#Imagine em fighting so hard to be together than even their own writers see em and go | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bastardsunlight · 3 years

Text

My buddy over at @sxvethelastdance is doing some deep dive shit on the subject of Liu Kang’s faith in all his iterations—95, games, 2021—so I decided “hey why don’t I do that too?” because I also desire to be one of The Cool Kids™. This is in no way meant to be taken as gospel truth or whatever. It’s mostly for me own records, headcanons-wise, and just kind of a character-building exercise since Lao has become one of my more active/sought-after muses of late. I’ll hide it under a cut because it’s liable to get long

Like my S C H L O N G [cue pornbot invasion]

PS THIS IS GOING TO BE ABOUT MORE THAN JUST HIS FAITH BECAUSE A LOT OF THAT WILL COME FROM UPBRINGING/FAMILY AND WILL ALSO FOCUS ON HIS PERSONALITY AND THE INS/OUTS OF IT

For our purposes (and like, in reality because I DO respect authorial intent to some extent), Shaolin Monks isn’t canon, like at all. Someone had a fever dream and Liu Kang/Kung Lao were bimbos for a few hours. Okay they’re still kind of like that, god bless ‘em, but you get the idea. AIGHT now that’s out the way, let’s get this cue ball rolling.

Okay for starters, games Lao because well he’s only ever appeared in the games (and we don’t usually talk about Legacy Because OOF middle-aged Liu Kang with a hot topic sweater and anger issues—Liu Kangst. You’re welcome [plays a high G on the nearest piano]).

Kung Lao comes from a long, distinguished family who has always contributed to the order of light—they’re founding members, all that stuff. They did not build the academy itself, but the Order started with the Great Kung Lao. OUR Kung Lao is the fulfillment of a prophecy, some vague old thing that told of an ancestor who would carry the “spirit of the Great Kung Lao”. They figure reincarnation, which is a reasonable assumption. If that’s true or not, only Fire God Liu Kang and Lord Raiden know, because they’re the only ones to have met him in person. Whatever the case, Kung Lao is born with the ability to call spirits and channel their energy, their “pressure” to do a variety of things, including teleport, an ability that thankfully did not come until later—can you imagine a teleporting toddler? Good god.

The entire Kung line is blessed with some spiritual power, here and there. Kung Lao is off the charts. His mother, a short time before his birth, has a dream where the GKL came to her and said “this is the one”. He is reaching out to his ancestor from the Realm of the Honored Dead, knowing full well that the once-a-generation tournament is not far off and feeling the pull to Lao like some kind of magnet or doorway. Kung Lao is the strongest spirit-channeler the Kung family has ever seen. His parents therefore name him Lao and with the name comes a great and terrible burden.

He is, naturally, chosen as the generational tithe to the Wu-Shi academy and, naturally, the Order of Light. This is a case of being raised in the faith, knowing little else, but being sharp enough to question some things. Obviously, as a kid, he doesn’t question—he just learns and obeys, trains under various masters, etc. Sometime during his younger years, an orphan shows up at the temple and, being a charitable organization, the elders of the temple take him in and name the boy Liu Kang. Liu and Lao become fast friends and the elders are, of course, pleased as punch to see the Kung’s legacy being a good influence on someone like Liu Kang who, unbeknownst to anyone but them (and Raiden), is the blood of Onaga and in possession of a terrible power himself. It does not occur to them that Lao will not be chosen by the god of thunder to be Earthrealm’s champion. Everyone at the academy trains for this purpose, but in THIS generation, no one even questions that it will be Lao.

Kung Lao is extremely gifted, rarely has to study, hardly tries on all exams and new techniques and masters the strange and deadly weapon that is his signature with relatively few injuries. Combining that with his abilities to move spiritual force and teleport and he is a shoe-in. His faith in the Elder Gods is more of a background hum, at this point and, though he has met Lord Raiden, his faith there, too, is hardly a thought. It’s just part of his life. As anyone who grows up in a faith could tell you, the routines become like breathing.

Liu Kang and Kung Lao grow side-by-side as best friends, confidants, troublemakers (though Lao is absolutely the one cutting class), and, as they grow older and into themselves, lovers.

The first time Kung Lao’s faith comes to the forefront and really shakes is when Lord Raiden choses Liu Kang to be his champion for Mortal Kombat. There is the initial shock, of course, and then there is fear. Mortal Kombat has killed very Earthrealm champion, without exception, since the Great Kung Lao’s second attempt. The legends of Prince Goro are written in the forbidden texts of the academy’s library and naturally, the shaolin rowdy boys have broken in and read them all. Kung Lao meditates for hours, wondering what he did wrong. He is never, at any point, resentful toward Liu Kang himself, who has always been an unfailingly loyal friend, a humble monk, an excellent student, and has, with hard work and perseverance, excelled in HIS classes as well.

The more he considers it, the more his faith in the Elder Gods is shaken—if it was ever terribly solid in the first place. More than that, he begins to mistrust Raiden. Kung Lao determines that, due to the hopelessness of the situation, the likelihood of Liu Kang’s return is almost zero. He has all the faith in the world in how strong Liu Kang is, of course, but those odds are not good. He begins to deeply resent the idea that Liu was chosen as a lamb for slaughter based on factors other than likelihood to win. This is also when the insecurity starts to REALLY set in.

Kung Lao doesn’t realize that Liu Kang views him as equal or superior, seeing how he has never had to study or work at ANYTHING to just nail whatever it is, every time. Kung Lao is one of those young adults who was a child prodigy and is experiencing some SERIOUS burnout in his early twenties. It isn’t that Kung Lao doesn’t know he’s good—he’s very aware of his skill. It comes out as brazen arrogance. No one but Liu Kang can seem to knock him down ANY pegs. His faith, he realizes, has always been in himself and in Liu, in what they’ve built and shared. There is a depth of intimacy in that friendship that goes beyond even the physical—though there IS that.

He’s kind of in the mode of “what have the Elder Gods ever done for me?” (spoiler alert: nothing) and he questions Raiden’s motivations as he slowly adds shit up. Liu Kang is an orphan, of no family, with great power. He doesn’t know if there’s something else to it, but he sees the reactions of the elders of the temple when Raiden chooses Liu and it isn’t “weird that you didn’t choose the kid we groomed from birth to do this” but an almost insane level of like, understanding, as if this was a possible outcome. There is something else up, but he has no way of knowing it. He hates the way Liu just accepts it and while they are still capable of making jokes about the whole situation, he can sense the turmoil within Liu, as well, who is ALSO wondering why Lao wasn’t chosen.

Kung Lao is now the black sheep, the family failure, the one who was beaten out by an orphan. This really begins his “second banana” status and everyone seems to know it. They equate his brash pride to insecurity, which in a way it is, because part of him will always wonder what he did wrong, but they did not know him before. It goes from being part of his personality to being a shield. If he is arrogant and aloof, untouchable, no one will see the doubt and trepidation within. And STILL the Elder Gods do NOTHING. When he sneaks into the tournament, he’s taking matters into his own hands, where he is convinced they have always been.

See, he had been okay with dying for Earthrealm, though he was certain with this power, he wouldn’t—that he could save the place like the ancestor for which he was named. He is not ready to lose Liu Kang.

Aight so caveat here, most of this above was built with a VERY specific Liu Kang in mind and below is 100% riding on that same writer (heh riding). None of this has to, in any way, reflect on anyone else’s Liu Kang—not that I’ve seen a ton of those.

MK2021 for all its faults, had amazing characterization for the heroes, even if some of the cuts, scenes, and lines were a bit ……. Clunky. Kung Lao is clearly a powerful fighter, confident to the point of arrogance, but with the skill to back it up. Even when Cole puts him in the dirt, he hops back up and summons his hat, like “okay cool, now let’s get real” because Kombat is not like a cage fight. This is a man who knows few limitations, is highly skilled, and has clearly been raised in the faith, much like his counterpart from the games. His Arcana is passed through his bloodline, much like that of the Hasashi clan and a few others who have passed out of living memory, likely done in by previous Outworld assassination coups.

The biggest difference between games and 2021 Lao is that the latter is a man who demands proof at every turn, by force if necessary, AND HE IS AWARE OF THIS. His faith rests not in the Elder Gods—not caring much for them or their lack of involvement—but in Raiden himself and only then because he has challenged the god of thunder and was put down pretty soundly. Kung Lao respects ability. He has it, so he therefore expects everyone around him to hold themselves to that same standard.

He is two or three years older than Kang, the young orphan Master Bo’ Rai Cho brought to the temple when they are still children, probably six and nine, give or take. They have no classes together, initially, but Kung Lao ss instructed to keep an eye on him, to help him adjust. The two become fast friends and Liu Kang admires the bejeezus out of his shi xiong, both because of that age difference and the obvious experience gap, and because Kung Lao will ALWAYS go to bat for him.

Kung Lao is well aware of the stakes of this tournament, knows that it is, for the most part, riding on him. This becomes doubly true when Sub-Zero is sent to Earthrealm to start taking out the other champions, one by one, to halt a prophecy. Someone carrying Hasashi blood will upset the balance of the tournament.

He is a dutiful monk, a competent teacher, a powerful fighter, and, alongside Liu Kang, the best hope humanity has for victory. Kung Lao’s resentment, in this universe, is directed primarily toward the elders who sent Kang out into the world after his graduation from the academy as a student (as must all students, some with specific orders, and some with more vague directions) to find his true path. The elders have essentially forced Kang to relive the darkest time in his life and thence, to feel the rage and resentment that has for so long boiled beneath his skin, channeling it into a killing urge. Kung Lao protects Liu Kang from this as best he can and, more than that, he protects the world from Liu Kang.

#aboutlaometa #both of 'em are in here so

14 notes · View notes

neighborhood-merc · 4 years

Text

Guys !!! I am back! First of all, I hope all of y’all (your friends, family, pets! too) are doing alright. Keep safe! Wash your hands! Don’t go out if not necessary! Kisses! Kisses! Kisses! Alright, alright, let’s do this shall we? Same shit applies. [Here is Part 1 & 2 btw ]

The themes of the stories on this list varies, I’m either into something heart-warming, fluffy, domestic that sort of stuff or into some really really heavy and dark messed up ones. (READ THE TAGS) It always depends on the mood am I right? *wink wink*

It’s always gonna be smutty though lol

As long as it’s tastefully written, whatever kinky shit, I can be into it, I don’t judge the writer (they give us free content y’all, who are we to judge??) With that being said if I add something straight up messed up here now/or in the future, don’t come for meh, just mind the tags of the fic, for your own discretion if anything.

this list should be Wade Wilson/Peter Parker - Spiderman/Deadpool pairing only. I kinda like my babies greedy/possessive for/of each other.

READ THE TAGS.

I don’t care who tops or bottoms. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Summaries are taken directly from the fanfic’s summary.

Read the tags first!

Deluge (this is such a good boi, this fic is a good boy!) Weapon X chose Wade Wilson because of several factors in his life. He was a preternatural. He had extraordinary abilities that could be expanded upon. The cancer just made him desperate enough to agree to whatever they wanted to do with him.They didn't just turn him immortal. They destroyed his very soul, tearing him apart and shaping him into something new and never seen before. They took everything he had been and left him with ashes and bones. Soulless.He killed his creators and went on with his life.Then he met Spider-Man.Things started to change.Something inside him, something that had come out of the ashes and was a nightmarish, terrible thing, sat up and took notice. An intense, single-minded notice.

The Perks of Working Third Shift An AU in which Wade is wandering the globe and ends up in NYC where he meets the absolute most perfect man he's ever seen who's working third shift at a quick mart. Even better, the man seems happy to flirt back. Wade makes it his mission to score a date.Peter stopped dating a long time ago, but Wade's flirtations, energetic attitude, and hilarious comments make it hard for Peter not to enjoy the attention. But will all of that be ruined if Wade finds out his secret?

Better Like This (Listen, NotEvenCloseToStraight’s Spideypool works are amazing, read all of em, honestly just check out ALL the works of the writers on my list because if I list everything, this is gonna be a long ass list) No one knows Spider-Man is an Omega. Not the newspapers, not the NYPD, and certainly not the overly loud, definitely obnoxious, sort-of-a-good-guy, completely Alpha, Deadpool. And Peter would like it to stay that way. But when he drops into an unexpected heat, Deadpool is the only person he can call to help, and how quickly the Alpha switches from shouting dirty innuendos to whispering comforting things really throws Peter for a loop. After sharing a heat, Peter is convinced that Wade is his Alpha, and is ready to take him as his mate, but Wade rejects him. Wade knows that a man like him wouldn’t make anyone a good mate, much less a perfect, pretty Omega like Peter. So he says no, pushes the Omega away and unable to even work together anymore, they go their separate ways. Peter is devastated, heartbroken, seeking comfort in the arms of another Alpha, and all Wade can do is watch from a distance, and keep telling himself that he is doing the right thing, sparing Peter a life of disappointment and pain. Peter deserves better than him as a Mate, and one day Peter will understand. It’s Better This Way. But is it really?(Peter is Andrew Garfield)

Use Me Peter wants to help Wade. Wants to make him feel beautiful, wants to make him feel wanted... Wants to put out the fire in his own gut whenever he sees the merc for what he really is. He does.

Double Mint Gum Wade decides that only one of his fine-ass self just isn't enough

Spider Spidey (SPIDERY SPIDEY!)

Bleed the Water Red Peter and Deadpool are held captive by a super-villain that has an inclination for torture. After she boasts her untarnished record at never having hurt a child or teenager, Peter is forced to break the truth to both her and Deadpool.“Did you know I have a perfect record?” The villain collects a rusted pocket knife, tracing it up Peter’s arm, over his shoulders, down to his collarbone, as though considering where to cut. Peter focuses on controlling his breathing, fear twisting awfully in his belly. “You may look down on me, Mr. Spider-Man, but for all the righteous suffering I inflict, I’ve never hurt a child. Not once.”“Y'know, I don’t think you do,” Peter blurts. At his words, Deadpool's stare intensifies. “Have a perfect, non-child harming record, that is.”

Don’t Keep Me Waiting Peter's 90% sure Wade likes him. Or at least he was sure. When you almost jerk off in front of the friend you're definitely not pathetically pining for and they never mention it again, it makes you doubt yourself. Peter knows he should probably just ask what the fuck is going on, but where's the angsty fun in that?

Sometimes When We Touch Peter answers a Craigslist ad for someone who is willing to pay for some unspecified physical contact/sex because he's just that broke. He's surprised to find out Wade Wilson is the one who posted the ad, but thinks he can still manage just fine even when the man explains he'd like him to wear a special costume for the occasion. Of course things become a little more complicated when Wade reveals the outfit he's chosen: a shockingly accurate Spider-Man suit

Sunflower 26 and standing at the head of Parker Industries, Peter feels young in every way. He doesn't know himself, he lacks a lot of experience, and he's struggling to get a grip on what he thinks of the merc with the mouth, an absolute force who has starting pushing his desires in a direction that terrifies him.He desperately tries to come to terms with sexuality, even when it means dragging Wade flat on his face.Takes place after the dance scene in Spider-man/Deadpool, with important plot details omitted. Follows these two through extreme character growth.

Two Thirds of a Whole (I honestly felt weird about this one, but eh, maybe someone who’s into it would appreciate it) Peter Parker and Wade Wilson, finding Vanessa dead and having never met, assume the second body is their other soulmate. When they meet in a market ten years later, they both have a chance they never thought they would get again-- a chance at love.But can they find a way to be happy as two thirds of a whole?

Holding Back The thing about not being able to die is that it makes everything so dreadfully boring. Seriously, immortality's a bitch. So, you gotta keep things interesting. How else are you supposed to get through the day without going insane? Well, more insane.Wade wants to be a hero, but fighting bad guys isn't enough to keep things interesting. Wooing Spider-Man might help, though. And exploring his kinks definitely will. Of course, he never thought anything would come of either of these things. Boy, was he wrong!

Missed You (Imagine me covering me shyly covering my face for this ehehe) “Wade,” Peter whines, pulling off Wade’s mask and catching his lips in a deep kiss. All he can smell is leather and sweat and gunpowder, and he’s already embarrassingly hard. Wade comes home from a mission. Peter missed him. A lot.

Big Peter can't stop looking at and thinking about Wade's great big arms and shoulders and hands and back. He's fine. (He's not fine.)

Slip of the Tongue Sometimes Peter can forget how big Wade is, how much presence he has. Right now is not the time. His heart rabbits in his chest as he swallows, looking up. There’s always something there when Wade’s looking at him, something predatory, that makes Peter nervous and wanting, shivering hot all over.

Wade The Cat “Aw don’t be afraid little buddy, it’s okay, he’s gone”Wade almost cringes at how someone is talking to him, what the hell?! He’s not a defenseless animal. Wait. No, yeah, he is.Wade looks a little alarmed, stepping back as the man crouches next to him, smiling sympathetically “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. You okay?”Wade holds his breath, gives an once over at the guy, beautiful chestnut eyes, the adorable smile, the red face probably resulting from the cold and the brown humid hair stuck to his forehead as he holds his umbrella for both of them and yep, ladies and gentlemen if he wasn’t before, Wade is right now a defenseless animal because “Meow” Wade says wiggling what should be eyebrows “Honey, I’d let you take care of me all night long” Wade purrs.

Gonzo Journalist (It belongs to a series “We fell in love in October) A young photographer working for The Daily Bugle hears about the tragic fate of an ex-soldier and decides to write an article about his cause to help him out. Maybe more than in one way.

The Man in the Mask When Wade is unceremoniously dropped off into the custody of one Dr. Parker, he assumes the man has only the worst possible intentions for one of the world's last remaining mutants. But it turns out, the universe still holds plenty of surprises for them both.

You Wear My Name Over Your Heart Like It’s Invisible "Why don’t you ever let me see it? If you have the name already, why can’t you tell me whose it is? I thought we were best friends."Everyone gets their Name when they turn twenty-one. It isn’t their own name either. It’s the name of their Soulmate. When Wade Wilson wakes on his twenty-first birthday, he looks down at his chest and sees Peter Benjamin Parker. He stares for a moment then shrugs, gets dressed, and doesn’t think about it for another six weeks.

Parachute, Please Peter unexpectedly goes into heat after an Avengers mission, which could have been fine, but the ride back is 2 hours and he's stuck on a plane with his closest friends and family.At least there's one person he can call at times like these for relief. And in comes Wade.

Peter Parker’s Home for the Wayward Villain A really long redemption story.

And Words Are Futile Devices Peter doesn’t think he’s lonely. He’s too busy to be lonely. He’s twenty-two, working on his PhD and holding down a shitty job at the Daily Bugle, not to mention his nightly extra-curricular activities. He’s too busy for friends, and he’s certainly too busy for romantic interests. And yet, shockingly, apparently everyone in his life thinks he needs to stop being an anti-social recluse and get laid.So Peter enters the wide, wonderful world of online dating. He doesn’t expect to find his soul mate, or even a friend, and he’s definitely not looking for hook ups. He doesn’t know what he’s looking for, really, until one Wade W. Wilson catches his eye and captures his heart with risqué dog pics and a concerning obsession with cannibalistic serial killers.This is a love story. A sweet, inevitable journey towards each other. There is humor, and melancholy, and a touch of both gravitas and levity to the weeks that trickle by. But really it’s just an account of the slow, magnetic movement of Peter towards Wade, and Wade towards Peter.

Strays Wade finds Spider-Man unconscious on a roof top. Score!Or: Spider-Man has lost his memories, some of his vocabulary, and all of his social conditioning. Wade is losing his mind.

The Inverse Deadpool doesn't have to try very hard to hide his second gender anymore because ever since Weapon X, no one in their right mind would ever believe that Wade Wilson was an omega. It doesn't matter anyway, because Wade knows no Alpha would keep a male omega. No alpha WANTS one, much less one that's as scarred and unstable as he is. Apparently, Spiderman was born to break every rule Wade has ever known.

The Body Remembers When the Mind Forgets When people need a mate in their life, it isn't usually because they've forgotten they already have one.

Half Your Age (Plus Seven) In which Deadpool has oddly specific and frustrating morals, Spider-Man has excellent friends, his lab partner has an opening for a bassist, Johnny Storm has the warmest feet, and everyone has had enough of hearing Peter talk about Wade Wilson (except Aunt May: she’s always glad to hear he’s back in town).

#fanfic #fanfiction rec #fanfic req #fanfiction #spideypool fanfic rec #spideypool #Peter Parker/Wade Wilson #spiderman/deadpool #Peter Benjamin Parker #peter parker #spiderman #spider-man #spider man #wade wilson #deadpool #fic rec list #fanficrec

157 notes · View notes

jackjots · 3 years

Text

#6 Puns

Wayward Guide for the Untrained Eye 30 Day Prompt

(This takes place after the opening of Episode 5)

Day #6 @30daysofwayward

(I do not own any other characters or place names outside of Shelby St. Ranger, this is just for fun)

I finally met Paul.

I helped get Artemis to her room. Even though my own body complained, it seemed only fair as someone had hoofed me up the stairs at some point. And Riley and the Sheriff were basically two halves of one whole person due to their inebriation and excitement over the...over what they saw.

When I opened the door, unable to knock really since I had Artemis on my arm and had been abandoned half way up by the other two, Paul had started off with: “There you are, where are my fries?” And then he saw me, probably looking even worse now that I was breathing hard carrying Artemis. “Oh no! What happened to her?” “She saw a werewolf.” The words came out of my face faster than I could stop them. “I mean, I mean I think she did. That’s what it sounded like.”

He got more excited than I expected. “I knew it!”

“Could you give me a hand?” I asked as his sister was a deadweight on my already tired arms.

“Yeah sure, sorry.” He helped me put her to bed.

“I’m Paul.” He said once she was laying down.

“I know. I mean, I’m Shelby, Shelby St. Ranger.”

“Cool name. Have you noticed how everyone in this town has like a punny name?”

“Thanks. Do they? I, uh, hadn’t really noticed?”

“How?” He sounded genuinely shocked.

“Well, I guess, I don’t usually talk to a lot of people in town. Mostly keep to myself.”

The light left his eyes. He was getting bored with me. Made sense. “Did the werewolf get you, too?” He asked after a beat, gesturing to my face.

“Oh no,” I felt my face get hot, “Unrelated accident.”

“Well, thanks for getting my sister up here. You think she’ll be okay?”

“I’m not a doctor, and I think our doctor passed out somewhere, but yeah I think she just fainted. I better head back to my dinner.” I thought about asking about his attack, but I felt so awkward already, I couldn’t find the words.

“Nice to meet you.”

“You too.”

I walked back down to my dinner which was now cold. Desmond was at the bar, and he poured me a beer. “Thanks for getting Artemis up there. Any idea what happened?”

“I didn’t see it, but Riley and the Sheriff did. Something about a big animal.”

“That’s what they were saying.”

I didn’t mention the word werewolf. For some reason, it felt like a bad idea. Probably because my logical brain was still fighting with my reawakened imagination. And Paul’s reaction was a bit overwhelming. “Does this kind of thing happen a lot here?”

“There’s animals, but you leave them alone, they leave you alone. Usually.”

“I’ve seen some on my walks, but nothing like they described. Or that I ran into.”

“You ran into?”

“The night Prism got attacked. I thought it was someone in a fur coat, but I don’t know anymore.”

“Attacked?”

“Or whatever happened.”

“Shelby, I think you’re getting too worked up about this.”

I nodded. “Yes. Yes I am.” I sipped the beer. “But honestly, it’s distracting me from the pain.”

“You were in a car accident.”

“That’s right. I was.”

“And then you carried a whole person up those stairs.”

“I did.”

“And now, you’re sitting at a bar, drinking a beer.”

“Is there a point you’re making?”

“No point.”

“Are you trying to say I should rest?”

“I didn’t say that, but that right there is a good point.”

I sighed. “Desmond, two people are dead.”

“Which has nothing to do with you. Let it go.”

“I can’t. There’s something weird about all of this.”

“Maybe so. But what will worrying about it change?”

I ran my finger over the rim of the glass. “It’s not that I’m worried, per say. I just need to know. Like when I’m writing a book, which I should be doing right now.” I paused to let a little writers guilt drift in and out of my head. “But when I’m writing a book, I have to know the motivations, what’s going on in the characters' heads. I have to get to the bottom of things. And there’s a disconnect here.” “Oh?” He was absentmindedly wiping the counter, keeping his eyes on mine intently as I got lost in my own words.

“There’s a piece missing. Something I can’t put my finger on. And it’s not even who is killing people, it’s why. It doesn’t make sense. The direction of what sort of person it’s pointing to, and the motive it’s pointing to, they don’t mix. They don’t make sense together. Which could only mean one thing.” I felt the momentum of my thoughts; like going downhill and not being able to slow down. “It’s got to be a set up. It’s the only way it makes sense. Which would point to…” I almost said it. Miner Mole. Silver. That was the only thing I could think of.

Even though I hadn’t said the name, Desmond didn’t ask who I was going to say. He just grabbed a glass and started to rub the rag around the glass edge. After a moment of me staring into my own head, he smacked his lips. “It sounds like you need to solve things to feel better, but I don’t think it will help.”

That snapped me out of my head. “Not to feel better, just to make sense of things.”

“Can’t you just let it not make sense? There’s a lot of mysteries in life, Shelby. If you solve ‘em all, then what's the point of living?”

“Can’t I just solve most of them? And leave a few? Like the Bermuda triangle?”

Desmond smiled. “You going to need another one?” He gestured to my beer that had somehow dwindled to an amber sheen at the bottom of my glass while I wasn’t looking.

“No, I think one is enough. No need to repeat history. Thanks Desmond, thanks for listening.”

“That’s what I’m here for.”

“I hope tomorrow, things make more sense.”

I might as well have hoped for pigs to fly.

#shelby st ranger #30daysofwayward #tin can bros #waywardguidefortheuntrainedeye #waywardguide #short story #fanfiction #fic

3 notes · View notes

duhragonball · 4 years

Text

shadowjack12345 replied to your photo “Got a commission this week by the awesome FrauleinPflaume, and it...”

Nice to finally see Zatte, I always liked her - she's dangerous in a way we don't often get in DB.

Hey, thanks, that means a lot to me. Also, this is all the prompting I need to try to explain how I came up with the character. Spoilers under the cut.

The thing that held me up early on was that I couldn’t decide if Luffa’s “career” in the past should be long or short. I used the Bardock: Father of Goku TV special as a model of a “short” Luffa arc. You have this character who’s only mentioned in passing (by Raditz), and the TV special fleshes him out and kills him off in the space of an hour. Then he wakes up in the past in the 2011 “Episode of Bardock” Special, if you want to count that. On some level, I imagined it could be possible to give Luffa a really quick run in her native era, and then send her to the future to join the TIme Patrol, like the Bardock specials.

I worked on Chapter 126 and 127 today, so I think it’s clear that I did not go down that route. I knew the alternative would be to really flesh out the character, having her go through multiple adventures like Goku in Dragon Ball. That meant I had to come up with extra stuff for her to do. The simple fact is that I really enjoyed writing the character, and I wanted to take the long road, so that later on, when she refers to her past exploits, there would be some weight to them.

So I worked on coming up with stuff for her to do in between major plot points. I thought about giving her some love interests, since we’d never seen a Saiyan character jump from one relationship to another, like Spider-Man in the 70′s. At some point, I thought it might be interesting to have her run into an old flame, someone who knew her before she went Super.

The problem with that was that when we first meet Luffa, she’s only 19 years old, and she’s been married to Kandai for about a year. And she’s been living on the Dorlun colony for about five years. I say this like someone else foisted this problem on me, but I’m the one who came up with all that stuff, to better amplifly the tragedy she experiences before turning Super Saiyan. This isn’t some seasoned veteran who’s been all over the universe, loving and leaving ‘em from one planet to the next. She’s young and inexperienced and isolated in a very small community.

But I still liked the idea, and I hadn’t published Chapters 1-10 yet, so I still had a lot of room to set things up for later. I realized the only way this would work would be if the “old flame” was a Dorlun who had admired Luffa from afar. And that led me to Captain Mesas, the leader of the Dorlun militia.

Mesas originally served only one purpose, which was to be a sort of proxy who could represent the entire Dorlun colony that Luffa had been hired to defend. I assigned her gender at random, I think. I just know that I didn’t put a ton of thought into it, since I was planning to kill all of the Dorluns off later anyway. Luffa would take this personally, because she came to appreciate these people without really admitting it, and this would be demonstrated by her respect for Mesas, who was their lead warrior, and thus the most Saiyan-like of the bunch. Eventually, I renamed her Captain Zatte, because I had settled on naming all the Dorlun characters after anagrams of metric prefixes, i.e. “zetta”.

So I quickly came to the conclusion that the only way this “reunited with an old flame” idea would work would be if it was a Dorlun, and the only one that would make any sense would have to be Zatte, and the only way that could work would be if there was some sort of romantic tension between them. They couldn’t be lovers in those early chapters because Luffa was married at the time, but later, there would need to be a moment where Zatte would confess her feelings and Luffa would have to feel the same way.

And this is how I ended up making Luffa bisexual. I didn’t want Zatte to be a man, and I couldn’t make Luffa gay, because I needed her to start out in a marriage to a Saiyan man. Too much of the plot depended upon that. I struggled with this decision for a couple of reasons.

First, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, and I didn’t know if I wanted this story to be my first try, because I was already trying to do a lot of other new tricks. I didn’t want real-world wlw’s to see this story and be disappointed by my amateurish attempt to get it right.

Second, I felt disingenuous about making such a major change to the character for my own convenience. I felt like I’d seen that a lot in comic books over the years, where writers would seemingly assign bisexuality to characters arbitrarily, or for “shock” value, or just to be salacious. I didn’t want readers to think I was only doing this for shallow reasons, or to get my jollies writing two girls making out.

But at the same time, I really wanted to do it this way, and I finally decided to just go with it and see where it took me. In hindsight, I realize that I was just being a fraidy cat about the whole thing. Writing wlw romance isn’t so functionally different from mlw romance, and once I got used to the idea, I realized the only thing I needed to do was to treat it with the proper respect. And really, this wasn’t so far off from the original premise. I wanted to make the “Legendary Super Saiyan” a woman to defy convention and to piss off dudebros. Making her queer just continues that same line of reasoning, right? I used to see jackasses on the internet say that women couldn’t turn Super Saiyan because they couldn’t “get angry enough,” which is pretty similar to a lot of biphobic crap I’ve heard on the internet. I mean, I used to listen to Loveline on the radio around 2001, and Dr. Drew was acting like bisexuality was some made-up thing. Apparently Dr. Drew went nuts somewhere along the way, or maybe he always was, but he seemed pretty progressive in 2001, and he accepted gay and lesbian callers just fine, but he told bi callers to “figure out what they want”, and that never sat right with me. People used to say there were no such things as black swans, too. That’s Luffa all over. You can deny her all you want, but she’ll still kick your ass.

I’m this close to going off on a rant about J.K. Rowling, so let me try to force myself to talk about Zatte here. The problem I ran into almost immediately was that I wrote what I had originally planned for her, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. And then I had to move on to the next arc, and yet, she was still there, and I knew I’d have to do something with her. I feel like I’ve been winging it ever since, but my main priority was to set her apart from Keda, the other Dorlun character I kept around. So I ran with the idea that Zatte is more “Saiyan-like” than the rest of her species, and maybe that makes her a little radical at times, maybe not in a way we humans might notice, but a way that other Dorluns would find unsettling. Dorluns are survivalists, and for them “risk” is a four-letter word, but Zatte’s a thrillseeker at heart. She wants to survive in spite of the dangers rather than back away from them. Keda would find somewhere to hide for several months until it’s safe to come out, but Zatte would try to go all Die Hard on a situation. Keda sticks close to Luffa because Luffa is the strongest person in the universe, so by Luffa’s side is arguably the safest place to be. Zatte sticks close to Luffa because she’s a furry being by Luffa’s side is arguably the most dangerous place to be. If she can survive there, she can survive anywhere.

There’s also the whole fanaticism angle. At some point, I came up with the idea that Zatte sees Luffa’s Super Saiyan emergence as a watershed moment in history. I sort of threw that together, mostly to make Luffa uncomfortable and to add some tension to their relationship, but it also distinguishes Zatte from characters like Chi-Chi or Bulma, who see Super Saiyan as a lot of flashy nonsense, signifying nothing. “Punk rocker? Don’t you understand? Your son is a miracle!”

That angle is kind of hard for me to work with, because I also tried to make Zatte very grounded at the same time. I guess it’s like if you had Jerusalem Syndrome but you were very self-aware the entire time. You make a toga out of your hotel linens and just constantly saying “Man, I’m just being really nutty right now, but oh well.”

A lot of her tactics are sort of rooted in stuff I thought made sense with the weaker characters in Dragon Ball. I don’t really know how strong Zatte would be. I envisioned her as being like a “mere mortal”, like Lois Lane, but in Dragon World even guys like Mr. Satan are insanely tough. I’m pretty sure Bulma could kick Brock Lesnar’s ass if she visited our own world. He’d F5 her and she’d just get up and slap him in the face and he’d collapse. I feel like if Zatte entered the 23rd Budokai, she could sweep the entire thing. That’s not what I set out to do, and it sounds really arrogant because I’d be putting her over Goku and Piccolo, but come on, that’s low-tier by DBZ standards. If she couldn’t dominate the 23rd Budokai, then definitely the 22nd, which also sounds unthinkable, but that’s how this crazy show works. Yajirobe could have won the 22nd Budokai if he’d only thought to enter it.

My point is that “weaker” characters can do a lot from the sidelines if they know their limits and pick their spots, like Tien using the Kikoho on Cell and Super Buu, or Yajirobe cutting off Vegeta’s tail, and so forth. Most of those guys hate resorting to that sort of thing, because they prefer to stand and fight in the open, but Zatte specializes in sneaky hit-and-run attacks. She should be able to shoot ki blasts, but she sticks to firearms instead, because they’re more precise and ki senses can’t pick them up. She likes being underestimated, to the point where her ideal battle is one where the enemy doesn’t even know she’s on the field.

I dunno, I’ve always wondered if I was getting her “right” all this time, but now that I summarize it all in one place, it doesn’t seem as disjointed as I feared. I had all these different things I needed her to be and do, and most of them involved finding ways to justify her continued presence in the story, but maybe it’s all worked out after all. Sometimes I feel like Zatte is the Yoko Ono of this fic, but the Beatles suck, so I shouldn’t indulge in their crude analogies. I Zatted my way into this mess, and I’m happy to Zatte my way out.

#shadowjack12345 #luffastuff #zatte #i'm just so glad the visual worked out #i tried to make her look like this alien babe #but i was never sure how it would look if a real person looked like her #but the 'gwen from camp camp' socks and shorts really suit her well #i'm gonna have to write that in to the fic

3 notes · View notes

letstalksymphogear · 5 years

Text

Symphogear, Ep. 6 (Cont.)

Hibiki, having seen a horror upon horrors, immediately asks Tsubasa if she’s okay. Tsubasa points out she’s a hospital patient, why would you ask this question, you insensitive prick. Hibiki points to the following scene:

Now, you may be asking yourself. “How does a formerly comatose person who is now bedridden on an IV drip manage to do this much damage?” Simply put, Tsubasa has a very chaotic aura. She doesn’t even have to take stuff out of her room; the places she goes to just naturally wind up like this. It’s a metaphor for how much of an absolute mess this person is simply by existing.

“l-look i just- its hard to organize things and- im more of a visual person and-”

“BITCH YOU LIVE LIKE THIS?”

Hibiki unwittingly gets her revenge on Tsubasa. She doesn’t realize it, but her lecturing Tsubasa on what an absolute mess every facet of her life is could possibly be heralded as her lowest point in the entire series.

No, wait. Thinking about it now, this is her second lowest. We won’t see her lowest until GX comes along.

“hibiki, every single bone in my body is broken, you dont have to break my pride too”

Hibiki, being an absolute darling, actually picks up Tsubasa’s mess. This is more than she can say about her own messes.

“haha, miku usually does this for me! wait- wait a minute.”

“i dont get it. i tried to kill you. i tormented and ignored you. i refused to help you for months. i failed to train you on any facet of combat as your senior. i nearly let you get kidnapped and, failing that, nearly killed myself while making you watch, which ALSO didnt help you not get kidnapped aside from scaring the shit out of that weird lady. why are you... helping me?”

“because either we’re going to be very good friends or im going to toss you out the window personally!”

“oh god, that aggression screams kanade. i cant not like her.”

Absolutely annihilated. Just kick her while she’s down in her Taco Bell spiral of humiliation and self-discovery, Hibiki.

“it’s okay, tsubasa! you may be a terminal dumbass, but im sure if we all work together, we can share our braincells and become collectively smarter, for each other!”

“interesting theory. how many ya got?”

“ZERO!”

They trade the kind of banter two people with 0 brain cells would have and then Tsubasa points out Hibiki is doing a great job in her place.

“hey hey HEY HOLD THE PHONE IVE LEARNED MY LESSON IM NOT TRYING TO REPLACE YOU OKAY IM NOT YOU, IM JUST HIBIKI, DOING HER JOB, ALRIGHT”

Meanwhile, in the library, Miku is looking at books, as she does what she says she’s gonna do, unlike a certain other person cavorting with cute idols.

“The Gay Way: How to Get Your Same Sex Relationship Back On Track, by Dr. Lesbe Honest. wow, this one is right up my alley.”

Okay, I’m gonna be honest with you. I literally forgot they show you the title in this. Imagine my face when I made up that title on the spot only to be hit with this little number. Holy shit, Symphogear. There’s this thing called subtlety. I’m begging you. We get it.

OH, AND IT GETS BETTER, BECAUSE

THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK IS THE WRITER OF THE SHOW

IT’S LITERALLY GOT HIS NAME ON IT

THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF WRITING A STORY AND THEN INSERTING A BOOK CALLED “LEARN THE PLOT” WRITTEN BY YOU, IN UNIVERSE

KANEKO STOP THIS BALONEY, PLEASE

AND LIKE FUCKING CLOCKWORK SHE JUST- SHE TURNS HER HEAD AWAY FROM THE BOOK TITLED “THIS IS THE PLOT MOTIF” BY “AUTHOR” AND THEN FUCKING

SHE CONVENIENTLY LOOKS OVER TO THE DISTANCE

AND SHE SEES HIBIKI WITH THE HOT IDOL MIKU WAS INTO, THAT THEY WERE BOTH A FAN ON, AND SHE’S JUST CHILLING THERE AND MIKU WAS TOLD HIBIKI’S ON SERIOUS BUSINESS

AND THE HOSPITAL QUARTERS ARE SOMEHOW CONVENIENTLY CONNECTED TO THE FUCKING LIBRARY ON FULL DISPLAY BECAUSE GOD KNOWS EVERYONE IN A LIBRARY HAS TO WATCH SICK PEOPLE DIE IN REAL TIME

AND NOW MIKU IS THINKING “OH MY FUCKING GOD IM BEING CHEATED ON” AND HER FEELINGS ARE HURT FOR THIS TOTALLY CONTRIVED FUCKING COINCIDENCE

AND SHE’S ALL “BOO HOO HOO I’VE BEEN NTR’D! THIS WAS A CUCKING PLOT THIS WHOLE TIME! WOE IS ME!” FUCK YOU. THIS IS THE WORST. THIS IS ABSOLUTE GARBAGE WHY WOULD YOU- WHY DO YOU EVEN NEED TO SET THIS UP? THERE’S SO MANY BETTER WAYS TO DO THIS!

AND SHE’S JUST STARING BACK AT THE BOOK WRITTEN BY THE SAME ASSHOLE WHO WROTE THIS ENTIRE DAMN SCENARIO IN THE FIRST PLACE, AN EVIL GOD MOCKING HIS SUBJECTS IN THE FACE OF SCRUTINY FOR DRAMA WITH THE MOST CLICHE LOVE NOTES IN A GODDAMNED SOAP OPERA

AND HIBIKI IS NONE

THE

FUCKING

WISER

SYMPHOGEAR SURE IS GREAT, HUH? I SURE DO LOVE SYMPHOGEAR WITH ALLLLLL MY HEART. WHAT A WELL WRITTEN MASTERPIECE! FUCKING BELONGS IN THE FUCKING MOMA!!!!!

Okay. Okay. Let’s get that out of our system. The worst is over. This is the, uh, crescendo of the bad side plot as it inevitably sets itself on the road to resolution. I’m not going to have an aneurysm. My brain is not going to split itself in half. We’re good. I swear, we’re good.

Tsubasa, meanwhile, wants to understand why Hibiki fights, wrestling with the Da Vinci code that is her own emotions. She points out the fight against the Noise isn’t a game, and it ain’t no comic book bullshit either. It’s real, it’s out there, and it’s not pretty yet easily marketable as cute mascots. And what does our protagonist say? No making it up, she literally says:

“i dunno”

Not a damn brain cell in her body, but props for keeping it real. I’d likely say the same thing.

This is the face of someone currently sucking air through their teeth at the raw frustration that someone would be dumb enough to risk their life for the sake of only helping others.

“listen. im gonna keep it real here. i suck at literally everything. math. social studies. writing. helping people is all i have, because its not a competition. you just... you do it. you dont get better at helping people, you just help. like, thats it. i dunno what else to tell you.”

Then Hibiki points out that she feels it all started with Kanade saving her, and the speech implies its a ‘pay it forward’ sort of affair. She was saved, and so she should save others. Unfortunately, it comes off more as a guilt complex. “I lived, and I feel bad about that, so I gotta save everyone else” kind of stuff.

“its my coping mechanism for my countless traumas!”

“i get it now. you’re just as much of a mess as i am. you just dont show it as much. that kinda thinking’s gonna get you killed.”

Tsubasa then correctly points out that it is a kind of survivor’s guilt, where she wants to be released from the pain of old wounds, completely unaware of the irony of her statement.

“yeah. i get ya. we’re both wrecks. but... we can be wrecks working together.”

This would be the part where she says I’M SORRY but apparently we just don’t fucking do apologies in Symphogear, huh? Too good for ‘em, eh?! God.

Then they go outside and talk more about stuff and Durandal. The summation:

“do you have the capacity to live a life forever kicking ass?”

“yeah”

Hibiki, coming to terms with how she wants to deal with shit, manages to sharpen (haw) her resolve as to who she is and how she uses her abilities.

Meanwhile...

youtube

“i cant believe hibiki is having an affair with an attractive idol popstar. especially my favorite one from their old band. not only is she cheating on me, but she’s cheating on me from one of the five people on my lists id immediately get with if i had the chance. it feels like a double betrayal. a real life one, and a fantasy one... why do i find this weirdly hot...?”

“HEY NEWCOMER WELCOME TO THE CUCK AND BUCK WHERE WE SELL FRESHLY FRIED CUCKS FOR ONE BUCK, REAL EASY, REAL CHEAP, GOOD OL’ FASHIONED JAPANESE SOULFOOD”

“ive come to take my throne. i’ll take the ‘one flew over the cuckoo’s nest” and have the three eggs over easy with the ‘easy sleazy pancakes’”

“make it an extra lonely helping. this is gonna be a long afternoon.”

“ahhh. a freshly cucked newcomer coming to the cuck and buck to duck amongst their bad luck run amok, huh?”

“listen dont sass me about my busy girlfriend with your dr. seuss antics just gimmie the food and lets get this over with”

“no problem! sorry, they just come easy. it’s hard to buck at the cuck and buck when rhymes you huck make you wanna fu-”

“FOOD. NOW.”

Miku then ponders about how her feelings may have spiraled from a process of over thinking, or possibly hunger. Maybe both. Maybe Hibiki isn’t cheating on her. Maybe the reasons are more complicated than she knows. She briefly contemplates communication; a futile gesture when it is Hibiki safeguarding a secret she is forced to keep for incredibly stupid reasons.

“thanks for the food, miss. it really helped sort my feelings out.”

“no probs, kid. here at the cuck and buck, the only thing we cuck here is... our hearts.”

Meanwhile, Hibiki is still hanging with Tsubasa. Hey, if you’re gonna hang out with a critically acclaimed popstar, might as well squeeze every minute out of it, right?

“so... taco bell, huh? im surprised you actually like taco bell now. maybe you just like fast food styled psuedo-mexican restraunts? have you tried chipotle?”

“i... maybe you’re right, actually. i’ve grown to love taco bell, but... maybe i should expand my horizons. kanade did say... singing makes you hungry. maybe thats what she meant. i should take to new life experiences...”

“yeah! i can take you to all the good fast food places i know!”

“dont you have a girlfriend?”

“she can join us! she’s a big fan of you after all!”

“hey- hey wait! m- more friends? more... more friends... more friends.....”

“more friends...”

Meanwhile, a crisis develops.

Chris, having heard the f-word (friendship), is heading immediately to do the exact opposite of this.

She’s taken some pointers from Tsubasa, t-posing to assert dominance.

“how the fuck is she even flying”

“i cant wait to tell hibiki how much i love and appreciate her despite the weird NTR aura surrounding this whole situation”

“yeah, that’s right! i’m meeting the Gremlin in the park for an asskicking, don’t worry!”

“oh, speak of the devil! hibiki! i love and appreciate you despite the weird ntr auras!”

“miku- wait. oh no. i saw this happen in sam reimi’s spiderman 3. im fucked.”

“YOU GUESSED CORRECTLY, PIDGEON BANGS”

I know I’ve joked about homewrecking, but this is ridiculous.

Chris realizes there’s someone else around she may have potentially hurt. This is surprising, given murder is not something she has shyed away from, but she’s slowly climbing that ladder of morality, so cut her some slack for taking it one rung at a time.

“im losing my girl. losing my grip. now im about to lose my life. this NTR business truly is the worst.”

Chris has accidentally employed the Dio Brando style of disposing of people, which consists of throwing a vehicle and smashing them until dead.

“you’ve taken one step too close to my heartstrings, Gremlin, and for that you’re about to understand the full definition of an ass kicking.”

Hibiki fucking punches the car. Everything is forgiven in this episode for now.

“i... hibiki... are you... a street fighter character? holy shit. oh my god. hibiki oh my god you’re a street fighter character. thats been the true problem here. you’re a street fighter character now. oh my god. cheating? how could i have thought cheating was involved? you were literally just becoming a straight up superhero! oh my god. the abs! the washboard abs! the signs were all around me! the only thing you went to do behind my back was kick ass!”

“i’m sorry. i need to go kick ass now.”

The good news is all that tension just got evaporated. Miku sorta gets the truth now: her girlfriend hasn’t been cheating on her, she’s just been trying to save the local tri-county area from the grips of inter-dimensional alien eldritch entities controlled by a Gremlin and her Mistress. It’s a lot to take in, though.

These two are about to fight head to head. Last time, Hibiki was but the pupil. Now, she is the Master.

“can’t touch me, goldie locks. lemme do you a favor and CRACK THAT WHIP!”

“oh my god hibiki’s gonna fight that weird looking person”

“naruto running deeper into the woods isn’t gonna stop me from beating your ass senseless, fists for brains”

“thats because i wanna talk, asshole”

“wait. wait, what? you... you want to talk? to me?”

Hibiki proceeds to aggressively describe herself to her. Name, identity, blood type, age, the works. This is because she’s trying to befriend her, because Hibiki feels fighting people is bad, and that talking is more useful than fighting. This is a recipe for suicide, normally, but in this instance...

“what in the goddamn hell... i... um... nice.. to meet you...?”

Hibiki deploys a counter-T-Pose to show kinship, feeling that they don’t have to fight like this since they’re not Noise.

“talk may be cheap but it’ll make kicking your ass all the more easier, nerd”

Chris learns this, in fact, does not make the ass kicking all the more easier. Hibiki’s fresh new moves manage to dodge whip after whip of Chris’s attacks, and it’s really starting to annoy her a lot.

“pain in the ass. so you learned how to fight, huh? fine. you’ll tire out eventually.”

“let’s just talk, seriously! or maybe we can bond over board games-”

“i FUCKING hate board games. the fuck are you, a grandma? just fight already! people cant understand each other anyway!”

“JUST DIE ALREADY!”

“i was told to kidnap you. but im exerting a loophole today; no one told me to do it alive”

“the only kidnapping going down is me, sleeping in on a thursday afternoon forgetting class exists, you neon porcupine. so come at me. can’t kick me ass if you dont come any closer, right?”

“WITH PLEASURE!”

“ive watched the entirety of dragonball z, i know exactly how this fight’s gonna go down”

“finally. looks like i got y- hey, wait, what?”

“ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY JANKING MY LEG? THIS BITCH IS LITERALLY GOKU? PULLING KAMEHAMEHAS AND SHIT? WHY? god. its me. yukine chris. why do you hate me. why do you drag me through all this shit only to be hit in the head with some real anime baloney. why. please. have some mercy.”

“i dont know what a goku is but sure, yeah, why not”

“im going to kill her. oh my god. she doesnt even know who goku is.”

“get that tentacle shit away from me. im not fucking around anymore. we’re going to have a heart to heart whether you like it or not!”

“oh shit she found my weakness. really close melee combat.”

“MADE A FRIENDSHIP GIFT FOR YA. IT’S A FRESHLY MADE KNUCKLE SANDWICH, STRAIGHT FROM THE DELI”

“OH GOD, PLEASE, NOT MY FACE”

“REQUEST ACCEPTED, PAL”

Hibiki punched her so hard that she physically destroyed the entire armor Chris was wearing in a single blow.

“she... she doesnt punch ME like that... i mean, probably because she loves me, but..”

“did... did she just kill that person...? hibiki...? you, uh... you alright...?”

#symphogear #recap #comedy #anime #a lot of cuck was said here

38 notes · View notes

fenrirlives · 5 years

Text

So after getting some feedback here and from some gacha folks on discord, the overall picture I’m seeing here is that people had a much larger problem with the way Minase wrote a lot of the servants and their interactions than the concept of Agartha in general. I also see alot of people base their dislike on the JP version, which I can’t really comment on because I don’t speak the language and I’m not a fan of basing opinions on possibly biased translations for or against the subject matter

tl;dr, I liked it a good deal! Hated the repetitive dialogue, but the blended fictional worlds, Megalos, and a bunch of other things were really to my liking! I view it as a cool singularity with a sloppy ending and sloppier dialogue. Not as good as Shinjuku, but leagues better than Septem, London, or Orleans on my chart.

also as far as villain servants go, Columbus goes in my “What a douche, I love em!” shelf of fame right next to Mebd and Teach. I mean look at this dude!

Truly Rider is best servant class in all respects! (also his artist is great go follow!)

Addressing the elephant in the room first, I was really confused at the whole misogyny complaints. I saw a few people who found the tyrants to be sexist in concept, while others took more issue with Fergus’ interaction with Scheherazade, or how Fergus as a character was treated overall.

I don’t imagine there are THAT many people who see the kingdoms as the problem, as they never came off as a commentary on gender to begin with, and context shows that they wouldn’t even work as commentary since all aspects of them are either A) fabricated in regards to the non servants, or B) altered by Scheherazade’s Noble Phantasm in regards to actual servants. If anyone saw them as the writer’s take on gender roles, I think it’s unintended.

People taking umbrage with Fergus and Sche, I can understand a little more, as alot of that is a symptom of the repetitive dialogue that plagues this whole singularity. Fergus’ message near the end is one that I agree with (living in constant fear of death isn’t living at all, and using your trauma as an excuse to generalize or hurt other people is unacceptable), and I was a big fan of how the end of his quest to become a good king is realizing he’s just not meant to be one.

The thing is, character arcs are carried by their dialogue, and having Fergy either repeat the same crap about training/not hitting women or break the pace of a scene to internally monologue about the philosophy of a kingdom really did no favors. I also wished that his revelation about there being strong women was something someone else told him instead of something he just randomly remembers when the time is convenient, because that makes his whole “younger self” aspect kind of meaningless outside of not letting him be playable. Medea and Medusa lily were far better examples of how one goes about writing these younger servants and their relation to the knowledge of their future selves.

I think it would’ve worked better to use Adult Fergus instead, and have him show new levels of discomfort both with the situation in Argartha, and with his own behavior when first interacting with Sche (thereby betraying her expectations and reason for summoning him by actually being more thoughtful and reserved than she initially expected) . Maybe have him focus more on male camaraderie with Columbus and the resistance than sleeping with women, as I don’t imagine he’d have much interest in cell dividing zombies with fabricated personalities, even if he doesn’t know that’s what they are yet!

Now, Scheherazade is actually my favorite character from this singularity besides Wu. I love stories that have trauma & behavior developed from trauma (rather than principle built upon trauma) as an antagonistic force. Having to perfect your craft of storytelling to survive for over 2 and a half years while also suffering abuse and captivity is nothing short of awful, and the fact that this attracts the Demon Pillar to her and allows them to work together is really interesting.

I did dislike the fact that she seemed more affected by her infatuation with Fergus than his encouragement to find strength and pride in her storytelling, and see her nature as a heroic spirit as a boon to it, rather than something to fear. It feels like a big flaw of her character in FGO, which is that DW can’t decide if they want her to be a shivering leaf that hates fighting, or a sly beauty that subverts authority with her tales. Ideally these two aspects should be combined, but it comes across as inconsistent since there’s no solid in-between to give that transition more nuance.

That being said, I think the folks that label Fergus’ speech as inherently sexist are kinda missing the forest for the trees. No amount of headcanon or fan interpretation changes that he’s a character highly motivated by carnal instinct, and the fact that it’s the lense through which he tries to argue against Scheherazade’s viewpoint is pretty consistent, though the afore mentioned issues with his dialogue makes his sudden shift back to being horny on main jarring and could be fixed by him always being adult Fergus. I can at least appreciate that the story brings up the clumsiness of his words and that even if they get the message across, the flaw in delivery means that Scheherazade will not indulge him on his terms, even if she’s grown just a tiny bit out of her old mindset (plus everyone calls him out so it’s not like his attitude is treated as being “good”, just that it’s not all there is to him). Bottom line I love both those characters, and Agartha left them both in a place where I’d love to see more about them and their relationship explored!

Drake/Dahut was unremarkable (though I was a huge fan of the character design, and I wish DW would make that a skin for Drake). The concept of Ys and her being a creepy rapist/murderer using Drake as her puppet was interesting, but she really didn’t get screen time needed to do anything with that. Wu Zetian on the other hand, I felt was really fun!

I would’ve liked to see her more before the confrontation while we were in the Nightless city, but her speech about working her way up from nothing to becoming a ruler through sheer tenacity, contrasted against the lady that tries SO hard not to let it show that she likes being doted on really clicked with me. All in all, she definitely swiped Gorgon’s spot as the 4 star servant I’m gonna use that ticket on later in the year!

Penthesilea and Megalos had the highlight of the singularity. Nothing was cooler than fighting a bunch of Amazons as those two clashed overhead, and despite almost losing that fight due to a string of Penthesilea’s intrusions hitting my team, I actually wish they did more damage at this point because I wouldn’t even be mad (fyi Colombus actually got killed by Penth during the Megalos fight and I couldn’t stop laughing).

Now if we’re talking about parts of Agartha I absolutely hated, that’s Phenex with a bullet! Besides his bossfight being the most drawn out and irritating thing ever, the fact that both him and the Pillar in Shinjuku don’t fight us in their more humanoid form feels like such a waste. These are supposed to be 4 (5 counting ccc) Pillars that had enough independence gained to run away from Goetia, so the fact that they still look like pillars and never become those human forms when we fight them seems like a real dropped ball here when it comes to visual storytelling and Story/gameplay integration.Also, after how radical Shinjuku’s final fight was, Agartha really didn’t do much to sell Caladbolg finally going off in the middle of the fight (the poison of Wu’s NP was a nice touch at least!)

so yeah, I had quite a few problems here, but I always regard the art and media I consume on a component basis, and for me, the lows here really couldn’t beat out the fact that Agartha was this really cool combination of fabricated settings with tyrannical rulers facing off against a villain masquerading as a revolutionary hero, with a Nightmare monster appearing anywhere at any time, and our heroes seeking to find out which of these figures was the one truly responsible.

This was always the strength of the Remnants imo, taking looser concepts that normally don’t fly in Nasuverse fiction, and using it to twist the rules of servants through singularities in a way the original seven didn’t outside of Camelot and Babylonia. It wasn’t as great as those two by a long shot, but at the end of the day, It’s left me quite excited for Shimosa, which I’ve been told is the hypest Pseudo Singularity out of the bunch.

It sucks that this singularity gets such a bad rap when it has so many cool and interesting things in it, but if people dislike something, then there’s nothing for it. As for me, I’d give it a B- on an F to S scale, with Camelot still sitting at the absolute top for me. Anyway, Happy 4th of July tomorrow if you celebrate it, and here’s to EoR 3 and Shirou eventually getting in the game (lmao nope)

#Big opinion words #no hard feelings here if you disagree!#I wish Scheherazade was higher tier man #I wuv her lots #Also Hydras are annoying and I wish something else dropped that Wine dawg

8 notes · View notes

cssns · 5 years

Text

It’s HERE!!! November’s roundup!

I know... I’m late again... I’m sorry, the day got away from me... but better late than never!

Wow!!!! I can’t believe we’re here!!! November is gone and we got some incredible updates to some incredible fics last month!! And 2 more fics completed! So if you haven’t caught up, here they are! And make sure to give our authors and artists some well deserved love! They have all worked so hard to keep us inundated with incredible Supernatural fics and art and they deserve all the likes, kudos, and shares we can give them! So without further ado, here we go!

Lost Souls and Reveries by @seriouslyhooked chs9, 10, 11 artwork by @shipsxahoy

Killian Jones is a wolf shifter without roots, without plans, and without a pack. He’s a rogue, someone humans should avoid and shifters should be wary of given his lineage. But one night years back set him on a path he didn’t realize he was taking, a path leading to the future he was destined for. That future is tied up in one woman – a human named Emma Nolan. Together Emma and Killian will find not only answers but a love that’s truly fated. But will love be enough to set both of them free, or will past demons win out in the end? (Answer: love always wins – I am writing this so despite some tiny pockets of angst it’s basically a fluff-filled insta-love fest). Rated M

You’re In My Blood by @hookedonapirate chs9, 10, 11 COMPLETE art by @rouhn

After a string of murders leads Sheriff Killian Jones to Enchanted, a vampire club located in the outskirts of Strorybrooke, for information, a blonde vampire princess and owner of the club is unwilling to comply without some favors of her own. Rated very E

Divine Intervention by @kymbersmith-90 ch4 artwork by @hollyethecurious

Brothers Liam and Killian Jones are on the hunt for their father, Brennan Jones, who has gone missing in his hunt for the supernatural creature that killed their mother. But along the way, the brothers discover that the supernatural world is much bigger than they could ever have imagined.

And someone else has big plans for one of them. Rated E

Close Encounters of the Spiritual Kind by @doodlelolly0910 chs16, 17, 18, 19 art by @courtorderedcake

Emma Nolan spent a lot of time alone, and that was fine by her. Because one is never truly alone. She should know. She can talk to dead people. What she didn't expect was one of these spiritual encounters to hang around, taking her down a rabbit hole of missing women, revenge, and, least expected, love. Can she save the day and Killian Jones? Is there even another choice? Rated M

Alii Dimidium Lunam by @artistic-writer chs20, 21, 22, 23 art by herself and @cocohook38

Mongrel Killian Jones, packless and alone, finds Emma by chance in a bar, but she neglects to mention she is running away from her pack responsibilities...responsibilities that her strict father and alpha, David Nolan, expects of his only child and heir to the Misthaven pack. None of which include falling in love with a mongrel. Loosely based Lady and the Tramp AU. Rated E

My Fate is Darkness by @teamhook ch6 artwork by herself

Is there light in darkness? Throughout the realms, there are all sorts of supernatural creatures roaming the lands. And there are those who are tasked with protecting the innocent. Fated to be enemies, can true love find its way through time? Rated T

Demonology 101 by @technicallysizzlingcloud got added to the collection on ao3. Ch1 artwork by @spartanguard

There are four, count ‘em, four people Emma Swan blames for her current predicament as her eyes fight to open against the throbbing in the back of her head, the unfairly–unnatural–blue eyes swarming in and out of her vision alarmingly not helping anymore than the grating sound of his–its?–concerned babbling.

Because there is no way a demon just appeared in her kitchen. Just, no way. Rated T

Run To Me (In the Dead of Night) by @snowbellewells chs10, 11 artwork by @wingedlioness

A canon divergent retelling of events, starting in early season two, written for the CS Supernatural Summer on Tumblr

Emma Swan really just wanted to keep her newfound son safe, get to know her parents at last, and be a good deputy to the rest of the town of Storybrooke. She certainly didn't count on chaos breaking loose with the return of magic and restored memories, learning that werewolves are real, or dealing with a handsome loner she can't seem to resist...no matter how much she wants to. AS it turns out though, she may need him - secrets and all - to survive and triumph over their combined enemies. Rated T

And finally

Something In the Water by @spartanguard ch8 COMPLETE with new artwork 1 and 2(NSFW) by @wingedlioness

Emma is sent to investigate a supposed sea monster appearance in her hometown. Thankfully, her family there knows her secret: that at night, she transforms into a swan. And she knows that whoever the universe thinks her soulmate is, as dictated by the tattoo on her side, won't be there. Though maybe she was wrong to assume that. And when did a merman start hanging out in the ocean near Storybrooke? Rated M

Well that’s all for November! Make sure and give these authors and artists the flails and likes due them so they know we’re still out here eagerly awaiting their next chapters! I’ll see you in the new year with December’s roundup!

#cssns #november roundup #monthly roundup #nov monthly roundup

27 notes · View notes

lifeasitis21 · 6 years

Text

Always Do

Imagine (Anon Request): Henry Cavill x Reader where the reader and Henry are co-stars and they slowly fall in love over the course of the film and they make their first moves during the press tour.

Pairing: Henry Cavill x Y/n Johnson

A/n: I hope you enjoy anon! Thanks for the request!

He’d been doing this all day. He filmed himself literally everywhere the two of you went. Whether he was promoting the movie or just describing everything you were doing, he always had that camera in his face.

“Maybe a break, would be good for today..Yeah?” You interrupted.

Henry glanced over at you with that smile on his face.

“Well it looks like, we’ll have to see each other again tomorrow. But for now, goodbye from Y/n and I.” As he spoke he leaned over close to you, his head was basically in your lap. You gave the camera the best smile you could and waved goodbye to whoever would end up seeing the video.

Henry was the only one out of the two of you that had any social media so when the producers asked him to post promotions for the movie every once and awhile, he really had no choice.

He turned off his phone and tossed it into one of his bags as the two of you arrived on set. You still had about 3 more months of filming left, but you enjoyed the plot of the movie and working with Henry was actually really fun. He made you laugh more than you cared to admit.

“Today’s gonna be a good day, I can feel it.” He said, optimistic as usual.

You hopped out of the van and headed straight for your trailer to put your stuff away before makeup. Something Henry should have also been doing, but when you found him close on your heels you couldn't say you were surprised.

“Did you get that email from production? They moved that crazy fighting seen up to today.” He watched you move around your trailer, a lazy smile forming on his lips. “We get to film together, All. Day. Long.”

You glanced back at him as you grabbed a snack from your fridge.

“Say no more, you’ll get me too excited.” You said as sarcastically as you could.

He just laughed it off as you walked past him towards the trailer door.

Since it was Monday, the two of you headed off to the morning staff meeting. Just an overview of what was planned for the week. This action filled sci-fi featured both you and Cavill as the leads. You played strangers turned partners at the end of the world to put it broadly. Henry’s character had a love interest, but your character seemed to be too busy holding everything together. And no matter how many times the writers told him no, it didn't stop Henry from suggesting every other day that you should end up with him by the end.

Since filming began, the only place the two of you weren’t together was wardrobe and makeup. Most every scene featured the both of you, and if it didn’t, you always seemed to find Henry standing off to the side of set watching you act.

“Cavill and Johnson to set two!”

As you made your way over, Henry jogged up beside you.

“May I say, you’re looking particularly bad ass today.”He said as he leaned in close to your ear.

You laughed a little and gave him a gentle shove. “Same goes for you Cavill.”

The set director put you into position and went over the scene with you once more before calling action.

You and Henry were set to be fighting back-to-back blasting creatures as they crawled out of the walls around you.

“And, action!”

The blasters sounded throughout the room as you put on your best “war face” and went through your steps.

“On your left!” You shouted.

Behind you, Henry turned and fired at the wall where a creature would be CGI’d in during editing.

After the two of you did your rehearsed dance around the room for awhile, firing at creatures, dodging attacks, Henry said his next line.

“I’m running low on ammo.”

You looked at him with a smirk on your face.

“There’s only a few left, I can take ‘em.”

You prepared to do the move you’d practiced all day last week. You were supposed to take a few steps back and then run full speed at Henry, who would launch you off his thigh and fling you straight at a creature. The plan was for you to jump over the side of a balcony and land on the mat that'd been placed half a floor down off-camera. After firing your last round and then tackling a dummy creature down with you, all you had to do was tumble onto the mat.

Henry insisted he could toss you all the way to the mat without an issue and you’d voiced your concern that too many things could go wrong, but if it worked, it would look amazing. You didn't want to mess up the flow of the scene so without a word you started to run. Everything felt right as you ran at him, but he’d been just one too many inches off his mark, which caused you to overestimate how far away his leg was. You stepped too high up on his thigh, but before he realized, he had already set in motion tossing you to the mat. As you began to jump from his leg, your foot caught on his bicep and you flew through the air, knowing you were going to fall short of the mat.

In the little time you had, you did your best to fall the same way you would have on the mat but instead of padding, you crashed down hard onto concrete.

The moment you hit the ground you yelled out in pain and they called cut. Henry ran down the stairs and straight to you. It was bad, you knew that much.

As quick as you could, you stood and put as much weight on your ankle as you could. It hurt like hell but you hid the pain.

“Someone get the medic over here!” The stunt director shouted.

You waved him off and took a moment to catch your breath. Henry had his arm around your waist, trying to take some of the weight off your ankle.

“No no no, I’m fine, I’m--I just need a second.” You walked over to a chair as normal as you could, wincing with every step.

“Shit Y/n. Fuck I am so sorry. Fuck.” Henry looked panicked as he walked beside you.

“Don’t worry about it--I’m fine, just needed a second and--”

Behind you Ben Richards’, the head director, approached you with the set doctor beside him.

The doctor kneeled to remove your shoe but you stopped him before he could.

“I think I’ll be okay, I just twisted it a little. It feels better already.” The smile on your face was weak. Nothing good ever happened when production was set back so you did your best to play it off as no big deal.

“Y/n, I don’t buy it.” Ben said. “Take the rest of the day. I’l send the PT to your trailer in, say an hour.”

“But Ben I--”

Ben kneeled down and gently grabbed your ankle, then he not so gently squeezed it, causing you to wince in pain.

“Fu--ck me! Shit.”

“That’s what I thought. Take the rest of the day kid.”

He placed a hand to your shoulder and sent Henry with you back to your trailer, probably to assure that you got there. You should have known Ben wouldn’t let this slide. He’d been an old family friend for as long as you could remember. The moment he told you about this movie you jumped at the opportunity to work with him. Which is why you felt so bad for potentially slowing down filming.

You were almost to your trailer now, but with every step your ankle throbbed. Henry was practically carrying you, but the last few feet he actually picked you up and carried you into your trailer.

As he set you down, you inhaled sharply. This was the part you were dreading. He helped you untie your shoe and gently began to pull it off.

As he did you could immediately see the bruising beginning, which hopefully meant it was a sprain instead of a break.

Henry grabbed an ice pack from your freezer and wrapped it in a towel. He slowly laid it on top of your ankle that was now propped up on the couch.

“Y/n. I am so sorry.”

You smiled weakly up at him. “If you wanted to shoot that scene by yourself, all you had to do was ask.”

That brought a sad smile to his face and he motioned for you to sit up a little, so he could sit next to you. You rested your head against his shoulder and let your eyes close. He wrapped his arm around you as he leaned his head on top of yours.

“How’s the pain?” He said quietly.

“Manageable.” You said through partly gritted teeth.

He knew you were lying but he didn’t say anything. He held you for what felt like a long time, before his phone buzzed next to him.

He took his time as he read the text, then, “They need me back on set. We’re gonna film all we can today without you, so just take your time and rest.”

You felt a twinge of something as you remembered something from this mornings meeting.

“You have those scenes with Tiffany you can film right?”

He looked like he’d just remembered a bad memory. “That’s right, a whole bunch of looove scenes.”

He tried his best to joke but you could see the sympathy in his eyes as he looked down at you.

“It’s too bad, I was looking forward to making fun of the way you kiss during your scenes.”

“Looks like you’ll have to figure that out yourself.”

Without responding, you raised a brow and scoffed.

“Um...that’s uh--not what I meant--I’m gonna, I should go.”

As Henry walk/jogged back to set he was mentally beating himself up. He could never talk to you. Since the first time he meet you over 6 months ago, he always found himself tripping over his own tongue.

He arrived just in time to annoy the makeup artist, who had already warned him multiple times not to make a habit of showing up late.

He didn’t even say anything to him, he just rolled his eyes and powdered Henry with a look of annoyance in his eyes. Henry would need to add him to his mental list of people to buy coffees for tomorrow morning. To be fair though, the only other person on that list was you, and it would take more than coffee to make up for what he did.

“Cavill to set 2! Cavill to set 2!”

Henry noticed Tiffany talking to one of the directors as he approached. He didn’t hear everything but he gathered that she was discussing the sex scene that was supposed to take place between the two of them.

“--nd I think it would be best to add in at least one more scene. It just seems empty--oh, here he is now. Henry, don’t you think there should be at least one more love scene for our characters before the end scene with Y/n’s character?”

Henry was caught a little of guard, one because he’d had little interaction with Tiffany throughout the whole movie, and two because, if it was up to him, there would be no love interest with her at all.

“I’m not sure...I guess its hard to say.” He chose his words carefully. “More than one might come off as more serious than my character actually is about yours..Unless I’m reading it wrong. It seems like the two aren’t very seri--”

Before he could finish, someone directed the two to take their places. Luckily enough, as Tiffany seemed to disagree with whatever he was saying.

Right now all he had to worry about was a simple kissing scene. He’d done a few before. It was always awkward, like kissing a nameless faceless being.

He thoughtlessly shot off his lines with as much passion as he could manage. It felt good as he finished. Tiffany in turn said her lines and waited as Henry reached for her hand and pulled her to him. She looked up into his eyes with what, if he didn’t know better, looked like a whole lot of desire. As he looked down at her though, he increasingly began to dread every other love scene he would have to shoot today.

As if in slow motion, he moved in and tried to trick his brain into simplifying it. Just close your eyes and kiss her. you’ve done it before.

Henry followed every tip he’d ever been given for a good kiss scene and hoped for the best. As his lips met hers it began to feel like the kiss was going to last a lifetime. He’d suddenly became very grateful you weren’t here to see it.

“Aaand cut. That was, alright.”

Tiffany pulled back and glanced at him.

“I feel like it was empty. He’s not giving me anything. I mean, we just confessed our love for each other and it seems like--”

Before she could finish, Ben intervened.

“Actually, in this scene, your character confesses her love for him. He’s supposed to just be here. And Tiffany, I read over some of your notes for this scene and I’m sorry but I have to disagree about another love scene. That’s not where these two are headed, or my vision for what they are to each other.”

Tiffany apparently still disagreed and called for a break as she approached Ben. Henry, on the other hand, had never been so grateful for an interruption.

He pulled out his phone and typed in your name.

--feeling any better?

He figured if you didn’t respond you had fallen asleep, which was a good thing. But moments after he sent it, he saw the little response bubbles pop up.

Y/n --much better. The PT came with pain killers so I’m doing just fine. Hows the make-out session going?

--Just as horrible as I imagined it.

He needed to tread lightly, he knew that. But he’d never met anyone he could talk to like he talked to you. If there was anyone he would share his feelings with, it would be you...that is, if the feelings he had weren’t for you.

Y/n--Sad day. Make sure you come see me for lunch and tell me all about it. I miss you :(

The idea of you lying on your couch right now made him want to sprint to your trailer just to be with you.

--I miss you too. Much more... He stopped himself before pressing send. He’d never spoken to you like this before, but then again, he’d never felt so turned off by kissing someone else before either.

Before he could even decide what to do, he was pulled from his thoughts by a director calling his name. It surprised him, and without even realizing, he pressed send and put his phone away without a second thought.

It only took you a week to heal and get back to work again, which you were very happy about.

Everyday of the week you were hurt though, someone brought you flowers, and Henry, he never left your side the entire time. As much as he could be with you, he was with you. He spent the entire time seemingly dedicated to making you smile. And who could ask for more than that? Those last 3 months went by way too fast. After filming ended you had about 2 weeks of down time before the press tour began.

You hadn’t even realized until you met Henry that you both lived in the same city. Almost every day of your break he would text you. If he wasn’t inviting you over to his house he was asking to go to yours. Most nights the two of you spent together were in his apartment watching movies, drinking, eating. Basically whatever you wanted to.

In that time, you realized that you two could talk for hours. Eventually you got bored spending all day together, but you never wanted to be anywhere else. You wanted to be bored with him.

Sometimes late at night, you would think about the text he’d sent you the day you got hurt. You were lying in your trailer when you got it. You couldn’t get those love scenes out of your mind. You began to get protective, but you never told him that. And when he told you he missed you, you believed him. Maybe that was a mistake.

As soon as the break came though, it was gone even quicker. The press tour wasn’t your favorite thing in the world, it almost seemed like more work than the actual movie, but it was apart of the job.

The first few days of the tour you had interviews with both Henry and Tiffany. Though the movie was focused on the two of you, everyone ate up the sappy love story between him and Tiffany.

You arrived for the meeting wearing a dress your agent had chosen for you. When she texted you the picture of it, she said --this interview is casual business attire..? With a shrugging emoji included.

It was a comfortable enough champagne colored dress that flowed loosely. When you arrived with your agent, the two of you walked into the building together.

“It’s a simple one person interview, no press. The bigger stuff is at the end of the week.”

“Thank you for that.” You said, grateful you were getting this stuff over with first.

She led you to the interview room, and both Henry and Tiffany had beaten you here. As you walked in you noticed the two in conversation, but as soon as he saw you, you could of sworn his eyes lit up a bit. He met you halfway and wrapped you in his arms like he hadn’t seen you for months. But you reciprocated, because you couldn't imagine doing anything else.

As you released each other, you walked over to the chair on the end and gave Tiffany a hug, which she returned.

The three of you sat down together, Tiffany in the middle of the three chairs, and waited for the reporter.

When he showed up, he had a huge smile on his face, and he wasted no time starting the interview.

He started with some baseline questions about the movie production and filming. Mostly to get them out of the way, but you let Tiffany and Henry do most the talking on those.

“So Y/n, I heard that you may have injured yourself during filming, is that--?”

“Yes, thats true. Henry and I had been practicing a stunt for one of the scenes, but during filming I misstepped and twisted my ankle.”

The interviewer grimaced a little as Henry chimed in.

“She’s very kind, It was actually completely my fault. I felt like a huge jerk.”

You leaned forward a little and smiled over at Henry. “No hard feelings though.”

“Your two characters are very close in this movie, would you say that?”

Both you and Henry nodded your heads.

“One thing that viewers are really excited to see is the friendship dynamic the two of you share. It seems to be very special, you guys obviously have a real connection, do you think that connection will come through on screen?”

Before answering, Henry glanced over at you to see if you had an answer prepared. You looked back at him, giving him the go ahead.

“Oh I’m sure it will. Y/n and I, in my opinion, instantly clicked when we first met.”

“I agree. Of course” You said. “The friendship we found, and still have, it’s almost impossible for it to not be on screen, because every scene we acted out played off of very real feelings of protection for or investment in one another.”

From behind the camera, your agent shot you a thumbs up at your answer. She tended to do so in every interview you had.

“And because I have to ask, was there a lasting chemistry between you, Henry, and Tiffany that maybe showed up after the on-screen relationship the two of you had?”

The question caught you all of guard but you were somehow still expecting it. Beside you, Tiffany awkwardly laughed and placed a slight hand on Henry’s knee for just a second before taking it back.

“Like they say, a movie’s just a movie..until it’s not.”

On the inside her words hit you like a bus. Your eyes wanted to bulge out of your head at her answer, but this was all on camera, so on the outside, you smiled and glanced over at Tiffany as if you were keeping a secret with her.

On the other side of her though, Henry’s reaction was a little more telling by it not being a reaction in the slightest. No smile, no movement. It wasn’t until his own agent motioned at him off camera, that he faked a laugh that didn’t make it to his eyes.

After that, the interview ended and the three of you exchanged thank you’s and you’re welcome’s. As soon as you made it into the hallway with Henry, Tiffany came bursting through the door and intertwined her arm with his.

“Henry, don't be mad, but this is what everyone is expecting of us,” then she glanced sideways at you and lowered her voice. “and don't act like that night you came to ‘run lines’ with me, that nothing happened.”

“We kissed Tiffany.” It hurt him to say it. Even more so with you so close. “The first night we began filming, and then never again. That is nothing.”

It made your stomach turn to even think about it. You picked up the pace and left them behind you. All the while convincing yourself this had nothing to do with you.

As you walked towards your agent who was standing next to the car, she saw the look on your face, which she understood as she glanced behind you.

When you got closer she opened your door for you to get in and followed behind you.

“What the fuck was that?” She asked, closing the door behind herself.

“None of my business.”

She took the hint.

“Uh, Next interview is a little bigger. Press is allowed, just the two of you though.”

Her words drifted over your head as you stared out your window. Something inside of you felt broken and you didn’t know how to fix it.

You could feel yourself shutting down as you walked backstage for your next press conference. You stood there and waited for them to motion you on.

Henry came up beside you and placed his hand around your arm, pulling you gently towards him.

“Y/n. I don’t know why she feels the need to do this, but I told her I wasn’t going to. And that night, it was--”

You pulled your arm from his grasp and looked up at him.

“You don't need to explain this to me.” Your voice was calm and detached.

He flinched when you said it and if it hadn’t of been for your queue to go on stage it would have gotten to you.

As you walked out, with him following you, you smiled bright and waved as a crowd of press and audience members applauded.

“Let’s Welcome, Y/n Johnson and Henry Cavill of Atomic Expression!”

The two of you sat down on the couch on stage as the interviewer smiled bright and shook your hand.

“We are so happy to have you here! Y/n, Henry. I’ll start by saying, a better cast could not have been chosen for this movie. How many of you saw the trailers and wanted to grow up to be Y/n.”

She raised her hand and looked out towards the crowd who did the same. You laughed and thanked her for the compliment.

“So, what was your experience with this role?” She started.

You took a quick breath to steady before answering.

“If I had to use one word...Empowering. I got to play this woman who without fail, always came out on top, and who did it with grace and honor. It was definitely one of my favorites.”

The audience applauded your answer as Henry watched you with a smile on his face.

“And Henry, your character seems to get the best of both worlds. Both an unmistakable bond through friendship and love with the main characters, what was that like?”

“Well, actually that’s something that I worked on a lot with directors and Y/n.” When he said your name you glanced over at him, with no idea what he was going to say.

“We really wanted my character to be more complex than just someone who gets the girls. It’s more than just a love story in that sense. I think Y/n’s character ends up being more to him than he planned or could even imagine.”

You tried to look like you knew what he meant but you were afraid you were failing.

You thought it best if you tried to salvage his answer into something a little less revealing but before you could say anything the interviewer latched onto what he said.

As she leaned in closer with a huge smile on her face, the crowd reacted with applause and shouts.

“We don’t want you giving too much away because you’ll drive us all crazy. So I’ll ask a different question. Throughout the entire film process fans got to see your faces all over social media. Why did you decide to record yourselves so often?”

He smiled when she asked that and looked over at you. “At some points Y/n didn’t appreciate a camera in her face, which is understandable. But I think it’s important to document your life experiences, especially if it’s something you don’t ever want to lose.”

“Y/n appeared in most, if not all of those videos. And from what we could tell, it was really just day to day stuff?”

She looked at you when she said that so you took it as a queue to answer with something.

“Yeah, Henry would film pretty much every thing we did on set. When we weren’t filming together, we were just around each other a lot, so there’s a lot of behind the scenes of what is essentially our lives when we’re together.”

As you spoke, a smile made it’s way onto his lips and it wouldn’t go away. He loved hearing you talk.

A pause in the conversation prompted the interviewer to pick up a stack of white cards.

“I have some fan questions I want to ask the both of you if you don’t mind. Y/n this fan asked what you would want to do if you weren’t an actor?”

You decided to keep it short and sweet. “Explore the world with a soulmate.” It was an honest answer, the host seemed to like it.

“Beautiful. And Henry, what’s your favorite thing about being an actor?”

“I get to meet some extraordinary people.” He didn’t miss a beat.

His answer got the attention of the audience as they hollered and clapped.

“This next ones for the both of you. Kind of a cute one. Do you believe in love at first sight?”

You two couldn't help but laugh a little as you both saw where this was going. You were a little lost for words, but that’s when Henry grabbed your hand and said, “I don’t know, Y/n look at me.”

You let the smile on your face take over as you looked over at him. He looked at you a second too long before looking back to the host and letting go of your hand.

“Oh yeah. Definitely.”

The crowd erupted along with the host herself. The interview had run it’s time and she did her best to quiet the audience so she could close out with one more promotional.

She walked the two of you backstage as you waved and blew a kiss to the flashing cameras and the crowd who was still going wild.

You kept the calm smile on your face as the two of you walked out of the studio. As you did, you leaned towards Henry and told him to ride with you to the hotel. There were a few cameras outside near the car and the two of you stood together and smiled for one more picture before getting inside.

As soon as the driver pulled away you winded up and punched him in the arm.

“Ow, what!” He said, flinching away.

“What the fuck was that you asshole?!”

He laughed as much as he dared to and then just looked forward. “The truth.”

Without another word, you turned and kept your eyes forward, the ghost of a smile tugging at your lips.

The car pulled up outside the hotel you were both staying at. You opened your door and made your way inside without waiting for him. He caught up to you anyway.

On the elevator ride up he tried to test the waters.

“You look great in that dress. I meant to say something earlier.”

You didn't respond.

The elevator dinged and let the two of you out on your shared floor. Your rooms, as if by fate, were right next to each other so he had yet another excuse to walk with you.

As the two of you approached the rooms you’re heart began to beat unexplainably fast.

His door came first. He swiped his key card and pushed the handle down. The moment he did you turned to him and pulled him into a deep kiss. You pushed him back into his room and let the door shut behind you.

When he realized, it’s like he came alive.

He lifted you up and rested your back against his door. His hands found your jaw and deepened the kiss, if that was even possible. Everything began to spin, the way he smelled was intoxicating. He pulled back for air and his lips found your jawline. He littered it with passionate kisses, moaning every time he made contact. And god was that a sound you could hear forever.

You ran your hand through his thick hair and pulled him closer to you, and like he heard your mind, he found your lips with his once again.

This time though, he pulled away and lowered you to the ground. You missed the contact immediately.

What you expected to see was regret or confusion, but when you looked up at him, he was just taking you in. Like it was the first and last time he would ever lay eyes on you. He timidly ran his thumb over your bottom lip, you closed your eyes at his touch.

Beginning at your forehead, he placed a kiss there, followed by your temple. He gently kissed your eyelid and worked his way down your jaw once more.

“kiss me, please.” Your voice was low, a quiet desperation.

He pulled you close, but this kiss sent a chill down your entire body. This one was different. This one was breathtaking. It couldn’t have lasted a second too long.

Rain ticked the glass windows of the loft. This was the first cloudy day you’d had since arriving. You sat on the couch with Henry’s phone in your hand, watching the rain fall in the streets. As you scrolled through videos he’d taken during filming, you came across one you’d never seen anywhere before. You glanced up towards the stairs to listen for him, when you didn’t hear him you pressed play.

It started in a dimly lit room. It was the break hall that’d been on set. Across the room you saw yourself sitting on the couch with a book in your lap. You remembered that day. Henry was across the room walking towards you. He held the camera on you and walked slowly.

“There she is, reading as always.” He whispered but you could hear the smile in his voice.

He stopped a ways off of you and zoomed in a little. You hadn’t noticed him yet, but as your head was down a smile graced your lips.

“My god. Look at that...I’m gonna marry that girl one day.” A small laugh escaped him as he continued towards you.

The video ended just as he’d asked you what you were reading.

Above, you heard footsteps and you tossed his phone aside as he descended the stairs, hair still dripping from the shower.

“Well it looks like walking down to the Louvre is out of the question today..but we can always go tomorrow, unless you still want to today?” He asked.

“A day in sounds perfect to me.” A sweet smile settled on your lips as you watched him walk towards you.

“Okay. Did you miss me?” He said with a grin. He leaned down over you a placed a kiss to your lips.

“I always do.”

Tag List: @jaderbugz @a-girl-who-loves-disney @chillnadia @pietrosprincess@cojootromuelle @smexy-bucky-waifu @maragaretcarter @supersleepyfangirlthings @shortstoryimagines @omg-fuck-i-love-you @thebutterflyxx @posiemax @tomhollambucky @samdean-67

#henry cavill #henry cavill imagine #henry cavill fic #henry cavill x oc #Henry Cavill x Reader #clark kent x reader #Henry Cavill fluff #soulmate au #soulmates #anon request #super fluffy #fluffy #supermanxreader

3K notes · View notes

ramblingthoughtsofayoungadult · 6 years

Text

Persistence is Key-John Shelby Imagine

Requested: No

Warnings: fluff, long

Y/S/N- Your Sister’s Name

“I love your hair, Y/N, it looks so posh!” Y/S/N said as she linked arms with me.

“Thanks, it feels a bit weird but I suppose it’s a nice change,” I said.

After three months of dragging my feet and being indecisive, I finally got my hair cut into the bob hair style that I had seen all over Paris as well as in London thanks to the flapper girls. A few older women stared at me as we passed them on the street but as long as my parents were okay with it, I didn’t care about them.

“And the bangs are perfect,” she gushed.

I frowned. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

“What? I love you, sis, what’s so weird about that?”

“We barely speak when I’m home, there’s something else going on.”

“I’m just happy that my stylish little sister is home for Christmas is all,” she said.

Her shimmering e/c eyes were a little too shimmery and her lipsticked smile was far too wide. She was hiding something and her having a secret made me nauseous because if it gave her this much joy, it was something at my expense. It was times like these that I wished that I could read her mind.

When we got home, I realized why she was so nice. John Shelby was standing in front of the house with a bouquet of roses in his hand. He was wearing a long dark coat, expensive suit, and the Blinder razor hat. Just looking at him made me shake with irritation.

“I knew something was wrong,” I griped.

“Hi, John!” she said.

John looked up and smirked when he saw me. “Y/S/N, Y/N.”

“Hi, John,” I said in a polite but bored tone.

Y/S/N practically dragged me over to him. “What brings you here?”

“I came to give these to Y/N.”

“That really isn’t necessary, John.”

“I insist.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but the bouquet was already in my hands. It was a beautiful bouquet but I already had several dozen flowers in my room thanks to his previous efforts.

“I’ll leave you two lovebirds to talk,” Y/S/N said.

“We aren’t love—”

But Y/S/N had already slammed the door to the house shut behind her and I bristled in annoyance. She had obviously set this up with John and only accompanied me to get my hair cut to make sure that I would be caught off guard but John popping by with flowers or candies was a normal thing. Since we were fourteen, John flirted with me and my friends would try to get me to kiss him but I’d refuse every time. It was horrifying to have everyone staring and demanding that one kisses a boy they aren’t too keen on. His brothers teased me endlessly about it even though he would always threaten to kill them if they said one word to me. When we got older, I’d considered going out with him, but he got married and then went off to fight in the war. When he came back, he and his wife started having kids and then she died giving birth to the last one. Of course, all the pity I had went out to John and I couldn’t help but feel bad that he had a hard time wrangling all those kids on his own. However, about a year had passed when he started stopping by when I happened to be visiting my sister and her husband. He would flirt and try to get me to go out with him, but I always refused.

“You cut your hair,” John said.

“Yeah, I wanted a change.”

“It looks good but you always look good.”

“Thank you, John,” I muttered. “You don’t look too bad yourself. How are your kids?”

“They’re all right, I suppose. Doin’ my head in all the time but I can’t be too upset with them. I’m gone all the time and they need a mother.”

“Well, good luck finding one,” I chirped, walking towards the front door.

“Y/N.”

I sighed and turned to him. “Yes?” “Would you come around to the Garrison to get a drink with me?”

His stupid light eyes were filled with some sort of hope but he still had a flirtatious expression. It was a confusing combination that I was used to seeing and at first, I felt bad about turning him down but after the two thousandth time, I decided that it was his fault for stopping by even though he knew what my answer would be.

“I can’t tonight, my publisher wants the last chapter by the end of the week and I’m trying to get past a bad case of writer’s block.” I took a step towards the door as John took a step towards me.

“I heard alcohol helps with these kinds of things.”

“I prefer not using alcohol as a crutch.”

My back hit the door and John was right in front of me. I felt cornered in and had a bad feeling that Y/S/N was having far too much fun watching all this unfold from the parlor room.

“One drink isn’t going to hurt,” John said.

I sighed. He wasn’t about to let me get off that easy—-he never did—-he was going to make me be blunt about it.

“John, we both know that even if my publisher wasn’t on my case about finishing this last book, I wouldn’t go to the Garrison with you.”

John frowned and his jaw tightened. “Why not? Why don’t you ever want to go out with me?”

I hesitated. Usually, John left with a real clever line only to return either the following day or the day after that. He never seemed so upset before but I suppose everyone has their limits. Perhaps now was as good a time as any to tell him why I could never and would never go out with him.

“I can’t go out with a known gangster, John, it will tarnish my reputation. While I appreciate how much your family has helped mine, it doesn’t change the fact that we are two people going in different directions with our lives. Besides, what if we did end up going out and it turned into something more, like marriage? I can’t be a good writer and tend after your kids. I’m sorry, John, you’re just going to have to find someone else.”

Like you did before.

I felt both weight less and guilty as I stared at John. He was still upset and much more tense than he had been when he first arrived at my house. Finally, he straightened up.

“Right, see you around, Y/N.”

I wanted to say something else but John was down the street before I knew it. Slowly, I turned to open the door only to have Y/S/N rip it open, her eyes wide with surprise.

“What did you say to him?” she demanded as she pulled me in.

“I…I told him the truth, I can’t date a gangster,” I said.

Y/S/N stared at me as though I’d lost my mind. “You what?”

“It’s the truth, Y/S/N. I’m already on thin ice with Alicia as it is and getting involved with gangster would be the knife in the coffin that is my career.”

“But what about Mum and Dad?” Y/S/N asked through gritted teeth.

“They just like that the Shelbys helped them out of a rough patch but you know that they would skin both of us alive if we ever got involved with one of ‘em. Why are you being so snippy?”

“John has never left the house looking more heartbroken or upset before. There is no telling what he will do to either of us or our family in his state!”

“Then you shouldn’t have told him that I was in town!” I griped.

Y/S/N pressed her lips together in a thin, firm line. She always made that face when I won one of our battles of wit. She should be satisfied with her life as a housewife considering that her husband owned one of the many factories in Small Heath. However, that gave her no right to punish me for staying in school long enough to get a degree in English and Creative Writing and become an author.

“If anything happens to Adam, Mum, or Dad because of your stunt I will never speak to you again!”

“You act as though that’s a punishment.”

I strolled away from her to put the flowers in a vase and add them to the collection of flowers in my room there. As much money as Y/S/N claimed Adam made they could afford a nicer house in London but stayed in Small Heath.

The room was big enough and there was a window outlooking the gray neighborhood. Around the perimeter of the room were vases of daisies, roses, and tulips. They were still growing well even though I only came up to Birmingham from London when I felt like it. Maybe Sandra, the housekeeper, was taking good care of them when I was gone.

I set the roses on my nightstand and stared at them. They were just another reminder of John so why hadn’t I thrown them out? Perhaps it was because it was a reminder that someone as tough as John could still be sweet and romantic when he wanted to. When we were kids, he used to give me the weeds that looked like yellow flowers because he thought I deserved something pretty. Also, he used to get into fights with boys who teased me or tried to flirt with me. It was all very sweet and I would be lying if I said that I never found him attractive, but life got in the way. He went off to to the war and I went to university, that’s just how it went.

“It’s not my fault,” I muttered to myself. “He knew that I wasn’t really interested so why would he keep coming back?”

I glanced at my black Imperial typewriter that was set on my desk. Writing always calmed me down and maybe now was as good a time as any to finish the book. I walked over to the desk, loaded the typewriter, and wrote.

Hot tears of anguish ran down Ella’s tears as she read the letter that said her worst nightmare: John Shelby had finally pissed off.

“Nope, can’t send that into Alicia,” I muttered as I took the paper out of the typewriter and reloaded it.

All Ella could do was stare as the love of her life walked away from her for the last time. Perhaps it was for the best since they were two different people. It would have never worked out since she was a beloved school teacher and he was a no good gangster.

I cursed under my breath as I ripped out the new paper as well and tossed it in the bin.

“You’ve got this, Y/N, this is about Ella and James,” I muttered.

Gray skies were brewing overhead as Ella stood in the field. The cold wind that usually warned the people in England that a storm was coming actually calmed her spirits. She closed her eyes and waited for the rain to come, to wash away any dirt that wasn’t particularly on her body but within her.

Suddenly, someone touched her hand, jarring her from the reverie and it was none other than James. He had that lopsided grin that made him look like the most clever man in the world and his dark curls were as wild and tangled as ever.

“Wh…what are you doing here?” she whispered.

“I wanted to see you again.”

�� “But you shouldn’t be out here, it’s going to rain soon.”

“You shouldn’t be out here either! It’s black as the Earl of Hell’s waistcoat.”

His hard Scottish accent made the hint of a smile appear on her lips. She had gotten so used to hearing it over the past year that it was going to be hard for her not to miss it.

“I like the rain, it’s like God’s telling the world that it gets another chance.” “Yeah, I guess.”

He looked perturbed but Ella didn’t wish to pry. He was already a difficult nut to crack and pushing too hard only made him retreat.

“Honestly, you should go before the blushing bride starts to worry about you—-wouldn’t want to the groom running off with someone else the day before the wedding.”

“Still strange that I’m gettin’ merrit.”

“Y/N, tea’s on!” I blinked and looked out the window to see that it was pitch black. It had taken me all that time to write all of one page? Maybe I did need some tea.

Thankfully, Sandra cooked and it was as good as it could possibly be aside from the awkward dinner conversation Y/S/N insisted on having with Adam every day he came home from work.

“So, Y/N, when are you headed back to London?” Adam asked

“The day after Christmas. You are all more than welcome to spend the New Year with me but there is something about being in London around that time that’s inspiring.”

“Oh, yes, how is that book of yours going?” Y/S/N asked.

“Better now, it should be done by the deadline.”

“Great,” Adam said.

The conversation lulled again and I was thankful that Y/S/N didn’t bring up John during tea because that would have been far too awkward for me. Finally, when tea was finished, I got back to writing and it felt as though my fingers couldn’t stop moving as I typed nearly everything that popped in my head. When I was finished, it had to be at least two o’clock in the morning and I didn’t even bother reading it before I fell asleep.

The next morning, I woke up and read over my writing from the night before. It was pretty good if I said so myself but when I got to the end, my heart nearly stopped.

Hot tears streamed down Ella’s face and she didn’t bother to wipe them away. She was tired of burying her feelings from James, from Olivia, from her parents, and from herself. James looked surprised and heartbroken at the young woman in front of him.

“Ella, what’s wrong?” he asked as he stepped closer to her.

“Everything! Everything is wrong. You wearing that tuxedo and marrying Olivia is wrong and you invited everyone we both know to come see it, including me. Did you even think about how much that would hurt me?”

“Ella, you said you were okay with this.” “I thought I was, but I’m not. I have so much else to be concerned with: my job, my parents, and my friends but I can’t move forward because you are always somewhere in the back of my mind haunting me. I shouldn’t care about you like this but I do and the fact that you are going to marry Olivia, shiny perfect Olivia, kills me!”

James reached out to touch Ella but she shrinked away. If he touched her, she was positive that she would be putty in his hands. Maybe if she had done that before, this part of her life would be right and she would be the one standing at the altar instead of Olivia.

“I’m so sorry that you’re hurting, Ella, but I can’t go with ya. I love Olivia.”

Ella sighed and smiled. “Of course you do.”

Ella straightened her back and walked out of the church proudly into the sun. She had just ruined a wedding and stirred up a ruckus that was definitely going to be the talk of the town for the next couple of weeks but she did not care. She was finally cutting herself off from James and as agnoizing as it was, it was necessary.

“Not too shabby, Y/N,” I whispered.

I organized the papers chronologically and stuffed them into an envelope with the rest of the chapter. As soon as I finished getting ready, I would send the chapter off to Alicia and not have to be concerned with any work for the rest of my vacation.

As I bathed and got ready, one glaring fact plagued me: Ella’s feelings about James were eerily similar to my feelings for John. Of course, I never told him that I ever remotely fancied him when we were younger, but the anguish of watching him marry someone else was there as well as the regret of not being more upfront with my feelings. Plus, I’d buried them for such a long time that perhaps I had grown to resent John because of it and him asking me out all the time aggravated me. However, I would miss not seeing him around as much since the Garrison was never my scene.

Thirty minutes later, I was pulling on my coat and walking out of the door with my latest chapter under the crook of my arm.

“I’ll see you later, Y/S/N!” I called.

She made a “hmm” noise in response before I pulled the door closed behind me. It was another cold, gray day in Small Heath but I still felt relatively upbeat as I walked down to the post and sent the chapter off. I took my time walking back to the house. Small Heath had some rugged charm to it but it was a lot more congested there than in London somehow.

When I finally made it back to the house, John and Y/S/N were having a spot of tea in the parlor. John wasn’t wearing his Blinder razor cap, which made me pause and not so subtly stare at him.

“Y/N, look who came to visit us,” Y/S/N said.

“John, I’m…surprised,” I said.

John stood. “Hello, Y/N.”

“We were just talking about you,” Y/S/N said.

“Oh.”

I sat in the chair next to her and John sat back down on the couch. Y/S/N poured me a cup of tea and I sipped it.

“You finished your book?” John asked.

I nodded. “Just sent it off to my editor, thank you for asking.”

“What’s it about?”

“Oh, Y/N has always been private about what her little stories are about,” Y/S/N said.

“No, it’s fine. It’s about a girl coming to terms with her emotions.”

“Huh.”

“She does that when she realizes she’s in love with a boy from her childhood in spite of the will they, won’t they stuff but the problem is, she realizes she loves him right before he gets married t othe girl of his dreams.”

“And do they end up together?” “You’ll have to read the book to find out.”

Y/S/N stared at me for a long moment and looked as though she might cry. “I’m going to see where Sandra is with those biscuits.” She walked away swiftly in spite of her high heels.

I set my tea down on the table. “So, what brings you to my house today?”

“Well, I was looking to speak to you but your sister let me in. After our conversation yesterday, I started thinking about how long I could really stay in the family business. It isn’t really safe for my kids or anyone who gets close to me. So, I talked to Tommy and he agreed to cut me my share of the business so that I can look for work elsewhere.”

“What?”

“I’m good with numbers and I could work anywhere.” John set his tea on the table. “What I’m trying to say is that I can be the man you want me to be. And the kids won’t be much trouble for you.”

“You would leave your family business for me?” I shook my head. “You’re mad.”

“Only when it comes to you.” John grabbed my hand. “I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you when we were five and I’ve never stopped. If it takes me leaving the family business to be with you, then I’ll do it.”

Suddenly, tears brimmed in my eyes and I tried to blink them away as my heart swelled in my chest. He was being ridiculous, incredibly, definitely ridiculous.

“You can’t be serious, John, that’s your family and your family has to mean everything to you.”

“They do but they understand why I’d want to leave.”

I ran a hand through my short hair. “This has to be the most foolish thing you have ever done for me of all people. I can’t believe you would go this far.” I shook my head.

John didn’t say anything and it made me nervous because he always had something to say. Unfortunately, I took it as my turn to speak.

“Do you remember when we were fifteen and you, me, Arthur, Tommy, and some other girls from town stole some whiskey from Polly and split it over near the bridge?” I asked.

John nodded. “Yeah, we were crazy kids but I was surprised you went along with it.”

I shrugged. “I never had whiskey before. Anyway, we probably finished the whole thing when that girl, Helen, thought it was a good idea to start asking everyone ridiculous questions unless they wanted to do an embarrassing penalty.”

“Yeah, Arthur told us how he lost his virginity to get out of letting everyone slap him,” John said with a laugh.

“Well, Sarah demanded that I tell her who my first kiss was and when I said I hadn’t had it yet, she dared me to kiss Tommy. I only did it because it was a dare and he wasn’t all too thrilled about it either. However, I remember distinctly how upset you looked, like someone had kicked your puppy or something. Afterwards, when I got you to talk to me about it, you said that I shouldn’t have been forced to do anything, specially not with Tommy.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, that was when I realized that you really did like me and it wasn’t just because you liked the way I looked. I started fancying you around then but I kept playing coy because I was a stupid kid. Then you got married and I learned that playing coy only gets you so far.”

The stupid tears threatened to fall but I kept talking.

“I shouldn’t care about you the way I do now but I can’t help it. I thought about you all the time when I was at university, worried sick about how you were doing in the war. Now, you’ve left your family’s extremely successful but shady business because of my bloody status.” Finally, the tears fell and I couldn’t stop myself from crying. I never cried and the fact that John was there made me nervous and vulnerable. Slowly, he pulled me into his arms and wiped my tears.

“Hey, it’s fine, we’re going to be fine.”

“I’m so sorry that I was awful to you,” I said through shaky gasps. “I wouldn’t have bothered with me if I were you.”

“I knew you were worth it,” he said cheekily.

I pulled away and smacked his chest with a sniffle. Then, impulsively, I leaned forward and kissed him quickly. When I was about to pull away, he grabbed my face.

“I’ve waited for this my whole life, you aren’t getting away that easily.”

He kissed me back with more passion, pulling me into his lap as I reciprocated the feeling. I only pulled away when I felt breathless and cupped his face, his eyes glazed over with what I could guess was satisfaction.

“You should go talk to Tommy about your share of the company. I don’t want to tear you away from their business, they are still your family,” I muttered.

“That won’t be a problem.” John’s hands slid down to my hips. “Nothing was official yet, just wanted you to know I was serious.”

“And I appreciate it very much, Mr. Shelby.”

As I kissed him again, I prayed that Y/S/N wouldn’t walk in on us. The last thing I needed to hear in that moment was “I told you so”.

#peaky blinders imagine #john shelby imagine

93 notes · View notes

hotelconcierge · 7 years

Text

Modern Romance

everyone needs a little negative space

(spoilers for all movies discussed)

The advertising campaign in the weeks leading up to the 2017 Oscars—that is, the #Oscarsowhite boycott, low budget underdog Moonlight vs. slick self-congratulatory La La Land, lines drawn based on tribal identity; “I even talked to a voter who gave Moonlight his top vote, sight unseen;” tension building up to a stunning (!!) last minute twist; an insipid academy in which Sean Penn is a voting member “held to task” instead of the people with actual power, i.e. the studios, i.e. us, the viewers—was annoying, to say the least.

Even so, I am grateful that I will only have to hear “Best Picture winner” and “La La Land” in the same sentence once.

What does white people courtship look like in the age of the internet? Well, OKCupid and asphyxiation, but it’s hard to make a musical out of that one. So what is romance supposed to look like? According to Hollywood: love is someone who makes it so you never have to talk to anyone else.

1. Other People Don’t Exist

There are only two human beings in La La Land: Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Ryan and Emma have motivations (opening a jazz club, acting) and foibles (Warhammer 40K, keyboard duster). The other characters that appear in the film have neither. Ryan’s sister exists only in contrast to him: she is competent so that we can see that he is neurotic. Then she disappears. John Legend plays a pop jazz player so that Ryan can look downcast and mumble something about plebs. Emma Stone’s roommates wear red, green, and yellow, so that Emma can wear blue.

The film’s closest pass at non-solipsism is the opening number, in which a group of diverse and unrealistically polite Los Angelenos sing about coming to the city to chase their dreams.

[Young Man] I hear 'em ev'ry day The rhythms in the canyons That'll never fade away The ballads in the barrooms Left by those who came before They say "you gotta want it more" So I bang on ev'ry door

[Young Woman] And even when the answer's "no" Or when my money's running low The dusty mic and neon glow Are all I need

The film preempts the critique “how can you make a film about two white people navel gazing in the year 2016?” with this song’s answer, “because everyone else is exactly the same.” Doubtful, but whatever—note that these traffic-bound palette swaps once again redound on Ryan & Emma. Transitive property: if our heroes succeed, so does the whole world.

Of course, it’s not La La Land’s job to be Synecdoche, Los Angeles. There’s nothing wrong with making a romance that focuses very closely on the two leads—the Before Sunrise trilogy comes to mind. But even in those movies, the bit parts seemed to have existences independent from the main characters: an old couple fighting on the train, a disheveled poet smoking on the waterfront. No one in La La Land seems to understand object permanence. Perhaps that’s why they don’t have any friends.

2. Authenticity Is All You Need

Here’s a plot that doesn’t get used anymore: boy lies to girl, girl grows to like boy, lie is revealed, girl is heartbroken, boy renounces lie, boy proves his love by defeating Jack Black in a breakdancing competition, reconciliation, happy ending.

I’ll grant that the above plot is awful, and I don’t recommend that you base your relationships on deceit or anything else from the 90s. But you have to give that guy credit for trying. In La La Land, Emma has to make the first move, twice, for the plot to advance. Ryan then takes Emma to a jazz club (his interest) and invites her to see Rebel Without a Cause (also his interest). I’m not hating, Ryan Gosling is a charming man, they have chemistry, do what thou wilt, I’m just noting a cultural trend. In the olden days, the guy developed a crush and had to "win” the girl; in La La Land, the girl is attracted to the guy’s character sheet, and the plot/romance advances as the guy lets her into his world. (You’re The Worst is a good example of the same, as is Fifty Shades of Grey. Consider whether this represents an increase or decrease in female sexual power.)

This makes Emma Stone, despite her pellegrino bubbliness, the opposite of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

"...that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." (Wiki)

Rather than convince [brooding, soulful] Ryan Gosling to join Zoroastrianism and wear PLUR bracelets, Emma Stone encourages him to go deeper into his narrowly defined dream. “If the masses don’t get it, so be it!” Thank God this isn’t a Darren Aronofsky film. And Ryan does the same for her—in light of Emma’s failed auditions, he advises her to write a one-woman play, a suggestion that in most states is legal grounds for divorce.

But since this is Hollywood, literally and figuratively, both of them become wildly successful.

3. A Sense Of An Ending

Spoiler alert, Ryan and Emma don’t end up together. They get something much better.

In the final scene, Emma (now a famous actress) and her husband (generic dude) stumble into Ryan’s jazz club. He shoots her a glance (“this could be us, but you playin’”), taps out the recurring musical motif, and triggers a five minute Mulholland Drive dream sequence in which Emma imagines their hypothetical life together in space and etc. Look of mutual acknowledgement. Close.

The sad end was inevitable, just ask Titanic, happy endings aren’t nearly as Oscar-worthy. A happy ending raises questions, namely, what next? Kids? Montessori schools? Home Depot? Chablis? Book club? Will you be able to sustain the passion that brought you this far? That’s not romantic, that’s terrifying.

The sad ending lets you idealize the relationship, imagining the emotional peaks without having to reckon with the flatline. And for the same reason, the sad ending serves as a lasting reminder of your own power. “I had her when she was beautiful. And I was the best she ever had.” Lost in her own memories, she’s never going to tell you different.

II.

As usual, there’s a person to blame for all this, and that person is Sofia Coppola.

Every one of the above tropes was codified by Lost In Translation. Most of the side characters didn’t speak English, so no way were they going to get a second dimension. The movie is obsessed with authenticity: Scar Jo picks Bill Murray because he sees through the facade of whiskey commercials (unlike the Japanese, or her husband); Bill Murray escapes his fabric-cataloguing wife; the two of them retreat into each other’s company in lieu of the outside world. And the ending—Bill Murray whispers something unheard, kisses his co-star, and the two of them part ways, leaving behind a bittersweet yet somehow self-aggrandizing memory.

Lost In Translation wasn’t a musical, but its aesthetic was music video, shoegaze guitars and long dialogue-free shots of cityscape, #dream, #urban, #intimate. The movie’s descendants (Her being the closest mimic) are no less dependent on the fuzz pedal. Like a Valentine’s day mixtape, like an album put on pre-coitus, the music is chosen not to set the mood, but to soundtrack the scene for your future self. “When I look back on this, I want to feel...”

This is nice in small doses, sure. Lost In Translation had some good parts. La La Land wasn’t my brand, but I can’t knock the craft—the camera did some sick ollies, the song and dance routine was probably great if you’re into platonic cuddling and Apples to Apples. I don’t think these are bad movies, I just think you should be aware of what your unconscious is signing up for.

The underlying assumption of these films is that romance is best experienced in retrospect. You can spot the victims of this worldview by their Uniqlo flannel and sensitive eyes, constantly mourning some shower sex long past, lonely and even more so around others, unable to enjoy relationships until they implode, because then and only then are they understandable as stories. The underlying assumption is that if you wait long enough, love will find you, validate your disconnection from the human species, and depart without asking anything in return. These aren’t romance movies, they’re movies about the romance of movies. The comfort only lasts as long as the lights are dimmed.

37 notes · View notes

mst3kproject · 7 years

Photo

T-Bird Gang

Roger Corman released this on a double-bill with High School Big Shot. Among the stars is Ed Nelson, who prompted 'Ed Nelson Plumbing and Heating' jokes in Night of the Blood Beast and Teenage Caveman. In case that didn't tie the movie firmly enough to MST3K, the role of the police captain is filled by the one and only Coleman Francis – believe me, one was enough! T-Bird Gang is better than High School Big Shot, but that, as usual, is really not saying much.

A warehouse robbery leaves the night watchman dying on the pavement – he is found by his son Frank, and manages to gasp out something about 'a white t-bird' before expiring. Frank learns that Alex Hendricks, a notorious gang leader, drives a white thunderbird, but since the police insist on having things like 'statements' and 'evidence' before arresting him, Frank resolves to hunt the killer down himself. He gets invited to join Alex' gang, which includes weasely knife-wielding Raymond, tough Barney, quick-fingered Boyd, and bored, whiny Marla. Once on the inside, Frank gets the blessing of police Captain Prell to lead the gang into a trap, but Alex and Raymond escape and decide to take some revenge of their own.

The first thing you really notice in this movie is the sound. The initial robbery takes place to an accompaniment of bongo drums, and then Frank arrives to the sound of jazz. It never suits what's happening – more than one scene has fast-paced jazz over a scene of somebody just walking back and forth – and is trying far too hard to be 'stylish'. I could almost hear Tom Servo scatting along. The music is often far louder than the voices. Only once do we get a break from the intrusive jazz, and that's for intrusive classical music that's in the movie because it's public domain.

The film doesn't look much better than it sounds. Most of it takes place at night, but the night scenes are also probably the best-looking in the movie – the parts that happen indoors or by day are a bit overexposed. This is particularly unfortunate for the fair-skinned, blonde actresses playing both Marla and Frank's partner Kay. They're left looking kind of creepy and featureless. The direction is mediocre at best, with very little artistry in any of the shots, not much by way of mood lighting, and a few scenes that are weirdly composed so that you find your eye drawn to the bedspread or the bland wall art instead of the actors.

I'm not sure how old any of these characters are supposed to be. The back of the box and the IMDB page both refer to Frank as 'a high school boy', but he talks about having gotten out of the army, which suggests he's in at least his mid-twenties. He refers to Kay merely as 'my girl', but they live together and in the 50's I'm pretty sure that must mean they're married. John Brinkley, playing Frank, was twenty-eight in 1959. Captain Prell refers to Alex as a 'juvenile delinquent' but Ed Nelson was thirty-one. I'm not sure even the writers knew anybody's ages.

Of the characters in the gang, Barney and Boyd are only peripheral and are therefore not very well-defined. The most notable thing about them is that Boyd both looks and dresses so much like Frank it can be hard to tell them apart. Raymond is supposed to be the knife-wielding maniac of the group, but he looks like a skinny nerd – the movie is black and white but something about his features screams 'ginger'. Actor Tony Miller tries really hard, but his physiognomy is all wrong for the part. Leader Alex is a gangster stereotype, who wears nice suits and speaks with an educated accent, loves classical music and buys people drinks as a show of generosity.

Then there's Marla. I kept expecting her to have a bigger part than she did, especially after the movie makes a point of her using a pseudonym. She comes across as dim and selfish most of the time, and yet we see her take advantage of Alex' distraction to cheat at a game of chess, and read very thick books. I think this is supposed to be a joke, but nothing is ever done with it. Watching the movie makes one hope they're leading up to revealing that Marla is is the real brains of the operation, but at the end all she does is cry while the cops take her away.

Our hero, Frank, is fairly nondescript. He is introduced driving a car, in lighting that makes him look weirdly Steve Buscemi-ish, and never really gets any character development. There's no indication that he has a job but we do see him in a warm and loving relationship with Kay – John Brinkley and Nola Thorp don't have much chemistry but they make do. The film does nothing at all, however, with Frank's status as a good man forced to deal with bad people in the service of a higher ideal. We might expect to see him conflicted about this, or at least hesitant to do some of the things he does, but no, the only thing he ever even minimally angsts over is whether to tell Kay what he's up to. Maybe he does this partly because he's having trouble re-integrating into civilian society after his military service, but that's never discussed. Brinkley also wrote the movie, so you'd think he'd have created a more complex role for himself.

The one surprise the casting gives us is Coleman Francis. This is the first time I've paid any attention to him playing a part he didn't write, and he's... okay. He's not great, but he's not egregiously incompetent like he was in his own movies. His Captain Prell is good enough and in this movie that's just fine. Prell seems to approach his job methodically and without ever being very surprised by anything no matter what is going on, which actually works very well for the role of a life-long police officer. I guess Francis was just way worse at directing and writing than he was at acting. Huh.

There is an attempt to do something interesting with the middle part of the movie, in which Frank must go through a series of tests in order to prove his loyalty to the gang. There's a little bit of actual suspense here, as Frank and the gang try to trap one another, and a near miss when Frank and Prell's scheme is almost exposed. There's a hint that Raymond is jealous of Frank's quick ascent to Alex' new favourite, but this is not really explored as much as I wish it were. Put that next to Marla on the list of things that could have been cool, but weren't.

Beyond all that, there are two really big problems I have with this movie. The first is that the cops apparently know that Alex drives his distinctive white thunderbird to every crime, and yet they don't seem to be able to track the car down. Frank does so in a couple of days of asking questions. Why don't the police just have the car followed, and catch the gang red-handed at their next job? The other is the ending, in which the conflict the whole movie began on – Frank's desire for revenge for the death of his father – just falls to the wayside right when we expect it to come to a head.

At the beginning of the film, Captain Prell talks to Frank about his father's death, and Prell's insistence that they can't just 'go get 'em' is what starts Frank on his quest for vigilante justice. In a second conversation, once Frank is in with the gang, he grudgingly promises to deliver the killer to Prell instead of taking him out himself. The audience expects after this scene that circumstances will force Frank to take matters into his own hands after all, but that never happens and for most of the middle of the movie Frank's father is completely forgotten about. Frank never even tries to find out who killed him. You'd figure there'd be some kind of conversation about this, with Frank saying something like, “I hear they're still looking for the guy who killed that night watchman,” but it is never brought up. Rather than being a focus, the death of Frank's father is merely a plot device.

T-Bird Gang really ought to end with Frank's revenge, when he either kills Raymond or else decides proper justice is more important than his personal satisfaction and hands him over to the cops. Either would work, but the movie it never gets there. I think Raymond shouting “I killed for you!” at Alex is supposed to be the moment Frank realizes who the killer was, but this isn't treated as a revelation and Frank doesn't get the chance to do anything about it. Moments later, Raymond is gunned down by the cops.

This is not at all satisfying. If Frank were the one to fight and kill Raymond, it would complete the revenge plot. If Frank confronted Raymond and then delivered him to Prell, this would complete the revenge plot and give Frank a character arc. The actual ending is an ending, but not one that closes the emotional circle of the story we were just told. With no confrontation between Frank and Raymond there is no resolution, and it feels like by the time the writers made it to the end, they'd forgotten where they started.

The movie is only sixty-four minutes long, and yet it feels longer – I think this is because the movie never goes where we're hoping it will go, so we feel like we're sitting and waiting for the story to start rather than following it. I can only imagine that watching this back-to-back with High School Big Shot must have made for an awfully frustrating evening.

#mst3k #reviews #episodes that never were #t bird gang #50s

6 notes · View notes

waywardsons-imagines · 7 years

Text

Things People Say

Writers - Admin Aingeal @aingealcethlenn & Admin Grace

Characters - Dean, Reader, Sam, Mary, Castiel

Pairing - Dean x Reader

Summary - She was the best hunter in the United States. They were the Winchesters. Dean is overprotective of her, and ends up pushing her away. What happens when she leaves and hunt on her own? What happens when he gets a call, in the middle of the night, because he was her emergency contact?

Word Count - 2,692

Warnings - Angst...Lots and lots of angst...Mild language, Mentions of injuries from an accident/hunt (reader is in hospital)... Mary Winchester is included in this, but no spoilers from any actual episodes. Doesn’t follow the episodes at all. (If you spot any other warnings I should add, please let me know so I can edit this post to include them!)

A/N -So..This was written for a challenge, and ended up getting away from me, and turned out WAAAYYYYYY longer than I first envisioned lol There WILL be a part 2 though (as long as people are interested)! So please let me know! And let me know if you wanna be tagged in it!!!

Story: -Reader POV-

It had been the same almost every hunt recently. Dean asking me to stay behind. Hold down the fort, help with research instead of with the battle. It was his way of keeping me safe. Making sure he wouldn’t lose me to some monster, or demon, or anything else out there.

When I met the Winchester brothers, they knew exactly who I was. In fact, the only hunter feared more than those two, was yours truly. I was meticulous, and dangerous, and loved every minute of my job. That never put the boys off though. No, instead, it only drove us closer. Especially Dean.

Lately though, it seemed every argument that we had, was surrounding my safety.

“We just don’t want anything to happen to you.” Dean said softly, trying to calm me down.

“I know how to take care of myself Dean! Damn it, I was the best damn hunter in the states! Now, just because I’m with you, suddenly it’s too dangerous for me to be out there?!”

“I just want you safe, Y/n. You have to know that.” He tried to reach out to me, but I took a step back.

“I do, Dean. But what I need, is to be out there killing all those things that go bump in the night. I can’t stay here doing research all the time.”

“I just..I..It’s..” Dean let out a quiet sigh. “We worry about you, okay. We..I lo-”

“I don’t want people worrying about me.” I interrupted him. “The more you focus on my safety, they more you put yourself at risk! And I could never forgive myself if I lost you because your dumbass was focused on me!”

“But I can’t lose you, Y/N! Don’t you understand that?!”

“If you keep trying to prohibit me like this Dean, you’ll end up losing me anyway.”

I didn’t need to be protected. I didn’t want to be protected. I missed being out on hunts, I missed the rush of adrenaline.

Hunting is all I know. It’s all I dream about, besides having a family some day with Dean of course, but we all know that can’t happen while we live the life of a hunter. This is our normal, this is our past, present and future. I want to hunt with Dean, but if he’s going to continue to be stubborn, then I’m going to have to do it on my own.

-Dean’s POV-

Our last fight was three weeks ago. I thought things were going okay, she was accepting my reason for keeping her safe at the bunker, rather than out on hunts with us.

I guess not.

Standing at the bottom of the stairs, I was begging her to stay.

“Baby, we can work this out. Please.”

“Dean-” She just shook my head. I could tell she wanted to say more, but couldn’t.

“What about all the plans that you’re leaving behind? That little white house by the railway line? You know, the one we picked out together? What about the promise you made me? To stay with me until you’re dying day? You swore you’d never leave! Or are those just things that people say? Huh?”

She didn’t utter a word. Instead, she simply placed a kiss on my cheek and walked up the stairs for what I could only imagine was the final time.

As I watched her walk out that door, I felt my chest tighten. It was getting hard to breathe.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. We were supposed to be together forever. Now, she’s out there chasing her dreams, and I’m standing here wondering where all this leaves me.

Two weeks passed. No word from Y/n. No call, no text saying she was okay, nothing. I’m not sure if I should be worried, or relieved. No news is good news right? Sammy keeps trying to get me to go out and hunt, says it will take my mind off things. How can I hunt monsters, when the monsters in my head are screaming at me?

Four weeks passed. Still nothing from Y/n. Cas stopped by the other day though, asked if I was doing okay. Not sure why he would ask, I know he can tell. We sat and talked a while, he tried to make me smile, improve my mood by telling me she was okay.

I knew he didn’t know for sure though. Y/n was good at her job - Cas had no idea where she was.

The staff at the store, and bar even heard the news. Makes it real hard to show my face around in this small town. So here I lie, three a.m., unable to sleep yet again. All I can think about is where she is tonight, and if I ever cross her mind.

Eight weeks passed. Mom keeps wondering what went wrong between Y/n and me. I don't even know, for sure… Did I hold on too strong? Did I not hold on enough? Could I have loved her a little more - if possible? Mom thought we were perfect, and she knows how Y/n soothed me. I agreed.

Ten long weeks passed. I haven’t gone this long without Y/n in my corner since we met. The nightmares keep me awake. If it’s not about my past, it’s about her. No one has heard from her, no one has seen her.

Twelve weeks passed. My phone rings. Unknown number. I answer, hoping it might be Y/n. “Hello?” My voice still full of sleep.

“I’m sorry to bother you sir, but is this…” there was a slight pause. “Dean... Winchester?” A deep voice replied on the other line.

Taken off-guard, I stuttered, “U-uh, yea... Who is this?” I slowly sit up in my bed, worry creeping into my mind.

“My name is Dr. Jackson. I am calling on behalf of a Miss Y/L/N?”

“Oh… O-okay? I..Is she okay?”

“She’s had an accident, Mr. Winchester,” the man answered gravely. “We’re not entirely sure what happened, but you were listed in her phone as an emergency contact.”

“Where is she?” My voice was hostile despite my stomach dropping down to my shoes... I was doing everything I could to stop it from cracking as I asked.

“She was admitted in the ICU at Sky Ridge in Denver,” the guy replied, luckily seeming unaffected by my attitude.

Jotting down the name quickly, I almost can’t let myself hang up without saying, “I’ll be there in a few hours. Th..Thank you for calling me.”

“We’ll be waiting, sir. I’ll be available to fill you in on what we know when you arrive Mr. Winchester.”

With that, he hung up and so did I. For a brief moment, I sat on my bed and just stared blankly at the wall. Trying hard to wrap my head around what I just heard. ICU? Accident?

Jumping out of my bed, I ran to Sam’s room. On my way, I called out for Cas.

“CAS! I NEED YOU!”

Arriving at Sam’s door, I began pounding. Not wanting to just walk in, it was the only thing I could do. I didn’t knock like I normally would, no I was pounding on the door as if I was trying to break it down. Only stopping when I saw it slowly open, and Sam’s sleep ridden face appeared in the small crack between the door and it’s frame.

“Sam, we need to go. Now. Get dressed, pack a small bag.” My voice rushed, and still wracked with worry.

“What? Why? What’s wrong?” He responded, panicked from the startle I probably gave him.

“Dean. What is it?” Cas’ voice broke through as he appeared.

“It’s Y/n,” I bark. “She’s in a hospital in Denver.”

“What? How-How do you know?” Sam opened his door completely and the worry shown in his eyes.

I turned to him quickly. “I just got a call from some doctor there,” I rushed out. “Apparently I’m still her emergency contact on her phone.” The words felt hollow as I said ‘em. “She’s in the ICU Sammy. We need to go. Cas, please, come with? Try to heal her?”

Damn. Was that desperate voice mine…?

… For Y/n, yes, dammit.

“Of course Dean.” Cas’ voice held no emotion, but I could tell he was worried about her, and me.

“Give me ten minutes,” Sam nods, already heading towards his dressers. “I’ll be ready.”

“Thanks guys,” I breathed. I needed to get ready...

I went back to my room, throwing on whatever clothes I found first. Tossing others into a bag, I made my way toward the car. When I arrived, Cas and... mom? were already there.

“Mom?” I heard myself repeat my head, surprised to see her here...

“I heard the commotion,” she replied, her voice as calm, and as caring as ever. It helped me, I think… I could breath a little easier. “Cas filled me in, and I knew I had to go with.”

“Thanks mom,” I nodded with a small smile.

Once Sam joined us, we loaded into the car and wasted no time making our way to Denver. Finding the hospital was easy, and so was finding the ICU. My feet felt heavy as I ran to the nurses station, trying to get any information I could.

“Can I help you, sir?” The nurse asked, not even looking up from her damn computer.

“Name’s Winchester,” I said briskly. “I’m looking for a Miss Y/L/N? I got a call from Dr. Jackson, asking me to come down?”

“Oh,” the nurse’s eyes met mine finally. Her eyes were wide and she looked down a hallway, slightly, to my right. “Yes. She’s right through there,” she nodded to the hallway. “But let me page the doctor for you first, Mr. Winchester.”

I heard her voice filling the halls as she called for the doctor. It didn’t take long for him to show up, but it felt like hours… Sam, Cas and my mom had caught up and they all stood around me.

I was almost about to get annoyed with the semi-circle they seemed to form around me, but that was when the doc showed.

He shook my hand, all professional-like, and took us to a waiting room next to the nurse’s station first.

“Mr. Winchester -”

“Dean,” I abruptly interrupt. “C-Call me Dean.”

“Dean,” the guy nodded, giving a brief but grim smile. “Miss Y/L/N’s room is right across the hall here,” he pointed to a room across the hall with some kinda clipboard, down to the left slightly.

“But,” he pressed on, noticing my gaze gluing to the door. “I must warn you, she is in critical condition.”

It took me a second to answer him.

“I need to see her,” I said, not even recognizing how soft my voice was. “Please.”

The doctor’s mouth tightens briefly, contemplating. But then the guy simply nods, and I’m off.

I make my way quickly to her room. I don't even register the doc talking to the others, but whatever they’re saying flies high over my head when I catch sight of her...

Walking into the room, I wasn’t expecting what I saw. I can't say what I was expecting really, but certainly not… not that.

“How rough are we talking doctor?” Mary asked concerned.

“She has a number of fractured and even some broken ribs,” the man answered softly, peering back at Dean’s vanishing form. “Not to mention a massive amount of bruising and cuts. She suffered a dislocated knee, and shoulder, but we fixed those easily… her broken wrist and femur, of course... will take time to heal.”

Sam - as if in pain - rubbed a rough hand down his face, grimacing. He muttered a few words in disbelief, the only ones managed to be heard were ‘fuckin’’ and ‘femur?’.

“We have done the best we can,” the doctor pressed on. “And we have her sedated so she isn’t in much pain.”

“Is there any indication on what happened?” Sam asked from his spot a few feet away from the semi-circle. He was trying his best to stay calm.

“Unfortunately... no,” the doctor hesitated to answer. “She somehow managed to make it to the emergency room downstairs, but she lost consciousness before any questions could be asked of her. We - of course - checked her phone for her medical ID information, and she had Mr. Winchester as an emergency contact, so we called him immediately.”

I… I couldn't move anything but my eyeballs as I stared at her.

Isn't it funny that everything that I was afraid, of happened the momen-- No! Stop. Not fucking now.

Taking in every cut, every bruise. The cast on her wrist, her entire arm in a brace, her leg tightly wrapped and also in a brace, elevated.

Finally able to move, I walked closer, my feet once again heavy.

My eyes burned looking at her. Placing a kiss on her forehead, I felt something fall from my eye… Ignore it.

“You’re gonna pull through this,” I hear myself whisper on her hairline. Her hair is pulled back from her face, her face covered in stitched up scratches and various scraps... “You have to,” I choke out… where'd this come from… “We have plans, you made a promise to me,” the words are desperate… “You promised you’d never leave me…”

No response… her eyes are peering listlessly under half-lidded eyes - she's probably too hopped up on painkillers and morphine to do anything about that…

“Damn it Y/N,” I growl thickly. “I know I was stupid… I know I screwed up. But I love you. So much…”

Three months of missing her, seeping outta me…

“You're gonna get better, baby… and we’re going to take you home so I can take care of you.” I take a deep breath. “I promise to you, I will never stop you from doing what you want again, just so long as I'm there to help you back up.. in-...” I have to stop. “Instead of you picking your own damn self up.” I grabbed her good hand and kissed the bruised knuckles as gently as possible.

“Just please,” I whisper. “Don't give up on me, baby.”

I stood up, unable to stay in there with her any longer. Not in the state she was in. Walking out of the room, I turned to my left and started making my way back to the waiting room.

I swallow the lump in my throat, shaking my head a tad to help… but it's difficult - it doesn't even work.

I swallow again, harder but it does not help.

I feel a fresh wave of emotion roll through me, and I feel my mouth pull down. Quickly, I look down at the ground.

No one look at me, please, I pleaded silently.

I manage trip over my own feet, and luckily a wall catches my fall.

I rest my hand on the wall and took a deep breath, doing everything in my power to keep the tears from actually falling, dammit...

I get myself together - I have to get myself together - and I walk past the nurse’s station and back into the waiting room.

The doctor was no longer there, but mom, Sam and Cas were.

“How is she?” Mary spoke softly, somehow just knowing how to speak to me.

“She’s, uh -” I swallowed hard again, trying not to let too much show. “She’ll be okay. She’s in real rough shape, but she’ll live.”

“What can I do Dean?” Cas spoke up.

“Can you heal her Cas?” I asked desperately, my voice lowering considerably.

I felt his hand rest on my shoulder, reassuring me.

“I will do everything I can.” Cas nodded, before walking out of the room.

I watched him walk into her room and I sighed, bringing my hand to my forehead.

Would she want to see me…? Would she want to come back…? Would she believe my word on hunting?

I hope.

Hell, I pray.

Haven't done that in a while.

145 notes · View notes

dajoezenone · 7 years

Text

THE ZOO ARC (Steven Universe Review)

Confused about how I’m reviewing an entire arc of episodes that has been promoted to release at the end of this month? Well, Cartoon Network put the episodes on their website without warning last night. And I watched em.

But you dont care about that. Lets talk about the episodes. I’ll be as spoiler free as I can but its a pretty intense arc. Just watch it and then come back if you still care.

The first one starts out by breaking the cardinal rule of the show: STEVEN PUTS STUFF TOGETHER AND ASKS QUESTIONS ON HIS OWN. Except, not really. His questions come up because his dream powers are causing his mind to connect with that of Blue Diamond. Side note: any other time Steven’s dream powers have acted up, its because Steven is thinking about the person as he falls asleep, or otherwise because he lucid dreams his way there intentionally. This time it is COMPLETELY unprompted as far as I know, and its not really said why. But thats okay.

Anyways, its really Connie that puts together that she’s seen the thing in Steven’s dream before, and thats the only thing she does this whole arc. While we’re on the subject, Lapis and Peridot show up momentarily in the subsequent episode only to also get left out of the entire rest of it. The three are told that if anything happens while the main crew is gone, they must defend Beach City and the earth, which shows how much the Gems trust them, but since, to our knowledge, nothing really happens, it doesnt mean anything really. I really want to see the three of them interact on some kind of mission sometime soon though. That would be really fun and solidify the three of them not only as Crystal Gems, but as a team themselves. I’d really like that.

Anyways, Greg and Steven go off in search of answers to what really happened to Pink Diamond, and do so by flying to Korea in Andy’s plane. They have a nice touristy montage through Korea, and then end up at the Palanquin. There, they find Blue Diamond, who is mourning Pink. Greg has a nice moment where he connects with her, where he tells her he knows how she feels and what she’s going through. Its a really good scene. The two characters aren’t ones you’d expect to connect. The parallel is nice, not expected, and really clever. Its emotional, and genuine. Its also interesting to see Greg do something like this, as its definitely what Steven would do in the situation. I somehow always thought that side of Steven really was from Rose. After all, we’ve seen that she loved everything on the Earth. But... the more we’ve learned about who Rose was, it does make much more sense that having this kind of response to Homeworld things definitely comes from Greg, not Rose.

Anyways, Greg is dadnapped by Blue Diamond and put into her Human Zoo a few lightyears across Space.

Steven and the OG CG crew follow in the Roving Eye they stole from the Rubies. Speaking of whom, we see them briefly, and its mentioned that they’ll clean up THAT mess on the way back. The second episode in the arc seems mostly wasted on in-jokes like this. Steven messes with the ship’s controls, and as they go farther beyond the speed of light, it becomes harder and harder for the Gem’s to maintain their form, which results in some not that funny shape shifting shenanigans at first, and some soul-crushing loneliness later. Steven has a revealing, yet predictable emotional moment while the Gems arent able to take form, confessing he feels this is all his fault for asking questions. But the problem is solved and the Gems comfort him. This is by far my least favorite of the five, in case you can’t tell. Its got its moments, but not enough for me to really like it.

The third episode brings the quality back up though. They arrive at the zoo, and realize they’re going to have to sneak past the Homeworld Gems stationed there. Garnet unfuzes, and Steven and the four Gems start faking their way through the security so they can get to where Greg and the other humans are held.

Something I really like about this episode, and the last one in particular is that each of the Gems that does come along on the journey has to deal with their own little struggle. They all have moments that are unique to their characters, and they’re all balanced well. Ruby, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl all grow as characters, at least a little bit. Pearl is the most obvious, as she is forced to revert to being subservient to the other Gems. Sapphire and Ruby have to be apart again, and the stakes are much higher than in Hit the Diamond. Also, while that largely seemed to focus on Ruby and her interactions with the other Rubies, this focuses a tad more on Sapphire, having to pretend to be in charge of the other Gems, and having to struggle with the knowledge that they WILL fail. Without Ruby, its hard for her to change the course of time she sees before her, and we really see the effects of that. She gets a lot more screentime than she usually does, and its really nice.

At the base, we’re introduced to the main villain of the arc, a Holly Blue Agate in charge of the Zoo. Compared to Peridot, Jasper and even Lapis, she’s relatively mediocre, and I kinda doubt she’ll ever become as important as those Homeworld Gems, but she does her job well. She’s super uptight and perfectionist, and while she clearly enjoys her work on the Zoo (expressing delight at both the new human arrivals) 5,000 years of dealing with the squadron of Amethysts and other Earth Gems that crew the station is clearly wearing on her. Any tiny thing that goes wrong, she blames on them, which is really nice for our heroes, but at the same time only allows them to see how ferocious she would be to them if she found them out. Even Steven never really tries to befriend Holly Blue. She manages to be scary while also hardly raising her voice. She expects things to work the proper way, and whoever is making things NOT work properly will suffer, if she has anything to say about it.

Without spoiling how that episode really goes from there, the fourth episode in the arc focuses on what things have been like for Greg actually in the Zoo. And this episode is probably my favorite of the bunch, though the last one is really good as well. The humans in captivity are all very blissfully unaware of how life is. They all seem to be happy, but their lives lack true meaning or love of any kind. The people there are all really nice, albeit childlike and a bit weird. They’re somewhat entitled, a bit lazy, and all seem to lack any real individuality. But this isn’t a fault of the writers, its just that they’re all just products of the world they live in. Even Greg is starting to just do what he’s told and exist in this blissful utopia. He only really disobeys it when he discovers that romantic relationships in this world are all predetermined by the automated voices. And Greg doesn’t want a new Romantic relationship. Especially not with any of these people that can’t make decisions on their own. I wont spoil how this one ends either so lets move on to the finale.

btw, I DO spoil the finale. If you havent’ watched it, just know that its very good and you should watch it.

The final episode begins Greg and Steven being captured by the Amethysts aboard the Zoo. The have our Amethyst as well, who plays like she’s being held captive before revealing she has befriended them all since the last time we saw her. It turns out that all Earth Gems are about as unruly and immature as our Amethyst is. There’s even a Jasper and a Carnelian from the Beta kindergarten mixed in. The whole gang is delightful, and I wish we got to spend more time with them, but we really only get enough time to see how accepted our Amethyst really is among the rest of the misfits and freaks from Earth. From there, the squad helps hide Steven and Greg from Holly Blue long enough to get them to a large room where we see a bunch of bubbled Rose Quartzes. As they make their way across the giant room, a couple suitably giant gems come in. Blue Diamond and Yellow Diamond. Blue is still depressed about Pink, and Yellow is attempting to cheer her up, so they can get rid of the Roses and the Earth, and move on.

She sings a song, accompanied by Blue and Yellow Pearl. I dont like it that much. Yellow Diamond’s singing voice annoys me, and Deedee is definitely better as regular Pearl. But, its still really good for what it is, and it allows us to see into Yellow Diamond’s head a little. The Pearls are really fun as well. I love how Yellow Pearl is so opposite of ours. She glories in her diamond’s arrogant sass, and feels so honored whenever she’s addressed, no matter how demeaning the task she’s commanded to do.

That aside, Greg and Steven regroup with the rest of the squad, and they all manage to make it past the Diamonds without incident. They make it back to the docking bay, and almost make it into the Roving eye, but are caught by Holly Blue. We get a quick fight scene, but its mostly just the Gems showing off. The Agate is apparently more bark than bite, and her squad of Amethysts don’t do much to help, as they’re rooting for their friends over their hated boss. Pearl gets the last laugh, telling Holly Blue why it’d be a bad idea for her to reveal to the Diamonds what just happened, and they fly off into the sunset.

Its a great arc. Definitely bigger and more intense than almost any arc before it, but at the same time, some of the episodes, the second especially, seem really slow. Theyre all just kind of building, and then the last episode, while really great, just kinda wraps up all that setup. Its really great, and it leaves room for the rest of season 4 to be even bigger and more amazing.

I really hope we see the humans and the Earth Gems of the Zoo again. I imagine we’ll have to, since all the Rose Quartzes are bubbled there. All three groups are native to Earth, and I’d love to see them all return there sometime. But... we’ll see.

This was a great arc, and a step in a wonderful new direction for the show. Can’t wait for more.

#steven universe #steven bomb five #the zoo #that will be all #the diamonds #whats the use of feeling blue #adventures in light distortion #steven's dream #gem heist

16 notes · View notes

thevalkirias · 7 years

Text

The Handmaid’s Tale and the fear that lives within all of us

The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, had always been on my “must read” list. Years went by without any movement on my part to change its status from “must read” to “read” on my shelf, and it was only now, with the news of its adaptation – released in April by Hulu and starred by Elisabeth Moss –, that I took the dust away from my copy and started reading. I knew the story was intense and filled with metaphors, but little did I know that I was about to be punched in the stomach every time I flipped a page.

As it happens in some of the best sellers from recent times – The Hunger Games and Divergent, only to name a few – The Handmaid’s Tale is also a dystopia, but different from what we see on Katiniss’ and Tris’ sagas, here there’s no chosen one that will save human kind from its annihilation. In this future, the United States as we know it no longer exists and is dominated by an extremely religious and patriarchal society that, through a military coup, has taken the power and controls every individual and the entirety of Gilead’s Republic with an iron fist. It’s not really clear how the coup took place, but the fight for power ended up causing environmental catastrophe and, moreover, totalitarianism and religious fundamentalism get mixed, shaping a new and rigid social system that is nothing but terrifying – especially to its women.

It is in this context that we meet Offred, a woman that had her whole life taken away from her and is now a Handmaid in the new regime. Through her experiences, we slowly discover that human fertility has decreased to low levels; hence, all fertile women (even the ones that already had children) are obligated to corroborate with this system. These women are trained which has the sole purpose of getting them pregnant and have them deliver and breastfeed their babies until it’s time to give the children away to the Commanders and their wives. Forget about free will or autonomy: each and every Handmaid is tied to this system and will be a part of it until the end. Offred’s name, by the way, means “Of Fred”; the name is given to each Handmaid due to the Commander to which she is destined, contributing to the erasure of the woman’s life: even her own name is taken away from her in order to magnify her status as an object

“I wait. I compose myself. My self is a thing I must now compose, as one composes a speech. What I must present is a made thing, not something born.”

Offred narrates her experiences in this new society while she remembers moments of her life from before the coup, before Gilead’s Republic. Women in this new world are sorted out and categorized, and the image of the Handmaid is the most emblematic, important and discriminated against. Since human fertility is no longer the same, the Handmaids – always dressed in long, red gowns, almost like nuns, covering their faces with wide white hats – are necessary to assure not only the maintenance of the regime, but also life as a whole.

The Handmaids’ lives are closely watched by the Commanders and their wives, who crave the babies the Handmaids may come to carry; they are watched by the Aunts, women responsible for educating the Handmaids, teaching them to be submissive and helpful, focusing only in getting pregnant and in not showing any sign of threat to the sterile wives; and by the Marthas, women that can no longer have children and have to dedicate themselves to the chores that have to be taken care of at the homes of Gilead’s great leaders. There are also those women that are discarded by society, sent away, and those who live in the margins of society, on brothels, attended by the same leaders that despise them.

“It's strange to remember how we used to think, as if everything were available to us, as if there were no contingencies, no boundaries; as if we were free to shape and reshape forever the ever—expanding perimeters of our lives. I was like that too, I did that too.”

It is when Offred is arriving at the house of a new Commander that the story becomes stronger and gets even more terrifying. Trying to find other people that may take part on the resistance or that may have news about family and loved ones lost during the coup, Offred discovers that the secrets and dynamics of this new world are even worse than she could have imagined. Any deviance from the path set by Gilead’s leaders is punished with death, there’s no more individuality, nor the right to one’s own body. Atwood, using her made-up plot, shows us how the rights earned after much struggle can be extinguished through the use of violence and how religion can be used, wrongly, to justify the privileges of a few and the ruin of many. The women of this new world cannot read, write or talk without consent; they lost the right to work and study. One of the first maneuvers of this new regime, by the way, was to take away all forms of autonomy from every woman, giving all of their money to the men in their families and making them depend on the men, with no way out.

With a live that is purely based on repression, the Handmaid must also submit to a surreal ritual in which she has to have sex with the Commander she is assigned to, under the supervision of the Wife. Offred tries to keep her dignity, trying hard not to let go go of her personality, remembering facts related to her old life, to her companion, mother and daughter, but it is hard to maintain your sanity in a world where everybody is watching you. The Handmaid’s Tale is a very disturbing story that, even 30 years after its first publication, in 1985, keeps echoing the fear that lives within women all over the world. With world leaders that are more and more deplorable and carry bizarre ideals, it is not hard to imagine a world in which all of our rights would be taken away, in which our autonomy would be usurped.

“These things you did were like prayers; you did them and you hoped they would save you. And for the most part they did. Or something did; you could tell by the fact that you were still alive.”

The Handmaid’s Tale is disturbing and it is not an easy read: Margaret Atwood’s role as a writer is to provoke us, to make us think about a world that might seem to belong to a dystopian universe, but is always there, lurking, in our own world. Women experience oppression, are silenced, persecuted, harassed, raped and killed every day – and that’s not only the plot of a dystopia. Atwood had the courage of writing write about painful themes back in 1985, themes that, unfortunately, remain very real and terrifying. If women left their houses to add their strength to the Women’s March, it’s not by chance: we all know how much we need to stick together and make our rights worth.

Atwood’s book carries strong criticism towards patriarchy and, according to the writer, there’s nothing in its plot that women does not know – that is why the whole plot is so terrifying and distressing, so real in its barbarity and in showing the fear that live within all of us. If we need feminism, if it gives us strength, it is because we need to make sure that a future like the one in Gilead never becomes a possibility.

About the author:

THAY

Tomb explorer, shadow assassin, pirate captain and sailor soldier. Hunts demons in her free time, wears a Gryffindor scarf and is an occasional getaway driver. Addicted to Supernatural and to buying books as if there was no tomorrow.

This piece was originally published in Portuguese on February 13, 2017 on Valkirias as "O Conto da Aia e o medo que mora em todas nós". Translated by Anna Viduani.

#the handmaid's tale #margaret atwood #feminism #category:literature #author:thay #translator:anna viduani

0 notes