#Finding new-to-me footage of Bill is like finding GOLD

[nigelgodrichproducer]

Old NG Interview I Saved

Hello Nigel, where are you at the moment?

I’m in London, I’m in my studio in Brixton, which is basically a big room with lots of recording equipment and stuff, [Nigel turns his camera round to show us the room] that’s basically it.

How long have you been down there?

I have been here for four years or something. The last few years have been very hard to quantify time-wise, haven’t they? Something like four years.

That room looks familiar, is that where you’ve been doing the new series of From The Basement?

That’s right. I’ve had a few different large studios in London and when I was looking at this place, one of the things that struck me was, ‘oh, it’s just about big enough to film in’, because the main reason that we stopped doing From The Basement all those years ago was that it’s so expensive and we thought about trying to find a permanent location that we could use to bring the cost down and make it more economical and that was one of the contributing things that made me realise that we could probably do it again, because it’s just easier, home turf and a bit more space and time to play with.

What is it when you get that itch to do some more From The Basement sessions rather than, say, make a new record?

It’s like a busman’s holiday really, it’s a completely different thing. It’s not vocational as much, it’s more of an extrapolated hobby, something that I really enjoy doing. It’s more like scratching an itch of being involved in live music. When you’re making a record, you’re really constructing something, it’s like doing Lego, it’s a very fine minutiae in a laboratory, creating something and building it slowly. You start with nothing and you end up with the Notre Dame built in Lego and sometimes you miss just being around people playing live music. That’s what was really fun about doing From The Basement. The original instigation was to try and do an exceptionally good version of a live filming event, but it’s not my job, it’s just something I want to see. So I was like, ‘wouldn’t it be fun to do that?’.

When you’re making records with bands, there’s a moment when you sit down at the beginning and you’re just playing through the material and it’s very exciting when people are in a room and just playing their instruments, if they’re good songs and they know what they’re doing, it’s an amazing feeling and the idea of trying to kind of capture that moment, which is a short period because then you have to translate that into something that bears repeated listening. It’s not as simple as going to a gig.

The From The Basement sessions look great and have a really rich sound, which is where TV music shows usually fall down. No-one should ever judge how good a band are live by watching them on Jools Holland. These things feel more like companions to the records instead of lesser versions.

Yeah, I think what I’ve found is through my obsessive nature, what you should end up with is more like the equivalent of a live EP but filmed. That’s how I see it. I am glad that you say that, I’m glad that you think that because that is the intention really, to make something exceptional, to try and do your best to try and one would hope that it will be a sort of elevated version of that, it’s not wheel them in, wheel them out again, it’s take the time.

One of my very first thoughts about it was when I was doing a Beck record and we had this drummer James Gadson with us, he was Bill Withers’ MD. There’s famous Old Grey Whistle Test footage of Bill Withers playing Ain’t No Sunshine and James is in there. It starts on Bill Withers then it zooms out and there’s this guy with this enormous afro and a gold tooth and a toothpick playing the drums and it’s amazing. I was asking him about that because it’s such an iconic bit of footage, exactly the kind of thing that I felt was missing, and he said that they spent the whole day getting the sound and that really resonated with me because I’ve been in those situations. I mean, Jools Holland is an institution and beyond criticism but there’s a lot of volume there, what we’re doing is something different, it’s more focused on particular things. That was the idea, the priority was making it sound good. I’ve done plenty of TV and radio sessions when you get in and you’re just working against the clock because you have a very small window to get things done. We have the luxury of our own space and I can take my time with the audio afterwards.

How much has the idea evolved given the technological advancements since you started doing it?

From an audio perspective, not at all because it’s exactly the same equipment I’m using and everything’s the same and it’s the same person doing it. But interestingly, the first time we ever did the original From The Basement in 2005/2006, the reason that we managed to get funding was because we were filming in HD, which was a new technology then. It enabled us to get money from Sky Arts, which was a new HD channel that didn’t have any content and needed content. Of course, what’s happened to television since then is now everything’s 4K. What’s happened is the visual side of it is technologically the state of the art, it’s gone forward. But I would say nothing else. I mean, in terms of recording live music, it’s the same story, we’re still using the same microphones that The Beatles used and that’s something that people talk about when they talk about recording technology versus film and video. Basically, the things that we used to record in the 60s and 70s are too expensive to be made today so we still use old gear because it’s the best quality. All my equipment is 50 years old. It’s quite funny.

Let’s go back to the beginning of your career. What was your first job in music?

I discovered that the only way that I could get into what I wanted to do was to basically to get a job like an apprentice at the bottom. I wrote 100 letters to the 100 24-track studios that were in London in the late 80s and I got a job. My first job was as a tea boy at this place called Audio One that was basically the rebranded Trident Studios, which is in the West End, a very, very famous studios. In the 60s, The Beatles recorded there, Bowie recorded there, Queen were part of the whole thing. It was like a real institution. But basically, I had a pager and I sat on the fourth floor next to the kettle waiting to be beeped, ‘three teas and two coffees in Studio One please’. You were basically finding the opportunities to be able to get in the room and be around the equipment and when people weren’t there, you could go and fiddle around.

Did anyone pull you up on your tea skills?

I was a good teaboy. I make a great cup of tea. I actually worked in a cafe before that so I knew how to make a good cup of tea, very important. Tea making was a very important skill for the up-and-coming record producer back in the day. That’s how Flood got his name. It was the same studio. Two guys started on the same day, they nicknamed one of them Drought and they called him Flood because he was always bringing tea. But they told me when I worked there, “Oh, count yourself lucky, in the old days the assistants had to cook everyone breakfast when they arrived in the morning.” It was that kind of vibe, but it was a really great place to work because it was a very substantial, important place.

Did you feel immediately that you were in your natural habitat?

No, I remember sitting there and thinking, ‘Well, I’m on the first rung of the ladder.’ I was very aware that this was like a temporary situation, the idea was just getting into the right place, basically. I actually was in a band and we went to a studio in Wapping Wall called Elephant Studios, it used to be in Elephant & Castle, that was the first studio I ever went to and it was to do a demo with a band that I was in. That was when I walked into a studio and realised that I wanted to be in this place. It was just this amazing environment, a quiet laboratory of sound. It was very exciting because one of my favourite Pogues records, Rum, Sodomy And The Lash was recorded there so I was asking the guy questions. I was impressed as a 16 year old kid.

How was it going through the Radiohead vaults for the reissues of OK Computer and Kid A Mnesia? Is there anything you were surprised about?

They’re very different animals. OK Computer was more of a regular process in as much as we had some songs and we went into various places and tried to record them and did it different ways and ended up with the best possible outcome, whereas Kid A was taking everything that you’ve gained and worked for and throwing it in the air and looking at the pieces and going, ‘Okay, well, this is what we’re trying to do’ and starting again. And, obviously, I worked on the Kid A stuff more recently and there’s a lot more of it, and there’s a lot more stuff that went by the wayside that was for good reason.

It’s funny when you go back and look at stuff, especially when you’re looking at it from the perspective of looking for things that haven’t been released or extra material that might be interesting, everything is for a reason, you left it off for a reason, you go back and what I was surprised by was that all of the decisions that I made were absolutely right. And also my memories of things, I can remember recording Everything In Its Right Place and it was just me and Thom in a room trying to do something that was not what we’d done before and I remember him singing the vocal once, singing it a second time, looking in his notebook, saying, “ah, ‘yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon’, I can’t say that,” and me saying "yes, you can, you’ve got to say that, let’s do that!" and doing that take and it being like this magical thing, then going back to the tape and looking at what’s on the tape and there it is, the first take it’s got no lyrics, the second take it’s a repetition of “the two colours in my head” thing and then the third take it’s “yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon”. That’s exactly how I remembered it. And even though it’s more than 20 years ago, I can remember that process and it’s there written down in a physical form for me to see.

When you reach 51, you start questioning things that you remember and how you remember them and ‘was it really like that?’ and ‘did I actually do that?’, so to go back and look at something and it be plain as day how you remembered it was like, ‘oh, that’s fascinating.’ The other thing that was really funny about going through Kid A was the fact that we hadn’t really got the concept of file management together yet. I had to look on a video that I had of us recording to find the box that was the hard drive, which had everything on it that was not on tape, because we were working on tape and we were also working on a computer. It was like, ‘what are we looking for again? I’ve forgotten.’ It’s a SCSI drive that looked this particular way, something that is completely obsolete now. They found it on a shelf, dusty at the back, nobody knows what it is and then not being able to open all the stuff on it was pretty funny. There’s some bits we can’t find.

They’re in a room somewhere, like at the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

Yes, exactly. There is one of those, a kind of Radiohead equivalent of that.

How different is the relationship with you and Thom from project to project, does it change if you’re doing Radiohead to Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes or to a solo project like Anima?

Well, obviously, it’s really different. I mean, the whole kind of instigation of us like doing The Eraser was off the back of that I was not going to work with the band again because we thought I needed a break, we’d gone through Hail To The Thief and it was like, ‘foof, everyone’s tired.’ and they went off to start working on songs for the next record. I was like, ‘okay, it’s fine.’ Thom was like, ‘Maybe we’re gonna work on our own, we’re gonna work it out,’ and I was totally cool with that, and then I basically got a call two days later saying that he wanted to do this solo thing and so we started working together.

What we found was, interestingly, when we were in a room when it’s with Radiohead, I was always butting heads with him because it was basically me and the band, I’m trying to manage a relationship between him and the band and it’s me butting heads with him and trying to work on behalf of the band. As soon as he and I were alone, we found that the dynamic was completely different, we were pulling in the same direction and it was incredibly productive. So it worked really well and we did that record and then actually I ended up doing In Rainbows anyway.

You know, relationships change. It’s nearly 30 years now we’ve been working together so things do change and the way that you work changes. But I think that what’s evident is that you only really have formative relationships like that once. So Thom will never find another me and I’ll never find another Thom because we’ve just worked for so long together. And that goes as well for the other guys in the band but in a different way, because obviously Thom and I have gone off, I’ve done something like 14 albums with Thom, whereas I’ve only done nine or something with the rest of them. There’s so many different permutations of how it works but the fundamental bottom line is it works. We just have this ability to just be very productive together and that’s a really precious and important thing and it changes in within the context of whatever we’re doing. It doesn’t really matter, so then we go and do Atoms For Peace and it works in a different way but it’s still fundamentally the same relationship. It’s crazy. It’s a long-standing thing.

Which record that you’ve been involved with do you think is the most overlooked?

Here We Go Magic’s A Different Ship. It’s a band I really loved and it’s one of those stories of finding something you really love and working trying to help them and then them imploding pretty soon after the record was finished so the whole thing just ground to a halt as it was in that format, a couple of people left. It’s a shame because I think they were a really great band in that format and they could have moved forward and carried on being great band. I feel like that’s a little gem.

What’s been the hardest period of your career?

I definitely had a beam me up moment when we were doing that Band Aid 20 single!

Haha, go on…

Well, it was just one of those things where you feel like, ‘if I can contribute something then I can help and it’s such a good cause I should do it’ and getting musicians together to do something like that is quite difficult. I was working with McCartney at the time so I managed to strong arm him into coming in and playing bass. And obviously Geldof’s hassling Thom so I had this sort of funny superstar band, which is Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Danny Goffey on drums and Paul McCartney on bass and Fran Healy doing the frontman-y bit to get the backing track. It just was a bit of a clusterfuck trying to get the actual track together. The whole thing is just so not me and then what happened was we just couldn’t really get a good take so I was up until three in the morning trying to like cut it together without much help from certain parties. It was like, ‘What’s going on here?!’.

Tell me about the making of The Smile record. Out of all the Radiohead and Radiohead-affiliated records, that’s the one to me that has the most mystique, it seemed to come out of nowhere that Thom and Jonny had started a new band.

I think there’s a little bit of cards to the chest about the whole thing. I think it just came out of Jonny writing all these riffs, waiting for something to happen. I think he was writing music and it’s been such a weird time the last few years, Ed’s gone off and done his solo record so that’s kind of been out of the picture and then Covid hit, I think there was a desire to make music so him and Thom were getting together writing stuff. It’s just a quite organic process, it was over a long amount of time, over a couple of years. It started here in this studio and then I went off and did the Arcade Fire thing so that slowed everything down a little bit. And then when once that was done, I came back and finished it off. But it’s the same thing, it’s the same kind of ingredient, those people that I’ve worked with all this time so we’re kind of just doing what we do and we have our ways of getting things done.

With that in mind, how was it walking into Arcade Fire to produce We, working with a big band you hadn’t collaborated with before?

The thing with those guys is it’s a completely different animal. They’re very much the ultimate home studio recording artists in a way, they’ve always done stuff on their own and I think it was quite different for them to have a producer-producer. In some ways, it worked really well, in some ways it maybe made it a little harder, because I have my feelings about things and integrating that into the whole thing can be complicated. But I think, at the end of the day, we worked well and there’s a lot of material that actually isn’t on the record that is really good. But I think that they made a good decision by keeping that record short and sweet, so we’ll see what happens. I’ve known those guys for years. It’s a classic thing where you meet people around and about and then always in the back of your mind, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is a possibility.’ It was kind of miraculous that it happened, really, because of Covid what we did is we went to the middle of nowhere, outside El Paso, Texas, and basically lived in a cult for a couple of months. Nobody came in and nobody came out, people delivered the shopping, that sort of vibe just so we could be able to do it. It was a method to make it possible.

That sounds intense.

It was intense, yeah. Making music is intense sometimes, especially when you’re dealing with other human beings because there’s so much that goes on in the soup of making music, that’s why it’s wonderful.

Do you think there will be another Radiohead album?

I don’t know. Obviously, I can’t answer that!

This piece is coming out to coincide with Warpaint’s From The Basement session, how was that?

Oh, well that I love because, again, it’s a band I’ve never recorded but I know them all really well, they’re friends and have been friends for a long time for many years. It’s serendipity that it becomes a version of a way of working together that is really pleasing for all of us, just a day in the studio, and we get to record, capture this thing live and I get to fulfill my little fantasy of doing something with them.

[stillbandofbrothersthirsty]

As Far As Friends Go

Chapter 26 (Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; ... Chapter 25)

The Last Chapter - May 1946

Emily’s mother frittered about smoothing the creases of Emily’s dress and plucking at non-existent lint.

“Mom, mom...mother!” Emily waved her mother away. “Let it be, I’m fine,” she tried to keep her voice calm.

Her mother took a step back with her mouth pursed. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Mom,” Emily raised her eyebrows in warning.

Her mother had the decency to direct her judgmental look at the floor. “It’s just,” she said in a hushed voice, “a divorcee?”

“Yes,” Emily said dryly, somehow this subject continued to come up. Emily probably wouldn’t have told her parents that Nixon was divorced if it could have been avoided. However, between the end of the war and the scramble to prepare for their future, the last year had been a whirlwind. “But let’s not forget, he was also a Captain!” That title had originally excited her parents when she first broke the news of their engagement, before they had learned the wedding had to be postponed until Nixon’s separation from Kathy was finalized.

That reminder seemed to perk Emily’s mother up slightly, “yes, a Captain. It was really quite nice of Lewis’ family to contribute as much as they did,” the compliment sounded obligatory. Emily’s mother would never truly comment on the Nixon’s wealth, it was undignified. But Emily was sure that fact somewhat amended Lewis’ disgraced martial status in her mother’s mind.

“Your father wasn’t pleased about it but you know how he can get. He wants to be the one to give you everything,” her mother continued. Emily began to tune out her mother’s ramblings. Once again she found herself wishing for more female friends so that she didn’t have to endure this time alone with her mother. Unfortunately, her cousins all had babies to attend to and had already excused themselves from the dressing room.

A knock at the door sounded and Emily felt instant relief. Finally, some sort of distraction from her nerves. She moved to open the door but her mother beat her to it. The door opened to the apprehensive face of George Luz, “uh, hi,” he said to Emily’s mother. Then his eyes landed on Emily. George let out a low whistle, “wowza, you look incredible!” he said appreciatively.

Emily blushed and smoothed her skirt, “thank you, George.”

“I got somethin’ here for ya,” George held up an envelope. He glanced at her mother for permission and her mother stepped aside to let him in. “Well,” George said, “Joe had it for ya but it was easier for me to run it over, because, well you know,” he shrugged and handed her the letter heavy with postage.

It was addressed in Marwa’s handwriting; her sweet friend had remained in Europe and was unable to make the trip to Chicago. But Emily and Nixon had made plans to meet up with her over their honeymoon

“Who’s that from, dear?” Emily’s mother asked.

“A friend, remember the nurse?” Emily responded already opening the envelope.

“Which nurse? I don’t remember a particular nurse.. oh that Arab girl?”

Emily shot George a look. “Mrs. Rooney is it?” George interrupted, “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you!” Emily mouthed her gratitude to him as he directed her mother to the settee. George winked and held up a thumb behind her mother’s back. “You know I’ve never been to Indiana, are there many churches there? I wouldn’t want to go if there wasn’t anywhere to attend mass on Sunday,” George’s flattery faded away as Emily turned her attention to the letter.

Marwa’s beautiful calligraphy transported Emily back to the last time she saw her friend. Their goodbye had been tearful, mostly on Emily’s part. But the friends had stuck to their commitment to write. It was in a letter to Marwa that Emily first put into words Nixon’s unconventional proposal.

Nearly a year ago Emily had stood beside Nixon looking down into the breathtaking Bavarian landscape from a balcony in Hitler’s Eagles Nest.

“Lew,” she placed a cautious hand on his hip, “what’s next for you?” It was a loaded question. Deployment to the Pacific was still an option. Emily was free to return to the states when she pleased but so many things between her and Nixon remained unresolved. The past few weeks had been a dream supplemented by good food and beautiful scenery. Emily had felt hope return to her - hope that extended beyond the end of the war. She wanted to know what life would look like next year, five years from now, and beyond. The first step in preparing for the future was to find out where Nixon saw himself.

Life had returned to Nixon the past few weeks; the receding war and his submission to Emily’s love had begun to heal him. Their time in Bavaria had been a relative heaven, but a temporary heaven.

Nixon pulled his gaze away from the captivating view to look into the grey eyes that had guided him through so much. “Dick and I are going to re-deploy to the Pacific,” he said matter-of-factually. There was no sugar coating it. He and Emily had found their sweet spot of upfront honesty. 


Emily nodded as if she had expected as much, “and then?” she asked.

Nixon had hoped she would ask that. He had seen the footage coming out of the Pacific - he needed her hope to get him out alive, he needed her to have a vision of ‘after’. “Well, I’ll go back to New Jersey, marry you and I don’t know, buy a house or something,” he leaned on the balcony.

An impulsive smile spread across Emily’s face, “marry me? Di- did you just propose to me, Lewis?”

He smirked, “I suppose I did.”

Emily narrowed her eyes playfully at him, “you suppose? Do you even want to marry me?”

“People get married all the time for many different reasons, they’re lucky if it’s for love. You should understand that better than anyone,” Nixon said, “and I love you, so yeah I want to marry you.”

Emily bit her lip to keep the smile from overtaking her face, “well who say’s I want to marry you?”

“If you were smart, you’d marry me now and hope I get blown up over Tokyo. Take me for everything that I’m worth,” Nixon joked darkly.

“Lewis!” Emily smacked his arm. He chuckled. “That’s terrible,” she admonished him, “besides I’m pretty sure Kathy beat me to that.”

“Touche.”

“That is the question though…” Emily’s tone turned serious.

“Yeah,” Nixon turned back to look out onto the landscape, “are you up to waiting for me?”

“I’ve already waited years for you to come around, what’s another few?”

Luckily, they only had to wait a year. Now, Emily found herself standing at the entrance of a grand room dressed in white holding onto her fathers arm for dear life. The loss of the marital sacrament had been a blow to her parents but after a lot of tears they had accepted that their daughter was getting married in a club hall, not a church. Emily couldn’t be bothered where she got married. Planning the wedding had been exhausting and distracting from what she’d actually been interested in planning: the honeymoon. Emily had spent far too much time mediating between her mother and her future mother-in-law.

The first couple of months back in the states, Emily had been a guest at the Nixon’s many properties along the eastern seaboard. New York City had been fun, until her mother came to visit and meet her future in-laws. Though cordial, the mothers seemed to agree on very little. However, they did manage to unite in order to bully Emily into wearing the gaudy ring Lewis had bought her out of obligation.

But Emily didn’t consider that her real engagement ring - it was simply for appearances sake. The ring she would wear as his wife would be a gold band engraved with flora. Nixon and Emily had picked it up in Paris on their way home to the states. That was all Emily had wanted. It was more fitting; a simple testament to how they had grown as individual’s and in their relationship. An ornate diamond strongly juxtaposed the world in which they had fallen in love.

As the wide doors to the hall swung open, Emily’s father squeezed her hand. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered. Emily looked up at him in shock but her ever stoic father was already looking straight ahead as if nothing had been said. But his words were monumental, that’s all she had ever wanted to hear from him.

The view down the aisle seemed incredibly long. The people who sat closest to the door were the people Emily knew the least; family friends from her parents church, the Nixons’ obligatory invitees. Emily’s hand grew sweaty around her bouquet as she gritted her teeth into a smile. She didn’t want any of them to see how nervous she was.

She began to relax as her father led her past the faces of her friends who sat closer to the front; her first co-workers from the O.S.S., the grinning faces of Harry Welsh, Frank Perconte and Babe Heffron. Emily’s throat closed with emotion as she passed Bill Guarnere and Joye Toye who wobbled, but leaned on each other, both determined to stand for the bride. Joe Toye smiled and nodded slightly from where he stood, “not just a work-wife,” he whispered jokingly as she passed. Emily’s giggle sounded nervous but confidence surged within her at his acknowledgement. Finally, the view of the altar was clear in Emily’s vision; she saw Dick Winters standing proudly beside Nixon. Suddenly, she felt so overwhelmed by emotion that she could hardly bring herself to look at her future husband.

George Luz was the first person to greet them at the end of the aisle. Emily focused all of her nerves on his steady smile. With a wink, he took Emily’s bouquet and made room for her mother to adjust her train. And then Emily was looking into the face of Lewis Nixon. The rest of the world melted away as he gazed into her sparkling grey eyes.

Everything that had happened to them the last couple of years had culminated into this very moment. It was in the moments without each other’s touch that they had learned to love each other; they had grown wiser with each fight, stronger with each shared moment of vulnerability, and in deprivation they craved only to give the other the world. Neither of them would have expected that they would end this way. That’s because this was by no means an ending; this was the beginning of life renewed.

Nixon took Emily’s trembling hands in his steady ones. “Finally,” he said with a smirk.

The End.

THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart, to everyone who read this story. This was my first long fanfiction story and all of your support kept me motivated and encouraged to keep writing. Love you all <3

#As Far As Friends Go #hbo band of brothers #band of brothers #lewis nixon #lewis nixon x oc #george luz #joe toye #dick winters #emily rooney #fanfiction #completed fanfic

[amusement-spark]

Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts

Escape from Gringotts is a combination roller coaster and 3D effects dark ride. Like most of the rides and attractions at Universal, there is a lot of effort put into the theming and storytelling within and around the ride.

First let's talk about the queue. The first waiting area is fairly mundane, taking place outside the bank itself. There are carts and posters visible from Gringotts. The real experience begins once you enter the bank proper. In addition to a gorgeous and enormous chandelier, the main hall of the bank features several goblin tellers, working and counting gold. These animatronics are absolutely stunning. Their movement and textures feel incredibly real. Even if you have to spend a lot of time waiting in this room, there is plenty around to keep you interested while you wait.

After this first hall, you journey through various other levels of the bank, complete with moving portraits, newspapers laid on tables with moving photos, and a very convincing shadow illusion which they also employ on the Hogwarts express between parks.

As far as lines go, this one is one of the best at Universal Orlando. Just as the rest of the Harry Potter section, the theming is on point throughout the entire attraction.

In total, I believe I waited about an hour for this ride, an hour and fifteen minutes at the most.

Now let's talk about the ride itself.

The riders are loaded into a Gringotts cart just like from the books and films. This is possibly the most ideal part of Harry Potter to base a ride around, given the carts resemblance to a roller coaster already. Riders must also wear 3D glasses, which tipped me off to the fact that the roller coaster portion of the ride wouldn't be too extreme.

The most exhilarating drop is the first one, after the riders encounter the villains for the first time. The section is on par with most of the coasters I've ridden in the last couple years, particularly those that don't invert completely.

I was surprised by the amount of story that was present in the ride, and how much new footage must have been filmed with the movie actors. I was especially surprised to see Bill Weasley. Personally I would have rather had more coaster sections than the long stretches of dialogue. I'm sure when I get around to riding the new Hagrid coaster, I'll be a big fan.

Escape from Gringotts is a lot of fun. I think I had the exact right amount of wait time for this ride. Any longer and I would be a bit harsher on it. I'm not sure if the story is enough to make the experience worth it for non-harry potter fans, and arguably the queue is more memorable than the ride itself. But if you find yourself in Diagon Alley and have some time to kill, definitely check out Escape from Gringotts

Queue: 5/5

Theming: 4/5

Thrills: 3/5

Overall score: 4/5

#universal studios #universal orlando #florida #harry potter #theme parks #amusement parks

[newagesispage]

                                                                        MAY                 2021

The Rib Page

*****

George Takei is sweatin’ with the oldies. He stars in a fitness app for gay seniors, Bar Belles. It was his April Fool’s day joke.

*****

Fox will bring us Crime Scene Kitchen on May 26 with host Joel McHale.

*****

Joel Hodgson has launched a new kick starter to create a new independent season of MTS3K, The goal is $2mil.

*****

Bob Odenkirk will release: Comedy, comedy, comedy, drama: A Memoir on Jan. 18 2022

*****

Leslie Jones will host the 2021 MTV Awards.

*****

$3 mil was raised for Next for Autism with help from Conan, Kimmel, Charlize, Chris Rock, Jack Black and Sarah Silverman.

*****

Have ya noticed that Gayle King looks great in yellow.

*****

Some people are not too happy that Elon Musk will host SNL on May 8. Miley Cyrus is the musical guest.** Musk tweeted: Let’s find out just how live SNL really is. Cast member Bowen Yang tweeted back, : What the Fuck does this even mean?

*****

Oh Seth Meyers: Every time I see the sea captain on your show, I miss him so much!!

*****

There is a spotlight on Foxconn which made a big splash for Trump at the start of his presidency. The company has done a lot of nothing but still gets tax cuts. Homes were demolished, roads were widened to nowhere and money was spent. Wisconsinites are upset that this big business is just folly and a big glass orb.

*****

Mike Lindell is a kook but he did try to appear to be a good sport on Kimmel.

*****

When will weed be legal on a federal level? When will drug testing for employment be illegal? We hear so much about personal rights with the gun laws and vaccines and masks. What about the right to do what we want with our bodies when we are not at work. Think of the administrative costs that could be saved if we just removed drug testing. Our experience and work ethic should mean more that what we do with our free time. This is not a problem at all companies. There are places in this country where it is near impossible anywhere in your area to get hired without a drug screening. One joint on a random Saturday night could keep someone from a great opportunity. A person in pain who reaches for an edible might miss out on the job that saves their lives.

*****

NASA sent the first flight to another planet. The Mars flight made history with the 30 sec feat.

*****

What? The Menendez brothers are popular again? From the Ramsey case to the Manson murders or Bundy, it all comes back around again.

*****

The Lizzie Borden house just sold for $2mil to Lance Zaal of U. S. Ghost Adventures.

*****

Quarantine and so much television et al proves one thing, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have way too much $.

*****

Trump told everyone to boycott Coke and is later seen drinking diet Coke.** Trump sent out a statement about how bad the Oscars are. They threw it right back in his face. ** Federal agents have searched Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment. It stems from the 2 year investigation into activities in Ukraine.

*****

X-VP Pence is said to have pressured the Navy to reinstate former Mo. Gov. Eric Greitens. Greitens was accused of tying up, blindfolding, taking explicit photos of and blackmailing a woman.

*****

There is a crisis in schools with the lack of civics and history being taught.

*****

Hulk Hogan was hit with a chorus of Boo’s at his latest event.

*****

The latest sexual harassment news: Matt Gaetz  is being looked into for sex with a minor and sex trafficking.  Bill Barr opened the investigation.** Tom Reed has been accused of sexual misconduct by former lobbyist, Nicolette Davis.** Marilyn Manson has been sued by Game of Thrones, Esme Bianco for sexual abuse.

*****

What is going on with Bank of America? I am hearing from multiple people that often they do not get their statement in the mail. Is this a bad Postal service? Is this bad business practice? How many late fees had to be paid because of this? Not everybody wants to pay their bills online.

*****

Jack Hanna has revealed that he has dementia.

*****

Tiny Tim : King for a day is a new doc I must see. The film contains footage shot from Warhol’s Factory. There are excerpts from Tim’s diary read by Weird Al Yankovic and the story of how Tiny’s friend, Bob Dylan wanted to make a film with him.

*****

Lindsay Lohan’s Father, Michael has been charged with 5 counts patient brokering and 1 count of attempted patient brokering. This is an apparent scam of steering addicts into rehab for cash.

*****

Aaron Sorkin and Paulina Porizkova are dating. Pete Davidson and Phoebe Dynevor are dating.

*****

JB Smoove has a new podcast brought to you by TeamCoco.

*****

Hey.. People working on the new Law and Order: Organized Crime….. TOO MUCH MELONI!!

*****

*****

Zach Avery, actor, was arrested for his participation in a $690 mil Ponzi scheme.

*****

President Biden has restored aid to the Palestinians.

*****

MLB put up a wall in Georgia but the Masters stayed.

*****

Hank Azaria has brought Brockmire to a new podcast.

*****

Tommy Chong isn’t allowed on FB because of his weed posts but they allow an imposter to use his name to sell weed.

Pennsylvania is trying to push thru 14 voter suppression bills.

*****

Joe Manchin. Ugh!!** Marjorie Taylor- Greene has let go of her America First caucus.** Ted Cruz has allegedly used $154, 000 of his campaign funds to buy up copies of his book to boost sales. This is an old trick but still illegal.

*****

For the first time, The Carter Center became involved in a U.S. election. They published videos and live webcasts as well as deploying observers across Georgia.

*****

Most health programs in Uganda, Nigeria and Ethiopia have resumed after Covid.** Tom Vilsack from the Dept. of Agriculture has announced the USDA will provide assistance to 30 million kids.** It is sad to me that we have to entice people to vaccinate. Football games, Church’s and shot for shot in bars?? Really? Saving the lives of others should be enough. WTF?

*****

Alec Baldwin, Alec Mapa and Kelsey Grammer are shopping around a new comedy that ABC decided to pass on.

*****

Chauvin was found guilty.

*****

Days alert: C’mon Ben, calm the fuck down! Don’t prove how out of control you are like everybody thinks. ** Xander is so funny right now.** How many people will Kristen be and how many times can one person melt down?? **Bring Carrie back!! **Jackee’ seemed a bit nervous in the beginning but she is fitting right in. More!

*****

The SAG awards came and went. With the Trial of the Chicago 7 winning best ensemble, Michael Keaton is the first person to be in 3 best casts for SAG’s.** Other winners include Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Kaluuta, Youn Yuh-Jung, Mark Ruffalo, Anya Taylor- Joy, Jason Bateman, Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek and The Crown.

*****

The Oscars were held on April 25. It was a bit of a yawner and why would a show set themselves up for an awkward end?? There was a commercial from P&G right before the broadcast that stated, “ Widen the screen so we can widen our view.” Nice sentiment.  Mank had so many noms and only 2 wins. People looking their best to me were Leslie Odom Jr., Glenn Close, Riz Ahmed, LaKeith Stanfield, Colman Domingo, John Batiste, Mia Neal, Questlove (gold crocs and a mask!), Desmond Roe, Travon Free, Trish Summerville, Marlee Matlin, The Lucas Brothers, Andra Day, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Nicolette Robinson, Regina King and Margot Robbie. Laura Dern looked like Big Bird, there were just too many feathers. Tiara Thomas had feathers but they looked great.  Angela Bassett had some power sleeves and Tyer Perry looked like a little boy.  Hooray for Emerald Fennell for her win for original screenplay but not sure about the dress. And Viola Davis?? Dana Murray?? Ashley Fox?? Hmm?? Winners seemed to have trouble getting to the stage. They often refused the steps or the walkway and sort of climbed up the side. I did love the intimate setting and it did remind me of the old clips of years before. Sound of metal and Ma Rainey both won. Tyler Perry and for the first time, an organization, the motion picture and television fund, took home the humanitarian award. I was thrilled to see My Octopus Teacher win for Doc. I loved Crip Camp too, that was a hard category.  The acting winners went in all directions.  Many critics complained that the films were real downers . Nomadland won best picture. Michael Moore put it best I think. Of the films this year, he said, “They force you to look backward with 2021 eyes.”

*****

Why the Fuck do we need a militarized police force?

*****

R.I.P. victims of the multiple mass shootings, victims of police shootings, the crush in Israel, Cosette Brown, Midwin Charles, DMX, Paul Ritter, Ethel Gabriel, G. Gordon Liddy, Buddy Peppenschmidt,  Prince Philip, Anne Beatts, Diane Adler, Vartan Gregorian, Monte Hellman, Jim Steinman, Michael Collins, Michael wolf Snyder, Johnny Crawford, Eli Broad and Walter Mondale.

[grigori77]

Summer 2020′s Movies - My Top Ten Favourite Films (Part 2)

10.  BODY CAM – in the face of the current pandemic, viral outbreak cinema has become worryingly prescient lately, but as COVID led to civil unrest there were a couple of films in this summer that REALLY seemed to me to put their finger on the pulse of another particularly shitty zeitgeist.  Admittedly this one highlights a problem that’s been around for a good while, but it came along at just the right time to gain particularly strong resonance, filtering its message into the most reliable form of allegorical social commentary – horror.  The vengeful ghost trope has become pretty familiar over the past decade or so, but by marrying it with the corrupt cop thriller veteran horror screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) has given it a nice fresh spin, and the end result was, for me, a real winner.  Mary J. Blige plays troubled LAPD cop Renee Lomito-Smith, back on the beat after an extended hiatus following a particularly harrowing incident, just as fellow officers from her own precinct begin to die violent deaths under mysterious circumstances, and the only clues are weird, haunting camera footage that only Renee and her new partner, rookie Danny Holledge (Paper Towns and Death Note’s Natt Wolff), manage to see before it inexplicable wipes itself.  Something supernatural is stalking the City of Angels at night, and it’s got a serious grudge against local cops as the increasingly disturbing investigation slowly brings an act of horrific police brutality to light, until Renee no longer knows who in her department she can trust.  This is one of the most insidious scare-fests I’ve enjoyed so far this year, sophomore director Malik Vitthal (Imperial Dreams) weaving an effective atmosphere of pregnant dread and wire-taut suspense while delivering some impressively hair-raising shocks (the stunning minimart sequence is the film’s undeniable highlight), while the ghostly threat is cleverly thought-out and skilfully brought to “life”.  Blige delivers another top-drawer performance, giving Renee a winning combination of wounded fragility and steely resolve that makes for a particularly compelling hero, while Wolff invests Danny with skittish uncertainty and vulnerability in one of his strongest performances to date, and Dexter star David Zayas brings interesting moral complexity to the role of their put-upon superior, Sergeant Kesper.  In these times of heightened social awareness, when the police’s star has become particularly tarnished as unnecessary force, racial profiling and cover-ups have become major hot-button topics, the power and relevance of this particular slice of horror cinema cannot be denied.

9.  BLOOD QUANTUM – it certainly has been a great year for horror, and for most of the summer this was the genre leader, a compellingly fresh take on the zombie outbreak genre with a killer hook.  Canadian writer-director Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) has always clung close to his Native American roots, and he brings strong social relevance to the intriguing early 80s Canadian setting as a really nasty zombie virus wreaks havoc in the Red Crow Indian Reservation and its neighbouring town.  It soon becomes clear, however, that members of the local tribe are immune to the infection, a revelation with far-reaching consequences as the outbreak rages unchecked and society begins to crumble.  Barnaby pulls off some impressive world-building and creates a compellingly grungy post-apocalyptic vibe as the story progresses, while the zombies themselves are a visceral, scuzzy bunch, and there’s plenty of cracking set-pieces and suitably full-blooded kills to keep the gore-hounds happy, while the horror has real intelligence behind it, the script posing interesting questions and delivering some uncomfortable answers.  The characters, meanwhile, are a well-drawn, complex bunch, no black-and-white saviours among them, any one of them capable of some pretty inhuman horrors when the chips are down, and the cast, an interesting mix of seasoned talent and unknowns, all excel in their roles – Michale Greyeyes (Fear the Walking Dead) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) are the closest things the film has to real heroes, the former a fallible everyman as Traylor, the small-town sheriff who’s just trying to do right by his family, the latter unsure of himself as his son, put-upon teenage father-to-be Joseph; meanwhile, Olivia Scriven is tough but vulnerable as his pregnant white girlfriend Charlie, Stonehorse Lone Goeman is a grizzled badass as tough-as-nails tribal elder Gisigu, and Kiowa Gordon (probably best known for playing a werewolf in the Twilight movies) really goes to the dark side as Joseph’s delinquent half-brother Lysol, while there’s a memorably subtle turn from Dead Man’s Gary Farmer as unpredictable loner Moon.  This is definitely one of the year’s darkest films – by and large playing the horror straight, it tightens the screws as the situation grows steadily worse, and almost makes a virtue of wallowing in its hopeless tone – but there’s a fatalistic charm to all the bleakness, even in the downbeat yet tentatively hopeful climax, while it’s hard to deny the ruthless efficiency of the violence on display. This certainly isn’t a horror movie for everyone, but those with a strong stomach and relatively hard heart will find much to enjoy here.  Jeff Barnaby is definitely gonna be one to watch in the future …  

8.  PALM SPRINGS – the summer’s comedy highlight kind of snuck in under the radar, becoming something of an on-demand secret weapon with all the cinemas closed, and it definitely deserves its swiftly growing cult status.  You certainly can’t possibly believe it’s the feature debut of director Max Barbakow, who shows the kind of sharp-witted, steady-handed control of his craft that’s usually the province of far more experienced talents … then again, much of the credit must surely go to seasoned TV comedy writer Andy Siara (Lodge 49), for whom this has been a real labour of love he’s been tending since his film student days.  Certainly all that care, nurture and attention to detail is up there on the screen, the exceptional script singing its irresistible siren song from the start and providing fertile ground for its promising new director to spread his own creative wings.  The premise may be instantly familiar – playing like a latter-day Saturday Night Live take on Groundhog Day (Siara admits it was a major influence), it follows the misadventures of Sarah (How I Met Your Mother’s Cristin Miliota), the black sheep maid of honour at her sweet little sister Tala’s (Riverdale’s Camila Mendes) wedding to seemingly perfect hunk Abe (Supergirl’s Superman, Tyler Hoechlin), as she finds herself repeating the same high-stress day over and over again after being trapped in a mysterious cosmic time-loop along with slacker misanthrope Nyles (Brooklyn Nine Nine megastar Andy Samberg), who’s been stuck in this same situation for MUCH longer – but in Barbakow and Siara’s hands it feels fresh and intriguing, and goes in some surprising new directions before the well-worn central premise can outstay its welcome.  It certainly doesn’t hurt that the cast are uniformly excellent – Miliota is certainly the pounding emotional heart of the film, effortlessly lovable as she flounders against her lot, then learns to accept the unique possibilities it presents, before finally resolving to find a way out, while Samberg has rarely been THIS GOOD, truly endearing in his sardonic apathy as it becomes clear he’s been stuck like this for CENTURIES, and they make an enjoyably fiery couple with snipey chemistry to burn; meanwhile there’s top-notch support from Mendes and Hoechlin, The OC’s Peter Gallagher as Sarah and Tala’s straight-laced father, the ever-reliable Dale Dickey, a thoroughly adorable turn from Jena Freidman and, most notably, a full-blooded scene-stealing performance from the mighty J.K. Simmonds as Roy, Nyles’ nemesis, who he inadvertently trapped in the loop before Sarah and is, understandably, none too happy about it.  This really is an absolute laugh-riot, today’s more post-modern sense of humour allowing the central pair (and their occasional enemy) to indulge in even more extreme consequence-free craziness than Bill Murray ever got away with back in the day, but like all the best comedies there’s also a strong emotional foundation under the humour, leading us to really care about these people and what happens to them, while the story throws moments of true heartfelt power at us, particularly in the deeply cathartic climax.  Ultimately this was one of the summer’s biggest surprises, a solid gold gem that I can’t recommend enough.

7.  THE LAST DAYS OF AMERICAN CRIME – the summer’s other heavyweight Zeitgeist fondler is a deeply satirical chunk of speculative dystopian sci-fi clearly intended as a cinematic indictment of Trump’s broken America, but it became far more potent and prescient in these … ahem … troubled times.  Adapted by screenwriter Karl Gadjusek (Oblivion, Stranger Things, The King’s Man) from the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini for underrated schlock-action cinema director Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana, the last two Taken films), this Netflix original feature seemed like a fun way to kill a cinema-deprived Saturday night in the middle of the Lockdown, but ultimately proved to have a lot more substance than expected.  It’s powered by an intriguing premise – in a nearly lawless 2024, the US government is one week away from implementing a nationwide synaptic blocker signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which will prevent the public from being able to commit any kind of crime – and focuses on a strikingly colourful bunch of outlaw antiheroes with an audacious agenda – prodigious Detroit bank robber Bricke (Édgar Ramiréz) is enlisted by Kevin Cash (Funny Games and Hannibal’s Michael Carmen Pitt), a wayward scion of local crime family the Dumois, and his hacker fiancée Shelby Dupree (Material Girl’s Anna Brewster) to pull off what’s destined to be the last great crime in American history, a daring raid on the night of the signal to steal over a billion dollars from the Motor City’s “money factory” and then escape across the border into Canada.  From this deceptively simple premise a sprawling action epic was born, carried along by a razor sharp, twisty script and Megaton’s typically hyperbolic, showy auteur directing style and significant skill at crafting thrillingly explosive set-pieces, while the cast consistently deliver quality performances.  Ramiréz has long been one of those actors I really love to watch, a gruff, quietly intense alpha male whose subtle understatement hides deep reserves of emotional intensity, while Dupree takes a character who could have been a thinly-drawn femme fetale and invests her with strong personal drive and steely resolve, and there’s strong support from Neil Blomkampf regulars Sharlto Copley and Brandon Auret as, respectively, emasculated beat cop Sawyer and brutal Mob enforcer Lonnie French, as well as a nearly unrecognisable Patrick Bergin as local kingpin (and Kevin’s father) Rossi Dumois; the film is roundly stolen, however, by Pitt, a phenomenal actor I’ve always thought we just don’t see enough of, here portraying a spectacularly sleazy, unpredictable force of nature who clearly has his own dark agenda, but whom we ultimately can’t help rooting for even as he stabs us in the back.  This is a cracking film, a dark and dangerous thriller of rare style and compulsive verve that I happily consider to be Megaton’s best film to date BY FAR – needless to say it was a major hit for Netflix when it dropped, clearly resonating with its audience given what’s STILL going on in the real world, and while it may have been roundly panned in reviews I think, like some of the platform’s other more glossy Original hits (Bright springs to mind), it’s destined for a major critical reappraisal and inevitable cult status before too long …

6.  HAMILTON – arriving just as Black Lives Matter reached fever-pitch levels, this feature presentation of the runaway Broadway musical smash-hit could not have been better timed.  Shot over three nights during the show’s 2016 run with the original cast and cut together with specially created “setup shots”, it’s an immersive experience that at once puts you right in amongst the audience (at times almost a character themselves, never seen but DEFINITELY heard) but also lets you experience the action up close.  And what action – it’s an incredible show, a thoroughly fascinating piece of work that reads like something very staid and proper on paper (an all-encompassing biographical account of the life and times of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton) but, in execution, becomes something very different and EXTREMELY vital.  The execution certainly couldn’t be further from the usual period biopic fare this kind of historical subject matter usually gets (although in the face of recent top-notch revisionist takes like Marie Antoinette, The Great and Tesla it’s not SO surprising), while the cast is not at all what you’d expect – with very few notable exceptions the cast is almost entirely people of colour, despite the fact that the real life individuals they’re playing were all very white indeed.  That said, every single one of them is an absolute revelation – the show’s writer-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (already riding high on the success of In the Heights) carries the central role of Hamilton with effortless charm and raw star power, Leslie Odom Jr. (Smash, Murder On the Orient Express) is duplicitously complex as his constant nemesis Aaron Burr, Christopher Jackson (In the Heights, Moana, Bull) oozes integrity and nobility as his mentor and friend George Washington, Phillipa Soo is sweet and classy as his wife Eliza while Renée Elise Goldsberry (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Jacks, Altered Carbon) is fiery and statuesque as her sister Angelica Schuyler (the one who got away), and Jonathan Groff (Mindhunter) consistently steals every scene he’s in as fiendish yet childish fan favourite King George III; ultimately, however, the show (and the film) belongs to veritable powerhouse Daveed Diggs (Blindspotting, TV’s Snowpiercer) in a spectacular duel role, starting subtly but gaining scene-stealing momentum as French Revolutionary Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, before EXPLODING onto the stage in the second half as indomitable eventual American President Thomas Jefferson.  Not having seen the stage show, I was taken completely by surprise by this, revelling in its revisionist genius and offbeat, quirky hip-hop charm, spellbound by the skilful ease with which is takes the sometimes quite dull historical fact and skews it into something consistently entertaining and absorbing, transported by the catchy earworm musical numbers and thoroughly tickled by the delightfully cheeky sense of humour strung throughout (at least when I wasn’t having my heart broken by moments of raw dramatic power). Altogether it’s a pretty unique cinematic experience I wish I could have actually gotten to see on the big screen, and one I’ve consistently recommended to all my friends, even the ones who don’t usually like musicals.  As far as I’m concerned it doesn’t need a proper Les Misérables style screen adaptation – this is about as perfect a presentation as the show could possibly hope for.

5.  SPUTNIK – the summer’s horror highlight (despite SERIOUSLY tough competition) is a guaranteed sleeper hit that I almost totally missed, stumbling across the trailer one day on YouTube and being completely bowled over by its potential, prompting me to hunt it down by any means necessary.  The feature debut of Russian director Egor Abramenko, this first contact sci-fi chiller is about as far from E.T. as it’s possible to get, sharing some of the same DNA as Carpenter’s The Thing but proudly carving its own path with consummate skill and definitely signalling great things to come from its brand new helmer and relative unknown screenwriters Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev.  Oksana Akinshina (probably best known in the West for her powerful climactic cameo in The Bourne Supremacy) is the beating heart of the film as neurophysiologist Tatyana Yuryevna Klimova, brought in to aid in the investigation in the Russian wilderness circa 1983 after an orbital research mission goes horribly wrong.  One of the cosmonauts dies horribly, while the other, Konstantin (The Duelist’s Pyotr Fyodorov) seems unharmed, but it quickly becomes clear that he’s now playing host to something decidedly extraterrestrial and potentially terrifying, and as Tatyana becomes more deeply embroiled in her assignment she comes to realise that her superiors, particularly mysterious Red Army project leader Colonel Semiradov (The PyraMMMid’s Fyodor Bondarchuk), have far darker plans for Konstantin and his new “friend” than she could ever imagine.  This is about as dark, intense and nightmarish as this particular sub-genre gets, a magnificently icky body horror that slowly builds its tension as we’re gradually exposed to the various truths and the awful gravity of the situation slowly reveals itself, punctuated by skilfully executed shocks and some particularly horrifying moments when the evils inflicted by the humans in charge prove to be far worse than anything the alien can do, while the ridiculously talented writers have a field day pulling the rug out from under us again and again, never going for the obvious twist and keeping us guessing right to the devastating ending, while the beautifully crafted digital creature effects are nothing short of astonishing and thoroughly creepy.  Akinshina dominates the film with her unbridled grace, vulnerability and integrity, the relationship that develops between Tatyana and Konstantin (Fyodorov delivering a beautifully understated turn belying deep inner turmoil) feeling realistically earned as it goes from tentatively wary to ultimately, tragically bittersweet, while Bondarchuk invests the Colonel with a subtly nuanced air of tarnished authority and restrained brutality that makes him one of my top screen villains for the year.  Guaranteed to go down as one of 2020’s great sleeper hits, I can’t speak of this film highly enough – it’s a genuine revelation, an instant classic for whom I’ll sing its praises for the remainder of the year and beyond, and I wish utmost success to all the creative talents involved in the future.  The Invisible Man still rules the roost in the year’s horror stakes, but this runs a VERY close second …

4.  GREYHOUND – when the cinemas closed back in March, the fate of many of the major summer blockbusters we’d been looking forward to was thrown into terrible doubt. Some were pushed back to more amenable dates in the autumn or winter, others knocked back a whole year to fill summer slots for 2021, but more than a few simply dropped off the radar entirely with the terrible words “postponed until further notice” stamped on them, and I lamented them all, this one in particular.  It hung in there longer than some, stubbornly holding onto its June release slot for as long as possible, but eventually it gave up the ghost too … but thanks to Apple TV+, not for long, ultimately releasing less than a month later than intended.  Thankfully the final film was worth the fuss, a taut World War II suspense thriller that’s all killer, no filler – set during the infamous Battle of the Atlantic, it portrays the constant life-or-death struggle faced by the Allied warships assigned to escort the transport convoys as they crossed the ocean, defending their charges from German U-boats.  Adapted from C.S. Forester’s famous 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by Tom Hanks and directed by Aaron Schneider (Get Low), the narrative focuses on the crew of the escort leader, American destroyer USS Fletcher, codenamed Greyhound, and in particular its captain, Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks), a career sailor serving his first command.  As they cross “the Pit”, the most dangerous mid stretch of the journey where they spend days without air-cover, they find themselves shadowed by “the Wolf Pack”, a particularly cunning group of German subs that begin to pick away at the convoy’s stragglers.  Faced with daunting odds, a dwindling supply of vital depth-charges and a ruthless, persistent enemy, Krause must make hard choices to bring his ships home safe … jumping into the thick of the action within the first ten minutes and maintaining that tension for the remainder of its trim 90-minute run, this is screen suspense par excellence, a sleek textbook example of how to craft a compelling big screen knuckle-whitener with zero fat and maximum reward, delivering a series of desperate naval scraps packed with hide-and-seek intensity, heart-in-mouth near-misses and fist-in-air cathartic payoffs by the bucket-load.  Hanks is subtly magnificent, the calm centre of the narrative storm as a supposed newcomer to this battle arena who could have been BORN for it, bringing to mind the similarly unflappable turn he delivered in Captain Phillips and certainly not suffering by comparison; by and large he’s the focus point, but other crew members do make strong (if sometimes quite brief) impressions, particularly Stephen Graham as Krause’s reliably seasoned XO, Lt. Commander Charlie Cole, The Magnificent Seven’s Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Just Mercy’s Rob Morgan, while Elisabeth Shue does a lot with a very small part in brief flashbacks as Krause’s fiancée Evelyn.  Relentless, powerful, exhilarating and thoroughly unforgettable, this was one of the true action highlights of the summer, and one hell of a war flick.  I’m so glad it made the cut for the season …

3.  PROJECT POWER – with Marvel and DC pushing their tent-pole titles back into late autumn in the face of COVID, the usual superhero antics we’ve come to expect over the main blockbuster season were pretty thin on the ground, leading us to find our geeky fan thrills elsewhere.  Unfortunately, pickings were frustratingly slim – Korean comic book actioner Gundala was entertaining but workmanlike, while Thor AU-take Mortal was underwhelming despite strong direction from Troll Hunter’s André Øvredal, and I’ve already made my feelings clear on the frustration of The New Mutants – thank the Gods, then, for Netflix, once again riding to the rescue with this enjoyably offbeat super-thriller, which takes an intriguing central premise and really runs with it.  New designer drug Power has hit the streets of New Orleans, able to give anyone who takes it a superpower for five minutes … the only problem is, until you try it, you won’t know what your own unique talent is – for some, it could mean five minutes of invisibility, or insane levels of super-strength, but other powers can be potentially lethal, the really unlucky buggers just blowing up on the spot.  Robin (The Hate U Give’s Dominique Fishback) is a teenage Power-pusher with dreams of becoming a rap star, dealing the pills so she can help her diabetic mum; Frank Shaver (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is one of her customers, an NOPD detective who uses his power of near invulnerability to even the playing field when powered crims cause a disturbance.  Their lives are turned upside down when Art (Jamie Foxx) arrives in town – he’s a seriously badass ex-soldier determined to hunt down the source of Power by any means necessary, and he’s not above tearing the Big Easy apart to do it.  This is a fun, gleefully infectious  rollercoaster that doesn’t take itself too seriously, revelling in the anarchic potential of its premise and crafting some suitably OTT effects-driven chaos brought to pleasingly visceral fruition by its skilfully inventive director, Ariel Schulman (Catfish, Nerve, Viral), while Mattson Tomlin (the screenwriter of next year’s incendiary DCEU headline act The Batman) takes his script in some very interesting directions and poses some fascinating questions about what Power’s TRULY capable of.  Gordon-Levitt and Fishback are both brilliant, the latter particularly impressing in what’s sure to be a major breakthrough role for her, and the friendship their characters share is pretty adorable, while Foxx really is a force to be reckoned with, pretty chill even when he’s in deep shit but fully capable of turning into a bona fide killing machine at the flip of a switch, and there’s strong support from Westworld’s Rodrigo Santoro as Biggie, Power’s delightfully oily kingpin, Courtney B. Vance as Frank’s by-the-book superior, Captain Crane, Amy Landecker as Gardner, the morally bankrupt CIA spook responsible for the drug’s production, and Machine Gun Kelly as Newt, a Power dealer whose explosive pyrotechnic “gift” really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  Exciting, inventive, frequently amusing and infectiously likeable, this was some of the most uncomplicated “cinematic” fun I had this summer.  Not bad for something which I’m sure was originally destined to become one of the season’s B-list features …

2.  THE OLD GUARD – Netflix’s undisputable TOP OFFERING of the summer came damn close to bagging the whole season, and I can’t help thinking that even if some of the stiffer competition had still been present it may well have still finished this high. Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love & Basketball, the Secret Life of Bees) directs comics legend Greg Rucka’s adaptation of his own popular title with uncanny skill and laser-focused visual flair considering there’s nothing on her previous CV to suggest she’d be THIS good at mounting a stomping good ultraviolent action thriller, ushering in this thoroughly engrossing tale of four ancient, invulnerable immortal warriors – Andy AKA Andromache of Scythia (Charlize Theron), Booker AKA Sebastian de Livre (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe AKA Yusuf Al-Kaysani (Wolf’s Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky AKA Niccolo di Ginova (Trust’s Luca Marinelli) – who’ve been around forever, hiring out their services as mercenaries for righteous causes while jealously guarding their identities for fear of horrific experimentation and exploitation should their true natures ever be discovered.  Their anonymity is threatened, however, when they’re uncovered by former CIA operative James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), working for the decidedly dodgy pharmaceutical conglomerate run by sociopathic billionaire Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, formerly Dudley in the Harry Potter movies), who want to capture these immortals so they can patent whatever it is that makes them keep on ticking … just as a fifth immortal, US Marine Nile Freeman (If Beale Street Could Talk’s KiKi Layne), awakens after being “killed” on deployment in Afghanistan.  The supporting players are excellent, particularly Ejiofor, smart and driven but ultimately principled and deeply conflicted about what he’s doing, even if he does have the best of intentions, and Melling, the kind of loathsome, reptilian scumbag you just love to hate, but the film REALLY DOES belong to the Old Guard themselves – Schoenaerts is a master brooder, spot-on casting as the group’s relative newcomer, only immortal since the Napoleonic Wars but clearly one seriously old soul who’s already VERY tired of the lifestyle, while Joe and Nicky (who met on opposing sides of the Crusades) are simply ADORABLE, an unapologetically matter-of-fact gay couple who are sweet, sassy and incredibly kind, the absolute emotional heart of the film; it’s the ladies, however, that are most memorable here.  Layne is exceptional, investing Nile with a steely intensity that puts her in good stead as her new existence threatens to overwhelm her and MORE THAN qualified to bust heads alongside her elders … but it’s ancient Greek warrior Andy who steals the film, Theron building on the astounding work she did in Atomic Blonde to prove, once and for all, that there’s no woman on Earth who looks better kicking arse than her (as Booker puts it, “that woman has forgotten more ways to kill than entire armies will ever learn”); in her hands, Andy truly is a goddess of death, tough as tungsten alloy and unflappable even in the face of hell itself, but underneath it all she hides a heart as big as any of her friends’. They’re an impossibly lovable bunch and you feel you could follow them on another TEN adventures like this one, which is just as well, because Prince-Blythewood and Rucka certainly put them through their paces here – the drama is high (but frequently laced with a gentle, knowing sense of humour, particularly whenever Joe and Nicky are onscreen), as are the stakes, and the frequent action sequences are top-notch, executed with rare skill and bone-crunching zest, but also ALWAYS in service to the story. Altogether this is an astounding film, a genuine victory for its makers and, it seems, for Netflix themselves – it’s become one of the platform’s biggest hits to date, earning well-deserved critical acclaim and great respect and genuine geek love from the fanbase at large. After this, a sequel is not only inevitable, it’s ESSENTIAL …

1.  TENET – granted, the streaming platforms (particularly Netflix and Amazon) certainly did save our cinematic summer, but I’m still IMMEASURABLY glad that the season’s ultimate top-spot winner was one I got to experience on THE BIG SCREEN.  You gotta hand it to Christopher Nolan, he sure hung in there, stubbornly determined that his latest cinematic masterpiece WOULD be released in cinemas in the summer (albeit ultimately landing JUST inside the line in the final week of August), and it was worth all the fuss because, for me, this was THE PERFECT MOVIE for me to get return to cinemas with.  I mean, okay, in the end it WASN’T the FIRST new movie I saw after the reopening, that honour went to Unhinged, but THIS was my first real Saturday night out big screen EXPERIENCE since March.  Needless to say, Nolan didn’t disappoint this time any more than he has on any of his consistently spectacular previous releases, delivering another twisted, mind-boggling headfuck of a full-blooded experiential sensory overload that comes perilously close to toppling his long-standing auteur-peak, Inception (itself second only by fractions to The Dark Knight as far as I’m concerned). To say much at all about the plot would give away major spoilers – personally I’d recommend just going in as cold as possible, indeed you really should just stop reading this right now and just GO SEE IT.  Still with us?  Okay … the VERY abridged version is that it’s about a secret war being waged between the present and the future by people capable of “inverting” time in substances, objects, people, whatever, into which the Protagonist (BlacKkKlansman’s John David Washington), an unnamed CIA agent, has been dispatched in order to prevent a potential coming apocalypse. Washington is once again on top form, crafting a robust and compelling morally complex heroic lead who’s just as comfortable negotiating the minefields of black market intrigue as he is breaking into places or dispatching heavies, Kenneth Branagh delivers one of his most interesting and memorable performances in years as brutal Russian oligarch Andrei Sator, a genuinely nasty piece of work who may be the year’s very best screen villain, Elizabeth Debicki (The Night Manager, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Widows) brings strength, poise and wounded integrity to the role of Sator’s estranged wife, Kat, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson gets to use his own accent for once as tough-as-nails British Intelligence officer Ives, while there are brief but consistently notable supporting turns and cameos from Martin Donovan, Yesterday’s HImesh Patel, Dirk Gently’s Fiona Dourif and, of course, Nolan’s good luck charm, Michael Caine.  The cast’s biggest surprise, however, is Robert Pattinson, truly a revelation in what has to be, HANDS DOWN, his best role to date, Neil, the Protagonist’s mysterious handler – he’s by turns cheeky, slick, duplicitous and thoroughly badass, delivering an enjoyably multi-layered, chameleonic performance which proves what I’ve long maintained, that the former Twilight star is actually a fucking amazing actor, and on the basis of this, even without that amazing new teaser trailer making the rounds, I think the debate about whether or not he’s the right choice for the new Batman is now academic.  As we’ve come to expect from Nolan, this is a TRUE tour-de-force experience, a visual masterpiece and an endlessly engrossing head-scratcher, Nolan’s screenplay bringing in some seriously big ideas and throwing us some major narrative knots and loopholes, constantly wrong-footing the viewer while also setting up truly revelatory payoffs from seemingly low-key, unimportant beginnings – this is a film you need to be awake and attentive for or you could miss something pretty vital.  The action sequences are, as ever, second to none, some of the year’s very best set-pieces coming thick and fast and executed with some of the most accomplished skill in the business, while Nolan-regular cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema (Interstellar and Dunkirk, as well as the heady likes of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, SPECTRE and Ad Astra) once again shows he’s one of the best camera-wizards in the business today by delivering some truly mesmerising visuals.  Notably, Nolan’s other regular collaborator, composer Hans Zimmer, is absent here (although he has good reason, currently working on his dream project, the fast-approaching screen adaptation of Dune), but Ludwig Göransson (best known for his regular collaborations with Ryan Coogler on the likes of Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther, as well as truly awesome work on The Mandalorian) makes for a fine replacement, crafting an intriguingly internalised, post-modern musical landscape that thrums and pulses in time with the story and emotions of the characters rather than the action itself. Interestingly it’s on the subject of sound that some of the film’s rare detractions have been levelled, and I can see some of the points – the soundtrack mix is an all-encompassing thing, and there are times when the dialogue can be overwhelmed, but in Nolan’s defence as a film this is a heady, immersive experience, something you really need to concentrate on, so these potential flaws are easily forgiven.  As a piece of filmmaking art, this is another flawless wonder from one of the true masters of the craft working in cinema today, but it’s art with palpable substance, a rewarding whole that really HAS TO BE experienced on the big screen.  So put your snobbery at post-lockdown restrictions aside for the moment and get yourself down to your nearest cinema so you can experience it for yourself.  You won’t be disappointed.  Right now, this is my movie of the year, and with only one possible exception, I really don’t see that changing …

#movies 2020 #body cam #body cam (2020) #blood quantum #blood quantum movie #palm springs #palm springs movie #the last days of american crime #hamilton #hamilton movie #sputnik #sputnik movie #greyhound #greyhound movie #project power #the old guard #tenet #tenet movie #awesome sauce

[daydreamingfics]

When We Collide - Chapter One

Word Count:  2,535 

Chapters Released: 1 - Masterlist

Warnings: Slow Burn (this story won’t be going from 0-100. Hopefully, ya’ll won’t find it to be a complete snooze-fest. Other than that, this chapter really just introduces characters. There may be a swear word or two, but that’s it. 

Authors Note: This is the first piece that I’ve written in a very long time, and though I’m nervous about releasing it into the world... I’m also very excited to share this little story that I’ve concocted in my head. I have so many stories that I think up and never post out of fear, and I decided that it ends now. I’m also slowly getting back into second-person style writing as it’s not my favorite, so any feedback on how I can improve is much appreciated! I hope that ya’ll enjoy this story!

*This story is inspired by the song ‘When We Collide’ by Jon Foreman. I would definitely recommend giving the song a listen. Thank you so much for checking out this story! 

Ten-minutes into the trek back to Downtown Los Angeles you started seeing signs for Paradise Cove. You had never ventured out to this particular beach mainly because you never really had a reason to be in Malibu, to begin with. But after seeing numerous signs for the location, you decided that a quick pit-stop was worth making time for. Plus, after the shit show morning that you had- the last thing you were in the mood for was the hours of editing that awaited you back in the office. With the exit rapidly approaching, you looked over at your videographer, Reggie, who was operating the wheel.

“Hey Reg, do you mind dropping me off up here at Paradise Cove? I just need a minute to breathe before we attempt to salvage any useful material out of the interview footage.’

Taking a quick glance from the road over to you, Reggie let out a chuckle in understanding. Reggie was an older gentleman, most-likely early fifties, but he’d holler out that he didn’t feel a day over thirty if you were to ask him. The topic of Reggie’s age was often a running joke throughout the office, as no one but the man in question knew of his real age. He had a heart of gold and years of experience in the business. You were thrilled when the two of you had been paired-up for assignments. If there was anything that you didn’t entirely understand or if an interviewee got a little cross with you, Reggie, always had your back. Over time, the two of you had developed a sort of father-daughter type of relationship. Having grown up in a single-mother household, Reggie indeed was the closest thing you’d ever had to a father.

“Sure thing, Y/N. Need me to stick around the area to pick you back up after a while?” Reggie questioned, knocking you out of the momentary daydream that you had fallen into.

Shaking your head, you sent Reggie a small smile. “No, you can go ahead back to the office. I don’t want to keep you. I won’t be long, though, wouldn’t want to miss out on all the fun editing ahead of us. I’ll just get an Uber back.” Once the shoreline came into view, you knew that you had made the right decision. It's as if the day's stress was already melting away.

”Here, take this for your ride back. And call me if you need anything.” Reggie voiced as he held out a twenty.

”Reg, I appreciate it, but I'm fine. I may not get any worthwhile assignments, but I do still get a paycheck.” you laughed.

”You know that I won't take no for an answer, Y/N, so just take it.” Reggie replied while placing the crumpled bill into your hand. ”Now go, enjoy yourself! Be safe. Don't talk to strangers! And be home before the street lights come on. It's all types of crazies out in Malibu!”

”Yes, dad. I got it. I got it! Don't worry.” you snickered dramatically as you sent Reggie a wave while exiting the vehicle.

Paradise Cove was precisely that, a picturesque beach situated just off of the Pacific Coast Highway with towering sandstone cliffs that made it feel as if you were in a whole other world. Given that it was a Tuesday afternoon, the beach was virtually vacant, which was precisely what you had desired. You needed a few moments to decompress and rid some of the clutter that had taken up residence inside of your head. Slipping out of your patent leather pumps, you relished in the warmth that surrounded your toes as you took your first steps onto the golden sand. Your hometown was a small coastal community so, naturally, you were a sea lover by heart. It saddened you that in the year and a half since moving out to California, you could count on one hand how many times you got to have a beach day. Making a mental note to work on actually having a life outside of the office, you gathered your shoes in one hand and followed the sound of the waves crashing against the shore until you were right where the land and sea meet. Tilting your head towards the infinite blue sky, you inhaled the salty air and allowed the warm breeze to cascade all around you. Nothing but the sound of the waves and the seagulls screeching as you shut your eyes and lived in the moment.

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as you walked along the pristine shoreline. Nearly an hour had passed since Reggie dropped you off, yet you couldn't get enough. Every way you veered, your eyes discovered something new. A few more people had wandered out by this point, yet the calmness remained. You watched as children created sandcastles, and splashed to their heart's content in the majestic blue waters. Not wanting to wander too deep into the unknown, you decided to turn around and go back the way you came. It was then that your eyes landed on him. You didn't recall seeing him previously, so you figured that he couldn't have been sat there long. He looked to be about your age with grey, almost silver-hued hair that was fashioned in an odd cut. In all honesty, the style would likely look hideous on anyone else, but he pulled it off. From your view, you also happened to notice that he had a multitude of piercings adorning his ears, and some type of slit going through one eyebrow it appeared. Again, you thought of just how unflattering that would look on anyone else. Yet, here, this guy was making it work. Really making it work. You contemplated getting closer to where he sat, maybe even striking up a conversation, but what would you even say. ’Nice weather we’re having?’

Aside from that, the fact that he was alone was a good indication that he had come out here with intentions similar to your own. For peace or quite, perhaps, both. He appeared to be rooted in thought and clearly focused on what he was doing. A notebook was his primary focal point, and you watched as he scribbled word after word inside of the book. He seemed to be on a roll, and the last thing you wanted was to be some random chick disturbing his focus. So, you decided that you’d just continue to admire from afar until you passed him. No harm in just looking, right? As long as you kept it discrete and didn't give off any grade-A creeper vibes, it’d be fine. You just couldn’t shake the feeling that, for some reason, this complete stranger felt familiar to you. He had this aura about him, and you racked your brain trying to place his face but kept coming up blank. As your feet drew you closer to where he sat, you struggled to fix your eyes on something else. Anything else. But, nothing quite caught your attention like him. Deciding that you had about one more quick look left before you would appear completely stalker-ish, you glimpsed back at the boy one final time, only this time he was gazing right back with a knowing smile.

You completely stopped moving at the sight as if somehow standing still would make you invisible, but no. Red leaked into your cheeks as you nervously mirrored his captivating smile, and even braved casting a small wave in this direction, to which he thankfully returned. How embarrassing would it have been if he were looking at someone else? You mused as your mind became momentarily distracted, thinking up all types of worse case scenarios. Peering over at the boy once more, you were shocked to see that he had shifted his positioning slightly and made just enough space on the beach towel for one more. For the second time in mere minutes,  the two of you locked eyes as he motioned for you to come and join him. Were you really going to just waltz on over and sit near a man that you knew absolutely nothing about? Yes, that was precisely what you were going to do. The image of Reggie giving you his ‘don’t talk to strangers’ lecture replayed in your head on a loop as you made your way over to the boy. You cautiously sat down beside the stranger, attempting to keep as much distance in-between the two of you as possible, which proved to be no small feat considering that the beach towel was intended for one. You could feel the awkward level rising as neither of you spoke a word, just sat there staring at each other with matching smiles and curious features.

“I’m Hongjoong.” he finally voiced after a few more seconds of silence. The sound of his voice was even better than you had thought it would be. You could sense that English wasn’t his native tongue, but at that moment, you could have sworn that the boy had invented the entire English language all by himself. 

“I’m Y/N. It’s really nice to meet you, Hongjoong,” you uttered nervously. Being this close to him was making you feel all mushy inside, and it was taking every fiber in your being to keep your shit together. The last thing you wanted was to create a complete fool of yourself.

After the initial awkwardness had worn off, the conversation between the two of you flowed seamlessly. Hongjoong was so animated and passionate with his words, and you quickly found yourself hanging onto every single one. Though you hadn’t known the man for long, you had already reached one conclusion, he was magnificent. You opened up and shared parts of yourself that had been locked away for years with Hongjoong because, for some reason, you felt as if you’d known him your entire life. He assured you that the feeling was mutual as you both revealed more than you probably should have considering you’d just met. Hongjoong had even let you in on why he had chosen to spend his day off at the beach, stating that he was in search of inspiration. Though the two of you never discussed your careers, you did discover that the notebook you’d seen him writing in were lyrics that he had composed. He briefly mentioned that his reasoning for being in the US was for business, so you just assumed that he was a songwriter or something along those lines. The sound of your phone ringing interrupted your conversation with Hongjoong, and you cast an apologetic look his way as you searched your purse for the device. 

[ 1 Missed Call - Reg (Papa Bear) ]

“Wow, the time. Have we really been talking for over two hours? My co-worker probably thinks that I got swept away at sea by now.” you giggled.

The comment elicited a chorus of cackles from Hongjoong, and it was at that moment you realized just how much you adored his laugh.

“I can’t believe it either. Time goes fast when you’re in the best company!” Hongjoong proclaimed while pulling out his own device and checking the time.

“I was wondering if-” he started but then stopped just as quickly with his eyebrows furrowing slightly. You could sense that he was perhaps anxious about something, but you weren’t sure what it could be. He laughed somewhat and subtly scratched the back of his neck with one hand while outstretching his other that contained his cell phone to you. Oh, that explains the sudden rush of nervousness. You knew that you wanted to see Hongjoong again, but you didn’t want to be the one who initiated the whole number exchange, so you were more than thrilled that he went for it. With an even more full grin, you grabbed the device and handed over yours so that he could do the same. The minute your device was back in your hands, it started ringing again. You were seriously going to blast Reggie later on for cockblocking you not once, but twice. Not wanting your time with Hongjoong to come to an end you ignored the call and slipped your phone back into your purse, Reggie was going to have to wait for a little longer. When you looked back up, Hongjoong’s eyes were already fixed on you. A few moments of silence passed, but unlike the beginning of your conversation, this silence was comfortable. When your phone began blaring once again, you knew that, unfortunately, you would have to leave and rejoin the real world. Sitting along the shore with the wind in your hair conversing with the most attractive man you’d ever encountered, felt like a dream. One that you never wanted to wake up from. The look in his eyes mimicked your own, and you prayed to all the gods that this wouldn’t be the end of your story with Hongjoong. 

“That’s work that keeps calling... I was meant to be back awhile ago, but I- I honestly didn’t want this moment to end. Thank you for this Hongjoong, it’s just what I needed. I’ve enjoyed getting to know snippets about you.” you expressed. The vibrant smile that etched its way upon his features let you know that your words were well received and reciprocated.

“No, thank you. Y/N. I came here hoping for inspiration, and now I have more than I could imagine. All because of you. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit and talk with someone about all different things. Things that I don’t usually share.” Hongjoong cooed as he cautiously reached for your hand and lifted it up to his lips. He then proceeded to place a feather-light kiss upon the back of your hand, all while never breaking eye contact. This man was going to ruin you, and you were completely okay with that.  

“I have a hectic schedule coming up, but I will call, okay? I’ll find the time.” Hongjoong expressed while pulling you in for an embrace. You weren’t expecting the hug but welcomed it gladly as you wrapped your arms around his frame and simply just took pleasure in the final moments that you two would share until the next time. God, you hoped for the next time to come sooner rather than later. You simply nodded along as he spoke the words directly into your ear and squeezed you a little tighter as his tongue rolled over each syllable. You knew from past experiences how daft it was to put so much faith in a man, especially one that you had just met, but the words didn’t seem contrived or untrue coming from Hongjoong. He said he’d call, and you believed him. 

Even if all you and Hongjoong were meant to have was this moment, the memory of being in his arms and the incredibly unexpected yet unusual time that the two of you had shared would never leave you. 

#ateez #ateez imagines #ateez imagine #hongjoong #hongjoong fanfic #hongjoong imagines #ateez hongjoong #ateez fluff #kim hongjoong #ateez x reader #ateez x you #ateez x atiny #ateez au #ateez wonderland #atiny #international atiny #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction #kpop imagines #kpop au #hongjoong au #kq fellaz

[anagentinwriting]

To Catch a Thief - Part 6

Summary: Being an FBI field agent was your dream job but having been stuck behind a desk for most of your career you’ve almost given up. Fortunately, a series of robberies with minimal evidence forces you to assist a team in the field to help solve the case. But when the only thing left behind is a series of song lyrics, will you be able to find the perp? Or will the number of obstacles and lack of evidence keep you from solving the case?

Pairing: Peter Quill x Reader

Word Count: 4302

Warnings: Swearing

To Catch a Thief Masterlist / Main Masterlist

After seeing Peter in the red jacket, you went straight to the office to check his name in the database. Sure enough, Peter Jason Quill had a record including petty theft, fraud, and public intoxication. He even spent a few months in jail.

You ran another search to check for any notes left behind by Star-Lord. To your surprise, a few pages showed up and you clicked on the first case. It involved a convenience store robbery about 17 years ago, but the theft left behind a written note wedged between two boxes of candy bars. You opened the image attached to the file and inside was an IOU:

Bread

½ gal milk

peanut butter

candy bar

IOU $3.85

  -Sorry Star-Lord

Going back, you clicked on a few more realizing all the notes were from small retail stores 13 to 17 years ago. The IOU’s listed the stolen items with a signed apology from Star-Lord. All the stores dropped charges when they received money from Star-Lord along with a written thank you for keeping him fed. Forensics ran tests on the envelopes and notes, but no DNA was found.

Why would Star-Lord be stealing food and leaving behind IOU's? Isn’t the whole point of stealing not to get caught? If Peter was this Star-Lord it might’ve been the same time his mom got diagnosed with cancer. Did her treatments force her to stop working, leaving Peter/Star-Lord to fend for himself?

You scanned over the last page showing his most recent crimes. The last crime documented occurred a few years ago involving Halfworld Research and Sweet Dreams Cosmetics; this was the case Luis mentioned. Star-Lord exposed and shut down these companies for their involvement in illegal animal testing and animal cruelty.

Somehow, he got a hold of documents and recordings showing the mistreatment and the insane experiments happening to these animals.  It was graphic to look at the screenshots from the footage. One image had a raccoon with his back shaved and some sort of mechanism attached to his back. How could someone do this to a living thing? These companies also deceived their donors by putting on the front about how they were against animal testing. Luis was right, this was a complicated case, but the only connection this case had to Star-Lord was the note he sent both companies:

You know what you did A-holes.

    -Sorry Not Sorry, Star-Lord (SL)

“Whatcha doing?” Gamora asked, making you jump in your chair. She rested her chin on your shoulder staring at the computer screen. “Did you figure out what SL stands for?”

“Yes, I think I did,” you replied, staring at the signed note.

Oh, Mama I can hear you a-crying', you're so scared and all alone

Hangman is comin' down from the gallows and I don't have very long.

- Sorry SL

“Isn’t this renegade by Styx?” Kraglin asked you.

“It is. Gold star, Kraglin. Gold star.” You flashed him a warm smile giving him a high-five.

“Does this mean SL has mommy issues?”

“Or his mom could be in trouble?” You chewed on your bottom lip glancing over the written note. “SL steals for a reason, so if his mom is in trouble, he might be committing these robberies to keep her safe.”

“Hmm...” Kraglin nodded, squinting his eyes as he tried to put something together. “This doesn’t explain why he’s committing these crimes? What’s his motive? Why would his mother need protection?”

“My theory is someone put a price on his head. He’s not only running from the police but someone else like the hangman in the song. SL has to do what they say or they’ll kill him or his mother. He doesn’t want that to happen so he follows orders. His mother may be the only family he has left and he doesn’t want to lose her,” you said, pressing your lips into a tight line.

“Makes sense,” Kraglin agreed, following along as you continued.

“When he sings to his mother in the song it’s in a softer tone compared to the rest of the song. It’s almost like he’s apologizing to her. It’s like he knows his end is coming, but he isn’t afraid of his impending doom anymore.”

“He wants us to feel sorry for him, but not feel sorry for him?”

“I think it’s more like feel sorry for his mother like she’s innocent in all this.”

“He’s a criminal, YN. His mother raised a criminal. I don’t see how she would be innocent.”

“I just have this gut feeling she’s innocent,” you added as the door to the conference room flies open and in walks a bright-eyed Gamora.

“The lyrics aren’t the only thing we have this time.  We got a picture of a plate fleeing the scene. This could be our guy,” Gamora announced, kicking the door shut behind her.

Gamora pulls out the photo from her file.  The license plate reads PZM-569.  This was Peter’s car. This further proves the red jacket he was wearing links him to footage from the cameras, and his nickname Star-Lord connects him to SL signed at the bottom of the written notes.

Peter’s stealing the Infinity Stones necklaces, but why? Are him and his mom in that much trouble they have to commit these robberies? Were they in debt from Meredith’s medical bills? Was it about the money or was it something more? You were suspicious of Peter but you would’ve never pegged him for a thief.

“The car is a blue Ford Mustang II King Cobra with orange stripes.  It's registered to one Peter Jason Quill. The son of J’son and Meredith Quill.”

“That’s interesting because J’son Quill was the infamous Ego,” Kraglin informed, nodding his head at the random fact he blurted out.

“Wait, what? Is that true?”  Gamora inquired, raising a brow.

“Yeah, how could you possibly know that?” You stared at him stunned. If this was true, why weren’t you able to make this connection sooner? You lived right next door to Ego’s son.

“It was in my file I wrote up the other day. Did you two not read it?”

“Kraglin, you sourced it all from Wikipedia.”

“Your point is…” He gave a half shrug, holding his hands out in front of him like he didn’t know what he did wrong.

“Sometimes that site isn’t totally reliable.”

“But it’s true. I checked the database and public records to make sure.  J’son Quill and Meredith Quill are the parents of Peter Jason Quill.  Ego and J’son Quill are the same person. It was never disclosed to the public, but every crime with Ego’s River Lily trademark traced him back to J’son Quill after he was murdered. His fingerprints closed 53 unsolved cases.”

“Seriously,” you exclaimed. Holy crap! Ego was Peter’s dad. Peter was Ego’s son. This makes perfect sense why he was so close to his mother, and why he hated talking about his dad. Ego was with The Collectors crew, did that mean Peter was a part of it now?

“Nice work, Kraglin,” Gamora praised him with a pat on the back.  “That’s even better news because YN may have linked Peter Quill to SL!”

Gamora requested Peter Quill and his employer, Drax, to be brought in for questioning. Before they arrived, you briefed Gamora and Kraglin in on how you knew Peter. Starting with him being your neighbor before he turned into a close friend.

You stood on the other side of the mirror watching Peter twiddle his thumbs. He seemed calm showing no signs of distress at all. Does he know what he’s about to be accused of? You still couldn’t believe it, but the evidence pointed to him. He was behind this, but you wanted to believe he wasn’t. Fuck, why didn’t you put it together sooner? He matched the description, his nickname was similar, had the same taste in music, and he owns the red jacket.  Why didn’t you see it? You lost your trance when Gamora walked in.

“Are you doing okay? I mean, finding out one of your friends is involved in this must be hard to process,” Gamora speculated, squeezing your shoulder.

“Sure, I’m pissed off, but there isn’t anything I can do.” You shrugged. “He made his bed and now he has to lie in it.”

“Did he seem like the type of guy that would do something like this?"

“Honestly…..no. He’s a good, caring guy, and has grown to be one of my best friends. I mean, once you get past his ego and dirty gentleman like personality.”

“Is this the nameless boyfriend? The one you won’t tell us about because if you ask me it sounds like you have feelings for Quill.”

“WHAT? NO,” you scoffed, turning to her in shock. Yes, you may have developed some romantic feelings towards him, but you weren’t going to admit it to anyone now.

“Look, it’s okay, I’m not going to judge you for it.  You didn’t know what was happening, and clearly, he knew what he was doing. Besides, you said he’s a good guy and from what you’re building about SL’s profile, he’s been through hell and back. Do you think he will talk to us?”

“He loves to talk,” you breathed, earning a soft chuckle out of Gamora.

“You’re going to question Drax, then you can watch me interrogate your friend.  It’s good for him to squirm for a little while longer,” she smirked.

You entered the interrogation room to find a big muscular man sitting there staring at the two way mirror almost like he knew someone was on the other side. He had tattoos covering both his arms and looked pretty intimidating, but you’ve dealt with worse before.

“Good morning, Drax. I’m Agent LN. May I call you Drax?” you asked, sitting down across from him.

“Yes, I don’t know what else you would call me.”

“Right,” you cleared your throat, “do you know why you’re here?”

“Shouldn’t you know, you’re the ones who brought me here?” He asked, folding his arms across his chest.

“I do. It’s just routine questioning to see if you had a clue to why.” He glared at you not saying a word, so you continued. “How do you know Peter Quill?”

“Quill. He works for me. He’s a friend, but I like to call him family….sometimes.”

“You must know him pretty well then. Can you tell me anything else about him?” You knew a lot about Peter, but you wanted to see what others thought of him. Did they see him as a good guy like you did? Or did he come off different to other people?

“Quill mixes a mean drink, which keeps the customers happy. He’s a quick problem solver, which is nice to have on the job.  He’s a smart imbecile,” Drax stated with confidence. “Quill’s protective of his friends and those he considers family. He has been speaking highly about his female neighbor and believes he has a chance with her.” Drax let out a booming laughed as he shook his head. “But he has no chance with her.”

“Is that so?” You smirked, glancing back at the window with wide eyes. You shouldn’t continue this interview alone especially if he knew who you were. This could compromise everything.

“Can they see me through the mirror?” Drax pointed to the glass behind you, and you nodded. “What if I sit really still can they still see me?”

“Yessss,” you dragged out, narrowing your eyes at him. Drax comes off all brooding and serious, but underneath he seemed childish and lighthearted.

“Dammit,” He grumbled, folding his hands together on the table in front of him.

“Can you tell me anything about his female neighbor?”

“No. I stop listening and think about something else when he speaks of her. He needs to be with a woman that is pathetic like him. This woman is not.”

“At least Quill has you to keeping an eye on him.”

“He is hard to spot in a crowd sometimes, and I don’t follow him home. But, when he is at work my eyes are on him,” he nodded, forcing a smirk to your lips. Quill had some interesting friends, but behind Drax’s hard demeanor he was a big softy.

“Has Peter gone anywhere recently for work? Like to a conference?”

“Yes. He went to a mixology conference in Miami. I stayed home to care for my wife and daughter.”

“Of course. Do you remember what the conference was called?”

“Tales from the Galaxy,” he answered, waving his hands in front of him like a rainbow. You write down the name so you can look into it later.

“Thank you. I have a few more questions before you can leave.” Gamora told you to treat Drax like a suspect, but your gut was telling you he was innocent. Nothing he said made him come off guilty. He was an everyday working class man providing for his family. Simple, but your gut wasn’t enough to prove his innocence, you needed his alibi or his confession. “Drax, where were you last night?”

“Working, but then I went home to read my daughter a bedtime story before I went back to work till closing.”

“Do you have anyone who could verify this?”

“Yes. My employees. My wife. My daughter. Why do you need to know this information?”

“We have suspicions you may have involvement in a heist that happened last night, but since you have witnesses it’s likely your name will be cleared.” He gave you a stern nod. “Have you ever heard of the Infinity Stone necklaces?”

“Yes, Quill told me about them,” he blurted out without missing a beat.

“Really?” Your mouth dropped open at his confession.

“I mean no, I don’t know what those necklaces are, what a mystery this is?”

“But you just said you knew what they were,” you questioned as your face scrunched up.

“No need to get personal,” he huffed out, folding his arms back across his chest.

“I’m sorry.” You flipped through your notepad before closing it. He wasn’t going to tell you anything else, so might as well end it here. “I have everything I need right now but thank you for your time. You’re good to go.”

“This way,” Drax pointed to the only door in the room and you nodded with a kind smile.  He pushed the chair back as it skidded loudly across the floor and left the room. And he’s the dude who runs the most successful bar in the city. Interesting.

You returned to the other interrogation room and watched Gamora take a seat across from Peter. She introduced herself before setting up the camera beside her. Peter seemed confident and at ease showing no sign of any discomfort.

“State your name for the camera please,” She instructed, pointing to the camera lens.

“Peter Jason Quill. I enjoy listening to music, hot women, and watching Footloose, the greatest movie in history,” he grinned, shooting a wink at the camera. You rolled your eyes at him from behind the glass.

“That’s not necessary but we do need you to clear up a few things for us. Starting with what you were doing last night?”

“Last night, let’s see.” He scrunched his eyebrows together trying to think it over. “I was having dinner with a friend but ended up leaving early when my mom called with an emergency.  She needed a refill on her meds, so I had to go to the pharmacy for her,” Peter stated with a slight shrug.

“Did you get a receipt?”

“You bet, one second.” He held up his finger pulling out his wallet and handing it to her. She glanced it over before slipping it into the file on the table. It must’ve been timestamped for last night because she didn’t say anything else about it.

“Answer me this, if you had to go to the pharmacy for your mother. Then, why was your car spotted fleeing a scene of a crime last night?”

“Beats me, I needed to get the meds to my mom. She needs to take them at a certain time otherwise it could mess with her other meds and make her feel worse. She has cancer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He nodded as she pulls out four pictures of the Infinity Stone necklaces from the file and slides them over to him. “Quill, do you know what these are?”

He sat up in his chair, leaning over to look at the photos one by one. “Hmmm.….the president's rubies?”

“No, these are four of the six rarest necklaces in the world from the Infinity Stone Collection. Each is worth more than $300 million dollars but as a set of six the price skyrockets.”

‎Peter whistled, “Wow, that’s a huffy price tag. I can't afford them if you're selling them.”

“I’m not selling them. Someone stole them,” Gamora growled through clenched teeth, pointing at the photos. “All four of these.”

“Oh, and you think I had something to do with this?” Peter asked, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

“I do.”

From the tension in Gamora’s back, she was getting annoyed with Peter. His answers were vague and it wasn’t getting her anywhere. Peter did this to you sometimes and it frustrated you, too.  He would only share the tip of the iceberg of information, but never what was hiding beneath the surface. You always read the situation before going any further with him. If he seemed content and calm you would continue to pester him until he broke.  If the situation felt uncomfortable you would stop and change the subject.  Right now, at this moment, he seemed almost too prepared to talk.

“Hate to break it to you, agent, but this wasn't me.” He twirled his fingers around the photos before pushing them in Gamora’s direction.

“Is that so?” She asked with pursed lips.

“Yes, what would I do with these necklaces? Wear them? They would look pretty ridiculous on me,” Peter chuckled, shaking his head.

Gamora starts to question him about his whereabouts when the other robberies happened. She started with the Las Vegas robbery, followed by the Norway heist, and ended with the break-in at Strange’s residence.

“What a weird coincidence? I was in Vegas at the time, but it was for a bachelor party. Check with my buddies, they’ll tell you I was with them the whole time.

“Ah...that week, I went to Florida for the Tales from the Galaxy mixology conference. You can ask my boss or look on their website or ask the other attendees they will prove my attendance.

“I had a lady friend over and we were participating in extracurricular activities, if you know what I mean,” he winked, flashing his signature smirk.“If you don’t believe me, ask my neighbor. She was banging on my door telling us to shut up because she could hear us through her walls.”

“I find it a little weird you remember the exact date you got laid. It’s almost like you were looking for an alibi,” Gamora scoffed, crossing her arms as she leaned back into her chair.

“I only remember because it’s the last time I brought a girl back to my place. Lately, I have been busy hanging out with my neighbor. She’s a lot of fun.” A grin graced his lips as he glanced at you through the two-way mirror before returning his eyes back on Gamora. Did he know you were behind the glass or was he just assuming you were?

“Who is this neighbor of yours? I may need to contact her to verify your alibi. Or if I could get the unlucky woman’s name who spent the evening with you.”

“I don’t remember the woman’s name per say--” Peter scratched his head with a tight smile“--but my neighbor is YN LN.  She works in the FBI, too, you might know her.”

“There’s a bunch of us. I don’t know every agent in the city,” she replied, writing down your name for show.

“Shame, she’s a pretty awesome woman,” he smirked at the tabletop, forcing a tingling feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“Seems like you might have a thing for this--” Gamora peeked at her notepad “--YN? Is she the reason you haven’t brought any woman home recently?” Gamora eyed him as he ran a hand through his hair, showing his first sign of distress.

“Too personal, Gamora. Get back to the real issues,” you said to yourself in the empty viewing room. You harbored a  small crush for him, but you’ll get over it at some point. You enjoyed his friendship too much and wouldn’t want to ruin it with your unspoken feelings given the current circumstances.

“That seems like a personal question don’t you think? Is it even relevant?” Peter questioned, sitting up in his chair and scratching the top of his head.

“I have to protect my fellow agents from a possible criminal,” she smirked, cocking her head to the side.

“Good thing I am no criminal.”

“Your record says otherwise.” She opened another file in front of her and slid it over to him.

He flipped through the file, rubbing the scruff on his chin. “Most of this was when I was in my rebellious years. I grew out of it. Got a mentor and went straight.” He shut the file and pushed it back to her.

“Hmm, okay.” Gamora remained silence for a couple minutes watching him crack under the pressure. “Your father was the infamous Ego, correct?”

“Yeah, so what? It’s not like he cared about me, I barely even liked the guy.”

“But, he did teach you a few things, am I right?”

His eyes shot to her before reverting back his hands resting on top of the table. He hunched his shoulders before nodding his head.  “Yes, a few, but like I said I don’t do that anymore.”

“Do the letters SL mean anything to you?”

“SL? No, why would they?”

“What about Star-Leader, Space-Legend, Sun-Lens, or Star-Lord?”

Peter’s eyes flickered to the window for a brief second after hearing the last name. The look on his face told you everything; he felt betrayed. You could see it in his eyes, even though it only lasted for a second. Did he figure it out? Did he know you were on the case?

“What? No! This is ridiculous,” he chuckled with his confidence slowly deteriorating. “What type of interrogation is this?”

“A pretty normal one compared to others I’ve been in.” Peter leaned in his chair crossing his arms in a defensive manner. “You see SL, whoever he is, calls himself a legendary outlaw. Every robbery he commits he leaves behind a note, and we suspect he used to go by the name Star-Lord. We came across this name when we discovered written IOU’s to convenience stores he stole from as well as a couple companies he exposed a few years ago.  On one of the notes, both names were written, so it was an easy connection to make. The only thing we don't have are photos of the assailant."

“Wow...this guy must be pret-tay good,” Peter replied, dragging out his words.

“Some would say so, I think he gets lucky, but his luck will run out.  And when it does, we will be there to catch him.  But, we can protect him if he decides to come clean, and  tell us what is going on and who else is behind this?”

“I will be sure to let him know if I ever run into the guy.”

“I want to cover all our bases, so would you be open to doing a polygraph test or are we going to need a warrant?” Gamora waited for him to answer and once Peter looked up all the worry in his eyes was gone.

“Not at all. I have nothing to hide,” he smirked, putting his hands behind his head and his feet on top of the table.

Gamora asked you to look into each of his alibis while Mantis gave Peter the polygraph test. You started with the first necklace and discovered he was in Vegas but he never left the group according to his friends. You knew he couldn’t have stolen the second necklace, because well you were there and heard everything.  When SL stole the Space Stone, he was in Florida at the conference. There was photo evidence of him every day on their website and his passport never left Florida until the day he came back to New York. Then you got to the latest theft, and like the others, Peter told the truth. He went to the pharmacy, which happened to be close to the museum, and the security camera was timestamped at the same time the necklace was stolen.  All his alibis were rock solid.

Results from the polygraph test came in and he passed. He was telling the truth. Mantis was one of the best forensic polygraphers in the country, and she would’ve known if he was lying if not mentally then by sheer body language.

You didn’t understand. Peter fit SL’s description perfectly.  He’s athletic, strong, and fit the age bracket. He can pick a lock like it’s his job, and bullshit his way out of anything in a moments notice. Peter’s music tastes were similar to SL’s, and he was even singing some of the songs left behind at the heists.  He even owns the same red jacket from the camera footage. Peter had to be the guy, even the nickname Meredith gave him connected him to SL.  His alibis were rocked solid, but what if they were staged to appear that way?

A/N: Thanks for reading :)

#peter quill x reader #peter quill #peter quill reader insert #peter quill au #peter quill image #star-lord x reader #star-lord au #star-lord #guardians of the galaxy #gotg #marvel #marvel fanfiction #marvel image #marvel au #avengers #avengers imagine #to catch a thief

[lenfaz]

Sea Squad, ch. 6 (6/14)

Summary: Killian Jones has always managed tough spots in his con life… but never like this one. His brother is out of jail and convinced the only way to win his name back is to heist the casino of a major Vegas mogul, leaving Killian to do the planning. He now has to deal with a half-brother desperate to gain a name of his own, an ex-fling that carries her own torch against the casino mogul, his brother losing his mind over his ex-wife,  his former mentor’s depression and the one woman he can’t get out of his mind giving him chase. Ocean’s Eleven AU

Rating: M

Content warnings: semi-explicit sexual content, law-breaking (they are thieves, liars and con men), mild violence (someone will get punched), mention of former relationships (for the main pair) and cheating (but not for the main pair)

Banner (link to banner post) and art by the amazing @clockadile Go check her art tag for the fic here!

This fic would never exist without the wonderful @sambethe who convinced me to do over hot chocolate on one cold Chicago afternoon and virtually held my hand and betaed this fic for months. thank you SO much for everything you do.

A/N: A long time ago there was talk about Hook & his sea friends and a few collective posts shaped the idea of a Sea Squad. This fic is the attempt to bring that creativity to life. Tagging @queen-mabs-revenge   @thesschesthair   and @jvosketches as they were part of that initial thinking back in the day. If a few things sound familiar, it’s because they are based on the movie.

Link to  FFnet & AO3

on tumblr: 1 2 3 4 5 

Chapter 6

The hours turned long and they’d hit the somewhat duller stages of planning. The initial excitement for the heist had given way to long hours of detailing, building the vault replica, and going over the execution. It required a level of focus and concentration that brought out frayed nerves in everyone.

Well, almost everyone.

Nemo had always been good at keeping his composure, and Poseidon had a knack for coming in and out of the character he was playing without wearing himself out. But the rest of them were starting to show signs of distress.

Ariel and Eric bantered constantly, but their rapport had taken on a sniping quality, even about the most petty items, right down to their Netflix queue. The uptick in Smee’s fidgeting with his cap, as well as his obsessive need to re-review the footage of the casinos and note every single detail, was leaving an ache in Killian’s jaw from all the clenching.

LJ, meanwhile, was giving Killian and Liam the silent treatment, as he kept his headphones glued to his ears and his nose buried in a seemingly endless stream of books.

Milah had taken to disappearing for hours at a time, keeping whatever - or whomever - she was doing under wraps. All of which suited Killian just fine, as the last thing they needed was to alert Gold that she was in town. Besides he knew Milah and trusted her. He knew she could be stealthy when she wanted, so he kept his mouth shut.

Ursula spent most of her time shadowing her co-workers at the casino, and only dropping by to feed them new information and get orders from Liam. The two of them would retreat into a corner, all bent heads and whispered words. They didn’t fool Killian at all. He knew Ursula was updating Liam on all of Belle’s movement and a part of him wanted to call his brother on wasting effort by splitting their focus. But Liam had promised, as did he, so he knew he owed his brother this chance.

As for Henry, Killian knew he still felt like an outsider. Luckily, the kid had thick skin and when he was done bonding with LJ over music and comics, he’d retreat to his own corner, plugging in his headphones and writing in his journal. His quiet edge was one Killian easily recognized as the product of spending too much time on his own in foster and group homes, and he couldn’t help but feel drawn to the kid because of it.  When he was not shadowing LJ, Killian had been working with Henry, going over what he needed to do and rehearsing and timing his performance. The lad was good - more than good - and Killian couldn’t help the pride he felt as time and again Henry delivered on what he was asked to do.

Which was why when he found out that Henry wasn’t an expert on poker - or any card game - Killian took the kid under his wing and vowed to teach him everything he knew. Unlike his celebrity students, Henry was sharp as a knife, picking up on what the game was about and executing bluffs with such mastery that it brought tears to Killian’s eyes. He was getting fairly good at blackjack too. He couldn’t count cards with Liam’s speed, but he was good at making quick decisions in the heat of the game and landing on his feet.

After the first couple of nights, LJ asked to join the game, and Killian got a glimpse at another side of his little brother. When he was at ease - and he seemed most at ease with Smee and Henry - he could be quite charming. His permanent scowl gave way to an easy smile and a dry wit, his hands moving fast as he dealt cards, his eyes not giving away a single thing as he called bets. He proved to be as good as Killian at bluffing, and even better than Liam at reading a table. It was enough to make Killian weep, again, which resulted in LJ throwing his cards at him, calling him a softie.

Clearing his throat, Killian looked at the three of them. “We need a night out.”

“To do what?” Henry asked

“Get some drinks, play some cards, bet some money,” he replied with a wave of his hand.

“So basically the same thing we’re doing right here,” LJ retorted, clearly not impressed with him. Killian, though, knew by now it was a tactic his brother played. If you don’t get your hopes too high, the fall doesn’t hurt that much.

“Not exactly the same… we’re lacking a certain ambiance here.”

Henry gave them a wry grin. “I’m underage… I won’t be allowed anywhere.”

“There is so much you need to learn about this town, lads.” Killian turned around to his most loyal companion. “What do you say, Smee? Should we show these two what the City of Sin has to offer?”

/-/

He had to give it to both of them, Henry and LJ cleaned up well for their night out. Black slacks, button down shirts, nice shoes, the whole nine yards. Which was slightly funny considering that they ended up in one of the seediest joints Vegas had to offer. But the drinks were good, the tables were humming with activity, and no one even thought to card them with Killian by their side. They joined a poker game in one of the private rooms for a few hours before they took onto the blackjack tables. Henry held his own in both while also holding down his liquor. LJ, true to form, simply took everything by storm, including charming the brunette dealer who kept leaning closer to him with each new hand she dealt. When she announced the end of her shift and threw a coy glance at LJ, Killian knew the night was coming to an end.  At least for some of them.

Smee and Henry moved to cash in their winnings, while he and LJ finished their drinks.

“You know you’ve had a tail for the past few hours, don’t you?” LJ said as he placed his glass on the table.

“Aye, I’m aware.” Killian’s fingers moved along the rim of the glass, resisting the urge to look behind him. “She’s been shadowing us all night.”

“You shadow her, she shadows you… is this some kind of kinky foreplay I want to know nothing about?”

Killian laughed. “I wish.” He ran a hand through his hair, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand. “Will this be a problem for you?”

LJ shrugged. “Nah, I don’t think so. She might be good with faces, but I’m good at being a no one. It’s going to come in handy this time. But I should take off before she makes it any closer. Perhaps seek refuge in a different bed for the time being.” His eyes glinted with mischief.

He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure that’s a sacrifice you’re willing to bear, and I’m sure that lovely croupier would be more than happy to assist you.”

“I’ll get Henry and Smee to leave without coming back here, just in case. I figure you can run interference for us?”

Killian raised his glass at him. “I can do that. It’s me she’s after anyway.”

LJ squeezed his arm. “Killian, be careful, aye?” The concern and fondness in his words made Killian swallow.

“Aye, I will.”

He watched as LJ retreated, playing with the chips on the table and downing his drink. He ordered another as the new dealer showed up. As she set up the table, Killian counted out his heartbeats - one, two, three, four…

On five, Emma sat down beside him, cashing in a hundred dollar bill.

“I’d have thought you’d have privileges for playing in Gold’s casinos, Swan.”

“Fancy places are not my thing. And I could say the same to you. Nemo’s protegee should be able to access better places than this.”

He tilted his head, studying her profile. He wasn’t surprised by the words. It was only natural that she’d set to go after him, looking under every rock for every single piece of information she could gather on him.

There just the two of them on the table and the dealer opened up the bets. He placed a chip on the felt and waited for his cards. “What can I say, this place has its benefits…”

She didn’t pay that much attention to her cards. “What were you doing here tonight?”

Shifting a little, he doubled his bet. “Just passing the time.”

She passed on her bet and Killian winced. She should have doubled with the cards she’d been dealt. “Really? And who were your friends?”

A small smirk came to his lips. “Just some acquaintances I hadn’t had the chance to catch up with in a long time.”

The house went over. He won a good sum. Emma won the bare minimum.

“Funny you should say that, because when I looked into you, I couldn’t find a single associate. Or friend. Or acquaintance.”

Aye. He’d anticipated that, which is why he’d made sure Smee erased all traces of his known associates, along with his family and friends. Only Nemo remained, as it gave him a valid connection to be in the city. If push came to shove, he could claim that he was here to be with his friend.

He examined his cards and shrugged a shoulder. “What can I say, I’m a lone wolf.”

“Bullshit, Killian.” She raised her hand to double her bet and his hand moved of its own accord to stop her.

“The house has too many chances to take this one, let it pass.”

The way she cocked an eyebrow at him stirred something in him, but he reigned it in and slowly removed his hand. Emma stared down at her cards for a long moment before passing on raising her bet. He wouldn’t count that as a sign of anything, that way would only lead to heartache in the end. They continued to play in silence for a few hands, Killian earning a nice pile of chips while Emma fell behind. Resisting the urge to give her more pointers, Killian leaned back and drummed his fingers on the table.

“How's working for Gold?”

The corner of her lips lifted in the hint of a smile. “Please, as if you were interested in my work.”

“You wound me, Swan.”

“Drop the act. I know you’re up to something and I know you’re trying to weasel information out of me. But I’m not the girl that I was. I’m not falling for your charming lies this time.” She gathered her chips, leaving one behind for a tip, and walked away.

He shouldn’t go after her, he knew he shouldn’t. And yet the temptation was stronger than his will. Picking up his own chips and sliding them in his pocket, he flipped one to the dealer and followed Emma out.

He caught up with her almost at the exit and pulled her into a corner of the room. Resisting the urge to give in and press his body to hers, he focused instead on his words.

“You don't want to do this. You don’t want to be spying for Gold, Emma.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do, especially since you’re the reason I need to find this type of employment.” While there was bitterness in her words, her eyes also seemed focused to his lips. Killian felt the same pull and he moved closer to her, his fingers itching to trace along the soft skin of her arms. Before he could, Emma shook her head and pressed her hand on his chest, stopping him.

“Your charm no longer works on me, Jones. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…”

“I’m not trying to fool you.” He sighed, resisting the urge to drag her out of here and bring her to the warehouse, to tell her everything. If this was his con alone, he’d do it in a heartbeat. But too much was a stake here, too many of his friends were depending on him. They were already on shaky ground considering Liam’s focus on Belle, Killian couldn't add more complications to the mix.

Still, he couldn’t leave without letting her know the type of man she was dealing with. “I know Gold. He’s dangerous. He doesn’t play fair.”

She snorted, tilting her head to the side as she glared at him. “And you do?”

The barb hurt and he swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I have a code, believe it or not.”

“I don’t need a code. I need answers,” she whispered and her confession shook them both. Emma’s eyes widened and she tried to move away from him, but Killian grabbed her elbow and pulled her to him.

“What is it that you're after?” His eyes bored into her, studying her face for any hint of what was really going on. “It can be just the job, not really. Gold pays well, but nothing that you cannot make elsewhere.”

“I don't have that many options left with my reputation ruined, remember?”

“Bullshit. You’ve been highly rewarded for your work.” He regretted the words as soon as he said them. He should learn to keep his own damn mouth shut.

“Keeping tabs on me, huh?”

He ignored her question, his mind focused on one thing and one thing only. It was clear that when he walked out of that room on her, there had been more than her job at stake.

“What was it? What did I cost you, Emma?”

Her face was a blank mask, her eyes avoiding his. “Wouldn't you like to know”

He reached out, caressing his thumb along her cheek. He kept his next words quiet, the desperate plea in them clear. “Please, love, tell me… I need to know.”

She gave him one last assessing look before she pulled away. “Goodbye, Killian.”

He took a breath and let her walk away. When she was finally out of his line of sight, he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the wall, his heart beating frantically in his chest.

Whatever it was that Emma Swan was looking, whatever it was that made striking a deal with Gold worth it, he was going to find out.

And he was going to do everything he could to deliver it to her.

/-/

After another night spent with rum and restless dreams, Killian stood at the entrance of the warehouse, willing the pounding in his head to pass. He closed his eyes and sank against the exterior wall as he pressed a bottle of cold water against his temple.

The sound of car tires on gravel had him open one eye and face the glaring morning sunlight again. He turned just as a taxi pulled around the curve and LJ got out. His leather jacket was draped over one arm and he carried a cardboard tray with a few paper cups on his free hand. His hair damp and disheveled, shirt wrinkled, and that spring in his step could only mean one thing.

“You look like you had a good time,” Killian said as LJ handed him one of the cups. The welcome scent of steaming coffee filled his senses and Killian discarded the water bottle, taking a long, slow sip of the warm beverage. It tasted burnt and bitter, making him regret all his life choices - especially this one - while he pondered how his brother could even drink this.

LJ left the rest of the tray on a nearby bench and took a sip of his coffee, his wicked smile and glinting eyes a silent answer to Killian’s comment. “You still look to be in one piece…” He twitched one side of his mouth, making a show of checking for wounds. “I thought I was going to get a call in the middle of the night and have to go pick you up at the police station.”

“I would have never dared to interrupt your much needed getting laid-time, little brother. I would have called Smee.” Killian lifted one shoulder as he ventured one more sip of the coffee. Yup, still terrible. “Besides, she doesn’t have anything on me.”

“She has you by the balls, but please, by all means, keep deluding yourself.”

Killian chuckled, tossing the poor excuse for a coffee in the trash bin. “Next time, unless it’s done by a proper barista with freshly ground coffee beans and a espresso machine, bring me tea, LJ.”

“Like you wouldn’t find a fault in any poorly steeped tea too, brother.”

Touché. Killian placed two fingers over his heart, a part of him grateful that LJ had gotten to know that side of him.

“Come on,” LJ called as he picked up the tray and tilted his head towards the front door. “Henry's cocoa is getting cold and the poor lad needs his sugar to function properly.”

He smirked as he passed LJ and opened the door and held it for him. “You two seem to be getting along well.”

LJ shrugged. “He's cool and honestly, I feel a lot more comfortable around him than some of the others. He hasn't been in the business much…”

The meaning behind the words was clear. “So anything related to the Jones name doesn't mean much to him.”

LJ gave him a shy smile. “Yeah, that's a perk.”

Killian placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “It's good to make friends, good friends, early in your career. People you can trust.” He looked at him and a wave of sympathy flooded him. He wanted to be that for his brother so desperately, as Liam had been for him. And yet, he understood more than anyone the need to shine for yourself, outside your family name. “You don't have to do everything alone.”

“I know… is that Smee for you?”

“Aye.”

Henry made his way towards them, his eyes almost rolling at the back of his head. “Finally, man.” He reached for the cup that LJ handed to him and took a long sip. His eyes closed, he sighed in contentment. “You even remember the cinnamon”.

Killian cocked an eyebrow, some memory poking at the back of his mind that he couldn’t place. “Cinnamon?”

LJ lifted a shoulder carelessly as he finished his coffee and tossed the cup in a nearby trash bin. “Yeah, the kid has weird taste.”

Henry gave him a challenging look. “Who are you calling weird, you nimble fingered freak?”

LJ gave him a cheesy smile, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Henry. “Careful with the whipped cream there, Henry.  We don't want you to put on weight and miss your acrobatic stunt mark over there. A lot is a stake here, maybe I should switch you to skim milk.”

Henry tossed his finished drink, puffing out his chest in his best in his best impression of a face-off. “Please, that'll never happen.” He opened his arms with an arrogant smile. “I'm too good for this.”

LJ grabbed his wallet from his back pocket and took out a bill. “Prove it, fly boy. I have a twenty that says you can’t make that jump.”

“You’re on.”

/-/

It took less than thirty minutes to set up the recreation of what would happen in the vault in a few days. Henry gave LJ a self-satisfied smile as he climbed into the cash cart.

Everyone gathered around and Killian figured it was as good a time as any to do a run-down of the operation. The rest of them might as well benefit from the bet Henry and LJ had going on.

“Alright, here’s the rundown. On the night of the fight, Poseidon’s package will arrive at the casino at 7:15. From there, LJ needs to work his magic, get the codes we need to access the elevator. At 7:30, Ariel and Eric will work their own magic and get the cart delivered, with Henry inside, into the vault. At that point we’re all in.” He paused and glanced around the room. “All-in. We can’t back up, we can’t screw up, we can’t delay. Once the vault is closed, we have thirty minutes before he suffocates.”

“Gee, you better not fuck it up, guys, or I swear I’ll haunt you from the underworld.” Henry waved as they closed the lid and Ariel and Eric rolled the cart into the vault replica.

From the corner of his eye, Killian watched as Liam entered the warehouse, his hair in the same state of dishevel as LJ’s had been, the same spring in his step. Bloody arse. Liam stood next to him and watched intently as the action unfolded.

“When the power goes down, it means that all entries to the vault and the elevator are on lock down for two minutes. And that is when we strike.”

The lights in the vault dimmed and Henry pushed the false top of the cart open, slowly removing himself from his confines. “It is going to feel like I spent days in there,” he said as he positioned himself on top of the cart.

“Alright, flyboy,” LJ teased, “we’ve left you in the middle of the room, far away from everything. There are sensors on the floor, and you need to get from where you are to the door without activating any of them. What are you going to do, hotshot? I have twenty saying you can’t make it.”

“I have ten saying you can!” Smee called.

“You can do it, Henry! I have faith in you!” Ariel cheered, clapping her hands in excitement.

Liam’s mouth twisted into a grimace, making him look nauseated. “We should all maintain some professionalism in here, this is a serious operation.”

“They are young, Liam.” Killian shrugged, pointing at Henry with a twenty to show his support. “Especially Henry and LJ. Let them live a little.” He turned to face his brother and gave him a once over from head to toe. “Speaking of living a little, did you have a nice night?”

The tips of Liam’s ears turned pink and he shuffled his feet. “It’s not what you think.”

Killian gritted his teeth. “Please Liam, don’t insult my intelligence.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “As long as you promise me that you can handle it.”

“I can handle it,” Liam said quickly and Killian really wanted to believe his brother, but he wasn’t sure anymore.

Their conversation in a stale point, they both turned their attention at the scene in front of them. Henry closed his eyes, took a deep breath and positioned himself in a dead squat. From there he leapt, gracefully and hands first, from the cart to a ledge in one of the walls of the vault. Sitting there, he turned around and flipped off LJ. “Drinks on you tonight, loverboy.”

The rest of the crew clapped and boomed, with Nemo congratulating them all on a job well done.

“This is all well and good, but I’m sorry to say that we are fucked.”

Everyone turned to find Milah standing there, hair a mess, her blouse misbuttoned, and mascara running down her cheeks. There was decidedly no spring in her step and her face made it clear that whomever she picked up for the night hadn’t gotten the job done.

As if to confirm Killian’s assumption, she cocked an eyebrow. “And not in a good way.” She walked towards the nearest table, her high-heeled boots clicking against the tile floor and poured herself a drink. Tossing her head back, she finished off the drink in one go and poured herself another.

“Wow, Milah, slow down, it’s not even 10 am,” Killian cautioned, moving slowly towards her. He had a few choice barbs on the tip of his tongue, but though they had parted amicably and they were friendly with one another, there were certain lines a gentleman didn’t cross with someone he’d known in the biblical sense. This was one of those lines. He’d never made a comment on Milah’s hookups and he wasn’t going to start now, unless it meant problems for their operation. Taking one last step in her direction, he took the glass from her hand. “What are you talking about?”

She started to pace, speaking a mile a minute. “These idiots. It’s a universal truth that you can count on electricity companies to be the most inefficient people ever, but no… we had to hit the jackpot of the only capable ones! Who would have thought that they would do a fucking routine inspection and took notice of the fact that you can blow up their grid lines one by one like dominoes?”

There was silence as she continued to move back and forth across the room, until Nemo shot Smee a questioning look. “Do you understand what she’s talking about?”

“Some, it seems that we will be having troubles with the planned power blow up.”

“Exactly right, my friend,” Milah agreed, jabbing her finger at Smee, the open, loose sleeve of her chiffon blouse billowing around her elbow in added emphasis. “They figured out their weakness and now they are fixing it. Like I said, we’re fucked.”

Liam scrunched his face in confusion. “Wait, how do you know all of this?”

She spun and raised an eyebrow at Liam, leaving Killian feeling oddly grateful to not have that level of fury directed at him. “Where exactly do you think I was last night? Or any of the other nights?”

Liam’s cheeks flushed. “I just thought...”

She groaned in frustration. “Oh, for crying out loud! Just because you’re all terrible horn dogs doesn’t mean I am. I’ve been trailing some of the electricity engineers and technical operators. And yes, last night I actually had to sleep with one of them so I could hack into their work orders. Which is how I know about this entire thing.”

Every last person in the room had the grace to look sheepish, but none of them dared to speak up. It was Nemo who finally ventured to break the silence. “Milah, we-”

Milah waved him off. “Yeah, you can all apologize to me later, after we figure out what the hell we’re going to do if we still want to pull this job.”

Eric turned to look at Liam. “What about-”

But Ariel interrupted him, patting his hand and shaking her head. “Not enough time.”

And that was the crux of it. There was not enough time to do a bloody thing. Coming this close to the job, being able to taste it and feel it brush against their fingertips, only to have it ripped away at the very last minute. Killian wanted to smash the entire fake vault, anything to break the sense that it was standing there mocking him.

“Unless it’s a pinch.”

All eyes turned back to Milah, who was now perched over the edge of the table, nursing a third drink.

“A what now?” Henry asked.

Milah took a sip of her drink. “It’s like a heart attack for any broadband electrical circuitry.”

Killian glanced around the room, wondering if that made any bloody sense to anyone else. Given their blank expressions, he was going with nope. Sighing deeply, Milah looked at Smee. “Can you take this one? I’m knackered and I don’t have it in me.”

Smee smiled and cleared his throat. “A pinch is an electromagnetic pulse that can shut down any power source in its vicinity. Bombs do it, but it usually goes unnoticed because of the amount of destruction that usually follows.”

“So this pinch,” Nemo asked, taking charge of the scene in a way he only knew, “could take out the power of Vegas?” Milah nodded. “For how long?”

“About thirty seconds.”

Nemo’s face twisted. “That’ll do.”

“There. Is. Only. One. Little. Tiny. Problem,” Milah punctuated each word by swaying her glass back and forth before swallowing the remainder in one gulp. “There is only one pinch in the world big enough to do this, and it sure as shit ain’t here in Vegas.”

Cold sweat ran down Killian’s neck. “Please tell me it’s in a place that is currently going through a cold wave with snow storms and high winds.”

Milah gave him an apologetic smile. “California.”

Oh for fuck’s sake. “I’m not going.”

“Killian-” Liam started but Killian was not having it.

Pulling Liam to the side, he met his brother’s eyes. “Nope. Take LJ and Henry with you. Those two are going to be better at this than me. I’m going to stay here. Smee and I have to work on the final details of the plan anyway.” He left it unsaid that he was going to have Smee look into Emma’s past and figure out what it was she was looking for. But his brother didn’t need to know that. Not now. They were already working on two fronts, he didn’t need for anyone to know he was adding a third. He could handle this. Besides, it would be good for LJ and Liam to bond a little.

“You sure about LJ? He seems green,” Liam asked, his eyes shifting to where their brother was talking with Nemo and Henry.

If you spent more time talking with him than seducing your ex-wife, maybe you wouldn’t think that. Killian shook his head as he let the thought pass. “Liam, I trust him, and you should too. We brought him here to be part of the family, didn’t we? Then let him take part in it.”

“You’re right.” Liam stepped away and moved to gather Milah, LJ, Henry, Ariel and Eric, readying them to plan their next moves and set them into motion.

With their attention focused elsewhere, Killian knew it was the perfect time to put his own plan into motion. “Smee,” he called over his friend, “I need you to look into something for me.” He pulled his phone and showed Smee a picture of Emma and Gold.

Smee’s face turned pale and before he could say anything, Killian cut him off. “Aye, it’s her and she’s here working for Gold. She’s looking for something and I need to know what that is.”  He tried to hide the desperation in his voice but failed in the end, his voice cracking.

“I’ll look into it,” Smee vowed solemnly and Killian felt a lump form in his throat at his friend’s loyalty.

“Thank you, mate.”

Smee moved towards his data room, ready to work his magic and Killian turned around to assess the room. Liam and LJ were having a conversation and Killian left them, for once, to work their own relationship out. If nothing else came out of this, at least they could all be a family in the end. He spotted Henry at the side of the room, still assessing the vault and doing a slow-motion rehearsal of his moves.

“Henry! Listen, take care of yourself out there.” Killian placed his hand on Henry’s shoulder. “And take care of the others. You’ll be trapped between an obnoxious couple and a family feud, sorry about that. Just keep your head in the game. Someone other than Milah has to.”

Henry chuckled. “I will, Killian, you don’t need to worry about me. I’m not a kid.”

Killian’s heart grew two sizes in his chest. “Yes, you are. You can lie to those goody two shoes that had you at the circus, and you can even lie to yourself if you want, but you can’t lie to me, boy.” He gave the lad a reassuring smile. “The reasons for your secrets are your own and I’ll respect that, but you’re a part of us now, just as much as LJ is. We take care of our own.”

From the way Henry swallowed and how his eyes locked with Killian’s for a brief minute, his want to believe read clearly on his face. But as quickly as it came, his face shifted back to neutral, his hard armor sliding back into place. “I’m tougher than I look. I won’t break.” Yet again Killian cursed every single foster parent that had beaten the sense of love and family out of this kid. But, he reminded himself, one thing at the time.

“I know.” He patted Henry’s cheek. “Still, be careful, lad.”

He watched Henry leave and decided he’d had enough emotions for the day. It wasn’t even noon. He needed a drink. He was pouring himself a healthy dose of rum when he heard Milah’s voice call from behind him.

“Killian Jones, the overprotective brother. I thought that was Liam’s role.”

He took a sip of his drink, enjoying the slide of the liquid fire down his throat. “It seems I’ve taken a page from his book.”

He passed the drink to her and she took a sip. “Do I get the “you’re family to me” speech too?”

Killian’s eyes softened, his muscles sore from too many nights with little sleep. “You know you are. You wouldn’t be here with us if we didn’t feel like family to you too.” He reached for her hand. “Take care of them, Milah. Don’t let them do anything foolish.”

She gave him a small smile. “I’ll try. But with two Joneses in the mix, I can’t make any promises.”

#csbb #sea squad #lenfaz fics #cs ff #captain swan

[teamoliv-archive]

Cutscene: True Loyalties

It was three agonizing weeks since Onyx was able to get out of that wretched hospital. His voice was still gone but at least he no longer felt the awful lingering symptoms of being without his old medications. Somehow they managed to clear that up. What was shocking, however, was finding out that his bills have been taken care of already thanks to a generous donation from the Cheshire Financial Group to aide victims of the White Fang’s violence. He knew that wasn’t what actually happened. The note hidden in his room solidified that.

It was from his sister, and it came with directions to come to her home in the city’s upper levels quietly once he got out.

Why was Mistral built against a cliff!? It had taken him forever to get up here and even longer to find the blasted home. As he expected of his sister, the place took up a lot of property in one of Mistral’s most affluent districts. A filthy faunus wandering around drew a lot of eyes that he subsequently ignored. He had half a mind to throw the next jeerer off the side of the mountain. He didn’t have the energy to keep himself invisible the whole time. The building itself was big and the surrounding grounds even bigger. There was an electronically locked gate at the front. He didn’t even get to push the button before he heard Lilac’s voice on the other end.

“Took you long enough, Nyx. Get in here.”

Lilac had soon sat her brother down with a fresh change of clothes, a bath, and a decent meal. He looked way better than he did when he got there. “Geez, Dad really did a number on you, huh?” Before her brother could silently protest, she waved it off, “Yeah, I know what happened. I’ve been watching the entire city for a while now. Come on, I’ve got a few things to show you.” She starts to guide him to a large room that looked to be a personal garage turned into a workshop. Sitting on a table was a sleek set of gauntlets plated gold with black on the finger joints and underlay. The whole mechanism, particularly the reel, was more compact than before. “Go ahead. Try it on.”

The new gauntlets fit perfectly. The underlayer must have been made out of some kind of armored fabric or rubber. No cold steel to deal with there. He flicks his wrist like before and it contracted back onto his arm in a much nicer-looking bracer, only the finger-less gloves that remained betrayed what it did. The smaller reel stayed in place. He looks up at Lilac in a bit of surprise. He had never been hugely close to his sister but they never hated each other either. Even if they weren’t blood, he assumed they were as close as most would be.

Lilac offered Onyx a smile and nodded. “Good. That’s a present from me. You’ll need to be able to get back out there, won’t you?” No, as conniving and stealthy as he liked to try to be, Onyx wasn’t ever one to really back away when he knew he had a fight on his hands he couldn’t avoid. He wasn’t going to take this sitting down.

“I hope you’re ready for this next part, you’re going to need to see it.” She lit up a few monitors showing footage from her drones. Several shots of the attack on Haven were shown, as all manner of other nasty things. Among them were several shots of Ivory speaking with that man from before- what was his name? 

Jade Leroux. It took a moment to click in Onyx’s head. He did recall Father mentioning something about this being why she had left. What was this about?

“Nyxie...” His sister continued, “This guy’s responsible for everything. Everything we care about anyway: What happened to you, what’s been going on with your trip to Menagerie, and Mom... That ‘bodyguard’ of yours has been his mole for years. She was supposed to get close to you... That’s why Mom and Dad wanted you meeting people so badly. They knew but they didn’t want to tip him off either. He was making them too much money to risk that just yet- and that’s why she killed her.”

Onyx felt like he would have been speechless even if he hadn’t lost his voice. He wouldn’t have believed it if he hadn’t gotten reason to suspect it from what Leroux and his father had said to him. Looking back, Ivory was the only one who could have made a vehicle explode the way it had. This made too much sense, including Ivory’s awkward attempts to comfort him so soon after his mother had died. She hadn’t left his side after she found out he was in the same car. It was strange at the time, but that really was when she started sticking to him as much as she did ever since.

Was all that trust he placed in the one person he could really call a friend all just an elaborate lie!? He didn’t want to believe this was the whole story, but that didn’t matter right now did it? He tried to speak only making a few choking noises still.

“I’m sorry, Nyxie... I am. But I couldn’t let them keep trying to use you like that. Dad can handle himself. He knows what happened, but I don’t think he’s willing to move against him. We can’t just keep letting them do as they please.

“At least not to the Cheshires. I say it’s time we remind them who they’re trying to manipulate and burn them for even trying. It’s time for revenge. Mom wanted Leroux dead and I’m going to show his little tools what happens when they think they can attack us like that. I have some friends who are going to be causing a lot of problems soon. We just need you out of the lower levels for this.” She gives her brother a pleading look as she walks over to a mannequin wearing some kind of tubed vest. “I want you here with me when we do this. We’ll get this done, no matter what we have to do or who gets in the way.”

How long was Lilac holding this grudge? It seems like she’s been harboring this for years and planning the entire time. Why not tell him sooner!? Was she waiting to get him away from Father? He watches a map on another screen. There were several blips showing something sending a signal from various public buildings, including the hospital he was just at. A lot of these were lower-income neighborhoods- the residential ones. He points at it carefully.

“That’s how we’re going to do it.” She says, turning toward the screen, “I found out Leroux’s operations are somewhere in that district. Just killing him won’t send enough of a signal of who he thinks he’s messing with.” There was a venom in her voice that Onyx had never heard before. It was pure bloodlust. “So I’m blowing the entire district. If he wants to pretend he’s as dangerous as he says, let’s see him deal with this. I’ve already got armed people going after his favorite little spots, too... and whatever else they want. It was part of the idea.”

She turns back to smiling when she locks eyes with Onyx, but something about her seemed a little unhinged. Had his sister always been this way and he just not noticed? He very seldom saw her. “I need to introduce you to my contact sometime, Onyx. I think you’ll like her.”

The entire district!? As much as Onyx wanted to play off a lack of concern over civilian casualties, he had to admit this had him horrified. Seeing a plan that would result in hundreds burning to death purely to make a point was... disturbing. Perhaps his time in Menagerie had softened him, perhaps he never was as callous as he thought he was when he came face to face with the consequences of Lilac’s plan... 

Maybe he was just a coward. 

Either way, he couldn’t hide his revulsion and horror. He unravels the gauntlet back over his hand on reflex and took a step back as if a large Grimm had just materialized in the room.

This is what Father was saying when he mentioned you ruining everything, didn’t he?

“Onyx...?” Lilac tilts her head. Maybe this was a bit too much all at once. It was a lot she was asking. “You don’t have to do anything.” She says, taking careful steps forward, “Just stay here. I’ll do the rest. We’ll get rid of them and then we can make Dad listen.”

Stay here. Yet another who wanted him to just lay about and do what he was told... He wouldn’t have expected it from his sister as well as his father.

Well thank you for the weapon, Lilac, but I will be taking my leave now.

His sister’s eyes narrowed, half in anger and half in disappointment. “I get it...” She walks over to the tubed vest and puts it on. He watches for a moment as she starts to fasten something to her arms-

Needles? She was sticking them into her... Another look revealed some kind of dust cocktail on the back in numerous small doses. She throws her thick rubber coat on over this and turns to face him.

“One more time, Onyx. Stay here. You don’t have to think this is right or even a good idea, but don’t go back out there until I’m done! I will force you to if you don’t-”

He had already made up his mind. Lilac had clearly gone far past any point of reason if she was so willing to annihilate an entire city block to kill one man, let alone whatever that vest was for. He unleashes a flurry of wires, forming a barrier between the two of them. 

Then Lilac started to spark as the machinery she attached to herself whirred to life.

The visible parts of her skin began to glow with a bright violet light and arced lighting her hair and eyes started to glow along with it. She buckled under the pain while waiting for the painkillers to start coursing through her system and dull the feedback from the dust.

“I guess we’ll be testing both our new weapons, huh?” Her voice had a sickly static to it, like it was masked behind a radio- likely a side effect of the lightning dust. So this was only one chamber, huh? What would happen if she used others? Or combined them? Well, best not overload herself now. She didn’t want to kill her brother anyway.

She outstretches her hand and starts building up aura augmented with the dust. With a quick flash, a wave of electricity danced through the metal wires.

Onyx had to take a quick leap back to avoid the arcing lightning. It wasn’t going to kill him, he wagered, but it would heavily incapacitate him again. No, he couldn’t stand here and fight. He needed to get out of here. Mustering as much strength as he could, he snapped free the maze of wire and forced himself to flash out of sight. He hadn’t used his semblance in weeks. It was going to take a lot more concentration than normal and he didn’t assume his sister didn’t have a security system in play, too.

For whatever reason, Lilac wasn’t following, but he heard her over an intercom that played over speakers she had installed in various points in the home. 

“There’s still time, Onyx! I’m doing this for us! For our family! If this is because of that militia then remember it was Jade’s idea to send you there in the first place! Are you going to tell me you’re letting him get to you!?”

No, this wasn’t about Leroux. This wasn’t about them either. This was about himself- and a pledge to never let anyone else make his decisions for him no matter who they were. The door to the final exit in the hallway slammed shut. He had to push himself into a right door that opened into a parlour. This was clearly a middle room since there were no windows. He’d have to keep going.

That’s when he heard all the beeping. Several ball-liked drones wheeled out of hiding places and started to chase him. A few had small arms mounted into them and began shooting. It wasn’t much trouble dodging to deflecting the shots. These little things didn’t seem to be all that accurate and had difficulty making sharp turns. They were not meant to fight against a trained huntsmen. One spray of wires tripped up their pathfinding and send them crashing into each other, beeping sadly.

He ducked out of another door and down another hallway. Windows! Then came the loud slamming noise as the metal security shutters started falling. He’d have to move fast and race them to get out one of them. He was only just getting there before a large mass of stone slammed into his path.

The colors in Lilac’s dust-infused form had shifted again- yellow this time. Her hair’s color mostly stayed the same but the glow that came off of it and affected her aura clued him as to what she was using. “You’re only going to get yourself hurt again!” His sister shouted, “Don’t you see that!? I’m protecting you!”

No, no you’re not. You’re trying to just keep me out of your mad crossfire.

That shot had slammed into a wall and nearly broke it. An idea formed in his head as he decided to pull something risky, he moved in an obviously telegraphed manner that he was going to head in the other direction. This wouldn’t fool most people but Lilac never had any formal fighting training. She wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. All she knew how to do was throw raw force at the problem until it stopped moving. As expected, another large earthen shot flew in front of him. Speeding up, he intentionally let it slam into him and the wall behind him.

Right at the window shutter. The thin metal creeked and groaned under the impact and Onyx felt that now too familiar feeling of his aura breaking. It was enough to shatter the glass behind him.

He rolled behind him and tumbled out the busted window into the grounds below. He ached yet again but at least this time he wasn’t being electrocuted or having the life choked from him. He throws out a wire at a street lamp and swings off down the street, lashing to new points as he keeps going. There was no way she was going to be able to follow that quickly.

He only hoped he could find a way to stop this...

#teamoliv #Onyx Cheshire - Main #Lilac Cheshire - Main #Cutscene #Onyx Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Lilac Cheshire - Overheard Conversations #Team OLIV - The Red Arena

[screenandcinema]

Coming Attractions - July 2021

As usual, we present monthly previews of new movies being released and with a whole bunch of new movies hitting theaters or streamers this month, it is fair to say that the summer movie season is finally here! These are the movies that will be hitting your local cinemas (and streaming services) this month:

July 2nd

No Sudden Move (July 1) - Steven Soderbergh directs this new period crime thriller from writer Ed Solomon (Bill & Ted) set in 1955 Detroit. The movie features an overly impressive cast that includes Don Cheadle, Benicio de Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Amy Seimetz, Brendan Fraser, Kieran Culkin, Julia Fox, and Ray Liotta. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month to generally favorable reviews, so be on the lookout for No Sudden Move available only on HBO Max today.

The Tomorrow War - When The Tomorrow War was initially announced in early 2019, then titled Ghost Draft, and set to star Chris Pratt with Chris McKay making his live-action film directorial debut, I was very intrigued. Flash forward more than two years later and Paramount has sold the film off to Amazon for a rumored cost of $200 million. The film hits Prime this month, and I hope it is good. We will see...

The Boss Baby: Family Business - The sequel to the 2017 film that my son absolutely loves will be coming to theaters and Peacock this month. This seems to be the first film in which Universal is following the HBO Max model of a streaming release (free for subscribers) concurrent with a theatrical release. Alec Baldwin returns to voice the titular Boss Baby, while James Marsden takes the place of Tobey Maguire who was apparently too busy to return for the sequel (No Way Home?) and Amy Sedaris joins the cast as a new baby at BabyCorp and the daughter of Marsden’s character. 

The Forever Purge - The fifth and final film in The Purge franchise hits theaters this weekend. The Forever Purge is a direct sequel to 2016′s The Purge: Election Year in which the events of the annual Purge have explored past their one-day-a-year allowance. As a fan of both the films in the series and the short-lived television show, I am excited for this final Purge film. With this film and Boss Baby 2 coming to theaters this weekend and F9 only entering its second weekend, it is likely that over the Fourth of July weekend, Universal could have 3 of the top 5 (if not the top 3) films at the box office. Way to own a weekend Universal (not that there is much competition at the moment).

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) - Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson of The Roots directs this documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival that includes never before seen footage from the festival that set in a basement for 50 years. The film has garnered rave reviews since its premiere at Sundance in January where it won top honors in the documentary category. Summer of Soul hits theaters and Hulu this weekend.

Fear Street Part 1: 1994 - Hitting Netflix is the first installment of this slasher trilogy loosely based on R.L. Stine’s books. Netflix’s release plan for the trilogy is a unique one and thankfully audiences won’t have to wait long for the second installment of these inter-connected films.

July 9th

Black Widow - After almost two years away from the big screen, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is back in cinemas with the Scarlett Johansson-led Black Widow. The film which takes place after the events of Captain America: Civil War also stars David Harbour, Rachel Weisz, and Florence Pugh in a role that could be seen as one set to take over for the titular heroine after the events of Avengers: Endgame. During the second half of 2021, Marvel Studios has four films set to hit theaters and Black Widow is only the beginning of their comeback tour. See Black Widow in theaters or on Disney+ with Premier Access ($30).

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 - Here we go, the second installment of the Fear Street trilogy. What questions from the first film will be answered when a summer camp in 1978 is under siege, we will have to tune in to the sequel on Netflix to find out.

July 16th

Gunpowder Milkshake (July 14th) - Karen Gillan stars alongside Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Angela Bassett, and Paul Giamatti in this action thriller from Israeli director Navot Papushado. The film, which has a John Wick feel to it, hits Netflix this month.

Space Jam: A New Legacy - The Tune Squad is back on the court alongside Lebron James in this standalone sequel to 1996′s Space Jam. The film, also starring Don Cheadle and Sonequa Martin-Green in addition to numerous Looney Tunes, will be released in both theaters and on HBO Max.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions - After grossing $150 million on a $9 million budget, a sequel to the breakout hit 2016′s Escape Room was inviable. I rather enjoyed the first film and am eager to see this direct sequel which follows our champions from the first film, alongside other escape room survivors as they end up back inside the deadly game.

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 - At long last, the much-anticipated conclusion to the Fear Street trilogy hits Netflix, how will it all end? Who will live and who will die? And what does the 17th century mean to the story? Watch it and find out. Funny enough, by the time this movie comes out, everyone will be talking about Fear Street or no one will be.

July 23rd

Old - M. Night Shyamalan directs this new supernatural mystery thriller starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Ken Leung, and Alex Wolff. The less you know about Old the better, so I am going to stop right there.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins - When deciding to make a film about a character who always wears a helmet and never speaks, what do you do? Well, you cast Henry Golding and make it an origin story, and there you have it Snake Eyes was born. If you are super excited for Snake Eyes, check it out in theaters. If you are lukewarm about Snake Eyes like me, you can wait 45 days and watch it on Paramount+.

Blood Red Sky - Remember Snakes on a Plane? Well, Blood Red Sky is essentially Vampires on a Plane, if the vampires were the good guys. This is a real movie coming to Netflix, I promise. 

Midnight in the Switchgrass - In this crime thriller based on a true story, two FBI agents, played by Bruce Willis and Megan Fox, team up with a Texas Ranger, played by Emile Hirsh, to catch a serial killer. Good luck.

July 30th

Jungle Cruise - Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt star in this Disney fantasy adventure based on a theme park ride of the same name. The film looks like if you mixed Pirates of the Caribbean with Anaconda. I cannot wait to take a ride on the Jungle Cruise later this month. The film will be out in theaters and available on Disney+ with Premier Access ($30).

Stillwater - Spotlight’s Tom McCarthy directs Matt Damon and Abigail Breslin in this drama that follows a Stillwater, Oklahoma oil worker to France to help his estranged daughter who has been charged with murder. The film is scheduled to premiere at Cannes later this month before hitting theaters nationwide.

The Green Knight - Dev Patel leads the charge in this highly anticipated medieval epic from director David Lowrey and co-starring Alicia Vikander, Joel Edgerton, Barry Keoghan, and Sean Harris. The film tells the 14th-century story of Sir Gawain, the nephew of King Arthur, on his quest to confront the Green Knight. The movie looks bonkers. Check it out in theaters.

Nine Days - Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, and Bill Skarsgård star in this supernatural drama that made a big splash at Sundance in January 2020. Now the film is finally seeing a limited release this month, before a wide release on August 6th. 

Now for a quick look ahead to August, my top picks for next month are The Suicide Squad, Free Guy, and Reminiscence.

-MB-

[katie-dub]

The Masks We Wear (9/?)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8

AO3

Thanks to my superstar beta Shelby with her shiny new URL @apromisednightcap​ (previously @coffeewithcaptainswan) - the Robin to my Batman and creator of this awesome character aesthetic for this fic!

And while we’re talking lovely artwork by lovely shipmates, have a look at the amazing image set and the super cute drawing Monica @acaptainswaneternity​ made!

Anyway, without further ado...

Previously on The Masks We Wear…

Emma Swan AKA The Saviour and Killian Jones AKA Hook AKA The Survivor are in love. They just don’t know it yet. Emma has discovered The Survivor’s true identity, but she knows that means bad news for the love of her life. He is currently being tortured by The Dark One and she needs to save him.

“He was in terrible danger.”

“I will always find you, Killian.”

Emma stared hard at the mask as the reality of the situation sank in. Of course Killian was The Survivor.

What at first seemed like insanity now felt so obvious. The way she was drawn to Hook, felt so connected to him from the moment they met. She hadn't felt that way about anyone else but Killian. And Killian with all of his clumsy sweetness could always make her melt with his seductive insinuations.

God, they both have one hand! Talk about a flashing neon signpost, it was hardly a common trait.

She tried not to beat herself up for missing the glaringly obvious. Because, really, what were the chances that two undercover superheroes would happen to meet at work? And to have a third superpowered person as their boss? It was contrived and ridiculous and if this were a TV show, she would tune out.

Or would she?

She always used to love The New Adventures of Superman as a kid, despite all her yelling at Lois Lane.

And now she got it. She never expected Killian to be more than what he seemed. So she didn't examine their similarities, instead seeing the difference in speech, accent and how they carried themselves.

Logically, she knew that The Survivor probably had some sort of day job - even superheroes have to pay the bills - but the honest truth was that she never thought about it. He was in the part of her life firmly marked “superhero”. She liked the clear separation. Everything was neatly segmented to keep nice, clear boundaries. The way Hook had wormed his way into her heart had thrown her organised existence into chaos. She didn't ever want to make it worse by trying to find his alter-ego.

Now she could see that the separation was a fiction she'd invented to keep herself safe. The truth was closer to a venn diagram and her brain had rejected it. No matter how much it made everything in her life so much more logical. Of course she'd fallen so hard for The Survivor, she was already in love with him. Now all she had to do was tell him and they could live happily ever after.

Fuck.

She knew it was the logical next step, but she was scared. What was it The Survivor said to her? “People only see what they want to see.” She’d never felt the truth of those words before. But now? Now she was faced with telling her love the truth and getting everything she wanted and the idea was crippling.

She had honestly thought that she just wanted to protect Killian and that’s why they weren’t together. She hadn’t stopped to consider how her own self preservation instinct might be at work.

The irony of the lie-detecting superhero who cannot recognise her own bullshit was not lost on her.

At least I know that I can stop worrying about him becoming the damsel in distress in this scenario. She shook her head, laughing at the ridiculous worry that had previously consumed her. You can’t kill an invulnerable superhero. The sound of his screams that had woken her from her dream echoed back to her. You can hurt them though.

Fuck.

Killian was hurting and she was too busy fretting and angsting to do anything about it. She grabbed her Nevengers phone and dialled.

“Belle? I’m sorry to wake you, but I need your help right now.!

“What’s wrong?” She loved that she could always rely on Belle to help.

“Call Henry. I need you two at HQ. Now. Tell no one else.”

“Of course, but what is going on?”

“The Survivor’s in danger.”

“We’ll see you there. Don’t worry, Saviour, the clue’s in the name, he’ll get through this and you’ll rescue him. It’s what you guys do.”

Emma wasn’t entirely sure that she believed her, but after the delay her freak out had caused already, Emma knew there was no more time to waste.

 “Are you going to tell us what’s going on, Saviour?” Belle asked, eyes wide with concern. Emma knew that she must look a state, vibrating with magic as she was, and stalking up and down the room.

“My friend who just took off on vacation?” Belle nodded, clearly not quite following Emma’s train of thought. “The more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt for him to just leave. He’s never let me down before and I … I went looking for him and now I know he's him and as soon as I realised I knew that Gold must have him - ”

“What?” Belle interrupted, looking confused.

“My friend is The Survivor. I didn’t know. I -”

“Killian?” Belle spoke sharply, clearly terrified by the implication. Emma felt a rush of jealousy at the idea that The Survivor - that Killian - had shared his secrets with her. “Gold has Killian? Saviour, we have to get him out. You don’t understand what Gold will do to him.”

“I know!” Emma wailed, stopping her trek up and down the room. She took deep breaths to try to calm her heart rate.

“No. You don’t.” Belle’s voice was flat and emotionless but her eyes betrayed her distress. “He will torture him and he will kill him.”

“He’s not dead.” Emma whispered to herself. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she just felt it. It was like he owned a piece of her soul and she would feel it if he were truly taken from her.

“Not yet.” Belle agreed, a grim attempt at a reassuring smile stretched across her face. “But we have to move fast. Henry, let’s get to work.”

 Emma paced and tried to calm herself while Belle and Henry lept into action.

She wanted to think of a happy place, but they all revolved around and featured Killian. On his boat, smelling the salt in the air and feeling the breeze on her skin while the waves gently lapped around them. Snuggling on Killian’s couch with hot chocolate and cinnamon. Laughing with Killian as they watched the water from their special spot on the beach while the sun warmed their skin and rum warmed their bellies.

She wasn’t sure she could ever be happy again if he died. She closed her eyes, trying to shake that thought. But visions of what might be happening to him right now burst into her mind. She couldn't bear to think about how Gold might be hurting him.

It was ridiculous to suggest that knowing that it was Killian Jones who had been captured made the situation so much worse. And yet, it did.

Killian was just so much softer than Hook, more vulnerable and in touch with his emotions. It shook her to learn that Hook’s devil-may-care attitude, endless supply of innuendos and razor sharp wit, were as much a part of his disguise as the mask that hid his face. Knowing that the traits that made him a fighter, that made him The Survivor, were hiding such a tender underbelly terrified her. She needed to rescue him. Now.

 “Saviour? Earth to Saviour!” Henry’s voice snapped Emma out of her panic. He and Belle were both looking at her intently. “You still with us?” His eyes sparkled with mischief as he watched her with a raised eyebrow. “Right. I’ve got us into their security systems and we’ve located Hook. I can deactivate the alarms in the room and feed them a loop of security footage so they don’t spot you. But you haven’t got long.”

“Right.” Belle confirmed with a nod. “I’ve been reviewing the security footage. He’s never left alone for more than 15 minutes at a time. It seems to be part of Gold’s … experiments.” She broke off, looking to Emma nervously, clearly dreading her reaction.

Emma was too focussed on the mission to let anything get to her. Crying wasn’t going to save her man, so she nodded at Belle to continue.

“We’ve got Regina’s cuff for you to wear, but it’s the only one we have. You’ll have to go in alone.”

“Good. The less people involved the faster I can work.” She looked up at Belle, challenging The Librarian to contradict her. No one else cared about rescuing Killian like she did. She couldn’t worry about anyone else in this situation.

Belle eyed her warily but wisely chose to ignore this statement. “OK, well, there’s no pattern to when Killian is alone so we’ll just have to watch and wait. Put on the cuff and a earpiece now so that the second the coast is clear we can get you in.”

Emma did as instructed, then settled in to watch the security screens. She fiddled with the standard-issue Nevengers earpiece in her ear nervously, she found them kind of uncomfortable, but better that than losing contact with the team while out on a mission. She allowed her eyes to blur so she didn’t have to watch the minion wreaking havoc on Killian. She hated herself for not being able to even watch his torment when he was there, living it.

Just hold on, I’m coming for you. She thought desperately, closing her eyes and imagining herself in the room with him. She hoped that he would somehow just feel her love, that he would know she would save him.

“Get ready, Saviour!” Belle brought her back to the room. “Henry’s just disabling everything, on his signal, 3… 2… 1…”

Emma poofed straight into a sterile white room, counters covered in a variety of implements of torture lined the room. But she didn't notice them, transfixed as she was by the sight of Killian strapped to a table in the middle of the room.

He looked like a corpse, lifeless and skin tinged with grey. Her worst fears had come to life. She felt like she had died at the sight.

“Wouldn't The Survivor be the perfect guy for you, then? Maybe you hadn't noticed, but he's a little hard to kill. It's kind of his thing.”

She couldn’t help but remember Henry’s words as he had encouraged her to pursue The Survivor. They felt like a bitter taunt. She was on the verge of collapse when Killian mumbled something incoherently.

“Killian!” she cried out in delight and relief and ran to his side. She couldn't help but reach out and stroke his cheek, needing to touch him, to feel that he was real. He slowly opened his eyes, staring dully up at her and subconsciously nuzzled against her palm. She smiled, overjoyed to see that he was holding on to life, and tried to hide her terror from him. It was all going to be ok now, they were together and she could save him.

She waved her hand to release his restraints. Nothing happened. She tried again and was hit by a terrible realisation: her magic didn’t work on them.

What was she meant to do now? How was she going to save the man she loved? How could she ever stand against Gold if some basic cuffs had her beaten?

She knew that her anxieties were quickly spiralling out of control, but she couldn’t see a way out of this situation. Leaving without Killian simply wasn’t an option, but how could she take him with her?

“Panel -” the stuttered word from Killian stunned her and for a moment she couldn’t understand what he meant. His eyes were fixed behind her - she looked over her shoulder and saw what he meant at once: a keypad that surely held the secret to releasing him “- there’s a code.”

While his words couldn’t completely calm her fears, knowing that he was still fighting Gold, still working with her, filled her with pride. If he could rise to the challenge then so could she.

She pressed her finger to her earpiece to activate it. “Belle,” she said, trying to sound calm. “I need a code to release Killian. Get Henry to figure it out.”

“Teacup.” Belle’s response was automatic. “832287”

A part of Emma wondered at the certainty of Belle’s instantaneous response, but she didn’t have time to question it. She smashed in the code and breathed a deep sigh of release when the bonds sprang open.

“Thanks, Belle,” she breathed, already rushing back to Killian’s side.

She pulled him into her arms and attempted to magic them back to HQ. Nothing happened. Her grip tightened on Killian, part of her appreciating the reassuring warmth of his chest while the rest of her was busy freaking out.

“Guys … My magic’s not working,” she hissed into her earpiece, while running her hand up and down Killian's back to soothe him.

“Shit, fuck, shit shit shit.” Emma almost laughed at Henry's reply, but her chest felt on the brink of exploding with the strength of her heartbeat.

“Henry!” Belle scolded. “He's already on it, Saviour, inputting that code seems to have triggered a failsafe in the security system to block powers… and the frequency is not overridden by your cuff.”

“But he can fix it, right?”

Killian whimpered and Emma realised that she was digging her fingers into his skin. She had to force herself to loosen her grip, reminding herself that she was hurting him.

“Of course I fucking can, Saviour, I'm The Author. I got this.” Henry's cocky reply actually managed to make her laugh this time. He'd been spending too much time with The Survivor.

“Saviour… Sorry to worry you but…” Belle’s voice broke in hesitantly.

“What?” If Emma thought she was panicking before it was nothing to how she felt now.

“... You're about to have company.”

“Fuck.” Emma jumped away from Killian and looked around the room for weapons. She prayed that whoever was coming didn't have a gun.

“I'll have you out of there in a minute, Saviour. Just hold em off til then.”

She grabbed a long knife from the counter, ignoring the blood stains along the blade. She moved to place herself between Killian and the door.

Repressing a shudder, she tried not to think about how that knife must have been used on him. She tried not to panic that he hadn't yet moved to defend himself.

He doesn't have any wounds, she told herself. He can still heal. He's just tired.

Her muscles were locked and tense. She was trained for this, but still… No one wanted to face an enemy without their superpowers.

She heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor.

“Come on, Henry,” she whispered.

The door opened. “What the -” She stabbed out at the shocked guard on the right. He staggered back in shock as his partner stepped forward to take his place.

“It's done. Get out of there,” came Henry's voice in Emma’s ear.

She whirled around to grab Killian's hand. She heard a click behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. The guard had a gun. It was pointing right at them.

She heard the bang as the room dissolved into fog.

Killian's legs buckled as they arrived in the sick bay at headquarters. She guided him backwards to the bed, landing awkwardly on top of him as they tumbled down.

She felt a warmth seeping into her shirt. Oh god, the gunshot. She raised herself up on her elbows to look at him, feeling the panic rising as she looked for a bullet wound.

His shoulder - his powers were working, but painfully slowly. He wasn’t healthy and healing himself was taking too much effort. His eyes were closed and he looked so sickly and pale. She poured every part of her soul into ensuring his well-being.

You’re safe, she thought, willing him back to life. You’re loved, as her magic flowed from her and into him. I need you.

His eyes fluttered open. He couldn’t seem to see her and her heart nearly broke, but recognition swept over him and he beamed up at her. Despite all the exhaustion he must have felt, the only thing that she could see in his eyes was pure happiness. Could she really be the cause of that?

She felt her frown melt away and couldn’t help but reflect his smile. It was time to reveal everything.

“I have to tell you something.” She grabbed his hands and pulled him upright, sitting back on her heels. He held on tightly to her hands, clinging to her for dear life and attempting to look encouraging. Her heart swelled with happiness, and she could feel a lightness spreading through her whole body at the thought of telling her secret and setting down her burden.

“I -” am Emma Swan. The words were right there. It should be so easy to say them, but her throat closed up. An inexplicable terror had gripped her heart and a thousand “what ifs” swarmed up in her brain. It all felt too much like an admission of love and she knew she wasn’t ready to be that vulnerable. He had rejected her. Killian had. The Survivor had. She didn’t know why.

What if he didn’t care for her in that way? What if he didn’t want this life? What if she wasn’t enough? What if it was all too much?

She was drowning in anxiety and she didn’t know how to control it. He winced as a spark flew from her fingertips and concern crumpled his brow.

What if..? What if..? What if..?

She glanced at her fingers in horror. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t hurt him. So she managed it the only way she knew how - she avoided the issue. She swallowed to ease her dry throat and forced a smile.

“I’m so glad that Gold didn’t kill you.”

***

“Killian!”

He started from a dream. No, wait, he must have been awake and dropped into a slumber, for The Saviour was here and she knew his name.

But - hadn’t they just been together - or was that Emma? He strained to recall where he had just been, what had just happened, but it was so hard to be sure. The line between reality and hallucinations was blurring. Everything was foggy and uncertain, even The Saviour before him seemed insubstantial, like a ghost of a dream of a memory long since forgotten.

His head ached with the effort. Perhaps Gold had finally won and he had lost his mind, hallucinating visions of loveliness.

Oh, and how lovely she was! If this was madness, he wasn’t sure that he wanted sanity. She was beaming at him even as terror and concern filled her eyes. He wanted to speak, to tell her how happy he was that she was there. But it was ok, he knew that she knew.

As the vision swarmed in and out of his sight he realised that she was going frantic. He lifted his head as far as he could, confused that she wasn’t radiating calm and warmth and love like she normally did. Dimly he realised that she was trying to free him. “Panel -” he murmured weakly, looking towards the keypad that she needed to use to free him “- there’s a code.”

He fell back, exhausted by the effort.

This wasn’t right. He still felt pain, that was true, but it was supposed to be fleeting, not this empty haze. Perhaps he was broken. Would he stay that way forever? Could The Dark One torture him endlessly? Should he just let go?

Warmth surrounded him. It felt good and right. Reassuring. Safe.

Until it wasn't.

He could feel The Saviour tense. She was frantically talking but he couldn't follow what she was saying. He let her words wash over him, lulling him briefly.

Her grip on him tightened more and more. Until he couldn't help the whimper that spilled from his lips. He felt frail. Insubstantial.

She released him and he fell back against the table.

There were noises. The Saviour's hand grasped his own. There was an earsplitting bang.

The fog returned, denser and more terrible than before.

When the fog cleared he was standing and there was nothing but pain. His knees gave out and he stumbled backwards.

He landed on his back with something soft behind him and a comforting presence above. But it was hard to focus on anything good through the agony. He didn’t know what had happened, just that it was wrong. He’d been rescued, why wasn’t everything better now? He could feel his powers struggling to work, to make things right. The pain was receding but slowly, far too slowly. Maybe this was his end. Maybe Gold had finally broken him.

He felt happiness and security and love rushing through his veins, bringing him back to reality.

He blinked his eyes open - it was her, the Saviour. His Saviour. She had really found him. But she looked sad, worried and desperate.

As he smiled up at her, the distress on her face turned into pure happiness. Was that for him?

“I have to tell you something.” She pulled him upright and he held onto her hands tightly. Perhaps too tightly, but she was real and she was here and he never, ever wanted to let her go. His heart swelled at the love he believed he could see shining out from her, and he waited, desperate to hear what she had to say. Perhaps she would reveal her true identity - or her true feelings for him.

He nodded at her to talk, not trusting his own voice yet.

“I -” he could feel it, her love. She was glowing with it and it was all for him. She loved him and he loved her and everything would be perfect -

“I’m so glad that Gold didn’t kill you.”

Killian hadn’t realised that he was holding his breath until he heard her words and felt himself deflate. Of course. Of course she didn’t love him. How could she? She could barely even look at him now. She scrambled away, muttering about finding Belle and having him checked over, leaving him cold and alone.

What a fool to have hoped for so much more. How could she love him after every terrible thing he had done? She was the happy ending that he truly did not deserve.

Still, her unwillingness to at least share her real name left a bitter taste in his mouth. His secrets were all laid bare for her to see, and yet she was still so secretive. True, he hadn’t ever had the courage to unmask himself, but what need was there for pretense now? Surely he had to know her or why else would she care?

The image of Emma soothing him through his torment sprang to mind, but he cast it aside. There was no way he could be that lucky. And really, what were the chances that two superheroes were working alongside each other in blissful ignorance? The Regina-as-Evil-Queen-as-Bitchy-Boss reveal was unbelievable enough.

No, that couldn’t be it. Surely they hated each other in their real lives and The Saviour was reconsidering having ever been close to him at all.

She was probably the blonde bakery owner who made the amazing frosting that Emma adored. He’d always suspected the girl had a bit of a thing for Emma. She always had a flirtatious smile and a wink for his best friend while her behaviour towards him tended to be rather... icy. The blonde who ran the ice cream store was similarly always happy to see his Swan, while seeming rather cool towards him.

But then, he could hardly blame anyone for warming to Emma, she was like a ray of sunshine and so delightfully unaware of how much she affected those around her. It was all part of her adorably insecure charm.

Shut up you bloody wanker!

He was barely done bemoaning the fact that The Saviour wasn’t baring her soul to him when he was lost in lovesick mooning over Emma. He didn’t deserve The Saviour’s secrets, and he certainly didn’t deserve her love.

 Belle was poking and prodding at him, checking for signs of lasting damage from Gold. He had tried to protest that he felt fine, and there were more urgent matters at hand. But The Librarian made it clear that she was going to check him, even if she had to tie him down to do it.

If she noticed the way that he shuddered at the thought of that, she made no comment.

So instead he lay back listlessly, allowing her attentions and getting lost in the horrific memories that he couldn’t escape from.

It was the mental torture that was the worst. The pain he could handle, but the psychological tricks were getting to him and he was losing his battle to stay - or at least appear to be - sane.

“Well dearie as you and I have had so much fun with my Dagger, I thought I’d share the good news with you. On Wednesday there is going to be a press conference to unveil my latest philanthropic endeavour to the world.” He spoke these words with a flourish, brandishing the Dagger, gleefully delighted with himself. “This Dagger is going to change everyone’s lives for the better!” Killian blinked but otherwise remained impassive - and Gold’s impish grin dropped into a snarl. “Aren’t you going to congratulate me, dearie? Afterall, you’re my oldest friend, I thought you might be pleased.”

“Congratulations.” Killian’s intoned dispassionately, little caring what the lunatic said. He had lost all sense of time in Gold’s lab. He might have been there for weeks or merely days. “Wednesday” meant nothing to him, but he struggled to retain that information. Perhaps if he were to escape he could use it to help Emma.

“You haven’t asked what my plans are - worried about spoilers?” More like tired of your voice, Killian thought, but said nothing. “Well I’m going to share them anyway - I’m too excited not to! During the press conference the Dagger is going to go online and everyone will be under my control.”

“Why?” Killian couldn’t help himself, he had to know what the point of it all was.

“Why? Well, why not?” Gold asked, wrinkling his nose at Killian in disgust. “Humans cannot be trusted to take care of themselves and thanks to me, they won’t have to. I will make them eat a proper diet and exercise when they need to. They will all get the vaccinations that they need. I’ll solve the problem of climate change in an instant - no need for anyone to adopt greener habits, they will just have them.”

“Are you honestly trying to tell me that you’re doing all of this so that people will turn off the lights and eat their veggies like good little boys and girls? I must say, I’m almost disappointed, Gold.”

“You have no vision, Lieutenant. That’s just the start! Soon we’ll be able to ensure that only suitable candidates procreate -”

Killian could taste the bile in his throat at this banal statement. As if controlling people’s rights to have children was in the same league as going for a daily jog. “Wait. Who’s going to decide on their suitability? You?” he sneered incredulously.

“Why not me? Sometimes it takes a visionary to see what must be done. There would be rigorous genetic testing, considerations of family assets and psych evaluations.”

“You really think that you can say what it takes to be a good parent? Tell me, how long is it since you’ve seen Baelfire? Do you know where he is these days?”

He knew full well that Baelfire’s disappearance had destroyed Gold.

Gold conjured up a knife and drove it deep into Killian’s heart. He shrieked in pain as his tormenter bent low over him, his face a mask of fury. “You are not worthy to speak his name. Baelfire will return to me.”

Blood gushed from Killian as the knife was withdrawn. He gasped, surely he was going to die - not even he could survive thi- the bleeding stopped. He had healed. Killian still felt dizzy and sick from the sudden and extreme blood loss. His face was clammy. He took deep breaths to calm himself.

“Is that really what this is all about? Manipulating your son into loving you again? That is, assuming he ever did love you.”

Killian braced himself for a blow that never came. Instead Gold bent down to his ear and murmured in it, almost sweetly, although his words were laced with venom. “I expect you’d know all about that. How old were you when your father sold you? Don’t you think the world would be a better place if men like your father simply didn’t want to breed?”

Killian shut down his emotions and focussed on sarcasm. “Why, then I wouldn’t be here to taunt you, would I, Gold? Whyever would I want that?”

“Do you really think that the world needs more people like you? You're nothing but a one handed traitor with a drinking problem - hardly a great role model.”

“I’m sure that Milah would have said it does.” Killian taunted with a smirk, ignoring the whispers within him that agreed with Gold. They told him how worthless he was, how the world would be better off without him, reminding him of all the people he’d hurt, all the lives he’d ruined…

“Such a shame that my dearly departed wife cannot speak for you then, isn’t it, dearie?”

“So I’m guessing that as I don’t fit your new world order, I’ll be the first to go when it arrives? Why not save me the wait and get right to it now?”

Gold gasped in mock horror, clutching a hand to his chest. “And make you miss all the fun? Oh no, no, no. I want you to watch as my vision comes to life. I want you to see how happy I make the world so you know how wrong you are. I want to hear you weep to know that you are powerless to stop me.”

“I won’t give you the satisfaction.”

“I’m sure if I continue to do this you will.” Gold jabbed his knife into Killian’s arm, causing him to cry out in pain.

“Not sure that counts, Gold,” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “And you may think the people are happy, but that’s because you are delusional.”

“Oh Killian, when will you understand? People are sheep. They just need a shepherd to guide them to the light.”

Gold beamed at him beatifically, as he stabbed him over and over again, preventing him from dismissing his messianic rhetoric as bullshit.

“Killian, are you alright?” He looked up at the sound of Belle’s voice. “You look upset, do you want me to get The Saviour? She’s worried sick about you.”

Killian had to force down a smile at this sign that The Saviour did actually care about him. He had to focus. “No. Belle, you need to assemble the Nevengers. We’re running out of time to save the world.”

Chapter 10

Thanks for reading guys! Here’s some people who’ve asked to be tagged - give me a shout if you do/not want to be included!

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#cs ff #cs fanfics #cs ff au #cs au #ouat ff #the masks we wear #chapter 9 #katie dub writes

[daleisgreat]

G1/RoH Supercard (of Honor XIII)

Welcome to my annual Ring of Honor (RoH) blog for their annual Supercard of Honor show. 2019 was a wild year for RoH. They started the year losing access to Matt and Nick Jackson, Cody Rhodes, Kenny Omega and all three members of SCU (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) as they all departed after their contracts expired at the end of the 2018 to help launch All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Before that it was known that those seven wrestlers would be leaving, RoH collaborated with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) to announce a special live PPV they would be airing on WrestleMania weekend: G1 Supercard. G1 is a recurring PPV special for NJPW, and I am presuming Supercard is short for the Supercard of Honor PPV special that usually transpires during WrestleMania weekend which is why I am covering this PPV and treating it as Supercard of Honor XIII. There is another big reason I wanted to cover this show…. That is because this joint venture between NJPW and RoH emanated from the ‘World’s Most Popular Arena’ Madison Square Garden. This was a shocking announcement because going back several decades WWE had the exclusive rights to MSG and the last other promotion that ran a show in MSG was back in 1960! WWE tried pressuring MSG and briefly got them to remove the show from their schedule….that was until the owners of RoH, Sinclair Broadcasting, called up WWE and informed them they own roughly half the FOX TV affiliate stations that would be starting to air SmackDown on FOX within several months and have control of what time to air WWE’s new flagship show and that was reason enough for Vince McMahon to back off and G1 Supercard wound up running as scheduled during the 2019 WrestleMania weekend from MSG.

NJPW and RoH have been lending talent to each other for years, but this is one of the first times they evenly split a card 50/50 for each promotion’s matches. When the tickets originally went on sale, it was shortly before the much hyped independent All In PPV put on by most of the Elite (at that time consisting of Cody, Omega, Young Bucks, Marty Scurll and Adam Paige) that RoH lent a lot of their talent for. The show wound up being a huge success and all the buzz for All In presumably was the catalyst for G1 Supercard selling out in under a day of tickets officially going on sale. By the time the G1 Supercard rolled around all of the Elite, save for Marty Scurll, departed RoH a few months earlier leaving a huge void of headline guys for RoH. The NJPW half of the card delivered with exciting match-ups, while the RoH half stuck out with a lack of top level talent. The PPV had two pre-show matches that are included as bonuses on the DVD. The first match saw Jenny Rose & Oedo Tai overcoming the handicap match odds and defeating Hung Kimura, Sumie Sakai and Stella Grey when Tai got the pin with a 450 in a bout that saw a lot of nonstop energy to get the crowd rolling. G1 Supercard will be the first PPV I can remember that had a 30 person Rumble match in a pre-show they billed as the ‘Honor Rumble.’ It was also the longest pre-show match I can recall at 49 minutes. Entrances were sped up at approximately 30 second intervals to keep up the tempo which made it enticing to see who would walk out next. Both RoH and NJPW stars competed and I only recognized roughly half of the competitors, but it was fun learning some new faces. Colt Cabana was on commentary for the night but took a breather to compete in the Rumble when Yano invited him to take his spot. Other faces I recognized were Justin Gabriel now going by PJ Black, Beer City Bruiser, Delirious, Kenny King, Cheeseburger and a trio of Asian wrestling legends in Haku, Great Muta and Jushin Thunder Liger.

I do not care how aged Haku is because he still looks like one of the baddest guys on the planet I would not want to mess with. I have no idea how active Muta is, but he was not at all agile and seemed very careful with his movements. Liger could still go, but he was in the midst of his retirement year tour and it was apparent his best days were behind him. The end of the Rumble saw it looking like it would come down to Liger and Muta, but then Kenny King pulled the ‘ol hide under the ring trick card and emerged to toss Liger and Muta out to win it all. That was a fun crazy Rumble with the frequent entrances and it brought back memories of that bonkers Rumble match on a 2000 episode of Thunder with all kinds of unique entrants that were AWOL in that time of uncertainty for WCW and also marked the last appearance of Macho Man in WCW. The start of the actual PPV saw a ‘winner takes all’ match with two titles on the line in RoH’s TV Title and NJPW’s Never Openweight Title. Jeff Cobb beat Will Ospreay here to walk away with both belts in a bout that did not fail to deliver a ton of insane spots. Dalton Castle was the RoH champ on a previous SoH PPV I covered here, but now his stock has dwindled as he lost to Rush in 15 seconds here after three straight Shotgun Dropkicks. After Castle collected himself, he turned and obliterated his eccentric seconds, The Boys. The RoH Women’s Title was on the line next and saw Kelly Klein beat Iwatoni with an Airplane Spin slam in a decent bout. I had no idea TNA/Impact Wrestling’s The Beautiful People were still a hot commodity after their countless stop-n-go runs in that promotion, but when Velvet Skye and Angelina Love walked out after the match and attacked Klein the announcers put it over as the biggest thing ever to happen to their women’s division.

DJ/Hip Hop artist Mega Ran came out for a musical performance next, the song is a decent catchy beat for the DVD menus too which is a nice relief from the generic basement-rock that dominates most other RoH releases. Anywho, Bully Ray interrupted and harassed Mega Ran and laid out an open challenge that turned into a six-man tag with Bully Ray, Silas Young and Shane Taylor taking on Flip Gordon, Juice Robinson and Mark Haskins. This was a surprisingly a fun weapons brawl with lots of creative spots. The finish saw Ray fall victim to the Wassup Headbutt and the Gordon hitting the 450 for the win. The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title was on the line next in a triple threat between Bandido, Dragon Lee and Taiji. In a bout that I will remember as having a sick tower spot, it saw Bandido capture the gold after hitting a variant of a driver-pin combination. Another winner takes all titles match transpired next for both the RoH and NJPW tag team titles in a four way between The Briscoes, Guerillas of Destiny, Evil & Sanada and Brody King & PCO. RoH contributed some production dollars for PCO’s electric (literally) entrance that saw him get the Frankenstein electric chair treatment in a thrilling visual. Speaking of production dollars, this is easily the best looking RoH show I have ever seen, especially compared to the first couple of SoH shows I covered here. The Guerillas of Destiny walked out with all the tag gold when they hit their double powerbomb finisher on Brody for the victory. RoH caught a lot of heat for running a ‘worked shoot’ segment after the match ended with the wrestlers formerly known as Big Cass & Enzo running out and attacking the Briscoes after the match before they got escorted out, but RoH never officially acknowledged it on camera and after all the negative reception it got did not request feature services from Cass & Enzo so I will link to this fan footage of the run-in instead.

A third promotion contributed a match to G1 Supercard with Revolution Pro having their British Heavyweight Title on the card with Hiroshi Tanahoshi challenging Zack Sabre Jr. for the championship. I only remember Zack’s excellent work in the Cruiserweight Classic from a few years back so it was great seeing him again, doubly so since he was accompanied by another old favorite of mine I have not seen in over a decade in TAKA Michinoku. This bout saw a heavy emphasis on heavy duty technical and submission wrestling which was a breather from the spotfests that dominated the rest of the card. I want to re-emphasize ‘heavy duty’ because both Tanahoshi and Sabre did a superb job at conveying how much they laid into each other with a sick submission Sabre Jr. kept amplifying in unbelievable ways that I cannot even describe until Tanahoshi convincingly tapped out. Thinking about this now I would rank this as my favorite match from the night! The tenth contest of the night saw the IWGP Intercontinental Title on the line between Naito and Kota Ibushi. I recognize both guys from the handful of NJPW Kenny Omega matches I tracked down after hearing a ton of buzz for and also recognize Ibushi from his Cruiserweight Classic run too. This match delivered, and had a great NJPW produced video package too. Both guys delivered a lot of intense neck and head spots, and Ibushi wound up winning after a rising knee strike in another match that was close to my favorite for the night. The RoH World Title was on the line next in a triple threat ‘Ladder War’ between Marty Scurll, Matt Taven and Jay Lethal. Lethal was hyped going into this as having the title the most number of days compared to all other previous champions….but I could never buy into him as a top level guy, and I recall despising Matt Taven on previous RoH shows and Scurll I have bad memories of his match against Castle last year where he spent eons trying to find a weapon under the ring so I did not have a vested interest in the bout. It was a solid match with a few unique spots and saw Taven winning the title after fighting off Lethal in the end, but I felt rather ho-hum coming out of this, and apparently so did the crowd watching their tepid reaction to Taven’s title win.

The headlining main event saw Jay White defend his IWGP Title against Kazuchika Okada. I love how NJPW produces their video packages, and this one got me amped up going into the main event. The duo told a great story, and White’s manager, Gedo found clever ways to get involved. I recognize Okada from another Omega match I saw that I believe went to a time limit draw, and this match also went on a while going just over a half hour before White fell victim to the RAIIIIIIN-MAKERRRRR Lariat with Okada capturing the IWGP Title. I saw online reception noting the weak RoH half of the show, and compared to the New Japan offerings, they definitely were a couple notches below, but RoH still had a couple of really good matches like the TV Title and bout and Bully Ray’s open challenge was the perfect refresher for this long of a card. I will give big ups for the Honor Rumble, Tag Titles and IWGP Title matches, but my two favorites that blew everything else away on here was the Zack Sabre/Tanahoshi and Naito/Ibushi matches. More than anything I came out of the G1 Supercard wanting to get more into NJPW, but with so much other wrestling out there to keep up with, I will probably only be picking and watching the occasional match or two a year that generates a ton of buzz. Collectively, I will give G1 Supercard a strong thumbs up and recommend to track down, especially seeing both promotions operate in a big time atmosphere like Madison Square Garden made the event truly special and standout like few other cards from RoH history. Past Wrestling Blogs Best of WCW Clash of Champions Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2 Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3 Biggest Knuckleheads Bobby The Brain Heenan Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes DDP: Positively Living Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials ECW Unreleased: Vol 1 ECW Unreleased: Vol 2 ECW Unreleased: Vol 3 Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story For All Mankind Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection Hulk Hogans Unreleased Collectors Series Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story The Kliq Rules Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman Legends of Mid South Wrestling Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story Memphis Heat NXT: From Secret to Sensation NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1 OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History Owen: Hart of Gold RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge Shawn Michaels: My Journey Sting: Into the Light Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder Then Now Forever – The Evolution of WWEs Womens Division TLC 2017 TNA Lockdown 2005-2016 Top 50 Superstars of All Time Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season True Giants Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches Warrior Week on WWE Network Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition Wrestlemania 28-Present The Wrestler (2008) Wrestling Road Diaries Too Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money Wrestlings Greatest Factions WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016 WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017

#Wrestling #Ring Of Honor #ROH #new japan pro wrestling #njpw #g1 #supercard of honor #jay white #Jay Briscoe #Mark Briscoe #zack sabre jr #naito #okada #jushin thunder liger #great muta #marty scurll #kenny king #bully ray #silas young #beer city bruiser #flip gordon #kelly klein #colt cabana #dalton castle #rush

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/can-gopro-reinvent-itself-by-going-back-to-its-past/

Can GoPro Reinvent Itself... By Going Back to Its Past?

The action-camera company grew fast, and crashed hard. Now it’s trying to pick itself back up — by thinking a lot smaller.

November 21, 2019 15+ min read

This story appears in the December 2019 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

­This past August, 40 influencers from 19 countries left their homes with camera in hand. Their mission: Film themselves from the moment they stepped out the door, onward to the airport, and en route to the remote Western Australia town of Broome. They’d charge into the ocean, do bike flips, and ride camels on the beach. And then they’d race to stitch the footage together into a montage and submit it for a contest by 11:59 p.m.

The next morning, the influencers are surprisingly bright-eyed, sitting in a conference room, waiting to learn who made the best video. “I know you guys are curious to know who got the award,” says Devon DiPietro, head of community at the action-camera company GoPro, which organized the event. “But there were so many good submissions that we’re not ready to announce it yet.”

The influencers nod. They know they’re good. So does GoPro, which is why the company spent a lot of money bringing them here. With any luck, the influencers will now help the company make a lot of money.

Related: With Girlboss, Sophia Amoruso Is Using Past Failures to Fuel Her Latest Success

This big bash in Broome is what GoPro calls its Creator Summit, and it’s the pinnacle event in an ongoing effort to fix its business. GoPro never had trouble with exposure — the brand’s name is synonymous with first-­person action footage. But it’s had an on-and-off relationship with profitability. In 2014, its stock topped out at $93.85. Then the company stumbled, and it lost more than $700 million between 2016 and 2019. This year, its stock price dipped below $3.50. If you’d invested $10,000 at GoPro’s peak, you wouldn’t have enough cash to buy its flagship camera. (It goes for about $400.)

Now GoPro is going through the same process countless companies do at every stage of business: It’s rethinking exactly who its target audience is — and how to appeal to them. That’s why, over the next four days, the influencers GoPro has brought to Australia will ride boats and Jet Skis, snorkel through a flooded mangrove forest, and swim with sharks. They’ll take mud baths, buzz the coastline in floatplanes, and document a schedule of activities GoPro believes its core users thirst for. The company foots the bill and has put up an additional $10,000 in prize money to reward these influencers during an array of challenges. In return, the creators will post 566 times, generating 30 million impressions and 1.8 million social engagements.

Will that generate revenue? It just might. “You’re seeing a real turnaround in their core business,” says Andrew Uerkwitz, a senior tech analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. “They’re actually going to turn a profit this year.”

But first, the influencers need their validation. A little later this first morning, DiPietro finally announces who made the best video. “Congratulations, Nick Pescetto!” she says.

Pescetto, an Italian influencer with gorgeous sun-fried dreadlocks and a quarter-­million social-media followers, steps up to accept his award. With one hand, he shakes DiPietro’s hand. With the other, he holds a GoPro, rotating it between his own grinning face and the applause of his peers. 

Image Credit: @davidoc by @chrisrogers

“Everybody likes to see the champ fall from grace,” says GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman. “It’s ‘We love you! We love you!’ And then you slip up and they’re on you with daggers, stabbing you to death.” 

If it’s not immediately clear, GoPro is the Julius in this allegory. Before the brand’s assassination, it was widely held up as a shining example of entrepreneurial glory.

The origin story is well-told. In 2002, during a five-month surfing trip through Australia and Indonesia, Woodman, then 26, began fidgeting with a strap that would allow him to rig a waterproof camera to his wrist. If he could document his time in the barrel — what surfers call the inside of a wave — it might help him go pro. (Get it?) So he raised some money from his parents, put in $30,000 of his own savings, created a 35-millimeter camera with a strap on it, and sold his first unit in 2004 for $19.99.

A natural salesman, Woodman drove up and down the coast, pitching his camera to surf and skate shops. They understood the appeal. “Before GoPro, unless you had a photographer following you around, nobody had footage of themselves doing anything active,” says Woodman. “It was always the before and after photos in the parking lot.” Growth was steady, thanks to trade shows and athletes using the cameras, but the real pop came in 2006 when GoPro launched its first digital camera. Sales topped $800,000. As the cameras improved in functionality, so did profits. In late 2009, it sold a camera called the HD Hero that brought in $64 million over the course of 2010.

The following year, GoPro raised $88 million in venture funding and was valued at $400 million. When it went public in 2014, it had 25,000 specialty retail accounts. “Those were the good days,” says Todd Ballard, GoPro’s chief marketing officer. “It felt like everything we touched turned to gold.” 

In truth, it was a lot of fool’s gold.

In the company’s IPO documents, GoPro acknowledged that virtually all of its revenue came from selling cameras and accessories — ­but instead of calling itself a consumer electronics company, it claimed that it could become an “exciting new media company.” It had secured Xbox and Virgin America as distribution partners, and it was working on original content that it hoped to monetize with advertising, sponsorships, and increased camera sales.

“People were like, ‘Damn! That’s a great idea!’ ” says Uerkwitz. It got GoPro a lot of attention. GoPro declines to reveal specifics on how much it spent on its media division, but “it was a pretty big spend,” says Woodman. “We had a very large team of filmers and editors,” including sports, lifestyle, and reality-style scripted divisions. The year before the company went public, GoPro’s operating expenses were $263 million. In 2016, it spent $835 million — three times as much. But no serious content was released with any regularity. The project flopped.

Meanwhile, as part of a growth promise to investors, GoPro launched entry-level cameras designed to steal market share from point-and-shoots and DSLRs. “We started getting greedy as an organization,” says Ballard. “It drove us to think, How do we get soccer moms to buy our cameras? How do we get everybody to buy our cameras?”

Related: How This Ex-Con Started From Nothing to Build a 7-Figure Business

That’s not to say this is an inherently bad strategy. Companies need to grow, which can mean expanding their audience. In books and podcasts, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman advises founders to ignore the needs of their early, core customers in favor of appealing to their future “scale customers.” And when the extreme racing company Tough Mudder looked to expand its offerings, appealing beyond its hard-core base to attract everyday athletes, it approached the project carefully — but determinedly. “What I didn’t want to be seen doing was somehow diluting the brand,” says Tough Mudder cofounder and former CEO Will Dean. So he acted slowly, introducing new, easier races at the same time he introduced harder, more extreme races. For inspiration, Dean turned to a Harvard Business Review case study on Porsche, which went through this same issue. In 2003, Porsche launched the midpriced Cayenne SUV to attract its own soccer moms, and some high-end drivers got grumpy. Porsche had to convince its core fans that the brand would still deliver on their expectations of exclusivity — which it did in part by taking some of its earnings from the SUV and investing it in making new, expensive sports cars.

But GoPro wasn’t as delicate. Scroll back far enough in the company’s Instagram feed and you’ll find evidence of how it approached its mass-market effort — through photos of sunsets, sleeping cats, and babies eating cookies. None of this attracted the soccer moms, but it did push GoPro’s core user away. Even Woodman lost interest. “I stopped paying attention to our own Instagram feed and YouTube channel,” he says. “I thought they were lame. If you’re a 22-year-old who’s really getting after it and you’re seeing this type of marketing, you’re like, Is this my brand?”

In 2016, GoPro released a $1,099 drone called the Karma, but it was bedeviled by reports of battery problems and crashes. It seemed like a metaphor.

Image Credit: @geoffgulevich of @dberrecloth

The GoPro decline came fast. It laid off 450 people in 2016. Rumors swirled that the founder and CEO was unable to carry his company. “There was a period where it really bothered me,” he says about the headlines. “It was like, Can you guys get off it now?”

But GoPro had a reason for hope. Even as it bled cash, it still owned the action-­camera market. Since going public, the company has sold at least 4.3 million cameras annually. No other company has come close. “Sony tried and failed, Garmin tried and failed, Xiaomi tried and failed — and those three companies are all much larger than GoPro,” says Uerkwitz. (Today, GoPro captures roughly 95 of every 100 dollars spent on action cameras in the U.S.)

So it kept developing cameras. In the spring of 2018, it was preparing to launch a new one called the Hero7 Black. This camera would improve upon previous editions with a seemingly magic feature that turns shaky camera footage — the kind you get by mounting a camera to a surfboard or a helmet — ­into a buttery-smooth motion picture. It was an impressive technological leap, but when Woodman reviewed the proposed marketing, he hated it. “It was super safe and boring,” he says.  

Chasing the mass market was threatening GoPro’s identity. It had been ignoring its core customers in favor of what LinkedIn’s Hoffman would call “scale customers” — but what if its extreme sports users actually were its scale customers? That’s when Woodman had an epiphany. “Nick was like: ‘Dude, we’re not doing this anymore,’ ” says Ballard. “ ‘We need to go back to what we stand for.’ ” The company wouldn’t be about appealing to broad audiences or making so much of its own content. It would be about enabling the most adventurous people on the planet to capture — and share! — their own accomplishments. It would double down on them.

Back in 2015, GoPro had launched an awards program that encouraged users to submit videos and photos for a chance to earn up to $5,000. GoPro then used the best stuff in its marketing and social media. The strategy was more cost-effective than paying an in-house media team to capture footage all over the world. But more important, it created a community of travelers, producers, and athletes who began to see GoPro as another way to make money doing what they love. Since its launch, the awards program had paid out roughly $3 million, and now supplies roughly 70 percent of GoPro posts on social media. 

Related: How This Family Rebuilt Their Business After Devastating Losses

The users who submit to the awards program make up what Woodman calls the “tip-of-spear” consumers — the people going into surf and skate shops 10 years ago. These were the people Woodman wanted to reengage. So he told his staff to rethink the creative launch of the Hero7, as well as everything that came after it. “That was a pivotal time,” says Ballard. “We needed to hear that from him.”

Prior to this revelation, GoPro’s most recent camera was launched with a nearly five-minute marketing video opening on a couple running hand-in-hand through a park. The camera’s technology was not discussed. 

By contrast, under Woodman’s new (but old!) direction, the fall 2018 launch of the Hero7 featured fast music and quick cuts. Users received a full technology rundown in two minutes: stabilization, voice-­command features, the ability to speed up and slow down footage. You see a rocket blasting away from Earth and motorbikes hitting dirt jumps while graphics like “HDR” and “1080p240” flash across the screen.

The marketing campaign was coupled with GoPro’s biggest award incentive yet — a million-dollar challenge that produced one superhot sizzle reel shot entirely on the Hero7. From 25,000 customer submissions, GoPro chose 56 award recipients, and the average payout was just under $18,000.

During its first week on sale, the Hero7 became the fastest-selling GoPro ever. In the first half of 2019, the company earned 2.2 million new social media followers, a 41 percent increase compared with the first half of 2018. In June, GoPro’s YouTube channel set a single-month record with 46 million unique views.

Woodman was right. Now it was time to dig in deeper. The company invested more heavily in an insights-and-analytics team — which, unlike before, could now explore the needs of its narrowly focused users. GoPro was going to learn exactly what they wanted. And then it would do whatever it could to please them…including taking 40 of them to Australia.

Image Credit: @fredfalco

The Australia trip is an influencer’s dream — the camera equipment, the beach, two pools, a yoga studio. Between the on-camera explorations, GoPro hosts breakout sessions on Photoshop, video editing, and personal branding. And then, on the last day of the summit, the group is brought together inside a coffee shop, in front of a deli case with a crocodile’s head inside. For the first time in days, they’re told to turn off their cameras. In advance of this moment, they’ve all signed NDAs. 

This is GoPro’s big payoff for the trip. It’s about to reveal two new cameras: the next-level Hero8 Black and the 360-degree Max.

“The Hero8 is a nod to everyone here,” says Jeremy Hendricks, a GoPro senior product marketing manager. “It’s a nod to the pros.” 

At first, the new camera looks just like the old one. It’s a black box. But then Hendricks unfolds a pair of concealed tabs, which extend from the bottom of the camera like stumpy legs.

Related: How to Maintain a Professional Relationship After a Business Partnership Falls Through

The influencers immediately understand. With previous GoPros, in order to clip the camera to a helmet mount or extendable selfie stick, users had to first snap it into a finicky plastic frame, which had tabs on the bottom. But now, with the Hero8 update, these tabs will be built directly into the camera — ­there when you need them, hidden when you don’t. “You guys!” says Hendricks. “No more frames!” 

Hendricks is confident in his delivery, because those flip-out tabs solve for a pain point specifically identified by GoPro’s insights and analytics teams. The influencers erupt. 

“Folding fingers!” says Tim Humphreys, a pro snowboarder. “Keep talking dirty to us!”

GoPro sure will, because when people like Humphreys love GoPro, more seem to follow. After three years of losses, the company is expecting 6 to 9 percent growth in 2019.  But it still has a lot of work to do. Core users are once again sweet on the brand, but investors are still sour. After a second-quarter earnings call during which the company reported international growth, margin growth, and a million new social media followers, GoPro’s stock price actually dropped. 

“You have to remember that there were multiple years of mis-execution, and investors got burned,” says Nikolay Todorov, an analyst at Longbow Research. “These guys have done quite a good job at stabilizing the ship. But it’s going to take some time for investor sentiment to shift.”

The stock recovered, but then in October it dropped again — this time 20 percent — when GoPro reported a late-stage production delay on the Hero8. The camera was originally slated to launch in the third quarter but instead was bumped to the fourth. That’s crippling for a company that pins almost all its success to one flagship product — and indicates that despite all the lessons GoPro has learned in the past few years, it’s still got work to do.

What investors want in a consumer electronics company, according to Uerkwitz, is a deeper bench. Garmin, Apple, Logitech: They all have diverse product portfolios. But GoPro’s previous efforts to diversify crash-landed (sometimes literally). So what the company needs to do is hold the line, hit its targets, and wait for investors to come around. 

Woodman understands this. “We’ve got to deliver consistent profitability and growth,” he says. GoPro has more than three years of product launches mapped out, and its immediate goal is to simply continue blowing the minds of its core users. Then, who knows? “If we identify a big enough market opportunity, absolutely we’ll go and build additional hardware,” says Woodman. He takes a pause. “But you’ve got to be really careful that you don’t spread yourself too thin.” 

So for now, GoPro just wants to geek out. Back in Australia, Hendricks walks the influencers through a suite of modular accessories that will snap onto the Hero8 to provide lighting, a shotgun microphone, and a rotating screen that allows vloggers to see themselves talking into the camera. He shows off its new stabilization capabilities, HDR upgrades, and functionality that allows users to speed up and slow down footage on the fly. The influencers ask questions and speculate about the creative ways they’ll deploy the new features. And when the presentation is done, they exit the coffee shop and walk right onto the hovercraft — a literal hovercraft — waiting for them outside. 

They turn their cameras back on. Everyone has work to do. 

#Uncategorized

[junker-town]

Every animal face-off in BBC’s ‘Seven Worlds, One Planet,’ rated

Universal Images Group via Getty

The BBC’s Natural History unit is the stuff of legends. They have been producing beautifully-shot, innovative nature documentaries since before most of us were born, and with the weight of the BBC behind them their productions are only getting better. David Attenborough is a natural treasure in his own right, a brilliant presenter blessed with a voice that is now the gold standard for documentary narration.

All of this you know and don’t need to get from a sports website. But while Attenborough’s new show, Seven Worlds, One Planet, is being reviewed elsewhere, nobody else is willing to ask the most important question about it. Is this sports? And, if so, how sports?

SB Nation has you covered. We’ll grade each scene of each episode for aesthetics, competitiveness and difficulty, and give the definitive answer on what the world desperately wants to know: whether or not what we’ve just seen is sports.

Episode 1: Antarctica

Scene 1: Weddell Seals

You just can’t beat a good cuddle #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/2mwzbLN2UG

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

The Weddell seal is one of the most ridiculous, depressing creatures on the planet. It is, as far as I know, the most southerly-living mammal, staying close to the Antarctic landmass even in deep winter. Since it’s a seal, it needs to breathe air, and so it spends all winter gnawing away at the ice to prevent its breathing holes from freezing over. Chewing ice all your life is a good way of wearing your teeth down quickly, and when that happens, no more breathing. Weddell seals, as Attenborough says, die young.

Why do they live like this? It’s simple: spending winter on the Antarctic ice shelves means that there are no predators able to interfere with the breeding season (which technically takes place in ‘spring’, but if any spring deserves scare quotes ...). Of course, that also means their pups are born into the most brutal environment in the world, and until they learn to swim, they’re left exposed to storms.

Seal pups have their mothers for protection against the worst of the blizzards, but when a storm gets bad enough, the adults are forced to seek shelter underwater. The babies then have to fend for themselves against the howling fury of an Antarctic storm. This seems unpleasant.

Aesthetics: 5/10

Seals are cute, but not very sporty, especially if we see them mostly out of the water, where they’re at their worst. And Weddell Seals, while philosophically impressive, are not the most visually appealing pinniped.

Also they spend most of the time in a blizzard, which dampens the appeal. And there’s video of a seal birth. There has never, in the entire history of the world, been an aesthetically appealing birth.

Difficulty: 10/10

If you tried to do what those newborn seals did, you would die 100 percent of the time. I don’t care how tough you think you are: you’d be dead. Maximum difficulty points.

Competitiveness: 0/10

‘Baby seal vs. blizzard’ isn’t really a competition, and it’s not like they’re fighting each other. NB: Would watch baby seals fight each other. Think of the floof.

Overall: 15/30

Not sports. Incredible, but not sports.

Scene 2: King Penguins

Ahhh that relatable feeling of a giant ball of fluff stuck in your mouth. #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/kI7nLTsyHM

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Half a million penguins jam themselves onto one beach on the island of South Georgia to raise their chicks. When the parents go off to fish, the chicks are meant to stay where they’ve been left. But sometimes they don’t! Naughty penguins!

Honestly, it’s hard to know what to make of king penguins. They’re beautiful, graceful animals (well, the adults are), despite what Herman Melville might have to say about general penguinkind in his Encantadas:

What outlandish beings are these? … Their bodies are grotesquely misshapen; their bills short; their feet seemingly legless; while the members at their sides are neither fin, wing, nor arm. And truly neither fish, flesh, nor fowl is the penguin … without exception the most ambiguous and least lovely creature yet discovered by man. As if ashamed of her failure, Nature keeps this ungainly child hidden away at the ends of the earth.

But kings suffer when there are emperors about, and there’s no exception here. King penguins are like emperor penguins except smaller and shittier, and as a result it’s hard to take them seriously. Naughty penguins.

Aesthetics: 8/10

More floof balls! Except this time there are more of them and they’re not being absolutely battered by a blizzard, which improves things. Also, they sometimes chase smaller floof balls, and that’s fun.

Difficulty: 5/10

The penguin chicks’ jobs involve standing still and waiting for their parents to come back. This sounds easy, but y’all can’t even sit there for like 10 minutes without checking your phones, so ...

Also, a bonus point for one of the penguins being enough of a badass to peck an elephant seal. Incredible.

Competitiveness: 2/10

Getting lost is annoying, but not competitive. I guess at one point they have a mild battle over a small ball of fluff?

Overall: 15/30

Not sports either.

Scene 3: Elephant Seals

Just two giant roly sea doggos having a disagreement, nothing to see here. #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/dtt7bub88A

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Find me a nature documentary about the Antarctic without footage of male elephant seals FUCKING EACH OTHER UP. That’s right. There are none. Elephant seals can weigh up 8,000 pounds and get to 20 feet long. They are angry, hefty and horny, and they hate each other. They express this hatred through squaring up to one another and engaging in teeth-bared body-slamming, and it gets extremely bloody. Even though they’re protected by a layer of blubber almost 10 inches thick, elephant seals frequently hurt each other very badly.

This all leads to some good television and you’d be a fool not to take advantage of it. The BBC are not fools.

Aesthetics: 7/10

If you’re into big hefty boys going at it, go ahead and give this scene an extra point. But heft alone does not a perfect scene make, and the sheer gracelessness of an elephant seal battle means we’re going to have to ding it some points.

Difficulty: 10/10

Imagine being fallen on by a four-ton seal. Now imagine that seal has huge teeth and is simultaneously trying to tear your neck open with them. Another scene which would definitely kill you, me, and everyone else who might ever read this.

Competitiveness: 9/10

An all-out fight over breeding rights between two monster seals? Yes. Yes, this is the good stuff. It’s not the best or longest elephant seal battle ever recorded, but there has never been a bad one.

Overall: 26/30

Definitely sports.

Scene 4: Humpback banquet

Ahhh yes the ye olde spiral, bubble, snatchy-grab fishing method. #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/XUfF3GfJQ1

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Humpback whales might not be the biggest whales in the ocean, but they’re probably the most interesting. Their social behaviour is (or seems) more interesting than the rorquals, and their hunting behaviour is also extremely cool. Here a shoal of humpbacks is concentrating a swarm of krill by using ‘bubble netting’. Since krill won’t swim through the bubbles they breathe out, the whales can control their movement, which makes them easier to eat.

This is a short scene, but it’s worth including.

Aesthetics: 9/10

I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m a whale person. Not, like, physically: the flippers would make typing difficult. But I’ve always loved whales. They’re huge, beautiful, and they do cool shit like make bubble spirals in the ocean. And these are particularly good bubble spirals.

Difficulty: 8/10

I can also blow bubbles underwater, but I imagine I’d be practicing for Gladwellian hours before I got good enough to herd krill. Also, imagine trying to fit that many in your mouth at once. Challenging.

Competitiveness: 2/10

I have to admit that a half-inch shrimp thing vs. a whale is not much of a fight, even if there are billions of the little fuckers.

Overall: 21/30

Probably sports? In my ideal world, synchronised bubble-netting would have a place at the Olympics.

Scene 5: Grey-Headed Albatross

All by myself...don’t wanna be, all by myself #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/sBQqSu2ojk

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Albatross? Albatrosses? Pluralising these things is annoying. Anyway, the scene. As it turns out, climate change is messing with, well, the climate, and that has had the effect of increasing wind speed on storms in the Southern Ocean, and making those storms more frequent.

Grey-headed albatross(es) breed right in the path of these storms, and that means that when chicks are left alone they have to hunker down in their nests against the fury of 70 mph winds. Unsurprisingly, many fail. And if they’re blown out of their nests, thanks to a twist of evolution, their parents don’t recognise them until they get back in. And that means they’re on their own until they can climb back. Are baby birds good at climbing? Reader, baby birds are not good at climbing.

Attenborough tells us that this particular grey-headed albatross colony is going through a massive decline. I believe it.

Aesthetics: 5/10

I’ve seen cuter fluffballs. In this very show, even! A bonus point for the adults being so beautiful, though. Seagulls may be ugly as sin, but make them large enough to glide and suddenly you have yourself some majesty.

Difficulty: 6/10

Ok, the windchill would be unpleasant, but I could climb into those nests.

Competitiveness: 8/10

The chicks are struggling against their own tiredness and lack of climbing ability. Is transcending yourself the core of all competition? Probably.

Overall: 19/30

Possibly sports? Mostly sad, to be honest. Here we have the Ottawa Senators of the natural world.

Scene 6: Gentoo Penguin vs. Orcas

A desperate dash, this penguin must use all its acrobatics in an attempt to evade the orca. #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/WhNEFuhRtJ

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Oh, my God. This is possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen. Penguins are incredible underwater. They’re agile, smart and fast. Killer whales, however, are faster and smarter, which means the only possible hope a penguin chased by a whale has is to use its advantage in maneuvering to somehow find an escape route.

The cinematography in this scene is exquisite. As the chase is right up at the surface, with the penguin frequently jumping out of the water and right over the whales, drone footage lets us see the whole thing play out from above, giving us a full-field perspective on a dogfight which would make a WW2 fighter ace whistle in appreciation. This is unbelievable.

Unfortunately it’s also four orcas against one penguin. So, uh, you know how it ends.

Aesthetics: 10/10

I would hang this scene on my living room wall, and then stare at it for several hours a day. The sheer power of the orcas combined with the dazzling agility of the penguin and the overhead view makes this scene extraordinary even for a BBC nature production.

Difficulty: 10/10

Those underwater cuts! The repeated jumpings-over of whales. This is nature at its most difficult. That poor, heroic little penguin.

Competitiveness: 5/10

All right, so four big whales against one penguin is not much of a fight.

Overall: 25/30

Definitely sports. And although it’s tempting to ding it because of the lack of competitiveness, some of y’all will sit through the Patriots playing the Dolphins.

Scene 7: Gentoo Penguin vs. Leopard Seals

Me attempting to make friends #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/UixNpVVJkg

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Melville would enjoy the role mid-sized penguins serve in the Antarctic food chain. They sit in the middle, eating small fish and krill and in turn being eaten in large amounts by the continent’s coolest predators. We’ve already seen orcas, so now it’s time for leopard seals to get in on the action.

Leopard seals are vicious things. They’re 10 feet long and their jaws are almost crocodilian, evoking thoroughly un-seal-like feelings when you look at the rows of big, interlocking and very lethal teeth. They like eating penguins. And, like the albatross chicks, climate change isn’t helping the gentoos — the region’s glaciers are falling apart, leaving acres of ‘brash’ ice between the penguin colonies and the open ocean. This ice is hard for the penguins to navigate, and perfect for an ambush predator.

The penguins have to scrabble over blocks of ice that could crush and kill them while being stalked from below by a hungry monster seal. That sounds like a bad day to me!

Aesthetics: 6/10

We’ve seen Weddell seals and elephant seals, but leopard seals are very different and altogether nastier critters. They’re not without their charms, though, and watching a top predator at work is sort of fun. Even if they’re extremely brutal.

One mark off for the bit where both penguin and seal end up on an iceberg. Neither is anything but ridiculous-looking out of the water.

Difficulty: 9/10

Depending on your point of view, this is either very easy — the penguins are sitting ducks — or very hard. Trying to scrabble through the floating ice to get to open water looks utterly miserable.

Competitiveness: 6/10

Some of these penguins put up a pretty impressive, and pretty surprising fight. Good work, little critters.

Overall: 21/30

Probably sports? Swimming is a sport. Climbing is a sport. Ice-scrabbling ... not a sport, yet, but we’re open-minded here.

Scene 8: Under the ice

Sorry, can’t right now, bit tied down. #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/HqHlcVnv6B

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

Below the Antarctic ice, conditions are surprisingly friendly, and inveterate drama plays out in slow motion. Starfish and urchins are chased by huge predatory worms. Blind nudibranchs search for mates in miniature forests of sponges and anemones. Those anemones are hunted by jellyfish — or so the jellyfish thinks, anyway.

Aesthetics: 4/10

Cool, in a creepy, slow-motion way.

Difficulty: 2/10

Looking for food and mates must be quite hard when you can’t move very quickly and you can’t see very well.

Competitiveness: 2/10

Jellyfish vs. anemone is an interesting but quite one-sided battle.

Overall: 8/30

Not sports at all. Getting a look under the Antarctic ice is neat anyway.

Scene 9: Right whales

“They were so trusting and inquisitive that they swam right up to the whaler’s boats. And the whalers called them ‘right whales’ because they were the right whales to hunt.” #SevenWorldsOnePlanet pic.twitter.com/KU8bBA7BF0

— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) October 27, 2019

20th Century whaling, which happened on an industrial scale, nearly wiped out every species of great whale. And southern right whales, the easiest, slowest, most-inquisitive targets, were hit the hardest. 99.9 percent of the population was killed — but frankly it’s a wonder any of them survived at all.

In the years since the whaling moratorium, however, the tiny fraction of survivors has proved robust enough to begin a small, fragile recovery. It’s grim times on the planet, and hope is nice to have.

I assume you were expecting a Melville quote here, and a rather gloomy southern right whale (still gloomier after it has its head removed) does indeed make an appearance in Moby-Dick. But, friends, I refuse to be that predictable.

Aesthetics: 2/10

Right whales are ugly, ponderous things, devoid of the grandeur of rorquals and humpbacks. And the bay in which this scene is shot is also too murky for good filming.

Difficulty: 0/10

Nothing happens!

Competitiveness: 0/10

Nothing happens!

Overall: 2/30

Pretty much the least sports possible. But a) it’s good to hear that the whale population is starting to recover and b) there was still more action than in that San Francisco-Washington game a few weeks back.

Overall sports tally: Some of this is sports

Two are definitely sports, three probablies, and four nos. That’s not a bad rate, and to be honest it’s a fantastic nature show and you should watch it, even if you’re mostly in it for the sports. Also, and I don’t want this to sound like a throwaway note at the end of an article, even though it is: CLIMATE CHANGE IS TERRIBLE AND WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. AS A COLLECTIVE, NOT JUST INDIVIDUALS. ME COMPOSTING DOESN’T SEEM TO BE DOING SHIT. Thanks.