#turned out way more cinematic than intended

[theredontbedragons]

No daylight

"When you and I are of the same mind... there is nothing we have not yet been able to do."

Map

#no daylight #well I said I'd get you back #sirtadcooper #several iterations later and here it is #dark and gritty #turned out way more cinematic than intended #I know it's dark - but that's where the freedom is #early edits of this looked like a French film poster #and yes that is the Treasure Island map in the background #black sails edit #bs edit #black sails fandom #mine #captain flint #john silver #james flint #long john silver #black sails #treasure island

[hqbaby]

thirty-one — right here

fuck ur instincts — suna x reader & atsumu x reader

you and suna are just fooling around—so why does he care so much when you start falling in love with someone else?

previous — masterlist 

word count. 1.5k content. swearing and… it’s the last chap?

As a child, you thought that the epitome of a romantic moment was running through the rain, out of breath and completely exhausted, just to get to the one you love. 

You thought it was such a beautiful gesture, to give everything just to be with someone else. To run yourself ragged, to be entirely spent, to be on the verge of collapse just to be in their arms again.

“That’s dumb,” Suna says. “I’m driving you.”

He’s already marching out of the coffee shop before you can protest, your purse in his hand.

“Hey!” you call after him as you try your best to keep up. Damn his long legs. “What the fuck, man?”

The two of you look absolutely horrible, eyes still red from all the tears you’ve cried, cheeks all puffy, and noses still stuffed. But you’ve both calmed down, knowing deep in your hearts that this was the right thing to do. It was the only thing you could.

He tosses your purse into the passenger seat, holds the door open, and gives you a look like “Are you really going to fight me on this?”

“You’re not running to the other side of campus,” he tells you when you make another look of protest. “That’s just stupid. You’ll be dead by the time you get to Atsumu.”

You roll your eyes and begrudgingly get in the car. “You’re ruining my big romantic gesture.”

“If it makes you stop whining, I can let you out a few blocks away and you can run all you want,” he says as he gets in the driver’s seat.

“Yay,” you say, smiling widely. You look over at him, catch the matching smile on his face, and reach over the console to poke his arm. “Hey.”

He hums and looks at you. “Yeah?”

“We’ll be okay, right?”

A nod. His hand on yours. A squeeze. “We’ll be okay.”

You exhale and squeeze his hand back. “Good.”

The drive is quiet, but not uncomfortably so. The two of you are still processing things and trying to understand truths that you’ve only confronted today. There’s so much hurt and care here, so much that mixes and clashes to the point where they’ve become impossible to separate, inextricably intertwined. The love you have for one another can never exist without the pain that you’ve caused, and that’s the reality that you have to face.

As idealistic as you might want to be, you know that things between the two of you will never be the same and it will take more than just one crying session to get all your feelings out. But, then again, maybe that’s for the best.

Loving Suna meant something to you, and even with the way things turned out, you know you wouldn’t change it for the world. Because you loved someone and he loved you back, and that will always mean something. 

Maybe in another life things would have worked out. But not this one. It was never meant to work in this one.

And that’s okay.

Because you’ll be okay.

And things… they’ll be okay.

Suna lets you out of the car two blocks away, just as he promised, and you proceed to sprint to the twins’ apartment building, living out your romcom dreams. Of course, you refuse to run up the seven flights of stairs to their apartment, so you take the elevator—which isn’t so cinematic, but it gets the job done.

You knock on their door, feeling your entire body tense as you realize what you’re about to do.

Love is fucking terrifying.

The door opens.

“Y/N?” It’s Osamu with the most surprised look you’ve ever seen. “Hey! What are ya doing here?”

“I—”

The words catch in your throat.

You—what? What are you even here? After all the grief you gave him, what could you possibly do to mend things with Atsumu? What could you give him that would be acceptable in any way? Why would he want anything from you?

All the doubt settles in and you freeze. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe you should’ve just left him alone, let him back off the way he intended.

“Y/N?”

And there he is. Of course.

“I-I can’t believe yer here,” he says, approaching the door as Osamu ducks out of the way and heads into his room. “Are ya okay? What’s goin’ on?”

You just gape at him, words failing you completely. 

“I-I don’t… know,” you say eventually before backing away. “Sorry. I-I’m gonna go. I didn’t mean to bother you, I just—”

“What are ya talkin’ about?” Atsumu asks. As he steps into the light, you can see him more clearly. He looks weary, but there’s a smile on his face—the kind you notice he always has when you’re around. “Y/N, come on. Talk to me.”

You cross your arms over your chest, feeling a little out of place. What could you even say?

Then Suna’s words ring clear in your head. 

You do what you need to do for the people you love.

Deep breath.

“Suna told me what you did,” you say. “That you wanted to give me the choice.”

He shakes his head. “I-I was just doin’ what I should’ve done. It’s nothin’.”

You can’t help the fond smile that makes its way to your face. “It’s not nothing,” you tell him. “It was… everything.”

Atsumu sighs. “I didn’t do that so I would… win, or anythin’ like that,” he says. “I just want ya to be happy. Whatever that might mean. And I know that’s sounds so fuckin’ cliché,” he chuckles, “but I mean it.”

His eyes on you don’t burn, don’t make you want to shrink away, to disappear. They’re warm and comforting… and right. Like they belong.

And you can’t help but feel so loved and so terrified all at once.

And you know you have to tell him.

You know he needs to know.

“I love Suna,” you say, powering through even when you notice how Atsumu’s face falls slightly despite his attempts to hide it. “I love him in the same way I’ll love Tooru even when we’re old and gray and useless.” You see Atsumu’s eyes soften. “I love him in the same way I’ll always love Kiyoko even when she marries Tanaka and has annoying children with him.” He steps forward. “I love him in the same way I will always love going on walks in the middle of the night even when I know I shouldn’t.” He places a hand on your shoulder. “I love him in the same way I will always love everything that I loved when I was sixteen. The same way I’ll always love driving without hitting a red light. The same way I’ll always love Osamu’s cooking.”

The two of you look at each other and it feels like nothing else matters.

This is right.

This is just right.

“I love Suna—but I love you in the way I can only ever love you,” you tell him. “In a way that makes me feel safe. That makes me feel happy. That makes me feel like I can do anything at all. That makes me feel like I’m a good person, or at least that I can try to be one.”

He presses his forehead against yours and you can see his eyes so clearly, can look at every little fleck of color, every little imperfection, and every little piece of him. And you know this is right. This is the only thing that is right.

You breathe shakily. “I don’t know if I deserve you,” you say. “But I love you. And I would do anything for you. Because you’re so good and you’re so right. And I’m sorry. And I can’t promise that I won’t ever hurt you again, but I will try. I will try so hard that you won’t even know what hit you.”

You both chuckle and you relax into his hold. “I love what we have, and if I have the choice, I choose what’s right here,” you tell him. “I choose this. I choose us.”

Atsumu cups your cheek and smiles. “Are ya sure?”

You laugh. “Are you?”

He leans forward and catches your lips in a kiss. It feels just like it did the first time and just like it did the last time and just like it did all the other times in between.

It’s Atsumu and you. The way you’ve always been.

When you part, he wraps you up in his arms and holds you tight.

“I love ya so much,” he tells you quietly. “I would give ya the world if I could.”

You embrace him back. “Not if I give it to you first.”

There, in Atsumu’s arms, you can feel the weight of everything you’ve carried fall on your shoulders—not like a boulder but like a friend with their hands keeping you grounded, keeping you from drifting away. You carry all the love you’ve given and all the love you’ve received, everything you’ve done and everything you’re yet to do. You carry the moment, this piece of time where everything is right. Everything is as it should be.

And you know that nothing is certain. That you and Atsumu will grow, that time will do its thing, and maybe things will change eventually. And maybe they won’t. 

Right now, you don’t know much. All you know is that this right here, this is where all the roads have led you, this is where all the paths have crossed.

This right here is the collection of everything you are and where you’re meant to be. This is safety, this is comfort, and this is peace—for now at least. But isn’t that the best that anyone could ever ask for?

notes. AAAAAANNNNNDDDD IT’S DONE!!!! i'm gonna miss my messy babies. i like to think that they all go on with their lives and they all get to be happy, but, like most things, this isn’t i get to know. and i’m alright with that.

sharing this story with all was a ride that i’ve loved every step of the way. anyway, ‘til next time loves <3

#hqbaby.fyi #hqbaby #haikyuu #suna rintarou #suna #suna rintarou x reader #suna x reader #miya atsumu #atsumu #miya atsumu x reader #atsumu x reader #haikyuu x reader #suna rintarou fic #suna fic #miya atsumu fic #atsumu fic #haikyuu fic

[raineandsky]

#104

The hero doesn’t need to make a big scene to get the villain's attention, like he was told to do—she’s quite happy making her own scene, and all the hero has to do is follow the towers of smoke across the city.

He finds the street in flames, buildings crushed like sandcastles under a wave, the villain at the centre of it all. She laughs brightly, some contraption in her hands. A hood hangs over her face, her coat billowing out behind her in a breeze she is clearly making. It would be cinematic if the hero wasn't the one sent to sus her out.

The hero approaches with his notepad and pen in hand. “You’re the new one, huh?”

The villain’s gaze snaps to him, like she’s surprised to see him. “About time,” she says shortly. “How many buildings do I have to destroy before you actually show up?”

The hero glances at the carnage around him, doing the numbers in his head. “However many this is. Five? Six?”

“You're clearly not too worried about me,” the villain says brightly, “or you just walk concerningly slow for a hero pursuing pure evil.”

The hero clicks his tongue and writes sarcasm of an edgy teen on his pad.

“Is this all you do?” the hero asks bluntly. “You destroy half the city and wait for a hero to show up?”

“I suppose I do.” The villain fiddles with her hood. “I’m a mysterious figure, don’t you think? New to the game, faceless but deadly?”

The hero adds full of herself to his list. “Sure,” he says unbelievably, “and what happens when a hero does show up?”

The villain turns to him. He can practically feel her grin without having to see it. “Well,” she says smoothly, “I guess I just have to make the big reveal.”

She pulls her hood back, her expression one of abject smugness. That’s not the first thing the hero notices though. The black hair, the face glowing like a sunset, the soft brown eyes. Recognisable, young. Much too young to be a villain.

“[Sidekick]?” The name comes out a little more incredulous than the hero intended. “What—This is where you’ve been?”

“It is.” Always so well spoken, always so straightforward. “I had a change of heart when it came to my career.”

“So you became a villain?” He can’t quite wrap his head around it. “What did we do wrong?”

The villain laughs, a light, breezy sound. “What didn’t you do wrong?” She adjusts her weapon in her hands. “The agency doesn’t see people, [Hero], it sees numbers and stats on a screen. I fell a little behind in my studies, and the agency made me fall hard because of it. It’s merciless, it’s unforgiving, and I’m glad to be away from it.”

“[Sidekick], we thought you died.”

“Oh, you guys fell for that? Nice.” The villain smiles, almost genuinely. “Took a lot of planning. Glad to know it worked.”

The hero knows his face is scrunched up in distaste, but he can’t help it. “[Sidekick], you can’t—”

“No.” The single word slices through everything the hero was about to say. “It’s [Villain] now. If that’s so hard to remember, I’ll give you a way to burn it into your memory!”

The weapon in her hands whirrs, the end brightening into a blinding white. The villain turns it towards him, and he has just enough hindsight to lurch out of its path as it tears its way through the concrete he was just standing on.

The hero throws himself behind a car, his sidekick’s— no, the villain’s laughter ringing through the destruction after him. That contraption makes its telltale whirr again.The hero adjusts his pen in his hand and hurriedly writes sidekick lost to villainy - DO NOT APPROACH.

#creative writing #writblr #writers on tumblr #writing #writing community #heroes and villains #hero x villain #happy early easter yall #hope yous are enjoying the long weekend or your holidays #i know i am

[justforbooks]

‘Chandler Bing,” wrote Matthew Perry in his puckish, self-mocking memoir, “changed the way that America spoke”. The actor’s bold words were true – but only up to a point. Yes, there was a period in the late 1990s when people overemphasised the verb to comic effect: “Could that be any more annoying?” But that was really more of a verbal tic. The Matthew Perry/Chandler Bing paradox was that he demanded not to be taken seriously, and in doing so, became the ego ideal of generation X, which is a pretty serious job. So even though he had – no question – the best lines in Friends, he was never what he would have been in an earlier era: the sidekick.

So much of the plot structure rested on Chandler being the second string: the maladroit loser to Joey’s lothario, the joker skating beneath Ross’s romantic gravity. He was never intended as the leading man. He and Monica were never story-arced to get married. The One With Ross’s Wedding: Part 2 was meant to just be a one-night stand. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman said years later: “We thought it was going to be funny, then we were going to get rid of it.” In the event, they actually had to stop taping because people in the delighted audience were screaming.

Of course Chandler was the romantic lead. His was the spirit of the age: self-deprecating, metrosexual, all ironic distance, no ambition. It had a gravitational pull. It’s the classic stuff of romance, the Emma plot: the guy who creeps up on you, because, duh, he’s everything. Except Chandler did that to his own creators. Incidentally, he’s a way better character before he gets together with Monica. And he’s a way better character when he hates his job. The unfolding of adulthood was like kicking two legs off a stool. Gen X is a shadow of itself when it grows up.

Perry always said how much like his character he was, to the extent that when he auditioned for the role, he went completely off script and just started delivering more material: he wrote 10 jokes for every episode, and reliably got two in. His particulars were telling: an only child whose parents divorced when he was one. His real-life dad was an alcoholic, later recovered, an actor, but small-time. His mother was press aide to Pierre Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister. Before Perry developed acting ambitions he was an obsessive tennis player, nationally ranked in Canada by the age of 14. He discovered drinking around the same time and was, he wrote, “a broken human being” by 15, when he moved to Hollywood.

The great mystery of Friends is why none of its players made much cinematic impact beyond its enormous influence – and this was truer of Perry than of anyone. He turned in completely fine performances in unremarkable films: Fools Rush In, Almost Heroes, The Ron Clark Story. He co-created and co-wrote the TV series Mr Sunshine in the early 2010s, but it lasted only a year before low ratings killed it. It is possible that the residuals model sapped everyone’s ambition: Warner makes a billion dollars a year from syndication reruns, of which the cast get 2% each. That’s $20m (£16.5m) apiece.

More important but harder to quantify was the cultural effect of Friends: people really fell for those characters, hard. All six of the actors had the world at their feet, but nobody really wanted to see them step out of role – because it broke the spell. It is impossible to overstate how seriously we all took it, when Jennifer Aniston married Brad Pitt. It was as if Rachel herself had achieved the unthinkable, a Little Mermaid move where she crashed out of the ocean and brought the fairytale into real life.

Perry’s romantic history was, of course, chequered, which is to say, eventful, but nothing lasted. The details of his relationship with Julia Roberts are so 1990s, it is unreal: he wooed her by fax (yes, kids, this was a thing). And Perry dumped Roberts to avoid getting dumped himself, he said later, relaying deliciously: “I can’t begin to describe the look of confusion on her face.” It was a move that had all the logic of Chandler Bing himself.

Back then, we would have called Perry a commitment-phobe, but what he actually was was a drug addict. The story of his dependency is told through his changing appearance in the passing seasons of the show: “heavier” when he was drinking, thin when he was on drugs, thin with a goatee when he was on a lot of drugs. The rest of the cast protected him when he was too gone to deliver his lines, and tried to intervene many times, having guessed at only a tiny fraction of his substance abuse.

It is incredible, really, how long he survived, plausibly playing this character who may have started life so similarly to Perry himself, but diverged in one critical way: like all the Friends characters, his was almost impossibly clean-living. It never really made sense, all the high jinks they got up to, powered only by coffee. It was very much generation X, the US edition: such a show in the UK would have had at least one very heavy drinker, and Central Perk would have been a pub. Perry was its guilty secret, the One Who Wasn’t Really Very Like His Character at All Any More, and he was powerfully aware of that.

That 2022 memoir, called Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, concluded with a thankful utterance that was no less credible for being obligatory in a recovering addict: “At this point in my life,” he wrote, “the words of gratitude pour out of me because I should be dead, and yet somehow, I am not.”

Perry’s entire adult life was plagued by addiction. Telling his story in numbers, he estimated that he had been in twice-weekly therapy for 30 years, checked into rehab 15 times, and attended more than 6,000 AA meetings. He had numerous other health crises, including a perforated colon in 2019 that put him in a two-week coma. “So full of shit it nearly killed me,” he said of the event.

But in a pre-opioid world, he would have just got clean, eventually. Maybe he wouldn’t have made old bones, but he wouldn’t have died this young, not at 54. He should have had a longer sunset. His death feels tragically discordant – an unjust end to a life lived in the service of the punchline.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#just for books #matthew perry #chandler bing

[pinkacademic]

A History and Legacy of Legally Blonde

(It's done, I can die happy)

An Introduction

For over twenty years, Legally Blonde has been the King- or rather, Queen- of the chick-flick/rom-com world, having reigned supreme over the “girly movies” kingdom ever sinced it first graced cinema screens in 2001. Reese Witherspoon’s wonderful portrayal of sorority president-turned attorney Elle Woods created a veritable zeitgeist of Pink and Powerful. Legally Blonde has become the feminist film that inspires future law students and teenage sleepover-havers alike.

While it wasn’t always intended to be the cinematic masterpiece that it became, and, in fact, started in a way that likely wouldn’t have been quite such the feminist classic, it grew and developed during production; It went from something that could cause questions to be asked as to whether Legally Blonde as we know it should be held on a feminist pedestal, to a heartfelt vision that inspired so many of its regular re-watchers for two decades and more.

Herein is an exploration of the book that inspired the film, how the characters and the story developed as the film was made, and how Reese Witherspoon became so heavily involved- and influential- in the film’s success. Moreover, how the Harvard Class of 2004 encouraged so many young women into following the mantra of “what would Elle Woods do?”

What is the legacy of Legally Blonde? How did it end up with so much staying power? Here is the story of Elle Woods and how she became a cultural icon, and how she created a generation.

A History

The Book

Legally Blonde started its life as the book of the same name, a novelisation of author Amanda Brown’s experiences at Stanford University. The plot is largely unchanged- a pretty sorority girls goes to law school in pursuit of love- but there are swathes of differences in how the novel plays out, from plot details to characterisation of the main character. While the novel is hard to track down, an article by Cracked outlines the major differences between the book and the movie. In “Movie Differences: Elle Woods In The ‘Legally Blonde’ Book Is A Monster,” Amanda Manning opines that “[i]t’s hard to imagine a more perfect person than Elle Woods” in reference to the film character, but that “[l]iterary Elle Woods is manipulative, narcissistic, lazy, entitled, and excruciatingly judgmental.”

In terms of plot changes, Elle doesn’t seem to have the same studious drive, as Manning describes how “Movie Elle is humiliated” by her lack of understanding of the new, more “rigorous” academic world she now finds herself whereas “Book Elle didn't even buy the books and intentionally blew off the reading.”

While what Manning presents is truly a scathing review, it also proves the stark contrast between the Elle that is and the version that once was.

The Film

Just as with the book, early development of the film took the story on a journey that was crucial in it’s becoming something almost separate entirely from the book. Unlikely director Robert Luketic was an edgy film school major, who changed his tone was a ten-minute musical about an Italian woman, Titsiana Booberini who “has a hairy upper lip and (…) works in a supermarket where she battles the prettier girls for the affections of the handsome assistant manager,” according to an article on the Wayback Machine on the Internet Archive, originally from the Denver Center of Performing Arts.

MGM, the company that produced Legally Blonde, were apparently under the impression that the film “was going to be much more wet T-shirts and boobs than it actually turned out to be,” according to Luketic. The name Titsiana Booberini from Luketic’s previous work truly implies that MGM’s assumptions were correct. Early versions of the script were raunchier and edgier and were comparable to American Pie. Kirsten Smith, who along with Karen McCullah, wrote the film has stated "It transformed from nonstop zingers that were very adult in nature to this universal story of overcoming adversity by being oneself,” (Smith).

In fact, the plot originally did not include Paulette or Emmett, and ended with Elle entering a relationship with a professor, likely Callaghan.

While we can never know for certain, I find it highly likely that the original version of Legally Blonde would have become a rather forgettable summer romp in the typical “wet T-shirts and boobs” category, and we can thank God it changed.

Or rather, we can thank Luketic, Smith, and McCullah, and also Reese Witherspoon herself. It was Smith and McCullah who reworked the script, it was Luketic who fought for Reese, and it was Reese who knew her character well enough to make her who she is.

The writing dynamic duo Kirsten Smith and Karen McCullah were great friends before, having written 10 Things I Hate About You. They cite inspiration from Clueless, according to Blue Bear Magazine. Clearly, they knew what they were doing in the world of fun, fresh, and funky feminist films, and creating iconic rom-coms that put twists on the classics. The duo went on to contribute to Ella Enchanted, She’s the Man, and other classics that get referenced at every sleepover since they came out.

Director Robert Luketic, though he started his film education wanting to create something “edgy,” breaking the film school mold with Titsiana Booberini set the tone for him to emerging into a career in rom-coms such as The Ugly Truth, staring Katherine Heigl and Gerrard Butler, and Killers, starring Katherine Heigl again, this time with Ashton Kutcher, as well as episodes of Jane the Virgin, among other projects. While I am not overly familiar with these films, it is clear that Luketic has an understanding for a genre often marketed in Elle Woods-approved pink.

A film of this nature was clearly in good hands, and it is this team that truly made the masterpiece we all know and love today.

The trio have worked together also on the previously mentioned The Ugly Truth, which is testament to their teamwork.

But truly one of the biggest contributions to the project was Elle herself, as Reese Witherspoon is truly what made the film and th character both so iconic.

Reese Witherspoon

Luketic actually had to fight for Reese, as, given her last movie had been Election, she was believed by bosses at MGM to be similar to that character. Witherspoon told The Hollywood Reporter that MGM though she was “a shrew,” due to having been typecast in their eyes. However, Luketic remained convinced that Witherspoon was the right choice for the role, despite suggestions including Britney Spears, Katherine Heigl, and Alicia Silverstone among others.

The Hollywood Reporter article, again found on the Wayback Machine, titled “How Reese Witherspoon Took Charge of Her Career and Changed Hollywood,” relays Witherspoon’s involvement in Hollywood, and it is noted that for Legally Blonde that: “[s]he endured multiple rounds of auditions for Legally Blonde, at one point meeting with executives in character (complete with a Southern California accent) to show that she could ace the part.”

It is baffling to think that she had to fight for it. But as Elizabeth Gabler, head of Fox in 2000 noted, Witherspoon “doesn’t give up,” and if that isn’t the attitude of an Elle Woods, then what is?

Witherspoon said of Elle that: “(…)your first instincts is to discount women who put a lot of effort into their looks as maybe not serious about their job or maybe not serious about their relationships ... I think everyone naturally jumps to those conclusions(…)”

To me, there is a clear understanding of where Elle stands in the world, and how she wants to prove that she’s passionate about anything she sets her mind to. What strikes me especially is her telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2001 that, even though the word “fluffy” was used, Witherspoon stated “[she] take[s] it as seriously as [she] would any other movie.” Moreover, she did her research, having dinner with sorority girls in what she referred to as “an anthropological study.”

Reese Witherspoon became Elle Woods because she understood her internally. She immersed herself in the world that Elle is from and learned the differencs between the sorority girls and herself- the good, the bad, and the blonde of it all.

The Legacy

The team behind Legally Blonde truly created a masterpiece- a piece of art that has been inspiring a legion of creative and intellectual minds, and has been constantly doing so since 2001. In 2017, Reese Witherspoon told Wall Street Journal Magazine that “[at]t least once a week [she has] a woman come up to [her] and say ‘I went to law school because of Elle Woods.’”

Witherspoon was also handed a copy of entertainment reporter Lucy Ford’s college dissertation, that, in true Elle fashion, Ford presented to her in a pink ribbon. Elle’s own resumé being printed on pink paper and scented helps her stand out and be remembered, and Elle is a great believer in presentation and details, and it is an excellent lesson to take away from the movie. I’ll confess to personally making my CV pink too, because if it’s Elle-approved, it’s me-approved too.

There are a myriad of ways that Elle Woods has been inspirational to its steams of viewers. The article How Legally Blonde Influenced a Generation of Women Lawers on abajournal.com relays the range of the Elle Effect, noting both a friend of writer Haley Moss’ having bought a chihuahua because of Elle’s beloved Bruiser and the “plethora” of young women on social media. Some of said women were cited to have ‘thought the LSATs were possible’ thanks to Elle, and some of them were ‘just seeking fashion advice.”

So many voices have been added to the conversation about what a woman can be, having been inspired by Elle, as family law attorney Layla Summers told Spectrum News “When I watch the movie now I feel like I'm part of a great club of powerful professional women, like a sorority.”

This is a movie of joining women together from any walk of life and lifting them up.

The Lawyers

People.com also shares the legacy of Legally Blonde in the article lengthily titled “'Legally Blonde' Is 'Still' Inspiring People to Go to Law School – Plus, How Reese Witherspoon is Celebrating the Film's 15th Anniversary.”

It tells the stories of women who went to law school due to Elle and who connected to the character. Beginning with Shalyn Smith, the sorority president says she felt people would underestimate her ambitions for a career in law, “despite the fact that she had a 4.0.”

The article also features a series of tweets to a similar affect such as @kenzamae20 who tweeted at Reese Witherspoon directly saying “If Elle Woods can do law school I think I can too,” and @Gab_Tamburri who tweeted “I relate to Elle Woods in so many ways and honestly want to be like her when I get to law school.”

The Creators

The women of the legal profession have taken to the internet in droves under a pink flag waved by Reese Witherspoon herself too, as many other articles address. People.com spoke to Kathleen Martinez relays how in previous jobs sh was told that she should “dress more ‘consertavely’” and to ‘make [her male bosses] coffee,’” but npw she’s the head of her own immigration law team. She’s the head of a team of largely immigrants who are also mostly pink-loving women too. The article also points out that she held an “over-the-top Legally Blonde themed party” for everyone at her firm, so Elle’s influence and Legally Blonde’s Legacy are blatant and cannot be overstated.

In fact, the legacy is continuing, as Martinez has an impressive internet presence, with viral TikToks with 4.5 million views, and 1 million followers.

Mirror.co.uk also tells the story of Lowri Rose-Williams who spoke on how she feels ‘people assume she’s “an airhead” before they find out she’s a law student. She also relays that her experiences on OnlyFans contribute to the points of view that surround her as “many assume girls who use the app are ‘brainless.’”

Rose-Williams also expresss that “when people actually get to know [her] they change their mind,” which to me is certainly evocative of Elle.

A creator that I am a big fan of is Christina Stratton, who, in an article by Business Insider stated "I think back to the first day of college, and I would have never been bold enough to post an outfit of the day (…) I would have been too nervous about what all of my college friends would think.”

And yet now, she has a follower count in the hundreds of thousands, and is dubbed another “real life Elle Woods,” and while the article focuses on how she makes money from her brand deals, it is from her evocation of Elle Woods that her numbers have been garnered. Stratton wears almost exclusively pink in her videos, has a perfectly Bruiser-like tiny poodle, and has an Elle-tastic perky attitude that shows that she lives like Elle.

There is something about the unapologetically authentic aura of Elle Woods, from her optimism to her feminism, to her pinkness, that just appeals to people in so many ways. Elle Woods is who she is and becomes an even stronger version of herself, never changing for anyone. That’s who everyone who feels connected to her wants to be. Legally Blonde’s legacy is that of women who feel like they can do anything they want to, and do it in a heel. It evokes Dolly Parton’s famous line of “go big or go home, either way do it in a red pair of shoes,” but here they’re hot pink- but equally designed for stomping.

My Girlies

I reached out to my followers too to see what mymost supportive queens had to say, and it was plenty. naranjahtikal said: “I want to go to law school because of Elle! I also want to own a future textile company. I love the internal and external balance that Elle portrays as a woman.”

princessaninhas also responded, saying:

“I always wanted to be a nurse but people always told me that I didn't have the profile for that, they judged me by my way of being and dressing, they said I wasn't smart enough, there was a time when I was the only one who got all the answers right on a test (because I studied a lot) and the teacher said I was "lucky".Elle Woods taught me that we shouldn't care what others think, we should be ourselves and we shouldn't change our way of being to be what others want💕”

It is clear that Elle’s influence and the legacy of Legally Blonde are far-reaching and widespread. Legally Blonde inspires and Elle Woods represents having it all. You can be girly and twirly and kickass all at one, from law school to textiles, “we shouldn’t care what others think,” and we have to do things we want to do for ourselves.

A Conclusion

So, ultimately, what would Elle Woods do? I think the answer is that she would overcome a past that caused her to be overlooked and do what no one expected her to, creating a longlasting legacy for years to come.

Just as the story of Elle Woods is one of being overlooked for being too blonde for law school, only to set her eyes on the White House in Legally Blonde 2, the story of Legally Blonde is that of a movie that overcame murky origins and fought to become a feminist classic and went on to be the talk of the town in it’s twenty-second year since it’s release.

Thank you to Robert Luketic, Karen McCullah Lutz, Kristen Smith, and Reese Witherspoon among everyone else behind this most magical of films, and may we continue as a community of pink-loving, feminine feminists to keep the momentum going for those who came after us, becase that really is what Elle Woods would do.

#essay #pink #academia #pink academia #pink academic #legally blonde #elle woods #reese witherspoon #what would elle woods do

[pastanest]

A/N: shamelessly inspired by the legend that is Amanda Bynes cinematic masterpiece which, if you have not seen it, is too iconic for words and also @januaryembrs imagine Making Of A Man, so please read that one bc it is INCREDIBLE and is on my Jon Snow fic recs list for VERY good reason!!

warning: light reference to SA (reader does what we all wish we could’ve done tho fr and doesnt actually get SA’d, it’s just implied what could’ve happened). also flashing tiddies as god (Amanda Bynes) intended x

Jon Snow x she/her!reader

part one can be found here

She’s The Man - Part Two

It had become commonplace by then, for you to wait at the top of the highest hill in town, as early as you could, for any sign of the Stark banner approaching. If they were going to arrive that day, you knew you would see them at first light, because Lord Eddard Stark often arrived with tired eyes while his two sons would be reliably bouncing with excitement, having woken him in the earliest hours they could to begin their journey. 

More often than not, you would stay up there from dawn until your mother called you in for breakfast. You did not expect to see them most days, but you could not withhold your excitement at the possibility of a direwolf waving at you from afar, letting you know that your favourite person in the whole world was on his way.

That morning was one of the rare and beautiful dawns on which you did see your favorite sigil approaching in the distance, and the moment you did, you were sprinting back home as fast as your little legs would carry you, feeling like you were moving at a pace not so far from flying, the wind in your hair only reinforcing that childish dream. Of course, you were shouting at the top of your lungs all the way down the hill.

“DARIUS, DARIUS, DARIUS!” Your yelling did not cease even once you were at his bedside and violently shaking him into a delirious consciousness. 

“What is i- Oh, by the GODS (Y/N), let me REST!” He would shout back, burying his face under his pillow.

“NO! JON SNOW AND THE STARKS ARE HERE! COME ON, COME ON, COME ONNN!” You would squeal, running around the room in an excited daze while your brother continued to groan in annoyance.

Before long, your brother would have given in and dragged himself out of bed, stumbling after you as you ran back out into the street and collected yourself. Every single time the Starks rode into town, without fail, you would find a place to situate yourself on their path and appear as though you had casually been there, completely by coincidence and not at all by careful planning. Meanwhile, your poor brother would still be yawning and wiping his eyes, leaning against anything he could find nearby just to keep himself standing upright. That particular occasion, you had hidden around the side of a house that did not belong to your family and you were peering round the corner to keep an eye on the progress of the wolves as they descended. Your brother, on the other hand, was round the same corner but leaning against the wall, making no effort to witness the arrival of his childhood friends because the little energy he had at the time was focussed on being forced awake and trying to stay that way. There was not a power strong enough to wipe the smile from your face when you saw the dark curls of Jon Snow bobbing up and down atop his horse, turning from side to side as he searched for you.

And like a rehearsed scene from a play, you would step out and wave at him, immediately receiving the beaming smile he saved just for you, while his father and brother watched on with pleasant smiles, overjoyed to see the Snow of the family greeted with such obvious excitement.

“Lord Jon! To what do I owe the pleasure this time?”

In the month that has passed beyond the wall, Jon has asked you about your sister less and less, and you cannot decide whether that is a blessing or a curse. On the one hand, not having to talk about yourself in third person or live with the yearning expression in his eyes as he spoke of you without realizing you were right in front of him, was definitely a blessing. On the other hand, the less he mentioned you, logic would suggest that equated to him thinking of you less, and you could not decipher what that meant. You wondered if it alluded to him moving on, trying to forget about the feelings that he was certain he would never be able to act on, for his own good. That, you understood. After all, he has taken an oath; one that you have since taken, too. Perhaps he simply does not wish to entertain such fantasies, you think. But there have been one too many moments with him that have made that difficult for you to believe.

The conversations you have each and every night, whether it be while on watch together or in the quarters you share, are spent smiling and laughing so much that your faces ache, getting to know each other on levels unknown to anybody else. Every time you see each other after being apart for mere minutes is enough to have you grinning at each other, like you did on the day you arrived. The things you have talked about, from feelings to dreams and your deepest, darkest fears, are not things that are often shared between men, from what you know of your time living amongst them as one. But, more than that, there have been specific instances that have made you question particular things about the man you have grown up believing you know better than you know yourself.

For example, three weeks ago, when Ser Alliser had been overseeing a training session and deliberately paired you off with a man far bigger, far stronger and far more experienced in fighting than you were. Jon had tried his best to reassure you in the skill you had gained, but he could see the fear in your eyes, and he knew deep down that you were not skilled enough to take on someone so much bigger than you in close combat. He had also been paired off with someone else in being separated from you, but he knocked that man down in a matter of seconds and held his sword to the poor man’s face, forcing him to yield so that Jon could watch over you. While you dodged as best as you could, and were far more nimble than your opponent due to the drastic size difference, you could not avoid the sly punch to your stomach that sent you hurtling onto the icy ground.

“WHAT IN THE SEVEN HELLS WAS THAT?!” Jon’s voice was like thunder as he marched over to you, lifting you to your feet and moving you to stand behind him as you clutched at your stomach. 

The laugh that Ser Alliser responded with told the two of you that he had instructed the larger man to knock you down whatever the cost, regardless of how dishonorable the tactic.

“Try that again and you won't have hands to land another punch, brother.” Jon threatened the larger man, who could only nod in response, unable to hide the intimidation he felt at being threatened by the one man he knew could knock him down without breaking a sweat.

With that, Jon led you back to the quarters you shared and sat you down on his bed - something you definitely did not fail to acknowledge - crouching down in front of you to look up at you with sorrowful, and still furious, eyes. 

“I am so sorry, are you alright?” His voice was so much softer than it had been mere moments ago, and the care with which he spoke to you was enough to make your face feel hot all of a sudden as it nodded at him.

In truth, you had long forgotten about the pain in your stomach that was certainly severe enough to leave a very large bruise, but you would be silly to deny yourself the luxury of Jon Snow doting on you, just a little. 

“Anyone tries something like that with you again, I’ll kill them where they stand. And if I’m not there to see it, you come and find me, and they’ll wish they’d never so much as given you a funny look. Understood?” He asked, words firm and promise clear, making the butterflies in your stomach frantic against your bruised skin.

“Understood. Thank you, Jon.” You did not have the capacity to say anymore, all other words lost to you in that moment. It took you several days to recover from the protective oath he swore to you while you sat on his bed that day, nevermind the actual guttural punch.

And then, there was an evening two weeks ago, when Lord Commander Mormont insisted you worked with Sam in the library instead of acting as Jon Snow’s shadow on watch for the 8th time in a row - which was a fair comment, if a little harsh. What you thought would be a peaceful evening spent reading books with a friend, quickly turned into a confessional of some description. 

“I am sorry that you’ve been lumped with me tonight, I know you’d rather be…elsewhere.” Sam said gently, his words without prejudice, but his tone hinting that he knew more than he was saying as he took his pile of books to the table and sat down.

From your place at the same table, sat opposite him with just one measly book in your hands, you frowned at him. “Oh, Sam, I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel that I don't want to spend time with you, that’s not true at all! I haven’t spent a lot of time in here, it’ll be a nice change of scene and with lovely company.” You smiled at him, and he returned it, but shook his head.

“No, no, sorry, that is not what I meant. I know that you enjoy my company, as you do Ed and Pyp’s, but…you do not enjoy Jon’s company in the same way.” He tried to hint a little more obviously, and when his words sunk in, your eyes widened. At once, Sam reached over the table to hold your shoulders. “Please, do not panic, I have no judgement to pass and will not tell him!” He was quick to reassure you, allowing you to breathe again as he sat back down in his chair. “I only meant to let you know that I think it is very sweet. We all do, in fact.”

Panic began to set in again. “When you say ‘all’...?”

Sam chuckled. “I mean Ed, Pyp and myself; Jon is completely oblivious, or tries very hard to pretend that he is.”

You sighed in defeat. “So, I have made it that obvious, have I?”

Sam shook his head, smiling knowingly. “No, not just you.”

Immediately, you frowned. “What do you mean, Sam?”

At that, he shook his head, giggling mischievously. “I will say no more about it, it is not for me to say!”

And unfortunately, no matter how much you begged him for the rest of the evening, Samwell Tarly refused to budge, not wanting to interfere on the way in which the events would naturally play out between two of his dear friends, because it was quite honestly the best and only entertainment that the wall had provided thus far.

And then, there was a night last week, when you and Jon were not assigned any tasks and were free to sleep for the night, so retired to your shared quarters with Ghost, who immediately jumped on your bed and sat bolt upright, waiting for you to take your sliver of the bed and allowing him to take the rest. By the time you and Jon had settled in your separate beds in the routinely fashion that came natural to you, you were both prepared for a conversation that would have you each falling asleep with smiles on your faces, as per usual. Except, you could never have anticipated the way in which Jon Snow would begin that conversation, or the topic he was seemingly keen to discuss. 

“Have you ever…been with anyone?” 

Your eyes widened and you were relieved, as you often were, that Jon could not see your flustered expression in the dark. The question sent such a shockwave through you that the hand combing through Ghost’s fur halted suddenly, causing him to huff until you composed yourself and continued.

“Had sex, you mean?”

Jon cleared his throat awkwardly, apparently equally as bashful. “Well, yes, but not just that.”

The depth to his question did not add further explanation to your answer, and you were more than happy to be brutally honest. “No, on both counts. The person I wanted was unattainable, and will continue to be.”

Jon thought about this for a moment before he spoke up again. “Each time we’ve spoken about those we’ve had feelings for, you’ve only ever referred to a person, not a girl.”

You swallowed nervously. “Yes…”

Jon was almost as quick to reassure you as Sam had been. “I swear, I hold no judgement if you have no interest in girls, and I will not speak of it again if you do not wish me to. I was just curious, is all.”

You trusted Jon to keep your ‘secret’, as layered as it was, but his last words caught you out. “What is it you were curious about?”

Apparently, Jon had not expected you to pick up on his choice of words, as he struggled to form a response. “I…you are the only man that I know of who does not like girls, so I wondered how you found that out, I suppose.”

You smiled, his genuine curiosity endearing. “I think I’ve always known, I was never interested in girls, but there was one boy- or, man, I suppose I should say now, that made me realize what those feelings are, and who I felt them for.”

Jon was clinging to your every word, having never heard information on this topic or this type of feeling before. While he wanted to believe it was the same as feelings for girls, only not for them, in such an unaccepting social environment as Westeros, it was difficult for him to process such a concept. That very innocence led to him asking his next question.

“What do those feelings feel like, for you, as a man, about another man?”

While you could not accurately speak on the experience from a man’s perspective, in truth, you knew enough from what your brother had told you to confirm that those feelings are the same regardless of the gender or orientation, it is merely a lack of knowledge and acceptance that leads to those feelings being less understood, and more secretive. In a way, living as a man had given you some insight on the life your brother has actually led, with his own secret.

“I gather it is much the same as you must feel for girls. When around him, I feel a joy that I can’t describe, one that I wouldn’t know without having met him. He makes me smile until my face aches, makes me feel safe and ridiculously bashful, and to be near him is to know of nothing and nobody else in the world. He was, and is, everything to me. I doubt I’ll ever feel that way for anybody except for him; my heart has been his for too long.” You confessed solemnly.

Time seemed to slow down as you awaited Jon’s response. You are certain it took almost a minute for his voice to cut through the dark.

“I’m sorry…that you feel that way, for someone that you can’t be with.” He sounded disheartened, too, and you logically assumed it was due to the feelings he had for you, that he felt he could not act on.

The conversation faded into quiet goodnights after that, both of your minds spinning with thoughts that you could not tell the other, making for restless slumbers for each of you. 

Since that night, Jon has been ever so slightly distant with you. Not enough to cause any real concern, he is still nearby at all times, ensuring your safety, but he has been increasingly awkward around you, as though he’s lost the ability to speak to you as he would previously. The change in him has been apparent enough for the rest of the group to notice, with Sam, Ed and Pyp each taking turns to comfort you when they have seen how worried you have been about him, concerned that you have done something to upset him, and all of them assuring you that you couldn’t possibly, but in truth, none of them knew what he was thinking, either. Jon Snow was a man prone to the odd brood, you knew that; he was the king of sulking even when you were children, but he had never been able to resist you, even in the midst of his worst sulking episodes. Except, now, he doesn’t know that you are you, meaning it is not possible for you to get through to him.

Tonight, events have transcended beyond your ability to cope with them. Jon missed supper, and when you questioned Sam - who had a very obviously nervous expression from the moment he sat down - he broke the news, as gently as he could, that Jon had gone on watch without you. Now, there have been occasions where Jon has done this because you had been asked to do something elsewhere, but this is the first time that he has done this by choice, because he knows that neither of you were scheduled to be on watch tonight. Clearly, something is on his mind, and it is something that has led to him outright avoid you, which simply cannot continue, because you will most definitely die of heartbreak in the most dramatic way you can think of. 

Naturally, you were not able to eat after Sam told you the news, and instead retired to your quarters for the night, having nothing better to do than pace the room and tell Ghost that you are alright every few minutes and he continues to whine in response because he can sense that you are the polar opposite. On your way back to this room, you stole an oil lamp, too panicked to care about the potential punishment because you need to see Jon’s face when he eventually comes to rest after being on watch; you need an explanation, and you need to read his face when you are receiving it, to understand exactly what has happened between you. 

Fortunately for you, you are pacing for no more than an hour - or, at least, that is your best guess - before there is a gentle knock on the door. 

“Come in.” Despite only speaking two words, your voice breaks in your overwhelmed state.

The door opens, and Jon steps into the room you share, but avoids your eyes, and his stance is one of a man uncomfortable to be standing where he is. 

“Sam said you were on watch.” You state, no question in your words, but an underlying question of what he’s doing here, based on what you know to be true.

Jon nods. “Sam said you didn’t eat anything at supper.”

You blink rapidly. “You have been subtly distancing yourself from me for the past week, until tonight, when you spontaneously volunteer for an extra shift on watch to avoid me completely, but when Sam tells you that I skipped dinner, you suddenly want to see me?”

Jon winces at your words, having never intended to cause you harm in his actions. In fact, it was quite the opposite. “I’m sorry, I-”

You shake your head, interrupting him. “Please, don’t apologize until you’ve explained. I already know I’ll forgive you, but I need to know what exactly I’m forgiving you for.”

Sensing that this is going to be a long conversation, Ghost sighs and curls up on your bed. Jon, on the other hand, is looking at you in that same way again, replaying your words over and over in his mind, because you care for him so much that you already know you’ll forgive him, regardless of his explanation for his actions and how they have hurt you. 

“I have dealt with my feelings awfully, and for that, I must apologize. I just needed time to…understand myself, I suppose. And when I understood, I knew I had to force some distance between us in an effort to undo what was already done, because it is fruitless and will only cause more pain for myself, but in doing so I have caused the worst possible thing: I have hurt you.” Jon shakes his head, ashamed of himself. “You have done nothing to deserve this, so please do not blame yourself, or think I am upset with you, because that could not be further from the truth.”

Feeling relief flood through you and a sense of stability returning to the bond between you, you take a few steps closer to Jon, looking up at him with a soft smile.

“You can tell me anything, but if you are not ready to, then you can take as long as you need. Now that I know you’re not upset with me, I can wait, I promise.”

Jon groans in frustration, lifting his gaze to the ceiling and wiping his face with his hands. “See, that’s exactly what it is.”

You frown. “What is?”

Jon walks away from you then, beginning to pace the room as you had been, but for a very different reason. “You! The kindness you’ve shown me, the sincerity with which you say things, the way you treat me and the way I feel around you - I never thought I would feel these things for anyone else, and that makes it even worse, because I don't want you to think it’s you reminding me of her that’s made me feel this way, but it’s the traits I adored in her that I’ve come to adore in you. And I’ve never felt such a way for a man, but I’ve come to realize that I wouldn’t care if you were a man or a woman or anything else, because what matters to me is who you are. And I love who you are.” He stops pacing, staring into your soul from across the room, reading the shock in your eyes and sighing. “But you have already told me, time and time again, that your heart is with another, and there is nothing I can do. I wouldn’t want to, as I’m sure they are better for you and will treat you the way you deserve.”

“Jon-” You try to interject, but the words are falling from his lips now.

“I know you probably won't see him again, whoever it is, but even loving him from afar is better, he’ll never let you down like I will, like I already have.” His gaze has dropped to the floor, forlorn.

“Jon-” You attempt to cut him off a second time, but he still can't stop himself.

“And I am sorry, for all of it, for my feelings, how I’ve handled them, and how they’ve ruined every moment we’ve had since you arrived.”

“Jon, Gods above, please stop talking!” You plead, a little louder this time, and Jon finally closes his mouth. Taking a deep breath, you laugh lightheartedly, shaking your head in disbelief. “I cannot believe this, truly, but it is no longer fair for me to keep this a secret.”

Jon frowns and meets your eyes, having immediately discarded all thoughts of his own feelings and replaced his concerns with ones for you, the secret you’ve been keeping and if it means something is wrong. “What secret?”

You run your hands through your hair, trying your best to flatten it and make yourself more familiar to him. “Jon…I’m not Darius, I’m (Y/N).”

Something flickers in his eyes then, only for half a second, before his frown intensifies and he shakes his head. “Please, do not joke about such things, not now.”

You sigh. “I’m telling you the truth! And I think, honestly, some part of you already knew, because you haven't called me by my brother’s name once since the day I arrived, you know that name doesn't fit me, because it isn't mine.”

His expression falters, but he is too stubborn to believe you. “Are you mocking me?”

You roll your eyes, determining there is no other way. “Right, that does it!”

With that, you lift your shirt and undershirt, flashing Jon for no more than a second and sending the poor man into a state of shock, before you cover yourself back up. The impact of such a sight sends Jon Snow stumbling backwards until he’s against a wall, with an expression reminiscent of seeing a ghost.

“Seven hells!” He whispers, blinking rapidly as the image replays in his mind, cursing him and blessing him simultaneously. 

Unable to stop yourself, you giggle at his dramatics. “It was only a pair of breasts, Jon, please.”

He clears his throat, pulling himself back up, but his palms stay pressed against the wall, acting as a safety net. “Yes, but they were your-”

Stopping himself, the realization dawns on him. Jon Snow just saw your naked chest, meaning you are standing in front of him, and it is you that has been here, sharing watch duty, meals, and a room with him everyday for the past month. 

“(Y/N)...” He whispers your name so softly, as though afraid that speaking your name will reveal your true identity as a mirage that will disappear before his very eyes. 

Taking one hesitant step towards you, Jon’s palms push him away from the wall, moving so slowly that you wonder if he’ll ever reach you, and then his hand takes ahold of yours. Despite having been shoulder to shoulder countless times, this is the most intimate you have been since the hug that he greeted you with when you arrived, and the contact sends goosebumps across your entire body. Jon Snow’s fingers intertwine with yours, and you smile, eyes glazing over with an adoration that you’ve fought and failed to hide for a month. Bringing your hand up to his face, he presses your hand against his stubbled cheek and sighs deeply, closing his eyes, like he can finally believe that you really are right here, and you aren’t going to vanish into thin air. 

“I didn’t lie, y’know, not really.” Your voice is barely there, even in the silence. 

Opening his eyes, Jon stares into yours with an unspoken question to elaborate.

“While I tried my best to speak from my brother’s perspective, everything I told you about how I felt was true.” You explain, and if possible, Jon’s expression melts just a little more.

“So, the man who has your heart?” He questions, still a note of nervousness in his words, despite the playful smile on his face.

“Is still clueless that he has it, because I’m having to spell it out to him!” You tease, bringing a hearty laugh from Jon. “My reason for being here rings true, too. I only left out the detail that I snuck onto the cart before my brother could when they came for him, leaving a letter to him to explain; because I had committed the ‘crime’, I felt it was only fair I served the sentence.” You clarify the part of your story that you had missed, thinking nothing of it.

But when Jon’s eyes widen and he drops your hand, you realize that he had completely forgotten where the two of you are standing, and more importantly, where you are. 

“Gods, (Y/N), you can't be here! Do you know what some of these men would try to do to you if they found out?!” He starts pacing again, but you’re quick to jump in his path and stop him, placing a hand on his clothed chest.

“I know all too well what those men would try to do, defending myself from such acts is what brought me here.” You remind him, and his firm expression falls, abruptly fixing itself into a frown that is not at all directed at you.

Without thinking, he takes ahold of your face. “I am so sorry I wasn’t there before, but I will never let anyone close enough to harm you ever again, I swear it, by the old Gods and the new.”

At that, you can't help smiling up at him, holding onto his wrists to keep his hands against your face. “I know, and I doubt anyone here will try anything that could bring the wrath of my Jon Snow.”

Your words bring a familiar softness back to him, and he chuckles. “Yours, am I?”

“Of course!” You beam up at him.

The two of you laugh then, at the ridiculousness of it all, the coincidences that have led you to this very moment, with faces mere centimeters apart, hot breath on each other’s faces, gazes darting between each other’s eyes and lips, both asking and answering the same unspoken question. And then, Jon Snow’s lips fall onto yours, and it is better than he has been imagining it could have been since he was a boy. A kiss with you is what shows him the true meaning of being a man, in love with what he thought was another man, but was, in truth, the heart he’d always yearned for, in a disguise that he could not see through with his eyes, but his heart could. Running your fingers through his curls, you sigh against his lips, and Jon wraps his arms around the waist he had somehow not noticed for the past month, fully intending to make up for that lost appreciation henceforth. The butterflies in your stomach spiral until they cannot be contained, and they are flying around the two of you in a magical blur of color, of blissful peace and exhilaration all at once; the most intense feelings you’ve ever known, exchanged and reciprocated simultaneously. Only when he misses the sight of your face too much to continue, does he pull away and rest his forehead against yours, dazed and breathing heavily as you both come to terms with the world that has materialized around you again. Falling into a comfortable silence, you grin at each other, so brightly that your faces ache, but neither of you care at all. A thousand sentiments are sent between your hearts, through your eyes, every thought you’ve been waiting to share and knowing that he feels them, too, but neither of you need to say it, not yet. 

That is, until Jon Snow breaks the silence with an adoring, disbelieving laugh.

“Soppy git.”

—————

taglist: @otteropera @neymarjrrwife @oliviabelova

#jon snow #jon snow x reader #jon snow imagine #game of thrones #x reader #imagine #imagines #fanfic #fanfiction #headcannon #headcannons

[frozenjokes]

Signing Back In, Apparently - 8

Prev/Next

There were a couple things Scar noticed when he woke up face down on the floor. One, Mumbo was gone. Not a huge surprise. Two, everything hurt so much less! Hurray! Three; amendment to number two. His back actually hurt quite a lot, but this time, he was pretty sure that it was from sleeping funny. Exciting! Maybe he could actually get some drugs to take the edge off!

It wasn’t until he stood, gathering his things, that his mood dampened. Ah yes, today he would have to deal with the aftermath of yesterday. Well, he really didn’t have much to his name as of now, perhaps he could just pack the little he had and sail away, never to be seen again. Ah, a glory that would be. Unfortunately, nothing to his name also meant no food, water, and other necessary supplies. Plus, due to recent developments in his health , Scar wasn’t sure if he would make it alone on the sea. Too unpredictable. Although, perhaps ironically, he was feeling better today than he had in months.

Scar hadn’t had much time at all to explain to the Kestrels what was happening before his back and abdomen started spasming, quickly followed by immense discomfort in his eye and throat. Not that he intended to go into detail, but he couldn’t even stand, much less speak. He remembered saying something along the lines of ‘they’re fighting,’ which, in hindsight, was probably terrifying and cinematic.

But they knew. And now they would ask questions. Suddenly, taking his chances out in the ocean seemed like quite the appealing idea. He could put all his important stuff in a bag, maybe grab some canned food from the dining hall…

Scar opened his bedroom door, only to be nose to nose with Sausage. He screamed, falling backwards and dropping literally all of his belongings, which Sausage seemed to interpret as an invitation to come inside. The longer Scar spent here, the more threatening he found Sausage’s smile. Was that how other people felt about him? Oh, he hoped so.

“Scar! Good morning, or, rather, good afternoon! You slept in quite late today!”

“Yup! You know me..”

“Aha, yes. How about we sit, hm?”

Well, there was no escaping this afterall. Scar could fight, but he wasn’t sure he trusted his body right now, and getting supplies would be a far more difficult task. So he sat.

“Scar, I need to have an honest conversation with you, because right now, with the way you’ve been acting, the rest of us have been losing our patience. You’re a different man than you were six months ago when you joined us, and I don’t mean in a good way. You’re deteriorating. Everyone can see it, even in the other factions. Now, I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in your situation, with pain you can’t manage, and how frustrating that is, but,” Sausage sighed, sitting down beside Scar, “This has turned into something you can’t deal with alone anymore. It’s going to kill you, Scar, and by the time you’re dead, no one will care to mourn you, because you’re a fucking asshole.”

Scar wasn’t sure how to react to that. Sausage wasn’t wrong. He had been losing his grip. Quips and jokes that once came easily only soured on his tongue now. While he had never sailed quite as much as the other Kestrels, as months passed, he could leave his room less and less. This past month.. well.. when he did leave, it was safe to say he was snappy at best. He narrowed his eyes at the ground. It bothered him . He was falling apart, and everyone knew , and he didn’t have the ability to hide it anymore.

“It’s their fault,” he growled, voice low, “They came back. They were supposed to be dead.”

“No Scar, it’s your fault,” Sausage sighed, leaning back on his hands, “You never told anyone, in fact, you only got aggressive whenever the subject was brought up. You sat in your room by yourself, letting it get worse.”

“Well there’s nothing you can do.”

“You don’t know that. Listen, I don’t care what happened to you in your past; that’s your own business, but you can’t just deflect and attack everyone who offers their hand. It’s okay to be weak.”

“It’s not okay.”

Sausage paused, shooting Scar a calculating glare. Scar returned it. “Alright, Scar. Well let me skip to the point then. This is your last chance, or I’m going to ask you to leave the Kestrels. I’m extending an olive branch because I don’t want to see you die this way, so it’s your choice what you do with it. Tell me about your ghosts. They’re related to your pain, right?”

Scar closed his eyes. A choice indeed. “Do you really think you can get rid of them?”

“I don’t know. But I’ll try. We’ll all try, if you shape up.”

Scar shook his head, releasing a small, breathy laugh. “Well, why not then. Yes, they’re related to my pain. I’ve got four parts of my body that you could say are cursed, and the pain fluctuates with the corresponding ghosts’ mood. The longer I’m alive I think, the angrier they get. It must be something like that, because it’s been getting progressively worse. All you need to know is that they’d really like me to keel over.”

“Do you treat them well?”

Scar choked on his own laughter, falling back into his bed and shaking the entire frame, “Uh, no offense, but that is the dumbest question anyone has ever asked me.”

“I’m gonna take that as a no, then.”

“Well there’s a reason I got my eardrums blown out. Little bastard was trying to wreck my stuff. For the record, I did not know he could do that. Unfortunate, because he makes the best faces when you make fun of him. You know when-”

“Scar , you taunt your ghosts? When you know their moods directly correlate to your pain? What are you thinking?”

“In my defense, I don’t do that very much,” Scar shrugged.

Sausage put his head in his hands. “ Noted. Well to start, you need to be nicer to them. Even if they’re trying to kill you. You probably deserve it, anyway. But I’m also going to have you speak with Cleo.”

“Cleo? They’re a Heron, right?”

“Yes. Scott tells me they’ve got quite the affinity for ghosts. Apparently there’s this haunted island she visits often? If anyone can help you out, it’s probably her. Actually, if you want, I can ask Scott to go and grab her now.”

“Scott- is he here?” Scar bristled, turning wide eyes to his doorway.

“Hi, Scar!” Scott waved, looking mildly pleased with himself.

Scar stared, taking a deep breath before laying back down across his bed. “I guess this might as well happen.”

“That’s the spirit!” Sausage leapt to his feet, trotting to the door, “She’ll meet you in the tavern, so be ready!

“Yeah, great, I’ll be waiting then,” Scar mumbled, reaching for a pillow to crush over his face. Well. If he wanted to scrape together any amount of dignity, it was time to get it together. He washed up, ran a brush through his hair, and stared at himself for an inexplicably long time in the mirror. Surely there was something he could do about the bags under his eyes. Well, his good eye; the bad one was too far gone to be saved. Hm… but on second thought, it didn’t look as egregious as usual today… Unfortunately, before he could go and dig around for concealer in Oli’s room, he heard his name being called. Ah! But he hadn’t shaved!

Scar ran for his hats, stacking them with great care before balancing them precariously on his head and skipping downstairs.

“Well hello there! Sorry about that, I just got a little distracted, you know,” Scar waved his hand in a vague gesture, heading over to the bar where Cleo was already serving themself a drink. She turned, looking Scar up and down with a small smile.

“You look like shit.”

“You’re not so bad yourself!”

Cleo chuckled, leaning back against the bar. “It’s been a long time, I heard you’ve been sick. So it’s really ghosts that have been giving you trouble? I would have visited earlier, but I heard you were touchy, and I don’t have much patience for bullshit. Finally caved, huh?”

“I guess you could say that. And I damn well paid for it too, so no need to pry.”

“Looks like you’ve been paying for it for a long time, and not because you finally said something. You’ve had that black eye since I met you! I must say, it looks worse than I remember.”

“No need to flatter me. Can you get rid of my ghosts?”

“Oh, probably not, but I heard from Sausage that you’re hurting because they’re unhappy, and I know a place that’ll brighten them right up!”

Scar paused, staring blankly. Cleo stared back with an unassuming smile.

“You want to take my ghosts on a VACATION?”

#hermitcraft #pirates smp #boatemghostsau #boatem #grian #gtws #goodtimeswithscar #my pathetic slop of a man #zombiecleo #mythicalsausage #mumbo jumbo #impulsesv #pearlescentmoon

[darsynia]

🔥 Stephen Strange x Female Reader (or if you feel like it, one of my OFCs 😉)

"I swear when I planned this, it went much more smoothly than how this turned out!"

Please and thank you 😘😘

So uh. I like this one SO much, I hope you love it! (I chose Stephen/Reader) Thanks for requesting a blurb for BLURB WEEK! Credit to @doctorstrangegifsparadise!

Summary: The bad guys Stephen has been warring against have finally caught up with the two of you at the worst possible time, and neither of you are going to stand for it.

Length/Warnings: 1,618 / LANGUAGE, haha.

Ruin Your Day

Stephen looks from the flower crown in your hair, the colorful sundress you’re wearing, and the flimsy sandals on your feet to the iron shackles around your wrists and says, “I promise you, this was not the way the afternoon was meant to play out.”

He’s just an astral projection, so you can’t do anything more than glare at him. “I thought you said they couldn’t find us! Are you okay?”

“I--” he starts to say, then looks over his shoulder. When he turns back toward you, his expression is fearful. “I’ll be right back.”

“Stephen!” you hiss, but he’s gone.

It’s cold in your new dungeon habitat, which is just cinematic, at this point. You and Stephen have been dating for just over eleven months, six of which have involved his fight against a pair of interdimensional travelers in search of the green stone he always wore around his neck. You’d taken to never saying its real name even in your head, Voldemort-style, not that this had ended up making much of a difference. 

Today was meant to be a break, an escape from the stress of those battles, a chance for you to finally see the sun. You’ve been holed up in a suite of rooms at the Sanctum for months, for fear of a mole at Kamar Taj.

At least today’s turn of events has made it clear that Stephen wasn’t being overly cautious by keeping your existence secret.

Well, Stephen wasn’t the only one keeping secrets.

You take a deep breath and clear your mind, connecting yourself to the fount of power all sorcerers draw from when they use the Mystic Arts. Your boyfriend doesn’t know that you’ve spent every free moment studying the texts in hopes of unlocking the abilities he uses with such ease. It was hard, and you’d only made the breakthrough a few weeks ago, but you’ll be damned if you’re going to play Damsel in Distress to these thieving, kidnapping assholes.

You’re not playing your hand early, either. In order to keep your abilities secret, you’d focused more on the subtleties of the Arts, things like eavesdropping, Far Sight, and the like. Honestly, if he’d waited another ten minutes, Stephen would have found you in seeming repose, your consciousness having gone walkabout.

As you pull yourself free of your mortal body, the thought that you haven’t actually practiced this very much occurs to you, but what are you supposed to do? Wait to be rescued??

Don’t be absurd.

Stephen has been counting to calm down for a good five minutes now, with no calming in sight. The necklace he’s wearing may be what his adversaries are seeking, but there’s another piece of jewelry in his pocket that’s just as valuable to him, and he doesn’t appreciate his plans being disrupted.

It took far too long to recognize that they’re in Sokovia, and even longer to contact Wong to gather an attack force. He appreciates the fact that he was able to connect so easily to you, and thus find the place you’ve been taken, but though that validates the question he’d intended to ask today, it doesn’t help the cavalry show up any faster. The whole building is warded fairly heavily, and the anti-portal provision stretches miles in all directions.

Either Wong’s going to need to call in the Avengers to borrow a Quinjet and a few supersoldiers, or they’re all going to walk to the rescue. He doesn’t know which is more insufferable.

Stephen drifts through a wall and finds a meeting, which is both useful and extremely insulting. There isn’t even a guard outside your ‘dungeon’ door! Safe in the knowledge that they can’t see him, he floats angrily around the table, swiping his incorporeal hand on the back of a few necks from time to time, just to make the (ahh yes. HYDRA. Completely unsurprising) goons in question feel uneasy. Once he’s finished gathering all the information there is to glean, Stephen makes his way back to a safe place so he can rejoin his body-- and runs into your astral form, on the way.

Your eyes are wide and surprised even though your jaw is set at a defiant angle, and god, he loves every infuriating, beautiful, inexplicable inch of you.

“Hi,” you whisper.

“Marry me?” he blurts out, right there in the middle of a HYDRA base, while you’re both incorporeal and very fucking busy. “And, for the love of Cagliostro, get back to your body so I can rescue you!”

“Goddamnit, Stephen!” you whisper-roar, throwing your hands in the air and sighing like he’s just demanded you invent time travel. “Yes, of course, but you haven’t heard the end of this!”

With that you float off in a huff, as if the two of you are in the Sanctum arguing over whether to order your favorite takeout again and risk someone figuring out where you are thanks to how specific your fucking food order is.

It takes Stephen a second to gather himself (was it ‘of course I’ll marry you’ or ‘of course I’ll head back to my body??’) --and then he can’t find you.

“First things first,” he mutters to himself, and heads over to his body as quickly as he can. Once he gets there, he does the thing he’s done every single day since he’d put the ring box in his pocket: feel for it, to make sure it’s still there.

That sends him into a Moment, as well. If he could, he’d draw on all the power that there is, draw it all into himself, and destroy everything and everyone that’s threatening you, molecule by molecule. Except, he knows if he does that, his own chemical makeup will be so compromised, he won’t be the man you love anymore.

That’s not acceptable.

“All right. We’ll do it the old fashioned way.”

Your astral form is busy drawing on little bursts of power to completely fuck up the electrical system in your captor’s rather quaint castle in Sokovia when a thunderous voice sounds from seemingly everywhere.

It’s Stephen.

You may think you are safe because you are numerous. You are wrong. Give me back what’s mine, and I will be merciful. Harm her in any way, and you’ll wish you’d never been born.

You fucking love it when he gets possessive.

It takes a little more effort than you should expend at once, but you manage to finish your task of complete electrical sabotage ten seconds after Stephen’s reverberating voice fades.

The only catch? You can’t see anything either. You roll your ghostly eyes in the dark and lift yourself up into the air, intending to float around until you find a window, and search for your barred dungeon room from the outside.

Unfortunately, the energy you spent affecting the real world in your astral form was too much, and you lose consciousness with just enough time to curse yourself for forgetting to read the warnings.

The power cuts out so soon after his speech that Stephen instinctively knows you had something to do with it. It reminds him of something he’d said three months into your relationship:

‘I never thought disobedience was sexy until I met you.’

He can’t wait to see you again, but it’s a toss-up whether he’ll yell or kiss you quiet. Probably both. Probably more.

Stephen doesn’t have time to contemplate in exactly which order he’ll punish you, or how much he’s going to enjoy it, because as he stands in shadow outside the castle waiting to hear from Wong, an aerial armada appears overhead.

The Avengers aren’t any more inclined to be merciful than he is.

You wake up in your bed in the Sanctum, weak as a kitten and almost as blind. You’re immediately filled with terror-- has your careless, untrained use of the Mystic Arts harmed you permanently?

“Shhh, sweetheart, I’m here, you’re safe,” Stephen says, his comforting hand brushing your cheek seconds before his lips press against your forehead.

“If you made that threat before backup showed up I’m going to kick your ass,” you say weakly.

“I would expect nothing less, darling,” he says placatingly. The fact that he doesn’t sound the slightest bit defensive tells you volumes about how worried he’s been about you. 

That prompts you to get emotional, and to cover it up, you dredge up your most indignant voice as you say, “Did you save me anyone to vanquish?”

“You’ll have to take that up with the Avengers, I’m afraid.”

“Jerks,” you sniff.

There’s a long silence, during which the two of you communicate mostly in hand squeezes and caught breaths.

“I’m proud of you,” Stephen says, finally.

“You shouldn’t be. I was reckless.”

“That’s just the thing. You weren’t constrained by me. I have a lot of power. I don’t want a subordinate. I want you to fight back. I want you to feel safe to get angry at me. I want--” He breaks off, and you use all of your strength to roll over and open your eyes. Stephen is sitting beside you, eyes bright with emotion, both hands clasped around yours.

“I love you too,” you whisper, “--but if you even dream of proposing again while I’m this much of a mess, I will marry Wong just to spite you. He’ll do it.”

The smile Stephen breaks out into is as relieved as it is bright. “He would, the asshole.” He pats his pocket and nods soberly. “Point taken. Maybe I’ll let you choose the spot, this time?”

“As long as you’re there, I’ll be the happiest woman in any dimension. Even if something else tries to ruin our day.”

#stephen strange x reader #stephen strange x you #stephen strange imagine #stephen strange #doctor strange x reader #doctor strange x you #doctor strange imagine #marvel fanfiction #marvel fic #mcu fanfiction #established relationship #damsels in this dress #romance #humor #fluff

[opalrosechalydra]

Emesis Blue & Postmeta Art

We live in a media driven society. Our most famous celebrities star in our favorite movies and TV shows, our politicians are elected by whose propaganda-adjacent advertising campaigns were the most effective, even our youngest children are put in front of screens which permanently alter their brain chemistry. In a world where all of us must abide by systems that force us to sacrifice our whole lives at jobs and all of our free time managing our non-guaranteed shelter, food and health, we have to find solace in something easy to consume and easier to distribute. When your work day is done, what better way to wind down than by putting something on the television for your tired mind to be lost in? 

The history of media is almost as old as our most ancient civilization. It has evolved to become a very complicated, interconnected system of referential pieces. Martin Luther wrote the 95 theses critiquing the Catholic church in 1517. Papers at the turn of the 20th century critiqued films of the blossoming industry of cinema. Musicians preached an anti-war message throughout the US invasion of Vietnam and Korea. Now, there is an entire video sharing platform where independent videographers, filmmakers, editors, artists, and thespians may share projects with their own views and opinions. YouTube is home to a number of genres as defined by the internet communities who participate in them. Critiques, reviews, essays and more, all in video form by people who are unbound by contractual restraint and free to express their personal feelings.

Those who rise to the top of this massive, competitive industry are those whose feelings resonate with the most people. Oftentimes, it can be difficult to pin down exactly what something is saying, but the fact that it invokes a primal emotion tends to indicate that it resonates with the experiences of the viewer. Many experimental films have stood the test of time despite having unclear messages, or perhaps being made with no intended message at all. Eraserhead, The Holy Mountain, A Serbian Film and more are difficult for viewers to get through due to their subject matter and presentation, but have remained among the most influential movies ever produced. Many analyze them, try to derive meaning from sequences of abstract or even nonsensical images. These things disturb us on a greater level than just their superfluous design. There is a deeper message that these films convey which lets them stay with viewers for longer than just the night they watched it. This, obviously, brings us to… 

Team Fortress 2.

It’s a silly game, truly. It detaches itself from its predecessor with a cartoony artstyle, quirky dialogue and somewhat developed characters. Each of the nine playable classes is fleshed out in a series of, “Meet the…” videos released by Valve. These little nuggets of cinematic gold characterize each mercenary through an expert use of comedy, receiving further depth in the official Team Fortress 2 comic series for fans hard enough to the core to read through. However, this content was sparse and separate from the main game. Players who wanted to experience more stories involving these characters had to make some themselves. 

Fanfiction is a very common aspect of any online community surrounding media. People will inevitably want more from products than its producers can produce. The one thing that set TF2’s fanbase apart from others is that Valve released a tool that allowed users to stage scenes using assets from all of Valve’s games: Source Filmmaker. Valve has famously stopped releasing accessible mainline entries in their franchises for a decade now, with Dota 2 in 2013 being their last non-spinoff/non-VR release. Their older releases still maintain a decently high level of popularity despite minimal updates. One of the main reasons they stay so loved is because of Source Filmmaker. SFM gave fans a creative outlet to contribute to their favorite Valve games when Valve themselves weren’t. These videos can be indistinguishable from the professionally made animations Valve produced if given enough time and effort.

Something happened to Team Fortress 2’s mercenaries as the fans took the creative reins from Valve. The same thing happened to many other IP’s, most famously Sonic the Hedgehog and Garfield. When an internet community puts their twist onto a neglected franchise, it usually turns out experimental. There are things that small internet communities can get away with that large publishers seeking the widest audience can’t risk. TF2’s characters took on insane personas that spoke in broken sentences edited together from their existing voice lines. For every SFM video there was, there were two Gary’s Mod videos with rougher animation and wilder content. These videos broke every law of physics that these characters should abide by for the sake of surreal, mildly horrific humor. Fans eventually stopped associating TF2 characters with their in-game personas, replaced with odd inside jokes like Sandvich, Spycrab and Surprise Buttsex. 

As public perception of TF2 became altered by these niche YouTubers, the game itself underwent a bit of a crisis. Blizzard released Overwatch in 2016 as a much larger, more diverse Hero Shooter heavily inspired by Team Fortress 2. It had the cartoony artstyle, quirky dialogue and somewhat developed characters. Each character was fleshed out in video packages released by Blizzard and an Overwatch comic. Essentially, a much larger company just made a fresh game that represented more people that the company would pay more attention to than Valve had with Team Fortress 2 at that point. This revitalization of the Hero Shooter genre pushed other large developers like Respawn Entertainment and Riot Games to come out with their own. TF2 was seen as the old man game with all these young upstart series doing what TF2 did with a more effective understanding of the, “video games as a service,” trend that continues to dominate the market.

Players moved from TF2 to these alternatives over the next few years. This depopulation made two existing problems within the game worse: Bots and hackers. Bots made up such a large portion of the player base that #SaveTF2 went viral among fans wishing to combat the issue. Updates would come out tackling random exploits, but no progress on the bot issue was ever really made. These bots have been reported to spam hateful rhetoric including homophobic and racist slurs in game chat. Given how progressive Overwatch and its new wave of Hero Shooters presented themselves, these bots made TF2’s community seem like an even worse haven of bigotry. The hacker issue is mainly rooted in the Valve Anti-cheat (VAC.) It had been around since 2002, meaning that players had over a decade to figure out ways to get around its archaic system. Less players meant that a higher ratio of them were these hackers who dedicated too much time to learning how to mess with the game to leave now. TF2 seemed unplayable in comparison to the more well regulated alternatives throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s.

What seemed like the final nail in the coffin for TF2 was a source code leak that occurred in 2020. On top of all of the other factors pushing players out from TF2, it was revealed that simply playing the game could expose an unwitting player to malware. Team Fortress 2 became this wasteland of godlike cheaters among mindless zombies that worked together to attack people and invade their privacy, represented by twisted corruptions of the game’s original cast. All of the fun times that people had with the game years prior seemed to come to an end in a cataclysmic sequence of events worse than the last. 

TF2’s reality was completely distorted. Players could look back at a golden age over a decade ago where these problems could barely be conceived of. The game could still be fun if you went through the effort of finding servers unaffected by its litany of issues. As established, this world is one that leaves people with little energy. Why waste time trying to find safe servers to play on when there are so many alternatives with modern solutions which avoid these problems? It comes back down to ease of access, which is very important to most of the working class laborers of the world. 

This frustration, combined with the disruption of realism within the community’s fan-made content, inspired a group to action. There is a massive history known to millions of people, a history that ~100k people still partake in daily, which had never been put to art. It is only collectively archived in the minds of those who partake in the game’s legacy, be it playing the game itself or following the animators who made content for it long after Valve’s abandonment. These all collectively made up what people thought of TF2, but were never combined in a meaningful way. There was SFM/Garry’s Mod, then there was the game itself. This is what Fortress Films wanted to unify in their impressive passion project:

Emesis Blue

Emesis Blue is a fantastic representation of the progress fanmade media has made. People have been making their own video game content since before the internet gave it a worldwide platform. Players on old school cartridge based systems would tinker with their favorite games to create ROM hacks that completely changed its content. Sprites would be ripped by early 2000’s Newgrounds users who would create astounding animations with them. Even Valve chose to publish Gary’s Mod six years before they released Source Filmmaker because players could not stop themselves from trying to make their own content. 

Not only does it show how far the quality of the tools has come, but it raises the bar for the artistry that these pieces are made with. Emesis Blue is art. Many people have claimed that it’s a cinematic masterpiece deserving to be played in theaters. As much credit as Emesis Blue deserves, it is the natural next step in a further industrializing YouTube. Channels continue to make longer and longer videos, providing aspiring filmmakers with a space to release passion projects that would never be picked up by sound of mind producers. YouTubers have to make the most emotional pieces that they can to stay afloat among the 500 other hours of content uploaded to the site every minute. This crushing amount is supposed to be compartmentalized by the YouTube algorithm, though many professional YouTube content creators have claimed that it is a wildly irrational system that cannot be tamed. In place of trying to master the system, the best channels master their craft.

Following the human desire to organize, a genre began developing among the most experimental of these art pieces. Fans produced content for their favorite franchises, some of which evolved to accommodate all the angst that came with being fans of these series. Sonic the Hedgehog has perhaps the most famous fan community of any video game in history for this reason. Many young artists growing up into a confusing world used Sonic as a tool to vent their frustrations. It often came out very cringeworthy, giving Sonic fans the reputation they have today. However, the outlandish behaviors of the Sonic community have been deconstructed through comics like Tails Gets Trolled and games like Sonic Dreams Collection. Despite not being official, fans used canon characters to provide a meta commentary on the original piece.

This occurred again with Garfield. Though most people wouldn’t consider themselves fans of Garfield, there was something to be said about the success it received. That little orange cat is perhaps one of the most recognizable characters globally. The lack of depth compared to its astounding success inspired observers to create pieces that commented on Garfield's indomitable presence and the shadow it cast over Jim Davis as a cartoonist. The characters of Garfield and John Arbuckle are featured prominently in fan works like Lasagna Cat and those posted in r/ImSorryJon. Yet again, artists used pre-existing characters to create a meta narrative of their source.

Three for three, Emesis Blue followed this trend for Team Fortress 2. The chaos occurring in TF2 during the production of Emesis Blue was captured in the aggressive non-linear pacing. The unnecessary brutality of bots was captured in the hyperviolence of the film's most gruesome moments and in the throngs of mindless zombie-like monsters that pursue the main cast. Many entities, such as the Medic, defy the laws of the world to gain an unfair advantage like the hackers that plagued servers. 2020’s source code leak could be felt when Scout’s home was invaded and the multiple unsolicited phone calls Blu team received. All the while, the game being abandoned for fresher titles inspired the decrepit look of the classic 2Fort map.

Emesis Blue captured TF2 fans' frustrations and insecurities through a surrealist psychological horror. It was an unofficial piece of brilliance that added lore to a game that had been mostly forgotten by the people who made it and departed fans. Emesis Blue has the supreme luck of being provided assets directly from the games to express feelings about its greater existence outside of just its canon. It is also significant as a milestone in a new medium that seems to be taking off. There will be many more projects inspired by it utilizing the same core principles. As such, these pieces must be compartmentalized into their own genre:

POSTMETA - Being composed of storytelling elements belonging to a medias canon, such as characters and settings, which produces a narrative which provides commentary to the reputation the source media has in reality

Emesis Blue obviously is not the first Postmeta piece, but it marks a point where a coincidence becomes a trend. These works are indicative of the place that media has in our lives. Passionately followed media are taken from the hands of neglectful producers by an online fan base too vast to stop. Where companies fail to provide, the people will make up for it. They will also use that opportunity to capture the reality of that product as it influences people's lives, not just providing more escapist fiction to be consumed mindlessly. As people have sacrificed their time and money to make art more prosperous, it is able to say more about the human condition. Even through something as silly as a cartoony Hero Shooter, Fortress Films is able to bring out emotions within us that spark questions about our society. There’s something beautiful to that.

A miraculous thing has happened with TF2 in 2023. Though its player base was slowly decreasing in numbers since the release of its competitors, only a few months after the release of Emesis Blue did Team Fortress 2 break its peak player count at 253,225 in June of 2023. In a combined effort with fellow enduring YouTubers like Uncle Dane and Elmaxo, Fortress Films helped to bring TF2 to a level of popularity far surpassing that of its golden age. As of the time this essay is being written, Emesis Blue itself has over 8.7 million views and TF2 averaged over 100k players throughout the entirety of 2023, almost twice the number of players in its darkest periods. Art resonates with people, and it inspires people to action. No matter what the source is, how abstract it becomes, or even how relevant the subject is anymore, there is something to be felt in every corner of the world. Art about art does not devalue it, but simply gives it a value we couldn’t rightly calculate in a world where that didn’t happen. And a video about a game almost 2 decades old got that sentence to be written. Watch Emesis Blue, play Team Fortress 2, and enjoy the new wave of Postmeta art that it and pieces like it will inspire.

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #emesis blue #essay #meta

[deafchild2000]

H2O Headcanons #29:

What if Rikki was Karl's granddaughter?

(This is for @opalsiren for her headcanon that Charlotte was Max's granddaughter as well.)

This would be crazy, right? Once upon a time ago, I did a post believing Julia was Rikki's grandmother, and oh, how the tables have turned since then. So, where to start: How did I come up with this?

(It all started when I got into contact with @misuutira for her Calamity AU and didn't hesitate to show her my headcanons to inspire her. We got to talking, definitely hit up WaterSpirit!Gracie tore Cleo in for her part in Charlotte being the "Bad Guy" and might have mutually agreed that Gracie would go after Rikki & make her regret messing with her granddaughter 😅. I won't say what she did, but Gracie called out her cruel & unnecessary behavior towards Charlotte vs her hypocrisy with Bella, and the next thing I knew, I threw out there that Gracie isn't surprised as it's expected of Rikki as she's Karl's granddaughter!... Needless to say, @misuutira loved the idea!)

And from there, what was just put out as dramatics became a deep dive into what would be a plot twist in the tail (pun intended!)

So, to get this out of the way, how or why would make Rikki - everyone's feisty mermaid - related to the man who nearly exposed her 50s predecessor work?

1. Admit it, we've all talked about who would be a fitting "grandchild" to the 50s characters! @Opalsiren pushed it by making Gracie & Max both Charlotte's grandparents (a nice theory but personally disagree with it). The parallel theme wouldn't be surprising if it was Zane being his grandson - but ultimately not following in his footsteps. And given Taryn Marler played Julia before coming in as Sophie Benjamin - any fanfiction writer worth their salts could have seen a potential plot there. So by that logic, the fandom had been playing it safe. But I, for one, push boundaries. If canon went out of its way to make the granddaughter of a former mermaid an antagonist, why can't one of the main protagonists be related to an antagonist?

2. Did anyone ever question the fact that looking back, Karl believed Julia when she told him her secret? Put some realism here: This was the 50s! It would make more cinematic sense that Karl would think she was crazy with her confession or just outright not believe her and the next scene where Julia revealed herself to him would flow better (but even that didn't). We can imagine that talk in many ways, but the main gist is that she told him and he believed her on the first try - got angry and insulted her, but still believed her. That's an incredibly important detail for someone only mentioned once! And yet, he tried to expose her and while we know he was thwarted, are we supposed to believe nothing came of the only other guy outside of Max Hamilton that knew about mermaids?

Now, here's why Rikki being his granddaughter makes sense (with many dashes of irony).

There's a lack of information about Rikki's family other than her father, Terry. While some people believe that Rikki's mother left and is better off without her, there is no mention of her extended family from either her parents' side, which could imply that Rikki wants to keep her family matters private or simply doesn't know much about them. This poses an interesting question: how did Karl, who was presumably from a wealthy family, end up with a granddaughter living in a trailer park? I theorize that Karl's obsession with mermaids might hold the key to this mystery. It's hard to believe that someone like Karl would find out about mermaids and just leave Julia alone after one attempt. I even wager Karl might have posed a threat to Mako Island and that Julia took action (personal and for the sake of the Secret) to protect it. As a result, Karl was disowned and humiliated by his proud and prominent family and left town. Sometime after this, Karl had a child, who could be either Terry or Rikki's mom, but they cut all ties with him, Rikki would never be told about Karl or his obsession with mermaids because they thought he was crazy and mermaids didn't exist.

And then, there's the personality flaws. Karl believed Julia was a mermaid (and Julia exposing herself just sealed away any lingering doubts) and Rikki becomes a mermaid and immediately takes to it. Next, they are distrustful. This follows Karl as he had Julia's trust (she let him in) and betrayed her and whatever followed caused his life to go downhill and likely left him a guarded and mistrustful man from his experiences. Rikki has always had trust issues, even when she learned to be open with her friends, regardless of personal issues or whoever came close to the Secret. Despite the fact Charlotte had many reasons to know about mermaids and Gracie being one, she openly rejected the idea - especially Charlotte being one - listening to Louise's words that there are only supposed to be three mermaids. Any mature fan of H2O likely recognizes the girls were just as much to blame for Charlotte going rogue as Charlotte getting a superiority complex about being a mermaid (stemming from their treatment of her). Rikki was the only one refusing to try to get to know her and enabled seeing her as the villain of the story when her actions - ironically betraying the rebel idea of trying something new - also caused Charlotte's downfall. And lastly is the hypocrisy Karl and Rikki share. Karl was angry with Julia for not trusting him with her Secret (for good reason in the end), yet came around only when it fit his needs and wants. With Rikki, I bring up Charlotte again - notably the volleyball game. While already displeased with Charlotte being a mermaid and having Cleo's powers - it wasn't until Charlotte made herself useful in their plight to not fail P.E. and helped them win beach volleyball (working together) that Rikki began to come around to her...until Charlotte revealed she had all their powers, to which the momentary sense of camaraderie went down the drain and Rikki upped her antagonism towards her. Let me reiterate: Rikki liked Charlotte as long as she was useful. I'd even extend it to Bella Hartley, how after Charlotte and Emma were gone, she let her inside, and given that she was an outlier with her issues and there was a space to fill, there were no problems outside Will. Lastly, Karl wanted to use Julia for greed and ambition, and Rikki - having always aspired to rise above her living situation - in a similar vein, turned her Secret into a lucrative diving/treasure-hunting career that brought her fame and attention.

Perhaps the redeeming quality is that after the pain Karl caused Julia, and for how Rikki grew up to end up in her shoes and loves her tail, she's placed in the best position to be one of Mako's protectors and to understand the value of being a mermaid - and the costs that come with it. But let's be honest, if this was canon, Rikki would not be okay with the revelation as - compared to Charlotte - her familial connection to Mako Island and mermaids is conflicting as knowing she's directly related to the man who once hurt Julia (her counterpart) and a threat to the very Secret she loved.

So at best, Rikki's flaws are the worst traits she got from Karl as his granddaughter while spiritually taking after Julia (with room for improvement) is what saves her from turning out like him.

#h2o just add water #rikki chadwick #cleo sertori #emma gilbert #bella hartley #charlotte watsford #gracie watsford #louise chatham #h2o just add water karl

[fioras-resolve]

I started Zero Time Dilemma! Here are my notes.

-So like, up front, this is a very different game from VLR or 999. Its intro starts not with an escape sequence, but with a choice. This sets the stage for what this game is Really about, and it's definitely a shift. It might turn out to be a lot for me, as someone who's not used to decisions as core gameplay

-The fact it's all an autoplaying cutscene gives ZTD a very different vibe from previous Zero Escape games. Not sure if I like it, but I might like it soon.

-So like, okay. After doing some cursory research, this game was inspired by Telltale's "The Walking Dead." It's a more cinematic experience, to appeal to the West. The thing is that Telltale had been doing games like this for a decade, and also clearly had more of a budget. So while Zero Time Dilemma being able to have actual shot composition is cool, the characters animate less than characters animate in a Telltale game, or in previous Zero Escape games for that matter.

-SHE SAID AMONG US, SHE SAID ZERO IS AMONG US LET'S FUCKING GO

-God the redesigns of pre-existing characters for this game are so fucking funny. ZTD!Phi feels fucking engineered to be hot, her design shows less skin than Alice or Lotus but manages to feel so much more horny. Although maybe that's just my tastes.

-Oh my god the choice to remix songs from 999 as well as VLR is inspired. VLR already straight-up reused songs from 999, but there's some songs remixed from 999 that didn't show up in VLR. Love that! Genuinely, it's cool.

-Wait so is Diana actually American? Or is she just a redhead with blue eyes for aesthetic reasons?

-Oh my god Carlos is the most Nathan Drake-ass White Guy to ever be put into a Japanese game. He's got the face, jacket, the voice, the Blonde White Dude Haircut. I love that Zero Time Dilemma's new wacky creatures after VLR's GOLM and Zero III are just white people. (Please ignore this if being a Latino turns out to actually be part of Carlos's character)

-So the big thing is that even though this is cribbing from The Walking Dead, its time travel mechanic means that I'm exploring possibilities more than living with my decisions. Although I am VERY early on still, I haven't even gotten to an escape room yet! Speaking of,

-I have not gotten to an escape room yet. What the fuck? That's usually the start of the game! Instead the game starts me off with the decision mechanic and the fragment of time stuff.

-Oh my fucking god, titty physics? In a game where the characters are animated this little? Mira is this game's scantily clad big-breasted woman, and this game immediately services the fans.

-I mentioned Phi's design earlier, and I've gotta say it feels like these character designs were all intended to be either relatable or titilating to a western audience. Like yes, Mira, Akane, and Phi are all different brands of hottie, but there's also Carlos, aka the most Video Game Guy ever, there's Eric, who's just some dude, and also Sigma is also looking incredibly Mid-2010s Western Game Protagonist too. And Diana is the first playable female character in Zero Escape so I feel like she is designed to be at least a bit relatable to femme audiences.

-I love how this is literally just Saw. "Each of your rooms has a small yellow button. Pushing it will let you escape, but send a shower of hydrogen flouride to the other rooms, killing them. The early bird gets the worm." This rules.

-I remember playing 999 and VLR and feeling like they were kind of bloodless, despite all the blood and death. The thing is that in those games, I almost never had to live with the consequences of causing someone else's death, in a way that wouldn't also be causing the death of the entire group. You know, a Game Over. But here, living with the consequences of causing someone else's death is the entire gimmick of the narrative. It's horrifying! I love it. Since this is Zero Escape there's prooooobably gonna be a relatively bloodless True Ending, but the fact that I don't know if that's true here is definitely worth commending.

-I also love how extremely straightforward the gimmick is here, there's no Ambidex Game or Digital Root to deal with here, you just decide who to kill and when.

-Okay I know that fact-checking is anathema to Zero Escape's mystique but I refused to believe that the Sleeping Beauty Problem wouldn't be solved at this point, that's a mathematics thing, there's no way they just don't have an answer yet. So I check on Wikipedia, and apparently yeah, it's still open for debate! Shit! Wonder if this'll still be true in 2028 when the game takes place!

-…Yeah, this is definitely a game I'm gonna have to play in spurts. I'm kinda surprised, for a series that's always been about deadly games, just how much darker this one is. I kinda like it a lot, but it's definitely a lot to have to go through.

#zero escape #zero time dilemma #ztd spoilers #zero escape zero time dilemma #angie's notes

[emiemi345]

🚨Spoiler-filled thoughts on the new Total Drama Island from someone who just bingewatched it (me)

I went into this season with zero expectations so I wouldn't be upset when my favorites left, and I'm kinda glad I did because it was kinda mid tbh

Ripper should've been out first. He should've been the filler character designed to go early that everyone immediately turned against.

That WAS too early for a merge WTH

When they got down to the last marshmallow in each episode, I predicted the character I liked more would get eliminated and, not counting Zee, I was right 5 out of 10 times

Chase and Emma 2 were about as interesting to me as Devin and Carrie were (i.e., not)

Imagine making a whole episode about farts 🙄

It was around episode 12 when I realized "damn this show's really still going isn't it"

The use of CGI was interesting! On a related note, this season has a lot more cinematic shots in general - I like it!

If Camp Wawanakwa's back, does that mean its sinking has been retconned? (Can we retcon the rest of All Stars too while we're at it? 😆)

The only characters I really enjoyed watching were Scary Girl, Damien, Bowie, Zee and MK

Zee is pure and wholesome and I didn't expect him to be so funny!

MK had soooo much potential and they did almost nothing with her. If I got attached to her I would've been so pissed

Every time they say gay my heart melts 🥰

"Chris Better Have My Honey" is a banger of an episode title but it feels like the episode was written for it and not the other way around

Since when does Chef care about the contestants' wellbeing so much?

Why were they allowed to re-vote just because Zee was being stupid?? That's literally never happened before and it's one of the least fair eliminations ever (it also would've been funnier if they just moved on with the initial marshmallow ceremony without acknowledging his plan)

That TAPEWORM (WHY) is the most messed up thing in the entirety of this franchise imo (and of course it talks, were you expecting it to stay quiet? /s). I legit couldn't even look at my screen when they were eating it, and there are people that had to animate it 🤢

I guess I appreciate that the v*m*t was rainbow this time (I use the term "appreciate" very loosely)

We should be getting another ending where Bowie wins, so I'm interested to see Priya's reaction to losing

I feel like the reboot's Season Two will be more of a Part Two than just a Season Two, like I'm starting to think some characters were deliberately intended to be fleshed out over two seasons instead of just this one

Scary Girl is fun to have around, but her only purpose is to be creepy and funny, and she has no business outlasting better characters. A hypothetical compromise could be her getting booted earlier next season then staying as an intern!

If I had hopes for the next season, I would hope that Zee and MK make it to the finals!

Chris said it's been 15 years since the first Total Drama Island premiered. The Ridonculous Race takes place around just three years after the first TDI. A HUGE IN-UNIVERSE TIME SKIP JUST OCCURRED.

#original post #emily says some things #cartoons #total drama #td #td 2023 #total drama island #tdi #total drama island 2023 #tdi 2023

[nicklloydnow]

“Trying to explain what makes Blood Meridian a masterpiece is like trying to describe Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 using only semaphore – you’re really best just finding out for yourself. That might not be the easiest task given how daunting Blood Meridian can appear (especially for those unfamiliar with McCarthy’s refined, almost biblical, prose that shuns most punctuation), but those willing to persevere will find a powerful tale comparable to the epics of Shakespeare and Melville. The novel tells the story of an unnamed runaway (referred to only as "the kid") who joins a group of scalp hunters operating on the United States-Mexico border during the 1840s. While they initially do this for just reasons – protecting the local communities from pillaging Apache tribes – this soon gives way to bloodthirsty and fatalistic behavior that leaves a trail of bodies in their wake, heroes and villains alike. McCarthy utilizes their nihilistic crusade to explore a range of topics including religion, warfare, and the nature of man – all told via some of the most poetic writing ever committed to the page.

(…)

But despite these issues, Hollywood has shown an almost psychotic interest in adapting Blood Meridian. And despite these issues, it’s easy to see why. The high esteem that both Blood Meridian and Cormac McCarthy are held in would inevitably make it one of the most talked about films of the year, and were a director able to find that illusive sweet spot that translated its horrific beauty into the language of cinema, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be one of the most acclaimed too. The phenomenal success of No Country for Old Men – the winner of four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and now revered as one of the 21st century’s greatest films – will only have spurred on this insatiable desire. Unmade screenplays are reportedly so common in L.A. they could wallpaper every house in Pasadena, and their continued existence appears to have turned Blood Meridian into a sinister rite of passage for any aspiring screenwriter. We’ll never know for certain how many times Hollywood has tried (and failed) to make Blood Meridian, but a few have since come to light.

(…)

Indeed, it was this exact problem that killed most potential adaptations, such as a version spearheaded by Ridley Scott in the mid-2000s. Alongside his Kingdom of Heaven scribe William Monahan, Scott – never a director who had much time for compromise – intended to go all in with the novel’s violence, resulting in a gore-heavy rendition that sounds more akin to a horror film than a revisionist western. “It would have been rated double-X”, he later described it as – a statement that wouldn’t have brought confidence to already nervy investors. Scott did satisfy his McCarthy itch with 2013’s The Counselor (his only original screenplay to also get the feature-film treatment), a wordy and often bewildering watch that feels closer to an audiobook than a truly cinematic experience. Its mixed reception had McCarthy scholars breathing a sigh of relief that he was never able to make Blood Meridian, but considering how Kingdom of Heaven also mixed historical fact and speculative fiction to craft a nuanced character study amidst the backdrop of harrowing warfare, perhaps he would have been the ideal choice.

(…)

But then again, what does that term even mean? If “unfilmable” novels like Dune, Life of Pi, and Cloud Atlas can leap between mediums, why couldn’t the same also be done with Blood Meridian? McCarthy himself has rejected the idea that his opus is destined to remain on the page forever, admitting that while it would be “very difficult to do”, there’s no reason why someone “with a bountiful imagination and a lot of balls” couldn’t get it done. The simple truth is that Blood Meridian isn’t unfilmable, it’s just that everything that makes it a masterwork are so firmly entrenched in the written form that it would require substantial alternations to work in a new format, and it would take a brave filmmaker to start tinkering with the foundations of a certified classic. It’s inevitable that someone, someday, will make this dream a reality, at which point the internet can move on from debating if Blood Meridian is unfilmable to whether Blood Meridian should only ever be a novel. Until that day, we’ll have to tide ourselves in wild speculations. It’s not like we’re short on options.”

#cormac #mccarthy #cormac mccarthy #blood meridian #books #movies #the road #no country for old men #john hillcoat #nick cave

[chaosintheavenue]

Design Doc 2: Denver

Chaos's obsession level: 2/3

A few pages in, and we have New Plague mentions. This should not surprise me in the least, and yet here I sit vibrating with delight.

I've already lost count of how many times it's been mentioned that the NCR salvagers are eating dog meat.

Stepped right on my first landmine of this readthrough! Some of the ideas planned for this game sure were, ah, interesting choices. Yep. Yeah. Moving on.

The ability to track ARGOS's proximity using radio signals is first mentioned here.

A sign that I might be Too Tired For This: I just laughed out loud at the sentence 'they've been reprogrammed to use lethal force to stop you, Mr Prisoner'. Mr Prisoner hgfdghgf. I absolutely have to find a way to work that turn of phrase into my writings now.

Arcade Gannon is here!

Measles is here!

Okay, can I just say, Denver was intended to be huuuge. The sheer size of some of these maps.

There was intended to be a specific cutscene for CRB-S activating.

New Plague hospital.

There are so many NPCs. I know nothing about most of them aside the names seeming familiar.

Seriously, why did I feel the need to invent salvagers of my own as background characters? There's a ton to go around?

Someone here is named JJ. This is absolutely fine.

There's just a casual mention that one of said NPCs drives a bus around town. Hello, a functioning bus?

I'm still scrolling. There are still more and more salvagers.

'Giant cockroaches'- I keep forgetting that 'radroach' is Bethesda terminology.

Activating the ultrasonic generator would have made Devil Dog run for it too. I don't know why this is news to me, but it made me go 'noooo' out loud.

A generic Hangdog dog was also available as a companion.

Design doc, I beg, give me something more substantial than- and I quote- (specific text relevant to plague).

'Convince the salvagers to start washing' Best quest name ever.

I'm at the end cinematics. Almost finished this behemoth of a document lol.

And we're done.

#chaos reads the vb docs

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 026 - Ravages of a War Across Time

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 2 Episode 1 - Shockwave Part 2

It felt like an accomplishment changing that Season number. Anyways, I wanna know how that cliff-hanger gets resolved. Onwards!

This episode really had two moving plots. The Situation on the enterprise and Archer and Daniels in the future. There was also the Vulcan Human tensions reaching a boiling point on Earth due to the Enterprise not returning, but that was more background than a plot thread.

The episode opens with T'Pol convincing the Suliban to board enterprise to confirm Archer's absence, instead of just blowing enterprise out of the Sky. With Silik's takeover of the enterprise, the acting is great. You really feel that if any of the Enterprise's crew mess up here, they all could die. Then, we cut back to Silik trying to contact shadow future guy, who is just gone, obviously because the future is dead. The scene where the Suliban are torturing T'Pol was also excellent, the camera not staying still or focussing on anything is a simple cinematic trick, but an effective one. I liked seeing Trip flex his engineering skills by establishing a secret comms system across Enterprise.

Meanwhile in the future, Archer poses an important question: How is Daniels still here if his future and everything in it is gone. Daniels doesn't have an answer. Thankfully, a library with books survived, which means we can get a good read (pun not intended) on how the timeline has shifted. The Two of them trying to fashion together a cross-time communication device out of scraps was very Doctor Who, I loved that. It reminded me of the Junkyard TARDIS from The Doctor's Wife. It was also nice to see Daniel's prevent Archer reading about Earth's future. Not only because I don't want to be spoiled for the future, but also because it's good to see him still abide by whatever time laws there are, even at a time like this.

T'Pol being too broken post-torture to effectively answer Archer's time communications was painful. Like with Part 1, the whole cast's skills are being pushed to their limits with building their small resistance against the Suliban occupying the ship. I remember one of the really early episodes mentioned Hoshi gets claustrophobic, so I'm proud of her for managing to complete that vent crawl. The crew faking the engines exploding to get away was genuis, and then Archer exploiting Silik's inability to act without his orders from the future to get his way back to the present was also really good. I had the biggest smile when Archer came through instead of Shadowy-future guy.

Archer's speech to Starfleet command about how Humans need to make mistakes to learn from them, to convince them allow Enterprise's mission to continue was great.

Comparing my Enjoyment of this Episode with a Doctor Who Universe Story of the Same Title

The War Master: Anti-Genesis Part 3: Shockwave

From one Time War to another, The War Master is a Doctor Who radio play Spin-Off. It functions as a pseudo prequel to the 2007 episode "Utopia", and showcases the Derek Jacobi incarnation of the Master, during the Last Great Time and the events leading up the him running away to hide at the end of the Universe as Professor Yana.

Shockwave is the third part of Anti-Genesis the fourth release of the War Master series. I want to focus on shockwave, so I'll keep the key information from the first 2 parts brief. Basically the plot of Anti-Genesis is The Master stepping into the events of the 1975 serial Genesis of the Daleks in an attempt to alter both Dalek and Time Lord history in his own favour. Instead of the Fourth Doctor's failed attempt to prevent the Dalek's creation, we have The Master infiltrating the Kaled science elite and subverting their creation for his own purposes, while being chased down by Coordinator Narvin (My personal favourite Time Lord btw), and that's the set up going into Shockwave.

As it turns out, The Time War era Daleks don't particularly like having their creation subverted towards a Time Lord's interests. So, they decide to fight fire with fire, and bring a version of The Master from a parallel universe into play. Specifically the Mark Gatiss/Sam Kisgart version of the Master from the Unbound Universe. And happy to be escaping his own collapsing universe, he obliges. Despite it being his series, the Derek Jacobi master isn't the focus in Shockwave, this part was supposed to build up the Unbound Master for the two versions of the Character's conflict in the finale of Anti-Genesis.

The Shockwave the title is about is a result of the actions of the Derek Jacobi Master in the previous part's of Anti-Genesis. Specifically the shockwave of effect on the timeline caused by his interference.

It's interesting hearing things from the perspective of the Unbound Master, as the timelines shift around him. When he arrives on Gallifrey, shifts to the timeline have resulted in the Time Lord's civilisation reduced to medieval technology, then a time shockwave hits, and we're back to regular Gallifreyan technology, but with differences. And this is repeated a few times. A few might be a stretch, according to the Daleks, their time ship visited 713 different Gallifreys.

Picking which of the two Shockwaves I liked more is a difficult choice. I'm going to give the Edge to the War Master's version. It definitely had more fun with it's apocalyptic time shenanigans, and The Unbound Master makes a fun villain-protagonist. His attempts to convince the Time Lords that his interests align with them, and not his main universe's counterparts was fun. The War Master's brief appearances, scheming in preparation for the finale of Anti-Genesis were also fun.

Enterprise's Shockwave Part 2 was still really good though, and I'm looking forward to whatever else Season 2 brings

#whovian watching star trek #star trek #star trek enterprise #star trek ent #star trek: enterprise #enterprise #ent

[what-yadoking-likes]

Henlo how are you?

Are there any games besides Payday that you're really into? I've been pretty hyper fixated on Terraria recently. Idk I just really want an excuse to talk about Terraria with someone but like no one here plays it as far as I know and I have this pent up excited Terraria energy I just wanna unleash on someone but I don't want to confuse or burden anyone so I'm just in the corner alone with my Terraria hyper fixation. Sorry if that's too much I just wanted to ask you something but couldn't think of anything cool.

Actually I did have a good question (maybe idk). Are you proud of how you're doing with The Cell? Like are you satisfied with the direction it's going and how the plot is unfolding or do you just feel like it's not right or it could be better? Also completely unrelated but Jacket just coming in and cock blocking Wolf and Hoxton is fucking hilarious

Uh idk how to end this so I'm just gonna put an emoji here 🫠

Hi-iiiiiii

I have personally never played Terraria. My partner has played in the past & occasionally goes back to it, gets obsessed for a few days & then the cycle repeats itself all over again.

Games other than Payday I am obsessed with HMMM. Well... I often find myself going back to Left 4 Dead 2 (which isn't surprising considering it was inspo for Payday : The Heist). There's something weirdly comforting about it?

Recently I've been playing Pokemon Scarlet alongside my partner who plays Violet. We did our best to ignore news of new 'mons & spoilers & so far I have enjoyed the game! Pokemon came out when we were in primary school, so it's nostalgic for us to play, but we've also been playing the games together since we got together some 13 years ago, so it's kinda like a couples activity we do now, I guess.

I have a lot of time & love for Final Fantasy, too. FFIX & FFX are amongst some of my favourite games of all-time, but because of their nature (huge-ass games with sidequests that send the in-game clock into the hundreds of hours), they're not something I dip into all the time - but I do re-play them often, & even have tattoos referencing both games.

NOW ONTO THE CELL OH HO HO.

This is how I had imagined the Cell going all along, pretty much. I didn't always know how they would get to the exact position Wolf and Hoxton are in right now, but I knew that I wanted it to be an examination of Hoxton post-breakout, because when I first started playing Payday 2 (immediately after blasting through Payday: the Heist & loving it), I was disappointed that the development/story seemed to be told more through blocks of text accessible in menus & live-action films rather than in the game itself. Don't get me wrong, I love the live-action stuff and the opportunity to have written information on hand, but I felt a bit... disappointed... with how the breakout was this huge cinematic thing, and then the revenge happened, and then... Hoxton is back to his old self again? I didn't buy it. There would be more to it than that. Speaking as someone with anxiety, depression & PTSD... there's always more to it than that.

My original intention was to have the main focus be on Hoxton and his PTSD/anxiety/trauma from being left behind and replaced. As I started writing I quickly realised I was actually more comfortable writing from Wolf's POV. This inevitably meant I ended up focusing on his traumas too, but I'm not displeased with how it turned out that way.

I guess... when I first started writing it, I didn't think I would still be writing it so many months later. I knew it would be multi-chapter but I had no idea it would become as big as it has in terms of the word count.

Originally I wanted a way to take one of my favourite fanfic guilty pleasures tropes - 'but there was only one bed!' - and find a way to make it believable. We all love a good power-cut/thunderstorm situation - I've written them myself - but I wanted to challenge myself to write it in a more... plausible way?

I guesssss I also didn't intend on having Dallas be a prick... but he turned out that way.

If the focus is more on the 'am I proud' of the Cell, well... I have lost confidence in myself a bit recently. In the beginning I got a lot of comments which were really lovely & went into detail about what people liked or found funny, & now there are less of those & part of me wonders whether the readers are happy with the direction its going. That's... been a tough thought to deal with ngl, because I did really think I was telling a good story and telling it well, & now there's a lot more uncertainty & insecurity about it for me. But I need to hold steady and get the whole thing done so I can move on to something else because... it's been a long time.

Also lol Jacket. I originally wanted him to catch them in the previous chapter (before the rimjob scene), but figured it would be a bit awkward to have them get caught, then immediately getting back into it like 'OH WELL LOL', so I switched the order a bit instead.

#Yado replies #Yado answers #Yado drinks #Yado is slightly hungover #Thanks for the Ask! #This was a long-ass reply #The Cell #video games