ETA: Hee, callback! Remember when?

Yup. I saw the LuRen “My Life is Murder” episode. I tried to listen to the actual dialogue, I really did, but this is what I saw and heard. You’re welcome. 😂

I found the dragons’ growth throughout Game of Thrones very interesting. The trio starts out tiny and ends up gargantuan, yes, but the pathway between those two extremes might not be what you’d expect.

So, I wanted to explore another bittersweet, parallel sisterly moment between the Charmed girls, but this time including Paige. 

At the beginning of season four, Piper calls for a lost witch. Phoebe, more subtly adrift without Prue but adrift nonetheless, almost immediately comes to Piper; hours later, directionless Paige is drawn to them at Prue’s funeral. But, ultimately, Piper is unsuccessful in bringing her big sister back. Near the end of “Brain Drain,” Phoebe and Paige do the same exact spell and ritual to try and get Piper back from the Source. They too fail to retrieve their big sister and instead must go to her, as they did in the beginning.

Hey, original Charmed fans!

Look at this super-sweet parallel and connected moment between Piper and Phoebe. What do you see? Think? Let me know!

So, I guess this is goodbye to the Xenite community.

My 2nd anniversary on Tumblr passed without fanfare a couple of days ago. I can no longer take screencaps for my posts. Very few people are interested in my posts anymore anyway. Therefore, I think it is time to officially retire from the XWP/Xenite fandom.

Best wishes to all and happy holidays! Be well.

While I was watching “Maternal Instincts,” something that I’ve not seen asked anywhere else nagged me a lot: Why did Hope knowing Solan’s name give her away as being his killer?

Directly after Hope related Callisto’s threat to Xena, Gabrielle pushed the girl into a chair and then took a whole two steps away from her before both Xena and Kaleipus name-dropped the boy.

So, I wonder why Hope didn’t think to answer her mother’s question with, “Because you, Xena, and the centaur said so right in front of me! Don’t you remember? I was trying to leave, but you went out of your way to give me a front-row seat to that discussion!” Okay, I’m joking a bit with the last part, but still. That was not remotely the right point for Gabrielle to lose faith in Hope. Beyond the obviousness I’ve just laid out, Callisto is the one who supposedly said she’d take Solan to the grave; as far as any of the good guys knew, Hope had no reason to hurt the boy. She only remembered being alone in the basket, nothing about Xena at all, according to what she told Gabrielle. Yes, she cries, “Xena hates me!”, but that could be taken as a response to Xena’s “shoot the messenger” glare upon hearing that Solan was set to die, even why the girl disappeared after hearing the conversation about Solan.

Personally, I think Gabrielle’s realization of her daughter’s guilt was much better set up earlier in the episode: Given the look on her face upon seeing him and her shifty eyes while he lay dying, she knew in an instant that Hope had attacked Kaleipus. And when she burst into her hut after that, she shouted “Fayla!” not with worry in her voice, but frustration. Then she covered her face as if to ask, “What have I done?”

It’s too bad that our battling bard was so quick to invalidate what she knew in her heart to be true. Sigh. T_T Her denial… hope? …is literally killer, many times over. (Like when she tried to say someone else broke through their barricade and killed Goewin but left Hope alone, when Hope is the only one anybody—particularly Goewin’s fellow knights, the only other possible suspects—wanted dead.)

I’m also surprised Xena wasn’t as quick on the uptake about Kaleipus’s assailant as Gabrielle was. Only they, he, and Hope knew about the plan to hide Solan in the Ixion Caves. None of the good guys could have known, at that point, that Hope had returned to Callisto. And Callisto couldn’t be in two places at once, anyway, as she warned our ladies… Tsk tsk. (The script went too far, though. Kaleipus practically gasped, “Hope!” when he would only have known her as Fayla, if anything. Nevertheless, Xena should have picked up on his dying message in a second. Who else would “The child!” have been? Solan? Xenan?) Aish.

TL; DR:

Hope: She knows your little secret, and she’s gonna take it to the grave.

Xena, in front of Hope (thanks to Gabrielle): Callisto knows about Solan!

Kaleipus, also in front of Hope thanks to Gabrielle: Doesn’t matter! Bottom line is protecting Solan!

Gabrielle to Hope later: I will take you to the safest place there is.

Hope: *brought to a hut where exactly one other person is hiding* Gee. Who could this be? -> *“realizes the boy’s dead”* -> *runs* -> (to Gabrielle) I don’t want to die like Solan.

Gabrielle: How did you know that was Solan?! Die, evil demon-child!

Me: …Wut?

Yes, I’m branching out from XWP again because it’s basically dead now. heh Anyway, I just returned from Japan and on the way home, watched Encanto for the first time on the plane. Something interesting stuck out to me.

Isabela hits Mariano, someone who has done nothing against her but rather adores her, with erupting flowers twice and breaks his nose both times. Mirabel lobs perhaps the only insults at Isabela that she has ever received, particularly hurtful ones too, and so gets hit in the face with two erupting flowers as well (one she punches back and so bops her a second time 😆). But they do not injure her!

No matter how verbally harsh Isabela and Mirabel are with each other and how cruel Isabela is perceived as being to her sister, she never physically hurts the girl. Did you guys notice this parallel? Is it commonly acknowledged?

.

“It’s Gabrielle who performed the miracle. …Din’cha?”

Grandmother? Uncle Meropes? Dazed orbs sought the faces of her loved ones with whom she had just reunited. The young bard gasped at what she saw instead. Xena’s looking at me with such love in her eyes. She’s even tearing up. No! Gabrielle mourned when the warrior princess pulled back from kissing her on the forehead. I don’t want this dream to end. A stuttered breath later, the girl panicked. Unless Xena’s dead too! Th-the temple!

Those strong arms cinched tighter around in her limp frame. “Ssh,” that voice soothed her. “It’s alright, precious. You’re safe. You’re safe now; I promise!”

“...Xena?”

“Yes, lovey?” Her voice catching on the endearment, the woman still laughed beneath watery eyes.

Gabrielle knew then she was still on the other side.

Or maybe not. The center of her chest began to ache terribly.

“I-it hurts,” she whispered. She soon passed out, for Xena immediately parted her top and kissed the forming bruise there.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” 

It had to be a dream.

#

“I love you.”

Elven ears perked up, and Gabrielle let herself grin. “I know,” she told her dream lover. 

“Oh, ya do, do ya? I guess I don’t have to say it anymore then.”

Green-blue eyes shot open at that warm, teasing tone. Her hand rose to ensnare itself in the long, raven locks spilling into her face but found itself full of another hand. She’s even still holding me, the bard mused, utterly amazed.

“How-” Xena’s voice broke again. “How’re you feelin’, hon- huh?”

“Safe,” the bard murmured as she snuggled even closer to her hero.

#

For the next few days, Gabrielle would not wake without dark hair in her eyes, warm breath tickling her temple, and powerful hands cradling her in some way.

We’ll have to come through this forest more often, she thought to herself with a soft but naughty grin. Then she would whine or whimper, and Xena would instantly spring to attention to wait on her hand and foot. Definitely challenge the warrior princess to stop a war at least once a season from here on out. 

A pointed poke in the nose and huff told her to not even try it. 

But Gabrielle knew that she would.

.

Woo! 300th post! I debated writing this bit, figured it’d be a better conclusion to the season, and so went ahead and did it. Sue me. 😛 But yay! So much is complete now!

Season 1 FFLMs: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 + MFLMs: #1 #2

Season 2 FFLMs: #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 + MFLM: #3

Episodic Ficlets: #1 #1 (Truncated) #2 #3 #4 #4 (Alternate) #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 + full Google Doc

Also, Adrienne Wilkinson is working with me on getting my first novel ready for publication. COOOOOOL!!! She’s seriously the best, y’all. Also-also, another Xenite helped me download all the Rift Arc episodes in HD. Now I can redo the images for a bunch of my posts! Yaaaaay! Which one should I do first? Lemme know! And celebrate this milestone with me, if you will! Thanks!

Finally. Finally, it. Is. FINISHED! YAAAAAY!!! Like last time, this MFLM will only include one to two additional funny moments per episode.

“Gabrielle, it’s Marmax. I need you to change his bandages.”

“…Alright.”

Xena watched Gabrielle go. Just a moment later, she thought of something she simply had to tell the girl. “Gab-” But her mouth closed of its own accord.  The bard was telling a story, and secret to exactly no one but herself, the warrior princess loved to hear a good story. Or was it good bards? Or, was it just one bard in particular? Xena pretended not to know.

“There was once this king; his name was Libarius. He was a brave warrior, a great hunter…” 

A blush rose in high cheekbones. Oh, great. This is going to be about me. Gabrielle’s been substituting men for me in all of her poems lately… But Xena wasn’t supposed to know that, nor was she supposed to know the meaning behind the swap. Neither did she try to leave, unable to pass up the opportunity to hear Gabrielle sing her praises, undeserved though they might be to the brunette’s guilty conscience. She shook her head to clear it and then focused on that soft voice once more.

“He was so proud of his hunting skills, that he decided to test them in the sacred forest, of the great goddess Artemis. … She was so angry with him that she turned him into a deer. … He became so fond of the peaceful ways of the deer, that he actually grew to love them. Of course, he still missed his friends and family, which made him very sad. So Artemis took pity on him, turned him back into his human form.”

Engrossed in the tale despite Marmax’s interruptions, Xena’s thoughts concurred with the general’s: “A happy ending. But what a nightmare, a warrior having to live the life of a deer!”

“Actually, it was the best thing that ever happened to him. He became a better king after the experience, a much happier man.” 

“Why’s that?”

Unbidden, Xena’s lips silently shaped the words she knew Gabrielle would answer.

“’Cause he learned the true secret of life is to find peace in yourself and to share it with the world.”

The man laughed, causing Xena to growl quietly. She moved to covertly defend her precious friend but found that yet again, her interference was not necessary.

Gabrielle preserved her dignity in the way that did not hurt or even insult her opponent, simply made them question their own cynicism, made them think. 

With a small smile, Xena shook her head. Then she noticed her hand covering her heart and wondered at its placement. Was she touched by her sweet little bard? Or was she pledging allegiance to Gabrielle? Halcyon acceptance rather than frustration or wariness slid her hand away. The warrior princess rose from the knees she didn’t know she had dropped to and followed the girl.

.

@scentedflowersong and @dulcie13

Whee!!! And with those 300 words, season one of my EFs is over! Next up, MFLM#3? Whatever it is, two posts from now will be my 300th. Also, happy weenie day! heheheh Yes, I’m a bit late, but Steven L. Sears says that today is the 27th anniversary of the show’s debut. Congrats, y’all! Also, even later, the Master Post has been updated. Whoopsies. Ah well! Here ya go! Also-also, here is the Fic Google Doc.

Episodic Ficlets: #1 #1 (Truncated) #2 #3 #4 #4 (Alternate) #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23

Season 1 FFLMs: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24

Season 2: #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35