#Danny is dying over pretty boy in his haunt

[dcxdpdabbles]

Is there any way I could request more of Danny's Grill? I keep re reading it and it's so great!

Danny's mansion amazed Tim, which said a lot given that he had lived in the Drake and Wayne Manors. It seemed almost like a castle, with its four floors and a few towers (four at each corner of the fenced-off stone. Danny had his property enclosed. )

Everything screamed old money and was well taken care of. He also was surprised to find that the whole place had a lot of natural light.

The drive out of Gotham got them away from the dark cloudy skies to wide blue, and the mansion had plenty of strategically placed windows that caught the sun to light up the rooms.

It was likely that way since the place was obviously built before electricity. Even the air felt lighter, sweater, and caused ease to rest in his bones. Tim found himself strolling through the place, oddly at peace with the silence.

He had taken a dip in Danny's pool, adoring how it was designed to resemble a natural river, complete with a waterfall. It was still a pool, with the proper level of chlorine and tile floor, but there were rocks and multiple plants all around that really sold it to him.

The waterfall was made from unevenly stacked rocks as if carved out of a cliffside. He enjoyed sitting near it, flouting in in the rippling water and listening to the falling water.

Tim found a makeshift bench from the stacked rocks right under the waterfall, where he could comfortably sit down and have the water reach his shoulders. He found himself in that same spot often over the week since he came to stay with Danny.

He was in a fluffy red bathrobe- and nothing else- having just finished a shower to wash off the pool's chlorine. His bare feet patted against the tile floor as Tim once more appreciated the artistic white and gold wallpaper.

He loved that it had leaf-like designs that weren't all over but small enough to give the place a pop of color.

He was still thinking of a destination, wandering about the large building while waiting for Danny to return.

Danny has also been a gracious host. After the first night, he had made him some food and offered him a room across from his, just as large as the master room. It was a lovely white with gold trimming, matching the rest of the mansion but left room to decorate the walls to his hearts content.

Tim hasn't, but Danny seemed rather insistent that he could if he would like to. That Tim had the option open to him. Danny, he came to find, was all about giving people choices.

What did they want to eat? Whatever Tim was in the mood for.

What should they do? If Tim was okay with being around people, they would go out and take pictures. If he was having an overwhelmed day, then Tim could find his own little corner to sit.

Was it okay if Danny gave him friendly hugs or pats? Only if he asked Tim before going in for a hug.

Could Tim walk around in nothing but a bathrobe? Of course! If it made him feel better, Danny could even avoid the entire west side of the mansion so he wouldn't have to see him if he thought like clothes were a bother.

It was enjoyable but also baffling.

Tim has never met someone who gave him as much attention as Danny did but also respected all his boundaries. He enjoyed talking about them, setting them, and even seemed to glow whenever Tim carefully tested the waters, by placing some that would have upset his past friends and family.

Another thing that needed to be clarified about Danny was that he plainly didn't make any sense at all. Tim had always assumed Danny was middle class- maybe high middle- since he ran his own food truck and all but it was obvious by his house that he didn't need it.

Danny's family- from what Tim had been able to uncover- had always been low, middle class up until Danny had been fifteen. Then their luck turned when a rich distant relative by the name of Pariah Dark willed Danny all his fortunes.

Who was Pariah Dark? What happened to him? Why was Danny the only one he left his money to and not all of the Fentons? Why did this property sit for years without any record of usage yet still look brand new?

There was also the question of whether Danny was human.

Tim is sharp when finding small details that lead to clues that lead to answers.

It's both a curse and a blessing.

In this case, he noticed little things about Danny; his tendency to not notice the cold weather, his slight winces when loud noises were near, his graceful steps that were sometimes a tad bit off of gravity, his eyes seemed to change color- blue and green- and the way he would stare into shadows, gaze following something that Tim could not see.

Tim could have assumed Danny had some mental issues- who didn't at this point?- but he felt that wasn't the real reason or not all of it.

He couldn't explain it, but Danny felt like more. Especially when he returns from Gotham because the air feels aware of his arrival. Like it got excited that Danny was back.

Was the mansion sentient like the House of Mystery? Or was it an extension of Danny himself?

Tim had accompanied Danny on a few of his food truck runs. Mostly as a chasier but Danny had beamed when he asked if he could join him three days into his stay.

He did to observe how Danny interacted with the people of Gotham. Just like the air gane a certain something, whenever Danny sold his ware and the people thanked him, he seemed to puff up in strength.

Not the pride in his work kind of puff up but an actual burst of energy as if though he had taken an energy drink. This was doubly so when he gave the street kids free meals. Helping them seemed almost like a drug to Danny.

It begged the question of whether it was, in a sense, a drug. Because Tim could see all the tiny hints that helping people seemed to do much more for his friend. He had dilated pupils, a droopy smile, and random bursts of energy, and he even got a bit snappy when he went too long helping.

Tim could even claim that it was as if Danny was making Deals, and he did not dismiss his hypothesis because Tim had already dealt with aliens, demons, and gods as Red Robin.

Fae or other magical creatures wouldn't be as far-fetched as he once thought.

Did that mean Danny Fenton was never fully human or that something had happened to him that changed him?

There were many questions. Not enough answers.

Yet despite all of that, Tim couldn't find it in himself to think Danny was dangerous. If anything he could only safely conclude Danny lived and breath to protect others.

Tim, the sole attention to his protective tendencies due to proxy, was all but wrapped in a blanket of affection and respect. It could drive a guy to do something silly, like hang up his cowl, resign from WE and live the rest of his life as a pampered prince awaiting for his King.

How odd.

Tim never wanted to do any of those things, but he felt he would if Danny asked. The best part? He knew Danny would never ask that of him which made him want to stay even more.

It's too bad all good things have an end. Tim thinks wistfully. He would much rather spend his days here, but his family was anxious about the lack of check-in.

Tim didn't want them to find out about Danny and had chosen to send a delayed message from the Nest, letting them know he was undercover, infiltrating a possible new magical court. The Bats knew not to risk his cover but they also wanted some proof he was doing alright.

He had asked Danny if he could go to Gotham for a quick trip, and despit the saddness in his blue eyes, Danny always let him. He even gave him the keys to a his car, walking him to the gate with a promise the gates were always opoen to Tim.

Tim would use those visits to catch up on WE work and deposit information packages at Bat checkpoints. He would also pick up coded folders from other family members who wanted to keep him in the loop should their cases overlap.

It's been three weeks since he came here; in that time, Jason had cracked down on pimps and working people. The family was helping him, as Jason was attempting to fulfill a favor that someone had cashed in and was struggling to find the working boy his contact was worried about.

Apparently, the guy was regularly getting roughed up and was underage to boot. Tim hopes Jason finds the jerks hurting him. He would love to help but he had to figure out Danny Fenton first.

The air brighten, snapping Tim out of his thoughts.

Danny was home.

He turned towards the main gate, scurrying to make it to the front door before Danny could finish driving up the drive way and park his car under neeath the shadow parking spots.

His heart fluttered as he barely slide into the main hall way and the wood of the door swung open. Danny steps in, still wearing his black t-shirt and jeans that he favored when working his truck.

"Welcome home!" Tim tells him, watching Danny's whole face break into a wide grin. It was like dawn breaking over the horizion and it made him feel all sorts of warm.

Danny was definitely beaurtyful enough to be otherworldly.

"I'm home, Alvin." Danny pauses and then gestures to his robe, his smile turning warm and fond. "Another late swim?"

"I like the water. It helps my bones," He says, shrugging his shoulders.

Danny hums. "I could ask a friend of mine to install a hot watered pool for you."

Tim considers it. He wants to say no but he just knows the mansion will rat him out. Danny seemed to always know when a lie is spoken here. Another check in the Fae theory.

"If....if it's not a bother, that would be nice." He says suddenly overcome with shyness. The feeling vanishes at the utter delight and green eyes of Danny.

"It's never a bother! The east wing has a smaller pool that rarely gets used. I'll make some calls and have it turn into an artificially hot spring for you." Danny chirps. "It would help me relax too. You would not belive the fight I had with Robin today."

Tim stills. "You fought Robin?"

"Not physically." Danny corrected but still shook his head sadly. "We disagreed on the case he's helping Red Hood with."

"What case?" Are Damian and Jason working together on the working boy's case? Or was it something else? And more importantly did he try Danny's food?!

He may come back for more if he did, and Tim's personal cheat truck was no longer his own!

"I'm not sure of the details, but they are trying to map out all the working girl's corners. He was upset when I told him I would not release that information to a child." Danny sighs. "I know he's Robin, but I could sense how uncomfortable it made him feel, you know? It made my core ache, but Robin took it as me not wanting to respect him as a hero. It was a whole thing."

Tim has so many questions he feels like he might just burst. It's only years of training that had him clamping down on all but one. "You're helping the Bats catch prostitutes?"

Danny's eyes widen "No! No! Not the employees themselves, just their sick pimps. I would never rat them out."

Tim nods once. "Okay."

"I mean it, Alvin. I would never"

And the blue eyes have flickered to green again. Interesting.

But he can't help but relax smiling at Danny. "I know. Thank you for helping them though."

Danny's face flushes, and then he hastily looks away. Coughing into his fist, he mutters, "Are you hungry? I still have some leftover Pizza from today's menu."

"Starved. Want to watch a moive while we eat?"

"Yeah, sounds good-are you-I mean, will you be-um" Danny fumbles over his words gesturing at him. Tim tilts his head in confusion, wondering why he sounds so nervous, until Danny finally blurts. "Is that all you're going to wear?"

"Yeah. It's soft." He says playing with the robe's sleeves and Danny swallows.

"Alright. Okay. I um I'll get the pizza. Will you go pick the moive and get it ready?"

Tim beams, twisting on his heel to do just that and catching the reflection of Danny clutching his chest and screaming silently into a closed fist in a nearby wall mirror. His face is redder than before, and the house ripples with excitement, glee, warmth, and happiness.

Interesting indeed.

#dcxdpdabbles #dc x dp crossover #Danny's grill #Part 3 #misunderstandings #Tim is enjoying vacation while also looking for clues #Danny is dying over pretty boy in his haunt #Yes the mansion is reacting to Danny as it's a part of him' #Meanwhile the Bats are looking for Alvin Draper and finding that Tim hid him too well #dead tired

[flamingpudding]

Cassiopea and Orion #2

Previous Part

A/N: I probably shouldn't be thinking up so many different story lines. But my mind won't let me focuse on something else in peace unless I write these snippets and parts out. So here have another part XD I still have a whole Danny and Bruce backstory conversation in my head that I will probably write out at some point too.

"Really B, another one?" A red helmet wearing guy huffed the moment he spotted her, the little black haired blue eyed girl, sitting on a railing by a huge computer set up Ellie was sure Uncle Tuck would have drooled over.

She blinked at the new arrival before her eyes went over to the man. The one she had told that Phantom lost his haunt. When she had spoken these words the air around the man had changed. Before Ellie even really knew what was happening, the man had turned away from her, talking to the still tense boy before whisking the both of them away to a cave. The place she was now, and one after another more and more of the weirdly dressed people showed up. Each of them appeared to feel the need to comment on something, Ellie heavily believed to be an inside joke.

She let her eyes wander over all the arrivals, her fingers nervously drumming on the metal of the railing she was sitting on. Watching them carefully, despite what Danny had told her, she would bold at the first sight of danger from them. They didn't appear to have any ecto-weapons but that could be false impression. Like the GIW. They had appeared so incompetent only to do a 180 decades later.

"So what is going on? Is B printing adoption papers already?" The red and black one appeared to joke and Ellie tilted her head. There definitely was a insider joke she was not aware of. It would be weird to ask them about it wouldn't it? It would also be rude and tactless. Danny and Aunt Jazz had tried to teach her to not always blurt out every question that pops up in her head. Key words, not always.

"Why would the furry need adoption papers?"

She blinked at how a couple of the people broke out laughing while the kid, who had been watching her like a hawk, was now full on shooting daggers at her. She was pretty sure the kid would have thrown a literal one at her, but something as keeping them from doing so. She heard a grunt, and her eyes went back to the man that had brought her here.

"Not necessary." The man muttered as he turned to face them, clicking a key on the keyboard of the computer, and Ellie blinked as an image of Phantom popped up on screen. The people laughing appeared to quiet down now. "She already has a father."

"Mom." Ellie automatically corrected, shrugging when they looked at her. Before everything had gone to shits and Danny's capture, he had become quiet the mother hen, especially with Dan's and her de-aging. The constant mothering and worry about their well-being had caused Dan to joke that Danny was acting like a mother and she had continued to run with that joke. Even after they had to put Dan into a frozen state under Frostbites care in Far Frozen. The two had silently agreed on that Danny was their mom. The past didn't matter and she would honour their silent sibling agreement.

She didn't elaborate any further and they seemed to get that as they turned back to the man by the computer, putting their attention on that. Though she did noticed that the other kids eyes lingered on her longer.

"This is Phantom. A ghost hero stationed at Amity Park. Code: Rho, one of Cassiopea's dying stars." The man paused, and Ellie swore he had looked at her under his cowl. "And this girl's, Elliza Danielle Phantom Nightingale's, mother. Code: Jupiter, the wandering star."

"How do you know my full name?! Plus, my only recently added ones! They are like only a month old! And what about these weird Codes?" She blurred out wide-eyed, staring at the man in bat costume.

"Even if sparse Phantom and I stayed in contact using these codes." And Ellie narrowed her eyes at him. "Doesn't answer my question."

"Actually, B we would also like to know more." One of the onlookers, that's what Ellie decided they were for now, piped up.

Bat guy grunted, staring them down but not answering. The onlooker in blue sighed but Ellie wasn't giving in. She crossed her arms, keeping her balance by floating slightly on the railing.

"Look, you big bad bee, if you can't tell me that, then how am I supposed to trust you to help me, let alone the rescue of Da- Phantom!"

The onlookers snickered as she held her little staring contest with the big bad bee. Jokes on that guy she had held staring contests with Frighty before and he doesn't even remember how to blink at times.

"Phantom and I correspond about various topics since our teen years." The bat guy finally admitted. "One of which was about... our children."

Ellie blinked several times. Until her eyes widened in realization and she pointed an accusing finger at bat guy. "You're the one that kept calling Danny about parent advice! Like how he got me to go to online school and prevented me from sneaking out or how he handled Dan's anger tantrums!"

"Wait... B went to someone other than Agent A for parent advice?" The red and black onlooker questioned and Ellie shrugged. Danny had always been sort of parenting her since he was 16 and Dan once they learned he was aging lower and then the de-aging happened. She did remember that Danny got his first phone call about parent advice when he was around 24.

Now that Ellie thought about it. That was also around the time he took her aside to tell her about the emergency code.

"Which one of us do you guys think was the cause?"

"Wing."

"Hood."

"Demon Brat."

Ellie blinked once more, her attention turning back to the onlookers as thet started to argue among themselves. She tilted her head, watching them. Looks like she accidentally got them off topic. Though now she really wanted to get the story out of Danny once they rescued him. For years she had caught snippets of Danny's phone calls, to think that the guy on the other end was a armored spandex wearing furry. She couldn't wait to tell Dan about that.

Well, once their mom was saved and her brother stabilized again.

#danny fenton #danny phantom #dp x dc #dpxdc #crossover #dcxdp #de aged ellie #de aged dan #ellie phantom #bruce wayne #damian wayne #tim drake #jason todd #dick grayson #danny and bruce are childhood friends #they have a series of star and constellation themed code words and phrases #danny got captured and amity is gone #Ellie is seeking help from the bats #parent Danny #Bruce got parenting advice from Danny #Danny was a acting like a parent before Bruce #all this is news to the batkids #like how did Bruce keep a childhood friend like that a secret from them for so long #Alfred knew though #late night ideas continued

[therandomartmaker]

[Image ID: An artwork featuring Danny Phantom, full green excluding his hair and white accents, transparent, sitting on a pile of rubble head tilted slightly upwards with his eyes closed. His hair is wispy, he’s got pointed ears and he’s much more identifiable as a ghost. The rubble includes the F of the Fenton Works sign, a satellite dish of some kind, pipes and concrete. The rubble, and Danny, is surrounded by yellow-black striped caution tape. Above Danny’s head is a conversation, in white, “It’s been ten years,” has been written, and in green, “It’s only been 10 years,” is written. /End ID]

Day 31: “It had been a decade since anyone last lived at Fenton Works. Or so people thought.”

tbh this took like. Less than half an hour to make haha. I may have forgotten to do this yesterday lmaooo. To make up for it, here’s a continuation of this prompt by @cryinginthevoid that i filled, wherein Danny has been stuck haunting the rubble of a ruined Fenton Works after his permanent death, only to later be approached by a very much alive Damian, who is the first person to See Danny in over 10 years. So yep, bonus challenge post 2 under the read more :D

Damian had visited. He’d promised and he’d followed through on it, Danny sitting still and watching as Damian approached, day after day, even after Danny had no more words to say, no more information to give. To quote, he was “a tolerable friend despite your intolerance for proper respect.” Danny had no idea if that was a good or bad thing, if he were to be honest.

But still! It’d been 10 years since he’d to spoken to someone, something other than the air. Damian said his brothers wouldn’t follow him, despite saying he’d bring them to meet Danny during one their tentative hangouts, and Danny supposed that was a good thing. He didn’t want Damian to sound crazy or look crazy for talking to thin air, especially not by his family.

Though, what was interesting was the weird amount of black-haired blue-eyed outsiders hanging around town. The FentonWorks rubble had a pretty good view of most of town, despite it’s slow erosion into dust, so Danny was able to see the several strangers in town whenever he went looking.

Damian said his family was looking into ectoplasm due to it’s relation with the dead, and trying to find if anyone around town knew how to access their information databases. They needed to know if there was a way to relieve “Jason’s” burden of the “Lazarus Rage,” and prepare in the case someone else in the family acquires it. And that ‘Lazarus Pits’ are classified information, but who did Danny have to share it to, no one could talk to him except Damian, anyway.

And truthfully, those Lazarus Pits Damian mentioned sounded like pools of ectoplasm that Maddie and Jack would’ve killed for. Danny could only suggest looking into ‘ecto-acne’ treatments, as from one of the stories of Vlad Masters Danny’d heard, it sounded like the short-term effects of ectoplasm exposure.

—

Damian didn’t know why he was sharing so much confidential with Daniel, but he didn’t seem to mind, and didn’t seem to talk to anyone else. He figured it’d be fine. Daniel needed to know as much context as possible in order to help Damian.

Daniel was strange, he spoke in large amounts, but quieted as though he doesn’t expect someone would respond to him. He rarely moved, and there was something unnatural about him. Perhaps the lack of a rise and fall of his chest, or the way his eyes shined.

Damian couldn’t help but make comparisons to the dead he’d seen. Lightless glossy eyes, pale skin, sallow flesh. Daniel was built like a dying or dead person.

Damian… worried. He’d grown close to the other boy, Daniel’s snark to Damian’s sharp tongue and his acceptance of Damian’s veganism, multiple other factors about Damian never drove Daniel away from him. It was nice, being accepted by someone outside of his family. Daniel’s health was concerning, malnutritioned and Daniel’s reaction time was slow. Multiple things were off-kilter about him, and Damian wanted to know why. So he could help.

Because Danny was his friend.

—

Dick observed Damian. He’d taken to pacing the length of the hotel room, and he seemed worried about his new friend (!!! Dami has a friend!!!! And he’s worried about him!!!), muttering about bringing food to the next time he visited. Dick kinda felt bad about what he was about to tell Dami.

“Richard, why are you looking at me?” Dami asked, stopping his pacing to look up at Dick, a soft half-hearted glare on his face.

“Uh well, Tim…” (fuck! He wasn’t supposed to mention Tim!)

“What did Drake do?”

“Tim told me to tell you that we’d gotten enough information and that we were leaving in two days, just in case something new crops up!” Dick rushed, knowing that Dami would loathe the information, but despise Dick more for not telling him.

Dami needed to say goodbye to his new friend, after all, but from what Dick could tell, they couldn’t even have long-distance communication, because “Daniel Who Liked Being Called Danny” didn’t even have a phone!

Dami’s click of his tongue was expected, and his expression had worsened too. Dick had messed up, but he didn’t think there was anyway to break it gently that Damian would have to leave his newfound friend.

The boy stormed off, leaving the room with a door slam. Dick felt bad, man. Well… Dick did have a spare phone he was free to gibe to someone… Perhaps Danny would like it?

#randomartmaker writing #randomartmaker art #digital art #dpxdc #dcxdp #danny phantom #short story #small story #dick grayson #richard grayson #damian wayne #damian al ghul #ectober 2023 #ectoberweek2023

[bells-of-black-sunday]

[ DRIVE  IN ] + “ i  can  make  your  heart  beat  faster  than  a  haunted  house. “ Danny + Robin I'm insane

Halloween Smut Prompts | Accepting

[ DRIVE  IN ]:   sender  and  receiver  have  sex  in  the  car  at  the  drive  in  while  a  scary  movie  plays.

Parked in the back under the shade of a tree the seats laid down in the back to give them more room to lay down as Robin looked up out Danny's windshield to see the faceless killer on the screen stab a poor woman, screams heard for blocks and yet it wasn't anything of Danny's doing for once. Just a movie. A shitty low budget cash grab, but a movie nonetheless.

Danny coaxed Robin back to look at him, "Eyes up here sweetheart." His husky voice purred pressing the toy back to his boyfriend's lips as he leaned his cheek against his fist. He so lovingly watched the way his head bobbed and brows knitted taking in the sight that was never meant for anyone else to see, "That's a good boy, always so eager... So pretty and complacent." Words that bred condescension where sweet like honey falling from his lips only heightened by the red that flushed Robin's cheeks.

His free hand ran through Robin's hair gently guiding him up and down his strap coating it in a thin layer of saliva watching the way it dripped down Robin's chin making a mess on the plastic liner. He hummed as his boyfriend pulled himself off to catch us breath eyes starry in the dim light. The killer leaned in close sucking a mark right where his jaw meets his skin, "You want to touch yourself sweetheart?" He could barely contain himself the way the man's breath hitched.

"P-Please..."

Danny hums, "Mmmhm... do you deserve it though...?" His fingers trailed down his chest to his abdomen splaying his long fingers over his stomach. "P-Please Danny... I want to... please." The killer could help but smirk at that keening voice and the way his cock twitched and leaked. How sweet. He kisses him deeply running a single digit up his length, "Go ahead." The killer pulls away again guiding him back to suck him off.

His gaze was so loving despite the circumstances, his blue eyes half lidded drowning in every whine and groan he could pull from Robin's lips. How messy his boyfriend's hand already was.... So beautiful. He glances from the sight before him back to the movie, idle screams and noises filling the car... a distraction really. He heard Robin's panting again making him glance back, "Hm..? Yes sweetheart...?"

He looked so desperate, like the words for what he wanted were dying on his tongue as he tried to pant them out. He was so red. Danny presses his thumb between his pouty lips depressing his tongue as he tilted his head, "Do you want me to fuck you song bird? Hm?" He only chuckled at the way he choked and sat back, "On your back, knees to your chest..." He lets him go watching the way he stutters, but nods shifting to lay down besides him.

So pretty. So pale in the moonlight like the ghost in the movie that loomed over him between the front seats. So obedient. He could drown in that image forever...

#ic #just a man and his camera (ghostface) #verse; modern #lemon #we're both insane it's okay- #dannys so mean #i jus realized i forgot to include that dialogue HEWRHWEH

[africanotaku92]

Schrodinger's Boy

I missed Phan Phic Phight but now I'm here for Dannymay! Not really going along with the prompts, just wanted to write something for the month.

I dedicate this to @five-rivers because i love their stuff so much!

Please, enjoy!

***

Schrödinger’s Boy

It was dead when she saw it.

Oh so very dead, but walking. Talking. Living.

That really doesn’t make sense, so let’s start from the beginning;

Nelia Ugochi d’Bandinello was not a normal child. Ever since she was young, she could see death. And no, not like the walking skeleton clad in black robes and a scythe most people assume, but real death; the dead, the dying, the undead, all. No one, not even her closest family members knew, and she intended to keep it that way. As long as she kept to her own and didn’t cross the line for the rules, she was safe.

Ever since her family moved to this country, she knew the small, sleepy town was a little dead. The essence was in every nook and cranny, even the air had a thin yet distinctive layer of it. Nothing she couldn’t handle.

That is, until now.

The air’s death suddenly sharpened the moment before it walked in.

At first glance, it looked like a boy. A cute boy in fact. Short compared to her tall. Pale skin in contrast to her deep dark, straight black hair opposed to curly blond. Baby blue opposing forest green. But then, the closer she looked, the more she noticed what was off. Skin was a little too pale to be considered healthy, and became slightly transparent as she saw more. Hair was wispy and floaty, almost defying gravity, almost flowing like it was under water as its head bounced. Eyes a bit more, sunken, a bit more tired. Worst of all, its heartbeat sounded so, so slow.

And now, it was sitting two tables across from her.

She swallowed the milkshake that threatened to spill out of her mouth. She tried to turn back to her food, tried to ignore its presence. But she kept glancing its way, turning back to the most terrifying yet fascinating creature she had ever seen.

And she just. Kept. Staring.

One of its cohorts – the black one with glasses – pointed at her direction, and it suddenly looked over. Their eyes made contact. She gasped and looked away.

‘Such haunting eyes.’ She thought.

“Nelia? What’s wrong?” She looked up to see her brother Irnerio, who had previously been trying to unhinge his jaw to fit an absolutely massive burger, was now looking at her in concern.

“Nothing.” She forced out. She glanced back at them. Her brother’s concerned face was already contorting into a smug grin.

“Oh? Falling in love already?” He chuckled “It’s the pale boy, right?” Her cheeks heated. Definitely not what was happening.

“Shut up.”

“Well, you did say that one of the advantages of moving was ‘Date cute Americans’. Though I must say, I always thought that the goth girl would be more your type. You could both indulge in your weird fascination with death.”

She hit her brother in the ribs.

“Stolto*.” She hissed. “I said shut up.”

Her brother laughed.

***

“Dude, the new girl is totally checking you out.”

Danny swallowed his bite of a burger. “What?”

He, Sam and Tucker had gone to Nasty Burger for lunch that Saturday, and had noticed the two newest additions to the town residence. The girl had been looking at them ever since they walked in.

“She’s probably not into me. Probably looking at Sam. They look foreign, so for all we know, she may be their first goth.”

“An honour I am willing to have with pride.”

“She’s looking over here right now!”

Danny turned to where Tucker was pointing and sure enough, she was looking at them. They made eye contact, and hers widened and she looked away.

“See? Totally into you.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“Whatever, Tuck.” He continued eating his burger. But somehow, he couldn’t shake the stare off of him. As if she was looking past his flesh and staring at the very ghost that made his soul.

He shivered at the thought.

***

Oh God above, it went to her school.

The creepy thing goes to her school.

She wondered how it got into her school. She wondered why, of all things, it had to attend as a student.

Mondays where truly the worst days of the week.

She had learned the creatures name was Danny Fenton, official school weirdo, son of the two most successful ghost hunters (oh the irony), and all-round loser she shouldn’t interact with (according to the Mexican girl that approached her). She didn’t really care though, as much as she was weary, she still wanted to know what it was. And she was determined to find out.

The bell rang, pulling her out of her thoughts. She sighed and pulled her books from her locker. She didn’t want to be late.

***

Hours later, school was long over, and Nelia was busy at work in the kitchen, kneading dough for her second batch of strawberry calzones, the first already in the oven. Her mother stood at in front of the doorway, watching her.

“That’s a lot of dessert calzones for 4 people.”

She finished kneading and started rolling out the dough. “Oh no, ours are part of the last batch. Most of these are offerings.” She turned to her mother. “I’m going to the Cemetery after dinner. To pay some respects.”

Her mother sighed. There was no talking her out of this. Every time they go someplace new, she always paid her respects at a local gravesite. She stopped trying to prevent her a long time ago.

“Well, just be back before midnight. But in the meantime, let me help you close the ones you’ve already filled. We could talk, use some mother daughter bonding time.” She smiled and nodded at her mum, handing her a spare apron. She gladly took it and set to work beside her daughter.

“Have you heard? There’s a story I heard. They say this town has some kind of ghost hero…”

***

It was late in the evening, and she had paid her respects at the last grave when she saw him.

And he was oh so very much Alive.

Silver white hair adorned his head like a glowing crown. Striking, electric green eyes, a black jumpsuit with white boots and gloves. Veins, across his skin, visible with the implication of pure green death flowing in them, the sound of each breath he takes. A pulsating buzz emitting from his chest, almost sounding like a beating heart. These where the features of Amity Park’s local hero and (dead) celebrity, Danny Phantom.

And he had just landed in front of her.

“Um, are you ok? It’s pretty late out.”

She blinked at first, startled to hear him talk, but composed herself enough to speak.

“Ah, yes I’m fine. Just, paying my respects.” She gestured to the grave and the basket of food.

“Oh, really? That’s nice of you! Apart from family, hardly anyone pays respect these days.”

“Yes, it’s something I try to do everywhere I go. Speaking of respect, where’s yours?”

Danny blinked. “My what?”.

“Your grave. I have to pay my respects to you. This is the only cemetery in town, but I didn’t see your grave.”

Danny froze in shock. He hadn’t really thought about it.

“Oh. I kind of, uhm, don’t have one?” Because I’m not really dead.

It was Nelia’s turn to be shocked. And then she was angry. Was this town really so ungrateful that they didn’t have a grave for their hero? That wouldn’t do.

“Where do you want one?”

“What?”

“Where would you want your grave? I’m going to make you one.”

Danny’s eyes widened.

“Your… going to make a grave for me?” “Of course? It’s only common decency, a basic right to the dead. I might not have your body, but if I have a photo to at least mark your image, it would do.”

Danny was stunned by this gesture. No one had offered him a grave before. So, he told her about his ideal spot.

Weeks later, in a secluded spot in the woods, he stands with her above a freshly dug grave, underneath a willow tree, facing directly at the night sky marked with a picture of him in his ghost form. She drops a plate of calzones and lights some lavender incense. She pays her respects and stands back letting him trace over the picture and admire the grave. It’s not the best grave, but it’s also the only one he’s received. He couldn’t help it, as a few tears dripped from his eyes. It was a sweet gift.

He turns to her, clasps his hand in hers. He manages to choke out between tears.

“Thank you.”

She stares back at him. This action, it’s so… human. She senses familiarity, like she could almost imagine him when he was alive……

Oh.

Oh.

The connection between the dead boy and alive ghost hits her like a train, all the similarities adding up. She smiles at him.

“It’s your grave. You should bring your friends to see it.”

His eyes widen in panic, wondering how she found out. She shakes her head.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise.”

He relaxes and nods, let’s go of her hands and they stare back at his very own grave. Sam and Tucker are going to flip when they see it.

That night, she’s back in her room, wide awake, thinking of everything that happened. His hands were cold, but not like death cold. Like he had stuck his hands in the freezer. His tears were so real.

This boy, who was dead yet alive. Walking perfectly on the line between life and death, tittering to neither side.

Schrödinger’s boy indeed.

#danny phantom #danny fenton #dannymay2021 #dp #long reads #i'm sorry i had to resort to google translae #even if it was just one word #i was gonna write more but i finished this at 1 am

[redrobin-detective]

my brain has just been overflowing with DP fic ideas so I figured I’d throw a few out into the void and see what sticks and what can be expunged, like blood letting.

- A hypothetical third installment for when I am dead, my dearest that is pure vibes and no real plot right now in which Val learns more about the ghost boy’s life and begins to make some connections.

- Danny’s core is destabilized by a Fenton invention and is dying when Clockwork appears and offers him a way to save himself but with a heavy price.

- A social media style AV diary of Tucker’s diary covering Danny’s powers and growth. Filled mostly with funny anecdotes, theories and notes on Danny’s powers, descriptions of adventures and a way to confide about the stress.

- Danny gets outed as a ghost........ hunter and so he has to pretend that he’s a normal human hunting ghosts and keep his powers under wraps.

- Danny died in the accident and haunts Tucker and Sam, both ‘hanging out with them’ like the good old days but also because he blames them for what happened. Tucker is freaked, Sam is drowning in guilt and convinces herself its fine.

- That one post about how Danny’s core gets zapped so he’s unable to use his powers anymore and becomes despondent. Works with the ghosts to jumpstart his ghost side again.

- Danny as a human just being deadbeat exhausted when a ghost shows up in school and he viciously threatens the ghost into leaving without ever using his powers, using the force of his reputation to have them scurrying. 

- Want to explore some post canon stuff, I have like 3 potential ideas for Ghost King Danny the most fleshed out being King Phantom showing up at a UN meeting seeking to join their ranks.

- Frustrated and overwhelmed by every day life, Danny runs away and hides deep in the Ghost Zone. Mix of ghost lore plus Danny connecting with the other part of his identity and the ghosts moming the obviously stressed out teen.

- A semi- crack story where, in an attempt to become popular, Danny invites the A Listers (I’m thinking Dash, Paulina, Kwan) over to his house to show off the portal and they see his accident. Cue Danny being adopted by the popular kids who undergo their own complex redemptions arcs as they help him with ghosts (can’t decide if Sam and Tuck exist or not)

- My own version of the classic ‘Jack and Maddie make a truce with Phantom, find they like him and accidentally adopt their own son’

- Phantom shows up to NASA like ‘pretty please I saved the world a few times and I’ve been good also yes I’m pulling the dead teen card let me go into space’ so he gets some training and gets to tag along on the upcoming space mission

- Several ghosts get hit my a malfunctioning Fenton weapon which temporarily traps them in human bodies and Danny needs to remind them how to be alive again and take care of a human body until it wears off.

- Completing my 14 year old self’s lost work of the DD rewrite where Danny blends in with the students who have powers related to the ghost bug and shows off his powers. 

- The ghosts perspective on Danny, how they like and respect and ultimately want them to one day be their king.... which they demonstrate by trying to kill him on a daily basis.

- Danny breaking down to Lancer about his identity and the ghosts and Lancer knowing he can’t (and shouldn’t given the potential casualty count) stop Danny instead invents creative, nontraditional ways to help Danny learn/keep his grades up and improve his mental health.

- AU where Danny’s folks are normal, non ghost hunting people. Danny still becomes half ghost (he got caught in a natural portal forming on top of him) but his parents don’t believe in ghosts. So its just Danny trying to tell them showing off his powers and such to get them to believe and they just don’t get it. 

#that was cathartic #danny phantom #when I say I am overflowing with ideas #I Mean It #my brain has not shut up ONCE since I got back into DP #I told myself I'd take a night off from headcanons and writing but I wasn't really able to :/ #me trying to sleep at night with dozens of headcanons banging like pots and pans in my head #just seeing if any of these sound interesting to anyone #they are ofc up for grabs if anyone is interested #The ones I meaning towards most right now are Tuckers diary #ghost king danny navigating politics #Dannys loss of powers #and I'm still feeling the vibes of the when I'm dead series so many actually nail a plot down for that one #okay peace out gonna try to sleep #and NOT think of more potential fics/AUs #jk I'll probably have 3 more by the morning

[aion-rsa]

13 Best Blumhouse Horror Movies Ranked

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Has any single person had a greater impact on horror this century than Jason Blum? The one-time Miramax executive struck out on his own in the 2000s when he founded Blumhouse Productions, a company where he remains the CEO. And in the ensuing years, Blum’s production label would define, and redefine again, the trends of horror movies and thrillers.

Operating on the philosophy that a horror film with a micro-budget will almost always turn a profit, Blum frequently allows directors broad freedom to make what they want within the genre, and in the process has kept multiplexes perpetually spooky. In 2009 Blumhouse helped reinvent the found footage horror aesthetic, and in the 2010s, the modern phenomenon of talent-focused horror gems began with Blumhouse’s gambles.

Working with filmmakers like James Wan, Scott Derrickson, Ethan Hawke, and Jordan Peele, Blumhouse Productions’ title card is now a promise of something different, if still eminently commercial and entertaining. It even paved the way for the controversial modern discourse around “elevated” horror, with Peele’s Get Out being the first chiller to win an Oscar for screenwriting since The Silence of the Lambs.

So with a new Blumhouse horror movie in theaters this Friday the 13th, we thought it a good time to count down the 13 best Blumhouse efforts that paid off with a bloody good time.

13. Hush

At the bottom of our top 13 is this taut thriller from Mike Flanagan, director The Haunting of series and Doctor Sleep fame. Flanagan and his co-writer and star (and also wife), Kate Siegel, wanted to make a horror movie with little to no dialogue. So they came up with this concept of a deaf-mute woman (Siegel) in a remote house, who is stalked by a killer with a crossbow. Hush is at its peak in the first 20 minutes as the masked man (10 Cloverfield Lane’s John Gallagher Jr.) realizes his quarry can’t actually hear him and begins to play games.

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The pair’s relationship with sound makes an interesting dynamic in this tense home invasion movie, though the cat and mouse chase does grow somewhat repetitive and generic as the film progresses. Still, a fine performance from Siegel and an indication of what Flanagan could do on a small budget make this very much worth checking out. – Rosie Fletcher

12. Happy Death Day

The Groundhog Day formula where an odious person is doomed to relive the same day countless times has proven remarkably flexible. And Happy Death Day is no exception with its horror-comedy blend of Punxsutawney hijinks and ‘80s slasher movie clichés. Starring a ridiculously game Jessica Rothe as Tree, the sorority girl who is constantly waking up with the hangover from hell, Happy Death Day follows the typical “Queen Bee” slasher archetype, and forces her to relive the same horror movie again and again. Until she can figure out who her masked killer is, and maybe how to be a better person, she’s condemned to die in increasingly preposterous ways. Worse still, she must also wake up in a dormitory afterward.

It’s derivative in a million different ways, but delightful in many more thanks to a cheeky atmosphere from director Christopher Landon and a very savvy, self-aware script by Scott Lobdell. Most of all though, it benefits from Rothe’s comedic talents on full display, as she backflips between initial verbal bitchiness and constant physical comedy. She even manages to find a little pathos, one stab wound at a time. – David Crow

11. The Visit

The Sixth Sense may remain M. Night Shyamalan’s masterpiece, but it was an oft-referenced moment from a different film that became key to Blumhouse pulling him back from the brink of irrelevance.

Having made four objectively terrible movies in a row, including the notoriously bad wind-smeller The Happening, Shyamalan seemingly decided to use what he’d learned from a very effective part of 2002’s Signs, where Joaquin Phoenix reacts to a tense home movie of an alien sighting, and took the next logical step: What if the director put together 90 minutes of unsettling home movie moments just like that?

Your mileage may vary with the handheld, mockumentary style of The Visit, but it’s hard to argue that this brisk, low-budget tale of two young siblings staying with some very, very odd grandparents they’ve never met before could play out more wildly than it does here. And Shyamalan certainly doesn’t pull many punches when it comes to putting those poor kids in peril during the film’s climax. – Kirsten Howard

10. Creep

No, not the one set on the subway, this Creep, directed by Patrick Brice, written by Brice and Mark Duplass, and also starring them both in a tense two-hander, is an altogether more unsettling affair. Brice plays Aaron, a videographer who answers an ad posted by Josef (Duplass), the latter saying he’s dying and wants a video diary made to leave to his son. But Josef’s behavior is weird – exactly how weird is too weird is the challenge faced by Aaron.

At just 77 mins long, this is a compact, unusual, often funny movie which picks at male relationships in the modern day, and how far kindness and politeness can override instinct. Duplass and Brice are incredibly natural in a film that’s extremely unusual, steeped in unease but not really like a traditional horror, with laughter and tension relief keeping you on your toes throughout. There’s a sequel which is good too, though if you can watch the first without spoilers it delivers a particular kind of dread that’s hard to replicate. – RF

9. Upgrade

A couple of decades ago, there were plenty of films around like Upgrade. You didn’t even have to move for fun sci-fi action movies, really! But the glory days of never having to wait for the next Equilibrium, Gattaca, Cypher, or even Jet Li’s The One are long behind us. It’s pretty tough to get a slick little concept movie made when you’re expected to compete with huge action tentpoles at the box office—unless you’re Leigh Whannell, one of Blumhouse’s integral puzzle pieces.

Whannell paid his dues at the production house for 15 years as both a writer and helmer before unleashing his sophomore directorial effort, Upgrade. The film, which follows ludicrously named technophobe Grey Trace after he loses his beloved wife in a violent mugging, sees a paralyzed hero get implanted with a chatty chip that allows him to regain the use of his whole body. Soon Trace become virtually superhuman—imagine an internal K.I.T.T.—but all is not as it seems.

It shouldn’t be as delightful as it is. Admittedly, the whole thing isn’t too far removed from an elevated episode of The Outer Limits. But if you miss old school sci-fi nonsense and feel nostalgic for a time when smart sci-fi projects didn’t end up as eight drawn out episodes on a major streaming service instead, Upgrade really scratches an itch.

Of course now might be a bad time to mention that an Upgrade TV series is in the works… – KH

8. Halloween

In resurrecting one of horror’s most enduring—yet stubbornly uneven—franchises, director David Gordon Green (working with screenwriters Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley) made the smartest move he could: He stripped away the ridiculously convoluted and nonsensical mythology the franchise had built up over decades. Instead he simply made a direct sequel to Carpenter’s 1978 masterpiece.

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The result was easily the best Halloween movie since the original itself, bringing the characters and the story into the present while reverting Michael Myers back to the enigmatic, unstoppable, unknowable force that was so terrifying in the first film. Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, and Andi Matichak as three generations of Strode women bring healthy feminine empowerment to the proceedings while the intense violence and uneasy psychological underpinnings give this Halloween a resonance that has been lacking for so long. – Don Kaye

7. Split

As the movie that suggested M. Night Shyamalan’s renaissance was real, Split is still a surprising box office win for the eclectic filmmaker. With a grizzly premise about a man suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly known as split personality) kidnapping teen girls to hold in a zoo, this could be the stuff of ‘70s grindhouse sleaze. While there is a touch of that to Split, more critically the movie acts as a buoyant showcase for James McAvoy at his most unbound.

Playing a character with 24 different personalities, a shaved and beefy McAvoy is visibly giddy bouncing between multiple alters that include a deceptively sweet little boy, an OCD fashion designer, and a bestial final form. The commitment he shows to each also becomes its own special effect, causing you to swear his physical shape is changing with his expressions.

Similarly, scenes with theater legend Betty Buckley as his psychiatrist also rivet with the energy of a stage play, and suggest a sincere sympathy for mental illness. A rarity in horror. Nevertheless, the movie still comes down to his alters’ obsessions with their kidnapped prize (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman who hides demons of her own. When these true selves finally cross paths in a genuinely tense finale, Split is maniacally thrilling. – DC

6. Sinister

An unsettling entry in the horror subgenre of writers who destroy their families, Sinister marked director/co-writer Scott Derrickson’s (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) return to horror after he detoured with an ill-fated remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thus Derrickson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill concocted a unique, if somewhat scattershot, mythology about a pagan deity that murders entire families in the ghastliest ways imaginable.

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True crime writer Ethan Hawke discovers the extent of those murders in a box of 8mm films left in the attic of his new home (where the last killings took place), and it’s the unspooling of those films—along with long sequences of Hawke moving through the shadows and silence of the house—that provide Sinister with its sickening core and palpable dread. Derrickson sustains the film’s foreboding mood for the entire running time, making the movie an authentically frightening experience. – DK

5. Oculus

The film that brought much of the world’s attention to Mike Flanagan, Oculus turned out to be a preview for the horror filmmaker’s interests. It also remains a truly unnerving ghost story. Not since the days of Dead of Night has a film so successfully made you scared of looking in a mirror.

Officially titled the Lasser Glass, the mirror in question is the apparent supernatural cause of hundreds of deaths, including the parents of Kaylie Russell (Karen Gillan) and her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites). When they were children, their mother starved and mutilated herself before their father killed her. But now as an adult, Kaylie is convinced she can prove the antique glass is the true culprit, and she’ll document its evil power before destroying it. But the funny thing about evil mirrors is they have ways of protecting themselves, and wreaking havoc on a sense of time, place, and certainly self-image.

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With the movie’s near masterful blending of events occurring 11 years ago and in the present, Flanagan revealed a knack for dreamlike structure, and stories about the past damning the future. These are ideas he’s gone on to explore in richer detail with The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep, but Flanagan’s ability to juxtapose childhood trauma with a nightmarish present was never more potent, or tragic, than in Oculus’ refracted gaze. – DC

4. Paranormal Activity

It may take some mental gymnastics, but if you can take a step back and ignore all the sequels that followed in the wake of this surprise 2009 blockbuster, then you’d remember Paranormal Activity is a stone cold classic. It is also the movie that put Blumhouse on the map. Already mostly finished when Jason Blum saw a DVD screener of Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity, this $15,000-budgeted terror is arguably the most evocative use of found footage in all of horror.

While Peli is obviously influenced by 1999’s The Blair Witch Project, that earlier movie is as famous for its shaky disorientation as it is its scares. By contrast what occurs in Paranormal Activity is excruciatingly clear. Seriously, the camera barely moves! Instead we’re asked to sit back and watch in near slow motion as an unwise couple (Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat) meddle with forces that were better off left undisturbed.

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It begins when Micah brings a home video camera into their house to track apparent ghosts in the dark; it ends in a demonic rush of violence. Everything in between is tracked by a disinterested lens, which usually sits statically in a corner or on a tripod, capturing the tedium of everyday life in its everyday natural lighting. Only occasionally does the horned shadow on the wall manifest. But then Paranormal Activity is chilling in its isolation. – DC

3. Insidious

As the fourth feature film directed by Australian filmmaker James Wan, Insidious follows a couple named Josh and Renai Lambert (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne), whose son inexplicably falls into a coma and becomes a vessel for malevolent entities from a dimension called the Further. The family enlists a psychic named Elise Rainier (Lin Shaye) in a battle involving astral projection and demonic possession.

Following an era of horror films that were more torture porn or police procedural (including Wan’s own Saw), Insidious was a return to the kind of horror filmmaking that was dependent on atmosphere, suspense, and what you don’t see lurking in the shadows. And Wan seemed to imbue that creepiness around the edges of every shot. Using actual adult characters and developing them (as opposed to the hipster teens that infested nearly every horror movie for at least 10 years previously) also set the film apart as a serious attempt at a genre that had been too often exploited in a tossed-off fashion.

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The world-building of Insidious left the door open for sequels, of course, and while the three produced so far have had their moments, none has matched the sheer invention and terrifying fun of the original. – DK

2. The Invisible Man

Leigh Whannell’s reimagining of the classic Universal Monster, the Invisible Man, was as much of a surprise when it hit screens earlier this year as the titular villain himself. As a smart social commentary on domestic abuse and gaslighting, while also being enormously effective as a straight up horror, this was a highly fresh take on an old standard.

At the core was the terrific performance of Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia, a woman stuck with her controlling boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) in their high-tech, high security fortress of a home. When Cece finally manages to escape and Adrian appears to take his own life, she hopes her ordeal can finally be over. But in fact it’s just beginning.

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By Don Kaye

Playing on the true horror of not being believed, Whannell’s Invisible Man is as harrowing at times as it is thrilling. Yes, there are some extraordinarily shocking set pieces – the restaurant scene of course stands out – but it’s the increasing desperation of Cece, whose world is falling apart at the manipulative hands of a man who won’t let her go, which stays with you.

The Invisible Man is a thrilling horror, for sure, with a feel good ending (if you want to read it that way…), but it’s something altogether more exciting than that too: a fresh, relevant take on a classic, expertly directed and boasting star power delivered on a moderate budget, which flexes exactly what horror can do. – RF

1. Get Out

More impressive than any awards it won, Jordan Peele’s Get Out encapsulates the essential draw of horror: through entertaining “scares,” it unmasks truths folks might find too horrifying or uncomfortable to acknowledge. In the case of Get Out, it is the despair of Blackness and Black bodies still being commodified by a predatory American culture.

Wearing influences like Rosemary’s Baby and Stepford Wives on his sleeve, Peele pulls from classic horror conventions for his directorial debut, but gives them a startling 21st century sheen. His movie’s insidious conspiracy is neither an obvious coven of witches or the openly racist heavies of a period piece. Rather Peele sets his story about a Black man (Daniel Kaluuya) coming to meet his white girlfriend’s parents in a liberal conclave of wealthy suburbia. Written during the final days of the Obama years, Peele casts these parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) as genial and welcoming, shielding cries of racism behind fashionable political correctness.

Yet once Peele moves past that trendy veneer, he finds a potent allegory in which the ghosts of slavery are still alive and well, even in Upstate New York. Peele also packs anxieties about interracial relationships, culture clash, and childhood trauma into a film that is nevertheless gregariously funny. Ultimately though, its final effect is triggering in the best way. Get Out offers an opportunity to confront real dread, one uneasy laugh, and then sudden jump scare, at a time. – DC

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[heyheyitsstillgay]

Ghost Weed - Unbe-leaf-able

Phandom Phic Phight Entry #3 based on a prompt by @bouhoue - Maddie decides to plant some new flowers in the garden...

#TeamGhost team leader @ibelieveinahappilyeverafter

Previous Entry ; Also available on FFN ; Next Entry

Words: 1,933; Status: Complete

TW: Blood mention, Ectoplasmic gore

Physics, specifically about space? Danny loved it. He wasn't sure any other kid smiles over homework like he is right now but who cares? Sure, his English was due sooner, but he was enjoying himself for once. A rare moment of actual happiness, he was going to savour it.

Ah, that's that ruined, he thinks to himself as a familiar bubbling suddenly presses against the back of his eyes. He gasps as his throat cracks. Grasping shaking hands against his desk, he jumps out of his chair and darts out the door. A viscous liquid drips down his oesophagus as his feet slam against the steps of the staircase. He doubles over as he swings the front door open. Choking against the water in his mouth (Blood? Ectoplasm?), he forces his feet forward and past the threshold of FentonWorks.

Twitching fingers clench around the phone in his pocket as the halfa gasps for air. Stumbling down the street to get further away from the stinging that's encompassing his skin, shaking fingers tap against the buttons of his device.

"What blossoms?" Jazz exclaims, voice laced with concern. A quaint straw hat adorns her head, it's rim is decorated with a sweet floral ribbon. The sun is comfortingly warm on her arms and legs, a light breeze brushes her skin like a soft blanket. It was a beautiful summers day, she'd be happy to be spending it in the garden if her mind wasn't swirling with worry over her little brother.

"Blood Blossoms." Sam replies, reaching down to pick another flower head.

She brushes the petals softly with fingertips that are free of her black lace gloves. The jostle of the plant disturbs the pollen, it shifts upwards in the breeze, seeming to hum and almost glow a soft mesmerising gold.

"They're not harmful to humans at all so you don't need to worry about that. It's just called that because of its deep red colour and the pattern of black droplets near the base." The goth girl raises the black netted veil of her hat so it no longer covers her face, she takes a pinch of petals from the flower and places them into her mouth. Jazz's eyes widen at the sight but she doesn't comment as Sam chews and deposits the rest of the flower into the basket she's holding by her elbow. Swallowing, Sam continues "that and they're known for repelling ghosts. In times of disaster or plague people used to throw Blood Blossoms or their seeds onto the bodies of the dead. It was supposed to deter spirits from coming to the area and making things worse. They grow quite well in corpses," The Fenton girl grimaces while Sams tone continues as though they're simply discussing the weather rather than quite gruesome suffering and the image of death. "Obviously. Like Poppies, blood makes for a good fertiliser, y'know?" "Why are you eating it then?" The ginger interrupts, preferring not to be any more disturbed than she currently is.

"It's the best way to get rid of them." Sam responds, plucking more of the plants from their stems. "They were good in times of famine too, they're fibrous and nutritious and totally vegan. Wanna try?"

Jazz was presented the flower as though it wasn't something her brother described as 'Horrible, makes my blood simmer and expand as a super heated gas while my skin tries to peel away from my body. Like being electrocuted to death. Again.'

"I'm good." She forces a smile and gestures for the offending plant to stay away from her, Sam simply shrugs and places it in the basket with the others. "The pollen's quite pretty." Jazz quietly concedes. Sam smiles with gritted teeth.

"The pollen's the bad part." The goth laughs emptily, "It can phase through a ghost's skin, it reacts with the ectoplasm and gets in the way of their powers and, well, any function actually. It makes them seize up and saps at their energy. It's like ectoplasmic hay-fever but instead of making your nose run it'll destabilise ya." She grasps at the plant stems again, harsher, significantly less care than before.

"Thanks so much for your help guys, I never thought mom would choose to spend a summer's day gardening, but of course, if she did it'd be to bite me in the ass specifically." Danny laughs as he enters the back garden later on. It's perimeter is a state, black stems poking out of the soil. Tucker smirks, just glad that he got to hang out with Danny all day rather than deal with a flower that continues to haunt his nightmares. That says a lot considering he hunts ghosts with his friends on the daily.

"Stand back Ghost Boy." Sam smirks, hoisting two overflowing baskets of plant life into the air and edging her way around the house. "Your parents had planted enough for several months worth of salads, or, enough to eject your soul from your body." She makes finger guns as she backs out of the gate to head back to her house.

"You okay Danny?" Jazz asks, brushing her damp palms against her shorts and keeping her distance from the halfa, just in case.

"Yeah, it's barely noticeable at this point. Currently, the most threatening thing about being here is being found at the scene of a pretty horrendous ghost-plant-crime by our parents." He turned to head into their house, "When they notice, do you think we can convince them it was attacked by a local pro-ghost dog?"

Vines slunk towards him from every angle. The once comforting glow of the ghost zone around him became tinted red. Thorns pierced his ankle as a heavy stench of rot assaulted his nose. Vines pulled against him. Thick air surrounded him, weighing down his limbs. A scream tore from his throat while ectoplasm squirted from him. Breath taken away, Phantom looked down his wispy distorted form to see the curled, spiked, black vine protruding out from hi-

Danny's eyelids snap open. Chest heaving ragged gasps as he moves his hand to hover over his heart and core in an attempt to calm himself. Tongue heavy in his mouth, he shakes off the frost that has crystallised in his dark hair and sits up in his bed.

A nightmare? Not uncommon, and considering the relevant theme he doesn't suspect that one of his enemies is behind it. The ghost boy is still freaked from yesterday, part of him can still feel the itch echoing on his skin.

Wait. Oh, you're kidding. Danny rises from his bed on unsteady legs from the adrenaline dying down. He pads over to his window and raises the blinds. Yeah, not kidding. Anxiety surfaces again and he swears stress is going to kill him before any ghost hunter has the chance. Pushing the heels of his palms into his eyes, he stops when he begins to see stars. Quickly phasing his pyjamas off, Danny throws on underwear, a t-shirt and some jeans. He doesn't bother with socks. Grabbing a backpack he keeps phased into the floor under his bed, he turns invisible and creeps out of his bedroom. The stinging wasn't as bad as last time and it was stupid o'clock in the morning, so the ghost boy focuses more on stealth than speed when he slips out of his home. This time leaving the garden isn't nearly as difficult, the sprouting spectral weeds, for the most part, haven't bloomed yet. His skin itches a slight but it's not incapacitating, either way it's better for him to leave now. Checking his phone and texting his sister to let her know what's going on, Danny decides that 5am is a perfectly reasonable time for a patrol. Sleep is for the weak.

"So, what happened to eating them being the best way to get rid of them?" Jazz asked.

"Well, during our last encounter they weren't planted, they were just kinda scattered. Pass me the stuff?" Tucker reaches his hand towards the canister that the older teen is clutching closely to her abdomen. She hands it over with reluctance clearly written on her face.

"And this is the best plan B that you guys have?" Scepticism is clear in her voice as the Fenton backs away. Tucker responds with a smile like there was nothing out of the ordinary about the situation, he moves towards the flower beds and uncaps the hefty container that Jazz had managed to get a hold of that morning.

"Well, the issue must be with the roots, either that or they're able to reproduce ridiculously quickly," he shakes the liquid onto the flower bed and begins to walk around. Keeping to the edge of the garden, he leaves through the fence on one side, a minute or so passes as he re-emerges at the other side of the house, resuming his dousing of the soil. "We could always try weed killer but, Danny's supposed to be able to live here. Weed killer can take a while and even then you have to top it up sometimes. Your parents might be a bit clueless but surely they're going to get suspicious about why he's never home after one week."

"So you thought about chemicals and after careful consideration decided that this was the best bet?" She wrings her hands together as the boy caps the near empty canister and offers it back to her.

"Yeah, basically." Tucker shifts a small cardboard box out of his pocket, Jazz can't help the hands flying to her face in dismay as the boy removes a small match and attempts to light it.

He succeeds, his smile bursts with pride as he looks back towards his best friend's sister and drops the lit match onto the trail of petrol.

The warm days recently mean the soil is reasonably dry, so the flames catch surprisingly quickly. Wind not strong enough to put out the blaze, ends up carrying it across the plant life as a hazy red smoke begins to plume into the air.

"See?" The techno-geek backs away from the fire, "I told you it'd be fine."

"Yah-huh, and what's your plan for when our wooden fence catches fire?"

"When what now?" His head snaps back to where he had been stood a moment ago. Sure enough, the previously white fence is developing a black char at the base. "Uhhhh, fancy a barbecue?" He shrugs his shoulders and smiles in a way that looks terribly similar to a grimace.

"Okay, you head inside and find a bucket, I'll double check that the whole plot is definitely alight." Tucker giggles to himself as the blood red smoke rises from around the corner of the house, clearly the fire has successfully spread to the front garden too. "Ha! Lets see them grow back from that!" He crosses his arms before reaching for his phone as Jazz rolls her eyes and heads into her kitchen.

The teen clicks on Danny's contact info to tell him they've sorted the situation for real this time. It rings twice before the halfa answers him.

"Hey Tuck, how's it going?" The voice sounds from over the line. Before the teen can answer, a sudden angry screech comes from behind him.

"What! On! Earth! Has happened! To my garden!?" Tuckers eyes bulge in his head and his speech into his phone comes out like a spluttering cough.

"So the good news is the flowers aren't gonna kill you. The bad news is," He takes in a choked breath, "your mom's about to kill me now instead."

#phic phight #phic phight 19 #phic phight 2019 #own post #owly writes #ficlet #blood mention // #ectoshit // #blood blossoms #danny phantom #danny fenton #jazz fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #sorry if you were expecting ghost nip from the title whoops #i swear next week i wont go into detail about danny having a Bad Time #it'll start with him having a bad time but it'll end up being kinda funny i promise

[writehardwhumpharder]

Short Carson drabble - nightmares

Daniel struggled to pull some fitted sheets over the mattress in his pullout couch. His nephew Mason leaned against the wall watching.

"You could help you know." He said, wrestling one corner of the sheet onto the mattress. Mason crossed his arms and stood there, he was thirteen now, at that age where he wasn't all that fun to be around. Daniel sighed dramatically when he was finished, dumping the rest of the pillows and blankets on top for his nephew to figure out. "Well, goodnight. Food is in fridge. Don't wake me up before ten. You know the drill."

At around 1am his sister had called, saying that she needed him to take Mason for the night, that there was an emergency but not to worry. She did this every once in a while. When he met her at the curb, grabbing the boy's overstuffed backpack, she seemed to be in a hurry but otherwise fine. He'd know if something was really wrong with his sister and there wasn't so he didn't push the issue. Having been woken up right after he'd fallen into a deep sleep, Daniel was pretty tired but he did manage to lead Mason up the stairs and into his apartment, immediately pulling out the couch for him so he could get back into bed himself.

Mason sat down on the edge of the lumpy mattress, watching as Daniel climbed back into his bed. Since he had a studio apartment, everything was more or less crammed into one large room. It didn't allow for much privacy, but then again, he didn't usually have an angsty thirteen year old crashing on his couch.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep after getting Mason settled in when he heard the scream. Without fully waking up Daniel rolled out of bed with a groan, grabbing his key to Carson's apartment as he slid on his slippers. Mason bolted upright, startled by the sound.

"What... what was that? Is someone hurt?" He asked, voice shaking with concern, or puberty, one of those things. Daniel just squinted at him with his bedraggled hair and pajamas.

"What?" He asked casually.

"The screaming? What the hell is going on and why aren't you bothered by this? Someone could be dying right now and needs help." Mason said, sounding exasperated.

"Hmm, oh, it's just Carson. You can go back to sleep." Daniel said, rubbing his face tiredly. He continued towards the door.

"Is Carson being actively murdered?" Mason said, starting to get mad. He just woke up to agonized screaming and his uncle was just standing there in his teddy bear slippers like he was just going out to buy ice cream or something.

Daniel left without answering. He gripped the railing to keep from stumbling down the stairs in his half awake state and held the key out to unlock Carson's door. He knocked sharply before entering.

***

He must have screamed, because minutes after waking up a sweaty mess, tangled up in his sheets, there was an urgent knocking on his door. Carson already knew who it was. Daniel lived in the apartment directly above his so he'd been woken up plenty of times by Carson's nightmares in the few years he'd lived above him. Carson considered ignoring him but the knocking continued so he settled for calling out weakly from his bed that he could come in. Daniel unlocked the door with one of the keys he gave him and let himself in. Carson drew his knees to his chest with a sigh and prepared himself for total embarrassment. There was another short knock on one of his wooden bookshelves before Daniel stepped into his makeshift bedroom.

"You okay man?" He asked, knowing full well that he wasn't. Danny was easily Carson's best and only friend. Luckily for him, Danny was determined to keep it that way. No self-isolation on his watch.

"Fine. Just another stupid dream." Carson muttered.

"Do you remember what it was about?" His friend asked patiently, sitting down on the end of the bed.

"No. But it had the same feeling as the others. The same cold emptiness."

Carson mostly kept out of trouble, only used his gift to help close friends or family, and beyond that he lived a fairly normal life. But he had crossed a line. Broken some kind of cosmic rule. He had seen death, felt the very essence of it, and it haunted him. Danny rested a hand on his thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with that. It can't be easy."

This was a conversation they'd already had a hundred times. There wasn't much Danny could do besides be there.

"You can go back to bed. I'll be fine." Carson assured him, feeling a little guilty for dragging him out of bed at 3am.

"You sure?"

Carson thought about it for a moment, trying to put the dreadful cold feeling back into its designated box. Apparently he took too long to answer because Danny was already getting comfortable on the bed next to him, pulling out Carson's laptop so they could watch cartoons.

"Just one episode." Carson said.

"Whatever you say." Danny countered.

Carson dozed off some time during the third episode around 4am. When he woke up in the morning Daniel had gone home and his laptop was plugged in and put away.

#drabble #OC drabble #Carson Hall #Daniel Hopkins #nightmares #screaming #comfort #fluff #emotional whump #sort of #wtf tumblr #this is my fifth attempt posting this

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie review

Satisfying people is pretty damn hard. We all know you can never satisfy everyone; it’s just not possible, realistically. You can only hope to satisfy the largest number of people possible. And satisfying people with a grand finale to a beloved cartoon is even harder, because you need to wrap up all the loose threads, answer the outstanding questions, and bring the character arcs to a close. Shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Ed, Edd n Eddy, and Gravity Falls were able to do this really well, while shows like Danny Phantom, The Legend of Korra, and Teen Titans gave mixed to downright awful (that’s only in “Phantom Planet’s” case, don’t get your panties in a twist) finales. It’s fucking hard to do! And I can only imagine it is exponentially harder when you’re doing it for a show that ended without a conclusion fifteen years ago. But that’s what they finally did for Hey Arnold, the beloved Nickelodeon classic about a young boy in an urban setting getting into all manner of adventures with his colorful cast of friends. This story was over a decade in the making, set to wrap up the plot point of what actually happened to Arnold’s parents, a mystery that has haunted fans for years. And then finally, in 2015, we got word production was moving forward, after years of lost hope and acceptance that we’d never get the story. In 2017, it debuted on TV… was it as satisfying as a finale should be? Did this really live up to what it should be?

Oh fuck yes it did.

Look, I’m not gonna try and hide this, this was my most anticipated movie of the year, and while it isn’t the perfect film or the be-all-end-all of cinematic brilliance, it delivers a true Hey Arnold experience and gives us satisfaction and closure while still leaving room for more adventures. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; you know what’s coming first! THE PLOT!

Set a year after the original series ended (try wrapping your head around THAT one), Arnold is having nightmares about never finding his parents. He has just about given up hope, until the day good ol’ Mr. Simmons announces there’s a contest that will give the winner the chance to go to San Lorenzo, the place where Arnold’s parents disappeared years ago. Arnold of course desperately wants to go, and with help from his best pal Gerald, his secret admirer Helga, and all the folks he’s helped over the series, he wins! But his grandparents tell him he’s only there for a class trip and not to go off looking for his parents… which Arnold sadly complies to, though he does try and look up his parents’ old friend Eduardo. All is not well, though; as Arnold soon discovers from Eduardo, there is a vicious South American pirate named Lasombra out to nab Arnold, believing that Arnold can lead him to a valuable treasure. Things get hairier from there as Arnold and the gang get held hostage by the pirates; can Arnold save his friends and find his parents, or is Arnold Shortman going to get cut down to size?

God it is so good to hear most of the original voice cast again! Yeah, Arnold and Gerald have new VAs since their old ones grew up (they do cameo in the film, though) and some had to be replaced due to their VAs dying since the show ended, but other than that… everyone is back! Maurice LaMarche is back as Big Bob, and just as much of a bullheaded jerk with a heart of gold as he ever was; Dan Castellanetta is still Grandpa Phil, and he’s still sharp as a knife after all these years (and now that I know who Castellanetta is, I can hear a great deal of Homer-esque delivery in Phil’s voice!); Tress MacNeille has returned as Grandma Gertie, and is as insanely entertaining as she ever was; Dan Butler brings the camp as Mr. Simmons, who is finally, in a brief but telling scene, confirmed to be gay; Nika Futterman and Kath Soucie return as Olga and Miriam Pataki, and most importantly, Francesca Marie Smith returns as Helga, voicing her without missing a beat, slipping into the role like a glove even after all these years!

And that’s not all, obviously, tons of the other kids and side characters have their voice actors return for this, and man is that just a big plus! And even if it’s only for brief cameos that have little bearing on the overall plot, god, it is so good to see characters like Pigeon Man and Stoop Kid again after all this time! This movie really delivers the fanservice, but not in a manipulative or cheap way; it truly feels like a culmination of the series rather than just going “Hey remember this?! Wasn’t that COOL?!”

As for new voices, the ones they got to replace do a fine job at replicating the voice actors they’re replacing while still giving their own flair. Mason Vale Cotton, the new  Arnold here, is especially great, giving Arnold the perfect young boy voice and even delivering some surprisingly emotional moments. If they do bring the show back for another season, they’d better keep him on as Arnold, because they really got something special here.

I’d also be foolish to not mention the big name in the cast: Alfred Molina. He is playing the villain Lasombra, and god, you can just tell he is having the time of his life. Lasombra is one of the most magnificent bastards you will ever see in any Nickelodeon production, and he’s an actual, legitimate threat. Chillingly, he manages to rack up a body count over the course of the movie, using his own men as bait for traps. And while there’s no blood, you see people actually, legitimately die onscreen in this Hey Arnold movie. What the actual FUCK.

The plot is just as good as you’d expect, though the pace of it moves a bit quick at some points, and there are some pretty corny moments, especially during the ending portion where Arnold is required to do something very obvious but is freaking out about not knowing what to do. It’s rather dopey, especially since Arnold is probably the smartest kid in his neighborhood. And then there’s some gratuitous CGI usage... Still, I can’t say that there’s anything that particularly ruins the movie outside of nitpicks. Let me put it this way; there are elements of Big Picture Show, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie and its sequel, and Channel Chasers that I don’t think work particularly well, but they certainly don’t keep any of them from being fantastic films in their own right. The problems with this movie are small, few, and don’t hold it back too much, or even much at all.

This movie is ever so satisfying. It’s everything a fan could have wanted out of a finale of the show, everything we could have hoped for. It has a great villain, as much of the original cast as possible, a good story, solid pacing, funny jokes, and an actual conclusion to the series that puts everyone where they deserve to be! I definitely recommend this, especially if you’re a fan of the original show. As my most anticipated film of the year, I was not let down at all. It may not be my most favorite, but damn if it isn’t the most satisfying!

More TV shows need to take note: this right here? THIS is how you end your show… though, with any luck, we may get another season out of this. If we do, I think it’s safe to say Nickelodeon is about to hit a new Renaissance era, what with this and Rocko’s Modern Life and Invader Zim getting TV movies (and possibly resurrections as shows). The timeline we’re living in is weird as Hell, but goddamn is all this making it worth it.

#Review #Movie review #Hey Arnold! #Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie #The Jungle Movie #Nickelodeon #TV movie #animated movie #animation

[zooweemiya]

Take Flight! (Haikyuu Band AU) Ch 1: Do you believe in fate?

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26755042/chapters/65270758

The room was filled with a dim, yellow light. Its atmosphere was warm with idle chatter and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. As Hinata walked through the group of small, circular tables, he looked around the quaint coffee shop. The café was busy, especially considering it was 8:00 on a Friday night in a small corner of Tokyo. Hinata smiled to himself, weaving his way to the other side of the room where a small stage was set up. He plopped his bag down at the foot of the steps as he walked up onto the stage. His eyes landed on the electric piano situated behind a small mic stand. Hinata perched on the small stool behind the piano, facing out to the crowd in the shop. He ran the tips of his fingers lightly over the black and white keys. His chest filled with warmth as he thought about the music he was about to play.

One day, when Hinata was in middle school, he sat in his small living room in front of the TV. His mother had been watching some award show or whatnot, and young Hinata felt that watching the show would be a lot more interesting than doing the homework that sat in his schoolbag. After about 15 minutes of the same boring acceptance speeches, the lights of the stage dimmed. Hinata’s breath caught in his chest as a spotlight appeared, illuminating a sleek, black instrument. A few pregnant moments passed, when all of a sudden, the man seated behind the piano clanged onto the keys. It startled Hinata, and the following chords that poured out from the performance were no less frightening. The song was erratic with a haunting melody. So much emotion spilled out of the mans fingertips, reaching Hinata even in the comfort of his own home, behind a TV screen. The notes reverberated in his bones and wrapped around his chest like vines. That was the day he fell in love with music.

Clearing his throat into the mic, Hinata grabbed the attention of everyone in the room. A hush fell over the audience as Hinata began with a bright smile, “Good evening everyone! I’m Hinata Shouyou, a university student here in Tokyo. If you’ve been here before, welcome back! And if it’s your first time, thank you for choosing to spend your Friday night here with us!” He gave a little spiel about the shop and how The Little Crow had small concerts every Friday. He voiced his appreciation for the owner of the shop, Ukai Keishin, who raised a coffee mug from behind the counter in response. “Well, without further ado,” Hinata cheered into the mic, “let the show begin!”

**Victor’s Piano Solo - Danny Elfman**

Hinata placed his hands on the keys. He took a slow, deep breath, and pressed into the first note as he exhaled. He slowly played the first few chords. His hands flitted over the instrument with ease, his eyes closing shut as he felt the music. This first song was a short instrumental, and Hinata allowed himself to be carried away by the melancholic song. He swayed his upper body with the music as the song grew in intensity and volume. He pressed into the keys a little rougher as he neared the end of the song, ending with an abrupt hit of his last chord. A small murmur erupted from the audience as rounds of applause and snaps echoed through the room. Hinata smiled to himself and began his next song.

After that day Hinata had discovered his passion for music, he had asked his mom for weeks to buy him a piano. She eventually caved due to Hinata’s unwavering persistence, and Hinata taught himself how to play on a second-hand electric piano. He remembers studying how to read sheet music more than his actual homework. In high school, Hinata had saved up enough money to buy himself a better electric piano, one that he wasn’t afraid to break with the slightest of increased pressure from his hands. He began writing and composing his own songs, and in the blink of an eye, music had taken over his life. Around that time is when he had discovered The Little Crow. He had noticed a flyer for the Friday night concerts at the little coffee shop and practically begged the owner to let him play. With great annoyance, Ukai had allowed him to one Friday night and was utterly blown away with the natural talent the orange-haired boy had for playing the piano. Sure, his hands were small, much like the rest of his body, but Hinata could move his hands over the keys with a speed Ukai had never seen before.

Playing at The Little Crow had become a regular for Hinata. He’d play there as often as he could, which was almost every other week. People seemed to enjoy his music, and he’d grown a little following over the past couple of years.

After graduating high school, Hinata had applied to one of the elite music schools in Tokyo. However, during his audition, he had barely gotten halfway through his piece when he was interrupted. One of the judges on his panel, a short old man, had stopped him from continuing his song. The man had told Hinata that he had no discipline in the way that he played. He explained to Hinata how his posture was always slouched and even the way he positioned his hands and wrists were all wrong. Hinata tried to explain to them that he was completely self-taught, but this had displeased the man further. The orange-haired boy was kicked out of his audition with his self-esteem at an all time low and dreams crushed.

Hinata had cried for what had felt like weeks, but as he looks back on it now, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of days. He would have given up on music completely if it hadn’t been for his sister. He could still hear Natsu’s condescending voice telling him how pathetic he had been for crying over the audition. It had surprised him to hear her talk to him like that. But then she continued, saying how she’s never seen him back down from a fight before. It was just one school, one audition. There’d be other opportunities. And she was right, he wasn’t one to give up. So, he took that horrid and bruised memory, and used it to fuel the fire within him, making his passion for music just grow even more.

Now in his second year of university, 20-year-old Hinata couldn’t be happier. He was double majoring in Music and Business, and he was able to play music every week at the shop. He was content with how things had gone, as he was slowly making his way into the music industry.

After about a half hour of playing, Hinata began his final song for the night. The joints in his hands were beginning to ache, but he welcomed the feeling. He loved absolutely everything about playing piano. He huffed out a breath through his grin as he began to play.

**Someone You Loved - Conor Maynard** ( Italics - Hinata)

I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to save me

His voice flitted through the speakers over the crowd. All his songs had been instrumentals so far, and a new hush fell over the café. Everyone had ceased whatever they were doing to watch the young boy sing with a constant grin plastered to his face.

This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy

I need somebody to heal

Somebody to know

Somebody to have

Somebody to hold

Hinata had written the lyrics to this song when he was still in high school. It was a song of his past, and he had never really liked it, until about a week ago when he had finally figured out was what missing from the composition.

Now the day bleeds

Into nightfall

And you're not here

To get me through it all

I let my guard down

And then you pulled the rug

I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

Although it was a solemn song, Hinata was still smiling. Just the act of playing music could put him into a trance of everlasting happiness. Even as memories flitted behind his closed eyelids as he sang and emotion poured into his voice, Hinata was content in this moment with his life. He hopes that he will make it big someday, become a musician that people will recognize. But right now, just playing his music, he was happy. Hinata finished his song off with a single elongated note. He opened his eyes to an elated crowd. Everyone was clapping, a few tables whooped and cheered for him. He chuckled as a smile crinkled his eyes.

“Thank you everyone! Please, welcome to the stage The Little Crow’s next performer, Michiko!” As Hinata took his leave and the next person climbed onto the stage, he grabbed his bag and made his way over to the counter.

“Oi, Hinata! Great job up there, kid,” Ukai called out to him in greeting as he dried off a mug. Hinata leaned his forearms onto the counter top across from Ukai. The man was tall, at least taller than Hinata, with blonde-dyed hair and piercings. Ukai’s appearance had intimidated Hinata when he had first met the man three years ago, but now he knew better. While he did have his scary moments (Hinata internally shivered as he remembered the time he had accidentally bumped into a table and caused four mugs to fall and break– yeah he thought he would lose his life right then and there to the hands of the bottle-blonde), Ukai was very supportive and an overall great person to be around.

“Thanks Ukai-san! It was great to play again. And we’ve got a pretty good crowd tonight!” Hinata chirped cheerily to the older man.

Ukai chuckled lightly as he began making a drink. “Yeah, kid. You’ve been getting popular. Great to see you getting some recognition.”

Hinata’s chest filled with pride and his eyes twinkled. “Thank you, sir!” he practically yelled. A vein popped up on Ukai’s forehead and he slid Hinata a glare. Hinata just chuckled nervously in response, feigning innocence.

Abruptly, someone cleared their throat behind him. Hinata jumped and twirled around, nearly knocking himself off his feet. He straightened as he noticed they were two customers, and gave a quick apology for blocking the counter.

Before he could fully turn away, one of the customers spoke. “Oh! Wait, Hinata-kun. We came over to talk to you, actually,” the man with silver hair said as he rubbed a hand on his neck and chuckled. Hinata decided right then that the man must have been an angel. Hinata couldn’t help but gawk at the beautiful man. He even had a cute beauty mark under his eye! And his voice sounded so smooth. Mr. Angel chuckled again at Hinata’s staring, “Um, Hinata-kun?”

“Yes!” he replied maybe a little too forcefully. “Yes,” he repeated, “Hi, I’m Hinata Shouyou. Nice to meet you!” He gave a small bow.

“Nice to meet you as well,” Mr. Angel said sweetly. He smiled and Hinata felt he could faint. There's no way he’s real, Hinata thought as Mr. Angel continued. “My name is Sugawara Koushi, but you can just call me Suga. And this,” he said, jutting thumb to the man with brown hair and broad shoulders standing behind him, “is Sawamura Daichi. This was our first time coming here for the little concert, and we were quite impressed with your performance.”

Hinata felt like he was floating. “Thank you, Suga-san, Sawamura-san,” he exclaimed with another bow.

The two men chuckled. Hinata straightened as Sawamura spoke, “Just Daichi is fine.” His voice was deep and velvety, and Hinata couldn’t believe how perfect these two people in front of him were. “We actually wanted to talk to you about that last song you just played. Did you write that yourself?” Daichi asked.

Hinata nodded his head excitedly. “Oh, yeah! I wrote the lyrics a couple of years ago, but just finished the composition, so that was my first time playing it!”

“Wow, for that being your first time performing the song, it was very good,” Suga complimented him. Hinata thanked him with another bow, and Suga snorted. “You’re cute Hinata-kun,” he said with a wink, and Hinata could feel the blush creeping up his neck. Suga outright laughed at the sight. “Daichi, he’s so cute! Can we please keep him?” Suga asked the other man.

Daichi elbowed Suga in the side, lightly. “Quit patronizing him,” he muttered to the laughing man, then turned to Hinata. “I apologize for his antics, he likes to use his beauty for evil.” This comment made Suga laugh even louder, causing a few people from the near tables to peer at them. Daichi gave an exasperated sigh, “Anyway, we wanted to talk to you because the two of us are in a band together.”

“Wah, that’s so cool!” Hinata exclaimed before he could stop himself.

Suga recovered from his hysterics to reply to the boy, “Isn’t it? Well we’re still a relatively new band, only been together for a little over a year. And we’ve been scouting around trying to find a new band member! We were looking for a songwriter who could also be our second vocalist, and we think you’d be a perfect candidate.”

Hinata stared at the men before him, wide-eyed. His brain chose that moment to malfunction. “Wait what,” Hinata asked incredulously. “You’re offering me a spot in your band?”

“Well, we want you to come and try out,” Daichi replied. “We have a gig tomorrow night if you’re interested in seeing the kind of music we play, and then we can hold a little audition for you in front of our other bandmates right after.”

“Oh, but we do hope you’ll come! I’m sure you’ll enjoy our music, and our bandmates–,” Suga began excitedly until he stopped himself, and gave a nervous glance toward Daichi. Hinata looked between them, confused as they had a seemingly telepathic conversation. “Well,” Suga continued with a small sigh, “I guess they can be enjoyable.” He gave a small laugh at Hinata’s sudden look of concern. “Don’t worry they’ll love you, you’ll love them, it’ll be great,” he said with a small wave of his hand.

“We hope that you’ll just come and give it a shot. We really do think you’re quite talented,” Daichi finished with a genuine smile.

Hinata couldn’t process anything that was happening. This had to be a dream, right? Hinata just swallowed thickly, and gave a small nod.

Suga cheered a small squeal. “Yay! I’ll get your number, and then text you the details for tomorrow!” They exchanged numbers, and then the two said their goodbyes and walked out of the coffee shop. Hinata stayed in that spot off to the side of the counter, staring at the door Daichi and Suga had walked out of.

The weight of his phone in his hand seemed to have doubled with the newly added contact under the name “Suga-san ;)”.

This had to be a dream, right?

#haikyuu #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu fanfic #haikyuufic #haikyuu fic #written by me #my work #hinata #hinata shouyou #hinata shoyo #kageyama #kageyama tobio #kagehina #band #band au #band fic #au #alternate unverse #haikyuu au fic #boy bands

[askeletonintheclosetfic]

The one that’s lonely and has writer’s block

"Sit down, got another letter to write, think hard, gotta get a letter just right. Little ringin' on the telephone oh no, gotta write another letter!" -"Got the Time", Anthrax (originally from Joe Jackson)

Fun fact: this chapter was inspired by a true event that happened to me, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it 😉

*smut warning*

September 30, 1986.

 James' words have been haunting me non-stop since that night. It also doesn’t help matters that he called again the next day to tell us that, because of this, most of the tour is canceled for the time being and they’re coming home. 

That is until they can find out a replacement for the bass position.

I talked to Clara about it yesterday when I went over to their house to see if Ceecee was handling the news about Cliff well. And Clara, who was sitting on the front porch right then with her black shades over her face and taking a break from painting, told me that his words could've been from the spur of the moment.

"He probably just got to a phone," she suggested, holding her cane right in between her legs. “And maybe—since it sounds as though it just happened when he called you—he wanted to tell you as like a ‘fear of God’ got put into him. That’s just my guess. He might love you, though.”

“I can’t stop thinking about it, though,” I confessed to her.

“Hey, you know, if it makes you feel better—I can’t help but think if that was either Frankie or Charlie. If either of them got thrown from the bus as it fell down on them and crushed them to death.”

“It probably happened right after I got off the phone with Joey.”

“So you can’t help but wonder if that could’ve been him, too.”

“Right. Anthrax could’ve been right behind Metallica’s bus for all I know...”

Meanwhile, at the moment I have an essay to write but I don’t know where to begin with it. So here I am, writing in my journal again. I have this weird inclination within me to cut again, but I just can’t.

I’m gonna call Joey again. I need to talk to him. He worries about me getting murdered; I worry about him dying in a road accident.

.

.

.

I just got off the phone with him, and—

Quite the interesting conversation I had with him in the past two hours. It helps that I’m alone again. His words are so clear and crisp in my mind.

I went into the kitchen initially for the phone up on the wall and dialed his number. I waited for a few seconds until he answered, and I knew he was tired by the break in his voice. Or perhaps he had been grieving Cliff the whole way home, it was hard to tell.

“You know what’s really fucked up about it with me is I’ve really been getting to know Metallica, too,” he explained.

“I can’t help but think that I’m never going to see him again,” I told him.

“Oh I know! I was talking to Frankie on the flight home and he told me it’s gonna be a while before he gets his head around it. I mean, really, to think he was just here. He was just here with us and that shit happened...”

“James told me Cliff was ejected right as it came down on him.”

“That’s what Lars told me, too. Kirk told me they drew—cards, I think? To see who would sleep up there on the ride down—we were going to Copenhagen next, where Lars is from. I guess Cliff drew the short one.”

“Ceecee’s just—she’s an absolute wreck right now.”

“Oh, I bet. Frankie and Charlie were both in tears on the way home. Scott, Danny, and I were all dead silent. When we got to the airport, our manager Jonny told the five of us to go home and hug our parents.”

“And that’s what you did?” The first time I smiled right then,

“Yeah, I just got home from their place in this little town just south of me called Minetto and told them what happened. My mom gave me the biggest hug around my waist and my dad told me to stay the night. So that’s what I did yesterday. And I’m glad you called when you did because I was just about to get something to eat. Let’s see, you’re three hours behind me—being over in Europe royally fucked up my internal clock so the time’s throwing me a bit. What’cha doin’ right now?”

“Oh, just hanging out. I have writer’s block, so it’s unknown if I can write another song pretty soon for you guys.” I debated whether I wanted to tell him I’m going to school or not given he worries about me.

“You know, I’ve been thinking—if and when we head out on the road again—we should find a way to take you ladies with us. It’d get you the hell away from the King of Hearts, that’s for sure.”

“I’m also feeling kinda lonely,” I confessed. “Ceecee’s been so despondent the past couple of days and Clara’s been up to her eyeballs in art making.”

“She still wanna make something for me?”

“She sure does! But I don’t know if she’s started on it yet, though, and she won’t tell me. She might wanna make it a surprise for all of us.”

I heard him take a seat on something rickety, like an old wooden chair. “For all I know,” I began again, “she might wanna a photo of you, though.”

“I was never much of a model, though.”

“Seriously? You’d make a great male model.”

“With all this hair, I don’t think so.”

“Maybe you can do some convincing a la your voice so you can keep your long luxurious curls.”

“Luxurious?” That brought a chuckle out of him.

“Luxurious, lush, flowing... whatever you want.”

“I should pose like the statue of David. I am skinny enough and I am Italian after all.”

“With your clothes off?”

“Maybe. Unless she wants me to keep ‘em on, then—eh, you never know. Most of my shirts in my closet are belly shirts after all.”

“Wear something slinky for her, maybe?”

“Unless she asks me to strip naked and spread my butt apart.”

“Or I ask you to.”

“What!”

And then I realized what I just said. I clasped a hand over my mouth. I felt my face grow warm, and I was unsure if it was from what I said or the thought of him posing naked for Clara.

“Wait a minute—“ he stammered out. “What did I say?”

“Something about getting naked and spreading your butt apart?”

“That’s what I thought... I can’t believe I just said that, too.”

“I kinda can?” I admitted to him.

“Helps that you threw in that bit about asking me to, too.” He started laughing right then.

“I didn’t even realize I said it like that, either. Me asking you to get naked.”

“Get naked and—maybe—fuck around a bit?”

“What’re you saying?”

“Well, you know—you ask me to get—“ He cleared his throat. “—naked and show myself to you and one of your best friends, but show myself to you first.”

“Are you—?”

“Maybe. Unless you want me to.”

“But we’re over the phone, though.”

“So? I got to sing to you over the phone. Why can’t we do—“

“Do this?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat again. “I’ve got time, you know.”

“I do, too.”

“I love how we’re sad at first and then almost out of the blue, we start talking about sex,” he laughed. And I laughed with him for a moment before speaking again.

“Well, I should tell you this, Joseph,” I began again, “—since you wrote to me, and the King of Hearts has only gotten more and more notorious with time—the feeling is intense right now. And when there’s intensity surrounding a relationship, it only brings them closer together.”

“And?”

“And? Well—I have to—“ I hesitated.

“What?”

I swallowed. I didn’t want to say it to him, but I had already crossed the threshold.

“Wha-a-a-at!” I heard him stamp his feet on his end.

“I have to confess it’s kind of—“

“Kind of? Yes?”

“—hot.”

“Oh, is it now?”

“Yeah. It’s very hot. The feeling of death hanging over us all—a pervading feeling of having my heart mutilated against my broken rib bones, hearing the news of one of your own having gone down to his gruesome demise... I can’t help but feel... aroused, I would say?”

“God, you speak so poetically. I couldn’t have said it any better to be honest.”

“With that velvet tongue?”

“The same velvet tongue that wants to taste every bit of your coochie?”

“You have to earn it,” I scolded him.

“What must I do to earn it?”

“Get naked. Come on, big boy.”

“My pants are gettin’ a little tight after all...”

“Oh my God, you sexy, sexy man.”

“I try my best.”

“You do wonderful, big boy.”

“I like how you call me big boy.”

“‘Cause you’re a big boy.”

“I ain’t that big—oh, you mean that! Well, how would you know? You’ve never seen me like that.” I heard something rustle which was then followed by something, probably his pants, unzipping.

“I kinda wanna find out,” I confessed.

“Well, you’re gonna haveta be patient, doll.”

“And you’re still gonna have to earn it.”

“Ehhhh, you caught me. I just unzipped my pants. I am laying my back, though.”

“Laying on your back so I can do a number on your cock, ya bad boy?”

“You wanna take my picture or ring my bell?”

“Both. Again. You gotta earn it. Bad boy.”

I took a seat at the kitchen table because I got tired of standing up there with my shoulder against the wall.

“You know, I took a shower a little while ago while Clara was over and she almost walked in on me.”

“Oh my God really?”

“Yeah.”

“Ohhhhh so you wanna picture me naked, you want me to do the same for you?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah, I’m totally picturing the water pouring all over your naked body. All wet—and with nowhere to go except right over my erection.”

“If your erection was in there with me, I’d slap it to the side. I’m tryin’ to wash myself, ya bad boy.”

“Yeah, but if I join you, it saves water, though. It’d wash away our cum while we’re there.”

“Maybe yours.”

“Alright, you know what? Just for that, I oughta spank you. I oughta get you in the shower with your pants still on and spank you so that your wet pants will make your ass cheeks more red than your pussy.”

 (Charlotte’s note:...damn.)

 “You wish,” I teased him. “Not if I smack your cock so hard it’ll catch you by surprise and that’ll leave you nowhere to go but into the shower with me. Your black curls will get all wet but it’s all for the better ‘cause I’m gonna make you use that velvet tongue of yours on my pussy and then in my nipples. And I’m gonna keep slapping your cock until I say you’re good for a round on the floor.”

 (Charlotte’s note: ...DAMN.)

 “Wow. Maybe I oughta... consider taking a picture of myself for Clara and see where we go from there.”

“You go right ahead, big boy.”

“You know what? If the tour doesn’t resume for a few months—and since my birthday is on the thirteenth—we oughta fly out and visit you ladies.”

“You just wanna make this real.”

“Unless you want to. You’d be a little less lonely.”

“True. And maybe I wanna make it real, too.”

“Alright. So next time we see each other—me and Anthrax with you, Ceecee, and Clara—I’m bringing one thing for Clara—oh, but wait.”

“What?”

“It wouldn’t work. She’s blind, remember?”

“Oh right! Duh! But I admit that sometimes I forget she’s totally blind. Maybe she can feel you like she did with Frankie and Charlie.”

“Or maybe you wanna feel me. But that’s a whole other can of worms, doll face.”

“Just a sign that you wanna play out this whole thing with me, though.”

“Of course. We’ll play it by ear and see where it goes from here. My belly’s rumbling so—I’m gonna go eat something.”

“Not like you wanna eat me?”

“Nah, you’re a whole meal altogether.”

 I will give Joey this: my writer’s block is gone now.

#new chapter #fanfic #fanfiction #heavy metal fanfiction #thrash metal fanfiction #heavy metal #thrash metal #anthrax #anthrax fanfiction #joey belladonna #dark romance #horror romance #smut

[viewagain]

“Doctor Sleep”: Remember how great ‘The Shining’ is?

When “The Shining”, based on a book by Stephen King, was released, it was ridiculed and earned Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors of all time, a Razzie nomination for worst director. Among the detractors of this now highly-regarded horror classics was author Stephen King himself. Stephen King went on to write and produce a TV adaptation of “The Shining” in 1997, which is held in high-regard by probably no one. In 2013, the sequel to The Shining was published and now there is a film adaptation as well, also produced by Stephen King. It is a sequel that is obsessed with “The Shining”, not the 1997 version, but – perhaps due to King’s own softening opinions – the iconic 1980 version.

Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself. This statement has become a meme. When a sex trafficker who is friends with many prominent powerful people, including the President of the United States is going to give up his clients ends up “killing himself’ under suspicious circumstances, it lends itself to be one of the more probable conspiracy theories. Unlike those other ones about incredibly evil, wealthy people like the Illuminati, lizard people, or Satan worshippers who eat aborted fetuses to gain immortality. “Doctor Sleep” is not actually that far off from the latter. While “The Shining”, in very simplified way, is a family drama in a haunted house, the sequel is about a magical child must save the other magical children of the world from a group of evil magical adults who want to kill them to live forever. This may read like a YA fantasy novel, but the sequence where a young boy is kidnapped and brutally murdered as a group of adults crowd the horrifyingly screaming child and orgasmically breathing in his escaping life force is grotesque and genuinely upsetting. Especially when you think about the parallels in the real world.

Despite all the fantastical elements, this film is surprisingly realistic. You don’t encounter super-powered protagonists inappropriately quipping – characters vomit when seeing a corpse and their hands shake as they poor out whiskey to calm their nerves. Though the beginning can be quite chaotic, as it jumps between characters, states, decades, but once it is settled, “Doctor Sleep” is a slow-paced thriller that is tense and engaging on its own, independent of its connection to “The Shining”. Compared to its genre contemporaries it is well above average, but unfortunately, it is unavoidable to compare it to the horror classic that preceded it. “Doctor Sleep” is obsessed with “The Shining” and constantly reminds of Kubrick’s film. Therefore, despite all the praise one can give to Rebecca Ferguson’s hypnotically charismatic performance as the lead villain, you are reminded of Jack Nicholson’s insane intensity as Jack Torrance. Pretty much any villain performance loses in that comparison

It is not just Jack Torrance who is back, pretty much every character from the Overlook Hotel returns. Remember that lady in the bathtub from that one scene in “The Shining”? Be prepared to see her multiple times. Or that bloody tuxedoed partygoer who says one line? You’ll see him too! With “The Shining” being almost 40 years old, obviously the rolls are recast and for the most part, the film does a good job. Notably, Alex Essos as Wendy Torrance, though her screen time is  brief, is amazingly spot on. Henry Thomas, on the other hand, had the thankless job of portraying Jack. It would have been better to just not try.

Having recurring characters is not a sign of over-reliance on the success of a previous film, it is to be expected. As well as little Easter eggs, like a house number being 1980. However, it is crossing a threshold, when the final act is basically a reenactment of all the iconic moments of the predecessor – the blood elevator, a face in a shattered door, the shot of the great hall, a limping man with an ax and so forth. Some shots serve no other purpose than to be call-backs for people to recognize which is seemingly maybe recognized by characters in the film.  Similarly, the score is an endless tribute to the orignal, instead of just musical themes connecting the film. There are plenty of moments when the music does not fit, because it wasn’t really written for this film. This constant fan service is a detriment to “Doctor Sleep”. Call backs may excite some, but when it becomes this over-saturated, you end up thinking about how much better those moment are in “The Shining”.

One of Stephen King’s gripes with Stanley Kubrick’s version was the reduced emphasis on the alcoholism theme of the book. Jack Torrance was an alcoholic, tried to get clean, but the ghost of alcoholism claimed him. Alcoholism runs in the family, as it sadly tends to do, and Danny Torrance too has the vice of liquor. He tries to break the cycle. In the cycle of life and death, Danny, the titular Doctor Sleep, helps the dying in hospice care to go peacefully into the big sleep of death. This cycle, however, should not be broken, as the haunting evil spirits do or the aforementioned immortality seeking child murderers. Though it could never fully escape its sequel status, “Doctor Sleep” could have broken the Hollywood cycle of uninspired reboots and nostalgia-dependent sequel. It almost does. But then it limps over the finish line, dragging the corpse of the old classic instead of letting it rest in peace.

7/10

IMDB: 7.7 RT: 76% | 89%

#doctor sleep #the shining #film #film review

[syrupwit]

Letter for Trick or Treat 2019

-

Dear Reader: 

Hello, and welcome to my letter for Trick or Treat 2019. Thank you for considering making a work for me!

The primary purpose of this letter is to provide additional inspiration and creative direction. If it’s not doing that for you, feel free to disregard it.

Navigation:

Do Not Want (DNW)

Long List of Likes

For this exchange, I have requested fic only, Tricks and Treats, for the following fandoms:

Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft

Dishonored

Doom Patrol (TV)

Invader Zim

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Umbrella Academy (TV)

Here we go...

Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft

It’s various-degrees-of-doomed!narrators -- plus Danforth! Lovecraft is great at the doomed narrator thing. What other sorts of terrible or wondrous things can happen to these seekers after forbidden knowledge?

Characters Requested:

Danforth

The Hound Narrator

Robert Harrison Blake

The Shadow Over Innsmouth Narrator

William Dyer

Re: Shipping, If That Interests You: I’m fine with any pairings for this fandom.

Dishonored

It’s creepy whales, trickster gods, and lots of minor characters! This is one of my favorite games of all time. I love the detailed worldbuilding / lore and the many opportunities for filling in backstories and missing parts of canon.

Characters Requested:

Adelle White (yes, the moth from Lady Boyle’s Last Party)

Billie Lurk | Meagan Foster

Daud

Daud’s Mother

The Outsider

Thalia Timsh

Vera Moray | Granny Rags

Waverly Boyle

Re: Shipping, If That Interests You: I’m fine with any pairings for this fandom -- seriously, go wild. On a specific note, I’ve recently become fully awakened to the appeal of Billie/Daud, and am intrigued by the idea of Billie Lurk/Thalia Timsh, Adelle White/Waverly Boyle, and Adelle White/Abigail Ames (look, it could work -- the disgraced noblewoman and the ruthless mole, okay?).

Doom Patrol (TV)

It’s Exchange Patrol! This series is so wonderfully chaotic and ridiculous. I love how messed up the characters are + the ways they support and clash with each other, and how it feels like anything can happen.

Characters Requested:

Crazy Jane

Danny the Street

Rita Farr

Cliff Steele

Victor Stone

Re: Shipping, If That Interests You: I’m fine with any pairings for this fandom. Gen-wise, I’m really fond of Victor’s relationship with his dad.

Invader Zim

It’s my recently revived obsession, back with a vengeance! After a decade and change, the movie reeled me right back in. I love this canon’s particular brand of dark comedy and pessimism mixed with... uh... zaniness.

Characters Requested:

Dib

Gaz

GIR 

Foodio 3000

Invader Skoodge 

Tak

Countess von Verminstrasser

Zim

Re: Shipping, If That Interests You: Dib/Zim | ZaDR is my OTP. I’m also pretty intrigued by the idea of Ms. Bitters/Countess von Verminstrasser. Otherwise, no preferences -- anything is fine.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

It’s the megafandom, or a tiny slice thereof! Since this canon is so darn expansive, I’ll discuss each of these characters separately rather than summarize my interest in the fandom as a whole.

Characters Requested:

Mantis

Mantis! I enjoy her earnestness, her goofier side (“kick names, take ass”; jumping to test the gravity on Titan in Infinity War), and the way her powers’ potential array of uses ranges from tooth-achingly sweet to Thanos-topplingly strong to skin-crawlingly disturbing. I am also a huge, huge sucker for sheltered and socially awkward characters learning to get along with others, and for characters with unhealthy or abusive upbringings coming to terms with the past, and for characters in space exploring space. Basically, though, I’d just like to see more Mantis.

Peter Parker

All iterations of this character have a fond place in my heart, and MCU Peter occupies a particular part of it. I am interested in the pure-hearted hero bit as well as his angstier/darker potential (getting a building dropped on him, getting pushed in front of a train, Mysterio’s illusions, the FFH post-credits scene, the classic Spider-Man backstory that has so far been left untold except through implication).

Flash Thompson

The MCU reinterpretation of Flash as a rich, douchey nerd is very intriguing to me. When he isn’t bullying Peter or playing the butt of a joke, what is he like? ...What do his social media followers actually think of him, anyway?

Re: Shipping, If That Interests You: I’m fine with any pairings for any of these characters, though I am also specifically interested in Mantis/Nebula, Mantis/Gamora, Mantis/Peter Parker, Peter Parker/Tony Stark, and Peter Parker/Flash Thompson.

The Umbrella Academy (TV)

It’s the end of the world, probably! I love this show’s tone and the genre trappings and the complicated family/team drama. Just, all of it.

Characters Requested (Any):

Allison Hargreeves

Ben Hargreeves

Diego Hargreeves

Klaus Hargreeves

Luther Hargreeves

Number Five | The Boy

Vanya Hargreeves

Hazel

Re: Shipping, If That Interests You: I’m fine with any pairings for this fandom, though I will admit to a particular fondness for Allison/Vanya and Allison/Luther.

Do Not Want (DNW)

Character or ship bashing

Non-canonical permanent major character death, *EXCEPT* for the Cthulhu Mythos

Non-canonical permanent body modification (ex. amputation)

Harm to pet animals (if a giant space squid is attacking the character's ship and they have to fight it or something, that's fine)

Parent/child incest

Non-canonical child characters

Extended discussion of Twelve-Step recovery programs (mentions are fine)

Characters in romantic relationships being written as asexual/aromantic

Smut DNWs: A/B/O, master/slave, heavily ritualized/formal BDSM, bestiality, necrophilia, scat, vore, sounding

Long List of Likes (LLL)

Humor: hijinks; absurdity; surreality; comedy of errors; ludicrous/cracky premises treated seriously or unseriously; Rashomon situations where each character shares their uniquely biased perception of an event; that trope where found documents or outsider POV seriously misinterpret canon events/characters; Ember Island Players trope. 

Horror: dark comedy; gallows humor; fridge horror; Monkey’s Paw situations; parapsychology; mad scientists; witches; ghosts; ghost hunters; cryptids; zombies; THE WALKING DEAD; revenants; cultists; rituals; eldritch beings; dying gods; possession; Dark Carnivals; cursed objects; creepy little shops peddling dubious merchandise; secluded or remote locations; big scary buildings with tragic histories; haunted mansions, ships, spaceships, houses, “haunted house” attractions, hayrides, forests, marshes, beaches, islands, etc.; that trope where you aren’t sure if there was really a supernatural occurrence or if it was a trick of the mind, ooohh scary.

Slice of Life: a day in the life of $character; dealing with the everyday challenges of life in a non-mundane universe; worldbuilding elements; missing moments; domesticity; character studies told through small details.

Action/Adventure: missions/cases and snippets thereof; escaping from captivity together; unusual team-ups; undercover as XYZ; identity porn; road trips of the terrestrial, extraterrestrial, aquatic, and supernatural varieties; space travel; visiting other planets; wilderness survival; climactic warehouse confrontations; wacky foes / locations / circumstances for battles; bar fights; fighting back to back.

Gen Relationships: frenemies; reluctant allies; forced to work together; parent-child or sibling-sibling relationships where things may be complicated but they care about each other deeply in the end even if they’re not always great at expressing it; cooperation, camaraderie, and loyalty between characters; lonely/isolated characters taking steps toward opening up to others.

Romance: first times; get-together; feelings realization; friends to lovers; frenemies to lovers; UST; one-sided pining; mutual pining; flirting where one character doesn’t think the other is serious but they totally are; possessiveness and jealousy where the possessive / jealous character feels guilty or the target of the possessiveness / jealousy is into it; monster on a leash.

Smut: characters feeling overwhelmed; lots of emotions; touch-starved; awkwardness; praise kink; xeno; unexpectedly compatible; kink discovery / exploration; characters being really into their partner or what they’re doing or how into what they’re doing their partner is; “I shouldn’t be so into this”; friends with benefits where both characters are pining but feel more comfortable having sex than talking about their feelings.

Miscellany: holidays; holiday traditions; seasons; weather; thunderstorms; getting caught in the rain; stargazing; appetizing descriptions of food; diners, drive-ins, and dives; tea; candles; cats; metafiction; unconventional formats.

#optional detailed letters for exchanges tag

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Kevin Wozniak on Kevflix: What’s Streaming This Month? – September

Here are my picks for the movies coming to Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, Criterion Channel, and HBOMax in September.  This month offers up many unique choices, from original films to Hollywood classics.

          NETFLIX

Full list of everything coming to Netflix in September can be found here.

  THE BACK TO THE FUTURE TRILOGY (Robert Zemeckis, 1984/1989/1990)

A trilogy that is full of life, fun, and originality.

  THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (Antonio Campo, 2020)

An all-star cast of Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Bill Skarsgård, and Jason Clarke lead Antonio Campos’ thriller about corruption and brutality in a postwar backwoods town.

  GREASE (Randal Kleiser, 1978)

A musical classic.

  I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (Charlie Kaufman, 2020)

The latest directorial effort from the great Charlie Kaufman looks like a haunting mind-bender.

  MAGIC MIKE (Steven Soderbergh, 2012)

One of Steven Soderbergh’s best features a scene-stealing performance from Matthew McConaughey.

  NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE (Joel Gallen, 2001)

This comedy satire of teen romcoms is still hilarious and has aged quite well.

  RATCHED (Evan Romansky, Ryan Murphy, 2020)

I don’t usually post about shows on here, but a prequel series looking at One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest villain Nurse Ratched starring Sarah Paulson in the titular role sounds too good to ignore.

  THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (Jeff Orlowski, 2020)

I heard good buzz about this documentary out of Sundance 2020, as it looks at the power of social media and the effect it can have on the world

  WILDLIFE (Paul Dano, 2018)

Paul Dano’s directorial debut is a quiet and powerful look at a crumbling family in the 1950’s.

    PRIME VIDEO

Full list of everything coming to Prime Video in September can be found here.

    THE BIRDCAGE (Mike Nichols, 1996)

Robin Williams and Nathan Lane are marvelous in this Mike Nichols comedy.

  CASINO ROYALE (Martin Campbell, 2006)

The film that introduced Daniel Craig into the Bond franchise is also the best Bond film ever made.

  GEMINI MAN (Ang Lee, 2019)

Will Smith plays an assassin who is being hunted by a clone of his younger self in Ang Lee’s technical marvel.

  THE GRADUATE (Mike Nichols, 1967)

One of the greatest films ever made.

  JUDY (Rupert Goold, 2019)

Renee Zellweger won her second Oscar for pitch-perfect portrayal of Hollywood icon Judy Garland.

  KRAMER VS KRAMER (Robert Benton, 1979)

This Best Picture family drama features stellar work from Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

  PATRIOT’S DAY (Peter Berg, 2016)

Peter Berg’s harrowing account of the Boston Marathon bombing.

  HULU

Full list of everything coming to Hulu in September can be found here.

    ANY GIVEN SUNDAY (Oliver Stone, 1999)

Olive Stone’s aggressive, chaotic look at professional football.

  BABYTEETH (Shannon Murphy, 2020)

An emotional relationship drama with Ben Mendolsohn and Essie Davis giving two of my favorite performances of 2020.

  HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE/HAROLD AND KUMAR ESCAPE GUANTANAMO BAY (Danny Leiner, 2004/Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, 2008)

Two-thirds of a classic stoner trilogy.

  HOOSIERS (David Anspaugh, 1986)

One of the greatest sports movies ever made.

  THE LAST BOY SCOUT (Tony Scott, 1991)

It’s directed by Tony Scott, written by Shane Black, and stars Bruce Willis.  We could call this the “90’s Trifecta”.

  PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (Tim Burton, 1985)

Tim Burton’s debut film is utterly insane, yet absolutely brilliant

  PRISONERS (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)

Denis Villeneuve’s best film to date is a dark, disturbing crime thriller featuring incredible work from Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and cinematographer Roger Deakins.

  THE TERMINATOR (James Cameron, 1984)

One of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made.

  THE TWILIGHT SAGA (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008/Chris Weitz, 2009/David Slade, 2010/Bill Condon, 2011/Bill Condon, 2012)

I’ve only seen one of these (I think New Moon?), but want to give them a whirl at some point.  Maybe now is the time?

    DISNEY+

Full list of everything coming to Disney+ in September can be found here.

    BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM (Gurinder Chadha, 2003)

A rousing, inspiring indie sports film.

  CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (Marc Forster, 2018)

A somber, sweet look at Winnie the Pooh and the 100 Acre Woods gang.

  D2: THE MIGHT DUCKS/D3 (Sam Weisman, 1994/Robert Lieberman, 1996)

D2 is the best of the trilogy, but D3 is pretty good and bit underrated.

  MULAN (Niki Caro, 2020)

You have to pay $30 to see this one, but I have a feeling Disney’s latest live-action feature is going to be worth is.

  NEVER BEEN KISSED (Raja Gosnell, 1999)

A classic 90’s rom-com featuring a delightful Drew Barrymore.

  THE WOLVERINE (James Mangold, 2013)

One of the best X-Men films and the BEST Wolverine movie (hot take).

    CRITERION CHANNEL

Full list of everything coming to Criterion Channel in September can be found here.

*The Criterion Channel does things a little differently than every other streaming service.  The Criterion Channel, a wonderful streaming service that focuses on independent, foreign, and under-appreciates movies, doesn’t just throw a bunch of random movies to stream.  They get more creative by having categories like “DOUBLE FEATURES” or “FILMS FROM…”, giving us curated lists of films that somehow blend together or feature a specific artist.*

    BOYHOOD (Richard Linklater, 2014)

Richard Linklater’s ambitious twelve-year project is one of the finest film accomplishments of the last decade.

  THE LOVELESS (Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery, 1981)

Kathryn Bigelow’s debut is one I have been dying to see and one I am going to check out as soon as it is available.

  THE COMPLETE FILMS OF AGNES VARDA

Agnes Varda was a true artist and Criterion has put all of her work into one comprehensive collection which features all of her feature length films as well as her short films.

  SATURDAY MATINEE

DUCK SOUP (Leo McCarey, 1933)

My favorite Marx Brothers film and one of the greatest comedies ever made.

  SATURDAY MATINEE

CHARLOTTE’S WEB (Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto, 1973)

A beautiful animated film based on the classic book.

    THREE BY ROBERT GREENE

Three provocative films from a master documentarian.

Actress (2014)

Kate Plays Christine (2016)

Bisbee ’17 (2018)

  DIRECTED BY ALBERT BROOKS

Albert Brooks is one of the greatest comedic minds we’ve ever had.  This block of films looks at his genius behind the camera.

Real Life (1979)

Modern Romance (1981)

Lost in America (1985)

Defending Your Life (1991)

Mother (1996)

  DOUBLE FEATURE: TEARS OF THE CLOWN

LENNY (Bob Fosse, 1974)

JO JO DANCER, YOUR LIFE IS CALLING (Richard Pryor, 1986)

Two unflinching films delve into the self-destructive dark sides of a pair of comedy legends. Lenny features Dustin Hoffman in a jagged portrait of Lenny Bruce.  In Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, Richard Pryor draws on his own personal demons in the only narrative feature written and directed by the comedy legend.

  BY THE BOOK

A slew of films based on legendary books, from Great Expectations to The Hours and many, many more.

The Count of Monte Cristo (Rowland V. Lee, 1934)

The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock, 1935)

La bête humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938)

Of Mice and Men (Lewis Milestone, 1939)

Great Expectations (David Lean, 1946)

The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)

Anna Karenina (Julien Duvivier, 1948)

Oliver Twist (David Lean, 1948)

The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949)

The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949)

The Idiot (Akira Kurosawa, 1951)

The Life of Oharu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1952)

Robinson Crusoe (Luis Buñuel, 1954)

Senso (Luchino Visconti, 1954)

Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)

Aparajito (Satyajit Ray, 1956)

The Burmese Harp (Kon Ichikawa, 1956)

Apur Sansar (Satyajit Ray, 1959)

The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960)

Purple Noon (René Clément, 1960)

Zazie dans le métro (Louis Malle, 1960)

Divorce Italian Style (Pietro Germi, 1961)

Lord of the Flies (Peter Brook, 1963)

Tom Jones (Tony Richardson, 1963)

Charulata (Satyajit Ray, 1964)

Woman in the Dunes (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)

Closely Watched Trains (Jirí Menzel, 1966)

War and Peace (Sergei Bondarchuk, 1966)

Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1968)

The Angel Levine (Ján Kadár, 1970)

Dodes’ka-den (Akira Kurosawa, 1970)

The Phantom Tollbooth (Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow, and Dave Monahan, 1970)

The Little Prince (Stanley Donen, 1974)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Peter Weir, 1975)

The American Friend (Wim Wenders, 1977)

The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977)

The Getting Of Wisdom (Bruce Beresford, 1977)

Empire of Passion (Nagisa Oshima, 1978)

Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978)

My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)

Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)

The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)

Wise Blood (John Huston, 1979)

You Are Not I (Sara Driver, 1981)

Under the Volcano (John Huston, 1984)

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (Paul Schrader, 1985)

My Life as a Dog (Lasse Hallström, 1985)

Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1986)

An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990)

The Comfort of Strangers (Paul Schrader, 1990)

Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland, 1990)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Volker Schlöndorff, 1990)

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (Peter Kosminsky, 1992)

The Castle (Michael Haneke, 1997)

The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)

The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 1999)

The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke, 2001)

The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002)

Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008)

Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Akerman, 2011)

45 Years (Andrew Haigh, 2015)

Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt, 2016)

Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017)

    HBOMAX

Full list of everything coming to HBOMax in August can be found here.

  CLERKS (Kevin Smith, 1994)

Kevin Smith’s indie sensation is a masterclass in microbudget cinema.

  THE CONVERSATION (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

In-between The Godfather and The Godfather II, Francis Ford Coppola made this Palme d’Or winning thriller about a surveillance expert (a brilliant Gene Hackman) who has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.

  THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (David Fincher, 2008)

David Fincher’s gorgeous film about a man who ages backwards.

  DOG DAY AFTERNOON (Sidney Lumet, 1975)

Sidney Lumet’s best film features masterful work from Al Pacino and John Cazzalle.

  THE INVISIBLE MAN (Leigh Whannel, 2020)

Elisabeth Moss gives one of the best performances of 2020 in Leigh Whannel’s chilling remake of the Universal classic.

  JFK (Oliver Stone, 1991)

Oliver Stone’s brilliant account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the conspiracy behind it.

  JUST MERCY (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2019)

An inspiring film with excellent performances from Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx.

  MIDNIGHT RUN (Martin Brest, 1988)

This crime-buddy-road movie is an absolute blast and features one of Robert De Niro’s most underrated performances.

  POINT BREAK (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)

Kathryn Bigelow’s surfing-cop thriller is one of the best action movies of the 90’s.

  SNAKES ON A PLANE (David R. Ellis, 2006)

An iconic B-movie featuring a truly great Samuel L. Jackson performance.

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