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freetobeeyouandme · 3 months

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Chapter 5: Spoiler Alert: We Run Away

The next chapter of my Byler Isekai AU is now up on Ao3! The title says it all, but the party finds running away from El's evil "brother" harder than it is in theory.

Tags: M, Graphic Descriptions of Violence, Fantasy AU, Canon Typical Violence, Canon Typical Horror, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn

Summary:

Mike Wheeler hates High School, so when he almost dies and falls through a portal to another world, he’s not going to complain. Especially not when that world does not only have swords and magic but seems to work exactly according to the rules of his favorite tabletop role-playing game. But his euphoria might be short lived because the party of adventurers he falls in with turns out to be the target of an evil god and the fate of the world might rest on their shoulders. So, exactly like his games of D&D. Except the wanna-be Paladin soon realizes that being a hero is much harder in real life than it is in-game. - Or, Mike gets isekai’d into a world where D&D is real.

An excerpt and taglist below the cut:

Excerpt:

For a moment the party just stares in disbelief and horror at the disfigured corpse of what had moments ago been the Father of Gods. The vine that had killed him retreats only slowly from his mouth, the movements making the body look still, sickly, alive.

Then El screams. It’s a terrible, bloodcurdling noise. She throws up her hands, the right arm barely obeying because it is still broken, and One has no time to protect himself. He flies backwards roughly, crashing into the army of monsters behind him and taking them down with him. Mike thinks an ordinary person would die or at least be seriously injured by El tossing them this way but with their luck One will rise to his feet again with barely a scratch.

“Alright, alright, kids, lets go,” Hop says, clapping to get their attention.

They don’t need to be told even once. Their enemy briefly disposed of they pile into the car, weapons still at the ready except for Max, who swings into the driver’s seat. El stays where she is, keeping her hands up in a warding gesture, although Mike can’t see any magic actually wrapping around them and protecting them. And Lucas runs in a different direction: Towards Brenner’s body.

The few vines still slithering around the corpse shudder in pain as their master is blasted backwards but recover quickly, snapping at the Sorceress and the Ranger. Lucas evades them with quick steps, but El is too preoccupied and only saved by Hop pulling her backwards and into the wagon.

Lucas unsheathes his sword, making quick work of the vines and then begins dragging the body towards the others by its feet. Seeing his struggle, Dustin grunts and jumps back down to help, and Mike follows. More dark vines are already slithering towards them, unlike their legged brethren needing no time to recover.

As his friends toss the corpse onto the back of the cart, Mike squares off against them. The vines are fast, but he manages to keep them away from the others, his beginner skills finally finding a match. But as soon as Lucas calls his name he turns and runs, jumping at the car more than really inside of it.

Max floors the gas pedal and then they’re off while Dustin helps him inside.

The vines strain after them angrily, two of them briefly managing to snag the wheel as Max turns the wagon around because their original route of escape is covered in fleshy, writhing goo that is slowly morphing into bipedal, bulb-headed monsters. And, among them, Mike can see One rising back to his feet.

Erica runs her rapier through them, and, freed, they shoot off towards town.

Mike sinks onto a seat with shaking legs, barely even registering that the bench is wet with blood. He feels paper thin, every nerve in his body simultaneously strung high and screaming in pain and exhaustion.

They race through the town they had meant to avoid, and it’s not just the adrenaline and the shaking of the cart that has his stomach twist into more loops than a roller coaster. Main street is reasonably busy, the people, for the most part elves and dragonborn, going about their daily business with a calm serenity that is interrupted unduly when they clatter by. More than once someone has to jump out of the way, and Mike feels bad both about disrupting their lives with the horrors that are hot on their heels and about what he dreads One and his monsters will do to the regular people of Hawkins when they pass through.

Mike can’t decide whether he hopes Hawkins is a distraction or whether he wants One’s full attention on him and his friends so he leaves the town alone. Hawkins hasn’t done anything to him, but Mike also doesn’t want to die.

The fact that Brenner’s body has rag-dolled over their bags, bleeding out onto their things and jostling about with every uneven stone and bump in the road doesn’t really help matters. It’s already crowded enough in the back of the cart without the corpse.

Erica gives it a disgusted look as she tries to squeeze past it and then complains loudly when she loses her balance and lands on top of cooling limbs. Pretending to retch she turns to her brother with anger in her eyes. “Why did we bring him along? Please don’t tell me you plan on resurrecting him.”

Lucas presses his mouth into a thin line, neither admission nor denial.

“Dude,” Dustin say, despite having helped him load the corpse onto the car, “Please don’t say yes. You know we’d have Martin Brenner running around again if we did?”

Lucas glances in his direction, and at first Mike thinks he’s trying to catch Will’s eyes, since he’s the Cleric and sitting right next to Mike. But Lucas actually looks away once he meets Mike’s eyes, biting his lip. Mike doesn’t understand what he’s got to do with Brenner, but Lucas’s shoulder are hunched, every line of his body looking guilty.

Finally, the Ranger shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to bring him back. But we couldn’t just leave him. I don’t want to know what One would have done with his corpse.”

Mike couldn’t agree more, but Lucas is refusing to look at him.

Dustin weighs his head as if to say ‘fair enough’. Erica continues grimacing, but turns her attention to their pursuers.

Lucas presses his mouth into a thin line, neither admission nor denial.

“Dude,” Dustin say, despite having helped him load the corpse onto the car, “Please don’t say yes. You know we’d have Martin Brenner running around again if we did?”

Finally, the Ranger shakes his head. “No, I don’t want to bring him back. But we couldn’t just leave him. I don’t want to know what One would have done with his corpse.”

Mike couldn’t agree more, but Lucas is refusing to look at him.

Dustin weighs his head as if to say ‘fair enough’. Erica continues grimacing, but turns her attention to their pursuers.

Unofficial Tag List (aka you interacted with my snippet posts, please tell me if you want me to not tag you in the future (or want to be added)): @smalltownwheeler @wheelerpilled @wrong-energy @willthelies @foodiewithdahoodie @doggo9 @gardenfairie @beelikesbyler @beverlysclown @yickarus @sourdough-el @hessolivagant @hesquietoday @oldfashionedmorphine @total-serene560 @bylersrise @hawkinsunderground @longtallglasses @generalstorecashier @usnaavi @camel-casing @bylersbear01 @turningsoft @casatoan

#byler #mike wheeler #will byers #stranger things #kingslayer fic #byler fanfic

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griddleshark · 4 years

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so like,,,, supercorp college au?? mayhaps,,, butch kara??

ooooooo yes. always. like?? maybe kara as a music major?? lena as a dance major at juilliard.

(lmao this is so much longer than i thought it wld be originally)

Lena’s legs ache from her ballet class and the muscles in her core scream at her with every step she takes up the stairs. Sam is chattering off about some performance piece and Lena’s too exhausted to contribute. All she wants to do is go back to their apartment and sleep.

Sadly, Lena promised one of her professors that she would attend one of the music classes for the 2nd years because she needs to find someone to compose her winter performance piece. “Do you think any of the music majors will do it or are they too busy smoking pot to help someone out?”

Sam scoffs. “Oh please Lena, just because James is like that doesn’t mean everyone is.” The taller woman had promised Lena she would help her find a musician to help, so Sam has decided to tag along to watch the class. Lena is so grateful for that because if she has to watch a ton of music majors argue about if Herbie Hancock or Stan Getz is more influential to jazz music alone she’d probably shoot herself.

The classroom is small and all the students are seated around a conductor’s stand holding their respective instruments. Some are talking to each other, others are tuning their instruments, and some are just on their phone. The professor is looking over something on his stand and Lena suddenly gets a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach.

It’s odd. Lena doesn’t get nervous. Relax you idiot, Lena tells herself, you have performed at Lincoln Center, you were Clara in the Nutcracker, you are Odette in Swan Lake, stop being a little bitch. Steeling herself, Lena stands up a bit straighter, regardless of the ache of protest in her back, and walks over to where the professor is reading some sheet music.

He’s an older looking man, maybe in his 50s or 60s, and the half-moon glasses he wears reminds Lena of Dumbledore. “Professor J’onzz?”

The man looks up at the two girls standing in front of him and gives them a smile. “You must be Lena!” he sounds excited actually, “Leon told me you'd be coming!” he turns to look at Sam, “and you are...”

“Samantha Arias. I’m a performance major. Just here for moral support.”

Professor J’onzz nods his head and then calls for the attention of his 10 students. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lena Luthor. She’s a second-year dance major, she’s here to watch you all perform to then see who to ask for as a composition partner for her winter performance piece.”

Lena’s eyes scan the 10 students to see if any standout and she grimaces internally when she notices most of the students are boys. She doesn’t like working with men usually due to them always acting like they know more than her. She’d rather work with a girl because she feels more comfortable sharing and discussing her viewpoints and things they can work on.

Her heart skips a bit when her eyes land on a blonde girl. Her hair is down and falls around her shoulders like waves of honey. The vivid blue of her eyes sends a chill down Lena’s spine and she can’t help but feel a bit flustered a just how her “type” this girl is.

The scuffed Timberlands on her feet, to the ripped, dark wash jeans, and the plain white t-shirt that shows her rippling biceps. She looks like she could bench press Lena easily, and it makes her wonder if this woman has ever once considered doing ballet just to do lifts.

“You can take a seat beside me while we watch them perform. They’re showing me edited versions of their composition pieces.”

For the next 20 minutes, Lena sits beside J’onn and Sam and takes notes on each piece. She knows enough about music and theory to take notes on what she likes and wants for her piece, but so far none of the people have truly stood out to her. It might be because she’s hoping that the handsome blonde takes her breath away.

Once Mike El finishes receiving feedback on his much too cheery composition, Professor J’onzz looks at his grading sheet. “Kara, it’s your turn.”

The blonde woman, Kara, stands from her seat and cracks her knuckles. She sits at the grand piano at the corner of the room closest to Lena and Lena watches her place the 6 sheets of music in front of herself.

“So this is called Winter Waltz in Central Park,” Kara says aloud. Her voice is gentle and soft, nothing like how Lena imagined it based on her appearance. It makes Lena’s insides feel warm with comfort.

By the first measure, Lena is already entranced with how beautiful it sounds. She closes her eyes and can see the music notes floating around and her and causing her to spin as she dances on the stage in Lincoln Center. There are snowflakes and icicles that hang in the air around her as she leaps and dances around the stage, chasing each note, trying to catch it and keep it warm against her chest.

As Kara’s fingers slam on the keys, Lena can see a move with each beat. Her body is screaming at her to stand and dance along with Kara’s playing, but she contains herself. She doesn’t want to embarrass herself in front of an attractive woman.

When the song ends, Lena’s eyes open slowly and she can’t stop herself as she claps enthusiastically. It’s easily the best piece she’s heard today and she could sit there the rest of the day listening to Kara’s fingers push on the keys.

Lena zones out the rest of the class, trying to formulate a way to talk to Kara and ask her to be her partner. She’s never had much luck with women because she gets so nervous and so she just prays that whoever it is she’s interested in will just ask her instead. Of course, it works sometimes, but other times it seems like the butch she’s interested in is just as nervous.

When Professor J’onzz releases the class, Sam stands and grabs Lena’s hand to help her up. “You make a decision?”

“Definitely.” Lena’s eyes scan where Kara is and she breathes a sigh of relief to see her still in the room, putting sheets of paper into her backpack. “C’mon.”

When Lena gets close enough to properly see Kara, her breath hitches. Close up, she can see so many more details, even with the shitty lighting. The flecks of grey and gold in her blue eyes, the scar above her eyebrow, her strong jawline which Lena is sure all girls go weak over.

“Kara, right?”

The blonde smiles. She sticks out her hand in greeting. “Yeah, Kara Danvers, a pleasure to meet you.”

Lena shakes her hand, having to bite her tongue at how formally she’s acting. “Lena Luthor.” Kara’s hands are big, and her fingers long, probably from years of piano training. They’re also surprisingly rough, which Lena wasn’t expecting, but somehow, they’re also soft.

“So, how’d you like my piece?” Kara’s voice sounds almost nervous.

It’s comical. Kara’s piece was one of the only two that received no criticisms from J’onn, and Lena would assume that would be all the blonde cares about. Why would she care what a dance major thinks?”

“It was amazing. Genuinely. The moment you started playing I closed my eyes and could picture myself dancing to it on stage. It was exactly what I wanted without realizing I even wanted it.”

The grin that morphs Kara’s face is adorable. Her eyes develop small crinkles around the edges and she reminds Lena of an excited puppy. “That’s awesome. That’s how I want people to feel about all of my compositions.”

“So,” Lena gnaws on her lip. “Would you be willing to work with me for the winter recital? You’ll get class credit for it and everything.”

Kara just nods her head and grins. “Of course! I’d love to. It’s not every day a beautiful dancer asks for my help.”

The comment makes Lena blush and Sam nudges her playfully. “Perfect. I’ll text you then?” Lena hands the blonde her phone for her to put her number in it.

“Um, yes! Please...” Kara puts her number in as ‘Kara Danvers (piano girl)’ and it makes Lena smile. “If you need anything, just let me know. I gotta go now, I have my jazz class soon.”

With that, the blonde begins walking away, but not before tripping over a chair as she waves goodbye to the girls. She nearly falls onto a saxophone resting against the wall, but she catches herself. “I’m good. I’ll see y’all.”

Once she’s out the door, Sam finally allows herself to snicker. “Oh she so likes you.”

send me more asks here!

#ask #anonymous #supercorp #supergirl #ficlet

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hellyeahomeland · 4 years

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“False Friends” | Directed by Keith Gordon, Cinematography by Peter Levy

In case you hadn’t heard, Carrie smoked a few cigarettes this week. The opening of the episode is actually pretty interesting, the conversation with Yevgeny the previous night in the bar ringing in Carrie’s ears. (Carrie isn’t sleeping--again--and we all know that spells trouble for her.)

Carrie is, for the most part, a loner smoker. And a stress smoker. And a rooftop smoker, apparently! Here more than in previous instances where we’ve seen her smoke, the setting--all alone on the roof--visually represents her own headspace.

She flashes back to the scene we’ve seen several times already this season. This time, however, we finally see Carrie clearly. She speaks, she’s lucid. There is real fear in her expression, but also longing. The reveal of course is that Carrie is on her meds and in her right mind, and she doesn’t want Yevgeny to leave.

The camera turns to Yevgeny as Carrie’s dragged away. This is a shot we’ve seen already this season but, by the end of the episode, his expression takes on a different meaning. It’s not cold or detached. He doesn’t want to leave her either.

The repetition of this specific memory and the way it’s morphed over the episodes is remarkably similar to early season one Brody. We all knew the Carrie/Brody parallels this season would be heavy; the show is not only retelling that story with roles reversed but also using many of the storytelling devices they used in season one.

Then as now, the audience learns along with the characters what actually took place. First we learn that Brody actually did know Nazir; Nazir held him. Then we learn that Brody watched Tom Walker die. Then we learn that Brody is the one who beat Tom Walker to death (or at least he thought he did). The key difference obviously is that Brody was deceiving Carrie. Carrie is deceiving herself (or is she?).

IJLTP. (Any time this show does something with bokeh IJLTP.) (Bokeh is the way a camera lens renders out-of-focus points of light.)

We thought the framing of this particular shot was interesting. There are two blocks of color behind Carrie, orange and white, and her body lies squarely in the center of either, one half on either side. Maybe this was completely accidental, or maybe it’s symbolic and indicative of the way she’s being pulled in different directions. She also remains in the dark--figuratively and literally. In the first episode of the season, Carrie was often framed inside rectangular boundaries, now she’s half-in, half-out. Before, she felt trapped in the car, in her bedroom, in the fenced-in basketball court. Now, she finally gets some freedom (and maybe a dollop of “fresh” air, natch).

(There is a similar Mad Men shot that Sara thinks about at least weekly that conveyed something similar about Don.)

Linus Roache’s performance as David Wellington is fairly underrated. It’ll be interesting to see him in a context other than “Elizabeth Keane’s mouthpiece/bodyguard/sounding board/good cop/bad cop.” For example, this passive aggressive grin at new VP Ben Hayes when he makes a similarly passive aggressive comment about Princeton.

...or this side eye when Ben Hayes suggests firing Saul, a “Keane holdover.”

Carrie’s comment in the premiere that Mike was not an “alpha” looms large in this scene and throughout the episode. Carrie makes several comments about him finally doing the job the right way or her way. Their differing personalities and management styles are on full display visually here. Carrie towers over him, while Mike sits back, hands folded in his lap.

Also, as a logistics person, it bothers Gail that Mike has set up his desk so his back is facing the window. With all of that top secret intel on his computer, isn’t having the windows right there a problem? Is this an intentional nod to his incompetence or did the better lighting of his office for the crew win out? (Sara thinks it can be both.)

The Saul/Haqqani scenes this episode were uniformly visually stunning. First, the show continues its use of light to reinforce who knows what. Here Haqqani’s face is cloaked in darkness while light falls across Saul’s face.

Overall, Saul’s captivity plays out plot-wise obviously much differently this time than in season four. We’re struck as well by how different the mood is. Both men lean or hunch here. They’re tired, they’re old, they’ve done this before.

The slow pan around Jalal while he’s praying to reveal Tasneem is … *chef’s kiss* (and suggests so much her persona of being the ultimate puppet master, waiting around any corner).

More bokeh, more smoking. Smokehing.

There’s more mirroring between Carrie and Jenna this week, which is probably how Jenna intends to befriend Carrie (“Carrie smokes? I should too!”), but it actually just feeds into Sara’s theory that Jenna is going to “single white female” Carrie. We love the framing here of Carrie, back to camera (and to Jenna), and Jenna lurking behind her.

And some visual symmetry here. The camera shots of the two of them are often at a distance, speaking to the depth (or lack thereof) of their relationship. Throughout this episode we see a variety of different pairings between characters. The camera choices in these scenes illustrate closeness and proximity, or distance and mistrust.

In season four there were so many references to Saul losing his eyeglasses during the prisoner exchange. If you recall, he takes them off on the tarmac and Carrie picks them up after she convinces him to get up. Later, she returns his glasses to him just as their car is hit by an RPG. So, given that, two things:

Saul losing his glasses and then getting them back is almost certainly a harbinger of shit to come!

We absolutely loved the framing of this scene: Haqqani’s hands slowly coming into frame and gingerly placing the glasses back on Saul’s face. We mentioned above how different the mood was this time around with Saul and Haqqani and this gentle act seemed to encompass all of that.

Two old men, some (we, Jalal) would say past their prime, standing alone in the dark.

And the dark gives way to a new dawn, a new day. We’re about to break out into song!

But seriously, this was a gorgeously filmed scene. We do wonder how long they were waiting out in the mountains of Morocco for the sun to rise.

The scene between Haqqani and his son Jalal was the standout of the episode. It is such an eerie reflection of the end of “From A to B and Back Again” when Haqqani kills Aayan. That episode and its ending are at this point Homeland lore, which has the added benefit of making what was already a tense scene fucking unbearable.

We love the use of perspective and shot/reverse shot here.

The parallels with “From A to B…” continue. Then as now, Saul looks on, helpless, wearing a similar outfit but this time with his hands unbound. Then as now, Haqqani makes a spectacle of it all, when he knows others are watching (the Americans via drone in season four, his entire crew in the courtyard now).

The kiss to the forehead. At this point we were about 650% sure Haqqani was about to shoot his son in the head.

And he does pull out the gun. Jalal literally stares down the barrel.

Instead of killing him, Haqqani just throws him onto the street, which is maybe just as bad if you’re Jalal. The framing here is remarkable. Jalal stands in the center of the frame, back to the camera, ensconced in sunlight. He’s not awash in some heavenly light. On the contrary, it’s almost as if he’s just been spit out of it, cast out of the kingdom. It all seemed vaguely biblical, like a reverse Prodigal Son, though we’re not sure if that fits exactly. If you know, drop us a line!

We’re three episodes into the season, and we’ve gotten an “over Saul’s shoulder” shot in each one. This is now a theme!

Homeland is not a show that uses flashbacks that heavily (other than the aforementioned Brody/Nazir series from season one and when they de-aged Claire Danes by putting her hair in a half ponytail). They’ve been effective thus far, slowly peeling the layer on the onion that is Carrie’s Russian captivity.

As Yevgeny recounts Carrie’s suicide attempt, we see split-second flashes in her head. At first, the images are blurry.

And just a few seconds later, they come into focus for us as Carrie remembers. All this is obvious enough, but we also think the way that the focus on the images shifts so suddenly and the way the sequences are edited serve to disorient the viewer in the same way Carrie remains disoriented and confused about just what happened during the seven lost months.

This scene is notable for a few reasons. First, Carrie and Yevgeny remain so physically close. He leans into her. We also love that it’s more than just Carrie’s reaction to what he’s saying. We see Yevgeny’s reaction to her reaction, as well as his emotions in recounting it. He is remarkably free of judgment and shows legitimate, deep caring, possibly love, as he reveals one of Carrie’s darkest moments.

And while Carrie makes an offhand remark about her relationship with Brody being accessible information in her “file,” the fact is she never talks about him. Like, ever. (Sara maintains Carrie has a mental and possibly physical “Brody box” that remains sealed.) The significance of Carrie opening up to Yevgeny about what is--sorry, folks--the love of her life really can’t be overstated.

All we have to say about this is “ughhhhhhhhhh.”

We’re three episodes into the season, and we’ve gotten a “Carrie watches Yevgeny walk away” shot in each one. This is now a theme!

We really hope that the blaring red “ABSOLUTELY NO CELL PHONES” sign is a callback to when Brody infamously and inexplicably snuck his cell phone into the situation room in “Beirut Is Back,” allowing him to send a “DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!” text to Nazir just in the nick of time.

IJLTP.

Here is our Reverse Prodigal Son: lost and wondering, his face bloodied, bordering on delirious.

And here is Tasneem, her beautiful aubergine scarf blowing perfectly in the wind (sorry, Sara forgot to do Things Tasneem Wore This Week, but she thinks this aubergine scarf is beautiful), looking like a goddamn puppet master goddess, coming to save him. And by “save” we mean “control and manipulate.” Saviors really do come in all different flavors on this show.

#homeland #homelandedit #in the director's chair #keith gordon #peter levy #false friends #*#by: sara #by: gail

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