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#I demand to know who wrote this script.
earthtooz · 10 months
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I have this suddenly in my mind and I need to share it, rins the type of person whos like " stop giving me morning kisses" But the day you forget to do that hes like *cold sweat* "wheres my morning kiss"
sfw but suggestive, gn!reader sits on rin's lap, unedited bc i wrote this with my heart
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rin rustles awake to the sound of the faucet running as you pull the handle of the sink and the stream clunks to life, and he can't think of a worse way to start the day.
for one, he did not need the harsh sound of water running to aggravate him.
and two, he didn't wake up to you beside him, all warm and comfortable tucked in his embrace, which is even more aggravating than the grating noise of water against ceramic.
today's an off-day that management issued; a real shame for rin because all he wants to do is spend time with you whilst fitting a quick workout in or two. it was a friday too, which is the perfect day to just relax and do nothing. however, you still have work and no matter how hard rin tried to subtly convince you, his methods did not work.
under the warmth of the covers, rin wonders if he can telepathically send a message to your brain and demand for you to come back into his arms. if you really were soulmates then you'd know, right?
as if it was scripted, you peek around the doorway of the bathroom, blinking in surprise when you see your boyfriend awake and grumpy. he feels a little triumphant when you smile at him.
but the feeling of triumph dies when that's all you do, greeting him with a 'good morning, rin' before turning back to do your skincare. blasphemy. do you even love him anymore?
feeling petty, he yawns loudly, the sound border-lining a groan in hopes of capturing your attention. nothing, you don't even peek around the doorway, instead, he hears the sound of a cap opening.
reluctantly, rin tosses the covers off and pads towards the bathroom, catching you off guard when you spot him in the mirror.
"bit early for you to be up, isn't it?" you question.
"what are you doing?" rin yawns, dodging your query completely.
"what's it look like, babe? my skincare."
he frowns. "that's not what i meant."
"then what do you mean?"
"i meant, what are you doing?" he parrots and you're only more puzzled.
"uhm... talking to you? getting ready for work-"
"you're not where you're supposed to be."
there's a beat of silence. "which is?"
"where do you think?"
"what's with the mind games this morning?" you ask.
once again, he avoids your question. "you should be in bed. with me."
at his admittance, you can't contain your laughter, turning around to cup his cheeks and for a second, rin thinks he has you right where he wants you. any second now, you'll relent and join him in going back to bed. you'll call in sick and you'll give him the good morning kiss he's been waiting for-
"-you're cute, rin, but i need to go to work today."
damnit.
"why?" rin persists.
"because i like my job, and there's big things i need to plan," you explain, turning around to face the mirror again so you can continue your morning routine but your boyfriend has other plans.
instead, he grabs your hips and spins you around so you're facing him again. this time, you see the uncharacteristic, albeit small, pout dancing along his lips. "won't you indulge me? you still haven't given me a reward for my match last weekend."
"i would beg to differ, your reward was more than satisfactory, you thought so yourself, you're just selfish."
rin grins lightly at that statement as he presses you against the bathroom counter. you're right; itoshi rin is selfish, particularly so when it comes to you. he should let you go to work, and he will, but he can't help but want to take up some of your precious time before your job snags you away from him, and he'll have to wait a laborious 8 hours before seeing you again.
"please? just a few minutes?"
exhaling through your nose, rin knows that you've given in before the words even slip out of your mouth. when they do, however, his celebratory smile is contagious as he drags you back to the bed. sitting down on the edge of it, he invites you to straddle him, the unmade sheets pooling around you naturally.
he doesn't mind living like this for the rest of his life.
"aren't you forgetting something?" asks the athlete.
you blink once, then twice. "no?"
rin holds back his groan. "kiss," is his only prompt but you seem to understand instantly with the way you throw your head back in laughter.
"you mean my normal morning kisses? i thought you hated them. always swatting me away," you lightheartedly mention.
"i do."
"fine then. no kiss."
he almost loses his cool for a second, but composes himself in the blink of an eye. rin's hands begin rubbing your hips, as if persuading you to give in.
"please?" tries the dark-haired.
relenting to the unusual softness in his icy gaze, you place a lingering kiss on the tip of his nose, but rin's got a look of displeasure settled on his expression, and you immediately know why he's upset- because you didn't kiss him on the lips like he was hoping.
"that was pathetic."
"excuse me?"
"another. do it right this time."
cute. you want to give in, but your normally stoic and hard-to-crack boyfriend is acting unusually clingy today, and you want to push your luck in this rare scenario.
"i don't want to kiss you though, you have morning breath," you murmur, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"what happened to in sickness and in health?" he murmurs, now tracing circles on your skin.
"we're not married."
"we should be, though."
you almost choke on your own spit, shocked by his boldness. "sure. let me go to work first."
his hold around you tightens as he buries his face into your neck, breathing you in as he cherishes the few minutes he has left. "hold on, i just want to be with you a little longer."
you pull him closer. "if you let me go i'll give you a morning kiss."
"a real one?"
"a real one."
he unwinds his grip ever so slightly and you let one hand trace his jaw before giving rin what he wants: his good morning kiss. he indulges in your touch and your closeness, taking whatever you provide because you always are so kind and fair to him when he's all rough edges and jagged ends.
eventually, you pull away, taking your warmth with you. you gave rin your part of the promise, now it's time for his to keep his. except it seems like he's having a harder time fulfilling it.
"i want you to stay," your boyfriend confesses, no louder than a whisper as he looks up at you through his bangs. "don't want you to go."
"i know, but i'll be back this evening and then i'll be all yours."
rin sighs, unwinding his arms and letting you climb out of his lap. a shiver runs up his spine at the absence of your weight and he doesn't like the empty feeling that fills him up.
"go back to bed, rin. you should rest." you mutter.
"after you leave."
"okay."
you give him one extra kiss before you go.
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hope u enjoyed, anon! sorry i kinda deviated a bit HELPP but i loved ur prompt (evidently), thank you for dropping by :D
© EARTHTOOZ 2023, do not steal, translate, repost my fics and do not recommend my fics onto any other site.
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weebsinstash · 2 months
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"So I'm thinkin. You and three huge guys are getting it on and its really hot and oily and then its revealed your on a boat and its sinking so you all have to cum as fast as you can"
THIS is coming from the "no one watches porn for the dialogue" guy?
So Valentino's porn isn't even GOOD?
My fingers are itching they're itching they're itching godddddd Valentino x porn writer Reader where he gets so fucking smug and acts like you're so sweet and innocent and you don't know what's erotic and what's not and you just stand your ground, "uh actually I'm pretty sure I could write something better than you" and he demands you prove it and you're like sure fine, and whip out a revised script for something he wants to film that you've taken red pen ALLLLL over just because you were bored and you MAY HAVE been a little pissed off when you overheard his "porn plots/scripts are stupid" bullshit
You hand it to Travis (the director guy) because he isn't farsighted and can actually read it and he's just like "oh my god this is FILTH" and Val gets all cocky, "see, told you you didn't know what you were-" and Travis interrupts, "NO, this is FILTH, this is HOT, OH MY GOD???" and he starts reading some of the lines to Valentino who's looking at you AGHAST like "my sweet innocent lil boo is KINKY???" it's like a Christmas present
People write prompts about "oh what if Reader wrote porn and had to read their script to Val" but I haven't seen anyone mention that because Valentino is implied to be farsighted with poor close range vision, you would probably HAVE TO read the scripts to him because he's half blind lmao
I can think of at least 3 different porn plots involving boats that are instantly more engaging than this and it's purely because there's a lil plot thrown in there and now I can't stop thinking about a Reader who digs their own kinky, kinky hole by deciding they need to "prove Val wrong" by writing porn that completely blows his tits off and at that point he wants to hire you to work for him (and may even force you to)
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flanaganfilm · 1 year
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Mike, can you tell us your experience premiering Oculus at tiff 2013? I recently saw Perri Nemiroff’s interview with you (looking like a baby btw- so young) and it made me think about what your mindset must have been as in getting yo experience the launch of your career, post Absentia, at one of the most prestigious festivals.
Oh, I remember that very well... a lot changed in a very short amount of time. And I think I know the interview you're talking about, I keep trying to link to it here but it doesn't take...
So there are few things to point out about Oculus and about what was happening in my life at the time. When Oculus got greenlit, I was working full time as a reality television editor. I used to sneak out of my job at lunch to go to "doctor's appointments" whenever I had to come for production meetings or casting sessions (they started to think there was something really, really wrong with my health).
Making the movie was an amazing learning experience - it was my first "real" movie, and full of lessons. It was the first collaboration with people who would become pillars of my career moving forward, like producer Trevor Macy (who is now my partner at Intrepid Pictures and who has produced everything I've ever made since) and my DP Michael Fimognari, who is one of the most important collaborators of my life. It was also the first time I worked with a young actress named Kate Siegel, who played the spooky ghost in the mirror.
We went into TIFF with distribution already in place. FilmDistrict had committed to the project during the Cannes market before we shot the movie, so we thought we were set. It was going to be my big theatrical debut.
Just before we premiered at TIFF, FilmDistrict abruptly and bafflingly dropped the film. I still don't really know why. They had committed to a worldwide theatrical release for the movie, but for reasons that were never made entirely clear to me, they dropped us just before the festival. Suddenly the whole enterprise was in jeopardy, and I didn't know if anyone would pick the movie back up.
I was absolutely terrified.
Being my first "real" movie, I didn't really know how this world worked and couldn't understand why our distributor didn't want to release it. We'd made the movie they had been excited about, they seemed to really like it, and we'd done everything they asked - it was a shock to the system. So when we rolled into tiff, we were homeless and trying not to let FilmDistrict's abrupt change of heart poison our chances of another sale.
I had never been to TIFF before but heard about Midnight Madness, which had seen huge sales from Cabin Fever and Insidious. Bidding wars had broken out while the films were still screening. But being part of the program was absolutely no guarantee of distribution - in fact, this might be the highest this movie would ever rise.
Trevor Macy and I went to the world premiere of The Green Inferno, which was playing the night before we played, and the audience was ROWDY. Like, shouting and hollering throughout the movie. We looked at each other with wide, nervous eyes - if this was the Midnight Madness audience, they were going to hate our movie the next day. We were considerably slower, ponderous, and atmospheric in a room that seemed to demand visceral, overt entertainment. I left the screening feeling dejected and a little doomed. Trevor was more upbeat, citing conversations he'd had with the programmer, Colin Geddes, who assured us he'd put our movie in the best possible spot for its success.
Our screening was September 9th, 2013 at midnight. I was petrified, and we were sold out. I remember walking into the theater feeling like this was the most important screening of my life. I wasn't alone, thank goodness. Trevor Macy, Michael Fimognari, Brenton Thwaites, Katee Sackhoff, Rory Cochrane, and James Lafferty were on hand. The film seemed to play well. It was the opposite of the screening the night before, which Colin had told us would happen - "watch," he had said. "The Saturday night slot is the big crazy one. You guys are Sunday, and it's going to be completely different. They'll plug right in."
He was right. You could hear a pin drop for most of the first half, and then there were moments of scattered applause that picked up as the film progressed. By the end, people were jumping in their seats and cheering for young Tim and Kaylee. There was an audible gasp when the anchor swung. And the applause at the credits seemed heartfelt and loud.
Most of that is a blur for me. I found this grainy pic from the Q&A after the film. I still had no idea how it had gone, or what was going to come out of it. I remember having hard time putting words together, and I vividly recall feeling like I sounded like an absolute moron whenever I talked, and trying to pass the microphone over to the actors as often as I could.
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It's tough to see everyone in the pic, but from left to right it is Colin Geddes, Michael Fimognari, myself, Trevor Macy, Katee Sackhoff, Brenton Thwaites, Rory Cochrane, and James Lafferty.
When I stepped out of the theater, though, I became aware that everything had changed. I was immediately surrounded by people who had seen the film, suddenly shaking a ton of hands and realizing that it had been a hit. I walked into the theater by myself, utterly anonymous, and feeling every bit like an imposter. But everything was different when I walked out. I remember someone from the press talking about it years later, and saying "I was there that night - you walked into the theater with nothing, and walked out with a career."
People were asking me to sign stuff. That had never happened in my life. People wanted to get pictures. It was SO. FUCKING. WEIRD. Someone snapped a picture during that little whirlwind, and you can see it on my (young, skinny, hopelessly naive) face - an overall bewilderment, a gentle disbelief that this was happening:
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I loved my experience at TIFF. And it absolutely started everything. Relativity, Blumhouse, and WWE Films joined forces to make an offer on the movie at the festival, and we left with a theatrical distribution deal. My career had officially begun. Now, I wouldn't feel like it had for several more years - I remained in fight/flight/survival mode well through Gerald's Game - but in retrospect, yes, that's when it happened.
Thank you for asking this question, it's been a while since I've looked back at this period of my life. It kinda makes me want to watch that movie again. It has been a LONG time, and I owe it a lot.
Maybe everything.
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tinyozlion · 5 months
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“And Its Name is επυον”: Where Did Epyon Come From, Literally and Figuratively?
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On the pillars before the Oracle of Delphi, the navel of the ancient world, an inscription carved read: “know thyself”. 
Inside the Oracle’s inner sanctum sat the Pythia, bent over smoking fissures in the temple floor, breathing the sacred poison that would let Apollo in. It is a dreadful ecstasy– dangerous, body-wracking; gaining knowledge of the future shortens hers. 
Far in the future, a man exiled to a gilded oubliette speculates his own worth and relevance to history, surrounded by ghosts, becoming a ghost himself. Alone with his doubt, he looks for the god in the machine, seeking answers: “Why do we fight? For what should I fight?”
But the god he built is silent.
The world of automated warfare becomes increasingly bleak and devoid of reason. He is terrified that the pilots who so inspired him will lose their purpose just as he has, and join him in miserable freefall. 
Out of this wild abyss Treize builds the Epyon. Not for himself–  he will never pilot it. There is almost nothing of Treize in this suit, not that we can recognize from its exterior. It is not the heroic Tallgeese with its Attic crest– it is something clawed, stygian, one of the bat-winged Erinyes with a torch and whip. 
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Epyon is not a weapon; it is a punishment. It is retribution for a world that has forgotten its humanity, its rites, its propriety. For its pilot, it is a scourge– the cracking whips of the Furies in their brain, driving them into a frenzy. Madness. Holy poison, to let the future in. 
Its name, επυον, is meant to mean "Next", or “After”. 
To guide the future, you must shorten yours. 
You must not be a victor, when you pilot this suit. 
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Where did Epyon come from, in the mind of its creator? Everything we see of Treize forms a cohesive aesthetic: Roses, swords, romanticized old-world decadence, heroic motifs, gold, blue, white, red. Where did this thorny, tyrian-purple chimera live in him? Shouldn’t we have seen it lurking somewhere? Or does it seem to come out of nowhere precisely because he designed it to be his antithesis? 
Whether or not “Frozen Teardrop”, the novelized sequel to Gundam Wing, can be considered canon is a source of contention amongst many fans, but looking at it purely as a way to judge script-writer Katsuyuki Sumizawa’s intentions when he wrote the series, I find many parts of it to be informative. 
To paraphrase the fan-translation, it states that Treize found blue and white to be emblematic of heroism, colors associated with victory, and so their complementary opposites, black and red, could be seen as the colors of the defeated, associated with loss. For Treize, defeat and loss are tied inexorably to his vision of the future: “it was the defeated who changed the era and began the next”, as it says in the novel. 
Epyon is meant to negate the ideal of the conquering hero, the counter for a world beset by victorious cowards who command legions of dolls to do their killing and dying for them. As Treize designed it, Epyon has no projectile weapons; it is a suit purely for one-on-one combat, a suit that demands you risk everything when you fight.
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No surprise then, that he gives it to the first Gundam pilot he meets– remarkably, the one whose self detonation caused everyone in his orbit to question their involvement in the war-- though one gets the feeling that any of the pilots would do. Treize hopes that Heero will use the Epyon to navigate the chaos to find the true purpose he is fighting for, and determine what course the future will take. 
But Heero has never been concerned with this sort of navel-gazing, and has no interest in discovering whether or not battle itself has a grander purpose or ultimate meaning. He fights the enemy in front of him and will continue to do so until either his life, or the supply of enemies, runs out. Heero does not overthink the future; he does not dwell on consequences. Treize does nothing BUT overthink the future and consider the fractal spread of consequences. They are mutually incomprehensible to each other, but perhaps not at cross purposes. 
Heero enters the cockpit convinced that he is expendable and redundant, that his only goal is to survive. When he returns from his test flight in Epyon, he can barely stand or speak. From that point on, he thinks about the future, about who and what will be important for what comes after the fighting has ended.
Eventually, the Epyon passes to the only person more disillusioned and estranged from his sense of purpose than Treize is– to Zechs, where it seems it was always meant to go.
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• How And When Was Epyon Built?
Whew! Now that the metaphysical stuff is out of the way, let’s talk about the physical development of Epyon, and how that must have come about.
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As we know, after his confinement by Romefeller, Treize, lurking around with the lights out and questioning his place in the universe, uses his now copious free time to build this gundanium dominatrix using only his laptop and the power of depression.
Now, even if we are to accept that Treize is a programming and engineering savant on top of all his other accomplishments, it would still be beyond even His Excellency’s considerable talents to pull an entire Gundam out of a hat in the basement of an abandoned Disney castle. 
Where did he get the gundanium? The crew? The construction equipment? Isn’t he under house arrest? Why would Romefeller leave him unsupervised to build a demon robot that predicts the future? 
These questions have been annoying the fandom since 1995. But, if you look carefully (VERY carefully, one might even say obsessively), it's possible to find the connective threads that make Epyon’s construction less of a magic trick. 
--Let’s go through the list of these unclarified canonical whoopsie-daisies in order of most to least glaring!:
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If Treize is being kept in confinement in the Romefeller headquarters, why is he allowed to design and build a mobile suit?
*:・゚✧ Our princess is in another castle! *:・゚✧
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The mansion that Treize goes into during episode 27 is NOT the castle that we see him in during episode 34. This switcheroo would probably have happened sometime in the MIDDLE of episode 27– which I guess might as well be the case, since episode 27 is a dreamlike, nonlinear stroll through Treize’s spiraling existential crisis.
Between Treize being confined in the Romefeller headquarters and developing the Epyon, Treize is in fact liberated by the Treize Faction and moved to the blue-roofed castle in the middle of the forest near the Luxembourg Base, which is where the faction has made their headquarters.
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Presumably the crew and equipment needed to actually manufacture a new mobile suit were available at the base.
Treize’s confinement at this point is largely self-imposed; he could rally the factions loyal to him and make a move on Romefeller (as he does later), but he doesn’t believe he has the ability or the right to do so. Instead, he builds Epyon, and just kind of winds it up and lets it loose on the world to see if anything interesting happens.
And it does! The interesting very much happens.
Where did Treize get the gundanium alloy to build a Gundam?
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The shipment of gundanium that Heero destroys in episode 4 was being transported on an OZ carrier, and it had to have been going somewhere. This gundanium was ordered WAY before Zechs’s gundam rebuilding project, so its purpose is left unidentified– someone in OZ clearly wanted to experiment with this new material for developing mobile suits. 
Adding to that, the gundanium that Zechs had access to when he was rebuilding the Wing Gundam had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was probably the very deep pockets of a guy who likes to keep his best friends happy.
Regardless if any given shipment of gundanium made it home in one piece, what it means is that OZ has a way of obtaining gundanium, and if OZ has it, then Treize has it.
How would Treize know how to build a Gundam?
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During the process of rebuilding the Wing Gundam from the ground up, Zechs and his engineers would probably have kept extensive records and made new Gundam blueprints that Treize would know about. Also by this point in the series, several Gundams and their pilots have been captured, and the Gundam’s engineers forced to build Vayeate and Mercurius for Lady Une. OZ would therefore have all the data they need to build a fresh Gundam, and once again: if OZ has it, then Treize has it.
Okay, but how would Treize know enough about the ZERO system to be able to reverse engineer it?
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As mentioned in the entry about the ZERO system, the AI of the Taurus mobile suits eventually becomes the Mobile Doll AI. This is a predictive battle algorithm OZ already had in the works long before the Wing ZERO was discovered. 
Additionally, Treize is likely to have had access to the data being recorded by Trant while his team was researching the ZERO system, even if he was getting it covertly via a Treize Faction infiltrator, or a member of OZ who was still loyal to him. 
How does Treize know so much about designing mobile suits and their cockpit systems?
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One has to remember that Treize was the instructor at Lake Victoria Base (the same position Noin holds when we first meet her in the series), responsible for training OZ’s elite pilots, and (according to “Frozen Teardrop”) involved with crucial tactical developments and improvements to OZ’s lineup. 
Yes, he’s a fancy-pants aristocrat, but you can’t say he doesn’t know his way around a mobile suit. He’s best friends with Zechs, after all– nerds of a feather flock together.
But how would he know to program the security system to accept Heero Yuy?
Well, ever since he was captured and hospitalized Heero’s biometric data would have been on file with the Alliance military, and therefore available to OZ, and therefore (again) available to Treize– so by now His Excellency will have certainly been made aware that Heero’s bones run on a third-party Adobe Photoshop plug-in.
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But who cares about that crusty old data? All of the Gundam pilots have been accounted for and fingerprinted and scanned and microchipped up in Fortress Barge! They could probably 3D print Heero Yuy out of PLA and sell action figures if they wanted.
As to why Treize picked Heero specifically, I have two theories:
The first is that he simply programmed the computer to accept any and all Gundam pilots that might want to drop in for tea and assassination (and probably Zechs too, just in case he was in town).
The second is that Dorothy’s presence in the Sanc Kingdom means that Treize has a little bird keeping him informed about everything happening there, including that both Heero and Quatre are attending the Peacecraft’s School for Wayward Radical Pacifists. 
True, Dorothy is technically there to be her grandfather Duke Dremail’s little bird informant, but Dorothy’s loyalties are her own, and she very much likes and respects her cousin Treize. She’s probably beaming news of the Gundam pilots directly to him on their shared eyebrow-frequency the whole time she’s there.
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Eyebrow-to-eyebrow communication.
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As one final note– I’m aware that the more recent manga adaptation, “Glory of Losers”, contains its own version of events that attempts to reconcile the building of Epyon with other events in the series. However, while I appreciate that they made an attempt to resolve the big, lingering Epyon Questions, I find that like most of their retconned material involving Treize, I… 
I don’t like it. 
Or to put it less personally, I think it creates an even more dubious timeline of events that is somehow less credible than the original. In this version, Treize begins the planning and construction of both Epyon and Tallgeese at the beginning of the series, before the original Tallgeese has even been brought into play and LONG before the ZERO system is introduced– somehow with the foreknowledge that these suits will be vital for the development of the new era. 
I think this is a contrived way of making Treize into an omniscient puppet master who was retroactively steering everything in the correct direction from the very beginning, and was therefore always right and always assured of his role in the future– and I think that does his character an incredible disservice. In a story about the deep significance of changing people’s hearts and minds, the fact that Treize is retroactively scrubbed of his flaws and morally questionable decisions runs counter to the central thesis of Gundam Wing, and what has made it such a memorable story. 
“Glory of Losers” is a beautiful manga and I do think it does an incredible job of presenting the rather garbled narrative of the series in a new light, with some truly masterful tweaks that add depth to the characters and story. But it’s also guilty of some egregious changes to canon that serve no purpose other than to reconcile the main series with the events of “Frozen Teardrop”, and as an excuse to redesign all the mobile suits to be cooler and sell more model kits.
…On the other hand, in this version of the story, Treize was already familiar with Tallgeese from his earliest days in OZ. 
This is obviously another very unnecessary and suspiciously convenient retcon that I feel is in dubious taste– HOWEVER: it does mean that Howard gets to meet young whippersnapper Treize Khushrenada, who just so happened to be the one to ask him to paint it white because he thinks one day he’d like to pilot a Big Damn Hero Machine himself, and he wants it to be a more "elegant color." 
And that is the funniest shit I can possibly imagine. So I’ll give it that.
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I'd like it to be at least 20% more elegant
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talenlee · 1 month
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The Fundamentalist As Liar
Earlier this year I wrote about Michael Winger, a truly awful stain of a man with a more successful Youtube channel than mine so who’s so big and smart now huh and I wrote about that man’s particular tendency to claim sight unseen the illegitimacy of positions against him. What this usually means is that he argues that Atheists aren’t really Atheists, because,
then he presents a list of unconvincing reasons and eventually cooks down to ‘they just want to sin.’ Like, one of the favourites of this position is the idea that look, all the things you want to say about the arguments that have convinced you, those things aren’t that important because they’re just a smokescreen, a rhetorical assertion that stands in place because there’s a real, simple, emotional demand: I believe this because I want to believe this.
And I think, based on experience and reading a lot of these ding dongs’ writing reaching back two centuries, that uh, that’s because that’s how their worldview works, so they assume it’s how everyone’s does.
The Fundamentalist Christian is a liar who believes everyone believes lies.
I haven’t done any kind of comprehensive study. I haven’t met every Christian Fundamentalist. What I have to offer on this is the story of my experience and also my experience of all the people I’ve met since who slotted neatly into the mental software I was already running. Software is the best comparison I can make, where the fundamentalist viewpoint is a platform that runs some pretty reliable programs on top of it. Those programs are great, and you know it’s an operating system since it can run conflicting programs alongside one another without necessarily having any kind of fault in memory handling. My point is that I can open up any apologist channel in the year of our lord 2024 and hear one of the same small pool of bullshit narratives presented with the same bullshit assumptions built into them.
When you see the arguments used over and over again, when you correct flaws in the argument, over and over again, you quickly lose the ability to imagine that these people are aware of what they’re arguing and whether or not the argument is just a cloak of words they throw over how they feel about things. There are some really egregious cases of it, such as Ken Ham and Kent Hovind, who have been making the same arguments my entire life and contend with correction by ignoring it and repeating the same script when you’re not in the room.
But there’s also the apologetics of those who want to be seen as serious or big thinkers, the kinds of nobodies who think that they have the presence and awareness to attack actual scholarship, and they dress themselves up with a sense of seriousness, a sort of vast pomp that gets really pissy when you remind them that the book they’re trying to argue is infallible has a zombie apocalypse and multiple talking animals in it. ‘Well you would bring those up,’ they sneer as if reminding them of things that are true is somehow a low blow, an unfairness in the conversation. Oh, you, you’ve shown how unsophisticated you are by pointing out a book full of obvious fictions has obvious fictions in it, and if that was all this is that would work! It is pretty dumb to treat a book of folklore as if it’s a history textbook and demand it hold to that standard!
But they usually get around to admitting they think the talking animals are real.
There’s this one that’s really famous because there’s a serious-sounding condescending prick named William Lane Craig promoting it, the ‘Kalam Cosmological Argument.’ The argument runs as follows:
Everything that exists has a cause
The universe exists
Therefore the universe has a cause
And people keep looking at this and going: Well hang on, hang on, what says the universe has a cause? what about uncaused events? What about philosophical infinities? what about- when the much simpler response is ‘that’s fucking stupid.’ Because they don’t mean ‘the universe has a cause, period,’ they mean ‘the universe has a cause,’ deep breath, then subtle mumbling, ‘and that cause is the Christian god who I personally believe in as the best explanation for everything.’
And so you have this seriousness being used to adorn and address something which is really just being used to smuggle not into the idea of an actual philosophical point but rather recentre on this person’s fanfiction interpretetation of a few divine figures in a book of folklore in which, again, there are talking animals, unicorns, a global flood and a bunch of lies about prophecy.
Oh yeah, the lies about prophecy. Man, Christians love talking about how much prophecy Jesus fulfilled. They’ll tout lists, which they then are confident you won’t look at because if you do you find they’re very unsatisfying and tend to include things that haven’t happened yet. But more damning than that is if you look at the prophecies and go back to where they say they’re from, and then ask, say, a Rabbi who speaks the language of the book, you’ll find that uh, actually, that’s not what the Bible is about.
And then they introduce the idea of dual prophecies where there’s a prophecy about this thing that happened and the Rabbi’s version of events is true and supported, and then the other version with the rewritten words is actually also about Jesus, and please ignore the way that again, they change the wording. And this is serious. This is serious adults who get mad at you for not respecting their obvious fucking scam bullshit, because they believe it.
And they probably do!
That’s one of the funniest things about liars, they tend to wind up believing their lies. Oh sure they’ll know they made things up but the lie doesn’t sit in the brain over time and eventually they rewrite it, over and over, until eventually they’re not really lying, they’re basically telling the truth, they were telling the truth, and I don’t know what you mean about rewritten words. And then they’ll remember you as being rude or hostile or sad or angry and oh look at that they don’t have to worry about whatever it was you said. This is very consistent behaviour.
You may have heard this phrase, the idea that one’s faith is being tested. This is the idea that having to confront that reality sucks is a direct contest with the faith that people embrace. ‘You just gotta believe’ and ‘fake it till you make it.’ And what do they do about it? They lie. And any time you talk to someone about this kind of testing, they’ll usually say something like ‘well everyone is tested like that,’ which nobody seems to think is a problem. Like, hey, is it that universal that everyone winds up seeing mistakes and then everyone tells themselves it’s no big deal? It has the same energy as a person asserting ‘well look I’m straight and as a straight person I’m sure we all want to kiss that person of the same gender as me, that’s obvious’ and you have to be like okay, you know what that means right?
The assertation that people know what’s wrong rather than that they’ve proven wrong is very satisfying if your entire moral framework is based around your personal disgust. This means you wind up with a social framework that doesn’t just say ‘you’re right,’ but asserts even further, you are default. Christians Fundamentalists are so used to this default status it smooths over their fucking brains. The arguments don’t need consideration they just assert themselves, and then lie to themselves afterwards about the questions.
This is why they think so many things that people can’t readily choose are choices, and then that choices that people make are illegitimate because they veer away from the default.
Every Christian chooses what parts of the Bible to ignore. Even Fundamentalists. The Christians who aren’t Fundamentalists ignore that the Fundamentalists they claim to despise are using the same book and know it better than they do. And I mean this, they all choose what to ignore. For example, one of the most bananas things I’ve ever heard from a fundamentalist is that no, slavery isn’t bad, and it’s not bad because God told them how to do it, so clearly he’s okay with it which means it doesn’t follow at all, even in the American South that slavery was bad. Which is pretty amazing to consider because that’s a guy who doesn’t choose to lie to himself about that part of the book.
(Don’t worry, he’s got other bits he’s making shit up about.)
It was a breathtaking claim. After he said it I asked him how mum was doing, and he told me she’s doing fine and he looks forward to seeing me again soon.
Been a few weeks stewing on that one.
Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!
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dokidokitsuna · 7 months
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Dream Alliance: Jambastion Rebirth
So yesterday I was archiving the text from all my DeviantArt posts about the DreamAll AU, and it was really fun to read through all that lore and story again. ^^ It’s unfortunate that I was working on it during my transition from DA to here; I feel like a LOT of info got lost in the confusion. But at least now I have it all in my own files to reference (or retell) later…especially if I ever get around to reviving/expanding on the AU like I’ve always wanted. There are a lot of unused scripts and ideas waiting for that day…
And since I was feeling inspired today, here’s one of ‘em. ^^ Since this was such a dark idea that I don’t really consider “canon” to the AU, I never really wrote it down or anything…but it made for such a good story that I held onto it in my heart~. Warning: LOOOOOOONG post ahead. ^^
So at the end of DreamAll’s story, Magolor and Division Six risk their lives and defeat Void Termina, yadda yadda…but once the world is finally safe from that threat, its next big question is: how can we make sure we’re safe from the teenage mad scientist with the god-killing mecha and bioengineered alien attack dogs…?
Basically, Magolor inadvertently made himself so powerful that the rest of the Dream Alliance and the world is kinda scared of him now. ^^; And as I showed in the final comic, Susie Haltmann takes it upon herself to investigate him and find out what his deal is…and in doing so, learns that he’s actually a Jambastion mage, and Hyness’ estranged son. And thus, the scheming begins~.
Mind you, Susie doesn’t really have anything against Magolor. It’s just that the pressure of essentially becoming president of the world, coupled with the revelation that Magolor is not only an eccentric genius, but also a dimension-bending dark mage that she doesn’t know how to control…it leads her to fall back on old (villainous…) habits and start to treat him like an obstacle, to be overcome by any means necessary.
And her first play would be to use the threat of Hyness’ execution to get Magolor to spill his guts: to tell the truth about his magic powers, explain in detail everything he did to create the Void Destroyer system, and get it all on the record so that he can’t lie about it anymore. Which I think Mago would agree to immediately-- he doesn’t want to see his father die (despite his literal crimes against humanity), and tbh he’d probably be kinda glad to have the weight of that deception off his shoulders. Unfortunately, he’s not worldly enough to understand that divulging all this information is the beginning of the end…
Next play: regulations. Now that the crisis is over, the Dream Alliance’s superweapons will naturally have to be decommissioned…including Magolor’s ‘angels’. Seeing as they’re technically not living things (as per Mago’s explanation) Susie would demand that he toe the line and put them down, or at least demonstrate that he’s willing and able to cut them off from his power on command.
And naturally, Magolor would think of this as going a bridge too far. Marx, Galacta, and Morpho might not have their own life force, but they’re still sentient beings who love and trust him as their creator. And if it’s a choice between betraying that trust and leaving the Dream Alliance entirely, he’s inclined to choose the latter.
And ^that is the decision Susie would be waiting for: proof that, when pushed, Magolor cannot be trusted to act in the ‘public interest’. And considering what he’s capable of, it’s now in the public interest for the Dream Alliance to find a way to contain him.
Of course, she doesn’t go after him right away-- she simply waits for him to come to her, thinking he can convince her that his angels are more than just weapons. When that fails, he resigns on the spot…unfortunately, he never actually gets the chance to leave.
Based on everything Magolor’s explained about the way his magic works…she decides her best bet is to cut off his hands, severing his connection to his vambraces and sending him into shock from blood loss all at once. Both serve to severely weaken all of his subconscious magic use, and his angels by extension-- Galacta collapses, and Morpho straight-up disintegrates. Marx is the only one able to remain conscious without his master’s direct influence, and immediately realizes that something is seriously wrong. His first instinct is to rush to find Magolor and slaughter anyone in his way…unfortunately, he discovers that he doesn’t have his flight powers anymore. Without his usual magic strength, he can hardly even move his prosthetic arms, and is easily captured when Magolor’s lab is raided.
Fortunately, Meta Knight is one of the arresting officers, and decides to take pity on Marx and “lose track of him”, letting him leave in the dead of night for parts unknown. He disappears for a couple years, skulking in the shadows, stealing food when no one’s looking, being miserable and missing all his friends.
But during all that time, he’s also preparing…he spends most of his days retraining his body to adjust to the much smaller amount of magic that he has access to, and trying to find information on the dissolution of Division Six and Magolor’s whereabouts…which proves to be pretty difficult. So eventually, when he finally gets a decent amount of fighting strength back, he decides to start his revenge plot by finding an ally: Magolor’s father, who’s still imprisoned where he’s always been.
Hyness has never met Marx before, but he remembers Magolor’s mentions of him. And besides, they both share a deep concern for Magolor and the willingness to do anything to save him. So Marx explains the situation and breaks him out, setting his plan in motion.
He realizes that Susie will have seen him through the security cameras, and will predict that he’s coming for Magolor. So he decides that his true next target will be Galacta Knight, and asks Hyness to use his powers to find and awaken him first.
After being forced to use his magic just to keep himself alive during his long imprisonment (which by this point, ended up approaching the decade mark) and having his hands removed as well, Hyness is also a lot weaker than he used to be. But he has experience on his side, and quickly adjusts by using the magic stored in his cape (basically, what I was foreshadowing back when I drew this). Together he and Marx make a fairly powerful team, forcing their way into the facility where GK is being stored, and setting him free to unleash his wrath.
^This is a decision Magolor would probably take issue with, if he were present to give his opinion on it-- he’d be against triggering GK into a psychotic break just to create a diversion, knowing all that death and destruction would weigh heavily on his conscience afterwards. But Marx, being in a desperate and angry place, doesn’t care, and figures potentially scarring his little brother is a small price to pay to get their family back together.
And while Galacta Knight is out acting as a weapon of mass destruction, Marx and Hyness manage to find and release Morpho Knight as well. Morpho has very nearly reverted back to the unresponsive energy blob that he was when Magolor first found him…but he’s at least conscious enough to follow his brothers around and help protect them occasionally. Marx leaves him with GK and follows Hyness to Magolor’s location, deep within Dream Alliance HQ.
How things go from there is a little more nebulous…I think it would probably start out as a stealth mission, which would take an unfortunately bloody turn before Magolor is finally found and revived. I think Morpho and Galacta would eventually catch up with them there and make things even bloodier. ^^; I think Susie would get into a big ‘tech vs. magic’ fight with Division Six that’s honestly been a long time coming. And I think Magolor, despite having just been awakened from a years-long medically-induced coma, would be forced to take point as the most powerful mage left in the group, and do something drastic just to put an end to the conflict and get everyone out of there. 
The aftermath would be bittersweet, and a bit ironic-- essentially, Magolor would be forced to go back to living in a secret society cut off from the rest of the world. He’d be reunited with everyone he cares about, including the father he once thought he might never see again, but he’d still have to live with the fact that the world he risked his life to save ultimately rejected him…and after all the atrocities his family committed just to get him back, the world is probably now convinced that its fears were justified. The damage is done, and irreversible…after all the effort he put in to become a hero, his short-lived dream is already dead and gone. I honestly don’t know what he would want to do with his life after that…
…Anyway, if you made it all the way here, thanks for reading~
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hooked-on-elvis · 2 months
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Elvis escaped a crew-length haircut more than once before the army
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It is widely known by the fans that one funny story of how Red West saved Elvis from getting his hair cut off by bullies when he was only a teenager attending the Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee. For those who never heard/read this story before, well.. long story short, Elvis was kind of a misfit in High School because of the way he used to dress different from his mates. "He looked like a sore thumb," said Ronny Trout, a classmate who shared a workbench with Elvis in wood shop in school (as wrote by Peter Guralnick in one of his books on Elvis). While all the guys usually had crew cuts and dressed in jeans, Elvis had this "movie star" look. Apart from the flashy clothes — such as ascot ties and dress pants Presley is said to have worn while attending classes — he also would proudly show off his truck driver sideburns and a duck tail hairstyle around the hallways. Some of the kids in his school just couldn't stand it. Most of them thought Elvis looked weird, possibly they got the impression as if he was cocky or something but more likely they just found him strange, out of place. One day some guys corned Elvis in the bathroom and threatened to cut his hair right off. Red West came in just in time. Even tho they weren't friends yet, that selfless good deed of Red turned Elvis into a, let's say, fan of his. Presley was beyond grateful for the unexpected help. This was before Elvis was, you know, "Elvis". West and Presley became friends after this day, little by little - not immediately, and it turns out that a long, long term friendship between the two came out of that uncanny situation. At a point, Red West became part of Elvis' personal security guard and remained friends with him up until July 1976, a little more than one year previous to Elvis's death in August 1977. Anyway, Red's efforts only postponed Elvis' haircut. Presley actually had to surrender to the crew cut style in March 1958 when he was inducted into the U.S. Army. But did you know before the Army's intervention and after the High School incident, there was another time when Presley's hair almost was chopped off? That was during movie production of "Jailhouse Rock", in 1957.
The still photographs of Elvis wearing the short "Butch" wig were taken on Monday, May 13, 1957. William Tuttle (head of the make-up at MGM Studios) and his department produced very convincing results. This was the first time the wig was ready to be fitted, and the first scene shot using the wig was on May 20, scene 11 - Barber Shop. Elvis is wearing the wardrobe for Scenes 5 & 6 - Courtroom.
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Having read the script for Jailhouse Rock, Elvis was fully aware that the storyline called for his character to be sent to prison, and was told by the studio that, to be authentic, he would have to get his hair clipped. Elvis set off a personal appearance tour, prior to reporting to MGM Studios in Hollywood. The short tour commenced on March 28, 1957. The first stop was Chicago, at a press conference at the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Stockyards Inn that afternoon, when Elvis spoke to the assembled press. When the subject of his haircut for his new picture was raised, he revealed: 'When I get back to Hollywood, I'm gonna have my hair cut. They're gonna cut it down to crew length for this new movie. Personally, I don't care if they cut my hair, I don't think it makes much difference. Because it'll grow out again.'
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March 28, 1957. Elvis Presley at a press conference at the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Stockyards Inn, Chicago, Illinois.
Within a week, MGM Studios and producer, Pandro S. Berman, were swamped with four thousand letter and post-cards from Presley fans begging that the studio let their hero act with his original hair. "Don't Be Cruel - Don't Cut Elvis' hair," they demanded in varying terms. Some threatened to boycott the picture; some said they'd see it anyway because they'd always be loyal to Elvis - but they'd be "All Shook Up." It was decided something had to be done to save Elvis' hair and also alleviate the fans' feelings, so the Studio started to look at alternative ideas with tests quickly set up in the Studio make-up department under the stewardship of William Turtle, head of the make-up at MGM Studios. Elvis revealed the solution to columnist Aline Mosby, 'So now the studio has decided I'll wear a wig, a crew-cut wig, for the prison scenes.' During pre-production, tests were undertakes with the 35mm film camera, to establish any issue. It was realized by Director of Cinematography, Robert J. Bronner, that Elvis' hair required a red tint due to the black and white film. Elvis later confirmed this in an interview once filming had been completed: 'My hair will look the same, except it was reddened because in black-and-white it photographed like a cap instead of hair.'
The fans plea worked good this time but there's the old saying that goes like: "what's meant to be will be".
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Elvis Presley gets his hair cut before entering the Army, at Fort Chaffee in Barling, Arkansas. Presley entered the service March 24, 1958 at Fort Chaffee Reception Station. Picture of the 23-year-old rock star and barber Pete Peterson.
On December 10, 1957 Elvis received a letter from the Memphis Draft Board notifying him he was up for the next military draft. Presley's fans, once more, confident that their pleas would be heard just as they were by the Hollywood people, begun sending hundreds of letters to certainly everyone they could find would be helpful on the matter. They begged, "Please, please, do not touch Elvis' hair!" — some of them even felt kinda "suicidal" about Elvis' hair being cut off. One of the fan letters addressed to then U.S. President, read: "Dear President Eisenhower, My girlfriends and I are writing all the way from Montana. We think it's bad enough to send Elvis Presley to the army, but if you cut his sideburns of, we will just die."
NO DEAL WAS MADE THIS TIME. On March 24, 1958 Elvis was inducted into the U.S. Army and finally had to surrender to the crew-haircut. Truth be told, his fresh unfamiliar haircut didn't affect a bit his exquisite beauty - if anything, Presley appealed even worse to his female audience as a soldier.
Well, that's it. There it goes the story of how it took at least three attempts, including one movie and the U.S. government, to finally get that famous sideburns and pompadour out of Elvis' pretty little head.
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SOURCE: Excerpts from book "The Making Of Jailhouse Rock" (Book "Movie") by David English and Pål Granlund (2021).
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gepardling · 10 months
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ok FLUFF REQUEST TIME!! Gepard in a relationship with an actor(ess)!reader. I can imagine him trying his best to see every play and if he doesn't, he'll at least send flowers and whatnot. In regards to the reader, I believe they would understand and knows that he can't go to every single one of their plays. In short, I wanna see cute fluffy relationship scenarios or headcanons with these two on and off of work. Maybe a lil bonus if the two live together :3
on the stage, behind the stage w/ gepard.
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desc. : unironically i think u can tell i read oshi no ko b4 writing dis, n im so happy i did bc i feel it gave me a new perspective on dis topic !! i didnt go angsty on it tho bc we need fluff in dis household. i wrote headcanons nd a short lil bonus fic 4 u dis time :) ( wc : 1k )
tags / cw : sfw, just fluff, gn!reader, reader is part of an acting troupe, just casual relationship things, not proofread
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○ Gepard makes it his top priority to see most, if not all, of your shows. There have been many nights where he’s had to cut it close with his frontline duties, showing up just in time to witness the closing act. He always makes sure to bring flowers, your favorite kind, of course, and it’s always a HUGE bunch of them. Bonus points if he grew them himself!
○ There were times when you'd perform consecutive nights in a row, and your house would soon run out of space to keep all the bouquets Gepard delivered. But don’t worry, you would talk to him about it if you move in together. There really is no need for him to spend this much money on you! Yet he always insists, and one way or another, your house will be filled with flowers again.
○ Every one of his soldiers would know if you ever did a musical play because Gepard will not stop humming your solo after he heard it the first time. He also diligently memorizes the lines of your duets after you accidentally sang one together while cooking, and now he can't get enough of singing with you. You both get good practice too! It's a win-win.
○ Naturally, your acting career can be demanding. This makes both you and Gepard busy people who are rarely at home. It only makes those moments you get to spend some private time together all the more special, seeking solace in each other’s embrace as you momentarily escape your responsibilities.
○ Gepard understands how overwhelming your work can be, constantly dealing with other people, their opinions, and expectations of you. That being said, he doesn’t "abuse" his position as captain, per se. He may be a little biased when he’s quick to shut down any negative commentary people make about you, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
○ You don’t appreciate it when he hides those opinionated thoughts from you, but he's undeniably looking out for your mental health. Arguably, it’s slightly better this way too, and if you ever feel down or doubt yourself, he provides you with unwavering love and dedication.
○ He ensures you know that he’s not in love with you because of your talents or performance, but because he loves you for who you are. He greatly admires the passion you have and all the hours of hard work you put into acting, one of the many things that draw him to you.
○ Of course, life isn’t always perfect, and there are times when your schedules don’t align. If he has to leave for the frontlines before one of your concerts, he leaves you a letter of encouragement and a big bouquet on your dresser. He tries to see you before he has to leave as often as he can, but if you’re in dress rehearsals or learning a new script, there isn’t much he can do :((
○ On those rare occasions when he misses your performance before coming back home, there will always be a plate of warm food waiting for you, along with flowers or gifts that he personally gives you when you arrive or he picks you up from the theater, whichever comes first. He’s right by your side, listening intently as you recount the performance to him while you remove any remaining stage makeup.
○ This next one is purely food for thought, but if the acting troupe you’re with is relatively small and self-sufficient, Gepard would do his best to take up sewing to help you prepare or fix any costumes for performances. Sure, he breaks a ton of needles, and he’s probably not the best at it, but it’s cute that he tries so hard to lighten your workload while he’s just as busy himself...
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You couldn’t help but nervously peak beyond the curtains, possibly the fifth time that night. The lights that shone on the stage glared so bright that everything beyond it seemed to melt into a sea of darkness, the faces of the audience obscured by the void. The final act of the show was about to come to a close, possibly the pinnacle of your acting career, but Gepard was still nowhere to be seen. 
Tonight was the last performance of this play, and Gepard, despite promising to be there for the first show, was still missing. A stagehand tapping on your shoulder brought your mind back from the shadows, and you realized you had been biting your nails unconsciously. With only two more minutes before stepping on stage, you needed to clear your mind for a good performance.
You pushed aside negative thoughts and swallowed your doubts, preparing yourself to step onto the stage. The scene required you to portray relief and joy as the protagonist reunites with their estranged lover after a challenging journey. However, an emptiness lingered in your heart, making it harder to wear the mask.
As the curtains rose, you squinted slightly against the blinding lights. The deafening roar of the audience rang painfully in your ears. Yet, as a professional, you knew you had to play the part. With one last gulp, you forced yourself into character, banishing any wavering nerves from your voice.
Just moments before the climax of the scene, a distant shuffling in the back of the theater caught your attention. Through the haze of darkness, you could vaguely make out the figure of a person who had just arrived. Your heart surged with relief when you realized it was none other than Gepard. His disheveled hair and slightly worn uniform were evidence of his haste.
When his eyes met yours, the light returned to your gaze, and your heart soared. If not for the arrival of your fellow actor on set, you might have forgotten your lines. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, and your genuine excitement upon seeing Gepard seamlessly merged with your character's emotions. You delivered a flawless performance, wrapping up the night with an encore.
You couldn't wait to find Gepard backstage, and you rushed to the lobby, barely out of your costume. The force and speed of your hug nearly threw him off balance, and he had to hold the bouquet at a distance to protect it. You scolded him for making you worry, and he simply nodded apologetically, soothingly rubbing your back. When you finally pulled away, he handed you the bouquet and planted a sweet kiss on your lips.
"I told you I'd be here," he whispered, intertwining his free hand with yours. Gepard always followed through on his promises, no matter what. 
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unfortunately the title is the name of a genshin quest (lol !!) never quite felt a piece come 2 me as easy as dis 1. absolutely in love w/ the request !! the dark part of my mind kept screaming "what if geppie doesn't arrive" but of course he would !!! he wouldn't miss it 4 the world...
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boasamishipper · 1 year
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my personal favorite highlights from the official top gun: maverick script:
meek engineer's name is simon and is dating someone at the pentagon which is how they found out about the drone ranger coming to shut the darkstar project down
"That's...blue sky up there, Mav." "Yeah, but dark blue. Ominous."
mav also called darkstar 'angel' and 'girl' which i'm glad they cut otherwise i would have died in the theater then and there
"Hondo stares at his monitor. He knows his friend well." 🥺🥺🥺
"y'all built one hell of a plane" oh mav ❤️
"For anyone unfamiliar, it’s obvious there is story here - Glory and ghosts." g o d
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admiral's aide do you MIND he's having a MOMENT
warlock is described as "an affable, brilliant two-star" hell yeah
i personally think it's hilarious that cyclone was apparently top of his class in '88 but in the script he's in his forties?? even if he's 49 the film takes place in 2019?? that would make him 18 in 1988?? mr mcquarrie sir the math ain't mathing
"Maverick has had about enough of this shit" if that doesn't just sum up both movies
as a macheresin shipper the fact that hangman and coyote were planned as besties from the get-go,,,,,,,my heart is Full
"sorry i couldn't be there" oh ice 🥺🥺🥺
mcq's love for casablanca continues to shine through
penny's dad is alive and retired and still hates mav
"Keepin’ it tight, I see, Phoenix" hangman is such an ASSHOLE i HATE him (affectionate)
bob's description is "human wallpaper" i am DYING
"shit, that's fritz" i DEMAND to know why fritz's arrival elicited that reaction from fanboy!! show me the fritz&b-team daggers cut!!
"Maverick sees a ghost. From this angle, the kid is a dead ringer for Goose, just as gawky and gangly, loving life." and what if i Bawled
MAVERICK REQUESTED HONDO SPECIFICALLY
HONDO WAS GONNA MEET UP WITH A LADY IN RENO WHO IS 'AN ACROBAT' AND 'VERY FLEXIBLE'
"I need at least one person on my side here" MAV
"I'll stand somewhere else" HONDO
mav originally ran the entire class through the contents of the F-18 NATOPS 👀👀👀
in the original script rooster gave hangman his callsign...personally gonna stick with the headcanon that phoenix (if it had to be one of the daggers) was the one who gave it to him, but Very Interesting nonetheless.
rooster calls phoenix 'fee' brb peppering this into All my fics
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PHOENIX IS THE MAV OF THE MOVIE CONFIRMED
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I DEMAND TO KNOW IF THERE IS FOOTAGE OF GLEN POWELL SINGING 'HOT FOR TEACHER'
genuinely cannot believe mcq wrote this. he is on galaxy tier levels of thinking i could never even hope to reach.
rooster being protective of phoenix you know that's right
theo the yellow lab was originally named "t" in the script,,,,,,,,t for tony scott,,,,,,,,,
"You're a warrior, Ice. A fighter." bury me ALIVE
"(Note: Important we include PILOT POV establishing gray-out in the lead up to G-LOCK)" this script is tighter than a snare drum
"Kinda like your ass depended on it" GET HIS ASS MAV
phoenix and bob refuse to even IMPLY that mav was in any way at fault for them having to eject,,,,,,,,they are Ride Or Die
as a warlock/hondo shipper i am also Delighted they actually got some screentime together
MAV WAS SUPPOSED TO GIVE THE EULOGY AT ICE'S FUNERAL 😭😭😭😭😭
mav and hangman were apparently supposed to talk after mav chose hangman as his wingman but i'm glad that scene got cut because a) showing vs telling and b) hangman is Not emotionally aware or mature enough to say what he says here out loud and you can't convince me otherwise
"Hondo stares at him. Maverick stares back. Something unspoken passes between the two men." and mavhondo shippers everywhere rejoiced
"HONDO squeezes his fist tightly, feeling something crack. He opens his hand to see the crystal of his stopwatch is crushed, the second hand frozen. An omen." HEY MCQ WHAT THE FUCK
"CLOSE ON Hondo, reflecting on his last moment with Mav." see above
"How we gonna get this bag’a ass in the air?" "Just hang on. Cause this bag‘a ass is about to go ballistic."
"Rough Rider, this is, uh...Ghost Rider" *cries in callbacks*
"The minute Hangman touches down, pull the trip wires and have the barricade stanchions ready." (silence) "HE DOESN'T HAVE A GODDAMN TAILHOOK." (OH SHIT FUCK OKAY RUNNING NOW)
lowkey like the parallel between cyclone nodding at mav and hangman and rooster shaking hands. they still don't like each other, but they respect each other a little more now. as the script says, that's enough.
"Among the pictures is one of Goose and Maverick in the bloom of their youth - their whole lives ahead of them." 😭😭😭😭😭
WE WERE ROBBED OF PHOENIX JOINING ROOSTER AND PENNY AND AMELIA AND MAV AT THE HANGAR I REPEAT WE WERE R O B B E D
"TIME CUT as Phoenix holds two model planes, demonstrating air to-air combat to a very interested Amelia." ooooh amelia has a cruuuuuush
"Rooster turns, looks at the make-shift family taking shape in this makeshift home…And he smiles." 😭😭😭😭😭
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exitrowiron · 8 months
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Our Son Got Married
Part 2
I was the officiant
I was honored when Brady and Cloe asked me to officiate their wedding. In the state of Maine you must be an ordained minister or a public official (ex. judge) to officiate a wedding. I paid $15 to American Marriage Ministries and was ordained a minister. (You may call me Reverend Mike if you wish).
I drafted a script for the ceremony and let Brady and Cloe choose which parts they wanted to do. For example, they chose to exchange vows, but didn't want the part where I ask the congregation if anyone objects. Likewise, they wanted to keep the ring exchange simple. There's really only one required portion of the ceremony, and that is the declaration... "Do you Brady take Cloe to be... etc., etc." Brady and Cloe wrote their own vows and to say they were inspiring and heartfelt is an understatement. Half the congregation was tearful when they finished.
The only real opportunity for creativity for me as the officiant is the invocation. I chose to use this time to welcome the guests, say a few words about Brady and Cloe and talk about marriage in general. I'm very proud of what I wrote; you can read it below the cut.
When friends heard that I'd be officiating, they suggested attempting to inject humor into the ceremony - perhaps by copying other funny wedding scenes like Mr. Bean's performance in Four Weddings and Funeral or the marriage scene in The Princess Bride. I played it straight however and the ceremony was flawless.
Mike's Invocation
Please be seated.
Thank you everyone for making the trip to this beautiful place. Speaking on behalf of Brady and Cloe as well my wife Beth and Cloe’s parents, Ken and Beth, we are honored by your presence. We are also mindful of loved ones who can’t be with us today; we know they would join us if they could.
As the officiant of this wedding, I have several official responsibilities. My most important responsibility, however, is to make sure that Brady and Cloe understand the commitment they are about to make and are prepared to keep that commitment.
I’ve studied their relationship closely and spoken to them individually and together and I’m pleased to report that they will make a great married couple. I say that with confidence because over the last 8 years they have passed with flying colors the Relationship Tests of Strength.
They have
Worked together. In fact, this is how they met; working together at the Indiana University Foundation and each secretly hoping for office hours which overlapped with the other.
Traveled together, including international travel to countries where they didn’t speak the language.
Moved to a city which was completely foreign to both of them (Boston) and have together moved from one apartment to another.
Supported each other through rigorous professional examinations (the CPA exam for Brady and the Bar exam for Cloe), which they both passed.
Tackled home improvement projects together, including relationship test, hanging wallpaper in a bathroom together.
Sheltered in place together; working demanding jobs from a small apartment during a global pandemic. They’ve even worked together to modify that arrangement at this wedding venue with just a few days’ notice.
And finally, with little or no discernable skills, experience, or appropriate equipment, they have gone camping together. Repeatedly.
As the married couples here will attest, surviving any one of these Relationship Tests of Strength is cause for celebration. And yet despite these tests Cloe, who claims that she liked Brady first, still describes him as thoughtful, patient, empathetic and curious. Brady, who thought that Cloe was just too cool and definitely out of his league, still describes her as compassionate, thoughtful and beautiful. Brady and Cloe are outstanding individuals, and they are about to become an even more outstanding married couple.
But enough about Brady and Cloe… let’s talk about all of us.
Each of our lives is composed of almost endless choices and possibilities. Some people like to think of doors opening and closing, but I envision myself walking a trail through life with paths before me – each decision holding the possibility of new paths and new destinations. Most decisions and events in our life don’t alter our direction very much if at all. What I chose to eat for breakfast this morning isn’t going to affect the course of my life.
Occasionally, however, a decision or event changes our course dramatically. These are the moments when I can literally feel the universe shift. That’s what it feels like to me. The universe shifts. Entire worlds of new possibilities suddenly appear while others just as suddenly evaporate. You know those moments… choosing what college you’re going to attend, starting a new job, moving to a new part of the world, the beginning or ending of a romantic relationship, the death of a loved one or the birth of a child. These are moments which are frozen in time and shine in our memory.
In my experience, the most extraordinary, universe-shifting decisions are the ones we choose to make together; those special moments when we choose to bend our paths to be nearer to one another. What we are about to witness in a few minutes isn’t just the universe shifting for Brady and Cloe; the universe is about to shift for all of us. Their decision, their commitment to love one another other alters the path for everyone here. Their paths will be forever entwined as will be the paths of all of us.
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megistusdiary · 2 months
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okokokok (hi it’s phantom Arle anon again) hearing you know little about it makes me want to share specific story beats with you because 🥵also I’m going to link the specific cover I was listening too because the story behind this song in the play is 🥵🥵
(Point of no return, for fans who are familiar)
https://youtu.be/mzPIzVtIi3Q?si=A-khTaiNprCuh0XE
Ok so! At this point in the script the play is about half over, and the phantom crashes a party to announce he has penned an entire opera and demands his precious little angel star in it. In this play-within-a-play, the lead man and his sidekick trade clothes to seduce a pretty maiden (to be played by our angel ofc) BUT the phantom sneaks backstage and actually disguises himself as the actor who’s supposed to seduce her. This song is the within-the-play “I wanna fuck you” song that the phantom intentionally wrote as a chance to sneak himself onstage and sing with/to his angel. Basically a massive complex roundabout way to try and kiss her on stage and HONESTLY as a song it slaps and the surprise of your costar having suddenly been replaced by the phantom in the middle of this scene is kinda 🥵
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okay pause. thank you for explaining this to me. that is so good.
also, i listened to the song, and wow! i love women!
arlecchino in this au would work so well. there's no doubt in my mind. she could totally pull all this off, she is very cunning.
i can see her literally penning an entire play literally just for the chance to sing with her angel and kiss her. oh my.
oh, to be her precious little angel who she would do anything for 😇
somebody deliver me a tall, hot, evil gf promptly 🤭
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cynicalruins · 7 months
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Changérion Bible - Toshiki Inoue interview
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Translation by Windii, scans by me
-SPOILER ALERT FOR THE ENTIRE SHOW-
Scriptwriter: Inoue Toshiki
Inoue Toshiki, a scriptwriter who wrote all but two of the 39 episodes by himself, convinced everyone who knew of the work that Changéríon was of the Inoue World. How did he create this unique series that is unparalleled in the history of television?
―Was the birth of Changérion a request of the times?!
"I think the first time I met Shirakura was on location in Nagano for "Jetman". At that time, I only had the impression that we were just smiling and drinking whiskey together, and I had no idea that we would become such close friends (laughs). Later, there was the movie version of "Hakaider", but at that time, we were still finding out each other's real intentions and didn't trust each other. It was only with "Changéríon" that we came to a kind of mutual understanding."
―How did you come to work on the plot for "Changéríon"?
"At first, the idea was to do "Hakaider" for TV. So I was supposed to do the plot from the beginning. Then we decided to do something original instead of "Hakaider," and Shirakura and I came up with the idea of doing something like "Detective Tale'"."
―In your interview with "Uchusen," you mentioned that you had a project in which the main character was a fugitive.
"Yes, there was also an idea that it would be like "The Fugitive," a foreign drama. But both ideas disappeared during the course of our discussions, and we decided to make the main character a cram school teacher. But when I tried to make it into a script, it was boring, so I forced it back to a detective, and it got a lot of traction. We decided from the beginning to make it a comedy. Both Shirakura and I felt that the traditional handsome hero with a frown on his face, carrying his troubles on his back, was outdated and uncool. It was the demand of the times, or rather, something inevitable."
―Another characteristic of Changéríon is that it doesn't present any particular theme.
"It is annoying when a work is preachy or pushes a theme to the forefront. It is not good to start with a theme. It's the creator's complacency. It's just enough to look at the whole picture and see what's there and what's emerging. Writers have a bad habit of wanting to make a theme look like a work of art, but that's a big mistake. Everyone knows that love and friendship are wonderful, and viewers don't want to see that anymore."
―There is more slapstick than comedy in Changéríon, isn't there?
"To tell you the truth, when I wrote episodes 3 and 4, I knew that this is what Changérion was all about, and I wasn't sure about it at the time of episodes 1 and 2 (laughs). But after episodes 3 and 4, the staff was on board, and we decided to go with this route, and things just escalated. Slapstick works in animation, but I experimented to see how far I could take it in live action. It went surprisingly well. Director Konaka did a great job. For my part, I was surprised that Mr. Nagaishi found it interesting. I've known Mr. Nagaishi since "Supernova Flashman", and he was the first person to reject my scripts (laughs). I thought he was good at love, flowers, and other stinky stuff, and wasn't interested in comedy or slapstick, but that wasn't so at all. I thought he was a great guy."
―You have listed your challenging works, favorite works, and worst works in the "Changéríon Memorial" on Toei's website. Could you tell us about them in detail?
"The first one I had a hard time with was episode 10. I needed a lot of ideas, and slapstick is difficult to structure. And episode 14. I was kind of tired at the time (laughs). I wasn't a writer who worked that much at the time. I only wrote up to six episodes in a row for Jetman, and I heard that Mr. Suzuki (producer Takeyuki) told Shirakura that I was limited to a maximum of six episodes (laughs)."
―The inspired works are most interesting!
"My favorite works are episodes 10, 12, and 25. That's because they are interesting (laughs). Before I write a script, I write a structure chart, and in my case, I make it very carefully, as if the script is ready when the chart is finished (laughs). I think that's where episode 10 came from. When you make a chart and throw away the excess, you get inspired. The inspired works are most interesting. In episode 25, the exchange between the two disguised as old men in the last scene is great. I think it was inspired by something else… I wonder what it was."
―Which works left you dissatisfied?
"Episode 14 is well done, but in Changérion's world, it's trite. It's a story that could have been written by anyone but me, and I don't like that. For episode 13, I like the title, but it was a bit tawdry. Episode 11 had a diluted plot. The lack of length in the script made the pacing a little sluggish. They tacked on the lines after the fact, the stuff about Kuroiwa's profundity. It's like it came about by accident. I wrote Kuroiwa as a guy who is obsessed with things, but I didn't expect him to become such a man of extensive knowledge. Mr. Nagaishi was suspicious of the direction and added classical music, which was well received. I think the music was very important. The person who chose that music was great."
―Looking back on each of the characters, do you have any thoughts?
"Akira is representative of what everyone cares about. Like, you wish you could live like that. It's a man's dream, like James Bond in that sense. You don't want to be Kamen Rider #1, but you want to be Akira, right? (laughs)"
―Akemi and Rui were cast in contrasting ways, weren't they?
"I wasn't involved in the casting. Shirakura and I don't seem to have the same tastes, so he wouldn't invite me (laughs). Akemi is definitely better as a secretary. Akemi has her stuff together and can put the brakes on Akira. Rui is the type of person who is weird and presses the gas pedal together with Akemi, so the scheme is wrong, but when Akemi is gone and we need a new secretary, there's no point in having the same type of person. It was a desperate measure to create a more impactful character that would eclipse Akira."
―The verbal tics at the end of their lines are also memorable.
"I don't think that went over very well (laughs), but Akemi is a firm person, so it's not cute when a girl like that talks the way she does (laughs). I think it's just right for her to add "maybe" and make it sound lighthearted. For Rui's style of speech, she's the ultimate posh lady, so she's repressed and wants to be someone she's not. She has a bit of a split personality thing. As for Hayami, Aizawa's acting got better and better from the middle of the show, and it was great to see how serious Hayami became. Ichiyama, who played Munakata, was also interesting, but I didn't change Munakata's character to suit him. I was going to make him a strange old man from the beginning. Come to think of it, there is not a single decent guy in this show (laughs)."
―As for creating the character of Kuroiwa?
"I had a lot of trouble making that one, because he was going compete with Akira, so I was thinking about a guy who would set up a consulting office at DarkZide, who would have an office in the apartment across the street, and who would be enthusiastic about stuff, and that's how I ended up with that one. Ogawa was good at it, too. When he first appeared, he had a strong impact, but it was difficult to decide what to do with him after that, so I made him the governor of Tokyo. It's interesting, isn't it (laughs)? Kuroiwa was crazy about Eri until the end. He said he was going to conquer humans, but he really wanted to be a human. Sayoko is a character that was really created at the last minute because of the deadline. Shirakura told me that if I didn't write by tomorrow, we wouldn't be able to shoot."
―Not only Kuroiwa and Sayoko, but many of the DarkZide is very obsessive.
"They are all enthusiasts. You could call them single-minded or pure."
Which is reality in the last episode?
―What made you decide to make the last episode the way it was?
"It is often said that the "it was all a dream"-ending is a forbidden technique, but I have always wondered if it is really so. I thought it would be crazy if I did it for the whole series, but if I did it for one episode, it would be a mere "it was all a dream"-ending. I told Shirakura about it, and he was stupid enough to think that was the way to go (laughs)."
―It's often discussed which is more real, the world of the story you've been telling or the serious world.
"Well, that would be less interesting if the dream wasn't more beautiful. It is better that Akira in reality admires Akira in the dream."
―The world DarkZide is trying to destroy is the real one?!
"Of course it is. In the structure, the point where the story ends is reality. It means it was all a dream. That's why Changéríon is ephemeral."
―Looking back on the work that is Changéríon now, what do you think?
"Everyone was in a groove. It was strange that we were all going in one direction and no one was there to stop us (laughs). It is rare to see such a united group going in a different direction from what was expected, isn't it? The greatest asset for me was that I was able to meet the staff. I knew Shirakura and Nagaishi from before, but getting to know Kimura (YOMIKO Advertising) and Iwata (TV Tokyo) was a big deal."
―When looking at Changéríon, it feels like individual ideas and inspirations were highly respected, rather than a parliamentary system.
"Programs are more interesting when they are made that way. If one person says no, the initial fun will fade away. I think that not only dramas but also TV programs as a whole should be allowed to run amok. I think it's boring because everyone is satisfied with making a mediocre product."
―How was Changéríon able to run amok?
"Because my episodes were funny (laughs). No, seriously. Everyone was fooled. Iwata from TV Tokyo said he was fooled by me at the wrap party. But the deceiver wins."
(Here comes Kochihira Chika.)
Kochihira: I have known Mr. Inoue for 10 years.
Inoue: She was in the same office as Wakamatsu Toshihide, who played Gai in Jetman, and we have known each other since then. I have known Kochihira since she was 19 years old.
Kochihira: But Changéríon was a regular audition and I passed. I knew that it was your work, though.
Inoue: So when I heard about that after it was decided, I was surprised, too.
―What do you think of Kochihira from your point of view?
Inoue: Well, she has an attractive face and figure, and has been admired by everyone since she was a child…
Kochihira: You really think so? (laughs)
Inoue: It got interesting when your, or rather Eri's, feisty side came out in episode 3 (laughs).
Kochihira: After that, Eri got cuter and cuter, and in the end, she even became Elisa (laughs).
Inoue: It was fun, wasn't it?
And so the fun night continued. Unfortunately, we'll end it here for the sake of this issue of the magazine.
Inoue Toshiki: Born November 28, 1959 in Saitama. Made his debut in 1981 with Dr. Slump Arale. Since then, he has been active in both live-action and animation. His latest work, Masked Rider Ryuuki EPISODE FINAL, will be released on August 17.
Works: Supernova Flashman (86-87), Birdman Squad Jetman (91-92), Mechanical Violator Hakaider (95), Masked Rider Kuuga (00-01), Ironclad Machine Mikazuki (00-01), Masked Rider Agito (01-02), Masked Rider Ryuuki (02-on air)
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threadsun · 1 year
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Sweets🍭 Asks: "Heeeey! It's me! I've just been struggling with ideas because....ive been thinking about things unrelated to sunny day Jack
BUT HEAR ME OUT
Remember that one fic you wrote with Jean and Joseph with teacher MC
Yeah that but...mc is the director\creator of the sunny time crew and here's the kicker
They are extremely miserable
They hate their job
They hate their life
They hate children
They probably hate Jean and Joseph too
Will that stop them from flirting with this tired annoyed grumpy director?
Nope! I mean Jack and Rory were made to make people happy!
It's gonna be a piece of cake
...right?"
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Oh Sweets hellooooooo!!! I love you!!! You always bring me the absolute most banger ideas!!!
I love the idea of them both falling for this person who looks like they haven't slept in weeks and visibly loathes every moment they're on set lmao
Content: hatred of children, general depression, ngl reader just sort of sucks, smoking, absolutely shamelessly dirty flirting, suicidal ideation/joking about suicide, reader is not okay
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Coffee isn't enough anymore. You need an IV drip of caffeine straight into your blood stream. Or some heavy drugs. Or a real hard blow to the head with a baseball bat. At this point, you're not picky. Whatever gets you off this stupid set.
The SunnyTime Crew Show. Your crowning achievement. The idea that made your career. Shown across millions of tv sets all over the country every single day. Shown to all those little ankle biters you can't stand the sight of, too young and useless to so much as wipe their own asses.
It's all bright colours and simple words and stupid, terrible songs that get stuck in your head on loop until you want to bash your brains in against a wall. Not that it takes much for you to feel that way these days. Especially given the people you're working with.
Joseph Haberdae and Jean Laurent. Rising star and bossy diva. The constant bickering. The even more constant flirting. The adlibbed lines. The relentless cheer while the cameras roll. And the insufferable questions when they don't. They take the whole thing so fucking seriously. Like this is anything more than some drivel for parents to shove their kids in front of when they can't be bothered to parent anymore.
Maybe you don't hate the kids, maybe it's the parents you resent. Always shoving crying babies into your arms during live recordings so their "precious child" can get a better look at the set. Demanding the show teach this or that lesson. Begging for the Crew to come work birthday parties.
But no, you can't stand wiping little noses and listening to the shrieks. Kids have always given you the creeps, but now they piss you off. Always saying weird things and rubbing their sticky fingers all over set. You're just lucky the stars are better with the kids than you are.
"Should we cut?" Your brought out of your stewing annoyance by the sound of your PA whispering in your ear.
You down the last of your coffee and shove the cup into his hands, a silent demand for more. "Cut!"
You hadn't noticed the scene end. But it didn't matter, Joseph and Jean had started improvising lines anyway, as they so often did. Your eye twitches in annoyance. You don't spend your time yelling at the writers to get every line perfect just for these idiots in costumes to make shit up.
"Haberdae, Laurent." You snap your fingers and point to the spot in front of you. "Everyone else, take five. Then we reshoot. We get it right this time or every single one of you is out of a goddamn job."
As the rest of the cast and crew file out for their break, the two men stand at attention before you. They know where this conversation is going. It's the same one you have every time they so much as change a single word from the script.
"So, which school was it?" You cross you arms and scowl at them both.
They exchange a look of confusion before Joseph ventures a reply. "What?"
"Which school? SoCal? Columbia? You do RTF at Austin?" They can tell your tone is derisive, but they're still not sure what you're getting at. You roll your eyes. "Where you studied screenwriting. I assume you've got some writing background, since you're always changing my fucking script."
Oh. Ohhhhh. Okay, they're on the same page as you now. Joseph has the good grace to look chastised, staring at his feet like a kicked puppy. Jean isn't one to be so easily intimidated. He raises an eyebrow and shrugs.
"What was it today, your assistant got you the wrong coffee? Or did some kid get ketchup all over your copy of the script?" He's used to your bad moods. They both are, but he's not swayed by them. "If you'd actually watched the take rather than staring off into space, you'd realise it was better than the shit your writers came up with."
You purse your lips. He's... probably not wrong. It's hard to find good writers who are willing to throw their talents away on a show like this. And they do both have an admirable understanding of their characters. Much as you hate them, they're true to your original vision. The vision you wished you'd never had.
With a reluctant sigh, you move to rewatch the take. Your PA hands you your coffee and a lit cigarette before hastily retreating, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire of whatever's going on. It's a relief, the burn of the smoke in your throat followed by the burn of the scalding coffee.
"Watch."
Joseph's behind you, hands hovering just over your waist as his breath brushes against your ear. Damn this infuriatingly handsome man and his lack of personal space. You grit your teeth and focus on the screen, ignoring the huge man all but pressed against your back. He and Jean crowd you, trying to get a good look at the viewer as you play back the scene.
It's... good. Better than the script. You don't want to admit it out loud, but their additions make more sense with the episode's story, and sound more like Jack and Rory. Damn them.
"See?" Joseph's lips brush against your ear, one hand making contact with your waist for just a moment to give it a soothing rub. "Not bad, right?"
You shove him aside, taking a long drag of your cigarette and pretending to mull it over. As if there's any question. He watches you closely, with all the eagerness of youth and all the ego of an actor who knows he's good at his job.
"Fine." You breathe the word out in a plume of smoke. "It's good enough, I guess. We don't have time for another take anyway."
Joseph grins, leaning an arm on your shoulder like you're an old friend rather than his director. "Come on, you can admit it. We're good."
You sneer at him, trying to nudge his massive forearm off you. But he doesn't budge. Instead, Jean takes up an identical position leaning on your other shoulder.
"So tense," he tuts and shakes his head. "Come on, you can praise us sometimes, you know."
With a roll of your eyes, you resign yourself to once again being crowded by the two men. You can't honestly say you mind it. "Why, so you can get off to it later? I've got about as much interest in stroking your goddamn egos as I do in stroking your pathetic cocks."
"Watch out," Jean's voice is a familiar, teasing lilt. Though it feels directed as much at Joseph as it is at you. "Talk like that might just get Joseph all riled up."
"Eugh." You mime throwing up, ducking from under their arms to grab your coffee and down some more. "Don't need to know about your humiliation kink, thanks."
Joseph's redder than he'd care to admit, but he tries to brush it off. "You know, I didn't realise you thought about stroking our cocks that often. Or our egos."
"Maybe a quick romp would help loosen you up a bit?" Jean suggests, raising an eyebrow with a quirk of his lips. "Keep you focused on your job. Is that why you've got that thousand yard stare every time we shoot? Too busy thinking about fucking us in our dressing rooms?"
From an outside perspective it might seem like sexual harassment in the workplace, but... you encourage it in your own way. You could easily set boundaries if you wanted to, but their flirting—however much they annoy you—is the only interesting part of your life right now. The only part that doesn't make you consider jumping off the roof of the studio.
"Too busy thinking about the easiest way to off myself, more like. Still trying to decide between throwing myself in the reservoir and just jumping in front of the next car I see."
"Well, wouldn't that be a waste of a pretty face?"
Jean's not worried by your theatrics. It's not the first time you've loudly proclaimed your intentions to off yourself, nor will it be the last. It never stops you coming in the next day, looking as dead behind the eyes as ever, and yelling at everyone you see.
"Pretty face." You snort, trying not to choke on your coffee. "What, is it the eyebags or the fact that I haven't had time for a decent meal in months?"
"I think it's your smile." Joseph's always so... genuine. He flirts like Jean, of course, but sometimes he'll throw something so earnest at you that it winds you. "We don't get to see it often, but... you've got a really nice smile."
It feels like he's punched you in the chest, not given you a sweet compliment. It's time to put a stop to this for now. The flirting's gone past entertaining and straight into that dangerous territory that leaves you worried you might do something stupid. Like fall for one or both of them. Not to mention, you've still got half a day of filming this bullshit left.
"Fuck off to makeup, be back on set in two. We'll pick up with Rory's baking lesson."
With a stern nod to the stage door, the two hurry off. You feel like you can breathe again. When they're around, you start to get claustrophobic. Or maybe coulrophobic. Or maybe just... you feel vaguely nauseous at even the shadow of a thought about having romantic feelings for either of the frustrating, handsome actors.
Nope.
No way.
Definitely not.
Not while you have the world's worst tv show to direct.
.
.
.
God you hate your life.
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thelemoncoffee · 11 months
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anyone remember like- a really long time ago how i said i had an au idea where kokichi wrote fake love letters as fictional characters as a creative writing hobby, but then had the bad idea to write a real one to Shuichi? remember how i said i wanted to get back to it in a later post but never did?
well look at me i'm finally getting back to it.
Okay so first things first, the actual process of witting his love letter was much more difficult than he expected: where his fictional ones are well crafted to be in character with set stage pieces and character analysis behind them, this real one has absolutly none of that.
he can't character analyze himself and Shuichi and how the two of them reacting to stuff like this to craft a scripted love confession, all he has is his very real and very messy feelings to put on a page. he despises the shocking lack of control he has over the situation.
i can imagine the first few drafts he keeps trying to make it staged but it keeps feeling wrong and bad in a way he can't explain, and the more he tries the more frustrated he gets. then he finally gives in and tries just once to just dump whatever feelings come to mind on the paper. it ends up being both the best attempt yet, and the most cathartic experience he's had in a very long time.
it's extremely raw and disorganized and sloppy, so he tries to make a second version where he rewrites the dump to sound more clean and purposeful, but it makes it feel wrong again so he just takes the original and sticks it in Shuichi's locker. it's unsigned cause he decided if he was going to give something with such raw emotion in it he wasn't going to reveal himself- that's pushing it too far for his comfort. he's content with Shuichi at the very least knowing he has a secrete admirer now.
now this is where it gets fun, cause now Shuichi's got it, he can read it and see all the pretty raw emotions, and his detective brain demands he figures out who made it. it ends up being harder than he expected, seeing as Kokichi's dishonest ass isn't exactly at the top of his radar for something so heartfelt. but there is one thing that tips Shuichi off-
remember how i said it was the original heart dump he gave? as in the one where Kokichi just wrote whatever he felt till he got it all out?
now it's not his neatest work, it has mistakes and scribbles in it. but Shuichi sits right next to him in class: he's seen Kokichi's messy "in the zone" notes in his class notebook, he knows Kokichi is left handed and smears ink when he writes, he knows he uses exclusively red ink pens, he knows what his handwriting looks like. if there is nothing else about the note that helps help him solve it, the handwriting is what will
after landing this conclusion, i imagine he'd probably spend a bit of time dissecting the letter with the perspective of Kokichi being the one who wrote it in mind for a while before confronting. considering how raw and unlike Kokichi it is, he'd need some time to think about what all is going on in it. he'd eventually either run out of speculation juice, or have so much juice he needs to bring himself in and mentally yell "too theoretical" at himself. either way at that point he'd decide he'd had enough and wants the truth, so he'd spend some extra time with Kokichi trying to slowly reveal his case to him.
how smoothly that goes is very much up to debate. he wants to conform his conclusion for sure (totally not because he has a fat crush on Kokichi and really want him to the the culprit), but doesn't want to scare Kokichi off by being too upfront. unfortunately Kokichi is also keen of eye and gets sus of him pretty fast cause why tf is Shuichi suddenly spending extra time with him- not that he minds, it's just bizarre for him to do and raises some flags in Kokich's mind
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Vesuviella: Part 5
All that remains is to convince Lucio. It’s not hard to find him. He’s in the Heart District, having his regular drinks at one of the pubs off of Red Street. You and Julian enter separately – he goes to sit with Nadia, who had agreed to meet him there; and you plop down on the seat in front of an almost-tipsy Lucio.
“MC! You came to join me! Of course you did, I’m the best company there is. Here, I’ll get the bartender to give you a drink on the house. They’re all big fans of me here.”
He’s flagging down a staff member and demanding a drink for you before you can protest. While he waits he fills the space with all of his news – the recent job he did on a monster on the outskirts of a nearby town, the merchant who wouldn’t drop their prices for him, and Mercedes and Melchior’s general wellbeing. It’s not until you take a sip of the drink set in front of you that he finally turns his attention back to you. “What about you MC? What exciting things have you been up to?”
You smile at him over the rim of your cup. “Not much besides the shop, but – oh – there is that one thing. I was invited to star in an event with some of our friends.”
He puts his third drink down, flushed but still focused enough to fixate on the suggested exclusivity. “Star, huh? You gonna be a big deal or something? Of course you are, you’re a star everywhere you go! But I haven’t heard anything about it. You know I know all there is to know about the big parties around here.”
You nod thoughtfully. “Yeah, it’s still in the secret planning stages for now. It won’t be announced until everything’s been prepared.”
You can see him hiding his pout. “Secret, huh? Who else knows the secret? What secret thing are you going to do that everyone’s going to find out about?”
You smile. “Julian wrote a play, and we’re all going to star in it. Me, Nadia, Asra, Julian, Portia, even Muriel. We’re going to invite all of Vesuvia to the performance once it’s ready.”
His jaw drops slowly, and then snaps shut in indignation. “Well why didn’t you tell me about this? If you want all of Vesuvia to see it, you’re going to need me. What part do I get? There’s a part leftover, right? Of course there is, you’ll need me in the biggest part! There’s no way you could put on a good show and draw a crowd without me helping. Don’t worry, I’ll do it.”
You smile into your half-empty drink and shrug. “I don’t know, I think I overheard Julian talking about needing one more good actor. You’ll have to ask him, though, he wrote the play.”
Lucio’s frantic gestures freeze and you can see the sulk beginning to set in. “Ask him? Jules? Are you sure?”
You nod and point. “Yep, he’s in charge of it. And look at that, he’s right over there with Nadia!”
“Jules is here with Noddy?” He whirls around to spot the two of them chatting in the corner, turns back around just as quickly, glances at you, and then strides across the pub. You watch the scene playing out, Lucio’s begrudging begging, Julian’s delight at having his theatrical work so sought after, and Nadia’s barely concealed amusement. You know it would have been enough to simply inform Lucio of the offer, but a little humble pie wouldn’t hurt him and you also know it will be a moment that every other friend of yours will treasure as a fond memory. You watch Julian hand over a homemade script and you down the rest of your glass. That’s the casting set. Now you just have to hope and pray that rehearsals won’t destroy that dilapidated old community theatre.
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originalleftist · 3 months
Text
Dolph Lundgren on Amber Heard and Aquaman II cuts.
Looks like Dolph Lundgren isn't following the studio line:
"Action movie icon and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star Dolph Lundgren has revealed that Jason Momoa "got spooked" with the "Amber Heard situation," and believes that the Aquaman franchise is now over. In an exclusive interview with MovieWeb, Lundgren addressed the future of the Aquaman franchise and says he has heard "through somebody else" that Momoa wants to move on to other things.
"I don't know what's gonna happen with Aquaman. I've heard Jason Momoa thinks it's just his last one, and he wants to do something else. I heard it through somebody else. But it's hard to know what's going to happen in the future, except I just thought they had a great script, and they had a great director and good cast [for the second film]."
After praising the script, director, and cast of the sequel, Lundgren reasoned that Momoa grew concerned about the involvement of Amber Heard, the bad press the actress was getting at the time, and how this would affect the box office and audience response.
"And I guess he got spooked with this Amber Heard situation and the fact that people weren't gonna see the movie because she's in it. I always thought that was overrated. I mean, I think when you make a movie, you've got to stick to your guns a little bit... So, I personally wish they stuck with the original because I thought it was quite good."
Lundgren also referred to "the original," by which he means the first version of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. A version in which both he and Amber Heard reportedly had much bigger roles.
Lundgren is likely right in thinking that the Aquaman franchise in its current form is over, with Momoa rumored to be changing characters and playing Lobo in James Gunn and Peter Safran's rebooted DCU.
The Aquaman sequel was hammered with delays and negative reports from behind the scenes, with documents released as part of the Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard defamation trial even claiming that Momoa had arrived to set drunk and "pushed" to have Heard removed from the project entirely.
While his time underwater may now be done, Dolph Lundgren has plenty in the pipeline. The action star will next lead Wanted Man, a movie that he has also directed, co-wrote, and produced. Starring Christina Villa, Kelsey Grammer, and Michael Paré alongside Lundgren, Wanted Man follows the Rocky IV star as an aging detective who travels to Mexico to extradite a woman who witnessed the murders of two DEA agents. Of course, things are never as simple as that, with Lundgren soon finding himself unable to trust anyone admit flying bullets fired from every side.
Wanted Man is due to be released by Quiver Distribution in select theatres and on video on demand from January 19, 2024. You can check out the trailer below:"
Some takeaways here:
Further corroboration that Amber Heard was telling the truth about her role being reduced, that this was done to placate the hate mob.
Jason Momoa is a self-absorbed coward who threw his costar under the bus for the sake of his own career.
There was a prior version of the film (not sure if it was ever all actually shot or just scripted) that would have had expanded roles for Heard and likely also Lundgren, and was probably superior to what was released.
Glad to have supported Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (#OnlyForMera), will not be watching the reboot as things stand. Nor anything by Wan or Momoa.
#ReleaseTheAmberCut
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