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the-darklings · 5 years

Text

—𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔;

pairing: john wick x f!reader

word count: 6.5k+

summary: “Tell me a story with a happy ending.”

warnings: strong violence, blood, swearing.

notes: oh wow, it’s been a hot minute, huh? I miss posting my writing on here but life has been hectic and pretty unkind this year so apologies for the inactivity. All I can say is that I got an urge to finally write for Mr Wick. This is set pre-first movie so any spoilers will be up to that movie only. For now, I decided to split this into two, so expect another part some time soon and enjoy!

children of ares series: .. | 02 |

“Tell me a story with a happy ending.”

“I can’t. People like us don’t get happy endings.”

. . .

The first time you meet him, he points a gun to your face with a sharpness that makes your pulse race.

You’re just a second behind him, but you know perfectly well that it would have been a second too late.

“Oh, for goodness sake,” Tarasov grumbles under his breath, waving his hand in irritation. “Will you two lower your weapons, we aren’t in the zoo.”

The man clad in all black does so immediately, and you idly wonder just how tight his leash is if he obeys so seamlessly.

You watch him warily as you lower your arm as well, hesitating just long enough for Tarasov’s gaze to slide your way. While you don’t want to piss off your new boss, the man in black stands beside him with a stoic sort of calmness that makes your instincts prickle with unease.

You know who he is.

You’ve heard stories about him.

Soft, terrified murmurs of his infamy—of his terrifying skill. You would rather not meet him at all, truth be told.

Even amongst killers, John Wick’s name is spoken with a degree of reluctant respect and fear.

“John, this is our newest associate. I wanted to introduce you personally,” Tarasov explains easily, pouring himself another glass of vodka. “I was rather hoping you will be able to look after her for a bit. Show her how we do business.”

You rather he didn’t. Truly.

John Wick is tall, calm, and deadly focused on every twitch of your body.

Underground world has some certains you can find in any corner of the world: money, blood, drugs, and high egos. The latter goes hand in hand with an inflated sense of self-importance and posturing.

You’re used to that. You know how to handle people with egos. Know how to communicate with those who like the sound of their own voice a bit too much.

Yet, John Wick somehow manages to be the most fear-inducing thing in the room without so much as making a sound.

His dark eyes appear almost black when they finally connect with yours. There is nothing but polite coolness to be found in his gaze.

“Sure.”

Tarasov grins wider, saluting you both with his glass, “Excellent,” he intones in smooth Russian. “I do believe this is the start of something rather beautiful.”

. . .

Three months down the line, and you’re still unsure what to make of John.

Anyone who kills people for a living should be easy to pindown. Sure, everyone has their own reasons, but at the end of the day, they’re all a little twisted.

John is a walking contradiction.

He’s cold, he’s stoic, he’s frighteningly efficient in his field. John rarely speaks, and getting more than a few sentences out of him at any given time seems like an incredible feat.

But he’s also kind in the most subtle ways, thoughtful, and always—unfailingly—has your back on the field.

Tarasov originally wanted you to do three missions together before he sent you on your own. But somewhere along the way, he seems to have concluded that you work better as a unit.

It’s odd at first. You’re not used to working with someone, and you’ve never heard of John having a partner with him either. He’s the man they send when no one else wants the contract or they simply can’t finish the job. So working with him is as bizarre as everyone's reactions when they see you together.

Most of the time, you’re not sure if he even likes you because most of the time, it’s near impossible to read him.

On paper you should never work, you know that much.

He’s older. His name is known. He’s earned the respect of some of the deadliest in the world.

You’re a nobody from nowhere. Sure, your skills are finally being utilized and by merely associating with John and Tarasov, people are starting to take notice of you, too. But doubt still lingers in your mind as you go through one job after another.

Truthfully, you’re still unsure if there’s a place for you here, in this shadowy circle of Tarasov’s gang. Though all the alternatives are so much worse you can’t even entertain the idea of a different life right now.

“A stick of gum?”

John is silent for a long time, and for a second you worry that he may not have heard you over the sound of the wind, but you don’t dare to lift your gaze from the scope in front of you.

Patience you know well. It’s one of the very few areas where you and John are equals.

“Realistically, one,” he finally mutters, his voice low to a point you have to strain to hear. Blinking, you suppress a grin, adjusting your position as you wait for your target to appear.

“Just the one?” you repeat with obvious disappointment. “Huh.”

John’s breaths are quiet next to you, thoughtful, “Sorry to disappoint but choking is the only viable option,” he points out a little dryly.

You hum contemplatively, trying to think of your own spin on this scenario. It has become a bit of a game between you. When you first started working together, John’s company was near painfully boring, especially on long jobs. So you came up with the idea of challenging him with ordinary objects and drilling him on how many people he can realistically kill with them. Of course, he has to fully justify his reasoning for each casualty—that’s half the fun right there after all.

He still likes his space and peace to this day, but at least now you get him to talk with you regularly on jobs.

“See if it were me,” you begin in an unhurried drawl. “I would put slow-acting poison in the gum. Maybe even add a dispersing agent into it, so anyone the target comes into contact with would die as well. Multiple dead, I won’t even have to break a sweat.”

“Sounds dangerous,” he points out idly, but the challenge in his voice is clear. “And highly volatile. How can you be sure it won’t accidentally kill your partner or anyone else that needs to be kept safe?”

“Antidotes, John, c’mon now,” you shoot back playfully, your finger moving to rest against the trigger when you spot slight movement in the building opposite to you. “Oh, the party is a go. Target twelve o’clock.”

You both watch as the men file into the room, chatting and pouring drinks as both parties sit themselves down around the room. A typical setting for deal negotiations. Of course, Tarasov doesn’t want any negotiations to happen at all—hence why you and John are here, and ready to rectify that.

“You have a clear shot,” John speaks beside you after a long pause, and it still unsettles you how composed he is during jobs and outside of them. It’s like nothing can ever affect him. With every job, every interaction, you begin to understand more and more why the nickname The Boogeyman is starting to catch on. “Take the shot.”

You do.

Inhaling deeply, you line the shot and it pierces the air with a deafening whistle that shatters the hotel window to pieces.

Panic reigns and the men scatter like cattle. Some try to find where the shot came from, but by the time they come anywhere near the window, you and John are already walking down the fire exit in a calm, unhurried fashion. The target is dead, and that’s all either of you care about.

“You’ve gotten better.”

It’s not praise, not exactly, more of a tepid assessment. But you take what you can get with John nowadays. In the beginning, it unsettled you, but now you just know that’s how he is.

“Marcus is a pretty nice guy once you break past that prideful demeanour of his,” you joke with a slight laugh as you both get into his car. “I think he tolerates my pestering because of you, to be honest.”

You feel John’s curious gaze on you, and when you turn to glance at him one of his eyebrows is arched slightly. “That so?”

“Drive on, Wick,” you say instead. “I’m starving. I wonder what it is about doing this job that always makes me so damn hungry.”

. . .

“You’re a pain in my ass, I hope you know that.”

John only grunts in reply.

You half drag him with you through the front lobby of The Continental as you slowly approach the reception.

Charon welcomes you with his typical placid smile and a polite nod of his head.

“Mr Wick and Miss Vipress,” he greets politely, unfazed by all the blood covering you both as you stagger to a stop in front of his desk. “Pleasure as always. A room for two?”

You nod your head briskly, shifting on your feet till more of John’s weight is leaning against you. “Thanks,” you mutter, sliding the golden coin across the smooth wood. There’s still specks of blood on it, but Charon takes it without batting an eye.

“Will you be needing a doctor tonight?” he questions with a tilt of his head, ever the helpful hotel concierge.

You’re shaking your own head before he’s even finished speaking, and glance at the still dazed John beside you. He’s already looking better than he did fifteen minutes ago—less pale and clammy—meaning that the poison is slowly but steadily leaving his system.

“We’ll be fine,” you say wearily. “But if you could send us up some X7 and Aspirin later, I would appreciate it.”

Charon hums, noting your request immediately in a notepad in front of him.

“X7 will take a bit longer but consider it done,” he responds pleasantly, sliding your room key across the table. You grapple for it, clenching it tightly between your bloody fingers. “Enjoy your stay,” he adds as you turn to go.

You grunt some vague pleasantry back but your mind is only focused on getting John to the hotel room before his legs decide to give out on him.

By the time you make it to your room on the third floor—Charon has mercifully put your room only a few doors away from the elevator, and you make a mental note to thank him for it tomorrow—your arms are trembling from the strain. John falls on the couch heavily, a harsh groan rattling free the moment he does, indicating just how bad he must be feeling.

His dark, half-lidded eyes track your movements as you stumble towards the bathroom, grabbing the complimentary first-aid kit found in every room. A certain, intent sharpness you’re used to seeing is missing from his gaze and you snap your fingers in front of his face a few times.

“Hey, you still with me?”

John nods his head and groans as he sits up, leaving you once again impressed with his silent strength. It seems like things that would kill ordinary men ten times over barely leave a dent on John. Some part of you can’t help but be slightly envious of the fact that he’s really as brilliant and as unstoppable as everyone makes him out to be.

He shrugs off his jacket under your command, leaving him in only a shirt and a tie and you loosen it, hurriedly wrapping it above his bleeding forearm.

“See, poison is a bitch when it’s not done by yours truly,” you mutter under your breath, carefully tracking his breathing patterns. “Aren’t you a lucky boy to have me on hand?”

His answer to your poor attempt at a joke is a half-hearted glare, and you smile weakly, grabbing a small blade from your boot to cut off his shirt sleeve. The white material flutters towards the ground and you grimace at the deep gash running at least eight centimetres down his arm. It looks angry and inflamed; a side effect to the potent poison the blade to make that cut was laced with.

You brush the damp strands of loose hair away from his sweaty forehead, and press your palm against his skin. A pleased hum escapes you and you nod your head, satisfied, before turning to sanitize the needle you’ll be using.

“The fever is going down,” you tell him when you feel his silent question hang in the air between you. “That means the antidote is working. You should be back to normal in another hour or so. Gelsemine though? Jesus. I miss the days when people used Thallium and thought they were efficient poisoners.”

You grab your belt, taking it off with a hurried jerk as you offer it to John who looks up at you in confusion. “For the pain,” you supply, shaking your hand a little.

“Just get me something strong,” he grunts, pointedly shifting his gaze to the table where a bottle of something that looks like whiskey sits untouched.

Clicking your tongue, you shake your head, “Not if you want to start vomiting blood. The poison is still in your system. Alcohol will make it worse and likely kill the antidote too. Take it.”

John looks away and you roll your eyes, dropping the belt to the ground as you step between his legs to get better access to the wound.

“Right, okay, this will hurt.”

John doesn’t say anything—not that you expect him to. You start with cleaning the cut first, and John’s fingers sink into the couch but he remains stubbornly silent. His eyes focus on a spot just above your shoulder as you work quietly. Cleaning wounds is meticulous work, and your line of work assures that you’re always meticulous. By the time the needle finally pierces John’s skin, it already looks better.

His jaw clenches tightly as you move the needle in and out of his skin. You know it’s excruciating but he makes no protests aside from occasional soft grunt of pain. His blood is warm on your fingers and you work as quickly as you can without messing up, a slight tremor shaking your hand.

“How,” he begins before clearing his throat. “How did you get involved in all of this?”

You make a small sound at the back of your throat, unsure if he’s trying to distract himself from pain or truly asking because he wants to know.

“How does anyone get involved with this sort of thing,” you answer dully, not taking the bait. “We’ve known each other for almost a year and you’re only asking about my tragic past now? Tsk, tsk.”

You feel his eyes focus on you, and pull on the needle harder, tightening the stitches much to John’s clear discomfort.

You’re both silent for a long moment after that, and much to your surprise John doesn’t push further. Most people would.

But John Wick is not most people, you’ve come to find.

He’s the type of man who never tries to make passes on you, never makes unnecessary comments about you or your appearance, and always insists on two beds. If there’s no spare bed, he always offers to sleep on the couch or the floor—the only exception to this rule is if he’s injured himself.

“My parents,” you speak softly before stopping. There’s a sudden tightness in your chest and throat as you swallow, gripping John’s arm tighter so you don’t slip with all the blood coating your hands. You feel his attention turn to you, and work to control your breathing. “They worked for Tarasov when he still ran his drug operation in Moscow. Everyone owned him. He practically ran the city. People were watched, police bought out. I didn’t know about any of it. My father was tasked with the export of drugs from and into the country. My mother worked directly in one of his drug houses. Keeping the books.”

You pause, breathing deeply, and grab the nearby towel to wipe away the blood on John’s arm. Hesitating, you glance up at him. He looks alert again, sharp, and you wonder if you should continue.

This man is already lethal—the last thing he needs is leverage over you.

But—

You move towards the desk where the bottle of whiskey is sitting while you wipe your own hands on a towel, hiding the visible trembling of your fingers as you resume your story.

“They decided that it would be a good idea to have a side gig on the side,” you continue, your words flat, emotionless. By now, you don’t feel grief when thinking about your parents. Just anger. The destructive, bubbling sort of rage that festers under your skin every day. “My mother started adjusting the numbers. Little by little. Nothing Tarasov would notice. Never more than thirty thousand rubles per shipment. That may sound like a lot but actually, it’s less than five hundred bucks. Seems laughable now when I think about it. For us, of course, every month that kind of money made a big difference. We didn’t need many luxuries. But they say your greed grows as you eat.”

You turn back towards John, bringing the bottle over to him. Sitting down on the table in front of him, you pour some of the whiskey on a fresh towel and press the soaked material against his arm. John’s expression twists slightly but you can tell from the way his eyes focus on you seconds later that he’s listening intently to your every word.

“They started taking a bit more every month,” you whisper, swallowing your anger, “More and more. Just a bit. But penny after penny and it all adds up. Tarasov eventually found out, of course. He gathered everyone who works for him and had my parents shot in front of them. That’s how you keep sheep in line. You scare them till they’re too afraid to do anything, even help. I don’t blame them though. Those people had nothing. Elderly. Orphaned kids. Immigrants. Fear and hunger are all they’ve known. And well, after...”

Your head dips, and you nibble on your lip for a second, tasting blood. For the first time in a long time, the coppery tang makes you feel queasy.

“Tarasov came to our flat that same afternoon. Had me make him dinner practically at gunpoint,” you explain further, a sardonic smile twisting your mouth as you meet John’s steady stare. So far, he hasn’t made a sound. “We discussed my parents' debt to him. He could have just had me shot too of course. But he said he didn’t want that. He said that my talents with chemistry were too valuable for him to waste. So he gave me a choice. I work for him until my parents' debt is paid off or….”

For the first time since you began your story, John speaks, “Or?”

You chuckle under your breath, removing the towel from his arm, and lightly press your fingertips against the tender flesh.

“There’s many uses for a healthy, young woman, John,” you state flatly, your lips stretching into something that could never pass for a smile.

You can’t exactly pinpoint his expression, but you know it’s not pity. Perhaps it’s sympathy or even compassion. Some deeper understanding that can’t be expressed with words alone. But for once you feel like John is looking at you openly and without that uncrackable armour he usually wears like a second skin.

“I’m sorry,” he says, at last, his voice almost gentle. “About your parents.”

You scoff, taking a swing from the bottle and wince at the stinging burn the drink leaves in its wake. “They were stupid idiots,” you deadpan harshly. “I love them dearly. But they were fucking idiots.”

John nods once because you both know you’re right, and you swallow shakily, blinking your eyes rapidly.

For a few minutes, it’s quiet between you. You expect it to be awkward yet somehow it isn’t. In fact, it’s almost peaceful.

“Anyway, I made my choice and here I am,” you mumble, carefully pouring him a tiny amount of the drink. He should be fine to drink it by now. Probably. “Tarasov said that once the debt is repaid, I’m free to go.”

“And you believe that?”

Your eyes meet as John takes the glass from your hand.

“No,” you reply frankly, your smile pained. “But when you have nothing, you have to believe in something.”

. . .

You settle into an odd little routine, you and John.

Tarasov gives you a mission, you go, accomplish the impossible somehow and get to go on breathing for another day.

The longer you work together, the easier it becomes to correlate. Your only weakness—if one can even call it that—is that you’re both stubborn individualists. He’s a brute, relentless strength to your sly, vicious subtlety. That’s what makes the fact that character-wise you couldn’t be more different so stupidly hilarious to you. The only real arguments you have is the way in which the job should be approached.

That thought makes you chuckle and you wince in pain immediately after. The ice pack against your jaw shifts slightly, and you shift in your seat, trying to get more comfortable. Most of your body aches painfully, but your jaw feels especially sore. One of the idiots has managed to get three heavy hits in before John splattered his brain all over you. In return, you’ve been forced to kick John out of the path of a bullet hail.

He’s the one who pressed ice against your jaw while you were busy cleaning his bruised and bleeding knuckles.

Then you sat in silence, digesting another job well done, and basking in the tranquil air of the hotel room while the pain-reducing solution you’ve made works its magic.

And odd routine indeed.

“Hey,” John’s voice breaks the soft tranquillity, and you jerk up, realising that you’ve come dangerously close to dozing off. “Do you ever think about getting out?”

You blink slowly, clearing your head as his words register. Then, confusion blooms, “Out? Get out of what?”

John doesn’t look at you though. His heavy gaze focuses on something outside, out of your sight. The slopes of his profile have become familiar to you—the raven hair, dark eyes, the small crinkles that appear around his eyes on the rare occasion he does smile. He’s not standoffish in the way others often accuse him of being now. If anything he looks softer somehow, more human than a weapon Tarasov boasts of so smugly. More than a living nightmare so many fear.

He looks like a man. Simple as that, and when he finally turns to face you, you see the fresh cuts and bruises on his face. Just a man.

“Getting out of this life,” he replies slowly, his voice rougher from the lucky hit one of the guards managed to get into his throat. “Getting away from everything. From Tarosov.”

It strikes you then that John is asking from a genuine place of interest—something he rarely indulges in with you, considering nine out of ten times all conversations between you are started by you.

The second thing that strikes you is a genuine surprise. John is not the person you would ever expect to hear this type of question from. It’s private, it’s raw; he knows about your debt, about the chain around your neck. Better than most, perhaps better than everyone. But because you respect him enough to at least give it actual thought, you consider his question for a long time.

It takes at least five minutes until you finally speak and when you do your voice sounds hollow in your own ears, “I never wanted this life,” you begin softly, your voice thin. “I never asked to be involved in any of this. I didn’t ask for my parents to take me from country to country, never allowing me to settle down anywhere or make friends. When they kept secrets and were barely home. I didn’t ask for adventure, or danger, or even wealth, John. But—”

John stares at you, considering you, no doubt analysing your words, and you swallow the sudden lump in your throat at his show of keen interest.

“But,” you repeat again, your tone harsher. “I’m here, and I have to make the best of it. I’ve never been good at anything in my life. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself in this last year is that I’m very, very good at this. I’m starting to think that violence is in my blood, and I don’t know what that means just yet but…”

You exhale, eyes fluttering shut and you only open them after counting to ten inside your head. Slow and steady as you meet his gaze straight on. “So to answer your question: no. No, I don’t think about it. Even after I’m finished dealing with Tarasov, I don’t see another path for myself anymore. It was taken from me.”

John peers at you for a long, long time after you fall silent. You’re not sure what he discerns from your expression or what he’s searching for, but you doubt he finds it as his obsidian eyes eventually slide away from you and towards the window.

The sun is rising in the East.

Milan is beautiful this time of year.

You sit together through the sunrise, not saying a word.

Years later, you would look back on this as the last true moment of peace for an interminable number of years.

. . .

Separation comes only two short months later like a punch to the face.

Tarasov’s argument is simple: he needs two jobs done on different sides of the world. One requires the lethality John is infamous for, another requires the most subtle of touches; a snake’s slyness.

Tarasov needs the Boogeyman and the Vipress but for vastly different things this time.

John must sense your unease—this will be your first solo mission after all—and he stops you as soon as you’re both out of earshot of any prying eyes.

“You’ll be fine,” he says so simply, effortlessly, with enough confidence in his low voice that for a second you believe him too. “It’s the perfect job for you.”

“Of course I’ll be fine,” you shoot back with forced nonchalance. “I’m not that helpless.”

Your smile is forced, and John knows it too.

He doesn’t point it out because deep down John is kind—no matter how ironic it is for a deadly assassin to be that.

For once, you expect him to say something else but he doesn’t. One of Tarasov’s men shouts him over because his flight is leaving in three hours. John’s gaze lingers on you for an insignificant second but he still walks away, leaving a cold kind of silence in his wake.

His name burns at the back of your throat as dread bubbles in the pit of your gut.

But you don’t call his name out.

. . .

It doesn’t go bad.

It doesn’t go well either.

It goes thoroughly and wholly to shit.

You grasp at your shoulder where blood is still pouring freely, and your eyes sting with tears of pain as you make your report to the silent Tarasov over the phone.

They have known.

They have prepared.

The target got away at the last moment.

You are lucky to still be alive.

“Better you weren’t then,” Tarasov purrs in Russian, the letters curling like a death grip around your throat. “Report to me tomorrow.”

“But—”

The line goes dead.

You pull the bullet out yourself. Through gritted teeth and sweat dripping down your forehead. You cry twice and throw up once before you pass out from pain and terror. Still, you manage to patch yourself up.

The lack of John’s presence stings in an unexpected, violent way when you wake up, bleary-eyed and shivering.

You have gotten dependent on him and his help.

Now it feels like a weakness.

Now, you hate yourself for shaking in terror as you make your way to Tarasov’s new office in New York.

You’re strong (but not strong enough), you’re smart (but not enough), you’re—

You wonder if you should pray, or perhaps plead for help from some higher power. Tarasov as good as admitted that you will be dead by the end of this meeting. There is no helping you now.

Sickness cramps your stomach and you dry heave in an alleyway behind his office. Your vision swims, your blood rushes in your ears and for a second you consider simply lying down on this cold, dirty ground and letting the world consume you.

You failed, you fucked up. First solo mission and you failed in the most spectacular way possible. The target got away. There’s no one to blame but yourself.

You’ve considered poisoning him, but that seems so unlikely to succeed now. His lackeys will never allow you to walk through the office door without ransacking you, nor would Tarasov be stupid enough to let you anywhere near him.

Death, now more than ever, seems like an inevitably.

John will save me.

A harsh bark of laughter tears from your throat at the sudden, invasive whisper of your mind. How pathetic. To mess up is one thing, to know that there’s close to nothing you can do to rectify the situation is another, but to actually hope someone else will save you…

Even if you are to allow yourself the overly indulgent thought, that still doesn’t change the fact that John is in Europe right now. Half a world away—too far away.

John.

Knees quaking, you stand up.

Squaring your shoulders, and ignoring the burn of pain in your left shoulder, you start walking.

John would face this with dignity, with that same cool detachment he does most things.

John would not quiver in some dingy alleyway. He would not cry like some pathetic idiot because of his own mistake. He would face it, and he would fight back.

Your forehead presses against the freezing wall of the building as you pull yourself together piece by piece.

You are no longer that same girl who wept over your parents because you have no idea where they are buried, or if they even had a burial. If perhaps their bodies have been thrown onto the streets, or woods, or simply fed to the dogs.

That girl has been killed by your parents' stupidity.

Now only the Vipress remains.

Vipress who is a master poisoner, whose name is no longer whispered with mockery but with reluctant respect that’s starting to rival John’s.

With every step, you stand straighter, walk with more confidence. Your shoulder throbs terribly but you step into the building as through a fog.

Tarasov greets you with a glass of vodka and a wide grin.

The hardness of his gaze is chilling though, and you try to keep your cool demeanour, emulating John as much as possible. Two other guards lurk in the dark corners of the room, and you still entertain the thought that you can take them if it comes to that.

Your heartbeat is so deafening in your ears, you barely catch Tarasov’s words.

“Sorry?”

His grin stretches even further, and he tuts, “My, my, I almost forgot. How’s the shoulder?”

He doesn’t sound like he cares. But not answering would be a stupid thing to do. “It’s fine, sir.”

Tarasov makes a small sound at the back of his throat before his fist strikes your shoulder with enough force that you crumble to the floor. A cry of pain manages to escape before you bite your cheek, hot blood flooding your mouth as you tremble on the floor before him.

“Oh, my,” Tarasov comments in sharp Russian as if surprised by your predicament while one of his guards hands him his glass. “Seems like you’re not as ‘fine’ as you say. You’ve disappointed me, (Name). Greatly.”

Tarasov pats your head, the contact heavy and patronizing, as he jerks your head up. He stares at you with a hum, shaking his head as his powerful features rearrange into a look of genuine disappointment.

“Stand up,” he orders sharply and lets go of you, allowing you space to stagger to your feet. “It would be undignified to shoot you like this. Believe it or not, my hopes for you were high and you’ve been rather useful to me. I at least respect that.”

The two guards shift in the dim room, and you bare your bloody teeth on instinct, lowering your blood-covered hand from your shoulder. If they want to fight...

Tarasov laughs genuinely this time, loud and booming, suddenly reminding you of your father. “You’ve got fire, little viper. I will need that ferocity for our expansion. But you also fucked up. Badly. But you will never fail me again, isn’t that right?”

You don’t answer, staring at him through a pain-fueled haze. Tarasov ‘tsk’s and the back of his hand strikes your face with numbing force. Your lip splits on contact, one side of your face tingling with raw pain as your head snaps to the side.

Few droplets of blood hit the pristine floor, and you stare at it dumbly, breathing harshly through your mouth.

“I grow impatient,” he mutters coldly in clipped Russian. “Isn’t that right? I expect an answer. What did you think I will kill you? No, no, my dear. Not yet. You’ve made a mess but it can be sorted. How severe your punishment is going to be, however, is entirely dependant on you.”

Swallowing thickly, you lift your eyes to his, “I won’t fail you again.”

Tarasov laughs again, and salutes you before drowning the half-full glass in one gulp. He exhales, looking rather pleased with himself.

“Of course you won’t,” he hums pleasantly, and pats your injured cheek with heavy intent. “Because if you do, I will have John himself put a bullet in your pretty little head. Now get out of my sight and don’t come back till I call for you.”

. . .

The knock on your door comes two days later.

You aren’t expecting guests so the first thing you do is grab your poisoned needles and your gun.

Gripping the familiar weight in your palm, you cautiously approach the door, levelling the gun against the wood. “Who is it?”

“It’s me.”

Your hand drops instinctively, and you crack the door open, only to find a familiar pair of dark eyes already staring at you. Your fingers tremble slightly as you open the door fully and John’s familiar stocky frame comes into view.

He, in turn, takes a good minute to no doubt take in your bandaged shoulder and bruised face. Even though you added ice the moment you left Tarasov’s office, one half of your face is still swollen. Ugly, blotchy bruises litter your skin and you swallow shakily upon noting the hard, near frightening intensity in which John is taking in your injuries.

“Why did you come?” you finally force out, and clear your throat when your voice cracks a few times. “Didn’t you have—”

“What happened?” John speaks instead, and there’s an icy undercurrent to his words you’re unused to hearing from him.

Turning away, you walk deeper into the room, and John follows you silently.

“I figured you would know. I’m the talk of the town,” you mutter dryly, and feel a stab of anger at the thought.

When you turn to face him, John’s expression is still oddly severe though his demeanour appears as calm as always. You’re not quite sure what to make of it.

“I do know what happened on the mission,” he replies, his mouth a tight line, and voice dropping into almost whisper. “I want to know about this.”

He reaches out and for a stupid—purely idiotic second—you think that he’s going to touch your face; maybe run his thumb over your tender jaw to soothe the pain.

But John stops halfway and allows his hand to drop back to his side, patient and quiet as he waits for your explanation.

There’s an odd tension in the air that you can’t quite pinpoint. The relief of seeing him, at knowing he cares enough to at least come and see you, is already enough. Which doesn’t explain why you feel a distinct stab of disappointment at the realisation that he’s not going to hold you or comfort you, regardless of how naive it would be to expect something like that from him. That hard demeanour of his is near impossible to crack through most of the time.

“Tarasov wasn’t happy,” you settle on the easiest explanation you can give him. “Reminded me that I will never fail him again or he will have you shoot me next time.”

John’s expression twists. “I—”

He cuts himself off and you smile sadly, wincing when you scabbed lip stretches too wide. You know what he was about to say. That he wouldn’t do it—that maybe he simply couldn’t. Even in the world of killers, there are grey areas no one likes to tread on. Friends, family, associates.

But you also know the truth.

You both work exclusively under Tarasov’s contract. John would have to do what he’s told regardless of his own feelings on the matter. And maybe even if he does care, even if he considers you an actual friend, it won’t be enough to deliberately place himself in danger by showing disobedience.

“It’s okay,” you say softly, and you wonder why you sound so sad without even meaning to. “We do what we’re told. We don’t ask questions. We just pull the trigger, right? It’s who we are. We’re made for violence and isn’t that fucking sad? We don’t even question it anymore, John. Do you think—”

His head tilts, his loose hair brushing against his forehead. “Do I think what?”

You exhale slowly, shaking your head, and give him another tiny smile. Somehow even ignoring pain is easier with him beside you.

“It’s nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

For a moment, it looks like John will say something else but he stops himself at last second and nods his head as if accepting your words.

The distance between you feels like a ravine even while you spend the entire evening in the same room, breathing the same air. But perhaps that’s just the endless paradox between you.

. . .

It doesn’t happen overnight. Or days. Or even weeks.

It’s slow. So much so that you don’t notice for a long, long time and by the time you do, it’s already painfully clear that there’s no going back.

Much like the name John wears, much like the man himself, it creeps up on you. Little by little. Bit by bit.

There’s no groundbreaking moment, there are no fireworks. There’s just the knowing that sits deep in the pit of your stomach. It’s a foolish, idiotic thing. You brush it aside because you know better. Because you’re not naive enough to hope for anything in a world like this.

Hope is a dangerous thing, and you’ve had yours broken too many times to rely on it anymore.

So you don’t.

You know not to expect good things anymore, to never try and rely on anything or anyone. Every good thing you’ve ever had has either died or been taken from you.

So you really should have known that this would never last.

. . .

Tarasov’s imposed “time out” lasts for three months.

It marks the beginning of the end.

And it starts with an accident that turns into a tragedy.

. . .

an: wooo, I hope you all liked that. I’m sooo rusty it’s not even funny but I hope you found some enjoyment in this. Also sorry for the very slowburn relationship I suppose? This isn’t super romantic. But considering the type of man John is (and the fact that he’s younger here) I actually don’t see him falling for someone immediately? Also, I love angst so....this is gonna be exactly that! Thank you for reading everyone!!

#john wick #john wick x reader #john wick imagine #keanu reeves #john wick fic #fic: children of ares

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

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Is It Really THAT Bad?

There really is only one way I could ever kick this series off: with the very movie that inspired it. Robot Monster is a B-movie with a reputation that precedes it by many miles. Even f you’ve never actually watched this, you might have heard that it is one of the worst films of all time, because as we all know, independent B-movies with no budget need to be held to the same standard as Hollywood blockbusters. These days most people have settled into calling it a prime example of “so bad it’s good” cinema, with folks like film historian Leonard Maltin calling it “one of the genuine legends of Hollywood - embarrassingly, hilariously awful.”

But even back in the day when it came out there was some claims this film wasn’t so bad. Variety, of all publications, said that “Robot Monster comes off surprisingly well, considering the extremely limited budget ($50,000) and schedule on which the film was shot." After years of hearing nothing but that this film is an utter travesty, it can be especially bizarre to hear that even in its day, there were people who understoof that maybe this film shouldn’t be held up to the same standards as something like Citizen Kane or a Hitchcock film. Maybe it should be judged… as a low-budget B-grade sci-fi film! GASP! What a concept!

THE GOOD

I think perhaps one of the genuinely greatest aspects of this film is the score, which was done by, of all people, Elmer Bernsetein. If you don’t recognize the name, you will almost certainly recognize the vats body of work he has, with his resume including composing work for The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, The Blues Brothers, Heavy Metal, Ghostbusters, The Black Cauldron, Wild Wild West, An American Werewolf in London, and even the music video for “Thriller.” This is one of his earlier works, and it is still absolutely fantastic, to the point where some (but not I) might feel it belongs in a better movie. It quite frankly uplifts the material onscreen and gives it a grander weight that a lesser composer might not have been able to accomplish.

Contrary to the popular concept of B-movies, most of them have pretty decent acting at least, and this one is no exception; most of the cast is relatively solid, with even the little boy actor managing to turn in a solid performance; he’s not overly remarkable, sure, but he is just as petulant as he needs to be, and he does contribute some genuinely good ideas at points. Of course, the real stars of the show here are the physical performance of Geroge Barrows and the astounding vocal performance of John Brown as the legendary B-movie monster Ro-Man. We never see his face, and yet the physical acting of this man in a gorilla suit and fishbowl combined with the powerful voice of Brown really comes together.

And speaking of Ro-Man, I’m just going to come out and say it: the cheapo monster design that has been so widely mocked for decades is something I find to be incredibly inspired, unique, and genuinely great. Yes, I’m sure when you hear the phrase “robot monster” the first thing that comes to your mind if you’ve never heard of the film would most likely not be “gorilla in a diving helmet.” But it has such a creative charm born from a lack of finances that it’s truly impossible to really hate the creature. It helps that Ro-Man has gone on to make various appearances in cameos in pop culture, as well as helping to inspire the design of the character Minion from the cinematic masterpiece Megamind.

And all that aside, are you really so stone-hearted you can bring yourself to hate this guy?

The Bad

There are a few issues that pop up within this, with one of the more major ones being with the story structure. While the plot itself isn’t super bad, with it being basic B-movie fluff and the short runtime gives it a decent pacing, there’s a weird amount of padding, most noticeable during a stretch of time where it just cuts back to Ro-Man walking up and down a hill as dramatic music plays. The use of weird stock footage from old dinosaur movies also comes off as a bit weird. Still, the strangest bit of all is Ro-Man’s sudden and inexplicable lust for the human woman, to the point where he almost screws up his entire mission because he’s suddenly become horny. It’s rather jarring and out of nowhere, though it at least leads to some good lines from Ro-Man.

Out of all of the actors, the little girl is probably the most annoying. She’s so annoying, in fact, that it almost comes across as a mercy when Ro-Man finally strangles her. And her death is kind of underplayed, especially by her brother, who doesn’t seem too shaken up by how his sister has been strangled and that the extremely low amount of people left on Earth has now gone down.

And speaking of the boy, the ending reveals that the entire film was just his dream, which is one of the absolute worst endings a work can go for. A last-second reveal shows that the prior events may have actually been some sort of prophetic dream, as it is implied that Ro-Man and his masters will invade the Earth after all, but it still is a bit of a cop out. It takes a really great work to pull off the “all just a dream” twist ending, and while this movie is certainly not awful, it’s definitely not The Wizard of Oz or Super Mario Bros. 2.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

This movie really did not live up to its reputation at all. I went in expecting some hilarious disaster of a film, and instead what I got is a flawed yet charming B-movie that managed to be extremely creative despite its low budget and features a lot of good elements. While I don’t think it all comes together perfectly, and I’ve definitely seen far better cheesy B-movies, this is certainly not the bottom of the barrel as its legendary infamy would have you believe.

Its solid 3 on IMDB I feel is a bit too harsh; while certainly no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it definitely feels like a three is a bit two low when there’s actually quite a bit good going for it. Realistically, I think a score in the mid-to-low fives would be a much better score for the film. As for its status as a “so bad it’s good film,” I think it is at least somewhat fair in this case, as the story itself is rather wonky, but I don’t think the film is bad for its quirky creativity, such as Ro-Man or the bubble machine; unique little quirks of the film I feel are genuinely good and help set it apart from other B-movies from the time and give it a unique identity that not many movies can match.

I think this film is most comparable to something like fellow B-movie The Giant Claw, where most of its more ironic fandom comes from the goofy monster than anything. I think that is warranted, as Ro-Man is just such a wonderfully iconic B-movie villain; maybe we should get Guillermo del Toro on the phone and see if he wants to do a sexy reimagining of this movie next. It’s what he deserves.

#IIRTB #Robot Monster #pilot episode #feedback would be appreciated!

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hoshigomi · 5 years

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10 under 10

Inspired by @zukadiary‘s 12 Underclassmen I’m Into, here’s my spin on introducing you to my favorite young ones. 10 actresses under ken 10, presented in order as they are in that randomly generated graphic above.

1.) Yuunagi Ryou, Hoshigumi Technically nicknamed Shimo, she has inspired many nicknames that I am the sole user of. I’ve watched more shinkos than I’d like to admit just to catch her saying a few lines in her bizarrely husky and staticky voice. Japanese Twitter has noticed that she’s getting very ヤバイ. One of the best dancers Hoshigumi has, full stop, and probably the most entertaining person I’ve ever watched fuck around in the back of scenes. I would pay full blu ray price for a star angle on her in group scenes. (Ask Me About her Food Antics and penchant for Touching Musumeyaku.) Her classmates have described her as ”強い”. I might be in love with her. Dream role: Hot Bad Boy in a 90′s teen romcom, Anyone in RetJ, a greaser in Grease.

2.) Honoka Kozakura, Hoshigumi Please sign here! (What’s this, you ask?- it’s a petition for the Hoshigumi Producers to Treat Honoka better!) Always the bridesmaid, never the bride, except the one time she got a shinko lead. Voice of an ANGEL. Captivatingly Present onstage. Word of God says she puts in a heartbreaking amount of real-life research into characters she plays and their circumstances, and it SHOWS. She is an ACTRESS. Dream role: Cinderella.

3.) Taiki Hayate, Hoshigumi I genuinely don’t have much to say about Taiki because she’s a 105th and hasn’t grown into anything resembling her potential, which I am assuming she has based on the fact that she’s huge and delivered some IMPRESSIVE side-eye directed towards no one in particular in the Oceans Hatsubutai that I saw. Also, from her Takawiki profile:

What’s not to love? Dream role: Bill in Me and My Girl in approximately 12 years.

4.) Irodori Michiru, Yukigumi I think it’s fair to admit that I love Michiru because she is probably the cutest human being I have ever seen in my entire life. She looks like a cat. She has the sweetest smile. I’d trust her with tasks like helping alter a dress while it was still on my body, and like being my baking partner for a neighborhood bake sale. Sweet voice, good actress, apparently was tracked against Kuracchi once upon a time but we see how that worked for both of them. I hope Yukigumi keeps her visible for as long as she wants to stick around. In my dreams, her and Machi Yuuka (or more realistically, Aasa), are the top combi of Yukigumi. Dream role: Katherine in Newsies....

5.) Amato Kanon, Hoshigumi I could literally just write “Amato Kanon Will Be Top Star One Day” here and leave it at that. I have never in my life been so sure of anything. Kanon has made my shoulders shake with laughter (like in Elbe, as Johnny, always yelling, always skittish), and made my stomach drop in a way that a ken-3 otokoyaku should NOT be able to do. Her role in God of Stars is *chefs kiss* inspired. She’s got GAME (onstage). Multiple people have reported to me that they are unable to take their eyes off her. Cries a lot. Loved the hell out of Nanami Hiroki. Just had her first shinko lead, and I hope that was like lead number 1 of 5. Dream roles for her to play: Romeo, Ronan in 1789.

6.) Sumika Amane, Hoshigumi Sumika Amane won me over when I noticed that in the Killer Rouge rockette, she was looking towards the rafters and appeared to be earnestly PRAYING she wasn’t about to fall over. She’s played a non-speaking maid for like three shows in a row. She’s way taller than you think she is gonna be. She gets to sexy dance on the ginkyou in Éclair Brillant and it’s honestly more effective than I expected. Always in pink, the SWEETEST fashion sense, super cute ears. She may not be moving up in the troupe, but every day she moves up in my heart. Dream role: something where she speaks.

7.) Aosaki Iori, Soragumi “Aosaki Iori doesn’t even look like herself” - zukadiary, on the picture in the graphic. She’s right. It doesn’t. When the pictures of the 103rd class came out, I picked Aosaki Iori on face alone, and I don’t regret it. I can’t say anything about her stage presence because Soragumi seems hell bent on hiding her from me, though I DID spot her THREE TIMES in the background in Oceans 11. She is TINY. She’s a good dancer! She has huge eyes and a wildly honest and innocent aura about her. I have no idea what she’s gonna grow up to be like. She’s not even in the upcoming Soragumi split. In my dreams, I get to see her for longer than 30 consecutive seconds as a bellboy that Seiko literally shoves aside. If You See This Child, please call me. Dream role: Literally just let me see her.

8.) Ruri Hanaka, Hoshigumi Another 103rd pick on face alone, but BOY THIS ONE REALLY TURNED OUT TO BE SOMETHING. Ruri Hanaka has: more game than any ken 10+ otokoyaku I have ever seen, more raw sex appeal than Makaze and Aasa (bear with me) put together. I saw two twitter users refer to her as “Rockette Killer Rurihana”. She’s RIPPED. I made eye contact with her once and had to look away because I could not TAKE the energy with which she was looking at me. She gets dance solos for a reason. She runs fast (she was a HIT after her role as Betty in the Elbe Shinko.) I could list what she’s good at for an hour and I wouldn’t even be done. Dream role: Elle Woods in Legally Blonde

9.) Natsu Hayato, Soragumi This picture of her actually looks exactly like what Aosaki Iori looks like in real life. The main difference is Natsu Hayato is visible, (probably partially because she’s like nine feet tall.) She was in Sora’s Uptown Funk brilliant dreams. She kind of got the dance. Mostly she fucked around in the back with her oversized shirt not tucked in. Needless to say, I think she’s INSANELY cute and charming. She’s had some good shinko roles. Sweet sweet smile. Dream role: Sailor Uranus or a barista in a coffee shop romcom.

10.) Mizuno Yuri, Hoshigumi We call her “Noodle” because I have never seen a like longer, noodlier musumeyaku. Has been partnered with Kai multiple times in the past, which shows in her dance technique (best described as “following the suggestion of the choreography”). Once she tried to talk about Kai and cried so hard someone else had to take over for her. She has a TRULY STRANGE and wobbly way of speaking. Insane dimples. Genuinely reminds me of a newborn giraffe. Seems to have a FUN sense of humor and REAL personality though- and I can’t wait to see how she grows into it, though since they keep giving her either shinko LEADS or shinko nibante musumeyaku leads, maybe we won’t have to look too hard to see her. Dream role: Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act.

#takarazuka #10 under 10 #:)#feel free to steal this if you want ldsukfjhakfhsdj

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hadnothing · 5 years

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kiun is a lot more complicated than he gets credit for welcome to my ted talk -

ok so hear me out. this shinki. is fucking insane. just, what the fuck is happening? let’s break this down. oh boy.

he’s a fucKING LIGHTNING DRAGON. so, he’s one of exactly two shinki we’ve seen with extremely ‘abnormal’ manifestations. this implies that he’s, honestly, probably led an incredibly traumatic and weird life given the track record we can see of how other shinki have forms that are very symbolic of their past occupations, their personalities, etc. sadly we’ve not seen that in canon yet. so i have a lot of hc about it but i also want to see if he gets revealed in the next few chapters or anything first, so i won’t post anything for a little just to find out, you know how it is. if i get impatient i’ll just spill eventually so it’s fine.

but genuinely, kiun is fascinating. he’s incredibly old, to start with. it’s dropped in the manga that takemikazuchi’s forced reincarnation was directly before the reign of the first Japanese emperor, jimmu (660 bce). kiun was employed on the day of said reincarnation. so this implies that his death was very, very long ago. and he really lacks the generally uppity-ness one would expect from a noble, so he was also likely a peasant.

i’m not even going to touch on the fact that he’s got blonde hair in this and seemingly always did post-death. well. maybe a little. i don’t think it’s natural. i’m thinking he may have straight up died by lightning strike, but i’m not sure. i have some logic to work out on that later. i realize that most likely it’s just a style choice of the creator and doesn’t really matter, but i like everything to have a reason bc i’m a dickhead.

but yeah, so he’s a fucking lightning dragon. what’s with that? oh, and he can change his size seemingly at will. and he bleeds, which implies that he does have something of a physical form underneath the lightning, at least circumstantially. which is...you know, interesting, but not particularly weirder than any of the other things we’ve seen happen with shinki. but, anyway, my whole point here is that he does then have a physical form underneath the lightning which he can display if he likes. my guess is that there’s just seldom a reason to, so he doesn’t. this isn’t a major thing, but i think it’s really interesting and opens up new avenues of communication and interaction.

the main thing i really want to talk about though, is his personality. because we see him mostly as just a sort of airheaded guy. very sleepy, a bit formal, quite lonely and generally not in some regards what we would expect a guidepost to be.

this is fascinating, especially since takemikazuchi on meeting him pre-incarnation and after taking him into his employ notes that kiun is a reflection of himself more than anyone or anything else has ever been - this god, who is known for being reckless, angry, vengeful, uncontrollable, wild - and asks him to promise to stay by him. so what does that say about kiun deep down as well?

of course, the fact that he reincarnated that night after being murdered by his elder shinki for being too uncontrollable complicates things, but keep in mind: kiun keeps this promise. he never stopped keeping it. and it’s interesting, because i think that the reason that take claims him as an echo of himself is that deep loneliness. their personalities are too vastly different (even though i do think that kiun has some anger issues that he’s supressed an incredible amount during his service in order to perform well). they are both these really undefinable beings; they’re sort of the shape of something recognizable, but not really, and they’re massive as concepts. you can’t contain lightning. you can’t shape it. it simply is, and when it strikes, it’s fast and decisive. they both make their decisions this way.

so it’s absolutely fascinating to me that kiun keeps this promise, especially in agony. i don’t think he stood idly by during the execution either - in fact i’m quite sure he probably begged to be used against the elders and was denied. because realistically, the only way that execution could have ever commenced is by take’s consent, because if he had called for any of his other shinki (not the elders, if they were drawing lines to deny him), they couldn’t have not answered his call. he let them take his life. yeah, he fought, and there were collateral deaths, but i think that's genuinely just pride. because at the end of the day i don't believe there wasn't a way for him to call for aid if he truly wanted it.

which makes it so much more incredibly cruel that his powers were bound upon reincarnation, and he was only given kiun to express himself. and as his guide. this newly dead shinki, who (as far as we know) had never served before and had no idea what he was doing, and didn’t truly know his master yet. and now his master doesn’t know him, because he no longer remembers kiun’s naming, but he still belongs to him. his vessel has already been declared.

and kiun has had to, more or less, just...do what he’s told from two directions for all of this time. he had to learn to be a guidepost, and yet his true loyalty is to take, not the elders, so he has to learn how to appease them without prompting another execution, and serve without being a traitor to his master’s wishes. (not surprised he’s always tired.) and it’s so sad, i think, because the really strong implication is that the elders left kiun to raise the new take, and at the end of the day that had to be the most frustrating thing in the world for them both. he couldn’t tell him who either of them used to be, or really what he was supposed to do. all he could do was stay by his side. and care.

which is, i think, a heavy part of why take is so bitter and sometimes cruel to his shinki. he doesn’t understand himself, he is full of resentment, his closest companion and really the only person he cares for he isn’t sure that he can trust. and kiun is really faded. i think this is a huge part of why his most defining feature is being an exhausted ditz. he’s so distracted by always fretting after take that it makes his functionality in literally anything else essentially shit, because he wants more than anything to keep his master well. he drowns his own desires and personality in the interest of service. and it’s really fucking sad, because takemikazuchi is almost generous in that he allows his shinki to have relationships, and be free, to mingle. kiun doesn’t do any of that. he has no friends. no lovers. he glues himself, absolutely and completely, to take. and that’s self-punishment at its finest, because while he’s practically all of his master’s happiness he can’t see that. he blames himself for all of takemikazuchi’s misery since his reincarnation. and in a way take does too, but he forgives him for it except in the moments where he’s enraged beyond belief, and then it’s weaponized.

their relationship is a bizarre, tangled mess of emotion and frustration spanning millennia. they both have incredibly deep affection towards each other that they don’t admit, because it isn’t proper and they are both super steeped in tradition. take is selfish; kiun will always serve his whims until he thinks that take is destroying himself. they are apart only when kiun is asleep or when takemikazuchi tells him to be gone. i genuinely think that they probably have adjoined quarters (if not just straight up shared) and their codependency is absolutely bonkers. they both look to the other for instruction and affection while trying to retain an autonomy they have no idea of how to gain, and it’s ultimately just tragic.

but neither of them will give it up. they’re part of each other.

#HEADCANON. ( kiun. )#DO NOT REBLOG. ( without permission. )

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dccomicsnews · 5 years

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Review: DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #2

[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi

Art: Travis Moore & Max Raynor

Colors: Tamra Bonvillain & Nick Filardi

Letters: Rob Leigh

Reviewed by: Matthew Lloyd

Summary

What makes a great comic book? Plot? Characterization? Humor? Nostalgia? Well, Detective Comics Annual #2 is a great comic and it contains a lot of these elements. Most importantly, it manages to tell a street level Batman tale and at the same time incorporate numerous elements from Batman’s past. Additionally, by utilizing “The Black Casebook,” this story in effect emulates the high concept of “the Black Casebook.” While not necessarily one of the self proclaimed “unusual and unexplainable adventures,” this issue does incorporate that notion with the antagonist in the opening sequence…..

After stopping an attack in an alley by The Eraser, Batman returns home to read of an attack in France by an old foe- The Reaper. After a recap of The Reaper who was the antagonist in “Batman: Year Two” (Detective Comics #575-578, 1987), Bruce heads to Europe with Alfred to hunt down this apparent copycat.

They set up the Reaper with Alfred playing the role of a local drunk. After Batman arrives and stops the Reaper from killing Alfred’s erstwhile muggers, Batman learns that this Reaper is not simply a copycat. He manages to uncover the truth and to his surprise discovers a “Reaper, Incorporated” approach to this copycat and his crimes.

Positives

The cover of Detective Comics Annual #2 shows that this story belongs in “The Black Casebook.” This concept was introduced back in Grant Morrison’s “Batman: R.I.P.” story from 2008. Morrison developed a way to integrate some of the strangest and most bizarre stories from Batman’s publishing history. Everything was suddenly canon. To his credit, nothing ever feels forced, but rather the effort evokes a warm, nostalgic feeling. “The Black Casebook” is a collection of these tales both as a trade paperback collection in our world, and as seen in Detective Comics Annual #2, a real book on the shelf in Batman’s library in Wayne Manor. Tomasi is playing off all of this in the script. It should be noted that Tomasi was the editor of the Batman line who first approached Morrison about writing Batman way back when.

Tomasi goes on to utilize the elements of “The Black Casebook” to expand the scope of this story. The Eraser is a truly odd and bizarre Bat-villain that doesn’t fit in with the more realistic approach to modern Batman comics. But, with Morrison’s “Black Casebook,” Tomasi can easily pick a strange villain from the ’60s to include in this story that fits with the original notion of “the Black Casebook.”

“Batman: Year Two” while not immediately recognizable as a “bizarre or unexplainable” Batman story is related to the idea of making everything canon. ‘Year Two” was the first Batman story to depict the Dark Knight using a gun since his earliest appearances. At the time it was published, it kept this aspect of Batman’s earliest days intact. Detective Comics Annual #2 references this part of Batman’s past with Bruce admitting it was a time he “also made mistakes” as he is pictured brandishing a handgun. In some ways, acknowledging this aspect of Batman’s publishing history because it is incongruous with how Batman has come to be portrayed makes this a difficult depiction. Filing it in “The Black Casebook” makes complete sense.

Positives Cont’d

There are a number of strong character moments in this issue from Alfred’s acting ability and willingness to put himself in harm’s way to the underused trope of Bruce as the bored millionaire playboy. Too often this element is forgotten as the nightlife receives the bulk of the attention in Batman stories. His true mask of “Bruce Wayne” is useful and always a treat when utilized effectively.

Bruce himself acknowledges the fall of Batman, Incorporated in this issue, but the idea is recapitulated in the Reaper’s own worldwide network of vengeance. This copycat has not only reused the Reaper identity, but also the modus operandi of Batman, Incorporated, having developed a worldwide network of Reapers. Not surprisingly, it all ties back into “The Black Casebook” which includes the tale, “The Batmen of All Nations.”

Above all, this story succeeds because it meshes nostalgia, history, iconic depiction of Batman and a slew of engaging references.

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Negatives

The only possible negative to this issue is the cipher quality of Sopia Zervas. She’s set up wonderfully as Bruce’s companion to the business summit in Europe that Bruce uses as a cover to suddenly be on the continent, and is nothing more. She doesn’t even get a night with Bruce as a traditional “Bond Girl” would. I was expecting some account of her in Bruce’s past, but…nothing….

Oh, and it’s far better than the most recent issue of Detective Comics…. Ok, not so much a negative as a lament about Detective Comics #1004.

Verdict

Grant Morrison’s idea of “The Black Casebook” is used masterfully by Tomasi and company. Not only does Detective Comics Annual #2 integrate the idea of “bizarre and unexplainable” cases, it is peppered with phenomenal character moments. However, the issue succeeds because these aspects are molded into one coherent tale that plays off the history and the iconic elements of the Batman.

Review: Detective Comics Annual #2 Review: DETECTIVE COMICS ANNUAL #2 Writer: Peter J. Tomasi Art: Travis Moore & Max Raynor Colors:

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starnatural0667 · 5 years

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Um so wrote a thing....at 5 in the morning...please read?

So, I have this problem with Dean’s NOT farewell tour. Maybe other people do too, so maybe this can give you a reason as to explain. I should mention this has some destiel exposing? Questioning? Perhaps, answering? In it. For starters, let me draw your attention back to season 11, specifically the season finale: Alpha and Omega. We all know the basis of the plot for that episode being Dean sacrificing himself to save the world from Amara. We also saw the whole farewell tour Dean did in the cemetery. Bearing this in mind, this is what I will be using to compare with Season 14, and more specifically, episodes 11 and 12.

Dean’s plan to avoid Michael taking over and burning the world is to build a special box and sink to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again. However, its Dean choice not to go on a farewell tour that…bothers me. As viewers know, and as I’ve just resurfaced, Dean sacrificing himself on previous occasions actually does include a farewell tour; See Seasons 5 and 11. So why would Dean have such a problem with doing it now? This is where my issues begin to involve. You might be saying “Oh, maybe he’s just tired of saying goodbye to the people he cares about.” Trust me, I hear you. I definitely believe Dean doesn’t want to have to say goodbye anymore, evident from him stating in 14x12 that he’s “not good with the whole big goodbyes.” However, isn’t saying goodbye to your family a hell of a lot bigger than saying goodbye to your best friend and “son”? Hopefully, you now understand my problem with the whole no farewell tour. Dean is a very complex character. He hides most of his emotions nearly all the time, but the ones he always, always hides are his feelings and his neglection to being vulnerable. Prophet and Loss was an episode full of emotional rollercoasters, many being seen from Dean. You can tell by watching the episode that he is, quite rightly, scared to carry out his plan and emotional about leaving his family. We have the whole reminiscing about he and Sam when they were younger and specifically Dean apologizing to Sam for not always being there. Now riddle me this, if Dean can have this emotional talk with Sam where they’re both almost reduced to tears by the end, why can’t he say goodbye to Cass and Jack? “Because Sam’s his brother!”, and “Sam’s the only other person apart from Mary that he told his plan to!” This reaffirms my point about how honestly ridiculous Dean’s no farewell tour situation is! If there is anyone in Dean Winchester’s entire life who could convince him not to do something, it would be Sam (See end of 14x12). So, the fact that Dean trusts Sam with his plan and expects him not to be convinced otherwise shows that he absolutely will not change his mind. It shows that Dean believes that Sam cannot change his mind.

Now, to fully understand the weight of my problem, we have to look at reasons as to why Dean didn’t mention his plan or say goodbye to Cass and Jack. I’ll begin with Jack first. I am going to mainly focus on the beginning of season 14, or when Jack gets sick. He and Dean go on road trip so Jack can “experience the life.” This episode also gives us a heartfelt moment between Dean and Jack which provides reason that they each think of the other as family and love one another. Skip back to Dean’s NOT farewell tour, where he doesn’t tell Jack or say goodbye. Why? Why would Dean not say goodbye to Jack? He was prepared to help Jack accept his growing sickness and eventual death…so why didn’t he plan on saying goodbye?

Now here comes the really fun part! Getting to investigate why Dean wouldn’t tell or say goodbye to Castiel. Dean’s known Cass a while now…10 years to be exact. They’ve had their ups and downs as all characters on a Tv show do. Cass in widely regarded as Dean’s best friend and don’t forget that profound bond! My point is, Castiel is family to Dean.

Remember that season 11 parallel I mentioned? Let’s expand…Dean says his farewells to everyone in the cemetery, before going to his presumed death. Dean’s farewell to Cass is sad but beautiful, and one of many peoples favourite destiel scenes. After a hug, Cass says he could go with Dean which Dean answers no, but instead asks Cass to take of Sam because he will be broken up. The point I truly want to get across here is that Dean can say goodbye to Cass. Yes, he’s emotional about it and we have a “thank you, for everything” line the kills me every time but…he still says goodbye. Fast forward to Prophet and Loss and…you get nothing. Dean doesn’t mention his plan to Cass or say goodbye, not even a phone call. Instead, we thankfully have Sam relaying information to Cass. Bless your soul Sam. Why can’t Dean say goodbye? It’s not like Cass can magically transport to Dean and try and stop him. There would be absolutely nothing Cass could do…other than talk Dean out of it. But hey! I’ve already said that the only person that could ever make Dean change his mind is Sam…right? To us viewers, most of us know that Sam just has that ability to stop Dean from doing something stupid, and for a while I think Dean knew that too. However, I believe the most recent episode showed us that Dean doesn’t think Sam can stop him. No matter how much trust Dean has in Sam and no matter how much they love each other, Dean doesn’t think Sam can change his mind.

This is now where I turn into a “DelUsioNAl destiel shipper who reads into things waaaay too much;)” Perhaps the reason Dean didn’t tell Castiel was because he thought that Cass could talk him out of it. Maybe the reason Dean thought this is because he realizes that something has changed between them. Maybe Dean didn’t want to say goodbye because of all the times he’d done it, this could have been the one where he’d actually say what he felt; what he now realizes concerning his feelings which would make it even harder to carry out his plan. You may remember back in season 5 when Dean was planning on saying yes to Michael, Cass was having none of it! We all saw how Castiel, Angel of the Lord, beat Dean Winchester up because he was going to give into Heaven’s orders. We all know the lines Castiel spoke in that ally, on that rainy night. But still, Dean planned on saying yes to Michael. Not until the capture of Adam (who?) did Dean detour from his plans. Looking back on this, the parallels between seasons 5 and 14 are quite strong, but it appears the meaning has changed. There is plenty of evidence in the most recent seasons to show how Dean and Cass’s relationship has evolved. There’s enough to suggest that Dean himself has noticed that change, even if he doesn’t admit it. We all know that for almost the entirety of Cass’s decisions made on the show, they heavily revolve around one thing; Dean Winchester. I think all destiel shippers know that the first acknowledgement of anything truly foundational in Dean and Castiel’s relationship, was because of choices Cass has made. Plus, we have proper evidence to suggest that Castiel truly loves Dean from way back in the 80s of the show. You can say we have evidence for Dean as well, however, I personally feel that that evidence didn’t present itself until the later seasons of the show; ergo, seasons 10-14. To sum it up, the only reason there would be a difference between Dean’s goodbye to Cass in season 11 and his goodbye in season 14 is if something had changed in their relationship. Something that Dean see’s and understands which would affect his choices regarding his plan. Which is why I choose this to be the reason for Dean not saying goodbye.

In conclusion, I still don’t really understand the reason for Dean not telling Cass…and Jack about his plan or saying goodbye, however as you know, I have come up with some great reasons as to explain this bizarre phenomenon. I guess realistically I should just blame the writing…or maybe thank it.

Alas…my rambling is over.

#destiel #supernatural #spn spoilers #dean winchester #castiel #supernatural 14x12 #deancas #spn prophet and loss #help me #please give it read?#spn meta #destiel meta #spn #spn 14x12

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hanhae · 6 years

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Why Blonde is just as good as than Channel Orange [long]

I’ve seen and heard so many negative things about Blonde regarding to certain stylistic elements Frank chooses to use throughout the album, and I want to express my thoughts on it and show how it’s just as good as Channel Orange was.

The first time I sat down to listen to Blonde, I was quite surprised to see that there were striking differences right away. All the bouncy bright synths were gone and the percussion was sparse. In Channel Orange you had songs like “Lost”, “Crack Rock”, and “Super Rich Kids” which had a pop-rnb sound in which percussion lines drove the songs and the vocals were clear and accessible. In the album, one song flowed to the next and while there were obviously some stylistically experimental elements, it was all pretty straight forward.

With all of this in mind, I went into Channel Orange without really knowing what to expect. But it was not this. When I clicked on “Nikes” I was met with wavy, dreamy instrumentals with high-pitched vocal effects which could only be described as bizarre. The percussion was so much more bare than it was in the songs of Channel Orange.

Then you go into “Ivy” which is a lot less experimental and more radio-friendly than the last song. It’s a beautiful tune with a memorable chorus, but the song still ends in strange screeching sounds which I tended to skip over when I was playing this song when my friends were around. “Pink+White” was similarly easy to get into with its underlying drum patterns.

Then you get into “Be Yourself” which just confused the hell out of me. I had no idea what to make out of it and the skit honestly was really jarring.

Then came “Solo”, “Skyline To”, and “Self Control” which took me back into a strange place. In “Solo”, Frank takes you on an acid trip with him: “It's hell on Earth and the city's on fire; Inhale, inhale there's heaven; There's a bull and a matador dueling in the sky; Inhale, in hell there's heaven”. The melody is captivating and the lack of percussion that instead gives way to dreamy synths makes you feel like you’re floating in space. There’s a much bigger focus on Frank’s vocal ability and while Frank takes you on his adventure of meaningless drug use where he’s weirding out and seeing things, you still feel an underlying level of introspection and pain when he gets into the “Oh”’s around 1:25. The same feelings underlies “Skyline To” even as Frank talks about sex. With “Self Control” you see major experimentation with different vocal effects with pitching, layering, and by the end it seems as if the vocals are surrounding you until it fades out.

“Nights” takes you to back to Channel Orange-esque brighter synths and touches on his drug addiction and poverty, until you get to the AMAZING switch where it’s less rap-based but more rnb-based and he reflects on a past relationship and ends with more layered vocals. This song itself is probably the embodiment of the whole album and so much is packed into it that I am sure that the song itself has touched so many people.

“Pretty Sweet” is a strange one to wrap your head around because of all of the strange noises going on but I think that it magnifies the feelings of distortion and detachment that Frank goes through.

The rest of the album like "Facebook Story", "Close to You", "White Ferrari", "Seigfried", and "Godspeed" touches on what it's like to getting out of a deep relationship and the feelings of detachment afterward. The songs weave in and out through huge meshes of synths and vocal layering with moments with of only his voice. Just like all the sonic effects, his mind is all over the place all throughout his introspection. He seems to have lost footing and doesn't know where he is supposed to be. The album doesn’t flow as well cohesively as Channel Orange does, with its strange skits here and there that seem jarring but make more sense overall if you consider the detachment and complex thoughts that go through Frank’s mind throughout the album. Realistically, introspective thoughts never truly flow perfectly from one to another, but rather pile up on each other in a way that may not make sense to others but makes sense to you.

Then you get to “Futura Free” which is reflective and seems to show that Frank finally found some footing. He even mentions that he sobered from weed when he was working on the album, showing his ability to not use marijuana as a creative influence when creating art.

Overall, I think that while Channel Orange is easier to get into and enjoy right away, it’s essentially a pop-infused rnb album. The messages and stories are much more straight forward while with Blonde a lot of the sounds and messages that you are hearing are harder to wrap your head around. However, I think that with this album Frank achieves something that lots of artists want to achieve with their music: a work of art that is both incredibly personal to the artist but is simultaneously able to strike the listener with the same level of closeness. Every time you listen to it, you get something different out of it, depending on your mood or what’s happening in your own life. One listen of a song can either be strange and meaningless but the next listen to the same song could strike you close to your heart as you are finally understanding the stylistic choices Frank uses in the track and the feelings he must’ve felt when writing the track.

Both albums have their own strengths and they have different appeals but Blonde was a brilliant album.

#sorry i had to get this off my chest #nobodys gonna red this #so many people ive talked to actually disliked blonde except for ivy because they thought the effects he uses are weird #i dont think they appreciate the choices he made enough #frank ocean #blonde #channel orange #review #album review #music

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terribleco · 4 years

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SkaterXL Review

This is it, folks. We're entering a bold new era of fresh skateboarding games. There are several new titles on the way, and the first out of the door as what can be considered a full, complete product is SkaterXL. Buckle up for the official Terrible Company review.

SkaterXL launched on Xbox One and PS4 last week, on July 28th. The game's road to launch has been long, with an Early Access period on PC (where the game initially launched in December 2018). The game was put together by a very small team at Easy Day Studios, so given the complexity of this game, the long wait was to be expected. There were high expectations from the hungry community that surrounds skateboarding games, so it has a lot to live up to.

Reviewed on Xbox One and PC

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First things first: we can't discuss SkaterXL without mentioning Session. There are so many similarities between both games. Both games claim to be skateboarding simulators. Both use the left and right sticks as left and right feet. Both use triggers to turn. Both aim to recreate a golden triangle of American spots from major cities (although from complete opposite coasts of the US). Both have drafted in real pros and brands to help bolster their authenticity. There is just no getting away from the comparisons here.

What I will say, is that my initial assessment of both games, which pegged Session as potentially being the better game, was wrong. I know it's too early to say, with Session still in early access and a far way off of Version 1.0 (which SkaterXL is obviously now at), but the directions of the two games, although similar, also offer many differences. SkaterXL's path, in context, plays, looks and feels better.

SkaterXL is a much more forgiving and accessible experience all up. Developers Easy Day Studios aren't slaves to the super realistic control scheme, in the same way Session developers Crea-ture Studios are. The ability to steer your board with the left and right stick as a safety net for anyone with muscle memory stuck on Skate3 mode is a really nice touch.

SkaterXL is missing many tricks like late flips (which Session does have), no complies, darkslides, footplants and handplants - but the tricks on offer are designed to look and feel different every time you do them, and in many cases everyone will do them differently. It's the first game where you can truly have and own your style, which is an impressive feat. Easy Day are clearly building a foundation for what may become the most sophisticated skating simulation the world has ever seen.

The game doesn't use canned animations, and relies more on real time physics, which is what makes every trick look unique to you. Grinds depend on the angle and position of your board, which means you can tweak and style certain grinds, or even accidentally land in tricks you didn't expect (which is realistic - you ever go for a Smith and end up in lipslide?). Compare this to Session, where you absolutely have to be doing the right combination of left and right stick movement to do a specific grind, and anything but perfect execution causes a slam.

SkaterXL's slightly more lenient approach is it's saving grace here - if the game was any more punishing it would just be completely frustrating. It balances difficulty perfectly with teaching you just enough to peel away at the surface. Spending time with the game, you begin to figure out tricks that seemed completely impossible to you mere hours earlier.

The game boasts an impressive amount of content, having roped in various talented developers from the game's modding community to bulk out the game with great replicas of real locations, amazing fantasy spots, and a robust replay editor. A large portion of LA can be explored and shredded alongside the smaller levels. The locales are a little dead, with no traffic cars or NPC's walking around, and in a way I understand that this is intentional so you don't get hit by a bus or mess up a line because of a random person - but the levels just feel lifeless without them.

You can play as a custom character, using boards and clothes from some rad, real life brands like Santa Cruz, Element, Lakai and Dickies. The character customisation isn't as expansive as I would like: you only have 4 preset characters to pick from for male and female body types, you can't add facial hair, and the boards and hardware are all the same size. Compared to Session, which has various board widths and board shapes (pool boards are so hot right now) as well as varied sizes of wheels, SkaterXL falls short in this department, and I hope they improve it post launch.

You can play as one of 4 pro skaters - Evan Smith, Tom Asta, Tiago Lemos and Brandon Westgate. The skaters all look kinda dead and robotic when you're watching replays of them. Again, it would be great to see some improvements with facial animations here so the characters feel a little less like action figures. There is a distinct lack of transition rippers, which is kinda weird considering there is a whole map dedicated to transition skating.

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One of my major concerns playing the Early Access build was that the transition skating was kinda borked. It just didn't feel right in the first pass version I played. Everything felt way too difficult and odd, and the controls just didn't gel with how I feel skating transition should be in real life - it was frustrating just feeling like I had to put so much effort in for a simple scratch on the coping, and more often than not it didn't look or behave how it did in real life.

I'm glad to say Easy Day really went all in on trying to get this part of skateboarding right for the full release. Although it could do with some more tutorialisation: The transition skating looks and feels better than Skate 3 when you know exactly what you are doing. The game is missing some footplant and handplant tricks, but it is a ton of fun: Transitions feel like transitions, rather than ledges disguised as ramps.

They even added controls to drop in appropriately from basically any lip trick you can land in, which is a massive improvement over Skate3. Whilst they get lip tricks mostly right, the grabs are kinda difficult: Indy and melon grabs are easy, but you have to contort your hands around the controller in bizarre formations to do other grabs, which is baffling and disappointing.

The other area of transition skating that feels a little poor is bowl skating. There's one proper bowl in the California Skatepark level, and it's a pretty standard clover bowl with pool coping. The pumping in this game is super hard to get right, and it's clear that (for the time being) it mostly works with mini ramps in mind, and not much else. Carving corners slows you down, pumping seems overly difficult to get right in this context, and once you roll in and do one lip trick you never seem able to hit the coping again. I hope they continue to improve this, as well as add more awesome transition parks and spots post launch, and maybe some footplant variants too (fingers crossed for the first video game Sweeper).

Past just skating around, there is a distinct lack of goals or objectives. The game has loose trick and line challenges for every level that you can burn through: frustratingly the game forces you to do these in Regular, so I had to do these in switch! A lot of this mode can be cheated by just doing the tricks required on the spot, rather than skating the obstacles the game wants you to, which is a shame.

Other than this, there is very little else in terms of campaign or progression. I know skateboarding is about finding your own fun, but in a video game, this lack of real goals can just feel like there is nothing to do. A video game where you "find your own fun" should give you more tools for hours of fun (e.g. Minecraft allows you to build practically thousands of things, hunt monsters, etc) - for SkaterXL to be the same kind of game, it would need a robust park editor, or allow you to modify in game spots. As it is the 8 levels are great, but lack any real substance other than "go skate".

Skate, as a franchise, worked because it had these short, medium and long term goals to work toward, and a loose story to pull you through the game, and SkaterXL could benefit from something like this. The achievements offer a little something to work toward - for example there are cumulative goals such as total distance in grinds, as well as big, cool one off challenges like ollie a drop of 5 metres or more.

It just isn't enough though: I would've liked more crafted challenges that make you think a bit more and allow you to get creative. Giving the player access to all levels, all gear, and all clothing from the outset, with no structure to what it is you're meant to do, might sit well with some hardcore skateboarders, but it doesn't make a great "video game".

But still, even with this complaint, the gameplay is fun, accessible and a worthy successor to Skate 3. The best way to describe SkaterXL's approach is that it's a happy medium between Skate3 and Session - it's trying something new and maybe a little bit difficult to understand like Session, but it's doing so in combination with the best lessons learnt from Skate.

As a simulator of technical street skateboarding, it excels expectation. As a video game, it doesn't yet quite hit the mark that will make it the cult classic Skate3 was, and suffers from some polish and User Experience issues you would never get in a similar game made by EA. My hope is in time they'll update and make this thing even better. Overall, though, at this moment it's an impressive package for anyone looking for a decent game about skateboarding.

#skateboard guff

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anime-scarves · 7 years

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In a strange turn of events I actually finished two shows in two days. Not that I started them both in two days, but I actually finished them. So I will now review them because I haven’t done that in awhile.

Rage of Bahamut: Genesis

This is a bit of an odd adaption to start with. The source material is a card game with not much story going for it which makes the anime a very dangerous game of showing off the cool world and everyone’s favorite characters and actually trying to have a story for the anime. I think it actually turned out pretty well. The story follows the lackadaisical scoundrel Favaro as he is pursued by his rival/friend the chivalrous knight Kaissar. I honestly have no idea if these characters are in the game since I didn’t play RoB, but they work really well as a lead pair.

The show starts off as a fun romp through an exciting fantasy world of magic and wonder. Demons plot nefarious deeds as they float around in giant flying eldrazi fortress things, Angels scheme from heaven on how to keep the world balance in order, etc. etc. The show is really about showing off the world and the characters as glorified advertisement and it does a great job of that. After seeing it you can’t help but want to go learn more about the world and all the fun characters in it.

The story isn’t anything to write home about in my opinion, but it works as a vehicle to move the main characters around and show the audience new things. It’s on the passable side and really is more than I ever expected from this kind of adaption. It had some twists and turns along the way, but when dealing with this sort of story you usually know what’s going to happen by the end before you get there.

The main appeal of this show to me was the art style and character design. The character design stands out from contemporary designs because it lacks a lot of the moe influence and goes for a somewhat realistic approach to the designs. (Kaisser also has the best hair)

It’s also worth noting that in many parts where 3DCG was used it matched the frame rate of the rest of the show and didn’t look super clunky. Though it wasn’t consistent in doing this so a few things like Bacchus’s carriage and the forest dragon didn’t quite mesh as well. But those are small nitpicks.

I also like that Cygames itself is producing the adaptions of their games which gives them control over what goes. They’ve made a Granblue Fantasy anime, and Rage of Bahamut currently has a second season airing (2 cour even!) that seems to be well received.

All in all I gave it a 6/10. It’s an above average fantasy show with some exciting action and great art style/designs. It lacks in story so it doesn’t quite stack up to some of the better fantasy shows, but it’s definitely worth your time. S2 is supposedly shaping up quite well, so maybe it will deliver a bit more on the story. (Also more Cerberus please)

Next up is...

Humanity has Declined

This show stands as one of the most uniquely strange things that I have ever seen, but it’s in a wonderful way. The premise is that well humanity has declined and that the human race is on a one way ticket to extinction. However, the show does not focus on the impending doom of the human race but on the “new humanity” the fairies. Fairies are tiny little creatures of extraordinary power that will one day inherit the earth. For the most part they are harmless creatures that really only do things that they think are fun, and multiply in numbers when they are having fun. The show features Watashi who is a mediator between her village and the fairies that they encounter.

The show is very surreal and it often gets really weird. A lot of different themes are explored through the misadventures of the fairies from figuring out who you are to satirizing society as a whole. What makes the substance of the show so great is that you can watch the show and be fully immersed in the experience and not once feel like you just had a theme pushed at you. They are supported by the show and are the root of the episodes, but the entertainment value is capitalized also. For me this is one of the best ways that entertainment can present themes and commentary.

The art of the show is filled with bold bright colors that accentuate a lot of the bizarreness of the show. Lighting is done with sharp lines between different shades of light and dark creating a very stylized feel in shots with lower light. The backgrounds are often a little abstract, or at the least not cleanly defined which also help to build the surreal experience that is the show.

The actual subject matter of the episodes is what makes the show truly bizarre, but also so wonderful. You can go from an episode where the characters are stuck inside the pages of a manga and have to write to the satisfaction of the fairies, to touring a factory that makes food that is run by sentient food. Humanity has Declined constantly goes out of the box (often quite literally goes outside of the bounds of where they are) and presents themes in ways that they aren’t typically.

Humanity has Declined will likely stay high up on the list of strange things that I’ve seen for a long time. When all is said and done it’s a well made show that incorporates both strong entertainment value and good substance. I give it a 7-8/10. Definitely recommend giving this one a shot. I don’t think it’s the show for everyone, but if you want something uniquely strange and slower paced you’ll want to give it a shot. Also where else are you going to watch chickens jumping off a cliff all set to Ave Maria.

#text #review #humanity has declined #rage of bahamut #I could be wrong about some of the parts concerning RoB game #but I think I have it right #it's also worth noting that many of the RoB characters appear in shadowverse #which is also made by Cygames #so if you're a fan of the game #watching RoB is a nice little reward #that's how I first learned about the show and was like eh i'll give it a try #and I was pleasantly surprised with it #good stuff all around

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stephenmccull · 4 years

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Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

The Friday Breeze

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes, who reads everything on health care to compile our daily Morning Briefing, offers the best and most provocative stories for the weekend.

Hello! We have once again reached Friday, and I’ll do my best to give you a snapshot of the biggest health news from the week. But, first, I must dispel some bad advice that I’ve seen: Everyone wants to see your pet on those video conferences! Don’t hide them away in this time of need! Show us the doggos, the cats, and the … whatever this is. (A porcupine, I think?) Also make sure you’re following DogsOfKFF on Twitter for some of the best content on that social media platform.

All right, onto the news.

As predicted, the United States has surpassed China in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with nearly 93,000 to China’s nearly 82,000, as of 1 p.m. ET Friday. According to Johns Hopkins’ tracker, we also have surpassed 1,300 recorded deaths. (Worldwide, we’re at more than 566,000 and over 25,000 deaths.) Meanwhile, all that data comes with an asterisk in that most experts believe there are far more cases going unrecorded either because of testing flaws or overwhelmed state health departments that can’t keep up. Either way, not exactly something we want to be first in.

Meanwhile, the House came back to Washington to approve the $2.2 trillion stimulus package the Senate managed to send through this week (more on that in a second), despite concerns over lawmakers’ safety. There had been (dim but existent) hope earlier in the week that the House might be able to pass the legislation by unanimous consent. But that seemed too easy to be true, and it was. Concerns that a voice vote would be derailed by objections from a libertarian Kentucky lawmaker went unrealized, and the House passed the legislation Friday afternoon. The bill now goes to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

So what exactly is in that legislation?

— Direct payments of $1,200 to millions of Americans, including those earning up to $75,000, and an additional $500 per child

— $100 billion for grants to hospitals, public and nonprofit health organizations and Medicare and Medicaid suppliers, including a 20% bump in Medicare payments for treating patients with the virus

— $221 billion in a variety of tax benefits for businesses, including allowing businesses to defer payroll taxes, which finance Medicare and Social Security, for the rest of the year

— More than $25 billion in new money for food assistance programs, like SNAP

— Expanded jobless aid, providing an additional 13 weeks and a four-month enhancement of benefits, and extending the payments for the first time to freelancers and gig workers

— $377 billion in federally guaranteed loans to small businesses and the establishment of a $500 billion government lending program for distressed companies

— Millions in aid for states to begin offering early voting or voting by mail

— A rule that blocks foreclosures and evictions during the crisis on properties where the federal government backs the mortgage

— The suspension of federal student loan payments for six months and waives the interest

Predictably, some sectors (like cruise ships) were unhappy with being left out, but for once some people were pleased — for example, the hospital industry, which got the $100 billion it asked for.

For those of you, like me, who love a good tick-tock, here are a few inside looks at how Senate leaders and White House advisers struck a quick, expansive deal in a Washington that typically seems incapable of compromise.

The New York Times: As Coronavirus Spread, Largest Stimulus in History United a Polarized Senate

Politico: Inside the 10 Days to Rescue the Economy

The Washington Post: The Dealmaker’s Dealmaker: Mnuchin Steps In as Trump’s Negotiator, but President’s Doubts Linger With Economy in Crisis

The urgency of the legislation was underscored by an astronomical jump in jobless claims this week. Nearly 3.3. million Americans applied for benefits, up from 200,000 during pre-outbreak days. The “widespread carnage,” as one economist put it, is expected to get worse. While the stimulus package is expected to help mitigate some of the devastation, many have said it should be looked at as just the beginning.

It seemed strangely appropriate this week that the health law turned 10 amid a pandemic — the legislation’s journey to here has been anything but smooth, why should this anniversary be? But one ripple effect of the pandemic and economic fallout might actually be a boost to the health law, which is likely to serve as a crucial safety net for many Americans who possibly lost their employer-sponsored coverage in the past few weeks. States have already started reopening their marketplaces, and the federal government is being urged to follow suit.

The Friday Breeze

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Trump chafed this week at the drastic measures states are putting in place to try to curb the outbreak, raising eyebrows when he said he’d like to see church pews full by Easter. Public health experts have warned that lifting the social-distancing measures would result in a surge of cases that slam an already stretched-thin hospital system. But for Trump, who has tied his reputation to the well-being of the stock market, the economic toll seems too much. (The rhetoric also started a truly bizarre push from conservatives for older Americans to sacrifice themselves for the good of the country.)

The president’s most recent proposal to kick-start parts of the country is identifying places by risk level and applying strategies to match. But experts, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warn that even “cool spots” that aren’t seeing many cases might be in for a surge coming down the pike.

Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said that New York’s experience presages America’s future. But some say that’s not necessarily accurate. Leading specialists say that while it is likely that devastation similar to New York’s will emerge in other places, there’s hope that in lower-density areas, where there are fewer factors like mass transit to exacerbate the spread, the outcome might be different.

Realistically, though, Americans will need to eventually think about returning to normalcy. Are there exit strategies from this complete lockdown that would work effectively? Here’s the problem: All the experts say success relies on extreme, aggressive and widespread testing to isolate the sick before they can give it to anyone. This has not exactly been America’s strong suit in recent weeks.

There are two storylines that have taken hold to demonstrate how much this pandemic will strain the hospital system, the first being the lack of ventilators available. States and hospitals have been pleading with the federal government to invoke war powers to jump-start the manufacturing process on the equipment. This comes as doctors are being forced to split ventilators between patients (a risky practice), planning to make the tough ethical decisions to ration care, creating policies to not resuscitate, searching for alternative treatments despite the dangers they might pose, and being warned that morgues are reaching capacity.

But Trump, who had been set to announce a partnership with GM to produce up to 80,000 ventilators, balked this week at the $1 billion price tag that came with it. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators,” he said, in a reference to New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appealed for federal help in obtaining them. “You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”

The second notable thread throughout the country is a lack of personal protective equipment for health care workers on the front lines of the epidemic. There might be a long medical tradition of accepting elevated risk in the middle of a crisis, but many health care workers are frustrated that they’re being put in that position. Some are resorting to using hand-sewn masks, which do little to protect them and trash bags for surgical gowns. But others are drawing a line in the sand.

Meanwhile, something that might get missed with everyone’s attention directed at the coasts: Atlanta’s mayor is warning that its hospitals are at capacity.

Gilead, whose antiviral drug is getting a lot of buzz, was granted orphan drug status for the treatment because there are fewer than 200,000 cases of COVID-19 in the States right now. The designation would have granted Gilead lucrative perks, like the ability to keep generic competitors from the marketplace. But the news was meant with rage-filled incredulity from, uh, pretty much everyone, and so the company rescinded the request. As one expert said: “I think it’s embarrassing to take something that’s potentially the most widespread disease in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and claim it’s a rare disease.”

Meanwhile, an antimalarial drug is getting tons of attention after Trump touted it as a possible game changer. But a new, more carefully constructed study that finds it did little to help patients in China shows why people shouldn’t be looking for a quick, miracle cure. Researchers say this doesn’t disprove that the drug works but is a good check on expectations, especially when people are trying to self-medicate with the drug — resulting in shortages for those who need it for other illnesses and fatal consequences for others.

On the good-news front (there is some!), Moderna said there could be a vaccine ready for the fall for health care workers under emergency use authorization, ahead of the wider release that’s not expected to come for about a year.

And another treatment that some scientists are hopeful about is the practice of injecting recovered patients’ blood into new patients. The strategy is at least a century old but has scattershot results. “It’s not exactly a shot in the dark, but it’s not tried and true,” says one scientist. Still, in this era, people are willing to try what they can.

And here are some other interesting stories to get you through the weekend.

Federal Response:

Politico: Trump Team Failed to Follow NSC’s Pandemic Playbook

Politico: Those Who Intentionally Spread Coronavirus Could Be Charged As Terrorists

The New York Times: As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets

2020 Elections:

The New York Times: Joe Biden, Struggling for Visibility, Faults Trump’s Response to Coronavirus

The New York Times: Is All of 2020 Postponed?

From The States:

Stateline: One Governor’s Actions Highlight the Strengths — and Shortcomings — of State-Led Interventions

The New York Times: Governors Tell Outsiders From ‘Hot Zone’ to Stay Away as Virus Divides States

NBC News: Entire Senior Home in New Jersey, 94 People, Presumed to Have Coronavirus

Science And Innovation:

The New York Times: The Virus Can Be Stopped, But Only With Harsh Steps, Experts Say

The New York Times: Warmer Weather May Slow, But Not Halt Coronavirus

The Washington Post: What Research on Coronavirus Structure Can Tell Us About How to Kill It

The Washington Post: The Science of Why Coronavirus Is So Hard to Stop

Reuters: Smokers Likely to Be More at Risk From Coronavirus: EU Agency

Public Health:

ProPublica: Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Will Rise During Quarantines. So Will Neglect of At-Risk People, Social Workers Say.

NBC News: Anti-Abortion Groups Seek Halt to Abortions During Coronavirus Pandemic

Politico: New York’s Health Care Workforce Braces for Influx of Retirees, Inexperienced Staffers

That’s it from me! Have a safe and healthy weekend!

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

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