#cut to Alex rapping we only get one shot

[thesinglesjukebox]

TAYLOR SWIFT - "CRUEL SUMMER"

TSJ Today reports...

[7.29]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: I need to get a couple things out of the way: 1) Why wasn't this released as a single during the actual Lover era four years ago?; 2) My enjoyment for this song, as I suspect it may have for many of you as well, has decreased since it turned from an secretly adored album cut to a Billboard #1 in 2023; 3) Why did a song called "Cruel Summer" go #1 during the second half of October? Who was in charge of this timing?; 4) The gaming of the charts to get this to go #1 is expected for all major artists, but still pretty craven: these remixes and live versions are... not it; 5) Love it or hate it, this is Jack Antonoff at his most Jack Antonoff, vocoders and all; 6) We were deprived of a real music video for this and I'm still annoyed; 7) Taylor's voice sounds shrill, especially when she's reaching the high notes in the chorus; 8) Tickets for the Eras tour were way too expensive and comically absurd to acquire; 9) My extreme audiophile boyfriend continues to tell me that Taylor releasing four different versions of every vinyl record is choking up the global market and causing all records to be more expensive; 10) Everyone is exhausted by the Travis Kelce media cycle already, and I'm salty that this song was written about Joe Alwyn. Now, enjoy. [10]

Alex Clifton: "Cruel Summer" is a shot of dopamine straight to the heart. It turns everything neon and demands to be screamed loudly in a car with the windows down. I want to inject it into my veins. It makes me thrilled to be alive in a way few other songs do these days. [10]

Alfred Soto: Listening to Lover before masks went on all over the world, I noted superficial resemblances to Bowie in his so-called Berlin era. "Cruel Summer" is Swift's "Joe the Lion," Bowie's 1977 desperate, almost frantic account of Berliners crawling home from bars who can't quiet the din in their heads. I liked it in 2019, I love it now. Her most easeful collaboration in years, her best single since "Blank Space," the electronic clippety-clops and vocoderized enthusiasm building to a chorus of sustained euphoria. For all the blather about her songwriting prowess, let's hear it for the instinct that left oooh-ahh-ahh as a placeholder. [10]

Will Rivitz: By far the most vibrant, well-written, and captivating single off Lover. [4]

David Moore: The unfortunate reality of dealing with Taylor Swift in 2023 is that she has dominated the few remaining metrics for gauging commercial pop success for almost the entirety of her career, in a sort of never-ending imperial phase, so it gets harder to enjoy her with each passing year even if you're so inclined. I've been writing about it a lot lately: Taylor Swift's consolidation of dying formats in old-media youth culture, like the Bain Capital of teenpop; Taylor Swift's absurdly stable career trajectory and how the only analogue I can think of with 15 years of unfettered and untroubled dominance within their milieu is "Weird Al" Yankovic; my increasing antipathy toward Taylor Swift's success, stemming from my evergreen bitterness about what happened to Ashlee Simpson; the cosmic weirdness of how Taylor Swift's gambit for world domination depended on the slow-burn success of "Teardrops on My Guitar," a song literally no one on earth has cared about since 2007; Taylor Swift's limited melodic palette and how her emphasis on rhythm and personality are of a piece with rap's melodic turn in the 2010's. And all that is just the stuff no one was already writing about! There's a full-time reporter for Taylor Swift! She broke box office records with a tour movie so dorky that the background dancers aren't allowed to dance, and the costumes look like an intern snagged them from TJ Maxx 15 minutes before the show, and when Taylor Swift doesn't have a guitar or a piano shoved in front of her she mimes every! single! lyric! with her hands (on enough occasions that I lost count, she sings the word "time" and points to her wrist)! So of course an OK summer song she didn't even bother finishing the chorus for got trotted out four years later for "impact" and it actually worked. Everything Taylor Swift does works. Taylor Swift can do whatever the fuck she wants. We can't get rid of her. No one is even trying to. We've been living in Taylor Swift's 2008 for 15 years, and we might have to walk another thousand miles to find one river of peace. [6]

Tara Hillegeist: Relistening to Lover-era Swift is the sort of experience that makes one yearn for the days when the UN actually tried to enforce the Geneva Convention anywhere outside of the Steam storefront. [4]

Katherine St Asaph: The problem with "Cruel Summer" is the problem with all of Taylor's infinite songs about supposedly dangerous lovers: I have never heard anything less dangerous in my life. [5]

Leah Isobel: Look: I am a Taylor Swift hater. It is my divine calling. The way she vocalizes "devils roll the daice" is like a needle digging into my brain. The fact that if you search "Cruel Summer" you get this and not the endlessly superior Bananarama song is a crime against pop music in general and me, specifically. She sounds like fucking Hannah Montana when she yells that last line on the bridge. All of her music comes across to me like a teenager discovering, to her disbelief, that other people exist with their own individual desires -- that being alive in the world means contending with those desires, learning how to coexist -- and throwing a tantrum about it. It's not that I don't relate, but that I listen to her music and I feel forcibly emotionally regressed, like I am eating candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; like I am driving a Fisher-Price car to work at an Easy-Bake Oven. And yet. Listening to "Cruel Summer," trying to nail down a score, I am forced to admit that this random Pennsylvanian lady knows how to write songs. Kill me now. [6]

Oliver Maier: The sunset on the horizon beyond Reputation and a late bloomer from the only Taylor Swift record that doesn't totally scan like a coherent chapter in her narrative (though I'm hardly a scholar). One wonders what her career would have looked like had the pandemic, and Folklore, not intervened. More like this would have been nice. [7]

Ian Mathers: I don't think I ever noticed just how gonzo background Taylor sounds going "he looks up grinning like a devil!" at the end of the bridge. I'm not going to wade into trying to figure out whether it's amazing they accidentally left that in (she sounds like a goof) or it's some sort of 3D chess move to make sure yet another market segment finds her endearing or it's a key that when combined with other lore tells you the middle name of her 3rd last boyfriend (or some secret fourth thing). Even if it is calculated, it makes me laugh like a drain. I can't not hear it now. Tik Tok is good for something after all. [6]

Kayla Beardslee: This is obviously a [10]. It's been a [10] since it came out four years ago. Its fate as the hit of Lover was written in stone before the album was even released, thanks to the Secret Session whispers. This is Taylor Swift parting the impossibly wide pastel-colored ocean before her to somehow make room for her presence, dominating thanks to the sense of reckless abandon in her voice that dwarfs even the reverberating Antonoff synths. Her desperation is delivered with a wink, slideshow images heightening the drama for the sake of performance ("cut the headlights, summer's a knife"). Yet this is also Taylor Swift, whose only constant has been always being able to put it into words, collapsing into "ooohs" at the end of the chorus and admitting defeat. Her career is performance: a stab to the heart on stage will still leave a mark in her mind, sincerity betrayed in moments like the loss of composure on "If I bleed, you'll be the last to know" or her scream of "I don't want to keep secrets just to keep you!" The delicious thrill of going too fast is inseparable from her fear of the crash, sure that it'll happen just around the next bend in the road, so hold on tight right now and feel this moment to the utmost before it disappears -- but when the song ends and we're drawn back into the real world, all that's left is a soft, nostalgic smile among the pastel-pink clouds. It's the tale of a summer of girlish hedonism: sure, you got a little too drunk and fell a little too hard, but it was ultimately harmless. They were your own mistakes to make, and you had the freedom to make them. The summer may have been cruel to you, but it was only casually cruel in the name of being honest. "Here's how 'Cruel Summer' can still be a single!", went the gleeful cries of stans in fall 2019 who were still holding out hope. Nothing on earth could come along to diminish the force of this brightest-shining, joyfully hollering star of "I'm drunk in the back of the car," not even -- shit. And now it's 2023, and we're looking back at that summer through rose-colored glasses and trying to bring it back to life. No, it's not the same, but we just want to know that we were holding on for something worth it after all, and that idealism and excitement still have a place in the moments in between. Have you or a loved one lost the summer that you were promised? If so, you may be entitled to compensation. At least that compensation comes in the form of a few perfect bars of pop music that gives you an excuse to scream at the top of your lungs. [10]

Joshua Lu: "Cruel Summer" is probably the most median Taylor Swift™ song in existence, and your enjoyment of this song probably depends on how much Taylor Swift™ you've been able to withstand this year. It's largely made up by lines that sound nice and cohere poorly -- especially that chorus, which features many words that rhyme together and not much else, or the bridge, with familiar images of crying in cars and her scream-singing that's become a literal legal cornerstone of her artistry. The song's catchiness and overall dramatic charm still shine through, like many of her best songs, but in revisiting this Lover highlight, it's evident how much that era lacked a proper point of view. [6]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The fun of "Cruel Summer" has waned with every year since it came out -- even at the time, I liked "The Archer" better in terms of moody synth-pop bangers off of Lover, but every moment here that once felt anthemic has become tedious. It's a song that's become a pop hit because enough fans convinced themselves it's shaped like a pop hit -- of course it's sharp and hooky, shorn of the overly-writerly trappings of her more recent work, but every time someone accuses "Cruel Summer" of pop perfection its flaws become all the more apparent. Those verses are rough -- all that doggerel about bad boys and shiny toys -- but the bridge, and in particular its climax (you know, the big line where he looks so gritty like a devil or whatever) is where my disbelief fails. For all of the skill with which its crafted, I can't tell what sort of feeling "Cruel Summer" wants me to take away from it -- for all of the illicit thrill the lyrics glance at, Jack Antonoff surrounds Taylor with so much high-wattage synth work that none of her lines really land. It's all too much -- a grand spectacle of a pop hit that feels more inert the more closely I look at it. [4]

Thomas Inskeep: I'm by & large not a fan of Swift in pop mode (I miss her as a country artist, and think her best albums are -- cliché alert -- evermore and folklore), and I'm happy to largely blame production choices: Max Martin was a bad pairing for her, period, and Jack Antonoff doesn't generally do it for me behind the boards either. To my ears, maximalism doesn't become her. But this works, and part of it's definitely the production, particularly the Daft Punkish touches Antonoff and Swift provide. St. Vincent's songwriting contributions help too. That second verse opening line -- "Hang your head low in the glow of the vending machine" -- is so dead-on, and a perfect exemplification of Swift's lyrical prowess. Somehow, "Cruel Summer" is nearly magical, the kind of thing that more mainstream pop should sound like. [8]

Brad Shoup: Once again I'm hearing Mutt Lange where it doesn't matter (those robotic yeahs that end the track on a self-deprecating joke) but not where it does; on a chorus that could have dug in harder, and maybe have managed a not-goofy rhyme for the title. Somehow both frantic and grandiose: is there anything she can't do? [6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: Reputation was Taylor Swift's villain era, but only in the sense that any White Girl Whose Cringe Is Swag should be considered illegal. Hearing her coo "You like the bad ones too" before Future barrels through his "End Game" verse? Sublime levels of dorkery. The stilted EDM chorus in "Dancing With Our Hands Tied"? You can practically envision her stiff, awkward swaying. The strained heaving of "Take it off, off, off" on "Dress"? Well, not all of us can sound sexy when horny. She reached unprecedented levels of personable, and with this came new changes in her approach to songwriting. Most obvious was her newfound love for alcohol (She's drinking beer on rooftops! She's spilling wine in bathtubs!) but more subtle, and lost beneath all the "Taylor Swift is rapping!" discussion, was how her toplines became more flexible. Every verse on "Getaway Car" is a chance to put on voices in miniature, to stumble through lines for syllabic emphasis, and to consider rhyme schemes for their texture. That song is the blueprint for Lover's "Cruel Summer." Everything's just a little bit better -- the vocoder is tastefully incorporated, the chorus is more anthemic -- but it's all a bit too cotton candy. She's not drinking old fashioneds, she's just drunk. The shouting is more summer camp than summer romp. The vibe is undeniably "ME!" It was painful in 2019 and it's painful now. She hasn't been this uncool since. [6]

Jonathan Bradley: The lavender synth haze of Taylor Swift's Midnights first found life in the swelling pastels of Lover, so the return of "Cruel Summer" four years on fits her current sound just fine. Swift and Jack Antonoff allow the swollen chords to drift over soft and sleepy textures that envelop like a warm bed or a warm night, punctuating the verse lines with a warped and treated backing vocal murmuring come-ons in dream language. But Swift's own words are glittering sharp, hers is a summer that cuts headlights like a knife, slices to the bone, invites devils to roll dice and kills with desire. Swift sings of a tryst so forbidden that its pleasure can only be expressed in terms of panic and crisis. This is a relationship that needs to remain discrete, and the tension and thrill balanced between her marvelled "the shape of your body is new," and cry of "I don't want to keep secrets just to keep you" shifts this into the queerer end of the her catalogue. Swift's fans have memed her faculty with a bridge into dull received wisdom -- "We have arrived at the very first bridge of the evening," Swift says during her "Cruel Summer" performance in the Eras Tour film, knowing what's expected from her -- but this one spatters synth shards that pull the narrative into a sudden climax. Swift tipsy and sobbing, her careful plans and subterfuge undone, being driven home from the pub, her night miserable and magical all at once. [10]

Aaron Bergstrom: The fact that "Cruel Summer" had to wait its turn behind singles that the Jukebox (charitably) scored at [3.53] and [3.65] is the kind of decision that makes me wish you could send FOIA requests to record labels. (There were meetings! There was market research! This is someone's job!) I know Jack Antonoff's Whole Deal™isn't for everyone, but this is the Swift/Antonoff playbook run to perfection, an update on the best parts of 1989 centered on a bulletproof bridge that lets Swift debut her punk-rock snarl on a line that I mistakenly heard as "he looks so pretty like a devil" for an embarrassingly long time. (She is not at all convincing, but that's what makes it so endearing.) A [10] when it was released, and the summers have only gotten crueler since. [10]

Nortey Dowuona: It's only a cruel summer if you watch the world spin on your terms and your whims, when you're the most powerful musician in the world and massive corporations and governments need to attain your approval, when you're criticized for being so much that your most dedicated fans will silence anyone who says so, when you can stop one of the most powerful sports franchises to pay you ever more attention, when you can re-record the entire public legacy of your songs and erase the memories made with the music you made now stolen from your grasp, when anyone will pick up your call and accept your terms. It's a crueler one when you are utterly powerless in the face of all the public scrutiny. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: Is it too much of a stretch to view the belated popularity of "Cruel Summer" as symbolic of the possibilities that were either foreclosed or deferred by a confluence of events in early 2020, including but not limited to the removal of Bernie Sanders as a relevant figure in U.S. politics? Probably, yeah, but this is the kind of song that makes you want to stretch that far. It livens the spirit, it quickens your step, it justifies an album that didn't need to be justified in the first place. "You say that we'll just screw it up in these trying times; we're not trying." How one feels about that slacker-chic line, with its simultaneous wallowing and reveling in youthful apathy, is perhaps as much a barometer of 2024 sentiment as "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" [9]

Lauren Gilbert: This is how Cruel Summer can still be a single. [10]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#taylor swift #music #pop music #music writing #music reviews #music criticism #the singles jukebox #Youtube

[looselysealedkrypton]

So... Kara’s touchstone is her dad?... Who has been so essential during the six years of this show?... More than Alex?... I swear I feel like they spitball these ideas, put them on a randomizer and just write according to whatever comes up.

#cut to Alex rapping we only get one shot #supergirl #i’m only watching for the visuals at this point jahsjdhdh #idk man if i were some of these writers i simply wouldn’t put some episodes in my curriculum jshhdgd

[starshipsofstarlord]

World Revelations

@etherealsxnder​

Warnings; spoilers for season 13, mentions of death, angst, lack of hope, some Alex Calvert x reader, and tiny bit of jack x reader, swearing, brief illusions to sex, angry brothers, mentions of a sex scene, insecurities, online hate, protective winchester brothers, apocalypse world, major character death, lucifer

(Y/A/N) – Your Acting Name.

A/N; it’s a little bit different from the request, so sorry about that, but I hope that any one that reads this enjoys. Also sorry about the wait, I had bad writers block, but when I started writing this it sorta figured itself out and I may have got carried away. Feel free to tell me what you think ☺️

“Look, I am not going to some other world to help stop Michael. But I can help you in another way, one where none of us get harmed.” Gabriel shrugged, reducing Sam’s expression to confusion. The archangel had felt like their last hope at retrieving their mother, into delving into the apocalypse world, and here he was, turning him down.

 He had tried his very best to make the celestial being better, and here he was, talking again, able to use his grace rather than have it removed and syringed into a demon’s veins. However, he still refused, and the hunter had no other plan in forcing Gabriel into helping. This was the last shot, and it had been blown.

 But however could he still help? This was the primary problem that had to be solved, there was no other route they could take to bring their family back together. And that was all that mattered in this life, saving people, remaining together.

 “What are you talking ab-“ Before Sam could complete his question, Gabriel set him with a poised glare, and snapped his magical fingers, a spark of electric blue grace sparking from the action. That was all Sam saw before he felt himself transported, and once he opened his eyes, he remained in the bunker, however there were cameras around him, and an entire filming crew.

 Gabriel had sent him to the other life, another world in which he presumed that he was called Jared. “What the hell Sammy?” Dean barked from beside him, twisting and turning his sights around, upon realising that although this looked like their home, it was an alternate version of it. A set, made of fake walls and truthless literature that was not at all necessary in this peaceful, monster-less realm. “Son of a bitch!”

 “Cut!” One of the cameramen called out, shaking his head exasperatedly at the line said wrong. Jensen had been doing so well, and Jensen seemed to have slipped far too into character, to the point where he had forgotten his lines. “Do you need to see the script again, or would you rather take a short break?”

 “I’ll go for the break.” Dean confirmed, grabbing Sam’s forearm and hastily dragging him from the onlookers, and towards which he assumed was his, well, Jensen’s trailer. It looked pretty much the same as last time. “Gabriel?” He asked, rightly assuming that the blame of this mishap ordeal was down to the glowing figure.

 “He refused to help us open a rift.” Sam licked his lips, his eyes jutting around the luxurious space. “And then he snapped his fingers, and we were here.” Here, another earth. However this was not their home, it was a disfigured writing of it, if anything, it was worse than the books Chuck wrote. There were more fans, and more complications that came along with being here in place of the actors.

 “We don’t have time for his tricks.” Sighed Dean, raking his hair with his rough hand. “Parading around as a painted whore is not on my agenda, all I care about is getting mum back, we have to get home quick.”

 “Dean, I don’t think that this is a trick…” Sam spoke to his elder brother, in thought of Gabriel’s words. “He said he could help us in another way. I don’t think he meant taking us away from the problem, there must be something else.” No matter how much he rolled the idea around his head, he could come to no conclusion.

 “What?” There was already plenty on the man’s mind, he didn’t need another incident coming their way. Dean was to begin speaking again, until a knock rapped against the door to his double’s trailer, intruding his mindset. Him and Sam shared a glance and frown until Dean called whomever was on the other side in, and to their dismay, he looked exactly like Castiel.

 Misha Collins. Last time they had visited this place, he had died, but the return of the real selves must have somewhat fixed the timeline, he looked well, even if he still was dressed as their angelic friend. “Hey, I was seeing if you are ready for the scene tomorrow.”

 “Scene? Which scene?” ‘Jared’ asked the colleague of his false identity, unaware of the context in which Misha spoke in. Dean only huffed and rolled his eyes, until Misha spoke, and he froze, both the brothers understanding Gabriel’s meaning for sending them to this world.

 “(Y/N)’s death scene. Apparently it’s gonna be quite emotional, and it’ll be strange after, not having the kid on set anymore.” It was a revelation, a nightmare that foreshadowed the truth in their own dimension.

 “Thanks uh- Misha.” ‘Jensen’ rubbed his hand over his face, shocked by the oncoming doom. They had already lost far too many members in their makeshift hunter family, but this was different. This was their sister, whom they had protected and vouched to continue doing since the day she was born. And now the universe had this grand plan of cutting her young life short, and sending her to either heaven or hell, where so many people they loved already were.

 “Do you know where um, (Y/A/N) is right now?” Sam asked, desperate to somehow convince her to remain on the show. It was the only way in which he could save his younger sibling, and he would, by the gods, do anything that he possibly could. Him and Dean had already had meetings with death himself, he couldn’t allow the new version to come and take you.

 Billy would not compromise, she was intent on having a Winchester under her cloak, forever taken from life, never to return to the living. And they couldn’t take a chance, any chance on not getting (Y/N) back, she was a legacy as were they, but she was supposed to live on for longer. Their names would otherwise be nothing more than memories in the world of hunters, until they faded into distant and dead members of the community.

 “In her trailer, I think. She’s rehearsing with Alexander I think.” The name that he mentioned was unfamiliar to the unfitting pair, but they spared no thought to it. Instead they sent him a quick smile before leaving the confines that they felt trapped in, and began their search for the actress of their sister.

 “We have to change her mind Sammy. If she stays on the show, then our (Y/N) lives. It is the simplest solution.” Dean spoke as they walked through the lines of trailers, unable to find the name that they were searching for on any door. “Where the hell is her damn trailer?”

 Sam squinted, until a name he had heard was seen on one of the doors. Alexander, whoever that was. Before he could even put any thought into his actions, he subconsciously knocked on the door, waiting a moment for an answer. And when the door opened, they were met with who looked like Jack, his hair a mess, and his shirt hanging over his shoulder, clearly put on in panic.

 “What’s up guys, need something?” He scratched the back of his neck, impatient with the situation, considering the one that he had been interrupted from. A part of him feared that this was one of Jared’s infamous pranks, he had mostly been on the end of shifted lines, but worse could have been heading his way for all he knew.

 Dean frowned at the sight of young man, it hardly felt right seeing the innocent boy that they knew with sex hair and slight bruises upon his neck. He cleared his throat, keeping up his expression, as he spoke to the boy. He had softened up to Jack, he was their kid in some ways, but this was no Nephilim, if anything it was worse, it was a man who impersonated they kid.

 “Heard that uh, (Y/A/N) was running lines with you. Y’know where she is?” Alex’s eyes shifted slightly inside of his personal space, before everything was given away by a familiar giggle. It sounded the exact same as the one that often left (Y/N)’s mouth. Dean knew it, he would never be capable of mistaking it.

 The noise had renegaded in his ears since she had been born, in the impala as John drove, through the halls of the bunker as her and Sam made jokes about his cholesterol. At the worst of times, before he knew that they existed, he liked to think that it was the voice of angel, she always guided him on the right path, and if she were to disappear from his life, he would sorely lose the track that he was hellbent on walking down.

 And he could see her face now, as she tugged the sheet over her body. A frown sculpted her expression, as she looked exasperatedly between Alex whom had tried to lure the tall pair from the confines of his trailer, and the intruders who had barged carelessly in. It wouldn’t have mattered so much if her and Alexander had actually been running lines, however the situation explained more than enough of the fact that they indeed were not.

 “Jared, Jensen, can you like, I don’t know, not cockblock me, for once in your elderly lives?” It felt peculiar, for both Sam and Dean. They knew that this was not their sister, but her calling them by other names was so foreign. Their skins crawled at the labelling, and it only reminded them farther of their cause, the reason that they were sent by an angelic being to be here in this very moment.

 “I am also getting bored of it.” Alexander tilted his head, in agreement with (Y/A/N), who only grinned at his compliance to suit her opinions, and Dean could only roll his eyes, just like he did with Jack the majority of the time. “But it’s cool, but can we hurry this along, I mean not to be rude, but aren’t you guys supposed to be filming a scene in like five minutes?”

 Sam cleared his throat, admittedly he did like Jack. The kid was sweet, however this was not him, it rather was a man who pretended to be a Nephilim for payment, and was bedding the doppelganger of his sister. If he were to see his sister and the devil’s child in such a compromising predicament, most people would assume he’d be the calm sibling, but they’d be wrong. He would go mad, and think of a way to keep the pair separate.

 But luckily for them, there had never been such adult situations insinuated between their dear (Y/N) and Jack, or at least not that they were aware of. This riled Dean, and so he couldn’t help but feel like exploding. It angered him that any man had laid their bare and lustrous hands upon his youngest sibling. No one was to have that pleasure, she was supposed to remain innocent, even if she were legal.

 “Seriously?! Jack of all people?!” He bellowed at (Y/A/N), shaking his head at their obvious exchange. If (Y/A/N) had any clothes on underneath the white sheet that hugged her body as she lay on the sofa, her instincts would have driven her over to Jensen and her palm would have met the side of his stubbly face.

 “First of all, you need to start remembering Alex’s name, and that goes for Jared too. You can’t just keep calling him Jack, even after I’m done here and move onto my next project.” Her words, although not having the intent to, had the effect of triggering Sam’s goal, in-deliberately reminding him of their foremost goal. It was not to get angry at the characters that played them and their loved ones, it was to save someone that was incredibly important to their world.

 “And second,” the woman in covering continued, “this isn’t exactly going to get me to stay on the goddamn show, if you barge in here, interrupting our privacy. If you don’t like what me and Alex are doing off screen, you sure aren’t going to like what is gonna go down between (Y/N) and Jack. Sometimes I do swear that you’re just like Sam and Dean.”

 The jab she made at them struck nerves, but they knew that this was not the real her. It may have looked like (Y/N), but this was only a woman who played the part of her. “We’ve been trying to make you stay on the show?” Sam asked, his voice soft. He didn’t want to be harsh, she was already uncomfortable enough.

 It was her unknowing that they were actually Sam and Dean that could be an element that they could use, a tool of convincing. “Yes, for weeks now.” (Y/A/N) sighed, pinching the point that was between her eyebrows. “And I’m getting tired of it, and overall, this character. I’ve played her for years on end, I think that her story should have a finishing point, a finale. I’m ready for bigger and brighter things, something that is not pretending to be a strong woman on set, and as soon as I walk away from the cameras, I go back to being weak.”

 “I think you’re going to have to explain a little more if I’m going to get any of that.” Dean prompted, both him and Sam had turned away, giving the actress in the sheets the privacy to change. The shuffling of fabrics could be heard, they had been in worse situations with their sister, small motel rooms, of which they could usually only afford one in the past, helped nobody. And none of them received the personal space that should have been an outright human right.

 “Of course neither of you understand.” Alex sighed, “she wants a smaller workspace, one where there aren’t so many eyes on her. The whole ordeal got out of hand, and now there are people online saying terrible things about her and I. Neither of you have made such a mistake, or had something so sacred and personal leaked on the internet. The things people say really digs in deep, she at least wants a break, can’t you understand that?”

 “Wait, what got leaked?” Sam’s curiosity often informed him of things that he did not wish to be aware of, and this was one of their instances. Alex huffed and rolled his eyes, walking over to where (Y/A/N) was now fully clothed, and took a seat on the sofa beside her, their eyes meeting and mirroring smiles shining at one another.

 The sight admittedly made Sam smile, but it made Dean feel internally sick. The sight of what looked like their sister and Jack fuelled a fire inside of him, he wanted his eyes to burn and the memory to be forever removed from his sights.

 “Look, you play a pretty badass character, although I’d say Dean has a bit more kick to him.” The man himself chuckled, but no one joined in, so he continued through a forced smile, coming to sit down next to Alex, his ignorance to what happened there merely minutes ago encouraging his brother to cringe.

  “But that’s not my only point, you’re here, whilst those sad souls that sit behind their computers all day waste their time typing crap. The life you have, the family that you have here, is worth more than the opinions of a few, invisible idiots, who are only jealous of everything that you have earned for yourself. Don’t breathe their toxicity win, because if you do, the bad guys win, and then you will only fade out of the spotlight and they’ll forget all about you, and all of the things they ever posted about you.”

 Alex had been understanding through all of (Y/N)’s decision to leave the cast, although to begin with he had tried to convince her to stay. And it seemed out of all of them, it was Jensen that made her reconsider her options, he could see it behind her eyes, the unravelling of interest, the flickering of hope.

 The only thing that the younger actor could not tell were that these were not Jensen’s words, they fell from the lips of Dean Winchester himself. A character that he knew of, and was an important symbol on the show that he was cast on. But it did not matter if he was not aware of that snippet, because it changed nothing, other than possibly (Y/A/N)’s mindful decision.

 “You know what, you’re right Ackles. It’s not often that I say that, but the thought of leaving everyone here, settling for something that I have no connection to or history with, it is undermining. And I’m going to talk to Kripke, he’ll be over the moon with the consideration, however if he chooses that (Y/N) is to die as was planned due to my indecisiveness, then that shall be the battle that I am to bargain with.” They had won (Y/A/N) over, it was victory.

 It was also the closest that they could do by themselves to save (Y/N). If this didn’t work, they would be nothing more than John’s broken tools, defined by all those that they were always mourning. And it would only make their sister another name on that sour list, even if her death would pain them substantially more than others.

 “I guess we’ll go then.” Sam awkwardly spoke, encouraging Dean to stand from the christened furniture and join him in leaving the sexually active couple alone. He sent the woman a nod, and Alex a raised eyebrow. He would have Jack’s head if he ever thought he had the guts or wings to be so intimate with their sister, he’d make him feel something, and it would be painful. Torturous even.

 They shut the door behind them as they departed from the actors, a smirk on Dean’s face. He felt victorious, he was the same hero that would read (Y/N) stories when it was dark and a storm was thundering outside, as she hid under the duvet of some dingy motel bed, a torch protecting her from the enveloping bleakness, but also her brothers. “I’d call this a win.”

 “They said about a video…” Sam had Jared’s phone in his hand, he scrolled through the feed with a wrinkled nose and scorned eyes. After he received an answer to what it was concluding, he put the device away, he could never look at Jack and (Y/N) around each other the same again. It was burdened by the facts of this world, contradicting the innocence that both the kids in their world showed. “It was a leaked sex scene of the show, Dean.”

 “Heck no!” Growled the elder brother, shaking his head. The instant images that flashed through his mind of the Nephilim atop of his little sister made his teeth grit in anger, and a pit of queasiness fold in the cave of his stomach. He already wasn’t too sure on Lucifer’s spawn, this only enhanced that formed opinion, and he wished to shoot the child more than ever in this instant, even if the real him was not around.

 “They’re not actually the people we know Dean.” Sam comforted him, easing his anger, but only slightly. “Nothing like that has happened between them, he is in another world, whilst (Y/N) is in the bunker, reading lore and trying to find a way to bring mum and Jack back to us.”

 “Yet Sammy, nothing has happened yet.” He allowed himself to shut his eyes for a second, and the next thing that he knew, he was returned home. His speech must have worked on the employee of the show Supernatural, otherwise, Gabriel surely would not have returned them to their home world.

  “He’s gone, for chuck sake. How are we supposed to bring Jack and Mary back if we don’t have archangel grace?!” The stressed voice of their younger sibling often triggered a debate from the brothers, but seeing and hearing her, it was a miracle. They couldn’t waste time and argue, instead Sam lurched forward, grabbing the girl and bringing her into the embrace of his giant like arms.

“We’ll figure it out (Y/N/N), we always do.” He spoke softly, earning a confused yet pleased smile. The hug had come out of nowhere, but it calmed her nerves, the rushing of the blood that hurtled around the veins of her body slowed, and it gave her a moment of peace, a blank mind before she began researching again.

 “I have a question.” Dean stated with his gruff tone, squinting at his female sibling. He suppressed a smile, she was oblivious to the blockade that had rested above her head like a raincloud, but he knew that she was here for good. And that she was not leaving to any sort of afterlife any time soon. “Do you have the hots for Jack?”

 (Y/N)’s eyes went wide, however she forced a scoff to hide the shock and cover up anything that her brothers could pick up on. She released herself from Sam’s hold, taking a couple of simple steps backwards, so that she could have a clear view of the expressions that both of them wore. “Are you seriously asking me that at a time like this?” Her sentence was finished with a sigh and a roll of her eyes.

 But her brothers knew their sister well enough, and that she indeed did not want to admit something to them. (Y/N) was much easier to read than (Y/A/N) was, they had known this growing woman since the day that she was born, the same day in which John rescued the shrieking baby from a mother that was fed and eaten by wolves. She would have been next, however the hunter saved her, as was in his job description, but he couldn’t bare to let her stream through the system.

 He felt an attachment to her, and looking at her was practically the same as the notion of peering at one of his boys. She was to be a Winchester, he hadn’t decided it, but God himself did. The universe worked in mysterious ways, it was as though it was all written out for the family, but this instant, none of them minded. It gave the boys another reason to fight, another person to love, and eventually another family member to lose.

 But it had been evaded this time, Gabriel had although not helped them with reaching their mother and the son of Kelly Kline, however, he had somewhat saved (Y/N) himself. Without his trickster interference, they’d have never known of her doomed fate, or have been able to fix it.

 “I’ll take that as a yes.” Dean was smug with being right, as he always was. Overall though, he was more pleased to know that they had stopped the crumbling of the bottom of the family tree, they had protected their sister, literally to the ends of the world.

 “Pick up a damn book and help me, I’m not doing all of this research by myself.” Another sign that he was indeed correct, changing the subject, how original. But neither of the brothers, more so Dean than Sam, even wanted to try and switch the mindset that (Y/N) had about the boy. They were allowed to have feelings, romantic and so on, and their sister appeared happy with the tether that was from her heart to Jack’s.

   The vampires were almost mutated. This apocalypse world had really taken a toll on all life. Michael of this plain had destroyed everything that was known to be true, even living itself. The habitat of these morsal creatures was dark, and disgusting. Humans had already tried to pass through the deadly lair to reach the other side, to get to the rebellion camp, however, no one had survived to the opposite end of things.

 (Y/N) felt hopeless, even as she walked through the home of the starving monsters. She had never been a fan of vampires, no hunter was, but this was cruel to every extent. They didn’t even appear as human anymore, their fates had been cursed by this ruined land. Without the world that was in her own, they would be worse off, everything in this dimension was.

 Everyone of their company was on edge, Dean ensured that he kept a sturdy eye forward, looking for any light. He knew (Y/N) would have to be okay, it was paved for her to be so in the other universe, she’d be fine. Of course, he still worried, that was what he did in retrospect, all day, every day, he worried that it was to be someone’s last.

 And he was right, as the monsters crept from the dark, tasting the scent of rushing blood in the air. They had lured them from their slumber, and they began to attack, dragging one of the travellers towards their death, where they would be fed on until he was completely drained. (Y/N) swung her machete, beheading one of the animals without a second glance, but perhaps she should have spared another look on the side, as she was a target.

 She was the prey to what she was raised to hunt, it wrapped its clawed hand around her leg like a coil, dragging her to the ground, and feasting its teeth into her supple flesh. This was it, there was no route away from her fate, and her body was already weak from blood loss, and so she gave up, and refused to fight. Her body was dragged into the abyss of the nest, and its members followed after her.

 Sam noticed their apparent glee, they had yet again prized food from them. He looked around to see whom it may be, and he was aghast with the sight. (Y/N) had her eyes shut as her limp form was being taken by vampires, and he froze, traumatised by the sight. And his surprised and hurt stature gave another of the beasts the perfect opportunity to rip into the rubber of his neck, and relish in the unstoppable river of blood that poured out from the fatal wound.

 “No!” Dean cried out, noticing that his sister too had disappeared. Before he could follow after the menaces and get vengeance, and possibly save his family from being the meal of savages, Castiel grasped his arm, pain rendering in the blueness of his vessel’s eyes.

 “They’re gone Dean.” His words rang through the hunter’s head. This was his worst nightmare. Gabriel’s warning had not helped at all, because (Y/N) was dead, and so was Sam. He forced himself to trudge on, pained like no other time before. Sam had died before, but he had always found a way to retrieve him back into life, and even through his tragic absence, he always had (Y/N). Now, the only other Winchester was his mother, who also needed to be saved from this damned world.

   “Think about it Sammy, Jack is going to be so pleased to see you alive, but your little sis, well, I’m sure that is going to be one hell of a reunion between them.” Lucifer smirked, he was in Nick’s body again, using it as a vessel. “And he’ll think of me as a saviour, a knight that saved his princess from a terrible fate.”

 The fallen archangel always had ulterior motives, and Sam realised that he had no choice in whether he’d rather remain dead, or be used as a bargaining chip by the devil himself. His interest in Jack was not exactly pure, it was clear to the man that he sought the backup, the power of his biological son. His intent was to creep into the boy’s mind, and decipher for the kid the difference between wrong and right.

 “That’s what you want, to lie to him about who you are?” He couldn’t exactly say he was surprised, even more so that the audience of vampires were seething to break free from Lucifer’s force. He wasn’t even supposed to be here, he should have been in the bunker, his grace feeding away at Rowena’s spell, and keeping the gate open for their return.

 “I’ll just bend the truth to fit the story, and I care about my son. As you care about your dear sister, and it would be a shame if she were not to wake, and then the news will have to be delivered to my boy, and I’m sure that would just break his half and half heart.” The celestial being, the epidemy of evil tutted at the thought, only to send Sam a mischievous smirk afterwards. “You don’t want him to be like me, but without her, he’ll be in so much pain that he won’t think about his actions. If he has (Y/N/N), then that choice will be entirely up to him, and what he believes in, yada yada yada.”

 The sight of his sister covered in her own blood, motionless on the ground, bite marks on her shoulders and elsewhere drew out a desperation in Sam. He couldn’t not allow the villain to bring her back to life, and it seemed that no matter what he disputed, that Lucifer would do it anyway, to get himself in Jack’s good books. And so he hung his head low, awaiting the personal enemy of his to resurrect the most important woman in his life.

 On first instinct, (Y/N) gasped in air. There was a lack of it rolling around the vitals of her lungs, but her breath was taken away once more, when she saw the looming of a horrifying figure, a first son of god. He was supposed to be, even if forced to do so by the traditions of magic, be at the bunker, revelling them with a way back. Rowena had been left there also, to keep the spell brewing, and a fearful eye on the hellish shadow.

 Assumingly, he had escaped his sentence, and for some reason, brought her to life. It was no mistake as to what the vampires had done to her, she could smell the spilling of her own blood over her thrifted and worn clothes, and it was gruesome. Although it was not the hunter’s first time in being a sponge to her injuries, but nevertheless, she fought to stand beside Sam, who steadied her shaken feet, and balanced out the rest of her body by looping his supportive arm around her waist.

 “Come on.” Lucifer rolled the human eyes that he wore like spectacles into the lives of the Winchesters, unimpressed by the slowness of the world’s large cockroaches. “We have places to be and sons to meet.” At his verbalised of clarity for his ungodly presence, (Y/N)’s body became rigid. His intent was to get to Jack, she couldn’t allow him to provoke a fire inside the boy.

 He was sweet and innocent, even harmless, despite the accident that had happened when he accompanied her and her brothers on a hunt. If Lucifer reached him, he would only try and navigate the darkness inside of him to be what it was, rather than try and make him change it into something brighter, something that was good, like Kelly would have wanted.

 “No.” (Y/N) refused, earning a frown from Sam and a elongated groan from Lucifer. She had died, it didn’t matter if she were to return to that fate, not if she stood by what she truly believed in. Nothing much would change, other than the vampires getting another meal from the same body, Dean already thought that she was extinguished from life, and the news would be passed on before any of them were to reach him.

 “Oh, for crying out loud!” The devil shook his wolfish head, Winchesters were always so stubborn. “I’d allow it if Sam were to stand against the gift of life, I’ve seen what is inside of his head after all, but you! You’re the priority here, you are Jack’s weakness.” This gesture of good faith seemed to be more than it was worth, but if she didn’t comply willingly, then he would force her to follow him along, and live.

 “Where’d you hear that from? He doesn’t have a weakness, he just has a good heart. I’m just another person that he lives with, a soldier that is going to fight anyone that dares to try and hurt him. And I won’t mind if I have to give my life to try and kill you.” She spat at the disgrace of heaven, hardly moved by his goal. As a Winchester, the stubbornness ran through her veins, even if the bloodline itself did not.

 “I hear things, and I did in that bunker. Like how Dean was speaking about you and Jackie boy, and how it all made sense. The shared looks, the flushed faces, all that gross stuff. He didn’t seem too happy with the circumstances, but he was content with the fact that you were alive, like you are again, because of me.”

Lucifer was the last person that (Y/N) would thank for her existence, but she realised that there was no way out of his trap, she was the bait for Jack, that would reel the boy into the wings of his dreaded father.

He could sometimes be so naive, that she feared that Jack would fall for the extension of kindness, one that hardly suited Lucifer. But that was up to him, and in this apocalyptic version of her world, anything could happen.

“She’s dead.” Dean’s voice was gravelly, it had been dragged through hope, and now the realisation that his baby brother and sister were lost to life. The eyes belonging to Jack widened, and tears began to form.

He could quite comprehend how he felt. There was a tearing in his chest, he felt as though he was being split apart, his breathing rapidly increased, and his eyes flared like the bursts of the sun.

Until whispers hit his ears, and he looked up, only to see the girl alive and well. He was not the only one relieved in the circumstances, Dean and Mary were too, but they feared the fact that Lucifer had joined them, and was being trailed by the bloodied siblings; the ones that he had saved for his selfish purposes.

#jack kline oneshot #supernaturalprompt #supernatural x reader #supernatural x you #supernatural requests #supernatural one shot #supernatural imagine #supernatural fanfiction #spn x you #spn x y/n #spnxreader #spn x reader #spnimagine #spn one shot #spn fanfiction #jack imagine #jack kline smut #jack #jack x reader #jack kline imagine #jack kline x reader #alex calvert x you #alex calvert imagine #alex x reader #alexander calvert x reader #alex calvert x reader #imagine #imagines #xreader

[chaoticgremlinwholikescheese]

Cars Suck

TW: Blood, near-death

JACK’S POV:

I love date nights. Just me and Alex spending time together. We rarely get any privacy with all the newsies around, so it’s nice to finally get some alone time. The restaurant we went to tonight was really good. It just opened up, a new pasta place. Affordable and delicious. 

“I’m telling you, Race and Spot are a couple. I caught them holding hands!” Alex insists. “No way. Spot’s the big tough guy and Race is a hyper golden retriever with a kazoo.” Spot and Race are two very different people. But, I guess opposites can attract. 

“I guess I could see it. Race does have a sort of charm-” I never get to finish my sentence. A car comes barreling down the street and runs the red light. Alex pushes me out of the way. I hit the ground with a thud. There’s a terrible screeching sound. Silence. Then people start yelling. I sit up and rub my head. What the fuck just happened?

“Alex?” I don’t get a response. Then I see her. She’s laying on the ground, eyes closed. Blood is seeping from a wound on her head. It’s already starting to pool beneath her. I scramble over, panic racing through my veins. “Hold on. It’s going to be alright. Someone is probably already calling for help.”

I put pressure on the wound. The blood is warm against my hand. It runs down my fingers, illuminated by the glowing street lights. “Jack.” Alex chokes out. “Yeah, honey. I’m right here.” She reaches a hand up to my cheek. “Why are you crying?” I didn’t even realize I was. I wipe away the tears with my free hand. “It doesn’t matter. Can you keep your eyes open for me?” 

She nods. “I’m fine, baby. Don’t cry. It’s going to be alright. I’ll see you soon.” Her eyes flutter closed. “Alex? Hey- hey, talk to me, please- Alex, I need you to stay awake. You can’t leave me. Open your eyes. Open your eyes, Alex!” She doesn���t stir. “No! No, Alex, please wake up. I need you. I love you!” My shouting doesn’t do any good. Why isn’t she waking up? She should be awake. 

Someone pulls me away from her. I fight back with all the strength I have. “I need to stay with her!” She needs me. I can’t leave her. I see paramedics loading her onto a stretcher. They start chest compressions. I’m ushered onto the ambulance with her. I can’t move, can’t speak. Everything is frozen.

The paramedics yell around me. They shock her. She jerks but doesn’t move. They attach an IV to her arm, hanging blood above it. I see her heart beat on a monitor. It’s flat. A constant beep. “Hand me the defib! Charge to 200!” They place the paddles on her chest. “Clear!” Her body jerks, but she doesn’t wake up. They begin chest compressions again. “Charging to 300! Clear!” 

Her body jerks again. And this time the heart monitor beeps. Her heart is beating again. “We’ve got a pulse.” The paramedics begin bustling around her, bandaging and stitching. They give her a shot. I can only watch as my love is being pulled back from the brink of death.

When we reach the hospital, they take her away again. They lead me to a seperate room. I try to go with her, but two nurses pull me away. They lead me to a cubicle. “We need to get a look at the wound on your head.” One says. She dabs it with some alcohol and I hiss. “It’s not going to need stitches, but I’m going to bandage it.” She places some gauze on the cut and raps a bandage around my head. She tapes it in place. 

“Let’s get you to the waiting room. You can wait there.” She gently leads me to a chair. It’s plastic and uncomfortable, but I barely feel it. All I can feel is shock. Fear. I saw my girlfriend die. Then come back. And she might be dying again, and I’m not there. I should be holding her hand. I should have told her I loved her one more time. 

I place my head in my hands and sob. I notice that my hands are still covered in blood. Her blood. I shakily stand up and walk to the nearest bathroom. I rinse my hands off. The water turns red. I look at myself in the mirror. I look like a haunted soul, wandering the earth. That might be what I might become if Alex doesn’t survive.

I wait in that chair for two hours. I watched the clock. Counted every tick. 7,200 ticks. People mill around me. Some laugh. Some cry. Everyone here is hurting in some way or another. 

“Jack Kelly?” I stand up and run over to the doctor. “Is she okay?” The doctor gives a faint nod of his head. “She’s not conscious yet. She has a very serious concussion and several fractures. She lost a lot of blood. She’s lucky to be alive.” The world starts to move again. She’s alive. She’s hurt, but she’s alive. 

The doctor leads me to her room. She’s still asleep, pale as the sheets that cover her. I sit by her bead and hold her hand. I watch her heart monitor and count the beats. She wakes up just a little bit after she hits 6,000 beats. Her eyes blink open. She turns her head to face me. She smiles. 

“Hi, Jack.” I almost cry in relief. “Hi, sweetheart.” She asks what happened. I recount it, leaving out a few details. “You saved my life. Never do that again.” She weakly laughs. “You know I can’t promise that. You have the survival instincts of a squirrel.” Even after she almost died, she’s still got her humor. 

“I’m so glad you’re okay. You had me scared there.” I admit. “Going to take more than a car to kill me. I’m basically superman.” I nod in agreement. “Why don’t you get some rest, superman. I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.” She squeezes my hand. “I love you.” She says. “I love you too.” I mean it. So much. I love her more than anything.

You never really realize just how much you love someone until you almost lose them. I’m never letting Alex go again.

#newsies #newsies oneshot #jalex #jack x alex

[masjestickingdom]

The Waiting Game

Pairing: NCT Jaehyun x reader

Genre: one shot, fluff, slightly suggestive (implied smut)

Summary: It’s been a month since you last saw your boyfriend. When it’s finally the day to meet him, his late appearance has you coping with feelings that make you go out of character.

Note: Along with the previous post, this is a lighthearted scenario to “lighten” up the mood for what’s to come... (*hint, hint*) Until then, enjoy this scenario!

_______________________________________________________________________

   When you hear the music of the keypad, you jump up from your couch and rush your way over to the door. When the music comes to a stop and the door handle is angled, your eyes widen in anticipation. The door swings open, and your face immediately drops.

   Today is the long-awaited day you’ve been waiting for: at long last, you get to spend the evening with your lovely boyfriend, Jaehyun, since his departure for his world tour a month ago. Waiting for a month without any physical contact or voice calls was unbelievably painful, but you managed to pull through. Right now, though, you’ve been waiting for him all afternoon and all that waiting is starting to mess with your brain.

   “What’s with the face?” the man standing in front of you asks, taking off his sneakers.

   “I thought you were Jaehyun,” you answer with a visible pout. “But you’re just Johnny.”

   The tall man rolls his eyes. “Gee, I’m glad to see you too.”

   He steps out of the entryway and swings his arm around your shoulders, guiding you away from the precious entrance.

   “Your boyfriend’s still working on the dance he missed out on yesterday,” Johnny informs you, but his words mean nothing to you.

   You turn your head around, hoping to hear the same notes from the keypad.

   “He’s not going to come back sooner just because you’re staring at the door like a weirdo-”

   There they are, those notes, the notes you’ve been another minute waiting for. You and Johnny simultaneously exchange looks at each other, yours being smug and Johnny’s reflecting the image of a surprised kangaroo.

   “How did you do that?” he asks in wonderment as you slip out of his touch.

   You’re back to square one, staring at the door, waiting for the handle to be angled. This time, Johnny joins you with an amazed expression. During the three long seconds you wait, you hear indistinct conversations, to which you hope that among the numerous voices behind that door, one of them belongs to your boyfriend.

   “Who takes so long to press the keypad?” you say, impatience evident in your tone.

   “Kim Doyoung,” Johnny replies easily.

   After an eternity of three seconds, you see the door swing open in the same manner it was done before. You and Johnny stand there, watching the door open as if everything is in slow motion.

   The first person to walk in is, as Johnny predicted, Doyoung. The moment you realize it’s him, you get on your toes to see the faces following behind him.

   “Jaehyun?” you call, hoping that you get a response.

   “Nope,” Johnny responds instead as another member comes into view. “It’s Yuta.”

   “Jaehyun?” you try again.

   “Nope,” Johnny says, popping the “p”. “It’s Taeil.”

   “Jaehyun?”

   “Nope. Haechan.”

   “Jaehyun?”

   “Nope, Mark.”

   “Jaehyun?”

   “Hey, there’s no one left,” Johnny points out.

   There it is, that empty feeling in your heart once again. You feel dejected, wondering if Jaehyun can hear your telepathic message, pleading him to come early.

   Your misery catches the eyes of the incoming members, causing them to crowd around you.

   “What’s wrong?” they ask, genuinely concerned about your state.

   You were never like this before. In fact, you’re considered to be the chiller one of the friend group.

   “She misses our hardworking Jaehyun,” Johnny replies for you, gently patting your head.

   Upon hearing the problem, the boys try to cheer you up.

   “We can play Mario Kart,” Haechan suggests.

   “And eat ice cream,” Mark adds.

   “If it makes you feel any better,” Yuta speaks, “he says that he can’t wait to come back.”

   You look up at him with glittering eyes. “Really?”

   “Yeah,” he assures you, proud that he’s the one to lift your spirits. “Don’t worry. As long as Mia isn’t late today, he’ll be back in no time.”

   “Mia?”

   The light in your eyes fades, overshadowed by the growing sense of jealousy. You can feel your blood starting to boil.

   “Mia?” you repeat for the second time in disbelief. “Isn’t Mia a girl?”

   The boys exchange glances at each other, all ending up at Yuta, who raises his arms up in the air.

   “It just slipped,” he says, defending himself.

   “So Jaehyun’s working with a girl?” you pronounce slowly. “A girl. Alone.”

   The boys are quick to correct you, “No, no, definitely not alone.”

   “Taeyong and Jungwoo are there too,” Mark reveals, practically rapping.

   Yuta furiously nods. “And Mia’s not the only teacher there, so the more, the merrier, right? In fact, the name’s Ale-”

   Your dangerous gaze cuts him short.

   The wide-eyed boys silently look at Yuta, swearing through their eyes.

   “Oi,” Johnny sighs, rubbing his temples.

   “So that means there’s more room for Mia to spend with Jaehyun while the other teacher focuses on the others?” you say, your voice rising with volume each passing second.

   Your heart is racing and your hands are shaking. Your breath is becoming unstable and, for some reason, so are your fingers. Jaehyun is spending time with some female instructor before he’s spending time with you? That’s completely fine--except it’s not. It isn’t something you can do anything about--it’s his job--but knowing that he’s a fine-looking man, you can only imagine what the instructor will do to him. Heck, if you were her, you would probably feel him up too, no doubt.

   And here comes that aching void in your heart.

   “Hey, why don’t we all relax and go do Mario Kart like Haechan said?” Taeil urges after taking into account the time you spent sulking at the door.

    As the boys drag you away, Johnny and Doyoung are left behind, watching you refuse to play Mario Kart.

   “Well this is a first,” Doyoung remarks, stunned at your behavior. “I’ve never seen her so... mopey. It’s a shame that Jaehyun couldn’t be with us when she paid a visit to the company last week.”

   Johnny shakes his head, pitying your downcasted state. “Not seeing him for a month and not being able to call him because of his schedule, that’s gotta be tough.”

   No kidding. You’re dying without his touch, without seeing his face or hearing his voice. You’re literally going crazy.  

   “Hey, hey, hey, she’s biting me!”

   Who’s yelling? It doesn’t matter. You’re going crazy. 

   ...

   The boys somehow managed to calm you down with a few rounds of Mario Kart. Technically, you calmed yourself down, considering you were so furious that you were a beast in the game and came out on the top.

   “That’s right!” you shout, winning another round.

   So you aren’t calm, but you’re definitely not thinking about Jaehyun and that female instructor the boys call “Mia”.

   All is going well until you hear the all-too-familiar melody of the keypad. You speedily pause the game with your controller, earning you a few complaints, which quickly die down when you silence them with a simple glare.

   “All I’m saying is that she obviously faked her stomach pain so that she could leave early with Alex,” you hear a voice you know all too well.

   “At least our practice ended early,” another distinct voice responds. “I don’t think I could have handled being in that room for another moment.”

   The boys’ eyes rapidly scan your face as they mentally prepare themselves for another biting session.

   “I’m surprised that Jaehyun’s still practicing,” the second voice says, nearing the living room.

   “He’s probably immune to the couple-y things Mia and Alex do because he has a girlfri-”

   The former voice halts.

   “Taeyong, Jungwoo, where’s Jaehyun?”

   The two boys, who were innocently waltzing into the living room, stop in their tracks when they see the fiery look in your eyes. Before they have the chance to comprehend the situation, they are saved by the keypad. You hear the door open for the last time, and you vanish from the boys’ sight.

   “Jung Jaehyun!”

   You see the growing smile on your boyfriend’s face and tackle him with the biggest hug you can offer.

   “I’ve missed you!” you cry, taking in his sweet, natural scent. “Why didn’t you come sooner?”

   He snuggles his face into your neck. “I was going to practice a few more times, but I couldn’t let myself be away from you any longer.”

   He pulls his face away from your neck to get a good look at you.

   “I’ve missed you too,” he coos lovingly, leaning in for your lips, to which you move away.

   You aren’t going to let go of your jealousy that easily.

   You hear a couple of feet shuffling behind you, and your boyfriend peers over your shoulder, sending a questioning gaze to his fellow bandmates.

   “Mark?” he calls, remembering how the boy once accidentally ruined your surprise birthday party.

   The boys shake their head and point at Yuta.

   “Hey, I was just trying to help,” the accused boy utters.

   “Twice,” Johnny adds.

   “Mia,” Doyoung words to Jaehyun silently, directing him to the source of the complication.

   Grasping the situation with remarkable speed, Jaehyun nods, signalling to his friends to give them some space.

   “I tried,” Yuta mumbles while the others leave you two to be.

   Although you’ve missed Jaehyun, there’s this voice in the back of your mind that constantly reminds you of your jealousy towards the time he seems to be spending with other people more than you. You love him and understand him, but you simply want to see how he’ll deal with this jealous side of you, so you act childishly.

   When you don’t look at him in the eye, he smiles and says, “You know Mia’s taken, right?”

   “But it’s you,” you murmur, staring at your feet.

   “You’re right,” he says, resting his hands on your shoulders. “It’s me. I’m in love with you and my eyes are only set on you.”

   He senses that you’re starting to become looser, so he takes your hands in his and tilts his head forward to see you eye-to-eye.

   “I’ll make up for the lost time,” he promises. “Pinkie swear.”

   You still don’t respond, which takes up a lot of your energy not to do because you really want to lose yourself in those striking brown eyes of his, but you’ve been with him long enough for him to know how to work his way around this type of situation.

   He lowers himself to your ears and whispers, “Hey.”

   One word and he already has you melting with your legs turning into jelly.

   And one final impactful statement from him has you hooked: “Let’s go to my room.”

   ...

   Fifteen minutes have passed and there is still no word from either you or Jaehyun. The boys, gathered around the couch, start to feel anxious.

   “Maybe they’re giving each other the silent treatment,” Mark speaks, breaking the silence.

   “Shouldn’t we go check up on them?” Yuta asks, glancing at the door you and Jaehyun disappeared behind.

   Johnny gets up on his knees and says, “I’ll signal something if anything’s wrong.”

   He carefully makes his way to the door. When he presses his ear against the door, an instant smirk forms on his face.

   “Why? What’s going on in there?” the boys ask.

   Instead of respecting your guys’ privacy, Johnny decides to gesture the guys over to join him, and when they do, a lot of their faces flush.

   “Th-this isn’t something that we should listen to,” Mark stutters, his ears red and eyes wide.

   But all of them remain there. Another five minutes pass and that’s when it hits Doyoung.

   "Wait isn’t Haechan still a minor?” 

#nct #nct x reader #reader x nct #nct u #nct 127 #nct dream #nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct oneshot #nct fluff #suggestive #implied smut #nct mark #nct jaehyun #nct Johnny #nct taeyong #nct doyoung #nct taeil #nct yuta #nct jungwoo #nct Haechan

[gamergirl929]

Dance Like Nobody’s Watching (USWNT x Reader)

A/N: The reader is having a bit of fun on the field after practice, not realizing that she’s not exactly alone. 

You nod your head, dancing to the music playing loudly in your ears as you juggle the ball.  

You grab the bill of your hat and turn it backwards as music pours through your air pods, keeping the juggling up as you take a long shot at goal, the ball curving and hitting the back of the net.  

You make your way to goal, head bobbing as you grab the ball and drop it at your feet.  

Unbeknownst to you, you aren’t as alone as you think, as the remainder of your team is hiding out of sight, a couple with phones in hand as they record you ‘practicing’.  

Alex Morgan laughs when Kelley O’Hara turns that camera towards her, the forward shaking her head.  

“She’s going to kill us once she sees this.” She grins and Kelley snorts.  

You surprise the team when you kick the ball over your head, only to catch it with your heel and kick it back over your head, catching the ball on your knee before juggling it.  

Tobin Heath smirks from her place beside Kelley when you begin moving the ball around much like she does, bouncing it between your feet in a way that is entirely Tobin Heath. 

Megan Rapinoe turns to Tobin with a grin, turning her camera along with her.  

“You better watch out Heath, Y/N’s coming for that ass.” She smirks and Tobin snorts shaking her head as she watches you with a smile.  

A sudden sniffle has everyone turning around to see Ashlyn Harris, wiping a stray tear away from her cheek as Ali Krieger pats her back.  

“Our baby’s growing up.” She sniffles and everyone smiles before turning back to you, Alex pouting at the thought of you not being the baby of the team anymore.  

“No, she’ll always be the baby.” Alyssa Naeher comments and everyone nods in agreeance.  

“Better her than me.” Mallory Pugh says and everyone snickers.  

You again get lost in the music as you juggle the ball down field, keeping your eyes on goal, and off of your feet as you fire a shot on goal, only for it to smack the goal post.  

You let out a growl and crack your neck to the side as you rush down field, taking your hat off and running your fingers through your hair.  

“Awwww, it’s okay, we all mess up sometimes.” Ali says as Kelley turns the camera to her before turning it back towards you.  

You begin singing softly under your breath as you juggle the ball around, the rap song in your ears blaring loudly as you move in on goal.  

“Yeah, like that.” Christen Press mumbles encouragingly as she leans forwards, watching your footwork as you fire a shot at goal from a decent way away.  

The girls all clench their teeth and when the ball curves and sinks into the net, near the top corner, some celebrate along with you, some being louder than intended, luckily for them, you’re wearing headphones.  

You kick the ball behind you and slowly walk towards it, dancing as you go and singing loudly to the music, not a care in the world.  

Meanwhile, everyone of your teammates duck down in an attempt to make themselves smaller as they record you.  

“Oh my god, she’s adorable.” Julie Ertz grins and everyone else laughs as they watch you dancing on the empty field.  

“Hey, kid can dance maybe we should take her out som-”  

Emily Sonnett is cut off when the veterans of the team turn towards her, Carli Llyod giving her a pointed look.  

“No.” The veterans all says at the same time as they turn back to watch the young player.  

“But she CAN dance.” Allie Long grins, turning to Kelley. “She’s giving you a run for your money. You too Crystal.” She winks and Kelley snorts while Crystal Dunn shrugs.  

“I’ll have to show her how it’s done.” She comments with a grin.  

You hum as you turn your back to the further goal and kick the ball in the air.  

“What is she doing?” Emily mumbles, only to be nudged by Lindsey Horan. Rose Lavelle and Sam Mewis at the same time who shush her.

You shrug to no one except yourself and leap up, flipping through the air and slamming your foot into the ball, preforming what soccer players and the world alike know as a bicycle kick.

“No way.” Ashlyn mumbles and the ones recording, Kelley and Megan, lean forwards as you land on your back and the ball flies down field towards goal.  

You lean your head back and watch with wide eyes as the ball hits the back of the net.  

You throw your hands in the air excitedly and somersault onto your feet, your hat falling to the ground.  

You grab your hat, tossing it on as you punch the air excitedly, only to freeze when you see your team celebrating a number of yards away.  

You take your air pods out and shout.  

“Hey!” You yell and the players all turn your way, eyes wide.  

“Did you get that!?” You say excitedly and Kelley holds her phone in the air with a beaming smile.  

You jump excitedly in the air before stiffening, your grin turning into a frown.  

“How long have you been here? WAIT, how long have you been recording me?” You ask cheeks flushing a crimson as Kelley and Megan’s eyes widen and they share a glance.  

Your eyes double in size as you sprint towards the two soccer players who run in opposite directions.  

“Get back here!” You shout as you run after Kelley who only laughs as she runs away, meanwhile, Megan is quickly writing a caption for the video on Instagram from where she’s standing, that is until you turn and sprint after her.

You eventually come to a stop, huffing as you turn towards the other players with a pout.  

“Awww.” Christen says as she pulls you into a hug and ruffles your hair.  

You realize your hat must’ve fallen off when you see it perched on top of Mallory’s head.  

Tobin then throws an arm around your shoulders and you grumble when Kelley and Megan rejoin the group.  

“Assholes.” You grumble only for Tobin to pull you closer.  

“I see you’ve been practicing.” She grins and your eyes widen, cheeks flushing when you realize that you’d studied some of her moves.  

“Uhhh…” You start and Tobin laughs, giving you a beaming smile.  

“You did great kid.” She pulls you closer and you beam.  

Ashlyn surprises you by scooping you up in her arms and spinning around.  

“That bicycle kick was the shit!” She yells as she stops spinning and you shake your head with a grin.  

“Really?!” You ask excitedly as Ali comes up behind you and ruffles your already messy hair, courtesy of Christen.  

Someone suddenly jumps on your back and you quickly realize it’s Kelley.  

“Yeah it was!” She grins and you grumble as you send her a glare that wouldn’t kill a fly.  

“I should drop you.” You grumble and Kelley grins, kissing your cheek.  

“Eh, I’m not worried.” She smiles and Megan grins as she jumps onto the both of you, and you’re surprised when your knees don’t buckle.  

“Me either.” Megan snorts.  

Alex shoos the two away before wrapping her arms around you.  

“You know you don’t have to practice out here by yourself, or are you just coming out here to dance?” She smirks and you blush as you turn away.  

“Ummm…” You shrug as your mouth opens and closes a few times and Alex laughs.  

“Both then.” Julie adds and you blush as Becky Sauerbrunn pats your back.  

“Speaking of dancing…” Emily grins and everyone, besides Mallory, Rose, Lindsey and Sam turn to her with narrowed eyes.  

Your brow arches and you grin.  

“You should come out with us sometime.” Emily grins, undeterred by the women glaring her way.  

You grin, opening your mouth to reply only to be pulled back against someone’s chest, that someone turns out to be Ashlyn.  

“No.” Her and a number of players grumble and you scoff.  

“You do realize Mallory and I are the same age?” You huff and Christen shakes her head.  

“Yeah but you’re the newest member of the team.” She grins.   

You eventually wiggle out of Ashlyn’s grasp, only to be captured by Megan Rapinoe, who throws an arm over your shoulders.  

“Come on, you need rest.” She urges and you huff.  

“I wanted to practice more.” You mumble as you duck under her arm and you turn around, coming face to face with Mallory who only smiles as she turns you around and takes your hand, dragging you with her towards the other players.  

“Just go with it. If you don’t, they’re going to literally carry you away.” She smiles and you blush as you realize Mallory’s hand is still in your own and that your hat is still adorably perched on the top of her head.  

You shake your head with a smile as you follow behind the older members of the USWNT, though some of the members could be overprotective, you wouldn’t change them one bit, and you wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

Just as the thought leaves you, your phone dings.  

And dings.  

And dings again.  

You fish it from your pocket with your empty hand with a growl.  

“I hate you all.” You grumble as you stare at the video of yourself on Instagram, comments flowing by as fans type at a rapid pace.  

“No, you don’t.” Kelley grins as she glances over her shoulder and your roll your eyes as Mallory gives you hand a squeeze.  

You turn to her and your eyes lock before you both share a grin.  

“You’re right. I don’t.”

#USWNT #USWNT Imagine #USWNT Imagines #uswnt x reader

[thegoodthebadthesickly]

Stitches- Winn Schott

A filled request from my Wattpad for @badthingshappenbingo

Fandom: DCU/Super Girl

Request: Stitches

Requested by @ MANGO_CHEESE_ on Wattpad

(Stars are complete, Swirls are requested)

I'm sorry if this is incredibly out of character; I've only seen a few episodes of Super Girl and am mostly going off of what I know from Tumblr! Please don't hate me if this is awful!

"You couldn't have let the bullet proof alien take the, you know, bullet?" Alex asked, dabbing alcohol onto a sterile pad.

"It was instinctual; plus, it's just a flesh wound." Winn defended. He tried not to look at his arm, he already felt woozy and he definitely didn't need to add passing out to his rap sheet.

"This time," Alex admonished. "a few inches over and you could have been looking at permanent nerve damage." Alex brushed the sterile pad across the gash on Winn's arm, blotting away as much of the blood as possible.

"Agh!" Winn hissed. "Warn a guy!"

"Would it have hurt any less if I'd warned you?" Alex asked, her voice echoing off of the walls. They were the only two in the med bay right now, everyone else was still somewhere in the city and fighting yet another crazy guy in a suit of armor. When Winn had gotten shot she'd basically dragged him back to the DEO.

"That's not the point." Winn blushed and rolled his eyes.

"If you thought that was painful, you're really gonna hate me for this next part. You need stitches." Alex sucked at her bottom lip.

"No-no. I don't think so. It's not even that deep. Just slap a band-aid on me and send me home." Winn laughed nervously, trying to push himself off of the hospital bed. This turned out to be a bad idea when Winn was reminded, by a blinding pain in his right arm, that he had indeed been shot recently.

"Agh!" He yelled, grabbing his arm and falling back against the pillow. "Dammit!" He cried, tears clouding his vision.

"You know, for a genius, you can be pretty dumb sometimes." Alex cringed.

"Hey! You can't be mean to me, I just got shot!" Winn groaned.

"And who's fault is that?" Alex asked, spinning around on her stool and getting up to go find a suture kit.

Winn grumbled something that Alex didn't quite catch.

Honestly, Alex was glad to have Winn back here where he couldn't be hurt anymore. Everyone that fought beside her and Kara was either bullet-proof or highly trained in combat. Winn was neither of those things. He was just so soft and human. Alex would be lying if she said that the thought of him getting hurt hadn't kept her up at night, especially after night's like this, when he was too brave for his own good. Of course, she would never admit any of this to anybody, especially Winn.

Alex walked into the medical supply closet and, after searching through a mountain of labeled blue boxes, found a suture kit and went back to make sure Winn wasn't trying to jump out of the window or otherwise escape.

To her surprise, Winn was exactly where she'd left him. On closer inspection, Alex thought he must have been asleep. For the first time all night, Alex really looked at Winn. His face was twisted in a grimace of pain, even in his sleep and he was scary pale. Alex swallowed back the ball of fear that was bubbling in her stomach and shook Winn's leg lightly.

"Winn?" She whispered.

"Hmm?" Winn opened his eyes.

"Just wanted to make sure you hadn't died on me. That would be so much paperwork." Alex smirked.

"Nope. Just trying not to think about the hole in my arm. Finding my happy place." Winn laughed, his breath hitching when the movement aggravated his injury.

"Where exactly is Winn Schott's happy place?" Alex asked, opening the suture kit and finding the needle and suture thread.

"It-it's stupid."

Alex figured it was decidedly not stupid, but felt like she shouldn't push.

Both were quiet for a moment as Alex worked to thread the needle.

"All right, on the count of-"

"Woah, woah, woah! Don't I get morphine or something?" Winn jerked away from the needle.

"I thought it was "just a flesh wound"." Alex mocked.

"Flesh wounds still hurt!" Winn exclaimed, his voice rising an octave.

"Alright, fine." Alex put the needle down onto a sterile pad and went to look for the local anesthetic. "Baby" She muttered under her breath as she walked away.

"I heard that!" Winn called.

Alex smirked. She found the stacker where the various syringes and bottles of medication were kept and, picking out the local anesthetic and something for the pain that Winn would surely be in after the adrenaline wore off, she went back to Winn.

"Happy?" Alex asked, shaking the two little bottles of liquid at Winn.

"Don't I get the pill option?" Winn asked, eyeing the syringes in Alex's other hand.

"Oh, so getting shot is no big deal, but a little needle is too much?"

"There is nothing little about those needles." Winn gulped.

"Pony up, Schott." Alex sat back down on the stool and uncapped one of the syringes, putting the needle into the bottle of  codeine and drawing up the liquid.

"Easy for you to say!"

"Shh! I need to focus." Alex hushed Winn. "Don't tense up, it'll only make it worse."

"You're not the one having a needle waved at them. I don't think you get to say anything about being tense."

"Would you rather go without?"

Winn took a deep breath. "Lesser of two evils." He closed his eyes.

"Now, this is codeine, so you're probably gonna feel weird for a while, but it's better than being in pain."

"Let's get it over with." Winn closed his eyes.

"Alright." Alex took a breath and held Winn's arm steady with one hand and carefully aimed the syringe needle into his arm above the wound.

Winn hissed, his breath hitching, but he didn't open his eyes.

"Good. Now I'm going to do the local anesthetic." Alex said, keeping her voice as even as possible.

Winn didn't open his eyes or move.

Alex capped the used syringe and reached over to put it into the biohazard bucket over the bed Winn was sitting in. Once she was settled back on the stool, she uncapped the other syringe and pushed the needle into the rubbery cap of the anesthetic bottle. She carefully drew up the liquid and pulled the syringe out, taking a steadying breath.

"This'll sting." Alex said, aiming the needle closer to the edges of the wound this time. She slowly moved the syringe around the wound, making sure to numb the entire area. When she was done, Alex realized that Winn hadn't moved or spoken for the past few minutes.

"Winn, breathe." Alex commanded, seeing that his jaw was clenched and his breathing was coming in short, shallow gasps.

Winn, seeming to notice that he'd quit breathing for the first time, inhaled deeply through his nose and coughed.

"Go back to your happy place?" Alex asked.

"Ha, yeah." Winn blushed, which was made even more evident by how pale he was at the moment.

"The meds should kick in in a few minutes and we'll get you patched up."

Winn sat back and closed his eyes and Alex grabbed her phone and started scrolling through her messages.

Alex thought Winn Schott must have been a lightweight, which was honestly so predictable, when he started giggling uncontrollably a few minutes later.

"How're ya feeling, Winn?" Alex smirked.

"I have no idea why I'm laughing." Winn giggled.

"I'd say the meds are working."

"Oh yeah. They're working big time!" He smiled.

"Okay, I'm going to start suturing the wound. I need you to stay very still, Winn. Do you understand."

"Yeah." Winn tried to look serious, but sputtered and started laughing again.

Alex couldn't help but laugh with him for a moment before regaining her composure and picking up the needle again. Steadying her hand, Alex started suturing.

After that, Winn was quiet except for the odd giggle. Eventually, he closed his eyes and Alex thought he might be drifting.

"Just go to you're happy place." Alex muttered.

"I's not real."

"What's not real?" Alex asked, pausing her stitching and looking up at Winn.

Winn's eyes were half lidded and he was oddly droopy when he spoke, definitely a lightweight. Alex made a mental note to have someone add that to his medical file.

"M'happy place." Winn said, his head lolling to the side as he tried to look at Alex.

"Okay?" Alex said, confused. "What exactly is your happy place?"

"Breakfast."

"Winn, breakfast is very much-"

"With m'parents." Winn slurred, cutting Alex off.

"That could be a memory."

"Nope." Winn was quiet for a moment. "Not this one." He giggled again. "You wanna know m'happy place?"

"Sure, Winn."

"It's, a-it's breakfast with m'parents. Before my dad-" Winn's eyes got darker for just a moment. "It was a Friday night. Saturdays were always pancake days. That's my happy place." Winn slurred. "My dad never put the bombs in the bears and my mom never left. We just had a normal Pancake Saturday."

"That's, um, wow. That's a good happy place, Winn." Alex stuttered.

Not really sure what to say after that, Alex went back to silently suturing Winn's arm and Winn was quiet too, not even giggling anymore.

"All done." Alex said, putting a strip of sterile gauze over the sutures and taping it in place.

"'M tired." Winn mumbled.

"I'd say the adrenaline finally kicked it. Get some sleep, Winn." Alex patted Winn's arm.

Winn obediently closed his eyes and within a few minutes his breathing had evened out enough for Alex to see that he was asleep. Dimming the lights, Alex left the medbay to go wait for Kara and the others in central command.

Somewhere around an hour later, Alex heard the elevator and stood as Kara and James stepped out.

"Hey. How'd it go?" Alex greeted.

"After you and Winn ducked out, it was just a matter of getting someone in to dismantle the server that was accessing the robot." James explained.

"Basically, I just had to keep the robot busy while someone found the server." Kara chimed in. "Barely even broke a sweat." she smiled.

"How's Winn?"

"Resting. It wasn't as bad as it looked in the field, flesh wound." Alex led them back to the medbay where they could all see Winn sleeping. "Major lightweight when it comes to meds, though." Alex laughed.

"Figures." Kara and James said in unison.

"I'm sure you're both exhausted. Go get some sleep. I'll stay here tonight and make sure Winn doesn't manage to get himself into anymore trouble." Alex said.

"Are you sure?" Kara asked.

Alex nodded.

"Alright. See you in the morning." Kara hugged Alex and went back to the elevator. James waved goodbye and followed closely behind.

Alex stretched and realized how tired she was as well and, after changing into a set of sweats she kept at the DEO for late nights and the odd coffee disaster and curled up in the bed opposite Winn's.

The next morning, Alex was walking Winn to the elevator. One of the DEO doctor's had seen him and given him the all clear to go home.

"So, exactly how much of last night do you remember?" Alex asked.

"Everything's mostly clear after I got shot, until you gave me the shot of whatever that was-"

"Codine."

"Yeah. After that, things get fuzzy. I didn't do anything stupid, did I?"

"Besides take a bullet for a bullet proof alien? No." Alex rolled her eyes and smirked. She'd decided not to mention what Winn had told her last night, he hadn't meant to tell her. It wasn't as if she hadn't read his file when Winn'd been brought on at the DEO, but reducing someone down to a few words never quite told the full story. He could tell her if and when he was ready to talk about it.

Winn huffed a laugh and adjusted the sling cradling his arm.

"I did find out that you're a major lightweight when it comes to meds, though. You're a giggler." Alex laughed.

"Oh, God." Winn smiled ruefully.

"Oh yeah. You're never living this one down." Alex smiled as they stepped into the elevator.

"Aren't you staying?" Winn asked.

"I refuse to work in sweat pants." Alex gestured to her attire. "Also, I'm dying for a hot meal. Care to join me for breakfast? My treat."

"Sure." Winn smiled and nodded and then grabbed at his shoulder, hissing sharply. "Also maybe more meds?"

"Sure thing." Alex said as the doors closed and the elevator started it's ascent.

#badthingshappenbingo #prompt fill #prompt: Stitches

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 3/19/21: SXSW, Zack Snyder’s Justice League,The Courier, City of Lies, Happily and More!

Remember a couple weeks back when I stated the plan was to bring back the Weekend Warrior as a regular weekly series again? Yeah, well if you looked for a column last week and wondered what happened, I just didn’t have time to write one. And I also just haven’t been able to get back on the ball in terms of writing reviews. It just takes a lot of time to watch all the movies let alone review them the way I did last year. I honestly have no idea how I did it last year, but things have been busier than ever at Below the Line, which does throw a bit of a spanner into any extracurricular plans.

The big event this week is the annual SXSW Film Festival, which I’ll be taking part in virtually, and somewhat tangentially, watching as much as I can while still doing other things. It’s been a while since I’ve attended SXSW in person, but it tends to have great docs, especially music docs. In fact, this year’s Opening Night Film is the documentary, Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, about Demi Lovato’s drug overdose from 2018 and its aftermath. Other music docs of interest include Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, about the late frontwoman from early punk band X-Ray Spex through the eyes of her daughter; Mary Wharton’s doc Tom Petty, Somewhere You Feel Free made from archival footage of the late singer making his 1994 record “Wildflowers”; Alone Together about Charlie XCX’s pandemic record; Under the Volcano about George Martin’s AIR Studios Montserrat; and it gives another chance to see Edgar Wright’s excellent, The Sparks Brothers, which was picked up by Focus Features after Sundance. There’s also an amazing doc about Selma Blair’s fight with MS, Introducing, Selma Blair, which is equal parts heartbreaking and inspirational.

SXSW also has pretty solid Midnighters, and there’s a number of those I’m also looking forward to, including Travis Stevens’ Jakob’s Wife, starring horror legends Larry Fassenden and Barbara Crampton, who were so great in my buddy Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here. (No coincidence since Stevens produced that movie.) And I hope to watch a few others like Lee Haven Jones’ The Feast, Jacob Gentry’s Broadcast Signal Intrusion, and Alex Noyer’s Sound of Violence. We’ll see how much I get to see this week, cause it’s a lot of movies over only a couple days, basically from Tuesday through Saturday.

Closer to home at the Metrograph, the still-closed movie theater is doing a virtual series called “Bill Murray X6” which has already shown Lost in Translation and What about Bob? With Rushmore screening until Thursday, and then The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou available through Friday. Become a digital member for just $5 a month! This past weekend I saw a really amazing 7-part doc series called Untitled Pizza Movie by David Shapiro. In fact, I stayed up late on Sunday to watch the whole thing since it was leaving the digital screeners, but it’s a very entertaining, intriguing and personal story about the director, his friend and partner in crime Leeds, who he went around to different NYC pizza shops in the ‘90s trying to find the perfect slice, and then they come across pizzaman Andrew Belluci at the world-famous Lombardi’s in Soho. The project that took over 20 years to make follows what happened to the three men, but mainly Leeds and Belluci as they have ups and downs that ultimately leads to Belluci starting his own pizza joint in Queens. Everything that happens in between is quite fascinating.

I saw a couple other movies this past weekend including Robin Wright’s Land, which I quite enjoyed, and the rom-com Long Weekend, which came out last Friday but I totally missed. Land is a pretty amazing directorial debut that’s mostly a one-woman show with her character alone in the wilderness until she runs into trouble and meets Demian Bichir’s kindly Samaritan and they become friends. Directed by Stephen Basilone, Long Weekend stars Finn Wittrock and Zoe Chao in what starts as a meet cute rom-com and turns into something much deeper with a couple sci-fi-tinged twists, a bit like Palm Springs, but much more grounded. I loved the two leads and how Basilone made a romantic comedy that actually was romantic and very funny, as well. Both movies I recommend.

Getting into some of the streamer offerings this week, ZACK SNYDER’s JUSTICE LEAGUE will hit HBO Max on Thursday, so we can finally see whether or not that extra money and work paid off. I’ll be reviewing this over at Below the Line, so won’t spend too much time here. I figure that anyone who has been waiting for this will watch it, as will anyone who has been curious about it. As you can read from my review, I was quite impressed by the film as an achievement in finishing what is clearly a far superior film to the 2017 theatrical release. Some of the highlights include great stuff between Ray Fisher’s Cyborg and his father, a far more fun introduction to The Flash that was cut from the 2017 release and just some insanely crazy good action. I can’t wait to watch the movie again.

Kicking off on Friday is the anticipated Marvel Studios series, THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney), bringing back the title characters played by Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, who were introduced in one of the MCU’s better movies, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I was sent the first episode and unfortunately, there’s an embargo until Thursday afternoon, but I do think that MCU fans are gonna be thrilled with the first episode, especially with the Falcon’s opening action sequence, which is like something right out of the movies.

Okay, fine, so let’s get to some new movies and some real reviews…

Probably the movie with the widest release this weekend will be THE COURIER (Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions), starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which I’m guessing will be in 1,000 or so theaters. The movie premiered at Sundance way back in 2020 under the significantly worse title of “Ironbark” with plans to release it later in the year, but then COVID happened. I’m not sure if Roadside Attractions planned for this to be an awards movie, but after a few delays, releasing it in mid-March just days after the Oscar nominations, I’m guessing probably not?

Directed by Dominic Cooke (On Chesil Beach) from a screenplay by Tom O’Connor (The Hitman’s Bodyguard… wait, WHAT?), this Cold War spy thriller set in the early ‘60s stars Cumberbatch as Greville Wynne, a British businessman who is coerced by agents from MI6 and the CIA (repped by Rachel Brosnahan) to smuggle Russian secrets from military man Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze). Greville’s trips to Moscow start getting more and more dangerous under the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his wife (the always great Jessie Buckley) wants him to stop taking the trips. It all leads up to a pretty exciting second act as the KGB starts to figure out what Greville and Oleg have been up to and work to put a stop to it.

I have to admit that as much as I enjoy a good spy-thriller, a lot of this reminded me of Cumberbatch’s earlier film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – yes, the John Le Caree adaptation, which I was never a particularly big fan of. This has similarities in that it starts out fairly slow, making me think this might be one of those well-made, well-acted movies that are just plain boring cause the subject doesn’t interest me. I’m sure when this was greenlit, there was probably more relevance to the situation between the U.S. and Russia, although this is obviously a British production and maybe something better to watch on the Beeb than in a movie theater.

In general, the stuff with the two men and their families tends to be the best part of the movie. I wasn’t familiar with Merab Ninidze beforehand, but he’s a really good actor who holds his own in scenes with Cumberbatch. Although Cumberbatch’s performance is significantly better here than in The Mauritanian, that’s definitely a better movie, so even in the last act which sees Wynne in a Russian jail, it just doesn’t compare. This is the second film with Rachel Brosnahan in which she didn’t really impress me much after hearing how great she is on Mrs. Maisel. Even so, the movie did make me want to go back and rewatch the beginning again to see if maybe I wasn’t as focused on it, as it should be.

As far as box office, I don’t have much hope for this making more than $2 or 3 million this weekend, since it seems more like a prestige platform release that would have to build audiences from rave reviews or positive word-of-mouth. Coming out so long after its festival debut (kinda like that Thomas Edison movie a few years back) may have helped people forget about the midling festival reviews. Even so, this movie just doesn’t have much buzz or interest from #FilmTwitter who has had its tongue so far up the superhero movie ass this week between Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to pay much attention to this. (Hey, facts is facts!)

Johnny Depp and Forrest Whitaker star in Brad Furman’s crime-thriller CITY OF LIES (Saban Films), which is about the real-life search for the killer of the Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls with Depp playing Detective Russell Poole, who ended up on the case in 1997, and Whitaker playing reporter Jack Jackson, doing a story on Smalls for the 20thanniversary of the unsolved murder.

Based on the book “Labyrinth” (the movie’s original title), it’s a story that takes place in two time periods, Los Angeles in the ‘90s after the Rodney King beating and L.A. riots and how it’s made the criminal element that surrounds rap mogul Suge Night. It begins with Poole investigating the death of a black police officer named Gaines, shot by a white police officer (Shea Whigham) in what is seemingly a road rage incident. As Poole investigates, he learns about police corruption in the force including a number of officers tied directly to Knight.

As Jackson interviews Poole to try and find out who killed Biggie, we flashback to Poole’s investigation and interaction with some of those corrupt cops and being put into extremely dangerous situations. The movie isn’t bad, especially the scenes between Whitaker and Depp, who gives a far more grounded performance than we’ve seen from him in recent years. Even so, the performance that really impressed me was Toby Huss as Poole’s superior, who just brings something new to the tough head detective role we haven’t really seen.

Regardless of what you think of Depp’s activities off-camera, this is a fairly solid crime thriller (as was Scott Cooper’s Black Mass), and though you never actually get to see Biggie, Tupac or Suge Night, it’s an interesting examination into a period in L.A. that seems so long ago but still rings true to what’s been going on in the last year.

BenDavid Grabinski’s HAPPILY (Saban/Paramount) is a dark comedy-thriller starring Joel McHale and Kerry Bishé as Tom and Janet, a happily married couple who annoy their friends by still having sex on the regular whenever they possibly can. In fact, their friends decide to uninvite Tom and Janet to their planned couples’ weekend because they’re so annoyed by them. One day, a mysterious man (played by Stephen Root) shows up at Tom and Janet’s house, one thing leads to another and they kill and bury him. Thinking that the man’s visit might be part of a friend’s prank, they go to the planned couples’ trip, trying to figure out if the prankster has gotten suspicious about what they’ve done.

For the sake of transparency, I met Grabinski at my very first Sundance ever as he was friends with some of my colleagues, but I never spent a ton of time talking to him. This film impressed me, since it’s a prtty strong debut from him, one that benefits greatly from a strong cast that includes Paul Scheer, Breckin Meyer (who I didn’t even recognize!), Charlyne Yi, Natalie Morales and more, making for a really solid ensemble dark comedy that reminded me of the tone of last year’s The Hunt or Ike Barinholtz’s The Oath or a great lesser-seen movie from last year, Robert Schwartzman’s The Argument. Dark comedy isn’t for everyone, and this is definitely a little mean-spirited at times, but more importantly, it’s very funny and tends to get crazier and crazier as it goes along.

More importantly, I loved Grabinski’s musical choices from Devo’s “Working in a Coal Mine” to not one but two OMD songs, and great use of Public Image Limited as well. The way Grabinski puts this together comes across like a hipper and fresher Hitchcock, and while it might not be for everyone, I could totally see this killing at a genre fest like Fantastic Fest or even this week’s SXSW. It’s clever and original and rather intriguing how Grabinski puts all the various pieces together.

Hitting Shudder on Thursday is Elza Kephart’s horror-comedy SLAXX (Shudder) about a possessed pair of jeans brought to life to punish the practices of a trendy clothing company, which it does by terrorizing the staff locked in overnight. Didn’t get to watch this before getting bogged down in SXSW but definitely looking forward to it.

Another horror film coming out this week is the horror anthology PHOBIAS (Vertical), exec. produced by the filmmaking team “Radio Silence” (Ready or Not) with segments directed by Camilla Belle, Maritte Lee Go, Joe Sill, Jess Varley and Chris von Hoffman. The stories follow five dangerous patients suffering from extreme phobias at a government facility with a crazed doctor trying to weaponize their fears.

Jeremy Piven stars in Paolo Pilladi’s LAST CALL (IFC Films) playing real estate developer Mick, who returns to his old Philly neighborhood and must decide whether to resurrect his family bar or raze it. I actually watched a few minutes of this, but apparently, IFC Films isn’t allowing reviews, so I have nothing more to say about the movie beyond the fact that it’s coming out on Friday.

Opening at the newly reopened Film Forum – currently doing a hybrid of in-person and virtual cinema – is Chris McKim’s doc WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER (Kino Lorber), premiering virtually on Friday. It’s about David Wojnarowicz, one of the loudest voices in the ACT-Up movement during the ‘80s who died of AIDS himself in 1992. (Correction: Film Forum actually isn’t reopening until April 2.)

A few other things this week include Aengus James’ doc AFTER THE DEATH OF ALBERT LIMA hitting Crackle about Paul Lima, a son obsessed with capturing his father’s murderer who has remained at large in Honduras due to a failed legal system. Because of this, Paul travels to the Honduras with two bounty hunters to find and capture the killer.

Lastly, streaming on Topic Thursday, there’s Parliament, directed by Elilie Noblet and Jeremie Sein, about a young man named Samy who arrives in Brussels after the Brexit vote trying to get a job into the European Parliament without really knowing how it works.

That’s all for this week. It might be a while before I can get The Weekend Warrior back into some sort of fighting weekly shape, but I’m doing the best I can right now, so let me know if you’re reading any of this.

#TheWeekendWarrior #TheCourier #Movies #Reviews #BoxOffice #ZackSnyderJusticeLeague #Happily #CityOfLies

[alixzin]

Unfinished Medical Procedures Fic

In which Lin takes Alex to see a neurologist and has a series of brain tests done (EEG and MRI) to make sure nothing more serious is wrong. I wrote this last January while I was snowed in and highly productive. This was before I knew what in the verse to write and was doing a little of everything. I stopped working on it when “Where You Started” took over and demanded all my attention. At this point it’s been so long that I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to it, but it has some really nice moments that deserve to see the light of day, so here it is. 

They are at first neurologist appointment, discussing tests he wants to run before prescribing medication to prevent migraines.

 “It’s not at all scary, not like the MRI,” the doctor reassures them after expressing the need for an EEG. “All that happens is we attach electrodes, which look a bit like watch batteries, to different parts of your head with washable glue. Each one is attached to a wire that records the brain signals. You’ll just lie on a bed for an hour and your parents can stay with you.”

It’s starting to become a thing that every doctor they see refers to them as Alex’s “parents”, “Dad” or “Mom”. They’ve given up on correcting it.

“Now one part of an EEG that is challenging is that we intentionally put the brain under a lot of stress to increase the likelihood of catching unusual activity.”

Lin’s eyes widen at this and he gives Alex’s knee a squeeze. As if he doesn’t have enough stress on his brain already.

“What exactly does that mean? Can it be done without that?”

“It would just be a waste of time and money to be honest. The biggest aspect of this is sleep deprivation. For teens this means staying up for at least 24 hours beforehand.”

Alex full on rolls his eyes at this. Even Lin has to crack a smile. Alex would consider being allowed to stay up all night a special treat.

“I saw that look. It’s noted on his health history he has insomnia. Is staying up like that typical for Alexander?”

“Very. If we aren’t policing him Alex will go a full week with only a couple of hours of sleep.”

“That does not sound at all healthy and increases my worries about unusual brain activity. I’d be interested to see what’s going on in his head when that’s happening.” Wouldn’t we all. “If we’re going to do this, it’s best to do it right. Do you think Alexander could tolerate going 48 hours?”

“Alexander’s right here, you know!”

Lin grins. He loves Alex’s sassy side.

“What do you think Alex?”

“Please. That’s cake. I can go longer if you want.”

“No!” Lin and Vanessa say at the same time.

 Alex is confident in his ability (and likely ecstatic to be allowed to stay up that long), but Lin can’t help but be nervous that this might not end well.

 There’s a catch. Of course, there’s a catch. When Lin finally reads through the info packet on the test the night before Alex starts the sleep purge one detail jumps out at him: absolutely no caffeine.

Alex’s entire existence is powered by mass quantities of caffeine, which is one of the many things they have in common. Him and Vanessa have figured out that even when Alex is home sick or recovering from a bad migraine he still needs coffee, or else caffeine withdrawal symptoms get added to his illness. With all his anxiety cutting back on Alex’s consumption has been on the “things with Alexander that need to be addressed” list for a while now, but they haven’t gotten to it yet. Partially because that would mean Lin going through coffee detox with him to avoid looking like a huge hypocrite and partially because then they would lose their most powerful Alex negotiation tool. Need to convince him to do something he doesn’t want to? Bribe with extra coffee. Need to get Alex to stop an unhealthy behavior like refusing to go to bed? Threaten to take away his coffee. In their defense they are very new to this whole parenting thing.

 He does try to convince Alex to back out of this and just do the twenty-four hours, but once Alex gets something in his head as a personal challenge there is no backing out.

 The pamphlet recommended having an adult stay up with him to make sure he doesn’t sleep, but they all know that with Alex on the first night it’s not at all necessary. They’ll save that for the second night, if for nothing else then to keep him company and show solidarity.

The next morning over breakfast all Lin has to do is take one look at Alex to know this is proving more difficult than they had anticipated, taking in how pale he is and the already increased size of the bags under his eyes.

“Alex, you’re not going to school today.”

“What? No, I’m fine.”

“Even so, I’d really prefer if you didn’t, mijo.” He wants Alex near him just in case something goes wrong.

Lin’s concerned that if he leaves Alex home alone he might accidently fall asleep, which would normally please him, but that would just mean having to start this whole thing all over again. However, since Alex isn’t actually sick, Lin can’t quite justify taking the day off with him (given how many times he’s done that already), so he quickly comes to the decision to have Alex tag along with him all day. Besides it would probably be better if Alex was up and about doing things all day.

 [Insert fluff of spending day together and finally meeting the cast for real. I’ll get to it!]

-         Spoiler from nearly a year later, nope never did, oops.

 Later on in the day at the Public Theater backstage, Lin finally convinces Alex to formally meet a few people.  Knocks on Daveed and Oaks door. 

“Hey Daveed, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. This is my…this is Alex.”

A man with one of the largest afro’s Alex has ever seen pops his head out. He looks familiar though.

“Alex. Good to finally meet you officially.”

“Hi.” Alex resists the urge to hide behind Lin. Not cool Alex. Not cool at all! You’re fifteen, not five.

“I’m glad to see you looking better. You really worried me a couple weeks ago.”

That’s it. He recognizes the voice now. This was the guy who called him “baby Lin” and had so frantically called Lin claiming he needed an ambulance. Alex could just about melt into the floorboards in embarrassment. What the heck is he supposed to say after meeting someone like that?

“Wait until you hear Daveed rap tonight Alex. The man’s a beast!” Lin gushes, completely oblivious to Alex’s humiliation. Or is it because of?

“Are you seeing the show tonight?”

Alex nods. Why is talking so hard?

“You’re in for a real treat! You’ve got a certified genius for a foster dad. Seriously, if anyone else had pitched this idea to me, I would have laughed at them, but because it’s Lin... Okay, I still laughed at him. Listen, I want to apologize for our last encounter Alex. We’ve been hearing Lin talk about you for so long, we were a little too eager, but shouldn’t have burst in like that. I’m sorry for the additional pain we caused you.”

Alex gapes at him. Nope—no idea how to respond to that either. He must look like such an idiot.

“Are you kidding?” cuts in Lin. “Daveed, you get that if you, Oak and Ramos hadn’t disregarded my orders to leave my kid alone, it probably would have been another hour before I checked on him? I don’t even want to think about what state he might have been in then. I am so incredibly grateful for your interference.”

Did Lin just call him his kid? What the hell is he supposed to think of that? This is his tweets referring to him as his ‘son’ all over again. Everyone had assumed he had meant Sebastian with that one, but sheesh. It flashes him back to the conversation he overhead Lin and Vanessa have about it while he was still recovering in bed.

“Oh come on, give me a break here! There are only 150 characters allowed. I don’t have room to put foster in front of it. Besides, the public doesn’t need to know about him.”

“You didn’t have to tweet about it at all.”

“People thought I was dying. I didn’t even give a goodnight tweet. I had to give some explanation.”

“And those fault is that? Lin, you have a twitter problem.”

  Lin is very aware that Alex has never seen him preform outside of ‘In The Heights’ youtube clips he caught him watching, so he decides to still go on as Hamilton as planned. Instead they get a sitter for Sebastian so Vanessa can sit in the audience with Alex.

 Alex is dazzled by the first act. Lin sees him from the stage go from drooping in his chair looking close to falling asleep to wide awake and hanging on every word by the second song. It makes for one of his best performances. Having Alex there and earning his approval matters so much more to him than any celebrity in the audience. What’s truly adorable is that when Vanessa brings him backstage during intermission Alex is acting shy and tongue tied around him, as if he’s suddenly star struck by his own foster dad. Lin’s not worried though, he knows it will pass the next time he annoys him.

“Did you really write that?” he asks shyly right before they leave to take their seats in the audience.

“I did.”

“How?!”

“It did take me seven years. If you like we can add a discussion of the writing process to our nights planned activities.”

“I’d like that.”

 It takes him a while to notice since his back is turned to the audience for the second half of “The World Was Wide Enough”, but as soon as Lin comes forward his eyes zero in right on Alex. He’s bawling his eyes out and Vanessa is starting to look worried. Lin’s distracted enough by this that he misses his cue and grabs Pippa’s hand at the wrong time. At least he doesn’t have to sing anymore. Lin doesn’t know how he could do it when his Alexander is in the front row crying like that. During the bows he makes eye contact with Vanessa who shoots him a panicked look. She holds up her phone to indicate that she sent him a text, which he nods at in confirmation. Once they’ve gone through the motions, he all but sprints off stage to get to his phone.

“Bit of a situation here. Alex *freaked out* when you got shot. Flashback maybe?”

“Stay put for now. Don’t try to navigate the crowds. I’ll meet you there once it clears out a bit. See if I can get security to move things along.”

“Did you hear him scream when Burr shot you?”

That was Alex? Shit! On most nights at least one person shouts out when that happens so it was barely registered. In retrospect, it did sound a little more anguished than normal.

 “You didn’t say you were going to die!” Alex wails, clinging tightly to Lin in a death grip.

“I’m sorry. It’s common knowledge that he dies in a duel. I thought you knew. Leslie even says he shoots me in the first song.”

“Shoots! Not kills!”

 Would give him a sedative if it wouldn’t make staying up any longer impossible.

 “Alex honey, you’re exhausted. Your emotions are all out of sorts right now. It was stupid of me to think seeing the show tonight would be a good idea.”

“No, I’m glad I saw it. It’s a masterpiece. You just need to change the ending.”

“Mijo, this isn’t just something I made up. You can’t rewrite the endings on a real person’s life and make it happy.”

“Then you need to play a different part where you don’t get shot.”

“It’s not real.”

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t want you getting shot at every night.”

 Too exhausted to hold back emotions that night Alex ends up telling him about the cousin who took him in and moved them to New York after the hurricane and shot himself in the head soon after. That’s how Alex ended up in the American foster care system and why he’s not at all a fan of guns.

 Alex is not satisfied until he gets to examine the prop gun and confirm that it can’t hold bullets that someone who dislikes Lin might sneak in. Even so, they have to get the props department to remove the trigger to reassure Alex he’s not really being shot at and make it so that if someone replaced a prop gun with a real one it would be obvious. Even after all that, it’s clear Alex doesn’t trust Leslie.

   It’s past midnight and Alex and Lin are holed up in a café getting desert.

“Alexander, I know you don’t like talking about these things, but do you think you could fill me in a little on what happened tonight? That was a pretty big reaction.”

“I don’t like guns,” Alex mutters, taking a sip of his herbal tea. Even though it doesn’t provide the caffeine fix he takes comfort from the ritual of drinking a hot beverage. It gives him courage.

“Can you tell me more?”

“My cousin Peter shot himself in the head while I was in the next room. There was a loud bang, I ran in and he was on the ground. There was so much blood.”

This is a huge breakthrough. Alex has never shared anything about his past with them. All they know is the bare facts: his father’s not in the picture, his mother died quite suddenly of “natural causes”, cousin who was given guardianship of him committed suicide and he’d suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of his most recent foster family. The exact details of these occurrences are foggy and until now Alexander hasn’t been willing to share.

“Do you think tonight was a flashback to that?” Lin tries to keep his tone mild and calm.

“Yeah…probably…” he looks so defeated. “When I hear a gunshot it’s like I’m back in that room again. Usually, like when Lee and Phillip were shot, I can talk myself out of it, remind myself it’s not real and I’m being stupid. But…when there was a gunshot and then you were keeled over... It looked like there was blood everywhere. I don’t think there was though. There was nothing to clean up after.”

“No Alex, there was no blood on stage.”

“All in my head,” he breathes heavily. The absolute exhaustion just oozes out of him. It’s clear all his defenses are down and Alex doesn’t have the energy to resist questioning. Lin will have to tread lightly.

“Do you think you could tell me more about Peter, mijo? Did he treat you okay?” Lin asks gently.

“I liked Peter. He was kind to me.” Alex stares down at his plate, not making any eye contact, but he talks. “After my mother died the probate court ordered all her possessions be auctioned off and the funds given to my half-brother, her legitimate son. Peter went to the auction and bought back all her books to give to me. He didn’t have to do that, I never asked him to and he never had much money, but he did anyway.”

“He sounds like a good guy,” Lin comments, encouraging him to go on.

“Peter was never stable though. His emotions were all over the place. He’d get really down sometimes and be too depressed to get out of bed for weeks. I ended up having to lie about my age and get a job so we could afford food and rent because he never went to work and couldn’t keep a job. When he got like that I’d have to bring him food or he wouldn’t eat at all. I used to worry all the time that he was going to die in bed like Mom. Sometimes he wouldn’t eat what I gave him, so I would force him and he’d yell at me to leave him alone to die.”

“How old were you when this happened, Alexander?”

“Twelve. I was twelve when I moved in with Peter.”

Over a year then. Over a year with that horribly depressing home life.

“It wasn’t always like that though. Sometimes Peter was full of energy. He was a lot of fun. He never slept much when he was like that and would take me out on wild late night adventures, sort of like we are now.” Alex smiles fondly. It’s clear that despite everything, he cared a great deal for the man. “Peter would get all these wild moneymaking schemes that he’d obsess over, but usually he’d get sad again before anything came of it. Except with moving to New York, that was the one plan he actually did and his mood didn’t change until a week after we moved.” Alex’s breath hitches in his throat. Lin can already see where this is going. “I don’t know where he got the gun…I should have kept a closer eye on him. I should have known the crash was coming.” Alex blinks rapidly, trying to keep the tears from falling.

“Mijo, it wasn’t your fault. Not even a little. It sounds like Peter had severe bipolar disorder that was untreated. Do you know what that is?”

“I’ve heard of it,” Alex sniffs.

“You never should have been put in a situation to have to care for him like you did.  He shouldn’t have been made responsible for a child in that state. It wasn’t fair to you.”

“I loved him.” At this the tears start running freely that Alex tries to rub away, though it makes no difference. Lin can’t hold back anymore and gets up from his seat across from him to pull Alex into a hug.

“I know honey, and that makes it so much worse.”

“I must not have mattered that much to him if he could kill himself and not care what happened to me.”

“He had a mental illness Alex. His brain was sick and not functioning properly. I don’t think he was capable of thinking of anything but his own misery at that moment. But it sounds like he did care about you a good deal.”

“He bought me back the books.”

“That’s right mijo, he bought you back your mother’s books. That sounds like a man who cared. Who loved you as much as he was able.”

Lin wishes so badly that this was the end of his trauma. That Alex was brought to live with them right after his cousin’s suicide, because surely all of that had been enough horror to last a lifetime. It’s not the end though. It’s not even close. After all of that Alexander’s story gets so much worse.

#Alex and Lin verse #unfinished story #read and comment

[echelonlab-blog]

Reigning Madness – Chapter 13

Masterlist

Disclaimer: Fiction.

Warnings: None for this chapter

Tagging: @hazeleyedleto @msroxyblog @letojokerownsme @miss-shannanigans @snewsome756   @maliciousalishious   @nikkitasevoli@meghan12151977 @mindlessselfindulgence88 @sanellv@ambolton@jayded-reality @bradlea23 @spillinginkwithlove @alexis7215@dezmarz@pezziecoyote @whoistheprettiest @avaj99

I arrived at Caroline's place and knocked on the door, not expecting what I would see on the other side. She was in jeans and an AC/DC T-shirt. Her long hair was up in a ponytail and she smiled, "Punctual, I like that."

 I tilted my head and stuttered, "Y-you do realize that we have a date tonight?" Normally when I pick up a woman for a date, they are in a dress and are all made up. Care was really throwing me off tonight.

She raised her eyebrows and folded her arms. The black baseball cap hanging from her fingers completed her little outfit. "Uh, yes I do, and if I'm not mistaken, you promised that I get to pick what we are doing. I have quite the date planned, so you better get ready." She snatched the keys from my hand, "Ooh, can I drive?"

  I loved her feisty attitude and I walked back to my truck laughing to myself. "No problem." She buckled up and waited patiently for me to do the same. "You wanna tell me where we're going?"

 She stared straight ahead and grinned. "Not really, but feel free to guess."

 "Honestly, you are so unpredictable, I have no idea." I loved the way she took charge but wasn't bossy about it. Cynnamon liked to call the shots sometimes, but she was a little more hostile than Caroline. Cynn would also never go on a date without wearing some kind of low cut, extremely revealing dress, not that I was complaining, she had a smoking hot body.

 "I promise you will have fun, at least I hope you do." She stared at the road. I was beginning to grow concerned, realizing that we were actually leaving the city. "Relax, I'm not kidnapping you, too many people know about this date."

   I wasn't expecting the almost hour ride and when she pulled into the parking lot of an old-school amusement park, I couldn't hide my excitement. "What? This is where you wanted to come for our date?"

 She slid out and pulled the cap on, tugging her ponytail through the back. "What's wrong, you scared?"

 "Me?" I asked, with a laugh. "Oh, sweetheart, you have no idea how much I love this shit!"

  She smirked, locking the truck and walking around to toss me the keys. "Good, I just hope you can keep up with me." I slid the sunglasses on my face even though it was dark and she nudged me with her elbow. "You don't actually think those are a disguise, do you?"

Shrugging, I took her hand and we entered the park. It was crowded, but dark, so I hoped we wouldn't be stopped much. Surprisingly, I was only recognized a few times and Care patiently stepped aside while I posed for a few photos. I finally took the sunglasses off and shoved them into my pocket. We had a blast, riding each attraction more than once.

  Cynnamon would never want to do anything like this. This was a laid-back and less classy date. Cynnamon was more into fine dining and going places where she could dress up. I didn't mind, but it was nice to do something adventurous for once.

   We stopped on the pier to look at the water and some kids came running by, accidentally shoving Caroline. I caught her in my arms and we locked eyes. The intoxicating scent of her perfume was enough to make my brain swim. It was like slow motion and I swallowed hard, unable to deny my attraction to her. Just as my lips got close enough to touch hers, I came to my senses and backed up, steadying her. Immediately, I regretted what almost happened and watched her turn toward the railing. "I'm sorry, Jared."

  "No, don't be. I had a great time tonight, but it's getting late. We should probably go."

         -Caroline's POV-

   I watched Jared as we stood by the water. He looked completely relaxed and smiling, more than I had seen him in a while. I think that, at least for a little bit, he had forgotten all the drama going on in his life and was just simply in the moment. It was exactly what I wanted to give him with this date. I was about to comment on how happy he looked when something hit me from behind, sending me off balance and knocking the wind out of me. Suddenly I was in Jared's arms, smelling that clean, soapy scent of his as his bright blue eyes stared into my own. There was something in the way he looked at me, the way he swallowed slowly while he looked at my lips that set off alarm bells in my head. He's not yours, Caroline, they told me. You know who he belongs to....

      -flashback to high school-

   “Look out loser!” A gaggle of cheerleaders and their court of popularity drones shoved their way in front of me, apparently to their minds far too important to wait in the lunch line with us unwashed masses. I watched them as they made their way along, giggling and sneering and tossing around ponytails festooned in ridiculous amounts of ribbons. I sighed. It wasn't worth trying to fight them over. Life was easier when I was invisible to their type anyway.

   Once I had my lunch tray I searched the cafeteria for my boyfriend, I located him and sat down across from him with a very different kind of sigh. Jason was probably the cutest boy I had ever seen. He was certainly the cutest boy that had ever paid attention to me. He looked up at me from his sloppy Joes and flashed me a dazzling white smile and I just melted.

   “Are you coming with me to the party tonight?” he asked, popping a tater tot between his perfect lips. Jason was on the football team, it was Homecoming, and the popular crew was throwing a big bash at the home of someone whose parents were out of town. It was every teen cliché in the book. I shrugged and looked over at the table where the psycho pep squad was now sitting. One of the girls, one that I particularly had difficulty with, was already looking my general direction and caught me, making that obnoxious “L” thing on her forehead and sneering. Jason noticed where I was looking. “Pfft,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Don't worry about Susan. She just puts on a show so she can fit in. She's not like them."

   “No,” I said, poking at my fruit cocktail. “She's worse.”

   “I'm telling you, it's all for show. She's just trying to keep up. You know her family doesn't have any money right? Her dad's like some chronically unemployed loser. It's sad really.”

   I remembered all the grief, Susan had given me from the minute she rolled into town. She had just started this year, we weren't even up to Homecoming yet and she had already singled me out for the worst of her treatment. When I tried to ignore her, when I hadn't fought back, she had labeled me a mousy little loser and made sure her entire crew knew it. I wasn't popular, but I wasn't exactly a pariah before either. I was the girl that studied hard, listened to too much music, wore nothing but band t-shirts and jeans and mostly minded my own business. Susan Evans was vain and shallow, never did any homework that I could see, dressed to the nines every single day and chased popularity like it was air. I didn't know how she dressed like that if she was poor, I had heard she had a shoplifting habit, but frankly, I didn't care. Susan's backstory was not my problem. Her treatment of me was. “The only thing sad about Susan is Susan,” I told Jason.

   I don't know what made me decide to go to the party that night. It might have been the cologne Jason was wearing or the way he made my 17-year-old insides melt when he flashed me those big dark blue eyes of his. But I after the game I had given in to his wishes, following along after him, clinging to his side while he talked to his buddies about tricked out Celicas and crappy obscure rap genres. I lost track of how many little red cups of beer he handed me as I lurked but after a while, I wasn't feeling very good, and I went to lay down on one of the lounge chairs by the pool.

   Of course, I wasn't left unmolested. Guy after guy passed by, stopping to hit on me and test my level of drunkenness. When they assessed that I was too sober for date rape or whatever else in the hell these entitled assholes got up to at parties they would wander off, leaving me in peace until the next douchebag played through. After about an hour of this, I'd had enough and went to go find Jason to see if he would take me home.

   For years afterward, I could close my eyes and conjure the next scene perfectly. I had stumbled through the house until I found the kitchen, a traditional affair with white wood cabinets and gray and white granite counter tops. There were bowls of chips and pretzels sitting out on the butcher block island and large bottles of cheap vodka and grain alcohol littering the countertops. There were four different couples in there, all necking. Robbie Fenton had his hands up Teresa Kiplinger's cheerleading sweater, and next to them Kitty Marquez had her hands down Chase Miller's pants. Nadia Keane and Alex Barber were exchanging saliva. And in the corner, Susan Evans had her legs wrapped around the waist of Jason Caldwell, Jason Bradley Caldwell, my Jason, with his number 23 football Jersey and tight blue jeans, while he groped her and ground against her. I ran out of the room and threw up.

    -End of flashback-

   And now here we were. This was Susan's boyfriend. He wasn't mine. And as he blinked his eyes and his lips got closer I realized I had the perfect opportunity for payback. But I didn't want payback. I didn't want to be her. And I didn't want to use Jared like that. I quickly turned away and grabbed the railing. “I'm sorry, Jared,” I told him. I just wanted the past to stay there. I guess was still a mousy little loser after all.

#jared leto fanfiction #jared leto fic #shannon leto fanfiction #shannon leto fic #30 seconds to mars fanfiction #30STM #Reigning Madness

[ncfan-1]

Gotham 04X04, ‘The Demon’s Head’

Ben McKenzie wrote this. On his honeymoon. This is Gotham.

- We open with Bruce having taken the knife to a Dr. Winthrop. It was apparently a 1st century CE Mesopotamian knife, but Alex, Winthrop’s grandson, thinks the writing is pre-cuneiform. Something’s definitely not adding up here. Cuneiform dates back to 3500-3000 BCE in, yes, Mesopotamia (The Sumerians invented it). Also, Mesopotamia is a region, not a single kingdom; it’s been home to many civilizations over the eons, and has been ruled by the Babylonians and the Persians, among others.

(Fun fact: Cuneiform is actually not the earliest known system of writing. That honor belongs to the Dispilio tablet found in Greece, and the Tărtăria tablets found in Romania. Both were carbon-dated to around the sixth millennium BCE.)

- And Ed’s plastered the walls and the floor with photos and papers. Not looking so good.

- Ominous prophecy of ominousness. I like the Winthrops, especially Alex. I like characters who show curiosity. And Ra’s has shown up for his knife. I love how he’s being so casual about being two thousand years old. I love Siddig’s performance. I love this.

- And then Ra’s kills the poor old man.

- Harper’s good.

- Gordon’s not looking forward to seeing Barbara again.

- I like Barbara’s new hairdo; it’s more styled, more in line with her usual… self. And Ra’s has employed what appears to be a literal human dog to get his knife back. (I sure as hell hope Alex is gonna come out of this episode alright. I’m afraid that guy might take a literal chunk out of him. And… I’m not sure, but if we’re meant to come away with the notion that the human dog, ‘Anubis’ by name, is mentally disabled as opposed to brainwashed and conditioned, yeahhhhh… About in line with Gotham’s usual treatment of the mentally ill.)

- First meeting between Oswald and Sofia. Her cover is that she’s here to see to the Falcones’ charity organizations. We also get an explanation for what sort of people would be still be loyal to the Falcones. She plays to his sympathy, fakes being near tears; I can’t tell if Oswald buys it or not, but the scene was magical.

- Gordon is thrown by Barbara’s new demeanor. Bruce shows up.

- Bruce and Gordon shout at each other. Gordon challenges Bruce to help him find Alex if he really wants to “play detective.”

- It’s the rap scene. What the fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

- “What the hell was that?” What, indeed.

- Oswald plans to have Ed frozen again. And we see the hazard of having more than one person around who has the same given name.

- Poor Alex; he can barely talk. And from the front of the library, we hear screaming.

- Anubis literally jumps on Gordon, while his handler comes up from behind him. When Gordon asks the handler who sent him, he doesn’t answer in English. Is it Arabic? I’m not sure.

- And Ra’s just shows up at the precinct. And he is apparently a minister of antiquities. They go to talk in Bullock’s office.

- Poor Alex got bitten. They seem to have holed up in an abandoned house. Poor Alex. I just want to wrap him up in a bunch of blankets and tell him it’ll be alright. (Poor Jonathan has company in the blanket corner now.)

- Bruce tries giving Alex a pep talk about fear. Alex just sits down on the stairs and messes with the bandage. Alex talks about how the other kids talked about him after his parents were killed. Bruce and Alex bond; it’s so sweet.

- Ra’s tells Gordon that the knife is the cultural patrimony of his country. Gordon tells him to explain. Ra’s tells him his origin story, clearly enjoying every moment of it. He makes himself sound like a sort of dark King Arthur, with the embalming knife as his Excalibur. “But to my people, very meaningful.”

- Alfred punches out Ra’s. Glorious glorious glorious. The sound you hear is me clapping and cackling. Yessss.

- And in the amount of time it took Gordon to try to talk Alfred down, Ra’s disappears.

- Some of Falcone’s old men are bothering Sofia, only for Oswald to show up.

- Even as Oswald tries to school Sofia, Sofia schools him. And she smiles once he leaves, even though she’s gotta get rid of the bodies. I hope she eats him alive; she’s amazing.

- Bruce and Alex goes to the knife, and Alex relates the legends surrounding the knife, asking if it really is a legend. But Anubis is hot on their trail.

- I didn’t notice before, but Anubis is on a chain.

- Gordon and Alfred have it out. Gordon tells Harper to have Alfred arrested if he tries to leave the precinct once Gordon heads out. They try to act like they don’t know what to have him arrested for, but ‘obstruction of justice’ would probably fit, given all the things that are aired in that conversation.

- Oswald went to the pier, but Ed didn’t show. Another rap. (I feel like Oswald’s gonna have Zsasz kill these guys this time.)

- Well, torture, but otherwise, I was right.

- I’m pretty sure Anubis bit Gordon. Then his handler throws Gordon through a glass display case. That’s… gonna leave a mark. Then Alex stabs the handler. Then Gordon literally throws a bone for Anubis to chase. Straight out a window. I’m not even joking. That happened.

- Ra’s has a knife to Alex’s throat. Bruce is afraid to give Ra’s the knife, and poor Alex gets his throat cut. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Ra’s is way too calm about being arrested; he obviously has an out.

- (You know, when they were talking about an estrangement between Gordon and Bruce this season, I was thinking the path to that would be, you know, Gordon trying to reinstate Carmine Falcone in Gotham City. Not this. I can see an estrangement coming from this, but the former appeals to me more, because Gordon would finally suffer consequences for his actions.)

- Alex is dead. They fridged him. No, seriously, they literally killed him off just to give Bruce angst. It is possible to survive having your throat cut, you know. Fuck you, Gotham.

- Gordon tries to comfort Bruce. He seems to have developed a specific form of amnesia regarding death and resurrection.

- Ed storms into the Iceberg Lounge. And Oswald lets him walk away unfrozen because Ed’s just that pathetic. And because it just wouldn’t satisfy him. He fucks with Ed’s head and lets him walk away. People… ship this. I don’t understand. (From either sides.) I mean, I understand taking a less than stellar ship from original content and making something more compelling out of it in fic, but I don’t understand why people find this compelling in the show. I never have, to be honest. Ah, well. To each their own.

- Sofia tells Gordon a story about how her dad killed a man. She plays Gordon like a harp. It’s glorious. She’s glorious. I could have done without seeing them start to have sex. They don’t have much in the way of chemistry. Mostly because Gordon never has chemistry with women.

- Our last shot is of Ra’s entering Blackgate.

- My final verdict: Ben McKenzie should write more. Even when it’s not very good, it’s hella entertaining. And I say this rather cautiously, but Jim Gordon was actually almost likable at certain points in this episode. I say this as someone who usually wants to hit her head against the wall because of him (And occasionally actually has hit her head against things because of him. The worst part is that if he actually consistently experienced consequences for his behavior and he didn’t get away with so much, I’d probably actually like him. Watching someone be held accountable for their behavior and be forced to learn and grow away from it can make a lot of difference.). Maybe it’s because McKenzie has had to play him for so long, but there seemed to be a better sense of who Jim Gordon is this episode—or, at least, who he’s supposed to be.

The only thing that failed to engage me was Ed and Oswald’s scene together near the end, but that’s more because, for me, their dynamic has always fallen a little flat. Otherwise, I thought this was a pretty good episode by Gotham standards. It was entertaining, at least.

#ncfan watches Gotham

[inappropriatefangirlneeds]

Gotham s4ep4 “The Demon's Head” Personal Review 

“I hope that satisfies your curiosity” Warning spoilers below  

Not quite back to the old format but I´m not sure if that´s a good or bad thing anyway.

The “What is so important about this knife?!” club, founded by Barbara Kean gets two honourably members, Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon. Ra´s al Ghul still refuses to reveal more than vague ideas and stories.

 * I like Alex Winthrop, I want(ed) to be Alex, I´m jealous, beyond jealous and full of regret * they really got the switch in tone from boy just talking to boy remembering other “boy” in the room is Bruce Wayne really nice * NILES WINTHROP: “My boy people believe in these stories, they kill for them” Stories and ideas still the most dangerous thing in history since the dawn of mankind!  * That what is it a saber tooth tiger? skeleton gives me Hannibal Randall Tier flashbacks  * “The best liar I ever met ran a brothel in Shanghai. Her quite considerable gift was that you knew she was lying but didn´t care, you so badly wanted to believe her” No my dear Ra's al Ghul the best liar you ever met was a plain and simple tailor.  

 * “Knocking Victor, we discussed this.” WHEN, WHY, did you discuss this, WHAT happened that you had to discuss this ?! I need to know. Oswald .. spill the beans.

* SOFIA FALCONE claims to be only here to support the charities. Concerns from OSWALD COBBLEPOT are unfounded, she says. VICTOR ZSASZ is leaning the background and distracting me tremendously, the blue suits him. Victor´s “I´mma stab you” sound so lovely, the threat goes totally over my head.  Glad Oswald´s paranoia is confirming my headcanon about the families lying doormat. Sofia is so good, I´m starting to love her. She´s aiming for harmless. It reminds me so much of early Oswald.   

* Some families loyal to Falcone show up at SOFIA FALCONE´s place wanting back old times and their beloved Carmine. She claims to want them gone for their own good, too late. Oswald makes her listen to them being shot. She served them to penguin on an ice cold plate. That was so calculated wasn´t it. “You used me” Sofia lets OSWALD COBBLEPOT believe that he is calling the shots. He seems to buy it. “You´re alive aren’t you” “I would plant roses; they will cover up the smell”  Sofia criticizes Oswald´s methods: “My father wouldn´t have ..”   “My father knew how to build on the strength of others ..”  Send a message that the old order supports him then the now dead men would have pledged him loyalty.  She is weaseling herself into his empire presenting herself as useful. This is “golden goose” part two! Oswald acts like he doesn´t care  “New Times, new methods” but I´m sure this will be going through his mind. He took so much from his old mentors, he knows that himself, he´s even mentioned it this episode.

 * Later: SOFIA FALCONE talking to JIM GORDON pushes emotion buttons again: Recalling her father Carmine Falcone stabbing a man begging for his life just to see everything back to normal as if nothing had happened the next day. One would think she should turn her back on Gotham but nope. “This house, this city is in my veins, I´m home Jim.” Is she mirroring the blood rhetoric from Jim in 4x03? “It´s in my blood” were Jim´s words  “The city is my birth right” was her phrasing, both refer to a birth right in some way but there was more legal/law rhetoric in it.   Jim asks about the missing/dead men. Since when is Jim eager to investigate the murder of criminals. Sofia tells him about Penguin using her as bait and Jim is “And you let him” yeaah right? He´s not taking her seriously previously but now she should have things neat and tidy.  Sofia calls him out that Jim´s coming for help from Carmine would never have been bloodless. Was that her plan, Jim asks, get close to penguin gain his confidence. He needs to know what she is going to do. No he doesn’t! (Makes me think of Jim just being more open to Barbara Kean in S1 would have prevented some stuff and things as well.) Sofia is gonna get the city back from penguin, that´s what Jim wants she´s gonna give him that but he has to trust her! Jim grabs her arm, smashes the glass and kisses her. It´s like in the old movies. They make out on the couch. Damn. But I´m only and only accepting the whole thing if this is actually this time Jim using his sexuality as a weapon. Let this be Jim being the feme fatale seducing someone to gain leverage over them. Please. (Also with all the Sofia & Oswald parallels this (even if just plain actual love or lust) is so good.) 

* JIM GORDON looks so out of place in BARBARA KEAN´s weapon shop I love it. Seeing the spiked punk hair next along to the pristine blue velvet (?) sofas is wonderful. No one so far has been sitting on them right? The guys in the room drink from glasses and a wine bottle. Makes me think of if Barbara confiscated all the beer cans before they entered the place (doesn’t fit the aesthetic) and made them clean their combat boots. Jefferson Airplane “White Rabbit” always gets me. Barbara with the playing cards picks up the Alice in Wonderland theme. Her hair looks nice again. * “You like this me better?”  Barbara is still picking up there history but Jim isn´t even acknowledging it. Despite her new chill attitude it seems those things still matter to her? * RA´S and Barbara´s interaction are still oddly respectful, I wanna know more.

* The upside down EDWARD NYGMA cut was lovely, and I can relate writing is a struggle and you need knifes for it * I regret watching the preview, I think the sudden rap would have had more impact not knowing about it in advance. * “Well that´s exactly what you would say” Victor Zsasz just want´s to torture people he´s ready to find any reason for it. * The riddled invitations are all in vain Edward bursts into the Iceberg Lounge. There is some banter with OSWALD COBBLEPOT who then recognizes Ed is not quite himself. * “Six hours for two bad riddles does that sound like anything like the old you” “Revenge will make me feel better” “You wont have revenge on me” “Yeah I will” “No you won´t” “Only HE can get revenge on me”  This is prime Season 1 Oswald, bargaining for his life with eloquence and wits. He´s talked himself out of being killed, again. This would totally have worked without the reinforcement as well. * Edward gives in, okay freeze me, he says what Oswald´s surely please to here “I´m not the Riddler”. It saves him. “I would only freeze Ed Nygma, who cares about that. Better revenge is having you live, knowing that you are not him, and you never will be again.” I´m crying.  Also, I get the rhetoric’s but that´s just sentiment there. Oswald stabbed people for less, granted he´s had more time to think about things in that scenario but even in not so impulsive situations he´s never been Mr. Sadistic. He´s wallowed in having the upper hand (and consequently someone else suffering because of that) but he´s not into torture he´s not into that prolonged dragged out element of this, if someone suffers from his hand it´s more a straight line thing, clearer and done when done. His cruelty has function, often a message (Feeding Grace her children, the corpses in Sofia´s garden,) but he´s not wallowing in the cruelty per se. (Or am I forgetting something?)  

* What are the flowers in place of the Ice Sculpture. The pink suits the Iceberg Lounge but I need to know if those flowers go a particular meaning. * “Who am I”  Ed is back to the old question.

 * BRUCE WAYNE feels responsible for the Winthrop murder.  Well he should have thought about that earlier. If Alfred indeed advised him not to let the man have the knife overnight Alfred has some serious wisdom points over Bruce this week. I don´t really get why Bruce would be so reckless anyway. It was risky in terms of losing the knife and also in terms of risking other person´s well being. What got into him? Plot convenience?  * “Fear is normal” Poor ALEX WINTHROP. He´s a muffin. There´d be so many characters who would be mad at Bruce even if he truly actually didn´t have a clue about the knife. I find it a bit odd that they would trust each other that quickly and have such a conversation but I´m not questioning it cause it´s just too much of a beautiful scene. “Weirdly cool” 

* They both flee from some hunter and ANUBIS that Ra´s sent after the knife. What´s Egyptian mythology got to do with all this? How does he know how to track down the knife? Wouldn´t he like needed to have smelled it to recognize it? Has he, how old is he? Has he been killed with the knife and brought back to have a connection of what? Just in general what?! * Old me, good me, on track me would be so stressed out by all the mess with the books. * Also later:  Playing fetch with the bone. Are you serious ?! :D * “Hiding it in plain sight” Did I say I love Alex. I never know why people put the stuff in the most secure place. Put it in your hopelessly messy dresser. Let them dig though old and new socks, no pair matching not knowing if they are going to find anything there or somewhere starched between old documents and files, or maybe in an emptied shampoo bottle among (yeah I know the particular knife isn´t going to fit but you get the idea) lotions, soaps and things.   “The man that killed him, he can´t have this.” Could I love him more. Thinking about his Grandfathers words and them maybe being true he takes responsibility, he´s considerate. He´s not dropping it like hot coals that burnt his hand, he´s looking at his injuries wanting them to have some meaning. This guy killed his grandfather that´s reason enough for not doing him any favours of any way.  Alex is so dead, he´s so going to die, right?!

* JIM GORDON got his detective skills back this week. He´s easily deducting Alex´s escape, taking aid in Bruce, and that little story face off with RA´S AL GHUL was just lovely to watch: The boy is hunted because of the knife or because the killer thinks he saw something > Did he? > No. > Phew, well then he is safe.  I´d love to have seen them talk more, but yeah I get it it´s not Garak and Bashir. * ALFRED PENNYWOTH interrupts and promptly punches Ra´s. “Where the bloody hell is Gordon”  “He´s bloody vanished”   Jim is trying to get him stop the riot  “I need you to calm down”. This is a nice contrast to the recent just “set the butler loose” he´ll hurt people but things will be alright. Jim being the one recognizing sudden action and violence might not be the best thing long term is a nice change and it gives me tiny flash backs to the Jim Gordon from S1 who calmed down and defused dangerous situation.

 * BIG THING this week is people not telling Jim stuff. Bruce is not confiding in him until he is persuaded. Sofia is not letting Jim in on her plans, I hope she´ll stay clever and continue that. There is a big confrontation between Jim and Alfred about this. “You do not get to lecture me on a lack of honesty and openness” Alfred and Bruce were up to something for weeks. For once Jim is kind of right in his righteous rage. Alfred, as his guardian can violate privacy if for the sake of safety, Jim claims. Alfred is not having it. “Stick to the point” Having Pennyworth stay back and possibly arrested is petty and not a good call though. It will teach him a lesson is something for bickering lovers not people trying to safe someone. Alfred even picks that dispute up again later when Jim is trying to comfort Bruce and reason he needs to be talked to to be helpful “Ra´s is a psychopath, you are not responsible for his action. I wanna help but everything you´ve said so far ..  give me something I can believe.”  “Perhaps now you understand why we held back.”  Alfred jabs. I hope they get over the pettiness and will work together..

* “You don´t understand he, killed Alfred and then brought him back” Is this the week where they have the BRUCE WAYNE & JIM GORDON parallels reversed?  Usually it´s Bruce Wayne caring first and foremost about saving and protecting the lives of others (”even” if it´s the life of a thief 4x03) now he hesitates to hand over the knife in exchange for Alex´s life. Usually it´s Jim Gordon who risks the well being of others and steps over corpses for the sake of the mission and the grand picture.  Moreover did he really say “he” killed Alfred? While I would absolutely agree that all blame for this solely is to be put on Ra´s and Bruce is the victim in this. I find myself surprised that Bruce would say it that way. So far we´ve seen him feel responsible for what he did under Ra´s influence. I took him as someone who would not want to forget this, a cautionary detail to avoid similar things in the future. Seeing and putting the blame on someone else without keeping an eye on one´s own responsibility in the scenario (subjectively or objectively) is something Jim does. Bruce takes responsibility for his actions, he faces his mistakes. Yet this week he claims to have been unknowing about the dangers of the knife, (Don´t get me wrong in this situation it probably was the better and much more helpful option.) and he keeps risking more Winthrop lives.

* RA´S AL GUHL obviously is pleased with Bruce´s actions.  “Well done Bruce, you finally begin to see things clearly. The question is are you strong enough?”  

* After ALEX got killed (I knew it but argh) Bruce is back to. “This is all my fault” Despite Jim Gordon trying to tell him otherwise he´s confirming:  It doesn´t matter what you say, it´s all my fault, I killed him. Yep sounds more like the Bruce we know. The little trip into Jim Gordon ways did not agree with him.  I wonder what Ra´s would say to this. Probably that he isn´t strong enough. But I´d say admitting and recognizing such a thing needs strength.  Back to the parallel we´ve had Lee and others blame Jim for all the misery around him, while I have to disagree with quite some cases we haven´t seen Jim owning up to it or seriously second guessing his deed. We´ve only got clues that he´s quite miserable at times but he´s never set down being like yep you´re right that was wrong. Bruce´s gonna do that and keep doing that I assume ?

* “Sure but, how do you spell .. “  I feel called out I still look up how to spell Ra's al Ghul.  That and Oswald twice not being in the spot where Edward was waiting for him is adding so much “realism”. Cause that´s exactly how all those great plans would play out if it weren´t the movies.  “Honestly that could be anything” Oswald calls it about the riddles.  I also really loved the so absolutely done he can´t even properly handle his glass nor keep his hands out of is face attitude. There´s so much “I feel this”. Same with the petty bickering in between Oswald and Ed (you´re not smart, yeah well maybe because you froze me, I get revenge, no you wont, yes , no) and Jim and Alfred. There´s still been great statements in there but also some kind of spotonness . If it´s BenMckenzie solely responsible for this: Bless you.

* That tiny penguin pin on Oswald´s suit! * “My other Victor”  “Not you, the other Victor”  Mr. “the other” Victor Freeze. <3

#gotham #gotham meta #mine Gotham full episode reviews #gotham s4ep4 The Demon´s Head #gotham language

[drethebarber]

THE “DRE THE BARBER” STORY by Andrae Deon Davis

What’s good world! This is a story about a young man some of you may know and others may not, but let me take you on a ride through my life. I was born in March 1982 and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas on the south side of the city. The middle child of three, I had an older brother named Chris and a little sister, Katheryn. My single mother, Wendy, was so beautiful, hardworking, church going, and could sing her butt off. She had one of the most beautiful voices you would ever hear. She took care of her kids on her own and made sure we had things provided for.

Chris had a different father while Kat and I had the same dad. Our dad, Ramon, was a preacher and was part of a gospel singing group. His side of the family was into church heavy and could sing very well. I guess that’s how my mother and father met. Just about every weekend, I would go spend time with my dad and my paternal grandmother, Mae. Kat was too young, so she really couldn’t come. Grandma Mae just loved the boys of the family, not really caring much about the girls at all for some reason. I recall going to be with my dad to watch him sing and play drums, and sometimes lead the group on a song or two. My mother didn’t really care for him, as she would sometimes prevent my sister and I from seeing him and often calling him “Reverend Low Down.” I’m guessing she had personal issues going on with him. Sometimes my dad wouldn’t show up when he said he was coming. I would just have a fit and cry often times because I loved being around my dad so much.

As the years progressed, the streets started taking a bad turn in the late 80’s. Drugs and gangs were on the rise and my brother Chris was slowly getting more involved in the streets. He was hanging with his neighborhood friends. They all went to Mitchell Elementary, hung out every day, and played for a little league football team called the Sunset Tigers. One day Chris and his friends got together and made up a posse. This was during the time that gangster rap was thriving. You had your N.W.A’s and other similar groups, etc. Chris and friends, Alex, Harold, T.J., Bobby, Frankie, and Ant used to hang on this corner called Shillier, and on this corner the street number was 23rd. They decided to take 23rd and make it into a posse. They were kicking people’s butts fighting, stealing, and they were even doing makeshift tattoos with erasers putting “23rd” on their arms. The click took a turn in the early 90’s however. Some of the friends went their ways, but the posse continued to grow, turning into “the Crips.” Alex, Ant, Frankie, and Bobby, remained “23rd” and my brother Chris, Harold, T.J. became “8ball Bloods.” Later through the years, the friends became enemies, and over time relations worsened.

During this time in the early 90’s, it was evident the streets weren’t safe anymore. You had “Bloods” around the corner, and “Crips” on the next. There was drive by after drive by, killing after killing, and violence was rampant. Seeing this, my mother moved around quite a bit, but never quite out of the area. Chris would go spend time with our maternal grandma, Henrie Lee, and our uncles Willie, Mooney, Kwanis, and Aunt Edwina to try to keep him out of trouble. But that didn’t help anyway. Chris was getting into a lot of trouble, so they moved to 29th and Summit in a big, beautiful house on the corner. Though the home itself was a nicer place to live than the last living environment, it was directly across the street from the Sunset Projects. The whole block was full of “Bloods” and “Vice Lords,” drug dealers, killers, and crack addicts. Anything and everything you can name was on that block. There was something peculiar going on. Chris started to really change, selling dope heavy, getting busted, and the streets just took him under. My mother, too, started to change. She was a janitor for the school district making good money, but lost her job because the streets were getting to her. Things just started to change for the worst it seemed as she later on became a crack addict herself.

My brother’s friends were serving off our porch, and serving my mother as well. I was finding crack pipes all around the house, seeing my mother sleep with all kinds of men, walking in her room and seeing her lie across the bed butt naked, sleep with a crack pipe on the side of the night stand. Winter came and we would have no lights, water, or gas at times. Roaches and maggots were in our food, and we’d only be surviving off of Faygo pop drinks and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Often times, we’d ask the neighbors for clean drinking water. Things were so bad, not only did we have pests and rodents living with us, rats would chew up our clothes. So one day, my Grandma Henrie Lee just got sick and tired, and came and got Kat and I while we both were still in elementary school. My brother, Chris, was in jail for beating up a teacher at Southwest Jr. High. Grandma Henrie made sure Kat and I were good, showing us how to respect others, and how to take care of ourselves. My mother continued to stay out in the streets. Progressively declining and starting to be more visibly battered, becoming very skinny, and not looking like the mother I had known. She looked like she could die any day.

As a young man entering junior high at Henderson, I also was straggling the line between being in the streets like my brother or growing up to be a good young man. One day I got caught throwing up gang signs. Somebody told my Uncle Willie, who was a police officer by trade, and understandably stern with me. My uncle got on me tough, put a whipping to my backside, and told me forcefully that he would not let me end up in these streets like Chris. He just didn’t want to lose another nephew, so he did what he could to influence and rear me. By this time it was the late 90’s, and I was entering high school. My grandmother sent me to live with my Uncle Willie and his wife because she felt that I needed a father figure in my life. After reviewing her options, she thought that Uncle Willie was the best fit, and I must say Uncle Willie did a good job at it. He took me in and showed me how to be a respectful, clean, and responsible young man.

While I was in high school, my mom went to prison. The drugs did her so bad, and she just didn’t want help. She was in jail my last two years of high school. Hoping she would get out by the time I graduated in 2000, when she didn’t, my mother sent me a letter telling me how sorry she was. I was just in tears uncontrollably. The slight bright side was that my brother Chris actually did get out of jail in time to watch me graduate. I don’t believe people in high school ever knew what was going on in my life because I never showed it. I would always dressed nice and kept a smile on my face. I would try to keep people smiling, laughing just to be silly, and enjoying being the life of the party. My Uncle Willie’s wife was trying to get me to go to college heavy. She had me applying for school after school. I loved drawing, and was looking at art schools, but there was something different I wanted to do. I wanted to cut hair though never in life had I picked up clippers. I told my uncle’s wife that I wanted to go to barber school and she just shot my dreams down. She said that I would never make it cutting hair since there’s no money in it. Because she came from a family that went on to school, she figured that’s what I needed to do.

Hearing this, I decided to go and talk to my grandmother seeing that I knew she’d give me a different opinion. She told me to be whatever I want to be and if that’s being a barber then I should do it. She said she knew I would make it and be okay if I followed my heart. So then I had a talk with my uncle. He just kept it all out real, saying that college is not for everybody. He advised that if I felt that it’s not for me, then I should just do something productive. That was like the best advice I’d ever heard. After talking with them, I applied to barber school and got accepted. After this, my uncle’s wife didn’t like it at all. We wound up getting into it and she didn’t want me living there anymore. She even went on to say that I was the reason that my uncle and her weren’t working out. After facing this news, I decided to bounce and go live with my brother Chris. He made sure I was straight, but I knew this new lifestyle came with other facets. Chris was then selling drugs really heavy, and most nights we had to answer the door with guns. There were drug addicts running in and out of the home, due to my brother selling everything you can name. With me responding to the cards I was given, everything came with a grain a salt. I was now pursuing my dream of becoming a barber, but things in my life were still becoming worse.

I ended up moving out of the apartment from my brother because of safety. By this time it’s 2001, and I had a girl by the name of Shae. She was fresh out of high school, and both of us got a place together in the same complex that my brother Chris was staying in. I was still in school, but after school I would drive her car around and cut hair for $5 while she was at work. She held me down, paid the bills until I was out of school, and worked long hours to make it happen. My brother was keeping the drugs and guns at our apartment so the cops wouldn’t know where to find it if they busted him. Chris was getting big time, making all kinds of money, and things just started to change in 2002. He started messing with more of the wrong people, and I watched as friends and family got jealous. People were getting over on him, yet Chris and some of our cousins had the city on lock. Things went sour, and Chris ended up catching an attempted murder charge. He shot a chick seven times, and got into it with more people. It got so bad that he told me and Shae to move somewhere else because he didn’t feel that we were safe staying there anymore. He told me to give the drugs and guns to our cousins so they can come up on some money to get him out.

Chris was later able to get out on a $250,000 bond. He was out of jail only three months when he and I talked, and he told me I’m the reason he sold drugs and did what he did. It was because of how he coped with how we were struggling and how he wanted to see the family bounce back. Then a couple weeks after this, Chris got killed. He was found shot dead in a ditch on July 4th, 2002. I had lost my only brother, and our cousin was killed the day before. Grandma Henrie Lee died a couple months later, then I lost my best friend Braylon that same summer, all in one year. Then, to compound this, I broke up with my girlfriend Shae after three years due to the pressure.

Despite this, I ended up getting out of school in 2003, becoming one of the city of Little Rock’s highly talked about barbers. I have traveled around the nation cutting all kinds of celebrities’ hair. I won the “Best Barber” award in 2006. As well, I also became a rapper and had one of the best songs that came out in the city, called “Do the Jump Rope.” The hit made mainstream, allowing me to perform on MTV Sweet 16, and opening up for various big-time artists. Then, however, I knew there was a bigger picture I had drawn out.

In 2008, my mom went back to prison again. I used to be so upset at her, but I learned to let it go, and allow God to handle it. She will always be my mom, and you only get one. For her to get better, she will need me and my sister to hold her down and be there for her when needed. I decided to move to Atlanta in 2008. I jumped out on faith, leaving everything behind. All of my worries, stress, my losses, and just started over. I haven’t looked back since. I’ve met and fostered great connections with people since arriving. In January 2014, I opened my own shop in Atlanta called Levelz Beauty and Barber Lounge. It was one of the most talked about shops in the city. But closed it down in July 2015 due to conflict of interest with my Business partner. Also, I’m glad to say that my mother is out of prison now and has been clean since her release in 2011.

This story is a testament of my life and its struggles. I understand I’ve gone through a lot to get where I wanted to be. It was nothing but the grace of God that got me through this. For the people who are always looking from the outside, you never know what the person you are viewing is going through on the inside. What I did showed people that no matter what happens in your life, it can get better. And I’m a witness to that. Now that I’ve told you, you can see why I’m blessed and why I draw people to me. That’s because I put my mind on being successful and to be the best I want to be. All the stuff I’ve been through in my life, I use it as motivation. I feel that y'all should do the same and stop making excuses. So to all of you that’s going through it, it’s up to y'all to get up and get it! Stop blaming the next man for your struggles. This is my story and I hope y'all enjoyed it.

SHOUT OUT TO MY FAM, THE DAVIS FAMILY, and HUNTER FAMILY. Also, my SISTER KAT. Baby I love you so much eeeeeeeeeeeh!!!!!! To my uncles WILLE, MOONY, and KWANIS. DADDY, FOR GIVING ME THAT CREATIVE SIDE. AND MY BEST FRIEND SHAE of course. I LOVE YOU GIRL AND I OWE YOU THE WORLD. AND ALL MY FRIENDS THAT’S BEEN THROUGH THICK AND THEN WITH ME. UNTIL THEN I’M GOING TO CONTINUE TO BALL OUT AND BE THE BEST! #POW!!!!! YOU CAN HATE ME OR LOVE ME!!!! FOLLOW ME DAILY ON INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/drethebarber

#drethebarber

[fuckyeahoutsidexbox]

Show of the Week - Tekken Tag Tournament 2

First Show of the Week giffed and transcribed! Transcript is under the cut, please tell me if there are any mistake so I can edit them!

[sounds from the game Tekken Tag Tournament 2]

 (Andy)

Hello everyone and welcome to show of the week. Mike, what have you been up to this week of which this is the show of.

 (Mike)

I’ve been on the Borderlands 2 skill tree calculators on borderlands2.com working out how I’m gonna level up my character.

 (Andy)

You’ve seemed to have put all your points into something called gun lust.

 (Mike)

…Yeah it was filled out like that when I got here.

 (Andy)

What’s in this folder?

 (Mike)

Umm… give me my laptop back.

 (Andy)

With… pleasure. So, this week we’re all about Tekken Tag Tournament 2 which is out today if you’re watching on Friday.

 (Mike)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 or TTT2 as it’s known in some places is the… [interrupted]

 (Overhead Voice)

Get ready for the next battle!

 (Andy)

What was that?

 (Mike)

Uh it said get ready for the next battle… Um but obviously, I’m already ready for the next battle.

 (Andy)

I’m not ready for the next battle. These aren’t my battle shoes.

 (Mike)

I’ll tell you what, I’ll stall for time. Uh, you have exactly as long as it takes me to read out the entire character roster of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 in alphabetical order. Go.

 (Andy)

Got it.

 (Mike)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is the eight game in the venerable Tekken fighting games series and its accumulated a lot of great characters as its gone along. As a result, the character roster for Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is as long and bonkers as an extended remix of the Dizzee Rascal song “Bonkers”. So here they are in alphabetical order: Alex, Alisa Bosconovitch, Anna Williams, Armor King II… [fades out]

 [sounds from the game Tekken Tag Tournament 2]

 (Mike)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has a lot more going for it then a roster of 50 plus fighters. In it you select two characters then knock seven bells out of your opponent’s tag team with whatever flashy combo strings, throws, juggles and tag combos as you can muster. Maybe you’d gathered as much from the name. If you have eyes for only one fighter, by the way, you don’t have to tag in a second. You can pick just your favourite and then go up against your adversary’s team with the health of two fighters.

 [sounds from the game Tekken Tag Tournament 2]

 (Mike)

Tekken Tag Tournament 2 plays a lot like Tekken 6. It holds onto that game’s bound mechanic, for instance, with which you can smack a fool into the floor and bounce him as part of your juggle. But there’s plenty that’s new as well including fight lab, a tutorial suite with a generous helping of fun. It stars Combot, a cyborg with a bucket for a head and features mini-game style matches in which you dodge sushi and pizza pelted at you by a tubby man in a yellow jumpsuit, for instance.

 [Snoop Dogg rapping in background]

 (Mike)

Also, in Tekken’s time honoured tradition of being barmy, rapper Snoop Dogg appears as a pre-order special only guest in his own gaudy stage, sat on a throne, overseeing the battle like an emperor at the Roman Coliseum. Think about that, that’s mad, isn’t it? It’s as mad as if Snoop Dogg decided he was gonna stop being a dog and start being a lion. And also make reggae music.

 (Snoop Dogg)

It’s not that I wanna become Snoop Dogg on a reggae track. I wanna bury Snoop Dogg and become Snoop Lion.

 (Mike)

Oh… right. And it’s exactly for madness like this that Tekken Tag Tournament 2 is our game of the week.

 (Mike continuing the list)

Lars Alexandersson, Lee Chaolan, Lei Wulong, Leo Kliesen, Lili de Rochefort… [interrupted]

 (Andy)

Right, back, ready.

 (Mike)

Oh, brilliant, made it.

 (Overhead Voice)

Get ready for the next… [interrupted]

 (Mike)

Yeah, we get it buddy.

 (Andy)

Wait, so we have to battle each other.

 (Mike)

Yeah, apparently so. And in the style of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 as well.

 (Andy)

Why? What’s in it for us?

 (Mike)

Apparently, it’s for the entertainment of Namco Bandai Limited.

 (Andy)

Oh, okay. That’s fair enough.

 [Mike yells]

 [fighting noises from Tekken Tag Tournament 2]

 (Jane)

Hey, um, you’re making a racket in there. What’s going on?

 (Andy)

Uh… we’re fighting each other in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 style. Mike just knocked me through here into the next stage of our multi-tiered battle arena.

 (Jane)

Okay, right. And why?

 (Andy)

Uh, a disembodied voice told us to.

 (Jane)

Andy, if a disembodied voice told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

 (Andy)

No…

 (Overhead Voice)

Jump off that bridge!

 (Andy)

Are you sure? It’s really high up.

 (Overhead Voice)

I don’t have all day!

 (Andy)

Alright.

 (Andy)

So, what have you been up to this week?

 (Jane)

Oo, I found a DDR machine on the Boardwalk map in Modern Warfare 3.

 (Andy)

Ah cool. Is it playable?

 (Jane)

Yes…

 [multiple gun shots]

 (Andy)

I can get thrown out of the arcade for that.

 [Jane makes agreeing noises]

 (Jane)

Anyway, I’m done here. Do you wanna tag me in?

 (Andy)

Yeah, sure.

 [hand slapping noise]

 (Overhead Voice)

Round 2, fight!

 (Andy)

So, while I’ve got you guys here, I want to talk to you about Tekken characters. Now as Mike already covered, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has approximately 16 thousand playable characters but that’s not even the end of it.

 [fighting noises from Tekken Tag Tournament 2]

 (Andy)

We need to get this place soundproofed. Yes, according to our sister site BG 24/7, industrious people on the internet, intent on squeezing secrets out of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 to create delicious Tekken secret juice, have discovered 6 additional characters on the disc. First up is Thin Bob. As you may be aware, Bob is a pretty hefty guy, but his Tekken 6 ending shows him losing a load of weight for no reason. Now you can play as Bob’s slimmed down alter ego. Well, hello.

 [frustrated noises from the character “Thin Bob”]

 (Andy)

Now according to my Tekken research this is Sebastian, Lili’s frail and elderly butler who will presumably polish his opponents to death in an exciting first for fighting games. The next character found on the disc is Miharu Hirano, a character who was originally a palette swap or alternate colour version of Ling Xiaoyu in Tekken 4. She’s a high school girl so her character portrait is her in a tiny bikini, obviously… Here we have series’ staple Violet also known as Lee Chaolan in the world’s most unconvincing disguise of a wig and some sunglasses. Here’s a quick test. Here’s a picture of Jane. Now see if you identify this person on screen right now. Well done, you’re smarter than everyone in the Tekken universe. Next up in this roster of terrifying and physically imposing characters is a 96-year-old scientist, Dr Bosconovitch. He created Roger and Alex as well as the prototype Jack unit so maybe he knows something about fighting though, right, maybe, ah whatever. Finally, we have a nude woman covered in purple goo. Usually you have to pay a lot of money to see that. She’s called Unknown and you might remember her from the original Tekken Tag Tournament. Oh, she also has a terrifying wolf spirit growing out of her back for details. So these characters are apparently already on the disc but unlike Capcom’s model of charging for this content, which understandably gets gamers pretty annoyed, these characters will most likely be free if series’ director Katsuhiro Harada is to believed as he’s come out publicly against such practices in the past. And no one wants to argue with that guy, believe me.

 (Mike)

Well it seems we’re pretty evenly matched.

 (Jane)

Yeah, I know right. I am exhausted.

 (Mike)

Just as well as it’s time for the comments. This is the bit where we share your comments across the site, YouTube, Facebook, twitter, this rock with a note wrapped round it that someone threw through the window. The answer being yes we do like our legs not broken thank you very much.

 (Jane)

Right and remember we read all the things you write in all of those places so please do keep it coming. Over on twitter Neil Allchin tweets at us about Joe Danger 2: The Movie which is out on XPLA today and he writes “The 1st game was so much fun, such a happy game, my 5-year-old adores it!”.

 (Mike)

And somehow his scores are better than mine. Anyway, Sam Williamson comments on the site itself “I’m concerned this game might be a bit busy visually. The original is pretty much the best modern Sonic game, which is somewhat ironic as it looks like The Movie could be following in that series’ missteps of erring towards spectacle over readability.”.

 (Jane)

It’s not a problem we’ve had while playing but there is a free demo if you want to try before you buy.

 (Mike)

How? He’s like, he’s 5 years old.

 (Jane)

Let it go. Finally, terrifyingly titled YouTube commenter the brutality gaming explains why Counter Strike GO is easier on the console than on PC. He says “The reason why it’s easier on consoles is that less console players have played counterstrike (on any platform) so won’t be familiar with the way the game plays and the maps layouts.”.

 (Mike)

Hmm, if you’re playing CS:GO at the moment, let us know in the comments in a totally unscientific survey. Have you already played Counterstrike on PC or is this your first time striking counters?

 (Jane)

I struck the counter once. I was dissatisfied with the service in a Nando’s.

 (Mike)

Alright, I’m tagging out now. You can tell it to my partner.

 (Jane)

Okay well that’s it for Show of the Week. We’re off to further hone our TTT2 skills, thanks for joining us and we’ll see you… [fades off] I thought you were sending on your partner.

 (Mike)

I’m a palette swap.

 (Jane)

Argh that is so lazy. Go. Yeah, you better run.

 [Mike sits back down]

 (Jane)

That’s just you in a green wig now.

 (Mike)

No! I’m an entirely original character! I’m Verdant, mysterious child of nature… ah

#outsidexbox #show of the week #jane douglas #mike channell #andy farrant #transcript