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caseyrussell · 1 year

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FULL NAME: Casey Kennedy Russell

AGE: 20

BIRTHDATE: [tbd while Ella looks for a date in april that will give this man his astrological placements... bear with me x]

GENDER: Cis man

OCCUPATION: College student, prospective internship at HAH

POSITIVE TRAITS: dauntless, outgoing, protective, adaptable, passionate, direct, resilient, compassionate, loving, caring, fun loving

NEGATIVE TRAITS: impulsive, impatient, brooding, reckless, secretive, cynical, hotheaded, adaptable, defensive, stubborn

ASTROLOGICAL PLACEMENTS: Aries sun, Scorpio moon, Pisces rising, Taurus mercury, Pisces mars, Aries venus (yes, that one earth placement is clinging on for dear life)

INSPIRATION: [John Bender (The Breakfast Club), Ronan Lynch (The Raven Cycle), Sirius Black (Harry Potter), James Cook (Skins), Jess Mariano (Gilmore Girls), Han Solo (Star Wars), Daniel Desario (Freaks and Geeks), Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Marianne Sheridan (Normal People)]

Biography (tw child abuse/child neglect)

It feels like a life borrowed from someone else a lot of the time. Like watching yourself from the outside in as the movie plays before you. Life led as if it's a chair whose occupant had recently left - the uncertainty of when they might come back and take it away at any moment. Or at least, that's how it would feel when Casey grew old enough to understand his feelings beyond the confusion, sadness and loneliness that would tug in his gut no matter how busy their house was. With a name borrowed from two men greater than he, perhaps it was set in stone from day one that he'd settle nicely between his two brothers. Slap bang in the middle (although there's never a complaint, Ronnie and Noah have always been two of the better things going on in his life).

It wasn't as if Mila Russell ever gave the impression she wanted kids. In fact, from the way Ronnie often felt like more of a parent than his mother - Casey would argue that they were all just something that kind of happened to her rather than the kind of wish mothers made in Disney movies. Or whatever the Cabbage Patch dolls origin story tried to sell. Mr. Russell didn't give much of an impression at all; out the door when Casey's just about old enough to nag Ronnie for answers and imagine what their male 'role model' may be up to.

And it's fantastical. In the way children's imaginations often are, the ideas are farfetched. Ideas of him travelling and collecting stories, contributing to world peace... saving people from burning buildings and cats from up trees. To a little boy who had a mischievious grin and was otherwise told he had too much energy, the fantastical tales of what his 'dad' may be up to got Casey through his earliest school days. Your dad's an accountant? Well, my dad sang with John Lennon'. He never says it's in his dreams. Mr. Russell is a hero to everyone in his imagination. Everyone except for Casey who had longed for a parental figure at parents' nights without ever really knowing. For the kind of stability that he saw his friends have at school and that his mother's latest fling wasn't providing.

He'd picked up a bass that a fling had left behind at some point and that was the new story. Mr. Russell - had to leave at the drop of the hat as the Stones requested him as their understudy bassist. It didn't matter then that Casey didn't even know the name of the instrument in his hands. It was about vision.

It would have been easier if Mr. Russell had remained a dream. Casey could have handled the arguments with his mother's boyfriends or the tension in their house if he'd still had a hope that somewhere out there, an adult in his family was good. But, as he'd come to accept, that just wasn't life. Not black and white. Because Mr. Russell comes back and he makes sure all of them know he's returned, too. It's not even the bruises or the gashes that happen subsequently that hurt most - it's the thought that they'd been abandoned because a man loved liquor more than he loved them. And it leaves a confused ache in Casey's bones that he's not sure has ever fully shifted (only lifted slightly by Elaine and then Zahra). But it's more than that too. Because where the hurt glazes over, and the tear stains dry on pillows, it leaves something deeper in his chest. Anger. As intense as he's ever felt it.

Which might just be Casey in a nutshell. Intensity in every emotion that rips through him and takes control. He's the loud guffaw at the back of the car on a long journey when the silence is a bit too loud, the excessive tap to a back and riproaring cheer at a friend's success, and the need to replace nights spent crying into a pillow with sources of entertainment by any means necessary. It's all or nothing.

Of course, over time, the intense feeling of anger died to a duller feeling of resentment and cynicism that carried him forward through high school. Faded into the biting remark that would chip away at one of his mother's new flings or the need to stand up to Mr. Russell on behalf of either of his brothers. It would have been easier to ignore them entirely. Perhaps take solace in the fact that in a few years, Ronnie would be eighteen and could save them all from it. But Casey has never been known to take the easy way out of anything. Driven solely by his heart and not guided by his head. If no adult would stand up against his demons and fight for him - he'd do it himself; craft stories out of the bruises that sounded fantastical and make himself a hero. Still would. Even if, somewhere in the midst of hearing criticisms and remarks, he wasn't so sure he was worth fighting for. (He still isn't).

High school was mainly just another way to act out. Stupid rules and stupid social hierarchies. Somewhere... however... the want to escape from the bubble that was Cherry rose up in between wanting to actually be someone Elaine would want to be with and crafting himself into what his richer friends seemed to be granted naturally. The kind of person that his friend's father, Harvard Hargrove II seemed to be - poised, put together... being able to command effortless respect (aside from the capitalism). Of course, in Casey's eyes, this also meant needing to be twice as good as his best friend - Harvey.

It fails in many ways. He fails in many more and it takes the next two years after high school just to scramble together the pieces in an attempt to put them back together again while hoping behind a scowl that no-one would notice. He thinks he's just about holding together now - somehow. There's less nights spent chugging away at a bottle and asking people to dare him to do something careless. There's a lot less hoping he leaves the world rather than just the town borders... although he'd still take leaving town in an amazing blaze of glory any day and leaving his mark. But for now, he'll handle it. He somehow always manages to anyway.

HEADCANONS

Massive Led Zeppelin fan. He has three tattoos behind his left ear of the symbols from their fourth album and hopes to be able to get the full four eventually!

Adores animals. Is the guy at a party who purposely seeks out ur dog just to scratch them behind the ears. Would happily petsit for anyone in the gang and probably has, like, a crap ton of polaroid pictures of himself with Rex Russell.

Very much a follower of the ‘here for a good time, not a long time’ mantra.

Loves ABBA an ungodly amount but hides all of their records in inconspicuous sleeves. If you see two copies of 'London Calling' in his house? One copy is ABBA gold.

Rides a secondhand motorcycle that backfires far too often and really should probably be scrapped but he’s ~nostalgic~ and loves it anyway.

Used to play soccer in high school but was asked ‘politely’ to leave the team after being constantly red carded for trying to start fights with the other team. He still kicks around a soccer ball every now and then and will happily talk your ear off about his (not so lowkey) crush on Diego Maradona. 'Did you see him at the 1982 World Cup? No? Want to watch the highlights I recorded on VHS?".

He has a map of the world taped to his wall covered by... another map of the world taped on the wall! The old one is ripped at every corner from where he has almost torn it down in a fit of rage, and yet it stays. It serves as a reminder that there’s more to life than just Cherry where everything seems impossible.

Loves a microwave meal. For the longest time, they were the only thing he really knew how to make so he’s learnt how to spruce them up a little. Nowadays, his cooking abilities don't extend much beyond this rip.

Adoooores Albert Camus and existentialist philosophy. Yes, he does want to understand the meaning of life because really,,,, what the fuck.

#cusaintro #ROUUUGH pls avert ur gazes xoxo

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bqstqnbruin · 4 years

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I hate you so much it makes me sick, it even makes me rhyme

No one is allowed to get mad that I didn’t finish the reading and finished this instead shhhhh (I read like half of it and then the adhd kicked in) but here we are with another part.

HUGE shoutout to my girl @tkachuk197 for reading through the part I was struggling with. She said it was good, so I’m taking her word for it!

Hope you like it!

Read the whole series: I hate the way you talk to me and the way you cut your hair // I hate the way you drive my car // I hate it when you stare // I hate your big dumb combat boots and the way you read my mind // I hate you so much it makes me sick, it even makes me rhyme // I hate the way you’re always right // I hate it when you lie // I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse when you make me cry // I hate it when you’re not around, and the fact that you didn’t call // But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all

_________________________

“I can’t even look at you right now.”

“You don’t mean that.”

-----------------------

You wake up, disoriented and confused as to where you were. You weren’t in your own room, you knew that; the decorations were different, and it definitely wasn’t your bed you were lying in. You feel a strong arm wrapped around you, a hard body pressed against your bare skin as your legs were tangled up in each others. You turn over ever so carefully to see Matthew still asleep, a soft snore escaping from his slightly parted lips as the memories of the night before came flooding back to you. You slept with Matthew.

You.

And Matthew.

Slept together.

Multiple times. You didn’t even remember how many times you did.

You try to untangle your legs from his without waking him up. His eyes flutter open, meaning you failed, but seeing the smile on his face once he saw you made any doubt you had about the last night melt away. Maybe Evelina was right.

“God, you are beautiful,” his raspy voice taking your breath away as he sits up next to you. He takes your chin between his thumb and forefinger, bringing his lips to yours for a soft, sweet kiss. He pulls away, a soft smile on his face. He takes in a deep, slow breath before letting out, “I can’t believe last night finally happened.”

“Finally?” you ask him.

He lets out a laugh, his hand moving it’s way to the back of your head, tangling in your hair. He puts his forehead to yours, his lips ghosting yours, “You had to know I’ve been wanting this for ages.”

Evelina was right. “I really didn’t,” you admit.

“And yet,” he whispers, “you’re still the smartest person I know.”

You’re the one to kiss him this time. You wouldn’t change anything about the night before, but would you be willing to let it happen again? “Can I use your bathroom and shower?” you ask him.

“Yeah, of course, do you need anything?”

“A shirt for when I get out?” you ask him, starting to get out of bed. Do you try to keep yourself covered for as long as possible? Actually, what was the point? He had already seen your entire body last night. You get up, leaving the sheets behind. Your back was to him, but judging by the sharp inhale immediately followed by him muttering “fuck” under his breath, he couldn’t take his eyes off you as you walked to his bathroom.

You turn on his shower, letting it heat up as he finds you a shirt. Standing in the door, you watch him shuffle through his drawers. He pulls one out, walking over to hand it to you. You take it from him, both of you standing there for a moment, eyes lingering on the others body. “You could get in with me,” you say, a smirk on your face.

His eyes go wide, a smile on his face. “You want that?”

You don’t answer him. Instead, you bite your lip, dropping the t-shirt on the floor and taking him by the hand. Walking backwards to the running shower, your plant your lips on his. You try not to stumble around until he lifts you up, your legs wrapping around his waist. You feel the hot water hitting your back immediately, yelling by the sudden shock of the heat.

“Too hot?” he asks, through laughter, putting you down and reaching around you to fix the temperature. You kiss his neck, feeling him swallow hard as your lips connected to his skin. He lets out a moan as you work your way back up to his lips, “You know just how to make me feel great, don’t you,” he says, his hands on the small of your back pressing your body against his.

“I think,” you say between kisses, “we actually need to shower. We’re kind of gross.”

He laughs, reaching behind you again to grab his shampoo. The two of you go about your business, your mind racing as you watched the water fall down his body. He turns you around, his soap now in his hands as he starts washing your back. “Tell me something,” he whispers into your ear, pressing a kiss against your neck.

You try to wrack your brian, fighting from going numb by his hands washing your body. “You know the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland?” you ask him as he turns you around to face him, handing you the soap so you can do the same to him. He smiles and nods, kissing you before letting you continue. You put the soap in your hands, rubbing his shoulders, “Well, the idea comes from the term ‘mad as a hatter.’ When people used to make hats, before knowing the dancers of the element, they would use a lot of elemental liquid mercury. What they didn’t know is that mercury can bind to your blood cells.”

You let the soap rinse off his back, placing a kiss between his shoulder blades as you hear a moan escape his lips. He turns around not letting you finish, kissing your neck. “It binds to hemoglobin the same way that oxygen does,” you explain, feeling him sucking on your neck as your mind flashes back to the day with him at the liquor store. “The difference is that the bond between oxygen and the blood cell is weak enough that it can break, allowing for the cell to travel through the body and continuously delivering oxygen. Mercury is so heavy and forms such a strong bond that it doesn’t break off, stopping the transport of oxygen.”

“And what?” he says, his forehead pressed against yours.

“They go crazy because of lack of oxygen. Hence being mad as a hatter.”

His kisses you again, reaching behind you to turn off the water. “Sounds like you’re my mercury, then.”

You roll your eyes, kissing him again and stepping out of the shower. He follows suit, both of you just getting ready at your own pace. Throwing the t-shirt on, you were surprised by how big it felt on you. Matthew was bigger than you for sure, but not so much bigger that his shirt should be fitting like a dress on you. You hear him mutter something under his breath, turning around to see him staring at you in his clothes.

You smile and shake your head, brushing your hair out. “If I knew how good your clothes looked on me, I would have started giving you stuff ages ago,” he says, his hands snaking their way around your waist, the two of you just standing there.

“You’re being awfully lovely lately,” you tease him, wiggling free from him. “Any chance we can make or order food?”

He takes your hand to lead you out of his room. Walking to his living room, you can hear voices coming from somewhere. You don’t remember turning on the TV at any point in the night, so what was it.

“Took you long enough to come out of there,” you hear Evelina say, Matthew immediately dropping your hand at the sight of her and Elias sitting on his couch, already surrounded by food.

“What are you doing here?” you ask Ev, sitting down next to her, suddenly very aware of the fact that you were only wearing Matthew’s shirt in front of her and Elias.

“I forgot Elias has the spare key,” Matthew says to you before turning to his friend, “But you’re supposed to use it for emergencies, dude.”

Elias shrugs, handing Matthew a container, “Ev texted me last night when Y/N wouldn’t answer her. Your location on ‘find my friends’ said you were here.”

“Yeah, he said he saw you two leave together last night, so it would make sense that you came here with him,” Evelina explains. “And it’s not like you use our key for emergencies, you just barge in,” she adds, earning a scowl from Matthew.

“So you came here to find out?” you ask her, a little annoyed by the intrusion.

“How was I supposed to know you weren’t dead? If you die, I can’t afford rent,” Evelina argues. You can’t help but laugh, even though you knew it was true. You start to play with the collar of the shirt when you see Evelina’s eye’s go wide. “Oh, my god!” she shrieks, grabbing the bag next to her, taking you by the hand and dragging you back to Matthew’s bedroom.

“Jesus, you’re going to rip my arm out, what the hell?”

“You slept with each other!” she practically screams.

“Can you not scream about that? How could you tell?” you hiss at her, covering her mouth.

Pushing your hand out of the way, she starts again, “You always play with your shirt collar after you’ve slept with someone, it’s your tell. I know Elias and I have been trying to get you two together but this went from zero to a hundred way too fast for two people ‘not in love,’” her voice turning to a mocking tone at the end.

“Elias was in on it?” you ask her, making the connection back to last night, “That’s what the look was for when we left.”

“What? Nevermind. I thought you didn’t love him.”

“You don’t have to be in love with a boy to fuck him,” you counter, trying to figure out whether or not you were lying. “At most I tolerate him. I like him. As a friend. It’s friends with benefits,” you ramble.

She rolls her eyes at you, clearly unamused by your blatant denial, “It’s amazing how dumb you are. Babe, all you’re wearing is his shirt, and nothing else. We hear the shower turn on and turn off only once, only long enough for one shower and both of you have wet hair, which means you had to be in there together, and clearly,” she says, pointing at the mess that was his bed, “More than just sleeping happened in there. You don’t do that with just anyone. You didn’t sleep with your first boyfriend until you had been together for nearly a year. I’m pretty sure you’ve never given a hickey or gotten one for that matter until you came home from the liquor store. Why are you denying this so much?”

You close your eyes and take in a deep breath. She was right about almost everything. “Can we just leave it at liking him. I’m not in love with him.”

She throws her hands up in surrender, shaking her head and reaching for the bag, “Whatever,” she shoves the bag in your chest, “I brought you a change of clothes. At least be wearing fucking underwear when you get home. I’m leaving.”

She doesn’t look in your direction as she leaves the bedroom. “Ev, wait,” you call after her. You knew she was mad at you. She was obviously annoyed with you for the constant denial. She slams the door just as you reach it, feeling Matthew and Elias’s eyes on you. You lean your back against the door, trying to fight back tears over your best friend storming out on you, your head against the door looking up at the ceiling.

“Hey,” Matthew comes up to you, rubbing your arms, “What just happened?”

“She’s just mad at me for, um,” you start, not making eye contact with Matthew as you try to figure out what to tell him. “Not telling her where I was last night.”

“Shouldn’t you go after her?” he asks, concerned that you were clearly upset about this and not doing the best at showing it.

You run your tongue along your top teeth, shaking your head, “Nah. We’ll work it out when we’re both home. Hey, um,” you say, swallowing back tears, “She brought me a change of clothes and some of my stuff, so I’m going to go change, ok?” He nods, letting you slip past him, wiping a tear away from your cheek as you shut yourself in his room.

“I have never seen you this soft for a girl before,” Elias says.

“What are you talking about?” Matthew says, practically throwing himself on the couch with the food they had brought.

“Like, Evelina’s been trying to tell me that you’re in love with Y/N, so we’ve been trying to get you two together, but I didn’t really believe her until I saw you be soft for her.”

Matthew knew Evelina had a plan, but how was Elias even involved, “And what have you done to get us together?”

He gives Matthew the same annoyed look Evelina gives him when he’s asked a dumb question. “I was flirting with her right in front of you and you short circuited.”

Matthew things about last night, watching Elias trying to get you to dance with him. ��Fuck you, man.”

He throws his hands up in surrender, a smirk on his face, “Hey, it worked, didn’t it. You should be thanking me.” Matthew rolls his eyes at him. He really didn’t need his teammates flirting with you to get him to want to be with you.

“It would have happened eventually.”

“You’ve been flirting with her since the day you met. It took me flirting with her to get you two together.”

Matthew stops for a minute. Are you two ‘together?’ He had no idea what last night meant to you. He knew what it meant to him, but to you, it could have meant anything. “I don’t know if we are.” He takes a bite of the food, starting down at the remains in the container and pushing it around with his fork. He wanted to be with you, but he couldn’t do that if you weren’t up for it, too.

Elias shrugs, knowing that whatever he said Matthew would either detest and ignore or go run into the bedroom and do right now. “You could always ask her out on a real date. Not some event with all the guys that leads to you fucking all night.” Matthew nearly chokes on the last bite of food when he hears Elias say that. “I know how you act after you get laid. You’re a little quiet, a little lovey,” he says, adding a little shoulder shimmy at the word ‘lovey.’ He gets up, grabbing his keys from underneath all the napkins and utensils that littered the half eaten breakfast they had brought, “Whatever you do, don’t hurt her. Evelina will have me kill you and I really don’t want to have to hide your body. Have fun, be safe.”

Elias leaves him there sitting on the couch. He knew that Evelina told you to have ten things that you hated about him that you would have to ask him out, but what if he asked you out before you completed the list? Would you have to say no? Or worse: would you want to say no?

He hears you come out of his room, now changed into a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. “Hey, I think I’m gonna get going,” you tell him, scooping up the dress that was still on the floor from last night.

“Let me get my keys, I’ll give you a ride,” he says, shuffling the containers around to try to find them buried under there. He could deal with that stuff later. “Let’s go,” he says, waving his key ring in the air.

He extends his hand out for you to lead you down to his car. You’re hesitant to take it, but you do anyway, your fingers intertwining with his. It was weird how well your hands fit together, how well all of you fit together. You never would have thought that you would.

The two of you ride to your place in silence, neither of you sure what to say. He pulls in front of your building, but you don’t want to get out. You don’t want to leave him even though you know you need to talk to Evelina. You let out a sigh, “I don’t want to have to fight with her.”

“If it’s just about being away last night then I’ll just text her and say it’s my fault,” he says, reaching over and taking your hand.

“That’s sweet,” you tell him as he kisses your hand, “but it’s fine. It’s between us, we’ll work it out, we always do.”

He just nods, feeling himself getting nervous. “What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asks you, figuring it was now or never.

You form a thin line with your lips, shaking your head, “I don’t know. Right now nothing, why?”

He swallows hard, getting worried that his nerves would get the best of him. Why was he so nervous about this? You just spent the night with each other, you’ve been together before plenty of times. “I was,” he starts, his voice obviously shaking. You look at him, concerned. This wasn’t like him. He normally had more confidence in his pinky than some people had in their entire body. “I was wondering if you would let me take you out? On a date? A real date?”

Would this go against the deal you have with Evelina? Actually, it only would if you couldn’t come up with ten things and then didn’t ask him out at the end of the month. What was the harm of one date. “Yeah, Matty, I would love to.”

He smiles, taking your face in his hands and planting one more kiss on you before you know you have to get out of his car. “I l-” he starts to say, stopping himself, “I’ll see you tomorrow. For our date.”

“For our date,” you repeat, trying to properly process the words. You get out of his car and head up to your place. You were going on a date with Matthew Tkachuk. You were giddy, and you couldn’t wait to tell Evelina about it.

Except you and Evelina had to hash other things out first, your joy and excitement turning to fear and dread over having to fight with her. You two almost never had real fights, so you had no idea what this was going to entail. You get to your apartment, standing outside your door. Finally working up the nerve to go inside, you find Evelina sitting on the couch watching something on TV. “Hey,” you say, closing the door behind you.

“Hi,” she says, not taking her eyes off the screen.

“So?” you say, sitting down next to her. “Can we talk about what happened at Matthew’s?”

“Why?” she asks, turning off the TV, irritation dripping in her tone. “No matter what I tell you about you and Matthew you deny.”

“Ev, you keep forcing the idea of loving him down my throat,” you tell her, trying not to raise your voice, “I understand that you’re rooting for us to be together but it’s just putting pressure on me and I can’t handle it.”

She looks down at her hands in her lap, her lips pursed, “You just,” she says, taking a deep breath, “For as long as I have known you, you’ve been talking about how excited you were to find the guy who would love you more than anything, for everything you are. I think you already know him. It’s Matthew.”

“And I get that. I’m trying to work out my feelings for him on my own, Ev. I love that you’re trying to look out for me, but at a certain point, you constantly telling me that I’m in love with him when I’m confused isn’t helping. Do you know how nervous I’ve been to tell you about last night? I was thinking about you more than I was thinking about him,” you tell her, both of you laughing.

“Please tell me you didn’t yell my name instead of his at any point,” she jokes, both of you cringing.

“I have a feeling Matthew would have had a lot of questions about that if I did.” You look at your best friend, knowing she’s just looking out for her, “Can you please just go a little easier on the whole, ‘I love Matthew thing?’”

“You just have to let me know when you figure it out,” she says, pulling you in for a hug.

“You’ll probably know before he does.”

She pulls away, you surprisingly shocked that this turned out easier than you thought it would be. “So, how was it?” she asks, a devilish grin on her face.

You laugh again, not shocked that she would ask something about it. You can feel the heat rushing to your cheeks as you think about the night before. “It was great. He’s taking me out tomorrow night.”

Her jaw drops, “On a date?” she squeals, jumping up and down on the couch. You spend the rest of the afternoon recounting as much as you wanted about the previous night to her. Your phone buzzes with texts from Matthew, asking you how your conversation with Evelina went.

You spend the rest of the day on the couch with your roommate, turning on the game to watch Matthew and the guys play. At one point between periods, he sends you a rare ‘during game’ text.

‘Fuck me’ he sends, referencing a bad penatly he took that luckily didn’t result in anything for the other team.

‘Tell me when, tell me where, any time, and I’m there,’ you send back, showing Evelina before you hit send. He responds back immediately, with just the red emoji that has it’s tongue sticking out, with the water droplet by it’s eye.

“You’re rhyming? This boy has you rhyming?” she asks. You could tell she wanted to say more about it, but you were thankful she didn’t. The game ends, the boys winning in overtime, thank god. “Oh, what about the list?”

You look at her, not even sure if the list was still in the fridge when you threw it in there the other day. You meant to take it out, but you know for sure that you never did. “What about it?”

“You’re going on a date with him. I think that means you’re dating him, even if he isn’t your boyfriend. Do you still want to finish it?”

You sit there and think for a moment, staring blankly at Gio giving an interview after the game. If it weren’t for the list, would you even be in this position right now? Would you be thinking about Matthew in any way other than as your friend? “Yeah, I think I do,” you tell her, making a mental note to pull it out of the fridge or just start a new one.

“Really?” she asks, shocked, “The point of it is that you’re writing out the things you hate about him. Why would you want to keep that going if you’re going out with him?”

“You said it was to prove that I didn’t love him. I still need to figure out if that’s true.”

Her face drops, obviously upset that it seems like you were taking three steps back from the step forward you had taken the night before. The list just let you deny your feelings for him, she thought. But what could she do to stop you from finishing it? “Do you want to add anything to it?”

“If we can find it, yeah,” you say, confusion washing over her face. “It might be in the fridge because he almost saw it when he was over the other day,” you explain.

“What do you want to add?”

Even though you know it’s supposed to be on your ‘hate list,’ you can’t help but smile when you tell her, “The way he makes me rhyme.”

#matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagines #calgary flames #calgary flames imagine #flames #flames imagine #nhl #nhl imagine #hockey #hockey imagine

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1962dude420-blog · 3 years

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Today we remember the passing of Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton who Died: July 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California

Willie Mae Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984), better known as Big Mama Thornton, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", in 1952,which became her biggest hit, staying seven weeks at number one on the Billboard R&B chart in 1953 and selling almost two million copies. Thornton's other recordings included the original version of "Ball and Chain", which she wrote.

Her recording of Hound Dog, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952, and later recorded by Elvis Presley, reached Number 1 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. According to Maureen Mahon, a music professor at New York University, "the song is seen as an important beginning of rock-and-roll, especially in its use of the guitar as the key instrument".

Thornton's birth certificate states that she was born in Ariton, Alabama, but in an interview with Chris Strachwitz, she claimed Montgomery, Alabama, as her birthplace, probably because Montgomery was better known than Ariton. She was introduced to music in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a singer. She and her six siblings began to sing at early ages. Her mother died young, and Willie Mae left school and got a job washing and cleaning spittoons in a local tavern. In 1940 she left home and, with the help of Diamond Teeth Mary, joined Sammy Green's Hot Harlem Revue and was soon billed as the "New Bessie Smith". Her musical education started in the church but continued through her observation of the rhythm-and-blues singers Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, whom she deeply admired.

Thornton's career began to take off when she moved to Houston in 1948. "A new kind of popular blues was coming out of the clubs in Texas and Los Angeles, full of brass horns, jumpy rhythms, and wisecracking lyrics." In 1951 she signed a recording contract with Peacock Records and performed at the Apollo Theater in 1952. Also in 1952, while working with another Peacock artist Johnny Otis, she recorded "Hound Dog", the first record produced by its writers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The pair were present at the recording, with Leiber demonstrating the song in the vocal style they had envisioned; "We wanted her to growl it," Stoller said, which she did. Otis played drums, after the original drummer was unable to play an adequate part. The record sold more than half a million copies, and went to number one on the R&B chart, helping to bring in the dawn of rock 'n' roll. Although the record made Thornton a star, she saw little of the profits.

On Christmas Day 1954 in a theatre in Houston, Texas, she witnessed fellow performer Johnny Ace, also signed to Duke and Peacock record labels, accidentally shoot and kill himself while playing with a .22 pistol. Thornton continued to record for Peacock until 1957 and performed in R&B package tours with Junior Parker and Esther Phillips.

Thornton's success with "Hound Dog" was followed three years later by Elvis Presley recording his hit version of the song. His recording at first annoyed Leiber who wrote, "I have no idea what that rabbit business is all about. The song is not about a dog, it's about a man, a freeloading gigolo." But Elvis' version sold ten million copies, so today few fans know that "Hound Dog" began as "an anthem of black female power." Similarly, Thornton originally recorded her song "Ball 'n' Chain" for Bay-Tone Records in the early 1960s, "and though the label chose not to release the song... they did hold on to the copyright"—which meant that Thornton missed out on the publishing royalties when Janis Joplin recorded the song later in the decade. However, in a 1972 interview, Thornton acknowledged giving Joplin permission to record the song and receiving royalty payments from its sales.

As her career began to fade in the late 1950s and early 1960s, she left Houston and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, "playing clubs in San Francisco and L.A. and recording for a succession of labels", notably the Berkeley-based Arhoolie Records. In 1965, she toured with the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe, where her success was notable "because very few female blues singers at that time had ever enjoyed success across the Atlantic." While in England that year, she recorded her first album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton – In Europe. It featured backing by blues veterans Buddy Guy (guitar), Fred Below (drums), Eddie Boyd (keyboards), Jimmy Lee Robinson (bass), and Walter "Shakey" Horton (harmonica), except for three songs on which Fred McDowell provided acoustic slide guitar.

In 1966, Thornton recorded her second album for Arhoolie, Big Mama Thornton with the Muddy Waters Blues Band – 1966, with Muddy Waters (guitar), Sammy Lawhorn (guitar), James Cotton (harmonica), Otis Spann (piano), Luther Johnson (bass guitar), and Francis Clay (drums). She performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 and 1968. Her last album for Arhoolie, Ball n' Chain, was released in 1968. It was made up of tracks from her two previous albums, plus her composition "Ball and Chain" and the standard "Wade in the Water". A small combo, including her frequent guitarist Edward "Bee" Houston, provided backup for the two songs. Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company's performance of "Ball 'n' Chain" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and the release of the song on their number one album Cheap Thrills renewed interest in Thornton's career.

By 1969, Thornton had signed with Mercury Records, which released her most successful album, Stronger Than Dirt, which reached number 198 in the Billboard Top 200 record chart. Thornton had now signed a contract with Pentagram Records and could finally fulfill one of her biggest dreams. A blues woman and the daughter of a preacher, Thornton loved the blues and what she called the "good singing" of gospel artists like the Dixie Hummingbirds and Mahalia Jackson. She had always wanted to record a gospel record, and with the album Saved (PE 10005), she achieved that longtime goal. The album includes the gospel classics "Oh, Happy Day," "Down By The Riverside," "Glory, Glory Hallelujah," "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," "Lord Save Me," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "One More River" and "Go Down Moses".

By then, the American blues revival had come to an end. While the original blues acts like Thornton mostly played smaller venues, younger people played their versions of blues in massive arenas for big money. Since the blues had seeped into other genres of music, the blues musician no longer needed impoverishment or geography for substantiation; the style was enough. While at home the offers became fewer and smaller, things changed for good in 1972, when Thornton was asked to rejoin the American Folk Blues Festival tour. She thought of Europe as a good place for herself, and, with the lack of engagements in the United States, she agreed happily. The tour, beginning on March 2, took Thornton to Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Sweden, where it ended on March 27 in Stockholm. With her on the bill were Eddie Boyd, Big Joe Williams, Robert Pete Williams, T- Bone Walker, Paul Lenart, Hartley Severns, Edward Taylor and Vinton Johnson. As in 1965, they garnered recognition and respect from other musicians who wanted to see them.

In the 1970s, years of heavy drinking began to damage Thornton's health. She was in a serious auto accident but recovered to perform at the 1973 Newport Jazz Festival with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (a recording of this performance, The Blues—A Real Summit Meeting, was released by Buddha Records). Thornton's last albums were Jail and Sassy Mama for Vanguard Records in 1975. Other songs from the recording session were released in 2000 on Big Mama Swings. Jail captured her performances during mid-1970s concerts at two prisons in the northwestern United States. She was backed by a blues ensemble that featured sustained jams by George "Harmonica" Smith and included the guitarists Doug MacLeod, Bee Houston and Steve Wachsman; the drummer Todd Nelson; the saxophonist Bill Potter; the bassist Bruce Sieverson; and the pianist J. D. Nicholson. She toured extensively through the United States and Canada, played at the Juneteenth Blues Fest in Houston and shared the bill with John Lee Hooker. She performed at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979 and the Newport Jazz Festival in 1980. In the early 1970s, Thornton's sexual proclivities became a question among blues fans. Big Mama also performed in the "Blues Is a Woman" concert that year, alongside classic blues legend Sippie Wallace, sporting a man's three-piece suit, straw hat, and gold watch. She sat at center stage and played pieces she wanted to play, which were not on the program. Thornton took part in the Tribal Stomp at Monterey Fairgrounds, the Third Annual Sacramento Blues Festival, and the Los Angeles Bicentennial Blues with BB King and Muddy Waters. She was a guest on an ABC-TV special hosted by actor Hal Holbrook and was joined by Aretha Franklin and toured through the club scene. She was also part of the award-winning PBS television special Three Generations of the blues with Sippie Wallace and Jeannie Cheatham.

Thornton was found dead at age 57 by medical personnel in a Los Angeles boarding house on July 25, 1984. She died of heart and liver disorders due to her longstanding alcohol abuse.

#July 25 #1984 #R.I.P.#Big Mama Thornton

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slashingdisneypasta · 3 years

Text

Trenderman || Headcanons

Mercury Poisoning + General HC’s

Explanation: So I accidentally did general Trender headcanons instead of Trender x Fashion designer reader headcanons (Yes I’m that ditzy) so I’m just gonna post these here and pretend I meant to XD

Warnings: Mercury poisoning, family’s reaction to horrible illness, mouth sores, anxiety, hand/head tremors, memories, insomnia (All the aforementioned triggers stop being an issue after you see this ~*~ signal. After that, its just random general HC’s ^^)

~~~

HE HAS HAD MERCURY POISONING BEFORE! Oh boy, I’ve wanted to talk about this in depth for forever but I can never get my thoughts together. The day I manage it, watch out.

Basically, though, Trender is in love with fashion (Obviously). The whole industry, but mostly prac- he loves to design, and create, and be amongst other people who design, and create. So he’s never been a big-wig store CEO or anything. He has always and will always be a worker (Even if he opened up a small boutique or even chain of boutiques. He’d be the manager that’s out with everyone else, on the floor, as often as possible.) and he’s worked far more than his fair share of factories.

Including those factories that used lots of mercury in their felt making. He contracted a terrible case of the ‘mad hatters’ disease through this (Ironically, he literally caught his case during a serious hat phase he was enjoying. Yes, Trender was literally the Mad Hatter.) and since his literal monster of an immune system was about to fight off the disease for a long time (During which time he watched friends and colleagues alike fall to the illness, in total confusion and grief), when he finally started suffering from the symptoms, they were bad. Like, he had one of the worst cases ever.

Splender and Slender took care of him during this time. Offender too, whenever he was in town (And he did visit a lot more often than before) but it’s never been in him to devote himself to others. When he was there, though, he didn’t leave Trenders side. Or, at least, the hallway that his room was on.

His symptoms included:

o Sores in his mouth that caused a permanent metallic taste, muscle pain. Made even worse by his mania- always wanting to move. And do something. Usually sowing, either by hand or with a machine but he would also suffer outbursts where he would really move, and those are what put his muscles in the most pain.

o Irritability + lack of patience. Splender was totally patient with him and endlessly kind, of course, but this did cause some nasty, horrible fights with Slender. Slender of course new that it was just the sickness but after a certain point his patience wore totally 2D, plus he was hurting from watching Trender be sick like this and stifling those feelings.

o Introversion and shyness. He would often hide away in his room / cell cuz of course he wasn’t allowed to go places on his own, or at all to extreme lengths and it got to the point that he would only say 2 words if Splender came in (No one else), if they were lucky.

o So much anxiety. Splender would do all he could to help him get through it but the attacks lasted days. All they could do was standby, keep his space clean, and continue to empty his vomit bucket.

o Struggle with focusing on anything. He would keep going, of course, because even terribly ill Trender is determined, but it would get messy.

o Tremors. In his hands (Which made the cuts he always accidentally gets on his fingers even worse), and his head.

o Memory loss was one that hit Offender the worst.

o He would also go days without sleeping. And I’m not gonna lie, Slender did resort to hitting him in the head whenever Splender wasn’t around to just make him get sleep (Cuz the insomnia made everything else 10 times worse).

o His movements were also all over the place. Jerky.

It last years. At least 2-3 decades.

Wow, I did actually get a bit into this. Oh well. Okay moving on from this sadness.

~*~

If he were to be represented as a planet, he would be Earth.

If they were to be represented as colours, Trender and Slender both would be grey. Because while their brothers are definitely completely different sides of the spectrum, hot and cold (Splender would never do something evil to anyone else and Offender would never do anything good for anyone but himself), Trender and Slender are different kinds of mixed. Slender leans heavily towards black and Trender leans heavily towards white, but they would both do things that counteract what they try to be.

He really hates when people try to define him. He’s not just the ‘fashion’ brother. He’s so much more; He’s Trender. Stop trying to stick him in a box he just doesn’t fit. It hurts, and its frustrating.

He is a self-sacrificing shit. I mean, at least Splender will keep himself safe in a dangerous situation because knows people need him- it would take Trender exactly 2 seconds to throw himself between a random stranger and a car, or cockily dare someone to shoot him whether he knows for sure that they wont or not if it means he could possibly psych them out or distract them so someone else can escape.

He’s also a, uh *Cough* Icarus-Type. He’s willing to risk the danger if it means he’ll fly. In other words, man is a DAREDEVIL.

He can take a mighty beating. Like, have you ever seen Alfred Pennyworth in Fox’s Gotham? Trender’s fighting style, attitude, and philosophy is exactly like that. He has a really good technique and he’ not afraid to fight, at all, but if he knows someone is stronger then him then he’s not at all afraid of outlasting them, either.

He’s a city boy at heart, but do not get him wrong- he’s a rural man at his roots.

Once, Slender was being his dickface self so Trender went under protest. He said, he would not leave the Slender’s toilet until Slender agreed to apologise to Splender and mean it (And *cough* make them dinner). And since Slender refuses to toilet outside or on any toilet other then his own (how unsanitary), it worked. Slender did try to just go in and do his business whether Trender was there or not but Trender anticipated this and had sat himself, draws down on the toilet, so Slender came in, saw, and immediately left again with a strangled scream.

Offender snickers. “Hey Trender, you remember that time you held Slender’s toilet hostage and then whipped your dick out when you weren’t getting what you wanted from him?” “Offender that’s not what happened, but… yes.” Slender, across the room, shakes himself to be rid of that particular horrifying memory that his dear big brother bestowed upon him. “Mmmeurrrg- “ “And I’d DO IT AGAIN, SO SHUT UP SLENDER.”

#Trenderman #Trenderman Headcanons #Trenderman Mercury Poisoning #Mercury Poisoning #Slenderman #Offenderman #Splenderman #Headcanons

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99simproblems · 3 years

Photo

Rules: 1. Pick a sim of your choice 2. Tell us about them 3. Tag someone else (if you want to!)

I was tagged by @theageofsims. Thank you!

Name: Kim Kyung-hwa

How old is your sim?

He's actually 40 years old, but like all Witches, he stopped aging in his mid to late twenties.

When is your sim’s birthday?

April 30

What is your sim’s zodiac sign?

Taurus Sun Scorpio Moon Leo Rising

(Aries Mercury, Leo Mars, & Gemini Venus)

Martial Status: Married

Does your sim have any nicknames?

I suck at giving my OCs nicknames.

Do they have a job?

He owns and runs a Bakery-café.

( He was a hairstylist, but it’s difficult to pull off in this game, so I changed his career again.)

Where does your sim live?

Currently Willow Creek, but he's planning to move.

Who does your sim live with?

Isaiah, his two cats, and dog.

What environment did your sims grow up in? (strict, loving, cold etc.)

His father was a strict disciplinarian. His mom was the more loving and relaxed parent, but had no problem being stern when necessary.

What are your sim’s favorite food?

Turtle Cheesecake

What is your sim’s favorite drink?

Anything sweet and fruity.

If they have one what is your sim’s favorite color?

Purple, Red, and Black

Is your sim introverted or extroverted?

He's definitely an extrovert. He can easily walk up to a stranger and start a conversation if they have good vibes.

What is your sims favorite woohoo position?

Prone bone (prefers the dominant role) and Cowboy.

Is your sim a pet person?

He has a soft spot for cute animals, plus he has the ability to communicate them. It’s annoying sometimes, but it’s useful.

Does your sim have a best friend?

He has three close friends: Thanh, Ramón, and Takeshi.

What is/was your sim’s favorite school subject?

His favorite subjects were PE, Spanish(he loves learning languages), and Social Studies.

(I’m on the fence about giving Witches separate schooling, but if I choose to go that route, his favorite subjects would be Spellcasting and Divination.)

Are they planning to go or have they already been to college?

Already been. He graduated from Britechester in 2003.

What are your sims political beliefs? (if they have them)

He’s strongly left-wing.

Does your sim have a favorite TV show:

Honestly, I don’t know. 😅

Does your sim like books?

Kind of? He rather watch a movie, though. Reading is Isaiah’s thing.

What is your sim’s personal style?

Snazzy suits, form fitting pants(esp ripped pants), half open shirts, chest harnesses, hats, earrings, ankle boots, big hats, and chokers. He also wears leather jackets(I just haven’t found any that look flattering on his body type :P).

Is your sim religious?

His religious beliefs are a mix of Buddhism and Muism (Korean Shamanism).

What kind of music does your sim listen to?

His playlists have songs from a variety of genres except Country, Death Metal, and other genres I can’t name right now.

What is your sim’s favorite type of weather?

He likes mid-spring weather. It’s sunny, but not too hot.

Does your sim have a dream job?

One day he wants to expand his business. He’s working on making that a reality.

Does your sim have any siblings?

He has an identical twin sister(she's cis, he's trans), an older brother, and a younger sister.

Does your sim get along with their family?

He's close to his siblings. He has a great relationship with his mom too. His relationship is father is pretty good these days. He clashed with him a lot growing up. He thought he was emotionally distant and controlling. His strictness pissed him off. He also hated how he prioritized work over spending time with his family. Min-chul was driven by his need to be successful and financially stable, so his children could have a better life than he did. Kyung-hwa didn't understand that when he was young. But still, his dad didn't have to be so damn strict and overprotective. He felt stifled and controlled. (Having autonomy is very important to him).

What is your sims favorite hobby?

Collecting Vinyl records. He has them organized by year, date, and genre.

(An ESFP being organized? It’s more likely than you think.)

What does your sim look for in a romantic partner?

Someone who loves him for who he is and doesn’t try to control him.

What is a flaw your sim has?

His confrontational personality has gotten him into risky or even life threatening situations. His flirtatiousness almost ruined his relationship with Isaiah.

Does your sim have a greatest achievement?

He’s working on it.

If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret?

He regrets giving his virginity to his high school boyfriend. That asshole basically ghosted him after he gave it up. Kyung-hwa isn’t the type to dwell on the past, but he’d chew him out if ever sees him again. He would’ve confronted him back then if his friend didn’t hold him back.

#text post #how should i tag this #character development #ts4 #sims 4

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365days365movies · 3 years

Text

March 15, 2021: Clash of the Titans (Review: Part One)

Please. Let me write a Greek mythology movie. I’m tired.

I am SO TIRED of Greek mythology being so...misused. Do y’all realize how much potential lies in an adaptation, a PROPER adaptation of Greek myths? Because it’d be fantastic if done well. Look, I’m not a writer, let alone a script or screenwriter, but I could write a better adaptation of Greek mythology, I swear I could.

Full warning, you might wanna skip this part. It’s gonna be...REALLY long.

So, yeah, this “review” is getting broken up into two parts. The first part here is really just a rant/hypothetical Perseus film that Id make if I had any screenwriting ability. Yeah, it’s basically a fanfic, so feel free to, like, not. Check out the Review here. Read ahead at your own peril.

You might be saying, “OK, bet; how would you adapt the story of Perseus?” Fair question, metaphorical yet judgmental person; how would I do it, exactly? Well, I’d mostly do it straight, to be honest. But you need to make this a cinematic adaptation, right? SO story changed need to be made, I get that. And I think that needs to start with the gods.

First up, you need Zeus, if for no other reason than to father Perseus. I do like the fact that he’s a patron for Perseus throughout these movies, but I don’t like Zeus as a straight-up dad. That’s for various reasons, but I’ll get there. Perseus’ main patron, instead, should be his half-sister: Athena.

Seriously, Athena needs to be a big part of this movie. She’s not exactly one of the biggest patrons for heroes, but she does like them. In the case of Perseus, she should sympathize with him. Perseus, after all, is one of the first major Greek heroes. Yeah, he really should be one of the first, and that needs to be fully acknowledged. Athena, in her LITERAL INFINITE WISDOM, should see the young demigod for what he could become: a bonafide hero. And so, she needs to be a part of this movie. One of her key allies should be...

Hermes should be, well, mercurial. Always moving, never truly still, because dude is CONSTANTLY busy. Not only is he a messenger, but he’s also the god of medicine, AND a psychopomp that escorts spirits to the underworld. Yeah, he wears a lot of winged hats. He’s also another extramarital child of Zeus, giving him sympathy for Perseus as well.

While he’s mostly a neutral god, he could also serve as a messenger from Athena to Perseus, delivering to him the gifts from the gods. He could even be the one who gets the Helm of Darkness from Hades, given his relationship to death and the Underworld. So, he’s gotta be in there as an ally of Athena. Hell, he could even be the one who finds Perseus and tells Athena about him in the first place. OK, Athena and Perseus now have an ally, so what about a villain?

Well, this movie had Calibos and technically Thetis, the 2010 had fuckin’ Hades (because of course they did), but no. Both are the wrong choice. The right choice here, in my humble opinion, is one that MAKES FUCKING SENSE.

Hot take: POSEIDON IS AN ASSHOLE. I realize that this statement has doomed me to a death at sea, but that won’t stop me from hiding the truth. Yeah, dude’s the god of the ocean, and of horses, but he’s also the father of countless monsters, nearly as horny as his younger brother Zeus, and the god of earthquakes. He’s a petty, tempestuous god, as angry and ever-changing as the ocean that he rules. And he’s ABSOLUTELY the right choice for a villain of a Perseus movie.

The movie would begin in the ocean, the source of all of the troubles in this movie. 20 years before the main events of the film, we emerge from the ocean and soar over an island, on which is a beautiful temple. Waves wash over the island, enveloping it. A woman’s scream is heard in the background, as we soar over the island, following an owl that is flying away from the island. As we fly over the ocean, narration tells us that this is a world of gods and monsters, and the owl flies over creatures in the ocean, like hippocampi and other such creatures. The owl flies over another island, which on screen text identifies as Argos. Here, a shower of gold dust flies up from a building. Perseus has just been conceived.

Cut to a day not too far afterwards, where King Acrisius is meeting with an unseen trio of women, in a cave on a mountainside. The king tells them that his daughter, Danae, has become pregnant, although he knows not by whom. The women reveal that Zeus is her lover, and that this will bring great ruin onto the kingdom of Argos, especially onto Acrisius himself. This is a big problem, too, as the kingdom of Argos worships Poseidon as their patron god. Acrisius, see, was planning on saving Danae for Poseidon, as a perverse offering to the god. But Zeus beat him to the punch, which has made Poseidon angry. And so, Acrisius sacrifices his daughter to Poseidon...by putting her in a box, which he casts out to sea.

Poseidon is about to destroy the box and Danae, who is still pregnant with her child. However, Zeus won’t have it, and in a battle between the two gods, a storm with golden lightning rages over the sea, and sweeps the box away, to the safety of an island where it washes up on shore, AWAY from Poseidon’s wrath. Zeus’ protection saves Danae, who has given birth to a son: Perseus. Poseidon, spurned of his revenge against his brother, makes a child of his own. But we only see its shadow beneath the waves. He’ll come back later.

Time passes, and a few things happen. The kingdom of Argos falls, and Acrisius is brought to ruin, as the mysterious prophetesses predicted. They are starved of fish, and the king is blamed, for condemning his daughter to death. He is driven into exile, and Argos is destroyed...by Poseidon’s mysterious child, who is only known by the name Cetus. The city still exists afterward, so that Perseus has a place to return to, but it’s wrecked.

Meanwhile, Perseus grows up, into a young man. He’s not particularly strapping, but he’s still surprisingly strong and hardy for his size. All the while, he’s watched over by a little owl, the same one we saw in the beginning of the film, flying over the ocean. Appearing below the owl is a rooster, which flies up next to the owl. Both of them watch the young Perseus, then look up when they hear the screech of a golden eagle, flying high in the sky above them. They look at each other, as the eagle flies up to the tip of a nearby mountain. The owl and rooster fly off, with the rooster flying higher than a rooster should be able to fly.

We follow them as they pass through the clouds, and they turn into their true forms: Athena and Hermes. They watch the golden eagle fly into a separate grand temple, as thunder and lightning appear. We’re not gonna see Zeus until nearly the end of this movie. Athena and Hermes discuss Perseus in Athena’s temple on Olympus. Hermes is a bit busy, so he’s off in a hurry, but Athena sits and ponders Perseus’ situation.

Perseus, meanwhile, has a different problem: surviving. Poseidon’s been particularly dickish lately, and the fish stock around Perseus’ island is low as FUCK. His mother, meanwhile, is older now, and struggling with her health. An old hermit walks into the village one day, and hears Perseus’ troubles. The hermit tells Perseus that the fish market is good near the nearby kingdom of Aethiopia, which includes a large and prosperous city that may also have medicine to help his ailing mother. Perseus decides to go on the journey there. As he leaves the hermit, we see the hermit’s eye color change to a sparkling electric blue.

Perseus heads onto the seas, with a fishing boat leaving for Aethiopia. The second that boat hits the water, Poseidon senses the blood of Zeus on his ocean. Being the petty asshole he is, he sees his chance to finally exact revenge on Zeus for stealing Danae from him. He sends his child, Cetus, after the ship to sink it. We don’t see the Cetus brings rough water with it. However, Zeus again protects the ship on its journey, and Poseidon’s SUPER butthurt now. He watches Perseus make his way to Aethiopia.

Aethiopia, in this movie, is a city that doesn’t particularly worship any one god. It’s not exactly the least theistic place in the world, though, because its residents will still fear any action that the gods take against them. That’ll come in handy later. Perseus lands there with the boat, and is immediately overwhelmed by the city’s grandeur. Additionally, he stands out here, as the people there are mostly, surprise surprise, black and brown in skin color. BECAUSE IT’S NORTHERN AFRICA!!! YEAH! Andromeda COULD BE BLACK, FUN GODDAMN FACT. Aethiopia was used to describe southern kingdoms below Libya, which was northern Africa! Come on, man!

While wandering blind through the city, Perseus bumps into a young woman, shrouded in plain vestments as she walks through the village. And it’s immediately love at first sight for Perseus, although the young woman seems somewhat nonplussed. This is the beautiful and radiant Andromeda, and YEAH! I’M RIPPING OFF ALADDIN A LITTLE! SUE MEI! See, Andromeda’s trying to explore her kingdom, as she’s been somewhat sheltered throughout her life, protected in the castle by father King Cepheus and shallow mother Queen Cassiopeia.

The two part quickly, but her visage remains in Perseus’ mind, horny Zeus’ kid that he is. He finds out who she is later on, considering what’s about to happen. See, there’s a festival going on, and it’s actually leading up to Andromeda’s 20th birthday. The overly clingy Cepheus honors his daughter unnecessarily, setting up an entire 2-week celebration leading up to her birthday.

During the nightly celebration, which Perseus attends, there’s a great feast. He bumps into Andromeda once again, and the two start talking. Andromeda is kind, if naïve, and wants to be a good queen to her people. However, she feels like a trophy, set aside for any given suitor wanting to win her heart. Perseus sympathizes, and feels a bit guilty, as her beauty was what struck him most at first, but has now begun to appreciate her as a person, over the course of this conversation. Said conversation is watched by Athene, in owl form once again.

The conversation’s interrupted by Queen Cassiopeia, who makes a speech about her daughter, and you know what’s coming here. She says that her daughter is beautiful, moreso than any of the Nereids, or anything that the sea could produce. And everybody laughs, it’s real funny, people agree...and then, we zoom over to a nearby fountain. The water begins to shake, and then, the ground itself begins to shake! Because Poseidon is the GOD OF EARTHQUAKES. COME ON, USE THIS SHIT!

Poseidon, pissed off, manifests from the water of the fountain, and we now see his visage in full for the first time, and it needs to be IMPOSING. He looks at the queen, and at Andromeda herself. He says that for Cassiopeia’s hubris, they are to be punished. Her child will meet one of his, the great Cetus, and then they’ll be able to compare “prowess and beauty”. This is certain death for Andromeda, obviously, and everybody knows it. This is to be done on her 20th birthday, or all of Aethiopia will fall. It’s then that Perseus steps in to defend Andromeda.

Poseidon looks at him, and says something like: “And look! As if to perfect this offering, Zeus’ bastard steps in the save the day! Well, child, do you offer yourself to me, after evading my justice for so long?” Everybody, INCLUDING PERSEUS, if totally shaken by this revelation. See, Perseus had NO IDEA that he was the child of Zeus. But he swallows his surprise, and offers himself in Andromeda’s stead. As Poseidon’s about to kill him there and then, he hears a hoot from the rafters, and sees the visage of Athena overlapping the little owl. Not comfortable with this situation, he offers a deal: if Perseus can complete a task for him, he will spare Andromeda’s life. Perseus accepts IMMEDIATELY, without hearing the task. And that task?

Kill the Gorgon Medusa, and bring her head back to Aethiopia before Andromeda is sacrificed.

Yeah, not good, and definitely unfair. Perseus isn’t exactly a warrior of any prowess, so this won’t end well for him. Poseidon laughs, and disappears into the water of the fountain. Silence befalls the hall, and all eyes turn to Perseus. Athena leaves, and flies up to her temple, angry and frustrated. She then decides that, if Poseidon is going to meddle in the affairs of the mortal world so strongly, then she will do the same. She finds Hermes, and the two start to conspire.

The next morning, Perseus heads out on the journey, although he has no idea what to do. Andromeda begs him not to do it, but he says he has little to lose. King Cepheus, humbled by Perseus’ intentions, promises whatever Perseus wants if he succeeds. Perseus states that he wants little, but will take assistance for his mother and village. It’s done. And Andromeda, to the surprise of her mother, almost offers her hand in marriage to her as well. But she stops short, still hesitant.

Perseus is about to go the distance, when a little owl catches his eye. Something tells him to follow the owl, and he does. Athena reveals herself, and Perseus is struck, not knowing what to do. She tells him to find the Greae, as they will tell him how to get to Medusa. He asks how he will get there, and Athena gives him his first divine item: Hermes’ winged sandals, loaned to him by the messenger god himself. The sandals will guide him to the location of the sisters. And Perseus accepts.

He makes his way to the sisters, the shenanigans with the eye stay about the same (it’s pretty solid in the 1981 film, not gonna lie), and from there, he finds out where to go. In the meantime, Athena’s and Perseus’ deeds are being noticed by the gods, eventually making their way to the three brothers. Poseidon is, of course, enraged at these happenings, considering them dishonorable to him, and also incensed as this is coming from Athena, a long-standing rival of his. Hades seems neutral about it. And Zeus...we’ll come back to him. Hermes, joined by Dionysus, speaks with Athena in Olympus, and delivers something to her to give to Perseus: Hades’ Helm of Darkness. He’s curiously chosen a side, but why isn’t known even to Hermes. Will that reason ever be revealed?

I have my reasons. Dionysus, also inspired by Perseus’ origins (which mirror his own as well), gives to Athena a wine-colored cloak, impervious to harm from all poisons and corrosive items. Inspired by this, Athena thinks on her history with Medusa. And, uh...remember that scream from the beginning? Yeah, Medusa’s “birth” coincides with Perseus’ conception. While Poseidon was...busy...Zeus went for Danae behind his back. And we’re going to sanitize Medusa’s origin...a little. But for Athena’s sake, specifically.

Poseidon raped Medusa. That’s a given. And Medusa was a priestess of Athena, but not a great one. Although Athena was angered at Poseidon’s actions GREATLY, the one who inevitably suffered for it was Medusa. Poisoned by Poseidon’s actions, she was transformed into her current form. And in this case, it’s not made clear whether or not Athena directly caused it...but it’s clear that Athena did nothing to stop it. This can be changed in some ways, but this is how I’m changing it for the movie. If you disagree, entirely understandable, I’m open to suggestions here.

OK, after that flashback, we see that Athena’s kind of ashamed of her actions, but not entirely. I realize that this is a stretch for Athena’s character, but this is a movie for wider audiences, so we’ll go for it. There’s a reason, I promise. Athena delivers the gifts to Perseus, which he finds once he’s left the cave of the Greae. That’s the cloak from Dionysus, the Helm of Darkness from Hades, and Athena’s offering, a mirrored shield. Perseus heads out to slay Medusa.

Poseidon, meanwhile, has his own ideas. He goes to speak with Hera, a shadow antagonist who’ll get her day later on. He persuades her to help take care of Zeus’ bastard son, and she reluctantly gives him permission to use one of her creations. What this is is left a mystery for the time being, but not for long. Perseus is busy flying with the winged sandals, and is thinking on how easy the journey has been. He’s getting a little cocky, in other words. But that’s quickly stopped when he’s blind-sided by something hitting him in the sky. He’s sent flying, and when he focuses up again, he sees what’s hit him.

YUP. HARPIES. Now, at this point, you may be saying: “365, you hypocrite! That never happened in the original story of Perseus! You sonuvabitch!” To that I say:

This is supposed to be a movie, and it’s gotta be a little exciting.

The origin of the harpies is entirely unstated, and Hera loved her some birds, so it makes sense that she would have some. In fact, I kind of want to make them women that Hera punished with this form, possibly for their association with Zeus at some point.

I’m setting something up, just trust me here.

Harpies as a concept are a familiar enemy to most audiences.

They’re cool, and an aerial battle’s even cooler here.

Perseus needs some mortal peril, because of something that’s about to happen.

OK. With that, the Harpies attack Perseus, and Perseus realizes that he doesn’t have a weapon to fight them with. He’s forced aground, on a seemingly desrted island. The Harpies fly off for now, ready to pick Perseus off later. Perseus, now stuck on the island, wanders around. At the same time, Zeus, sees this, and turns into an eagle once again. He flies off to a volcano, as an irritated Hera looks on. At the volcano, he flies into a cave, lined with veins of many metals. This is Hephaestus’ forge.

Hephaestus is another of those gods that I feel like never gets his day in court. There are many reasons for that, to be fair, but I’d like him to have a role in this story. He’s a relatively neutral god, mostly caring about his work at the anvil, moreso than anything else. I also like the idea of having him almost be a running joke in his scenes, in that he always comes up with devices far beyond their time. Like, at a certain point, he offers something for Zeus to give to Perseus, which he calls a “thunderblast”. And it’s a fucking CANNON, YEARS ahead of its time. You also see sketches for smaller versions, which are just straight up guns. But, y’know, eus will refuse that.

Speaking of that, THIS is the first time that we’ll see Zeus’ true face, lit by the light of the forge. And there are a few reasons for this, one of which being that Zeus’ casting should be a big name, and a surprise in marketing. But other than that, Zeus’ really shouldn’t have too much import in the story, outside of Perseus’ creation. However, looking at Hephaestus, who is himself a cast-out and neglected offspring of the gods, Zeus actually manages to eke out a little guilt for his actions for one. He asks Hephaestus to make something for him and Perseus. Hephaestus is hesitant, but agrees upon hearing about Perseus’ origins, because Hephaestus is ALSO HIS HALF-BROTHER...in this movie. Hephaestus’ origin has changed in different tellings, but I want him to be Zeus’ kid. So, yeah, Hephaestus agrees to make something...simple.

Perseus is on the island. There, he’s being watched by YET ANOTHER mysterious figure. Because, yeah, that’s how these people should work. See, there’s another benefactor for him that I want to bring in for various reasons. This island appears to have been inhabited at some point, but was abandoned for unknown reasons. Perseus wanders around, and stumbles upon a ruined Great Hall, open to the sky. He wanders in, nervously. But then, to his surprise, he sees a great feast before him, as a fire roars in the hearth at the end of the hall. He looks at the fire for a moment, and sees a woman tending it. But as the fire bursts, it produces a flash of light, and the woman is gone. Who was she, though?

The LEAST used and talked about goddess in all of pop culture. An unofficial/occasional Olympian, and far less popular than Dionysus, who usually takes her seat. I actually want her to have given Dionysus her seat, as she will be wandering the world, bestowing blessings on the households of those worthy mortals who honor her. To Perseus, she gives this gift, and this hall with maintain this gift in the future. This goddess is Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and Home.

AND YES I AM AWARE OF HESTIA IN THE ANIME DANMACHA. Doesn’t goddamn count, because that obviously isn’t Hestia. The Greek goddess deserves some respect, as she’s literally the oldest of all of them, and was VERY respected in Greek culture, by LITERALLY EVERYBODY. So, yeah, Hestia’s going to appear here, ever so briefly.

The other reason for this is...well, the Harpies show up, as Perseus eats. They perch on the roof of the Great Hall, and watch him eat. He notices them, and as he reacts, they come down to take the food and attack him. Perseus realizes that the food has revitalized his weary body, and he runs. However, the Harpies prevent egress, and he still has no weapon. Until...

Thunder clashes, and lightning strikes in the middle of the Great Hall! The fire goes out, but light is coming from something in the center of the table, as Perseus and the Harpies look on. With the lightning bolt, there traveled a harpe, a type of sword, which is embedded in the table. But this is no ordinary sword, as it chines silver, almost blue in hue, as electricity arcs off of it. This is a divine sword, forged by Hephaestus on the order of Zeus himself.

But the sword is nameless...for now. Perseus uses the flashes of the sword to fend off the harpies. When one of them lunges at him, he quickly moves in response to it, and strikes it just, slicing off a wing. The other Harpies fly away in fear, but not too far. Perseus takes the opportunity, and leaves the great Hall, maybe grabbing some food on the way. Now armed, he has a way to kill Medusa, and to take her head. He heads to the island, with new purpose.

Meanwhile, in Aethiopia, the people are starting to panic. Remember when I said the city wasn’t particularly religious before? WELL THEY ARE NOW, since they’ve realized that they’ve profaned Poseidon with their arrogance. The vain Cassiopeia is now terrified, for herself rather than for her daughter. Cepheus is terrified for Andromeda, and Andromeda...well, Andromeda is putting hope in Perseus, but she is also prepared to sacrifice herself if necessary. But deep down, she doesn’t believe it will be, because she oddly believes in Perseus.

However, Cepheus won’t be able to hold off the hordes forever, It’s been nearly a week, and Andromeda is to be sacrificed soon. And if Cepheus won’t do it, the newly religious Cassiopeia and the crowd will.

Poseidon realizes that his plan with Hera’s Harpies didn’t work...perfectly. Damn, he’s still alive. Plus, the Harpies won’t get off of the island now, especially seeing that food seems to be magically appearing every night, due to Hestia’s gift. Maybe and island with magically appearing food beset by Harpies will, I dunno...come backcoughcogchJasoncoughcoughArgonautscoughcough. Nevertheless, Poseidon hatches another plan, a back-up plan to get revenge on Zeus and Perseus. He tells a nymph to “find him”. We’ll get to “him” later.

However, this is a problem for Perseus still, because he’s been thrown WAY off course from the island of Medusa. Even with the sandals, he’d be cutting it close to get back to Joppa with Medusa’s head. And that’s if he gets back with the head. Still a big if, that. In any case, he’s headed there to do what he must. He’s already faced the Greae and the Harpies, so, hey! Not too bad so far, right? Just Medusa next, and then a giant sea monster! Hahaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Well...whatever. For Andromeda, and for something else, he’s going to do it. Perseus looks at the sword, and wonders what’s up with the whole “Zeus is my dad” thing yet again, but shakes it off as he continues flying. Above him, an eagle flies. Said eagle is soon joined by an owl, and the two share a look as they follow Perseus. He’s close to the island, and Medusa’s island is prominent on the horizon, shrouded in a dark eerie fog.

Perseus lands on the island, after hovering above it for perhaps too long. This is, unsurprisingly, the same island from the beginning of the film, now in ruins. He gears up, and this includes the Helm of Darkness this time. He creeps into the temple, and is struck by surprise when he sees a Gorgon slithering next to him. OH SHIT

On first glimpse, the invisible Perseus notes that the creature is indeed monstrous, standing 6-feet tall, with snakes for her short hair and fang-like teeth protruding from her mouth. And while there are some details not actually in Greek mythology, I do like some details given in the films. Firstly, this Gorgon is armed not only with her looks and teeth, but bows and arrows, as seen as she takes an arrow, and coats in in poison dripping from her teeth.

Perseus realizes the danger that he’s in, but also doesn’t realize that this ISN’T Medusa. YUP. This is one of the Gorgons, but not Medusa. He approaches the creature, confident in his invisibility. However, he isn’t careful enough, and accidentally kicks a pebble. The Gorgon looks directly at him, into his EYES, and he’s paralyzed! But...he isn’t turned to stone, curiously. This is how he figures out that this isn’t Medusa, but simply another Gorgon. He also realizes how careless he’s being, and takes care to avert his eyes from the Gorgons and Medusa.

He gets over his paralysis eventually, then carefully makes his way to the main temple. On the way, he encounters another Gorgon, completing the trio of Gorgons present in mythology. He walks into the temple, and as he does, a door slams shut behind him. Now the Gorgons up until now have been monstrous and fairly tall women, with snakes for hair and hideous visages, but also with mostly humanoid bodies, with legs that they can walk upon. Medusa, though...Medusa’s different.

As the door closes, Perseus is clearly unnerved. The temple seems empty in front of him, but he also sees statues littered around it, clearly those of mortal men turned to stone by Medusa’s gaze. He walks carefully, and as he does, he hears a voice call out, asking who’s there. She can smell him, sense him, and he is not completely invisible to her. Perseus says nothing, as not to completely give away him position. But he is TERRIFIED, and the audience should be as well. Because we see glimpses of her throughout the temple. You ever see the new version of Disney’s The Jungle Book? Remember how they first showed Kaa?

In the same way, coils of a snake’s body are seen, slithering around Perseus, who’s looking for Medusa. All the while, a hissing voice speaks to him from the shadows. She recognizes that his patron is Athena, her former priestess. She explains her rage, both at Poseidon for what he did, and for Athena for abandoning her and condemning her to this terrible fate. She asks why he’s come, guessing that it’s to kill her. He confirms this, but upon hearing her story, expresses his doubts.

But Medusa...Medusa doesn’t really care. If this is a favored beneficiary of Athena, as she used to be, she wants him fucking DEAD. And she doesn’t care who he is, or what his mission is, or about his feelings. he’s going to turn him into stone, and display him in her collection, so that Athena can see something she loves turned into a monstrous form. And now, we see Medusa in full. And I gotta say, Harryhausen had it right. So did Warner Brothers in adapting it.

Half snake, half woman, with long, LONG snakes for hair, and a long snake body as well. She’s also surprisingly beautiful, as I actually do like the idea of keeping her beautiful, in a way to remind her of what she used to be. She’s armed not with a bow and arrow, but with a stone spear. And she’s BIG in form. Her head is still human-sized, but she was clearly a tall woman when she was human. She uses her body to rear up to terrifying heights, though, and Perseus can only see glimpses of her as she reveals herself.

She attacks him, and Perseus has to think fast. In the original myths, he gets her in his sleep. In the movies, it’s a combination of luck and mirrors. But here...here, it’s going to be different. See, we’re going with the old fallen pillar gag. Perseus enrages her, and tricks her into knocking over pillars of the temple that they’re in. She attacks with the spear, with statues thrown by her snake body, with her snake body, and also with an addition: spitting venom, like that of a spitting cobra.

But he manages to either dodge it, or block it with the corrosive proof cloak. All the while, he avoids her gaze, but his helmet is knocked off in the process. She can see him now, and that’s bad news. But only one more column needs to fall. Perseus tricks her into knocking the temple down around her, and she’s trapped in the rubble.

Perseus escapes, and the other Gorgons outside are knocked out by the debris. However, Medusa’s definitely not dead. He stumbles across her, under the rubble, and still enraged. She’s trapped now, though, and he can kill her easily. She actually asks him to, and he refuses at first. But Athene, in owl form, lands on a still standing pillar, in Medusa and Perseus’ eyeline. They see it, and they know that it’s a sign of what Perseus needs to do. Perseus closes his eyes. And he swings.

The blood washes over the sword, smoking. Now christened in an act of mercy and strength, the blue-silver turns to gold, and a name appears on the blade: Chrysaor (and yeah, I know Chrysaor was a dude, but I am TAKING CREATIVE LICENSE HERE). But Perseus is upset by this, feeling that he wasn’t a great hero at all. But Athena appears, and notes that mercy is also a quality of heroism. Something even the gods could learn (referring to herself, and her actions in reference to Medusa). He looks at her, unsure of what to think.

Not that it matters, since he’ll never get back to Aethiopia in time to save Andromeda. And then...the rubble begins to shake. Perseus arms himself, and he points the sword at the rubble, expecting to fight a Gorgon. But instead, an unexpected creature springs up from the rubble: Pegasus.

YUP. I’M STILL DOING IT! I realize that Pegasus is NOT Perseus’ mount, but he is actually linked to the myth via Medusa. So, yeah, Pegasus is born of Medusa. Perseus looks at Athena, who notes that Pegasus looks swift, and seems to be a way back. Pegasus is also pretty grateful to Perseus, as he’s technically responsible for his freedom. So, yeah...he gets ONE ride.

Perseus puts the head of Medusa in the cloak of Dionysus, and gets on Pegasus. As Perseus takes off with Pegasus and Chrysaor, Athena looks at the body of Medusa. Zeus, as the eagle, looks on, and follows Perseus to Aethiopia. Athena stays behind, and then is joined by Hermes. He notes that he’s here for Medusa’s soul, as Hades has been waiting for her soul this whole time. There’s his ulterior motive. But Athena tells Hermes that she’ll be accompanying them. She will speak to Hades.

But enough of that, because Andromeda’s set to be sacrificed! The angry mob has hit a fever pitch, and it’s day before her birthday! Cassiopeia, now fully in the cult of Poseidon with the rest, brings her daughter to the rocks to be chained up. Cepheus tries to stop this, but the mob stops him instead, imprisoning him on the command of Cassiopeia. Andromeda is also taken captive, set to be sacrificed to Poseidon to gain his favor.

Perseus gets to Aethiopia, and lands near Joppa, the capital city. Pegasus takes off, bidding goodbye to Perseus, who thanks him. Pegasus has a date with a kid named Bellerophon. And Perseus is finally feeling confident. Although, he’s not entirely sure what he’ll do when he gets there. But he’s got the head, so what could go wro-BAM!!!

He’s blindsided, with a hit to the face by a rock! And here, we get a bit of an aside from the myth to add something. See, Perseus wakes up, as he’s been out for a WHILE. As he wakes up, he sees an old man, clearly bedraggled and haggard. The man notes that he’s awake after all, and Perseus notes that he has the sword and Medusa’s head in the cloak. This old man introduces himself as an old banished king. He explains that he is there to kill Perseus, on command from Poseidon. You see, he’s been given a chance at absolution, for offending him via inaction many years ago.

The two have a heart-to-heart of sorts, about the expectations of the gods, and Perseus asks why he hasn’t killed him. The king doesn’t reveal his full reasons, those being that Perseus is, of course, his grandson. But Perseus asks him to let him live, in order to save someone with the item in the bag. Curious, the old king looks in the bag...

Stone. And thus, Acrisus’ prophesied downfall is done. Shocked and saddened by this, Perseus nevertheless takes the head, his sword, and his sandals. and takes off to save Andromeda. More time’s been lost, and Andromeda’s lost her hope in Perseus, as has everybody else. By the time he gets there, Poseidon’s released Cetus, who can look however, but I will say I think the incarnation in the 2010 movie was pretty solid. Cetus heads off to kill Andromeda, under the watch of Cassiopeia and her cult of Poseidon.

But then, Perseus shows up to present the head, and sees Cetus having arrived to devour Andromeda. Instinctively, he presents the head to Cetus, and turns him into stone (because I think that’s a cool way for him to go). Andromeda is saved, but Poseidon is PISSED THAT HIS PLAIN FAILED. He rears up from the ocean, complete with earthquake tremors, ready to kill Perseus himself. BUT ZEUS IS FUCKING DONE WITH HIS BULLSHIT.

He steps in the way of Poseidon, and screams that there’s been enough damage done! At the first full appearance of Zeus, EVERYBODY in Aethiopia reacts. While everyone bows in reverence, Cassiopeia’s so freaked out that she runs away. She’ll be leaving the city altogether, and when she does, she’s watched over by a cuckoo (or a peacock). This is Hera, and as a god of women AND OF MOTHERS...she’s going to be punishing Cassiopeia for her deeds.

Zeus and Poseidon speak, and the two come to tentative peace. This is settled in the courts of Olympus, where everybody involved comes together to speak about this affair. They note that, despite Poseidon’s petty bullshit, something unique has happened. A mortal child of a god, spurned on by their actions, has managed to outsmart and defeat countless obstacles. And now, celebrated for saving Andromeda and the city of Joppa, Perseus is celebrated. Zeus predicts that he will be made king, with Andromeda as his queen. And this pleases Zeus greatly. Poseidon, still angry, is not convinced. But Zeus directs his attention away from Perseus’ celebration, and towards one of his children: Pegasus.

A new age is now dawning in the world of man, and in the world of gods. As Pegasus flies over the oceans, he flies over an island, as Zeus narrates on the nature of this new age of heroes. And as Pegasus lands, we see the city of Corinth in the distance. The narration concludes, as we are introduced to a young man, a prince named...Bellerophon.

Cut to black.

Well...almost. There’s a mid-credits scene, where a newly crowned Perseus goes back to his island with a fleet of ships to see his mother, and bring her to Aethiopia to live happily. And then, there’s an after-credits scene, with Athena. She’s looking at the mortal word, and looking forward to this age of heroes. She sees that some divine intervention may be needed in the land of Boeotia. She asks her attendant to fetch her shield. And Medusa, saved from the Underworld by a penitent Athena, brings her the shield, Gorgoneion, now adorned with the image of Medusa’s former self, as a reminder to Athena to be merciful. And off she goes, to help another burgeoning hero: Cadmus

AND SO THE AGE OF HEROES BEGINS

Alongside a theoretical franchise, of course.

If you read this nonsense, then...wow, why? But also, thank you! Mostly for putting up with my mad ravings. I’ll be putting the the straight-up review of this film later today, but...I really needed this off my chest. Any thoughts? Any ideas? Any criticisms? Any petty insults? I’ll take it, whatever it is! THanks again for putting up with this.

See you in the ACTUAL REVIEW!!!

18 notes · View notes

blacksunscorpio · 4 years

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Scorp you're a genius! So relatable and I love how you don't judge others or anyone who comes to you for help. Keep it up! I just had to ask since I see that you make pop culture references to make analogies with astrology. You've mentioned GoT a few times and im a huge fan! Can you do a quick post on Game of Thrones characters and their potential zodiac signs? I'd love to hear your input! Thank you so much!!

Game of Thrones Characters & Their Zodiac Signs

Aries

Khal Drogo- Impulsive. Warlike. Bloodthirsty. Alpha. Conqueror. Hardcore athlete [did you see him on that horse?] Extremely sexual. Forceful. When he first meets Daenerys, he forces himself on her. Afterward, however, he is the first to go to war if he feels the people around him have been disrespected.

Aerys Targaryen- Impulsive, sadistic. Boastful. imperial. He would be the Emperor [reversed] in Tarot, lol. Not as good with being a tactician as he ought to have been. Cruel. Rage problems. The need to be the first and the best. Fire and blood, anyone?

Taurus

Maergery Tyrell - Classy, wealthy, sexy, laid-back, frank but with an air of elegance. Highgardeners have a love for the finer things in life. A love of fine wines and foods. Beautiful clothing and aesthetics. RICH RICH. Get on their bad side and they will take their time finding a way to subvert your authority.

Robert Baratheon- Love of luxury, bullheaded, strong, takes no shit. Fixed in his opinions of others, highkey jealous. In his youth, he enjoyed the gifts of Venus: Charm, wealth coming from the noble house of Baratheon, widely considered handsome by almost all in the 7 kingdoms.

Gemini

Tyrion Lannister- Silver-tongued. HIGHKEY intelligent. Social. Charming. Great sense of humor. A freak [in the sheets]. Chatty. Always finds his way out of a sticky situation. Finds a way to use his intel to bolster diplomacy between his family and the families who hate them.

Little Finger- Cunning, quick-witted, works behind the scenes, manipulative, a snake, jack of all trades. Top dog in the social circles of the 7 Kingdoms. There wasn’t a person who didn’t know of him and his... reputation. He singlehandedly, through his Machiavellian tactics, caused the events of Game of Thrones to unfold.

Cancer

Cersei Lannister- Protective, moody, caring [to her kids], motherly, cantankerous, jealous. A savage. People don’t give Cancer’s the credit they deserve in terms of what they’re capable of. Cersei is a prime example of the type of person who can show unrivaled levels of devotion to the one’s they love. “No one matters but us.” She can be cruel because she lets her emotions rule her actions. When her safety is threatened, she makes sure no one else feels safe either. She loves with a ferocity only rivaled by...

Catelyn Stark- Another mother who would die [quite literally] for her children. Fierce, Protective. Doting. JEALOUS. Let’s not forget how she treated Jon all because she believed Ned’s lie about him being a bastard. Followed her son into battle. Damn near lost her hands fighting off Bran’s would-be assassin.

Leo

Jaime Lannister- Proud. Handsome. Princely. Funny. We seem him go from underdeveloped Leo [arrogant, selfish, bully, prideful, snob, loyal to no one but himself] to developed [Kind, helpful, warm, honest]. Fought bears for his friends. Skilled and proud fighter even without the use of both his hands. Unfortunately, his loyalty caused him to stay loyal to his twin towards the end, but such is the nature of a Leo. They’re hard-pressed to abandon those they truly care for.

Brienne of Tarth- LOYAL. Proud. Devoted. A bit of a flare for drama especially brandishing her sword. Brienne is the definition of Leonine traits. Hard to miss. Devoted to those who show her kindness, i.e Renly, Catelyn, Jaime, Sansa, etc. Always at the front lines in war screaming “STAND YOUR GROUND”. Unrivaled levels of bravery and courage. Not to be fucked with. A true Queen.

Virgo

Samwell Tarley- Intelligent. Scholarly. Methodical. Always with his nose in a book. Unproblematic king. Caught the things everyone else missed, especially when he was an apprentice in Old Towne. Figured out how to cure Jorah Mormont’s affliction on his OWN without any formal training. Genius.

Lord Varys- Remember, Virgo is also ruled by Mercury who is the most cunning of the planetary rulers. Varys always had a spy to collect intel on everyone. A tactician. Never lost his temper. Always had the scoop but didn’t partake in gossip for gossip's sake. Not afraid to be critical or tell those “in charge” his opinion. We can see this specifically when he critiques Aerys, Daenerys, and Robert.

Libra

Davos Seaworth- a skilled diplomat. Davos is always seen seeking balance and fairness in the situations he finds himself in. The minute you see this man in a scene you know he’s going to give a moving speech and get someone out fo a sticky situation. He convinced the Iron Bank to support Stannis. Convinced Daenerys to entertain Jon Snow when they traveled to Dragonstone. Always breaking up a fight. He is in full support of law and order, especially when he called for Melisandre’s head after discovering her part in Shireen’s death [RIP.]

Rhaegar Targaryen- Had a love of music. Harmony. Balance. He brought two families together [Stark and Targaryen]. He was also blessed by Venus in my opinion because he was said to be extremely handsome. A fabulous singer. A fighter yes, but a lover first. Very good with diplomacy but not the best with defending himself against his cousin sign, Taurus [Robert Baratheon].

Scorpio

Daenerys Targaryen- Many see her as an Aries but I have to respectfully disagree. Daenerys is a Scorpio in my opinion. Remember, Scorpio is honorary fire. She was literally “reborn from the ashes”. A Phoenix, Scorpio’s final form. She went from a silent and meek girl to a skilled and commanding Empress. Unlike Arians, she did not jump headfirst into battle. It took many arrows in her dragons, many slights to her ego, copious council from her advisors, dozens of her loved ones lost for her to go nuclear. Like her father, she hungered for power, a very Scorpionic trait. However she, unlike her father, listened to reason [Jorah, Tyrion, and Barristan Selmy]. She had a long fuse until she didn’t, and then that’s when she rained fire and blood on everyone in King’s Landing. She was skilled at retribution and was unapologetic with it *cough* the Tarleys *cough*.. Unlike Arians who pop off at the drop of a hat, she gave her enemies fair warning if/when they crossed her.

Arya Stark- You already know what it is with this one. Arya is pretty much death [Pluto], personified. Stealthy. A tactician. VENGEFUL. I think we all fist-pumped when she served Filch Walder Frey his sons in that pie. Never forgets a slight. Keeps a list of people who’ve wronged her [All Scorpios can probably relate]. You never see her coming. She is “no-one”. She is the assassin that slips through the back. She may seem calm at first but trust that she has been planning your downfall for a while. LOYAL. The definition of a Scorpio.

Melisandre- Dark. Mysterious. Unafraid of the occult. So much of her life is unknown and I’m sure that’s how she preferred it. Even her Lord of light was mysterious. Strong supernatural abilities and highkey psychic. Knew immediately how many “eyes” Arya would “close.” Had ties to the underworld which is demonstrated with her ability to resurrect the dead. Came through at the clutch in the last battle wielding fire [Mars] with her witchcraft. It’s no secret that Scorpios are some of the most skilled in sorcery.

Sagittarius

Missandei- Exotic. From Naath which is an island just above the mysterious continent of Sothoryos. A world traveler. Lucky enough to escape slavery [until the end]. Jupiter's influence is here in my opinion because she is so kind and friendly. Also a polyglot and gifted with the ability to speak 19 languages. Her fire is seen at the end of the series when she tells her best friend “Dracarys”-- meaning “fire” in High Valyrian. She isn’t afraid to call wrath down on others.

Olenna Tyrell- Loud, unapologetically blunt, zero-filter, feisty. Olenna to me is the definition of Sagittarius. Always speaks her mind. Clap back queen. Will call you out. Was also quite promiscuous in her younger years. Very charismatic and extremely likable despite her penchant for saying whatever was on her mind.

Capricorn

Tywin Lannister- I can’t see the patriarch of the most notorious family in Westeros being anything other than a Capricorn. Methodical. Structured. Business-minded. Karmic [A "Lannister always repays his debts"] Cold. Cruel. Unfeeling. Like Saturn, he is the father figure. Basically ran the 7 Kingdoms for Aerys, [which was probably why the latter was so salty towards him.] Always has a plan. The man you want in charge if we’re strictly talking about law and order. Vindictive [had the mountain kill Elia because Rhaegar rejected Cersei.] He’s the ultimate son-of-a-bitch.

Jon Snow- Brooding hero that he is, Bae Jon Snow is without a doubt a Capricorn in my eyes. Duty-bound. Serious. A leader in his own right. Could also be cold and unfeeling in terms of distributing karmic justice. Lest we forget the “fetch-me-a-block” situation with Janos Slynt. In addition, the moment he was resurrected he took vengeance against the black brothers who betrayed him. Saturn, Like Pluto, is all about karmic justice. The beating he put on Ramsey after The Battle of the Bastards was one thousand percent a karmic beating. A proper lover as well, according to Ygritte, Jon also knew how to handle himself in the bedroom, a trait very akin to Capricorns.

Aquarius

Bran Stark- I thought about making Bran a Pisces, but then I changed my mind. Remember Uranus rules sudden insights and hardcore psychic receptivity. It also rules sudden and unexpected catastrophes or surprises/ sudden breaks. Bran suffered a literal “tower” moment at the beginning of the series which resulted in his psychic powers developing. Once he became the three-eyed raven, he became very detached from the world.

Grey Worm- Aquarius is also androgynous. Grey Worm is a eunuch. He is always down to fight for a cause though, specifically his queen’s. Cares about others, specifically Missandei, and was seen towards the latter season speaking up for the Unsullied against the slavers. Fierce combatant but also very detached. His job is his job.

Pisces

Jaqen H’ghar- Much like Neptune, Pisces’ ruler Jaqen has a mysterious and illusive personality. He wears “many faces”. Skilled at illusion and very very intuitive. Has a soft side though which is clearly seen with how he treats Arya. Hardly ever flies off the handle. Calm. Cool. Collected.

Hodor- Sweet and gentle giant, Hodor is a Pisces to me. Affected by psychic trauma, it’s revealed why “Hodor” is the only thing he can say. Calm. A bit of a baby. Caring. Easily adaptable [think of all the terrain he carried Bran through]

Eddard Stark- I don't care what anyone says, Ned stark to me represents the most developed form of a Pisces. Like the Hanged-Man in Tarot that represents sacrifice and which Neptune Rules, he willingly sacrificed his reputation as honorable for his sister, Lyanna. He later sacrifices himself for his children when he died at Joffrey’s [little bitch] command. He is wise. Though appears cold, he is actually a well of feeling and caring. Unfortunately, he also suffered from the naivety of Neptunian influence which is why he wasn’t very skilled at the Game of Thrones, which calls for more tactical ruthlessness. Pisceans however also have the rage of Poseidon flowing through their veins [which people like to forget]. This was displayed when he pinned Petyr Baelish to the Wall in King’s Landing for daring to dishonor Cat by inviting her into a Brothel. RIP, King Stark.

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wrestledwiththegods · 4 years

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I see you do yandere requests and 💦 so what do you imagine the darker papas and Copia are like?

Okay. So. Without going too deep into it, in the time between me writing my original rules, and getting this ask- I had a long and meaningful conversation with a friend about yandere and how a lot of its hallmark traits resemble stereotypes of certain mental illnesses. How this has been harmful to those groups, the stigma, etc. Please know this is not me talking down about your ask or saying you cannot enjoy that content, but I've decided to not write that specific thing for my hcs.

That being said, I am still MORE than happy to write villainous or "darker" hcs that dont involve that specific "obsessive" yandere feel. If that makes sense.

Sorry I hope you still enjoy this!

Also note: most of these have multiple outcomes depending upon certain factors. Ill be tagging anything villain or "darker" as darkau so people can blacklist!

Papa Nihil is a mad king type of villain. It's his world, baby, and maximum hedonism is the goal. He may be older but that does not at all stop him from seeking pleasure even at the risk to his own health. Fucks everything that moves. Holds parties to an extravagant degree. Definitely the kind of bad guy to monologue about past exploits and deeds with the turn of his hand like they weren't horrible things to do. We all (read: other people who aren't him) have to make sacrifices for the church. When he first sees you, you seem like a fun new toy, so to speak. "Cute" is the first word to come to mind.

Likely he first tries to buy your affections. A wolfish smile on his face as he asks if you want a taste of the good life. You two could have some fun. Yet even if you say yes, he soon finds its not enough. Why? He asks himself with a frown. He tries harder, takes more of your time if you let him. You get pulled away from work to have meals with him. He actually asks personal questions about *you* that normally he wouldn't give a shit about in a plaything. But you're not just one of those silly siblings of sin he plays around with.

He hasn't felt this way in a very long time. Its the most serious he's felt in a long time. He still wants to fuck around and basically be his worst self, mind you. But he wants you to be at the top with him. You two can burn brightly together, taking in the best of what his awful actions have bought you. This is if you say yes. If you say no… he smiles. No hard feelings! You'll never be forced to do anything you don't want. It's like he turned off his personality at the drop of a hat. You'll still get gifts after that. Feel his eyes on you around the church. The parties get louder, his screwing around more apparent when you walk in a room. Still, you'll feel his focus on you and nothing else. Almost like he's anticipating for you to change your mind. He'll be waiting.

Papa I - Papa I has always been assumed to be the least threatening of the Emeritus family. He likes to garden, kept to himself after getting off stage. Much of his real "work" is private, you see. Whether it's preparing a poor lost lamb for a ritual after they had betrayed the church for some personal gain. Or slowly and intricately cutting into their skin sigils for the Morningstar. Hes even been known as the best if you need a torturer (although thankfully it is rarer in these days).

You probably take his notice when you express interest in one of his many poisonous plants- lily of the valley. Only if ingested, he tells you. But if you think those are beautiful, he has a lot more he can show you- his private collection.

Its shortly after that you find your duties reassigned to his office. Its out of nowhere, but definitely a step up. The way he phrases it to you is that he needs more help with the garden as one of his previous assistants needed a change of pace. And from what he's heard of you plus your interest, you seem perfect for the job! Really, he just craves to be beside you. Listen to you chatter as you both work the soil, see the sweat roll down your neck on hot days-

The difference between Papa I and everyone else on the list here is that he probably won't make a grand move or gesture. He pines. Hopes that you'll see his feelings and his darkness and love all of it. But deep down he knows how unlikely that is. That one day he'll show you the beauty of ritual hands on. See the blood glisten oh-so-beautifully on your skin. He still sighs happily thinking on it.

If you never express feelings for him, he basically devotes himself to making your life better, in his perspective. Changes your work schedule so its timed well for you to get a good night's rest. Looks out for things you might *need.* If there is anything you want to learn, he's more than happy to show you himself or help you get the resources you need. When it might get bad is when someone expresses interest in you, or you to someone. Ah… well. They're just not good enough for you. Not in his mind. He'll tell you rumors he's heard. Talk to them directly to get them to back off. He has an entire checklist in his mind that they have to meet. Pretty much no one will.

If someone does (its possible but unlikely), however, he feels his heart break. He still pines. And longs. But he lets you go to that person. After all, no matter what horrible things hes done, he wants you to be happy. His heartache is worth that.

Papa II- Papa II as a villain is actually a lot closer to the steteotypes and rumors about him normally- ruthless, cold, and seemingly doesn't care about others. He has this anger deep in his core that is never fully expressed. Truly, he is a sadist in that he usually enjoys the pain of others at his hands. Likes helping out on those rare occasions torture is a thing with Papa I in the lower underground sections of the church. Always seems like hes looking for someone to punish, and usually in a very unpleasant way. Yes, this has extended to death if he deems the "crime" severe enough. The sadism extends into the bedroom for harsh "games"- however he's not a monster when it comes to sexual partners. Still gives them aftercare, even if its a tad on the unfeeling side and more out of obligation.

It probably wasn't just one thing that put you in his sights. He noticed you one day probably doing something kind and kept running into you. He likes picturing your heart racing when you see him, like prey in the face of danger. Over time he starts developing a fondess that he can't quite deny. It's strange. Its been so long since he's genuinely felt this way about anyone, he doesn't know how to react at first. So he pulls out some stops. You get letters, at first, delivered by a ghoul. Later they come with expensive gifts he thinks you'll look good in or enjoy. You should wear it. It pleases him so much to see wear something he got you. Its sort of a subtle claim in his mind. He does expect replies delivered to a certain ghoul or place. Eventually the ghoul comes and there isn't a letter. You're being summoned.

He asks you straightforward to be his prime mover. He's honest in his intentions that he wants you exclusive only to him. He would give you the same if you asked. In fact, he would give you almost anything if you asked. At first this might all seem business but you might notice the slight flush in his cheeks, the unusual hesitation in his voice- little tells. Also the fact he's never asked anyone to be his prime mover, as far as you know. If you say yes, you find he's more gentle when its just the two of you. He has this warm smile in bed you'll catch. He kisses your forehead softly and its this aching tenderness. When others are around, no one would ever know.

If you say no, you are dismissed and he thanks you for your time. Its as if you don't exist to him after that. He just… walks past you like a ghost. Won't acknowledge you if you were to say anything, though I certainly wouldn't. Basically the walls he let down for a brief moment are back up and reinforced. It hurts to see you around, but hes stronger than that. There are things to do in the church. He'll take out these feelings on someone else.

Papa III- As a villain, Papa III is a siren. He's beautiful, says all the right things and pulls lost souls down to the depths with him. On a quick glance, he just seems like someone very devout to the principles of the church and/or hedonistic party guy. His favorite thing to do is lure new people to the church, have them do horrible things and then offer shelter from the other world who will no longer accept them. All with a cute wink or a few silver laced words. This applies to his relationships. He moves fast and likes whoever is interesting at the time- platonic, romantic, alliances. If he decides you're not fun anymore, you get a kick to the curb if the former. The latter usually just ends up to some horrible fate. He thrives on people wanting him so badly they would do anything.

Which is why you as a concept is frustrating. Likely he's already picked you up as someone to have around as a casual fuck or in his "entourage", so to speak. He doesn't fuck around when he wants someone. But you've lasted so long, held his interest. There's a shitty little mercurial part of him that keeps denying what should be obvious. Some days he thinks he'll get rid of you in the morning. Other days he thinks how he can't live without you. He probably has his epiphany when someone else suggests it might be time for you to go. His reaction is filled with anger and aggression. The person seemingly disappeared the next day.

Suddenly he'll be a lot more affectionate. Act like you're his partner in how he conducts himself instead of a follower. All his other sex partners are dumped but not replaced. He asks you be exclusive and practically fucks you to oblivion when you agree. He took after his father in the wolfish smile department. That's what you get from him if you start questioning any of this. Why wouldn't he? You're his favorite. He loves you. The truth of the matter is, even if you didn't love him back, as long as you don't betray him- it stays like this. He adores you and wants you at his side.

If you had answered no to any of it in the first place, he would have gone on without a thought. Oh well!

Papa Copia- Copia is pulling all the strings. He has been for quite a long time. That's why he's papa now, no? Everything and everyone is bent to his will, at least for now until they need another reminder. He's had others killed or just plain framed to get them out of his way. But through it all, the shy and incredibly awkward mannerisms he exaggerated to put peoples guards down, were the most real around you. In gatherings in the church he'd find himself staring, quiet and calculating. He'd slip into fancies about what it would be like to have you romantically. Something about you makes him feel… like an ordinary man. The vulnerability made his heart race and dangle over an imaginary precipice.

Once the new Papacy is official, he comes to you, privately. No, you're not in trouble, he smiles and gives a nervous laugh. He has a proposal. He wants you to be his prime mover. His jewel above all others. If you accept, you'll be treated like royalty in the church. Hanging on his arm at events where no one would dare to touch you or speak ill of you. Sometimes when you're alone he just likes to hold you. Out of all the terrible, rotten things on this earth, you're actually his. Once he realizes he can trust you, he tends to have more vulnerable moments. Things he's probably never told anyone. No matter how stained his hands, he will make sure you are never hurt.

However, you're free to tell him no- He'll be shocked, perhaps try to charm his way. If you still say no, he leaves to think on it. As much as it pains him, if he cannot have you, he would rather not see you at all. He's not going to kill you or hurt you though, no- you might think so for a moment when you're pulled into his office with Imperator behind him. Instead he tells you with some regret that you are to be transferred to another church. He'll miss you, as will the members of the main church of course. But you're needed elsewhere. That's it. As if it was just routine. The next week you leave and he watches you from a window, something in his chest aching. You are his soft spot. And he can't risk having that exposed if he can't have you.

#darkau #ghost hcs #papa nihil #papa i #papa ii #papa iii #papa copia #copia #sooooo i misread until i got done with half of them and added a romantic element WHOOPS #ghost hc #ghost 18+

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ekebolou · 3 years

Text

Oh, wow, @dharmagun now look what you’ve done

I’ve gone and developed whole-ass ideas for how everyone goes to the bathroom in Kostas. And it’s all your fault.

(dude, I’m having blast)

Bathroom talk under the cut

I don’t know a good way to include your reply, so I’m going to just talk back :)

So, yes - underground water in the Capitol! That’s one reason this otherwise fairly fertile area wasn’t very densely settled - there’s enough water, but it can be hard to get to (and it’s an easily-accessible plain that basically got razed over and over again as different conquests of Ainjir happened, and those happened a lot)

So, this part of the country comes down from higher land in the northwest, flattens out a bit, and then you’ve got lots of hills to the east and southeast. It’s kind of like the Snake River Plain (but no river), or maybe more the Upper Rhine Plain (but still no river) since there’s jungle to one side and low mountains/hills to the other - I dunno, honestly pretty far outside my expertise as to the geological/ecological logics of this and I should probably stop talking about it, especially because most of the ecology I originally based on China but wikipedia didn’t have great info on Chinese aquifers - BUT ANYWAY there’s a shitload of basalt under the Capitol, columns & caves, etc, and palace is on the higher side of the land because it was originally built around an Artesian well (the old song goes that the King was on an unsuccessful hunting trip during a very troubled time time and laid down for a nap and got up and was blessed by finding a new stream of fresh flowing water where he had taken his rest, and thus blessed & future peace secured & rights of kings, blah blah blah - somebody added a ribald verse about ‘ground penetration’ and what other streams might possible run down the King’s sleeping leg and the original song is rather rarely remembered these days)

GOING ON, the city’s development was rather haphazard (in part because it wasn’t always the capitol, in part logistics), but before Keadar-Ainjir’s coup, it was to varying degrees illegal to screw around with the King’s water - it all depended on how into enforcing the rules about well-digging and dumping and whatnot any given ruler was, and whether they were even there or not. But there was no easily-accessible nearby stream for dumping, and water infrastructure was poorly developed, so the city was both not very clean except in certain areas, and had a very hardworking and well-developed strata of people responsible for waste management (that not everyone had equal access to, of course).

Then Keadar-Ainjir takes over and SHIT GETS REAL (in more ways than one, lol - fun aside, other than needing to kill every member of the royal family to complete his coup, it was a good idea for him to take the Capitol by storming the Palace because it had the best access to water, and if they got reverse sieged they could hold out until reinforcements came). This city is a paper-heavy society fro the get go, so people are using chamber pots/dry toilets and paper, and everything is getting hauled out by night soil people for use as fertilizer (mainly on non-food crops - Ainjir is a major cloth producer and supplier, but there’s also hemp, bamboo, dyestuff, etc - but there’s still probably a fair amount of pathogen transfer going for local edible produce). There’s pumped water for cleaning (hands, occasionally butts) and vinegar (yet another delightful city-smell), but no city-comprehensive sewage system outside of the public baths and royal fountains.

This would of course NOT DO for a campaign-trained general, who knew the value of not shitting where you eat, so the major mining projects that brought up most of what he used to build the Academy also created a city-wide sewage and drainage system. They don’t have a systems as grand and far-reaching as the Romans, but something like what Romans and Minoans had: indoor plumbing, waste water separation, public access to water for multiple uses (maybe not pressurized showers - the Academy has a deliberately jury-rigged version of pressurized showers that’s part of the Academy Dayz stories). It doesn’t work as well in the originally-shitty parts of old town, as a lot of the piping is above-ground and depends on rainwater collection to compensate for lacking underground access (they couldn’t dig under the shitty old town without destroying it). Nice old town had good enough systems in place, and just got a little update.

In Ainjir, this elaborate system of wastewater management in the Capitol is fairly unique; other places have it, but one a much smaller scale. Adineh, Wulsh, and the conglomeration of republics to the south have their own systems, which are honestly more evenly distributed (except in Wulsh, where it can get very spotty).

BUT, all of this to say: people in the Capitol are a fairly clean lot, between the public baths, sewage system, indoor plumbing, etc. People, especially in the public privies, still use the plentiful paper (another fine use of the broadsheets) to go about their business, and (if you’re not nasty) wash hands afterward with a water-vinegar mixture from a basin (you are supposed to smell a little more like vinegar than like shit coming out of the restroom - fancy people smell like perfumes - but the systems have been in place long enough that people sort of expect that sharp tang to hit them if you’ve just excused yourself to tcb, and it’s a little suspicious if you don’t). Fanciest people use water from specially-spouted (long, thin spouts and very round reservoirs) pitchers or very, very special little water pumps (thankfully these are rare, since they mess up the dry/ wet ratio of the waste which can affect composting).

Peeing in the street is still a problem, though. They installed a bunch of little ‘privacy areas’ but it’s basically just to make it harder to stare rather than handling the waste - it goes in the common street gutter, rather than the side of someone’s house though, so that’s good.

BUT NOW what am I gonna do about butchers and tanners and other city livestock management? Thank God hats aren’t super popular - and if they are, they’re made out of straw or cloth - or there would be a lot more mercury in the system.

#kostas stuff #worldbuilding notes #dharmagun

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heart-eye-harrington · 4 years

Text

think of me through the stars

Summary: Sometimes all you can do is kiss people through the stars

Word Count: 2.5k (oops I got carried away)

Warnings: None? My not perfect attempt at retelling Greek mythology

Author’s Note: Hi! I hope you’re doing well! This is my first attempt at a longer fic! Please let me know what you think (positive or negative!) and feel free to send requests! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy! ♡

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“Again?” All Steve could do was chuckle as he looks at you from the passenger seat. You’re slumped over the steering wheel, sulking, arms crossed above your head in an effort to conceal it. He brings a hand to rest on your shoulder, rubbing reassuring circles. From beneath your hunched position, he hears a hushed,

“I’m sorry”

“Hey, it’s fine. Would it even be a late-night drive without your car getting stuck?” the warmth and sincerity in his voice brought a smile to your hidden face. Your truck did have a tendency of getting stuck on back roads at night, and at this point, you’ve both kinda accepted it.

“C’mon, I’ll grab the blankets,” he says, pulling your pouty figure from your seat. You shrug out of the car, playing limp to cling to your sad charade. He opens the door and snags the blankets stowed there for occasions just like these. You each grab an end and spread the fabric to cushion the bed of your Chevy. Once up to both your standards, you climb in. Steve’s first, laying on his back, cradling his head in his hands. You follow but, hesitate.

It takes everything in you not to nestle into his arms and rest your head on his chest. To feel the warmth he radiated to the point where he’s always complaining about being too hot. To have his arms wrap around you and pull you closer. As much as you want to you can’t. He’s your best friend, nothing more. A line has been drawn and you can’t overstep it. So instead, you settle on lying on your back, head resting just below his bicep, hands resting on your chest.

You miss the sadness that flashes through his features, too distracted by the stars. He sighs to himself as he takes in the night sky and you. You seem so relaxed, so comfortable around him, a sense of pride washing through him. He cherished moments like this with you, away from it all. Away from King Steve and the persona he felt he needed to keep up, from his parents and their constant nagging, if their harsh words could even be considered that. But you made all that go away and let him forget. He could be a dumb teenager with you; cracking jokes, eating junk, late-night drives, and sometimes doing homework when you forced him. But he’d do anything for you. You, his best friend.

He’s pulled from his trance when you lift an arm to trace out a constellation.

“You see that one?” your question was soft, barely above a whisper

“Show me again?” you giggle at his honesty and shy tone before motioning for him to give you his arm. Once he obliges, you place your hand and on top of his and guide his finger to trace the constellation.

“It’s supposed to look like a harp, see it?”

“Yeah, I do”’ a smile lighting up his face at his discovery.

“Well, it’s technically a lyre. The constellation is called Lyra. There’s a myth about Orpheus, the greatest poet and musician ever. He perfected the lyre, I think it’s a fancy harp. His songs could calm the angriest of hearts and bring joy to the most broken. Except, he couldn’t fix his own after his wife was taken from him too soon. His heartbreak inspired some of his most beautiful songs ever written. They were so beautiful the birds and wind decided to sing along and still sing them to this day. When he died, his lyre was thrown into a river. Zeus knew he couldn’t let the lyre and his music go, so he sent an eagle to save it, and placed it into the sky.”

“Wow” was all Steve could muster, taken aback both by your story and knowledge of it.

“I had a book about constellations and myths when I was little. I’ve been fascinated ever since.” A blush rises to your checks at the confession. The night sky was kind of your secret obsession, and now here you were spilling your guts to Steve. Embarrassment flashes through you until you meet Steve’s eyes and find they’re filled with adoration, any trace of shyness melting away. He wraps the arm you used to show him the constellation around you, pulling you close before asking in a hushed voice,

“Tell me another?”

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“I’ve fallen in love, yeah. God knows! God knows I’ve fallen in love!” Steve playfully sings along with Freddie Mercury over your radio. Your room always felt so alive with him here, his infectious joy and energy painting every inch. All you can do in bop your head along to the beat as you continue your handiwork.

“Can I see it now?” Steve breaks from his serenade to shoot you a pleading look. You’re about to give in when you realize your progress and laugh at his impatience.

“Steve, I’m almost done. I promise!” He’s not convinced, features creating an exaggerated frown.

“But do you pinky promise?”

“Oh my gosh! Just let me do this one last thing then you can see it!” you triumphantly tie the final knot and sigh, happy with the finished product.

“Okay, close your eyes and hold out your hand”

Steve happily obliges, smile plastered across his face. You lay the finished product in his hand and instruct him to open his eyes. When he does, he’s amazed. Woven intricately into a friendship bracelet are yellow stars that pop over a navy blue background. Beside them are some white stars, in the shape of -

“Is that?”

“Yeah, a shitty rendition of Lyra”

“Holy shit, it’s amazing”

“Well, I try.” You can’t help but beam at his reaction. It had taken you so many attempts to get the constellation to look perfect on the tiny bracelet, but seeing his awe and appreciation was well worth it. It’s the least you could do for him.

“Thank you” was all he could muster, taken aback at how personal and kind your gift was. No one had ever done something like this for him.

“Can you help me put it on?”

Once you did, he never took it off. He wore it for basketball games, graduation, his Scoops Ahoy interview and for every shift. Robin often asked him about it, not missing the smile that came to his face every time she did.

One of her favorite past times during slow shifts was nagging Steve about you.

“C’mon on! Who made that for you?” her exasperation would have made Steve chuckle if it weren’t for the subject matter.

“Robin, please. They’re just a friend.” he sighs dismissively, desperate for her not to pry this open.

“Suuuuuuuure” The word dragged from her lips in frustration as she shrugged and turned her attention to the customer who just entered. As soon as her eyes meet theirs, she’s frozen. Staring back at her are the softest, kindest eyes she’s ever seen. They have a twinkle as if stars were trapped deep inside, and Robin instantly puts the pieces together. You’re the one Steve has been smiling and giggling about, and now she understands why.

“A-Ahoy! How may I help you today?” it takes Robin a second to remember her speech with her discovery.

“Hi! I’m sorry, but I was wondering if Steve was here?”

“Oh, so he does have friends that aren’t children. He’s in the back, I’ll go -” before she can finish, Steve pushes through the break room door. When his eyes meet yours, a familiar heat rises to his cheeks.

“Oh, oh hey! What- what’s up?” his attempt to regain his composure fails as his arm falls from its suave lean against the doorframe. His actions cause both you and Robin to giggle.

“I realized I haven’t visited you at work yet and thought I’d stop by. You guys busy?”

“No” they both reply, Steve’s words rushing out a few seconds before his co-worker’s.

“Sweet” you nod, plopping yourself at the table next to the register. Steve takes a seat across from you as Robin watches from behind the counter, not sure where she should go but happy with watching the interaction from afar.

“So, how are things going here? I feel like this place is stealing you from me” Your joke seeming light-hearted enough, but deep down it was true. You missed Steve, a small ache forming in your chest at the realization. You dare not let that feeling crawl to the surface, playing up your smile and leaning your head in your hand. Steve’s body is just as relaxed, arm stretched over the top to the seat beside him, legs crossed.

“Hey, you know I’ll always have time for you,” he spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Because to him, it was. He absent-mindedly played with his sailor hat while you stared at him wide-eyed. Across the parlor, Robin couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her lips. She’d observed the two of you for mere minutes and could already see what you two oblivious idiots couldn’t, and how could anyone not laugh? She hadn’t even realized she let it slip until she saw you and Steve awkwardly shift, both pulled from your respective traces. You all brush it off and you clear throat.

“So, um, I also wanted to stop by cause I’m leaving tonight.” Dread contorts Steve’s features, sending panic to yours.

“Not for long, just visiting family out of state for the Fourth of July. I’ll be back before you know it.” you finish reassuringly.

“But it’s like you just said, this place is sucking up all my time. I feel like I haven’t seen you since I got this job. I was hoping we could go to the fair the mayor puts on every year.” He pouts at his now scattered daydream. A small spark of joy returns when he realizes something.

“Can I maybe call you instead? I can skip the stupid fair, stay in, and we can catch up!” his relaxed posture gone in his excitement, elbows now resting on the table in an effort to lean closer to you.

“I don’t think so, we’re going all the way to New Jersey. The long-distance call cost would be enough to give my parents a heart attack.” Your heart breaks with your words. You’d give anything to go along with Steve’s plan, whether it be stuffing your face with cotton candy and getting sick on the Gravitron or simply sitting in your uncle’s house on the phone with Steve for hours. Your eyes were stuck on your hands, not having the heart to look at the sad look you knew was on Steve’s face. You fiddle with your fingers, daring to have your gaze move up just enough to see his wrist. You smirk to see the stars still there. Before you can think much about it, your fingers gently begin to play with the bracelet.

“Y’a know, you don’t need to call me to get to me.” your voice and touch soothing, Steve lost in the sensation of your skin on his. He brings himself back to reality just enough to ask

“What do you mean?”

“You can talk to me through the stars, through Lyra. I’ll always be there for you” your fingers continue you trace the pattern, a content smile reaching your eyes as they meet Steve’s. He can’t help the tug on his lips.

“I’ll only be gone a week, I don’t think you can get into too much trouble without me”

⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★⋆★

ʰᵉˡᵖᵎ ʰᵉˡᵖᵎ ʰᵉˡᵖᵎ

Robin’s muffled cries were the first indication to Steve that he hadn’t gone to the light. His body screamed with pain but was simultaneously numb, as is his body was trying to shield him from the intensity of the damage done. He tried pushing himself back to life, trying to regain his senses. The lingering metallic taste of blood returned, somehow filling his nose as well. He felt the tight restraints on his wrists and back, along with the heat radiating from Robin. His sight was the hardest to earn, his one eye feeling as if it would pop out of his skull. He starts small, trying to focus on his lap. He saw his blue sailor shorts, bound wrists, and ...

A million emotions whizzed through his mind, almost giving him a headache.

Still tied to his wrist was the friendship bracelet. The navy blue background, the silver and yellow stars still there. The constellation was still these. You had to squint a bit to see the shape, which came in handy with Steve’s current state. The knots were a bit uneven, tiny holes exposed his irritated skin underneath. It was somehow unscathed, not a drop of blood or any other sign of damage to be found.

You made it for him.

Oh shit

The ringing in his ears and Robin’s cries for help were getting more intense but were still so far away. He wanted to reach out through the mental fog to get to her, but his body kept him quiet. He still felt so far away from his surroundings, in a daze. Steve let himself surrender to the alluring call of rest.

“What else happens to Orpheus?” Steve let his curiosity get the best of him, knowing you have the answer. The cool night air ripples through your clothes, begging you to draw closer to the boy lying beside you.

“Well, when his love died, he went on a journey to the underworld to find her and bring her back. He used his gift to captivate people with his music to help him along the way. Hades agreed to let Euridice come with him, as long as he didn’t turn around to see if she was following on his way out of the Underworld. Just as Orpheus was about to leave, curiosity got the best of him and turned around, just to see the love of his life fall back into the underworld. It’s so sad because he was so close. He was so close to having her back.”

Silence fell between the two of you as you let the story sink in, but thinking the same thing. I’m so close, I can’t let them getaway.

Steve snaps his eyes open, a new fire fueling him. This isn’t how this is going to end. This isn’t how he was going to end. He couldn’t let himself be so close and let you get away. He had to get out this hellhole.

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington imagine #stranger things imagine #steve harrington fic #steve harrington x you #steve harrington hc

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edharrisdaily · 3 years

Text

Ed Harris talks Kodachrome, Westworld and the state of America

Riding high with his killer role in television’s Westworld, Ed Harris continues to bring the flinty characters that have been the hallmark of his career to the stage and the big screen.

Ed Harris has become something of a symbol for the single-minded American man. He’s used his resonant voice and intense blue-eyed gaze to play cowboys and astronauts, soldiers and sheriffs, artists and assassins.

That means he’s worn many hats: a beret as Kristof, the genius reality-television puppetmaster in The Truman Show; helmets – diving ones and space ones – in The Abyss and The Right Stuff respectively. The latter, in which he played Mercury astronaut John Glenn, proved a career breakthrough: a shot of him as Glenn made the cover of Newsweek just as the real Glenn headed into politics.

There have been plenty of Stetsons, too. He wears a big black one as the merciless Man in Black in the television series Westworld. That character could be a distant relative of the black-hatted title character he played in 1987’s Walker, the craziest movie of his career – well, until last year’s Mother! – about the American who appointed himself president of Nicaragua in the 1850s. It lives on in cult infamy.

On the line from New York, Harris laughs at the millinery-oriented overview of his career. “Ha, ha, ha. I just like wearing hats – especially as I don’t have any hair on top of my head.”

In his new film, Kodachrome, he sports a jaunty Panama to play a famous photographer who embarks with his estranged adult son on a road trip from New York to Kansas, to the last laboratory still processing the colour-slide film of the title.

It’s a relatively low-key role for Harris, not least because his prickly character is dying. “It was a great character to play. I had a really good time doing it.”

He is a man who, it must be said, sounds much friendlier than some of the characters he plays. “How are things in New Zealand?” he asks. Good, thanks. How are things in the US? “Good God almighty,” he chuckles. “Pretty pitiful situation, I guess, at the moment, eh? It’s embarrassing.”

At 67, Harris is a man whose career remains on a steady roll. In the past couple of decades, he’s appeared in plenty of big films but also managed to direct two of his own – notably the acclaimed Pollock, a biopic of the abstract artist Jackson Pollock, in which he also played the title role – and spend time treading the boards of Off-Broadway theatres.

When we talk, he and his wife of 35 years, Amy Madigan, are coming to the end of the season of the David Rabe play Good for Otto in New York. They were on stage together in London early last year, too, in Buried Child by the late Sam Shepard, who was also a Right Stuff alumnus. Do husband and wife come as a package?

“We have of late. It’s been really fun, you know.”

Born in New Jersey, Harris was a high-school athlete and football star before he attended Columbia University, and didn’t take up acting until his family shifted to New Mexico. He studied drama at Oklahoma University, then in Los Angeles, where he’s been based ever since.

He met Madigan when they were both cast in the Depression-era film Places in the Heart, starring Sally Field. They’ve since appeared in nine movies together, including Pollock, in which she played art collector Peggy Guggenheim.

The idea for the film was sparked when Harris’ father gave him a copy of a biography of the artist, but it took 10 years for the actor to get it to the screen.

It won him a best-actor Oscar nomination (co-star Marcia Gay Harden lifted the statuette for best supporting actress) and cemented Harris’ reputation as a single-minded tough nut. He famously smashed a chair on set to give Harden’s performance a jolt.

The film took its toll on the Harris-Madigan family finances. “I spent a ton of my own money on that film. You know I didn’t need to, but I had to. So I wouldn’t have changed that for the world.

“I had spent so much time working on developing the script and working on this guy and painting and getting to know people that knew him and getting the rights to his works … I was totally immersed in it. And I didn’t care what I had to do to make the film right.

“I mixed that film twice completely and went to three different composers. I would have done whatever I had to do to get it what I wanted it to be. I didn’t even think about it. I mean, my wife was kind of going ‘Ed, what are you doing?’. But we survived.”

If Pollock was an artistic triumph in step with his challenging stage work, in the movies Harris remains better known as a go-to guy for a voice of authority: in Apollo 13, he was mission controller Gene Kranz (“Failure is not an option”), and he’s played a fair few sheriffs, colonels and generals.

Nasa – the real one – has asked him a few times to perform narration duties on commemorations. He can’t get away from it in the movies, either. When Sandra Bullock’s stranded astronaut calls Houston in Gravity, that’s Harris responding.

“I mean, I am fascinated by space but it’s not something that’s like a major thing in my life.”

Harris’ commanding tones haven’t always been that commanding. “I used to have a really thick Jersey accent when I was going to college,” he says, “and just over the years, you know, part of my craft is to be able to use my voice appropriately for whatever given character.

“And I actually feel really good about the whole vocal stuff in Kodachrome, because it’s lower-register and pretty relaxed.”

The last time he played a dying man on screen – a poet with Aids in The Hours in 2002 – he got the fourth of his four Oscar nominations for it. Playing another one – and another difficult artist – in Kodachrome was harder than it looks.

“He might not be that active but physically it’s really challenging because he’s hurting, he’s aged, he’s frail. His mind is still sharp. Even to play an invalid you have to be in pretty good shape because you have to be able to use your body in a way that allows you do that.”

The film is also a meditation on the cultural change that has come with an increasingly digitised world. So where does Harris, a man who plays a robot-killing cowboy on television, sit on the digital-analogue spectrum?

“I’m a bit of a dinosaur, I’m afraid. You know it’s passing me by big-time. I am decent on the computer and that kind of thing but first of all I really like film films.

“I take a few decent photos I have a great old Leica camera that I actually used in the movie and I’ve taken some pretty good photographs. But I haven’t done much of late. I’ve been toying with the idea of building a little darkroom and getting to shoot some black and white but that’s just in my head at the moment.”

Presumably the photos would go up on the wall chez Harris-Madigan next to the Pollocks he painted in character.

“Well, a couple of friends got some, and one of the things about making that movie was you would shoot what he might be doing on canvas and you see that. But then to save time and canvas they put the camera back on me painting, and I will be painting over stuff that I thought was actually not so bad and just totally f---ing it up. So there wasn’t that much work left that I thought was decent.”

Harris is hoping to direct a psychological thriller based on Kim Zupan’s 2015 book The Ploughmen, about a Montana deputy sheriff and a local serial killer. Until then, Westworld gives him a regular pay cheque and keeps him busy for most of the year. So does figuring out what is going on in the show.

No, he didn’t know the twist about his character – that another regular character in the wild west android theme park was actually the Man in Black too, at a younger age. And that he owns the place. It was all bit of a surprise.

“You never know where they are going to take you. I’ve never worked on something where you find out in episode six something very basic about your character that might have been nice to know in episode one.

“I think they think that it’s going to keep the actors fresh or something. I told them, ‘Well, you know, last year I did 125 performances of Buried Child, and I knew what the script was going to be and what was going to happen with the character, and the 125th performance was just as fresh and alive as the first one. I don’t have a problem understanding and knowing what is going to happen to my character.’ But whatever.”

He’s not complaining. He has steady work in a high-profile show that is kind of a western, a genre he loves. He directed his own very good one, Appaloosa, in 2008. That one featured Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, Renée Zellweger and no killer robots. In Westworld he’s enjoying being a gun for hire and wearing that hat of his.

“I like putting on my Man in Black outfit. It makes me feel good.”

#ed harris #interview #q

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marrella-splendens · 3 years

Text

hinchinbrook

it was getting into mid-july, so for a little walk outside valentine only needed to grab a relatively light jacket and gloves. after weeks of seemingly unending clouds, the sky had finally opened up, and seeing as she was off-duty at the moment, nothing was stopping her from spending a few precious moments at her favorite sitting spot. beverly and myrtle were both up at the top of the light, cleaning off the fresnel or something. it was about 7pm, but at this latitude at this time of the year, that still gave them a good two or three hours of leeway before sunset. she'd check in on them later. daisy, however, had been sick with a particularly tenacious cold for the past several days, and she sniffled pathetically from her bed across the room. she turned over on her side, watched through the dark sweaty bangs covering her eyes as valentine prepared to go out.

"you're going out, val," she mumbled blearily. it was phrased like a statement, but something in her intonation was questioning.

"yup," she replied. "s'clear out. I'll draw you a picture of it, if you want. hell, see it yourself if you can get out of bed before the clouds roll back in." daisy just groaned, and rolled back over. barely a minute went by before valentine could hear her snoring again. that was probably for the best.

pulling on her cleanest wool hat, she stepped outside, taking a deep breath of the fresh air. the sun hung low in the southwest. it'd be skirting above the pacific for a little while yet. she fished a pair of bent aviators out of her pocket, and thought about how stylish she looked, at least for a lighthouse keeper. she slowly trudged along the path, making her way to just behind the outbuildings next to the cliff.

while the island was known for having a few rather nice beaches, valentine actually appreciated being able to watch the ocean from up here. it felt safer, and knowing the mercurial nature of these waters, she needed all the comfort she could get. it was bad enough thinking about the earthquakes that had hit, back in the late twenties, that had forced a slight relocation onto sturdier ground. for now, though, everything was calm and quiet and stable. she found her favorite spot, a nice clean tree stump, and pulled out her notepad as she sat down.

from somewhere up and behind her, she heard a dull thump followed by the muffled sound of uproarious laughter. she clicked her tongue disapprovingly, but if bev and myrtle had fucking broken something again, they probably wouldn't be laughing. not this hard, anyway. as long as they were working, and not getting... distracted, again. she shook her head.

the first part of a drawing, at least for valentine, was the ever-important date at the top left corner. she was known for meticulously dating all her notes, regardless of their pertinence to her work, here. it calmed her down, to know when things happened, to have it all sorted out in her head. she mumbled to herself as she scribbled, "july fourteenth, nineteen seventy two." and with that, she was free to get to business.

the vista itself was not always, well, terribly majestic. she was certainly used to it, staring out at the horizon, watching where the ocean met the sky. what was interesting was... yes! there. over the course of a minute or so, she started to see a shape appearing, a vague blob that barely passed for any kind of seafaring vessel at this point. she dutifully sketched it, however, making note of the time, drawing it again and again as it crept more into view. based on its size and apparent heading, it was an oil tanker, slowly lumbering its way up to valdez. like just about all sea traffic, around here.

on more interesting days, the atmosphere might present her with a fata morgana, allowing her to see incoming ships from farther away, as images and inverted images of ships, stacked on top of one another, bent their way around the horizon to her. she liked to watch those, as the shapes tended to waver and adjust rapidly. gave her more things to sketch.

as the tanker moved along and back out of sight, valentine started to sketch all the little clouds that still persisted after the veritable blankets, that had entombed them until today, finally decided to part. she liked the shapes they made, little wisps of icy cirrus, here and there. playful, almost; forming lines and waves and gentle curves as the wind rolled them around, distorting and reforming them. the sun, moving more laterally than anything, continued westward, starting to hide a bit behind the trees, and casting long shadows everywhere.

the chill was starting to set in. nothing at all like winter, but cold always seemed to find its way to you regardless. she rubbed her hands together, stood up and ran in place, and did her best to warm back up. she knew that if she wanted she could go back in, have some coffee. maybe check up on what the girls were doing, or perhaps not doing. but she felt compelled to stay. as if to drive the point home, a large flock of seabirds soared past overhead, and val was already back to her notebook, doing her best to do justice to the beautiful forms that nature was kindly presenting to her. she barely noticed when the light came on, behind her, starting to blink lazily, casting occasional shadows here and there. the sun had finally fled the scene, leaving the sky a deep, almost uniform blue.

somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew her work shift was going to start, soon. with daisy out of commission, the few short nighttime hours would be left to her, and her alone. it was about when she had this thought, thinking about sitting around, checking on things, staying awake all night, that she started to hear something. something hissing, from behind her. immediately her mind raced; what kind of wildlife lived here that could make a noise like that? she knew there were bears around, and wolves. stuff like that. but hissing? it almost sounded like some kind of gas leak, but they didn't even have that out here. she forced herself to turn around.

at first, besides the sound, nothing at all seemed particularly amiss. the lights were on in the main building; she even saw a silhouette in the window for just a moment that looked like bev; nobody else she knew had hair quite like that. she looked around, into the woods. nothing but spruce and hemlock stared back at her. and then she thought to look up.

almost directly above her, an entire constellation appeared to be falling out of the sky. at least, that was her first impression. she sat down on the dirt, incredulous, forcing her hand to continue what it had been dutifully doing for the past couple hours. shaking from cold and a creeping sense of fear, she did her best to render in graphite what her eyes hardly believed they were seeing. suspended above them, hanging in the indigo sky, about a half dozen fireballs burned through the air, in formation. she would have thought they were moving, as they left fiery trails in their wake, wisping off in streams of burning red and orange and green, but none of them even appeared to be moving.

it was difficult to take her eyes off them, even to draw. the hissing noise grew louder, and ever so slightly, the fireballs began to move, circling almost, seeming to burn away in some nonexistent wind. she found she could barely move, or open her mouth to speak. her eyes wide, she wanted to scream, to call for help, to at least call somebody to witness this with her, but she only felt her eyes well up with tears. they left trails of biting cold down her cheeks, in the slight breeze, but she could not move her hand to wipe them away. the image of the fireballs burned into her, leaving ghostly trails on her retinas. the noise was unbearable, so loud she thought the ground would crumble away underneath her, that the cliffside would finally fail and she'd be dragged down with everything into the maw of the pacific.

the fireballs were close now. if they had been made of fire, she surely would have felt some heat off of them; they were about level with the top of the lighthouse now. surely the ladies inside could see this, or at least hear it! but if they did, they did not come running outside, to check on her. the sound was absolutely unbearable.

suddenly, without any apparent prompting, one fireball broke from the group, approaching her. surely now her diaphragm would produce a scream, but all she heard was her own voice, croaking in her throat. she was holding on her her pencil so hard she thought it would crack. she looked, stared up into the fireball, as it filled her vision, and for a moment, she thought she saw something staring back.

when she woke up, it was dark. the stars were out, glowing beautifully; jupiter hung right over the horizon, bright enough to leave a faint trail of reflection on the water, which seemed relatively calm. there was no noise, no more hissing, not even the slightest breeze. and she was sitting on her stump again. hadn't she gotten up? she wasn't sure. it took a few more moments to notice a presence next to her. "hey val, you alright?" asked the vague blob in her peripheral. myrtle, based on her voice. kinda raspy.

valentine turned her head, as if submerged in tacky glue. "uhhh..." she began to answer. she realized, though, that she didn't know what to say. wasn't sure if she had just been dreaming. "you didn't happen to, um." she felt stupid. they'd laugh at her for this, no doubt. "there were, uh. some shooting stars. did you see those?"

myrtle just chuckled, and patted her on the shoulder. "I was inside, remember? cmon val, you're cold as ice, and we need some relief. let's get some coffee in you, alright?" valentine didn't resist as she was led back along the path, back indoors. she couldn't really complain; she had almost started to forget what warmth felt like. once her fingers stopped burning, she carefully pulled her notebook out of her pocket, flipped it to the latest entry.

a half dozen very shaky fireballs.

she closed it and tucked it back into her pocket. she had work to do. daisy, from her bed in the corner, laughed to herself, and managed to pull her body up into a sort of halfway sitting position. it looked uncomfortable, but daisy didn't seem to mind at all. in fact, if you had asked her, valentine would have said she seemed completely healthy again, if it weren't for the ugly crust of dried snot around her nose and at the corners of her mouth. she looked right at her. right into her eyes. and seemed, almost, as if she was about to speak, but instead only winked, and climbed back underneath the blankets.

two days later, she died, without having said another word. they buried her near the edge of the woods. bev even liberated a decently sized gravestone from near the cliffs, careful not to fall down herself. they did what they could for her. when valentine was due to return home again, later that summer, she knew she wouldn't be coming back. she'd find another line of work. something less remote. only a couple years later, the lighthouse was automated, making their jobs obsolete anyway.

valentine didn't even hear about the lighthouse again until 1981. she had been chatting up some members of a tanker crew, in a little dive bar in anchorage. the windows were drafty as all fuck, and they huddled together near a space heater, telling stories about life on the sea. the guy next to her, matthew, brightened up when she mentioned cape hinchinbrook. "ya worked there, huh? ya don't say. useful light, yaknow." she chuckled to himself, and his companion, and older guy named chuck, just grunted.

"don't even start about that nonsense, matt. we can hear it coming a mile away," he said, looking like he might spit at the thought.

matthew brushed it off. "cmon, it's a good one. now, val, it's really funny, not long after you left, we were passin' there, as we used to do, and it was gettin' kinda late in the evening,"

"christ," groaned chuck, as he got up to get another beer. "fuckin' sick of this shit. call me back over when you've got somethin' original to spout off about."

"anyway!" matthew laughed, "it was... I think it was seventy three. we go past and, at first I think it's just a star, right? a bright star. but it's moving! circling around the lighthouse, like it fuckin owned the place! almost looked like, I dunno." he started to look discouraged. "like somethin' on fire, I guess. anyway, they say it's 'uninspired' or some shit. but I swear to you."

valentine took a drink. "just the one, you say?"

honestly, matthew just looked relieved to not be laughed at. "yeah," he said. "just the one."

#fiction #ufo #lighthouse #alaska

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arse-blathanna · 4 years

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C. 33 and hazel??

C33 was “You can’t take on all of this alone.” Hope you like this, anon.

As hard as Emerald tried to hide it, Hazel knew that she was putting herself under an unfair amount of pressure. Mercury was doing the same thing too, and it hurt to see because Hazel knew perfectly well that he’d once been in the same place.

Too young, too tired of the world, being forced to grow up so fast that neither of them knew how to catch themselves.

Mercury, looking after a girl because it was the only thing that he knew to do.

Emerald, wanting nothing more than someone to just reach out and offer solutions or options, and then following blindly someone who only dragged her down.

How could he not see it?

They were preparing to leave for Atlas within the next two nights. Of course they would be attending on one of the whale grimm that Salem used in place of warships, but they needed to be prepared nonetheless.

Hazel didn’t have connections in Mantle or Atlas— he never had. But a part of him desperately wanted to try and get the kinds out from under Salem’s thumb. The only problem was that Salem was armed with magic and observant. When she caught them trying to slide something out of her vision, there would be hell to pay.

All three of them were in too deep, even if the kids hadn’t known what they were involved in until it was all too late.

It was late, but Hazel felt like he had a duty to check in on them, just to make sure that they weren’t falling apart.

When he reached the door to the room that the two of them shared, Hazel heard quiet talking from behind the door. He didn’t bother to try and listen in— Mercury and Emerald were too used to being mistrusted and mistreated for him to even consider jeopardizing their trust in that way.

Hazel only knocked on the door.

The two of them both went hushed quiet behind the door. There was a quiet shuffling that he was able to make out. He could practically picture Emerald tucking herself into the back of the room and hoping to be out of sight. Mercury's footfalls approached the door, heavier than Emerald’s would ever hope to be.

“What?” Mercury growled at the door.

“It’s Hazel.”

There was a moment of quiet, then the two teenagers hissing their deliberation back and forth between each other. Hazel only waited patiently by the door, checking over his shoulder to ensure that they were all alone.

“What do you want?” Emerald asked, a hard edge to her voice that was sharper than any knife.

“To talk.” Hazel replied. “That’s all.”

“And you’re alone?”

“Yes.”

Mercury opened the door, just a crack to ensure that Hazel was in fact telling the truth. When he saw that Hazel hadn’t lied, he let it open the rest of the way before he stepped away from the door to put several feet between him and Hazel like he always did.

There was some story there. Hazel wasn’t going to assume that it was any of his business. He wasn’t like Watts who liked to pry, or Tyrian who liked to get under people’s skin and upset them for fun.

Hazel stepped into the room and made a show of him being unarmed (not that it would be of any real comfort) before he closed the door behind him.

He looked between the two teenagers, and then walked to the part of the room that was furthest from the door in an attempt to show that he wasn’t there to harm them. If they wanted to run, they could.

“What do you want?” Emerald hissed at him, pointing both of her guns at him.

Hazel waved it off. “To check in.” He said truthfully. “We’re going to be leaving for Atlas tomorrow.”

Mercury snorted. “You’re really here because of that?” He asked. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for that, since you’re the one on Salem’s Team?”

“I am ready.” Hazel grumbled. “But I want to be sure that you two are too.”

“We can handle ourselves.”

“No.” Hazel sighed, leaning against the wall. “Not against her, you can’t.”

The weight of what he was saying seemed to land all at once. Emerald began to pace.

“She will have us killed.”

“Likely.” Hazel replied, not allowing himself to waver for fear of what would happen if he didn’t maintain his own clarity of mind. “Do you think that you’d be able to defend yourselves against Tyrian if the time came?”

Both of the students stood tall and cast an unsure look between each other.

Of course they couldn’t. Hazel already knew the answer but there was just no easy way to discuss it.

Emerald shifted nervously. “Why do you think this is a good idea? If you know what's going to happen if we try to run? If you know that we’re going to get killed?”

“It’s a chance.” Hazel replied. “Better than absolutely nothing and both of you know it. When will the opportunity ever show again?”

Mercury seemed to tense all at once, balling his hands into fists and gritting his teeth in frustration. Where his mind was, Hazel didn’t really know. “She’ll kill you too.”

“I can handle myself.”

“And we can’t?” Mercury snarled back, all teeth and anger and boiling rage. “I’m a trained killer, and Emerald’s the best survivor you’ll ever see. What are you?”

“Someone trying to help you.” Hazel grit back, his voice turning into more of a growl than usual. “It would be for the best if you tried to keep that in mind.”

Emerald put her hand on Mercury’s shoulder in an odd attempt to drag him down and quiet him. “You’re really serious about this?” She asked, pure determination on her face that Hazel didn’t think that he’d ever seen there before. Or rather he had seen it once, and Tyrian had capitalized upon destroying it so quickly and so quickly that Hazel hadn’t seen it since.

He’d never seen it on Emerald around Cinder. Not around Salem.

There was a fire in the girl.

Hazel nodded along. “I’m giving you both the chance. But you have to agree and be ready for any moment.”

Mercury seemed more skeptical. “And how are we supposed to get out of Mantle?”

“We’ll find a way.” Hazel replied. “An opportunity like this won’t come again.”

Emerald considered it. “Can we talk it over?”

He supposed that he couldn’t expect either of them to be willing to make a decision at the drop of a hat. Emerald’s question was far from being an unreasonable one. “You can.” Hazel said as he began to make his way over to the door, slow and careful like he was in a room full of skittish animals. “But you only have until morning to make a decision.”

Mercury stepped into Hazel’s path. “And what happens if we don’t?” He asked, voice deathly serious. “You stay with her? Continue to serve her? Or are you going no matter what?”

“I only want to save you from this.” Hazel replied, because it was true but also because he hadn’t come to a conclusion as to what his plans would be if he went alone. “If you stay, I will stay so that the two of you aren’t thrown to the wolves.”

“We'll talk it over.” Emerald cut in, her hand on Mercury’s shoulder like she was dragging him back. “We'll let you know when we’ve decided.”

“Good.” Hazel said. “That’s all I wanted.”

And then with that he was allowed to leave the room, and as he walked away from him he felt the horrible dread for what was to come begin to settle in his chest. If they chose to go with him, then he would take them as far as he could possibly manage to keep them safe. If they chose to stay by Salem, he would do the same and be their shield.

If they chose to stay, then he might have already been considering finding a way to lead them away regardless.

They were too young to fight in Salem and Ozpin’s war.

Hazel wouldn’t let them get dragged in any further, even if he’d have to die to do so.

#anon #anonymous #prompt fill #ask #ask meme #hazel rainart #mercury black #emerald sustrai #emercury if you squint #mantiswrites #oops my hand slipped #Anonymous

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