Because literally? All he had to do to be able to change how he acted and not risk some form of death in the process, while also avoiding the 'punishment for the evil senator' segment?
Was stage a very dramatic and public way in which to disapoint Orion, then avoid/be avoided by Orion for a while, and then do a public grovelling/declaration of love while loudly declaring that he now realizes how horrible and unlovable he is, but he promises he will change, for Orion!
Dick move? Yes, obviously.
Would people believe him? No, but more in a 'oh, wait a month and he'll be back to his old tricks way'.
Now of course that would sabotage the whole storyline, and so is a no. But can you picture the 'end of the world' part, where things are so broken down that laws don't really apply anymore, and Shadowplayed Shockwave has done so much horrible shit that the original context of his being isekaied has gotten to be a trivial detail and he's spilled it out.
And there you get Jazz, dead-eyed, all "this whole war was meaningless and could have been avoided so easily!" explain this exact scheme.
Yeah you see your way of thinking is very true but the whole au is based on Chinese bl kind of isekai and those books have this very popular trope where isekaid characters HAVE TO fulfill their role. Like that’s the whole fun. They usually have some kind of entity/system watching them and ensuring they stay true to their character. So it’s less like “Shockwave has a new life with questionable backstory” and more like “Shockwave has to fit into the villain role otherwise he’ll be banned from the existence”.
All that shit is very illogical and exists purely for the sake of shenanigans hahah don’t think about it too much:D
This isn't the fic title. It's the premise and my current title is pending (I'm debating on "Cosma's Horrible Ball Pit Adventure" since I really want a scene where Fink and the Box kids drag her to a Chuck E. Cheese adjacent place for whatever reason, hahah.)
Cosma only had a handful of on-screen appearances and one prominent episode. I plan on the majority of this fic being from her POV so I'll probably take some creative license, starting with setting her and Billiam as friends that go out to eat together. Here's what I have so far: the setup for why Cosma would go anywhere near the Voxy Bunch for reasons other than just business.
Cosma slammed her palms on the table and glared at Billiam until the pompous buffoon blinked a few times and looked up from his phone. She growled, pointing a claw at the perfectly sumptuous beef patty that was quickly blackening and getting brittle. He giggled nervously and turned over the patty while Cosma’s glare intensified.
“Keep an eye on your food!” She cried. “Those are finest quality in Lakewood. They’re only a few grades below wagyu! Wagyu. Beef.”
“Such a foodie!” He grinned and gave a playful wave. Then his phone pinged and he immediately returned to whatever inane conversation he’d been sucked into.
“Billiam.” Cosma grabbed the edge of the table in a frustrated, surface cracking grip. “If you weren’t interested in grabbing yakiniku with me today, we could have rescheduled.”
“Oh…” He looked startled. “I’m sorry, darling! I recently hit it off with this really fine specimen on Winklr.” With a little chuckle, Billiam tapped his screen a few times before holding up his phone and turning it towards Cosma.
Sucking in a deep, frustrated breath, she released the table and looked at Billiam’s new...beau. In his profile picture, the thin and lithe man was trying too hard to look seductive. He was bright pink to the point he almost glowed, had tight blond ringlets in his hair, and the heavy, dramatic makeup that every one of Billiam’s favorite prospects had. The most promising feature was the arrogant and smarmy smirk.
Billiam had never fully gotten over Professor Venomous, had he? They’d been a really casual item for the last six years until Venomous met Boxman. Before Boxman, Billiam took Venomous home often or played matchmaker between Venomous and his favorite vendors. He adored the man in his hedonistic way and loved showing him off whether it was for his personal enjoyment or playing with vicarious what-ifs he had about other villains. There were a few previous Venomous partners that Billiam had one-off flings with just because they were on the fringes of whatever his dynamic with Venomous ultimately was. Now, whatever Venomous had with Boxman was closer to monogamous or at least exclusive.
Despite herself, Cosma did wonder about the weird little brunette enby that had been hanging off of Boxman or Venomous recently. Billiam had spent plenty of time gossiping and drumming up really scandalous theories, but Cosma only ever half-listened. All she cared about was that as long as she entertained Billiam’s need to write soap operas about his peers, he covered the bill every time they went out. She ate like a galactic empress on someone else’s dime!
Billiam giggled again and pulled his phone back in front of his face. Whoever this ethereal fop was, Cosma was about to learn far more about him than she ever wanted to know.
“His name is Rose Blanche!” Billiam made a pleased hum. “He’s a trust fund baby, like me! He…”
Billiam gushing about his new boyfriend faded into the background when an incredible smell hit Cosma’s snout. Seconds later, a frustrated lizard man shuffled past the table with a couple of big bags of styrofoam packages. That take-out order was the source of the mouth-watering, thought blocking scent. As she focused every brain cell on identifying the scent, her eyes bugged and she felt a bead of drool collecting on her bottom lip.
Whatever those orders were contained some portion of Xanadun pearlsnout. How to describe a pearlsnout? It was a mix between an Earth chicken, a pufferfish, and the soft, chewy, melt in your mouth texture of wagyu beef. She’d only ever tried a pearlsnout dish once but it was an unforgettable delight. She dreamed about it only every night and longed to get her claws on it again with every cell in her body.
The pearlsnout was exclusive to Galaxia, an absolute delicacy there, and an even bigger luxury on Earth considering how rare it was on its home planet already. As if that wasn’t enough, these pearlsnout dishes had been prepared with herbs and touches that were unique to only the top-most gourmet chefs from Planet X. If Cosma had been able to properly think, she could probably trace the source to the exact chef too. She was proud to say she’d eaten dishes from 5 of those 7 chefs (before they refused to serve her after the almost eating their home planet whole incident anyway).
Hopelessly, Cosma watched as the lizard man crossed the restaurant towards the front podium. She was seconds away from tackling him to the floor and dumping everything from her personal dragon hoard to take those dishes home now and tear into them like a ravenous hog. Just as she was standing up, the restaurant worker passed the takeout over to...a very tired and frazzled looking Professor Venomous.
Cosma swallowed thickly as she watched the heavenly dishes exit with the professor.
“Oohhh!” She turned towards an excited Billiam that could barely stay seated.
She sat back down with a rough thud and flicked her tail as her head filled with food daydreams. So much of her hoped that the Golden Elixir restaurant had some extra pearlsnout. The part of her brain still actually working knew that it was a custom order. It was a custom, hard to procure and prepare, stupidly expensive order.
Knowing how Venomous did things, he’d probably blackmailed someone or made a trade for a rare miracle cure for someone’s one in a million disease only he could synthesize something fast enough to treat. Neither of those options were viable for Cosma. She didn’t threaten her cooks. They made queenly feasts for her. They were rewarded handsomely and treated like royalty because it meant more feasts later.
“I bet Professor Venomous is about to propose!” Billiam squealed. “Did you see-?”
“Yes, I saw what he ordered,” Cosma growled.
“I told him about pearlsnout as a perfect party platter for weddings!” Billiam was pumping his fists now. “He’s taking my advice!”
“Wouldn’t you get an invite?” Cosma narrowed her eyes.
“It’s an engagement party, darling.” Billiam chuckled in a smug way. “He’d only invite close friends and family for that. I’m a fair weather friend!”
“Close friends and family, hmm?” Cosma started stroking her chin.
“Don’t worry! You’re in my top 5 guest list if I ever get married!”
“As long as you have a 5 star spread, I’ll be there.” Cosma grinned.
“Of course!” Billiam latticed his fingers and rested his chin on his hands. “The entire spread would be all of your favorites. I know how you work.”
“Perfect.” Cosma chuckled under her breath. As Billiam wound up to start gushing about his boyfriend again, Cosma dug out her phone and sent Lord Boxman a friend request over social media. If he was still as hungry and desperate for friends as she thought he was, she could taste the pearlsnout already.
She licked her lips and scooped up a fresh round of beef patties. It wasn’t the same, but maybe Billiam’s share of beef patties could help sate her specific cravings. At least for now.
I don't think you reblogged this but I am interested so 1&2 for the same ask game when you have time! Whichever WIP you want.
Oh my days HI GABE!!!! Thank you for the ask!! For everyone else there's a wip questionnaire here by @buffythevampirelover which maybe I'll reblog in a minute if anyone wants to ask me questions about my fan or og projects hahahah
1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?
Okay I'm actually gonna answer this about two different projects because a) I bugged gabe to actually give me a project and he said disarmed sksksk but also b) I have an interesting answer for one of my og projects
Disarmed, first of all - this is a fanfic wip that I'm currently working on (we're on the last chapter now, hurrah!). It's an idea I had in 2021, and I had actually decided that it was officially scrapped/permanently shelved at the start of January....only for me to then sign up to the goreswap exchange and decide to write it anyway SKSK ONLY TO THEN STOP because it got too long so I wrote something else instead.
If you don't like mentions of horrible injuries, I'd recommend stopping here and jumping to the next post on your dash haha.
Disarmed actually originally came about from a very rancid dream I had where the Doctor and the Master were both found in a forest on an alien planet, holding each other's severed arms over their shoulders rip. And so, from there, I ended up drafting this Idea in my brain - and I had this EXCEPTIONALLY clear image in my head of the Master sewing the Doctor's arm onto where his used to be (which...kind of doesn't technically even happen in the story anymore but the imagery remained), and so that was the first thing I created. Which is - actually tell you what, I'm gonna throw that sketch that i did under the cut along with the rest of this answer in case people scrolling don't want to see mild cartoon gore haha. Also this post might get a bit long anyway
Here he is!
So in case anyone wasn't sure, the title is purely there for the pun and always has been hahah
For my og project though - this is a script that I'm not gonna say the name of because I submitted it to a BBC script call HAHA, but it's about a meteorite strike that causes a lot of problems, including giving some people dangerous powers. This idea actually started waaaaaaaay back when I was like, 16yo or so, when I wrote three songs that I wanted to make into a concept album. I'm pretty sure that the first one was actually one called Days Gone By, which I actually filmed myself singing here, back when I had long hair haha, although I think you could argue that the bones of We've Heard It All Before (which is now a complete song - and also YIKES I took this fast, baby taka what are you doing sksksk) came up before any of Days Gone By. How do I know this? I have a ton of old voice notes on my laptop. The interesting thing here is that Days Gone By is actually Plot C in my script and doesn't even come up in the episode that I wrote, which was the pilot, and thus only covers Plot A (Through the Dust and Blood, the third song which I did not film) and Plot B (We've Heard It All Before). Even funnier story - the idea for the original concept album which became the script was ALSO, like disarmed, based on a dream I had HAHAHA (but like, so loosely. I don't think any of the original dream other than the imminent meteorite strike has made it into the final project. Great jumping off point, though!).
2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?
Gonna answer this one about my og WIP script, Onkalo, because this project has some original folk songs that I've written right at the heart of it - and so, naturally, I would have a rendition of Over Onkalo as the intro. I kind of imagine it like, a medley of an instrumental or soundtrack version, so more dramatic and orchestral, but with people singing the song coming in and out of it - and then it would end on just people singing the last line acapella as the rest of the music fades out and theeeeen - titles! Or something like that. If I have to go with a song that's already been written though, I'd probably go with maybe El Búho by Blanco White, or You Are a Memory by Message to Bears.
Darlin, sweetie, Halfusek dear, how the hell did you find the motivation to make abomination? Cause I cannot my dude, also, did you have a script for it? As in, writing down the lines of dialog and actions for the characters and such? If so, how long did it take to make each page of the comic?
my motivation was creating something out of spite @ life
honestly i cant really give much advice here because abomination was something i was motivated to do above anything else so i just did it
and yeah i had a script! initially i just wrote down the ending and made other parts as i went but then i started scripting every part and that helped me be consistent and organized ^^
also i suppose that could help with staying motivated? because you have a clear goal and can mark some things as done - i personally absolutely love marking things as done on my list lol
i basically wrote mine as schedule on events in numbered list, or if something was more complex such as the ending then i first wrote it sort of like fanfiction and then broke down to a numbered list (each number is one panel)
example from the ending:
more fanfiction looking part
"Joey is in a wheelchair. Bendy starts sliding away. They are on the level with the Ink Machine – Joey put Bendy there and goes down to him from the „most top” level every now and then. They’ve had mutual distrust to each other but Bendy is more or less free, not in a cage, there is none.
Joey takes an axe and goes after Bendy with a wheelchair until he has to get off it. He tries going with axe using it as a cane but collapses. Bendy turns around but then Joey starts crawling so he contrinues escaping. Joey’s legs literally stop working after a bit and he struggles a lot, swears and shouts at Bendy to obey him. They’re both fucking slugs now."
do take note that i don't care about grammar or spelling mistakes here and i just kinda write whatever (yes the slugs part has always been there) because this is only for me to see (and i guess yall are seeing it now but xD its not part of the work itself hahah)
scheduled list of events
Part 68
THE END
(dramatic lightning so it all just looks better)
1. Title card, maybe something with the end reel and all the characters being somehow fit into it.
2. Warning card. Will type the message of it after I’m done drawing.
3. Long panel with Bendy sliding away and Joey watching from the wheelchair, it’s just their dark shilouettes.
4. Bendy makes a turn near the output schedule.
5. Bendy gets over the pipe with Joey almost catching up behind him.
6. Joey gets down on his knees before the pipe, holding onto his axe like a cane.
7. He’s getting over it, while Bendy keeps escaping.
8. Bendy freezes, facing the camera, a bit of a close up.
9. Zoom out, he’s on a balcony.
10. He looks a bit behind/to the side where we see Joey who got over the pipe and is more or less laying on the floor, he’s very weak, maybe his head is dropped down.
11. Joey looks up, smiling horribly and Bendy panics and slides fast forward.
12. Bendy gets over/through the balcony’s fence.
13. Joey gets in the doorway, kind of confused to see Bendy fall.
14. He gets to the fence with a panicked expression and looks at the puddle down below.
15. He gives a sign of relief when Bendy picks himself back up and looks up at him.
16. Joey makes an unamused face.
17. Bendy is looking up.
18. Bendy backs away.
19. Bendy runs away while Joey SLAMS onto the ground.
20. Joey struggles to get up with Bendy being a bit away.
21. Joey gets up and supports himself with the cane and goes towards Bendy.
22. Bendy is sliding.
23. Bendy hears another “thud” and stops
24. Bendy turns around.
25. Joey fell down again, he is holding onto the axe still but breathing heavily.
26. Close up on Joey, “Stop…”
27. Close up on Bendy, “Stop running away…”
28. Joey crawling towards Bendy, angry “YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO OBEY ME”
yeah
i just wrote down enough for me after imagining each panel in my head to remember what needs to be done here
of course sometimes it turns out differently than from what i've imagined but it really helps to stay on track!
and ofc you may find a different method better, that's just what i do :)
as for how much time each page took, it depends really
the simplest panels with one character can take no longer than 5-10 minutes, but the more complex ones with multiple characters / a background / shading, can take even 1-2 hours
of course it's all in a very sketchy grayscale style, so it took the shortest amount of time that it could xD coloring and lining would make it take much, much longer
This took so long to write because I honestly didn’t have any plan for the story hahah I also hate it but I decided to stop being a pus and just post it :)
Even though he was still cold and hungry and sleeping on the floor, Cassian probably wouldn’t have woken up if it weren’t for a finger poking him in the face and a quiet voice whispering, “Wake up. Wake up.”
His eyes opened slowly, and he found himself really enjoying early-morning Nesta. She was braced above him, body right above his. Her eyes were bright and her hair was shooting in every direction possible, and he grinned up at her.
She didn’t grin back, and his brows knitted in confusion.
“Cassian.”
The way Nesta said his name was somehow exactly like his grade-school teachers whenever he’d pulled a prank on someone but they couldn’t prove it.
He nodded, surprisingly nervous.
“I need to ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth.”
That’s almost exactly what Mrs. Presley had said.
“Okay.”
She took a deep breath, and every part of him noticed she was still, in fact, naked. Nesta nibbled her bottom lip, then seemed to decide to just get it over with and asked in a quiet voice, “Was I just a mark to you?”
Cassian started to sit up, started to respond, but she held a hand out. “The truth. No matter what.”
His hands came to her shoulders and moved her so they were lying on their sides, facing each other. He propped his head up in his hand and tried to figure out how to explain it.
Cassian reached out and brushed her hair off her shoulder. “Nesta, you stopped being just a mark to me the day I met you.”
“Which pissed me off like you wouldn’t believe.” He smiled softly as he thought about the first day they’d met. “I don’t know, you just... weren’t what I was expecting. You were so angry and strong and tough, and I couldn’t stay away from you. I wanted to get to know the you, even though I shouldn’t have.”
She was quiet for a moment, then said, “You know me more than most people.”
“I know.”
She sighed and nodded, trying to look satisfied with his answer, but her eyes kept going to the wall of the tent, a tell that there was something else she wanted to ask.
“What is it?” Nesta looked at him, and he raised a brow. “Just ask me whatever you want to ask me.”
She ran a hand through her hair and rolled her eyes, but still asked, “Why’d you sleep with me, if you cared about me? You knew I’d find out who you were, and you knew it’d hurt me.”
The honesty and pain and vulnerability in her voice made his chest hurt, and he looked down. “I didn’t mean to. I told myself I wasn’t going to. But ever since the day I met you, nothing has gone according to plan. And I’ve never been able to stay away from you.”
He looked back up, swallowing the lump in his throat. “I’ll always regret that I hurt you. You have no idea how much I hate that you were ever in pain because of me.”
Nesta nodded and fell silent, apparently lost in thought. She stayed like that for a long moment, and then said something Cassian hadn’t even known he needed to hear. “I don’t regret it.”
There was no doubt in her words, but he still asked, “You don’t?”
She shook her head. “I wish I would’ve known, obviously. But I don’t regret sleeping with you, and I don’t hate you for what you did. I... forgive you.”
It surprised Cassian how much of weight that lifted off of him. He still had a lot of forgiveness to earn, but to hear that she didn’t regret it, that he hadn’t done anything she hadn’t wanted, meant a lot to him.
“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” he joked.
“Don’t get used to it.”
He rested his head on his arm, smiling broadly at her. “So this really was just a scheme to get me naked.”
Nesta scoffed, and he made a dramatic groan. “I can’t believe you almost got me killed just so I’d sleep with you again.”
“I don’t think it would be particularly difficult to achieve that result, considering you can’t keep your perverted eyes off of me.”
Cassian’s lips twitched, but he deflected. “I was trying to see your ribs. Obviously. How do they feel?”
She shrugged, proving once again she wasn’t the pampered princess everyone thought her to be. “I’m fine.”
He reached out and gently touched the bruised skin, just to make sure, smiling when she drew in a breath. “Calm down over there.”
Her ribs were definitely bruised, potentially cracked, but they weren’t life-threatening at the moment. He should take his hand off her. He should stop watching the way her chest rose and fell with each breath.
Oh, well.
His fingers brushed her side softly, and goosebumps raised underneath them, making him grin. They slid down to her hip, then back up, brushing the side of her breast slightly.
“You’re a very thorough doctor,” she pointed out in a breathy voice.
Cassian nodded in agreement, then slid down in the sleeping back and kissed her ribs softly. He heard her say something that sounded suspiciously like Sweet heavens above, so he wasn’t surprised when a hand in his hand pulled him roughly back up.
He wasn’t surprised when she kissed him, was even less surprised when he kissed her back.
He made sure to avoid putting pressure on her injury as he braced himself above her and slid his tongue in her mouth, kissing her slowly and deeply like he’d been dying to since he’d found her in that stupid tree.
They both knew there were a million other things they should be doing, a million plans that needed to be thought of. But neither of them cared.
All that mattered was this moment, what was between them.
Or rather, what wasn’t between them. There were no more secrets that threatened things, no more hidden identities and pasts.
He knew exactly who she was, and she knew who he was.
And even though nothing was settled and her freedom was still in jeopardy, all Cassian could think was, Finally.
~Four hours later, Nesta~
She stared at the insanely beautiful man in front of her and sighed. He sighed back, sounding equally as annoyed, although she doubted that were the case.
Nesta raised an eyebrow, he did the same.
For almost an hour, they’d been doing this shit. Mirroring each other. Everything she did, he’d do a second later. It was extremely juvenile and irritating, but she wasn’t about to stop. Then he’d win.
Neither of them had said a word, either.
It’d been fifty-eight minutes of silence and sighs and head tilts and eye narrows.
If she were less resolved to win this silent little battle, she’d have gone crazy by now.
Another twenty minutes went by before she caved just a little. “Where’s Cassian?”
He’d disappeared right after the helicopter had landed in Langley, a slip of seriousness coming over him almost as soon as the wheels touched down. He’d told her on the ride over that he wasn’t taking her to California until he knew she’d go free. So she was in Virginia.
It was a horrible option compared to California but a great one compared to life in prison, so she wasn’t complaining.
The current plan was to give him and Azriel time to figure something out. They could apparently keep her off the record for a few days, so she wouldn’t pop up in the system.
If she went to California, that wouldn’t be an option, and who knew if the governor had people waiting for her to pop up?
She was out of options, out of plans. Now, it was on Cassian. He was doing everything he could to keep her free.
She had to trust him.
Even if the thought of her--and her sisters’--lives being in someone else’s hands made her nauseous.
This is his job, she reminded herself. He isn’t a complete idiot.
And apparently, if he was going to be any help to her at all, he needed to at least look like he was not emotionally involved. Which meant she was being interrogated by Azriel, aka Cassian’s partner.
“He’s occupied,” he said back, gravelly voice cold and hard yet a little amused. “Why? You miss him?”
“Is being a smartass a requirement to work for the FBI?” she asked, bracing her head on one hand.
Azriel did the same. “We don’t accept applications from felons, unfortunately.”
What a funny man. She just closed her eyes and said, “Wake me up when he comes back.”
“Why don’t you just tell me why you shot a drug dealer in the face? I’ll be sure to pass the message back to him.”
Nesta laughed. “Cassian? He already knows.”
“Fine, then why don’t you tell me why you shot him, too? I’m sure he’d love to know.”
She opened her eyes at that and took in the anger in his hazel eyes, the set of his jaw. They were partners, but they were definitely friends, too.
“He lied to me. Not to mention he fucked me to get close to me.” Just thinking about it--even though she’d forgiven him--made her want to shoot him all over again.
Azriel raised an eyebrow, and she made sure to do the same. “How much closer can you get to someone?”
“I didn’t mean physically close, you asshole.”
He smiled, and she finally asked the question she’d been wondering ever since he strolled into the room. “Are you and Cassian related?”
They sure as hell looked related. They were both tall and strongly built, with dark hair and tan skin and other similar features. Maybe they were cousins or something.
Azriel shot down that theory--and confirmed the asshole part of her last statement--when he deadpanned, “A threesome would be legal.”
The cuffs on her wrists were the only reason she didn’t leap across the table and strangle him. “You and him both can go-”
“He’s behind the glass, Nesta.”
“Oh.” Nesta looked at the glass and blushed a little. “Why’s he back there?”
“Because it’d be a conflict of interest for him to interrogate you.”
She nodded, but it didn’t make sense. “Wait, why?”
“Because you’ve had sex,” he said in a dull voice. It was clear he was about two seconds from smashing his head down onto the table.
“Yeah, but it didn’t mean anything to him.” She knew that was a lie, but she didn’t want to get him in trouble. Plus, she was almost sure Cassian hadn’t told about their romp in the woods, so neither would she.
Azriel sighed yet again and rubbed his temples, then reached and grabbed something from behind his ear. He leaned forward, slapping it on her before she could react.
Cassian’s voice came through the line a second later. “If you actually believe that, I take back every statement I’ve ever made about you being intelligent.”
Had he been talking to Azriel this whole time? What was the point of that? Couldn’t he just come in the room?
Men don’t make any sense.
“I don’t,” she told him. She’d been trying to protect his job.
There was a beat of silence. “Give the chip back to Azriel, please.”
She did, watching as he took it and put it right behind his ear. Interesting.
Azriel rolled his eyes at whatever Cassian said to him, then said, “Go through the events of August 15, 2018.”
“Why?” Nesta asked instead, still not quite ready to trust the system. “So I can be on record?”
“You already are. You told your story to a federal officer.”
She rolled her eyes, a headache blooming. “Then why do I have to re-tell it?”
“Because I would like to decide if you’re lying or not.”
She gave him a flat look. “You don’t trust Cassian?”
Azriel tilted his head, the first time he hadn’t mirrored her motions. “No, I don’t trust the woman who shot him and left him to die.”
“I knew he wasn’t going to die,” she defended, trying to sound sure in that statement. “And I didn’t lie to him.”
She said that last part looking towards the glass, hoping he was paying attention.
Her interrogator seemed to think about that, then said, “Fine. How are you planning on proving it?”
I have no idea.
“Isn’t that your job?” she said instead, this conversation starting to grate her nerves.
Azriel gave her a small smile. “I’m just trying to figure out if there are any alternatives to Cassian’s stupid ass idea.”
What was that supposed to mean? What idea? And why would it be stupid? If it would prevent her from wearing an orange jumpsuit for the rest of her life, it was a win in her book.
“What’s the idea?”
He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “He wants to use you to go after the governor. He’s a bad guy. He’s the one enabling his son. He’s why you felt you had to run. He knows about the murder and is profiting off the drug trade.”
Nesta nodded in agreement. “Sure, he’s a piece of shit. But what can I do? If I go back, he’ll have me arrested. And what do you mean, use me?”
There was a bang on the other side of the glass, like a warning.
Azriel shrugged, ignoring the sound. “The plan is for you to go undercover for us and take that piece of shit down.”
“What? Me?”
“Our boss said if you can get a confession out of the governor and his son, you’ll walk. The charges for evading arrest will be dropped. You also have immunity for the drug possession I’m sure occurred.”
Her mouth dropped open, and she didn’t care that Cassian was probably smirking at it. No charges? This was... this was huge.
This was a chance to start over and actually have a life. A chance to go home and see her sisters. A chance to stop running and finally be free.
But... why was it a stupid idea? What was Cassian trying to keep her from finding out? “What’s the catch?”
“It’s a suicide mission, honestly. The governor’s well-guarded and his son hangs out with some pretty bad people. Getting to either of them won’t be easy.”
True. She’d hung out with Blake enough to know just how bad his friends were. And the governor himself... God, it would be impossible, but at least it was a chance.
There had to be some other reason, though. Cassian knew she could take care of herself.
“Why is this even an option? I’m pretty much the definition of a flight risk.”
Another bang on the glass, and she knew she’d gotten to the part he didn’t want her to know.
Azriel, apparently, didn’t share such reservations. He ignored the warning sound entirely and told her, “If we find out you run, all charges will be transferred to Cassian.”
Oh, God. Why would he do that?
Because it was effective as hell, that’s why.
She hadn’t planned on running before, but there was absolutely no way it was happening now. She wasn’t ruining his life because she was unwilling to face the consequences of her actions.
Azriel took out the ear chip and put it on the table with a sigh, apparently having had enough of being yelled at. “Do we have a deal?”
A plan started to form in the back of her mind, and after two years, she finally saw a way out of this mess.
Hi ! I'm sorry if you have already talked about that, I'm just new to the fandom. I just finished s3 and I've felt so conflicted since Lucy's death.. There was a sort of lightness in the show despite of the crime element and obvs flirtation between Brio.. But now, everything seems so dark and Beth is trying to kill him. I feel like there's been a shift and that they'll never be able to come back from it.. What are your thoughts ?? Thank you and stay safe !!
Hi! Welcome to the fandom, anon! :-)
Season three definitely has a darker feel overall, so I completely understand why you feel conflicted! I think you’re right too - the balance between the lighter elements of the show and the darker ones was really different in s3 compared to seasons 1 and 2, and it gave the season a very different energy. Interestingly though, I don’t actually think the content itself was all that much darker, but rather that shift was felt more in the way that that content was framed and paced.
After all, violence – and the threat of violence – has been a pretty integral part of the show since it began, and while I think there’s a bit to be said about how much of the violence of the show made its way from subtext to text – Eddie’s death happened off-screen, but Lucy’s didn’t, for instance – I also think that there have been moments of textual violence since the show began. Beth knocked Boomer out with a whiskey bottle after he’d tried to rape Annie in the very first episode after all, something that was echoed with Boomer’s completed rape of Mary Pat and her hitting him with her car in 2.03. In that sense, the violence might’ve escalated in some ways across the first two seasons – culminating with Beth shooting Rio in 2.13 – but it’s always been a part of the DNA of the show overall.
In that sense, I think what’s really changed isn’t so much the violence and threat of violence itself, but rather the way that the show frames that violence and the effect that has on the pacing, tone and character beats.
So hey! Let’s break that down a little.
Catch and Release
When it comes to scenes of intense drama or violence – played out or inferred – Good Girls is really a show that, at least for its first two seasons, relies on a pretty defined structure that I’d say goes something like this:
1. Contextual joke that builds tension and/or sets mood.
2. Act of violence or drama.
3. Throwaway joke that breaks tension and/or resets mood.
As a structure, it’s generally pretty effective and is ultimately used to manage the tone of the episode. After all, for a show like Good Girls which is a dramedy, leaning too hard on the joke or too hard on the drama can create the off-balanced feeling we got in s3, but I’ll come back to that later.
This structure essentially presents the violence or drama of the scene as the meat of a burger, allowing the jokes to both complete the meal (delicious!) while also softening up the richness or intensity of the meat itself.
Generally speaking, I’d say Good Girls did this quite simply and effectively in s1, experimented and tested the elastic of it in s2, and more or less got rid of one crucial step in s3. It makes for an interesting exploration of narrative structure, I think, but that’s just because I find this sort of stuff interesting to explore, haha.
So what’s that actually look like in action?
Okay, let’s take 1.01 with the scene I described above.
1. Contextual joke that builds tension or sets mood
I’d say in this case it was the entire scene at the end of the episode where Annie, Beth and Ruby are arguing about what to do about Rio.
2. Act of Violence
Boomer attempts to rape Annie, Beth hits Boomer, Boomer falls into the coffee table.
3. Throwaway joke that breaks tension and resets mood.
And again in 1.02.
1. Contextual joke that builds tension or sets mood
Annie trying to sell Rio on the dolls.
2. Act of Violence
Rio ordering Mick to kill Beth.
3. Throwaway joke that breaks tension and resets mood.
Boomer popping out of the treehouse.
(please forgive my horrible screencaps, I took these after I’d written this post and it’s now late, hahah)
Annnnd again in 1.04
1:
2:
3:
By 1.09, they were already starting to leave wider gaps between the jokes and the tension – which makes sense as it was building towards the climax and they were wanting more drama than comedy – but importantly, this framing was still present.
1: The girls joking about the van job
2: The tense climax of the van job
3: The joke about the result of the tense climax
And in 2.01, it kept those gaps big as a direct continuation.
1. Contextual joke that builds tension
Beth putting the mug on the coaster as she scrubs blood off her floor.
2. Rio shooting Dean in a flashback.
3. Annie and Ruby bickering about Annie stealing a hospital meal (tone reset as a result of violent climax)
The series went on to test this further in s2 by adding extra beats to create more complex (and interesting, in my opinion!) variations. The clearest example of this is in 2.03 with the Boomer and Mary Pat sequence:
1. Tension establishing joke: the girls in the hotel bickering about the price of the room.
2. An act of inferred violence – Boomer rapes Mary Pat
3. An act of textual violence that builds off both the joke and the inferred violence of the previous scene – Mary Pat runs over Boomer.
4. A throwaway joke as a tension breaker – Mary Pat worried her kids have heard only to see them engrossed in their devices while the Power of Love plays in the background.
5. Takes us straight into an even better tension breaker joke with Mary Pat telling the girls she chopped Boomer up.
(That is such. good. snowballing. tension. And I could talk about it forever. Like, seriously. It’s not a sequence we talk about a lot, but 2.03 is an excellent example of complex dramedy writing).
That said, it often still fell back on that classic structure too in satisfying ways. 2.07 being a perfect example.
1. Contextual joke to establish tension
2. Tension / act of violence
3. Tension breaker.
Whiiiich brings us to 2.13.
King
Look, 2.13 doesn’t work for a lot of reasons, but in no small part, it doesn’t work because it doesn’t play with the above structure like the Mary Pat and Boomer arc did in 2.03, nor test the elasticity of it like 1.09 and 2.01 do, rather it completely abandons it altogether.
It doesn’t build tension effectively through that blend of drama and comedy that the show can do really well, nor does it break it afterwards for us with a lighter moment that commentates on that tension, rather it thrusts the violence and drama onto us in a way that wasn’t well established narratively, and – quite frankly – was badly written.
I could talk a lot more about why that narrative choice doesn’t work, but that’s not really what we’re here to talk about. What we’re here to talk about is:
A Change of Pace
Because the thing is, season 3 does actually return to it’s s1 and s2 structure, only with one, crucial change.
It abandons Step 3: the joke that resets the mood.
What this means is that we have the contextual joke which establishes the tension and the mood, and the tension, but then the tension’s never actually broken for us afterwards.
This is perhaps clearest in 3.05 with Lucy’s murder.
1. We have the establishing joke with the girls debating which Au Jus hostage photo to use.
2. We have the act of violence.
And then we have only aftermath.
Ruby crawls into bed with Stan, Annie with Ben, and Beth takes Au Jus home.
On it’s own, I think this is an effective break from structure. I think it underscores the power of this sequence overall and the importance of Lucy’s death as a narrative moment and the ‘innocence lost’ theme.
Only it’s not on it’s own.
The season kept breaking structure. Over and over again.
It happens after Rio kills Turner in 3.01 (there’s a slightly lighter scene that caps that with Rio checking out of the hotel, so you could kind of argue that it was returning to the same structure, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark for me), it happens when Rio confronts Beth in 3.03 and when he takes her to the OBGYN, it happens when Max tries to confront Rio at the bar in 3.06, and it happens in most of the scenes with the hitman.
In fact, I’d argue that the only scenes that returned to the catch and release structure in s3 were the scene where Ruby stole the hockey jersey, the carwash scene which ended with Mick wanting to go to IHOP and, most effectively, in the Sweet P’s job in 3.10.
You’re talking a lot about sequence structure here, Sophie.
Right! Sorry! Tangents, haha.
What I’m getting at is that I don’t think the content of the show itself is any different. Murder, crime, intimidation and violence has been central to the show’s DNA since 1.01, and a lot of this has been textual. Lucy’s death I think definitely feels different because she’s the first true innocent we’ve seen killed on this show, but y’know, Rio was threatening to murder random PTA moms way back in 1.07 when Beth’s secret shopper scheme proved – err, unvetted, and Dean was trying to organise hitmen in s2 too.
Structure is important. Structure is what sets up audience expectations and establishes the rhythm of a story as well as – most importantly for this discussion – the tone of one. Seasons 1 and 2 presented the dramatic and comedic elements of the show ultimately as a marriage. The comedy was used frequently to guide us as viewers in and out of tension, and ultimately, I think this is why season 3 felt so different. That three point sequence structure was unbraided, the comedy divorced from the drama, which stuttered the rhythm and ultimately affected the tone.
SO, in answering your question as to whether or not the show can come back from the darkness to find its balance again, yeah, I think it can!
I think the writers sort of wrote themselves into a big, ugly corner with 2.13 and spent a lot of s3 struggling to find a way back out of it. Like, I think on a narrative and a character level, they had to show Rio kill someone in s3 to re-establish him as a character with teeth, because if they hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been the source of tension and conflict that they rely on him to be. I think they committed themselves to darker elements of Beth’s character and to asking the question of what it is the girls are capable of, because that’s the sort of thing you commit yourself to when you throw a grenade into your own story like they did with 2.13.
And look, I don’t think they got themselves out of it perfectly by any stretch of the imagination – in particular sacrificing parts of the way they typically structured tension in violence as they tried to reset the board meant they ultimately also chose to sacrifice both rhythm and tone too – but I think they were rebuilding by the end of s3. I think the Sweet P’s job was this show at it’s tonal best, with that marriage of comedy and anticipation and both personal and criminal stakes really working together to build a great sequence (Beth and the Caesar Salad! Anticipation building with Ruby and Stan as Stan figures out what’s happening! A crime plot! Stan coming through in the end!)
I think the note the show chose to end the season on with the promise of Boland Bubbles, Ruby and Stan reconnecting and the first glimpse of Phoebe infiltrating the girls does reset the board in a way that leaves a lot more room for lightness than the end of season 2 did, while still offering hooks of conflict and tension too. I also think it allows for a return to the sort of sequence structure that lets the show balance it’s tone in a way that 2.13 frankly didn’t.
Of course, that’s ultimately if they decide to return to it, haha. I hope they do, and I think we were heading there, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see! :-)
Hahah! I hope you weren’t expecting something about Tano and Kenobi right? Because I have thoughts that must be shared with others and you are all my unwilling victims. Can one be a willing victim?
Episode 17: Wei Wuxian goes to the Ancient China Google School of Medicine
After Episode 16: Running and Crying; Now with Running and Crying In The Rain we left our hero sitting in a boat having an existential crisis because that’s what happens in boats in ancient China. Crises and crying. Nothing good happens in boats in Ancient Fantasy China. Wen Chao was probably born in a boat.
Wen Ning is flawless and really strong for the local Woobie Badass and carries our 200 lbs of whoopass and Mommy issues to the crisis boat and Wei Wuxian with the promise that everyone back in Lotus Pier is drugged off their asses and will wake up with the same headache I have every morning when I remember the state of the world I’m living in.
There is no ibuprofen that can save you Wen Chao. I hope you suffer you unmitigated twat. I hope you trip on every loose board in Lotus Pier and break all your toes. I hope your hideously tacky and vicious little bloodsucking mosquito of a girlfriend lands face first into a pile of fire ants. I hope...
Woah... I’m not even sure I hate Palpatine that much. Wow. Fire ants... damn. I need to calm down.
Eh-hem. So When-Will-His-Face-Make-an-Expression Zhuli is very zen about the whole thing and I just don’t get his character. What is going on? Why is he all :| when he is serving the Wen Clan? He seems so annoyed by Wen Chao, which automatically makes him better than all the other Evil Wens, but he still goes around melting cores and killing Beloved Parental Figures and having respectful dialogue like he’s not the bag man for the WORST heir to a fantasy throne since Game of Thrones. I bet he and Joffrey when to some kind of evil royal boarding school together. Ramsay Bolton was probably there too.
Then we float on a boat of sadness and pick up Yanli, who is understandably sad and say goodbye to an old lady who I think is going to die off screen? Who are you? Where did you come from? Does Jiang Cheng need to avenge you too?
The boat floats on until it transforms into a cool box carriage thing and My Perfect Son Who Gives Me Echo Vibes smuggles our beleaguered family into the earth kingdom Yiling which hold up! Isn’t that where Wei Wuxian is supposed to be like the Great and Terrible Yiling Patriarch? Where he did such horrible things like make a compass that detects ghosts and cool goth varsity flags that summon ghosts? I feel like this place is important and LOOK AT ALL THE TREES!!! *cries in Central Texan about trees*
My Other Equally Perfect Son Who Does Not Deserve This Jiang Cheng is sick and feverish and Wei Wuxian decides this is the perfect time to get him a blinging black cape with red accents and I swear I am hearing the Imperial March in the background. The I-Do-Bad-Things-For-Reasons-I-Think-Are-Good-But-Are-Ultimately-Bad-And-My-Light-Side-Boyfriend-Gets-His-Heartbroken-Because-Of-It vibe is very strong.
Anyway, Dr Wen Qing Medicine Woman shows up and looks at her baby brother and understandably gives into that sweet innocent face because Wen Ning Has Done Nothing Wrong In His Life. AND WHY THE HELL IS HE THE GHOST GENERAL?? WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY PRECIOUS SON WEI WUXIAN??? DO I NEED JIANG CHENG TO STAB YOU AGAIN?
After some ancient Chinese medicine, which looks so much more pleasant than my last visit to the GP, The Radiant Goddess Wen Qing explains that Jiang Cheng has no golden core and that’s clearly bad but it isn’t until Jiang Cheng wakes up and tries to apparently suckerpunch Wei Wuxian with all his spiritual energy that we learn the truth.
Wen Zhuli is a Monster and He Hurt My Precious Child. Madam Yu energy intensifies.
So then Wei Wuxian basically badgers Wen Qing into letting him look at all her medical books and of we go into a studying monologue where time is measured in stubble and plates of uneaten food. Wen Qing is being very patient and gorgeous about the whole thing even though she knows there’s Nothing You Can Do Anakin Wei Wuxian. You Cannot Keep People From Dying Rebuild People’s Golden Cores After The Palm d’Or of Death Smacks Them.
Then Wei Wuxian makes Yanli cry and he is on my List now because Yanli is Perfect and Flawless and none of you bastards deserve her, except you Wen Ning or possibly Meng Yao WHERE IS HE? HOW DID HE NOT DIE FROM BEING STABBED IN THE CHEST? QUI-GON JINN FELL OVER LIKE A SACK OF BAD POTATOES BUT MENG YAO IS JUST OUT THERE LOOKING FOR WORK WITH A BLEEDING CHEST WOUND?
Then Wei Wuxian mentions Lan Zhan and Yanli tells him “Listen, Asshole. ACheng is Sick and trapped in an acupuncture coma because he won’t sleep, I am ominously coughing and you have HIDEOUS stubble. Your Robot Bunny Boyfriend will just have to wait. We are the A plotline in this story, not your bromance with the reserved and gorgeous nerd in the back of the classroom who knows all the answers because he’s already finished the text book. Focus on my face and my tears you idiot. You made me cry!”
Wei Wuxian understandably feels bad, sleeps, shaves and then goes back to studying after Wen “I am so going to regret this in two episodes” Qing picks up her library and decides that someone with ACTUAL medical experience should be doing some research.
Also... what is going on with those pots that Yanli and Wen Ning keep fanning? What is in those? Medicine? Ox bone soup? Poison I can give to Wen Chao?
After some more lovely shots of Yiling that REALLY make me want to hire their set designer to build my dream house, Wei Wuxian finds the wooden scroll book “How to Give Your Core To Your Adopted Brother Because You Have SO Much Guilt And Also Your Promised Your Adopted Father Figure You Would Take Care of Him And They Don’t Have Talk Therapy In Fantasy China Yet”.
There is some dramatic sitting, some dramatic “Hell No I am not doing this” on Wen Qing’s part and lots of “No, really, you have to do this. I am totally okay sacrificing for the Jiangs because it’s REALLY going to make everything hurt so much worse later on when ACheng murders me to death on the edge of a cliff on Mustafar Quishan”
Wen Qing is probably thinking of all the horrible ways this could go south and is trying to be An Adult when Wen Ning shows up and is pure and good and full of faith and devotion to Wei Wuxian and I think I need to send a clone extraction team to rescue my poor baby boy.
Unable to withstand the purity of Wen Ning’s smile and because the script says she has to Wen Qing agrees and gives us some ominous stats and Wei Wuxian is cool with that because “It might work and if it doesn’t who cares? Wen Chao is going to show up at any minute to murder us and probably you and Wen Ning and then Lan Zhan will show up with his Guzheng (yes I did have to google that) Of Pretty Magical Death and then we’ll just have to wait for the next episode after that where everybody magically survives except all the people *I* like because that’s how these things go.”
WHEN DOES WEN CHAO DIE? HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET FROM LOTUS PIER TO YILING BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE IT’S TAKING WAY TOO LONG AND I AM SO VERY WORRIED ABOUT YANLI’S COUGHING. WHAT IS THE STYGIAN TIGER AMULET AND WHEN DO WE GO BACK TO THE FUTURE??
hello!!! here's your prompt: think sleeping beauty except when knight!will goes to find the sleeping princess he instead finds nico, definitely not asleep. nico's parents locked him up with all the crazy thorn bushes and stuff because he was too "dangerous" and they came up with the sleeping princess thing as an excuse to make a maximum security prison for him. also nico can turn into a dragon and that's why they locked him up
oh that sounds very fun, and so as to not just have this in my ask box forever and somehow forget about it, I’m gonna do some plot points rn (because I don’t feel like working on the elams au I was so excited about an hour ago lmao)
a thing: I dug really deep into backstory instead of plot, as I do with everything lmao
nico mostly spends his days in the dilapidated castle summoning ghosts and skeletons and playing card games with them - sometimes he gets news of the outside world, but not a whole lot of people die near the castle. mostly knights, and Nico finds them all pretty annoying
will’s been training to be a knight ever since he was old enough - his father, Sir Apollo, was once one of the strongest and most trusted knights of the good King Zeus. at least, until he was cast out of the palace for crimes against the crown. will just wants to be like his father, make the king proud.
“your father made some horrible mistakes, William. but he was a brave and strong knight - I believe you could become the better version of him.” - mr zeus
will lives by those words literally for like seven years
and then he hears through the grapevine that there’s a prince who was cast into an eternal sleep by a wicked witch (who turns out to be the bastard princess Hazel, who is not at all wicked and just wants to protect her brother) and he’s like “hey, saving that prince would totally boost my status up and maybe I’ll get a cute bf out of it too”
our boy is completely unaware that the good King Zeus and his wife Queen Hera actually sent Nico (their nephew/adopted son after Hades and Persephone died in a raid sometime after Hazel’s birth) sent Nico there because his powers were getting out of control
also they may have had a hand in Bianca’s death - but hey, they didn’t know the war on the eastern front was so bad. yes, they sent her regiment, the hunters, there, but they didn’t think anyone would die
so Will visits his friends for some supplies and heads out w/ absolutely no clue where to go except some vague directions young General Reyna (famous for climbing so high into the palace ranks despite not being part of the large extended family - and, of course, being close to the young prince, the poor girl, however does she feel? King Zeus was to have them married, she must be heartbroken) gave him
will goes and fights and gets in (and he maybe meets Hazel and her new coven at some point - Calypso, Circe, Hecate) and then he sees Nico and he’s like “hey what the fuck you’re not asleep”
Nico’s like “hahah ye my uncle thinks I’m going to kill him in his sleep and like at this point I might, his son’s way cooler than him anyways”
they talk, stuff happens, Will’s like “cool ok I’m getting you out of here” and it somehow happens
so they meet up w/ Hazel and her gals and collect some friends and Artemis too (she’s just like uhhh dad’s been kinda mean recently don’t like that) and they storm the palace and Nico gives a big and dramatic speech and in the end Zeus and Hera yields the throne to the next in line - one of the princes or princesses aka Jason, Thalia, Percy, or Nico (literally none of them want it but Nico gets out w/ “hey I've been trapped for like twelve years idk what's happening” and Thalia’s like “y’all know I’ve got an army to run” so Jason n Percy are like “u no what we can figure this out later”)
and then Nico and will are like “hey I kinda really like you”
“do you like like me” “yes you gremlin I like like you” and then they kiss and everything is all well and good and happy
wow this is gonna turn out to be really long isn’t it :// I'm probably not gonna finish in time here’s to hoping tho?
