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caseyscartwright · 4 years

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My thoughts on 13RW Season 4 (SPOILERS)

So I originally wasn’t going to write a review, because if I’m completely honest, I’m still in shock by that finale... but here we go...

Overall, I enjoyed this season a lot more than season 3. This time, we didn’t have Ani’s annoying narration, that weird crap that was Bryce/Ani and that Bryce “redemption” bullshit that the writers shoved down our throats last season, so kudos for that. Too bad the ending fucked everything up.

Now, let’s go character by character:

Jessica: Jessica has always been my favorite character (besides Hannah), so I was really disappointed by her arc this season... if we can call it that. Her reaction to Justin breaking up with her was really immature. I understand that she was hurt, but Justin was right, he wasn’t in a position to be in a relationship and needed to focus on his recovery, so for Jessica to go after the first guy she could find (Diego) to get back at him... it was shitty. Also, what the hell, Jessica? Diego spent the whole season tormenting Clay and defending Tyler’s rapist. Aren’t Clay and Tyler your friends? Why are you sleeping with someone who is messing with people you claim to care about? And please don’t say it’s for “information”, because you clearly liked him, even tho he was an asshole. Once again, the writers made Jessica’s storylines all about boys, first it was Alex and Justin, now it was Justin and Diego. And to give one final “fuck you” to her character, they implied she ended up with Diego. “Ask me in a month”, um, so it’s going to take you a month to get over Justin? Okay, cool.

Clay: I’ve always loved Clay. Always. He’s flawed, he’s stupid, he’s too stubborn... but he cares. I’ll say this tho, he was a complete ASSHOLE towards Justin during that party, and he should have apologized for all those awful things he said, because that shit was NOT okay. I appreciate that he got help, and Dr. Ellman was a fantastic character, but his arc got old real fast. Clay has some fucked up hallucinations, Clay has a breakdown and makes a scene in front of people, Clay claims everything is fine when clearly it’s not. We get it, he thinks he’s Batman and can handle all this shit alone. Well, clearly, he can’t.

Ani: I’ll admit, I actually liked Ani this season. I think it’s because her screentime was reduced (she missed big moments like the camping trip and the shooting drill), and she wasn’t inserting herself in everyone’s business like last season. I appreciate her standing up for her friends against Winston and apologizing to Jessica for sleeping with Bryce, but that NEVER should have happened. It was weird as hell how she kept defending Bryce in s3, insisting he wasn’t a monster (he was a serial rapist who raped your friend, how is that not a monster). Her “explanation” as to why she slept with Bryce was crap. “I was lonely and stupid”, well, aww!! Lots of people are lonely and stupid, but that isn’t an excuse to defend a serial rapist and sleep with him multiple times. And even before she slept with him, she kept hanging out with him, playing poker and laughing like nothing was wrong. Weird as hell. At the end of the day, I still don’t know who Ani is, other than “the girl who liked Bryce and then liked Clay.” I’m 100% grateful that she and Clay broke up, that was never going to work, so I’ll drink to that. It was also annoying how she and Clay took their sweet time to tell the others about Winston. STOP KEEPING SECRETS. I still insist that the writers should have kept Sheri and Ani shouldn’t have existed.

Zach: Seriously, where the hell was Zach’s mom to check on her son? The whole season was basically “oh, look, Zach’s drunk!!” He was a hot mess and all his friends didn’t do shit to help him until the last minute. I know Winston manipulated him, but seriously, telling the enemy that you beat up Bryce?? Not cool, dude. And don’t get me started on that scene where they “implied” he was going to assault that drunk girl. Zach has flaws, sure, but he ISN’T a rapist, and neither is Clay (I’m talking about that weird scene where he hallucinates Bryce encouraging him to assault that girl at the frat house). The writers clearly didn’t give a fuck about Zach. Remember in s2 when he told his mom he had suicidal thoughts?? What happened to that?? I’m glad he came to his senses in the end, but he obviously needed help with his addiction.

Tyler: I felt bad for Tyler because his friends didn’t trust him, but I also sorta get it. He was acting hella shady and I get that the cops told him not to say anything, but... dude, you scared the living hell out of Clay with those guns at the end of s2, how are your friends not going to be suspicious? Like in 13RW fashion, his storyline got dragged for too long, but I think he was right when he called out Clay and Tony about their friendship. I liked his friendship with Estela, that was sweet. But overall Tyler didn’t get that much to do this season. I didn’t like how they made him feel bad about Monty. Monty raped him and belonged in jail, it isn’t Tyler’s fault someone decided to kill him.

Alex: GAY KING. The only character who didn’t annoy me this season (besides Charlie). Bryce and Monty apologists, how are you feeling?? My boy didn’t go to jail like y’all wanted it!! No “justice” for the rapists!! Beautiful, amazing, brilliant. In all seriousness, I wish his crush on Zach had been explained a bit more. I don’t think it came out of nowhere, but it would have been nice to spend more time with it. I don’t know how I feel about the whole thing with Winston, he was a Monty apologist so I didn’t want to see another one of my faves sleeping with a rape apologist, so I’m glad he found out the truth in time. Charlie and Alex were so cute together, I wanted him with Zach, but I can’t bring myself to complain because ALEX GOT A HAPPY ENDING, YAY!! He regretted killing Bryce, but it’s like Zach said “maybe he didn’t deserve to die, but NEITHER DO WE”, and he was right. Alex didn’t deserve to have his whole life ruined over a fucking rapist, so I’m glad he got happiness. I just wish his recovery arc after his suicide attempt had been done better, he’s the only character in the show who is a suicide survivor and they never focused on that. Shame, tbh.

Tony: I don’t have much to say about Tony. He was being hella stubborn about not going to college and staying in town, so I’m glad his dad knocked some sense into him. He got a happy ending and got to see his sister again, so that was nice. Tony always had to deal with so much crap, so I’m happy he ended up happy.

Winston: Now this dude didn’t annoy me as much as I thought he would, but... he was weird. He became obsessed with Monty after meeting him twice, and then obsessed with Alex after dating him for two weeks. What was his reason?? Why did he fall in love so quickly?? I thought we were going to get some backstory to explain his behavior, but we didn’t get shit, except that scene in the first episode with his mom where he seemed like some lonely rich kid. I’m glad he let go of Monty in the end and didn’t ruin Alex’s life, but other than making a bunch of passive-aggressive comments and staring at people, he didn’t do much. The trailer made him seem like some mastermind villain, and in the end... he wasn’t.

Diego: How are you going to spend the whole season calling Clay a psycho/crazy, when you’re out there pulling pranks, beating people up, and defending a rapist?? Check yourself first, Diego. He was so annoying with his “I miss Monty” crap, like how are you going to give a big speech about how great Monty was when Tyler, the guy he raped, was sitting right in front of you??!! I wish he had faced some consequences for all the shit he did to Clay, like “omg, you brought a knife!!, dude YOU left the knife in there. I’m glad he let things go in the end, but JFC, he was annoying. When Zach told him to suck his dick, I cheered so hard.

Justin: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA... HA. I’m laughing because I don’t wanna start crying again. Are the writers fucking serious?? After EVERYTHING they did with Justin, turning him into a better person, making him Clay’s brother, getting him back together with Jessica, EVERYTHING...and he dies?? And even before his death, they needed to torture him one last time and kill off his mom, have Clay and Jessica treat him like shit, and make him feel like nobody wanted him. Wow, what a brilliant idea. The series finale would have been perfect if they hadn’t killed off Justin. He deserved to graduate and live a long, happy life. I think the writers just wanted to have one final tragedy and controversial storyline, so they did this cruel and unnecessary crap. I’m disgusted, tbh.

Bryce and Monty: I’m so, so happy we got ZERO Bryce flashbacks and ZERO Monty flashbacks. FUCK these two rapists. I didn’t feel sorry for either of them, and I hope future shows do better and the humanizing of rapists stops. We already know rapists are human, they aren’t aliens who come from another planet, but the focus needs to be on the VICTIMS. I know they weren’t going to bring back Katherine Langford and Brandon Larracuente for a 5-second cameo, but hallucination!Justin should have been hanging out with Hannah and Jeff, not Bryce. Bryce wasn’t Justin’s brother, he treated him like shit and raped his girlfriend, and the whole “it’s okay to love people who do bad shit” is bullshit. There’s nothing wrong with hating rapists/abusers and bad people in general (like racists, homophobes, etc). Well, at least the two rapists are dead and can never hurt anyone again.

Say whatever you want about Hannah Baker, but this show suffered a HUGE loss when Katherine walked out of that door during her final scene.

They should have sent Bryce’s ass to jail at the end of s2, and the last two seasons should have been about ALL the character’s recoveries, with everyone getting proper characterization, good storylines, and focus on the friendships and family dynamics. The murder mystery and cover-up stuff ended up being really stupid and pointless. The writers prioritized shock value over proper storytelling, and that’s a shame because the cast is really talented, and the characters had the potential to be better than what they actually were.

Goodbye, 13 Reasons Why. I’ll check out the cast’s future projects, but the writers/producers can GTFO.

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ayamari-no-goshi · 3 years

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Eidolon 11 | (T)

ff.net | AO3

Fandom: Danny Phantom (DP)

Summary: AU: What started off as the result of a simple act of rebellion ends up causing his life to spin out of control. How will young Danny cope with the results as well as a past that has a strange habit of coming back to haunt him.

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, kidnapping, and various other things

Parings: hints of Danny/Sam much later on

Notes: originally uploaded to Ff.net. Cross-posted to AO3 and tumblr

11: Alternative Paths

The police officers told him they needed to ask him a few questions. What they forgot to mention was he would be locked in a small, remarkably bare room for five hours with a police officer who was dead set in viewing him as a suspect. Danny had never been more relieved to get out of a room before in his life. Yeah, he understood family members needed to be questioned due to the statistics surrounding such crimes, but seriously! Did someone as scrawny as him really look like he could have hurt Winston that badly without getting any sort of injury in the process?

However, he couldn't really blame them for being suspicious, especially when it came to his whereabouts the previous night. How do you rationally explain you were chased by a murderous robot-ghost-thing? The obvious answer was to avoid the topic all together. He hoped he was convincing enough when he said he and his friends had taken a walk in the evening and returned to Sam's house to watch some movies. He specifically avoided mentioning the park. There was no telling what the officers would think if they learned he might have been around when it got torn up. He was actually kind of surprised no one in the precinct had mentioned it.

A few times during his interview, he had nervously flattened his bangs a few times, hoping to hide the cut he had suddenly remembered getting at the beginning of his terrifying adventure. The officer interviewing him had noticed the motion, which caused him to leave it alone the rest of the time he was in the room. Surprisingly, Danny wasn't asked about it. A little wary after he was finished and allowed to exit the room, he touched the spot only to find smooth skin. It took a lot of self-control to not dash to a reflective surface and examine his forehead. There was no use in making the officers more suspicious. As weird as a missing cut was he could wait until he got home to check.

Scratch that… he could check after he found a place to stay for a while. As he was about to exit the station, an older officer kindly reminded him of the fact his house was currently considered a crime scene. After apologizing for a lack of effort from the staff for trying to contact his family and promising to personally look into it in the morning, he directed Danny to a nearby phone situated at the front desk.

Danny was a little surprised at the kind attitude of the officer as he had been dealing with a special type of dick for the past several hours, but it was a nice change. Shaking his head a little, he moved to the phone to call Sam, praying she was still awake as it was approaching midnight. Both of his friends told him they wanted an update, but with it being late and he being emotionally, physically, and mentally drained, the only topic he wanted to discuss involved where he would be staying for the night.

As he was dialing her number, the door to the station opened and a tall man strolled in. The newcomer was tall and rather thin. He wore a clean black business suit which appeared to be expertly cared for and rather expensive. Gray hair had been slicked back into a neat ponytail, and calculating cold blue eyes surveyed his surroundings. Danny dropped the phone in surprise as he realized the man in front of him was the one and only Vlad Masters.

The sound from the phone brought him to Masters' attention, causing the man to adopt an unsettling grin. "Why here you are! I've been looking all over for you!" The tone of his voice and his expression adopted a semblance of concern, but it did not reach his eyes. "I was so worried after I found out what happened to Winston. My condolences, but I'm glad you're safe and sound."

"Don't talk about Winston like he's dead!" Danny snapped. "Look, can you just go away? If you haven't realized, it's been a pretty bad day for me, and I don't feel like talking to you right now."

"Of course. How inconsiderate of me. After everything you've been through today, you must be exhausted. Come, I'll make sure you're well taken care of."

It took Danny a moment to grasp the implications of Vlad's statement. "Wait… what? There's no way I'm going with you!"

"Poor boy, you must be more tired than you realize." The businessman pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a dramatic sigh. "Don't you remember? It was determined that you would be placed into my care if anything were to happen to Winston."

"That's news to me!"

"Excuse me, but what exactly is going on here?" The sound of the officer's voice made him jump. He had forgotten there was another soul in the room. However, he couldn't be more relieved. Being in the room alone with the businessman was an unnerving thought. It was even more relieving when he realized the officer seemed to be equally suspicious.

In a truly professional manner, Vlad introduced himself and explained his relationship to Danny as well as his involvement in the custody battle. Again, he mentioned how he was now to act as a guardian in Winston's stead.

"I already told you, I'm not going anywhere with you!" Danny growled as he glared at the man. Something was very wrong with the picture. Winston didn't trust Vlad, and there was no way he would let him fall into the billionaire's hands.

"You have to forgive the boy. We had a little spat the last time we saw each other, and I'm afraid he hasn't forgiven me," Vlad apologetically explained to the officer.

"Spat? You broke into my house?"

Before Vlad could respond, the officer held up his hand to halt the brewing argument. "Mr. Masters, do you have some sort of proof you can take the boy?" Vlad's expression quickly changed from shocked to insulted as the officer spoke. "Surely a man of your standing can understand our position. With the way Mr. Wolfe was attacked, we cannot rule anyone out as a potential suspect. With you being involved in a custody battle and Danny's status as a minor, we are rather uncomfortable sending him on his way like this. I'm also fairly certain you weren't notified of the situation…" The officer's eyes narrowed as he appraised the man. "Which leads me to wonder how you found out."

"One of my staff members was going to drop off some papers at the house when she saw the police cars and asked what happened" Vlad explained with an impatient air. "But that's not important right now…"

As he watched Vlad begin to argue with the officer, Danny couldn't help but feel a rush of gratitude. For whatever reason, the officer did not seem to believe Vlad's story and generally seemed concerned for his wellbeing.

Everything seemed to be going in his favor when Danny was nearly bowled over by a sudden blast of cold air rushed by him. Startled, he started looking around to find some possible source… and open window, a vent, something to explain it. While he tried to wrack his brains for some other answer when the normal explanations were ruled out, he noticed the officer stumble slightly. He didn't think anything of it until the man rubbed his forehead and excused himself for a moment.

Rather unsettled by the officer's display and being left alone with Vlad, Danny moved back to the phone to attempt to resume his call. Though he was able to reach Sam's house this time, a presumed butler answered and informed him that "Miss Samantha is asleep and no longer taking calls for the night." While Danny was pretty sure it was a lie, he went with it and asked the man to give a message to her when he could.

Displeased by the turn of events, he was about to try calling Tucker when the officer returned to the room. Something did not seem right as he looked at him. The man's posture seemed stiff, and his eyes were unfocused and reddish. Wait… Danny blinked and rubbed his eyes before checking again. The man's eyes were actually red! Weren't they brown before?

"Sorry for the inconvenience." The officer's voice had an unusual mechanical quality to it… almost as if the words he was saying weren't actually his. He held up a document of some sorts as he spoke again. "It seems like someone did verify this earlier, but just forgot to place it somewhere it could be found."

"Does this mean everything's in order?" Vlad asked with a voice filled with hardly concealed delight.

"Yes. You can take the boy. We'll be in touch within the next few days to let you know how Wolfe is doing."

"Splendid! Come on my boy, it's time to go!"

Danny backed away as Vlad beckoned to him, nearly tripping over the desk in the process. His mind was screaming all sorts of warnings at him. The entire situation felt wrong, but he had no idea how to escape it. Vlad was blocking his way to the front door, and he doubted the few officers left in the building would appreciate a desperate search for the rear exit.

"What did you do to him?" he demanded as his eyes darted between both men before he pointed at Vlad. He knew he probably wasn't going to get an answer, but he hoped he could stall the man long enough to come up with some sort of plan.

"Pardon me? Whatever do you mean?"

"Y-you know what I mean!" While he tried to keep the anger in his voice, it was quickly giving way to panic. Vlad kept moving towards him wearing an increasingly predatory expression which was really creeping him out. Strangely, the thought of accidently falling through the wall crossed his mind. Unsettling as it was, it was a far better situation than the one he was currently in. "The officer's not acting right!"

Vlad replied, but his words were drowned out as a strange coldness started to seep into his body, quickly filling every aspect. He tried to escape, thinking it was somehow tied to where he was standing, but his legs wouldn't respond. They felt heavy and strangely detached; his arms were beginning to feel the same way. He tried to yell out without any success. He soon realized his mind was being pushed further away from the sensations of his body and into something like a dark crevasse to be stored and forgotten.

But the coldness was not finished. It briefly brushed against his mind and seemed to whisper in an almost familiar voice, "Relax… It'll be safer for you and me if you do…"

Danny's last conscious thought before the darkness completely took him was to wonder if he was ever going to wake up.

….

When he came to, Danny found himself lying on his back and staring at an unfamiliar white ceiling. His mind felt groggy and his body heavy. Though he wasn't sure, he felt as if he had been asleep for quite some time. Sitting up, he tried to remember how he got where he was… only, he didn't know where that might be.

Looking around, he realized something wasn't right. The room he was in was rather large. It was a bedroom, not much different from Sam's, only it didn't have any posters or the same dark decorations. In fact, the room was mostly white save for some wooden furniture. Even the four-poster bed he was sitting on had a white comforter and curtains. The only real decoration in the room was a painting on the wall directly across from him which seemed to show military conquest with… a paranormal influence. It was rather grotesques.

The blank room gave him an uneasy feeling. Although it definitely wasn't, it gave him the feeling he was in a jail of sorts. Unnerved, he slowly got up and moved to the room's single window. After moving the curtains aside, he cursed as he realized the glass was heavily frosted, preventing him from seeing any scenery. His next move was to try the door, but it was locked.

After a panicked few minutes trying everything he could think of to attempt to open the door, he placed his back against the door and slid down it. What was he going to do? The better question was what was going to happen to him? With the room being blank, it gave him no indication of what he should expect. He should, he supposed, be thankful for it, but the wait might be too much for him to handle. What was the old adage? The suspense is worse than the actual event? He really hoped that wouldn't be the case.

xxxxxx

The sound of one of her parents calling for her to come into the downstairs wafted through the room, however, Sam was dead set on ignoring the summons. There were far more important things on her mind than dealing with whatever new 'daughter improvement project' they had come up with.

She was incredibly worried about her friend who neither she nor Tucker had heard from in a little over two days. At first she thought it might be due to being overwhelmed by suddenly finding out the man who raised him had been severely attacked and/or the police being jerks, but a call earlier in the day really concerned her.

She had been thinking about calling the police in the morning (while skipping class due to a feigned illness), however they beat her to the punch. Around eleven, she had received a call from one of the detectives asking her if she had heard from Danny. She told him no right before demanding to know what was wrong. Though it took a little bit of coaxing (and a reminder of her parents' influences), the officer admitted they had no idea where the boy was. He disappeared after his interview with another officer, and though they hated to admit it, after failing to contact him or anyone else who might have the boy, he was being labeled as a missing person. Her immediate response was to insult the competence of him and the rest of the force as the boy had gone missing from underneath their noses, but after she calmed down a bit, she promised to help in whatever way she could.

Sam sat down on her large purple clad bed and stared up at one of the posters on the ceiling as she tried to understand the situation. Her friend, who seemed to attract terrible and odd events, was now missing. Danny had tried to contact her the night he disappeared, but her family had forbidden her from further calls when she had returned home that night after they learned about the attack on Winston. Somehow, they had gotten the notion whatever had harmed Winston could attack her if she continued to talk to Danny. Though it was kind of nice to know they cared, they had taken it way overbroad.

But what was strange about the situation was there was no security image of Danny leaving the precinct. The officer had explained to her they had installed cameras a while back after someone had tried to break in to the office in an attempt to steal their guns. Due to safely concerns, they regularly had them checked, but the night Danny disappeared, they had a major malfunction. There was an image of him entering the entrance area, but after a few minutes, the image distorted so badly they could not make heads or tails of it. It also seemed to return to normal rather suddenly after a while, but Danny was long gone by then.

A look at the clock told her she was going to have to wait a while before she could contact Tucker. Unlike her, he had been forced to go to school. She had no idea if he already knew Danny was missing, but no matter what, he was going to help her try to find him. Tucker was the probably the only person in town who could possibly get an image off of the damaged security tape, and the only other person (besides her) who Danny had trusted with his issues. They had to try and do what they could to help him.

…

"So, any luck?" Sam asked the boy currently sitting on her rug surrounded by any number of other electronic equipment. He had been staring at the screen of his PDA with an intense look for quite some time.

She had managed to contact Tucker mere moments after he was finished with his classes for the day and explained the situation. After freaking out a bit, he told her he would be over soon after he made a quick stop. He arrived about forty minutes later looking more determined than he had ever seen him while carrying a bookbag filled to the brim with tech supplies she had never seen before. After asking if he needed anything, Tucker quickly went to work with his task.

"…Whoever did this to this footage is really good…" he eventually replied after a few more minutes of silence.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked hesitantly. It was rare to hear such a tone in Tucker's voice when it came to technology. He could usually work his way around a system in a few seconds, minutes if it was more complicated, but this was really causing him problems.

"It's hard to explain… Usually, people just modify existing images when they don't something seen, but this guy actually managed to replace some of the footage with an error screen…"

"So… it's gone… Like completely, gone? You can't trace it or anything?" There was no way for her to hide the hint of panic in her voice. If Tucker couldn't bring up anything, no one could… which meant they weren't going to have anything to use to find Danny.

A small laugh escaped Tucker, which caused her to stare at the boy. "Jeez, Sam, you shouldn't think so little of me. Who do you think I am? This guy, though good, made a small mistake. I guess he got interrupted or something because he started just covering up the image after a while instead of changing it. To most people, it's nearly impossible to catch, but it's there. Just give me a little bit of time…."

"A little bit of time?" Sam repeated as she watched him frantically work with his PDA. "How long are we talking about?"

He hit a few more buttons on the screen before he looked up and smiled. "Does 'now' work for you?"

"Tucker, you're amazing!"

"I know, I know. But it's nice to have my fans remind me."

Sam pulled down his hat in response as she sat next to him on the floor. "Anyways, do you have the entire footage?"

"I couldn't get part of it due to the replacement… but it looks like a little less than half was just modified…. So, let's see what no one wanted us to find…." He pressed a button on the screen and a fuzzy image began to appear. On the footage, they could see Danny backing away from someone standing near the door. It was difficult to make out, but judging from Danny's posture, he did not seem to be happy to see the person. After a little bit, Danny stopped retreating and followed the unknown man out the door.

Without any prodding, Tucker tried to see if he could clear the image a little or at least clear up the image of the suspect. After frantically trying several different techniques, he sighed and rubbed his eyes with his free hand. According to him, even though the person had changed methods, they were still able to damage the rest of the footage.

"I'll continue to work with it when I get home," he promised. "This is going to require some big guns for me to get something useful out of this. But don't worry; I'm not going to give up. After he saved our lives, I think this is the least I can do for him."

…..

Tucker had been booted from the house as soon as Sam's parents caught him being there. Thinking back, she was a little surprised he had managed to sneak past them in the first place since they were particularly good at catching people going up to her room. They had punished her in response by having her stay in her room for the rest of the night, which didn't bother her in the least bit.

Around seven in the evening she received a call on her cell. Noticing the number, she picked it up as quickly as possible, hoping her parents didn't hear it ringing. "Did you find anything?" she asked the caller as a form of greeting. The caller's reply was spoken too quickly and frantically for her to understand. "Whoa, slow down Tucker! I can't understand you!"

"Sam… it's worse than we thought!" came his panicked reply. "I managed to identify who was in the police station with Danny."

"Yeah? Well, who was it?"

"It was… Vlad Masters…."

Sam barely registered the phone slipping from her fingers and landing on the floor. How could she be so stupid? She knew that man had an interest in getting hold of Danny and should be the first logical suspect, but she didn't realize he would have stooped so low.

Angry with herself, she reached down to grab her phone so she could calm a frantic Tucker but stopped midway as a thought crossed her mind. How were they going to be able to get Danny back from a man who had mastered in lies with an unimaginable fortune to back him up?

=============================================================

I just wanted to point out that the way these officers are depicted is due to experience. The ones in the borough where I grew up were usually nice, but if they had it in their minds you did something wrong, you could be treated like trash. But at the same time, they're the reason why my childhood bully wasn't excepted into the NFL - they slapped him with assault charges when he decided to get into a fight while he was in college. I have mixed feelings. The officers from the neighboring borough were wonderful.

#Eidolon #danny phantom #danny phantom au #dp au #dp #alternate universe #fanfic #fanfiction #my writing #danny fenton #sam manson #tucker foley #vlad plasmius #fantasy #paranormal #supernatural

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weclassygirl · 4 years

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𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐚, 𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛𝐚

Word count: +4.7k

Pairing: santino d’antonio x f!reader

Summary: “They’re already waiting.”

Warnings: none i guess, fighting

Author’s note: hi! i’m back with another part. the next part may take a bit longer for me to write, cause i’m dealing with something at my uni rn. as always give me your most brutal honest opinion so i can improve. english is not my first language so beware. take care everyone <3

dulce periculum series: 01 / 02 / 03 / ... / 05

Gif credits (x)

After the plane lands in Rome, both of you waste no time driving to Naples. It's already night time in Italy, almost midnight actually. You drive through the heart of Rome, the car passes by the Colosseum and your eyes linger on it as you drive past it. The whole monument is even bigger and more magnificent than you could ever imagine.

Santino's eyes linger too but not on the ancient structure but on you. Once again he's studying your face, your reaction to the place you're in. Your face is still covered in bruises but they are nearly gone, right now the orange street lights dance on your face as well as the cover of night.

You sigh softly, not being able to stop a gentle expression taking over your features. For a while you feel at ease, taking in the scenery around you. None of you utter a word throughout the almost 3 hour drive. You believe that it may be due to the long flight, everyone would be tired after sitting in one place for 8 hours. You have slept for almost the whole flight, somehow you still felt exhausted after the event at the Lounge… or maybe it has to do with the bruises still placed on your body.

The car stops before a gate that is followed by a brick driveway. You cannot see the mansion from your seat, the only thing visible is the well tamed grass and some other trees with bushes growing on it.

You see a few guards placed in various spots, all of them wear elegant suits. The car nears the mansion and your eyes go slightly wide. You expected the mansion to be luxurious and grand, but somehow it feels like that richness collides with simplicity.

Both of you step out of the car and walk towards the mansion. The two guards placed at the entrance nod their heads at Santino. You follow him as he steps into the building, nerves start to creep up your body as you move further into the mansion.

"You will have a bedroom here too." he says as you pass the big mirror on the wall. You see your reflection in it for a moment before you move along. "Someone will show it to you later."

As you keep walking further into the grand mansion you see a man coming up to Santino and whispering to him in Italian.

"They're already waiting." both men glance at you and Santino nods his head to the guard. You draw your eyebrows together, wondering what they could be talking about. Who's waiting?

The two of you move upstairs, walking along the wide hallway. There are paintings on the wall and some flowers placed on the tables. Both of you come to a stop and stand in front of rich dark door. You can hear a faint chatter behind the doors and look at Santino. He stares at the door as if he could see who's waiting behind them. Both of you enter the room.

There's ten people sitting at the table. Their discussion dies down as soon as they see you enter. A woman with gray hair sits at the head of it and by her sides sit two man, one dressed in a brown suit, the other in a black dress shirt. All of them look dangerous, the tension is filling up the air and you wonder if walking away now would be a wise idea.

You weren't expecting Camorra to have its own Council, but it does make sense in your mind. Someone has to be there if the head is dead or on the other side of the world.

"It's not proper to keep us waiting, boy." says a man with a nicely trimmed beard. His eyes sharp and dark.

Santino changes his whole attitude in a matter of seconds. "Well, seeing as I am the current head of this family I would have thought that it didn't matter if I arrived on time or not." he says with that arrogant grin growing on his face. It reminds you of the same arrogance he showed in front of Winston when he asked for John's membership to be revoked.

The gray haired woman doesn't respond to his statement. She gestures to the seats in front of you with her elegant hand.

"Sit down, both of you."

"We'll stand, let's get this over with quickly." Santino says in a hurried tone.

The woman is not pleased with that answer but decides to let it go, getting right into the reason you're all here.

"What's your name girl?" she addresses you.

Once again you think if it would be wise to give your real name, but still stick with the one you've been using since you got here.

"Umm… Jade." you answer hesitantly.

She can see through your lie as well as the others gathered around the long table.

"Jade." she tastes your name on her tongue, it makes your skin crawl. "Ms. Jade, we’re hearing that you have come from a world where all of this is a movie, correct?" she leans in her seat, her elbows rest on the dark table.

"Yes."

"And you stopped Mr. John Wick from killing Santino?" she questions further and you notice a hint of an Italian accent in her statement.

"That's right." you answer her slowly. Your whole body is tense, all eyes are turned in your direction, the Council and the few of the guards placed in every corner.

"Tell us then… what is it that you want?" she asks with an accusatory tone. "Money? Power? What would make you save him from the Baba Yaga?"

You can't believe what you're hearing. Saving Santino could be seen as some kind of deal in the eyes of others, that you've done that only to gain some money for yourself but that's not the case.

You lived in one of the worst conditions possible over the years, your rent was cheap and so was the apartment. It wasn't much but it was home… even if you could call it that. You learned how to live off of scraps, you don't need luxury to feel like someone worthy, respectable even.

"You're seriously think that I saved him because I want money?" you scoff in her direction, your eyes slightly widened and eyebrows raised.

"Who wouldn't? Money is the language of the modern world, people with money are the ones that rule it, any world at that." you stare at her, disbelief taking over your features. You look towards Santino and immediately switch your attention to the woman at the table.

"I don't need to tell you the reason. He lives, that's what matters, doesn't it?" you question, your voice is getting colder and colder with every passing minute. At this point you don't care that you're surrounded by one of the most powerful organization in all of Italy, maybe even the world. "Without him this whole organization would have been gone."

"You think that his death would have changed anything here? Listen to yourself, girl. Even if he were killed, we would have continued as before, stronger even." the woman argues, thinking she has the high ground. You look around, the others at the table watch your interaction like a tennis match. You begin to smile.

"No you wouldn't." you scoff.

"Excuse me?" the woman blinks.

"Jade…" Santino addresses you in a warning tone, but you just shake your head slightly and put your hand up as if to stop him from coming nearer.

"No." you step closer to the table "If he wasn't alive, then all of this that has been build by his father would have been for nothing. The Camorra line needs to continue and you cannot do it without the heir. His father and Gianna are dead, he is the only person now that deserves that power here. Without a leader… you would all fall." you say, the accusations rise with every breath you take. "And I am pretty sure that any of you here wanted to see him dead, just so you could have a chance at taking up that seat.” you finish your statement and see the woman put her hand up.

You hear a soft click before you feel a cold barrel of a gun pressed on the back of your head. You freeze and raise your hands up slightly. You hang your hand down briefly and scoff. The grey haired woman has a look in her eyes that many surely would fear.

“One more word that would come out of that insolent mouth of yours and you will end up with a bullet in your pretty little head.” she warns you through gritted teeth. Your shoulder tense up, you look towards Santino and his eyes filled with unexplained worry. You turn your gaze to the woman when you hear the Italian speak up next to you.

“Maybe we could talk about the real reason why I called you all here,” he says with a serious expression forming on his face “rather than pointing a gun at her head.”

The woman at the table narrows her eyes at him, visibly agitated with the situation.

“So what would be so important that you would call us here, at night with a stranger by your side?” she questions, her voice becoming more and more frustrated.

Santino just smirks and briefly looks your way. The smirk faintly reaches his eyes that gleam in the low light of the room.

“I’m sure that you would have her killed the moment she steps outside of this room, that’s why I want to make a proposition.” There’s a pregnant silence hanging in the room, but is soon dropped as the Italian man continues with his offer. “Let her work in the name of Camorra.”

You widen your eyes and look towards Santino who's already looking at you, his expression blank when you mouth to him what?. Your face shows confusion but is quickly replaced by the same calm that he now wears.

Joining Camorra could help you in getting familiar with this world. If they trained you, you would have some kind of advantage, but also Santino could use it in his favor. The movie never showed how they truly work but from what you've seen you would believe that they do train the best of the best.

You hear a quiet chuckle from one of the other members sitting at the table.

“You think that a scrawny girl like her is capable of joining Camorra?” he questions with an anger and amusement building up in his voice.

“Yes I do, in fact at the Continental Hotel she told us that she has knowledge of multiple languages and of fighting, we could tests it here if you’re all doubtful.” the new Camorra leader responds, his eyes are solely focused on the people gathered in the room.

Before Santino can continue you hear a man speak up in Italian. "That stupid girl wouldn’t even survive the first night here.” he comments with a smirk directed to the man next to him.

You feel anger and frustration build up inside you.

"That stupid girl can hear you old man.” you respond in perfect Italian. The man's face quickly turns sour and shocked. You feel like you've made a terrible mistake, answering in that tone to one of the Camorra's Council. You feel the barrel of the gun being pressed into the back of your head with more force. Your eyesight travels to the edge of the table and stays there for a moment before it moves to the old woman. She raises her hand and you fear the worst.

The guard behind you takes the gun away from your head but still remains in a close distance. Your shoulders seems to release some tension yet it doesn't make you even remotely relaxed.

Another member decides to take up on a voice but this time you hear him speaking in Chinese. “She is not of this world, she has no knowledge of it, it would be better to just get rid of her.” you decide to respond in the same language. “If you’re so worried about my knowledge than I can always learn everything there is to it here, it wouldn’t be a problem.” you look to Santino, he's watching the conversation like a game.

There's a faint scraping of a chair on the marble floors and the old woman comes up closer to you and Santino.

“You’ve got some fire in you girl, I’ll give you that.” she says. You don't know if you see amusement or even some sense of pride on her face. She looks towards the table and the rest of the Council gathered around it. “Very well, let’s see if you are capable of surviving here.”

The guard behind you hides his gun and all of you quickly leave for the shooting range placed beneath the mansion. You lock your eyes with Santino before departing to it.

You stand in front of the table, guns splayed across it as well as a set of bullets. You pick the gun up and weight it in your hand. Too heavy. You place it down and grab another one that is not too heavy but also not too light. The Council notices your choice of weapon.

You look towards the target in front of you, at least 15 meters far. “Any specific point you want me to shoot?” you ask no one in particular but the woman standing behind you responds "Head, heart, mouth and a lower region.” you nod.

The gun in your hands suddenly feels heavy. You look towards the target and aim your gun. A faint breath is released from your lungs as if to calm yourself down and focus.

You are surrounded by the most dangerous organization in all of Italy but now they don't matter. You imagine that they're not here with you, that even Santino is not here. You shoot.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG.

The sound echoes in the open space. You still hold the gun up as the sheet of paper comes closer for all of you to see. The headshot is there but missed by a few centimeters. Mouth shot hit the jaw, heart was a bit off but very close. As for the lower region, you could hear some of the men gathered in the room wince softly as you shot the target. You put the gun down on the table with a soft thud.

You back up and the Council members come closer to inspect the target. They don't say anything but you see them nodding their heads as if they are impressed with your skill. You turn to Santino and he's wearing a surprised and proud expression on his face.

The thing is, you know how to shoot… vaguely. Your dad thought you how to shoot when you were in your early teens. It was a family trip to a fair, there was a shooting range and your parents saw that you have a good aim and you yourself liked it. They went with you to the shooting range whenever they could.

The Council turns to you, all eyes burning into yours. They don't say a word just look you up and down. Everyone quickly moves to the gym. It's a simple place, handles placed in their designated area, a ring in the middle and punching bags along with some other equipment scattered around. One of the members, a man with a scar going up the side of his face throws you some gym clothes. Santino follows you as you go to change but lingers behind the slightly ajar door.

"You don't have to do this." he says, concern lacing his voice.

"You were the one to offer this in the first place." you respond as you strip yourself off the clothing you previously wore.

You're turned away from him but he still catches a faint scars adoring your arms, legs and back. The ones on the back seem more visible then the others, still red in some places along with some nearly invisible bruises. Santino quickly turns away and speaks up.

"I know that, what I meant was that you're about to face one of the best, here at Camorra." his voice is calm with a hint of that Italian accent. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

There's a short pause hanging in the air. You want to do this, you do. This is your chance at belonging somewhere and if it's one of the most dangerous mobs in the world then… well, what do you have to lose.

You step out of the room and face Santino. "I'm sure. If I back down now they'll know that I'm not up for this job. I have to try at least." Santino regards you but nods. He knows that you’re stubborn and won’t go down that easily. It’s one of the few things that made him so intrigued in you.

Both of you walk towards the ring in the middle of the gym. Members of the Council have already gathered around it. A well build man is standing on the ring, ready for a fight. You look up at him and recognize the man as the same one that held a gun to your head. Your attention goes to the grey haired woman, her expression hard. You step under the lines of the ring and stand in the middle.

No one utters a word, the only sign of the beginning of a match is a raised hand of the woman. The guard heads towards you.

You advance at him, trying to kick him in the chest but he slaps your leg away. He swings at you with force that could easily knock you out. You move under his arm and elbow him in the ribs. He buckles down slightly, but quickly recovers and tries to punch you to the side of your head, you block him, but don’t hold for too long, given his strength. Instead you move under his arm again and twist it behind him. He stops for a moment and looks at you with unexplainable expression on his face.

He uses your lack of attention and kicks his leg under yours, you lose your balance and fall onto the floor. He backs away and smirks at you, challenging look in his eyes. You quickly get up and glance at the Council. They don’t show any sign of approval or even a sign of being impressed. Santino locks his eyes with you before you hear the guard heading straight at you. He lands a punch to your face and ribs. You stumble backwards and hit the rope lines of the ring.

You hear a clinking sound and see two daggers on the edge of the ring. Both of you quickly reach for them and the guard attacks. He cuts your arms and manages to get a cut in your thigh. You don't yell in pain, instead just run at the guard. He might be strong and much more build than you, but you're much faster. You go for his shoulder but he catches your arm and twists it in front of him so that you fly over his shoulder. Your back hits the floor with a thud, the knife flying out of your hand to the side. You grunt in pain and look towards the Council, still a blank expressions on their faces.

You slowly get up and hear the guard chuckle. “Don’t you have enough, girl?” he asks. The dagger still in his hand, ready to be used.

You take the dagger laying on the floor and run at him, he doesn't expect you to get down on your knees to cut his calves. He grunts in pain and turns around with anger behind his eyes. You manage to cut him in the arm and even stab his shoulder. You back away as he pulls the dagger out of his body and throws it to the ground. The man kicks you with a force that sends you to the edge of the ring. You feel the ropes press into your back again but this time the guard holds you by shoulders and punches your face until your lips bleed.

You don't give up, the man earns a nasty kick to his balls. He grunts in pain and you manage to punch him in the neck, cutting off his airflow and then go straight for the jaw. He's disoriented for a moment which gives you a perfect opportunity to wrap your legs around his head and hold him in a choke hold. He tries to throw you off of him but your grip only gets tighter, the man starts to become red. The Council and Santino watch the fight intently before the older woman's voice carries through the gym.

"Enough." Both of you stop your movement, though you feel that the man wouldn't hesitate attacking you if the woman didn't give the order. You pant and raise your hand up to your lips and feel the sting and a pulsing sensation going through your lips. You already feel another set of bruises blossoming all over your body. The woman steps in closer to the ring. "Get down."

You duck under the rope lines and face the older woman. She studies your face and dismisses the guard with a wave of his hand. He looks at you briefly with a warning hidden behind his eyes and leaves the training room.

"Surprisingly you have proven yourself, saviour." She moves her hand up and takes your jaw with a tight grip, tilting your head from side to side. You want to wince in pain but won't show her any weakness coming from you.

You clench your fists as she leans in closer, still holding your jaw and your freeze momentarily. Santino notices your discomfort at the woman's touch but doesn't move. He knows that if he does so, than he may be facing some kind of consequences.

The Head of Camorra is the most important organ in this whole family, but some of his decisions depend on the Council's vote.

The gray haired woman backs away but still holds a strong grip on your jaw. She looks down on you. "You'll spend a year here before we decide if you're worthy." she says in a menacing voice. "If you fail your first task in the name of Camorra, then know that you will never be going back to your world." she releases your jaw with a jerk. Both of you stare at each other. Not going back to your world surely means death in this one. You know that she would have been glad to see you die, preferably at her hands.

The Council departs from the training room, giving you last looks. Some of it of warning, amusement and even concern. You turn back and sit on the edge of the ring releasing a shallow breath. You hear shuffling of feet and feel Santino sitting next to you.

You look down at your hands, knuckles bruised and bloody. You feel the pain in your ribs as you take a breath and see a drop of blood fall onto your arm. You raise your hand to your busted lip and hiss. You see a blue handkerchief being offered to you and look at Santino, his expression not showing any emotions.

You take the soft material and dab it carefully on your cut lip. "See?" you hear the Italian speak up next to you. "I knew you would fit in."

You look to him with raised eyebrow and start to laugh. The sound echoes throughout the gym and Santino joins you, hanging his head down. You haven't laughed in what feels like years and maybe it's true. It's nice to feel that kind of emotion spreading through your body. Your moment of joy is cut as soon as you feel the pain in your ribs and face. Your hand raises up to your ribs and traces it gently.

Santino offers you to see a doctor but you refuse, already feeling tired and exhausted after the fight. The only thing you want now is to lie down and sleep. Both of you leave the gym in search for your designated bedroom.

Santino leads you through the white hallway with rich dark flooring. As you walk he tells you briefly where each rooms are placed, his office is on the same floor as hers at the end of it. When you arrive at your bedroom you stop in your tracks behind Santino. He notices your absence by his side and turns to you.

You look tired and feel like it. The last 24 hours were the most intense in your whole life… well, at least one of the most.

The Italian looks at you, his green eyes darker in the low light. There's a reassuring look in his eyes. You stare at him and feel the leftover tension from your shoulders disappear completely. He seems to notice that action cause he smirks lightly your way.

Both of you turn to the door and open them to reveal a big room. The flooring is just as dark as in the hallway, the pearly white interior adds elegance to the place. There's a queen bed settled beneath the wall and in front of it a small fireplace. You notice a door that surely lead to the bathroom.

You step into the room and look around. Santino watches you from the door with his hands in his pockets. This isn't the place you would have imagined to be, yet here you are.

"The training starts at 7am, you already know where the gym is." Santino's voice comes from the side. His suit has creased during the day but he still holds that attitude that screams power. You look towards him and a question burns at the tip of your tongue. Santino already knows what it is.

"If you need anything just tell me. It would be a shame to waste someone like you with this much potential." he says with a smirk.

"That woman would disagree, like many of them in fact." you say back. You're sure that that woman is already having you in her mind as some sort of threat.

You don't know if Santino will use you to his needs or not, right now it doesn't seem like it. He's been nothing but respectful towards you, but maybe he's just hiding his true colors. You need to become wary of this world, trust only few and always observe. Adapting to it will take time but you're ready to at least try and not waste your time here. Even if it kills you.

Santino looks at you one last time before closing the door, wishing you goodnight and good luck. You momentarily keep your eyes on the closed door before moving to the bathroom. You look for the first aid kit in the cabinets and luckily find one. You open it, take out some bandages and put them on the counter. The cut on your arm and thigh are not big, but it’s better to take care of them in case there’s some infection. You pour the hydrogen peroxide onto the cuts and hiss in pain. You put on a fresh bandage on it and repeat the process on the arm. You look at your reflection in the mirror and examine the busted lip. It has gone numb but even the slightest touch hurts.

You exit the bathroom and go over to the bed. You basically sink into it as the soft material embraces you. You lay in it for a few moment, thinking about what the next day may bring. You’re Camorra now… sort of, you still need to prove yourself here. You know the basics of fighting and surviving, you know how to get by. Right now you can just hope for the best.

You don't remember when you fall asleep, but you dream about the water and a faint deafening sound that carries through the wind. The sound of the bullets from the gun range still ring in your ears.

You spend a over two years there before everything changes.

#santino d'antonio x reader #santino d'antonio #john wick #Riccardo Scamarcio #keanu reeves #fic; dulce periculum #john wick 2 #john wick 3 #feedback much appreciated #please be patient with my writing #my vocab is limited at times #and i know there's a lot of exposition #but i can't think of any other way #i'm still learning #baby steps as always #be kind #don't be rude

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anogete · 4 years

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In Between

Hi, folks. I’m sorry I have nothing to offer as far as fic goes. Things have been... ::sigh:: You know, I don’t know what things have been. Not good, not bad. Just... things. I wanted to talk--get things out of my head--this morning, but I realized I don’t have a person/outlet who can accept these things right now. So, I will put them here for anyone who cares to read them.

1) My car blew up. Well, the engine did. I was on my way back home with groceries last Saturday, and I lost all ability to accelerate and brake. So, I puttered out on the side of the road and waited to be saved. The issue may be covered under the warranty so I had it taken to the dealership. They’ve had it for a week and still don’t have answers for me besides an offer to lend me a car for free until they can figure out what to do with my car.

2) This deserves it’s own point, though I almost included it on the first point. I’ve never bought a car without my grandmother. She was under five feet tall and had a tendency to wear sweat pants and Christmas sweaters year-round. She smoked Winston Lights and carried a purse covered in rhinestones. The car salesmen didn’t know what hit them because she wasn’t at all the sweet old lady who would roll over and accept their first offer. She was hard to read and she wouldn’t give an inch. She also wouldn’t tell them what she was willing to pay. No counter offers from her; she’d just tell you to “do better.” Anyway, she worked her magic when I bought all three of my cars. When I realized the problem with the engine was serious and might require me getting a new car, I went into a mental tailspin. Yeah, yeah, I was worried about fitting it into my budget and all that, but mostly I couldn’t seem to cope with buying a car on my own without my grandma there to hold my hand. I’m almost 39 years old and the thought of doing this without her had me sobbing in the floor. Except, I didn’t realize my tailspin was due to my grandmother at first. At first, I just thought I was incapable of handling stress. Maybe that’s still accurate.

3) While we’re talking about expensive-ass shit, I knew the air conditioner and furnace on this house needed to be replaced sooner rather than later when I bought it last February. It looks like the time has come. I managed to find a nice man with very odd hair (think a longer version of the Prince Valiant hair-do, but bright white) through my boyfriend’s dad. He does this for a living and said he’d give me a discount and do for $5,000 what other places were telling me would cost $9,000. So, that’s happening next week. I have the money, but the idea of writing a $5,000 check makes me want to puke. Ugh.

4) The days are running together. I’m working from home. I can’t complain, though. I’ve got it better than most. I’m alone all day. I have a library with a desk. I can go downstairs and make tea or lunch in my own kitchen. I’m getting paid my full salary with bonuses. I can pretty much make my own hours. The company I work for is taking the pandemic seriously and has told us that we can all work from home until we feel comfortable returning to the office. Their timeline for “normal” is months. I don’t think I’ll be back in the office until late summer, if that. Those who want to return are permitted to, but they can’t use the public areas (kitchen, conference rooms) and have to abide by some strict safety requirements. And they can choose when and how often they go into the office, working the remainder of the time at home. So, better than most.

5) I’ve been doing this social distancing thing since March 19th. It’s not difficult for me. On good days I’ll exercise (I have a Peloton) before logging into work around 9am. On not-good days (which seem to be more often than not), I’ll skip the exercise and just log into work early. Work keeps me busy and I spend a decent amount of my day on the phone with clients. I go to the grocery store once a week, but I order for pickup. Someone else does the shopping for me and loads it into my trunk. This is nothing new. I’ve been shopping that way for years. Now it’s just harder to get my usual pickup slot because everyone else has joined the party. I do miss taking a break from work and leaving my office to grab a coffee and sit outside on a bench downtown. I guess I could do that outside my own house, but it just doesn’t feel the same.

6) A few months ago, a husband and wife who are clients came in to meet with me at my office. They’re in their 80s and both were having trouble walking. They parked in the garage next door and couldn’t find the elevator to exit. I walked over and escorted them to our office building. They were both struggling with walking and the wife (Rose) had been fighting lung cancer for a couple years, so I suggested they wait outside and I’d valet their car once we were done. The thought of making the trek to their car alone was painful to me because it was a monumental struggle for them to walk down a hallway. Their daughter-in-law called me two days ago. Rose passed away two weeks ago. The husband, a former literature professor for a university, was in the hospital with four broken ribs because he’d fallen shortly after Rose’s passing. He was a Jewish child in Nazi Germany during the war. He’d told me stories about hiding from the Nazis, surviving off of tree bark and whatever he could find in the forests. He also jokingly told me that he’d live until he was 120. Now, it looks like he won’t survive the year. He and Rose would tease each other all the time, but you could see all that love between them. Whenever I’d call him, he’d ask me in that wonderful accent to wait while he got “the boss” on the phone as well. Rose thought it was silly that she was “the boss,” but she humored him. You know, they’re shorties, too. Five foot, nothing. Just like my grandma. Hearing that Rose was gone and Dr. (he’s a PhD) was likely soon to follow just broke my already fragile heart.

7) Fragile heart, huh? Yeah. After the car situation and the realization that one day I’m going to have to do big life things without having my grandma to help me, I was feeling pretty raw. But I’ve been trying to be responsible and do things I’ve been putting off lately. So, I gathered up all those medical bills from Ferguson’s illness last September. (Ferguson was my soulmate little chihuahua mix that I had for over 13 years.) I had pet insurance on him and hadn’t bothered to make the claim because I couldn’t handle it. But it’s been almost a year so I pulled out the invoices, which were over $2,000, and logged into the website and starting inputting the info to file the claims. The little box asks for a description of why I took him to the vet. And answering that question just brought back all that shit like a wave. I remember reading this nice description of grief and how it is like waves. At first they’re big and they knock you around and you can’t breathe. But over time they get smaller and you learn how to navigate them. Still there, but manageable. Filling in that box resulted in a bit of a tidal wave that knocked me on my ass. My boyfriend came home to find me sobbing at my desk like a lunatic.. He’s... not so good with emotional shit. And I usually keep it bottled up so that no one knows what’s going on inside me. But some days... Some days it just overflows. So, after confirming that nothing terrible had occurred and that I was reliving September 2019, he slowly backed out of the room to leave me with my grief-wave.

8) I want to be one of those succulent people. You know, the ones who have succulents lining their windowsills. The dining room and kitchen windows are full of this oddball little plants. The boyfriend hates it, but I told him he’d have to deal. I’ll die on this hill. I’m a succulent lady.

9) I’ve been reading memoirs or, rather, memoirs through collections of essays. I don’t know if it’s the mental state I’m in or if social distancing has got me subconsciously reaching out for life beyond my head, but I can’t seem to read much else. I loved Liz Phair’s Horror Stories. I’m reading The Book of Help by Megan Griswold right now. I’m determined to procure a signed copy of What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker by Damon Young. He did a virtual event for a local bookseller recently and they have signed copies available for purchase. I just need to muster up the will to call them and ask them to hold one for me. The little snippets of their life and experiences via these memoirs through essays bring me some measure of comfort.

10) I tried to watch Euphoria on HBO. I managed to make it through the first episode, but I don’t think I can watch more. I can’t relate, but that normally isn’t a necessity for an enjoyable story. Maybe it’s just too depressing for me right now.

11) I binged Dollface on Hulu and wish I had more to watch. Parts of it hit me hard. I’ve always had trouble maintaining friendships, period. But maintaining friendships while in a relationship has been damn near impossible for me. Just like Jules. Except, I’m not nearly as cool or gorgeous as Kat Dennings. And I have no friends in this city to go back to. Just friends at work.

12) I haven’t worn makeup for 2 solid months. I’m starting to miss it. I found old selfies I’d taken in which I don’t recognize myself. Did I ever look like that? I must have since here is photographic evidence. I look like shit now. I’m forever in yoga pants and a hoodie with half-wet hair from the shower. Maybe putting on a pair of jeans and a cute shirt and some makeup will make me feel like a human being again. Maybe I’m not doing as well as I thought in quarantine. Huh.

13) I hope you all are well. If you’ve sent me a message, I’m so sorry for not responding. My mental state has been delicate lately and the silence from me has nothing to do with your kind words. I promise I read and treasure and appreciate anything that is sent to me. I’m also sorry for having no offering of fic or a promise of something to come. I haven’t written since last summer. It’s been almost a year. I guess I’m in a dry spell.

14) Since I’ve been struggling with loss/grief lately, I’ll leave you with a quote from Philip Pullman, taken from his novel The Amber Spyglass. It’s about death, I suppose. Or maybe just a transition to something else entirely. It’s nice to think of my grandma and Rose and my sweet, sweet love of a dog falling in the raindrops and riding on the wind through tall grass. If it wasn’t raining, I’d take my computer outside right now.

“Even if it means oblivion, friends, I'll welcome it, because it won't be nothing. We'll be alive again in a thousand blades of grass, and a million leaves; we'll be falling in the raindrops and blowing in the fresh breeze; we'll be glittering in the dew under the stars and the moon out there in the physical world, which is our true home and always was.”

#Anogete in real life #personal #coping with grief #Mental health where did you go #adulting #struggle bus

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connorspiracy · 3 years

Text

Fangs and Fries || Connor & Rio

Timing: Current Location: Rio’s hospital room Parties: @connorspiracy & @3starsquinn Content: References to violence, injuries, death and abuse Summary: Connor visits Rio in hospital after the werewolf attack and Rio opens up to him about things.

Rio hadn’t talked too much about the Winston situation or his parents’ death or much of his life at all, and now that he was living by himself, Connor was pretty worried about him, and not just because he’d been in a fight with a werewolf. He got a selection of burgers and chicken stuff and fries from McDonalds, skipping the deserts because he figured they’d melt and taste like arse before too long. “You alright mate?” he said by way of greeting as he walked in. “They’ve not got you on too many painkillers?” He put the bags of food on the little tray in front of Rio, pulling up a chair, then he took off and unzipped his backpack, pulling out some other stuff. “I also brought my Switch and some comics so you have something to do ‘til you can come home.” Hospitals were loud. Connor could hear the screaming from a room next door, someone who’d just left their body and was yelling at the doctors to please bring them back to life. He could hear crying and faint whispers, and he could feel the particular brand of heaviness in the air, but he needed to focus on Rio right now.

Orion had some preparation time when he heard Connor coming down the hallway. He had been occupied staring at the TV screen, waiting for news to break about another attack by the wolf. Nothing yet, but that hadn’t meant that nobody had been hurt. Connor had done Rio a service by not only bringing him food, but launching right into the conversation without too many questions regarding his wounds. The bruises across his face were bad enough, but add onto it the IV’s didn’t make it possible to wear his usual hoodies. He stuffed his arms under the blanket, then attempted to position them under the swinging table once Connor set the food down on it. He had no reason to hide it, but it still wasn’t his favorite conversation to bring up. “I’m fine. Probably not enough painkillers honestly,” Rio laughed, trying to sound convincing. Connor had brought an entire assortment of options, and even as Rio stared at the food and realized that he didn’t have much of an appetite, he still wanted to eat. He grabbed a handful of fries first, plopping them in his mouth one by one as Connor pulled the game system and comics out of his bag. “Woah! Thanks dude, that’s so nice holy crap. I appreciate it. I’ll be out of here in a couple days though probably. So not too much time to kill.”

Connor usually played it cool. He was a curious person, someone who liked to have all the answers and would do as much digging as it took to get to the bottom of them. There were some things you didn't ask questions about though, so while he knew not all of the scars on Rio's body could have come from the wolf attack, he didn't mention them. "Are you wearing one of those hospital gowns where your arse hangs out? Damn, if I knew, I'd have brought you some pyjamas too," he snickered. "And a couple of days sitting in a fucking hospital bed is more than enough. At least this way you'll have Pokemon and Mario." He helped himself to a serving of fries and a quarter pounder. "So," he said, after taking a copious bite. "Werewolf? Tell me about it. What'd it look like? Was it huge?"

If it wasn’t bad enough that the hospital gown was already embarrassing, Connor’s comment drug a blush out of Rio almost instantaneously. “Uh -” Rio started, a nervous laughter escaping his mouth, “Yes, but I have like underwear and stuff” Rio eventually found the words and mumbled them quickly. There was no way he’d ever be caught dead completely exposed out in public. He already felt naked enough without something long sleeve to cover his arms. “It’s fine, my sister brought some clothes to me. I just haven’t put them on yet because nurses keep coming in to check the claw and bite marks.” Connor was right, regardless of how long he was here a game or comic would do wonders to help pass the time. It may even distract him from watching the news so much. “Thanks. Seriously this is awesome. I really appreciate it.” He had certainly said that a lot recently. “The wolf? Uh-” Rio tried to think of the wolf in relation to the other werewolves that he had seen. His experience seeing them transformed in person wasn’t as high as many other hunters, but he had definitely seen his fair share by now, “I mean he’s definitely bigger than a normal wolf or a human. They weren’t the biggest one I’ve seen, but they were definitely the scariest.”

"What, it's not an arse out kinda look?" Connor teased gently, but he could tell Rio was embarrassed. Hopefully knowing Connor didn't take any of this seriously would help him feel better about the whole thing. "What'd you tell them?" he asked. "Do they think it was just an out of control dog or something? There's no actual wolf-wolves in Maine, right?" He remembered reading that. "I haven't seen a normal wolf in person. Or a werewolf," he said, chewing the inside of his cheek. "At least not a transformed one. Did it--are you--" His throat was dry. He took a sip of Diet Coke from one of those McDonalds cups that always made it taste like shit because it went flat so fast. There wasn’t really a polite way to phrase this. "Will you turn? Did it like, bite you?"

“Nothing about me is an ‘arse out kinda look’” Orion laughed again, copying Connor’s statement and bubbling them around quotation marks that Rio made with his fingers. Rio’s own style was very much covered, for multiple reasons. The scars didn’t help, but they certainly weren’t the only thing contributing to Rio’s irrational fear of anyone seeing him shirtless. “I didn’t tell them anything, honestly.” Rio shrugged, taking a bite of a burger and chewing before speaking again, “I sort of played the whole traumatized victim card. I just sat outside the restaurant until I got in the ambulance. But I heard some others talking about a wolf. I’m sure the police report is just going to say it was a wild animal attack.” Connor’s next question baffled Rio for a moment. Admittedly, he had never even considered the possibility. He had known his entire life that he couldn’t turn, so the fear had never crossed his mind during the fight last night. But at the mention of it, Rio thought of the bite mark on his leg beneath the blanket. It would be easy to say that he hadn’t been, but Connor was one of the closest friends that Rio had. He was also one of the few that Rio hadn’t been forced to show his hunter heritage too. He had taken advantage of that blessing for too long it seemed. “Oh uh- I guess technically yes they did bite me. But I’m not going to turn.” Rio spoke slowly and carefully, unsure exactly how he wanted to word it, “I can’t turn, actually.”

"Oh, c'mon. You're proper cute. If you weren't taken, I'd flirt the heck out of you," Connor said, dipping a chicken nugget in some BBQ sauce and practically swallowing it whole, flashing Rio a big grin. "I thought you were massively hot that time I first met you when you broke a lock with your bare hands." He was sure that would make Rio blush a bit more, but he hoped the fact he was shoving McDonalds down his gullet with no concern about looking attractive reassured Rio that he just meant it as a compliment and wasn't looking to make a move. Connor watched Rio's face when he answered the question about being bitten. He'd had a few curiosities about him ever since Nell had insisted Rio come with them to apprehend moon-murder Adam. Like she knew something he didn't. "Ah," he said, simply nodding. "You're immune." Now the easy padlock breaking made sense. "Sick."

“So I’m supposed to believe that the whole time we’ve been friends you haven’t been flirting with me?” Orion teased, fully aware that Connor couldn’t get through an entire conversation without flirting at least once. He was that way with most people. Rio didn’t feel the need to mention that he technically wasn’t taken anymore. Doing so might imply that he was anywhere near to being over Winston or ready to be in a relationship again. Neither were true. “You’re a natural flirt, dude. It’s very charming.” He knew that by now Connor was aware that any complement towards Rio would immediately result in blushing. By some miracle, none of those made Rio dizzy anymore. The two were clearly close enough to talk like that now. “Ha ha. Well, I wouldn’t say hot. But we had to get in somehow.” The fact that Connor even remembered that factored into what Rio was trying to tell Connor now. Connor’s specialty was ghosts, so Rio had no idea if telling Connor that he was immune to the bite meant anything to him. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge, especially since only certain types of hunters were immune to it. It really only left Rio the option of just coming out and saying it. “Right. Yeah. Which uh- in case you aren’t aware… is because my genes carry certain abilities. That I got from my mom. Who was a werewolf hunter.” Talk about beating around the bush. He just didn’t want to claim that word for himself. Not out loud. “So I guess technically speaking, I have those genes. But I’m not a hunter. Just to be clear.”

"Trust me mate, if I was flirting with you, you'd know about it," Connor teased. He usually sounded a lot less confident when he was actually trying to flirt and not just... flirting as a friend. "Yeah, but it's just me being English and charming. Not actually trying to get into your trousers." He chuckled softly, flashing Rio a wink. "Cute as you are in that hospital gown." He stopped joking around for just a moment, listening to Rio talk. "Yeah, I know about people with abilities. Not a lot, but... enough. Adam talked to me about it too." Adam was no secret. They'd all seen his powers with their own eyes. It made him feel better that Rio was so quick to clarify that he wasn't a hunter. Connor gave him a small smile, nodding. "I know. You're a librarian."

Despite Orion’s lack of an appetite, he found himself eating far more than he had originally intended as he got lost in the conversation with Connor. Soon he had downed a burger, most of a ten piece nugget and the entire thing of fries. Maybe he had been hungrier than his stomach was letting him acknowledge. “Yeah, well I sure hope you’re not. Because I’m not even wearing any trousers.” Rio used an appallingly awful british accent for the last word. It was good being able to have talks like this. Even after what he had seen inside that restaurant. He needed the distractions. “Right. Makes sense. Was it after that night?” Rio wasn’t sure he actually wanted to know. The less he had to talk about Adam right now the better. Those feelings were far too confusing to add on top of everything else he had going on. “Adam and I are similar. Sort of. We both come from hunter families, but mine is a bit more focused. It gives me certain advantages that typical humans don’t have.” At least Connor was willing to move past it quickly and acknowledge that Rio wasn’t using the title for himself. “Yeah, a librarian. I guess it is something like that in a way.”

Connor laughed as Rio said trousers. “I know, right? Hospital gown's just a bit lacking on the sex appeal, mate." He finished the burger he'd been working on and started on some mozzarella bites. He nodded. One thing about White Crest was that it made you pretty bloody good at switching between jokes and serious topics. That Gallows humor came in strong. "It was, yeah. After the Moon Murder Spree. Which... that was a bloody hell of a time." Literally. Connor was still trying to process it. It wasn't that he didn't trust Adam. He didn't feel that Adam would ever hurt anyone maliciously when in his right mind. It was just still a bit weird. "Good genes but none of the murder," he said with a little smile, offering Rio some fries. "Sounds good to me."

As far as Orion was concerned, everything about himself was lacking in sex appeal. But knowing Connor’s all too charming way with words, he wasn’t about to mention that. He preoccupied himself by staring at the uneaten food. He couldn’t believe Connor had grabbed all of this just to make sure Rio had something he liked. It was really nice. “Yeah. It was something like that. I’m just glad he’s back to his normal self.” Or at least the self that he presented to others. Rio still wasn’t convinced he was as easy going as he liked to claim. But he also couldn’t pretend to have spoken to him much recently. Ironically, Adam had been the first person that Rio had wanted to talk about the wolf attack with. “Right.” Rio agreed with Connor. He had discussed the hunter heritage, but he wasn’t exactly ready to break the news to him about his parent’s death. That might elicit a slightly different response. “I’ve never been much of a fighter, honestly. I definitely prefer safety.”

Connor continued to blank out the surrounding ghosts. They were growing a little louder now, as if beginning to realise that he was here. “I’m sorry, mate.” He paused sips of his coke and trying to decide whether he should even ask about this or just leave it to Rio to bring things up when he was ready. He had never been very good at holding in questions though. “So, what’s up with you and Winston? You never like, said very much about it. I know you were together at least since I moved here. They left town and you guys are… maybe broken up, or maybe not?” There was no blame in Connor’s voice, no judgement against Winston for what they’d felt they had to do. He just wanted to get Rio’s side of it. “I reckon that’s the hardest bit. The not knowing. That’d drive me nuts.”

Figuring that eventually it would come up, Orion managed a grin when Connor mentioned Winston. Looking back, making a dramatic and sappy post about heartbreak may have been a bit more melodramatic than needed. Though he felt the pain of Winston’s absence, the breakup itself had hardly been the source of his anguish. It barely constituted being considered a breakup at all. “Great question. I don’t exactly know for sure. But I don’t think it’s that bad of a thing. At least I don’t think so.” Rio shrugged. He wasn’t sure how to explain it. “When they left town, we talked about me going with. I thought about it. But eventually I decided that I couldn’t leave yet. So we left things open ended. That someday Winston might come back and the two of us will see where we are at in our lives and if we still make sense. And if anything has changed than that’s fine too.” At the time, the conversation had made sense. Rio was happy with how they had chatted. Rio had gone to sleep crying, but overall he had been content. Now, Rio stressed about what that future may hold when Winston got back. The wolf attack definitely hasn’t helped anything. “Overall, I’m really freaking sad. But I’m okay too? If that makes sense.”

"Not a bad thing?" Connor posed, expression quietly curious. He was pretty full now. He'd been casually picking away at his food the majority of this conversation. "The person you love leaving town isn't a bad thing?" He sipped his Diet Coke, shrugging. "I haven't really had a proper relationship before, but it sounds like a bad thing. They have to do what's best for them though. I don't hold it against them." You couldn't really blame anyone for wanting to leave White Crest with all the awful things that happened here, especially when someone close to you was killed in the awful circumstances Todd had died in. "Did you talk about if you can date other people?"

Orion shrugged as an answer. He couldn’t answer that question with any certainty because he wasn’t sure about his own feelings. “It’s hard to explain.” Another nervous laugh that Rio calmed by taking a drink from his cup. “They needed to go. I needed to stay. I hate not being with them, sure. That part is very bad. But I think they needed this. That makes me happy.” And it truly did. He hoped that Winston got everything needed out of their time away from town. No matter what that meant for their relationship. Winston’s happiness was the priority. “I’d say technically yes. We decided to leave things up to life.” Rio spoke slowly and carefully, “But I’m not sure it matters. I don’t really see myself dating anytime soon. It took a long time for Winston and I to even DTR.”

"That makes sense," Connor answered. “Well, last date I had, we were starting to get down to business and there was a fucking monster beaver eating my bed, so, even with this set-back, your love life’s probably better than mine,” he said with a laugh. Connor and Winston didn't know each other pretty much at all, and if Connor had a dog in this fight, it'd be Rio, but it didn't sound like there were any hard feelings. "Alright bro. I don't do relationship advice, so, stop me from eating the rest of these bloody chicken nuggets, and pleeeease tell me all the cool shit about your super powers?"

“Oh god. That’s so awkward. I can’t believe I actually feel second hand embarrassment for you about a relationship. That’s supposed to be my thing.” Orion was full on cackling now, every single breath stinging his side. He didn’t care though, because it felt so good to not be so sad. “I think we could probably battle back and forth on that one. Did I ever tell you that my sister slept with Winston? I never even did that.” He wasn’t saying it for sympathy. He wasn’t even saying it angrily. He had moved past that long ago. This was simply matter of fact, a way for Rio to tell Connor more about his life. Connor was one of the closest friends that Rio had, it was time to start being a bit more open. “Deal. I’ll stuff my face some more. I’ll even tell you about the time I got fireballed through a window.”

#paras #fangs and fries #with: rio

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haru-sen · 4 years

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IAL/Overwatch Characters in Quarantine

First, I’m assuming they’re at base, maybe even in their own quarters. So they aren’t short on resources and there are plenty of drones and omnics that can visit/deliver items– they just need have their chassis sanitized afterward.

Torby: He would immediately craft a hazmat/containment suit so he could go out. He would also neglect to tell most everyone, because he could use the vacation. He would also be making them for his wife, kids, and cats. If there are mechanical requirements, he would also be designing potential solutions - nano filters, early detection modules, air scrubbers, etc. There would be weird handwashing jokes.

Reinhardt: He would take quarantine very seriously, because he’s protective of his fellow agents and Angela has explained exactly how much harm he could cause if he doesn’t keep his distance from them. But he is such a social person, and he would get lonely, so he’s always making video calls and switching between comm channels, jumping into everyone’s conversations, ordering food, and badgering Torby to make him a giant armored containment suit. He would have teleconferencing tea parties with Brigitte and Ana and send Ziv lots of messages requesting help because he’s stuck on a kind-of-tricky platforming game.

Ana: It would have been a vacation, but Reinhardt keeps calling her to chat about everything ever. (He thinks she might be lonely? She doesn’t really feel like bursting his bubble.) Lucky keeps calling to ask advice. (With Ana out, Lacroix and other troublemakers are running around unsupervised). And Lacroix keeps sending her cheerful messages about how well he is managing everything. She is very suspicious, but reluctantly commits to not worrying about what is out of her hands. She can focus on fixing things afterward. Her hair might go a little grayer. She would be receiving lots of snack and tea deliveries from Athena drones.

Gabriel: He would be fine running Blackwatch remotely, but several agents would require “just wait till I get out of here...” threats. He would enjoy wearing his pajamas while working, and catching up on mending Jack and Lucky’s clothing. They really are so destructive. He would take great pleasure in sending dirty messages/videos to his lovers just to wind them up. But that is mutually assured destruction as he’s stuck by himself too...

Jack: At first he would appreciate the slowdown, but after the first twelve hours, he would get very antsy. Yes, he’s issuing orders and handling situations, but he would like to go for a run, or spar, or do more sweaty dirty things with Gabriel and Lucky. Plus it would be nice to hover behind his lovers and steal food off their plates. There would be a lot of pouty “I miss you” messages, and beefcake selfies. But after a few days, he could go really off the deep end and do the opposite. He would just sit there in a bathrobe and eat green beans out of a can and drink out of the ketchup bottle. Or he’d take pictures of himself in Hawaiian shirts and socks with sandals and send them with taunting messages like, “Who says I can’t wear plaid with floral print?” Jack should probably not be quarantined alone.

Lucky: Lucky would probably try to enjoy the first day or two, but then she would be getting all kinds of messages from everyone about how grumpy the Blackwatch Commander is, how Ziv is running amok, and how their socks keep disappearing and where exactly is Isha? It would be very stressful, but Jack would make long calls while wearing silly outfits to try to cheer her up. (Jack would put on a blanket and pretend to be ghost or grandmother. It would not be convincing, but it would be cute.) Gabriel would cook her delicious meals and make plans for the future: where should we take our next vacation? Do you think this would look better on Jack or me? On you? OK, we’ll get three.” Lucky would curl up in a blanket and fall asleep to Gabriel reading to her or Jack snoring on the line because he drifted off at his desk.

Lacroix: As long as he could meddle, plot, and make his minions do his bidding, he would be fine. He would probably even get dressed properly, cook a gourmet meal, and have romantic video-call dates with his lovers. But because he isn’t outside to personally grief his friends/victims, he would be hiring other agents to do it for him. Athena might be amused enough to help him carry out these plots or at least cover his tracks.

Winston: Because his expertise would be required to help solve the problem, Winston would remain in his lab, hard at work. He would check in with his friends daily, and have mandatory downtime thanks to Athena. Basically, it would be like every other day, except Ziv can’t come in to badger him. So...more productive?

Amélie: Only boring people get bored. Aside from her strenuous exercise regiment, Amélie has plenty of books, films, and fancy wines. Perhaps she will have a boudoir photo shoot. Perhaps she will adapt and choreograph a modernized version of Twelve Dancing Princesses. Perhaps she will craft long term strategies for assassinating every member of the UN Security Council, just for fun. Most likely, she will go on an internet shopping spree and Lucky and Ziv will wake up the next day with entirely new wardrobes. The clothing would be accompanied by detailed stylistic “recommendations,” as well as notes clearly expressing how disappointed she will be if they fail to comply.

Hanzo: He would stick to a disciplined exercise regiment, meditate, and eventually have a cake craving. He might try cooking/baking if the facilities were available. If he tried to make something complex, there is fifty percent chance of him completely screwing it up. But fortunately no one saw, right? There is a one hundred percent chance that Athena recorded it.

Genji: Genji’s actions would be (un)surprisingly like Hanzo’s. The main difference is that Genji also likes video games and would ask Athena to read recipes and help him monitor whatever food he was making. So it would have a much higher chance of turning out successful. There is a one hundred percent chance that he would taunt Lucky by sending video of him eating his successful cake, though he might not tell her where it came from.

Angela: Let’s be honest, she would enjoy her vacation while everyone else freaked out, especially if it was just isolation and there was no dire need for her help. She could also remotely task Zenyatta or Athena to handle things.

Jesse: He would send lots of plaintive message to Lucky and Gabriel, mostly about how he was really hungry, and not feeling good, and maybe someone could make him some chili? Or soup? He would spend the first few hours on the couch with Bandit watching westerns. Though if Bandit wasn’t there, he would make the babysitter (probably Lucky) make multiple video calls so he could fuss over his dog. He would also get bored the fastest. He would start making cocktails based on people he knows. It would get ridiculous (and drunk-ish) very quickly.

Tataryn: He would take the time to catch up on his skincare regiment, beauty sleep, and knife sharpening. He would be responsible and check on Vo... And then he would start sending messages to Lucky making increasingly outrageous requests. It would start small like, “could you pick up my dry cleaning and some fresh pomegranates?” And escalate from there into “borrow the Mona Lisa” and “hand deliver this love letter to Captain Amari.” He would also make lots of calls to Kseniya, and make an effort to study whatever subject has caught her interest: the social behavior of lemurs, sourdough starters, and a new magical girl show.

Ziv: He can do his job in isolation. He’d probably revel in the luxury of getting to wear sweatpants and not having to dress up. He would also binge video games, movies, and play D&D or Shadowrun remotely with his internet friends. There is a chance that Ziv doesn’t actually need to be quarantined, but Gabriel just signed off on it for personal reasons.

Távio: He would be incredibly bored, sending increasingly desperate messages to his friends, until Lucky finally cobbled together a mission for him to plan remotely. “We need to breach this casino’s security. Coordinate with Ziv.” Which of course, would just turn his attention of Ziv and the two of them would keep each other busy. Of course, it could just as easily be, “help Amélie arrange the catering and entertainment for Captain Amari’s birthday luncheon,” or “talk to Reinhardt for an hour.”

Chang: She would chainsmoke and drink most of the time, possibly calling Jack once every other day to check on the situation. Yes, she would exercise too, but Chang’s idea of fun involves a lot more destruction than those facilities can handle.

Feng: Feng would be bored and manic, but she would be fine. Whose fault do you think this entire thing is anyway?

#overwatch headcanons #Overwatch HCs #drabble

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psycheswritings · 4 years

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Nothing’s Fair in Love and War - Eleven

Title: Nothing’s Fair in Love and War

Fandom: Peaky Blinders

Pairing: Thomas Shelby x Daphne Scott (OFC)

Warnings: Swearing, angst and mentions of death and war.

Word Count: 6018 (I know and I am sorry)

Author’s Note: Here we go again with another update. Hope you are all well and safe with this whole pandemic thing. Take care of yourselves and the people around you.

Not much to say about this chapter, so I am just going to show my gratitude towards @internalmess3 for being so kind and sweet and supporting me through the process of writing this chapter - you're incredible and I am so grateful to you! Thanks for everyone, EVERY SINGLE SOUL, who has been reading this fic and commenting/leaving likes. Seriously, that's what makes me keep writing and I LOVE to read your thougths about the plot and the characthers. Don't feel shy in coming talk to me.

You know the drill, if you find any mistakes feel free to report it back to me. Tags are at the end of the post and if you want to be added, let me know. Your feedback is highly appreciated. Happy reading.

WARNING: this fic (as most part of my works) is also been posted on FF and AO3.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Masterlist

Chapter Summary: Tommy meets Campbell to talk about the plans to kill the Field Marshall while Daphne is trying to adpat herself to living alone. She and William take a walk down memory lane, rememoring how they met and Tommy pays her a visit. The Brummie gangster negotiates with Alfie and they both end up discussing their feelings for Daphne.

Eleven

Tommy had told Lizzie to let Campbell into his office at the pretense that he was parking his car. It was the first time they would meet after his plan to make the Field Marshall leave his house got into work and he wanted to take the Irishman out of guard - and so he did.

“I keep everything locked up, Mr. Campbell. Everything of value.” Campbell looked up at him as he closed the door, a little more forcibly than necessary, on purpose. The man was rummaging through his desk and by the look on his face he certainly wasn’t expecting being caught. Tommy hang his coat, clearing his throat before walking towards the desk. “Take a seat.”

“How is your company treasurer, Polly?” The Irishman asked as he bypasses the desk to stand in the opposite side from Tommy.

“Why do you ask?”

“Oh. Just give her my regards.” Tommy finds the questioning odd but decides to brush it off as he searches for his cigar case, taking one and lightening it. “Ah! You like to play with fire, don't you, Mr. Shelby? Yesterday, in Belgravia, Field Marshall Russell's house was burnt out. An incendiary device was put through his letter box. Which means that he will have to find somewhere else to live for at least the next three months.”

“Which also means that your plan for me to break in and shoot him in his bed is no longer an operational possibility.” Tommy states what they both already know, calmly, a hint of a smirk on his face.

“Indeed, but if you think a wee burn frees you from your obligations, think again…”

“I will keep my side of the bargain.”

“Oh, by God, you will.”

“I will shoot your Field Marshal. But I will do it in a way that serves my purpose.” Campbell is still standing in front of him, both hands holding the cane, clearly riled up by the change of plans.

“The only purpose is my purpose.”

“I will carry out the assassination at a place of my choosing.” The Irishman takes a step towards the desk as he speaks.

“Listen to me. All operational detail must be mutually agreed…”

“I am a soldier of experience and I will determine where and when…”

“Now, that man has twenty-four-hour armed police protection…”

“Your plan was full of holes, Mr. Campbell.”

“My plan was mutually agreed!”

“And now your plan is up in smoke! And I have formulated the only viable alternative.”

“For God's sake. What do you mean? How would you get to him?” Tommy takes a drag from his cigarette, taking his time to answer.

“I won't. He'll come to me.”

“Now listen to me, Mr. Shelby. When this meeting is concluded I must report directly to Mr. Winston Churchill.”

“Your relationship with Mr. Churchill is not my concern.” The Brummie answers nonchalantly.

“And Mr. Winston Churchill will need to hear details.”

“Well, you tell him he'll have to trust me.” They glare at each other for a second, then Tommy speaks again. “Look, Mr. Campbell, I will carry out my mission.”

“Good.”

“Good. But I will do it in a place where it will be impossible for you or your men to have me shot afterwards.” Campbell shifts in his place. “Because that was your plan, eh? Coopers front and back. No way out. Me shot dead, dumped in the Thames. I will do the killing, but in a place where that will not be an option.”

“Where and when?”

“Epsom. Derby day.”

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After one week of living in the hotel Daphne decides to rent a flat. It’s the logical thing to do, she thinks to herself, so she can have more privacy and start doing things her way. Her relationship with Alfie was still strained and they were sticking to talk just about business because every time the topic changed they ended up fighting and it seemed that the both of them were tired of it. William and Harriet helped her accommodate in the new place.

She had been avoiding to talk about certain topics with Harriet because she knew how the woman was caught in the crossfire and a part of her, the one who still cared for Alfie, wanted him to have some sort of support system because if she knew him well enough, he was most certainly trying to pretend that everything was fine. Ada was out of town - they have talked over the phone and the Shelby sister assured Daphne that everything was alright between them - so she was relaying on the last person she had left - William.

Since their conversation at the hotel, their first one after she had left Alfie’s house, Daphne had been thinking about the things he said to her. She had been able to avoid the specific topic of her relationship with Tommy on the occasion but she was sure that it was just a matter of time until it come up again. Truth be told, she wasn’t even sure if they had a relationship of any sort because they never really talked about it. Actually, the last time they had seen each other the last thing they did was talk about anything.

“How’s Jane?” She was facing away from him, making tea for the both of them as he adjusted himself on the spare armchair by the fireplace. The flat was not big, everything was in the same room basically - her bed near the window, a little bedside table, a modest wardrobe and a dresser near the fireplace, two armchairs and a center table. There was a nice bathroom and a small kitchen just beside.

“Fine. They are getting used to things there but are happy together. She send you lots of love.” Daphne gave him the teacup and goes back to take her own before getting comfortable on her own armchair.

“Send my love to her when you write to her again.” They fell into a comfortable silence until he asked her.

“Have you talked to Thomas?” She averted his gaze, sinking into the chair.

“Will…”

“You've been avoiding the topic since the night we talked in the hotel.” Daphne was really hoping that her acting had been on point for him not to notice, but she was just so tired that it wasn’t all that surprising that she slipped onto her act. “He likes you.” Her hazel eyes searched for his blue ones and he laughed at her expression. “What? Did you really think I wouldn't notice?”

“I really hoped I wouldn’t have to talk to you about it.” She exhaled loudly, taking a sip of her tea and William takes a moment to observe her: she is looking to the fire, he knows it is because she doesn't want to look at him, her cheeks are still rosy from the cold, her fingers playing mindlessly with the hem of her dress, her legs tucked under her. It was easy to fall in love with her, he knew that more than anyone.

“Well, unfortunately for you, I am your better option right now.” Daphne looks at him again, sees his playful smile and sighs.

“We could always not talk about it.” William raises an eyebrow at her.

“Not an option.” He waits, patiently, as he always does, for her to get comfortable enough to talk. Sometimes, William wonders why she always seemed more willing to share things with him than with Harriet, for example, or even with his sister. Most women didn’t like to confide in a man like that. He should know better though, because Daphne was nothing but unusual in a lot of things.

“Do you remember the first time we met?”

“You're redirecting.” He scolded her and she laughed, sitting up straighter to face him better.

“I am not, I promise.” Daphne had already accepted her defeat because she knew he wasn’t going to give up, but she wanted to make him understand somethings that had been on her mind lately. Somethings that were very important for their relationship. William drank the rest of his tea, putting the teacup into the table and getting comfortable on his chair as he took a deep breath.

“I remember that you gave me quite a scold.” He smiled looking at her to see that she was doing the same. “We fought over what was the best way to treat a patient and you were so damn stubborn, standing there, hands on your hips, holding your ground and defending your opinion so fiercely.”

“I was right.” There was a smug look on her face and he just shook his head in annoyance.

“You were and even so Dr. Lewis choose to believe in me.” Daphne rolled her eyes and William smiled. He knew that she never really liked the old doctor.

“Of course he did. The man worshiped the ground you walked on just because you are a man.” She rolled her eyes before continuing. “And you were a prick just alright.”

“I was. Smug little thing, fresh out of college, I thought I knew better about everything and I certainly wasn’t looking for being proven wrong by a young nurse on my first day.” She remembered that, he was the talk of the hospital that morning and for the following days - the young hot doctor who had just arrived to help Dr. Lewis. Daphne had been there for almost a month, things had been going as smoothly as they could be but her mood was sour due to being away from her brother for so long.

At first, she had been excited about the new addition to the personnel, after all, all help was welcome - that is until she actually met William. She was treating a soldier with a severe injury and Dr. Lewis brought him to give his opinion on it. The first thing she noticed was how handsome he was and how young he looked but the niceties stopped there, because next thing they were arguing about the right treatment to apply and things just went down after that.

“You actually searched for me to try and convince me that your plan was better than mine.”

“And you snapped at me right away. I don’t think I had ever fought with a nurse before but you were having none of my shit.”

“You were used to just bat those eyelashes at them and have your way out of the discussion, weren’t you?” She smirked at him and William put his hand in front of his face, sighing. “Oh, sweetheart, you don’t have to tell me that. I am pretty sure that all the nurses thought I was crazy for fighting you that day. I certainly received lots of death glares on the corridors for weeks.”

“Matron certainly didn’t agreed with that because she gave me a hard time until we made amends.” William still remembers how much the older woman made his life difficult on the weeks right after his arrival.

“Harriet wouldn’t shut up about you and how I should give you a chance because you were ‘oh, so nice and gentle’.” She feigned an affected voice, then paused for a second looking directly at him. “And how I was going to fall for you if I did open up. I think I did, for a while.”

“Daph…”

“No, I have to say it for both our sakes.” They looked at each other for a long moment before she continued. “We never really talked about why I couldn’t stay with you and sometimes I feel selfish for keeping you around.”

“Then we both are being selfish because I didn’t wanted to lose you either.” She takes a deep breath, gets up from her seat collecting the teacups and walks to the kitchen, gets the bottle of whiskey from the counter along with two glasses and goes back to where he is, pouring them both a dose, offering one of the glasses to him and then getting comfortable on the armchair again. Daphne took a sip of the amber liquid, relishing on the way it burned her throat as she observed the fire crackling.

“I really fell for you at the time, you know.” Her voice was firm, as if she was trying to reassure herself and him at the same time.

“I know. You are good at pretending but not that much.” They smiled at each other and stayed in silence for a moment.

“And I really wish that things could have been different, that we could have gotten a better chance but you were right when you said that I didn’t wanted to live after Benjamin died. I just never let myself acknowledge that.”

“Nobody can blame you for that. I don’t blame you for that. After we came back, every time I saw Jane I thanked God for her being safe and remembered how you must feel everyday because of him.”

“I’m sorry for shutting you out and not giving us a chance. Most part of the time I am sorry for not letting you go.”

“It wasn’t your choice. Not entirely at least. I stayed because I love you and between being in your life as a friend or nothing at all I would always choose to stay. We already talked about that.” They did, in fact, when Daphne told him they couldn’t be together anymore, not as a couple, he had asked her if she wanted him to leave her life completely even if it would’ve been impossible at the time because they were serving at the same place. But she haven’t wanted him gone back then and she still didn’t want him gone now.

“I just don’t understand how I couldn’t love you the way you loved me back then but I can fall in love with another person now. It just doesn’t make sense and…”

“Hey, hey, hey. Stop that!” He kneeled in front of her, taking the glass of whiskey half drank from her hands and resting it on the table, holding both her hands in his, forcing her to look at him. “Love is not rational, Daph. I know we try to find some explanation, a reason for it but it doesn’t exist. We don’t choose who we love or in what moment we love them.”

“We could have been good together.”

“We are good together.” He smiled at her and squeezed her hand. “Just because we are not together as a couple it doesn't mean we don’t have a good relationship. We’ve been supporting each other all these years, you can’t say to me that this is not a good thing.”

“It is. You’re one of my best friends, always will be.” She smiled at him, remembering all the times he had been there for her. There was no denying how important he was in her life. William would always be a huge part of her history.

“Then talk to me. Don’t push me out because you think you’ll hurt me. I will say to you if something is too much but let me help you.”

“I don’t know what to say. Really.” Daphne sighed as she sank into the chair and William adjusted himself on the ground right in front of her. “The way I feel about Tommy is… different. He makes me feel things that I had never felt before. Things I didn’t wanted to know about.”

“Well, you’ve been avoiding it for years now, I really wouldn’t expect nothing less.”

“He’s everything I didn’t wanted for my life.” Problem, that’s what he was. A big, huge problem. William laughed and Daphne gave him a not so playful slap on the arm.

“Maybe he is exactly what you need him to be even if you haven’t realized it yet.” She looked at him, half closed eyes, a smirk on her lips.

“When did you got this wise?”

“You’ve been rubbing off on me.” William smiled at her and Daphne felt the urge to hug him, so she did, sliping from the armchair to sit on the ground with him.

“Why couldn’t I have stayed in love with you? Life would be a lot simpler.”

“That’s the thing, life is never simple.” The moment is interrupted by a knock on the door, so Daphne gets up to answer it and she has a hard time coming into terms with the person standing in front of her.

“Thomas?” William looks at the door after hearing the name, his eyes meting Tommy’s for a moment before he got up from the ground.

“Hope I am not interrupting anything.” His voice was devoid of emotion but Daphne notices the hint of displeasure on his face. William was faster than her to answer.

“No. I was heading out, already.” He was putting his coat on and heading to the door. “Mr. Shelby.” They shook hands briefly and the doctor turned to face her. “You’ll gonna be alright?”

“Yeah.” She nodded and he got closer, giving her a kiss on the check before heading out.

“See you tomorrow then.” Tommy takes a step to the side, giving space for him to get out of the flat. “Mr. Shelby.” The two men nod at each other and the gangster observes as William walks down the stairs before looking up at Daphne, who was observing him. After a moment of silence he asked.

“May I come in?” She stepped out of his way, opening the door more for him to enter. Tommy looked around, analysing the small space, noticing how it looked cozy, much like her. Daphne closed the door and walked towards the little table near the fireplace, taking both glasses laying there and walking to the small kitchen.

“Do you want tea? Or whiskey?” She turned to look at him and he just shook his head, denying her offer, stuffing his cap on one of his pockets.

“No, I am fine.” Neither of them said nothing for a long while. “Did you knew?” They both knew the answer to that and Tommy didn’t fail to notice the offended look on her face.

“Of course not.”

“Then that night, at Charles’s wedding, it wasn't just a way to distract me.” The look she gave him hit him harder than any slap he ever received and, for a moment, he almost regrets asking it, but after Grace he just had to be sure that what he was feeling for her wasn’t just one more thing that Solomons’s could use against him and his family.

“If you thought even for a moment that I would sell myself for something as simple as a decoy you’re clearly underestimating me.” Tommy isn’t accustomed to being held accountable by the things he says and when he does, he usually doesn’t care about what people feel about it. So it actually gets him by surprise how he always seems to find enticing the way Daphne always gets back at him for the things he says.

“You can’t really blame me, can you?” He walks to her, slow and deliberate, leaving her time to back off, which she doesn’t. When they are a breath apart, his cold fingers trace the skin below her neck and then lower, getting hold of the ever present pendant hanging on her neck. He pulls the locket out of the chancel of her dress, feeling the metal against his fingers and this time, different from the night of her birthday, he opens it. As he expected, there are two photographs there - a girl and a boy. “You’ve been hiding a lot of secrets, Senior Sister Scott.”

“Am not the only one, Sergeant Major Shelby.” All he wants to do is to close the distance between them and kiss her, like he had done at the library of the Weston’s house. Give in to desire and press her against the wall, have her right there, but there is something that holds him back. “My past is none of your concern.”

“Your past, your present, your future… I want them all to be of my concern.” The way she looks at him with half closed eyelids should be illegal and Tommy has to take a moment to put his thoughts on check again. “He is the reason why you said I couldn’t make you want things you can’t have?”

“Thomas…” Daphne closes her eyes, feeling trapped in his presence, she doesn’t think that she can talk about Benjamim with him, not yet.

“Because you don’t want to live without him.”

“Tom…”

“You think you don’t deserve to have a life without your twin.” Her hazel eyes focus on his blue ones, hands searching for support on his chest as Tommy holds her to him with his free hand.

“You know nothing about that.”

“I know enough.” She tries to walk away from him, but he is faster than her, releasing the open locket and holding her by the arms, keeping her close, forcing her to face him. “‘Can’t imagine the pain you feel.” Daphne’s resolution falters for a moment, her breath coming fast as if she had runned a mile, she feels her chest tightens as she tries to remembers the last time that she had let herself really feel the grieve.

“He was more than my brother, he was everything.” Her eyes close for a moment and the memories cloud her mind and she relieves all the times they skipped the music classes so they could run through the gardens, searching for a good spot to hide between the trees. How they always sneaked into each others rooms at night so they didn’t had to sleep alone. The way he always seemed to know what she was thinking before herself. Daphne searches for the locket, closing it and holding it between her fingers as she rests her forehead into Tommy’s shoulder, his hands travelling to her waist as they sway from side to side for a long moment.

“Why did you stayed with Alfie?” Daphne thinks for a moment but she already knows the answer, she has knew it for a long time.

“Because it was comfortable.”

“And I am not, so that’s why you’re fighting this.” She doesn’t answer, it’s not needed, they both know it’s the truth. The woman raises her head, looking at him again.

“Why are you fighting this?” There is a long pause where the only thing they hear is the crackling of the fire and the noises of the city outside.

“Because you deserve better than me.” Daphne sees nothing but truth in his ice cold blues.

“I think that is for me to decide.” And decide she does, standing on her tiptoes and closing the gap between them in a gentle kiss. As their lips move together all that Tommy can think about is how much he doesn’t deserve the woman in his arms. In that moment he too makes a decision, a decision that could change everything.

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“Did you one anyway, you ignorant git.” He doesn’t notice that Ada had entered the room until she places the cup of tea almost in front of him, turning to leave. That is the moment that Tommy raises his eyes from the paper in front of him.

“Ada, sit down here for a minute.” She does as he asks while he folds the letter and puts it on the envelope, linking it to seal. “Ada, if anything happens to me today, I need you to post this letter. The stamps already on. Don't ask any questions. It's…” He pauses for a moment as he takes the cigarette from the ashtray. “...to do with insurance.” Ada looks at him, a little disturbed by the information, picking the envelope from the table.

“Look, Tommy? Whatever it is you're involved in, just tell us. God, you never let anybody in. We love you, Tom.” His eyes search for hers in the moment and Ada seems to be in an internal battle to choose her next words so he picks the other envelope and holds it between them.

“This one you can hand over yourself.” Tommy sees the curiosity in her eyes turn into worry when she sees the name outside the envelope.

“What are you going to do, Tommy?” James enters the room and Tommy gets up, walking to the couch to pick his coat. “What are you doing up at six o'clock in the morning?”

“Ready?” He asks the young writer that nods at him.

“What the bloody hell's going on?” Ada asks, voice an octave higher.

“Little errand.” James answers her.

“What errand?”

“He just has to stand there, Ada.” Tommy adds as he picks his things..

“Stand where?”

“Let's go. Come on.” The older Shelby calls and James follows him out of the room, Ada a little behind them, talking exasperatedly.

“James, what's going on? Don't listen to him, James, he'll get you killed! What errand?”

“For the cause, Ada. The good old cause.” The young writer tells her as he and Tommy walk out the door. The two men walk the streets towards Camden Town and when they are approaching Alfie’s bakery Tommy says.

“For the next ten minutes, you don't do or say anything I haven't told you. All right?” Met with silence he asks again. “All right?” James confirms it just before they reach the doors.

“Hello, Ollie.” Tommy greets the young man as he heads to the door.

“Hang on. Just you, yeah? He stays out here.” Ollie admonishes and Tommy turns to James, pointing at him with his index finger and then at the ground, throwing his cigarette away as he does.

“You stay here.” The young writer stands there, looking around a little apprehensive, as Tommy follows Ollie inside. He stops, pretending to tie his shoe much to the annoyance of the young man, before they continue to Alfie’s office. The Jew barely acknowledges him as they enter the room - feet propped up on the desk, leaning back on his chair reading the paper - and Tommy takes a seat in front of him. He just talks when the phone starts ringing.

“That'll probably be for you, won't it?” Tommy gets up to answer the call.

“Hello? Arthur. You're out?” When the call is finished and Tommy sits back on the chair, Alfie straightens himself to look at the Brummie.

“Right, so that'll be your side of the street swept up, won't it? Where's mine? What you got for me?” Tommy takes the license from his suitcase and hands

“Signed by the Minister of the Empire himself.”

“Yeah?”

“Which means that you can put your rum in our shipments and no-one at Poplar Docks will lift a canvas.”

“You know what? I'm not even going to have my lawyer look at that.”

“No, no, it is all legal.”

“You know what, mate? I trust you. That is that. Done.” He straightens his hat and then turns to pick a bottle of whiskey. “So, whisky. There is one thing, though, however, that we do need to discuss.”

“What would that be?” Tommy asks, taking a drag of his cigarette as Alfie places the bottle on the desk, holding his glasses to his eyes and analysing the contract.

“It says here twenty percent paid to me of your export business.”

“As we agreed on the telephone.”

“No, no, no, no. See, I had my lawyer draw this up for us, just in case.” He places the new contract, that he just got from the drawer, right in front of Tommy, leaning on the desk to show it to the other man. “It says that here, that a hundred percent of your business goes to me.”

“I see.”

“Just there Don't worry about it, right. Cos it is totally legal, binding. All you have to do is sign the document and transfer the whole lot over to me.” Alfie reclines himself back on his chair, waiting for Tommy to sign the contract.

“Sign just here, is it?” The Brummie asks, calmly.

“Yeah.”

“I see. That's funny, that is.” Tommy says, taking a drag from his cigarette and pointing at the paper in front of him.

“What?” The Jew asks, confused.

“No, that's funny. I'll give you a hundred percent of my business?”

“Yeah!”

“Why?” Ollie, who had been standing there, fidgeting more than usual, points a gun towards Tommy, who looks at him unamused.

“Ollie, no. No. No. Ollie, no. Put that down.” Alfie takes the gun from Ollie’s hands and places it on the desk, as the younger man retreats to the background. “He understands. He understands. He's a big boy, he knows the road. Now, look, it's just non-fucking-negotiable. That is all you need to know, so all you have to do is sign the fucking contract. Right there.” The Jewish gangster taps with his finger where Tommy is supposed to sign.

“Just sign here.” Tommy says, before stubbing the cigarette on the ashtray.

“With your pen.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Get on with it.” Alfie encourages when the other gangster does nothing.

“I have an associate waiting for me at the door. I know, he looks like a choirboy but he is actually an anarchist from Kentish Town.”

“Tommy, I am going to fucking shoot you.”

“Right? Now, when I came in here, Mr. Solomons, I stopped to tie my shoelace Isn't that a fact, Ollie?” He looks at the younger man and then at Alfie again. “I stopped to tie my shoelace. And while I was doing it, I laid a hand grenade under one of your barrels. A mark fifteen with wire trip. My friend upstairs is like one of those anarchists that blew up Wall Street, you know? He's a professional. And he's in charge of the wire. If I don't walk out of that door by the stroke of seven, he's going to trigger the grenade and your very combustible rum will blow us all to hell. And I don't care ‘cos I am already dead.” Alfie scratches his beard, holding his glasses and analysing Tommy for a moment.

“He tied his lace, Alfie. And there is a kid at the door.” Ollie confirms.

“From a good family, too. Ollie, it is shocking what they become.” The Brummie remarks.

“What were you doing when this happened?” Alfie turns to face Ollie.

“He tied his lace. Nothing else.”

“Yeah. But what were you doing?”

“Marking the runners in the paper.” The young man seems embarrassed. There is a little noise of metal and Alfie turns to see Tommy with his pocket watch in hand.

“What are you doing?”

“Just checking the time. Carry on.” The Brummie show a hint of a smirk on his face. The Jew gangster takes the gun from the desk and hands it to his associate.

“Ollie, I want you to go outside and shoot that boy in the face from the good family.”

“Anyone walks through that door except me, he blows the grenade.” Tommy explains.

“He tied his fucking lace, Alfie.” Ollie becomes nervous by the second.

“I did tie my lace.”

“I bet hundred to one that you're fucking lying, mate. That's my money.” Alfie plays with the gun that he took away from Ollie’s hand.

“Well, you see, you have failed to consider the form. I did blow up my own pub for the insurance.”

“OK, right, well, considering the form, I would say, sixty five to one. Very good odds. And I would be more than happy and agree for you to sign over sixty five percent of your business to me. Thank you.”

“Sixty five? No deal.” Tommy looks at the younger man. “Ollie, what do you say?”

“Jesus Christ, Alfie. He tied his fucking lace. I saw him. Look, he planted a grenade. I know he did. Alfie, it is Tommy fucking Shelby.” Alfie gets up and hits Ollie in the face, holding him by the collar of his shirt.

“You are behaving like a fucking child. This is a man's world. Now, get that apron off and sit in the corner like a little boy. Fuck off. Now!” As Ollie does what he is told, Alfie checks his pocket watch and sits again.

“Four minutes.” Tommy says

“Right, four minutes. Talk to me about hand grenades.”

“The chalk mark on the barrel at knee height said, "Hamilton Christmas". I took out the pin and put it on the wire.” Tommy spins the pin between his fingers before putting it on the empty glass sitting on the desk. Alfie takes it to inspect.

“Based on this…” The Jew shows the pin to Tommy. “...forty five percent.”

“Thirty.”

“Aw, fuck off, Tommy. That's far too little.” He throws the pin at Tommy, who picks it up and starts to play with it.

“In France, Mr Solomons, when I was a tunneller. A clay kicker. A 1-7-9. I blew up Schwaben Hohe. Same kit I'm using today.”

“Funny that. I do know the 1-7-9 and I heard they all got buried.”

“Three of us dug ourselves out.”

“Like you're digging yourself out now.”

“Like I'm digging now.”

“Fuck me!” Alfie whispers, leaning into his chair. “Listen, I'll give you thirty five. That's your lot.” Tommy thinks for a moment.

“Thirty five.” Alfie spits on his hand, gettin up and offering it to Tommy, who does the same.

“Now you go out there, send the good boy from the good family home, and come back here, because we have other business to discuss.” Tommy nods, goes outside and sends James back home, when he comes back Alfie is alone in the office. He closes the door behind him, sitting down on the same chair he was some minutes ago. The both men contemplate the silence for a few minutes, the Jew is looking out to the window. “You probably already know about Benjamin, don’t you? ‘Know you’ve been doing your research on us for a while.”

“I do.”

“Do you know what he meant to her?” Alfie turns to face Tommy, elbows resting on the desk as he intertwined his fingers in front of him.

“I know he was her twin, yes.”

“He was more than that. They were everything for each other. I knew him. The boy served under my command til the day he died. Wouldn’t fucking shut up about her any chance he got. When I finally met Daphne it was as if I already knew her.” He remembers, clear as day, her hazel eyes looking back at him, fighting to hold back the tears, blood all over her nurse uniform. “I fucking promised him I would protect her. Now, we both know that neither of us are men of keeping their promises but this one, this one I intend to keep, because everytime I look into her eyes I believe, even for just a moment, that there is something good in this world. She suffered enough, deserves some happiness and I am not letting you ruin her chances at it. I am not letting you ruin her, Thomas.”

“I don’t plan on it.” Alfie scoffs at him.

“As you didn’t planned to fuck the beautiful blonde who came all the way from New York with her posh husband.” Tommy doesn’t show any signs of emotion but the Jew knows better. “Yeah, I know about her. The woman who betrayed you and then fucked off to America. Beautiful thing she is.”

“She is in the past.”

“Is she? Really?” Alfie restes his arms on the desk, leaning closer to the other man. “Because you’re sitting there telling me that you don’t plan on ruining Daphne but you are lying to her, ‘cause you were with the posh blonde some weeks ago.”

“It’s done. What I had with her is done now.” He pauses for a moment and Alfie just observes him without saying anything. “I know how much you care about Daphne and you have my word that I don’t intend to hurt her.”

“That’s the thing, mate, sometimes the things we don’t intend to find a way of happening.”

Tags: @stressedandbandobessed7771

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sealers100 · 4 years

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PART 2: A (brief) review of every Donald Sutherland movie (so far)

Wowee welcome back. Yes I’m still on this shit and I intend to finish it because this is probably the most fun I’ve had in quarantine apart from working night shift at a waffle house. (I wish I was kidding) I will admit this one might not be as long as the last post but I promised to deliver so here we go for part two.

Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors

I had way too much fun with this movie! The story was unique and entertaining with a creepy twist without being so scary I can’t sleep at night. It’s got not only Donald, but also Sir Christopher Lee AND Peter Cushing! Like you can’t get any more badass than that. The acting is pretty great and the music goes hard (there’s a whole segment about a musician and I’m nerding out). Donald is maybe 29 or 30 years old and its one of his earliest (his 4th) film credit and oh goodness his segment is just too much. This is definitely a must see for any Hammer Film fanatics or Sutherland fans, You’ll love it!

The Dirty Dozen

Talk about a throwback to my childhood. Again an old army movie I remember watching with my parents (however watching it again I probably shouldn’t have). The movie itself its great if your into things like Tora Tora Tora! and Kelly’s Heroes. Not a whole lot of Donald in it but what we do get it so worth it. For a “serious and professional” actor, he plays silly and weird soooooo well. I will admit this one isn't nearly as lighthearted as Donald’s scenes might make it seem. It’s an actual war movie with heavy emotions and lots of violence and is quite sad at the end (no spoilers don’t worry). It might not be one to make you cry but you can’t help feeling bad for his character. Personally I loved it but its a classic in my household so I’m a bit biased.

Start The Revolution Without Me

I quite literally choked on my coffee watching this one. Gene Wilder and Donald made a surprisingly hilarious pair and it worked so well!!! I already can’t get enough of Gene so of course this one is probably one of my all time favorite movies across the board. Basically its a switched at birth situation and takes place during the french revolution. I won’t give away too much but if you liked anything by Mel Brooks you’ll love this one. I really can’t say much without spoiling the funny bits but if you’re having a bad day, do what I did and curl up in your onesie with a bag of popcorn and let the laughter ensue.

Act of the Heart

(tw: self harm/suicide mention) Let me start out by telling you how hard it was fro me to find this damn movie and how ecstatic I was when I finally got to sit down and watch it. For anyone who doesn’t know me, my background is in vocal performance and I did a lot of work with the episcopal church in college as a soloist for churches, weddings, events and stuff so getting to see Donald as a CONCERT DIRECTOR just made my little heart explode. I was constantly geeking out at the musical parts and even got a bit of concert anxiety for the main character, Martha Hayes. She falls in love with him but of course he’s a priest (again) but this time he actually leaves the ministry for her. The movie itself is good (and the music gets my seal of approval as well) but there’s a quite a bit of triggering stuff so this one might be a bit difficult to watch for some. I will say some of these movies are quite hard to find and I had to scour the interwebs for them so if anyone wants a watch for anything on either of these lists, don’t be afraid to message me.

Little Murders

Okay so this one will be quite short because Donald is in it for a whole 10 minutes but he should have gotten a fucking oscar for it because I have never been so amazed and shocked by one of his roles as I was with this one. The movie is great if you’re into Elliot Gould (and his hair omg). But jesus Donald stole the ENTIRE MOVIE for that one brief scene. You can find clips of it on youtube just go watch it. Hell I’ll probably post it on my blog later. It’s honestly the best thing ever, and I want it played at my wedding.

Steelyard Blues

What is it with directors and casting Jane Fonda as a prostitute? I’ll never know but Donald probably had a hand in that decision because he’s the executive producer. The movie is not great by any means but its definitely not boring. Again something about him being silly and dumb he just does so well and its so jarring in this one how silly he can get. I quite enjoyed it actually and its a real change of pace for him because while I like his character, I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy for him like I did for character’s like Casanova. I mean really he doesn’t hold back in portraying Jesse Veldini as an absolute fucking moron but I think we’re supposed to laugh at his misfortunes because they genuinely are funny (I think I just like watching him suffer) And it’s really entertaining. Again, I think Donald could have easily had a career as comedic actor but it’s nice to see how easily he can switch moods.

S*P*Y*S*

Another Donald and Elliot movie and this one is pretty hilarious too. (I’m loving these funny feel good movies) The two of them are CIA spies who aren’t stupid but definitely got the short stick in their agreement with the Russians. The plot makes sense but the way it’s gone about doesn’t really click. The Dynamic between him and Elliot is always fantastic and fun to watch so it makes up for the lack of sense this movie makes. Sorry this one couldn’t be longer but there would be much to say without writing a synopsis and I’m too tired to do that for any of these.

Day of the Locust

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! I mean jesus christ this movie was a horror show. The film itself is fine, its a great movie, but oH mY GoD!!!! Let me start by saying I didn’t watch the final scene with him in this movie because its fucking brutal and I just knew it wasn’t gonna be the kind of thing I’d needed to see. (Or anyone) Yeah I’d issue a few trigger warnings for this movie. OKAY so Donald’s character is named Homer Simpson (I’m not kidding) and my god I thought I had low self esteem, he’s literally the saddest most miserable and lonely character I think I’ve ever seen him play and he gets used by Faye Greener (Karen Black) who can go sit on a cactus for all I care, I hate that she’s the main character and the way she treats Donald is HORRIBLE AND I HATE IT. God this movie messed me up for a straight week afterward and I’m still not over it. He cries a lot in this one and just stooooooop please I can’t take it I know his character isn't accurate to the book its based on but it just makes me feel bad for him seeing Donald’s character slowly being destroyed by the toxic people around him icanttakeitanymoremovingon.

The Eagle Has Landed

I don’t know the first thing about the animosity between the Irish and the English all I know is that they don’t get along sometimes and Donald’s character this time is I think a NAzi SymPathizer?? I could be wrong but he does help them try to kidnap Winston Churchill (weird). There’s a strangely deep romance between him an a 19 year old girl (uh?) but it doesn’t really come to fruition. Overall it’s a hell of a spy movie and with fantastic performances from Robert Duvall (no I wasn’t able to recognize him) and Michael Caine. It’s a fun movie and Donald’s accent is of course, awful (just the way I like it) and steals the show yet again.

The Disappearance

Interesting fact, Celandine (the main character’s wife) is actually played by Donald’s real life wife, Francine Racette. So it makes for quite an interesting dynamic between the two characters that feels very realistic. This is a hitman movie that takes place in I think Montreal (hard to imagine a lot of Canadian hitmen) And has a surreal feeling about it through the whole movie. Again this was a difficult one to find at first and there is actually two version. One being 80 minutes and the other being 100min. I’m not sure why it was split like this but I’ve seen both versions and they aren’t missing anything they’re just structured differently. It does feel a bit weird watching love scenes knowing that she is is actual wife but it does feel very realistic. Overall the movie is pretty good if you want to see lots of him and his wife. Don’t worry I’m sure their relationship is a lot better than what’s portrayed in the film!

National Lampoon’s Animal House

If you don’t know the story of Donald and this film, here it is. He was originally offered 2% of the films earnings to be in it. Thinking it would be a flop, he refused and asked for his usual flat rate of 45,000. The film was a his and his 2% could have easily been upward of 1.2 million, and this was back in 1978. He later quoted this as one of his biggest regrets of his career. Overall his scenes are quite short but oh so funny. (This list is either very serious or very funny) I like to imagine he put a lot of himself into this role. I definitely had some professors like him in college.

Threshold

Come to think of it, I watched this one so long ago I think I forgot to put it on the last list I did. I was really surprised by how genuine this movie felt. Like everyone really put a lot into this movie but it didn’t get nearly the recognition it deserved. Its a medical drama so that probably why, but it’s got an adorably young Jeff Goldblum and I can’t help but love him and Donald in every scene they’re in together. They play off each other pretty well most of the time and I didn’t really see anything wrong with this film other than it might have been on the lower end of filming budgets but it wasn’t a bad movie. It deserved better.

Ordeal by Innocence

I wish I could say the same for this movie. On it’s own its an alright film. On it’s own the soundtrack is fine too. But when the put the two together It was jarring as hell. The acting and story were okay and could have been fine alone but the soundtrack really broke any chance this film had of being taken seriously. I would have loved to seen it just on it’s own. Donald’s character is for once a genuine kind of ass that I really don’t like but it’s Agatha Christie, all her characters are assholes. This film really had potential but it shot itself point blank in the foot with the music.

A Time to Kill

Jumping forward to the 90′s, this movie is a classic based on a John Grisham novel and wow did I get invested! Donald isn’t in the film a whole lot but he does feel like an integral part of the plot and I really enjoyed him and Matthew Mcconaughey on screen together. Along with Samuel L. Jackson and Sandra Bullock. This movie is just fantastic and I normally don't like court dramas. Now what’s also interesting that not only is Donald in this one but so is Keifer. Sadly these two don’t share any scenes together and I don’t think they really got to work on set together except maybe once. Also Keifer’s character is a horrible racist. If anyone gets in your face about confederate flags being “heritage, not hate” show them this movie, Kiefer will take care of that one..

Space Cowboys

And last but not least, possibly my favorite one on this list. Everyone in this movie has the best film dynamic!! It’s funny, it’s endearing, and even kinda sad at times. The whole film feels genuine between all the lead characters, especially with them al being easily over the age of 65. As for Donald, He’s a smooth talking, dirty old man who hits on anything that moves but I’m sorry it just cracks me up. I don’t think this one should be taken too seriously but I just can’t help but fall in love with this movie. Cowboys, Space, Clint Eastwood and Tommy Lee Jones mean-mugging while Donald laughs and chases after women just makes my day.

Okay this one might have been a good bit longer than the last one so the reviews had to be a bit shorter this time. I would do some research for a lot fo the more serious film on these two lists just because I don’t have the time to issue trigger warnings for every film. I may put out a part three, at least I’m going to try to but I’m working 12 hour days lately so I don’t have as much time to watch stuff as I used to but I’m sure some of your guys do. If you’re having trouble finding a film don’t be afraid to let me know and I’ll do my best to hook you up with some *quality* content. I know I’m having a hell of a hard time finding his older credits and the movie Blood Relatives (at least a version in english) Let me know what you guys think, if you agree or disagree with my opinions. Have fun watching!

#Donald Sutherland #still not tagging every movie #I may end up with a dedicated side blog one day who knows #movies #film

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medea10 · 5 years

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Pokemon Sword & Shield Latest PV

Oh come now Medea, don’t you have something better to do than a shitpost for a game that’s not coming out for another 4 months?

Nope.

You have reviews backed up for miles including Aggretsuko, Dragon Ball Super, Tokyo Ghoul :re, and Ace Attorney.

Don’t care. Priorities.

Male is named Victor

Female is named Gloria

Pokemon, didn’t you learn your lesson from Black and White?

Stop making food into Pokemon! For one thing you’re making me hungry. Secondly, remember all the hate the Vanillite line got!

On the other hand, it’s cute! And fairy types get a pass because of cuteness. But what could possibly top cute food?

AAAAAAAAAAAH!

CORGLES! IT’S MY LITTLE BREADLOAF! EIN! LOOK AT IT’S CUTE LITTLE FACE! DON’T YOU WANT TO RUB UP AGAINST IT!

LOOK AT HIS CUTE LITTLE BUTT-WAG!

WHO’S A GOOD BOY?!

Seriously folks, I still don’t know what to name the little fella! This pokemon is going to have the longest-ass name officially from me (fuck # count). Winston Ein Corgles the Breadloaf.

Oh God, I know Ash will NEVER catch this cute little corgles. Because it’s an electric type and who needs any other electric type pokemon when you’ve got Pikachu?

BUT PLEASE, SWORD AND SHIELD ANIME (if it’s thy will for you to exist), PLEASE HAVE ONE OF THE OTHER PROTAGONISTS CATCH THIS LITTLE NUGGET!

Also...

Ball fetch ability. I know it’s new and everything. But if this little guy actually grabs men by the balls ala Handbanana style, I will just die.

“All I know is ‘Ball’ and ‘Good’...And ‘RAPE’!”

Oh balls, am I going to have to add a third middle name to this guy?

MEDEA, YOU ARE NOT NAMING YAMPER, HANDBANANA! END OF DISCUSSION!

Fine.

“Ball Fetch is a new Ability introduced in these titles, and it will come into play when you throw a Poké Ball at a wild Pokémon but fail to catch it. As long as Yamper isn’t holding an item, it will go fetch the first Poké Ball that failed to catch a Pokémon, regardless of what type of Poké Ball it is!”

I WANT THIS POKEMON IN MY LIFE!

What else we got?

Oh nice, we haven’t had a Steel/Dragon combo (that wasn’t legendary/mythical/some shit like that).

Abilities: Light Metal and Heavy Metal?

New rule: This pokemon’s official sound MUST be either a scream to come from Jamison Boaz or Marilyn Manson. I mention Boaz because I’m currently hooked on Aggretsuko. As for Manson...

He’s just my favorite is all! Point is, this pokemon’s sound needs to be an epic metal scream.

Oh this guy.

Mr. Unbeatable they say! Not for long bitch!

Unless of course we enter the Pokemon League and (womp womp) his whole team is all Level 100 when you go in expecting all of them to be Level 66 at the most.

But Game Freak couldn’t be that cruel.

Could they?

What the...?!

I’m suspicious. Next person please!

Mm-hmm.

I don’t trust either of you. No. Maybe it’s because I have severe distrust for men in power with young hoochies beside them.

Or maybe it’s because I’m picking up SEVERE shifty mother fucker vibes after watching one too many episodes of Inazuma Eleven.

But I don’t trust Chairman Rose. What does Pokemon.com say?

“Rose is the chairman of the Galar Pokémon League and also the president of a large business conglomerate. He’s made the Galar Pokémon League world-famous by implementing Gym Battles featuring the Dynamax phenomenon. He’s also the one who first endorsed Leon for the Gym Challenge. It seems he has quite the eye for talent!”

Nope. Still not trusting him. Let me put it to you this way, I trust Kyubey from Madoka Magica before I trust this guy.

OH HEY, ANOTHER BW REFERENCE HERE! Remember when each version for Black and White determined who you would fight in the final gym battle, Drayden or Iris? We’re doing it again!

If you purchase Pokemon Sword, in a certain gym battle, you fight against Bea (fighting-type trainer).

She looks like a combination of a NPC Girl Karate Master in past Pokemon games with a Danganronpa character.

And if you get Pokemon Shield, your opponent is...

A serial killer?

The newest character for Saw VII?

La Llorona?

The human form of Banette?

Well, I wasn’t expecting to piss myself today watching a Pokemon video but life has a funny way of giving me WTF moments to go over.

This is Allister, a ghost-type trainers. Um, what did Pokemon.com write for this fella.

“Allister is a talented Trainer of Ghost-type Pokémon who has taken on the mantle of the Ghost-type Gym Leader at a young age. He’s extremely shy and fearful, and he always hides his face with a mask when around other people. He rarely makes public appearances and apparently spends most of his time around ruins or in cemeteries.”

Definitely a human form of Banette.

I like that he has a Mimikyu.

Okay, enough with the trainers. How about this Attack on Titan we’ve got going on? What about these Gigantamax things?

Wow, that cake better not be a lie, Game Freak!

Seriously, I feel like I’m looking at Mami’s fight against Charlotte in Madoka Magica.

Okay, wow. A lot to mull over. First of all, elephant in the room. This game will screw us on the National Dex. Meaning, some pokemon will be unobtainable in this game. I know there’s a chance one of my top 6 are going in that scrap heap (and probably it’ll be the Oddish or Poliwag line knowing them). At least I saw Clefable in a past PV so I’m happy there.

Secondly, I am so happy they officially announced Yamper today! I know Pikachu or Mareep are usually my go-to electric pokemon. But I have to, have to, must, must, must freakin get Winston Corlges Ein Handbanana the Breadloaf.

#yamper #pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #allister #bea #chairman rose #alcremie #duraludon #leon #oleana

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unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years

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i’m very bemused about the developments (nothing really happened lol) re: riawin this episode..........

like naturally her implying like “oh you’re wholly unattractive to me of course” is. not the most encouraging and natch like, i guess overall my takeaway is to be like “well i guess i should brace myself harder for the intention re: this arc to just be that winston has a hopeless unrequited crush and rian thinks he’s alright but is wholly uninterested b/c why would anyone be interested lol” And Yet i still can’t write it off as [winston is just gonna be the butt of the joke as a cringe loser with a fail one-sided crush] b/c like. it still wasn’t entirely clear-cut??? and it’d be really easy to shoot him down even harder / have her be more obviously repulsed and >:/ about it or whatever

like a) complicating factor that nobody’s sober in this scene, though we can maybe read into it as both of them being a bit more Unfiltered than usual and b) complicating factor that it’s been made clear that rian likes to mess with him and has prior insulted him while not Really making it about dunking on him, i.e. her calling him a douche while arguing for him Not being fired, and here it’s like....his attention can’t be Completely cringe and fail to her, in that she’s like. fine to talk to him, obviously he’s at least not like, getting the [oh god the quant being interested in someone? how awful for them b/c that must be so gross and annoying / frustrating for them] and. at the very least rian seems not antagonized l o l.......not saying the most, but it would be Very plausible for billions to have gone that route of like. the Joke being that someone is dealing with the cringe quant’s fail romantic interest

aaaand again i’m moved Slightly more in the direction of “://// guess i’d better at least Expect it could very well just Stay a one-sided crush” like, keep that 60/40 or whatever lol, And Yet.......you’d think that it’d be 100/0 either way by now? as weird as it is that, if this is something that’s gonna Happen, we’re 3 eps in and nobody’s kissed b/c usually billions gets there in 2 episodes so that’s a hell of a slow burn, on the flip side it’s Also weird that we’re 3 episodes in and winston’s been crushing from the start and he hasn’t had that crush entirely shot down either? like, if billions was doing the “joke” of winston being a loser whose Interest / attention is Obviously unwanted and repulsive to whomever is the would-be recipient, it’s hardly cashing in on that joke very much? and it’s odd that this is being so drawn out lmao like. you’d think it’d have let that be a running joke of winston showing his [i have a crush] hand too much and rian going “ugh god” about it a few times and maybe finally dunking him into “I Am Clearly Completely Uninterested” zone but like......while this was, again, hardly encouraging, it hasn’t been That. aaand i’m not sure what billions would be saving that for?

like, even without the behind the scenes, info, 5x05 pretty clearly establishes Winston Has A Crush, and then their content in 5x06 isn’t very heartwarming but it still continues that, and here we have winston clearly like. seemingly not Not as taken with rian as ever even after that would-be disheartening exchange. sure, it Could just be like, putting the emphasis on being Hopelessly smitten or whatever lmao, but like, why are they continuing to set this up???? i suppose they might just at some point forget about it / drop the thread for no reason l o l but let’s assume they Don’t, billions isn’t the most prone to like. something like this being Built Up and then fading out quietly with no mention. so you know, either Relationship happens or a bit of heartbreak does. or i suppose it could be relevant in some totally coincidental way where like, the quant having Feelings plays into something that would otherwise be unrelated in an unexpected way. if this Isn’t unrequited, it’s taking a while to get there by billions standards for sure, and if it’s doomed, it’s Also taking a while to get there, and you’d think billions would lean harder into the Joke of winston’s crush being wholly unwanted and so cringe & fail of him or whatever

like ultimately this has all sure been Very set up and it’s sure weird we don’t really know where this [the Quants] plotline is going lmao like. made it v clear winston has a crush, and for What? which isn’t rhetorical like, seriously, for what lol. cuz going into this i’d’ve thought a) they’d get around to kissing already or b) winston and/or him having ~feelings~ for rian would not come up at all or c) he’d get fully shut down......and it was weird that it Did come up again but he was once more only kind of shut down but not out and out rejected? like, is this just a really slow burn, where she’s continuing to enjoy messing with him for the moment (we know she Knows he likes her and like, despite the lowered filter, it’s weird to arbitrarily bring up how hot you find something or someone or not l o l ....), or i suppose it’s possible she could like him Better as time goes on, billions doesn’t tend to wanna take its time with this stuff, but who knows, it Is taking its time with this one way or another. b/c otherwise like, this is a little mean of the show towards the character lol if the plan is for this to be a 4ever Unrequited Crush and he’s still pining 3 eps in and who knows how many more after this? not like billions has been too interested in being kind to winston, but s5 Has been better for him in some ways for sure, and again it *is* like. telling us for three episodes in a row “winston has a crush” like. okay and what’s going to come of that!!! if the “point” of dragging this out is just like. haha winston has a crush, what an idiot, then that’s like....mean to him lmao & you’d think if it was the point, billions would be Meaner about it, since like, all of s4 was like “look how Everyone is annoyed by winston and expressing this disdain for him and he doesn’t know how to have any social appeal, let’s dunk on him” lol.........and like, the even worse version of that i guess would be like, rian knows he likes her (which we know is true) and it’s entirely unrequited (which Might be true) and she likes messing with him (which seems to be true) and is just like, having fun using his crush as an avenue to thusly mess with him. which would not be nice. hopefully that’s not the case, b/c it doesn’t seem like rian does have any genuine contempt for winston or anything like that, and b/c i wouldn’t want her to be someone who does actually want to talk to him (which does seem to be true also lol) but whose Amusement with him (which has seemed 2 be harmless so far) is like. Does have a contemptuous streak to it where it’s like, she might not want to openly dunk on him or roll her eyes or tell him his metaphors are stupid or whatever, but it’d be more along the lines of like, the inherent Disrespect of viewing him as more a source of entertainment than as a person you’d want to connect with in any way. that would suck & it’d be mean of the show to be like “here’s someone who doesn’t hate winston from the start!!! but she just fundamentally dislikes him in a way that manifests entirely differently, actually” l o l..........this Worst Route would be so unnecessary in so many ways

anyways but yeah just writing out thoughts here and i’m like, well this episode all could’ve been worse lmao, and it’s just a little perplexing why this is The Third Episode In Which Winston Has A Crush and there just hasn’t been any resolution one way or another? like, what is the plan for this. rian kind of going out of her way to imply he’s wholly unappealing sure means that even if he’s clearly sweeter on her than ever that’s sort of......cancelled out by her first saying something about him Would be hot if it wasn’t him, and then by telling him she knows he likes her but just.....changing the subject lol..........like, why wasn’t he just smacked completely down in this episode. it wasn’t encouraging, i’m moving a step towards “well i guess it’s slightly more likely it’s meant to be Eternally Unrequited rather than a total coin toss” but i still don’t feel like it really tipped the scales either way and i wish it would’ve lmao like. if i *did* really think this was nailing the coffin shut i’d embrace that, would rather be bitter about it but have closure going into an indefinite hiatus than not. but this is still weirdly up in the air and yet they’re clearly like “this is a thing!!! winston having a crush on the rian is a thing!!! for these past three episodes” and that’s a long time in terms of Billions Arcs for us to Essentially be in the same place as the end of 5x05. if winston’s feelings aren’t returned and aren’t going to be at any point, why does his crush still matter? why not just let it be like, winston expresses his crush more clearly, rian more clearly lets him know it’s never gonna happen? if they Are gonna kiss or something, why is rian being quite as negative there lmao and why is it getting such a slowburn. it’s definitely a case where Winston’s Feelings Matter and don’t seem to be a total joke, which i appreciate, but i’d also appreciate some resolution here, is the tl;dr i suppose lmao

#winston billions #riawin #like if the poitn of this Was ''winston has a cringe crush and doesn't that just suck for rian'' i'd expect billions to be going about this #entirely differently really......but of course i'm not sure how to intepret how they Are going about it #guess we will hopefully see.........please.........#ugh in a timeline w/o an entire pandemic we. would not be on indefinite hiatus w/ over the final third of the season left to go.............#c'est comme ca. or whatever. im [just english] as well #with just enough [twice completing an app teaching mandarin] that i Do occasionally dream in Attempting To Speak It...to limited success #considering naturally that course of [intro to a language] was never meant to be like You Are Fluent Now.......

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mikumutual · 4 years

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answers aa themed questions nobody asked because i’m cool and sexy

also i havent played the 5th or 6th games so

YOUR FAVOURITE…? 1. Favourite Ace Attorney game? honestly? phoenix wright ace attorney! everything’s fresh, there aren’t many weak characters, and the plot is remarkable (especially the fifth case). the whole trilogy is really good as one unit though 2. Favourite case? 1-4, 1-5, 2-4, and 3-5 are tied lol, i can’t make a decision to save my life. 2-1 is really really funny tho 3. Favourite defendant? as a defendant, lana skye. as a person, edgeworth 4. Favourite prosecutor? as a prosecutor, franziska von karma. as a person, edgeworth 5. Favourite ship? wrightworth obviously... ive probably put more thought into them over the last 3 years than any other ship 6. Favourite victim? probably mia fey or gregory edgeworth... but for non-relevant victims, neil marshall :( 7. Favourite murderer? shelly de killer, i LOVE that guy. but dee vasquez was very cool as well 8. Favourite assistant? maya fey!!!!!!!!!! but i like kay faraday a lot too (im so sorry ema) 9. Favourite witness? adrian andrews... or maybe iris? i mean i didn’t like iris but god what a person 10. Favourite quote? “It doesn't matter how many underhanded tricks a person uses... The truth will always find a way to make itself known. The only thing we can do is to fight with the knowledge we hold and everything we have. Erasing the paradoxes one by one... It's never easy... We claw and scratch for every inch. But we will always eventually reach that one single truth. This I promise you.” - Miles Edgeworth i made this one of my senior quotes :]

YOUR LEAST FAVOURITE…? 11. Least favourite Ace Attorney game? uh fucking apollo justice. literally what the hell was that 12. Least favourite case? turnabout visitor wasn’t very strong? i guess it’s fine as an intro, but it’s also wonky with the timeline of aai 13. Least favourite defendant? max galactica. he’s better in the anime though 14. Least favourite prosecutor? manfred von karma, obviously. i like every other prosecutor (who i know of) though, even winston payne is pretty funny in hindsight 15. Least favourite ship? “miles edgeworth/female oc”. there are a lot of bad ships though, mostly involving phoenix & his assistants. dont do that please 16. Least favourite victim? zak gramarye for kickstarting that shitty, shitty game 17. Least favourite murderer? again mvk... but also fucking frank sahwit LMAO 18. Least favourite assistant? i guess trucy 19. Least favourite witness? fuck everyone from turnabout big top unless it was the anime episode 20. Least favourite memory of Ace Attorney? repeatedly trying and failing to download the emulator for aai2 hbjsjhdb i eventually got it but someone had to send me the download fully pre-patched and i felt kinda useless DO YOU PREFER…? 21. Phoenix Wright or Apollo Justice? phoenix wright. fuck that “GOTCHA!” mechanic jesus christ 22. Maya Fey or Trucy Wright? maya fey. nothing personal against trucy but i just dont like aj hbjsdjhsdb also maya is really sweet and fun and she has the best sprites. she seems like she’d be a good friend, it’s too bad that she doesn’t have the time for them as a spirit medium and all :( if maya ema and kay got to hang out together itd be wild 23. Investigations or trials? trials are easier in my opinion because investigations have several things you could be doing without such a linear style, so if you miss something, you won’t really know until you wander around forever 24. College Phoenix or Hobo Phoenix? college feenie!!!!! he’s like trilogy feenie but more emotional and less witty. i like to pretend that hobo phoenix doesnt exist 25. Klavier Gavin or Kristoph Gavin? who would say kristoph 26. Ace Attorney or Ace Attorney Investigations? ace attorney but only because phoenix is in it lmao. im actually rewatching a playthrough of aai now, and playing aai2 at the same time, so while it is on the mind, i feel like the cases characters and mechanics - while loved - don’t hold up to the OGs 27. Apollo’s perceive, Phoenix’s magatama, or Athena’s Mood Matrix? i actually kinda like the mood matrix more than anything because it has a really good UI and the magatama is kinda grating. but FUCK the gotcha mechanic it is SO FUCKING STUPID and IMPOSSIBLE TO USE. where is logic chess 28. Ace Attorney trilogy or Apollo Justice and Dual Destinies? you already know my answer to this one 29. 3D models or sprites? i do like the 3d models a lot but i like the original sprites more! imo original pixel sprites > 3D models > HD sprites. mostly bc the hd sprites are garbage (see here, here, and here) 30. Ema Skye as she is in Rise from the Ashes or Ema Skye as she is in Apollo Justice? rfta !!!!!! shes actually really nice as an assistant, esp considering the fact that we actually see her interact with her sister, which is something maya didn’t have very often. also her random appearance in aai was well appreciated by me

MISCELLANEOUS 31. Did you like what they did to Phoenix in Apollo Justice?

NO I AM SO FUCKING MAD WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT TO HIM ISN’T HE A LAWYER WHY COULD HE NOT JUST DEFEND HIMSELF FROM THE FACT THAT HE “FORGED EVIDENCE” IT WASN’T EVEN HIS IN THE FIRST PLACE SOMEBODY ELSE FORGED IT AND HE DIDN’T KNOW THAT, MANFRED VON KARMA GOT AWAY WITH A FUCKLOAD OF NONSENSE AND SO DOES EVERY OTHER LAWYER SO WHY IS IT THAT PHOENIX CAN SURVIVE EATING A POISONED GLASS NECKLACE AND GETTING HIT OVER THE HEAD WITH A FIRE EXTINGUISHER AND FALLING FROM A BURNING BRIDGE INTO A RUSHING RAVINE AND BEING HIT BY A CAR BUT HE CAN’T FUCKING DEFEND HIMSELF LIKE HE DOES IN EVERY OTHER CASE BECAUSE THAT’S THE POINT OF THE GAME AND ALSO HIS ENTIRE CHARACTER

32. Your opinion on Dai Gyakuten Saiban? haven’t played it! it looks pretty cool though

33. Do you think Dai Gyakuten Saiban and/or Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2 will get localised to the West? doubt it, since the creators have said that it won’t be. but the fan translations are pretty good, so i think it’s okay

34. Do you think Miles Edgeworth should get another Investigation-game or do you think another character deserves a spin-off? i mean he already has two, so i guess he doesn’t need another? like i love edgeworth but he’s not as fun without phoenix around. ngl i would play a franziska game. or a maya game, or any spinoff revolving around a side character. hell i’d play hotti game if it meant it took place in the trilogy era

35. Opinion on the soundtrack of the Ace Attorney-franchise? REALLY good. really really good. i love how each game of the trilogy has different composers but each track has the same theme and feel!!!

36. Do you like where the franchise is heading or did you prefer the atmosphere in the original trilogy? seriously absolutely completely prefer the trilogy. i’m sorry but the rush of youth and trust is way, way more enjoyable than whatever “i’m 35 and therefore middle aged” nonsense is happening in the 2020s

37. Capcom suddenly announces that Phoenix will no longer appear in the Ace Attorney franchise! Your reaction? He’s been replaced by Penny Nichols. Fuck you.

38. Capcom suddenly announces that the Ace Attorney franchise has ended for good! Your reaction? it was me i ended it

39. Would you like there to be another Ace Attorney/Professor Layton crossover game? i didnt play it but i really like the idea!!!!!! aa crossover games are really funny to me, i mean have you seen edgeworth in project x zone 2, lmao

40. Would you like an Ace Attorney anime? we have one now! honestly i don’t think it did a very good job of representing the cases, but it did do a good character remix of turnabout big top so that they’re not creepy anymore. they also did a really good job with the anime-specific cases, like the one on the train! it feels a lot better paced when it’s intended for that medium rather than just adapted. also the childhood episodes made me cry

41. Opinion on anime cutscenes in Ace Attorney? like in 5 and 6? mm, the art style is kinda weird, and i don’t really like the voices, but i guess not everything can be pachinko and prozd

42. Would you want to play an Ace Attorney game where you take on the prosecutor’s role? YEAH ACTUALLY!!!!!! it might be kinda weird being on the right side of the screen though lmao

43. Do you like having DLC in Ace Attorney-games? uhhh i hate having to buy extra things, but i’ll admit that they are pretty funny

44. Opinion on Lamiroir’s storyline? i only played aj so if shes in other games idk but i thought she was fine

45. One thing you think the Ace Attorney games can improve on? stop having creepy characters please. also jesus christ if phoenix and edgeworth arent wearing rings in aa7 i will become the ceo of capcom myself

46. Capcom suddenly announces an Ace Attorney movie! Would you like it to be based on an already existing case or would you like an all new storyline? i mean the musical did a pretty good job of adapting existing cases, so it might as well be new. it would be kinda hard to balance the games’ timeline & character development without being repetitive or an au

47. Capcom suddenly announces an Ace Attorney movie! Would you prefer it being live-action, 3D animated or 2D animated? stylized 2D animation, probably? i would want it to feel more like into the spiderverse than an anime, though. in my dream ace attorney movie, they’d just need a high art budget, several plausible deniability wrightworth scenes, and prozd to voice edgeworth

48. If there could be an Ace Attorney crossover with whatever franchise you’d like, which one would you choose? (Does not need to be a video-game franchise) your turn to die is probably closest in characterization, although its premise is more “locked in a room” than the open-world investigation of aa

49. Opinion on recurring witnesses? (Wendy Oldbag, Lotta Hart, Larry Butz, etc.) honestly, i like them a lot! i don’t know why people hate them so much - i mean, i know lotta lied, and wendy is a horrible old flirt, and larry just kinda sucks all around. but they’re also pretty funny to have around! larry is a constant comic relief who reminds you how much better nick & edgey are in comparison, lotta is likeable as a general character (like in 2-4, although yeah, not remarkable), and wendy oldbag is really funny. she’s so fucking funny. none of you appreciate wendy oldbag’s quirks and you are SLEEPING ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

50. Do you think Dual Destinies deserved its M-rating? no idea, holy shit, it got an m-rating? i mean every game before it has had blood violence and very mild swearing, and since DD probably doesnt have anything too sexually risqué, i doubt it deserves a rating any harsher than the rest of the series

okay thanks thats all

#this was fun hbjsdsdj #yea i love the trilogy #also my theme makes all everything lowercase for some reason? so this is probably easier to read on mobile #ace attorney

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what-stop-the-presses-rly-means · 5 years

Text

Bye, Bye, Sugar Blue Eyes part 3

Race x female reader modern au.

Warnings: some mild swearing

Part 1, 2, x, 4, 5, 6

A/N: The first few chapters are dedicated to everyone’s background stories and all the set up. Race will finally come into the story soon, I promise.

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

It’s been a month since I officially started my new job. The first couple of days were a struggle, trying to fit into my new life. But it’s gotten easier. I’ve gotten to know the boys a little more and most of them have accepted me well enough. There are still one or two tough nuts, but I like a challenge.

It was just a couple days after that first meeting that I was moving all of my things into the building. The boys were a big help, acting all tough and carrying the heavier boxes up the stairs. Jack and I laughed as they got to the top and opened the box, wondering just what I owned that could possibly weigh that much. Their flabbergasted looks when they discovered it was a bunch of books was priceless.

“Who needs this many anyway? Buy a Kindle!” a boy named Winston said.

My room was at the end of the hall, across from what I learned was Race’s room. It was fairly big with the same beautiful hardwood floors, a window with an amazing view of the city, and its own bathroom. It was a lot more than I had expected.

As if he could read my thoughts, Jack spoke up. “Only the best for the brave woman who’s decided to take on the Herculean task of taking care of fifteen boys. It’s the least we could do for you. I know this is gonna be a big change and that can be a little scary, but you’re gonna do great. We all have faith in you. So we’re gonna move the rest of your stuff in here, get you situated, you’ll get a good night’s sleep, and you’re gonna kick ass tomorrow, yeah?” I was very grateful for his constant words of encouragement. He could do that kind of thing for a living, I swear.

That first day was so nerve-wracking for me. I woke up insanely early, afraid I’d sleep through my alarm. As I got ready for the day I sang any and all happy songs that popped in my head to calm my nerves. That became a habit for awhile, and then got integrated into my daily routine. Now it’s just a good way to start my day off in a happy manner.

The first thing on my to-do list was wake up all the boys and get them ready for school. Which proved to be easier said than done. I opened the door to the younger boys’ room and turned on the light.

“Wakey, wakey, boys!” They all started to stir and rub their eyes. “Let’s get up and get ready for school. I’ll bet Al will have a nice breakfast for all of you by the time you’re done.” I gave them their privacy to get dressed as I went over to the older boys’ room. Turning on the light, I was met with more exaggerated reactions. They all groaned and threw the blankets over their heads.

“Good morniiiing! Now, I know you guys don’t want to, but we’re legally obligated to send you to school so let’s not make this any harder than it has to be, okay?” I walked out into the hall and didn’t hear any movement from the other room so I knocked.

“Boys? You getting dressed?” No response. “Okay, I’m coming in.” I covered my eyes and opened the door. “Are you all decent?” Still no response. I opened my eyes to see them all still in bed. “Seriously? And someone had enough energy to get up to turn off the light but not stay up?” I shook my head. I walked over to the other room to see someone had done the same thing. I let out an exasperated sigh as I thought of what to do.

Then an idea came to me. It may be a little risky but I couldn’t think of anything better. I let out a shriek and collapsed to the floor with a loud thud. I laid there with my eyes closed for a few seconds before I heard people approaching. When I opened my eyes I saw the boys coming out of their rooms to check on me. Then I stood up and smiled.

“Good! You’re up! Might as well wash up and get dressed while you’re at it!” They looked confused and a little angry but did as they were told. I didn’t have much time for self-congratulation as I heard someone start clapping behind me. Turning around, I saw Davey at the top of the stairs, smirking.

“Good job. That’s probably the quickest anyone’s ever gotten them out of bed. But I’d be careful. Use that tactic one too many times and they might not come running to help if you ever are in danger.”

“Duly noted. I’ll only use that one as a last resort.” I opened my planner to check off my list.

“Look at you, all organized and ready to take on the day,” Davey joked.

“You expect me to keep track of a zoo of boys without writing it all down?”

“No, I suppose not. It’s just refreshing having someone else here who’s a little more in the way of a professional. The other guys kinda like to go with the flow. Which works for them, and that’s great, but sometimes I need to remind them that we are, in fact, in charge of fifteen human lives and we need to act accordingly.” That made me laugh.

“Well thanks. I like to be prepared in the best of times, let alone whatever is gonna come my way at this job. So! After breakfast I need to walk them to the bus stop. All but…”

“All but Ollie, Gus, and Tex. They stay here and start lessons with me at 8:30. Hmm, I haven’t showed you the classroom yet, have I?” I shook my head. “Well then, while they’re getting ready I can give you the tour.” He walked down the hall into one of the rooms I’d never been in. The sun was shining through the window, making it light up. I looked around at the art hung on the walls and the motivational posters. It looked like a real classroom, very vibrant and full of life.

“Wow, you go all out.”

“I wanted it to be an authentic experience for them. They already feel different, living here, so I treat them exactly as I would if I was still teaching in public school. They just need a little extra attention to get some of the lessons through to them and they wouldn’t get that being in a big class. So I’m happy to put my skills to good use. When Jack first brought up the idea of running this place, naturally, I was skeptical. It’s a lot of responsibility and I feel like we’re all still kids just like these boys. Besides, I didn’t know what I’d be bringing to the table, other than the money, and I didn’t even have that much to give. But once I met those boys, I saw all of my friends in them. They needed someone to stick up for them, to help them when everyone else gave up. I vowed not to give up.”

I sat on one of the desks, looking around and then smiling at him. “And you haven’t. And because you and your friends haven’t given up, these boys still have a chance. The details don’t matter. What matters is that you care and you provide what you can to make sure they have good lives. What more could we ask of you?”

Davey looked down at his shoes, a little teary eyed. “Thank you. It’s funny, I didn’t know what I was gonna do. But Jack found out that I could do the homeschooling thing. That’s happened a lot along the way. We don’t know what’s gonna happen or how we’re gonna get by, but eventually we figure it out and things work out. As you can probably tell, I don’t like the unknown; I don’t like not having a plan. But that’s kinda been our thing. Jack always seems like he’s got it all figured out, or at the very least he has complete faith that things will work out someway or another. I wish he’d share his secret. I wanna know how to not worry and just do. I wish I was more like him.” He takes a deep breath. “Maybe that’s what you can ask of me. To be more like Jack.”

He looked so defeated, I couldn’t not say something. “Look, I don’t know you guys all that well just yet, but I can say with confidence that you’re dead wrong.” He looked confused. “I’m sure Jack portrays that level-headedness well and he seems like he’s sure of himself, but I’d bet my first paycheck that he’s also secretly freaking out all the time. If not, then that would mean he didn’t care about this place and those boys like the rest of you do. And I know he does. He’s not this perfect, calm and collected person. He’s just good at faking it. That’s what we all do as adults, isn’t it? You said it yourself, we still feel like we’re kids. That never fully goes away, I think. We just get better and better at pretending to know what we’re doing.” He seemed to be thinking really hard. He was looking down at his shoes again, so I got up and pulled him over to the front of the room, then sat at one of the desks.

“Yeah, that seems perfect. That’s what you’re supposed to be doing. And Jack seems to be doing what he’s meant to do. No one should ever ask someone to be more like someone else. You’re you, and Jack’s Jack. That’s how it’s supposed to be. Maybe that’s why your dynamic works so much. He doesn’t look before he leaps, and sometimes that’s needed in certain situations. But for the instances that need some thought, you’re there to hold him back and think things through. It’s worked so far, right? You’ve been running this place for two years and those boys seem happy. So why change the dynamic? If it ain’t broke…”

He started to say something, but the sound of some of the boys running down the stairs cut him off.

He smiled. “Looks like it’s time for breakfast. We should join them.” I started walking to the door when he caught my arm. “Thank you. Really. You seem to be really good at healing all of our past wounds and insecurities. Maybe that’s what you’re meant to do.”

I blushed at the compliment. “Well, if that’s true, I’ll fit right in here. We’re all helping each other.” We shared a smile and walked downstairs.

Breakfast was pretty hectic, but that was to be expected. As I had predicted, Albert had a big meal prepared, but I didn’t eat much. I was still running on adrenaline and nerves. Looking around, it seemed like the boys had forgiven me for my prank. Now they seem more lively, playing with their food and laughing and making jokes. I couldn’t help but admire the scene before me.

I didn’t get to admire for long when a piece of bacon came hurtling toward my head. The boys across from me went silent.

“Sorry, Miss (Y/N), that wasn’t meant for you,” Peter said sheepishly. “I was aiming for Ollie.” I looked over to the boy he mentioned. He quickly ducked his head down. I learned early on that some of the boys gave themselves “gang names” like Jack and his friends did. They like to call this one Ollie Oxenfree because he was shy and always hiding. I found it kind of endearing. I smiled down at him, reassuringly.

I turned back, shaking the bacon out of my hair. “Not a problem, Sweet Pea. Now I can tell all my friends I’ve actually seen a pig fly!” The boys giggled at that. “But let’s keep the food on the plates, huh?” They nodded and went back to eating.

I looked down the table, to where Rider was sitting. He pushed some scrambled eggs around with his fork, looking like he had no intention of eating them. I had a feeling Albert spooned them on his plate for good measure, trying to get him to eat something. I wasn’t sure how to approach him. From what I’ve heard, he was a bit of a mystery when it came to getting through to him. I’d tried being nice and making jokes and he didn’t respond well to that. Maybe it was time for a new tactic.

When it was time to leave I made sure every boy had a coat on and a bookbag. I ushered them down the sidewalk, planner in hand.

“Okay, younger boys are on the 7:30 bus and the three high school boys are on the 7:40. Check.” The first bus was right on time and I got the boys on it with no problems. That left me to stand awkwardly with the older boys.

“I don’t wanna ride the bus, that’s lame. I’ll just walk.” I hadn’t expected Rider to say anything to me this early in the day. But it gave me an opportunity to try to reason with him.

“Oh no you won’t. Who knows where you’ll end up! And I can’t lose one of you on my first day, it’ll make me look really bad,” I laughed.

“Come on, Race let me walk sometimes.”

“Okay, 1.) I doubt that and 2.) Even if he did, I’m not Race, as I’ve stated many times before. I know you’re close to him, and that’s great, but you can’t keep pulling this crap because you’re upset he’s gone for the time being. He will be back and we’ll all be happy when that happens, but for now I need you to listen to me. So get on that bus, because I won’t hesitate to personally drive you to school. And I’ll get out and hug you like a doting mother in front of all your classmates. Don’t test me.” We stood there, staring at each other for a moment. This was the second risky move I’ve made on the first day and I was kind of worried that I went too far with this one.

Rider slowly gave me a small smile. “You may not be him… but you sound like him. He doesn’t take shit from anyone either.”

“Make sure to watch the language for when the little ones are around.”

“Okay, I’ll ride the bus.” He paused. “Thanks. You know, for actually caring.”

I wasn’t expecting that. “Yeah… no problem. Hey, if you need to talk to someone, I’m always around. Don’t hesitate, okay?” He looked like he was going to respond, but closed his mouth in a tight smile and nodded, quickly turning around and walking toward the bus that just pulled up. The other boys silently followed.

I watched as the bus drove away, and stood there for a while after it was gone. It wasn’t even 8 am on my first day, but I feel like I’ve already jumped a pretty big hurdle. And as I turned to walk back, I couldn’t help thinking that this job may not be so scary after all.

Tag list:

@technically-whizzy

@sunshine-e-cigarettes

@bencookisagod

#newsies #race higgins #race higgins x reader #mine #look! i wrote something!#bye bye sugar blue eyes

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mama-mercyyyy · 5 years

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Hello, hi, yes I’m alive.

Yes I know this was posted before the game was even out I’m pretty sure, and I hope they have changed their viewpoint on this now, but I’m still going to rant about this.

tl;dr at the end. This is quite the rant I have.

First of all, “doing women better?” Most of their games are targeted at male players, of course they’re going to make their female characters sexy af. I, a female, don’t want to look at “ugly” or “normal” females. I want them to look very nice as well. And, as for the male characters, none of them are fat. They are short, tall, a literal gorilla, etc. but none of them are fat, except Roadhog, but there’s also a chubby female, Mei, so it balances out. All of the males, almost, are pretty sexy and muscular as well, but I don’t hear anyone complaining about that. I want to look at good looking characters. Not just average normal people.

Oh boo-hoo 5 out of 12. That is perfectly fine, and I don’t know for sure, but I think Blizzard has kept the male:female ratio pretty close to half and half so this point gets thrown out the window.

And I also want to make this clear. ALL FEMALES HAVE BOOBS. AND GUYS LIKE THEM. VIDEO GAMES HAVE BEEN TARGETED AT MALES FOR A VERY LONG TIME NOW. I didn’t know if some people realized this.

The fact that this author just assumed that the female characters are uninteresting is pretty sexist in of its self, don’t you think? But seriously, I doubt that they even looked into any of their backstories if they didn’t even bother looking up their names. I don’t have anything to say. Anyone who knows the game know they all have some pretty sick backstories, or hopefully will get just even a backstory at all *cough* Zen *cough cough* Mercy *cough*

I think it’s so dumb to complain how all the women are so slim when they are basically in the military. Mercy is a combat medic, Tracer is in the field all the time, Widow is an agile sniper, and Pharah is a literal soldier. They cannot be overweight. They will not be able to keep up. I know I’m going to get called “fatphobic” for this but it’s the truth. I can understand putting more muscle on some of them, but not making them chubby or fat.

Again complaining about boobs and thighs being shown to a male dominated market. Sorry but that just what guys have always liked. All the way back to the very beginning of the human race.

Let’s skip all the way to where they redesign the characters to be “better.” They have no idea about anything in this game so I’m going to skip over the fact that McCree is as American as anyone can get and that Torb is as Swedish as anyone can get, and that they want to make Winston a female, and get right into the juicy stuff. Is Mercy’s waist impossibly small? Yes. Do I care? No. It’s art. Oh also, “Mercy is an angel character with blonde hair. Which. NO. We’ve been over this. Always having angels be blond is some creepy white supremacy bullshit, okay?” Okay, what? How? Why? Should I read the article they linked about this? I think yes. I will do that now.

It explained nothing to me. How surprising. Anyway, fat Widowmaker. Just no. It makes no sense. She is a sniper. She cannot be overweight. She needs to be agile and quick. Like all of the other women in military like roles. Quick explanation for that one, let’s move on. The author is so upset about Sym not wearing pants. MAYBE SHE DOESN’T WANT TO WEAR PANTS. WHO EVER WANTS TO WEAR PANTS? ONLY PSYCHOPATHS I’M PRETTY SURE. Ahem, moving on.

Lastly, the author liked mostly everything about Tracer EXCEPT the fact that on her statue Blizzard sells you can see her butt. Oh no. Scary I know.

tl;dr This article is pretty pathetic. The author is obviously grabbing at straws to get mad at Blizzard, as it seems they have a vendetta against them. All of her points fall apart with a tiny bit of research, to which the author basically admits to not caring enough to do, and common sense. Blizzard is not sexist and has done nothing wrong in the sense of their female characters in Overwatch. Gameplay is another topic though.

No hate toward the author, though I hope they changed their mindset towards some things by now, 3 years later. I know it might seem like I got heated in this rant, I did a bit, but it’s not toward the author or anyone who feels the same. I disagree with you, but that doesn’t mean we need to yell or get angry at each other. We can have a calm discussion if you’d like, as long as we can both talk like mature human beings. Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong!

Thank you for making it this far and watching me get frustrated about characters in a video game. I hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings too bad, but it’s all in good fun, I don’t mean anything that would have hurt your feelings, it’s nothing personal towards anyone but the words on the page. :)

More art hopefully coming soon!

#overwatch #mercy #overwatch mercy #angela ziegler #overwatch tracer #tracer #lena oxton #widowmaker #amelie lacroix #symettra #overwatch characters #overwatch females #feminism #sexism #video games #rant #sorry needed to rant #old article #mamarant

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dolphiana · 5 years

Text

Rant-Review :|

Beware my raaaaant...ye be warned. XP

Soooo, some time ago I read William Joyce's new „Guardians of Childhood“ book about Jack Frost. I had been waiting for it to be released for one whole year and couldn't wait until I finally had it in my hands. Started reading it on the same day, all excited and happy...and couldn't continue after the first 100 pages because just, nope.

I wanted and expected to like it, but it just wasn't possible. With every page my smile transformed more and more into a frown and I wondered wtf was going on.

First, I know Joyce's books are different than the characters in „Rise of the Guardians“, different backstories, looks, etc. To be honest that's why I hadn't read the other books, I fell in love with the characters from the movie and liked them exactly the way they are there. I know the basic plot of the books and I got Joyce's picture book about Jack which he released several years ago. There his backstory was COMPLETELY different already, but at least the happenings after he emerged from the frozen lake stayed the same, so okay, I could live with that.

Now, the main reason I felt fooled with the new book was that the cover clearly showed RotG-Jack, clearly aiming at people who had watched the movie. If there had been a cover in Joyce's style with Jack looking different I would have expected the book to be different as well. And since the book came AFTER the movie I unfortunately expected it to follow the movie plot more.

If you haven't read the other books you have NO idea wtf is going on. It's written in a way that requires the reader to know exactly what happened in the older books. But okay, my fault, didn't read those.

Quick summary before I continue, the book takes place during the Great Depression in the early 20th century. The final battle against Pitch hasn't been that long ago and he seeks revenge. The guardians and Jack aren't really a team yet and went separate ways. Jack has fought with Sandy in the battle, but as a different entity and was transformed into Jack Frost after he saved his best friend ( and sorta girlfriend ) Katherine from Pitch ( with a kiss of true love, yeah, not cheesy at all ) and she was turned into Mother Goose. They have this weird thing going on where their age changes constantly, from child to young adult, especially fast when they are around each other. At one point they meet and one of them is like 9 while the other one is 20, changing years by the minute.

Jack lives in a huge tree in Central Park, New York ( what was wrong with Burgess? ), where he has a weapon room with a collection of ancient weapons and daggers he created from tears of people he loved. No, I'm not making this up.

His staff also can transform into a bow, which is kinda funny because I had a dream about that and drew it months before the book was released. Heh.

What I really can't get over is that Jack's whole personality was TOTALLY changed! It's one thing to add nuances or extra aspects to a character, but another to completely mess them up.

In the movie Jack has been alone for 300 years because no human could see him, it was a main plot point because he was craving for belief and attention and it made the moment when Jamie finally saw him so heartwarming and intense.

In the book somehow the whole world knows and loves him, he's invited to every party, all women wanna be with him, all men wanna be like him ( yes, seriously, that's what's written in the book ), he's like the partyanimal of old times. Hangs out with Winston Churchill ( ! ) and his awesomeness is admired by the guardians from afar.

But despite being loved by everyone he doesn't keep relationships or friendships up for long and is still feeling lonely. Oh come ON!

Turning RotG-Jack, who has been desperate for friendship and would forever be loyal, into „Everyone knows and loves me, but I don't really care“-book-Jack is the most drastic and horrible change to a character I've ever seen!

And the reason why I stopped reading was because the lovestory between Jack and „Mother Goose“ aka Katherine just got too cheesy. A LOVESTORY! WHY? I'm kinda glad there won't be a sequel of the movie because I'm afraid they might mess it up with a love interest. I was sure Joyce would never do that to his own character, that's why I was even more shocked to read that. He's done everything I feared anyone would do. Katherine is such a Mary Sue, always nice, always sweet, not a single flaw, everyone likes her...Ugh.

The Jack in the book is NOTHING like RotG-Jack. It's a different character and I don't think he's likable at all, more like „WTF is going on with you!?“

There has been so much potential for a book. People fell in love with Jack from the movie, Joyce could have done so much with it. What happened in those 300 years? Jack surely must have met other spirits. What about the blizzard of '68? What did he all experience? What did he all try to be seen by people? Or after the movie, did he get closer to the guardians? How did their relationships improve? How did he manage to be a guardian with new responsibilites? How did other spirits react to that? It could have been such an interesting story that actually makes us get to know Jack better.

I'm grateful he contributed a lot to the movie because I still love it like the first day I watched it, but I'm sorry, the book feels like the alternate universe-fanfiction from a teenage fangirl.

I honestly don't understand any true fan of Jack liking this book because that guy in it, yeah, that's not Jack anymore... :|

*rant over*

#rotg #riseoftheguardians

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dellaliz19 · 6 years

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Black Panther movie review: spoilers!

So, I just went and saw Black Panther and yes, it deserves all the praise it’s getting. So, you know the drill, pros and (few) cons, here we go!

Pros:

1) The general look of Wakanda is stunning. It’s a perfect blend of “city of the future meets African heritage” and it’s just amazing to see it brought to life. The technology is visually so engaging, and it’s great that so much of the sets are really utilized. The fight in the mine with the train, for example is a really efficient way to not just have a fight in an empty field (or airport 😐) but to actually make use of the premise you’ve set up.

2) Shuri is perfect and that is final. But seriously, Shuri is such a great character. Her relationship with T’Challa feels so real. The scene with her remote driving the car while T’Challa is on top of it is some of the most amazing and imaginative team work I’ve ever seen on film, and it was great. And it’s fantastic that her intellect and technical skill are so celebrated, and that no one ever looks down on her for it. As a woman myself in a STEM field, I’m all for celebrating smart, capable women of science and Shuri is a great role model for little girls. Also, she’s the Queen of Memes, and I love her.

3) The Dora Miljae. The powerful women don’t stop with Shuri: the Dora Miljae are finally on full display, and I’m so on board with it! I love that the King’s personal guard are these strong, capable women, who kick some serious freaking ass. Point these ladies in the direction of Thanos and then just give everyone else the day off, they’ve got it handled.

4) Andy Serkis is clearly having the time of his life. His Ulysses Klaue is the fun, devil may care kind of villain the MCU could use some more of. He’s irreverent, in it for the money and just loving every second of being a bad guy. Thematically, I understand why he had to die, but damn, he was just so much fun to watch. I know Serkis is the undisputed motion capture king, but can we please let him act more with his real face?!

5) Speaking of villains the MCU could use more like, Eric Killmonger is the perfect villain for this story. His arc was personal and related to T’Challa: he was the dark mirror image of who T’Challa could be, and Michael B Jordan hit it out of the park. I can’t say I ever rooted for him, but I definitely identified with his belief that the powerful have a responsibility to protect the marginalized. I think it’s important that the movie made it clear that it wasn’t so much his ideology that was wrong, but his methods, and that that hatred had warped his ideals somewhat: that he had killed his own people and that he wanted to punish the world. And it was important to that it was clear that his beliefs impacted and helped change and shape T’Challa’s own actions. Killmonger was the “we make our own demons” villain finally done right, and his last line was so powerful and so in character.

6) Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross finally found his rhythm. He’s clearly the story’s comedic “straight man” but he was really well integrated into the narrative, and he never feels out of place or takes up too much screen time. His hero moment in the flight drone thing was a really fitting culmination to his character developed in this movie, and I’d enjoy seeing him in more MCU movies.

7) Danai Gurira’s Okoye is a definite stand out character. She gets great fight scenes, is compelling and wise and she’s a fabulously funny character as well. I would let her kick my ass any freaking day of the week.

8) Suprise Sterling K. Brown is always a treat. I loved his scenes in the spirit world with his son, and his flashbacks in the apartment were really powerful. In very short order we’re made to feel his entire arc, and how his living amongst oppressed people of his own race affected his ideology and his struggle to reconcile that with his loyalty to his country and his brother and that’s very much due to the strength of Brown’s performance.

8) Winston Duke’s M’Baku is definitely the other stand out character. He’s introduced in this very brutal, no nonsense way, and somehow he ends up being the funniest character by the end? His “I’m just kidding we’re vegetarians” line got an honestly to gosh snort out of me, and he was a great story beat in showing the traditional side of Wakanada vs the technological side, and how T’Challa will be a different king than his father.

9) It was nice to see Bucky, but to only have him be the post credits stinger. It’s clearly establishing why he’s awake and around for Infinity War, but I’m glad he wasn’t in the whole movie. Black Panther really let T’Challa and it’s characters be the star, and including Ross was a good way to tie it into the MCU without taking that focus away from where it needed to be.

10) Honestly, the whole cast does great work with their characters. Chadwick Boseman has really made T’Challa his own, and he’s a great character. Angela Basset is always good, and Lupita Nyong’o is also fantastic. I especially like that, for a Marvel romance, she and T’Challa don’t waste time on the will they/won’t they. They find a common goal, and then they’re united. I like it. Another.

Cons (these are pretty minor!)

1) Vibranium is starting to feel like “fairy dust.” Have a problem? Vibrainium will fix it. Shot in the spine? Stick a ball of that in there! (also, like T’Challa couldn’t take two seconds to throw a little of that Rhodey’s way?) Want to make super holograms? Use some of that. And so on. This one isn’t a massive point to me: clearly the in universe explaination is that the secret government white guys in the 40’s only had imaginations large enough to make a frisbee out of it, but it does almost reach the point of feeling like a writing crutch. Vibrainium does everything, so sure, it can do that thing! Again, not major for me, because the world Wakanda paints is so cool, but it did kind of bug me.

2) Forrest Whitaker’s wise man mentor Zuri is fine, but he’s probably the character most unchanged from his general stereotype. He’s a shaman, he’s wise, he dies. His character history is good though and very thematically relevant, and Whitaker does a good job with what he’s given.

3) Daniel Kaluuya’s W’Kabi could have used a little bit more background, especially in regards to his relationship with Okoye. He’s basically only given the motivation of wanting Klaue dead, and when Killmonger delivers him that he’s just suddenly on board with all this world conquering and murder in a way that seems out of proportion for the character we’ve seen. And he and Okoye really needed more introduction to their relationship, given that their falling on either sides of this civil war is a significant plot point. All we get is her calling him “my love” and he returning it: that meeting on the battlefield would have been a lot more powerful if we’d been able to see them be domestic and interact.

4) The bloodlessness. This isn’t the director or the movie’s fault really, it’s the MPAA but the fact that PG-13 movies can’t have too much blood is...kind of noticeable here. I think it might be because the Dora Miljae all use penatrative weapons and many other characters do as well, but if you have a giant fight with spears and no one is bleeding then it feels a little bit...empty. Like, Killmonger slits the throat of one of the Dora in front of Okoye there’s no blood. Again, I get why it’s happening, and I’m not blaming the movie, but it’s something that I definitely noticed, and although I’m not asking for gore I felt the total lack of blood detracted a little of the realness from the fights.

Obviously, Black Panther is a movie that has a very deliberate point to make about race. And, I say this as a white woman: I’m so glad it does. As a woman, watching Wonder Woman was an incredibly empowering and momentous thing for me. To be able to see a story about a strong, powerful good woman on screen - someone I could identify with, and picture myself as - made me feel like I could do anything, and I think everyone, no matter your race, colour, creed, gender, sexual orientation, should get to have that moment. And so no, Black Panther wasn’t going to be a movie that gave me that moment, but I’m so, so glad it’s clearly doing so for so many people. Black Panther is a movie that celebrates black excellence and also tells an engaging and powerful story, and I’m happy to be able to enjoy and celebrate that with everyone.

So, final verdict: 9/10 for me. In a universe that is getting increasingly crowded and teetering on the edge of fatigued, Black Panther is something new and different and wonderful that everyone can enjoy.

Bonus: best lines.

“WHAT ARE THOSE?!?”

“Are we in Wakanda?” “No, we’re in Kansas.”

“Don’t freeze.” “I never freeze.” Lands. Freezes. “Ngh...hi.”

“Bury me in the ocean with all my ancestors who jumped from the ships because they knew drowning was better than living in bondage.”

“No tears for me?” “Nah, everybody dies. That’s just how life is around here.”

“Are you recording this?” “For science.” T’Challa flies across the room. “Delete that clip!”

“What, do you have a mixtape coming out?” “I can send you a SoundCloud link if you want?” “Please don’t make me listen to your music.”

“Oh good, another broken white boy for us to fix!”

“If he touches you again, I am going to impale him to that desk.”

Also if Infinity War doesn’t include a scene where Tony Stark ends up in Shuri’s lab and she’s like, “aw, that’s so cute, your hologram reminds me of the stuff I was making when I was 5,” while Tony loudly just loses his geek mind, then what even is the point of it all?

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