Captain America 251. On sale 8/12/1980.
"The Mercenary and the Madman"
Writer: Roger Stern
Penciller: John L. Byrne
Inker: Josef Rubinstein
Letterer: James R. Novak
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Sharon wouldn't want Steve to mourn... (Spoiler: It’s because she’s still alive and slowly giving up hope that anyone is coming to save her from the prison camp where she’s being “pawed at” by the guards.)
"It happens so fast, neither Power Man nor Iron Fist has time to react until Iron Fist is dangling high above the city streets, more helpless than either his partner or his captor could guess, for his body is no more effectively trapped...than his mind. Beneath the mask of Iron Fist is Daniel Rand, a man who is now reliving the day when, as a nine-year-old child, he watched his father plunge to a hideous death in the icy mountains of Tibet."
Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #71 by Mary Jo Duffy, Kerry Gammill, Christie Scheele, and James R. Novak
I adore this moment and its acknowledgement of the fact that Danny has, in my opinion, one of the most brutal origin stories in the whole Marvel canon; at the age of nine he watched his father get pushed off a cliff to his death and his mother get eaten alive by a pack of wolves. It's heartwarming and, frankly, astonishing that he's ended up as emotionally healthy as he is now, but here, Power Man and Iron Fist writer Mary Jo Duffy plays with the idea that Danny struggles with heights, as he is rendered helpless by a sudden, debilitating flashback to his father's murder. It's a raw, emotional page, and I wish we had more moments like this, even in the modern comics (heck, he's gone through a whole bunch of new traumatic things since this issue). I don't need Danny to be traumatized forever or anything like that, but I always appreciate nods toward the fact that he went through some unspeakably horrific things at a very young age, and that kind of scar never really goes away.
Rewatching 04x20 makes me f e r a l, because 1) Misha Fucking Collins deserved to win an award for that performance where Jimmy is cussing out Cas 2) Cas gets tortured BECAUSE OF DEAN and 3) JAMES NOVAK DESERVED BETTER
Cast: Mila Kunis, Kate McKinnon, Justin Theroux, Sam Heughan, Lolly Adefope, Dustin Demri-Burns, Hasan Minhaj, Mirjam Novak, Kev Adams, Gillian Anderson, Ivanna Sakhno, Jane Curtin, Paul Reiser, Fred Melamed, James Fleet, Carolyn Pickles, Tom Stourton
Release year: 2018
Genres: action, comedy
Blurb: 30-year-old best friends Audrey and Morgan are thrust unexpectedly into an international conspiracy when Audrey’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.
Tags/Warnings: Half-Fae Sam Winchester, Jimmy and Castiel Are Twins, Autistic Castiel, Autistic Jimmy Novak, References to "Magical" Segregation and Integration, Dragon Balthazar, Dragon Meg
Summary: Working the register at a cafe is somewhat outside of John Castiel Novak's comfort zone, but he and Jimmy have a debt to repay and it's his turn. The dragon volunteer firefighter who comes in is a welcome if oddly friendly surprise.
For: @fluffyfebruary challenge!
Prompt: Day 6: Fire
Read on AO3
LIVING IN A predominantly mixed human and magical community was a bit of an adjustment from the mostly human neighborhoods in which the extended Novak family had always lived. Attending University, for example, had been a shock to the system in more ways than just the difference between high school and college. Despite their mother's concerns, John Castiel and James Constantine Novak were determined to attend the same university and were also equally determined that it would be a magically integrated one. They wanted to learn and, to their mutual relief, the nonhuman students with whom they made friends were very understanding and supportive of their autism and necessary accommodations and willing to tell Cas and Jimmy about their various races and cultures.
It was thanks to this prior experience that Cas, taking his turn at the register as part of his and Jimmy's repayment to Sam, recognized when a dragon came in to Lighthouse CommodiTeas. It wasn't anything particularly obvious - no visible horns, wings, tail, scales, or even smoking breath - but there was a certain aura of compressed power that was different from the aura Sam had. It took him a moment to place, and by the time he did the dragon was standing before him at the register.
"Jalla n-nar tiegħek dejem jaħraq u r-riħ dejem jimka ġwienaħek," Cas rattled off as best he could from memory. The dragon, midway through opening his mouth to order, paused, eyebrows going up sharply.
"Decent accent," he said, which Cas was fairly sure was meant as a compliment. He glanced down over himself, possibly checking that all his draconic parts were still hidden beneath the human shape. "How can you tell?"
"I had a couple of dragon dorm mates in college," Cas explained with a slight shrug. "Your aura was familiar. What can I get started for you?"
"Large Three Day Burner with extra cinnamon chili powder, if you would, please," the dragon requested politely. "Best thing to have on hand if I get a call-out, y'know?"
"Call-out?" Cas asked, head tilting to one side as he tried to parse the term.
"Volunteer fire department," the dragon clarified. "We have a small rotation of dragons to work search and rescue for the big blazes. Keeps our less fire-resistant mates from comin' out extra crispy. If I don't end up needing it, I'll hand it off to Meg when I get home afore she heads in for her own shift at the hospital. ER nurse. If I do need it, she's like as much to come in for her own."
"I see," Cas nodded, mentally filing that away even as he rang up the large Three Day Burner with extra spice. The drink was seventy percent espresso and thirty percent sweetened condensed milk with phoenix feather ash in addition to the cinnamon chili powder. As per the name, it kept the drinker up and alert for three days straight which, Sam had explained dryly, made it very popular with students taking midterms or finals and first responders. The latter received a ten percent discount, and Cas made certain to ring that up as well. "Seven-twenty."
The dragon paid cash and took his receipt, then stood back, apparently content to stand rather than find a seat to wait. So Cas got to work making the drink, which he did with carefully drilled precision, handling the phoenix ash with care and being more liberal with the cinnamon and chili powder. Sam slid by him, refilling the coffee bean dispenser, and gave an approving nod over the drink when Cas glanced at him.
"Ta, luv," the dragon said with a grin and a salute with the cup when Cas handed over his completed drink. "Jalla niltaqgħu fuq is-sħab!"
And he was out the door, leaving Cas blinking in puzzlement after him. His High Draconic was a couple years out of practice, but he was pretty sure that phrase was meant for dragon to dragon. "Did I just get adopted?"
"Not exactly," Sam said with a twinkling smile. "Just take it as a sign that he likes you and appreciates the effort you made to greet him in his own language when he came in."
Cas considered this. It didn't seem quite right, but he could find no logical fault with the suggested explanation. Perhaps the dragon was simply prone to familiarity with people with whom he wished to be friends. If he was a regular as he implied, then perhaps he expected to become friends with the new barista.
He resolved to warn Jimmy about it in case the dragon's return coincided with his brother's shift and stepped up to take the order of a harried-looking woman with a briefcase, resisting the urge to check the clock. He had survived working retail on Black Friday. He could survive this.
Maltese/European High Draconic Translation:
"Jalla n-nar tiegħek dejem jaħraq u r-riħ dejem jimka ġwienaħek," - May your fire always burn and the wind always rustle your wings. (A traditional polite High European Draconic greeting to a dragon of unknown age or rank.)
"Jalla niltaqgħu fuq is-sħab!" - May we meet on the clouds! (A flirtatious farewell between dragons.)
Misato Komatsubara/Tim Koleto 🇯🇵JPN
RD: Ghostbusters
FD: Loving You (from Passion) Barbara Streisand & Patrick Wilson; Love Grows (from Final Fantasy VIII) Nobuo Uematsu (choreo: Romain Haguenauer)
Nadiia Bashynska/Peter Beaumont 🇨🇦CAN
RD: INXS, Never Tear Us Apart; Duran Duran, Wild Boys
Miku Makita/Tyler Gunara 🇨🇦CAN
FD: choreo by Matthew Gates
Alicia Fabbri/Paul Ayer 🇨🇦CAN
RD: AC/DC, choreo Zach Donohue
FD: Lewis Capaldi, Someone You Loved
Sandrine Gauthier/Quentin Thieren 🇨🇦CAN
RD: Joan Jett, I Love Rock n Roll
Emma Goodstadt/Christian Bennett 🇨🇦CAN (Jrs)
RD: B-52’s, Love Shack
Hannah Lim/Ye Quan 🇰🇷KOR
RD: Prince, When Doves Cry, Let's Go Crazy
FD: Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Emilea Zingas/Vadym Kolesnik 🇺🇸USA
RD and FD choreo: Benoit Richaud
Emily Bratti/Ian Somerville 🇺🇸USA
RD: Prince, When Doves Cry, Let’s Go Crazy
FD: Celine Dion, Ne Me Quitte Pas
choreo by Greg Zuerlein, Charlie White, Tanith White
Eva Pate/Logan Bye 🇺🇸USA
RD: Bobby Brown, My Prerogative; Run-DMC (feat. Aerosmith) Walk This Way
Katarina Wolfkostin/Dimitry Tsarevski 🇺🇸USA
RD: When in Rome, The Promise; Blondie, Call Me
Isabella Flores/Ivan Desyatov 🇺🇸USA
RD: Prince, When Doves Cry; Def Leppard, Pour Some Sugar on Me, choreo Massimo Scali
FD: West Side Story, choreo Kaitlyn Weaver
Angela Ling/Caleb Wein 🇺🇸USA
RD: Aretha Franklin, Hold on I'm Coming
Raffaella Koncius/Alexey Shchepetov 🇺🇸USA
RD: Stray Cats, Rock this Town, Stray Cat Strut
Klara Kowar/Thomas Schwappach 🇺🇸USA
RD: INXS, Never Tear Us Apart, What You Need
FD: James Bond
Leah Neset/Artem Markelov 🇺🇸USA (jrs)
RD: Scorpions, Still Loving You; Joan Jett, Hate Myself for Loving You. choreo Kaitlyn Weaver
FD: choreo Nikolai Morozov
Eliana Peal/Ethan Peal 🇺🇸USA (jrs)
RD: Janet Jackson, What Have You Done For Me Lately, Rhythm Nation
FD: Lord of the Rings
Jenna Hauer/Benjaming Starr 🇺🇸USA (jrs)
RD: Tina Turner, Simply the Best (?)
Caroline Mullen/Brendan Mullen 🇺🇸USA (jrs)
RD: Wham!, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go; George Michael, Father Figure (?)
Yahli Pederson/Jeffrey Chen 🇺🇸USA (jrs)
RD: Queen, Kind of Magic; Queen w David Bowie, Under Pressure (?)
Jennifer Janse van Rensburg/Benjamin Steffan 🇩🇪GER
RD: Beds are Burning, Midnight Oil; Don't Leave Me Now, Supertramp; Runaway, Bon Jovi
FD: wild west theme
choreo: Pasquale Camerlengo for both
Phebe Bekker/James Hernandez 🇬🇧GBR
RD: Prince
FD: Muse
Layla Karnes/Liam Carr 🇬🇧GBR
RD: Sweet Dreams, medley, Eurhythmics
FD: Hit the Road Jack, 2WEI
Shira Ichilov/Dmitriy Kravchenko 🇮🇱ISR
RD: Get Down on It, Yesterday, It's Raining Men
FD: ("to a singer from Montreal")
choreo: Pasquale Camerlengo, Igor Shpilband
Elizabeth Tkachenko/Alexei Kiliakov 🇮🇱ISR
RD: Yello, Oh Yeah, Desire, The Race
FD: Incantation, Ojo Azules; Inca the Peruvian Ensemble, Danzante Vasija del Barro; Inti-IllMani, Sikuriadas
choreo: Elena Novak, Jimmie Manners
Yuka Orihara/Juho Pirinen 🇫🇮 FIN
RD: choreo Luca Lanotte
FD: music from Chicago
choreo Massimo Scali
Carolane Soucisse/Shane Firus 🇮🇪IRL
RD: Rick James, Super Freak, Give It To Me Baby, Mary Jane
Mariia Holubtsova/Kyryl Bielobrov 🇺🇦UKR
RD: Bonnie Tyler, Holding Out For A Hero; Bonnie Tyler & Bryan Adams, Straight From the Heart; Bonnie Tyler & Desmond Child, If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)
FD: Joe Hisaishi, Merry Go Round of Life, Fragile Dream, A Walk in the Skies
choreo: Romain Haguenauer, Pascal Denis, Sam Chouinard
Zoe Larson/Andrii Kapran 🇺🇦UKR
RD: Pointer Sisters, I'm So Excited; Grover Washington/Bill Withers, Just the Two of Us; The Weather Girls, It's Raining Men (?)
Adrienne Carhart/Oleksandr Kolosovskyi 🇦🇿AZE
RD: Billy Ocean, Caribbean Queen
Maria Kazakova & Georgy Reviya 🇬🇪GEO RD: Queen, A Kind of Magic, Save Me, I Want To Break Free, Need Your Loving Tonight FD: Schindler's List choreo by Matteo Zanni
Natalie Taschlerova & Filip Taschler 🇨🇿CZE RD: Janet Jackson, The Knowledge; James Mtume, Juicy Fruit; The Pointer Sisters, Serious Slammin' FD: Negramaro, Bluecobalto; Havasi, Terra Rosa; Giuliano Sangiorgi, Son Felice choreo by Matteo Zanni
Brown Judaic Studies (BJS) announces the launch of our Open Access Books program. During the 2019-2020 academic year, with the support of a grant from the NEH/Mellon Humanities Open Books program, we have been digitizing about fifty titles from our backlist in order to make them publicly accessible at no cost in perpetuity. The books are available for download in different formats, including…
@valleydean posts the last chapter of Redux Sunday, so allow me to tell you why you need to stop everything and go read it immediately.
I could tell you it's exactly like the show to the point that I often felt like I had it back, or I could tell you that she somehow managed to make the canon ending into something incredible. Instead, enjoy some spoiler free things this fic has made me yell in the comments.
Jesus. I had to put the phone down for a minute. As always, you have such a way with words.
Ha! Dean you messy bench, you aren't fooling anyone. Xoxo
Fan-freaking-tastic episode. 10/10. If the CW threatens us with more Supernatural again, I'm throwing you at them
S C R E A M. Dean, you disaster. But good for you, sweetie. You deserve a little kink. You waited long enough.
Expect a letter from my lawyer
I LOVE YOU I AM CANCELING THE LAWYER LETTER AND POSSIBLY PROPOSING.
Hmm, status of the lawyer letter is unclear actually
I would threaten to track you down but you could definitely take me. 😆 but I am extremely unhappy about this and I will be writing you a very sternly worded letter
That is my personal hell. Unless Joey Lauren Adams and Stan Lee are there. Yes this is a Mallrats joke in the year of our Jack 2021.
Let me be clear. If you [redacted], I will name a character after you in every fic I write and kill them spectacularly. 😆 [I did this!]
H E L P. Your mind. I need 200k words of this. I want to live in this episode. I want to read it every day at breakfast. You are deranged for doing this. I am on one knee proposing. How so you feel about polyamory? If it's a dealbreaker, I just gotta get a quickie divorce
God, I just. This sentence makes me want to break through a wall like the kool-aid man. It's perfect.
You are actually evil for this, you know.
You're gonna break me, aren't you? Stop grinning. I can feel your glee at this comment from here.
I will murder you in your sleep. How fucking dare you?
You're the best (worst). <3
Finally managed to put words on paper and get myself into a place where I can cope with angst. Let's see if I can immediately cause imminent psychological damage through fic. My safe word is Asmodeus (that'll ruin the mood)
ASMODEUS. Well, I got deep into the chapter. Why are you like this? do you LIKE hurting me? Fine. I'm gonna keep going. It's my fic-sub nature. But I'm gonna be a brat about it. Fic-Domme away.
Yes, hello? I'd like to report a murder. Whose? My own.
I just want to fucking talk. *remembers you're a badass.* um, I mean that literally?
CASTIEL MARIE WINCHESTER, I SWEAR TO JACK.
I can't decide if this fixed me or made me worse.
This chapter is going to make me claw my own skin off.
Castiel James Novak-Winchester, what the fuck?
I am snacking on my drywall over here. Like fuck me
Seriously. A knife between the ribs would be more merciful.
I should have thrown you off the roof (affectionate).
Holy shit, Mallory. This is fucking phenomenal. I want to chew off my own arm. What in the actual fuck? You are so talented.
Danny: "Easy, Luke, I've got you!"
Luke: "Are you sure this ledge can support both of us? Don't forget, I weigh three hundred pounds."
Danny: "Try not to think about it."
Power Man and Iron Fist vol. 1 #71 by Mary Jo Duffy, Kerry Gammill, Christie Scheele, and James R. Novak
I will forever love the practical detail that as a side-effect of his impenetrable skin and enhanced muscles, Luke is much heavier than he looks.
If it's not too late to give prompts... PacificRimAU!Supernatural!
YOU UNLOCKED SOMETHING MAGICAL FOR ME, I LOVE PACIFIC RIM
So Dean Winchester (son of John, now-deceased Ace Pilot in the Jaeger Program) was once drift compatible with his brother Sam until the incident that left him scarred and unable to connect with anyone. Sam recovered and found a new partner (for me, this is Ruby) to drift with, and is now the team’s best pilot. Dean is now a mechanic at the compound.
Castiel works in Research and Development but he’s got a secret- he’s the product of a very unethical science experiment by Dr. James Novak. In order to understand the Kaiju better he attempted to meld with one, but an accident killed Jimmy and left the Kaiju trapped in his body. The R&D team, Kevin and Charlie, do their best to hide his secret under the guise that Jimmy underwent some dramatic midlife crisis.
Something something happens I’m sure and Cas and Dean discover that despite being a Kaiju trapped in a human body and a damaged ex-pilot, they are in fact profoundly bonded and drift compatible. Also Benny works in the commissary and Garth is the second-best pilot at the station, because he’s so friendly he can drift with practically anyone.
Someone please steal this idea from me and write it, prose writing takes forever for me and I don’t care how, I want it now