#I’m watching the iceman job and it’s true

[footprintsinthesxnd]

I’ll always come back to you

Pairings: Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky x reader

Warnings: mention of potential death, angst, Iceman being a softie

Summary: Iceman and his fiancée spend the night together before he is deployed.

Thank you @callsign-phoenix for proofreading for me.

The pale glow of the moon snuck through the thin curtains casting a pale glow over Tom’s naked form. You could hear the soft snores escaping from his plump lips and watched as his chest rose and fell peacefully. He looked so beautiful when he was asleep, chiseled abs radiating warmth as he held you close to him. His face was soft, not streaked with lines like when he was awake, he nearly always had a serious look on his face except for when he was with you.

You breathed in his scent, the sweet smell of his body bringing you some comfort in the early morning. You had been awake for hours, barely able to close your eyes without jolting yourself awake again. Tom was due to be deployed in the morning and you could never sleep easily knowing that the love of your life would be leaving shortly, putting his life at risk. The strong possibility that you may never see him again hung over you like a dark cloud. Sitting up in bed you sighed, grabbing your robe from the back of the chair, your scrubs were folded neatly and your stethoscope rested on top of them. At least your job would keep you busy while Tom was away. Working as an ER nurse at the hospital you were used to dealing with stressful situations, but nothing could prepare you for the thought of losing Tom. You made your way down the narrow hallway. Your kitchen was small and the cupboards creaked loudly but you tried to be as quiet as possible making yourself a hot drink. You crept out the small double doors into your small garden and took a seat on one of the chairs. The sun was barely peeking above the horizon and there was still a slight chill in the air. You sipped your drink slowly, trying to calm your nerves as the knot in your stomach grew. It was always the same, you could never settle knowing that Tom wouldn’t be there with you. The only bonus was that him being a Naval Aviator meant that he was deployed a few days later than the others so you had a few more precious days with him. You were so caught up in your thoughts that you didn’t hear the patio doors open behind you and jumped as Tom lay a hand on your shoulder.

“What are you doing out here, Love?” His voice was hoarse and still full of sleep, blond hair ruffled and his movement sluggish. You felt selfish then, knowing that you had woken him the night he needed sleep the most. “I'm sorry, Tom. I could sleep, I’m just so…”

“Worried.” He finished the sentence and took a seat on the chair beside you. He held your hand tightly in his and squeezed it reassuringly, rubbing his thumb over your silver engagement ring. “How many times have we been over this, Darling? I’ll always come back to you, remember?”

You nodded your head meekly.You knew he would come back to you if he had the choice, he always did, but the niggling feeling at the back of your mind always struck fear into you. What if he didn’t?

Tom could sense your fear and pulled you out of your chair and into his lap. You rested your head against his bare chest, sighing at the familiar contact. Tom began rubbing soothing circles on your bare thigh and held you close, whispering sweet nothings in your ear. You stayed like this for a long time and watched as the sun began to climb higher into the sky. Tom sighed, stretching his legs slightly before checking his watch. 05:00. He was due to be at the base by 07:00. He turned to look at you, noticing you were already staring up at him. “Is it time?” You asked in a small voice, barely above a whisper, maybe if you said it quiet enough it would never come true.

“I’m afraid so, Darling.” You nodded your head gently, easing yourself away from Tom’s body and getting up. Tom held your hand wordlessly as he led you back into the house and back to your shared room. You sat on the bed while he showered quickly and then watched as he got dressed. His movements were slow and sluggish and you could tell he hated this as much as you did. He looked at you sorrowfully as he laced up his boots. The sun had risen fully now and was casting a warm happy glow over the dreary atmosphere. Tom sat down beside you on the bed, taking your hand in his and placing a delicate kiss on your wrist. “You know I’ll come back to you, right? I’ll do everything in my power to come back to you.” He wrapped his arm around your waist, pulling you flush to his side and giving you a chaste kiss.

“I know you do, Tom but I can’t help but worry. Our wedding planning is underway. I mean we’ve got a date set now but what if we never get there? I just can’t help but think the worst.” A single year slipped down your cheek and Tom was quick to wipe it away.

“I promise you, Darling, I’m coming back home to you. Slider would kill me if I didn’t make it back for our wedding, you know how mad he was when I nearly made Mav my best man.”

You laughed, remembering how angry Slider got when Tom joked about Mav being his best man. The look on his face had been priceless.

“I remember,” you smiled up at him, tears in both your eyes. “I love you, Tom Kazansky. Promise you’ll come back to me.”

“I love and I promise I’ll always come back to you.” He kissed you harder then, winding his fingers into your hair and pulling you close. This kiss held all the unsaid emotions, the love and the fear that came from being with a naval aviator. You moaned softly as he pulled away from you, resting his forehead against yours. The moment was peaceful but held with it the two lovers' goodbyes. There was a light tap at the front door that brought both of you out of your daze.

“That will be Slider,” Tom said softly, caressing your cheek one last time before picking up his bag off the floor and moving to the door. He gave you one last longing look before closing the door behind him. Your heart broke as you watched the love of your life leave and tears began streaming down your face as you heard Slider’s car pulling out of the driveway. “They will be back”, you mumbled to yourself as you got up and prepared for the day. He always came back.

Tag list: @callsign-phoenix @imjess-themess @blue-aconite @averyhotchner @mayhem24-7forever @green-socks @alexxavicry @a-reader-and-a-writer @topguncortez @maggiescarborough @callsignmaverick5 @ssprayberrythings @smoothdogsgirl @xoxabs88xox @luckyladycreator2 @abaker74 @elenavampire21

#top gun maverick #topgun #tom iceman kazansky #tom kazansky #tom kazansky x reader #top gun 1986 #pete maverick mitchell #ron slider kerner #nick goose bradshaw #original topgun #val kilmer

[multifandomfanfiction]

Two Ghosts Epilogue

TITLE: Two Ghosts Epilogue PAIRING: Rooster/OC RATING: T CHAPTER: 19/19 SUMMARY: It was just a routine training session, but it changed Noel “Mongoose” Grenier’s life forever. The legends of pilots flying through time vortexes was true, because it happened to her. Dropped into 1984 during Maverick’s Top Gun training, she must navigate keeping her secret while also completing the program…again. Will she return to her own time unscathed? Or will she lose her heart in the process?

[A/N - It’s been a while, but here I am with the canon epilogue finally!]

“I don’t wanna!” Nikki Bradshaw yelled at her mother.

Mongoose took a deep breath.

God had blessed little Nicole Carol Bradshaw with a temper to rival her father’s. God help the Navy if she ever decided to join like her parents.

“I don’t care what you do or don’t want. You’re taking a nap.”

Mongoose had flight plans to go over, plus new Top Gun recruits, and she couldn’t do that if she had a cranky toddler.

Nikki pouted. “I just wanna be awake when daddy gets home.”

“Think of it this way. Instead of sitting by the door and waiting for daddy to be home, you can take a nap and he’ll be here when you wake up.”

Nikki finally relented and let her mother tuck her in for a nap.

What was so hard about taking a nap? Mongoose wished she could take a nap most days.

She settled down on the couch to look over flight plans for new training exercises because her office chair hurt her back too much at this stage in her pregnancy. She also had to go through Top Gun applications and pick pilots for the upcoming class.

The baby was kicking up a storm today so she could barely focus on her work. Maybe it was time to go on maternity leave and leave this to her Rear Admiral to deal with.

This pregnancy had been more difficult than when she was pregnant with Nikki. With Nikki, the morning sickness had stopped around her second trimester, but this time it hit her at every minute of every day.

Before she knew it, Rooster was walking through the door still in his flight suit.

Mongoose smiled. “Hey baby.”

“Hey Goose.”

Rooster walked over to her and kissed her forehead. “How are you Admiral Bradshaw?”

Mongoose smiled. “Better now that you’re here Commander Bradshaw.”

Mongoose had worked her way up through the ranks and made Admiral. Just like Iceman had been. She loved Rooster with everything in her body. A part of still thought about Iceman from time to time, but she knew he was watching out for her and Rooster. Along with Goose. She hoped they were proud of them.

Rooster had risen through the ranks following the uranium mission, making Captain shortly after their wedding. He had stopped at Commander though. He didn’t want the responsibility of Admiral. He saved that for his wife.

“How was Nikki today?” he asked.

“Pretty good. We only had one breakdown. She’s currently sleeping it off.”

Rooster placed his hand on her swollen stomach. “And the little one?”

“Kicking up a storm. I’m surprised they haven’t burst out of me yet.”

“Sure you’re not giving birth to a Zenomorph?”

Mongoose narrowed her eyes at her husband. “Haha, very funny Bradshaw.”

“I’m hilarious.”

“Maybe you should just quit your job as pilot and do standup comedy.”

Rooster just rolled his eyes at his wife.

Mongoose stroked her stomach as she watched as her husband walk around the living room, settling in for the night. “So…I was flipping through the baby name book and I found one I like,” she told him.

“What it is?”

“What about…Tom?”

Rooster looked at his wife. “Like Iceman?”

Mongoose looked down at her lap as she played with her dog tags. “I mean…you were closed to him growing up. I know his death hit you hard too. Not just Maverick.”

Rooster sighed as he sat down next to her. “Without him I wouldn’t have gotten into the Top Gun program. I’ll think about it.”

Mongoose looked at him. “Unless you’d rather name them after Mav?”

Rooster laughed. “God no. The man has a big enough ego as it is.”

After much convincing, eventually Mongoose got her wish.

Thomas Peter Bradshaw was born on the coldest night in San Diego on record, living up to his namesake’s callsign.

As Mongoose drifted off to sleep, she swore she felt a cold kiss on her forehead and heard these words, “Good job, princess.”

Taglist: @indynerdgirl​​​​​ @alanadetigy​ @the-untamed-soul​​​​​​​​​​​​ @marland56 @ireadthensuetheauthors​​​​​​​​​​​​ @kassieesworld​​​​​​​​​​​​ @theforevermorereject​​​​​​​​​​​​ @maverick-dont-think-just-do​​​​​​​​​​​​ @thescarletknight2014​​​​​​​​​​​​ @maverick-goose-rooster​​​​​​​​​​​​ @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy​​​​​​​​​​​​ @yougottalovefandoms​​​​​​​​​​​​ @maverick-wingman​​​​​​​​​​​​​ @shrimping-for-all

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster/oc #bradley/oc #bradley rooster bradshaw imagines #Top Gun: Maverick #top gun:maverick imagines #Miles Teller #miles teller imagines #two ghosts

[thefilmsnob]

Glen Coco’s Top 10 Films of 2022

Hey, look out, gang, movies are back in theaters! Isn’t that exciting?! Get off the couch and go to some, so theaters don’t close! Also, I usually share my top 10 films of the previous year much closer to the Oscars ceremony, but it’s been Procrasti-Nation up in my life and I have a real job. Anyway, introductory paragraphs are so 2008 and I’m already 2000 and late, so I’ll just get on with my top 10 films of 2022...after the runners-up and the standard bonus track...there’s always a bonus track.

RUNNERS-UP

-Everything Everywhere All at Once

-The Fabelmans

-The Northman

-The Whale

-Women Talking

#10b. (Bonus Track) Nope

Director: Jordan Peele

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun

Like his previous films, Jordan Peele’s third feature begins with an entrancing prologue that begs to be deciphered, especially its relationship to the film as a whole. As the story unfolds, all its seemingly disparate parts coalesce to make a final product that’s a mix of fascinating plot developments, gorgeous photography and insightful themes. Although the payoff this time isn’t quite as satisfying as in his previous works and the themes are somewhat less coherent, Nope is still an engrossing experience, crafted by one of the industry’s most distinct and creative voices. A master of utilizing and manipulating an array of tantalizing images—inflatable tube men, chimpanzees, the sky—Peele has created a spectacle that, in turn, challenges our fascination with the very idea of spectacles, but just like the characters in the film, we too can’t look away.

#10. Thirteen Lives

Director: Ron Howard

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton 

When 12 young players and coach of a Thai soccer team were saved from the flooding Tham Luang cave during a miraculous rescue mission just five years ago, it was obvious someone would adapt this harrowing event into a film. In fact, there have been several adaptations in various forms already, but that doesn’t take away from the sheer intensity and realism director Ron Howard has imbued in his version, so much so that at times it actually feels like a documentary. William Nicholson’s meticulous screenplay focuses in great detail on the myriad of technical issues faced during the grueling mission and huge stars like Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell completely disappear beneath their real-life cave diver characters alongside their Thai acting partners for maximum authenticity. Knowing the outcome is insignificant; when you’re watching the divers swim through dangerously narrow passages or finally exhaling as the boys are rescued, it’s as if you’re there, witnessing the ordeal firsthand.

FULL REVIEW

#9. Top Gun: Maverick

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly 

Who knew a Top Gun sequel, released 35 years after the original and unaffiliated with Marvel, Star Wars or James Cameron, would become one of the most successful films of all time? Well, it did and it’s exactly what the dwindling movie theater business needed: an exhilarating combination of eye-popping special effects and nostalgia. Sure, it has some clunky dialogue and cheesy moments here and there, but the mesmerizing flight choreography, numerous callbacks, wonderful acting and a surprising amount of pathos render those flaws trivial. And in these uncertain times, there’s such a strong feeling of comfort and familiarity seeing a true movie star like Tom Cruise flash that iconic smile and save the day. It helps that he gives one of the best performances of his career as the now-veteran Maverick, instructing a new class of pilots which includes his old partner Goose’s son, played with apt restlessness by Miles Teller. Cruise’s talent is most evident in a poignant scene that reunites him with former rival and currently ailing Iceman; in a story set so frequently in the sky, this heartwarming scene grounds it with a level of tenderness that’ll take you by surprise.

#8. Bones and All

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Starring: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet

Here’s something you’ve probably never heard: one of the most romantic films of the year follows two young people with an insatiable urge to consume human flesh. Bones and All isn’t some typical zombie or cannibal B-Movie, though; the content is treated with the same sincerity as a great prestige picture. Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet don’t play one-dimensional monsters but fully realized outcasts who we come to not only understand but care for, especially as their romance, based on a unique type of belonging, blossoms. Aside from romance, the film’s also a metaphor for drug addiction and the poor souls on the fringes of society. Not exactly a horror film, it still includes graphic, bloody images that are at once shocking and matter-of-fact, not meant to frighten but to bring us into these characters’ bizarre reality. Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the film is a truly creepy character portrayed by the invaluable Mark Rylance, who, in an award-worthy performance, embodies the darkest side of this lifestyle, one unbound by any moral code. Employing fittingly grainy photography, director Luca Guadagnino evokes similar films from the ‘70s and ‘80s, giving atmosphere to one of the most unique movie experiences of 2022.

#7. Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Director: Dean Fleischer Camp

Starring: Jenny Slate, Dean Fleischer Camp, Isabella Rossellini

It takes serious discipline to avoid using the word ‘charming’ in every sentence describing this movie, but that’s basically it in a nutshell--or, rather, seashell. Indeed, a seashell is what Marcel is, the protagonist at the heart of this live-action/animated hybrid gem. Based on Dean Fleischer Camp’s animated shorts that gained popularity years ago, this feature is an example of art imitating life in that a fictionalized version of the writer/director moves into an Airbnb, discovers Marcel living there and makes documentaries that go viral. The imagination on display with regard to how the inch-tall Marcel and his grandmother interact with their human surroundings is pure whimsy, whether they’re using wine corks as chairs or a spinning record as a treadmill. Voiced by Jenny Slate with an adorable child-like rasp, Marcel is instantly endearing, as are his drolly nonchalant exchanges with his new human friend. Beyond the film’s overt appeal, there’s also an underlying debate about the pros and cons of social media that adds some weight to this otherwise light and...charming...experience.

FULL REVIEW

#6. Moonage Daydream

Director: Brett Morgen

Starring: David Bowie

If you’re looking for a cinematic Wikipedia entry of David Bowie, this is not the documentary for you. Granted, it would’ve been nice to hear more anecdotes from friends and colleagues, but what we’ve been gifted by Brett Morgen, who wrote, directed, produced and edited the project, is a kaleidoscopic stream of consciousness brought to life. Told roughly in chronological order (emphasis on ‘roughly’), the film shows many of Bowie’s live performances, interviews, film roles, side projects (ie. sculpting, oil painting) and extensive behind-the-scenes footage. Bowie himself provides voice-over work throughout, musing on topics like art, love, religion, identity, life itself and no shortage of philosophy, in place of mere dates and locations. Though several are included, Morgen interestingly omits many of Bowie’s greatest hits, in favour of more obscure songs, and it’s a testament to the genius’s artistry that they’re just as phenomenal. The way Morgen incorporates these songs, how and when he combines them with the wondrous imagery, is sheer poetry, culminating in a jaw-dropping climax. This is how Bowie would’ve wanted his story to be told, a work that can be labeled with the same word used to describe Bowie’s entire life: art.

#5. Bodies Bodies Bodies

Director: Halina Reijn

Starring: Maria Bakalova, Amandla Stenberg, Pete Davidson, Myha’la Herrold, Lee Pace, Rachel Sennott, Chase Sui Wonders  

Described as a horror film on Wikipedia and marketed as a slasher flick, Bodies Bodies Bodies is definitely not the former, debatably the latter and, in fact, one of the funniest movies of the year. The black comedy sees a group of mostly wealthy twentysomethings gathered for a ‘hurricane party’ at a mansion owned by the parents of the host. Following a murder mystery game, the partyers start dying off for real, but instead of cooperating to survive, they succumb to pettiness and paranoia, exacerbating the situation in a manner both hilarious and sadly believable. Set in one location, the film relies heavily on its charismatic young cast and a smart screenplay by Sarah DeLappe that’s kinetic, engrossing and astute. It’s also, finally, a delightful skewering of various qualities of Generation Z from constant validation-seeking to endless labels to jobs that may or may not be real jobs. It culminates in a deeply satisfying finale that ties things up perfectly and validates everything that preceded it, an ending that’s at once brutal and entirely cathartic. And even if you don’t love this film, you’ll still love to ‘hate-watch’ it.

#4. All Quiet on the Western Front

Director: Edward Berger

Starring: Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl

It’s fascinating how a movie so enveloped in drab greys and blues and caked in mud could look so striking. That’s the case with the latest adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front; director Edward Berger and cinematographer James Friend take a dark period in history from which we’re far removed and pull us in with crisp, vivid images. Occasionally, we’re treated to beautiful views of forests and fields, but more often we experience the horror of the battlefield, complete with muddy trenches, severed limbs, pools of blood and incessant fear. It’s a stark contrast to the praise and glory the idealistic young Germans were promised by their overzealous superiors. Felix Kammerer shines as the naive Paul Bäumer, a symbol of the loss of innocence in war, his big bright eyes gazing at the inhumanity before him. These messy scenes are juxtaposed with those featuring Daniel Brühl, a German official trying to negotiate peace with men in spotless uniforms inside ornate rooms. The film’s stellar technical achievements support equally awe-inspiring personal moments as in the film’s most powerful scene involving soldiers on opposite sides of the war when a character ignores his programmed hatred and allows his humanity to take control.

#3. Tár

Director: Todd Field

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant

Written, directed and produced by Todd Field, Tár is a masterclass in nuance and precision. Every frame, every line, every movement is so deliberate and full of meaning. This style perfectly compliments Lydia Tár, the world-famous composer and conductor, played by Cate Blanchett in a pitch-perfect, and perhaps her best, performance. The character’s accomplishments are extraordinary, especially for a woman in that field. It’s hard not to admire this trailblazer, even as her challenging behaviour and potentially problematic actions surface. But, Blanchett and Field refuse to make her simply unlikable or provide tidy labels like ‘villain’. Her subtle actions like gripping someone’s hand to stop incessant pen clicking or employing a slight inflection on a certain word tells us volumes about who she is. As the film proceeds, we learn that she may have a history of sexual misconduct, but we’re provided subtle hints gradually rather than an overt information bludgeoning. Ultimately, the story tackles timely issues like the ‘me too’ movement and cancel culture, but Field shows monumental restraint in refusing to take a side, instead choosing to treat the audience like mature adults and reserving judgment for them.   

#2. The Banshees of Inisherin 

Director: Martin McDonagh

Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan

The Banshees of Inisherin is set in 1923 on a small, sparsely populated island off the coast of Ireland where life is quiet and predictable. Things are rationally organized, from the sharp divide between rocky cliffs and water to the rows of stone that separate fields from foot paths. That’s why it’s so jarring when Colm refuses to join longtime friend Pádraic on their daily trip to the pub because, we soon learn, he just doesn’t like him anymore. A friendship’s decline is a simple premise but one that leads to profound developments as both emotions and stakes intensify rapidly. It’s a fascinating character study, enhanced by magnificent performances from the year’s best acting ensemble. Banshees tells an intimate story, but it reflects the current state of our society at large. The powerlessness felt by some of the characters mirrors what we’re all feeling in a world afflicted by a raging pandemic, a senseless war and an eroding democracy. Because it’s a Martin McDonagh film, the character analysis, dark humour and moments of genuine feeling are blended with the macabre, but take that all away and you still have endless lines of riveting dialogue. That’s one reason why the omission of flashbacks was such an apt decision. We don’t need to see the friendship as it once was; these marvelous actors tell us everything we need to know about a joyful past, a turbulent present and an uncertain future.

FULL REVIEW

#1. EO   

Director: Jerzy Skolimowski

Starring: Ettore, Hola, Marietta, Mela, Rocco, Tako (all donkeys) 

The best film of 2022 features an undeniably charismatic lead. Like many icons of film, this one is beautiful, benevolent, charming, and sympathetic. He also happens to be a donkey named Eo. I was so curious as to how this story would be told since it’s not a documentary about donkeys but a scripted work of fiction starring one. He’s neither animated nor a product of CGI over which the the film makers have complete control. This makes Polish writer/director/producer Jerzy Skolimowski’s deeply moving film EO not only impressive but subversive. In fact, instead of anthropomorphizing the donkey as Hollywood is wont to do, Skolimowski embraces his non-human nature, presenting a real living donkey as the wonderful creature he is.

The story begins with Eo working in a Polish circus with his fellow human performer Kasandra who cares deeply for him until he’s taken away to work at a stable. His journey continues as he moves from place to place, person to person, some kind, some cruel. We see he’s not so different from humans; he enjoys being caressed and loved and protected. He lacks the cruelty, though, which makes caring about him effortless and speaks volumes about humanity. Frankly, few other works will make you reevaluate your feelings toward--and relationship with--animals more than EO, a film that is often as heartbreaking as it is endearing. Yet, it’s not meant to scold its audience or even pass judgement but merely encourage one to view life differently, in this case through the peaceful, unassuming behaviour of a magnificent little donkey. 

#top 10 films 2022 #movie review #movies

[leverage-ot3]

every episode of leverage is an ot3 episode

#I said what I said #that’s it. that’s the post #I’m watching the iceman job and it’s true #eliot saving hardison’s ass even when he insisted he wouldn’t #parker grappling on the pipe and eliot’s lil smile and ‘stuck it’ when he watches her #that bit is what inspired me for this post #‘I’ll catch a ride with eliot’ #UGH #THEY- #like you don’t even have to squint to see it. it’s THERE #I’ve made a post like this before but I am making it again because it’s true #leverage ot3 #eliot spencer #alec hardison #parker #leverage #parker x hardison x eliot #mine

[favescandis]

New interview with Alexander Skarsgård and Men’s Health Australia:

‘Why Alexander Skarsgård Might Be Bigger Than King Kong’

The Swedish superstar talks career moves and the joys of creativity on the set of Godzilla v Kong. - by Ben Jhoty

Alexander Skarsgård’s bruised face is bathed in pale blue light as he sits in the cockpit of a makeshift aircraft inside a darkened soundstage at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, where he’s shooting a scene from Godzilla v Kong (currently in cinemas).

The scene requires Skarsgård and fellow cast member, English actress Rebecca Hall, to endure an explosion that violently rocks the craft, positioned on a gimble, then survey the battle scene below. Before the scene begins Skarsgård listens intently to notes from director Adam Wingard and takes some deep breaths, as if he’s preparing for a 150kg deadlift. Someone yells action. The gimble rocks furiously for a few seconds before steadying. “Looks like round two goes to Kong,” says Skarsgård, before Wingard yells cut.

Between takes Skarsgård sprays himself with an Evian bottle before turning to young co-star Kaylee Hottle, who’s seated in the back of the cockpit.

“Have you ever tried menthol for tears?” he asks. “If you have to pretend to be sad about monsters that aren’t here, use menthol. Take a menthol stick home and every time your parents say you can’t do something, you spray.”

For the next take, Wingard instructs the actors to appear both “relieved and stunned”. The gimble duly starts shaking and Skarsgård repeats his line. “Nailed them both,” he jokes to Hall afterwards.

After the scene wraps, Skarsgård walks across the soundstage floor and is briefly silhouetted against the studio lights. You’re instantly struck by his rangy frame. He’s wearing a latex suit with parachute straps to play geologist Dr Nathan Lind, a geek with a love of ’80s action movies, who finds himself with ringside seats to the biggest rumble in the so-called ‘MonsterVerse’.

“I wanted to find his idiosyncrasies and avoid the stereotypical action hero because that wasn’t very appealing to me and I thought it would be way more interesting if the guy is not equipped for that and is thrown into that role,” the 44-year-old says later of his mild-mannered character. “It makes his journey more interesting if he’s not a tough guy, he’s not an ex-marine. He’s a geologist, so for him to get thrown into this is scary. I thought it would be fun to play him that way because then the stakes would be higher for the audience as well. They can see he’s out of his depth there. He has no idea what he’s doing.”

The son of legendary Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking The Waves, Good Will Hunting, Avengers: Age of Ultron), Skarsgård divides his time between Stockholm and Hollywood. His siblings are also actors, most notably, Bill (Pennywise), who was due to star alongside Alexander in upcoming Viking saga The Northman, but had to drop out due to scheduling problems.

The two haven’t appeared together since 2000’s White Water Fury and are rarely up for the same films, let alone roles, Skarsgård says.

“That could be tough if you were super excited about something and you want it and then your brother gets it,” he jokes. “Because if you don’t get a job, you don’t want to be at Christmas dinner hearing your brother talk about how amazing that experience was.”

As it is, it looks like this Christmas he’ll be telling Bill about his experience watching two iconic monsters duke it out in the mother of all monster mashups. The role is an exhilarating departure from the serious, sometimes dark roles that Skarsgård’s been playing the last couple of years, most notably perhaps, domestic abuser Perry Wright on Big Little Lies, for which he collected Golden Globe, Prime Time Emmy and Screen Actors’ Guild awards.

While you might think a big-budget action flick would be creatively stifling, Skarsgård relishes the opportunity to exercise his range and keep challenging himself. “It’s tonally quite different from what I’ve been doing,” he admits. “I’ve been doing smaller indies and slightly more cerebral projects and also quite dark, intense subject matter. It’s not so much about ‘I want to do this and then I want to do that’ to show that I can, it’s just a way more fun way of working. It’s easy to get stereotyped and pigeonholed. If you’re lucky enough to jump between genres and different types of characters, then you’d be crazy if you didn’t embrace that.”

Skarsgård’s IMDB is certainly eclectic, with roles ranging from thousand-year-old vampire Eric in True Blood, to stoic commando, Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert, in Generation Kill. “It’s always nice to work on something that different from what you’ve done in the past because that will just ignite something and it’s not repetitive,” he says. “Those are always the most fun contrasts, the dichotomies. A couple of years ago I did Tarzan and Diary of a Teenage Girl back-to-back and they’re so diametrically opposite in scale and tone. I had an amazing time on both of them and it’s so fun to go from one to the other.”

When it comes to choosing roles, Skarsgård looks for material that’s not only going to push him in new directions but is also enjoyable. It’s that sense of fun, he says, that fosters creativity.

“I just want to have a good time,” he says, smiling. “And I also want to learn and grow from every experience. Most importantly, I think if I go into a project and I’m not super excited about it, it’s not a good place to start because creatively you’re not going to give 100 per cent. Even if you try to give 100 per cent, you won’t because you’re not completely open. I find if I read a script and I know the character, like I totally get the character and how to play it, there’s no sense of discovery and that doesn’t trigger creativity. You just step in there and do it.”

True to his word, Skarsgård’s character in his next project, The Northman, couldn’t be more different from Nathan, the geeky geographer. At the same time, you could say it’s a role he was born to play: a ripped Nordic prince.

Godzilla v Kong is in cinemas now (in Australia) 

Posted March 25, 2021. The photo is credited to Shutterstock and appears to be a manipulated photo of Alex at his brother’s IT premiere in 2017 with a Godzilla vs. Kong background. The second photo is credited to Legendary Entertainment.

https://www.menshealth.com.au/why-alexander-skarsgard-might-be-bigger-than-king-kong

#Alexander Skarsgård #Godzilla vs. Kong #Men's Health Australia #Alexander Skarsgard #long post

[jtargaryen18]

Pretty Baby

Part 2

Pairings:Robert Pronge aka Mr. Freezy (The Iceman) x Reader

Word Count: 4.4k

Warnings: This is a dark story for me. Bad language, hitmen, assassination, death by cyanide poisoning. chloroform, kidnapping, non-con, general creepiness. For that reason, I’m not tagging on this one. Please read responsibly.

Summary: A mark’s daughter is in the wrong place at the right time for Mr. Freezy…He decides to keep her.

A special thanks to @imanuglywombat for the gorgeous moodboard for this. Thank you SO much! 💕💕💕

~~~

What had you done to deserve this?

Your heart thundered in your chest as you realized just what a bad turn your life had just taken.

Your mother had passed away at the end of your first year at the small women’s college in upstate New York. Your father introduced himself to you at her funeral. You had known of him but had never met him. You knew he’d sent money for you to your mother over the years.

When he’d told you that you could stay at his house for the summer, you’d taken him up on the offer. You thought it might be a way to get to know him, especially with your mother gone. It would also help with money so you could stay in school.

You’d been at your father’s house for maybe a week when you realized what a big mistake you’d made.

Your father was a drug dealer. Worse, he was a user too, so he was careless. The first night you’d had a spaghetti dinner he’d made and there had been some red flags in that first true conversation. Yeah. the house was worn down and your father had a rather crude sense of humor, but you hadn’t minded that. You’d give him a chance.

The hookers he’d had over that night? The two of them and your father had kept you up until four in the morning. You could only imagine what was going on because you hadn’t had sex at this point in your life. It had you thinking that maybe you should have just sucked it up, worked a couple of jobs, and lived in a crappy apartment for the summer like your friends.

You heard him talking in the next room, and it temporarily pulled you out of your memories, and your heart slammed in fear. Was he on the phone?

If you’d gone with your gut, maybe then you wouldn’t be handcuffed to a bed by the seriously scary man on the phone in the next room.

You’d managed to hide when the one man came to your house to use the phone. You’d been in the kitchen when your father grumbled about “some idiot who had broken down” on his street. Ironically, you were writing a letter for your father at the time. You were going to catch him out and leave the letter for him. You’d catch a bus and head back to the college.

When the knock on the door happened? Well, considering the hookers and shady types who had been in and out of your father’s house all week? You hid like a scared rabbit in the pantry with your notebook and pen.

Through the crack in the door, you saw the man. He was tall, a head taller than your father, with dark hair and colder eyes. You just knew he was there to kill him. You didn’t see how he did it. You just knew he was going to do it.

And he did.

You’d darted out of the pantry the minute the man left, checking your father for a pulse. There was none. But how he died wasn’t obvious. Your father hadn’t been shot or stabbed. His throat wasn’t slashed, his neck wasn’t broken.

You’d been terrified, wondering what to do. Did you call the police? And if you did and told them the truth, would whoever killed your father come after you?

Apparently, you sat there for a while because someone’s heavy tread thumped outside the kitchen door and you shot back into the pantry.

The second man? He came to collect your father. He was taller, younger, and hairy. His shoulders were wide, his arms heavily muscled. You’d watched in horror as he wrapped your father up in plastic and prepared to drag him away.

That was when the reality of the situation hit you. You had to get out of there. You had to get back to your friends. Tonight.

Only you never made it. No, you were in a strange house somewhere, you had no idea where. The man had knocked you out. Your right hand was handcuffed to the cheap brass headboard of the double bed you rested on.

The bedroom you were in was plain with off-white walls, dingy from neglect with cobwebs in the corners. No curtains hung on the windows and one of them was cracked. The shag run on the floor was worn and dirty. There was a small bedside table with rings stained onto its surface and a cheap lamp with a bare bulb and no shade on it for light.

Your heart leapt into your throat when the door to your room swung open and he walked in.

If I keep you, you going to be a good girl for me?

With your wrist chained to one bed post, your curled yourself into a ball next to it, watching as he walked around to your side of the bed, carrying the notebook you’d been writing in when your nightmare began.

The bed dipped when he sat down on the edge of the mattress at your feet. His eyes were blue behind those enormous wire-framed glasses, his face framed by long waves of dark hair. He wore a mutton chop beard. All of it combined to obscure his face. And it wasn’t an unattractive face if you looked closely.

You were afraid to look too closely. You were all too afraid you knew what he wanted and that you wouldn’t survive. You knew your only chance was to convince him to let you go.

Angling his shoulders toward you, they were broad, he grinned holding up the red notebook. The color flashed in your eyes like a warning.

“This yours?” he asked, his voice deep and raspy.

You swallowed hard, nodded.

Smirking, he opened the front cover and began to read.

“Dear Dad,” he began. “I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye. And I wanted to say thank you for offering me a place to stay this summer. But I decided it would probably be best for me to head back to the city, find a job for the summer, and study for the fall.”

Those intense eyes lifted from the page, his gaze locking with yours. You waited on him to say something, to do something. He just stared at you and your heart sped up, beating harder and faster.

When he went back to your letter, there wasn’t much left, you breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m glad we’ve had the chance to talk. If you’re ever in the city, I’d love to see you. Lots of love…” The man blew out an exhale before speaking your name.

Flipping through the pages of the notebook, he didn’t find anything else. At that point, he tossed the wire-bound book in the floor and regarded you carefully.

“You were just going to cut out on your old man,” he said baldly. “Is that it?”

“No.” Yes. Somehow you found your voice to speak. “I didn’t… want to be a… burden to him. And I do need to study...”

It sounded like a weak excuse, even to your own ears.

“Study, huh?” He scooted closer, his denim-covered thigh brushing the bottoms of your bare feet. “You have a boyfriend waiting or something?”

You shook your head quickly in denial. No. You’d been on a handful of dates, but no boyfriend.

“So you didn’t care how he felt about that?” he pressed on. “Doesn’t matter now. He’s dead. But I’m curious.”

Tears burned your eyes and you tried to blink them back.

“I barely knew him,” you explained. “I didn’t m-meet him until my mother’s funeral a few weeks ago.”

Dark brows rose in question above the frames of his glasses. “You’d never met him?”

You shook your head. “He sent money for me but…”

“What did you think when you met him?”

Why did this man want to know what you thought about your father?

“H-he was nice to me,” you offered.

“Nice, huh?” He shook his head, one hand sliding up to trace a finger along your instep. You jerked your foot away. “What did you think of the call girls he got high with each night?”

Despite your efforts, tears were beginning to spill from your eyes.

“It’s… was h-his business,” you told him. “It didn’t matter what I thought.”

His hand slid over your bare foot now, rough from hard work.

“You ever been around a drug dealer before?” he wanted to know. “A whore?”

You shook your head.

“But your mother had boyfriends, right?”

That hand massaged your foot, his fingers toying with your toes.

“No,” you replied. “We… we’re Catholic. He wouldn’t… sign the divorce papers. She was still married to him so she… she didn’t see anyone else. The church doesn’t allow it... It was just me and her.”

The man’s grin widened. He looked like the cat that ate the canary. With a firm grip on your ankle, he pulled your foot into his lap, playing with it.

“You’ve got… the cutest little feet,” he said idly. “Even toes, nice nails. Not many people have nice feet like these. Not even women.”

Leaning down, he brushed a wet kiss over the top of that foot, and you froze when his tongue touched your skin. It was unfamiliar enough that you were afraid to do anything about it.

“So, pretty baby,” he said in a teasing voice that just inspired more fear in you. “You didn’t really have a man in your life, did you?”

You shook your head. “It was just me and Mom. And she’s gone. If… if you let me go, I promise I won’t say anything to anyone. I don’t even have a lot of friends… I’ll just go back and…”

The amusement in his expression only increased. Lines formed around his eyes as he smiled.

“What did I tell you was gonna happen, huh?” Holding your ankle in one hand, the other slid up your calf to the back of your knee. “I’m going to keep you…” His fingers brushed the back of your knee and you jerked in his grip. “Never had a real good girl before.”

Leaning in closer, he made you feel crammed against the bedpost. “You’re a real good girl, aren’t you?”

Oh, God. You were afraid to answer that. But you couldn’t bear the way he was staring you down, so you nodded.

“You ever fucked before?”

You stared at him with wide eyes and he laughed which only heightened your anxiety. “That’s a no… You ever kissed anyone?”

That answer was likely obvious too and it only seemed to delight him.

“Never had a virgin,” he told you. “Even when I was one.”

With a firm grip on your leg, he pulled you closer to him. You bottom pressed to his hip now and tried to curl in on yourself. Your right arm pulled above your head in the handcuffs, the metal biting into your wrist.

“Mister, please,” you begged. “Please… let me go home.”

When you planted your left hand on his chest trying to hold him back, he grabbed that wrist and pressed it against the mattress next to your head. His other hand plucked his glasses off, tossing them into bedside table.

“I’m Robert,” he told you, his nose brushing yours as his heavy body pressed yours into the mattress. “You’re going to call me that. I’m not your Daddy…” His lips brushed yours, his tongue swiping your lower lip. “I’m not into that sir shit either…” Another kiss and it felt so odd with his mustache and beard against yours face. “A good little wife calls her husband by name.”

Good little wife?

You struggled to free your hands, but it did you little good. Robert held you easily.

With his free hand he reached under you to find the tab on your dress’s zipper and pulled it down. You muttered no against his lips, but it only gave him the opening to slide his tongue in your mouth. His kiss was deep, demanding but it didn’t hurt. You didn’t know how to return his kiss, so you let him take what he wanted, compliant until you felt his fingers working the hooks at the back of your bra.

You fought him then, trying to squirm away, trying to kick him. He chuckled as his lips moved across your face to your throat, his teeth nipping a little at the tender flesh he found there.

Just as quickly, he rose above you, grabbing the neckline of your dress and pulling it down along with your strapless bra. The spaghetti strap of your dress on your right side popped free, breaking since that arm was restrained.

You gyrated like crazy, doing everything you could to keep him from pulling it off with your hands out of play. It was all too easy for him. He was just too strong. When you were bare beneath him except for your sheer white panties, he made a growling sound as his greedy gaze roamed over you.

You were mortified. You couldn’t cover your breasts, you couldn’t hide anything with your hands caught and your lower body pinned under his weight.

“Look at you,” he whispered, his left hand skimming up your body with a delicacy you wouldn’t think he’d possess. He palmed a breast, gently squeezing it, testing its weight. “No scars. Sheltered life, huh?”

You didn’t answer. You couldn’t look at him. No one had ever seen you like this.

You cried out in surprise when you felt his mouth cover the same breast. Robert moaned as he pulled the little point of your nipple into his mouth, his tongue tracing circles all around it. The bristle of his beard scraped sensitive skin, making your shudder and burn in humiliation. He took his time, his greedy mouth working both of your breasts while weakly tried to free yourself, to mentally distance yourself from what was happening to you.

“Hey.”

“Ouch!”

Robert had pinched your thigh hard and it hurt. Your gaze met his and you saw those blue eyes lit up in anger.

“Eyes on me,” he told you meaningfully. He pressed his lips to your ribs just below one breast. “Your full attention on me. Or you’ll pay for it.”

Swallowing nervously, you watched in horror as he chained wet presses of his lips over your tummy, over your covered mound. Your entire body clenched up, but he kept going, brushing kisses down over your thighs to your knees.

What was he doing?

Trembling like a leaf below him, all you could do was watch as he made his way to your feet, pulling one up and pressing kisses over the top, down to your toes. When he sucked your toes into his mouth and you felt his tongue rolling around them, you started from the unfamiliar sensation. It was odd, it was uncomfortable and yet…

No. No, it doesn’t feel good. No.

Robert spent long moments teasing your foot with his mouth before slowly moving back up to your ankle, his tongue and facial hair a wicked tease that had you squirming more despite yourself. His lips trailed back up the inside your knee, your thigh. When he just pressed his face into your covered womanhood, you full-on trembled.

When he hooked a long finger around the crotch of your panties and pulled them out of the way, your entire body tensed. Using powerful arms to wedge himself between your thighs despite your struggles, Robert smirked up at you.

“Stop,” he sounded more annoyed than angry. “You’ll like this part… Unless you want me to go in dry.”

You shook your head, squeezing your eyes shut. You knew what he meant to do. You couldn’t look. You couldn’t ---

Sharp pain at your thigh and you stared as you realized that he bit the tender flesh of your inner thigh.

“What did I say?” he demanded,

“I’m sorry,” you managed, your voice low and shaking.

“No, what the fuck did I tell you to do, huh?” he demanded even as a rough finger slid through your lower, intimate lips.

“To keep…m-my eyes on… you,” you recited.

“That’s right,” he muttered lowering his head and you watched him press his face into your private flesh, rubbing the tip of his nose along the center of your pleasure in a way that had you squirming in his hold.

When he pressed his mouth into you, the feel of his lips and tongue, the tickle of his hair over your thighs and tummy, had you shaking more, fighting to keep still. He moaned into you, a muffled sound and it sent a delicate vibration through your lower body, causing your heart to quicken.

When you felt the quick flutter of his tongue against the pearl that had only ever known your touch, your hips jerked. One heavy hand reached up and violently grabbed the top of your panties, ripping them off. It returned to press over your abdomen, holding you down. The fluttering continued, filling you with shame, making you feel restless and… A foreign craving built within you as he kept going, grinding his face into an embarrassing amount of wetness as his tongue kept moving in crazy fast patterns.

You expelled a puff of breath, twisting in his grip. Finally, you didn’t think you could take it anymore, you tried to push him away with your left hand. Pressing the heel to his forehead. Robert ignored you, his tongue sliding down to the tight entrance he meant to breach.

When the point of his tongue started darting in that entrance, you decided to try harder, grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling, not hard enough to hurt you hoped but enough to get his attention.

Your heart clenched in hope when he stopped.

“Harder,” he muttered.

You just stared at him. Did you misunderstand?

“Pull harder,” he told you before diving back in, doubling his efforts.

And you did, but you were trying to get him to stop, to take his mouth off you. You pulled his hair, fought against his grip. Tears stung the backs of your eyes in humiliation because even as embarrassed as you were, you felt a delicate ache building, a sweet pressure that was taking your breath away.

You knew from masturbation what an orgasm felt like. Good as those solo performances were, the pleasure he was forcibly building within you was beyond anything you’d experienced so far. You didn’t want to enjoy it. You wanted him to stop.

Didn’t you?

When he started fucking you with his tongue determinedly, you were in tears, pulling at his hair so hard you were surprised it wasn’t coming out in your hands.

“Please,” you begged. “Please… stop.”

When you felt a rough finger push into your untried channel you sucked in a breath. You felt it sliding in and out of you, felt his tongue continue to flick against your clit.

“Please,” you pleaded.

“Gonna bring you off,” he muttered against you. “You’ll thank me later.”

“What?”

The pad of his finger found a space deep within you and brushed it. You froze.

“There?” he asked, his hot breath pelting your wet flesh as that finger curled, hitting that space again in a way that took your breath, had you crying out in the room as your body pulsed in a powerful wave of pleasure that you hadn’t asked for. He kept moving that finger, the movement subtle but devastating, and you tried to pull him bald, thrashing on the bed as he used his tongue to make it worse, to keep it going.

When the spasms died down and you were left panting on the bed, you watched as he sat up, swiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. He unbuttoned the striped shirt he wore, pulling it off to reveal his upper body, heavily muscled and his chest lightly covered with light brown hair. His breath came fast as he rose from the bed to shed his jeans and underwear, the entire time his heated gaze roamed over your body in greed.

Like the rest of him, his cock was big and it was swollen. You knew a moment’s panic. No way that was going to work. He saw where your attention went and took himself in hand, smooth strokes up and down. His grin was crooked and filled with ill intent.

“Time to get you opened up,” he told you, climbing over you on the bed.

Robert wasted no time in slotting himself between your thighs, lowering himself over you. You focused on your breathing. It was going to happen, and you could only imagine it would hurt worse if you fought him.

Breathe. In and out.

He was heavy and hot over you, positioning himself to spear into you with a firm hand. Instinctively, you parted your legs further, just hoping when this was over, he wasn’t going to kill you. If you could just live…

It stretched and burned as he pushed into you. When he reached your barrier, he lifted his gaze to yours. Some manic delight lit up his blue eyes.

“There it is,” he muttered. “Mine for the taking.”

Collaring both wrists in strong hands, he dropped more of his weight on you and then he pushed through the veil of your innocence fast and hard, pushing in to the hilt in one powerful thrust. You sucked in a breath at the pain, biting your lip until you tasted the coppery tint of your blood.

Robert was rotating his hips subtly, grinding into you slowly. When he spotted the blood on your lip, his mouth sealed over yours. His tongue tried to draw yours into his dance, but you still didn’t know the steps. You just held still, hoping it would be over soon. Hoping…

Breathe, in and out.

It was almost as if he moved in time with your breathing. The sting was horrible when he began to pull out of you and push back in. His body was taut above yours, muscles flexing as he worked over you.

“Fuck, you’re a tight little thing,” he told you, his dark hair hanging around his face as he fucked you. “Not… gonna be able to last long… Jesus…”

That’s what you wanted to hear. Almost done. Almost…

You kept your gaze on him, breathed. To your dismay, the pain faded, and you felt that same pressure start build in your core. You clenched around him, your legs came up to cradle his hips.

Robert grinned at you then. “That’s it. You’re getting the hang of it.”

Dropping his left hand, his fingers slid between you. Delicate strokes of his fingers on your clit – how was such a beast of man able to touch that lightly? – until you were right there on the edge, feeling like a bomb about to go off.

“Come on,” Robert leaned down to whisper hotly in your ear, teasing the shell of it with his tongue until you were trembling beneath him. His cock drove into you over and over and the wicked, teasing glide of his fingers were inescapable.

You screamed when you came and you knew he was saying something, cheering you on. But you were lost to the waves of pleasure the rough man above you was imposing. His thrusts came harder, the slight pain bringing you around.

With no warning, he lifted from you, pulling himself free of your channel and stroking himself hard and fast as his come spurted across your belly and thighs. You fought to breathe, keeping your eyes on him. You didn’t miss the blood that covered his cock, his hand.

When he was spent, he slumped on his knees above you, panting. You were afraid to move, just lying there with your heart flying, wondering in growing fear what happened to you now.

Robert reached over to grab his glasses and put them back on, suddenly fascinated with your private flesh and his own.

“You did bleed, didn’t you?”  Impersonally, he swiped a finger through your folds, holding it up so you could see it was stained red. “You bled a lot.”

Am I going to bleed more? Are you going to kill me?

Grabbing his shirt from the floor, he used it to clean you up. Again, he was a lot more careful than you would have expected.

“Your shirt?” Wouldn’t your blood ruin it?

Robert shrugged. “What? I can get blood out of anything.”

That wasn’t something you wanted to hear.

Carefully, you pulled up a litte and he wasn’t stopping you. You weren’t able to reach your dress with your wrist cuffed to your distress.

As you watched, he reached for his jeans, pulling out a tiny pair of keys, He reached up and freed you from the handcuff. In the next instant, his hand was around your neck.

“Now, let’s get this out of the way,” he was nose to nose with you. “You live here now. You’re all mine. My little wife.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d used that phrase. You couldn’t begin to understand what was in his head. You did the safest thing you could think of and nodded.

“Until I have you trained, I’m going to keep you secured here in the house,” he explained with an undertone of menace in his voice. “I’ll be generous and give you a nice long leash.”

Leash?

“You ever try to sneak out,” Robert looked you dead in the eye, “or you try to get someone to help you, I’ll kill you. And I’ll kill whoever you pull into it. It’s what I do for a living, okay? I’m good at it… Don’t piss me off.”

You didn’t doubt him.

“Okay,” you muttered.

“Okay, what?”

Your mind scrambled but you finally realized what he wanted you to say, “Okay, Robert.”

That grin. His hand idly slapped your outer thigh.

“Good girl,” he said. “Get dressed. I’ll make us something to eat.”

He pulled on his jeans and sauntered out the bedroom.

Gingerly, you sat up, your lower body aching. You pulled your bra and dress back on. He’d ruined your panties. Stumbling through the room, you spotted the bathroom next door and locked yourself in there. You’d clean yourself up, pull yourself together.

My little wife.

You blew out a shaky exhale as you took a seat on the toilet lid.

On the sink, was a small vase with tiny white roses. Plucking one out, you held it in your shaking hand.

What were you going to do?

#30DaysofChris2020 #JTargaryen18's June Challenge #Pretty Baby #Robert Promge #Robert Prongay #Mr. Freezy #The Iceman #Dark fic #I'm going to hell for this one

[one-boring-person]

Heyy 😊👉🏼👈🏼 it’s me again... I know that I literally just requested one, and received, which you did a fantastic job on btw! I’m like in a Top Gun love state right now, and I wanna warn you like I will probably be like a repeat customer 😅 so if it is not too much to ask, whenever you feel like, could I have a maverickxreader where he admires reader from afar and Goose knows he likes her and messes with him and somehow Goose helps them get together 😘😘 I’m sorry if it’s too soon 🤞🏽❤️

Of course, I'm glad you liked the first one!!💛💛

Buy Her A Drink.

Pete "Maverick" Mitchell x reader

Warnings: alcohol consumption

Masterlist

"...Earth to Maverick? You there?" A familiar voice calls over the loud music, a hand waving in front of my face to get me to tear my eyes away from the point I'm staring at, my gaze easily finding Goose as he passes me a beer, smirking knowingly at me as he leans back against the bar.

"Where else would I be?" I respond, taking a deep drink from the bottle, my eyes quickly flicking back to the object of my focus, a sigh inadvertently escaping me as I watch her.

"In (Y/n)-dreamland, I reckon." The RIO points out, laughing as my head snaps round to face him, "Oh come on, you're not exactly being discreet!"

Frowning, I look down as a blush starts to creep up my neck, the bottle returning to my lips as I deny him.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Goose scoffs, rolling his eyes dramatically at the look on my face, looking over in the direction I was staring in, still grinning.

"Oh yeah? So you haven't been making heart eyes at her for the last month, hmm?" He lifts an eyebrow, nudging me as he gestures in (Y/n)'s direction, "Last time I checked, you haven't been able to get enough of her since we first got here."

"Stop it." I warn him, setting my jaw as he makes a noise of amusement.

"What? I'm just pointing out the facts." He grins widely at me, "Remember when we first flew together and you let her take the finishing shot? First time that's ever happened. And the time when we were playing volley ball altogether, when you let her win everytime?"

"I never let her take the first shot, or let her win. She's just a really good flyer, and she won all the games fair and square!" I protest, waving off his points as a blush continues to cover my cheeks, taking a sip of the beer to disguise it.

"Keep telling yourself that, Mav. I'm not the only one who remembers you getting all flustered that time when it was so hot her uniform was sticking to her skin. You couldn't keep your eyes off her." Goose remarks, leaning back against the bar with a conspiratorial smirk.

By now, my cheeks are probably bright red, my jaw clenched painfully as I recall that time, my eyes now finding the skilled pilot across the room from me, eyeing her as she jokes around with Iceman and Slider, the three of them having grown particularly close over our time at Top Gun. At the sight of them, I feel my teeth grind together, though I force myself to relax as I admire her appearance instead, subtly observing how her uniform hugs the curves of her body, and how her hair is neatly styled despite her more relaxed demeanor, the bottle in her hand appearing half empty from where I am. Her smile seems to light up the room as the three of them burst into laughter, her hand reaching out to rest against Iceman's arm in what is probably a purely platonic manner,

"Just buy her a drink or something, man. I'm sure she likes you back." My RIO encourages me, looking me in the eye as he says this, completely serious despite the grin still on his face.

"She looks happy enough with Ice and Slider." I grumble in response, finishing the rest of my beer in one long drag, turning and slamming the bottle on the bartop, trying to fight the urge to keep watching her, knowing I'm probably coming across as creepy.

"Oh come on, don't be like that, Mav! I think she'd much prefer your company. She does keep looking over, after all." Goose consoles me, wrapping an arm around my shoulders reassuringly as I look over at him.

"She doesn't." I murmur quietly.

"And how would you know?" He smirks again, knowing that I've been watching her nearly the entire night, "I tell you what, I'll help you out. Cath you later, man."

Before I can protest, he's gone, giving me one last part on the back as he goes, a few bills left on the counter for me to use, an unspoken rule we've always had: if trying to persuade the other to get a girl, we always pay for each other's first drinks. It helped get Carole and Goose together, but unfortunately it hasn't yet helped me. Growling to myself, I snatch up the notes and stuff them in my pocket, straightening and turning, banging into someone immediately, my hands instantly coming out to steady them as they yelp and stumble backwards, their drink spilling over our shirts.

My eyes widen as they find the person in my arms to be (Y/n), her own eyes locking with mine briefly, before she looks away, chuckling awkwardly, a blush dusting her cheeks, her own hands wiping at her front.

"Err, hey? Goose said you wanted to talk to me?" She questions me, looking up at me imploringly, features softer in the dim light, giving her a different appearance to the experienced pilot I know on the runway.

"Did he now?" I respond, fighting the urge to roll my eyes, "I'm really sorry about your drink. Want another? It's on me."

A grin spreads across her face at my offer, the pilot nodding softly at me as she moves to sit on a barstool beside me, uncaring of her now-damp uniform, telling me her order. Requesting it from the bartender, I scan the room for Goose, quickly locating him next to Sundown, shooting him a scowl as he lifts his bottle in salute, grinning at me.

"So what was it you wanted to say to me?" (Y/n) inquires as she receives her drink, eyeing me carefully as I adjust myself unsure of what to say.

"I think Goose made that up so you would come talk to me, actually." I admit, looking down at the bottle in my hand, embarrassment rendering me incapable of keeping eye contact with her.

"Oh." She giggles, the sound storing itself in my memory as she takes a drink, her smile wide and cheerful, not weirded out at all, "Well, at least he succeeded."

"True." I murmur, finally mustering the courage to lock eyes with her again, drowning in their warm depths.

For a few minutes, we sit there in silence, during which I start to doubt myself, my self esteem lowering even further as I struggle to come up with a topic of conversation, my head suddenly going blank for the first time in my life. Beside me, (Y/n) quietly drinks from the glass in front of her, clearly having the same problem as I am, fingers tracing idle patterns on the smooth counter. Looking over at her, I finally decide that I've had enough of this, turning to face her properly, drawing her attention to me almost immediately, confusion etched into her face.

"Goose got you to come over here because he wants me to admit to you that I like you, because he thinks that you like me back, which is ridiculous because I'm not your type at all, and I'm probably not what you're looking for, and I'm too nervous to make a move anyway, so he got you over here when he knows I've had a bottle or two of beer to loosen my tongue, so that I will finally confess to yo-" I gush out, rambling on as I try to organise my thoughts into one steady stream.

"Wait, you like me?" She suddenly cuts me off, having gauged something from the tirade of words.

I freeze in place before replying, unsure if how she'll react.

"...Yeah, I really do. I think you're amazing, the way you fly is incredible and you're a really nice person in general. You're sweet and funny, and I don't think I've ever come across someone who actually tolerates my flying style like you do, so yeah, I like you."

She is quiet for a minute or so, the suspense killing me as I prepare to make my excuses, ready to up and leave in case this now gets awkward. When she does speak, I try to expect the worst, knowing I'll be rejected.

"I mean I wish you'd told me sooner. At least the I could've spent less time fretting over whether you liked me back or not." She finally comments, remarks offhanded and surprising, my mind having to replay the words a few times before I actually understand what she means.

"You like me, too?!" I nearly exclaim in disbelief, happiness exploding inside me as she nods, reaching a hand over the table to lace our fingers together, a soft smile gracing our lips as we look at each other.

"I do, but you're gonna have to take me on a date before we make this official." (Y/n) chuckles, making eye contact with me.

"Well, in that case," I take her hand and press her knuckles to my lips, kissing the soft skin with a smirk, "Wanna go on a date with me?"

#top gun #top gun iceman #top gun imagine #top gun: maverick #Tom cruise #request #ask #answer

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

"Hand me that loofah."

Keeping his face carefully averted, Pyro picked up the sponge, and tossed in Fabian’s general direction.

An angry “Watch it, you idiot!” indicated that the loofah had struck it’s intended target. Then there was a low chuckle.

“I get it. You’re a married man, after all. You can’t bear to look upon me, lest you completely lose your self-control. Don’t feel bad, you’re hardly the first.”

Pyro was, in fact, struggling not to lose his self-control, but was fighting the urge to vomit.

“You should have invited me to the wedding,” Fabian continued, accompanied by splashing sounds as he apparently flopped around in the tub. “Are we not friends?”

That sentence was technically true the way Fabian had phrased it.

“Yes,” Pyro responded simply.

“But I can understand that, too,” Fabian continued. “You didn’t want to be upstaged at your own nuptials, and my presence certainly would have captured all the attention.”

“Dominic and I thought you might be a bit too busy,” Pyro said, although the truth was less “thought” and more “hoped.” “We didn’t want to intrude on your valuable time.” He was absolutely going to relay this whole horrible conversation to Avalanche tonight over drinks, with a very exaggerated impression of Cortez.

“Well, I always make time for the little people!” Fabian exclaimed magnanimously. “Hand me that towel.” Water sloshed and Pyro was hit with a fine spray as Cortez stood up in the tub. At least it sounded like he was standing up, Pyro wasn’t going to look. He grabbed the nearest towel and thrust it blindly at the demanding voice.

A hand grabbed his wrist and yanked Pyro around, so that he was face to face with a dripping, naked Fabian Cortez, with soap suds sloughing off his glistening body. It was actually a very nice body, that was the worst part, with with a “package” that partially explained the man’s unearned confidence. But the smarmy, arrogant smile completely ruined the picture.

“Looking’s free, you know,” Fabian grinned.

Directing credit, Pyro thought fiercely to himself. Executive producer.

“Why don’t I give you some privacy to get dressed?” He said aloud, plastering a fake smile on his face. This would all be worth it when show’s profits started coming in, and then Pyro would get himself and Dominic matching His and His jet-skis.

He still wasn’t entirely sure how he wound up in this position. It had started with Shinobi pitching a reality show to the Council, which had somehow, inexiplicably, gotten a majority approval vote, possibly because Krakoa hadn’t been attacked in the last few weeks and the Council was bored. It was Survivor meets the Bachelor, in which groups of male and female mutants competed to win the hand of the handsome, debonair, and, most importantly, ridiculously wealthy Shinobi Shaw, through date nights and dinners and pointless jungle challenges of strength and skill.

Pyro had just made a few innocent comments, that was all. Just a couple of suggestions to Emma, who had wound up saddled with the bulk of the responsibility, about story arcs and pairings and how to arrange scenes for maximum drama and pathos. He understood that stuff, after all, as a romance novelist it was his bread and butter. (And he was a bit of a soap opera fanatic, but he wasn’t going to admit that freely.) Emma had listened with an eager, almost hungry glint in her eyes, and there had been a short conversation that had somehow ended with Pyro agreeing to serve as a writer, director and general creative supervisor, in exchange for a percentage of the profits and fairly massive salary. (Massive to Pyro, anyway, probably a drop in the bucket to Emma “Swimming in the money bin” Frost.)

And it actually had been kind of fun. “Reality” TV presented a unique challenge, in that he wasn’t allowed to directly tell the “performers” what to say, but he could do absolutely anything else to construct his creative vision. He could ask leading questions in the talking head interviews, edit scenes by splicing completely unrelated shots together, and put volatile contestants in a room with plenty of alcohol, then poke at them until they exploded.

Unfortunately, his duties had somehow gradually expanded to include talent-wrangling both on and off-set, which left him stuck making nice with Fabian Cortez, the most “colorful” (obnoxious) and, unfortunately, most popular, of all the contestants. Iceman would probably win the show as the nice, relatable, boy-next-door type, but Fabian was what kept viewers tuning in.

“Oh, that’s quite all right,” Fabian purred. He contorted his body as he toweled himself off, appearing to pose for nonexistant cameras. “I’m a generous man, I can spare you a bit of eye candy, even if our relationship must remain professional.”

“Yes, that would be best. Listen, we need you to do another challenge with Sienna Blaze.”

Fabian’s “generosity” quickly withered away.

“I will NOT get in front of a camera with that maniac! Such an uptight, ill-mannered, man-hating – well, I’m too much of a gentleman to use the word that she so richly deserves! She nearly killed me last time! Over a simple compliment!”

Yes, Pyro remembered it well. Fabian’s near barbeque had garnered record-high ratings. And hopefully tossing them into a mud-pit together in bathing suits would produce similarly explosive results.

“Oh yes, I know, Fabian,” Pyro cooed, hating himself a little. “She’s very difficult, and you’ve been such a professional about it.” He pulled up comforting mental images as he spoke. Jet-skis. Wagyu steak. Insanely expensive whiskey. Him and Dominic having a long honeymoon in Bali, Sydney, Seoul and Tokyo. All those zeros at the end of the check that Emma had given him.

“Well, a professional shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of shabby treatment!” Fabian said haughtily. He was finally wrapping the towel around his waist, to Pyro’s great relief. “I asked for Norwegian strawberries in my dressing room, and that idiot assistant brought me French!”

“I’ll look into it,” Pyro assured him, fully intending to send Fabian the exact same strawberries (which were, in fact, grown on Krakoa) with his apologies and a fake Norweigian label.

He had a vague notion in the back of his head that Emma should be handling this, Emma was supposed to be in charge! And yet she’d gradually eased the responsibility into Pyro’s arms, only sashaying onto set once every few weeks for a “status report,” and spending the rest of the time off performing mysterious and supposedly very important duties for the Hellfire Trading Company and the Council. She never picked up her phone or responded to voice mails.

It was okay, though. Pyro could handle this. He was a damn writer, and he was good at it, and he would poke and prod his stars through the storyline he had planned, because he was absolutely brilliant. Even Emma had said so.

“Anyway, don’t worry about Blaze,” Pyro insisted, his voice dripping with sticky-sweet honey. “We’ve given her a talking to about her behavior.” He had done no such thing. “I’m sure she’ll be much nicer to work with. In fact, we think the audience will really enjoy you putting her in her place. Really demonstrate your masculine superiority.” Was that too much? They couldn’t have Fabian dying on camera, after all, even though it would be hilarious.

“Well, I should hope so!” Fabian said, rubbing lotion carefully across his pecs. “I’m obviously carrying this entire show, and I will be treated with the respect I deserve.”

“You know,” Pyro added slyly, “I think she’s actually got a bit of a crush on you. You know how some women are.” No, this was definitely too much. Oh well, they could edit around Fabian’s inevitable death and resurrection, and in the mean time they’d get some amazing footage.

“Oh, of course,” Fabian said, with a leering understanding creeping across his face. “I suspected from the very beginning. She couldn’t handle my raw sensuality.”

“Who can, really?” Pyro hated this, he really hated every second of having to pull on the polite mask of social niceties and insincere compliments. It always seemed almost obscene. May as well just flip the other fellow over and start tongueing his arsehole, right? Except that was actually fun in the right circumstances.

But he’d done it before, as a journalist dealing with self-important sources, as a novelist schmoozing with publishers and book sellers. He could do it now, for the astronomical salary that Emma was paying him, and for the Prime Time Emmy Award for Outstanding Competition Program that was hovering in his sights. Emma had assured him that it was a strong possibility. Just imagine rubbing that in the faces of all the critics who had called him a talentless hack! They’d say…well, they’d probably say that an Emmy for trashy reality TV was the highest possible honor for a hack like him, but Pyro wouldn’t give a fuck, because he’d have an Emmy and they wouldn’t.

“C’mon, then, we’ll give you a quick touch-up with bronzer. We’re shooting the scene in fifteen minutes.” Pyro began to guide Fabian, still clad in only a towel, towards the bathroom door.

“We’ll shoot the scene when I’m ready, and not a second before!” Fabian insisted. It would probably be another hour of Fabian demanding and sending back expensive snacks before they could even get him to the set. Luckily, they were actually scheduled to shoot the scene in two hours.

“Yes, of course, whatever you want,” Pyro wheedled, imagining the satisfying explosion of flesh and blood that would very likely occur when Fabian and Sienna Blaze came into contact. And Fabian was going to do it, that much was clear now. “I know you’ll do a fantastic job. You’re brilliant you know, absolutely brilliant……”

For a moment, Pyro trailed off as a crack opened in his mental wall, and memories slipped out into the light. Emma pouring more wine into his glass during their monthly meetings, assuring him again and again that he was absolutely brilliant, a true artist, that the show would thrive in his capable hands.

“No, that’s completely different,” Pyro muttered to himself, shaking his head.

“What was that?” Fabian twisted around, the towel slipping dangerously low on his hips.

“Oh, nothing,” Pyro exclaimed brightly, slamming the mental wall shut again. “Now, let’s get you into make-up, ya big handsome star!”

#fabian cortez #pyro #st john allerdyce

[randomguywithwords]

The Student (Geten Short Story)

The figure was cloaked in a blue parka and his face shrouded under a hood. He pushed open the doors of the council room. In the room was a crescent shaped table symmetrical from where he was standing. A lone man sat to the left of the centre, dressed in that pin-stripe suit. That man used to sit in the centre, but he was dethroned – Dethroned by a ragtag group of hooligans. 

“Geten.” Rikiya Yotsubashi acknowledged as he looked up at the creak of the door. 

His boots clacked against the tiles, echoing throughout the chamber as Geten walked up to the man in the suit. 

“So you come here to relive the old days.” Geten crossed his arms. “Back when it was just the five of us.” 

“I have other reasons to be here tonight.” 

“I only have one.” From his pocket, Geten took out five ice cubes, each the size of his palm, and placed them on the table. “Do you remember these?” 

“Yes. Your third lesson.” 

“Good. I’m here to finish my training.” 

“Training meta abilities is a ritual, a ritual spanning one’s entire life.” Re-destro quoted his father’s book verbatim. 

“You misunderstand.” A chill crept into his voice and down Re-destro’s spine. “I’m finishing my training under you.”

“I see. You think you’ve learnt everything from me?”

“I know I have.” Geten waved his arm with the carelessness of a king dismissing his servant, and the cubes separated into smaller cubes with flawless precision. “I’ve learnt everything I needed to, and even more that I should never have.”

Geten clenched his fist, and the cubes combined into one, which slammed onto the table. “Separate the cubes and then combine them. That was your lesson, which I failed at first. And you punished me heavily.”

“Is this about the grudges that which you bear against me?” Yotsubashi leaned back on his chair.

“It’s more than that,” Geten hissed. ‘I accepted my torture because I strived to improve. Even when I was on the brink of death, all those years ago, you told me that to die is to be a martyr for the others to liberate themselves. My death would not be in vain.” 

Geten fixated his eyes onto his old mentor’s, all respect for him shattered. “So what did I learn, Yotsubashi, from your last lesson? It was one you never meant to teach, but I learnt it from afar. As I watched you chop off your legs to survive, and as I watched you kowtow to Shigaraki, I learnt that you’re nothing more than a hypocrite.” 

“So you wish to finish Shigaraki’s job?” 

“Not yet. I want to pour my eighteen years of sorrow unto you first.”

“You see the state I’m in? I have no qualms about that.”

“Oh, I’m sure you will. Because when a man is going to die – when they think they’re going to die, they will want to live, no matter what cause they stand for. And I’m going to prove it.”

“Carry on, then.” The lack of emotion on Re-destro’s face incensed him. 

Geten forced himself to stay calm. “When you tossed me into the Arctic Ocean for my tenth lesson, to survive with the ice I had, I nearly died. I was shivering in the cold, wasting away on a floating piece of ice, and I thought I would never see Deika City again…” He swallowed. “I told myself, my death would be a stepping stone for others. You told me to take comfort in that fact. But no, I didn’t want to die. I didn’t care if I would be glorified in death. I wanted to live.”

Geten tightened his fists in his pocket as he stared at the ground. “I struggled with that ever since then, believing that I was a blasphemer against Destro’s teachings, for wanting to live rather than strive for liberation for all, even at the cost of my life.

He stared at Re-destro. “Then I saw how you survived rather than perish as a martyr. It confused me at first, but then I came to this revelation.”

“There is a beating heart within us. Destro said as much, but it is not for the glories of Liberation,” He spat the phrase as he said it. “It is because we are alive, and we want to keep it that way, no matter what beliefs we ascribe to.” 

“Then you have twisted Destro’s teachings,” Rikiya said, matching Geten’s coldness in his tone. 

“No, no. You lie.” Geten hissed. “You were afraid of death, so you reduced yourself to this...pitiful form, a husk of your former glory — if there was any to begin with, to simply survive.” 

“No.” Re-destro said, but there was an edge to his voice. He was slipping. 

“Admit it!” Apocrypha snarled. “You could not die a martyr, so you lived a cripple.” 

“Silence!” Yotsubashi roared as he rose to his feet, towering over Geten, but the Iceman stayed defiant, glaring at him in the eye. 

“It’s time I removed you from a position you had no right to be in. I’ll make strength my own teaching,” Geten said as the ice levitated off the table, thrumming with power. “And I don’t need books and sermons to learn.” 

The supersized arm came at him in a sweeping motion, a blur of blue-black. Geten leapt back as the ice cubes flew towards Geten, unravelling and interlocking. They formed a platform underneath Geten that he rose above Yotsubashi with. 

Yotsubashi bellowed, his form expanding. Once Geten had beheld and feared that titan, but now a malicious grin on his face, . Now the fight would be interesting, and when he won, it would prove he won indisputably. 

“I could go for your legs. They are your weak points…” he mused, eliciting a roar from Rikiya. “But no.” 

He sent a barrage of ice spears at Re-destro. They pierced into his arms as thick as tree trunks which he used to block.

“A weak attack.” Re-destro snarled.

Geten smirked. He opened his palm. Rikiya’s face was ghost-pale as he stared at his wound. It barely penetrated the many layers of skin, but it was enough to reach his bloodstream. 

“Getting cold, Yotsubashi?”

“You...what did you –” He gasped as he dropped to his knees, his eyes forced to stare, unblinkingly, at Geten’s raised arm. 

“I froze the water in your blood. Were you unaware of how much I’ve trained?” Geten swept his right arm downwards, which forced Re-destro to the ground. While his hand shook to keep the rabid dog on the ground, he slowly lowered the temperature, until he had no more strength to struggle, a sufficient anaesthesia. His form deflated, returning to the skinny man shuddering on the cracked tiled floor.

“So?” 

Geten’s voice was tiny compared to the vastness of the chamber, but it had the weight to fill it. Once upon a time, Re-destro’s voice did, but no more. 

“Finish it, then.” Yotsubashi whispered, his tongue growing numb.

Geten raised his hands again, and the ice around him collected like iron filings to a magnet to form ten icicles.  

“You sound...resigned,” Geten said, moving the icicles closer, like a pack of vultures over a lion keeled over the grass. 

Re-destro looked up to see needles hovering an inch from his face. His skin bleached, as though the chill of the ice was sapping his life. 

“You wouldn’t dare.” Was what Rikiya said — but Geten found the term “whimpered” more appropriate. 

The wielder of Cryokinesis hopped off his platform, squatted down and grabbed Re-destro’s head, tilting it up to look at him. 

“No, I wouldn’t. Not when you can still prove your strength, when you can prove to me you deserve to live.” Geten dropped his head like a toy and stood up. 

With a flick of his arm, the ice coalesced and rooted themselves to the ceiling like a crystal chandelier, beautiful and deadly like a stiletto. The sharp tip glistened with the promise of death as they hung over Yotsubashi, a sword eager to pierce true. 

He waved as he left the room, sending a small fissure through the ice, enough to make it hang there for a while before it cracked.

“Five minutes to crawl out of there, Rikiya. I’ll leave the decision to you. Have a good night.”

Geten closed the door behind him.

––––––––

My entry for the first day of the Geten week. I was always planning to write something on the MLA teachings. I originally planned to write a multi-POV short story of random soldiers who died, but in their last moments they didn’t want the MLA preachings of martyrdom. Then the Geten thing came up and I switched. 

Hope you guys liked it. Prompt was power/weakness right? 

AO3 Link

#bnha #mha #bnha fanfic #bnha fanfiction #mha fanfic #mha fanfiction #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #geten #getenloveweek2020 #bnha geten #mha geten

[razorblade180]

An original story?

I finally have the time to answer the question @mrsevenplus7 asked about if I ever thought about creating an original story or world; the answer is most definitely! There’s several worlds over the years that I’ve created in my head and written things about. There’s one in particular that leans towards fantasy but still has realistic elements. (Keep in mind this concept was originally thought of when I was in middle and completely infatuated with RWBY/Final Fantasy. I’m in college now 💀) I apologize in advance for the words vomit.

Breakthrough

World building

This is a world that geographically speaking is much like ours. Rolling hills, scorching deserts, icy tundras, vast oceans, ect. Since the beginning, the make up of this world could be credited to eight elemental crystals. Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Lightning, Ice, Light, and Darkness.

Man since the beginning of their discovery of these crystals saw them as divine entities that helped them survive by giving them the potential to become stronger. It would’ve sound a bit ridiculous, if it wasn’t literally true. Around a certain age the human body gained an affinity to one of the crystals that manifested in a variety of ways. An ice user can be particularly skilled in creating objects out of the element while another used the property of snow. A fire user might envelope themselves in flames while a second user creates explosions. Even those with similar manifestations find unique ways to differentiate themselves through unique qualities of simple just being different people. It was quickly noticed the four basic elements were slightly more common than the others if only by a relatively small margin. Despite all the differences, one thing remained constant for all humans beings. An untapped potential that ran to the very essence of their power.

Many could feel this potential inside of them. These internal barriers that capped of the limits of their abilities. Some precived them as walls, while others envisioned them as chains or a fence but it was all the same. In time, people learned that with training of the body, the mind, their powers, and discovering a better idea of themselves, it was possible to overcome one barrier after another. They could break through and gain more power. This began an age of self improvement and technological advances. Knowledge was shared throughout the world. Civilizations expanded in even the most unlikely of places and it was common to mostly find people with the same affinity creating and living in places tailored for their needs.

Full blown cities that ran predominantly off of electricity. Fishing settlements and tribes that never feared the mysteries of the oceans thanks to their water control. Many other remarkable feats were achieved in the far future because of the power granted by the crystals. However, before humanity didn’t get to that glory over night. Before they reached the height of their progress they had to face the natural horrors of this world that went beyond the regular wildlife. The crystals might have given them strength, but it could also be the bane of their existence.

The elements itself had also taken the form of vast wildlife creatures that more often than not ruined what humans tried to build and seemed to have a natural aggression towards the species in general. Stallions made of earth with the power to cause tremors or mudslides as they stampede. Massive gust of winds that took the shape or large birds. Wolves that faded into shadows and stalked in the dead of night. Some “Elementals” were more difficult to dispose of then others but none could be taken lightly. A greater danger awaited once one was killed. Their bodies simply became like the element it was constructed out of and a black miasma like substance was expelled. Inhaling a small out was enough to hinder people and cause an incurable sickness that effects their powers. Inhale too much and your being would succumb and turn you into Humanoid Elemental that was devoid of any soul or the humanity they once had. All they had left was the strength they had acquired and a higher intelligence. It was one such monster that changed the course of history forever.

In universe lore

Something had happen back in the days where man was still getting the fundamentals tapping into their potential. Tales of a being in the form of a woman that had unlocked their full power spread across the globe. Not only that, but it had the power of all the elements and was laying destruction to any who barred its path. Such a tale was seen as just that, a tale. No one was ever that had the powers of each crystal. Also, such a person would surly had to have had some kind of spiritual balance if they had unlocked the end of their potential. Yet as ridiculous as it was, it soon couldn’t be ignored.

Slowly the weather became more treacherous. Stories of men, women, and children seemingly vanishing out of nowhere turned into entire villages being erased from the map. There was something out there and no one who has seen it lived to talk about it. The days themselves began to change which would bring on two more phenomena that were signaled by the moon. In the span of a month two events occurred. A blue moon that bathed the land in a light that enhanced powers for a full day. Then a red moon that did the same for the Elementals. All these strange things that could not be explained continued to raise more questions until humanity was given an answer in the form of a foe. Someone had finally lived to tell their tale. A battered man who was approaching deaths door.

He spoke about how a young woman with red eyes and ghost white hair came strolling into his village; the one closest to the wind crystal. The woman wore nothing but a worn out robe and her skin looked the color of bone. The only thing in her possession was an odd tool which would later be known as a scythe. Somehow she seemed drawn to crystal and new exactly where to go. His people forbade direct contact with it like all homelands did that were founded around it but she did not care. When warriors came to deter her, they were met with the same sight as anyone else. The look of a weeping women, then an instant death. The man didn’t see when she moved her arm but he felt the wind come off the attack before being sent flying and nearly blacking out. Barely conscious enough to see his people be slaughtered by Elementals of every type that obeyed her faithfully for she had created several before his eyes. The tale was true and terrifying. That woman continued to press on until it made contact with the wind crystal and caused the formation of a storm like no other. Not once did she ever smile. Only tears. But the man had seen something in her. An evil that ran deep and twisted as the darkest parts of humanity itself. Was this woman, this creature ever human? Or was it an Elemental that started off like this from the beginning? Stronger, faster, aware.....he asked it what it’s name was and it only said one thing. “Sin”

The man died shortly after telling the story but it had done the job it needed to, call people to action. Brave warriors everywhere rose to face this new threat and the beasts it brought along. Many of them confident in their unlocked potential to bring the being known as Sin down to its knees. Countless tried, and they failed. Hundreds upon hundreds either fell in a battle they weren’t prepared for or defending what they could. Soon all the crystals were thrown into a state of shock and the world ran rapid with extreme weather for years; humanity pushed to the brink and Sin vanished. It should’ve been the end. Until one day, one man met seven people and became legends.

This man have had enough of living in despair. Watching his people endure ever since the day he was born was painful. Being born in the tundra and granted power over ice meant weather was always an extreme to overcome from the start, but not like this. It was only possible with the help of trade from other villages which was all but destroyed. So he trained. He trained physically and mentally from the time he was a teenager until he was mid twenties like if it was his destiny to change things. Then one day he decided to finally put it to the test. The man traveled acrossd the icy landscape until he reached the coldest place near the center; the ruined homeland where the crystal still rest. Guarding it was massive and ferocious ice Elemental in the form of a snow fox. The man should’ve been dead on the spot. He was only armed with scythe as a way to tell the world that it could achieve power as boundless as Sin. Perhaps it was that belief that was the key. He slayed the beast and brought a calm to the crystal once more. It was a harrowing experience and he had partly a blue moon to think for it but he did it nonetheless. He showed the world that they weren’t gonna die so easily. And so began his journey.

The man sailed of to locate the other crystals and start putting the world back in order. Calming the crystal had brought him more understanding of his power and that brought greater strength. This brought him to a grassy plain where another who was tired of living in fear wanted to make a change and asked to join him on this quest. Despite how many times he denied this middle aged man the right to travel along, the ice warrior could not get rid of him! Days passed before they reached the wind crystal and encountered another deadly Elemental guarding it. This time it was a was a massive wind condor. The ice man thought beating it would be a simple task but he was wrong. It had nearly cost him his life if wasn’t for the older man by his side. Not only did he control wind as well, but he managed to deliver the final blow needed with the iceman’s scythe and brought another crystal to peace. He too seemed to have grown from the experience and found new strength. The two of them continued on as equals to save the world.

The power of wind meant sailing to the ruins of island of the water crystal possible without the destruction of their boat. However, they needed a proper guide of the sea and found that in a young women who also wanted to make a change. The three of them sailed of together and the beginning of a pattern started to form. It wasn’t that humanity had given up fighting, but finding those with the will and means to go on was scarce. It was hard to self improve when so much tragedy fell around you. Like the last two, an Elemental stood in their way but together they bested it and their new teammate managed to calm the crystal.

The cycle repeated. For each crystal they traveled to, someone eager and ready to join tagged along. Each time the ice warrior was wary but grew to appreciate their help. A menacing Elemental of unique form tried to kill them but never got the chance. They knew that it wasn’t just random animals either. It was always indigenous to the region and more importantly, had a sinister and potent miasma unleashed from them that was more dangerous than the regular foes they encountered. As the group slowly grew, they learned from each other. Their lives, likes, dislikes, training, skills, dreams, fears..... it was all shared. They had become friends. All of them more than capable of learning how to use a scythe in order to spread the ice warrior’s beliefs. Sometimes they faught but they would make up. The team eventually became eight strong; one for each crystal type. All that was left was light. Seven out of eight had gained exceptional strength from calming their crystal and they felt ready for anything. Not because of their individual strength, but because a new power they had discovered over the three year long journey of saving the world.

Working together, truly connecting with each other. It allowed for something that the warrior of water and darkness people believed in; they could use each other’s powers in combination with their own. The technique was difficult and way more straining than other things they had learned. Not to mention it was only possible to use one other power at a time, but done right had amazing results. Results they did not know they would need for the final Elemental. The group found themselves walking up a huge tower known as The Stairway to Heaven. It was here that the light crystal resided, but not guarded the same way as rest. No, instead it was guarded by a familiar set of blood red eyes and ghostly appearance. Sin stood in their way. It had been here the entire time. Only this time it was bathed in a brilliant holy light with seven dark pools around it. The aura it gave off was immediately recognized as whatever remained from the previous Elementals. Sin had divided its power in an effort to defend the crystal; all this time they had been fighting the being that was supposed to have vanished years ago. Now it was back at complete strength.

The group did not waver; not even the warrior of light who had still yet to awaken her power by the crystal. It was now or never. Save the world or die trying. The only thing left to do before the fight was ask why? Why had this creature throw the world into such chaos. “If you have the potential to do anything, why shouldn’t you do everything? Destroy it all and create from the ruble.” The answer was unsettling. Any person with simple morals and able to have achieved such power surly would’ve known being able to do something did not inheritly mean they should. The warriors asked what exactly was it. Human gone Elemental? An Elemental in the form of man? It simply grabbed itself and embraced the dark pools of its fallen counterparts. A range of emotions washing across its face before settling on a mournful expression. “I am the end result.”

The battle was fierce and savage. Nature itself seemed to scream as all it had to give was being used to clash with in a way, itself. Landscapes changed, wildlife ran, the battle could be seen for miles. Somehow in all the chaos the heroes managed to calm the final crystal; gaining a slight edge that slowly kept building. Sin had faced many people but none like this. It wasn’t their strength that overwhelmed it, or the eight to one odds. It was there teamwork; the bond allowed them to use each other’s abilities and perform feats like no one had seen at the time. Things that could not be learned alone. In the end, it led to Sin’s demise. A lethal blow dealt by all of them that render Sin unstable and fading, but with a catch.

“Power like mine does not fade. Sin does not fade....it festers” the miasma shot off into seven pieces once more and found its way into all the warriors except for the Ice warrior. Stricken with fear, he watched his closest friends writhe in agony as they desperately tried to hold onto their humanity as temptation at away at their soul. Wrath, Lust, Pride, Gluttony, Sloth, Envy, and Greed. Still connected through their bond, he couldn’t help but feel all the suffering inside of himself. What could he do? Was this really the end? Tears started to well up before a voice called out to him. “It’s okay...” it was the first to join his journey, the wind warrior. More called out to him. “Don’t let this be in vain.” said water

“You know what you must do...” Darkness cried out.

“Trust our bond.” Earth said calmly

“Alone we might not be strong enough.” Lightning said wary.

“Together though, we’ll stand.” Light exhaled exhausted.

“So what are you waiting for?” Fire proclaimed.

All of them gave their leader one final look of relief; satisfied with the end results as they seem more radiant than any crystal. The leader had no words. Only resolve as he took hold of his weapon and stood ready. Their eyes said all that was left to be said. “I can’t believe we did it.” He made it swift, and cut them all down in one slice. The world was finally returned to normal.

Humanity rejoiced. Finally it could once again get on track to growing strong and mighty. Many searched for the brave heroes they had to thank for this accomplishment but only found their weapons; each taken and placed by a crystal in honor of them. As for the ice warrior, he simply vanished. No one could find him. When people eventually reached the ice crystal it had his scythe mysteriously placed there with no clue how. He must’ve been alive somewhere. Legend says the man took ahold of the seven sins and placed them inside himself for the sake of the world, but he did not lose his mind. He simply wandered off. That the bond he had with the team he grew to love was beyond death and kept the sins in check within him. It also said that the man spread knowledge of the abilities his friends cultivated and is why we have them today. Now anyone who dares learn how to wield a scythe do so in the heroess’ honor and belief that unlocking one’s full potential means facing the odds with comrades.

As for the fallen heroes, they are clearly not forgotten. Some people believe their will lives on apart of the crystal and will grant strength to a select few who rise to the challenge of beating the odds.

Phew 😅

That was more tiring than I thought. That was just explaining the world and some extremely important lore but I never actually talked about the main characters, the plot, how powers work on a more conceptual level, or the setting. Maybe I’ll make a second one of these if you all really, and I mean really want more. Looking back at this I have realized something staggering. Aspects from this story have bled over into my many AU’s. I’m talking down to the idea of mental headspace and two very specific characters that I know realize somewhat live through Yujin and Tenzen; fighting wise anyways. (Personality too for Yujin which is nuts and I don’t know how to handle that. They are even blonde.)

#razor rambles #my oc’s #breakthrough #ask me stuff #fanfiction #i told you all this ran deep and im crazy

[occasionalfics]

hi so i haven’t made any real posts in a while bc i haven’t really been writing that much but i wanted to just post SOMETHING for y’all to interact with

anyway, if you don’t know, i have a youtube channel and i’ve been watching (almost) every movie that chris evans is in because i love him and reviewing them for my channel and i thought i’d give a rundown of the movies i’ve seen so far (including ones i haven’t rewatched for the channel yet because i’m not gonna link to the videos - if you really want to watch, message me) so maybe you could decide which ones are worth your time and/or money 😂

for this, i’ll give a brief description, my general thoughts, and a score from 1-10 (1 being unwatchable and 10 being PEAK cinema)

i’m keeping things very light on spoilers, meaning there might be one or two overall but not for every movie.

so here we go:

The Newcomers (2000) - some indie movie with no theatrical release about a family that moves from boston to vermont because of money troubles. chris is in it for like 5 minutes and he’s honestly the second best part (second to a dog only). 3/10, mostly boring but not offensive.

Not Another Teen Movie (2001) - i feel like everyone has seen this. it’s a spoof of 80′s and 90′s teen movies (namely she’s all that and cruel intentions). chris plays the main love interest and he’s definitely funny enough to pull off the part but it’s not really my thing. 4/10.

The Perfect Score (2004) - this is the first time chris and sc*rj* worked together. 6 high school kids fail the SATs so instead of retaking them, they sneak into a government building and steal the answers. it’s an mtv movie and it’s...fine? not great, not special, but...very early aughts mtv for sure. 4/10

Cellular (2004) - an action flick where chris plays a regular dude who gets a call from a woman who’s been kidnapped, and then has to keep communications up with her in order to save her and take down some corrupt cops. surprisingly funny, i had a great time watching, would recommend! 7/10

Fierce People (2005) - i think this was another indie movie without a theatrical release. based on a book that, from the reviews of both, is identical, i think because the author of the book was also the screenplay writer. and that’s probably why this movie sucked. bby anton yelchin (rip) gets caught scoring drugs for his mom, and because she has connections to this super rich dude, they end up going to live in new jersey with his weirdass family instead of bby anton going to jail. chris’s character is not who you think he is. content warnings for drugs, rape, and murder. overall boring, not what it thinks it is, 4/10

Fantastic Four (2005) - okay everyone’s seen these. i actually hate both of these FF movies, but chris as johnny storm is the only shinning light in either. reed is the WORST and sue is treated like eye candy. 4/10 for johnny storm alone.

London (2005) - literally the worst movie i have ever seen. i hate london. also an indie movie, very misogynistic, very pretentious and self-important. lonely emo boy does drugs with random people in a bathroom at a party he was not invited to INTENTIONALLY, in the hopes that he will win over his ex girlfriend, who he repeatedly emotionally abused while they were together, even though the party is literally in honor of her moving across the country. and she didn’t want him there. please never, ever bother watching london and talking about it online - fuckbois will attempt to tell you that you know nothing repeatedly. 1/10, worst film ever made.

TMNT (2007) - does this need an introduction? chris plays casey, but the movie’s really about the turtles. honestly the writing kind of relies on you knowing a lot about the turtle lore and overall it’s a boring but ultimately harmless film. it’s just really not worth your time. 2/10

Sunshine (2007) - ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES I HAVE EVER SEEN, I HAVE NOT  STOPPED THINKING ABOUT SUNSHINE IN OVER A YEAR. 8 astronauts are on a mission to ignite a nuclear bomb into the dying heart of our sun. but it’s a space film so shit goes wrong and, one by one, they start dying. very tense, very sad. the biggest complaint all around is that the first 2/3s of the movie are one genre and the last 3rd is a completely different movie, and yet it’s STILL amazing. please watch (if you can handle a space thriller)! 8/10

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) - a very bad follow up to a very bad origin movie. not even andre braugher could save this one. reed is really mean to johnny for no reason and i hate his guts. 3/10

The Nanny Diaries (2007) - second time appearing alongside sc*rj*. she’s the main character. an anthropology student takes on a nannying job for an upperclass family in new york, but the job ends up being more than she bargained for. chris plays harvard hottie, her upstairs neighbor who is THE BEST BOY. i loved this movie. 8/10

Battle for Terra (2007) - a very weird but very good animated movie about humans attempting to colonize an alien planet because we were stupid enough to destroy earth, venus, and mars. lots of big names on the cast list for a movie that not many people saw, but it goes ham in the “fuck colonizers” theme. overall, a surprising joy. 6.5/10

Street Kings (2008) - well this was directed by david ayer so my friend and i went into this with very low expectations and it didn’t even meet that bar. keanu reeves plays a sad and angry corrupt cop who almost kind of gets framed for killing another cop, and then spends a good chunk of the runtime just hunting down other corrupt cops without doing anything about his own corruption. it’s copaganda, but very bad copaganda. also chris dies. fuck this movie, don’t waste your time. this is another one where the fanboys will come for you if you say a bad thing about it on the internet, 2/10

The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008) - another indie that apparently caught the eye of kevin fiege? i don’t really know why because chris’s character is very bland and the movie overall is nothing special. tennessee williams wrote the screenplay before he died in the 80′s and then this was made and nothing about it was changed. it’s basically straight people in the 20′s in the south being weird and rude. a rich girl pays a hot poor boy to escort her to parties after a huge scandal was caused by her father. she loves the poor boy but he doesn’t return the feelings and everyone’s sad, dying, or mean. skip it, honestly. 4/10

Push (2009) - honestly, an underrated movie that so often gets shit on because of x-men. push is so good! a telekinetic man meets a young girl who can see the future, who tells him that if he helps her find her mom, they’ll also come into $6 million. they run into his ex and the government department trying to control people with powers, and shit ensues. chris’s chemistry with dakota fanning as big brother/little sister is adorable and i need more people to talk about it. 8/10, very worth your time.

The Losers (2010) - apparently went up against some other star-studded action flick with a similar plot at the time of release and suffered for it, but other than that, this is a fun romp with lots of character. a team of militiamen are framed for an international scandal and forced to go underground until a mysterious woman helps them exact revenge on the billionaire who framed them so they can go back to their families. chris plays one of the secondary characters and he’s PERFECT. best character in the whole movie! you’ve probably seen the “don’t stop believing”/”lethal killing machine” scene around tumblr before - that’s just how his character is the whole movie and it’s great. definitely recommend! 7/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) - we’ve all seen it. lucas lee is the best. there are lots of problems in the word choice and some of the moral quandaries but overall, an enjoyable ode to videogames and comic books. 6.5/10

Puncture (2011) - once again, an indie film with very little theatrical release. WHOOOH though. this movie. SO GOOD! two personal injury lawyers take on a case when a nurse is accidentally pricked on the job and contracts AIDS. they take on a huge pharmaceutical supply company in the hopes of manufacturing and creating a legal standard for using safety needles to protect frontline medical workers, all while chris’s character is dealing with being an addict. based on a true story, honestly   one of chris’s best performances (and that’s across the board). you can  rent it cheap from youtube and it’s totally worth it. 7.5/10

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - i mean. it’s cap. honestly this movie feels a little long even though it’s not. overall it’s a good, enjoyable movie and watching it all the way through reminded me of why bucky was so important. 7/10

What's Your Number? (2011) - okay honestly i love this movie? a woman is slutshamed by her sister’s friends and then embarks on a journey through her past relationships to find her soulmate, only to realize that it doesn’t matter how many men she’s slept with because the right one really won’t give a damn and neither should she. everyone’s seen naked collin around tumblr. he’s a good boy. mostly. 7/10

The Avengers (2012) - so i can appreciate that this was like THE event movie of the summer of 2012 but it is LONG and there’s still so much spy shit i don’t understand. my friends and i also think that j*ss wh*d*n oversimplifies most of the characters, and ultimately the writing isn’t super strong. the performances are, for sure, but it’s still not as great of a movie as i thought it was when i was a senior in high school. 7/10

The Iceman (2012) - also an indie? based on a true story. a man (played by michael shannon) is recruited by the mob to be a hitman, and then something happens where they don’t want to pay him or something, so he starts doing a shady job with another hitman (played by chris) to support his family. overall it’s a boring film but michael and chris were both really good! watch it if you like dark mob movies, michael shannon, or winona ryder. 3/10

Snowpiercer (2013) - this movie, no pun intended, is a RIDE. poor people at the back of a train containing the last living human beings revolt against the bourgeoise. everyone’s dirty and tired and hungry. weird shit happens, but ultimately, this was SO worth the watch (and the money i spent on the blu-ray)!  7/10

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - still my favorite cap movie. excellent characterization, maybe the only time i cared about natasha. the plot should be an avengers movie given that shield is a team concern, but i will stand by the winter soldier aspect of this movie til i die. 8/10

Before We Go (2014) - an indie movie that chris directed (his directorial debut)! it’s...cute, i guess. it’s not harmful in any way, but also not special in any way. flustered woman misses her train, cute musician in the station offers to help her navigate NYC. they talk about feelings and their pasts and what they’re running from and toward. it’s fine. 6/10

Playing It Cool (2014) - indie? i don’t know?? screenplay writer (chris) wants to write action films but keeps getting hired to write romcoms, then he finds himself IN a romcom. it’s okay. some people think it’s terribly misogynistic which i didn’t find it to be, but it’s also just...kinda bland. 4/10

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) - my least favorite avengers movie. i genuinely hate how ultron was handled and this movie has never once made me sympathize with the maximoffs. except for when steve defends their choice to allow experimentation to be done so they could defend their country. uh the party at the beginning is the best part, full stop. 3/10

Captain America: Civil War (2016) - this isn’t a cap film. he has no character growth. this is an avengers film at best. i also take issue with how much of this movie is really just two movies forced into one. bucky gets the short end of the deal in the overall mcu and this is really where that starts. 5/10

Gifted (2017) - PLEASE. WATCH. GIFTED. a former philosophy professor gives up his career to raise his niece, but when his mother attempts to gain custody, he has to fight for the person he loves most in the world. one of the most heartfelt, genuine movies ever. chris and mckenna grace have SUCH good chemistry. bonus octavia spencer (also in snowpiercer). 10/10

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - probably my favorite avengers movie. great stakes. amazing acting. THE BEARD!!! 8/10

Knives Out (2019) - WHOOO BITCH. TOP TIER. ransom drysdale could do whatever he wants to me and normally, i don’t “date” villains. 9/10

Endgame (2019) - the lesser infinity war. i’m not a fan of time jumps and also hate fatphobia. thor was mistreated and i can’t forgive that.

#chris evans #chris evans ranking #i don't talk about my fanfic on my youtube channel which is why i don't post links to it openly here

[ick25]

Top 5 worst Megaman Nt Warrior episodes.

(Only the first two seasons, not counting Axess)

I’ve been reviewing the original versions of the episodes from Megaman Nt Warrior AKA the Rockman.EXE anime. My reviews are just for fun because I love to talk about the things a like, but even my favorite anime isn’t without its flaws, so I want to talk about the worst episodes from the first two seasons of Rockman.EXE and why I think they are bad.

5. Episode 13, “Burning Hot Net Battle.”

Ah yeah, the episode were Netto almost dies from over exposure. This episode is about Rockman and Fireman’s tournament battle, where Hinoken cheats by infecting the dome’s computers with viruses to power up Fireman. 

The episode actually had good animation, the battle was well executed and interesting, but the real problem was in the writing. By focusing more on the battle, there was little effort put into the rest of the story, as in, having the story make sense. They ignore the fact that they are supposed to be in a tournament where millions of people are watching the battle. We know Hinoken and Fireman are dirty cheaters and they need to use tricks in order to defeat Rockman who was kicking their ass in the beginning of the episode, but here is the thing, NOBODY IN THE TOURNAMENT REALIZED HE WAS CHEATING WHEN IT WAS OBVIOUS!

True, very few people know the identity of the WWW members, but it was so obvious that Fireman was taking advantage of the situation to power up. Everyone just thought it was some random virus infecting the solar energy computer AND the environmental shutters causing the dome to turn into a giant sauna. 

Another problem was what the tournament did in that situation, NOTHING! They had no reason to have the match continue, if the people inside were in danger the tournament would’ve been held responsible for not doing anything about it, specially if the heat is worse in the battle arena where one of the competitors, who is a minor, loses consciousness. I get it, this was to make the episode more exciting, but it doesn’t feel like it when the world around them is incompetent, it just feels unrealistic and makes children believe that adults don’t know any better. Having Rockman almost deleted by someone cheating in front of millions of people who didn’t notice that is infuriating.

4. Episode 39, “Pretty Pretty Princess.”

This episode introduces Princess Pride from Creamland. The princess disguises herself as a boy named Poipu so she can go sightseeing in Japan without having her bodyguards catch her. 

The entire episode had a low budget animation with a lot of still images and slow action scenes compared to other episodes of the season. The writing wasn’t very good either; the first half of the episode has Poipu and Netto running away from her bodyguards, the amusement park scene has Netto and his friends helping her escape without asking any questions, which feels rush and absurd.

The worst part of the episode is near the end. Yes, I’m talking about the scene where Pride and Netto finally have their Net Battle at some weird location that had a giant crank game in the background that actually works. Even though I spend an entire paragraph talking about how that giant crank game didn’t make any sense, that is not my only problem with this part. The problem is the poor execution of the battles, one of the reasons I watch the show is because I want to see Rockman fight the bad guys. Since the action in the animation was lacking, the battle wasn’t satisfying.

The fight between Rockman and Knightman was pretty decent, but once Shadowman appeared, it all went downhill. First Shadowman gets Netto out of the way by using the crank machine, and then immobilizes Rockman very easily with his giant shuriken. Not only that, but instead of fighting Knightman, Shadowman summons some Ninjy viruses to attack him. This was part of three weird episodes were Shadowman returns to try to delete Rockman, and occasionally someone new he befriends, but has someone or something else to do the job for him. Why? When Shadowman first appeared in episode 33 we see that he is an actual threat, a very dangerous Navi that if it wasn’t for the rare Battle Chips Netto sent to Rockman, who knows what might’ve happen, but the way they defeat Shadowman in this episode was very easy, he just runs away after they delete the virus with “Team work.” They could’ve done a better job with the idea of a ninja hired to eliminate the hero and failing at the end, but instead they just make Shadowman look like a coward who can’t fight.

3. Episode 52, “Secret of the house of Ayanokouji.”

Though this episode had some funny parts, it was a huge waste of time. This was never aired outside of Japan, probably because it was just filler, it got boring after a while and we don’t get to see Rockman or any action scene until the end. 

The plot was that all of the PETs were stolen by a crazy automatic vacuum cleaner, and Netto and friends chase it around Yaito’s mansion while avoiding all of the ridiculous traps that have been set there for generations. It has always been a running gag that Yaito is stupidly rich to the point that she can buy almost every crazy thing in existence to help the group in their adventures, but this episode focuses on that and nothing else, they take a simple gag and make an entire episode around it.

Yaito is not the most likable character of the show and we certainly don’t care about her family’s history suddenly having a love hate relationship with the Ijuuin family. All that comes from this episode is the introduction to one of Yaito’s maids that looks a like a child but is probably an adult since that is a classic anime trope, and she isn’t even important, she was just the butt of a bad joke that is never mentioned again in future seasons. 

Rockman only gets a few lines and a short encounter with a security program and that’s it, the action in this part was non-existing, he just knocks the program out after avoiding his attacks. Even after this, Rockman’s scene didn’t even matter because the silly maid immediately activates the mother of all stupid gags, destroying any hope I had for this episode. 

2. Episode 48, “The cybernetic monster.”

This episode is the first appearance of the Gospel beast, a cybernetic monster that has been consuming Navis all over the world in order to grow and eventually destroy the cyberworld; but it has the worst pacing I have ever seen in an anime! Nearly 15 minutes of pointless filler before the plot kicks in. If it wasn’t for the first scene where Airman is absorbed by Gospel, and the title card, I would’ve thought that the episode was about Higure and Masa competing for Mariko-sensei’s affection. Their attempts have absolutely nothing to do with the plot and not only does it happen once, but twice. Thankfully, their second attempt was edited out of the american dub.

Not only the pacing, but the animation was terrible as well, it was so bad that it made some scenes confusing, you couldn’t really tell what happened or why it happened, and the action was slow and boring.

Introducing the Gospel Beast is a big deal, and they could’ve written something better instead of wasting so much time.

Some “honorable” mentions.

Episode 41, “The good dog Rush.”

This episode was very silly, Navis turning into cats was really weird to watch in the dub, but in Japanese, it is actually funny and cute. Excluding the parts with Rush and his new ability to materialize in the real world, seeing Rockman and his friends with their original voices saying Nya all the time wasn’t that bad. I guess we are just so use to hearing Iceman with an old man voice and Rockman as a surfer dude/teen hero that the cat puns feel embarrassing and out of place. Even though I hate Rush, I can’t include this episode just because of that, it actually made me laugh in some parts.

Episode 16, “Miracle Net Navis.”

I want to point out that this episode might have a slow animation and a lot of design mistakes- like the consistent one where they color Bombman’s eyes purple- but that doesn’t automatically make it a bad episode. This is an example of how using a slow pacing or animation can make an episode work. The episode introduces Bombman and Stoneman AKA the independent Net Navis, they claim to be invincible and they demonstrate this in their tag battle against Gutsman and Woodman. The pacing in the battle was nothing special, but that contributes to the main idea. Having Bombman and Stoneman barely move in the battle not only saves money in animation, but it also demonstrates how Woodman and Gutsman’s attacks are slow and weak against them since they couldn’t move their opponents only to have the very next episode increase the speed when it was Rockman and Sharkman’s turn to fight. The superior animation of episode 17 shows that Rockman and Sharkman are stronger than Woodman and Gutsman because they actually force the independent Navis to move during their battle, creating a good contrast between the two episodes.

Episode 8, “Fireman’s revenge.”

Meiru’s character in this season wasn’t the best, especially in this episode where she was very unlikable. Fireman seeks Rockman for revenge and creates a series of high temperature incidents around the city to get his attention, but this only results in Meiru having her hair ruined which led to Netto laughing at her. Netto laughing at her wan’t nice, but Meiru is the one who went too far by deleting his homework just because of that, something that can cost him school.  Roll also has a fight with Rockman but doesn’t do anything bad to him in return.

Fireman appears to give Roll a letter so she can deliver it to Rockman, but after reading it out of curiosity, she finds out that Fireman was responsible for ruining Meiru’s hair. She tells Meiru about this and they decide to take Netto’s place to get revenge on both of them.

Meiru’s pride in this episode made her unlikable and she never even apologizes to Netto afterwards, in fact, Netto doesn’t apologize either, they just end the episode arguing again because Netto doesn’t want to admit that he was worried about her and Meiru gets mad at this.

Just because a character is unlikable in an episode, doesn’t make it a bad one, Roll and Rockman’s relationship saves it. Roll understands that Rockman got hurt because of her being somewhere she wasn’t suppose to be, so she decides to do something about it, by defeating Fireman in a very unconventional and funny way.

1. Episode 19, “Horror! The Devil Chip!”

From the very beginning this episode felt out of place. It is suppose to start from where the previous episode ended but it felt like a big chunk of the story was taken out leaving us with a lot of questions.

The last episode was “World Three secret operation” where Mahajarama disguises himself as Higure-san and gives Meiru a rare chip called the Super Great White Angel chip. The Chip turns out to be some kind of hacking device that allows Count Elect to gain control over Roll who then changes her into an evil Elec-woman looking queen. The episode ended with the evil Roll about to attack Rockman with a sword, but in this episode the sword disappears and Rockman is like a mile away from Roll just staring at her. Even the background is different, changing from a blue and green area to a purple and black one. I believe a different person directed this episode with the animation being a downgrade from the previous one. 

The art style was unpleasant in some scenes and had to be replaced with better looking ones for the american dub and the DVD releases.

The worst offender of this episode is the writing. Just like in episode 13, the tournament proved to incompetent. Midorikawa, who never shuts up, had no clue why Roll suddenly changed and sided with the opposing team, but she doesn’t even question this and acts like it was something normal! It has been established that Midorikawa can see and or hear the teams, but she ignores that Meiru and Netto have been trying to pull out a chip and log out Roll with no luck. This could’ve raised a lot of red flags, since it looks like something is wrong with Meiru’s PET, it was clear that this was out of the operator’s control, so a competent tournament would have stop the battle to investigate and prevent another lawsuit! 

Another fail is when the “Loser squad” discover that Mahajarama was impersonating Higure to plant the corrupted chip, and had proof of it, but chose not to tell the judges of the tournament for some stupid reason, because once again, children have to take matters into their own hands.

And finally, the conclusion to this plot. Higure, after being accidentally woken up by Dekao and Tohru, casually walks into the arena and talks to Meiru and Netto. He tells them about the Devil chip and whispers how to get it out, BY LITERALLY JUST USING ANOTHER CHIP!  And that is not even a surprising reveal because back in episode 14 we clearly saw that Netto’s PET ejected a chip after sending in a third one, in fact, a chip can easily be push by another one and ejected later on. That solution was so stupid that it ruins the entire episode, and that’s why I think this is the worst episode of the first season of Rockman.EXE/ Megaman NT Warrior.

#MegaMan NT Warrior #megaman battle network #Rockman.exe #anime #dub vs sub

[bigskydreaming]

So this is kinda a Bobby Drake post but its also kinda not because its more of a just in general musing on characterization and what distinguishes between a character being written as in character and as wildly OOC. So its actually rooted in a lot of Dick Grayson thoughts I’ve been having lately, as well as being relevant to some Scott McCall musings.

Its a Martha Stewart Home Living pot-pourri thingamabob! Something for everyone! I think. I don’t really know what pot-pourri is or even how to spell it and I don’t really know why the fuck I pulled a Martha Stewart reference out of my ass in the year 2019, like, none of these things are like any other thought I’ve ever had ever, like...who am I right now. Whatever. Shut up. My metaphor absolutely works and this isn’t just my brain on sleep deprivation. I like, totally get symbolism.

OKAY! RIGHT! ACTUAL CONTENT OF THIS POST:

So, the only adaptation Iceman’s had just a very minimal presence in was the 90s X-Men animated series. He only appeared in one episode, in one of the later seasons, and most people talk about that episode as though Bobby was wildly out of character because he told no jokes, yelled quite a bit, and told Scott to fuck off a lot, which is also what he did in a flashback scene to when he quit being an X-Man years before the show started, and retired from the hero life to settle down with Lorna.

Except the thing is, that episode is actually WAY more true to his overall characterization than Frosted Flakes in the X-films ever was, or also, pretty much any time Bendis writes him or other writers use him in similar ways to him - like that thing where Bobby stands in the background and says one-liners and also occasionally does something with his powers whilst monologuing about what he’s doing and how.

Because Bobby absolutely is that cheerful, determinedly optimistic heart of the team at a lot of times (sound familiar, lol)....but like.....he also historically has a decades long history of being written as the team hothead when for instance its just the original five and there’s not one of the X-Men’s other resident hotheads available to fill the role of the impulsive troublemaker who second guesses Scott’s decisions in order to make Scott actually think things through. Like the thing in the cartoon about Bobby quitting the team and storming off because he was fed up with Xavier constantly lying to them all and keeping secrets from them - that was lifted STRAIGHT from the original run of the comics, where he did precisely that, for precisely those reasons. Bobby was actually the X-character calling Xavier on his bullshit long before Scott started being written that way, ironically enough....

In fact, during Simonson’s original X-Factor run, it was pretty much ALWAYS Bobby filling that role going against the grain and questioning their official decisions and making everyone else think things through. Because at the time, Warren was pretty much entirely focused on his Archangel issues, Hank was dealing with his continuing physical mutations, that also had a side effect for awhile of giving him a host of mental health issues that interfered with his ability to reason through things as intelligently as he usually did....

And Scott and Jean were of course constantly getting bombarded with Sinister drama and trying to raise their kid except oh no, an evil fox person from a thousand years in the future has kidnapped him and infected him with Minecraft and now this giant asshole who looks like the bastard lovechild of a Transformer and a Smurf is quoting the Book of Revelations like he’s standing on a NY street corner wearing a sandwich board and ringing a damn bell. They all had shit going on, so it was actually Bobby who the kids staying with them (Rictor and Tabitha and Rusty and Skids and Wiz Kid) usually went to first when they had problems or like, Julio got kidnapped again or shit like that. 

Point being, there are many many instances and entire runs of different books between the 60s and the early 90s where Bobby is a happy go lucky jokester, its true....but he’s equally depicted as this guy who runs pretty hot and he’s not going to blindly follow orders that sound fucking dumb to him, he’s going to ask Scott to break it down for them or go back to the drawing board because “why are we pretending to hunt other mutants again and just leaning into the anti-mutant hysteria? Guys? Is it just me or does this all seem really fucking dumb and counter productive?” Like he makes jokes when he can afford to spare the spoons for that, but he knows how to be serious when the occasion calls for it.

Its just after the big Blue/Gold relaunch in the 90s, writers just....stopped writing him this way. But given that the cartoon was written and aired....in the early 90s....those previous decades of Bobby being written this way WERE the source material they were going off of at the time.

So that character most fans EXPECTED to see when they watched the cartoon in later years and saw he was guest-starring in an episode - like yeah, that is very much his characterization and always was.....on his good days. But like everyone (and certain other faves of mine, lmao) he has his bad days too, and guess what counts as a bad day? 

Coming home to find out that secret government agents have kidnapped your girlfriend and when tracking her down to rescue her discovering that no, wait, actually she was not kidnapped at all, that was a job offer and she accepted and just....did not tell her live-in boyfriend that hey, I’m gonna go be a superhero again but like...for the government which is completely the opposite but whatever, look the point is don’t freak out or think I was abducted or anything because that’s definitely not what happened here, I just dumped you and started dating my new team leader Havok and forgot where I put my Dear John letter. (You want to talk OOC in that episode, it wasn’t Bobby that was unrecognizable, it was Lorna).

But like, that’s a BAD FUCKING DAY. That’s a day where it would be utterly bizarre for Bobby to be acting the way he often does, like he doesn’t have a care in the world, trying to make light of situations and buoy spirits, which he can AFFORD to do, because usually he is not the central focus of big team-encompassing plots....its rarely him tied directly into the angst of the story, freeing him up to be the guy who focuses on making sure the morale of the teammates more directly affected by the angst doesn’t like....dip into the negative integers.

But you just flat out can’t do that with him in a story where THE ANGST IS ALL HIS, its CENTERED around him, because if he was right in the thick of all that and wisecracking and acting like this was any other mission, its no big deal....he’s going to come across as the world’s most immature, shallow and emotionally insensitive dumbass, because there is a time and a place for that, and that time and that place is not when you think your girlfriend has been abducted by the government and then find out that nah dude, she just disinvited herself from your relationships, whoops, sux2BU.

So if you take any given scene from that one episode and hold it up for comparison against say, a comic written in the last five years where he himself has relatively low stakes in whatever adventure he’s having.....those two characterizations are going to look COMPLETELY at odds. Like one or the other has to be WILDLY OOC because like, the two depictions seem like they’re depicting two entirely different men.

But they’re not. They’re just depicting one man in two entirely different contexts. We all take our cues from the situations we find ourselves in and our physical and social location and environments. We’re all totally different people on our best days than we are on our worst days. But these are all just....different facets of any given individual because we’re all fucking complicated little contrarians who often don’t even make sense to OURSELVES let alone outside perspectives. We each contain freaking multitudes. We are a million different things over the course of our life, and snapshots taken twenty years apart often are gonna look like we got a personality transplant between now and then...because we’re not MEANT to skip over twenty years of in between continuity and act like that doesn’t make all the difference in the world. The journey IS just as important as the destination.

And I guess the point of this particular post is that....IMO the key to strong characterization is recognizing that any character can theoretically be capable of just about any response or action or choice....in the right situation. None of us, no matter how well we know ourselves, can actually say we know for sure how we would react if suddenly dropped in a situation we had zero prior experience with. So I think where a lot of writers get turned around when writing characterizations is they go into a plot, an outline, a narrative, with their mind focused on the characterization they want to show, the way they want to depict a certain character.....instead of letting the situation, the scene, the narrative, inform that character’s actual characterization in this specific context.

If you try and FORCE a certain behavior with a character because you’ve rounded up and that’s the over-all characterization you personally enjoy best with that character, so that’s what you want to write....without fully taking into consideration how the stressors and other aspects of the situation they’re in that are UNIQUE to that situation, that are things they perhaps haven’t encountered before or dealt with often...and thus are things that would be MOST likely to prompt or provoke an unusual or more extreme response from a character than they would normally show in most other situations....that’s when characters get bent out of shape and end up most OOC, I think.

Because writers try and squeeze specific attitudes or reactions or behaviors out of characters caught up in a scenario where those attitudes are just....not appropriate responses to what’s happening around them. And thus they end up coming across as 2-Dimensional, more aggressive than the actual situation calls for, or more immature than the gravity of the actual situation warrants...they end up coming across like they’re a name card placed on top of a situation rather than a character immersed in all three dimensions and existing fully as PART of the situation...because the writers aren’t LETTING them. They’re not letting the character actually engage with what’s happening, react in the moment, have an unexpected response....because they’ve already decided what they want the character’s overall ‘feel’ to be before the actual situations were even written in the first place. 

And written like that, a character is never going to feel real. They’re always going to feel like an afterthought, like something hastily thrown on top of the otherwise completed project as a last minute addition you want to at least make sure is THERE because it just occurred to you that crap, I totally forgot to include this totally crucial element, and you don’t want it to seem like you just completely forgot that thing existed.....but that slapdash shot taken from halfway across the court when the buzzer’s already started ringing and you’re late to school with absolutely no more time to make changes...like....its still usually not gonna do anything to help improve your grade, because just because you threw it in at the very last possible second doesn’t mean that its presence is actually contributing anything to the entire project...especially not when compared to all the other elements you took your time thinking through and carefully integrating into their proper places.

[nfl2sevensummits]

Ed Rush: Ed Rush is a former Top Gun pilot who now speaks to milions on what he learned about vision, clarity & mission. Great conversation as we deal with the Coronavirus and what we can all do...

150: Ed Rush: CEO of Ed Rush & Associates, Speaker, Advisor, Author of The 21-Day Miracle, Speaker, and Marine Corp Fighter Pilot from the Top Gun program talks about overcoming early struggles in elementary school to becoming a successful F-18 pilot and entrepreneur. 

Ed Rush

Where did Ed Rush’s qualities of vision, clarity, and mission really begin to kick in?  “My number one goal in life is to fulfill the calling that I feel like GOD has put me on this earth to do, and so I wake up in the morning with ‘mission’ on my mind. That is why I think that the military was functionally such a good place for me. It wasn’t always easy. I failed kindergarten. I don’t like admitting that fact, frankly. But, it is a fact that I wasn’t always the sharpest tool in the shed growing up. Got in trouble quite a bit. But, I found my way into the marine corp, found my way into the cockpit of the F-18. So, something went right. Yeah, mission was really, and still is really, a big part of the driving focus behind my life.” 

  On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with Ed Rush, CEO of Ed Rush & Associates, Speaker, Advisor, Author of The 21-Day Miracle, Speaker, and Marine Corp Fighter Pilot from the Top Gun program. Ed Rush opens up about two of the most important mentors in his life, his father who was a basketball referee in the NBA, and his mother, who is in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a basketball coach. “1972, the year that I was born, she (Ed’s mom) was coaching a small Catholic university in Pennsylvania, their girls basketball team, and they were awful until my mom showed up. The year she showed up they went to the national championship, and the next year they went to the national championship and won, and that was the year she was pregnant with me. She went on to win three national championships.”

  What You Will Learn:

  How did the Marine Corp prepare Ed Rush for the fly that he is able to live right now? “I went into the Marine Corp and had this amazing group of mentors, starting with drill instructors, who I thought hated me. But, I found out later on that they were training me to live. Like, they were teaching me not to die, you know? Then I had flight instructors, who I thought hated me and I found out that they didn’t hate me, they loved me, to the point of which they weren’t going to let me make mistakes. Really, all those things put together, turned me into a good human being, and a good dad, and a good husband, and a good pilot, and a good speaker.”

  What is Ed’s perspective on making mistakes and gaining an acute sense of focus? “The interesting thing about flying airplanes, and it is true for life, is that it is not so much about not making mistakes. Pilots, by no means, are not flawless. It is just what you do with those mistakes. I think that most pilots would admit that every flight is a constant adjustment, every little move. When you are dogfighting for example, you are turning at about 60 degrees-per-second. Every single move, every twitch, requires a second adjustment after that.” 

  You will get to hear Ed Rush share personal stories of what it took to learn how to fly and land airplanes during his Top Gun flight training. “I landed, and as I rolled out of the aircraft carrier I breathed this big sigh of relief and realized that I was alive. Now, I would love to tell you that I was alive because I was the second coming of Iceman, Val Kilmer from Top Gun. But the truth is, I’m alive because of a really great idea taken into implementation, and the truth is, I’m alive because of training. We were talking about just the pure discipline of just getting it done. Sometimes training is nothing more than repetition.”

  Ed Rush offers a great comparison between seeing the reflection of stars and the curve balls that life can throw you every day. “When you fly out over the ocean, especially if the ocean is fairly calm, the stars actually reflect off of the ocean and it gives you this parallax that you, for a moment, your brain thinks, man, I must be pointed directly up. So, there is a lot of pilots that actually push their airplanes down, thinking that the ocean that they are looking at are actually stars.”

  Ed looks at the down time during the global coronavirus quarantine as an opportunity for people to either get lazier or get better, and why some of the best growth opportunities take place when you are terrified. “I remember when I was a freshman in high school, I showed up and there were all these seniors there, and I’m like, you got to be kidding me. I’m going to smash into all of these guys? Pushing through that terror is what made you catch that ball in that big game. People think, oh man, you must feel a lot of pressure when you are out there on the big stage. No, you don’t feel the pressure when you are out on the big stage. You feel the pressure when you are getting your nose slammed by a guy that weighs a hundred pounds more than you in the first practice.” 

  Life After the Marine Corp

  What made Ed Rush change his mind about flying airlines after being a fighter pilot? “Most fighter pilots end up flying for the airlines. It is easily one of the strangest transitions that I can imagine. You have these guys and gals that are the tip of the spear, trained at the super high level, massive reactions, incredible discipline and training, and then they go off and basically fly a bus for the next 20 years. I don’t mean to be disparaging about that. But, I will just tell you, a lot of thanks goes to my wife. I was getting out of the Marine Corp in 2006, and I was sitting on the couch and I had already put in applications for UPS, and FedEx, and some other airlines, were on the way to try and get an airline job, because that is basically what everybody did. In the middle of a movie that my wife and I were watching she stops the movie and she looks at me and says, is this really what you want to do? I had actually never thought about that question until she asked me, and I go, actually ‘no.’”

  Life is like a Missile 

  During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, Ed Rush also explains why he believes that the changes we have to make in life and in business are similar to a missile: “When you watch a sidewinder missile, it actually moves, it is always turning on its way to the target, making smaller and smaller corrections as it gets closer. But, as it is in business, in life, in achieving your goals, two things happen. Number one, you never start the right way. You always start in some direction on the way. But, it is never the right way. The second thing is, the target begins to move.” 

Links to Additional Resources:

Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com

Emilia’s Everest for the Epilepsy Foundation: markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy-wb/

Ed Rush’s Website: EdRush.com

Ed Rush’s Book: EdRushBook.com 

Check out this episode!

[lethe-distillery-blog]

I love and I hate

I watched the traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, move past my window seat though the hot air rising from the ground was giving all of my surroundings a rather abstract sort of look as limbs extended to abnormal lengths and cars appeared to be melting as the sped down the road. It was hot enough for it, even inside, the whirr of the air conditioning unit hadn’t shut off once and I had been here for about a half hour. Still, I wasn’t complaining, except for the thing had a squeak, that was getting annoying, but, I was too grateful to not be one of those melting that I could deal with it. The small coffee shop of Brewed Awakenings was pleasantly full. The background chatter was just enough to give an illusion of privacy of anonymity by fitting in with the crowd but not too much to where my anxiety would make my skin crawl. I looked up at my name being called, “Ivy!” I located my sister making her way towards me and a smile toyed at my lips. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my sister, there were just times she did test the limits of familial bonding. I closed my laptop, thankfully, this time I had been expected Helena so I hadn’t been working on anything terribly important that I hadn’t wanted a distraction from. Though, not that it mattered that much. My sister was not the creature you denied easily.

 I had just stood up when she wrapped me in a tight hug and I relaxed into it and remembered all the reasons that I did my best to not stay angry at her for long, for far too long it had been just the two of us against the world. Don’t get me wrong, Dad loved us, but he was so busy working trying to make enough so that we could have a roof over our heads that Helena and I had practically raised each other after Mom died so I couldn’t exactly blame her if she was a little messed up, could I? She rocked me back and forth like we had done so often when we were children. Despite her being a couple years older I always felt the elder of the two of us. Maybe because I was more mature it felt like I was further along. “I’m sorry,” I stiffened slightly, some of the goodwill that the hug evoked draining away at the apology. I may be forgiving of my sister but I knew her faults and rarely did she apologize for no reason. “I hadn’t remembered that we had a coffee date today until my phone went off,” she was on time, and though that was unusual it wasn’t something she’d typically apologize for. Honestly, I had just taken to telling her that whatever she was to be at started a half an hour before she was actually expected to make an appearance because then she actually would show up more or less on time. “By the time that happened, it was too late and he would have grown suspicious.” I looked up, passed her shoulder towards the line and felt my heart tighten in my chest. It was him.

 He stood, leaning against the half wall between the register and the seating area, keeping us in sight. His arms were crossed and even from here I could get the Fuck Off Attitude that had the generally socially pleasant patrons avoiding him, it was as though he wasn’t there, just something to be ignored and looked over. His glower was impressive enough that I could feel the cold shudder crawl down my spine, even from here, “I know you two haven’t been getting along lately, but, I couldn’t exactly tell him I was going for coffee out of nowhere, especially after I had just looked at my phone. I can’t live without him.” I did my best to not think about it, forcing myself to stay in a pleasant mood, I smiled at her, squeezing her shoulders softly and then sat down in my previously vacated space on the bench and Helena sat opposite me, moving over to the far side so she sat slightly to my left.

 “So,” I was forcing myself to stay in a good mood, despite him showing up, I couldn’t change my circumstances but I could change my attitude about it, “how’s working at Gage Enterprises and Investments Incorporated?” She had toed the line of lying on her resume but she had landed the job. Part of her trying to make up with Noah would be my guess, Helena had never held more that a barista position through college and even that I had landed for her after she had complained she was tired of living with Dad and I had stupidly invited her to live with me if she helped pay some bills.

 She shrugged. “It’s alright, my boss is a right dick though, I told him I’d like Fridays off too and he just laughed at me.” She flipped her hair as though annoyed that this man, whomever he was, had the audacity to not cater to her specific schedule and the fact she had been going out with her circle of friends every Friday night for the last six years. Oh no. My own sarcasm was choking. With her landing that job at GEII I had a rough idea of what she was making, and she should be grovelling on the ground in front of her boss and ask him if he needed his shoes polished for that amount. GEII was the best, and only hired the best. They were exclusive, and paid well to be that way. Hell, my sister just landed a salary that was nearly double what I was making for going on three years at Finch Construction as their receptionist. It’s how she had gotten her in, she had used most of the details she had from my resume when I had to use her computer back in college because mine had broke. How did I know? Because she had given it to me to spell check. As if I couldn’t tell my own academic achievements on paper. Calm Ivy, you are to be calm this outing. “Don’t know if I’m going to stick with it though, it’s really boring though and they treat you as though they’re above you,” that’s because they are precious, “I’m just getting tired of everyone expecting me to do their paperwork.” I inwardly sighed but stiffened as Noah sat down.

 To call it seating himself was to do it injustice. He lowered himself down to where we sat, his eyes were hard as granite as he looked at me and nodded his head in polite, if cool, acknowledgement. He set Helena’s Iced, Soy Milk Chocolate Swirl extravagance in front of her and set his hand on her thigh as though it belonged there by ritual, if not affection exactly. His wedding band caught the light making the rich gold impossible to ignore, again, I was sure that that too was by ritual; Helena’s escapades had taken their toll on him. He looked haggard. His deep brown eyes, usually the colour of rich Ghirardelli milk chocolate with small pieces of rich caramel hues locked within had now darkened to 99% Cocoa, a brown so dark it looked almost black to the casual observer and though his clothes looked pristine, he looked rumpled. Dark creases edged his sunken eyes, his skin had taken on a greyish hue, and he looked to be little more than a walking corpse. Noah was a good man, hard working, sometimes upwards of eighty hours a week as a software developer to fuel Helena’s vivacious lifestyle. And as I small talked with my sister I noticed how out of things Noah was. He didn’t even talk. He just sat there, glaring a hole through me, as Helena preened at fondled but it was as though the man was made of ice.

 Though that wasn’t true either. He was stoic, yes, he was distant, yes, but that man was anything but an iceman. Memories crowded around me, making it difficult to focus on Helena. Noah had been amazing. Witty, funny, he had a sarcastic sense of humor that could match me tit for tat. He had taken great pleasure in his work and done his best to make Helena happy despite it being a futile effort. He had been devoted to Helena, relentless in his pursuit to make her smile. He had taken on his massive workload to try and give her a lifestyle she could be proud of. She had every material thing taken care of, she had a SUV that I think cost about half as much as my house and a wardrobe the size of a well stocked boutique. She had everything, a kind husband, a doting man that made any other woman jealous of my sister. And, the selfish bitch, wasn’t content with that, wasn’t content to just, settle. So, she had thrown Noah aside, and I had fallen in love with him. She had preyed on the town. Prowling for those that could satisfy her, lavish her with gifts or attention, and she could simply let them go when she had had enough, content in her knowledge that Noah would be there. Consistent. So as she had thought, Or so she had thought.

 Noah had found out, don’t ask me how, because though I had learned of her rather frequent escapades from the source, I still didn’t know how Noah had found out. Still, the fact was, he had. And from that night on, he had never been the same. Not that I could blame him. He stood up abruptly and walked away, jostling the conversation and fellow patrons as he walked towards the washrooms. I watched him go, striding with purpose and held back a sigh as I looked back at my sister. “I don’t know what’s wrong with him,” she said, following my gaze to Noah. “He never seems interested in sex anymore, even getting anything more than basic affection out of him is not worth the effort anymore.”

 Maybe because you scooped his heart out and fed it to him? So now, instead of fixing your problem, you just expect that an apology will fix things and they’ll go back to how they were. “Have you tried reaching him?” I did know how to speak something other than my thoughts, so there Dad.

 She sighed dramatically, “I don’t think there’s much point. He’s not as exciting as he used to be. I like him,” and he pays all my things so I can live free and be live the extravagance that we never had, “and it feels like a shame to lose something we’ve had for so long.” She gave me a long look, as though trying to clarify something inside her head. “I just don’t know how I’m going to tell him.”

 I frowned, that look never spoke anything good. My phone vibrated and ignored it for the moment, too caught up in what my sister had just said. “Tell him, what?” I was hesitant, I loved Noah, more than he could love me and I was alright with that. I had fallen for him and right now, he was in pain, and he hated my guts. But I would be here, show him that the world wasn’t out to hurt him. He had talked to me, once, about how he had just been trying to get one person to love him. One person to care, and my bitch of sister hadn’t cared either as she had ripped him to pieces and shown him that, yet again, he wasn’t enough. After that night of him drinking, and us opening up to each other, I think he felt I had power over him, that I would use him too. I couldn’t. I just wanted to love him.

 Helena took a sip of her drink, as though she had not a care in the world, which she likely didn’t. “I told him I was pregnant-.”

 “You what?” I cut her off, I couldn’t help it, I was floored by the selfishness of such an act. I sat there, trying to speak but likely looked like a fish out of water the way my mouth kept opening and closing. I wanted to say something, anything really. I wanted to yell at her, I wanted to ask her if she knew what she was doing. Anything. But nothing was coming out.

 She glared at me, offended that I dare cut her off. “Well I would be if he would ever touch me.” She hissed, “I quit taking birth control when I used that as the way to get him back.” She was in a right fury, as if she had every right to be, “he wasn’t even going to, he planned to divorce me right then and there, had the papers with him. It just came out. And I planned on making good on it, and now the bastard won’t even touch me.” She flipped her hair again, the long strands catching chestnut hues as the sun kissed it. “I should be showing soon and I’m not even pregnant,” she growled, as if she thought this was my fault, “so what the fuck am I supposed to do now? I can’t exactly fake getting fat.”

 I sat back, breathing hard. Glaring at my sister, my beautiful sister, my perfect sister. The one that had glided through school, always got boys attention for being the prettier one. She hadn’t gone through the gawky teen phase with long limbs and acne. Oh no, she had grown up perfect and pristine and she knew it. I wanted to reach across the table and clock her right in her perfect pouty mouth. I needed to get my temper under control, I needed to get a grip. I forced myself to breathe, keeping my teeth clenched to keep from saying the thoughts screaming inside my head. I wanted to know how she could be so selfish, so cruel, dangling that carrot in front of a man who had just wanted to make the best of a shattered life, and now she was going to ruin yet another part of him. I rubbed my abdomen subconsciously, wanting to hate Helena, wanting to rip out her lying tongue and stamp it into mulch. I took a long breath, shaking as I fought to control the impossible impulse to slam my sister’s head into the table repeatedly. “Give me a second.” I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t handle how selfish and cruel my sister was being. Grabbing my phone I made my way to the bathroom to try and remember how to breathe properly.

 “Why is it always you?”

 I stared at my phone for the longest time, Noah’s text taking up the screen. I had finally calmed down and remembered that I had gotten a text before all that shit had broken loose and I had foolishly taken a look. Stupid me. Still, he needed someone, and I was the only person around him that seemed to give a shit about him. I texted back. “It’s always you to me too.” Too late, I hit send, common sense not kicking in fast enough to not send what was coming from my heart. I sighed and shoved my phone into my pocket and pressed my forehead against the cool glass doing my best not to cry, or better, scream.

 Everything in me hurt. My heart for Noah and how he was getting used by Helena, for how she was taking a man that had genuinely been good and kind and was sucking him dry of everything that gave him life and I was helpless to do anything but watch. It hurt to watch this theatrical performance when I knew the outcome, it would end up with him dead, either six feet under, or the man I knew would be dead, killed by a selfish bitch that just wanted everything for herself. I really wanted to hate her, to hurt her just as much as she was hurting Noah. This wasn’t even about me, this wasn’t about me and my feelings, my wants, or even my affection. I knew my love was hopeless, that Noah was the reason I hadn’t been with anyone in over three years, and I had made peace with that, that my lover would be a wild fantasy I dreamed up in my head with a dildo to act it out with my brother-in-law in the starring role.

 Until that night.

 I shook my head, trying to clear it of the thoughts, the memories. Everything. All they would do is get in the way and torment me. The time when everything changed and I had lost my best friend in the world because of stupid decisions that I’m not sure I’d change, even if I could go back in time and attempt. I was selfish that way. I couldn’t change that, even if I knew it was wrong. I sighed and looked in the mirror, brushing my tears away and forcing everything back into control. Damned hormones ruining everything and making it impossible to think straight. Agh. I splashed cold water on my face, doing my best to make it look like everything wasn’t falling in around me.

 “It’s you,” I looked up, startled at the snarl inside the small confined hallway that joined both bathrooms with the cafe beyond another door at the end. It was Noah, his whole body between me and the exit, his jaw was tight, teeth clenched, brown eyes flickering dangerously as he glared at me.

 I stepped back, caught myself and moved forward slowly. “Noah.” I spoke softly, the tone one uses for feral animals, trying to soothe him with the sound of my voice. Fear warred with hot desire as I watched him, I couldn’t help it. In this fight or flight scenario I was choosing flight, and I was a goner for that feral look that made me feel naked before him. Fucked up? Probably. But I couldn’t help it, the way he stood; tall, powerful, masculine in every possible definition, was an alluring sight.

 His breathing came out hard, gasps in and out, his whole body tight and straining as if it were doing its best to rend itself from his bones. “It’s always fucking you.” He spat, anger and pain making his tone harsh, I knew better than to take it personally. His arms uncrossed and I saw the rippling muscles, he had been going to the gym, likely to work off some anger and pain. It showed, though he wasn’t a gym rat his arms had gotten larger, he had tightened up, and my breathing hitched as he took a step towards me. “Every time I kiss her I think of you, every time I hug her I feel you in my arms.” His hand lashed out and caught me about the throat in a solid grip, if not painful, my panties were soaked as he glared down at me. “Every fucking time I go to bed I wish it was you, I can’t even convince myself to have sex with her, because all I want is you.” My breathing was ragged by now, he shoved me through into the men’s washroom and pinned me to the wall in a hot and bothered mess of emotions and desires. “It. Is. Always. Fucking. You.” Each word was ground out through clenched teeth, enunciated as though he wanted to make himself perfectly clear with every syllable. And yet, despite all that, I knew what was going to happen.

 It could have been misconstrued as rape, if anyone else walked in on us. His hand around my throat, his breathing harsh as he kissed me, the scrape of his whiskers deliciously rough on my skin. Yes, yes, I needed this again. I wanted this again. I helped him pull my jeans down my legs, thank gods I had worn something loose. He didn’t even bother to pull panties down, he was too desperate, so was I, he shoved them aside and I moaned at the feeling of his hot skin on mine. I was already soaked, there was no doubt that I wanted him, that I needed this. I gasped and looked into his eyes as he slid a single finger into me. “Just fuck me.” I needed that, he needed it too. “Please.”

 He shimmied his own jeans down, barely passed his hips, and slid into me hard enough that I slammed against the cinder block wall. I shuddered at the feel of him spreading me, filling me. Oh yes, fuck yes, I had needed this. His fingers tightened on my throat as he pulled back and I looked back at him, my legs wrapping around his hips, doing all I could to encourage him, to promise him that I could take this, I could handle him. He slammed into me again, his other hand cupping my rear for support as his hips rocked into me with a hard jerk; my entire body would be bruised from this tomorrow and I couldn’t even begin to care. I had Noah, and in this moment that was all that mattered. I reached between us and fondled my breasts, remembering how it drove him mad with lust. I shoved my bra aside, not even caring that it likely looked ridiculous as I pinched my nipples and gasped out in pleasure as he thrust into me again. Every time felt like something in me was going to snap in half each time, oh fuck he was so powerful, so feral. It was surreal.

 His hand moved from my throat to my mouth as I started to whimper, I couldn’t help it, it felt too damned good, I wanted to scream but I knew how well that would go over. I groped my breasts, satisfying myself on watching him watch me, it was so fucking erotic to be someone’s fascination, to know that they wanted you, needed you point of fact. It should make me feel guilty, when in reality it just made me more and more horny for him. I screamed into his hand, tasting the salty skin on my tongue as my climax ripped through me, seconds before he too climaxed, his hand tightening around my mouth in a hard grip. His eyes softening for a split second. “Why, the fuck, is it always you?” He still had his hand over my mouth so I couldn’t answer the quiet broken whisper.

 I should be offended, the way he fucked me and left, leaving me to pull up my pants, sneak my way to the women’s bathroom to clean up. I felt raw, used, and well fucked. Everything in me ached, my body protested every movement I made as I cleaned up and walked back slowly towards the table. I frowned, not seeing Noah with Helena. “Sorry, didn’t feel well.” It wasn’t quite a lie, I did feel a bit queasy but that wasn’t the reason behind my appearance. I was sure I looked like a mess. I subtly looked around, frowning as I didn’t see Noah.

 “Noah said that, said you looked a bit green. Are you okay?” Well, yes because I had the most mind blowing sex I had ever thought to imagine, but no, because unlike you sister dearest, I wouldn’t hurt Noah, even if it was the truth. I couldn’t take back a drunk mistake on a night where he felt crushed and soul sick. I wouldn’t take away his happiness over a mistake like that. I loved him, and I would cherish the piece of himself he gave me in the time when he needed me most.