#this got away from me...

Like imagine Dean, smack dab in the middle of nothing. Pitch black for miles and miles and the empty speaks to him, says, "I'll give him back on one condition."

And Dean nodding, desperate to it, "Anything."

And the empty smiles, though it doesn't have a face or body or soul, Dean can hear it smile, can feel it in the molecules around him, when it says, "Do not look back."

There's a small light at the end of nothing, so miniscule it looks like a grain of rice. The empty points it out, commands, "Go."

And Dean doesn't move. The grain of rice is so small and it is so quiet around him. "Go?"

"Yes, go."

The empty is nothing. It is nothing in nothing. A black hole sucking up another black hole—that is what the empty is. Dean’s inside it, inside the hole inside another hole, looking for a guy who shines brighter than the sun on a cloudless day. 

It’s so fucking quiet. Dean shakes his head, “I don’t—”

“You don’t trust that I’ve placed him behind you?” The empty snarls, groans, and festers, “You don’t trust that he’ll follow you?”

The first step he takes is heavy. It weighs and echoes across the great expanse of hollowness. It is not followed by another immediate step. He is the only thing breathing, the only noise rising, and he asks, because he has to know, “Cas?”

There is no reply. 

“He’s behind you.” The empty assures. There’s a tilt to its voice like it might be lying. Or maybe it’s amused. Dean can’t tell, his heart’s beating too loudly in his ears to tell the difference. 

The second, third, and fourth steps are just as earth quaking as the first. He walks—drags his feet below him, closer to the blinding light leading them home, still so far away, still the size of a mere flame. 

“It was really fucked up. What you did.” Dean says, because he can’t look, and he can’t hear, but he can still talk. “What kind of an asshole does that? What kind of a—” He swallows, keeps a steady rhythm foot after foot, “You said. What you said. Why’d you say it?”

He’d practiced this in his room a few times. What he’d say if he ever saw Cas again. At least then, the walls would hum back. They'd stare back and hold him up if he couldn’t keep his knees from buckling. But here, in this vacuum, what is there to rely on? 

“Thought I was dyin’. ” Dean confesses, the light has turned into the size of a dime, and he keeps staring it down, determined, “Watchin’ you get taken, I mean. Felt like—felt like you took my heart with you down here, y’know?” 

There aren’t any footsteps behind him. There’s no flutter of wings or exhale or exasperated sigh. He’s—he feels alone. 

“Couldn’t go on without you, man. S’why I’m here.” Why is it so fucking quiet? Dean wasn’t this quiet when Cas said his piece. He’d been frozen, maybe, but not quiet. Never quiet. “I—I need you to be there. I can’t—don’t know how I’m supposed to go on if you aren't there.”

The empty’s stopped replying, too. The rice turned into dime and now it’s the size of a baseball and it’s still so fucking. Hollow. And the empty likes to play games doesn’t it? Likes to trick poor schmucks like Dean who are desperate hopeful bastards. 

With Cas in the room, there’d be electricity around them. A spark of something. But now, Jesus, now, there isn’t—the air’s so fucking stiff and horrible. 

Dean reaches an arm back, still walking, “Gimme your hand.” 

No one touches him.

“Empty didn’t say nothin’ about skin on skin, man. C’mon.” His steps stutter and his hand shakes, “C’mon.”

The light is the size of a window. He’s getting closer—no, no, no they’re getting closer. Both of them. ‘Cause Cas is there. He’s right there. He’s—

“I just wanna know you’re okay.” He looks at the ground, tries to cheat, tries to find another set of feet with his peripheral vision. “M’not leavin’ without you, you dick. So you better—you better gimme a fuckn’ sign or I’ll stay here. Forever if I gotta.”

His voice doesn’t even bounce off the fucking walls. There are no walls. Or feet or breaths or hands touching his own. There is no answer to any of his questions. And he stretches his arm as far as it can go behind him, as far as his broken muscles can, he begs, “Please, Cas.”

The light has grown to the size of a door and it’s too quiet. Too vacant and blank. So unlike Cas at the end of everything. And Dean can’t leave—he can’t just—he came here for someone and if he’s not—if this is a trick then, then—

“Please.” 

One more step. That’s all he needs. He’s one step away, just one, but Cas isn’t answering. He isn’t answering or touching Dean’s hand and the empty lies.

It’s too quiet, the empty lies, and Dean can’t leave without him. He can’t, he can’t, he can’t and the door is right there, it’s right there but Dean can’t leave, he can’t leave ‘cause Cas isn’t behind him, he was never behind him, and he turns, oh God, Dean turns around and—

Cas smiles, that soft deep smile of his that edges on a little sad, he tilts his head, so loving and forgiving, “I love you too.”

“There are only ten minutes remaining till the end of this match and Richmond players seem to be in quite the pickle.”

“You are right Arlo, it does appear to be a dangerous situation for the greyhounds. As of now the score is 1:1 but Chelsea’s in possession and it looks like they may score the winning goal after all.”

“A beautiful pass from number 11, getting through Richmond’s defence, the only thing between the Chelsea Striker and leaving the match victorious is Richmond’s goalie, Zoreaux, who seems to be having a tough day today.”

“The greyhounds are relying quite heavily on their defence players today… What’s this? A beautiful kick by the Chelsea attacker! It’s soaring through the air and… By God, Arlo, did you see that?”

“If you are referring to the brilliant dive by Richmond’s number 13, then yes, I most definitely saw it. We simply have to look at it again, the way he got in there just in time to kick the ball right back into the stands, simply marvellous.”

A slow motion replay of Jan’s desperate save displayed on the screen accompanied by the cheers of the fans in the stands and the live commentary by both Chris Powell and Arlo White.

“The Dutchman did it again. He has definitely been the backbone of today's defence, foiling most of the scoring attempts. But back to the game, it is now time for Nelson Road residents to either try and keep the ball for the remaining four minutes, or to shock us with some clever closing play.”

“You never know what to expect from them, and they’ve been continually pulling all kinds of tricks from their sleeves. Chris, what do you think is going to happen?”

“It remains to be seen, Arlo, we’ll just have to wait.”

“Bumbercatch passes to Montlaur, Montlaur goes in to score, but no! It was a feint and it’s Jamie Tartt now with the ball. Tartt passes to Rojas who gets through Chelsea’s defence and gets the ball straight to number 12 and it’s a goal! A beautiful play by the Greyhounds mere seconds before the final whistle! Richmond winds up victorious with two goals from Tartt and Hughes respectively.”

“A beautiful display of teamwork indeed. It’s games like this one that truly highlight the unity of the Nelson Road Team, the famous ‘Richmond Way’ a term coined by Trent Crimm in his best selling book…”

The commentary was now fading away as the team exited the pitch, still euphoric after the win. Jan walked feeling exhausted but hyped up and was now heading to the locker room to celebrate along with the entirety of the team. The coaches were already there, waiting for them. 

Everyone got seated and the room fell into silence, awaiting Roy’s words. 

“Allright, I’ll make it quick. Good job Jamie, Colin,” He nodded at each respective player but then turned towards Jan “Jan Maas. You are the main reason we didn’t fuckin’ lose today!” Excitement in their manager’s voice crystal clear. 

Dani was the first one to cheer, but soon everyone joined in and the whole locker room was once again filled with excited footballers. Shoulder pats and bear hugs were exchanged once again before Roy had to shout to get them to settle down and listen to the announcements.

“Oi! You have fifteen minutes to celebrate here, and after that I expect to see you all on the bus, ready to head to the hotel.”

With that Roy left to support Rebecca handling the interviews, and both Beard and Nate followed him out of the room, probably to settle some other matters.

The team changed quickly and it wasn’t even twenty minutes later that Jan sat next to Richard on the way to the hotel. The Dutchman pulled out a well loved book that was given to him for his birthday by the man sitting right next to him out of his bag. Richard himself could never read while in a moving vehicle, so as usual he opted for listening to music and looking out the window, completely zoned out. 

The ride itself was short, and soon enough they all stood in the hotel lobby waiting to get their keys.

“Listen up people!” Coach Beard could be heard over the general ruckus “You get settled and then at 8PM sharp we meet in conference room 3 for our movie night! Jan Maas, today you get the honours of drawing the movie from our box of suggestions.” 

A collective choir of whoops and whistles filled the foyer.

The movie night tradition became a thing when Ted was still their manager and it was one of the many things that stuck around even after he didn’t. Of course pillow fights also kept on happening, but the clean-up after a movie night is undoubtedly easier, and watching a silly movie is definitely a great way of winding down after a difficult match. 

The box of suggestions though, was Phoebe’s idea that Roy decided to implement. At the beginning of the season each player got to write down one movie name on a post-it and put it in a purple glittery shoebox. Then, every movie night someone from the team would draw a piece of paper from said box and whatever it said, that was the movie they were going to watch. 

The suggestions were obviously restricted, to the disappointment of both Moe and Richard. Richard’s, because almost everyone voted no, on classic French cinema, and Bumbercatch’s for reasons unspecified. The only other rule was no one was supposed to know who suggested what.

So obviously Jan and Richard turned into a game to see if they could guess who wrote down which movie. So far they were pretty sure that Dani suggested Night at the Museum and Sam was definitely the one who pitched Ratatouille, as for the other ones they were based purely on speculation. Both of them were pretty positive that Thierry picked How to lose a guy in 10 days. Richard kept disagreeing with him about who suggested Baby Driver, it was a tie between Jamie and Isaac, but for some reason the same disagreement also occurred while debating who picked Ocean’s Eleven.

Some other movies they watched included classics such as Jojo Rabbit, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Legally Blonde, The Greatest Showman, and Knives Out. The jury was still out on all of these. 

They agreed not to disclose what movie they themselves suggested, to keep the game more interesting. 

Jan however knew exactly what Richard picked. He remembers the first practice of the season, he remembers the weather outside, and the exact button up shirt that Richard wore that day. 

Why does he remember that? Well, because he spent the entire after-practice meeting staring at the four undone upper buttons, and not thinking about what movie he should put down as his suggestion. That in turn meant he caught a glimpse of Richard’s post-it and the two titles written in neat handwriting. Duplex and 50 First Dates sat right there being deeply analysed by the Frenchman struggling to pick one. That’s when Jan decided, whichever one his friend doesn’t pick, he was going to write down.

The jangle of the room keys brought the Dutchman back to Earth. Richard has already gone and picked them up from coach Beard and was now motioning for Jan to follow him to their accommodations. 

Most of the team roomed on the same floor, but the coaches made sure to get themselves settled the furthest away from the rest of the team. The rooms were nice enough, with a small balcony, two beds, wardrobe, a table with some chairs and an adjacent bathroom. Enough for a one night stay. 

Richard immediately threw his things onto the bed by the window and sat down on it. After dozens of times sharing a room at away games Jan already knew that the Frenchman loved being woken up by the sun. 

The Dutchman took the other bed and unpacked some of their bathroom things. There was no use taking two tubes of toothpaste, so they both agreed beforehand who was going to take one, same with soap and shampoo. Neither of them trusted the ones provided by the hotels.

After they were done unpacking they headed down to the dining room to grab some dinner before coming back up to their room to get changed into some sweatpants and comfy t-shirts and whatnot. Then the only thing left was to locate conference room number 3. 

On the stairway they were joined by Colin, Isaac, Moe and a couple of the reserves. They already went up a flight before Reynolds stopped them to ask a question.

“Hold up, does anyone know where we are supposed to go?” 

“Conference room 3, duh” Colin answered.

“Yeah, but do any of you actually know where that is?”

Everyone stopped in the middle of the stairway and shook their heads.

“Then where the hell are we going?” Goodman piped up.

“O'Brien, didn't you say that your roommate stayed back to ask the receptionist about it?”

“Yeah, he did.” Tom turned around as if to locate said roommate and didn’t seem to find him. Then he turned around again, hoping for a different result. That clearly didn’t seem to help. “I forgot Bhargava!” he yelled out and dashed down the stairs back to the rooms.

“Do you guys think he just locked him inside their room?” Colin asked, looking after the goalkeeper.

“Maybe he just forgot to tell him we were going already..?” Isaac supplied. 

“Nah, he totally locked him in,” Richard laughed heartily and looked at Jan smiling which he reciprocated.

“Isn’t there a floorplan somewhere maybe?” Jan asked no one in particular. The Dutchman looked around trying to find something that would tell them where to go. While they were still standing around on the stairs they all heard O’Brien shouting.

“Lads! We got to go downstairs, not up!” A chorus of groans lasted a good ten seconds it took them to get downstairs and back to the lobby.

Once they finally reached the conference room Roy looked at them, then at his watch, and then back at them. 

“What took you so long, you got fuckin’ lost, or something?” 

“Well, what matters is that we are all here now.” Reynolds said after a beat of silence.

“That is the bare minimum, we said at 8, it’s 8:20”

“Actually, it’s only 8:17 so it’s closer to…” Goodman started but one look from their former captain turned manager shut him up.

"We need to learn how to appreciate the little things, like finding our way, or Richard…" Jan said, throwing an arm around his friend, who was standing right next to him.

The Frenchman was not amused, and rolled his eyes pointedly exaggerating the movement.

"Laugh all you want, I'm not the one that had to ask the hotel desk to get another duvet, because I didn't fit under the one that comes with the room."

“Fuckin’ hell… Enough of that, get inside, sit down and get ready to watch the movie.” Roy stopped them before they could drag the conversation out even longer. “Jan, come with me to pick the movie.”

Inside the conference room a projector was set up, along with a few rows of nice cushioned chairs to sit on. Roy stood in front of the chairs waiting for the footballers to settle down on their seats. 

“Today's match was hard,”Roy began his speech. “but we pulled through. And we fuckin’ won!” Here Roy paused, waiting for the cheers to die down. “And we owe it not only to the ones scoring the goals, but to our defence as well, especially to Jan Maas over here, so Nate,” Here Roy turned to the shorter man, “Bring in the Box!”

Nate approached with the glittery shoebox and dramatically opened the lid before turning to Jan waiting for the Dutchman to pick out a post-it note with the title of today’s movie.

Jan covered his eyes and reached into the box pulling out a piece of paper folded twice, handing it to Roy and walking off to sit down on an empty chair next to Richard that the shorter man saved for him.

“And the movie of the evening is… 50 First Dates!”

Some people whooped, some looked around confused. Richard turned to look at Jan grinning. Jan returned the gesture for the second time today and turned to the screen waiting for the movie to start. He has never seen it before, but since Richard enjoyed it, then it must be nice. 

The snack bowls were passed around, the light turned off, and the movie put on. Jan held onto the popcorn he was handed. For the next hour and a half every now and then the Frenchman would nudge him to get the bowl within his reach.

From time to time someone would snicker at some joke, Jamie definitely winced at the scene where Lucy beat Henry up, Thierry pointed out the fact that the dolphins were named Mary Kate and Ashley and Dani shot up during the diary burning scene to exclaim that it’s almost like that time when they were getting rid of the ghosts from the treatment room. 

They all bawled their eyes out at the break up scene, and tissues had to be passed around during the final one. Jan ended up liking the movie and judging by the fact that by the end most of the players were trying to hold back tears, so did they. 

Once the light came back on the coaches gave them ten minutes to tidy up, and get back to their rooms. Isaac and Sam stayed the longest to make sure everything was back to how it was beforehand, which meant Colin was stuck outside the doors waiting for his room key that his best friend held on to, Jan and Richard decided to keep him company. 

“How’d you like the movie?” the Welshman asked, noticing how the two of them decided to wait around with him.

“I liked it” Jan simply answered “And you, Richard, you’ve seen it before, right?”

“Yeah, but I still find it enjoyable.” 

“Yeah? Is it because Henry reminds you of… well, you?” Colin laughed

“Why? Because Dickie here is a shameless flirt, or actually a softie that cares a lot about penguins?” Colin joked as Isaac joined their group while Sam was locking up the conference room.

“I’ll have you know, penguins are actually great animals.”

“Yeah, and they are also the best secret agents in the world” the Nigerian finally joined their tiny circle, and they were able to start moving towards their rooms. 

They all stopped in front of Sam and Dani’s room to talk a bit more before retiring for the night. Jan couldn’t help but notice how short Richard looked standing next to them all, well, maybe not next to Colin, but the rest of them towered over the Frenchman a little. 

After about ten minutes of idle lounging around Colin yawned loudly prompting their discussion to halt.

“Need your beauty sleep?” Isaac asked.

“Better not, because he would need a lot of it.” Richard quipped.

“And remember, we have to be up early tomorrow.” Jan replied without missing a beat.

Colin flipped them both off as they bid the group farewell and took off in the direction of their room. 

Back in their room they got ready to sleep taking turns in the bathroom. Richard went in first so when Jan exited after his own shower he was surprised to see his friend still up clearly waiting for him. As soon as the Frenchman noticed Jan was done in the bathroom he motioned for him to join him on the bed, so Jan did.

“So, who do you think picked the movie? I’m pretty sure both Dixon and Goodman recognised it but I’m not sure any of them would have picked it as their one choice.”

“How about Tommy Winchester?” Jan suggested trying to seem oblivious.

“Nah, that’s also not it…Maybe Reynolds?” the shorter man continued to speculate.

“How do I know it wasn’t you?” It might have been a bit of a risky move there, but it wasn’t unsound to assume that. “After all you did know the movie and I remember you mentioning something about liking Drew Barrymore romantic comedies…”

“It does make sense, but let me tell you a secret. I wanted to put that one down, but ended up picking a different movie.” Richard winked at him and it took all the self control Jan had to not reveal to him that he knows. “Also, you remembered that comment about Drew Barrymore? I didn’t even remember it until you mentioned it.”

“We are friends, I remember things about you. Things like your favourite actress… Maybe not the French cinema ones, because most of them I’ve never heard of, but you know… other ones…”

“Give French cinematography a try, you may end up liking it. We could put a film on during our next charcuterie night?”

“How did you end up liking it? I didn’t think goat farms had access to a lot of fancy French cinemas.”

“Well, my maman had a big city soul and I got it from her. She never did get out of the farm, but I did and have been living with splendour for the two of us ever since. Never looked back…”

“You never talked about her before… She sounds like a lovely woman.”

“She was… She was the only one who would get my father to dance with her. He was the most stern man you’ve ever met, but when she put on an old record and asked him to dance he would, just like that… Bought them an Adele record for their 20th wedding anniversary with the money I earned in my first job because that was the only new release at the local store. Père and I listen to it every time I visit him back home.”

They were now both lying down, propped up on the big pillow and looking at the ceiling, Richard leaning on him.

“What is your family like? I don’t think I ever heard you talking about them either…”

“Well, I have a brother and a sister, both older than me, and my parents own a small corner shop…”

Jan woke up in the middle of the night disoriented. He looked around and noticed someone lying on top of him. 

Richard’s rhythmic breaths and the rise and fall of his chest calmly brought Jan back to Earth and stopped him from panicking lest he wake up the smaller man. They must have fallen asleep whilst talking.

The Dutchman looked back at his friend and smiled softly at how the other man curled up into him. He made a move to reach for the blanket at the foot of the bed without stirring the Frenchman but was unsuccessful in his attempt as the other man stirred awake.

“Morning… Well, not morning, but there isn’t really a greeting for the middle of the night…”

“Hello to you too… Can we go back to sleep, or are you gonna move some more?”

“I… Well, uh… Sure, let’s, let’s get back to sleeping.” Before lying back down Jan draped the blanket over the both of them and spared one last look at his best friend. He waited before Richard’s breathing slowed down again before speaking.

“I was the one who put down that movie… Because I saw you struggling to pick one, and I decided to pick the one you wrote off.” He was now absentmindedly tracing patterns on Richard’s right shoulder and arm while spilling some stuff he’d be too scared to admit in the daylight. “I couldn’t stop looking at you that day… And many days before and after that. It’s been a thing for quite some time. And now I’m thinking that I’d like to buy a gramophone so that we could get a vinyl of some Adele album and dance to it, and maybe visit your dad on the farm… You could show me the goats. I've never touched a goat before… And maybe we could grow older together, but not as friends… As something…”

“Just so you know, I’m not asleep yet…”Richard whispered softly as Jan's face dropped. “And I think I would like that too, but maybe we could talk about it more in the morning?” Jan’s face went from horrified to touched to happy as he hugged the man lying next to him.

He pressed a soft kiss to the top of Richard’s head and burrowed his face in his hair. Richard in turn kissed his neck before turning to find a comfortable position and go back to sleep.

“Goodnight Richard”

The damned  book better be worth it.

Ethan had tracked down the thiefand retrieved the chef’s stolen property, though he’d taken no joy in knockingthe man unconscious.  Now, the mercenary washurrying home through the storm, trying to ignore the rain pelting down, and theoccasional icy trickle making its way down the back of his neck.  Delivering the book in good condition wasmore important than his own comfort, so the hand written pages were carefullywrapped in waterproof layers, while Ethan was getting steadily wetter andcolder.

The mercenary was tired. Itwas the kind of weariness that went down to the bones and beyond.  He didn’t understand why he should feel thatway: his reputation ensured a steady supply of well-paying clients, he was goodat his job and rarely got injured any more. He had enough money to keep himself in comfort, with quite a bit savedup.  

So, why was he so dissatisfied?

He knocked on the back door tohis client’s restaurant, waiting with stolid patience until the man himselfopened the door, a bit surprised to have his summons answered so swiftly: itwas late, well past closing time.  

When Reynaldo saw who his visitorwas, the elderly man’s expression brightened, and he ushered Ethan into thekitchen.  

“Please, come in, sit!”  The chef, in slightly soiled whites, bustledaround, drawing Ethan into the room and relieving him of his wet coat.  He urged the mercenary to have a seat next tothe warm stove.

When Ethan presented him withthe stolen recipe book Reynaldo hugged it to himself, all but dancing in placewith delight.  He immediately presented Ethanwith the other half of his fee, and insisted on cooking him dinner.

Ethan, whose nose had beentwitching appreciatively at the various delectable scents left over from theday’s work, didn’t argue very hard.  Hewatched in increasing fascination as Reynaldo busied himself with knives andpans, vegetables meat and spices, adding this and that, until the new aroma wasdownright mouthwatering.

He set the beautifully cookedsteak, and vegetables down in front of Ethan, watching the younger man’s faceas he took a bite.

Ethan had eaten steak before,had even had people cook for him, but this… This was the first time he’d really appreciated the work and theartistry that went into the food.  The tasteand texture of the meat on his tongue, the crisp crunch of the beans betweenhis teeth, the subtle enhancement of the herbs.  It was as if he’d never really tasted steakbefore.  

In a single bite of food,Ethan’s entire focus shifted.  This was a newchallenge, something that tugged at him in a deep visceral way.  He looked up at Reynaldo, hope and interestand an odd yearning in his pale blue eyes. “Do you think you could teach me how to do this?”  

They dream of fingers emerging from a darkness thick enough to slice through with a weapon. Whispers overstimulate their senses; the rumors and gossip throughout Castle Tyrholm flood their ears, cover their eyes, run a spiked nail down their arm. It begs to be noticed, but they cannot look it in the eye. Not yet, Valeria tells them in dreams and in nightmares, it is not yet time.

Always, their refusal calls forth the ghost of their mother. Almost-ruler Sexta stands before them in heavy armor and eyes that shine eerily in the dark. What are you waiting for? their mother asks, in a voice as hollow and empty as Valeria feels at the sight of her.

Calliope takes Sexta’s place in an instant. She is regal, draped in heavy fabrics and a crown atop her head. Beware of power, Calliope warns, No amount of it will bring back the dead. Without warning, Calliope’s figure is drowned in furious red flames; she does not scream.

Valeria wakes alert and on guard, weary of the night for the visions it brings. The halls are quiet, save for the quiet footsteps of a few guards on duty. The sky is empty of stars and, if Valeria strains their ears, they can hear the crash of the sea. This is their compass that guides them back to reality, where their footing is sure and their grasp on what’s true is solid — the sounds of the earth.

A sudden chill whips at their bones, and Valeria ventures from their quarters and slips into the kitchen. The roar of the fire lulls them, and they watch the flames flicker and dance; for fire can be a peaceful thing, when it is not rushing towards their king. It can even be beautiful — though Valeria feels a pang of pity for its beauty that can only be seen when contained.

They sense a presence behind them and say nothing. They hope it’s Wraith. After a nightmare of pure uncertainty, Valeria longs to strike into action and push forward. There is a new edge to their desperation tonight, bold in a way that Valeria rarely embodies during her quest to kill the king. When they turn and finds Wraith watching them, they smile. “Wraith. Won’t you sit with me?”

"Hello, 911? I just witnessed a mURDER"

“Yes, shots were fired.”

another drabble! 

she’s 5 yrs older than dex, has the same red hair and freckles as dex does, but her eyes are brown like their dad’s

is her favorite song brown eyed girl? u fuckn bet it is

the jimmy buffett version?? damn straight

she’s always lowkey been dex’s favorite sibling, and at first dex didn’t realize why, but then he realizes he’s Not Straight and it makes a lot more sense bc sammy has always been cool about stuff like that

samantha doesn’t come out to the fam, but when dex comes out to her she def lets him know he’s not alone

she tells him that he doesn’t ever have to come out to the rest of the fam if he’s uncomfortable about it, but if he does do it she’ll be right there with him and hopefully her also coming out will lessen some of the blow

she is, like, insanely smart. dex totally looks up to her and her kickass job as a museum director (u pick a musuem idk) in NYC

yep she lives in NYC

she went to NYU on a full ride, fell in love with the city and decided to stay

dex comes out to her when he’s 13, she’s 18 and about to leave for NYU and she’s stressed bc wtf she can’t leave her baby brother in this house full of homophobes when he just had the courage to come out to her

she considers turning down NYU and going to a community college, just for a year, at least

dex convinces her not to

she skypes him twice a week and texts him every day

she’s a rlly good sister

they still skype twice a week and talk daily while dex is at samwell, and she recognizes his crush on nursey MONTHS before dex does

one night, after a game, dex looks scared out of his fucking mind and she’s concerned until he half-screams “I THINK I LIKE NURSEY HELP”

“lol broski you’ve legit been in love with him for months calm down”

once dex and nursey get their shit together her first order of business is to invite them both down

also she’s been seeing this RLLY COOL girl and she wants to introduce her to dex so this is like a rlly fun gay poindexter family gathering

“plz don’t call it a gay poindexter family gathering, sammy”

anyway nursey fucking loves samantha like is just completely enamored with her, thinks she’s cool as shit and her job is RAD and she always loves and supports dex which makes her a 10/10 in nursey’s book

they totes exchange numbers

does sammy send nursey embarrassing baby pics of dex? yep

does she send old family vids she’s saved of dex’s first words (lobster, pronounced “wobstah”)? hell yep

sammy is the only poindexter that dex allows to follow him on social media (his accounts are locked the fuck down bc every other post is abt nursey and like... he’s obvious as shit)

as a result of this samantha believes it is her duty to provide every single Embarrassing Family Member comment that everyone else gets

she legit replies to/comments on every goddamn thing he posts

dex pretends to hate it but everyone knows he loves it

when they graduate he and nursey are looking for a place to stay in ny bc they could stay with nursey’s moms but they just downsized and moved a little too far out of the city for it to be a comfortable commute and so sam’s like “yo come live w/ me until you figure it out”

they end up living with her for a yr bc neither of them particularly want to leave

it’s actually sam who leaves, moving in with her girlfriend

(lowkey she had been planning on moving in with her six months ago but she waited until dex secured that Big Promotion and nursey finally got through the nuances of editing and was published and they both saved up for a few months bc she wanted to make sure they could afford the rent on their own) (she’s a rlly good sister did i mention that)

when she and her gf elope dex and nursey are the only ones from the poindexter side that are invited (lbr nursey is officially a poindexter now, they might not be married but that dude is her brother in law)

the wedding is a quick lil ceremony @ the museum (nursey is swooning with how fcking cool it is. chill, nurse)

then there’s a fucking huge party with all their friends + dex, nursey, and her gf’s fam

dex gets to give a speech. everyone cries. nursey cries so much. so so much. like, calm down, nursey.

at this point in their lives dex and nursey aren’t exactly hurting for money, with dex pulling some serious cash as head of IT for some big name company and nursey about to publish what is assumed to be his third best-seller (and the most anticipated YA novel of the yr), and they both want to do something for everything sam’s done for them, so they buy her and her wife an all-expenses-paid 2-week trip to rome

there’s a lot of crying involved

(in no specific order)

(a few potential spoilers herein, if you care)

0) It was great to be able to go to Tim Horton's beforehand with the ducklings and talk about the plot of the Left Behind books and look a little bit into the secret rapture theories. 

1) All things considered, it was actually alright. It probably helped that we were the only ones in the theatre at the time so we could commentate as loud as we wanted. There was much talk about Jesus beaming everybody up.

2) If you're going to tell somebody about Jesus, don't lead with a verse about the apocalypse.

3) Chad Michael Murray needs to work on his flirting. Chloe likes Chad Michael Murray because she grew up in the 00s.

4) They probably should've done a little bit better job photoshopping that family picture. Unless they're trying to imply that their family can't sit still together long enough for a family picture, which I would not be surprised at.

5) I can't get the scene where the rapture actually happens out of my head. It was very well done. 

6) Chloe ran all the way home from the mall wearing one inch heels. And it was a long run, because it took her all day to do. Represent.

7) When Chloe got home, we totally started shouting out theories regarding how she would figure out it was the Christians who disappeared (her mom disappeared whilst reading about the end times, when Chloe throws the Bible out the window it would land opened to a page of the end times, etc), so when Chloe finally did grab the Bible and the only important thing about the page marker was that it was her mom's prayer list, we were impressed.

8) I think they did really good addressing the whole "if millions of people disappeared, HOW WOULD EVERYONE REACT" idea. Except for the fact that almost everybody in the mall can't seem to find their way out of the mall parking lot.

9) Apparently Jesus coming back and making all of the children and a few of the adults on Ray's flight (never mind, y'know, the rest of the world) was enough drama, so there had to be flight problems. Because people disappearing off the airplane while it was in the air wasn't terrifying enough.

10) Yeah, okay, the mothers weeping over the clothing of their vanished children is sad, but we became desensitized to that really quickly. But oh man, that dog lying next to the clothing of his vanished owners? We didn't cry, but there was definitely some sad "Awwwww"ing going on. Pastor Conrad, father of one of the ducklings and whom we invited to watch the movie with us, got a big kick out of that.

11) Poor Chloe. She cannot catch a break regarding the phone cutting off at inappropriate times. Because apparently Jesus ran into a few satellites on his way down. They weren't there the first time he went up, what can he say?

12) HOWEVER, when she's about to do something extremely stupid, the satellite comes through! Go satellite!

13) Pastor Barnes (who did not get raptured) (awks) has some pretty solid theology that he really should've put into practice before the world started falling apart.

14) Chloe does not appreciate Pastor Barnes' pretty solid theology.

15) Near the end of the movie, when they've figured out that it's God that has raptured everybody and when Nicolas Cage is trying to land a plane, he encourages everybody on the flight to pray. Pray to WHO, Mr. Cage? 

16) Chloe has to run all the way across town to where there's a conveniently located abandoned road--perfect place for a plane to land. But she's been running around in heels all day, and somebody vanished and left their motorcycle behind. Running. Wonder of wonders, Chloe is a natural at riding it. 

17) Chloe is also a natural at working a steamroller.

18) The movie ends on a note of psuedo-hope even though they're about to go through seven years of absolute hell. 

BUT. THE THINGS THAT STUCK OUT THE MOST (other than the rapture scene, because seriously)

1) There are at least two scenes where it's hinted that a few characters know exactly what's going on, but we never hear their explanations.

2) God was the one that took the people. It was God that did it. Dealing with a movie centred around ideas from Christian theology, where only the Christians disappeared, but it was God that did it. Whose God?

The only time Jesus is mentioned is near the beginning of the movie, where Nicolas Cage says that if his wife had to leave him for a man, at least she left him for Jesus. Seriously.

Ooh Jefferson, one of my favorite characters. :D  

I think it’s definitely a fan favorite to have Alice as Jefferson’s wife. People love to ship Alice and the Mad Hatter in many of the more modern adaptations, so it’s not too surprising that it would carry over to this universe as well. The only thing the show ever revealed about Grace’s mother was that Jefferson’s job, as sort of a freelance portal hopper, made him lose his wife. In that regard, his wife could really be any character who’s not currently living on the show right now.

So first off, there are a couple of interpretations of Alice’s character. 

One interpretation is where she is just a girl who visits Wonderland like in the ‘51 Disney animated series and the original tale by Lewis Carroll. In this version, she meets the Mad Hatter after he’s already crossed the boundary of sanity and insanity. In OUaT, Jefferson clearly met his wife and had Grace well before Regina trapped him within Wonderland and he was left trying to “get it (the hat) to work.” So for this to work in the OUaT universe, the writers would have to modify Alice’s tale to where she met Jefferson prior to him becoming Mad Hatter.

The second interpretation is that Alice returns to Wonderland as some warrior heroine of some sorts to save the land, like in the Tim Burton film adaptation and Sci-Fi’s Alice. In OUaT, Cora is the Queen of Hearts and basically nobody has the nerve to dethrone her or rise up against her tyranny within Wonderland. So one theory was that Alice died in the hands of Cora. But considering how Jefferson really accredited Alice’s death to his job, and when he was brought before the Queen (in Hat Tricks), he didn’t really look at her with contempt or anything that would make the viewer make a connection between them, so that rules out that option.