#i was looking for the promos of the new season and i stumbled on this clip

[fujikoi]

#Viola Vitale #Francesca Chillemi #Francesco Demir #Can Yaman #viola come il mare #youtube quality is youtube quality #i dont know what episode is this #i was looking for the promos of the new season and i stumbled on this clip #and i found funny how she got the nipple there

[serendertothesquad]

The Ultimate Serendipity-Odd Squad Lore Post

Because you people keep asking for my entire story.

No, no, not my life story. Christ sakes, we'd be here until Gen Z'ers died off if I had to reiterate my whole life story.

No, I'm talking about my entire Odd Squad story. You know, how I got here to begin with, how I rose to fame, and how I am objectively still a god without a religion, a cult, or a religious cult. That story. You all want to hear that story.

If you're an oldie, you've probably already heard my tale at least once. If you're new here to the funny kids STEM show fandom, then damn boy howdy are you in for a wild ride.

Get a snack and a drink, pop below the break, and let's begin.

Allow me to take you back to the year 2014. I was the ripe young age of 15, finishing up my sophomore year of high school, and suffering from undiagnosed depression of the "I'm trapped in my own home" variety. We didn't have cable, and so stuff like PBS Kids, NBC Kids, and 4Kids were the only things I watched on a regular basis. In the online space, I was largely chronline to the tenth degree (and note the "largely", because, y'know...school). The Internet, and spaces like Tumblr, served as escapism, and I spent a lot of time particularly in the Wild Kratts side of things.

I had first heard of Odd Squad through PBS's own upfront, the PBS Annual Meeting, that was held in May (though the show was, as I would find out much later, officially announced back in January at that year's TCA Winter Press Tour). It was the network's first live-action show since The Electric Company reboot in 2009 that got swiftly cancelled, which was already enough to get me interested because PBS hadn't taken a chance on live-action stuff since. The premise, as well, was charming and incredibly interesting -- a secret organization that solves problems using math sounded a little saccharine and thus perfect for PBS Kids, but since it was live-action, I figured it could bring a little spice to the network in a way that not other kids shows of the modern network era (read: 2013 onwards, past the network redesign) did. The fact that PBS was willing to go all-in on the show, up to teasers, previews, even having two new games available for fans to play before its premiere, was practically the cherry on top.

Fast-forward to around September. By this point, teasers and promos were already coming out for the show that showcased Olive, Otto, Oprah and Oscar in action. And by this point, I was absolutely invested. On a whim, I decided to take my Sony camera and record a reaction video of me watching it. Was it weird? Yes, but I had no money for a laptop that wasn't a decade old and didn't run about as well as a computer from the days of yore. You make do with what you have.

Needless to say, when the first episode "Zero Effect" premiered, I was having a whale of a time. That's...pretty much all I remember. Aside from the swearing. Lots and lots of swearing.

(...Look, it was 10 years ago. My brain can only go on a decline after being fully developed. And the depression has been eating away at me for that long. When astrophysicists perfect the art of the time machine, call me.)

I uploaded it to my YouTube channel the day after the show premiered. No editing, just a straight-cut video of my reactions laid on the table. I figured, "Okay, so this would be nice to look back on and laugh, maybe."

And then, a month later, I got a PM from Joshua Kilimnik, the actor who plays Season 1's big bad Odd Todd.

Before I get into that, though, a bit of backstory for my channel is necessary.

I had made my channel in 2011, when Wild Kratts premiered. At the time, it was mostly hosting Wild Kratts content, mainly Top 10 countdowns of fan videos I stumbled across on Tumblr or elsewhere as well as Sparta Remix-related stuff. (Yeah, remember that old meme? That isn't as dead as you think it is? Yeeeeeeah.) Around the middle of 2015, it unfortunately got struck down pretty hard when PBS began to go Nintendo on it, viewed fanworks as threats to their IPs, and decided to rip down my videos from the 'Net in three easy strikes -- and with it, my entire channel. It stung, to see my relatively hard work go down the drain. I'd be lying if I said I had wanted the channel to stay up just so I can look back on it in 5 years and cringe at how juvenile it was. Christ sakes, I even had MLP stuff up there at one point. Why? Don't ask me. I wasn't even watching the show at the time. I truly got into it when Season 5 began airing.

But back to the PM. You know, back when YouTube gave you the option to PM people.

Getting the PM from Joshua, I was, naturally, suspect. Celebrity impersonators are all too common, and as I would later come to find out, Odd Squad was not exempt. I had to laugh, because an autistic nobody like me getting a PM from a child actor who was in the industry long before Odd Squad was like Ariana Grande up and inviting me to have dinner with her because I made a few comments about her diction. It's a miracle, people. Miracles that only happen to those with life-threatening illnesses or those who have done good for the community. I had neither of those. Unless you count me going to high school as doing the community a service, in which case I have one of those things.

I read the PM again. And again. And again. And something in me thought, "Maybe...just maybe...this guy is actually legitimate. Maybe he's telling the truth about the entire Season 1 cast and the show's crew members, creators included, seeing my video. I mean it's 2014, what creator wouldn't look to the Internet for first reactions on their show?"

Fuck it. iBalled. I went for it. I reached out to Joshua.

And by God's oddness-laden utopia, am I so happy I did.

We immediately hit it off, taking our conversation from YouTube DMs to Twitter DMs (no, my current Twitter is not that ancient -- my time on birdsite-now-saltyman-hellhole is a whole different story) and discussing our hobbies and what we did. Joshua confided in me that he helped disabled kids, which, honestly, is a green flag in my book off the bat as someone who is, in fact, disabled. I told him about my animal shelter work and how I loved the show.

At the same time, I had posted on Tumblr about the show. Don't ask me what the post was about -- I honestly couldn't tell you, and combing through the tag is something I'd need a hell of a lot of motivation for -- but it somehow, by some astronomical means, took off. People came in like a small trickle. It was small, but over time, we built a strong community. I didn't exactly know how big my impact on people was until I read "how I got into Odd Squad" stories and saw my name pop up enough times to the point where I could safely say I was an inspiration to more than one person.

At some point in 2015, I had created a Wiki for the show. Fandom -- or Wikia, as it was called back then -- wasn't exactly new territory for me, as I had visited other show Wikis before. However, my Odd Squad Wiki didn't take off, and someone else ended up making another one that became far more successful.

...Yeah, you're surprised, aren't you? Figures. But not even I can lay claim to everything.

When the other Wiki took off, Joshua decided to dive right into the fire and engage with the fandom directly. Now, for any big-name fandom, this is everyday normalcy. The My Little Pony fandom has fans directly engage with cast and crew members who answer their questions, for example. But for small fandoms of niche IPs -- and oh believe you me, Odd Squad was incredibly niche back then -- a cast member interacting with fans was a huge deal. The hype only increased when Joshua was named an administrator, along with a few others, myself included.

Needless to say, Joshua being involved boosted the fandom's activity exponentially, and not just due to his spectacular acting on the show. Fanfics, fanart, fan videos...it was a bustling time of fan content. I can recall some of the most notable works just off the top of my head. The fandom got to be so busy that I made a news blog just to cover every bit of news, shifting away from my Wild Kratts news coverage to focus on a different show instead. I enlisted a few old friends to help me out, converted them to be oddballs (which, I will say, was a stroke of luck), and put them on the "staff team". My aim was to create something akin to Equestria Daily, but on a smaller scale. We did editorials, episode followups, and scoured the Internet for any and every bit of Odd Squad news we could find. It became a reliable source for many, especially considering PBS's horrible track record with even the most basic of news -- cancellations, renewals, and other such announcements. Not to brag, but I like to think I did a better job than them at actually giving news to fans who deserve it. (Hell, I still do. My hunger for even small crumbs of news is very strong indeed.)

I can easily recall when Season 2 was announced. Me and my friends were ecstatic. For me, I never thought Odd Squad would get a Season 2, and the Season 1 finale -- affectionately named OINFO (don't confuse it with "O is Not For Old", that's a different rodeo; this is "O is Not For Over") -- made sure of that. Originally, it was set to air in May, before it got shifted to June to coincide with Season 2's premiere.

And even long before that, the movie being announced blew our minds. I genuinely couldn't believe this niche little IP, birthed only several months ago, was getting a movie. And not even one of those specials that PBS markets as a movie as a ratings stunt. No, no, this was a full-blown theatrical movie. With A-listers to boot! And it was a damn good movie!

(...Okay, unrelated, but man, I'm reading through all my old posts and comments on the Wiki and cringing. God, did I really type like a 10-year-old back then when I was in high school? Egh gross cringe. The "let her say fuck" was strong with me back then.)

Of course, as most actors do, Joshua largely moved on from the show as the years went on. Most long-timer fans stuck around until the end of Season 2 before either other interests caught their eye or real life just got in the way too much. A majority of these fans dropped off the face of the Earth like an introvert who suddenly disappears mid-conversation, though they still popped into the Discord server a few times and I reconnected with one or two on Twitter. Hell, some of them even made a "hey, I'm back, and here's what's up" post on Fandom that made me ask if their accounts got hacked.

As a result, when Season 3 premiered, the fandom had slowed down to a crawl. Anyone who's bore witness to it, whether an episode or a nugget of criticism, can probably guess why. (And anyone who hasn't can feel the wrath of my "trust me bro" card, thank you.) It was like I willingly leapt off of the boat, it sped away without me, and I was trapped in the middle of fuck-all nowhere with sharks. So, you know, like Open Water if it was actually good. But the point stands in that I was pretty much all alone. I couldn't crawl to anyone for the sweet release of death after seeing just how hard S&P tried to avoid The Shadow's very obvious murder attempt by way of hacking into a car to make it fall into a lake of green goo. All I could do was scream and cry into a mic, edit, upload to YouTube, and let all the unsupervised kids looking for free episodes come to me in droves.

Oh, and post to Odd News. Until I accidentally deleted the account.

By that point in time, my old friends had all left due to real life commitments, and only one, Angelica, remained. But even she drifted away, and I was stuck running it all alone. So, I made the difficult decision to let it rot, and frankly...I haven't touched it since. Largely because I left Tumblr entirely and only just now came back. On the news front, I expanded my coverage to PBS Kids as a whole network, just as I do on Twitter.

It wasn't until the back half of Season 3 premiered that the fandom slowly but surely began to grow from planted roots, and I could connect with people again. Seeing people flood the Discord server and Tumblr, sharing art and news and theories, was amazing. Not for Season 3, though -- it was because of the past two seasons. Honestly, to say there's been more talk about Otis and Odd Todd than about any other character in the entire franchise is a hell of an understatement, because it dominated pretty much 98% of the fandom.

From there, new fanworks, fanart, and other pieces of fan-created media were created, and many still continue to be created to this day. Though hyperfixations can be yoted off the cliff and die in an instant (with deepest apologies to Shroom), it's great to see a burst of activity in such a small fandom. Hell, it even got big enough to where we had a Secret Valentine's exchange a couple months back, which was a real joy because it gave me a chance to flex my writing chops even if it did leave me on the verge of a third panic attack. And...the fandom being revived did land me a solid interview for a college assignment. Which, to me, is my own equivalent of getting a dedicated panel at a convention.

But this isn't a whole entire story about fandom lore. It's a story about me.

And honestly...I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little tired with Odd Squad myself.

Between the choking responsibilities of adult life (yay work), the state of my mental and physical health (yay depression and anxiety), and the franchise being fucked over sideways to Pluto and back by numerous entities (yay TV industry), I really can't just focus on Odd Squad anymore. Now, I'll give a fair warning to you and tell you to make no mistake -- my enjoyment of the franchise will die with me and my entire bloodline if the franchise itself doesn't die first. But I've found other special interests and hyperfixations that have grabbed me more than the funny kid agent franchise has. I derive more joy from binging the 90s Frasier series, Pretty Cure, and Neighborhood Wars than I do with the funny kid agent franchise.

Now, does this mean I'm leaving the fandom? God no. To do it on the verge of the franchise's 10th anniversary would be utter blasphemy. And I do plan on weaponizing this blog for more Seren's Studies, including episode reviews and character analyses I can't do with the limited resources I have. But the drive for Odd Squad is just...no longer there for me. I did not, unfortunately, get the "Odd Squad forever" autism. I got the "childhood is hell, but okay, sure, I'll make you a functioning competent adult to a certain degree" autism.

Maybe one of these days, amidst the countless new pieces of media that keep releasing, I'll be able to rewatch Odd Squad. It's worn out its welcome nostalgia-wise, but I find it to be a pretty enjoyable view when I take off those glasses and put on the "my God is an awesome God and that's why I try to attend church every Sunday" ones. I'm still making crossover fan projects to other IPs like MLP, Super Monkey Ball, and Precure. And of course, I'll be seated for Odd Squad UK to see if it's good or not -- I'm more than happy to take the bullet for people who don't want to see it for whatever reason, just as I did for the back half of Season 3. But for now, the drive is pretty much gone.

I will admit, I'm likely missing some stuff. My memory is absolutely terrible, and I had to go fishing for a lot of stuff to refresh it (one of the reasons why this took so long to release in the first place). But this is what I can dredge up.

I'm honestly proud of the little fandom I birthed. I could work a hundred jobs in my lifetime and still say that founding the Odd Squad fandom is by far my greatest accomplishment. I've met so many amazing people, seen so many amazing things, and really, I'm hoping to see more people in the years to come. If the aim is to introduce Odd Squad to new generations of kids, teens, young adults, and adults alike, then I'm all for it. Expose them to goodness. None of that Cocomelon shit.

Thank you for reading, and to all of the people in the fandom both old and new, thank you for touching my life in ways I never thought of. If you've got any further questions about my story, send 'em my way; I'll be glad to answer 'em.

See you all in the next Seren's Studies, whenever that may be.

#odd squad #odd squad pbs kids #seren speaks

[strobbylemonade]

happy maybe april fools day for you here's some shuffle units

you can read an unnecessary amount about their stories here:

Future/Passed (l/n): During one of Toya's street performances, a familiar face passes by one day. To his surprise, Ichika asks him to form a band together, with Toya as the lead vocalist and Ichika as the lead guitarist. On the lookout for new members, he manages to convince the reclusive girl in his class, Nene, who happens to be the school marching band drummer, to join their band. Through one of their practices, they are approached by a composer and keyboardist, Kanade, who finds a sweet nostalgia in their music. Together, they slowly open up to each other and help each other through their personal struggles with music. FLY FLY HIGH (mmj): Failing yet another idol audition, Kohane sits with Minori as she practices for her next audition. Inspired by her determination and unwavering confidence, Kohane pushes herself to go out of her comfort zone and joins Minori in her journey to become an idol. Later, mistakenly stumbling onto their rooftop practice and in search for a new activity to take part in during high school, Saki all but begs to join them as well. Realising they're all very new to the idol world, Saki introduces them to her brother, a more seasoned singer and dancer than them. Tsukasa eventually joins their idol group as well, as he looks out for his (rapidly growing amount of) younger sister(s). VIVIDS!! (vbs): Moving on from her idol life, Haruka joins An in some of her live performances, and finds herself with a natural talent for street performance. Soon enough they begin to be seen as a duo, and grab the attention of Shiho when they perform in the live house she works at. Upon their offer, An also invites Mizuki to be their stylist, event organiser, and manager. With Mizuki's promos, Shiho's headstrong drive to go pro, An's determination to surpass RAD WEEKEND, and Haruka's professionalism, they quickly gain the attention of the performers along Vivid Street. Shhh:Secret Showtime (wxs): Rui finds out a video of his one man performance has gone viral, filmed by a user named "Enanan". Finding this as a way to make a name for herself, Ena approaches Rui after school one day and asks him to team up. She becomes the manager and assigns Rui the frontman, and begins her search for more talents. Along the way she finds Honami, a sweet girl with a love for the park Rui first went viral in, and strikes gold when an elegant, mysterious masked performer "Lucky Bunny" joins them. (SMILE:) (niigo): A week after the destruction of the Wonder Stage, Emu finds herself drawn to Mafuyu. Finding OWN's music and realising the two are one and the same, Emu becomes determined to write lyrics to bring a true smile to Mafuyu's face. Unbeknownst to them, Airi takes her own hand at editing after quitting her idol job. After finding out Ena's brother is an artist, she and Akito begin posting together as a duo. Emu reaches out to them anonymously online, and together they create (SMILE:). here's their units lined up before i talk about their sekais and music

F/P: The SEKAI is collectively created through the memories of all four members. Together, they manifest the Gallery SEKAI. The Gallery SEKAI appears as a museum gallery, with long winding hallways and never-ending pathways. Images hang on the walls, some clear, some blurred, some distorted and some worn. The main foyer contains the band instruments, with its high cavernous ceiling creating a sense of smallness and wonder while providing echoing acoustics. They focus on acoustic, nostalgic, and calming songs. FFH: The SEKAI is collectively created through the ambition of all its members. Together, they manifest the Stage SEKAI. Different idol stages create the SEKAI, each with different functionality, size and purpose. The audience is filled with talking plushies holding glowsticks. They focus on pop songs but sometimes do punk, rock, and occasionally perform story-driven music concerts VIVIDS: The SEKAI is initially created by An, Haruka, and Mizuki. Together, they create the Street SEKAI. With a cafe at its core, the streets are covered in colourful graffiti and bright, colourful lights. They focus on EDM, hip-hop, and i'm very bad at describing music genres its just normal vbs music. Shh:SS: The SEKAI is created by Ena and Rui. Together, they make the Cyberspace SEKAI, a cyber-steampunk style wonderland filled with disjointed, floating stage spaces and impressive barebones machinery lined with LED wires. There are clear edges to the world and generally does not feel safe according to Honami and especially Shizuku — however, neither Ena nor Rui seem to mind. They focus on flashy, exciting, and loud music. :) : The SEKAI is created by Mafuyu, and partially by Emu. Since its creation, the SEKAI has transformed into the Empty Wonderland, a desolate SEKAI with a loop of overgrown pathways lined with apple trees, all leading back to a slightly raised stage in the centre. They focus on a variety of songs, with a range of genres and often very bittersweet lyrics.

#prsk fa #prsk fanart #project sekai #pjsk fanart #pjsk #colorful stage #project sekai fanart #prsk #puroseka #strbylmn art #i know some of these ideas are like cringe mary sue something edgy (AHEM WXS SHUFFLE) but fuck it i ball #hatsune miku colorful stage #shizuku's mask is inspired by airi's happy everyday persona #saki was also inspired to pursue idoling by airi #akito's an artist that wants to surpass his father while ena is trying to stand out and dance aheh #sorry the wxs shuffle looks terrible i drew it first but on the flip side vivids are really cute #i feel like i couldve shuffled the units better but whatever #anyways because of this ive convinced myself ena and rui are canonically besties and i've never disappointed myself more #thank you. if you've read this far. uh it's just been insane rambling but yah bye

[cagedchoices]

GET TO KNOW THE AUTHOR.

name:  mel 

pronouns:  they/them/theirs

preference of communication:  mainly tumblr IMs these days, but i have discord and wire and occasionally i will drop my info on tumblr, give it out privately if asked, or add if someone else is looking to add. it can take me a while to work up the courage to message someone in the first place and i'm really... not good at the usual social cues of "hey how are you/good how are you?/what have you been up to?" but i'm usually game to chat about other stuff

most active muse:  Caleb. i've had a lot of other muses but he's been the one i've been most consistently able to write in the slightly over 3 years since i first started writing him.

experience/how many years:  i had a couple false starts trying to set up rp blogs for Samwise Gamgee from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Wirt from Over the Garden Wall back in 2014 and 2015? but i just never really managed to get off the ground and start writing in-character for them because i was super heavily intimidated by the rpc and too nervous to approach anyone. finally in january 2017 i stumbled across a parody of Portal 2 on youtube called the Unauthorized Musical and discovered that there were already a handful of muns on tumblr who had picked up characters specifically based on that production and regularly hosted rabbit streams where they'd watch the video again together and welcomed anyone who wanted to join to do so. i noticed nobody was really writing any antagonistic characters against them so i wound up setting up a blog for GLaDOS and following everybody i met during the stream and that was essentially how i became hooked on tumblr rp. i've been kicking around on and off for about 7 years now.

best experience: there's so many to choose from, but i think i'd have to say my best experience was when i started writing Caleb. i was just fresh off watching Westworld season 3, i was actually feeling more compelled at the time to try and write either Dolores, Maeve, Clementine or Teddy but i felt like i wouldn't do any of 'em justice. i ended up making a sideblog to my old multimuse after deciding i would try writing Caleb, and that's where i almost immediately connected with melody/aworldofyou/copiesofme and was enthusiastically introduced to a bunch of other muns residing in the tiny but mighty westworld rpc. 🥰

rp pet peeves: one is pretty much the same as Sandra said; making a new main blog in the spur of the moment. exhausting all energy on curating a distinct aesthetic for icons/banners/promos/custom themes/etc, and then completely losing interest in a week or 2 without ever getting to write that character. and then more often than not the process gets repeated down the line until that person either becomes overwhelmed from having too many blogs to manage or too many memes to answer or too many starters to write.

i also don't particularly love memes that promote making rp into a popularity contest or seeking an almost constant stream of validation from other people. things like "send a _ and i'll rate your blog on a scale of 1 to 10/using a scale template" i try to stay far away from. arguably every notification you get on tumblr is an instant dopamine hit just like all social media is but. idk there was just something about those blog rating/character rating memes that made them feel more addictive to send and receive than like, taking the time to give someone your honest opinion on how you feel about them as a person or on their writing and characters and such.

another similar thing is reblog chains to the effect of 'reblog this if you actually like following me/seeing me on the dash.' i really don't like these. there's a level of self-deprecation and guilt-tripping involved and when people already feel awfully low and vulnerable to negative self image this just makes it worse. especially when people post with side commentary like 'oh nobody will reblog this from me lol.' and i don't think they're always necessarily aware that this is manipulative behavior, but...it is. even just the way the source post is typically phrased, it preys on insecurity and it makes me sad when i do see mutuals reblogging posts written like this because then i'm like. just sitting there thinking "i'm not a spambot so...if i didn't like following you or seeing you on my dash i would not be following you??"

other forms of reblog chains like 'reblog to give the person you're reblogging from a hug' or 'reblog this and say something nice about the person you reblogged from' are far better in my opinion because they don't inherently contain that same level of insecurity. they put the focus on lifting up and supporting the person you're reblogging from instead of centering on yourself.

plots or memes: i like both but i am very much a memes person because i feel like i'm not very good at plotting.

long or short replies: i don't really have a preference! but lately my thing generally seems to be letting the length creep up so my replies just get longer and longer over time. i never expect anyone to match me, but like. the one thing that would crush my soul is me posting like. 5-7 paragraphs and getting back a one sentence or one word response 😭

are you like your muses: i have a few things in common with caleb, one of them being that we're both neurodivergent and just trying to exist in a society where it is typically seen as undesirable to be classed as such. i stumbled across a venn diagram a while back comparing and contrasting common traits associated with ptsd and autism and it has given me a lot to take into consideration in the way that i portray caleb

tagged by: @k4ndall

tagging: @gunslingcr @paddyfuck @weirdwonderful @killjoysanonymous @prettydead & you (not labeled)

#i'm an underachiever — out. #dash games. #in which getting to know me means getting to know...that i ramble a lot

[perfectarmony]

speculation anon here again lol. imo that looks more like oliver than adan. my best guess is miller is interrogating thony about marco’s d**** or her new business??

Hello again 😏 and agaaaaain a little line because you are getting me into spoilery water 👀

I agree it looks more like Garrett but the curls still have me a little unsure 🤷‍♀️

As to why...yup yup yup...and Sean/Chris was definitely at the FBI at some point around that episode too so either *that* and Garrett is closing in on them or like you said, business related ⬇️

Little bonus because I can't help it 😏

This short clip (in which you can see a carton containing medicine being cut open) from the latest promo I shared is (97% sure) a scene that involves Garrett ''vs'' Thony/Arman, but it should only happen around ep7 I think if I didn't lose track of the episodes they are filming 👀

I'll stop here because I don't want to spoil the entire thing I stumbled on a couple weeks ago since it's happening more than halfway into the season and kinda takes the fun away since we haven't even seen the first ep...but since this tiny clip is now officially released in the promo I guess I can add that little bonus 🙈

I'll let you make your own conclusions for how the scene plays out though 😉

so yup, could definitely be business related too and include Arman inside that interrogation room 😏

#the cleaning lady #careful potential spoilers #asks

[adultswim2021]

Frisky Dingo #10: “Flowers for Nearl” | December 18, 2006 – 12:30AM | S01E10

This will likely be attached to a future post, but I stumbled on a Friday Night Fix promo (Adult Swim’s online video service that would debut new episodes on Fridays) that advertised this episode’s title as “Ten”, which makes me think these episode titles I’m displaying for Frisky Dingo came at a later date. It could also mean that whoever cut that promo together just didn’t know what the episode title was and didn’t feel like speaking to Adam Reed to figure it out.

Previously on: Simon is still a runaway. The Xtacles are still in danger of having their heads exploded each hour. Xander and Killface are both blind and being human trafficked. The Xtacles are planning to pass off Nearl, the local “retarded wino” as Xander Crewes in order to make the head explosions stop. 

This is a very memorable episode, and I remember thinking this was the best of the season. Standalone isn’t the right word, but there is a story here with a beginning, middle, and end, which is nice. It mostly focuses on the Xtacles giving Nearl a makeover, discovering that he looks exactly like Xander Crewes, and then injecting him with a brain serum to make him intelligent. He fulfills his intended purpose of making Stan think that the Xtacles have indeed captured Xander Crewes to make the exploding helmet thing stop happening.

This is when they learn Nearl’s true nature: the reason he looks like Xander Crewes is because he actually is Xander’s long-lost twin brother. He was hospitalized and abandoned on the streets when the hospital closed. This is how he became a homeless wino (Mr. Ford, the pet shop clerk from the last episode, is the orderly who drops him off). This plot thread ends when one of the Xtacles shoots him in the head point-blank. When the other Xtacles scold him, he defends his actions by claiming he was merely simplifying everyone’s lives, that the “plot” (of their lives, I mean) was getting too complicated and having a long-lost twin in the mix would only make things more annoying. The Xtacles begrudgingly, then enthusiastically agree. Real funny.

We also get a little scene showing where the real Xander winds up: with Killface in a sweatshop manufacturing Awesome-X dolls. Killface is popping off the Xander head and Xander is replacing it with Stan’s. Both of them being blind, neither of them have any idea what they are making. They do, however, find out that Simon is now running a rabbit knife-fighting ring. End of episode. 

Most of the laughs in here come from cultural references. Nearl is lured into the Xtacles’ ship because they told him it’s Babar’s house. The Wammy from Press Your Luck is a looming threat on the DNA testing machine (this scene also includes a bit of audio outtakes from the actor playing Stan. Come on guys, this isn’t Space Ghost. Nah, just joshin’, I think it’s funny, please rip-off Space Ghost more). There is a run of the 70/30 dickheads yet again flexing how well-read they are by recalling plot details of Flowers for Algernon (the plot of which largely inspired this episode, obviously), Harrison Bergeron (we get it, you’ve read Vonnegut. WELL SO HAVE I SO FUCK YOU BITCH), among other things. I think. Actually the next thing they reference is Tom Bergeron, so maybe I’m overstating things.

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam is also referenced. I’m embarrassed to remember this but at the time this episode aired I did not know this band and thought the reference was instead to THIS SONG, which I knew because in the late 90s my mom bought it for me for Christmas. She was concerned that even though I was a teenager I did not ask for a single music CD, so she bought me Pauly Shore’s stand-up album, which had that song on it. Earlier this year I randomly found this video and realized I actually saw it in 1991 on MTV. Not only that, it was literally the first time I ever watched MTV in my whole life. I remember my friend Joe, a fellow kid who was also not allowed to watch MTV, turned to me and said “that’s why I love MTV, there’s so many babes!”

The apex of the exploding head gag is reached when one of the Xtacles mentions that he’s missing his kid’s recital, and they cut to a little girl at a piano in front of an audience at a school auditorium, sighing because her dad isn’t there and proceeding with her performance. She (and his new baby, being held by his wife shown in the crowd sitting next to an empty seat) is wearing an Xtacles helmet. The idea that his kids would have Xtacles helmets on, as if it’s an inherited trait, is so exquisitely stupid that I love it. The joke turns dark when they realize she’s susceptible to Stan’s random on-the-hour head explosions. Guess what happens next? This is a serious contender for the funniest joke in the entire series.

So that’s this one, a real peak for the series as a whole, and very likely the best episode of the season! I’m glad I got to it!

[SORRY THIS POST WAS POSTED LATER THAN USUAL I WAS JACKING OFF TO THE PAULY SHORE VIDEO]

#adult swim #adultswim2021 #frisky dingo

[rkrispyt]

If you listen really carefully in the sneak peek the last thing EJ says before Ricky slaps him is “Lily” my guess is Ricky got mad when EJ mentioned Lily for some reason.

Ok let me preface that I am sick today. I woke up at like 1am really sick, and at one point scrolled through Tik Tok when I couldn't sleep, and I stumbled on stuff that really sent me to a new level of angry and disappointed and hopeless.

I'm not going to share more on that, it's out there on Tik Tok for anyone who wants to go in search of it. But yeah, after the night I had, I'm in a crap mood. And I'm still not feeling well and ended up having to call off work. So I'm a grumpy pants this morning.

I say all that to disclaim: read ahead at your own risk. You will encounter a grump, pessimistic, bummed me.

All that being said, with the way this season is going I have had a feeling all along that they were going to break up Portwell for Gicky and make it EJ's fault so that fans would be in further support of Ricky and Gina, and not hang onto Portwell.

At this point with the current narrative, I feel like Ricky hitting EJ is going to be framed as EJ being the bad guy (and I feel like if EJ were to have hit Ricky instead, it would also be framed to make EJ the bad guy to be honest).

Oddly enough, at one point I also noticed "hmm, he just said 'Lily', didn't he?" in the promo, glad that wasn't me imagining things and you noticed it too.

We know from the episode description that some real buttons are pushed causing EJ to think he took things too far. I know that's about the situation overall but I'm assuming this is a specific example of that.

My guess is that things get heated between Ricky and EJ, and EJ says something that's a real low blow and crossing a line, and Ricky reacts by slapping him without thinking.

And I think we'll get Gina, already upset about the letter, now saying "how could you say that, what's wrong with you?" to EJ as opposed to the girl who seemed to infer she was in love with EJ last episode being upset with her friend for hitting her boyfriend who didn't deserve it.

Because, this is where the shitty part of my brain that overanalyzes and ruins surprise parties and is subconsciously collecting information and observing human behavior kicks in...

If Ricky hits her boyfriend, but it all still seems to be leading to Portwell breakup and building up wanting the audience to root for Ricky and Gina, then I don't think for one moment the slap can be framed as unjustified by Ricky. It has to work in his favor. And with only a couple episodes left until the finale, I don't think there's time for Gina to be upset with Ricky about it and then come back around by the finale (and supposedly prior to that ep).

I frankly don't think there's even time for Portwell to truly reconcile about the letter and then fall apart again for a breakup.

Unfortunately I think it makes more sense for the story they seem to be telling that this slap will be another nail in the coffin for Portwell. Another thing EJ does that causes a further rift between them, with the letter incident having already popped their Honeymoon bubble. It seems, looking at the timeline remaining, that Portwell having problems can only gain momentum from here, not reverse course.

That is my incredibly pessimistic, I'm sick and uncomfortable and haven't slept, I hate that this is the way they're going about this entire season and storyline when this show is capable of so much more and there are so many better ways to do it that are so obvious, hot take. I cannot find an ounce of optimism at this point.

I'm sorry to drag everyone down but...after seeing the stuff I did, I'm just done. I just can't anymore.

It's been so so long since a ship won my heart, and the experience of shipping and sharing that with others was as joy-inducing as this one has been. Even with the toxic part of this fandom, everyone has been lovely outside of that corner of hell - even outside of fellow Portwell shippers. Last summer was so wonderful as a result, especially finally coming out of isolation (and I mean all alone hadn't hugged anyone in well over a year, going nowhere, zero risk isolation) after lockdown. It's hard to just make that stop or have it end when I'd been wanting more, but it seems like the show is making that choice for me.

#portwell #hsmtms spoilers #hsmtmts speculation #portwell spoilers #portwell speculation

[sapphicscholar]

Sorry this is so tropey but if it speaks to you: I wish you’d write a fic where Ava and Deborah get accidentally locked in a room together. (ideally when they are mad at each other ;)

I love a good trope when it fits the bill <3 going into some more season 2 speculation (drawing on some things we got from the promo photos and captions) because dammit I am EXCITED for the space of the tour bus hahah

*

Deborah is going to kill them all. Since when does Marcus go out with Damian and get so blindingly drunk he has to call out sick of all things? She can't even remember the last time he took a sick day. Maybe he'd taken a long weekend for the flu of '09... But now he's single and "finding himself" in his 40s like he's some middle-aged mom that just read Eat, Pray, Love for the first time.

She glances down at her phone for what feels like the hundredth time, rereading Damian's message about staying back to take care of Marcus while she steadfastly avoids eye contact with the only other person on this bus as they trundle down the highway.

"Deb?" Ava is, apparently, not going to afford her the same courtesy.

"I'm working," Deborah manages, her tone clipped. The kind of voice anyone else would hear as the end of conversation that it is.

"You've had the same email open this whole time. I can see Damian's string of sad-face emojis from here."

Deborah runs the tip of her tongue along her teeth and takes in a deep inhale. "You're gonna dictate what counts as work now, too?"

"That's not—"

"Save it."

"You know, we have to talk about it at some point."

Decidedly, they do not. Deborah built a whole career on talking around the things that don't need to be dredged back up. At least until now. Until Ava. Who will not force her hand again. Not now. Not after...

"Fine," Ava huffs. "I'll go talk to the bus driver."

"Went so well the last time, hmm?"

Ava's mouth draws tight, and she drops back down to her seat, curling her feet under her. "Most people like car games if they're stuck on the road this long."

"No one likes car games."

"I do!"

"Of course you do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

Ava looks ready to fight back, but after a long moment, she gives up the ghost with an annoyed little sound in the back of her throat.

Of course, no silence can go unbroken, and it isn't long before Ava's standing right in front of Deborah, fire blazing in her eyes. "I know you're still pissed. I get it. But you kissed me, lady. And acting like it didn't happen isn't gonna make it go away."

"Sit down," Deborah hisses.

"No!"

The driver merges jerkily into the left lane, and Ava stumbles over her feet. (Deborah really needs to buy him a nice present at the end of this.) Ava widens her stance, only to go flying into Deborah as the driver merges back over, and Deborah's breath catches in her throat as Ava's hands land on either side of Deborah, leaving them much too close. (On second thought, he's getting paid a perfectly livable wage.)

"Sit."

This time, Ava does. Right next to Deborah. Close. Too close.

"You have a whole fucking bus."

"So what? Do you want me to go sit in the back and scream up to you about how you yelled at me for an hour, broke a grand worth of New Age hippie crystals, then planted one on me, and stormed out to give me the silent treatment for days?"

Deborah practically snarls.

"That's what I thought."

"Don't act so smug."

"I'm not! I just...I mean, are you ever gonna, like, tell me what that was about?"

Deborah sniffs. "A mistake."

"Mistakes don't normally last that long."

"Oh, I don't know about that. You've been my employee for how long now?"

Ava recoils, and Deborah lets herself relish in the rush of savage satisfaction. "That's not what I meant."

"What do you want me to say? I'm so used to anger and sex going hand in hand from years spent with Frank and Marty that I let myself get carried away? Is that enough introspection to get you off my fucking back?"

Ava blinks at her once. Then twice.

"And what about you, hmm?"

"What about me?"

"I wasn't the only person in that room. What had you shoving your hands up my top in less than two seconds?"

Ava juts her chin out, the muscles in her jaw clenching. "You've got great tits."

Deborah's caught between shock and annoyance (with a flare of desire she'll never let herself admit to), and she barks out a laugh. "Well, it's settled then."

"Deb. C'mon, obviously that's not the only reason why, just like I'm pretty sure you didn't actually mistake me for a 70-something sleazebag."

"You're right. He's got bigger tits by far."

Ava lets out a loud huff of frustration. "And maybe you actually enjoyed yourself with me."

"Please. It was a minute of frantic groping. I've gotten further from leaving my phone on vibrate overnight."

Ava's cheeks flush pink, and Deborah settles herself back in her seat and pulls her email up again. There's an apology email from Marcus with two typos in it. He really must be on death's door. There's a slew of messages from her QVC reps, plus a confirmation email about this little YouTube episode she's somehow deigned to do. Apparently these days any asshole with an at-home studio can reach millions of subscribers without hauling their ass all the way across the country.

"I think you kissed me because you wanted to," Ava says after a long period of quiet.

"That simple, is it?"

Ava shrugs, scooting closer to Deborah. All brashness and little thought of the consequences. One of her hands lands on Deborah's thigh, just an inch or two higher than propriety would deem permissible. "I think it could be... If you let it."

"Nothing here is simple, honey."

"Not the rest of it. But wouldn't it be nice to just...let yourself want something and have it?"

"Nothing's ever worked like that. The rest of the world is always going to be there, Ava. Just like every bit of our history is always going to be there."

"They're not here on the bus, are they?" Ava's hand slides a little higher, her face moving closer.

Deborah licks her lips. "Ava," she whispers.

"Simple," Ava says, her voice low, little more than a murmur. She presses a soft kiss to the corner of Deborah's jaw. "I want you. I'm so done with hurting you. I just want to be something good for you. I want that."

"That doesn't sound very simple," Deborah manages, her breath coming a little faster as Ava's mouth moves along her jawline.

"Right now, all you need to know is how much I want you. Okay?"

And for once, with a needy whimper catching in the back of her throat, Deborah lets herself give in.

#ask me anything #trying-to-get-somewhere-real #fanfic #hacks hbo #ava x deborah #ava daniels #deborah vance #season 2 speculation #light angst #this one got long enough it may end up on ao3 at some point

[willowser]

i know i am but summer to your heart—

kirishima x reader

wc: 2.2k+

warnings: fluff, misunderstandings, requited unrequited love, kirishima deserves the world and if you disagree i'm not sure what to tell you, my love for bakugou almost took over this piece, reader has a light-related quirk, kiri has like one (1) horny thought

—and not the full four seasons of the year.

At times, Kirishima believes he is sincerely, honestly terrified of you.

It's a truth he has no problem admitting to himself, at the ardent sight of you beside him, bathed in the golden light of a summer evening. Everything burns around you, though not like the flames of Katsuki or Shouto; it's warm like the comfort of a boiling shower, of fresh coffee from the agency breakroom, of a shared blanket.

(There are nights in which Kirishima can feel his body aching for rest, in which he loates staying late to finish paperwork—but it's not all nights, not this night.)

You're gazing at him now with an eyebrow raised, the other furrowing down as your question lingers in the air. A smile is threatening to break over your face, lips twitching with the effort to keep composed, and the eyes you're giving him are nearly glowing. Kirishima isn't sure how he's supposed to say this, suddenly reminded of why he never has.

"What?" There's a short, awkward laugh hidden in your voice, trying to ease the tension surely showing on his face. "What did you say?"

Kirishima knows you're in love with Katsuki.

If he distances himself from you, more emotionally than physically, he can agree that it's a good match, a great match even. And, why wouldn't you be enamored by him? There are those who look at Bakugou and there are those who see Bakugou; there are those who hear Bakugou and there are those who listen to him, who know him and those who understand him. It's an abysmally small selection of people—which is what Katsuki wants—and you just happen to be at the center of it all. Much as the two of you fight and squabble, one doesn't get there by accident, not with him; it's something to be earned, something to be bestowed.

There's talk of you transferring from Fat's agency to Miruko's in the fall; you and Bakugou both recently moved into the Top Ten—leaving Red Riot in the rearview—and have been in the news, side-by-side in promo shoots, interviews and at award ceremonies. It's more than a friendship—the two of you are a perfect pair both on and off the field, and people are beginning to notice. They’ve tied you together with a cord of expectancy, as if one day the two of you will become the whole they are waiting on.

"What, me and Headlamp?" Bakugou cast you a charged glance when he'd said it, already expecting the flare of your nostrils and blaze of your eyes at the nickname that was so famously hated, but Hanta had been sharing photos of his new girlfriend and you were too distracted by them to hear the slight. You two should go, Kirishima had offered, trying to will sincerity behind his smile as Sero went into detail about a lavender park in Furano. "As fucking if."

And even though relief flooded him at yet another denial of Bakugou's interest in you, the always lingering spirit of disgust made his mouth sour. Kirishima would never have considered himself a deceitful guy, but on more than one occasion, he'd ask a question so pointed just to see either one of you recoil in shock, just to ease his irrational nerves. There was nothing of yours that belonged within him, nothing he needed to secure or shield—but it wouldn’t stop him, couldn’t stop him, from trying to tend to all the bits of his heart he had given you.

(You, leaning emphatically on your hands and knees, pretending to gag at the idea of getting caught under a mistletoe with Bakugou; Katsuki snarling, "she fucking wishes" before half-heartedly kicking behind your knee to make you stumble.

One day it will catch up to him, all of his sneaky prying. One day neither of you will say anything against his sly inquiry, and then he will know the deal has been sealed.

Now, Kirishima thinks, with you sitting at the edge of his desk, hair damp and drying in the conditioned, night chill of the office, he will crack completely open when it happens.)

There hadn't been any body-wash in your gym bag, so you'd borrowed his when the two of you returned from patrol, and the sandalwood smell of his soap is swallowing you—and him. It's juvenile and not manly at all, but just for now, just this once, it feels like something has flourished between the two of you, as if the pieces of him have been watered and nurtured and have sprouted. If Fat came in right now and saw the both of you, hushed with your conversation, close, dewy and smelling the same, what would he think?

You're looking directly into his eyes and Kirishima should not be thinking what he's thinking, should not be entertaining the intrusive image that burns into his brain and makes his whole body hot (you, shining under the fluorescent lights in the locker room, soap on the tender skin of your neck, hands in his hair to wash it; him, watching you the same way he is now, only he's much braver in his imagination and he has the kind of confidence that you would like, the kind that would lead his hands to the dip of your waist, pull you so close that not even the water could slip between you).

The shame comes back, at being a fucking pervert, and he's forced to take shelter against the gleam of you.

Kirishima stammers, but still doesn't answer your question. His feelings snowball until they are so strong that his blood is in his ears and he needs to hear you laugh it off, to hear you deny anything is going on between you and his best friend. It's beyond the point of restraint, and Bakugou replaces him in his own daydream-turned-nightmare, except Katsuki isn't afraid to pick you up in the shower and press you into the wall the way you would probably like.

Katsuki isn't afraid to ask, "when the hell are you going to get over yourself and tell her?"

Beer had been half-way down his throat when Bakugou asked one night at an izakaya. Nearly everyone had been there, everyone but you, and Kirishima hadn't stopped checking his phone just incase you were still feeling sick enough that he needed to come over. The last text messaged he'd sent you had been seen 37 minutes prior ("just lemme know!!! i dont mind leaving!!!! denki wants to do karaoke and i could use a reason to escape lol").

It had taken a handful of minutes for him to choke and splutter and clear his throat, which was long enough that Bakugou rolled his eyes and took a drink himself, though the taut muscles in his jaw didn’t relax in the slightest.

"What-whaddya mean?" Shame, remorse—at lying, at being in love with someone who was in love with the someone across the table from him. "I don't know who you're—"

"Cut the shit, Ei."

And that's how he knew Katsuki was done with dancing around the subject; he was too keen for his own good, able to notice the rosiness on Kirishima’s cheeks and the bumble of his words at the brilliance of your smile. There had been a horrifying moment as he stared, wide-eyed and seized with imminent heartbreak, wondering if the cord had tangled, if the knot had been tied. Bakugou had seemed so annoyed—and maybe it was the beer warming Kirishima’s belly or all the repressed feelings bursting at his seams or the bitter taste on his tongue, but he looked even angrier than usual, like he was going to beat his ass just for thinking about you.

Then Kirishima 's eyes dropped down to the bottle in front of him, peeling at the label because he didn't know what to do with his hands. "I can't tell her."

"Why the fuck not?"

"Because—” of you “—she doesn't see me that way and I don't want to make it weird."

The noise Bakugou made had been odd, something he now thinks might have been objection, though his own eyes shifted to you and Sero. Something was within them, maybe affection, maybe indifference. Maybe just respect. "Seems to me she likes you just fine.”

"Yeah," he responded, noncommittal. A beat of silence passed as he chewed on the question crumbling in his mouth—do you have a thing for her?—but his phone screen lit up before he figured out how to ask; "ugh eijiiiii pls come here and bring me sushi lol <3"

(He had come there, to you, and he sat on the couch and wet a small towel for the back of your neck every now and then, laughing at terrible late night rom-coms, trying to pretend the domestic intimacy and the Eijiiiii weren't making his head light. A little stuffed cauliflower had been between your crossed arms, hugging it as close as physically possible while leaning against him in the dark of your apartment, oblivious to the roots spreading within him. Every scratchy laugh of yours reverberated through his bones, got caught in his bloodstream and circulated through to his heart. Tainted, maybe, some might say; nourished, in his eyes.

Eiji. It was so cute.)

"Eiji?" Careful not to spill the coffee in his cup, your shoulder knocks lightly with his. "Are you in there?"

The smile has fully blossomed on your face, just like always, but both of your brows have pulled down with the waiting. The light is still in your eyes, gleaming a little brighter with all the caffeine surging through you and they're so distracting that he wonders if you've activated your quirk and he just hasn't noticed, but then he realizes: no, they always look like that, like stars, like the golden stamens of a fresh bloom.

"I said," Eijirou's voice shakes, even as quiet as it is, and he's trying to think of a lie as the words are coming out of his mouth. He can't. "I know you're in love with Katsuki."

At times, at this time, Kirishima knows he is terrified of you. Of the silenced shock paralyzing you, at the little gape of your mouth as your eyes flit down to take in his frown. The cracks of him are deepening because knows what comes next, can already picture the meek smile that will appear on your lips when you realize you’ve been caught. The warmth in your chest will dissolve, and he knows that because his own has, the minute he opened his mouth.

But then you groan so long and loud that it trails off into a laugh. "Oh my god, Eiji. Not you too. Are you saying this because I’m a woman?"

Kirishima blinks once, and then twice. "Uh, what? No!” The look on your face is teasing, but he can sense that there is a distressed honesty weighted in every word. Because you’re a woman? He shouldn’t have said anything. He never has and this is why, because he doesn’t know how and he’s always saying it wrong, even in his dreams—

Every second you spend giggling has him sweating; nothing really makes sense to him, but it’s such a non-answer that his mind is racing to plug in as many possibilities as he can. Not you too: of course other people have noticed the budding romance between you and Bakugou; all your laughing: he’s an idiot and you know it now, must be sure of it, which is why you’re placing a charitable hand on his shoulder and leaning into him, because you feel bad—

"I am not in love with Bakugou," even as you say his name, you scrunch your nose up the way you always do, as if you really mean it—this time and all the ones before. “Is it possible for he and I to be close as just friends and not because I'm harboring some secret crush on him? ”

“No! I mean—no, that’s not what I meant!” Kirishima shoots up from his desk chair and the warmth returns tenfold, burning through his chest and his neck and his cheeks. “Of course you can! I didn’t mean to—oh, shit—”

“I know, I know,” very lightly, you tap your foot to his shin, jutting your chin out to his seat until he takes it. “I know you didn’t mean it like that, I just get so sick of hearing it.” Your eyes don’t leave his and he can feel the air shifting, thickening into something he still isn’t sure how to swallow.

(It’s wrong to wonder, especially as you sit in front of him, watching the change on his face, but if not Bakugou then…?)

“I’m not in love with anybody.”

And somehow, that hurts more.

There had been understanding—not quite acceptance—but recognition that you loved Katsuki and only Katsuki, that you’re type was powerful and manly guys like him, but this—Kirishima wasn’t a blip on your radar, simply because you were uninterested.

“That’s not to say I couldn’t be.” You hum, looking out at the city you both protect through the open windows of the office. It’s not the neon shine from the nightlife illuminating you, but the gilded glow of the lamp on the corner of his desk. It’s soft, intimate, nourishing. “If someone wanted to watch shitty movies and eat sushi every evening, I wouldn’t be opposed.”

And when you look at him and his open heart and his waiting hands, when you take them in your own, Kirishima blooms.

#kirishima x y/n #kirishima x reader #eijirou x y/n #eijirou x you #kirishima x you #kirishima x female reader #bnha x reader #kirishima eijirou #kirishima my heart #i would -- and will -- die for this man #without question #tell me he is not so cute in that little banner #you cant #also peep the cauliflower jellycat easter egg :eyes: #[ ☆ one shot: kirishima ] #✿ willow writes

[lambourngb]

a skeleton of something more [malex wip]

Inspired by the promo/trailer for season 3. Spoilers and speculation ahead. 

A tumblr work-in-progress

Pairing: Michael/Alex, Alex/Forrest

Summary: Alex goes undercover to seek out Deep Sky. Starts mid-2x13.

Alex leaned his back against the solid wood of his front door, letting the heavy oak take up his weight. He kept making the standard uneven bargain with his body, of giving just a little more, going through the motions for a little longer, and then it would be over. But the tally sheet his body held was long, overflowing with so many unfulfilled promises that it seemed ever more likely he would end this journey in the red. 

If it ever ended.

At least, tonight, he had haggled wisely for some space to breathe. On the other side of the door, he had managed to escape Forrest’s hopeful and not subtle attempts to follow him inside, toward the bedroom for a long-awaited reunion. A reunion that Alex had deftly avoided without a trace of guilt. He had used the bland excuse of fatigue from a long, cramped ride from Holloman Air Force Base to Roswell on a bus that had predated the ADA by a good thirty years. It was transparent but still true, written on every line of pain in his smile as he had said “Not tonight.” that even Forrest could read it, even if only Alex knew the real source of his fatigue. 

He waited several long moments, before turning to look out the peephole to watch Forrest’s Prius silently reverse out of his driveway. Exhaling out long and low, the tension he had started carrying a little more than a year ago slipped away, letting the calm certainty of safety of his house slip down his body as he released the facade. 

Alex was almost done with this assignment, he reminded himself, as he rubbed the back of his hand against his mouth, scrubbing away the taste of Forrest Long from earlier. 

Just a little while longer, and he will have enough good will built up to finally meet the leader of Deep Sky face-to-face, after all who could resist the request of a senior member, especially one with the last name of Long? It had been a lucky find that Alex had made in cleaning out his father’s house after his death, a ring and an old photo of the members. In washed out Kodak colors was the cabal of Deep Sky. Former military men with names Alex had memorized off the salvaged hard drives from the Caulfield prison. Linked not by overlapping time on the alien project, but what had become of their careers after their military service had ended. All of them vowing to carry on the protection of Earth against an alien threat, but without the oversight of the government. 

The photo in his dad’s desk had been expected, but the silver ring? He had remembered clutching it, his hands still sore from tearing down the shed with Michael, and feeling the imprint of the symbol press deep into his skin. Searing across what Mimi had called his long-love line, singular and deep on his palm. Searing even deeper inside with the recognition that the symbol matched the ring Forrest Long wore.

The genial historian with the loose-fitting cardigan and blue-streaked hair, who had shown flattering interest in Alex, had worn the same ring. Easy on his hand, flashing in the bright sunlight when he had eagerly met up with Alex at the paintball fields with sharpshooter skills. After that date had crashed and burned thanks to a mishmash of his father’s voice and the feeling he had whenever he thought about kissing someone, not Michael, well, Alex had figured that would be the last he would see of the man. 

It hadn’t been. 

Suddenly, Forrest was everywhere he was, the Crashdown, the Wild Pony. It should have been suspicious to Alex, after months of sharing the same town with the other man without a single encounter. His heart was still bounding uselessly after Michael, while his hands had been full of his suddenly feeble father, and he had missed the snare of the trap. Not just the one his father had laid. Then after his kidnapping, two things had become clear to Alex, his father would never change from the hateful man he was, and Alex’s heart would never change when it came to his feelings for Michael.

Alex pushed his leaden body away from the door, tottering on his feet for a moment before the new prosthesis shored up his balance and he took a deep breath for the strength to move forward.

Fuck. That was a mistake. 

His house smelled like rain. Michael. The unexpected consequence of having Michael watch over his house while he had moved around the country, playing up the role of the grieving scion of the Manes family legacy. After a year of brief trips back to Roswell and long stints on the road, the house now smelled like Michael. 

Alex sucked in greedy gulps of air, chasing the taste of green and petrichor with his tongue to wash away his previous actions at the bus stop. His security system, his reinforced door and window locks, the weight of his gun still tucked in his back holster, none of it made him feel as safe as the smell of Michael in his home. It was the smallest crumb of promise, but it filled him.

Moving toward the kitchen for a drink, he clocked the changes Michael had made in his absence. His heavier luggage, shipped ahead of him, was already stored, including the set of crutches and the charging station for his back-up prosthesis. The lights in the kitchen came on with a single touch, all of them bright. Dammit, Michael had fixed the two burnt out bulbs, along with the slightly weeping fitting on the sink faucet.

There was zero sign of neglect in his house, no matter where he looked. Not even the faintest trace of dust on his guitars. The house looked warm and well tended. Loved. 

The rush of tears welled in his throat, an impossibly large lump, as Alex fought to keep from breaking down. Don’t fucking cry, don’t do it, that’s for at night, he swore creatively at himself. Tears were only allowed under the cover of dark, in hotel rooms or visiting officer quarters, not in the middle of his brightly lit kitchen.

A knock sounded on the front door.

Abruptly, every drop of tortured longing was gone, as Alex straightened his shoulders and crossed the threshold back to the door. He pasted the right amount of faked aspiration mixed with real annoyance on his face as he yanked the door open, expecting to see Forrest back on his step with a weak excuse concocted to overcome the earlier rebuff.

Michael looked up in the porch light, his black hat in hand and his curls wild with nervous raking. “Uh, hi.” He scuffed his boots against the concrete before growing still under Alex’s gaze.

He looked over Michael’s shoulder nervously, for the distinctive truck that everyone in town knew belonged to Michael, but his driveway was empty.

“I parked a few streets over. I don’t think anyone saw me-” Michael’s explanation was cut off short as Alex grabbed his wrist and yanked him inside. Stumbling from Alex’s strong grip, Michael fell forward, and then back as the front door slammed shut with them both safely inside out of view. His mouth was still open in surprise as Alex covered his lips in a kiss. 

The surprise was short-lived. Michael came alive under the kiss, opening and yielding to Alex’s hungry lips and tongue. Alex brought his hands up into Michael’s curls, cupping his head protectively as he pressed Michael firmly against the door, drinking in every sound Michael was making. 

Hours before, he had kissed Forrest at the bus station, playing up the role of a dutiful boyfriend returning home. It was the tariff he paid with his body to get closer to the roots of Deep Sky, but this, feeling Michael whole and safe under his hands, tasting him now, that was sustenance. Lifeblood. There was an evolution of difference between the two, like comparing simple bacteria wiggling toward complexity and the finished product of a man, standing upright. 

It was both a reminder of why he was doing this and a reinstatement of focus, as he slowly broke the kiss with reluctance. Michael chased at his lips, his mouth red and wet, his eyes dark with want. He could feel the heat coming off of Michael’s thin brown shirt, his hands itched to pull it off, to descend back into the physical, but Alex knew that he owed Michael an explanation for earlier.

“I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t know he was going to be there to meet my bus. I thought it would be okay for you to give me a ride,” Alex explained quietly, as he ran his hands from Michael’s neck down to his fingertips, drinking in all the changes that had happened while he was gone. Michael looked thinner to him, as if he wasn’t eating enough despite the healthy amount of work and money. “I guess he wanted to surprise me and thought it would be romantic.” 

Michael made a face at the idea of surprises ever being considered romantic, especially to Alex. He turned sweetly toward Alex’s palm, kissing the center as Alex pushed a stubborn curl out of his eyes. “Are you sure that’s all it was? He wasn’t testing you, was he?” 

“I don’t think so.” Alex couldn’t pull his hands away from Michael, and leaned in to kiss him again. It started soft and shallow, trading breaths with Michael, lips against lips, licking deep into his mouth as his previous weariness disappeared now that Michael was here. “He saw you watching us. Now that I’m back, he’s worried about losing my attention to you. He hasn’t hidden his jealousy that I asked you to watch my house last year.” 

“Did I look sufficiently broken-hearted?” The question was light, but Alex could hear the grain of truth under it.

“You did.” Alex closed his eyes, the guilt of the situation flooded back inside. The statue of his father looking down on him didn’t make him feel nearly as sick as having Michael’s eyes on him as he let Forrest kiss him in front of the town in a cinematic homecoming moment. It was a cruel reminder to Alex that he had never been able to give Michael that, a public welcome that spelled out who they were to each other, not once in ten plus years of deployments and duty station assignments. Trading a glance across the Wild Pony was as close as they came. “I wish it wasn’t like this, sneaking around, pretending-”

“Hey, I agreed to this, right at the very beginning when I was your only back-up. Remember?” 

“We were just friends back then, you couldn’t have known that things would end up like this.”

Michael laughed, his head tilted back against the door, casting an attractive line of his throat to his collarbone. “We’ve never been just friends, Alex, but I knew what I was signing up for when you told me what you planned to do to smoke out Deep Sky. We’re in this together.”

*** to be continued... here

#malex fic #malex wip #season 3 spoilers #isn't everyone writing a trailer fic? #rnm #not forrest long friendly

[mcbride]

TWD S11 Predictions - Carol/Daryl focused

disclaimer: i don't know anything. i have no sources. just my predictions, thoughts and wishful thinking based on filming tracking, intuition, some theories, images from the teaser/promo trailers and more wishful thinking!

solely focused on Carol and Daryl's storylines, cause apparently that's all my heart cares about anymore! as a wise person once said (Espy, my positive fairy! if you're reading this, ilysm), our baes need to be dealing with their own issues and demons, separately, while getting some closure with other people, so they can finally move forward together.

so i don't expect many actual caryl scenes in part 1 of s11, but i fully expect them to keep each other in mind, and even make some decisions based on a future they wanna have together even before they resolve the awkward tension between them atm.

imo the perfect caryl arc in 11a would include a lot of emotional encounters, drama, disappearances, fake deaths, torture, tragedy, dog, closure and make up and make out... after the jump....

it appears that Carol and Daryl will be involved in different missions at the start of the season - he will head out with Maggie's group to search for food when they are caught up in a storm and have to hide out in the subway tunnels; while i presume she stays back to defend and help clean up ASZ or goes on her own mission with Kelly and Magna.

Carol, Kelly and Magna end up stumbling upon Connie's journal, a symbol of hope for all of them. they might even decide to search the area for any more signs of Connie. i really want Carol herself to find Connie and bring her back to Kelly. and not cause Carol is a hero who saved Connie, nooooooo cause Connie can save her own self. she is strong, not a damsel in distress. she went through hell but she made it back. i think we will see Connie and what she has been through, however, i don't believe she will reunite with anyone from team family before the MSF (11x08) or even MSP (11x09). no idea who she and Virgil are running from in the trailer - it could either be a whisperer, a stray reaper or just some crazy random motherf*cker they run into.

while Maggie's group are in the tunnels, dog runs off and Daryl goes to search for him, never making it back to the group for some reason. after the storm is over, Maggie and the group search for Daryl but not having been able to find him (?) they just assume he is gone, possibly dead? i don't know why Maggie would give up so easily searching for family, but it seems like her current MO to just leave people behind.

along the way, Carol and Magna will find common ground and actually become besties cause she desperately needs some female friends. please and thank you. they can bond over the hope to find Connie alive and well, or the fact, both of them are currently in a very awkward position with their boos while having no idea where the heck they are.

Daryl probably got separated from the group while escaping a small herd in the tunnels (cue to Daryl's face covered in blood in the woods) and when he finally finds dog, he comes face to face with a masked reaper formerly known to him as Leah. he is shocked to learn she's part of the group that targeted Maggie. Leah is probably bitter Daryl chose his family instead of her a few years ago cause she has no idea he came back for her... so she and her friends take (willingly or not!) Daryl prisoner... possibly torture him and play mind games to gather information on team family.

in the sdcc trailer, there are some very heartbreaking scenes with Carol (and Aaron?), i cannot wait for it. i know it's gonna make me cry so hard and i've been needing Carol/Aaron friendship for years. at the same time, i expect Carol to also have some badass fighting scenes with her daughter-in-law and new bestie, Lydia, and tia Rosita! YES girl power!! people need Carol and she's totally there for them.

Aaron seems to be in a bad place emotionally (possibly something happened to Gracie, or just the fact they lost a lot of people in the whisperers war!) and Carol will be there to urge him not to make the same mistakes she did. hopefully, these 2 can join forces and come up with a masterplan to defeat the reapers.

Daryl being Daryl who always wants to save people even from themselves, tries to convince Leah to change sides, join team family, or convince her own family to leave his family alone. he's unsuccessful and when Daryl tries to escape, setting the whole place on fire and killing a few men on his way out of the reapers compound, Leah threatens to harm dog. cause why not? she obvi loves nothing or no one! they take Daryl back to another cell, and dog manages to escape.

meanwhile, Maggie's group returns to ASZ, where they tell Carol they believe Daryl is lost or dead. please give me all the angst that comes with Carol thinking she may have lost Daryl forever! she has been pretty committed to the group and rebuilding their home, but i believe her first instinct will be to run, to leave... TO FIND DARYL!!! cause no way in hell would Carol just accept he's gone unless she sees it with her own eyes.

WELL in true 'if you can't beat them, then join them' fashion, after a few brainwashing sessions with Leah, Daryl tells her all about the note (FIND ME) he left for her at the cabin, how he knows he made the wrong decision then, declares his loyalty to her and joins the reapers...

dog arrives at ASZ just as Carol is about to leave to search for Daryl. good boy always comes back home to mama and together they will find and save dada. (bear with me! from now on i'll be totally running wild with my wishful thinking... it will pretty much read like some fanfic plot!)

Daryl keeps trying to fit in with the reapers group, but he's only taking a page from Carol's undercover book - fake it till you make it + destroy them from the inside. what he doesn't know is that Leah and her new/old bf (Pope!?) have been planning an attack on ASZ behind his back. they simply let him know, this is his chance to prove himself to the reapers. he has to go along with the plan (or DIE!), but he hopes to be Alexandrians' inside man, helping them protect their family at all costs (ironically, exactly what Negan did when he joined the whisperers and they attacked Hilltop... just not the same motivation! i guess Carol wasn't so wrong about Negan after all!)

at night, Daryl puts on his reaper costume and they head to ASZ. reapers learned the location of the place by tracking dog. the plan was much bigger and more explosive than Daryl expected, the reapers destroy a big part of ASZ brand new rebuilt wall and set fire to a bunch of houses and the mill before Daryl can even react.

Alexandrians and reapers fight as Daryl sneaks out to lead the kids to safety. he finds Maggie, asks for Carol, and is glad she is out there looking for him, relatively safe, rather than around to fight and watch ASZ fall.

while out looking for Daryl, Carol hears the explosions, sees the fire and she and dog return to ASZ as fast as they can. they are greeted by Leah at what used to be front gate...

i realize this is getting extremely long, so i'll just say that i absolutely don't want Carol to have anything to do with Leah's possible imminent death. i don't want that guilt on her conscience, and i don't want her to feel like Leah is just another person she took from Daryl (like Connie!). i don't even want Leah to die! unless she's trying to hurt or kill Daryl.

somehow i think it would be a good twist, if for a quick second Carol thought Daryl had betrayed them and joined the reapers for Leah. of course, Carol knows better. SHE KNOWS DARYL. he would never, but for a brief panicked moment, it would be good to see her react to that. i can only imagine the pain in her eyes. but she also trusts Daryl with her life.

we have no idea what Leah knows about Carol, but i'd like the pocketknife Daryl regifted to come back. how would Leah react? likely angry to see another woman with something that was hers. i want to believe Daryl would never tell Leah anything about Carol because she is just too important and too personal to share. but maybe Leah can tell there was someone else !? who knows.

i just want it to be completely clear Daryl is done with that part of his past. Daryl is not alone and lost in the woods anymore without his brother Rick and his bestie Carol. ever since Carol brought him back, Daryl has acted like he knows exactly what he wants and he's done playing games. and what he wants is not Leah or Connie. he wants for ALL his family to be safe and happy, and he wants to run away with Carol and see the world. AND i want both Carol and Daryl to feel free to be free and live freely.

as for the make up and make out part... (that's saved for 11b, hopefully!)

team family won, most of the reapers are dead, except for Leah. Daryl (with Carol's nod of approval!) decides to spare her, gives her some supplies and tells her to get lost. at the same time, Eugene arrives with the troopers from CommonWealth to help with the whisperer war. WHOOPS. 2 wars, 2 late, bruh! but the group leaves to join the good people at CW.

Carol and Daryl have a very long conversation about everything that happened and what they have been feeling. Daryl telling her exactly why he was so mad at her (she kept leaving, can't commit!), her actions (almost getting herself killed!) since Henry's death and how he needs her in his life. no matter how she sees herself or whether she thinks she's worthy or not, he just wants her to be there next to him for whatever is to come.

plus Carol realizing she needed to get closer and let people in without fear, not give up hope and actually fight for a better future for herself. and finally, admitting to Daryl that it was horrible to think he might've been gone forever, promising to never make him feel the way she felt. basically, a promise to never ever leave him again (cue to making out!)

#caryl #caryl rants #caryl predictions #carol peletier #daryl dixon #dog dixon #s11 spoilery #good lawd this is long af #did i go full td here? #or plausible possibility territory? #wishful thinking #speculation

[ginjointsintheworld]

The new promo pics!! They’ve given me so much hope even though I know there’s more drama on the horizon. I don’t just want them together under any circumstances because I actually want it to be earned but they’re talking again. Hopefully they move past money talk and get to small talk and then just normal stuff. I really want them to be friends for a little bit before getting back together even if it’s just one episode before they reunite.

THE NEW PROMO PICS!!!!!!!! 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️

i was legit prepared for leyla to not show up in 4x19 and 4x20 so this new revelation is like opening presents on christmas day 😭 plus it looks like lauren and casey are finally back in the ED for 4x20 so i'm expecting some good screentime here now that they're working in the same dept again. don't let me down writers.

i know we've been living off crumb scenes in 4x16 and 4x18 but the fact that leyla is going to be in every episode of this back stretch of the season is a good sign that the writers are invested in progressing their story and giving them space to navigate their new situation. including the awkwardness and stumbling over words and interactions trying to find the right thing to say. it's harder to find the moments to put them together when lauren is supposed to be exiled to UMI and leyla can't just be wandering around the hospital all the time as a resident but as we saw in the newest episode, even when leyla isn't physically present the whole time, their relationship still influences lauren's storyline. i'm excited to see how 4x20-22 unfolds and i'm with you, hoping they eventually they find their footing together and fall into more comfortable interactions. it's peeking through right now, leyla's amusement at lauren's taco hat, hide and seek antics, their seamless partnership working to help casey in the alley, the 'thanks but i brought my own lunch to school' cheeky wise crack from lauren that pulls a smile out of leyla. there's hope.

#anon #asks

[florrickandassociates]

TGF Thoughts: 5x03-- And the court had a clerk...

Hello again! It’s nice to have this show back. This episode was a bit less of a standout than the previous two, but I’m still happy with the overall direction for this season. More under the cut (or here, because tumblr sucks). 

When Robert King tweeted the episode title, I asked him if all the titles this season were adding up to one long sentence/story, hoping he’d confirm it and give a little more information. He did! He said it’s “in the Farmer in the Dell mode” and while I think I get what he’s saying, I’m very curious to see how it plays out. Haven’t been able to track down 5x04′s title yet, but the promo is out. (As of this morning! It’s interesting they’re not putting them after the episode this year; I kind of like it.) 

Kurt’s job is up in the air given the new administration. I think this scene exists mostly just to remind us where Kurt works and the stakes.

What month is this supposed to be in? The transition seems recent but no one is wearing masks.  

Kurt spots a poster asking for help ID’ing people at the Capitol on January 6th. He thinks he recognizes someone...

And now we’re in case of the week land. This case is about a small business owner whose business went under after someone created fake news articles accusing him of pedophilia.  

I think the whole point of this (kind of long) scene is to show that this case is a pretty small deal. Low stakes, inexperienced opposing lawyer. (Not even sure why Liz would be arguing this in court, but whatever.)

Tbh I thought this was going to wind up in 9 ¾ court.

Now that we have junior level characters, we get scenes showing that there are, in fact, people at RBL who are mid-level. Liz asks an associate to work on something, he asks another associate to work on it, she delegates to other associates, and they delegate to Marissa and Carmen. This work seems terrible.  

It’s so funny to me how this is probably more realistic than most of the lawyering on the show and yet it only shows up selectively. We only see the hierarchy here to make it clear that Marissa and Carmen are at the bottom.  

David Lee interrupts and asks for Carmen. He’s very rude to her. Interestingly, she’s hesitant to leave her grunt work and follow David, even though she must know he outranks the associate who gave her the grunt work.

“Why am I supposed to know you?” David asks her as they walk through the halls. “I don’t know if you are,” Carmen responds. “Why does Benjamin Dafoe know you?” he asks. She doesn’t know who he is.  

“Who are you?” Dafoe asks when Carmen enters. She states her name, again. “Why are you important?” he asks. “I don’t think that I am,” Carmen responds.  

Then Dafoe says his top client, and it’s a name that the characters all know. I’m glad this scene is free of any “he’s the white OJ” expository lines (that’s from Sweeney’s introduction) -- it’s clear from the reactions and the discussion of police and rape that the top client is a bad guy, probably a rapist. The rapist wants Carmen to represent him.

Putting 2 and 2 together, Carmen asks if the rapist knows Rivi. He’s not, but he’s at the same prison. As soon as Carmen says she’s representing Rivi, David Lee switches gears, understanding the situation and trying to sign the new business. He’s so shameless!  

Marissa sorts ALL the papers. There are a LOT of papers. I’m swamped. Look at all this paper.

She catches the associate who assigned her the task leaving for the night just as she finishes up, and cheerfully notes she’s finished the task. Then the associate mentions this was only half of the bills. Marissa does not like that. Since her goal in wanting to be a lawyer is mostly just to give her something exciting to do and earn respect... this hierarchy thing is not going so well.

Marissa decides that after her rough day, she’s going to stop by Wackner’s court. He’s in the middle of a case about Emily in Paris fanfiction and he’s very happy to see Marissa.  

Wackner’s night court has a program—it notes the sponsor is Copy Co-op (I thought it was Copy Coop?) and the paper products were also provided by them. And “there will be regular intermissions at the discretion of Judge Wackner.” It’s very theatrical.  

Wackner takes a recess and calls Marissa to his “chambers.” He asks for her thoughts on the case. “All they want is attention and to feel like they’ve won,” Marissa notes. Wackner’s on the same wave length and compares it to the Scarecrow’s diploma at the end of The Wizard of Oz. So, he makes copyright certificates and some minor modifications to each of the fanfic books. They say “I respect you and I love you” and that’s that.

Wackner catches Marissa before she leaves and asks her to be his law clerk—part time or full time, 10% of all the legal filings and unlimited use of copy machines. She is hesitant because she “doesn’t even know what this is.”

Wackner says his court is “the future.” Marissa turns him down; notes she wants to pass the bar. “You know why all these people are here? ‘Cause the courts and the lawyers and the appeals have made justice... unattainable. Out of reach. To anyone who doesn’t have a shitload of money to wait it out. That’s why Exxon beats out Mr. Nobody. Read Kafka’s Before the Law.”  

I just read it, and you should too! It literally is a page, but tl;dr, there’s a man who wants to get to the law and instead he spends his whole life trying to win over the first of many gatekeepers on the path to the law. He never gets through the gate.  

“Justice is only just if it’s available to everyone,” Wackner says. Marissa thinks about that.

As I said last week, it’s smart that Wackner makes so much sense. Hearing him say all this, knowing that it’s true... it makes it very easy to get on board with the thought experiment. Of course there would be huge repercussions to this kind of system, but it makes so much sense it’s compelling TV!

Kurt’s showering when Diane gets home, which gives her time to stumble across the WANTED poster and notice that Kurt has drawn facial hair onto one of the pictures. “Who is this?” she asks him. “No one,” he says. “Well, you drew in a beard and a moustache on him,” Diane notes. Kurt says he was doodling, but Diane calls him out as he is the “exact opposite of a doodler.” Kurt says he thought it was someone he knew, but he’s not sure. Diane pushes him to tell the feds. Kurt reiterates he’s not sure, but it’s someone he went shooting with. “Oh my God, then it’s him,” Diane jumps to (not incorrect) conclusions. Kurt says he didn’t talk that way; he’s a veteran. “Kurt! That’s the profile!” Diane argues. Kurt isn’t convinced and he doesn’t want to be responsible for naming names. He notes he’ll be threatened with indictment for not naming names and then only lawyers will end up benefitting. Diane is not convinced.

I think this is an interesting conflict for Kurt and Diane. I understand why Kurt is hesitant to speak out before he’s sure. And I understand and agree with Diane that it’s important to identify the attackers and prevent anything like that from happening again.

I don’t mean to blame Kurt, exactly, but I feel like all of what happens next could’ve played out differently if Kurt had been just a little clearer with Diane about why he was hesitant to ID the man. Like, the threat of indictment for not naming names sounds like some typical anti-government rambling. Saying you specifically are afraid that this will turn back on you and you need to weigh your options and come up with a plan first would put Diane in a very different mode, in which they’d work together to craft the best strategy. Because this man would’ve been ID’d by someone, sooner or later, and Kurt would’ve needed to be prepared.  

Diane stares at the wanted poster at work and asks Jay to find his identity. He’s on the FBI TEN MOST WANTED? Ten!? Ok!  

Diane shares the extra information she has—the gun range and that he’s a veteran—and Jay gets to work.  

Turns out there’s no money in the case that Liz, a name partner, is working on and Marissa just spent all those hours sorting bills for. I could’ve told you there was no money in that case lol.  

Jay IDs the guy very fast. He’s faster than the feds because they didn’t know where he shot. The range had his license on file, and Jay got ahold of it.

“Well, we don’t pay you enough,” Diane says. “Oh, I know that,” Jay laughs.  

Diane says she’s going to think about calling the feds—it's definitely the same guy.

Marissa notes someone high profile (David Cord, who I presume is a thinly veiled stand-in for David Koch given the name, his role in the plot, and the fact that he is “David Cord of the Cord Brothers”) in the lobby giving a fake name and goes to tell Liz.  

David Cord is performing magic tricks for the receptionists (they don’t recognize him) when Liz and Marissa show up. “I knew your father. I hated your father,” Cord says. “Yes, well, he hated you too,” Liz says. He says he gave a fake name to see what the reception would be like since he’s kinda infamous.  

Liz introduces Marissa as one of the law clinic lawyers. Marissa knows what to say in this situation. Specifically, she knows that it is the exact right moment to name drop her father.  

“Democrats as far as the eye can see,” Cord notes. At that, Liz asks Marissa to get Julius involved.

More good expository work! (No, editor feature of Word, I do NOT want that to say “Better expository work,” that would change my meaning, go away and please stop grading my recap??? I don’t know how I brought this up but it’s telling me my score is 72%, so a C, and it’s driving me crazy. Oh, now I’m a 71%. It had me at like, 50%, because I had written “Wackner” and “Wackner” is not a word. No shit.)  

Anyway, back to the exposition. I like that we don’t get a line like, “Liz! David Cord, the Republican super donor, is here!” We just get to see Liz’s reaction, Cord’s hate of Liz’s father, and the line about democrats. Then it becomes clearer who Cord is.

Just noticed Liz is wearing an Apple Watch.

Liz stands for her meeting with Cord, likely to maintain power. Cord says January 6th changed everything to him and now he’s all about unity and loving America.  

Cord has something to say about Liz’s case, the one that’s not making any money, and he seems to know quite a lot about it. That spooks Liz.  

Then Cord offers her $12 million to continue the case for another six months (all of these months, seemingly, will play out in the couple of days the rest of this episode takes, but, whatever). He just wants them to go after the social media company that distributed the fake news... and Section 230.

Don’t know what that is? Now you do, because there is a Good Fight short! These work so much better when they’re actually needed (explaining concepts, etc.) than when they’re trying to force one into every episode (remember that Downton Abbey one? What... was that?)  

I was talking to @mimeparadox about this short and he pointed out that this short has a VERY clear POV on an issue that actually doesn’t seem to be all that straightforward. If you’re like me and only had a vague sense of what Section 230 was prior to this episode, this short is telling you what to think of it—it isn’t just explaining what it is.

I do tend to agree with the show’s POV on most things, but this is an issue I’d like to read more on. I love how Section 230 was something I hadn’t really read up on prior to this episode and now that it’s been on TGF I realize it’s something that actually, yes, I would’ve been interested in knowing about earlier. Is this because things that are on TGF are interesting to me because they’re on TGF or is it because TGF generally only discusses things that would be interesting to me? Probs a little bit of both.  

Diane asks Jay how to make an anonymous phone call and he hands her a burner phone. She calls the FBI with the rioter’s name. She doesn’t leave her name and then she dumps the phone.  

Credits! Did you catch there’s a Jordan Boatman in the credits? She plays one of the associates who passes down the grunt work to Marissa, and she’s Michael Boatman’s daughter in real life! She’s also been in one other episode, in season 3.  

I never get tired of these credits!  

The RL partners (and some associates who are on the case? I think these are the same ones who delegated the work to Marissa?) debate whether or not they should take Cord’s money. Madeline notes that he’s funded a lot of Republican campaigns; Julius notes that both Republicans and Democrats agree that Section 230 is flawed and this is an opportunity for unity.

Diane notes that the right doesn’t want to stop conspiracy theories from spreading, so is this really that bipartisan? “It would help if the boomers would stop falling for those conspiracy theories and sharing it with their friends,” an associate (I believe this is Michael Boatman’s daughter again) notes. That quiets the room and the partners all glare at her. Yeah, that was a kind of stupid thing to say. First of all, it’s just not appropriate to say to the partners, and it’s also, like, missing the point? If it’s easy for conspiracy theories to spread among boomers, maybe just expecting each member of that generation to suddenly have a millennial’s understanding of the internet is the wrong strategy? Maybe there’s some structural issue here? That maybe, just maybe, this case is actually about?  

The associate also points out that the internet is currently a place where people can speak out about sexual harassment-- “they repeal section 230, and there would be no #MeToo.”

One of the partners says he doesn’t believe that—if they regulate section 230, then newspapers can actually be competitive and there’s still free speech online.  

“We’re not going back to reading newspapers, grandpa,” some associate says. What the actual fuck, dude? Who talks like that to their boss?! It’s so condescending. He’s also wrong! “Newspapers” are not just physical things... reporting by major publications still matters and will continue to matter. Like, is he suggesting that in the future all news will just be random people tweeting things they think are true with no fact checking or curation? Sure, journalism is struggling right now—but I don’t think that’s because there’s a lack of desire for well-reported news.  

I am glad the partners call him out on saying “grandpa” and honestly I’m shocked he isn’t asked to leave the discussion after that rude remark. Unless this young looking dude is a partner too? But I don’t think he is.  

Julius notes that if they’re going to pursue this case, they need money like Cord’s. At that, Liz starts to leave the meeting. “We haven’t decided if we’re taking this Cord money yet,” Madeline protests. “Of course we are,” Liz says and leaves.  

Now that’s more like it! I’m not sure if this is necessarily the best way to handle this, but she’s a) correct, they were always going to take the money because it is $12 million and an issue of interest and b) using her authority. Should Liz be making decisions totally on her own? Maybe not. Does Liz making this decision and then leaving (with everyone accepting that she’s correct) cut through a lot of bullshit and establish Liz as the one in charge? Yup.

Diane says, “Ooh-kay” with a little bit of an eyeroll after Liz exits, but she’s still laying low. I think in a different season Diane might’ve tried to push back.  

Is it me or does Baranski get a lot of material this episode we haven’t seen before? Lots of really good reaction shots/tones in this episode I don’t really think we’ve seen from Diane before. I’m impressed there’s still new stuff after 12 years.

At some point maybe I will actually write the essay I’ve been wanting to write for ages about how TGF is still so relevant despite being in a universe that should be showing its age by now. I wish I could find the first time that I called TGW a period piece set in the present day (I know it would’ve been during season five) because I think that’s the key to TGW/TGF’s enduring success. The shows always feel timely because they try to capture the present moment (which is, of course, always changing) and don’t get stuck in any one moment in time. Further, the fact that the writers are always so tuned in to events and skilled at quickly reacting to what happens in the world makes them VERY good in a pinch, which is (I think) why they’re able to make the most of unexpected situations (Josh leaving TGW, the pandemic).  

Liz and Julius bring a suit against ChumHum to attack 230. Judge Friend is initially skeptical of their argument that 230 is unconstitutional; then she’s intrigued. I am too. This argument about the press is a very interesting one. I obviously have a lot of reading to do on 230, but my take after this episode is pretty much that social media platforms have to be held responsible in some way, but I don’t think it’s feasible or desirable for them to be responsible for every single one of billions of posts. I think there has to be some way to regulate social media giants that would allow everyday people to share things and speak out but would prevent the curated (even by an algorithm) spread of fake news and make social media giants accountable when there are very public bad actors using their platforms. What that regulation would be I have no idea. I just refuse to believe that our options are to give the social media sites full immunity or to regulate the internet so strongly that no one is able to speak freely because all the platforms are worried about lawsuits.  

Over at the VA, people are being fired. When Kurt gets into his office, Madeline Starkey (wait, are there two characters named Madeline in this episode?) is waiting for him. She’s still very quirky and scary.  

Starkey says the guy that Diane reported is now saying Kurt trained him on using assault rifles and buying ammunition in bulk. Kurt notes these were topics covered in a group setting, which Starkey knew—and what she’s really after is the names of the others in the group. (She may already know them, since she knows there were five of them.)

Kurt refuses to name names and just stares at her.  

Case stuff happens! (I liked the last two episodes a lot but it’s much faster for me to just write, “case stuff happens” for some of the scenes.)

Hey, surprise Aaron Tveit! (Not really a surprise; he is in the credits. But still yay!)  

I don’t really know why Liz and Julius are talking about newspapers specifically and not all types of fact-based journalism/press? I feel like their argument is most convincing when it’s about actual newspapers (especially local ones) but still would apply to cable news...

Marissa’s still hard at work sorting papers when the associate comes back in and informs her she can stop; they’ve changed strategies and everything she’s done is now irrelevant. She also says “I forgot to tell you” at the start of that thought, meaning that she neglected to tell Marissa this important information earlier and wasted her time. Marissa is not pleased and so she goes to Wackner’s court, where Wackner now has a deli ticket machine and is wearing super-sized novelty sunglasses. Why not!

He sees Marissa and calls a five-minute recess. In “chambers,” Marissa tells him she’d like to work for him part-time but keep her RL job.  

Wackner needs her help processing more copyright certificates. He’s priced them competitively at $20 and found that a lot of writers want these certificates, even though they have no legal value. (Neither do actual copyrights, Wackner notes. And he notes that if anyone plagiarizes, they can sue in HIS court.)  

“Marissa, I’m building something here. I want you to join me. I want your advice on cases. I want to bounce legal theories off you,” he says. “What are your legal theories?” she asks. “I don’t know. That’s why I need to bounce them,” he says.  

Marissa gives him from noon to 2 and 5-7, which seems awfully ambitious for someone working at a law firm!

“That’s how revolutions are made. Back rooms of copy shops,” he says, accepting her offer.  

Kurt is sulking in the dark when Diane arrives home. He lets her know about Starkey’s visit and she immediately goes into lawyer mode. Notably, this scene does not spend much time on how Starkey found out the rioter’s name. Curious if they’re saving that for later or if Diane and Kurt both know what Diane must have done or if Kurt think’s it’s a coincidence.  

Kurt SET UP A TOUR OF THE CAPITOL for one of the veterans in his shooting group, and that tour was ON JANUARY 6TH! I really do wish he’d told Diane that upfront.  

Maybe the long pause where Kurt refuses to tell Diane which congressperson arranged the tour even after she promises she won’t say is him letting on that he knows that Diane ID’d the guy? Or maybe it’s just Kurt.  

I do not like the dead birds in Starkey’s office, mostly because I do not like thinking about dead birds.

Starkey compares Diane and Kurt to the Conways.  

And now more case stuff happens.  

Julius gets to question a witness for the first time in two years! He’s a little shaky at first but then he does a fantastic job! Yay Julius!

When Diane arrives at the office, reception is filled with around a hundred teddy bears. “What?” she asks. “Build-a-Bears. They were sent to Marissa,” the receptionist explains. “Okay... why?” Diane asks the logical next question. The receptionist does not know.  

“This one’s a Marissa bear,” she says, showing Diane a bear wearing boots and a wig. It does not look much like Marissa and it says “Hug me.”

Diane looks confused and furious at the same time. Her look here is, like, a milder version of the death stare she gives Alicia in Outside the Bubble when she learns about Alicia and Cary’s plan to leave.  

“Why don’t we, meaning you, take all these stuffed animals and put them in the conference room,” Diane instructs the receptionist. She is NOT! HAPPY! The receptionist seemed to be having fun with the bears, but clearly the right answer was to have done something with them and... not to have put them over every surface in reception. Eeek.  

Carmen’s new client, the rapist, arrives at the firm before anyone can hide the bears. “This may not be the firm for you,” his advisor/lawyer (I’m not totally sure what this dude’s job is) warns.  

Madeline notices the rapist and glares at the receptionist. “I know. I’m putting them in the conference room,” the receptionist says, thinking Madeline is upset about the bears. She is not upset about the bears.

Diane finds Marissa, who’s working with Carmen again. She asks Carmen to give them a moment.

“Why are there hundreds of teddy bears in our reception?” Diane asks. Marissa is confused. Diane shows her the Marissa bear. Marissa looks horrified and amused. “That doesn’t even look like me,” Marissa notes, completely missing how pissed off Diane is. I don’t think we have seen Diane be this direct/no-nonsense in ages.  

“That would seem to be beside the point. What is going on, Marissa?” Diane demands. Marissa suspects this is based on some advice she offered to a client who was buying a Build-a-Bear franchise and thinks this is a thank you gift. “What client? You’re not a lawyer! Why do you have clients?” Diane says exasperatedly.  

Marissa gives her a look, and Diane immediately understands that she’s been back to Wackner’s court. “Oh my God, this is about that Copy Coop court?”

“Marissa, no. By participating in that simulacrum of a courtroom, you exposed this firm to malpractice, sanctions, and God knows what,” Diane says. If that were really true, she wouldn’t have sat there and argued. I mean, I don’t know the legality of this all, but I feel like it’s a bigger optics issue than legal issue if Diane and other lawyers are willing to even consider participating?  

“If you wish to continue your employment at this firm, you will never do anything like that again. Do you understand?” Diane says. She will not hear any arguments.  

I love that Marissa is the thing that keeps Wackner coming back. It’s a good plot for her, but structurally, it also allows the show to keep Wackner around without many contrivances. Wackner sees that Marissa would understand what he’s up to, she sees that he shares some of her frustrations with the law, and they both want to work together again. It’s not like suddenly everyone’s talking about Wackner’s court and all the cases somehow end up there or anything.

The receptionist, who is having a truly terrible day, comes into announce that Kurt and Starkey have arrived. “Don’t put them in the conference room!” Diane commands, knowing that the teddy bears will be there. It’s too late, though, because the receptionist (who previously seemed to be fine at her job if bad at recognizing public figures and understanding that partners might not find teddy bears amusing) has already put them in the conference room. I feel bad for her, and don’t think the other things were her fault, but I feel like she could’ve seen this one coming...  

I find the teddy bears HILARIOUS, mostly because the reactions to them are so funny. It’s kind of the same gag as the balloons for Lucca in season two, but I don’t really care, because I’m getting to see Diane Lockhart treat hundreds of Build-a-Bears like they are a real work problem.

Starkey jokes about the bears; Kurt is silent.  

The rioter from the poster is now accusing Kurt of coming up with the STRATEGY for January 6th, which Kurt and Diane both dismiss as bullshit.  

I could do without Starkey’s musical cues.

I can’t tell if Kurt is in trouble here or if she’s just pressing him to name names. Why wouldn’t she just have rioter guy name names if he’s so eager to blame Kurt? I guess maybe if the others were actually there, he might be less likely to name the names of his actual co-conspirators? Or, Starkey might already know the names (surely the shooting range has logs) and be using this to raise the stakes.  

No one (except maybe the partner named Daniel) is happy about the rapist in reception. “Since when are we representing people like Wolfe-Coleman?” Julius asks. Didn’t these people help both Sweeney (though I think Sweeney was in some weird police brutality case and they didn’t actually want to represent him) and Bishop? And Rivi? But they draw the line here? Sure.  

Ah, there we go, an expository line-- “he’s the next Jeffrey Epstein”. Almost made it the whole episode without one of these. I’ll forgive it since it’s so late in the episode lol.  

“Did you approve this, Liz?!” Madeline demands. Liz did not. Daniel wonders if that means Diane approved it. Liz doesn’t think so and calls Diane (who happens to be walking past) in.  

“I know, the teddy bears. I’m working on it,” Diane says when she opens the door. I think the teddy bears are a bigger issue to Diane than to anyone else.  

Diane didn’t approve representing Mr. Rapey either. She’s uncomfortable that a meeting was happening without her; Madeline notes that she is standing there specifically because they wanted to involve her.  

David Lee pops up out of nowhere with the answer: one of the new associates (not Marissa, “the real one”) pulled in Mr. Rapey. Are there only two associates now even though orientation was for a big group?  

Firth is gone, btw. David Lee is the new Mr. Firth. I have no idea why David would want to be STR Laurie’s guy for managing RL but... sure, whatever? David Lee is an effective antagonist, especially in small doses, and this allows the writers to keep him around and continue the STR Laurie plot without a key guest star. If STR Laurie is still a thing, and it seems like it is going to be a thing for a while, then having David Lee take on this role makes sense for plot. Otherwise they’re going to have to shoehorn him in to every plot somehow. At least now he has a reason to be around.  

Liz and Diane take a walk to chat. Diane is worried about having David as their boss. Liz says she has a worse worry—David Lee knew exactly when to come downstairs with information, suggesting he know what they were talking about. “Would he do something like that?” Liz asks when Diane wonders if there’s a bug. “Oh, yeah,” Diane replies. Hah, yeah. He absolutely would.  

They decide to have Jay search for bugs and Liz is frustrated with how much time they have to spend on things other than lawyering. Yup.

“What is going on with all the teddy bears in the conference room?” Liz asks as they head back to the office. “It’s a long story,” Diane sighs. I also love that the teddy bears link the various pieces of the episode together—it feels like all of these threads are happening simultaneously because of that constant.  

I don’t get RL’s approach to clients. Bishop and Rivi are ok, Wolfe-Colman is not (except that actually he is fine). Cord is okay too. Do they draw the line anywhere? I know Liz was right when she said that OF COURSE they were taking the money, but is there really nothing that differentiates that situation from this one? I feel like there should be.

Marissa goes back to see Wackner. Since someone refuses to say “I respect and I love you,” Wackner reverses his ruling. This is part of the “Bad Loser Law of last Wednesday,” so the rules of Wackner’s court are clearly a work in progress.

Marissa explains she can’t be the law clerk because of Diane. She tries to connect him with a real lawyer, still not understanding exactly what Wackner’s after. “You know just enough not to crush what I’m doing here,” Wackner explains. “A real lawyer will look for reasons why not. I need someone to look for reasons why.”  

Case stuff happens. I cannot read Cord’s handwriting. Liz and Julius lose the case because Judge Friend says what’s happening isn’t fair, but it is constitutional. (So here we have, at least in the show’s POV, a good and attentive judge who can’t make decisions that make sense because she’s bound by a document written before anyone had ever dreamed of the internet.)  

Cord is waiting for Liz in her office. He’s prepared to bankroll an appeal. Did they blow thorough that $12 million already? Impressive; it’s been like a day.  

Cord says they are definitely the firm he wants. Interesting.

Now Liz wants a meeting with Carmen, so it’s Marissa who leaves the room. This scene seems like it was meant to be a different day?  

Liz wants to talk about Mr. Rapey. Carmen is, yet again, chill about the case. “Carmen, is there anyone that you would not represent?” Liz asks. Funny, Liz, I could ask you the same. Being hesitant about it is not changing the fact that you’re representing bad people. Carmen’s just cutting the bullshit.  

“I don’t understand. Is there someone you don’t want me to represent?” I love how Carmen’s incredibly polite responses always seem very pointed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Carmen’s reply, and yet it puts Liz in a place where she can’t dance around what she’s trying to say.  

“I’m just trying to get a sense of who you are,” Liz explains.  

Then Liz decides she’s going to help on the Craig Wolfe-Colman (Mr. Rapey) case, and they will keep talking about her career path. Liz, this does not seem like the right solution! You're worried about your associate representing bad people so you’re like, I know, what if I ALSO represented bad people? If your goal is to convince Carmen not to take clients like this, you’re kinda shooting yourself in the foot!  

“Are you worried about me?” Carmen says, again turning things on Liz. “I don’t know what I am about you,” Liz replies. Me either. Well, I know I'm intrigued, but beyond that, no clue!

All the bears have ended up in Diane’s office, where Wackner is waiting. He jokes about how his court is always seen as informal, yet this real fancy law office is covered in Build-a-Bears. Then he says he wants to hire RL—he's willing to pay. He wants consultation from Marissa (“consultation on legal issues”) and he’s prepared to spend a lot. And, if there’s one thing we know, it’s that they’re always going to take the money. So, they do.

I love that Wackner’s goal is to “perfect my little clubhouse of the law.” It’s a fun plot, and it also allows for the rules in his court to change (I’m sure we’re going to be treated to/subjected to a lot of whimsical gags around changing and ridiculous rules). It's also a good way to work through the thought experiment over the course of the season. It’s not like Wackner already has a system set up and it’s perfect—I'm sure we’re going to see his system run into issues and explore that more, too.  

Wackner monologues a bit here about why he’s running fake court, and he lets us know he’s going to monologue. Basically he thinks people no longer want to help people and are only motivated by their own self interest. He notes that no one talks about the Peace Corps anymore and asks the last time Diane heard anyone say those words. I’m sure I’ve heard a reference more recently but my mind went RIGHT to season one Cary Agos saying “Peace Corps. Belize,” as some kind of smarmy pickup line. This is likely not where my mind was supposed to go.

Wackner wants “A new Peace Corps. For America.” Diane’s sympathetic to that and agrees to take him on as a client.  

Wackner asks if he can take a bear. Diane instructs him to take two.  

Aaaand Wackner and Cord end up on the elevator together. Wackner hands Cord a bear, the elevator doors close, and the episode ends. Since last episode ended with Marissa and Carmen in the elevator together, I’m hoping this will be how every episode this season ends. I think using the Kings’ favorite liminal space to transition between episodes is kind of fun, and it fits with the ellipses at the end of every episode title.  

Speaking of... did you see today’s elevator-themed episode of Evil? It was written by the Kings. Those two have been obsessed with elevators for at least a decade.  

#the good fight #tgfthoughts

[mangakachan]

“Horimiya” TV anime

It’s been kind of a crazy year already (the specter of 2020 refuses to leave =_=), and in between everything going on and waiting for news of the Sailor Moon Eternal movie release, I stumbled across a new rom-com anime coming out this season: “Horimiya”.

The premise of the show involves Hori Kyouko finding out her seemingly gloomy and loner classmate, Miyamura Izumi, is a handsome, hip-looking guy outside of school. And he in turn finds out that the studious and popular Hori is a hard working single mom older sister who’s dedicated to her younger brother and taking care of the house while her busy parents are away. While I’m not usually a rom-com type person, I started reading the manga...and before you know it, I spent all of Sunday binging all 14 volumes I have no regrets staying up until 1am to finish the last volume, but the bags under my eyes this morning made me look like someone had punched me in the face.

The central pairing is established relatively quickly (but still done in a very natural, sweet, and heartfelt way!), and rather than dwell on the “will they, or won’t they confess their feelings,” the story focuses more on their journey as a couple as well as their self-discovery and growth into adulthood. But this story isn’t just about Hori and Miyamura either. There’s a lot of well developed secondary characters, and some of their traits remind me of my friends from high school/college...some times not always for the better, given the types of antics they get up into. You may like or dislike some of the characters, but I’ve found that I have an honest to goodness opinion and feelings towards every single one of the recurring characters (and yes, that even includes Hori’s dad), which is kinda rare for me since I tend to be ambivalent towards a lot of supporting (and some times even main) characters in fandoms I enjoy.

The manga like I mentioned, currently had 14 volumes out in English, and is still on-going. Interestingly, the manga itself is based on a completed web-comic,  “Hori-san and Miyamura-kun” that ran from 2007 to 2011. There’s also a few (?) OVAs that came out a couple years ago, but from what I read, the OVAs were based on the web-comic while the new 2021 anime is based on the “Horimiya” manga series. I’ve watched the first episode of the anime through Funimation’s streaming service, and I really like the animation, character design, art direction, and voice work so far. The anime is listed as being 12 or 13 episodes, but with the source material at 120+ chapters and judging by which characters are hinted to appear in the promos, there will be a lot of condensing and cherry-picking. Still, I’m curious how CloverWorks (the anime studio making the show) will manage it, and look forward to how they’ll wrap up the story in one cour.

#horimiya

[unproduciblesmackdown]

stumbling across a billions mystery in a roundabout way and then also solving it in a roundabout way: an adventure

undertaken with @nothingunrealistic, whose posts i also use as sources / link to as references throughout here

so it’s at least been mentioned in tags before, but we’ve been wondering about this promo picture from 5x09

wherein rian is clearly in taylor’s office while someone else is at her desk, across from winston, who is partly visible, and we’ve been wondering if rian was going to move desks in 5x09 or 5x08, but 5x08 has aired and she was sitting at that usual desk adjacent to winston’s, at the row furthest from the entrance to the tmc niche, but on the side closer to taylor’s office, rather than closer to the office lauren (and previously sara) uses.

today i was looking at these first two promo pics ft. rian from 5x11 and i noticed that she seems to be sitting on a desk that is furthest from the entrance but closer to taylor’s office, and at first i was like oh hey, this means she’s still at her usual desk in 5x11, and still sits next to winston! but then i was looking closer at some details and quickly got confused about what part of her desk rian was sitting on, and where it was positioned relative to taylor’s office, and to the other desks in that space. you can see that rian is sitting on one corner of her desk, and that corner is adjacent to the corner which is actually a concave indentation for the chair / sitting area, as all the desks are L shaped with the chair in that inner angle. you can also see in the second picture in which she is talking to taylor that the side of the desk is visible, where it should’ve had another desk pushed up against it. 

at this point i was telling soph @nothingunrealistic​ about the fact i’d seemingly confirmed rian was still at her usual desk next to winston’s but that i was confused about the tmc office layout, which is not in and of itself new or unusual lol, so we were consulting other shots & images of the desks and their position relative to each other and the two side offices. i made this handy diagram using a picture of rian’s desk from 5x07

she would have to be sitting on either of the spots the arrows are pointing to, and when you look at where her chair is in the shots from 5x11, she has to be sitting on the edge of the desk the arrow on the right is pointing to, but there should be a desk flush against that, preventing us from seeing the side of rian’s desk that’s exposed in the 5x11 pics. so, at this point, we could sort of forget about trying to reconcile precise angles in various shots, because it was pretty evident that rian’s desk has to be in a new position for the 5x11 shots to be possible, and we were wondering if her desk had been moved apart from the others. i mentioned that it could be a Social Distancing thing, which would then surely be applied to all desks, not just rian’s, but that i thought the desks were in a regular arrangement in 5x10, which is when rian’s hair seems suddenly & significantly longer and the episode summary mentions that axe cap returns to the office, so we’d theorized that if there was going to be a pandemic timeskip, it would happen between 5x09 and 5x10. soph then mentioned that the desks at axe cap in the 5x11 promo pics may in fact be spaced out more than usual, which sure supported that now all desks were positioned apart from each other, and they had also brought up this shot of taylor in 5x10 with the tmc desks behind them, which i did some Close Observational Analysis on.

there’s no way that with the usual desk grouping we’ve seen throughout season 5, where there’s a 4x2 rectangular group of desks, there should be desk edges that are not in line like that, or there should be any visible gap between desks, so this did seem like solid enough confirmation desks had been moved and spaced out. and while zooming in on the picture, i also noticed that there seems to be someone sitting at the desk to our right, i.e. the one attached to the Lime Green underline there. that desk ought to be rian’s, if you compare it to what we see in 5x11 and to the fact that the original placement of her desk would be closest to where that desk in question is now apparently located. even though we can’t really see much, it looks like the person is wearing a dark / black shirt and an open greyish layer, which matches what we see rian wearing in this shot of her from the other tmc 5x10 promo pics.

that picture of rian seems to be taken in the same scene as those daytime shots taylor and lauren, wherein they are wearing the same outfits as they are in the later nighttime shots, so rian would presumably also be wearing the same outfit; this could be her at that desk with her hair behind her shoulders. and in the course of having that picture of rian zoomed in, i then accidentally realized something further about the picture, which is that: prior we had speculated that, since the desk/table rian was leaning at didn’t look like any spot in the usual larger desk cluster, she might be in taylor’s office in that pic. but with the new knowledge that desks were in different locations / arranged differently, and simply taking a closer look, i realized that rian, like winston and lauren in those other promo shots, is actually again perched on her own desk.

doesn’t quite make sense with taylor’s office layout anymore but Does make sense with the picture forming here. her desk is moved closer to the window, with no desks immediately adjacent to it. the corner of the desk scene in the lower right corner of the shot, which would be the desk seen most directly behind taylor via those shots of them talking to lauren that night, is almost surely winston’s desk, again approximately closest to its original position.

these shots of winston and lauren are likely from the same scene as those daytime shots of rian and taylor; taylor may be addressing them, while these three are simultaneously Listening. there seems to be another desk a ways across from winston’s, which can’t be rian’s, so there’s at least one other desk that isn’t theirs in that general space. lauren might be standing on the other side of winston’s chair. comparing this shot of winston’s desk, and the apparent shot of it in 5x10 behind taylor, it seems like the way rian and winston’s desks are angled, being kind of on the same diagonal, means that when they’re sitting down, they’re facing each other. 

then, last but not least, soph watched the s5 part 2 trailer again and caught this shot of axe cap behind wendy that could’ve given us this “wow, desks are spaced apart” clue a lot earlier, but oh well lol. 

this is definitely the lower floor of axe cap, what with the front desk and the staircase in the background, and in addition to [people wearing masks in the background] there’s also those Distancing floor markers, what seem to be bottles of hand sanitizer on both those workstation desks there, and, of course, there’s confirmation the desks at axe cap are spaced out. so, a mystery that could’ve been solved before it began by looking really closely at that brief shot of wendy walking through the office, but instead was discovered through looking at pics of rian while having noted and been bothered by the fact someone else sits at rians desk in one 5x09 promo picture, because Do Not Separate Them (Winston And Rian) and, it seems like while they have been separated, only because everyone’s desks have been, and while they aren’t directly adjacent, they’re now facing each other, vs you know, being more at a right angle to each other originally. and once that mystery was discovered, we solved it with the power of friendship and teamwork and a tendency to get into this kind of stuff and determinedly figure it out via a bunch of references already collected. it was fun!

Bonus Mystery Via Promo Images:

in that 5x11 collection, there is also a picture of taylor sitting down in some office: we aren’t certain what office it is, or who they’re talking to. but they’re wearing shoes we’ve never seen before, with soles both noticeable higher than usual, and white, so we don’t miss it.

we’ve definitely never seen taylor with these shoes, and you gotta wonder what the fashion change is for...are the soles more supportive / comfortable? and re: the possibility they could be for comfort, i also noticed that taylor not only chose to put their ankle against their knee to make the shoes visible front and center, but also that they were even capable of doing so. asia, taylor’s actor, said in an interview that the clothes in taylor’s costumes can be physically constraining and inhibit their range of motion:

"Slipping into Taylor’s wardrobe, shoes, pants, belt, the tie that’s, you know, all the way up, the shirt that’s buttoned all the way up, it limits one’s movement, actually, in a way [...] I mean, Taylor, for instance, can’t cross their legs comfortably in the pants that they’re wearing. And that will inform the way that Taylor is sitting in a chair, or the way that Taylor is standing."

(helpfully transcribed by soph, of course) so presumably their usual habit of crossing their ankles is due to the fact they often can’t cross their legs comfortably, just as asia stated, but here they’re doing exactly that, and not only is it even possible for them to manage it, but they do not act like they’re uncomfortable or this is a challenge. so now i’m wondering if taylor’s chosen to wear both shoes and pants that are both unusually Comfortable for them, and sure further wondering if there’s a reason for this, especially after all that desk layout analysis sure confirmed that the pandemic has affected some norms on the show. interesting!!! we are out here noticing things, hence, this whole post. hope you enjoyed this journey, but that’s okay if not because we at least did!

#winston billions #billions #think the fact there's Links in this post means it won't show up in general tags like that but hey. i think it's a good one to throw out lol #riawin #in fact hope i didn't mess up very many of these links or drop the wrong episode number lol. tried to be coherent

[smallfrost]

Mother Mycelium Theory; portal to the Otherworld?

MFS Research Institute is open and we have patches! Make sure to use the hashtag #MFS Research Institute when sharing all of your well crafted theories and investigations so everyone can follow along. 

When I first posted the crack theory about Mother Mushroom, I captioned the screen shot of the Necro Mycelium with “The entrance to The Upside Down, probably”. Now, this was meant to be a joke but perhaps it was unintentionally accurate? What exactly is the Mycelium and how may it come into play? Let’s discuss a possibility below.

The thing is, MFS has now established that Mushrooms are very important to witches in this universe; especially Necros. This is first brought to light by Scylla in the graveyard but now Izadora confirms this in the Necro Mausoleum. I’m not going to write about mushrooms here because others already have (here is a great breakdown) but I think we can all agree that Necros have a special relationship with fungi; perhaps as a conduit to channel the resonance of the dead.

If you come to my office, I’ll make you cream of mushroom soup

So here is where my upside-down joke may have stumbled unintentionally onto something. Throughout different mythologies there are Underworlds or Otherworlds that heroes travel through during their odysseys. In order to reach these worlds, the hero needs to travel through some sort of gateway. I’m not convinced that the Mycelium is a gateway to an Underworld because of its fungal nature. I am unaware of a Greek or Roman myth associating mushrooms with an odyssey to the Underworld and journeys there typically require crossing a body of water. Mushrooms instead seem to be very prevalent in European folklore as a source of power and connection to magic. Regardless of origin and culture, however, one thing is prevalent when it comes to mushrooms: they are often associated with hallucinogenic properties and are therefore utilized for visions (by a religious figure head or oracles for example) or that they can be used to enter a spirit realm to commune with the dead.

Therefore, is it possible that the Mycelium is a gateway to the Otherworld; the Orbis Alius? In Celtic mythology, the Otherworld is a place where souls of the dead travel while they wait to be reincarnated or the in between (or limbo) before moving to their final destination. It is a dimensional plane that contains a high concentration of power and magic where the rules of physics may not apply. The Necros in MFS may therefore use this gateway to amplify their connection to the resonance of the dead such that the dead being in closer dimensional proximity to their own plane may aid them in their work. Together with the visionary implications of fungi and mushrooms, this could suggest a potential dreamscape/lucid dream/vision scenario for Raelle due to her connection with the Mycelium.

I could make so many lesbian jokes but I’ll withhold… for now

Aside. Since Scylla has mentioned that “nothing ever really dies” it is possible that in this universe, reincarnation may be a widely accepted belief. This may suggest that my original theory about “resurrecting” Willa Collar may still be plausible (especially now that we know the Mycelium has a memory of a Collar). I’m not unconvinced that this connection won’t serve as a way for Raelle to communicate with her Collar ancestors at some point if they are themselves in the Otherworld. 

Me after I’ve been in quarantine for 5 weeks

Yes, Necros have a connection to mushrooms. And now we know that the Mycelium has a memory of Raelle. This was obviously something that Izadora DID NOT want to have happen. We also know that there is a metaphysical connection between Raelle and Scylla; Scylla has bound herself to Raelle in some way such that she can communicate with her directly. Now listen, this is not some small piece of work. In ‘My Witches’, the only way Alder and Co. can visualize the Kiev raid is through General Clary’s [metaphysical] connection with her daughter. Therefore, this type of connection (where one witch can communicate with another witch almost telepathically) suggests a bond of a different strength. This also implies that Raelle is now Scylla’s family (another theory which I am very fond of).

All of us when MFS season 1 ends

In terms of additional context clues for episode 7, in several different trailers (including the most recent one for ‘Mother Mycelium’), we see a moment when Raelle wakes up rather suddenly, looking as though she was bursting out of a dream or had a sudden realization. She is wearing a grey sleep shirt.

When you remember you left a NSFW post up on your work computer

This appears to be the same shirt she is wearing in the promo pics with her in the Dungeon with Scylla. Two things stick out to me from the following photos:

1) Raelle appears to be asleep or unconscious, with Scylla attempting to get her attention 2) Raelle is unbound and alone in the Dungeon with Scylla

Now, no well-structured military body would EVER lock two hostages in the same dungeon together but especially if they have a relationship such as that between Raelle and Scylla. This show is too intelligent to play into the “they’re locked in a cell together; I wonder what will happen?” fanfiction trope (there’s a prompt, someone go write it). Further, if Raelle WAS a hostage, she also would have been chained and bound. So, for these reasons, together with the context any mythological clues above, I think we are perhaps getting a glimpse at a dreamscape.

EDIT: The final piece of evidence is actually one of the first we ever received. A line of dialogue and later a clip from a trailer where Scylla says “You have no idea how powerful you are”. From this trailer, we can now see that Scylla says this while she is in the dungeon. 

Oh darling, you make me powerless...

It is likely she is speaking to Raelle in this moment because 1) Anacostia has told Scylla directly that she is a gifted student, 2) Abigail has acknowledged she is naturally gifted (and will be seeking her help to save Khalida), 3) We see her use intense power in training (the storm she brews when fighting Abigail, vocal, wind strike training, her power with the scourge, her healing leveling the entire class), and 4) The Spree want to extract Raelle, perhaps because of her power. No one else has been made out to be this powerful contextually yet so we can infer that Scylla is talking to Raelle. So somehow, Raelle ends up in the dungeon, and likely utilized a lot of power to do so. End EDIT.

Raelle, through her metaphysical connection with Scylla and their physical connections to the Mycelium, may enter the Otherworld and be able to travel through this dimensional plane and commune with Scylla. So, is that the real Raelle? I think perhaps it is, but in a metaphysical way. 

However, I am not convinced that all of the promotional photos are from the same scene. Scylla is being tortured in one. Raelle looks like she is being dragged into the dungeon in another. I’m not sure how these all fit together but @pure-gay-fandom-trash​ and I have a hunch that the release of all of these photos serves to throw us off our predictions due to the lack of context. So it is very possible that there may in fact be a faux Raelle scenario as well (which I’ll discuss in more detail in a separate post).

EDIT: All this being said, the fact that Scylla directly states that mushrooms occupy the underworld in the kingdom of plants does suggest the existence of an actual Underworld in this universe. It could be that the Otherworld is the space in between (limbo) or it could be that Eliot is creating an entirely new mythology which I am totally here for. 

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