#edit was no one gonna tell me i put the hyphen in her name wrong. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

betterdaysareatoenailaway · 3 years

Text

Random Review #3: Sleepwalkers (1992) and “Sleep Walk” (1959)

I. Sleepwalkers (1992) I couldn’t sleep last night so I started watching a trashy B-movie penned by Stephen King specifically for the screen called Sleepwalkers (1992). Simply put, the film is an unmitigated disaster. A piece of shit. But it didn’t need to be. That’s what’s so annoying about it. By 1992 King was a grizzled veteran of the silver screen, with more adaptations under his belt than any other author of his cohort. Puzo had the Godfather films (1972 and 1974, respectively), sure, but nothing else. Leonard Gardner had Fat City (1972), a movie I love, but Gardner got sucked into the Hollywood scene of cocaine and hot tub parties and never published another novel, focusing instead on screenplays for shitty TV shows like NYPD Blue. After Demon Seed (1977), a movie I have seen and disliked, nobody would touch Dean Koontz’s stuff with a ten foot pole, which is too bad because The Voice of the Night, a 1980 novel about two young pals, one of whom is a psychopath trying to convince the other to help him commit murder, would make a terrific movie. But Koontz’s adaptations have been uniformly awful. The made-for-TV film starring John C McGinley, 1997′s Intensity, is especially bad. There are exceptions, but Stephen King has been lucky enough to avoid the fate of his peers. Big name directors have tackled his work, from Stanley Kubrick to Brian De Palma. King even does a decent job of acting in Pet Semetary (1989), in his own Maximum Overdrive (1986) and in George Romero’s Creepshow (1982), where he plays a yokel named Jordy Verril who gets infected by a meteorite that causes green weeds to grow all over his body. Many have criticized King’s over-the-top performance in that flick, but for me King perfectly nails the campy and comical tone that Romero was going for. The dissolves in Creepshow literally come right off the pages of comics, so people expecting a subtle Ordinary People-style turn from King had clearly walked into the wrong theatre. Undoubtedly Creepshow succeeds at what it set out to do. I’m not sure Sleepwalkers succeeds though, unless the film’s goal was to get me to like cats even more than I already do. But I already love cats a great deal. Here’s my cat Cookie watching me edit this very blog post.

And here’s one of my other cats, Church, named after the cat that reanimates and creeps out Louis and Ellie in Pet Sematary. Photo by @ScareAlex.

SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you plan on watching Sleepwalkers and want to find out for yourself what happens.

Stephen King saw many of his novels get adapted in the late 1970s and 80s: Carrie, The Shining, Firestarter, Christine, Cujo, and the movie that spawned the 1950s nostalgia industrial complex, Stand By Me, but Sleepwalkers was the first time he wrote a script specifically for the screen rather than adapting a novel that already existed. Maybe that’s why it’s so fucking bad. Stephen King is a novelist, gifted with a novelist’s rich imagination. He’s prone to giving backstories to even the most peripheral characters - think of Joe Chamber’s alcoholic neighbour Gary Pervier in the novel Cujo, who King follows for an unbelievable number of pages as the man stumbles drunkenly around his house spouting his catch phrase “I don’t give a shit,” drills a hole through his phone book so he can hang it from a string beside his phone, complains about his hemorrhoids getting “as big as golfballs” (I’m not joking), and just generally acts like an asshole until a rabid Cujo bounds over, rips his throat out, and he bleeds to death. In the novel Pervier’s death takes more than a few pages, but it makes for fun reading. You hate the man so fucking much that watching him die feels oddly satisfying. In the movie, though, his death occurs pretty quickly, and in a darkened hallway, so it’s hard to see what’s going on aside from Gary’s foot trembling. And Pervier’s “I don’t give a shit” makes sense when he’s drilling a hole in the phone book, not when he’s about to be savagely attacked by a rabid St Bernard. There’s just less room for back story in movies. In a medium that demands pruning and chiseling and the “less is more” dictum, King’s writing takes a marked turn for the worse. King is a prose maximalist, who freely admits to “writing to outrageous lengths” in his novels, listing It, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers as particularly egregious examples of literary logorrhea. He is not especially equipped to write concisely. This weakness is most apparent in Sleepwalkers’ dialogue, which sounds like it was supposed to be snappy and smart, like something Aaron Sorkin would write, but instead comes off like an even worse Tango & Cash, all bad jokes and shitty puns. More on those bad jokes later. First, the plot.

Sleepwalkers is about a boy named Charles and his mother Mary who travel around the United States killing and feeding off the lifeforce of various unfortunate people (if this sounds a little like The True Knot in Doctor Sleep, you’re not wrong. But self-plagiarism is not a crime). Charles and Mary are shapeshifting werewolf-type creatures called werecats, a species with its very own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia confers legitimacy dont’cha know, so lets assume werecats are real beings. According to said page, a werecat, “also written in a hyphenated form as were-cat) is an analogy to ‘werewolf’ for a feline therianthropic creature.” I’m gonna spell it with the hyphen from now on because “werecats” just looks like a typo. Okay? Okay.

Oddly enough, the were-cats in Sleepwalkers are terrified of cats. Actual cats. For the were-cats, cute kittens = kryptonite. When they see a cat or cats plural, this happens to them:

^ That is literally a scene from the movie. Charles is speeding when a cop pulls alongside him and bellows at him to pull over. Ever the rebel, Charles flips the cop the finger. But the cop has a cat named Clovis in his car, and when the cat pops up to have a look at the kid (see below), Charles shapeshifts first into a younger boy, then into whatever the fuck that is in the above screenshot.

Now, the were-cats aversion to normal cats is confusing because one would assume a were-cat to be a more evolved (or perhaps devolved?) version of the typical house kitty. The fact that these were-cats are bipedal alone suggests an advantage over our furry four-legged friends, no? Kinda like if humans were afraid of fucking gorillas. Wait...we are scared of gorillas. And chimpanzees. And all apes really. Okay, maybe the conceit of the film isn’t so silly after all. The film itself, however, is about as silly as a bad horror movie can get. When the policeman gets back to precinct and describes the incident above (”his face turned into a blur”) he is roundly ridiculed because in movies involving the supernatural nobody believes in the supernatural until it confronts them. It’s the law, sorry. Things don’t end well for the cop. Or for the guy who gets murdered when the mom stabs him with...an ear of corn. Yes, an ear of corn. Somehow, the mother is able to jam corn on the cob through a man’s body, without crushing the vegetable or turning it into yellow mash. It’s pretty amazing. Here is a sample of dialog from that scene: Cop About To Die On The Phone to Precinct: There’s blood everywhere! *STAB* Murderous Mother: No vegetables, no dessert. That is actually a line in the movie. “No vegetables, no dessert.” It’s no “let off some steam, Bennett” but it’s close. Told ya I’d get back to the bad jokes. See, Mary and Charles are new in town and therefore seeking to ingratiate themselves by killing everyone who suspects them of being weird, all while avoiding cats as best they can. At one point Charles yanks a man’s hand off and tells him to "keep [his] hands to [him]self," giving the man back his severed bloody hand. Later on Charles starts dating a girl who will gradually - and I do mean gradually - come to realize her boyfriend is not a real person but in fact a were-cat. Eventually our spunky young protagonist - Madchen Amick, who fans of Twin Peaks will recognize as Shelly - and a team of cats led by the adorable Clovis- kill the were-cat shapeshifting things and the sleepy small town (which is named Travis for some reason) goes back to normal, albeit with a slightly diminished population. For those keeping score, that’s Human/Cat Alliance 1, Shapeshifting Were-cats 0. It is clear triumph for the felis catus/people team! Unless we’re going by kill count, in which case it is closer to Human/Cat Alliance 2, Were-cats 26. I arrived at this figure through my own notes but also through a helpful video that takes a comprehensive and complete “carnage count” of all kills in Sleepwalkers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt-DroK6uA

II. Santo & Johnny “Sleep Walk” (1959) Because Sleepwalkers is decidedly not known for its good acting or its well-written screenplay, it is perhaps best known for its liberal and sometimes contrapuntal use of Santo & Johnny’s classic steel guitar song “Sleep Walk,” possibly the most famous (and therefore best) instrumental of the 20th century. Some might say “Sleep Walk” is tied for the #1 spot with “Green Onions” by Booker T & the M.G.’s and/or “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris, but I disagree. The Santo & Johnny song is #1 because of its incalculable influence on all subsequent popular music.

I’m not saying “Wipe Out” didn't inspire a million imitators, both contemporaneously and even decades later…for example here’s a surf rock instrumental from 1999 called “Giant Cow" by a Toronto band called The Urban Surf Kings. The video was one of the first to be animated using Flash (and it shows):

youtube

So there are no shortage of surf rock bands, even now, decades after its emergence from the shores of California to the jukeboxes of Middle America. My old band Sleep for the Nightlife used to regularly play Rancho Relaxo with a surf rock band called the Dildonics, who I liked a great deal. There's even a Danish surf rock band called Baby Woodrose, whose debut album is a favourite of mine. They apparently compete for the title of Denmark’s biggest surf pop band with a group called The Setting Son. When a country that has no surfing culture and no beaches has multiple surf rock bands, it is safe to say the genre has attained international reach. As far as I can tell, there aren’t many bands out there playing Booker T & the M.G.’s inspired instrumental rock. Link Wray’s “Rumble” was released four years before “Green Onions.” But the influence of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleep Walk” is so ubiquitous as to be almost immeasurable. The reason for this is the sheer popularity of the song’s chord progression. If Santo and Johnny hadn’t written it first, somebody else would have, simply because the progression is so beautiful and easy on the ears and resolvable in a satisfying way. Have a listen to “Sleep Walk” first and then let’s check out some songs it directly inspired.

youtube

The chords are C, A minor, F and G. Minor variations sometimes reverse the last two chords, but if it begins with C to A minor, you can bet it’s following the “Sleep Walk” formula, almost as if musicians influenced by the song are in the titular trance. When it comes to playing guitar, Tom Waits once said “your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they’ve been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don’t explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing.” Not only is it comforting to play and/or hear what we already know, studies have shown that our brains actively resist new music, because it takes work to understand the new information and assimilate it into a pattern we are cogent of. It isn’t until the brain recognizes the pattern that it gives us a dopamine rush. I’m not much for Pitchfork anymore, but a recent article they posted does a fine job of discussing this phenomenon in greater detail.

Led Zeppelin’s “D’Yer Maker” uses the “Sleep Walk” riff prominently, anchored by John Bonham and John Paul Jones’ white-boy reggae beat:

youtube

Here it is again with Del Shannon’s classic “Little Town Flirt.” I love Shannon’s falsetto at the end when he goes “you better run and hide now bo-o-oy.”

youtube

The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun” uses the Sleep Walk progression, though not for the whole song. It goes into the progression at the bridge at 1:34:

youtube

Tumblr won’t let me embed any more videos, so you’ll to travel to another tab to hear these songs, but Neil Young gets in on the act with his overlooked classic “Winterlong:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV6r66n3TFI On their 1996 EP Interstate 8 Modest Mouse pay direct homage by singing over their own rendition of the original Santo & Johnny version, right down to the weeping steel guitar part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_PwXjCqqs The vocals are typical wispy whispered indie rock vocals, but I think they work, particularly the two different voices. They titled their version “Sleepwalking (Couples Only Dance Prom Night).”

Dwight Yoakam’s “Thousand Miles From Nowhere” makes cinematic use of it. This song plays over the credits of one of my all-time favourite movies, 1993′s Red Rock West feat. Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, and J.T. Walsh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3ypuKq8WE

“39″ is my favourite Queen song. I guess now I know why. It uses my fav chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8kGMfXaFU

Blink 182 scored their first hit “Dammit” with a minor variation on the Sleep Walk chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0g16_LQaQ

Midwest beer drinkin bar rockers Connections scored a shoulda-been-a-hit with the fist-pumping “Beat the Sky:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSNRq0n_WYA You’d be hard pressed to find a weaker lead singer than this guy (save for me, natch), but they make it work. This one’s an anthem.

Spoon, who have made a career out of deconstructing rock n’ roll, so that their songs sometimes sound needlessly sparse (especially “The Ghost of You Lingers,” which takes minimalism to its most extreme...just a piano being bashed on staccato-style for four minutes), so it should surprise nobody that they re-arrange the Sleep Walk chords on their classic from Gimme Fiction, “I Summon You:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teXA8N3aF9M I love that opening line: remember the weight of the world was a sound that we used to buy? I think songwriter Britt Daniel is talking about buying albums from the likes of Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins, any of those grunge bands with pessimistic worldviews. There are a million more examples. I remember seeing some YouTube video where a trio of gross douchebros keep playing the same progression while singing a bunch of hits over it. I don’t like the smarmy way they do it, making it seem like artists are lazy and deliberately stealing. I don’t think it’s plagiarism to use this progression. And furthermore, tempo and production make all the difference. Take “This Magic Moment” for example. There's a version by Jay & the Americans and one by Ben E King & the Drifters. I’ve never been a fan of those shrieking violins or fiddles that open the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bacBKKgc4Uo The Jay & the Americans version puts the guitar riff way in the forefront, which I like a lot more. The guitar plays the entire progression once before the singing starts and the band joins in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKfASw6qoag

Each version has its own distinctive feel. They are pretty much two different songs. Perhaps the most famous use of the Sleep Walk progression is “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, which is one of my favourite songs ever. The guy who chose to let Bobby Hatfield sing this one by himself must have kicked himself afterwards when it became a hit, much bigger than "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiyq2xrSI0

What can you say about “Unchained Melody” that hasn’t already been said? God, that miraculously strong vocal, the way the strings (and later on, brass horns) are panned way over to the furthest reaches the left speaker while the drums and guitar are way over in the right, with the singing smack dab in the middle creates a kind of distance and sharp clarity that has never been reproduced in popular music, like seeing the skyscrapers of some distant city after an endless stretch of highway. After listening to “Unchained Melody,” one has to wonder: can that progression ever be improved upon? Can any artist write something more haunting, more beautiful, more uplifting than that? The “need your love” crescendo hits so fucking hard, as both the emotional and the sonic climax of the song, which of course is no accident...the strings descending and crashing like a waterfall of sound, it gets me every fucking time. Legend has it that King George II was so moved by the “Hallelujah” section of Handel’s “Messiah” that he stood up, he couldn't help himself, couldn't believe what he was hearing. I get that feeling with all my favourite songs. "1979." "Unchained Melody." "In The Still of the Night." "Digital Bath." "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" "Interstate." "Liar's Tale." “Gimme Shelter.” The list goes on and on. Music is supposed to move us.

King George II stood because he was moved to do so. Music may be our creation, but it isn't our subordinate. All those sci-fi stories warning about technology growing beyond our control aren’t that far-fetched. Music is our creation but its power lies beyond our control. We are subordinate to music, helpless against its power and might, its urgency and vitality and beauty. There have been many times in my life when I have been so obsessed with a particular song that I pretty much want to live inside of it forever. A house of sound. I remember detoxing from heroin and listening to Grimes “Realiti” on repeat for twelve hours. Detoxing from OxyContin and listening to The Beach Boys “Dont Worry Baby” over and over. Or just being young and listening to “Tonight Tonight” over and over and over, tears streaming from my eyes in that way you cry when you’re a kid because you just feel so much and you don’t know what to do with the intensity of those feelings. It is precisely because we are so moved by music that we keep creating it. And in the act of that creation we are free. There are no limits to that freedom, which is why bands time and time again return to the well-worn Sleep Walk chord progression and try to make something new from it. Back in 2006, soon after buying what was then the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, I found myself playing the album’s closing track over and over. I loved the chorus and I loved the way it collapses into a lo-fi demo at the very end, stripping away the studio sheen and...not to be too punny, showing its bones (the album title is Show Your Bones). Later on I would realize that the song, called “Turn Into,” uses the Sleep Walk chord progression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exqCFoPiwpk

It’s just like, what Waits said, our hands goes to where we are familiar. And so do our ears, which is why jazz often sounds so unpleasant to us upon first listen. Or Captain Beefheart. But it’s worth the effort to discover new stuff, just as it’s worth the effort to try and write it. I recently lamented on this blog that music to me now is more about remembrance than discovery, but I’m still only 35 years old. I’m middle-aged right now (I don’t expect to live past 70, not with the lifestyle I’ve been living). There’s still a whole other half life to find new music and love and leave it for still newer stuff. It’s worth the challenge, that moment of inner resistance we feel when confronted with something new and challenging and strange sounding. The austere demands of adult life, rent and routine, take so much of our time. I still make time for creative pursuits, but I don’t really have much time for discovery, for seeking out new music. But I’ve resolved to start making more time. A few years ago I tried to listen to and like Trout Mask Replica but I couldn’t. I just didn’t get what was going on. It sounded like a bunch of mistakes piled on top of each other. But then a few days ago I was writing while listening to music, as I always do, and YouTube somehow landed on Lick My Decals Off, Baby. I didn’t love what I was hearing but I was intrigued enough to keep going. And now I really like this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMnd9dvb3sA&pbjreload=101 Another example I’ll give is the rare Robert Pollard gem “Prom Is Coming.” The first time I heard this song, it sounded like someone who can’t play guitar messing around, but the more I heard it the more I realized there’s a song there. It’s weird and strange, but it’s there. The lyrics are classic Pollard: Disregard injury and race madly out of the universe by sundown. Pollard obviously has a special place in his heart for this track. He named one of his many record labels Prom Is Coming Records and he titled the Boston Spaceships best-of collection Out of the Universe By Sundown. I don’t know if I’ll ever become a Captain Beefheart megafan but I can hear that the man was doing something very strange and, at times, beautiful. And anyway, why should everything be easy? Aren’t some challenges worth meeting for the experience waiting on the other side of comprehension or acceptance? I try to remember this now whenever I’m first confronted with new music, instead of vetoing it right away. Most of my favourite bands I was initially resistant to when I first heard them. Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Guided by Voices, Spoon, Heavy Times. All bands I didn’t like at first. I don’t wanna sleepwalk through life, surrounding myself only with things I have already experienced. I need to stay awake. Because soon enough I’ll be asleep forever. We need to try everything we can before the Big Sleep comes to take us back to the great blankness, the terrible question mark that bookends our lives.

#sleep walk #santo & johnny #neil young #queen #dwight yoakam #led zeppelin #the beatles #betterdaysareatoenailaway

3 notes · View notes

ourfanfictiongalore-blog · 6 years

Text

Game of Survival - Prologue

lil’ note: This was written really fast and not necessarily edited so fair warning if its terrible, but enjoy the fruits of my labor!! lol.

“Excuse me, Kane? I went down to the skybox to visit Monty and they said it was quarantined off? What’s wrong? Are they all ok?” The man in question turns to her slowly and gives her a long look.

“So your the half-sister…” He puts emphasis on half as if the hyphenation is the only thing keeping him from shooting her into space like unwanted trash.

“Yes. I’m Arden the half-sister of Monty green and I want to know what the hell is going on with my brother” she says as if daring him to do something considering he isn’t actually chancellor. Jaha was in recovery. He keeps a neutral expression on his face before sighing and answering.

“It’s a medical issue take it up with Abby Griffin,” He says waving her off and walking away. Abby? So they were really sick? She makes her way to the medical wing as fear fills her mind thinking of Monty and Jasper being hurt. Upon arriving she sees Raven get there as well and she looks angry

“Abby what’s going on with the sky box?” Raven confronts her loudly.

“Yeah that’s what I came here to find out,” Arden says while crossing her arms. Abby hesitates before looking at the girls.

“A sickness spread and were trying to contain it” She says shortly while both girls give each other looks of non-belief.

“I was going to visit my boyfriend when they told me about the sickness, but I saw an open air duct why would it be open?” Raven asks as Jackson comes to stand beside abbey.

“The sickness isn’t airborne that’s why the ariduct is open” Abby says as her eyes momentarily shift to the ground making Arden grow suspicious and cross her arms at abbey. Her eyes fix on Jackson and she notices him staring at abbey as if he’s waiting for her to say something she shouldn’t.

“Alright well can you at least tell me if he’s ok?”

“Us. If there ok?” Arden corrects coming to stand even closer beside raven to back her up.

“No I can’t I’m sorry” Abby says to turn and walk away.

“No your not” Raven mumbles under her breath but abbey heard it and started to turn back to the two girls now standing frustrated in diffusive stances as if there body language would help intimidate into giving them some answers.

“First the drop ship now this. The councils hiding something.” Raven exclaims in irritation.

“And were gonna find out what it is.” Arden exclaims as both girls turn to leave. Ravens walking briskly a bit ahead of her and Arden runs to catch up. Ravens only about an inch taller than her but man can she walk fast.

“So how are we going to go about this?” She asks and raven barely spares her a glance as she replies.

“We aren’t doing anything I don’t need your help.” Arden grabs onto her arm making both girls come to a halt in the middle of the bleak grey hallway of the Ark.

“Look I get it if that’s how you do things normally. But you're not the only one with people that you care about in there, ok? And I’m gonna find out what’s going on to. So whether you like it or not looks like a mechanic and an engineer are gonna have to get along for once in history. Because it would be ridiculous to do it separately.” She states with conviction. A small impressed smirk appears on ravens face as she stared at the determined girl in front of her a moment.

“Does anyone have a choice when it comes to you barging into their lives?” She asks with a teasing tone to her voice. Arden smiles’ knowing this was Ravens way of agreeing.

“Nope.” She says making raven roll her eyes in exasperation before turning.

“Ok. Follow me.” and they were off to brainstorm on how to figure out what was wrong with the prisoners in the skybox.

****************

“Abbey we have to stop, the council votes in thirty minutes” Jackson says as Abby types away on a computer. Arden couldn’t see much Atlas not with raven infant of her where she was spying at the two in the main computer haul.

“What are they doing?” She whispers to raven who quickly shhh’s her. The girls had decided the best way to get answers wasn’t to ask questions but to listen in on the conversation. So far it wasn’t working the best but it was all they got.

“Then we have thirty minutes” She hears Abby say in protest. Thirty minutes for what? What was the council planning? Did it have anything to do with Monty and Jasper…Even Finn? Was everyone in skybox ok?

“They have every single person from sky box’s vital signs on the monitor next to a picture and there name” Raven whispers to her from behind making Arden want to push closer to look through the grate at what the other girl was seeing.

‘Why would they need that?’ Arden thinks to her self.

“According to Sinclair even if we sent a signal down the wristbands weren’t designed to receive, so the kids wouldn’t even her it” She picks up Jacksons voice What are they talking about wristbands? Is that how there monitoring who the sick and not sick were in skybox? She thought doctors were most effective when they actually examined them. Not when she looked at here health through wristbands on a screen. There was so many ways that that could go wrong.

“There has to be something we missed” Abby says as she sees her turn to Jackson over Ravens shoulder and through the grate. This was a Lot harder than she first had thought. Just then she could feel her foot slipping in her crouched position. ‘No no no’ it makes a squeak sound and she’s pausing holding her breath Raven side eyes her incredulously. But its not her fault that her foot fell asleep because they’d been crouched in such a small spot. Raven instantly climbs the latter that had gotten them own to where they were but before Arden could even grab on to the bottom Handle the door was being unlocked and abbey was barging in

“Hey! Hey!” and dragging them both (to the best of her ability) into the room.

“I’ll call security,” Jackson says planning to leave.

“There not dying” Raven says as the all turn to her. What was she talking about? Had Raven figured something out that she hadn’t yet?

“What are you talking about?” Her and Abbey ask at the same time then turning to each other in surprise.

“All that’s being sent from the ground?” Raven asks.

“What? The ground? that’s not possible its not surpassed to be survivable for another 100 years” Arden say’s the second part more to herself trying to wrap her head around the fact her brother was no longer safe on the ark even if it was in jail. How could the council be so heartless? There all just kids? Abby hesitantly grabs a medal band that was open and raven takes a holed of it.

“Transmitted by these” Abby says And Arden eyes snap to her just as Abby gives her a guilty look

“How could you even take that risk, your own daughter is one of them?” She asks incredulously.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Abby says lowly as she looks towards raven who closed the band and gave all three of them a smirk

“They’re taking them off,” She says while handing it to Arden to look at. She ran her finger over the sharp silver spikes that were built into it imagining how much it hurt Monty and jasper. Hell all of the kids when they put on them. Not wanting to look at it any longer she throws it towards Abby lightly who catches it.

“Why would they do something so reckless?” Jackson asks making all the girls turn to him before setting there gaze back on all the screens.

“Because we told them not too” Abby says with an astonished smirk on her face. Arden comes to stand beside her at the control panel and crosses her arms.

“Lets also not forget that their rebellious teenagers with a criminal background… so to say”

*****************

Walking into her family’s apartment Arden's mind was a jumbled mess. Her brother had been sent to the ground because the ark is dying and his life was disposable? For taking some weed out of farm stations rations? Why the hell did the Ark even have weed if not to use it? Her and Raven had promptly been told about there circumstances and all the little details up until the very moment when they’d caught the end of Abby and Jackson’s conversation and honestly that is a lot of information to take in in less than 3 hours time. Her father exiting from his room interrupted her train of thought.

“Oh hey star shine how was your day?” Well that was a loaded question. She was practically bursting at the seems to tell him all the information shed acquired even the fact that Monty and jasper had been sent to the ground because life support is low and if the 100 didn’t make it at least the ark bought themselves more time because ya know who care about the lives of kids who already feel alone and unwanted in the world because the council could be selfish dicks.

“Ya know, just the usual. Checking to see if all of the arks systems are operational making sure we have enough fuel” ‘we don’t' She says nonchalantly. She knew if she told her father she would end up exactly like Abby’s husband (who was really doing the right thing). And she had no idea what they would do to her father for knowing the information- oh wait they’d shoot him into space sucking all the air out of his lungs…just… like… Abby’s husband. She loved space, but she hates the Ark. Her father gave her a suspicious look when she didn’t make eye contact with him and fidgeted with her fingers. Truth was she didn’t know how to lie to her father. They’d been open with each other about everything since day one. Even things most kids would be flustered and embarrassed about being honest with the parents about.

“Star shine is everything alright? You know you can tell me if anything’s wrong. Like with work or anything?” ‘I can’t dad not really, not when this time it could cost you your life’ she thinks to herself. She heaves a sigh and looks at him giving him a small smile.

“Honestly no I’m just a bit stressed, but it will be. It’s gonna be alright” He gives her a wide smile one she’s known since she was a child and she couldn’t help but think Monty had his smile.

“That’s my star shine. But if it gets to much you can tell Me.” her smile widens at that. She always thought she had the greatest dad in the world

“Yeah dad I know” He goes into the kitchen and grabs an apple and takes a bite walking back towards her. He swallows leans down and kisses her on the head and walking to the door.

“Well star shine I’m headed to work, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” He says with a wink knowing he’s never done anything bad in his life.

“No promises,” She calls out before the door closes. She always felt more calm around her family, but now wasn’t the time to be calm she needed to find Raven and Abby and figure out a way to help her brother and Jasper.

***************

She met up with Raven not long after knowing that the council was going to meet up shortly to discuss what was going to happen on the ark and with all the kids on the ground. Why was she not surprised that Marcus Kane was more than happy with the idea of killing 300 people from the Ark? His tyrannical dream of being chancellor and doing anything to get it was getting real old to Arden real fast. Walking in to the main mechanics room she sees Sinclair, he looks up and notices her with Raven and they share a smile.

“Well I never thought id see the day were my Raven was willingly hanging out with an engineer,” Raven rolled her eyes as Sinclair comes to hug Arden.

“Ha. Ha very funny.” Raven retorts back to him as they all began talking and passing time till they could figure out there next move for how they could help the 100 and the Ark as a whole. Not 20 minutes later and Sinclair got a call on the walkie apparently someone needed a mechanic and engineer pronto Arden just wanted to know who messed up so royal that they needed both of them.

Walking down the hall to the address Sinclair told them to go to the girls approach a closed door. They give each other a confused look while taking in their surroundings, they were in the lower leaves of the go-sci ring and personally Arden couldn’t remember if she’d ever actually been down here. Raven holds a comm button down before speaking into it

“Did someone call for a mechanic and engineer?’” She asked hesitantly still not knowing why they were needed way down here. Both girls are shocked when the door unlocks and slides open revealing Abbey griffin. At this point in the day should they really be surprised?

“Your the one who called in the work order?” Raven asks Abby.

“Should we really be surprised Rave?” Arden directs at her using the new nickname she gave her only 20 minutes ago as Raven shoots her a side eye. She knew it wasn’t ravens favorite, which was all the more reason for her to use it.

“Girls we need to talk’” Abby says ignoring both of the girls previous comments. She side steps letting he girls walk in one after the other. Arden thought it smelt a bit like what blood taste like after you split your lip, Pure medal with a copper burn in the back of the nostrils. Looking around it was no surprise. Just guts of wires hanging from exposed areas were medal was peeled back. This room had to have been ignored since the Ark was formed. And wow did a 100 years of neglect really run a place down.

“Look we told you we weren’t going to say anything ok?” Raven try’s to assure Abbey not really knowing why she wanted them here. Arden just kept assessing her surroundings.

“I believe you and neither of you are in trouble. Follow me.” Abby claims. That got Arden’s attention and she curiously followed close behind Abbey as Raven hesitantly only followed because Arden went after so fast. 'Who knows what dangers she could get herself into she’s not wary of people for shit’ Raven thought

“Not in trouble yet you mean.” She mumbles to herself

“This levels off limits for people like us’” She exclaims glancing at Arden while crossing her arms, still suspicious of Abbey’s intentions.

“Oh Rave, where’s your since of adventure?” Arden teases while standing next to Abbey still excited about whatever griffin wanted to show them. Abby smiles at Arden before turning to Raven

“Not anymore. You both know that we sent the 100 to the ground, what you don’t know is why. The Ark is dying girls life support is on its last legs… I have ten days to prove that Earth is survivable or there gonna start reducing population. 320 innocent people would be killed.” The words that pass through Abbey’s lips make Arden feel light headed. So here she thought Monty was the one in danger. When all along the Ark was coming to an end and he got out (more or less) she leaned against the wall not even caring when some of the wire pocked into her hand.

“I don’t get it. Why are you telling us this?” Raven questions as Arden sucks in a deep breath to control her emotions. She could freak about this later but not now.

“Because I looked up your files, Very impressive. Raven you’re the youngest zero-G mechanic in over 50 years. And Arden you your the first Aerospace engineer to ever graduate early and at the top the class.”

“52 but… so what?” Raven asks

“So…” Abby begins to pull a tarp down from cover an object making Arden push off the wall and come stand beside Raven. Once its down they notice its an old pod from the first Space station to form the Ark.

“You have 9 days to get this ready so I can survive a drop.” Arden honestly didn’t know how much more top secret info she could panel today. And she was sure this was extremely illegal looks like the joke she made with her dad was going to come true. Both girls approached the ship to examine it. ‘Boy is this a piece of work’ Arden thinks as Raven hits it a few times.

“God what a piece of junk.” Raven exclaims mostly to herself but Arden hears it.

“Ill say,” Arden agrees.

“They must have found this thing when they salvaged MIR-3 in 2102.” ‘God this is going to take a miracle’ Arden thinks

“Which is ancient’” She exclaims out loud after ravens comment about the pods age.

“You want us to get a 130 year old escape pod ready to stand up to the inferno of reentry in nine days?” Raven says looking from the pod to abbey who had a determined look on her face.

“Can you do it or not?” She asks the girls.

“Hell yes we can but Abby if your going to Earth I’m going with you. You’re not the only one with someone you love on the ground’” Raven says when Abbey goes to protest.

“Like hell I’m letting either one of you go alone, you’ll need help and my brothers down there.” Arden says speaking up determinedly making the others stare at her. Raven then turns back to Abby.

“Those are our terms.” “Take it or leave it,” both girls say staring the older Griffin down. After a long bout of silence as abbey thinks about what the said she speaks up.

“Alright you can come with me.” She says with only a sliver of uncertainty in her tone.

“Looks like you got yourself a mechanic.” Raven smiles.

“One Aerospace engineer at your service.” Arden says as both girls start looking at the craft and deciding what they needed to get started on fixing it. After all they only have 9 days.

#the 100 #the 100 fanfiction #raven reyes #original character #bellamy blake #bellamy blake imagine #clarke griffin #abby griffin #finn collins #john murphy #mount weather #monty green #jasper jordan #harper mcintyre #bellarke #becho #all the ships

17 notes · View notes