#yeah i have a lot of thoughts about boston's story arc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

winterscaptain · 4 years

Text

no deal.

Aaron Hotchner x Gender Neutral Reader

a/n: and thus begins the 100 arc! i am so excited to share this with all of you. these are going to include more canon episode moments than my other episode-attached fics because everything builds on itself and the details are key. i promise we’ll still get a lot of added scenes and little changes!

words: 8.4k warnings: canon-typical violence and discussion of violence, language

summary: a case comes back to haunt Aaron in more ways than you can imagine. you’re there to be his shadow, to catch him when he falls.

masterlist | a joyful future masterlist | requests closed!

“Hotch?” You poke your head around the door, and you find him at his desk, in a surprising ensemble of khakis and an earthy quarter zip.

Almost whimsical, for him.

He looks up, his eyes softening for a moment before his brows pull in confusion. “You’re still here?”

You gesture to his desk lamp, the only light on in the entire office. “You are, so I figured…” You shrug. “I dunno. Is everything okay?” He looks exhausted, but it’s bone-deep - nothing sleep can fix.

He shakes his head and sighs.

That’s his tell.

But he says, “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

You don’t believe him.

“Are you sure?” You cross the room and lean on his side of the desk, quickly scanning over the documents you find there. He doesn’t mind your nosiness. He's mostly accustomed to it by now.

Most of it is pretty normal - after-action reports, performance evaluations (it looks like you’re doing well), and task force meeting agendas - but there’s one file that sticks out.

Your brow furrows. “The Boston Reaper?”

He shakes his head again. “I’m just reviewing it for an academy lecture about dormant or otherwise inactive serial killers.”

“Ah, I see.” You know he’s still lying. “Anything I can help with?”

A little half-smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “No, thank you.” He looks up at you and you offer him a small smile. There are many things at work behind his brown eyes.

He never keeps things from you without reason, so the lying doesn’t bother you so much as the unease radiating off him in waves.

For now, you decide to let it go and pat his shoulder as you stand. “Alright. Walk me out?” It’s a pointed question - you know he won’t leave if left to his own devices.

He’s about to throw you a denial, but the look on your face leaves no room for it. “Yeah. I’ll just be a minute.” He starts packing up, sorting the files into neat little stacks that will be there waiting for him when he gets back tomorrow. The Reaper case, you notice, goes into his briefcase, decisively snapped shut and taken into his hand before you can process much else.

The walk down to the garage is a quiet one. You take the stairs, happy for the excuse to stretch your legs.

You snag the sleeve of his (very soft) quarter zip before he turns toward his car. “Aaron?”

His eyes snap to yours at the use of his first name.

“Just…” you aren’t sure where you’re going with this, but he’s probably used to that by now, too. “Just, erm...Drive safe, please? Get some sleep when you get home?”

He takes a little breath and nods, his gaze softening. He’s quiet as you release his arm, quiet on the walk to his car, quiet (you imagine) as he drives out of the garage.

You watch him until the echo of his tail lights fall out of your sight.

+++

The next morning, JJ trots up the stairs to Hotch’s office and exchanges a few words with him before he flies out of his office and down the stairs.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the official request? We haven’t been invited.” JJ does her best to keep up with him, trotting down the stairs behind him with a file in her hand.

“We will be.”

You look at her with questions in your eyes and she shrugs. Derek, too, looks at her with confusion. Hotch continues toward the doors.

Is he already headed toward the plane?

She throws her hands up. “Well, it looks like we’re going to Boston.”

+++

When all your things are packed and ready, you settle in beside Aaron in your usual place, on the arm of the couch across from the table.

He walks you all through his work from a decade ago as you all review the files in your hands. "The Reaper is driven by a need to dominate, control, and manipulate."

Emily’s the first to speak up. “So then why would he offer a deal that would stop him from doing that?”

“Well, killing gave him power, but after so many, the payoff began to diminish. So he decided to switch tactics. Offering the deal gave him the ultimate power, better even than killing. He manipulated the police into voluntarily surrendering.”

“He even got it in writing,” Reid adds. He’s looking closely at the letter, likely starting the structure of what would become a linguistic profile.

JJ looks up, a little confused. ”He won. Why start killing again?”

“Because the only person who knew he'd won, the person he made the deal with, just died.” Morgan says, closing the file and tossing it on the table in front of him.

That’s an easy train of thought to jump on. “Narcissistic killers need other people to recognize their power.” With a little smile, you remind her, “That's why they contact the media.”

Emily’s next. “So how did he stop for 10 years?

“In Night of the Reaper, the author suggests he had been arrested for an unrelated crime or died.” Reid pulls the book in question from his bag, placing it on the table. “Perhaps he's trying to correct that misconception.”

“Like BTK,” you offer.

You can see Aaron's eyebrows rise for just a moment in your peripheral vision. Good one.

You purposefully bump his shoulder on your way to steal one of Morgan’s snacks. Thanks.

JJ takes the book, thumbing through. “What has he been doing all this time?

“Well,” you say, “I would imagine he was planning what he would do if he started killing again.” You look at Aaron, who nods with his mouth in a thin, grim line.

Morgan opens the file again, running his finger down the metrics as he speaks. “So, from '95 to '98, he shoots, stabs, and bludgeons twenty-one victims - men, women, all ages, all types, no specific victimology or MO.” He looks up at Hotch. “How did you build a profile from that?”

“We didn't. Shaunessy sent us home before we had a chance.” Aaron takes a breath before his next thought. “BTK, the Zodiac, and the Reaper all have similarities. They're all highly intelligent, disciplined, sadistic killers who name themselves in the press.”

“Highly intelligent may be a bit of an understatement,” Reid says. “The Reaper and The Zodiac Killer have never been arrested. And the BTK killer was only caught after twenty-five years because he went to the press to counter a book that said he'd died, moved away, or been locked up, just like this one.”

“Speaking of the media,” JJ notes, “when this gets out, it's going to be a frenzy. If they get wind of this, they're going to be all over the Boston Police.”

Aaron agrees with a brisk nod. “The longer we can float the copycat story, the better chance we'll have of catching him.”

You sit up straighter. “Meaning, if we keep pushing at his ego, he might take another risk?”

“Exactly,” he says. “Rossi, Prentiss, and Morgan, go to the field office, set up shop, go through everything there.” He assigns himself, you, JJ, and Reid to the crime scene.

You’re happy for the chance to keep an eye on him. There’s still something off about this whole thing, and the fingers on his left hand worrying his pen is only the most obvious clue. You reach out for his sleeve across the aisle when the team breaks, tugging a little, just like you did last night.

He looks over at you, almost startled. “Yeah?”

You don’t say anything. Tell me what you need.

“I’m fine. Just want to get on the ground and get to work.”

Bullshit. Your squint says it all.

He sighs and you release his arm. He’ll talk to you when he’s ready.

He always does.

+++

You and JJ stand off Aaron's shoulder as he introduces the three of you to the local police authorities. Hotch is already on edge.

An odd exchange between Hotch and one of the veteran cops leaves you with the entire department at your disposal. How he manages to do that every time is beyond you.

Reid, the case file in his hand, walks you all through the preliminary findings. “Nina Hale, ninteen, and Evan Harvey, twenty-three. Nina's throat was slashed, she was stabbed forty-six times. Evan was bludgeoned and then shot. No shell casings were found.”

“A revolver, maybe?” You ask, in-step with Aaron, whose gears are turning as he examines the inside and outside of the car.

“He preferred revolvers, .44 magnum.” If he weren’t so focused, you were sure he’d be impressed by your observation. “The younger the female victim, the more time he spends with them, usually with a knife.”

You point at one of the photos of the female victim. “Tan line on her wrist. Probably wearing a watch of some sort.”

Aaron’s on the other side of the car now, leaning close to the driver’s side window, looking at a photo of the male victim. “Do we have his wallet?” At your questioning glance, he adds, “The Reaper took items from each victim and placed them on the next, so as to make sure we knew it was him.”

“That’s quite the signature,” you muse, straightening.

One of the crime scene techs hands him the wallet in question. After a quick examination: “No corrective lens requirement.”

Your brow furrows and you look over at him. “The glasses aren't his?”

“He only took glasses from one victim--the ninth.” He looks increasingly agitated as he speaks and the crease in your brow deepens to match his. “We should have found them on the tenth, and we didn't. They were never found.”

How does he know which victim was the ninth? How does he remember?

“What was so special about the ninth victim?”

Aaron levels you with a look that sends cold wriggling up your spine. “He survived.”

Oh.

+++

JJ and Dave take the second car back, intending to make a few stops on their way back to the precinct. You sit shotgun, staring out the window, while Aaron drives. His fingers tap arrythmically on the steering wheel.

He’s restless. Fidgety. It’s weird.

“What are you thinking about over there?” You ask.

He shakes his head, just a little. “It’s not a copycat.”

Your brow furrows. “We knew that, though.”

“Right.”

Oh.

It must be surreal to have a case come back to life like this. “Wasn’t this one of your first cases? You joined the BAU in ‘98, right?”

When I was a sophomore in high school…

Oh, shut up.

You snap back to the audible conversation as he nods. “It was my first case as lead profiler, so I’d been on the team a couple of months. Gideon thought, well...I don’t know what he thought. He gave me point on this one for some reason or another.”

“Look at you, hotshot.” You reach out and shove lightly against his shoulder and you’re rewarded with a huff. “Only on the team a few months and you get assigned your very own case.”

He rolls his eyes. “I did it with you.”

It’s true - he did. Spencer may have saved the day in the end, but you polished, delivered, and implemented the profile throughout the investigation. As scared as you were for the professional leap (and the personal one, given the nature of your teams’ closeness), it paid off.

“That doesn’t count.”

He glances at you before returning his eyes to the road. “Why not?”

You shrug. “We’re kind of…” You clam up, for some reason, a little embarrassed.

Don’t be stupid.

“...I don’t know? Friends?”

You get a real smile from him this time and you match it. “Well, ‘kind-of-I-don’t-know friends’ seems like a stretch, don’t you think?” He looks over at you and holds your gaze a little longer than he should, considering he’s driving a little more than eighty miles per hour.

You’re an idiot, your eyes say, an amused chuff leaving your nose.

His eyebrows bounce before he looks out at the road again. And?

+++

“George Foyet, 28, was the ninth victim and the only one to survive The Reaper.” Aaron passes you files as he speaks, clearly not needing any notes or other aids to regurgitate the details of the case, verbatim.

Dave snorts. “Not for lack of trying.”

Hotch walks you all through the Foyet attack, outlining the oddities and patterns that collectively create The Reaper’s signature. His good mood from the car has either entirely evaporated or been smothered by his focus on the case, leaving him with his normal operational stoicism. “The Reaper always uses some sort of ruse to get close to and spend time with his victims.”

“So, how did Foyet survive?” You ask.

It’s weird he’s not summarizing it for you all, but then again, this case is odd in its obvious, meticulous execution. It’s probably best to let it speak for itself.

Hotch wordlessly starts the recording.

“911. What's your emergency?”

“I just murdered two more.” The voice is distorted, ominous.

“Excuse me, sir, did you say you murdered someone?”

“Victims eight and nine, by a silver Toyota on Riverton past the Tyson Quarry.”

Reid fills you in. “That call was made from a payphone about a mile from the crime scene. EMTs arrived fifteen minutes later. Bertrand was DOA, Foyet barely breathing.”

“So,” you ask, looking over the case. “The Reaper made one of these calls after each of his killings telling the police where to find the bodies?”

Aaron nods. “Until this one, the ninth. If he hadn't made this call, Foyet wouldn't have been found in time. The call saved him.”

You look up from the file. “Can I guess that the Reaper didn't make any 911 calls after this one?”

Aaron’s brows raise for a moment. Exactly.

“There's a reason he left Foyet's glasses at the last crime scene.” Aaron looks grim as he presents the glasses again.

Morgan pulls his phone out of his pocket, likely for access to Penelope. “Foyet could be in danger.”

“Uh, Hotch,” JJ pops her head into the room, looking more than a little confused. “There's a reporter outside insisting on speaking with you.” At Aaron's questioning look, she adds, “Roy Colson. He says he knows you.”

You watch him leave and exchange words with the reporter, your lower lip planted firmly between your teeth. JJ hangs at your side while Derek comes up behind you, putting his hands on your shoulders.

“Is Hotch okay?” He asks. Spencer, Dave, Emily, and JJ also look to you for an answer.

You shake your head the barest amount and when you speak, it’s almost a whisper. “I don’t know.” You clear your throat and try again. “I don’t know.”

+++

Dave peers into the car. “Another couple. Much older this time. One shot and one stabbed.”

“No reason to stop out here.” You’re just off Aaron's shoulder, following the line of his flashlight.

Dave sounds resigned, tired. “His license and registration are out of his wallet.”

You squint. “Looks like he used a cop ruse."

“Good spot, isolated, few drivers.”

Hotch sighs, coming in close to something with his flashlight. “He left Nina Hale's watch."

"Okay," Dave says. "So what'd he take?"

“His wedding ring.” You note the tan line on the man’s fourth finger - a dead giveaway.

Pardon the pun...

A local officer is quick to give you the victim information, approaching Aaron with a file. “Arthur and Diane Lanessa. Weymouth. Married 32 years. They were coming home from the Elks, where they played bingo twice a week.” He looks over at the press, rapidly arriving at the perimeter. “I gotta go make notification.”

You refocus on the crime scene, anticipating Aaron's wandering eyes and shining the light where he needs it most.

“Looks like he went through her purse,” he says.

You hover over his shoulder again. “Any idea what he was looking for?”

Hotch shakes his head, moving on.

A photo falls out of the drop-down mirror during Hotch’s cursory check. It depicts the victims and who you assume are members of their family. In blood, FATE? is scrawled across the front of the photo. Aaron straightens, leaving the car and crossing to Dave. You, of course, follow.

When you both reach Dave, you finally have an opportunity to take a look at the photo. “The question mark is new.”

“It's for us.” Aaron doesn’t need further examination for his assessment. “He's saying it's not fate. He's saying we had ten years to save them and that these latest ones are on us.”

“You got all that from one question mark. That's impressive.” Dave’s compliment is only a little undercut by his sarcasm. You can’t help but agree with the implication.

Aaron sighs, copping to it. “I may know him better than I've let on.”

“What does that mean?” You step closer to him, your brow furrowed.

He levels you with a somewhat guilty look. “It means that there is a profile on The Reaper.”

Dave frowns. “I thought we were called off before we had one.”

“We were. I had just started the profile, and then he stopped killing, so officially we were done. But this case…”

“It stuck with you,” you finish for him. Your brows drop lower over your eyes, finally understanding the stakes at play.

“I kept coming back to it over the years, and I worked on it alone.”

The exhaustion in his voice, gravelly and low, worries you more than you’d like to let on. “So you never shared it with anyone.”

“I know I'm always preaching that profiling is a collaborative effort, but this one wasn't. I don't know, maybe if -” he sighs. “If I was wrong, I was gonna head us in the wrong direction.” The doubt in Aaron's voice breaks your heart a little.

“Now you think you're right.” Dave, of course, has the brief words to coax the thought out of Aaron. You’re thankful he’s here. Between the two of you, you’ll get more out of your unit chief in twenty minutes than anyone else would get in three days.

“The more I see, the more accurate I think it may be.”

“Okay,” you say, “then we need to hear it.”

+++

It’s decided that Aaron will deliver the profile solo, with only a little input from Dave. It’s odd to see him up there all by himself while the rest of you stand off to the side. You’re students just as much as the local police, this time.

You tune into Aaron, whose eyes are bouncing all over the room, from person to person, holding and keeping their attention. His eyes meet yours and you hope the respect and pride overflowing in your chest is visible on your face.

“The Reaper fits a profile we refer to as an omnivore. Unlike most serial killers, an omnivore doesn't target a specific victim type. Although he tends to focus on his younger female victims with his knife, he essentially is a predator who will kill anyone.”

One of the local cops has a decent question (for once). “Why is he so democratic?”

“Because his kills aren't just about his victims. He needs recognition. He needs us to know.”

Dave chimes in. “The symbols, the placement of prior victims' possessions on subsequent victims--it's all for us.”

“Why?”

“Power,” Aaron answers simply. “The Shaunessy letter is the clearest example of this. He manipulated Tom Shaunessy into literally surrendering to him.”

It reminds you of the first time you saw him - alone, in front of a room of people focused only on him. It was one of your first lectures at the academy, your favorite, and the one that inspired you to ask for a placement with the BAU when Jenny told you to take a running leap.

How far you’ve come.

Without permission, your mind wanders to a few things that haven’t changed in the last year and a half. Aaron is still the most handsome man you’ve ever seen - capable, worthy of deep admiration and respect. His voice is the same - demanding respect and carrying the weight of the world in it.

Anything that won’t condemn you to a life of unrealistic expectations of men?

No. Maybe you’re a better shot?

Great. That’s useful.

“Like BTK killer Dennis Rader,” Aaron continues, “The Reaper is extremely disciplined. In his everyday life, this will very likely make him so inflexible, he can't keep close relationships or work closely with others.

“I believe our killer has another interest that may give us the best opportunity to catch him.” You’re glad Dave is there to help, his seasoned expertise coming in handy once again. “The Reaper's last victim was an older woman. He killed her quickly, with a single shot. The prior, younger victim, he spent more time with and stabbed forty-six times.”

Yet another “Why?” from one of the local officers.

Curious group, it seems.

Aaron answers. “He pays special attention to his younger female victims, and his weapon of choice with them is the knife, a substitute instrument for bodily penetration.”

Dave, again, has something else for you all. “The younger the victim, the more time and effort he spends. I think our guy is a hebephile.”

“Hebephile?” Naturally, that particular proclivity is not a familiar one to the layman.

Reid lends an assist. “A hebephile is someone who's attracted to adolescent post-pubescent children. Teenagers.”

“Look for men with access and authority -” Aaron assumes command again, “- high school teachers, counselors, coaches--and anyone who's been charged with sex crimes against teenage girls in the last ten years.” He checks in with you, and you nod. “That's all for now. Thank you.”

+++

You look up as Aaron walks into the room, Derek ready with bad news. “Garcia can’t find George Foyet.” You stand and resume your post as his shadow, beside Emily.

Morgan holds the phone toward Hotch. “I’ve got nothing, sir,” comes Garcia’s voice from the speaker.

“What do you mean?

“I mean, he’s gone. He’s completely off the grid. He’s gone.”

“How is that possible?” You tap Aaron's shoulder with the back of your hand as his tone grows sharper with Penelope.

Be nice.

He shakes you off and you clench your jaw, looking over at Derek as Aaron tries to wiggle more information out of Penelope. It doesn’t work. “Garcia, we don’t have much time.”

“I know, sir.”

You huff. “I mean, how would you even drop off the grid like that? There has to be someone he talked to.”

Aaron wordlessly dials a number, shooting you a somewhat grateful, if not a little rueful, look. “Roy, Aaron Hotchner. I need a favor.”

+++

“That’s him.”

Aaron shuts the back door of the car behind you and out of habit, you take quick stock of him while he does the same for you.

You spot the man you’re looking for skittering across the street and toward the apartment. “George Foyet?” He’s visibly skeptical, and Aaron pulls his credentials. “It’s okay. We're FBI.” He introduces you and Rossi while you flash your credentials for good measure. “I'm Agent Hotchner. We met once before. Do you remember?”

"Yeah, I remember.” He’s agitated, his eyes jumping to every moving person on the near-empty street. “Would you mind if we get off the street, please?

You follow Dave and Aaron into the cramped apartment, noting the clutter and general feeling of paranoia permeating the space. Everything looks rushed - half-lived in and half-finished.

When you reach the kitchen, Foyet collapses into a coughing fit and Dave immediately supplies him with a glass of water.

“Thank you.” He takes another decent gulp. “How'd you guys find me?”

“Roy Colson,” Aaron says. He’s focused on Foyet, but you can tell he’s keyed into the peripherals, just in case.

“Oh.” He seems disappointed, though in what you’re not sure. “Well, is this gonna take long? 'Cause I really can't be late for work.”

“What do you do?” You ask.

“I'm a freelance computer specialist with the city.”

Dave steps forward. “We're sorry to bother you. We'll make it as quick as possible.”

Aaron pulls the evidence bag containing the glasses out of his breast pocket. “This yours?”

“I knew it wasn't a copycat.”

You pull a chair for Foyet as he coughs again, feeling only a little odd about taking care of this man in his own house.

“Thank you.” He takes another sip of water. “I'm sorry.” He pauses, remembering. “I was gonna propose to her that night...At the restaurant, but I got cold feet. The ring was still in my pocket when he approached us. He said he was lost. He had one of those sightseeing booklets. I was looking at it when he stabbed me. Yeah...Perfect timi-”

You interrupt him, attempting to stem his agitation. “Mr. Foyet, you don't need to go through this again.” Nevertheless, he continues, increasingly distraught.

“I couldn't move. I just sat there, bleeding. I watched him kill Mandy. He stabbed her sixty-seven times. Do you know how long it takes to stab somebody sixty-seven times? ...I never found the ring.”

For some reason, your mind drifts to the man beside you, the horrifying thought of seeing him stabbed, the life leaving his body. You shake it off with a little shudder.

Why, brain? Why? That’s a fucking awful thought.

And yet the image sticks with you, forcing you to manually lock it away. Aaron looks at you, almost like he can read your mind.

That’s nightmare fodder.

The smallest flex of his brow asks, Are you okay?

Fine. You offer him a tight twitch of your lips. It’s not a smile, but you’d be thankful for at least a mockery of one right now.

With a little bit of a squint, Aaron turns back to Foyet. “He should have left your glasses on his next victim, but he didn't. He held on to them all this time.”

“What, you think he's got some special interest in me?” He almost laughs. “I've been living with that possibility for the past eleven years.”

“Have you received any strange letters or calls? Hang-ups?” Dave asks.

“I keep residences under different names. I move between them randomly. He likes to get you in the car, so I take the bus. Believe me, I've gone through great lengths to make sure that none of the things you've just mentioned ever happened.”

What a terrifying, sad existence.

Dave offers George his notebook and a pen. “We'll need your other names and residences so we can reach you.”

“We can take you someplace safe until this is over.” Aaron’s brow is knit in concern - it’s a look you’ve seen many times, but it never fails to inspire a little flicker of warmth in your chest.

Quit, would you?

“No. Boston is my home. It's the one thing I promised I would never let him take from me.”

Aaron insists, pushing. “Then we'll protect you here.”

“You can't protect me. Nobody can.” He frantically writes in the notebook for a moment before handing it back to Dave. “Please be careful with this. Please.”

Dave assures him, “It's safe with us.”

“He's just a man, nothing more.” You hope it’s the right thing to say. You feel Aaron take a breath, and you almost feel bad. It’s a line he’s said before, one you borrow when necessary.

Don’t mean to steal his thunder.

Instead of looking at you, he looks at Aaron. “Then why can't you catch him?”

“We will.”

+++

You’re both sitting in Aaron's hotel room, the photos from each of the crime scenes spread out all around you. It’s far later than you’d like, but the time spent is worth it if it gets you one step closer to this sick, scary bastard.

“What was it like? The original case?”

Aaron sighs, pulling a hand down his face. “Frustrating. Exhausting. Like this.” He shakes his head. “Every day was another dead end, and then another pair of bodies every few weeks. Then…they just stopped.” He holds up the note. “Now I know why.”

You tip your head to the side, studying him. “What would you do?”

“What, you mean about the deal?”

“Yeah. What if -”

The phone rings, cutting you off, and you rise to answer. You’re stopped by a hand on your wrist as Aaron passes you and picks it up. “Hotchner.”

You plant yourself back on the bed, legs folded underneath you. It’s probably one of the team, given the hour and -

“Who is this?” His voice is low, almost angry.

You scramble to the edge of the bed, giving Aaron space while remaining completely keyed into him.

“...You think I’d take that?...I’ve misjudged you. I thought you were smarter than this...Then you’ve misjudged me...I don’t make deals.”

Oh my god. It’s The Reaper.

No. It can't be.

You pull out your cell and fire off a text as quickly as you can to Penelope.

3:42am trace call to ah’s room stat

She doesn’t disappoint.

3:42am on it.

“I’m the guy who hunts guys like you..." Aaron laughs, dark and humorless. "You all think that...I’ll see you soon.” He slams the phone down and starts to pace, his hand over his mouth.

“What’s going on?” You stand, stopping him with a hand on his arm. “Hotch. Who was that?”

He stares down the phone like it’s a living thing, but doesn’t breathe a word. After a moment, he jumps back into action, sitting heavily on the bed and going over everything with a renewed, almost frantic, focus.

You watch him for a moment before you pull out your phone. A text message from six hours ago blinks up at you.

Haley Brooks-Hotchner

9:13pm when you get a chance, can you have aaron give me a call? no rush. just school paperwork for j. he’s not picking up his phone. thanks xx

You answer her, praying she didn’t leave her ringer on. The hour alone will reveal the extent of the team’s attention on this case and you can only hope she understands.

3:48am can do. this one’s bad. might be a minute.

Aaron looks up at you, a question in his eyes.

You shake your head with a little smile. It’s nothing.

+++

“Six bodies, not including the driver. He put 'em down with the gun--or more likely guns--and finished them off with his knife.” Dave looks around while Aaron stands stock still near the driver, slumped over the wheel.

The scene inside the bus is macabre - bodies and blood everywhere. The numbers on the window send shivers up your spine.

“There;s Arthur Lanessa's wedding ring.” You peer over Aaron's shoulder. “What'd he take?”

He scoffs. “Does it matter?”

He straightens quickly, shoving past you and getting off the bus. You get out of his way, letting him go with a frown. Dave meets your eyes and tips his head. You follow him out as he goes after Aaron, giving them just a little bit of distance

Dave catches up to him. “Hey. What's goin' on with you?”

Aaron stops in the alley a little ways away from the bus. “He called me tonight and offered me the deal.”

So that’s what happened.

You thought as much, but the thought alone was too much to consider. It’s never been less satisfying to be right.

“What did you say?”

“I hung up on him, and then he does this.” Aaron gestures to the crime scene, NO DEAL staring you all in the face, along with all those numbers.

The idea of The Reaper torturing Aaron like this is horrifying. Plenty of unsubs have made your skin crawl in the past, but this is a new kind of awful. You’ve never seen him like this.

“So, you think this is your fault?”

“It is,” he insists. You’re shocked to see tears in his eyes when he looks back up at Dave. There’s a part of you that wants to reach out, but something keeps you back.

Dave pulls his gun and releases the safety, turning the grip toward Aaron.

What the fuck?

“Well, here, use mine. You convinced me.”

Aaron waves him off with one hand while he pinches the bridge of his nose with the other.

Of all the things you would have thought of at this moment, pulling a gun on SSA Aaron Hotchner wouldn’t have made the list. You watch, ready to jump between them at a moment’s notice. They’ve never gone after each other before, but you’ve seen more worrisome behavior from Aaron in the last forty-eight hours than in the preceding eighteen months.

Even at the height of the divorce proceedings, he was steadier than this.

“No, no, you hung up on him.” Dave pushes the gun at him, trying to wrangle it into Aaron's hand. “You practically killed them yourself. Go ahead, get it over with. Don't worry about us.” He gestures to you and Aaron's eyes flicker to yours. You have no idea what you look like right now. “We'll get this guy without you.”

Dave is a genius.

He blinks, tears wetting his cheeks. It’s certainly one of the more alarming things you’ve ever seen. He’s audibly frustrated, his hand flexing at his side as he talks. “Dave, I had 10 years to do something about it.”

That’s not fair.

When has Aaron ever been fair, or even kind, to himself?

Well, shit.

That’s why you’re here. Do your job.

You step forward, keeping your voice down. Approaching him like a cornered animal seemed the best tactic at the moment. “Shaunessy made the deal. The killing stopped, as promised. He closed the case and sent you away, Hotch.” Your eyes beg for his as you continue. “You moved on. You worked on other cases, active cases. You saved lives in that time. It wasn’t wasted.”

Aaron huffs, clearly frustrated. “But I kept coming back to this one. I kept coming back to this profile.” There’s something desperate in his voice and you know he’s trying to get you to understand something he can’t articulate.

Dave takes over again. “Hey. I was retired. Should I blame myself for every victim who got killed while I was on my book tour? Look, if you want to end up like Shaunessy, like Gideon, blaming yourself for everything, you go ahead.”

Damn. Good point.

Aaron’s eyes meet yours for just a moment before looking away again. You keep your face soft, neutral.

Safe.

“But that voice in your head,” Dave says, “it's not your conscience. It's your ego. This isn't about us, Aaron. It's about the bad guys. That's why we profile them. It's their fault. We're just guys doing a job. And when we stop doing it, someone else will. Trust me. I know.”

Aaron checks in with you for a moment and you nod. It’s okay. You’re okay. We’re okay.

He wipes at his eyes before leveling Dave with something that looks almost like his classic glare, gesturing to the offered gun at his chest. “You can put that away.”

With a cheeky smile, Dave says, “You sure?”

“It's a little dramatic, don't you think?” You ask, stepping up and clapping Dave on the shoulder.

“My wife always said I had a flair for the dramatic.” Dave’s deeply chuffed pleased that he was able to bring Aaron back to his senses. He holsters his weapon, throwing the safety back on.

“Which one?” Aaron asks. You’re relieved to hear a little bit of humor in his voice.

“All of 'em.”

The three of you share a little smile before you walk back to the crime scene.

Aaron’s thanks is so quiet you’re almost certain you made it up.

You’re only sure it happened at all when Dave replies, “Anytime.”

+++

“He knows where Foyet lives. We’ll split up and cover each address. Go.”

You rise and somehow end up with Derek. Though not your intention, it’s probably for the best. For good measure, you take Jameson, a seasoned SWAT agent. The three of you had the biggest of Foyet’s properties on lock.

Derek speeds to the house, flooring it with sirens blaring.

“I’ll take front,” Derek says, nearly shouting over the siren.

You’re locked and loaded, ready to go in your vest as soon as the car stops. “I’ll take the back.” You twist in your seat to look in the back. “Jameson, you good on my six?”

“I’ve gotcha.”

You’re clearing the house, kicking in the back door. There’s a thump behind you and you turn. Before you can do anything, something makes contact with the back of your head, sending you straight to the ground. You hit something else on your way down, and you’re done.

Fuck.

You’re knocked out cold, but come to only a few minutes later. You stumble to your feet as lights and sirens round the corner. Bringing a hand to your head, you feel the blood on your forehead. There’s probably a decent cut near your hairline and when you look down, you find an alarming amount of blood on your vest.

Head wounds bleed. You’re fine.

Oh.

Oh no.

Derek.

You brace yourself on the wall as you rise, checking your service weapon. It’s not in your holster, but you find it nearby on the floor.

Why didn’t he take it?

Kicking it under the table, you draw your secondary weapon. The thought of leaning down to reach for the gun on the floor is too much and your only aim is to get to Derek, then Jameson.

Blinking blood out of your eyes, you do your best to clear the rest of the house before finding the mess in the living room and front yard. Without much of a thought, you haul yourself over the broken window sill, getting a nice slice in your arm for your trouble, and land hard at Derek's side. With a groan, you roll over onto your knees, crawling toward your prone teammate.

You look up as headlights hit you, shading your eyes with one of your hands. The other rests on Derek's chest. To your relief, you can feel his breath under his vest. He’s alive. He’s okay.

With the intensity of the lights shining on you, you can’t see Hotch as he lifts you to your feet by your upper arms. He shields you from the light with his body, his brows drawn and concerned. You’re dizzy in the extreme, your right eye almost unable to open with all the blood caked down the side of your face.

He takes you under his arm and brings you to one of the ambulances posted on the street. The paramedic takes your vitals, but Aaron keeps a hold on your other hand. You’re not sure he realizes he’s still got you, but you’re not about to let go.

“What happened?” He asks, quiet and tense.

You shake your head even though it only increases your dizziness. Blinking a couple of times, you answer, “I don’t know. He came out of nowhere. I had the side of the house, Jameson had the back, Morgan the front. We were clearing room by room and he just…” your eyes float to the front of the house, where Emily has Derek with a paramedic. “He appeared and I didn’t have time before he hit me with...Something. I was out before I could blink. I think I hit the table on the way down.”

Hotch sighs and to your dismay, you see the coroner approaching the back of the house with a gurney. Jameson’s dead.

Why aren’t you?

“He didn’t take my service weapon. It’s under the table in the kitchen now, but it was next to me when I came to. I don’t -” you swallow, still dazed. “I don’t know why he left us alive.”

You can see Aaron's teeth grinding as he collects himself. “He’s trying to get in your head. Don’t let him.”

“What, like you?” You know your functioning isn’t at one hundred percent - you’d never make a jab at him like that, even weak as it was, at a moment like this if you were clear-headed.

He sighs as your eyes flutter shut, leaning on the inside of the ambulance. You hear the paramedic tell him you’re concussed and need to be kept awake for the next ten hours. Hotch gets the details on your other injuries before squeezing your hand once and leaving you.

After another few minutes, EMS releases you with a packet of concussion information (which you immediately crumple and shove into a passing crime scene tech’s jacket pocket). Far too quickly, you make your way across the yard and into the house, avoiding Jameson's body and the coroner’s staff.

You find Derek and Emily sitting together on the back of the couch as he, too, is patched up.

“You okay, kid?” He asks.

You nod. “Just concussed, a couple of lacerations. I’m fine. Are you okay?” There’s a compulsion to fuss over him, but you resist.

He nods, bringing a pristine .44 caliber bullet into your eye line. “He left this.”

A shiver runs down your spine. “Sadistic bastard.”

Emily raises her eyebrows and cants her head, agreeing with your brief assessment.

You look outside to where Hotch stands in the middle of the yard, with his arms crossed, looking over the damage to both the house and his team.

Eventually, he returns to the house with Spencer in tow. You follow them, moving slow.

Reid points to evidence as he talks. “Jameson was clearly killed outside. This is someone else. There are signs of a struggle and a lot of blood."

"But no body,” you note.

What the hell happened here?

Reid nods. "Just the drag marks. The human body holds 5 quarts of blood. I'd say there's a little more than half that here. Whoever the bleeder was, they lost too much to survive."

It begs the question, so you ask. "Foyet?”

“It was his worst fear, that the Reaper would come back and finish the job,” Dave says, appearing out of nowhere and leaning on the door jamb to the kitchen.

With a firm conviction, Aaron says, “We offered him protection. He refused. It was his choice.”

+++

JJ’s brow crumples as she looks over the files again. "Why is he so focused on Foyet? What's so special about him?"

Aaron, of course, answers her. "He was his only surviving victim, the only one he couldn't defeat."

“But he's not a threat. Defeating him would be no great accomplishment. There's something there that we're missing.” You thumb through the case again, certain the answers are there for you to find.

JJ’s persistent. “What about the girlfriend, Amanda Bertrand? Wh-what do we know about her?”

“Nineteen. A freshman. She came here from Michigan to go to school. Foyet was a teacher's assistant in one of Amanda's courses.”

“Michigan. Where The Reaper had Shaunessy post the personal ad.”

“That can't be a coincidence.”

“He told us she was the love of his life, that he was gonna propose. But she just got here from Michigan. They only met when the class started.”

“How long had she been in the class?” You ask

There’s an incredulous laugh in Emily’s voice. “Four weeks.”

“So it was either love at first sight or what?”

Derek picks up JJ’s thought. “Foyet was lying?”

“He's a 28-year-old teacher's assistant in freshman classes.” Hotch immediately starts dialing a number, and you’re sure you know which one. As you suspected, he gets Penelope on the phone.

“What are Foyet's aliases?” Quickly, you hand him Dave’s notebook, the rest of your body coiled for action. He bows his body over the phone, rattling off instructions. “I want you to look up in Boston city records Kevin Baskin, Miles Holden, and William Parker. Try the Department of Education.”

“Well played, sir.” You hear her keyboard in the background. “They all work for the Department of Education, they're all substitute teachers, and they all teach computer science.” She pauses. “Oops. Scratch that. They're not all working for the Department of Education.”

“They're not?” Aaron’s head tilts, listening.

“No. William Parker was fired for alleged inappropriate behavior with his female students.”

Something clicks. You watch the gears turn and turn and turn, Aaron’s eyes flickering over the photos, the file, back and forth as he puts pieces together.

“Hotch?” Your hand hovers over his shoulder, but he pays you no mind.

“Roy Colson went to see Foyet.” He begins to stand, his voice rising as he gets farther from the phone. “Garcia, I need you to trace Roy Colson's cell phone. George Foyet is The Reaper.”

Garcia gives you the address and the rest of you chase Aaron out to the car. The headache pushing behind your eyes is the least of your worries. “What? What do you mean George Foyet is the Reaper?” It’s almost comical, the efforts you take to keep pace with him down the stairs and to the car.

Aaron communicates all the details he put together in the conference room, taking you step-by-step through his process. “He stabbed Amanda Bertrand to death, he drove a mile, he called 911, he went back, and he inflicted those wounds on himself.”

You’ve already caught up, the pieces clicking in before he can repeat them. “He knew EMS would get there in time to save him.”

“And between the phone call and the severity of his wounds, we never considered him as a suspect.” There’s frustration in his tone, but you know it goes deeper than that. It’s his pride.

“Hotch, you couldn’t have -”

Derek cuts you off. “Why would he do it?”

“It put him at the core of the investigation. Everything we had came from him.”

Talk about inserting yourself...

Derek is right there with him. “He left his own glasses at the crime scene, he pointed us right back in his direction, and still, we didn't see it.”

Aaron nods, his jaw tighter than you’ve ever seen it.

Don’t blame yourself.

Hotch rolls up to the house, no lights or sirens, and you surround the house, on his six. You quietly breach the back door, clearing the kitchen and the hallway.

“It's over.” Aaron’s tone leaves no room for argument as he levels his gun at Foyet’s head.

There’s a strange smile on Foyet’s face as he speaks. “I'll kill him.”

“You need him to write your story.”

“I'm taking him with me. I'll let him go as soon as I'm safe.”

You step to the side, trying to get a better shot, but Aaron stops you with the smallest turn of his head as Foyet redirects his attention to you.

“I said I'll kill him.”

Aaron pulls his focus again. “You kill him, I kill you.”

“You think I'm afraid to die?”

“You're not afraid.” Aaron sneers. He’s aiming to hurt and it’s a good idea. “You're greedy and narcissistic. You want the recognition that's gonna come from the book that he's gonna write. You want the fame that's gonna come from the media. It's gonna be like Bundy.”

“I'm gonna be bigger than Bundy.”

“Well, you can't enjoy it if you're dead.”

You’ve got him there, Aaron.

“If you know me so well, how come some many had to die to bring you here?”

You can almost feel the lance of shame and guilt that shoots through Aaron. He almost flinches. Between you and Emily, if looks could kill, Foyet would be long dead.

You fucking asshole.

It takes everything in you not to leap on him and pummel him into the floorboards. You’d love nothing more than to wipe that smug grin off his face.

“That's your choice, not mine. You're the serial killer.” To your ears, it sounds like Aaron's convincing himself as much as telling Foyet.

“That's right.” He turns, smirking. "Hello, Derek.”

He drops his gun and Derek pounces on him, restraining him. "Where's my badge?” He jerks Foyet’s head back by the hair. “Where is it, you son of a bitch?”

He doesn’t answer Derek's question, but shifts his icy gaze to you. “How’s your head?” He gives you an imitation of a pout, and anger sears through your chest. “You took quite a spill last night, Agent. Probably had your unit chief very worried.”

You squint at him, but don’t respond. Aaron steps a little to the side and you’re not even sure he realizes it, but he’s made himself a barrier between you and Foyet.

The bastard notices, though, and the corner of his mouth lifts. “I'm gonna be more famous than you even realize.”

The look he gives Hotch makes you shudder.

+++

Only an hour or so after you land back at Quantico, JJ jogs from her office to Hotch’s. Your heart sinks.

That’s never good.

“Foyet escaped.”

You grab the remote and stand from your desk, turning the volume up on the TV.

She chases Hotch down the stairs as he joins the rest of you, surrounding Derek's desk. “Guards found him in his cell vomiting blood and convulsing. They rushed him to the prison hospital.”

“Get me the U.S. Marshals office.” He turns, but she stops him.

“I already called Don Reilly. I offered our assistance. He said they'd call us if they needed it.”

Aaron doesn’t stop moving until he’s at your side. Your search for his eyes and he meets your gaze after a moment.

What do we do?

His jaw clenches. I don’t know. Then, a huff. Fuck.

You shake your head a little. It makes you feel a little dizzy. Fuck, indeed.

“How’s your head?” He asks.

Of all the things to worry about…

“It’s fine. I’m fine.”

Just then, Emily returns, a file in her hand. “The Boston field office just identified documents from Foyet's house. They're schematics for the electrical, heating, and water ducts of the East Woburn Correctional Facility.”

You take it from her, looking it over before looking at Hotch. “He had the schematics. And not just for Woburn. For every jail, prison, and courthouse in Massachusetts.”

“And 10 years to plan,” Dave adds.

"They're gonna find him, right?" Penelope’s voice is small, and you can’t blame her for it. Derek’s at her side, staring at the news footage with a grim look on his face.

Aaron’s eyes are trained on the television when he answers. “No, they're not.”

Derek turns to you before looking at every member of the team individually. “He said he'd be more famous than we knew, and he was right.”

+++

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filmmakerdreamst · 3 years

Text

How Xena: Warrior Princess Allowed Me To Accept Myself

I was living in a city all alone and these two characters showed me that it was ok for two women to love each other.

In order to understand the following story, there’s something you need to know about me. I have always loved fiction. From the age of about 5 to 11, I loved books more than I loved people. I was a shy child who found it easier to emotionally engage with fictional worlds than the real one around me.

See, fictional worlds are created for your brain’s enjoyment. Their rules make sense. Events happen for a reason. The narrator tells you why characters behave the way they do, allowing you to empathize with them on a deep emotional level. Easy to understand, easy to identify with, easy to love.

But real people are complicated. The real world is complicated. And things are seldom laid out nicely in a coherent narrative format for you. Real things are much harder to love.

This emotional disengagement continued from the age of 11 onwards, although it was no longer as pronounced. My habit of retreating into fiction would fade during good times and come back in force during difficult or stressful periods. During the stressful periods of college, the rise of Netflix allowed me to become certifiably obsessed with my favorite TV shows. And naturally, I joined Tumblr in order to more easily fangirl with people who shared my interests.

Only for some peculiar reason that I didn’t care to examine, my interests were slowly gravitating towards girl-girl couples. Soon I was shipping, reblogging, and reading fanfiction almost exclusively about female couples. But I, who had always considered myself straight despite lacking interest in the boys around me, didn’t think this meant that I was gay. I probably just found female couples more emotionally satisfying. I was friends with mostly women, I was a woman myself, so it was natural that I just understood them better. Yeah, that was probably it.

Fast-forward to nine months ago. I was living in Boston and incredibly depressed about it. My job and my boss were making my life miserable and I had very few people to socialize with. I was making the rough transition from the constant socialization of college to the isolating pressure of a city where I had few connections. My days and nights were some of the loneliest I had ever experienced. I looked for something, anything, to lift the heart-crushing emotional silence.

My solution was the same one I always chose when I was dissatisfied with the real world; obsession with a new TV show. And thanks to my femslash-focused tumblr community, I knew just what my next feel-good show was going to be.

My tumblr friends had told me this: Xena: Warrior Princess is an action-fantasy show that enjoys a cult status, much like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer (which I watched and loved). The two shows were made in the same mid-to-late 90's era, with similar bad special effects and endearing campiness. But XWP is much… MUCH… more gay.

That was about all I knew about the show going in. And amazingly, that was all I needed to know to be excited about watching it. You’d think that fact would have told me something about myself, but no. The mental walls of denial were years in the building and needed more force than that to be shattered.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show’s premise, Xena: Warrior Princess is about the title character and her quest for redemption. You see, Xena did some bad things in her previous life on another show (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). In her storied career as a warlord, she committed such petty crimes as genocide, the slaughter of innocents, that kind of thing. But now she has seen the light and wants to atone for her crimes. Except she can never undo the terrible things she did. All Xena can do now is help people on a day-to-day basis and hope that it’s enough for someone to show her mercy.

Which is already fantastic from a character standpoint. But there is a secret mirror to Xena’s journey that is not reflected in the show’s title, and that is Gabrielle and her character arc.

Oh! Gabrielle! When I met her in the very first episode, I loved her straightaway. She is a feisty, naive, talkative small-town girl who accompanies Xena on all her adventures. Her character quickly assumes paramount importance in the narrative. Gabrielle is Xena’s only friend. She comes to know her better than anyone else and love her for who she is, all the while believing Xena can reach redemption. Yet Gabrielle is not just a support system for Xena; she goes on her own heroic journey. The two character arcs intertwine and co-develop in a way I have never seen in any show before or since.

As each episode rolled by and their relationship grew in complexity, I found myself more and more engrossed. And I came to realize: this was something I wanted. The day I accepted my own desire was the day I accepted myself. What could be more strangling than denying the existence of your own feelings? Yet I had been doing this to myself for years — cutting off the possibility of being attracted to other women — without even realizing.

Before beginning the show, I thought the fandom had read in between the lines to construct a romantic relationship between the two characters, the same way as femslash shippers do in all other TV shows. Except not this time. This one is mind-blowingly different.

Not only does the narrative place utmost importance on the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle, but the actresses bring such multi-dimensional love to their parts. When I saw Lucy Lawless (Xena) and Renee O’Connor (Gabrielle) interact, I could so easily believe that these two women loved each other beyond friendship. Xena and Gabrielle display every kind of love you can think of. They protect and sacrifice for each other. They tease and flirt. They cuddle and console. They have inside jokes with each other. They dance sexily. They play pranks and drive each other crazy. They sweetly kiss. They come back from the dead together. They bathe together. They raise each other’s children. They meet in alternate timelines and fall in love all over again.

I could have left my mental walls of denial in place. I could have said to myself “oh yes, I want this. But with a guy.” But no. Lawless and O’Connor’s incredibly attractive faces and bodies broke down the door of my mental closet. Precisely because they were fictional, I felt safe to admit my attraction to them. One of the key mental blocks I had always had towards accepting any attraction towards other women was the thought that I was being creepy. That since they could not possibly feel the same way about me, it was wrong to feel the way I did. But in my mind, that barrier didn’t exist with fictional characters. They couldn’t feel anything for me. Therefore, it was fine to feel whatever I want about them.

The walls cracked. The water came rushing in. Oh my god. I am attracted to other women. Like, every day of my life. Those flickers in my stomach when I talk to an attractive female coworker suddenly make a whole lot of sense now. I now saw my historical awkwardness when talking to beautiful girls, which I always dismissed as “me being weird”, for what it was. All those short-term girl crushes on older girls throughout high school. How was I so sure they were platonic? That heart-aching infatuation I had with my best friend that lasted for years? Yeah, add that to the ‘definitely gay’ list.

Since then I’ve realized that my feelings are valid regardless of what others feel for me. Just because feelings are unrequited doesn’t mean they aren’t real. That’s what Xena and Gabrielle taught me. Their fictional example was the final blow to my rapidly-crumbling resistance to the idea of homosexuality.

In our culture today, so many forms of media reinforce heteronormativity. How many commercials have you seen that assume attraction between a man and a woman? How many billboards tell women that they need to look sexy for the men in their lives? How many times has a movie ended with the guy getting the girl? It’s the combined action of a thousand small rocks shifting to make a cultural avalanche. You can’t move against it. All you can do is stand still and try to maintain your footing against the current, to maintain your identity in the face of a world where you and people like you are often swept away by the mainstream.

Xena: Warrior Princess is one of those rare stories that dares to go against the grain. It celebrates a romantic relationship between two women as the most natural thing in the world. And in doing so, it provides a mirror for me and people like me to recognize themselves in. There we are. Look at us fly.

This story isn’t over yet. I still have a lot of work to do to accept myself, but thanks to Xena and Gabrielle I’ve taken one huge step towards living the open life I want to live. I moved on from that horrible job and lonely city, but in the end I’m grateful. Grateful that circumstances pushed me to the depths of loneliness necessary to bring down the prison I had built in my own mind.

- How Xena: Warrior Princess Allowed Me To Accept Myself by Lyra Hall

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couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name · 5 years

Note

Could we ever see a concept from you on how OUAT could have been a better show?

alright, fair warning, I haven’t actually watched the show in a while so my memory might be a little spotty, but off the top of my head-

Don’t kill Neal. He was at the heart of the plot, which started to unravel the second he was gone. Don’t sacrifice a clear plot line you had planned just because the fans really like Captain Hook oh my GOD

Stop having everyone discredit Regina being Henry’s mother just because they don’t like her. OR, have them do that but have Henry defend her. Their relationship was too back and forth and we never had anything to tell us she was a bad mom to him before he found out about the curse...like, if you found out your Nice and Normal Mom was allegedly an evil witch, wouldn’t you...I don’t know....defend her a little? So either commit to having her be a shitty mom and then she has to make up for that, or have Henry fully torn between both sides of his family. NOT the mess we got on the show where she had to earn his trust back because of things she did like 30 years before he was even born

Stop dropping plotlines. I understand they had an issue of actors getting jobs in other franchises, like Sebastian Stan and the guy who ended up in 50 Shades, but either stipulate something in the contract that they need to make time for a certain amount of episodes when you sign them, or just recast the actors. Don’t wait three years before Little Red Riding Hood can pop back up for an arc. Oh my God.

The Peter Pan arc happened way too soon- Neal needed time to build relationships with everyone else, specifically with Henry, his father, and Emma. Think about how it could’ve been if he’d patched things up with Emma quicker and they got in the groove of parenting Henry, only for Regina to still have her reservations about him because of her history with Rumple- only for Henry to then be kidnapped and the three of them have to become and Iconic Parent Trio to get him back. Hello.

Henry should’ve learned magic way before he became the Author. He is a True Love Baby who’s also related to three extremely powerful magic users and making him the damsel in distress every single season finale got old very fast. How about- after the Peter Pan arc, Rumple starts teaching him magic behind his parents back, because 1) he isn’t sure how they’d feel about it since Tensions 2) with all the shit in this universe Henry definitely needs to know how to defend himself, and 3) AFTER SEEING HIS FATHER ALMOST STEAL HIS GRANDSON THE SAME WAY HE STOLE HIS SON I FEEL LIKE THAT MIGHT HAVE AN EFFECT ON HIM EMOTIONALLY???? They never bothered to develop a real relationship with Henry and Rumple, every now and then he’d be like ‘oh yeah that’s my grandson’ and like...that was it. it was WACK

It also could’ve lead to some low-level comedy drama with David fretting about not being the ‘cool’ grandpa anymore lmao

The whole thing where Emma and Henry got their memories erased for a year while the others got sent back to the Forrest....it literally didn’t make sense for Neal not to go with them I’m still screaming. They literally said the only reason Emma and Henry could escape was because they weren’t effected by the first curse....literally neither was Neal??? Oh my God

So you could’ve had it like...they patched things up faster, and they weren’t back together but they weren’t Not back together, and they had definitely gotten a decent co-parent situation down, so he chooses to stay with them because he doesn’t want to abandon Emma again and he doesn’t want Henry to grow up without his father like he did. The dramatic goodbyes are for their parents and Regina. A year later, Hook choses to warn them about whatevers happening on his own free will, beginning a redemption arc that is NOT tied to Emma. He’s trying to protect the family to make up for what he did to Neal in Neverland

idk how I truly felt about the whole dead/resurrected Rumple situation but if we keep with it, BELLE is the one who resurrects him- and NOT with a spell that will kill her, but with DR. FRAKENSTIEN WHO FUCKING EXISTS ON THE SHOW AND THEY ONLY MENTION HIM ONCE IN A BLUE MOON ARE YOU KIDDING ME THEY DIDN’T USE HIM FOR A RESSURECTION STORY ARC

The whole Frozen arc shouldn’t have happened- I didn’t hate it, Emma and Elsa were sweet, but overall Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Hans felt very shoehorned in and didn’t really mesh well with the rest of the story.

I DID however like the whole bit with the Ice Queen trying to adopt Emma when she was younger, and I think they could’ve used that to build onto the dark Emma storyline- the Ice Queen’s prophecy or whatever could’ve been referring to her, Emma and Zelena. That way it’s not Ice Queen trying to convince two powerful light magic users to go dark (and also not two ice power types and one Whatever The Fuck Type Emma Is)- it’s two powerful dark magic users trying to sway one woman who’s still trying to get a grasp on magic. Rather than the whole Dark One nonsense. Henry saves the day using his magic to subdue Ice Queen and Zelena the best he can, and convincing Emma she’s a good person, similar to how Regina chose to stop being dark for Henry. She snaps out of the hold the other two have on her and kicks ass. Hello.

The whole Author plotline was a hot mess but I’m still down for Henry taking over the position, it made sense for the story.

If they absolutely needed to do a new dark one plotline...NEAL. COME THE FUCK ON,

AND THEN HE MANAGES TO SUCCEED WHERE HIS FATHER FAILED WITH IT AND MAYBE THEY MANAGE TO KILL THE DARK ONE SPELL ALTOGETHER. TRUE LOVES KISS WITH EMMA OR HENRY WHO BOTH HAVE INCREDIBLY STRONG LIGHT MAGIC WHICH IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE DARK ONE. HELLO.

Maleficent’s Daughter Lily should’ve...stayed on???? Fully mended her friendship with Emma??? Iconic girl team??? Hello???

Belle gets to be an actual character instead of a character so underused that it becomes a running joke on the show that she asserts she’s cable of defending herself and then Doesn’t. Someone please teach this bitch to swordfight or something

It can be part of Hook’s Not-Emma-Related redemption arc maybe- instead of him using and threatening her. Or Neal can do it so they can bond. Or David or Snow decides to be nice it doesn’t actually matter please just make her a capable person I’m screaming

Henry should’ve kept in touch with friends he made in (Tallahassee) Boston for the year he lived there to uhhhh give the kid some concept of a normal reality and experience talking to people his own age. Also it could’ve been a super funny running gag to have a friend face time him and ask him what’s up and Henry’s trying to hide a dragon and magic spells off screen like ‘uh nothing just some family drama’

They needed to stop being so inconsistent about magic- first it was ‘magic can’t work outside of storybrooke’ but then Zelena was like ‘I’m going to magically transform into a different person in the middle of New York’ and ‘Wendy’s Brothers won’t age even though they aren’t in storybrooke’ and then it was like ‘magic can raise Robin and Hook and Rumple from the dead but it absolutely can do nothing for Neal, sorry’ like what the hell...please just some consistency

Make Snow like....35% less annoying

Don’t let Emma get lost in the story so much like at some point she really stopped being the main character and it was annoying as hell

that whole thing in one episode where David and Snow saw through a portal to young Emma and David wanted to go through to her but Snow was like ‘no we can’t change her past’ was some PRIME BULLSHIT. We already brought time travel into a fairytale show! nothing matters anymore bitch! let him hug his daughter!

Really thought they could’ve been like...they weren’t allowed to permanently change the past but they could’ve gotten a letter or some shit through to her...come on

alright this is all I got right now but like....genuinely a lot of their mistakes were so easily avoidable. it’s still truly baffling that the show went so downhill. rip

#once upon a time #ouat #emma swan #neal cassidy #henry mills #asks #molly mumbles

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nellie-elizabeth · 4 years

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Outlander: Journeycake (5x11)

I... have some problems, y'all.

Cons:

I'm not even going to sit here and talk about all the things that are different between the book and the show, because I actually think plenty of the changes were for the good, here. But one thing I will say is that Roger, Brianna, and Jemmy leaving to go back through the stones felt incredibly unmotivated. I know they talked about it earlier in the season, and agreed that they would go through if it turned out Jemmy was able. But in the book, Brianna's daughter is sick and will die without a surgery that can only be performed in the future. They all have to go. Here, the reason is a lot more nebulous, and I kept thinking - what's your actual hurry? What is your reasoning for leaving now? The war coming? Yeah, I mean I get that, but still. Bonnet is dead, there's no immediate, personal threat... it just felt like they decided to leave because the narrative needed them to decide that.

The way the story is changing, I'm starting to wonder if season six might be the final season of Outlander. They're taking some big shortcuts, changing some big elements, and it feels like they're wrapping things up instead of expanding for future developments. I'm... oddly okay with that, but it does make certain existing moments in the story feel underrepresented.

For example - Lizzie. Brianna and Lizzie have this 'touching' goodbye moment where Lizzie at first assumes she's going with Roger and Brianna to "Boston", but then Brianna has to tell her that she needs to stay at the Ridge. This relationship had no real time to bloom. Lizzie literally has to remind the audience why she and Brianna might be important to one another. Lizzie plays a bigger role in the books, and maybe her story-line will still happen in season six... or maybe not. She feels like a dropped plot thread.

Also... okay... while we're here, let's talk about what's going to happen in next week's finale. I was hoping, what with all the changes from the source material, that we could do away with the trauma detour that Claire is about to take. I don't want to spoil what it is, but Gabaldon has certain tendencies in her writing that I frankly get very sick of very soon. I'm not saying it's going to be poorly handled, but I honestly... just don't want to see it. And the Browns don't feel like enough of a presence for this sudden attack to be motivated, either. What a disjointed way of bringing the season to a close, to suddenly have a vaguely menacing man become the final villain of the season. I don't know... it feels lackluster to me, and it also feels unnecessary.

Pros:

While Brianna and Roger's departure felt unmotivated for me, I will say that many of the trappings of it were still appealing. I liked Bree and Marsali embracing as sisters, I liked Jamie telling Brianna about William. I loved the goodbye with Lord John from Brianna, and the moments with Roger and Ian. I'm also really intrigued by the cliffhanger there, as it appears the family has made it through the stones, but they look up and out over the scene and seem surprised by what they find. Did it work? Did they go to the wrong time? This is not how any of this happens in the books so I am genuinely not sure what to expect.

Lord John!!! I am, as always, predictably in love with every second this character is on screen. I love that he shows up at the Ridge uninvited and unexpected, and Jamie is immediately asking him to become their first official guest in the big house. So cute! The two of them sitting together, talking about William... John giving Jamie a portrait of his son... talking about how he looks more and more like his father every day... John talking about going back to England, and how there are "many things he's going to miss" about being in the colonies... Jamie totally understanding that...

I think what I love so much about this relationship is that it has the intimacy of total understanding behind it. They effectively... have a child together. I mean, not really, but Jamie loves his son from afar and John loves and raises him. It's a tragedy but it's a beautiful one, and their affection for each other is only strengthened by the difficult journey it took to achieve it. I will always take every opportunity to ramble on about John far more than the narrative justifies.

And another thing! About John! is his relationship with Brianna. I love it, I love how close they are, I love how John gets to tell Brianna about her brother in this moment of true friendship and understanding. In the books, it's a much more contentious realization for Bree, but I like the change here.

Also, and this is a small thing, but Ulysses' ending in the show is MUCH better than in the books. Instead of running off with [spoiler redacted], he runs off with Lord John, to pose as his servant so he can be free once he sets foot on a British ship. I mean, I don't think we should forget that Lord John has a plantation in the colonies and probably has slaves, even though we don't hear about them. But for this character in particular, I appreciate that Ulysses gets to leave and be a free man, and escape punishment for the murder of a white man who was trying to kill Jocasta.

Ian breaks my heart so much. I had kind of forgotten that he didn't already know the truth about his time-traveling family members, but in this episode he is told everything. His first reaction is to wonder about what can and can't be changed - he understands that big historical events can't be circumvented, but what about a thing that happens between a man and his wife? He wants to go back in time and fix things with his wife Emily, but unfortunately he cannot travel through the stones... this made me so sad, and I love it as a succinct way of encapsulating Ian's arc of grief. He bears witness to Roger, Bree, and Jemmy's passage through the stones, with a charge to look after the lands that Tryon gifted to the family. This feels like such a good place for him to be as we look towards the final episode of the season!

There are plenty of details I didn't mention, but I think I've covered the gist of my thoughts. I do not think it's a problem that the events of the story have been changed quite a lot from those of the book. I do think we run into some issues when a character takes the same action as in the book, but with the circumstances so wildly changed as to make the motivations less coherent. This episode overall felt disjointed to me, even though there were plenty of moments in it that I loved.

7/10

#review #outlander #outlander review

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rockettransman · 5 years

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MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT ROCKETMAN

I HAVE SO MANY! HERE WE GO!

prelude: i went into this movie pretty jaded and not thinking i was gonna like it. in my head, i got john lennon and elton john confused. i was thinking it was about john lennon. “oh god, they made a movie about that prick?” further, i was already dreading it because they play EJ’s hits on the radio at work all the time, and frankly i was fucking sick of tiny dancer and im still standing. when i watched the trailer i was like “aw geez, elton john sings these? damn, i was hoping i could tolerate him at all.” so. not many high hopes for this movie.

that was until i was on a six hour flight from boston to portland, oregon, and i was delirious with pain and boredom. i was sat in the middle of a father and daughter, and so i really didn’t wanna pull out my laptop and get in their space. reading the subtitles from the office off the airplane tv made me sick. the lights were off and it was 2 am, so no reading. i. was. BORED. and then, i saw someone watching something in the row in front of me. where i was sitting i got a whole view of their screen. oh, they were watching that elton john movie. they didn’t have subtitles on, so i could only take from visual and context clues what was happening. it looked flashy, and oh-- that man just stared lovingly, tenderly into another man’s eyes. oh shit. oh yeah. elton is gay.

now i’m hooked. if i’m anything, i’m a trans man in a desperate search for a complex queer romance movie. i wanted something that would pull on my heartstrings, that would wreck me emotionally with a high reward. suddenly elton is staring at himself in full garb, putting on and taking off his glasses. smiling then frowning. glasses on. smile. glasses off. scowl. oh he’s in distress. oh, is he snorting coke? okay, cool, tight.

from here on out, i watch the movie with (no audio) the predisposition that elton is in severe distress, dealing with drugs and self-sabotage all because his feelings and attraction towards men are confusing and frustrating and he doesn’t know how to cope with them. is he in denial? does he hate himself for it? does he try to make himself attracted to women? obviously, i was incorrect. elton was pretty secure in the fact that he was gay in his personal life.

i think about rocketman for days until my flight back to sarasota. i decide to watch rocketman on the plane back instead of renting it. but for some reason, my goblin brain told me to rent it, and i did. but i ended up just watching it on the plane anyway.

i was disappointed. really, kinda bummed about it. every article and review said it was R for a reason. there was plenty sexual content and drugs to do elton’s real life comparison justice. in the movie i watched, i saw none of it. there was some drinking of alcohol, he took pills, it was implied he snorted coke. i saw no kissing, no intimacy, not even a tender hand on a cheek or embrace between elton and another man. this movie was praised for being so groundbreaking! for representing so much of what elton’s life was really like, with drugs and sex and all that. and now that i thought about it, i heard not one curse word. “bloody” was tossed around a lot, but that is used as an inflection. and during the pool scene before he throws himself in, when he meets john at the deck, he spits something about “his secretary shagging him in front of the pool boys.” that had me in utter confusion. there... was no one there with john? he was just sitting there? must’ve been something i missed.

SO IT TURNS OUT THE AIRPLANE’S VERSION OF THE MOVIE WAS HEAVILY CENSORED. i watched the real thing when i got home yesterday and was FLOORED by the differences in the same movie i had just watched. in the scene where elton remarks he’d like to change his name, they completely edited out the character behind him peeing into a glass bottle. they also cut out the scene where elton is staring at the performer, being yelled at to close the door, and the kiss where he’s pinned against the wall. holy fuck. i realized when i saw that, i had missed something MAJOR. this meant i was missing some MORE major explicit, probably important-to-the-plot-and-character-development stuff. oh, now i was excited.

(we could talk all day about the fact that a single kiss between two men was cut because it was deemed “too explicit”, and in a movie about elton john being the ultimate irony)

the sex scene AND take me to the pilot were completely missing in the airplane version. i had no idea this song existed! oh my god, it was a banger! i cried tears of happiness during the song. holy shit. the tense energy between he and john, standing there silhouetted by the window, and then all of a sudden they’re all over each other, fingers tangled in hair, moaning into each other’s mouths, squirming, trying to get as close to each other as possible. this is what i wanted. this is what i was looking for. not because i was looking for something “hot” or “dirty.”’ i wanted an intense sex scene because then i knew it was real. i wanted the desperation, the nerves, the tender way they cradled each other, and how they went to town on each other. it was elton’s first time being intimate with a man, and it was such a nerve-wracking, intense, lustful, desperate moment. taron and richard absolutely nailed it. The swaying and the leaning into each other, the grabbing and nuzzling and all of a sudden they’re all over each other... it honest to god moved me. not to sound too “grew-up-baptist”, but sex, especially the first time you have it is so special and intimate and personal and important (imo). i know all the times i’ve had sex, it was a very, very special moment to me, and i wholly and completely trusted my partner then. i was so happy elton could find security and love and a heckin good time in bed with another man. it must’ve felt so freeing.

This was between two men! In the smack dab of the AIDS crisis in like 1975 or some shit! If being queer is this fucking tough in 2019, imagine what it was like in 1975!! MILLIONS of people were left to die by eat-shit Raegan who say by and said “aw that’s cute.” MILLIONS of people died for loving who they love!! That’s fucked man!! Seeing a triumphant moment like this in the middle of what was happening and what it could mean for Elton and his career just rly got me ya know

my entire perspective of the movie changed from then on. i was excited to see what else i had missed. in fact, some of the songs weren’t bad. maybe i’d like some of elton’s stuff after all?

i missed the scene in the closet. on the airplane, he followed john into the closet and shut the door. the scene cut. but in the real version, suddenly john pinned him against the wall, mirroring the scene of the first kiss i missed, and elton lamely stutters he wants dinner with him, not a sexual act john was certainly looking for, and in the next moment he was hungrily snapping at his finger. i missed exactly how much coke elton snorted. i missed entire scenes and nuances that provided so much to the story. man, i was angry i missed all this. i was cheated.

when i finished the real version, my perspective on the movie, and elton, and his music, had spun an entire 180. i dug it. i listened to rocket man on repeat during the entirety of my forty minute run. i fell asleep listening to the soundtrack. i woke up today listening to it, and have been through the whole day. i have not been able to get this movie off my mind. im watching it for the third time right now.

WELCOME TO THE THIRD POINT OF THIS POST!

if you made it this far, thank you. what i wrote feels so important to me. someone needed to hear it. I WANNA TALK ABOUT THE ENTIRE ROCKETMAN SCENE. I have PTSD with psychotic features. This means that under the right triggers, i hallucinate, visually or auditorily (is that a word), things that aren’t there. sometimes they’re scary, connected to my past trauma, but sometimes, they’re hazy outlines of good people who i think i know. i also deal with all the lovely things that come along with ptsd, including dissociation. pretty much any and everything can trigger me in a specific way. the pool scene was incredibly difficult to watch. seeing a little boy playing piano underwater, him sinking and hovering and singing along, and people slowly descending, dancing in the water until they retrieve him. the vision snaps apart and holy fuck elton is in trouble. (as an aside, that’s one of my favorite affects of film: the protag is under the influence of something, whether it be a hallucination, drugs, in a deep fantasy, or just otherwise a storytelling device, and he is in imminent danger. the audience is aware he is in imminent danger. the protag, however, is cool and chillin and hanging out, not aware or bothered, and maybe this is where a major character arc beat hits. in an instant, they’re pulled out of it, and we--the audience and the characters--are hit with how dire the circumstances really are.)

Suicide is a super sensitive subject to me. when he mumbled “i’m going to fucking kill myself” and plunged into the depths, my throat constricted. it was a difficult few minutes, but i held my breath, gritted my teeth, and paced myself through it. despite the sheer terror and panic that was racing through my brain, the entirety of it was so beautiful. the bright blues, whites, and blacks of the pool lighting and bubbles decorating him, the flow of his--forgive him, i don’t know if there’s a cultural name--outer garment, how curious and confused he looked as he watched his younger self do something he did now, and the people twirling through the water, reaching out, and eventually snatching him up until we’re suddenly in the present--dude, the cinematography of the entire first verse is so, so breathtaking. the scene in the ambulance and getting his stomach pumped was a bit too graphic for me (i could feel a flashback/hallucination creeping on; sometimes i can’t tell them apart.) but it was all done so smoothly. when they lifted him up, spun him around, undressed and dressed him all in one fluid motion, i lost my fuckin mind. i rewound it several times to just watch that sequence. the pain, reluctance, and exhaustion in his face right before he was handed his bat and exuberantly entered the stage was so intense it was palpable. my heart ached for him deeply. it’s allll about putting on a mask of being truly happy and well, when just before that, he had tried to fucking kill himself. how fucking heavy is that shit?

the downward spiral kept me on the edge of my seat. honky cat was funky as hell, and i loved the little tiny moments and gestures towards each other. maybe john and elton truly cared for each other for mere heartbeats before it all went south. he was hurting so bad and ruining everything and in such denial i wanted to throttle him by the shoulders to scream “LOOK WHAT YOU’RE DOING! YOU BIG FUCKING IDIOT!” he was constantly suffering, doing more coke and drugs than i thought a person could keep in his system. the suicide attempt, the fantastic Dodgers show, the night and day between his outward appearance and his actions, all of it was so gripping. the group therapy medium through which the story was told was insanely cool, too. i thought at first it was a bit cheesy, but it worked. i loved that he confronted everyone who had hurt him, and who he had hurt, and reconciled. i loved that as the major plot beats went on, his clothes eventually toned down in loudness, mirroring how the story was going along in real time. he went from having an explosive outburst, to levelly confronting his parents, and firmly insisting they not treat him like that anymore. they didn’t have the right. we could see how he’d grown through several different literary elements. the fact that it was laid out so plainly really helped me, someone who is dumb as fuck and constantly misses nuances like that.

it’s so disheartening to see elton’s first love was someone who was aggressive, non-interested, and who refused to listen to him.

(im at the pinball wizard scene, and holy shit this tune fucks)

at the end of the day, when i had thought the movie fell through so many expectations, i watched the real, authentic version and was so, so happy with how it turned out. it was much more honest than what i had thought it was. when the credits rolled, and it said he and his husband David Furnish had been happily married for 25 years, the tears really started coming. Elton did it. He survived through all the shit he put his body through, all the heartache and loneliness and terrible isolation and suffering, and he won. He got what he always wanted. A man who loved him deeply, purely, passionately, and properly.

i haven’t shut up about elton john for days. i’m kinda baffled how something gripped me so intensely, when i had written it off as stupid just a day before this. thank you for reading. i’m sure i forgot a lot of things i wanted to express, but hopefully i got something across. let me know if you read this, please. if you made it all the way down here, i owe you like $5. drop me your venmo.

thank you for reading. this movie touched me in a way i didn’t think was possible. thank god for elton john. thank god for his perseverance. thank god for his story, giving me and millions of others hope that happiness will come. recovery is possible. healing is possible. you just need to reach out first. thank you and goodnight.

#noah.txt #rocketman #whew this was a long one #thanks for reading so much #rocket man #11:01 pm #i started writing when the movie started #and now were at the rocketman scene lmfaoooo it been over an hour of writing #im queer and deep in my feelings #taron egerton #elton john #reggie dwight #david furnish #burnin out his fuse up here alone #what else do i tag #bernie taupin

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amandabe11man · 4 years

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a VERY LONG post about Hell on Wheels

YEAH i forgot about this post in my drafts... it’s been like a year since i finished the show now and i feel i’ve barfed everything out into this post (that i can think of), so here it goes (you’ll have to shield your eyes after the spoiler warning if you don’t wanna be spoiled btw. i can’t seem to be able to add a read more-link...) :

SO... i finished watching “hell on wheels” at last, pm half a year since i started. it’s funny because i was under the impression that i’d sOMEHOW be able to binge all five seasons within just one month (reason: i wanted to watch it before my free trial on HBO’s website went out). honestly, that wouldn’t have been possible because it was a LOT more emotionally draining than you’d think at first glance... after being gutpunched three times in a row in season 4, any reasonable human would need a little break.

anyway, it feels-- weird. i’ve never been big on following tv-shows so i haven’t been able to relate to that feeling ppl describe once they’ve finished a show they’ve become so attached to, except NOW i can relate. the show’s not groundbreaking, it’s not perfect, but i’ve had a lot of fun. what a ride it’s been...

looking back, i’d say HOW’s biggest weakness is its tendency to forget or ignore certain plot points. i guess that’s not too weird, with such an arsenal of characters, but still, i find that’s what bugged me the most, if anything bugged me at all. for example--

[SPOILERS for those who might wanna watch it after seeing me go on abt it, idk]:

first off, what REALLY grinds my gears is how ezra dutson’s plotline was handled. it was set up perfectly in the beginning; having him escape from the swede (who promised him that, and i quote: “i’ll find you, ezra! i always do”), the original plan was obviously for ezra and the swede to “reunite” some time in the future so that ezra could tell everyone that the swede killed his parents, thus tying up loose ends and giving some closure to that whole arc. some might say this would’ve been too predictable, but i would rather have that predictable storyline than having it just end unceremoniously like it did, with ezra dying ACCIDENTALLY and off-screen by sidney snow’s hand, simply as a way to further bohannon’s pain and set the stage for ruth’s final arc. this might’ve been fine, if the writers had made it so that ezra actually, y’know, TOLD SOMEONE WHY HE’S AN ORPHAN TO BEGIN WITH. but they didn’t even give the viewer that form of closure, instead just deciding to use him as a plot device for the other characters’ increased angst... bohannon and the others were never even made aware of ezra’s last name, and this is all what bugs the everliving SHIT outta me: the only ones who know, or will EVER know, ezra’s full story is the swede and the viewer, tho after season 4′s end, ezra is never mentioned or acknowledged again-- not by bohannon, and not even by the swede. ezra went from convenient character with a PURPOSE to “nameless” orphan forgotten by history. thanks, writers...

then there’s the whole deal with campbell coming to town to reinforce The Law™, which wasn’t a bad arc, mind you-- campbell and his goons were the most infuriating little shits for a while there-- but the thing is; didn’t campbell LIE to his men about the president giving him the position as governor? i might’ve misunderstood it, but i’m PRETTY sure the president didn’t give him THAT much of an upstanding role, but that campbell just went ahead and took that position anyway? if that was indeed the case, then that’s another plot hole, cause nobody finds out about campbell’s possible trickery to become the governor. nobody rats him out, despite literally no one in “his” town liking him all that much, so they’d have no reason to protect his “secret”. (correct me if i’m wrong on this one though. i might be misremembering things)

then there’s the other pretty infuriating issue of bad guys never getting called out for doing bad shit (unless it’s the swede, who gets all the blame, all the time), for example:

major dick bongbendix(???idk he had a silly name like that) is presented VERY MUCH as a bad guy in the beginning. y’know, just casually beheading natives on all his missions and collecting those heads and taking them to the bar like a fucking nutcase-- those little details. he also seemed to believe in racial biology, so yeah, definitely not a good guy. but by the end, he’s been watered down into some quirky guy who’s ALMOST on friendly terms with the main characters. yeah, uh-- seems everyone (writers included) collectively forgot the whole public display of cut-off heads he had going on...

aaron hatch: started off as a guy too proud for his- or his family’s own good when he shot the police officer, BLAMED IT ON HIS FUCKING SON and then just kinda let bohannon hang the kid even though it was pretty obvious hatch was just shifting the blame away from himself. THEN he reappears with some other mormons and causes a full-on shootout in the town (probably getting some people killed, i don’t remember), TAKES EZRA (also a mormon) HOSTAGE SO THAT BOHANNON WILL COME WITH THEM WILLINGLY and passive aggressively forces bohannon to marry his daughter who bohannon knocked up. somewhere along the line, hatch’s bad side is just thrown to the wind, and bohannon at one point describes him as “a good man”. yeah, ABOUT THAT--

sean and mickey mcginnes: unlike the ones mentioned above, these two started out as seemingly decent dudes, but ended up pm as secondary villains in the end. however, like the ones mentioned above, they hardly face any consequences for whatever crap it was they did in boston, OR the fact that they killed and fucking mutilated/dismembered a man in cold blood (a man who WAS gonna kill them, yes, but HE did it because he thought they had killed his friend, which wasn’t a farfetched idea since mickey DID brag about killing the dude even though he didn’t actually do it). sure, they face their OWN demons as time goes on, they get ostracized, and they start losing faith in each other as well, which ends up with mickey killing sean before the latter can confess(?) his/their crimes. so, while sean was spineless and a creep, at least he thought about finally owning up to what he’d done in the end, whereas mickey lives on to keep doing shady shit, killing people, and getting increasingly more corrupt. he does end up pursuing new goals in the end, but it’s obvious he’s not happy about it anymore. that’s-- really all the comeuppance he ever gets, and the only one who knows about his shady businesses are pm just bohannon, durant and eva (also, personal gripe here-- they seemed to not settle for “just” tarring and feathering the swede and publicly humiliating him, but i’m pretty sure i recall mickey telling bohannon they were thinking about having the swede killed too. keep in mind, this was BEFORE the swede truly lost it and started killing people left and right. apparently, being kind of a douche about taxes is bad enough to warrant being tortured and cast out by the entire community... i’m obviously biased here, but still-- the mcginnes bros’ double standards are amazing to behold)

now that i’ve aired some of that out-- here are some highlights, according to me:

unexpected friendships, like that between eva and durant. i’d say the swede finding that stray dog and fawning all over him qualifies into this category too

durant and campbell fighting in the mud before finally coming to an agreement -- just- durant and his competitors being petty as fuck, honestly. it’s hilarious

bohannon trying to get through to elam by reminiscing about their friendship, especially since bohannon isn’t one to show his feelings often OR get sappy -- in fact, EVERY time bohannon loses his stoic facade is a good moment. when he was gonna bury elam and he just broke down completely for the first time since we were introduced to him... that shit had me in tears as well, but man was it a great scene

jimmy two-squaws

every time the swede opens his mouth (yes, even when he’s spouting some lies and bullshit like that)

ruth’s character development. i admit i didn’t like her at all in the beginning, idk something just felt off about her, but man did she ever grow on me. just-- how everyone kinda relied on her eventually, even though she’s only like in her 20′s or something... she still became a pillar of the community. bless ya, ruth :’ı -- also, her essentially adopting ezra was Pure as heck. I Lov it

the fact that this was the 1800′s and the only backlash the (openly) LGBT characters faced for it was pm just “yeah they’re a bit confused maybe but they’re not hurting anyone”. maybe that’s not very realistic but WHO GIVES A SHIT AMIRITE

mr tao just being a sweet old man

chang’s sunglasses, straight out of Django Unchained

mr toole’s complete heel-turn from racist POS to someone who sticks by his word to turn himself around. that shit was impressive coming from him, tbh

bohannon just calmly running into a buffalo by the train tracks

mei posing as a grown man instead of a boy (which is what she looks and sounds like, oml)

another thing i realized is that bohannon is a classic gary stu. there’s just no getting around that fact after seeing him being revered by most everyone he meets, how he’s somehow the only person able to build the railroad(s) fast and efficiently, and even wooing the literal PRESIDENT and becoming close friends with him-- all this despite his Bold and Brash personality. of course, there’s more to bohannon than these gary stu-symptoms, but i felt someone should bring it up, for the lulz

#hell on wheels #amc

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polygarnstars · 4 years

Note

part 1: 4, 12, 15, 18, and 19

If you think I’m going to have common sense and not answer all of these in a single post, I have Bad News lmao

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you? Smart, mostly. “Gifted”. This very much Did Not Last lmaoooo

12. name of your favorite playlist? I literally never make playlists I’m a stupid fuck who uses their spotify premium to skip freely through all my thousands of liked songs on shuffle until I find something I want to listen to lmaooooo (Having said that: Rey and I put together a playlist for some characters we were entering a contest to win last fall which I titled Story and Song after the TAZ arc and also because we wrote Way Too Much for it and I’m Very Proud Of That)

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment? Okay upon reading this I initially genuinely couldn’t remember any of the books I read in school because for the last several years of my schooling I just fuckin Sparknotes and TV Tropes-ed everything lmao... having said that, I do remember enjoying Maus! It was neat having a graphic novel assigned amongst all the “literary classics” that I couldn’t sit through a sitting of without falling asleep, and it may be the furry in me but the depiction of the characters/people as animals was Good :0c See, if all history was depicted with methods like this, I’d maybe actually be able to remember it ghfdjhgjfkdl

18. ideal weather? Depends on the day, but generally: Between like 65-80°F, not humid, not a lot of wind, and either sunny, partly cloudy, or drizzly but not outright storming. Basically decent temperatures without feeling like I’m walking through soup because of the humidity and weather that’s not completely gray and boring. Aka what Maine basically never is lmaoooo

19. sleeping position? I change positions every five minutes I swear to god (don’t take that out of context gfhdjbhvjd). Usually with at least one arm draped over a pillow that is Definitely Not Being Mentally Portrayed As A Character I Like To Supplement The Fact That I Did Not Get Enough Affection To Be A Functional Adult As A Child ghfdjknbhgfjdk

21. obsession from childhood? bold of you to assume i don’t still obsess over nintendo games (and just video games in general tbh)

23. strange habits? OKAY I COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING FOR THIS AT FIRST BUT I HAVE ONE NOW: MIDNIGHT FRIES

28. five songs to describe you? Speeding - LightsDaydreaming - ParamoreMusic - Mystery SkullsNo Lullaby - SIAMÉSLonely Dance - Set If Off+Bonus because it came up on Spotify while I was shuffling for songs for this and it’s a Mood: Pineapples Do Not Belong on a Pizza - Vargskelethor

29. best way to bond with you? I don’t know I usually just scream about ocs or video games with people and suddenly it’s been a year??? @riskreyes how has it been a year since we started talking but also how has it only been a year??? Wild bvhfdjkbhvgfjdk

30. places that you find sacred? Lmao I’ve never had anywhere like that really. Need a goddamn lock on my door :p I guess... the woods by my house? As a little kid before things got shitty my neighbor’s cousin or niece or something would go out there wandering around catching frogs and stuff in the spring or almost falling into the frozen streams during winter. When things started to go to shit in my life as a teenager I would hide out there to get away and nobody would find me. I haven’t been recently but the last time I did my friend and I walked along the train tracks and dove off into the woods by the side to avoid the amtrak coming by, it was great lmao. Uhh, other than that... I dunno, Boston and New York and New London all make me feel good to visit. Probably mostly because during those trips I don’t feel trapped in a dying land like Maine feels like bgvhfdjkhvgfjd

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? ......my entire wardrobe is my work outfit, excessive graphic tees, and jeans. So uhh... I dunno. I guess my NWTB shirts are pretty rad, I’d kick a dude’s ass wearing Nate’s merch

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? if i have to see another ad for some fuckin branch of the us military while i’m just out here trying to watch people play video games i swear to god-

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school? Oh boy I don’t know how weird these are but do you want a list??? I can give you a list hang on- In 4th grade we had a day of class where we all just had a party and ate chips and salsa and stuff because the pats won the super bowl and our teacher was Obsessed- In middle school my math class started working out of college textbooks, which is a bit much when you’re 11, advanced classes or no. Yet somehow none of the other students had any problems with this- Also in middle school, the school counselor really wasn’t very Good at his job so I usually just ended up playing Rock Band in his office instead of talking out any of my Many, Many Problems. I played the drums, for the record- Also in middle school, one time I straight up fell down a flight of stairs? Like, a full flight of stairs. Fuckin somersaulting down the stairs. The binder I was carrying broke open, papers went everywhere, my arm got cut open somewhere along the way and started bleeding. I get to the bottom, the other students are staring at me in horror, aforementioned counselor fuckin steps out of his office which is, of course, right at the bottom of the stairs, all concerned because what the fuck a kid just fell down the stairs, right? And so I, laying on the floor disoriented and laughing, declare, and I quote: “That was fun, let’s do it again!”- THE MOTHERFUCKING MAC AND CHEESE MUFFINS IN HIGH SCHOOL. Macaroni and cheese baked into the sweet batter of a muffin. I refused to touch the stuff but a friend of my did and it was bad enough he had to go to the trash can and fucking empty his stomach in it.- SAID FRIEND ALSO MANAGED TO GET A CARTON OF MILK THAT EXPIRED A MONTH BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED AT THE START OF ONE OF OUR YEARS IN HIGH SCHOOL and if I didn’t trust cafeteria food before that sealed the deal on me Never Trusting It Again- OH BUT SPEAKING OF CAFETERIA FOOD one time in the old school before the renovation, in like freshman year I think? I laughed so hard a piece of spicy chicken strip flew up my windpipe and got stuck in my nose and it was too big for me to snort out so I had to suck it back down and for the rest of the day all I could smell was burning- ON ANOTHER FOOD RELATED TOPIC down in the library I was on my iPad and 3DS because I had Long Since Given Up On School and some asshole dudes threw a rotting orange at me and it splattered all over the screens of both? So I picked up the remains and chucked it back at them and yelled “Do you wanna fucking NOT?” and they all ran off. The librarian heard me yell and saw me throw the orange back at them and she just didn’t give a fuck lmao- The librarians at my school were cool as shit really during one of our years we had to do x hours of volunteer work so I did some adjustments to the library catalogue for mine but the thing is I was fast enough at it that there really wasn’t enough to fill up my required hours so instead of giving me more to do they just sort of let me and my friends hang out playing Yu-Gi-Oh and called that good lmao. (For the record I only had one starter deck so I let my friend pick half of the cards and I would use the half she didn’t want. I managed to fuckin WRECK her with throwaways it was Iconicque)- OKAY ONE LAST LIBRARY STORY on the last day of finals I was hanging out in one of the smart tv rooms in the library right? My last finals weren’t for a few hours and lord knows I wasn’t gonna study, ADHD ass couldn’t do that and I’d already given up on school lmao. So I fucking... I brought my Wii U to school, hooked it up to the smart tv, and just started playing Splatoon there in the library. One of the librarians walked past to check on everyone, stopped at my room, watched me play for a minute (I noticed her and just sort of nodded and waved like ‘Sup’ so she Knew what was going on), and then just LEFT. Like, she didn’t give a fuck. Shoutout to the librarians, the Chillest- ALRIGHT LAST STORY LAST STORY I straight up never got all the credits I needed to graduate lmao. I was missing half a credit but they let me go anyway and to this day I cite the reason as being my high scores on the SAT/PSAT? I was the first student at the school in like, a decade, to have gotten an award from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for my performance on them, and I guess they must have thought that me failing to graduate on time would look bad on them because, uh, yeah, it would, if people found out their teachers couldn’t handle a ~smart kid~ to the point that they did poorly enough to not even graduate with the rest of their class nobody would be willing to send their kids there lmao. And that’s the story of how I graduated when I wasn’t technically supposed to!!!

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? That’s a good fuckin question hey shit memory what was that thing that made us laugh so hard we couldn’t breathe again?...Don’t remember? Yeah I thought so lmaoI dunno, probably a joke in some let’s play? Or... god. Now that I think about it was probably the Slicer of T’pire Weir Isles moment actually. Holy shit, that was good.

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried? That I’ve ever tried? Jesus, I dunno, I have issues with texture more than flavor. I Refuse to eat my mother’s stuffing because it’s literally just soggy ass bread. In terms of pure flavor alone? Her shepherds pie. It’s just... there is no flavor. It’s like eating cardboard. I’m begging you, De, use seasoning. If I ever have to eat shepherds pie that just tastes like tin from canned peas and vague hints of unseasoned beef again I’m going to go on a murderous rampage.That said? F in the chat to Cameron for that mac and cheese muffin. Rest in pieces

73. favorite weird flavor combo? GVFHDJBVDN JUST GONNA MAKE ME SHARE THE DILL PICKLE/CHOCOLATE PUDDING PACK COMBO FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE HUH

93. nicknames? Gar, Garn, Lane, Bill, Master, Pants, Shortpants. The first three are self-explanatory, first two are shortenings of my name and then my masc/surname. The latter four come from usernames of mine - Bill from Bill Ciforce (If you stack a Bill Cipher on top of two other Bill Ciphers, you get the Ciforce), Master, Pants, and Shortpants from MasterShortpants in reference to one of Link’s nicknames in Skyward Sword

95. favorite app on your phone? Does the internet app count? No? Lmao. Spotify I guess :p Need me some Tunes

#if you're on a version of the site that readmores don't work on i'm sorry #long post #ask game thyme

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jordan202 · 6 years

Text

My Boys: Beyond the Horizon - Chapter 1

Hi guys!

So, it’s Saturday, and like I promised here is the first part of the new My Boys multichapter. This one follows up with the events of Bright Future, a few years after the latest installments. I won’t give any details of the plot because I think half the fun will be to slowly figure out what everyone is up to.

Now, I have to point out that this story will be more like a multiple arc story than strictly an Omelia fanfiction. Writing about Owen and Amelia is and will always be my favorite thing to do but I am saying this in advance because my main goal with this piece is to keep the promise I made to the many readers who’ve asked me to write a sequel to the stories of Lucas and Emily, Thomas and Kate, Megan, the twins, etc. But of course Owen and Amelia will be a part of everything too, and I am going to include a lot of Omelia scenes!

Just a heads up for those who may not be familiar with sports teams: I often point out how the Hunts are fans of the Seahawks, a Seattle based American football team. The Seahawks share their stadium (and fans too) with the Sounders, which are a soccer team. I just thought I’d point that out so that people won’t get confused with the events about to unfold.

Anyway, enough talking, let’s get to the point. Thank you @jia911 for proofreading this and everyone of you who’ve helped me somehow by suggesting prompts, supporting this sequel and taking your time to give me feedback!

Merry Christmas, everyone :)

My Boys: Beyond the Horizon - Chapter 1

“Are you sure you’re all set?”

“Yes, Addie, don’t worry,” Lucas flashed his most adorable smile, following his godmother to the living room of his own house. “I’ll be fine.”

“You know… How am I going to adapt to this new reality of not having you here anymore?” Addison asked, trying to contain stubborn tears from gathering in her eyes.

“I guess you’re just going to have to visit me often,” Lucas replied with a supportive expression.

Addison turned around one last time and wrapped the young man in a tight embrace before finally leaving for a work conference out of town.

As soon as she left, Lucas made his way to the back porch at the same time he took a sip from an overpriced beer. The sun was starting to set at the horizon, sending a vibrating orange shade to the full extension of the pool with an infinite border at his home. From a distance, he could hear Rachel’s excited voice, probably talking to one of her friends on the phone. He smiled to himself with satisfaction at the realization that the house wasn’t empty as he’d previously imagined and focused again on the street outside.

He watched as Addison got inside a city cab to make her way to the airport. Lucas couldn’t contain a smile when he remembered how worried about him she always was. He was really thankful that, while living distant from his mother, Addison had stepped up to play a maternal role in his life in a very natural way.

When Lucas had moved to Los Angeles, five years before, she had been fundamentally important in his adaptation away from his family and everything he knew. Back then, Lucas had been a naïve, gullible nineteen year old with a lot of promises in his heart and the innocence of a young man brought up in a household surrounded by love and support.

It didn’t take Lucas long to find out that the world wasn’t exactly that kind or generous. Outside the security of his home, he’d come to find viciousness, excessive competitiveness and even cruelty. Being a professional athlete wasn’t at all easy and he’d struggled with loneliness and unkindness during the beginning of the process. Several times, Lucas had thought about dropping everything and running back home.

But something inside of him had prevented Lucas from doing so. He couldn’t explain what it was, but there was a force within his heart that moved the boy in a way he couldn’t understand it himself. While to most people soccer was just a game, to Lucas it meant much more. Where most athletes saw consternation, he saw new possibilities. While the well established tactics were followed like the law by his coaches, Lucas had dared to question them. And when they had put his capacity to follow orders and lead into question, he’d proved to them that talent, innovation, creativity and hard work were the most basic secret to success.

At first, it had been a real struggle but now, at twenty four, Lucas was not only extremely successful as an a professional athlete, he was also charming, handsome and had more money than he would need in a lifetime, added to an indecent amount of charisma and the attractive liveliness he’d inherited from his mother, making him an irresistible combination.

“There is someone in the living room waiting for you,” Rachel went outside, distracting his thoughts. “Also, which one do you prefer?” she asked while holding a different dress with each hand.

“They look the exact same,” Lucas replied with casualty, putting the beer bottle back on the table beside the pool. “Who is there?” he asked with a puzzled expression, wondering why security hadn’t called to notify him that he had a visitor.

“They are so not the same,” Rachel followed him into the living room, wiggling the two midnight blue dresses. “This one is a Cartier and it’s made out of silky fabric,” she cheerfully explained, pointing to the piece with her eyes. “While this baby here is made entirely of satin.”

“This one,” Lucas randomly pointed to the first dress he saw. “Looks expensive,” he added, uninterested. At least he knew Rachel would like to hear that.

“You should know,” the young woman winked at him before they finally made it inside the house. “You paid for it.”

Lucas furrowed a brow, processing the information but before his mind could focus on what Rachel had said, his eyes captured the image of a young man who was almost as tall as him. The visitor’s eyes had the same shade of baby blue as Lucas’ father and his slim, athletic physique contrasted with his intelligent exterior.

“Tommy!” Lucas’ face transformed into a wide, heartfelt smile before he excitedly jumped forward, unceremoniously hugging his brother, “what are you doing here?”

Thomas hugged Lucas back just as warmly and only when the two young men pulled apart, he was finally able to explain with his usual serenity.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

“So you flew all the way from Boston to do that?” Lucas asked with a jovial grin, clearly knowing there was more to it.

“Well, not really,” Thomas confessed a bit awkwardly. His eyes went from his brother to the unknown companion in the room, the reason of his hesitation to talk more openly about his reason to be there.

“Oh,” Lucas belatedly realized how rude he was being. “Sorry. This is Rachel.”

“Hi,” Rachel leaned forward and in a clearly flirtatious manner, shook Thomas’ hand.

“That’s my brother Tom,” Lucas explained to her.

“Oh, the one who’s a doctor?” Rachel excitedly spoke, looking at Thomas with a whole new glance of interest. “Damn, Luke, you never said he was this handsome.”

“It’s the family genes,” Lucas gloated with a lazy smile.

Thomas frowned in confusion, obviously having a hard time figuring out what was going on.

“Anyways, I got to go get ready for the party tonight,” Rachel blew the two brothers a kiss and grabbed the dresses she’d left on the couch. “See you later, Tom,” She winked at him one last time before leaving.

Thomas waited until the gorgeous woman had made her exit before turning to his brother with the heaviest frown he ever remembered having.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked, torn between amusement and confusion. The woman had flirted with him in front of his brother and hadn’t even bothered hiding it. “Who is that?”

“Rachel,” Lucas replied with simplicity, going over to the mini fridge and grabbing two bottles of beer.

“Yeah but who is she?” Thomas asked, reluctantly accepting the bottle his brother was offering.

“A friend,” Lucas said like it was obvious. “She lives here.”

“Oh, she lives here?” Thomas shook his head in denial, ironically repeating Lucas’ words as if now they made sense. “So she’s not your girlfriend?”

The way Lucas mischievously smiled, without denying or confirming, made Thomas give up trying to understand his brother.

“Jesus Christ, will you ever change…” Thomas finally took a sip of his beer and sat down on the couch opposite to Lucas. “Anyway, nice place you have here.”

“I feel personally offended you haven’t come to visit me before.”

“I was in med school!” Thomas justified, not believing the act Lucas was putting. “When would I ever have time to catch a flight to Los Angeles while Harvard was whipping my ass every day?”

“Well, no one forced you to enroll in an accelerated program,” Lucas threw a couch pillow at him, clearly finding it hard to get rid of old habits. “How’s Kate?”

The silence that followed the question and his brother’s hesitation let Lucas know that something was wrong.

“She is fine, doing very well,” Thomas broke eye contact with his brother, uncomfortable with the subject.

“Why isn’t she here with you?” Lucas pushed.

“She went to London to visit a friend,” Thomas swallowed hard and took a deep breath before finally looking his brother in the eye again. “I mean, can you blame her?” He scoffed, trying to sound as natural as possible. “We spent the past years working our asses off, taking back to back courses… Now that we’ve just graduated, she wanted some time to breathe.”

Lucas studied his brother’s features, looking for the things that were left unsaid. He knew both his brother and Kate Karev had succeeded remarkably at Harvard, having just graduated at the young age of twenty-three. Lucas remembered from childhood how his brother and Kate had always been friendly competing with each other, challenging each other to do better, from kindergarten all the way through med school. Kate and Thomas’ relationship had always been steady as it could be and the fact that his brother had randomly showed up alone at his door made Lucas very alarmed.

“Anyways…” Thomas picked up on the uncomfortable lingering silence and tried his best to maintain a normal conversation. “I have news.”

“So do I,” Lucas smiled, having fun at how his brother sucked at hiding his feelings. “You go first,” he teased with a wicked smile.

Thomas took a deep breath and his eyes regained some of its usual brightness when he confessed:

“I applied for residency programs all over the country over the past year. In March I got my match results back. But yesterday I just made my final decision of where I want to go,” he saw the happiness and pride in Lucas’ eyes growing as his brother clearly reached the obvious conclusion, “I chose Grey Sloan.”

“You’re going there?” Lucas got up, excitedly celebrating. “What the hell, Tom, this is the best news!” Thomas could see how visibly happy his brother was for him. “Wait, does this mean you’re working under mom and dad now?!”

Thomas confirmed with an embarrassed head nod and Lucas had the time of his life mocking the younger one.

“Oh my God, you’re going to be mom’s little bitch!”

“Luke!”

“You are,” Lucas laughed heartily. “You’re still focused on the brain thing, right?”

“Yeah…” Thomas rolled his eyes with pretend impatience. “I still want to be a neurosurgeon.”

“That is perfect!” Lucas celebrated, making his brother wonder why he was so happy. Thomas expected Lucas to be supportive and happy for him but the oldest one’s reaction seemed a little exaggerated for what Tom’s news meant. “I haven’t told mom and dad this yet because I was going to surprise you all but…” The soccer player cheerfully confessed with a wide grin. “For the past two weeks my manager has been going back and forth with several contract proposals… Some dude flew in from Spain and offered us more money than you could possibly imagine for a two year contract.”

“Did you sign it?” Thomas’ eyes shone with excitement for his brother’s career.

“No, I did not,” Lucas swiftly turned around and opened the minibar again, trying to avoid his brother’s eyes. He didn’t want to be asked why he hadn’t signed with the prestigious Spanish team. “Instead, we got a new contract drafted. LA Galaxy can afford the difference but this time, it was me who didn’t want to sign again with them.”

“Why?” Thomas asked with interest. His brother had played there during his entire professional career. He was the biggest idol in the team and never before had Lucas mentioned anything that slightly made Thomas believe his brother wasn’t happy in Los Angeles.

“Because I got a new contract with the Sounders instead.”

It took Thomas a fraction of a second longer than usual to process the information.

“What?” he cheerfully celebrated, still finding it hard to believe. Now Lucas’s reaction made perfect sense. “You’re kidding me, right…? You’re not…?”

“I am,” Lucas interrupted him with a wide grin. The Seattle Sounders were their childhood soccer team. Lucas, Thomas and their siblings had gone to their games countless times and ever since he was a little boy, the oldest brother had dreamed of playing for them one day. “You can stick around to help me pack because I’m coming back home too, little brother.”

“Hey guys.”

Amelia lazily dumped her handbag on the couch and made her way to the back of the house after seeing that her husband and daughter were in the kitchen.

“Hey mom,” Megan gave her a smile at the same time Owen leaned over to give her a kiss on the head.

“Something smells good,” Amelia’s face was vivid with excitement as she went sniffing around the stove. “What is it?”

“It’s a new recipe dad and I are trying,” Megan explained with good humor, showing her mother a spoonful of the sauce but getting it out of her reach when Amelia tried to taste it. “You have to wait for dinner, no spoilers.”

Amelia laughed and left the two of them to do their usual cooking while she showered. About half an hour later, they had dinner together while casually talking about their days.

“Hey, the premiere of the new season of Jungle Survival is tonight, right?” Owen looked at Megan expectantly as Amelia got up to collect the dishes. They had always watched the show together on Friday nights since his daughter was barely a teenager. “Let’s go turn on the TV before your mom hides the remote.”

Amelia let out a chuckle at her husband’s playful attack at the same time her daughter’s smile slowly faded as she explained:

“Sorry, dad, I can’t,” the neurosurgeon noticed how the teenager looked away before adding. “I am going to the movies with my friends tonight.”

“Oh,” Owen tried not to sound too disappointed. “That’s okay,” he said with consternation but Amelia could tell how let down he was. They were in the first days of summer and it wasn’t surprising that Megan wanted to spend some time in the company of her friends after tough weeks of final exams in school, “we can save it to watch later.”

“Thanks, dad,” Megan blew him a kiss and hurried to the top floor through the kitchen stairs. “I already took Peanut for a walk earlier this afternoon and changed his bowl, so he should be good for the night.”

Amelia nodded assertively. The dog had been with them for years now and since her brothers had all left for college already, it was up to Megan to do most of the caretaking. The neurosurgeon waited a few minutes until Owen was distracted enough and followed her daughter upstairs.

“Hey,” she knocked on Megan’s room twice before entering, instantly noticing the girl was changing her outfit from yoga pants to something more appropriate to go out, “that shirt looks good on you.”

“Thank you, mom.”

“So,” Amelia stood behind her daughter, purposefully looking at her reflection in the mirror. “Now that we’ve established how good you look, will you care to tell me why you were lying to your dad?”

Megan swallowed hard, void of any reaction to be caught in the act. Slowly, she turned around and faced her mom.

“Was it that obvious?” the girl asked with an embarrassed grin.

“Well,” Amelia shrugged playfully, “not to your father, apparently,” she let out a chuckle before resuming the conversation. “So, what’s really going on?”

“I didn’t exactly lie,” Megan carefully explained, “I am going to the movies,” she reinforced, letting her mom know she hadn’t meant to break her parents’ trust. “But I’m not going with friends,” the teenager smiled with amusement before clarifying, “I’m going with a friend.”

“Megan,” Amelia tried to contain her laughter, “when will you tell your father you are going on a date with a boy?” she asked trying to keep serious. “He is a grown man, sweetheart. He can take it.”

“Can he?” Megan raised one eyebrow, obviously doubting her mother.

Amelia couldn’t help the fit of laughter that followed her daughter’s line and much to her own dismay, she agreed with Megan.

“Yeah, maybe you are right…” the neurosurgeon finally caved. “But just remember this the day you show up here with a boyfriend. It’s going to be much worse if you don’t give him at least a heads up first.”

“Don’t worry about it, mom,” Megan winked with an adorable smile. “I have a plan.”

Amelia waited until Megan was out to go join her husband in the living room. Owen was idly running through the channels on TV when she quickly got past him and sneakily stole the remote from his hands.

“You little…” Owen bent over her in an attempt to get it back but Amelia swiftly got it out of his reach.

“No jungle show tonight,” she interrupted him before her husband could finish his sentence. Amelia had spent the entire day in the OR and could use something to distract her mind. “Let’s watch something decent.”

“Amelia,” Owen growled, trying to regain the object from her hands, but his wife kept using all her four limbs to stay away from his reach.

Ultimately, Owen lost his patience and with a very mischievous grin easily wrapped both arms around her, keeping her tightly trapped inside his arms without any chance to free herself.

“You can hold onto the remote if you want,” he calmly told her while firmly keeping her in his grasp. “But I’ll also hold you so you can’t change the channel.”

Amelia blew her hair from her face in a clear sign of antagonism.

“You’ll tire out eventually,” she dared him.

Owen didn’t bother replying; instead he looked deeply into her eyes and suggestively raised one eyebrow. His wife still couldn’t move her arms and the way she angrily stared back at him, incapable of making any movements, was absolutely adorable. Amelia could say a lot with her eyes, especially when she was irritated.

“Oh, shut up,” she groaned after seeing the annoying smirk on his face.

“Are you ready to give me back the remote now?” Owen asked with a patronizing tone, provoking her.

“You’re not getting it back,” Amelia’s stubborn side got the best of her.

“Fine,” Owen dodged her attempt to bite him and tightened his grasp around her, leaning over to steal a kiss much to Amelia’s dismay. “We’ll just spend the rest of the night like this. Not that I’m complaining,” he looked at her with a playful grin. “I am very comfortable.”

The way her husband looked at her as if daring her to say the same annoyed Amelia more than she would imagine.

“Alright…” Amelia let out a breath through her nose, “I’ll give it back as long as you promise no football channel.”

“Fine,” he replied a little too quickly.

“Owen!” Amelia looked at him in disbelief.

“Alright, okay, I promise,” he finally gave his wife a genuine smile and slowly let go of his grasp around her.

Amelia caved and gave back the remote, settling for lying back on the couch with her feet propped on his lap while they watched the news. She thought about suggesting they put on the jungle survival show, but she knew that for Owen, watching it without their daughter wouldn’t be the same.

While the reporter went on about the most important news of the day, Amelia thought back about Megan and with a curious smile on her face, wondered how Owen would react when he finally found out that the teenager had gone out on a date with a guy.

Emily Spencer heard the buzz of her cell phone at the same time her notebook beeped with notifications. Reaching out, the young woman checked the small screen and dismissed the few emails she had yet to read.

Her mind was racing with the big change that was about to happen. Looking out the window, Emily caught a glimpse of the Central Park lawn, where tourists walked back and forth enjoying a carefree, fun afternoon. For a minute, she envied them but quickly the scattered objects around her brought Emily back to reality and she focused on the open bag on the bed.

She was going to miss New York. The vibration, the liveliness, the way the city never slept and how rushed life there always was. In New York, every new minute brought new information, countless opportunities and there was never time for distractions. Each day came with a new challenge and the crazy rhythm made Emily feel more alive than she could put in words.

But now, after two years of working for The Wall Street Journal, the Yale graduated journalist was finally leaving the city.

Shaking her head to clear those depressing thoughts, Emily heard the click of the front door and moments later, her fiancé walked into the room.

“Hey, you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I am just double checking if I got everything,” Emily coyly smiled.

Turning around, she took one last look through the window of the apartment she’d come to love and then left, hoping with all her heart that this wasn’t goodbye. Maybe someday soon, she would be able to come back. But right now, it was time to go. Thinking about her career and the fiancé she adored, Emily was sure that her entire future was there in that city, but sadly, for now it was going to stay on hold. Because at that moment, her past needed her the most.

And after so many years of staying away, it was finally time to go back to Seattle.

#omelia #owen hunt #amelia shepherd #myboys #myboysfanfiction #omeliafics #omeliafanfics #omeliafic #amenff #owelia #greysanatomy #greysanatomyfanfic

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thekillerssluts · 7 years

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Q&A W/ Arcade Fire’s Will Butler

In 2004, Montreal-based Arcade Fire gifted the world their debut album Funerals, which has since been compared to heralded indie classics like Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. The electricity of the earnest expression of pain, loss, and alienation pulsed through the indie rock album. It caught the attention of the likes of Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, David Byrne, and U2, all of whom, Arcade Fire would go on to perform with. After their success with Funerals, the band has evolved over the course of four records, straying increasingly from their indie rock foundation to genre-bending electronic, disco, and even reggae. Like a Phoenix, Arcade Fire has seemingly treated their albums as life cycles, reinventing themselves in the ashes of their past for each new record. At the heart of the band is Win Butler and his Haitian wife, Régine Chassange. Adding to the idea of Arcade Fire as a family band, Win’s younger brother Will is a multi-instrumentalist in the band. Phawker got him on the horn to get some fresh perspective on the band. Discussed: being a professional musician studying policy at Harvard, fraternal tension in the creative process, the new album Everything Now.

PHAWKER: I was surprised to see that you — well not that surprised — that you studied Policy at Harvard. Can you tell me what made you decide to study Policy in the first place and how what you learned has informed Arcade Fire?

WILL BUTLER Yeah, I actually just graduated this past May. Mostly I went because, for the last ten years, the band has worked with Partners in Health which is based in Boston, but they’re a global health organization. They’ve been in Haiti for 35 years, and their Haitian organization has 9,500 patients, nurses, and doctors. They’re trying to build up the actual state health care system. They work in Rwanda, they work in the Russian Prison system. Humanitarian work. Community building. I was originally thinking I would go to learn skills to be more useful to them. Just because we have been useful to them. We’ve donated a dollar a ticket from all of our shows for the last ten years. Mostly going to partners in health. Some going to their partners. I thought, in my position as a rock and roller with a fancy master’s degree from Harvard, I would be able to talk to Congressional Aides and be like, “Hey guys! What do you think about Paragraph 2C, line 4? Want to have a couple of words? Ya’ know, save 100,000 lives?” I thought it’d be a useful tool in the toolbelt. I also knew it would be an election year. I thought it would be interesting…I didn’t realize how…Hard to think of a term…”

PHAWKER: Upsetting? Cataclysmic?

WILL BUTLER Yeah, how awful it would be. I was also very happy to be in a place that was very formally dedicated to puzzling over what the hell happened and what the hell to do. And to do it with a bunch of really smart, interesting people was really great. And how it relates to the band…Well, until recently, I didn’t think of myself as a musician. I thought of myself as an artist, but I kind of just thought of myself as a human, doing human things. And great, people pay me for it. But now, I’m like, ‘huh, I guess I am a musician. I’m better at music than other things.’ And if you’re a human and you care about where you live and the people around you and far away from you, then you want to figure out how to help them and be of direct service. So I was trying to couple that out. And I think that music is a great service to people and it directly impacts people’s lives.

PHAWKER: Absolutely. It can be therapeutic. I worked at a psychiatric hospital for adolescents, and there were times that hearing a favorite song would help someone who was having a manic episode find a sense of calm and peace.

WILL BUTLER Yeah, that’s totally amazing. I’m very proud to be a musician, but I’m also like, ‘well, I’ve got other skills, so I should figure out how to use them.’

PHAWKER: So how old were you when Funerals came out. In your early 20s?

WILL BUTLER Yeah, I was a senior in college, so I was 21? When did it come out, 2004?

PHAWKER: Haha, yeah, as far as I know. So that’s a pretty pivotal age, when people are still really in the process of formation and securing a sense of self. And Funerals was received so well so quickly. So, has it been difficult to cultivate and maintain a sense of self having been involved in such an iconic band at such an early age? Have you ever craved a simpler life, or are you more just grateful?

WILL BUTLER I’m insanely grateful. It’s been such a pleasure. To play music for a living. For people to buy our records. It’s been really amazing from the get-go. Our goal was to play for 100 people. And when 100 people came, we were like, ‘oh we made it! Awesome!’ It’s all been a great bonus since then. We’ve never had a radio hit. We were big in certain circles early on, but we were never giant. And unless i’m in the ‘cool’ neighborhood, like the day before the show, I’m so anonymous that I’m hardly recognized by anyone. So, it’s felt like a normal life. But I think it’s been different for Win and Régine, whose relationship is at the center of the band. They’re the singers and everything. I think they have a slightly different relationship to that. But it’s been very easy on my end.

PHAWKER: That segues into another question I wanted to ask. I’m a younger brother myself and I have a decent relationship with my older brother. But I know that we’d never be able to maintain a professional relationship of any sort, much less that of professional musicians. So, I’m wondering about your dynamic with Win. Do you ever get jealous of his having the frontman’s limelight, or do you more feel like you’ve dodged a bullet and you can have the best of both worlds. Part of this big beautiful band, while not having to deal with being recognized?

WILL BUTLER Yeah, 90% I have the best of all worlds. Hahaha. Obviously, though, friction comes up. Any creative endeavour has a lot of friction. Any fraternal endeavor has lots of friction. For the most part, it’s just that I know where he’s coming from. So, even if I really disagree with him or think he’s being totally crazy, I know what he’s getting at, so I know that he’s arguing something in good faith, which I think is partly why our band has lasted for so long. Even when I really disagree with an idea, it’s not like an evil idea.

PHAWKER: Right, it’s sort of like there’s empathy built-in. It’s in your blood. You see where he’s coming from, even if you consciously disagree with it.

WILL BUTLER Right. And I think it works both ways, which I don’t think always happens with brotherly relationships. I think there’s sometimes an assumption of ill will, but, for some reason, we were raised such that we’re able to get along with each other.

PHAWKER: I saw an interview where Win calls your grandfather his hero. So, yesterday I spent about an hour watching videos of him on the pedal steel guitar and others of his amazing performances. I’m wondering if you think that having Alvino in your blood and conscious has allowed for you and Win to get along, which has allowed Arcade Fire to be a successful entity over the years?

WILL BUTLER I would say even further. My grandma was in a group called the King Sisters and she was married to Alvino. So it was literally a family band, where it was the four sisters, who were the singers, and then Alvino had the band. They literally all lived in a mansion in New Jersey together. Like the whole big band. They’d all live there together and then go on tour. Then, in the 60s, when my mom was a kid, they briefly had a show on ABC, like a variety show, where it was 6 sisters, 2 brothers, Alvino running the orchestra, and 40 cousins doing like a song and dance variety show. So, yeah, there’s definitely like a family band element to it. It just lets you know that it’s possible.

PHAWKER: Right, these stories of successful families bands had already been down. Their arcs had already been realized. Getting through the difficult times with Win must be so much easier, keeping that in mind.

WILL BUTLER Yeah, totally.

PHAWKER: I’ve always been impressed with the storytelling of the band. I’m wondering if, growing up, there were any particular stories that captured you or your brother’s imaginations?

WILL BUTLER Our grandmother on our other side, our dad’s mom, used to read us this book called Little Arlo. Just a little kid and his dog going out on adventures. He always called the dog comrade. Like, “come on comrade, let’s go!” And that idea of a boy and his dog going out in the big, wide world has resonance in lots of other art, and also resonance, I think, in some of our music. Nothing else immediately springs to mind. Well, the old lullabies, the “Skyboat Song,” which is about Prince Charles being buried away from Scotland? It’s got like something to do with Monarchs killing each other, but it’s got a little boy on a boat, being taken away so that the people don’t kill him. Or maybe he’s being taken back, while murderous crowds are waiting on the shore?

PHAWKER: So now, more specifically about the new album, I’m wondering if you and everyone else in the band personally struggled with themes like information overload and managing the presence of instant gratification. Personally, I have to actively manage those things, or they take over. I’m wondering if that’s the same for you?

WILL BUTLER I mean, Win and Régine write the lyrics, but I have a 5-year-old, and my relation to material culture has changed a lot over the last 5 years. Both in that you see all the garbage in the world and how instantly everyone wants garbage, but also the vast web of vaccines, surgery tools, and everything keeping people alive. These supply chains with antibiotics. There’s this whole system that keeps people alive, while at the same time there’s a garbage pipeline from everywhere to your house. So you become conscious of all that more acutely.

PHAWKER: There’s cognitive dissonance in trying to reconcile the double-edged sworded-ness of all these technological advances.

WILL BUTLER Yeah.

PHAWKER: So with the way the band approached the promotional campaign for this album — the usb fidget spinners, the spoof premature review, and the dress code for a show — it’s directly lampooning music media and consumer culture. Would you say that Everything Now is Arcade Fire’s most political album to date?

WILL BUTLER To be honest, I have no perspective on how the album feels because I approach all our records with a dual mind. They come from the world that we live in. That’s how we’ve always made art; we plug into the community and the people around us. What emerges is intimately tied to that both in the artistic and political aspects. I think part of the emotion has just been having fun and part of it has that you gotta’ dance to keep from crying a little bit. It’s difficult to tease out the specific aspects of that in my brain. A lot of that was instinctual. It wasn’t plotted out.

PHAWKER: So it’s more emotionally driven and then intellectually explained after the fact?

WILL BUTLER I think so.

PHAWKER: It’s always difficult for me to feel emotionally connected to music when I haven’t heard it live and have only heard recordings. Can you tell me what the songs on Everything Now have felt like, playing them live?

WILL BUTLER It feels really good. I don’t know if it’s just because we’re better musicians, so we’re just playing the songs faster. You know, everything now has been on the radio a little bit, so people know the songs more. But it’s felt more instantly familiar playing these songs than songs in the past, so that’s been exciting.

#Arcade Fire #Win Butler #will butler #interview #Everything Now

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comicswithcate2020 · 4 years

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Connor’s Collection of Comics

Imagine being seven years old, sitting in a movie theater and watching Toby McGuire on the big screen wearing the iconic blue and red suit. Imagine leaving the theater speechless and wondering what other adventures and stories Spiderman has to offer. That’s exactly when 25 year old Connor O’Keefe decided he wanted to try comic books. Connor has been collecting comic books for almost 15 years. Growing up in Medford, MA, Connor was influenced by his parents and the pop culture that surrounded him. Between the cartoons that he used to watch and growing up with comic book movies originally starting to come out, Connor became hooked. It was after the third Sam Rani Spiderman movie that Connor officially got into comics. He became a collector of all things Venom and Venom related. Although Connor's collection isn’t just limited to Marvel, as he also collects a lot of Star Wars merchandise. He specifically likes General Grievous- he recently completed a General Grievous model. To complete the model, he painted it by hand to make it look more realistic. A peek into his bedroom can show you just how much he has collected throughout the years.

His walls are adorned with quite a few posters, his shelf is filled with comics, posters and frames that have yet to be hung sitting in a pile on the floor. A lot of these frames were gathered at Comic Cons- when he got old enough, he started going to Boston Comic Con with his father and has been known to go for at least one out of the three days every year. He has autographed headshots of different characters, like Bane from Batman. Yet to be hung up is a Venom shadow box filled with different cut outs of Venom’s different art styles throughout the years. Funko Pops adorn his shelves and his TV stand, ranging with characters from The Big Bang Theory to Smuag from Lord of the Rings. Everywhere you look in his room, you can find something comic related- whether it is DC, Marvel, Star Wars, or even select video games.

Growing up in Medford, Connor would go to shop at Harrison's Comics, found in The Meadow Glen Mall. When he was 14, his family moved to Reading, MA and Connor realized he needed to find a new store. He happened upon Comically Speaking and has been going there ever since.

Q: How were you introduced to comic books?

A: They were just there. I was born in 95’ so I had my adolescence and early adulthood molded by the comic book movies. As we know them today, they started really in 1998 with Blade. That's kind of when they started taking off, because then they had the Sam Raimi SpiderMan movies, the original X-Men trilogy, and so on. I grew up watching these movies and watching the cartoons and eventually, I think it was after SpiderMan 3 came out, I was in fifth grade, I thought, ‘yeah, I want to read the material that inspired these movies that I liked so much.’ I was living in Medford at the time, so there was a comic book store, Harrison’s, that was in the Meadow Glen Mall, which is no longer a thing in Medford. But I went there and I picked up a couple of back issues of comics and I have been reading comics consistently since then. It's a month to month thing, but the movies basically got me into it. Well, the movies and the cartoons.

Q: Who is your favorite character and why?

A: My favorite character is Venom, specifically Eddie Brock as Venom. There have been a couple of different characters that have had that title. Eddie is my favorite character because first of all, his visual design is very good. It's very crisp- you immediately know when you're looking at when you see him. He’s super edgy and I really like that kind of thing. I like Eddie because he's had a very long transformation over the course of the 30 years he's been around. At first he was just trying to kill SpiderMan and then he had an arc where he realizes that Spiderman isn't such a bad guy. And then he was sick with cancer and he realized, ‘Hey, I have kind of been doing some terrible stuff’ and he gets better from the cancer and he decides he's going to take this new lease on life and become a better person and be a hero. When I first started reading comics, they were in the middle of the cancer arc. So while I've been reading comics, I only know Eddie Brock as a hero. So in my mind, Venom is a superhero because that's what he's been for 20 of the 30 years he's existed.

Q: What type(s) of comic related things do you collect?

A: I do collect back issues, starting when I was in fifth grade, so I am 25 now. I take great pride in the fact that I have amassed, I don't want to say all of them cause I'm sure there's an odd issue here or there that I might've missed. But every single issue that Eddie Brock has appeared in, with the exception of his first and second appearances, which are like massively expensive, $200-300 issues. Those are the great white whales. But I have just about every single issue of comic book that he's ever appeared in over the course of 30 years. I kind of take some pride in that. That's taken a while to amass. Obviously that's ever expanding because he has a current ongoing book. In terms of other things I collect, I am trying to build a physical collection of the movies. Personally I enjoy streaming content but at the same time I realize that I don't want to be left without a particular film, if a company decides that they want to pull an individual move from a service. A little while ago they almost pulled Friends from Netflix and people started freaking out, everyone was losing their minds about it. And I'm like, ‘Hey, buy the physical copy, no one's taken that away from you.’ So I collect the movies. I think out of the 20 Marvel Studios movies, I have about 17 of them in some capacity or another. I don't necessarily collect games, there haven't been too many comic book games lately. But I do play them when they come out.

Q: Which is your most treasured comic?

A: My most treasured comic is the first mini series of comics I ever got. It's a series of six issues that came out in 94’, called Venom: Lethal Protector. It was Eddie Brock's first standalone story where he was trying to prove his worth as a hero and they were kind of hard to track down. I had to track them down over the course of two years. I started collecting them when I was in fifth grade. It was before the internet really took off, and before online ordering was a thing. So I was tracking 20 year old comics down at brick and mortar stores, which is kind of a tall order. Especially when you're 10 years old and you can't get anywhere yourself. So I have all six of those. They're in packages, they're propped up and they're preserved. I don't read them, I have different means of reading the story if I ever want to revisit it. But those are probably my most treasured thing in my comic collection.

Q: Which comic book related movie is your favorite and least favorite?

A: I'm going to sound like a bit of a broken record, but the Venom movie that came out, the other year has a very special place in my heart even though it's not necessarily one-to-one with the character. That movie was in production, since SpiderMan 3 came out in 2007. It's been in production a very long time and people have been trying to get it off the ground for many, many years and I was following it day by day. When that finally came out, I had this big party, I basically went through my contacts and got a bunch of people that I knew over the course of that 10 year span. And I'm like, ‘Hey, you remember that Venom movie I always talked about? Uh, it's finally coming out. You guys want to go see it?’ It was this big thing. I have pictures from that day. We all went to Dick's Last Resort in Boston, we went out to dinner beforehand and we all just had a great time with it. That movie, even though it's not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, it holds a very special place in my heart.

Q: Are there any movies that you think goes against a character completely?

A: This is a slightly controversial opinion. I don't think Marvel Spiderman, like the current Spiderman, Tom Holland is good. I enjoy the movies and I think Tom Holland's great. But Spiderman- he's supposed to be his own man. In the new Marvel movies that come out, he's presented as Iron Man's sidekick. He has not had a solo movie where he's dealing with one of his own villains. Every villain that Spiderman has so far is somebody who's pissed off at Iron Man. So Spiderman has to spend his solo movies, cleaning up Iron Man's messes. I think that it's really unfortunate that they used Iron Man as Spiderman's jumping off point because Spiderman has, out of all the characters, some of the richest individual stories he can tell. Every character has their big stories, but Spiderman has the most. He is that company's flagship character and has been for so many years before Iron Man blew up. It's especially unfortunate that Iron Man has taken the place of Uncle Ben in the current Spiderman movies. Uncle Ben is the reason Spiderman does what he does in every single medium across the board. So, slightly controversial take on that one. But yeah, Tom Holland Spiderman, while enjoyable to watch is definitely not the Spiderman I would have liked to have seen on the big screen. I still think Toby Maguire is probably the most accurate Spiderman.

Q: Can you touch upon the movie script that you wrote for Venom when you were younger?

A: I was 10 or 11 years old and I had written a script for the Venom movie that was 20 pages long because I had no concept of how that would translate to the screen. I still have it by the way, it's up in my room on my desk. It's terrible and it's cringy and it's everything you would expect a 10 year old to write. But I got to say, I wrote a fight scene in that movie and that fight scene is a banger. I would love to see that translate to the big screen. 10 year old Connor could choreograph fights. All this crazy stuff was going to happen, they're really beating the life out of each other. Lampposts were flying, it was great. I want somebody, if you're reading this, give me a call. We can work something out.

Q: How did you find out about Comically Speaking?

A: A couple of years after I started getting into comics, my family moved from Medford to Reading. Granted this was not the thing that really drove me to Comically Speaking. The thing that drove me to Comically Speaking was Harrison's shuttered their doors like a year or so before we made the move. So when we ended up in Reading, I knew I needed to find a new place to do comics stuff . So I just Googled places for comics near me and Comically Speaking came up and I went there and I've been going there pretty consistently since we moved to Reading about 11 years ago.

Q: What were your first impressions of the store?

A: My first impression of the store was that I felt a little overwhelmed. They have a lot more than Harrison's did, in terms of their selection of books. You got to remember also at the time, I was like 13 and they like to think that they know everything and when they are presented with something that they do not know, they refuse to admit that they do not know it. So I spent about 40 minutes in that store just wandering around like a dumb ass, searchng for what I was looking for. Eventually I figured it out, It was the preteen equivalent to when they change stuff around at the grocery store and you get angry that you can't find it. But yes, I was very overwhelmed and I was too full of myself to accept anyone's help.

Q: You’ve been to other stores that sell comics, chain stores and whatnot, how does Comically Speaking compare?

A: I’m struggling to remember what the Harrison's in Medford was like because that was a lifetime and a half ago. There’s one in Salem, it’s pretty easy to navigate. They have stuff like manga, the Japanese comics. Harrison's is all right, I prefer Comically Speaking myself,it's my home store. Newbury Comics they're less of a comic store, you'll go into Newbury Comics and you can get a lot of stuff there, but you walk in there like, ‘Hey, I'm looking for comics’ and they have this tiny itty bitty rack in the corner with like only like 10 of the most recent comics of the most from the most popular books. And it's just like, 50% of your name is complete bullshit Newbury Comics. You're selling like 10 comics in this store. Comically Speaking, for me, is where I want to go and get some books. I'm gonna get some books and with the downstairs area I can go down there and get collectibles now. I only go to Harrison's or Newbury if I'm completely out of the area, those were my go to while I was at school in Beverley. But if I'm here and I have the time and money, I'm definitely going to be in Comically Speaking at least once a month, picking up the books that I read.

Q: What do you think about Comically Speaking as a whole?

A: It's my store. There's a lot of concern right now, I don't know how familiar you are with the actual comics industry, but one of their big shipping companies, Diamond, shut their doors for the minute because of the coronavirus. So DC and Marvel can't get their books out if Diamond isn't actually moving them. The Corona virus is going to be hitting the comics industry a lot harder than most industries. I am a little concerned about it because the locally owned stores are going to be the ones hit by it. I'm hoping that everything works out once this wears off and things are stable again. I'll definitely be going in there and helping out, spending some time. I like the store, it’s a good homey environment. That's the other thing about Newbury, I walk into Newbury Comics and I get the trendy geek vibe. When you go into Comically Speaking, I never get that vibe. It's just very down to earth and it doesn't feel pretentious. It's always like these people like what they're doing, they like comics. If I walked into a Newbury Comics and I asked them what they thought of a particular artist, they wouldn't know. I don’t know, there's more genuineness there to the people and the environment. Everything about Comically Speaking, I feel like I'm with my people there.

Q: What do comics mean to you?

A: They entertain me. I like reading the stories. I think most of the characters are pretty good. There are more characters you can count with comics. I could sit here for hours and I probably wouldn't even scratch the surface. They’re really good to convey things about who we are as a people and what we hold dear. If you exist on this earth, if you have a pulse, there's a comic book character that you can connect with in some way. Or you can look at this character and say, ‘Hey, I understand what that person is going through. I want to read more about that person and I want to see what kind of adventures they go on’. You can connect with that and I think that's what gives any type of medium; comics, movies, TV shows. That's what gives mediums their strength. When you can look at characters and see characters who you are inside, or you know someone like that. I think that's what gives a story their legs. Comics for me are filled with characters like that.

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all-sortsa-stuff · 7 years

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A new start, part 9

Pairing: Chris Evans x Reader

Word Count: 3425

Warning: Language and some fluff

Part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 part 7 part 8

It was inevitable that your family would love Chris. The rest of your time in Tennessee consisted of several more dinners with your parents. Jake and Chris had gone out one night for beers during the time as well. Jake said it was to save Chris from the whole family but you knew it was for Jake to grill him about his intentions towards you. While you thought the gesture was sweet, it was also somewhat annoying that your brother wanted to meddle in your relationship. They came home laughing, easing the dread you felt in your heart. Chris said they had a great time and how much alike Jake and you really were. You would never admit it to your brother but you loved it that he was getting along with Chris. Jake’s approval meant a great deal to you. It would hurt if he did not agree with your relationship. Now it did not matter, as he loved Chris almost as much as you did.

Oh, shit… Love Chris. You leaned against the fence of the front paddock as you watched your dad work with Apple. She was not rideable yet and needed a lot of work to get used to having a saddle on. Chris had taken a call from his agent, so here you stood coming to the realization that you were absolutely in love with him. It should not have been a new thought. You had been together now a month and a half and it should have been something you had been thinking about. But no, your addled mind and heart had just been enjoying every moment with him. Your heart started to beat quickly in your chest as you leaned your head against the board of the fence. Was it too soon? It had not been long since… No this was different, so much different. Chris is different. He is a great guy who cares about you.

Trying to calm the beating of your heart and your irregular breathing had distracted you enough that you did not hear your father put Apple back into her stall or walk up behind you. “You okay sugar? You are lookin’ like you seen a ghost.” His voice broke through the haze of your busy mind causing you to startle and your heart rate to speed further.

“Oh yeah Daddy, I’m fine. Just thinking.” He gave you that “daddy” look.

“Anything you wanna share?” Shaking your head, you leaned your head back down onto the fence.

“You know it’s okay to love him baby girl.” You did not look up at him. Actually, you started to laugh. It was not that full belly laughing from something funny. The ironic laugh bordered on a whimper. Of course, he knew what you were thinking.

“Dad how do you know me so well?” He pulled you into his arms and wrapped them around you.

“I’m your Daddy. I know the faces you make, I know when you worry. You are worrying about that boy. Which he is one thing in this world you don’t have to worry about. He isn’t like the last one. Jake and I already made sure of that. So when you give yourself that chance you can love him with all your heart.” He always had a way of easing your thoughts and fears.

“Dad you are the best, you know that?”

“Tell that to your Momma. Make sure she knows it too.” Both of you laughed as he gave you one more good squeeze. “Go spend some time with the boy. Enjoy this time before y’all have to head back to work.”

You found Chris getting a couple drinks out of the fridge when you went back inside. “Oh hey, you done out there? I was about to see if you were thirsty.”

Walking up to him you set the drinks on the counter before wrapping your arms around his neck and kissing him lovingly. It lingered few moments before he pulled back with a grin to look at you. “Wow, what was that for?”

“Just wanted to show you how happy I am to have you in my life.” He looked down at you, running his thumb lightly over your cheek.

“I am so glad I met you, that you let me be a part of your life. You all right?” Chris was perceptive just like your father. You nodded as you stole another light kiss.

“I’m fine. Just wanted to make sure you knew it.”

The rest of your afternoon consisted of packing and cuddling on the couch with a pizza. You refused one last family dinner before heading to Boston. Spending time, just the two of you was the only thing you wanted right now. Though it was difficult to not let those three little words slip out. You did not want to scare him so soon. It was a relaxing night watching your favorite movies, the original Star Wars trilogy. It made you smile that he enjoyed how much of a geek you truly were. You fell asleep twenty minutes into Return of the Jedi. When you woke up in the morning, you were very warm as there was a male body wrapped around you, radiating a whole lot of heat.

It was probably some of the best sleep you had in a very long time being all warm curled up next to this beautiful man. If you weren’t scared shitless at the moment you would probably would try to kiss him awake and drag him upstairs to your bed. However, your bladder had a different idea and you found it rather difficult to extricate yourself from Chris’s arms. As soon as you moved just a few inches, he stirred and pulled you closer. Damn man and that inhuman strength. You tried once again to no avail. Fine you would have to resort to drastic measures…

Using something he told you months ago against him, you started to tickle up his sides. His body stirred and jerked slightly. As you waited to see if he moved, you tried pulling back again. Nope… This time you tickled much longer than the first time causing him to wake and start to laugh. Chris pushed your hands away giving you the time to jump off the couch. “Oh thank God!”

“[Y/N] you suck! I didn’t tell you how ticklish I am for you to actually tickle me!” He yelled across the house laughing. You could actually hear him from the bathroom. He was all smiles by the time you returned.

“Sorry but I had to pee! You would not let me go. I was desperate.” Chris pulled you down onto his lap when you had come within distance.

“Just remember babe, revenge is a bitch.” He leaned in nipping your neck causing you to squeal loudly and try to pull away.

“Noooo. No no no. We have to get ready to leave for the airport. You can’t attack me now.”

He laughed with his face buried in your neck. Rolling your underneath him on the couch he continued as did the laughs and squeals from you. Someone knocked on the sliding glass door. Breaking the spell you were both under. Straightening your slept-in clothes, you went to find your brother standing there with both hands on his hips, shaking his head.

“I really did not need that sight stuck in my head. I will have to stick hot pokers in my eyes now.” Rolling your eyes you turned back into the house walking towards the kitchen. “Morning man.”

Jake nodded towards Chris as he stood up from the couch following behind you. “I was just checking if you needed anything before you leave.”

“Nope. As soon as we pack up the truck we are headed out.”

“Okay good. Just thought I’d ask before I head out to the back pasture. I got to fix a few of the posts so I will be out most of the day. Chris it was good to meet you, man. Don’t let my bossy sister push you ‘round.” Jake shook Chris’s hand as you rolled your eyes.

“Whatever Jake. I will see you in a few months.” Ignoring your foul expression, he moved over to hug you tight enough to make you gasp for breath.

“I will be watching you win from the comfort of my couch, Miss Fancy Pants. Try not to fall on your face. I won’t let you live it down for the rest of your life.” Your brother always knew the way to make you smile even when you did not want to. Chris shook his head laughing.

“You two are me and my siblings to a ‘T’.”

With a quick goodbye to your parents, you headed to the airport. There was a short delay for a storm before you were able to take off. Before you knew it, you were walking into Chris’s house with a dog jumping on you. His enthusiasm knocked you back into Chris. “Dodger, down. You can attack and kiss her once we are actually in the door.”

He was not listening; he was far too excited to meet the new person and then jump all over Chris who he missed. Chris’s parents had been watching Dodger this time while he had been filming. Most of the time he brought him with him on location. After you were both, able to unload the bags into the bedrooms Dodger got all the attention he wanted from you. He was now laying on your lap with his belly up as you rubbed it. Chris shook his head looking down at you and the dog. “Dodger you stole my girl. That’s my spot.” The dog turned his head to look at Chris before yawning wide then going back to having his belly rubbed. That was how the first week went. Dodger did not leave your side while you were there. You were happy to have the dog’s approval. Though it made sleeping a little difficult. He wanted to be up on the bed with you for a little while then would jump off and go to Chris’s room for a little while then come back again.

Meeting Chris’s family the third day for Sunday dinner had been an event. His parents, his sisters and brother were all there. The family was all very happy to meet the girl Chris had been talking about for months. It had been a wonderful meeting and you found that he joked and teased his siblings almost as much as Jake teased you. Chris’s mom, Lisa, had sat down beside you moving Chris out of the way to talk to you. She was so sweet asking about your family and your house in Tennessee. Her excitement for the upcoming awards for you made you feel so welcome. This was a family you could see yourself becoming a part of. At that thought, you almost slapped yourself. You could not get ahead of yourself and the relationship. He did not know how you felt about him and you had not made love yet. Therefore, the marriage idea probably should wait just a bit longer.

The second week of the Boston visit consisted of some sight-seeing, and a whole lot of reading scripts for both of you. The television show you were doing a story arc for, had four scripts you needed to memorize. While Chris had to make sure, he knew his lines for Captain America: Winter’s Soldier backwards and forwards. Both of you were laying across from each other on his couch while Dodger slept upside down on the floor just below you. Many pages and lots of food sat around the coffee table. It was almost as it was a typical day at home. Honestly, it felt right and it felt like you had been together for years. Spending everyday together for almost a month, neither one of you had become sick of the other. There had not been any fighting and all the families were happy. How often did that really ever happen? Maybe it was a sign that you were getting your new start.

The trip to Los Angeles was a breeze. Though it was also bittersweet. You only had three more days left with Chris before you both had to part for your new projects. He had barely let go of your hand the whole trip but you agreed that once you departed the plane that you would ride separately to the house. Due to the vast amount of celebrities that were coming into town for the awards, the paparazzi was everywhere. The flashes from the cameras were nearly blinding as you retrieved your luggage. Some were asking if you were bringing anyone to the awards, others were telling you to turn to look at them.

You tried to be as nice as you could, smiling and deflecting the questions as you could. Chris was somewhere in the airport. There was no way you would try to text him right now to find out where. Getting out of the airport unscathed was your primary target now. Chris met you at his house not too long after you arrived. He had given you his key and so you waited for him. When he arrived, he looked exhausted. “Those people at the airport are a bunch of vultures. I didn’t think I was going to make it out alive.”

Laughing you hugged him close. “Well we are here now. We can sleep before the whirlwind of tomorrow.”

“Hey it’s all about you tomorrow. I don’t have a worry in the world other than to make sure it’s a great day for you. Just tell me what I can do for you.”

“Show me where I can sleep and then I will worry about the rest tomorrow.” Throwing his arm over your shoulder, he showed you to the guest room. You shook your head at him. “No I want to sleep in your bed tonight. I want to curl up with you tonight.”

Chris looked down at you in surprise. “You sure? You don’t have to…”

“We aren’t doing anything more than sleeping tonight. Got it?” He laughed as he led you towards his room. Both of you fell asleep quickly from the sheer exhaustion of the day and slept better than you had in a while. It was late morning by the time you were awoken with the smell of fresh coffee. He had gotten up to make you a cup and was waving it under your nose to see if you would actually respond. It did not take long.

“You seriously are the best, you know that?”

“I know.�� Chris kissed your forehead as you sat up, taking the cup from his hand. “You ready for tonight?”

“No. I am petrified of falling in front of millions of people.” The coffee was of course perfect. The warmth of it seeping through you and calming your nerves.

“Number one, I would never let you fall, ever. Two, you have nothing to be scared of. You are going to win and everyone is going to be cheering for you. We will have a great time. Okay?” You nodded like a good little child but those fears were still there in the forefront of your mind.

Your designer friend, Mijael, showed up an hour after you got a shower with his entourage of makeup, hair and his assistant. All prepared to ensure no one would ever forget your name. The living room was turned into your personal area as you were prepped for the night. Chris took pictures of you with your hair in curlers and one of the girls painting your toenails, sending it to your brother for him to show your parents. Chris and Jake had been texting back and forth since you left Tennessee. They had been joking about you and were fast becoming friends. That could be a dangerous thing.

You were sure that Chris had to be bored to tears but he sat watching you the entire time as you were brushed, buffed and polished. Thank God, he did because he kept you sane while Mijael worked his magic. Mijael sent Chris up to get dressed in his tuxedo as the girls brought you to the spare bedroom to get you into your dress. That was adventure in and of itself. After you slipped on the special new lingerie you bought to wear underneath they helped you slip into the mess of blue and black material. Once it was settled in place and zipped up, it was hard to believe you were looking at yourself.

Mijael wanted “dramatic” and boy did he deliver. Your lips were a blood red with a light tinge of color on your cheeks. The dramatic dark smoky color around your [Y/E/C] eyes, made them pop brightly. The style of your hair was pulled back in a twist on the back of your head with part left loose to wave on the right side. The dress made your jaw drop. It was midnight blue and black with one strap that wrapped around your right shoulder. The colors swirled around together and were almost iridescent. The skirt billowed out slightly and had a modest train behind you, with a sweetheart neckline and a low back. It was gorgeous and that wonderful man made it comfortable. You would be able to walk and sit in it without an issue. Everyone wanted to get the effect of you walking down the stairs to meet Chris at the bottom. Mijael was taking a video of it as you descended the stairs. Chris’s eyes went wide as you smiled down at him. The whole effect of the hair, makeup and dress stunned him into silence.

Once you met him at the bottom of the stairs, you slipped your hand into his. He looked sexy as hell in his tuxedo, but you knew he would. “You ready for this handsome?”

“[Y/N]… I don’t even know… just holy shit… I… fuck you look gorgeous.” Everyone laughed as he stumbled over the words. He was afraid to touch you and ruin something but you grabbed him and kissed him hard. The lipstick you wore was not coming off so you did not have to worry about it smearing all over him or wearing off throughout the night. Chris seemed to like that idea very much as he stole another kiss as he pulled you close. Mijael took several more pictures for you on both of your phones so you could send them to all the parents and siblings. Then he ushered you towards the awaiting limo. With your purse full of snacks and tickets, you were off to one of the biggest nights of your life.

There were hundreds of people line up along the roads and the red carpet into the building. The screams of all the fans could probably be heard blocks away. As the limo pulled up to the front of the theater and the red carpet, you had to take a few deep breaths to ease the butterflies. Your heart was racing with excitement and anxiety together. Chris squeezed your hand as he whispered in your ear. “You got this baby. Everyone is here to see you. Show them how you shine.”

With a gentle kiss, you nodded letting him know you were ready. The driver opened the door allowing Chris to step out first. The crowd screamed louder as the saw him. He held his hand out to you giving you a chance to take it so you could stand. As you stood and took a step into view the screams reached a new height. You were not sure if it was because of you or if it was that everyone saw you had come with Chris. If not both a little of both. So many flashes going off from the crowd and the media close by. People shouting your name to come talk to them. You felt another squeeze of your hand as Chris helped you step further onto the carpet. Everyone noticing you were holding hands only made it worse. Waving to the crowd with a grin, in your mind wondering how you were going to make it to the end of the night.

“Just breathe, just breathe.” You whispered to yourself. With that, you step towards the first reporter in the long gauntlet of the red carpet.

“[Y/N]! [Y/N]! You look amazing. Who is your designer?”

Part 10

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journeysintowebcomics · 7 years

Text

Worm Liveblog #37

UPDATE 37: Make Bets on How Many Capes Will Die

I apologize for taking so long to update, these are busy days!

Last time there was an interlude with the Protectorate, more concretely with Miss Militia, who was remembering the moment she awoke her powers. It was quite the important interlude, as it revealed the powers may have come from a dying being...somehow. It was weird, and that’s why it’s intriguing! So let’s continue with the next arc.

Okaaaay, if there were any doubts an Endbringer or more than one Endbringer was coming, then those doubts are swept away by the name of this arc. ‘Extermination’, huh. What a cheerful title, can only bring good things.

Tattletale and Skitter are walking around in plain sight, wearing their costumes. I guess when everything may be obliterated nobody will care that much about the villains, compared to the Endbringers, those like the Undersiders are minor threats. Besides, everybody else is too busy trying to get to the shelters. Just so you know, to ensure an orderly evacuation and lessen casualties, vehicles aren’t allowed, they couldn’t bring luggage, and pets are kind of a gray area as long as they behave. Guess how well these regulations are being met.

A chronic condition of our society, that so many people somehow thought they were special, the exception to the rule. In this panicked crowd, every rule was being broken.

Very true. Makes me wonder how I’d react in a true emergency. I’d like to believe I wouldn’t do something incorrectly, but who knows...

Tattletale and Skitter approach a cop, who gives them some pieces of paper. Huh. As I thought, the Endbringer stuff is a priority here. That reminds me...Dad Hebert must be hella worried right now. An Endbringer is coming, and Taylor isn’t with him. He must be so, so worried and not knowing how to get in contact with her will make it worse. I really hope he’ll be okay.

Right, these were instructions for the Parahumans to gather in one place. So...truce? For everyone? They’re approaching the Protectorate and the squad of PRT officers without much fear of getting captured. Also, Dragon is here, away from the Birdcage. It’s a good thing that place is extremely good at keeping parahumans inside, or I’d be concerned about some of them escaping now that Dragon was away.

I saw what she was watching. A stormcloud in the distance. It hung over the water with an opaque curtain of rain descending down from it. It was gradually getting closer.

Hah! I suppose the Endbringers aren’t known for their subtlety. That’s a clear red flag, right there. Makes me wonder how exactly everyone’s going to deal with that, because being under a constant deluge of water is going to make everything much more difficult.

Hero after hero is arriving here, it’s starting to seem to me like Tattletale and Skitter are the only villains here, for the time being. A hero named Alexandria appeared. She sounds familiar...I remember she’s a big deal among heroes, but I don’t remember the exact details. I’ll check later past chapters to see if I find the name somewhere.

More heroes arrive. Sounds like teams of Wards, given that they’re teenagers. Also, among them there’s someone that seems to have incorporate into his body a lot of metallic stuff. This must be the fabled hero the Protectorate wanted to bring to the city, the one who can absorb metal! He got here just in time for the big trouble, perfect.

Yep, truce. Anyway, everyone entered a building, maybe to be briefed about the situation. E88 was there – really? Well that’s something I didn’t expect! Kaiser isn’t there, right? – Hookwolf glares at Skitter. May I suggest to get the heck out of the area once the Endbringer has been dealt with somehow, to avoid trouble with Hookwolf? The Travelers are here too, and...that’s it on the villain side. Other than Coil’s soldiers, there aren’t any other villains here, not even Grue and the rest of the Undersiders. Maybe they’ll arrive later.

New Wave is here, Tattletale and Skitter are glared at. Armsmaster is here, not glaring at Skitter, thankfully. He’s too busy talking with Legend. Ah, right, I remember now! Legend, Alexandria, and...a third person are the Protectorate, worldwide scale. The big fish of the parahuman world! Exposition happens. Let’s just say Legend and Alexandria are the power standards many heroes aspire to reach, and I bet some villains would want too.

Eidolon, that’s the name of the third one.

Debating the relative strengths of various capes was common enough, in the schoolyard and elsewhere. If Alexandria and Legend fought, who would win? Would Boston’s Protectorate win against Brockton Bay’s team? What if you removed Boston’s weakest members until the sides were even in number?

Right, the classic ‘if X hero fought and X hero fought, who’d win’, just that in this universe they’re talking about people that actually exist. Must be kind of weird, talking about real living heroes and not about fictional characters.

Turns out Kaiser really is here. I thought he’d stay away, let the city be destroyed and what not...since, you know, his life is ruined. If he’s here then when Mr. Wildbow said ‘Empire Eighty-Eight’ he truly meant that, everybody must be here. Hah! Must be kind of awkward to be in the same place than the people who were on a rampage less than 24 hours ago.

More characters that may or may not appear again are named. A couple rogues and villains...they sound interesting, but since I kind of doubt they’ll have any kind of role in the story besides being, hm, ‘extras’, so to say, I’ll refrain from talking at length about them. Also Shadow Stalker is here too.

Oh, the rest of the Undersiders are here! That’s great!

The two boys glanced my way, then turned their attention to Tattletale. Ignoring me.

That… really stung.

Cripes...I mean, I get why they’d be upset with Skitter and would treat her coldly, but I was hoping they’d leave that aside during this emergency, and that once this all was over they’d be able to make amends. This isn’t a good sign. Well, honestly, I’m pretty sure Skitter and the rest of the Undersiders will settle their trouble at some point, because there’s a whole lot of Worm left so of course they will, but...yeah, doesn’t make one feel any less bad for Skitter.

Not wanting to mingle with her now-strained friendships Skitter sits in the periphery, near the Travelers. Sundancer is there, and she isn’t exactly jumping with love and appreciation for Skitter either. Oh, great, just what Skitter needed, to feel even more like a pariah right before a big fight.

That caught me off guard, because I’d somehow let myself believe I’d left our cooperative battle against Lung with a good impression. It seemed she wasn’t so willing to look past the fact that I’d carved out Lung’s eyes.

Hardly anyone would. You can be very dangerous, Skitter.

Legend walked to the front of the room for a speech. A speech from the big hero! That’s a one-in-a-lifetime chance nobody should want to see, because...you know, I bet it only happens when there’s huge trouble brewing, like now.

“We’ve had time to gather, and that means we have just a few more minutes to prepare and brief for Leviathan’s arrival, instead of jumping straight into the fray as we arrive. With this advantage, some luck, teamwork and hard effort from everyone, I hold out hope that this could be one of the good days.”

The Endbringer’s name is Leviathan. Rather fitting, may I say. The storm cloud far away matches too. Makes me curious about other Endbringers. Not that I want them to come and wreck Brockton Bay, they have enough trouble for me to wish for even more! Although...knowing Mr. Wildbow, the city – or at least Skitter and the rest of the Undersiders -- will be in peril less than 48 hours after this Leviathan problem is dealt with. There’s no time to rest, ever.

“But you should know your chances going in. Given the statistics from our previous encounters with this beast, a ‘good day’ still means that one in four of the people in this room will probably be dead before this day is done.”

And that’s the best case scenario? Well! I guess I couldn’t have expected different from a fight with an Endbringer, and I’m sure everyone in the room understands the risks, but still...that’s not going to lift anyone’s spirits, hah!

Well, that’s the end of the chapter. Going straight for the next one, of course!

There was a quiet murmur through the room at Legend’s words. One in four dead. And that didn’t mean the rest of us would get away unscathed.

Makes you wonder which ones are going to die horribly today. Let’s see...okay, Skitter is a given, yeah, there can't be a story if the main character dies. The rest of the Undersiders are fair game, they may die, maybe not. Of all them, I think Heckpuppy is the one with the best odds of the author having mercy. Killing Grue, Regent or Tattletale at this point would be a punch to the gut of the reader, Regent less than the other two, of course. Armsmaster and Miss Militia are unlikely to die, I’d say, although Armsmaster has a bit of a bigger chance to die, since he’s going away and all that. Dragon...eh, survives, I guess. Shadow Stalker and Grue’s fates will be the same, I guess, if one survives, so will the other. Glory Girl and Panacea...not safe. Nobody in Empire Eighty-Eight strikes me as particularly important or safe, the Travelers...hm. Hard to say. It’d depend on what Mr. Wildbow plans for the future. They’re very minor characters so far, therefore they’re in danger. The big Protectorate heroes are safe because it’d be kind of embarrassing for one or more of them to die today, unless Mr. Wildbow wants to use one of their deaths to bring forth plot points. All the other heroes, villains and rogues that appeared for the first time in this arc are as good as dead, as far as I’m concerned. So yeah, only Skitter and Miss Militia are what I’d say ‘safe’, the latter because of the very important plot point of remembering where the powers came from!

As you can see, there’s a lot of room for speculation. Boy are things going to get hectic in the story!

Legend’s speech wasn’t over; he tells them not to underestimate Leviathan. I...I think there was no risk for anyone underestimating him, there’s a big storm cloud coming. So, other Endbringers such as Behemoth and the Simurgh are different to Leviathan. Wait what, the Simurgh? That is...pretty much the opposite to an apocalyptic creature! Golly, what shenanigans are afoot with that Endbringer?

So yeah, as anyone may have guessed by now, Leviathan has power over water. He’s not hydrokinetic – okay, he has that skill but it’s not his main focus. It’s more like he can use water to his advantage, and there’s a lot of danger in that. He could even move faster than the capes whose power is speed. That’s how fearsome Leviathan is.

“May ninth, 2005. Nearly half a million dead. The Canadian island simply gone, after the shelf of land holding it up cracked in the face of what we now understand were incredible pressures beneath the water level.”

...well! At least we can be assured the same thing won’t happen to Brockton Bay, right? Because...otherwise then everyone is doomed. And this is not the only time Leviathan has caused widespread destruction and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Truly the ‘Endbringer’ moniker isn’t for show.

Oh goddamnit, Brockton Bay is in trouble. There’s a large aquifier underneath it. Brilliant, this is the type of situation Leviathan can take advantage of. Welp. I guess only part of Brockton Bay will be saved, then, because I find it unlikely the whole city will stay intact.

I just realized this is another cape Skitter is likely not to be able to hurt with her bugs. Hah! She really can’t take a break, can she?

“You are doing a good thing. The greatest thing. This is why we are tolerated, why society allows and accounts for the capes that walk the streets and fight in its towns. Because we are needed for situations like this. With your assistance, we can forestall the inevitable. Your efforts and, if you choose to make them, your sacrifices, will be remembered.”

He’s not wrong about that, I’m pretty sure capes are tolerated precisely because of that and nothing else. Fight fire with fire.

Dragon made armbands for everyone, so everyone fighting can send messages and request assistance when needed. As you may imagine, there’s a program that’ll organize the messages, give priority to some messages, etcetera. Overall it’s a sensible decision.

Legend called out, “Capes! If you have faced an Endbringer before, stand!”

I watched as the rest of the Protectorate, about a third of the out-of-town Wards, Bambina, half of a commercially sponsored cape team and the Travelers stood.

Huh! I didn’t think the Travelers had fought an Endbringer before! Interesting! I wonder if that had something to do with their former nomad status, having been in a place where an Endbringer attacked and moving out when the place was destroyed/the Endbringer was repelled. Could this be important enough for Mr. Wildbow to elaborate? I hope so, because I’m very curious about that!

All the parahumans gathered here start being divided into groups. Those who can receive a hit from Leviathan and not die in the process, go with them. If you can create ‘expendable combatants’ they are welcome too.

As a share of the crowd moved toward one corner of the room, Armsmaster stepped down from the podium to approach Tattletale, Grue and Regent, “Where’s Hellhound?”

“At least call her by her real name,” Tattletale glared up at him, “She’s not here. You knocked her dogs around enough to know they aren’t that tough, and that means you’re implying they’re expendable. Be glad she wasn’t around to hear that and figure that out.”

...ah. Okay, um, two things. First...that flew right over my head. I didn’t realize he going straight to ask for Heckpuppy meant he thought her dogs were expendable. Now that would have caused a scene, if she had heard it. Two...she isn’t here? I thought she was. Now that I think about it, she hadn’t been mentioned in the narration at all, how did I miss she wasn’t here? I suppose she’s trying to get all of her dogs to safety somehow and that’s why she isn’t here.

Another group, those who can harm Leviathan in close quarters. Assault, Battery, Night and Fog join. Seems like a good team, Night and Fog are fearsome. I’m not sure how Night will be able to do much without anyone seeing her, what with there being dozens of parahumans here, but eh.

Legend was still organizing the groups. “-forcefields, telekinesis, whatever your power, if you can interrupt Leviathan’s movements or help reduce the impacts of the waves, you’re the backup defense! Bastion will direct you!”

At first I had thought Skitter could fit there, but then I realized she wouldn’t. Her insects are very weak against water, they’d get swept away, and it’s difficult for an insect to fly in the rain. Skitter will have a very hard time today.

More groups are gathered, and much to my relief, Skitter isn’t the only one left without a group. The rest of the Undersiders present is still sitting down. Panacea and Kaiser are another two I didn’t expect to see left aside – well, Panacea makes sense, she’d be excellent support to heal those who are injured, and Tattletale could be useful in some way for intel gathering in a pinch, but the rest, well, it’s going to be tougher to make them fit anywhere.

There’s no more time for discussions. A big wave hits the port, and there’s already structural damage around here. Damn...I hope everyone in this city has some good insurance because seriously! Everybody is teleported out, the wave already crushed the docks and what used to be the high end shopping district. Oh, damn...

The description of Leviathan makes him sound rather fearsome! He is huge, a veritable monster, with claws and tail. Just what I was imagining! I wonder how was the awakening to his powers? It can’t have been pleasant at all, this is astonishing! And he also...he has no facial features. What he has is four eyes. Wow...if there’s art of Leviathan I’d like to see it, because this is great! Horrifying, but great!

“Get ready!” Legend howled the words.

They all had like half a second to get ready before Leviathan attacked, and they weren’t wrong about how fast Leviathan is. In a moment he collided against many of the capes, the armbands are already naming those who died or are too injured to continue.

Carapacitator down, CD-5. Krieg down, CD-5. WCM deceased, CD-5. Iron Falcon down, CD-5. Saurian down, CD-5…

And that was just in like a second or two. This is going to be an extremely difficult fight.

But that’ll have to be for next time.

Next update: five updates

#worm #worm liveblog #story liveblog #liveblog #book liveblog

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