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liddolwhynot2000 · 3 years

Text

Chains: Part 2

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Summary: Without thinking, you spoke up, feeling oddly hopeful.

'Any chances you want to.. Come in and have some tea?'

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Pairings: Levi/Reader, Erwin/reader

Genre: Some fluff, liddol angst

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ChainsPt1. ChainsPt3. ChainsPt4

Drabble#1

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Out of all your memories, an entertaining memory for you to look back on would be the first time you met Levi Ackerman.

It had been an unusually quiet day, not many people had come to the resteraunt, leaving you with less work then usual. When the bell had chimed, you had decided to take the order, bored out of your mind. Much to your surprise, it was Erwin, followed by three other soldiers.

After exchanging pleasantries, you seated them and brought out the menu's. Erwin left, after asking you to note their bill in his tab.

You observed that the young girl was rather chipper and nice, while the blonde man was polite and charming. The man with dark hair and dark eyes, he hardly paid you any mind, not even bothering to spare you a glance. Overall, they had been pleasant enough, eating quietly and calmly.

Once you had served them tea, however, some accdientally spilled on the dark haired man's shirt and arm. He had hissed in pain, and you had immediately begun rubbing a cloth over his arm, before grabbing him gently by the wrist and dragging him to the nearby restroom, despite his complaints.

'I'm fine, let go of my ha-'

'Please don't be difficult, I'm trying to help you. '

Dark eyes flashed dangerously at you but you held firm and began washing his arm, causing him to grunt a little.

'I don't need your fucking help-'

You ignored him and went to grab the medical kit.

'We have a gel for burns. It'll sting a lot though'

By now, you had managed to make him sit down. The look on his face gave away how he would rather jump out the window then sit here. He rolled up his sleeves, unwilling to take off his shirt infront of you, despite the tea stain. You quietly began applying the cream, trying your hardest to be gentle as he hissed.

'I'm from the underground. '

'So?'

'Do you not know what that place is-'

'I know about the underground area in Wall Sina, yes.'

'Then you should know your helping underground scum, touching his filthy skin'

'Don't be ridiculous, I don't care where you're from. '

He grunted, obviously not believing you. Clearly, he hadn't been treated well because of where he was from. Sighing, you finished applying the cream and went to put the box away and get him a new shirt.

'Stay here, I'll be right back'

A barely perceptible nod was your answer. You went outside, and upon noting the concerned look on his friends faces, assured them that he was okay. You learned their names were Farlan and Isabel.

'He's not in the best mood right now, but he'll be okay'

'Levi aniki is always in a grumpy mood, like an old man-'

'Isabel if he hears you say that-'

Giggling, you made your back to Levi, having gotten a fresh shirt from one of the cooks. You were still smiling as you approached him, causing him to look at you apprehensively

'What's with that shitty smile?'

'Your friends are rather amusing. '

He eyed you warily, before gesturing for you to leave. When he came out, they had all decided to leave. You made your way to Isabel, handing her a box full of some dessert, much to her delight.

'Consider this my way of apologising for spilling tea on your Levi aniki.'

Isabel beamed at you, an impossibly wide grin spreading on her face. Farlan smiled too, while Levi clucked his tongue and made to leave without another word.

'Uh sorry he's a little-'

You waved off Farlan apology, assuring him it was fine. You smiled at them as they left, feeling good about today.

You silently wondered what Levi would make of the Lemon cookies you had specifically given him, along with the note that told him he was the first to try that recipe.

Maybe that would show him that some people didn't think of him as less for being from the underground.

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The next time you saw Levi, it was about a month later. It had been at the market, you had been bargaining with the shopkeeper over tomatoes as you caught sight of him and his friends.

Isabel noticed you first, smiling brightly and rushing to you. Farlan had followed calmly, chuckling as Isabel gushed to you about how much she had enjoyed the treats. Levi, with two brooms strapped to his back, rolled his eyes and made eye contact with you as acknowledgement.

You smiled amiably and chatted with them briefly, promising Isabel you would write down the recipe for the cupcakes you had made and questioning them about how they had been settling in the corps.

Twenty minutes later, in a twist of events masterminded by Farlan, you were walking back home accompanied by Levi. The silence perpetuated between the two of you, with Levi unwilling to talk much. Or at all really.

Farlan had, through some miracle, coaxed him into walking you to your house and carrying your heavy bags. The moment Levi had argued that Farlan himself could do it, he had comically feigned an arm cramp and had left to find a doctor with Isabel. Levi had glared and grumbled. You imagined he was thinking along the lines of 'oh I'll give you a reason to visit the doctor just you wait', before taking your bags from you and grumpily making you lead the way.

You lived in a decent, small, one room house not too far from the resteraunt. It was a clean area, with a small lawn attached, where you grew out fresh vegetables. You were paying a modest amount of rent for it, and someday hoped you could save enough to buy it.

'This place is filthy.'

Huffing, you turned him with an eyebrow raised. Everything was clean, in fact you had cleaned just before heading to the market.

'How so?'

'There's a pile of leaves right there. Someone spilled an obnoxiously shitty colour of paint on the fence. And, I just saw a mouse run by.'

Alarmed, you backed away from your lawn, eyeing your surroundings suspiciously.

'M-mouse?'

His expression had broken a little, showing some thinly veiled amusement. Too bad you were too worried about rodents crawling into your bed at night and hence, unable to focus on this new development.

'Don't worry, just get blondie to handle it for you. Maybe they'll focus on munching on his eyebrows and leave you alone. '

'Blondi- you mean Erwin?'

'I'd rather not. I can wage war with demonic rats on my own. '

Shrugging, he handed your bags to you. You thanked him politely and watched as he started to walk away. Without thinking, you spoke up, feeling oddly hopeful.

'Any chances you want to.. Come in and have some tea?'

Levi froze before turning around and staring at you. His usually cold eyes flickered for a moment, a hint of something you couldn't identify had flashed in their depths. He actually seemed to entertain your offer for a minute. In the end, he opted to be as polite as possible, which was probably the work of the voice inside his head that sounded like Farlan.

'Maybe.. some other time. Say hi to the rat for me. '

'The only greetings that rat is getting is in the form of a wack from my broom.'

'Tch- don't damage the broom.'

'It's the only weapon I have. What else can I do?'

'Co exist with the rat. Maybe it'll introduce you to its family. It's tiny, shitty babies probably'

The image of that made you feel rather sick, and it showed on your face. Levi smirked, before turning around to walk.

'Thank you.'

It was hardly audible but you heard it. You watched with wide eyes, as his small form faded out of your vision. He didn't turn back to look for your reaction or elaborate but you knew exactly what he had thanked you for.

With a smile, you went inside. You would think more about Levi later, for now, there was a rat to be dealt with. As if on cue, you heard something shatter, making you sigh.

It was going to be a long day.

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The night sky was beautiful tonight, stars sparkling, a calm breeze drifting throughout. It was rather quiet, but you found the calm to be soothing as you walked back home.

For some reason, you felt like taking the long way home. This path usually meant passing by the survey corps headquarters. Humming, you walked passed it, contemplating what to make for dinner. Just as you almost left the building behind, you noticed a hunched figure, sitting with their back to a wall.

You could hardly make out who it was, so you cautiously moved forward, heart in your throat, to catch sight of the stranger

It was a soldier. The way they were mindlessly staring at the ground gave away the despair they were feeling. The Survey Corps had come back from an expedition this morning but you hadn't seen them return, too busy filling out tax forms.

You accidentally stepped on a twig, the snap sound causing you to still with your eyes wide. With baited breath, you watched the soldier lift his head and turn in the direction of the sound, showing you their identity.

'Levi?'

Familiarity flashed in his eyes as he got up and started walking towards you.

'Are you oka-'

'Is it too late to take you up on that cup of tea?'

'Huh?'

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You and Levi had ended up friends after that. You had comforted him upon learning of Isabel and Farlans deaths, wishing that the lighthearted duo had gotten to live longer and see what the world above had to offer them. You hadn't known them well, but you could tell they were the good sort.

Levi began approaching you after that, often dropping by the resteraunt. You would sometimes visit him, giving him some homemade lunch. The two of you often enjoyed eating together in comfortable silence, the conversation pleasant and amiable. Banter with him, much to your own surprise, made you laugh and feel alive.

'the rats are still living around your house aren't they?'

'I've been trying to scare them off but-'

'You want to help raise its shitty brats?'

'No- I don't want to-'

'Just admit it. You like those filthy monsters.'

'No~'

'Then I'll just visit and throw them out for you.'

'.. You're mean.'

You smiled to yourself, biting your lip as you flushed a little, remembering your conversations with him.

'You like him don't you?'

'Like who?'

'Commander Blondie.'

You paused

'I used to. Not anymore'.

'I see. So he's a blind idiot huh?'

The last part had been muttered under his breath, clearly not meant for your ears. But you had heard him anyways and only barely managed to hide your blush from him.

You could only hope Levi's heart beat as fast as yours when the two of you were together.

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'I'm being promoted to captain.'

You paused in cutting vegetables, startled, before turning to Levi.

'A-Are you serious?'

'Yeah.'

You put the knife down, making your way to the man casually munching on lemon cookies.

'That's amazing! And to think you haven't been in the corps that long either. Wait- how could you sit here for so long and not tell me huh?'

'I was enjoying the cookies.'

'Honestly-'

You went off on a rant, telling him you would make him his favorite dish as celebration, and maybe you would even get some meat. You were genuinely happy for Levi, knowing he deserved this promotion.

As you moved about the kitchen, looking for supplies, you completely missed the fond smile he had directed at you.

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'Captain, I'm in love with you. '

You froze, your hand on the door knob, as throat suddenly constricted at the sound of Petra's voice. You immediately backed away from the door, an awful feeling swelling up in your chest.

Petra, sweet, kind hearted Petra, who never had a bad thing to say about anyone. You knew, given her personality, it was difficult to not love someone like her. She often reminded you of Marie, vibrant and beautiful. She was a strong and capable soldier, one who had garnered the respect of all her cormades almost immediately.

Only a fool would turn Petra down. And you knew Levi was anything but a fool.

Tense, you leaned into the door again, heart steeled as you listened in.

'...give you a chance.. '

Your eyes closed in resignation at Levi's voice, lips tugging into a frown. Holding your tears at bay, you tightly grasped the lunch box you had brought for him and began to walk away.

Erwin had chosen Marie and Levi had chosen Petra. And you couldn't blame either of them for it. Because what could a mousy woman like you offer? Especially when compared to women like them? Even you would choose them over yourself.

History really had repeated itself and with that thought, you began to chain your heart up again.

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'Oi where the hell have you been?'

Caught unaware, you nearly dropped the dishes in your hands.

'L-Levi, its been a while. How have you been?'

You smiled at him pleasantly, uneasily noting how his irritated his expression was. Maybe he and Petra had gotten into a fight?

'Where. Have. You. Been?'

The dangerous tone had you nervously chuckling.

'Where I always am-'

'I haven't seen you in three weeks.'

'I haven't had enough time to drop by and -'

'And you always arrive early and leave early, right before I come see you.'

'The new hours are exhausting, blame the boss he-'

You trailed off, faltering at the sight of Levi. He looked his perfect self, clothes impeccable, hair properly brushed. But his eyes were a different story, one that made your heart clench and the newly formed chains to violently rattle.

He looked hurt.

'I haven't been trying to avoid you-'

'Yes you have.'

'No, I just didn't think Petra would like another woman being so close to-'

Levi's expression lit up in fury and he was in front of you in seconds, hands grabbing your shoulders. There was something deseprate about the way he was looking at you.

'Did Petra say something to you? Is that it? I'll put her on stable duty for the rest of her shitty life-'

'No she didn't say anything-'

'Then why have you been avoiding me?'

'Because I wanted to give you and your girlfriend space!'

Silence. Absolute silence.

Levi looked bewildered, an expression uncommon for his usually stoic self. He took in your sad expression as understanding dawned on him and sighed in exasperation.

The hands that had been grabbing your shoulders, lowered themselves to your upper arms. You were pushed into the counter behind you. Levi was only a little taller then you, just enough for him to have to look down at you. His expression was so soft and you were so focused on it that you didn't even notice the chains effortlessly untangling themselves.

'I don't know why you think this, but Petra and I aren't together. At all.'

'But I heard-'

'She confessed to me. I turned her down. She's just a comrade.'

Feeling embarrassed, you could only let out an 'oh' and stare at your shoes. The sound of a chuckle had you blinking as a hand gasped your chin and nudged it upwards so you would look at him.

'However, there is this girl I like. '

His other arm slid down to your waist, wrapping around it. You couldn't bring yourself to look away, hardly any words escaping your mouth.

'I've liked her since I met her.'

Your hair, which was messily getting in your eyes, was gently tucked behind your ear. The same hand then went to snag your wrist, gesturing for it to wrap around his neck. Your arms obeyed him without question.

'Isabel and Farlan wanted me to ask her out. They were always being little shits and teasing me about her.'

Your heart skipped a beat, you felt too light as he lowered his lips to yours. Just a little more distance and the two of you would be-

'She lives with a filthy rat and its family.'

'Hey! It's not my fault they keep coming back-'

Your indignant defense of your unorthodox pets was cut off as gentle lips pressed against yours. Your eyes closed as you melted into him, feeling like you were on cloud nine and too caught up in him to register anything else.

There was a time you had released the chains surrounding your heart on your own, but this time, they had turned to dust and ceased to exist. Never to be recreated, simply because you wouldn't ever need them again.

Too bad the reason for the chains existing in the first place, had to watch it happen with his own eyes. Levi wasn't a fool, Erwin deduced to himself. But as he watched you embrace Levi and smile so brilliantly, Erwin knew that the only real fool was him.

With that, he silently walked away from the door Levi had left open. He needed a drink.

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A/N: ta daa! I hope y'all enjoyed that! I'm tempted to do a smol part 3 From Erwin's perspective. But that depends on if y'all even want it. Till next time people! ⭐

#Snk #Aot #Attack on titan #Levi x reader #Erwin X reader #Liddol angst #Fluff #Happy Levi!!#Not so happy Erwin woops #Levi ackerman AOT #Reader

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pochiperpe90 · 4 years

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Luca Marinelli: "Without growing you get lost"

When director Pietro Marcello asked him to play Martin Eden in his film in competition at Venice, Luca Marinelli was moved. "Many things have changed in recent years, maybe me as well"

From written words to moving images: «When you make a film based on a book, the book, at a certain point, tends to overlap. You no longer know what the novel is and what the screenplay is. Today I remember the end of Jack London's Martin Eden: that poignant conclusion, with him in the cabin reading that poem and deciding about his life».

Luca Marinelli, star of Pietro Marcello's Martin Eden, in competition at the next Venice International Film Festival and in theatre from September 4th with 01 Distribution, brings together memories and emotions, and gives them a precise order: everything starts from there, from the novel by the American writer.

"What was the soul of the book, which in my opinion is above any kind of discourse, political, social and idealistic; that soul, I said, was respected. Because it’s embodied in the character of Martin Eden. And then when you translate a book into a film it happens that some things take another form: it's normal in an adaptation." In the case of this film, says Marinelli, it all started from Marcello's point of view, from his vision: "Which perhaps is not like what someone else can have or like mine, because it’s a vision that belongs to the director: it’s the vision of the artist Pietro Marcello. The first scripts were certainly different, they were longer, denser, full of references to the book. The very first, if I'm not mistaken, was nearly 300 pages long. And this is because we were dealing with a masterpiece, and we didn't want to leave out anything».

Could this film be different?

“No, this film is how it was supposed to be. But with a book like this you can do anything: a 12-hours play, a film, a short film. Martin Eden is one of the best books ever written. Cinema imposes different times and measures from written narration; the balance that Pietro and Maurizio Braucci, co-screenwriter, found and the work they did were excellent, in my opinion".

Let's start with when they proposed you the role of Martin Eden.

“I remember my tears as I was watching “Bella e perduta”; I remember my emotion, and I also remember that immediately after I finished watching it I told myself that it would be nice to work with this director. It was 2015. Three years later they call me, and they tell me that Pietro Marcello wanted to meet me. Imagine my happiness. Knowing, then, that this film would be born from Jack London's book moved me even more».

What convinced you to accept?

«Martin Eden is a human being of great sensitivity, great curiosity and great empathy; he has an enormous desire to discover, to see, to touch with his hand. However, he suffers countless disappointments. He climbs a mountain only to learn, once he reaches the top, that a sad camp resides there, and that the best thing was never to get there, to the goal, but perhaps the very start. The journey".

And was it difficult to make this journey?

“It's a question that I have asked myself too, and the answer I have given myself is both yes and no. No, because being next to Pietro, Maurizio, colleagues and all the people who collaborated on the film, I found the right push and the right support to get into the character. But the difficulties, of course, are always there. What I really wanted to understand was Martin Eden. I abandoned myself to the first sensation I had while reading the book and the screenplay».

What was that feeling?

"A gigantic emotion. This character speaks directly to each of us because everyone shares something with him. Each of us wants to do, to exist. To reach a goal. Only then we come up against obstacles that make us lose hope - in part or in whole».

But when did the spark go off?

“I've always been passionate about writers like London or Stevenson. Adventurers, capable of creating worlds, of giving life to characters with their eyes open to the society around them. Entering a life like that, a life where the sea is so present, a life made of traveling, of seeing, made of pure passion, intrigued me a lot. And then there was Naples".

Compared to Jack London's book, Pietro Marcello's film is a rewrite set in the Neapolitan capital.

“I had never lived all this time in Naples; and I had never known it so much. I have not yet been able to fully understand it; not completely. Naples is a place apart. I have come to love it. Naples is a whole people. Something fantastic. It’s a place with a huge identity. A very strong identity. Think of the language: it’s not a dialect, it’s a language. And then you meet people who make you realize how beautiful it is to be Neapolitan: how welcoming it is, how fascinating it is, how deep it is. Naples, for me, was a great discovery».

Is sensitivity a condemnation?

"I don’t know. On one hand, yes, it can make you suffer more. But I wouldn't see it as a sentence. Sensitivity allows you to see the world; it leads you to respect what is around you».

But it also brings loneliness with it.

«Martin Eden distances himself from everything and from himself: he can no longer be in contact with anything or anyone, he is disappointed».

In this film, the clash between the class of intellectuals and the so-called people also finds space.

"I think that the true intellectual, like Pasolini was, manages to put himself on the same level as the society, to look at it in the eye, to speak to the common man without being opinionated, just showing what is there: what is happening".

At one point, you find yourself sharing the scene with Carlo Cecchi, who plays Russ Brissenden.

«I was very excited because I found my teacher. And it was great to be with him there, on the set, more than six years after we had last acted together."

You said you got excited

“Because in the film he plays Martin Eden's mentor, and Carlo was a mentor to me too. It was a real gift”.

How many things have changed over the years?

"Many."

And you? Have you changed as an actor?

“I don't know, I swear. But maybe I was better before (laughs)».

What do you mean?

"I started with the theater, where there is no safety net, there is no" stop, let's do it again!" and there is no possibility to stop, start over, rethink. I miss that courage».

Is theater a torment or an obsession?

"It’s never a torment or an obsession. Sometimes at night, however, I dream of going on stage and not remembering anything anymore».

Perhaps it’s today's cinema that tends to be not very brave.

«In my opinion it’s experiencing a new period. And it’s not a coincidence that Marcello's Martin Eden arrives right now, in this moment. Surely we could give a voice to many more people. Even that, if you like, is a question of courage».

Martin Eden also speaks of talent and perseverance. What is more important, in your opinion?

“They go hand in hand. Talent is the first thing you see. It’s the primordial spark. But you can't just rely on that. You have to be curious, eat life, live it to the fullest, intensely and consciously. But to live it, one must also commit oneself: and one must be prepared».

You need to read.

«For me a book is always a victory. Because you have been elsewhere and have lived a story that is different from yours."

What kind of reader are you?

“I wouldn't call myself an avid reader: but the more I grow, the older I get, the older I get and the more I read. Because I am more and more aware of how beautiful it is».

Reading isn’t just a hobby.

"Thoreau says: "As if you could kill time without injuring eternity". It’s important not to waste time; but it’s important to do it without causing anguish or fear. You have to be there, stay there, live in the moment. But without exaggerating».

When you were younger - when you were a child - what were you like?

“I've always been surrounded by curious people. Even my friends, the ones I had as a child and the ones I still have now, are curious. We liked to move, to go around, to be together; we lived the street. We also enjoyed listening to music, reading comics and books, and watching movies."

And curiosity soon turned into fascination.

“Acting has always fascinated me. And only at a certain point did I manage to find the right courage to try. And I don't know why: I really don't know. In the Academy this phrase was always repeated: “play seriously”. And maybe was this that interested me; or not".

We talked about teachers. Who were they to you?

«People like Carlo Cecchi or Anna Marchesini. They were moments, very important meetings».

How did you come in contact with Marchesini?

"We studied with her for three months at the Academy, and it was wonderful because for the first time I wrote something of my own. Each of us, each of the students, had to write something about himself, starting from his identity card - this was the initial task. And it was, believe me, very difficult».

What impressed you about her?

"The energy, the dedication, the beauty. I remember the moments with her, the wonderful phrases she said. What has always fascinated me to see was the passion she put into it».

Other teachers?

"My grandfather. I always liked the job he did: he was a carpenter. In the academy they told us many times: "you have to be a craftsmen". And I was always thinking of him».

What, in the end, do you have left of Martin Eden?

«The sense of collectivity. Passion. The importance of looking around. To always look at others and at themselves. The adventure of life, and the wonder it represents. What deeply tears Martin Eden apart is betraying himself and being disappointed in his own dreams. We can fight against this only if we are faithful to ourselves, to our beliefs, to our places of origin. And then, you know, all the rest remains: remains all that world».

VANITY FAIR

Just wanted to translate this old interview for the non-italian’s fans ^^ (sorry for my English)

#Luca Marinelli #Interview #old interview #Martin Eden #Vanity Fair #English #english translation

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mihidecet · 3 years

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Sbi&CO d&d AU: A Familiar Face (1/?)

WELCOME WELCOME EVERYONE! Today, the tournament arc begins! I do hope you’ll enjoy this ahahah

I dedicate this to all the wonderful people of the Au’s Discord - hit me up if you wanna join! Also, a special thank you to @traitorous-bisexual and @awebo without whom this arc wouldn’t exist <3

Finally, before we start: make sure you check out @whatimevendoinhere , @spout1nk and (soon) @julius-ranch for art and fanfics about the AU!!

It was a lovely morning.

The sun shined through the tinted windows, turning the light a soft orange glow that lessened the glare of it against his eyes.

It was a welcome respite: during the months that involved preparing the tournament, days were quick to melt together, nights becoming just darker afternoons as Scott and everyone around him hurried to make everything look ready for the contestants' arrival. So, not having the sun shine directly into his eyes as he looked over the final challenges that had been chosen for the tournament was a relief. The cup of warm tea by his desk was also a saving grace.

Stifling a yawn, Scott figured that he could let himself take a stroll. Maybe open up his window, let the room freshen up a bit.

With his window overlooking one of the many parks inside the Academy, maybe he could distract himself for a moment and see if his protege had finally started warming up to his teammates.

That plan had flown out of the window almost immediately. Or maybe it would be better to say that it had flown into the window, along with a green tipped arrow that had suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

Now, Scott hasn't been adventuring for a while, but it would be foolish to think that he's forgotten how the world works - with a flick of his wrist, a translucent dome of purple arcane energy materializes between him and the incoming arrow, which impacts with the barrier a split second later. The tip goes through, piercing the veil of his magic, and for a terrifying moment Scott thinks it's not gonna stop, but it simply stops, held in place as if caught in a web.

Which is a relief, the amateur that tried to attack him - an Archmage, in the middle of his own Academy - failed to get their first shot in and this will give him the time to step back and call his most trusted in order to quickly and efficiently get rid of the problem at hand. He has other more pressing matters to attend to, he's not going to waste his time on this.

As his Shield spell fades, it congeals like a shimmering second skin over his upper arm. Maybe calling the guards isn't that pressing, he's got this.

Or maybe he doesn't, he thinks as he get a second, much more terrifying surprise - in the span of a couple of seconds, he really can get no breaks.

A figure materializes in the air in front of him, with a dark hood over their head that covers most of their features except for a huge - terrifying - grin and an intricate bow strapped to their back.

The figure appears with a puff of iridescent smoke, crouched in the air as if they'd been in the process of jumping before they decided to teleport, and- crashes into him, the force of the impact and the shock of it happening making him lose his balance and start falling back.

There's a moment where Scott is confused: is this some sort of strange tactic? Did the stranger misjudge their trajectory? Are they going to wrestle on the ground as if they weren't both magic users?

Then, a brief split second of panic - he didn't look what the stranger was holding, and he is currently falling on his back. He is going to get stabbed, at the very least, and that conviction is only made stronger as he feels the stranger's arms close in around him.

But then, Scott has simply enough time to blink in shock, as the arms just wrap around his back, before his world is literally turned upside down.

One moment he is falling on his back, already anticipating the pain of a knife to the back - please no vital organs, spare him the need for an extremely expansive healer. The next the is wrapped in a hug and grunting in pain as his knees impact with the ground.

"Ah, fuck that hurt- Scotty are you alright?"

Scott refuses to believe this. He pushes against the chest under him - the arms give, letting him go - and finds himself face to face with a sight that is both very familiar and weirdly unusual.

"You-" Scott says, tone an unconvincingly mix of menacing and angry as he jabs a finger into the not-so-stranger's chest -"Are lucky to be alive. I could have murdered you."

Hbomb's worried glance instantly brightens, despite Scott's best hopes, and he throws his head back to laugh. No matter how irritated he is at his friend, he can't help but huff out a laugh himself, and a moment later they're both chuckling together on the floor. By all the gods, it has been some time.

"You are a dumbass, H. You couldn't just use the door? You know, like a normal person?!" Scott asks, holding himself up on his left elbow because H has always been one to laugh with his whole body and Scott is still recovering from jamming his knees into the floor, he's not in the mood to be jostled around by an enthusiastic ranger.

"Aw, Scotty, aren't you happy to see me?" The half-elf asks, putting a hand on his chest as he fails to pretend he's insulted. Scott flicks his nose.

"Ah- that hurt!"

"I know, I meant it to hurt. Now, do you want to tell me what you're doing here? And what is that doing on your face?" Scott demands, serious at first until he realises that H has been growing out his beard well past what he considers to be a good length - H's pout is barely visible under all that scruff.

"Well, now, that is unnecessarily rude. I've been traveling for a while now, and I wasn't gonna risk injuring myself-" Scott grabs a wandering hand and brings it back on H's chest.

"H." Hbomb has a tendency of gesticulating when his hands aren't being kept busy, and while he did figure that his friend had simply forgotten to shave, he has known him long enough to be able to recognise when H is going off on a tangent - which is perfectly fine - and when he's changing the subject because he doesn't want to answer.

He knows he's right when H simply shuts up, eyes wide like those of a deer - quite fitting, considering where he enjoys spending most of his time. But instead of looking pensive, or starting to answer, H just … looks down. At where their hands are.

Normally, he wouldn't think much of it. But H looks almost sheepish, and his eyes keep moving from his face to their hands, so Scott looks down.

His brain screeches to a halt, and suddenly he stands up a little straighter, sitting on the floor next to H as he grabs his hand in his.

Around his fingers wraps a perfect replica of a silver winged fae dragon, while in his palm- one of the most accurate representations of the different Planes.

Scott turns his stare to his fiend, who looks more calm than Scott feels he has any right to, and when he speaks he sounds almost breathless.

"What happened to you?"

The tale of how Shubble's patron reached out to him to grant him powers is exhilarating. Not in the "funny" sense, more in the "my friend who is usually not that fond of talking and interacting with people especially when he's not in a place he is familiar with, was transported to a different plane and spoke with a being of transcendent power". So maybe a bit in the "funny" sense.

The only negative side of the whole affair is the fact that Shubble is currently not present.

She actually teaches at the Academy, so H was right in his assumption that reaching this place would have helped him out, but he just barely missed her by a couple of weeks. She's recently left, called out on an urgent mission by her patron themselves, and a part of Scott's mind can't help but feel like it is an extremely weird coincidence: he respects power gained through pacts, but he fears deeply the machinations of otherworldly beings' minds and the power they hold over his friends. He'd much prefer dealing with forces controlled by his own self, so that when a spell backfires comically he only has himself to blame.

But all things considered, he's glad to see H is still alive and seemingly doing better than ever. He looks fine, happy and more confident than the last time he saw him - the way he stands and moves more firm, more secure, filling his space in a way the Hbomb of some time ago wouldn't have.

It's nice to see him like this.

What isn't nice is the way his increased confidence leads him to suggest how good of an idea it would be for him to take part into the tournament. Which is a horrible idea.

"Listen, I know I am banned from playing again-" H starts, arms spread open with a mischievous grin on his face. Scott has sudden flashbacks to all the times he'd seen that grin from the other side of the battlefield and shakes his head firmly before pointing a stern finger at his chest.

"You still have a year before you can."

H huffs, shoulders falling, and he adopts the most fake-innocent expression Scott has ever seen.

"But I'm just here to say hi!" Scott levels him with a blank stare, using all of his willpower and internal strength to avoid bursting out laughing. Because for all that his friend's expression is hilarious, this is really no laughing matter. He can't have him win again.

"I said what I said." H's head hits the desk with a groan of protest.

On the other side of the table, Scott pinches his own arm in order not to laugh.

He fails.

H still manages to pout his way into getting a free room to stay in for a while - just like the old times, come on! - and seems to be alright with being left to his own devices for the rest of the morning.

Knowing him, he'll take it as the perfect chance to snoop around, make new friends and bother the tournament's contestants.

As Scott turns back to his schematics, the only thing he does is chuckle to himself.

#sbi&co dnd au #sbi dnd au #hbomb94 #smajor1995 #tournament arc

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starrybouquet · 4 years

Text

The Scorns of Time

The Stargate throws SG-1 into the future.

For Sam/Jack Ship Day 2020. This grew waaay longer than intended, and Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c begged for their own chapters. So this is now a WIP. I'm sorry. XD Hope you enjoy. :)

Read on AO3 or under the cut:

“Daniel. You’re late,” Jack O’Neill said impatiently, tapping his P90 against his thigh as Daniel joined the rest of SG-1 in the ‘Gate room.

“Sorry, guys. I forgot to eat dinner--didn’t realize it was time to gear up yet.” Daniel rubbed his eyes blearily. “Why do we have to ‘Gate out so late, again?”

“Carter?” Jack turned to his left.

“P7X-047 has a thin atmosphere, so it gets cold at night, despite having a temperate climate during the day,” she explained. “But it’s much larger than Earth, so one day there is equivalent to roughly three Earth days. Our mission was scheduled for 2330 in order to maximize daylight. The sun rose on P7X-047 just-”

She was interrupted by the kawoosh of the Stargate. “SG-1, you have a go,” Hammond’s voice boomed through the speaker.

Jack gave a lazy salute and trudged up the ramp beside Teal’c, Carter and Daniel right behind them.

They stepped through the blue puddle into a room. The room had no windows, and was eerily silent, lit only by dim yellow lights. The walls were lined with bronze plaques and display cases, marching down far into the gloom.

"Uh...Carter?" Jack swung his P90 around. “I was promised a sunrise.”

Carter shook her head, alarmed. "This isn't P7X-047, sir."

Jack raised his eyebrow in an unspoken question.

"Sir, I don't know what happened. The dialing sequence was completely normal."

He sighed. Why couldn't they ever do anything the easy way? "Alright. Daniel, dial us back."

"O'Neill," Teal'c said from his left. "There does not appear to be a dial home device in the vicinity."

"Carter!" Jack swung back around to scowl at his 2IC.

She shrugged helplessly. "The MALP showed visual confirmation of a DHD, sir. But this definitely isn't P7X-047."

"Uh, guys?" Daniel said, in the tone that tended to make Jack do a mental count of how much ammo they had. "You might want to see this."

The three other members of SG-1 trooped over to where Daniel was standing, inspecting one of the plaques. He turned, eyes wide and befuddled behind his wire-rimmed glasses, and gestured to the left side of the large plaque.

Jack's hand spasmed on his P90, and beside him he felt Carter tense.

There, mounted on the wall and chiseled out in bronze, was a picture of them.

"Daniel," Jack enunciated carefully. "Why are we here?" He waved his P90 at the display.

"Jack, it's in English!”

Carter peered at the plaque.

"Sir, Daniel's right. And...it's talking about us."

"What?"

"At the inception of Stargate Command in 1997, a flagship exploration team was established under the command of Colonel Jack O'Neill. Known as SG-1, they became Earth's first and most vital line of defense against the Goa'uld," Carter read. Her shocked voice echoed in the silence of the room.

"It's surprisingly detailed and entirely accurate, at least so far," Daniel offered.

Carter looked around the room wildly, and then her worried blue eyes locked onto his own.

"Sir, I think we've traveled to the future."

“The future.”

She nodded. "Just like when we were thrown back to 1969, a solar flare must have occurred at the exact moment we went through the 'Gate. Except this time, it threw us forward in time instead of backwards. Sir, we're still on Earth."

"Then where is everybody?"

"I have no idea. We could be hundreds of years in the future. The SGC could be abandoned." Carter was talking quickly, and he could see the gears spinning in her mind, thinking of all the possibilities.

"So...what do we do?"

"I guess the only thing we can do is read the plaques,” Daniel offered. “This is clearly a museum exhibit of some kind--maybe it'll give us a clue where and how the Stargate can be operated in this time frame."

"Museum time. Great. Thought museums were only for rocks."

"These aren't artifacts, Jack. Well, they are. But to us, they're our life.”

"Hold on, Daniel. I don't know if we want to do that,” Carter said carefully.

"Not seeing any other way to get out of here, Carter,” Jack put in mildly.

"Well, we can't pollute the timeline. What if we learn something about our future that causes us to change it? We should try to make contact with someone, get help."

"Daniel Jackson, O’Neill, Major Carter," Teal’c called from behind them. “There is something of interest here.”

They trooped over to Teal’c, who gestured to an inconspicuous sign mounted on a pole to the side of the ‘Gate.

Daniel inspected the sign. "This is written in Asgard. It says, 'this is a shrine to those who called themselves the Tau'ri. Though the rest of their planet is no longer habitable and the species has ceased to exist as it once was, we have preserved their history as they had recorded it, in hopes that other descendants of the Ancients may come of age and learn their history.'" He turned to the rest of the team. "Earth is abandoned."

Jack sighed. "Guess we're not getting any help. Carter, what if we just...promise not to tell anyone? Pinky swear?"

"I don't see another option, sir," she agreed, moving to the wall and beginning to read.

At first, it was interesting and a little gratifying to read about herself. Sam was honored and amazed that of all the things someone had chosen to memorialize and preserve the history of them--SG-1. She skimmed through the parts she already knew, figuring there wouldn't be much information there. As she approached the part about her future hesitantly, she noticed a section titled Life Outside the SGC. Apprehensively, she began to read.

As was common during the early decades of the SGC, Samantha Carter lived a quiet, solitary life outside Cheyenne Mountain. SGC personnel in general during this time struggled to maintain personal relationships when their life’s work was top-secret yet all-encompassing.

They got that right. Sam stole a glance at the profile of her CO, studying his own display, before continuing her reading.

Though the reveal of the Stargate program to the general public removed these barriers for most SGC personnel, Carter’s meager off-base presence would stay the same for the rest of her life. Due to her overnight fame as one of the most prominent faces of the SGC, she retreated even further from Earthside life after the program went public. Carter never married and kept a tight lid on her friendships, even with the other former members of SG-1.

After retirement, Carter became increasingly reflective on her life outside the SGC. Indeed, a retired Maj. Gen. Carter, in one of her last public interviews, lamented, "I was so focused on the stars that I refused to see what was right in front of me here on Earth, even when I needed it most." Much speculation has resulted from this cryptic comment, and the many similar ones that appeared regularly in the last years of her life.

Since her death, General Carter has become one of the most-studied heroes of all time. Military strategists are fascinated by her tactics, scientists by her numerous scientific achievements far ahead of her time, and historians by the duality of the various facets of Carter’s personality, and the psychological effects of being, effectively, a living legend at a scale previously confined to superhero comics.

Well, that was cheery. She repressed a shudder at the wrongness of the entire situation and headed for the next display.

After an hour of perusing the displays, they hadn’t found anything that gave any indication of how the Stargate could be dialed out. A quick exploration of the rest of the base revealed that all the rooms were either empty or stuffed with boxes, and the dialing computer was gone. Since they'd 'gated out so late, the Colonel announced that they'd all get some sleep and continue their search for a way to dial out in the morning. Finding two VIP quarters complete with beds and sheets in a display on "diplomacy at the SGC", they crashed the display and bunked down for the night. Daniel and Teal'c shared a room in order to spare the others from Daniel's snoring (it never bothered Teal'c’s kelnoreem), leaving Jack and Sam to share the other.

Sam tossed and turned for well over an hour before giving up on sleep. She sat up quietly, trying not to disturb the sleeping Colonel on the other side of the room, and made her way to the conference room. Usually, she’d have gone to her lab to think, but she’d found that her lab had apparently been demolished at some point, as all that stood in the space now was a conference room.

Which was why she was here, arms crossed, looking out of the viewing window blindly. That sentence she’d read kept echoing through her head, in an approximation of her mother's voice. I was so focused on the stars that I refused to see what was right in front of me here on Earth, even when I needed it most.

She'd never minded being a workaholic. Especially not since she'd begun working on the Stargate project. It was everything she’d ever dreamed of as a child looking up at the stars, better than being simply an astrophysicist and better than being an astronaut. And though she sometimes wanted someone to come home to, to share her bed at night and her shower in the morning (and here she tried very hard not to identify that “someone” in her head), she didn't think that was the be-all end-all of her life. She had the best friends anyone could ask for, she loved her job--all of it. And at the end of the day, there was no way anything could ever matter more than saving the world. She knew that.

Still...she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Even when I needed it most.

She heard footsteps, and saw the Colonel in the reflection of the glass.

“Carter?” He stepped further into the room.

“Sir,” she said, not turning away from the window. He came to stand beside her, hands shoved in pockets.

“Whatcha doin’?”

She sighed. “Just thinking about what I read today. It’s not every day you get to read a biography written years after your death.”

“Ah. Don’t think too much about it, Carter. All that time stuff--it can change, right? This is just one possible future, or whatever.”

Sam smiled a little. She doubted he realizes how much he revealed with that little piece of advice. He may not have been an astrophysicist, but Jack O’Neill was whip-smart, even if he did his best to hide it. “You’re right, sir. I guess it’s just hard not to think about it.”

They stood there for a while, just looking down at the ‘Gate. From this distance, the dim lighting and the clutter of museum displays around the room made the ‘Gate look more like the centerpiece of the dusty basement of an antique collector rather than an otherworldly piece of alien technology. The Colonel flicked at the dust particles gathered on the windowsill, letting her have her space.

“My life--it wasn’t a happy one,” she said eventually. “The plaques talk a lot about professional success. But in all the interviews, all the artifacts, I was bitter and cold. I said I regretted a lot of things.”

She turned anguished eyes onto him. “Am I really that selfish? They called me a superhero, said I saved the world. And I sat there, in those interviews--”

Her eyes moved back to the ‘Gate, and she felt her cheeks heat with shame, because he was her commanding officer and even worse, one of the people whose opinion she cared about most in all the world, but she couldn’t stop the words pouring out of her mouth.

“And the worst part of it? I agree with her, the Sam in the pictures. I agree. I looked at all those medals on my dress blues, and I read those interviews, and I agreed with her--me. This isn’t some alternate reality, it’s my future, and I don’t want to be some lonely husk of myself, just General Carter, no Sam. But I know it will happen, because it has happened. The case below the plaque about my life after my retirement--that’s all it has. A set of dress blues.”

She blinked back tears.

And then the Colonel--Jack--shifted towards her, as if he couldn’t help himself, and wrapped his arms carefully around her. She buried her head in his shoulder and relaxed into his embrace.

“It’s not a crime to want to be happy, Carter,” he said softly.

She stood in his arms like that for a while, much longer than she ever had before, and he seemed content to hold her, just letting her breathe.

Eventually, Sam felt tiredness settling into her bones. Her breath hitched, and she stifled a yawn.

"Think you can sleep now?" the Colonel asked, surprisingly relaxed given their position.

"I'm not sure."

"C'mon." He let his arms fall away, placed a hand at the small of her back, and steered her out of the conference room and back to their quarters.

He nudged her back toward her bed, pulled back the sheet, and nodded. "Go on, get in."

She tugged off her jacket and slid between the sheets, and he pulled them up and tucked her in carefully. Sam looked quizzically up at him, ready to apologize for falling apart, but there was nothing but care in his brown eyes. No discomfort, nothing.

Well, maybe something a little more intense than care that she couldn't name.

Sam thought he was heading back to bed himself. Which was why she was shocked when he circled to the other side of her bed instead, and lay down on his side facing her.

She rolled on her side as well, and their eyes locked.

"You won't end up alone, Carter," he whispered, never breaking eye contact. "I promise."

And his gaze was so intense, brown eyes fastened on her so completely, that she believed him.

"C'mere," Jack said in that same low tone, and pulled her toward him. He turned onto his back and settled her head into his shoulder, one arm securely around her waist, hand splayed against her back.

Sam didn't protest, didn't say anything, just turned her nose into the cotton of his black t-shirt and snuggled closer, sneaking a leg across one of his.

And in that moment, it didn't matter when they were, whether they were stuck centuries in the future. Her best friends in all the world were right down the hall, and she was in bed, in Jack's arms. And that was more than enough.

#sam x jack #stargate sg1 #samjackshipday #sg1 #my fic #fanfic #my blogstuffs

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bylerly · 5 years

Text

alright everyone. after my rush of emotions after that season, i’ve had time to decompress, and make an actually cohesive list of my thoughts about the season. as you could probably guess - MAJOR SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

first, let’s get the (much) shorter list out of the way. here’s what I enjoyed:

the acting. i want to mention how good millie was, because she was fantastic, but i almost feel like i shouldn’t, bc el took SO MUCH screen and plot time, that millie was given every opportunity to be good. she doesn’t really need any more special mention. otherwise - noah (with the little he was given) and sadie were particularly great. so were winona & david, but that goes without saying.

the elmax friendship. these two deserved it. and max bringing el out of her shell, showing her how to become her own person.... incredible. 10/10 i love them both

alexei. feels weird saying this, but he was probably the new addition I enjoyed watching the most. it would have been kind of cool to see him live past season 3.

an lgbt+ confirmed character. this one is a little.... tricky for me. as happy as I am that there is a queer woman written into the show... I feel like it’s a cop out to not have to confirm will’s sexuality. robin confirms her sexuality in less than a season, but after three with will, we still only get ~subtext~? still, this is a positive portion, so.... I guess that was something I was happy with

el moving in with the byers at the end. finally. this is one of the only things that is keeping me excited for s4. i guess i can only hope for there to FINALLY be some good willel interactions next season, but if this season has taught me anything, it’s not to get my hopes too high :-)

jancy ending s3 on a good note. parts of their storyline were fantastic, some were disappointing. but i really dug their dynamic, and the realistic struggle between the two of them, with nancy not really understanding jonathan’s class struggles, and jonathan not grasping the weight of the misogyny being thrown at nancy. their final moments at the empty byers house at the end were especially lovely.

el no longer being OP, and not being undefeatable. i love el. i really, genuinely do. i love her character, i love her traits, i lover her power. but the duffers were relying too heavily on her to constantly save the day with her powers, and it was happening too often. one of the faults of s2 was the constant thought of how easily el could’ve fought off all these threats if she was just there. i think it’s incredibly interesting to not only see her get completely worn out, but totally lose her powers. like mike said, i’m sure they’ll come back, but i want so badly for el to not just be defined by her powers.

a platonic m/f friendship. yes, one of them is confirmed queer, and they would’ve probably been romantically linked if she was straight. but i’ll take what i can get when it comes to this. platonic opposite sex relationships?? r i s e

now for the meat of my thoughts ~ what I didn’t like:

mike’s characterization. the writers completely made him into a dick this season. i get it, he’s a teenager, so he’s going to be an asshole sometimes. hell, in a recent post, I defended that, saying it’s good writing. but I underestimated just how awful he’d be, completely blowing off his friends for any chance for a second alone with el. I understand that he loves his girlfriend of course, but s1-2 mike loved his friends just as much. he was so utterly unlikable this season, that it seemed like he was a different character.

lucas as comic relief. this is so lazy, and i’m so angry for both the character and caleb, both of whom deserve so much better. he really had nothing to do if it wasn’t related to max, and the writers further reduced him down to a one-dimensional, kind of dumb, mediocre boyfriend, and that is not the highly intelligent, brave, kind lucas that i know and love.

will’s sidelining. god, this made absolutely no sense. noah fucking shined last season. he stole pretty much the entire thing. every critic, even those who disliked the season, had nothing but good things to say about his performance. furthermore, will has so much potential in so many different directions in so many aspects of his character. however, once he revealed to his friends that he was feeling the upside down/MF’s presence... they may as well have written out his character. he was sidelined almost to the point of background character. they gave him very little to do emotionally after that castle byers scene, and even fewer lines.

total lack of willel scenes. phew, if this wasn’t a bummer. will spoke a single line to el, and maybe one or two throwaway lines about her. if there is one thing most of the fans can agree on, it’s that will and el have the biggest connection to the upside down, the biggest unspoken connection, the most parallels, and the most intriguing potential relationship... and they really just said “fuck it” and didn’t have them interact at all. (that’s poor writing folks!) they better make up for this now that they’re living together.

amount of eleven scenes. i love her so dearly. i really do. and i’m so happy she grew into her own, not through mike or hopper. but the amount of el plot and screen time this season was actually difficult to watch. every other scene centered around her. so many characters and so much of the story went undeveloped, while she got way, way more than was necessary. additionally, take any kid’s plot (other than dustin), and guaranteed, it revolved around el. people were starting to catch on that the show was favoring her character more than even most shows’ mains.... and this season took it to a level i actual didn’t think it would.

the comedy. it was so awkwardly written. so much of it threw off the pace of the show. it seemed forced, and just... not very stranger things-esque, where the comedy was typically well-written and blended into dialogue.

the baddies. this was a huge letdown, too. i understand that the monster was large, but it was far less menacing to me than, say, the MF’s physical form. it had gore points, sure. it felt incredibly boring and predictable. in the same vein, i thought the ‘zombie’ style storyline of heather & co. would be deeper than that, but that was literally all it was. again... not interesting to me. billy was a rehash as well. the russians definitely had potential, but even that plot wound up being incredibly one-dimensional.

billy’s screentime. this was one of the things i was absolutely furious about. he got more screentime than the party (minus el) combined. they wanted for us so badly to empathize with him, to humanize him... i’m sorry, but you wrote a character that almost killed a boy for being black, that abuses his sister, and is a misogynistic asshole. abuse doesn’t excuse that, and it’s insulting to abuse survivors to say that billy inevitably became this way because of his dad, and that he deserves our uwus for it... and actually got el’s. he took screen time away from characters who desperately needed it, and that’s something i will never look at the duffers the same way for.

the scoops troop. I wanted to love erica... but i feel so indifferent to her. she was way too much this season. and robin. again, i love that she’s confirmed queer. and i dug her character more. but even then... i don’t know. i would have rather never had her introduced, and allowed established characters to have been better developed. and as a whole, the whole storyline of the troop was just what I feared: underwhelming and awkwardly placed.

high steve & robin. won’t elaborate on this too much, bc there’s not much to elaborate on. it just felt so wildly out of place and unnecessary.

that dustin/suzie number. what the hell was that? what could have been a 20 second joke was stretched out WAY too long and was bizarrely placed. just because you have an actor from broadway, doesn’t mean he needs to sing. and even if he does sing... you couldn’t have found a better time or situation? i literally was just staring at my screen in disbelief as that whole thing happened. entirely unneeded.

the amount of flashbacks. i understand most casual viewers wouldn’t remember certain things because of how long it’s been. but they literally put a recap at the beginning of the season. that’s what it’s for. and there were also plenty from like.... the episode before??? the amount they included took away so much time, that it almost just seemed like they didn’t have enough footage, and they had to fill their time stamp somehow. at some point, it just becomes insulting to the audience’s intelligence.

the overall tone. this season did not feel like stranger things in the slightest. off the top of my head, the castle byers scene and the byeler scene in mike’s garage were the exceptions. the first few episodes did have some moments. but overall... it kind of felt like some weird, high budget commercial or something. the charm, distinct aesthetic, and nuance of seasons 1 and 2 was non-existent.

the post-credit scene. there was some last-minute hype up in the reviews for this. was that supposed to be shocking in some way? i suppose this is more the fault of the reviewers who hyped it, but... really? a demodog? we’ve seen that before... i guess more the point was to show that the russians officially have some kind of technology for this. but still, an underwhelming reveal. more intriguing to me, was if hopper was the american in the cell he mentioned at the start of it. or maybe brenner?

the neutral:

that ending. on one hand, it was incredibly predictable. they literally placed an obvious shot of it in the trailer (easy to deduce that the byers had moved out, and that it was fall, so it was an epilogue scene). i was convinced that there would be a twist element they weren’t showing us, but nope. on the other hand, i thought some things were done beautifully (which wasn’t exactly a trend this season). as i mentioned, i loved the jancy moments. i really did like the hopper voiceover, although it was a little trope-y and heavy-handed... i still got a little emo, ngl. those goodbye hugs were somethin’. and, as i said before... el! moving in! with the byers! gimme

so uh... that’s it, i guess. no one really asked, but i needed to get my thoughts out. what did you guys think of the season?

#stranger things #st3 #spoilers #i very well might add onto this the more i continue to think about it

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starburstonlayaway · 5 years

Text

for @elizabroadwaytrash and i

Current word count :

40,813

Basic summary:

Tyler and Ethan’s family goes through a lot of changes following their marriage. They lose people, take others in, and new journeys are ventured on every day, no matter how scary or exciting.

Title? WIP? Alternate titles?

“Leave a Message.”

Yes, it is a work-in-progress.

I don’t believe we had any alternative titles, and if we did, I do not recall them.

Favorite character and how they are introduced:

Tyler. He’s introduced at the beginning of the first chapter, seen before anyone else.

Favorite ship:

Rose/Victor! I haven’t gotten to writing their relationship and build-up, but from our plans and how we’ve designed Victor’s character to be, I’m excited.

MC’s biggest mistake:

Rose is probably more of an MC than the others, despite it being a Tyler/Ethan fanfic.

Her biggest mistake was probably refusing to give up on Carter. While he was her boyfriend, his actions toward her (and later, Jazzy) were unacceptable after she came out to him. She isn’t to blame at all, but it’s definitely the thing she regrets most.

Inspiration:

A webcomic on Webtoon called “Always Human.” The comic explores the events happening to the girls Sunati and Austen throughout the course of their relationship. Beautiful art, realistic problems (despite being set in a futuristic utopian society), representation, and well-written romance. I wanted to incorporate these factors into LaM to make it similar to a story I enjoyed very much that left an influence on me.

Underrated character appreciation:

Jazzy! Rose’s best friend. Even in the separate story where she’s one of the main set of characters, she’s still very overlooked. She’s very upbeat and friendly, with lots of knowledge on wlw pop culture and history!

A few favorite dialogues:

“I’m ready, but we’re not in a rush or anything.” “Of course we’re in a rush, you slut! The sooner you guys get married, the sooner you have kids, and the sooner I’m an uncle!“ “Aren’t you occupied enough as it is? If you’re so involved in the idea of having a family, then why haven’t you and Jack had any kids of your own yet?“ “Don’t roast us like this.”

(spoken angrily) “Hey, Mister, that’s my soup!”

“That’s Amy! She’s probably Chica and Henry’s favorite out of all of us, but WE SHOULD REALLY SHARE CUSTODY OF HENRY.”

“Uh, I like to read, mostly, but watching older cartoons is also fun.” “Ooh. What cartoons do you like?” “My current favorite is Adventure Time!” “Adventure Time is considered an older cartoon now?” “Guess so.” “Damn, we’re getting old.” “We’re already old, dude.” “Thanks I feel worse.”

“What kind of cancer is it again?” “Leukemia.” “The survival chances of that aren’t terrible.” “Wow. Thanks.”

“You punched Jazzy?! You fucking punched Jazzy?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why would you punch someone for standing up to you when you were the one being a dick?!” “She wouldn’t get out of my face—” “I don’t wanna hear that bullshit! Carter, you can hurt me all you fucking want and I won’t care, but you’ve crossed the fucking line. Jazzy is the only person that’s been nice to me all year. She’s supported me and loved me no matter what, something you never fucking did!” “What the hell are you—” “We’re done, Carter! I never want to see your ugly transphobic douchebag ass again!”

MC moodboard:

N/A

MC’s fondest memory:

Probably when she was adopted. It was the most exciting day of her life, and lead down a journey of self-discovery.

In close second is the day she became friends with Jazzy. She was there for her when she needed her most.

Songs that remind of LaM or the characters:

“What About Us” by P!nk, probably definitely because it’s the song I used for Tyler and Ethan’s first dance.

“Leave a Message” by gnash, the song I named the book after! This one doesn’t need much of an explanation.

“Party Tattoos” by dodie. I plan to use this song in the closing chapter, sung by Rose.

Enjoy torturing the characters?

Not really, but I do it anyway. Good for character development, which there’s a lot of. But I don’t enjoy it, no. I love the characters in this book like my cat and dogs: with all my heart.

MC’s biggest fear:

Being unaccepted. This fear makes itself evident after what happens with Carter. Her mother’s reaction enforces this more.

Goals:

To finish LaM by the end of sophomore year, editing and all.

To be proud of the finished product.

To use this book as a reminder that I can do it. I can write.

Characters’ secret talents:

Ethan, despite not playing for many, many years, still excels at playing the ukulele. This becomes not so much of a secret later on in the book.

Rose is surprisingly good at tic-tac-toe. Not necessarily a talent, but definitely something she’d want you to note.

Turned into a media? Cast?

Seeing as LaM is a piece of fanwork, I don’t believe I would turn it into a media.

If it was to be a media, however, along with Tyler Scheid and Ethan Nestor to play Tyler and Ethan, as well as Mark Fischbach, Amy Nelson, and Kathryn Knutsen to play their friends, a few choices I would make would be to cast Janet Mock as adult Rose Scheid and Elliot Fletcher as adult Adrian Garcia.

MC’s basic morals and general beliefs:

Rose’s number one moral is to never make someone feel shut out. Having been rejected (as well as accepted) many times in her life, she knows that she never wants anyone to feel like that, and makes an effort to be the reason.

How MC found out the tooth fairy doesn’t exist:

She never really believed in it, to begin with.

Best name:

Jasmine “Jazzy” Hinojosa-Mills.

Least favorite OC:

Carter. Abusive transphobic asshat that left Rose with lots of insecurities and trauma for years to come.

Snippet:

Mark really had gone all out with making the altar just like Tyler had wanted it to look. The arch was made out of ebony wood that had been painted white with golden accents. Flowery vines were twirled all around the wood, the flowers colors of black, grey, purple, and blue. The chairs surrounding the aisle were all made of the same wood as the arch, the cushions blue and grey. Both Ethan and Tyler’s family alike filled those chairs, chattering away with one another. Tyler quickly scanned the side filled with Ethan’s relatives, and wasn’t surprised to see Ethan’s aunt and uncle were not present. He hoped to god that Ethan wouldn’t notice. The guests quieted down and turned their heads to look at Tyler, and he felt put on the spot. Most of the guests smiled at him, others clapped quietly. He could see that two people in particular were both smiling and clapping. Seeing Jack and Kathryn so supportive of him was majorly comforting to Tyler. He exhaled, and glanced at Mark behind him. Mark was already smiling, and nudged his head towards the arch. Tyler walked down the aisle and received praise from just about everyone sat in chairs. He high-fived Jack on his way to his place next to the officiant. The lady smiled at him, and he returned the gesture. She opened her book as Mark took his place next to Tyler, gazing over his friend’s tux and wiping off some dust quickly. Mark gave Tyler a thumbs-up, and Tyler couldn’t stop smiling. Now that he was actually out in front of the guests and standing where he was meant to be, his nerves relaxed. In fact, every thought he’d ever had in doubt of this marriage before that moment vanished, as soon as Ethan walked out.

WIP representation:

LGBT

Tyler/Ethan

Rose is trans

Jazzy is pansexual with two moms

Adrian is trans with two moms

Marcus has two dads

POC

Rose and her mother are black

Adrian and his mama are Mexican

Disabilities

Marcus has leukemia (cancer of the white blood cells)

Standalone or part of a series?

Standalone. Although I suppose you could call it a spinoff of one of our other works, the reader does not need to read that series to understand this story.

Biggest character development:

Definitely Rose. Seeing as the story follows the changes through most of her life, there’s a big difference in her character comparing the first chapter she is introduced to the closing chapter, where she takes center stage.

People who know of the WIP:

My co-writer, Caroline. Though I’ve done most of the writing, Caroline and I brought the idea for this story to life together, creating a unique cast of characters such as Jazzy, Rose, Adrian, Marcus, their families, Victor, Rose’s mother Aaliyah, and Ethan’s uncle Zane. Without her, the story would not have been written in the first place.

The lovely readers on AO3. I’ve uploaded chapters of the WIP onto there, updating at least once a month. It feels good to be putting some of my work out there for other people instead of just keeping such a joy all to myself. Of course, this is just a personal opinion.

Characters’ annoying habits:

Jazzy’s very short-tempered. Make one wrong move, anyone could get shouted at, lectured, maybe even a blow to the face.

Marcus feels a lot of self-pity and spite. He wishes his parents wouldn’t baby him so much just because he has cancer. This, later on, leads to him participating in multiple illegal activities to antagonize them.

Adrian grows to be more selfish as he gets older, even going out of his way to go into the military and disappear from Rose’s life out of the blue one day without telling her. He later regrets this.

Rose has plenty of autophobia to go around. After her mother gave her up to the orphanage at a young age and Carter’s abuse towards her in her late middle school years, followed by Adrian’s sudden leave after high school, she always fears being alone or abandoned by the people she cares about.

Tyler and Ethan both never seem to recover from the grief of their first child’s loss. This makes them closed off to people who ask about the incident, and could sometimes bring them back to their depressive state.

Very last three lines (with context):

“Unsure was she on how to approach this. She’d felt it since that first night she met him, but it’d grown more and more out of hand since. They’d also became closer as friends, even now sometimes hanging out without the needed assistance of Marcus and Jazzy by their sides to ease the tension.”

Context: Rose had just come to the conclusion she had a crush on Adrian.

Characters: Based off IRL people(through looks, personality, or habits)?

Tyler, Ethan, Amy, Kathryn, Mark, Jack, Chica, Henry, and all of the parents in the story are based off IRL influencers. The characters have only been switched and changed a bit, as well as the relationships, of course, to fit the story.

Impossible friendship:

Carter and Jazzy. Don’t really need to explain it if you’ve read the work. They hate each other’s guts more than anyone, and they could never kiss and make up. As characters, they aren’t the types to do that at all, especially with each other.

Am I proud?

Yes. Leave a Message has been my most dedicated piece of work so far, and I’d say I’m well on my way to reaching my personally-set deadline next year if I keep it at the rate I’m going. Not to mention the characters and plotlines are exciting and realistic, in my own opinion. There’s still a lot left to be written, but I’ve got everything planned out. I don’t plan on stopping until I’m finished with it.

#i mainly just posted this instead of keeping it in my drafts for Caroline to see #delete later lol

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harry-lloyd · 5 years

Link

“It’s been a gentle start to the day,” Harry Lloyd says with a smile, speaking at a subdued volume while his six-month-old baby naps in the other room. We’re chatting on a Saturday afternoon, and Lloyd’s tousled hair is silhouetted against the sunlight streaming through the hotel room windows. It’s a warm day in Los Angeles, a stark contrast to the subzero chill that he braved for last month’s photo shoot in New York.

On screen, the English actor’s piercing gaze bespeaks a calculating persona, an agenda beneath the charm. Offscreen, there’s an unguarded, guileless ease to Lloyd’s manner—he’s thoughtful and genuinely engaged in the questions posed to him.

Lloyd is perhaps best-known for his portrayal of the unscrupulous, throne-obsessed Viserys Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Since his character’s macabre demise, the 35-year-old has been plenty busy. Among other screen and stage projects, Lloyd played the classmate and confidante to Eddie Redmayne’s Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything; a brilliant (and womanizing) novelist in The Wife (Lloyd mentions that he’s thrilled for Glenn Close’s Oscar nomination); and an intelligence officer, opposite J.K. Simmons, in the Starz original series Counterpart. His latest undertaking—the reason he’s in LA—is the Marvel comics-based series, Legion. For the third and final season of the FX show, Lloyd will play the role of David Haller’s father and X-Men leader, Professor Charles Xavier. (In so doing, he joins the ranks of Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy, who portrayed Professor X in the film series.)

Our conversation starts with Counterpart, the sci-fi/espionage thriller. A Cold War experiment in East Germany has splintered the timeline, and two formerly identical worlds now exist in an uneasy and rapidly unraveling détente. Each character in the show has an “other” self—a counterpart on the other side—and crossovers between the two dimensions wreak geopolitical havoc. There are slick diplomats, hapless bureaucrats, a contract assassin—and at the center is Peter Quayle, the director of Strategy in the Office of Interchange, a sort of United Nations-meets-MI6 outfit.

The morally obtuse Quayle is not exactly a sympathetic figure, but Lloyd embodies the character with a subtlety that allows the vulnerability to seep through the cracks in the bravado. As Quayle’s carefully-calibrated life crumbles, you feel for him—a national security strategist who’s in way over his head, blind to the fact that his own wife is a mole. Those pale, elegant hands are not meant to be dirtied fumbling about dim halls and holding rooms—and that’s not even getting into the subplots within the plot twists.

Lloyd’s enthusiasm for the project is clear. He calls Counterpart one of the favorite things he’s ever worked on, and credits Justin Marks, the creator of the show: “The writing is excellent, which attracts really good actors.” Among the sterling cast is, of course, J.K. Simmons, who plays two Howard Silks—the placid paper-pusher, Howard “Alpha,” in dimension one; and the cocksure clandestine operative, Howard “Prime,” in dimension two.

“I was very scared of him originally,” Lloyd admits with a laugh when I ask about his experience working with Simmons, who garnered an Oscar for his portrayal of a ruthless music instructor in Whiplash. “But he [Simmons] has been so welcoming and makes you feel at ease. I’ve learned so much from him—and we have a lot of fun.”

The scenes with Quayle Alpha and Howard Prime are often tense, even claustrophobic, not just because they take place in dark cars and cramped rooms, but because we sense the stranglehold of identity—the underlying question of just how much of one’s self is the product of choice versus circumstance. If you put John le Carré and Jorge Luis Borges in the same room, they might come up with something like this—forking paths that diverge and converge, labyrinths of spies and alter egos.

Lloyd describes Quayle Alpha and Howard Prime as an “unhappy couple, both caught in this lie, who must rely on each other even though neither likes or respects the other.” On the flip side, Lloyd continues, “Quayle Prime and Howard Alpha have a completely different relationship” such that playing his character’s “other” feels “like a completely different job.”

There’s a cerebral, granular detail to Lloyd’s musings when I ask about the characters, fictional or real, that he draws from in portraying the two Quayles.

He explains that while on break between filming the Berlin and LA portions of season two, he and Justin Marks discussed the aesthetics of Alien 3. Marks envisioned Echo, the interrogation facility in dimension two, as a “penal colony, rather than a hospital or prison. The relationships between the inmates and officers draw on that” psychological dynamic.

In conveying Quayle’s “slightly unhinged” persona, Lloyd takes cues from other classics: Billy Bibbit from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a “somewhat childish figure who looks up to McMurphy,” and Dennis Hopper’s character in Apocalypse Now, who harbors a manic obsession with Marlon Brando’s Kurtz. Lloyd incorporates elements of these characters in Quayle Prime’s dynamic with Yanek, a warden at Echo—there’s an “evangelical fervor, where you sense [the character’s] loss of contact with reality.”

Season two of the show delves deeper into the deceit, paranoia, and existential quandaries inherent in navigating and manipulating two worlds. (It seems no coincidence that the writers chose Alexander Pope as the name of the character who trains sleeper agents—a little learning is a dangerous thing.) I ask Lloyd about the techniques he uses to keep his Alpha and Prime personas from getting jumbled.

“In terms of playing two parts for the first time, I’m lucky in that Quayle Prime exists solely in the Echo location, so we were able to do all that filming in a couple of weeks over the summer,” Lloyd tells me. “This season, we started filming in Berlin and ended in LA, so having a new location, new set,” helped keep the two characters separate.

Lloyd can’t discuss more details from season two without risking plot spoilers, so we pivot to other projects. I mention the internet speculation over whether Viserys Targaryen makes a comeback in the next season of Game of Thrones. “Really?” Lloyd replies with a mix of curiosity and incredulity. “That death seemed pretty final to me—I’m not sure how he comes back from that.”

I explain that the Reddit murmurings refer more to flashback scenes, and then ask Lloyd about filming his character’s grisly exit.

“That was pretty much the last scene I filmed on that show, and I remember that day very well,” Lloyd says—the amusement is pronounced in his voice. “It was freezing cold. We shot quite early in the morning, and I had to act drunk. Doing that so early in the day can go horribly wrong,” he explains, as you don’t want to overact it. But with a death scene like that, where the would-be king is “crowned” as molten gold is poured over his head, Lloyd could really let loose with the screaming—a finale that’s seared into fans’ minds.

Lloyd draws out nuances in his characters through deep-dives into their back stories. When filming the Game of Thrones pilot, he kept George R.R. Martin’s books under his chair for ease of consultation. As the filming continued, though, Lloyd wanted to get beyond Daenerys Targaryen’s narration of Viserys as the “brute—the petulant, unkind older brother.”

In Lloyd’s view, that perspective discounts the whole of Targaryen history: “This character feels the weight of his family on his shoulders. He’s had a terrible childhood; his parents are dead. He has no family apart from a little sister who doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation. He carries these scars, and by re-writing the narrative as the ‘Chronicles of Viserys Targaryen,’ we start to see how Viserys justifies his cruelty.”

Lloyd pauses briefly, mulling over this re-framing: “That’s the job of an actor—to give your character a mouthpiece” and guide the audience as to where our sympathies should lie.

“It’s a great time to be an actor,” Lloyd continues. “I’m lucky to be working with people I’ve admired for years, and to arrange projects [in a way that allows me] to explore different avenues. I hope it stays like this—there are so many more stories to tell.”

Our conversation drifts to more meta territory—how technological evolution continues to reshape the way we consume and relate to art and storytelling. Lloyd is democratic in his engagement with cultural mediums—he enjoys audio books and made-for-radio plays, and he’s fascinated by the future of VR. He loves the stage and recently played the lead role in The Good Canary, John Malkovich’s London directorial debut. Lloyd has also been on the other side of the camera, writing and directing “Supreme Tweeter.” The short web series, made in 2015, is premised on a cheeky concept that came to his co-creator (and now wife), Jayne Hong, in a dream: What if North Korea’s Kim Jong-un suddenly follows you on Twitter—what absurdity might ensue and what are the implications of treating your identity as a commodity, a “brand”? (I point out that this satirical take on social media as propaganda was an eerily prescient concept, given our current Tweeter-in-Chief—a topic that Lloyd diplomatically sidesteps.)

With streaming services supplanting cable and the proliferation of social media content, it’s a challenge, says Lloyd, “to hold erratic attention spans for more than a moment.” Among the tech-driven transformations that he references is how long-form television shows like Counterpart, with intricate plot lines and character arcs, are replacing the novel as a way of enjoying long-form stories. He also observes that interactive video games are looking more like films, with complex narratives and attention to visual detail and cinematic soundtracks, and vice versa—there are online films that contain a choose-your-own-adventure component with multiple plot lines. These various forms of entertainment may all be converging, Lloyd hypothesizes, as “new audiences have a desperate thirst for full immersion.”

For all these innovations, though, Lloyd jokingly refers to himself as a “fuddy-duddy” who loves to read books and has a record player back home in London. That doesn’t rule out throwback video games, though—for Christmas, Marks gave him a miniature version of the original Nintendo system, preloaded with all the old NES games. His favorite? “Super Mario 3, where Mario gets to wear the raccoon tail.” And continuing the theme of constant evolution, Lloyd points out that players now design new levels for these old games, which everyone can then upload to their own handheld consoles.

For now, though, there’s not much by way of free time. Lloyd is a new dad, and it’s entirely endearing how his tone and manner warm to the point of giddiness when discussing fatherhood. “Long story short, it’s phenomenal, beyond description,” he says. “There’s definitely a lot to learn,” but he’s enjoying the daily agenda, which includes “a lot of singing and chatting and mimicry” with the baby—spending time “staring at each other, making each other laugh, communicating in this pre-language way, just getting to know each other.”

As for audiences just getting to know Lloyd, the depth and versatility he brings to screen and stage promise many more dimensions beyond Quayle’s Alpha and Prime selves to be explored. Lloyd doesn’t rule out anything when it comes to collaborations and characters—as he puts it, “the more you give, the more you get out of the experience.” And more of Harry Lloyd is a very good thing.

#harry lloyd #interview #counterpart #photoshoot

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evelyn-vanburen · 6 years

Text

Unveiled

Evelyn now stood with her hand on a coffee mug, overlooking the grounds of Shadowcross from a large window. She wore her robe still, her hair in curlers, and her face finally done as she stood there with a pensive expression.

“Olivia!” Venreena’s panicked voice sounded from the hall as she chased after her daughter who was zooming on her hands and knees in nothing but a clean diaper. “Olivia you little monster! Get back here! You’re going to wake everyone up!” The infant girl’s giggles were loud and made it clear that running from her mama was such a fun game.

Evelyn turned, a slow smirk not unlike the one she often saw on the face of a certain ginger colleague of her's, and afixed her hazel eyes on the crawling girl. She squatted low and set her coffee cup down before she opened both arms and urged the toddler her way.

Olivia spotted the rather comical sight of her great grandmother, stopped with a mischievous smile of her own and looked back to Ven, giggled and crawled at high speed towards Evelyn. Venreena caught up finally, bare faced and her hair tied up in a rather messy knot. Only wearing a simple black satin robe, she looked a complete 180 from last night. "I'm so sorry. She is a nightmare to get dressed."

Evelyn couldn't help the chortle that escaped her as finally the rogue baby was caught. She stood, snatching up her cup as she did. "Don't apologize," she said, her voice a little hoarse from all the talking last night, "I raised five children and my grand children all came and went in their youth. I'm used to that sound. How are you this morning?"

A small yet warm smile appeared on Ven's tired face. "I'm... I'm alright. Thank you for letting me stay the night, by the way. WIth Olivia already asleep, I didn't want to wake her up for a long ride back to the City."

"It's quite alright, dear, it's what family does," she said, smiling at her, "I hope you enjoyed the little soiree?"

Venreena hugged her form of only to conceal her unsupported, albeit small, breasts. Her head bobbed in a light nod in reply. “I did, yes. It was nice to spend some time with you all.” It might not have been obvious, but Venreena did speak a little slower than the rest of the family, taking great care to not use any slang and betray her more common roots. Olivia had become fascinated with the rollers in Evelyn’s hair and reached up to yank on one. “Olivia!” Venreena lurched forward to pull her daughter’s hand away so she didn’t create a bald spot on their grandmother.

Evelyn let out a small 'ooop' noise as her curler was yanked, reaching up to try and stop the baby as well. "Careful, little miss, those are hot!" She says, in a 'baby voice'. She leaned back a little, trying to right the loosened piece. She smiled at Venreena, "We are happy to have you hear, dear," she said, "I do have an query of you, however."

Olivia’s little fingers just barely missed getting burned but she didn’t seem deterred from trying to get one. “Oh?” She felt a sense of dread dwell within her stomach. “What’s that?” Venreena instinctively reached for Olivia who was wriggling and determined to get a roller in her tiny grasp.

Evelyn swept to a high-backed seat, lowering herself and crossing her languid legs, "I'd hoped I might pick your brain regarding the relationship with my son and the Doctor," she said, bringing her coffee cup to her lips to sip it slow.

“Oh,” her granddaughter replied with surprise. That... that wasn’t the question she had been expecting. “I don’t know how much help I can be, but sure.” Carting Olivia with her, Ven followed Evelyn and sat down next to her.

"You seemed to know her," she said, softly, smiling at her. She glanced side long to the window again, "Forgive me, I've... spent most of my life with the belief that nearly no one will be good enough for my children. It's... something I've learned to deal with."

Venreena just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “I hired her as a medic for my company and she is my own personal doctor as well. Outside of a professional capacity, I can’t say I know her very well.”

Evelyn nodded slowly but understandingly. “Apologies,” She said again, “Color me curious. Anyway.” She drained the last of her coffee, “Tell me of your company! I am afraid I do not know much.”

Venreena’s right hand was taken possession of by Olivia who decided to use it as a teething ring, and she was unbothered by it. She couldn’t suppress the grin of pride that appeared as she was asked about her company. “I own a trading company, Holt and Thorne Trading Co. along with my husband. It kind of fell into our lap last summer when his cousin died and I was running the company for her. There was no will or anything bequeathing it to anyone else so I just kind of... kept going with it.” It was then she realized she hadn’t really told anyone how the company originated and she marveled at how much time had passed. “Late last year we rebranded it to what is today, but we do a lot more than just shipping. We have relic expeditions and caravans... it’s really become an entity of its own.”

Evelyn seemed to beam at her, the younger woman's pride in her work proving infectious. She leaned forward and touched her elbow, "That's the Vanburen in you. Always hardworking, we have been... your grandfather and I pressed the importance of business into all our children and in turn, they had flourished all in their own ways..." She went silent a moment, her face falling slightly as a thought crossed her mind. "Your mother would've been proud. Maria always had a soft heart, but she was good. Better than most of us."

Learning that it was something in her blood that she shared with these people that drove her to be successful... it made her feel infinitely more connected to them, to her grandmother. She swallowed hard at the mention of Maria and closed her eyes with a heavy sigh. “Evel— Gran... I need to tell you something and it’s... it’s not going to be easy to hear.”

Evelyn steeled her expression and offered Venreena a nod of encouragement.

“We ended back in Westfall and my dad, my father, gave up trying. I can remember Mum arguing with him, trying to get him to find any kind of work.” Ven looked at Evelyn, sadness taunting her normally bright amber hues. “He blamed her and he would get drunk and angry... and violent.” Without going into detail, she let that last word work itself it in Evelyn’s sharp mind. “One night when I was fifteen, it got bad. Really bad. They got into a fight and he just snapped. I remember hiding behind the sofa, watching it happen and feeling so useless to help her.” Her eyes stung and she looked down to Olivia who was still chewing on her finger and smoothed down those wild dark curls.

Evelyn couldn't move. Rage built within her. She didn't cry, she never cried, but instead she had to force herself to rise from her seat to place herself beside Venreena. The movement seemed almost mechanical as she attempted to guide the girl into the throng of her arms, one hand wrapped about her shoulders and the other resting gently upon her head where she pet her hair. "...oh, Venreena," was all she could think to say.

The feel of Evelyn’s arms wrapping around her made her stiffen at first. It was an alien feeling being embraced by the woman who was mother to her own. But it felt... right. It felt like coming home after a long tiring day and being wrapped in a soft blanket. It felt like how her mum used to hug her. Ven’s free hand lifted to clutch at her Gran’s arm, biting her bottom lip as she tried feverishly not to cry. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she said quietly after a few moments had passed.

Evelyn shook her head, "Do not apologize. He was a bad man," she muttered, swallowing back the urge to vomit, "I hope... you'll afford me the opportunity to apologize to you."

Her brow furrowed in confusion. “Apologize for what?”

"About nineteen years ago, your mother wrote me... asking to come home," she said, "I've never told anyone this story. Not even Dietrich. I made a trip to Gilneas where she was staying with a friend and her new baby. You were... five, I think?"

Venreena was at a loss for words. There was a swell of anger rising that her grandmother had known of her existence, but the patience that Cedrick had taught her over the last two years made her give pause. She inhaled deeply and tried to think back to when she was young. She remembered spending some time in Gilneas with Christian’s family but... she remembered a blonde woman and a baby that was it. “Did you find us?”

"No," she said, looking down at her hands. "By the time I got there, he'd taken you away again. Both of you. We never found hair or hide of you again... but I've thought about you every day for twenty years...."

Subconsciously, she smoothed down the curls on Olivia’s head again and pulled her in closer. Venreena wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to the question burning in her heart, but she asked it anyways. “Did you try looking for us afterward? She wanted to come back...” How different her life could have been if she had been brought here and away from her father... her mum might still be alive. She had to take another deep breath to calm herself.

Evelyn felt a deep shudder escape her, tears threatening to slip from beyond her lashes as she looked at Venreena square in the face and said, "No," she said, "I thought you were dead." She shook, her jaw locked tight so that a muscle pulsed there.

Venreena looked away, letting her gaze fall on her daughter. It wasn’t Evelyn’s fault, she knew that. So why did she feel the pain of what she could only describe as abandonment? She nodded, almost imperceptibly. “I guess... I guess you wouldn’t be far off in believing that, knowing the monster my father was.”

Evelyn pursed her lips and nodded in return, almost if she wanted to say something else but thought better of it.

“Can I ask you something and you promise to answer honestly?”

The way Venreena worded it made it clear she had been given reason to doubt people from a very young age.

Evelyn tilted her head and then offered a nod in silence.

“If you had found us,” she started slowly, doing everything she could not to fall apart right then and there, “would you have brought us back here?”

"Absolutely," she said, at once. "I had every intent to."

Venreena lifted her amber eyes, the only part of her appearance that differed from Maria’s, and looked at her grandmother straight on. Even though it was only sentiment, it really was the thought that counted and she could feel a bit of the hurt in her heart starting to mend. She nodded and sighed softly. “Thank you. I think I would have been happy growing up here and having a real family.”

Evelyn nodded, swallowing harshly before she could speak. Her hand reached to touch Venreena's and she managed to heave a shuddered sigh from her mouth, "I'm sorry it didn't work that way. I... had every intent to make you welcome here. You would've been-- you are so loved, Venreena."

Venreena bit down on her bottom lip. A tsunami of questions flooded her brain as she felt the tether between Evelyn and herself become stronger in that moment. “What was she like when she was younger? She never told me about her life growing up.”

"Headstrong," she said, smiling slowly, "A little like me. But, hopeful. She always wanted to see the good in things. Thankfully, she had more of your grandfather in her."

The corners of Venreena’s mouth turned upwards in a vacillate smile. “I try to be more like her but sometimes I’m scared that if she were still alive she would be disappointed in me.”

Evelyn actually laughed at that, "Never," she said, shaking her head. "She loved you. Come with me a moment?" She stood, offering her palm.

Venreena placed her hand into Evelyn’s, surprised once again just how natural it felt. It was as if they had done this a million times before with Evelyn taking her granddaughter on walks through the grounds.

She lead the woman down a hall and up the stairs and stopped at the door that lead into her and Dietrichs apartment. She pushed it open, noting that her husband slept soundly in his chair, before she continued to a door at the right; a key fitted into the lock which she turned. She nodded to Venreena at the table nearing the big glass window overlooking the grounds. "Have a seat, I'll be right back," she said, disappearing into her boudoir.

Venreena hitched Olivia up further on her hip, silently observing the apartment within Shadowcross Manor. She caught a glimpse of her grandfather, a light frown touching her face. Another relationship she had been robbed of because of her father's selfishness. Yet... she wondered if she would have ever met Cedrick if she had been allowed to grow up in this privileged world. She sat in the chair and set Olivia down on the ground to allow her the freedom to crawl around.

When Evelyn returned from the small room off the grander one, pinched between her fingers was the photograph that had been sent with the letter so long ago. Venreena, small, happy, playing in the sand. She extended it and smiled, "She send this to me."

Venreena carefully took the photo into her hands, small and dainty like Maria’s had been. “Oh my Gods... this is the beach down the hill from where we lived...” her brow furrowed, trying to figure out how old she might have been in the photo. What was most surprising to Ven however was how she felt like she should be mad or resentful that Evelyn had this knowledge for so long but she couldn’t bring herself to be. Looking back to Evelyn, her eyes pooled with silver along her waterline and without a second thought she encircled her arms around her grandmother’s neck for a tight hug.

She seemed surprised by the sudden rush of affection, though she accepted it willingly. Her arms wrapped around Venreena's middle and held her tight to her chest with a small smile forming on her face. After a moment, she pulled her back and clasped Venreena's upper arms with her two hands, "I am sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I didn't want to overwhelm you," she said.

Once released from the embrace, Venreena allowed herself to dab at her eyes with the back of her index finger. “No, no I understand. I probably wouldn’t have taken it so well if you had told me when I first arrived here.”

Evelyn smiled at her. Oh, if she only knew. She squeezed her again before she moved towards a chaise and lowered herself, watching Olivia exploring in silence for a moment. "Do you remember Gilneas? The woman you stayed with there?"

Her full mouth scrunched to the side as she searched her memories, trying to recall anything from that time. “Vaguely? I remember I was upset that we had to leave and going to a house.”

She only nodded and didn't press further. This seemed to satisfy her.

“Why do you ask?” Venreena inquired, crossing the room to snatch Olivia up from going into the other room where Dietrich slept. She looked for something to distract the infant so she could continue talking to Evelyn. She spotted a simple large comb and gave it to Olivia who was now keenly interested in her new toy. Ven then sat next to Evelyn on the chaise, careful to keep the open bottom hem of her knee length robe close together.

Evelyn shook her head, "It's something that plagued me for years, how long you'd had there. If you were happy... if he'd-- nevermind. I don't want to get into what happened there and drag up old memories..."

Ven shook her head. “From what I remember we didn’t stay long. We didn’t even have a house of our own... we lived with my uncle and his family.” She rubbed her forehead, trying to remember more. “I think after mum and I stayed with that lady... Oh Gods what was her name? Florence? Anyways, it was right after that, that we went back to Westfall.”

Evelyn nodded at her, now staring at the opposite wall with a far away expression. She was grateful for what Ven couldn’t remember, her hand coming to clutch her granddaughter’s firmly. “I am so sorry,” she said, softly, “I .... I didn’t know you were still out there.”

She gave a gentle shrug of her shoulders, physically resigning to the notion she now voiced. “It is what it is.”

(Collaborative RP with @venreenaholt )

#Evelyn Vanburen #Venreena Holt #RP #IC #Canon #Another Secret

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lazyfartbouquet-blog · 6 years

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Read It For The Pictures 24: Dry Country by Rich Tomasso

NK: Welcome to Read It for the Pictures, the comic book Blog where we read it for the pictures! I’m Neil Kapit, and with me as always is the man who taught me how to properly eat a meat pie, Dave Clarke! How you doin’ Dave?

DC: Doing good Neil, enjoying a bright sunny early March day, riding my kangaroo around town, eating a vegemite sandwich, fosters, shrimp on the barbie, etc.

NK: So this week we're taking a break from DC's air quotes "new" hero line and doing something you picked, want to give some background on this?

DC: Yes, this time it was my pic and I wanted to get away from DC superheroes as much as possible so I picked Dry County #1 by Rich Tommaso. Initially just cos it was an image #1 but it seemed to be the perfect pic for what I was going for.

NK: And what you were going for was?

DC: The opposite of a DC superhero book. This is an autobiographical(??) slice of life story that seems to approach storytelling completely differently than Damage (tm) did. At least that was my read on it, how did you find the book?

NK: Let's hope we can discuss this book's merits on its own terms and not damn it with the faint praise of being a better story than the Terrifics, because I thought it was an exceptional piece of cartooning. It made me want to read other Rich Tommaso books like Spy Seal, which was described to me as "Tintin Noir".

DC: That is a very Tintin cover, but his art reminds me most of newspaper cartoons (which this protagonist of this story makes. That’s why I think it may be autobiographical not cos I did research or anything).

NK: The protagonist Lou Rossi lives in late 1980s miami, and while the time period isn't explicitly stated, the art leaves a lot of subtle cues to indicate the period. They include rotary phones, T-shirts for Nine Inch Nails and Social Distortion, and the fact that Lou is paying his bills as a newspaper cartoonist.

DC: A dip into the past where America was doing the bop and print wasn’t dead.

NK: Ahh the 1990s, a golden age when a little more than 1% of the population was contented and innocent, but I digress....

DC: One thing that’s going to limit our discussion is being unable to read this as a broad analogy of global politics. And also our limited experience with women. (Don’t act surprised folks were writing about comics on the internet).

NK: The plot is pretty simple, boy meets girl, boy wants to get with girl, girl is stuck in abusive relationship, boy keeps pursuing girl, and not sure where it goes next issue. The storytelling and page layouts really sell this as a unique work.

DC: Yeah, have you ever read ‘Understanding Comics’ by Scott McCloud?

NK: Well, duh. Everyone who hasn't should seriously read it, if only to understand the kind of image juxtaposition that is used so effectively here in Dry Country.

DC: Hehe, of course, well for our readers who haven’t in that book he outlines the different types of transitions that can exist between panels. Most superhero comics focus on action to action shots, which makes sense if you’re story is about super people punching each other. This book most does scene to scene transitions, which allow the writing to do most of the heavy lifting for conveying meaning

NK: I thought most superhero comics were now about gaudily dressed men having long maudlin talking heads sequences with the occasional two-page spread of violence. Anyway, Worth noting that Tomasso focuses on single objects a lot to reinforce the mood, like the fan in the foreground of the miserably hot apartment. Inanimate objects go a long way towards creating a sense of place and mood.

DC: Yeah, while simplified they are nicely composed panels. In a way the illustration style echos the storytelling style, there’s just enough there to convey the idea without getting bogged down in details. The same way you don’t need every sentence of his conversation with the woman (sorry I forgot her name I will try to be better) you also don’t need to get obsessive about the shadows cast from the bars in the above panel to get the feelings of the scene

NK: (Ironically, a book called Dry Country has a protagonist who's getting drunk most every time he has a moment free). Which gives everything in the book that's there in the panels a sense of deliberation and importance. And also serves to illustrate how effective those choices are, particularly with setting and character design. Within one panel of seeing, say, Lou's loudmouth friend, I got a great sense of who he was without feeling like he was a one-dimensional trope.

DC: Also there’s something to the heavy use of scene to scene transitions that makes it more personal, maybe with the sketch pad background to all the captions makes you feel the hand of the creator more. Kinda like an hourly comic. I wonder if the same technique could be used to, say, make Hal Jordan seem more like a real person or would that just be nakedly artificial.

NK: The yellow legal paper captions do help us get deeper and deeper into Lou's head, but they'd pierce right through Hal's skull because his broke-ass ring can't do shit against yellow. It’d be interesting to compare this with Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’ Green Lantern: Secret Origin, based on that criteria. But this is a noir story, not a superhero one. A bright, mostly sunny noir story

DC: Is it a noir? Like, the packaging suggests that it’s going to have a crime thriller twist in future issues but this issue is just a slice of life story

NK: The creeping sense of fatalism, the hero's far-less-than-pure motives, and the extralegal confrontation with the abusive asshole boyfriend suggest that it's getting into that genre. Which works in its favor, because it looks no more like a crime story than an average Batman comic, except there are thousands of Batman stories and only a few Rich Tomasso stories.

DC: Yeah, this is more Harvey Pekar than Maltese Falcon, but it’s possible that the juxtaposition could work to make the comic more unique and memorable. (Please forgive my weird references, I need to make a certain number each week or my family will starve).

NK: Those are appropriate references. This is a simple, inviting art style that would fit a Harvey Pekar story, but will be extremely disarming and unsettling if it gets into Dashiell Hammet territory. The virgin Phillip Marlowe and the chad Lou Rossi, now that's an inappropriate reference.

DC: That being said, while there’s a lot of craft on display here it’s not my cup of tea. Can’t relate to people who don’t solve their problems with violence

NK: Don't you think violence will occur in future issues? Lou is sexually frustrated, borderline alcoholic, and has the perfect complete bastard to take out all his aggression on.

DC: Possibly, but it could just as easily happen off-panel and we could be treated to an, admittedly effective, few paragraphs of our protagonist talking about how it made him feel. If you’re interested in making comics this is worth seeking out cos it shows an approach to doing talk-y scenes interestingly that goes deeper than the wally woods 22 panels that always work.

NK: If you're turned off by us giving you some culture this week then you can tune back in on April 4 when we have Curse of the Brimstone by Phillip Tan and Justin Jordan from DC's New Age of Heroes.

DC: Neil thinks he can just announce this stuff in the chat without consulting me, and it works every time!

NK: Consider me Jigsaw and this your torture chamber.

#comic books #image #dry country #comics #graphic novel #read it for the pictures #neil kapit #dave clarke #spy seal #rich tommasso #art #cartooning #illustration #how to draw

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limejuicer1862 · 4 years

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Wombwell Rainbow Interviews

I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me. I gave the writers two options: an emailed list of questions or a more fluid interview via messenger.

The usual ground is covered about motivation, daily routines and work ethic, but some surprises too. Some of these poets you may know, others may be new to you. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I do.

Andy N.

is a writer, performer, podcaster, creative writing workshop tutor and sometimes experimental musician from Manchester who also is currently co running Stretford’s always welcoming spoken word night ‘Speak easy’

He has been published in numerous books and magazines and has been performing in some form or the other since 2006 and regularly since 2008 and was also vocalist and keyboardist in the spoken word collective ‘A Means to an End’ (Can be found on facebook).

He is also the editor and chief of Spoken Label, a new spoken word based interview podcast label featuring podcasts with all kinds of writers and artists (https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/) and is also the co creator of ‘Reading in Bed’, a literature review podcast he does with his partner (http://readinginbed.bandcamp.com)

His official website is onewriterandhispc.blogspot.co.uk/ and he is always interested in under-taking performing / new projects. His email address is [email protected]

List of Publications:

(http://onewriterandhispc.blogspot.co.uk/p/publications.html)

on Facebook (Official page)

https://www.facebook.com/andynstorytellerpoet/

on Bandcamp

https://andyn.bandcamp.com/

Ocean in a Bottle (ambient music)

on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/Ocean-in-a-bottle-802773986422467/

on bandcamp

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/

Spoken Label (spoken word podcasts)

on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1640184132900821/

on bandcamp

https://spokenlabel.bandcamp.com/

Speak Easy (Stretford’s always welcoming Spoken Word Open Mic night)

https://www.facebook.com/speakeasymanchester/

Reading in Bed (Book Review Podcast with Amanda)

on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/readinginbed/

on bandcamp

https://readinginbed.bandcamp.com/

Comics Unity Podcast Series (Comics related and culture podcast with Michael)

on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1366264170126341/

The Interview

1. When and why did you start writing poetry?

I actually started writing poetry when i was 10. It was terrible i seem to recall. My teacher encouraged to keep on it at it

. Little did she know

2. Who introduced you to poetry?

Good question. It was my teacher Miss Fenton. She always thought i had a good eye for images even back then

2.1. What poetry did she introduce you to?

She introduced me into Hilaire Belloc at the time. My major inspirations Hugo Williams and Paul Celan / Wilfred Owen came during college and at degree level years ago.

2.2. How did they influence you?

In Williams case it was the human touch the sheer love of life. Cealan and owen the misery

3. How aware are and were you of the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary?

Not really if I am honest until I got into my mid 20s when I went back to evening classes. I had left school with quite poor qualifications (long story) and next to no interest in writing by the time I got to 18 or 19 and although I touched on poetry while studying English A Level (where I studied Tennyson, Browning and Swinburne etc), it wasn’t until I got to university in 1999 as a mature student (I was 27) when I really began to see the dominating presence of older poets traditional and contemporary and slowly began to find my own voice.

4. What is your daily writing routine?

I actually have a day job (I wish I was a full time artist) so that covers me during the day so it usually means just the evening when I get home. I’m quite deep into the world of Podcasting at the moment which can means that does take some time up when I am at home, and I also do ambient music under the name of Ocean in a Bottle but if I am not writing everyday I am always reading and usually have either a book in my bag or a new poetry book on my kindle. Bookwise, that’s Robert Cochrane’s ‘A Memory of Keys’ and I have a pre-order of a book by a South African writer called Alta Martin which is out later in the year I think.

5. What motivates you to write?

What motivates my writing? That’s a good question really. When I first started writing right up to when I went to university, I never really had any plans with it atall, perhaps I thought it was something more interesting to do than just watch Television. The older I got, it changed and now I love telling my own stories in poems rather than been told stories (for example on Television) if they makes sense and this has now developed further so on my laptop I have various folders on there on sequences I want to tell. Currently this includes Science Fiction poems (A mystery called Robot Noir) or poems about an imaginary couple I am writing about who visit all kinds of cities and have adventures in them. Both of them motivate me as I want to work out where they end both of these stories end up next.

6. Why do you like writing mysteries?

Just what I am writing really at the moment, Paul and is not a reflection of my first three full length poetry collections. The first book ‘Return to Kemptown’ was a compilation of what I regarded as my best material as of 2010 (I have been performing poetry on a fairly regular basis since 2007). The second and third books ‘The End of Summer’ ‘and ‘The Birth of Spring’ are seasonal books really with each book designed to represent the seasons with poems about Summer and Autumn mixed with longer narrative poems which contain the elements of those seasons also.

I do have a third seasonal book in mind ‘In the Midst of Winter’ which is looking good but I also have two other full length books on the go which are certainly more mystery based. The first one ‘Changing carriages at Birmingham New Street’ which is about my imaginary couple actually made a brief appearance in The Birth of Autumn and I enjoyed reading about them, it kind of made sense to try and write a full length collection covering their time together. Robot Noir, my Science Fiction poetry book is quite different but still carries the same emotional strengths that people like about my poetry but is getting wrote hand in hand next to it covering before, during and after a Robot uprising in Poetry which threatens the existence of mankind itself. Both books here are mysteries as they do not operate like most full length poetry collections, but tell a story like in novels but rather in poetry which pieces stand alone but also work well in a long sequence and I hope will prove emotional satisfying for readers as well as me when they are completed.

7. How do the writers/musicians you read/heard when you were young influence you today?

I had a bit of a unusual taste in music growing up in the early 80s when my father got me into folk music and country and western music, of which if I am honest I haven’t heard in years. When I got into my mid teens in the late 80s, I started listening to some discoveries of my own, some of which are very difficult to listen to nowadays. One band I love listening to even now and saw live twice back at that point were a Scottish band called The Blue Nile who have had a rare ability to convey the ordinariness of life itself which still hits me hard even now over thirty years later and has proved a influence on my writing certainly.

Reading wise, I’ve just re-read a few books by Fred Hoyle which are very pure Science Fiction indeed and I think are difficult to read now (How I read them at 11 or 12 with great ease I have no idea) and I also remember reading a lot of Harry Harrison’s work as the Stainless Steel Rat which I struggle with nowadays also because of the sexism towards women which is pretty bad in the first book or two. I think it depends really, my father got me reading the Western works by American writer Louis L’Amour in my early teens and his later books like Comstack Lode are great novels and while a little preachy are full of what I try to convey in my poems now (as much as any work by Plath and Larkin, both of which I was familiar with in my early 20s and am still now).. I let the characters tell their own stories whether in a few lines or 40 lines

8. Who of today’s writers/musicians/ do you admire the most and why?

Ooh. I am taking my time reading Ocean Vuong’s ‘Night Sky with Exit Wounds’ at the moment. I also recommend Spiderseed by David Hartley, a young writer from Stretford (near where I was born) whose debut book is twenty illustrated flash fictions, all of which has a defo Gorey feel to them. Comic wise, as I am still reading them, I love the work by Ed Brukaber (who is known on the TV front for being the show runner for Season 1 of West World and Too die to this young). Comic wise, his work with Sean Philips is always worth reading, and their current series Criminal which is a series of interlinked stories involving Criminal has magnificient character work

9. What would you say to someone who asked you “How do you become a writer?”

I started as a child as I said before and also studied writing at university, but if I am honest although I learned stuff from starting from so young and also studying it, I learnt going to a writing group certainly helped me the most as it made me listen to people who tried to give me advice. So listen really

And also perhaps join websites likes Writeoutloud.net and blog your poems on there, as people will give you feedback on them sometimes.

10. Tell me about writing projects you’re involved in at the moment.

Current writing projects are the following:

1) The Streets were all we could see – my 4th full length poetry book which is a series of mini poems (All under 10 lines each). Book is now complete and will be out before the end of Winter.

2) Buried alive under the Wall – this is my second fantasy book, a sequel to a book released in 2018 called Enemy of the Wall. Currently on the last draft.

Other projects on the go is Europa 4, my 4th book of anti war poetry with my pal Nick Armbrister and I am thinking about what I am can do for NaPoWriMo this year which I think will be 30 poems wrote daily in April called Fragments of David.

Also will be carrying on with my constant podcasting and ambient music.

Wombwell Rainbow Interviews: Andy N. Wombwell Rainbow Interviews I am honoured and privileged that the following writers local, national and international have agreed to be interviewed by me.

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twistednuns · 5 years

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March 2019

ॐ नमः शिवाय oṃ namaḥ śivāya ♥ / reading a book about the background and effects of different asanas

Friday evening with Lena: Yuzu ramen at Takumi, watching Green Book at the City Kino near Sendlinger Tor. Getting my favourite mix of sweet and salty popcorn.

Still: Obsessively reading the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. It's like one of those nasty TV series you just can't stop watching.

Noticing more visible veins and sinews on my body. Getting stronger and leaner! Yes! I can even see a little shadow where my ribcage is supposed to begin and my tissue is getting softer which means I'm losing fat and I can feel more muscles than before. Very rewarding.

Saturday lunch with Lena and her family. I hadn't seen her brother in maybe 10 years. My highlight: warm banana bread with slightly salty, thick caramel and homemade vanilla ice-cream.

Dressing up for the Of Sailors and Whales concert at Gasteig. I felt incredibly stylish in my outfit: mustard yellow headscarf, a side braid, oblong hoop earrings in rose gold, a green dress and coat, mint-blue purse, a dark plum-coloured lipstick, black tights and satin heels.

The PhysioFlow yoga teacher (Ulf, what a comical name) complimenting me on my perfect Viravadrasana pose because apparently I did the advanced version with my arms held up high over my head. Unfortunately my poses only look so good because of my hypermobility but the other day we started talking after class. He is such a nice and calm person. And married to a lady from my hometown. I love how he touches our faces, heads and shoulders in Savasana.

Thai massage. The best treat after messing up my neck with futile headstand experiments.

The perfect batch of smoky veggies in tomato sauce. Add a hand full of couscous and tiger beans and you'll feel full for hours.

A week-long holiday. Not leaving the bed after waking up, reading for one or two hours. Enjoying the morning light, having warm breakfast. Lena sending me a picture of a bunch of purple flowers she saw on one of her walks on Monday, telling me to enjoy my vacation.

Gorgeous yoga mats - I just ordered one with a gemstone design from Mala. // EDIT: It just didn't have enough grip for me so I had to send it back. Got a simple purple one from Jade Yoga instead. They're supposed to be the best.

Fried Tom Yum seaweed strips.

A dinner and movie date with Lena, Barbara and Maike. We watched Vice (2019), the movie about Dick Cheney. Quite uncomfortable. But I loved the scene with Alfred Molina.

Spending an afternoon with Franzi at Trachtenvogl. Pear juice spritzer. Decidedly non-vegan spinach dumplings. Stopping at &otherstories as usual, getting two beautiful bowls at Motel a Miio. Finding a purple edition of H.P.Lovecraft's ghost stories on top of a trash bin.

My mum visiting for the first time since I moved in. She helped me get rid of my old clothes and other miscellaneous items from the basement. Then we got a trunk full of flowers for my balcony and had dinner at VorOrt - vegan pizza and celeriac schnitzel. I got so many presents that day. A dark purple orchid with pointy blossoms, some books and a bottle of Jo Malone perfume. She also paid for some of my plants... It kinda felt like my birthday. Maybe she had a guilty conscience because my brother still keeps raiding the fridge at home? Anyway. It's funny that I can actually talk to her now that I'm older, have my own thing going on... and we have so much in common, I notice that all the time. Or interests and taste, habits. Could be worse though, she's an amazing woman.

Swiss cat ladders.

My first time at Boulderwelt! Frank finally took me with him and we spent two hours there, climbing up the yellow (me) and white (him) routes. I even dreamed about climbing up a tree that night and I could hardly move the next day. Hardcore sore muscles, oh boy.

Hanging out with Frank. Playing Scrabble. Acting really weird around someone who just gets it or isn't put off at the very least. Making gross jokes about guacamole-producing guys over burritos in Werksviertel.

Hanging out at bridal shops with Lena, making her put on gorgeous dresses.

The fresh spring green gradient you get on your cutting board when you're chopping up leek for a potato gratin.

Staring at a long-haired guy in a club for a pretty long while on a Friday evening because he was just that gorgeous. Then he suddenly showed up on the internet a few hours later an we have been talking ever since. Exciting! And yeah, I love good coindidences. I would have never mustered up the courage to talk to him that night.

The other day we saw a cat from our classroom window, casually walking down the stairs. And we had nothing better to do than running up there in middle of our English lesson to catch her. I guess I'm a quite easily distracted teacher.

Hand embroidery on linen. It's baby bonnets, okay. But still super pretty.

This idea I had while in downward facing dog pose during one of my yoga classes. I really want to go to a yoga retreat in the summer. Either in Bali or, even more exciting, an ashram in India. I'd also visit Nepal or Bhutan while I'm there.

Aidy Bryant. She's my gorgeous heroine. I loved watching the first season of Shrill.

Alpro cherry soy yoghurt.

New earrings from &otherstories and COS. And a new hair ribbon, too. Can't help it. Building my collections.

That whole Margo-banging-Josh-situation on The Magicians? I'm into that. And when she was tripping on lizard and saw Eliot in a python trenchcoat performing the Pretenders' "Don't Get Me Wrong"? The 80s choir they formed in the desert? So amusing. Seriously, this is one of the few shows which is absolutely not afraid of weird shit and doesn't take its writing too seriously. I don't entirely get it and it doesn't have anything to do with Lev Grossman's books anymore but I'm so grateful it exists. And I'm always down for a good musical episode (see: Once More with Feeling a.k.a. the single best Buffy episode ever made).

Finding the most incredible reed green silk dress at Hallhuber one afternoon after seeing a dermatologist in the city. Unfortunately even my ribcage is too wide for its narrow cut but perhaps I can convince Lena to buy it for the summer.

New idea: should I ever get a cat I want to name it Miso.

Seeing the first butterfly (European peacock) of the year enjoying the sunshine while sitting on my pink hyacinth.

After more than 20 years I accidentally found out that one of my favourite songs from the ZDF Christmas series Anna is in fact a Queen song! I'm also pretty sure that my taste in men, my "type", was significantly affected by João Ramos who played the role of the dancer Jacob. Swoon!

Using a sheep skin as a pillow. Oddly comforting. I was reading a book about the sense of touch when I noticed this connection. I also learned that most people prefer firm hugs and massages over soft strokes. Apparently gentle touching reminds some of insect's feet but it seems to be a matter of personal preference.

The crispy greasiness of butter croissants.

Finding out about banana twins (two fruits in one peel).

Enjoying a nice, sunny Sunday. Cycling over to Westpark and playing badminton with Frank in the middle of hundreds of families having picnics. Clumsy yoga poses on a towel. A little boy telling me that his penis was more important than my face when he hit me with a football. But to be fair, I made him choose. I even went to the gym afterwards, doing my strength routine and an hour-long spine workout. I was pretty exhausted that evening and made a delicious dinner with ratatouille, soy "meat", olives and capers, whole-wheat pasta and pine nuts.

Breaking news: my body contains over 66kg of muscle mass! Am I a superhero or what? (Well, also 36% body fat, gotta work on that...)

Giving the avocado seeds a new home. I've given them a large pot now so each time I eat an avocado a new member can join the gang.

Spending most of the week with my favourite colleague, espectially on Girls'/Boys' day duty: I liked meeting at the fire brigade in the morning, getting to know a firewoman, making one of my students climb up the pole at the station. Walking over Viktualienmarkt and Gärtnerplatz, getting some fresh juice, talking all the time. We visited an old folk's home, a garden center, a vet and an architect's studio. So much better than being stuck at school until 4pm.

Pancakes with mushroom filling. Strawberries with coconut cream. Delicious.

Finally performing a Nina Hagen Song on karaoke night. And Elle King's Ex's & Oh's which made Carlos, the Spanish guy, think of old ex-girlfriend trauma.

Uhm. I read 21 books this month. Wow? To be fair, I spent most of my weekends in bed with a stack of books next to me. I'm kinda hoping to read less in April - but since I'll be in Canada for two weeks this will probably not be an issue anyway.

My breakfasts keep me healthy, I really believe that. Extremely tasty and full of good nutrients. Latest addition: strawberries and pumpkin seeds.

Spending the whole afternoon with Anika in my kitchen, making vegan macarons. I almost couldn't believe it but chickpea liquid works just as well as eggwhites! And we came up with pretty good fillings: lemon buttercream, chocolate-raspberry and banana-peanut butter. Nom. Now they're sitting in my fridge, tempting me to eat them. Sigh.

Going to the gym after a week-long hiatus. Breaking the spell, you know?

#march #2019 #march 2019 #personal #present perfect #things i love

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ryanmeft · 5 years

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My Favorite Films of 2018, part 1

Let’s make the introduction quick: these are my favorite films released in 2018. As always, the rules are simple: I don’t say they are the best or that you must agree, simply that I found them the most memorable. They are in completely random order, with no emphasis on one over another. Films released at festivals but not to the public in 2017 are counted as 2018, as are films that were not available in the United States. I apologize for not having the accents on certain people’s named; I don’t know how to reproduce them.

Many excellent films didn’t make the cut this year, and it was already difficult to narrow down my shortlist of 26 to 14. I had to stop there, as I could not bring myself to cut anymore. The list is in two parts this year to accommodate the additional length.

Let’s get rolling.

Sorry To Bother You

While decent-but-ordinary films got lauded with undeserved reputations for being revolutionary, Boots Riley was quietly (okay…maybe not so quietly) sliding this biting, bizarre, hard-edged satire under the radar. Where most films have simple good guys and bad guys, Riley takes furious aim at everyone in sight. Black people are exploited by a white establishment. The hero only cares about his own advancement until he himself is taken advantage of. His girlfriend rails about purity but sells out almost immediately herself. A labor organizer is mostly doing it to get laid. The film is driven by Lakeith Stanfield, whose performance as a black telemarketer who finds tremendous success by kow-towing to his white bosses is a sterling and hilarious take on the classic everyman. Supporting roles from Danny Glover and Armie Hammer, in particular, contribute greatly. Nobody escapes unscathed, leaving the film with only one viewpoint: everybody in the world is a terrible hypocrite to one degree or another. Riley’s outspokenness didn’t help the film at major awards shows, but it likely would have been shafted anyway. Like other huge, overlooked critical hits, from Inside Llewyn Davis to Lucky, it is just too nihilistic to grab people’s attention.

Paddington 2

Iron Men and super spies are nice, but they can’t approach the sheer joy, creativity, adventure, humor and heart of the Paddington series, which started out great and got better with this sequel. All the cast you loved the first time around are back, but just like the Harry Potter franchise, it’s the new faces and what director Paul King and co-writer Simon Farnaby do with them that makes this one special. Most notable is Hugh Grant, who both honors and spoofs his own career reputation by playing a washed-up former celebrity who tries to frame Paddington to restore his lost lustre. Grant devours every one of his scenes, as he skips comically between costumes and disguises. Brendan Gleeson is one of those actors who is never unwelcome, and here he plays a tough-as-nails prison cook with a heart of gold. The movie gets as sweetly silly as turning an entire prison’s uniforms pink and as genuinely thrilling as a final train chase that is the most exciting action sequence of the year. The key to Paddington is that there’s not a cynical thing about him---his movies just consistently and unerringly deliver pure creative joy.

The Sisters Brothers

In recent years the western genre has moved hard towards social commentary. Jacques Audiard’s adaptation of a Patrick DeWitt novel, co-written with Thomas Bidegain, has such unconventional heroes that it takes aim at the traditional western strongman even when it isn’t trying to. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix play a pair of mercenary brothers who are, respectively, too sensitive and too useless to have ever been stars in westerns of old. Jake Gyllenhaal is an eloquent bounty hunter and Riz Ahmed is the inventor they are all after. The wild west was definitely not a storied land of opportunity for all. The hired hands are out to kill Ahmed’s character because a powerful businessman feels entitled to his invention, and the film ends in greed, tragedy and brokenness rather than success. That’s not to say it has no trappings of the classics, as it may be the most beautiful western ever made; painstaking detail has gone into towns and saloon halls, while a wilderness stream lit up with a phosphorescent gold-finding chemical has a mesmerizing beauty. All these good looks serve to back up a dark comic story, and it is a highly effective contrast.

Capernaum

Nadine Labaki’s film about a 12-year-old boy in prison for striking back at his desperate poverty was criticized, in some circles, for not being bleaker than it is. Labaki and her team of writers, with a mostly non-professional cast, have painted a picture of life in the world’s slums that mostly foregoes easy drama in favor of being unblinkingly, ceaselessly blunt about the sheer offenses against human life that take place there. The focus of the film is Zain, named after the young actor Zain Al Rafeea, whose parents recklessly pop out kids despite barely being able to care for themselves. They enjoy themselves in a bed right next to the floor housing their seven children; in court, they insist that the existence of their kids is a burden on them. Zain ends up temporarily becoming a sort of custodian for a friend’s infant son, and we see three stops on a sad spectrum: the innocent baby unaware of life’s terrors, the broken boy he may become without help, and the adults that are the result of a life lived without hope. That the film’s bad guy, a human trafficker, is eventually foiled is not the catharsis it would be in a more multiplex-oriented movie, because we know there will just be another after him, and another, and another.

First Man

A bio-pic of a quiet man with no political message was never going to do well in the modern movie landscape, and that’s a shame. Ryan Gosling’s taciturn portrayal of Neil Armstrong is the fuel of a film that is not about the glory of space travel but about the risks and tolls it takes, all of which are recreated with bone-rattling immediacy. Damien Chazelle and Josh Singer ignore the political demands of the moment to portray one of our most important national figures exactly as he was: a reserved man more concerned with math than with press conferences, whose taciturn response to what he’d bring with him to the moon was “More fuel”. Yet what really sells the film is the time we spend in the various cockpits with Armstrong. Where Linus Sandgren could have gone for soaring vistas and patriotic imagery, he instead brings home the terror and uncertainly of space travel in a way that makes the stakes feel real and immediate. Chazelle eschews the need to see the past through the lens of the present, and an excellent movie results.

Annihilation

Some science fiction deals in lasers and spaceships. Some deals in thoughts and ideas. Alex Garland’s trippy sci-fi adventure, based on a novel by Jeff VanderMeer, is certainly the latter. A team of women, led by Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh, enter a no-go zone where it seems the local scenery is slowly being eaten by alien vegetation. What they find there is up to the viewer to interpret, but Garland wisely decide to really let us think about it by pulling back on the horror and leaving much unexplained. The world inside the “Shimmer” is quiet and haunting, not packed with activity. When monsters do attack, it comes in small-scale, individualistic encounters, rather than wars between armies of CGi. It’s also notable that whereas a very specific kind of woman is often held up as an example of strong female characters, the women here are the opposite: ordinary people, more egghead than warrior, investigating rather than kicking ass; a movie that relegates Oscar Isaac to about 20 minutes of screen time certainly has the courage of its characters.

Roma

Another example of a film whose greatness is achieved specifically because it bucks the need to have a message or to conform to momentary fits of politics, Roma tells a simple story of a middle-class Mexican family in the 70’s and their working class servant. It commits numerous sins of modern cinema: the middle-class family is not seen as oppressors, the servant is not seen as a victim, nothing in the film is a veiled attack on systems of any kind or shape. Therein lies the beauty, captured perfectly by Yalitza Aparicio. She plays Cleo, the servant, and while the film is seen through her eyes---so that we witness only the snatches of family life she does---Alfonso Cuaron has never been given much to preaching, and that’s still true here, despite it being his most personal film. It’s also mournfully beautiful in black and white, with city houses shown as a tangle of balcony stairs and one-car garages, and an especially beautiful shot of woods on fire. The kind of film you think about for years after seeing it once, it’s also Cuaron’s most intimate accomplishment. Part 2: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/182988135292/my-favorite-films-of-2018-part-2

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kurtty-drabbles · 6 years

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Yandere Kurt Darkholme au

N/A: just a heads up, this is an AOA au where there´s no death and evil villains trying to destroy the world, the concept of an AOA AU is that the heroes defeated the bad guys and now are adjusting to the new life, to rebuild a better society.

@djinmer4 @niuniente @pudimazul269 @zoetekohana @ohmygillygoshoppler

It is almost comical to think that what leads mutants and humans to hols each hand it was a purple dude threating to destroy everything, centuries of discrimination was erased by Apocalypse wanting to murder everyone, prompting mutants and humans to finally co-exist in peace(once the big bad is finally defeated)

Kitty Pryde is a woman that does have her share of violence, blood, glory and now wants to trail a different path, certainly is not something her friends would recommend, after all once an X-men, always an X-men but ...

"If I have any friend left that´s it," she thought to yaw as she just wakes up and has to get up from the comfy bed" my latest actions rend me no friends or maybe I never really have any, to begin with, it"

The woman, with short curly hair, an old shirt accomplishes to get out of the bed, Kitty Pryde is the teacher from an elementary school and she loves her job(as much as she loves her comfy bed), dragging herself to the room, the woman starts to search for something to wear.

The mistakes of the previous generations shouldn't be swept under the carpet, while the next generation will make their own mistakes, our errors should serve as a base of what to not to do. Is a philosophy that Kitty´s class lives on.

Funny, Kitty Pryde does not have many material possessions(not because of the lackey of money, is the lackey of interest) and now that winter is coming, Kitty can say that her clothier isn´t 100% adequate for the new weather.

Well, lately many things aren´t adequate, Kitty´s school suffer a problem(to put nicely) in the first 2 months a man was murder and in the new environment of love and peace between humans and mutants, the police was sent to investigate the case with discretion and without discrimination.

Everyone was interrogated, yet, Kitty´s interrogation was a bit off, the police member who did the interview was an unusual fellow, yet, Kitty didn´t mind(he wasn´t a pervert and seems to be a professional with a few quirks, as long he is a perv or abusing his power Kitty sees no problem)

As she is now fully dressed, she noticed something on her kitchen site, a scarf, a red scarf that Kitty is fully aware that does not belong to her. There also a note attached.

It says just this(with a pretty handwriting): It is getting cold, uses the scarf.

Kitty looks at the scarf, for a moment she thought something horrible would happen(a monster would come out of the scarf, an assassin would show up, but...nothing happen is just a silly scarf) as nothing happens, Kitty uses the scarf and off she goes to work.

Another accident happens near her school, a man was murder violently and everyone near the accident was interrogated, even if they never interact with the victim, Kitty was asked once again and once again the same police member talk to her(he´s not that bad, he shares the hot coffee with Kitty, even though Kitty loves hot choco)

The next day, Kitty wake up in the same routine she installs for herself and a new gift was left for her with the note attached. It was a pair of gloves and the note was short as the last one.

It is getting cold, your hands will easily get frostbitten, use the gloves.

You are really charming with the words. Thought Kitty a bit amused.

Once again, she looks at the gloves waiting for something horrible to happen, nothing happens(again) and Kitty uses the glove.

A woman that works in the school was murder, the body was discovered in the incinerator of her school and many members of the police turn their eyes to Kitty, making several questions. It was Rachel Grey.

Today, it wasn´t the same police member, it was a new one point fingers at Kitty and demanding a confession. After all, this time, the victim is linked to Kitty Pryde as Rachel have a fixation with the woman.

"It was you," the man said with a French accent that got on her nerves.

"No, it wasn´t me" Kitty replied wearing the gloves and the same face apathetic face( It is hard to cry or care for Rachel Grey, any relationship they had fallen apart because ...well, Rachel would say is Kitty´s fault)

"She wrote your name several times in his agenda before making an appointment in the incinerator" the French accent is grinding her nerves, Phantomex and kitty will never get along, but she has more class to start a fight now. How someone with a Pheonix dies with fire? Rachel(this one) lost the Pheonix because ...reasons. And once she lost the Pheonix, all left is bitterness, anger and blame towards everyone.

"Look, my name is really common, my students use names of the X-men all the time, I have 10 Storms, 5 Jean Grey, 4 X-23 and 3 Shadowcat and even I explain that this wasn´t my codename when I entered in the group" she takes a deep sigh " it was Ariel, and now I have 6 Ariels both mixing Disney and my life, bottom line, if that guy write Kitty Pryde on his agenda it could mean anything" then she adds " even the parents joke with this, I see a woman dressed as Scott Summer and the father as Wolverine...it was hilarious and awkward at the same time"

Then the regular police member spot Kitty, his enigmatic expression is a soothing relief to Kitty, in few words he managed to take Phantomex of the case and Kitty is sent home, no one knows who did the murder.

On the next day, a note was attached without a gift, this time the message is shorter than the others messages.

Sorry.

And the day went like always, the police member asking questions to Kitty, talking with her, Kitty teaching and the investigation carry on(no one is complaining, have the chance to see more than one X-men is worth for all the kids)

Finally, when is the last day of teaching on the month(since the holiday, Earth day is coming) Kitty spots another gift and a note. The gift was the hot choco(the one that Kitty loves) and a small note.

Take care of yourself, today is the last day, enjoy the hot choco.

The day went following the programme, the exchange with the police member was short(sadly) his thick accent didn´t hide his disappointment as well, maybe he really wants to catch the culprit. Well, there´s is the only reason.

"The investigation was useful," he said calmly" I know what to do now, thank you, for your time, Fräulein"

"Ah, no problem, I suppose you can´t share any information with me, right?" she asked and his eyes already answer that "got it, no longer part of the group so no information for you, ok, but hope you get the person behind this and...be careful, alright"

"No one never said that to me before" his voice is above a whisper and Kitty heard him perfectly " I´ll be careful, Fräulein"

"Good, we see each other around, right?"

"Of course"

Then the day ends, like always, Kitty only wants to eat, sleep and enjoy the holiday, those past weeks were really stressful. As she ready to close her eyes, letting Morpheus embrace her, her doe eyes observer her small apartment.

Next day, Kitty wake up with a startling revelation, one that should make any sane person a bit fearful for their own life. Kitty is no longer in her small apartment.

The place is not an apartment that for sure, is full of Germanic aesthetic and Kitty rubs her eyes many times to see if this is real or not. Yes, it is real and someone appears in the door scrutiny of her form.

"Hello, Katzchen, how are you feeling?" it was the police member from before "please, don´t think me as an officer, I hate this title, I´m a member of the X-force,"

"Kurt Darkholme, what is going on?" she asked as he approaches her, letting his hand touch her short hair" and if this is a way to take me back to the X-force, the answer is no"

His scarlet eyes gaze upon Kitty, his hands touching her hair(it is soft) and for a moment, the man hums a song(by the looks of, seems something native from Germany) as the song finally comes to an end the man gives a ghost smile.

"Do you think I did that all to recruit you back? No, I killed those people for you" he said feeling a bit proud of his actions " Rachel Grey was easy and ...I have to apologize for the inconvenience, Rachel seems to have an obsession with you...and I was afraid she would hurt you, Phantomex forget to mention the things she wrote about you...it was disturbing" his face now frown in displeasure.

"Ok, you killed that man as well? why?" she questioned not getting the big picture(why he killed that man?)

"Oh, you didn´t notice? He was in love with you, babbling about you like he ...understands" the word was uttered in sotto voice " I have to kill him, he would take you and his name is also Peter" his eyes leave hers for a moment, but his hands remain on Kitty´s small and delicate(deceitful)ones "speaking of Peter, I was searching for that Peter...but I didn´t found him yet, when I do, I´ll kill him"

"Rockstar, I killed Peter Rasputin, I beheaded him and let his corpse to rotten, that why so many people in the X-men aren´t that fond of me, I´m a bad woman in their eyes" Kitty explained.

"They are stupid, you aren´t a bad woman, you...." he swallows so suddenly that Kitty could hear the sound " managed to change an idea I have for a very long time, when I meet you, I thought that maybe I don´t have to spend the rest of my life alone...maybe there´s someone out there for me"

Kitty blinks and then says.

"After Peter, I have this idea that maybe I should spend the rest of my life alone, were you sending me those gifts?"

"Ja, you don´t have self-preservation, your hands were shaking in your first meeting" his scarlet eyes are softened now " I don´t want anything bad happens with you"

"I see, you could have to use a normal route, you know, talking with me in person and no use killing tactics?" she says not scowling, unsure of her own tone.

"But Katzchen, we aren´t normal, what we face is something no normal human ever did," he said and take a deep breath "I suppose you will struggle and try to run but..."

"No, I´m fine here, I just saying you could have used a normal route too, well, the X-men always have strange beginners, I can stay here with you, maybe you can change an idea I have for many years now" there´s a hint of sadness in her voice and then she adds in a chipper voice "and Mr. tall, dark and fluffy, I still going to work in my school"

Kurt Darkholme titled his head and her words, not what he was expecting but is manageable.

"Katzchen, it is earth day, is one week without class, you are good with the children" he mentions in a good humor fashion " after the holiday is over I can take you to your work...it is safer this way, the bus line you use is very dangerous"

"Yeah, I know, you were stalking me" Kitty didn´t need to ask but Kurt confirmed anyway. "You are very good at that, I never noticed you"

"That is the intention. Are you hungry? we can eat breakfast if you want...I have hot choco, the one you like"

" yes, I want something warm" and then she adds " just to be clear, I won´t run away, I want to see if you can change my mind, Kurt Darkholme"

"Well, you change mine so easily, I can try" his thick accent didn´t prevent Kitty from understanding him, his hand lift her chin delicately "in the meantime, this is your new home"

"An odd way to get a home, but...I´m an odd person" Kitty explained and both are off to eat something.

#aoa kurtty #kurt darkholme #aoa kitty pryde #kitty is fine with this #yandere kurt D au #the boy tries to be romantic #kitty reaction is sort based on an manga where the boy is totally fine in being with a yandere boyfriend #I dont like Rachel #thanks marvel for that #again she is the emboiment of my fav trope and I still hate her #kitty is a teacher #she killed peter because come on #and once the world is at peace she is a teacher #the x-force is the police of this au #kurt is the boss #kurt does not like to be called the police

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grizzlefur · 7 years

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WWEm - M. Night Parablamyan

You’ll be pleased to hear that Comic Sans has gone on indefinite leave. Also, the formatting has now become single line spacing, until I find I don’t like it or something. Let me know if you like it/love it/don’t give a monkey’s butt.

As ever, Emma can be found on Twitter as @Waruce, usually during PPVs.

Transmission date: Monday 12/Tuesday 13 June 2017.

all up in this bitch, cos it's SATURDAY AFTERNOON RAW! raise your hands if you can't remember thing one that's been happening on raw shit, can't type with my hands raised rescind that last advance warning: if i make more mistakes than usual in this writeup, extend me some leniency on account of i can barely see straight, because it's fucking summer so my eyes are full of TREE SPERM and MUCILAGE and THE DEATH OF ALL THINGS seriously, it's a party but oversharing aside, let's watch some wrestlemans and wrestlewomans, although the raw wrestlewomans' division needs to figure out what the fuck it's doing

we open with a recap of joe talking shit to an absent devil who i think is going to be turning up this week? i say that like i care and also him choking the life out of a small portly jewish man and being the most well-spoken kind of psychopath snapping into the present, we're apparently in the cajundome and immediately hit brock's music hey, they know what the fans want now i just need to figure out why they want that so yes, the championship is here, attached to the walking embodiment of technically-legal masking agents but thankfully, only paul has a mic apparently this is the day of joe's fuckupening i paraphrase, but i wish i wasn't "Like a shark luring the chum into his domain..." paul, i think we need to take you to seaworld or some shit apparently joe was somehow abusing brock's ring, despite the whole bit where he hasn't been here in a couple of months paul is hastily retracting everything complimentary he said about joe last week and now throwing shade about the fact that joe's not part of the anoa'i dynasty? that's certainly an esoteric burn the angle is that the coquina clutch would probably fuck brock up, but joe won't be able to get it on him because he ain't shit related note: can we have a moratorium on white dudes calling poc a 'mutt' or similar? leaves something of a bad taste joe arrives, him and brock immediately unload on each other kurt sends in security, brock kills them all, so paul calls in the whole roster to pull them apart and they kind of suck at it leave security to the pros, guys all the faces are clinging onto joe like he's the messiah and end thing, apparently tonight's main event is kkb/hardyz for the title round #34982, but this time it's two out of three falls cut for ads, and we come back on a recap video of the exact thing we just watched i know i say my memory's bad, but seriously booker's still here, because shut up with your reasons

but now, here's elias and his guitar and his array of scarves weirdly, this crowd seems pretty split on him he's written a song about the brave inhabitants of the cajundome asks the crowd to be quiet while he plays, cole immediately starts talking so yeah, this is a song about how louisiana and dean ambrose aren't collectively shit so here he comes elias, please never try and rhyme 'breath' with 'darkNESS' again recap video of the deep strangeness of miz's championship celebration aka, The Day Mike Fucked A Clock With A Chair (and offended his wife) i did like the ending of it, though it's nice to have the cameramen acknowledged as something that exists in-universe elias samson is present, so naturally corey is immediately salty as fuck he hates dean, too, but seriously "The man has the vocal stylings of a pigeon that's been stepped on!" (fun fact: i would probably listen the hell out of an elias samson album) (just do acoustic covers, whatever, i just like his voice) so far, this match consists mostly of dean trying to trashweasel his way out of trouble and elias shutting him down duelling chants seem a bit harsh: "You can't wrestle!" "YOU CAN'T SING!" dean gets his usual comeback sequence comprising a strange mix of real wrestling skill and just running in the vague direction of your opponent and hoping they fall harder than you do elias stands far too close on a suicide dive, basically just grabs dean and walks backwards like oh no i am defeated dean gets the upper hand of a super slow turnbuckle spot, miz runs in to bother him elias still can't even pick up a distraction pin maryse is backing miz up, so at least they're still okay dean goes for miz, he does the wife-shaped shield thing it doesn't work at all, miz gets beaten on a lot dean gets back in the ring, elias does a nasty knee drop on his back as he comes in, swinging neckbreaker for the pin "By hook or by crook, a W is still a W!" are you in a fucking ionesco play, corey

but now let's have more of goldust doing his thing his thing, of course, beign sitting in a chair at a terrible frame rate and quoting films dude, if you just turned that chair a bit, you wouldn't have to crane your neck like that can't be good for you but yeah, vague threats in the vague direction of r-truth

but now we're backstage, and an angry kurt has words for the miz those words basically being FUCKIN' QUIT IT he has enough trouble with big samoan guys named joe miz insults kurt, alludes to his indeterminate personal problems, you could chew the tension demands dean be suspended or fired, kurt retorts with a) shut the fuck up, and b) no maryse is apparently still angry at her husband kurt walks off, miz splutters, end thing cruiserweight time now, after this video to remind yiu just how good cedric alexander is, since he's been away for a while and here's noam dar arguing with his phone backstage cedric comes in to remind noam how done he is with him and his girlfriend's collective shit she is, of course, on the other end of the phone she's injured, but she wants her scottish sleazeball to beat cedric right the fuck up tonight cedric's like fuck, fine, whatever, i'll fight you tonight, but then can you please go bother literally anyone else

so yeah, now it's time for that match noam is still on his phone on speaker as he starts his entrance they're having a barely-audible argument and the phone's casting to the tron for some reason also, noam has a new jumper, and it's nowhere near as good alicia wants to be on the line through the match, noam does not want this the ref's like dude sort your shit out we've got a match to have finally puts it down in the corner, bell rings, lumbar check, end alicia is piiiiiiiiissed that's still an absolutely vicious finisher noam is trying to salvage this telepresence argument while also going oh holy fuck my spine hype no. 58 for the main event

but up next, bray wyatt...does a thing, i guess? he's certainly present and i'm ok with that but now a video package of roman, because god knows we haven't seen so much of him see, this package makes him look good, cos it's just the big spots and not all the slow-ass bullshit between them next week, roman has an announcement about summerslWYATT CUT bray fills the screen, tells us cheerfully that the world is ending does the i'm here thing, and now he is after a randy-based wyatt cut, for some reason did someone click the wrong file? corey calls bray 'bizarre', somewhere goldust is like wait a fucking minute bray's going to kill everyone who sins, sits in apathy while people sin, or blaspheme against him apparently seth lives in a house where his architect's blueprints cover the windows and block out the sun this may just be a parable, but it's a fucking great image oh, apparently bray shattered it because it was a glass house? did you mention this before, bray? bit of a shitty twist other wise m. night parablamyan and now seth will be picking splinters of glass out of his soul for eternity that's a fucking greek god level of ironic fate so yeah, anyone who takes the dark lord's name in vain will get fucked on speaking of, here comes seth to get fucked on/pick glass out of his soul i'd be good for either he's like wait a minute dude you cost me my match because i called you names that seems disproportionate but by the way, you suck seth claims he's here to pipe bomb some truth at us, calls bray a coward don't insult him, he has a backwards tractor bray takes the opportunity to give a sermon on pride, tells seth he, too, ain't shit like lol kingslayer ain't that cute *teleports backstage* bray claims he'll win because gods live forever think we need to read you some egyptian/norse myth there

but now, charly has the hardyz in the led interview backstage corridor whatever thing the hardyz would like you all to remember that they're awesome and that jeff has an unhealthy predilection for jumping off things but now, enjoy this montage of what cena's been up to and remember that he'll be back in an episode i am unlikely to blog

but now we have kalisto vs titus, through the medium of his younger, happier dude and akira tozawa is standing in the front row, because titus wants him on brand apollo beats on kalisto, titus stands by the barricade shouting at tozawa like DUDE LOOK AT MY BOY ISN'T HE GREAT tozawa is like please stop shouting at me kalisto goes for an excessively flippy handspring springboard stunner, apollo counters to a spinout powerbomb for the win titus drags tozawa into the ring for an uncomfortable selfie with them he's just like dude stop hugging me

but now, HARD CUT TO CLOSEUP OF RHYNO PUTTING CHEEZ WIZ ON CRACKERS we all needed that miz has come with a proposal for heath to become part of his entourage rhyno is like dude i'm standing right here miz promises to make all heath's dreams come true, heath's like well i've always wanted to be ic champ hmmmmm miz offers him a shot if he joins the dark side rhyno's like you know what fuck you dude i'm gonna go find kurt to give us a match against you maybe rustle up a friend we're out *aggressively eats crackers* so yeah

spot about that theme park competition thing, but now here's alexa our resident wrestlewoman with her shit together oh hey, a recap of last week's match so it did happen after all no, alexa, don't kick off by mentioning your match at extreme rules we're all trying to forget on saturday, we've got the first women's mitb match, but fuck that noise, tonight's about me but here's nia to take issue with the fact that alexa offered her a title shot, then whined about it and cheated out of it alexa's like i know right we should have had a great match but those two fucked everything up so here come those two mickie's redesigned her gear to play up the Native elements again chest dreamcatcher and everything mickie and dana try to remind everyone how much of a bitch alexa's been to nia in fornt of everyone alexa's like lol no i think your eyesight's going ah, cheap ageist jokes but now,...hit emma's music not that i'm gonna complain fucking love that music *beep boop beep boop* emma announces her dramatic return, demands a shot for the title alexa's just like um do you even go here and now here's sasha fuck it, everyone in the division in the segment that's how we do wrestling, right? so wait, are alexa and nia the only heels on the show? seems unbalanced sasha mocks alexa for literally everything she does, punches her in the face, cue brawl and hard cut to an advert for the episode of smackdown i'l be watching later back from ads, and we've got the 6-woman tag match we all saw coming so yeah, emma's still a heel, just one with a problem with the even heelier champ so yeah, emma's back, with weird shoulder things and boobface and everything although following a gear redesign, the boobface has gone from :) to :o it's great that she's back because she's great, but it does mean i have been once again demoted to the second coolest person to bear the name formulaic tag, sasha hot tags in to beat on emma, alexa decides to just walk off instead of letting emma tag out, bank statement for the tap this is not how you make friends

confirmed, later we have slater/rhyno vs miz/[NAME]

but next, corey talks to bayley about her utter lack of extreme after this advert for gold bond and MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY cole massively hypes it, then is like wait what the fuck am i saying that's the wrong brand smoothly done and now, have a package about how great finn is, and that is THE ONLY ORDER THOSE WORDS GO IN complete with lots of shots doing the arms and telling us how good he is

but yes, now we have corey/bayley just by his existence, corey must remind her how extreme she's not for the love of god, woman, get a tatt bayley's like hey i've never been in that situation before i'm a normal person i don't want to hurt people corey's like um have you ever wondered why you're in this business bayley does this whole motivational self-improvement thing which doesn't really work on its own cena does that, but with the understood subtext that if you get in the way of him being his best self, he will fuck your shit right up and bayley says her next thing is to get the belt back manageable steps slightly awkward hug, end interview so that was a thing

but now, here come A ONE MAN BAAAAAAAAAND (and his friend) rhyno should rebrand as a one man road crew miz and maryse arrive, wearing the mania jackets again, because all the best people read this blog (hey, mike) apparently he approached elias during the advert break, who said yeah fuck off dude so here comes his partner with music that sounds like the laughing fucking gnome of something and on a tricycle it's the bear although this bear is much taller and walks like dean ambrose corey christens him Big John Cubb crowd chant for a tag, miz is like i'm not a moron do you think i don't know who this is corey is just spamming us with spurious life facts about the bear because of his refusal to tag in a large mammal, rhyno is just fucking miz up all over the place cole makes a reference to the jbl and cole show, to reward dedicated weirdos bear tags himself in heath tries to take his mask off, bear punches him in the face good to know bears follow lucha tradition does a bearhug (naturally), heath nearly taps miz tags, then starts beating the piss out of the bear at ringside rips off the mask, revealing some dude, once again and rhyno spears miz into the netherworld throws him back into the ring, bear follows, heath tries to convince him to turn on his master, bear hits heath with dirty deeds, excessively long realisation beat, he unmasks and is in fact dean did...did we just get twin magicked by a bear? IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, MIZANIN! ahem dean goes for miz, he jumps and knocks maryse off the apron she hobbles off with a dark look dean stands there with a magnificent ooooooops look until miz turns around, when he hits him with dirty deeds and puts a still-unconscious heath on top of him for the pin slater and rhyno leave, dean puts the bear head on miz and walks off this just became strange this feels like it should be on one of those serial killer warning sign lists miz eventually rips it off, glares, end segment

hopefully we should have the main event next, if they want to give it the time it deserves oh, looks like we actually are huh was not expecting them to do the whole sensible booking thing recap video of the most beautifully-executed surprise return at mania and also this entire feud i'd forgotten how good their heel turn was, as well oh wait, never mind, neville's here phew if wwe started booking things in a sensible, organic way that gave things room to breathe, i wouldn't know what to do rich swann enters, does his usual dancing, gets punched in the back because neville's taken a bunch of levels in twat oh wait was that the neville level i get it beats swann all over the place, rings of saturn until he stops twitching demands his belt and a mic neville crouches by swann, recites a list of pretenders he's fucked on, kicks him out of his ring starts a monologue like it's good to be the king but will all you usurpers just fuck away off namechecks tozawa, hopefully kickstarting a feud that i am down for like you would not believe apparently titus tweeted that selfie and suggested tozawa might win the title the king is less than amused but now, charly interviews the kkb cesaro has a copy of the hardyz' autobiography so they can laugh and throw it away they keep getting more things on their jackets including they live OBEY patches, which is cool

and next, enzo/cass vs anderson/gallows seriously, you should really logically need more time for a two out of three match than a normal one this show has like half an hour left and we still have to see enzo do a thing or not, who knows with this angle douchebag joisey music hits, nobody is here cut backstage, cass is on the floor under some girders the revival walk past in the background, no reason cass says he went down with one blow to the head, emphasises how HARD they hit enzo doesn't want him to fight, but he insists but in the ring, gallows and anderson are here to trade secondary school burns and muttley laughs about enzo and cass hit twat music again, long beat, and here they are accompanied by a bunch of refs like seriously dude this is a terrible idea if only we had some power to stop this match happening alas, we are only lowly wrestling officials, all we can do is point and harangue corey calls enzo a trash fire masquerading as a human being, which i'm like 80% sure is a john oliver line? sort your material, dude cass beats on anderson through weaponised staggering, finally ags out enzo's 3am-behind-a-hollister style works for a bit, until anderson just kicks him in the head a bunch and tags gallows in cass is lying on the floor outside and magic killer for the pin turns out going into this match with a recent head injury was a terrible idea who knew they set him up for another magic killer, but here comes a big shooooooow to help at which point the heels run away and enzo and show awkwardly hug which is what cass comes around to see fuck daggers, he's glaring broadswords show leaves, cass comes up to his partner like the fuck dude, cut to ads

main event next, fucking finally

ok, no, we have to watch an r-truth reaction video first these have a solid frame rate at least, but that's come at the cost of things like 'colour film', and 'not having r-truth' truth quotes network, forgets to cite it, promises to get goldust got get got got get, end and now in the corridors, enzo comes up to show like dude, the clues all kind of point to you, so i have to ask show's like what the fuck you twat i...oh wait, it's your partner, what a twat calls cass sawft, walks off, end

but now we have a recap video of brock and joe from the start of the show why the fuck do we even need to see this just get to the main event already less than 20 minutes left this is not enough time for a properly-paced best of three match with build and everything oh, and now we get to see joe talking to mike mcmikemike backstage apparently this whole debacle has been exactly according to joe's plan this plan has never been clearly stated which is probably also exactly as planned we are all dancing on a large samoan's palm

but now, here come the hardyz fucking finally oh, and an advert break and that package for how great roman is again siiiiiiiiiiigh thing i didn't quite catch before this cut: is matt hardy wearing a fucking button-fronted short-sleeved shirt? that makes no sense for anyone whose gimmick doesn't include the words 'Caribbean', 'dipshit', or 'Caribbean dipshit' cut back, and now he's wearing no shirt ah well guess some things can just never be known and here are the kkb they've kept the jackets, but gone without shirts to maximise the orbital terawatt laser effect of their entrance bell rings, just over twelve minutes left in the show fucking hell, wwe trust your talent the teams clearly know time is against them - sheamus tries to open with a brogue, then immediately takes poetry in motion and a twist of fate for a nearfall and then sheamus basically just punches jeff in the face for the first fall? this match had so much potential sigh and now, let's cut away for an ad break and naom, gallows and anderson advertising pizza hut buy pizza from us, so twats can take it off you and back to the match recap of the first fall - jeff went for a twist of fate, sheamus countered, threw him into the corner, and did a slightly underwhelming kick to the face for the pin and now we have sheamus just kicking the shit out of jeff jeff mule kicks sheamus into a blind tag, matt hot tags in and starts mashing cesaro's head into all the turnbuckles does a delete, on the grounds that anthem probably don't give a shit, right? kicks sheamus off the apron, twist of fate on cesaro for the win i hope this narration is giving some sense of how perfunctory and artificially quick this is that's two falls in just under five minutes in a fucking championship match sheamus kicks jeff off the apron, kicks matt in the face, knees matt in the face, still can't get a pin turns out all my problems cannot, in fact, be solved by kicking jeff breaks up a pin, sheamus throws himout of the ring, cesaro goes for a neutraliser on matt, matt counters, cesaro counters that back into a sharpshooter, rope break nice sequence then matt goes for a small package, which kind of just seems like a dick move double hot tags, jeff does his usual spots, twist of fate to sheamus, cesaro breaks it just in time sheamus drops jeff on the ropes, cesaro uppercuts him, still no pin jeff bullfights sheamus into the ring post, hits a lovely swanton, cesaro pulls sheamus out of the ring just before 2 cue brawling at ringside aaaaaand double countout with which the cajundome is just so fucking satisfying brawl continues, because fuck you and your matches and your belts and we fade on the hardyz shouting from the ring while the kkb pose with their questionably-retained belts

so yeah that's it that's the show the fuck, guys? i mean obviously it was meant to be unsatisfying, and they're going to be doing it again, presumably at GBoF, but still you could still have done it without that shitty tease match but who knows maybe it'll be narratively significant

anyway, let's clean out that bad taste with some SATURDAY AFTERNOON SMACKDOWN! oh wait it's the setup show for a ppv roll on the shitty tease matches! setting up for mitb, so everything is ladders and tonight we have 6-man tag of the men's mitb contestants and randy and jinder 'face to face'

but now, the new day being played to the ring by their very own marching band, because we're in new orleans, so why the fuck not they could probably take shinsuke's violinist, but i'd watch it kofi opens by thanking the band even before doing their own introduction, which is good form the usos interrupt their gyrating to angrily enter and be thug at them and they can't even finish that before the fashion police turn up fandango claims to have compelling evidence hat their day one is not so h after all "If anything, your day one is...G." tell em tyler tyler gets to finish his sentence before the colóns enter to talk shit about breezango's policing skills (psst, guys) (they're not real detectives) so yeah, we're getting an 8-man tag match here although it's not immediately clear how the fashion police are allying themselves with three men wearing about 17 strings of beads between them the levelling for the announce mics is just fucked to hell tonight does smackdown even *have* a tech team, or is that how they run such a streamlined, modernised show? i do love that this push has given tyler and dango the opportunity to remind us how good they are at wrestling jbl, please stop making bead string jokes *brief shudder* xavier and tyler do a weird-ass combo move consisting of tyler doing a rana-style headscissors on xavier, then stopping at the top so xavier can throw him at primo followed by xavier joing the burgeoning dropkick to the back club the faces take everyone else out of the ring, stop for a brief trombone break and now we get to watch more american adverts i am officially tired of this shit i would much rather be watching this match than adverts about how cigarettes will fuck your mouth or this enormously fucked mountain dew advert and i can't even watch the tiny version in the corner i am very easily distracted oh thank fuck, we're back tyler's in trouble thanks to those dastardly usos jbl reminds us again how the usos are the greatest tag team in the world, and somewhere jason jordan is crying i mean, that's statistically likely at any given point, but still yeah, tyler's just getting the piss knocked out of him including a simultaneously dull yet impressive vertical suplex from epico comes back by throwing a bent-over epico at primo, then clotheslining primo so he ddts him nice, if making no sense whatsoever kofi tags in, kicks everyone, hits jimmy with a boom drop and trouble in paradise for the near-fall and tags in xavier for upupdowndown for the pin and taunt the usos as they retreat in failure

but later tonight, we have charlotte/nattie

but now, aj talks to shinsuke backstage and sami walks in like hey guys what do you want to do in this match asks for ideas, then talks over aj with his usual overthinky ring general thing does a they don't want none, goes for a high five, aj just stares, asks if shinsuke likes the plan, he just stares, sami answers himself and walks off to get warmed up long beat Shinsuke: "...I like him." AJ: "Of course you do." some lovely chemistry between those two which shoudl really surprise nobody

but now, dasha interviews mojo in some random corridor hey mojo, how did it feel to fail and not achieve your dreams last week? mojo is still wearing his watermelon hat magnanimous in defeat he's kind of happy he lost, because he responds to adversity with HYPE and we haven't seen the last of him and as he says this ZACK FUCKING RYDER appears the crowd are as stoked about this as i am he is officially back, and the hype bros are back together get the fuck in so yeah, this tag division's kind of huge

but now, here's naomi who we are reliably informed is amayayayayzing although the same cannot really be said of this new flourescent halter top she's got and she's fighting everybody's favourite leather-clad lunarian (shut up, i'll stop making that joke when and only when it stops being really fucking funny to me) bell hasn't even rung when the trash jazz begins just look at that woefully impractical dress and that super fucking awkward walk down the ramp we couldn't have brought her up through nxt and moved billie and peyton up to perform exactly the same purpose because... jbl explains the incomprehensible ascent of lana with leicester city, neglecting the fact that leicester had in fact played premiership football before that season anyway, tamina and naomi are just beating the hell out of each other tamina like i'll see your bouncy moves and leg lariats and counter by PUNCHING YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF YOUR BODY try punching her leg off of her leg i hear that works against people with legs i don't think i will ever not love that somersault facelock escape naomi does although it does kind of pose the question why she doesn't just commit to it and do a shiranui and split moonsault for the pin good match lana blindisdes the champion incredibly slowly, does a weird-ass glam slam type thing, then gets the belt off an official just by asking for it didn't know you could just do that and all jbl can say is how the belt matches her dress siiiiigh

but now, here are the singhs to introduce their boss he comes in wearing the sharpest fucking blue suit you will ever see next up in entrance music i like way more than i feel i should... the ring is sporting a fucking lovely carpet jinder briefly calls out randy, then goes straight in to calling him a coward and insulting his father maybe ramp the smacktalk up there? and now we're up to the 'promise to dismantle your enemy's legacy backward through history' step this curve feels like it's going to end up in actual bloodshed very soon starts his promo to his people/shouting at the crowd in punjabi, gets partway through, randy's music hits sends the singhs down the ramp to head him off, only for randy to run in out of the crowd and rko jinder on that lovely carpet and then he just fucks back off throught the crowd who love him for being a dickbag but somehow also a babyface dickface? yeah, let's go with that even if it wasn't in his hometown, they could not be setting this up for a 'shock' randy loss any more cue several seconds too long of randy posing and glowering in the stands

and now we have kevin coming into the locker room to brief baron and dolph who don't give the slightest shit what he has to say he's just like guys, i don't actually like either of you, but it's mutually beneficial to work together to take out the babyfaces rather than being dicks for the sake of it and shooting ourselves in the foot which...actually makes sense? dammit, kevin, stop bringing logic and game theory into my wrestling leaves to let them process this, cut to ads

up next, charlotte/nattie

but first, renee interviews randy backstage and he's just like have you even been listening talk less hit more i'm win the thing and leaves well, at least he's sticking to his epiphanies

but yes, now we have the women's match natties back to her old gear, and i'm not thrilled jbl just used the phrases "most likely" and "statistical certainty" right the fuck next to each other in a sentence dude, words mean things and you need to stop just saying whatever but yes, charlotte is here too, with new gear patterned off the terrible moulding on your grandparents' bathroom fittings shot of becky watching the match backstage pull up a fucking chair for once, someone

more wrestling in a minute, but first, YOU WATCH THIS ADVERT BREAK MOTHERFUCKER including an advert romanticising the fact that people need stimulant shots to participate in capitalist society see, this is what happens when you make me watch adverts whioe i'm freestyling i just end up veering into political/economic philosophy, and it's hard to come back from that oh thank god, we're back

we come back on natalya surfboard stretching charlotte like fuck you, i'm a real wrestler charlotte moonsaults nattie for a nearfall as we pan out to carmellsworth watching the match on a tv bigger than either of them again with fuck you i can wrestle, nattie powerbombs charlotte out of the corner for a nearfall (don't tell anyone, but this is actually a good match) naturally, as i say that, it turns into a series of cheap rollup attemtps, then natural selection for the pin but it made charlotte look desperate, which it's always nice to see side note: they've recoloured the GBoF logo so BALLS is the least eye-catching part

time for fashion files noir bitches dango opens with a gritty monologue about his terrible parents cut to him admirin his pecs in a mirror and cut to tyler, lying in the trashed fashion police office dango gets a description of their attackers "One arm....No, two arms!" dango sketches something, tyler confirms that it was them who attacked him dango hustles tyler off to get help, and we slow zoom on the pair of stick figures as the segment ends

but now, let's have an inspiration porn segment about a kid not dying of liver disease let's not get into my ranting about disability politics

moving on, dasha grabs lana backstage for an opinion lana's like i don't actually give a shit what any of you think byeeeeeeee

but now it's main event time opening with kevin's massive distorted face it's like neville and tjp selling their names for power, this is clearly a 'you can be champion if we can reveal how you look like hodor when viewed from below' situation and now here's baron, accomnpanied by a vt of him being a twat last week (but which instance? we may never know) dolph's entrance is mostly overridden by an advert for talking smack, which i won't be watching because jbl's on it sami and aj enter with less fanfare, but they still don't want none to leave time for the best music in the company but how will he enter tomorrow night the suspense whoever the tommaso ciampa-looking dude in the corner is, he is freaking the fuck out about being within reach of shinsuke cut for ads, during which the match apparently started and as we come back, i realise that i didn't fully appreciate the awfullness of those godawful cyan tights dolph iswearing only emphasised by putting him in the ring with shinsuke shinsuke counters dolph's elbow drop through his signature technique of 'being elsewhere', hot tags aj in, and he opens by basically hitting dolph with the bitter end and then an ushigoroshi, except we don't say that any more ooh, nice counter goes for a styles clash, dolph counters to a tornado ddt everyone else gets involved, cut for ads, and we come back on dolph/sami natursally, kevin immediately comes in as i type that sami counters kevin's senton with his knees, basically turning it into a self-inflicted lumbar check as often happens, this heel team seems much more concerned with shouting at everyone within range than having the match sami gets the shit beaten out of him by kevin, counters to a blue thunder bomb, can't quite flop fast enough to make the tag takes some more punishment, pulls out a big lariat and then bullfights all three heels out of the ring in succession sloooooowly flops to his corner, and just as he gets there dolph and kevin pull aj and shinsuke off the apron lovely bit of timing so sami just goes fuck it and helluva kicks baron for the pin maybe lead with that general fighting ensues and now kevin has a ladder he and dolph hit sami and aj with it "Unforgiving impact of that ladder on your flesh." byron's freestyling for his upcoming black metal album meanwhile, baron gets the ladder and fucks on everyone with it sets it up under the briefcase, climbs sloooooowly enough for shinsuke to push it over and somewhere, randy orton began to bleed kinshasa to baron, and shinsuke dramatically climbs the ladder himself and retrieves the most important business supplies in the world and we fade on him posing

so yeah, setup show, but that was pretty good and it looks like mitb should be good better than extreme rules, at any rate and certainly less of a misnomer unless it suddenly becomes clear that shane's accounts were frozen long ago and there was never actually any money but in any case i'll try and get this up tonight (Saturday), and then it's mitb tomorrow hmu on twitter @waruce if you want to see me struggle not to fall asleep and also to reconcile my excitement for MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY with the failings of late-stage capitalism (shit, it happened again)

anyway, that ends this week's show, but up next, it looks like it's gonna get a bit finnegans wake

#Wrestling #WWE #WWE Raw #wwe smackdown

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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Gerard Way Hopes to Extend His DC Influence Beyond Young Animal

At Emerald City Comicon 2016, DC Comics announced a new line called Young Animal, with “The Umbrella Academy” writer and My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way as its public face and curator. Reminiscent of early Vertigo, the line is a mature readers, promising surreal and experimental takes on existing DC Comics properties such as “Doom Patrol” — and in the case of “Mother Panic,” a new character but set in the familiar setting of Gotham City.

A year later, the line now has four monthly ongoing series — “Doom Patrol,” “Mother Panic,” “Cave Carson Has as Cybernetic Eye” and “Shade, the Changing Girl” — plus a new miniseries slated to debut in May, “Bug!: The Adventures of Forager,” from the familial creative team of Lee Allred, Mike Allred, and Laura Allred. Though “Doom Patrol” — written by Way and illustrated primarily by Nick Derington — has seen shipping delays, the line has received a largely positive response, with its more unconventional take providing a contrast to the more back-to-basics superheroics of DC’s current “Rebirth” initiative.

CBR spoke with Way late last month at WonderCon in Anaheim about the first year of Young Animal, what he wants to see in the next year, the freedom he’s received from DC Comics, the latest on the “Doom Patrol” schedule and the possibility of him having a creative impact at DC outside of the imprint.

“Doom Patrol” #6 cover by Nick Derington.

CBR: Gerard, it’s been just about exactly a year since the announcement of Young Animal. What has the experience been like? It’s been a new endeavor for you, and a new one for DC. How has it lined up with whatever expectations you may have had?

Gerard Way: It’s been a lot of really rewarding work. A lot of super-hard work, but very rewarding. We knew they were all very different from mainstream comics when they came out, so they’re finding their audience. Now that the first trades are about to come out, what I expect to see is an expansion of the readership. People getting into the second arcs, reading the first in trades, things like that. But I’ve been extremely happy with everything. Collaborating with all the creators has been the best part.

It’s a new role for you in comics — you’ve written before, but this is you as the curator of a line.H How has your role evolved over the last year? How hands on have you been?

Basically, [DC Comics editors] Molly [Mahan] and Jamie [S. Rich] really do run that imprint. They make sure the books get out. They make sure the art gets in. They proofread, they do all that stuff, they help with story. But then everything still comes through me, and that’s another reason “Doom Patrol” gets a little late — because I have this whole other workload. Sometimes I’ll sit down on a Monday to write, and it’ll be Thursday before I’m scripting, because I’ll be dealing with all this other stuff.

What I’ve now found myself to be doing, aside from Young Animal, is trying to find other things to bring into DC. If it’s a special project, or if it’s somebody that does special editions of something. I have a lot of connections in other areas. My contract with DC is as a consultant, so I try to consult. I try to bring ideas to them.

So we may see stuff from you at DC outside of Young Animal?

We might, yeah.

“Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye” #7 variant cover by Robert Hack.

We’ve seen comics from you in the past that are your own creations, but now you’re working with established characters more than before. It’s a unique take, deliberately, but it’s still within franchise-type properties — what have that been like for you, as a creator?

I enjoy franchise things. I think they’re really exciting. Basically, the challenge in starting something like that is building a world, and then your job is to keep the world alive and keep adding to it. That’s really fun, as opposed to, “Here’s a comic about this,” about one-off subjects. I’m interested in building worlds and keeping them alive.

Is it a different creative muscle for you as a writer?

Yeah, it is. Especially team books. I’ve never really written a solo character — I guess I did for my Spider-Man thing [2014’s “Edge of Spider-Verse” #5]. But it’s almost always been team books. I just prefer them, I don’t know why. I like juggling a lot of characters.

A huge company like DC, who are caretakers of these characters, you don’t necessarily expect them take on something like Young Animal, which is by its mission statement, experimental. How has the relationship been with DC?

The relationship has been amazing. [DC Entertainment Co-Publisher] Jim [Lee] focuses on the bigger picture art type of things. That’s where his vision comes in. [DC Entertainment Co-Publisher] Dan [DiDio], he’s the nuts and bolts guy. The amount he wanted to take risks was really refreshing and s surprising. I’ve gotten to take a lot of risks, and they’ve been more than supportive. So it’s been great.

Let’s talk “Doom Patrol.” You clarified a bit on Instagram earlier, but there appears to be come misconception on the statue of the series — you’re taking a little bit of a break after #6?

After #6, yeah. Basically, the orders for #7, #8 and #9 got canceled, but that’s only because we’re going to resolicit very soon. We just want to catch up. We want to get ahead. We were getting frustrated with always being a little bit late. A little more late. A little more late. It escalates.

At the same time, you’re trying to make the best book you can. We just didn’t want to rush. We realized, as a team, we needed more time. So we’re just taking that time.

Is Mike Allred still drawing issue #7?

Yeah, absolutely. 100 percent. In fact, the issue I’m writing for him is literally tailor-made for him. It’s a very different issue than the first [six].

And the Allred family are also doing “Bug.” We’ve seen some pages from the series — what’s got you excited about what they’re doing there?

The enthusiasm of the Allred family for this character has been incredible. That’s been a real amazing thing to watch. It’s been the most inspiring thing about the book, it’s what sold me on the book. Obviously, I love obscure characters, but I knew very little about Bug. They convinced me there was something — it’s an amazing old Kirby character, so there’s amazing stuff there. They helped get it out of the character.

And “Flintstones” writer Mark Russell is writing “The Wonderful World of Rocks” back-up in “Cave Carson,” drawn by Benjamin Dewey. What does it mean to have Russell contribute to the line?

He’s a great writer. What we hope to accomplish with his writing at Young Animal is help us expand Cave Carson’s universe, and fill in some of the background.

It’s been one year since the announcement — what are you hoping to see from Young Animal in the next year?

I want to keep the books extremely healthy. I would rather have four really healthy monthlies than more monthlies. But what I would like to see is experimenting with miniseries this year. I think we’re going to start to see that. “Bug” is a mini, there are a couple of other in the pipeline we’re developing right now that I can’t talk about, but they’re miniseries. I’d like to see us expand with some things like that.

The post Gerard Way Hopes to Extend His DC Influence Beyond Young Animal appeared first on CBR.

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