#and Ted and Jay were accepting of him

[schlattsdoll]

Imagine going to the streamer awards with Schlatt (you’re not a streamer) and if he wins something then once you all get home he makes you cum as many times as he can as a celebration type thing

celebrate- jschlatt

minors dni

paring: schlatt x fem/afab! reader

warnings: smut {18+}, mentions of overstim, schlatt being a horny mf, overuse of pet names {im sorry}

to be quite honest with you, schlatt didn’t even want to go to the streamies. it wasn’t his scene and he was confident in the fact he wasn’t going to win. what sold him on it was seeing you in a tight dress. he took you shopping that morning, you two decided on wearing purple, the color of royalty as you told him. “makes sense, got my beautiful princess so that makes me a king.”

it was almost time to leave as you were putting the finishing touches on your makeup. “doll, we gotta go.” schlatt held your hand as you slid on your heels and even fixed the buckles for you. the tight sequined dress hugged your curves perfectly, the purple complementing your complexion.

“absolutely stunning.” your boyfriend commented with a wolf whistle. “whaddya say we skip this thing? i could do that thing ya like with my tongue.” he smirked and kissed up your neck. “jay, no. this is a big night for you! we have to go, that’s that.” you pushed the larger man away from you and frantically tried to fix your hair.

the car ride to the venue was so exciting for you. having only been with schlatt a few months, you hadn’t been to a streamers event before. “this is gonna be so fun jay! we’re gonna take pictures and you’re nominated! i think you’re gonna win personally.”

he rolled his eyes at the thought of him winning. “‘m glad you’re excited toots. at least one of us is.” you knew he wasn’t the biggest fan of going out, much rather wanting to spend the night back home in austin with you and jambo instead of being in smoggy old la. “c’mon baby, you’ll have fun trust me.” “i think having you bent over the bed would be more fun but okay.” he muttered under his breath.

you were right of course, sitting at the table with his fellow nominees ted and charlie, he started to loosen up a bit. drinks were flowing, laughs were being had, and schlatt started to ease up. “the nominees for best new podcast are…” ethan nestor started reading out their category. “oooh baby listen up!”

schlatt felt his nerves jump back up, he didn’t care about winning honestly. you were just so excited for him and the guys, he didn’t want to disappoint you.

“and the winners of best new podcast are….” you held schlatts hand tightly with one hand while you bit your nails on the other. “chuckle sandwich!” a camera panned over to your table and the guys all got up to go on stage, right after kissing their dates.

“thank you all so much for this amazing award, i think i speak for all of us when i say we definitely didn’t expect to be nominated let alone win. thank you to the fans for tuning in every week and we hope you keep listening!” ted spoke eloquently, a perfect acceptance speech; short and sweet.

once back at the table, his hand made its way to your thigh. “hey doll, don’tcha think i deserve a winner’s reward when we get back to the hotel?” he whispered in your ear then kissed your neck. his hand rubbed your thigh, inching closer and closer to your core. you squeezed them closer together, attempting to block his hand from his target.

the rest of the event was quite draining. all you could focus on was what schlatt was going to do to you later that evening. finally you got to leave and instead of going to the after party, you faked being sick. “sorry guys, im not feeling so hot. i better sit this one out. jay, you don’t mind not going do you? i feel so bad.” you pleaded with the large man, who knew you were faking it. “yeah guys, let’s do a rain check for next chuckle week. gotta make sure my baby’s feelin’ alright.” schlatt wrapped his jacket around you, and walked you towards his car. “congratulations again guys!”

the drive home was an entirely different vibe, schlatts hand was ghosting against your center, teasing you through your underwear. “couldn’t even wait for me to celebrate with my friends? needed me that badly huh doll?” he smirked at you while his fingers grabbed a hold of your panties and pulled them to the side. “s’fuckin’ wet for me…”

his large digits found their way to your clit, rubbing soft slow circles. “that’s it. atta girl. you looked so pretty tonight sweetheart. wanted to take you into a bathroom and fuck the shit outta ya.” your back arched into the seat at his words. “oh you like that idea don’t you princess? me taking care of this sweet cunt wherever i want it, not caring who sees me with what’s mine.”

his fingers speed up, causing you to grip tighter on the center console, “fuck jay, don’t stop. ‘m gonna cum.” “that’s right, cum for daddy.”

the car stopped moving, pulling into the hotel’s lot where schlatt waited until your orgasm subsided to help you out and into the room. once there, he tossed you onto the bed. “i believe i was promised the thing i like?” you smirked up at him.

dropping down to his knees and taking the headband out of his hair, he pulled you closer to the edge. “i’m a man of my word doll. but i’m gonna make you cum so many times you’re gonna cry.”

and once again, schlatt was a man of his word.

#jschlatt x reader #jschlatt imagine #jschlatt smut #jschlatt headcanons #jschlatt fluff #jschlatt #jschlatt hcs #chuckle sandwich imagine #mcyt imagine

[isfjmel-phleg]

Most of Grant's solo is motivated by his need to learn who his real parents were. But even though he does find out the truth, his relationship with the parents he never got to meet (or rather with the idea of them, with what could have been) never quite gets resolved, and I would love to see this revisited now that he's alive again in recent comics.

After a lot of dead ends and red herrings, Grant finally learns from Vandal Savage, who was responsible for the experimentation done on Grant and for placing him with the Emersons, that his real parents were Al Pratt (the Atom) and his wife Mary James.

Mary was murdered shortly after giving birth, her baby was taken away to be experimented upon, and Al had no idea that any of this had happened. He died in the Zero Hour event, about twelve hours before Grant got dragged in to save the day. They so narrowly missed each other!

Grant, like most of us, isn't well-informed about every obscure Golden Age JSA hero, so this revelation doesn't have any context for him. He knows his parents' names, but feeling actually connected to them...? Not so much.

(Damage #12)

It gets even more complicated with the additional reveal that although the Pratts were his biological parents, he was injected with the DNA of many other superheroes. The primary donor of these was J'onn J'onzz (Martian Manhunter), but Grant is also genetically related to

Barry Allen (Flash)

Johnny Chambers (Johnny Quick)

Arthur Curry (Aquaman)

Joan Dale-Trevor (Miss America)

Jay Garrick (Flash)

Ted Grant (Wildcat)

Carter Hall (Hawkman)

Shiera Hall (Hawkgirl)

Hal Jordan (Green Lantern)

Ted Knight (Starman)

Dinah Drake Lance (Black Canary)

Dinah Laurel Lance (Black Canary)

Libby Lawrence (Liberty Belle)

Charles McNider (Doctor Mid-Nite)

Ray Palmer (Atom)

Alan Scott (Green Lantern)

Rex Tyler (Hourman)

So not only does Grant have parents whom he knows nothing about, but he also has eighteen other "parents," some living, some dead, whose combined DNA has contributed to the powers he's still trying to adjust to. So many good people whose child he could technically be considered, and yet he still ended up raised by the abusive Emersons, who had no real connection to him. It's a lot to process. He is overwhelmed and confused--but he still wants to make contact with his real parents in the only way he can now.

He asks to be taken to their graves.

(Damage #15)

Several of his JSA "fathers" (Jay Garrick, Alan Scott, Ted Grant, and Ted Knight) come to the cemetery to meet him and try to make some sense of the situation. This information is just as new to them as it is to Grant, but they do seem willing to accept him and bring him into the JSA legacy.

This would have been an interesting direction to take the story: having the entire JSA take on Grant as their collective child. He used to have no real family, and now he's part of many families! But this is a dynamic that never gets to happen, for whatever reason. Although Grant does picture something like it in an illusory sequence. It's what he wants: acceptance into a family.

(JLA Titans #2)

But by the end of his solo, he's on his own, although he makes a point of seeking out Albert Rothstein, his father's godson, for information about his father--which we can assume Albert was only too happy to give. He and Al were very close.

We don't get to see here how hearing about how someone else got to have a warm, quasi-parental relationship with the father Grant never got to meet might have affected Grant, but remember this for later.

(Damage #20)

During Grant's hiatus from the Titans, he and Jesse Quick have an encounter with some malevolent beings who impersonate people from their past. Grant sees his parents and hears something from his father that he probably has always wanted to hear.

(Titans 1999 #45)

But he's still enough in possession of his faculties to question it with the painful truth. His father never met him. Never knew about him. Couldn't have cared about him. And what does that leave him with? His foster parents and their "love" that came with abuse.

His real parents died before they could know him. His foster parents failed him. His JSA parents either are dead or haven't done much to actually support him after his time with the Titans and the fight that scarred his face. By the time Grant is a young adult and has joined the JSA (who all seem to have forgotten that they're technically related to him), he's harboring a lot of bitterness toward his father.

(Justice Society of America 2007 #3)

He insists he's not following in his father's footsteps, and he is adamant about not taking up his father's mantle. He is Damage.

There's some inconsistency in this panel (Grant knew nothing whatsoever about Al Pratt before finding out they were related), but it's made clear that the bitterness comes from feeling abandoned and disconnected.

(Justice Society of America 2007 #16)

This resentment comes to a head after Grant has joined the cult of a villain who restored his face. This change in loyalties has caused a lot of trouble for the JSA. Albert tries to do the brotherly thing and talk some sense into Grant by reconnecting him to his father.

(JSA Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom #1)

Which is something that should have happened a long time ago! Grant should have gotten the opportunity to see his parents' house and artifacts. It would have been a way to connect, especially at a time when he was more open to that, but for whatever reason that didn't happen, and he's in no frame of mind to accept this as a kindness.

Instead he projects his own jealousy onto Albert, destroys his father's belongings, uses a term for his father that is both very rude and inaccurate, and deliberately blows up the entire house.

(JSA Kingdom Come Special: The Kingdom #1)

This level of maliciousness is not normal for him, and of course it's exacerbated by the influence of the villain he's currently following, but still...he's way out of line. This is him at his absolute worst. Accidental destruction has left him with a lot of guilt before. But how does he feel knowing that he let his anger get so out of hand that he obliterated so many physical ties to his father's memory--things that meant something, if not to him, then to his almost-brother?

Well, it's never directly addressed. But he does seem to have some guilt when faced with a memorial to his father.

(Blackest Night #1)

During the Blackest Night event, when Grant encounters the Black Lantern version of his father (basically an evil zombie), "Al" spouts all of Grant's frustrations with him.

And Grant responds with what Albert tried to remind him of. His father didn't know about him. It wasn't his fault. This is some small progress.

(Blackest Night #4)

In fact, if Al had known about Grant, things would have been incredibly different. The Pratts were evidently desperate to have children, since they were still trying for one so late in life (Grant would have been born in the late 1970s, and the Pratts would have been in their fifties by then if they were college-age in the early 1940s, which doesn't make a lot of sense for the established timeline, but whatever the case, the point still stands: older-than-usual first-time parents).

Before Al even married, he was already eager to find out if he and Mary would have kids and his reaction to learning that they'd have "at least one" is excitement.

(The New Golden Age #1)

Was it confidence in this prophecy that kept the Pratts trying for a baby for so long?

If Al's relationship with Albert is any indication of what he would have been like as a father, he would have been a good one. And he would have been outraged if he knew what the Emersons did to his son. If editorial mandate had not ensured that Zero Hour went the way it did, there could have been an eventual father-son reunion that would have taken Grant's solo in a completely different direction.

But that didn't happen, and Al is still dead in the current continuity. Grant, however, was last seen in the company of one of the newly restored lost children. Is he going to adopt a mentor role now? Will that require him to reconsider his own relationships with all the father-figures he had/could have had?

At any rate, a good step for him might be to address his name. After finding out about his complicated parentage, he felt that Damage was the only name he had left. But that's not true.

What if he dropped "Emerson," the name of the people who abused him, a symbol of all that painful baggage he's been carrying around? What if he instead chose to proudly use his birth name: Grant Albert Pratt?

#comicsposting again #GE: what I do is who I am #this is simultaneously a lengthy story time and an attempt to put some pieces together thank you for bearing with me

[kitkatt0430]

It's interesting seeing what the father figures in 90s Barry's life are like.

Henry Allen is a pretty stereotypical tv cop who favored his tv cop son a great deal and supported him in all things and, unfortunately for Barry, this son was Jay Allen. Who is now dead. He understood Jay because Jay was just like Henry, so it didn't exactly take a lot of effort on his part to connect with his eldest son.

Barry, however, was different. Scientifically minded. Every bit ad dedicated to justice and solving crime, but doing so in a different way than his father and brother.

Jay Allen was to Barry what Henry was to him. Except probably better. When the biggest bully in Barry's life is their own father, standing up for Barry over and over again to someone Jay otherwise loved and got along with well... that had to be difficult. We don't see a whole lot of Jay and Barry interacting in the pilot, but it's clear that Jay's been Barry's biggest supporter since they were kids and he wants Barry to feel confident in his career choices. And while he does question Barry's decision regarding dating Iris, it's out of concern that they're not right for each other... likely due to the off screen proposal that is heavily implied to have happened and that Iris said 'no' to.

Jay just wants to protect his younger brother and in doing so is likely the most constant and well meaning of Barry's father-figures, something Henry himself is just... failing at.

While Henry financially supported Barry through college, he clearly sees using science to process evidence and determine the facts of a crime to be a waste of time compared to 'pounding the pavement' and he just doesn't see what Barry does as real police work. And while he's impressed by - or at least interested in - the Flash, he has no idea that's Barry. Barry using science coupled with old fashioned police work to bring justice where it's needed.

And though Henry does come to understand Barry better during the situation with Hix, his insistence that he loved both sons equally rings hollow when he also claims that Barry was difficult to understand - as if that makes his favoritism of Jay somehow okay. No child is too 'difficult' to connect with or love; that's just an excuse made when someone doesn't want to make the effort. Am I being a little harsh there? Perhaps.

Then there's Ted Preminger, Barry's archeology professor in college. His course was a much needed refuge for Barry and his acceptance of Barry's intelligence a balm to the hurts his father caused him. And when Barry realized his passion for science lay in the present, not the past and he chose to pursue forensics - police science - instead... it got him neither his father's approval nor Dr. Preminger's. And Barry stopped visiting museums - or at least the one museum where Ted Preminger worked with - because he suddenly became persona non grata with the one person who'd previously encouraged Barry's love of science. All because Barry chose a field that Ted didn't approve of.

And yet Barry still found his niche. With Jay's support and later his friend Julio's, Barry established himself as a competent and dependable CSI. Most of the cops seem to see him as a peer. He believes in himself and his choices, he just wishes his father and Ted believed in him too.

It's interesting to me that he's so self assured, really, when his 2014 counterpart has much better father figures and yet doubts himself so much more easily.

2014 Henry Allen is a doctor and a kind man. He loves his son and praises Barry for standing up to bullies, even if he did run away afterwards. And Barry's belief in him, after Nora's death, is the lifeline Henry needed to keep believing in himself even as he pushed Barry away for what Henry perceived to be Barry's own good.

Joe West loves Barry and supports his scientific endeavors but... he was also constantly at odds with Barry growing up. Insisting Henry was guilty and tearing Barry down for believing in Henry's innocence and being fascinated by the unknown. It's difficult to learn self confidence when the people who love you most are constantly calling your perception of reality into question.

90s Barry had to learn, over and over, that he had to believe in himself or no one would. Jay couldn't be there for him all the time especially given the age gap between them, so he couldn't protect Barry from everything, even with their father. Barry had to learn to stand up for himself and move on when the people he looked up to let him down.

2014 Barry doesn't have that sense of self reliance - not in the same way 90s Barry does. He needs more external validation - after being disbelieved for so long, he needs to know the people he loves don't just love him back too, but that they believe in him.

Anyway, 90s Flash watch continues to be a lot of fun and giving me lots of feelings about all these characters.

#the flash #90s flash #fandom meta #the flash meta #90s flash meta #90s barry allen #barry allen

[pulsar-1919]

Character I'm currently feeling the love for: Jay Garrick

#He and Joan are just the sweetest omfg #that cute old couple that everyone loves #he was Barry's hero growing up (so much so that Barry named himself the Flash after Jay) #and when Barry finally met Jay he was worried he had offended jay by taking his name because he didn't feel worthy of it #and jay was immediately like 'you're my son now' #Jay and Joan never had kids of their own but they've made it their business to be everyone's parents/grandparents and it's very lovely #and his friendship with the JSA?? Ted and Alan in particular?? wholesome af #it was implied recently that Alan came out to some of the JSA (which I assume means Ted and Jay) back in like the 50s #which was peak Mccarthyism lavander scare time #and Ted and Jay were accepting of him #I don't read JSA comics but I love them okay #Jay and Joan have been married for like 70 years and they're still so in love with each other it brings me great joy #his stupid little helmet is so cute #he tips his helmet at every person he saves even though he's moving too fast for them to see because he's just polite like that #he's old fashioned in a cute way rather than a racist/sexist/homophobic way #jay garrick #dc comics #the flash

[broughttoyoubytheletterf]

18,19 on E/H?!

Squishing the other's cheek, high fiving

A million years later I write this. I couldn't fit them high-fiving in here and I'm annoyed by that so I might have to write a whole other snippet.

I have a few other late additions from this prompt list I might or might not write. (Do not send anymore!!!). I might have to reblog another prompt list at some point.

"So we're stuck here?" Elizabeth asks. "Yes," Blake responds. "In this room?" "Yes." "Until DS thinks it's safe?" "Yes." "All of us?" "Yes," Blake is finally starting to sound exasperated. It's been a long trip and this is just the cherry on top. Elizabeth turns to Henry, sitting next to her on the couch. "Hell of a trip for you to come on." "I believe I was promised a nice beach vacation, when you were sweet talking me into coming with you." Henry says with a laugh.

"We saw the beach!" She defends. "Yeah through a hail of gunfire," Jay mumbles from the other side of the room. "They weren't shooting at us!" Elizabeth says, her voice betraying that she realizes how weak an argument it is. Henry laughs at how worked up she's getting. He leans forward and kisses the tip of her nose. "No one is blaming you babe." He cups her face and swipes his thumb over her cheek. "Everyone is safe and that's what matters." He squishes her cheek. "Well at least until you start getting hungry then no one will be safe." She bats his hand away and makes an offended sound. "I'm already hungry." Matt moans. He is sitting at the table with his head down. The door clicks open and Nadine walks in carrying a bag. "I have the solution for that," she shakes the bag, "Sandwiches from the cafeteria." Elizabeth's eyes alight and she jumps up. "Gimme!" She practically pounces on Nadine who half stumbles into the door behind her. Elizabeth has the bag now and is looking through it. "Chips too!" She says, as excited as if the peace treaty they were here for were actually signed. "Why did they let you leave the area? DS practically tackled me when I tried." Blake grumbles . Nadine just stares at him. Blake just rolls his eyes. "Oh right..." "Ted," they all say in unison. "It was Jack if you must know, he said he didn't want us going hungry," she responds primly, dusting off an invisible speck of lint on her skirt. "He also said they should be able to get us out by tomorrow morning or so." "That's about what Conrad said when I talked to him earlier." Elizabeth is still sorting through the food, placing it on the coffee table. "Since we're not really in danger, the plane is just broken again and the rebels are between us and the airport. I'm claiming the turkey. Babe what do you want?" Matt huffs. "Why do you get to choose first?" Elizabeth stares him down until he puts his hands up in surrender. Jay laughs. Matt says something under his breath and Jay laughs harder. "Yes it's a real abuse of power." Henry smiles as Elizabeth ignores her staffs antics. "I'll take whatever, you know I'm flexible." "You certainly are," she says, her voice a little deeper and her meaning clear. The other people in the room groan. "I told you to let her be late to the meeting this morning," Blake states as he goes over to make his own selection. Jay makes a face. "For what it's worth I told Jay we would all be well served by letting her be late," Nadine adds on. She unwraps her own sandwich and begins eating. Henry looks between them all slightly aghast as Elizabeth seems unfazed and is digging into her food. "I will never get used to that," he says. "People managing your intimate life?" Blake shrugs. "I've been doing it since I was her TA." Henry's eyes widen even more. Blake chuckles. "You thought all those long chunks of time you didn't get interrupted in her office were chance?" Henry looks over at Elizabeth. "Babe you want to chime in here?" Elizabeth looks up, looks around, and shakes her head before going back to her food. "For what it's worth Dr. McCord," Nadine chimes in, "it's not that unusual. Though it is usually scheduling things so that the mistress and the wife never meet. You two are unusual in that regard." There's a dark thread in her voice that no one wants to touch so they all switch to other topics. Hours later they are all spread over various surfaces attempting to sleep. Jay is using his suit jacket as a pillow and is laying on the floor. Matt has scrunched himself onto an uncomfortable looking chair. Elizabeth is splayed across her husband laying on the couch. She is curled into his chest, their legs tangled together. He has an arm loosely wrapped around her waist Nadine and Blake are still awake, Blake is trying to at least look like he's doing work, shuffling through a sheaf of papers. Nadine gave up that pretense and is sneaking glances at the McCords over the book she grabbed from the shelf. "You think it's inappropriate." Blake calls her out, he sounds ready to defend

Elizabeth. She sighs and puts down the book. "That the Secretary loves her husband? No, not particularly." Blake scoffs. "You know that's not what I meant." Nadine lets out a long breath. "They've never hidden their affection for each other." "It bothers you?" He poses it as a question this time and studies her thoughtfully "Sometimes," Nadine concedes. "But not for the reasons you think." Blake stays silent, he's learned a few tricks from his boss. Nadine however could write a book on the tricks so she doesn't expound on her thought. Blake shifts in his seat as the silence stretches. "They're a rarity in DC." Nadine finally takes pity on him. "They've always been like this. You should have seen all the undergrads mooning after both of them, but they've never had eyes for anyone but each other." Blake accepts the slight shift in topic, Nadine can keep her secrets. "The undergrads huh?" Nadine raises her eyebrows. "None of the grad students?" Blake doesn't blush but he does look away. "Well as long as the Secretary is happy then so am I." Nadine picks her book back up, ending the conversation. Blake refocuses on his paperwork but can't help looking up occasionally to look at the Secretary and her husband. When Nadine catches him, only because she is again doing the same thing, she smiles and this time he does blush.

#madam secretary #elizabeth mccord #fic #ficlet #blake and nadine both have crushes on the mccords #fight me #i'm right

[jzixuans]

hello tell me about jal if you’d like

okay round two because i accidentally lost the first one mx homie i owe u my soul for indulging me

i was talking abt this earlier w august and i’m gonna try to be more eloquent abt it because i’m being Perceived TM

BUT. tldr jal calling themselves partners in crime is something that can be so personal

their very first interaction in isle of the lost is when jay steals her coffee on the way to school. mal makes him give it back but ultimately just. lets him have it because “you look hungry.”

of course she gives it to him under the pretence of it tasting like utter dogshit but it is absolutely clearly a front to maintain her reputation. jay accepts it with a “‘thanks, mal. i was starving’” and a “‘thanks, you’re a pal,’ he said in all honesty” which i would really like to dissect here because:

1) these kids are so adamant about the fact that they are Evil and Heartless Bastards and Don’t Have Friends

2) jay thanks her TWICE in the span of one breath. for villains who live by the mantra of “if you want it, take it. and if you can’t take it, break it” it totally would’ve been acceptable behaviour if jay just took it and drank it and didn’t say anything, but he DIDN’T. 

3) he calls her a pal. mr oh no officer we’re not friends i’ve never seen this girl in my life calls her a PAL. yes i’m losing my mind over this one single word but he literally does in fact call her his friend TO HER FACE and i think that’s beautiful  <3

4) he says it HONESTLY. this boy’s whole entire thing at this point is being a liar and a thief who uses deception and charm to rob you blind. the fact that he’s comfortable being open and genuine around the supposed evilest teenager on the entire goddamn island, where mal totally could’ve found a way to get him ridiculed for being a softie (which he totally is), speaks volumes to their relationship

5) mal just. gives it. to him. with hardly any fight. because he “looks hungry.” she can insist all she wants how she’s cold and cruel and uncaring but this moment already sticking her foot in the Goodness door. this establishes her as a leader and a friend who looks out for what’s Hers. of course she still has a ways to go, so we can assume that this is something she wouldn’t do for just anyone. she wouldn’t even do this for evie and carlos, who we know to be her future best friends  partners  later, so the fact that it’s jay who gets to be on the receiving end of this compassion and companionship already elevates their relationship to something special

jay would clearly follow her to the end of the earth and i think everybody on the isle is at least a little bit of a self-preservationist, so i don’t think this is something he would do if he didn’t have good reason to. he’s also content with letting her lead even though we see him as a perfectly competent leader in d2. conversely, on numerous occasions we see mal trusting jay to hang behind and watch her six. 

she leads and lifts them up from the top, he supports them as the foundation and the anchor at the bottom. that’s their dynamic. 

second part of me diving into this analysis of one sole page of the book is the fact that they refer to each other as “partner in crime”

again, these kids have been raised on distrust and deceit and sabotage and betrayal. i imagine that to call someone your partner in crime is the most intimate title you could give on the isle of the lost. (which makes jay’s statement of “he and mal weren’t friends, exactly, although they were partners in crime” all the more hilarious because they really just skipped the friend zone and went straight into an intimate relationship)

because i’ve been watching s&b, here’s what i think being partners in crime entails: 

trusting each other to carry out whatever task

trusting the other’s process

trusting the other to have your back and help you out of tight situations

maintaining a certain level of communication in some shape or form

spending a lot of goddamn time together

trusting the other to not rat you out

knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses

SPLITTING THE LOOT

so what we see here is that being partners in crime means having an ungodly amount of trust in each other, even if what jay and mal do are largely just petty crimes because this is an island crawling with villains who would not hesitate to do terrible things to those they catch wronging them

it also means that despite “not being friends” they spend SO much time together, whether it’s getting together to plan heists or running from angry shopkeepers or regrouping in their hideout giggling as they compile their score for the day. given the amount of back-and-forth we see between them, they DEFINITELY talk a lot during this time spent together, which means that learning about each other is inevitable

i capitalized splitting the loot because jay’s entire character in iotl is represented by his greed and his need to satiate his father’s greed and how he’s waiting for The Big Score that will get him and his father off the isle and living life like the sultans they wished they were and More Is Better. mal’s whole thing is that she needs to do things By Herself, take all the credit, be the biggest and the baddest on the island, a title that isn’t big enough for two. 

yet here they are, splitting the glory, the thrill, and their winnings. (yes i know that they’re in a competition to see who’s the better thief, but i refuse to believe that they don’t split what they have afterwards, especially since we see them trading what they already have)

partner also labels the other as their equal, which is out of character with the roles mal and jay try to play on the isle yet so fitting for who they are as people

not to mention that this title wasn’t given to them by some derogatory or condescending comment. no. these two nerds made the ACTIVE DECISION to call themselves partners in crime. this is something they’re PROUD OF. 

thank you for coming to my ted talk  :)

#this is all somewhere between the fourth and fifth page of of the first descendants book #*fourth-fifth page of the second chapter #yes i'm losing my mind no i didn't edit this #if this isn't coherent rip i tried lol #long post #homeinabookshelf #ask #descendants

[popentertainment-interviews]

Mark Wahlberg

Keeping the Faith with Father Stu

by Jay S. Jacobs

You often hear the term “labor of love” bandied about for films. Well, for Mark Wahlberg, the religious drama Father Stu was indeed one of those aforementioned labors. In fact, he was so taken by the story of the late boxer-turned-actor-turned priest Stuart Long that Wahlberg himself financed the film and worked for six long years to bring it to the big screen.

Father Stu tells the story of Long, a small-time boxer and actor who suddenly found his calling in the church after a near-fatal motorcycle accident. However, when he joined the seminary to study to become a priest, Long faces the largest test of his faith yet – a debilitating and incurable disease which will quickly upturn his life.

However, Stu refused to allow his condition to stop him from finding his path. He accepted his fate with grace and became a beloved man of the cloth in his hometown. It also helped him heal the personal problems he had with his mother (Jacki Weaver of Silver Linings Playbook) and his estranged father (played by Wahlberg’s Daddy’s Home co-star Mel Gibson.)

It’s a bit of a new direction for Wahlberg, who has over his long career tended to do more work in big-budget action films (Transformers: Age of Extinction, Max Payne, 2 Guns, Planet of the Apes), slick dramas (Boogie Nights, The Fighter, All the Money in the World) and goofy comedies (Date Night, Entourage, Instant Family and Ted).

A week before Father Stu’s Easter-week debut, we were one of a few outlets who were able to sit down with Wahlberg in the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia to talk about the new film.

What was it that drew you to this particular story?

The story itself. Everything about it was for me the ideal movie to tell, part to play, journey to go on. It is a beginning of a new chapter and doing more meaningful and faith-based content. Lots of things. I couldn't find any reasons to not do it, other than the fact that I had cut a check myself. But yeah, that was okay too.

How did you first hear about Stuart Long and learn about his life?

From a priest friend of his who hung out with him in LA while he was out there trying to become an actor. When he decided to go to the seminary, he was pitching me the movie. It just seemed so weird. I've been pitched a lot of movies by a lot of people in a lot of places, but never by a priest. When it finally registered, I was like, “Oh, my gosh, this is absolutely amazing. This is something that I've been looking for.” It was a unique opportunity to do something really special.

You said it's something you were looking for. What does the story of story mean to you?

First of all, it's so inspiring. It's so relatable to everybody. Especially now, in these times we're living in, everybody who's seen the movie has a personal connection to it. To Stu. We've all been through so much stuff that they could personally identify with it. So, there was many, many things. That's a long question. I’d hate to waste all of your time on just that one particular subject.

You mentioned cutting a check for it. Is this the first time you've actually financed a film yourself?

Yes. It's one of those things where, for a number of reasons, you want to be left alone during the creative process, right? It's not the kind of thing where you want people coming in and giving you notes and demanding changes and things like that. It's not an easy sell. First off, there was a couple of people that I thought maybe they'd get it, so I slipped it to them. They were like, “Oh, it's too dark.” I'm like, well, there's a lot of humor in there. And it's very inspiring. They're like, “What? the guy died at the end.” Well, we all do. (laughs) It’s about how he went about it. He was inspiring others, embracing those difficult times. So, okay, let me just do this on my own. I'll bring in everybody after. Even with the church, it wasn't met with open arms, because of the language in the film, which I thought was bizarre, We've all heard the F word. People talk like that. This is a movie about tough grace and tough mercy. We want it to be authentic in the way we approach that. We’re not preaching to the choir. We're trying to bring in other folks.

Father Stu seems to never want to take “no” as an answer, both like as a boxer, in trying to attract Carmen, and just to become a priest against all of the odds that he was going through. Was that a feeling that you really aspire to, or you feel that you relate to?

I heard that a lot. I always just kept plugging away. I felt like I was in control of my own destiny. I attribute my discipline and my work ethic. I don't want to disappoint anybody who's crazy enough to take a shot on me and give me an opportunity to do anything. I take it very seriously along with having lots of gratitude, lots of gratitude. But I don’t like taking no for an answer. And Stu definitely [doesn’t].

Could you talk about preparing for the role? How did you go about getting to know Stu’s story and the family?

I heard the story and then I'd spent time with his family. His dad, especially. Friends from the seminary and fellow priests. People that he met and touched along the way. Then of course in myself, man, I've been kind of preparing to play this role my whole life. Within performing the duties of a priest or do masses every week. Well before I ever had a script, we just had an idea. We had a commitment from me that we're going to make this movie. I would continue to just do these things, in hopes that one day the movie would come together, and we'd be ready to go. As approaching it as an athlete or the way I did with the fighter. It was one of those things where we trained for six months. We thought we had a movie. The movie fell apart. But if I stopped that training for another six months, I'm starting over. So I figured let's just keep going. Let's just keep getting ready. You stay ready, so you don't have to go and get ready. That's how I approached it. We just would assume that this is all going to happen. I did that for six years. What have you been doing last year for the last four years? Oh, I'm doing this mass in hopes that this movie would come together.

Your physique changes a bit throughout the movie. You gained some weight for the role. How exactly did that work – with the way you look as a boxer compared to how you look at the end? Was there a break in filming at some point?

There was no break. Unfortunately, no. With the budget, we couldn't shut down. So, basically, I tried to get in as good a shape as possible for the beginning, preparing for the boxing. I had just done an adventure racing movie [Arthur the King], which was probably the most physically demanding film I've ever done. That hasn't come out yet. We shot the boxing on the first day. That night, we started the calorie consumption. I started 7,000 calories a day for the first two weeks and 11,000 for the final four weeks of the film. So, that was the first meal was the best meal and the only enjoyable meal. We were grilling porterhouse steaks outside the trailer. I'm taking off my gloves and the blood from the fights. We're eating baked potato and all this stuff. This is fantastic. Then three hours later I'm getting a knock on my door with another meal. Oh, man! I’m still full from the last one. That just continued on from day one until the end.

So it’s like the Raging Bull thing, except you didn’t take a break.

Yeah, we didn't go to Italy and eat pasta for six months.

This is Rosalind Ross’ first film, both as a screenwriter and as a director. Why did you feel that she would be the right person to helm this movie?

Her way into the story. Her really relating to a guy trying to find his purpose, the struggles of that. I had told many other people [about the idea]. I was developing this at one point with David O. Russell. We talked to various writers. We had drafts of the script written. Nothing was even close to what we wanted to make – what we thought the story could or should be. Then when I told her, she said she wanted to take a crack at it. I come back three months later. She handed me a script. I'm like, “This is the movie that I want to make. How did you do this?” I was really blown away when I read it. So I said, all right. I had to carve out 18 months myself to do it. I had three other projects lined up. Especially if I was going to go and finance the movie, it'd be nice to be able to go in and take some paying jobs to do that. I just felt that if she could put on the page, she could put it on the screen. We just have to surround her. She certainly had aspirations to direct. I just think the movie is that much more interesting because it's told from her point of view, really. How do you make a guy like Stu likable? Unless you really love this character, really love this guy. I think that's why it was it was so subjective in how you interpret it, reading it off the page because of that very thing. I know normally I read a screenplay, and then I'll try to picture it. It's never what I pictured them to be. It really never is. Set dressing, all of it, production design. Sometimes better, sometimes worse.

In the same vein of Stu not being likable and trying to make them likable in telling the story, the same goes for his father. Can you talk about that journey and the casting behind that?

Bill’s first choice, second choice and third choice was always Mel. It is amazing. He's just really got a kick out of the idea of Mel playing him. I’ve made a lot of true stories – real people at difficult times. It's always really hard. It's hard when dealing with those situations. The sensitivity and the respect, the approach that you have to take. Bill was just like, “Hey, it's a movie.” Hopefully, you get the essence of Stu correct, but he's really able to detach himself from that, which was nice. A lot of people aren't really able to do that. He just always got a kick out of it. It's such a wonderful relationship. One of the things that really registered with me was that parents aren't supposed to bury their kids. They dealt with the loss of the younger brother. The parents didn't have the skills to cope with that. I saw it firsthand with my mom. When my two older sisters passed, she was never the same after that. So, for his dad to get a second chance to come back and take care of his son the way that he didn't the first go around – I mean, he literally fed him clothed and bathed him. [Stu] only called him Bill until he came back to take care of him. Then he called him dad. Then of course, his dying wish was to have both his parents baptized. He got everything that he wanted.

Throughout your career, you've always put a lot of blue-collar characters. You played an oil rig worker, a lot of police, a lot of military characters. Is there something that's drawing you to that type of role? And how does that fit in with this movie?

I consider myself a bit of a blue-collar guy. If they let me play some sophisticated Englishman from the 12th century or whatever, I'd be more than happy to take a crack at it. I haven’t gotten too many of those opportunities. I want to play parts that I think people want to see me in. Roles that I would like to play. I’d like to continue to grow and change and evolve and challenge people. Challenge myself. This is not something that people would ultimately expect. But then when you look at it from a step back, and of course, it makes complete sense. Why wouldn't he do this particular thing?

Was there anything that didn't make it into the movie about Stu’s life that you wish you would have been able to get in there?

His journey in Hollywood was really fun and funny. So, there's lots of other stuff. There are moments where a lot of it was improvising, and it'll be on the DVD deleted scenes and stuff like that. But there are scenes where he's getting his makeup done for the first time. It really feels like he's made it and he's doing this thing in the mirror where he's talking to himself. He thinks he's kind of a cross between Charles Bronson and Burt Reynolds. All these little fun moments that I enjoyed playing. I love the editors’ assembly, which is almost four hours. But we had to figure out how to tell the story in the most time-efficient way. There will be other things that will be on the DVD extras.

I have to ask you about your history in Philadelphia. You starred in Invincible. You shot some other movies here like The Happening and Shooter. And of course, you appeared with the Pope in 2015, right outside of where we are. What has Philadelphia meant to you over the years?

Let’s just put it this way. Philadelphia has welcomed me more than probably my own hometown (Boston). The love and the support that I've gotten from Philadelphia, I think the common thing about people being really hard-working people who are all about family. They are diehard loyal sports fans. People have always been nothing but kind to me and welcoming. Seeing how I honored Vince Papale, playing an Eagle, taking such pride in that. Really, I've been very fortunate to get to meet a lot of people. There are like a lot of people here that I consider family and friends.

Like you said earlier, it's been six years in the making. Now that it's finally coming out, how does it feel? And what do you hope that the audience will take from Father Stu?

It really feels fantastic. I take a huge sense of pride in making something that's been so moving for so many people. Everybody who's seen the movie – and I have to accredit COVID, and all the other things that are happening, being a theater for the first time in two years – but people from all walks of life talk about how much they related to and identify with Stu in a personal way. We've all been through stuff. It just touches everybody in their own personal way. That on top of Stu’s innate ability to challenge people to do more and to do better. There's lots of wonderful messages in there. I think people will ultimately feel inspired when leaving the theater.

Copyright ©2022 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: April 12, 2022.

Photo #1 © 2022 Jay S. Jacobs. All rights reserved.

Photos #2-8 © 2022. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Releasing. All rights reserved.

#Mark Wahlberg #2022 #Actor Interviews #Father Stu #Jay S. Jacobs

[gold-from-straw]

Week of prompts - day 6

SUNDAY

Sophie looked at herself in the mirror and took a deep, shaking breath. She could do this. She was going to walk into the office wearing the beautiful chocolate brown skirt and blazer with the ruffled blue silk blouse for the first time.

She was coming out.

Her hands shook as she touched up the lipstick, nothing too strong, don’t want to scare off the cis or anything. She was glad she’d gone for a warm coral pink which picked up the red undertones of the suit. If she’d chosen something more blue toned to go with the top she’d have looked like a ghost, her face was already looking bluish-grey from anxiety. She resisted the urge to dust her cheeks with more blush.

At last she stood up straight and jutted out her chin, looking herself firmly in the eye. She was ready to show everyone who she truly was.

She stared firmly at her phone for the whole commute, not reading any of what was on the screen, every now and then glancing up to check for danger. But the bus was full of sleepy workers, blessedly caught up in their own upcoming battles. She ducked her head again and let her hair fall around her face. She was lucky she’d been able to grow her hair long for years, tying it back into a plain ponytail at the nape of her neck and passing as a hipster sans beard.

At the door to the office she paused one more time and dug through her handbag for the label. Hello, my name is Sophie. She’d written her deadname on there and crossed it out, just to make it completely clear – the name didn’t bother her all that much anyway. Not now she was able to put it behind her.

She stuck the label to her lapel and took a deep breath, sending out a prayer to whatever God felt up to helping her get through today. Her colleagues wouldn’t be that bad, surely? They were a pretty open minded bunch, right?

Heather would be fine, of course. She’d be waiting in the atrium for her right now so they could walk in together. Jay was gay and pretty gender-non-conforming, and there was a group of much younger temps who would surely be accepting. She was pretty sure Lucy would be keen on talking about pretty dresses with someone else, as most of the other girls were quite butch or otherwise disinterested in clothes.

Ted could be a worry. A competent administrator and a (periodically) inspiring boss, a gleaming streak of ‘Unopposed Despot’ ran through him. Exactly the kind of person who’d see a trans woman as a threat to his fragile world order and snap. They always said it was the quiet ones who were dangerous, a caution that tended to apply all the more if one had too much privilege, and Ted was, as far as Sophie could tell, a cis straight white boomer male.

Yahtzee.

Too late to back down now, though. Sophie took one last deep breath, straightened her blouse and walked in with her head held high. Heather was waiting for her, as promised. Her face split into a delighted grin as soon as she caught sight of her. “You look stunning,” she said, squeezing Sophie’s hands.

“Really?” she asked, unable to help it. “I don’t look like… like a guy making fun, or like a drag queen – because they’re different, you know – or a—”

She shook her head and laughed. “You look like Sophie. How do you feel?”

“Really good,” she admitted, tears prickling the back of her eyes.

“C’mon,” said Heather, slipping her hand into the crook of Sophie’s arm. “Let’s go tell the others.”

She was glad she’d arrived early. There was no way she’d be able to settle down to work buzzing like this. Jay gave her a kiss and insisted she come visit his boyfriend who could sew beautifully. Lucy was flustered at first, but soon got into a passionate discussion about the virtues of Louboutins versus Malono Blahniks.

“Andstrom,” Ted barked from behind her.

Sophie flinched. “Yes, sir?”

He beckoned and backed into his office. Sophie gulped.

“You want me to come with you?” Heather asked. Sophie squeezed her hand, touched by this more than anything. Heather needed this job way more than she did.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, trying to smile convincingly. Even so, the walk to the boss’ office felt like a marathon.

“You wanted to see me, sir?” she said, tapping the doorframe.

“Yeah, come in,” he said, glancing up. Sophie sat down, trying to stop her hands from clenching in her skirt and creasing it. Ted fiddled with a pen, staring at his computer screen. Not reading.

Sophie forced herself to sit up straight. “Is there a problem, sir?”

“You need to change your name with HR?”

“I… beg your pardon?”

He gestured at her lapel. “Your name. I need to know if using your deadname on official documents is going to be a problem. Your paycheque won’t go into your… old bank accounts if the names don’t match.”

“I… hadn’t thought about that,” she said. Her mind was blue-screening.

Ted just nodded, tapping something into his computer. “You had a positive response so far?”

“Yes! Yes, sir.”

“Good. You tell me if anyone’s difficult, you hear?” He glared at her. There was that despot, she told herself with a touch of hysteria. She nodded.

He leaned back, looking away again. He seemed to be having trouble meeting her eye. “Good, good. Well. Back to work, eh, Andstrom?”

Sophie’s lip twitched. “Thanks, sir.”

She stood up, carefully smoothing her skirt where the seat had creased it. As she left, she cast a glance back to her boss. He was holding a framed photograph, staring down at it with the kind of sadness that made her gulp. She closed the door quietly behind her and wondered who had been sacrificed to teach the despot humility like that.

#Original Work #original ramblings by Lyn H #Marian Keyes #prompts #coming out #trans mtf

[fimawari]

Thoughts on the comic and Skully's Identity. [Slight Spoiler Warning? Not really any plot spoilers just details and characters.]

So a lot of people accept that Jay is probably Skully, either surviving or something else. However there's also speculation that it could be Alex, Jessica, or even Seth Wilson, a few thinking about Tim. (Though I would rule him out as the artist drew what he looked like in the Comic on another post) So I raked out every detail I can. Of course it can all just be a stylistic choice but whatever - make of it what you will.

It could just be some new random asshole, but It's a given they know Jessica, so it is very likely to be Jay. He presumed she was gone, unless he watched the last Entry. That would also explain "It's you" sort of "oh shit" moment. Jay was also set on looking for Jessica, so if he did survive, you could assume that would still be one of his motives. Tim wouldn't likely have that "it's you" moment because he knows Jessica is alive. Alex might have that reaction though. I believe he presumed that she was gone.

It also takes two things from Brian and Tim. The hoodie and the plastic mask. So this person has likely seen both of them and came to imitate their appearance.

Coat Buttons

The Jacket appears to have snap on metal buttons. It's typical for this style of jacket (similar to a utility jacket, which would be useful and warm to run all over the goddamn woods at night) to have the buttons placed on top of the left side for a men's jacket. (Of course it could just be any person in a men's styled jacket, but still.)

I picked this out because it's paid attention to very carefully as a detail. Of course that's good for continuity, but I know for filming Marble Hornets they were very careful with detail and hinting at things.

2. Height

They're only seen crouching up to a door with Jessica on the other side, but if they both stood straight, they'd come to be about the same height, which was true for Jay and Jessica in the series.

3. You are broken but you CAN be fixed

This is what the masked figure says to Jessica. Similar to ToTheArks video saying Alex was broken, but couldn't be fixed. That might line up with Jay's motives because he continued to think he could solve the situation. It could be argued he also believed Alex could be saved from the Operator. It it were Alex, it could be his own changed perspective in whatever "form" this is now. That would be quite interesting to see why he would go from wanting to destroy the tapes to actively giving someone the tapes.

4. Not a point but something I noticed.

On the Rosswood bulletin, there is a blurry poster that looks like it could be a "Missing" sign. Who for - I don't know, but it does kind of appear they have glasses, so it could be Alex? This could also just be meaningless background illustration.

In the same frame, Adam also talks about people getting lost in the woods and says, "The Majority of them were recovered safely but," and he stops. That's a pretty cliffhanger "but" there Adam.

Closer inspection of the Rosswood Map shows Rosswood Rd, mentioned in the series, and was supposed to be the road off the usual parking lot they stopped in when meeting up, and an X location to hard to read atm, but it is off the beaten path.

5. In a silly doodle drawing in the comic files, I did notice this poster with a skull on it. It may just be nothing but could also be implying that whoever is in the skull mask died and came back.

Also I appreciate that the soda is Conk.

6. It's Fall about 10 years later after the first incidents in Rosswood began, in the timeline 2019 ish, but that is apparent from the trees outside and the time the comic was created at.

7. Jessica has a "Sarah" in her phone. Could he literally the millions of Sarah's but I'll point it out anyway. But more interesting barely covered is Tim's contact.

8. I was thinking about why their seems to be Blue Lenses in Skully's mask, they're even visible from a distance. Now this is really digging at the bottom of barrel but when Jessica grabs the pipe to defend herself, it's highlighted by red for emphasis. Red and Blue have often been a scheme for duelity and such.

This repeats again in the second title page:

A lot could be discerned from it. Maybe she is Skully, like a second half of her, as one of her nightmares is fighting against herself. May also not mean that and be another symbol of duelity, red vs blue.

I don't think the blue is styling choice because you can quite clearly see eyes in Masky's drawing. I believe there is definitely something covering their eyes - like lenses. Their "fashion choices" are also leaning towards the expensive side I noticed. Unless they just stole it went to a goodwill and got lucky. A utility jacket like that would cost somewhere beyond a $100 unless you're lucky. I'd pay to see a cryptid running around in Gucci in butt-fuck-nowhere Alabama in the middle of the night. Or who knows maybe Alex got some prescription lenses put in that shit.

9. Do I even have to explain the symbolism of a Jay.

10. I can say with good certainty this probably symbolises Jessica's memory of Alex.

11. Some damning evidence, whoever is in the mask has access to the original entry files, not just downloaded YouTube stuff. Jay, Tim, Totheark would likely have access to that. Alex was pretty dead-set on having all the traces deleted, I'd doubt he'd have them all uploaded to a computer.

12. No idea what this might represent besides some metaphor for life being a merry go round, but in the postcard Skully is chilling on a horse lmao. "Stuck in a loop of unhappiness." Ring a bell?

13. Can't attach another photo but the abandoned house Jessica goes to has "Bones" written on it, much like the Hospital did. In the original series they said that graffiti was just there, so maybe they decided to work with it? Who knows maybe it's some kind of new group? Maybe ToTheArk vs "Bones?" You CAN'T be fixed vs You CAN be fixed.

14. I also can't speculate what it exactly means, but it's obvious Skully can talk, not seen previously with the others. Whether out of an inability or just not wanting to. Could be argued it's a person behind the mask by choice, not volition. We also don't really know if Brian chose his path or became that. But he became a masked cryptid after supposedly "dying". We also never see people "die" just assume they have died or are dead and they disappear. Tim implies that it's just feeding off them, physically or mentally. They always die off camera or get fucked off somewhere by the egg head. They appear dead afterwords, with Jay and Brian, but still missing. All of their bodies were taken by the monster and are god knows where in some seperate dimension. This is borderline r/im14andthisisdeep but what is "death" in this series. Does it mean gone permanently or just "gone" ... For an unknown amount of time. People die, but do they stay that way? Or do they die ... In one sense, but not the other, Losing something of themselves from before, and becoming something new. That would awfully explain Brian's behavior after Alex "killed" him. It's also implied there are others apart of ToTheArk that were never shown in the series, suspected to be other members of the original cast who maybe had "died" and come back as someone else. Something broken.

Tim seems to be an outlier. It's presumed he has avoided death, and essentially kept his mentality. But still slips into another form out of his control, usually in response to the monster or the hooded man being near and stealing his pills and shit. Is he between death? Is that why doucheslender follows him? "The one that got away." Istg I don't take drugs.

That was Michael from Vsauce thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

#Marble Hornets #mh skully #mh jessica #mh tim wright #mh jay merrick #mh alex #Mh theories #idk what else #marble hornets comic #pulling shit out of my ass #updated #fima

[autisticjon]

Well now I need to know about ninjago ship names

okay i'd like both of you to keep in mind that you willingly stepped into this bear trap. that being SAID welcome to my twisted ninjago!

this is operating solely in show!verse btw because the movie ship names are simply piggybacking off show names. why are they piggybacking off show names you ask? good question! it's because tlnm is essentially a ninjago high school au. pretty good if consumed detached from canon is what i'm saying. i've already strayed from the topic so that's a testament to how coherent this post is gonna be. oh well.

so some background knowledge. in lego ninjago: masters of spinjitzu, each of the main characters, as well as some of the minor characters, has an elemental power. generally these are pretty simple things (fire, ice, earth, water, lightning, and... whatever lloyd's is, green/power/life/nature/spirit/etc.) which will come in handy when we implement shipping.

5 out of the 6 main characters can be shipped together in various ways (excluding kai/nya because they are siblings as well as any lloyd/ninja ships because of the age gap). now, for some ships the pre-established pattern of smushing the characters' names together is followed, such as jaya (jay/nya) or wusako (wu/misako). for other ships, however, the ninjago fandom they were going to make things more complex than just frankensteining names together.

take, for example, cole and kai. this is a ship between the elemental master of earth (cole) and the elemental master of fire (kai). what do you get when you combine earth and fire? there's a few answers, but the one the ninjago fandom settled on was lava. this means that cole/kai is called lavashipping, or lava for short. essentially the same thing happened with plasmashipping (kai and jay, elemental master of lightning), glaciershipping (cole and zane, master of ice), and some other more niche ships, such as thinkfastshipping (neuro, master of mind and griffin turner, master of speed).

"wait!" i hear you cry, "what about if the fandom can't decide on a name!" well then we end up with situations like bruise/geode. cole/jay is typically known as bruiseshipping- i can't remember whether this is due to the fact that their representative colors, black and blue, are similar to that of a bruise or whether it's because they fight a lot. either/or probably. while bruise is the typically accepted name for the ship within the fandom, there's another name based on the elemental master scheme from above. geodeshipping is the alternate name for it, because presumably putting lightning and rocks together creates geodes. idk. for someone who's mother used to be a geologist i don't know a lot about rocks.

it's the same for kai and zane, which most people call oppositeshipping. i've also heard it called steamshipping though, because of the whole fire meets ice and creates steam thing. i didn't learn that from my geologist mother though i just did well in chemistry.

"wait!" i hear you cry again, "what about people that don't have elemental powers!" well, like i mentioned earlier with wusako, sometimes people just mush their names together. however sometimes alternatives can be found that fit within the -shipping theme. ronin/dareth has been dubbed scruffshipping because, in the immortal words of artofthecol, they are both gross pathetic older men. i don't actually know the reason behind scruff as a name i just know that it's the name. other examples are techoshipping (jay and zane, bc one's a robot and the other's a tech nerd), samuraishipping (pixal and nya, because they were both samurai x), forgivenshipping (lloyd and brad, the bully from that one darkley's episode), and greencheerleader (movie!ship but WHATEVER, lloyd and chen, the bully from tlnm).

there's a few ship names that are even more confusing (mountain, blizzard, heavy metal, hailstorm, citrus, etc.) and some that are just straight up what's written on the tin. polyninja (cole/jay/kai/zane)? good shit. electricdjinnshipping (jay/nadakhan)? bad shit but at least it's tagged so i can blacklist it without having to put in 7 variations of a ship name.

"wait!" i hear you cry a third time, "how does this relate to tma? also stop using this format from 2014 tumblr posts to signal focus changes in your impromptu essay about ninjago ship names please" alrighty will do. i tagged a post about jonmartin, the dinghy, and assorted theoretical jonmartin ship names with something along the lines of "thank god we don't have the ninjago ship naming system", which while i understand it in-depth i still felt the need to write a super long post explaining it so y'all could suffer with me.

my original thought when writing this tag out last night was that a similar naming convention could be implemented by taking each avatar's fear they're aligned with and figuring out what happens when you combined them. it's similar to what we have currently with lonely eyes, peter/elias, and "sightless flame" as a name for gertrude/agnes that i saw used in a post earlier today in that it's based on the characters' powers rather than their names. HOWEVER, after a day of ruminating on this topic, i've realized that it would be nearly impossible to implement this new system because of how fast the already large fandom is growing and the amount of dedication that would be required on everyone's parts.

issue one: unaligned characters. this is the most glaring issue to me, namely because martin, one of the characters i took as an example for this, could be argued to be aligned with any of 3+ fears right now. this means that he has no definitive powers or entity tied to him. we could still go with the non-power approach: survivorshipping, because both he and jon survived the institute? teashipping, because of tea? seeingisbelievingshipping, because of the whole i see you thing (it would not be the most ridiculous ship name i've seen)? there's quite a few options, which leads into my next point.

issue two: indecisiveness. again, tma fandom is a lot bigger than the ninjago fandom already and it's growing every day. let's say you managed to find a ship with two avatars: off the top of my head, annabelle cane and daisy. not sure how that'd work in canon but whatever. annabelle's tied to the web (no pun intended) which means anything related to spiders, manipulation, lying, etc. could fit in her wheelhouse. daisy's the hunt, so anything about hunting, pursing, the thrill of the chase, so on and so forth. there's a lot of space for you to put those two together in. unfortunately, this means that it'd be hard to settle on one option that made everybody happy, and inevitably newcomers would have to decipher the ship names and possibly be spoiled by them.

in conclusion, [insert gif of tim stoker doing the harlem shake here]. thanks for coming to my ted talk

#i don't have a read more because i'm on mobile so i will simply avoid tagging this #ask #sam.txt #long post

[ahamay79]

Borrowed from Bonnie Nadaskay Coody

"The Art of Dr. Seuss Collection, Published by Chaseart Companies

DR. SEUSS USE OF RACIST IMAGES

Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) created thousands of cartoons, illustrations, paintings, sculptures, and stories over the course of his 70-year career. While the vast majority of the works he produced are positive and inspiring, Ted Geisel also drew a handful of early images, which are disturbing. These racially stereotypical drawings were hurtful then and are still hurtful today. However, Ted’s cartoons and books also reflect his evolution. Later works, such as The Sneetches or Horton Hears a Who!, emphasize inclusion and acceptance. Ted would later edit some of his inappropriate images, depicting his characters in a more respectful manner.

Born in 1904, Ted Geisel grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Well before any of his iconic books were written, he embraced the Dr. Seuss moniker, making his living in New York City (1927–1941) writing and cartooning for several popular magazines: Judge, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, New York Woman, Stage, and Vanity Fair. His famous “Flit” advertisements for Standard Oil were carried in newspapers around the country, making him a “print celebrity.” Yet, while everyone recognized the name Dr. Seuss, few actually could pick out the man, Ted Geisel.

Stunned by the Great Depression and the onset of War in Europe, in January 1941, Dr. Seuss joined ranks with the bunch of “cockeyed crusaders” at PM magazine, producing three or more cartoons a week assailing the “The Axis Powers,” and finding himself a staunch supporter of President Roosevelt, who felt America’s entry into the War was inevitable. “PM was against people who pushed other people around,” Ted said. “I liked that.”

Still, it was not enough for Ted. On January 7, 1943, Captain Theodor Seuss Geisel was inducted into the army, assigned to the Information and Education Division. Within a few weeks he joined Frank Capra’s unit at “Fort Fox.” As a creative, he wasn’t alone in making this sacrifice. Historian Paul Horgan, screenwriter Leonard Spigelgass, composer Meredith Willson, novelist Irving Wallace, and illustrator P.D. Eastman worked with him alongside the civilian animators, Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng of Warner Brothers. Ted mustered out on January 13, 1946 as a lieutenant colonel, receiving the Legion of Merit for “exceptionally meritorious service in planning and producing films, particularly those utilizing animated cartoons, for training, informing, and enhancing the morale of troops.”

When Ted first began to write for children in 1937, many representations of people of color in the media were unfortunately depicted through racial stereotypes. In his first book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, his work was no exception. For example, to represent a lone Asian character, Ted employed “traditional clothing” and chopsticks to depict his ethnicity. He originally referred to this character as a “Chinaman” and showed his skin color as yellow. It is important to note that in a later reprint he removed the color and changed the text to “a Chinese man.”

Geisel’s great nephew Ted Owens recalled his uncle’s decision to make that change: "It was the first time he had changed one of his books . . . . Art and humanity are always evolving."

Mulberry Street was written in 1937. By contrast, the much-beloved The Sneetches was written in 1961 just as the Civil Rights Movement was well underway. Ted wrote The Sneetches as a parable about equality. By drawing bird-beings, he transcended the boundaries and pitfalls of using humans as characters, and allowed all readers to relate to the characters as best they could. On March 2, 2016, President Obama agreed with Dr. Seuss telling a group of interns: “Pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss. It’s like the Star-Belly Sneetches, you know? We’re all the same, so why would we treat somebody differently just because they don’t have a star on their belly?”

“Justice is not always about canceling someone and their body of work. Sometimes it looks like providing room for restorative justice to take place,” writes Danielle Slaughter for Mamademics. “In my opinion, Dr. Seuss, using the remainder of his career to focus on writing books full of important lessons, is an example of restorative justice.”

Slaughter also notes that three of Dr. Seuss’s most well-known later works, Horton Hears a Who!, The Lorax, and The Sneetches, “teach about the importance of inclusion and acceptance of others and yourself.”

In his book, Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination, biographer Brian Jay Jones says that Dr. Seuss drew some “racist stereotypes in his early work.” Jones told The San Diego Union-Tribune: “As I say in the book, it’s not a great look for him. But he evolves.” By the end of the 1950s, Geisel had written Horton Hears a Who!, which is dedicated to a Japanese friend and is seen by scholars now as an apology for the earlier cartoons. He’d written Yertle the Turtle, an anti-fascist send-up of Hitler, and he’d penned a magazine story that would become the anti-discrimination book The Sneetches. “I don’t think you write a book like The Sneetches if you haven’t evolved,” Jones said.

Dr. Seuss’s later works show an evolution of values and beliefs. Those who knew him believe that if he were alive today he would have jumped at the chance to be a part of the country’s evolving dialogue about diversity and inclusion.

Dr. Seuss images and text are trademarks of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. Used by permission.

Dr. Seuss Properties TM & © 2021 Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. All Rights Reserved."

#liberal idiots #liberal hypocrisy #dr seuss #cancel culture

[bangwoolofbangtan]

Why now'BTS' and'Grammy'

The significance of BTS' potential for Grammy award

2020.11.16

One of the concerns surrounding the 63rd Grammy Awards, which will be held in February next year, is whether BTS' Grammy Nominations and awards. When BTS was not nominated for the 62nd Grammy Awards in November 2019,' Forbes ' summarized the achievements BTS showed during 2019, saying, "Historically, artists of color in the Grammy have been repeatedly alienated." Pointed out. ' Rolling Stone ' also criticized, "Not acknowledging K-pop at the awards ceremony is in stark contrast to the everyday reality of the music industry." Nevertheless, at the 62nd Grammy Awards, BTS performed a short performance with Lil Nas X and received favorable reviews. At the 61st Grammy Awards held in February 2019, they emerged as the winners of the Best R&B album category, and the suits they wore at that time were displayed at the LA Grammy Museum in November of the same year. However, even at that time, BTS was nominated for the'Best Recording Package', a field that the album package's art director won. It is not known whether Grammy's choice had any specific intentions, as claimed by Forbes and Rolling Stone. However, it is true that the spotlights that Grammy shed on BTS and the nomination results do not seem appropriate.

Bulletproof Boy Scouts''Dynamite' recorded first place for two consecutive weeks on the Billboard Chart'Hot 100' on September 1st and 9th (EST). As an Asian artist, it is the third place since'Sukiyaki' in 1963 and'Like a G6' in 2010. According to Nielsen Music's financial report for the first half of 2020, BTS''MAP OF THE SOUL: 7'was the only album in the United States that sold more than 500,000 real albums during the first half of this year. In addition, among pop artists, BTS recorded 1417,000 points based on total consumption by converting the number of digital music downloads and streaming counts to album sales, ranking second after Billy Eileish among pop artists. This is also a record that surpassed the Beatles, another artist who earned more than 1 million points in total as the group's only. It's not just commercial achievements. BTS' fandom ARMY uploads a fancam to the Dallas Police Agency's app'iWatch Dallas', which receives reports of illegal protests on social media, and confronts the movement to control the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, or Donate $1 million on the matterThe fandom is showing a new trend toward social participation. Bulletproof Boy Scouts not only achieved great success in the American music industry, which was commercially centered in the Western world, but became a symbol of the times leading a number of armies (ARMYs) made up of various identities around the world. If BTS were nominated for or won a Grammy, they would add one more line to this history that no one expected. But not being suspicious does not mean that this history will disappear. If you can find any meaning in BTS's Grammy Nomination or Award, it is because this is a problem in this era.

Before BLM became an important topic in 2020, Grammy was a competition for identity. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards in 2014, when Macklemore and Ryan Lewis overtook Kendrick Lama to win the Best Newcomer Award and three rap awards, Maclemore told Kendrick Lama, "I wanted you to win." He uploaded an apology message sent to him on his Instagram. In addition, at the 59th Grammy Awards held in 2017, Adele won a total of five crowns, including three awards excluding the New Artist Award among the Main Awards (Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Rookie of the Year). On the other hand, Beyonce, who was highly praised for her album'Lemonade', only won the Best Urban Contemporary Album Award and Best Music Video Award, a genre award. Kendrick Rama did not win the main prize at the Grammy, even though'To Pimp A Butterfly' in 2015 and'DAMN.' in 2017 were highly evaluated with 96 and 95 Metacritic points, respectively. It is unknown whether Grammy, who has long been criticized for being'#GrammysSoWhite', intentionally excluded black artists. Just ' billboard'Is a collection of the history of the hip-hop genre, which has been steadily marginalized in the main awards of the Grammy Awards. It has been pointed out that legendary hip-hop artists have not tasted the glory of Grammy. In addition, a problem was raised that the awards of hip-hop artists were limited to some genres rather than the original award. In 2017, Drake expressed the opinion that his song'Hotline Bling', which won the Best Rap Song Performance category at the Grammy Awards, was not rap , and because he was a black artist and rapper, he limited his music to the field of rap rather than his own Complained about the award. This evokes criticism from some BTS fans that the establishment of the K-POP section of the U.S. Video Music Awards (VMA) in August could be a discrimination to exclude K-POP from the main stage. K-POP started to face the problem that hip-hop had been experiencing for a long time through BTS.

It's not that the Grammy hasn't changed. Childish Gambino's'This is America', which revealed the issue of racism and hatred in American society, won a total of 4 crowns, including the Song of the Year and Record of the Year, at the 61st Grammy Awards in 2019. In addition, at the 62nd Grammy Awards in 2020, a total of 5 crowns, including the four main awards of Billy Eilish, and a number of nominations and awards for Rizo and Lil Nas X, changed in that they paid attention to teenage women, black men, and social media stars. Seemed to be. However, these recent moves are the result of slow steps from a very long time ago. In September, Billboard pointed out that the Grammy has been criticized for being white male-centered in recent years, and predicted that it would be difficult for the 63rd Grammy Awards to be held in 2021 to ignore the race issue of 2020. In other words, it can be said that Grammy's trend toward awarding black artists has only changed after criticism such as'#GrammysSoWhite' or sharp issues such as BLM occurred. Just a few years ago, in 2017, Frank Ocean expressed dissatisfaction with the awards ceremony, explaining why he had not submitted the documents for registration for the 59th Grammy Awards . Jay-Z and Beyonce 2019 61st Grammy awards , for two consecutive years in the absence 62nd Graeme Award 2020did. The recent change in Grammy can be said to be the result of long voices of black artists, but the issue of racism is still ongoing. And it can be said that the history of Asian artists or K-POPs facing the Western music industry, and furthermore, the Grammy started from now through BTS. In other words, whether or not BTS will be awarded this year is the same as a litmus test paper that shows Grammy's present.

It is hard to say that Grammy intentionally excluded K-pop or Asian artists. There are not many cases in which Asian artists have achieved commercially meaningful results in the American music market centered around the Western world. Zhou of Chinese descent, Gil Chang of Taiwanese descent, Yuna of Malaysian descent, and Yeji of Korean descent, Park Hye Jin, and Ted Park were highly praised, but commercially It didn't show great results. In addition, even if K-POP is broadly defined not as'idol music' in a narrow sense, but as music by Korean artists or music in Korean, the success of Psy's'Gangnam Style' in 2012 soon led to the localization of Korean music. It wasn't. However, at this point, BTS''Dynamite' can be controversial. Although the artist is Korean, it is disco by genre, and the lyrics are English. It is also the 43rd No. 1 debut song in history on the Billboard Hot 100, and at the same time it reached No. 1 for two consecutive weeks and then rose to No. ' Forbes'Dynamite' was remixed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 again. Pointing out that this is a normal strategy, he said, "All pop stars compete for the same award for the number one hit, and the brightest artist with the most fan base takes the gold medal home." In other words, BTS had too much fandom to dismiss as a prejudice against K-POP idols that they like'only a certain fandom', and released music classified as pop in terms of English lyrics and disco. No matter which artist in the market recorded, the result was surprising. By race, by genre, by national borders, how will the Grammy accept this result of BTS, which has crossed the walls defined by the Western industry?

The American Music Awards (AMAs), which have been voted on by the public since 2006, evaluate their popularity, while the Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs) measure their commercial success based on data called the Billboard Chart. On the other hand, Grammy selected 20 candidates after the first vote of a voting group consisting of singer-songwriters, producers, and composers in the music industry, and reviewed by a nominating committee consisting of at least 20 voting members approved by the board of directors. Eight candidates for the award are decided. The TF Final Report of the Recording Academy for Diversity and Inclusion, published in December 2019, was reviewed by the nominating committee and prevented popular votes on the process of deciding candidates to ensure reasonable results, and Includes explanations from previous executives that are intended to include works. In other words, Grammy's voting and nomination system, which can be said to be conservative, is rather a factor that can focus purely on musicality as an awards ceremony. However, the TF final report showed that Grammy increased the number of candidates for the main prize from 5 to 8, which increased the chances for a wider variety of nominations, but in a highly competitive field, candidates with only 13% support in the voting could also win. Point out that there is. Also billboardAccording to the report, the nominating committee decides the final candidate without knowing the ranking of the 20 main candidates that were handed over in the first round of voting. However, the members of the nominating committee are appointed after approval of the board in consultation with the top councilor of the recording academy board of directors, and as of December 2019, the members of the board are 65% male and 63% white. There is a lack of representation that can reflect the opinions of the voters as a whole, the standards of the nominating committee are subjective, and the diversity within the organization is a problem that Grammy will continue to solve.

It's not that the Grammy is not trying to secure internal diversity these days. According to the aforementioned Billboard article, the Recording Academy has focused on recruiting more women, minorities, and younger-age voters in the voting group composition in the last two years, with 200 people in 2018 and 590 people in 2019. It recruited new voters. These efforts will gradually help Grammy select music that is more diverse and reflects the times. And, BTS can be a measure of how far the current limit of Grammy for change is. How far can Grammy possess the keywords of K-POP, Asia, and the minority of boy bands? They received'overall rave reviews ' , the highest grade in Metacritic for'MAP OF THE SOUL: 7'released in February , and "a whole new kind of global pop phenomenon" (' Rolling Stone '), "What kind of American people do A success story that breaks the notion of listening to music" ('It was well received by critics such as the Wall Street Journal '). In addition,'Dynamite' is a disco genre of retro music and at the same time a music that conveys hope for daily life after Corona 19. In short, BTS' music fits all of the perfection, diversity, and message of the times. Of course, just because BTS is not nominated or won at the Grammy Awards this year, it does not mean that the decision was wrong. However, one can ask how far the Grammy can embrace the musical diversity and trend of the times in the United States and even around the world. Considering the case in which'Parasite' won the International Feature Film Awards for films produced in foreign languages ​​outside the United States at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, as well as the Best 4 awards in major categories, this question is even more clear. It becomes.

The word K-POP appears once in the Grammy TF final report mentioned earlier. Pointing to the reality that Asian-American artists are under pressure from K-POP and African-American executives only attend rap and hip-hop, “The music industry has a broader view of what constitutes diversity within the industry. It is necessary to point out. The lesson from a single comment is not the fact that there are few references to K-pop or Asians even in the report on the realization of diversity. The prejudice implied in the word K-POP is that it is becoming a boundary that locks not only artists who started from K-POP like BTS, but also some Asian artists working in the US market. In the end, the important thing is not whether the music BTS currently plays is K-POP, pop, or something else. It's not even a debate about whether they are idols or boy bands. All of this is put together as a question of how much one's identity affects the evaluation of music. What BTS has experienced in the United States is also a history of turning such prejudice into favorable comments from critics, commercial achievements on the Billboard charts, and awards at AMAs and BBMAs. Question again. When the names of K-POP and Asia were deleted, what kind of music will Grammy remember'MAP OF THE SOUL: 7'and'Dynamite'?

[Credit

Written. Lee Eun Kim, Ye Jin Lee

design. Lee3am

Source: Weverse Magazine]

#bts #kim namjoon #kim seokjin #min yoongi #jung hoseok #park jimin #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook #bts update #bts grammys #dynamite #mots: 7 #bts and grammy #weverse magazine #bts news #BTS article

[courtneywhitless]

Stargirl, Episode 1: Review

I want my first statement to be that I will potentially never be done screaming about the fact that Sly asking Pat to take the icicle impaled in his ABDOMEN out. Kid geniuses, am I right? 

That aside, I’ve left all my nitpicky feelings out of this review, because all-in-all, I thought this show did really well as a first episode and because Geoff had such a heavy hand in its creation, I’d like to keep a fair and open mind about it.

Because it’s the first thing we see once the text telling us about the Golden Age ends, I liked the take on the Star-Rocket Racer, I loved that it was included right away despite it often being forgotten. To be fair it wasn’t like Courtney drove in comics. On the other hand, watching the JSA die was one of my least favorite things in the episode. If Alan, Jay, and Ted are even dead. But I understand it for a storytelling perspective, along with Pat naming the characters. To anyone who knows the JSA it might feel monotonous, pointing out members that had largely died before Johns took over the JSA in the 90s, but for newcomers, it puts a name to a face, so they can draw back on that name as the series progresses. Some member’s don’t get recognized, however, which is sad. It was only on my second viewing that I realized the Sandman, Wesley Dodds, was dead on the stairs as Icicle descends. Following that, it feels a little strange for Joar — I’m sorry, Jordan — to command Grundy, but I’ll accept it because it’s not entirely outside of the realm of possibility. I’m excited to see how Grundy will be portrayed if/when he reappears. I didn’t care for Sly’s dying speech, in all honesty, it seemed to be meant for a more comedic piece, such as a man retiring, not dying. Maybe that was the purpose of casting McHale and I simply wasn’t the target audience. That’s okay!

The small peek we get into the Whitmore household at the same time was nice. I thought Amy Smart did a wonderful job portraying single, working mom Barbara, who wants her child to be happy even when she has to step out because Courtney’s father doesn’t arrive. 

I loved that Mike was included from the get go in the show. He’s a fun sarcastic brother played well. And the choice to have Barbara from Blue Valley was a good choice, story-wise. The town itself plays up the cult-vibe well, whether this is due to following the comics or to show the weirdness of an outsider looking in, as the Dugan-Whitmore family settles in has yet to be confirmed. Regardless, each actor who flashed a smile and greeted the new members of the community deserves a round of applause. I was pleased that Cindy had her white stripe and the queen bee vibe she gave off. 

The choices for what to include in frames was great! I loved that the pictures, trophies, and boxing gloves included in Courtney’s room were given such attention. Ripped City will haunt me, though. 

I’ve left this to the last because it’s my last big positive for the show: Brec Bassinger and Luke Wilson were great choices for Courtney and Pat. I never paid attention when casting was actually happening, though I was aware that Johns wanted Wilson for the role of Pat. I thought Bassinger did an amazing job portraying a person who really didn’t want to be there but was trying her best, for her mom. The scene where Courtney confronts Barbara but had to backtrack was a great way of showing how much she loves her mom and was willing to do for her. I’m going to just completely ignore the Sly might be Sam Kurtis red herring because I hate Sam Kurtis.

Now for the point that is likely to be poorly received: I dislike the fact that the Cosmic Staff has some semblance of sentience. While I do think it’s fun to an extent, more than that I feel it removes a teenage girl’s autonomy. Courtney doesn’t want to blow up a car but the Staff does, so Courtney — a fifteen year old child — is an accessory to arson. Maybe this is meant to soften some of the harder edges that Courtney had in her solo, but the fact that she’s taken a seat as a chosen one character trope instead of making her own decisions doesn’t sit well with me. 

We have to talk about Henry Jr. In the same vein that the Staff blows up his car because... reasons, the fact that potentially deadly force was used against a teenager is disappointing, as a viewer. Henry Jr. is an asshole, there’s no other way to say it, he’s a bully we may have all seen in some regard in school. When Courtney shoves him, we the viewers know she’s making the move as self-defense. When the Staff blows up his father’s car because he’s being a world class jerk, was that really necessary? I will admit I’m biased in this regard. I’m an adult and, through the course of my life, I’ve been able to grow and look back on my past actions, knowing I can be a better person than I was when I made those choices. I dislike use of excessive punishment against children and teens, because their brains haven’t finished developing and, in some cases, society has failed them, they were simply never taught better. This punishment doesn’t fit the crime, and, while I can see why it was included to bring the Injustice Society back together sooner than was planned, I feel there were better options than this.

As a pilot, with a lot of ground to cover, I feel Stargirl did a good job. Not everyone will come into the show, having read every issue of the JSA and Infinity Inc., and all of the tie-ins and that’s not needed to enjoy the show. I’d give the first episode a solid 3.75 outta 5. I’m interested to see what will come next.

#stargirl spoilers #stargirl dctv #reviews with isa #courtney whitmore #stargirl

[manstar]

[ cover ] for your muse to cover mine with a blanket or a jacket (Carter)

nonverbal memes // accepting.

When Syl woke up in the break room, the screen of his laptop still open in front of him (albeit with the battery dead), something felt... off.

Then he noticed what was around his shoulders.

The jacket was nice-- too nice to be Ted Grant’s. It was too modern a style to be Alan’s, too expensive to be Jay’s, too simple to be Johnny’s...

And the weird flip-flop of his stomach when he realised just who owned it was something he refused to acknowledge.

Instead, Syl shut the laptop closed and tucked it under his arm, pulling the too-small jacket a little tighter around his shoulders with his free hand as he got to his feet.

Carter, Carter, Carter... It felt strange thinking about him, wanting to actively seek him out, but the jacket couldn’t belong to anyone else. And it was funny how everything Syl seemed to do was put under a critical lens by the man-- but he’d lived thousands of years, and it must certainly be strange to have someone else in Ted’s place, and Syl already doubted he was doing as good a job as Starman the First did-- but Carter would suddenly do kind things like this out of nowhere, anyway.

Was Syl going to question it? No.

But he was going to return the jacket before he thought too hard about it.

“Hey, Hawkman!” he called as he entered the training area, catching Carter there doing whatever it was he did when he was on his own.

“You... um.” You were nice to me! Why! probably wasn’t appropriate. Syl had to be nicer about it. Gentler...

“This” -- he gestured briefly to the jacket still on his shoulders, hoping his bashful embarrassment wasn’t terribly obvious -- “is yours, isn’t it?”

#PROTECTXTHEM #PROTECTXTHEM: CARTER. #THREAD. #IC. #[ syl every time carter is nice to him: *fucking BLINDSIDED* ]

[sidereal-kindergarten]

Shadowed Mirrors, an update

Cindy doesn't believe in soulmates.

Actually, it has nothing to do with belief.

Cindy knows there's no such things as soulmates. She knows this, for sure, because she's dead, and dead people know these things.

There is, however, such a thing as soulfits. Another person that fits or would fit you like a glove, either because you are so similar, or vastly different.

When Cindy dies - really dies, like, for real this time - things have changed. She holds Jerome's and Lily's hands, for they're dead, and Cindy can't remember why she hated them in the first place. Lily smiles at her, and it seems Cindy's forgiven, for she never smiled like that when they were alive.

"Do you feel that?" a blond boy asks. He's holding Jerome's hand, along with another's - one with wild, fiery hair. "That pull?"

Cindy feels it.

"Yes," says Lily, her hair floating strangely in the air. She looks so serene. "What does it mean?"

A girl, holding Billy and the fiery-haired one's hand, smiles. "We have to choose."

"Choose?" says the boy with the hair. 

As he says it, a pool bleeds onto the ground before them, slippery and white and silver. It sparkles and shines like the diamonds in mom's ring used to, and Cindy breathes a sigh of awe.

"Choose," the girl repeats, releasing the others' hands before stepping forward, out of the ring and towards the pond. She tilts her head. "Ozzy? Yours is Ron, isn't it?"

The boy with the fierce hair blinks. "I - yes, it is, how did you know?"

The girl winks, and her eyes shine green. "I choose." She looks around, meeting everyone's gaze in turn. When she looks at Cindy, it's a struggle to look back. She feels… familiar.

She steps forward, into - onto - the pool. Her feet touch the surface, small and lithe. The glow of the liquid envelopes her, fades into her skin, and it burns. Only her eyes remain the same, and for a short moment another girl stands there - one Cindy had looked at from above a beak when everything hurt.

"Penny," breathes the blond boy, and the fiery-haired one - Ozzy - murmurs in agreement.

The girl, back to her other appearance, steps back. "You don't have to choose," she says, gaze sweeping. "But you should. If you can."

Lily steps forward. "I choose," she says, glow enveloping her, and Nugget flickers across her skin.

Cindy swallows. She feels it. She feels the pull. "I choose," she says and steps forward. It doesn't feel like a choice.

The glow covers her eyes, and she can't see except for that blinding white, and a brief, brief moment it burns like nothing's ever burned – but then it eases, and she steps back, and she feels him.

"I choose." The blond boy steps forward, straightening his red tie with only a moment's hesitation. Once the glow arrives, the only thing that changes is his shirt, and when it eases, he goes back to normal.

Ozzy stumbles onto the pool, and he doesn't have time to speak before the glow surrounds him and he flickers, then stumbles back. His hands are shaking.

Billy raises his chin. "I've chosen," he says, and Cindy notes the change. For a moment, Jay stands there, before them, looking so serene and solemn that Cindy's breath hitches.

All eyes fall on Jerome. "Foxy," says Lily, "she said you should…" Her eyes go wide. "I - sorry, I didn't…"

"It's okay. It's okay, that's still me, I can feel it," says Jerome. "I - I just don't…" He fiddles a bit with his shirt. "I don't know if…"

The girl from before gives him a kind smile. "It's alright. You can wait."

"No!" Jerome blurts. "I feel it, I feel the pull, I, just… don't know if she'll like me…"

Cindy, still holding his hand, squeezes once. She says nothing – doesn't even look at him, Jerome, who says he still feels Foxy the way she still feels Chica, the way Lily and Billy are still Bonnie and Freddy.

Jerome takes a deep breath. "I choose." He steps forward. A girl flashes in his place, hair long and reddish dark.

Everyone chose, in one way or another.

They fade.

*

In the years that follow, Cindy can't help but feel a bit relieved at who she chose. She doesn't have to endure Lily's pain at seeing Nugget choose her above everything else time and time again. She doesn't have to take Billy's constant pain at ghosting Jay, hovering over his shoulder like a terrified guardian. She doesn't have to live through Felix' pain of seeing the shell of his brother go through the motions, nor Maddison's exhaustion of ghosting someone who isn't quite fully human, nor Ozzy's anxiety being worsened by ghosting Ron, of all people.

Worst of all is probably Jerome, who ghosts Alice, someone who by mere proximity gets tangled into the mess that is Jay's life, and who never knew Jerome in life. Everyone else has someone who mourns them, or at the very least knew them. Alice hears of Jerome's death and doesn't even bat an eye.

Meanwhile, Cindy can go to the mirrors and watch him chatter away with a few dozen animals and the plants he can barely keep track of. She watches as he goes to therapy, watches as he cries, watches as he gets better, watches as he tips his head back into warm summer rain and smiles a genuine smile for the first time in weeks.

She watches, and watches, and watches. There's not much she can do, and at times he makes such stupid, idiotic choices that she spends hours cussing him out afterwards, but she always returns, and he always figures it out.

Cindy grows with him, her hair flowing longer and thicker, and she gets Lily to braid it – brave Lily, who watches Nugget almost endlessly, and hurts, and hurts, and hurts. Cindy grows taller and broader, and her voice deepens, but she doesn't change.

She isn't alive. She's very much dead. Jerome, who'd taken up whittling to pass the time, slipped, once, and drove a knife deep into her thigh. There was no blood and barely any pain. They were silent sometime after that, everyone treading cautiously around each other. They'd almost forgotten.

She isn't alive. None of them are. But when she watches him – when the smoke of the mirrors floats out into the room - into her – she's closer. She's close. Sometimes she can almost reach out and touch him. 

Felix keeps a book where he writes about Theodore – later, Ted. Lily holds no tome, but her secrets close to heart, and it takes a combined effort of everyone to get her to say why she worries so. Billy is frustrated and complains loudly to anyone who will listen about how much of a 'fucking moron Jay is, I swear, I'll kill him again when he gets here!'. Ozzy and Jerome stick together a lot, due to their people doing the same, and Maddison joins them, too. They'll talk about their people to any who ask but tend to keep their voices low.

Cindy doesn't write anything down, but she talks, and she talks, and she talks. Going to their shared space and yelling at the top of her lungs about her person is not uncommon, and the others groan but accept it with smiles. 

When she mulls it over in the darkness of the void, she figures they all need to smile more. It's not surprising; none of them are pleased. Maybe it's because their chosen halves are still out there. Maybe it's because they're dead. Maybe it's because they just don't work well together.

She doesn't know.

*

When Lily comes from the mirror room a few days later, bearing a relieved smile, her hair lighter than ever, Cindy asks no questions. She just hugs her, mutters, "It's about time," and goes on with her day.

*

Billy comes tearing into their shared space, hair ruffled and askew. He, like Jay, has not aged further than maybe thirty or forty years. He'd decided, long ago, that "I'll stick with him through thick and thin," which also, apparently, means that he'll age in his tempo. Cindy herself sticks to a nice thirty-two – she really did like how her hair looked that one day and had wanted to keep it.

"Guys!" Billy cries. "Nugget's dying!"

Jerome, sitting comfortably at fifty-three, looks up from trying to teach a sixty-three-year-old Ozzy how to use a JoJo. "What? Already?"

"It's his sixty-ninth birthday," Billy says.

"Ah," says Cindy, standing up. "That'd do it. Cancer kicking in, then?"

"Yes – come on! Lily's ecstatic!"

Ozzy pouts. "Unfair! I had my money on Ron."

"Too bad!" Billy returns. "Come on, he'll be arriving soon. Lily's gone to meet him!"

*

Lily, sixty-eight-years-old, helps a sixty-nine-year-old Nugget into their shared space. He doesn't look a day older than forty, he either.

The room erupts into cheers. "Who did you choose?" fifteen-year-old Maddison cries.

"Yeah! Who was it?"

"Did you feel the pull?"

"Who?"

Nugget blinks, his face splitting in a smile. "Billy!" he says. "Cindy! Jerome!" He laughs, a heartwarming laugh that curls through all of them. "Nugget has missed you. As for the pull – yes, Nugget felt it, but no, Nugget did not choose her."

Cindy blinks. It's not the first time someone chooses a different person than their pull – Maddison had chosen Penny, after all – but it's uncommon. "Who did you choose?" she asks, curious.

"Jay," says Nugget.

Billy whoops. "Welcome to the party, old man! He's a nightmare to keep up with!"

Nugget laughs. "Oh, Nugget knows! Nugget knows!"

*

Cindy knows when he's dying. She can feel it; the tightening around her ribs, the constrictions of her chest. It doesn't hurt, but she feels it, and she knows it's him, and she knows what it is.

She goes to meet him, at seventy-one, and she ages up to meet him at his own age, to not frighten or worry.

He blinks up at her, and she helps him sit up before doing anything else.

"I – Cindy?" he croaks, surprise, awe, wonder.

Cindy smiles. "Hello, Buggs."  

#shadowed mirrors #kindergarten #kindergarten 2 #kindergarten cindy #writing

[not-so-incorrect-au-quotes]

The Gymnast

Words: 1,159

Part of a series of short fics telling the story of a found family of all star athletes competing in various competitions and tournaments.

Ships: Apaceit, Morolo, Jamil

~~~

If Patton was honest, he hated travelling in a group. Worrying about the weight of the luggage, making sure everybody had all the right paperwork, and especially in a big group like this, just keeping track of everyone was getting to be draining. He loved his fans so dearly, but if they got approached one more time, he would not be held responsible for the consequences. The others picked up on his irritation, and tried to ease the pressure, but to no avail.

They were headed to Tokyo for Patton's Olympic event, and the general air of excitement kept them all going. Thanks to Jay's connections, they had a private jet to take them straight to Tokyo International, and thanks to a lot of finagling and a 'conversation' between Jay and Emily's new manager, she managed to tag along.

"This is the first time I've left the country in years! I can't believe M managed to convince that icy bastard to let me come."

Dec laughed at that, mussing up her hair, only to be met with complaints. Logan looked over inquisitively, head slightly cocked.

"How is it you've never left the country before now?"

Ali winced, preparing a lethal speech about poverty and privilege, fully ready to defend Emily, when she laughed, like he'd just forgotten his own name.

"Well when I wasn't doing swimming galas, I was kind of preoccupied with formal education, glasses boy. I'm still a kid."

Logan prepared a retort bringing up the fact that she too wore glasses, and thus had no footing to stand on, but the look on her face when Alistair praised her efforts and gave her a high five made him stop short. He made a note to investigate his hypothesis at a later date, as they had arrived at their gate, and were quickly being swarmed by fans.

"Roman, you're popular, do something!" Patton whisper-shouted, looking urgently at the growing crowds, then back into Roman's startled face. His Patton-ted Puppy Eyes won the unspoken argument, and Roman was sacrificed to the masses to keep them at bay until their plane was ready to board.

Twenty painstaking minutes and a lot of apologies later, the group were up in the air and on their way to Japan. Logan and Emily were teaching each other new phrases in Japanese, Roman was preparing for the time difference, Ali had gone with Dec to the bathroom to help him with his vehement fear of flying, and Emil was curled up with Jay on his lap, completely oblivious to the rest of the world, and only focused on their colliding lips. Lucus and Castor had found a secluded corner and gone to do… whatever they did when they so often went off alone, Patton didn't really know. What he did know was that he had a lot of snacks available to him (fellow passengers not included, unfortunately), and twelve hours to fill. So fill them he did, with movies, and a Roman makeover, and learning about the culture from the resident smarty pants.

Upon arrival in Japan, they exited the plane, took a second to adjust to the difference in temperature, and were greeted by a series of cars, ready to escort them to their hotel. Patton could absolutely get used to this. If there was one thing he adored about the Japanese, apart from the adorable food trends, it was how efficient and reliable they could be in formal settings. The group clambered into the cars, and took the time to admire the streets, the colour, and get to know their translators provided by the Olympics team.

The hotel was big, western, and bustling with other gymnasts. Patton's stomach dropped when he saw just how flexible and agile his competition was, especially compared to his slightly chubby physique. He was so distracted that he jolted when Roman put a hand on his shoulder and walked him inside. It did name him feel a bit better to see the jealous looks he got, walking in with a podium finisher on both arms, followed by an entourage of all star athletes, but he made sure to be his full Patton Polite to the receptionist, who seemed eternally grateful. He knew gymnasts, in general, had a habit of stereotypically being a bit haughty and high strung, and knew first hand how tiring it was to deal with them, so the least he could do was give the staff a break.

They checked in with no fuss, and the room arrangements stayed the same as last time, Emily's manager having taken a plane the day before and come ahead. They set down their stuff, and killed time for an hour as Patton got dressed and went to warm up. Jay dragged them through the Harajuku district, and Logan noted that it was the first time Jay and Emily had smiled at each other since the incident, for however brief a moment it was, the two were getting along like old times.

Then the time came for Patton's routine. They took their seats and watched, as Patton nodded to the judges, and began. His routine was a combination of more showy, slightly sensual moves, and impressive flips and tumbles. His technique was not flawless, but the complexity of his routine made up for it, and the execution left every audience member feeling either a little bit more or less straight. Logan had to look away during several parts, face a deep red. Even the judges looked a little more than impressed. This was not what Patton had practised, but he'd clearly put the hours in, because the changes were all very fluid, so it was hard to tell where one move ended and the next began.

Then, all too soon and not soon enough, he raised his arms one final time to signal he was done, and the crowd clapped ferociously. Nobody expected the sweetheart Patton Foster to pull such uncharacteristic moves, but they scored him a solid bronze and an astonished interviewer, both of which he met with his signature angelic smile, but there was definitely a look of knowing there that told the fans he knew exactly what he'd just done. Alas, Patton knew he'd need to smooth out his technique to score higher next time, but he was more than happy to accept his victory, raise his flag high, and bathe in the resounding cheers that followed, looking almost blissful. The internet was going to have a field day, he knew it already, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

The group met afterwards, and Roman scooped up Patton into his arms and swung him around violently, placing kisses all across his face. The only time he paused was when Logan wanted a turn. But, affection was fought off until they were back on the plane, heading back to England for the Rugby world cup finals, where Ali and Castor would be playing tomorrow.

#ts deceit #ts apathy #ts logic #ts morality #ts creativity #ts jealousy #ts emotional manipulation #ts declan #ts alistair #ts logan #ts patton #ts roman #ts jay #ts emil #emil nöel #jay eudach #roman eudach #logan berry #patton foster #declan dolos #alistair andrelus #sander sides #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #alistair sanders #declan sanders #thomas sanders #sander sides au #child writes