn’t expand on anything. You just get hurt and betrayal and fear and anger. It’s so heartbreaking. He also has a hard time believing anyone cares for him. ughhhhh

-Literally every scene with Hux foreshadows how he’s going to overthrow Kylo in IX. It’s happening.

-I really enjoyed the little end scene with the caretaker cleaning up Luke’s things and talking about all the outsiders that come.

So yeah, overall I really enjoyed it! I think I might try to read the junior novelization later on as well. It seems like there’s some hopeful/lighter additions there.

#tlj novelization spoilers #tlj novelization #reylo #that was long

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lauxeyson · 6 years

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HOLD ME TIGHT, OR DON’T

Pairing/Characters: Peter Quill x Reader

Summary: At the edge of the universe, a place without a beginning or an end, a Star-Lord discovers what true love really means.

Warnings: Literally no plot, just a bunch of talk of love, which I by the way know nothing about?!?! What the hell even is this?

Word Count: 1,306

A/N: Repost of what used to be a bunch of shittttt, I hope it’s better now haha. It was called Might be a sinner, might be a saint. I do not know how I feel about this one, but here we are! I know what you’re thinking; Was that GIF really necessary? Yes, yes it was. Feedback is much appreciated!

MASTERLIST

It is a funny thing; love.

In some dictionaries, it is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. They do not – and words fall utterly short when trying – define the feeling you get inside when you meet your perfect match, someone who awakens something deep in your bones, something that you have never felt before. Nor do they declutter the mess that roars inside of you, when the one person you just could not stand, suddenly becomes someone you cannot live without. No words seem capable of making sense of the irregular beating of your heart, when you know you have fallen and there is no going back.

Love is a word with many various meanings, always differing from person to person. You can love a painting, you can love shoes, you can love the way the stars illuminate the darkness that the night brings, and you can love the feeling of the warm sun kissing your skin. However, when that love is directed towards another being, it is something utterly, completely different. And that soul, may just, in a strange way, be the missing piece to complete your own.

Oh, the things we put our hearts through in a lifetime.

Peter finds himself in that particular mindset from time to time. His heart breaks asunder with the weight of all his love holding it down, he misses and he loves, he reminisces about the love you give him. As he lays down on his small bunk on the Milano, his mother’s music blasting through his headset, a familiar picture dance before his eyes.

He is a boy again, hardly old enough to know right from wrong. It is so dark outside. He feels the slightly wet grass through the fabric of his clothes as his eyes roam from one shiny star to another. The last song that played slowly fades out, a new one taking its place and it fills the shrill night air with its rhythm. Hooked on a feeling by blue swede, Peter’s favorite. His mother lays beside him, her hand firmly grasping his as she starts to sing along to the tune. It is faint, almost like a whisper. She looks over at him and smiles, her eyes glittering like diamonds beneath a billion lights. Peter starts so sing as well, his shoulders slowly moving side to side and his feet kicking along to the tune. Her laughter fills the space before them; his insides turn warm knowing he was the reason why.

“You remind me so much of your father, my little star-lord,” she says to him as the song ends and her laughter subdues.

Peter smiles weakly and he wonders, he dreams. What is his father like, will he find him one day so they can throw ball like all the other kids in his neighborhood do. Somewhere, out there in the vast universe, he sits around waiting, and Peter felt the excitement bubble.

It seems foolish now. In his desperate need of a fathers love, he failed to see the psycho hiding behind fake promises. However, no matter how strong the hatred grows towards his true parenthood, Peter’s love for the two strongest women in his life will never falter. Whenever he runs too warm, you are there to cool him down, and his mother’s memory will always guide him on the right path.

Before you came into his life, he slept around; he never saw the seriousness is anything. A new girl warmed his bed every night, different planet but always the same way. But when you sauntered into his ship, the battle gear only making you appear the more badass than what was good for you, his heart did a leap in his chest. He would never admit to it, he hated how awkward he was around you, and he began to hate on you for bringing out that side in him.

In time, you soon became a teammate, a companion he found himself enjoying the company off. He beat himself up for even allowing his mind to wonder to the women he had been with, when you were the only one who made him feel love. Rocket says you bring out the human in him, the not so fucked up part of a whole. The terran, the cave dweller.

Much to Peter’s delight, you are a dancer, just like him. He never realized just how different he and Gamora were, until he met you and everything just clicked. The universe never seemed as small as it did when he looked into your eyes, no star ever shined so bright. After he saw the warm smile you always wore, like a spell on your lips, the one Gamora offered him did no longer compare. You changed everything in his life, and as a result, he could not have been happier.

Obviously, he would like to think he knows everything there is to know about love. He knows what women want, how to lure them in with his pelvic sorcery and how to make them stay for the night. However, in time, he learned that is not love at all. To Peter, love is when a big smile breaks out whenever he sees you, hell, even hears your name. He knows every little quirk of yours, every bad habit and he can always tell what kind of mood you’re in just by looking at you. All this makes up some of the magnitude of the feeling you arouse deep in his heartstrings.

The multiverse always seemed so large, cold and lonely when you have none to bask in the warmth with. You soared into his life, almost like this divine creature, and rescued him from the demons in his mind. Had you asked him if he would feel this way for someone a few years ago, he would have laughed in your face. Nevertheless, your crazy matches his crazy. He is such a hopeless romantic and you love to point that out.

When your eyes meet someone the ones of someone else, or your hands touch, if only for a second, it is electric. A powerful sensation wash over you and you just know that something amazing is about to happen. Every moment with Peter is like it. However, amongst all the happiness, there is heartbreak. Moreover, Peter sure knows how to mess it up, time after time. You always take him back, kiss and make it better and pretend it never happened.

The unspoken thing between you remains, the three little words you are both so utterly scared of saying. When he holds you close, his warm breath fanning over your skin and his lips connect with yours, your forehead resting on his, the need to speak them aloud is ever stronger. Your heart beats a second faster, your throat dries up and your voice seems to disappear.

“Pete,” you say so faintly you fear he will not hear it. Peter’s eyes are closed; his hands lay protectively around your waist as he sways you side to side. There is no music playing, but it is not necessary. There is no one else on the ship. He hums and you can feel the beating of his heart, the vibration his voice leaves.

“I love you,” you whisper. He stops dancing, his eyes stare down at you and his mouth is slightly agape. You beg him to say something, embarrassment flooding in your veins. Your hands fly up to cover your flushed face, apologies flowing from your lips as you try your best to cover up what happ-

He laughs.

Your brows furrow, tears almost threatening to make an appearance as you think the worst. And then he says it, as if it’s the one thing that will set him free;

“I love you too.”

FOREVER TAGS: @imboredsueme @ex-bookjunky @deputy-orange-juice @daysoffuturepast @sgtjbuccky @sgtbxckybxrnes @sgtjamesbuchananbarnes107th @spiduhgirl @shieldagentofthemonth @thatcraxygirl15 @cutie1365 @whatiswrongwithpeople @raindancer2004 @teamironamerica

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#peter quill x reader #peter x reader #star lord x reader #peter quill fic #imagine peter quill #peter quill imagine #imagine star lord #star lord imagine #marvel imagine #imagine marvel #marvel fanfic #lauxeyson

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emperorsfoot · 5 years

Text

Ugh. I’m having so much trouble writing this one scene in my fic. I have had to delete the scene and start over twice now. After two deletions, this will be the third time I’m trying to write this bitch.

But enough complaining.

How would you guys like to deleted content? Exclusive for my Followers here on Tumblr. AO3 and ff.n ain’t gonna see this shit!

Click the “Keep Reading” for shitty deleted fan fic content!

At first I had Kevin attacking first. In canon, he’s always been the aggressive one and having lived in the Null Void for as long as he has, he would have learned from experience that hesitation would get a person killed. But I scrapped that idea when I remembered that Kevin is -technically- supposed to be one of the good guys, and good guys don’t hit first. So, that’s why this draft was scrapped.

Kevin didn’t wait for the other two to attack. He went on the defensive first, morphing one arm into a spiked mace and the other into a hammer. Blunt melee weapons worked better in the close quarters of the cave passage.

Ducking low under the tattoo guy’s blaster –an almost ancient piece of tech that probably didn’t have enough charge to do more than stun anymore- the Osmosian delivered a sharp uppercut to his chin with his hammer-hand. Knocking the tattooed alien backwards, causing him to drop his gun. Kevin kicked it away immediately.

The other one came up on Kevin’s side with twin knives. Mean looking things, double edged, with hooked tips, and serrated on one side. The Osmosian threw up an arm to avoid being stabbed in the eye –one of the only place on him not covered in stone armor. The rock of his armor cracked and chipped away under the serrated edges of the twin blades.

“Ooh, look out. We got a badass over here.” Scoffed the Osmosian, not impressed. He’d had his armor chipped off and even broken by enemies before, it was nothing new or special. Hell! A Forever Knight once chopped his whole fucking hand off! Using his enemy’s closeness to his advantage, Kevin head-butted the alien, his stone forehead colliding with the alien’s fleshy nose-hole.

He staggered backwards to where his tattooed companion was picking himself up off the ground. Both aliens paused, looking Kevin up and down, reassessing the enemy they’d stumbled upon in the cave. Without even looking at each other or making any visible signs of agreement, both men began backing out of the passage slowly. They did not turn their backs on Kevin and Ben, not even when they were practically back outside.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad.” Ben commented to his own companion.

Kevin shot him an exasperated look. “There’s more of them out there, dumbass. Those were Neths. They travel in packs of five to seven and they don’t take kindly to being beaten by people who aren’t members of their tribe.”

Admittedly, they didn’t like being beaten by members of their own tribe either, but that was an immaterial detail. A more material detail that the Osmosian chose not to share was that they were also cannibals. They survived –some might argue thrived- in the Null Void by eating other sentient beings. They would not hesitate to eat Kevin and Ben if they beat them in a fight, and the two of them would definitely be outnumbered.

“I’m sure we could talk to them.” The Hero of the Universe assured him in his best ‘symbol of hope and justice’ voice.

Kevin placed a hand against the cave wall to reapply his armor, repairing the cracks and replacing the chipped bits. This was gonna be a fight he would not enjoy and from the sound of it, Ben wasn’t gonna be much help. “Hey, Tennyson, remember that time when we were kids and forced to fight in a no-holds-barred death match, and I bit some guy’s head off?”

“Yeah…?” Ben ventured cautiously. That was back when Kevin was a bad guy. Back when he was a mutated and deformed, emotionally unstable, and mentally unbalanced pubescent child with more power than his small body could hold or that his young mind could understand. In short, back when Kevin was bat-shit insane and expressed himself through violence.

“That’s it.” The Osmosian shrugged.

Fresh armor applied, the Kevin sprinted to the passage entrance, hoping to get out into open ground before the rest of the raiding party came in after him and Ben and they were pinned in.

There was a total of five of them. The two males Ben and Kevin had already met and three females –also all from different species. Five of them and five Null Guardians –including Kevin and Ben’s own from Incarcecon. Kevin’s Null Guardian was struggling against two aliens pulling on its bridal. No doubt trying to steal the beast for themselves. Already broken and trained Null Guardians were valuable in the Void, and if an animal refused to be obedient to new masters, it could always be eaten as food instead.

The two from the cave passage ran up to the rest of the group. Kevin caught up to the slower of the two, the one covered in tattoos, grabbed him with one arm, morphed the other into a blade, and stabbed the alien in the back. Blood spurted out from the exit wound theatrically, spattering the ground and the water with dark violet droplets.

Letting the body drop to the ground, the Osmosian stepped over it and raised his now bloody stone blade, pointing it at the two trying to steal his Null Guardian. “Get your fucking hands off my ride!”

They were paying more attention to the body of their companion he’d just killed than his face. They didn’t recognize him as Kevin 11,000.

Ben came up to Kevin’s side. “Did you kill him!?” He demanded, horrified at his frienemy. “Why’d you kill him? I told you we could talk to them instead!”

The Osmosian just shot him an exasperated look. Ben just didn’t understand the Null Void.

That exasperated look was about all Kevin had time to reply with. The remaining four aliens recovered quickly from seeing their companion stabbed, and drew weapons of their own. Long curved knives, giant heavy axe-like blades, chains with spiked maces.

The one with the mace on the chain attacked first. Spinning the chain rabidly to build up momentum as she rushed forward to close the space between her and the Osmosian. She threw the chain, the momentum of its spin and the weight on the mace entangling it around Kevin’s stone shoulders like a bolo-snare. The Osmosian snarled wordlessly and flexed his muscles, trying to wriggle free of the bonds, but all he succeeded in doing was crack the stone of his armor.

The other three closed in on him, the two other females and the pierced, bone-jewelry wearing male from the cave.

Seeing that they were focusing all their attention on him –basically writing Ben off as a non-threat- Kevin changed his tactics. Dropping the stone of his armor for a hot second, the Osmosian instead absorbed the metal of the chain holding him, exchanging the rock for a more effective alloy armor. This time when he flexed his muscles, the chain broke.

Just in time for Kevin to dodge an attack from another one of them.

Throwing himself at the ground and rolling away before the Bone-Jewelry could bring his hooked knives down on Kevin’s neck.

“A little help would be nice, Tennyson!” The Osmosian snarled at his own companion. “You gonna go alien or what?”

“If you hadn’t attacked first, I wouldn’t have to!” Ben snapped back, his hand going to the Omnitrix. There was the trademark flash of green light. Where Ben had been standing before there was now- “Big Chill!”

“Back to calling out your aliens’ names, I see.” Kevin observed. That was something the Hero didn’t do over a year ago when they fought after Devlin helped him escape the Null Void.

Ben did not comment. Kevin had his angsty phases that lasted years at a time and Ben had his. It wasn’t worth discussing –especially not in the midst of a battle.

Their four attackers paused, seeing the human transform into a Necrofriggian. They didn’t recognize Kevin as Kevin 11,000. But they sure as hell recognized Ben as Ben 10,000. But they didn’t hesitate long. Ben 10,000 might not have put any of them away in the Null Void personally, but other Plumbers had and Ben 10,000 was the poster boy for the Plumbers. So he was the lightning rod for all the hatred and vengeance towards the Plumbers. Not just condemning them to the Null Void in the first place, but placing the Rooters in the Void, releasing Way Bads into the Void, abusing the prisoners of Incarcecon, dealing out judgment and sentence as if they were a law unto themselves. Every way the Plumbers had wronged them or members of their group was projected onto Ben.

Forgetting Kevin for the moment, all four of them pounced on Ben.

The guy with the knives slashing at Big Chill’s chest and belly. While the woman with the axe-like blade tried to bring her weapon down in his head. The woman who’s chain Kevin had broken picked up on of her spiked mace balls and threw it as Ben. The Necrofiggian dodged all of these attacks with a kind of clumsy franticness, moving one way to avoid a slash, turning intangible for the axe to pass through him. Before finally remembering that he had wings and jumping into the air.

“Hey!” Ben said, shouting at Kevin, not his attackers. “I thought you said you weren’t gonna let anyone else beat the shit out of me!”

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t let them get in a couple good licks.” The Osmosian informed his companion.

But, still, it wasn’t wise to play around when your opponents were Neths.

Picking up a length of the broken chain, Kevin came up behind its former owner. He had the links around her neck before the woman even knew what was happening. Pulling tight, cutting off her airway. There was always some variance between different species of the universe. But, generally, if a creature walked upright and had a neck raising its head above the shoulders, then squeezing said neck would cut off its air supply and –if not kill it- at least cause it to pass out. It seemed this female’s species was no exception to this rule.

The moment she realized what was happening, the her own weapon was wrapped around her throat, and she couldn’t breath, she began to claw madly at the chain and Kevin’s cold metallic hands.

The Osmosian only pulled tighter.

Her eyes rolled back in her head, as strangled choking sounds came from her throat. Her body making desperate attempts to gulp in air through a pipe that was being pinned shut.

...

This second attempt I had both Kevin and Ben on the defensive, both protecting each other and the Null Guardian that was carrying them around the Null Void. I deleted this draft because the way things were flowing it felt like Kevin and Ben could win (and win easily, too) when I wanted it to be either a hard win that Kevin would have to use his powers of absorption on one -or more- of their opponents to beat. Or else, have Kevin and Ben lose and have Kevin have to absorb one of the aliens in other to escape. Basically, I wanna force Kevin into using the aspect of his powers that he never uses unless he’s already a bad guy. I wan good!Kevin to absorb living beings. So, that’s why this scene was scrapped.

The Osmosian shoved him out of the way facing the cave entrance. One hand pushing Ben behind him like a helpless civilian in need of protection, the other hand groping at the rock wall to absorb the stone and cover himself in armor. His eyes did a quick scan of the cave, even though he already knew that there was only one entrance and exit. So long as there were hostiles poised outside, they were pinned down and trapped –and Kevin knew they must be hostiles, because this was the Null Void. It did not serve to give people the ‘benefit of the doubt’. Even ‘good people’ had to look out for themselves and more often that not, that meant having to steal from or kill other people.

No sooner had Kevin done this, then two aliens appeared in the passage, weapons already in hands, eyes alert, to scout the cave. A Null Guardian wearing a saddle outside meant there was a rider inside.

Kevin pressed Ben farther behind him, forcing the other man flat against the wall. With his armor made from the same stuff as the asteroid, Kevin could blend in and camouflage easily, especially in the shadows of the dark cave. Ben, in all his white and electric green would stand out like a neon sign saying ‘Please kill me’.

The Osmosian took the opportunity of the intruders not seeing him yet to study them. Both alien, but of two clearly different species. Wearing clothing made from mismatched pieces of leather, or at the very least hideof some kind. Wearing jewelry made from bones. One sported a necklace made from a Vulpimancer rib, with matching earrings that dangled Vulpimancer teeth off wire links, an eyebrow piercing that looked like a Quilcupine finger with one end filed down, and a chain of mismatched vertebra from different aliens around his waist. The other was much more conservative when it came to jewelry, just a lei of fingers around his neck, but every bit of visible blue skin was covered in interlocking tattoos. Some just abstract lines looping around each other, others very clear and distinct images, aliens they had killed or enemies they’d beaten, perhaps figures from his mythology.

It was a quick study. All at a glance, really. But one glance was all the Osmosian needed to know who they were.

Neths.

A Neth raiding party had stumbled on them.

Being one of the few locations with naturally occurring water in the Null Void, the asteroid saw a relatively large amount of traffic. The chances of running into someone here were almost guaranteed. But running into Neths was just plain bad luck!

“Who are they?” Ben asked in Kevin’s ear.

Unfortunately for them, even the soft whisper echoed off the wall Ben was pressed against, drawing the attention of the two Neth scouts. Both aliens pointed their weapons at the part of cave the sound had come from and finally noticed the odd man-shaped rock formation that was Kevin.

The Osmosian suppressed the urge to groan. Ben really didruin everything.

The pair didn’t hesitate. The moment they saw movement, they knew they had found the riders of the Null Guardian outside. They rushed forward, weapons up and ready for the kill.

Kevin blocked the first onslaught with his stone body, the rock of his armor cracking under their weapons.

The tattooed one swung at him with the butt of an old and outdated blaster rifle. The thing was so old its power chamber was rusted shut. It might be gun shaped, but it wasn’t useful for much more than a club now.

The one with all the bone jewelry went low. Ducking under his companion to stab up at Kevin’s kidneys with twin knives. Mean looking things, double edged, with hooked tips, and serrated on the back side. If Kevin hadn’t been covered in a thin skin of rock, there was no doubt in his mind that the blow would have penetrated him and he already be bleeding out. If the initial stab didn’t do him in, being torn up by the serrated edge, or the hook ripping out his insides on the withdraw definitelywould have.

Luckily for him, all the attack did was crack his armor with the uncomfortable scraping sound of metal against stone.

In his peripheral vision, the Osmosian caught the tell-tale flash of green light that meant Ben had just transformed and Kevin would be lying if he didn’t admit that a feeling of complete and total relief washed over him. Calm, even. Ben might be an obnoxious glory hound with an ego the size of a To’kustar. But, gosh darned it, he was the Hero of the Universe, damn it! And he rarely lost a fight. As long as Kevin had Ben on his side, the two were practically invincible.

There was a gust of frigid air that even the Osmosian could feel under the rock of his armor. Then the tattoo guy with his blaster-club was frozen in place. Ice covering him from feet to shoulders.

Both Kevin and the remaining Neth attacker looked at Big Chill, the Necrofiggian filling the narrow space of the corridor with his impressive wingspan.

“Personally, I wouldn’t have chosen a flyer in such close quarters.” Commented the Osmosian.

“I was trying for Spidermonkey.” The Hero admitted.

The Omnitrix might be perfect now and no longer malfunction, but Ben would still always be Ben. A little clumsy and prone to mistakes. Asmuth had confirmed that any time the Omnitrix gave Ben the ‘wrong’ alien now, was due to human error and not any fault on the part of the device. Ben was just dumb. But then, he wouldn’t be Ben if he weren’t.

Seeing that his companion was now frozen and immobilized, the Neth quickly realized that he was out numbered, and out gunned as far as powers went too. He began to back up out of the cave entrance. Making a tactical retreat to where there were reinforcements outside and completely abandoning his companion still frozen and unable to move.

“Follow him.” Kevin commanded. “Neths travel in parties of five to six. We’ll be out numbered, and in here we’re trapped.”

Ben moved quickly. He might be idealistic, naïve, and a little dumb –ya know, standard Hero personality- but he knew when to differ to his partner’s expertise. Kevin had spent far more time in the Null Void than Ben ever had. Kevin had livedin the Null Void! He knew what kinds of people also lived here, how dangerous they were, and what to do when you met them.

Flapping his dark blue wings, the Necrofriggian flew out of the cave just on the heels of Bone-Jewelry-Guy.

Outside there were three others waiting for him. So Kevin was right, these guys did travel in parties of five. They were all different species, no two of them from the same race. So, a group formed by alliances between prisoners sentencesed to the Null Void, not families that chose to immigrate like the Settlers.

Or, at least, that’s what Ben assumed. He didn’t spare much thought to it, they were in the process of pulling on the bridal of Ben and Kevin’s Null Guardian, trying to get the beast to come over and join their own mounts –of which there were only four. Five aliens, but only four mounts. So, someone was riding bitch and would likely want a ride of their own. Since the Null Void was populated by criminals and degenerates, Ben had no problem believing they were trying to steal his and Kevin’s Null Guardian. Preventing their main mode of transportation from being stolen took president over understanding the origins of such a diverse group.

“Hey!” Ben shouted at them, fluttering down –practically on top of the group- to place himself between them and the Null Guardian. “Anybody ever tell you that stealing’s wrong?”

He landed just as the one who attacked them in the cave came running up to the group, his bone jewelry clacking with every quick step, both serrated hook knives still gripped in his fists.

“There’s two of them.” He said, eyes flicking to Ben then back to the cave. “This ice moth, and a stone man.”

That was when Kevin came sprinting out of the cave. He morphed one arm into a hammer and the other into a long blade, ready for a melee. “’Stone man’? Try again, asshole!”

The group erupted into a bit of chaos.

Kevin went for the Neth holding the bridal of their Null Guardian. It hadn’t taken him long to come to the same conclusion as Ben, that they were trying to steal their Null Guardian. Raising his blade arm, the Osmosian would have chopped the woman’s hand clean off if she hadn’t dropped the strap and leapt away. She did a rather impressive backflip away, actually. Her spine bending in a way that would have left a human paralyzed after.

She landed on all fours, hands and feet with fingers and bare toes spread to absorb the impact of her landing. She hissed at Kevin, an unnerving sound somewhere between an angry cat, and a hostile snake.

Unintimidated, the Osmosian just snarled back. Open-mouthed, teeth displayed, showing that he was only stone on the outside, but inside he was soft, fleshy, meat.

Taking a step back, not taking his eyes off the enemies that surrounded them, Kevin stepped closer to their Null Guardian. He risked dropping his stone armor just long enough to absorb the metal of its bit and bridal.

The leaping hissing alien blinked at him for half a second. “You’re wearing Rooters armor.”

For the half a moment that was exposed in between matter release and matter absorption, his black proto-tech armor was visible, and clear, and very very indefinable as having been Rooters issued.

“Maybe I killed a Rooter and took his armor.” The Osmosian smirked at her.

“I’m gonna take your armor.” She smiled back at him. After all, proto-tech armor was virtually indestructible, pliant enough to stretch to multiple sizes and body shapes –within reason- and near impossible to come by honestly in the Null Void.

She did an unnerving little sideways scuttle that was uncomfortable for Ben to watch and he found himself having to look away for half a second. He really shouldn’t have. In the half-second the Hero of the Universe was looking away from their enemies, one of them came up on the Necrofriggian’s left and plunged sharp, curved, yellowing claws into his wing.

Ben yelped in pain and leapt back into the air, flying sort of lopsided now on account of his injured wing. He pounded a blue fist on the Omnitrix symbol on his chest, trying for a different flyer who hadn’t been injured. Like Jetray, or Stinkfly maybe. Instead, he plummeted back to the ground in a heap of blue fur and multiple limbs as Spidermonkey.

“See, now that would have been a good alien to use in the cave.” Kevin informed his frienemy.

“Oh, shut-up, Kevin!” Ben snapped at the older man. “No one asked you!”

There was the slightest of pauses as all four of their opponents exchanged a look, as if to ask each other, ‘Did he just say “Kevin”?’ But the pause was so slight, it was there and gone before either man had the chance to notice it. Besides, who cared if one of them was called ‘Kevin’. He clearly wasn’t theKevin. Kevin 11,000 –the King in the Void. Or else he would have just transformed and killed them all already.

The scuttling woman with the unnerving hiss leaped at the Osmosian, and wrapped all four limbs around him, arms and legs. Her limbs constricting tighter the moment her hold was firm. Squeezing the air out of him as if she were a terrestrial snake, constricting its prey. Kevin gasped for air, his eyes going wide when he realized what her plan was.

Gritting his teeth, the Osmosian focused on the metal armor covering his body, on the layer of metal covering his skin under her arms and legs. Usually, Kevin only shifted the shape of his hands or arms, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of shifting his whole shape.

The alien woman yelped in pain, leaping back from the Osmosian to get away from the halo of sharp spikes that erupted out from his body.

Kevin gasped for air, oxygen flooding his system as his lungs were no longer constricted anymore.

Spidermonkey saw an opening and shot a web of sticky fluid at her, gluing the alien woman’s hands and feet to the ground. She hissed at them again, that same inhuman cat-snake hiss. But was able to do little else.

#ben 10 #fan fiction #null void #deleted scenes #Osmosians #Kevin 11000 #Kevin Levin #ben tennyson #aliens #alien force #ultimate alien #omniverse #spidermonkey #bigchill #fight #shitty writing #RenkonNairu #ao3

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lightsandlostbells · 6 years

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SkamFr Episode 6 reaction

For some reason the read-more keeps getting removed from my long-ass posts even though I make an effort to put it in, I apologize for that.

This episode contained some really great things (Alex 💖💖!) and also made me able to articulate something about the remake that is part of why, despite having things I’ve enjoyed, I don’t feel it is that emotionally resonant. It lacks fragility.

Clip 1: Lucas gets the dirt from Emma

You know I don't have a problem with Yann being a skateboarder or whatever, that's where they're going with his character, but it low-key exasperates me because (as we just heard this week) Jonas was into skateboarding because Marlon Langeland was. Similar example, Sana played basketball because Iman Meskini plays basketball in real life. I believe Eva’s Black Swan costume was a nod to Lisa Teige being a dancer. Is Yann’s actor into skateboarding IRL? I don't know. Maybe he is. But by sticking to the original characters so slavishly, they're missing on opportunities to personalize them and play to the actors’ strengths. Like these are really simple things they could do to differentiate the characters to make it more of a personalized production.

I mean it’s totally fine and even a little charming if Yann is kind of a crappy skateboarder, lmao (I am not an expert).

I forgot how much Isak leads into this conversation with Eva, trying to get the details. But that actually makes more sense to me because in this version, Lucas just sits down, asks if everything is okay, and then Emma confesses right away. If this has been weighing on her (which it has), she could have told one of her girls, who would have been a “safer” choice to tell? Maybe not Daphne, but Manon wouldn’t have cared and wouldn’t have any reason to tell Yann - ignoring Lucas’ real motivation at this point, he is also Yann’s BFF and might feel a sense of loyalty to him. Any way you look at it, not a great person to confess to. Isak was at least leading Eva a bit and encouraging her to open up, so it makes sense that she would cave and share with him in that moment.

I never noticed before but at the beginning of the original clip you can see Isak and Eva walking together, cute.

No offense to these actors but Lisa and Tarjei are the ones from the original I miss most. For all of the social media for Lucas and Emma that makes them seem like good friends, within the clips themselves I don't really feel like they're close.

Clip 2 - girls at lunch

On the one hand, I get why they picked episodes 7 and 8 to merge, gossip travels fast and I could see these events unfolding rapidly. On the other hand, there’s a lot of really weighty material in these episodes so it’s unfortunate.

So the big thing here is obviously that Alex hooked up with a girl! I saw the post about the actress confirming her as bi, so that’s terrific. What would be great is if this was integrated into future seasons - what if Kasper was a girl??? A deeply weird girl. I would be all kinds of into it. Or just keeping up the trend of her casually talking about girls, having her chime in to correct Vilde/Daphne’s ill-advised comments about lesbians, etc.

This is also pretty big because she’s apparently out, at least to her friends? There’s not going to be a coming out season for her unless it’s for her family or something. So should they decide to do an Alex season or involve her sexuality in a future storyline, it would be from the perspective of someone who is already open and seemingly comfortable in her sexuality. I seriously hope they do some exciting stories with this piece of information.

Poor Daphne clinging to her delusions. Her enthusiasm about double dating with Emma, Alex, and Charles is so sad.

Were the jerseys in the previous episode at all? Manon being like “I can’t stand seeing you in this jersey” when it’s the first time Daphne’s worn it (though I agree, once is enough). I checked and Daphne wasn’t wearing one, she had on some cute sweaters. Did Charles have to like ... order one in her size ... and the shipping took a week ... because that was a big thing to overlook, costuming wise.

I was going to say that they could have shot the rest of the scene in the cafeteria, with Manon pointing out girls in there wearing the jerseys, but we got Manon taking Daphne by the hand so that was nice. And I guess it might be awkward for Daphne to realize this at the lunch table.

OK, Emma launching herself at Yann for a makeout session during this heartfelt moment where Manon is trying to make Daphne feel better about a boy not liking her is rather insensitive. Read the room, Emma. (I know she’s trying to alleviate her guilt. It’s still pretty WTF.)

I know that a lot of criticism has been directed at the remake sticking to closely to the original, and I’ve certainly done my share of this, but I’m really disappointed they choose to cut Vilde’s line about feeling like there was something wrong with her. It was so raw and heartbreaking and real and it’s too bad that of all the things they’ve been keeping the same, they got rid of that part. For example, the Alex and Lucas “flirting” could have been cut to make room for that line; that moment felt forced and stilted anyway, and it’s the exact thing they should be cutting if they’re having to compress the story for time.

Clip 3 - confronting Charles

I thought the whole bit about Vilde not having dignity was one of the less excusable Sana moments from S1 since it’s not directed at something Vilde did wrong or said to help her, but Alex snorting after Imane says it is probably an added sting for Daphne.

Charles is the fucking worst. I feel like he’s even worse than William at this point, tbh. He just seems smarmier and sleazier. I’m not saying the actor’s bad or anything, I just find this dude to have an extra layer of creep. William seemed kind of checked out of the Vilde confrontation, what is this interrupting my day, Charles seems more deliberately trying to twist the knife.

Uhhhh I guess it’s nice that Charles and Alex have more of a friendship and Alex can tease him about getting verbally shredded by Manon and all but he was also cool with standing there as his best bro told a girl that he fucked that she wasn’t pretty enough for him so frankly, Raptor Alex is the worst, too.

I will go into Manon at the end but this moment was fine, it wasn’t my favorite thing she did this episode but I thought she showed more fire this week than in previous ones.

I also missed the moment where Vilde called Sana out on throwing water in Ingrid‘s face and Sana replies that she had a good reason for that because it was a little reminder of that incident and foreshadowing to the reveal of why she did it. I get why they cut it but it might’ve been nice since I’ve seen more divided opinions on Imane and whether, in making Daphne less offensive and less willing to speak up for herself, they’ve made Imane seem unnecessarily rude.

But also, in watching the original clip, I think Vilde was inspired or bolstered by Sana’s comments not to confront William (who are you to tell me what to do, you just put me down, you’re telling me not to ruin things when you also caused a scene) and Noora‘s encouragement (Noora had previously comforted her and given her the idea to confront him).

Clip 4 - The fight

Depending on your POV, the fourth wall breakage about a Norwegian tv show was either groan-worthy or cute. I thought it was sweet.

What kind of books do you think Daphne reads? I assume, much like Vilde, she reads exclusively The Secret, The Game and other self-help/relationship manuals.

I also liked Emma calling Manon “Booba” and giving her that little shoulder squeeze.

You know I never realized quite how much this would’ve been embarrassing for Vilde. Not just because of what William said, but because that was supposed to be her moment. Confronting William was supposed to be her proving to be a badass. Instead William cruelly put her down in public, and instead it was Noora who got to be the badass. You know, Noora, who in Vilde’s eyes is prettier, thinner, and cooler than she is, and who William instantly has an attraction to (not that Vilde got to see this). Vilde’s words didn’t land a blow to William at all, but Noora managed to leave William speechless. He didn’t put Noora down, it was Noora he was impressed with. So even when the girls are like good job, Noora, about this epic moment that Vilde didn’t see because she had to walk off in shame and hurt, Vilde’s empowering moment was snatched away from her. Ouch.

Manon was a boss in this fight. I kind of hate the term “mama bear” but that’s what came to mind here.

The fight itself went on for too long, Manon’s excellence aside. It also made me think that a physical fight inside the school would be a more serious deal than a fight outside of it, in the sense that teachers/adults are definitely going to notice. IDK how French school works but at my high school everyone involved would be hauled off to the principal’s office right away.

Clip 5 - Emma on the steps

The bit with Emma being called a whore on Facebook - I wouldn’t say that’s a NICE touch, but it adds to the aspect of social media being used for bullying.

Yeah Ingrid is straight up intimidating. Manon is like a little mouse beside her. But lmao at Sarah immediately folding when Manon stood up.

I did like Ingrid stepping in front of Sarah. That’s her girl.

THEIR INSTAGRAM POSTS ARE SO DRAMATIC. JESUS.

Clip 6 - Manon comforting Emma

The scene was cute, especially Emma starting to sing along.

I legit do not care what anyone ships but I’m so ????? at how people could ship Manon and Charles at this point except by already being a Noorhelm fan and having the knowledge that they are a future couple. Because like ... if you were watching this not having seen the original show, Charles’ role has to been to be a jerk to a girl he slept with and spoil this lovely moment between two friends in order to deliver some rapey as fuck dialogue about how No is a Yes in waiting. WTF. I don’t want to get into the discourse but he is deeply creepy here!

I would not be surprised if Blurred Lines is Charles’ cheer-up song of choice.

I kind of laughed about Manon watching House of Cards because isn’t House of Cards considered a prestige show, Spacey scandal aside? I watched several seasons of it; although it is like a political soap opera, I thought it was supposed to be kind of an award bait. It doesn’t seem that weird that Manon would watch it even if she’s not a TV person, lol. But maybe it is, I don’t know! I thought Suits was more of a sort of guilty pleasure procedural but I’ve never seen that show, so maybe my perception is all wrong.

Clip 7 - Daphne’s extraordinary meeting

Alex’s hair is indeed very pretty. Nice job.

Soooo this scene.

In the original, while Vilde tells the story about Ingrid and Jonas, the camera stays on a close-up of Eva’s miserable, guilty face while memories of what happened flash by in her mind. In the remake the camera focuses a lot on Daphne as she’s telling the story, with some shots of the group, and only cuts to Emma for a few short moments. The result is that this scene is much less emotionally effective. Yes, I already know the story, I know the twist, perhaps that matters. But I’m not deep in Emma’s pain. You really feel it with Eva, how her past is coming back to haunt her and how her mistakes are being exposed in front of her new friends against her will, and she probably feels like she deserves it. When I watched the original scene, I felt gutted for her. Here the emphasis is on Daphne’s judgmental face as she tells a story that she’s not personally involved in. That creates an emotional disconnect. This is the moment that should make us understand Eva’s behavior over the season even further, this is the moment that should explain the mysterious feud with Ingrid, this is a defining moment for Emma’s character and it’s not hers.

I do like that Daphne seem almost like she’s appealing to Manon by saying that people should know not to steal boyfriends, because that is the kind of thing that feminist Manon would be strictly against. Although obviously the attempt backfired.

Also lol at them working on the party “for months” it’s been one month since you even formed the squad! Though I do think it’s implied Daphne has been working on it for longer, and that she doesn’t want her pet project to be ruined.

The bit about Imane saying you stand for your friends “even when they don’t deserve it" was added from what I can tell; I think that’s a decent part though it might kind of be unnecessary, like sometimes less is more, the point is still there even without it, we get that Daphne just messed up. It’s not a huge sin or anything but there are a few occasions where I think the dialogue has been too on the nose (like Yann being all WOW SO MUCH TRUST BETWEEN US right after Emma cheated).

I do like Alex comforting Emma. I think Alex is a little more OK with confrontation then Chris was. Chris was a little flustered and didn’t know quite how to respond in the original, and we later saw that sometimes she struggled with how to be there for her friends, and Alex seems a little more chill with open displays of supporting her friends. She’s a very chill character in general.

Clip 8 - Yann and Emma in the skatepark

Time to talk about fragility.

When I think of Skam at its best, that is something which comes to mind. Not fragility of storytelling, but fragility in its emotions. Stripping away all the bullshit that you encounter in everyday life that leads you to put on a mask and say hollow words, as well as cutting out all the bullshit that you see in 90% of teen dramas and TV shows that go for noise and overblown, nonsensical emotions in order to produce drama, and just letting the characters say something real to each other. It’s not just about characters being sad, but being vulnerable. To be vulnerable means you can be easily broken. Fragile.

Not just Noora in the wake of her assault, but Noora telling Vilde about the nutritional benefits of potatoes as a way of talking about Vilde’s eating disorder, because to address the subject outright is too much. Not just Isak falling to the ground in tears, but Isak trying to talk around and delay his coming out to Jonas, turning it into a guessing game, because if Jonas rejects him or says the wrong thing, it would shatter him. Not just Sana crying alone in her room, but Sana writing a text to her friends explaining how much she feels she doesn’t fit in and asking her friends to forgive her.

And I heavily associate that concept with Eva’s season in particular. Every moment with her feels like we are with someone whose vulnerability is right there on the surface. Her old friends now hate her, her boyfriend seems to be keeping secrets from her, she’s struggling in school, her mom isn’t there and doesn’t know about her life, she just doesn’t know who she is. Think about how delicate a moment is the end of episode 2, when Eva is upset and can hear the boys laughing from another room, not caring, and she sees that Noora has accepted her friend request. A tiny, tiny gesture like that feels enormous. This really mundane thing because powerful because the show has demonstrated how Eva’s fragility, how much this friend request means to her.

The best scenes of Skam France, IMO, and the aspect has been working for me personally, is Daphne. And in a lot of ways, that is because she is fragile. We can see her hurt coming a mile away even if we hadn’t seen S1 before - because we can tell how much Charles means to her and how she is nothing to him. She is really, really fucking vulnerable when she puts herself out there for someone to love only to get rejected. She is vulnerable when she sends Charles a topless picture and when she tries to win back his attention. She is vulnerable when she tries to stand up for herself only to get put in her place. The show has done a good job with the actress and with demonstrating that raw, realistic pain.

Where I don’t feel that fragility is with Emma. Or Yann. Who knows if we’ll feel it with Lucas, with his upcoming parental woes and confession to Emma. But Emma is the focus of the season, and that’s a problem.

Some of it is in the acting, personally, and some of it is the writing. I know a lot of people like Emma and even prefer her to Eva because of her self-confidence, but I’m not a big fan and I think part of it is that her attitude and essence don’t work as well with the material. Like it feels less like a teenage girl having all her insecurities and mistakes bared. Again, it’s not just about Emma being sad. We have seen her sad. I don’t find her as fragile.

Another example from this episode: not focusing on Emma when hearing the true story of what happened with Ingrid. Eva’s vulnerability was the focus of that scene. We could not get away from her haunted face as she had to relive her past regrets. We missed a chance to follow how much the Ingrid incident has broken Emma.

Another non-Emma example: omitting Vilde’s line about feeling something is wrong with her and knowing she shouldn’t feel that way, an incredibly raw, wounded line we didn’t hear from Daphne.

There are several other key scenes where I think some aspect of the production has undermined a potentially vulnerable moment - what sometimes seems like the overuse of music, condensed conversations with less room for silences to speak for themselves, camera work that keeps us at a distance. Also some times where it has worked, too, I’m not saying there are no emotional moments like this, and I’m not saying that it needs to follow the original in these exact ways. But it’s a repeat issue.

This is not to say every character has to be troubled and vulnerable, by the way. But - this is a show about being young and dealing with problems. Vulnerability is vital in our ability to empathize with these characters. These are kids getting their first taste of adult problems and not knowing how to deal with them, they should be fragile. Almost all of the best coming of age films, books, and TV shows excel at depicting vulnerability. It doesn’t matter whether it’s French or Norwegian, youthful fragility is universal (and if not then why the fuck are you making a show about teenagers and their feelings).

Anyway, this scene.

This is an angry conversation. Sure I know Yann is upset. But I don’t feel that personal fragility coming from him. I have seen it before at time - like when Emma came over while he was playing video games with the boys, she made to leave, and he asked her several times to stay. Other times we’ve missed that vulnerability from him - for instance, when Jonas asked if Eva wanted a break, he genuinely seemed kind of fearful that she would say yes. When Yann asked Emma, he was throwing it in her face, and didn’t really seem afraid until she walked away and he gave her a dramatic speech.

Like Yann just skateboards up to her and doesn’t have much patience for what she says. He seems pissed. And hey, maybe that is how he expresses vulnerability, you could certainly make a case for it. But the acting and directing didn’t really make me feel it at all. It just feels like he’s angry (understandably).

However, Yann is also such a jackass here, jeeeeez. Obviously I can’t know for sure because I don’t speak French, but even his tone of voice to me sounds like he’s making fun of her. And of course he has to go on about her stupid parties and her friends, when I think Jonas seemed to mostly go for the idea that she doesn’t know what she wants. It wasn’t that Eva’s friends were dumb, it was that she changed who she was and what she wanted based on who she was with. But Yann seems to be mocking her specifically for trying to throw those parties and making fun of her friends. He's really aggravating and almost seems to resent that she’s no longer fitting into the image of what he wants his girlfriend to be. I do think Jonas did say something that cut Eva to the bone, but I don’t think he was trying to make fun of her. He was angry but he did seem vulnerable himself, not as much as Eva, but it was evident.

I do think Emma is being vulnerable here, moreso than we’ve seen her in some other scenes, but overall she doesn’t really have that vibe for me. It’s probably more effective for people who are fans of her character.

The last shot of Yann smashing his skateboard into the ground is a dramatic TV moment. The last shot of Eva sitting by herself, tiny against the skate park murals, is a fragile moment.

General Comments:

This was a really big week for Manon. The scenes were a little hit and miss for me. I think Manon lacks the withering disdain to really nail scenes like telling off Charles, but is stronger when she’s in full on angry protector mode, like during the fight or standing up to Sarah and Ingrid. She did finally make a much stronger impression with all of her big moments.

The moments where Alex ogles Lucas don’t really work for me and I wish they’d be cut to make room for other things, but you know how it could work? If Alex and Lucas form some kind of friendship later on, gay dude/bi girl solidarity.

There was a lot of social media this week after the big events, like Manon telling off Charles, the fight, etc. and it was like a flurry of vagueposting and flinging shade all over the place. I kinda feel like it’s too much, lmao? But I also kinda think teenagers are overly dramatic on Instagram.

Because they combined episodes seven and eight, several scenes are missing from the original, for example Jonas and Eva in her bedroom while Eva texts P-Chris, Eva and Isak in her room after Jonas finds out, and Eva arguing with her mom. It’s possible some of these moments like the Isak or mom scenes could come in later, like I guess they could have Emma and Lucas hugging it out this week. I did miss that scene because it was an important moment for their friendship (also fragile...) and more painful when we learned what Isak did. I’m not feeling the friendship between Lucas and Emma that much on screen and that could have helped. However, I do understand why these where the scenes they cut.

Personally I think having time limits to the French episodes is a strong case for doing more comprehensive rewrites, but blah blah it’s in the contract blah blah.

I was pretty nitpicky this time around but it was not a bad episode, there was a lot going on.

I sure hope someone did a parody of Yann spiking his skateboard to this song.

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